Andy Levy & Skye Perryman

**Molly Jong-Fast** (0:00)
Hi, I'm Molly Jong-Fast, and this is Fast Politics, where we discuss the top political headlines with some of today's best minds. And over 770 US service members have been killed or injured since the war in Iran began. New data shows. We have such a great show for you today as The World Churns owns Andy Levy's top spy to talk about Trump's failed war in Iran and the USS Lincoln being sent home. Then we'll talk to Democracy Forward's own Skye Perryman about her new book, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times, How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy. But first, the news.

**Jesse Cannon** (0:44)
Molly, there is new details in the police investigation to how Max Miller's daughter got hurt. And there's video recordings, and it is really ugly.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (0:55)
Yeah.
I have to tell you, this story is one of the darkest of this election cycle. And there are a few reasons why I think it's so dark. One is because we are hearing this story because the woman who Max Miller is now in the process of being divorced from is the daughter of a prominent, very wealthy Republican senator in Ohio. Think about all of the stories of women that this happens to. I mean, even remember Max Miller, there was a woman before this woman, right? Stephanie Grisham from Melania's office who was not taken seriously and who ended up having to sign an NDA. And taking a settlement. So, I mean, it's just worth thinking when you hear this story about this little girl and her mom getting hurt by Max Miller. Think about all of the women that you don't hear about, right? Think about all of the women whose stories do not rise to the top of the news cycle because they are not daughters of prominent people. And I just, it's so rare that we hear about stories like this. And the reason why is because a lot of these women get murdered by the guys, right? I mean, like the highest, you know, the most frequent killer of pregnant women is their spouse. It's worse when you meditate on this story, thinking about all the women who really do not get attention for what happens to them.
And I think that's really important. Also, Max Miller is a complete sociopath, clearly. He decided he was going to run again, despite the fact that even Donald Trump, and by the way, I wanted the reporting, the readout, it's not readout, but the reporting of Donald Trump's call with Max Miller is not that Donald Trump said he got to resign because it's not okay, because God forbid he say that. He said something in the effect of, you're not going to win. The polls show you're not going to win. And I think that's a really important point of this story, because it shows really that these people, there's no bar too low. There is no moral anything. Like at every point, these people just are willing to go along with anything if it means they'll win. And Democrats, when Democrats saw that Graham Plattner had real solid allegations of rape, that was it. That was the moment he was gone.

**Jesse Cannon** (3:25)
And even though he still somehow did not have the worst polling from it, they still said this is unacceptable, which really, really shows the contrast between the two parties.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:36)
The two parties are not the same. And like despite a lot of people who are, you know, a lot of conventional wisdom, the two parties are absolutely not the same.

**Jesse Cannon** (3:49)
Agreed. So this is really interesting. I did not consider a cost of all of Trump's pardons for these fraudsters, but Trump pardons of fraudsters have cost victims nearly $2 billion.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (4:04)
Oh yeah, because they are supposed to pay out these victims and Donald Trump's pardons mean that they don't pay out the victims. I mean, this is like $1.7 billion worth of fines, forfeitures and restitutions in a massive redistribution of wealth in favor of convicted criminals. Democrats accused Trump of sidelining the traditional clemency structure to implement a pay to play system. And you know, we know this to be true. We've seen tons of reporting on the ways in which people shop for pardons from Donald Trump. Remember, he said he was going to drain the swamp. Like at every point, Donald Trump has, remember, end foreign wars, drain the swamp, make things cheaper.
No, no, no, no, and no.

**Jesse Cannon** (4:54)
Yeah, it really is something, the details of the story just make it even worse.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (5:00)
And I want to add one other thing. I mean, there's crypto corruption, there's this, there's that. In addition to pardoning dozens of white collar criminals, the Trump administration has eliminated the task force for, on kleptocrats, I wonder why, paused the Foreign Corruption Corrupt Practices Act and gutted for the Foreign Agent Registration Act. I wonder why.