WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.040 Welcome back to The Deep Dive. It is Wednesday, 00:00:02.180 --> 00:00:05.940 February 4th, 2026. And I have to say, looking 00:00:05.940 --> 00:00:08.580 at the stack of research we have for today, I 00:00:08.580 --> 00:00:10.720 feel like I need a flow chart, a stiff drink, 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:13.080 and maybe a world map just to keep track of it 00:00:13.080 --> 00:00:14.960 all. It is definitely one of those weeks. We 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:17.359 are spanning the globe today. We really are. 00:00:17.399 --> 00:00:20.980 We're going from the terrifyingly quiet streets 00:00:20.980 --> 00:00:23.640 of suburban Minnesota straight into the gridlock 00:00:23.640 --> 00:00:27.059 of Washington. And then pivoting to high stakes 00:00:27.059 --> 00:00:31.339 crypto deals. In the UAE, no less, and then just 00:00:31.339 --> 00:00:34.100 to really top it off, we're ending with a bombshell 00:00:34.100 --> 00:00:36.340 report linking the Kremlin to Jeffrey Epstein. 00:00:36.420 --> 00:00:38.380 It really sounds like a conspiracy board when 00:00:38.380 --> 00:00:40.960 you say it all out loud like that. It does. But 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:43.200 our job is to connect these dots. We want to 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:45.640 see how a roof not getting fixed in St. Paul 00:00:45.640 --> 00:00:47.840 connects to a deal made in a palace in the Middle 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:50.490 East. Because weirdly enough, They are connected. 00:00:50.649 --> 00:00:52.609 They are. And I think the common thread here 00:00:52.609 --> 00:00:55.289 is this disconnect between the massive global 00:00:55.289 --> 00:00:58.549 maneuvering of money and power and the very real, 00:00:58.609 --> 00:01:00.770 very local consequences that are hitting regular 00:01:00.770 --> 00:01:03.369 people. So let's start on the ground. We've been 00:01:03.369 --> 00:01:05.590 following the news out of Minnesota, these intense 00:01:05.590 --> 00:01:08.829 ICE crackdowns. And I want to start with a correction 00:01:08.829 --> 00:01:11.269 or maybe a clarification from one of our listeners. 00:01:11.469 --> 00:01:14.480 Right. We had a listener, JS, write in. The national 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:17.260 media keeps splashing Minneapolis across the 00:01:17.260 --> 00:01:19.340 headlines. Right, as the epicenter. Exactly. 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:22.000 But JS points out that it's actually Columbia 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:24.180 Heights. Which is a suburb, right? It is. And 00:01:24.180 --> 00:01:26.260 the distinction really matters. You know, Minneapolis 00:01:26.260 --> 00:01:29.319 has resources. Columbia Heights is a smaller 00:01:29.319 --> 00:01:31.519 working class suburb. It doesn't have the same 00:01:31.519 --> 00:01:33.879 safety nets. And the community there is a specific 00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:36.859 target. It seems so. JS notes it has a large 00:01:36.859 --> 00:01:39.079 Ecuadorian population. Right. And they appear 00:01:39.079 --> 00:01:41.260 to be the focus of this whole enforcement wave. 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:45.549 And the details are just... Just. They're intense. 00:01:45.769 --> 00:01:48.569 We're talking about ICE agents allegedly targeting 00:01:48.569 --> 00:01:51.170 the Ecuadorian consulate and even local schools 00:01:51.170 --> 00:01:53.870 facing bomb threats. But the thing that struck 00:01:53.870 --> 00:01:56.510 me most in the research was the description of 00:01:56.510 --> 00:01:59.650 the atmosphere. It's chilling. Yeah, a reader 00:01:59.650 --> 00:02:02.269 made this comparison to 2020, the aftermath of 00:02:02.269 --> 00:02:05.090 George Floyd. And we all remember those images, 00:02:05.250 --> 00:02:07.590 right? The fires, the helicopters, the sirens. 