Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes

Grant Hermes
  • 4.9 (30)
  • Politics
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Politics has never been more chaotic, and most podcasts just add to the noise. Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes cuts through it. Grant is an AP Award-winning journalist with over a decade of on-the-ground reporting on the biggest political stories, scandals, and elections in America. Twice a week, he takes the stories dominating the headlines and breaks them down in plain English — no jargon, no spin, no shouting. If you care about what’s happening in this country but you’re exhausted by how it’s being covered, this is the show for you. Real reporting. Clear explanations. Actual context. Make It Make Sense drops three times a week. Subscribe so you never miss it.

  1. 3d ago

    He Helped Create DHS. 25 Years after 9/11, Was It The Right Thing To Do? W/ The Steady State's Steve Cash

    Twenty-five years ago today, Grant was eight years old, watching the second plane hit the second tower before walking to school. He didn't know what he was seeing. He just felt the fear coming off every adult around him. Steve Cash felt it too, but from the inside. He was Senator Dianne Feinstein's lead staffer on the cluster of legislation that followed 9/11: the Patriot Act, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He didn't just help pass those laws. He helped write them. Twenty-five years later, Grant asked him one question: did we build the right thing? The answer is honest and complicated. The ideas had been circulating before the attacks. The fear was real and justified; Steve describes the weeks after 9/11 as "picture the first weeks of COVID but with bombs and terrorists." The intelligence community was genuinely convinced more attacks were coming and worse. And the laws they wrote, rushed as they were, appear to have worked: there hasn't been another 9/11-scale attack. But something happened to the institution they built. DHS was created to protect the American people from foreign terror. It is now the agency conducting mass deportations, building voter databases out of illegally obtained data, and threatening state election officials with prison. Steve and Grant sit with that for most of the conversation, not to assign blame, but to ask an honest question about whether what DHS has become is a betrayal of why it was created, and what the families and survivors of 9/11 deserve from us on this anniversary. This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. Fall is almost here, but summer isn't done with us yet. Cozy Earth's bamboo sheets are temperature-regulating, so you're covered whether it's cozy sweater weather or 79 degrees at midnight for no reason. Use code MIMS25 at CozyEarth.com for 21% off and when you use that code, you're supporting the show. MAKE IT MAKE SENSE SUBSTACK CHAPTERS: 0:00 Grant at eight years old watching 9/11: what he saw and what he felt 1:18 Why this conversation: 25 years later, was what we built the right response? 4:15 Meet Steve Cash again: the man who helped write the Patriot Act, DHS, and ODNI 5:46 What it was like on Capitol Hill in the weeks after 9/11: "Picture COVID but with bombs and terrorists" 7:33 Why fear is a bad way to write legislation, and why it was unavoidable 9:36 The ideas were already there: what had been circulating before the attacks and why that matters 12:00 The big three: Patriot Act, DHS, and ODNI — what each was actually trying to solve 16:00 The intelligence failure that made 9/11 possible: information that existed and wasn't shared 20:00 Did it work? There hasn't been another 9/11. That's a data point you can't ignore. 24:00 What DHS has become: from protecting Americans from foreign terror to threatening state election officials 28:00 The monster question: was DHS flawed from the start or has it been deliberately turned into something else? 32:00 Trump, democracy, and what happens when a system built on fear gets handed to someone who feeds on it 36:00 What the families and survivors of 9/11 deserve from the institutions built in their name 40:00 If there's an after: what accountability looks like and what we should learn from this, the way we didn't learn from 9/11 42:03 Steve's wedding ring says 9/11. He and his wife don't celebrate on this date. A note on what today means. Support the show Follow along on social media  SaySo: @GrantHermes  X: @GrantHermes Insta: @Grant__Hermes Tiktok: Grant_Hermes

