The Chuck ToddCast

Chuck Todd and Chris Cillizza burn the midnight oil for a rare Wednesday drop, breaking down a Michigan Senate primary that became the most expensive Democratic Senate primary contest in U.S. history and a genuine proxy war over the party's future. With Abdul El-Sayed leading Haley Stevens by a far narrower margin than the polling suggested, the guys unpack why Michigan is so hard to poll, why Black voters are routinely under-sampled in primary surveys, and what it says that the Whitmer-and-labor-backed machine kept this close — a double-digit El-Sayed win, Chuck argues, would have been a genuine indictment of the establishment. They then game out the general: why Republicans will now dump money into Michigan they'd never have spent against Stevens, why an Islamophobic campaign against El-Sayed could backfire spectacularly, and why the stakes for the progressive movement in 2028 are enormous either way. Plus: how the county-by-county map becomes a strategic document for every 2028 campaign now that Michigan sits in the early window.
From there they widen the lens to the sleeper races nobody's watching — Kansas, where megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton emerged from a crowded Democratic field and will face Republican incumbent Roger Marshall in November, plus South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa, where tariffs, deportations, and the ag economy have made supposedly safe seats interesting. They dig into the ugly Max Miller saga in Ohio ahead of the ballot deadline, why Trump's refusal to push him out is grimly consistent, and the human cost to a family caught in the middle. Then it's a bracing riff on whether Trump actually wants any Republican not named Trump to win in 2028, bearish takes on Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris, a Chuck rant about why abolishing the Senate and packing the Court is magical thinking, and a closing lament about the Nats' fire sale.
Timeline:
(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)
00:00 A swing state picks its most liberal Senate nominee ever
00:41 Why Michigan polling is almost always wrong
00:59 The under-polled Black vote and why this race stayed close
01:48 Stevens had the machine — labor, Whitmer, and Wayne County
02:11 Double-digit El-Sayed win is an indictment of the establishment
03:18 The Bernie problem
05:18 Republicans will now spend far more against El-Sayed
05:44 Big money got rejected
06:29 Mike Rogers has never been a great fundraiser
07:16 This is now the only real Republican pickup opportunity
08:16 Maine goes regional — and why Collins is in big trouble
09:20 A loss is a body blow to the progressive movement
13:57 Why they held the episode until Wednesday
14:22 To Kansas: Adam Hamilton, wins the Democratic primary
15:15 Cook moves the race to Likely Republican
16:36 School funding, Johnson County & the issue also lifting Rob Sand
17:49 From anti-Brownback coalition to an actual Democratic Party
18:35 Why South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas are all suddenly live

19:16 Is MAGA angry enough at Thune to punish Rounds?
20:13 Tariffs and deportations have hammered the ag economy
20:38 Nebraska's hard ceiling vs. Kansas's higher ceiling
22:26 Which is closer in November — Kansas or Nebraska?
23:29 Why the Islamophobia play could backfire
24:29 Republicans' $300M advantage and where they'll actually spend it
27:27 Governing wing vs. movement wing
28:02 Why AOC engaged in Michigan but never for Graham Platner
29:03 The nationalization test: Talarico-Paxton or El-Sayed-Rogers?
32:41 The Max Miller deadline
33:38 Why the orchestrated exit didn't happen
34:00 Bernie Moreno, his daughter, and the family at the center of it
36:31 Why this is arguably bigger than the Platner story
38:52 Trump doesn't close the deal
39:53 Trump never accepts assault allegations as disqualifying
40:15 Trump puts himself before the party, always
41:06 Will he actually spend the MAGA Inc. money?
