Kristi Noem's career has been put out of its misery

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors — the audio is the record.

0:00:10 Thomas: Hello, and welcome to Opening Arguments, this is Vapid Response Wednesday, I am Thomas Dowd, over there is real life attorney, Matt Cameron, how are you doing, Matt?

0:00:16 Matt: Hey guys, I come not to praise Kristi Noem's career, but to bury it in the gravel pit. This should be a fun one.

0:00:24 Thomas: Yeah. And of course, Lydia, how you doing?

0:00:26 Lydia: Good I would not miss this one for the world I'm so happy to be here and join you all in this burial that we are about to uh do I

0:00:37 Thomas: I'm going to I'm gonna spoil the entire party. I feel mixed that the only person facing consequences is a woman like I just you know what I mean? Like, it's just obviously it would be that like that's the one person that Trump thinks is, you know, expendable. I mean, I guess you could argue, no, I was going to say Stephen Miller, like he kind of, I felt like he pulled him back a little bit after the, some of the murders, but I, that doesn't, I don't know.

0:00:45 Lydia: I totally agree totally agree yeah yeah

0:00:48 Matt: So far. So long. So far? Yeah.

0:01:06 Thomas: It's just, oh, well, this is a, but, but it couldn't happen to a worse person in terms of Kristi Noem.

0:01:06 Matt: He's not appointed. Yeah? That's right. As we're going to remember today, we're going to be able to remember her not so fondly, but it just seems like a few days ago that we were sitting here looking over the nominations for DHS secretary and AG and everything else, looking at Trump's staff infection, as he called it back at the time.

0:01:27 Matt: And here we are seeing the first one out. And this is, it's taken more than a year for him to fire somebody, which is pretty good for him.

0:01:22 Lydia: I know how many scaramuchis is that I don't know

0:01:36 Matt: That's quite a lot.

0:01:36 Thomas: It's not even relevant anymore. That's like making a, like a Bush senior reference at this point. It's so old.

0:01:37 Matt: It's like an eternity.

0:01:43 Thomas: I always think about that.

0:01:43 Lydia: I know all the Gen

0:01:44 Thomas: Like, yeah, now that we're old, I think about references to like first Trump or just before it.

0:01:45 Lydia: Z people are gonna be like what are you talking about yeah

0:01:50 Thomas: And I'm like, God, that was like in 2000 when people talked about Bush senior. And you have no idea what they're talking about. No, it's just weird. I'm saying we do that and it's weird. And it's like crazy that time flies, you know?

0:01:44 Matt: We

0:01:54 Lydia: Fair all right yeah

0:02:03 Thomas: It goes so fast. But yeah, her career is as dead as that dog that she killed. And we all can agree that she deserved it yeah you

0:02:03 Lydia: Oh god it's karma this

0:02:13 Matt: All know about the dog, but do you know about, do you Know about the goat? Goat.

0:02:14 Lydia: Is karma no no oh

0:02:19 Matt: She is the goat for goat killing. So we're also going to learn about a goat today, unfortunately.

0:02:14 Thomas: Don't shoot dogs okay yeah

0:02:24 Matt: Sorry. Minor trigger warning. But yeah, yeah, no, she did give up the goat. Yeah.

0:02:24 Lydia: My god God, geez.

0:02:25 Thomas: It's more than she gave the goat

0:02:33 Matt: Right with a shot to the head. So, we're going to learning all about just kind of looking back, some of the stuff maybe people remember, some they won't. And I think just kind of capping off this career and remembering exactly what she was responsible for, not just what DHS wants you to believe she was responsibility for, but what she actually did. And then we're going to have to take a look at mark wayne mullen the new guy maybe if he clears it so I've got plenty to talk about and

0:02:32 Lydia: Oh, my God. Yeah, just just a heads up. They're they're talking about potentially next Wednesday, as early as next Wednesday for his confirmation hearing. So definitely brush up on your Mark Wayne, folks, because yeah, yeah,

0:03:05 Thomas: Boy I'm I can't wait to see how many people he fights we'll see he's taking all comers he's he's gonna come in his mma gear like ready to just brawl yeah every time we talk uh I think I Does the hit the head thing?

0:03:09 Matt: They oh

0:03:16 Lydia: Mouth guard. Yeah. Oh my God, I hope he does that. That would be that would make him more likable, in my opinion

0:03:26 Thomas: I know that's the thing. They never do things that are actually likable. You know, we often think of those options for them and there's no danger that they're going to take them. All right. Well, it's going to be a fun one. Really can't wait. So let's see. Why don't we go to our first break and shout out our patrons who are bringing this show to you. Thanks so much patrons at patreon.com/law. We of course, have to Thank the Hall of Famer's the all time greats who pledge at that five dollar level for at least a month. And then they get a shout out each and every week. It's a lot of fun. They change their name or they don't.

0:03:58 Thomas: Either option is great because we either get to know a fond, you know, familiar name or we get to hear a new joke each week. Love both those options. It takes all it takes all kinds, you you know, to make a nice balanced breakfast of, yeah, it is our strength. Diversity is the strength of patreon.com/law. All right. Thank you to the Ruth Bader Ginsburgler.

0:04:07 Lydia: Diversity

0:04:19 Thomas: My house is a mess, but I read a lot of books. Dominic Gillespie, Matthew Cutler, autistic Twitch streamer, Venonari for America, 2028, one man, one vote. Unremarkable. Your mom fell fell in a hole. Still funny to me. Oh my God. Still funny. Amina, Donna Treadway, mother of Herodins. Mike Lapinsky, not a banana baton. Oh yeah. Okay. It's a, it works.

0:04:33 Matt: Won't be very

0:04:43 Thomas: Yeah. Yeah, it took me a second. Cyanitis, AI marketing is anti-worker propaganda. Hmm. Interesting. Yeah I agree. Gray, preponderance of the evidence.

0:04:41 Lydia: It works oh okay

0:04:55 Thomas: Apprentice of adventure, apprentice of adventure. Charlie Kelly, attorney of bird law. Probably a real person, Nick Fish, and Punch's Stuffed Monkey Friend. I don't know if I get that one, but

0:04:52 Lydia: Solid name oh yeah punch the little monkey and and he had a little stuffed monkey friend the one that his mom abandoned him I

0:05:14 Thomas: Is that a reference to something that we know, or is it just a random name?

0:05:17 Lydia: Think it's just a rant it's just it's

0:05:20 Thomas: Punch's stuffed, I don't know what that is, but it sounds great. Lydia loved it, I' ll just say.

0:05:21 Lydia: A cultural touch point I do I do I love little punch and he has a family now so

0:05:27 Thomas: All right, we will take our first break, and thanks so much to those patrons. We' We'll thank all three groups of our Hall of Famers at the breaks. And after this, we'll get to the fun that is the in -memoriam of the worst secretary of fucking whatever she was ever.

0:05:41 Lydia: In the arms of the angel

0:05:46 Thomas: All right. Well, we have the Amuse Douche. Matt's amazingly named first segment. Uh. 10 out of 10 name. And, uh, I think we've got a 10 Out of 10 Amuse douche for you today. What are we talking about? Oh

0:05:58 Matt: Of the douchiest people in the trump administration he has just been fired for the third time from Lowell, Massachusetts, weighing in at, I don't know how many pounds, but he's no Mark Mullin. We've got Corey Lewandowski, who of course, as everyone I think knows by now, has unofficially, and everyone understands, has been having an affair with Kristi Noem the entire time while they've both been married. And from what we understand, basically got her the job as DHS secretary and has been one of her chief advisors.

0:06:23 Lydia: This is so weird yeah

0:06:24 Thomas: Well I'm sorry wasn't she like fucking governor or something wasn't

0:06:29 Lydia: South Dakota

0:06:29 Matt: She was the governor of a state that has about as many people as Austin, Texas, nothing against Austin or San Jose, California. I checked against both.

0:06:34 Lydia: Hey

0:06:35 Thomas: But I feel like she she almost got the vp if she hadn't murdered that dog like so I feel Like I don't know I I'm just maybe I'm quibbling maybe I'm wrong I don I feel ike is that true to say he got her that I feel like she was in line for something don't you think or is that predate that you know did how do you think he got her the job yeah

0:06:37 Lydia: Where I'm born and raised yeah yeah yeah she was a contender for that yeah yeah

0:06:55 Matt: I'm pretty sure I remember that. It could also be that she insisted on having him in her administration. Maybe it's both ways, but nobody really liked either of them, but especially him. At this point, he'd made a lot of enemies. He'd known to have sexually assaulted at least three people. And yeah, he pulled out to at least one of those, and then sexually harassed a Republican donor to the point that he was fired in 2021. He was Trump's campaign chair. He was briefly chief of staff, right?

0:07:09 Thomas: What I don't remember this about him oh god

0:07:25 Matt: He's been around the MAGA world,

0:07:25 Thomas: Yeah that was one of those names I'm just like I know I know this person but I don' t want to look it up and I can't remember that was honestly I was like one of the shit people that was in the shit thing right is that roughly that's all that's how my brain could muster

0:07:31 Lydia: He's been around forever yeah

0:07:39 Matt: Basically. And he's one of the assholes. He's such an asshole that the other assholes really don't like him very much. So there is that.

0:07:47 Thomas: When two people you hate are having an affair it's just like just I don't want to know about just I thought

0:07:51 Lydia: Yeah was was he fired or did he leave after she was fired okay

0:07:55 Matt: I'm guessing he was pushed out, but the announcement was made recently that he's out, so nobody's complaining. Certainly not me.

0:08:00 Lydia: Interesting

0:08:02 Thomas: He should be waiting in the jet for whoever gets the job next you know mark wayne walks in and he's got the like the austin powers like jet with a bed that's like spinning around And yeah, he's just doing the this over.

0:08:11 Matt: Stretched out.

0:08:04 Lydia: It's one of the perks of the job gross again something that would make him more likable in some ways like I can't even do that right wow

0:08:24 Thomas: But I didn't realize he actually criminally like or he settled. Was it a criminal thing you said? I missed it. Or was it a settlement like a civil settlement?

0:08:25 Matt: He has faced multiple criminal charges. I will say that. Yeah. Well,

0:08:35 Thomas: I didn's not important enough in the hall of Nazis to stay in my brain. I'm like, too many Nazis in there. I can only keep track of so many. I got to remember some of the old ones from World War II. But, you know, rapidly, I'm, like, I don't know how much more room I have. You know, I got, like a couple of them that I got remember. All right. Well, oh,

0:08:56 Lydia: Man piece

0:08:58 Matt: Let's take a look. This is one of his worst moments. Really, if you've never heard Corin Lewandowski talk, these two words, which are really the same word, are all you need to hear. This is at the height of the child separation crisis in 2018 in June. And he's on some Fox program with a spokesman named Zach Petkanas. And Petkanis is about to very rightfully lose it on him, as I would have if the same thing had happened. I don't know that I would've said anything too much different. It's one of those rare cases where the righteous indignation, yes, it's well -deserved, Well worth a watch. That was him.

0:09:29 Thomas: This is Womp Womp, isn't it? I remember now. That was him. Oh, my

0:09:35 Clip: I mean, look, I read today about a 10 -year -old girl with Down syndrome who was taken from her mother and put in a cage. I read about a, did you say want -want to a 10 year old with Down Syndrome being taken from their mother? How dare you? How dare You? How absolutely dare you, sir? How dare YOU? We have infants that are being taken form their mothers. We have infant children stolen from their mothers and put into cages. When you cross this country illegally, your parents are going to understand this. They understand something very clearly. When you crossed the border illegally, when you committed a crime, you are taken away from your family because that's how this country works. You go to any country in the world.

0:09:36 Thomas: The quality on this this is really bad. Sorry. Oh

0:10:17 Matt: Classic cable news moment.

