The Bruised Hand in the Cookie Jar

20:58Pod Save America is brought to you by Smalls. Smalls makes fresh human-grade food for cats. It's made from the same stuff you or I would eat, but formulated specifically to help cats thrive. Cats are obligate carnivores who need lots of real meat to stay healthy. But most cat foods out there use meat byproducts and cut their food with cheap grains, fillers, and artificial ingredients. Boy, you don't want that. You don't want that. You don't want cheap grains or fillers. Not for your feline friends. Basically stuff that isn't great for your cat. Big pet food. Oh, big pet food. They do this because it's cheaper to make.

21:32But what they save on cost, your cat pays for with their health. With Smalls, I just put, I took a scoop for me and a scoop for my cat, Chesterfield. Me and Chesterfield, we sit across the table, I light a candle. Yeah, your fur's looking shinier. Smalls is different. Their fresh recipes are over 80 % animal protein and they never use fillers or artificial ingredients. Chesterfield's never been happier. Their food is so healthy that 88 % of cat parents say that after feeding Smalls, they notice that their cat has better digestion, is softer and shinier. What did I say? And has more energy to play because it's actually good for cats.

22:05If you want to invest in your cat's health, Smalls is giving you 60 % off your cat's first order plus free shipping and free treats for life when you go to smalls.com slash crooked. That's 60 % off your first order plus free shipping and free treats for life when you head to smalls.com slash crooked. Pod Save America is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. When you're trying to hire, you want somebody who's qualified, but you also want somebody who's excited to do the job. You know, you can't just have somebody who has like all the right skills, but then it's like you owe them a favor. You know what I mean?

22:34That's how I behave. That's my role here. If you're hiring, you want a candidate who's passionate about the role, but you can't get that insight from a resume unless you post your job on ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology finds quality candidates quickly. And ZipRecruiter has a new feature that shows you the most interested, qualified candidates first, so you meet the right people faster. Candidates can tell you in their own words why they're interested in your job. No wonder ZipRecruiter is the number one rated hiring site based on G2. Find candidates who really want your job on ZipRecruiter.

23:01Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash Crooked. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash Crooked. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter.

23:15Speaking of Trump allies getting away with crimes, what do you guys make of Jared Polis, governor of Colorado, Democrat, commuting the prison sentence of election denier Tina Peters? She is the former county clerk from Mesa County, Colorado. She was in jail for orchestrating a security breach of her county's voting system. Trump has been publicly and privately pressuring Polis to pardon her completely. They also tried to transfer her from state prison to federal prison so that Trump could pardon her. Didn't do that. But now Polis has commuted her sentence. She was sentenced to nine years. he cut it to four and a half years with parole next month I have to be honest I know this is not a great answer

23:59Jon Favreau:for the purposes of a talk show I just couldn't give less of a shit I know people are like outraged about this I read JBL's long piece on this I don't give a shit I don't care I have so much to be outraged or to worry about I just can't even get myself to engage with this person I might even go a step further I think Polis might have done the right thing by cutting her sentence down wow

24:22I gotta go. Excuse me, boys. If you need me, I'll be at the fucking bulwark. Where the real libs are now. Go on. I'm not, I don't feel strongly. I'm more into, I'm closer to Tommy's camp, but like, here's the thing. She was sentenced to nine years, right? So she's a nonviolent first time offender and three appellate judges who were appointed by a Democrat. they were democratic judges they all just ruled that they threw out the sentence the nine-year sentence so that was never going to happen and the reason they threw it out is because they thought that the judge um basically in giving her a nine-year sentence as opposed to a smaller sentence violated her free speech rights because the judge basically said the reason i'm making your sentence longer is because you spouted election conspiracy theories um which is a horrible thing to do spouting election conspiracy theories but that is protected first amendment speech i thought we have to be consistent well they are free speech but anyway that's but hold on hold on i i appreciate that but we understand that if someone were to say um hit somebody with their car uh and then publicly say that bitch deserved it that that is free speech you have the right to say that but it does potentially inform the sentence sorry does it of of course it does of course we we allow remorse in people's uh uh uh uh motivations and feelings about the crimes they committed what they've learned from it that's the well she was she was i mean but the no remorse thing was already factored in because she didn't she she was not remorseful right when she was sentenced but that's he didn't say you didn't show remorse he said it's because you have these these theories i just say i'm just saying not just for a minute that there we take people's uh uh motivations and and and expressions i agree that people have the right to believe elections are stolen i'm just saying it's a little bit more than just first continue sorry i guess i'm saying if we believe that uh that there is an incarceration problem in this country and that people are incarcerated for too long and that prison is, um, it is a deterrent and yes, people should be jailed and they should be kept from society, but that unusually long sentences are bad, especially for first time nonviolent offenders.

26:18Like, don't we have to extend that belief to people whose political beliefs we detest? So I would say the answer is we should allow a process to play out that she would have been resentenced. Why is, why did this become a big public controversy? It is because the president the United States is publicly pressuring the governor of Colorado to commute Tina Peterson's. Now, look, I'm sure Jared Polis would say that the pressure had nothing to do with it. Obviously, the fact that Donald Trump was threatening Colorado unless he did something, right? Donald Trump was saying this woman should be pardoned.