41:52 Trump doesn't want Vance or Rubio to win in 2028
43:41 Don Jr.'s changing online behavior — and what it might signal
45:05 Guilfoyle, Newsom & the weirdest political fact in America
45:31 Bearish on Gavin Newsom
47:38 Harris on abolishing the Electoral College and packing the Court
48:09 Changing the rules because you can't win under them
49:20 Why the Senate exists as a check on extremism
51:33 Both parties crashed this car
51:56 Why Schumer's anti-corruption bills are useless political theater
53:52 Congress was supposed to be the anti-corruption bureau
54:08 The Nats fire sale
55:26 Great franchises try to win now AND later
55:48 Manfred, the Dodgers & the coming salary-cap fight
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Brian King — the former director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, who was placed on administrative leave in April 2025 as part of the mass HHS layoffs joins the Chuck Toddcast to explain what happens to public health when the agency charged with protecting it gets deliberately dismantled. King walks through the extraordinary progress America made reducing cigarette smoking over decades, and how quickly that's being unwound: the tobacco industry donated millions to Trump's PAC, executives pressured the White House directly, and the payoff has been regulatory capture and mounting pressure on the FDA to bring flavored products back to market. He's clear-eyed rather than absolutist on the science — combustible products are far and away the most harmful, nicotine itself is highly addictive but isn't what's killing people, though it's genuinely not risk-free for the adolescent brain — and he walks Chuck through the comparison to caffeine, the data on whether vaping serves as a gateway back into smoking, and what's actually known about nicotine pouches, where youth usage isn't high but stubbornly isn't declining either. The industry, meanwhile, is spending roughly a million dollars an hour advertising its products while fighting every government action to reduce smoking.
The conversation turns to what actually works and what's being abandoned. King argues the two most effective interventions available are reducing nicotine levels in cigarettes and banning menthol, credits Congress for getting the Tobacco Control Act right, and stresses that Congress — not the FDA acting alone — has to be the one to regulate tobacco, which is precisely why sidelining the agency is so damaging. He and Chuck get into the questions nobody in Washington wants to answer: why are cigarettes legal at all, how are sugary alcoholic beverages not treated in the same category, and where did the money from the 1998 master settlement actually go. King is pointed that the MAHA movement, for all its rhetoric about chronic disease, has done nothing prominent on tobacco, and that the FDA is now actively undermining both the science and the law it was built to enforce. His closing warning is the bleakest note of the episode: America is in a public health apocalypse that will take decades to repair, it will be enormously hard to recruit a next generation into the field, the entire world will be harmed by the collapse of American public health infrastructure — and the impacts are only just beginning to show up.
Play ball and swing for the fences on FanDuel, an official partner of the MLB at https://FANDUEL.COM.

Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/chuck. Application times may vary. Rates may vary.

For free and unbiased Medicare help, dial (980) 734-3985 to speak with my trusted partner, Chapter, or go to askchapter.org/chuck /*Paid Partnership

Chapter and its affiliates are not connected with or endorsed by any government entity or the federal Medicare program. Chapter Advisory, LLC represents Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO, and PFFS organizations and stand alone prescription drug plans that have a Medicare contract. Enrollment depends on the plan’s contract renewal. While we have a database of every Medicare plan nationwide and can help you to search among all plans, we have contracts with many but not all plans. As a result, we do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 50 organizations which offer 18,160 products nationwide. We search and recommend all plans, even those we don’t directly offer. You can contact a licensed Chapter agent to find out the number of products available in your specific area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-Medicare, or your local State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options.

Timeline:
(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)
00:00 Brian King (FDA center on tobacco) joins the Chuck ToddCast
03:45 We made incredible progress reducing cigarette smoking
04:15 Tobacco companies donated and received regulatory capture
05:00 Flavored vapes appeal more to kids & are problematic
06:30 Trump was pressured by executives from tobacco industry
07:15 There were multimillion dollar donations to Trump’s PAC
08:45 What’s the actual health data on nicotine outside of smoking?
09:15 Combustible products are the most harmful
09:45 Nicotine is highly addictive but isn’t causing the harm and deaths
10:30 Nicotine can harm the adolescent brain, it’s not risk free
11:15 Comparing nicotine vs. caffeine
13:00 Vaping typically isn’t a gateway back into smoking
14:15 There’s been pressure on FDA to bring back flavored products
16:45 $1M dollars an hour is being spent advertising tobacco products
17:30 Industry has been fighting all government action to reduce smoking
19:00 The FDA has been sidelined in the fight against smoking
19:30 Why are cigarettes even legal at all?
