Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes

The midterms are over. And what just happened hasn't happened in this country in more than 50 years.

Democrats took the House with 247 seats — and counting. They flipped 7 Senate seats to take control at 54. There was not a single Democrat who lost a contested race. Every statewide race — every Senate seat, every governor's office up for grabs — shifted blue compared to 2024. Every single one. Except one rural county in Illinois that I genuinely need someone to explain to me.

We break down the whole picture: the Senate flips that nobody saw coming — South Carolina, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, North Carolina — and the ones that are still being counted. Alaska's ranked-choice situation. And Mississippi, where Democrat Scott Colom is leading by just 1,700 votes and would become the first Black senator from that state since Reconstruction.

Then there's Texas. Which is now a blue state. James Talarico beat Ken Paxton by 18 points. Gina Hinojosa beat Greg Abbott. The attorney general went blue. The lieutenant governor went blue. The state house flipped. Texas hasn't looked like this since the 1980s.

We also talk about the milestones: the first Black speaker of the House, the first Muslim senator, Georgia's first Black woman governor, New Mexico's first Native American woman governor, and a record number of women elected to the House.

And then — the Republican meltdown. Trump posts a VETO hat, then tells reporters he'll work with Democrats, then goes to a ballroom topping-off ceremony and talks for 20 minutes without mentioning the election once. JD Vance breaks openly with the president, blaming the results on the Iran war. Harmeet Dhillon resigns. And Ron DeSantis says it wasn't a tsunami — it was a meteor strike.

This is the full breakdown of the most consequential midterm election of our lifetimes.

Make It Make Sense is an independent political news show produced in Detroit. Subscribe so you don't miss what comes next — because Congress reconvenes next week and the budget fight starts immediately.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Intro - What the Hell Just Happened
1:45 - SaySo News - Ad
2:45 - The Numbers - House and Senate Results
5:30 - Senate Flips - South Carolina, Maine, Iowa, Ohio and More
9:00 - Kansas Sends Its First Democrat to Congress Since 1932
9:45 - Texas Is a Blue State Now
12:00 - Alaska and Mississippi - Still Counting
13:30 - The Historic Firsts - Governors, Senators, and the House
15:00 - Democrats Fight Over What Comes Next
17:00 - LiQure - Ad
18:00 - Trump Checks Out - The Ballroom Speech
20:30 - The "Too Big to Rig" Contradiction
22:30 - JD Vance Breaks With the President
24:15 - The Republican Meltdown - Resignations and Reckonings
26:15 - Outro - What Comes Next

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It's Election Day. We finally made it.

Today's episode is different. Instead of a news breakdown, because the news is moving too fast for that right now, Grant welcomed back Virginia Solomon, President and CEO of Common Cause, to walk us through every major legal fight over this election and what happens next.

Here's what you need to know going in: the administration has been filing lawsuits against our elections since the summer. And they have been losing. In California. In Alaska. In court after court. Some of those losses have come from Trump-appointed judges. Virginia makes the point that the sheer incompetence of these legal arguments has accidentally protected democracy. They couldn't make a constitutional case to save their lives.

They cover the DHS armed-agents-at-the-polls lawsuit that Common Cause filed in September, and why it's sitting ready to trigger a restraining order the moment anyone shows up. The Alaska Dans Sullivan case, now on its third appeal. The California ballot segregation case, which the administration has now asked the Supreme Court to take up, and why Virginia doesn't think they'll touch it. (They didn't after the episode was recorded) Finally, what Common Cause and their partners are most worried about after tonight: the federal government trying to interfere with ballot counting.

If you're in line right now — stay in line. You have the right to vote as long as you were in line before polls closed. If you see law enforcement or interference at the polls, call 866-OUR-VOTE.

Your ballot is safe. Go vote.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Intro - It's Election Day
3:00 - Virginia Solomon Returns - State of the Fight
4:20 - Armed Agents at the Polls - The Common Cause Lawsuit
8:50 - Why the Admin's Incompetence Has Saved Democracy
11:10 - Alaska - The Dan Sullivan Case Dismissed and Appealed Again
14:00 - California - The Supreme Court Asks and Purcell
20:10 - The Biggest Fear Tonight - Ballot Seizure and Chain of Custody
22:35 - Attestation and the Rule of Law After This Election
26:30 - Viktor Orban, Hungary, and What Comes After
29:05 - Outro - Thank You for Voting

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Four days out from the midterms and everything is on fire at once. So today we're doing a political potluck because there is too much happening to cover just two stories, and you deserve to see what's going on in its totality.

