WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.759 Welcome to the deep dive. Today we're setting 00:00:02.759 --> 00:00:05.200 aside the usual talking points, the outrage cycles. 00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:07.960 Our mission here is really to cut straight through 00:00:07.960 --> 00:00:11.000 all that political chatter. We want to identify 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:14.759 the core ideological fault lines and well, the 00:00:14.759 --> 00:00:16.699 institutional ones too, that are actually shaping 00:00:16.699 --> 00:00:18.879 what's going on. We've got a stack of sources 00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:21.399 here that Honestly, they tell a pretty cohesive 00:00:21.399 --> 00:00:23.500 story. It's not just about conflict, but maybe 00:00:23.500 --> 00:00:26.399 about institutional and ideological collapse. 00:00:26.539 --> 00:00:28.140 That's absolutely right. The material we have 00:00:28.140 --> 00:00:30.199 really give you a roadmap. It helps you understand 00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:33.359 not just who's winning elections, but what kind 00:00:33.359 --> 00:00:35.679 of political identity is actually gaining ground. 00:00:36.030 --> 00:00:38.530 on both sides. And crucially, we're pairing that 00:00:38.530 --> 00:00:40.950 with some frankly striking examples of institutional 00:00:40.950 --> 00:00:43.229 dysfunction, showing how these long -held norms, 00:00:43.429 --> 00:00:45.609 things like transparency, basic competence, how 00:00:45.609 --> 00:00:48.149 they're eroding fast and at the highest levels 00:00:48.149 --> 00:00:50.189 of government too. Okay, let's try and unpack 00:00:50.189 --> 00:00:52.070 this. Maybe start with the internal battles. 00:00:53.649 --> 00:00:55.869 The ideological struggle for the soul of the 00:00:55.869 --> 00:00:58.670 Democratic Party. Politico highlighted several 00:00:58.670 --> 00:01:00.929 primary races that seem to be testing the Democrats' 00:01:01.250 --> 00:01:03.090 future, and we've zeroed in on three that seem 00:01:03.090 --> 00:01:06.010 to reveal these, well, deep fissures between 00:01:06.010 --> 00:01:08.290 generations and ideologies. Right. Let's begin 00:01:08.290 --> 00:01:10.849 in Maine, the U .S. Senate primary there. Our 00:01:10.849 --> 00:01:13.209 sources read this one highly instructive, a five 00:01:13.209 --> 00:01:15.530 out of five, actually, because it just perfectly 00:01:15.530 --> 00:01:17.930 illustrates this conflict. You've got entrenched 00:01:17.930 --> 00:01:22.269 power versus progressive energy. On one side, 00:01:22.510 --> 00:01:24.689 there's Governor Janet Mills. She's the party 00:01:24.689 --> 00:01:27.689 establishment's pick. A moderate 77 years old, 00:01:27.829 --> 00:01:30.510 a known quantity, right? Four statewide wins 00:01:30.510 --> 00:01:32.810 under her belt. And the thinking from the establishment 00:01:32.810 --> 00:01:35.090 is pretty clear, isn't it? Her profile makes 00:01:35.090 --> 00:01:37.890 the general election simpler. It becomes a straightforward 00:01:37.890 --> 00:01:40.090 referendum on the moderate Republican incumbent, 00:01:40.329 --> 00:01:43.069 Susan Collins. They want stability, no surprises. 00:01:43.569 --> 00:01:45.750 Exactly. But then there's the disruptor, Graham 00:01:45.750 --> 00:01:48.890 Plattner. He's an oysterman. an outsider, decades 00:01:48.890 --> 00:01:51.170 younger, and the sources describe him as much 00:01:51.170 --> 00:01:54.010 leftier. He introduces what they call wild cards. 00:01:54.810 --> 00:01:57.269 And the party machine, well, it absolutely hates 00:01:57.269 --> 00:02:00.030 wild cards. What's fascinating here, though, 00:02:00.290 --> 00:02:02.819 is what the sources note. Nationally, this might 00:02:02.819 --> 00:02:04.840 look like just another rerun of the, you know, 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:07.019 Hillary versus Bernie dynamic. But the real insight 00:02:07.019 --> 00:02:09.300 here isn't just about youth versus age, is it? 00:02:09.460 --> 00:02:11.759 It's more about whether this national progressive 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:14.379 energy can actually overcome some deeply entrenched 00:02:14.379 --> 00:02:17.419 local demographic facts. Like Maine has the oldest 00:02:17.419 --> 00:02:19.979 median age in the whole country, 35 .1 years. 