'BradCast' 7/15/2026 (Voice of America Being Unlawfully Used for Propaganda; Guest: Former VOA White House Chief Steve Herman)

Are you in President Trump, France? I'm his lawyer. Was his lawyer? No, I think you had it right the first time, Todd Blanche. You're his lawyer. Well, I don't know why I came here tonight. That's why. I got the feeling that something right. I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair. And I'm wondering how I'll get down with stairs. to the letter me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you. I am. From Pacifica Radio in sweltering Los Angeles, this is the broadcast as heard on KPFK, 90.7 FM in L.A. And on dozens of other fine affiliate stations on both the public airwaves and the internet surround the country and the world, blanketing planet Earth. I'm Brad Friedman, your friendly investigative blogger, journalist, troublemaker, muckraker. And all around swell fellow says me from bradblog.com. Thank you very much for joining us for another thrilling edition of the Bradcast. As you heard at the top there, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's personal criminal defense lawyer, and yes, he is still his defense lawyer. Both officially and corruptly, even as he serves as his deputy AG, as he let slip in that open quote you heard there. That was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday for confirmation hearings, for Todd Blanche's confirmation hearings before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, where he hopes to become Donald Trump's permanent U.S. Attorney General. even while serving as Trump's personal lawyer. In truth, he is already serving as both deputy AG and acting AG, which as I understand it, since he was already Senate confirmed for the deputy job, he may remain in enacting AG capacity through the end of Trump's term, even if he is not confirmed. For the official attorney general role by the U.S. Senate. Okay. So even if he doesn't get confirmed for whatever reason, he gets to stay as long as Trump decides he wants him to stay. Yeah, that's what it seems to me if I understand how that works. I know that in some cases acting. People acting appointments can only serve for a certain amount of time, certain amount of months, unless they are Senate confirmed. And because Todd Blanche was already Senate confirmed as Deputy Attorney General, I think he can stick around for as long as he wants or as long as Donald Trump wants him. So, you know, despite the extraordinarily corrupt actions taken by Donald Trump.

I'm sorry, taken by Todd Blanche on behalf of Donald Trump in Todd Blanche's role as Deputy AG, and that would include firing and prosecuting Trump's perceived political enemies, covering up the contents of the Epstein files, and refusing to release millions of them as per federal law, blocking investigations into murders of American citizens by ICE agents, ordering U.S. attorneys and other... prosecutors to simply ignore court orders in immigration cases and more carrying out a charade with his own client, Donald Trump, to strike a phony so-called settlement agreement in response to a phony fraudulent lawsuit filed by Trump against his own IRS, resulting in Todd Blanche announcing the creation of that $1.8 billion slush fund for Trump to use to give money to... January 6 defendants and yes to himself. I shouldn't say January 6 defendants. I should say January 6 convicts and yes himself, along with the creation of that bogus immunity deal as part of the settlement, a supposed settlement agreement, found all of which found to be fraudulent by a federal court this week. which referred Todd Blanche to the New York State Bar Association, that immunity deal from the IRS would give Trump and his sons and his company lifetime protection against IRS investigation and penalties. Despite all of that and much more, frankly, this is only an hour long show, Wednesday's hearing in the U.S. Senate where Todd Blanche, I believe, is almost certain to be confirmed, is by and large, Kabuki Theater. Because even if he is not confirmed by the Senate, he'll simply continue to serve in the role of acting AG as long as Trump wants him to. Also testifying before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday was Jay Clayton, Trump's nominee to oversee all of the U.S. intelligence agencies as the Director of the Office of National Intelligence, despite having no background in the intelligence trade. Oh, great. So if time allows after speaking with my guest today, we will try to cover a little bit of that and some more, though I do need to get to my guest standing by. So allow me to start here today in our ongoing worsening, seemingly never-ending, no way out war with Iran, which Donald Trump started four and a half months ago, describing it at the time as a quote, little excursion. That would just take a few days or at most just a few weeks. Now, it seems, there is no way out for him. Or for the rest of us, with his failure to strike a peace agreement with Iran and prices of gasoline and pretty much everything else, once again skyrocketing since the collapse of the 60-day so-called memorandum of understanding truce.