21:00 Tobacco farmers have transitioned to other crops in other countries
23:00 Reducing nicotine levels is highly effective
23:30 Outlawing menthol is also highly effective
25:15 Congress got it right with the Tobacco Control Act
27:00 How are sugary alcoholic beverages not in the same category?
28:00 What is age gating technology and how does it work?
30:00 Do we have good data on usage for people under 18?
32:30 Nicotine pouch usage isn’t high amongst kids, but isn’t going down
33:00 What is the data about health impacts from pouches?
34:30 Nicotine has a strong stimulant effect, helps with attention
35:15 Settlement in ‘98 required tobacco companies to pay costs in perpetuity
35:45 States have diverted those funds to other purposes
36:45 Did the tobacco industry actually take a hit from the settlement?
37:30 If still at FDA, what changes would you implement?
38:00 FDA has been undermining the science and the law
39:00 Effectiveness of banning indoor smoking
40:15 Should preventing underage addictions be the north star?
42:30 Congress has to regulate tobacco, FDA can’t do it on its own
43:15 MAHA hasn’t done anything prominent on tobacco
45:30 Is there litigation that could be pursued here?
46:45 We’re in a public health apocalypse, will take decades to repair
47:30 It will be hard to recruit people into public health
49:15 The entire world will be harmed by collapse of American public health
51:00 The impacts are just beginning to show up, will get worse
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chuck Todd opens with the Iran war's arrival on American soil: hackers have hit water systems across multiple states in one of the most serious cyberattacks on U.S. water infrastructure in years and investigators probing an Iranian link. Trump's response tells you everything about the presidency in its current state — he didn't blame the attacker, he blamed the victim, using the hack as an occasion to attack Minnesota Democrats. Chuck’s question hangs over the whole segment: was Trump briefed on the Iranian connection and went after Minnesota anyway? Either way, the first instinct was to find a Democrat to blame, which Chuck calls a kind of polarization disease that leaves a president caring more about his narrative than about American citizens drinking the water. It fits a pattern the episode keeps circling: Jeanine Pirro presented false evidence to a grand jury blaming a former Olympian for damage to the White House reflecting pool, dropped the case when Interior produced documents proving otherwise, and Trump publicly disagreed with dropping it because he still insists it was vandals. Chuck argues negative information never reaches Trump, and people who bring him bad news don't last long — which is how you end up with a president insisting affordability is a Democratic scam
Then, Chuck highlights a Wall Street Journal piece that lays out Trump's corruption — roughly $800 million raised through what amounts to an advertised pay-to-play scheme. Anti-corruption is a devastating midterm message sitting right there for Democrats to pick up… then Chuck Schumer rolled out a bill that Chuck calls a piece of garbage: it wouldn't even cover the conduct in the WSJ story, it's likely unconstitutional because it names individuals, and — most absurdly — it creates a new anti-corruption agency inside the executive branch, meaning a corrupt president would appoint its director and seven board members and, per the Supreme Court, could fire them at will. Congress can already do every bit of the oversight the agency would perform and Schumer's answer to executive corruption is to hand the executive more power and write Congress out of its own job. He closes on Michigan and Wisconsin as the clearest signals of where the Democratic Party is headed — Abdul El-Sayed running a movement inside a Senate race with the explicit goal of changing the party, DSA-endorsed Francesca Wong leading in Wisconsin while the establishment fails to coordinate against her — and on the DSA's new call to abolish the Senate, which Senate Democrats pushed back on without ever defending the institution. Chuck defends it himself: the Senate is a feature, not a bug, a brake on political extremism, and the right response to losing an argument is to win it rather than rewrite the rules.
