Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes

27 days to November 3rd. Here's where things actually stand.

In the House: 49% of Americans say they're voting Democratic compared to 41% who say Republican. Decision Desk HQ puts Democratic odds of winning the House at 75%. The Cook Political Report now projects Democrats winning a 15-seat majority, somewhere between 230 and 235 seats. That's not just a wave. That's a tsunami. A 15-seat majority is practically defection-proof and gives a party with a real plan the power to actually use it.

In the Senate: four states that have sent two Republicans to Washington for years — Maine, Ohio, Iowa, and Texas — are now toss-ups. Alaska is in the lean Democrat column. Kansas, deep red Kansas, has a megachurch pastor named Adam Hamilton leading sitting Senator Roger Marshall by two points. Michigan is the only bright spot for Republicans, and Abdul El-Sayed is still up seven in the latest Marist poll. And up two in the White House's own internal poll.

On the issues: voters trust Democrats more on healthcare, cost of living, the economy, and AI. The only issue Republicans still lead on is immigration, by one point, 38 to 37. And 73% of voters say Republicans are at least somewhat corrupt. 82% say Republicans are focused on helping the rich and powerful. 59% say Republicans are not focused on helping people like them, compared to 46% who say the same about Democrats. That 13-point gap tells you everything you need to know about where this election is headed.

Then there's the campaign tour. Trump has been to Oklahoma, Texas twice, Alabama, Ohio, Nebraska, and Maryland. Two of those six states have races Republicans need to win. In Nebraska, trying to explain why high gas prices are worth it, Trump conjured the image of Iran bombing Los Angeles and San Diego. The crowd cheered. Grant walks through what LA and San Diego actually contain and explains why the headlines calling it an invitation to Iran are wrong — and why what he actually did is arguably worse.

Today's Episode is in partnership with VOTE.ORG. Don't know if you're registered? Don't know where to go? Don't know how to check? Head to Vote.org to get all the voting tools you need to make a plan. Then, go vote.  

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CHAPTERS:

0:00 — 27 days out. Time to take the 30,000-foot view of where things actually stand.

1:30 — Vote.org: check your registration before November 3rd. It's not permanent.

3:30 — The House: 49 to 41, 75% Democratic odds, Cook projects a 15-seat majority

5:30 — What a 15-seat majority actually means: practically defection-proof and built to do real work

6:30 — Why Trump is scared: Democratic odds of winning both chambers are now above 50%

7:30 — The Senate map: Maine, Ohio, Iowa, Texas all toss-ups. Alaska leans Democrat.

9:00 — Kansas: a megachurch pastor leads Roger Marshall by two points

10:30 — Michigan: El-Sayed up seven in Marist and up two in the White House's own internal poll

11:30 — Why Kansas and Iowa being toss-ups is the best proof of how broken gerrymandering is

12:30 — The issues: Democrats trusted more on everything except immigration, by one point

14:00 — 73% say Republicans are corrupt. 82% say they help the rich. 59% say they don't help people like them.

16:00 — Sponsor break

17:30 — Trump's campaign tour: six states, two of them competitive, a lot of taxpayer money

19:00 — The Ohio get out the vote message: "shove it up their ass" at the press riser

20:00 — "Pretend I'm still on the ballot." Nebraska and why Republicans are in a pickle.

21:30 — Trump's approval is at 32%. Some Republicans are keeping him at arm's length.

22:30 — The Nebraska LA and San Diego moment: what he actually said

24:00 — What LA and San Diego actually contain: a $1.5 trillion economy, 140,000 active duty military, Camp Pendleton, the second largest naval base on the planet

25:30 — Why the "Trump invited Iran to bomb LA" headlines are wrong and why what he did is arguably worse

27:00 — 25th Amendment calls, Newsom orders a threat assessment, and what this campaign tour is really about

28:30 — After the midterms Trump has nothing left to lose. He's already showing us what that looks like.

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The Supreme Court's new fall term starts Monday. Melissa Murray, NYU law professor, co-host of Strict Scrutiny, and New York Times bestselling author of The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader — is back on the show to break down what's coming and to give her verdict on the Jack Smith hearing.

