2/25/26: BP Team REACTS Trump SOTU: Iran, Data Centers, Immigration

8:41Saagar Enjeti:Yeah, but yeah.

8:42Emily Jashinsky:Yeah, well, I was told to attribute it. I was told I could attribute it to a War Department official on the background. Okay, fine, fine. So on Venezuela, I had asked who they targeted yesterday specifically. Now, they had a big guest come out Venezuela-wise in the middle of the State of the Union, made a big deal about it. They will not tell me what group was targeted yesterday. They're citing, quote, unquote, operations security. In the boat or on land? The land, or I'm sorry, the boat strike yesterday. Sure. So this gets us to Iran. You have this contradiction of we annihilated the nuclear site, and yet now we need to strike Iran again.

9:16Emily Jashinsky:And the same thing with Venezuela. We have annihilated the threat of Maduro, who is directing Trenderagua. Right. And the drug traffickers. We're running the country. Great point. So what's the word department official saying? Says, to protect operations, security, and our forces, we will not discuss specific groups, targets, or intelligence methods.

9:32Saagar Enjeti:By the way, Trump in his State of the Union called Venezuela new friend and partner. So we are now bombing our new friend and partner. We are bombing our new friend and partner that we control. Just again, the Iran section of this is going to be the most important. And it was incredibly vague. There was no time that was added to it. The post about the so-called claim around they haven't said the sacred words. It's like, again, I don't know what else could happen here.

9:57Ryan Grim:But this is going to be very disappointed that the case wasn't made. Right.

10:00Saagar Enjeti:Well, if people did not watch our pre-show into the State of the Union, there was this pathetic effort by Mark Warner and Senator Chuck Schumer who were like, oh, well, a lot of crazy stuff said. the president really needs to make his case to the American people. It came, I mean, I don't have the time stamp. What was it, hour 15 probably? So far, the vast majority of people had already turned it off. Only professional news folks like us are even watching there at that point. Barely, I mean, almost a minute maybe on Iran. I would say 90 seconds, 15, 20 seconds there on the Russia and Ukraine war.

10:36Saagar Enjeti:It was minuscule, I think, in terms of the actual part of this speech. But it was the number one thing that we were all looking for. So unfortunately, we can't really add a ton of commentary except just to say what he's claiming is not really true in terms of his demand.

10:50Emily Jashinsky:So this martyr-made post that came out three or four hours ago, what can we – so this is – what's his name, Daryl? Daryl Hoover. Huge podcaster. Yes. What can we make of this? Can we talk about this at all? Like it's public. I had it pulled up.

11:10Ryan Grim:Here's what he said. He said Trump has been cornered. his options as he sees them are to start a war with Iran on something like our own terms or to be dragged into it at a time in the manner of Israel's choosing. The third option, telling Israel to fight their own war, is not on the table because he believes that if he does that, Israel will use nuclear weapons and he and members of his family will be in physical danger. I'm not totally sure why those two things are tied together. But anyway, the rest of the post says the military buildup has had three purposes. First, he hoped that Iran would capitulate and submit to an agreement strong enough to calm the Israelis down for the time being.

11:46Ryan Grim:Fanciful. Second, to have enough forces to deal with the fallout if Israel attacks and Iran retaliates against American bases and allies. And finally, to potentially strike first and at least be able to control the first phase of combat. The talk of limited strikes reflects his hope that Iran can be intimidated into buckling because Trump genuinely does not want war. That's where we're at. I've never prayed for apologists in your government before, but I prayed for Trump for the first time yesterday. You should too. So that's what he's saying based on whoever he is.

12:13Emily Jashinsky:He's obviously close to Tucker Carlson. Yeah.

12:16Saagar Enjeti:Yeah. You know, look, what I will say is I heard something similar in terms of what, I mean, look, I alluded to it earlier in our show, Crystal, is that Israel is fundamentally in control of the dynamic. When we talk about the Pentagon, we deep frustration with the United States, the deep frustration within the White House right now. And again, I'm not excusing this. I'm explaining kind of the view is, well, Israel may do it or not. And if they do it, then we're going to get sucked in. So we might as well try to control the dynamic. But what this ignores. What happens if you don't get sucked in?

12:45Saagar Enjeti:This is the problem is that it ignores. And the third option, the actual option, which is, hey, tell Israel not to do it and decide that we're going to cut them up.

12:53Ryan Grim:And say, hey, if you do, like, we're not going to continue to sell you weapons. You're not going to be there to make sure that you don't get hit when there is Iranian retaliation. I mean, the threat of nukes here is so insane. and let's keep in mind like Israel doesn't you know supposed to be still a secret that they have nuclear weapons but there's all this concern about Iran getting a nuclear weapon like you have this psycho rogue regime in the Middle East already that is supposed to be our client state and they're out here basically like low-key threatening us that they're going to start some sort of nuclear conflagration if they don't get their way.

13:28Saagar Enjeti:Also I don't think we should ignore in that State of the Union speech that Trump literally said Iran is trying to create an ICBM capable of hitting the the United States. I know we're living in a post-truth. Can we get some evidence of that at all? Because that would actually be a game changer. No, it's fake, right? It's literally made up. Is that, oh, they had regional ballistic missile threats. He said Europe and our bases. I think we all know who he's talking about whenever it comes to regional. But they're trying to frame it very Iraq war style of like, oh, well, first it's Europe and our, but now they're developing this in, what did Steve Wyckoff say?

