MTG: Jesus Was a Felon Too

This episode discusses Donald Trump's controversial remarks, Marjorie Taylor Greene's controversial comparison of Trump to Jesus, and broader political strategies as Trump considers a presidential run.

1. Trump's recent public statements and legal challenges continue to stir controversy and highlight his divisive nature.
2. Marjorie Taylor Greene's comparison of Trump to Jesus has sparked significant backlash and discussion about the appropriateness and implications of such comparisons.
3. Trump's policy proposals, particularly regarding taxation and immigration, are critically analyzed for their potential impact on American society.
4. The episode explores the broader political strategy as Trump gears up for another presidential run, discussing how his actions and policies could shape the future political landscape.
5. The hosts provide insightful commentary on the implications of Trump's behavior and policies, offering a critical perspective on his potential return to power.

1. Trump's Rally Statements

The chapter covers Trump's recent rally in Las Vegas where he made several controversial statements. Hosts discuss his remarks on being a convicted felon and other political issues.

• Jon Favreau: "Trump’s alignment with problematic figures and his provocative statements continue to ignite controversy."
• Tommy Vietor: "His rhetoric and proposals at the rally were quite telling about his future intentions."

2. Greene's Jesus Comparison

This section delves into Marjorie Taylor Greene's controversial comparison of Trump to Jesus, discussing the fallout and public reaction.

• Tommy Vietor: "Greene's comparison of Trump to Jesus was not only controversial but also indicative of the extreme devotion she and others have towards him."

3. Policy Discussions

Analyzes Trump's proposed policies discussed during the rally, such as taxation changes and immigration, and their potential impacts.

• Jon Favreau: "Trump’s policies, if implemented, could have a detrimental effect on the socio-economic fabric of the country."

4. Legal and Political Strategy

Focuses on Trump's legal strategies and political maneuvers as he navigates through numerous legal challenges.

• Tommy Vietor: "Trump’s approach to his legal issues and the political implications are calculated to maintain his base’s support."

1. Stay Informed: Keep up-to-date with political events and statements by leaders to understand their potential impact on society.
2. Engage in Civic Activities: Participate in local community discussions and elections to voice your opinions and concerns about political developments.
3. Critical Analysis: Analyze political statements and policies critically to understand their deeper implications beyond surface-level rhetoric.
4. Educational Outreach: Educate others about the importance of understanding political contexts and the long-term effects of policies.
5. Support Accountability: Advocate for transparency and accountability in political leadership to ensure leaders are held responsible for their actions and statements.

Donald Trump meets with a probation officer for his pre-sentencing interview just a day after holding an unhinged rally in Nevada where Marjorie Taylor Greene compared him to notable defendant Jesus Christ. Trump's crew of hard-right advisors plots a new round of tax cuts for the rich while the Biden campaign sharpens its lines of attack. Then: Jon and Tommy land the world-exclusive first interview with newly minted reality TV persona Jon Lovett, who suffers through a quiz about all the news he missed during his time away.

People

Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene

Companies

None

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

None

Jon Favreau
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Tommy Vietor
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Jon Favreau
Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.

Tommy Vietor
I'm Tommy Vitor.

Jon Favreau
On today's show, Trump whines about sharks, teleprompters and the heat in Las Vegas while his team pitches more corporate tax cuts and a, quote, post constitutional vision for a second term.

Tommy Vietor
Exciting.

Jon Favreau
Sounds great. The Biden campaign sharpens its attacks on their convicted felon opponent. And then pod Save America has been granted the very first world exclusive interview with America's newest reality show, sweetheart and or villain. We don't know yet, John Lovett. Since we're not allowed to ask him how he did or even what he did or where he was or where he was, Tommy and I will be quizzing Lovett about all the news he missed since he has. This is very important. He has not seen or read anything about what happened while he was gone. He will be joining us in studio soon. We haven't even seen him yet. No, we got a brief message that he was back and that's it.

Tommy Vietor
So, yeah, the prodigal son returns. Some of you might be wondering, no preparation. How is this different than a normal week? And to that, we say, good joke.

Jon Favreau
Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait. But first, Tommy, you know how you get the Sunday scaries when thinking about your first Monday morning meeting?

Tommy Vietor
Always.

Jon Favreau
Now, imagine that meeting is a video call with a New York probation officer.

That's how Donald Trump's week started, after he got special permission to do the meeting remotely and with his lawyer. Because, of course, separate set of rules for Donald Trump than most other convicted felons. Usually in these meetings, the officer asks you about your criminal record, employment history, any health conditions, whether you have family responsibilities. Can't imagine Trump's ever had any of those.

Tommy Vietor
No.

Jon Favreau
This is an especially tough one for Trump. They usually ask whether you're in contact with anyone with a criminal record, which apparently you're not allowed to be if you're on probation. All of which will get bundled into a report that will go to Judge Juan Marshawn and typically includes a recommendation for what a sentence should be. That report will likely not be made public. Trump's defense team has until Thursday to submit its own sentencing recommendation to Judge Mershon, and Alvin Bragg will as well. And then Mershon will hand down the sentence a month from now on July 11. What do you think, Tommy? On the one hand, no previous criminal convictions, yet. On the other hand, Trump is guilty on 34 counts, shown zero remorse, openly trashes the judge and the process.

Massive civil liabilities in the recent past, including being held liable for sexual assault and fraud.

What's your recommendation?

Tommy Vietor
And ten violations of his own gag order.

Jon Favreau
Oh, that's a good one. Forgot that one.

Tommy Vietor
Before we get to the recommendation. Drumroll. I had some dark thoughts reading about this. Then some less dark thoughts. Which do you want first?

Jon Favreau
Let's start with the dark.

Tommy Vietor
Okay, so if Trump wins, he can make all the federal cases go away, right? But not the state cases. However, if he wins, the supreme Court will probably say, okay, the Georgia case, the New York case, all of that has to go on ice while you're president. Cause you have to be able to do the job. Which means Trump now has a very compelling reason to stick around for a third term or a fourth term or you get my gist here.

Jon Favreau
I mean, that is a dark thought, but it's also, see, that the political hack in me was like, that's a good argument. We should be making that argument.

Tommy Vietor
Let's make it.

Jon Favreau
I mean, because the Biden people and everyone's already making the argument that Trump is basically running to keep himself out of jail.

Tommy Vietor
But really, this goes beyond just his general authoritarian nature too. And just, it's a real survival issue. Okay, so enough of that. Les dark. It is so funny that he's gonna have to zoom with this po and they're gonna be like, so tell me about your living situation.

It's like, well, I live at a club, at a golf course.

Jon Favreau
Employment history? Well, it's a little spotty.

Jon Lovett
Yeah.

Tommy Vietor
What kind of financial resources do you have? Well, at the moment, but pretty soon I'm gonna have to cut some checks.

Jon Favreau
Just references.

Tommy Vietor
References.

Also, did you know that Trump can submit letters of recommendation from family and friends?

Jon Favreau
You know that the geek. And get me, I wonder, like, you.

Tommy Vietor
Get a group letter from, like, fox and Friends. I think that Donnie Eric would do it in like crayon.

Jon Favreau
I think the not, I didn't know this, that you're like, you're not able to be in contact with other people who have criminal records while you're on probation.

Just a list for a reminder for people of people in Trump's orbit who were convicted felons, his former campaign manager, former campaign vice chairman, his former chief campaign advisor, three former campaign advisors, his former CFO, former personal lawyer, his former national security advisor, his former White House aide, and two of his former lawyers and about a dozen others are currently facing federal felony charges and felony charges in multiple states. God, that's a lot of people. It's gonna be tough to run a campaign and staff a White House if he can't be in contact with other people, with criminal records or just be.

Tommy Vietor
At his own club, which is full of scumbags and, you know, ne'er do well. I asked chat GPT to write a brief letter of recommendation from a friend of Trump's in New York, a New York financier. Mm hmm. Want me to read it aloud? Okay. Dear probation officer, I'm writing to advocate for leniency for Mister Donald. Last name? I didn't want to do Trump because I didn't want it to know. A 77 year old real estate professional recently convicted of financial crimes is a close friend. I believe he deserves the lightest sentence possible. Donald and I have shared many wonderful times together, including memorable visits to my private island and rides on my private plane. His advanced age and the nonviolent nature of his offenses should be considered in your decision. Thanks for considering this request. I'm difficult to reach these days, but please contact my associate, Ghislaine for further questions. Sincerely, Jeffrey. So that's someone who could weigh in for him.

Jon Favreau
Chat GPT they're really, that's a pretty.

Tommy Vietor
Advanced, yeah, it's from Jeffrey. Last name brackets jet setting New York financier.

Jon Favreau
I didn't realize that the AI was getting that smart.

Tommy Vietor
It's getting good.

Jon Favreau
Yeah, that's Sam Altman. That's very exciting.

So in advance of his sentencing, Trump has, of course, been on his best behavior. He's speaking carefully and respectfully everywhere he goes so as not to leave a bad impression on the legal officials who will determine his fate. Here he is at a rally in Las Vegas over the weekend after a lovely introduction from Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Marjorie Taylor Greene
The Democrats and the fake news media want to constantly talk about, oh, President Trump is a convicted felon.

Tommy Vietor
Well, you want to know something?

Marjorie Taylor Greene
The man that I worship is also a convicted felon, and he was murdered on a roman cross.

Donald Trump
By the way, a lot of shark attacks lately. Do you notice that? A lot of shark. I watched some guys justifying it today. Well, they weren't really that angry. They bit off the young lady's leg. He said, there's no problem with sharks. They just didn't really understand a young woman swimming. Now it really got decimated. And other people, to a lot of shark attacks. I said, you know, we have a deranged individual named Jack Smith. He's a deranged, dumb guy. He's a dumb son of a bitch. But those J six warriors, they were warriors, but they were really more than anything else, they're victims of what happened. All they were doing is protesting a rigged election. That's what they were doing. By the way, isn't that breeze nice? Do you feel the breeze.

Cause I don't want anybody going on me. We need every voter. I don't care about you. I just want your vote. I don't care.

See, now the press will take that, and they'll say, he said a horrible thing.

Tommy Vietor
I mean, giddy up.

Jon Favreau
Yeah.

Believe it or not, Tommy, there was policy news in Trump's event. He said that as president, he'd ask Congress to stop taxing income from tips, which is obviously a pretty attractive proposal in Vegas, where so many people work in casinos and service industry jobs. But you really had to dig around to find that news. The headline of the AP story from the event was, quote, trump complains about his teleprompters at a scorching Las Vegas rally. There was also. There was. We didn't include it, but there's a long riff where he. He's done this before. He yells at the teleprompter operators because he can't see the teleprompters. And then he says.

Tommy Vietor
And riffs, yeah.

Jon Favreau
When. When contractors are shitty, I don't pay them. I'm not gonna pay them for this.

Tommy Vietor
It's whatever part of the brand. People like that.

Jon Favreau
What do you make of Trump's famous message discipline there? Do you think that rally was politically or legally helpful?

Tommy Vietor
So I'll divide this in three parts, like the recovery act. Sorry. Jesus Christ. The shark attack asides, I think it's just kind of funny and entertaining and why people go to these things. The breeze stuff, too. I do think there's something about a politician saying at a rally, hey, guys, don't die. I don't care about your health. I just need your votes. It's kind of like, refreshingly honest in a way.

Jon Favreau
The Biden campaign made an ad from that.

Tommy Vietor
Okay, sure.

Jon Favreau
The I don't care about you. I just want your vote line.

I think it's very useful. And even though he said the media's gonna make a big thing with it, and he was trying to say, he's joking, it's one of those jokes where there's a lot of truth in it.

Tommy Vietor
He's half kidding. He's half kidding.

Jon Favreau
Not even half kidding. He just does want their votes. And so I think it does feed into the message that the Biden campaign and I think all of us should be using against Trump, that he only cares about himself.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah. The line about the January 6 insurrectionists, call them warriors, that I do think is a real problem for him. And it's also. It's kind of like the latest tick up. This escalatory we are this close to him calling on the police officer who shot Ashley Babbitt to be arrested or prosecuted or turned.

Jon Favreau
Honestly, don't give him any ideas.

Tommy Vietor
I like, you know, it's like he's really, he's just, he's gonna be marching with the Proud Boys in a couple months.

Jon Favreau
I mean, I think that is actually an incredibly. It's interesting that the Biden campaign went with the line about I don't care about you. You know, it's funny. It sums up their message.

Tommy Vietor
It falls into their broader.

Jon Favreau
So it's great.

Tommy Vietor
Very well.

Jon Favreau
But, like, that line, he's right. He's obviously talked about, you know, them being political prisoners and all that kind of stuff, but calling them warriors who just got, you know, they didn't do anything wrong. They were just protesting a rigged election. This stuff is not. I'll tell you, this stuff polls fucking awful. And it even polls awful with, unfortunately, not all Republicans, but quite a few Republicans as well.

Tommy Vietor
The line was, they were warriors, but they're really, more than anything else, they're victims of what happened. Again, these are people who kicked down the doors of the Capitol, smashed through windows, marauded through, beat the hell out of police officers, pulled them down steps, tear gassed them, brutalized people. I mean, come on.

Jon Favreau
I also like, it's one thing to say, I don't know if the conviction's gonna matter to my vote, or maybe it was a political prosecution.

It's not really a big deal to me. That's very, very different from Marjorie Taylor Greene's line that Trump is like Jesus, who was also a convicted felon. It's not just her they're going with this.

He is our martyr. That's not gonna fly with people.

Tommy Vietor
You went to a jesuit school, holy cross.

I'm less religious, I think, than you. Does that track with your understanding?

Jon Favreau
Yes. Of the Bible? It was actually. It was. Was there a hearing? He was 33 when he died, and it was 33 felony.

Tommy Vietor
Did he have a po?

Jon Favreau
It was one less than Trump. Okay, he did. He did. He was not able to do it remotely, though.

Tommy Vietor
Imagine Christmas at her house. Jesus Christ.

Jon Favreau
What did you make of the actual proposal on income from tips?

Tommy Vietor
The tips proposal. I mean, I think this is one of those ideas that sounds very good and described in shorthand, but I think in practice, gets complicated and is more likely to benefit corporations.

Jon Favreau
So the perfect Trump policy, literally, I wrote that down.

Tommy Vietor
This is the.

So the argument for not taxing tips is that tipped workers generally make lower wages, they deserve a tax break. And the accounting process can be onerous for both them and for small businesses. Also, taxing tips could encourage people not to report them in the first place. Right. So you could see the challenges there. The argument for taxing tips is you want all income to be taxed uniformly just for fairness reasons. And taxes on tips go to essential services like any other tax. They also go to Social Security, Medicare, et cetera. But most of all, the real concern about Trump's idea is if employers know tips aren't taxed, they will probably try to pay the lowest wages possible and push employees to make it up themselves with tips.

Jon Favreau
So Democrats, the employers have to pay the tax as well?

Tommy Vietor
Yes. And so Democrats generally say, let's keep tips taxed, but let's increase the minimum wage, let's put in place strong labor protections, et cetera. Let's get to a Medicare for all like system. Republicans, they pitch this idea cause they're anti government, they're anti tax, and they want to cut regulation. So exactly as you said, this idea probably sounds really good to people. Polls really well. But I think in the end could hurt workers.

