On today's show, Alex Blumberg and Peter Bergen talk about the results of the Arizona primary and what it means for the future of election integrity in the United States. They also discuss the latest in the DOJ investigation of the 2020 election, including the confirmation of a new Director of National Intelligence nominee, Jay Clayton, and whether or not he will be a good fit for the job.
00:00:00.000We are getting our first big test of how durable Donald Trump's election denialism still is.
00:00:06.680And it's happening on primary day in Arizona, which you will remember as a hotspot for 2020
00:00:12.140elections investigations that ultimately went nowhere. Today, three Republicans on the ballot
00:00:17.320had either disputed or interfered with that election. There they are, leading GOP candidates
00:00:22.240for governor, attorney general, and secretary of state, which, as you know, is also Arizona's top
00:00:28.500elections job. So big deal. DNI Jay Clayton or the DNI potentially to be Jay Clayton. He was just
00:00:35.820voted out of committee. Senator Warner said he had deep reservations about him after his performance
00:00:42.020the other day in front of that committee because he wouldn't answer the question regarding whether
00:00:47.0802020 was duly won by by President Biden. What do you make of Clayton moving forward?
00:00:54.980well it's unsurprising given that the republicans hold the majority in that committee but i think if
00:01:01.060he answered honestly the question of who won the 2020 election he would have had probably a
00:01:06.880unanimous vote because all of the democrats on that committee wanted him to get into that position
00:01:12.180quickly so they could push bill poldy out and so he just really fumbled quite badly and if he's
00:01:18.260unwilling to answer a simple question like that in terms of who won a presidential election
00:01:22.780And he seemed very frightened about, you know, saying something that was going to annoy Donald Trump.
00:01:28.780You know, what can we expect from him as a director of national intelligence?
00:01:31.940So I know that Senator Warner and others are really hopeful that he's going to live up to the reputation he had when he was in the SEC.
00:01:39.740But I must tell you, his first time out of the gate does not give me a lot of confidence that he's going to actually fulfill his obligations as director of national intelligence if he is confirmed by the full Senate.
00:01:49.300Well, the vote was nine to eight. So it looks like it was a party line vote with Republicans voting yes and Democrats voting no.
00:01:56.960We've got Andy Biggs who wants to be governor. How's that look?
00:02:03.300So, yes, you have Representative Andy Biggs, current member of the House, who was he's actually cited in some of the J6 documents,
00:02:12.480the documents around January 6th that the committee put forth about what he did or how he was interacting with the White House,
00:02:20.320as well as to try in Arizona to get what what we are basically calling fake electors to vote for Mr. Trump.
00:02:29.340So he was very, very involved in that.
00:02:31.560You also have Alex Kolodin. He is running in the the secretary of state's office, and he was one of the lawyers representing some of those fake electors, basically.
00:02:43.200And then you also have the attorney general's race, which I think is a guy named Warren Peterson.
00:02:49.620He has been very vocal about pushing against the current attorney general, the current governor, in cooperating with the investigations that the DOJ has put into when it comes to asking for election rules and from the state and things like that.
00:03:05.100So it's three people, three people who are pretty, I think we can call them election deniers, at least two out of three election deniers, but who are definitely on President Trump's side when it comes to investigating things like 2020.
00:03:17.580When you address the nation, maybe it would have been on Iran or maybe it would have been on the good news from the economy. But that election is, I understand he wants to remind people so that they don't do it the next time.
00:03:32.400But I think the whole MAGA emphasis on the actual Election Day cheating, and now we hear from Mark Wayne Mullen that there's one million votes that were cast or registered voters that got ballots.
00:03:49.660He says 250,000 non-citizens registered to vote in four Democrat-run states.
00:03:56.140Yes, four states, a million voters. Any of the swing states, that would change the election. They were illegal, and they know it. But the issue I think he should say is, I'm not going to adjudicate 2020, because by the time the ballots were cast, the system had been altered under the pretense of COVID.
00:04:18.320And now, what do I mean by that? And then he could just do the items that Molly Ball in her Triumphalist article, she's a woman of the left, said that, bragged that what they did, they changed the voting laws by going to lawsuits to district court judges and such, and in blue states to the legislatures.
00:04:39.480And what had traditionally been 30% of an absentee ballot was renamed, rebranded mail-in ballots, and that was 70% almost nationwide.
00:04:53.180And they brought in under the guise of COVID that you could register to vote without an ID, without a driver's license.
