The Lever - Trump’s Tuesday Night Massacre

Welcome to Lever Time’s Levercasts. Each Friday, we’re highlighting our favorite Lever podcasts. Wondering what you should listen to over the weekend? We’ve got you covered.

On today’s Lever Time, we dig into Trump’s recent firing of Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission amid their antitrust investigations into some of Trump’s biggest donors. David Sirota spoke with one of those commissioners, Alvaro Bedoya (a past Lever Time guest), about what the terminations mean and how he’s planning to fight back.

Plus, we’ll give you a peek at new Lever Time episodes coming down the pipeline. 

Echoing Richard Nixon’s infamous Saturday Night Massacre purge during Watergate, President Donald Trump this week moved to fire both Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission, which had been investigating some of Trump’s biggest corporate boosters.

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These weren’t routine pink slips given during an administration turnover. Trump fired Senate-confirmed commissioners at an agency that Congress — by law — deliberately created to be independent from the executive branch’s control. 

Hours after receiving Trump’s termination letter, FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya spoke with Lever Time’s David Sirota about why this is a battle over not just one federal agency, but over whether the presidency will end up becoming a corrupt monarchy — one that will benefit only those who kiss the king’s ring. Bedoya is now taking Trump to court in a battle that he says is barreling toward the Supreme Court. 

To read an unedited transcript of the episode, click here.

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Lever Time Premium: “Nixonian Behavior On Steroids”

QUEUE IT UP! David Sirota sat down with Watergate whistleblower John Dean to discuss Trump’s unprecedented power grab in an exclusive bonus podcast for paid subscribers.

Something is rotten in the state of Delaware. Why are so many Fortune 500 companies incorporated in the tiny East Coast state? Why do critics say a new bill could make it ground zero in the national oligarch takeover? And how is Elon Musk making everything worse? 

The Lever Time team digs into why what happens in Delaware doesn’t stay in Delaware — and what it means for corporate accountability from coast to coast.

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