“I might as well tell you—Kavanaugh. Practically every senator called me, including Crazy Mitch, and said, ‘Cut him loose, sir, cut him loose. He’s killing us, Kavanaugh.’ I said, ‘We can’t do that because it will destroy him—he won’t be able to even go back to the second-highest court, right? They used the expression ‘cut him loose,’ and I said, ‘I can’t do that,’ and it was very derogatory, that expression, ‘cut him loose.’ And I had plenty of time to pick somebody else … right? But they said, ‘Cut him loose,’ and I went through that thing and fought like hell for Kavanaugh—and I saved his life, and I saved his career. At great expense to myself.… okay? I had, let’s say, fifty percent of the Republican senators or more saying cut him loose—fifty percent or more—and it made sense because they were saying, ‘He’s killing us.’ And I fought for that guy and kept him. I don’t want anything—one thing has nothing to do with another—but I am very disappointed in him, in his rulings. I can’t even believe what’s happening. I’m very disappointed in Kavanaugh. I just told you something I haven’t told a lot of people. In retrospect, he just hasn’t had the courage you need to be a great justice. I’m basing this on more than just the election. And the others … Roberts? What’s going on with Roberts? I have no idea, and nobody else does. But the Supreme Court has shown no courage and no strength, and they have been horrible for the United States of America…”

“Christie,” I prompted.

“I’ve known him for a long time. He’s leaving New Jersey with one of the worst popular approval ratings in history. I helped him a lot with his problems, and he’s a very disloyal guy. I helped him a lot with his problems, and he turned out to be a very disloyal guy—and he had big problems. He’s not going anywhere. It’s too bad, because I really helped Chris Christie a lot…”

“Kevin McCarthy?”

“Ahhh—I’m disappointed in Kevin McCarthy. Kevin is a little too early to talk about—but so far I’m disappointed…”

“Who are your best lawyers?” I prompted, curious if he’d put Giuliani in there.

“I have so many lawyers. Roy for me was a great lawyer,” he said, reverting to Roy Cohn and disappearing the thousand lawyers he’d had since.

“I won’t ask you if you’re going to run again, but if you do, how do you keep the election from being stolen again?”