A top intelligence official has resigned and on the way out said “Iran posed no imminent threat,” to the U.S.
President Donald Trump ran for reelection on the promise of lower prices and no wars.
Meanwhile, Trump and his administration are doing all they can to not call it a war.
Prices have not come down and could be increasing as U.S. strikes on Iran continue.
Also, could a blue wave happen in this year’s midterm elections?
We’re talking national politics with Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast.
Guest:
Transcript
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Amy Juravich: Welcome to All Sides with Amy Juravich. Congress holds the sole power to declare war. That's why the Trump administration has been careful not to call the attacks on Iran a war. In addition, the Trump Administration has struggled to explain their justification for what's going on in the Middle East.
Closer to home, the Homeland Security Secretary is out, and the new candidate for the job has a rocky hearing on Capitol Hill. Joining us this hour to talk about all things national politics is the host of the "Political Junkie" podcast, Ken Rudin. Welcome back to All Sides, Ken.
Ken Rudin: Amy, I'm so happy that you decided this show would be three hours because there's so much to say. Yeah, right. What do you want to do for the first hour?
Juravich: Yeah, maybe just Iran. We'll stick with Iran. Yeah. Oh my goodness. So President Trump ran for re-election on the premise of lowering the cost of groceries and no more wars. Americans are now feeling the pain at the pump and there are higher gas prices and they have yet to hear a valid explanation for why there are attacks in Iran.
So how do you think President Trump is handling what he is calling now an excursion for our military? What exactly is your analysis of what's going on here?
Rudin: Well, you made a very good point in your introduction saying they were avoiding the word war because of course Congress declares war, but we all know that Congress has not declared war since 1942 when they declared war against Romania, Hungary, and I think one other middle European country, you know, part of the Axis powers, aligned with Germany.
But you know Vietnam, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, everything, none of that has been a declaration of war from Congress, but many times Presidents would go to Congress, like George Bush did with the Persian Gulf and George W. Bush did, with Iraq and Afghanistan, and even the Gulf of Tonkin, Lyndon Johnson, the resolution that Lyndon Johnston pushed through in 1964, ostensibly permitting U.S. Action in Vietnam.
Whether it's what the Congress had in mind or not, the fact that Congress was involved, and this time Congress is not involved at all. And you're absolutely right, you know, he campaigned on no regime change, no foreign wars, no change in, no regime changes. And the last I saw Donald Trump was whining in Mar-a-Lago saying, why am I not getting the Nobel Peace Prize? Well, and instead of talking about the wars he's solved or ended. He's created more and more wars with, you know, we've seen with Venezuela and who knows what's going on with Cuba and of course with Iran. I mean, it's just startling.
Juravich: So the vote that was taken back, let's use Iraq as an example, that wasn't a declaration of war. It was just a vote of whether to spend money. Is that what you mean, whenever you say Congress hasn't been involved in declaring war?
Rudin: No, it was actually to have authorized forces, as far as I remember. And I remember that's one of the reasons that Hillary Clinton lost to Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential primaries, because Hillary Clinton, like many Democrats, Joe Biden, John Kerry, I mean, you know, a lot of Democrats voted for the Bush resolution.
And Barack Obama, and even Donald Trump at the time, although there's no record of it, but Trump at that time said he was opposed to the Iraq war from the beginning, but certainly Barack Obama was and others were. And that became a big splitting point for the Democratic Party. Now it just seems like most of the Democrats are opposed to this war.
However, when there was a vote last week, I guess it was last week or two weeks ago, I'm losing time already, but in the House, when it was a voted to declare that Iran is the major sponsor of terrorism, that passed overwhelmingly. I mean 350 to 53 And all 53 were left-wing members of the Democratic Party, members of The Squad, and a lot of left-wings members who said, this is insane, what we're doing here. But for the most part, the Democratic party is against this war. The Republican party is, at least if they're not for it, they're pretty silent.
Juravich: Yeah, well, I think that those Democrats who voted that way, they wanted to be on the record saying that they agree that something bad is happening with Iran, but I don't know, they're trying to be on the right side of history, I guess, big picture.
Rudin: No, but that's a good point. I mean, look, nobody liked what Maduro was doing in Venezuela. I mean he rigged the election, he stole the election. He tortured and killed many dissidents. I mean it was absolutely no good. You know, you're not going to have me defending what the Ayatollahs have been doing.
The Ayatolahs, plural, have been doing in Iran since the advent of the Islamic State in 1979. They've been brutal and they've been fomenting killings around the world. One, last year, apparently, or at least that's what we were told by the administration, that we had obliterated Iran's nuclear capabilities, and it's over.
And every time a reporter would say, well, Iran still has options for nuclear weapons, Hegseth or Trump or somebody would say it's fake news, and how dare you try to dispute what we're saying? Iran has been obliterate. And then suddenly, on February 28th, United States decides with Israel to bomb the heck out of Israel, out of Iran, and there's no justification for it, at least no clear justification for.