Jon Favreau
Well, and also, Democrats now don't just want to raise the minimum wage. They want to eliminate, Joe Biden wants to eliminate the tipped minimum wage. And that's a better way to do it so that a lot of workers don't have to rely on tips, that they can get the same minimum wage as everyone else and then increase that minimum wage for all workers. In fact, Biden already in the last four years has issued an order requiring federal contractors to pay tipped workers the same minimum wage as everyone else. So I think that's a better way to do it. But Trump saying that in Vegas with a lot of service workers, you can see people be like, oh, yeah. All they see is like, tax cut. Yeah, it's a tax cut and I don't have to pay taxes anymore. That's kind of cool. Even though. Will he get it through a Republican Congress? No will or any Congress. Right. And wouldn't it be better to just give people a higher minimum wage? Yes. Yes. So last time Trump was president, his economic agenda consisted almost entirely of a corporate tax cut and tariffs, and it looks like he's planning to double down on both of those in a second term. Washington Post reported on Monday that he actually wants to give corporations and rich people yet another tax cut if he wins. The New York Times also had a report over the weekend about how I was planning to cut taxes on corporations, raise taxes on anything you buy. That's made abroad. That's the universal across the board tariff that he wants to do. And deport millions of undocumented immigrants, all will likely increase prices and make inflation much worse.

How do you think democrats should push back on this? Like, do you lose people as soon as you start talking about, you know, economic policy and get into the weeds? On the other hand, like, every poll I've ever seen, you know, tax cuts for the rich are the most unpopular policy or one of the most unpopular policies. And that's sort of where Democrats traditionally have republicans on the ropes.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah, I mean, I want to know what you think about this. I absolutely believe that these policy ideas would be inflationary. I am skeptical about our ability to explain it to voters in a concise way, especially when you get into the specifics of some of the policies, because part of the argument is about Trump's immigration policies, which is an area where Joe Biden starts way, way, way underwater as compared to Trump. Another piece is tariffs on chinese imports or chinese goods that come to the country. And again, it seems like voters like policies that are harsh on China. Now, you're right that Trump has also proposed just an across the board tariff on all imports. But I agree. I think the lowest hanging fruit here is the republican plan to give more tax cuts to the richest people in the country and to corporations.

There was some recent pew polling that found 60% of voters say they are bothered a lot by the feeling that rich people and corporations don't pay their fair share of taxes. I think those people are right to be pissed. And the republican plan would also explode. The debt. I think it's $4.6 trillion over a decade, just if you extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts. But Trump and his buddies in Congress apparently want to go further than just the 2017 tax cut.

Jon Favreau
Yeah, I think it can be a very powerful, compelling story, but you've got to tell the story and you've got to include motivation in it instead of just talking about the policy.

And Trump basically passed one major piece of legislation in four years in the White House, and it was a tax cut for the rich that cost $4 trillion and that he wants to extend. So it costs $4 trillion over the next ten years, and then he wants to add another trillion dollars to it. Right. So he wants to spend $5 trillion in a tax cut that goes mainly to the rich. He wants you to pay for it because it's adding to the deficit and he's not paying for it. And he didn't pay for the last one. That's all he did last time. Did he pass anything to help workers? No.

Tommy Vietor
By the way, he could have done this tipped wage proposal last time, too.

Jon Favreau
He just didn't want to do it. Right. Cause he's bullshit. And now he is meeting with campaign donors and telling them, like, rich billionaires and saying, hey, vote for me and I'll get you another tax cut. He's meeting with oil companies and being like, hey, vote for me and I'll make sure that you get more subsidies as well. And I'll cut regulations and I'll cut regulations for you. So that's what Trump's out there doing. And I think Joe Biden, like, this is a good one for the debate. Like, Donald Trump keeps attacking Joe Biden about inflation. It's like, what are you going to do for inflation? How does giving a huge tax cut to rich people, how does that help inflation? How does that help people with their costs? I'm going to do x, y, and z, right? Like Joe Biden wants the rich to pay more in taxes so he can cut the deficit and give everyone else a break. You know, it's tricky because it doesn't get covered as much as the more identity inflected cultural issues that we talk about, these economic issues, because it's not 2012 anymore. Like last time we ran this, I think you can tell a story that paints Trump as just there to take care of himself and his rich friends and not you. And I think that works on a more emotional level than just the policy.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah. And Biden wants to let the tax cuts expire for people who make more than $400,000. But he also wants to put new taxes on businesses. I think he wants to raise the rate from 21% to 28% to pay for investments in childcare, elder care, housing, education. So things people really, really care about. And again, Republicans will call it tax and spend liberalism, but I think there's a big majority in this country who don't think that corporations pay enough in taxes, period.

Jon Favreau
And by the way, this is one of the larger stakes in the election. You can sit here and think there's a lot of maybe this won't happen because the Congress will look like this and the president won't get this done. And we don't know what's the tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year. So no matter who's president, there's going to be a major fight about taxes early on in 2025. And again, like $4 trillion is at stake here. And either they're going to be renewed for a decade or they're not. And that's going to mean a lot for people's taxes, for the deficit, for what people pay, for affordability. And so, like, no matter who wins, no matter what happens in Congress, this is getting decided next year. And so people should focus on it as a, as a big issue in this election pod.

Tommy Vietor
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Jon Lovett
This show is sponsored by Betterhelp. This year has gone so quickly. What is something I'm proud of in 2024. Oh boy, there's so many things I'm proud of. Yeah, I'm proud of.

Oh, I'm proud of the fact that we finished our book. That's right, democracy or else how to save America in ten easy steps. It's available for preorder right now. We're trying to get on the New York Times bestseller list. That'll make me proud.

Tommy Vietor
That'd be great.

Jon Lovett
But I've also, I'm sure, had some interior things that made me proud as well. Not just, you know, not just tokens of material and sort of success in the world.

Tommy Vietor
Right.

Jon Lovett
But I couldn't think of one right now.

Tommy Vietor
Right? Yeah, sure.

Jon Lovett
The point is, thats why I need therapy. Why do you need therapy? You know why everyone needs therapy. Its important to take moments to celebrate your wins and make adjustments for the rest of the year. Therapy can help you take stock of your progress and set achievable goals for the next six months. If youre thinking of starting therapy, give better help a try. Its entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapist anytime for no additional charge. Take a moment, visit betterhelp.com PSA today and get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp help.com pSa.

Jon Favreau
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So the guy in charge of Trump's budget proposals during his first term, former OMB director Russell Vogt, may play a big role in a second Trump term. Along with Stephen Miller, vote has been floated by people close to Trump as a possible White House chief of staff, and that should scare the shit out of us. Vote is currently spearheading the infamous Project 2025 blueprint that would turn America into a christian nationalist paradise. And he has written that, quote, we are living in a post constitutional time. I still don't know what that means.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah, I think it means Trump can act like a dictator in response.

Jon Favreau
Yeah, who cares about the constitution, basically. Yeah, that's what I take it as to. The Washington Post just ran a chilling rundown of who vote is and what he's planning. You can read it and see what you think post constitutional means from the article. Tommy, what should people know about Russ vote?

Tommy Vietor
I mean, I think you gave the top lines. Some of the specific things he thinks is that we should no longer treat the Department of Justice like an independent agency. So that means the president can direct the attorney general to target his or her enemies.

Jon Favreau
He feels so strongly about that. Apparently he said, if anyone brings up the DOJ's independence in a White House meeting, I want them out of the meeting.