26:50He is saying it's some kind of pushback against Trump, that it's only a commutation. She has kind of done the bare minimum of acknowledging that what she did was wrong. But if you go to her Twitter feed, her allies were saying, as recently as I believe last week, I have to go look at the exact timing, that if Tina Peters isn't released, Trump should invade the state of Colorado. It is a nonviolent offense. Yeah, I mean, I don't think that should happen. Well, right, but it just, it goes to, like, the reason somebody who even commits a non-look, there are a lot of first-time offenders who do something that are part of a, that are part of something so dangerous that you have to say, wait a second, yes, it's a nonviolent offense, but it goes to the core of what we are as a society, the safety of our democracy.

27:32And so he has given into that pressure from Trump rather than let the process play out. So that, I think, is a huge problem. I don't know that we'd be having this conversation if Donald Trump hadn't personally intervened to try to get the governor to do something. And then it seems as though he did it.

27:50Jon Favreau:After listening to this thoughtful debate, I still don't give a shit. I might care less, actually, than when we say I'm just kidding. It is interesting. I would say that it's more interesting to me and that like, I think that, I think he might've been the right thing. I do think, I would like to hear Jared Polis answer the question, why didn't you just wait for the resentencing of the three appellate judges? Like what made you not want to just wait for their decision if they were going to throw out the sentence anyway? I would like to know that question. I'd also say too that the Republican prosecutor was against this and said that you should talk to the people that were impacted by Tina Peter's schemes before you'd make this decision.

28:25He's also a prosecutor. Well, sure. That's how prosecutors are. But community. But there's also a defendant who pled guilty to almost the same charges in the Georgia Rico case and was sentenced no time and probation. Yeah. I mean, look, there's all kinds of unfairnesses and unequal application of sentences all across the country all the time. Like if that were the case, you'd go and say, oh, well, there's somebody else who was given less. You can commute most sentences that way. But I think, look, in this one case. It wasn't just her. he commuted like, you know, it was like 35 or 50 commutations or something like that on the same day.

29:02I think he has to answer for whether or not he gave in to Trump's political pressure. And we are in a moment where like Donald Trump is threatening elections again. Like this is a grave threat to the republic. Why does our generosity, our sense of justice, our empathy turn for Tina Peters when there are so many others who have, who deserve it? That's all. Yeah. And I don't think it should. I don't think it should. I don't think we should be generous or empathetic at all. I think we should just be like, what is the standard? Like, is there a process to reach the decision and did it meet a standard?

29:31I do think that, like, criticizing polls for it is completely fine. Like, you can criticize them for it. You can say it's fine. Some people are, and people who I like in politics, too, and support, are, like, calling for his impeachment over this. And I'm like, I don't, I just, I do not think it rises to the level of it. Everybody's at a nine all the time these days. I can't get there. I can get there. I can get to, like, your criticism for sure. I can't get to, he should be impeached over this. I don't know if you guys saw that Trump's latest financial disclosures show that he and or his financial advisors made more than 3 ,700 stock trades in the first quarter of this year.

30:08bought$1 million each in companies with business before his administration, like NVIDIA, Oracle, Microsoft, Boeing, and Palantir, which he bought right before he praised the company on Truth Social in a post that, if you recall, even included the company's ticker symbol. Now, I know this may look suspicious, but the White House did say that Trump's assets are in a blind trust managed by his children. So there are, quote, no conflicts of interest. Seems fine, right? Right.

30:37Jon Favreau:This is did they really I thought there was no blind trust. I thought they'd already previously said there wasn't a blind either way. It's a blind trust. Yeah, that doesn't make that's not how a blind trust works. They're like, again, this is part of the political smash and grab job. I mean, they're making money everywhere. It's this is crazy. Like so Bloomberg reported Trump had trades that involved Tesla, NVIDIA, Apple, Meta, Visa, Citi, Boeing, Qualcomm and GE. Top executives from all of those companies were on his trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. So you don't think he's getting insider information?

31:11Jon Favreau:Having that access, talking to them, cutting deals with them. Some of the stock trades included up to 680 grand worth of Eli Lilly right as the administration was preparing policies that would benefit their GLP one business. He took a huge position, a couple of huge positions in NVIDIA right before they announced major news there was one to five million dollar position a week before they announced a partnership with meta then there was a half a million to a million dollar position a week before the commerce department announced some you know determinations to do with nvidia they're buying and selling intel stock which the u.s government took a 10 stake in the company this is insanity this is such a coincidence paul pelosi somewhere is like what the fuck man yeah i could have been doing this so much better like we're sort of pat everything well jesus i'm like jim kramer now do you see the clip of jim yeah he just glitched out for six weeks can we drop it in here let's drop in the jim kramer clip the president's been trading some intel in the quarter yeah yeah yeah you got nothing to say Yeah.

32:23What's funny about the Jim Cramer clip is that it's like, people are like, oh, wow, he's so, he's stammering because he can't figure out what to say about this. But when I was watching, I was like, is he stammering because he can't figure out to say about this? Or is he making a joke about how it's so beyond the pale, but he doesn't want to be critical of Trump in this moment? Like, I didn't know what, what are we, what are we, why is he stammering? He knows what's going on. but can't get in jim kramer's head but we're just no no don't live and rent free inside of jim kramer's head but the the like the we're at a new level of brazen corruption because every step along the way nobody has stopped him to get to this point right like he can't the thing that i find stunning about all this is that there's no um like the level of brazenness is going up but the dollar amount isn't always it's like why are we doing 500 grand stock trades billion dollar crypto theft and the watches like why like why you know what i mean like That bothers me too.

