Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes
Politics has never been more chaotic, and most podcasts just add to the noise. Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes cuts through it.
Grant is an AP Award-winning journalist with over a decade of on-the-ground reporting on the biggest political stories, scandals, and elections in America. Twice a week, he takes the stories dominating the headlines and breaks them down in plain English — no jargon, no spin, no shouting.
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Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes
Trump Holds His Own Housing Bill Hostage To Throw Tantrum In The Senate
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The most bipartisan housing bill in 40 years passed the House 358-32 and the Senate 85-5. Trump himself called it "the most comprehensive and consequential housing legislation in the history of our country" in a presidential proclamation two weeks ago. Republican leaders were mid-press conference, celebrating its passage, when Trump posted on Truth Social that the signing was off.
A North Carolina congresswoman showed up to the signing ceremony to a room full of empty chairs because nobody told her.
Trump killed the bill to hold it hostage until the Senate passes the Save America Act — a bill that would require proof of citizenship to vote, ban mail-in voting, and disenfranchise an estimated tens of millions of Americans including 69 million women who changed their last name when they got married, active duty military members who can't produce the right documents, and naturalized citizens serving in the armed forces right now.
The Senate doesn't have the votes. So Trump went to Capitol Hill, told Speaker Johnson, "no one gives a shit about housing," then walked into a Senate lunch that was actually a screaming match. One senator stopped calling him Mr. President and started calling him "brother" in a confrontational tone. One Republican senator described it to reporters as "a fucking tantrum." The tantrum was mostly about the Senate's war powers vote against the Iran war, which senators then reversed overnight under pressure.
The Supreme Court also issued major rulings today: asylum at the border is effectively over, temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians is ending, and people with disabilities in seven states can no longer bring a trusted helper to the polls. Birthright citizenship and the president's power to fire independent agency heads are still coming, now likely Monday.
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