250 Year Competition

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James and Al review the political landscape, the changes in the electorate, and the candidates after getting a lay of the land during the primary season. Then, they welcome the NYT’s David Sanger to discuss the end of the Iran war and its consequences, the seemingly endless war in Ukraine, Trump’s foreign policy, and its effects on the future of our country. They are also joined by the author of ‘The Department of Revenge’, the NYT’s Devlin Barrett, to expose Trump’s weaponization of the DOJ under Todd Blance, the erosion of trust in our leaders, and how it weakens our institutions.

Email your questions to James and Al at politicswarroom@gmail.com or tweet them to @politicon. Make sure to include your city– we love to hear where you’re from!

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Get More From This Week’s Guest

David Sanger: Twitter | The New York Times | Harvard Kennedy School | Author

Devlin Barrett: Twitter | The New York Times | Author

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We’ll talk later this week about Trump’s Iranian deal, which looks like he got taken. And I never want to talk about the tacky and tasteless UFC fighting match on the White House South Lawn last night. It is a good day to talk about the incredible New York Knicks championship run. They brought the Big Apple its first NBA title in fifty three years in classic fashion.

Even our British producer, no fan of American sports got hooked on this team. After the final game, I emailed Bill Bradley, one of the Knicks greats in the championship teams in the nineteen seventies. I said I was blown away by Jalen Brunson, the MVP. Bradley replied yes to Brunson while noting it was the whole team, unselfish, disciplined, and resilient, like all champions. It was a team for the ages and it also was a wonderful escape from the Washington I work in.

Thank you, New York Knicks.

----

Required reading for all senators before voting on the nomination of Todd Blanche to be Attorney General of the United States should be: “The Department of Revenge” by Devlin Barrett, a veteran prize winning Justice Department reporter, now with the New York Times.

This well documented account of what the Trump Administration has done to the Justice Department is tragic. It has lost many of its most experienced lawyers. Major departments, public integrity, civil rights, and national security have all been shredded. In the current Justice Department the only guiding principle, or priority, is what Donald Trump wants.

In reading the Department of Revenge, it’s clear no one is more culpable for the demise of an honest department than Todd Blanche, the acting Attorney General and formerly Trump’s criminal defense lawyer.

The Barrett book, with specificity and attributable sources enumerates Blanche’s central complicity in two big Trump-centric scandals, in recklessly -- and lawlessly -- going after Trump’s perceived “enemies,” and establishing partisan litmus tests for Justice and the FBI.

“Todd Blanche has become the symbol of Donald Trump and his corruption,” charges Michael Luttig, in calling for the Senate to reject his nomination. Luttig is a former Court of Appeals judge, conservative, and now a champion of trying to protect the rule of law.

The Department of Justice is in bad shape, Luttig notes and if Blanche is confirmed “it will effectively bring an end to this Department of Justice.”

Trump was determined that Justice would be subservient to his wishes. After winning in 2024, his first choice for Attorney General was former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, who was facing imminent House Ethics committee charges of sexual trafficking and campaign finance fraud. That was too much and the nod instead went to Pam Bondi, former Florida Attorney General and Trump loyalist.

Bondi was a lightweight, however, and made embarrassing mistakes relating to the files of sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, a one time pal of Trump. Epstein procured young women for powerful men; Trump denied he was one of them but desperately wanted to bury the issue.

The Epstein account and most top department decisions were given to Blanche, the deputy Attorney General.

The New York Times last week revealed there was an unusual meeting in the White House situation room -- the security proof venue used for national security and intelligence matters -- to deal with Trump’s Epstein “crisis.” As well as the Vice President and top White House staff, Blanche was there and made two recommendations. The first was to request the Epstein grand jury testimony be released which he noted almost certainly would be rejected but then they could blame the judges.

The other was that he’d interview the imprisoned Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s accomplice who procured young women. Over two days Blanche threw a series of softball questions, with little follow-ups, as she exonerated Trump from bad behavior. A week later she was moved to a minimum security facility, supposed to be off limits for convicted sexual offenders, and given special favors. (A good betting pool would be to predict which day, after the midterms, Maxwell gets a pardon or commutation.)

Blanche also crafted the deal for a $1.8 billion slush fund for Trump supporting victims of “weaponization,” and barred any tax audits of Trump or his family for current or past tax returns.

This was so sordid that 35 former federal judges, of both parties, asked a judge to investigate the dubious deal.

This should be enough to disqualify Blanche. Barrett’s book outlines a pattern of politically motivated, even lawless, actions. At Trump’s insistence he forced indictments of former FBI director James Comey over the objections of experienced prosecutors who found the evidence insufficient.

The first was thrown out by a judge and the current charge is that a picture he took of a sea shell with the numbers “86 47” showed he wanted to harm the president. This one is a loser too.

Likewise, two Justice Department charges against New York Attorney General Letita James,, who had successfully sued private citizen Trump for financial fraud, were rejected by grand juries.,

Earlier, with his associate Emil Bove, Blanche forced the Manhattan U.S. Attorney to drop an indictment against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, that actually was dependent on his cooperation with the Trump Administration.

The acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, a conservative former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, charged this was an unethical “quid pro quo” in violation of Justice Department policies.

Blanche is delivering on Trump’s obsession to get revenge against Barack Obama’s CIA director John Brennan. When the head of the national security team in Miami told Justice there was no case, Blanche had her sidelined. He brought in a political hack, Joe diGenova, to help find a way to indict Brennan.

It’s supposed to be so easy that any prosecutor could get an indictment of a “ham sandwich.” Blanche better Deli-shop as numerous grand juries have rejected flimsy political charges brought by this Justice Department.

Blanche also has overseen the departures of thousands of employees, many horrified by the politicalization of Justice, and he brags about firing hundreds of officials for doing their job in investigating and prosecuting the violent January 6 criminals who tried to overturn an election.

Barrett writes: “A Justice Department and an FBI without rules, without good judgment and without a moral compass represent a massive danger not just to Americans’ constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms but also to the nation’s stability and safety.”

That’s what a Todd Blanche-led Justice Department represents.

250 Year Competition: Vote for which of Trump’s insiders you think the Founding Fathers would send back to England

James and Al analyze Tuesday’s primaries, focusing on the enduring support for Graham Platner in Maine and the surprisingly weak showing for perennial incumbent Lindsey Graham in South Carolina. Then, they welcome Judge Luttig to give his verdict on Trump in a discussion of his settlement with the IRS, the pushback from judges around the country, his weaponization of the DOJ, Todd Blanche’s lack of fitness for AG, and the partisanship of the COTUS. Afterward, they are joined by NC-11 congressional candidate Jamie Ager to discuss winning over rural voters as a Democrat in a Red state, the need to personally connect with your constituents, and how government can work for the people.

Email your questions to James and Al at politicswarroom@gmail.com or tweet them to @politicon. Make sure to include your city– we love to hear where you’re from!

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It’s unwieldy and unequal.

It also is better than five years ago. The marketplace now plays a role and is bridging a bit of the huge divide between young, disproportionately Black players and older predominately white coaches and administrators.

Still, some reforms are necessary. Both President Trump and a bipartisan bill authored by Texas Republican Ted Cruz and Washington state Democrat Maria Cantwell are pushing changes.

There are promising elements in these efforts but major shortcomings.

The NCAA, the band of colleges that governs these programs, caused many of the problems. Under the old system, coaches and colleges were raking in big bucks while players, apart from scholarships, were more like indentured servants.

The underlying fiction was this was all about amateurism and student-athletes.

The NCAA also had checkered enforcement especially against blue bloods. “The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky they gave Cleveland State two more years of probation,” cracked Jerry Tarkanian, the late University of Nevada at Las Vegas coach.

Under the table payments and skirting of rules was common. At a forum on college athletics years ago one coach suggested, “what we need is more prayer.” To which John Thompson, the great Georgetown coach, responded, “what we need is for you M***** F******’s to quit cheating.”

A 2021 unanimous Supreme Court decision upended this NCAA monopoly declaring that restrictions on education-related compensation violated antitrust laws. There wasn’t much clarity but it opened the doors.

The proposal in the Senate calls for an antitrust exemption and an expanded compensation cap on school payments to athletes. There would be new protections for benefits like health care and the ability to sue in federal courts for legitimate grievances. It would seek to narrow the disparities between the haves and have nots by proposing a media revenue shaaring pool with participants.

The legislation still tilts heavily to colleege administramtors and coaches, says Jay Bilas. He is a former Duke basketball star, with a law degree and now the top ESPN basketball analyst; few are as knowledgeable or thoughtful about college sports.

The bill, he says, falls short for the athletes: “they want to give an antitrust exemption which protects coaches and administrators but restricts players.”

What’s needed, Bilas argues, “is a pathway for a collective bargaining unit,” like professional football, basketball and baseball have. There are complexities --should this be done by individuals, schools, conferences or overall? What are the options if there’s an impasse; there is strong opposition to unionization.

There would still be the NIL’s -- Name, Image and Likeness -- which boosters use to monetize opportunies for players.

The odds of anything happening this year are low. There are two dominant conferences - the Big Ten with teams in the populous Midwest and the West Coast with large media markets, and the almost as powerful SEC, stretching in the South from Texas through Florida and Georgia. They have most of the cards and will resist reforms like media revenue sharing.

Blacks comprise a sizable number of basketball and football players, and some civil rights groups are objecting to these reform proposals.

At some stage the colleges, NCAA, will have to figure out a more player-friendly reform, building on some of the changes suggested by the Cruz-Cantwell measure.

In the meantime, I’m not going to worry about some talented young college quarterback or power forward making $10 million. I do worry how those substitutes or those in minor sports or women’s sports are treated.

I also don’t worry about exceptional coaches - Jon Scheyer of Duke and Connecticut’s Dan Hurley in basketball or Indiana’s Curt Cignetti and Ohio State’s Ryan Day in football - having big pay days. They deliver; that’s the marketplace.