33:12It's just all at once. Some of it's like leftover from the old world. Right. When you had to just do corruption with like the watches and the phones. Remember the hotel rooms? Like, we're getting you the Trump phones, but they're not coming.

33:21Jon Favreau:Yeah, that part doesn't make sense. But the aggregate stock trades was a range between$211 and$687 million. So that's a pretty good quarter. It's also like just the volume of trading. Bloomberg interviewed this guy, Eric Dighton, who's the president manager director at the Wealth Alliance. And he said, I'm baffled. in the 40 plus years of my time on wall street this is an unusual amount of trading by any standards we need to see the actual trades to try and understand why anyone would want to do that much trading like the practical way in which this is being done like is there a team that is doing this is it sons through their like it feels like they've got like um uh like uh christopher moltesante trying to like push wabistex like he's got like some fucking back office in new jersey somewhere with computers no it's just baron trump in the outer oval with a shitload of adderall yeah just like minority reporting it like i can see the future i know what's going to happen at the commerce meeting next week i know then i have the bls that's just because he's got the briefing book yeah but again later they took like uh seven transactions related to boeing one was between one to five million dollars like the biggest deliverable of the china trip was to get the chinese to buy a bunch of boeing planes and by the way the announcement was so underwhelming that the stock went down because they did a shitty job but still uses proof that see we see it wasn't a good announcement it's like yeah you you thought it was tried to trade on inside information it just turns out you suck at diplomacy like that was the problem you're you're good at the crimes you're bad at diplomacy gotta deliver on that shit um all right so trump's also doing his best to uh drag the republican party down with him uh on saturday he sent yet another message that dissent will not be tolerated when his chosen primary challenger congresswoman julia letlow took out louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, whose sin was voting to convict Trump in the January 6th impeachment trial.

35:06Cassidy went down in flames. He got third in Louisiana's primary, the first time an incumbent senator has come in lower than second place since 1944. Trump's next target is Thomas Massey, who is trying to unseat in Tuesday's Kentucky primary. Massey has been the strongest and kind of the only Republican in the House breaking with Trump on Epstein, Iran, and the big, beautiful bill. Trump has been posting about Massey nonstop. I think right before he recorded, he did like a video from the Oval, which is very legal and normal to just to just tell people to vote against Thomas Massey. We're going to run the midterms on the Hatch Act, I assume.

35:41Yeah, that's yeah. He says he's he's he's grabbing the two billion dollars for his slush fund and then trading on Nvidia and Boeing. Yeah.

35:48Jon Favreau:Pete Hegseth was doing an event in Kentucky today. His personal capacity, his personal capacity. And then Trump announces that he's delayed an imminent military assault on Iran that was supposed to happen tomorrow. Yeah, what was Pete going to do? That seems like bad timing. Feels like you need him for that. Yeah. Maybe you don't. Maybe you don't. Maybe you don't. Who's going to drink the booze? Too early to say what will happen in the Massey race, but it certainly seems like Massey himself is staying loose. Here he is on Sunday doing his best Trump impression. Whenever I call him, I got to schedule a minute for the first thing he tells me every time I call him.

36:20Massey, you're a sharp cookie. You went to MIT. You know, my professor was, my uncle was Professor John G. Trump. He was at MIT 41 years. It's a record. And, you know, I went to Wharton, which is basically the hardest school in the world to get into. This is terrible. So, I've got even better genetics than you. I knew that was how long there was. I kind of want him to lose now. That was brutal. I was rooting for him until just then. I'm too late. He's going for it, you know? put that you gotta be wary on the trump impression you know don't don't do it unless you really feel good you gotta nail it there's just too many people doing it and it's too it's too it's too big a target anyway anyone have thoughts on the primary yeah look i mean how big of a deal this

37:06Jon Favreau:is on bill cassidy like i fuck that guy you know like he he thought he could like appease maga by voting for robert f kennedy jr and ended up kind of like selling his soul and his credentials as a doctor and it being worst of all worlds and he knew better and we know it because he told us as much before he flip-flopped and so would i rather have him in the senate than his replacement yes i would but ultimately i don't think it'll make a big difference thomas massey is a different story like he's the reason we have the epstein files because he worked with roqana to get him released he's a principled vote against wars and militarism and lots of other things i don't agree with him on everything and on you know like you don't share the same worldview i don't send out you know Christmas cards with me and my kids with machine guns, like I think he did one time.