00:02:08.189 --> 00:02:12.719 It was loud chaos. Constant noise. But this reader 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:15.280 points out that what's happening now is the complete 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:18.180 inverse. It's a terrifying silence. That's the 00:02:18.180 --> 00:02:19.960 phrase that really sticks with you. Terrifying 00:02:19.960 --> 00:02:22.759 silence. It's businesses just not opening. Streets 00:02:22.759 --> 00:02:25.060 that should be gridlock at rush hour are empty. 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:27.879 We have a report of a mental health professional, 00:02:28.120 --> 00:02:31.639 a U .S. citizen born and raised, who is now carrying 00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:34.460 his passport to the grocery store. Just in case. 00:02:35.060 --> 00:02:37.240 Because he's afraid of being picked up by mistake. 00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:39.560 Because the margin for error seems to have vanished. 00:02:39.789 --> 00:02:42.550 And that fear, it isn't unfounded. Did you see 00:02:42.550 --> 00:02:44.870 the report about the teenager at Target? I did. 00:02:44.870 --> 00:02:46.490 And I had to reread it three times to believe 00:02:46.490 --> 00:02:49.210 it. So a kid is working his shift. I see agents 00:02:49.210 --> 00:02:51.150 grab him, throw him in a van, drive him up the 00:02:51.150 --> 00:02:53.969 road, and then, oops, realize he's a US citizen. 00:02:54.090 --> 00:02:56.330 And instead of taking him back or, you know, 00:02:56.490 --> 00:02:58.590 apologizing, they just dumped him in a Walmart 00:02:58.590 --> 00:03:00.810 parking lot and drove off. It's efficient, I 00:03:00.810 --> 00:03:03.509 guess. Yeah. In the absolute worst way possible. 00:03:03.849 --> 00:03:05.650 But then right next to that horror, you have 00:03:05.650 --> 00:03:08.719 something that feels like a hallucination. Please 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:10.979 tell me the giraffe incident is real. Oh, it's 00:03:10.979 --> 00:03:14.500 in the police reports. A man wearing a full giraffe 00:03:14.500 --> 00:03:19.740 costume was violently arrested. Why? Was he hiding 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:21.840 someone or something? No, he was just making 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:24.639 fun of the agents, mocking the operation. And 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:28.080 the response was immediate physical force. It 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:30.840 just illustrates how high the tension is. But 00:03:30.840 --> 00:03:33.479 let's get to the so what of this. For the average 00:03:33.479 --> 00:03:34.979 listener who might be thinking, well, I'm not 00:03:34.979 --> 00:03:36.680 in Columbia Heights and I'm not undocumented, 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:40.900 the economic ripple effect is fascinating and 00:03:40.900 --> 00:03:43.099 scary. This is where it hits your wallet. Yeah. 00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:45.060 We have a source from the building materials 00:03:45.060 --> 00:03:47.500 industry and he is sounding the alarm for the 00:03:47.500 --> 00:03:50.599 rest of 2026. The roofing crisis. Exactly. You 00:03:50.599 --> 00:03:52.879 know, in the Midwest, summer brings hailstorms. 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:55.159 It's inevitable. Usually armies of crews mobilize 00:03:55.159 --> 00:03:57.439 to fix thousands of roofs. Right. The source 00:03:57.439 --> 00:03:59.539 is saying that with these raids, that labor force 00:03:59.539 --> 00:04:01.860 has just evaporated. So if a hailstorm hits St. 00:04:01.979 --> 00:04:04.639 Paul in July... There is literally no one to 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:07.460 fix your roof. Your insurance might cut the check. 