00:02:20.419 --> 00:02:22.460 That reality might just, you know, temper the 00:02:22.460 --> 00:02:24.460 fire of this progressive insurgency when people 00:02:24.460 --> 00:02:26.560 actually go to vote. Okay, moving south then. 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:28.520 The Tennessee 9th congressional district primary 00:02:28.520 --> 00:02:30.919 rated a 3 on the instructive scale. It shows 00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:33.860 that that same generational tension, but in a 00:02:33.860 --> 00:02:36.180 really different context. Here, the entrenched 00:02:36.180 --> 00:02:39.360 power is represented as Steve Cohen, white, 76 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:42.039 years old, going for his 11th term. And he's 00:02:42.039 --> 00:02:44.479 up against Justin Pearson. Pearson is black, 00:02:44.740 --> 00:02:47.520 half a century younger, and, well, significantly 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:50.560 more liberal. If that name sounds familiar to 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:52.699 you, it probably should. He was one of those 00:02:52.699 --> 00:02:55.460 Tennessee State House members who got expelled, 00:02:55.460 --> 00:02:58.759 remember, for speaking out, causing good trouble, 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:01.219 as they say. And then he was quickly re -elected 00:03:01.219 --> 00:03:03.659 by his constituents. He's really the ultimate 00:03:03.659 --> 00:03:06.300 activist candidate, isn't he? He is. And the 00:03:06.300 --> 00:03:08.259 factors working in Pearson's favor are pretty 00:03:08.259 --> 00:03:12.080 significant. The district itself is 60 .2 % black, 00:03:12.139 --> 00:03:14.259 so identity politics definitely plays a major 00:03:14.259 --> 00:03:17.870 role. Plus... Cohen is Jewish. The sources suggest 00:03:17.870 --> 00:03:20.210 that depending on how things unfold, particularly 00:03:20.210 --> 00:03:22.810 regarding Israel, this could create some political 00:03:22.810 --> 00:03:24.909 fallout that he's quite vulnerable to. So if 00:03:24.909 --> 00:03:26.909 we try to connect the dots here, whether it's 00:03:26.909 --> 00:03:29.490 that sort of quieter conflict up in aging Maine 00:03:29.490 --> 00:03:32.509 or the really fiery activism down in Memphis, 00:03:32.770 --> 00:03:34.789 these races seem to reflect this fundamental 00:03:34.789 --> 00:03:37.389 conflict. Moderation versus the demand for activist 00:03:37.389 --> 00:03:39.610 candidates, younger candidates, more ideologically 00:03:39.610 --> 00:03:41.710 liberal ones. Yeah, what really stands out is 00:03:41.710 --> 00:03:44.169 the Democratic base seems angry. And in Pearson's 00:03:44.169 --> 00:03:46.150 case, they're actively rewarding that visible 00:03:46.150 --> 00:03:49.669 activism. But doesn't the success or potential 00:03:49.669 --> 00:03:52.729 success of a good trouble candidate like Pearson 00:03:52.729 --> 00:03:55.490 maybe suggest something? Like this demand for 00:03:55.490 --> 00:03:57.550 activist politicians might actually be a better 00:03:57.550 --> 00:04:00.169 measure of party health than just sticking to 00:04:00.169 --> 00:04:02.889 moderation. It certainly suggests a higher tolerance 00:04:02.889 --> 00:04:05.789 for risk, maybe. Yeah. Before we move on, we 00:04:05.789 --> 00:04:08.169 should probably just quickly touch on the California 00:04:08.169 --> 00:04:12.349 gubernatorial race. Our sources rate it as minimally 00:04:12.349 --> 00:04:14.490 instructive, a one, even with that crowded field. 00:04:14.849 --> 00:04:16.970 The reason they rate California so low is basically 00:04:16.970 --> 00:04:19.930 because their primary system, that nonpartisan 00:04:19.930 --> 00:04:23.470 top two system, it often produces outcomes. driven 00:04:23.470 --> 00:04:25.689 more by local stuff, personalities, rather than 00:04:25.689 --> 00:04:27.750 being a clear signal of national ideological 00:04:27.750 --> 00:04:29.230 trends. You know, what happens in California 00:04:29.230 --> 00:04:31.170 often stays in California, politically speaking. 