37:50Jon Favreau:But it would be a big loss. And I think it tells you everything you need to know about Donald Trump's political worldview, that he will not lift a finger to help his party build, but he will take down anyone who criticizes him. It is all about punishing his own critics and the cult of personality and protecting his personal power and not about the party or doing anything. Right. I think he's far more passionate about defeating his enemies than he is about helping his friends. Yeah. With Cassidy, you go back to that to him uh uh approving rfk jr and accepting his fake assurances in his private meetings pretending that rfk didn't believe what he obviously believed and like no you can't you can't sell half your soul he doesn't work like that they're not divided they're not divisible in that way and so these guys that end up being reluctantly for trump they don't they're not better politicians they're just worse whores you know uh so uh are you know good riddance i suppose i will say this is there's a lot being made because we had indiana and then cassidy and then and then massey but this is sort of the last gasp of this i mean it's louisiana too like well but what do you expect this is trump's last midterms right and do we think he's going to spend he's going to be spending time in 28 going around doing primary challenges maybe but like also does it lose its force at some point right like that trump's like a he's already a lame duck like he clearly has the juice to do it now but as we get to 28 and then beyond that like what is this is it's what did we what did we learn from that yeah yeah that he's an addictive prick who only cares about himself and you know and i think we also learned that like you know the nothing's breaking the fever in the republican party the party's broken and you've got a massive you've got to defeat them uh at every level because uh all the ones who are left are completely loyal to dear leader and that's about that um and i do think also he might have he might have fucked himself a little because now you got angry cassidy who's still got votes uh left to take between now and the end of the year massey tillis massey loses tillis has already been doing it and so they can make his life more difficult um and i i do wonder now between now and november if this makes it like harder for Republicans to break away from Trump, even though primaries are over because they worry that they're going to get punished.

40:10I don't know. It's just, look, it remains sort of extraordinary, right? Bill Cassidy, like, could not persuade his own voters, people that have voted for him multiple times in the past to stick with him once Trump turned, right? Like it just tells you something about the voters showing up in these Republican primaries and what they want. And there was no, the fact that Cassidy was a vote for impeachment and that Trump had fully turned against him, there was nothing he could do to convince them that he was worth saving. Nothing. Yeah.

40:57healthcare providers online, giving you simple access to legitimate ED treatments from home. I want some illegitimate ED treatments. One of those. I went to my office the other day. I saw John Googling real Chinese rhino horn. I was like, Jesus, that's terrible. Yeah, that's right. Shame on you. No awkward appointments with HIMSS. No pharmacy lines. You have to see a pharmacy line out the door. Everyone's looking for their boner pills. Yeah. It's wild. That's right. Just complete a simple online intake and a provider will review your information to determine if treatment is right for you. I'm here to pick up the medicine for people who have too big of a penis.

41:33Yeah, mine has lasted more than three hours. If prescribed your treatment chips directly to your door in discreet packaging. That includes sildenafil. I know how to pronounce that for the record. Thank you. Because pundits on it. Oh, pundits on it. But not for erectile dysfunction. Pundit is also heart medicine. Also known as generic for Viagra. There we go. available through HIMSS at up to 95 % less than the brand name version. And if that option isn't right for you, there are additional treatment options available so you can find what works best for your body. It's straightforward, transparent, and designed to make getting care feel easy.

42:06To get simple online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, weight loss, and more, visit HIMSS.com slash crooked. That's HIMSS.com slash crooked for your free online visit. HIMSS.com slash crooked. Prescription required. See website for details and important safety information. Sildenafil is the generic version of Viagra. Viagra is a registered trademark of Viatris Specialty LLC. HIMSS is not affiliated with or endorsed by Viatris.

42:32It's been a bit since we talked about the stalemate in Iran. Trump posted on Sunday that, quote, the clock is ticking for Iran to make a deal. But by Monday, the clock apparently restarted. Trump posted that the U.S., quote, will not be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow, a.k.a. Tuesday, the day you're listening to this, because the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE asked him to hold off due to serious negotiations that are now taking place. Trump did add that the U.S. is prepared to attack Iran, quote, on a moment's notice in the event that an acceptable deal is not reached.

43:03On Monday, it was also reported that Iran sent its latest peace proposal through Pakistan to the U.S., which the White House seems likely to reject, even as the Pentagon and Israel are, quote, engaged in intense preparations, the largest since the ceasefire took effect for the possible resumption of attacks against iran according to the new york times what do you make of the back and forth here tommy like any any chance that trump's latest threat to destroy iran got them

43:24Jon Favreau:closer to a deal scared them into it uh i don't think so but can we just talk about these statements where he name checks a bunch of autocrats they're so weird you don't have to do that but he's always like on behalf of the great and highly respected field marshal assam munir i've decided not to like exterminate iran you know what the delivery date for that plane uh is supposed to be the fourth but he once moved up for his birthday the qatar so he wants the qataris to get that plane there fast it's the same way that he does the like uh you know personality stuff with g like he enjoys the idea that governing doesn't involve anyone except the people in the room like there's no people deciding right they're just great men making big decisions together at a collaboration and friendship and so yeah he's not doing it for the good of the country he's doing it because he was he has this great rapport with these uh leaders the pakistanis in particular like they cut a big crypto deal with the world liberty financial so that's why he likes them but like you do five seconds of research into the great and respected field marshal and you find the uk authorities have charged him with torture and crimes against humanity that's the guy he's like name checking but regardless sounds like a guy he'd like of course um there's no i don't think they're any closer to a deal i like i don't know i i assume we're in the same place around thinks they have a lot of leverage because they can close straight Hormuz.

44:39Jon Favreau:They know Trump is weakened politically. They know that he wants out of this. He doesn't want to go back to war. And so they're going to wait for the United States to walk back some of the more maximalist positions or just get sick of the shit and move on. Just imagine some sort of Iranian underling kind of going down the stairs into the bunker where the recuperating Ayatollah is like pointing at the Siena numbers and saying like, look, look, we got them. We got them right where we want them. We got Nate Kuhn. Yeah, and you know. Diving into the crosstabs. Iran, there's all these leaks still. Like Iran reportedly has up to 75 % of its missile stockpile.

