Rick Wilson & Anand Giridharadas

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 Peter Thiel says the Trump administration is staffed by not very smart, but very loyal people. We have such a great show for you today, The Lincoln Project. Rick Wilson joins us to discuss the consequences of Trump being the most unpopular president of all time, heading into a midterm election. Then we'll talk to journalist Anand Giridharadas about his new book, Man in the Mirror, Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in American City. But first, the news.

Jesse Cannon (0:39)

So, Molly, a Trump-appointed judge is again holding the administration in contempt over deportation.

Molly Jong-Fast (0:45)

Yes. They just keep doing this, and they keep doing it in a way that is illegal. And then judges say, no, you can't do that. And then they keep doing it. And then the judges find them in contempt. This is a Trump-appointed federal judge. He held the administration in contempt Friday for deporting a young asylum seeker to El Salvador. It's a violation of three court orders, and he ordered the government to bring him back to the US. The Trump administration keeps breaking the law, and that's why the judges keep finding them in contempt. Why this story is important is obviously what happens to people is important, and what happens to these asylum seekers is important, and the whole American experiment is the opposite of this, but it's also important because there's a lot of really bad stuff happening that we're not talking about, and that's like the Dilley Detention Center in New Jersey.

There's a lot of that kind of mistreatment of people is still happening. And so while we talk about some of it, it is not staying in the news even though we all know it's continued to happen. And part of that's just because we don't have the reporting, we don't have the eyes in there to be able to see what's actually happening. I think this story is important because we're talking about immigration again. And like the Stephen Miller agenda is continuing, it's happening right now. And even if you're not hearing about it, assume that it's happening behind the scenes. Yeah.

Jesse Cannon (2:09)

And speaking of the Stephen Miller agenda, what we saw here is a DOJ prosecutor has quit because they had no case and they were given orders on the Broadview 6 trial.

Molly Jong-Fast (2:20)

So the Broadview 6, these are the people in Chicago. One of these people is Cat Abugazala, who was running for the seat that is soon to be Daniel Biss in Illinois. So the point is the Broadview 6 were arrested, they were prosecuted with a, this is the thing this administration does, where they try to trump up the charges to scare other people. And basically, the prosecutor who they tried to get to do this prosecution has now resigned. And in her resignation letter, she basically gives us a sort of view of what was happening behind the scenes. And you will be very unsurprised to find out that in fact, what's happening behind the scenes is the usual Trump dysfunction that we see in every part of the federal government. And but this case was a disaster for the DOJ.

They tried to hit these people in the Broadview 6 with felony conspiracy charges, which could have had them in jail for at least six years for blocking an ICE vehicle. So anyway, this case is gone, it's dead, and it was overzealous prosecution. But more importantly, it's just a really good example of this administration is dysfunctional, but it's also really overreaching in every which way.

Jesse Cannon (3:40)

So Molly Pete Hegseth, as we know, is...

Molly Jong-Fast (3:43)

On this show, we call him Whiskey Pete.

Jesse Cannon (3:45)

This is true. He, of course, has no concern for the law or the way anything is done. So he issued veiled orders to the military to vote Republican in the midterms.

Molly Jong-Fast (3:55)

Yeah. By the way, so Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, or as we call him, Whiskey Pete, basically, he looked at the 2024 election analysis and he claimed that 300,000 warriors were not registered to vote that year and he would like them to vote. But he would like them to vote the right way. By the way, I just want to point out that the military is super mad at Whiskey Pete for any number of things. I mean, probably not all of the military, but very few people I know in that world are pretty mad because the administration has done all sorts of stuff to kind of target the military and make their lives harder and give them testosterone tests, do things that don't help them and not promote people who deserve promotions because they're black or female, which I think it really undermines the whole establishment when you go in there and practice racism when everyone knows that's what you're doing. I think this is kind of going to backfire on him, but it is also just an insane thing to say.