Her verdict on the hearing: "The political equivalent of standing in line for something dumb that you don't want to." It wasn't that Smith got raked over the coals, he handled it with his characteristic steadiness. It was four hours of his life he'll never get back, spent explaining basic facts about how law enforcement works to people who either already know those facts and are performing ignorance, or actually don't know those facts, which is somehow worse.

Melissa and Grant go through the poster board moment in full, including her observation that she's not sporty and even she knew the Hawks and the Falcons are two different sports. They talk about John Kennedy's Rhodes Scholar accent that didn't exist 10 years ago, Katie Britt's recovery move, and what it means to have the rule of law on trial in a Senate hearing room.

On the Supreme Court fall term: birthright citizenship is back, run rights, religion in schools, climate change, expanding presidential power, and leaving space for the president's coming election challenges regardless of who wins.

Plus, could it be the end of the line for Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas? Is it the end for Chief Justice John Roberts? What is going on with Justice Brett Kavanaugh?

CHAPTERS: 

0:00 — Grant is back after being sick — and the Supreme Court's new term starts Monday

2:26 — Melissa Murray: NYU law professor, Strict Scrutiny, NYT bestselling author of the US Constitution guide

2:56 — "It's a bummer we need a Constitution guide right now — but great that people are dialing in"

3:18 — The Jack Smith hearing: four hours he'll never get back

3:56 — Melissa's verdict: "The political equivalent of standing in line for something dumb"

4:49 — "This isn't Jack Smith. This is law." — the grand jury in plain English

5:28 — Eric Schmitt: "How do you come to work and make Josh Hawley look like an elder statesman?"

6:00 — The poster board: two seconds, bifocal readers, and a smoking gun that wasn't

7:22 — "I'm not sporty and I knew the Hawks and the Falcons are two different sports"

8:15 — The Golden State Warriors enter the picture — then exit just as quickly

9:35 — Caitlin Clark and why Jack Smith was in Maryland watching women's basketball

10:31 — "Did Schmitt's staff not know women's basketball exists?"

11:47 — The slow zoom on Katie Britt: "Are we the baddies?"

12:56 — "There are always women who have to clean up after mediocre men — Katie Britt is just one of them"

13:25 — "Ted Cruz tried." The end.

13:47 — John Kennedy's Oxford Rhodes Scholar accent that didn't exist 10 years ago

15:00 — "I hate elites, do not look too closely at my Wikipedia page"

16:13 — What Kennedy used to be in hearings vs. what the Foghorn Leghorn act has become

28:49 — The shadow docket never ends — and why October and November are unusually light on cases

29:18 — The cases Melissa is watching: light docket by design, December is the banger

29:57 — The free exercise of religion case flying under the radar — Roberts checks off the last conservative agenda item

31:30 — RNC versus Mi Familia Vota: the big citizenship and voting rights case coming this term

32:00 — The Suncor climate case: Alito recuses himself — after the long conference where he learned the votes were fine

33:40 — What is going on with Brett Kavanaugh: OJ energy, "pick me" concurrences, and auditioning for chief justice

35:44 — Kavanaugh's mail ballot concurrence: "The timing appears to be arbitrary and capricious" — and what that means for 2028

37:24 — Is Kavanaugh auditioning for chief justice or does he want off the bench entirely and into the executive?

38:10 — Is this Thomas's last term? What the midterms mean for potential retirements — and who replaces them

The Constitution

Strict Scrutiny Podcast

DHS Says It's Finding Noncitizen Voters. It Won't Say How. 

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Jack Smith testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee today for the first time since the January 6th prosecution was shut down. Republicans had hours to ask questions about one of the most consequential legal investigations in American history. Here's what they chose to do with that time.

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana went after Smith's wife for a documentary she made about Michelle Obama. Kennedy asked questions he openly acknowledged Smith couldn't answer about what Merrick Garland did or didn't do, about whether Smith lobbied for the special prosecutor job, about things that have already been contradicted by text messages and emails under oath. He wasn't after the truth. He put Jack Smith's wife at risk. Grant calls it one of the most unacceptable exchanges he's heard from a sitting senator in a long time.

Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri (R) showed up with what he and Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) s held up as a smoking gun: a poster board with three text messages between Smith's staff and Fani Willis's staff that Schmitt claimed proved coordination between the two prosecutions. The poster was held up for about two seconds, not long enough for Smith to put on his glasses to read it. When Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) asked Schmitt to put it back up so anyone could actually see it, it turned out the game referenced in the texts was the Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball game on February 3rd, 2024. Jack Smith went to see Kaitlin Clark play. Not the Atlanta Hawks. Schmitt either didn't know his basketball or didn't care.

Before all of this: the White House is running a taxpayer-funded propaganda ad during NFL games, $1.5 million so far from a DHS slush fund account, that directly copies a 2024 Trump campaign ad with the campaign logo removed. Legal experts across the political spectrum say they're illegal. The song used in the first ad was not licensed. Grant got a White House response calling it "unapologetically patriotic."

Grant's framework for what the hearing actually was: DARVO -- Defend, Attack, Reverse Victim - Offender. Every accusation is an admission. And a kind of sadness about what a life lived entirely in Trump's political climate does to a person's ability to imagine that someone else could simply be doing their job.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Everything that happened over the weekend: weapons offered to Xi, blocked funding, education cuts

2:00 The taxpayer-funded Trump ads: $1.5M from a DHS account, aired during NFL games, copied from a 2024 campaign ad

4:30 The unlicensed song, the facial drooping on the wrong side, and what an intern with TikTok could have done better

6:30 Why legal experts across the spectrum say these ads are illegal and what the propaganda law actually says

8:30 Jack Smith comes to the Senate: why this hearing is happening now and what Republicans actually wanted

10:00 Smith's opening statement: what he said and why it's been consistent every time he's testified

11:30 The phone records: what investigators actually collected, why it was standard procedure, and what Republicans claimed

13:30 The Speech and Debate Clause — and why investigating a conspiracy to overturn an election fits possible treason

15:00 John Kennedy goes after Smith's wife: what he asked, what he knew he couldn't get, and what it cost

17:30 Blumenthal and Klobuchar: what it was like to be in the Capitol on January 6th, told by people who were there

19:30 The poster board: Schmitt's smoking gun, two seconds of visibility, and how Kaitlin Clark ended up in a Senate hearing

22:00 DARVO explained: Defend, Attack, Reverse Victim Offender — and why Grant says it's gaslighting on jet fuel

24:00 Every accusation is an admission: what the hearing reveals about how these senators actually do their jobs

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In May, Dr. Henry Abraham and about 30 colleagues published a letter saying medical professionals have a duty to warn the public about what they are observing in the president of the United States. Five months later, Grant brought him back to ask one question: has anything changed?

The answer is no, it's getting worse. 

Everything they warned about has been consensually validated by new examples. This is not a diagnosis. Dr. Abraham is explicit about that throughout. These are clinical observations based on thousands of hours of publicly observable behavior from the most recorded person in human history.

The observations that have continued to accumulate since May: Trump asked "Where is Marco Rubio?" while Rubio was sitting next to him. He told the same story about Jon Ossoff twice in 15 minutes without remembering he'd told it. He wandered disoriented at a ceremony with the Japanese Prime Minister. He had to be physically guided to the microphone by President Erdogan in Turkey after a 10-hour night flight. He got distracted signing the Greenland agreement when a blonde woman approached him and forgot what he was doing. He wandered out of the room instead of letting Xi exit first during their meeting today.

Dr. Abraham's assessment: worsening short-term memory consistent with early dementia, impoverishment of speech, polysyllabic vocabulary replaced almost entirely by monosyllables, inappropriate affect, and an increasing inability to modulate the rage response that has always been part of his pathology.

Then, Dr. Abraham's explains Trump's history of violence.  The president's love of it, his lack of understanding of what a nuclear weapon actually does, who he'll become when he is backed into a corner by an expected election loss, and his lack of prefrontal cortex function to recognize the consequences of his actions before he takes them, is a genuinely dangerous situation, and why he's offering a gentleman's bet that whatever Trump does after a midterm loss "won't be constitutional, won't be thought out, and will create a terrible crisis in the country."

Dr. Henry Abraham's Stuff For Public Consumption Substack

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This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. Fall is almost here, but summer isn't done with us yet. Cozy Earth's bamboo sheets are temperature-regulating, so you're covered whether it's cozy sweater weather or 79 degrees at midnight for no reason. Use code MIMS25 at CozyEarth.com for 21% off and when you use that code, you're supporting the show.