A federal judge issued a scorching ruling blocking the DOJ from forcing California to separate 20,000 ballots, calling it something that has never happened in American history. Washington State's Secretary of State told the DOJ to put up or shut up after they handed over a voter roll they admitted wasn't reliable. In Alaska, the DOJ just opened a criminal investigation into a Senate race over something the Attorney General himself said "should be" illegal, which is not how laws work. In Texas, a Republican county party is trying to stop election results from being certified before they even happen.

We also have an update on the Rep. Ilhan Omar investigation, which is apparently now centered on a 10-year-old message board conspiracy theory that the Obama administration already looked at in 2016.

And then there's this: the New York Times dropped a major investigation today revealing that a woman close to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was passing intelligence directly to China, and Trump was briefed on it over a year ago and did nothing. The same Trump who has made more than 100 trades of Nvidia stock worth up to $98 million, brokered a deal with the UAE to sell Nvidia chips in violation of sanctions, and whose family then received $500 million in crypto purchases from that same UAE regime.

None of this should be happening four days before an election. There is a 60-day DOJ blackout rule for exactly this reason. And yet, here we are.

Your vote is still safe. Your ballot still counts. The best thing you can do right now is make a plan and go vote. Head to vote.org to find early voting near you, your polling place, and everything you need to know before Tuesday, November 3rd.

Make It Make Sense is produced independently. If this show helps you stay sharp, share it with someone who needs it.

LINKS:

Join the SaySo News App! SaySo is a brand new news app built for people who actually want to be informed, not just keep scrolling. No outrage-chasing algorithm, no AI slop, just vetted creators delivering fact-driven coverage you can get through in a few minutes a day. I'm one of the early creators on the platform, posting there alongside others I trust. Check it out and download SaySo

This episode is supported by Vote.org. Midterms are November 3rd, and your voter registration may not be as solid as you think. Moving, a name change, or routine list maintenance can take you off the rolls without you noticing. Vote.org is free and nonpartisan. In about two minutes, you can check your registration, find your polling place, see your state’s deadlines, or request a mail-in ballot. Check now at Vote.org, then go vote.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Intro - The Political Potluck
1:30 - Vote.org - Make Your Plan
2:45 - California - Judge Blocks DOJ Ballot Scheme
7:30 - Washington State - DOJ's Unreliable Voter Roll
9:45 - Alaska - Two Dan Sullivans and a Criminal Investigation
13:00 - Texas - GOP Lawsuit to Stop Election Results
14:30 - Ilhan Omar Investigation Update
16:15 - Nvidia, China, and $98 Million in Trump Stock Trades
20:00 - The 60-Day Blackout Rule Being Broken Right Now
21:30 - Purposeful Chaos - Why Your Vote Still Matters

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Five days to November 3rd. Mark Blumberg spent 30 years in the criminal section of the civil rights division at the Department of Justice. He wrote the FBI's guidebook on voter suppression enforcement. He investigated and prosecuted constitutional violations, hate crimes, human trafficking, and public corruption in red states and blue states, rural areas and cities, for six different administrations. He left in February of this year.

He is now the executive director of the Rule of Law Project, a nonprofit built around former federal prosecutors and former FBI agents who left the DOJ when the mission changed — people who collectively represent hundreds of years of institutional knowledge that walked out the door and has nowhere to go. The Rule of Law Project investigates the same cases the DOJ should be investigating, builds them to prosecutorial standard, and hands them to state attorneys general, local prosecutors, or holds them for a future DOJ that will be ready to receive them.

The cases: ICE officers who shoot people in the streets with no accountability. Public corruption. Voter intimidation. The subpoenas currently going out from the DOJ to California election officials that may or may not cross criminal intimidation lines. Everything the DOJ was supposed to do and has stopped doing.

