"Kimberly Guifoyle's urgent request"

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1:00Kimberly Gilfo is a wicked evil person. She thought I was going to be a sucker. And I'm not a sucker. And your view was this a quid pro quo. Oh, it absolutely was a quid pro quo. Hi again, everybody. It's now 5 o'clock in New York. Brace yourself because the story we are beginning with this hour is a doozy. The man you just heard speaking with my colleague, Peter Alexander is a Trump supporter. He's a Trump donor. He's a former lawyer with a very colorful past. And his name is Eric Dieters. The reason we showed that to you and the reason we're covering him is because of his relationship with a high profile person in Trump world. A familiar face to all of you. The former fiance to Donald Trump Jr., former Fox News personality and current ambassador to Greece. One Kimberly Gilfoil. Brand new blockbuster reporting in the Wall Street Journal pulls the curtain back on how Kimberly Gilfoil promised Dieters access to top Trump administration officials in exchange

2:05for money. Her Dieters air call it absolutely a quid pro quo. Wall Street Journal reports out an incredible story of exactly how Kimberly Gilfoil asked Dieters to pay off her credit card debt, which is what he describes to Peter Alexander as a quid pro quo from the journal reporting quote Kimberly Gilfoil was preparing for her congressional hearing to become US ambassador to Greece when she reached out to a Trump donor with an urgent request. She needed $100,000 that she said she owed American express in a way that would not leave a paper trail end quote. The Wall Street Journal reviewed messages she sent him quote, honey, please I need you to get this done for me today. She texted Dieters adding a prayer hands emoji and a PDF with bill payment instructions from American Express quote, you could just send it here she wrote on July 3, 2025 just days before her July 9 confirmation hearing Kimberly Gilfoil's attorney disputes the authenticity of the

3:08messages but declined to provide specifics. He said she'd been paid to speak at events before her nomination and quote, was owed a balance for traveling to and supporting these patriotic events. Well, which one is it? Are the messages entirely fake or was she owed money for traveling and doing patriotic stuff? Wall Street Journal goes further detailing multiple instances where Kimberly Gilfoil was especially concerned about having a written record of these conversations quote, she warned Dieters repeatedly not to commit talk of money or payments to tax quote, Eric, I really wish you would stop papering all these things she wrote in one exchange. About that line the bullwork provides this amusing and also alarming commentary. Papering, it's one thing to have a US ambassador openly selling access to the government to cover her personal debts. It's another thing to have her lecturing her briber on bribing best practices and it's yet another for her to be so fluent in those best practices that she is inventing slang

4:09to talk about them. Outrageous actions by a US ambassador yet she's part of an administration where the grift and the corruption and the slang are all baked in. As for Eric Dieters, he admitted that he would have paid her the money if he had it. She ambushed me out of the blue with this $200,000 American express offer and she offered me to be her right and die forever if I did this and to be very kind but I but I did not do it. But the reason why I did not do it is I didn't have that money at the time. It was the worst time that she could have ever asked me for another $100,000. A blatant pay for place game involving a current US ambassador serving the Trump administration is where we begin the hour with some of our favorite experts in France. Norm Eisen is here. Thank God. He's the co-founder of Democracy Defenders Action and publisher

5:11of the Contrarian. He served in the Obama administration as special counsel and special assistant to the president for ethics and government reform. Also joining us, Tom Nichols. He's the staff writer at the Atlantic and professor emeritus at the Naval War College and the managing editor at the Bullwark, our contributor Sam Stein is here. He interviewed Eric Deeter earlier today. Sam, I call these tarantula and a bull stories. There's not really anyone to root for but it is interesting to watch the tarantulas attack each other. Take us inside this dual, epic dual. Yeah, I guess it's important to start out that Eric Deeter is basically admitting that he tried to corrupt the process himself. He was willing to spend insane amounts of money to get favors from important figures in government. That's kind of like saying, yeah, I tried to commit a crime. The only reason he's admitted to me, the only reason he came forward now is because he didn't get the quote for the quid. Not exactly the most ethically upstanding of characters, but there was something endearing I would add about how honest he was about

6:15it. In our interview, he said, these people are on the take. This is essentially how business is getting done in Trump's Washington, DC. I felt like these things that I needed to get done, which he argued were actually on the merit worth doing, could only get done if I had the right person with the right connections that I paid off. Kimberly Gilful was his vector for that. He gave her something akin to $300,000. He paid the Trump sons as well for speaking appearances. He said there were other people who he could have gone to who are on the take that he felt like we're easy targets. He mentioned Koryl and Dowsky and Christy, you know, among them. But ultimately, this was kind of fascinating. He said when stuff didn't start happening and he got increasingly frustrated by the fact that his money was not getting him anywhere, he turned on Gilful and she just kept pestering him for more money. And then last week, he told me he sent an email to Susie Wiles, chief of staff of the White House, to Donald Trump Jr. and to Kimberly Gilful. And he said, if I don't get results in the next week, I am going to go forward and review

7:18these communications with the journal. He sent that last week and they never responded. And so that's why he came forward. Norm, I wonder what sort of oversight Democrats could do on the state department side. I mean, obviously, no one thinks Trump is going to be forthcoming. And I imagine Susie Wiles would find legal blocks. But what would keep the, if the Democrats control the House and or the Senate from subpoenaing every sitting ambassador and trying to understand how many of them are on the take? Nicole, this will be a field day. Should the House change hands? There's because of these corruption scandals and the connection that Americans make over 80% say the corruption is costing them more. They are going to have a field day with this.

8:26You know, it's not just a congressional issue in any normal administration. A criminal investigation would be open now, even in this administration, given the extraordinary admissions from Mr. Dieter's implicating himself by the way. If there is a quick pro quo, nominees are covered under 18 USC 201. The statute that forbids this kind of thing. We have to know that Ambassador Guildfoil and her lawyer deny it. But boy, just those texts alone. I mean, you can smell the stench all the way from Athens. It demanded the money and insisting on secrecy. The panic, the nightmare, what Texas nightmare for me. And the last thing I have to say, this is not about Kimberly Guildfoil and Eric Dieters. It's about Donald Trump, a fish

9:29rots from the head. Trump puts the access to himself up for a sale. He's auctioning off dinners for those who purchase his crypto. He's made $2 billion in the presidency, while those who including over $600 million from his meme coins, while over a million people have lost money on billions on those investments. So this is a systemic collapse and the American people are going to punish this crowd for it. It isn't about Kimberly Guildfoil, but it is. So I want to show you a little bit more about Kimberly Guildfoil and the words her, I would say would be Briber, but he says he's paid her $300,000 over the years. So he did briber. He just didn't get what he thought he was paying for, Tom Nichols. This is Mr. Dieters on what he says,

10:35Kimberly has done and who else has done it. Kimberly Guildfoil is a grifter. Kimberly Guildfoil, I have no doubt, has done this to more than me. She's doing it right now in Greece. I know Corey Lewandowski did this stuff. I know Christie known did this stuff. He says he paid Kimberly Guildfoil $300,000 over the years. This is such a departure and I know that there's a tendency toward numbness. But this is so shocking. I mean, I wasn't, I had Richard Painter, was our ethics lawyer in the Bush White House and I couldn't have a soda or coffee paid for by journalists. There is now at least $300,000. It's been paid to Kimberly Guildfoil by one person. I mean, the multitudes of bribes and unethical and unlawful payments to these folks is probably unknowable. But what do you think the beginning of trying to get

11:39any of this unraveled looks like Tom? Well, one thing that's really useful here is that this is really easy to understand. This isn't some arcane forensic accounting issue where someone has to go to Congress and answer questions about shell companies and Belize or something or the Caymans. I think almost anyone who grew up watching television in this country in the past 25 years is going to be astounded that at least allegedly according to this follow and the reporting in the journal, Kimberly Guildfoil, a US ambassador was invoking the Stringer Bell rule. You know, you have her political conspiracy. Right, this stuff down. You know, and you know, anybody who's watched television, you know, could see that and go, you know, I've seen this movie. I've seen this episode, you know, where they say, stop writing stuff down.

