Xi’s Just Not That Into You

Tommy Vietor (0:12)

Welcome back to Pod Save the World, I'm Tommy Vietor.

Ben Rhodes (0:14)

I'm Ben Rhodes.

Tommy Vietor (0:15)

Ben, right before we started recording, 404 media reported that a hacking group says it has penetrated the FBI and stolen data on quote all FBI employees and applicants.

A rep from this hacking group says they have the agents' names, home addresses, phone numbers, and information on their spouses. Do you think that if Cash Patel had spent a little less time helping FBI agents who'd been involved in bestiality get into the force that he might have locked down their IT systems or is this unrelated?

Ben Rhodes (0:49)

They did.

I'd have to go back and review the tape here, but my hazy recollection of the early doge days was then dismantling some of the cyber defenses of the US government. They got a lot of attention and a bunch of nerds were warning that this is going to lead to catastrophic hacks. So yeah, maybe Cash's priorities of flying to the boondoggle ranch and paving the way for bestiality enthusiasts to join the Bureau is not turning out so well.

Tommy Vietor (1:19)

They were firing everybody who was involved with prosecuting January 6th insurrectionists. Maybe you should have focused elsewhere. Yeah, when asked, a representative from this hacking group, they were asked, so what are you going to do with this information now? And they said, what we plan to do is not something I'd call extortion, maybe coercion. That's pretty ominous. It's not great when the FBI is getting hacked.

It feels like that shouldn't be happening, Cash, from the cheap seats here.

Ben Rhodes (1:43)

Yeah, I mean, there's so many things you could say about this. I just point to one, which is the FBI is the entity that does counterintelligence, like the people that are supposed to uncover hackers and people spying on us. And you don't have to be a fan of the Americans to know that probably not good if the hackers have all this detail on the people doing the counterintelligence.

Tommy Vietor (2:04)

All their identities. Ben is in New York this week. He's at the UN General Assembly. You have a good time. Do you feel more international this week, every year?

Ben Rhodes (2:12)

I do.

I do love UNGA Week. Coming to you here from my childhood bedroom, which was redecorated as soon as I went to college. But yeah, I'm seeing a bunch of different people, activists, politicians, and let's just say the mood, though, is not ebullient at UNGA this year. There's a kind of grim fatalism about what Trump's going to say. And so we'll see. There's a lot going on, though.

Tommy Vietor (2:39)

At least he's only there briefly. We have a great show for you guys. We're going to preview President Trump's state visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, talk about what they are likely to discuss, maybe where the hell all of our leverage went in these talks. And then we're going to geek out about AI for a bit, especially the ways AI adoption that's currently happening is leading to national security problems today.

We are going to tell you all about this week's UN General Assembly meeting. We'll talk about the latest with the Houthi rebels offensive in Yemen and how it has put Trump in this just brutal strategic bind with the Saudis. We're going to cover elections in Russia that just happened, elections and air quotes. We'll talk about some other elections in Germany that really are a problem. We'll talk about why so many European leaders seem worried that Russia might test NATO. There was this sort of cacophony of social media anxiety about it over the weekend that Ben and I were sending back and forth to each other.

And then, Ben, I want to end this up anew, which is a bit of a choose your own adventure section about national security stupidity. You're going to get to decide how this episode ends. So I'm excited for that. And then you did our interview today. What are folks going to hear?

Ben Rhodes (3:47)

Tommy, we have another exclusive here on Pod Save the World, which is Maher Bitar, who runs National Security Action Organization. I'm on the board of Progressive Advocacy Organization. They commissioned a poll ahead of the midterm elections on public attitudes about foreign policy and national security. And I have to say, like, I've read a lot of those polls over the years. And this is a particularly interesting one because it's quite different than any poll I've seen before. You know, like the things like tariffs and corruption in the war on Iran are the foremost concerns of voters.