Mark also explains in plain English why the DOJ has never in his 30 years brought cases like the California ballot lawsuit this close to an election, what the historical policy was and why it existed, and what it means that those policies are being ignored now. His answer: "The only logical conclusion is that it's designed to have an impact on the election."

And on accountability: Mark makes the case that the people saying "don't look backward" after the midterms are objectively wrong. Not politically wrong. Objectively wrong. Without accountability there is no healthy society. Criminal accountability is not abstract — it's what makes people feel like the rules apply to everyone.

The Rule Of Law Project

LINKS: 

Join the SaySo News App! SaySo is a brand new news app built for people who actually want to be informed, not just keep scrolling. No outrage-chasing algorithm, no AI slop, just vetted creators delivering fact-driven coverage you can get through in a few minutes a day. I'm one of the early creators on the platform, posting there alongside others I trust. Check it out and download SaySo

This episode is supported by Vote.org. Midterms are November 3rd, and your voter registration may not be as solid as you think. Moving, a name change, or routine list maintenance can take you off the rolls without you noticing. Vote.org is free and nonpartisan. In about two minutes, you can check your registration, find your polling place, see your state’s deadlines, or request a mail-in ballot. Check now at Vote.org, then go vote

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Five days out. Who is Mark BlUmberg and why Grant brought him on today.

3:26 - 30 years in the DOJ civil rights criminal section: what he investigated, what he prosecuted, what he built

5:50 - What it felt like inside DOJ as it changed: the sadness, the colleagues leaving, the mission drift

9:01 - Why criminal civil rights enforcement is supposed to be immune from politics and why it stopped being

11:14 - The brain drain: what hundreds of years of combined experience walking out the door actually costs

13:59 - When Grant’s timeline for what changed matches Mark’s without him saying it: the ICE shooting moment

17:21 - “This is not a just add water job”: why you can’t replace 30 years of experience overnight

20:22 - The Rule of Law Project: what it is, who built it, and why former Human Rights Watch people saw the signs

24:48 - How they investigate without subpoena power and why most of these investigations don’t need one at first

28:01 - The rubric: how they pick cases, what makes a case worth their limited resources, what they won’t touch

32:21 - Accountability as deterrence: why it matters even for people who feel immune from consequences

35:31 - “Criminal deterrence doesn’t always work — I had a job for a reason because people committed crimes”

36:25 - The rural southern sheriff story: why accountability is about the health of a community, not just punishment

39:31 - “They’re objectively wrong”: Mark on politicians who say don’t look backward after the midterms

41:25 - The California case, the Washington subpoenas, the Alaska lawsuit, the Minnesota investigation: all happening now

45:11 - Why the DOJ never brought cases like this close to an election in his 30 years there and what it means

48:35 - The career guys who would have stopped this are gone: who’s making these decisions now and on what basis

50:24 - What the Rule of Law Project hands over and who receives it: state AGs, local prosecutors, the next DOJ

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Seven days to November 3rd. 

32 million people have already voted. Democrats have an 80% chance of winning the House and a 57% chance of winning the Senate. Only 53% of people who voted for Trump in 2024 say they're enthusiastic to vote this time, essentially a coin flip. The "give them more Trump" strategy has failed.

So the administration is trying something else: pulling votes from the count before the count is done.

In California, the DOJ is still fighting to force LA County to identify and set aside 20,000 ballots from alleged non-citizen voters. When California actually looked at the list, 13,000 names weren't even in LA County. 48% didn't have active voter registrations. Nearly 40% of the people listed were born in the United States. Of the total names, LA County could only legally act on a third — and of those, DHS had it wrong between 40% and 90% of the time. The DOJ's expert witness in the case is a county clerk from Shasta County who seized ballots because some smelled too inky and some seemed too heavy and he believed they might be faked ballots from China made out of bamboo. He is currently a subject in a federal grand jury investigation about those same ballots.

Grant also breaks down the data methodology DHS is using: old system from LexisNexis that the company's own homepage says is not designed to determine eligibility for anything, paired with the same deeply flawed SAVE system that multiple federal courts have already rejected, run through more government databases including potentially illegal Social Security number matching. Already bad data enhanced by a system that can't verify what it's producing.