00:04:31.569 --> 00:04:33.829 Precisely. OK, so let's leave the primaries for 00:04:33.829 --> 00:04:37.250 now and pivot. Let's look at this idea of systemic 00:04:37.250 --> 00:04:40.470 breakdown in established institutions. We really 00:04:40.470 --> 00:04:42.889 need to examine two areas where these norms, 00:04:43.829 --> 00:04:46.550 transparency, basic competence seem to be, well, 00:04:46.850 --> 00:04:49.750 breaking down. the Pentagon and Department of 00:04:49.750 --> 00:04:53.009 Justice. Yeah, the Pentagon situation, it's particularly 00:04:53.009 --> 00:04:55.689 alarming, I think, because it hits right at the 00:04:55.689 --> 00:04:57.589 freedom of the press. You had the entire press 00:04:57.589 --> 00:05:00.470 pool, except for one reporter from OANN, which 00:05:00.470 --> 00:05:03.529 is a conservative outlet. They all declined to 00:05:03.529 --> 00:05:05.430 sign this pledge that the Secretary of Defense, 00:05:05.649 --> 00:05:07.949 Pete Hegseth, demanded. And the policy itself 00:05:07.949 --> 00:05:11.040 is, well, radical. This pledge would grant Hegseth 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:13.360 and his staff, and I'm quoting here, complete 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:15.399 control over the information reporters could 00:05:15.399 --> 00:05:18.259 use. And if you broke the rules, you faced being 00:05:18.259 --> 00:05:21.579 deemed a security threat. President Trump, maybe 00:05:21.579 --> 00:05:23.740 unsurprisingly, supports the policy. He said 00:05:23.740 --> 00:05:25.839 Hegseth finds the press to be very disruptive 00:05:25.839 --> 00:05:28.660 in terms of world peace. OK, but why? Why now? 00:05:28.779 --> 00:05:30.720 After decades of standard operating procedures, 00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:34.279 why would the DOD suddenly push for such an extreme 00:05:34.279 --> 00:05:36.800 policy? That's really the core question, isn't 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:38.899 it? And here we have to lean on the analysis 00:05:38.899 --> 00:05:42.740 from Tom Bowman, the former military correspondent, 00:05:42.779 --> 00:05:45.560 and also retired General Mark Hurtling. Bowman 00:05:45.560 --> 00:05:48.420 reminds us about Thomas Jefferson, right? Establishing 00:05:48.420 --> 00:05:50.759 the critical role of the press, Jefferson said, 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:53.360 our liberty depends on its freedom, and that 00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:55.500 cannot be limited without being lost. Right. 00:05:55.519 --> 00:05:57.860 And this is where the Hurtling analysis becomes 00:05:57.860 --> 00:06:00.120 really important. Hurtling highlights the real 00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:03.199 danger. He says, this policy collapses a vital 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:05.430 distinction. The difference between essential 00:06:05.430 --> 00:06:08.290 operational security, which, you know, genuinely 00:06:08.290 --> 00:06:11.430 protects missions and personnel, and what he 00:06:11.430 --> 00:06:14.850 calls poisonous institutional protection. Institutional 00:06:14.850 --> 00:06:16.649 protection. Yeah, basically shielding the organization 00:06:16.649 --> 00:06:20.290 itself from scrutiny or embarrassment. Hurtling 00:06:20.290 --> 00:06:23.389 argues this is toxic to public trust and actually 00:06:23.389 --> 00:06:25.410 runs against the interests of the DOD itself. 