"A Big Ole Mess in Donald Trump’s Washington"

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Two minutes ago, we were all supposed to be down in the rotunda while Donald Trump signed it into law. But Trump has now said, nope, he's not going to do that. You know what that says to me? It says to me that Donald Trump just doesn't care about the cost squeeze on American families. This is the guy who said affordability is a made-up word that Democrats came up with. Affordability is a hoax. He said about inflation. He loves the inflation. Yeah, he does. He doesn't care about high prices for millions of people across this country. Hi, everyone. It's now 5 o'clock in the east. It is a bigger mess than usual in Donald Trump's Washington, D.C. Right now, we're not just talking about the mess he's made of the reflecting pool. 17 months into Trump 2.0, and Donald Trump is more detached from reality and out of touch politically than ever before. As his priorities veer further and further away from what Americans, including the vast majority of his own voters, say they want by the day. Earlier today. As the senator was alluding to, Donald Trump torpedoed a chance to show Americans that he doesn't actually think affordability is a hoax made up by Democrats. He canceled a bill signing that was meant to champion a landmark bipartisan piece of affordable housing legislation, and he did it just two hours before that ceremony was supposed to begin. He did it to demand legislation to make it harder for the American people to vote. Donald Trump posted this on true social, quote, Today's housing news conference and signing is hereby canceled until such time as we passed the desperately needed Save America Act, which I consider to be a national emergency. It was followed by two pictures of the reflecting pool. It was so weird and last minute that even Republicans were caught flat-footed. They were in the middle of a press conference where they were publicly in front of the press championing the bill and applauding Donald Trump for his help and getting it passed. It caused the ever-loyal House Speaker, Mike Johnson, to actually voice some exasperation with his dear leader, Donald Trump. Watch that. I talked to them about it this morning, about an hour before he made that announcement. I convinced him that I thought that housing was his priorities and his good policy. He's not making a life easier. He doesn't have a big signing. I want it to bring you down to $24.

We're doing our job. Speaker Johnson is just the latest Republican, though, to let his exasperation with Donald Trump spill into public view as Donald Trump delivers today's unforced error. Before Republicans breaking in with our colleagues yesterday and voting on a resolution directing an end to Donald Trump's deeply unpopular war in Iran. a war which is causing some to defect from Donald Trump's political party entirely. Earlier this week, Marjorie Taylor Greene did just that. She announced that she is joining Tucker Carlson in his decision to leave the GOP. It is in no small part because of Donald Trump's war with Iran. It's a trend that is likely to continue as new polling shows just how deeply unpopular that war is with the American people. As we reported last hour, less than a quarter of Americans, 24% believe the war with Iran has been worth the costs. Just 34% of Americans approve of Donald Trump's handling of his presidency overall. What would be a five-alarm fire for any normal president seems unlikely to break through with Donald Trump, who instead posted this on true social in all caps. Quote, my real poll numbers are the highest they have ever been. Thank you, President DGD. Donald Trump's completely delusional presidency, causing even Speaker Mike Johnson to flee. is where we begin the hour with some of our favorite reporters and friends. Puck News, senior political columnist and national affairs analyst. John Hyland is back. Also back with us. Media Matters for America, President Angelo Carasone and managing editor of the bulwark contributor Sam Stein is here. Sam, first of all, can you add any reporting to our understanding as to how? Mike Johnson, of all people, who seems to have wired his own little bat phone inside the Oval Office for like a game of Simon Says or Mother May I. How did he end up in cross signals with Donald Trump? Well, from our understanding, this was totally out of the blue. And it wasn't just Mike Johnson who was caught off guard. There were actual members of Donald Trump's staff who even minutes, hours before the signing ceremony was set to take place were boasting about the bills funding and the legislation, the housing legislation that was going to pass, talking about how it's going to bring great financial relief to people who were looking to buy a home. And so... This is sort of a classic Trump move where when there was no drama, he demands that it be inserted. Where the spotlight would have been on a lot of legislators, he demands the spotlight be on himself. And I would just add one element to this because I think this is really rankling a lot of lawmakers on the Hill and the Republican side of things. It's not just the excessive drama and the just torpedoing of this piece of legislation. It's the...

