S15 EP206: Hour 1 - Howard Lutnick Is Being Set Up as the Fall Guy for the Nvidia Spy Scandal, and China’s Long Game

Erick reads the coordinated Wall Street Journal and New York Times stories from Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, Josh Dawsey, and Meredith McGraw and explains why the knives are coming from inside the White House: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is being set up as the fall guy for the Jensen Huang and Nvidia China spy scandal to insulate President Trump. He plays Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC, saying "Commerce has the pen," predicts Elizabeth Warren will devour Lutnick in the Senate come January, and takes a call from a retired federal agent who investigated technology transfers to China in the 1990s.

• The Jensen Huang Nvidia scandal: Peggy Noonan calls it Teapot Dome and Watergate-sized, the Chinese spy relationship, Marco Rubio warning President Trump before the Beijing summit, and Erick buying Nvidia stock after the crash
• Howard Lutnick on the hot seat: Scott Bessent, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and Jamieson Greer pushed to put Megaspeed on the entity list for months, but the Commerce Department and BIS held the pen and Lutnick never acted
• How to read Washington reporting: why Mark Caputo, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, and Josh Dawsey all hitting Lutnick on the same day means the White House is doing damage control, plus the Bessent and Lutnick feud and the tariff refund bets
• Erick's prediction: Lutnick keeps his job until Democrats take the Senate, then Elizabeth Warren replaces Tim Scott as the committee chair and grills him on live television
• Caller Mark, a retired federal agent, on the 1999 House report on technology transfers to China, satellite launch failures, and Ron Brown's Commerce Department, plus Erick on Chinese influence behind the Maryland data center fight, TikTok psyops, the daylight saving time "30 minute compromise," and the Hungry for a Day Thanksgiving meal drive