collapsing over the weekend and then again Iran's closure once again of the Strait of Hormuz, along with shutting down shipping of 20% of the world's oil and natural gas that once freely flowed through it, at least until Trump launched his ill-considered war, to put it nicely. Now, it seems there is really no way out for him or for the rest of us in the bargain with his failure to strike a peace agreement with Iran and prices of gasoline and pretty much everything else. Once again, skyrocketing since the collapse of the 60-day memorandum of understanding truce over the weekend and Iran's closure once again of the Strait of Hormuz, along with shipping of 20% to the world's oil and natural gas that once freely flowed. through it, at least until Trump launched his ill-considered war. The U.S. reimposed the naval blockade on Iran and intensified its airstrike campaign on Wednesday in retaliation for Tehran's attacks on ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The American strikes hit an Iranian... Army barracks killed at least seven troops and wounded hundreds of people across the country, according to Iranian officials. According to a spokesperson for the Iranian health ministry, more than 35 people have been killed and more than 300 wounded by U.S. airstrikes in just recent days. At least 72 people are hospitalized, he added. Days of back-and-forth strikes between the U.S. and Iran across the Middle East and renewed threats to the waterway, crucial to global energy supplies, have shredded the interim deal to end the conflict. And the region, many fear, could now tip back into all-out war if it hasn't already. When the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28, Tehran effectively closed the waterway to shipping traffic, a move that sent prices of oil, fertilizer, and many other goods soaring, far beyond the region, and gave Iran major leverage in those negotiations. That, in fact, followed Trump's message to the Iranian people earlier this year in January. as they had at the time taken to the streets in protest of their own hardline regime. When Donald Trump then posted on social media, quote, Iranian patriots, keep protesting, take over your institutions, save the names of the killers and abusers, they will pay a big price. But it would be at least a month before Trump took any action at all. And by then, more than 30,000 Iranian protesters had reportedly been killed by the regime. Quote, help is on its way, Trump said at the time, but that help never came.

Only bombing attacks by the U.S. and Israel and threats at various times by the U.S. president to blow up civilian infrastructure, such as roads and bridges and drinking water facilities. And one that included this alarming message to the people of Iran, quote, a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. Thankfully, in that case, it turned out to be more empty rhetoric from the president of the United States. Iranians who for a moment saw hope in Trump's message a month earlier that he might help save them from a repressive regime they long despised would then turn into hatred for Trump and calls for him to be assassinated just last weekend in the streets of Tehran as the nation's supreme leader killed on the first day of the U.S. Israel bombing. was finally laid to rest. What should or shouldn't Iranians now believe about the U.S., is our president planning to help them, as he once promised, or destroy their entire civilization as he vowed just a month or two later? For lack of clarity, many have turned back to support of the regime and trust in its state-run propaganda news agencies, which have, sadly, proven to be more accurate in their reporting than statements from the White House at this critical moment. Writing a longtime now former Voice of America veteran journalist Steve Herman's The News Guy website and newsletter this week, VOA's former White House Bureau chief, and lead plaintiff against the Trump administration's attempt to dismantle the 80-year-old once highly trusted worldwide news agency. Patsy Wittekuswara writes, a June Pew survey found unfavorable views of the U.S. rising. Not just across Iran, but across 36 countries. This, she says, is precisely the moment Washington needs credible international broadcasting to explain its policies through fact-based journalism. Yet, after failing to silence the Voice of America, the taxpayer-funded independent international broadcaster, the Trump administration is transforming it now into a government mouthpiece. In doing so, she writes, the administration is not only breaking the law, it is handing Tehran. Moscow and Beijing, a strategic victory as they ramp up their own global influence operations. A shuttered VOA cedes the information space to America's adversaries. Whitacuaswara writes, a propagandistic VOA advances their disinformation campaign and forfeits the trust of the 360 million people who used to tune in to its broadcasts each week.