Unacceptable are coaches who are fired - presumably for not being good enough - and walking away with unconscionable sums. That includes two football coaches, LSU’s Brian Kelly, out the door with $54 million, and $48.6 million was due for Penn State’s James Franklin. In basketball, fired Kansas State coach Jerome Tang is seeking $18.7 million. While in 2020, Wake Forest’s (my alma mater) Danny Manning got $14.7 million after he was terminated.

No caps or limits on player compensation should be acceptable without looking for any way to limit these payouts.

Overall, once you accept that this is not about amateur student-athletes, the current state of play, with its inequities, looks okay. Some schools in conferences like the Atlantic Coast (ACC) and the Big East (basketball) may have to move down to a less financially competitive league.

We’re not going back. “Those who say we want it to be like it used to be,” Bilas says, are out of touch with realities. “Players have to have a voice.”

New York is going wild for Game Three of the NBA Finals with tickets going for eight to ten thousand dollars apiece, and that’s in the upper deck. New York has fallen in love with their basketball team, the Knicks. There were plans for a huge rally outside Madison Square Garden for those who couldn’t afford those prices, but Donald Trump reigned on that rally by attending the game, and therefore Secret Service said you can’t have that rally.

Two bits of advice for the Donald, stay off the ‘Jumbotron’, or Trump, you will get the biggest Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan boo’s you have ever heard.

And Bill Bradley, a Knicks legend on the last championship team fifty-three years ago, cautioned Trump that he will not be the center of attention tonight. The center of attention will be the Knicks. Bradley, NBA royalty, and using mild mannered, added, I don’t give a shit what Trump does.

What I care about is what the team does.

250 Year Celebration Competition
Vote for which of Trump’s insiders you think the Founding Fathers would send back to England !
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James and Al review the performance of Democrats in Tuesday’s elections, examining what it can tell us about the midterms, the quality of the candidates, and the importance of keeping voters engaged to drive turnout. Then, they welcome the Council on Foreign Relations’ Max Boot to discuss Trump’s foreign policy, his relationship with the intelligence community, and the wars in Iran and Ukraine. Afterward, they are joined by the President and CEO Emeritus of the National WWII Museum, Nick Mueller, to reflect on the anniversary of D-Day, the legacy of WWII, and the value of educating future generations about its impact.

Email your questions to James and Al at politicswarroom@gmail.com or tweet them to @politicon. Make sure to include your city– we love to hear where you’re from!

More from James and Al

Get text updates from Politics War Room and Politicon.

Watch Politics War Room & James Carville Explains on YouTube.

James Carville & Al Hunt have launched the Politics War Room Substack

Get updates and some great behind-the-scenes content from the documentary CARVILLE: WINNING IS EVERYTHING, STUPID by following James on X @jamescarville and his new TikTok @realjamescarville

Get More From This Week’s Guest

Nick Mueller: The National WWII Museum | LSU Press

Max Boot: Twitter | Threads | Website | WaPo | CFR | Author

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You know, there’s so many lies coming out of the Trump White House. This might seem minor, but I think there are grounds to doubt Trump’s most recent medical report. One, what Trump released was less comprehensive than the medical reports released by Presidents Biden and Obama. Why?

Doctors like Jonathan Reiner, a leading cardiologist at George Washington Hospital questioned both the lack of full transparency and said the attempts to explain away Trump’s bruised hands and swollen ankles are unconvincing. Trump’s repeated claims that he aced the Montreal cognitive assessment test, demonstrating his high intelligence, are wrong. This test is a screening for dementia, not intelligence. And are there any eyewitnesses to Trump actually taking the test?

And I also suspect they’re lying about Trump’s height, which the White House says is six foot three inches. When you see him next to anybody, either slightly shorter or taller than that, it’s pretty obvious he is not six three. Maybe six one, six two. Now now now why does that matter? Because he weighs two hundred and thirty eight pounds. And at six three he barely avoids the obese lit label. If he were six two, which I think would be a more honest reading, he would be clinically obese.

With his ego, he couldn’t stand being known as pudgy. So anyway, as far as I’m concerned, pudgy, you gotta release it all.

60 minutes, the most successful broadcast television program, good, hard hitting journalism, huge audience is being torn apart, or in the words of correspondent Scott Pelley, it’s being murdered. Pelley was fired, as were two other top correspondents, ⁓ Sharon Alphonse and Cecilia Veger, and a number of executives, and Henderson Cooper just left.

Barry Wise, the relatively new and over her head president of CBS News, is driven by ideology against what she sees as woke Democrats and unwavering support for Israel, and a desire to please her bosses, the Ellisons, big pals of Donald Trump. Everything she has touched has failed. The CBS Evening News is in the tank since she reshaped it.

She allowed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to choose which correspondent was to interview him. Now she has her sights on sixty minutes. She chose some guy named Nick Bolton with no television experience to take over Sixty Minutes. He explained the reason, after a contentious meeting, the reason that Pelle, a CBS veteran, who has covered wars, the White House, anchored the evening news, where his audience rose in contrast to the Weiss area.