CHAPTERS: 

0:00 Why Grant brought Dr. Abraham back: the president's behavior has been escalating and it's time for an update

4:42 Meet Dr. Henry Abraham: 30 years at MGH and Harvard Medical, former Tufts substance abuse director, psychiatrist

5:01 The update: has anything de-escalated since May? The answer is no.

5:45 Consensual validation explained: why seeing the same symptoms again and again is scientifically meaningful

7:00 "Where is Marco?" — Rubio was sitting next to him. What that specific moment tells a psychiatrist.

8:30 The Ossoff story told twice in 15 minutes: short-term memory loss vs. narcissism

10:32 The "weave" defense — and why the clinical evidence goes beyond explaining it away

11:00 Three strikes of disorientation: Japan, Turkey, Greenland — and strike four with Xi today

14:42 Impoverishment of speech: from polysyllabic sentences to "disgrace," "pig," "loser," "sad"

18:00 The White House called Dr. Abraham a "Trump-deranged loser." He explains why he considers it an honor.

21:00 The party test: how dementia affects impulse control and why Trump can't resist the contagion of a crowd

25:00 The Iran war as a neurological event: impulsivity, poor judgment, and no prefrontal guardrail

25:00 The Iran war as a neurological event: impulsivity, poor judgment, and no prefrontal guardrail

31:35 The institutions he's damaged: CDC, measles epidemic, things that can't simply be rebuilt

32:30 What actually drives him: not control, but wealth, adulation, and praise — with no guardrails

35:07 The serial killer patient and the two brain regions: prefrontal cortex vs. temporal cortex

37:00 Trump's love of violence: Bloodsport, WWF, and what that means when he has the nuclear codes

39:00 "He doesn't understand what a nuclear weapon actually does" — Dr. Abraham explains what Trump thinks it is

40:36 The ketchup thrower, the January 6th throttle, and why the rage is getting worsE

41:21 The gentleman's bet: "He will do something. It won't be constitutional. It will create a terrible crisis."

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Two things happened today that don't add up when you put them next to each other.

At 1 am, a federal judge ordered Trump to immediately reinstate CNN, MSNBC, and Politico's White House credentials. The order specifically said the national security justification was invented, "simply put, the record lacks factual support." The White House did not comply immediately. It waited until 12:45 pm, several hours after Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping appeared together for the official welcome ceremony, ensuring the three outlets missed the biggest photo op of the week. The judge's two-week restraining order means this isn't over.

Meanwhile: Trump met Xi at the airport, something no president has done for a foreign leader in 60 years, normally reserved for popes. When Xi's plane landed, the literal red carpet wasn't ready, so White House staff had US Marines get on their hands and knees to smooth it out while Chinese officials watched. Trump stood at the ceremony in a winter coat and black gloves in 70-degree weather while Xi wore a suit. When the planned military flyover happened, Xi stood still, and Trump winced visibly. The White House later released a doctored photo of the moment; Grant put it through analysis, in which Trump is no longer grimacing, has one glove removed, and looks noticeably different. The White House did not respond to questions about whether AI or editing software was used.

Trump does not know what he wants from this meeting. When asked whether AI, Iran, or trade would be on the table, he talked about the grass.

The central irony: Trump's party has spent months saying communism is the root of all evil, and Democrats will turn America into a godless communist wasteland. With 39 days to the midterms, watch how they circle the square of rolling out the red carpet for the world's leading communist dictator.

CHAPTERS: 

0:00 - Press ban update: a judge ordered reinstatement at 1 am. The White House ignored it until 12:45 pm.

2:00 - The judge's actual words: "Simply put — the record lacks factual support." That's judge-speak for you made it up.