00:06:26.129 --> 00:06:29.230 That distinction, security versus just self -protection, 00:06:29.329 --> 00:06:32.449 that feels absolutely crucial. OK, now let's 00:06:32.449 --> 00:06:35.370 turn to the Justice Department. A different kind 00:06:35.370 --> 00:06:37.529 of institutional failure seemed to be on display 00:06:37.529 --> 00:06:40.670 there, more like sheer unpreparedness maybe, 00:06:41.009 --> 00:06:43.470 especially during the prosecution of former FBI 00:06:43.470 --> 00:06:46.850 Director James Comey. Oh, the arraignment was 00:06:46.850 --> 00:06:50.930 chaotic, to put it mildly. The prosecutors, Gabriel 00:06:50.930 --> 00:06:53.750 Diaz and Nathaniel Tyler Lemons, they were apparently 00:06:53.750 --> 00:06:56.529 clearly caught off guard when the judge, Michael 00:06:56.529 --> 00:06:59.610 Nockmanoff, just set a trial date. January 5th. 00:06:59.610 --> 00:07:01.529 And they actually admitted it to the judge that 00:07:01.529 --> 00:07:03.509 they were quote only just starting to get their 00:07:03.509 --> 00:07:05.689 hands around the case. I mean why why would the 00:07:05.689 --> 00:07:07.529 prosecution bring an indictment on a case that's 00:07:07.529 --> 00:07:08.930 five years old if they weren't even ready to 00:07:08.930 --> 00:07:11.170 lay out the core charges? Is this source suggesting 00:07:11.170 --> 00:07:14.610 this was just like political theater? Well the 00:07:14.610 --> 00:07:16.629 sources strongly suggest something more than 00:07:16.629 --> 00:07:19.470 just simple incompetence. It points towards a 00:07:19.470 --> 00:07:23.290 system that's maybe more focused on the spectacle 00:07:23.290 --> 00:07:26.069 of the indictment itself rather than the actual 00:07:26.069 --> 00:07:29.410 rigor of the prosecution. And the judge was clearly 00:07:29.410 --> 00:07:32.509 incredulous and irritated, according to the reports, 00:07:33.129 --> 00:07:35.110 refused to delay the trial, even when they brought 00:07:35.110 --> 00:07:37.430 up classified material issues. It showed his 00:07:37.430 --> 00:07:40.329 frustration with the prosecution just being completely 00:07:40.329 --> 00:07:42.970 unprepared. And the defense attorney, Pat Fitzgerald, 00:07:43.129 --> 00:07:45.050 he's obviously jumping all over this, right? 00:07:45.170 --> 00:07:47.949 Demanding extensive discovery, pointing out the 00:07:47.949 --> 00:07:50.170 indictment doesn't even specify the exact false 00:07:50.170 --> 00:07:52.810 statement Comey supposedly made. The defense 00:07:52.810 --> 00:07:54.550 team is basically saying they're in the dark 00:07:54.550 --> 00:07:57.449 about what they're even defending against. Which, 00:07:57.629 --> 00:08:00.569 yeah, that speaks volumes about how hastily this 00:08:00.569 --> 00:08:02.129 case might have been brought. It really paints 00:08:02.129 --> 00:08:04.230 a picture, doesn't it? A justice department may 00:08:04.230 --> 00:08:07.519 be under pressure. Where the institutional norms, 00:08:07.720 --> 00:08:10.540 requiring competence, due diligence before an 00:08:10.540 --> 00:08:13.379 indictment, maybe those got significantly neglected 00:08:13.379 --> 00:08:16.199 here. Okay, so if institutions that are designed 00:08:16.199 --> 00:08:18.680 for accountability, for transparency, are showing 00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:21.160 this level of breakdown, maybe we shouldn't be 00:08:21.160 --> 00:08:23.220 too surprised that political identity itself 00:08:23.220 --> 00:08:25.480 seems to be collapsing, or at least getting very 00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:28.379 weird. Which brings us to what our source is 00:08:28.379 --> 00:08:32.009 called Freaky Tuesday. Politicians adopting these 00:08:32.009 --> 00:08:35.470 completely unexpected ideological personas. Yeah, 00:08:35.549 --> 00:08:37.669 this phenomenon really shows the instability, 00:08:37.750 --> 00:08:40.570 maybe, of modern political philosophy. Just look 00:08:40.570 --> 00:08:42.950 at Speaker Mike Johnson. He used to be known 00:08:42.950 --> 00:08:45.669 for kind of mixing the statesman persona with 00:08:45.669 --> 00:08:48.110 the partisan, splitting the difference between 00:08:48.110 --> 00:08:51.509 the GOP factions. Now, though, the sources say 00:08:51.509 --> 00:08:54.450 he is fully channeling his inner Donald Trump, 00:08:54.850 --> 00:08:57.019 just trying to maintain power. And you can see 00:08:57.019 --> 00:08:59.019 the shift in specific things he said and done, 00:08:59.240 --> 00:09:01.759 right? Like calling the COVID era Obamacare subsidies 00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:04.740 a boondoggle and claiming incorrectly, according 00:09:04.740 --> 00:09:06.960 to the sources analysis, that they actually increase 