Michael Weiss: The Clown Car at the Pentagon

Dan Driscoll resigned because of Ricky Beria's weird control over the Secretary of Defense and the clown car environment at DOD. Ricky Beria was the person who typed Pete Hegseth's classified messages into the Signal chat that included Jeffrey Goldberg.

Hung Kao is a weird dude who ran for Congress and Senate, called NATO officials lazy, pushed election conspiracy theories, and claimed to be African American despite being Vietnamese.

The administration is putting on the clown nose by nominating unqualified figures like Hung Kao instead of the best and brightest.

The Pentagon loan to a firm linked to Donald Trump Jr. was requested by Peter Navarro, indicating cronyism and corruption. Don Jr. is an investor in PowerUS, a drone company looking to buy licenses and acquire Ukrainian drone technology, despite his anti-Ukraine rhetoric.

Ratcliffe went to Moscow to tell the Russians the war is going poorly and to make a deal, while also implicitly threatening them because Ratcliffe is responsible for giving Ukrainians intelligence to bypass Russian air defenses.

The timing of Russia's G20 attendance is alarming and likely not isolated from other Ukraine war policy shifts.

Russia is recruiting organized crime, riffraff, and teenagers as gig saboteurs to carry out attacks in Europe, and these attacks have been skyrocketing. The Leipzig airport drone attack was carried out by GRU operatives who entered Germany through Serbia and Turkey, and it could have been a mass casualty event.

The U.S. is down to 500-600 Patriot interceptors after expending nearly 100 in one night, and Ukraine needs over 200 to survive the winter but won't get them.

Telling NATO allies they're on their own while asking for interceptors for Ukraine reveals a lack of whole strategy and undermines U.S. credibility.

Ukraine's decision to blow up Russian energy assets is creating upward price pressure on global gas prices.

Bessent's blame on Ukraine is mixed messaging because the U.S. intelligence community is helping Ukraine in this effort and Bessent allowed waivers for Rosneft that he hasn't re-upped.

Russia is secretly helping Iran develop a new class of supersonic cruise missile capable of threatening U.S. aircraft carriers and warships.

Russia sharing missile tech with Iran is an escalation that aligns with unprecedented Russian cooperation with Iran and China, including sharing intelligence to target U.S. soldiers.

The Lindsey Graham sanctions bill is gummed up in the House, likely because Mike Johnson doesn't want to hurt the oil market.

Trump doesn't care about Republican midterm fortunes and will prioritize his Iran legacy, but Republicans are nervous and want the war to end.

The U.S. strategy against Iran is mowing the lawn, containing the adversary rather than strategically defeating them, but resources are too straitened to sustain this indefinitely.

If the Iranians hit a ship and kill dozens of American sailors, Trump and the Pentagon may be forced to put boots on the ground.

Democrats are reticent to rock the boat and voted for the CR because voters are naming cost of living issues, and a shutdown would make it hard to square with Democrats' affordability message.

Democrats should be more aggressive and use every tool to draw attention to corruption rather than voting on principle to fund a corrupt government.

The ad is the result of long discussions where Trump was pressured to address affordability, but he limited spending to $1 million, showing reluctance.

It's strange that the ad is about Trump's affordability record when he's been kicking and screaming about it being a con job.

Mike Rogers appeals mostly to CNN green room types and rich Wall Street Republicans, not crossover voters, and Abdul will win cleanly.

Abdul has successfully messaged money out of politics and Medicare for all, but gets tripped up by distractions like his proximity to Hasan Piker; Rogers is distracted by culture war stuff and can't separate from Trump.

Jasmine Crockett doesn't have to endorse Talarico, but dragging it out makes her look bad and she should just be honest if she won't support him.

Talarico is polling at 75-76% with Black voters and his campaign is sophisticated enough to do the remaining work.

Angie Nixon won because she showed up to union halls and community meetings, stays laser-focused on affordability and local issues, and effectively deflects culture war attacks.

The campaign was lackadaisical and having Jolly and Fendrick on the ticket made it tough to motivate some demographics.

Pia Dandia is a teacher, principal, and rising star running in a district Trump won 55% in 2024, demonstrating the coalition-building candidates the organization backs.

Voters reward authentic candidates who focus on solving community issues, creating a binary of doers versus sitters, and successful candidates offer clear paths to fight Trump and deliver wins.

Resistance candidates didn't do well because impeachment didn't work as a win, and left candidates succeeded by focusing on populist frameworks while center candidates offered different paths to fight Trump.

Black voters feel baited and switched by candidates who only appear before elections, and Democrats failed to name wins from the top, leading to softness among Black men. Democrats must engage Black-owned outlets more and have leadership directly communicate achievements to counter Republican noise.