This IHIP News episode runs through a rapid-fire round of political news following the midterm losses. The hosts discuss Donald Trump's reaction to the results and his lawsuits over mail ballots, the wave of resignations from the Justice Department, and remarks by Mitch McConnell and JD Vance.
They also react to New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani's Fox News interview about democratic socialism. Listeners will hear the hosts' commentary and arguments, which are their own opinions rather than established facts, along with the context they offer for each story.
In this episode Jennifer Welch, Josh Welch
This IHIP News episode on midterm fallout and Justice Department resignations was made with HappyScribe technology, the same used for Zoom transcription.
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All right, ride on schedule. You know, Trump was paralyzed at the results—Texas is blue, Kansas is blue, Iowa, South Carolina, a complete repudiation of all things MAGA last Tuesday. For like a day or two there, he like took it on the chin. And I was like, hmm, is this growth? No. Old Habits Die Hard popped this up: "Trump, does anybody really believe that this election(s) was honest?
How could the polls be so wrong?" Some early voting dumps were so large that it was impossible to win. No matter how many people went to vote, it's all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter. President DJT, he just cannot help himself. And it's interesting—if you guys will go watch my Sunday interview with a historian and authoritarian expert, Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiot, I said, "He seems to be taken on the chin." And she said, "No, he's brooding, and he'll eventually start with the conspiracy theories."
Two days later, here we are.
And I'm going to argue that he never acted as if he was going to take it on the chin. He tried to sue in 27 different lawsuits—states—to get their mail ballots, voting ballots, and lost every single one of them. He weaponized DOJ and threatened and intimidated state and local officials. But think about this: under his theory, the way he thinks that the Democrats cheated—think about this—we would have to have infiltrated red states with red Secretary of State, you know, red governors, up and down the ticket.
And then we would have had just barely lose two or three races, like Angie Nixon's or someone else, just close enough to where it looked like it was we might put out, but we didn't. We'd have had to have orchestrated all of that. And the guy's a narcissist. So he—it doesn't sink into him that, hey, maybe I suck, maybe my policies suck, maybe people are just mad, maybe they don't like me. You know, he can't consider that fact. That's not on the table for him.
No, it's a great point. And the Democrats need to start immediately playing offense. This is a time to immediate play offense and say, "Oh, yeah, Greg Abbott let us come in and get all the voting machines."
Imagine Texas, yeah.
And Ken Paxton. They just said, "Here, guys, go ahead. Just rig it up." But yeah, make sure Tellurico beats Ken Paxton by 20. I mean, make it big while you're in there.
We can be invisible.
Yeah. I mean, it's just so ridiculous, these people. All right, moving along. JD Vance, who we here at IHIP News have endorsed to be the Republican nominee for president in 2028. We also condemn him at the same time. We endorse/condemn. I just really think it'd be really fun to beat JD, especially with our expanding map. This is why it would be so fun, because here he is with his ris on full display. Play the clip.
Before I get into the meat of my remarks, I wanted to talk, of course, about the devastating loss last week and just a little bit about that. You know, of course, there are a lot of people, I think, unfairly criticizing the leader of the team, despite leading us to a great victory two years ago. A lot of people criticizing unfairly the leader of the team. There are a lot of staff infighting and questions about reshuffling. And of course, there's a conversation about whether the number two has what it takes to ultimately lead the team. I'm talking, of course, about the Ohio State Buckeyes and.
Running, running all 50 states. Send him on a 50-state tour. Running. He's hilarious. My stomach hurts so bad from laughing at his joke.
Yeah, he's the one that I like to refer to that wrote that op-ed about the administration and how they fucked this whole war up and how the thing went sideways when he was, in fact, the biggest ring leader in this thing.
In this situation, right.
Provided cover for everybody. Was a huge part of this. And now, guess what, JD, you can't run from this. Don't try to get the MAGA stink off. It's on. And it's not going away either.
All right. People are now fleeing the Trump administration after the blue nominee. Pop this up. Breaking: another major DOJ resignation. Assistant Attorney General Brett Schumate, head of the Civil Division, is out. AG Todd Blanch confirms his departure, making the fourth major DOJ resignation since Trump's devastating midterm defeat. Josh, you work, you know, with your criminal defense lawyer.
