11/9/26: Trump Knifes JD Vance Over Iran, Saagar Blasts MAHA Freakout Over Calley Means On Rogan, Hegseth Impeachment Looms

This is an "I Heart" podcast. Guaranteed Human. You can change the world and still be fearing yourself out. I am Diana Flores. On my podcast "Worn to Become," legends you love reveal their real selves and share lessons for your life and career. We've sort of broken the mold. Like, we're not trying to be quiet. Whatever you said, that's it. Out there. And who they still want to become. Presented by GaiKo. I'm gonna give you the real deal. Whoa, I love that! Listen to "Worn to Become" with Diana Flores on the "I Heart" radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And for more, follow Diana Flores 33 and Tiktok Podcast Network on Tiktok. This is Darrell Bell. And I'm Kadeem Harrison. And together, we're the voices behind the newest podcast on the "Black Effect" podcast network a different world view with Darrell and Kadeem. Each Thursday, we're rewatching an episode of the show that changed our lives a different world. 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You get our breakdown of every daily story. And lots of links in your inbox every day. So, head over breakingpoints.com. You can sign up for the newsletter at the top for free today. Good morning, everybody. Happy Monday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal? Indeed, we do all sorts of things to get into from this big Trump 60-Minute's interview. He talks about the midterms, a run, immigration, potentially doing a deal with Democrats for Amnesty for certain people who are here. He also got pressed quite significantly by "Rost Out That" on Corruption. So, we'll dig into all of that. He's also lifted up Stephen Miller as his new chief of staff. So, should we listen to his tone in this interview or the personnel choices? We'll talk about that. Also, speaking of personnel, top "Maha" personality. Cally Neens has resigned from the administration was blowing the whistle on Corruption in an interview with Joe Rogan. However, he is excited about Stephen Miller being chief of staff. A lot going on there. We'll dig into all of that. It's Pete Hechset, going to be in or out. President Trump is out defending him. However, he is facing impeachment. Thomas Massey has already introduced those articles of impeachment. APAC took a lot of losses during the midterms. The folks from Track APAC are going to join us to take stock of the pro-Israel lobby and where they go from here. And what will Democrats do now that they have power? Representative Summer Lee is going to join me here live in studio to break down her thoughts on what should be next. I'm excited for that one. Make sure you go ahead and sign up breakingpoints.com and a special thank you for all of the people who signed up during our live stream. I know it's a free month trial. So, you know, come swim in the water, check it out, see how things are over here. Obviously, you get the free show completely uncut where you are available to watch everything. No clips, no ad breaks, all of that. And it will be hitting your inbox. So make sure that you take advantage and whenever renewal to come times, either forget about it or actively participate and making sure that you're supporting our show. We love you, no matter what happens. Seriously, we're very, very thankful to have all of you. Watch this on YouTube. Please hit subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you're listening to the podcast, please share an episode with a friend that really helps other people find the show. But as Chris said, we're going to go ahead and start with Donald Trump, 60 minutes interview, shocking moments all around. But here was his initial reaction, with Rostowfat, on 60 minutes to the mid-term shalacking. Let's take a listen. Give me your political analysis of what just happened. Well, number one, I was not on the ballot. But I can't paint hard for some people. And I think if I was on the ballot, it would have been a much different situation. Because you saw the level of popularity and love that was loved with massive rallies. You had to transfer those rotors, however, to candidates that they didn't like. But there's something beyond that. They didn't like the war. They didn't like the fact that gasoline went up because they had it down at a low. And there's a great dislike, incredibly, for Israel. So for Israel, you know, and he goes on there. But by the way, I couldn't help but not also play this one, where around the same time the 60 minutes was Aaron Trump was doing one of his live press conferences in front of Air Force One. He triples down on the Iran War. And in a little preview of how difficult 2028 is going to be for JD Vance. He also smacked down his own vice president for basically just saying the part out loud. It was the war while this happened. A-2, let's take a listen. Has JD Vance's comments about Iran questioning some of those decisions? Has that impacted your relationship at all? No, not at all. But a lot of people didn't like his comments. But not me. He was right. Other than one thing he should have made one other statement. One statement that I think is very important. If you had it to do again, would you do it again? The answer is yes. I can tell you if I had it to do again, this historically for history will go down as one of the best things we ever did. Because if they ever had a nuclear weapon, they would blow up the world. You know why? Because they're crazy. So you see all right there. He said, you know, a lot of people didn't like it. He was right, but he was kind of right. And I did kind of disagree. But he should have made one thing. It was obviously the best thing I've ever done and that it will be vindicated by history. In case you're wondering, George W. Bush himself said something very similar in 2006. So as their approval rating and their presidencies began to converge, we are now in the future. The historians will assess me as having done the right thing. Even though both in real time and I'm almost 100% sure about this, the historians will write about it as the most disastrous decision taken by a modern American president. Somehow actually usurping said George W. Bush potentially our worst president ever. So there you go. Well, I mean, it was interesting hearing him work through in real time with Ross his feelings about the Iran War. Because in one breath, he would acknowledge, you know, people didn't like it. And especially the gas prices. And I had them so low. And now they're, you know, up three, four dollars. And so that's a problem. In another breath, he'd say, I don't really think it's all the Iran War. And of course, he had this line about how, you know, it might be a problem today. But in the future, he's going to be vindicated and that he had to do it for, you know, to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon, which of course we all know. Number one, they're more likely to obtain a nuclear weapon than that now than they were before. Number two, there was a deal on the table to prevent nuclear weapon number three. You are the one who walked away from the JCPOA that they were abiding by. So anyway, there was a lot of cope in spin around the Iran War. But it was quite interesting. This interview was quite interesting. Trump's tone was very muted, almost sort of defeated. He allowed Ross to cut him off a bunch of times, which normally, you know, his temper would flare immediately. You could see him walking out. But he allowed Ross to sort of redirect him when he would start to go on a tangent. There was some reflectiveness there. We're going to talk about how he offered a deal to Democrats. He was