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About this Episode
Live from Melbourne, Jon, Lovett, Tommy, and Dan react to Democrats’ decision to stand firm on ICE funding and force a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, Pam Bondi’s epic meltdown in front of the House Judiciary Committee, Megyn Kelly’s unhinged response to the Bad Bunny halftime show, and what really happened with the the laser weapon that shut down El Paso airspace. Then, the Australian crowd and American hosts attempt to answer questions from each other's citizenship test.
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected] and include the name of the podcast.
Hosts & Guests
Transcript
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What's up, Melbourne?
Welcome to Pud State of America.
I'm John Favreau.
I'm John Lovett.
I'm Tommy Visor.
I'm Dan Fifer.
What a city.
We're such fans.
We love this city.
We are not just saying that.
We do this for other cities.
I'm not going to name any names.
We got a big show tonight.
In the five days since we've been gone from the US,
the president has tried and failed to arrest several members of Congress.
The Attorney General had a public meltdown
over the administration's continued cover-up of a child sex trafficking ring.
The Department of Homeland Security is headed for a shutdown
but not because they used an experimental laser
to accidentally shoot down a party balloon over Texas
without giving aviation officials a head-up,
forcing them to ground all air traffic over El Paso.
That's not why the department's closing down,
but we'll get to why it is.
But let's start with a very important public health announcement
from the top US official in charge of our nation's well-being.
I'm not scared of a germ.
You know, I use the snort cocaine off the toilet seats.
There he is.
There he is.
Another Kennedy winning hearts all over America.
That is the most I've ever believed RFK junior.
This is a man who saw a dead bear carcass
on the side of the road in upstate New York and thought,
let's give it a ride to Manhattan.
We think that the cocaine fell
and he just didn't want to waste any of it.
There's no reason he was like, what was the purpose of...
Listen, I'm not like a cool guy.
I know he's a conservationist.
I've not been offered cocaine often in my life.
People just don't look at me and think he'll do cocaine.
But I'm pretty sure the toilet seat is never the best option.
For doing cocaine.
It has to be the bathroom.
I don't think he's that home depot.
Where were the follow-up questions in this interview?
I think it was with Theo Vaughn, so who knows?
Okay, let's get to the actual news.
Believe it or not, the RFK junior clip was not the craziest performance
of a Trump cabinet secretary this week.
Wednesday Attorney General Pam Bondi tested it.
Wow.
Sorry, Bondi.
That's our fault.
Playbook did title the story about this Bondi beach.
Oh.
I know.
Yeah, exactly.
She testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee
where she was asked to provide candid answers
about the government's handling of the Epstein files.
That's what this hearing was about.
Let's take a listen.
How many of Epstein's co-conspirators have you indicted?
How many perpetrators are you even investigating?
First, you showed it.
I find it.
How many have you indicted?
Excuse me.
I'm going to answer the question.
I answer my question.
No, I'm going to answer the question the way I want to answer the question.
You don't tell me.
Oh, I didn't tell you because we saw what you did in the Senate.
You're not even a lawyer.
Have you apologized to President Trump?
The Dow is over 50,000 right now.
The S&P at almost 7,000.
And the Nasdaq's smashing records.
That's what we should be talking about.
This guy has Trump derangedment syndrome.
Don't you ever accuse me of a crime?
I believe you just lie under oath.
Her district includes Culver City.
And she's not talking about any crime in her district.
But we're going to move back to you.
I bet we are.
Yes, of course, because you're here to testify.
That's the idea.
You come here.
You say we go back to you because we're asking your questions.
There's a...
It's unbelievable.
It's a great Steve Martin joke where he's at the Kennedy Center Honors for Paul Cent...
Kennedy Center was a building we used to have for Donald Trump blew it up.
And Steve Martin says, you know, I could sing the praises of Paul Simon.
But this is not the time to know the place.
Love it.
If you were Pam Bondi's communications director...
And you almost were.
And you almost were.
And she walks out of the hearing room.
She hasn't looked at social media yet.
And she says, John, how'd I do?
I think I'd say, wow.
You did your best out there.
And you really gave as good as you got, boss.
Hey, late at night, you can't hear God anymore, either, right?
Like, you used to be able to hear something that felt like connection to like an ever-loving presence.
And now it's silent, right?
That's true for you, too.
Not just me.
Are we all because at night when it's really quiet, it's getting quieter than it was.
And you're like, what's missing?
What's the quiet in the quiet?
And it's like, is that me or you feel that, you feel that, too?
Great job out there, boss.
The boss is going to love it.
I don't have it with my-
The president called.
Has the president called.
Has the president called yet?
No.
Tommy, aside from the crash out that we just witnessed, were there any answers or revelations
from the hearing that you think will keep the story going
or caused the administration some problems?
Yeah, there-
So there are a few like factual things.
One, she was repeatedly pressed if they were going to indict anyone based on what's in the Epstein files.
And I think she said something like, we have pending investigations in our office,
which seems like news and seemingly contradicts what the FBI director Cash Patel said
when he said there was no one to indict based on what he'd seen in the files.
Second, she said, she claimed not to have known that Galein Maxwell was going to be moved to a minimum security prison,
which seems impossible to believe and suggest to me she may have portrayed herself.
Bigger picture-
And she said it wasn't actually a minimum security prison.
Which is bullshit.
Bigger picture-
What is the minimum anyway?
Yeah.
Saying we shouldn't be talking about prosecuting child predators because the Dow is at 50,000
is one of the most fucking insane things I've ever heard anyone say in politics in my life.
And that is the line though.
It is like 49,000.
Yeah.
Guess where it ends today?
49,000.
And like, watch out.
No conspirators.
And I do think it was like permanently damaging.
It just not just because of the insanity of the comment, but the degree to which it broke through.
Like my TikTok and Instagram were full of people commenting on this.
Like the Gen Z reporter at Barstool Sports was talking about how insane this was.
And then there was also this moment where she was asked if she would apologize to victims
of Epstein's crimes who were in the back based on how badly DOJ had bungled the release of the files
and put out names and graphic images of people.
