December 17, 2025 • 20 mins
BEST OF - Highlights from Susie Wiles' Vanity Fair interview, Brown University shooting suspect shown in enhanced video footage, White House Correspondent Jon Decker shares his thoughts on the Susie Wiles article and discusses the revolt against Mike Johnson over health care, and National Correspondent Rory O'Neill joins us with the latest on Rob Reiner's death and Pete Hegseth's decision not to release the second video of the controversial drug boat strike.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, let's get to this Vanity Fair piece. White
House chief of Staff Susie Wiles. So a couple of things.
Nothing she said about members of the administration I think
was untrue, and we're going to circle back to that
right in a second. But a chief of staff shouldn't
be making headlines unless the principle they serve wants them
(00:25):
to make headlines.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And that's really my question here.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Why did she do this and save this stuff publicly
for a piece?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
And Vanity Fair?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Is she trying to send a message to certain people?
Is Trump trying to send a message through her? Or
was she just you know, doing laundry and having luncheon and.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Having a candid conversation with Vanity Fair, who we already
know they're not necessarily favorable to the Trump administration.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
What's that term spilling the tea?
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Or sipping the tea or something about tea?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, So in the piece, it says here Wiles went
to work in twenty eighteen for an ambitious, scubernatorial candidate
named Ron DeSantis. Trump urged DeSantis, then his protege, to
hire her. She led the underdog candidate to victory, but
afterward DeSantis turned on her, denouncing Wiles publicly and bad
mouthing her privately. To this day, Wiles doesn't know what
(01:18):
triggered the governor's vendetta. She says in the piece quote,
I think he thought I was getting too much attention,
which is ironic. I don't ever seek attention, and she doesn't.
She's always in the background. So why now this interview. Yeah,
I still haven't figured out the angle here, if there
(01:38):
is one. I do think that these conversations happen. I
think what she's quoted as saying, she said there were
eleven conversations, all taped on the record. She tried to
say she didn't say something about Elon Musk, and then
the author of all of this, the reporter, he played
the New York Times like the clip of her saying
(01:59):
it proof.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Right, she was chatting and while she was doing laundry,
while they had lunch together at the White House, and
apparently where they were eating in the White House, there's
a freestanding video monitor with a live feet of Trump's.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Truth social posts. That was interesting.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So at that lunch, this I think is the most
important part of the whole piece, and it's not going
to be what you're seeing and hearing. You know, twenty
four to seven on cable news, are on social media,
it said, Wiles told me, and this is the person
reporting this. Wiles told me about Trump's Venezuela strategy. He
wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.
(02:36):
And people way smarter than me on that issue say
that he will. And it says here wiles statementspire to
contradict the administration's official stance that blowing up boasts is
about drug interdiction, not regime change. She added, We're very
sure we know who we're blowing up. One of the
great untold stories of the US government is the talents
of the CIA. Now, Wiles did concede the attacks on
(02:59):
targets on Venezuela's mainland would force Trump to get congressional approval,
But that's really notable considering the administration's moves yesterday tied
to Venezuela, labeling the government a foreign terrorist organization, ordering
a blockade of their oil tankers. You can pretty clearly
see what the strategy is. And she essentially admits.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It, admits to it. Yeah, why is the question?
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah? Right right, So, and I've got like a gazillion notes,
and we'll talk more about this throughout the course of
the show. There were a few other things that call
my attention. What stood out to you so well?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
The thing about her saying Trump has the personality of
an alcoholic, where they kind of used that to try to,
you know, pit them against each other, But then she
explained it later, and he's admitted that before. He doesn't
drink because he says if I drink, I could become
an alcoholic. I think he's said that before.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
And her point was and Trump said that she was
right in an interview with The New York Post about
her interview.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
But what she was saying there, I didn't think it
was a dig.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
She was saying high functioninglcoholics or alcoholics in general. And
she has some experience here because her dad, Tact Summerow,
was an alcoholic. Their personalities are exaggerated when they drink.
And she said, so I'm a little bit of an
expert in big personalities, and that's how she tied in
Trump having an alcoholics personality.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
She said, to imagine him drinking and truth social as.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Right, She said, he operates with a view there's nothing
he can't do nothing, zero nothing, And so she's saying
that that outsized, exaggerated personality that he has, he does
he comes across sometimes as like the drunk at the
bar who's just spouting off right, except he's not right.
But he's got that kind of personality. That's who he is.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
The fallout continues from.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
President Trump's chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, in her interview with.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Vanity Fair magazine.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Let me get to what she said about the president,
the vice president, and the Attorney general, and we'll start
with President Trump.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
And we mentioned this just a little while ago.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
She said, some clinical psychologist that knows one million times
more than I do will dispute what I'm gonna say.