13:59Saagar Enjeti:They're weeks away from an industrial Industrial grade bomb, which, as our producer Mac points out, isn't literally every state bomb an industrial grade bomb. Like, you can't create a bomb.

14:08Emily Jashinsky:He was using the wrong term, which goes to your point about, like, not having, like, not remotely experts. Like, using basic terms wrong. I'm not an expert, but, you know, industrial is not the right term. The weapons grade is what he's trying to go for. And, of course, the goalpost in June was you absolutely had to do this because of their nuclear capacity. It was specifically the threat of nuclear imminence coming from Iran. so this is it's in disagreement with our own argument yeah and when he says that uh the his family would be at risk i feel like that's code for his family is vulnerable on a lot of levels when it comes to that you could expose things about them or they have like business relationships that could be jeopardized i i don't think that israel is going to go out and kill them

14:54Saagar Enjeti:like i just don't i'm sorry that's not that's not like yeah but if i told you israel would nuke them I'm like, dude, there's a serious part. There's a serious thought here in Washington that they actually would, that they really would use. I mean, considering what has now happened with Gaza. Oh, yeah. And now the gloves are all like seven countries in two years. You guys are saying different things. Oh, OK.

15:13Ryan Grim:You're totally bought into the idea they would nuke Iran. You don't believe they would assassinate Trump and his family members. However, this is where the Epstein files kind of come into play, don't they? I mean, this is the thing. This is why this, the little bit we know is so important to understand. Like, what do the Israelis know? What does Trump think the Israelis know? What is he concerned about? Because we can say without a shadow of a doubt that he is worried about what is in these files in their entirety. Look at the treatment of Ghislaine Maxwell getting moved in the club fed and getting a puppy and treating the warden like her bitch.

15:49Ryan Grim:He is worried about some things that are in there. and he has to assume the Israelis know about that. So when some of these pieces don't add up of like, okay, well, if they attack Iran, why are we getting sucked into it? And how does this put you in danger? You have to put the Epstein factor into that as well.

16:05Saagar Enjeti:Yeah, I mean, not just, but that business, like you just said, the business relationships of everything, I mean - These are not independent. These are all non-independent. Yeah, exactly. Not exactly independent. I don't want to get too far down the Iran rabbit, but I still believe, I mean, this is the number one most important part in the story in the entire country. And even within the state of the, if anything, actually, not having a state of the union, there was no flagship proposal, right? There was really, it was really, it was a lot of box checking. And if you guys want, we can turn to the economy.

16:35Saagar Enjeti:The first 15 minutes or so was basically a retread, the greatest economy in history. I have some gaslighting here in my notes.

16:40Ryan Grim:Things are great and the Dow's up. Roaring economy is roaring like never before, right?

16:46Saagar Enjeti:Mortgage rates, new construction jobs, largest tax cut, affordability. They said Democrats caused and created the prices. You caused that problem. We did pick up, though, that the White House is obviously very, you know, they're very paying attention, I think, to some of the populist issues that we've highlighted here in our show. And there are three of them all in a row. Data centers, number one. Two was stock ban. And three was about banning these private equity groups from owning large swaths of housing. So we actually have a clip here on data centers. It was kind of the more populous section, if you will, of the State of the Union.

17:23Saagar Enjeti:Let's take a listen.

17:24Krystal Ball:Many Americans are also concerned that energy demand from AI data centers could unfairly drive up their electric utility bills. Tonight, I'm pleased to announce that I have negotiated the new rate payer protection pledge. You know what that is. We're telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs. They can build their own power plants as part of their factory so that no one's prices will go up. And in many cases, prices of electricity will go down for the community and very substantially down. This is a unique strategy never used in this country before.

18:03Krystal Ball:We have an old grid. It could never handle the kind of numbers, the amount of electricity that's needed. So I'm telling them they can build their own plant. They're going to produce their own electricity. It will ensure the company's ability to get electricity while at the same time lowering prices of electricity for you and could be very substantial for all of you cities and towns. You're going to see some good things happen over the next number of years.

18:28Saagar Enjeti:By the way, that was clearly that was immediately followed by the private equity discussion and then by the congressional stock trading ban. All issues that have been bubbling up online. Now, as usual, devil's in the details. Is it going to happen? This is a rate pledge allegedly privately agreed to by companies. Where's the fact sheet? Are they actually going to do it? Is this going to be national policy? Now, part of the what have we learned about the data center fight? Data centers is a state and a local issue. Is every state and local locality actually going to be able to agree with this? Right.

18:58Saagar Enjeti:So I'm very doubtful that this will actually become national policy. But for me, this is a reminder that they can see some of the writing on the wall. And despite the first 15 minutes or so, which was very much like we're in the roaring economy, everything is Biden's fault. that was a midterm section where they're like we need to reclaim but let some ground here there was no credit card interest rate cap which i did take notice of interesting yeah let's talk about

19:19Emily Jashinsky:whether that was actually good politics or whether this guy is living in a bubble so crystal you live in a rural area come to rural people and say you know what i want to build a data center people like now you come to them say i want to build a data center and right next to it power plant are they more excited or less excited exactly what i was saying when they were saying but i mean it's

19:39Ryan Grim:sort of irrelevant because I view it as a fake proposal. Right.

