Rick Wilson & Brian Poindexter

**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 the Financial Times poll says 53% of registered voters say they are worse off under Trump. We have such a great show for you today. The Lincoln Project's own Rick Wilson joins us to discuss Todd Blanche demonstrating. He'll do whatever Trump says. Then we'll talk to Brian Poindexter about his run for Max Miller's congressional seat. But first, the news.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:30)
Smai, I think there's an interesting thing unfolding here.
One of the things we will often see with administrations, particularly the Trump swan, is that they move the goalpost on what is actually a goal and that they would consider winning. And we're seeing JD Vance and the rest of the Trump administration do this now on the war in Iran.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (0:53)
This war is a fucking disaster for everyone, more than just a normal war, which is a fucking disaster for everyone. They need to basically make it like before Trump went into this war. And so they're trying to make it move the goalposts because there were never goalposts to begin with. So here are some of the things that Trump has said are going to happen. The Iranians are going to surrender. There's going to be regime change. They're never going to get a nuclear weapon. And he's going to end Tehran support for Middle East proxy groups like Hezbollah. Here's what's happened. We're in the sixth month. Nothing has happened except that the Iranians have closed the strait, which is completely the worst case scenario because it means that like a fourth of all oil and gas is not, is just not traveling through the strait, which means everything is more expensive. And there's also soil and all sorts of other stuff that goes through the strait. So what does this mean? It means that we, they're just trying to end this war as quickly as possible. Donald Trump is doing his usual thing. In fact, this week he said that these strait is open, which is good, except that you can check online and see that it's not. And JD Vans is trying to give a sort of new spin on it. So he was on Fox News on Thursday, and they asked him how the war might end, and he laid out two goals, ensuring that Gulf countries continue to send oil and gas, so that the world economy, so we have energy price stability, which by the way, they already do.
And that's goal number one, keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over the country.
FYI, we are, from a few things to remember about this, we actually don't get oil and gas from the Middle East.
We do, but we're the largest producer now.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:53)
Yes, and our supply chain does get it, since we outsource manufacturing, and that's the big problem, and why we're going to put money into Japan.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:02)
Right, but we have, but the gas goes up, if it's harder to get it, the prices go up.
So again, making sure that it gets sent to us has not anything to do with this war. And then the goal too is to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. Now, you may remember a thing that Barack Obama did called the Iran nuclear deal, which was to ensure that Iran never got a nuclear weapon. But Donald Trump ended it because he said it was terrible. Now Vance would die for it, and here we are. Carolyn Levitt, who was on her way out, said both goals are equally important to the president, who was in New York trying to help his friend become governor with zero chance. So another case of like these people having a big problem.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:01)
I have a theory that you sometimes grown at me about that.
Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries seem like their job is to make the Democratic Party unpopular. Kristen Wilker just had Hakeem Jeffries on. And for some background, Hakeem supported Medicare for All legislation and co-sponsored bills from 2013 to 2021 And he just said to her that he no longer supports it. Great stuff. Great stuff in 2026

**Molly Jong-Fast** (4:28)
I don't know why. I think Medicare for All, Medicare, public option, call it what you will, it's happening. So I don't know why we're talking about this right now.
You know, maybe Hakeem is able to keep his speakership. Maybe he's not. I think we'll see what it looks like if Democrats flip the house. I don't think that he is particularly helpful going on television. There is certainly a left versus center thing happening here. But there's also an, you know, there's an up versus down, right? People are angry. Voters are angry. They want more. And that's going to include probably universal pre-K, some kind of universal child's care and universal health care. So again, I don't know why he said that on television, but it's not where the rest of the party is. But maybe it doesn't necessarily, you know, Keem doesn't, I don't think he really reflects where a lot of the basis. Jesse, do you have something you want to say about this? I feel like you do.