00:04:07.819 --> 00:04:09.639 But if there are no hands to hold the hammer, 00:04:09.979 --> 00:04:12.280 your house just sits there leaking. It's a direct 00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:15.759 line from immigration policy to property value 00:04:15.759 --> 00:04:17.899 destruction. And this isn't just Minnesota, right? 00:04:17.980 --> 00:04:20.339 We're seeing similar reports out of Maine. Maine 00:04:20.339 --> 00:04:22.339 is seeing the same tactics. Smashed windows, 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:25.040 people dragged out of cars. But there's a specific 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:28.220 case in Maine that shows how wide this net is 00:04:28.220 --> 00:04:31.740 being cast. They detained a recruit for the Cumberland 00:04:31.740 --> 00:04:33.819 County Sheriff's Department. Wait, a recruit? 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:36.360 As in someone trying to become a cop? A fully 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:38.779 vetted recruit. The sheriff actually had to hold 00:04:38.779 --> 00:04:41.180 a press conference to explain that, yes, this 00:04:41.180 --> 00:04:43.459 person was legal. Yes, they were vetted. But 00:04:43.459 --> 00:04:45.839 the damage is done. The public just sees detained. 00:04:46.170 --> 00:04:49.329 assumes criminal. So it completely complicates 00:04:49.329 --> 00:04:51.970 the essential narrative that this is just about 00:04:51.970 --> 00:04:54.829 criminals and politically this seems to be backfiring. 00:04:55.170 --> 00:04:57.709 Massively. The sources indicate that Senate races, 00:04:58.050 --> 00:05:00.269 governorships in Minnesota and Maine places that 00:05:00.269 --> 00:05:02.949 were considered toss -ups are now moving toward 00:05:02.949 --> 00:05:07.550 solid Democrat. The local backlash to the disruption 00:05:07.550 --> 00:05:10.110 of daily life is actually shifting the polls. 00:05:10.610 --> 00:05:13.290 Which brings us to Washington. Because while 00:05:13.290 --> 00:05:16.089 the states are dealing with a fallout, DC is 00:05:16.089 --> 00:05:18.389 dealing with a budget fight. We're approaching 00:05:18.389 --> 00:05:21.189 the DHS cliff. Right, so the government is technically 00:05:21.189 --> 00:05:23.509 funded, but the Department of Homeland Security 00:05:23.509 --> 00:05:26.009 is the big exception. Their funding runs out 00:05:26.009 --> 00:05:28.730 in two weeks. It's always a cliffhanger. What's 00:05:28.730 --> 00:05:31.329 the standoff about this time? Well, Democrats 00:05:31.329 --> 00:05:33.829 want to put shackles on icy, restricting funds 00:05:33.829 --> 00:05:36.410 to stop exactly the kind of raids we just talked 00:05:36.410 --> 00:05:39.089 about. Republicans are countering with the Save 00:05:39.089 --> 00:05:41.769 Act. OK, the Save Act. We hear about this a lot. 00:05:42.230 --> 00:05:44.730 It requires proof of citizenship to vote. And 00:05:44.730 --> 00:05:46.550 I think a lot of listeners might wonder, what's 00:05:46.550 --> 00:05:48.509 the controversy? Don't you already have to be 00:05:48.509 --> 00:05:50.689 a citizen to vote? You do. It is already illegal 00:05:50.689 --> 00:05:53.050 for non -citizens to vote. The controversy is 00:05:53.050 --> 00:05:55.709 about the paperwork. The Save Act would require 00:05:55.709 --> 00:05:59.459 you to provide specific documentary proof, like 00:05:59.459 --> 00:06:02.160 a passport or a birth certificate, just to register. 