So they're so afraid of the word war, but every now and then you'll hear Hegseth say war. You'll hear Mark with Mark Wayne, Lee Harvey Mullen, whatever his name is.
Speaker 4: Oh, it's-
Rudin: But talk about a war. And he said, oh, I'm sorry, I misspoke. It's clearly a war, and look, if it ends tomorrow and the United States withdraws, I mean, that's great news, but I think that Iran is still trying to bomb ships and bomb supply routes in the Strait of Hormuz for oil and gas, so this is not ending anytime quickly. And the administration is just running out of stories.
Juravich: Earlier this week, the top director of National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, resigned saying that he could not, quote, support sending the next generation off to fight and die in Iran. So do you think we might see other officials speak up like this? Or was that unusual? As Joe Kent going to be the only one.
Rudin: I need to say this about Joe Kent. What Joe Kent said, really what he said was, I don't like the fact that the United States is allied with Israel on this, and Israel is taking us to war, and that's what I'm against.
Speaker 4: Mmm.
Rudin: Joe Kent, when he ran for Congress in Washington state a few years ago, and he ran twice I believe, he had support from the Proud Boys. He has been a sponsor or a supporter of the most right-wing conspiracy things beyond the election was stolen. And I think his feelings about Israel, and he said so many anti-Semitic things without question.
So I've seen a lot of people You know, this is great, Joe Kent has resigned and this is a sign that MAGA is falling apart. Joe Kent was really more about Israel, but having said that, there are people in the administration, or at least in the conservative movement, like Tucker Carlson, like Megyn What the hell are you like?
You know, other other people like that who say this is just creating Marjorie telegreen who suddenly the cnn and all the liberals love because she criticized me it's amazing she criticizes trump so everybody said wow we love Marjori telegreen she's also against the war because of the alliance with israel so that's very interesting what israel has done or at least how israel is perceived in our politics and our war policy
Juravich: Also, after insulting them, the Trump administration is now calling on European allies to help with the Strait of Hormuz. I mean, how critical is our relationship with the European allies when it comes to this very important shipping channel?
Rudin: Isn't this unbelievable? I mean, this, you could do an hour show on this alone. The fact that. Trump has spent most of his administration berating allies saying they're not reliable, they're no dependable. We can do without them. Russia's okay. Matter of fact, you notice that he ended the embargo on sanctions on Russian oil now because of the oil shortage.
But I mean, he says good things about Hungary. He says good thing about Turkey. He said good things about Russia. But Canada, I mean he's going to invade Canada or it's an unreliable ally. If Canada is an unreliable ally, then I don't know what to say, but he has criticized all the U.S. Allies—Britain, France, Germany, Canada, others—for their non-loyalty.
Non-loyalty, which is the word I just made up, and then when they won't come to a U.S. Rescue in a war that's already over, according to Trump, then he berates them. How dare you, you know? NATO is useless. I can't believe that NATO's not coming to our rescue after all we've done for them.
Juravich: But he wants to leave NATO, so, yeah. Exactly. I mean. OK.
Rudin: I mean, get somebody on a couch to explain what the president is thinking, but this is serious stuff. I mean does he not know that after insulting our allies for a year and then he says, gee, how come they're not coming to our rescue? That's just mindless.
Juravich: This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about national politics this hour with Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast. Another effect of the war on Iran has been higher gas prices, and fixing the economy was one of President Trump's big campaign promises.
Ohio Senator John Husted has proposed the "Upward Mobility Act" to help people navigate their way out of poverty. However, he is drawing some criticism for comments he made recently on a conservative podcast. Let's listen.
Speaker 5: And people living in poverty are just not very, they're not very experienced at navigating the real world. I remember talking to one young lady who said, well, I don't really know how money works at a grocery store because she grew up and has lived all of her adult life using snap cards to buy groceries. And so you literally have to teach people how to budget.
Juravich: So what do you make of a comment like that from Senator Husted, especially when Husted is running for reelection right now in a state that has about 1.5 million people below the poverty line?
Rudin: It's kind of tone deaf. I know he has to appeal to his conservative base. Now, of course, he has no primary on May 5th for it to have the seat that he took over when J.D. Vance became vice president. But... But I mean, one would think that you don't insult, I mean it's very degrading and insulting to say about these people who, you know, they don't know what they're saying and, you know, it's almost like let me teach you what the real life is.
They know what real life is and that is they're not dealing with poverty and their own economic welfare. And so instead of rather than insulting, instead of being degrading to them, he just, you He just, you know, kind of like, it's kind of condescending. And I think there was a mistake, but again, Houston is not the Bernie Moreno, J.D. Vance, right-wing, you now, all the way senators.