0:10:20 Thomas: What an asshole. Jesus.

0:10:22 Matt: And the New Republic has reported recently that he has been running DHS a lot more than people realized during this time, and he officially is a volunteer. He's been a volunteer all this time.

0:10:18 Lydia: Of shit geez oh

0:10:22 Thomas: That's incredible. Do you ever think like, how do these people meet up and hook up? Like, Hey, I once went womp womp to a 10 year old with down syndrome being whatever just happened. I couldn't hear there's so much yelling. And then she's like, well, I raise you one dead dog. And then they're like, just making out like right they're just like so into being evil pieces of shit like really I don't how do evil pieces of shit I know how like normal humans court each other you know where you're like trying to like you know flirt be impressive do something you know I don'T KNOW HOW EVIL PIECES OF SHIT DO IT do they are they just like well you know what I murdered someone no one knows about it yet you might find out someday you might not and they're like wow you

0:10:40 Lydia: And then christy gnome goes that's so hot Oh, God. Oh, gross. Right.

0:11:16 Thomas: Know like I don' t I pled guilty to sexual assault, you know, like, how do they, is that what they do, I don't know, it's disgusting, evil, yeah, oh, what a piece of shit, you

0:11:16 Lydia: A man of mystery. Yeah. So weird. Mm hmm.

0:11:19 Matt: Evil Tinder? Maybe Maybe it's just Tinder. I don't know. Yeah. So that is just a little quick introduction to the voice of Corey Lewandowski. But I wanted to now turn to, of course, Kristi Noem, the woman of the hour, the last time that we're going to have to think about her, I think. And so I actually, in preparation for the 2024 episode where we were going to talk about her as a nominee, I'm the sucker who listened to her entire book.

0:11:52 Matt: Yeah, I don' t know what's wrong with me. I I took notes, just playing video games every weekend. And I listened to it sped up. I don't usually listen to things sped out, but I was getting the idea.

0:11:52 Lydia: You're crazy. No. Yeah, Yeah. Yeah.

0:11:51 Thomas: Poor fool, you poor soul, yeah that's how I do a lot of my work, it's just like, all right, two, what's your speed, I'm curious, man, this might be a personal question, what'S your speed interval, you you know?

0:12:02 Matt: And I did not, yeah, right. Well, regular listeners will know that I'm already speaking at 2x. So I do try to keep it at least, for listening, I try to keep it about one and a half.

0:12:13 Thomas: But for listening, you know, like one and a half. Okay.

0:12:17 Matt: I can, depending, and for her though, I could crank it up to two or so.

0:12:17 Thomas: Interesting. I was going to say, it does depend on how shitty the thing is where it's like, if it's a really good thing, I'm like one half is my minimum. It's my minimum if I'm getting through at 1 .75. This is a very personal question these days. I think people should talk about this more you know like it's yeah

0:12:21 Lydia: On the speaker. Yeah, interesting.

0:12:36 Matt: I usually stick with one. And if it's like complicated law content, the most I'm going to do is like 1 .2 or 1 .3 if I'm really trying to understand something. But I understand that I have a lot of caffeine and I'm already pretty hard to speed up myself. I like it that way.

0:12:41 Thomas: That's that's fair that's fair we do I've heard our podcast messes up people's intervals where they're like well I have it at this except for when matt's talking then I gotta turn it down you know which is I think it's kind of cool yeah it's like an honor not

0:12:58 Matt: So you're welcome. That's just my brain, folks. So we are going to listen to a couple of excerpts because I didn't take a lot of notes on this book because there's not much in it. It's pretty fluffy. But you learned a bit about Kristi Noem. Obviously, no,

0:13:12 Thomas: Unlike the dog she killed sorry a goat

0:13:14 Matt: We're going to find out about that too. It's worth hearing in our own words, hearing the story as well as the goat. Let's not forget the goat because

0:13:20 Thomas: And nobody knows we might be breaking this news on the goat because I know it's in her book but nobody's ever heard of this

0:13:22 Lydia: My And no one talks about the goat yeah

0:13:25 Matt: It is just a foot goat right now. Yes, we are going to elevate the goat, but I just want to point out. So this is from early on in the book, the first clip we're going to play. It is very short. This book is available on Spotify. I did not pay for it. I just wanted to be very clear about that. Sometimes I do have to pay for these shitty two books, but not this one. And we're going to listen to a very quick clip, about 30 seconds, that I think should have disqualified her if this had been planted a nomination. I just think this is so ridiculous. It really says a lot about her and who she is in her leadership. Remember, of course, that she was both in Congress for five minutes and then the governor of North Dakota for, I guess, a full term.

0:13:27 Lydia: South

0:13:30 Thomas: Wow foot goat I didn't remember that either South Dakota

0:14:03 Lydia: South dakota right yeah

0:14:03 Matt: South Dakota, being such a coastal elite right now. And I really want to try not to be a coastal lead too far through this, of course.

0:14:07 Thomas: There are two or three

0:14:10 Matt: There are two Dakotas.

0:14:10 Thomas: Of them there's Matt you should know there's a handful of Dakotas there's somewhere between one and four yeah

0:14:12 Matt: Yeah, you almost almost got me. And she was hundreds of miles

0:14:11 Lydia: There are two there yeah north dakota middle dakota south dakotah

0:14:20 Matt: Away from the border. She was almost a border governor, but not quite. She did, of course, send a lot of troops to the border during a flooding disaster, mismanaged the floods, mismantaged COVID to the point that a state with people that are spread out very far still had COVID hit pretty bad. So let's listen to this.

0:14:39 Matt: Her Her definition of leadership, which to me is astonishing, just

0:14:38 Thomas: All right I

0:14:43 Clip: Had the honor of answering this question. How do you make the the really tough decisions? Decisions. Most of the people in the room that day and online were probably five or six layers of bureaucracy away from me. I imagined them on a normal day in their office on the other side of the state wondering, why the heck did she just do that? And I knew that my fellow South Dakotans sometimes had the same questions about what went into my decisions. The hard decisions really really, are not that hard. Here's what I told that class.

0:15:03 Lydia: Their underwear.

0:15:19 Matt: There you go. That's it. The hard decisions, that was the first thing I thought of.

0:15:21 Thomas: Our decisions are not that hard man I never thought about it that way damn

0:15:27 Matt: Right, when you just, yeah.

0:15:28 Lydia: I've been to a lot of like leadership classes from my previous life in state government and you know that little nugget never made its way to any of my courses and I think that's a misstep.

0:15:36 Matt: Well, you didn't take,

0:15:35 Thomas: Even that those fake people would be like you gotta get you gotta sell me a little more bullshit than that you gotta try a little little harder they're

0:15:41 Lydia: The hard decisions aren't that hard.

0:15:45 Matt: I want my money back if I went to that class. But I mean, just the idea, I run a law office with 18 employees, and I'm not saying, you you know, that's pretty hard most days. And I have to make hard decisions all the time on behalf of my clients and my cases and the people under me. And we all do, we all have to make hard decision, but she's the governor of a state. And just, I cannot believe I don't know how that wasn't played. Maybe it was played her confirmation hearing. I didn't watch the whole thing, but it should have been because, you know life is hard. Decisions are hard.

0:15:45 Thomas: Not hard yeah you

0:16:12 Matt: You should treat them right.

0:16:12 Thomas: Just picture someone telling like abraham lincoln you know well I'm worried about the union and everything well it's just I mean hard decisions like they're are not that hard though and he's like I

0:16:21 Matt: It's like A or B, come on.

0:16:22 Lydia: Well I I just think that it's also like highly offensive she's talking about the people under her in state government you're talking about like analysts managers like low -level managers and stuff where the decisions that you're making could actually influence them heavily and you're just saying like well it's obvious what my decision was gonna be there even if it's gonna hurt them too in their position it's crazy and it's offensive

0:16:44 Matt: Right, no, and And that's

0:16:45 Thomas: Also I I just want to we need to criticize this book cover and I don't I don'T check me I donT want to get sexist about it I would never ever want to be, but this is objectively bad, right? I mean, we got the, oh, okay.

0:16:49 Lydia: Wait hang on I'm trying so I'm trying to mimic it the person

0:17:01 Thomas: So we got, yeah. Are you ever at a board meeting, hun, with a guy? Why, why do you have the guy's arm with like a, or right? Is that a guy's on it? What's on?

0:17:09 Lydia: Next to her it's

0:17:09 Matt: Her foot. There's a foot on the table.

0:17:11 Thomas: A foot. Oh, it's her foot. Oh,

0:17:13 Matt: Her heel is up. She's showing you the soles of her feet, which is very rude in many cultures.

0:17:11 Lydia: A foot oh oh

0:17:15 Thomas: So she's at a bored, she's out of boardroom. Yeah, it was in this culture.

0:17:19 Matt: Not in South Dakota.

0:17:20 Lydia: This is what cory like got really excited about I guess he's like into this

0:17:22 Thomas: I get what it says. Well -behaved women rarely make history. Don't try to do fucking shit like that on the right.

0:17:27 Matt: That's not you. That's also,

0:17:29 Thomas: You're just, you're just an enabler. That's like, that's was like the wives and the handmaids tale doing like, doing like feminist stuff, you know, like the ones that are in the blue or whatever, like, like, oh, get it girl. Like, no, you don't, you're on the other side of that. You're, you're anti -feminism. I don't care that you think you're a feminist. And then what's this clock?

0:17:38 Lydia: What

0:17:49 Thomas: What is this clock. Yeah. What's this, what's This is it. Oh, no going back. Cause a clock.

0:17:46 Lydia: Is her misbehavior because

0:17:58 Thomas: There's a clock, what is this meeting that she's having at which somebody, she doesn't seem to be at the head of the table. She's posing for a photo while in a meeting. That would be rude. I'd be be like, Hey, pay attention.

0:17:57 Lydia: The clock always goes forward and putting

0:18:08 Thomas: We're having me.

0:18:08 Lydia: Her feet up on the table like that's That's also crazy.

0:18:09 Thomas: And then whoever's seems to be like it like seems like someone else is at the head of this table. Am I wrong? Am I reading too much into it? I feel like I feel Like this, you know, so like, whoever's at the ahead of the table has a very ornate small clock to keep really keen time.

0:18:22 Lydia: I think we're at the head of the table, right? This is POV and like we're the head of the Table and Kristi Noem is coming to like teach us about leadership.

0:18:29 Thomas: Imagine you're trying to have a meeting and some idiot is putting their feet on the table and posing as if for a selfie in the middle of of your meeting it's just bad right wait

0:18:38 Lydia: Also the feet do nothing. Why even have the feet up on the table?

0:18:42 Matt: It's awkward.

0:18:42 Thomas: Hold on no I just thought of it this is definitely meant to be trump right like she's like I think she posed this as in here's what I will look like when I'm at the table and trump is at the head of the table because the flag in the background and the and the gold clock it's gold I actually think this is it because she was trying to get a position right or vp when she wrote this right I think that's it

0:18:43 Matt: It's really awkward. She's, oh, right.

0:18:44 Lydia: What? Oh, like mirroring him. You said it's a gold? Yeah.

0:19:05 Matt: Yeah. Yeah, and that's why she was out there. Yeah. Was published in May 7th.

0:19:08 Thomas: She's totally posing for like Like, here's

0:19:10 Matt: Month.

0:19:11 Thomas: What I will look, she might as well be in those cutouts at the, at the fair where it's like a whole, you know, where you put your head in. It's like Trump and then like vice president and she puts her head in and that's her book cover. It might as Well be that.

0:19:21 Lydia: Well, it's like 85 % of her job was cosplaying anyway. So like, I think you're right.

0:19:25 Thomas: I think I'm right about this. I actually think

0:19:27 Lydia: I think You're

0:19:27 Thomas: Like, I'm actually kind of proud of this. Like, I think that's what she's doing.

