Pardon the Politics

Aug 3 · 2h 21m

Send us a message!!!The boys are back from a much-needed break, and the world absolutely did not wait for them. This week on Pardon the Politics:Sen. Lindsey Graham's sudden death on July 11 touches off a fast-moving story with three threads: a memo to rename Joint Base Charleston to "Joint Base Lindsey Graham" landing just six days after his death (and a day before his own funeral), his sister Darline Graham stepping into his Senate seat by gubernatorial appointment, and a real debate between Jeezy and Chuck about the fiscal responsibility, and the timing, of the renaming push, tied back to the ongoing Department of Defense-to-Department of War rebrand.From there: Todd Blanche's stalled path to a permanent Attorney General post. His committee vote has now been postponed twice, blocked by GOP Sens. Cornyn (TX) and Tillis (NC) over Trump's $1.776 billion IRS settlement fund. A new vote is set for Tuesday, August 4th.Then Dr. Anthony Fauci's marathon Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, where he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times rather than answer a single question about COVID's origins — setting up a contempt-of-Congress vote on August 5th and a genuinely novel legal fight over whether a pardon for past conduct can strip your right to stay silent about it.PICKLE OF THE WEEK: Ken Paxton is trailing Democrat James Talarico in a new Fox News poll of the Texas Senate race, and 36% of Republicans say they're worried about his character.SPOTLIGHTS: Manny digs into Ken Paxton's second headache, a Texas AG investigation into LinkedIn's "ghost job" listings. Chuck takes on Georgia Senate candidate Mike Collins' refusal to answer questions about his son-in-law's documented white nationalist ties. And Jeezy closes it out with genuinely good news: Maryland and New York stepping up with expedited admissions and financial credits for hundreds of Howard University students disenrolled weeks before move-in.Links: linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | the1525studio@gmail.comX: @PardonPolitics | Bluesky: @pardonthepolitics.bsky.social | IG: @PTP.podSupport the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Jul 13 · 2h 28m

Send us a message!!!NATO wrapped up its Ankara summit claiming unity, but only 5 of 32 members are on pace to meet the new defense spending target, and nobody can say what "winning" in Ukraine actually looks like. Jeezy, Manny, and Chuck break down the real numbers, Trump's clashes with Spain and the UK, and the Greenland push that won't die.Plus: Graham Platner's Maine Senate campaign implodes, and the Democratic Party scrambles toward a special convention. Breaking news hits mid-record, an update on Sen. Mitch McConnell's health, and the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham at 71. This week's pickle of the week: Rep. Ro Khanna gets surrounded by armed settlers in the West Bank, and it raises a bigger question about U.S.-Israel accountability. And three spotlights: a housing bill that became law without Trump's signature, the gutting of the Election Assistance Commission ahead of the midterms, and a fatal ICE shooting in Houston.Support the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Jul 6 · 2h 47m

Send us a message!!!The Supreme Court closed out its term with four rulings in a single week. Trump v. Barbara upheld birthright citizenship 6-3, striking down the executive order. West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox left transgender athletics to the states. NRSC v. FEC struck down coordinated party spending limits 6-3. Watson v. RNC upheld mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, 5-4. The boys break down what each one actually means — and the constitutional thread connecting all four.  Then, America turned 250. 850,000 fireworks, a Sail Force in New York Harbor, and a Great American State Fair that the internet did not let live down. Jeezy and Chuck ask whether the country can tell its full history without flinching, and what the next 250 years are actually going to require.    Jeezy’s Pickle of the Week goes to Paul Pelosi and every driver over 70. Manny spotlights North Carolina’s $34 billion budget, the first in three years. Chuck salutes an Air Force major who protested the Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela strikes on the Capitol steps, in uniform, knowing what it could cost him. And Jeezy closes with a direct word for men who’ve never had the space to say they’re not okay.Support the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Jun 29 · 2h 37m