He seems to be a combination of, he knows he has a right-ing master in the Republican party in the Senate. And he also knows that he comes from a pretty moderate, you know Mike DeWine's establishment Republican party. So I think. It torn in two different ways. I'm not defending anything he's saying or criticizing, but I think he's torn in both ways. But I kind of think that that's not the kind of comment you want to say, especially as you're about to face reelection in a state where Donald Trump is less and less popular.
Juravich: And I've seen, so he's running against former Senator Sherrod Brown, and Sherrod Brown's campaign is using that comment already on social media posts, saying that Houston is out of touch. But I have heard from some people who thinks that the Brown campaign is going very negative, very early and very often. Do you think that Brown needs to go negative and stay negative to win this?
Rudin: I don't know what's right. I don t know what works. And I was just talking to your producer, Marcus Charleston, right before the show. There's a commercial out by Juliana Stratton, who's the Lieutenant Governor of Illinois.
She just on Tuesday, she won the Democratic primary for Senator for Illinois, the seat that Dick Durbin is retiring. And one of her commercials... I mean, they're flabbergasted watching it. You see a woman on screen and she says, F Trump. She says the words and then it goes to somebody else, F Trump, and then goes to Tammy Duckworth, the Senator from Illinois and says F Trump and I'm saying.
You know, whatever happened to, they go low and we go high. Well, that doesn't work anymore. I think there is so much anger in the Democratic Party about the fact that Donald Trump does what he wants. There's no Supreme Court oversight. There's congressional oversight. And they're just furious and frustrated.
And I think the Democrats are saying things and applying some things that they wouldn't have done years ago. I remember last year, When Abigail Spamburger in Virginia and Mickey Sherrill in New Jersey, the two women who were elected governors of the two states respectively, the "New York Times" were criticizing them saying, you're going too negative on Trump, too negative, on Trump. And as it turned out, they both won landslides because people are angry.
Juravich: I kind of think that... So Sherrod Brown's trying to meet people where they are and be a little angry.
Rudin: I think Sherrod Brown was there also. I mean, I think Sherrod brown was angry and it's very interesting, you know, when Sherrod, Brown came to the Senate, he beat some guy named Mike Dewine and Mike Dewines, Lieutenant Governor is running against some nixie. I wonder how much, you know, life is, life
Juravich: Life is a life is a circle yes yes this is All Sides we're talking with the political junkie Ken Root in this hour. I wanted to pivot back to Iran just for a moment because there are some people out there saying the attacks on Iran have been a distraction from the Epstein files. Do you do you make I mean what do you of that connection? Everything can't be in a distraction from the epstein files can it? Why not?
Rudin: I don't know. The fact that this is the president and this is a party who for years were yelping and yelped about pedophiles and the government and Stein and releasing the Epstein files, and suddenly you have an attorney general who is conveniently losing records that show women who have made charges against Donald Trump is suddenly missing.
It's just so ugly. I mean, I know that the word from the left is everything is a distraction from Epstein. You can walk and chew gum at the same time. I'm not saying it's okay to have a war and expose the Epstein crimes.
But I mean my goodness, the fact that Bondi and Todd Blanch and all those people are saying, well, we're releasing millions and millions of files. It seems like Everybody in the world, everybody in the world is getting arrested, convicted. You know, for what Epstein did except the people in this country, namely the President of the United States.
And so look, women have come forward. I mean, the fact that you saw those women at the Senate hearing or the House hearing not that long ago, who stood up and said, we have made complaints about Donald Trump and Epstein and things like that. We sent it to the FBI and we have never been interviewed on it.
Pam Bondi, Pam Bondy wouldn't even turn around and give them you know, the time of day. So there's obviously some kind of a cover-up. It has to be that, because where are those files? So it's ugly, and whether it's a distraction, I don't know.
But look, we'll see what happens in November, because if the Democrats take over the House, and I'm convinced they take over, there will be hearings up the wazoo about that. You know, it won't be James Comer and Jim Jordan and people like that saying, Oh, well, I didn't know.
So we'll see what happens then. I think America should be looking forward to a very ugly post-election time because while the Democrats will take over the house, the Republicans will probably be contesting every seat saying it was stolen by them. So it'll be a great time.
Juravich: Yeah, all right. I'm writing that down. Ken says 2027 will be a hot mess. Did you watch former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton give their depositions? Did you watch any of that?
Rudin: I did. And I was especially, look, I've never been a big Hillary Clinton fan. I mean, not that I don't like her, but I just, you know, I'm not a Hillary forever flag waiver, but I thought she was masterful in talking to, you, know, what, you.
I, I mean the fact that Hillary Clinton was being, you ask these questions and that Melania Trump, who has so much more connection to, to, uh, to Jeffrey Epstein than Hillary Clinton. I know. Hillary.
Juravich: I know, Hillary barely even ever knew the guy. She never knew?