0:19:30 Lydia: And so she's picturing that Trump picks up the book. And he's like, this is where I sit. And this is what I would look at across from my desk.

0:19:34 Thomas: I can really, I can imagine her being in meetings with me now.

0:19:38 Lydia: Man.

0:19:39 Matt: This was her campaign book. She knew she was not going to be president, so certainly had to be thinking a few steps ahead. Also, why is she flirting with us a little bit with the hair there, the hair tease?

0:19:41 Thomas: My God. God, that's that's fantastic. Yeah, a little bit.

0:19:47 Lydia: Well, because that's gonna work on Trump, right?

0:19:48 Thomas: A little bit, Matt.

0:19:49 Matt: Sure.

0:19:50 Lydia: Yeah, I know. That's the

0:19:51 Matt: I'm not always great at picking that up, obviously.

0:19:55 Thomas: If anyone ever looks at you like that, Matt, I've just just they're they're into you. I'm just saying, like, just as if you if you need help, like if you see that exact look, that's the hey, Mr. President, can we do some really horrible stuff to people together? Look that people give some

0:20:04 Matt: Man, a lot of my meetings with governors could have ended with more fun, I guess. All right. Well, let's go to our next clip, which is the famous story, because I had to go back connection and listen. Because we all know that she shot a dog, but the details are worse than you remember, and hearing her tell it is psychotic.

0:20:25 Matt: So I really thought we deserved to hear it in her own voice from track nine, because there's 14

0:20:31 Lydia: 22 30 30

0:20:25 Thomas: Track nine okay is there gonna be a I hope there's a hidden track that's like the uh all right uh sorry 22 22 30 oh my god can I put it on 90 speed no I can't I'm not allowed to what

0:20:34 Clip: Five, chapter six, that they asked, and I, as I drove home, I realized that I had no choice. Cricket was untrainable, and after trying to bite me, dangerous to anybody that she came in contact with. A dog who bites is dangerous and unpredictable. Are you listening, Joe Biden? Especially if you're running a business where people interact with your dogs and besides that she was less than worthless to us as a hunting dog. At that moment I realized I had to put her down. As I pulled into the driveway I decided I had to deal with this problem myself. This was my dog and it was my responsibility and I would not ask somebody else to clean up my mess. I stopped the truck in the middle of the yard,

0:20:53 Matt: Months old, this dog.

0:20:59 Thomas: Sorry what what do you think oh yeah I

0:21:01 Lydia: Because of his dogs no

0:21:04 Matt: Commander, less than worthless.

0:21:19 Thomas: Brought her into this world jesus

0:21:24 Clip: I got out my gun, grabbed Cricket's leash and I let her out into the pasture and down into the gravel pit.

0:21:25 Thomas: Christ my god this is like worse than just

0:21:31 Matt: 14 months older.

0:21:31 Clip: It was not a pleasant job, but it had to be done. And after it was over, I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done. Walking back up to the yard, I spotted our billy goat. This goat had been a problem for years.

0:21:35 Lydia: It didn't oh

0:21:40 Matt: Immediately after. Yo, fuck that goat. I'm

0:21:46 Thomas: Against anything else needs a quick murdering

0:21:48 Clip: He was nasty and mean, as most male goats are.

0:21:48 Thomas: You know when you're wandering around your house looking for chores that need to be done she's just like does anything else need to Be shot

0:21:54 Lydia: Like I have this gun in my hand already like I might as well

0:21:58 Thomas: I don't want to have to get it out again like I got shotguns usually have the two probably shells or whatever they're they're a lotus oh

0:21:59 Lydia: Jesus Christ yeah

0:22:00 Matt: In a killing mood. Let's do do this. I just feel like the goat should get more attention here. Immediately, minutes later, she's like, oh, I also should kill another animal. How about that goat I also hate?

0:22:09 Lydia: What

0:22:07 Thomas: My god I gotta hear the I gotta hear the rest of this that is so funny that

0:22:15 Clip: Walking back

0:22:16 Matt: It's so goats.

0:22:16 Clip: To the garden, I saw our billly goat. This goat was a problem. Problem for years. He was nasty and mean, as most male goats are that are left uncastrated. Male goats will urinate on their own heads and their beards while in rut, hoping to attract females with their putrid smell. It's the most disgusting, musky, rancid smell that you could even imagine.

0:22:24 Thomas: Untrainable this goat yeah

0:22:41 Lydia: That sounds like that's just what

0:22:42 Clip: And not only was this goat constantly covered in his own muck, he also loved to chase the kids.

0:22:42 Lydia: He would do as an animal okay

0:22:45 Thomas: It lives outside though right you

0:22:49 Clip: He would knock them down and butt them. The wretched smell was impossible to get out of their clothes and we had to burn too many shirts and jeans to mention. Needless to say, the children were terrified of this animal. I would often find them on a fence or a piece of equipment held hostage by the demon goat. So while taking care of unpleasant business, I decided now was a good time as any to dispose of this problem too. So I went down to the corral, caught the goat, and dragged him out to the gravel pit. I tied him to a post and when I went to shoot him, he

0:22:51 Thomas: You need to keep the goat in something that she also shot those to just

0:22:52 Lydia: So have a fence oh

0:23:07 Thomas: Put the goat somewhere different I

0:23:18 Lydia: My god oh

0:23:19 Thomas: Made him look at the dead carcass of the dog that

0:23:22 Clip: Jumped at the last second. My shot was off and I needed one more shell to finish the job. The problem was I didn't have one. Not wanting him to suffer, I hustled back across the pasture to the pickup, grabbed another shell, hurried back to the travel pit and put him down. As I came back up out of the gravel pit and I crossed the pasture, I looked up into our yard where our new home was under construction. I had an audience.

0:23:22 Thomas: I just killed I

0:23:26 Lydia: My God oh

0:23:47 Clip: The construction crew had been sitting outside in a group taking their afternoon coffee break, watching this entire drama.

0:23:46 Thomas: Also shot that that like she wouldn't be aware of that

0:23:56 Clip: They had looks of shocked amazement on their faces. When they all saw me headed their way, they put their cups down, got up, and went back to work in a real hurry. Right about then, the school bus pulled into the yard, and the kids jumped off, excited to see that all the hunting dogs were home. As we let the dogs out of their kennels, Kennedy looked around confused and said, hey, where's Cricket?

0:23:50 Lydia: My gosh oh

0:24:06 Thomas: And that's how I keep them working hard oh

0:24:14 Lydia: My gun where's cricket oh

0:24:14 Matt: All but one.

0:24:20 Clip: Later that evening, my uncle, who was the general contractor building our house, called me and he said, what got into you today? Nothing, I responded. Why? He said, well, the guy said you came barreling into the yard with your truck, you slammed the door, took a gun and a dog over the hill out of sight. They heard one shot, you came back without the dog. Then you grabbed the goat and headed back up over the hill. Then they heard another shot. You came back, slammed the pickup door again, went back.

0:24:19 Thomas: My fucking god person

0:24:32 Matt: Just a Tuesday.

0:24:48 Clip: They heard another shot, and then you came Back without the goat. They said they hurried back to work before you decided they were next. I guess if I were a better politician, I wouldn't be telling the story right now. But I never ask anyone else to do my job for me, even if it's difficult, messy, and ugly I've made plenty of mistakes but ignoring Secretary

0:24:48 Thomas: Is insane oh

0:25:03 Lydia: My Oh, my God. Oh, Christy. Nuts.

0:25:04 Thomas: My god oh my God Jesus

0:25:03 Matt: Literally, yes. So there it is. Because yeah, that was the only part of the book worth listening to. It's So Much Worse Than You Think.

0:25:15 Lydia: That's so crazy.

0:25:13 Thomas: Christ that is so much worse I mean I've like okay I grew up in the country goats specifically you often have for like eating fucking they'll eat anything so you often fence them in different like you move the fencing to as you go to like keep them in Different Places Eat like it's not it's all like I'm too city slicken to know that you actually have to have your goat where the kids can get chased by it like you don't have to like you can you can not do that like the the the after the fact justifying the fucking goat aside the the dog aside and the goat aside committed she just wanted to do some killing that is the most insane thing the thing conservative people are all doing an impression of a cowboy they think they saw in the 80s and they're just like this is what probably would happen the mean old man cowboy that we all are afraid of but is apparently the best he would probably shoot this dog so that's what I'm gonna do my

0:25:50 Lydia: That was so crazy, yeah, yeah.

0:25:57 Matt: Just had him a bad day. Well,

0:26:14 Lydia: Gold Yeller.

0:26:15 Matt: As we're going to learn soon, we gave her $220 million to make a cowboy movie. We'll watch some of that soon. So that is why she is not the vice president or the president today. I think she wouldn't have been the president anyway.

0:26:19 Thomas: God holy shit in the end you know maybe the dog sacrifice was worth no actually she would be wow is she better or worse than J.D. Vance holy shit I gotta think on that I think she might I think I might rather her be vice president than jd vance I think that's

0:26:37 Matt: You might remember in last week's hearings, there were justice for cricket buttons being worn by some of the Dems. I thought that was great. And after really hearing the details, I mean, 14-month-old puppy, again, I also spent some time on farms as a kid. I know that sometimes animals have to be put down, but if it had been a sympathetic story about a dog in pain or something, but it's a puppy you don't like, right?

0:26:44 Thomas: A hard one yeah yeah 14 month old yeah if a horse breaks its leg or something you know like what this I you can try to rehome a dog like you don't

0:27:06 Lydia: There are rescues all over the place. If it's not safe for the dog to be in your home anymore you can take it to a rescue

0:27:07 Matt: You just don't Like it. It's astonishing.

0:27:09 Thomas: You can let the dog run away in the country it's still a better option than this like Like that.

0:27:18 Matt: Yeah. And she correctly notes that maybe she shouldn't be telling us this story at all if she wants to run for office, but it's in the book, folks. So I had to play it in

0:27:25 Lydia: Crazy what

0:27:25 Thomas: I like how she took the time to write down. I probably shouldn't have said all that just now, nor said saved it, nor sent it to my publisher, nor read it to you. Like you had a lot of opportunities to stop.

0:27:26 Lydia: Was she thinking

0:27:36 Matt: An audio book in my own voice.

0:27:36 Lydia: Yeah with my own voice yeah

0:27:41 Thomas: I just you are you all are dodging my impossible fuck, marry, kill of which is the worst to have vice president as right now.

0:27:47 Lydia: We are we are dodging

0:27:48 Thomas: I think I'm going to to bite this bullet that killed this dog and say, Kristi Noem, I would rather have her as vice president than J .D. Vance. I really, first off, she wouldn't have been able to do all the fucking, I almost said dog shit. You know, I don't, just dogs on the bread. She wouldn't been able to do the shit she was doing. Like, cause the vice president does nothing, which I guess is a good place for J.D. Vance as well. But I think it would be better if she were vice president. A it's a shame that dog died for nothing so sad um all

0:27:49 Matt: I don't want to think about him. No, we'll

0:28:05 Lydia: It yeah yeah

0:28:16 Matt: Never know. All right. Well, let's get on to Kristi Noem in office. I'm going to play now.

0:28:24 Lydia: Hmm but before I think we should take a break yeah yeah and the

0:28:25 Thomas: Right is it break time you think okay

0:28:27 Matt: It is break time.