And she would not look at them.
She would not apologize to them.
She would not give an inch.
And I think like this performance drew so much more attention to Donald Trump's worst issue
that I know she was performing for an audience of one, but I think she made it exponentially worse
by acting like a crazy person.
Yeah.
I mean, there's also another moment in the hearing where Congressman Dan Goldman had the 10
of Epstein survivors who were in the audience.
And he asked them how many of you have been interviewed by the Department of Justice
and none of them raised their hands.
He asked you how many of you would be willing to share your sorry if the Department of Justice
they all raised their hands.
And so you just have to think about this.
But have a bunch of emails with people on record admitting to or very seriously implying
being involved in child sex trafficking, talking about torture videos, talking about incredibly young girls.
And they have not even asked the women who were involved about this.
Like there is no effort to investigate the most famous, maybe largest child sex trafficking
ring in American history.
And the reason that is is because they don't want to know the names of the people that they're going to say.
Yeah.
Because once they start pulling on the strings, a lot of people who may be friends with this administration,
friends with this president, in this administration, their names may come out.
And you do think that like as we go forward, that is something that reporters can keep pressing them on.
Like they are willing to be interviewed.
You are at the hearing.
Have you interviewed them yet?
Like that's something that's going to be hard to just keep running away from.
And because she was flipping around her briefing book so much, it was revealed that DOJ has surveilled members of Congress
and knew what terms they were searching for when they were looking through, I assume, the unredacted Epstein files,
which is an insane thing to do.
That would be a massive scandal in any other administration.
Yeah.
This is by some measures, perhaps the largest or most consequential political scandal in American history.
You have the federal government of the United States from its absolute highest level covering up
and protecting people involved in child sex trafficking because those people may be friends with donors too or colleagues of the president of the United States.
Yeah.
Like the Commerce Secretary, where we found out, went to the island with his family, because that's way...
He brought his children to pedophile island, so that's fine.
You want to take your kids to Epstein Island as a trip after you said that you broke off relations with him years before.
You got to get the fast pass, though.
It's a Disney joke. It's okay.
Oh, do you think they didn't understand?
Do you think that's why they rehearsed it?
We were told not to dumb it down, specifically.
So, Dan, here's a political headline from a story about the hearing.
House Dems think Pambondi just helped them in the midterms.
What do you think?
Yeah, it's putting a lot of weight on a congressional hearing that happened midday, Wednesday, and early February.
We do have nine months.
I think there are two bigger questions here that come from this.
Hearing in the entire thing.
The first is, what impact will the Epstein files and cover up have on politics?
And the second question is, how should Democrats use, talk about the Epstein files in the midterm campaigns?
So, let's start with the first question.
I was thinking of an impact.
This is a rare, monocultural event in American politics.
It has been, honestly, the biggest story in American politics for nine months now.
It dominates everything.
It is, everyone talks about it.
It's broken out of the political media bubble.
It is, your non-political podcasters are talking about it.
Influencers on TikTok and YouTube are talking about it.
It is, it is broken through it away.
And they're so, in our politics, there are so few moments like that that's impossible for not to have an impact.
So, the question is, like, how did Democrats talk about it?
And it absolutely should be part of our message.
But I think it needs to be a data point about a larger story.
And that larger story is that in America, there are two sets of rules.
One for elites and one for everyone else.
And that dynamic is why rich people get tax cuts.
And Americans get kicked off their health care.
It's why politically-connected fraudsters get partings from the president.
And hard-working law-abiding people in America get thrown into vans because of the color of their skin or their accent.
And it's why, and it's why the Department of Justice will not even talk to the victims because they're so worried that the elites will get in trouble because of it.
And that, and that, that is the story, that is an absolutely true, believable story of America.
It's actually the story that got down on Trump elected twice.
And the fact that he is now on the wrong side of that.
That he is not someone breaking up that cabal as he tried.
He is one of the elites protecting other elites.
That is a mortal political wound for him.
But we have to tell that so we have to tell it aggressively.
So we get too wrapped up in the specifics.
I think you lose it.
It's got to be a, it's not just the Epstein files.
Even though the country believes that he's covering something up.
No, the country believes that there should be transpired.
There should be more investigations.
It has to be part of this larger story.
Yeah.
I also like,
I also think her conduct at the hearing is like a perfect example that illustrates that story.
Because people who were tuning in and, you know, like Tommy was saying,
this like broke beyond the political bubble and everyone's just,
people are watching the attorney general of the United States,
sit at a hearing and just refuse to answer a single question,
scream members of Congress.
And midterms are about, you know, a referendum on the party in power.
And they're about like whether you want to have checks and balances
and whether you want to hold an administration accountable.
And you want to have some balance of power in the country.
And having Pam Bondy up there scream for a half hour and refuse to answer questions
and talk about the fucking Dow when we're talking about child sex trafficking,
it's just going to strike most people who don't even pay attention to politics
is like, what the hell?
Why shouldn't she have to answer questions?
She works for us.
She's the attorney general of the United States.
I understand for her own personal politics, why she acted like this,
because this is apparently what people think Trump wants.
But this is the last thing that Trump should want attention being drawn to.
It's like having, robbing a bank and having your getaway driver,
light herself on fire outside the bank.
It's not a good plan.
Yeah, you won't get away.
I tell her why I think we're saying like, why is she doing this in this way right now?
And I think it's because she's on her heels, right?
There's lots of stories about Trump being pretty upset with her on a rightly so.
This began with Pam Bondy saying that the list was on her desk.
And she sent a bunch of people with binders out called Phase One.
Before Cash Patel said there is no list.
And so she...
And that was when the doubt was at 45,000.
Yeah.
And so, I think ironically, her filter to the president and constant fear of losing a news cycle
and then earning his wrath has put her in an impossible situation.
Because everyone knows she's just a vassal for Trump and that she's performing for an audience of one
that actually makes it impossible for her to do anything to help him with the scandal.