like, yeah, maybe the immigration thing, like I guess that went too far and maybe we can do a deal. Now, I'm very skeptical that any of this is going to come to pass. I think much more telling is the choice to elevate Stephen Miller into the position of Chief of Staff because we all know Trump, right? Five seconds ago, he's a conciliatorial Democrats good job. Let's work together and then he'll tweet out, you know, the veto hat and send Todd Blanchett to talk about how he's going to investigate anyone, you know, any Democrat who goes against him. So he's all over the place. However, Stephen Miller is laser focused and very, you know, an extremely ideological and knows how to wield power. Trump is mostly sort of distracted with his various fixations, whether it's the ballroom or something else. So the fact that you put this person in charge by and large of the entire administration, you can, you know, that is the factor that I would focus on versus any of the more conciliatory language you're getting from here, but him, but it was extremely interesting to hear what he had to say and trying to grapple with, you know, okay, the midterm loss, you heard him do the cope there. Well, I wasn't on the ballot, but then he does immediately say, you know, there were some issues here and, you know, I campaigned hard for people. So he's not completely sort of distancing himself from the results. One thing I will say, soccer is that the results were so overwhelming in a state like Texas that I think John Corden would have lost. Actually, I don't know that his intervention there did make a difference. I don't know that it would have mattered in South Carolina because at the end of the day, Annie Andrews wins by like five points. So she might have been able to win regardless of who she was up against. Yeah, my take on South Carolina, Mississippi and Kansas, is I think that those states went blue because of the war. I actually considering the margin in Texas. I think even without the war that James Talleriko would have won that election. I'm not so sure yet about Gina and Yosa, with the Latino Swing and all of the other systemic kind of problems within MAGA that we're already manifesting in January of 2026, it does look like that margin as the war poured gasoline and potentially kicked Greg Abbott and some of these others, but you can't win the state by 12 points. I mean, James Tallerico won the election before any vote was cast on Election Day. In fact, James Tallerico won the election removing the most populous counties in the state of Texas. I have done a big deep dive of some of my friends in Texas as well, sending me some of the analysis. I mean, that is just completely unheard of. He won the state literally without the urban areas. I really want that to sink in for everybody in particular with some of these Latino counties, but returning to Trump and kind of how he's gonna react here, you see flashes of both of what you're saying. So here he has a very combative exchange with Rostow that over corruption and how his net worth happened to go up by several billion dollars and he's also conciliatory on immigration. Now remember, this is all rhetorical at this point and I'll get to the Stephen Miller of it all in just a second, but let's take a listen to see how he handled those questions. Your net worth went up by $3 billion. Well, since you returned to-- Okay, you ready? So here's-- My net worth did not go up by $3 billion. Well, you should have had stock. You should have had stock. I should have had stock. Excuse me, so-- How did it-- How did it go up by $3 billion? Well, let me explain. I devote almost no time to my net worth. I don't care. I have a lot of money. And far more than I ever thought I'd have. And I guess it's gone up. I don't even know. I have a son who's a very straight good guy. He watches over money. I don't even talk to him about it. He watches. He gives-- They gave my money. I have a lot of cash. I've had a lot of cash long before I came in here. I don't take a salary, you know? Do you think immigration hurt you in the midterm? Do you think the crackdown hurt you? I think it both helped in her. I think I got an A plus for closing up the border. I think that's something that's actually doable. Doable to create some kind of legal status for the landscapers and stuff. When you go into a hotel and you have a woman that's worked there as a maid, as a cleaner, as a this, as a dad, as a waitress, a lot of good things. Great job. And all of a sudden, they're being taken out of the country. It's tough. It's a tough thing. But there is a group of people that I would say on the sort of pretty far right that would like everybody taken out. Do some of the group of people-- Do any of those people work in your administration? Are they in the building with us right now? No, no, well, there are a lot of those people. So yeah, I mean, this is the thing about Trump. He can be anything to any one person. He can be pro-H1B anti-out-- by the way, I think it's extremely telling that he talks about hotel mates there because that was the same illegal labor that he employed at some of his properties and what he happens to himself be acquainted with. But to turn to the chief of staff question now, I also kind of did my own digging on this crystal. And it very much fits with a lot of what the New York Times and others are saying, let's put A4 up here on the screen. Trump choosing Stephen Miller. Ultimately, this actually was not an immigration decision, again, as I understand it. Trump blames Susie Wiles for the midterms. Why? Because he can't blame himself rationally. Over the last couple of days, he has gotten angrier and angrier about the midterm results. And it has began to set in for him that what is the current number of democratic seats? Is it 56? If Miss Mississippi and Alaska go the way it looks, it'll be 56, yeah. OK, so at 56 seats, he now realizes I will be living in investigation hell. Stephen Miller, as you said, is somebody extremely adept at using executive action, executive privilege. He founded before the Trump Second Trump Administration, an entire organization called America First Action, where it was like a legal defense committee, effectively, that was preparing for a lot of these investigations and other things to defend Trump and other people who are like MAGA adjacent. That was the expertise that Trump is really relying on here. Because as you guys saw in his corruption answer, he has a lot to lose about investigations directly into his family and into his son. For all of the business relationships that they have struck with the Pentagon, outside deals, Saudi investment, his own son-in-law, I mean, this is existential for him personally. Now on the immigration question and all of that, on enforcement specifically, you are very likely to see Stephen Miller and Trump himself, who of the times gotten into not screening matches exactly, but definitely some sparring sessions in the Oval Office around these things. But Trump's actual beliefs and feelings around this are going to matter a lot. Now, I cannot yet say which direction they're going to be in because of how erratic he is behaving. But this is much more kind of a führer bunker, honestly. Choice because you need somebody who is totally not just loyal to you, but capable of defending your interest personally. Let's not forget, you know, Stephen Miller also has basically no political identity, no, basically affect. He has no future without tying himself directly to Donald Trump. Whereas Susie Wiles, I mean, she's a long time GOP political operative. Yes, she won the campaign for Donald Trump in 2024, but she previously worked for Ron DeSantis. She's