0:28:27 Thomas: All right well that was a hell of an amuse douche I you know I gotta say double homicide in amuse-douche might be a first matt we uh we blew right past the first murder and went to two uh but we've got to take another break and thank our amazing patrons here's our second batch of hall of famers thank you so much to a negative phenomenon phenomenon pining for the fjords you gotta fight for your right to ex parte jay sank David Souther vehicular man's laughter reluctantly changing his blinker fluid ha oh you know what's funny is I thought they were gonna do it like it was a um palindrome like but they you know they could have done h a and then h but they did three h's at the end oh that would would have been good anyway proud to be one of the three chunkers Today's episode is brought to you by the letter unreadable cavalry Thomas Freeman Cajunkilla Fraud Fishy Hates Everything Chris Simpson gavelhead chucking away Anonymous Aquila mark schultz abalo scheiss The Cincinnati Kid and Bob Loblaw's Law.... Podcast thank you so much oops

0:29:02 Matt: I am with you. Beginning,

0:29:37 Thomas: Thank you very much thank you thank you for so much hall of famers uh you're the best and uh we'll take a quick break and then we'll get on to Two more, more not quite murders, but other things that are as bad. All right, what's up next here?

0:29:49 Matt: All right. People may have seen or heard this one, but it's worth replaying because this is from a May 2025 DHS budget hearing in which Meg Hassan from New Hampshire is going to to be asking Kristi Noem, the sitting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, about the meaning of habeas corpus. Now, I don't expect to go out on the street and ask people what habeas corpus means. It's fine. I'll give you a pass. You're not a lawyer, but you are running DHS. Now, again, Kristi noem, not a liar. That's fine, probably would be better at this point if DHS were run by lawyers, but she did, and habeas is about to become incredibly relevant.

0:30:21 Thomas: That's a hell of a thing to say, Matt. That's hell of the thing to do.

0:30:23 Matt: It's just lawyer bias, sorry, lawyer brain. But at this point in May, habeas was certainly relevant because they were detaining a lot of people, but it's about to become radically more relevant because they're going to be redefining, and they're in the process in May by this point of redefining immigration law, basically through executive action and through ringing the courts, essentially, to try to hold everybody. We've been talking about this for quite a while now, about the redefinition. So I thought this is worth revisiting and really just appreciating.

0:30:47 Thomas: So your point is she should have heard of it by now.

0:30:50 Matt: I would hope. And she's going to tell us.

0:30:52 Lydia: A principle pretty important to that

0:30:54 Matt: It's super important.

0:30:54 Lydia: Department specifically. Yeah.

0:30:55 Matt: And it's in the Constitution. And it goes back to the 9th century or whatever. But sure. She's about to tell the opposite of what it actually means. And this is an astonishing moment.

0:31:06 Clip: Noem the White House deputy chief of staff recently said that the Trump administration is actively looking at suspending habeas corpus last week you were asked about this and I want to clarify your position because it's obviously really important to get this right so Secretary Noam what is habeas corpus well habeas Corpus is a constitutional right that the president President has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their right to - No, let me stop you, ma 'am. Suspend their right to - Habeas corpus, excuse me. That's incorrect. President Lincoln used it. Habeus corpus - Excuse me. Habeous corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason. Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea as a senator from the live free or die state this matters a lot to me and my constituents and to all Americans so secretary gnome do you support the core protection that habeas Corpus provides that the government must provide a public reason in order to detain and and imprison someone. Yeah, I support habeas corpus. I also recognize that the president of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not. It has never let us be clear. It has ever been done. It has been done without approval of Congress. Even Abraham Lincoln got retroactive approval from Congress. So I have been asking executive branch nominees a simple question over the past few months. If the president orders them to break the law, I've been asking, will you follow the law or follow the order. I want to ask you a more specific question here. If the president tries to suspend habeas corpus and a federal court reverses the president's order, will you comply with the court order and uphold habeas corpus or will you follow the president's directive? We are following all federal court orders and are complying with that as is the president and every decision. Well that is obviously not true for anybody who reads the news. There

0:31:58 Matt: Sounds good.

0:32:13 Thomas: Is there more?

0:32:15 Matt: Let's see your answer.

0:33:20 Clip: Are right now, including returning somebody who was deported mistakenly. I wouldn't rely on the news for your facts. But to be clear, this is about a final...

0:33:20 Thomas: The news?

0:33:30 Matt: That's more than enough, I think. Get the news.

0:33:32 Lydia: Crazy.

0:33:32 Thomas: What do you mean I wouldn't rely on the news? It's one thing if you want to be like, oh, I wouldn't rely on MSNBC or something, but like the news, where did you read that? A newspaper? Yeah. One of them. I don't know. You know, like what?

0:33:40 Lydia: Just the news.

0:33:40 Matt: The news. Just an astonishing movement, though, in American legislation. Legislation to bring in the head of DHS. Again, a very new agency at this point, 22 years old as of last year. And you would hope that would be one question that somebody who's detaining tens and tens of thousands of people every day should be able to answer, but no.

0:34:07 Thomas: It's pretty amazing to answer it how she did too.

0:34:09 Matt: Yeah, it is.

0:34:09 Lydia: Well, she did the exact same thing recently, too, when she was asked about the Fourth Amendment, and she said that it guarantees the government's right to lawful search and seizure. And it's like, what in the world are you doing? You're spinning the Constitution on its head.

0:34:18 Matt: Incredible, incredible.

0:34:21 Thomas: I was literally trying to think of a joke example like that. I was going to say like, oh, yeah, it's like, you know, the First Amendment allows the government to stop speech or so. I can't even think of like just looking at it in those terms is so weird.

0:34:26 Lydia: That's just, yeah, I know. It's so bizarre.

0:34:36 Thomas: Allows government to search and see. No.

0:34:41 Matt: Just nobody should ever be in charge of DHHS again who can't answer that question very clearly. And I appreciated that Hassan had it all written out because she was pretty much assuming that she was going to fail the question, but maybe not that spectacularly, but she certainly failed it.

0:34:54 Thomas: That's incredible.

0:34:55 Matt: Yeah, so that's a little taste there. Here's another fun congressional confrontation, just a moment that I appreciated. And like these little moments of theater here, I'll just let it speak for itself.

0:35:05 Thomas: I'm sorry. Right let's see what we got here from the beginning I take it

0:35:12 Clip: Secretary. How many United States military veterans have you deported? Sir, we have not deported U .S. citizens or military veterans. I don't believe you've served in the military. I haven't either. There, but I think you and I can agree that as Americans, we owe everything to those who have served our country in uniform, particularly those who served in combat. Do you agree with that? Sir, I believe that people that are in this United States that are citizens have legal status here. Madam Secretary, we are joined on Zoom by a gentleman named Sejun Park. He is a United States Army combat veteran who was shot twice while serving our country and Panama in 1989.

0:35:51 Clip: 89. Like many veterans, he struggled with PTSD and substance abuse after his service. He was arrested in the 1990s for some minor drug offenses, nothing serious. He never hurt anyone besides himself, and he's been clean and sober for 14 years. He is a combat veteran, a Purple Heart recipient. He has sacrificed more for this country than most people ever have. Earlier this this year you deported him to Korea, a country he hasn't lived in since he was seven years old.

0:36:09 Thomas: I gave gave my dog for this country oh my god

0:36:21 Clip: Will you join me in thanking Mr. Park for his service to our country? Sir, I'm grateful for every single person that has served our country and follows our laws. Can you please tell Mr. Parks why you deport him? Every one of them needs to be enforced. But you understand that many veterans struggle with PTSD, many veterans struggle with substance abuse challenges. This man took two bullets for our country. Will you you have broad authority by the way as secretary to issue humanitarian parole to do deferred action will you commit to at least looking at Mr. Park's case to see if you can help him find a pathway back to this country that he sacrificed so much for I will absolutely look at his case but I want you to remember Madam Secretary the man behind

0:37:02 Thomas: Oh,

0:37:02 Clip: You please stand up sir his name is Jim Brown from Troy Missouri he is a Navy combat veteran who served our country in the gulf war he's

0:37:08 Thomas: Who is Mr. Magaziner? I've never heard of that guy.

0:37:12 Clip: Married to a woman named donna who came to our country legally from ireland when she was 11 years old she has lived here for 48 years because of you jim's wife donna has been in prison for the last four months she did not come here illegally and she has never committed any crime other than writing two bad checks totaling eighty dollars ten years ago she is currently in prison and facing deportation. Ms. Noem, will you thank Mr. Brown for his service to our country? Thank you Mr. brown for your service. Now what possible explanation can there be for locking up his wife for four months when she has committed no crime other than writing a couple of bad checks for $80? Sir, it is not my prerogative, my latitude, or my job to pick and choose which laws in this country get enforced.

0:37:36 Thomas: Jesus.

0:38:03 Clip: You have broad discretion as the secretary.

0:38:03 Matt: Literally is.

0:38:05 Clip: Madam Secretary, you can issue parole, you could do all kinds of things, but you're choosing not to. Will you commit again to just reviewing Donna's case and reuniting this combat veteran with his beloved wife, who also loves this country? I will review the case. Now, Madam Secretary you've already heard enforcement.

0:38:06 Thomas: I think that is. She didn't.

0:38:21 Matt: Narrator, she did not. I don't think she did, I was just looking at that one.

0:38:26 Thomas: Man.

0:38:26 Matt: So this is Seth Magaziner, shout out to 2nd District of Rhode Island, great work on this.

0:38:29 Lydia: He's great.

0:38:29 Thomas: This rules. I don't I didn't I don' didn't see this when it happened. I mean, there's just so much fucking shit all the time to keep track of. But I love, too, that he's doing an actual ask like, hey, can you fix this problem?

0:38:36 Matt: This was a moment. Yeah. Because you can, you

0:38:41 Thomas: You know, know, like at least it, it, I like that a lot because it, you know, it really comes across well and, and kind of mitigates the fact that it seems a little theatrical to be like, Hey, can you can just review it?

0:38:41 Matt: Could fix this.

0:38:55 Lydia: Right.

0:38:55 Thomas: Like just review the case. I do appreciate that.

0:38:57 Lydia: Yeah, he makes the point, but also a call to action while she's under oath.

0:39:02 Thomas: And she could have quietly done it. Like, this is why these people are just plain fucking evil. Not that, you Know, like, not that it's a hard case to make for the person who murdered their dog, but like, she's just fucking evil because she could've just done it, but I don't know, Matt, if you're checking right now, it's clanking away, but

0:39:02 Matt: It's great. Just double checking to be sure that none of these people... So they did did actually release that man's wife, for what that's worth. I don't know if that was related to this or what, but I will say I believe Sajan Park is still out of the country, and that is a really sad story. I mean, like many veterans, he ended up homeless and addicted to cocaine, and he had a drug possession charge that got him deported before he could naturalize. That could have been fixed. I'm sure that could've been fixed, and really appreciate that kind of thing of putting it right in their faces and making her thank him for his service and say, you know, I'll take a look, I guess. So again, I don't know if he was... Oh, sorry. Okay, actually, good news. This is actually some good news, she did win her cancellation of removal hearing, which means that she was granted residency by an immigration judge. And DHS Jess has the discretion to agree to those if they want to. I'm sure they still put up some of a fight because they always do. But certainly she could have directed to take a look at that case. And if you can, you know, stipulate and agree as much as you can and try to get it out. And I will point out as well, Representative Magaziner didn't point this out, but that is another Lake and Riley victim because she could've been released on bond if she hadn't been convicted of a theft offense, bad checks, right? So just another story. And I can have so many at this point of people that

0:40:01 Lydia: Good yeah

0:40:30 Matt: Should have been with their families but we're being held on stupid things like that. All

0:40:30 Lydia: Awful yeah

0:40:34 Thomas: I mean, it really was just, you know, I don' t think we need to pile on Democrats because it doesn' t help, but, like, that is a thing that we should be really mad at those Democrats who voted for it for. I mean it was so unnecessary, so unnecessary.