Because everyone knows she's not an independent arbiter of justice.
She works for him.
And so there's really nothing she could do.
And by the way, their decision to like, redact these things has allowed the story to continue rolling out.
Now, there's all these news cycles about day after day of like, oh, who was this email from?
We want to redact this.
We want to fix this.
Like, she is stuck in a loop where because she is so devoted to Donald Trump,
she can't solve the problem for him.
Pinbondi said a few other big Ls this week.
She and the president tried to indict six Democratic members of Congress for exercising their first amendment rights.
In this case, reminding members of the US military that the law does not require them to obey illegal orders.
Thankfully, not a single American serving on a DC grand jury voted to indict.
Was it because criminalizing free speech is a nightmare that our founders probably had?
Or was it because the prosecutor assigned to the case runs an active dance photography studio and has zero experience being a federal prosecutor?
We'll never know.
We'll never know.
It's maybe some combination.
It's a weird combo.
It's like members and ladies and gentlemen of the jury, position one, position one, position two, position two, plie, plie, and spin.
Honestly, if you go to the Instagram feed, some good work.
Really?
Yeah, the photography is not bad.
Is she dancing while taking photos?
Is that the deal?
No, I think she takes photos of dancers.
Maybe it was a confusion because she...
It's a key, by the way.
Because Piro had thought he had taken the bar.
Tommy, should we feel relieved that our legal guardrails held or should we be terrified that Trump and Bondi tried this in the first place?
Yeah, I don't...
DC grandgers have become a surprising bulwark against creeping fascism, whether you are a member of Congress or just a dude drunk huck in a sandwich at an ice guy.
Shout out to DC grandgers, but I do not think...
I do not think that can hold, like as we've all seen, there are judges and jurisdictions that are far more likely to do Donald Trump's bidding.
And I assume that at some point, DOJ or someone will find ways to route these cases there.
Earlier today, though, I spoke with one of the six elected officials who they are trying to prosecute.
And this person told me that they thought that Trump is going to try again maybe as soon as tomorrow.
Which is yesterday in America.
So it's already...
No, okay.
...with another grand jury.
And so maybe it won't work again, maybe it will fail.
But look, these people, you have to hire a lawyer, it takes time, it takes money, it is intimidating.
And in this case, it seems like they fucked with the wrong six people.
But there will be a whole host of other people who are far more willing to be silenced, to be intimidated.
For every Mark Kelly, there's a Mark Zuckerberg who has tremendous money in power, it just turtles, or a Jeff Bezos, or a...
Tim Apple, Tim Cook.
Yeah, Tim Apple.
Go to the Melania documentary premiere for Amazon.
So I don't think we should feel good about this.
Love it, a federal judge speaking to Mark Kelly just blocked Pete Higgsf from retroactively demoting Mark Kelly,
Senator Mark Kelly, his military rank, and reducing his pension, also because of the illegal orders video.
Higgsf then responded to say he's appealing.
And he's not.
Stop it.
Stop it.
Not anyone gets to be the understudy on the weekend Fox show.
Why do you think they don't seem to care that they just keep losing these fights?
Like they're not worried.
So these are a couple of things.
The Tommy's point, the process is the punishment.
They just want to make their lives miserable, they want to make them feel afraid of the process.
And what the worst case scenario could be, this could go to a grand jury, that could go beyond it.
This could cause your pension to be reduced.
I think there's a reason that Janine Piro is now stuck going to a dance instructor slash lawyer to kind of do this thing.
Like, this is, they're not sending their best.
Like Pete Higgsf, like Pam Bondi is just trying to keep his head above water.
He's just grossly unqualified to do this job.
You can see it on his face.
I'm sure he feels it in every meeting he is with serious people, where he's pretending to be in charge,
and pretending to be on top of it, and pretending to have earned the respect of generals who can barely stare him in the face.
They're all just trying to stay one new cycle ahead, right?
They get a defeat, so he says, we're going to appeal it.
Why does he have to say that?
So it doesn't look like they lost, right?
They're just trying to stay one step ahead, and I think it's important just to, like, I think sometimes,
these people, we know to imbue them with magical powers or sort of prognostication abilities.
They're trying to figure this out one day at a time, and I think Pete Higgsf is just trying to stay ahead of the weather.
Like, I really do think that that's a lot of what's going on.
So, Dan, like, I could see that most Americans, first of all, if they have heard about this story,
and probably many haven't.
But those who have heard about it, you know, it's like, Donald Trump is trying to indict people and politicians,
but like, this to me is a genuine, like, if not constitutional crisis, like, democratic crisis right now,
that the president is just because he didn't like a video trying to use the Justice Department to arrest sitting members of Congress.
Do you think that, like, this is something that might break through that maybe Democrats should talk about this?
And, you know, what do you think?
What do you want me to say, John?
You know what I want you to say.
And this is it, you're right.
This is an absolute crisis.
The president says it's criminalizing opposition to the regime.
Like, that it is as authoritarianism can be.
The only thing standing in the way is our American citizen serving on grangeries.
It is what's kept.
Jim Comey, Patricia James, Lisa Cook, and a bunch of other people from actually being prosecuted, right?
Being indicted by their government and then brought up on criminal charges for what is essentially anchoring the mad king.
Now, the way to talk about this, I think, is, like, we, and we know that people do care about this in polling,
after polling, majorities think Trump is going too far.
Majorities think, including storing majorities of independence.
And even a swath Republicans think Trump is a threat to democracy.
There are, you know, huge majorities, particularly of independence,
but the country is whole who think that the government under Trump is a threat to free speech.
Like, they're aware of this.
What is really bothers people the most, and maybe this isn't say the most,
the, since say the best things about the voters who will decide our election,
is it's not just the Trump is doing this.
It's that he's doing this instead of the other stuff they elected him for.
There's a whole bunch of people who elected Trump.
They knew this risk, right?
They heard him say these things.
Maybe they thought we were being a bit hyperbolic and how we described it.
We weren't.