Send us a message!!!NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed three congressional candidates, and all of them won. Two current members of Congress lost their seats, including one backed by Hakeem Jeffries. The hosts discuss what it means for a first-term mayor, just six months into office, to outperform the House Minority Leader in a congressional primary, and whether this has any impact beyond Brooklyn. The Supreme Court released three major rulings in one week, each decided by a 6-3 vote. Damon Landor, a Rastafarian man in a Louisiana prison, had his 20-year dreadlocks forcibly cut. The court agreed his rights were violated, but said he cannot sue. Another ruling ended legal status for 350,000 Haitians under TPS. Manny highlights Clarence Thomas’s comments, and Chuck explains the significance. In the asylum metering case, the court ruled that people standing on the Mexican side of the border have not technically “arrived” in America. Chuck reads the official definition of asylum. For Pickle of the Week, they look at North Carolina’s public school system, which is now the seventh-most-economically segregated in the country, 72 years after Brown v. Board. In the Spotlights segment: Manny covers North Carolina’s tampon tax bill, Chuck talks about Africa’s World Cup run in Atlanta, and Jeezy, a devout Christian, shares why he opposes Texas requiring Bible passages in public schools: “Faith is not faith if it’s forced. It’s just compliance.” S3E26.Support the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Jun 22 · 2h 27m

Send us a message!!!Happy Father's Day, Bloc. Season 3, Episode 25 is live.The boys open with some real talk for the dads: present, active, and fighting the silent battles nobody sees. Then it's straight to work.This week on Pardon the Politics:🌍 G7 SUMMIT - ÉVIAN-LES-BAINS, FRANCEThe world's richest democracies gathered in France, and by all accounts, nobody flipped a chair. Jeezy, Manny, and Chuck break down what 'smoother than expected' actually means, and why the G7's unity is as much about survival as it is about solidarity. Ukraine gets public backing. China emerges as the quiet giant nobody wanted to talk about loudly. And Manny lays out why the rest of the G7 have started doing business without first asking Washington.🇮🇷 US-IRAN WAR UPDATE -  THE $300B QUESTIONTalks are happening in Switzerland. JD Vance is there. Iran treats the whole thing like a game, and Chuck makes the case that they're winning it. The 14-point MOU gets a full autopsy: when compared side by side with Obama's JCPOA, Chuck calls it 'the biggest signing of surrender at Versailles since Versailles.' Manny breaks down the Strait of Hormuz toll — what it actually means for your gas prices, your groceries, and your healthcare. Plus: Lebanon is the war inside the war, and Israel keeps Homer Simpsoning into the bushes.Subscribe, share, and find us everywhere:linktr.ee/pardonthepoliticsFollow us:X: @PardonPoliticsBluesky: @pardonthepolitics.bsky.socialInstagram: ptp.podSupport the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Jun 15 · 2h 14m

Send us a message!!!The crew is back at full strength. Jeezy, Manny, and Chuck are all in the room for a packed S3E24 that centers on one question: the economy is “good,” but good for whom?We start with the number that set the week on fire. Inflation hit 4.2%, which is a three-year high. When asked if he was worried, the President said the words no campaign wants on tape: “I love it. I love the inflation.” Things got even stranger with a claim that the U.S. has quietly been pulling millions of barrels of oil out of Iran. We break down what is actually driving prices—energy, with gas up about 40% this year—why core inflation at 2.9% tells a calmer story, and why new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh faces a tough situation. He was brought in to cut rates, but now he is looking at numbers that suggest a hike. Plus, the reality that hits at the kitchen table: inflation has now wiped out the wage gains of this entire administration. PSA: it is no longer acceptable to show up to the cookout with sodas. Bring sides.Then we take a step back. Elon Musk crossed a trillion dollars after the SpaceX IPO valued the company at about $2.1 trillion. The gap between him and the world's number two is now bigger than the gap from number two down to everyone else. Chuck predicted this in last week's spotlight, and we discuss what is real, what is just on paper, and why a fortune built on government contracts and an AI bet might be more fragile than it seems. This all happened as Friday became the worst market day since the 2025 tariff shock.Topic three is the chaos inside the intelligence community. After bipartisan backlash, the White House removed Bill Pulte and nominated Jay Clayton for permanent DNI. Manny's prediction from last week was almost exactly right: the whole situation was a distraction to move Todd Blanche. Meanwhile, the fight led to the failure of Section 702 FISA reauthorization, and Chuck asks the episode's sharpest question: as a Black man in America, what liberty did I ever get to give up?Support the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Jun 8 · 1h 34m

