Trump’s Cabinet Chaos Continues

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1:27Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway. And I'm Jessica Charlov. Jess, where are you today? At the same place I always am. I'm at home in New York. Yeah. Well, actually at the Vox studio. So I'm in the financial business. Oh, you like that? It's very nice here. So you're a newbie. I go there now. Yeah, you're a newbie. You're excited and ambitious to actually do the right thing. So you haul down to what is arguably the most uninspiring part of Manhattan. to where my guess is they're paying Vox to occupy their office space. But they are very nice studios, and it's a lot of young people running around.

2:05Yeah. I'm like middle-aged here, like 55 on a comparative basis. Okay, you say that like it's really old. You realize you're podcast partner. You said middle-aged, and we're all going to— Middle-aged isn't really middle, right? Yeah. Because you're not going to make it. I'll be 55 in five years. All right, so what are we going to talk about today? Today, we're talking about Matt Getz withdraws from AG consideration. Gates, Getz. I'm happy he's like going into hopefully political oblivion just for that. I mean. Can't pronounce his name. Something terrible is brewing, but yes. That's right. More Trump cabinet picks.

2:40Great. Season, episode two of Dancing with the Stars. Whether modern family or family guy. And the transgender bathroom ban in Capitol Hill. Can't believe we're talking about this. I can't. Anyways, here we are. I love legislation that is focused on one person. Yeah, it's really fair. Yeah, it's nice. It doesn't give the game away. It's a good look. But first, we want to remind you, that's right, it's that time in the show, to please follow our Raging Moderates podcast on your preferred platform. Please follow us. If you're listening on Apple, we know that about a quarter of you aren't subscribed.

3:16So don't be that person. Hit the follow button so you never miss an episode. We don't, quite frankly, we don't register in the rankings. We don't register in Google search. And most importantly, we do not get paid if we don't have people actually subscribe to our feed. So if you're enjoying the show, please follow our Raging Moderates podcast on your preferred platform. All right, enough of that. Thank you for enduring that. What are we talking about? Last week, Matt Goetz lobbied hard on Capitol Hill for his confirmation, but by Thursday morning, Trump apparently called to let him know he didn't have the votes in the Senate.

3:50By the afternoon, Goetz announced on social media that his confirmation had become a distraction for him having sex with minors. A few hours later, Trump announced his new pick, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Is it Bondi? Bondi? Bonda? Bondi. Bondi? She's a Bondi girl. Like a Bond girl. A Trump loyalist who has ties to Suzy Wiles and Boris Effershtyn. These people got to get simpler fucking names. Boris is no bueno. Yeah. No bueno. Okay, Jess. You know, as always, you're going to have to carry this show. What does this signal that there's some—is there a limit? Is there an actual limit in the Trump administration that gets actually crossed the line here?

4:33I guess that that's a peachy read of all of this, though. I mean, we were when we were talking about it last week, the expectation was that this one wasn't going to get through, especially once there started being like the jockeying back and forth about whether they're going to release the ethics report. And then Trump, apparently the transition team doesn't want anyone to undergo normal FBI checks, which is the usual procedure. They're like, we can do it with an outside firm so I can hire, you know, Barron to look at them and then we'll see what's going on. But I never think it's as straightforward as it seems.

5:07I feel like the fact that Matt Gaetz said, I am not taking my seat. So he won re-election and he could still, even though he resigned from Congress, he resigned from this Congress, not the next one. And so the expectation was, well, maybe he's just going to go back to Congress, which would also help Mike Johnson out, that he doesn't have to have a few months down one further in his majority because they can only lose, you know, one to three votes per issue as it is. But then he says, I'm not going back to Congress. And that makes me think, like, what terrible thing are you going to do? You know, he said there are already people that I know have a hardened position.