3:30 - The real security risk the White House missed: a far-right influencer posting the presidential motorcade route live

5:00 - Trump TV averaged about 1,000 viewers and why the far-right replacement pool couldn't pull it off

7:00 - Why the dual-pool matters even when it looks stupid: building a parallel reality for the president

9:00 - Xi lands in DC: the first Chinese president on US soil in 11 years and what was at stake

10:30 - Trump meets Xi at the airport: something no president has done for a foreign leader in 60 years

12:00 - Marines on their hands and knees smoothing the red carpet while Chinese officials watched

3:30 - 70 degrees. Trump in a winter coat and black gloves. Grant explains why that's worth noting

15:00 - Trump winces at the planned flyover. Xi stands still. The image that will be used everywhere is of the president flinching

16:30 - The doctored White House photo: no grimace, one glove missing, Trump looks different. Grant ran the analysis

18:00 - Trump asked about AI, Iran, and trade with Xi. He talked about the grass

19:30 - What's actually on the table: AI, Iran, Taiwan, trade — and what China gets from the Iran war

21:00 - The red carpet vs. the red scare: Trump fawning over the world's leading communist with 39 days to go

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Three things happened today that, on any other day in American history, would each be the only news story anyone talked about.

At the UN General Assembly, Trump addressed 130 nations with what sounded like a campaign rally, was met with silence where he expected applause, threatened to wipe Iran off the face of the earth for the sixth time during this war, and struggled visibly to read while threatening the most powerful weapon of destruction ever created. He also bragged about taking Venezuela's oil — which violates Section Two of the UN Charter, a document the United States wrote and signed — and threatened the International Criminal Court, likely because he's worried about being charged himself for the Iran war and the Caribbean fishing boat killings.

On the press ban: Trump banned CNN, MSNBC, and Politico from the White House with no written notice, no specific reason, and no time to respond — all three things required by law. The ban came after Natalie Harp showed Trump unflattering coverage from those outlets while the Vice President and Chief of Staff were both out of the building. By Monday all three outlets had joined a lawsuit. The entire White House press pool — including Fox News — boycotted in solidarity. The unveiling of the new White House helipad aired on Newsmax with no audio because there was no pool microphone within range of the President's mouth.

The judge assigned to the case is a Trump appointee who previously ruled against Trump when he tried to ban Jim Acosta from the White House during his first term.

Then the White House launched Trump TV: a 24/7 channel on the official White House website that opened with unlicensed clips from Breaking Bad, The Office, Seinfeld, Family Guy, The Dark Knight, SpongeBob, and The Simpsons — then cut to a replay of his Mount Rushmore speech. Grant explains what state media launching alongside a press ban actually means, even when the state media looks this stupid at first.

This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. Fall is almost here, but summer isn't done with us yet. Cozy Earth's bamboo sheets are temperature-regulating, so you're covered whether it's cozy sweater weather or 79 degrees at midnight for no reason. Use code MIMS25 at CozyEarth.com for 21% off and when you use that code, you're supporting the show.

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

CHAPTERS:

0:00 The UN General Assembly begins. Trump addresses 130 nations. It was a doozy.

2:00 Context before the speech: the Iran war, the Strait blockade, Gaza genocide charges, Greenland, Xi meeting Thursday

4:00 "Our power is expanding,"  said in the room built after the last guy who said that started a world war

5:30 Trump brags about taking Venezuela's oil at the UN. That violates Section Two of the UN Charter.

7:00 The ICC threat: why Trump hates it, and why he's probably worried about being charged himself

8:30 Trump tries to rebrand AI as "Super Intelligence," after polling his followers and ignoring the results

10:00 The sixth nuclear threat: threatening to wipe Iran off the earth while struggling to read at the podium

12:00 Why Grant tracks these health moments: he's the man with the nuclear codes

13:30 The press ban: CNN, MSNBC, and Politico banned with no notice, no reason, no due process

15:00 Natalie Harp's role: showing Trump bad coverage while Vance and the chief of staff were out of the building

16:30 The legal problems: Sherill v. Knight, Karem v. Trump, and why he's already told people he expects to lose

18:00 The pool boycott: Fox News joined. The helipad unveiling aired on Newsmax with no audio.

19:30 How White House press credentials actually work: day passes, hard passes, and the First Amendment

24:00 Trump compares himself to China on press freedom. Reporters Without Borders ranks China 178th out of 180.

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Only 18 of 435 House seats are genuinely competitive in 2026. That means 95% of Americans go to the polls for their House race with functionally one real option. It's not because the country is that divided; it's because politicians have been drawing their own districts in a nuclear arms race of gerrymandering that has no natural end.