Then, Dr. Brian King — the former director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, who was placed on administrative leave in April 2025 as part of the mass HHS layoffs joins the Chuck Toddcast to explain what happens to public health when the agency charged with protecting it gets deliberately dismantled. King walks through the extraordinary progress America made reducing cigarette smoking over decades, and how quickly that's being unwound: the tobacco industry donated millions to Trump's PAC, executives pressured the White House directly, and the payoff has been regulatory capture and mounting pressure on the FDA to bring flavored products back to market. He's clear-eyed rather than absolutist on the science — combustible products are far and away the most harmful, nicotine itself is highly addictive but isn't what's killing people, though it's genuinely not risk-free for the adolescent brain — and he walks Chuck through the comparison to caffeine, the data on whether vaping serves as a gateway back into smoking, and what's actually known about nicotine pouches, where youth usage isn't high but stubbornly isn't declining either. The industry, meanwhile, is spending roughly a million dollars an hour advertising its products while fighting every government action to reduce smoking.
The conversation turns to what actually works and what's being abandoned. King argues the two most effective interventions available are reducing nicotine levels in cigarettes and banning menthol, credits Congress for getting the Tobacco Control Act right, and stresses that Congress — not the FDA acting alone — has to be the one to regulate tobacco, which is precisely why sidelining the agency is so damaging. He and Chuck get into the questions nobody in Washington wants to answer: why are cigarettes legal at all, how are sugary alcoholic beverages not treated in the same category, and where did the money from the 1998 master settlement actually go. King is pointed that the MAHA movement, for all its rhetoric about chronic disease, has done nothing prominent on tobacco, and that the FDA is now actively undermining both the science and the law it was built to enforce. His closing warning is the bleakest note of the episode: America is in a public health apocalypse that will take decades to repair, it will be enormously hard to recruit a next generation into the field, the entire world will be harmed by the collapse of American public health infrastructure — and the impacts are only just beginning to show up.
Finally, Chuck hops into the ToddCast Time Machine to revisit Watergate and Richard Nixon’s resignation, and answers listeners’ questions in the “Ask Chuck” segment.
Play ball and swing for the fences on FanDuel, an official partner of the MLB at https://FANDUEL.COM.
Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/chuck. Application times may vary. Rates may vary.
For free and unbiased Medicare help, dial (980) 734-3985 to speak with my trusted partner, Chapter, or go to askchapter.org/chuck /*Paid Partnership

Chapter and its affiliates are not connected with or endorsed by any government entity or the federal Medicare program. Chapter Advisory, LLC represents Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO, and PFFS organizations and stand alone prescription drug plans that have a Medicare contract. Enrollment depends on the plan’s contract renewal. While we have a database of every Medicare plan nationwide and can help you to search among all plans, we have contracts with many but not all plans. As a result, we do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 50 organizations which offer 18,160 products nationwide. We search and recommend all plans, even those we don’t directly offer. You can contact a licensed Chapter agent to find out the number of products available in your specific area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-Medicare, or your local State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options.

Timeline:
(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)
00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction
06:15 The Iran war has become a global conflict
06:45 Once again Trump issues threats, then walks them back
08:15 War is one of biggest strategic mistakes in decades
09:00 Increased gas prices have cost households additional $560
10:30 CISA warns that Iranian hackers are targeting water infrastructure
11:15 Iran could cause unreliability to the American water supply
13:00 Trump used hacking attacks to blame Minnesota Democrats
13:45 Trump didn’t blame the attacker, he blamed the victim
15:30 Jeanine Pirro blamed former Olympian for damage to reflecting pool
16:00 Dept. of Interior had documents proving otherwise, Pirro dropped case
17:00 Pirro presented false evidence to a grand jury
18:30 Trump publicly disagreed with Pirro dropping case, says it was vandals
19:30 Trump’s staff is shielding him from the truth
21:00 Trump’s lack of understanding reality is terrible for him
21:30 Trump’s low approval is a midterm disaster in the making
23:00 Stephanie Grisham says 85% of negative info is kept from Trump
24:15 People who bring Trump bad news don’t last very long
25:30 Republicans aren’t campaigning like things are going well
26:00 Ken Paxton puts out an affordability agenda, looks like a Dem proposal
27:15 Trump still saying affordability is scam made up by Democrats
28:15 Trump can’t understand the reality of the situation
28:45 Was Trump briefed on Iran hack… then attacked Minnesota anyway?
