Trump fumbles the ball heading into 2026

0:00Trump fumbles the ball on his only job heading into the midterm year. and I have three interviews, Jamie Raskin, Mark Warner, and Pod Save America's Tommy Vitor. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. Trump has arguably the easiest job he's ever had right now if he wants to keep his majority heading into midterms. It is to do exactly what he did heading into 2024 and keep his focus on affordability. That's it. He and his party ran an entire ass campaign predicated on that exact issue. And in the Democratic races where they've run on affordability, they won. So the winning formula is right there, right in front of everybody's faces.

0:36But here's where the problem comes in. If Trump or Republicans run on making America more affordable, that would come with it a tacit admission that they've failed at achieving affordability. And, you know, Trump would rather cut off a limb than admit failure. And so instead, the alternative for Trump is that he has to pretend that he's already succeeded and that America is the most affordable it's ever been. And because the rest of the GOP, of course, exists to offer nothing but slavish devotion to the God King, they too have to pretend that they've all succeeded and the economy is great. Nothing could be better.

1:08And so now it would be bad enough if you had a GOP that was pretending that they were presiding over a gangbusters economy when in fact they're presiding over the most expensive economy in modern American history. That would be bad enough. But what's worse is that they ran expressly on lowering costs. So if anyone should understand the potency of this specific issue, it's the Republicans. They spent four years railing against Biden and the Democrats for doing the thing that they are doing right now. So not only are they inept, they're also hypocrites. And as for Trump, despite watching Democrats rout the Republicans on Election Day just a few weeks ago, and despite his momentary pivot to affordability and a few random posts on Truth Social, now this is what's coming out of the White House.

1:52It's a conjunt. I think affordability is the greatest conjunt. they look at you and they say, affordability. They don't say anything else. Everyone says, oh. But the word affordability is a Democrat scam. And it's a Democrat hoax, a Democrat scam. Again, because he's too proud to ever admit fault, he's thrust himself into a position where he's forced to defend basically the indefensible, which is the high price of everything. And just to show you what a brutal side of the fence this is to be on, according to the most recent Politico poll, a staggering 46 % of Americans, nearly half, say that the cost of living in the U.S.

2:31is the worst they can ever remember it being. And that's a view held by 37 % of Trump 2024 voters. Americans also say that the affordability crisis is Trump's responsibility, with 46 % saying that it is his economy now and his administration is responsible for the cost that they struggle with. So not only is it the worst economy for almost one in two Americans, but Trump also has the distinct honor of shouldering the blame for it. And while most Republicans dare not acknowledge that objective reality, plenty of them are going to talk off the record and complain about it to reporters. According to NBC News, nearly two dozen Republican senators, House members, strategists, and congressional aides share their concerns about their party's handling of affordability in interviews with NBC News.

3:13Even some of the most MAGA Republicans are calling for a pivot. Senator Josh Hawley said it's not enough to fix the message. He said Republicans can only improve their standing by delivering real results, lower costs, and grow wages. Quote, people aren't dumb. They know when they go to the grocery store what it costs and what it doesn't. They know what their rent costs. They know what their prescription drugs cost. All that stuff is too high and they can't afford it. And they know that. So we've got to deliver. But as for Republican leadership, if you're wondering whether they're heeding these warnings, this is what Mike Johnson said.

3:42Again, according to NBC News, quote, we are exactly on the trajectory of where we've always planned to be. Steady at the wheel, everybody. It's going to be fine. Mike Johnson said our best days are ahead of us. Americans are going to feel a lot better in the early part of next year. So that's the message. Relax. I can't imagine that doesn't work out swimmingly. And then, of course, you know, there's one final element of all of this that really just adds fuel to the fire. And that is the fact that while prices are up, while Republicans refuse to acknowledge as much that the sole focus for the president of the United States continues to be turning the White House into the love child of the Kremlin and Liberace.