Maybe they didn't really like him.
They were like a lot of his policies, but they really believed, given the choices they had,
that he would do a better job of making their life a little bit easier by lowering prices.
And then since he's been in office, he's done everything but that.
And that's where this really hurts them, right?
Like, we, just, people care about democracy, but what they really care about,
like I said, maybe this isn't speak incredibly well of our citizenry,
but what they really care about is, because, like, if you were in a position
where you were not making an ends meet, that's what's in front of you.
Because you're trying to feed your family, you're trying to save money for retirement,
trying to put your kids through college, and that is always going to be first and foremost,
and that's where he's failing.
And part of he's failing because he's doing all this other shit instead of that.
Yeah.
Is that the answer you wanted or you wanted me to say?
Well, like, no, yes, of course.
I also think that, like, you think he's going to stop at members of Congress?
Like, he could do this to you.
He could do this to anyone.
And what happens when he starts doing it to people who are not well known,
who can't hire attorneys, who are not going to get, like, the public behind them,
because no one's going to know that it happened to them, you know?
Like, at some point you have to make the argument that, like, this is not about Trump fighting
with other politicians or democratic activists or organizers, but, like, everyone is at risk.
If the President of the United States can just go try to arrest people, throw them in jail,
for exercising their rights, and, I mean, look, and this is why we'll talk about it,
but, like, this is why ICE and immigration, this is why it's so unpopular on that, too,
because it is people are starting to realize, because they're seeing in their communities,
that no one is, if some people aren't safe from this President,
and the law doesn't work anymore, and the law is not upheld, then no one's safe.
I mean, that is, that's why the killings of Renee Goethe and Novak's pretty broke through
in the way they did, because it is evidence everyone's worst fears came for fruition,
which is, at any point, the government can do anything they want to any American
and do its no accountability for it.
Yeah, I do think there's, like, there's, like, a virtuous feedback loop
in which it's, what stands in the way of, it is, yes, it's a group of grand jurors,
but it's bigger than that, right?
The fact that there is not some mass movement behind Donald Trump,
he's not, the leader of a popular front that wants to criminalize being a Democrat
and that is sort of, that erupted to help him execute the day he was elected,
that they don't have enough lawyers to do the kind of prosecution of their enemies.
They don't have the, they don't have the kind of, like, expert group.
They don't have the popular will behind them.
It means that, yes, grand jurors are going to stop them, but so are judges.
It means that when Trump tries to go after the head of the Fed,
there's pushback from Republicans as well.
Like, he doesn't have democratic legitimacy for this, which is why it's important to make the argument
that you're making, to make the case, because even if that doesn't result in them,
that will be felt inside of the legal process, because the law is what we say it is.
And it is what judges say it is, and if they feel empowered by the public,
it will allow them to do more and be another check as we go through it.
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Melbourne, you're all here because you follow American politics.
And we're here because you follow American politics.
And we appreciate that.
But do we appreciate it enough to learn even a tiny f**king bit about you?
Let's find out.
Tonight, we're going to test our knowledge of each other.
I'm going to ask members of the audience and come out there now.
Questions from the American citizenship test.
And I'm going to ask my best boys up here.
Questions from the Australian citizenship test.
Oh, no.
All right, I'm coming around.
It's going to take me a second.
I think you can probably still hear me.
There's a long route.
But legally speaking, they said I wasn't allowed to jump down from the stage.
Because even though I act like I'm not, I am technically over 40.
I don't even know if you guys can still hear me.
Okay.
All right.
We hear you.
Too loud.
Hi.
All right.
So here's how this is going to work.
I have some questions here about what it takes to become an American citizen.
A little bit like buying Bitcoin now.
But here's the thing.
The motto of Pod Save America?
Buy the dip.
All right.
Who would like to go first?
Oh, and by the way, I love our Americans who are here and our expats who are here.
We're so grateful.
I'd like Australians to help.
So anybody want to raise your hand?
All right.
I'll come to you.
Hi, hi, hi.
Hi.
What's your name?
Chansey.
Okay.
Hi.
I'm not going to try.
Sorry.
All right.
Now, I won't one note about this.
The American citizenship test.
You just have to know the answer.
But we published the full test.
The Australians, you have to read a book.
But the questions are multiple choice.
Interesting.
All right.
The idea of self-government is the first three words of the Constitution.
What are the first three words of the US Constitution?
Way the people?
We got it.
Good.
All right.
John.
Tommy and Dan.
What do we remember on Anzac Day?
Is it A, the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli, Turkey?
B, the arrival of the first three settlers from Great Britain,
or C, the landing of the first fleet at Sydney Cove?
What's the day called?
Anzac Day.
Anzac.
ANZAC.
ANZAC.
What we all know.
Say the options again.
Yeah.
The landing of the Australian New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli, the arrival of the first three settlers,
the landing of the first fleet at Sydney Cove.
Come on, fellas.
First World War is what we were told.
I'll give it to you.
That's correct.
The landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli.
It's a bit like Memorial Day or Veterans Day.
Who would like to go next?
Okay.
You're going to come together.
Okay.
All right.
How many years does a US Senator serve?
Way too many.
I'm going to need a number.
That's the right answer.
Four.
Wrong.
It's wrong.
How many?
Six.
All right.
Sorry.
What is represented by the Commonwealth Star on the Australian National Flag?
Is it A, the six states and one point for the territories?
Is it B, the British Heritage, or C, the Southern Cross?
The Commonwealth Star on the Australian National Flag?
C.
That's wrong, obviously.
Oh, whoo.
Fucking audience.
What was it?
It is the six states and one point for the territories.
Which we all learn from reading the book that teaches us all this, the common bond.
Next up.
Back to our host.
What is Australia's national flower?
Is it A, the tulip, B, the rose, or C, the golden waddle?
It's going to be C.
It's going to be C, right?
C.
It is.
It's the golden waddle.
A beautiful yellow flower.
Here we go.
Point's on the board.
Point's on the board.
I'll come over here.
All right.
