I'm Charlie Sykes. Welcome to the To the Contrary Podcast. Well, look at the headlines today. Donald Trump, once again, siding with Russia, betraying Ukraine. How many times have we been through this? Apparently, there is a new Christmas deadline, which gives Vladimir Putin more time to kill as many Ukrainians as possible. The Europeans are still reeling from that foreign policy paper that essentially

threw them under the bus, under the boat. Donald Trump also handed China, China, a massive gift

when he approved the sale of these very, very powerful AI chips that a lot of people in the

national security world thought, what like, what the hell are you talking

about? Meanwhile, the president is still struggling with affordability. He can't decide whether or not

that's a real problem, whether it's a con job, and whether we should worry about it since he gives

himself an A plus plus plus a grade on the economy. And while all of this is going on, Paramount has launched a hostile

bid of Warner Brothers with Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, and his Saudi backers.

So remember all those conservatives who were all upset about Al Jazeera? You know, this was the

terror network. Surprisingly quiet now that Cutter apparently is part of the bid for the company

that owns CNN. And meanwhile, we are all waiting on the U.S. Supreme Court to do God knows what.

So buckle up.

Hey, there's a lot going on and our guest today. And this is a first time appearance.

It is good to see you. Rachel Bade, longtime veteran reporter for Politico, who has now joined the sunny uplands of substack.

So first of all, thanks for joining me, Rachel.

Thanks for having me on, Charlie.

Any pointers for me on the substack life? I do.

I have many.

It is a hungry beast, and you have to feed it. If you have not yet seen it, if you had not yet subscribed.

Rachel's newsletter is the inner circle with Rachel Bade and the podcast is The Huddl. So I don't know where do you want to start here.

Should we talk about the president going to Pennsylvania with his message on affordability?

You know, Republicans are really sweating this, aren't they?

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