4:18Trump's sole focus is building a$350 million ballroom, renovating the Lincoln bathroom in marble, paving over the Rose Garden, encrusting the Oval Office in gold, retrofitting a Qatari jet to the tune of a billion dollars paid for by us, unbuying Kristi Noem a couple of Gulfstream jets to the tune of$172 million, hosting crypto dinners where he casually doubles his net worth. This guy is so far from a populist, I doubt he's interacted with any human being not worth a million dollars in the last six months. And let's be clear, the GOP is saddled with all of that because part of being a Republican today is showing blind devotion to the God King at every turn.

4:55So the ballroom, the jets, the gold for the elite class who thinks that the very real affordability issues are a scam, that is the perfect portrait of today's Republican Party, the entire Republican Party. And that's their message headed toward November, 2026. Next up are my interviews with Jamie Raskin, Mark Warner, and Tommy Vitor. No Lie is brought to you by Armour Colostrum. Why are elite athletes, business moguls, and high performers all using Armour Colostrum? Armour Colostrum is nature's first whole food with over 400 bioactive nutrients working at the cellular level to build lean muscle, accelerate recovery, and fuel performance, all without artificial stimulants or synthetic junk.

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6:07Colostrum Bioactive also has been shown to reactivate hair follicle stem cells and activate collagen production, promoting hair growth and enhancing skin radiance. We've worked out a special offer for my audience. Receive 30 % off your first subscription order. Go to armor.com slash BTC or enter BTC to get 30 % off your first subscription order. That's A-R-M-R-A.com slash BTC. I'm joined now by Congressman Jamie Raskin. Congressman, thanks for your time. I'm delighted to be with you, Brian. So it looks like Kash Patel's luck might have run out a little bit. Can you explain the new investigation that you and your committee have just launched into him?

6:44Well, you know, it's the oldest story in the book. He's just looting public funds for private use. So he's been using a government jet for personal flights and lavish vacations. He's been taking his girlfriend on overnight dates on a$60 million government jet that's supposed to be used for government purposes. He's done a Scottish golfing excursion with his buddies, again, on a government jet. He's taken a trip to a luxury hunting retreat called, unbelievably, Boondoggle Ranch, which I think is the name of the whole scandal. I mean, basically, the guy who was the least qualified FBI director in history and has utterly politicized the department and turned it into a weapon against Trump's political enemies is just abusing all of the privileges of the office for personal use.

7:48Now, in terms of the investigation itself, obviously Democrats are in the minority. And so to what extent can you investigate this without buy-in from Republicans? And I guess as a corollary to that, are there any Republicans who are joining in on this effort to investigate Kash Patel? Well, we just got back after the little Thanksgiving recess, Brian. And so I've not had an opportunity yet to talk to the Republicans. But when we hit the floor this evening, I will definitely be approaching colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, people from the Oversight Committee to see whether they would join us because it's just a scandalous situation.

8:31And I think we need to raise the stakes for this kind of misconduct. Trump obviously sets a dreadful example for his administration by treating public property like private property and just bulldozing the White House and then deciding to, you know, build out his his big ballroom and taking a$400 million jet airplane from the Qataris and so on. So they get the rest of the administration gets the message. It's just like Mardi Gras, let's say like bon ton roulet, whatever you can get away with it. And even though the Supreme Court, which is under Trump's spell, has given him certain kinds of immunities, those immunities don't extend to everybody else in the government.

9:17And we have to try to uphold the rule of law at every turn. Best case scenario, what do you hope that this investigation will lead to? Well, we want him to release all of the relevant information and all of the relevant documents. We want him to stop ripping off the taxpayers, but he's already shown himself basically to be unrepentant. And so, you know, Trump may end up getting rid of him, but that's not sufficient for us if other members of the administration continue to abuse their public offices for private gain. And again, that goes all the way up to the top. I mean, it starts with Donald Trump, but it certainly filtered down to a lot of the other members of his cabinet just as well, including Secretary Noem at Homeland Security and a bunch of the other ones are engaged in the same kind of misconduct and exploitation of office.