monomaniacal insistence on getting the Save America Act, the Save Act, passed into law and using whatever parliamentary means are possible to do so. Now, there are no parliamentary means possible to do so they'd have to blow up the filibuster. And he's insistent on this. And it's causing a lot of consternation and frustration among lawmakers on the Hill. So when Johnson was fleeing there, the questions were about the housing, but what they really were about is the Save Act. The House has passed and the Senate cannot do it. And Donald Trump is demanding essentially everything come to a halt in order for that to pass. And I will just say, I think this is in some ways the more important story here because Donald Trump has basically made it doctrine for 30% of the country that our elections are fraudulent. It's no longer just him spouting off conspiracies and everyone entertaining them. People now legitimately believe that our elections, which there has been no proof. that there's widespread corruption in our elections. 30% in the country at least believe that this is the case. And because of that, they are willing to hold hostage basic legislative processes, including widely bipartisan bills to provide financial relief to American public. And it's causing people like Mike Johnson to basically rip their hair out in the most polite possible way that Mike Johnson can do so without offending Donald Trump.

The problem, I guess, politically then, is that 30% of the country believing their delusional lies, first of all, it says something about the lack of intelligence of the 30% because how does Donald Trump win two of the last three elections since the elections are so corrupt, right? I mean, the left isn't a terrible job corrupting and corrupting. It's corrupting our elections if Trump won, too, the last three contests. But 30% of the electorate is not enough to hang on too. really many of the seats if the size of the political wave that is heading their way is to be believed from Republicans. I want to read you, Heilman, what Republicans are saying. This is a Republican Senate staffer who says, quote, we saw glimpses of this during Trump's first administration. But never in my lifetime have I seen a president so deliberately attempt to lose majorities for his own party, the Republican aide, told our Capitol Hill reporter.

Yeah, Nicole, I was going to say that 30% doesn't win you a seat anywhere in the country. You might, I'm not trying to say that you can't put together a bunch of in safe seats. You can't put together. You can eventually get to 50 plus one. But, I mean, the number of people who believe what. Sam correctly cites is is not is not enough and the problem for Donald Trump is that that number has has stopped moving in any way to the extent that there was a base underneath Donald Trump. It has been eroding. Maybe not in, it's not crumbling. It's not completely falling apart. But they're, all you need is a little bit of that when you combine it with the absolutely devastating numbers that, that Republicans are seeing with independent voters. And, and I'll say, I've spoken the last 72 hours to a strategist in Georgia. um a strategist in kansas uh and a strategist where's the third one from there was a third one that i talked to in a in a in a in a in a senate race all of whom are seeing oh in texas all of whom are seeing um Republicans in their focus groups open to the idea of voting for the Democratic candidate for Senate in those races. Now, Georgia is a democratically held seat. Jon Ossoff's a very strong candidate. Obviously, Texas is going to be an increasingly important race. Kansas is not a race that's currently on anybody's radar, but there are people out there who will tell you that they think it's not impossible in the right year. with the candidate of Democrats who's likely to win the primary there, who's the largest preacher, the largest congregation of United Methodist preacher out there. And the right year with the right candidate, it's not impossible. There is a Democratic governor in Kansas now, so it's not impossible. And you're starting to hear the signs there among Republicans who are getting frustrated, not just in the political class, but voters who are fed up with this. And the last thing I'll say, you know, is that there's the most important thing that was that said in this entire exchange is the part of Trump's post where he says the phrase national emergency. And I think that when you start to think about what all of this is about, Sam's correct focus on the SAVE Act piece of this is that Donald Trump is starting to broadcast his strategy for interfering with, intervening in, and trying to steal the 2026 election, something that we've talked a lot about on this show over the course of many, many months. But national emergency is a phrase that you should remember, because I think we're going to start to see it more and more in Donald Trump communications, both on social media and in his language when he talks about these things on the stump. That is how you get to a justification for starting to seize control of the election apparatus and mechanisms and means by which we hold elections. National emergency.