But high functioning alcoholics are alcoholics in general. Their personalities
are exaggerated when they drink. And so I'm a little
bit of an expert in big personalities. And she said
that Trump has an alcoholics personality. He operates with a
(05:22):
view that there's nothing he can't do, nothing, zero nothing.
And so some people tried to make that into a
dig at Trump. I didn't take it that way. The
way I took it was, you know, Trump does have
a really big, exaggerated but everything he does is exaggerates
who he is. And she likened that to you know,
(05:44):
how alcoholics can act at times.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Her father, Pat summer All, was an alcoholic for a while.
I think he, you know, was sober.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Cleaned up towards the end of his life.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, but that was her her comment on Trump. And
then Trump told the New York Posts, you know, she's right, yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
He says that's why he doesn't drink, because he knows
if he did from more exaggerate.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Uh. This is what she said about Vice President Jade Vance.
It says her Vance's conversion from never trumpet to maga acolyte,
she said, has been sort of political the vice president
she had and has been a conspiracy theorist for a decade.
I don't find that to be all that controversial, to
be honest with.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
You, it's not. And he also said JD Vance his
response to that was, well, yeah, I am a conspiracy theorist.
I only believe in conspiracy theories that are true. And
he said that he and Susie Wiles have joked about
that face to face, like it's like she'll say that,
so while they're trying to take it like this was
some awful insulting thing. She really didn't mean it that way.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
No, And I don't think I read the entire piece,
both parts.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
I was looking for like the big bombshell, like the
big insult like and I didn't see that at all.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
And I didn't think the piece was unfair honestly, like
the way the White House is taking it.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Maybe some of the pictures were.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Not exad yeah, but the way the White House is
like pushing back on it's lacking context and all this.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I got the context. I think it was pretty clear,
and I really didn't think it was that bad what she.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Said, right.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I do think that obviously the person who wrote it
was looking for those little.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Nuggets of course, yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
And she gave them to him. But it's kind of
like that's all.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
You got right now. With with JD.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Vance and being sort of political, there's no question he
has had a huge conversion, h you know, going from
a never Trumper to Trump's vice president. And I always
uh have a bit of a skeptical eye towards those
kinds of people that completely kind of change their worldview
like that as they're getting into politics.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, A visual convenience, it's political.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
On Pam Bondy, she said, I think she completely whiffed
on appreciating that that was a very targeted group that
cared about They're speaking about the Epstein files and that
group of influencers who went to the White House that
were handed those binders. She said, first she gave them
binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the
witness this list of the client list was on her desk.
(08:02):
There is no client list, and it sure as hell
wasn't on her desk. What's wrong with that? I mean,
that's what everybody's been saying about Pam Bondi. Yeah, absolutely,
And I think that's a bit of a message to Bondi.
Although I don't think Bonnie's going anywhere because she does
what Trump wants. But I think it's a message like
quit screwing around and dropping the ball on some of
this stuff.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
And Pambonni responded to the article too and didn't address
that directly, but basically said like, don't try to divide
this administration.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, and look, that was I think one of the
bigger takeaways when it comes to the fallout from this
piece is that there was nobody that I could see
that was critical of Susie Wiles. Everybody came to her
defense within the administration. That tells you the kind of
power and influence that she has. Yeah, I still can't
figure out why exactly she did this. As somebody who's
(08:48):
always in the background and tries not to put herself
in front of the camera and in the news, I
don't know if this was calculated. She's a very calculated person.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Type of strategy.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I mean the author of this piece, he's done a
lot of pieces on chiefs of staff over the years,
so he's kind of like the go to journalist for
a chief of staff to have an interview with. Maybe
she kind of got caught up in that, But there's
a lot more still to unpack from this. Let's go
to the hotline now and bring in our White House
correspondent John Decker, who joins us. So, John, I've got
(09:21):
to start with Trump chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, that
Peace and Vanity Fair. You know, she's somebody who always
is in the backgrounds. What do you make of her
doing you know, eleven different interviews with the Vanity Fair
reporter revealing all of this. What's the angle here. That's
(09:42):
what I'm trying to figure out.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Well, the only angle I can figure out from Susie Wiles's.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Point of view.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
And remember she's someone who largely keeps in the background.