30:00 Trump’s first instinct was to find a Democrat to blame
30:45 Trump is demented with polarization disease
31:15 Trump cares more about his narrative than American citizens
32:15 Trump is bragging about his grifting an Americans are tired of it
33:15 Anti-Corruption is a massively effective midterm strategy
33:45 Chuck Schumer rolls out a stinker of an anti-corruption bill
34:45 WSJ publishes airtight piece about Trump’s overt corruption
35:45 There’s no buffer or plausible deniability for Trump in the corruption story
36:45 Trump is basically advertising that government is a pay to play scheme
37:45 There’s a list of presidential promises for favors that have been bought
38:15 Trump has raised $800m in pay for play schemes with little accounting
39:00 There is no law outlawing a president from raising unlimited money
39:30 Trump is now the biggest alligator in the swamp
40:15 Schumer’s bill is a piece of garbage, why many senators didn’t sign on
41:45 Jamie Raskin is performing oversight, Schumer wants agency to do it for him
42:30 The bill wouldn’t even cover the corruption outlined by the WSJ story
44:00 The bill is unconstitutional because it names individuals
45:00 Laws can target behavior, not individuals. It’d be thrown out in court
45:45 The agency Schumer proposed would live in the executive branch
46:15 Agency to stop a corrupt president would be staffed by the president??
47:15 SCOTUS says president can fire the heads of exec branch agencies
48:45 If bill passed, Trump would pick agency head and 7 members of board
49:15 Congress can perform all the oversight the proposed agency would do
50:30 Congress could stop all this corruption if it wanted to
52:00 Schumer’s idea is to hand more power to the executive branch???
54:30 The plan from congress is to write themselves out of oversight?
57:00 Schumer’s bill will never see the light of day
57:45 Michigan & Wisconsin will show where the Democratic party is headed
59:30 Abdul El-Sayed made clear his goal is to change the Democratic party
1:00:15 His campaign is a movement inside a senate race
1:01:00 Francesca Wong in Wisconsin is frontrunner & endorsed by DSA
1:01:45 Establishment hasn’t coordinated well to stop Wong
1:02:15 Movement politicians are usually right about the future, wrong about present
1:03:30 Sometimes the movement comes first, sometimes the coalition does
1:04:00 DSA has become a force, and is now calling for abolishing the senate
1:05:00 Senate democrats pushed back, but didn’t defend the senate
1:05:45 The senate is a feature, not a bug
1:06:30 The senate is a brake on political extremism
1:07:15 The response is to win the argument, not rewrite the rules
1:08:00 Movement nominees are easier to defeat than governing ones
1:14:15 Brian King (FDA center on tobacco) joins the Chuck ToddCast
1:18:00 We made incredible progress reducing cigarette smoking
1:18:30 Tobacco companies donated and received regulatory capture
1:19:15 Flavored vapes appeal more to kids & are problematic
1:20:45 Trump was pressured by executives from tobacco industry
1:21:30 There were multimillion dollar donations to Trump’s PAC
1:23:00 What’s the actual health data on nicotine outside of smoking?
1:23:30 Combustible products are the most harmful
1:24:00 Nicotine is highly addictive but isn’t causing the harm and deaths
1:24:45 Nicotine can harm the adolescent brain, it’s not risk free
1:25:30 Comparing nicotine vs. caffeine
1:27:15 Vaping typically isn’t a gateway back into smoking
1:28:30 There’s been pressure on FDA to bring back flavored products
1:31:00 $1M dollars an hour is being spent advertising tobacco products
1:31:45 Industry has been fighting all government action to reduce smoking
1:33:15 The FDA has been sidelined in the fight against smoking
1:33:45 Why are cigarettes even legal at all?
