Primary Shockwaves, Trump’s Vaccine Overhaul, and the 2029 D.C. Guard Mandate

On this week’s episode of The Politics Guys, Trey Orndorff (subbing for Mike) is joined by political scientist Michael Levy for their first show together. 

They begin with Michael breaking down the August 11 primaries. This includes discussing David Crowley’s narrow victory over Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong in Wisconsin, along with races in Minnesota and South Carolina. The pair discuss why polls missed by wide margins, and Trey discusses the difficulty of modeling primary elections and new tech challenges, including automatic call-screening available on smartphones.

Next, the pair move to Executive Order 14407, or the “Gold Standard” of childhood vaccines. Trey and Michael highlight the order’s mandate to split the combined Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate single-disease shots administered across three visits. Trey points out that such shots do not currently exist, rendering the directive unworkable in the short term. The duo also discuss the public-facing crisis that public health officials now face.

They close the show with a look at the one-year anniversary of the federalization of D.C.’s Police and the deployment of National Guard troops to the district. The hosts discuss both the confirmation that troops will remain in D.C. through Inauguration Day 2029 and the cost of it at approximately 3 million dollars per day. They finish by discussing the effects of normalizing domestic military policing.

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