You work with the DOJ. What do you read into this? What do you read into these career DOJ? They're leaving now.
You will see them fleeing in mass exodus from the Department of Justice. And here's why. A lot of these lawyers have to stand up in court on some of these cases and take positions that the administration wants them to take that are simply not true. They have to basically get up and lie to the court. I think we talked the other day on this show about how the court found 4,400 unlawful detentions in immigration cases. And there's a plethora of violations against DOJ lawyers pending right now where they've stood up and told the court one thing when, in fact, it wasn't true.
And that's unheard of. Like anyone that worked at the Department of Justice, to stand up and lie to a federal judge, you would never think that would happen. And it became commonplace now under this Department of Justice. So these lawyers are starting to see that, hey, maybe I want to have a career after this administration is over. Maybe I want to be able to stand into a courtroom and talk to a federal judge and my word actually mean something. And if so, then I need to get the fuck out of DOJ. I need to leave. Because if I stay here, it's not going to stop.
I mean, they've got standing orders from Todd Blanch and others to follow their agenda, whether the facts and the law support it or not. They've got standing orders to do that. And I think you're seeing that. Like, that's the head guy of the Civil Division. You know, we just had the head of the Civil Rights Division last week. I mean, they're all fleeing.
So was that guy, was he there during the Biden administration or when a new administration comes in? Do they appoint?
No, he would be new. He would be new to this term because all of the Biden people are pretty much gone. And I think they lost 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 lawyers in the last two years. Or maybe employees, but of the lawyers, it's a large number. I mean, and they can't, you know, at one point they were trying to hire lawyers on X. Do you remember that?
Yes.
Send us a DM if you want to go to work for the Department of Justice. That's what bottom feeders these guys are. I mean, it's brutal right now at DOJ. It's bad.
Didn't they also want to hire, they wanted to hire video gamers to be air traffic controllers? That Sean Duffy, he wanted to hire, yeah, just nuts. Okay. All right. And then let's do a little check-in with Mitch McConnell. He's now responding to Republican losses in the midterms. Play the clip.
Can I get your quick reaction to the midterms? The GOP's midterm losses. What do you think is going to change? Do you think that Republicans—okay, no problem. Do you think Republicans will get anything done in the lame duck session?
All right, here's what I propose. Get JD Vance and Mitch McConnell on a 50-state tour stamping for the Republican Party for the next election. Because it's one of those two things. It's a young guy like JD Vance who is a liar, a hypocrite, bought and paid for, a fully owned subsidiary of Peter Thiel. Or it's this guy right here who was an absolute domestic terrorist in his policies. Absolutely terrorized all United States citizens.
Did not do the people of Kentucky any good whatsoever. And masterfully corrupted the Supreme Court to where now it is a full-blown rubber stamp for oligarchs and corporations and not for the American people. And he just has to cling onto power. He doesn't resign. Shame on everybody around him and in his life that trot him to the Senate floor like that. That is just absolutely unbelievable. But I'm going to say this. Both parties have done this.
They've trotted out. Diane Feinstein was an incredible senator for the Democrats for many years. And she did this. Now he's doing this. We need to usher in an era where when you get too old, you resign. Like when you're in a wheelchair and can't speak, when you are nonverbal in a wheelchair, you can't be a senator. Call me crazy, but I just think that's fucking nuts.
Let me make one observation. You could show that clip of Mitch McConnell and you could show the clip of JD Vance side by side. And believe it or not, I think that Mitch McConnell would have a larger, higher favorability rate. Simply because he didn't say anything. Listening to JD Vance is actually worse.
The number one, number two bit?
Yeah. No, I think so. So anyway, beyond that, I hate to say anything else about Mitch in that state.
All right. All right. Now, switching completely, completely different energy from what we just saw from Mitch McConnell. Here is the mayor of New York City, Zoran Mamdani, putting on a masterclass on Fox News. Play the clip.
Moratorium. These are the kinds of things that also characterize what we've been doing right here in New York City. And yes, I'm proud to be doing so as a mayor who's a member of the Democratic Socialism of America.
Okay, get rid of borders?
No.
Get rid of SCOTUS?
No.
Get rid of jails?
No.
So do you think TSA is going to kick you out?
No.
It sounds like you're not aligned with some of the core things they really want to get done.