Who wants to go next from over here?
Okay.
Hi.
Hi.
What's your name?
Francis.
Francis.
Hi.
Are you from Melbourne?
Yes.
What a city.
You live outside?
About an hour and a half.
Oh, but in, in of doors.
Uh, if both the, if the president and the vice president can no longer serve, who becomes the American president?
There's a half.
You got it.
Amazing.
Well done.
All right, boys.
What is the national anthem of Australia?
Is it A, waltzing Matilda?
B, a song we all love out here.
Is it B, God save the Queen?
Or is it C, Advanced Australia Fair?
Come on, Tommy.
What is the world you've been saving?
It's not a trivia show.
Ben Winnell.
Did you think it's God save the Queen?
No.
No, that's, that's, I don't know.
I thought they, I don't see.
I didn't see.
It's C.
How could it be God save the Queen when you think about it?
She did.
See.
You got it.
It's Advanced Australia Fair.
All right, who would like to go from over here?
Oh, hi, hi.
You know what?
Fuck you for pointing at your friend.
Name two cabinet level positions in the US government.
Two cabinet level positions.
Stop helping.
Kind Australians.
Mouthy nice people.
Secretary?
That is, okay.
Of what?
Of what?
Secretary of war and secretary of state.
Wrong.
That is, there is no secretary of war.
That's Trump talk.
I was gonna say there is now.
Wrong.
Not by law.
All right.
When did the first fleet of convict ships arrive in Australia?
Was it July 4th, 1776?
The first of January 1800 or the 26th of January 1788.
I think it's C, right?
It's all, it's all C.
See?
That's correct.
One of Australia's proudest moments, I guess.
Weird history, you guys got.
Love it here.
Look.
You're just up.
What's happening?
Okay.
Sit down, your prisoner.
Sit down.
Act like this isn't a prison anymore.
Jumping up.
All right.
Here.
Let's do what?
I'm doing it.
All right.
Ready?
Yes.
When was the US Constitution written?
It was in the olden days.
Hit the nail on the head there.
Now we're talking and you don't have a fucking answer.
But you know what?
Oh, I'm getting punched.
Get his ass.
John, Tommy Dan.
When was the US Constitution written?
Come on, boy.
1783?
Oh, you're getting so close to it.
The Australians know it's 1787.
So close.
So close.
So close.
Well done.
These are hard.
These are hard.
Oh, let me give you a real.
Let's give you a.
All right.
Let's do this.
Who is Australia's head of state?
Is it A?
This is a sensitive topic.
The sensitive topic.
Is it A?
Just chill out.
Just for the rest of the game.
Act like you're still a colony.
I'm going to get killed out here.
All right.
A.
Is it the prime minister?
Is it B?
The governor general?
Or is it C?
The king of Australia?
His majesty King Charles III.
C.
That's...
No, it is.
It is King Charles.
It is King Charles.
You...
Oh, I read the book today.
But you all take your fucking test again.
The governor general is his representative.
You are all still fucking subjects of that in-bred fucking London.
You can pretend all you want otherwise.
But until you change your constitution, you work for Charles.
Oh.
That's what I get in the asylum here.
Sorry.
I got a little upset there for a second.
Why does our flag have 13 stripes?
It's a 13 original column.
You got it.
Thank you.
See, we're coming back.
What is the role of the governor general in Australia?
Is it A?
Get mocked by Charles.
A. Make all the government decisions.
B. Lead the parliament.
Or C. Act as the king's representative.
And perform ceremonial and constitutional duties.
See, fans like C on this one.
You got it.
Nice.
Let's do one more question out here amongst all these levels.
Hi, hi, hi, hi.
What's your name?
Ash.
Ash.
Name one of the two longest rivers in the United States.
Mississippi.
You got it.
The other is the Missouri.
And as I come back, Melbourne, you won the game.
And as I come back.
Run.
Run.
As I come back, I just want to say that in learning a lot about your country,
I came to find out that in 1975,
you're supposedly ceremonial governor general committed a fucking coup.
There was a coup d'état in Australia.
In 1975, boom me all you want.
You know I'm right.
And then in 1975, the fucking King of England had a coup
in your country.
And you all just fucking ate it.
Right?
The CIA did it.
You know what?
There's a lot you can blame on us.
There's a lot you can blame on us.
But not the 1975 governor general thing.
You did that.
You know what?
You lose the game.
My boys won the game.
And we'll be right back.
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All right, let's get back to talking about America.
Clearly a superior country because as most of you know,
well, that was some heavy sarcasm there because I was about to say,
as most of you know, our government has been sending
roving paramilitary squads into our cities and towns to round up immigrants and citizens alike.
That's what we're dealing with.
But there's been some promising news on that front this week.
Democrats in Congress are standing strong in refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless Trump and Republicans agree to rein in ice.
A Trump-appointed judge of all judges just ruled that the administration must no longer violate thousands of immigrants constitutional rights by locking them up without access to lawyers.
And in Minnesota, borders are a Tom Homan and governor Tim Walls announced that Operation Metro Surge,
which has terrorized the people of Minneapolis, has finally ended.
And here's what Tim Walls had to say at his press conference.
The federal government needs to pay for what they broke here.
We've got children that a core memory for them will be their classmate being taken away.
And that will stick with them the rest of their lives.
And my hope is what sticks with them is human decency wins out.
Rule of law matters. All the surges going and they're going immediately.
So as soon as they impact their stuff, book a plane, move on.
I would volunteer. We will help you get to the airport.
We will clear the road to get you to the airport. I will come over and pack your damn bags if that's what it takes.
Minnesota nice right there.
That's Tim Walls.
That's the Tim Walls we loved.
That's great.
Tim Walls packing the bags, the underarmour shirts, the photos of the kids they're not allowed to see.
Love it.
You were in Minneapolis a couple weeks after the killing of Alex Pretty.
What are some lessons you think we can take away from what happened here?
So I think something that will always stick with me.