Meanwhile last night the DOJ said there are 400 alleged non-citizen voters in Washington State. In Alaska a judge is fast-tracking a case to stop election certification if the Republican loses. Trump was asked today if he'd accept the results no matter what. He said only if they're honest.

Join the SaySo News App! SaySo is a brand new news app built for people who actually want to be informed, not just keep scrolling. No outrage-chasing algorithm, no AI slop, just vetted creators delivering fact-driven coverage you can get through in a few minutes a day. I'm one of the early creators on the platform, posting there alongside others I trust. Check it out and download SaySo

This episode is supported by Vote.org. Midterms are November 3rd, and your voter registration may not be as solid as you think. Moving, a name change, or routine list maintenance can take you off the rolls without you noticing. Vote.org is free and nonpartisan. In about two minutes, you can check your registration, find your polling place, see your state’s deadlines, or request a mail-in ballot. Check now at Vote.org, then go vote.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Seven days out: 32 million votes already cast and where the numbers actually stand

2:00 - 80% House odds, 57% Senate odds, and only 53% of 2024 Trump voters are enthusiastic to vote again

4:00 - The nursing home mirage of early voting: what the demographics of early ballots actually tell us

5:30 - The enthusiasm gap: Democrats at 71%, MAGA at 68%, and what that 3-point difference means in a close race

7:00 - Why “give them more Trump” failed and what the coin flip on 2024 Trump voters means for his power

9:00 - The administration is trying to pull votes from the count as they come in: California, Alaska, Washington

11:00 - The California case update: what happened when they actually opened the flash drive

13:00 - 13,000 names not in LA County, 48% no active registration, 40% born in the United States

15:00 - The Shasta County clerk: ballots seized for smelling too inky, too heavy, possibly made of Chinese bamboo

17:00 - He is currently a subject in a federal grand jury investigation about those same ballots

18:30 - The DHS data methodology: LexisNexis that can’t verify eligibility plus the same flawed SAVE system

21:00 - “Already bad data enhanced by a system that isn’t digging any deeper”: the data nerd nightmare explained

23:00 - The Purcell principle: what it is, why the DOJ is asking a judge to ignore 20 years of precedent

25:00 - Washington State: 400 alleged non-citizens, DOJ moves last night, and the pattern across three states

26:30 - Why the DOJ isn’t going after Texas or Florida: this isn’t about election integrity, it’s about the president’s version of honesty

28:00 - Trump asked today if he’ll accept the results no matter what: what he said

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11 days to November 3rd. 

Cisco Aguilar is the Secretary of State of Nevada and the Chair of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State. He is one of the people most directly in the crosshairs of everything this administration has thrown at state elections this cycle. This is his first extended public conversation about all of it. The short of it: there's frustration. "We're actually running a fucking election," he says.

This summer the president went on TV and said there were 15,900 non-citizens on Nevada's voter rolls. The next morning the DHS Secretary was on TV threatening prison time for anyone who didn't comply with a purge order. Cisco called his Republican governor first to explain what was coming, then waited for the data set. Three weeks later they got an Excel spreadsheet with four columns and 6,400 entries, of which only 185 had even been investigated by DHS. Nevada went through all 185, verified each registration, verified the ID used to register, and came back with zero. Not one. Zero. They sent the DOJ a single-word response: zero.

Cisco and Grant also cover the Alaska lawsuit the administration filed to block certification of the Senate race before the election has even happened, specifically if the Democrat wins, by trying to send someone door to door to ask voters which Dan Sullivan they meant to vote for. The DOJ's record in election lawsuits this cycle: 0 for 26. Nevada received a letter with cake mix in it. Federal postal inspectors showed up at the Secretary of State's office at 6:30 pm Tuesday and Cisco, on a plane, had to figure out if they were actually postal inspectors or DOJ agents pretending to be postal inspectors. States can no longer trust the federal government. The people who left the DOJ because they couldn't stomach what was happening are now on states' legal teams, and the states are winning.

Cisco's closing message: if you don't trust the elections, go be a poll worker. A Republican man in Elko, Nevada did exactly that. He came in skeptical. He left saying, "We run really good elections."

