The Politics Guys

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Trey is again joined by Ken and they start the show looking at the U.S. Justice Department’s recent indictment of, presumably, Tenet Media. Ken argues this demonstrates the Justice Department is taking Russian election interference seriously, while Trey suggests this kind of revelation can be a place for considering one’s media content consumption.

Next, the duo dives into Montana’s U.S. Senate Race between Republican challenger Tim Sheehy and Democratic incumbent Jon Tester. Ken believes there is a chance that Democrats pick up enough seats to offset probable losses, but agrees with Trey that that the better odds are on Republicans taking the Senate by one to two seats. Trey and Ken differ though in the end because Trey believes Republicans will hold the House and Ken argues New York is enough to tip the scales to the Democrats.

After that, they move to Hunter Biden’s last-minute guilty plea. Trey finds Hunter Biden’s commentary to come off as whining and Trump-like and, ultimately, a win for justice. Ken believes the deck was stacked against Hunter and has more sympathy for the aggressive prosecution.

Then it is a quick conversation about U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro’s violation of the Hatch Act. The hosts overview what happened and the history of the Hatch Act. They also delve into Trump’s attempt via Executive Order at circumventing the Hatch Act by creating a new level of employee: Schedule F.

The pair close the show by discussing the SAVE Act. Here Trey muses that asking for ID, although not necessary, is not an undue burden in modern society. Ken argues that it would increase disenfranchisement. Trey counters by suggesting it would follow to eliminate ID requirements in other areas, especially in banking.

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

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Trey and May begin by analyzing Harris’s CNN interview. Trey posits we have entered a new post-position political age. Both discuss the evolution of Harris and whether she has stayed true to her values while shifting her policies. The pair delve into the respective promises of both Harris and Trump on using opposing party members in their cabinet and their transition team respectively.

Next the pair dive into Trump’s evolution on abortion and his use of pro-choice phrases in his Truth Social Posts along with his rhetoric about wanting to extend abortion windows and his comment on Florida’s six weeks being too short. This leads to May asserting that the pro-life movement was not ready for a win while Trey contends that the common goal of ending Roe hid the deep disagreements in the pro-life movement.

They close by looking at the Trump indictment which attempts to separate his public and private actions. May believes that his actions were justified and will not meet the scrutiny of the Supreme Court and Trey sees a petulant child who could never accept election results that had not tended Trump’s direction.

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Check out the Sustainable Planet podcast, as well as the free Sustainable Planet Substack.

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

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Mike and Jay open with a discussion of the recently concluded Democratic National Convention. Mike notes that the tone of the DNC was far more upbeat and optimistic than the RNC, and attributes that in some part to the basic nature of Donald Trump. They also get into a discussion of the Democrats’ celebrity advantage and Jay’s theory as to why that’s the case.

Next up is RFK Jr. suspending his campaign and endorsing Donald Trump. Mike argues that in some ways RFK Jr. and Trump make strange political bedfellows, but that RFK Jr. seemed determined to leverage his small but potentially significant support into an administration position in either a Harris or Trump administration. Jay thinks RFK Jr is a long-time nut and that he’d be a horrible choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services.

They close with a look at the House Oversight Committee’s report on the Biden impeachment inquiry. Jay thinks Biden likely committed serious ethical and possibly legal lapses while vice president, whereas Mike is less certain and argues for the weirdness of even considering impeaching a president for things he allegedly did when he was vice president. That said, Mike feels that it’s good for Congress to look into credible accusations of favor-currying from presidential friends and family. Mike’s hope is that this impeachment-mania will end when Trump and Biden have left the scene. Jay isn’t as hopeful as Mike on that.

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Check out the Sustainable Planet podcast, as well as the free Sustainable Planet Substack.

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

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Jay, Justin, and Mike open with a discussion of the X conversation between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. They consider the ties between Musk and Trump, Musk’s move from left to right, and whether the event was a violation of campaign finance law as well as illegal worker intimidation.

This moves into a conversation of Elon Musk’s recent lawsuit alleging that an advertiser boycott of X violates antitrust law. Jay points out that it’s a strange claim in that there’s no apparent harm to consumers. Justin doesn’t see the lawsuit as having much likelihood of success, while Mike mentions that it’s an example of even more judicial forum shopping.

They close with the recently announced Medicare drug price reduction agreement. Jay has a problem with the nature of the negotiations but agrees that Americans have been paying more so that pharmaceutical companies can make up for lower prices in most other developed countries.

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Check out the Sustainable Planet podcast, as well as the free Sustainable Planet Substack.

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Castbox | PocketCasts | Overcast

Mike and Jay open with a discussion of Kamala Harris’ choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. While neither Mike nor Jay believes Walz will make much of a difference, Mike argues that he’s more of a “regular person” than Trump running mate JD Vance, and that Harris has a reasonable shot at winning without running with a battleground state running mate.

Then they turn to the state of the presidential race. Jay points out what he sees as the hypocrisy of Democrats’ “coronation” of Harris, a position Mike takes issue with. Mike has moved from near despair to cautious optimism now that Harris has replaced Biden on the ticket, while Jay sees it as still Trump’s race to lose, and believes Trump might even win big. They agree that Harris should hold a press conference, but Mike is willing to cut her more slack given all she’s had to do since Biden bowed out.

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Check out the Sustainable Planet podcast, as well as the free Sustainable Planet Substack.

Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.