And for years done great work on sixty minutes. He was fired because he was disrespectful to Bolton. Ms. Bolton, in journalism, I I just want to tell you, respect is something you earn. And that’s that’s something that neither you nor Miss Wise deserve. It’s just so tragic what’s happened to a great television news program.

Sunday evening I had a moment of real inspiration and hope, a moment of brightness, which if you live in Washington is rare these days. This was in Boston, the Profile in Courage Awards at the John F. Kennedy Library. The late president’s daughter Caroline and her son Jack presented the Courage Awards to two perfect recipients, the citizens of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Jay Powell who was chair of the Federal Reserve Board.

At great risk, they both stood up to brutality and to bullies. These Minnesota citizens stood up to ice thugs trying to take over the city, resolute even when their fellow citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were murdered. Ultimately they prevailed. Most ice got out of town. In a far different environment

Jay Powell showed the same sort of courage. He stood up to the bullying of Donald Trump’s lawless efforts to ride roughshod over the statutory independence of the Federal Reserve. Powell was even threatened with a baseless criminal charge. He too never wavered. Citizens from the streets of Minnesota to the boardroom of the Federal Reserve showed why courage was matters.

It was a great moment. Now back to the darkness.

The ghosts of Credit Mobilier, Teapot Dome and Watergate must be asking: How in the hell is this guy getting away with far more than we ever dreamed.

On corruption, Washington-style, Donald Trump is in a league by himself. His net worth has almost tripled as he rakes in money from a crypto scam, peddles pardons for investor associates, and gives new meaning to insider trading.

Most of this is legal for the major reason he’s able to get away with it -- the 2024 Supreme Court decision that granted him broad immunity for any official act, which he interprets very generously.

“There is a zone of lawlessness around the Oval Office, erected by the Supreme Court when it granted current and former presidents effective immunity from prosecution if their crimes involved ‘official acts,’” Michael Waldman, President of the Brennan Center for Justice wrote last week. “Loot the taxpayers, misuse government power for graft and you’re off the hook.”

Chief Justice John Roberts’ decision gave the President absolute immunity performing constitutional duties and presumptive immunity for other “official” acts.. The partisan decision, all Republican justices, wasn’t issued until July 1 of the election year, ending even any limited prosecution of Trump for inciting the January 6 riot at the Capitol to try to overturn an honest election which Trump lost.

I doubt the timing was coincidental.

Michael Lutting, a former conservative federal judge, called the decision “abominable,” and in a dissent Justice Sotomayor said it makes Trump a “King, above the law.”

That’s the way an emboldened Trump sees it. With only rare exceptions, he acts like there are no guard rails to stop him.

The money grift is stunning, especially the crypto currency firm Trump established; he is shaking down investors and working to make sure the government doesn’t get in the way of the billions he’s hauling in.

Does this violate any legal restrictions? Not with his protective Supreme Court ruling.

Then there are his stock purchases, not infrequently tied to government actions. He bought Palantir stock, the big data firm and government contractor and right afterwards publicly praised the company, even giving its NASDAQ ticker number.

He bought Paramount and Netflix and Warner Brothers stock while the Justice Department was weighing a merger deal. This Justice Department has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump. He was buying Oracle stock while facilitating its purchase of Tik-Tok.

The president generally isn’t covered by insider trading restrictions. But post presidency there could have been an investigation into this shady activity. Not with John Roberts’ decision, however.

Likewise, some of the unprecedented number of pardons he has issued raise serious questions. Some have been granted to criminals directly tied to his business interests, others for political benefit. Justice Amy Coney Barrett raised the possibility that a broad grant of immunity might allow bribery. She voted for the decision anyway.

Trump, of course, would say these were tied to official acts.

This is a family racket. ProPublica disclosed that a White House official urged the Pentagon to approve and expedite an unusual loan for a start-up company. Predictably, the Pentagon obliged and gave a record loan to the company where Donald Trump, Jr. is a big investor.

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law has been tapped as Middle East negotiator at the same time his investment firm is doing business with some of those countries.

In normal times, these would be unacceptable conflicts of interest. These are not normal times.

The latest is the sordid IRS-Justice debacle. First, Trump supposedly gave up his $10 billion suit against the IRS for a contractor leaking his tax returns. In return, Trump’s acting Attorney General barred the IRS from looking at any of the tax returns Trump or his immediate family have filed.

First, Trump’s lawsuit was flawed and he likely wouldn’t have gotten much more than an apology. The prohibition against auditing any of the current Trump returns is unprecedented.

To provide context, Trump has promised for ten years to release his tax returns and reneged. And a 1998 law specifically prohibits the president from interfering or any involvement with IRS actions.

Thanks to John Roberts, Trump will say this is official business, so let’s deep six that statute.

Then the President and his go along acting Attorney General Todd Blanche tried to falsely connect this to launching a $1.78 billion slush fund to be doled out to anyone supposedly “weaponized” by the previous Administration. This includes criminals who beat up the police on January 6.

Defenders of the slush fund, to be answerable to Trump, have drawn parallels to other funds, including the September 11 victims fund.

