Mehdi Hasan & Harry Litman

**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 Sean Duffy's wife says he got the transportation post since, quote, that's all that was left. We have such a great show for you today.
Zeteo's Mehdi Hasan stops by to talk about a new poll that shows that Americans think, and they're probably right, that we have unprecedented corruption in America. Then we'll talk to Talking Feds, Harry Litman, about Trump's countless illegal moves and how they could be prosecuted. But first the news.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:36)
Samali, this is really interesting. I haven't seen a lot of people talking about this, but Ro Khanna put out a statement talking about how Republicans are pressuring Speaker Mike Johnson to adjourn Congress before the midterms, because guess what? They don't want to be accountable.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (0:50)
So, Ro Khanna breaking a little news here, probably talking about what he's seeing on the House floor. He says, Republicans do not want us to vote on stopping the war in Iran, which, by the way, Democrats have voted a bunch of times on, allowing prosecutions against the Epstein class and banning federal funding of flock cameras, all very popular things. Look, here's another thing that's happening right now. So, the House is in session. We are nine weeks away from the midterms. And next week, Donald Trump is doing Trumpapalooza in the ever-bluing state of Texas.
So, if you're a member of the House and you are desperately trying to save your seat, which you probably are, you do not want to spend your time in Washington, DC. You want to spend your time in your district campaigning. And I think this is a real problem for Republicans, right? They have a very unfriendly environment. They have a wildly unpopular president, and they're trying to save their jobs. And so, of course, they want to go home. And when, you know, it was interesting today, yesterday, we saw a clip of Manu Raju talking to Speaker Mike Johnson. And Mike Johnson is usually extremely congenial and friendly, despite being a huge liar.
And what I think, what I was really struck by was that he was really losing his temper.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:32)
What felt Trump like?

**Molly Jong-Fast** (2:33)
Well, it felt like it was a man who was just in a very difficult situation, which, by the way, fine with me. But I think it's really important when we look at these midterms to look at just how a lot of Republicans' luck has really run out.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:51)
So, Molly, there's a lot of tea leaf reading after Massachusetts primary. I cannot believe we're still having fucking primaries in September. But that's a different story. Anyway, Ed Markey had a sizable win against Congressman Seth Moulton.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:06)
Charisma Seth, we call him. Oh, yes. He's a molten chocolate cake of Charisma.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:11)
As I said to you last night, that this is the second most embarrassing thing that happened to him since he got defeated challenging Nancy Pelosi, which was an ill-advised move.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:20)
Yeah, that was a, you will come at the Queen, you best not miss. Now, that said, Ed Markey is 80 years old. He will be 86 when his term is over. He has been in office for 50 years, some crazy number.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:36)
Yeah, but only a senator for one term.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:39)
Well, good for him. The point is we need term limits, but we need term limits and also Seth Moulton is a terrible candidate. I made this point on television. I don't think anyone heard it, but I actually think it's a really good point. And I read about it in the Times, and I remember it happening when it happened, which is Moulton was quick to throw trans people under the bus.
Quick, quick, quick. He said, I have two daughters and I would never want them doing sports with boys. And I want to point out that he did that because he saw, I don't know what's in his heart, but I think he did it because there's a presidential polling that transports as an issue that Republicans can win on. But let me tell you, this was one of the many reasons why Moulton lost. Because I think there was a real sense that if you're going to throw trans kids under the bus, then are you going to throw gay kids under the bus? You're going to throw black kids under the bus? You're going to throw Jewish kids under the bus? If you don't stand for something, you don't stand for anything, right?

**SPEAKER_2** (4:46)