Rudin: She says she never knew him. They say, well, he went to Chelsea's wedding. Well, apparently, he was the guest of somebody who was invited to Chelsea wedding. But I mean, the thought of Hillary was really basically the way she was during the Benghazi hearing. Saying, my god, what are you doing? This is just nonsensical and totally political retribution. So good for her. I was waiting for her to come.
Juravich: I was waiting for her at some point to say, but what about my emails?
Rudin: I've seen that on you know, but I think now it's done by the left saying it's sarcastically. What about the email?
Juravich: And you, and you mentioned this, you know, former president or president, uh, former Prince Andrew. Um, he, I mean, he's one of the big names being brought down by being associated with Jeffrey Epstein, Harvard president, Larry Summers at, do you think there'll be more names? I mean it might not ever get to, um, you know, the, the Trump administration or the white house, but, um.
Rudin: It will. It has to, and I think it will. But you know something, this is maybe changing subject and I don't know if this is on your list, but the front page news in the "New York Times" today about Cesar Chavez and his abuse of little girls who were 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13 years old that went on in the 60s and 70s.
Is horrific. It's not an Epstein-related story, but it's, again, another story when you think of men in high positions who have trusted, who was a god. I had a friend of mine write to me this morning who's Latino. He said, he, Cesar Chavez, was the only person who looked like me when I was going to school. The only person that looked like. And so he was a hero to so many people.
Apparently he made some terrible crimes, sexual crimes that are now being reported that are just heartbreaking. I don't know why I had to link that on to the Epstein story, but it's again a story of a man in high position who led a lot of people down.
Juravich: Yeah, I missed that story. I'll have to read it after the show. Our guest this hour is Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast. Coming up, we're going to talk about primaries, voting rights acts and the GOP lawmakers that are headed for the exits. That's when All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. Based on polling data from early 2026, Donald Trump's approval rating has faced a steady decline during his second term. Plus, 57 members of the House, at last count, on both sides of the aisle, have announced that they are not running for re-election. Some are retiring, some are running for other offices, and some are leaving public life altogether.
But this is putting Congress on track for a record turnover. And whether the Democrats will be able to use this to their advantage remains to be seen. We're talking about national politics this hour with Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast. Thanks again for being here, Ken. Thank you.
So unlike his first administration, the current Trump cabinet has had little to no turnover, but that changed recently with the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, being fired. Despite missteps such as the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth had his signal group chat. Um, but you know, no one really, uh, he didn't lose his job there, but are you surprised by the lack of turnover in this, this administration compared to the Trump's first administration?
Rudin: No, because the first Trump administration was not filled with Trump loyalists. There were a lot of establishment Republicans, a lot people who were well respected in the party and basically didn't decide, didn't tell Trump what he wanted to hear. There were people who told him like it was and he fired them. I mean, you know, just like he did on "The Apprentice," it was easy to fire them.
Here they were all loyalists, if you think of the people who are named to the cabinet, I mean, remember his first choice for attorney general. Was Matt Gaetz, who was under investigation for sexual harassment of young girls and having sex with underage girls at parties. I mean, that is just remarkable.
So Robert F. Kennedy Jr. On health, it's just, and Kristi Noem on Homeland Security, Pam Bondi, who's been a Trump defender, that's what she does for a living, and she becomes attorney general. I mean, what's the part of time attorney general was to stand up and tell the president what was right and legally not what the president wanted to hear.
So I'm not surprised of the lack of turnover this one. But Kristi Noem did so many things. I mean, aside from the fact about the allegations that she was having an affair with her, also married Chief of Staff Lee Randowski, who's a long-time Trump person. She also Spent hundreds of millions of dollars on herself on ad campaign making her look great stuff. A lot of it was about her. And, of course, the reaction to the killings, the horrific killings in Minnesota under Kristi Noem's watch when she called them terrorists, and almost like they deserved to die, paraphrasing, she had to go. But Mark Wayne Mullen, I
Juravich: Yeah, so the person selected to replace Gnome is Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullen. And he may be best known for the time when he challenged the Teamsters Union President Sean O'Brien to a fight during a Senate hearing, and Senator Bernie Sanders had to intervene. Let's listen.
Speaker 7: Quit the Tough Guy Act and these Senate hearings. You know where to find me. Any place, any time, cowboy. Sir, this is a time, this a place. If you want to run your mouth, we can beat two consenting adults, we can finish it here.
Speaker 4: OK, that's fine. Perfect.
Speaker 7: You want to do it now?
Speaker 4: I'd love to do it right now.
Speaker 7: We'll stain your butt up then.
Speaker 4: You stand your butt up.
Juravich: I mean you know that clip could go on and on it's it's something to watch so the confirmation hearings for Senator Mullen were held yesterday do you think he will be the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
Rudin: Yes, of course, because it's a Republican majority Senate. I mean, they don't reject the most outlandish nominees. And Markway Mullen has absolutely no experience in this at all. He also called Mr. Preddy, who was killed in Minnesota, I think he called him a deranged terrorist or things like that.