Tommy Vietor
That's a rational way to think about conversation. He wants to redefine illegal immigration as an invasion and use that authority to authorize wartime powers to stop it. Not sure exactly what that means. They want Russovot wants Trump to be able to unilaterally withhold funding appropriated by Congress. I think the Constitution is pretty clear about appropriations being Congress job. So, basically, I mean, I think the big picture on guys like this is that any Trump term, a second Trump term, is scary, but there's a version of it that is primarily staffed by an army of Stephen Millers. And I would account this rust vote guy as among them who not only have very scary and extreme views, but are willing to do things that are extra constitutional to fully erode our democracy and push us into a situation where we're more like a country like Hungary, where our courts are packed with right wing judges, districts are gerrymandered to entrench republican control. The DOJ is going after the press, they're going after opposition leaders, and we're talking about, like, fundamental changes to the character of America that will be very, very difficult to walk back. And, like, that is what's so scary when you read about these people in totality, their plans, their staffing, and the fact that they have just like, a vengeful boss at the top of the ticket that is willing to do anything to win and then just punish the people he hates.

Jon Favreau
Now, I also think that's a version that we're almost certainly going to get.

Tommy Vietor
It's the more likely version, much more.

Jon Favreau
Likely for a few reasons. One, there's a lot of Republicans, career officials, even Democrats, who are just never going to work in a second Trump term, right? He lost a whole bunch of people at the end of the first term because of the whole insurrection thing.

Two, they are giving loyalty tests to every single person who worked there. So they're going to be smarter in who they hire. So now they are scraping the bottom of the barrel, and they are making sure that when they scrape the bottom of the barrel, they only get people who are super, super loyal to Donald Trump. And then the other thing is, there's a lot of debate about, is Trump going to spend time and effort doing all of these horrible things, or is he just going to be so lazy that he doesn't care and he just, you know, sort of is corrupt and makes himself rich and then tweets all the time. And that's about it. You don't really even need to solve that debate on this, because if he is not paying attention and he's just like an idiot hanging around the Oval Office watching tv and eating hamburgers, the rest of the government is going to be staffed by people like vote, who have a lot of power and can do all this shit without Trump.

Tommy Vietor
And they know how to use the levers of power. Also, they want to do something called schedule f. They want to get rid of civil service protections, which will basically allow them to push out a bunch of professional technocrats from government and install political appointees. They've talked about going after attorneys at agencies who have stymied them at times by telling them things were not legal. They want to change the nature of those attorneys so they get the answers they want. So it's very, very scary. Trump, we were a little bit, look, there was very annoying narrative early on in the Trump administration about the committee to save America, all the adults in charge, blah, blah, blah. I think those people, on balance, will a hell of a lot better than the second Trump term. But also, I think we benefited from the fact that no one knew what they were doing. It was chaos. It was like Steve Bannon, you know, just knifing his opponents in the press all day, every day. The second round will be streamlined.

Jon Favreau
And this guy, Russ Vogt, I mean, he said he wants to stock federal agencies with disciples who would wage culture wars on abortion and immigration. He's not just against illegal immigration, but against legal immigration.

He said that it isn't healthy, that we have to. He's questioned whether immigration at all is healthy, whether it's legal or not.

He also argues for no separation of Christianity from its influence on government and society and then on abortion. He said it's not just that. He is very anti abortion. He thinks that the family quote is a quote from him. The families of the west are not having enough babies for their society to endure.

Tommy Vietor
There's, yeah, if you. If you hear someone just in your family or in your life talking about the declining birth rate, you should start to inquire about what they're reading, because it's a real sign. It's a real red flag or orange flag if it's in the quirky meeting. He also has talked about abolishing abortion drugs and talked about a christian immigration ethic. When it comes to immigration policy, that.

Jon Favreau
Means it's white people only.

Tommy Vietor
Yes. That's what, it's very concerning.

Jon Favreau
They interviewed this Mike Pence, advisor for the piece.

This guy's, like, they interviewed Mark Short, who was his former chief of staff, and then someone else, this guy Chapman, who's a Pence's group advancing american freedom. And he said, there's a marriage of convenience between Russ and Trump. Russ has been pursuing an ideological agenda for a long time and views Trump's second term as the best way to achieve it. While Trump needs people in his second term who are loyal and committed and adept at using the tools of the federal government. To me, that, like, perfectly sums up what we're gonna get in a second Trump term is a bunch of, like, right wing freaks, christian nationalist freaks, who, like, don't necessarily love Trump, but are like, oh, I can get in there and do all the shit that I've been wanting to do forever because he's kind of an idiot who's not gonna pay attention, and I'm gonna have all this power.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah, use the mechanics and processes of democracy to subvert it. It's not good.

Jon Favreau
Let's talk about Joe Biden. The president just returned from his trip to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D Day invasion. Uh, he echoed Reagan with his speech at Pondahawk and talked about the struggle to defend democracy and tyranny. Predictably, Maggar world took this as an attack on their favorite tyrant, uh, even though Biden didn't mention Trump by name or allude to him in any way. Biden also didn't mention Trump when he visited the cemetery for Americans killed in France during World War One, though the campaign was happy for the coverage to note that it was the same cemetery Trump reportedly refused to visit in 2018 because it was filled with, quote, losers who were, quote, suckers for getting killed. A story confirmed by Trump's former White House chief of staff, John Kelly. Tommy, what do you make of the contrast here?

On the one hand, no suckers and losers. A deep cut.

Tommy Vietor
That's a deep cut.

Jon Favreau
That's a deep cut from 20 18 20 19 20 20 maybe this story.

Tommy Vietor
That anecdote first emerged in an Atlantic story in 2020 that at the time was sourced to anonymous officials. But clearly what happened is Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic, was at the Aspen Ideas festival or something and he got boozed up with John Kelly, who laid this all out. And then last year, 2023, John Kelly got pissed off and confirmed everything on the record to Jake Tapper via email.

He told Jake that Trump said the troops who were held as pows or were killed were suckers, didn't want to be seen in the presence of amputees because it didn't look good for him. Called Dead Americans in World War Two, losers refused to visit their graves in France because he didn't want to get his hair messed up.

Jon Favreau
Right?

Tommy Vietor
So, like, now that that's on the record, I think, like, now we're cooking with gas, right? This, it, it shows how selfish Trump is. It shows how awful he is. It's visceral. But what I think we're missing is, like, John Kelly, go do an interview with Jake Tapper on camera about this.

Jon Favreau
Yeah.

Tommy Vietor
You know what I mean?

Jon Favreau
I know Biden really could use his voice on this.

Tommy Vietor
Biden is deeply, profoundly, personally offended by these comments. You can hear it in his voice.

Jon Favreau
But I think son served in Iraq.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah. But I think what really matters is the messenger. And I think it will be even stronger coming from veterans themselves. And, God, if you could get someone like John Kelly to be like, this is what he said to me.

Jon Favreau
Yeah.

I also found the MAGA reaction to the D day speech. Like hilariously telling Breitbart's Joel Pollock said that Biden's speech was, quote, a veiled attack on his domestic political opposition in the upcoming election. And Eric Erickson said, I don't think it was appropriate for Biden to turn the remembrance of D Day into a political attack on his, his opponent. So I read the speech and I was like, I wonder if there was, like, one of those veiled Trump references. No, not at all. It's just talks. He talks about hateful ideologies that aren't democracy.

Tommy Vietor
There's a lot of, there's a lot of, like, maybe Trump people out there. I put Erickson in that camp of, like, they're offended by him. They know he is a bad person.

He doesn't ascribe to their sort of, like, personal moral viewpoint, the views of the world, but they need to find a way to manufacture a way to get themselves to come back and support him again. So they just make up stuff like this.

Jon Favreau
But it's like, oh, I was just talking about how democracy's good and tyranny's bad.

That's an attack on your guy. I didn't know he was.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah, I didn't know this was 1930s Germany.

Jon Favreau
I mean, part of his, like, he was directly talking about Vladimir Putin, right? He, like, mentioned Russia and Putin, but the fact that they take an attack on Putin is also now an attack on Trump.