5:46No, to me, Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and then John Curtis, who will be the new senator from Utah, replacing Mitt Romney. And it made me think, are the other controversial picks not getting that kind of feedback? Or is Matt Gaetz the only one who doesn't want to go through this public airing of anything? Because I imagine that there are a few that are telling Pete Hegseth, I'm not into you, or RFK Jr. So what do you think? I listened to the Daily Podcast, and they were talking to McGaith. And basically, the reporter had done some work where he had found some of the evidence that was going to be included in the ethics report that the Republicans managed to squelch, saying that it should not come out now that he's no longer a member of Congress.

6:36which makes absolutely no sense to me. Let's spend a bunch of time looking at a report. And if Goetz claims or is innocent as he claims, then I would imagine that the report would state that and that he would want the report to come out. This is the thing that absolutely strikes me. He wasn't worried about people finding out that there was evidence that he was having sex with minors. He wasn't worried about what people would think about him. He wasn't worried about his inability to be America's top cop with this type of cloud. He was just worried he wasn't going to get the votes. In my view, this really represents a new low, that we have a government and we have people who would even entertain this type of nomination.

7:18I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. I'm not a historian. I'm trying to think of the last time there was a nomination that was this brazenly inappropriate, stupid, and insulting to America and this general notion that when we elect people and they have the power of putting people in power, that there is some fidelity to decency, to the constitution, to the actual goddamn job description. We just seem to be setting new lows every damn day. Anyways, that's my rant, Jess. I think the problem is, is that the top of the ticket is what, or I should say, who shattered a lot of these norms to begin with.

8:04So why wouldn't the cabinet follow suit on that front? And there were all of these stories coming out about, you know, past nominees that hadn't been able to get through like under Bill Clinton because they had an undocumented nanny. Like those were the days, right? When you just had someone who was, yes, here illegally, but was good enough to be taking care of your child, which is probably the most important job that we have, globally speaking. There's nothing more precious than your child and who you entrust them to be with for 10 hours a day or whatever you're doing. And that was ending nominations.

8:41And now we're having conversations about, like, how many minors is too many? Or how many allegations of sexual assault is too many? How many brain worms? How many affairs and sex journals that ended up leading to suicides is too many? And I don't know, it makes me think a lot about what the Democrats are going to have to do. And this is one of the cases that people have been making, not because he behaves like this, but because he has this kind of swagger for Gavin Newsom. You know, there's this whole part of social media that talks about him as the psychopath we need, right? Like the guy who will just show up as relentlessly on message, is fast on his feet, is so good looking, is so sharp.

9:27And I think there are going to be a lot of people that feel that way, that are going to feel scared away from a kind of more, you know, normie pick, Right. Like a guy who's just standing up there with his nice wife and his two kids and doesn't have that kind of energy because it's clear the Republican Party is feeding off of depravity at this point. Let's talk about Pam, new agey, probably. She comes across as fucking Thurgood Marshall right now. My sense is she's going to sell right through. What are your thoughts? I think she will as well. It might, if there was some game of 3D chess going on to put Gates up to get someone else in and, you know, big sense of relief, this could have been it.

10:12I think Pam Bondi is not going to have any issues, as she was a prosecutor for a long time. First female AG in Florida. Very, very competent. She's been in a lobbying firm called Ballard for the last several years. And Susie Wiles is a partner there. So she's a very good relationship with Susie Wiles. which is obviously a big part of this. She has ingratiated herself to Trump over the last 10 plus years. So in 2016, she actually endorsed Trump over Marco Rubio, which was a big deal that the Florida AG went for Trump versus the hometown hero, although I guess Mar-a-Lago has been in Florida. The only, well, two things that I think are relevant.

10:52So she's very into this kind of same line of argumentation that Gates was making, which is, I'm going to investigate the investigators. I'm going to weed out all of the bad guys, get rid of Jack Smith, his whole team. She's been talking like that. She actually went for Trump's claims of voter fraud in 2020. She even went to Philadelphia and gave a press conference about how messed up everything was going, the false claims of widespread voter fraud. The one kind of scandal, I guess, revolves around a 2013 political donation. So that's when that huge lawsuit investigating Trump University was going on and all the state AGs had to sign on.