Current editorial priorities, she explains, bear many of the characteristics of wartime propaganda at VOA, including at VOA Farsi. One of only six of VOA's 49 language services that were brought back in a much reduced capacity following legal action against the administration. Stories center on administration statements, often without opposing context. Recent article highlights, articles highlight administration claims, false claims, in fact, that oil prices are lower than before the war. And that maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has been restored. It hasn't been. Meanwhile, VOA suppressed coverage of civilian death tolls from U.S. airstrikes and barely mentioned the February bombing of the elementary school in Monab, which killed more than 150, the majority of which were young girls attending school there. This reporting, she explains, bears little resemblance to VOA's journalism that until March of 2025 was guided by the VOA charter, a 1976 law. that enshrines editorial independence by mandating three things. VOA will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and VOA will present U.S. policies clearly and effectively with responsible discussions and opinion on those policies. That, she says, means covering U.S. military objectives and declarations of success alongside critics' scrutiny of those claims, the war's humanitarian consequences, and its cost to American taxpayers. Statements from the administration alongside lawmakers, analysts, activists, Trump supporters, and the majority of Americans who oppose the war. It also means including Tehran's position. The voices of Iranian civilians and diaspora groups, international reactions, and the complex history of U.S. Iran ties. Little of what is evident in VOA's reporting today. So why does that matter? Well, let's talk about it. Joining us once again today is longtime friend of the show, Steve Herman, who spent decades at VOA, heading up a number of their overseas bureaus before coming back stateside to serve as Voice of America's White House Bureau director during the first Trump administration and eventually leaving VOA as the administration started to take it apart. He went on to write a book. titled Behind the White House Curtin, a senior journalist story of covering the president and why it matters back in 2024. He now serves as the executive director of the Jim Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi. Oh, Mr. Herman, thank you, sir, for making time for us again today. Welcome back to the broadcast, my friend.

Brad, it's always great to talk to you. Unfortunately, it's usually under fairly dire circumstances that we're talking. Yeah, of course. Well, that's when we send up the Steve Herman alert. First, Steve, if you can give us an update on just what is going on at VOA. I want to talk about why it's important to Iran and so forth. But we know that Trump's operative and... Failed Republican candidate for governor and Senate from Arizona, Kari Lake had attempted to shut down essentially VOA and all of its sister networks entirely, but was ordered as part of that challenge by Patsy Wittaker-Swara to open it up as it was before. But has that happened? Which networks are up and running? And what do you understand VOA to be broadcasting at this point? Yeah, well, it's pretty easy to figure that out because this material is going out over the air, if not on the website. And so the Voice of America is essentially a Potemkin village of what it used to be. As you mentioned, it is on the air in Farsi. It's also on the air in the two languages for Afghanistan, Pashto in Dari, Urdu to Pakistan, and Korean and Chinese. And that's basically a very limited broadcast. For example, previously the Farsi service was barely... very, very widely viewed and listened to in Iran. It was a 24-7 service. These broadcasts, some of them maybe are only 15 minutes a day like Pashto in Dari. They've gone back to shortwave radio for some of these because they haven't figured out or don't want to bring back the television operations. So. But the most important thing, as was pointed out in Patsy's piece, is what is being put out on the airwaves is counter to VOA's charter, violates the firewall. These are laws. So we basically have people who are... giving orders at the voice of America who are breaking the law and the people that are carrying out these orders are carrying out what we would consider to be unlawful orders. Is the lawsuit still ongoing, by the way? Yes. It is. There are, it's lawsuits plural. Okay. There are the two original lawsuits that were filed about the same time in March of 2025. And...

There is an additional lawsuit that's been filed recently, which is getting into these issues of violating the charter and that essentially violating the First Amendment rights of some of the other journalists. Most of the VOA journalists, except for all of the hundreds of contractors were fired. you know, more than a year ago. But there are still hundreds of Voice of America staff journalists who have been sitting at home, if they haven't quit, and getting paid to sit at home on something called paid administrative leave while this all plays out. And there's been... advances and setbacks in the legal process in federal court. There has been a judge who has given orders for Voice of America to be restored to what it was. That was put on stay by an appellate court, and there are a lot of motions going back and forth. Unfortunately, The legal process, which is can be very deliberate, but that also means that it moves very slowly. And the damage was done within a couple of days after Kari Lake shut down the voice of America because those audiences are no longer there. They're not tuning in, listening on the same frequencies on radio or. switching on their televisions anymore because that programming has been gone for more than a year now. And so even if everything were to be brought back, let's just say wave of magic wand and the radio ferry comes down and restores everything to the way it was before middle of March of 2025. Those audiences, Brad, were built over 83 years, okay? And that trust, that reliability, that routine. How do you get that back now? I'm very skeptical that will ever be able to restore the level of trust, the sizes of the audience. And the assumption now is, is despite all these, you know, the bipartisan support that remains on Capitol Hill, there is money still allocated for the voice of America and all these language services. And let's say that the administration does decide that these rulings are upheld and they decide to conform to the rulings, which seems doubtful that they would totally conform. Unless that were to happen, we're looking at 2029.

