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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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And I'm Alex Wagner.
Two weeks in a row.
Baby. You know, I'm really glad when you said I want to do a special Knicks-focused episode of Pod. That is what I said. I was like, who will even know where we're going to be? But it turns out, very fortuitous, happy to just talk about the Knicks on this podcast. Thanks for inviting me, Jon.
Congratulations.
I had nothing to do with it.
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Chapter 2: What is the current state of infighting within the Trump administration?
He wants to keep going with the war. He wants to just he wants he wants more war, harder war.
At one point, he's pressed to give his message to the Iranian people. And Trump says, and this is a quote, my message to the Iranian people is they're afraid because they have no guns and the other side has guns. That's not a message to the Iranian people, I don't think, is it?
That is not a message to the Iranians. Every time someone has asked him that this whole war, though. he confuses, it feels like intentionally now, the Iranian people with the regime. And so everyone's like, what about the Iranian people? And he's like, they're running scared. That's what they're doing. And it's like, some people are specifically mentioning the Iranian people.
And he, of course, does not give a shit about them, even though that was, you know, that was one excuse for why we were doing this in the first place.
I also love the notion that the Iranian regime, that Moshtaba al-Rahmani, who has not been seen in public since this began, is calling Trump to be like, it's amazing how well we're doing in the papers.
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Chapter 3: How is Trump's relationship with Iranian negotiators evolving?
The papers.
I grabbed the New York Times here.
I grabbed the Post this morning. You should have seen the wood on the Post. Amazing. I'm getting amazing press. They put the Knicks on the back page. I was right there in the front.
And that was a great game, Mr. President. He also starts talking at some point about Tiananmen Square and how it takes a, it starts the drivers of the tanks in Tiananmen Square who mowed down citizens, at which point he's cut off. And they're like, we only have a minute, Mr. President.
Chapter 4: What details have emerged about the White House's handling of the Epstein crisis?
They literally cut him off on Fox and Friends because he's so addled. Can I say those seriously, John? I mean, because you mentioned, and I think very importantly, and he certainly wasn't being asked about this. on the Fox and Friends broadcast. They may have bombed water infrastructure, which would be a war crime.
And the story of whenever this ends, or maybe it never ends because time is a dimension, but when it theoretically comes to a conclusion, the story of American war crimes in Iran will live with us as our legacy for decades. And we on Runaway Country had talked to... A retired master sergeant at the, what is it called?
The Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, which was a department in the DOD, which was set up to mitigate and prevent civilian deaths. Like, for example, bombing a girls' school or bombing water infrastructure. And Pete Hegseth wrote in and dismantled it effectively.
Chapter 5: What are the Democrats' chances in the upcoming midterms?
Like, civilian deaths are not beside the point. I mean, I think terrorizing people, especially brown people, the world over, is the point. And we... I mean... This administration owns these civilian deaths, and we don't have a good tally of them because there's so much opacity with regards to this war, even as it concerns American deaths. And we have a free press.
But at some point, the numbers are going to come out. And Donald Trump will own every single one of those deaths for a deal that looks like it will be nothing on par with the JCPOA.
Also, one thing he said there in that clip that we played is, you know, he's talking about the Wall Street Journal editorial board saying that he's not bombing hard enough. He's not doing enough. Right. Because they're hawks over there. He also calls them. He's like, I know that you guys own them, but they're trash. He said to the Fox people referring to Murdoch.
And he's like, what do you what do they want from me? We just dropped two hundred and fifty million dollars worth of bombs on them last night. So now he is bragging to the American people about using their tax dollars to drop bombs on Iran that hit water infrastructure that could potentially cause civilian death. So now he's telling people like, hey, what do you want from me?
I spent your money killing people in Iran for no reason last night.
It's the first time we've also gotten any kind of price tag from him. I mean, it's so embarrassing that this is like the braggadocio about killing civilians is the only way we get some transparency from this White House about what the damage and the sort of collateral on the table is. It's like horrifying.