1:35:15 Tobacco farmers have transitioned to other crops in other countries
1:37:15 Reducing nicotine levels is highly effective
1:37:45 Outlawing menthol is also highly effective
1:39:30 Congress got it right with the Tobacco Control Act
1:41:15 How are sugary alcoholic beverages not in the same category?
1:42:15 What is age gating technology and how does it work?
1:44:15 Do we have good data on usage for people under 18?
1:46:45 Nicotine pouch usage isn’t high amongst kids, but isn’t going down
1:47:15 What is the data about health impacts from pouches?
1:48:45 Nicotine has a strong stimulant effect, helps with attention
1:49:30 Settlement in ‘98 required tobacco companies to pay costs in perpetuity
1:50:00 States have diverted those funds to other purposes
1:51:00 Did the tobacco industry actually take a hit from the settlement?
1:51:45 If still at FDA, what changes would you implement?
1:52:15 FDA has been undermining the science and the law
1:53:15 Effectiveness of banning indoor smoking
1:54:30 Should preventing underage addictions be the north star?
1:56:45 Congress has to regulate tobacco, FDA can’t do it on its own
1:57:30 MAHA hasn’t done anything prominent on tobacco
1:59:45 Is there litigation that could be pursued here?
2:01:00 We’re in a public health apocalypse, will take decades to repair
2:01:45 It will be hard to recruit people into public health
2:03:30 The entire world will be harmed by collapse of American public health
2:05:15 The impacts are just beginning to show up, will get worse
2:07:00 Toddcast Time Machine - The five days that ended Richard Nixon
2:07:30 Nixon resigned 52 years ago, this week
2:08:15 Why is Nixon the only president that paid a price for his corruption?
2:09:15 We tell the story of Watergate backwards and start with resignation
2:10:30 The June arrests weren’t the beginning of Watergate
2:12:15 We don’t know what Nixon’s operation learned before the arrests
2:14:00 We never got full answer on the missing 18 minutes
2:14:45 Supreme Court stayed in session during summer to oversee Watergate
2:15:15 Smoking gun tape goes public six days after the break-in
2:16:00 Nixon needed 34 votes in the senate to survive, only had 16
2:16:45 Impeachment in the house was a foregone conclusion
2:17:15 Senators didn’t demand he resign, just showed Nixon the numbers
2:20:30 How different would history have looked had Nixon survived?
2:21:15 Ask Chuck
2:21:30 Is presidency becoming more powerful in a way that could outlast Trump
2:24:30 Can the U.S. government create a true unbiased media source?
2:28:15 Would mandatory voting create better political participation?
2:32:45 Would Illinois make for a better early primary state?
2:34:30 Why not hold every primary on the same day?