assuming that a Democrat wins the presidency, which, of course, there's no guarantee of that. So that would be the earliest that we could see. likely some sort of actual restoration of the majority of the operations under the law. And I want to get to some specific points from Patsy's piece in a moment. But in general, she's arguing here that this is exactly the time. This is a great example, you know, in the middle of this seemingly no way out war with Iran, that a trusted voice. Like VOA and its Farsi outlet is so important. Why is that the case, as you see it, in a time of war like this, in a place like Iran? Why is it not happening? No, no. Why is it so important to have that voice in a moment like this? Because the alternative is state propaganda from Iran. The voice of America's Farsi service for decades was very, very trusted in Iran and by the expatriate community, the diaspora of Iranians. I think Los Angeles now is one of the world's largest cities as far as people who speak Farsi. And that diaspora, along with the people inside of Iran, as you may know, if you look into this to any degree, is quite split. It's not monolithic at all. And VOA was known for giving time much to the chagrin of some people, to different factions. For example, you know, whether you like the, quote, unquote, Shaw, the crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, and whether he should come back or not, whether you like him or not, or think that's a good idea or not, he is a voice, right? He's a player in all this. And there have been orders by Voice of America Management, not to mention him. Don't mention the Shah. You know, don't put Reza Pahlavi on the air. Don't even mention him. That's something that would be unheard of prior to 2025, right? Absolutely. The voice of America's job would not have been to promote. of any particular faction or any particular position, but to give a voice to all of those, including the position of the U.S. administration. And the other thing is, with these language services, you know, who were used to hearing the voice of America being a conduit for all these different voices, when they're just getting one particular slice.

It doesn't pass the smell test for them. They know that it's changed, and they can compare it to their own state. propaganda. And so that trust has been destroyed, I believe. On that line, Patsy writes at your news guy site this week that, quote, those steering the agency now away from objective journalism may be tempted by what they see as an immediate payoff, making U.S. military operations appear more successful and amplifying the president's message. In reality, she argues, this approach undermines U.S. interests. How so, Steve Herman, isn't it, in the interest of the U.S. to, you know, strike fear in the hearts of Iranians, that they're losing the battle, et cetera. Isn't that that would be the argument? I know that Project 2025 has argued that, you know, voices like VOA are actually anti-American when they report the other side. Yeah. So what's your response to that? Yeah. Yeah, well, that's not journalism. That's not public diplomacy. And what we did for many decades, our soft power, part of our public diplomacy, was in being even-handed, acknowledging that there are different points of view in the United States, acknowledging that the United States is not perfect, acknowledging that sometimes there are setbacks, that there are losses, that there are mistakes. If you're just pumping out... a particular propagandistic view all the time, that falls into the realm of military psychological operations. That's not public diplomacy. That's not journalism. And that's what the Voice of America is mandated to do. So if you're doing that, do it with something else besides the Voice of America. If you want to stay within the law. Up until the Trump administration's, well, ongoing attempted demolition of VOA, its broadcast were among the most trusted in the world, as we noted, even when the political pendulum in the U.S. sort of swung back and forth, you know, between different administrations. You worked in... Excuse me, many regions of the world over your years at Voice of America. How unusual is that? A sort of consistent, reliable voice despite changes, political changes in the administration for an ostensible state broadcaster like Voice of America. How unusual is that? Well, outside of the Western democracies, it really doesn't exist. The uniqueness about the Voice of America is, along with BBC, which has a World Service, external broadcasting service radio and television, the Voice of America...