12:41Yeah. Because, you know, you're going to get me in trouble here. So I think one of the reasons there might be accountability is I think one thing we're all, you know, as you the word used, Nicole is numb. I think one reason the American public has gotten at least numb to at least some of this is because there never seems to be accountability because it all gets submerged in a lot of in a lot of groupy, you know, this big spaghetti bowl of details about things that most people just don't have the patience to understand. But in this case, I mean, you've got the guy himself saying, I paid all this money and I didn't get what was supposed to happen. And then saying, I threatened them that if they didn't do what I wanted, I would reveal our conversations, which I think, by the way, is probably, you know, norms the lawyer here, but it seems to me that if somebody says that to you, the last thing you should do is actually perform the action because then there's very clear,

13:43you know, if you don't do this, you know, I'm guessing that no, no lawyer would tell their client, no, go ahead now that you've, you're being blackmailed, go ahead and do it. You know, but, but I think this is something that's easy for people to grasp. And maybe that is what leads to accountability because this isn't our cane, it isn't weird. It's a conversation between two human beings that is as plain as day and one of those people is still giving details about it and saying all the quiet stuff out loud. Yeah, I mean, first of all, Sam, Dumber than the wire is like a great brand for Kimberly, Kimberly Ilfoyle. So I kind of love that. But the other piece of this is why was she a white is sheo, amics $100,000. And the consciousness of sort of something wrong is that she gives him a timeline and it's quote before her confirmation hearing. Yeah, that's such a good point. So like,

14:45first of all, on the wire stuff, I guess I should just relay this anecdote. What I asked leaders about this. And he was like, you know, she was right, you know, because it had you just not written this down. He wouldn't have been able to give anything to the journal. And he started laughing about that. He's like, yeah, she was kind of right about that. He's like, I just didn't really know how to access a signal app. So like, of course, I wrote stuff down. I didn't know what I was doing. So was that to my original point? Dumber than the wire. He's like, I'm old school. I, you know, I write stuff. I do think there's a kind of an interesting distinction between the kind of old school graph and the credit card bill payment. So in theory, Ilfoyle can say, well, I was providing consulting services. I was being paid for your speeches. Like, this is not really totally an ethical because I, you know, he employed me to do X, Y and Z. It's different though when you are saying, Hey, I have a credit card debt. I need to get paid off right away before my ambassador hearing, confirmation hearing, because there's no service being provided for that. It's literally

15:48just I cannot go through this confirmation hearing while having credit card debt for obvious reasons, because it would very much complicate her confirmation. Having a person in an ambassador post with credit card debt is a liability from a national security perspective. You can be an easy target for our adversaries to try to get into, you know, their good graces. Why she had that debt is another question that kind of goes unanswered here, right? So she, according to her financial disclosure forms, did have assets. She had real estate. She had this weird vodka company that she made some money for. She had something like $800,000 in podcast revenue, which is sweet. I got to get into that game. I'm not making that in my podcast. But, but she still had this debt. And I asked Deuters about that too. And I think, look, this is not the end of the reporting here. Okay. She lives a very lavish lifestyle. There are already stories about how she spends beyond her means, including in Greece. And how she is maybe not the most

16:49ambassadorial person to ever occupy an ambassador seat. And this is going to cause real problems and headaches for the administration. Yeah. I mean, Sam, this to, the Wall Street Journal dropped this story on the heels of a story last week about her traveling around the world with a lobbyist, a Greek lobbyist. I mean, she is clearly for sale in terms of the portrait that the Wall Street Journal has painted in these two pieces of reporting. We'll dig deeper on the, on the way to understand what the two people that we know about might be getting or might be seeking. And what else has been for sale since she's been there? No one's going anywhere. There's, of course, much more on the Trump corruption front to tell you about. We'll do that on the other side of the break as well. We also have a live report from San Diego, one of the two California cities, Donald Trump once again, said that Iran could hit in a missile strike. San Diego is also the home port of the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is finally back after nearly a