Michael McNulty is the Policy Director of Issue One, the nonpartisan organization working to fix money in politics and make elections more representative. This week, a bipartisan group called the Problem Solvers Caucus introduced a four-bill framework to address gerrymandering at the federal level. It's not a full ban, but it's the most comprehensive package Congress has put forward in years, and it's the only path forward because the courts have closed every other door.

The four bills: ban mid-decade redistricting so parties can only redraw maps once per decade after a census, not whenever they feel like it; set national standards for what a valid congressional map looks like, including contiguity, compactness, and protection of communities of interest; reform who draws the maps through independent commissions rather than state legislatures drawing their own districts; and create a judicial fast-track for challenges so disputes get resolved before elections rather than after.

Michael and Grant also talk about what the president could actually do to interfere with the November election, the national emergency scenarios, ICE at polling stations, the gutting of CISA, and how prepared election officials and legal organizations are to respond. Michael's honest assessment: people should vote with confidence. The legal roadblocks to what's being threatened are real, and nine states have already passed laws specifically banning armed federal agents from polling places.

Issue One Voter Toolkit 

Vote.gov

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Today is National Voter Registration Day. Go to vote.gov right now. Check your registration — if you've moved, changed your name, or missed a few elections, your status may have changed without anyone telling you. Find out your state's deadline. Make a plan for November 3rd. Vote.gov. Do it before you forget.

Last night the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration its biggest election loss in a 7-2 ruling that blocks the USPS mail-in ballot rule from going forward. The two no votes were Alito and Thomas. Kavanaugh wrote a concurrence agreeing with the ruling but, for the third time in a major case since Trump returned to office, included a roadmap for how the administration could come back and win this argument a different way. Grant explains what that roadmap is and why it matters for 2028.

Trump responded by attacking the justices he nominated, calling them "shells of the people I interviewed." For most of American history, presidents have accepted Supreme Court rulings they disliked. They have not publicly declared that their nominees were supposed to do their bidding. That is not how the law works.

On AI: the CEO of Anthropic published an essay this weekend warning that AI companies can no longer control their own creations and need government regulation. OpenAI agents recently broke out of an experiment, formed a group chat, hacked into another company to complete the task, and covered their tracks. Some predictions now say these companies could be building humanity-ending technology by 2035.

Trump's response: the only AI regulation we need is his brain. He knows this because Nvidia — the chip maker whose CEO is one of Trump's largest donors and whose stock makes up a significant chunk of the trades Trump has been illegally making while in office — doesn't want regulations. And because Trump personally needs AI to generate flattering images of himself when reality won't cooperate.

Meanwhile 65% of Americans oppose data centers in their communities, 57% say Trump is handling AI poorly, and 27% of American workers are worried about being replaced by technology — a 12-point increase in a decade.

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Twenty-five years ago today, Grant was eight years old, watching the second plane hit the second tower before walking to school. He didn't know what he was seeing. He just felt the fear coming off every adult around him.

Steve Cash felt it too, but from the inside. He was Senator Dianne Feinstein's lead staffer on the cluster of legislation that followed 9/11: the Patriot Act, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He didn't just help pass those laws. He helped write them.

Twenty-five years later, Grant asked him one question: did we build the right thing?

The answer is honest and complicated. The ideas had been circulating before the attacks. The fear was real and justified; Steve describes the weeks after 9/11 as "picture the first weeks of COVID but with bombs and terrorists." The intelligence community was genuinely convinced more attacks were coming and worse. And the laws they wrote, rushed as they were, appear to have worked: there hasn't been another 9/11-scale attack.

But something happened to the institution they built. DHS was created to protect the American people from foreign terror. It is now the agency conducting mass deportations, building voter databases out of illegally obtained data, and threatening state election officials with prison. Steve and Grant sit with that for most of the conversation, not to assign blame, but to ask an honest question about whether what DHS has become is a betrayal of why it was created, and what the families and survivors of 9/11 deserve from us on this anniversary.

This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. Fall is almost here, but summer isn't done with us yet. Cozy Earth's bamboo sheets are temperature-regulating, so you're covered whether it's cozy sweater weather or 79 degrees at midnight for no reason. Use code MIMS25 at CozyEarth.com for 21% off and when you use that code, you're supporting the show.

MAKE IT MAKE SENSE SUBSTACK

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Grant at eight years old watching 9/11: what he saw and what he felt

1:18 Why this conversation: 25 years later, was what we built the right response?