He doesn't speak to reporters. But you know, to me,
it speaks to vanity. I know it's called Vanity Fair,
but it's true. It does speak to vanity because she,
as you point out, Ryan eleven interviews over the course
of eleven months.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
They have these staged photo shoots in Vanity Fair with
not only Susie Wiles but other White House staff.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
You only do that to show the world, look at us,
Look how important we are, Look at this great job
that we're doing. And she let down her hair, so
to speak, in all of those interviews and those quotes
that she gave on the record to this reporter, Chris Whipple.
They're embarrassing. They're embarrassing to Susie Wilds, they're embarrassing to
(10:35):
the administration President Trump. Certainly, the wagon's around Susie Wilde's declaring,
he that she's doing a fantastic job, and she only
has an audience of one that she needs to please,
and that's Donald Trump. And as long as he's happy,
she's good to go with her job.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
What have you observed about her? I mean she's there
in a lot of the meetings where you're there, asking
questions and things like that.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Anything you know, all of them?
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Yeah, all of them.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
I mean she she uh sometimes will motion out of
the range of cameras for the President to wrap things up.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
And I must tell you do not see that.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
She is. She is quiet. She's a quiet but powerful force.
And she is just that. And she has brought about some.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Discipline to the White House because of the role that
she's taken.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
It surprised me that of all the people who are
giving these long interviews to Vanity Fair magazine, it's Susie
Wilde's doing it, given the way I've seen her conduct
herself over the course of this second term. But you know,
I guess to a certain extent, nothing should surprise me
regarding the Trump White House.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
Even this story. I think this story largely goes away. Yes,
Chris Whipple has.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
You know part one and then part two and part
three more quotes from Susie Wells. And it seems to
me this is just all that's out there right away,
and they'll deal with it, and there's just so much
news that's happening that these stories largely go away.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
We're joined by our White House correspondent John Decker. One
more thing, John, real quick. Healthcare still a big topic
of debate there in DC, and there seems to be
a lot of drama in the House. You've got Republicans
and swing districts not happy with the House Speaker how
he's handling it. When will there be a vote, and
do we know what that vote's going to be on.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
Well, there's two things that are happening. One is on
the Senate side, John Thune, the Senate majority leaders, has
said this problem about increasing premiums for twenty four million Americans,
it's going to happen because the Senate's not going to
take care of this issue before the end of the year.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
So he said that yesterday.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Meanwhile, on the House side, they're going to have a vote, Ryan,
and they're going to have a vote on their healthcare bill.
But there's no amendment that deals with those extended subsidies
that are going away. So it's pretty clear that for
twenty four million Americans, come January first, first, their premiums
for the Affordable Care Act are.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Going to go up. That's what's going to happen in
the new year.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
All right, Our White House correspondent John Decker with us.
John really appreciated, Thanks so much, Thank you, and don't forget.
You can get more, John Decker. The White House Briefing
Room podcast is something you can listen to and you
can find it on your iHeartRadio app for more insight
into everything happening with the Trump administration. Right now, let's
go to the hotline and bring in our national correspondent
(13:29):
Rory O'Neil, who supports Bronti by Mark Spain real Estate. So, Rory,
let's start with the latest on the death of Hollywood
legend Rob Reiner and that investigation the arrest of his son,
Nick Reiner. What have we learned over the past twenty
four hours.
Speaker 6 (13:44):
Yeah, he's now facing two counts of first degree murder.
The DA says they are not taking the death penalty
off the table. No decision has been made on that,
but at least it's possible. Probably more of a negotiation tactic,
by the way, to sort of flirt that around there.
Reiner has got himself a pretty high powered defense attorney.
He did not make a court appearance yesterday because he
(14:04):
had not yet been medically cleared. You know, he's being
kept essentially in a jail that sort of doubles as
a mental health facility there in LA So they got
to get him cleared first before that court appearance, which
is now expected today.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
And some of the new details that we learned about.
You had this Conan O'Brien Christmas party and Nick Reiner
was acting it sounds like, pretty erratically and weird. He
kept interrupting guests asking them stupid.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Questions, Yeah, are who are you? Are you famous? And
then he was staring at people weird and just making
everybody really creeped out.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Right, And when he interrupted comedian Bill Hayter to do
kind of the same thing, that was the final straw.
And that's when he was asked to leave. And that
apparently happened just you know, a few hours before the
eventual murder of Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner, and investigators
(15:04):
think that it might have happened while they were in bed,
maybe even asleep, that he just went to the room
and attacked them and slipped their throats.
Speaker 6 (15:13):
That's some of the evidence that's coming together they found
him what about ten or fifteen miles away from the
family home, at a hotel where there was blood, a
lot of it.
