Why the House Packed Up After a 3-Day Workweek; Canada Cozies Up to Europe

0:00And in that way, it does feel a little more subtle, certainly, than having Trump in the Saddam Hussein position of being Satan's literal bedmate that they did in the previous season. Hi, everybody, and welcome to Here's the Scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Basugin. So, in fact, yes, today on the show, we're talking about the new season of South Park, which is back. But there is a new name to the show, and the creators got a lot more money in their pockets. The question is, how are they going to cover the president this time around in season 29? That conversation is coming up. Also, we're talking about this new relationship that could be forged between Canada and the European Union.

0:44The Canadian prime minister stood in front of the EU today, the parliament, and made a speech trying to forge new ties as the U.S. becomes more isolationist. What could this potential long distance relationship look like and mean for the United States?

1:08Up first, though. So earlier this week on the show, we actually talked about how this is going to be a really short session for Congress, right? But we could not have predicted just how short this thing was actually going to be. So Speaker Mike Johnson sent Congress home early yesterday and canceled votes scheduled to take place today. And they will not be back at work in Washington again until after the midterm elections. On Wednesday, Kentucky Republican Representative Tom Massey, who lost his primary bid earlier this year, ripped into this decision. We are the majority. We may only be the majority for six more weeks.

1:45Why would we be canceling days when the country is burning, the inflation is rampant? There are things we could do here. Why would we cancel our own majority? OK, so why, you ask? That is a great question. Democrats are saying it was because of a resolution that Massey introduced to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. That resolution would have been voted on today. But Speaker Mike Johnson says that was not why he called the early recess. So there's a lot of confusion here, to say the least, just ahead of the critical midterm elections. So for this, I want to bring in NBC News correspondent, Julie Serkin.

2:25Hi, Julie. Hi, Yasmin. Okay. So we heard Massey there kind of laying into Republican leadership. Surprisingly, he said, literally, as we heard, right, things are on fire, right? Inflation is where it is. We saw what happened with interest rates yesterday as well. So I do want to talk about the early recess decision, but I want to talk first for a moment about his attempt to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. What is Massey's argument here and how did this come to be? Well, Massey has been a very vocal opponent of the Iran war and who at the tip of the spear but Pete Hexeth, the defense secretary who is in charge with conducting and escalating the war.

3:09Many people that I've spoken to, Yasmin, have grown quite frustrated with who Hexeth has become. It's no secret that some Senate Republicans have felt this way dating back to his confirmation battle. So when you're Speaker Johnson and you're looking at the fact that this is a resolution that is privileged, meaning you have to put it on the floor and vote on it, you might have Republicans who actually vote to impeach him. I mean, that is not a unreal possibility. And so it is very hard to see Johnson's decision to send members home early as anything more than an attempt not to have that kind of fight on the House floor weeks before a midterm election.

3:49I just want to push you on this a little bit because couldn't that potentially bode well for Republicans? Right. Couldn't you see voters say, right, they're taking accountability for what is happening. They're willing to make changes here. Right. That Hegseth could be the fall guy amidst kind of the dissatisfaction with the current economy, the dissatisfaction with the ongoing Iran war. But that would mean that the administration then has to take ownership of that. Hexeth is a part of the administration, and I haven't heard President Trump saying anything critical about him. Speaker Johnson's decision to send members home, he called this a stunt.

4:23He said it's not real. He said Hexeth has been doing a wonderful job. They clearly don't want that public message out there that anybody around President Trump is responsible for the high prices at the pump. Why not leave that conversation for after the midterms? I actually think Massey is inspired by the successful strategy he had last time around with the Epstein files. Remember, Johnson sent members home early and then it hung out there over several weeks. Massey says when members go back home, they're going to be asked about this all up until the election. So Johnson says that the House did its job this week and that is why they're going to go home early.

4:59Right. They did everything. One and done. They did, in fact, pass a Russia-Eran sanctions bill named after late, by the way, Senator Lindsey Graham, which now goes to the president's desk. But the big talking point this week, of course, has been around regulating artificial intelligence. And Ryan and I spoke earlier this week, and, you know, the prospects of actually getting anything through were fairly low. But especially as you cut it this short, really no chance. Did they get anywhere on AI regulation in the few days they were in? I mean, they passed a bill in the House overwhelmingly, 417 to 3.

5:39It's a big deal. It's called the Ratepayer Protection Act. It would essentially try and shield Americans who have already seen their energy costs go up every single month, especially in areas where there are a lot of data centers. It would shield them from having to brunt the cost of all of the electricity and energy that these data centers use up. The issue is John Husted, who's the Republican behind that bill on the Senate side. Well, he's in a very contentious battle right now for the Ohio Senate. He wants to keep his Senate seat, but Sherrod Brown, who held the seat and lost it to a Republican, he wants the seat back.