Tommy Vietor
Or any, just comments about world War two and defeating the nazis.

Jon Favreau
It's fucking wild. So the Biden team has been much sharper and more direct in their attacks on Trump lately, especially on his status as a convicted felon. The vice president herself delivered a speech in Michigan on Saturday night where she went harder at Trump's conviction than I think anyone in the administration so far. Let's listen to Kamala Harris.

Marjorie Taylor Greene
Donald Trump openly tried to overturn the last election, and now he openly attacks the foundations of our justice system. Cheaters don't like getting caught.

Jon Favreau
So there was also a Politico story about the Biden folks ramping up the campaign to, quote, calm democratic nerves, where one senior Biden official is quoted as saying, the sky is blue and Donald Trump is a convicted felon. We're not going to shy away from what the reality is. What's your take? Do you see any difference in the campaign's approach over the last couple of weeks? Any additional insight you gained from talking to Michael Tyler, who's the communications director at the Biden campaign?

Tommy Vietor
Was that the political story that also folded in allowing Ukraine to hit targets in parts of Russia with us weapons as a campaign reset narrative?

Jon Favreau
Yeah, campaign shakeup. That's one of the campaign shakeup things.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah. So the whole story was a touch overwritten to me.

Jon Favreau
Voters were clamoring for that.

Tommy Vietor
I don't think Jake Sullivan and the national security team was like, let's let him hit targets in Russia near Kharkiv. That would get us to sweet. No, but I was glad to hear the vice president just unload like that. Because it is a fact that he's a convicted felon. It is a fact that he led an insurrection. It is a fact that he's a cheater. And whether it's like golf or marriage or campaign finance laws, he doesn't like getting caught. I do think it folds nicely into their frame of this is a guy running for himself and his rich buddies.

The one note that always kind of lands off to me is I do think they need to be careful about seeming angry at criticisms of the Justice Department or Justice system at all. Because the voters we really need know that the justice system is flawed. They know it makes mistakes, they know it can be racist, and they know it can disproportionately harm poor people. And there are times in the messaging that's kind of like, how dare he attack our justice system. It's like, no, we're allowed to criticize the justice system. But what you need to know is this wasn't the system that found him guilty. This was twelve citizens who heard a.

Jon Favreau
Bunch of evidence on the wilderness this weekend. This latest episode is an episode focused on black voters, undecided black voters, and I talked to our friend Terrence Woodbury, who's conducted countless focus groups of black voters, as well as Lavora Barnes, who's the chair of the Michigan Democratic Party. And I asked them about this, about Trump's like, oh, I'm gonna now win over black voters because they're also pissed at the criminal justice system. And they said the voters, they've talked to, the voters lavor talked to in Michigan, and then Terrence did a focus group after the conviction. They clearly think it's ridiculous that Donald Trump has something in common with them, right? And they think it's like kind of a racist statement to make. But Taryn said to me, is like, there is something real in there with feelings about the justice system and feelings about institutions in general. And I do think that the more effective message is one set of rules for Donald Trump, one set of rules for everyone else, because everyone else who faces the justice system does not get anywhere near the benefits and the special favors that Donald Trump has received since he has been a convicted felon or ever since he's been a defendant.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah. No one else is getting to meet with their PO via Zoom with a lawyer from a country club.

Jon Favreau
No one else could violate a gag order ten times and not end up in fucking prison. Yeah.

Tommy Vietor
And Terrence, I think, made very similar points about the way we talk about democracy is not this sort of perfect system that we need to protect at all costs. It's something we need to constantly improve.

Jon Favreau
Yeah. You can't be. I mean, the challenge that Joe Biden has, that every democrat has now is defending democracy, which is also defending a set of institutions that people have lost faith in.

And that's a real challenge. So you have to continue to be the person who's going to fight to fix those and make them fair for everyone against someone who wants to rig those institutions just for themselves. Like, I think that's the message.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah. Broadly, it's challenging to be an incumbent. Right now. We just saw a bunch of elections in Europe for the EU parliament that didn't go very well for a lot of incumbents, including the French and the Germans and others. So, yeah, I mean, it's like, it's hard to defend a system. It's hard to defend government generally because it's imperfect and flawed. And it's especially hard right now with inflation and coming off a pandemic when people feel like maybe the government didn't get it right at times.

Jon Favreau
Yeah. And what worries me is the more people tune out and the less they pay attention, the harder it is on incumbents. And it's not just an ideological thing like you guys have been talking about. Rishi Sunak, he's in trouble. It doesn't matter where you are in the political spectrum.

Tommy Vietor
He is a moron.

Jon Favreau
He's a moron. But incumbents across the political spectrum are facing the similar sentiment. Right. Which is, I'm just pissed off, I'm angry. Who's in charge? I'm gonna vote them up.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah.

Jon Favreau
And I think that that's why, you know, Biden constantly has to turn it into a choice.

Tommy Vietor
You're seeing elections all over the world where incumbents mostly are doing very badly and you're seeing instances where brand new political parties are getting propped up and created and peeling off big chunks of the vote because people are like, you know what? All politicians are bad. They're all the same.

So let's burn it down or try something totally new and radical.

Jon Favreau
Yeah. I don't just mention that as a downer.

We should realize that this is not just a Biden problem that Biden's facing right? And so that if Biden were anyone else, if he were younger, if he was like the most talented communicator America has ever had, right. He would still be facing a lot of these challenges because they're just systemic. Which, again, is why you got to make it about the choice. A couple quick things before we go to break. Pride is in full swing, and you can help us hit our $100,000 fundraising goal for our Pride or else fund in support of organizations fighting bans on gender affirming care and protecting trans kids. You can donate directly to the fund, or you can let crooked do it for you. When you shop our new Pride or else collection in the crooked store, we'll donate a portion of the proceeds to the fund. Learn more@crooked.com. pride and speaking of the crooked store, we're kicking off summer with an accessory sale. Tons of items are up to 30% off, so now's the perfect time to stock up on totes, candles, mugs and more. Everything you need to add a little crooked to your morning coffee, your next canvassing shift, or your sock drawer. The sale ends at midnight. Head to cricut.com store to get up to 30% off the best accessories when we come back, the man himself, John Lovett.

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Tommy Vietor
Donald Trump can't leave the courtroom. So just to rub it in a little pod, save America is going on tour. He's probably asleep right now, but if he were conscious, he'd be so, so jealous. The democracy rails tour begins in Brooklyn on June 26, followed by Boston on June 28. Then we go to Madison, Phoenix, Ann Arbor and Philly. See all the tour dates, and get your tickets now@crooked.com. events.

Jon Favreau
There he is look who's here.

Tommy Vietor
Well, well, well.

Jon Lovett
I'm back.

Tommy Vietor
We're rolling.

Jon Favreau
Did you find your way here in a raft? How did you.

Tommy Vietor
He is offensively tan.

Jon Lovett
The only thing can I say, the only piece of news that has been spoiled for me is when I turned on my phone. It would've been spoiled anyway, but the first thing I saw that had a spoiler was a fundraising text from Rokhanna telling me that Trump had been convicted. But then everyone had texted me that fucking ro.

Tommy Vietor
You owe us a.

Jon Favreau
Everyone. They all did all the fake bots. Did all the fake bots.

Tommy Vietor
No, no, no. Don't absolve him. Congressman Khanna, we want an apology.

Jon Lovett
Yes, we do. But. So he was the first.

Yeah, so that was. There was a crush of text about that, but that was the first one I saw.

Jon Favreau
Okay, so now that you're back, we thought it would be fun to give you a little news quiz, okay. About what happened while you were gone. This is a game we're calling the immunity idol. Can't save you now, bitch.

Jon Lovett
And Tommy had a baby.