And even, I think, John Federman, the ostensible Democrat from Pennsylvania, who does day. You know, everything he says is pro-Trump and pro-Republican, said he's going to vote for him. So I don't see any way, even if Lisa Murkowski, for example, votes against him, and I expect her to vote against him. There's still more Republicans than Democrats, and the name of the game is who has the majority, and he will be confirmed.
I mean, he was having a fight. He's a bully and he gets into a fight and it was so interesting to see Bernie Sanders, who's 115 years old. You see him trying to pull down. He said to Mullen, you're a U.S. Senator for crying out loud. Sit down. And you see, Mullen you can't see this on the radio, but as Mullen is standing up to challenge the Teamsters president, he's taking off his wedding ring to say, I'm ready to fight. It was just, it was just so childish and so juvenile and this is who Mark Wayne Mullen is, and yet, why should we be surprised about an unqualified or a surprise choice for a cabinet secretary?
Juravich: The Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was grilled about her presence at an FBI raid at a Georgia election office earlier this year. Do you think she might be the next person who loses her job in the cabinet?
Rudin: She's a fascinating person. You know, when she was in, I don't wanna give you a whole history lesson here, but when she in Congress, she was a member of Congress from Hawaii, she was, I think, the first member of congress to endorse Bernie Sanders for president. She was among the left-wing members, most left- wing members of Congress.
And then suddenly, she began, when she ran for president in 2016, I guess it was. Was it 26? Yeah, I I guess was 2016. She attacked Hillary, or maybe it was 2020, but anyway, she attacked the war policies of the Democrats, and she was attacking Democrats more than anyone else.
It's fascinating. She's the one who was thought to be pro-Putin towards the end of her congressional career. She said things about Putin that were music to the Kremlin's ears, and yet she became confirmed. And I don't know why she would be removed because she hasn't done anything, you know, to displease Trump unless he has somebody else in mind.
But it's just that she's the one who talked about foreign wars are criminal and it's a disgrace what we did, what we, the United States, did in Iraq. And for having her, to see her go along with what's going on in Iran, I mean she like many members of the cabinet and many members of Congress have sold their souls to please the guy at top. And there's no profiles and courage, as John F. Kennedy might have once said.
Juravich: Well, pivoting to the House, according to the AP, as of last week, 57 House members will not be seeking re-election in 2026. A number are retiring, and it is actually the number of retirements announced as the second highest since record-keeping began a century ago. What do you make of all this turnover?
Rudin: Well, you know something, once upon a time, when I was a little child growing up in a small town called the Bronx, I thought Congress was the ultimate place to be. I mean, the greatest place, thinking of all the giants who roamed the halls. When I was with ABC News and working in the Capitol, I mean I really, I felt it in my heart every day I would come to work.
All the giants who were there before. Everett Dirksen and Robert Taft and La Follette and all these people in history, who I admire for what they did, and it's become useless. Tell me what Congress has done, other than the big, beautiful bill, which was a hodgepodge of everything that Trump could come up with, and think of—Donald Trump says the most important bill now is the voter ID bill.
When there's no voter fraud in the world yet, and that's the most important thing, why would you want to stay in Congress? I understand a lot of, I'm almost convinced, I am convinced, that the Democrats will take control of the House. But there were a lot Democrats who were leaving too.
There's a lot a Democrats being forced out because they're elderly, and there's a a lot of Democrats that's saying, wait a second, I'm tired of waiting in line for you to retire. So, you know, the, It's good. Steny Hoyers and Nancy Pelosi's and other are leaving to to make way for new blood. So that's not surprising. So maybe it's
Juravich: So maybe it's good that maybe there needs to be some, I mean, you know, people have been talking about the people being too old in Congress and there should be like age limits. So maybe there is, this is the time there needs be turnover.
Rudin: But yet, you know, but Bernie Sanders is running for re-election and Chuck Grassley was re-elected last year. And you know I think a lot of members of the Senate don't want to be like Dianne Feinstein who basically lost many of her facilities in her latter months and she died in office. That's not the way to go.
But I think there is a lot a feeling from both parties that change is needed. And... But I don't... But... But Change is needed, but decency is also needed. And I think that a lot of the people who are coming into Congress next year, especially from the right wing of politics, is not in favor or not espousing any kind of decency and camaraderie.
Juravich: This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about national politics this hour with Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast. You mentioned the SAVE Act a moment ago. It's a sweeping voting bill. It stands for Safeguard American Voting Eligibility, S-A-V-E, SAVE, which would require people to show proof of citizenship, to register for voting in federal elections and showing voter ID when voting in person or by mail. Why is this bill so important to the president?
Rudin: Donald Trump, to this day, is obsessed by the fact that he lost the 2020 election. And he's convinced whether he's lying or he really believes this, he really believes it was stolen from him. So he's under the assumption that illegal voters are the ones who decided that, you know, that Joe Biden beat him in 2020.