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:04.100 And not everyone has their birth certificate 00:06:04.100 --> 00:06:07.259 handy. Exactly. Millions of Americans, often 00:06:07.259 --> 00:06:10.480 poor, elderly or rural, don't have easy access 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:13.240 to those specific documents. So Democrats argue 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:15.959 it's just a way to suppress legal voters. But 00:06:15.959 --> 00:06:19.819 here's the twist. The polling suggests Republicans 00:06:19.819 --> 00:06:22.800 might be miscalculating the public mood on this. 00:06:23.069 --> 00:06:25.610 The polling is really surprising here. It is. 00:06:25.850 --> 00:06:28.029 Aggregates from the New York Times, Fox, CBS 00:06:28.029 --> 00:06:31.189 all show that about 60 % of Americans think ICE 00:06:31.189 --> 00:06:34.910 is too aggressive or has gone too far. 60 % in 00:06:34.910 --> 00:06:36.930 this political climate. That's practically a 00:06:36.930 --> 00:06:39.170 consensus. That's huge. It suggests that the 00:06:39.170 --> 00:06:42.329 law and order message is losing to the this is 00:06:42.329 --> 00:06:44.889 too chaotic reality that people are seeing. And 00:06:44.889 --> 00:06:47.850 speaking of law and order. We have to talk about 00:06:47.850 --> 00:06:50.089 Don Lemon. I did not have Don Lemon arrested 00:06:50.089 --> 00:06:53.350 on my 2026 bingo card. No one did. He was covering 00:06:53.350 --> 00:06:55.889 an in -church protest against an ICE agent who's 00:06:55.889 --> 00:06:57.970 also a pastor. Which is a whole drama in itself. 00:06:58.110 --> 00:07:00.629 But the charge, the charge is what's really important 00:07:00.629 --> 00:07:02.069 here. They got him on the FACE Act. And this 00:07:02.069 --> 00:07:03.629 is where it gets really interesting legally. 00:07:03.810 --> 00:07:06.790 The FACE Act, Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, 00:07:07.069 --> 00:07:10.149 was passed in 1994 to protect abortion clinics 00:07:10.149 --> 00:07:13.689 from being blockaded. So a law designed to protect 00:07:13.689 --> 00:07:16.759 healthcare access. Why use it on a journalist 00:07:16.759 --> 00:07:19.879 at a church? The source analysis calls it a bank 00:07:19.879 --> 00:07:22.939 shot. The current administration hates the FACE 00:07:22.939 --> 00:07:26.899 Act because it protects abortion providers. So 00:07:26.899 --> 00:07:29.839 by applying it to a journalist, Don Lemon, they 00:07:29.839 --> 00:07:32.339 are trying to force a court case. Wait, let me 00:07:32.339 --> 00:07:34.339 see if I have this right. They are using a law 00:07:34.339 --> 00:07:37.740 they hate against a person they dislike in the 00:07:37.740 --> 00:07:39.720 hope that the Supreme Court will look at this 00:07:39.720 --> 00:07:43.319 bizarre application and say, this law is unconstitutional, 00:07:43.879 --> 00:07:46.879 thereby killing the very law that protects abortion 00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:49.720 clinics. That is the 4D chess move described 00:07:49.720 --> 00:07:51.980 by the sources. It's a way to kill the law without 00:07:51.980 --> 00:07:54.540 Congress having to act while also intimidating 00:07:54.540 --> 00:07:57.800 the press. It's a two for one. That is diabolically 00:07:57.800 --> 00:07:59.680 clever, if that's what's happening. It's high 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:02.100 risk. But it's a definite strategy. OK, before 00:08:02.100 --> 00:08:03.720 we leave the domestic front, we have to touch 00:08:03.720 --> 00:08:06.079 on the history lesson we got this week. Donald 00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:08.019 Trump issued a proclamation about the Mexican 00:08:08.019 --> 00:08:11.040 -American War. He did. On the 178th anniversary, 00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:14.199 he praised the reassertion of American sovereignty. 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:16.480 Reassertion. That implies we owned it before, 00:08:16.620 --> 00:08:19.399 lost it, and got it back. Which is factually 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:21.779 creative. Our historian source basically went 00:08:21.779 --> 00:08:24.279 through this with a red pen. First, the US had 00:08:24.279 --> 00:08:26.779 zero prior claim to that land. You can't reassert 00:08:26.779 --> 00:08:29.759 something you never had. OK. Second, Trump claimed 00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:32.240 battles happened in California and New Mexico. 