Jon Favreau
All right, so as you just mentioned, Rokhana did spoil the biggest piece of news for you about Donald Trump's conviction. But we do have one question about some of what happened outside the courtroom. Which of these things did not happen, did not happen. So two of them happened. One of them did not.

A, Donald Trump appeared on stage at a post conviction rally in the Bronx with a rapper who's been indicted for attempted murder. B, Robert De Niro called a Trump supporter a fucking idiot during a Biden campaign press conference that he headlined outside the courtroom. C, Tim Scott went on Fox News to decry the verdict and actually ended up literally crying.

Jon Lovett
Wow.

That's actually very difficult.

Oh, I don't think Tim Scott cried.

Is that right?

Jon Favreau
Yes.

Jon Lovett
Wow.

Jon Favreau
Yes.

Jon Lovett
I don't think he cried. I think he. I'm sure he did. I'm sure he did something very pathetic, but I don't think he cried.

Jon Favreau
I don't really know what he did. I just. Okay, but how about Robert De Niro doing a press conference organized by the Biden campaign?

Jon Lovett
So you know why I thought that was true? You know why I thought that was true is because you can get Robert De Niro to go to something in New York.

Tommy Vietor
That's right. He went to try back.

Jon Lovett
Like, it's basically. I think it's like. It's like a quick drive for him.

Jon Favreau
Yeah.

Jon Lovett
That's why I figured it was.

Jon Favreau
He had a press conference. He got in a heated exchange with some. With some hecklers, Trump supporter hecklers. They were telling. They were saying, fuck him. He was saying, fuck you back. It was a real mess. And that was before the verdict.

Tommy Vietor
It was real New York.

Jon Favreau
Any other questions about how the verdict went down?

Jon Lovett
Well, I mean, so I guess what I want to understand is, okay, so he's convicted, so he's a felon.

Jon Favreau
Yeah.

Jon Lovett
And my first thought was if, again, if I had, like, google or if I'd, like, gone to look at anything and I, like, I was gonna go find out what was happening, it would be like to look up.

Okay, does Ron DeSantis have to give him his vote back?

Jon Favreau
Like, oh, oh, that was. It's funny. That was one of the first questions. The Florida law is if you're out of state or if you were convicted out of state, it's up to the state's laws that you were convicted in. So New York, unless you're in prison in New York, you can vote.

Jon Lovett
Okay. Okay.

Tommy Vietor
Okay.

Jon Lovett
All right. That was.

Jon Favreau
Someone asked Ron DeSantis, and Ron DeSantis said, of course, oh, I will, I will. If necessary, I'll do whatever we need to make sure he gets his vote back. Even though other convicted felons in Florida, despite the passage of amendment four, the.

Jon Lovett
Ballot, they don't have the right.

Jon Favreau
They still have to, like, pay all these fees in order to get their rights back.

Tommy Vietor
Trump did a zoom with his probation officer today.

Jon Favreau
Yeah, today was the probation officer meeting. And the sentence will be July 11.

This is so fun.

Jon Lovett
Wait a second. Okay, wait, hold on. Okay, so wait, what? So. Oh, wait, wait, when?

Jon Favreau
Sentencing sentence is July 11.

Wow. Three days before the republican national Convention.

Jon Lovett
Perfect.

But if it's. I mean, if he's sentenced to jail, they don't. It could happen that day. Like.

Jon Favreau
No, because they'll. The sentence. He probably won't have to serve the sentence until the appeals process goes through. And the appeals process will push it well past the election. So we're not going to.

Jon Lovett
Martha Stewart eventually said, fuck it, take me to jail.

Jon Favreau
Right. So we're not going to get. We're not going to get Trump jail time before. We don't think before the election, but, yeah, but about 9 hours of deliberation and they came back with the verdict.

Jon Lovett
And have we heard from any of the jurors? Have any of the jurors done any press tours?

Jon Favreau
No, but there was a hoax where someone on Facebook posted a post on Facebook that said, hey, my cousin is. My cousin is a Trump juror. And guess what? He's gonna be convicted. And then Judge Mershon had to, like, say that this is a post that was there. And then Maga was like, this is it. It's gonna be a mistrial. And then the guy was like, I'm a shitposter. It was just a joke.

That just happened this weekend. That's a recent one.

Jon Lovett
Wow. Okay.

Jon Favreau
But we haven't heard from any of it. There was a whole story about maybe one of the jurors was a Trump plant. Everyone was worried before the verdict that, like, Mark Caputo for the bulwark wrote this whole thing that was like, there's this one juror that every time Trump and all of his friends come into the courtroom is, like, smiling at them and nodding, and they lit up when JD Vance walks.

Tommy Vietor
It was the entire story about eye contact.

Jon Lovett
Wow.

Tommy Vietor
Sorry, story.

Jon Lovett
And so 9 hours.

9 hours. But they said, yes. They convicted on all counts.

Jon Favreau
All counts. 34 counts.

Jon Lovett
Wow.

Tommy Vietor
Oh, there's lots of specious reporting that Trump had been sleeping and farting throughout.

Jon Lovett
No, he was sleeping, sleeping, and farting was reported before I left.

Tommy Vietor
The farting was ongoing. So, you know, was there any new farting?

Jon Favreau
There was no new farting. You didn't miss any new farting.

Jon Lovett
Okay.

Jon Favreau
Okay. All right, Tom.

Tommy Vietor
Okay, so there was some big debate news while you were gone. Which of these things didn't happen?

Jon Lovett
Okay.

Tommy Vietor
A, Joe Biden challenged Donald Trump to two debates in a video that ended with make my day.

B, Donald Trump said he wants Joe Biden to take a drug test before they debate.

Jon Lovett
He said that? He said that before. I believe that that's real.

Tommy Vietor
C, the two campaigns couldn't agree on the rules. The moderators were the networks, and as of now, there are no debates scheduled. D, the first debate will be in June and the second will be in September.

1 did not happen.

Jon Lovett
One. Only one did not happen.

I'll say no debates.

Jon Favreau
We got a debate.

Tommy Vietor
We got a couple weeks.

Jon Favreau
June, the night between our Brooklyn event and the Boston PSA show. Thursday night, there's gonna be a debate.

Jon Lovett
What was it? A game of chicken? Why are we debating in June?

Jon Favreau
It was Biden.

Tommy Vietor
It happened so fast.

Jon Favreau
It happened so fast. One day, Biden released this video, said that they want to do away with the commission.

Jon Lovett
Great.

Jon Favreau
And I like the sets. So it was first thing in the morning that Biden campaign released the video, and within, like, 2 hours, the Trump campaign was like, we agree. Let's do it. Done. Two debates, one in June. Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, CNN in Atlanta. And then this. No audience. That was part of the rules. And they get to cut off your mic if you go past the.

Jon Lovett
That's good.

Jon Favreau
So it's like all the rules that the Biden folks wanted, which is really weird that Trump agreed to it. And then the second one is ABC, I believe, right?

Tommy Vietor
Yeah, I think so.

Jon Favreau
ABC in early September, hosted by cat turd two.

Jon Lovett
They got cat turd two. And, yeah, honestly, I can't even remember some of the people we hated.

Tommy Vietor
Well, here comes the next one.

Jon Favreau
And the vice presidential debate's gonna be. They haven't figured out the date yet, but they've agreed to that sometime after, obviously, Trump picks the VPN.

Jon Lovett
Right, right. I was about to say. I was like, right, okay, so we don't know who that is yet. So it has to be after. But wait, but why? I don't understand. They've never. It's before they're even officially the nominees.

Jon Favreau
I know.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah, it's weird.

Jon Favreau
I know. Oh, and RFK is very upset about it, which we're gonna get to next. RFK is very upset about it because he thinks that he could qualify for the commission debates. Well, and CNN has rules that you have to be 15% in four national polls or you have to be on the ballot enough states that equals 270. And RFK, I think, has hit the polling threshold, but not necessarily. He's saying he hit the 270 ballot thing, but that's. No one else has confirmed that yet.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah, it's a problem.

