The Daily Herold: 5/19/26 - Rep. Burchett Live, Iran Attack Called Off & Ballot Fraud

Jon Herold comes in Tuesday with his best show prep in weeks and a live guest. Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee joins for a fast-moving fifteen-minute interview covering the most expensive House race in history, foreign money in Congress, dark money and NGO corruption, and Jon's favorite question: given the fraud, waste, and abuse, why should Americans keep paying taxes? Burchett's answer is the best Jon has gotten from any representative yet, and the moment where he tells Jon Congress is crooked as a dog's leg is going to be clipped by someone. Before the interview, Jon reads Trump's overnight Truth Social post announcing a planned military strike on Iran was called off at Gulf allies' request, and immediately wonders whether the attack was ever actually scheduled or whether this is another negotiating tactic. Trump also posted about 500,000 illegal mail-in ballots being sent in Maryland and called for a DOJ investigation. The DOJ is now exposing a two-decade-long California election fraud scheme, but Jon flags that none of the exposure touches voting machines. The 30-year treasury yield climbed to 5.2%, Elon Musk lost his OpenAI case in under two hours, and the Department of War just paused its defense board with Canada.