Speaker 7 (15:22):
Apparently in that hotel room.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
He was picked up a short time after going to
a gas station to buy some snacks and stuff. But yeah,
now they're trying to put together this timeline to try
to figure out exactly when the murders took place, because
their bodies weren't found until what about four o'clock in
the afternoon Sunday Pacific time.
Speaker 7 (15:43):
Yeah, by their daughter.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, so it sounds like there was this incident at
the Cone and O'Brien party. Don't know, you know, if
they went home first, or if he went home whatever,
They eventually get home, he eventually shows up, he kills them.
Then you have the miss arrive around two pm on Sunday,
there's no response. That's when she reaches out to the
(16:05):
daughter who discovers the bodies at around three point thirty
pm on Sunday. And there was another note I wanted
to get to Michelle Reiner that picture of Donald Trump
on the cover of the Art of the Deal from
nineteen eighty seven. She's the photographer who took that picture.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Picture yeah, crazy, Yeah, that is crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
It's a random fact if you're going to throw in there.
All right, we're joined by our national correspondent, Rory O'Neil.
Let's get to all things Venezuela now. Lots of new
developments and a big question as to whether or not
some of what the President has to say tonight during
his address to the nation will involve the situation in Venezuela.
Speaker 7 (16:43):
By the way, let me ask you your opinion. Do
you think this is a wag the dog situation?
Speaker 1 (16:49):
I think the Trump administration is trying very hard to
squeeze Nicholas Maduro to get him to.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Leave.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And I think they're putting a maximum pressure campaign because
they think that this strategy will work. I am not
one who thinks that we're headed towards some kind of
full scale war with Venezuela.
Speaker 7 (17:11):
Is this being done to time with the Epstein releases?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Oh no, I don't think that.
Speaker 7 (17:17):
And then and is Secretary Rubio the driving force?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I think he is definitely the driving force, There's no
question about that. And there are larger factors at play here.
There's the Cuba angle to all of this. There's the
Russia angle, the angle with China. You know, oil at
the center of all of this. There are a lot
of moving parts, but I think, like Susie Wild said
in a Vanity Fair interview, this is about regime change
(17:41):
and a maximum pressure campaign. But there were some definitely
some notable steps that were taken yesterday that the President
announced they'll put even more pressure on Venezuela.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
And of course the President has a primetime addressed tonight
nine pm Eastern Time from the Diplomatic Reception Room at
the White House. They haven't really gotten into specifics about
what the speech will be about. They've said, oh, it's
about the past year, the year ahead, and maybe some
Venezuela stuff. But clearly after that truth social post saying
that there's a US embargo on any oil tanker going
(18:13):
into or out of Venezuela, that's a pretty serious move
and really go further to even cripple Venezuela's economy even more,
and in fact Cuba's economy as well. No coincidence with
this blockade and President Trump boasting of the largest armada,
the most powerful off the South American coast.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Ever, you just look at the moves that have been
made recently from the taking out of these alleged narco
terrorist boats, to some of the flyovers that we've seen
over Venezuelan airspace, to getting the opposition leader out of
the country. Now the seizure of an oil tanker and
(18:53):
this blockade. I mean, the pressure is ramping up on Maduro.
You just wonder how much longer. Hopefully this thing comes
to an end sooner rather than later, and then we
are not going to get the other big thing tied
to Venezuela was We're not going to get that video
of the second strike on a boat off the coast
there from back in September. Pete Hegseth said it's not
(19:16):
going to be publicly released.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
Saying it's still top secret, saying that just hours after,
more boat strike videos were posted on social media as well.
So why this one is so different from the others
is a bit of a question. Obviously, Democrats on the
hill making the most of this as they can. But yeah,
the fact that that second video won't be public while
there are senators calling for open.
Speaker 7 (19:37):
Hearings on it is pretty interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah. I want to see it, I know.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I think the fact that now it's top secret or
what's in there is it. I wonder if it's damaging
and that's why they don't want to show it. Like
that's where my mind goes.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, I would have if I were them, just released it.
I mean they keep saying, you know, we did nothing wrong.
They were trying to get back on the boat and
continue with their journey and all of that. Then just
show the video instead. Now you know you've got members
of Congress. They're going to see a pine closed doores.
Democrats are going to say one thing, Republicans another, and
we don't know what the hell's going on.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
And look, they blur out a lot of the parts
of the other videos. I don't see what they couldn't
do the same here and say here it is. You know,
we didn't want to exploit the violence right right right, Yeah,
for their families, But you know they could have done
something to blur it out to say, oh no, we
met the obligation.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
All right.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Our national horspondent Rory O'Neil with us this morning. Rory
really appreciate it. We'll talk to you tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Thanks.