2:36:45 Personal anecdote about AI job displacement and fear
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chuck Todd opens with the Iran war's arrival on American soil: hackers have hit water systems across multiple states in one of the most serious cyberattacks on U.S. water infrastructure in years and investigators probing an Iranian link. Trump's response tells you everything about the presidency in its current state — he didn't blame the attacker, he blamed the victim, using the hack as an occasion to attack Minnesota Democrats. Chuck’s question hangs over the whole segment: was Trump briefed on the Iranian connection and went after Minnesota anyway? Either way, the first instinct was to find a Democrat to blame, which Chuck calls a kind of polarization disease that leaves a president caring more about his narrative than about American citizens drinking the water. It fits a pattern the episode keeps circling: Jeanine Pirro presented false evidence to a grand jury blaming a former Olympian for damage to the White House reflecting pool, dropped the case when Interior produced documents proving otherwise, and Trump publicly disagreed with dropping it because he still insists it was vandals. Chuck argues negative information never reaches Trump, and people who bring him bad news don't last long — which is how you end up with a president insisting affordability is a Democratic scam
Then, Chuck highlights a Wall Street Journal piece that lays out Trump's corruption — roughly $800 million raised through what amounts to an advertised pay-to-play scheme. Anti-corruption is a devastating midterm message sitting right there for Democrats to pick up… then Chuck Schumer rolled out a bill that Chuck calls a piece of garbage: it wouldn't even cover the conduct in the WSJ story, it's likely unconstitutional because it names individuals, and — most absurdly — it creates a new anti-corruption agency inside the executive branch, meaning a corrupt president would appoint its director and seven board members and, per the Supreme Court, could fire them at will. Congress can already do every bit of the oversight the agency would perform and Schumer's answer to executive corruption is to hand the executive more power and write Congress out of its own job. He closes on Michigan and Wisconsin as the clearest signals of where the Democratic Party is headed — Abdul El-Sayed running a movement inside a Senate race with the explicit goal of changing the party, DSA-endorsed Francesca Wong leading in Wisconsin while the establishment fails to coordinate against her — and on the DSA's new call to abolish the Senate, which Senate Democrats pushed back on without ever defending the institution. Chuck defends it himself: the Senate is a feature, not a bug, a brake on political extremism, and the right response to losing an argument is to win it rather than rewrite the rules.
Finally, Chuck hops into the ToddCast Time Machine to revisit Watergate and Richard Nixon’s resignation, and answers listeners’ questions in the “Ask Chuck” segment.
Play ball and swing for the fences on FanDuel, an official partner of the MLB at https://FANDUEL.COM.

Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/chuck. Application times may vary. Rates may vary.

For free and unbiased Medicare help, dial (980) 734-3985 to speak with my trusted partner, Chapter, or go to askchapter.org/chuck /*Paid Partnership

Chapter and its affiliates are not connected with or endorsed by any government entity or the federal Medicare program. Chapter Advisory, LLC represents Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO, and PFFS organizations and stand alone prescription drug plans that have a Medicare contract. Enrollment depends on the plan’s contract renewal. While we have a database of every Medicare plan nationwide and can help you to search among all plans, we have contracts with many but not all plans. As a result, we do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 50 organizations which offer 18,160 products nationwide. We search and recommend all plans, even those we don’t directly offer. You can contact a licensed Chapter agent to find out the number of products available in your specific area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-Medicare, or your local State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options.
Timeline:
(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)
00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction
06:15 The Iran war has become a global conflict
06:45 Once again Trump issues threats, then walks them back
08:15 War is one of biggest strategic mistakes in decades
09:00 Increased gas prices have cost households additional $560
10:30 CISA warns that Iranian hackers are targeting water infrastructure
11:15 Iran could cause unreliability to the American water supply
13:00 Trump used hacking attacks to blame Minnesota Democrats
13:45 Trump didn’t blame the attacker, he blamed the victim
15:30 Jeanine Pirro blamed former Olympian for damage to reflecting pool
16:00 Dept. of Interior had documents proving otherwise, Pirro dropped case
17:00 Pirro presented false evidence to a grand jury
18:30 Trump publicly disagreed with Pirro dropping case, says it was vandals
19:30 Trump’s staff is shielding him from the truth
21:00 Trump’s lack of understanding reality is terrible for him
21:30 Trump’s low approval is a midterm disaster in the making
23:00 Stephanie Grisham says 85% of negative info is kept from Trump
24:15 People who bring Trump bad news don’t last very long
25:30 Republicans aren’t campaigning like things are going well
26:00 Ken Paxton puts out an affordability agenda, looks like a Dem proposal
27:15 Trump still saying affordability is scam made up by Democrats
28:15 Trump can’t understand the reality of the situation
28:45 Was Trump briefed on Iran hack… then attacked Minnesota anyway?