LINKS:

Join the SaySo News App! SaySo is a brand new news app built for people who actually want to be informed, not just keep scrolling. No outrage-chasing algorithm, no AI slop, just vetted creators delivering fact-driven coverage you can get through in a few minutes a day. I'm one of the early creators on the platform, posting there alongside others I trust. Check it out and download SaySo

This episode is supported by Vote.org. Midterms are November 3rd, and your voter registration may not be as solid as you think. Moving, a name change, or routine list maintenance can take you off the rolls without you noticing. Vote.org is free and nonpartisan. In about two minutes, you can check your registration, find your polling place, see your state’s deadlines, or request a mail-in ballot. Check now at Vote.org, then go vote.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - 11 days out. The administration is throwing everything at state elections. Here's the person fighting back.

4:23 -Meet Cisco Aguilar: Nevada Secretary of State, chair of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State

5:00 -The full list: what the administration has thrown at elections this cycle and Cisco's one-word verdict

6:48 -Trump goes on TV: 15,900 non-citizen voters in Nevada. Cisco calls the Republican governor first.

8:03 -The Excel spreadsheet: four columns, 6,400 entries, 185 investigated, and what Nevada found.

11:00 - The response to the DOJ: one word. Zero.

13:01 - Why the “one illegal vote cancels one legal vote” argument is designed to scare, not inform

15:32 - How Nevada rebuilt its entire election infrastructure from the ground up and got ranked second in the country by MIT

17:49 - CISA gutted, federal cybersecurity gone: states are on their own and building their own defenses

20:58 - Sponsor break

22:49 - Which threat is most dangerous: the totality, and why voter suppression through fear is the real goal

23:28 - Nevada is 30% Latino. One in five voters is Latino. Here’s who they’re trying to scare home.

24:33 - Federal agents knocking doors in nine states and the Alaska lawsuit explained

28:52 - Why going door to door asking how people voted violates the most fundamental principle of elections

30:56 - Monitoring the voter roll portal: Nevada’s IT team watching for suspicious logins and what they found this week

31:07 - The cake mix letter and the 6:30pm postal inspectors who may or may not have been postal inspectors

33:17 - ERIC explained: the interstate bipartisan voter roll system Hermes Dillon called a weapon

35:29 - The truck driver with two families in two states who both made him vote: Cisco’s favorite double voter story

37:15 - 0 for 26: the DOJ’s election lawsuit record and why secretaries of state are winning

39:41 - The Elko poll worker: came in skeptical, left saying “We run really good elections”

41:08 - Why the people who left the DOJ are now on states’ legal teams and what that means

42:14 - Know who’s running elections in your state: the Secretary of State race matters for 2028

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Over the course of the last week, Trump has had a remarkable number of incidents that raise serious questions about his mental state and physical health. He walked past his open limousine door and was turned around by a Secret Service agent while waving at no one. He tapped his right leg repeatedly in a pattern documented as a technique used by stroke recovery patients. Something visible below his right knee is affecting the shape of his pants, the way he walks, and the way he stands. In the Oval Office he snapped at a reporter with a flash of rage that Grant documents in detail, followed by four seconds of arm-pointing in which, as Grant puts it, he left his body. And in South Carolina, mid-sentence about Nikki Haley, Trump made a noise that caught even him by surprise. His eyes went wide, his jaw went slack, his tongue came out of his mouth, and for several seconds there was, as Grant describes it, no one home behind those eyes before he blinked back in and picked up where he left off. The White House has not commented on any of it.

Grant is not making a diagnosis. He's documenting what's on camera and asking the same question any journalist should ask about anyone who holds the nuclear codes.

Then: the Texas Senate race between James Talarico and Ken Paxton has become the most expensive Senate race in US history at over half a billion dollars. The dominant issue is not the economy, not the Iran war, not the border. It's anti-trans attacks against Talarico, who is not trans. A new investigation from Uncloseted Media and The 19th traced the entire network back to three posts on far-right Twitter in the minutes after Talarico won his primary, and the editor in chief of Uncloseted, Spencer McNaughton, formerly of 60 Minutes and the Wall Street Journal, walks Grant through exactly how it spread, who spread it, and what it means for trans Americans and the broader LGBTQ community.