45:12Jon Favreau:All of its, basically, almost all of its infrastructure along the Strait of Hormuz is operational for them to shut it down. So they could always make things worse. Strait of Hormuz also now has its own Twitter account. Does it? Yeah. Like Carl the Fog in San Francisco? No, yeah, they're calling it, you know, something more official, but it's like the Iranian government. Oh, it's the Iranian government doing it? Yeah, yeah. Are we doing it in Lego? They just made an official Twitter account so we can get updates from the straight. Just personifying the straight, I guess? Yeah. That's kind of cool.

45:39Like sort of red, green, yellow. A lot of red. Like sort of when you get the like sig alerts in like California traffic, it's like, oh my God, the straighter moves is red today. Fuck. I'm going to be late. Honey, I'm going to be late. You're going to have traffic helicopters over reporting on the nines and fives. NBC reported last week that the administration is considering changing the name of the war from Operation Epic Fury to Operation Sledgehammer. We have to get a little more phallic again. Or something else entirely in order to, quote, effectively restart the clock with Congress. Is that how it works?

46:11New operation name, now they can't get you? No. Now you can do whatever wars you want?

46:16Jon Favreau:I love this idea that the War Powers Act is such a weak piece of legislation that you can just do a bureaucratic tweak and get around it. I mean, it's just crazy. It's obviously the same conflict. Changing the name doesn't matter. Every president since Nixon has claimed the War Powers Act is unconstitutional. They all hate it. But it was enacted over Nixon's veto in 1973. And so Congress has leverage here if they want to use it. Republicans refuse to use it. Maybe they'll man up now, but we'll see. Trump also wants us to know that he's not just focused on wars far away from home. He's focused on wars right in our own backyard still.

46:52There have been a bunch of rumblings about the long-rumored regime change move in Cuba. Sources told the AP last week that the administration is looking to indict former Cuban President Raul Castro, brother of Fidel, even though he's no longer in power. Then over the weekend, Marco Pudo reported that according to classified U.S. intel, Cuba has over 300 drones and has recently considered launching them against U.S. military targets and even Key West, Florida, which could serve as a handy pretext for an invasion. Cuba's current president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, responded on social media on Monday, writing the quote, quote, Cuba poses no threat, nor does it have aggressive plans or intentions against any country, including the U.S., and that a U.S.

47:28attack would, quote, trigger a bloodbath. What'd you make of the Cuba stuff? It seems like he's, it seems like he's gearing up. You want to kick us off on Cuba? I don't think we should go to war with Cuba right now. In the Times poll, there was a question that was something like, when do you believe the U.S. should launch a war against countries that have not attacked us? And I think it was like 70 % or like, don't do that. Never. Don't do that, unless someone has attacked us, we know we shouldn't go to war. Whatever Trump had come to believe about killing Soleimani, getting Maduro out of Venezuela, and how fun that was, he sees the polls showing how unpopular the war in Iran is.

48:05I hope that that has at the very least chastened them from their kind of idea that they can be regime topplers without it consuming their politics. But it's terrifying. It's terrifying to imagine that they were going to see what they're doing in the Middle East and decide that it needs to be brought closer to them. Yeah, I mean, look, I read the story.

48:21Jon Favreau:It was such an obvious pretext to me. But I mean, look, I don't doubt the intel. Like, is Cuba acquiring drones? Well, it's 2026. And every military has or is acquiring drones. That would be like not getting rifles or, you know, machine guns in World War I. So it also says, like, the intelligence suggests the Cubans would respond to a U.S. attack with drones. Yeah, I was going to say, this Axios story, you have to get way down to reality check, which is three paragraphs four paragraphs from the bottom till you find out that oh by the way that the intel is that it's retaliatory this is not a a preemptive strike on miami this is what they would do if we attacked them because we all know if they did a preemptive strike on miami that would be suicidal because you would fucking flatten the country so i also just would like to think that if we are on the verge of going to war with another country that the evidence would not be laundered through anonymous sources into a daily tip sheet that perhaps there's more information well judy Miller would like a word with you, pal.

49:15But that was the New York Times. Sorry, you're right, you're right.

49:18Jon Favreau:I do think, though, every indicator light is flashing when it comes to possible regime change operations, because there's this leak, which creates the pretext of this being an imminent threat. There was CIA director John Ratcliffe just went to Cuba and had this message from Trump. There is the indictment, the rumored indictment of Raul Castro, which was a very important part of the case for why they had to do what they did against Maduro, which was extract him from Venezuela and bring him to New York for prosecution. And there's been all these reports of a huge increase of intelligence overflights by the US.

49:46Jon Favreau:So I would be very worried if I were a Cuban official. And meanwhile, if you're a Cuban human being or citizen, like the United States has a blockade on that's allowed no oil and gas into your country. And people are starving to death. They have one to two hours of electricity a day. Hospitals can't operate. What we are doing is criminal. It is absolutely evil. You're starving a population of people to death. And the most likely outcome is that the government collapses and there is a mass exodus and migration crisis to the United States, which MAGA has told us they do not want to happen. I don't understand what these lunatics are fucking doing here, but it is just it is utterly immoral, just a horrific, horrific policy right now.