You know, the question is, you know, will Lucy yank the football away yet again? Or is this finally Charlie Brown's moment? It seems like it's still just a memorandum of understanding. So Trump said that in the Oval, which means it's sort of the same deal as before deal. The Israelis are apparently surprised. And they said they're not part of this deal at all.
So no matter what the deal is, it's not solving the conflict between Israel and Lebanon. Trump said that the Ayatollah has agreed already. Iran is not saying that. An Iranian news agency said there's a high chance the agreement will be approved. So maybe we're going to get there. But it feels like we're right back to
If it does get approved, what it is is the end of the naval blockade, reopening of the strait, and then kicking all the nuclear issues down the road for more negotiations that I'm sure will not go anywhere else.
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Chapter 6: How does Trump's approval rating affect Republican strategies?
It's funny because he uses the article in front of it, right? I love the inflation. So that makes it a little funnier.
Well, no, he says it's actually the full quote is so good. You know what I really love?
What?
I love the inflation. You could argue, right? Like he's like, wait, hold it. He's teased it up. He's like, I'm about to, you know what I really love? The inflation. Like, it's so sadistic. Honestly, I don't think about Americans' financial situations is part of a bigger question. And I'm not excusing it at all. I think it was a disastrous quote. But this is psychotic.
This is someone who's like, you like the pain? How about a little bit more? You know what I really like? Fucking over the American public.
It's always dangerous to do this, but I was trying to think of like what was he actually trying to do there? And I think what he ā in his addled, very old mind, he was thinking, you know what? This data, it's going to be great because as soon as the war is over, this inflation is going to come right down and then I'm going to take all this credit for inflation falling.
So I love the ā like I think it's a little bit like ā No, it still doesn't make sense. It doesn't. No, of course not. Of course not.
Because he's talking about ongoing inflation. It still doesn't fucking make sense.
Well, he also doesn't know what inflation is, really.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of Trump's recent inflation comments?
Yeah, I could see them flipping three of those four conceivably. But if he gets back to the low 40s, which I still would bet on on Election Day, that, you know, that's that's asking a lot to win three of those four states.
Well, let's let's leave Maine and talk about those four states. I think you sort of ordered them earlier quickly, but I would just love like. You know, you have financial decisions if you're the Democrats, like Texas is a very expensive, very big state to compete in. Alaska, Iowa, not as much. Ohio is obviously they're going to go all in in Ohio.
How do you look at those four states in terms of feasibility for in flipping them?
So you got North Carolina, which looks pretty good for Democrats now. I mean, I think Republicans could end up pulling the plug there. So to me, as I said to you before, in Trump's first term, Susan Collins is the only Republican who won in a state where, according to the exit poll, more people disapproved than approved of his performance.
So if you're thinking about Alaska, Ohio, Iowa, and Texas, they're all probably going to be right at the tipping point. He's either going to be slightly above 50 or... maybe more likely below 50.
I mean, you know, I saw, was it the argument that knew that, you know, Lakeisha Jane and my former colleague at the Atlantic, Jerusalem, they tried to use their polling to project Trump's approval in all 50 states. And they had him seven points or more negative in all four of those states. And if that's the case, Democrats have a shot in any of them.
Now, if you're going to rank them, I think Peltola is an unusually good candidate. Alaska has kind of unusual population dynamics. It really doesn't have a huge white blue collar population. So I think Alaska is the strongest. By conventional measures, you'd have to say Ohio is the second. I mean, you know. Ohio is a big blue collar population.
It's like 50, 51 percent of the electorate will be whites without a college degree, even in the midterm year. Now, maybe that will go down to 49 this time. And if you look at Sherrod Brown, when he won in 2018, he won 45 percent of non-college whites. When he lost in 2024, he won 35 percent of them.
So he doesn't have to get all the way back to 45, but he does have to get somewhere north of 40 probably to win. That is possible. I mean, you know, one thing we should have said before when I was talking about the irresistible force, not only is Trump's overall approval rating down, it is well below where it has been among those non-college whites.
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