Speaker 7 (20:27):
Ryan taught to you.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Then,
All right, let's get to this Vanity Fair piece. White
House chief of Staff Susie Wiles. So a couple of things.
Nothing she said about members of the administration I think
was untrue, and we're going to circle back to that
right in a second. But a chief of staff shouldn't
be making headlines unless the principle they serve wants them
(00:25):
to make headlines.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And that's really my question here.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Why did she do this and save this stuff publicly
for a piece?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
And Vanity Fair?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Is she trying to send a message to certain people?
Is Trump trying to send a message through her? Or
was she just you know, doing laundry and having luncheon and.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Having a candid conversation with Vanity Fair, who we already
know they're not necessarily favorable to the Trump administration.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
What's that term spilling the tea?
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Or sipping the tea or something about tea?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, So in the piece, it says here Wiles went
to work in twenty eighteen for an ambitious, scubernatorial candidate
named Ron DeSantis. Trump urged DeSantis, then his protege, to
hire her. She led the underdog candidate to victory, but
afterward DeSantis turned on her, denouncing Wiles publicly and bad
mouthing her privately. To this day, Wiles doesn't know what
(01:18):
triggered the governor's vendetta. She says in the piece quote,
I think he thought I was getting too much attention,
which is ironic. I don't ever seek attention, and she doesn't.
She's always in the background. So why now this interview. Yeah,
I still haven't figured out the angle here, if there
(01:38):
is one. I do think that these conversations happen. I
think what she's quoted as saying, she said there were
eleven conversations, all taped on the record. She tried to
say she didn't say something about Elon Musk, and then
the author of all of this, the reporter, he played
the New York Times like the clip of her saying
(01:59):
it proof.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Right, she was chatting and while she was doing laundry,
while they had lunch together at the White House, and
apparently where they were eating in the White House, there's
a freestanding video monitor with a live feet of Trump's.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Truth social posts. That was interesting.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So at that lunch, this I think is the most
important part of the whole piece, and it's not going
to be what you're seeing and hearing. You know, twenty
four to seven on cable news, are on social media,
it said, Wiles told me, and this is the person
reporting this. Wiles told me about Trump's Venezuela strategy. He
wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.
(02:36):
And people way smarter than me on that issue say
that he will. And it says here wiles statementspire to
contradict the administration's official stance that blowing up boasts is
about drug interdiction, not regime change. She added, We're very
sure we know who we're blowing up. One of the
great untold stories of the US government is the talents
of the CIA. Now, Wiles did concede the attacks on
(02:59):
targets on Venezuela's mainland would force Trump to get congressional approval,
But that's really notable considering the administration's moves yesterday tied
to Venezuela, labeling the government a foreign terrorist organization, ordering
a blockade of their oil tankers. You can pretty clearly
see what the strategy is. And she essentially admits.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It, admits to it. Yeah, why is the question?
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah? Right right, So, and I've got like a gazillion notes,
and we'll talk more about this throughout the course of
the show. There were a few other things that call
my attention. What stood out to you so well?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
The thing about her saying Trump has the personality of
an alcoholic, where they kind of used that to try to,
you know, pit them against each other, But then she
explained it later, and he's admitted that before. He doesn't
drink because he says if I drink, I could become
an alcoholic. I think he's said that before.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
And her point was and Trump said that she was
right in an interview with The New York Post about
her interview.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
But what she was saying there, I didn't think it
was a dig.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
She was saying high functioninglcoholics or alcoholics in general. And
she has some experience here because her dad, Tact Summerow,
was an alcoholic. Their personalities are exaggerated when they drink.
And she said, so I'm a little bit of an
expert in big personalities, and that's how she tied in
Trump having an alcoholics personality.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
She said, to imagine him drinking and truth social as.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Right, She said, he operates with a view there's nothing
he can't do nothing, zero nothing, And so she's saying
that that outsized, exaggerated personality that he has, he does
he comes across sometimes as like the drunk at the
bar who's just spouting off right, except he's not right.
But he's got that kind of personality. That's who he is.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
The fallout continues from.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
President Trump's chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, in her interview with.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Vanity Fair magazine.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Let me get to what she said about the president,
the vice president, and the Attorney general, and we'll start
with President Trump.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
And we mentioned this just a little while ago.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
She said, some clinical psychologist that knows one million times
more than I do will dispute what I'm gonna say.
