HIGHLY CONFLICTED PODCAST

Unpacking the news inside Trumpworld and what might be coming down next at Mar-a-Lago. Hosted by @hugolowell Produced by @Politicon

[Hugo Lowell @hugolowell]

As discussed @Morning_Joe on Thursday —

Intel officials now estimate the total cost of the Iran war could exceed $100B after accounting for lost aircraft and reconstructing US bases hit by Iran. Pentagon is treating those costs as ZERO if they decide not to replace them

[Vaughn Hillyard @VaughnHillyard]

NEW: John Solomon acknowledges no votes were changed in the 2020, 2022 or 2024 elections. He also, when asked if the 2020 results showing Biden won the presidential election are accurate, said, “I'm researching.” And says no intell that Venezuela tempered with US voting machines.

[HIGHLY CONFLICTED PODCAST @highlyconflict]

RT @hugolowell: Trumpworld political operatives trying to figure out two things in the Senate race in Maine, as I told @Morning_Joe:

— New…

[Hugo Lowell @hugolowell]

NEW @WIRED: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sought to ingratiate themselves to Trump after the 2024 election — who in return mocked them behind their backs, per new book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan

— Zuckerberg sent Trump a photo of a letter one of his grade-school kids wrote that looked forward to the “golden age of america”

— Bezos denigrated The Washington Post to Trump and described the newspaper as one of his worst financial investments

— Trump showed off texts from Zuckerberg and Bezos to other guests, including to Elon Musk, who mocked them as “Firstclass groveling”

— Months after their dinner, Bezos tried to get a favor from Trump, telling him it was a risk for SpaceX to dominate govt space contracts

— Bezos suggested Trump tell Deputy Defense Secy Feinberg to ensure“contractor diversity,” opening the door for Blue Origin to get contracts

— But Trump ultimately screwed over Bezos after he reconciled with Musk, and instead expanded SpaceX’s access to US space launch sites

— WIRED obtained the details from “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump” by @maggieNYT and @jonathanvswan ahead of June 23 release

[Hugo Lowell @hugolowell]

New: A White House official tells @WIRED Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy called Treasury Secy Scott Bessent directly about the Anthropic Claude Fable 5 vulnerabilities on Friday

The jailbreak was found because Fable runs on Amazon software, and Amazon does regular tests

[Hugo Lowell @hugolowell]

NEW @WIRED: Trump admin officials concluded talks today with Anthropic without lifting export controls on Claude Fable 5, and next steps are unclear

— Admin continues to believe that there are ways to jailbreak Fable 5 and access the capabilities of Mythos

— Anthropic continues to say those concerns are overblown and reiterated that position in working group meeting with Commerce Dept’s CAISI and ONCD

— Commerce Secy Howard Lutnick dialed in from G7 in France. National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross did not participate himself

— Commerce has expressed willingness to allow Fable 5 back online for consumer use, but only as long as Anthropic resolves their jailbreak concerns

w/ @ZeffMax @lilyhnewman

[HIGHLY CONFLICTED PODCAST @highlyconflict]

New Episode — NYT’s @teddyschleifer breaks down Elon Musk’s team at DOGE: “White House has not said who the administrator is. You would assume it is Elon Musk himself, or other people think it’s Steve Davis.”

Stream now on Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/76FcZ7NQAh

[HIGHLY CONFLICTED PODCAST @highlyconflict]

Also: Andrew Zucker has the latest on the new restaurant scene in Washington, from Ned's to Osteria Mozza to the future Cafe Fiorello, as he reported for Town and Country

https://t.co/pP8ioNyXbt

[HIGHLY CONFLICTED PODCAST @highlyconflict]

New Episode -- New Yorker's @sbg1 on Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship and other legally dubious actions: "That's a classic kind of Trump tactic: he might prevail and even if he doesn't, he's accomplished something politically"

https://t.co/pP8ioNyXbt

[HIGHLY CONFLICTED PODCAST @highlyconflict]

New Episode - Former Palm Beach Co State Attorney @aronberg on Pam Bondi’s leadership of DOJ: “Where it gets controversial is investigating the investigators. I do think she will borrow a page from Bill Barr and do that.”

On Apple Podcasts @politicon: https://t.co/Coyb8sXSCY

[Hugo Lowell @hugolowell]

New — Judge Cannon denies Trump effort to block the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report into the Jan. 6 case per new order; potential release of the classified docs case report will be decided after a hearing in Fort Pierce on Jan. 17 https://t.co/yWpv4zXp7H

[HIGHLY CONFLICTED PODCAST @highlyconflict]

New Episode - MSNBC’s Katie Phang on Trump trying to delay Jack Smith report: “The immediate punch would be dropping the case against Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira and releasing the Special Counsel reports right before January 20”

Listen @politicon: https://t.co/GldN11IekX

[HIGHLY CONFLICTED PODCAST @highlyconflict]

“Witness tampering and perjury are about trying to get people to lie. Encouraging truthfulness is not a crime,” Raskin said. “It is not against the law to encourage someone to testify truthfully in a legal proceeding.” https://t.co/CQWSFh8V44

[Hugo Lowell @hugolowell]

Incoming House Judiciary ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin tells me he thinks that Republicans don’t have the evidence to criminally pursue Cassidy Hutchinson or other Jan. 6 committee witnesses — or Liz Cheney, for that matter, who has Speech and Debate Clause protections

[HIGHLY CONFLICTED PODCAST @highlyconflict]

Raskin on Trump DOJ pursuing witnesses: “They haven't contradicted a single thing that Cassidy Hutchinson said, or any of the factual statements that we made in the report. So it's very hard to see how you build a legal case around any of that.”

https://t.co/r5EBSXpnRm

[HIGHLY CONFLICTED PODCAST @highlyconflict]

Exclusive New Episode — Rep. Jamie Raskin shuts down GOP idea that Cassidy Hutchinson committed perjury: “There were certain statements that she made that were based on hearsay, but she was very clearly quoting other people.”

Listen @politicon: https://t.co/r5EBSXpnRm

[HIGHLY CONFLICTED PODCAST @highlyconflict]

“That should be a real concern, that Kash Patel is going through informant files and saying, ‘Look at that, this guy coughed it up on Trump,’” former FBI Assistant Dir @FrankFigliuzzi1 said on the Highly Conflicted podcast https://t.co/xvgW0DuQid

[HIGHLY CONFLICTED PODCAST @highlyconflict]

New Episode — Former FBI Asst. Director @FrankFigliuzzi1: “I don’t think people truly realize how powerful an FBI Director can be, unrestrained. You want to open a case and call it a threat assessment? You can do it.”

Listen via @politicon: https://t.co/PCflT8ShVq

[HIGHLY CONFLICTED PODCAST @highlyconflict]

New Episode — Reuters correspondent Patricia Zengerle: Russia is on the back foot after Assad ouster but Republicans could miss chance to press the advantage; Hegseth can’t sweet talk McConnell @ReutersZengerle

Listen @Politicon: https://t.co/JhBy2dW1AN

[HIGHLY CONFLICTED PODCAST @highlyconflict]

New Episode — Former VP Pence counterterrorism adviser @OliviaTroye: If Trump doesn’t want to take his intel briefings, then Tulsi Gabbard will just brief him as DNI. She will be interpreting the intel for him

Listen now @Politicon: https://t.co/CZFEzEmnQf