Rational Security: The “So Much for that Menendez Rest Stop” Edition
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 1 October 2023
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on Rational Security, Alan, Quinta, and Scott reunited to discuss the week’s big national security news, including:
- “Do as I Menendsez, Not as I Menendo.” New Jersey Senator and, until recently, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee Bob Menendez was indicted alongside his wife last week, on charges that they accepted money from Egyptian businessmen in exchange for information and favors arising from Menendez’s official duties. How serious are these charges? Where will they lead?
- “…with a Silver Spoon.” D.C. federal district court judge Tanya Chutkan is weighing a gag order on former President Trump, aimed at restraining him from commenting on the proceedings or attacking various officials involved in them. Trump and his attorneys, meanwhile, see the gag order request as an attack on his First Amendment rights. Who is likely to prevail? And what are the broader stakes?
- “The Forever Chore.” The House foreign affairs committee is set to hold the latest in a long series of hearings on a topic that has been on Congress’s agenda for more than a decade: reforming the 2001 AUMF that provides the legal basis for most global counterterrorism operations. But despite near-universal agreement on the need for change, progress has been limited. Is there reason to think this time will be different?
For object lessons, Alan recommended the Dear Committee Trilogy, which even non-academics will find hilarious. Quinta urged listeners to check out the recent New York court decision concluding that former President Trump and his businesses misrepresented the value of various properties. And Scott log-rolled for his new law review article digging into some of the tricky constitutional issues raised by the prospect of defending Taiwan.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair, that's patreon.com slash |
| 0:16.8 | LawFair. Also check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | are no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:37.4 | I'm Caleb Benjamin, intern at LawFair with an episode of Rational Security for October |
| 0:41.6 | 1st, 2023. For today's episode, the team at LawFair decided to cross-post this week's |
| 0:47.1 | episode of Rational Security. A podcast hosted by Scott Art Anderson, Quinto Jurassic and |
| 0:52.1 | Alan Rosenstein, in which they cover the week's big national security news stories. Today's |
| 0:57.0 | episode is entitled the So Much For That Menendez Rest Stop edition. This week, Anderson |
| 1:02.0 | Jurassic and Rosenstein sat down to discuss the indictment of Senator Bob Menendez, Judge |
| 1:06.4 | Tanya Chukkin's pending decision on a proposed gag order on former President Donald Trump, |
| 1:11.2 | the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on reforming the 2001 authorization for |
| 1:15.2 | you, Similitary Force, and more. This is Rational Security. |
| 1:22.1 | Quinto, as our resident New Jersey, and though I did spend a few years of my early, early |
| 1:27.4 | childhood there, I feel like you are a real New Jersey. What is your theory of New Jersey? |
| 1:34.2 | It's, well, I actually had a conversation with someone who was referencing the, I don't |
| 1:39.8 | know what he is, historian, sociologist, anthropologist, Benedict Anderson's book Imagine |
| 1:43.7 | Communities, which is like, you know, how people come up with a great, yes, that was suggesting |
| 1:49.9 | that political corruption is actually part of New Jersey's imagined community. It's an important, |
| 1:55.0 | it's an important part of what drives my people. Ever since they first stole that printing press? |
| 2:01.2 | That's a Benedict Anderson joke for you, for anybody out there. It's all about the newspapers. |
| 2:06.7 | Exactly, exactly. |
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