The September 11 fund was approved by Congress, administered with rules and hearings across the country by an eminent expert, Ken Feinberg. The recipients were deserving and enjoyed widespread public support. None of that is the case with this slush fund.

Still, Trump almost never backs down from a lie, he doubles down, another reason he gets away with it. In the style of his mentor Roy Cohn (or the Nazi and Soviet propagandists), he revels in big lies which strangely can be harder to knock down. Millions and millions of Americans today believe the certifiable lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Another factor, of course, is a Justice Department who sees its mandate to serve Trump who calls the shots. Congressional Republicans, fearful of incurring Trump’s wrath, have abdicated much of their responsibility.

Some of it is even in the Constitution. The Founding Fathers, in their wisdom with separation of powers and guardrails, didn’t sufficiently appreciate the possibility of a president who had no regard for the rule of law.

Politically, it’s catching up. In recent polls, half or more of Americans say the president is corrupt. As well as the cost of living and an ill-considered war, corruption will be a winning issue for Democratic candidates this fall.

Over the longer run this is not easily correctable. Michael Waldman suggests a constitutional amendment to end the ability of an unchecked president to issue corrupt pardons. The 14th Amendment, he notes, was a powerful antidote to the Supreme Court’s racist Dred Scott decision.

But it took a Civil War in between.

Occasional escapes are supposed to be good for your emotional health, which seems essential if following the Trump Presidency.

This week I’ve only paid glancing attention to Trump’s obsequious cabinet meeting, ICE pepper-spraying and tear gassing a United States Senator, as the new Homeland Security Secretary tries to find a job for his wife in the agency, or the Justice Department going after E. Jean Carroll who had the temerity of successfully taking action against Donald Trump for sexually assaulting her.

Instead, I had a rare week of escapes.

MONDAY: I focused on the New York Knicks clinching a spot in the NBA finals with an eleven game win streak. Usually I cheer against New York teams. The Yankees because they are the Yankees. Others with sleazy proprietors, the New York Mets owned by Steve Cohen, the St. John’s college basketball team coached by Rick Pitino.

The Knicks, the owner notwithstanding, are an exception. Three of the stars went to Villanova, my childhood team. Former Knick and former U.S. Senator, Bill Bradley, is one of my few political heroes.

They are fun to watch. There are a couple teams with more talent but their passion and chemistry is unsurpassed. My favorite is Josh Hart, who is not the best scorer or shooter, or anywhere near the biggest. He just makes things happen, rebounds, assists, steals, shots at crucial moments. He also went to my kids’ high school.

TUESDAY: My wife, Judy Woodruff gave the Herblock speech, honoring the great Washington Post editorial cartoonist during the annual awards ceremony at the Library of Congress. It was a fabulous speech on the importance of a free press and threats we face today. If you think I’m biased -- I am -- read it on the Herb Block Foundation website when it goes up soon.

Herb Block, more commonly known as Herblock, died 25 years ago after more than a half century as the conscience of America; he afflicted the comfortable and comforted the afflicted. He skewered Joe McCarthy in the early stage of the Wisconsin Senator’s demagoguery and later captured where Watergate was heading only days after the break-in.

With a biting and brilliant pen he went after bullies, racists, big money special interests. And he championed civil rights, the dispossessed, the underdogs. The winner of this year’s Herblock award, Jack Ohman, editorial cartoonist of the San Francisco Chronicle, is very much in the Herblock tradition.

The only down moment was the thought of how much today the country and the Washington Post, needs a Herblock.

WEDNESDAY: Courtesy of my wife’s PBS NewsHour colleague, Ali Rogin, we went to the next to last stop on Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s Land of Hope and Dreams American tour, which began in ICE-ravaged Minneapolis.

At 76 the boss shows the extraordinary energy, and brilliance, that most younger athletes or entertainers would envy -- nonstop, almost three hours, paying little attention to rain. The adoring crowd was swinging and singing the lyrics the whole time.

He pulled no punches on Trump, calling him “’reckless, racist, incompetent and treasonous” to a roaring reception. He led the crowd in chants of “Get ICE out now.”

There were emotional moments. After he sang the song he wrote dedicated to the citizens of Minnesota, the jumbo screen flashed pictures of Renée Good and Alex Pretti who were killed by ICE agents. There were lots of tears.

THURSDAY: Politics WarRoom, a podcast I do with James Carville, aired today. The guest was someone you’ve probably never heard of, but should: Chaz Molder, a Democratic challenger in a heavily Republican gerrymandered middle Tennessee district.

The mayor of a small town, a Sunday school teacher, a hunter and one of the most impressive and articulate guests we’ve had on the program in seven years.

He’s running against Andy Ogles, a right wing Republican incumbent, an advocate of Christian nationalism who wants to deport all Muslims. He has been caught lying about his education and background. He faced a criminal investigation for campaign finance fraud; the Trump administration dropped the case against the Republican lawmaker.

A district Trump carried by more than 20 points should be out of reach for Democrats even with a corrupt incumbent. But Chaz Molder is a very special candidate.