30:00 Trump’s first instinct was to find a Democrat to blame
30:45 Trump is demented with polarization disease
31:15 Trump cares more about his narrative than American citizens
32:15 Trump is bragging about his grifting an Americans are tired of it
33:15 Anti-Corruption is a massively effective midterm strategy
33:45 Chuck Schumer rolls out a stinker of an anti-corruption bill
34:45 WSJ publishes airtight piece about Trump’s overt corruption
35:45 There’s no buffer or plausible deniability for Trump in the corruption story
36:45 Trump is basically advertising that government is a pay to play scheme
37:45 There’s a list of presidential promises for favors that have been bought
38:15 Trump has raised $800m in pay for play schemes with little accounting
39:00 There is no law outlawing a president from raising unlimited money
39:30 Trump is now the biggest alligator in the swamp
40:15 Schumer’s bill is a piece of garbage, why many senators didn’t sign on
41:45 Jamie Raskin is performing oversight, Schumer wants agency to do it for him
42:30 The bill wouldn’t even cover the corruption outlined by the WSJ story
44:00 The bill is unconstitutional because it names individuals
45:00 Laws can target behavior, not individuals. It’d be thrown out in court
45:45 The agency Schumer proposed would live in the executive branch
46:15 Agency to stop a corrupt president would be staffed by the president??
47:15 SCOTUS says president can fire the heads of exec branch agencies
48:45 If bill passed, Trump would pick agency head and 7 members of board
49:15 Congress can perform all the oversight the proposed agency would do
50:30 Congress could stop all this corruption if it wanted to
52:00 Schumer’s idea is to hand more power to the executive branch???
54:30 The plan from congress is to write themselves out of oversight?
57:00 Schumer’s bill will never see the light of day
57:45 Michigan & Wisconsin will show where the Democratic party is headed
59:30 Abdul El-Sayed made clear his goal is to change the Democratic party
1:00:15 His campaign is a movement inside a senate race
1:01:00 Francesca Wong in Wisconsin is frontrunner & endorsed by DSA
1:01:45 Establishment hasn’t coordinated well to stop Wong
1:02:15 Movement politicians are usually right about the future, wrong about present
1:03:30 Sometimes the movement comes first, sometimes the coalition does
1:04:00 DSA has become a force, and is now calling for abolishing the senate
1:05:00 Senate democrats pushed back, but didn’t defend the senate
1:05:45 The senate is a feature, not a bug
1:06:30 The senate is a brake on political extremism
1:07:15 The response is to win the argument, not rewrite the rules
1:08:00 Movement nominees are easier to defeat than governing ones
1:13:30 Toddcast Time Machine - The five days that ended Richard Nixon
1:14:00 Nixon resigned 52 years ago, this week
1:14:45 Why is Nixon the only president that paid a price for his corruption?
1:15:45 We tell the story of Watergate backwards and start with resignation
1:17:00 The June arrests weren’t the beginning of Watergate
1:18:45 We don’t know what Nixon’s operation learned before the arrests
1:20:30 We never got full answer on the missing 18 minutes
1:21:15 Supreme Court stayed in session during summer to oversee Watergate
1:21:45 Smoking gun tape goes public six days after the break-in
1:22:30 Nixon needed 34 votes in the senate to survive, only had 16
1:23:15 Impeachment in the house was a foregone conclusion
1:23:45 Senators didn’t demand he resign, just showed Nixon the numbers
1:27:00 How different would history have looked had Nixon survived?
1:27:45 Ask Chuck
1:28:00 Is presidency becoming more powerful in a way that could outlast Trump
1:31:00 Can the U.S. government create a true unbiased media source?
1:34:45 Would mandatory voting create better political participation?
1:39:15 Would Illinois make for a better early primary state?
1:41:00 Why not hold every primary on the same day?
1:43:15 Personal anecdote about AI job displacement and fear
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Chuck Todd and J.A. Adande sit down with longtime ESPN broadcasters Patrick McEnroe and Chris McKendry to go behind the scenes of Wimbledon. From Patrick's firsthand experience competing at the Championships to Chris's years anchoring ESPN's coverage, they share stories and insights you won't hear during the broadcast.
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