Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes
The political world is fast paced, chaotic and often it's just too much to keep up with. That's where Grant Hermes comes in. Grant has been a journalist over a decade on the ground covering the biggest US political stories, scandals and elections. Twice a week, he'll break down the biggest political news you need to know. It's never been more important to stay informed and sometimes all it takes is a little help to Make It Make Sense.
Episodes
As the second Trump administration has been firing ethics officials and accountability officers, the whistleblower has become more important than ever.
But who protects the people who take the risk to tell the truth?
Grant talks to David Kligerman, Senior VP at Whistlebloweraid.org. The non-profit organization helps whistleblowers come forward to sound the alarm about unethical and illegal things happening in our gover...
Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday to start another round of peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. It's the first time Putin will meet with a US president on US soil in a decade.
But why is it in Alaska? Sure, it's technically the closest state to Russia, but there's more to it.
Grant breaks down why meeting in Alaska is actually a win for ...
Donald Trump has federalized the DC Metro police and called in hundreds of DC National Guard troops to fight crime and homelessness in the nation's capital.
The problem? There isn't a crime wave in DC, and arresting homeless people isn't going to make them not homeless.
Grant explains Trump's unprecedented decision, what is actually happening on DC streets and why, more than any other point so far,...
As the Trump administration continues to more aggressively target immigrants to boost arrests and deportations, there has been a growing fear among a group of Americans that they could be targeted or used as a test group for attacks on citizenship.
Adoptees.
In this episode, Grant talks to Greg Luce. Luce is the founder of the Adoptee Rights Law Center, the Executive Director of Adoptees United, Inc., an attorney for a...
It's been a week of big news in two things Trump has called hoaxes: Russian election meddling and the Epstein files.
First, Grant breaks down what's going on with the new DOJ investigation into "Russiagate," the "hoax" that multiple investigations proved wasn't a hoax. But, Dir. of National Security Tulsi Gabbard is now trying to say it wasn't just a hoax but a treasonous plan t...
A fight over the landscape of the 2026 midterms has been playing out in Texas, and this week it crossed state lines.
Grant breaks down what's happening with the new election maps in Texas, why more than 50 TX Democrats aren't living in the state right now, and why this fight could affect you no matter where you live or which party controls your state.
PROMO CODES:
Democratic strategist Mike Nellis joins Grant to talk about the future of the Democratic party, specifically with his old boss Kamala Harris who announced she wasn't going to run for Governor of California, leaving a presidential run in 2028 on the table.
They also talk about Trump's admission about Epstein-Mar-A-Lago admission, whether Democrats are doing the right thing when it comes to talking about the E...
A little watched Senate committee boiled over this week as Senators are trying to pass a bill that would ban members of Congress and future Presidents and Vice Presidents from trading stock. The fight was just the tip of an iceberg sized problem of alleged insider trading in Congress.
Grant breaks down the bill, the fight over it, why Trump got mad at it, and what happens next.
PROMO CODE:
This week's sponso...
Donald Trump has promised huge things on trade and tariffs, setting the deadline (again) for this Friday, Aug. 1. But so far, those deals haven't come through.
The White House has officially inked three (3) deals of 90 they promised to have finished a month ago, and still have 166 "letters of deals" to send out.
Grant breaks down where things are at, why the two latest "deals" with the EU and ...
After a week of a lot of news comign from the Department of Justice surrounding how it's handled the Epstein Files, this week's interview is a look back at a conversation Grant had with Stacey Young.
Young, a former DOJ attorney, is the founder and Executive Director of Justice Connection, which helps DOJ employees who recently left the department or are about to leave.
They talk about how the department bac...
Two bombshell reports from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times say Donald Trump is named multiple times in the Jeffrey Epstein files, and that he was told about it by the Attorney General back in May.
While the White House says it's not true, the evidence of at the very least the White House knowingly lied to the American public or, at the worst, had a plan to create a cover-up for months.
Grant talks abou...
The official Democratic Party review about what went wrong in the 2024 election is nearly done, according to a new story from the New York Times.
In it, the party isn't looking at whether Biden should've run, should've dropped out sooner, if Harris was the right candidate to replace him and whether her campaign said and did the wrong things. In fact, the review is supposed to avoid the presidential race...
Grant breaks down the latest chapter in the Epstein saga as one that Trump has been unable to shake. No matter how hard he's tried, it's stuck with the media, Democrats... and his supporters.
The House passed Trump's take-backsies bill, which included $9 billion in funding approved back in March, but to get it over the line, they had to include the Epstein files.
And then a new Wall Street Journal piece...
Republicans in Congress, at President Trump's request, are calling take-backsies on $9 billion in funding for PBS, NPR, and foreign aid.
Despite all three of those things remaining wildly popular, Congress is preparing to pass a bill to claw back money it has already approved. It's a move we haven't seen done successfully in 33 years.
Grant breaks down why defunding public media could mean putting lives...
The Make America Great Again movement is splitting at the seams after the Department of Justice said there wasn't a "client list," something Trump's base supporters had been calling for to be released for years.
Fueled by the belief that Epstein was the key to uncovering a cabal of child abusers or worse, they helped Trump retake the White House, believing he was their benevolent, billionaire savio...
After the unexpected victory of Zohran Mamdani in the New York mayoral primary, one question has emerged; is this the new model for Democrats.
The party has been listless without a clear vision or leader or message to voters and has begun to show cracks about what the future should look like.
Grant talks with Amanda Litman, Cofounder of Run For Something and author of When We're In Charge: The Next Generation&apo...
Trump blows through his 90 deals in 90 days deadline, extending when he'd finally make good on threats to start tariffs to August 1.
But if he's the Deal Maker in Chief, then why would he need to extend the timeline?
Grant talks about the few deals that have been made, what's been happening in the meantime and what it'll mean for all of us when we go to buy things for the next few months.
With the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill, US immigration forces are getting a major boost in funding. A lot of it is going to ICE for new agents as enforcement increases in how militaristic it looks and acts. But most of the funding is going to building new places to hold immigrants before they're likely deported.
Grant breaks down how the money is being used, where it's coming from, and whether we can call...
The state of Texas is dealing with massive, deadly flooding just outside San Antonio.
While the National Weather Service did predict heavy rain and gave warnings, the floods have claimed the lives of 82 people (at the time of this episode), with dozens more still missing. Meteorologists say the forecasts and coordination were as good as they could be given massive cuts to NWS and NOAA.
Grant walks through those cuts, ...
Congress passes Trump's Big Beautiful Bill. Despite its name, it will cut more than a trillion from Medicaid. It will make deep cuts to SNAP, clean energy, college endowments, and increase state and local taxes.
It will mean giving huge tax breaks to the ultra-rich and making the poorest Americans pay more. It's not at all popular, but it's what Trump wanted, so it's what he got.
Except... he doesn...
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