Watch Tennessee’ fifth congressional district this fall.

FRIDAY: Still looking for escape, my son and I are going to the Washington Nationals game tomorrow. After winning the 2019 World Series, the team unloaded some of its best players, and since has had one of the worst records in major league baseball.

Surprisingly, with young players, they’re doing better. While I doubt Nats Park will rock like it did the other evening for Springsteen, there’s hope for the Nationals. Even with a mediocre team, it’s baseball.

SUNDAY: We’re going to the John F. Kennedy Library’s annual Profile in Courage dinner. As usual, the recipients are special.

The people of the twin cities of Minnesota will be recognized for their courage in resisting the brutality and lawlessness of ICE agents, including murder. These folks banded together and never stopped resisting.

Jay Powell, the recent chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, will be honored for his courage in standing up for the independence of the Fed in the face of the incessant bullying of the White House. Trump not only viciously attacked Powell but threatened criminal action. Powell wasn’t intimidated and publicly took on the attack.

It was a week of fun, great memories, inspiration and hope.

Monday back to the darkness.

You know, I don’t agree with many of Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s policies, but I really respect the Georgia Republican as a pretty honest conservative. He’s not running this year, and the leading candidate that seems to win a june sixteenth Republican runoff is Burt Jones. Let me tell you a little bit about Burt Jones. Other than the R label, he is everything, Kemp is not.

He was not only an election denier and remains ones to this day, he was a leader in the effort to steal the legitimate twenty twenty election outcome. The now infamous Rudy Giuliani, found guilty of lying and smearing Georgia election poll workers, said he was relying on information provided by Jones.

Man, it is not easy to get to the dark side of Rudy Giuliani.

The twenty twenty election was totally legitimate, as every research study, lawsuit suit, recount, analysis, even from Trump’s own homeland security expert shows Joe Biden won, Trump was a loser. To claim otherwise is not just trafficking in a deranged conspiracy, it’s outright lying. Georgia has weathered some terrible governors in the past. I’m old enough to remember Lester Maddox.

But Jones, who Trump says is quote in my pocket, end quote, would disgrace a good state.

James and Al report on the Texas primary results and the opportunity to take advantage of a Blue shift following the controversial win of Ken Paxton, pressure Democrats to avoid the strategic mistakes of 2024, and game out how to win in other Red states in the wake of the gerrymandering war. Then they welcome Columbia, Tennessee’s Mayor, Chaz Molder, to discuss his congressional campaign against ultra MAGA Andy Ogles, the corruption of his opponent, how to appeal to independents and the other side of the aisle, and the evolution of Tennessee politics.

Email your questions to James and Al at politicswarroom@gmail.com or tweet them to @politicon. Make sure to include your city– we love to hear where you’re from!

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The midterms are going to be a blue tide for Democrats -- it’s a done deal to win the House and there’s a serious shot for the Senate -- somewhere between a current and a wave.

The margins matter, the difference between a narrow 10 vote or 25 seat margin in the House, and between 49 or 52 Democratic Senators in 2027. Obviously they must win in some Republican leaning venues; pending primaries will help shape that.

With the threat of Trump’s lawlessness, in most every instance the premium should be on electability. The party’s left wing celebrated the Philadelphia congressional primary win of Chris Rabb in an overwhelmingly Democratic district.

This is the sort of seat the left can win. They rarely prevail in the more competitive seats that determine majorities.

Rather than focus on a largely irrelevant Democratic 2024 autopsy -- the main reasons they lost was Joe Biden didn’t get out a year earlier and Kamala Harris was a mediocre candidate -- Democrats should heed the counsel of Barney Frank, who passed away last week: don’t let the left wing drive policies that “go beyond what is politically acceptable to most voters.”

Here are some of the races with important primaries:

ARIZONA CD 1: The two leading candidates for an open seat are Amish Shah, a physician, and Marlene Galán-Woods, who was a longtime broadcaster and the widow of a Republican Attorney General. There are few policy differences between them in the July 21 primary.

Shah only lost to a Republican incumbent by four points last time so you’d think he’d be the preferred candidate. But the Democrats’ campaign committee, labor, Emily’s List and prominent Arizona politicians instead have rallied behind Galán-Woods.

There is an explanation: electability. She is Hispanic -- as is 16% of the district; she has strong favorability from her decades as a broadcaster, and with her family Republican ties, Democrats believe she has crossover appeal with non-MAGA Republicans.

“She is the only candidate that can flip this seat,” says Janet Napolitano, former Democratic Governor.

MICHIGAN SENATE: For the Democrats to capture the Senate, they probably have to hold their own seats. They are in trouble in Michigan.

The Republicans have a good candidate, former congressman Mike Rogers, who barely lost in 2024 to Elissa Slotkin, a first rate candidate, better than any her party is running this time on August 4.

The Democrats’ two mainstream progressive candidates, state legislator Mallory McMorrow, and congresswoman Haley Stevens are battling for many of the same voters.

That is providing an opening for Abdul El-Sayed, a physician with a left wing agenda: embracing a single payer health insurance system, abolishing ICE, and campaigning with an influencer who has made many inflammatory comments. Republicans are salivating over running against him.