0:40:52 Thomas: And also, I get that there was some argument that, like hey, we' re so bad on this issue, Like we're underwater on this issue. The public, you know, they trust the Republicans on this issue, but this was such proof that we need to do some amount of trying to change people's minds on an issue and not always just running as far to the, where the propaganda media has taken the public. Cause that's not sustainable. You know, we got to actually try to fight back and and earn like and chain move people on issues oh

0:41:26 Matt: Let's take another little quick look here. Now we're going to jump ahead to January of this year, a couple months ago, and we're going to watch very quickly her reactions to the two most shocking things that happened on her watch, the things I think really did turn the tide, unfortunately. The shootings, of course, of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. We've also learned a lot more in the last few days even about the shooting of Ray Rodriguez, a 25 -year -old, I believe. That footage only just came out. And of course, this media doesn't exist until that comes out.

0:41:56 Matt: But let's take a look first at what she said after Renee Good was shot. This is just within hours. Just to remind everybody,

0:42:01 Thomas: All right fine yeah

0:42:02 Clip: If you remember in that operation, what happened was our officers were out trying to get a car stuck out of the snow when they were surrounded and assaulted and blocked in by protesters protesters that were inciting the officer was following his training he did follow his training because of an individual that was point blank into a driver's window is that part of the training is that how is that self-defense this is an experienced officer who followed his training and we will continue to let the investigation unfold into the individual and continue to follow the procedures and policies that happen in these use of force cases but let's remember the events that surrounded what happened yesterday on that tragic situation was that these individuals had followed our officers all day had harassed them had blocked them in they

0:42:12 Thomas: How's that going it

0:42:48 Clip: Were impeding our law enforcement operations which is against

0:42:48 Thomas: Was a long day you know when you're coming home from a long day and you just you just need to do some shooting I who among us can't relate to coming Coming home after a long day of not shooting things.

0:42:59 Lydia: Grabbing your dog by the leash carrying it over to the gravel pit and

0:43:03 Thomas: Is there more on this or no?

0:43:03 Matt: It's all I can think about. Yeah, I mean, she's going to go on to call her a domestic terrorist, but no,

0:43:06 Clip: The law and when they demanded and commanded her to get out of her vehicle several times she did not so we'll continue to allow this process to unfold and recognize that these law enforcement officers every single day put their lives on the line they go out and do their jobs they go out and this was an act of domestic terrorism which is perpetuating these policies and procedures that follow a use of force situation like this are continuing to be put in place so this is standard operating procedure after every use of four situation is that we follow these procedures and

0:43:13 Thomas: And therefore, sure don't. What? No. Step

0:43:44 Clip: Protocols this situation is no different

0:43:45 Thomas: One, smear the victim as a terrorist. I've just thought it says in the manual, just call them a terrorist, step one.

0:43:49 Matt: Literally. Right. Yeah. That was in the training for sure. And this was not even...

0:43:54 Thomas: Not even really wrong.

0:43:56 Matt: The pretty one we're about to watch was, I think, within a few hours. This was the next day. Like everybody had seen the video by this point, I think. So it's pretty extreme. And honestly, she should have lost her job immediately after that. She should've lost her after a lot of things have already happened. But the combination of these two US citizens being shot in Minneapolis within a month, I think are really what she deserves to be remembered for because she was in charge of this operation that was so unnecessarily over the top, even for an ICE operation. There really was nothing like it. So let's watch very quickly. Just for completeness here, we'll watch the reaction to the Alex Pretti shooting. This is basically Stephen Miller texting her, telling her to say this. We found out later.

0:44:41 Clip: Minnesota as a domestic terrorist. Is that something you agree with? And have you seen any evidence? When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism. This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism. That's the facts. Where's the evidence of his ideology, though? Yes. Drew Evans of... We have asked these state officials to help partner with us on law enforcement operations for months. Ever since President Trump came into the White House, we've asked them for their partnership to stand alongside of us so we could do targeted operations against criminal illegal aliens and to help us make their streets safer. They have refused over and over and again, and they have perpetuated a narrative that is absolutely false. And our federal law enforcement officers will continue to do their work, and we'll do that to make America safe again.

0:44:57 Thomas: Do you mean perpetrate? Is that what?

0:45:53 Matt: Without

0:45:53 Clip: Secretary. Yes. Here

0:45:53 Matt: Cooperation of state enforcement, yeah. So just, yeah, that's good. I mean, it's not good. That's horrible. But that's how she deserves to be remembered is the way she handled these with no sympathy, none of the stuff you're even supposed to say as a law enforcement. I don't even like the bare minimum of like, it's a terrible loss or whatever. And of course, Bovino's was even worse, but he still has some kind of job, unfortunately. So, I think we can shield

0:46:14 Thomas: Well, so does she allegedly, right? What is the thing she's dog

0:46:16 Lydia: Special envoy for the I don't know something of the americas shield of americas yeah it's

0:46:19 Matt: Of America. She got a Marvel

0:46:22 Thomas: Killers of? What is that?

0:46:25 Matt: Job. Yeah.

0:46:25 Thomas: I don't marvel. I don'T EVEN UNDERSTAND IT THOUGH. I 'VE HEARD IT SEVERAL TIMES AND I'M STILL LIKE, WHAT ARE THOSE WORDS?

0:46:26 Lydia: Nothing it's literally nothing is

0:46:32 Matt: I might have to talk about this on Friday because it's really interesting actually, how stupid it is.

0:46:33 Lydia: It like yeah okay so

0:46:37 Matt: It's like the Board of Peace that we just kind of got going. Yeah, Yeah, where

0:46:40 Lydia: Stand by everybody oh

0:46:42 Thomas: For fuck's sake. So, you know, the thing I think we're not showing that I think was the worst thing was the, was the secant thing right I mean

0:46:49 Lydia: The seacott yeah

0:46:49 Matt: She went to Seacott. Yeah, we played that on OA a while back. Yeah.

0:46:53 Thomas: That that is I heard that again the other day and it's even worse than I remember like it's just I can't I just the times we live in man the time I can'T just imagine just imagine any other time you know bush uh clinton anybody you know going to a another country posing in front of a prison that is horrible like it'S a awful place where they torture people and being like we love it here we're gonna send people here I just we can't we haven't had a proper reaction to something since 2013 or so like I don't know what happened to this country but we just stopped have being able to react to things in any way that's at all human and it's it's a fucking bummer because that's just like I I I can't that that that people need to react to that worse than the dog killing, you know, like, yeah,

0:47:49 Lydia: I just sent it to you if you wanted to pull it up and play it if

0:47:53 Thomas: I guess it's probably quick, huh?

0:47:54 Matt: Couple minutes, yeah. For anybody who hasn't seen it, so yeah, she's touring Seaccott, and there's people behind her.

0:47:56 Thomas: Oops.

0:48:00 Clip: Here at Seca today and uh visiting this facility. First of all I want thank El Salvador and their president for their partnership with the United States of America to bring our terrorists here and to incarcerate them and have consequences for the violence that they have perpetuated in our communities. I also want everybody to know if you come to our country illegally this is one of the consequences you could face. First First of all, do not come to our country illegally. You will be removed and you will be prosecuted. But know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people. Why

0:48:16 Thomas: Perpetuate. Can she look up that word? Fuck you. Absolute piece of shit.

0:48:34 Lydia: EVIL YEAH

0:48:33 Matt: Not anymore. But I noticed the way she couldn't even bring herself to look behind her, like she was about to kind of look behind here, and she's like too afraid. Yeah.

0:48:41 Thomas: I don't know. She's evil. I think that this would be like Bush or a Bush admin member going to one of the CIA black sites and being like, hey, everyone, here's one of The Tools in our arsenal, a foreign prison where awful things happen. It's like, what are we doing?

0:48:43 Matt: She is. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

0:48:51 Lydia: This might happen to you. Yeah. Act right. Like, it's weird. It's a disgusting, evil action.

0:49:03 Thomas: Unbelievable.

0:49:04 Matt: Yeah. She got a lot of people, including people I represent, but also just a lot of Americans believing that this was something we were going to do routinely. And they were looking at it, but it didn't happen, fortunately.

0:49:13 Thomas: They tried to. Yeah.

0:49:15 Matt: We're not there yet. Yeah. But it was a very brief sort of moment in which 200 people -ish ended up there. And all but the Salvadoran nationalists who were being held for other reasons are still there. But yeah. Again, something else she remembers to be, yeah, tortured, shocked, water, everything. Yeah.

0:49:26 Thomas: And they were sexually assaulted. It's awful. Like the, the daily, I think did some amount of that stuff, uh, coverage of that. It's just, it's not, this is unconscionable, unconscionable.

0:49:32 Matt: It's horrible. And I think Bari Weiss finally allowed that segment in CBS News to run after they pulled it about when they went down there, but probably worth a look too. I haven't seen it yet. Okay. So I just, this is good. I'm glad you remembered that one. This is good to make sure we've got the full retrospective, but let's look at, for a little more fun, the ad that got her fired. I hadn't watched it yet, I don't know I sent you the link.

0:49:58 Thomas: Well, I, I don't know. I think I, think I've seen it.

0:49:59 Lydia: I mean, I might have seen like a still shot from it, but not the whole thing.

0:50:01 Matt: There's a whole campaign. I don't know if I've seen this one. I've seen some things like it.

0:50:03 Thomas: I have seen her at the airport a bunch. Was that different or that, that different? Okay. Yeah. Oh yeah. She's on a horse.

0:50:06 Matt: That's different. This is the $220 million campaign, part of it at least.

0:50:13 Thomas: She just like randomly shoots an animal as she's ready. One sec. Hold on.

0:50:16 Lydia: Welcome

0:50:18 Clip: Do I love these wide open spaces? They remind me of why our forefathers came here. Not just for its beauty, but for the freedom only America provides. I'm Kristi Noem. From the cowboys who tamed the West, to the titans who built our cities, To the dreamers who chase the impossible, America has always rewarded vision and grit. Our greatness calls people to us for a chance to prosper, to live how they choose, to become part of something special. Anyone who searches for freedom can always find a home here, but that freedom's a precious thing, and we defend it vigorously. You cross the border illegally we'll find you break our laws we'll punish you harm American citizens there will be consequences but if you come here the right way your American dream can be as big as these endless skies from President Trump and me welcome home how

0:51:16 Lydia: Home.

0:51:16 Thomas: The sirens are in Matt's audio. I was like, what is that? Am I under arrest? I thought that was part of the audio for the thing is like, there's us arresting another person.

0:51:23 Lydia: A real experience. Yeah?

0:51:26 Thomas: Yeah.

0:51:28 Lydia: $220 million?

0:51:27 Matt: Yeah, so that's one of the ads.

0:51:28 Thomas: I was going to say, what was the budget for that? 20, 20, uh, 20 bucks, 25 bucks.

0:51:34 Matt: That horse is a real prima donna. I think

0:51:34 Lydia: That's crazy. That's more money. That's significantly more money than Hollywood movies. Oh,

0:51:37 Thomas: What? 200 million dollars. What, what is that budget? Like, what ist? Like, like, honestly, what did that go to? Is that literally just the production of it? Or did they buy insane amounts of, like, ad time, like at the Super Bowl or something?

0:51:55 Lydia: Maybe. Oh

0:51:57 Matt: They did air it quite a lot. And from what I was reading, I think it is mostly that ad. Ad. I know they did others ads too, but I just want to remind everybody, because this is a very important thing to remember that the reason she should have been fired over these ads was because she gave a no bid contract to Tricia McLaughlin, her press secretary's husband. I'm just going to say that one more time. We talked about it in a way, but of course that's in ProPublica, pretty linked to it. But of course the dumb reason that she was fired was because she said that Trump had signed off on this personally. And that was actually why he decided that this is the last straw um so whatever it takes

0:52:27 Thomas: That was it.