Sam, I want to come back to the specific grievances filling into public view with Republicans and Donald Trump. And then I want to come back to John on these three races, Kansas, Texas, and Georgia. But this is from our correspondent that Trump told John Thune to Angelo's point that he needs to be a leader and get the votes for the Save America Act. Bill Cassidy confronted Trump over the Iran MOU. Our reporting is that Bill Cassidy was, quote, yelling at Trump. At one point, Trump told Bill Cassidy to sit down, but Bill Cassidy refused to do so and raised his voice. It turned into a war of words. called Bill Cassidy, a quote, lunatic. Bill Cassidy referred to Trump as brother, and Trump responded that he wasn't his brother. Trump also went after Dave McCormick from Pennsylvania, the husband of Dina Jerome Powell, who was Trump's first term national security advisor, deputy national security advisor, for missing yesterday's war powers vote, which Trump lost. But McCormick was with Trump. The animosity that Trump is showing to the Republicans is not new. It's actually a hallmark. And I just had Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman on. What's new is that at least the ones that have paid with their seats, their Senate seats, are... I don't know, confronting is too strong of a word, but are starting to contemplate some distance. So I guess my question is, are these things going to miss each other? In terms of a head-on collision, is his popularity going to be such that when he goes to carry out a coup, some of these folks have already taken him head on and lived to tell? Well, I don't know if they're going to live to tell, right? So when you look at Bill Cassidy, for instance, he was humiliated by Trump. And he confronted him today, but that's only after he lost his primary. Another thing that happened today was Thom Tillis, another Republican who was basically pushed up by Trump, admitted that he regretted his vote for Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, which is a remarkable admission to make. McCormick's an interesting one because... He was with Trump all day, which is why he missed the vote, but Trump got mad at him. You know, I know this is going to sound weird. And attacked him. This will sound weird, but in a way, I understand why Trump's frustrated. And here's why. For a year and change, for a year and change, Republicans in the Senate and in Congress gave Trump everything he wanted. They rarely raised objections. They basically, you know, rolled over when he told him to do it. And they confirmed. some of the more unqualified people you could possibly imagine for his cabinet. He got what he wanted whenever he wanted with very slim majorities. He got accustomed to the idea that they would never say no to him. And now we're talking about what? Four people, four Republicans who voted to end the war in Iran, a small, small amount, but enough to allow this thing to pass.

We're talking about one or two Republicans having a little bit of spine to stand up for him. Again, fairly normal for what we usually witness in politics. But for Trump, this feels very abnormal because for a year he got his way no matter what. And so he's lashing out in these highly personalized terms and we're having these confrontations. What does this mean going forward? I don't know. For instance, I think a good example of what it could mean is. Bill Pulte, we just talked about him. He put this manifestly unqualified person to be DNI. Republicans said, no way, not going to happen. We won't reauthorize Section 702, which is a key spying agency tool in the toolkit, until you put someone serious in there. Trump responds by saying, okay, I'll put Jay Clayton in there, someone who everyone is fine with on the hill. And then he pulls Clinton's nomination because he doesn't want to not get his way. And Republicans are left basically with very few tools to stop this from happening. So it strikes me that Trump is just content to basically steamroll as much as he can for as long as he can and throw fits on those rare opportunities when Republicans do stand up and say no way. Yeah, I mean, I guess I point out that Jay Clayton is only good compared to Bill Pulte. He also went on television and carried the water as an election denier in the state of California, repeated the lie that there's fraud, a lie that Bill Barr called bullshit. So, I mean, there is no voter fraud in America. It's something that Donald Trump's second administration has looked at and found that people here illegally do not vote. There isn't fraud. So... I mean, there are these like traps of relativity that we all still get caught in. And I know that wasn't your intention, Sam, but the idea that. They have no tools. They could cut off the funding immediately. I mean, Republicans have nothing but tools. They literally control one of the three branches of government, and it's the only one that isn't functioning. The executive branch, I hate everything they're doing, but they're functioning. The judiciary is functioning. Congress is the only branch of government currently not functioning. We'll pick this up on the other side. I'll let you respond, but I have to sneak in a break. Also ahead for us, we're learning more about what Donald Trump knew about his massive and ongoing failures at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. And when he knew about those failures, there's brand new reporting that puts in doubt, well, pretty much everything Donald Trump has said publicly and everything wants us to believe about what has gone wrong after his expensive renovation job blew up in his own face. Also ahead, one of the Democrats with a very good chance to flip a Republican House seat blue this fall and help lead the Democrats back to power in Congress will join us fresh off her primary victory last night. Army veteran Kate Conley now turns her focus to a vulnerable Republican in a district. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won. She'll be our...

