Jim Acosta & Ben McKenzie

**Molly Jong-Fast** (0:00)
Hi, I'm Molly JongFast, and this is Fast Politics, where we discuss the top political headlines with some of today's best minds.
And Democrat Annalenia Mejia has won the special election in New Jersey's 11th district to replace Mikey Sherrill. We have such a great show for you to die, The Jim Acosta Show's Jim Acosta stops by to talk about Trump's market manipulation. Then we'll talk to actor-director Ben McKenzie about his new documentary on crypto, Everyone's Lying to You for Money, but first the news.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:37)
So Molly, the Supreme Court has just ruled in favor of oil companies. Many people are saying it's the most predictable ruling in the history of mankind.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (0:45)
I mean, I just am very impressed with their consistency. It's like you didn't even really need to guess that they were going to do that. Like you just knew that was coming, right? It's like, who? I mean, I guess, I guess it makes sense that they would find for the oil companies because this Supreme Court is filled with partisan hacks. But they do like Louisiana because it is a red state. So that was the only reason why I thought they might. But in fact, they are just partisan hacks. So very unsurprisingly, there we are.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:24)
Yeah. Okay. So one of the laws of Trumpism is that there's always a tweet that will contradict what he's presently saying. So now as he's considering giving $20 billion to the Iranians for uranium, Iranian for uranium, real tongue twister.
We're now learning what this script was all about.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (1:45)
No. I think he just got over the skis and is now trying to pay them off like an angry ex-wife. I mean, I don't know that this was ever him playing three-dimensional chess. I think he's just trying desperately to get out of this war.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:57)
That's not what I was implying. I was implying that when we were wondering what some of the motivations to rush in like fools here, I think we're starting to see it's the uranium. That's what I'm trying to infer.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (2:08)
Yeah. I don't know. I don't agree. I think it's probably just that he thought he could do lots of stuff at once and got very excited about it. It didn't work. That's my guess, but I could be wrong.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:20)
Yeah. Well, I'm sure it'll play out in the deep investigative reporting over the next few months.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (2:26)
Yeah. I mean, this is all going to... But the reality is, look, Donald Trump is in a nightmare scenario for him. He started a war he cannot end. We got all of these troops over there waiting around. You've got the Iranians blocking the straits. Now Trump blocked the straits. Now Trump is saying the straits are open.
It's a Friday and the markets are open. Do you think the straits are going to be open all weekend? I do not. I think this is maybe market manipulation, maybe just like wish casting. Look, Donald Trump has gotten really far on just lying to people and having it work out for him. And there's a lot of evidence to support this supposition that that's what's going on here. Just more and more of that. So I think there's a real chance that, I mean, maybe they have a deal, but maybe they don't. I mean, maybe none of this is true, right? Like, why would it be? I mean, I think there's a real chance that all of this is bullshit and that this just might keep going. So you have to just assume that there's a non-zero, 30% chance that all of this is just made up. And, you know, because we've seen this before, Donald Trump will, you know, get peace or this will happen and it'll be bullshit. So I would not give him the benefit of the doubt here.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:43)
Nope. So Mike Johnson, one of the worst people at their jobs, I've personally ever witnessed.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:48)
You got to respect it, though.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:50)
Oh, yeah. I mean, I mean, you know, I love a lack of craftsmanship, a lack of dedication to get a good better at your job. Yeah.
Fies of renewal, I feel like with a Republican majority like this and some of our, let's call it, center stems, this should be a real layup to get it passed. And yet Mike Johnson has found a way to do it.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (4:12)
Yeah, I know you're going to be surprised to hear this, but a backbencher who has no cred, no relationships, no ability to get people to trust him, is having some trouble passing some bills. Look, you should have seen this coming. Discharge petitions are not supposed to be the way we make laws. Discharge petitions are supposed to be sort of a last ditch effort. Nancy Pelosi never had a discharge petition. Get through past her. That's when the party that's not in power gets to bring things to the floor. And believe it or not, we've had numerous discharge petitions. That's because Mike Johnson is not in control. And what we have right now is a Congress that is basically being run by whoever is sort of in the mood at the moment. And that means that Mike Johnson can't get surpassed. So here we are. This is this FISA renewal situation. FISA, as we all know, is the government spying on us, something that is both not that popular with the far right and quite a lot on the on the left, too.