Trump Mocks Israel, Speaker Race in Chaos

But first, the biggest story in the world and in U.

S politics continues to be Israel's response to the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas. This is now a war that so far left thousands dead, including at least 27 American citizens. There are still at least 150 hostages in Gaza that also include some Americans. And there's a real fear that other Middle Eastern countries could join the conflict.

As usual, Tommy and Ben have been doing an outstanding job covering this for Pod Save the World, so make sure you're up to speed on that show. We're going to start the show by talking about how the war is affecting American politics. Here's President Biden during a roundtable with Jewish leaders at the White House on Wednesday, where he again offered his full support for Israel. That's why I took my kids, everyone when they.

The United States has Israel's.

As I'm sure you do, I have friends who have family who still live in Israel. People who have been called up into the reserves as part of this, who are living in fear of their lives. People are horrified by what is happening to innocent civilians in Gaza. And I think President Biden has addressed this in a way that people will appropriately see as strong, resolute. As a commander-in-chief, both in the roundtable that we played the clip of, and then the speech. You're seeing where I think Biden is at his best, which is delivering a clear, strong message as commander-in-chief. And empathy and understanding for what is happening in the world. And I think his response.

And I would guess that there will be overwhelming support for Biden's passionate condemnation of those attacks and for his support for the people who were attacked. Second question, Do you think Biden faces any political risk by offering unconditional support?

It's not so much the Democrats, per se, have moved left, although certainly some have. It is also that the Israeli government, and how they have handled Palestinians, their efforts for peace, have moved to the right. And that there is much more open criticism of that, both among voters, and certainly among elected Democrats. There is no doubt in my mind that President Biden is deeply concerned about civilian casualties in Gaza from innocent Palestinians. Who do not support Hamas. Do not support certainly what Hamas did over the weekend and would leave if they could, but they can't. But he's made a decision.

The best way to influence Israeli conduct is not to publicly or even privately pressure Bibi himself, it's to do it through other channels in the government. There may be a point in time in the coming days and weeks where President Biden will be under pressure to say something publicly about how Israel is responding in Gaza. We are not at that point yet and so we'll have to see what happens then. But as of right now, I think he's approaching this in a way that sounds right and feels right to most people. But there are certainly risks down the line. Yeah, I mean, the poll you said.

And I think if several weeks from now we're seeing more Palestinian deaths, more Israeli deaths, a war that has spread to other Middle Eastern countries. The political dynamics could change very quickly. But, you know, as you said, Biden has made the decision. And there's some reporting on this in Playbook today. That back when the last Israel-Gaza conflict in 2021, Biden's view then was that only by unequivocally backing Israel. Did he have any chance of influencing Netanyahu if the conflict escalated to a point that the American president needed to urge restraint? And so it seems like he's doing that again now, and he did, you know? On Wednesday, at that same event, he said that he told Bibi Quote with all the anger and frustration. It is important that Israel operates in Gaza according to the rules of war. And I think that is very important to emphasize. First and foremost for moral reasons, but also because not following the rules of war is one way that a justified response devolves into a larger war. That leads to a lot more people dying, Palestinians, Israelis, and maybe a lot of other people.

So it is something to keep in mind.

One group of Americans decidedly unimpressed with Biden's response. Republican politicians, as always, they seem to be competing to see who can make the most unhinged comments about the president. And leading the pack right now is self-professed, nice guy Tim Scott, the guy who says conservatives are, quote starved for hope. Let's listen. So while Hamas carried out these attacks, Joe Biden has blood on his hands.

His weakness invited the attack, his cash giveaways to Iran helped fund terrorism, and after the attack, his administration suggested that Israel just stand down. I don't know. I think Lovett's got to start writing better speeches for his favorite candidate.

That was Tim Scott's second comment about this, second set of comments about this, so he did a first set of comments, which no one remembers. Because he didn't say something completely fucking crazy, and he was like, I got to up the crazy so that I can get more attention. And there it is, you know? So now he's accusing Joe Biden of having blood on his hands. What is going on there?

And do you think anyone believes that shit who doesn't already despise Joe?

Tim Scott has a bunch of billionaires like Larry Ellison, who are pouring tens of million dollars of money into ads for his campaign. And threw a super PAC. He said as many ads, if not more, run on his behalf than any other person running, including Donald Trump. And voters aren't buying what he's selling. So he's decided to make a desperate ploy to go from being the nice guy anti-trump to being just a low rent version of Trump. I have no concerns about this politically for Joe Biden.