00:05:06.160But if you didn't have anything, they would give you one.
00:05:08.760a number. And then you could vote that same day. You could be ballot heart. That changed radically
00:05:13.720the entire American electoral system in one direction for the left. And so that's what I
00:05:20.420wish he would concentrate on. I don't know if it was illegal or legal, but the way that it did it
00:05:27.240altered the way we voted. And if you look at population increases, there's no way in the world
00:05:36.160that you would get so many voters voting in the 2000s. More people voted in 2020 than in 2024.
00:05:43.740It was just astounding. It was just a sudden rise of voters. And we know now that Mark Zuckerberg
00:05:54.860spent $417 million to appropriate the work of the registrars in key swing states. And by that,
00:06:02.660I mean, basically give them all this money to put drop boxes that couldn't really be accounted for all over their states, money to sue, to extend the balloting, mail-in ballots for us in here in California for 10 days, seven to 10 days, depending on each particular state that the ballot could be cast.
00:06:53.960You repeatedly said that you trust the administration's handling the war with Iran.
00:06:58.280We're now five months in, and the U.S. death toll has surpassed the withdrawal of Afghanistan.
00:07:03.560Given that, at what point are you willing to put an AUMF on the floor or vote for a War Powers Act resolution to try and reign this in?
00:07:09.720The administration is working very hard.
00:07:11.760The commander-in-chief and the whole Department of War, they're working very hard to bring this to a resolution.
00:07:17.500There's a lot of discussions about how that will be done.
00:07:19.640We're all closely watching those developments, of course.
00:07:23.420I don't think an AUMF is in order right now.
00:07:26.200I think we need to bring this to a resolution.
00:07:29.420Look, I think it's important for all of our international partners, is my personal view, to have a role in this.
00:07:35.600I mean, we've got all of our allied nations through NATO.
00:07:37.920We've got the Arab countries over there, the Gulf states that are in closest proximity to Iran.0.71
00:07:43.580Iran is now fired on all of its neighbors, and they're turning everybody in the world into an enemy.0.67
00:07:48.240And I think this is an important moment of history for for all of the world community to decide how they want to handle this.0.99
00:07:54.900It's it shouldn't just be America's obligation.
00:07:58.140My view is that that everybody needs to play a role.
00:08:00.560So we'll see how that develops. I think we have to allow the space to do that.
00:08:04.020And I know that this administration is working around the clock to resolve that in a way so they don't suffer any more troop losses.
00:08:09.980This is a great tragedy. It shouldn't happen.
00:08:12.520But it is a very important, very important objective that I believe we've achieved to ensure that the largest sponsor of terrorism does not have a nuclear weapon.
00:08:22.880That would be a disaster for everybody, and everybody around the world understands that.
00:08:57.060So you left some change on the dresser before you prepared to come for this hearing.
00:09:02.700What's going to happen to that $75 billion?
00:09:05.560Well, that $75 billion, there's plans and designs on that part of the rebuild of our military, which had to be undertaken.
00:09:11.180And so one big, beautiful bill gave us specific avenues.
00:09:14.800I'd have to get you the exact numbers of what that is left to be allocated.
00:09:17.280Does it have to do with the war in Iran?
00:09:19.300No, this is rebuilding our military from what was not funded in the past under the Biden administration.
00:09:23.960So that's these are this is from 2026. One big, beautiful bill, which which helped move the president's priorities like Golden Dome for America, move away from all the woke priorities of of what the Biden administration was pursuing.
00:09:35.440Give us a chance to start cutting these deals on munitions. All the things that we the president wanted us to focus on shipbuilding, hypersonics.
00:09:42.640I mean, the Biden administration ignored hypersonics. They just decided to pretend like that technology didn't exist and we shouldn't invest in it.
00:09:48.680They're our thing. I don't know what Lloyd Austin did for four years. I really don't.
00:09:53.400The amount of neglect, the amount of stale thinking and bureaucracy, it was staggering when we took over.
00:10:00.160So one big, beautiful bill gave us a chance to get caught back up.
00:10:02.360Let me interrupt your speech for a minute, Mr. Secretary. It's my turn to ask questions.
00:10:06.120I've been listening patiently while you made your presentation.
00:10:09.380You estimated at one point that the cost of the war in Iran was $29 billion,
00:10:15.080dollars, but then added a caveat that there was a replacement of munitions, for example.
00:10:20.660Do you have a new estimate about what the war has cost us so far in this, the fifth
00:10:24.680month of the first year of this war in Iran?