going to go back to Florida and she'll be a multi-millionaire, you know, for generations and has a future in politics. That's not the same, right, for Stephen Miller, who is himself, his family, honestly, everything is tied up, really in MAGA and in Donald Trump. So that is kind of the explanation that I have here, that he ultimately pitched himself as the person who can defend Donald Trump against the onslaught that he is about to incur. Yeah, I mean, that is logical. I'll just say, I mean, Stephen Miller's lifelong project is to enact his like white nationalist fantasies. And Trump is relatively checked out on most aspects of his administration. You know, he wants to wander around his ballroom and pick out the sconces like that's what he's actually into or give a press conference in front of the reflecting pool and talk about the algae, that's where his focus lies. So Stephen Miller is going to use the power that he's given as he always has. I mean, there's a reason why they called him the prime minister within this administration. And he took a lot of power and really spearheaded not only the mass deportation program that Trump rightly acknowledges was a political problem for him. I mean, when you talk about Texas, I think that may have been even as much as of an issue for them at least, as the Iran war specifically with the Texas swings, if you look at those numbers. But he also, as we know, Soger's deeply involved in national security is an absolute hawk there was involved with the Caribbean, you know, illegal boat strikes just like random murder of fishermen and anyone else that they thought might be a drug trafficker. So I think his elevation, whether that is what Trump wants from that elevation or not, is likely to lead to a doubling down of some of the most heinous and most unpopular aspects of this administration. So that's why I think that it's more important to look at the actions and the choices that are being made from Trump versus the, you know, the sort of more conciliatory tone that you got at times from this interview with Ross. Now, I do want to say on the corruption piece, he wasn't conciliatory at all, you know. Ross really pushed him and said, hey, if it was Biden, who had this crypto fund that was part owned by, you know, foreign government, how do you think you would look at that? Of course, you would think that was corrupt. And Trump spun this whole tale about how it's no different than other presidencies and other presidents owned their errors equivalent of crypto. I mean, it's total and complete nonsense that no one is going to buy. But, you know, all that being said, like, of course, Democrats should jump on this offer from Trump to do a deal with him on immigration. Draft the legislation put in front, you know, go ahead, move forward with it. Even if you don't have a lot of hope that it's ultimately going to be signed and become law, you can then demonstrate that you're serious about doing deals, you're serious about governing, you're serious about making, you know, compromises on an issue that's been fraught at the center of our politics. They should absolutely jump on that opportunity, even though I have very little expectation that it will actually come to pass. Because the other things are to your point, this is not the first time we've heard Trump say things like this. You know, he went on the all-in podcast and told them, I mean, we wanted to staple, you know, staple the diploma. - Stable the visa to the diploma of the foreign students here and he's always been pro H1B. He said things before about how the immigration, you know, the optics of it were too tough. There was reporting recently about apparently Melania was coming to him to say, y'all are deporting my friends. Please stop it. So we've heard this from him before, but it has not changed the aggressive nature of the approach because he's not the one spearheading it. Stephen Miller is. - Yeah, that's all very true. And that's why it is a genuine jump question. Remember, he says different things at all times. Like it doesn't actually mean anything. Let's also put a seven up here in a sign of where things are currently trending. Trump offered the White House press secretary job to Dana White. He says a violent fighter and warrior has been offered the job of press secretary. I have requested he bring with him assistance, even though some of them are not from our country, Islam Makachev, Kabeeb, I've never been able to pronounce Kabeeb's last name, Justin Gagee, Daniel Kormier, Amanda Nunez, and Kayla Harris. We need these people to defend this against the lunatic left. Dana will be a press secretary like none other. Dana White of the UFC has declined the job. However, there is a prevailing theory. Now, currently, you tell me what you think of this one. Let's put the next one up here on the screen. There is apparently a Dana W. White who ran public affairs for the SEC def, and was recommended apparently for Trump to as a press secretary and Trump then announced Dana White of the UFC as press secretary with our data having any idea. There is a lot of, you know, this is one of the alternative theories. Trump has denied it, but before we get to that, you seem to be a believer in this crystal. So what do you think? Yeah, this makes sense to me that like Suzy Wiles was, because this is like a bushera type of lady and she's, you know, her experiences with the press. That's what she does. So it makes a sort of sense that whether Suzy Wiles or someone else was like, oh, I've got the perfect person. How about Dana White? Trump was like, oh, absolutely. Dana would be perfect. Let me have her in the job right now. But he's now saying, he's now claiming, so this was all just a joke. You guys just didn't get this crazy funny joke that I was putting out there. Let's take a listen about it. What made you suggest Dana White and are you serious about her? Are you kidding around? Well, if you looked at it, you saw the assistance I put. I posted the greatest wrestlers and UFC fighters in the world, right? I will tell you, I was only kidding. But Dana loves the idea and there's only one Dana. He's great. I don't know. He would, but you wouldn't mess around with him so much. Right? So I was kidding, of course. When you look at the fighters that I put in, that's why I said, some don't come from our country. They come from parts unknown. They come from a lot of areas that are very rough areas, but so I was kidding. But I think Dana likes the idea and he is a very capable guy. So he's actually coming tomorrow. Of course, I was kidding. And you can see that because I put all of the great fighters as his assistance that they're all going to come with him. But it was just a little fun. But Dana is actually coming tomorrow actually on other for other reasons. I think he's going to be watching him. So he's going to come over and see me. That was an example of something where I was kidding. And then people said, you know, that's actually a pretty good idea. So it was a funny joke that Dana had to actually like, you know, say, I don't want the job. But who at this point would want this job? I mean, I know there will be people who will jump at it or sort of desperate. But like at this point, I mean, you've had the worst political disaster in our lifetimes. You have to go back to the Watergate era to see anything that is comparable. You know, his he's facing this democratic control of the House and the Senate going to be under incredible investigation. The whole thing seems to be sort of dysfunctional. All the infighting from Trump 1.0 now is coming back coming back to the surface. So you really want to be the one that's like jumping on the shift now as all the other rats are fleeing the ship. I don't know. That's a I don't think that's going to be to appealing a job for a very high level person. Right. And look, I mean, this is where history can be informative as well. In the first Trump administration, Trump had regular and daily press conferences with Sean Spicer and with Sarah Huckabee Sanders after Sarah Huckabee Sanders left following also a democratic wins in the midterm. Guess what happened? He hired Stephanie Grisham who did like, I think maybe one, maybe two press conferences. And they didn't actually return to having press conferences until Kayleigh McEnany during COVID. And even then, they were very irregular. And so right now, Caroline Levit was the best that they're going to get. And even she wouldn't come back to defend a this nonsense. You know, she's been tight-lipped on like the Bill Marshall show and elsewhere. So I think it's very likely actually to go much more in that direction. They'll just put some cabinet official up there, call it a briefing, which is a tried and true strategy from this White House. But it is very telling Susie Wiles, the only person now to technically get fired. No actual, you know, plan to replace any serious and substantive cabinet official, which we'll get to in the headset block. And I think that is actually more telling again to the point around conciliation. It's not going to happen. Trump is going to. It is going to dawn on Trump as it already is on the corruption side of just how much, not only this was a political repudiation, but how much his life is going to change. Everyone in that building, you all better start picking up copies of my life by Bill Clinton and all of the other memoirs of what it was like 1998 to 2000 because that is what your future currently looks like. Okay, with all that said, let's get to Maha. First thing I hate about Ulysses is they never actually tell turks. I'm Dave and I've been in it for my life. In October 2021, my brother David was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. A year later, he convinced me to make a podcast with him. This podcast. Okay, so here we go. We didn't know what we were doing, so we just started recording. We discussed cancer since the radiation had lost about 10 more pounds. We fought. Yeah, pisses me off. And we talked openly about the fact that David was going to die. I am afraid of being forgotten. My brother David is the story of the last chapter of my brother's life. It's weird and messy and vulnerable, and I'm going to share all of it with you. The constant back-and-forth battle about how do I, how do I not just be alive, but actually live. Listen to my brother David on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. But more than a century, Miss America sold the country a fantasy. Well, are you ready, ladies? Okay, here we go. But over the past decade, the crown's been slipping. They said, goodbye to swimsuits. Now, hello to lawsuits. I'm Bridget Armstrong. Last season, we took you inside the world of America's next top model. Now I'm back with season two of this podcast, Curse of Miss America, investigating the rise, fall, and uncertain future of one of America's most iconic institutions. The Miss America pageant. I never received scholarship. I need to pay for my student loans. He looks at me and goes, "You don't look like you suffered in the eating disorder." It's great, but looks too ethnic. It's a story the Miss America organization really doesn't want us to tell. An exploitation of our Miss Americas is treated by the Miss America organization as an attack on Miss America itself. Listen to the Curse of Miss America on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Every colony has its rules. This whole plan of salvation according to Mormon doctrine is heteronormativity and carnate. If you pray and if you fast, God will help you. You either do this and get this fixed or you're never going to see your family again. I'm Kate Kelly. I was a true believing Mormon, up until I was publicly excommunicated. And I am your host for season two of Camp Shame. This season, we're talking all about conversion therapy from church, pews, and therapist offices, from state capitals to college campuses. Conversion therapy keeps getting resurrected. Listen to Camp Shame season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Turning now to Maha, an explosive podcast episode released by Joe Rogan, with Kelly Means, Formerly, a senior advisor to RFK Jr. levels all kinds of corruption allegations against the outgoing White House Chief of Staff. Susie Wiles, let's take a listen. Susie Wiles, the Chief of Staff, before she joined the Trump administration, was one of the top lobbyists in the country. She spent her career taking money from Benjamin Daniel, who she was a top consultant for, the pharmaceutical industry, the pesticide industry. So just, just passionately, just as a statement of economic facts, Susie Wiles, her career has been taking money from the industries and foreign governments who would pay her the most money. That's what she did. Nobody disputes that. Susie's daughter went to a lobbying firm and it was an open discussion in the White House. If a company hired Susie's daughter, then that was getting a high priority. And there's this chart that shows continental strategies. The group Susie's daughter worked for, had almost zero in revenue before the Trump administration, shot up to 30-ish million dollars a year in revenue. So if you're a special interest and you want to get something done, the secrets out, you pay Susie's daughter and it was openly discussed that when they had a client. And then Susie worked at a firm called Ballard Partners. Ballard Partners has become the highest revenue generating lobbying firm in history. And when Ballard, it's just an open, everyone knows this. If you hire Ballard, you get a meeting with Susie and you can get things done. And their revenue went from middleing to the highest revenue lobbying firm ever. So I'm just trying to state facts. That's who these people are. That's their background. So this was a pretty explosive, obviously, resignation by Callie Means, who worked for RFK Jr. He leveled specific allegations against Susie Wiles, Ballard Partners, and James Blair. James Blair was the deputy chief of staff to Susie Wiles. Both Blair and Wiles were in instrumental in the 2024 campaign. And we're very, very powerful inside of the White House, the first and the second year. Now, you know, I actually, we'll play the second one of Calle means as well before he kind of break some of this down where he also appeared in Face the Nation on CBS where he says that they treat Trump quote like a baby. Let's take a listen. - He respects Secretary Kennedy. He wants to go hard on the issue of improving health for children. I think he had severe poor advice from people I think who treated him like a baby in the new respects and used him. - The president's staff treat him like a baby. - Of course, they would block access and information him all the time. - Okay, all right, let me break this down because this is my biggest problem and I know yours as well. Trump is not only a full-bone adult, he's actually on his way out, right? He's not just a grown man, he's a grandfather of people who can vote. That's how old he is. So I think he has some agency. He's been president and/or a leader now for over a decade and before that allegedly this great CEO and he's so easily manipulated by his staff. No, no, no, I don't think so. Because the core problem and allegation that Calle is saying here is about corruption and I agree with him to be clear around CZWiles and all of that, but consider the possibility not just that Trump is also corrupt himself but that he doesn't care about basically anything. So for example, let's put James Blair's response up here on the White House. One of the allegations that Calle had leveled at James Blair was that Blair had worked to force through fruit-flavored vapes in the FDA. And by the way, that is all true. Basically as Blair at least levels out on vapes here, he does say so much of this is just false, so much of it. I didn't have a stranglehold on policy. I'm very little of it, but when you read between the lines, it's pretty clear that Wiles, Blair and others, I mean, they basically had the trust of the president to go out and do these things. And to the extent where there was a major war over Maha priorities, let's say over Cratum, let's say also over glyphosate, right? In those two instances, Trump knew about RFK being upset about that. He just didn't care. On Cratum, for example, you know why Cratum is not going after by the, or is not being prosecuted or cracked down by the DOJ. Well, first of all, it may hurt that the DHS Secretary, you can Google this, Mark Wayne Mullin, is a huge Cratum investor. And second, that one of the largest Cratum so-called owners or purveyors here in the United States, oh, just low and behold, two years ago, became a mega GOP donor and has bombarded the White House. Trump knows he doesn't care. So are the people around him, vulnerable to lobbying and all this, absolutely. But this idea that they're controlling the flow of information is total bullshit. I was telling you before the show crystal. I mean, in a world where you or I, any of us can call Trump literally at any time. Everyone has his personal phone number. People are controlling access to him. Really? You know what's more actually likely to happen? Is that Jensen Wong or any Cratum CEO or a weed CEO, by the way, in the case of weed, that's literally what happened. A CEO of a weed company was in the oval and is the person who, quote, convinced him. Again, I give Trump agency because he doesn't care about protecting children or whatever. He was just like, okay, let's do it 'cause it's good for my friends who are down in Marlaco. Nonetheless, obviously, you know, this has highlighted kind of a civil war within MAGA, but I just find it so tedious. I find it tedious in the sense of Trump is the person who has agency here. Are James Blair, you know, the guy who, who was he working for some breakaway Russian Republic, Republic of Spariska or something? - Yeah, that's great. - It's Susie Wounds, Susie Wiles, you know, was she previously a lobbyist? Yeah, all true. Guess what, Trump knew he didn't care. He doesn't care about life, say he doesn't care about MAGA and he doesn't care about protecting children. - No. - Period. - Yeah. - Maybe some people do. - No, because he's useful to him to get elected and that's it. - Yeah. - Period, end of story. I mean, I'm sorry. I don't know what to tell you. If you thought that Trump was gonna be somehow anti-corporate or stand up to corporations, that is not who he is. That's never who he's been. Of all the corruption in the White House, there is no one more corrupt than Donald Trump himself. Just go watch that Ross Delta interview for a taste of how he continues to defend the fact that he's gotten billions dollars of dollars richer since he's come into the White House. You think he cares about Susie Wiles lobbying contracts? No, he doesn't care about any of this. And on, you know, some of the big issues here, like life is hate in particular, we're talking about executive orders he had to sign. Like he didn't know, he had no idea that he was having behind us, but no. He affirmatively signed it. So, I mean, I'm just so sick of this. Sagan, I know you are too. We've been getting this ever since Trump ascended to the White House the first time. Oh, it's not his fault. It's his advisors around him and they're tricking him and they're deceiving him. And if we just get cushioned around, if we just get this person out, it's all to blame for them. Trump, of course, can never do any wrong. And at a certain point, it's like, guys, when is there going to be any accountability for the man who's been the most powerful man in politics? In my lifetime, who has been at the center of our politics for over a decade now, he has agency. He has the ability to say yes or no, he has the ability to know when he's being tricked and deceived or to have his priorities. When he is interested in something, he very much pushes that priority forward like with the freaking ballroom. So it's just, you know, it is so cliche at this point. It's never Trump's fault. It's always someone else. And now, Callie's out there, put B6 up on the screen. Now he's out there like, oh, now that we've got Stephen Miller, everything's going to be different. There's a revolution happening in the Trump administration right now. I'm shocked about who I'm hearing from. Senior leaders throughout the government who are ready to take off the shackles, get big things done for the American people, which is what Stephen Miller and Potus want. I can't stress this enough. Some of President Trump and RFK's strongest campaign promises deal with institutional reform that Democrats ran on too, not innately partisan issues. Don't let the media talk us down. We can get big things done in the next year and Americans want that. I mean, the other thing here too, is like the RFK junior of it all. I mean, how embarrassing that your hero, RFK junior, is just standing by and taking it while all of the things that he's supposed to stand for are being dismantled while he's being undercut at every turn. And he's going along with Trace not saying that there's corruption or there's a problem. No, he's going along with all of it. You barely hear from the guy at this point. So the whole narrative just falls apart under the slightest bit of scrutiny here. - Right, and remember, RFK even went on the Joe Rogan podcast to break all this down after glyphosate. And he's like, yeah, I disagreed with it, but there are other elements. - Yeah, so the idea that RFK junior could not call his boss at any time, who he sees on what a semi-weekly basis on the Oval Office is ridiculous. I mean, I was talking to a friend who made a good point. If anything, Iran War and Mahas show how easy it is actually for outsiders to influence Donald Trump. If you, you know what I mean, let's think about Iran. Why did the Iran War happen? Very few people in the White House wanted the Iran War to happen, but Mark Lewin wanted it to happen. And so did Mark Dubowitz and Mark Teeson, all these people who Trump talks to you on the phone all the time, as well as Pete Hegg said, a lot of the quote outside advisors are the people who obviously influence him to go to where with Iran, not to mention even BB himself. Now, I'm giving Trump agency. It's his fault that we attacked Iran as much as it is all those other people. Mahas too. You know how all these CEOs are able to subvert or even get to Suzy Walsh in the first place? Trump likes him. Another point is that James Blair and Suzy, I hate to sound like an apologist for these people, but it's one of those where, you know, to scapegoat them as what's wrong and not Trump himself just really pisses me off. James Blair and Suzy Walsh, let's think about what they were doing. On the Mahasense, they were like, well, we have a food inflation crisis. So do we really want to pursue stuff which is going to send the price of food up? I can understand, I disagree with that to be clear. I don't want quite to say in my food and I don't want to process food either. But I'm not dumb enough to sit here and tell you that it's not going to make food more expensive. Which it will, let's be honest, it absolutely will. Now, I think there's ways that we could go around that and you'd have to pass a lot of different types of legislation to make sure that we're to balance out. I think it's worth it, actually, to have some temporary disruption and to be healthier. But did the White House in the immediate term? No, you know, in terms of a fruit flavored vapes and THC, I mean, this is the degeneracy White House. This is the most pro-vice administration in modern American history. You think they give a shit that people are out there, you know, plugging themselves to the gas station heroin, which is what freedom is? No, again, both for money purposes, but also they have made it harder for banks to abide by human trafficking regulations on porn. They legalize weed effectively by a schedule three. They are pro-cratum, they are, I mean, it got, I mean, pro gambling, they legalize gambling. Nationwide, does that sound like an administration? Necessarily, that was influenced or is it a whole of government top down approach from Trump himself? Who knows that all of these people give his campaign Titanic amounts of money, which is James Blair and Susie Wiles job in the first place? I'm not defending, I think it's disgusting and corrupt. I wish that he wouldn't do all of those things, but that's the point. That's the point around all of this. And so, look, I get it, you know, Cali's out here, let's put B4 up here on the screen. Cali is telling James Blair and Susie Wiles, stop harassing me with texts and phone calls. If there's a factual inaccuracy, send it to me in row. writing. He also B5. Let's put that on the screen. He's telling them to preserve their records around all of the different allegations that he made in preparation because ballard partners and Susie Wiles and James Blair, at least, you know, nobody's outright said it, but they're potentially moving towards a lawsuit. By the way, please do it. I would love for that to go to scuff rick. There's nothing that I would love more. But I do think that when all said is done, you know, the idea here that it's just Susie Wiles who used her position to enrich herself or her family. I'm, you know, virtually certain, at least in the case of lobbying power and all that. I know for a fact how it all happened when specific instances, but Trump knew too. And that's the part where, you know, you got to give him. You have to give him the agency. At the end of the day, Maha, he used you. He didn't actually care. And after a certain point, I mean, you're clinging on to Steven Miller. Yeah. I mean, Steven Miller from what I know is apparently Maha, but the point is it's a Trump doesn't care. The McDonald's guy doesn't care. The glyphosate stuff, you know, Brooke Rollins, all these other people who we appointed to hit the White House and to senior cabinet officials. Like if you think this is just going to change, I mean, I'm sorry. Yeah. Well, and Steven Miller, like, I don't know what his Maha commitments are. I've seen no evidence of him fighting for that within the administration. And, you know, I mean, that's not his top right. His top thing is immigration. That's where he's going to spend what critical capital he has, which is quite a bit. That has always been his primary focus. So I mean, it's just silly. Like Trump went to a room full of oil executives and was like, give me a billion dollars and I will do whatever you want. That's who he is. If you want to, you know, get the ultra processed food out of school lunches, for example, I support that. He's right. Kelly is right. That is not a like partisan priority. There are a lot of people across the political spectrum who would support that. That is going to, you are going to be in for the fight of your life against these corporations who make tons of money selling garbage to schools, you know, school systems nationwide. And so if it's not a top priority where people are going to be absolutely committed to taking on that industry, come what may, it's not happening. It's not happening. This administration is pro corporate. Trump gave his administration a bunch of tech oligarchs and oil executives, like that is how he operates. So yeah, you're right. They got used. Now he's trying to spin that it's just these couple of people that were the problem, et cetera. And now maybe things will be different. I don't even know why at this point, given the fact that he broke with them, like just tell the truth about what's really going on there rather than trying to always absolve Trump and pretend like he is some baby. You're the one treating him like a baby, truly, who has no agency and is just so easily fooled and tricked by the people around him. Yeah, well, you know, and I can't wait, you know, somebody said, why don't you call Trump and ask him, I will, you know, I will. I actually will be like, Hey, Callie means as people treat like a baby. What do you think? All right, I'll let you guys know. I'll let you guys know what he says. All right, let's get to Hegseth. The first thing I hate about eulogies is they never actually tell the Turks I'm Dave and I've been through my life. A year later, he convinced me to make a podcast with him this podcast. Okay, so here we go. We didn't know what we were doing. So we just started recording. We discussed cancer, since duration, I lost about 10 more pounds. We fought. Yeah, pisses me off. It's weird and messy and vulnerable and I'm gonna share all of it with you. The constant back and forth battle about how do I, how do I not just be alive, but I should live. Listen to my brother, David, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. But more than a century, Miss America sold the country of fantasy. Okay, here we go. Now I'm back with season two of this podcast, Curse of Miss America, investigating the rise, fall, and uncertain future of one of America's most iconic institutions, the Miss America pageant. He looks and he goes, "You don't look like you suffered in the eating disorder." It's great, but looks too ethnic. An exploitation of our Miss America's is treated by the Miss America organization as an attack on Miss America itself. Listen to the Curse of Miss America on the I Heart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Kate Kelly. I was a true believing Mormon up until I was publicly excommunicated. This season we're talking all about conversion therapy from church, pews, and therapist offices, from state capitals to college campuses. Listen to Camp Shame season two on the I Heart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So there have been a lot of rumors about potential administration staffing changes outside of just Susie Wiles, the person who has been mentioned the most as having their job in jeopardy is Secretary of War, Pete Hegg Seth, Ross Dalton at Astonwell Trump, about that yesterday. Let's take a listen to that. After a big midterm defeat like this, do you expect to fire anyone from your team, you do a little bit. A little bit. I love Mike Abbinett. I think they're good. But I'll be doing maybe a few changes. I don't want to mention who, because I think- Well, I will say that we saw Secretary of Defense Pete Hegg Seth in the hall he was meeting with you just before now. His name has come up a few times as someone people have called for his resignation. Do you have confidence in him? I do. Look, we've won two wars, we won that war in less than one hour. And you credit Hegg Seth? Nobody was killed. You credit Pete Hegg Seth? No, but he was a part of it. So he mentions there specifically Venezuela and Iran. He also talked some about this in that impromptu