Everyone watching, you can just see how Tim Scott even read the lines like he didn't believe them. It was just like he practiced them in a mirror to try to sound like someone who thought they might sound sincere. It's totally ridiculous, totally embarrassing and pretty gross on Tim Scott's behalf. very gross, it's like.

I'm pretty sure I jokingly predicted this on our text chain, and then it actually happened.

Your prediction that this would?

Republicans can't help themselves here. There is a very legitimate political vulnerability around border issues in immigration. For sure. It seems they've done a very good job of weaponizing it, making it seem worse than it is, taking the worst parts. They even attacked Joe Biden for when he does a good job. You constantly see them tweeting out, you know? X? Number of kilos of fentanyl were caught at the border.

Today, it's like, Yes, that's the point. They caught the people, or X number of people detained at the border. Yes, they got them. But this is once again a bunch of people who are trying to appeal.

They're not trying to appeal to swing voters or Democrats or anyone else, They're trying to show how ridiculous or MAGA friendly they are to.

They can't escape, but like, Yeah, Hamas is getting on planes and they're going to Mexico. It's just fucking absurd, and it's again, it's crass, and it's just.

It's another example of Republican politicians taking a crisis and just trying to figure out what political opportunity they can, what political advantage they can get out of the crisis. By attacking Joe Biden. So pretty gross. Donald Trump, who is always as shrewd as he is thoughtful in these situations, gave a speech in West Palm Beach yesterday. That may have created a bit of a problem for him among supporters of Israel and his.

I'll never forget that B.B. Netanyahu let us down, that was a very terrible thing, I will say that. And so when I see sometimes the intelligence, you talk about the intelligence, or you talk about some of the things that went wrong over the last week. They've got to straighten it out because they're fighting potentially a very big force, they're fighting potentially Iran.

And when they have people saying the wrong things, everything they say is being digested by these people because they're.

Agree with Ron DeSantis What was going on there? What was Trump thinking? Uh, like, what, where did that come from? Is that just like him being a pundit?

Him just freelancing him, just trying to take credit for everything, cause he also he was talking about. You know, when BB let let us down, and and you know, they, uh, they killed the, uh, the IRGC guy, uh, Soleimani, and uh. And he's like, I got it done, and then BB tried to take credit for it. But it's just like, what, what was he doing, what was that?

I'm much stronger, much stronger with Iran, you wouldn't believe how strong I am. We have talked in recent.

He's just he saw that, he saw some clip from the Israeli minister online. Maybe he heard someone talk about it. And he just decided to start open his mouth and let it all come out without any. He's just telling you what's on his mind, just telling you what he's thinking he hasn't really.

And understandably, I understand why people in Israel would be upset at Donald Trump attacking Israel at this moment. But Donald Trump's running to be president of the United States, he's leading the Republican, he's the leader of Republican primaries. Up by 50 points. He makes absurd comments that if they had come from a. Which we will get to in a second from a member of Congress in the Democratic Caucus, are treated as a bigger deal than Donald Trump. Saying it, we're just like, Ha ha ha, what a knucklehead, who cares?

And it's part of a pattern of behavior. It's a demonstration of how he's unfit for office. It does speak to an asymmetry in the media environment that Democrats do not have the capacity and maybe the willingness to lift these things up and make Republicans respond.

I mean, it's fucking wild.

All right, so as you were just alluding to, there's also this Axios headline that seems like it was designed to trigger just about everyone squad comments on Hamas Reignite Dems Israel tensions. Uh, so this is a story about how some of the most progressive House Democrats initially reacted to the Hamas attack. Especially Cori Bush, who called for ending U.S. aid to Israel, and Rashida Tlaib, who declined to criticize Hamas. And blamed Quote, the apartheid system that creates the dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance.

When White House press Secretary Corrine John Pierre was asked about these comments, she called them quote wrong, repugnant and disgraceful. And now Republicans are hammering every Democrat who hasn't condemned these comments. What's your take on this?

What is the politics of that? As we were saying earlier, why aren't Republicans forced to condemn what Donald Trump has said, like, why are Republicans forced to imagine? Let's just take an example. Imagine if during the Democratic primary, Eric Swalwell or Julian Castro, or some other person who was not going to win the primary said. Donald Trump had blood on his hands for an attack against Israel.

Every single Democrat would have to be having a problem, every single Democrat would have to condemn that, and that did not happen here. And it. Republicans, with some enabling of the media, are putting Democrats in a position where the focus is on our division. Instead of the fact that 98 or 99 of Democrats are unified in what the response should be in their comments in support of Israel. And we're worrying about the statements of a small handful of Democrats, which just.