  2. 4d ago

    Trump Begs And Bribes In Dallas. It Just Might Work

    Night one of the first-ever Republican midterm national convention in Dallas is in the books. Grant was watching so you didn't have to. The arena was half full for most of the night and about 75% full during Trump's speech. Trump posted that it was sold out and beat the NFL season opener in ratings. The NFL numbers haven't been released yet. Tim Scott delivered one of the most bizarre speeches in recent political memory, shaking, tearing at his jacket, on the verge of speaking in tongues while accusing Democrats of ripping out hearts like the villain from an Indiana Jones movie. Congressman Tom Emmer delivered a speech built around Islamophobia, connecting Ilhan Omar, Abdul El-Sayed, and Hasan Piker into a "communist Muslim" boogeyman, then played a 40-foot tall nearly-naked image of Piker on the jumbotron to demonstrate the threat. Democratic Senator Jon Fetterman (D-PA) appeared by video to attack members of his own party. A cabinet member attempted to physically shove a female speaker off the stage. That last one has barely made news. Then Trump closed. He spoke for an hour and 45 minutes. He said, "Pretend I'm on the ballot again, please." Then he promised $5,000 to every American adult who votes Republican, which is to say a bribe of between $1.2 and $1.4 trillion that has no funding source. He has now promised $12,000 in various checks, dividends, and savings to every American since taking office. Not a single dime has been sent. Grant's honest read: this might actually work. Labor Day is when low-information voters start tuning in for the first time in two years. What they'll hear sounds a lot like 2024. And new polling shows people who are least likely to vote are also least likely to approve of Trump, meaning the ceiling may be lower than it looks. This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. Fall is almost here, but summer isn't done with us yet. Cozy Earth's bamboo sheets are temperature-regulating, so you're covered whether it's cozy sweater weather or 79 degrees at midnight for no reason. Use code MIMS25 at CozyEarth.com for 21% off, and when you use that code, you're supporting the show. CHAPTERS:  0:00 Night one of the Republican midterm convention: Grant was watching so you didn't have to 2:00 The arena was half full. Trump said it was sold out and beat the NFL. The NFL numbers aren't out yet. 4:00 The two kinds of speakers: fawning over Trump and outlandish bigotry to fire up the crowd 5:30 Tim Scott on the verge of speaking in tongues: what happened and why it was unnerving 7:30 Tom Emmer's Islamophobia playbook: Omar, El-Sayed, Piker, and a 40-foot jumbotron image 10:00 Jon Fetterman addresses the Republican convention to attack his own party: what that means for the Senate 12:00 A cabinet member tried to physically shove a female speaker off the stage. It barely made news. 13:30 Sponsor: Cozy Earth 15:30 Trump closes: an hour and 45 minutes, his greatest hits, and "pretend I'm on the ballot again please" 17:30 The $5,000 bribe: where the money would come from, why the math doesn't work, and why it doesn't matter 19:30 $12,000 in total promises since taking office. Not a single dime sent. 21:00 Why this might actually work: Labor Day voters, the 2024 frame, and the exhaustion problem Support the show Follow along on social media  SaySo: @GrantHermes  X: @GrantHermes Insta: @Grant__Hermes Tiktok: Grant_Hermes

  3. 6d ago

    Republicans Are Paying $25,000 to Attend a Convention That's Just About Trump.

    Something that has never happened in American history is underway in Dallas right now: the first-ever midterm Republican National Convention. Past midterm conventions have been about righting the ship, the party coming together, figuring out its message, getting organized. This one is about Trump. He is the keynote speaker both nights. The topics on the schedule are his policies, his accomplishments, his agenda. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is not attending. At least 70 congressional Republicans told Politico they weren't planning to go. Swing state candidates in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Iowa are staying home to campaign. The ones who did go paid for the privilege. A single ticket for a member of Congress: $25,000. A roundtable with JD Vance: $75,000, plus $35,000 more for a photo with him. A photo with Trump: $89,000. A roundtable with Trump: $250,000. A leadership breakfast with Mike Johnson: $100,000. There are now serious questions about where this money is going, specifically whether some of it is being funneled into Trump's MAGA Inc machine, which has been spending the bulk of its campaign cash on national ads about Trump rather than helping vulnerable Republican candidates in close races. Before Dallas: the mail-in ballot rule got blocked again, the DOJ ran to the Supreme Court the same hour, the USPS Inspector General officially opened an investigation into the whistleblower's disclosure, and an appeals court blocked DHS from using a voter database a federal judge already said was built from illegal data. Canada's retaliatory tariffs went into effect targeting steel, aluminum, milk, cheese, and more — hitting Michigan hardest. And Trump posted AI images of himself as a Warhammer 40K emperor, a Space Force uniform based on Nazi SS costumes, and admitted on social media to trading stocks while in office. Join the SaySo News App! SaySo is a brand new news app built for people who actually want to be informed, not just keep scrolling. No outrage-chasing algorithm, no AI slop, just vetted creators delivering fact-driven coverage you can get through in a few minutes a day. I'm one of the early creators on the platform, posting there alongside others I trust. Check it out and download SaySo. Support the show Follow along on social media  SaySo: @GrantHermes  X: @GrantHermes Insta: @Grant__Hermes Tiktok: Grant_Hermes

