Pardon the PoliticsVerified

Sep 8 · 1h 47m

Got a question for the boys?!?This week it's just Manny and Chuck holding it down. With the mic split two ways, the guys build the hour around Manny's lane: constitutional authority, federal rulemaking, and the courtroom back-and-forth behind the fastest-moving voting-access story of the midterm cycle so far. Three storylines, one converging Friday, Trump's Executive Order 14399 and the USPS's brand-new mail-ballot verification portal (which, per a whistleblower, was built by two teams who each built their own kill switch without knowing the other team existed), North Carolina's State Board of Elections quietly rewriting four mail-ballot rules the same morning ballots hit mailboxes, and a fresh round of FBI voter-data subpoenas out of Nevada. Plus: the guys announce a four-state midterm special arc starting with North Carolina and Georgia, tease PTP's 100th episode and 2-year anniversary coming up in the next couple of weeks, and close with Spotlights on a new North Korea–Russia bridge and a scary weapons incident at an Ohio governor's-race campaign event.Topics covered:The national mail-in ballot fight: EO 14399, the USPS's 95-page final rule, a whistleblower's account of the portal build, and the injunction-court-injunction pattern headed to a September 8 Supreme Court briefing deadlineNorth Carolina rewrites its own mail-ballot rules: signature mismatch, unsealed inner envelopes, multiple ballots in one envelope, and who's allowed to hand-deliver, all passed as memos, not formal rules, on a party-line voteDOJ/FBI subpoenas in Nevada: 7 subpoenas over 9 months, a DHS nine-state voter-fraud “surge,” and a claim of nearly 16,000 non-citizen registrations that DHS itself walked down to 185 “potential” casesManny's Spotlight: an armed man rushes a candidate event in Ohio, and the real cost of political security, including former Gov. Cooper's quarter-million-dollar security billChuck's Spotlight: North Korea and Russia open their first road bridgeSupport the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Aug 31 · 1h 54m

Got a question for the boys?!?This week, Jeezy, Manny, and Chuck break down Trump's “biggest oil deal in world history” with Venezuela: 17 oil fields, 65 billion barrels of reserves, and a 25-year agreement that may not put a single extra drop at the pump anytime soon. Then the boys turn north as the U.S.-Canada trade relationship implodes: 50% tariffs, a rarely used 1930s tariff provision, threats to cut electricity to millions of American homes, and a Trump executive order trying to rename Lake Ontario. Plus: a rabies scare at a North Carolina petting zoo becomes this week's Pickle, and the guys close out with Spotlights on a controversial federal court ruling, the data center backlash spreading through statehouses, and a fight over early voting access at Greensboro's two largest campuses.Topics covered:Trump's Venezuela oil deal: 17 fields, 65B barrels, a 25-year term, and what Americans actually get out of itU.S.–Canada tariff war: Section 338, the Gordie Howe Bridge, and the “Lake America” executive orderPickle of the Week: a rabies exposure at a mobile petting zoo touches Iredell, Davidson, and other NC countiesManny's Spotlight: a narrow federal appeals court ruling making national headlinesChuck's Spotlight: the data center backlash spreading through governors' offices, plus a Fayetteville Woodpeckers shoutoutJeezy's Spotlight: Guilford County pulls early voting sites from NC A&T and UNC GreensboroSupport the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Aug 25 · 2h 10m

Got a question for the boys?!?Three stories. One pattern.The recall list is difficult to read out loud; a single jalapeño producer from Sinaloa had 431 people spread across 32 states placed on the list, 57 of them ending up in hospital as a result of that one ingredient passing through a distributor and then through the wholesalers, then the manufacturers, and then intoSalsa, pico and guacamole are available at Walmart, Target, Trader Joe’s, Kroger and Whole Foods. Chuck contends that the FDA is not incompetent;It is poorly resourced and this shows what has been cut. Manny retrieves the actual figures on the recall pace and asks if we are being sensational. In a sensational way, Jeezy poses the harder question: does the fact that it has been caught indicate the system is working, or does the fact that it has spread show it isn't? As for beef, the herd size is now the smallest it has been in around 75 years, ground beef prices have risen by about 57% over the last five years, and that is the answer.300,000 metric tons of imported ground beef, about 661 million pounds, with the out-of-quota tariff waived for 90 days. Make it clear that it is 25% below market price. No one will state where this figure comes from. Manny calculates how long that situation actually lasts. Republican Senators from the cattle-producing states are already raising objections, and the figures from the wild horse roundups came out the same week. Then forty trillion. The crew considers five options: growing it, cutting it, taxing it, reforming it, or getting rid of it through inflation, and Chuck chooses to grow it. We don't have the post-war conditions that enabled the 'out of it' theory to work the first time, so we should separate it from that theory by checking it against those conditions.Also included are the Pickle of the Week, three Spotlights, and one Bone Thugs cold open.Support the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Aug 17 · 2h 41m