It's, but it's also it's the media environment, it's social media, a little preview, you know, offline. This week, Max and I are going to be talking about this. But like, we have all been hit with the most extreme or dumbest, or most inappropriate uh comments or conspiracies or lies from all over the place over the last week. If you are trying to follow along, uh, on social media. And then, of course, things from social media can jump to cable. And then they can actually, you know, affect actual politicians statements and responses. And so it's a complete fucking mess.

I mean, look, I think to the to the statements themselves, like, I think it is entirely valid to criticize the Israeli government, to urge restraint, to call for peace, to express sympathy for Palestinians and concern for the loss of life on both sides. But I also think you can only do those things if you start with a clear and unequivocal statement. That places the blame for these attacks on the Hamas terrorists who committed them. And I also think the reason that you have to do that is not necessarily just like performative or political. It's because you can't let people think that you might believe that terrorism is a legitimate or even understandable form of resistance. Israeli occupation of Gaza does not justify or even explain someone deciding to murder children and babies, even though that occupation has led to suffering and death.

And if you release a statement that isn't crystal clear on that point, it's not just that you're going to be criticized or shamed, or whatever. You will lose the ability to have your more legitimate criticisms heard by people. And I think that is the problem. And look, AOC, who's also been very critical of the Israeli government, she did it right. She released a statement that said I condemn Hamas's attack in the strongest possible terms.

No child and family should ever endure this kind of violence and fear, and this violence will not solve the ongoing oppression and occupation in the region. There you go, you did it look like you said. It is a couple of Democrats in Congress.

It's also been like a lot of student organizations and a lot of other organizations here and there and again. It gets blown way out of proportion because we do not know how many people these organizations actually represent. They are kids, oftentimes being dumb, and so it gets blown out of proportion and the whole left gets painted like this.

But if you're someone who wants to persuade people about what you believe is terrible policy by a terrible government in Israel, then you have to at least condemn terrorist attacks when they happen.

What bothers me about this is that we are defaulting again to this sort of post-911 Iraq war performative politics of. We're going to take the comments of a small handful of people, either a couple members of Congress, student organizations. And we are going to use them as an avatar for the entire Democratic party, the entire left, the entire world of people who have real, substantive moral criticisms of how the Israeli government under Netanyahu has conducted itself. I was talking to some people over the weekend who were not involved in politics in those days, about Congress renaming French fries freedom fries because we were mad at France. The fact that the Dixie Chicks got essentially cancel cultured out of American life, couldn't perform in public because they were critical of Bush. I worked for a Democratic politician who criticized Bush while Bush was abroad after 9-11 and was basically destroyed at home politically.

That part is there is a very real conversation about policy here, the response here, what happens next, and we're focusing on the least relevant parts of it. The amount of time and energy dedicated to a small handful of statements from a small handful of students, representing a small handful of student associations, is so counterproductive and dumb. Against what is a very real, ongoing tragedy with huge implications for the region and the world, it is the.

All right, believe it or not, Republicans found the time to focus on other issues this week, especially in the House and a behind closed doors secret ballot vote on Wednesday. Steve Scalise won the nomination to be speaker of the House, edging out Jim Jordan 113 to 99. But that's just Republicans, as we know, you need a majority of all House members to become speaker. All the Democrats will vote for Hakeem Jeffries, which means Republicans can only afford to lose a few votes exact number depending on who's in attendance.

And already, some of the party's biggest attention seekers are saying they intend to vote for Jim Jordan on the floor. Let's listen, I'm not supporting Steve Scalise. I'll be voting for Jim Jordan. Unfortunately, Steve is going through a cancer battle of his own.

And you know, I like Steve Scalise a lot and I like him so much. I would like to see him put his full efforts into defeating that. I plan on voting for Jim Jordan on the floor.

And then Nancy Mace, who's just just really trying to get attention every way she can, wearing an A on her shirt. Because she was like a scarlet letter the other day, because she said she's been silenced, which is funny because I just think everywhere you look.

We used to have never McCarthy, now we got never. Scalise, though I get Matt Gaetz is for him. Matt Gaetz was out there saying, long live speaker Scalise, so they got Gaetz on board. But now they've lost a whole bunch of others.

What the hell is wrong with these people and how do you think this gets resolved?

They would all just go with the path of least resistance. But, alas, these people remain poorly acquainted with their own self-interest. And there's no idea how this there is, you know? Dave Wasserman of Click Political Report tweeted Something that made a lot of sense to me that there may be no Republican who can get 217. And the most interesting thing I've seen, and this is obviously going to change a thousand times after we've published this podcast. But is that there are? Some Republicans are thinking about how they can give speaker pro-temporary Patrick McHenry, who's just sitting there in the seat, holding the gavel and just kicking Democrats out of their offices, how they can give him more power. So the House can start operating as a temporary fill-in, which may be the only thing they can do in the short term. Because it's it doesn't seem like Steve Scalise is getting there. The worm seems to have turned against him.

Jim Jordan clearly doesn't have the votes again. I know this is, this is fantasy.

Of course, Republicans are not taking jeffries up on this yet, though there's been some scuttlebutt that, like maybe some moderate, more moderate Republicans. If this floor fight now goes on forever, we go with another 15 votes, or 17 votes, or 100 votes on the floor. Everyone's screaming on TV all day. Maybe some Republicans will be like, Yeah, let's give the Democrats some some wins so that we can have a functioning House and still have a Republican speaker. I will not be holding my breath for that, but that is, they could do that, right? If you're, if you want to, you want to have a be a responsible governing party. You're all out there screaming at the TV about how it's embarrassing and the world is watching. This is what the ayatollah wants.

I heard that from, I think, Mike McCall at the Foreign Relations Committee. Avid Punchbowl, reader of the Ayatollah Yeah, Hamas, this is what Hamas wants. They're watching, they're watching cable, they're seeing Nancy Mace, and they're, they're.

They're cheering. Here's the thing. Of course, this was not going to be resolved behind closed doors among Republicans because there were no television cameras there. The whole thing now is about getting attention. These people want to have a floor fight, they want to have roadblocked coverage of them all. Yelling on the floor of the house and talking about why Steve Scalise sucks, because he's, you know, establishment and a rhino and all the bullshit.

And then they're going to talk about how great Jim Jordan is, and then they can all get on TV. And that gets them grassroots fundraising and that gets them more fame. And that's why Nancy Mace is on like every side of every issue. You know, she's attacking her party on their abortion stance, but then she's with Jim Jordan. She's on Steve Bannon's podcast, even though she voted to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress and sent him to jail. It's the whole thing is fucking nuts.

There's no ideology, there's no nothing at this party, they're just attention seeking, fucking, it's, it's wild.

That's how you end up without a speaker, it's how you end up with debt ceiling, crisis shutdowns. It's, frankly, how you end up with George Bush in Iraq and Katrina. It is an argument about why Republicans cannot be allowed near the levers of power for the rest of time. Like this, this is it.

This is what a Trump administration will be like again, This is what a Republican Senate would be like. This is the Republican Party. This is who they are, this is what they do.

And it is dangerously dysfunctional, and it is just it is a, it is a.

And guess what? And one of them, one of them who went that route, became president United States, and is still their fucking.

Republican Party be able to raise online money by rising to be the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee. It's by being a mega media superstar. Yeah, well, some of them, certainly.

It doesn't seem likable. It's not like they're like, I have this secret legislation that's going to hurt people that I want you to pass. They're just like, I don't know, I just I don't know.

I want to get more airtime.

Let's turn to the Senate, which Republicans are trying their hardest to fill with as many kooks as the House. Starting with Arizona's most telegenic, election denier and self-described MAGA Mama bear. Carrie Lake, the former news anchor who lost her bid for governor in 2022, officially launched her 2024 Senate campaign this week, complete with an endorsement from Donald Trump. Let's listen to her a little bit from her announcement speech.

There's no issues, she's just on a hill somewhere.

Fortunately, we were all wrong. Now that she lost, there are some Democrats who've been hoping she'd get in the race.

She gets the entertainment part of the Trump show in ways that others don't, I would imagine. And we'll get to this in a sec. That the Democrat that Rubin Geigel would be favored against her, but you would rather run against Blake Masters than Carrie Lake. Like she, she has a shot, she certainly can win the race and we shouldn't take it for granted.

Do you think Sinema? Being in the race hurts Geigel? helps Geigel, or too soon to say.

But if you think that a no-labels candidate hurts Joe Biden against Trump, then you have to imagine that. Sinema makes life harder for Geigel, because there are going to be people who don't love Geigel. Don't love Democrats, but do not like Carrie Lake, so Kyrsten Sinema gives them a place to go other than Geigel. So a two-way race between Geigel and Carrie Lake, I imagine, is much better for Geigel. But he can still win a three-way race if Kyrsten Sinema decides to run. The truth is, she has not said she's not running, but she also has done nothing to prepare for a race. She is a prodigious fundraiser when she's running, and she's done almost nothing in terms of fundraising over the last couple cycles.

