00:00Enjoy this free edition of off script, a straight arrow subscriber exclusive.
00:06Hey everybody, I'm Christian Bryant. Welcome to unbiased updates off script.
00:11The news moves fast. So this is our chance to slow it down and make some sense of it.
00:16Coming up on the podcast today, we're less than a week away from the midterms,
00:20but beyond who wins and loses, what's really at stake. I'm talking with our senior politics
00:27reporter about the storylines you may have missed and how Tuesday's election could change
00:31Washington. One of the things that's at stake is whether or not if and when Democrats take
00:35control of that chamber, do they have hearings about what they have called potential crimes
00:40committed by the president and members of his family and members of his administration.
00:44Plus 34 years ago, James Carville had a simple message. It's the economy, stupid with prices
00:51still squeezing Americans. Could that same message decide who controls Congress? I'll
00:55ask our cost of living reporter Americans are seeing their purchasing power eroded and they're
01:01blaming the government and the party in power, which is the Republicans. That's what the polling
01:06shows right now. And more than 50 years after a teenage girl was murdered in Utah, investigators
01:11finally have an answer. How DNA evidence links her death to serial killer Ted Bundy.
01:18Let's start where we always do with what matters. Then we'll go a step further. We're now less than a
01:24week
01:24away from the midterms and there's a lot more to watch than just the polls. Control of both chambers
01:29of Congress is on the line and that could determine everything from who gets confirmed to key
01:34government posts to how much scrutiny the Trump administration faces. So I sat down with our senior
01:39politics reporter, Ozzy Pabra to talk about what he's watching, some of the stories that haven't
01:44gotten much attention and what could actually change after Tuesday. Ozzy, thanks again for being with us
01:51on off script. I want to go over some of the things that we've seen this midterm cycle. Um, lots
02:00of AI ads.
02:01Uh, we've seen scandals. We've seen presidents on the campaign trail. There have been unexpected
02:10contested, contested races. Um, but all of this is leading to the midterms on November 3rd. What are
02:18you going to be watching going into the midterms? So what we're seeing right now are races that are
02:26being contested that a few months ago, a year ago, nobody really imagined would be. You have Democrats
02:35feeling pretty strong about a Senate race in Georgia and you have Republicans playing defense in places
02:40like Kansas. This was not really on many people's bingo card, uh, when the midterms started. One of
02:47the things that I'm really going to be looking for on the night of Tuesday, November 3rd election night
02:53are how many races get called that evening and how many candidates concede their races. Now we know
03:02what happened after the 2020 presidential election, when Donald Trump refused to accept the results of
03:10the election. And he told supporters, uh, things that were not true about the results and how they
03:16could be sort of changed leading to the January 6th, uh, riot at the Capitol. Uh, president Trump has
03:24reiterated those kinds of unfounded claims about election integrity. And now that he's the president,
03:30he has the department of justice at his disposal, and they have taken steps to do things that the
03:35department of justice has not done before. And many people that he's appointed to his administration
03:41have refused to acknowledge the results of the 2020 election. So it's not clear how many people are
03:47going to accept the results on election night, even if the results come in quick, come in big,
03:53and are, as he likes to say, too big to rig. So I'm going to see how everyone plays ball
03:59that night.
03:59I'm curious to know, are there any big storylines that have been simmering that haven't gotten a lot
04:06of attention that you feel like we should be paying attention to?
04:10There is, there is one detail that I was a little bit surprised, uh, about that I, that I,
04:18that was brought to my attention a little bit late in the campaign season, which is that Georgia,
04:23a place that has become a battleground state and has become in some ways, um, a prize for Democrats
04:31to see if they can win there. They have two Senate seats. Can they do more?
04:38John Ossoff, who is on the ticket, seems to be in a pretty strong position. He's an incumbent
04:43Democratic Senator. People think he might have a chance at some higher office after that. You
04:47can imagine which one, but, but other than Ossoff, every other Democrat, Democratic candidate on the
04:57ticket is a black woman, which means, which means Georgia may elect possibly the first black
05:06woman governor governor in the history of the country. And if you think about how important
05:13black women have been to the democratic party success, Stacey Abrams, I'm thinking about and,
05:21and her runs for office, this may be perhaps an early indicator. I think this year there are going
05:28to be questions about data centers. Are data centers, uh, going to be swaying voters? Are voters
05:35who are closer to data centers voting more in opposition to President Trump's party, uh, as President
05:43Trump cheers on and encourages those to be built? Do places where ICE has had aggressive enforcement
05:50actions and shootings, and even some fatalities, do those places vote for moderate or more progressive
05:58and, um, stronger Democratic candidates who say they're going to take a stronger line against
06:03the administration. The ongoing storyline between progressives, DSA, and moderates within the
06:09Democratic Party, it was a big storyline in the primary. It's unclear how strong the DSA is going to
06:15be in the general election. Ozzy, before we let you go, I want to remind viewers just what's at stake
06:24here. I, I feel like, you know, the, the storylines are, are important, uh, understanding, you know,
06:32how far we've come in this cycle. That's also important, but remind folks what's at stake. Um,
06:39and what we could see once the votes are cast, everything is tallied, what's at stake here?
06:47Perhaps the most important thing that's at stake is control of the Senate. And that's because the
06:53Senate has a role in confirming or denying confirmation to the appointees and nominations
07:01that President Trump makes to positions within the administration, but also to the federal bench,
07:08and even including a Supreme Court seat, if one should open up. We may not see another, uh,
07:17party that doesn't control both the White House and the Senate appoints a Supreme Court justice. It,
07:23it may be some time before something like that happens. So nominations are incredibly important.
