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To The Contrary with Charlie Sykes

Ben Wittes: Who Is The Administrator of DOGE?

To The Contrary with Charlie Sykes

Charlie Sykes

News Commentary, Politics, News

4.9719 Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Charlie Sykes talks with Lawfare’s Ben Wittes about the erosion of congressional power, Donald Trump’s attempts to reshape the civil service, and the growing danger of a one-man government. They unpack Trump’s $230 million claim against U.S. taxpayers, the ethical chaos inside the Justice Department, and how judges are grappling with lies from the federal government. Wittes also shares the story behind his viral “Who Is the Administrator of Doge?” hat and an unlikely night of Ukrainian lounge music.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm Charlie Sykes.

0:11.3

Welcome back to the To the Contrary podcast, joined today by our good friend Ben Wittes, editor-in-chief of Lawfare.

0:19.8

Love the hat, Ben.

0:20.9

You want me to ask, right?

0:21.8

You're baiting me and asking what it means.

0:23.4

I am baiting you, man.

0:25.3

No, no clue.

0:26.6

No idea.

0:27.7

Sorry.

0:28.0

It stands for who is the administrator of Doge.

0:32.6

And because before Anna Bauer was, you know, a celebrated recipient of rage texts from U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, she was on a quest, a kind of one woman deranged campaign to figure out who the administrator of Doge was.

0:57.3

And she wrote a long and wonderful and somewhat hilarious story about it for lawfare.

1:03.3

And we actually printed up hats in response to it.

1:07.6

And I, of course, ordered the bright red and white one. Of course, you did. Because, you know,

1:16.2

that's the kind of guy I am. Well, do we know? Do we know who the administrator of Doge? Do we

1:23.0

know what Doge is anymore? No, so, you know, so I do refer everybody back to Anna's, Anna's piece on this.

1:31.4

No, I think at this point, it is not clear whether Doge meaningfully still exists,

1:39.3

or if so, who the administrator was.

1:42.2

There's an interesting question whether we know at any point who the administrator ever was.

1:49.8

And there are some legal questions that arise from that.

1:53.6

But Anna did spend more time on this question than any other collection of human beings

2:00.6

amalgamated. And there is a wonderful long

...

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