was, I'm pretty convinced, doing the most hours in the most languages. You know, the Germans have Deutschevel, there's Radio France International. There are others who are doing it, but they did not have the reach or the influence of VOA. BBC is really the only other one in... you know, the category globally with the voice of America. Now it's just BBC itself, but, you know, there were some languages that BBC broadcast in that VOA did not and vice versa. So I always saw BBC and VOA, not as competitors, but rather as complementary to each other. But, you know, there's a limitation. You've got... The Voice of America was always changing the number of languages and the number of hours, depending on the situation in the world, and what people on Capitol Hill felt were the priorities, and they would consult with the parent agency of VOA to set that out on a year-to-year basis. Sometimes, unfortunately, language services had to be cut. But it was a very deliberative process. And what happened here was, you know, essentially the doge. chainsaw was, was taken to, you know, cut all of VOA off. Yeah. And as I said, the little that's been brought back is, is not representative of our values. You spent, I think it was almost 30 years, if I'm not mistaken, at VOA, 25, 30 years. prior to the Trump administration, had there ever been that sort of political, obviously, you know, the Trump administration is trying to shut it down entirely, but had there been prior to that political pushes here or there or political pressure put onto Voice of America? Or is that completely a new thing until Trump came in? Well, yes and no. No in the fact that we never had any particular administration essentially decide it was going to destroy the entire agency and violate the law in total. We did have in the Reagan administration, there was a director who came in under Reagan, Charles Z. Steve Witkoff. and I'm sure some of your old-time listeners in Hollywood will remember that name. And he did put some pressure and did want it to reflect more of the values that Ronald Reagan was personally promoting as president of the United States. And other administrations, people in the State Department or people in the National Security Council or the White House who did not.

initially understand VOA's mission may have bristled. But when it was explained to them, this is how public diplomacy and how soft power is executed in the United States and that this voice of America, even though it is funded by the United States government, has, for lack of a better word, autonomy. Okay. All administrations until the first Trump administration decided to go along with the program, no pun intended. And we did have problems in the first Trump administration. I was among those who became whistleblowers when they tried to break down the firewall. And it was a very high risk by those individuals who spoke out and went to court. We were victorious at that time. And the first Trump administration, obviously in many areas, was less aggressive than the second Trump administration. And the clock ran out on them. And Joe Biden came in as president and immediately within hours fired the Trump appointed leadership of the parent agency and the voice of America. And then there were efforts made to strengthen. the sort of oversight. But there was a recent court decision which basically said, you know, these independent executive agency, executive branch agencies, you know, the president has oversight and he can get rid of them. He can fire all the people. And so that does not bode well for what's called, you know, the U.S. agency for global media, which had a board that. International Broadcasting Advisory Board, which Trump did get rid of early in a second administration. And their intention is very clear is to put whatever is left of the voice of America directly under the State Department. And the State Department, of course, representing soft power. You mentioned soft power. Patsy did so in her article as well. Explain, and I've just got a minute or two left here, but explain why soft power, how VOA plays into what is described as soft power and why that is important right now. Sure. Well, part of America's soft power is demonstrating our freedom of the press and that we tell two different sides of the story. And...

That worked for 80-something years. It started in World War II when Voice of America was a bit of a novelty against German and Japanese access propaganda, which were doing the sort of siops we talked about. And VOA came along and was giving a more balanced view. And that continued in the Cold War when we had another battle against Radio Moscow and Radio Peking. And, you know, the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. We prevailed. The Berlin Wall came down. And you can credit, you know, Levi Jeans, jazz music, rock and roll and I believe the voice of America and radio free Europe. That persistent... That persistent voice. And I think just to give you a very quick chance, Project 2025 focuses on Voice of America or the U.S. Agency for Global Media. And it sees what they do, what you do as essentially, this is a quote from Project 2025, anti-American. Why are they wrong as you see it? because it is not anti-American to carry out the First Amendment, plain and simple. Freedom of speech, freedom of press. We do not do government propaganda, and we should not do government propaganda. That, to me, is un-American. And I think there's one last point around all of this that we haven't spoken to. You, Steve Herman, you worked at the Trump White House for several years at the Trump. Well, not for them. I covered it. Right, exactly. You covered it as VA. I covered a year of the Biden administration as well. As well, right, as the White House bureau chief for VOA. Now that you're no longer, well, working for either VOA or covering the Trump administration directly, it's fair to say, from your own observation. working there that indeed a trustworthy voice like VOA coming from the U.S. is itself very much seen as a threat to this particular White House. It's not just a policy preference for them. You know, the fact that VOA could be out there, you know. reporting on Donald Trump and his, you know, his attempted 20% fee that he was going to charge that that reporting is itself a threat to the, to the Trump project. Brad, I saw what. They've done to the voice of America as being the canary in the coal mine. VOA was the easiest objective media institution to destroy because it was part of the U.S. government. And I believe that this is also a template and a warning to the media at large. The state capture of...