6:12The central point of their race, Yasmin, is data centers, is the issue of artificial intelligence. So if you're a Democrat, why would you allow a fix to that issue to happen right now if you know it is the very thing that could potentially win you back the Senate in November? But whether they actually will have a Democrat to object to the passage of this bill, that's a whole different question. OK, so unlike the House, the Senate's actually still in session for three more weeks or so. And then amidst all of this, right, we had missing Senator Mitch McConnell, who is now back. And he was seen in a wheelchair.

6:49He had been absent for three months. We saw videos of him. We did not hear him, though. He did, in fact, though, flash the peace sign. What is the word on his condition? Yeah, smiled and waved at me, too, actually, yesterday in the hallways. the word on his condition, and I spoke to somebody quite close to him, Yasmin, is, look, this is somebody who is 84 years old. He has gotten progressively more sick since 2023 when he first had a fall. He also has problems hearing. And I think that's something maybe people don't fully understand. You know, I spoke to somebody who said he's doing better than we all thought.

7:27It was a really scary moment this summer, the fall that he had and the hospital stay that he But in these last few months that he has left to complete his 40-plus decades in the Senate, he's really focused on being here for votes, especially pertaining to funding the Pentagon, the Defense Department. We know how he feels about Pete Hexeth. And so I think you're caught in a dynamic that you see a lot of senators and members deal with. I mean, this is a place that gets older, not younger. So I think this conversation extends far beyond McConnell. But he's doing better than people thought he would.

7:58All right. So if we circle back to Massey here and this potential Hegseth impeachment, we're looking down the barrel of the midterm elections in which Democrats could potentially win control of the House and potentially the Senate, too. Right. So if the next time we see the House in session is after the midterm elections in which you have, let's just say, a lame duck period in which Democrats would then take control come January, what could that scenario look like? Especially if you have more Republicans who have nothing to lose like Thomas Massey. And especially if they feel like they lost their election because of the Iran war.

8:43I mean, you could see many Republicans, many more Republicans even feel like they can freely vote to impeach Pete Hexeth. And I'm so curious to see what happens on the Senate side where you are having many more conversations that I've heard of among Republicans who are seriously concerned about Pete Hexeth, about this war and about their future as a Republican Party, particularly when it's going to potentially be the final two years of this administration, of this president in power, and he has Democrats holding the majority, holding the keys in Congress. Julie Serkin, thank you. Thank you. All right, coming up.

9:23Canada is cozying up to Europe. How American isolationism got us here. That's after a very quick break. And also, so while you're listening to the ads, do not be isolationist. Share this episode with a friend. We would love to find new listeners. All right. I'll see you on the other side.

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10:49And we are back with Here's the Scoop from NBC News. So relations with our neighbors to the north, Canada that is, have been pretty chilly recently, to say the least. And now Canada is trying to rekindle its long-distance relationship with the European Union. In a speech in front of the European Parliament this morning, Carney made his case. We do not seek power to dominate others. On the contrary, we are pursuing resilience so no one, no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten our territorial integrity, or undermine our freedoms, our democracies, our rule of law. So this seems like Canada is trying to forge its own path after continued tensions with President Trump.

11:43For more on this, I want to bring in Matt Bodnar. He's an international reporter with NBC News. Hi, Matt. Yasmin, how's it going? Good. It's good to have you. Okay. So Carney did not mention President Trump specifically by name, right? But he definitely got subtweeted. Tell us about Carney's speech today and what, in fact, he was proposing when it comes to the EU. So, you know, this is definitely a very, very interesting move from Mr. Carney, who obviously we've seen over many months now is sort of, I would say, become the Western leader who's who's sort of putting up the biggest resistance to some of the things we've seen from the White House, from President Trump.

12:24And basically, so what we saw today, he's in Strasbourg, he's at the European Parliament for this, you know, giving a speech to the European legislature, essentially, of the European Union, saying it's time for us, I'm paraphrasing him now, but essentially forge a new path. He described the sort of situation in the world as a geopolitical rupture that requires new dynamics, I believe were his exact words. But we've heard similar stuff from him before. And so he's sort of taking up the mantle. Now, we did yesterday hear from the president of the EU, Ursula von der Leyen, signaling that the EU was welcome, was open to this idea of a new type of relationship with Canada, a so-called associate membership.