0:52:29 Lydia: Can't do that. Can't do that to boss man. Oh,

0:52:32 Matt: And I think she was actually let's let's see this clip because this is great this is the clip that actually got her fired this is kennedy from louisiana going after her about these ads yeah

0:52:41 Thomas: It's this fucking weirdo. Yeah. This is the weirdest creep.

0:52:42 Lydia: Man.

0:52:44 Matt: The republican kennedy yeah

0:52:46 Clip: Do you square that that concern for waste, which I share, with the fact that you have spent $220 million running television advertisements that feature you prominently. Sir, the president tasked me with getting the message out to the country and to other countries where we were seeing the invasion come from, with putting commercials out that that told them that if they were in this country illegally, that they needed to leave, or we would detain them and remove them, and they'd not get the chance to come back to America the right way. That has been extremely effective. The President asked you to run these advertisements. Is that right? We had that conversation, yes, before I was put in this position and sworn in and confirmed, and since then as well. Okay. Did you bid out those service contracts? Yes, they did. They went out to a competitive bid, and career officials at the department chose who would do those advertising commercials. And the people that you ended up picking were people who had formerly done your political work back in South Dakota. Is that right? No, that's not correct, sir. I think it is. No, it's not, sir. We, the individuals who, I believe the careers who they chose were two

0:52:56 Thomas: Wasted. Wow. That I'm great. The careers.

0:54:17 Clip: Different media firms. There's been conversation about their subcontractors, but we have no legal authority to look into subcontructors on work like that. Okay. And you're saying that you're testifying that President Trump approved this ahead of time. Is that my understanding? We had conversations about making sure that we were telling people... No, Ma'am. I'm asking you. Sorry to interrupt. But the president approved ahead of time you spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently. Yes, sir. We went through the legal processes. Did it correct? Did the president know you were going to do this? Yes. He did? Mm -hmm. Yes. Okay. OK.

0:54:18 Thomas: What? The careers who they chose?

0:55:04 Clip: And one thing, Senator, I think would be helpful to know is how effective that communications has been that overwhelmingly effective in your name recognition. I mean, I personally just I mean to me it puts the president in a terribly awkward spot and it and I just I'm not saying you're not telling the truth. It's just hard for me to believe, knowing the President, as I do, that you said, Mr. President, here's some ads I've cut, and I'm going to spend $220 million running them, that he would have agreed to that. I don't think Russ Vogt at OMB would have agree to that, it's something we have to defend, I'm on the Appropriations Committee. I mean my research shows that you did not bid them out that you you pick in fact one of the people you

0:55:25 Thomas: You're really disappointing the Fuhrer. Oh, my God. This is so funny. And he's the president.

0:55:49 Lydia: Basically.

0:56:04 Thomas: Oh,

0:56:04 Clip: Picked the strategy group I'm sorry safe america media was a company formed 11 days before you

0:56:04 Thomas: Man. She's like, hey, man, be cool. I thought we were both fascists. Why does he have his hand like this? Like, oh, I never.

0:56:15 Clip: Picked them and that the strategy Group got most of the money and and the head of that is married to your former spokesperson. Look, we all have friends who are qualified. I'm not quibbling with that. I'm just, it troubles me. A quarter, a fifth to a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer money when we're scratching for every penny and we're fighting over rescission packages.

0:56:47 Clip: I just can't agree with that, madam secretary so

0:56:50 Thomas: Couldn't she be like, well, not not in DHS. What are you talking about? We we got more money than we know what to do with. I don't know what you. Yeah. Do you guys know that you gave us seventy five billion dollars? Like, what the fuck are you taking about, sir? How dare you? How absolutely dare you? God.

0:56:55 Matt: 75 billion trillion yeah right

0:57:05 Lydia: How dare you?

0:57:06 Matt: Come on I got a jet to catch here uh yeah so

0:57:09 Lydia: That's crazy. So yeah, so the two firms, there's one that's Trish McLaughlin's husband's firm. And then the other one that was formed 11 days before the bid went out.

0:57:13 Matt: Strategy group right a mysterious Delaware

0:57:20 Lydia: The bid.

0:57:20 Matt: Shell company that the names were in. Oh, and he alluded to this, but they also invoked a national security exception so they didn't have to take bids on the contract. It was like an emergency, rather, national emergency as it was.

0:57:31 Thomas: I just, I can't get over just the interpersonal nature. Like what's going on. This is like a younger sibling trying to tell an older sibling that mom or dad's going to be mad. He's just like, I, I don't think, yeah, I just I just don't think that you should do this like he's so hesitant you know yeah whereas if a democrat spent four dollars on like anything they'd be like I can't believe the waste and abuse going on here you don't respect the tax you know so that's

0:57:44 Lydia: Dad's not gonna like this, sis. Dads been really clear, okay yeah yeah and the the grandstanding yeah yeah totally wow

0:58:09 Matt: I just want to point out $143 million of that money went to that LLC, to that shell company, which

0:58:15 Thomas: What I'm asking is like that can't is that that wouldn't be the distribution of the ad would it or are they buying the you know what I mean like that's why I'm confused god

0:58:22 Matt: I mean, that's usually where it would have gone. But at that point, I mean, Safe America Media, which is registered to the home of some Republican operative in Virginia, just apparently because it was a subcontractor, this is the point he was getting at, he didn't make it very well, but because it's a sub contractor, DHS says that the money is not disclosed. It doesn't really break down. So $143 million basically disappears into her former press secretary's husband's company, through a shell company. And that's what ProPublica was writing about. I don't know that John Kennedy reads ProPubblica. He should. But there is some thought that this might have been a setup, that Trump might have actually

0:58:32 Thomas: That's so much money I'll cheat it yeah no when he holds it it burns like it's and then smoke like if he touches it

0:58:58 Matt: There's a thought this might've been a setup that Trump actually had had enough and called and kind of tipped him off to ask these questions.

0:59:04 Thomas: Oh oh oh I see I see yeah that

0:59:04 Lydia: Interesting interesting not not that like trump created safe america media and then like

0:59:08 Thomas: Would involve Trump doing so yeah I don't that would involve Trump like having the dossier I don' know what do you mean so somebody next to Trump was like hey fuck Kristi Noem here's a bunch of info yeah

0:59:10 Matt: I'd believe that too. Yeah.

0:59:19 Lydia: This is a problem yeah yeah she we got to get her out yeah interesting there's

0:59:23 Thomas: No, that makes sense. Actually. That is man.

0:59:26 Matt: But that was, and then she's gone, I think the next day and finds out while she's giving a keynote address somewhere in typical Trump fashion. And, you know, so social

0:59:35 Thomas: He's the biggest fucking coward in the world.

0:59:39 Lydia: A a great Just four days ago, which senator sent this? Peter Welch and Richard Blumenthal sent a joint letter to Michael McElwain, who is listed as the CEO, I guess, of Safe America Media or registered to him. And they ask him a number of questions because the like, like, who are you? Like, why is this?

0:59:40 Matt: Media firing.

1:00:04 Lydia: According to public records, you know, this is what we're seeing. We want to understand better your relationship with the strategy group. Why did you start your company?

1:00:03 Thomas: What do you do?

1:00:14 Lydia: They said seven days before the bid had gone out. But yeah, so hopefully there will be some more answers with that later. But as of right now, yeah, it's just literally $143 million disappeared.

1:00:13 Thomas: Why do you steal money? I keep thinking about how many people have gotten so rich off this fucking admin and how much a that's unjust because it's unjust, but also be like how much that leads to more rich fucking assholes who are are buying politicians you know like it's almost like they're they're refueling you know they're they're their ability to have this tiny proportion of the worst people control everything with money they're like all right let's raid the treasury and now we've all reloaded our ammo and there's even more of us that that have all this money from these crypto schemes and everything and it's like this is going to be causing us problems for decades you know these people who got rich off this shit it's just it's sickening god

1:01:06 Lydia: Despicable. I mean, we're talking about public servants, right? That's supposed to be the antithesis of why they're stepping into those roles.

1:01:13 Thomas: I wish we could get anything like justice for this era like I wish we could get enough control to just run the most comprehensive you know truth and reconciliation process and just get these people I just I god I wish that we could if we all it's all we have to do is vote for enough people I know it doesn't seem like it but it's true we could do it fucking next election if we wanted to but we won't but we can try unbelievable

1:01:39 Matt: Get public service back. Like, actually, there are a lot of people that want to do it. They're out there. All right, well, we should probably maybe take a break and come back and talk about Mark Wayne Mullen.

1:01:43 Thomas: Unbelievable. Oh, yeah. Let's take our final break before we get to Mark Wayne.

1:01:52 Lydia: Mark Wayne.

1:01:53 Thomas: Mark Wayne, that's not a name. Am I right?

1:01:56 Lydia: Wayne. No, it's not. So it's I think it's his two it's his two grandparents, maternal grandparents, you know, his mom's grandparents, and she combined the names with the idea that he could pick one of the names as he got older, what he wanted to go by, but instead, he just kept both of them.

1:01:58 Thomas: Like it's two names. Yeah.

1:02:14 Lydia: It was Mark Wayne. And then he could have like, there's no space.

1:02:12 Thomas: But but there's no space. Right. Because normally you can you

1:02:17 Lydia: There's no place.

1:02:17 Thomas: Can have like a double name, like Amber Rose, something, you know, like

1:02:21 Lydia: No, Mark, Mark Wayne, and yeah, and and that he could, uh,

1:02:23 Matt: It's already on your birth certificate. You're kind of stuck with it.

1:02:24 Thomas: Mark

1:02:25 Lydia: Sorry, his paternal uncles, his uncles, intending to later shorten his name to one of the two, but she never shortened it.

1:02:31 Thomas: Wayne

1:02:32 Matt: Get around to it.

1:02:34 Thomas: All right well uh yeah we'll take our break let's thank our top top top batch of patrons here sorry are the hall of famers at the top of the list and they are Philly Basement Bar will be getting a new house rep in the midterms. Elect Thomas Smith, President, American Honky Tonk Bar Association. Baltic Cate, Philip Kaiser. Between Prince Andrew's arrest and universal health care, I'm starting to wonder if independence wasn't a mistake. Wow. Corrin Lan, a string of unpronounceable characters. Maleka Chandler, runofthedork .com. Milo Meadsong is fighting petty tyrants. Big Easy Blasphemy, hors d 'oeuvres in the court before we report. Support, Chris Waltrip, Fred R. Gruthius, Sam Denao, ClassicLibtard, and Mitchell, our top patron ever, leader in the clubhouse, Mitchell, patreon .com slash law. If you'd like to support the show, do a shout out at that $5 level for at least a month, you get a shoutout every single week. And it's a lot of fun. We love it so much. Thanks so much, patrons. We'll take a break and get to the final third of the show here. Right well this is a good still from Mark Wayne that's I think sets the tone we got the closed captions there uh let's talk about Mark Wayne I don't know why that I thought he wasn't a senator he doesn't

1:03:18 Lydia: Mitchell.

1:03:48 Thomas: Yeah just for now I think when I think about him like oh yeah Bernie Sanders was the one who broke up his fight so you know

1:03:47 Lydia: Oh, really? Really? Well, yeah. Yeah. I

1:03:53 Matt: Is that because you've seen him talk before? Sorry.

1:03:55 Thomas: Oh

1:03:54 Lydia: Think his political trajectory was he came in as a Tea Party candidate as a representative for Oklahoma and then moved into the senator position later. He's actually a member of the Cherokee Nation. He is.

