Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes
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.
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Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes
Trump Is About to Lie to You About 2020. Here's What's Actually True.
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Tonight Trump is giving a national address about foreign interference in the 2020 election. Grant recorded this episode to get ahead of the lies before they air.
Here's what is actually proven: In April 2021, the US Office of National Intelligence, compiled by intel officers Trump himself appointed, found with a high degree of confidence that China did not attempt to influence the outcome of the 2020 election. The joint report from Trump's own Department of Justice and Homeland Security said they had no evidence of any foreign government compromising election infrastructure to manipulate results. John Ratcliffe, Trump's own Director of National Intelligence at the time, was briefed on that report and signed off on it. He will be standing next to Trump tonight.
Trump is expected to claim China hacked voter rolls to manufacture mail-in ballots. For that to be true, the operation would have had to bypass the DHS, the FBI, the Pentagon, the CIA, the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency Trump himself created in 2018, every state-level election safeguard, every local election safeguard, and every audit, including 60-plus court cases, not one of which was decided in Trump's favor.
Grant also breaks down the real reason for the speech: the Save America Act, the August 4th voter roll deadline, the "People's Executive Order" that has been circulating in the White House since February, and what declaring a national emergency over the 2026 election would actually allow Trump to do.
0:00 Trump is giving a national address tonight. Grant is getting ahead of the lies.
2:00 What we know is coming: China, voter rolls, manufactured mail-in ballots, and Ratcliffe
3:30 What Trump's own intelligence community actually found about China and the 2020 election
5:00 The DOJ and DHS report: "We have no evidence" — written by Trump's own appointees
6:30 Ratcliffe signed off on that report. Tonight he stands next to Trump claiming the opposite.
7:30 Election Day is a symphony, not a guitar solo: why a China hack at scale is practically impossible
9:00 Every layer the hack would have had to bypass — including the agency Trump created to stop exactly this
10:30 60 court cases. Zero wins. Attorneys banned from practicing law for making these claims.
12:00 Non-citizens on voter rolls: what the data actually shows vs. what Trump will claim
13:30 Thomas Massie's question: if the fraud is that sophisticated, how did Republicans win everything?
14:30 Sponsor: SaySo News
16:00 The real reason for the speech: the Save America Act, the August 4th deadline, and the Senate
17:30 The People's Executive Order: what declaring a national emergency over the 2026 election would actually do
19:30 130 executive powers, military deployment, election seizure: the full scope of what's on the table
21:00 Why it probably won't work: courts, logistics, and the fact that 95% of Americans want to vote
22:30 Why Republicans told Politico they are "scared shitless" of what Trump is about to say
23:30 Ruth Ben-Ghiat on what this is really about: a psychological need to prove 2020 never happened
25:00 The real irony: tonight Trump will do the work of America's adversaries for them
2021 National Intelligence Council Election Report
2021 DOJ/DHS Joint Election Report
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