public media. We've seen it with public broadcasting in the United States, and the consolidation of ownership is very similar to what has happened previously in countries like Hungary and Poland and in India as well, where the government in power has a very subservient media reporting on it. Steve Herman is the decades-long Foreign Bureau Chief in various parts of Asia for Voice of America before he became its White House Bureau Chief and Chief National Correspondent. He is now the executive director of the Jim Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation and an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and New Media at University of Mississippi. His 2024 book, you should pick it up, is Behind the White House Curtain, your journalist's story of covering the president and why it matters. You can also follow him on the blue skies, where you will find him as simply Newsguy, and you can sign up for his newsletter at newsguy.com. Always a pleasure and an honor to speak with you, Mr. Herman. Thank you, sir, for taking time for us today. Thank you, Brad. It's always a pleasure. All right. Let's take quick. Always a delight, Desi Dessie doing to speak with Steve Herman. Since 2011. Fukushima? Yeah, the earthquake and the earthquake and the destruction of the, and the tsunami and the nuclear power plant. When he was there reporting on it, one of the first reporters to actually make it on scene and into the property, yeah. Into the nuclear power plant while it was melting down. Yep. All right. Anyway, quick break. And we're back with, oh. Some more stuff. That's straight ahead on the broadcast. I'm Brad Friedman. Hey, this is Desi. The Bradcast and the Green News Report survive thanks to you and your support. Please drop by Bradblog.com slash donate today to help us stay independent every day over your public airwaves. That's Bradblog.com slash donate. And thanks.

Welcome back. It's the Bradcast, Bradfiedman from bradblog.com. All right, as noted at the top of the show, Donald Trump's personal criminal defense attorney, Todd Blanche, now also serving as both Deputy U.S. Attorney General and acting U.S. Attorney General testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in his nomination hearing to become Trump's permanent AG. even while serving as his personal defense attorney. That said, even if he is not confirmed by the U.S. Senate, as I noted at the top, which I think he will be, by the way. I hope I'm wrong about that. But he would still be allowed to serve as acting AG throughout the rest of Trump's term, as I understand it, given that he's already been Senate confirmed. for the deputy AG role. So in some way, this is really just a formality, it seems to me, for the wildly corrupt Todd Blanche. But also on Wednesday. Jay Clayton, the Trump administration's nominee for Director of National Intelligence to oversee all of the many U.S. intelligence agencies, he faced questions on Wednesday on election security and his commitment to keep the agency free of political interference, and yeah, good luck with that. During a confirmation hearing that was rescheduled, weeks after it had been abruptly scuttled by Donald Trump himself, allowing him to place 38-year-old Bill Pulte, Trump's... federal housing and finance agency chief in as the acting director of national intelligence for a few weeks in order to fire some people over there and somehow find super secret documents finally revealing that the 2020 election was stolen somehow from Trump. Trump, by the way, has announced that he will be making a primetime speech related to the 2020 election on Thursday night this week. Great. Look forward to that. Whatever. But Trump's actual nominee for the role of DNI, Director of National Intelligence, from which he recently fired Tulsi Gabbard, is Jay Clayton, a prosecutor who served as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. And during the first Trump administration, he chaired the SEC. Security and Exchange Commission. So, again, no national intelligence expertise as required by law, but you know what? Laws are for chumps. And given that it would be Maga Loyalist and Stoge Bill Pulte otherwise in that role, even some Democrats have decided to back Jay Clayton's nomination. Multiple Democrats, however, pressed Jay Clayton on his view of things like election security.

As Trump prepares for that big speech on Thursday night on the 2020 election, under questioning from Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the committee's top Democrat. Jay Clayton said that he was not an election denier and that Joe Biden had been, quote, certified as president. Well, yes, we know he was certified, Mr. Jay Clayton. But when he was pressed repeatedly by multiple Democrats, Jay Clayton refused to say that, yes, Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Here's Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, one of the states that Donald Trump lost in 2020, that he insists he did not, putting the question directly to Jay Clayton. Who won the 2020 election? You know, I'm not going to do this with you. This is a job interview. We've established that you have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee. Yes, you do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee. Yes. Who won the 2020 election? Like I said, I'm not going to get into that with you. But you do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee. Is anything that I just said, not honest or forthright? Yes, you're not being honest or forthright. Who won the 2020 election? I think I've answered the question. We can keep doing this. Well, we're going to keep doing it because you're not being honest and forthright. I'm not going to engage in the theater. It's a simple question, Mr. Jay Clayton. And I've answered. Who won the 2020 presidential election? I've answered it. You're here asking for the support of senators to lead America's intelligence community. We've established that you have an obligation to be honest and forthright with this committee and with the American public, but you refuse to answer a simple matter of fact about the 2020 election. Is that right? No, that's not right. Then answer the question. Who won the 2020 election? I have answered the question. Answer it. What is your answer? I've given you my answer. What is your answer?