press conference. Let's listen to that. And we made it impossible for them to get there nuclear dust. So when you say about Pete Hegg Seth, I mean, he's guilty of two things basically winning two wars. And the second war, we knocked out their nuclear capacity and probably saved Israel and probably saved them at least. I believe we saved the Middle East and Israel combined. So he seems to indicate here at least that he is happy with Pete Hegg Seth, giving him credit for these quote-unquote victories in these quote-unquote wars that they've been fighting, although we were, I thought, supposed to not call it a war in Iran. In any case, I don't know, Sagar, my instinct as Hegg Seth may actually be safe here, because if you fire him, you're sort of admitting that the Iran war was a disaster. And Trump is not ready to admit that. He wants to claim that they won. He wants to claim that Iran is ready to capitulate. Talked a lot about that too, in the interview with Ross that, oh, we're just on the verge of a deal. They're going to be coming to us any moment now. We're going to be able to wrap this thing up and achieve our final victory. So I think firing Hegg Seth would be kind of an admission that this didn't go very well. Couple of different problems for Trump. Number one, exactly what you said. To fire Hegg Seth, it's to admit that the war didn't go well. He said that the war has gone perfectly from day one. He won't ever admit that something has gone wrong. Number two, don't forget this. Trump really likes Hegg Seth. Hegg Seth is the person who produces these fancy propaganda videos, have been blown stuff up. He was the most vociferous person who pushed the war in the situation room at the time that they went through with it. And this narrative of victory of Hegg Seth is directly tied to Trump himself. So there's that. Number two, is there about to be 56 Democratic senators. They are not going to confirm any replacement of Pete Hegg Seth. And at this point, you better get moving if you want to try and confirm him in a lame duck, which, as we'll get here too, with impeachment, that may not even happen, considering the shellacking that a lot of these Republicans also took. And now that they can finally vote freely, if they want to. So they would have to have an acting secretary of defense for two years. I'm not saying you can't get it done, but it creates all kinds of legal problems in terms of set to Senate and confirmation. And even if you don't do confirmation, their ability to actually be able to do the job, it's actually like nightmarish and chaotic if they want it to go down that road. I'm not to say that they won't, they certainly could. But the biggest problem is that he has to maintain that he won the war and he won. And as we all saw in our A-block, he still says the history will vindicate him as the best thing that he's ever done. So no, I don't think Hegseth actually is going anywhere. And by the way, Pete Hegseth and Stephen Miller are like this, okay? That's another important thing. And just to show you how confident Hegseth himself is, here's a propaganda video he put out from the Pentagon just yesterday, let's take a listen. To the troops, don't blink, ignore the noise, never hesitate. You see all this is politics. You do real things to stay the course. And as always, President Trump leads the way. And I'll assure you we have only just begun to fight. We are more determined than ever, more resolute than ever to finish what we have started. We will stand, we will fight, and we will defend this republic from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Godspeed and keep going. Not a video I think you put out if you're about to get fired. Just me, I could be wrong Hegseth the certainly an idiot enough to do so. But you know, to the impeachment point as well, this goes to, I mean, this is another thing which would make them dig their heels in. They don't want to give a scalp to the to the Democrats. Remember, Trump only fired Susie Wiles because he blames her for losing the midterms as his chief political operative. He can't do that with Hegseth and with Iran. He has to put he can put all the blame on her and she's not somebody who has to go through senate confirmation whenever she has to be replaced. That's the key. I mean, the Susie Wiles blame, it really is silly. And like you know, like fan of Susie Wiles, but I don't think she was the one out there telling you to like talk about John Hustead's ass and give a final press conference just talking all about the reflecting pool. I mean, I suspect she was the one who said, hey, you know, maybe we shouldn't do these final weekend rallies because part of what led to it being such a massive blood bath is because Trump intentionally nationalized this race, which was the polar opposite of what the candidates themselves wanted and needed. So of course, it's silly to blame Susie Wiles. Trump is the guy who did the terrorist. Trump is the guy who did the, you know, who allowed Steve Miller to do the insane mass deportation. Trump is the guy ultimately who makes the decision on the Iran war. And so it was reality that was the problem for Trump. But on the impeachment front, Hegseth may be more vulnerable than he is with Trump at this point. Let's put C5 up on the screen. Massey is moving forward with his impeachment of Pete Hegseth. They say House Republican leaders are bracing for enough GOP defactions to impeach defense secretary Pete Hegseth when the measure comes to evote this week. Republicans who were defeated in Tuesday's election night blood bath have little left to lose could be more willing to back impeaching Hegseth whose overall support has eroded since the start of the Iran war. Hegseth does not have a lot of love on Capitol Hill retiring representative Don Bacon told Fox News. Bacon told Axios he is undecided on this week's vote. And you can imagine how this math would work, Sagar. I mean, you have dozens of Republicans who are about to go home, who lost their elections in large part because of the Iran war. Many of whom will also be hoping that there's some future in politics for them. And if they vote for a Hegseth impeachment, that would be some way of demonstrating that they learned the lesson and that they're independent from Trump and they're independent from party leadership. You also have some that are just going to be pissed off and want to send a final screw you for putting me into this political situation where I've now lost my job. So you've got that dynamic as well. And then you've got, of course, Democrats who are all in for voting to impeach him. And it's already a very narrow Republican majority that they hold right now until January. So you could easily see how this works. Now, in terms of conviction in the Senate, that math is much, much more difficult because the bar is very high. I wouldn't be shocked to see if you Republican defections there as well though. I mean, yeah, I mean, if you're, I'm not going to make the argument specifically about Ted Cruz, but just think about his political situation, he is now the only Republican statewide official in Texas in the entire state of Texas, okay? He's looking at Bobby Polito, who just won in the Rio Grande Valley by like Assad margins and go on shit. If that guy runs against me, I could be in big trouble. You are going to have every Republican in the country now looking over their shoulder and going, oh my God, if Scott Cologne can win in Mississippi, and I really safe. So the political calculus has just completely changed. We're previously Ted Cruz or John Curtis or any of these people would be thinking about a Republican primary challenge and the risks of going against