When every investigation shows that's nonsense, that very few people who are unregistered or non-citizens, it's illegal for non-civilians to vote anyway, but there's no proof that non-citizens are voting in great numbers at all. And I think what Trump is trying to do is is tell the American people that the voting system is fraudulent, that we've got to have this voter ID bill to keep illegal, non-registered voters from voting.
And if the Republicans lose the House in November, which I think they will, he will point to this fake, and if the bill doesn't pass, which, I don't think it will, and we can talk about why it won't, because you need 60 votes, blah, blah. If the bill doesn't pass, he'll say, well, it's because, you know, we didn't pass this bill and it's fraudulent voting and we're going to contest every election.
And a lot of people are not going to vote. A lot of will say, if my vote is going to be challenged, I mean, my mom is 95 years old. She doesn't have a driver's license. She doesn' have a passport. And she votes every time. But if she goes to the polls, does she have that kind of idea with her? No, she doesn't. There are going to be a lot of people who are going to be dissuaded from voting, and that's exactly what Donald Trump wants. He wants to limit the vote, discourage the vote and make sure that if he doesn't win, he'll challenge the results.
Juravich: What you you mentioned that it might not pass because it needs 60 votes. So so what's going to happen here where we can't just have the simple 51 simple majority.
Rudin: Well, see, here's the thing. He's putting tremendous pressure on John Thune, the Republican Senate Majority Leader, to waive the filibuster rule. He said, you don't need 60 votes. Let's have a majority vote. Excuse me. And Thune is resisting. And, Thune was an institutionalist.
But this is very interesting. There's a big Republican Senate primary runoff in Texas between John Cornyn and and Ken Paxton who's the attorney general. Ken Paxton is right winger. John Corna is a courtly establishment kind of Republican who always believed, who always said we're not going to get rid of the filibuster.
Well Trump is now telling Corny, if you don't vote to get ready to filibust, I'm not going endorse you. And So now John Corden folded, he caved, and now he's for getting rid of the filibuster. So, a lot has to do with what John Thune decides to do. If they insist on having a 60-vote limit to pass this bill, it won't pass, because there is not 60 votes in the Senate for this. But if it's going to be majority only, and probably, you know, if it is a majority only bill, Republicans do have the votes and they want to change the rules for for Donald Trump who says this is the most important bill in history, which is just nonsensical.
Juravich: Would it be waving the filibuster forever or just for that one vote just for this just for that one boat okay because there's always that debate where the party in power wants to keep you know like it's always whenever what if if if it benefits you you want to keep a filibust
Rudin: Well, see, this blew up in the Democrats' hands back in the 2010s or something when Harry Reid, who was the Democratic leader, was tired of Republicans filibustering the Clinton judicial nomination. So Harry Reid decided to get rid of the filibuster rules for lower judges.
And Mitch McConnell at the time, the Republican minority leader, said, this is a comeback to bite you, Democrats, because when we become the majority, you're going to suffer. And that's exactly what happened. When Harry Reid tried to protect the Democrats, the Republicans took advantage of it. And now there is no filibuster when it comes to Supreme Court nominations or things like that.
Juravich: Our guest this hour is Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast. Coming up, we're gonna talk about some key primaries that have happened over the past couple of weeks. We'll talk about the Kennedy Center, and we'll also talk about a few changes to the media landscape. That's when All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. We're talking about national politics this hour with Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast. Thanks again for being here, Ken.
Rudin: Thank you, Amy.
Juravich: Primaries for the midterm elections are underway, and with talk of a blue wave expected in this year's midterm election, we're going to talk about what's at stake with these primaries. Ohio doesn't have very many competitive primaries happening, so I have to admit I'm not really paying a ton of attention.
So we don't have time to go through every primary in every state that has happened, but which ones do you think are important that you want to point out to me and say you should be paying attention? Is it Illinois, Texas, North Carolina? Where should we be paying attention?
Rudin: First of all, I agree with you completely about Ohio. You're going to have two very close governor and senate races, but there are no primaries on May 5th that we have to worry about. No congressional member is in trouble, losing his or her seat. So it's not worth the conversation. But I'm fascinated by what we've seen so far, and I'll try to talk fast about this. Two days ago, the Illinois primary, I mentioned the Juliana Stratton commercial, which I have not seen.
Juravich: Which I have not seen, I'm now open. Oh, you searched it. Oh, I'll search it up, yeah.
Rudin: Actually, if you go to my Facebook page, it's the first thing, it's a last thing I posted. But anyway, on Tuesday, Julianna Stratton, the Lieutenant Governor, was endorsed by the governor, J.B. Pritzker, who has designs on the White House.
Pritzger is running for third term this year. He endorsed Julianna Stratten early, spent millions on her behalf. And was basically responsible for her winning a primary against two respected members of Congress. Two things that came out of that. She said after she won that she would not vote for Chuck Schumer for Democratic leader when she comes to the Senate.