19:42Emily Jashinsky:Like we're lying about the power. Right.

19:44Ryan Grim:I mean, I think it's a fake proposal. I think it's an attempt to recognize like they recognize this is a problem for them. It's a real rub, you know, in areas where they have a lot of support. There was a I think a New York Times article about some Trump supporters who were like, I like what he's doing. But the status center stuff is really bad. Like this is a major issue for them. They clearly have recognized it. The reason I say it's a fake proposal is this is not something you can do with an executive order. And so you're going to know and think of what we're really talking about. OK, you're going to mandate tech companies to build power plants, a business they are not actually in.

20:20Ryan Grim:And they're all in this race to spin up as many data centers as fast as they can. And it's no holds barred in terms of like complete deregulation. And now you're going to add into this like and also you're going to I mean, it's just it's although there's No way. If the if the government was going to get involved and like build out these power plans or whatever, maybe. But but yeah, there's this would be something that would have to go through Congress. It would have to be a major proposal. All of that. You would require significant compulsion from the federal government to get these AI companies to do it.

20:53Ryan Grim:So I just see it as we had the IRA still in effect.

20:56Emily Jashinsky:Well, one thing, but that's another somebody nuked that. Not sure. who yeah um but that's i mean the the way that trump could get compulsion is because all of these ceos and companies are rushing to get his affection and be lavished in his praise and all

21:11Saagar Enjeti:that's how i guess the way he was selling it he's like they've agreed to a rape again exactly he's

21:15Emily Jashinsky:framing it as though they're under his thumb which to some extent they are but to the point that crystal made it's it's a lot of money well it just it reminds me of you know we're talking

21:22Ryan Grim:about the maha stuff which we really should talk more about because it's you know that was an important part of his coalition and not a lot in the speech yeah no basically nothing in the speech remember he did that whole like oh the food companies decided they're just going to voluntarily get all the artificial um colors and preservatives out of their food well that just got quietly rolled back so you know once business is like uh no thanks they're on fire over the glyphosate stuff yeah the glyphosate thing is it should be because you know i mean the there were 10 i think tens of thousands of claims against Monsanto now there over Roundup and the, you know, link to cancer.

21:58Ryan Grim:And to do this and to then use the Defense Production Act to spin the stuff, I mean, it really is, it really is grotesque. And it truly is a betrayal. And to see if RFK Jr. just turn around and rubber stamp and say, yeah, great, I approve of it is.

22:11Saagar Enjeti:Well, he made it about the supply chain, not to get too off track, but they made it about the supply chain thing. But everyone was like, yo, dude, in the same executive order, you give them immunity. It's like, that's what were upset about. And that's what you should be upset about, right? That's the whole thing. That's like as anti-Maha as it gets. So look, we're just trying to frame it in terms of they see a big political problem. They spent a lot of time. We had the data center thing. We had the mortgage rates. There was a discussion. What is it? The lowest mortgage rate in a couple of years.

22:39Saagar Enjeti:They were talking about rent prices. So affordability, while it was, it's not nearly enough at the top as it should have been. Because if you think, as I always talk about with State of the unions. People only watch like 15, 30 minutes. So when you're like 45, 50, 60 minutes or something into a speech, like you're going way down. Like not a lot of people are going to hear this. To me, it felt very box check. And it's a preview of what I think is going to be their midterm affordability strategy like going forward.

23:05Emily Jashinsky:So we should say this was actually officially now it was an hour and 47 minutes. So that is the longest state of the union on record. Second was Trump's joint address last year, which doesn't technically count as a state of the union. But Before that, Bill Clinton said the union in 2000 was the longest. It was an hour and 28 minutes. Gotcha. So significant. Which people melted down. Significantly longer. Totally melted down. 20 minutes longer.

23:24Ryan Grim:We had standards.

23:25Saagar Enjeti:I mean, it was insanely long.

23:26Emily Jashinsky:We had standards.

23:26Saagar Enjeti:It ended abruptly. The speech was very long. Like, you know, your Wuthering Heights point is very good. Like, it was really not a cohesive speech. Like, it really was just a clip, clip, clip, clip, clip. I was in college then, I promise I did not watch. But they're all like this.

23:39Ryan Grim:I feel like, in fairness, they are all kind of like that. It's hard to like check all those boxes and string some sort of narrative together. But yeah, there didn't even seem to really be enough. No. Yeah. Trying to make moments. Let me give another award. Yeah. It's all trying to create individual moments. You know, on the economic front, like we are we are in enough of a dire, uncertain circumstance with regard to the economy that even if some of these proposals were real, these kind of like gimmicky one off proposals are just not sufficient. Right. Even if the credit card interest rate thing was in here, which it wasn't, and he's clearly just like abandoned that, that would be something.

24:17Ryan Grim:But it's not like people are going to see that and be like, oh, my life has turned around and now I have hope for the future. They're still going to be worried about AI, which, you know, at this point in time, OK, you talk about the data centers. But to not talk about any of like the labor, any of the other stuff that's going on with AI when this is a central like this is the central economic growth policy that your administration is pursuing, I think is I mean, I think it's incredibly negligent. to me, it's very noteworthy. He spent a lot of time. You brought this up, Socrates. You didn't talk about ICE at all.