17:50year at sea and a grueling deployment marked by horrific conditions for the crew on board. Also had the alarming rise of anti-trans attacks by one Pete Hegsett, the former Fox and Friends weekend host, trying to win a culture war while he risks losing a real war. To then White House continues after a quick break, don't go anywhere. With the Vivgard-Hitrulo, Escartigamot Alpha and Tyla Luronade's QVFC, pre-filled syringe, self-injection is in your hands. It's your treatment routine. You set the time and same day each week. Take the pre-filled syringe with you on vacation. Or have it handy for cozy stay-cations. For more information, visit Livvividly.com. That's L-I-V-E-V-Y-V-I-D-L-Y.com. Brought to you by our Genics. You know, recommendations can be great. Maybe someone recommended this

18:51podcast, and here you are. But home projects are different. If a podcast isn't your thing, you lose a few minutes. If you hire your cousin's neighbor to mount your TV, you might end up with a lopsided screen and wall damage. Maybe I know a guy just isn't enough for your home. That's why Thumbtack works. It matches you with top-rated local pros, with photos, reviews, and credentials all in one place. For your next home project, try Thumbtack. Hire the right pro today. The real cost of a break-in isn't your valuables. It's the feeling that your home stopped being safe. Simply safe keeps danger away from your family with three layers of protection. One, smart AI cameras and live U.S.-based agents help stop intruders before they break in. Two, we sound the alarm at points of entry. Three, our agents request emergency response. Play and starting around a dollar a day. Right now, get 60% off your new system with professional monitoring at simplysafe.com-slash-exam. Outdoor to turns plans.499 a month. Visit simplysafe.com-slash-licenses for alarm-license information. I know the game. The game is someone gives information to a digital. Before I immediately

19:55outlet the media outlet reports it. You immediately turn to me and say, I need you to respond to our reporting. That's not the way the project works. I'm not going to comment on a story that literally posted two hours ago. I get the game. We have been in this role one time. With an hour, some number of Congress, a right-you-reletter, demanding, answer questions, something we've never seen before. I don't even know if it's true or not. Mark Arubio, with his version of How It Becomes A Law, Mark Arubio plays the game, though, which is what's funny about that. I wonder what it says that the very sort of tenant, I mean the entire spirit of the First Amendment, right, is in accountability for people in the public trust. And most central to it is that they're not in reaching themselves. That the public service isn't the grift. I mean the thing about Kimberly Gillfoil is these are just two examples that we know about. Of a lobbyist going everywhere she goes. And of a Trump supporter, a person on her side saying, hey, I gave her $300,000. I drew the line

20:58because it would have ended my marriage at paying her $100,000 MX bill before her confirmation, something that she knew was a problem of potential scandal. All that happens absent of Mark Arubio's sort of red herring over here. This doesn't happen because someone calls. This happens because a Trump guy outs a Trump gal about a pay for play scheme norm. For heaven's sake, Nicole, Mark Arubio knows all about it. He's dodging. It's the opposite of accountability. And I can only imagine what would have happened in any normal administration, Democratic or Republican if this kind of scheme had been unearthed. And the problem with this corruption is instead of Kimberly Gillfoil being in Greece as when I was an ambassador,

22:00I was trying to build bilateral business ties to help the American economy, to help the Czech economy where I was posted. She's trying to pay off her MX bills. And I just think that the corruption is starting to break through, that we are seeing in poll after poll, that the American people are hurting. They connect it to the corruption. And this is a particularly outlandish one. It's not the same large sums as Trump and his family and the Trump sons and his envoy Whitcoff and his family, the sums they're making off of crypto. But it's so tangible. We all have credit card bills. And you have the text. And now you have a video confession. He should have saved some of our money. He spent on Kimberly Gillfoil for a lawyer. So this is one that's not going away.

