Ezra Klein

This is well known. He has said this personally to some of them. Right. It's been well reported. This is probably why Jody Ernst voted for Pete Hegseth. Well, what's achieved by this? I think it's like an interesting question because Republicans, in theory, are allied to Donald Trump. Right. He's the nominee of their party. They don't have like literally the same view of him.

This is well known. He has said this personally to some of them. Right. It's been well reported. This is probably why Jody Ernst voted for Pete Hegseth. Well, what's achieved by this? I think it's like an interesting question because Republicans, in theory, are allied to Donald Trump. Right. He's the nominee of their party. They don't have like literally the same view of him.

This is well known. He has said this personally to some of them. Right. It's been well reported. This is probably why Jody Ernst voted for Pete Hegseth. Well, what's achieved by this? I think it's like an interesting question because Republicans, in theory, are allied to Donald Trump. Right. He's the nominee of their party. They don't have like literally the same view of him.

But I think you might say from one perspective, there is a value in the system and there being checks and balances. There's a value in the system and the system having to absorb other kinds of information.

But I think you might say from one perspective, there is a value in the system and there being checks and balances. There's a value in the system and the system having to absorb other kinds of information.

But I think you might say from one perspective, there is a value in the system and there being checks and balances. There's a value in the system and the system having to absorb other kinds of information.

Now, we already don't have the checks and balances we once had or thought we would have in this country because we have nationalized political parties instead of, you know, branches of government that sort of compete, you know, with ambition, checking ambition. And I've done whole shows on this and we can talk about that if we want. But we do have political parties.

Now, we already don't have the checks and balances we once had or thought we would have in this country because we have nationalized political parties instead of, you know, branches of government that sort of compete, you know, with ambition, checking ambition. And I've done whole shows on this and we can talk about that if we want. But we do have political parties.

Now, we already don't have the checks and balances we once had or thought we would have in this country because we have nationalized political parties instead of, you know, branches of government that sort of compete, you know, with ambition, checking ambition. And I've done whole shows on this and we can talk about that if we want. But we do have political parties.

And political parties are themselves institutions that aggregate different kinds of information in order to try to come to some outcome that is a better outcome because more information has surfaced. I think Donald Trump would be in a stronger position for him.

And political parties are themselves institutions that aggregate different kinds of information in order to try to come to some outcome that is a better outcome because more information has surfaced. I think Donald Trump would be in a stronger position for him.

And political parties are themselves institutions that aggregate different kinds of information in order to try to come to some outcome that is a better outcome because more information has surfaced. I think Donald Trump would be in a stronger position for him.

If Senate Republicans could have done what they actually wanted to do and not confirm RFK Jr., not confirm Tulsi Gabbard, not confirm Pete Hegseth, not confirm Kash Patel and Don Magino, right? That's actually a huge amount of risk the Trump administration has taken on. If they had named a sort of normal figure to HHS and then there's a measles outbreak – well, measles outbreaks are tough.

If Senate Republicans could have done what they actually wanted to do and not confirm RFK Jr., not confirm Tulsi Gabbard, not confirm Pete Hegseth, not confirm Kash Patel and Don Magino, right? That's actually a huge amount of risk the Trump administration has taken on. If they had named a sort of normal figure to HHS and then there's a measles outbreak – well, measles outbreaks are tough.

If Senate Republicans could have done what they actually wanted to do and not confirm RFK Jr., not confirm Tulsi Gabbard, not confirm Pete Hegseth, not confirm Kash Patel and Don Magino, right? That's actually a huge amount of risk the Trump administration has taken on. If they had named a sort of normal figure to HHS and then there's a measles outbreak – well, measles outbreaks are tough.

Like, that's a hard thing – If you name RFK Jr. and there's a huge measles outbreak, you're really going to get blamed for that because people are ready to blame you. If there is a domestic terror attack after you've put Kash Patel, who's quite unqualified, in charge of the FBI and they sort of launched a war internally against the FBI, which they see as a hotbed of anti-Trump sentiment.

Like, that's a hard thing – If you name RFK Jr. and there's a huge measles outbreak, you're really going to get blamed for that because people are ready to blame you. If there is a domestic terror attack after you've put Kash Patel, who's quite unqualified, in charge of the FBI and they sort of launched a war internally against the FBI, which they see as a hotbed of anti-Trump sentiment.

Like, that's a hard thing – If you name RFK Jr. and there's a huge measles outbreak, you're really going to get blamed for that because people are ready to blame you. If there is a domestic terror attack after you've put Kash Patel, who's quite unqualified, in charge of the FBI and they sort of launched a war internally against the FBI, which they see as a hotbed of anti-Trump sentiment.

And the FBI in the sort of internal chaos misses some things and you have deaths on American soil. That's a huge amount of risk you've taken on. I mean, the guy they fired, Chris Wray, he was Trump's appointee. It wasn't some Democrat. Trump named him in his first term. But Elon, right, what he did here was he created a kind of death star of primary money.

And the FBI in the sort of internal chaos misses some things and you have deaths on American soil. That's a huge amount of risk you've taken on. I mean, the guy they fired, Chris Wray, he was Trump's appointee. It wasn't some Democrat. Trump named him in his first term. But Elon, right, what he did here was he created a kind of death star of primary money.