24:49Saagar Enjeti:So I tweeted it just to make sure I'm not getting fact-checked. There was not a single mention about it. There was a lot of talk about immigration.

24:55Ryan Grim:There were some big, you know, some of his big moments with the base were on immigration, etc. And I think they still feel like that. And I think it is still some of their stronger ground. But, you know, he's now underwater significantly on immigration, too. So the one area, the well that he could always go back to, even that's not a reliable winner for him outside of his committed followers.

25:22Krystal Ball:In 2023, a story gripped the UK, evoking horror and disbelief.

25:28Saagar Enjeti:The nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history.

25:36Ryan Grim:Everyone thought they knew how it ended. A verdict, a villain, a nurse named Lucy Letby.

25:43Emily Jashinsky:Lucy Letby has been found guilty.

25:46Ryan Grim:But what if we didn't get the whole story? The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses.

25:51Krystal Ball:I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby, we follow the evidence and hear from the people that lived it to ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Letby was. no voicing of any skepticism or doubt it'll cause so much harm at every single level of the british establishment of this is wrong listen to doubt the case of lucy letby on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts hi this is joe winterstein host of the spirit daughter podcast where we talk about astrology natal charts and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini driver.

26:34Krystal Ball:The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men. Actor, storyteller, and unapologetic Aquarian visionary. Aquarius is all about freedom loving and different perspectives. And I find a lot of people with strong placements in Aquarius like are misunderstood. A sun and Venus in Aquarius in her seventh house spark her unconventional approach to partnership.

26:59Saagar Enjeti:He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms, on different houses, in different places,

27:05Krystal Ball:but just an embracing of the is-ness of it all. If you're navigating your own transformation or just want a chart-side view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creativity, and real life, this episode is a must-listen. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall.

27:43Emily Jashinsky:This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast.

27:56Krystal Ball:I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's a unicorn.

28:05Emily Jashinsky:No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable.

28:10Krystal Ball:This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets.

28:19Emily Jashinsky:Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

28:30Saagar Enjeti:Do we have the immigration segment? Just come into my ear and tell me if we do. We do. Yeah. Okay. So why don't we go ahead and play that? This is going to be the biggest one that you're going to see going around for a lot of the Republicans for their reaction. Trump, what did he say? He's like, stand up if you think Americans should only serve the interests of Americans. It set off some confrontation and Ilhan Omar shouted at him, which led to some heckling. Let's take a listen.

28:56Krystal Ball:Isn't that a shame? You should be ashamed of yourself not standing up. You should be ashamed of yourself. That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens. in many cases drug lords, murderers all over our country. They're blocking the removal of these people out of our country. And you should be ashamed of yourself.

29:30Saagar Enjeti:There's your juxtaposition. You got Ilhan. She was shouting, you have killed Americans. He's saying, please stand if you've had your moment. But I will say, if you listen to that, we should fact check the claim. Oh, sorry, go ahead. He has killed Americans. Oh, okay. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you for that fact check. Well, he personally has no. He ordered the operation that killed the Americans. But, you know, to the point about rhetoric, the word ICE was not uttered. The word CBP was not uttered. The new funding for the DHS, in terms of, like, the big ICE funding for the original bill, was not discussed.

30:01Saagar Enjeti:The only mention of the big, beautiful bill was about corporate tax cut. If you think specifically about immigration and the way that it was talked about, it was very 2025. 25 it was all about open border and it was about specific victims but there was no mention whatsoever of minneapolis of los angeles of any of the major raids that have happened across the

30:24Ryan Grim:country there was mention of minneapolis right but about somali exactly and which i mean is noteworthy for what you're saying but also he did this whole like oh jd vance is going to be the czar of like finding fraud and corruption whatever i mean interesting yeah which is interesting and i I want to get your thoughts on that. But it's also like that was the whole pretext for you going into Minneapolis. So if you're going to find all this fraud, what were you people doing there? Like, obviously, that was completely false freedom.

30:50Saagar Enjeti:But if you read into the politics of that, they're going right back to the 2024-2025 case of we have no more, which is true. You know, they shut the border down. Okay. So there's no more illegal migrants who are coming across the border. But the case about mass deportation, the word mass deportation wasn't uttered. the singular campaign message, which literally was behind Donald Trump whenever he accepted the nomination at the 2024 RNC. ICE was not discussed. CBP. Hulk Hogan was not there. Yeah, Homan.

31:17Emily Jashinsky:R.I.P.?

31:18Saagar Enjeti:I thought you said Homan for a second. I didn't say it's Homan. Sorry, R.I.P. Hulk Homan. R.I.P. to Hulk Hogan. That's what I heard, too. Yeah, that's what I heard. I was like, yeah, Homan. Okay, sorry. This is a classic Emily situation. But, you know, thinking... It's derailing as usual. Just thinking generally about the way that they had to frame it on immigration. That was a loss to me, considering how much they have now, political capital that they have spent on the issue, nothing about Minneapolis, Los Angeles, any of the major surges that have dominated the headlines. I mean, that's honestly shocking.