10:19I'm not sure if you've had the opportunity to read this, but there's a new report out from active duty and retired FBI agents. And it kind of shows that what you're investigating Kash Patel for is a small part of a larger whole. There was an instance where Kash Patel, it was the day after Charlie Kirk had been shot and killed, went out to Provo to begin the investigation and wouldn't leave the plane until he got an FBI jacket. And then even still, once he got an FBI jacket from a female member of the FBI, wouldn't leave the plane until he was able to borrow some patches from other FBI agents that wouldn't leave him patchless where there were where there were spaces on his jacket to to put those patches on.

11:01And so it really goes to show that that that what he's using the office for is not to lead first as a law enforcement agent, but rather to to get himself Instagrammable moments and to make sure that he's the center of attention. I don't know whether he wants to use this to to launch himself into some, you know, big, glossy social media career in the aftermath of this. But in any case, what was your reaction to hearing a little bit about that report that came from active duty and retired FBI agents? It's all spectacle, performance, entertainment for them. Meantime, he's been doing everything in his power to cover up Jeffrey Epstein's crimes and the crimes that took place as part of that massive international billion dollar global sex trafficking ring and child abuse ring.

11:49So he said he wanted all the documents released when they were running and they got in and he's doing everything he can to sweep all of it under the rug and to call it a Democrat hoax. Along with Donald Trump. Meantime, they're taking the taxpayers for a ride in every way, you know, using the jet planes for their romantic dates, for their buddy golf weekends, for all of their boondoggle ranch outings.

12:19and they're not serving the American people. It's just a complete performance. The good news, Brian, is that Trump is sinking like a stone in the polls. And so he'll probably end up purging a bunch of these people who are basically just imitating him because their crimes are so glaring and so obvious. In the meantime, he's in league with every corrupt mob state leader around the world and is in the process of pardoning Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, who's a convicted cocaine trafficker who was bringing cocaine into America. 400 tons of cocaine, 800 ,000 pounds of cocaine he was bringing in.

13:12And Trump is going to pardon him because he's another right wing dictator who has all the right friends in the Trump circles while they're just blowing up boats, you know, in Latin America at the high seas saying these people are not narco traffickers. without bringing any charges, without any due process at all, without any declaration of war. So it doesn't make sense either as a legitimate act of war or as a legitimate act of police enforcement. So it's just an utterly lawless careening sequence of events that we're witnessing. On that point, really quick, there was concern over the weekend that Pete Hegseth was the one who ordered that second strike.

13:59And of course, the second strike would be the one that would be constituted as a war crime because, you know, within the manual that our own military adheres to, it gives the example of if someone is shipwrecked for some reason, that's a legitimate justification to not attack them or to not kill them. And that's exactly what happened. It seemed this afternoon that that blame had been diffused off of Pete Hegseth and onto somebody below him. And so what was your reaction to seeing what very much looks like an effort to protect Pete Hegseth? Right. Well, even if the original attacks on the so-called drug boats were legitimate acts of war, which I think clearly they were not, but even assuming they were, the so-called second tap, attacking the people who now were hanging on for dear life to the wreckage of the boat,

14:57was a war crime. It is a war crime to attack people who are survivors, who are defenseless, and have no military recourse. It's just like killing prisoners of war. It's killing people who no longer are a threat. So even if you assume, I think, against all the evidence, that the original tap was a lawful effort just to destroy a drug boat that we were at war with, even though Congress hasn't declared any war and there are no military hostilities. The attack on the desperate survivors who are trying to hang on to the flotsam and jetsam and wreckage of the boat is clearly a war crime. It's either a war crime if you're using a military paradigm, or it's murder, if you're thinking of it as law enforcement.

15:53Because these people, again, were constituting no threat to anyone. Do you think that this administration had covered up for Hegseth so that they could preserve him while still throwing somebody below him under the bus? Well, we're waiting to see. We're trying to find that out. I mean, scandalously, the administration has been defending these, you know, non-international law hostilities, hostilities. I mean, they're coming up with the most tortured neologistic syntaxes. It's just murder at the high seas. That's basically what it is. Yeah. I mean, it's it's not an act of war. Congress hasn't declared war.