Got a question for the boys?!?This week the boys got some things to say. The main event is Flock Safety: what it actually sells, who's buying it, who's funding it (and what else that money funds), the competition, the technology's failure points, the cities walking away, and exactly what North Carolina signed up for when the SBI's camera pilot went statewide on 78% of the state's roads. From there: Karoline Leavitt steps down as press secretary with no replacement named and under 90 days to the midterms; the USS Abraham Lincoln passes 260 days at sea with sailors going overboard and the President calling it “not nearly long enough”; Trump signs a childhood-vaccine executive order that has doctors fired up; and the crew closes with a rare shared Spotlight on the Trump family's new bank charter. Warning: the boys also take a minute near the end to talk about something closer to home.Support the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Aug 10 · 2h 39m

Got a question for the boys?!?This week on Pardon the Politics: Michigan's Democratic Senate primary came down to a coin flip. Abdul El-Sayed, a 41-year-old physician who lost a 2018 governor's race, barely beat Rep. Haley Stevens despite Stevens carrying endorsements from Gov. Whitmer, outgoing Sen. Gary Peters, and Schumer himself, and despite more than $60 million in outside spending working against him. More than 1.5 million votes were cast. Jeezy, Manny, and Chuck break down what a margin that thin actually proves, and Manny lays out a “duck-based messaging” theory of why Democrats keep misjudging their own base. Same night, in Michigan's 13th District, Donavan McKinney unseated incumbent Rep. Shri Thanedar.Then: Trump's Tantrums. Three separate fights, one pattern a narrower birthright-citizenship executive order weeks after the Supreme Court struck the first one down; a revived push to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook over the same allegations the Court already sent back; and a federal court blocking further construction on his $400 million White House ballroom, which Trump claims is a national-security necessity because part of it is a “fortified drone port.”PICKLE OF THE WEEK: Five months into the Iran war, the Pentagon is publicly asking weapons manufacturers to speed up production because the U.S. is running low on munitions. Jeezy's verdict: turning the world's largest military budget into the geopolitical equivalent of realizing you're out of toilet paper after you've already sat down.SPOTLIGHTS: Manny breaks down Flock Safety's license-plate cameras and North Carolina's new statewide ALPR law. Chuck goes deep on Iranian cyberattacks hitting U.S. water systems in half a dozen states and the CISA staffing cuts that left them exposed. Jeezy closes on Netanyahu rejecting Trump's own Gaza peace plan, plus a personal note: a beloved Houston spot from the crew's last guys' trip has closed for good.Links: linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | the1525studio@gmail.com | X: @PardonPolitics | Bluesky: @pardonthepolitics.bsky.social | IG: @PTP.podSupport the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Aug 3 · 2h 21m