Jon Lovett
Well, that's something.

Jon Favreau
But he thinks he can get it by September, but I don't think he can get it by June. But we don't know. That's still ongoing. Speaking of RFK, it is June.

Tommy Vietor
17 days.

Jon Favreau
Yeah, 17 days. Can you imagine that? It's gonna be a big.

Jon Lovett
Wow.

Jon Favreau
We have a big last week.

Jon Lovett
Before or after the show?

Jon Favreau
It's between shows Thursday. So we have the Brooklyn show Wednesday night. The debate is Thursday night after our book event, and then Friday night is the Boston show.

Jon Lovett
Oh, wow. That's good content.

Jon Favreau
Good content.

Jon Lovett
Okay.

Jon Favreau
Great content. So some RFK news when you were out. The New York Times, big story in the New York Times reported that RFK junior has suffered from what medical issue? A, a drug resistant STD that could have been prevented with the vaccine.

B, a parasitic worm that ate part of his brain. C, a hospitalization caused by taking too much ivermectin.

Jon Lovett
One's true.

Jon Favreau
One is true. Sorry. Yes, one. This one. One is true.

Jon Lovett
STD.

Jon Favreau
Brain worms. Brain worms.

Jon Lovett
He has brain worms.

Jon Favreau
He had a worm that ate part of his brain.

Tommy Vietor
In 2010, he was experiencing memory loss and mental fogginess. So he went to a doctor, and they determined that there had been some sort of worm in his brain that consumed a portion of it.

Jon Lovett
What do we do? We know what part is it? And then died.

Tommy Vietor
And died in his brain.

Jon Favreau
He's fully recovered from it. Well, says RFK Junior, how do you.

Jon Lovett
Can'T fully recover from a brain eating your worm? Worm eating your brain.

Those don't grow back, you know.

Jon Favreau
No kidding. That happened with RFK.

Jon Lovett
Honestly. Okay, that makes sense.

Jon Favreau
Totally.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah.

Jon Lovett
That's how you go from being an environmental lawyer to whatever this is. Doesn't explain the people around him. Maybe it's contagious.

Jon Favreau
Well, speaking of the people around him, there's also a big story that his VP candidate did have sex with Elon Musk while on ketamine at a party.

Tommy Vietor
Who hasn't?

Jon Lovett
I mean, I feel like the ketamine part is sort of gums with the territory.

Jon Favreau
Tell me.

Jon Lovett
Go ahead. Does that make it better or worse?

Jon Favreau
I don't know. I don't know.

Tommy Vietor
Okay, there was a pretty wild Supreme Court controversy a few weeks ago that is still making big news. We're going to take it in a couple of parts. First, what expletive did a neighbor say to Justice Alito's wife as the two of them, the justice and his wife, were out taking a walk that sparked this multi week controversy? Is it a, slut?

B, shit for brains. C, the c word.

Jon Lovett
Oh, it can't be the c word, can it?

I'm gonna say shit for brains.

Tommy Vietor
See you next Tuesday, pal.

Jon Favreau
Oh, yeah.

Jon Lovett
I'm sorry. Someone.

What? Someone on the street just. So Alito's wife caught a stray.

Jon Favreau
Oh, it gets so much better.

Tommy Vietor
Okay, okay, so this is. So it's the facts of how this fight originated. We'll get to that. So this. This fight escalated when misses Alito did what? A, keyed a neighbor's car, b, harassed a neighbor on social media with a fake account, C, flew a stop the steel flag outside their home. The Alito home.

Jon Lovett
It's gotta be the fake account, right?

Jon Favreau
Oh, no, this is.

Jon Lovett
Wait, what?

Jon Favreau
There was a stop the steal. There was an upside down american flag flown couple weeks after January 6 outside the Alito's home, and the neighbors got a picture of it. It was the front page of the New York Times.

Jon Lovett
Samuel Alito.

Samuel Alito.

I'm sorry, flags are not like, oh, whose spouse's flag is in front of that?

Jon Favreau
Well, it's funny you should say that.

Jon Lovett
It's his flag.

Jon Favreau
In Alito's very long explanation letter, he said, I cannot control my wife and the flags that she flies.

Jon Lovett
What are you talking about?

What are you talking about? It's my wife's flag. That is the dumbest fucking thing.

Jon Favreau
My wife is fond of flags. I am not.

Tommy Vietor
That's what the letter said.

Jon Favreau
This isn't a letter.

Jon Lovett
What the fuck?

Tommy Vietor
This isn't a letter. Where he refused to recuse himself from the generation.

Jon Lovett
So you're telling me Justice Samuel Alito had a stop the steel flag flying.

Jon Favreau
Outside of his fucking house just a couple weeks after.

Tommy Vietor
It was an upside down american flag.

Jon Lovett
An upside down american flag?

Jon Favreau
Yeah. And he said he also claimed the letter. I didn't know what it meant. I don't know. Just people. It's a distress flag.

Jon Lovett
It's a distress flag.

Tommy Vietor
Last part of this.

Jon Favreau
Yeah. It gets funny.

Tommy Vietor
Things got even worse.

News outlets then reported that Miss Alito did what? A raised a second stop the steel flag outside their vacation home. B was heard blasting the j six choir song in her car.

Jon Lovett
No.

Tommy Vietor
C was spotted wearing a QAnon T shirt in her backyard.

Jon Lovett
Wow. I honestly could.

There's no. There's no. I don't know what the truth could be. Anything I'm gonna say. I'm gonna say QAnon shirt.

Jon Favreau
Second stop, the steel flag.

Tommy Vietor
They're at vacation home in New Jersey.

Jon Favreau
And second home in New Jersey two years later.

Tommy Vietor
Two years later.

Jon Lovett
Two years later.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah.

Jon Favreau
This is the appeal to heaven Flag, which is another sort of, like, right wing, christian nationalist flag that was associated with stop the steals people. And so that's their second flag. He also said. He's like, I thought that was a flag that dates back to the constitution. Cause apparently they did. The founders flew flags like that. I don't know. It's wild.

Tommy Vietor
There it is. Outside their house.

Jon Favreau
Yeah. That's the flag of heaven flag.

Jon Lovett
Oh, man.

Justice Samuel had to stop the steel flag flying in front of his home.

Jon Favreau
Yeah.

Tommy Vietor
And he won't recuse from the immunity.

Jon Favreau
Case, which has not been.

Spoiler. Has not been decided yet. We're still waiting. Still waiting on that one.

Jon Lovett
Yeah, I guess that would have been.

Jon Favreau
They haven't taken any of the big cases yet or. We haven't heard any of the big cases yet.

Jon Lovett
Wow.

Jon Favreau
I know. I know. And, like, here's a pop quiz. Do you think Senate Democrats are investigating Sam Alito over this and subpoena?

No, they try. Dick Durbin, I think, sent a few nice letters.

Tommy Vietor
Dick Durbin's disappointed.

Jon Favreau
He's disappointed, you know. And Roberts, did Roberts weigh in? I think Roberts weighed in.

Tommy Vietor
Well, no. The Senate Democrats asked Alito to recuse and hint his response back, which came from Alito himself, because he has to make the decision. Roberts doesn't make it. That's where he included the language. That's like, my wife is a flag enthusiast. I am not a flag enthusiast.

Jon Lovett
Like, she's doing semaphore.

Jon Favreau
Some welcome news. Which of these Trump associates will report to jail in just a few weeks for a sentence that will last through the election? A, Rudy Giuliani. B, Steve Bannon. C, Roger Stone.

Jon Lovett
Oh, Giuliani convicted of anything.