Join the SaySo News App! SaySo is a brand new news app built for people who actually want to be informed, not just keep scrolling. No outrage-chasing algorithm, no AI slop, just vetted creators delivering fact-driven coverage you can get through in a few minutes a day. I'm one of the early creators on the platform, posting there alongside others I trust. Check it out and download SaySo

This episode is supported by Vote.org. Midterms are November 3rd, and your voter registration may not be as solid as you think. Moving, a name change, or routine list maintenance can take you off the rolls without you noticing. Vote.org is free and nonpartisan. In about two minutes, you can check your registration, find your polling place, see your state’s deadlines, or request a mail-in ballot. Check now at Vote.org, then go vote.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 12 days out. Trump's health has become impossible to ignore on the campaign trail this week.

2:00 The leg tapping, the brace visible below his right knee, and why Grant is documenting this

4:00 Walking past the open limo door and waving at no one: what happened at three separate events

6:30 The Oval Office rage flash: four seconds of pointing and what Grant says happened behind his eyes

8:30 The South Carolina noise: mid-sentence, caught him by surprise, and then no one home for several seconds

10:30 Why Grant is documenting this and why "what about Biden" is not the answer 13:00

Sponsor break

14:30 The Texas Senate race: half a billion dollars spent, Talarico up two in the latest Emerson poll

16:00 The dominant issue: anti-trans attacks against a candidate who is not trans

17:30 The mystery pamphlets: a shadowy Wyoming LLC, fake pro-trans group, sent to families across Texas

18:55 Uncloseted's Investigation into the anti-trans attacks against James Talarico: A timeline.

20:05 The investigation: three posts on far-right Twitter, eight minutes, and then it exploded

22:43 The network: Greg Price, the NRSC, Ted Cruz's comms advisor, then Libs of TikTok and millions of followers

25:53 AI ads of Talarico in dresses, defacing a Bible, about to perform surgery on a child: what Paxton spent tens of millions on

28:20 Ashley Saint Clair: Elon Musk's former partner and former far-right operative on the group chats and the paid posts

31:09 What this means for trans Texans and LGBTQ Americans: Spencer on the safety stakes

35:30 Vance starting to go after gay people: moving the goalposts, and who has always been behind these laws

39:22 The Democratic response: non-existent, and what that means going forward

42:39 What Uncloseted Media does and why accountability journalism for LGBTQ issues matters right now

How Anti-Trans Backlash To James Talarico Spread Like Wildfire

Uncloseted Media

Substack

Youtube

Instagram: @unclosetedmedia

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14 days to November 3rd. Today is a deep dive into the most important Senate race in the country: Michigan.

JD Vance spent the weekend in Michigan campaigning for Republican candidate Mike Rogers. While he was there he sat for a CBS town hall that was, by every political measure, his first real audition for a presidential run. He got questions about gas prices, corruption, and the Iran war. Grant plays the key moments and walks through what Vance said, what he didn't say, and what it means that the Yale Law School graduate and vice president who gets daily intelligence briefings claimed he didn't know what conversation a Gold Star widower was asking about.

On the Trump corruption question: in his first year back as president, Donald Trump has made $2.2 billion. That is $983 million more than he made in the previous 47 years of public filings combined. The top 29 holders of his personal cryptocurrency will get VIP access to a gala next month. Most of those spots appear to be held by overseas investors. Vance told the town hall he hasn't seen any corruption.

Then there's Tommy. A viral clip from an El-Sayed town hall shows a young man named Tommy asking El-Sayed to disavow the Muslim Brotherhood based on a 2012 tweet from El-Sayed's estranged sister about a conversation with their mother from the 1970s, before El-Sayed was born, when the Brotherhood was a nonviolent movement. Tommy turns out to be Tommy Teepel, a paid Republican operative who until recently worked for Josh Hawley and whose father is connected to a prominent Christian nationalist who prayed over them at an event near Mar-a-Lago. Grant documents all of it, explains why El-Sayed's answer was both understandable and slightly flippant, and why nobody is asking Mike Rogers to disavow the 491 right-wing terror plots and attacks from the last 30 years.