There will be pressure on one of the other two to bow out before the August 4 primary. I think McMorrow would be the stronger candidate but Stevens is the choice of much of the establishment.

CALIFORNIA 22: In response to the Trump-ordered Texas gerrymandering, California’s new congressional map favors Democrats in places like this Republican-held Central Valley seat. The incumbent David Valadao is resourceful and shows the few streaks of independence that make him harder to beat.

However he may have made a big mistake in voting for the “Big Beautiful Bill” which includes huge cuts in Medicaid. This is the most Medicaid dependent district in the country.

Of the two Democratic contenders, reading clips and talking to a few people, Randy Villegas, a professor, appears more knowledgeable on issues. But he embraces a more left wing agenda including a single payer health care system. The political problems with that position would give Republicans a likely counter to Valadao’s support for the Medicaid cuts.

Jasmeet Bains, a member of the state Assembly and a physician, favors building on the Affordable Care Act and may be better positioned to capitalize on the explosive health care issue. The primary is next Tuesday.
MONTANA SENATE: In the last two Senate elections in this state, Democrats nominated heavyweights, three term incumbent Sen. Jon Tester and two term Governor Steve Bullock. Both lost decisively.

Even in a good year, a D next to a candidate’s name in Montana is toxic. That makes it impossible to take advantage of a flawed Republican candidate, former U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme, who got the nomination by duplicitous default; incumbent Sen. Steve Daines surprisingly dropped out minutes before the deadline sealing the nomination for his pal, Alme.

There is one candidate who would have a chance: Seth Bodnar, running as an independent; he was President of the University of Montana, a West Point graduate, Rhodes scholar, Green Beret commander and is married to a pediatrician, a fifth generation Montanan.

The key here is whether whoever wins the June 2 Democratic primary, with no chance in November, drops out instead of taking potential votes from Bodnar. That’s what happened in Nebraska this spring. All the Democratic aspirants say they won’t drop out; Republicans are expending resources to help the Democrat most likely not to drop out.

They don’t want to go mano a mano against Bodnar.

NEW YORK 10: Incumbent Dan Goldman faces a primary challenge from New York City controller Brad Lander. The June 23 primary also is a Democratic proxy war between Governor Kathy Hochul with Goldman and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani who encouraged the Lander challenge.

Lander charges Goldman is too cozy with Israel as he is supported by the increasingly conservative American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). He actually is very critical of Benjamin Netanyahu and of the Iranian War.

The two would vote the same way in Congress but Godman would be a much more valuable member: He is an experienced investigator and interrogator -- an alum of New York’s U.S. Attorney’s office, southern district, and a lead counsel for a Trump impeachment in the House.
With Trump still in the White House, Democrats’ legislative initiatives will be limited. The premium will be on investigations of which there are limitless opportunities. There are few members of the House who possess the experience, discipline and rigor to do this well.
Goldman is one of them.

James and Al report on this week’s elections, breaking down Trump’s continued dominance in the Republican party, Democrats’ ability to win over party switchers, and an energized Black electorate. Then, they call out the miscalculations Trump made in the Iran war and expose the effect of media ownership on the political landscape before welcoming government accountability advocate Fred Wertheimer. They discuss Trump’s settlement with the IRS, the ways he’s enriched himself and his supporters, the difference between the Trump and Biden DOJ, and the dangers of corruption.

Email your questions to James and Al at politicswarroom@gmail.com or tweet them to @politicon. Make sure to include your city– we love to hear where you’re from!

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Fred Wertheimer: Twitter | Just Security | Wertheimer Lipton | Democracy 21

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Al appears on The Colbert Report

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When it comes to Trump and corruption, I made a stupid mistake. With the cryptocurrency shakedowns or the Qatar’s gift of 747 airplane to him or the scams of his son-in-law and sons, I thought, well, it can’t get worse. How naive.

Then this week, he and his former criminal attorney and new Pet Rock Attorney General Todd Blanch launched a $1.776 billion slush fund to be doled out any way they want to those supposedly quote, victimized and quote by the previous administration, which of course they weren’t. Whatever it claims, you know Trump will get his cut because he always does.

Maybe he’ll use some of that slush fund to create his own security army. Any hang gives. There are no limits. There are no disclosure requirements. It really is even worse because the ruse to create this slush fund was it was established in exchange for Trump withdrawing his $10 billion suit against the Internal Revenue Service for the leak of his pre-2021 tax returns.

Most everything about that suit was a fraud like most of his suits. The suit was filed after the statute of limitations expired and with the absurd notion the president suing an agency, the IRS, that he controlled, a judge was probably on the verge of tossing it out. So they pivoted very cleverly and very disingenuously and gave up nothing in launching this obscene slush fight.

It really is sleazy. In the 2016, let’s remember, this is the context, Trump promised to release his tax returns as every other president has done for the past 40 years. He reneged, not a surprise. And some of those returns later were leaked. Now we still haven’t seen the returns for the past five years, which he could put out any time he wanted to if he ever wanted to keep his word, but don’t hold your breath.

The focus now should be on challenging the Trump slush fund which will be overseen by the acting Attorney General Blanche, the quintessential apparatchik. There is no transparency required in this order. If Congress won’t do its job, which it should, and block this rape of taxpayers, then let the leaks begin.

When Jay Powell was named chairman of the Federal Reserve Board by Donald Trump it was seen as an ok, cautious appointment, though he lacked the credentials of his four predecessors. Fifty years earlier when Richard Nixon appointed the eminent economist Arthur Burns to the Fed it was universally acclaimed.

Today, Burns’ legacy is tarnished for capitulating too much to short term political pressure, the 1972 election, at a longer term cost.

Powell, by contrast, is a hero who stood up to a bully -- Trump -- to maintain the independence and integrity of the Fed. At the end of the month he will be presented the Profile in Courage Award by the John F. Kennedy Library.

The Powell saga tells a larger story about the importance of the central bank, the desirable relationship with the Treasury and senior lawmakers, as well as being instructive on standing up to a bully.

The central bank’s independence is intended to encourage critical monetary decisions based on what is deemed to be best for the economy and not political considerations. The Fed sometimes has failed on monetary and regulatory policies, agitating some presidents, including George H.W. Bush.

But until Trump, no president viciously attacked the institution and its chairman, seeking to illicitly force him out, even starting a phony criminal investigation.

In January when the Trump team sent out the subpoena on criminal charges, they thought this would be the intimidation that forced a frightened chairman to quit. They badly misread Powell’s integrity and courage.

Instead he, aided by his chief of staff Michelle Smith who has guided the last four Fed chairs with extraordinary skill and political instincts, went public over Trump’s extortion.

Powell then dominated the high ground, legally and politically. This ugly saga revealed a lot about the character of some prominent figures.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent showed he’s a coward.

The relationship between the Treasury secretary and the independent Federal Reserve chair is important for coordination and to try to be on similar pages, to not rattle markets. In 1999 Time magazine ran a cover story on Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin, his deputy Larry Summers and Fed chair Alan Greenspan entitled, “The Committee to Save the World.”

Bessent not only didn’t come to Powell’s defense, he piled on, pandering to the White House. He accused Powell of “fear-mongering” on tariffs, charged that Powell sought to “politicize” monetary policy while Trump was “committed to the independence of the Fed.”

When you tell lies like that it raises credibility issues on most everything else.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, of South Carolina, disingenuously suggested cost overruns at the Federal Reserve building expansion raised serious questions about Powell. A fellow cheap shot politician was Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno who accused Powell of “sabotaging working Americans.”

There were heroes, most prominently North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis who blocked the nomination of Powell’s successor until the Justice Department dropped its phony investigation. A few other Banking Committee Republicans, including Louisiana’s John Kennedy -- a pleasant surprise to me -- and South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds were more quietly supportive.

On monetary policy, there was criticism that Powell was too slow to react when inflation started to take off five years ago. It came both from Republicans and Democrats like Summers and Jason Furman, a top Obama Administration economist.

Furman says the criticism was correct but doubts it would have made much difference if Powell had moved faster. The economy survived COVID and other challenges without a recession. Inflation, even with Trump’s tariffs, was moving under control before the Iran war.

Furman, who is the new Summers, the establishment Democrats’ most influential economist, says Powell’s exceptionalism, his legacy, derives from standing up for the crucial independence of the Federal Reserve.

On May 31, Powell, along with the citizens of Minneapolis, will be recognized for his courage by the Kennedy Library.

Previous recipients included John Lewis, the great civil rights leader who never backed down in the face of brutal beatings by southern segregationists; President Gerald Ford for his politically costly, but correct, pardon of Richard Nixon, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has stood up to the Russian invasion for more than four years.

This is an inspiring collection of courageous leaders. Jay Powell belongs,

James and Al game out the gerrymandering war, call out the SCOTUS for its voting rights decision, declare inflation’s return as an election issue, and lament Trump’s imprint on the Republican party, with a look at how it all will affect the midterm elections. Then, they are joined by The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos in Beijing to discuss the Trump-Xi meeting, Taiwan, China’s ongoing rise, its relationship with Iran, and the AI war. Afterward, they welcome Paul and Stefanie Taylor to reflect on aging and the boomer generation’s legacy in our culture and politics.

Email your questions to James and Al at politicswarroom@gmail.com or tweet them to @politicon. Make sure to include your city– we love to hear where you’re from!

More from James and Al

Get text updates from Politics War Room and Politicon.

Watch Politics War Room & James Carville Explains on YouTube.

James Carville & Al Hunt have launched the Politics War Room Substack

Get updates and some great behind-the-scenes content from the documentary CARVILLE: WINNING IS EVERYTHING, STUPID by following James on X @jamescarville and his new TikTok @realjamescarville

Get More From This Week’s Guests

Evan Osnos: Twitter | The New Yorker | Brookings Institution | Website | Author

Paul Taylor: Pew | Website | Author

Stefanie Taylor: Website | Author

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