00:08:32.899 --> 00:08:35.399 They didn't. Almost all the fighting was deep 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:38.779 inside Mexico. And finally, he glossed over the 00:08:38.779 --> 00:08:42.039 purchase. We paid $15 million, which the historian 00:08:42.039 --> 00:08:44.720 calls a pittance meant to dress up a conquest 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:47.539 as a real estate deal. So why does this matter 00:08:47.539 --> 00:08:50.559 now? Is it just bad history trivia? No, because 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:53.279 words have diplomatic consequences. This rhetoric 00:08:53.279 --> 00:08:55.539 is reportedly straining relations with Mexico 00:08:55.539 --> 00:08:57.840 right now, affecting trade, border cooperation, 00:08:57.960 --> 00:08:59.919 everything. You don't insult a neighbor you need 00:08:59.919 --> 00:09:01.860 help from by rewriting the history of how you 00:09:01.860 --> 00:09:04.279 took their land. Fair point. OK, let's follow 00:09:04.279 --> 00:09:06.320 the money. Because if the history is murky, the 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:09.039 finances are. Well, they're massive. We're seeing 00:09:09.039 --> 00:09:11.059 reports of the Trump family making billions. 00:09:11.240 --> 00:09:13.840 The scale is staggering. The journalist David 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:15.620 Kirkpatrick estimates the family has made at 00:09:15.620 --> 00:09:20.080 least $4 .05 billion in the last year alone. 00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:22.429 But let's start with a lawsuit. Because this 00:09:22.429 --> 00:09:25.870 one sounds like a joke. Trump is suing the government 00:09:25.870 --> 00:09:28.570 that he leads. He's reportedly suing the IRS 00:09:28.570 --> 00:09:33.169 for $10 billion and the DOJ for $230 million 00:09:33.169 --> 00:09:38.090 over past investigations. $10 billion. And when 00:09:38.090 --> 00:09:40.110 he was asked how that would work, since he's 00:09:40.110 --> 00:09:42.629 the boss of the defendant, he suggested he might 00:09:42.629 --> 00:09:44.990 work out a settlement with himself. and donate 00:09:44.990 --> 00:09:47.230 it to charity. Work out a settlement with himself. 00:09:47.509 --> 00:09:50.309 I mean, wow. But the real money isn't in lawsuits. 00:09:50.649 --> 00:09:52.990 It's in crypto. Specifically, a company called 00:09:52.990 --> 00:09:55.730 World Liberty Financial. It's a stablecoin company, 00:09:56.009 --> 00:09:58.210 partially owned by the Trump family. Can we pause 00:09:58.210 --> 00:10:00.049 there for a second? I think a lot of people hear 00:10:00.049 --> 00:10:02.710 stablecoin and their eyes glaze over. What is 00:10:02.710 --> 00:10:05.340 it, simply? Think of it like a digital casino 00:10:05.340 --> 00:10:07.700 chip that's always worth exactly one dollar. 00:10:08.139 --> 00:10:10.100 It's a cryptocurrency that's pegged to the U 00:10:10.100 --> 00:10:12.220 .S. dollar, so it doesn't fluctuate like Bitcoin. 00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:14.659 It's used to move money around very quickly. 00:10:14.860 --> 00:10:18.039 OK, so if it's pegged to the dollar and the president 00:10:18.039 --> 00:10:20.039 appoints the person who controls the dollar. 00:10:20.259 --> 00:10:22.519 You see the conflict of interest. Yeah. A huge 00:10:22.519 --> 00:10:25.960 one. But it gets much messier. Remember Changpeng 00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:29.320 Zhao? CZ, the crypto king. The former crypto 00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:32.460 king and a convicted felon. Yeah. He struck a 00:10:32.460 --> 00:10:34.580 deal involving World Liberty Financial that sent 00:10:34.580 --> 00:10:37.779 its value skyrocketing to over $2 .1 billion. 