16:41We're not in active military hostilities. They say, we think that's a drug boat. We don't know who's on it, but we think everybody who's on it is guilty. And we're just going to blow up the drug boat. And then when two people survived the wreckage, kill all of them. Is punitively, allegedly one of the orders that came down. So we've got to get to the bottom of this, because, of course, the logic of these attacks is unlimited. In other words, if this is allowed at the high seas, why is it not just allowed on the highways of America? Right. Right. And if they can go without a declaration of war from Congress, without any military provocation and without any proof that these are drug dealers, Why can't they just blow up trucks that are driving down a highway?

17:36And so you can see how there's an infinitely elastic logic to what they're doing. And when it merges with the deployment of military against Los Angeles and Portland and Chicago and D.C., it's a very dangerous situation. Yeah, I completely agree. And we'll finish off with this. You had mentioned before the extent to which Kash Patel and, of course, by association, Donald Trump are involved in this cover-up of the Epstein files. You have pushed forward a measure, introduced a measure that's intended to put a bunch of Republicans on record here as it relates to the prospective pardon of Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

18:17Can you speak a little bit about that? Yeah. Well, look, Donald Trump pardoned 1600 convicted January 6th, which included hundreds of people who violently assaulted police officers. He did it on the first day of his administration. So the new Congress had no opportunity to say anything. They are clearly involved in very elaborate relationship and seduction of Ghislaine Maxwell. Well, all she has to do is utter the right words and then she gets transferred out of a higher security, tougher prison to a prison camp in Texas with a very gentle environment. And even there she gets treated to some extraordinary perks and differential treatment.

19:06She gets room service in her cell. She gets to work out and have exercise privileges when she wants to. She can have visitors come in who get to use computers, unlike all the other visitors. And she appears to be involved in a commutation application. So she's setting up her pardon commutation clemency action from the Trump administration. We know about it. We in Congress have got to act now. And so that is the purpose of this resolution, putting Congress on record as opposing any clemency for the convicted child sex trafficker and offender Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced in Judge Ali Nathan's courtroom to 20 years in prison for recruiting and grooming and prostituting children across state lines, participating in the trafficking and the abuse of the children.

20:08If anybody is unqualified for a pardon, it's got to be Ghislaine Maxwell, who refused to testify at her trial, refused to own up to her crimes, has been completely unrepentant, has been completely unremorseful, continues to lie about the girls and the women who were abused, continues to denigrate the victims and disparage the victims. her crimes and Jeffrey Epstein's crimes. And she continues to deny that Epstein engaged in any sexual offenses against children. Why should she be pardoned? So that strikes me as an elementary moral and legal proposition. And we should all put our names to it. And if you voted to release all the Epstein files, certainly you should be voting also to say there should be no pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell.

21:06In terms of getting this resolution on the floor, which is obviously important, getting these members of Congress on record in terms of where they stand on this issue, do you have to rely on Mike Johnson to bring it to the floor? Is there some other avenue that can force this resolution to be voted on? Well, remember, this is what we did with the discharge petition. I would hope that we would immediately get all the Democrats on it. And we would get at least all of the Republicans who co-sponsored the discharge petition, but really all of them who want to take a stand against this because the rumors are that Donald Trump could decide to issue a Christmas pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell.

21:47This would be some act of charity that would obviously cement her determination to testify that she saw no wrong from Jeffrey Epstein and no wrong from Donald Trump and anybody else that the Trump administration is trying to protect. Remember, Trump had dispatched the number two at the Department of Justice, the Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, to go and meet with her the day after she was subpoenaed to come testify before Congress and the Oversight Committee. And he went there not to get names from her about who the abusers and perpetrators were, not to figure out the full scope and dimension of this massive child sex trafficking conspiracy, but rather to make sure that she would not say anything untoward about Donald Trump.

22:36It's pretty amazing that Republicans have been claiming to be battling this war on Christmas for the last 20 years. And finally, they win. They've got full control of government, House, Senate, White House. It's it's their moment to really bathe in the sacrosanctity of the holiday season and what might Trump be considering doing releasing a pedophile's accomplice from prison. Really, really puts everything on full display there. With that said, Congressman, appreciate appreciate all the work that you're doing here and for your time today. Great being with you, Brian. Hang tight. No Lie is brought to you by Uplift Desk.