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:09.700 insurance costs for everyone, which isn't true. 00:09:10.179 --> 00:09:13.120 He also declared that a Marxist ideology is taking 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:15.360 over the Democrat Party. And for the first time 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:17.399 ever as speaker, he actually went and participated 00:09:17.399 --> 00:09:19.980 in a Freedom Caucus meeting. Right. And this 00:09:19.980 --> 00:09:23.399 rightward populist turn. Our sources interpret 00:09:23.399 --> 00:09:25.700 it not as some kind of philosophical awakening, 00:09:25.799 --> 00:09:28.659 no. They see it as purely transactional. A commitment 00:09:28.659 --> 00:09:33.740 to kissing Major Magier posterior because he 00:09:33.740 --> 00:09:35.879 fears a rebellion from the hard right more than 00:09:35.879 --> 00:09:38.460 he fears losing any moderates. It's a calculation. 00:09:38.759 --> 00:09:40.620 Okay, but then the plot really thickens when 00:09:40.620 --> 00:09:42.580 you look at Marjorie Taylor Greene because she 00:09:42.580 --> 00:09:47.240 seems to have simultaneously adopted this startlingly 00:09:47.240 --> 00:09:50.080 left -wing populist persona. It's quite something. 00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:52.659 She's been all over the map. calling for Obamacare 00:09:52.659 --> 00:09:54.980 subsidies to be extended, declaring the Gaza 00:09:54.980 --> 00:09:58.360 situation a genocide. She's lambasted ICE raids, 00:09:58.919 --> 00:10:01.399 calling for a smarter plan than just mass deportations. 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:03.460 And she's even calling for an end to the Senate 00:10:03.460 --> 00:10:06.200 filibuster, blaming weak Republican men for the 00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:08.259 gridlock. I mean, that's a list of positions. 00:10:08.299 --> 00:10:10.539 You could genuinely hear that from a progressive 00:10:10.539 --> 00:10:13.120 Democrat running on an economic copulous platform. 00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:16.379 It's wild. Yeah. And the source analysis concludes 00:10:16.379 --> 00:10:21.409 this ideological fluidity. It isn't a sign the 00:10:21.409 --> 00:10:24.190 Magier coalition is cracking, not really. Instead, 00:10:24.490 --> 00:10:26.909 Green, much like Trump perhaps, seems to lack 00:10:26.909 --> 00:10:29.850 a really coherent, grounded philosophy. Her actions 00:10:29.850 --> 00:10:32.970 seem driven by emotion, maybe, and immediate 00:10:32.970 --> 00:10:35.809 tactical advantage. So the real identity swap, 00:10:35.909 --> 00:10:38.490 the sources argue, is this kind of freaky threesome, 00:10:39.110 --> 00:10:40.669 where Johnson starts sounding like the hard right 00:10:40.669 --> 00:10:43.149 Green and Green starts sounding like a left -wing 00:10:43.149 --> 00:10:45.370 populist, all driven by different pressures of 00:10:45.370 --> 00:10:47.970 power. Okay, finally, let's try and connect this 00:10:47.970 --> 00:10:50.169 theme of institutional instability back to the 00:10:50.169 --> 00:10:53.250 actual mechanics of democracy. There is a significant 00:10:53.250 --> 00:10:55.590 legal development affecting voting in Pennsylvania. 00:10:55.990 --> 00:10:57.769 Right. This involves the federal court of appeals. 00:10:58.190 --> 00:11:00.789 They denied a GOP effort to revive a challenge 00:11:00.789 --> 00:11:03.409 to Pennsylvania's rule about dates on mail -in 00:11:03.409 --> 00:11:06.230 ballots, the date instruction rule. This rule 00:11:06.230 --> 00:11:08.009 basically said counties couldn't tally ballots 00:11:08.009 --> 00:11:10.230 if the outer envelope was undated or had the 00:11:10.230 --> 00:11:12.049 wrong date, even if the ballot itself arrived 00:11:12.049 --> 00:11:14.580 on time. And the original judge, who was actually 00:11:14.580 --> 00:11:17.240 a Trump appointee, ruled that this requirement 00:11:17.240 --> 00:11:19.440 violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments, 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:22.679 called it an undue burden on the right to vote. 00:11:24.039 --> 00:11:27.320 Essentially saying a technical error, one that's 00:11:27.320 --> 00:11:28.820 unrelated to whether the ballot was submitted 00:11:28.820 --> 00:11:31.779 on time, shouldn't disenfranchise a voter. Exactly. 