Trump. Now they have to think about I got to be able to win a general election. And things may not be better two years from now. Things may be worse two years from now. The way it's all, you know, shaping up the way it's all going. So I would not be shocked if there were some Republican defections on the Senate conviction vote as well. And the outgoing ones, people like Tom Tillis, who hate speed Hegseth, it has talked about it before. We, by the way, like to your point, Hakeem Jeffries, the potentially, or the Democratic leader for now, potentially the next house speaker. Here he said he is an absolute yes on the Hegseth impeachment. Let's take a listen. I'm a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution. The so-called Secretary of Defense has abused his power, undermined our national security and engineered this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, which has skyrocketed prices on the American people and made the country less safe. Pete Hegseth has got to go. There you go. Absolutely. So even Hakeem is out here being like, oh yeah, well, we'll definitely impeach him. And here is French Hill. He is a Republican congressman who also is leaving the door open. Let's take a listen. Should Hegseth be impeached? Well, the question is for the President should he continue to serve as the Secretary of the War? You're going to be asked to answer this, though by Representative Mass. Yeah. That's right. Well, you know, I want to hear the debate on it to see if it merits impeachment versus some other disciplinary action or action by the President. If he's not getting the job done in leading the Department of War, that's the issue. Are you satisfied with how the war has been handled? No, but I mean, I think the commander in chief has to take the responsibility for the strategy of conducting the war and how it's been conducted. French Hill, by the way, so this is the second district of Arkansas, where it appears he won his election by about 3,000 votes in a second district of Arkansas. So guys, that's what it looks like after you start winning by literally less than a percentage point, whenever you're used to winning by about 16 to 17 points. That's the reality. I haven't seen clips like this literally since 2006, and that is the big. But last thing, Chris, look at this. I don't know if you saw this. Did you see Ron Johnson do that interview where he called out corruption? Yeah. This is the dual problem, just the last point here on politics. He has to come out and say, I wasn't talking about Donald Trump. I was talking about the deep state, the bipartisan deep state, okay, on corruption. Now this is a guy from Wisconsin. So he's now facing an Abdul who wins by what did he win by eight? So a Trump plus 10, or sorry, Democrat plus 10 shift from 2024. So you both have to be competitive in the state where you are and you can't break away from Trump. Yeah. So look how screwed these guys are. Ted Cruz, I actually think Ted Cruz, I think he's going to vote to defend Hegseth. Good luck with that in two years, brother. That's going to be a fun one on the campaign trail. Yeah. And the Senate map in 2028, much more favorable for Democrats than this one was much more favorable. I mean, it's it is easier now to see Democrats achieving a super majority in the Senate than it was to even conceive of Democrats winning the Senate at all this cycle. So there are a lot of vulnerable Republican senators out there. And then you're right to point out the, you know, some of them like Tillis who were beaten primaries or retiring, who, you know, have zero fucks left to give basically. So it's going to be a very, very interesting time period. And just last piece on this, because we've got gas standing bios, but C8 up on the screen just about the reality of where the war is, you know, Trump is trying to still spin this victory narrative. Oh, we won. It was glorious. It was amazing. They're not going to have a nuclear weapon. And Trito was to your, you were pointing the sounds, I were basically like live tweeting the situation room meeting, which is funny in and of itself. And he says a flight step has been taken back from the brink. We are not out of the woods until a deal has been reached. It's just a bit more time that has been added to the clock. And that's the thing is the fundamental dynamics here have not changed whatsoever. You know, it's still going to require, if there's going to be a deal that is done, it is still going to require Trump accepting some level of humiliation. And the Mark Levin's and the Ben Shapiro's and the whoever else's of the world are still out there, you know, drawing a hard line and saying that would be absolutely unacceptable. They're less than that they learned, or at least pushing from this midterm, as though the problem wasn't the Iran War, it's the problem is that you didn't go hard enough. The problem is that you flirted with this memo of understanding at all. And those people still have a lot of influence and Plus, they can exploit the fact that Trump's ego is so fragile and he does not want to be seen as someone who capitulated to Iran. That's why the memo of understanding fell apart previously. So all of the military and economic problems that come along with that, those have not been solved. You know, I do think there's diplomacy going on right now, hopefully it amounts to, you know, Trump is able to take the deal that is on the table, which is not a great one, but it's better than continuing this insane war. But nothing is guaranteed here whatsoever, especially with now Netanyahu's political future very much in doubt. In Israel can put C-11 up on the screen. The Gadi Eisenkot has been offered to, by the president, to try to form a government. I don't know if he'll be able to do that. Or not, if he fails, the Netanyahu continues on as this sort of caretaker prime minister. And they go eventually to new elections if Eisenkot and Netanyahu fail to be able to form governments, but his political future is still very shaky. So he has all the incentive in the world again to, you know, go back to war with Iran because that's how he sees his political future as being secured. Absolutely. True. Remember, I mean, let's put the Iranian Foreign Minister, I forget which element is it? C-10, please. His statement here, he says, "American voters have made their choice time for White House to make its own. Our two-day proposal stands, meet the requirements, including end the war on all fronts, you will see results." Or choose war and we will see our alert and battle harden warriors rain down hell. That's the truth. You can surrender or not. It's really up to you. And in the interim, yes, gas prices appear to have dropped below $4 a gallon for the very first time, all because they think that this might end the war. But as soon as it becomes clear that it may not, they're going to go right back up and this same vice will be right around your neck. This is, I think, that absent abject and total surrender, the Iranians will never make a deal. So, the Qatari Prime Minister just flagging this for news, because some big news may come out later, is in town today and is meeting with the vice president and with the president. Sorry, I meant the Qatari Emir, the Emir of Qatari, is meeting with both of them. And obviously has been a key diplomatic node in this conflict. So, we'll see. You either do this and get this fixed, or you're never going to see your family again. I'm Kate Kelly, and I am your host for season two of Camp Shame. This season, we're talking all about conversion therapy, an outmoded practice that is very much still alive. 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