07:28And that's what might happen over in the house. One of the things that's at stake is whether or not,
07:33uh, if, and when Democrats take control of that chamber, do they have hearings about what they have
07:39called, uh, potential crimes committed by the president and his, uh, and members of his family
07:44and members of his administration, uh, uh, cryptocurrency, uh, stock trades, self-dealing,
07:51um, contracts that are going to people who are familiar with members of the administration,
07:57pardons that have been, uh, apparently millions of dollars have been exchanged with brokers in order
08:02to get these pardons. All of those things could be investigated. Democrats have to then decide,
08:09is that something worth, uh, pursuing an impeachment? Impeachment is inherently a political process and
08:15has traditionally, uh, not worked out the way pursuers have wanted. And it often serves the
08:22effect of consolidating the impeached party's, uh, president. They get to say that the other party
08:29is trying to take me out unfairly. Voters put me in, they're trying to remove me. It's not fair.
08:34And because it's seen as an external attack, it's easy to sort of consolidate internally,
08:38but those are decisions that Democrats are going to have to make. And that's some of the things that
08:43are at stake. And president Trump is still going to be, uh, in the Oval Office after election day,
08:51he is still going to be able to run, uh, federal agencies the way he sees fit. That includes THS,
08:58that includes the department of education, which he has done away with. It includes how the FDA
09:04administers SNAP benefits. Um, it also includes, uh, Medicare to Medicaid, uh, programs. It also
09:10includes the department of justice, which has investigatory powers. These are incredibly strong,
09:15uh, tentacles of the federal government that the president still controls and that Democrats
09:22in either chamber could call to investigate and look at, but have somewhat limited roles in deciding
09:29how they operate. So when we focus on the horse race at times, part of that is because the personnel
09:39is policy. If you see who a, a executive puts in charge of certain agencies, you can sort of
09:47understand in which direction they're going to pursue those goals.
09:50I, I like, I like how you said that the personnel is policy. I mean, not, not that you've coined
09:58the
09:59phrase. I feel like I've heard this. Someone else came up with it. I am borrowing someone else's very
10:03intelligent phrasing. No, but that, but this, but this helps give us a better sense of exactly what
10:09things could look like. You know, once we get through the midterms, as always, Ozzy, uh, thank you for
10:17your time. We appreciate you being here on off script. Um, I know it's going to be a busy next
10:21few days for you, but we'll have to catch up again soon to talk about everything that happens
10:26afterwards. So thank you. Call me anytime. Not every good story makes it into unbiased updates.
10:33So before we go, here are a few that we think are still worth your time. The FBI is taking
10:38another
10:38step in its investigation of former California Congressman Eric Swalwell. On Tuesday, agents
10:44searched a Beverly Hills mansion owned by billionaire Steven Klubeck, a major donor to Swalwell's
10:49campaign for governor. The FBI confirms the search, but the warrant is sealed. So we don't
10:55yet know exactly what agents were looking for. Swalwell resigned from Congress and dropped out
11:00of the governor's race in April after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct, including
11:05a former staffer who accused him of rape. Swalwell denies the allegations. Federal agents have
11:11also searched his Washington home and seized electronic devices from him at a San Francisco
11:16airport, and he's facing separate investigations by prosecutors in Manhattan and the Los Angeles
11:22County Sheriff's Department. Swalwell is also facing renewed scrutiny over his past relationship
11:28with a woman suspected of ties to Chinese intelligence. He has not been charged with a crime. For more
11:35than 50 years, the murder of a 17 year old Utah girl went unsolved. Now investigators say they finally
11:41know who killed Melissa Ann Smith, serial killer Ted Bundy. Smith disappeared in 1974. Her body was
11:49found days later, but no one was ever charged. The break came from another cold case. Back in April,
11:55investigators used DNA to confirm Bundy killed another 17 year old Utah girl, Laura Ann Amy, that same
12:01year. That evidence led them back to Smith's case. And now authorities say they have enough to close it.
12:08The Summit County Attorney's Office has carefully reviewed the evidence and approved the closure
12:12of this case. Although Ted Bundy is no longer alive to face prosecution, advances in forensic science and
12:20the continued dedication of law enforcement professionals have helped provide answers in
12:25a case that has remained unsolved for over 50 years. Bundy was linked to the murders of at least 30
12:30young women between 1974 and 1978. He was executed in Florida in 1989. And with this latest finding,
12:38investigators have now closed two decades old Utah murder cases linked to Bundy in just seven months.
12:45All right. Now let's go inside the story. Each week, we grab one of our reporters and go a little
12:51deeper to talk about what didn't make the story, the questions that came up and what they found while
12:56reporting it. It's the economy, stupid. That line, coined by Democratic strategist James Carville,
13:03helped define Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign more than 30 years ago. And with the
13:08midterms less than a week away, it may be as relevant as ever. Gas prices are up, groceries are
13:15still expensive, and polls show more Americans are blaming President Trump and Republicans for the economy.
13:20But does that frustration actually change how people vote? Our cost of living reporter Lauren Pearl
13:27talked to pollsters and political experts about that very question. And I asked her what she found.
13:34That's the end of the free version of off script. If you want to hear the full episode,
13:38become a straight arrow subscriber at san.com slash get off script and get access to every episode.
13:50so
13:50if you don't have a better painting from anything else, go away like can I remember what it
13:51you
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