31:50Saagar Enjeti:If you were to go on Twitter, if you were to go and look at the communications of the White House on a daily basis for the last, what, three months? I mean, Minneapolis, immigration, ICE, and all that's gonna be number one. Or what the world thinks about us. Two of those, yeah. Totally. Oh my God, it's everywhere. And there's barely anything in the speech.

32:05Emily Jashinsky:I agree with that. I think the lack of ice is significant. I think that moment is a win for Trump. I also think it's a win for Ilhan Omar. I think him saying you should be ashamed and then Ilhan Omar coming back and saying, no, you should be ashamed. That I think is a win for Trump. Oh, she's gonna raise a million dollars

32:19Saagar Enjeti:by the end of the day.

32:20Emily Jashinsky:Yeah, I agree completely with that. But it also is like with, it reminds me of where we were a year ago, which was everyone talking about ice, Kristi Noem and Doge. And the J.D. Vance point is interesting because we're talking about fraud and rooting it out of government last year, all under the auspices of Elon Musk's operation and Doge. So much fun. Everything's great. And now J.D. Vance has potentially been turned into the Kamala Harris border czar of fraud, meaning fraud that happens after J.D. Vance has been fingered as the fraud czar. Yeah. Is now going to come back.

32:55Saagar Enjeti:You made this point live. I thought was genius. I genuinely did not, it did not click for me. Well, you know, to elaborate more, what you're saying is that if Jared Kushner and Steve Wyckoff and all these other guys, all these crazy deals and crypto and the pardons and all this, and it's like, well, you were the czar of fraud. It's like, why did you, you know, the Binance, did you guys see this Binance story recently? But the CEO, he got pardoned and then they just facilitated a bunch of money to like Iranian, you know, around Iranian sanctions using crypto. I mean, it's totally nuts,

33:25Emily Jashinsky:And to layer another point on top of what Emily is saying, maybe you guys disagree with me, maybe not. This is the most corrupt administration. Like, OK, maybe some grant. Teapot. I was like, come on, teapot dome, bro. That's not, let's say I get carried. The reason I say this is the most corrupt because it's the entire Senate and Congress and Grant, like, during the teapot dome. Like, they're all, they're all trading. Like, it's the whole, it's all rotten all the way through. Right now, the White House is far and away leading the charge on this crypto level of corruption, like this getting the U.A.E.

34:05Emily Jashinsky:to buy half of their crypto thing and then going to Pakistan and telling them they got to put in a billion dollars and these guys have to put in a billion. You got to put in a billion. I see what you're saying. Whereas members of Congress aren't there yet. Maybe. Right. Give us five years. They're on a smaller scale, but not even close to this. So there's so much more corrupt than even the average Washington politician. And then you're going to say that J.D. Vance is the one who's the sheriff on all of this. If Democrats take control of the House, we're going to have some interesting hearings.

34:38Emily Jashinsky:We're going to get a lot of interesting information about the stuff that's gone on the last couple of years. And you'll be able to lay that at the foot of Sheriff J.D. Vance. Like, hey, weren't you the corruptions are? Yeah, what happened with that? Who is also supposed to not balance the budget. Trump said that JD would root out fraud in the service of balancing the budget. So it's like the classic Veep burden.

34:58Ryan Grim:All right, good luck, buddy.

35:00Emily Jashinsky:I mean, you remember what Biden gave Kamala? What, immigration and what else? The border.

35:04Ryan Grim:Yeah.

35:05Emily Jashinsky:Not just immigration, but actually the border. And she was like, do not come. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's like, I got nothing else.

35:13Ryan Grim:What else we got?

35:14Emily Jashinsky:And then what else? Oh, gun safety, which, like, they were not passing anything on that. They were doing nothing on guns. So they're like, Kamala, you do guns. And then when it was very clear that they weren't going to do anything on voting rights, they were like, Kamala, you take voting rights. So it's like you just, whatever you are not going to get done and is going to get worse, you give to the person you don't like. So that's not great for J.D. Vance. It's not a great thing. It's really not. That's a good point. He did not have to do that. Genuinely did not. Trump did not have to do that.

35:43Saagar Enjeti:I think it is important. But, you know, in terms of reading into the tea leaves of everything, speech starts out. Economy's good. It's all the Democrats fault. Then we have our Team USA hockey moment. Then we get. Yeah, which lasted more than 10. Look, love Team USA. But man, 10 minutes is too long. All right. And so then we get into what the more populist economic stuff. We have a couple of throwaway lines. One big, beautiful bill. That was looking at some of the timeline speech, by the way. Right. So, yeah.

36:10Ryan Grim:Well, I'm going to agree with your original assessment that none of this is going to matter.

36:15Saagar Enjeti:Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, look, yeah, if you listen to the speech, we're going to have a few clips and then that's it. And what's kind of interesting is even Trump is not really trying to make this a big deal. We were talking this morning about how big of a deal the State of the Unions were under Obama. And remember, they would have like a big theme and be like, save American jobs. And then the president would go on a bus tour for 50. They're not even pretending now. They're like, yeah, Trump will be in Texas on Friday for a different event. And Iran will be back in the news tomorrow or something like that.

36:44Saagar Enjeti:You know, we're trying to piece, if anything, what we just saw was a political view into the mind of the White House of, okay, ICE is a problem. We need to make immigration much more like 2025, 2024 than it is 2026. One quick note on that.

