And we're live. Welcome to Loopcast. We are Tom, Josh, and Erica, but it's the other Tom this time. We have sent Tom Pagasick out into the wild. He is off in the dog days of August doing hard work. We have August recess Tom with us instead. He's going to explain to us why he's not working. Why is the Senate on vacation when there's so much to do? He's going to give us the inside scoop.

But first we have Brian Birch is finally confirmed. We have an ambassador to the Holy See.

Long time coming, but got in under the wire. Big drama there. We'll also get into that.

We also have rumors. We have IVF rumors coming out of the Washington Post, the rumor

mill, another deep throat kind of situation going on there, reminiscent of Watergate. But we will find

out, is the Trump administration changing its policy on IVF? Maybe we will. And of course,

Pope Leo over the weekend, the big news, hosted over a million young

Catholics for the Mass of the Jubilee of Youth. There's some great video of that event. So we have

good news too. But first, if you are not yet subscribed and you're watching, please right now,

hit the subscribe button and the notification bell. We are live Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays at 11 a.m. Eastern and invite all your friends

for Wednesday when we will hear escapades of Tom in the Wild.

But first, how's it going, guys?

Well, it's going fantastic.

And a little happy birthday shout out to my lovely wife Lori who is again 39.

Happy birthday. She's 39 again? That's amazing. She's so consistent. Yeah, that's good.

Happy birthday, Lori. Tom, how's life in the swamp? You can tell I'm on recess because I'm not

wearing a tie. Yes, yeah, very casual. I thought you were just channeling your inner Obama fashion guru.

Personally, I'm relieved about Brian because for months, because Cathavote, of course, didn't

take an official position because it's very awkward because Brian was our president and everything else,

except for months I have worn this pin and I would be able to at private meetings talk about

the slow walk of nominations. So I'm just finally able, I'm now finally able to publicly talk about

how much the Senate stinks when it comes to the time of these

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