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:42.259 Then, in October 2025, Zao got a presidential 00:10:42.259 --> 00:10:46.059 pardon. So, deal, stock goes up, pardon. A very 00:10:46.059 --> 00:10:49.480 clean, very convenient timeline. But then, the 00:10:49.480 --> 00:10:52.919 UAE gets involved. Sheikh Tanoon, the spy sheikh, 00:10:53.240 --> 00:10:55.899 reportedly took a secret $500 million stake in 00:10:55.899 --> 00:10:58.440 the company just before the inauguration. Half 00:10:58.440 --> 00:11:00.580 a billion dollars. And right after that investment, 00:11:00.700 --> 00:11:02.919 the U .S. approved the sale of advanced AI chips 00:11:02.919 --> 00:11:04.919 to the UAE. Now, this is important. This isn't 00:11:04.919 --> 00:11:06.860 just selling them laptops. Why were those chips 00:11:06.860 --> 00:11:09.600 blocked before? Because of China. The Pentagon 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:11.419 was terrified that if we sold these high -end 00:11:11.419 --> 00:11:14.200 chips to the UAE, they'd end up in Beijing's 00:11:14.200 --> 00:11:16.539 hands. It was a hard no for national security 00:11:16.539 --> 00:11:18.879 reasons. But after the $500 million investment, 00:11:19.080 --> 00:11:22.340 the no became a yes. I mean, that's the literal 00:11:22.340 --> 00:11:24.179 definition of pay to play, isn't it? It certainly 00:11:24.179 --> 00:11:26.440 fits the pattern. And don't forget the envoy, 00:11:26.740 --> 00:11:29.639 Steve Witkoff. He reportedly got a $31 million 00:11:29.639 --> 00:11:32.940 cut just for setting up the deal. A $31 million 00:11:32.940 --> 00:11:36.080 finders fee. OK, but we have one more layer here. 00:11:36.620 --> 00:11:40.019 And this one. Look, we need to be careful, but 00:11:40.019 --> 00:11:42.820 the Daily Mail has dropped a report that if it's 00:11:42.820 --> 00:11:45.419 true, it rewrites the last decade of American 00:11:45.419 --> 00:11:47.919 history. This is the Russian Connection. The 00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:50.399 Daily Mail has an investigative report alleging 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:52.259 that Jeffrey Epstein wasn't just a predator. 00:11:52.759 --> 00:11:55.419 They claimed he was running a honey trap operation 00:11:55.419 --> 00:11:58.759 for the KGB and Vladimir Putin. A honey trap, 00:11:59.019 --> 00:12:01.659 meaning gathering blackmail on powerful people. 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:04.100 Exactly. Compromising them to give the Kremlin 00:12:04.100 --> 00:12:06.460 leverage. And the report alleges that Donald 00:12:06.460 --> 00:12:08.759 Trump was a primary target of this operation. 00:12:08.919 --> 00:12:10.639 And again, we're reporting on what the Delhi 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:12.799 Mail and these alleged documents claim. What 00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:15.399 exactly are they saying is in there? The documents 00:12:15.399 --> 00:12:17.500 suggest Epstein claimed he could give the Kremlin 00:12:17.500 --> 00:12:20.440 valuable insight into Trump. There's a quote 00:12:20.440 --> 00:12:22.779 where Epstein says the Russian ambassador, Vitaly 00:12:22.779 --> 00:12:26.269 Cherkin, understood Trump. after their conversations. 00:12:26.549 --> 00:12:28.330 And this pairs with the financial reliance that 00:12:28.330 --> 00:12:30.690 we've heard about for years. Right. We have those 00:12:30.690 --> 00:12:33.190 old quotes from Don Jr. in 2008 about Russian 00:12:33.190 --> 00:12:35.610 money pouring into their assets. But the report 00:12:35.610 --> 00:12:38.750 argues this leverage had real tangible consequences 00:12:38.750 --> 00:12:40.789 during the first term. This is the burning spies 00:12:40.789 --> 00:12:43.429 part. This part is genuinely horrifying. It's 00:12:43.429 --> 00:12:45.110 the most serious allegation in the whole piece. 00:12:45.889 --> 00:12:48.409 The source recounts an incident where Trump apparently 00:12:48.409 --> 00:12:51.129 revealed an Israeli spy to Russian officials. 00:12:51.370 --> 00:12:53.830 right in the Oval Office. And the CIA's reaction? 