You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you asked to lead America's intelligence community? Isn't it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president's delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question. Why can you not give it? I think I gave you the answer. I got to tell you, it is so embarrassing to be an American right now. Yes. I mean, that's the quality of the type of folks who will be leading the world's most powerful intelligence agency. In the middle of a war. Right. I mean, is it better than Tulsi Gabbard, who also had no intelligence background? It's better than Trump's 38-year-old. son of a real estate pal of his that he put in charge of the FHFA, who's now serving as the acting director of national intelligence. I don't know. Maybe tough call. But that's who we are apparently right now and who we're allowed to choose from these days. So utterly embarrassing and humiliating really for the people of this nation. As to the actual... Election fraud that Republicans pretend to be looking for. Oh, look, we found some more. And once again, surprise, it's a Republican. This story broke literally during our show yesterday and I was only able to share the headlines. So just to lock it in your memory banks a little bit, billionaire Elon Musk. Used to be a trillionaire, but his SpaceX stock is not going so great. Billionaire, Elon Musk, likely broke Wisconsin election law when he handed out $1 million checks to voters in the 2025 state Supreme Court election. That, according to a bipartisan panel. The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission. which runs elections in the state last week, referred two criminal complaints to the Brown County District Attorney's Office, which can choose to bring criminal charges over violating the state law against election bribery. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla, was deeply involved in the effort to flip majority control of the highest court in Battleground, Wisconsin last year. He, he, he, um,

spent at least $20 million on the candidate who was backed by Republicans, Brad Schimmel. Nonetheless, Schimmel lost by 10 points, an absolute landslide in a closely divided state like Wisconsin. Schimel lost to Democratic-backed candidate Susan Crawford. The complaints sent to the Brown County attorney are confidential under state law. They were brought by voters in Milwaukee and Green Bay, which is in Brown. County. Elon Musk handed out, you'll recall checks at a rally there just days before the election. The Wisconsin Election Commission consisting of three Democrats and three Republicans voted five to one in closed session last week to refer the complaints to the DA. The motion approved by the Elections Commission said that it found probable cause that Elon Musk broke Wisconsin law by making a social media post offering $1 million to people who voted in the Supreme Court election, quote, in order to induce them to vote in that election. Wow, who would have thought that was unlawful? Three Wisconsin voters received checks from Elon Musk, including two who got them in person at a Green Bay rally. Two weeks before the election, Elon Musk's political action committee offered $100 to every voter who signed a petition in opposition to, quote, activist judges, or who referred someone to sign that petition. Crawford, basically, it's a way of harvesting email addresses. Crawford's win kept liberals in control of the state Supreme Court last year and their majority then grew to five to two after Democratic-backed candidate Chris Taylor's victory this year. So apparently the people of Wisconsin really don't like people messing with their elections like that. Elon Musk's spending on the 2025 race has already resulted in one lawsuit filed by a government watchdog group. And this is exactly what he did before the 2024 presidential election. He offered to pay a million dollars a day to voters in Wisconsin and six other battleground states who signed a petition supporting the first and second amendments. That was the scam at the time. So this may be sort of the first comeuppance if this criminal case moves forward against Elon Musk at any event for this sort of Republican election fraud. And yes, I call it that because it's exactly how it would be described if, let's say, George Soros or Bruce Springsteen was out there handing out million-dollar checks to voters in public daylight. A quick question, though, real quick. If he, Elon Musk is prosecuted on state charges, that means he couldn't be pardoned, right? There you go. Yep. That's what I thought. Sounds good to me.

And let's see, speaking of GOP election fraudsters, or in this case, GOP election fraudsters, you know, normally I'm critical of the folks that Donald Trump decides to endorse for office, but I think this endorsement that Trump just made on Wednesday, I think it's great. He's deeply unpopular, Donald Trump is, in the state of Minnesota. particularly following the murders of two Minnesotans earlier this year by his ice goons in the streets of Minneapolis. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is running to become the state's next governor after Tim Walz decided earlier this year not to seek another term. Now Amy Klobuchar will have about six challengers for the Democratic nomination, but according to polls, she is currently the clear frontrunner. And she's likely to win the nomination on the Democratic side on August 11th. But now Donald Trump, as Daly Coase's Emily Singer notes today, has all but ensured the race will be... Off the board for the GOP. We'll see if she's right about that. Seven Republicans are running for the nomination on the GOP side, including State House Speaker Lisa Demuth, an Army veteran and business exec, Kendall Qualls, who has been endorsed by the state GOP. But Donald Trump did not endorse either of those candidates today. He endorsed Looney Tunes election denier, conspiracy theorist, and yes, My Pillow CEO. Mike Lindell to be the next governor of Minnesota. Quote, Mike Lindell, the pillow man and one of America's greatest and most hardworking patriots is running to be governor of Minnesota. Trump declared in his post at his failing social media site on Wednesday afternoon, replacing one of the worst and most incompetent governors in the history of the USA. He's referring to Tim Walz there, presumably. He went on to say, Mike will be spectacular. He truly loves Minnesota, as I do, and wants to bring it back from oblivion and embarrassment. He can do it, wrote Trump. Yes, because if there's anybody in the world who would save Minnesota from embarrassment, its former crack addict, pillow guy, an election conspiracist, Mike Lindell. He's not embarrassing at all. And by the way, I strongly endorse Donald Trump's endorsement.

for the GOP nominee in Minnesota for governor. Quote, nobody has sacrificed more than Mike Lindell in fighting for our country, especially when it comes to election integrity. He truly deserves everything he gets. wrote Trump. Well, I think I agree with that, too. Reportedly, Lindell is almost bankrupt at this point, and by golly, yes, he deserves it. Trump says he will make Minnesota great again. Mike Lindel has my complete and total endorsement. He will not let you down. Trump declared. You heard the man, Republicans, get out there and vote. for Mike Lindell for the GOP nomination for governor in Minnesota. Now, to state the obvious here, Singer writes, Trump does not love Minnesota. In fact, he spent months terrorizing residents in the state with his violent immigration crackdowns. He executed two American citizens brave enough to stand up against Trump's torments. In February, he also withheld hundreds of millions of Medicaid funding to the state, to the state's poorest residents, jeopardizing their access to medical care, all as punishment. for Minnesota having a large population of Somali immigrants. And Lindell, who has been hit with millions in legal fees and judgments and settlements for his role in spreading Trump's false claims about election fraud, he has no shot of winning the governor's race, at least according to Singer. Is she right? Folks in Minnesota can let me know. You can write me, I am Bradcast at Bradblog.com. Knowing that Lindell would be an especially weak nominee, she says the Minnesota Republican Party endorsed a different candidate. They endorsed Kendall Qualls, the former health care executives. But now Lindell has Trump's backing. That said, she notes Trump's endorsement record for gubernatorial contest this cycle has not been particularly good. Three of his recent picks have lost their primaries, but Lindell apparently has led in three of the past four public surveys of the primary on the Republican side, meaning Trump's blessing, could cement him as the winner on August 11. So Amy Klobuchar versus Lindell this November? Maybe so. If Lindel becomes the nominee, Singer argues he could jeopardize. other Republicans in the state, potentially causing some to stay home. Some voters. Already, Democrats are targeting GOP rep Brad Finstad in Minnesota's first U.S. House district. That's a seat that Trump won by 12 points, according to the down ballot. So having Lindell at the top of the ticket, they argue.

could help Democrats in that effort in the great state of Minnesota. Interesting. So again, folks in Minnesota, your statewide primary is August 11. And if you are a Republican who cares about Minnesota, you best mind your president and vote for Mike Lindell for governor next month. He won't embarrass you at all. All right, we've got to get out. Thanks again to my guest today, Steve Herman, formerly a Voice of America, now at the University of Mississippi, to our producer, Desi Doin, and yes, to all of you for spending a portion of your day or night with us. It's always appreciated, always an honor. If you missed any portion of today's show, want to give it another listen or share it with someone you know or love or hate. You can do it for free. at bradblog.com. Hey, please, while you're there, please fill out one of those donation forms for any amount you can afford one time or automated monthly support is greatly appreciated right now. You can go straight to bradblog.com slash donate. to be quick about it. All right, that's it. Drop me email. As I said, I'm Bradcast at bradblog.com on the social medias. I am the Bradblog, and we will see you at all of the above. Until we see you here next time, I'm Brad Friedman. Good luck, world.

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