23:03Yeah, I mean, and Tom Nichols to just further this part of it. The system, the system, Mark Arubio says it is, right? This isn't a press scandal. This is within the Maga coalition, a guy who admits he was on the take paid $300,000 to Gillfoil and would have paid another 100,000 to MX. He doesn't because again, I want to quote him accurately from Mr. Arubio, quote, I have not received one favor. This isn't a guy who got tired of paying. This is a guy who's only going to the press because quote, I have not received one favor. I need results. That's the story being told by one of their political people. It's incredible. And it's incredible that law is just, you know, Norm just said in any normal administration. Well, yeah, I mean, you know, this would be an immediate, in a normal administration, in a country that wasn't exhausted by these kinds of shenanigans.

24:04She would be recalled. She'd be stripped of her post. She would be investigated. And instead, you have the Secretary of State. I think very clearly what's going on with the Secretary of State. You have the Secretary of State here saying fake news. Don't know about it, trying to just throw sand in the eyes because that works with most of Trump's space. You know, there will be Trump supporters who say, look the links. Everybody went to to set her up. You know, even getting this guy and giving an interview to Sam Stine and going on, you know, video and that'll work for some people. But what's really happening here is that because the White House is organized like a mob like a mafia clan, Rubio can't get out ahead of the Don. Giltfile is safe until the moment that Donald Trump says, now I got to walk away from her. When that happens, then everybody's going to say, oh, what a shame. Terrible, you know, we're cleaning our own house. But for now, you have the Secretary of State basically saying,

25:08I haven't been given the go ahead. She's still safe as far as I know. And so I've got to make up all this nonsense about how this is a news scandal. But again, I think we're all saying here, it does break through because this is something that even the most casual observer of the news, somebody who is not a junkie, you know, like the four of us here, somebody who simply can watch a news report can see this and say, this is insanely corrupt. And to most people out in the United States, $100,000 is a hell of a lot of money, especially they have on a credit card bill. But to be asking for that from somebody, I think really, you know, is going to that does break through to people. How do you run up 100,000, you know, on an AMX bill? Correct. And then I'll still pay it. Right. Like, I mean, Sam, there is like, I don't, $100,000 is not an amount that anyone can put

26:11on a credit card. It's a crazy, a crazy story. It's a crazy line of BS from Rubio who starts his spin this way. I know the game. The game is someone gives information to a newspaper, media outlet. That's not how the game started. The game started with Kimberly Gillfoil telling her briber, quote, stop papering this. It's quote, dangerous. Like, that's the game. And the, the Rubio spin goes on to say, then you turn to me and say, I gotta respond to your reporting. That's not how the process works. I mean, that is not at all what happened. And you look at the collapse in Trump's support. And I know Rubio usually gets cleaved out in sort of the game of relativity, as as not as bad as Howard Lutnik or Scott Besent or some of the others getting really heinous headlines for Donald Trump. But in some ways, because he knows better, he's the most egregious

27:13actor. And he knows that that has to happen. This is, this is like a guy that was bribing Kimberly Gillfoil and that relationship between the briber and the, and the bribe was going great until he got mad that he wasn't getting anything out of it. Oh no, you're 100% right. Arguably this is worse, right? Rubio knows better. But he's just going to pretend like nothing bad happened here. He's pretend like this is just some sort of gotcha journalism. This isn't the journal. Somehow unearthing anonymous sources saying alleging that Gillfoil did x, y and z. This is the journal literally producing receipts like literally spritz like actual receipts, signal messages, memos, quotes on the record. I mean, it that she is dead to rights, dead to rights. And Rubio knows it. And he's going through this whole charade. I think it's kind of important though to know where Marco Rubio was when he said this. Marco Rubio is in Athens. He's in Athens because Kimberly Gillfoil made a huge mess of our diplomatic relationships in Greece because she was clonk talking