00:12:54.110 --> 00:12:57.029 Total panic. The report says the CIA had to pull 00:12:57.029 --> 00:12:59.690 a top -level source out of the Kremlin in 2017, 00:13:00.330 --> 00:13:03.389 a spy who had access to Putin's desk because 00:13:03.389 --> 00:13:05.330 they were terrified Trump would expose him. Just 00:13:05.330 --> 00:13:07.769 think about that. We burned our own highest -level 00:13:07.769 --> 00:13:09.549 asset because we couldn't trust our own president. 00:13:09.769 --> 00:13:12.190 It's a total collapse of the intelligence hierarchy. 00:13:12.649 --> 00:13:15.289 And we saw it publicly in Helsinki in 2018 when 00:13:15.289 --> 00:13:17.669 Trump met Putin and then physically destroyed 00:13:17.669 --> 00:13:19.590 the translator's notes. And what about Rand Paul's 00:13:19.590 --> 00:13:22.570 trip? Senator Rand Paul hand -delivered a private 00:13:22.570 --> 00:13:25.470 letter from Trump to Putin in Moscow in 2018. 00:13:26.370 --> 00:13:28.350 The report says that shortly after that letter 00:13:28.350 --> 00:13:32.590 arrived, CIA sources in Moscow just went silent. 00:13:32.789 --> 00:13:35.090 They went silent. Which usually means they were 00:13:35.090 --> 00:13:38.409 caught. Or worse. Correct. So does this leverage 00:13:38.409 --> 00:13:41.490 still exist today? The report offers a recent 00:13:41.490 --> 00:13:44.149 anecdote to suggest it does. Trump apparently 00:13:44.149 --> 00:13:46.950 asked Putin to pause the bombing of Ukraine for 00:13:46.950 --> 00:13:50.529 one week. And did he listen? He reportedly laughed. 00:13:51.070 --> 00:13:53.549 But he did pause a tax on key for a few days 00:13:53.549 --> 00:13:56.450 while ignoring the rest of the country. It shows 00:13:56.450 --> 00:13:59.429 this dynamic where the U .S. president asks for 00:13:59.429 --> 00:14:02.149 a favor and the Russian president grants a token 00:14:02.149 --> 00:14:05.230 gesture while laughing it off. Okay, that is... 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:07.299 That is incredibly heavy. We're talking about 00:14:07.299 --> 00:14:10.000 global treason and billions of dollars. But I 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:11.720 want to do a hard pivot here. I want to switch 00:14:11.720 --> 00:14:14.500 from this macro level nightmare to the micro 00:14:14.500 --> 00:14:16.500 level because the way people actually get into 00:14:16.500 --> 00:14:19.320 power is changing. We're entering what the sources 00:14:19.320 --> 00:14:21.840 are calling skeleton season. Skeleton season. 00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:24.139 Usually that means opposition research. But now 00:14:24.139 --> 00:14:27.259 it's about social media 2 .0. It is. We're seeing 00:14:27.259 --> 00:14:30.659 this new reality where digital paper trails from, 00:14:30.659 --> 00:14:32.700 you know, a decade ago are deciding elections 00:14:32.700 --> 00:14:35.220 today. Look at the Texas Senate race. The TikTok 00:14:35.220 --> 00:14:38.879 drama. The TikTok drama. A user dug up a video 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:42.019 alleging Democrat James Tolerico made disparaging 00:14:42.019 --> 00:14:44.200 remarks about his opponent, Jasmine Crockett. 00:14:44.580 --> 00:14:48.220 He allegedly called her not a formidable, intelligent 00:14:48.220 --> 00:14:51.299 black woman. Oof. That is not a good look. He 00:14:51.299 --> 00:14:53.120 says it was taken out of context, that he was 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:55.299 talking about campaign style, but the clip is 00:14:55.299 --> 00:14:57.960 out there. It's viral. Context rarely survives 00:14:57.960 --> 00:15:00.080 the algorithm. And then there's the Tiano singer 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:02.879 Bobby Pulido. Running for Texas District 15, 00:15:03.179 --> 00:15:05.919 a music legend. But he's getting hammered for 00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:09.340 an old, very vulgar social media post about Hillary 00:15:09.340 --> 00:15:12.320 Clinton and the actress Chloe Grace Moretz. You 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:14.019 know, the thing that strikes me is that in the 00:15:14.019 --> 00:15:16.639 past, a youthful indiscretion was something you 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:19.009 said at a bar. Maybe one person heard it. It 00:15:19.009 --> 00:15:21.529 was your word against theirs. Now it's a time 00:15:21.529 --> 00:15:24.389 stamp screenshot. It's a 4K video. Exactly. So 00:15:24.389 --> 00:15:27.429 the question becomes who can even run for office 00:15:27.429 --> 00:15:30.429 in 10 years. If you grew up on social media you 00:15:30.429 --> 00:15:33.210 have a public permanent searchable dossier on 00:15:33.210 --> 00:15:35.570 yourself. It might mean we end up with politicians 00:15:35.570 --> 00:15:38.509 who are either incredibly boring because they 00:15:38.509 --> 00:15:41.269 never posted anything or completely shameless 00:15:41.269 --> 00:15:43.590 because they just don't care. I think we're already 00:15:43.590 --> 00:15:46.289 seeing the shameless model taking the lead. I 00:15:46.289 --> 00:15:48.559 think you're right about that. So, look, we have 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:50.639 covered a massive amount of ground today. We've 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:53.360 gone from a giraffe suit arrest in Minnesota 00:15:53.360 --> 00:15:57.779 to a Supreme Court bank shot to UAE ship deals 00:15:57.779 --> 00:16:01.620 to Russian spies and finally to TikTok scandals. 00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:04.850 It's a lot to process. But I keep coming back 00:16:04.850 --> 00:16:07.429 to that roofer in St. Paul. Me too. Because when 00:16:07.429 --> 00:16:09.190 you look at this whole stack of sources, there 00:16:09.190 --> 00:16:12.649 is just this profound disconnect. You have billions 00:16:12.649 --> 00:16:15.190 of dollars flashing across borders in nanoseconds, 00:16:15.389 --> 00:16:18.590 crypto, influence peddling, spy games. The people 00:16:18.590 --> 00:16:21.750 at the very top are playing a game of risk. with 00:16:21.750 --> 00:16:23.529 the entire planet. And meanwhile, the people 00:16:23.529 --> 00:16:25.289 on the ground are just trying to keep water out 00:16:25.289 --> 00:16:27.470 of their living rooms. Exactly. The enforcement 00:16:27.470 --> 00:16:30.789 is happening down here. Intense, physical, face 00:16:30.789 --> 00:16:33.610 to face like the ICE raids. But the rule breaking, 00:16:33.970 --> 00:16:36.470 the massive consequential rule break, that's 00:16:36.470 --> 00:16:38.570 happening up there completely out of reach. It 00:16:38.570 --> 00:16:40.610 raises a really provocative question for everyone 00:16:40.610 --> 00:16:43.110 listening. We always say all politics is local. 00:16:43.549 --> 00:16:47.230 But in this era of social media 2 .0 and billion 00:16:47.230 --> 00:16:50.470 dollar transnational graft, does that still hold 00:16:50.470 --> 00:16:53.559 true? Or have we entered a reality where the 00:16:53.559 --> 00:16:56.799 scale of corruption is simply too big, too complex 00:16:56.799 --> 00:16:59.279 and too distant for the average voter to even 00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:02.679 process? Are we so busy worrying about the skeletons 00:17:02.679 --> 00:17:05.579 in a candidate's TikTok history that we miss 00:17:05.579 --> 00:17:07.940 the four billion dollar crypto deal happening 00:17:07.940 --> 00:17:10.640 in plain sight? Are we distracted by the local 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:12.900 while the global game is being rigged against 00:17:12.900 --> 00:17:14.579 us? That is the question we're going to leave 00:17:14.579 --> 00:17:16.819 you with today. It's a scary thought. It is. 00:17:17.059 --> 00:17:19.099 But that's why we do the deep dive to try and 00:17:19.099 --> 00:17:21.309 see the whole board. Thanks for listening everyone. 00:17:21.529 --> 00:17:23.829 We'll see you next time. Stay curious and check 00:17:23.829 --> 00:17:24.329 your sources.