11:32And there were a lot of victims from Trump University in Florida. And Pam Bondi ended up not signing on and also got a$25 ,000 contribution from Trump's charity. So that will, I think, be the kind of fireworks in terms of the scandals, I guess, in her hearings. And the more normie Republicans, I think, will want to hear you're not just going to come in and do everything that he wants, especially considering the Supreme Court ruling about immunity for kind of everything. But in general, this looks like it's going to be absolutely fine. And just with going back to Getz, let's be clear, Democrats have had their own struggles with scandal and especially around – it used to be the Republicans stole and Democrats had affairs.

12:21Now just everybody's doing everything it feels like. But infidelity, weirdness, scandal, that is not sequestered to the Republican Party. But I do think it's important that we discern between scandal and real criminal activity, such as having sex with minors. And I got to believe that that report, I can't believe it hasn't been leaked, was pretty damning. It'll get it. It'll be out. You think so? I'm sure. Yeah. Susan Wild, the Democrat, the ranking Democrat on the committee, has said as much. She was really upset that Republicans were leaking inside information from what was going on in the room.

13:03I think that they're going to get it out. And I think that's probably why Gates thought, I got to get out of here because I'm not going to be insulated from this. One thing we haven't talked about, which is so central to all of this, and then I do want to get to other nominees. But, you know, he's picking everyone who's good on TV. And Pam Bondi has spent a lot of time on our airwaves on Fox. But when you think about it, it's actually really smart. If you can get qualified people who are also good on TV, that they can defend themselves and that they can defend you and not look like a deer in headlights every time they give an interview.

13:43So a lot of people are dismissive of it, but I think it's actually a very good strategy. Says one of the co-hosts of The Five. Okay. Yeah. Well, I'm not getting picked for anything, but I'm just saying. Are you kidding? You look like Hillary Clinton at this point. You would be the least, you would be the most qualified pick in the cabinet right now. You would, I mean, yeah, I don't, you would look like Lloyd Benson with better hair. Anyway, on that note, let's take a quick break. Stay with us.

14:44We'll be right back. for more details. Tonight, turn down the noise of the day and focus on the rest with AGZ, the nightly drink for winding down and resting up. New from AG1. AGZ supports your body's natural sleep cycle with clinically studied key herbs, adaptogens, and minerals in amounts supported by research. And no melatonin, helping you wake feeling rested. Wind down, rest up with AGZ. Learn more at DrinkAGZ.com.

15:44may be inappropriate for children under 13. Only in theaters October 10th. Get tickets now. Okay, Jess, a few more cabinet announcements worth discussing. Howard Letnick was tapped as Commerce Secretary, and Scott Pesant was picked as Treasury Secretary, which the markets like. Lynn McMahon, a longtime ally and donor, was named to lead the Department of Education. McMahon's background is light on education policy. Okay, as if that matters. And she also co-founded the World Wrestling Entertainment Entertainment Federation with her husband. Is it World Wrestling Entertainment? I think anyways. And the most surprising pick, Dr.

16:21Oz as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. What are your thoughts on these picks? Up and down, I guess. Linda McMahon, that's a tough one. She was in the first administration. She was definitely going to be somewhere here. She lied about having an education degree, which I feel like is a big lie if you're going to go be the head of the department of education essential education secretary um we should also note there have been a number of lawsuits over the years but there's even an open civil suit uh against the wwe that um these abuse scandals involving boys as young as 12 years old that the mcmahon's hired people um one guy in particular who they knew allegedly was an abuser and i didn't do anything to stop it.

17:09They call it the quote unquote ring boy scandal. But, you know, abolishing the Department of Education is their talking point. And one other thing I'll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states. We want them to run the education of our children because they'll do a much better job of it. You can't do worse. We spend more money per pupil by three times than any other nation. And yet we're absolutely at the bottom. We're one of the worst. I'm not sure that that happens.