And that's fascinating. And I think... I think that's one of the reasons where I'm convinced that win or lose the Senate, and I still don't think the Democrats are going to win the Senate. They need a net gain of four seats, and I don't they can do it. But we'll see. I mean, Trump's numbers are declining.
Schumer I think is going to step down as leader no matter what. His term isn't up until 2028. I expect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to challenge him. I don't think he's going to run again. But anyway, I think there's going be new leadership on the Democratic Party.
And two, the fact that J.B. Pritzker put his prestige and his money on the line in Illinois shows that he may very well be a player for 2028 in the presidential sweepstakes. I don't know how far he can go, but the fact is that he threw his muscle behind Stratton and it was very successful.
In Texas, it's fascinating, James Tellerico, who is a Christian minister, state representative, who everybody seems to be falling in love with, Stephen Colbert and "The View" and all these people. And he seems, look, everybody talks about every four years or two years, oh, the Democrats are going to come back, it is the Democrats' time.
I mean, we said this with Beto O'Rourke years ago, and he hasn't won anything since. So they keep saying the Democrats are gonna come back. But... He's a fascinating, likable, interesting guy who's gonna run against the winner of the John Cornyn, Ken Paxton primary runoff.
So we'll see what happens there. And in North Carolina, you know, it's probably the best chance for the Democrats to pick up a seat. Former governor there has a good shot of winning the seat that Tom Tillis is giving up.
Tom Tillis, by the way, fascinates me. I don't think I could talk any faster than I'm talking now, but Tom Till is fascinating me because now that he's decided that he is not running for reelection, he's saying all the things he thinks as opposed to following the Republican line.
It's just fascinating to watch that. But what's also interesting is that the names are not going to come to me right now, but for the state legislative seat, the most powerful person in North Carolina politics is the, I think, the speaker of the House, or I think he's the president of the state senate, but whatever it is, the powerful guy who spends all his time on redistricting and statewide stuff and national stuff, he probably ignored the people back home, and right now he lost his primary by two votes. Buy two votes at it!
Speaker 4: Oh, fun.
Rudin: And millions of money to a guy who, you know, had no business winning this seat. I don't know what a recount is going to do. I can't imagine him losing. But the fact is that it just shows that every vote counts and the fact that two votes step race, winning or losing is pretty remarkable.
Juravich: Normally every vote counts in some sort of like school board race or like a levy, but for an actual like House or Senate seat, that's amazing.
Rudin: Well, I always think, and I'm sure you do too, when John Durkin defeated Louie Wyman in New Hampshire in 1974, I'm teasing that you're thinking about this, but it was by four votes. It was by four votes, and so again, every vote counts.
Juravich: Every vote counts, yes. Ken, recently we devoted a show to the changing media landscape. Part of that involves Paramount's takeover of Warner Brothers' discovery, which includes CNN. Defense Secretary, or Secretary of War, whatever you want to call him, Pete Hegseth.
Rudin: Don't say the word war because we haven't declared war since...
Juravich: Right. So the department can't be called that either. Hegseth recently made a comment in favor of this move. Let's listen.
Speaker 8: CNN doesn't think we thought of that. It's a fundamentally unserious report. The sooner David Ellison takes over that network.
Juravich: What are your concerns about the future of CNN or even CBS News? CBS News has become different under the editorial leadership of Barry Weiss.
Rudin: The fact that Hex has said it, I mean, I don't know why I'm so startled by the things that people say, but that startled me saying, you know, now that the good guys are going to take over CNN, now we're going to have the news in our favor.
I mean this is what's happening, that already we saw what happened to CBS when Paramount took over CBS and Ellison put in Barry Weiss in charge of editorial content. And then they spiked that 60-minute story, at least for a week, because they didn't like it, because it didn't give the Trump administration enough voice, according to Barry Weiss.
I mean, it's just, it has become ideological, and of course the right-wing will always say that it's the left that runs the networks anyway, that CNN is left-wing and ABC is left wing is NBC's left wing. And you know, in "New York Times" and blah blah blah.
But the fact is that right, there's a clear, I mean, led by Brendan Carr, Brendan Carr the head of the FCC, there's clear move that if you don't align, if you don't put out pro-Trump message. If you don't have pro-trump programming, there's a possibility that your license will be in jeopardy and it could be taken away.
You know, everybody talked about how Nixon had his enemies list and he threatened members of the media and but I've never seen such a naked... Attempted grab at power from the federal government and the FCC into trying to move the networks and the media, not to mention the universities and the law firms, into a pro-Trump position or with the risk of losing their license is shameful.
Juravich: What about the changes of the "Washington Post"? They've let go of hundreds of journalists. They've changed the focus of the paper. I mean, what about your thoughts there?