28:18about how she could take down the Greek government. Killed really Gillfoil is clearly manifestly not suited for this role as ambassador. She's there because she's well connected and Trump wrote even though she's no longer engaged to Don Jr. And Tom is absolutely right. Marco Rubio, if he had his brothers, I would imagine would say ridden me of this problem. I shouldn't be in Athens trying to clean up her mess in the first place. I shouldn't be in Athens having to deal with her second mess and being asked about it and having it completely overwhelmed this visit to begin with. But you can't do it because Donald Trump is the one who's going to determine whether Kimberly Gillfoil remain as ambassador, not Marco Rubio her boss. Well, I disagree with you on that. I mean, Marco Rubio made his bed and he should lie in it. He should lie in it. That's fine. You know, tuck himself in in that bed and he should understand that the only reason he's in Greece cleaning up Kimberly Gillfoil's mess is because he said yes to going to work for Donald Trump. An incredible, specific, extraordinary example. Thank you so much to all of you for

29:24taking the time to talk to us about it. Normaison, Tom Nichols and Samstein, when we come back after a grueling 322 days at sea, the USS Abraham Lincoln's record breaking deployment in service of Donald Trump's war with Iran is over. The ship is back in its home port of San Diego. What's next for the sailors who endured deteriorating conditions on board? That's our next story. With the Vivgard Hightrulo, Escartigamot Alpha and Tile-Aurona Days QVFC, Prefield Suringe, Self-Injection is in your hands. It's your treatment routine. You set the time and same day each week. Take the Prefield Suringe with you on vacation. Or have it handy for cozy stay-cations. For more information, visit live vividly.com. That's L-I-V-E-V-Y-V-I-D-L-Y.com. Brought to you by Argenics. Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start,

30:27Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between Matt Paint Finish and Satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is. With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top rated pros, see price estimates and read reviews all on the app. Download today. Everyone and everything is on price picks. What you want? Download the price picks app today and use code Pandora to get one of your $50 Installing and Lineups. If you win your first $5 lineup, price picks. Run your game. Let's be present in certain states visit pricepix.com for restricted sent details. Just in the last few hours, the USS Abraham Lincoln has returned to San Diego for the first time since November 21st, 2025. The ship and its sailors capped off a record setting 322 day deployment

31:30during which the ship spent 264 consecutive days at sea without a port call. Defense Secretary Pete Haguez spent yesterday on board the ship that has left San Diego, choosing not to meet with family members of the sailors after they and their loved ones spoke out about the deteriorating conditions on board the ship. As their deployment was extended when Donald Trump plunged the country into war with Iran. Today, those sailors and their families are also grappling with the news from the Atlantic that Donald Trump may be preparing to escalate the war with Iran. From that report, the White House has asked the Pentagon to develop strike options against Iranian targets that could be exercised ahead of the midterms. That's according to two administration officials. Earlier today, Trump said in a true social post that he will not attack Iran before the November elections. Let's bring in our Pentagon reporter Priya Shreeder who's on the ground in Coronado, California, where the USS Abraham Lincoln has arrived. She's broken story after story on the conditions that those sailors have faced, also joining us from her CIA officer Julia Curley,

32:34who we recently interviewed for the best people podcast. She's now a fellow at law fair. Priya, just tell me about today the good and the bad and what comes next. Well, Nicole right now is a very exciting time. We're seeing a lot of these sailors and marines disembark from the ship and they're able to finally reunite with their loved ones. As you mentioned, after a 10 and a half month deployment, I think it's important to note that this was just supposed to be a standard six to seven month rotation in the Indo-Pacific, but they were quickly the plans changed and they were diverted to the Middle East and they were there from the very first Airstrike on February 28th on Iran and then they were involved in non-stop combat operations for seven straight months. So right now you're seeing people embrace their tears, their happiness, their joy. I had one mom tell me that she feels like she's been holding her breaths for almost a year and that every time she saw the news, she was just so nervous they had intermittent internet

33:38throughout their entire deployment. So she finally feels as though she can take a breath of fresh air now that her son is back here on dry land. We also saw there was about 122 dads who had babies while they were out at sea. Some of them becoming fathers for the very first time. So we just got a glimpse of them meeting their babies. They were holding onto their uniforms and those were the small moments Nicole that they missed as a result of this deployment getting extended over and over and over again and today is about happiness but one thing these families made very clear to me is that they don't want the conditions that these service members face to be forgotten now that the ship has pulled back into court. They're really hoping that the Navy leaders and the administration more importantly has learned lessons from this deployment that they can apply to the USS theater Roosevelt who by the way just left this exact same base a few weeks ago and is heading