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24:14Your workday does not have to leave you feeling worn out. Go to upliftdesk.com slash BTC and use our code BTC to get four free accessories, free same day shipping, free returns and an industry leading 15 year warranty that covers your entire desk, plus an extra discount off your entire order. That's U-P-L-I-F-T-D-E-S-K dot com slash BTC for this exclusive offer. It's only available through our link. I'm joined by U.S. Senator from Virginia, Mark Warner. Thanks so much for joining me. Ryan, thanks for having me. So first and foremost, we're watching this Pete Hegseth situation unfold. Does it look from your vantage like Pete Hegseth is busy right now throwing Mitch Bradley under the bus to try and protect himself by basically wrapping his blame for the whole September 2nd strike in praise by saying, you know, this strike was his decision, but we stand behind him in having made that decision?

25:09You're absolutely right. And Mitch Bradley is a decorated admiral, has been in charge of Special Forces Command for some time. And remember, this is the same Pete Hegseth who, around the time of the strike, bragged that he watched the whole thing and that he was the guy in charge. I mean, this is the macho guy who brought all our military leadership to Quantico and lectured him on being a warrior class. And it sure does seem to me that this is a guy that's also trying to run for the hills and frankly trash Admiral Bradley or potentially have him be the fall guy. I'm going to see Admiral Bradley tomorrow, so I'm going to hopefully get the straight scoop.

25:50But this is not a one-off with Pete Exeth, as you know. You had mentioned that you're going to see Mitch Bradley tomorrow. So what will that conversation include? Will it be public? Is any of it going to be on the record? What can we expect as a result of that? He's originally going to meet with the Senate Armed Services Committee and House Armed Services Committee. Then I'm going to meet with him. I'm not sure as one of the so-called Gang of Eight. I'm chair now, vice chair of the Intel Committee. I'm not sure if the chair, Tom Cotton, is going to be there. He may have to have left town. And I'm going to ask him to just tell the truth.

26:23The fact is there wouldn't even be a controversy if the administration had released the unedited video. Hex had bragged about the whole video, then released the damn thing. The fact that they've not means they've got something to hide. I'm going to ask, you know, if did Admiral Bradley go ahead and make the order? What were the circumstances? How do you explain this? Does he feel as somebody that's been a career military professional, whether this order was legal? and I hope we can get to the bottom of this. But this is not gonna be a good 24 hours for Pete Hegseth because we've got this meeting with Admiral Bradley at the same time that the Signalgate investigation report has come out, which I've had briefed to me and will be released to the public tomorrow with a small bit of redaction.

27:14Sticking with the Admiral Bradley situation for a moment, given the fact that we know that Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker, has promised a full rigorous investigation into what happened. Is there a world where there can be both a deposition of Admiral Bradley, as well as a subpoena to actually get those tapes that Trump himself even today said, oh yeah, if I've got them, then we'll release them, which of course, you know, sounds an awful lot like what they said about the Epstein files 11 months ago, and here we are. Right. I'm not sure whether we'll see if Wicker would actually go to that full of an investigation.

27:52I'm glad the fact that he's promised it. Between promises and actions, I found a lot of my Republican friends seem to lose their courage when it comes to actually acting. It's easy to say some of these things, but you got to stay hopeful. I mean, this administration's approach to the uniformed military has been basically disrespectful almost since day one. And I've been waiting, whether it's people on the Armed Services Committee or frankly, people on my Intelligence Committee. When are they going to have a backbone to stand up and say, that's just not the way we operate in this country? For the folks that you work with on the Republican side in the Republican conference, is this moment that moment?

28:35I mean, we have seen so many instances where it feels like there's no bar, where it feels like no lengths that they will go to are too far, that the administration can do anything and they're not going to be willing to speak out. And so is this that instance? Are you hearing from from your Republican colleagues that that that they're fed up here? Or do you feel like this is just one more thing that Republicans have done that Trump and Hegseth have done? And, you know, it just it is what it is because they're afraid of a mean tweet. Brian, listen, I do have felt at times like a little bit like Charlie and Charlie Brown in the football.