The episode ends with the most important frame for this race: if El-Sayed wins or loses, it won't just be about a Senate seat. It'll be about who gets to be the face of the Democratic Party after Biden and Harris, and what it says about us if the only options are doubling down on the racism or pretending it isn't there.

Join the SaySo News App! SaySo is a brand new news app built for people who actually want to be informed, not just keep scrolling. No outrage-chasing algorithm, no AI slop, just vetted creators delivering fact-driven coverage you can get through in a few minutes a day. I'm one of the early creators on the platform, posting there alongside others I trust. Check it out and download SaySo

This episode is in partnership with Vote.org. Midterms are November 3rd, and your voter registration may not be as solid as you think. Moving, a name change, or routine list maintenance can take you off the rolls without you noticing. Vote.org is free and nonpartisan. In about two minutes, you can check your registration, find your polling place, see your state’s deadlines, or request a mail-in ballot. Check now at Vote.org, then go vote.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 14 days out. Two weeks. Michigan is the race that tells us where both parties are heading.

2:00 JD Vance's CBS town hall: his first real audition for president and why it went badly

4:30 Gas prices and the Strait of Hormuz: what Vance said and what he conspicuously didn't

7:00 Blaming Biden in month 21: when does this administration own the economy it created

9:00 The corruption question: $2.2 billion in year one, Trump crypto VIP access, and "I haven't seen any"

11:30 The Gold Star widower question: what the vice president with daily intel briefings said he didn't know

13:30 What this town hall tells us about a potential President Vance before his campaign even starts

15:00 Sponsor break

16:30 Tommy: who he actually is, who his father is, and who prayed over them near Mar-a-Lago

19:00 The Muslim Brotherhood context: what it is, what it isn't, and what El-Sayed's actual connection is

21:30 El-Sayed's answer: why it was understandable, why it was slightly flippant, and why Rogers is lying

24:00 Rogers on CNN: "an ideology we should worry about." He means Islam.

25:30 Nobody is asking Rogers to disavow 491 right-wing terror plots. Grant on the double standard.

27:00 Islamophobia at a 25-year high: 51% of Americans falsely believe Islam promotes violence

29:00 What El-Sayed winning or losing actually means for the Democratic Party after Biden and Harris

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17 days to the midterms. Eric Zuleger is reporting live from Tirana, Albania, where violent protests have been building for 139 days and escalated this week into what he calls the most violence he has ever seen in five years of living there.

The backstory: Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama made backdoor deals with Jared Kushner's private equity firm Affinity Partners and Saudi royal money to secretly sell off protected wetlands on Sazana Island and the Zvernets Peninsula, some of the last wild wetlands in Europe. A leaker gave Eric documents showing the development was four times larger than anyone knew and included a 350-berth mega yacht marina. The protests started peacefully, were ignored, and this week a student protest was met with state violence. The footage went viral. Now buildings are burning.

Grant and Eric also cover: why government corruption just surpassed the economy as the number one voter issue in a Fox News poll for the first time Grant has ever seen this close to an election; Trump's Russia diesel deal, which amounts to about eight days of US diesel use and will do nothing for prices but tells Europe we're willing to buy Russian energy while telling them not to; Iran's smart strategy of giving Trump enough rope to choke himself and betting on a Democratic Congress to hamstring him; Saudi Arabia's existential problem with the Houthis and why they're asking the UAE to borrow their paramilitary back; and what a Democratic Congress can and can't actually do to constrain a president the Supreme Court has said can do almost anything.