17:50You need 60 plus votes to be able to do it. But what I think that they are going to try to do, and it sends a really important signal across the country and also to teachers unions is to talk more about school choice and vouchers. And there are a lot of people, even on the Democratic side, who are so disappointed in the quality of our public education and for good reasons. We just keep falling further and further behind. Public schools really let American students, especially American students who are poorer down during COVID, but not letting them back in the classroom, even though we knew that kids were not transferring, generally speaking, COVID to one another and that it would have been safe because teachers didn't want to come in.

18:35And you see Democrats like Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, has supported vouchers. I think that that is the way of the future and that Democrats are going to really need to reckon with this. And Linda McMahon will be the face of pushing that forward. I don't think there's any getting around it. They need a reformer. But this whole dojo over reductives thinking of let's just get rid of the Department of Education, just burn the village to save it. There are few investments, maybe outside of R &D or some science programs that show that are technically investments. Social security is a cost.

19:16We've decided to tax young people to transfer money to older people to eliminate or attempt to eliminate senior poverty. And it has largely worked. I would argue it's become too expensive. And now seniors are the wealthiest generation in the history of the planet. There should be means testing. It should be pushed back. It used to be when Social Security was first invented, 80 % of the people would never get it because they would die now. Now more than 80 % get it. And it used to be 12 to 1 people your age, supporting people my age. Now it's 3 to 1. Anyways, that is a cost. Department of Education is an investment.

19:50And you might argue that the investment is not getting the ROI it deserves because it is poorly allocated. And I agree with you around school choice. Competition works. There are some teachers, as someone who went through public schools all the way through graduate school, I remember certain components of my education. Emerson Junior High School, they were just warehousing us. There was 35 kids per class. I was there with the first year they integrated the school. So all of a sudden, out of the school, 1 ,500 kids, 600 black kids from Compton showed up after being on a bus for an hour. They were pissed off.

20:27And it wasn't a Hallmark movie. We all hated each other. Get this, Jess? We used to have black against white softball games, and the faculty allowed that. Oh, yeah, we hated each other. Absolutely. It was everything integration was not supposed to be. That's the bad news. The good news was that by high school, something wonderful happened and we were all getting along. My two best friends were, one was a Mormon kid who ended up going to Stanford. And the other was a black kid who got a football scholarship to Linfield, I think, University in Oregon, who lived in Baldwin Hills and his father was a minister.

21:01I mean, these two kids couldn't have been more different, except they were both really good kids. They were actually great role models for me. But anyways, my point is, it was absolutely awful. And I remember the teachers were so overwhelmed, just trying to keep a lid, 35 kids, sometimes 38 kids per class. And all my friends, my nice white friends, quote unquote, air quotes, their parents pulled them out of school immediately when integration started and stuck them in this hippy dippy private school called Windward. And I remember it was one of the first moments where I thought, oh, things are different for me and my mom.

21:35Because I went home and said, oh, I need to go to Windward. And she's like, sit down. We don't go to private schools. We need to talk. Yeah. And, but the Department of Education, in addition to title, I think it's title one, where they ensure that schools in rural poor areas get the funding they need to deliver an adequate education. They also are responsible for a head start. And they also, you know, I'm here with you now because the Department of Education are specifically Pell Grants. and that is Pell Grants, basically, if you're in the lower third of income earning homes, you get money, not even loans, which also student loans, the Department of Education overseas, which I believe it needs drastically reforming and I'll come back to that.

22:13But I could not have gone to UCLA without Pell Grants. And this makes my point while also giving me the chance to do my favorite thing, and that is boast. I pay a lot of taxes. So these Pell Grants are an investment that pay off. I think there are a few things that you could look at and think a dollar invested in education, well delivered, I'm not saying there isn't reform that's required, not only gets you additional incremental income because you can occasionally produce people who do really interesting things, go into teaching themselves, start businesses, create tax revenue, but you avoid a lot of costs because without an educational system, you're going to end up paying for these folks one way or another.

22:56whether it's through incarceration, mental health, homelessness, welfare, food stamps, unemployment. So the Department of Education is arguably the place where you're going to get the greatest return on your investment if it's handled well. And it's just, it sort of is depressing. Although I guess you could argue her background, she was, I believe, head of the Small Business Administration. So maybe, I mean, she strikes me as a competent woman. She's the least to one of the least bad picks, but I wish they would stop this bullshit notion that we're just going to get rid of the Department of Education.

23:32And what's interesting, or I find interesting, I interviewed a guy named Roy Stewart, who's the co-host of The Rest is Politics, which is, he was a former member of parliament, really bright guy, was actually the tutor, the private tutor for Princess Harry and William. And he said, when they look at America, when Brits look at America, they can't quite figure out the following. And that is, we absolutely underprioritize and don't talk about K-12 education. And we have some of the worst K-12 education in the world of the G7. But at the same time, we have amazing graduate schools. And at the same time, we keep figuring out a way to grow the economy.

24:10And he acknowledged that maybe that's the way the natural order of an economy is you have shitty schools, and it's like a Hunger Games, and then they get to go to the best universities. And that struck me as a very upsetting, you know, rubric or lens through which to look at education. But maybe that's because we just there's no doubt about it. K through 12, we're awful. And yet our economy continues to grow like crazy. But anyways, your thoughts on the Department of Education? I think it's important. And I hate, you know, whether DOGE is effective or not. The sweeping talking points about doing away with things that need help or need tender loving care is silly and reflects poorly upon you and is not how people run their businesses either.

24:55You know, I understand Elon came in and ran Twitter a bit like that, but they've been losing a lot of money, even though now it's a bastion for free speech slash the worst place I've already ever hung out in my life. And it reflects a lack of seriousness about this and a lack of care and concern for your core constituency, because guess what? a lot of people who don't make a ton of money voted for Donald Trump. And guess what? They use the public school system. They don't have other options to go to a private school. The lottery system, you're getting into charters, you know, might not get lucky and get to do that.

25:32And so I think that they would be a lot more convincing as serious folks if they took a different line of argumentation about what they're going to do with the Department of Education, including making sure that people do have access to vouchers in more circumstances. I think that that is important and you should be able to give people those options, certainly with religious schools. Because, you know, Catholic schools stayed open through the entire pandemic. That was something that they had going for them. And I understand why people want that. There's an aspect also to what McMahon will be overseeing.

26:06And Trump's been, he talked about this throughout the campaign. And I do think it is important. So, you know, they could essentially transfer responsibility for accrediting universities to college for colleges to the states. And Trump has been talking about things like if your university isn't letting Jewish kids go to class or get into the dining hall or get to the Hillel or the Chabad on campus, we're coming after you. And I don't think that that's necessarily a bad thing to be tinkering around with that or to at least be using it as a threat. They, you know, they've also said as a cudgel, you know, if you have DEI policies or if you're using affirmative action and the universities are smart enough that they can get to whatever form of affirmative action they think they need to without it sending up flags in that way.

26:56But what do you think about the approach of threatening these universities more if they are not treating each student as equal? Like if they're not treating kids from one group like they would if they were black, for instance, or if they were LGBTQ plus. Well, look, I said this early on. If I went to Royce Hall or the quad near Royce Hall at UCLA, or I went down to my universities in front of my building at NYU, and I held up a Confederate flag and I passed out bans to white kids and the kids without bans couldn't enter the university, they would have called in the fucking National Guard. but I mean what was clear coming out of this zombie apocalypse of useful idiots on campus free speech is never freer when it's hate speech against Jews and this was a really low moment for universities and I advise the regents of the University of California and they we did a couple calls over the summer and said okay they were very worried about fall what happens if this flares up again and I thought the solution was pretty easy if there are students who are protesting or putting up anything resembling an encampment and it turns to hate speech or they try and build, I mean, basically they tried to build a mini, you know, a mini city, if you will.