  4. Sep 4

    The Lawyer for the USPS Whistleblower On The Record w/ WhistleblowerAid's David Kligerman

    EDITOR NOTE: This episode was recorded before a federal judge in Massachusetts issued her ruling blocking the mail-in ballot rule.  North Carolina and Delaware started sending out mail-in ballots today. Two weeks from now, most other states will follow. And the USPS mail-in ballot rule that a whistleblower says was built to "catastrophically fail" is still being fought over in federal court, with the Trump administration asking the Supreme Court's shadow docket to let it go forward. David Kligerman is the senior vice president and special counsel at WhistleblowerAid.org. He is the lawyer for the USPS whistleblower. This is his first extended on-record conversation about the case, how his client came forward, what they disclosed to Congress, and what happens next. Among the details that have not been widely reported: the whistleblower found their way to Whistleblower Aid through a kind of underground railroad process, listening to a show like this one, reaching out, being passed along through trusted civil society contacts until they arrived at a law firm that could protect them. David says this raises a serious question: how many other people inside the federal government have something to disclose and simply haven't found a safe way out yet. The episode also covers the broader landscape of whistleblowing under this administration: inspector generals gutted and weaponized against the people they're supposed to protect, the Office of Special Counsel neutered, the Merit Systems Protection Board dismembered, federal employment rules being rewritten to put protected positions into at-will categories. And what David thinks changes if Democrats win the House: subpoena authority, the ability to hold hearings, and what he expects will be a far more robust environment for disclosures. If you work inside the federal government and have something to share: WhistleblowerAid.org. Conversations with attorneys are free, anonymous, and fully protected by attorney-client privilege. USPS Whistleblower Disclosure Make It Make Sense Substack: DHS Citizenship List CHAPTERS: 0:00 Ballots go out in North Carolina and Delaware today. Here's why that matters right now. 2:46 Meet David Kligerman: SVP and special counsel at WhistleblowerAid.org, lawyer for the USPS whistleblower 2:58 How the USPS whistleblower found their way to Whistleblower Aid: an underground railroad through civil society 5:00 The bigger question: how many other people inside the government have something to disclose and can't find a safe way out 5:18 Nine months of Whistleblower Aid cases: ICE, Social Security, HUD, and what's still in the pipeline 7:30 The landscape for federal whistleblowers right now: inspector generals weaponized, Special Counsel neutered, MSPB dismembered 9:21 How the USPS whistleblower came forward and what they disclosed to Congress 14:00 What the disclosure actually says: haphazard development, zero failure protocol, court order violated 18:00 Congress is now asking for an investigation: what subpoena authority changes and why it matters  22:00 What David thinks a Democratic House means for whistleblower disclosures: a game changer 24:44 The "cavalry" effect: how the prospect of Congressional oversight is already encouraging more people to come forward 27:10 What you can do right now if you work inside the federal government and have something to share 29:32 WhistleblowerAid.org: free, anonymous, fully protected by attorney-client privilege Support the show Follow along on social media  SaySo: @GrantHermes  X: @GrantHermes Insta: @Grant__Hermes Tiktok: Grant_Hermes

  5. Sep 3

    The Candidates Who Rejected Corporate Money Won Anyway w/ End Citizens United's Tiffany Muller

