On Friday’s RealClearPolitics radio show, Andrew Walworth, Tom Bevan, and Carl Cannon break down some of the top political stories of the day, starting with the Trump administration making the “war on drugs” real by authorizing military force against cartels, and James Carville saying Democrats should respond to GOP gerrymandering by packing the Supreme Court and giving statehood to Puerto Rico and D.C. Later, Maryland Rep. Andy Harris talks about the escalating battle over redistricting, and actor Dean Cain gives more details about joining Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). You can listen to the show weeknights at 6:00 p.m. on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel 124 and then on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and here on our website. *** First, President Trump is giving the U.S. military a green light to use force against Latin American cartels, specifically targeting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with a $ 50 million bounty for drug trafficking. “The war on drugs used to be a metaphor,” Andrew Walworth said. “Do you think we’ll be seeing the U.S. military in action in places like Mexico and Colombia anytime soon?” “With the exception of Venezuela, I don’t get the feeling the Trump administration is contemplating going into countries where the government doesn’t want them,” Carl Cannon said. “The real problem is the demand for drugs in the United States. Mexico sends people and drugs north; the U.S. sends guns and money south. It’s a symbiotic relationship.” “We’ll take this podcast to Venezuela and collect our $ 50 million,” Tom Bevan joked. “This is a sort of bounty diplomacy.” *** After that, starting at minute 10, Democratic strategist James Carville suggested some ideas to consolidate power, including packing the Supreme Court and giving statehood to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, if and when they regain a majority. “It’s a deeply unserious series of proposals by a person who, in his younger days, knew enough to avoid getting into these waters,” Cannon said. “He’s talking about the thermonuclear options for Democrats,” Bevan said. “Adding these two states, packing the Supreme Court, federalizing election laws.” “The other nuclear option both parties have toyed with is eliminating the legislative filibuster in the Senate so that with 51 votes you can jam through whatever you want,” he said. “We haven’t gotten there yet, but the redistricting wars have escalated things. We’re heading toward mutually assured destruction-all these norms are ‘behind glass’ and Carville is advocating breaking them.” *** After that, at minute 15, the gang gives their nominations for the weekly You Cannot Be Serious! roundup of headlines. *** And then, starting at minute 20, Rep. Andy Harris, the only Republican representing Maryland in Congress, talks to Andrew Walworth about the escalating battle over redistricting and gerrymandering, and whether his seat could be on the chopping block if Democrats redraw the lines. You can read more from this interview here. “In 2022, they tried to redistrict me out of my seat-to make it a state with seven safe Democrat seats and one toss-up seat (mine), and the court rejected it,” he said. “I think we should put the genie back in the bottle on mid-cycle redistricting, but both parties would have to agree,” Harris said. “You’d have to have agreement on both sides-and right now, both sides are arming up. They’re certainly not standing down.” *** Finally, at minute 29, Tom Bevan talks to Dean Cain, who played Superman on TV in the 1990s, about joining U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as an agent. “I think it’s dumb to vilify our ICE agents. They’ve had a 1,000% increase in attacks on ICE agents and violence toward them. So I’m standing firmly in their corner,” Cain said. “I want to make a loud pronouncement that I’ll step up-and so should so many of our patriotic Americans. And they’ve already had over 80,000 applications to join up.” You can read more from this interview here. *** Don’t miss a single episode of the RealClearPolitics weeknight radio show – subscribe at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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