guest later in the hour. Deadline White House continues after a quick break. Don't go anywhere. Watch Disclosure Day at Home Now with exclusive bonus features. If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you? Would that frighten you? Well, now the truth belongs to 7 billion people in an original event film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by David Kep starring Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Coleman Domingo. Find Disclosure Day on major digital platforms now with no subscription required, also in theaters. You know that thing where you get an amazing pair of shoes at a really great price and want to tell everyone about it? Yeah, so do we. Here at Designer Shoe Warehouse, we'll give you something to brag about. Like the latest styles from brands you love, or the trends everyone's obsessing over. Or shoes that make you feel like, well, you. So go ahead, show off a little. Find shoes that get you with prices that get your budget. Head to your DSW store or DSW.com today. DSW. Let us surprise you. And now, the next chapter of the Serta counting sheep. Hey, Uncle Number One, why aren't we counted anymore? Let me tell you a story. Long ago, Serta invented the perfect sleeper mattress. Oh, no. Oh, yes. It says the all-new Serta Perfect Sleaper with the Q4 support system has four and one perfectly interlinked coils that help relieve aches and back pain for perfect sleep night after night. We'll never get counted again. Uh, nope. Serta, we make the world's best mattress. This is your way of celebrating America. The White House did it much differently with the UFC fight. What did you think about that? I know. It was a travesty. Yeah. What else can you say about it? It was embarrassing. I was embarrassed to be an American. We're back with John, Angelo, and Sam. Halman, I love Larry David. And I think you can... I sort of believe that nothing matters, right? I was so moved by everything that happened in Chicago last week. The speech is given by former President Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, and someone said, well, it's, you know, it's one great day of feeling great, and then back to the march toward autocracy and a potential national emergency. Or this great Bruce Springsteen. Tom Morello tour, and then it's back to most people with microphones in their face say nothing. But I actually take the opposite view. I think every little thing makes the next little thing possible. And I think when you look at...

sort of how autocratic movements crumble. It's not one thing. It's every little thing on top of the other. And I wonder how you see the overreach, the little flex of resistance, and we won't give Republicans more credit than that. And increasingly, big figures in culture and entertainment saying it's all a travesty. Well, I think it's important, Nicole, and I think it's not so, I mean, I agree with your, I'm on your side here. And I think that we do spend a lot of time focusing on. what some small number of Republicans are going to do or not going to do when they're small, there's slivers of resistance and, you know, why are they doing it? And what's the consequence that's going to be, et cetera, et cetera. You know, it's still, it is the case that there is only one way to stop the slide towards authoritarianism. And that is at the ballot box. And so the thing that I pay attention to more than anything else is, What has been happening, not in some vague way on the ground, but what has happened at elections over the course of the last 17 months. What's happened is the most demonstrable and consistent fact that we found is that Democrats are overwhelmingly enthusiastic about voting for non-Republican candidates this November. And we've seen this not once, not twice, not in an outlier way, but in a consistent way when people have to vote. Democrats are showing up and they're showing up in large numbers. They're showing up in large numbers by the standards of off-year elections and the standards of special elections. And they're turning these Trump margins from 2024, not just exceeding them, not just turning them back, but blowing them out of the water. And so that's not a poll. That's not a focus group. Those are points on the board, right, where you're saying, here's a team that's winning. a team that's on a role. And can a team that's winning an honor role show up in the playoffs and collapse? It can, but it generally doesn't. I mean, what we're seeing here is a deflated Republican electorate that's not inclined, not excited about its options, not, doesn't believe that Donald Trump has done right by them, doesn't believe that the Republican Party around Donald Trump is done right by them. And a Democratic Party, that is, and not just Democratic Party. per se, but anyone who has an open mind to not voting for a Republican, they are shown up. And I think that's where the culture stuff matters, because it's not so much that it does create a knock-on effect where one thing leads to the next thing. But more than that, it just creates a larger sense of... of momentum and of community that makes people realize that they're not alone and that they're not on the wrong side of history and that they're not on the wrong side of some inexorable movement that's just going to keep rolling them rolling over them, that they can get inspired by the cultural moments and feel freed by those cultural moments. And then when the moment comes when they have a chance to go and register their disapproval of what's going on at the ballot box,

They can do that. And again, if that was a hypothetical, theoretical thing I was saying, you might say, well, maybe. But I'm saying, look at the last 17 months. It's been an unbroken string of Democratic advances in Republicans in retreat. And this goes back to the first thing we were talking about. Donald Trump is doing nothing to turn that around. He has done the opposite of nothing to turn that around. He's made it worse systematically. And that is why you're starting to see Republicans. not just resist occasionally in public, but privately freak out, which is what they're doing every day. It's mid-June! It's almost too late to turn it around, even if Trump had it within his capacity. But he doesn't have any interest. And in fact, he seems to be racing in the opposite direction. And so every Republican who's in his right mind or her right mind right now is freaking out and does not want to see Donald Trump in their district or state in a million years between now and November. And that is going to be a huge story also going towards November as Republicans going, yeah. Thanks, but no thanks, Mr. President. Why don't you just skip my district or my state because you're nothing but bad news for me? Yeah, I mean, Angela, this is a thing that will happen. I mean, Trump seems a little tired to travel, but if he wants to, and I say this from some experience, when you're below 30 percent or around 30 percent, it's hard to land Air Force One anywhere other than like the reddest corner or the reddest district or the reddest state. just the spectacle of your plane landing or of the traffic jams or of you being on your local news because a visit from the president saturates the local news. One of my indicators is Jessica Tarla from the five. And, you know, in the early months of Trump's second term, I mean, she's always exquisitely prepared. But there, I almost, you know, was nervous for her. Now she, like... runs the table. You could tell her, well, I don't know if they're capable of embarrassment, but the whole power structure of that table, and she's just one person. But I think she called Jesse Waters, a guy who, you know, shills for an idiot. And everyone was just stone silent afterward. I mean, it's not just vibes. It is, if you trust your eyes, if you trust your ears, Donald Trump is a political loser right now, and that is undeniable. Yeah, he's got a bad story. And I think your observation about Fox News is really important because we're seeing the edges fray on both ends, right? You know, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, some of these, you know, some of you talk about the Republicans, you know, Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene on the other end. Fox News has been the firmest in there trying to carry water for the story that Trump is telling. And they just can't do it anymore. When you start to even expose it a little bit, like the Tarlov example, it's impossible. And they're his firmest part. That's my point. the strongest part that Trump has, Fox and the larger Fox audience, and even they are having a lot of difficulty carrying water for Trump right now, which is reflective of the larger reality that he's operating in.

Angela and Sam, to be continued, thank you so much for this conversation today. Tom Homan sticks around. When we come back, how the Trump administration is actively searching now for the so-called mystery vandals, the ones Donald Trump says without any evidence that anyone has seen, are to blame for the botched repair job of the reflecting pool. We'll get to that after a short break. You know that thing where you get an amazing pair of shoes at a really great price and want to tell everyone about it? Yeah, so do we. Here at Designer Shoe Warehouse, we'll give you something to brag about. Like the latest styles from brands you love, or the trends everyone's obsessing over. Or shoes that make you feel like, well, you. So go ahead, show off a little. Find shoes that get you with prices that get your budget. Head to your DSW store or DSW.com today. DSW. Let us surprise you. Walmart shoppers, meet the debit card design with you in mind. The Walmart Money Card offers up to $75 cash back on purchases at Walmart each year, early direct deposit, overdraft protection, and so much more. When Walmart is your everyday store, you need a card to match. That's the Walmart Money Card. Open your account today. The Walmart Money Card is issued by green dot bank, member FDIC. Fees, terms, and conditions apply. Visit Walmartmoneycard.com to learn more. A beauty rest mattress gives you unparalleled motion separation, isolating movement with our pocketed coil technology, while providing individualized support for every sleeping position. People at their best get their beauty rest for 100 years. You're telling me, even if it proves to be true, that damaging, aligning, and the reflecting pool is something that Piero wants to prosecute to the full extent of the law, if it's proven true. They're releasing people who pled guilty to assaulting a police officer. What freaking parallel universe did I just wake up in? Man, I'm telling you what? I'd like to think a $15 million membrane could withstand a pocket knife.

Where's that Thom Tillis been? Welcome to Earth One. There he was. That was Republican Senator Thom Tillis on the national embarrassment of incompetence, failure, hypocrisy, and deflection that Donald Trump has focused the world's attention on with the debacle that is his utterances and his handling of the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. His rushed renovation and his $14 million pool liner. couldn't last three weeks. As for Trump's lame excuses, so-called vandalism, without any evidence, and the now six arrests, again, without any evidence of vandalism. There is brand new reporting that we brought you yesterday from the New York Times that reports that internal government documents show the Trump administration knows and has known that there is zero indication that any of the problems with the reflecting pool have been caused intentionally. But... Donald Trump's lies about vandals are still out there because he needs some sort of explanation, even if it's untrue, as to why his liner was seen floating on the surface in chunks. mixed in with the algae that returned, which Trump also blamed on algae vandals. I want to bring in our reporter Ariel Hickson, who joins us now from The Reflecting Pool. John is still with us. Ariel, something that Amanda Carpenter reported, having been down on the mall with out-of-town visitors, is that the security presence was unmistakable. What can you tell us about that? Nicole, I think that is quite accurate. I'm looking around right now, and the amount of national guardsmen I have seen patrol this pool has been quite striking because they are walking up and down the area. They're kind of making sure that tourists are not getting too close to the water. That's something I have noticed. They appear to be friendly to a certain degree, but if someone gets really close to the water with their phones, they appear to approach them at times. and kind of ask them what they're doing. Now, something else that I have noticed is that there have been security cameras installed around the pool. If you want to take a look right over in the corner, there's a bunch of them, I'd say, at least six or seven surrounding the pool to get... a better idea of, you know, what's been happening around the area, especially as the president has had those claims regarding, quote, unquote, vandals without evidence. So what we can see right now is that the president is quite serious about this. He is threatening to put people who potentially tamper with the pool in jail. But once again, he has no evidence that that is actually happening. And that is very much changing. the scope and the feel of the reflecting pool right ahead of America 250 in July 4th.

Heilman, the security cameras are not going to catch any vandalism because we know from the Trump administration that there hasn't been any. Again, this is from the New York Times. Quote, they have no evidence for razor blade claims. While a June 9th report by the U.S. Park police described the cuts as razor blade slashes made along a 20-foot-long stretch of the phone, the administration has yet to present evidence supporting that assertion. Neither the Interior Department nor the White House would provide charging documents citations. or the names of anyone arrested. They did share the Park Police Incident Report, which said any suspect or suspects were unknown. The report also did not mention any damage to the pool's blue sealant, nor did it describe any vandals dumping fertilizer. So I don't know. Maybe the cameras will get Marco Rubio and JD Vance in wetsuits with paintbrushes, painting the bottom of the thing. But they're not going to find any vandals because Trump's own administration doesn't assert that there are any. Nicole, don't underestimate the power of AI, you know? I mean, you know, the artificial intelligence can generate all kinds of strange images. I, you know, I don't, I say this somewhat mockingly, but also in somewhat anticipatorily that we are going to see at some point, you know, images on Donald Trump's true social feed that will show, you know, a gang of marauding Antifa. terrorists who have jumped into the pool in the dark of night and run their razor blaze or their samurai swords or something along the bottom of it or or or jim komi i you know this could easily be added to the komi indictment you know i jim komi is is well known to uh to do a lot of work in his wetsuit you know after he gets all done with the seashells by the seashore he dives into the reflecting pool with a dagger between his teeth and and slices open the thing. I mean, it's all so ridiculous. Don't give him any ideas, haven't. I know, I know, I know, I don't want to give many ideas. I'm just sort of trying to imagine where this is going. I mean, it's just ludicrous. Yeah. I've been told that, I've been told that there's that, that, that finally. The pool may be getting slightly, reflecting pool might be getting slightly blue again. So, you know, Donald Trump may not have made America great again, but it's possible that enough peroxide and chlorine is going to start to MRPBA, I guess, instead of MAGA, make the reflecting pool blue again. Maybe that could be something that Republican candidates could run on this fall. Only if the ducks don't die. I mean, you know, every action has a reaction. We'll stay on top of the story. Harry Alexin, thank you for joining us. Halman, thank you for spending the hour with me again today. We are grateful when we come. Democrats hope to take back control of Congress in November. They're going to need to defeat Republicans. That Kamala Harris won. One of those districts is in New York's Hudson Valley, where Army veteran Kate Conley is looking to knock off a highly vulnerable Republican congressman. We'll talk to her after a short break. Taxing the rich is not going to close our budget deficit. I hope you realize that. My question for you, what is your line?

What is the line that you won't cross? What can Trump do that you will say that's wrong? Hey, bro, you can leave now. Goodbye. Goodbye. We won't proceed until you're gone. Goodbye. You want to act like that? Goodbye. Hey, bro, you can leave now words that might just fight him in the you know what. That's a taste of the political environment that the Trump administration has created for their Republican allies in Congress wanting to be reelected. Those were seen, some of them we've played on the show before, from town halls hosted by Republican Congressman Mike Lawler. Mike Lawler represents the district that encompasses much of New York's Hudson Valley. Mike Lawler is viewed as one of the most vulnerable Republicans in our country. And last night, he learned who he will face in the November election. It's Army veteran Kate Conley. She won a hotly contested Democratic primary in New York's 17th Congressional District. Conley served six tours overseas before becoming the National Security Council's Director of Counterterrorism during the Biden administration. Kate Connolly was first on this show back in March of 2025 when we were talking to her about the reporting that we were learning about, about the Signalgate debacle. We are very happy to welcome her back today, fresh off last night's win. Congratulations. Nicole, thank you so much. It's great to be back, especially like this. And I have to say, Mike's own line is what I'd like to say back to him. Hey, bro, you can leave now. That's what we're working hard to do this November. I mean, the audacity of the things they say under some sort of delusion of not being held accountable by voters is extraordinary. Has that been a factor in the primary campaign that you ran? Nicole, I have to say after the last 15 months of going to every corner of this district, the consequences of Mike Lawler's leadership are very clear. Since he has been elected in November of 2022, it has only been harder for working families to put food on the table, keep a roof over their heads, or afford health care, or keep the lights on. And that record, he can't outrun. The accountability is coming because the pain that people here are feeling is real. And while he is a very talented political operative, going back to the difference between me and Mike Lawler, for the last 20 years, Mike Lawler has been a political hack while I've been out there leading America's sons and daughters in defense of this nation after 9-11. He is very good at using his words as a smokescreen to hide for his failures to deliver for his constituents. But that's running out because people are seeing through it and they're feeling the pain and they deserve better.

Kate, what is your sense of how damaging it is for Mike Lawler to not have an answer to one of your potential future constituents who says, what is your line? I mean, this seems to be, especially in swing districts, on people's mind, that even if they voted for Trump, they don't like being represented in Congress by people who aren't strong. Nicole, what we see is Mike Lawler votes one way. And that is Donald Trump's way. That's why his voting record is 100% aligned with Donald Trump. And so he can try to pretend like he wasn't the deciding vote in HR1, the one big ugly bill last year. But people know the truth. And the truth is, we just saw 37,000 people have their health care in this district put at risk because of those Medicaid cuts and the failure to reinstate the premium tax credits. So going back to you, his lies are not going to get him out of this. People are suffering, and it's because of his decisions. And so, yes, we do know the answer to that woman's question. There is no line. We've seen it when it comes to the war with Iran. We're Mike Lawler four times. has allowed Donald Trump to have a blank check on a war that this administration is too incompetent to actually execute by leaders like Pete Hegseth, who should never have been confirmed, and where we have an administration that still cannot articulate a clear exit strategy or objectives. And so this just goes back to you. We are watching your Republican-controlled Congress continue to fail this country. We're watching Mike Lawler be a critical part of that. And so my job is to make the case of the people of this district that they deserve better and to fight for them and fight for this country. You see even for members of his own party voting to rein in his power to wage war with Iran. What do you hear from your potential future constituents about the war with Iran and especially the price of gas that seems to correlate in all the wrong ways? Nicole is someone who during 16 years in active duty after four years at West Point doing six tours overseas, multiple tours to Iraq, Afghanistan, I've seen what happens when you have a war in the Middle East with an administration that does not have a clear plan, does not realize what it's gotten itself into. And shame on America, if we have not learned this lesson already, our service members deserve better. On what I hear every day here in a district that is incredibly patriotic, that is incredibly service oriented. I mean, those are the values that were instilled in me growing up here in the Hudson Valley that led me to go to West Point after 9-11. People are frustrated with the incompetence. And we are literally paying the price from the gas prompt to the loss of service members to the duress that's being put on families who are now having to make tradeoffs between groceries or gas.

They just want it to end. They want government to actually solve real problems that they are facing. And this administration refuses to do that. Kate, your race is going to be watched by everyone around the country. We're grateful to have a chance to talk to you today. And again, congratulations on your win last night. Thank you so much. Folks, please check us out. Kate Connolly.com. This fight will determine who controls the house. So excited to take it on and humble to be in this position. We'll stand top of it. Thank you so much. A quick break for us. We'll be right back. In this climate of fear that we covered with Maggie and Jonathan, we try to lift up and show you the moments where artists or entertainers or athletes like Larry David decide to use their fame and their platforms to call out the Trump administration. And a hallmark of the second Trump term has been mostly conspicuous silence in many of those spaces. My guest on this week's episode of the Best People podcast, Pulitzer Prize winning sports journalist, Pablo Tori, knows the why and the how of why so many remain silent better than anyone. And you can listen to what he told me by... means of explaining it to me right now. You just scan the QR code on your screen or download the best people wherever you get your podcast. Be sure to let me know what you think on Instagram or Blue Sky. One more break. We'll be right back. Thank you so much for letting us into your homes tonight. We are grateful. Some say Odu business management software is like fertilizer because of the way it promotes growth. Some say Odu is like a magic beanstalk, scaling with you while being magically affordable. And some say Odu's programs for manufacturing, accounting, and more are like building blocks for creating a custom software suite. But I say Odo is all of it. Fertilizer magic beanstock building blocks for business. Yeah. Odu. exactly what every business needs. Sign up at odu.com. That's odio.com.