36:59Ryan Grim:There were a bunch of administration officials who got shout outs. Kristi Dome, Stephen Miller were not among them. Tom Homan. Yeah, right. None of those guys. I didn't even see Kristi Dome.

37:08Saagar Enjeti:So, yeah, I mean, by my count, we had Secretary Besant, Rubio, the vice president. That's it.

37:16Ryan Grim:Well, you got Jared Kushner and Steve Whitcock or, you know, whatever they are.

37:21Saagar Enjeti:He said everybody loves Rubio. Yeah. Got 100%. Right. He said everybody. You got 100%. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Bipartisanship is alive and well and well.

37:28Ryan Grim:But, I mean, you know how much Christy Noem loves the spotlight. So to avoid. True. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. She's probably steaming. One of the most touting cabinet members at this time last year. Yeah. That's right. Right. So I'm just, you know, in terms of the internal politics, who's up, who's down. I think that's kind of noteworthy. But, you know, in terms of like political impact, I don't think it's going to matter at all. The most consequential part is that we did get a little bit on tariffs, but nothing again. That was really different from what they've been.

37:55Saagar Enjeti:Nothing noteworthy. Didn't even attack SCOTUS. That could have been a viral moment. That could have been something we could have all talked about. Right. He didn't even really go. He was like, it was very disappointing. And he looked right at him. He's very disappointing. He just moved on. There was nothing.

38:06Ryan Grim:We did have a fun Zoran moment. Yes, we have that. We have that, guys. Should we go ahead and play? I actually stepped down during this, so I'm watching. This one's about voter ID.

38:16Saagar Enjeti:So the lead in. I haven't seen this for the first time. I'll explain. The lead in was Trump was called, what's it called? Is it the SAVE Act or the SAVE America?

38:22Emily Jashinsky:The SAVE Act.

38:23Saagar Enjeti:Okay, it's the SAVE Act. So it was a lead in for calling of the SAVE Act, which is what is this? Pass the House, currently in the Senate. It would need 60 votes, so it's going nowhere. Unless they do a talking filibuster. Oh, okay, but I doubt that'll happen. So it would be like, it would be what? It would be mandatory voter ID, proof of citizenship to be able to vote. As part of that, what it leads into was this talk about the Zoran snow shoveling thing, which was a big discourse. If you're not online and you don't know what we're talking about, God bless you. It's about, which you even had to explain to me because I'm not online enough, is what was it?

38:57Saagar Enjeti:He announced the snow shoveling program. And as part of that, you get paid, is it$20 an hour? They up to$30. $30, yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's honestly pretty good work. So, snow shoveling,$30 an hour. But to get the job, you have to provide two forms of identification. It was even more ridiculous than that.

39:13Emily Jashinsky:You had to have the two of the, like, one and a half inch by one and a half inch passport photos. Yeah. Which I think is probably a corrupt bargain that some mayor made with, like, a cartel that owns those little photo shops. The little passport photo shop. Passport photo shop. Because what?

39:27Saagar Enjeti:I mean, yeah.

39:28Emily Jashinsky:Yeah, wait.

39:29Saagar Enjeti:You need a passport photo to get paid from the city? Yes.

39:32Emily Jashinsky:That's crazy. That is like some Dinkin level. That has to go back. I love some.

39:37Saagar Enjeti:Yeah, they're keeping CBS. We got to trace the... They don't have CBS in New York. What's it called? Dwayne Reed or whatever? Dwayne Reed. Anyway, so that was the lead-in to this Zoran moment. Let's take a listen.

39:48Krystal Ball:And even the new communist mayor of New York City, I think he's a nice guy, actually. Speak to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy. Just said they want people to shovel snow. They got hit hard. Want some dishevels? No. But if you apply for that job, you need to show two original forms of ID and a Social Security card. Yet they don't want identification for the greatest privilege of them all voting in America. No, it's no good. No good. Both Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly agree on the policy that we just enunciated. and Congress should unite and enact this common sense, country-saving legislation right now, and it should be before anything else happens.

40:43Saagar Enjeti:So there you go. Nice guy. Still talk to him a lot.

40:46Emily Jashinsky:Communist mayor. The communist mayor. But he's a good guy. I love that he ad-libbed that in. That's so sweet. I have to say that about Roman all the time. He's a nice guy.

40:54Saagar Enjeti:I talk to him all the time.

40:56Ryan Grim:He's a good guy.

40:57Saagar Enjeti:I guess, yeah, I mean, it's all accurate.

40:59Ryan Grim:On a more serious note with regard to all the election and the voter stuff, I mean, he did make this point of like, oh, the Democrats can never win if they don't cheat. And, you know, as we're watching, heading into the midterms and all the shenanigans already pulling and the seizing of the voter rolls and a variety of states and a lot of red states going along with whatever they're doing, purging people who belong on the rolls, the seizing the Fulton County voting machines, the ballots from 2020, whatever Tulsi Gabbard's up to, potential Maduro deal. There is a lot to be concerned about with regard to whether the midterm elections are going to be free and fair.

41:35Ryan Grim:What sort of, we know there are going to be shenanigans. He joked about a third term in the speech.

41:40Emily Jashinsky:He joked about a third term in the speech. He did. Yeah, he did. It should have been my third term. Strange things happen. Yeah.