34:40right back to where the Lincoln just came from to fight this war in Iran. I mean Julia let me bring you in on that. The Trump administration doesn't seem to quote learn many lessons from things that go wrong. They seem to double and triple and quadruple down. Something you said to me in our podcast conversation was that this really only ends with some sort of settlement or ordeal and Trump is going the opposite direction. This is in the Atlantic today. The size and targets of potential strikes and whether the administration will ultimately proceed or being debated the plans are being developed by US Sankam which is coordinating the war effort according to US official. Even the plans advocates acknowledge that limited strikes would not by themselves. Bring Iran to the negotiating table restore safe travel through the straight of four moves or lower gas prices before election day. For those in favor believe that further action after months of uneasy peace could allow Trump to demonstrate strength and potentially

35:40declare some sort of victory giving Republicans much needed momentum. Is this where we are that US foreign policy is being built around quote letting Trump demonstrate strength and declare victory. We're not even talking about the other objectives which should be the lower down lower gas prices, restore safe travel through the straight of four moves or bring Iran to the negotiating table. Yeah, have an help us. I sat in those meetings in the White House in the situation room. The question is supposed to be what is the objective? What does the intelligence say? What will it cost in American lives? It's the same question we asked in Iraq and Afghanistan over and over again. Tell me how this ends. So when we hear that the only question being asked is what this will do to help him in the election? Something has gone seriously wrong with our national security decision-making. If very least someone should be in the room talking about the Iranian calculus, which is the fact that the Iranian regime thinks it's an existential war. If the president is making decisions based

36:43on polls of what will help him in his Senate candidates in Kansas, they're talking past each other and the Iranians are simply not going to give in to these kind of small ball, small concessions that the administration has been talking about. And what's amazing is that by projecting all this political weakness, they're actually strengthening Iran's hand in the substantive negotiations as well. Priya, I'm so happy that all the journalists who could be there on this day covering this for us. It is you. Thank you for joining us today and thank you for all your reporting on this. When we come back, Julius sticks around and we will turn to the alarming rise of anti-trans rhetoric coming from the tippy top of the Pentagon. How Pete Hegsess cynical and gross attempts to wage culture wars is doing very real damage to the country and our national security. That's next. At a time of war, the Secretary of Defense, any Secretary of Defense, should be laser focused on

37:50winning as quickly as possible. Instead, our Secretary of Defense Pete Hegsess is busy being filmed, lagging way behind the military, doing workouts, and waging culture wars. And we want to warn you that the language we're going to show you is deeply offensive. No fatties, no b****, no beardows, no weirdoes, no wimps, no radicals, just warriors. The ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in with testosterone testing on top. It's hard to believe that that is real, that that is actually who is in charge of the Pentagon, and that is actually what he says. And they can add to the word clowns, without cracking up. But while Pete Hegsess spends his time doing that with bigoted lectures on testosterone and physical appearance, the rest of the world is watching. They're watching our country, they're watching our

38:52country's leaders, and they're watching our military in retreat. New York Times reports this, to anyone watching the deployment of American power around the globe in the seven months since Trump decided to attack Iran. It was another glaring example of how time after time, Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegsess have been forced into retreat, pulling back military forces that had been deployed to the Middle East and Britain as a deterrent over the past several months, as the conflict has dragged on. The Iran war has come to reveal enormous new American vulnerabilities, forcing changes that the Pentagon was not contemplating one year ago. It has also approved a bitter lesson in the unintended consequences that have flowed from Trump's war of choice. We're back with Julia Curley. Julia, it's a privilege that you'd even engage on this topic, but tell me your thoughts. So that's the Secretary of War, speaking to the senior military ranks, using a slur about soldiers who have served their country to get a laugh. It's revolting, but he's just really