But high functioning alcoholics are alcoholics in general. Their personalities
are exaggerated when they drink. And so I'm a little
bit of an expert in big personalities. And she said
that Trump has an alcoholics personality. He operates with a
(05:22):
view that there's nothing he can't do, nothing, zero nothing.
And so some people tried to make that into a
dig at Trump. I didn't take it that way. The
way I took it was, you know, Trump does have
a really big, exaggerated but everything he does is exaggerates
who he is. And she likened that to you know,
(05:44):
how alcoholics can act at times.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Her father, Pat summer All, was an alcoholic for a while.
I think he, you know, was sober.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Cleaned up towards the end of his life.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, but that was her her comment on Trump. And
then Trump told the New York Posts, you know, she's right, yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
He says that's why he doesn't drink, because he knows
if he did from more exaggerate.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Uh. This is what she said about Vice President Jade Vance.
It says her Vance's conversion from never trumpet to maga acolyte,
she said, has been sort of political the vice president
she had and has been a conspiracy theorist for a decade.
I don't find that to be all that controversial, to
be honest with.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
You, it's not. And he also said JD Vance his
response to that was, well, yeah, I am a conspiracy theorist.
I only believe in conspiracy theories that are true. And
he said that he and Susie Wiles have joked about
that face to face, like it's like she'll say that,
so while they're trying to take it like this was
some awful insulting thing. She really didn't mean it that way.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
No, And I don't think I read the entire piece,
both parts.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
I was looking for like the big bombshell, like the
big insult like and I didn't see that at all.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
And I didn't think the piece was unfair honestly, like
the way the White House is taking it.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Maybe some of the pictures were.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Not exad yeah, but the way the White House is
like pushing back on it's lacking context and all this.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I got the context. I think it was pretty clear,
and I really didn't think it was that bad what she.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Said, right.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I do think that obviously the person who wrote it
was looking for those little.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Nuggets of course, yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
And she gave them to him. But it's kind of
like that's all.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
You got right now. With with JD.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Vance and being sort of political, there's no question he
has had a huge conversion, h you know, going from
a never Trumper to Trump's vice president. And I always
uh have a bit of a skeptical eye towards those
kinds of people that completely kind of change their worldview
like that as they're getting into politics.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, A visual convenience, it's political.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
On Pam Bondy, she said, I think she completely whiffed
on appreciating that that was a very targeted group that
cared about They're speaking about the Epstein files and that
group of influencers who went to the White House that
were handed those binders. She said, first she gave them
binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the
witness this list of the client list was on her desk.
(08:02):
There is no client list, and it sure as hell
wasn't on her desk. What's wrong with that? I mean,
that's what everybody's been saying about Pam Bondi. Yeah, absolutely,
And I think that's a bit of a message to Bondi.
Although I don't think Bonnie's going anywhere because she does
what Trump wants. But I think it's a message like
quit screwing around and dropping the ball on some of
this stuff.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
And Pambonni responded to the article too and didn't address
that directly, but basically said like, don't try to divide
this administration.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, and look, that was I think one of the
bigger takeaways when it comes to the fallout from this
piece is that there was nobody that I could see
that was critical of Susie Wiles. Everybody came to her
defense within the administration. That tells you the kind of
power and influence that she has. Yeah, I still can't
figure out why exactly she did this. As somebody who's
(08:48):
always in the background and tries not to put herself
in front of the camera and in the news, I
don't know if this was calculated. She's a very calculated person.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Type of strategy.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I mean the author of this piece, he's done a
lot of pieces on chiefs of staff over the years,
so he's kind of like the go to journalist for
a chief of staff to have an interview with. Maybe
she kind of got caught up in that, But there's
a lot more still to unpack from this. Let's go
to the hotline now and bring in our White House
correspondent John Decker, who joins us. So, John, I've got
(09:21):
to start with Trump chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, that
Peace and Vanity Fair. You know, she's somebody who always
is in the backgrounds. What do you make of her
doing you know, eleven different interviews with the Vanity Fair
reporter revealing all of this. What's the angle here. That's
(09:42):
what I'm trying to figure out.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Well, the only angle I can figure out from Susie Wiles's.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Point of view.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
And remember she's someone who largely keeps in the background.
He doesn't speak to reporters. But you know, to me,
it speaks to vanity. I know it's called Vanity Fair,
but it's true. It does speak to vanity because she,
as you point out, Ryan eleven interviews over the course
of eleven months.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
They have these staged photo shoots in Vanity Fair with
not only Susie Wiles but other White House staff.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
You only do that to show the world, look at us,
Look how important we are, Look at this great job
that we're doing. And she let down her hair, so
to speak, in all of those interviews and those quotes
that she gave on the record to this reporter, Chris Whipple.