1:04:10 Thomas: I fucking saw that and I was like what you don't get to have that really

1:04:14 Lydia: Yeah and and it's it's tough because like Like, we'll talk about this later, I'm sure, but I just want to, like, mark for people, don't be surprised if you hear tribal leaders, like kind of be excited about his nomination here because they have come out and said that they're eager and hopeful about his nomination because he's been a really strong ally and a partner in the past, that he understands, you know, tribal identification cards because it's actually like more part of his life and his upbringing in Oklahoma. Um so they're hopeful but um I mean at the detriment of of who knows and also he's just such a trump loyalist that I I don't know he'll do whatever the boss says um but yeah so yeah

1:04:52 Thomas: You can't yeah yeah

1:04:53 Matt: It's wise then. Yeah I mean it's cool in theory 250 years later to let a Native American decide who gets to be American. That's a fun thought but it's got to be this guy unfortunately. But yeah I know I read there's a piece from a Native journalist who'd been around his area for a long time. It's It's a really good perspective maybe we could link to, but just saying the mixed feelings he's having too and about how this is like the worst choice.

1:05:14 Thomas: I just never would have guessed that in a million years I thought I was being pranked he like his name's mark wayne mullen and he's the whitest looking person but all right yeah

1:05:16 Lydia: I haven't tracked down the lineage specifically like like where it comes from. But yeah, he's he's a member.

1:05:25 Thomas: What yeah all

1:05:28 Matt: But it's real. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's registered, I guess. I know there's complicated politics around all that, but it seems

1:05:34 Thomas: Sure that's just wow

1:05:35 Lydia: But before he got into politics, and I think this is going to be really relevant to the clip we're going to see before we got into politics before he Got into politics. He was he actually his I think it was his dad started a plumbing company, really, really big plumbing company in Oklahoma. So he worked there for a a long time um in addition to his mma career that people like to talk about a lot um so no no I don't know if you want to get into that now before the clip but um but

1:06:04 Matt: Relevant to this clip.

1:05:36 Thomas: He got punched in the head a lot yeah well a little bit huh yeah yeah it's not a career um sure all right, yeah, we can. Well, why don't we watch this clip and then we can talk about it?

1:06:08 Clip: Set the record straight on that and that's coming from statistics all right now let's talk about mr o 'brien himself his behavior as everybody knows and it's here in the last time him and I kind of had a back and forth uh appreciate your demeanor today it's quite different but after you left here you got pretty excited about the keyboard in fact you tweeted at me one two three four five times and let me read what the last one said um said said, greedy CEO who pretends like he's self-made. Sir, I wish you was in the truck with me when I was building my plumbing company myself and my wife was running the office because I sure remember working pretty hard and long hours. Pretends like a self-made. What a clown. Fraud always has been, always will be.

1:06:12 Thomas: That's coming from statistics. This thing called statistics. Read a statistic.

1:06:16 Matt: Maybe you've heard of them. The

1:06:33 Thomas: Excited about the keyboard. What the fuck? No one's

1:07:03 Clip: Quit the tough guy act and these Senate hearings. You know where to find me. Any Any place, any time, cowboy.

1:07:04 Thomas: Making you do this, man. That

1:07:13 Clip: Sir, this is a time, this is a place. You want to run your mouth? We can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here. Okay, that's fine. Perfect. You wanna do it now? I'd love to do it right now. Well, stand your butt up, then. You stand your butt up. Oh, hold on. Oh! Stop it! Is that your solution? No, no. Sit down. Sit down, okay. No, you're a United States senator. Act it! Oh, okay, okay! Sit down please.

1:07:13 Thomas: Was perfect reading. What

1:07:13 Lydia: Cowboy oh

1:07:30 Thomas: A clown. Somehow you're a united

1:07:34 Clip: Alright. Can I respond? Hold it! Hold it.

1:07:34 Thomas: States senator can I can I fight him I

1:07:38 Clip: If we can't... No, I have the mic. I'm sorry. Hold it. This is what he said. You'll have your time. Okay. Can I respond? No, you can't. This is a hearing. And God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress, let's not make it worse. I don't like thugs and bullies. I don't like you. Hold it! Because you just described yourself.

1:07:57 Clip: Hold it, you have the mic. You have time. All right. Make your statement. Then let's do this. Because I did challenge you and I accepted your challenge, and you went quiet. No, I didn't go quiet. No, hold on. You challenged me to a cage match acting like a 12 -year -old school. Yeah. Oh, yes. They hold it. No, excuse me I will say I will save that in a moment. I have the mic you have questions on any economic issues anything that said go for it We're not here to talk about physical abuse. You brought when I'm talking about Of course, and let me tell you let me show you his hearing because I want to I want expose this thug To who he is and you don't point to me. That's disrespectful.

1:08:06 Lydia: My god poor

1:08:08 Matt: Look on Bernie's face.

1:08:11 Thomas: Don't think I've ever heard the whole thing

1:08:33 Clip: All right, I don't care about respecting you at all I don't respect you at all. Hold it. Hold it! No.

1:08:34 Thomas: I didn't know this kept going oh

1:08:40 Clip: You're one of a hundred of the most elite people. Hold it, hold it! Please. Please. All right. Right. This is a, excuse me, this is a hearing to discuss economic issues. All right? If you have questions for Mr. O'Brien or anybody else on what he has said, go for it.

1:08:57 Thomas: My god sorry I've just never seen the whole thing

1:09:00 Clip: But we're not here to talk about fights

1:08:54 Lydia: Bernie yeah

1:09:00 Thomas: I really

1:09:02 Matt: It is. It's really something.

1:09:02 Thomas: Like it keeps going

1:09:03 Clip: Or anything else. I'm quoting exactly what he said. Say what you want. This is your witness you brought, and let me, I'm exposing him as a person who is. So in 2013, O'Brien was suspended by the Teamsters for intimidating your own members. In 2014, you were part of, what would you say, organizing the harassment and intimidation of the Top Shelf crew? Chef, not chef. Oh, Top Chef, okay. Okay, and then, and I think in the reports they said sexual, racist and homophobic slurs and death threats, 14 tires were sliced and five Teamsters were arrested and you said, well, I had nothing to do with it, but however, in that same statement you said but if I get called to testify, I'll plead the fifth. This is a witness you brought in here. In 2017, you were removed as lead negotiator

1:09:06 Thomas: Up shelf what's

1:09:57 Clip: By then President Hoffa for UPS for your actions. And then in 22, when this guy was elected, What he said after he got elected was he wanted to bring the mob mentality back to the Team Search. This is your guy. And And you're obviously going to give him a chance to respond to your questions. Absolutely. Because this is my question. Because you called me out. I didn't call you out. He did.

1:09:57 Matt: It keeps going.

1:10:19 Clip: You said anytime, anyplace. That's that. Let's get the record straight. Okay. Just hold it. No. Hold on. Senator Mullen, do you have a question for the witness?

1:10:18 Thomas: Your question it's almost over and then

1:10:26 Clip: Yeah. Okay. Let's hear it. Are

1:10:28 Thomas: It ends that is well done to ever posted that uh I've never seen the whole thing I just wanted to what is this problem how did that all what the fuck so

1:10:29 Lydia: Man that's so good yeah

1:10:37 Matt: It's incredible. So just to set the context, that was Sean O 'Brien from the Teamsters. Of all the people to get into a fight with, the president of the Teamstars. And Bernie, of course, you can tell is quite a good grandpa. He's just sitting there trying to mediate. Yeah. So that was why I remembered Mark Wayne Mullen's name as soon as I heard it from that classic moment.

1:10:49 Lydia: Paw paw yeah

1:10:49 Thomas: Funny so funny god yeah now I I will say okay so mark wayne we gotta talk we gotta take mma first for a quick second second.

1:11:00 Lydia: Let's talk let's do it yeah

1:11:03 Thomas: I will say this. It is, as someone who knows a little bit about MMA, I'm not like an expert or anything, but I know a littlebit. I've done a littlebet. And I, you know, he, he's often presented as undefeated, which is, you now, I am sure Matt is also undefeited in MMA.

1:11:21 Matt: You're going to touch my record? I've absolutely never lost an MMA match.

1:11:22 Thomas: Yeah, I don't, I think you don't really exactly. It's, you just, it's a little deceptive to say undefeeted when when you're three and oh, and none of the fights are anything like a real anything. Now I'm not, but you can't go too far because this guy, I think he was some sort of wrestling superstar at college level. And anyone who is that kind of wrestler and fought any level of MMA could beat the shit out of anyone who's not a fighter. Like, you know, you can'T like, oh, he's only had three fights. So therefore I could take him or something. Now. I'm sure he's, I'm certain he can fight.

1:11:57 Thomas: But in terms of presenting him as some kind of good, like relative to MMA fighters, he's not a real, he didn't do anything real. As evidence for that, so he's got 3 -0. Here, let's see if I can pull this up here.

1:12:07 Lydia: You pull up your tapology yep

1:12:13 Thomas: Yeah, yeah. He's got three note, two of them against Clinton Bonds. Now what I love, here's what I Love in particular. You go up here, you can see pro ma record three oh no that's interesting yeah

1:12:14 Lydia: That's where I was yeah

1:12:22 Matt: Love the picture. Is from Congress. It's very funny, from his son.

1:12:24 Thomas: I do love that there's something about that that's so funny like he's a like he said wwf wrestler who's like his outfit is like a congressman or something it's sort of like that

1:12:28 Matt: How many topology profiles?

1:12:34 Lydia: He's he's so short he's 5 '8 yeah

1:12:35 Matt: Hashtag.

1:12:36 Thomas: Five eight yep yep he's short he's uh he's I he's he's below my weight class you know for sure uh but he uh okay let's look at this guy here's the the first person he beat in 2006 at it, not at, you this guy's 11 and 10 and, um, he, he like, nope. So it's one thing to say, oh, he fought at a semi -pro kind of level or whatever.

1:12:59 Thomas: Um. But nobody he fought is anything. Everything nobody he fought the same guy twice

1:12:59 Lydia: Well and very quickly about Bobby who you were just on when they fought Mark Wayne was 29 and Bobby was 18 so like I don't know that's kind of interesting to me um they are the same height 5' 8 and then 168 and 173 the

1:13:13 Thomas: I guess yeah but two of his fight two of His wins are against the same Guy whose record is 1 and 11 that's what I was gonna say so a guy who never career disclosed earnings zero um that's the same with this guy career disclosed earning zero and I mean I'm sure they earned some money for these fights but that means like they're not real.

1:13:21 Lydia: Same guy Yeah. Click on Arm Bar because I think Clinton Bond's picture that they put up is funny because it's obviously not Clinton Bond. It's Chuck Norris.

1:13:42 Thomas: What?

1:13:43 Matt: It's Clint Eastwood.

1:13:45 Thomas: No, Chuck Norris.

1:13:45 Matt: Or Chuck Norris, rather. Yeah, yeah.

1:13:46 Thomas: Yeah. With guns.

1:13:46 Matt: Of course, of course. Yeah.

1:13:47 Thomas: Boy, he had two guns and he couldn't even take them. Yeah, I just think it's funny that like to say you're undefeated and you've beaten one guy twice and one guy once and like the other guy that you beat twice is one and eleven and nobody involved has any earnings. They've never earned a dollar dollar fighting. So like, okay, relative to a normal person, I'm sure he can beat the crap out of most people. But yeah,

1:13:46 Lydia: It was also the span of five months also. Like it

1:14:17 Thomas: Well, okay. That's actually pretty crazy to fight three times in five months.

1:14:17 Lydia: Was, I guess, yeah, November 11th, 2006 was his first fight, February 3rd, 2007, and then April 7th, 2007. So they did a, he and Clinton Bonds did a little rematch, I Guess, two months after that first one.

1:14:29 Thomas: Well, the world was clamoring for it.

1:14:31 Lydia: The people were demanding it.

1:14:32 Thomas: I can't believe we were deprived of a three -peat in that. So yes, undefeated in that he's never lost, but he's also fought two two unique humans and none of them are anything. So, you know, all

1:14:45 Matt: And what ended this illustrious career in MMA? He just had an F.

1:14:49 Thomas: I guess his plumbing

1:14:49 Lydia: He plumbing yeah it's

1:14:50 Thomas: Career. That's what I was going to ask you, hon, because when I was, this, this Wikipedia was a wild ride. You get to the bottom and it says he's worth between 35 and 75 million fucking dollars.

1:15:00 Matt: Wanted to talk about that.

1:15:00 Lydia: That plumbing company it's huge it's

1:15:02 Matt: Not the plumbing.

1:15:02 Thomas: Plumbing?

1:15:03 Lydia: Huge it it is like well I I do think that there is a lot happening with the plumbing specifically um that I mean it's like across the entire state of oklahoma they have like franchised like all that stuff but

1:15:04 Thomas: Not the plumbing.

1:15:13 Matt: He inherited it, as I understand it. Family business.

1:15:17 Thomas: Oh, he did. So he's not self -made with his wife in the, in the work, in the office. And, but

1:15:21 Matt: I have no doubt that he and his wife were working. I'm sure that happened. But he's also taken plenty of money from pretty much every corporate PAC you can take money from.

1:15:30 Thomas: Are you serious? I want to know if that's true because it's pretty fucking fucking ballsy to be like self -made. I wish you were with me in the truck, which I thought was a cute way of saying that you should have been with me and that truck should have hit with me. No one was with me on the truck. And, and, but for that to be, oh, I'm not self -maid. Then why was I driving a truck that my dad got me in his company? Checkmate. Let's fight now. Like what if, was that really his dad's company?

1:15:30 Lydia: Of course yeah yeah Yeah.

1:15:39 Matt: Since

1:15:55 Lydia: Yeah.

1:15:55 Thomas: Okay. You can't be self -mad if it's your dad's company sorry I mean I guess I guess if his dad started it and had one customer and then he made it huge maybe

1:15:57 Lydia: It's literally his dad's company. No, it was decades. Like this company was around for decades.

1:16:11 Thomas: You're not self okay fine

1:16:13 Lydia: Yeah, I'm pretty sure I was saying it was like since the 70s. His dad's company has been there.

1:16:14 Thomas: Whatever yeah

1:16:20 Matt: I think 20 or so he's been running. But yeah. And again, It's hard to run a business. I give him credit for that. It sounds like he did better than Trump ever did in running a business, so it's fine. That's a low bar, but sure.

1:16:29 Thomas: Fair teach trump a thing or two yeah

1:16:32 Matt: But he also has done a lot of really dodgy financial stuff. He's got a 25 .47 out of 100 in however it is that we measure financial integrity these days. He has done a lot trading while he's been in office since 2013. He also takes money from 94 different corporate PACs and $400 ,000 from APAC, which is about to become relevant to our next clip. He has real strong feelings about Iran, which I thought we should play very quickly next. So this is a disaster. He's going to be asked directly if we're at war with Iran. This is pretty recent.

1:17:08 Thomas: Boy I love these questions nothing's

1:17:11 Clip: There measures being taken not to eliminate other possible alternatives to leadership? This is war, and we're taking out the threat.

1:17:17 Thomas: You want want to fight let's fight I

1:17:19 Clip: And if you're part of the threat, then you're a target. You'll concede this is war? We haven't declared war. They declared war on us, but we haven't. The president called it war, Secretary Hicks said so. Senator, when you walked out just now, you said this is a war.

1:17:19 Thomas: Just picture him challenging every single they

1:17:28 Lydia: You just said it. Yeah you literally just

1:17:31 Clip: They called it a war, what I was saying. Okay, well, that was a misspoke. What I was just saying is they've declared war on us but war is ugly, it always has been ugly. But we're, you know, we're at a, we've taken out a regime that's been trying to attack us for quite some time. But you're not conceding this is war we have declared war so it if we haven't declared war then I don't see that the president asked us to declare war yet but they have declared war on us we're just simply fighting the threat that's at that's um that's been at our door for

1:17:28 Thomas: Declared yeah okay

1:17:31 Lydia: Said it wow

1:18:01 Thomas: You know

1:18:01 Clip: 47 years

1:18:03 Matt: Our door. I look

1:18:04 Thomas: That imminent threat that's been at our our door for 45 years yeah you

1:18:12 Matt: To many more Mark -Wayne Mullen press conferences.

1:18:14 Thomas: Know when you're like hey that that that train is imminent it's gonna hit us imminently and you're like when 45 years from now better clear out of this intersection by then

1:18:19 Lydia: Man

1:18:25 Matt: It's in Alaska, but it's coming. Yeah, so that's a good example of his on -the -cuff speaking skills, which I'm sure we'll be seeing more of. Note again, I'm not conceding that he can or should be nominated, but of course, I am sure they're going to do what they can to shove him through. We'll be watching that. But let's read just a bit.

1:18:40 Thomas: Yeah I mean we don't have any chance of picking up an oklahoma senate seat do we because like I know we probably don't but like the more people not in the senate the better I for you know time that he's not in the senate is good so I I always appreciate that I mean

1:18:49 Matt: That'd be great. That's true. It's true, yeah.

1:18:53 Lydia: He he's made a lot of friends like like from what I understand he is actually has been pretty likable um with his colleagues regardless of political affiliation like like well

1:19:06 Thomas: Because he punches him if they don't like him wait

1:19:07 Lydia: He like led a workout group and stuff that I guess a bunch of people really liked And so, you know, he's made a lot of friends in the Senate. I hope that they stand up, even if it's just for the symbolism of it and vote no. But yeah, we'll find out maybe next week what happens there.

1:19:23 Matt: Didn't forget to mention the twist on the Sean O'Brien story, which is that he ended up endorsing him a few days ago. So I guess they patched things up. Yeah. Yeah, for DHS. The Teamster.

1:19:29 Lydia: Such like a boy thing the

1:19:32 Thomas: Who who endorsed him he endorsed him for dhs what What? First off, why is he endorsing, you endorse DHS? I don't know.

1:19:35 Lydia: Teamsters guy wow like

1:19:39 Matt: So, I guess maybe just to make it clear that he's patched up whatever this was. But yeah, I know. I know, sure.

1:19:44 Lydia: None of your business oh yeah well because I guess they knew that the clip was going to be used a lot

1:19:47 Thomas: But then why is, why is Bernie or why is He saying to Bernie, this is your guy, your witness? Like, yeah, but

1:19:54 Matt: It's a labor hearing, so it's Bernie's deal. But still, I know I know it's the whole thing is so unprofessional. So

1:19:58 Thomas: I don't know. Those people should have fought each other to death, both of them.

1:20:05 Matt: Unprofessionals, I just want to note before we close, I went looking. My original plan for this episode was to try to find some pieces in which either at the time of her nomination or at the times that she left, somebody wrote talking about what a great job she was going to do or had done. No one did that. There is not a single thought piece.

1:20:20 Thomas: You couldn't even find a

1:20:19 Lydia: That's so crazy. On either side of the aisle.

1:20:22 Thomas: Dute hat there wasn't even a dote hat uh

1:20:25 Matt: Nobody. I looked so so hard. I even asked you at GPT just to be sure, just to go looking for me and nothing. There is

1:20:30 Thomas: And chat gpt didn't even make one up for you it wasn't even like oh here I'll hallucinate something just to help her out boy she's

1:20:36 Matt: Very disappointing. Even it was like, no, there's nothing to say here. This is a, yeah. But I just wanted to point out that that was my original point because I figured I

1:20:41 Thomas: Like she shot her dog no one chat gpt is like I grew a soul just to be upset about that temporarily you

1:20:44 Lydia: That's crazy.

1:20:47 Matt: Would have thought that one of our favorite go -tos would have said, let's give her a chance.

1:20:54 Lydia: Something.

1:20:54 Matt: She seems great. Or actually justified her. So I'm going to write it. I'm gonna actually spend some time in the the next few days. I'm going to write about how she actually was the perfect appointee for Donald Trump because she did exactly what DHS is supposed to do.

1:20:59 Thomas: You are how she was good well yeah

1:21:05 Matt: And it's very hard to find people who are that fashy and toady. I mean, she really did kind of just take directions and do what she was supposed to. She knew nothing about immigration coming in and that was the goal. That's why they wanted her.

1:21:13 Thomas: Well it's like yeah when the thing that got her is allegedly this fucking ad thing that like is judging relative to the trump administration like that's nothing you know she did she did her job she did a great job being a piece of shit fascist but she did it while being a woman I think that's the main

1:21:29 Lydia: Yeah, nothing burger. Mm-hmm, right.

1:21:37 Matt: And looking good on TV, which is a lot of his picks, right? He wants people that look like. And Mullen also caught his eye that way.

1:21:40 Thomas: I mean I think she looks horrifying personally I don't want to look shame but um I'm scared every time I see her uh yeah Mar -a-Lago face man oh what if Mark Wayne is Mark Wayne gonna get let's if he gets some work done oh man his

1:21:48 Lydia: It's the Mar-a-Lago face, right? Yeah. Oh, I hope so. If he does, like, the Matt gates bit and like just starts getting some work done. I just kind of keep moving up moving up moving up.

1:22:00 Thomas: Eyebrows are like this all of a sudden Mark Wayne do it do it Mark Wayne I can't wait okay

1:22:07 Lydia: We're rooting for

1:22:07 Matt: But that is worth noting that he also does a lot of TV and that was one of the things Trump liked right away was that he remembered this guy that he'd seen on TV. And that's just how it works. He likes people that look good on TV, so we will see. We'll be watching to see how it goes with Mark Wayne, who doesn't seem especially qualified either, but you know, that's not really important.

1:22:19 Lydia: You. Yeah. Weird. Do you know if Oklahoma so does the governor get to pick someone to slot in behind? And then they'll do an election?

1:22:30 Matt: I would assume, assume. I haven't looked into who they might do.

1:22:33 Thomas: It's kind of different in different states huh interesting

1:22:35 Lydia: Yeah, I'm not sure what they do there. I'm just wondering if this is Ryan Walters comeback who if anyone listens to to where there's woke. He is my arch nemesis and I've been following him for a while. So I'm curious. I'm curious. He's an Oklahoma boy, so it might be his time to shine.

1:22:49 Thomas: He's he's got too many rated R movies on in the background or whatever the hell his weird scandal wasn't didn't make any sense to me uh all right well um let's just go ahead and say r .i .p christine um we hardly knew ye I'd hate to be any living animal anywhere near her right now

1:22:57 Lydia: Jackie, Jackie Chan. Yeah, yeah,

1:23:08 Matt: Yellow alert for dogs and goats. There's an unemployed dog murderer on the loose, goat murderer. So look out.

1:23:11 Thomas: There's there's gonna be it's a it's gonna be a bloodbath at the gnome residence it's absolute bloodbeth oh boy

1:23:22 Lydia: She'll write about it in her next book. It'll be fine.

1:23:23 Thomas: Man uh well Well, Matt, thanks for tracking that down and listening to apparently an audio book years ago that no one should have subject themselves to. I hope you're playing some fun video games at the time because Jesus Christ. All right. And thanks, Lydia, of course, for all the research into these awful people. And thanks for listening, everybody. We'll see you on Friday for rapid response. Share the show with a friend, please. Pledge a show. patreon.com/law could really use your support. And thanks so much. And we'll see You real soon.

1:23:32 Matt: I'm so glad it paid off finally. Yeah, all right. See you then.

1:23:59 Clip: This has been Opening Arguments, produced by Thomas and Lydia Smith, with editing help from Peter Baird. The intro is by Thomas Smith. This outro is by Matt Cameron. Support the show at patreon.com/law. Contact us through Patreon or openarguments@gmail.com. Make sure to follow our blue sky at OpenArgs. But most of all, please share the show. Thanks for listening.