4:15 Meet Steve Cash again: the man who helped write the Patriot Act, DHS, and ODNI

5:46 What it was like on Capitol Hill in the weeks after 9/11: "Picture COVID but with bombs and terrorists"

7:33 Why fear is a bad way to write legislation, and why it was unavoidable

9:36 The ideas were already there: what had been circulating before the attacks and why that matters

12:00 The big three: Patriot Act, DHS, and ODNI — what each was actually trying to solve

16:00 The intelligence failure that made 9/11 possible: information that existed and wasn't shared

20:00 Did it work? There hasn't been another 9/11. That's a data point you can't ignore.

24:00 What DHS has become: from protecting Americans from foreign terror to threatening state election officials

28:00 The monster question: was DHS flawed from the start or has it been deliberately turned into something else?

32:00 Trump, democracy, and what happens when a system built on fear gets handed to someone who feeds on it

36:00 What the families and survivors of 9/11 deserve from the institutions built in their name

40:00 If there's an after: what accountability looks like and what we should learn from this, the way we didn't learn from 9/11

42:03 Steve's wedding ring says 9/11. He and his wife don't celebrate on this date. A note on what today means.

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Night one of the first-ever Republican midterm national convention in Dallas is in the books. Grant was watching so you didn't have to.

The arena was half full for most of the night and about 75% full during Trump's speech. Trump posted that it was sold out and beat the NFL season opener in ratings. The NFL numbers haven't been released yet.

Tim Scott delivered one of the most bizarre speeches in recent political memory, shaking, tearing at his jacket, on the verge of speaking in tongues while accusing Democrats of ripping out hearts like the villain from an Indiana Jones movie. Congressman Tom Emmer delivered a speech built around Islamophobia, connecting Ilhan Omar, Abdul El-Sayed, and Hasan Piker into a "communist Muslim" boogeyman, then played a 40-foot tall nearly-naked image of Piker on the jumbotron to demonstrate the threat. Democratic Senator Jon Fetterman (D-PA) appeared by video to attack members of his own party. A cabinet member attempted to physically shove a female speaker off the stage. That last one has barely made news.

Then Trump closed. He spoke for an hour and 45 minutes. He said, "Pretend I'm on the ballot again, please." Then he promised $5,000 to every American adult who votes Republican, which is to say a bribe of between $1.2 and $1.4 trillion that has no funding source. He has now promised $12,000 in various checks, dividends, and savings to every American since taking office. Not a single dime has been sent.

Grant's honest read: this might actually work. Labor Day is when low-information voters start tuning in for the first time in two years. What they'll hear sounds a lot like 2024. And new polling shows people who are least likely to vote are also least likely to approve of Trump, meaning the ceiling may be lower than it looks.

This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. Fall is almost here, but summer isn't done with us yet. Cozy Earth's bamboo sheets are temperature-regulating, so you're covered whether it's cozy sweater weather or 79 degrees at midnight for no reason. Use code MIMS25 at CozyEarth.com for 21% off, and when you use that code, you're supporting the show.

CHAPTERS: 

0:00 Night one of the Republican midterm convention: Grant was watching so you didn't have to

2:00 The arena was half full. Trump said it was sold out and beat the NFL. The NFL numbers aren't out yet.

4:00 The two kinds of speakers: fawning over Trump and outlandish bigotry to fire up the crowd

5:30 Tim Scott on the verge of speaking in tongues: what happened and why it was unnerving

7:30 Tom Emmer's Islamophobia playbook: Omar, El-Sayed, Piker, and a 40-foot jumbotron image

10:00 Jon Fetterman addresses the Republican convention to attack his own party: what that means for the Senate

12:00 A cabinet member tried to physically shove a female speaker off the stage. It barely made news.

13:30

Sponsor: Cozy Earth

15:30 Trump closes: an hour and 45 minutes, his greatest hits, and "pretend I'm on the ballot again please"

17:30 The $5,000 bribe: where the money would come from, why the math doesn't work, and why it doesn't matter

19:30 $12,000 in total promises since taking office. Not a single dime sent.

21:00 Why this might actually work: Labor Day voters, the 2024 frame, and the exhaustion problem

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