41:45Ryan Grim:So I know that a bunch of Democratic AGs are sort of like war gaming, you know, what the possible scenarios are. And I think we've all we were talking before. He is aware that his political positioning is quite bad at this point. He's aware of the historical trends. He's talked about that, too, of the party in power. He's aware that people aren't buying what he's selling. He's a bit confused by that. But he clearly has some awareness that it's not looking good. And certainly he knows that if Democrats take back even one chamber, then, yeah, you're, you know any agenda that you had potentially going through congress not that much has gotten past your congress anyway grinds to a halt you've got all these investigations it's going to be you

42:25Saagar Enjeti:know a lot less fun i think i think they don't even care about agenda i think all they care about is not having to literally live on capitol hill for investigations yeah which is a huge i

42:34Emily Jashinsky:mean it's going to be a nightmare but if if dems retake the senate and that's not out of the realm of possibility you have a literal impeachment on the table oh it's not just house impeachment Well, no, wait.

42:45Saagar Enjeti:How many votes do you need? You need 67, though. I was going to say, you need two-thirds in the Senate. Yeah, that's true.

42:50Emily Jashinsky:You would get a trial. You would have the trial. You would get the trial in the Senate. The trial of the Senate. By the way, on this, nobody's talked about this, but on this voting bill that he wants to do, the main thing it would do is make it more difficult to register to vote if you're a woman who has changed her name at some point. But the problem is that— Sorry, I actually haven't looked into this. How? Why? Because of passport documents? Birth certificates. It's just, it's, yeah, because you have to get your birth certificate and your passport. If you are one of the people who doesn't have a real ID or a driver's license.

43:19Emily Jashinsky:Wait, who doesn't have real ID? There are a couple of states that don't mandate real ID. Of the people that this would affect, the ones that would affect the most are women who changed their name to get married.

43:32Saagar Enjeti:Okay.

43:33Emily Jashinsky:80 % of Democrats changed their name when they get married. 90 % of Republicans changed their name when they get married. Married women went for Trump. over Harris. Like, he won this group. And the ones that are more likely to have changed their names are more likely to be Republican. Oh, the SAVE Act was drafted before even the 2024 election. Yes, I think this is like 30-year-old legislation that they just took off the shelf and didn't update. Democrats could let it through, and it would hurt Republicans more, is my point.

44:06Saagar Enjeti:Well, I've always talked about that with mail-in ballots. Remember back in 2020, Trump literally would have won the state of Georgia if just the number of people who voted by mail had actually voted because it was a significant number of whatever. It's not even worth getting into.

44:20Ryan Grim:Well, I mean, yeah, we don't have to go down the rabbit hole. Well, it sort of reminds me of the redistricting thing where like, you know, Texas, now that the Latino support for the Republicans has fallen through the floor, they drew their lines based on, you know, something approximating Trump's Latino support in the state of Texas could end up really screwing themselves with the redistricting. Not to mention that Democrats, you know came in hot and were like okay bet you know we're gonna do this in california virginia that's another thing you know spanburgers uh going with the legislature 20 seats and i think

44:50Saagar Enjeti:that what california's map got held up by scotus recently i believe or it was i think their affirmation was helped no no not held up i mean it was affirmed they were like yeah to go through

45:02Emily Jashinsky:any final thoughts what do you guys think i mean it didn't i agree with everyone that i mean this changed everything. It didn't, yeah. This was the transformation. This is, yeah, transformed. You know, after watching

45:13Saagar Enjeti:Biden's brain melt in this very desk, I'm not sure it'll ever, nothing will ever. Nothing's ever gonna come back. That was legendary.

45:20Emily Jashinsky:We're all eating

45:21Saagar Enjeti:like the takeout food

45:23Ryan Grim:and like, whoa. Thank God we had the ceiling camera. Yeah, the ceiling camera. Yeah, there was that,

45:28Saagar Enjeti:the fame of you and me being like covering our faces like this. I was like, oh, I mean, we knew it was bad, but we didn't know it was that bad. Medicaid?

45:37Emily Jashinsky:You knew the cover-up that you'd been engaging in had finally been exposed. That's right.

45:41Ryan Grim:We won't be able to tell people that he is.

45:43Emily Jashinsky:What were some of the things people would say?

45:45Ryan Grim:Like, this is the best Biden's ever been. Isn't that what Scarborough said? Oh, yeah. The best Biden ever. He outworks us all from 10 to 2. From 10 to 2. There's a brief window from 1 p.m. to 1.15 p.m. Where this man is unstoppable.

46:01Emily Jashinsky:My takeaway is honestly that this. Doesn't even stop talking, in fact. The State of the Union is now a fucking clip show. Like, it's a clip show. No, you're totally right. That's where we are now. Absolutely. And, I mean, whatever.

46:12Saagar Enjeti:Yeah, I'm with you.

46:13Emily Jashinsky:That's what everything is now. It's all a clip show.

46:16Saagar Enjeti:We'll go back tomorrow. You know, the news, maybe tomorrow there'll be something. Yeah. We won't go back tomorrow. State of the Union. Yeah. Yeah, after that, by Thursday, I'm predicting it's not even going to be a single mention.

46:27Ryan Grim:I will say, one thing I saw someone made a comment of on Twitter is, you know, one of the special guests there was Erica Kirk, his wife of Charlie Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk. And there is a disgusting irony to having her there at a speech where he's, you know, very likely going to war with Ron at a time when, you know, I mean, Charlie was one of those people who came in the White House and got barked at because he was opposed to the previous war. So to now have her at that speech when, you know, we're all basically expecting that this is coming any day is.

46:59Saagar Enjeti:Really good point, honestly. He would have been, I mean, look, you know, a lot about the guy, but on this topic, he actually was, I mean, look, he at times would go silent when the administration would ask him to, but his actual opinions on the matter, especially on Iran, were pretty rock solid, especially Lindsey Graham going after Ayatollah saying there should be no regime change. I have really noticed it actually. I feel like the anti-war movement has evaporated. There's nothing left.

47:25Ryan Grim:Yeah. And look, I'm not here to like, you know, give Charlie Kirk the greatest credit in the world, but it is noteworthy. I think two things happened i mean number one he was killed and number two there is the sense that like oh the 12-day war was fine like you guys were wrong and i think that's cowed a lot of people into silence so you just don't see the same level of friction on the right that you did in the build-up to the

47:47Emily Jashinsky:12-day war and the democrats we've so some of it has to be disbelief like are we really doing this

47:52Ryan Grim:again yeah i think with the public i do think that there's that sense of that oh i keep saying that.

47:58Saagar Enjeti:People are not paying attention.

47:59Ryan Grim:Even with the speech. People don't realize what this could be.

48:00Saagar Enjeti:Like we just did the war. We're doing another war? Dude, Ryan, they barely paid attention to that one. Think about how much stuff has happened in the interim. No Americans died. That's their favorite talking point. Nobody died in the bombing. Why were you so upset about it? And I was like, because I knew that this shit wouldn't end. I knew that we were going to be back here at the trial. But think about how deeply you have to pay attention. All this negotiation and oh, they're meeting again. What? Okay, whatever. Scarier Strike Group. When's it getting there? People have a lot going on in their lives.

48:28Saagar Enjeti:So until the bombs really start flying, I don't think people, I really, if you took a poll, I don't think 90 % of people. Well, in this case, we have, we must have tens of thousands of people over there by now. Yeah, we do. Like on all the different ships. We have tens of thousands of people there normally, but now we have extra tens of thousands on top of that. This is the problem. I mean, yeah. I mean, there's no case being made. There's no hearing. The opposition party is saying that he needs to make a case. There's no organized effort. What, there's that story out this morning, or this afternoon, that, what They're trying to kill the Ro Khanna Thomas Massey.

48:57Saagar Enjeti:More powers resolution vote because they don't want anybody to go on the record. We're being sleptwalk into the entire thing. It's very, very World War I-esque.

49:06Emily Jashinsky:It could blow up in Venezuela still, too.

49:07Saagar Enjeti:Oh, of course it could. What? I mean, yeah, could we all trust the great stewardship of Marco Rubio down in Venezuela and his ability to broker oil deals? I mean, any of these things can collapse. Look at Mexico. They killed the cartel guy and the city went on fire. It could have been 10 times worse. or American tourists could have been killed. We could have been a full-blown conflagration. You have no idea when something is going to pop off. Any last thoughts, Ryan? That's all I got. All right. Thank you guys so much for watching. 11.47 p.m. Brutal. Brutal, man.

49:39Emily Jashinsky:And you haven't been at this late in a long time.

49:41Saagar Enjeti:Probably election night, honestly. I can't think of the last time I was awake at this ungodly hour.

49:47Emily Jashinsky:I don't think I ever go to bed before this.

49:49Saagar Enjeti:The sun will be up early. You're insane.

49:50Ryan Grim:Really? That's crazy. You are insane.

49:52Saagar Enjeti:That's crazy. That's crazy. That's my bedtime. That's crazy behavior. Anyway, Ryan, as a parent, dude, I don't know how you're pulling the schedule. I don't know.

50:01Emily Jashinsky:He's not.

50:04Saagar Enjeti:Your wife is a saint. And he's a mogul now.

50:07Emily Jashinsky:Yeah, that's true. He's a media mogul. That's right.

50:09Saagar Enjeti:That's true. All right. Thank you guys so much for watching. We appreciate you all very, very much. We'll have some clips up tomorrow, full show on Thursday. We'll see you all then.

50:31Krystal Ball:This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. In 2018, the FBI took down a ring of spies working for China's Ministry of State Security, one of the most mysterious intelligence agencies in the world.

50:46Emily Jashinsky:The Sixth Bureau podcast is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets.

50:54Krystal Ball:Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, it's Jill Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter Podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And today, I'm talking with my dear friend, Krista Williams. It can change you in the best way possible. Dance with the change. Dance with the breakdowns. The embodiment of Pisces intuition with Capricorn power moves. So I'm like delusionally proud of my chart. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

51:36Krystal Ball:On the Adventures of Curiosity Cove podcast, when Peanut Butter disappears from school, Ella, Scout, and Layla launch a full detective mission. Their search leads them back in time to meet a brilliant inventor whose curiosity changed the world. In this Black History Month adventure, asking questions, thinking creatively, can lead to amazing discoveries. Listen to Adventures of Curiosity Cove every Monday from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.