Got a question for the boys?!?The boys are back from a much-needed break, and the world absolutely did not wait for them. This week on Pardon the Politics:Sen. Lindsey Graham's sudden death on July 11 touches off a fast-moving story with three threads: a memo to rename Joint Base Charleston to "Joint Base Lindsey Graham" landing just six days after his death (and a day before his own funeral), his sister Darline Graham stepping into his Senate seat by gubernatorial appointment, and a real debate between Jeezy and Chuck about the fiscal responsibility, and the timing, of the renaming push, tied back to the ongoing Department of Defense-to-Department of War rebrand.From there: Todd Blanche's stalled path to a permanent Attorney General post. His committee vote has now been postponed twice, blocked by GOP Sens. Cornyn (TX) and Tillis (NC) over Trump's $1.776 billion IRS settlement fund. A new vote is set for Tuesday, August 4th.Then Dr. Anthony Fauci's marathon Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, where he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times rather than answer a single question about COVID's origins — setting up a contempt-of-Congress vote on August 5th and a genuinely novel legal fight over whether a pardon for past conduct can strip your right to stay silent about it.PICKLE OF THE WEEK: Ken Paxton is trailing Democrat James Talarico in a new Fox News poll of the Texas Senate race, and 36% of Republicans say they're worried about his character.SPOTLIGHTS: Manny digs into Ken Paxton's second headache, a Texas AG investigation into LinkedIn's "ghost job" listings. Chuck takes on Georgia Senate candidate Mike Collins' refusal to answer questions about his son-in-law's documented white nationalist ties. And Jeezy closes it out with genuinely good news: Maryland and New York stepping up with expedited admissions and financial credits for hundreds of Howard University students disenrolled weeks before move-in.Links: linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | the1525studio@gmail.comX: @PardonPolitics | Bluesky: @pardonthepolitics.bsky.social | IG: @PTP.podSupport the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Jul 13 · 2h 28m

Got a question for the boys?!?NATO wrapped up its Ankara summit claiming unity, but only 5 of 32 members are on pace to meet the new defense spending target, and nobody can say what "winning" in Ukraine actually looks like. Jeezy, Manny, and Chuck break down the real numbers, Trump's clashes with Spain and the UK, and the Greenland push that won't die.Plus: Graham Platner's Maine Senate campaign implodes, and the Democratic Party scrambles toward a special convention. Breaking news hits mid-record, an update on Sen. Mitch McConnell's health, and the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham at 71. This week's pickle of the week: Rep. Ro Khanna gets surrounded by armed settlers in the West Bank, and it raises a bigger question about U.S.-Israel accountability. And three spotlights: a housing bill that became law without Trump's signature, the gutting of the Election Assistance Commission ahead of the midterms, and a fatal ICE shooting in Houston.Support the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Jul 6 · 2h 47m

Got a question for the boys?!?The Supreme Court closed out its term with four rulings in a single week. Trump v. Barbara upheld birthright citizenship 6-3, striking down the executive order. West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox left transgender athletics to the states. NRSC v. FEC struck down coordinated party spending limits 6-3. Watson v. RNC upheld mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, 5-4. The boys break down what each one actually means — and the constitutional thread connecting all four.  Then, America turned 250. 850,000 fireworks, a Sail Force in New York Harbor, and a Great American State Fair that the internet did not let live down. Jeezy and Chuck ask whether the country can tell its full history without flinching, and what the next 250 years are actually going to require.    Jeezy’s Pickle of the Week goes to Paul Pelosi and every driver over 70. Manny spotlights North Carolina’s $34 billion budget, the first in three years. Chuck salutes an Air Force major who protested the Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela strikes on the Capitol steps, in uniform, knowing what it could cost him. And Jeezy closes with a direct word for men who’ve never had the space to say they’re not okay.Support the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Jun 29 · 2h 37m

Got a question for the boys?!?NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed three congressional candidates, and all of them won. Two current members of Congress lost their seats, including one backed by Hakeem Jeffries. The hosts discuss what it means for a first-term mayor, just six months into office, to outperform the House Minority Leader in a congressional primary, and whether this has any impact beyond Brooklyn. The Supreme Court released three major rulings in one week, each decided by a 6-3 vote. Damon Landor, a Rastafarian man in a Louisiana prison, had his 20-year dreadlocks forcibly cut. The court agreed his rights were violated, but said he cannot sue. Another ruling ended legal status for 350,000 Haitians under TPS. Manny highlights Clarence Thomas’s comments, and Chuck explains the significance. In the asylum metering case, the court ruled that people standing on the Mexican side of the border have not technically “arrived” in America. Chuck reads the official definition of asylum. For Pickle of the Week, they look at North Carolina’s public school system, which is now the seventh-most-economically segregated in the country, 72 years after Brown v. Board. In the Spotlights segment: Manny covers North Carolina’s tampon tax bill, Chuck talks about Africa’s World Cup run in Atlanta, and Jeezy, a devout Christian, shares why he opposes Texas requiring Bible passages in public schools: “Faith is not faith if it’s forced. It’s just compliance.” S3E26.Support the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube