Democratic Congressional Nominee Fred Wellman Of Missouri Speaks Out

The full Weekender is normally only available to our Patreon subscribers, but we're unlocking this one for everyone. If you like what you hear, sign up at http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast for the full Friday episode every week, special live shows, and access to our community discord. Jared Yates Sexton is out this week, so co-host Nick Hauselman sits down with Fred Wellman, the Democratic nominee in Missouri's second congressional district and a four-time combat veteran who spent 22 years as an Army officer, including service under General David Petraeus and General Martin Dempsey. Wellman makes the case that the Iran war is the biggest strategic blunder in American military history, bar none, and lays out exactly why the USS Lincoln is suffering: the administration launched a war with no allies and then got the bases that supply the fleet blown up, leaving 5,000 sailors stranded on a ship with no port to dock at while Pete Hegseth flies to Iowa to prep a presidential campaign. He talks about running against Ann Wagner, who has quadrupled her net worth to $26 million while in Congress, and why the voters he meets at doors in suburban Saint Louis care less about culture war issues than about whether their kids can afford to live in their own hometown. He lays out what he'd do from day one in Congress on stock trading, gun safety, abortion rights, and military oversight. And he's clear he's not going to Washington to work for Hakeem Jeffries or the DNC but to fight for 750,000 Missourians.