Something I've never seen in an American city are just parents standing on street corners all throughout the city,
invests with whistles, kind of these sentinels, standing guard of the schools, preschools, middle schools, high schools, in case I shows up.
That is an organic outpouring of empathy, compassion of people standing up for their neighbors in their community.
And that group of unarmed people were strong enough to force the Trump administration into retreat.
When something I've said before,
Dictators look stronger than they are, democracy looks weaker than it is.
But it is very powerful.
We are very powerful.
The American people are powerful.
And they underestimate that because I think they equate being kind with being weak.
But you can be kind and tough.
And I think that's what the people of the Twin Cities showed.
And I think that's what we have to show as Americans.
And I just think we can.
And that is why I think when we worry about what they're going to do to take over our elections,
worry about what they're going to do to throw members of Congress in jail.
We have to remember that we are still stronger than them.
And we should not give them power that they haven't taken because we will hold them back.
Like we will set how far they go.
They will not decide how far they go.
So Dan, another two polls came out this week.
One from NBC, one from the Associated Press.
It showed Trump's approval on immigration at record lows.
I think the AP poll, his approval on immigration is even lower than his economic approval.
How is the economic approval?
It's not great either.
Not great either.
Though immigration being lower, I've been reliably told that only economic issues are where people care about.
So it's nice to see that.
I am sure that that's one reason Democrats in Congress feel like very confident heading into this mini shutdown.
Mini shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which will probably take effect by the time people listen to this podcast.
How do you think once the Department of Homeland Security shuts down, Democrats win this fight,
and what does a win look like?
So whenever you are dealing with a budget or government funding shutdown,
there's a political win and a substantive win.
They're not always the same thing.
So let's talk about the political win first.
What Democrats, as you point out on this point, they have the high ground here.
And this is really going to require Democrats in Congress to change their mentality.
Because our natural assumptions that the day Trump came down the escalator is,
if the conversation is about immigration, it's bad for Democrats.
And that is no longer the case.
Immigration went from Trump's greatest strength to declaring weakness.
And so we have the political wins that are back here, we should be strong.
And it's positive to know that talking to senators, they believe the Democrats will stand strong here.
The way I think they carry the message here is they stand strong.
They are very loud and clear about what it is they're asking for and be very specific.
That all that they are asking for is for people to separate masks.
For ICE agencies, I have to use judicial warrants.
Like our Constitution says before they arrest people.
That ICE and CBP agents adopt the same standards for use of force
as every other federal law enforcement officer in the country.
That's all we're asking for.
And then the other thing here is we care about ICE and CBP, the Customs of War Patrol.
And Democrats are willing to fund the rest of the Department of Homeland Security tomorrow
if Republicans will agree to it.
We will fund the Transportation Security Administration.
We'll fund everything other than that.
And force Republicans to vote against that or to say they will not do that.
They put them in the position of being unreasonable.
And the only thing the Democrats cannot do here is to do what they did at the end of the last shutdown,
which is to quit with nothing, to fold their cards before getting anything else.
If the DHS has to be shut down through the election,
through the swearing into the Democratic majority and the House and maybe the Senate,
then that's what has to happen here.
Honestly, the ICE has money.
We should be very clear, ICE has $125 billion.
They're not going to suffer here.
But there is a principle here in that we will not vote to give a single penny
to this agency that has killed American citizens,
that has terrorized American communities, without the most basic guardrails
you could possibly ask for.
And we have to stand by that.
Because if we are not going to do that, then this is going to end up
that would be tremendously damaging if we fold our cards here.
And we should be clear, too, within the Department of Homeland Security,
the TSA, there's the people at the airports who make sure when you go through security.
And if TSA will work without pay, they'll have to work without pay for a while.
But last time we had a shutdown, the airports, you get a lot of delays,
and then travel.
That's the FAA, which is funded.
At some point, the TSA thing starts getting a little funky.
But I do think, and they're in the Coast Guard, too, and FEMA,
which is emergency management.
And we'd fund them.
And so at some point, the Republicans will say,
oh, look, the Democrats are hurting people by doing all this.
And I think, you know, Democrats have to say, no, no.
We'll fund this immediately.
And if you want to leave the Department of Homeland Security, the rest of it,
ICE and Customs and Board Patrol, like unfunded for the rest of the year, great.
We don't care.
I don't think, and I think there's less pressure on Democrats over DHS
than there was when the whole government was shut down over the Affordable Care Fisher.
ICE is approver rating is down 30 points in the last year.
Yeah.
So if the Republicans want to make it hard for people to go through airports,
they want to keep the Coast Guard unfunded.
They want to keep the rest of our Homeland Security unfunded,
to pay for the mass paramilitary groups terrorizing American communities,
that Americans, including even 24% of Republicans, disapprove of,
that's their choice and they should pay a price for it.
Yeah.
I agree.
Tommy, while we're on the subject of the Department of Homeland Security,
we should talk about laser gate, which I briefly mentioned at the top of the show.
So again, the headline here is that Customs and Board of Patrol reportedly used
an anti-drone laser on loan from the Pentagon to shoot down a party balloon
flying over El Paso.
Party pew, pew, pew, peopers.
You guys, is my mic on?
Can someone turn it off?
So they shoot down the party balloon with the laser on loan from the DOD
without giving the Federal Aviation Administration a heads up.
So the FAA then briefly closes the airspace over El Paso
in Texas, which is the city of about a million people.
Why would they do that?
Why are we shooting defense department lasers in a situation where we're not at war?
Can I add one more question this?
Yeah.
What's the party balloon?
Right.
That we cannot answer.
We are all searching for this today.
We don't know.
We think it's just a mylar balloon.
Yeah, we need better reporting on this.
Yeah, we need better balloon.
Is it mylar?
Is it just helium?
It's on the balloon beach.
It's got to be helium.
99 red balloons.
It's got to be in the air.
What's going on?
Yeah.
The system itself is actually pretty cool.
But it's shocking how bad they fuck this up.
So the system itself is called Locust,
or the palatized high energy laser.
Peahill.
Great name.