Rudin: Let me say one more thing about CBS. I mean, I grew up with Walter Cronkite and Roger Mudd, and they were my idols, and it breaks my heart what happened to CBS, but now it is completely unwatchable. And again, I don't know why.
People say, why don't they fire Barry Weiss? Well, Barry Weisses is doing exactly what Ellison wants. So anyway, and the "Washington Post." I ended, when I moved to Washington in 1986, that day I moved, I subscribed to the "Washington Post," January of last year when they did this ridiculous backpedaling on a Kamala Harris endorsement.
They said, we're not going to endorse anymore because it'll infuriate Donald Trump. I ended my subscription after 36 years, which is pretty remarkable. Dana Milbank, who's a great columnist, a friend of mine who announced two days ago that he's quitting the Post.
They've cut hundreds of people from their staff. Top journalists have left. Maybe All Britain is going to start a new venture in Washington, maybe a new newspaper. I don't know if those work anymore, because newspapers are losing millions and millions of dollars every year.
But it's heartbreaking to see what's happened to the "Washington Post" and papers like that, which... I mean, Katherine Graham, my goodness, is rolling over in her grave to see what's happened to the newspaper. Its editorials are pro-war, pro-Trump, pro insanity. I don't know what they do. Yeah, I interviewed a- I'm recognizable. Thank you.
Juravich: I interviewed a professor who wrote a book right after Jeff Bezos took over the "Washington Post." He wrote it in 2018, and it was about how Bezos was helping the beleaguered news business. He was on my show a couple of weeks ago, and he said that all that has changed. He called Bezos the owner from hell. What changed? Is it all about money?
Rudin: Yeah. It's about money and maybe this was his plan for the "Washington Post" all along, but you're absolutely right. When Bezos bought the "Washington Post," which was losing money, he pumped millions of dollars into it.
He made the paper even better, increased the hiring, increased digital approach of a "Washington Post." And then, suddenly, I mean, maybe with the, you know, with the reelection of Donald Trump, he just... He said, you know, I'm not going to do it the way you want.
And so there's no sports section. There's no book review section anymore. I mean, there's not sports section at all. But more importantly, the editorial page is just unrecognizable. It's heartbreaking.
Juravich: We only have a couple minutes left. We're running out of time here, but the Kennedy Center, which has seen performance cancelations and a turning over of its board, is going to now shut down for two years for renovations. What are your thoughts on this, one of the nation's leading performance venues and the changes happening there?
Rudin: That's heartbreaking also. I mean, the reason Trump is shutting it down is because top talent refuses to perform in the now Trump Kennedy Center. I mean the board of the Kennedy Center is now all Trump employees. It's just unrecognizable.
They don't like the woke stuff that they've been performing, having as guests and they've bringing in... Substandard people, a lot of stars are just saying, I'm not going to perform. So I think this is nonsensical to say that They're shutting it down for renovations.
They just had renovations a few months ago. What they're doing is they're embarrassed, they're going to close it for two years, and who knows? I mean, who can stop it? What if you want to do to the Kennedy Center what he did to the East Wing of the White House?
If you've ever been to Washington and you're driving down the parkway and then you see over the Potomac River the site of the Kennedy center, it's one of the most beautiful scenes in Washington. It's still breathtaking. And the thought of that being just decimated because of Donald Trump's whims is, again, a word I'll be using 7,000 times today, heartbreaking.
Juravich: So we have two minutes left. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine recently gave his final state of the state address. He was trying to cement his legacy as someone who cares about children. His speech focused a lot on education related issues. He didn't bring up anything controversial except maybe a seatbelt law. What do you think of DeWines legacy?
Rudin: You know, that's a good question. I mean, because let me just go back one governor or two governor, John Kasich. I remember the left despising Kasich when he was governor. They said he's this, and he's terrible, and he mean, and blah, blah, and when he left and he started, he started basically, first of all, he ran against Trump briefly, but he was also, you know, he was more thinking, he wasn't an ideologue.
People said, wow, I like John Kasick. People I never thought would ever say that. Mike DeWine was never a mean guy. I mean, I don't cover governors, gubernators, as I would say in gubernatorial elections. I cover governors as close as I do to the Senate. But. But I always liked him.
I thought, you know, I mean, he failed victim to the anti-Republican wave of 2006, and that's how Sherrod Brown won the Senate seat. But he still came back and was elected governor. I mean he's been around. He was lieutenant governor under Voynovich. He was a member of Congress. I think he has a lot, you know, again, I don't know specifics, but I think he has good legacy in a party that has just turned rapidly to the right under his eight years as governorship.
Juravich: All right. Well, now we have Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton running to be the next governor. And we will ask you about them the next time that you come on the show, Ken. So we've been talking about national politics this hour with Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast. Thanks for your time today, Ken
Rudin: See the Juliano Stratton ad.
Juravich: I will. And then call me. Okay. Thanks, Amy. Thank you.
You're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. I'm Amy Juravich.