39:59following the example, or perhaps he's leading his own president, who in the last few days has been using the same word in a political campaign about someone who isn't even trans. That just shows you the depths at which they've gone to try to weaponize hatred of a small minority to cover up the fact that they're losing a war. And it's, I never thought I would see it. You met both men. Did they ever say anything to your face? No. No, they would never say it to your face. I briefed him at the president. I worked in his White House. I arranged meetings for Pete Hagseth. They could say it to my face. I can take it. I've taken worse. He should really say it to the face of the trans soldiers that he fired in the middle of the war, the medics and the pilots. They were actually trans soldiers who were pulled out

41:00of war zones so that then they could be fired back in the States. You could also say it to the parents of trans kids. These parents who just want to have their kids protected from politicians who are just trying to demonizing their own children in order to get votes. But he won't say any of those things because cowards never say it to your face. They just send it to you over the internet and hide behind their phones as they send hate to other Americans over Twitter. It's just sad. The Iranians are quite savvy in their ability to observe our weaknesses. How much weakness do we project by having a person who wouldn't say something to someone's face or a parent's face that says it in political propaganda performances? It shows a stunning lack of seriousness and carelessness with the lives of Americans who have volunteered to serve or willing to go into harm's way on behalf of their country in a war that has

42:05unclear objectives at this point that they would spend any minute of their time using slurs, calling people names for political advantage rather than trying to find a way to bring this war to a close just shows how unfit these people are to lead the people that sacrifice beneath them in our armed services. We talked a little bit about how the world assesses America. What do you think the world sees when the president of the United States has over and over again let them take out San Diego, let them take out Los Angeles? I think they see a president who doesn't think he's the president of all of the United States just of one faction of the country. They see him as a factional leader who doesn't care about uniting the whole country in all of its power resources and people behind a common objective and they know that that means we're fragile and weak because the president can't find it within him to lead the whole country. The attacks obviously come in the precipice of Trump and Hegseth

43:11about to lose big. Trump's about to lose is to figure ahead of the Republican Party. At least one possibly both majorities in both houses Hegseth is the reason large part of it along with the economy. What do you think they will do after that political defeat if all the polls are correct? Well, he's still struggling to find a way out of this war and seemingly has no plan to do so. I think that he'll look for for something flashy, something he can claim. I would worry about a mass show of American firepower whose whole purpose is to provide the president with a face-saving escape route. I see no evidence that he's surrounding himself with serious professionals who are willing to tell him what he doesn't want to hear and I don't see why that would change after the midterms. Yeah, that to me feels like the most ominous piece of that Atlantic reporting that it's not just the conversations and the Pentagon about Iran and in a vacuum. It's the conversations around a midterm that every poll from a Republican and a

44:15Democrat suggests all is. We'll continue to need your expertise and was done. Julia Curly, thank you so much for joining us today on these stories. Thank you, Nicole. Quick break for us. We'll be right back. My guest on this week's episode of the Best People Podcast is Judge Esther Solis. She's inspired me and a lot of viewers of this program with her advocacy in the wake of her son Daniels murder in 2020 and she gives some great advice. Take a listen. I felt like I don't know how I'm going to do this and this wonderful US deputy US martial who would walk with me. All of the new that I had to get out and walk in nature, right? We were about to go out for a walk and he was a vet. And he said, can I give you some advice? And I said anything. He said, man, just do what's three feet in front of you. Don't look a mile.

45:17Just do what's right in front of you right now. We're going to go for this walk. Let's do this walk. Right. I always think of him when the room starts going, I go, wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm just going to do three feet right now. Right. The next 45 minutes. Whatever I got to do. Right. And then I'll figure the rest out. She's the best. The rest of the conversation is out now. You just scan the QR code on your screen to listen or you can download the episode wherever you get your podcast. Be sure to let me know what you think on Instagram or Blue Sky. One more break. We'll be right back. Thank you so much for letting us into your homes tonight. We are grateful. Snoring, gasping for air during sleep, daytime sleepiness, I'm Shikil O'Neil and this shouldn't be anybody's experience. Asher, doctor about Zepbound, her Zepa time. The first knowly FDA approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea and adults with obesity. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea,

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