They're embarrassing. They're embarrassing to Susie Wilds, they're embarrassing to
(10:35):
the administration President Trump. Certainly, the wagon's around Susie Wilde's declaring,
he that she's doing a fantastic job, and she only
has an audience of one that she needs to please,
and that's Donald Trump. And as long as he's happy,
she's good to go with her job.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
What have you observed about her? I mean she's there
in a lot of the meetings where you're there, asking
questions and things like that.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Anything you know, all of them?
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Yeah, all of them.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
I mean she she uh sometimes will motion out of
the range of cameras for the President to wrap things up.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
And I must tell you do not see that.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
She is. She is quiet. She's a quiet but powerful force.
And she is just that. And she has brought about some.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Discipline to the White House because of the role that
she's taken.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (11:27):
It surprised me that of all the people who are
giving these long interviews to Vanity Fair magazine, it's Susie
Wilde's doing it, given the way I've seen her conduct
herself over the course of this second term. But you know,
I guess to a certain extent, nothing should surprise me
regarding the Trump White House.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
Even this story. I think this story largely goes away. Yes,
Chris Whipple has.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
You know part one and then part two and part
three more quotes from Susie Wells. And it seems to
me this is just all that's out there right away,
and they'll deal with it, and there's just so much
news that's happening that these stories largely go away.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
We're joined by our White House correspondent John Decker. One
more thing, John, real quick. Healthcare still a big topic
of debate there in DC, and there seems to be
a lot of drama in the House. You've got Republicans
and swing districts not happy with the House Speaker how
he's handling it. When will there be a vote, and
do we know what that vote's going to be on.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
Well, there's two things that are happening. One is on
the Senate side, John Thune, the Senate majority leaders, has
said this problem about increasing premiums for twenty four million Americans,
it's going to happen because the Senate's not going to
take care of this issue before the end of the year.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
So he said that yesterday.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Meanwhile, on the House side, they're going to have a vote, Ryan,
and they're going to have a vote on their healthcare bill.
But there's no amendment that deals with those extended subsidies
that are going away. So it's pretty clear that for
twenty four million Americans, come January first, first, their premiums
for the Affordable Care Act are.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Going to go up. That's what's going to happen in
the new year.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
All right, Our White House correspondent John Decker with us.
John really appreciated, Thanks so much, Thank you, and don't forget.
You can get more, John Decker. The White House Briefing
Room podcast is something you can listen to and you
can find it on your iHeartRadio app for more insight
into everything happening with the Trump administration. Right now, let's
go to the hotline and bring in our national correspondent
(13:29):
Rory O'Neil, who supports Bronti by Mark Spain real Estate. So, Rory,
let's start with the latest on the death of Hollywood
legend Rob Reiner and that investigation the arrest of his son,
Nick Reiner. What have we learned over the past twenty
four hours.
Speaker 6 (13:44):
Yeah, he's now facing two counts of first degree murder.
The DA says they are not taking the death penalty
off the table. No decision has been made on that,
but at least it's possible. Probably more of a negotiation tactic,
by the way, to sort of flirt that around there.
Reiner has got himself a pretty high powered defense attorney.
He did not make a court appearance yesterday because he
(14:04):
had not yet been medically cleared. You know, he's being
kept essentially in a jail that sort of doubles as
a mental health facility there in LA So they got
to get him cleared first before that court appearance, which
is now expected today.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
And some of the new details that we learned about.
You had this Conan O'Brien Christmas party and Nick Reiner
was acting it sounds like, pretty erratically and weird. He
kept interrupting guests asking them stupid.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Questions, Yeah, are who are you? Are you famous? And
then he was staring at people weird and just making
everybody really creeped out.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Right, And when he interrupted comedian Bill Hayter to do
kind of the same thing, that was the final straw.
And that's when he was asked to leave. And that
apparently happened just you know, a few hours before the
eventual murder of Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner, and investigators
(15:04):
think that it might have happened while they were in bed,
maybe even asleep, that he just went to the room
and attacked them and slipped their throats.
Speaker 6 (15:13):
That's some of the evidence that's coming together they found
him what about ten or fifteen miles away from the
family home, at a hotel where there was blood, a
lot of it.
Speaker 7 (15:22):
Apparently in that hotel room.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
He was picked up a short time after going to
a gas station to buy some snacks and stuff. But yeah,
now they're trying to put together this timeline to try
to figure out exactly when the murders took place, because
their bodies weren't found until what about four o'clock in
the afternoon Sunday Pacific time.