So it's like a seven by seven box.
You can slap it on the back of a truck.
There is one like optic as a laser.
One is a guidance system.
And I think it's sort of like bolt into whatever radar you have around.
And what it does is provides with a mini air defense bubble for deployed troops.
And anyone who is seeing footage of what it is like on the front line,
and Ukraine knows that like war these days is drones that you could often buy it,
best buy, or whatever, that you strap a grenade to.
Sometimes they use AI guidance and they're unmanned systems that are autonomous
that are just, you know, absolutely lethal.
And so what this system does is it provides a way to defend against those.
Like it's a 20 kilowatt laser, which is actually not that much.
It's kind of like the low end of the spectrum.
I've read it was like 350 light bulbs basically,
but you direct it the size of a dime.
And over time, it's a shitload of energy.
So I watched a promotional video of this company did about their weapon system on YouTube.
And they melted a two inch metal coin from half a mile away in 1.5 seconds.
And the reason this is important is because basically costs like normal missile defense systems,
the interceptor missiles cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars.
This is basically like a dollar or two, three dollars per kill.
So a good system, I think.
Per kill is what you said.
Per fire.
So there's a good thing.
It's like.
Tell me, have you purchased one of these lasers?
We cannot.
I don't think so.
He's like the laser.
Oh, we should tell you.
Are you on the board of Raytheon?
Do we not mention that?
Are you going to check the box when we go through customs that you cannot be bringing the laser?
Okay.
Is it the balloon cost more than the laser?
Yeah.
Well, it's like unlimited ammo.
Yes.
You could take out a balloon for less than the price of the balloon.
And so that's why laser was such a good weapon in Contra.
So apparently, apparently the cartels are flying drones like these over the border.
They're tracking CBP so they know where they are.
And they'll see the customs officials move one way and they'll send whatever drugs over the board or the other.
So what it seems like happened was the army acquired some of these systems.
They gave them to DHS who gave them to CBP.
And these cowboy assholes just started firing these fucking things.
They had balloons without telling anyone.
And the FAA was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
We got to ground all the planes.
But then they announced that we had to ground all the planes for 10 days.
Which I don't understand.
It's like-
And they lied, right?
And they said it was a balloon at first.
They said it was like drugs, right?
Yeah.
There were multiple stories coming out.
At first it was a-
Yes, it didn't make any sense.
And so what-
This story to me suggests that this is what happens when you have a national security adviser who is also the secretary of state,
who until recently was the chief archivist.
And it's like seemingly the president of Venezuela?
What?
Did he lose the archivist job?
Yes, he did.
He's also running Venezuela.
And so-
That guy is the person-
Marco Rubio should be coordinating the interagency to be like, all right, we got this problem of like cartels on the border.
They're flying drones.
They're tracking our agents so they can traffic things across the border.
Here's the solution.
Here's how we're going to work together to make sure that we don't shoot US or Mexican commercial planes by accident.
But no one told the FAA.
So they just like did this.
Everyone freaked out understandably.
And it was a complete disaster.
And it sounds like no one told RFK Jr.
Because his shipment was in that balloon.
Yes.
It was just a floating toilet across the border.
You guys just got to go find another toilet.
Yeah.
Unbelievable.
Just idiots.
Idiots.
Yeah.
One of the government.
Transportation Secretary was a former cast member on the real world.
And honestly, he's one of the better ones.
He's doing okay.
Yeah, well, he fucked up too.
I don't think this is on him.
Is it the balloon thing?
He's in charge of the FAA.
They didn't seem like the 10-day shutdown thing was kind of like a way of being like,
we weren't told this was happening.
We're going to be like, we're going to be like pissy about it.
Yeah.
For sure.
But it's like, what's the end game there?
It's also like a serious thing.
Like in the El Paso airport, there were like medevacs that needed to get out of there.
It's not just like people traveling into El Paso.
People need to get out of there.
And the airspace was shut down because they shot a fucking laser at a bullet.
I don't think they told the Mexican government either.
Yeah, there's a lot of problems.
No.
It's like the 10th story on the New York Times because everything else is fucked up too.
All right.
That's the news for now.
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Now, it's time for OK Stop.
Here's how it works. We'll roll a clip.
When we want to stop to talk about it, we'll say OK Stop.
In America, we call it Super Bowl Sunday.
Here in Melbourne, we supposedly be Super Bowl Monday.
And that raised a lot of questions for us.
Franklin, President Franklin Roosevelt described December 7th, 1941,
the day that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor as a day that would live in infamy,
but here that was December 8th.
So what day lives in infamy?
We refer to the terrible events of September 11th, 2001 as 9-11,
but here it was 12-9.
Anyway, this week a lot of American conservatives, including Megan Kelly,
watch Bad Bunny, arguably the most popular musician in the world,
perform the halftime show during the Super Bowl.
But for people like Megan Kelly, it was like a cultural 12-9.
And so, let us all watch and wonder,
as Megan Kelly in conversation with Pierce Morgan, apps...
Oh, yeah, yes.
Honestly, he's the hero here.
Watch his face, it's so funny.
As Megan absolutely crashes out.
I'm sorry, Pierce, but to get up there and perform the whole show
in Spanish is a middle finger to the rest of America.
Who gives a damn that we have $40 million?
Spanish speakers in the United States.
We have 310 million who don't speak a lick of Spanish.
This is supposed to be a unifying event for the country,
not for the Latinos, not for one small group, but for the country.
Okay, stop.
I just want to say, obviously this is shocking.
It's funny because in the context of the rant,
because when she does a lot of like...
Yeah.
For someone who's railing against Latin culture,
she's up there being like arms up on the balcony.
Also, the Super Bowl is not a unifying event.
It is an opportunity for the NFL to make as much money
as humanly possible for a group of billionaire owners.
As the United States, we all pick one side or the other
and we watch them concuss each other to death on a field.
Yeah, as a Patriot's fam didn't feel very unifying.
They feel good for me.
Super Bowl.
