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TRANSCRIPT
Jane Coaston: It’s Friday, April 17th, I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show that does not share Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s sunny appraisal of the economy. Here’s what he told a reporter on Thursday when asked why people aren’t happy about how things are going.
[clip of Scott Bessent] Well, look, in their heart of hearts they feel good. I’m not sure what they’re telling the survey people.
Jane Coaston: Trump administration to America, you’re fine and you’re lying. [music break] On today’s show, Texas Attorney General and candidate for the Senate Republican primary Ken Paxton is coming for your Lululemons! And as President Donald Trump continues to beef with the Pope, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recites a fake prayer he learned from Quentin Tarantino. But let’s start with Lebanon, Israel, and Iran. Trump announced Thursday Israel and Lebanon agreed to a 10-day ceasefire, ending weeks of fighting between the Israeli government and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese millitant group. The agreement came after the two countries held their first direct talks since 1993. As always, Trump gave all the credit to himself. Here he is on the White House lawn speaking to reporters Thursday.
[clip of President Donald Trump] Today they’re going to be having a ceasefire, and that’ll include Hezbollah. And I think uh I think it could be number 10 for me.
Jane Coaston: By the way, when he says, I think it could be number 10 for me, he means that he thinks he ended 10 wars. Previously, he claimed he ended 8 wars. He hasn’t. And no, I don’t know what war number 9 was. Moving on. There’s still a lot we don’t know about the ceasefire. For one thing, a statement from Hezbollah said the group acknowledged the ceasefire but did not mention accepting it. But the bigger question for me is what does this mean for America’s war on Iran? According to Trump, the US and Iran might meet for talks as soon as this weekend. Here’s the president responding when asked if he’s going to extend the ceasefire with Iran.
[clip of President Donald Trump] I’m not sure it needs to be extended, [indistinct reporters talking over each other] just so you know, Iran wants to make a deal and we’re dealing very nicely with them.
Jane Coaston: Of course, everything is coming up Trump. He also claimed that Iran had agreed to hand over, quote, “nuclear dust buried by last year’s airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities,” but Iran hasn’t confirmed any of that. So to talk about what this means, as well as how Democrats are trying to limit weapons sales to Israel, I spoke with Tommy Vietor, co-host of Crooked Media’s Pod Save the World. Tommy, welcome back to What a Day.
Tommy Vietor: Thank you. Good to be here.
Jane Coaston: The president announced that Lebanon and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire that begins Thursday and would last for 10 days. Israel was down to announce its agreement. Why would they agree to this when they’ve been dominating so much of southern Lebanon? And there’s been some reporting that the Israeli parliament was not happy about this at all.
Tommy Vietor: Yeah, it sounds like Trump just forced this on Netanyahu and then announced it before the National Security Cabinet even had a time the chance to vote on it. So I would imagine there’s some folks um within the Israeli government that are mad. I think that this is just an instance of Donald Trump telling Netanyahu what he wanted and then making it so.
Jane Coaston: So the complicating factor here is that this is a deal between Lebanon and Israel. As we’re talking right now, Hezbollah has not weighed in. Hezbollah, the Lebanon based Iran backed militant organization that acts as we’ve talked about as a government in Southern Lebanon.
Tommy Vietor: Yeah.
Jane Coaston: But is not controlled by the Lebanese government.
Tommy Vietor: Right.
Jane Coaston: Hezbollah is the party fighting Israel. Do you think that Iran is pushing Hezbollah to accept this? What do you think the relationship is between Iran and its proxies in this moment?
Tommy Vietor: It’s a great question because I mean, to your point, I don’t think that the Lebanese government can deliver on a ceasefire if Hezbollah doesn’t want it.
Jane Coaston: Right.
Tommy Vietor: They don’t have a military that’s nearly as powerful as what Hezoullah has, so Hezbollah has all the cards. Um. So it’s a big question of whether the Iranians and their proxies will want a cease fire in this moment. I mean maybe the Iranians will say, okay, let’s do 10 days um to sort of overlap with the current ceasefire we’ve agreed to and then if things blow up, all bets are off and we’re back to fighting. But, I mean, it’s important to note that it’s not like Israel’s withdrawing troops.
Jane Coaston: Right.
Tommy Vietor: From southern Lebanon. They’re still occupying it.
Jane Coaston: Right. What do you think that says about what Israel wants to do in Lebanon after the ceasefire?
Tommy Vietor: I think it’s clear that it’s likely that the war in Lebanon will continue long after the war with Iran ends. Netanyahu, I’m almost positive, will seek to annex and fully occupy a whole bunch of territory in southern Lebanon. They will say it’s a national security need because you need to prevent rocket fire from Hezbollah into northern Israel, uh but it’s important to note that Hezbollah was born out of the last Israeli occupation of Lebanon. So we’re gonna see some sort of blowback from this, um but it doesn’t seem good.
Jane Coaston: Let’s stick with Israel for a second and the Iran war and the second front of that war, which is in Lebanon. This week, Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders rallied Senate Democrats to halt sales of weapons and bulldozers to Israel. His measure failed, but what got me was that it got like 85% of Senate Democrats, including a bunch of names. I mean, I think you could have expected Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, but you may not have expected Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.
Tommy Vietor: Yeah.
Jane Coaston: A host of people for whom it’s clear that they were kind of looking at the tea leaves on this issue and they made a decision.
Tommy Vietor: No doubt.
Jane Coaston: This seems like a big political moment for how the Democratic Party views Israel. How do you explain the vote?
Tommy Vietor: Yeah, I mean, this was a vote on what I think it was um, it was like armored bulldozers and 1000 pound bombs. Right. So it feels like something that, you know, you would imagine would be pretty easy to vote no on. I mean why does Israel need an armored bull dozer to defend itself against Iran? They don’t, they get used to annex territory in the West Bank, for example. What this tells me, though, is that Democratic elected officials are feeling enormous pressure to get tougher on the Israeli government, specifically the Netanyahu administration. I mean, that whip count, was that 40 Dems voted yes, would have been unthinkable.
Jane Coaston: 40 out of 47. Yeah.
Tommy Vietor: Unthinkable. Five years ago. Now–
Jane Coaston: Yeah.
Tommy Vietor: I think a lot of folks in the base would say–
Jane Coaston: Not good enough.
Tommy Vietor: It’s still too slow.
Jane Coaston: Yeah.
Tommy Vietor: We still want more.
Jane Coaston: This should have passed like yeah.
Tommy Vietor: Yeah. But the elected officials are clearly like a lagging indicator here and they’re reading the same polls you and I are that show Israel is wildly unpopular with young people, with progressives, and increasingly the right, especially you know non-evangelical conservatives.
Jane Coaston: I have to ask just to back up for a second because this has always been a question that you see posted online and one that I actually have. Israel has a pretty strong economy. It’s actually doing very well since the war in Iran began. There’s been you know their their economy is booming. Why exactly do they need so much military support from the United States? I understand their positionality in the Middle East. I get it. I understand that. But like thinking economically, why do they need so much from us?
Tommy Vietor: I think a lot of people would argue that they don’t, you know, and you even see like Ben Shapiro, a huge defender and fan of Israel says they should cut off US military aid and just not deal with the problems that cause this. I mean, you’re right. It’s like a, it’s a rich country. They have an advanced military, they have an industrial base of their own. Um. I think a lot of people would point out that money is fungible and if we are supporting Israel by providing them weapons or you know missile defense systems, they can then use that for universal healthcare for their citizens, something we might like back home.
Jane Coaston: Right.
Tommy Vietor: So I think the answer to your question is they don’t need our money. It’s just sort of become a thing. It’s become an article of faith over time. Barack Obama signed a 10 year MOU that provided billions and billions of aid to Israel. It was a different time. I think then it was more of an argument about helping defend Israel from Iranian attacks, which obviously we’ve seen play out. But um I think that the time has passed for that policy to change.
Jane Coaston: The U.S. House held another vote to rein in Trump’s power to wage war in Iran. It went down by just one vote. This is the third time the House stepped back from challenging Trump on the war. You know, they say the third-time is the charm. I would say, is this Congress going to just give up on pulling Trump back?
Tommy Vietor: I know. It’s so depressing. I mean, the good news on this is that there were three Democrats who had voted against a previous war powers resolution. Henry Cuellar, Greg Landsman and Juan Vargas, they flipped their votes and now they’re in favor of the war powers resolution and ending the war. We still lost another Democrat, Jared Golden, who’s resigning. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Republican, voted in favor of it. But it is exhausting and if you’re reading that Congress has just decided that you know, constitution be damned I guess they think they have no role in deciding when we go to war.
Jane Coaston: Because this isn’t new, exactly. Like, what requires a war powers resolution? Because this happened under the Obama administration.
Tommy Vietor: Yep.
Jane Coaston: With regard to Libya. Like we’ve seen this for the last 15 years or so that when we go to war seems to be a decision now made by the executive branch and not by the legislative branch.
Tommy Vietor: Right.
Jane Coaston: How did how did that happen?
Tommy Vietor: Look, I mean, I think every president over time um has argued some version of uh you know the case that the War Powers Act is unconstitutional and has asserted their authority under Article Two to do things to defend the country. I think Obama got uh [?] by half during the Libya resolution when the argument from the lawyers is basically the US didn’t have troops in hostilities because it was entirely an air campaign. I suspect the Trump people are making a similar–
Jane Coaston: Right.
Tommy Vietor: Kind of argument now though, of course, there was just a massive ground mission to rescue these pilots who were downed in Iran. So clearly we have had boots on the ground. But yeah, I mean I look this is this is a fight um between the executive branch and the congressional branch. I wish the congressional branch would fight a little harder for their own authority or else why do we even have them?
Jane Coaston: Yeah, what would it take for Congress to step in? It seems to me that like if you believe that you are a co-equal branch of government, why are you afraid of the branch to which you are equal to?
Tommy Vietor: Agreed. I mean, there are some members of Congress who have been quite consistent. Some of them I like a lot, like Tim Kaine, Senator from Virginia. Some I disagree with on most things, right? Like Thomas Massie or Rand Paul in Kentucky. But I do think we need more members of congress who uh like their power and want to use it.
Jane Coaston: Tommy, as always, thanks for joining me.
Tommy Vietor: Thanks for having me.
Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Tommy Vietor, co-host of Pod Save the World. We’re heading into the weekend, but there’s more news ahead. Thanks for listening. If you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]
[AD BREAK]
Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today.
[sung] Headlines.
Jane Coaston: Joining me is Crooked’s news editor, Greg Walters, to talk about the big stories. Hey Greg.
Greg Walters: Hey Jane.
Jane Coaston: Greg, if you wondered if Trump had ended his beef with the Pope, fear not. The President of the United States still has a lot of thoughts on the pontiff. Here he is outside the White House on Thursday answering questions from reporters.
[clip of unnamed news reporter] Why are you fighting with the Pope? And are you worried it’s upsetting your [?]–
[clip of President Donald Trump] No no. I don’t.
[clip of unnamed news reporter] –supporters.
[clip of President Donald Trump] I have to do what’s right. The Pope has to understand that, very simple, I have nothing against the Pope. His brother is MAGA all the way, I like his brother, Lewis.
[clip of unnamed news reporter] Why are you fighting with him?
[clip of President Donald Trump] I’m not fighting with him. The Pope made a statement, he says, Iran can have a nuclear weapon. I say Iran can not have–
[clip of unnamed news reporter] He didn’t say that.
[clip of President Donald Trump] –a new nuclear weapon, and if the Pope looked at the 42,000 people that were killed over the last two or three months as a protester with no weapons, no nothing, I mean, you take a look at that, uh so I could disagree with the Pope
Jane Coaston: Now, see, a reporter corrected Trump, saying, quote, “he didn’t say that,” referring to Pope Leo, which is correct, because the Pope did not say Iran can have a nuclear weapon, because he’s the Pope, Greg. I don’t think the Pope wants anyone to have a nuclear weapon. And Trump had much more to say about Pope Leo on Thursday, adding that he would not meet with the Pontiff because, quote, “I don’t think it’s necessary,” and adding that he supported the Pope preaching the gospel because, quote, “I’m all about the gospel. I’m about it as much as anybody can be.” But then he added that Iran could not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. Greg, I’m just going to go out on a limb here and say, I do not think Donald Trump is all about the gospel.
Greg Walters: Au contraire, Jane. The Bible is extremely personal to Donald Trump. Do you remember that time back in 2015 when Trump went on Bloomberg Politics and he was asked about his favorite Bible verse? It’s a classic.
[clip of Bloomberg Polititcs reporter] I’m wondering what one or two of your most favored Bible verses are and why?
[clip of President Donald Trump] I wouldn’t want to get into it because to me that’s very personal. You know when I talk about the Bible its very personal. So I don’t want get into this. I don’t want to get into–
[clip of Bloomberg Polititcs reporter] There’s no verse that’s a, there’s no verse that–
[clip of President Donald Trump] No. I–
[clip of Bloomberg Polititcs reporter] –means a lot to you that you think about or cite?
[clip of President Donald Trump] The Bible means a lot to me, but I don’t want to get into specifics.
[clip of Bloomberg Polititcs reporter] Even to cite a verse that you like?
[clip of President Donald Trump] No I don’t want to do that.
[clip of Bloomberg Polititcs reporter] Okay.
[clip of Bloomberg Politics reporter 2] Are you an old testament guy or a new testament guy?
[clip of President Donald Trump] Uh probably equal.
Greg Walters: He’s talking about the New Testament versus the Old Testament, like he can’t decide between the Godfather part 1 and the Godfather part 2. You’re like, ehhhh, they’re both great. They’re both great.
Jane Coaston: I mean, first, Godfather part one, obviously. Anyway, the pope has lots of things to do. He’s the pope. So he is currently on a four-country tour of Africa. But during a visit to Cameroon on Thursday, the pope said, quote, “Woe to those who manipulate religion in the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.” He added, quote, “It is a world turned upside down, an exploitation of God’s creation that must be denounced and rejected by every honest conscience.” Did he say Trump’s name? No. But, um, I don’t think he had to.
Greg Walters: Woe to someone whose name shall not be used. Um. You know the thing is.
Jane Coaston: Woe to some guy who maybe is a president, who could say?
Greg Walters: Woe to fill in the blank political madlibs. Um. You know, Jane, like people who know a lot more about military strategy than I do, they say don’t pick a fight that you can’t win. It remains to be seen whether Trump made that mistake in Iran, but in this case, it really looks like the guy who can’t name a single Bible verse because they’re so personal has made the extremely optional decision to get into a Sunday school throwdown with His Holiness, the Bishop of Rome. And when it comes to a contest over religious and moral authority, my money’s on the Holy Father.
Jane Coaston: Now, speaking of people using Christianity as a shield for their own weird thing they’re into, Secretary of War/little boy, Pete Hegseth, held a prayer event on Wednesday at the Pentagon. Now, Hegseth said he was reading a prayer commonly recited to search and rescue crews ahead of their missions, like a recent effort to find two U.S. Air Force crew members shot down over Iran. Hegseth said the prayer was from Ezekiel 25-17, which reads, quote, “And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes. And they shall know that I am the Lord when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.”
Greg Walters: But that’s not what Hegseth said. Instead, he went full royale with cheese with a prayer that will sound extremely familiar to Quentin Tarantino fans. Okay, here is Hegseth on Wednesday, remixed alongside the great Samuel L. Jackson in a scene from the 1994 classic, Pulp Fiction.
[clip of Pete Hegseth with Samuel L. Jackson clip from Pulp Fiction overlayed on top of it] They call it Csar 25-17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25-17. So the prayer is Csar, 25-17 and it reads and pray with me please. The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of camaraderie and duty shepherd the lost through the valley of darkness for he is truly his brother’s keeper. And the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother. And you will know my call sign is Sandy One, when I lay my vengeance upon him.
Jane Coaston: Now, number one. Greg, great movie. Pulp Fiction, fantastic movie. Though, now, again, I’m very worried as to what Pete Hegseth thinks that movie is about. Like, I would love to hear, I actually want to hear more of his thoughts on Pulp Fiction. Not less, more.
Greg Walters: Honestly, Jane, I’d be a lot more into politics if they would just always speak in film quotations. I mean, imagine if Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gets up to give a speech about government bonds, and instead we just get a few quotes from The Big Lebowski or Snakes on a Plane. I, for one, think that would be an improvement. But Jane, let’s take a break from earthly politics for once and get into some leggings politics.
Jane Coaston: Now Attorney General Ken Paxton, you don’t listen to this show. I know you don’t. But you have entered my dojo. A dojo made out of wonder train leggings. Here’s CBS19 on Tuesday.
[clip of unnamed CBS19 News Reporter] Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, is launching an investigation into a major athletic wear company, Lululemon. Paxton says his office is looking into whether the brand misled customers about the safety of its products. The investigation will focus on whether Luluemon’s clothing contains PFAS, known as Forever Chemicals, which had been linked to serious health concerns.
Jane Coaston: Yes, that is correct. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is currently locked in a tight runoff race for the GOP Senate nomination in Texas with Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, has decided to take on the real enemy. The leggings I wear to work out in every day. This is not new for Paxton. The scandal-prone Attorney General of Texas. In the past, Paxton has investigated skittles for chemicals. Colgate toothpaste for fluoride use, and Tylenol, after Trump and R.F.K. Jr. claimed the over-the-counter pain reliever was a potential cause of autism. Now, Lululemon says their products have not contained any forever chemicals since 2023. But this is obviously a clear effort by Paxton to really garner favor with the Maha audience, but Greg? He’s gone after me. This is about me.
Greg Walters: Yeah. Uh.
Jane Coaston: This is all about me.
Greg Walters: This is about you, Jane. And I say, Ken, leave Jane and her yoga pants alone. Uh. I guess he thinks there’s some, in Texas, that there’s some kind of like take your yoga pants away demographic that’s going to help him squeeze into the Senate. Uh. But if you will excuse me, Jane, for saying this in a story about yoga, I think that’s a bit of a stretch.
Jane Coaston: I would, however, bend over backwards for you, Greg. Thanks for hanging out.
Tommy Vietor: Good to see you, Jane.
Jane Coaston: And that’s the news. [music break]
[AD BREAK]
Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, celebrate some big-time donations to public media, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how NPR announced Thursday that it had received gifts totaling $113 million, including the largest gift from a living donor in public radio history, like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston. And you could spend a lot of money trying to live forever, or you could put a ton of money into ensuring something you care about exists long after you’re gone. But if you choose to give, please donate to your local stations and rural stations too. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producer is Emily Fohr. Our producer is Caitlin Plummer. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Greg Walters, Matt Berg, and Ethan Oberman. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our senior vice president of news and politics is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Kyle Murdock and Jordan Cantor. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]