Speaker 7 (15:43):
Yeah, by their daughter.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, so it sounds like there was this incident at
the Cone and O'Brien party. Don't know, you know, if
they went home first, or if he went home whatever,
They eventually get home, he eventually shows up, he kills them.
Then you have the miss arrive around two pm on Sunday,
there's no response. That's when she reaches out to the
(16:05):
daughter who discovers the bodies at around three point thirty
pm on Sunday. And there was another note I wanted
to get to Michelle Reiner that picture of Donald Trump
on the cover of the Art of the Deal from
nineteen eighty seven. She's the photographer who took that picture.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Picture yeah, crazy, Yeah, that is crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
It's a random fact if you're going to throw in there.
All right, we're joined by our national correspondent, Rory O'Neil.
Let's get to all things Venezuela now. Lots of new
developments and a big question as to whether or not
some of what the President has to say tonight during
his address to the nation will involve the situation in Venezuela.
Speaker 7 (16:43):
By the way, let me ask you your opinion. Do
you think this is a wag the dog situation?
Speaker 1 (16:49):
I think the Trump administration is trying very hard to
squeeze Nicholas Maduro to get him to.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Leave.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And I think they're putting a maximum pressure campaign because
they think that this strategy will work. I am not
one who thinks that we're headed towards some kind of
full scale war with Venezuela.
Speaker 7 (17:11):
Is this being done to time with the Epstein releases?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Oh no, I don't think that.
Speaker 7 (17:17):
And then and is Secretary Rubio the driving force?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I think he is definitely the driving force, There's no
question about that. And there are larger factors at play here.
There's the Cuba angle to all of this. There's the
Russia angle, the angle with China. You know, oil at
the center of all of this. There are a lot
of moving parts, but I think, like Susie Wild said
in a Vanity Fair interview, this is about regime change
(17:41):
and a maximum pressure campaign. But there were some definitely
some notable steps that were taken yesterday that the President
announced they'll put even more pressure on Venezuela.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
And of course the President has a primetime addressed tonight
nine pm Eastern Time from the Diplomatic Reception Room at
the White House. They haven't really gotten into specifics about
what the speech will be about. They've said, oh, it's
about the past year, the year ahead, and maybe some
Venezuela stuff. But clearly after that truth social post saying
that there's a US embargo on any oil tanker going
(18:13):
into or out of Venezuela, that's a pretty serious move
and really go further to even cripple Venezuela's economy even more,
and in fact Cuba's economy as well. No coincidence with
this blockade and President Trump boasting of the largest armada,
the most powerful off the South American coast.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Ever, you just look at the moves that have been
made recently from the taking out of these alleged narco
terrorist boats, to some of the flyovers that we've seen
over Venezuelan airspace, to getting the opposition leader out of
the country. Now the seizure of an oil tanker and
(18:53):
this blockade. I mean, the pressure is ramping up on Maduro.
You just wonder how much longer. Hopefully this thing comes
to an end sooner rather than later, and then we
are not going to get the other big thing tied
to Venezuela was We're not going to get that video
of the second strike on a boat off the coast
there from back in September. Pete Hegseth said it's not
(19:16):
going to be publicly released.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
Saying it's still top secret, saying that just hours after,
more boat strike videos were posted on social media as well.
So why this one is so different from the others
is a bit of a question. Obviously, Democrats on the
hill making the most of this as they can. But yeah,
the fact that that second video won't be public while
there are senators calling for open.
Speaker 7 (19:37):
Hearings on it is pretty interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah. I want to see it, I know.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I think the fact that now it's top secret or
what's in there is it. I wonder if it's damaging
and that's why they don't want to show it. Like
that's where my mind goes.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, I would have if I were them, just released it.
I mean they keep saying, you know, we did nothing wrong.
They were trying to get back on the boat and
continue with their journey and all of that. Then just
show the video instead. Now you know you've got members
of Congress. They're going to see a pine closed doores.
Democrats are going to say one thing, Republicans another, and
we don't know what the hell's going on.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
And look, they blur out a lot of the parts
of the other videos. I don't see what they couldn't
do the same here and say here it is. You know,
we didn't want to exploit the violence right right right, Yeah,
for their families, But you know they could have done
something to blur it out to say, oh no, we
met the obligation.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
All right.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Our national horspondent Rory O'Neil with us this morning. Rory
really appreciate it. We'll talk to you tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Thanks.
Speaker 7 (20:27):
Ryan taught to you.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Then,
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