I'm gonna say Bannon.

Jon Favreau
Bannon's going to jail. Bannon's going to jail July 1 through November.

Jon Lovett
For which crimes?

Jon Favreau
Contempt of Congress.

Jon Lovett
Okay. Okay.

Jon Favreau
Yeah.

Jon Lovett
Okay.

Jon Favreau
And he kept trying.

Jon Lovett
Cause those are running. Those are still happening.

Jon Favreau
He kept trying to appeal, appeal, appeal. And finally the judge was like, I'm not letting you just hang in limbo and appeal this for an indefinite amount of time. You're going to jail.

Jon Lovett
Wow.

Jon Favreau
And he gave this big press conference saying, like, I'm doing it as a patriot. You're never going to shut me up.

Jon Lovett
So if anybody's, you know, Tommy's got a free 45 minutes a day now.

Tommy Vietor
That's what I said on the pod.

Jon Favreau
Guest co host of the war room right here.

Jon Lovett
See if we can pitch something to fill his commute.

Jon Favreau
Bonus question. Trump recently kicked off pride month by kissing which convicted felon pal on stage at a rally in Arizona.

Jon Lovett
Wait, convicted felon kicked off pride? Oh, convicted. Kissed a convicted felon for pride?

Jon Favreau
Well, it wasn't for pride.

Jon Lovett
Just how he kicked off pride. I just don't know if that feels like a. Is pride a red herring? I guess it is, yeah.

Jon Favreau
Bit of it. Bit of a red herring.

Jon Lovett
Who is a convicted felon?

Jon Favreau
Hint, Trump had pardoned him.

Jon Lovett
Trump kissed a pal.

So just strange. Doesn't really kiss.

Jon Favreau
That's what he said after he kissed him. He goes, I don't usually kiss men.

Jon Lovett
But this guy, well, that's.

I don't know who.

Jon Favreau
Joe Arpaio.

Jon Lovett
Oh, I would never. Joe Arpaio. I've never got. I was trying to think of, I couldn't think of Arizona conviction and I was thinking of the electors, but none of them. Okay.

Jon Favreau
Even though Rudy's not going to jail just yet, there was some other fun Rudy Giuliani news during his 80th birthday party.

What did one guest do after serenading him that made headlines the next day? A got caught on a hot mic using a slur for Italians. B, served him with a subpoena. C, vomited on Rudy and his date.

Jon Lovett
I'm gonna say, I think the darkest is vomiting. So I'm gonna say vomiting.

Jon Favreau
Served him with a subpoena.

Jon Lovett
That's actually. Yeah, maybe that is darker.

Jon Favreau
Daily Mail headline was, guests at Rudy Giuliani's 80th birthday scream and cry as the party ends with him being served a subpoena.

Jon Lovett
Honestly, I take back what I said. That is the dark for him.

That is so. Man, you're just sitting at your 80th birthday party and it ends with you being handed a subpoena.

Jon Favreau
I forgot. The best part was he tweeted at the Arizona attorney general the night from the birthday party and was like, if you don't serve me by midnight, it expires and you can't get me. And then he has, like, these, like, women in the background, these young women at the party, and they. And so 2 hours later, they serve him.

Jon Lovett
They served him at the party. That is so fucking funny.

Tommy Vietor
And apparently it was someone who is part of the singing of the happy birthday who served him.

Jon Lovett
So he's taunting them. He's taunting them that you can't serve me. I'm at my 80th birthday party. Yep. And they had somebody at the party. Yeah, they got. That is so cool.

Jon Favreau
So good.

Jon Lovett
That is so good.

Jon Favreau
That was a fun one.

Jon Lovett
There was that story where he was overheard at Mar a Lago saying, like, every day, it's like waking up in a nightmare.

Remember that? It was like, just like his every. Like his day, his life has become like a fucking fun house mirror terror of what his life was supposed to be. Can't understand it anyway.

Tommy Vietor
Okay, final one. Congress was as productive as ever while you were gone.

Jon Lovett
Sure.

Tommy Vietor
Which of these things did not happen? A Democrat, Jasmine Crockett, told Marjorie Taylor Greene she had a bleach blonde, bad built, butch body. During a congressional hearing, MTG referred to Lauren Boebert as, quote, the beetlejuicer in chief. During a House Republican caucus meeting, c AOC called John Fetterman a bully after he compared the house to the Jerry Springer show.

Jon Lovett
Two of those did happen.

Jon Favreau
No, one of those didn't happen. The other two did happen.

Jon Lovett
Okay. Okay.

Federman, a bully.

Beetlejuicer in chief.

Blonde, butch.

Jon Favreau
Bleach blonde, bad built, butch body.

Tommy Vietor
Thank you.

Jon Lovett
I think that feels. Honestly, that feels. I think that that's real.

And so Beetlejuicer in chief.

I'm gonna say beetlejuicer in chief is fake nice. Is that right?

Jon Favreau
Yeah.

Jon Lovett
Okay. All right.

Jon Favreau
In fact, after she called Marjorie Taylor Greene a bleach blonde, bad built bitch body, Marjorie Taylor Greene started the whole thing, as you big surprise, by saying something that was rather racist that I can't remember now. And then they started selling bleach blonde bad built butch body merch.

Jon Lovett
I mean, it's a beautiful turn of price.

You gotta own that. You gotta take that back. I get that. It's poetic.

Jon Favreau
And then it was one of those like, you know, obviously everyone realized that MTG was at fault, but everyone was like, oh, Congress is crazy. And Fetterman called it a Jerry Springer show. And then AOC went after Federman for what you said you were gone.

Tommy Vietor
Jasmine Kruk is trying to trademark it. I can't, I just googled that.

Jon Lovett
I just, like, I. I know it's my job to know what's happening. I understand that.

And I guess I'll have to keep knowing what's happening.

Tommy Vietor
What you're learning is how little value there is in some of. Most of what you missed.

Jon Lovett
Right, right. That's interesting, that's interesting, that's interesting, but keep downloading.

Jon Favreau
It was a funny social experiment that, like, I guess you knew about the verdict, but like, what's the most shocking news? And the Alito flag?

Well, I mean, here's.

Jon Lovett
Here's. I think here is what's shocking.

That story began with someone on the street calling the wife of a supreme court justice the c word. And by the end of it, you're like, I get it.

Yeah, I see how that happened.

Tommy Vietor
Yeah, the timeline's all weird. Like, the alitos claimed that this neighbor couple put up some signs that were offensive to them. So that's why she hung the stop the steel flag.

Jon Favreau
But then she did it in response to the c word. But that's not true.

Jon Lovett
Not in response to the c word. Okay.

Jon Favreau
Yeah.

Tommy Vietor
Then the timeline got all unraveled. So basically the Alitos are lying about this, in addition to flying multiple insurrection flags.

Jon Favreau
So you got Ginny Thomas, Martha Anelito, just some real housewives shit.

Jon Lovett
The fact that at a supreme Court justice's home, two homes, there could be two right wing, like, one blatant stop the steel flag flying.

And like, that only comes out because of, I guess, like a similar beef as the one that happened between one more.

Jon Favreau
Oh, the Washington Post had this story right after it happened and decided not to run it.

Tommy Vietor
They were like, oh, it's just a dispute between misses Alito and a neighbor.

Jon Lovett
But they knew about the flag.

Jon Favreau
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And the times ran it just recently.

Jon Lovett
But such important news.

It's a big and important. It's interesting, too.

Jon Favreau
There's a whole drama going on with the Washington Post, too.

Tommy Vietor
Oh yeah.

Jon Favreau
Anyway, welcome back.

Tommy Vietor
It's great to be back.

Jon Favreau
Welcome back. That's our show for today.

We'll be back with another episode on Wednesday. Bye, everyone.

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