Iran Drags On, Vance Talks to Rogan, and Jackson Takes Maine

Month five of the Iran war and there's still no end in sight. Two U.S. service members were killed in Jordan on Friday with a third missing, the first American deaths from Iranian fire since March, and the U.S. struck back within hours. It came days after Senate Democrats blocked the $1.15 trillion NDAA over a war Congress has now voted to end twice and watched continue anyway. Then JD Vance spent three hours on Joe Rogan's podcast, where the conversation ranged from the Epstein files to Iran to a heavy dose of election fraud nonsense that deserves to be taken apart. And in Maine, Troy Jackson — a fifth-generation logger, former state Senate President, and Bernie-backed Platner ally — swept more than 460 of 500 delegate slots in a single weekend, pushing Shenna Bellows and Nirav Shah out of the race and effectively locking up the nomination to face Susan Collins. The party built a 601-delegate convention instead of a caucus, and the union guy won it anyway.

Also this week: Trump went primetime to declassify documents claiming elections are "vulnerable to being rigged and stolen," offering no evidence of a single fraudulent vote, four months before the midterms. His DNI nominee Jay Clayton wouldn't tell senators Biden won the 2020 election. Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination stalled after Epstein survivors came out of a forced meeting more opposed than before, with John Cornyn and Thom Tillis still holding out over a $1.776 billion DOJ slush fund. Lindsey Graham died and his sister was sworn into his Senate seat 72 hours later on Trump's recommendation. ICE halted traffic stops after a string of killings and reinstated them days later, with zero agents charged and two more men dead. Trump's teleprompter operator got caught allegedly betting on which words Trump would say. Plus New York's data center moratorium, Cuba's grid collapse, and a tuberculosis outbreak in a Colorado immigration jail.

Nick and Rick cover the week.

Iran war, JD Vance, Joe Rogan, Troy Jackson, Maine Senate, Susan Collins, Graham Platner, election fraud, Epstein files, Todd Blanche, Lindsey Graham, ICE, NDAA, 2026 midterms.