    The 2026 midterms are on track to be the most expensive in American history, $12 billion in ad spending alone, before counting what's sitting in PACs and super PACs. 100 billionaire families are contributing over 20% of total election spending. Most of it is dark money: you don't get to know who donated, why, or what they're asking for in return. Tiffany Muller is the head of End Citizens United, the organization fighting to get corporate money out of elections. She's back on the show for the second time this cycle to break down where things actually stand with 60 days to go. The most surprising finding from this primary season: candidates who pledged to reject corporate PAC money are outperforming candidates who took it. El-Sayed won in Michigan without PAC money. Angela Nixon won in Florida without PAC money, outspent 16 to 1. The data is suggesting that in 2026, the corporate money pledge may actually be a political asset rather than a liability. Then there's the AI ads problem. AI is set to spend $150 million in this election cycle producing political content. In the final stretch before November, voters are already seeing a deepfake of Governor Kathy Hochul doing a walk-and-talk saying things she never said, a James Telerico ad placing him in a dress, and an LBJ-style Daisy ad remake. Minnesota banned AI in political ads. An outside group used an AI likeness of the Democratic candidate there anyway. Only three states have any law on the books at all. And the Supreme Court just issued a new ruling, NRSC versus FEC, that opened even more floodgates for big money. End Citizens United Make It Make Sense Substack CHAPTERS: 0:00 The most expensive midterm in history: $12 billion, dark money, and why Grant sat on this interview 2:05 Tiffany Muller: President of End Citizens United, back for her second appearance this cycle 2:42 Where things actually stand: still on track to shatter every spending record, and then the Supreme Court opened more floodgates 4:10 Michigan at $60 million, North Carolina and Ohio Senate races potentially hitting $1 billion each 5:09 Dark money explained: the shell company chain that makes sure you never find out who's actually paying 6:35 100 billionaire families contribute over 20% of all election spending: what that actually means for your vote 7:40 The corporate money pledge: why candidates rejecting PAC money are winning anyway 10:00 El-Sayed in Michigan, Nixon in Florida: the data from this primary cycle on no-PAC candidates 14:00 The NRSC versus FEC ruling: what the Supreme Court just opened up for big donors 18:00 Can you fix this system? What actual reform looks like and why it's harder than it sounds 22:00 The bipartisan case: this broken system hurts voters on both sides of the aisle 26:00 AI ads in the 2026 midterms: $150 million, deepfakes of real candidates, and only three states with any law 29:00 Kathy Hochul walking and talking. James Telerico in a dress. The LBJ Daisy ad. All AI. All real. 31:25 Minnesota banned AI ads. An outside group used an AI likeness of their candidate anyway. 33:46 What has to happen before November and what Grant will be tracking in 2027 Support the show Follow along on social media  SaySo: @GrantHermes  X: @GrantHermes Insta: @Grant__Hermes Tiktok: Grant_Hermes

  6. Sep 1

    Trump Calls 75% of Americans Stupid Over AI Data Centers

    A USPS whistleblower, protected by Whistleblower Aid, came forward today with allegations that in order to meet the September 1st deadline for the new mail-in ballot rule, the Postal Service violated a federal court order, developed an untested screening system under what insiders called a "shit show" timeline, and implemented a zero failure protocol that could mean millions of American voters never receive or have their mail-in ballot returned this election cycle. The whistleblower's most alarming claim: "Catastrophic failure would be a feature rather than a bug." The zero failure protocol works like this: if a single ballot in a batch of 5,000 to 10,000 can't be matched, the entire batch gets returned to the state. USPS doesn't fail. The state fails. Except the current mail delivery error rate is 15 to 20%, caused by wet barcodes, bad GPS signal, scanner malfunctions, none of which are fraud. Any of them can trigger the zero failure protocol. The whistleblower also says USPS restarted development work after a federal judge ordered them to stop, and that the Postmaster General lied to Democratic senators in writing in July, saying work was still halted. On the data centers: 75% of Americans oppose building AI data centers in their communities. Bipartisan, coast to coast. The day before Trump called those people stupid, Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, and other AI billionaires launched a super PAC called Building the Future to spend tens of millions backing pro-data center candidates. Trump has millions personally invested in AI data center development companies. Grant explains why this is the most bipartisan political grenade of the midterm cycle, and why Trump just handed Democrats a ready-made corruption campaign issue. Editor's note: Grant meant to say "billion liters of water, not million liters of water" here CHAPTERS: 0:00 Breaking: a USPS whistleblower comes forward with allegations the mail-in ballot system was built to fail 2:00 The Federal Mail Ballot Portal explained: what it was supposed to do and why none of it exists yet 4:00 "A shit show": what USPS officials were saying internally about the development timeline 6:00 The zero failure protocol: how one bad barcode can reject 10,000 ballots at once 8:00 The current mail error rate is 15 to 20%: why zero failure is mathematically impossible 9:30 The court order USPS violated: a federal judge said stop. They didn't. The Postmaster General lied about it. 11:00 "Catastrophic failure would be a feature rather than a bug": the whistleblower's conclusion 12:30 Sponsor break 14:00 75% of Americans oppose AI data centers in their communities: why this is the most bipartisan issue of the midterms 16:00 What data centers actually do to your town: noise, water depletion, rising utility rates, temporary jobs 18:30 Trump's personal investments in AI data center companies: why this is his golden goose 20:00 Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI launch a super PAC the day before Trump calls data center opponents stupid 21:30 Why Trump just handed Democrats their best corruption campaign issue of the cycle 23:00 The GOP midterm convention next week: Trump-a-Palooza and the Heaven's Gate vibes This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. Get in on the Cozy Earth Labor Day Deal! Cozy Earth's bamboo sheets and brushed bamboo pajamas are temperature-regulating, insanely soft, and built for actually sleeping cool. Use code MIMS25 at CozyEarth.com for 30% off — and when you do, you're also supporting the show. Support the show Follow along on social media  SaySo: @GrantHermes  X: @GrantHermes Insta: @Grant__Hermes Tiktok: Grant_Hermes

  7. Aug 28

    She's Won 24 Lawsuits Against Trump. Here's What She Thinks Is Coming Next

    This week has been one of the most chaotic and fast-moving weeks in the fight over how Americans will vote in November. The USPS mail-in ballot rule went final. A judge blocked it. The Supreme Court lifted that block. Another judge put it back in place. All in the space of four days. And through all of it, Common Cause has been in the middle of the legal fight. Virginia Kase Solomon is the president of Common Cause, the 56-year-old nonpartisan pro-democracy organization that fought Watergate reforms, ended the Vietnam War effort, and is now on the front lines of every major election protection lawsuit of this moment. She is also the former president and CEO of the League of Women Voters. Common Cause has won 24 lawsuits against this administration. They are plaintiffs in the mail-in ballot case, the voter roll data case, and at least one more that Virginia says is coming. Grant and Virginia talk through what the chaos of this week actually means for your vote in November, why the confusion itself is part of the strategy, what a third reconstruction looks like and why Virginia believes it is possible, why the mail-in ballot attack may be an own goal that unites more voters than it suppresses, and what the Texas cattle ranchers who voted for Trump are now saying to Common Cause organizers on the ground. 866-OUR-VOTE or 888-VE-Y-VOTA (Spanish)  CommonCause.org Make It Make Sense Substack This episode is sponsored by TelosRX. Connect with licensed U.S. providers online to see if a GLP-1 weight loss treatment is right for you. Prescription required after consultation; results vary. Consult a doctor before taking any medications.  Telosrx.com CHAPTERS 0:00 The fastest-moving week of the election fight yet: what happened with the mail-in ballot rule 2:30 Meet Virginia Kase Solomon: president of Common Cause, 24 lawsuits won, former head of the League of Women Voters 3:18 56 years of Common Cause: founded during Watergate and Vietnam, back at the same fight 5:43 How do you grapple with the Groundhog Day feeling of fighting the same battles again? 8:00 What the chaos around the mail-in ballot rule is actually designed to do: confusion is the strategy 11:00 What Common Cause's lawsuit says and where the legal fight stands right now 15:00 Why the mail-in ballot attack might be an own goal: one in three Americans voted by mail in 2024 18:00 The third reconstruction: what transformative change looks like beyond just rebuilding what was there before 20:00 The million conversations: what Common Cause is actually hearing from everyday Americans at kitchen tables 22:00  The Texas cattle ranchers who voted for Trump and are now asking "who do I trust?" 25:00  Grant's observation: people everywhere want the same basic things, we're just not saying so 28:00  Why the mail-in ballot attack might unite voters across party lines rather than divide them 29:42 What a third reconstruction actually looks like: not rebuilding the old, but something new 33:37  The bait and switch: what Trump promised rural voters and what they're actually getting Support the show Follow along on social media  SaySo: @GrantHermes  X: @GrantHermes Insta: @Grant__Hermes Tiktok: Grant_Hermes

  8. Aug 27

    Trump's Midterm Hail Mary Is More Trump

    68 days to the midterms. The road to Republicans keeping the House is all but closed. And this week the White House made a series of moves that look like the early stages of declaring a national emergency around the election. First: the USPS mail-in ballot restriction rule went into effect despite no federal framework for it to operate in and no time for states to comply. USPS is telling states that any ballot from a state that doesn't comply will not be delivered or returned. Second: Trump declared a national emergency to secure America's bulk power systems, specifically citing critical software and digital capabilities, which voting machines and vote-counting machines are classified as under federal law. Third: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told the White House Transparency Task Force that Chinese-made parts were found in some election equipment in some states and that this could compromise the midterms. He cited a 2024 intelligence assessment. He left out the very next sentence of that assessment, which says foreign actors will probably refrain from attacking because they almost certainly could not alter vote counts without detection. Fourth: DHS is now withholding disaster relief funding from states that won't conduct hand-counted paper ballot audits, even though hand counts are demonstrably less accurate than the machines we already use. Fifth: ICE arrests hit 50,000 in July, a 70% increase from the month before. A Republican governor in Wyoming has asked his attorney general to investigate aggressive federal election monitors. Trump can't suspend an election under a national emergency. But he can disrupt one. And he can use the chaos to claim the results are fraudulent. It's the only way he's ever won. Grant also breaks down Trump's midterm strategy of spending $400 million not on close races but on ads about his own accomplishments, why Republican strategists are nervous about it, and why renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America" will ruin the final verse of Gordon Lightfoot's Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. CHAPTERS 0:00 Trump's midterm strategy: make it about him, spend on ads, and hope 33% approval is enough 2:00 251 endorsements, nine losses, and why his 87% success rate with non-incumbents is genuinely impressive 3:30 South Carolina runoff: $800K, a campaign trip, and Darlene Graham wins thanks to Trump 5:00 The Atlantic: Trump wants ads about himself and his accomplishments. GOP strategists are worried. 6:30 The polls: negative 48 net approval overall, negative 42 on the economy, negative double digits even on immigration 8:00 Lake Ontario becomes Lake America by executive order.  9:00 The scapegoat setup: Trump promotes a list blaming Republicans for not being loyal enough 10:30 Sponsor break 12:00 The five pieces of a potential national emergency around the election: here's what was announced this week 13:00 Piece one: USPS mail-in ballot rule goes into effect with no framework and no time 14:00 Piece two: national emergency declared over the power grid, citing critical digital infrastructure 15:30 Piece three: Chinese parts in voting machines — and the sentence Mullin left out of the intelligence report 17:00 Piece four: DHS holds disaster relief hostage over hand-counted paper ballot audits 18:30 Piece five: ICE arrests hit 50,000 in July, up 70%. A Republican governor investigates his own federal monitors. 20:00 What a national emergency around the election would and wouldn't do: Trump can't cancel the vote 21:30 The playbook: play the victim, claim the game is rigged, disrupt, deny. It's worked before. Support the show Follow along on social media  SaySo: @GrantHermes  X: @GrantHermes Insta: @Grant__Hermes Tiktok: Grant_Hermes

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Politics has never been more chaotic, and most podcasts just add to the noise. Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes cuts through it. Grant is an AP Award-winning journalist with over a decade of on-the-ground reporting on the biggest political stories, scandals, and elections in America. Twice a week, he takes the stories dominating the headlines and breaks them down in plain English — no jargon, no spin, no shouting. If you care about what’s happening in this country but you’re exhausted by how it’s being covered, this is the show for you. Real reporting. Clear explanations. Actual context. Make It Make Sense drops three times a week. Subscribe so you never miss it.

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