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CHAPTERS:

0:00 — Eric Zuleger is live from Albania where violent protests have been building for 139 days

2:11 — The backstory: Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, Saudi money, and secretly sold protected wetlands

4:32 — The Flamingo Revolution: leaker documents, four times the known size, a 350-berth mega yacht marina

6:00 — Peaceful for 139 days, then a student protest met with state violence, footage went viral

9:14 — What Eric is seeing on the streets: buildings burning, cat and mouse with police, no way to de-escalate

12:34 — Secret kidnappings of protesters and break-ins at female dorms: what Eric is investigating right now

15:00 — Why the movement is leaderless and why that’s both a strength and a problem

17:16 — The global pattern: Albania, data centers, French schools — all the same extractive story

22:40 — Government corruption just beat the economy as the top voter issue in a Fox News poll

23:18 — Trump’s Russia diesel deal: eight days of US diesel use, means nothing for prices, tells Europe everything

25:00 — Why you should be suspicious any time petroleum is measured in tons instead of barrels

26:40 — Iran’s strategy: give Trump enough rope, wait for a Democratic Congress to hamstring him

29:01 — Saudi Arabia’s existential Houthi problem and “can we borrow your paramilitary back?”

33:00 — Where US strategy is actually working: South America, the Trump corollary, Colombia and Brazil

40:46 — Where US strategy has clearly failed: the Middle East, and why the Iran pitch was Dunning-Kruger foreign policy

48:00 — What a Democratic Congress can actually do: go after the people below Trump and flip them

53:00 — The worst of both worlds scenario: Democrats win but have to cut the worst Iran deal in history

58:00 — Eric says a Democratic wave in the Midterms could be good for Iran, not in the way you think. 

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18 days to November 3rd. Two stories today, both of which tell you exactly where we are.

The DOJ sent letters to California's Secretary of State and the head of elections in Los Angeles County demanding they purge more than 190,000 alleged noncitizens from the voter rolls in 48 hours, with 18 days to the election and millions of ballots already sent. The list was on a flash drive. The password was handwritten on a Post-It note stuck to the letter.

LA County has 5.8 million registered voters, more than 27 states. Federal law requires individual voter reviews during the 90-day quiet period before an election. The head of elections in LA County said they haven't plugged in the drive because they don't know what's on it and it could be a security risk. The DOJ's track record on voter data lawsuits is 0 for 26. When states have used DHS information to find alleged noncitizen voters, error rates have ranged from 20% in Texas to 100% in Nevada. By noon today California hadn't complied and the DOJ sued, with the list now somehow shrunk to 20,000 names. Grant explains why California specifically, why now, and why this is the administration chumming the waters to claim fraud in a state with 52 House seats.

Then: Trump called off the Fort Hood shooter's public execution by livestream after 8 days of near-universal backlash, including 80% of Americans, 64% of Republicans, 67% of veterans, and the Pope. The reason he actually pulled back had nothing to do with principle: he didn't know the man was in a wheelchair, and he doesn't like how people with disabilities look on television. The national security argument that the clip would be used to make a martyr helped. But the political fallout lands on Pete Hegseth, who announced the execution gleefully and made it about himself rather than Trump. When members of this administration stop putting their loyalty to Trump above everything else, they get shown the door. Hegseth has a problem.

CHAPTERS:

The DOJ's California voter purge demand: 190,000 names, 48 hours, 18 days before the election

2:00 The flash drive on a Post-It: what was actually in the envelope and why LA County won't plug it in

4:00 Basic math: 5.8 million registered voters, the 90-day quiet period, and why this is physically impossible

6:00 The DOJ's track record: 0 for 26 on voter data lawsuits, 20% error in Texas, 100% error in Nevada

7:30 California sues back: the list shrinks to 20,000 and why Article One makes this unconstitutional

9:00 Why California and why now: 52 House seats, the ICE operation already running, and chumming the waters for fraud claims

11:30 What happens if the judge says yes and what happens if the judge says no

13:00 Sponsor break. VOTE.ORG

14:30 Trump calls off the Fort Hood execution livestream: what changed in 8 days

16:00 The polling: 80% of Americans opposed, 64% of Republicans, 67% of veterans, the Pope

17:30 The real reason Trump backed down: a wheelchair, TV ratings, and a national security argument

19:00 10 to 20 million Americans who wanted to watch: what we have to reckon with about that

20:30 Why this is Hegseth's problem: he made it about himself, stole the spotlight, and handed Trump an embarrassment

22:00 "Severe problems." What Trump said at a Rose Garden event today and what it might mean.

23:30  When cabinet members stop making it about Trump, they get shown the door. Hegseth’s pattern fits.

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