50:29I think that the insane thought running through Donald Trump's head is his response to launching a disastrous war in iran that is unpopular that has cost us billions of dollars that has spiked gas prices everywhere is i gotta launch a war that's more popular and easy i gotta go back to the venezuela model because they all think that venezuela was some big fucking success right and so it's like that was an easy one so i gotta get my mojo back by going to invade cuba now that iran's a big fucking mess very possible same did you see uh uh rubio in his maduro tracks yes like it's all just a game it's all just trolling it's all content i don't think it was that flattering no i think it was i i talked about this in love to leave it but i do think um maduro wore it better but the uh i'm not even joking like it just looked more comfortable like rubio looked like the suit was wearing him but i was looking at that's like why are you doing this like forget like it was a little posed too it wasn't like there was a long pose a long pose but but like i was i was looking at i was like what what are we supposed to okay look what is this meant to but boy you're tough you're wearing the same clothes like who is what what what was the message.

51:33And I now I'm like, oh, was this about how how like what happened? We'll do this again. Like we're going to do this. Is it a Cuba thing? Like what the fuck was the outfit? What am I meant to take from this photo, Stephen Chung?

51:42Jon Favreau:Yeah, that's a good question. I agree with you. I do think Trump wants to change the channel and kind of get us onto a new topic that isn't Iran that makes him sound tough again. I do think, though, that Cuba falls in the Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, access of evil bucket of like neocons telling him, sir, you'll be a historic figure, sir if you make big changes here right and he's down it will gargle your balls uh well i mean you don't need to do something else to get that that's already happening that's priced in but you know he's also in florida surrounded by a bunch of very like rich hard line you know miami cubans who you know have been waiting for this for a long time and you know want their real estate assets back on the island so i don't i hope i'm wrong maybe he'll fucking cubano or you know like whatever wall street will make up a new term for it stupid but i like it does seem like it it's nerve-wracking well if we if he doesn't do cuba then there's always greenland uh remember the critical national security issue of greenland uh a quick refresher the back in january after threatening to invade trump did a did a taco it announced the quote framework of a future deal with respect to greenland and in fact the entire arctic region well the new york times is now reporting that the negotiations around that framework have Greenlandic officials, quote, worried as U.S.

52:58proposals, quote, amount to a major imposition on Greenland's sovereignty. Yeah, I bet. Greenland specifically concerned about Trump's June 14th birthday and July 4th is upcoming dates where Trump's attention could swing back around to them as he starts thinking about his legacy. Un-fucking real. What do you think? Are those concerns well-founded? What do you think about the Greenlandic concerns expressed in the New York Times piece? Let's just pause and sit in the idea that uh the danes are concerned that the trump will will get more bellicose around his birthday that's where we're at that's what we do he's turning 80 you never know america's turning 250 yeah they're not they're not gonna be they're not gonna be content with just the fireworks no no you're gonna want to get no they want greenland somebody's got to give him a little he wants to he look he wants the great at the end of his name he knows that that when the when the when the russians got more territory they got to be the great so we just got to find some fucking chunk of land somewhere cuba get me greenland just make venezuela the 51st state he's just

53:59Jon Favreau:something we got to expand the map can't believe we're talking about this again this sucks it's so crazy it's like the do you guys see the the tim dylan bit we said we're not the high school bully anymore we're the weird kid who may or may not have a gun yes yeah we're not the quarterback we're not the jock we're the college kid who keeps going to high school parties who might be a pedophile and has a gun. That is us. That's a country. Good work, everybody. That is it. That is it. I think we made a mistake electing this guy. Yeah. Yeah, well.

54:34This podcast is sponsored by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform designed to elevate your online presence and drive your success. Squarespace provides all the tools you need to promote and get paid for your services in one platform. Whether you offer consultations, events, or other experiences, is Squarespace can help you grow your business. Squarespace offers a complete library of professionally designed and award-winning website templates with options for every use and category. No matter where you start, your website is flexible with intuitive drag and drop editing, beautiful styling options, unrivaled visual design effects, and more ways to list what you offer.

55:04No experience required. Every dream needs a domain. Squarespace domains makes it easy to find the best name for your business at one fair, all inclusive price, no hidden fees or add-ons required. Every Squarespace domain comes with advanced privacy and security tools included to ensure your domain remains online and protected. Make smarter business decisions with Squarespace's intuitive built-in analytics tools. Review your website traffic, learn where to focus engagement, track revenue from bookings, invoices, or product sales all from one place. Head to squarespace.com. For a free trial, when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com slash crooked to save 10 % off your first purchase of a website or domain.

55:37That's squarespace.com slash crooked.

55:44Now that we just talked about Trump potentially trying to conquer several additional nations, possibly because it would look cool on a map, it's probably a good time to mention that there's been a revival of the debate about Trump's age and fitness for the job and whether Democrats should be making a bigger deal about it. Lauren Egan at The Bulwark and Jonathan LeMire at The Atlantic are both out with big pieces, arguing that it's time for Democrats to make it a bigger issue. We get subscriber questions about this a lot. We also see a lot of folks on social media making the argument that if you're not making as big of a deal about Trump's age as you were about Biden's, you're being hypocritical.

56:16so in the spirit of open dialogue I guess we're going to debate it let's debate it Austin Austin's bringing out a vote save America mug with three positions in it I'm not going to look till we all pro meaning it's something we should talk about more anti you can guess what that means and moderator

56:38I am the moderator I am anti

56:42Jon Favreau:I'm pro let's go bitch uh about to get fucking owned um can i get a little uh like nbc music tonight uh all right uh i'll be moderating this debate uh john you will be arguing that democrats must make a greater issue out of donald trump's age tommy will take the con uh you have the opening statement you have 30 seconds uh did did joe biden uh lose the last election or have to drop out of the last election because he was too old yes yes was it the biggest concern of every voter everywhere because everyone made a big issue and republicans made a big issue of his age yes yep so donald trump's hands are falling off right now he looks like he looks like it was like a bad uh morgue job on his hands before he got in the casket sure he's basically melting before our eyes he's got all kinds of bruises all over the place aaron rupar's feeds It's full of it.

57:37It's just purple. Okay. And yet Democrats are out there just talking about affordability and not talking about the fact that the president of the United States is decomposing before our eyes, and Democrats won't talk about it, even though these are the same Democrats that tried to push Joe Biden out of the race. Wow. A powerful argument. Tommy, your counter.

57:57Jon Favreau:John, you ignorant slut. I don't want to get in between you and Aaron Rupar's feed and your little handjob issue there with the Trump. But Trump is not running again. So none of this matters. Democrats have zero credibility on this issue after spending years pretending that they couldn't see Joe Biden's physical decline as he was shuffling around in sneakers and falling over sandbags. every minute we spend talking about makeup on this decrepit old man's hands is a minute we are not spending talking about stock trades the ballroom medicare cuts things that actually matter to people and uh yeah the napping is weird admittedly it's also very funny when the the white house uh says that he blinked for 10 seconds yeah long blanks these are long blanks admittedly that's weird but he still does a lot of events he's out there all the time he's doing rallies he looks vibrant he's a big looks vibrant what are you talking about you can't even stand up you can't make him a martyr all right so let me let me just throw some questions in each of your directions i'll start i'll start with you tommy uh you do notice that there's a significant decline in how he communicates from today to how he communicated even four or eight years ago that that his cadence has changed that he's not as clear he is more meandering he's posting all hours of the night like these are things that are should be a liability i think he's always done these things i think he's always been kind of incoherent i think he's always posted he's never slept but i but i i'm curious how you would explain the difference right like he is yes you're right he has always been this way but i think it's indisputable that it is all worse like he is rambling more he is uh it's the weave but the weave is getting worse do you think it's getting like he's changing depending on your perspective um i think i like jokes aside i think i don't know that i notice him that much more rambly than he used to be because i think he's always been rambly that like he does look tired he's legitimately falling asleep in events it's noticeable the hand stuff is weird and by the way they're clearly lying about the hand stuff because they initially they said it was his hand shaking hand and then the other hand had the bruising too so he also he also keeps going to the dentist and no one dude how many annual dentist trips He's doing a lot of dentist trips.

1:00:09He's doing a lot of physicals and things that no one's telling. No one's telling us why his health is the way it is. And there's no one's asking questions.

1:00:17Jon Favreau:And there's a doctor's office in the West Wing. So you would only go to Walter Reed or Bethesda or wherever he's going now to get like specialized equipment. There's also dental. There's also the dentist's office in the White House. So you've got to go to a special dentist. So, John, question to you. How would a Democrat who was somebody who defended Joe Biden's ability to run again make this argument without seeming like they're full of shit. I was wrong about Joe Biden. And I should have said something earlier. And that's what I'm doing this time around, because Donald Trump is in bad shape and he should not be leading the country.

1:00:47And any Republican that still supports him and that doesn't want to, you know, pressure the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, then they are just feeding into this cover up for Donald Trump's age and his dementia. And he is just putting us all at risk and Republicans won't do anything about it. So even though he's not running again, when we go into the midterms, we know that Donald Trump's approval rating is highly correlated with how Republicans are going to do in the midterms. And by talking more about how he has dementia and he is losing his marbles, then we should we could get his approval even lower and that Democrats can then do better in the midterms.

1:01:20Last question for you, Tommy. Joe Biden's age and Joe Biden's disapproval on the economy became linked. The fact that the economy was bad was a sign he wasn't up for the job. The fact that he was up for the job made people doubt that he could fix the economy. We're trying to make an argument that Republicans, we have to win the House and the Senate and that Republicans refuse to tell the truth about Donald Trump. Shouldn't the fact that Donald Trump is decomposing before our eyes, rambling at all hours, falling asleep in meetings, shouldn't we be saying these Republicans won't be honest about that?

1:01:50Why are they not telling the truth about this? What are we not knowing about this? Shouldn't we be making this one of the lines of argument that we use when we try to accuse Republicans of not holding Trump accountable?

1:01:59Jon Favreau:Yeah, so allow me to flip-flop on the issue to respond to your leading question. Clearly, they're covering up something, right? Like the guys, the multiple annual doctor visits, like this is crazy. It's all a pretext. We should push for more information. There is muscle memory here, right? Like I think if we get people to like a critical mass of concern about this, they will care. I also just like I think Trouble hate it. If we call him a sad, sick old man, he would hate that. So just working that in there could be fun. Now you argue the other side. Yeah, no, I'll argue the other side. because I think Tommy's best point was he's not running again.