Send us a message!!!The Chairman of Chaos and Manny held it down this week, and this one covers alot.RECONCILIATION 2.0 | The Senate passed a $70 billion ICE and Border Patrol funding bill at 4:47 AM after an 18-hour Voterama. 52-47. Lisa Murkowski voted no. Democrats got nothing they asked for: no judicial warrant requirements before ICE can enter homes, no mandatory body cameras, and no SAVE Act block. The $1.8B anti-weaponization fund got stripped. ICE is now funded through January 2029, the largest ICE recruitment appropriation in the agency's history. And it still has to clear the House.TODD BLANCHE FOR AG | Trump's personal criminal defense attorney, the man who represented him through 34 felony charges, is now the nominee for Attorney General. Tom Tillis is on the Judiciary Committee and has zero equivocation. Pam Bondi said in her own hearing that she let Blanche handle everything. Dead cases are about to come back to life.BILL PULTE, ACTING DNI | No intelligence experience. No military background. No security clearance history. The FHFA Director and social media personality is your next Director of National Intelligence. John Thune, the Republican Majority Leader, has already publicly said that the DNI needs professionals. Manny and Chuck prayed on it. Literally.CHAIRMAN'S MOMENT OF CHAOS | Jared Kushner and Ivanka's $1.4 billion euro eco-resort on Albania's only undeveloped island has put hundreds of thousands in the streets on consecutive days. They're calling it the Flamingo Revolution. It makes the No Kings protests look like a field trip.SPOTLIGHTS | Chuck breaks down the SpaceX IPO $1.75 trillion valuation, $2.6 billion loss in 2025, Elon retains 85% voting control, and the regulatory guardrails have been rolled back. Manny covers the New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite not seen in the U.S. since 1966, that just crossed the Texas border. DOGE cut the monitoring program. Canada already blocked Texas livestock imports.Support the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Jun 1 · 1h 59m

Send us a message!!!Trump Caught an L in Every Room: The Heritage Foundation says 1,055 out of 1,913 Project 2025 recommendations have been put in place, and they’re giving Donald Trump the credit. That means 55% of the plan has been carried out in just 16 months. Jeezy, Manny, and Chuck start the show with that news and break it down. Next, they cover Trump’s tough week on four different issues. In Alabama, federal judges stopped efforts to redraw court-ordered maps, and in South Carolina, 12 Republicans joined Democrats to block a redistricting proposal. The $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund is now under review by judges in two states, and 35 retired federal judges from both parties are calling it collusion. A federal judge also blocked adding Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center, saying Congress would have to approve it. Freedom250 is turning into a PR mess, with more than half of its announced performers dropping out. Manny’s Spotlight looks at Section 224 of the 2027 NDAA, a little-known part of a 500-page bill that would link U.S. and Israeli military systems, including sharing battlefield data and joint AI infrastructure. Hardly anyone is talking about it. Jeezy’s Spotlight focuses on Gaza, where Netanyahu says Israel plans to expand its control from 60% to 70%, squeezing 2 million Palestinians into an even smaller area, while most of the media has moved on. Chuck’s Spotlight shares five important phone numbers everyone should know, including 741741, the text-based emergency line. Pickle of the Week: Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who Democrats hope can beat Susan Collins, is still dealing with a Nazi tattoo, offensive online posts, and now a sexting scandal that his own campaign staff already knew about.Support the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

May 27 · 1h 13m

Send us a message!!!We sat down with Tamika Walker Kelly, the six-year President of the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE), the state’s largest professional organization for public school employees. Tamika is an 18-year NC public school educator, a North Carolina Teaching Fellows alumna, and someone our own Chuck Wills knows personally: she taught his daughter.Jeezy, Manny, and Chuck went deep on the issues that don’t get nearly enough airtime: the NC General Assembly budget that is 320-plus days overdue. The “8% average raise” is actually a pay cut when you run the real numbers. School closures are tearing through communities from Martin County to Cumberland County to Chapel Hill. Why the “far-left” label thrown at NCAE by the Monroe mayor is a misfire. And what it will take to fix an educator shortage that goes far deeper than pipeline programs.Support the show🎤 Listen: https://pardonthepolitics.com/  | linktr.ee/pardonthepolitics | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube