Show notes
Plus: DOJ Issues Subpoenas for NYT Qatar Plane Coverage. Jay Z is back. World Cup Final Four. MLB Allstar Game is Something Good.
No guests today — just Paul Rieckhoff, coming to you from a brutally hot New York City with the five I's to keep you cool: independence, integrity, information, inspiration, and impact. The top story is a shock: Lindsey Graham, the 71-year-old South Carolina senator and staunch Trump ally, has died. Paul reflects on a complicated legacy — the man who voted to send him to war, drilled in the reserves as a sitting senator, disappointed vets by voting against the post-9/11 GI Bill, and eventually folded fully into Trump land, but who stood with Ukraine when it mattered. His pitch: pass Graham's Russia sanctions bill now and name it in his honor. He also flags the deeper problem with naming an inexperienced family member to a Senate seat that votes on war and peace, checks in on a silent, recovering Mitch McConnell, and breaks down Trump's reignited Iran war — the worst ceasefire ever, 140 targets hit over the weekend, and "President Mayhem" at his peak while markets churn.
Then the throughline Paul says you can't look away from: ICE running rampant. Two more people killed in a week — in Biddeford, Maine, and in Houston — with DHS slow to explain and accountability nowhere in sight. Believe your eyes, he says: this is unlawful, unaccountable, and un-American, and shutting ICE down is a patriotic stance, not a partisan one — especially with the specter of the Insurrection Act looming. Paul also hits Trump's escalating war on the press (grand-jury subpoenas to the New York Times reporters who covered the Qatari-gifted Air Force One), some good news from the courts holding the line, a quick primary-season heads-up, and — because it's summer — Jay-Z at Yankee Stadium, a World Cup down to four headed for MetLife, and the "something good" of the MLB All-Star Game in Philly. Country over party, people over politics, light over heat. Stay vigilant.
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