1:02:33Like, and so what difference, as Hillary Clinton once said, what difference does it make if he is decrepit, if they are covering something up? He's like, the reason this was a potent argument against Joe Biden is because Joe Biden was asking voters for four more years in office. Donald Trump will never ask voters for four more years in office. He might try to stay. No, he won't. He might try to stay in office, but he's not going to ask voters for four more years.

1:02:56Jon Favreau:I mean, he might run for a third term. That's not going to happen. He's going to try to just sit there and be like, I got the military. Just park? Yeah, no one's going to let him run. But so he's not going to ask for you. So what is the purpose of Trump? What is the, if we're trying to win a midterm, what is the story we're trying to tell about Donald Trump that is most true? And the story that is most true is what you said at the beginning of this episode, which is this whole term is a smash and grab. He wants to make as much money as he can. He's a megalomaniac who thinks that now he needs this legacy in history where he like conquers half the globe.

1:03:26And he doesn't give a shit about people. He doesn't give a shit about people and he's never given a shit about people. And that's a consistent story through time. And whether he has dementia now or he's losing his marbles or not, like doesn't really matter. So I think the way that I would square this is I think that's right. Democrats, I'm more passionate about the Democrats paid a political price for defending Joe Biden. And when people had concerns about his age, even after he dropped out, because it came to be evidence that Democrats couldn't be trusted more broadly. And my argument would only be no, age should not be the central argument we make against Donald Trump.

1:04:00But if we can make the fact that Republicans refuse to be honest about not just Trump's corruption and unaccountability and brazen theft, but also just his rambling and crazy nonsense. And you make every time he does that part of a story about how he's unfit, including because he's getting old, then that's part of why these Republicans can't be trusted. That's the best. I'm not. That's the best I can do for it. even that as you say that like you you kind of just like threw in corruption there but it's like so he's he doesn't know what he's doing he's crazy but he's also smart enough to be out there

1:04:32Jon Favreau:stealing all the money i just think like the incoherence is priced in like the the weave is a thing that's like a joke but it's also not a joke you know what i mean like people know he's a goofball he's all over the place he says weird shit but also like he's funny he's big and imposing he seems sharp at events a lot of times and like the hand shit is very odd but like it's also weird It's weird to make an argument that he used to be sharp when we were all saying he's been fucking crazy since he came on the scene in 2016. It's weird for Democrats to be in the position to be like, you know what?

1:05:01He's just not up for the job he used to be, but now he's not up for the job. I think, look, I don't think anyone should make that argument. I think if you go back and look at the debates with Jeb Bush versus the debate with Kamala Harris, there's been a crazy decline. But even putting that aside, here's the thing that I find very annoying about all this. this it's the same kind of practiced like obtuseness that some people on our side love to do like how could you say this if you won't say the same exact thing about trump that you said about joe biden then then you're being a hypocrite as if we can't see the difference between the way joe biden looked and the way donald trump looked like that joe biden was disappearing from the public look if you think donald trump is too old for the job i i'm i'm i'm sure sure i totally agree he's too old he's too selfish he's too he's too much of a fucking dictator for the job he's also the most he's also the most accessible president we have ever had he is on camera every fucking day he's answering questions every day and like he seems vital yeah nuts loses the thread all the ways in which he's terrible and shouldn't be in office he should be impeached and removed immediately i'm not in charge of this but like to to act as if there isn't a big difference between the way donald trump is aging the way way joe biden is aging is to once again deny what we can see with our own fucking eyes yeah but yeah and but to me that is like all beside the point it even if you can argue that back and forth, whoever thinks, you know, Joe Biden was worse or Trump was worse, whatever.

1:06:18But it's, again, the question is to what end? He is a second term president. If Donald Trump was sitting here saying, I'm going out for more years and we were trying to figure out how to defeat Donald Trump.

1:06:27Jon Favreau:The to one end answer is you try to drive down his negatism or you make it an issue that other Republicans need to speak to. And like suddenly they're vouching for him not being senile or old or whatever. I think we're a long way from here to there. Yeah. And it's also like, If you had a choice between what Republicans need to answer for, would you rather it be they're covering up for Donald Trump being too old or they're saying nothing about the fact that he's literally stealing from taxpayers out of their pocket and launched a war that shot up gas prices? Hand to makeup or theft. I think you'd rather do that one.

1:06:59And if he really did. Why not both? Okay, well, you only have so many things that you can say out of your mouth. And if it was so clear, right, like if he was real, like, look, I agree he's in decline. there's not some magic words that Democrats can use to make something more. They can make it more of an issue, but they can't make it the issue. If Donald Trump was as having the kind of muttering debate that Joe Biden had, I guarantee you would be a big political issue. And it wouldn't be because Chuck Schumer decided it was on some given day. That's a calm, sad, sick old man. Yeah, calm. Let's go to town.

1:07:27Let's go to town. Get a man. Figure out if you got the right words. I won. OK. Congrats. Good for you. Congrats to our winner, John Lovett. That's our show for today. Dan and I will be back with a new show on Friday.

1:07:45Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts, and Farrah Safari, with Reed Cherlin, Elijah Cohn, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Hethcote, Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, Kiro Pellaviv, David Toles, Mia Kelman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Sengel. Our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.

1:08:06Thank you.