13:08So, okay, let's talk about that because the president of the European Commission, right, as you mentioned, talks about this idea, right, of this associate membership. And again, this is a first time thing. Nobody knows what this would potentially look like. But could you paint a picture for me? Like, how would it actually work if put into practice? Yeah. So I imagine it would probably build on the existing sort of free trade agreement between the EU and Canada, where something like 99 percent of their trade is already sort of tariff free. I think the thing that's really stuck out from these discussions is Carney saying, at least in his vision, it would look like for at least young people, visa-free studying, travel, work opportunities and really a way for the people of Canada and the people of the EU to more freely associate.

14:02But a lot of it also would be deeper integration on energy projects, sort of mutual investments on that. Canada, of course, is a big natural gas exporter. So, you know, one of the concrete things we've heard from Carney this week, today, is Canada stepping up and becoming more of a supplier for Europe, at least natural gas, getting access to European investments and clean extraction technologies for projects in Canada. And on the economic front, it looks like a deepening of sort of existing broad trade agreements and just sort of taking the next step and being more explicit about being on the same page, plus this idea of free movement.

14:42And but by the way, this would need full buy in from all 27 members, which is not necessarily easy. They're not all on the same page all the time. I mean, that's where this starts to get really interesting. And, you know, if this all moves forward, like it's nice that von der Leyen and Carney are saying that's great. Carney's acknowledged this needs a big discussion in Canada. You know, von der Leyen doesn't get to decide this. There's no framework in the EU now for what an associate membership looks like. There's disagreement among members on basically everything. So you have 27 countries that all have, you know, even after all these years, various different economic circumstances that leads to a lot of tension within the EU, different defense pictures, different ideas about security, a lot of different views on freedom of movement that needs to be cleared.

15:30Before this were to go through. Yeah, before we can even really understand what this would look like. No, it's not the first time that Carney has tried to kind of reach out to these, quote unquote, middle powers, right? So I'm wondering amidst this tension between the U.S. and Canada, and by the way, this tension between the U.S. and name your country at this point when it comes to trade, right? How could this potentially affect the United States in the long run? Could this affect, for instance, trade policies between the U.S. and other countries if Carney is able to strike this agreement with the EU?

16:00If, in fact, these countries that have been going toe-to-toe with the Trump administration over trade see that Carney is successful, right, in shifting kind of alliances from the United States to the European Union? I think it would certainly complicate efforts by the White House to sort of isolate these countries, to bully them one on one, to try to dictate unilaterally terms with each country. This is already something that I think the White House has expressed displeasure with just the EU itself, which sort of acts as a unified trade negotiator in a lot of cases. I just think longer term, it's almost it comes back to a bigger point of what is the United States relationship with the Western countries going to be after Donald Trump?

16:43And this is a conversation that is quite interesting, I think, to follow in Europe, in the UK, in Canada. Everyone's obviously quite alarmed and annoyed to various extents about the way that they've been treated by this administration, the trade threats, various times territorial threats, and just the general rudeness, I would say. It comes down to what the United States does in the next administration. How big of a window does the United States have to re-engage with its traditional allies in a way that is comfortable and familiar to them? And in a way that reassures these countries that, you know, if the United States comes back and says, let's, hey, sorry, let's forget about all that.

17:23Let's try to go back to our historic relationship. How do you guarantee to us that won't happen again? Matt Bodner, thank you. Yasmin, thank you. Pleasure. All right. We're going to take a very quick break. And when we are back, South Park is back for its 29th season. Or is it? That is after a very quick break.

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19:08I'm going down South America to have myself a time. Friendly faces everywhere. Yeah, so that theme music, it is South Park, right? Or should I say, by the way, though, South America. They are jumping on the renaming bandwagon for the 29th season opener, continuing their satirical commentary on Trump 2.0. So South Park has always done political satire to some degree. But last year, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, they shocked everyone by pulling this one-two punch, signing this mega deal, five years, 10 episodes per season with Paramount Plus for a whopping price of$1.5 billion. And then they immediately launched a season that was lewd, it was crude, and it was aimed directly at the White House.

19:57and it looks like now they are not slowing down. Jesse Hassinger from The Guardian has been reporting on the show and is joining me now. Hi, Jesse. Hi, thank you for having me. It's great to have you. So you have written that you are actually more of a Simpsons guy than a South Park fan because the show walks a fine line between, and you wrote this, by the way, omnidirectional satire and libertarian crankiness. First of all, what does that mean? Well, I think there is that fine line when you're trying to, it's kind of the line a lot of comedy writers use, that we make fun of everyone, we make fun of all sides, which obviously is admirable if you can pull it off.

20:41The difficulty that I think they sometimes run into is coming from a place of everyone's dumb and believing in things is dumb and every side of every issue is dumb. And there were, I think, certainly times in the South Park's past where I just kind of felt weary of it and kind of was like, OK, we're all dumb. Like, sorry, I guess, you know. You're like, let's move on. We get it. Like, what else you got? So now, though, you're a believer, right? What has shifted? Yeah, I mean, I have not. There's definitely plenty of episodes I haven't seen. But I have noticed in the more recent ones that it just feels a little more, compared to other things on TV, a little more willing to just kind of say what they want to say.

21:21And this most recent previous season of South Park, 28 season, was just treating him the way that the movie of South Park treated Saddam Hussein, with utter contempt. Which I found so refreshing, because I think a lot of people feel like they need to, well, he's the president, so even if you're satirizing him, it needs to be in this sort of, well, There's lots of sides to this and everyone believes a different thing or whatever. And just to have the kind of sheer kind of nastiness of the South Park episodes, I just found so freeing and found myself laughing out loud at it for the first time in a long time.

21:52So, yeah, I'm not going to say no spoilers because you've actually already done like a play by play of this new season's first episode out. Right. But this season, they're starting off with like the renaming. Yes. Right. South America versus South Park. an ode to the president wanting to rename all these different things like Ontario and now Lake America. Do you feel like this is, though, a departure from last season, kind of the meanness, as you described, the raunchiness? Yeah, in some ways it is. And I wonder where the season will go with it. But it's so interesting to me that the kind of one thing we knew about the season going in, there was an announcement that seemed like a joke about South Park being renamed to South America in the tradition of Lake Ontario and Gulf of Mexico and stuff like that.

22:37And it is there in the episode, but the episode actually isn't about that, which is sort of you would expect it either to be a one off joke in the press or on the show or an actual story about Trump renaming it. But it actually just the episode opens with it as already happened off screen before the season has begun and then gradually sort of brings in the joke about I think the idea is to compare the U.S. to a less stable country like some South American countries might have gone through some instability in different periods. And in that way, it does feel a little more subtle, certainly, than having Donald Trump in the Saddam Hussein position of being Satan's literal bedmate that they did in the previous season.

23:18So I do kind of appreciate they were able to find a new way into it. I don't know if this becomes a long-running plotline or if Trump comes back into the show because he was really a full-blown supporting character or co-starring character last season. And this episode, he wasn't in it at all. What's crazy to me is last season, right after they inked this huge, you know, billion dollar plus deal with Paramount Plus of all places, they come out with this, you know, this season in which they're pointing squarely at the White House. How are they able to get away with this? I was wondering that myself.

23:53And I think some of it is just the sheer popularity of the show. They just make too much money. too much money for anyone to say, hey, don't do that. I mean, in some ways, you can, you know, the kind of more cynical thing is to say that it gives an organization like Paramount cover to say, no, see, we don't do this. We don't tell people what they can do. We let South Park do whatever they want, while at the same time telling 60 Minutes, you know, here's what you're doing. And I think some of that is probably the South Park guys wanting to, whether consciously or not, say, assure their audience, like, hey, we just inked this huge rich person deal with Paramount, But like, we're not, we're going to still do whatever we want.

24:30And this is sort of proof of that. Any predictors for this season? Although it is hard to predict. Yeah, I mean, it's, and then when something that does kind of bring me back to the show after, you know, sort of being dipped in, dipping in and out over the years is that it is genuinely pretty unpredictable. They'll sometimes come out with an episode, you'll be like, oh, that's, that was kind of bad. Or one where you're going, oh, wow, I didn't, that's not the angle I thought they would take on this. You know, my guess is that the South America thing will be an ongoing storyline over these over these six episodes and will probably develop in some way as kind of an overall thread, even as they do different storylines.

25:01But I really liked this episode also that they was able to focus on the kids in South Park doing a very kid-like thing of coveting these e-bikes and wanting to just ride around and have fun in a way that was still able to do something satirical with that. I wonder if they were afraid of overwhelming these kind of long-running characters with a lot of actual appearances by political figures. And you do, you know, enjoy the dynamic of seeing this stuff commented on through foul-mouthed kids. Jesse Hassinger, thank you. Thanks so much. That is going to do it for us at Here's the Scoop from NBC News.

25:38I'm Yasmin Vasugan. We'll be back tomorrow with whatever the day may bring. And if you like what you heard, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And you can also subscribe to our daily newsletter, The Inside Scoop. It is a deeper dive on the main stories of the day that comes out every weeknight straight You can sign up for The Inside Scoop as part of our paid subscription at NBCNews.com. We'll see you tomorrow.

26:24high standards to meet. Stop now? Not a chance. At Capella University, we help you catch what you're chasing because you've always had the drive. Now go earn the degree. Capella University, what can't you do? Visit capella.edu to learn more.