00:10:28.000Senator, the estimate we have as of today is $37.5 billion.
00:10:32.840And is the current activity, which we have been told about the exchange of fire back
00:10:37.840and forth in Iran, an indication that that number is going to go up in the months ahead?
00:10:42.400Some of that number captures additional O&M, mill pay, and other that would be anticipated through the fiscal year.
00:10:49.220So some of that anticipates what costs would be going out in the future as well.
00:10:52.340So the new number you've given me is what?
00:10:57.600And that represents the cost of the war through what period of time?
00:11:02.000Through now for certain aspects of it, but also mill pay, O&M, other anticipated costs through September 30th, Senator.
00:11:09.780I think there was a sense that the president expressed at the start of the war that the U.S. military power was overwhelming and would likely produce unconditional surrender quickly by Iran.
00:13:06.780I understand why you don't want to respond, but these are all massive risks that seem to be poorly weighed in the beginning of this misadventure.
00:13:18.620Currently, there are reports that we have hit the Banshee desalination plant that provides water to about 20 villages or about 10,000 people,
00:13:27.060and we also damaged the desalination plant at Keshem Island.
00:13:30.940Were these deliberate targets by the United States?
00:13:35.120Sir, I'm not aware of those as being particular targets, nor am I aware of those reports,
00:13:40.120and I'll have to go back and get back to you on that.
00:18:51.840Rubio's, you know, we got the MOTU team here,
00:18:55.600which is kind of their structure is the Abraham Accords,
00:18:58.340which I tell you is kind of this economic and business framework.
00:19:03.540And President Trump just came out, I think, two days ago and said,
00:19:05.700everybody's got to sign up for the Abraham Accords.
00:19:07.680You must sign up for the Abraham Accords0.59
00:19:09.180because that is a business and economic solution for what looks like intractable vendettas and1.00
00:19:16.700vengeance of various tribal types in the Middle East that have been doing this for thousands of
00:19:21.940years. And like I said, we'll be doing it for thousands of years in the future unless0.98
00:19:25.180they're replaced by robots. This is Rubio. So Rubio's got up there and he's gotten involved
00:19:33.920and this is his solution. Of course, Israel and Netanyahu want to be a part of this and say this
00:19:40.520can't happen without their active involvement. But today we're going to have the Christian leader
00:19:45.840of Lebanon, a field commander, and President Trump likes it in Pakistan, in Syria, and in Lebanon.
00:19:52.100He's got a certain type, you can tell. He likes people who have been, have a few battle scars on
00:19:57.820him. And as he says about the guy in Syria, he's no choir boy, but he feels he can deal with him.
00:20:03.920Neil McCabe, you're at the White House.
00:20:05.360We're going to cut to the bilat, particularly if President Trump, if he opens it up to the press, which I assume he will, maybe not originally, maybe during the Charlie Kirk show.
00:20:15.180But if he takes questions, because as Axios says, we've just gone through 10 days of intensive bombing and we're coming into a fork in the road.
00:20:23.540I happen to believe that the fork just doesn't have two ways to go down.
00:20:27.240It has a third or maybe a fourth, but we're heading down to a decision point anyway.
00:20:32.100Neil, what do you got at the White House?
00:20:33.920Yes, if President Joseph Aon commanded the Lebanese army from 2017 to 2025, he was known as a guy who did not involve the military and politics.
00:20:49.740He wanted to build up the army as sort of that objective backbone of the country.0.76
00:20:55.900Now that he's president, he is asserting himself and that army as a tool of Lebanon's restoring sovereignty to basically make it the biggest, baddest militia in the country.0.61
00:21:09.440And that first test is the plan for Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon and for Hezbollah to disarm and hand over their weapons and to have those sectors replaced by the Lebanese army, which will secure it, hold it, and restore Lebanese sovereignty.0.68
00:21:33.720Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has signed off on this plan.
00:21:37.800President Donald J. Trump has signed off on that plan.
00:21:40.280The Israelis are kind of slow walking it because they're hesitant because they want that buffer in southern Lebanon.
00:21:48.340But Aon is committed and his pitch to the president today is back me and I will make it happen.
00:21:54.780And it shouldn't be lost on people that this is a man who carries shrapnel in his body when he was in kinetic real firefight combat.
00:22:03.200And he also grew up in southern Lebanon, and so he feels that this is almost personal, restoring Lebanese sovereignty to that area, Steve.
00:22:14.880When you say Israel supports it, what Israel wants is the destruction of Hezbollah, not simply it's – and what's the incentive here for Hezbollah to lay down their weapons?
00:22:25.360because this this means coming out of this mean today this is another multi-year engagement by
00:22:32.960the united states of america this will not be agreed to unless the united states gives certain
00:22:37.540wait for it security guarantees and probably money big time cash and security guarantees
00:22:43.060just logical this is why this is the rubio this is the rubio neocon you know alternative let's be
00:22:50.700the police he's he's going to asia saying we can't be the policeman to the world well hey yo dude
00:22:55.180I'd rather be the policeman in the South China Sea and the Strait of Taiwan0.96
00:22:58.940where we're protecting those chip factories from the Chinese Communist Party1.00
00:23:03.840than once again in another excursion in Lebanon.
00:24:20.300We just saw the Houthis. The Houthis looked around and said, hey, you know what? And the Houthis are bad guys, but they're tough as all get out. They've beaten the Egyptians. They've beaten the British. They've beaten the Saudis. They've beaten UAE. They take on all comers because they're like mountain folk.
00:24:39.180and now they're choosing to say hey look i think we're going to shut down uh the entrance to the
00:24:44.800red sea and we're going to shut down suez so why is this lebanon situation as good of this guy you
00:24:50.400know he's a marionite christian he's got shrapnel he's a field commander uh president trump will
00:24:55.660say he's from central casting because he is from central casting but does that make a difference
00:25:00.840is this another is this uh are we looking at a president diem that uh or the military coup
00:25:06.960in Vietnam where now you got the military guys in charge and not a bunch of politicians,
00:25:11.040but you get sucked into a multi-year open-ended commitment to create some buffer in Lebanon
00:25:17.680that doesn't make any difference in the world to the vital national security interests of the
00:25:23.100United States of America, sir. The problem is the other option is to walk away. And so people
00:25:35.280aren't sure they want to do that either president aon is presenting this as an option and perhaps
00:25:42.940hezbollah can sort of evolve into shin fein is that's what hang on isn't isn't the option we
00:25:50.060say walk away say walk away the option is to tell israel it's it's your it's your call we're out
00:25:57.720uh this is you're you're not a uh you're not a uh a vassal state of the united states
00:26:04.640right which they hate when i say that even in local domestic israeli politics you know
00:26:09.820we are not a vassal state but if you're not a vassal state stop taking commands from the united
00:26:16.100states of america the way to do that you're a sovereign nation so israel should make a decision
00:26:21.220if they're a sovereign nation it's their fight it's not our fight and so it's just to turn it
00:26:26.160over to the israelis and say you decide if you like this guy you figure it out with him if you
00:26:30.680want to take you want to put general keen and general keen's back on fox and what's general
00:26:35.180keen saying we have to have major combat operations when they say major combat operations
00:26:40.860they mean they mean that little uh the the young private uh in the u.s army who just graduated from
00:26:48.220high school in may of 2025 think about that for a second she graduated from high school
00:26:52.900in May of 2025, and now she's among the honored dead of our military, okay? Up in Jordan. Why
00:27:00.440are we in Jordan? Because of the Israeli situation. So why is it not time to say, Israel, it's your
00:27:06.280call. You like this guy, go for it. You want to buffer, go for it. You want to march to Beirut,
00:27:09.680go for it. You want to put Keane in a, make him a major general, like they made the Filipinos,1.00
00:27:14.320made MacArthur. You want to make him a major general and give him a tank column, give him a
00:27:18.760tank column, and let's throw Tel Aviv Levin and Ted Cruz and all of them, all of them volunteer.
00:27:23.820You can volunteer for the IDF, volunteer for the IDF, put a uniform on, get in a tank column,
00:27:28.500and you do what you want. And we are just out. This is once again, once again, an open-ended
00:27:37.940commitment to get involved. And I've been the one sitting there. This is not about Israel.
00:27:45.940The Russian-speaking eastern border of Ukraine is not in the vital national security interest of the United States.0.96
00:27:51.920That's where we've got to put the chips.0.96
00:27:54.480The vital national security interest of the United States of America right now is making sure the Chinese Communist Party and other foreign actors are not in our elections,0.92
00:28:02.840electing people they want instead of who the people of the United States want.0.92
00:30:24.740I am the CEO of the IRS, working closely with the Treasury Secretary, and I've been recently asked by the Secretary to expand the Trump accounts and take it to the next phase to grow it to 70 million American children.