You know, when you go into a room and there are more than one socialist in the room, you will often find disagreement in that room. And what unites members of the Democratic Socialists of America is, in many ways, what has brought people into politics over the years, a belief in the dignity of working-class people and the dignity that has to be a characteristic of their lives. And an understanding that democracy, for it to be meaningful, can't just be at the ballot box. It has to be in the rest of our lives, from the workplace to every other aspect of it. And that's why I'm excited to be a member.
And that's why I've been excited also to deliver for New Yorkers.
How refreshing. And I love how she wanted so desperately to try to pigeonhole him into some, quote unquote, extremist view. You know, abolish prisons. No, abolish the court. No. Is the DSA going to condemn me for this? No. Like, we disagree on these issues. What's the big deal? And then he pivots immediately to what I have in common with the people of the DSA is we want to restore integrity and dignity to working-class people instead of scapegoating them and calling them lazy and don't.
You need to manage your money better and not go get a Starbucks. Remember when all the oligarchs were saying that a couple months ago to working-class people? So patronizing. That is just such a shame that he wasn't born in the United States. He moved here when he was three. But God, would he not be a just tremendous president?
Well, and he has this talent to where when they're asking him questions like that, these sort of gotchy questions, that he just starts to smile. You see the big smile on his face and then he answers it. Now, I will say this. It would have been a tougher answer for him had she said abolish ICE. You know, she did a very, nobody wants to get rid of ICE.
I think he would have said yes.
Yeah. Well, nobody wants to get, the things she asked about, like, you can be as liberal and social as you want, but we don't believe in abolishing jails or not protecting the border. Nobody believes in those things. What we don't believe in are these criminals that are working for ICE going around shooting people with masks on. That's what we don't believe in. Beyond that, we believe in protecting the public. We believe in protecting our borders.
What about that time he went to the White House the first time and we're all watching it because everybody thinks, okay, Trump's going to be so mean to Zoran. And then Trump is just like sitting there like this and Zoran's looking up at him and the press is like, do you still think he's a fascist? And Zoran's like, you can just see it. He's like, oh, fuck. And he goes, it's okay, Trump. He goes, it's okay. Go ahead and call me. Zoran's like, yeah.
No, he did. He kind of, he just kind of gave that little look like, yeah.
Yeah. I still think he's a fascist. Yeah. And I do think if she would have asked him, do you want to abolish ICE? I think he would have said yes. And I want to prosecute them and they need to be jailed for murder.
No, I agree with you.
I think he would have given a simple answer. He's a political talent. And you know who else has this? Is Abdullah Al-Sayed.
Yeah, he does too.
He has that talent. They're really, really, really great politicians. And I believe they're sincere. I mean, they have just that talent of sincerity and moral clarity and the ability to go in the hornets' nest fox like that and smile from ear to ear because everybody wants to brand him. Oh, he's a jihadist and all this shit. And Abdul does the same stuff. Obama does the same stuff. They're just such great antidotes to all of the propaganda that the right wing sells us that these people are, you know, these crazy radical jihadists.
It's like, no, they're not. They're trying to restore dignity for working-class people. The same people Fox News had to pay a billion dollars for lying to. By the way, hello, Fox. They wrote a couple of stories on me today.
They have. That'll be fine. So I will say this about him and Abdullah Al-Sayed is when you're not leveraged and you can go in and give whatever answer you believe in, an honest answer, then people respect someone who's got a conviction for something. Even if you disagree with parts of it, if you believe in something and you give that answer versus this word salad shit that we hear from politicians where they try to cut it both ways. And you see that instantly with politicians. So it's refreshing to see that. I wish more people had it.
All right. That's all we have. The cancellation is still ongoing, but it's been very unsuccessful. I think last we checked, we were up just on YouTube alone, 40,000 subs. The Streisand effect is taking place. So I'd like to welcome all of our new 40,000 subs on YouTube. Kylie's going to get the numbers on the audio version, but make sure you're subscribed here. Make sure you're subscribed on the audio versions. The numbers help us a lot on I've Had It and this podcast, IHIP News, buy my book, Not Today Fascist.
I want to add to that, Not Today Turning Point. We'll be back later with more news.
The DOJ is falling apart and JD keeps embarrassing himself.
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