The Chuck ToddCast
Trump’s Weaponization Of The Justice Department + Is A Blue Wave Building For 2026?
28 Apr 2025
In this packed episode, Chuck opens with a sobering assessment of President Trump's plummeting approval ratings and questions about his administration's credibility before diving into critical structural concerns about the Department of Justice's independence and the need to expand the House of Representatives. He shifts to Florida politics, where a brewing corruption scandal threatens the governor's race and Republicans are increasingly willing to challenge Ron DeSantis's weakened political standing. New York Congressman Dan Goldman joins for an extended interview about the concept of rule of law before and after his experience during impeachment proceedings. Goldman offers insights into Trump's challenges to fundamental constitutional principles and proposes concrete reforms to better protect America's democratic institutions, including codifying limits on presidential interference in prosecutions, strengthening congressional subpoena powers, and potentially restructuring the Justice Department with Federal Reserve-like independence.The episode's second half features political handicapper Dave Wasserman analyzing the evolving electoral landscape heading into the midterms. Wasserman explains how understanding local communities is crucial to predicting election outcomes, while lamenting the lack of quality coverage in smaller markets. He delivers a forecast that Democrats could see sizable gains in the House, with Trump's tariff policies potentially hurting Republicans in farm states. The discussion explores gerrymandering's changing impact, with both parties now complaining about the practice, and examines how the 2030 census might reshape the electoral map. Finally, they discuss the prospect of a “blue wave” in the 2026 midterm elections and whether we could see one or both chambers of congress change hands.Timeline00:00 Multiple polls show sharp approval rating drop for Trump03:00 Trump’s spokespeople are losing credibility05:00 Department of Justice needs more independence 7:30 The House of Representatives needs to be expanded8:45 White House Correspondents weekend was awkward12:15 Corruption scandal looming over Florida governor race13:15 Florida Republicans are no longer afraid of Ron DeSantis15:30 Ron DeSantis may be weaker, but Florida Democrats aren’t stronger17:00 The Shedeur Sanders commentary was ridiculous19:10 Congressman Dan Goldman joins the show19:40 What are the highlights of his district, NY-10? 26:35 What did "rule of law" mean to you before and after working on the impeachment proceedings? 30:25 Fundamental tenets of rule of law are being challenged 31:00 Amendments 4-10 are about equal protection under the law, for citizens and non-citizens 34:20 Trump has exposed why government is susceptible to leaders willing to break their oath of office 36:10 We need to codify into law that the president can't weigh in on individual prosecutions 38:40 Enforcement of congressional subpoenas needs legal teeth 41:30 Should we set up Justice with a level of independence like we did with the Federal Reserve? 48:40 If impeachment couldn't hold Trump accountable, why would the justice system? 50:10 Trump's conduct warranted prosecution 52:55 The impeachment process is broken 54:10 Trump has an unexplained infatuation for Vladimir Putin 7:25 The Republican majority in the House has turned all of their authority over to Trump 1:01:40 What can Democratic members of congress do other than speak out? 1:05:25 If Democrats want to win in 2026, what should they be talking about? 1:08:55 Is Andrew Cuomo vs Eric Adams really the best that NYC can do?1:14:45 Chuck’s thoughts on his conversation with Dan Goldman1:17:35 Dave Wasserman joins the show! 1:19:35 Mainstreaming interest in political handicapping 1:24:05 Understanding a local community is crucial to handicapping 1:27:05 Smaller markets not getting coverage they deserve 1:28:20 Determining how competitive a race will be? 1:31:05 House map is less skewed than it used to be 1:34:35 Complaining about gerrymandering has become more bipartisan 1:36:05 Democrats could see sizeable midterm gains 1:42:50 How will retirements affect the midterms? 1:4:05 Tariffs will cost Republicans in the farm states 1:45:05 Kansas headed toward swing state status? 1:48:05 Reappropriation from 2030 census could add several new red seats 1:49:35 Can Republicans further gerrymander states like Texas and Florida? 1:53:35 Virginia governor race isn't that competitive 1:58:50 Conventional wisdom is that Democrats shouldn't choose a woman for 28 1:59:50 Is a blue wave developing? 2:01:05 Trump doesn't care about Republicans other than himself2:03:16 Chuck’s final thoughts
Full Episode
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Because the Pew-Poll-Preview that I gave you a couple of episodes ago essentially was repeated by everybody else's poll in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN. Everybody has essentially found the same thing. This first 100 days for President Trump has not gone well at all.
We can do the quick top lines, but look, the economy, if you think about it, in the first 100 days from when he started on day one, What's gone better from him? Only one thing has gone better. And that's the border. The economy is worse. The world is more unstable. Government trust is worse.
When you think about the things ultimately that he was elected to do, restore some trust and integrity in government. That hasn't happened. Things are worse. Make the economy better and bring down prices. That hasn't happened. If anything, prices are going to be going up. This economy is more unstable. We just had the worst March housing report in basically since the pandemic.
So when you look at those, all of the actual metrics that Forget before you get to polling, like where the actual economy is, where the actual things are. It's you know, the public's being rather logical about this. They're not happy. They don't like what he's doing. The biggest thing is, I think the Pew poll did better, frankly, than anybody else.
And that was the reason I spent so much time in that Pew poll with you, is I think they did the best job of helping to explain. While the public still shares his goals and would like to see him succeed on the promises he's made, there is just widespread belief this has just been poorly executed. An administration really that's more about incompetency than anything else.
This is the gang really that can't shoot straight in here. And so this is not good at all. So the first 100 days have been a failure. The question is going to be, what are the next 100 days? They need to get some trade deals. They need to get some points on the board right now. They claim all these people are knocking on their door, making calls. So far, no deals have happened. Not one.
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