Well, the rest of us are going to fight about that result,
so that's fine.
But it really is 22 grown men being living shit
out of each other while we eat a six-foot sub
and have some wings.
Yes.
It is a great event, but...
I love it.
The 15 minutes of Spanish didn't seem like that was an issue.
What is that character she did?
Like, she's so angry.
Like, what?
Yeah, accent work.
Yeah, it's really...
Yeah, work is generous.
All right, let's continue.
Black, national anthem.
We don't need a Spanish-speaking non-English performing performer
and we don't need an ICE or America hater
featured as our primetime entertainment.
Okay.
What is the national language?
Officially, the national language of the United States of America?
I mean, English.
And there's been a post for many, many years
to make it to make it an official.
You don't have one.
Documented thing.
You don't have one.
If you would have let me finish my comment,
I would have pointed out that people have been pushing.
You don't actually have an official language.
I make it official.
Okay, so we were trying to make it official.
This attitude...
You and the Great Britain have lost your culture.
You seated your culture to one of the right people.
Okay, stop.
Look, now the Muslims are great catching strays.
That attitude by Pierce Morgan is why the British have lost their culture.
If only we were so lucky.
I can't get everywhere I look at British culture.
I feel like Shakespeare is hanging on.
All the American roles go to British actors.
Yeah, she thinks Shakespeare joined ISIS.
She's screaming at him.
Also, many Americans can't speak English if we're just being honest.
A lot of us don't understand our own language particularly well, so...
She's so mad as a faint grasp on the language we begin with.
She's so mad too.
She's so mad.
We don't need a Spanish-speaking non-English performing.
It's just like...
No, we got you.
Our last several half-time shows were Kendrick Lamar,
artfully calling Drake a pedophile.
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, doing an 1996 opera revival.
The weekend, like were those nationally unifying events?
I guess the Kendrick thing was an attack on Canada, which was cool.
Yeah, it was fun.
Yeah.
Yeah, I feel like that did unify the country against Drake.
Yes.
No one has honestly seen him in public since.
Yeah, that was the end of him.
It's funny that like every year the Super Bowl is in some sense about pedophilia.
Let's continue.
Let's see who came in and took over.
And now it's gone.
We're not allowing that here.
Whether it's Hispanic, whether it's Muslim,
it's not happening in the United States of America.
That's why President Trump was elected.
And whether it's bad bunny who is American,
but refuses to speak English in his performances,
or anybody else, we have to keep the Super Bowl,
which is a quintessential American event.
Football, that kind of football, is ours.
They call it American football.
And the half-time show when everything around it needs to stay quintessentially American.
Not Spanish, not Muslim, not anything other than good old-fashioned American apple pie.
There should be a meatloaf, maybe some fried chicken,
and an English-speaking performer.
That's what the Super Bowl should be.
Okay, stop.
Fucking meatloaf?
It's a classic Super Bowl food.
Super Bowl is about long-simmering oven dishes.
It's about what you're pulling out of the hearth.
What the fuck is she talking about?
Truly.
She's so angry.
What are you angry about?
You're so rich.
You're just sitting a studio and you yell all day.
Like she sits in front of this specific background,
hour after hour, day after day.
You just live in Connecticut with your fucking family
and you're just sitting there yelling on a microphone.
What's your problem?
I think as a rule,
everyone should have to show the full context
of where they're doing their content-making.
I think that this shot should have to go wide,
show us in the room, like the studio in her beautiful home,
then have watch it go through the, like,
I'm sure, hideously appointed,
beige fucking, soulless interiors that she paid for.
That looks like just a joyless,
gray expanse of what life could be or should be
if you were a person who knew how to be happy.
But we should have to see that.
I think we should get to see that.
Because what are you so mad about?
What are you so mad about?
By the way, it was a, it wasn't a, there was a American flag.
It was cool.
It was a cool concept.
It was fun in the moment to watch a lot of mega discover
that Puerto Rico is part of America.
Yes.
Yes, it was.
But it's also, like, it's 15 minutes.
For 15 minutes, someone who disagrees
with you saying a couple songs.
That's it.
You could have gone pee.
You could have gone to get some extra meatloaf.
A lot of options.
It's like, wait.
Fucking a huge mix of cultures and languages.
That is quintessentially American.
That is the whole fucking country.
That's the, that's the, honestly,
that is the whole point of our politics right now
is the disagreement with that idea.
Like, read the, all the documents, all of them.
Read them.
I just, I just can't overstate how little
you will see meatloaf at a Super Bowl party.
I've never, ever in my life seen meatloaf at a Super Bowl.
Never.
It's chips and dips and wings.
That's more dense.
It's a shame that you're having all this Spanish-speaking Muslim ones.
Also, I would, I would leave a Super Bowl party
if I saw a meatloaf.
I'd be out of there.
Also, also, we stole meatloaf from the Germans.
It was a traditional minced meat dish that they stole from the Romans.
That's how culture works.
You steal things from the new guy.
Did you Google the origins of meatloaf?
I googled it, yes.
Yes, GCPT helped me out with that.
Yeah, I just don't.
Meatloaf, better in the original German.
I think it would be very fun to have a Super Bowl party
and invite Megan Kelly over.
Never say a word about it.
And then just be like...
Megan, care for Penang Curry.
Megan.
Come on, it's us.
Oh, Megan.
Wellington, you must try the sashimi.
We have a wonderful spread.
All of our favorites.
I'll be over here in my prayer mat.
We actually like to watch the Super Bowl facing East.
Now.
When you make pierce Morgan look like the reasonable one.
Jesus Christ.
I told you he was the hero here.
Let's not let pierce Morgan up the hook.
Because all you can see in pierce Morgan's shitting grin is...
I'm viral again, baby pierce.
Keep it going, Megan.
Here's another great day for pierce, attention.
That's my Super Bowl food.
Nash, Nash, Nash, attention.
And that's okay, stop.
That's our show for tonight.
Melbourne, we love you.
Thank you so much.
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Our producer is Saul Rubin.
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