Republicans vs. the Big Beautiful Bill

Political Gabfest

Slate Podcasts

Politics, Government, News

4.5 • 8.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Elon Musk’s dramatic entrance into the fight between Republican factions over details of the Big Beautiful Bill, whether an independent judiciary can survive in the face of new threats, and the implications of Trump’s cruel new travel bans. Here are this week’s chatters: Emily: Chris Cameron for the New York Times: Trump Orders Investigation of Biden and His Aides; Matt Brown and Chris Megerian for the Associated Press: Trump orders investigation into Biden’s actions as president, ratcheting up targeting of predecessor; Amanda Seitz and Geoff Mulvihill for the Associated Press: Trump administration revokes guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions; Reva B. Siegel and Mary Ziegler in Virginia Law Review: Abortion’s New Criminalization – A History-and-Tradition Right to Health-Care Access After Dobbs. John: The Economist: How to prevent drunken punch-ups; Maya Goldman for Axios: Seniors’ marijuana use reaches new high; Benjamin H. Han, Kevin H. Yang, Charles M. Cleland, et al. in JAMA: Trends in Past-Month Cannabis Use Among Older Adults. David: Ian Austen for the New York Times: A 355-Year-Old Company That Once Owned One-Third of Canada Is Shutting Down; Heather Whiteside for The Conversation: More than a department store: The long, complicated legacy behind Hudson’s Bay Company; Terina Ria for City Cast Salt Lake: How Julia Reagan Became a Billboard Icon; City Cast Salt Lake Podcast: The Julia Reagan Billboard Debate, Permanent Farmers Market, MomTok Parody (audio 32:00). Listener chatter from Sam Rutledge in Eugene, Oregon: 2021 Telephone Game; Artist Application for 2025 Telephone Game For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss whether the term “TACO” (“Trump Always Chickens Out”) is a useful way of understanding Trump, and what else might be driving his unpredictable and impulsive actions. In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with author Susan Dominus about her new book, The Family Dynamic: A Journey into the Mystery of Sibling Success. Email your chatters, questions, and comments to [email protected]. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Kevin Bendis Research by Emily Ditto Want more Political Gabfest? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Political Gabfest show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or visit slate.com/gabfestplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest.
0:06.2	June 5th, 2025, Republicans versus the Big Beautiful Bill edition.
0:22.5	I'm David Plotz of Citycast in Washington, D.C.
0:26.4	From New York City and CBS Evening News, where he's co-anchor,
0:32.1	and CBS Evening News Plus, where he's anchor, John Dickerson.
0:35.7	Hello, John.
0:36.4	Good morning, David.
0:40.4	And from New Haven, Connecticut,
0:45.8	where she is the co-anchor of Yale University Law School and the anchor of the New York Times Magazine,
0:52.1	Emily Bazelon. Hello, Emily. Hello, hello. And really the anchor to our sense of self.
0:55.0	That is true. Emily is the anchor. I'll take it.
0:56.0	This week on the Gab Fest, the interesting intra-party fight about the mammoth budget bill will objections from either fiscal hawks or fiscal doves and the Republican Party derail it.
1:11.9	Then, can the independent judiciary survive the Trump era?
1:16.8	Is Lan Leo, now persona non grata, is the Federalist Society and enemy of the Trump state?
1:22.9	Then the travel ban re, re, re, re, reducts.
1:26.7	We are going to talk about the Trump administration's new
1:31.2	effort, which I'm sure will be successful this time, to keep out people from a dozen countries
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