00:30:43.240pretty big uh the pretty big mandate want to thank you for your service to the administration
00:30:49.520the country and the president um i want to go to uh and if we put it up there was a story on
00:30:55.380the new york post this morning uh that was pretty explosive uh you and the treasury secretary i
00:31:01.240want to make sure i understand this there's a hundred million dollars has it been going out
00:31:06.360to people that are dead and that you guys are finally cracking down on it can you walk us
00:31:10.620do this because it looked pretty explosive. Yeah, well, that's one piece of it. Yes.
00:31:18.080Treasury is the place where all control occurs on payments going out. And as we've created in
00:31:25.180this administration task force and been maniacal about what was named fraud, waste, and abuse,
00:31:32.140we found many payments going out their own way. We've created the control functions,
00:35:07.560Although disability is a big portion of our workload and really very important.
00:35:13.240And all of this is about a technology-first agenda.
00:35:17.840And that technology-first agenda allows us to be able to come through and change how we serve the American public.
00:35:25.140I mean, the service American public is receiving now is fundamentally 96% digital, with 4% of the transactions happening in the field offices.
00:35:37.660And that's a dynamic change from what was here before.
00:35:41.680We have cut wait times down in field offices from the last administration to now by 30%, and phone servicing wait times by 70%.
00:35:54.680All of that while cleaning up the infrastructure, we created a risk position that allows us to ensure we've collected billions of dollars that we wouldn't have before.
00:36:08.020So it's a completely different mandate. It's a completely different approach.
00:36:13.340And disability is now being also completely automated to get a better outcome.
00:36:19.800We cut down processing times to all time lows in every one of these categories that ultimately helps eliminate fraud, waste and abuse across the board.
00:36:33.640I want to go back to because I know the secretary had a problem with this at the time and the OMB guys did also.
00:36:39.740And just to make sure you guys, it's going to some process that you're still on top of.
00:36:46.060When Elon was at Doge, they had in presence, not the first State of the Union,
00:36:50.180but you had kind of this because of his inauguration just takes place a couple weeks before,
00:40:15.960And do we have any update on what's, because that's the heart of fraud.0.91
00:40:20.260When you have people, either foreigners or Americans, that are actually trying to game the system, that destroys it for everybody.0.96
00:40:26.940And we need to hold those people accountable.1.00
00:40:28.580So that aspect, you've cleaned up the rolls today, but are those people that were involved in that at all, even using it, are they being pursued?
00:40:37.820Any case we had, we brought to the system and is in process or still, I mean, we have cases completely being investigated right now.
00:41:14.900I think that what I also came to understand is there's tons of people within the federal government that want it to work right.
00:41:22.340And I've been fortunate to have a good mix of political appointees with commercial experience and people within the system who want to do a really great job, both at the IRS and at SSA.
00:41:34.700I mean, we delivered a great tax season, the best tax season ever, with the most change with 25% less people.
00:41:42.560Um, so it's, uh, it's, um, rewarding to serve the country specifically under this great president and, and partner with cabinet members. I don't think there's ever been a team like this on the field helping run the country.
00:41:59.040uh i want to say and uh you know i'd like the way frank did you said operators and i know you're one
00:42:06.740of the most sophisticated uh and effective ceos in the country and really want this is what people
00:42:12.140voted for for people for these type people like you to come in and work for president trump and
00:42:16.680with president trump and for the american people and sort things out so we want to just thank you
00:42:21.660for taking this job on and i know you got great people around you man but it is a it is a bear
00:42:27.120particularly when you're going to get technology involved.
00:42:29.760Where do people go to keep up with all this?
00:42:31.840What's the easiest way to find out what you're working on every day?
00:42:35.340The website, social media, what do you got?
00:42:38.140I mean, you know, we put out every day at SSA information.
00:42:44.480I think come watch us on X, look at what's going on at SSA,
00:49:40.980Look, we're trying to activate the church.
00:49:42.700We're trying to just, it's a biblical responsibility to get out the vote.
00:49:48.160So we're reaching out to everybody that we touch, all the different organizations and say, hey, activate your folks here in Texas, activate everybody, because at the end of the day, it's our responsibility to get out and vote.
00:50:02.580And look, the War Room Posse, have everybody in the War Room Posse talk to their pastors and say, pastors, be bold, be like a black road, black robe regimen, get fired up and speak the truth.
00:50:16.680Quit trying to just put butts in the seats.