Major Garrett says the timing of Tulsa Gabbard's resignation indicates there may be more going on

And this is not a firing so much as a resignation. And if it's a resignation, not a firing, is there a precipitating cause? And I'm not sure that there is. I don't have any direct reporting that there is, but there is a series of events this week and sort of culminating in announcements made to date that suggest something might be up. Let's get to the president, the IRS. And the slush fund. Okay, we've talked about this the last couple weeks, you know, where the president was basically negotiating with himself. And again, both of us will reiterate no one's tax information should ever go public. That is an absolute violation. That is awful. There were 405,000 individuals during the first Trump term. where this individual, I think it's Charles Little John, released this information. And so the president was talking about it. I want $10 billion as compensation. Well, clearly they were running the legal issues. It had passed the statute of limitations, looked like maybe a judge was about to shut it down. And then funny, the president, negotiating with the president, negotiated this 1.776. Yep, I get it. Fun. to be given out by a group of five that the eternally general comes up with four, Congress comes up with one person who were aggrieved by the justice system. And it's absurd. It's ridiculous. It's including the prod boys, the oathkeepers, anybody involved in January 6th, the president's pals could get this. And you know this extraordinary well. It is rare when core Republicans feel that they have the bandwidth They have the backbone to go after the president on one of his ideas because look what just happened with Bill Cassidy. Look what just happened in Thomas Massie. Look what happened in Indiana. But I'm sure you're reporting shows the same thing with that. When Todd Bland shows up and meets with Republican senators yesterday, they crushed him. They absolutely crushed him. In the end, do you think this fund is actually going to take place? Some part of it might survive because this administration has a pretty established track record of muscling things through, and it really wants to muscle them through. Now, we'll see. We'll see how much muscle the president wants to exert in this direction. The president for a long time tried to muscle, no disclosure of the Epstein files, but then when he saw he was going to lose a discharge position vote in the House, they caved. They may cave on this, but they're going to try to muscle it for a while. And interestingly, there's someone who's going to apply for compensation.

Michael Cohen. He's going to be on the takeout this evening to explain why. He believes he should be compensated. Okay. Michael Cohen. I think he's going to actually put a foot in both Biden weaponization and Trump weaponization. And maybe Letitia James and Albert Bragg weaponization. So I don't know how many feet Michael Cohen has to place in these various positions, but he's going to explain why. And what he's trying to do, though, is provoke a... a sense of is this a legitimate fund? Because if he believes that it's legitimate and he's denied, is he denied because Trump hates him? And so this is only for people that Trump likes. I think that's one of the things that Michael Cohen is trying to get at. Anyway, we'll find out about this tonight. Republicans in the Senate, and I said this on your program last Friday, needed this like they needed a 10-penny nail driven through their forehead, which was their exact reaction. Because they said, basically, we can't defend this. You may have some legal technicalities that can create this fund, but we can't take the political heat from this. And more importantly, yesterday, they were preparing to pass. Through reconciliation, a straight majority didn't need any democratic support funding for many years forward for immigration. Still a net, net, popular item priority for this administration. They had to bury that, at least for two weeks of a congressional recess because they couldn't find the votes because they knew Democrats were going to demand votes on this fund. And they didn't have them. So a huge priority aligned with the president's agenda. They had to vary because of this. So if you've ever, to extend my metaphors, which I'm going to indulge in on this Friday before the Long Memorial Day weekend, smashed your thumb with a hammer or turned on a blender without the lid on it and splashed your face with whatever the contents were. Oh, that'd be bad. Those are two metaphors for what's happened this week. Have you done that? No comment. Yeah. Thought so. It seemed like there was some truth right there. We're going to play a game here also. 651-461-9226. Where is Major right now? 651-461-9-2-2-6. We'll get the answer. You offer up your guesses during the break. Back with Mr. Garrett in moments on CC. Among the texts, where is Major? Airport or train station? Padres Fantasy Camp 2.0. How about this one? Wait for this one. In a motel in Southern Illinois with your mom. Thanks a lot, Texter. I mean, how did we arrive at Southern Illinois? Wow. I mean, that's it. Wow. And then this one might be my face. Very harsh. Exactly. Unnecessarily harsh. Exactly. Unnecessarily hard and intrusive. Sorry. He didn't say false. Yeah, that's all. He said many things at that. And also, this is my favorite supervising ballroom construction.

All right. Speaking of the ballroom, is the ballroom in trouble regarding? Well, I don't. Do we want the answer, Dave? Or do we want to leave it a mystery? I'm curious. I'm going to be honest. I think it's an airport. I think he's headed out to see his lovely wife. That's my guess. CBS Broadcast Center, 57th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenue. Oh. Just a lot going on back there. It's busy. Yeah. Busy. Very, very good. Where are we at with the Senate and funding your ballroom? Not my ballroom. I heard it was yours. That's another glitch. That's another glitch. And that was not going to be included in the reconciliation bill. It was going to be immigration focused. But there might have been some other things. So the Senate Republicans are sort of tied up and knots about that, too. There's some parts of it that they're okay with. The security, maybe there's going to be some medical facilities added there. Who knows? But the overall ballroom itself, they're still not there on. President Trump, again, pressing very aggressively for that. Putting those priorities before other things, there's actually pending legislation on housing. That's not getting the attention it deserves. There's pending legislation on agriculture policy. That's not getting the attention it deserves. Pending legislation on existing intelligence laws, that's not getting the intelligence, I mean the attention it deserves. So the White House right now is asking Senate Republicans in particular to deal with the ballroom, deal with this fund, and they're not. They're not happy about that. So that's stalled as well. Ken Martin, for a number of years, ran the Democratic Party in this state. It's a good job to have because it is still a left-leaning state. It's purple-ish, but it's clearly more to the left than to the right. and Democrats had a lot of success in the state, and partially due to that and other reasons, he was elevated years ago to run the entire National Party for the Democrats, but it doesn't seem like he's been receiving positive comments the last few years, and now off what was leaked on the autopsy on the 2024 election and what went wrong. Is Ken Martin done? Is he in deep trouble? Is he about to be let go? Well, there's a mechanism. And until you have a pretty large number of DNC members push for his ouster in a formal process, because he was voted in through a formal process, he's still safe. Now, that can happen. But there's several procedural steps that need to be taken. And trust me, Democrats are nothing but procedurally driven in matters like this. But he's unpopular. This is an unforced error. Kind of an own goal. Look, the autopsy for the 2024 election is not all that complicated. It wasn't complicated. It shouldn't have been complicated. And therefore, do you actually need it?

And if you're going to do an autopsy of what went wrong, you better do something that is grounded in things that can be relevant to a future election, whether it's the midterms coming up or the 2020-L8, 2028 election cycle. And when you have just one person not attached to any of the consultants who were on the presidential campaign in 2024 or the Biden White House. You can have a pretty limited point of view. And when that one person that you've appointed can't even do basic research, the things riddled with basic factual errors, what's the point of it all? Which is sort of why Ken Martin decided to bury it in the first place. Well, if you're also going to commission it, then bury it, and then say you're all about transparency. You're trapped in your own rhetoric. Correct. You know, you're just trapped. Why are you trapping yourself? Right. You know? And so this, all of this reads like an unforced error. I'm not sure it's a big calamity for Democrats. They still have net net plenty of momentum politically and otherwise going into midterms. The question that I think the Democratic National Committee needs to ask itself is, what do you want your chairman to be? Do you want your chairman to be a fundraising powerhouse? You want to be a software or he or she to be a software to be a software that connects to state parties and the county parties, et cetera, et cetera. What do you want the DNC chair to be? And if you just want him to be someone who... can win the DNC election, but not do much after that. Well, you've got Ken Martin. He's achieved that. He's become DNC chairman. No one seems to be particularly pleased with his work product thus far. No one seems to know what to do about that. And here's the other thing. Not a lot of heavyweights were the job back when it was open. That's correct. We know there you have it. You should know this station has been inundated. with people concerned that because CBS Radio News is no longer a part of this station, that we made the switch yesterday to ABC Radio, that a high, high number of people were worried about you and thinking that your appearances here would end. And I have told everyone that I have incriminating photos on you, and I send those to you occasionally. And because of that, you are forced to appear on this show. Photos taken in Southern Illinois, perhaps. In Southern Illinois by my mother, in fact. That's who took the photos. But Major is going nowhere on these fruity appearances. You know, there's sometimes, Chad, that I wish I had led an adventurous enough alike where I would have incriminating photos of me, but they don't exist. You don't have them, nobody has them. I thought you were going to say there, Dave. I am so perpetually, I'm so perpetually boring and predictable. But to your most important point, I will be here every Friday as long as I am welcome. So that continues. But.

There's a reason on my program to takeout. I have devoted the last month, and it'll be the final episode of it tonight. The final segment of my show since April 22nd, one full month has been devoted to famous moments in the history of CBS Radio News. I am very sad that it is going away. But nobody asked me. Management decisions happen all the time, and people who work under management are rarely, if ever, consulted. I wasn't consulted about this. I grieve and will grieve for a very long time about the death of CBS News Radio because everything that became CBS News on television first started and foundationally began with the exceptional journalism that started at CBS News Radio. So I'm very sad to see it go. Well stated, enjoy your weekend. I appreciate it, my friend. See you. Major. I also retweeted Major's good friend, Scott McFarland and summing up. CBS Radio and why radio means so much to those of us who work in it and the connection that we have with listeners and listeners have with us. Take a look at it. Follow me on Twitter. Chad Hartman Show. Sheletta, next hour.