00:11:31.929 --> 00:11:34.929 The appeals court ultimately upheld that initial 00:11:34.929 --> 00:11:38.070 ruling, but the vote was close, an eight to six 00:11:38.070 --> 00:11:40.409 decision against rehearing the case on bank. 00:11:40.889 --> 00:11:44.129 And that dissent is revealing. The six dissenting 00:11:44.129 --> 00:11:46.889 judges argued that a brand new Pennsylvania Supreme 00:11:46.889 --> 00:11:49.090 Court ruling had kind of eliminated the need 00:11:49.090 --> 00:11:51.639 for federal intervention anymore. How so? How 00:11:51.639 --> 00:11:53.960 did the state ruling change things? Well, the 00:11:53.960 --> 00:11:56.179 new state ruling requires county officials to 00:11:56.179 --> 00:11:58.580 actually notify voters if there's a defect, like 00:11:58.580 --> 00:12:00.879 a missing date, and give them a chance to fix 00:12:00.879 --> 00:12:03.159 it, to cure the defect. So because the state 00:12:03.159 --> 00:12:05.899 now provides this fix, the dissenting federal 00:12:05.899 --> 00:12:08.480 judges argued that the undue burden the federal 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:10.529 district judge originally cited... Well, it's 00:12:10.529 --> 00:12:12.610 been fixed at the state level now, making the 00:12:12.610 --> 00:12:14.830 federal injunction unnecessary. It's a really 00:12:14.830 --> 00:12:16.970 nuanced legal fight over who gets to set the 00:12:16.970 --> 00:12:20.669 rules for fixing ballot mechanics. Wow. OK, so 00:12:20.669 --> 00:12:23.970 today we've covered quite a bit. The fierce struggle 00:12:23.970 --> 00:12:27.769 for the ideological soul of the Democratic Party, 00:12:28.230 --> 00:12:30.850 the decay, maybe, of institutional competence 00:12:30.850 --> 00:12:33.629 shown by the Pentagon transparency issue and 00:12:33.629 --> 00:12:37.169 the DOJ's, well, haphazard prosecution and the 00:12:37.169 --> 00:12:40.200 surprising fluidity of political identity. with 00:12:40.200 --> 00:12:42.539 Johnson and Green doing their freaky Tuesday 00:12:42.539 --> 00:12:45.019 swap. Yeah and what really stands out I think 00:12:45.019 --> 00:12:47.940 across all these different stories is this recurring 00:12:47.940 --> 00:12:50.929 theme, boundary pushing. And critically, maybe 00:12:50.929 --> 00:12:53.169 a lack of immediate accountability. Remember, 00:12:53.289 --> 00:12:55.470 our sources also discuss that scandal involving 00:12:55.470 --> 00:12:58.529 those thousands of vile text messages, racist, 00:12:58.669 --> 00:13:00.490 anti -Semitic sent by young Republican leaders. 00:13:00.990 --> 00:13:02.789 And the source predicted pretty bluntly that 00:13:02.789 --> 00:13:05.090 these individuals will suffer no real consequences. 00:13:05.190 --> 00:13:07.649 They'll surely be allowed to continue as young 00:13:07.649 --> 00:13:09.750 Republican influencers. That prediction, that 00:13:09.750 --> 00:13:11.610 feeling of impunity, it connects strictly back, 00:13:11.610 --> 00:13:13.669 doesn't it? To the Pentagon policy trying to 00:13:13.669 --> 00:13:16.289 shield itself, the DOJ bringing a case maybe 00:13:16.289 --> 00:13:20.450 without full preparation. It does. So, if the 00:13:20.450 --> 00:13:22.129 sources are suggesting across these different 00:13:22.129 --> 00:13:25.490 contexts that there are effectively no real consequences 00:13:25.490 --> 00:13:29.330 for people engaging in really vile rhetoric or 00:13:29.330 --> 00:13:31.409 actively pushing the boundaries of institutional 00:13:31.409 --> 00:13:33.409 behavior, what does that tell you? What does 00:13:33.409 --> 00:13:36.009 it tell you about the future standard for political 00:13:36.009 --> 00:13:38.450 accountability, for leadership in America? What 00:13:38.450 --> 00:13:41.730 norms, if any, are left that seem universally 00:13:41.730 --> 00:13:43.710 enforceable? Something definitely for you to 00:13:43.710 --> 00:13:45.830 mull over as you navigate the news this week. 00:13:46.129 --> 00:13:47.909 Thank you for diving deep with us today.