So there's some indications.

The reason people would maybe defect from Biden versus the reasons people would defect from Geigel might be different as well. Because the Biden age thing seems to be people's biggest issue handling of the economy. Whatever it may be, Geigel doesn't come to the race with any of those problems. But again, it's too early to tell you. Sent me the split-ticket analysis on this race, Sinema's team thinks she can get 10 to 15 percent of Democrats, 25 to 35 percent of Republicans, and 60 to 70 percent of independents.

All three of those numbers seem pretty high, Yeah, they seem quite high. So to win the race, she'd have to just on the Republican number, she'd have to get 600,000 people in Arizona to vote for her. And Donald Trump, which also seems like a tall order, or her, and a third candidate for president, right? Especially if Carrie Lake is in the race.

If you're a Trump voter, it's hard to imagine a Trump voter who declines to vote for.

If she gets in the race and all she does is attack Geigel for being too liberal. And he's basically fighting a two-front war against Carrie Lake and Kyrsten Sinema. That makes his life harder than if she is attacking equally or attacking no one. And so the conduct of the race doesn't matter. That's the same analysis I bring to RFK Jr. In a Biden-trump race. If he's just going to attack Joe Biden from the left on various issues, that makes life harder for Joe Biden, even if he's more popular among Republicans.

And it's also a case where Trump and Biden will get the lion's share of the media coverage. But in this race, because Sinema is the incumbent, you can imagine all three candidates getting an equal share of the coverage. And so that it's going to be a much more even playing field in terms of like people, knowing who they are, I mean, we joke all the time about.

Every week, the two hilariously unpack a different horror movie. And for those of you like Alison, who are too scared to watch, also, like me, fear not, Hallie will ruin the movie for you. Check it out wherever you get your podcast. Also. Dan, we're headed to D.C. next week. How exciting.

We got a live pod, Save America, on October 19th, and we have really outbooked ourselves for this one. John Fetterman, Jose Andres, Virginia State Senate candidate, Friend of the Pod, Jennifer Carroll Foy and our guest host Simone Sanders. Also, we will be live streaming the show, so if you can't make it, you can watch from home.

See where else we're heading in the next couple of months and get your tickets at Crooked dot com Slash events. All right, finally, we are ending with a new segment we're calling the Crook Political Report because we're fucking dorks.

You're fine, all right? Representative George Santos was hit with another 10 criminal charges this week in a superseding indictment that includes conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, and credit card fraud. For allegedly charging forty five thousand dollars on the card of a donor without their knowledge, Tom Swasey, the Democrat who once held the seat in a district that Joe Biden won in 2020, announced this week he'll be running again. About six New York House Republicans introduced a resolution to expel Santos.

Doesn't seem to be going anywhere, nothing seems to be going anywhere in the house right now. They can't find a speaker, and certainly they're not going to move a resolution to expel George Santos. Here's a question.

Why do you think Democrats haven't been able to make Republicans pay a political price for protecting a guy who even some Republicans want to expel?

Well, I think we are, I'm not sure we're not making them pay a.

I'm not going to.

Even if we're never going to look as bad as the guy standing by the former president with 91 indictments. It just makes it so much harder to have a conversation about it. To have moral authority to talk about when we have our own person in our own caucus indicted for many of the same crimes as George.

What's Chuck Schumer doing? what's going on there? Al Franken was not charged with anything. And whether or not you believe the allegations. A bunch of Democrats came out within weeks, including Chuck Schumer, calling on him to resign, and then he did. Now we've got multiple federal indictments against Bob Menendez for, I mean, I just.

I don't even know what he's. Maybe he thinks. Because Donald Trump, with all of his indictments, is up by like 40 points in the general election polls in West Virginia, that it's a pro-indictment state. But I think that's misreading the political environment. I truly don't know he's going.

Here's what George Santos has been most recently charged with. So a donor gives him his credit card, which is a don't text George Santos your credit card number.

And so then George Santos made up the names of a bunch of people and then took the names of some of his family members. And said that they had all donated. To just make all the donations make sense from this one donor who he just defrauded by just stealing money from him.

So thanks to no one for joining us. Hard to blame them, I'll be honest with you.

But everyone have a great weekend and we will see you next week and and and hopefully see some of you D.C. listeners at our show on October 19th. So everyone have a great weekend. We'll talk to you next week. Bye everyone.

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