Latest / Pod Save America / Trump Wins New Hampshire, Rages at Haley
Transcript
- 0:20Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
- 0:22Speaker 2: I'm Jon Lovett.
- 0:23Speaker 3: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
- 0:23Speaker 4: Tommy Vitor.
- 0:24Speaker 1: Gang's all here.
- 0:25Speaker 2: Here we are.
- 0:26Speaker 1: Big night.
- 0:27Speaker 2: Huge night.
- 0:27Speaker 1: Donald Trump has won the New Hampshire primary, though his
- 0:30Speaker 1: margin over Nikki Haley looks like it'll end up being
- 0:33Speaker 1: smaller than the polls suggested, somewhere between 8 and 12 points.
- 0:37Speaker 1: We're recording this Tuesday night, so we're still counting some vote.
- 0:40Speaker 1: But it was apparently enough for Haley to decide that
- 0:42Speaker 1: she's staying in the race. Here's what she said shortly
- 0:46Speaker 1: after they called it for Trump.
- 0:47Speaker 5: Now you've all heard the chatter among the political class.
- 0:52Speaker 5: They're falling all over themselves, saying this race is over. Well,
- 1:04Speaker 5: I have news for all of them. New Hampshire is
- 1:09Speaker 5: first in the nation.
- 1:10Speaker 6: It is not the last in the nation. This race
- 1:20Speaker 6: is far from over.
- 1:21Speaker 5: There are dozens of states.
- 1:23Speaker 1: Left to go.
- 1:24Speaker 4: I love the yelling guy.
- 1:33Speaker 2: I love that guy.
- 1:35Speaker 1: Go Nikki. I mean, are we political class? Because this
- 1:38Speaker 1: member of the political class does not think It's over.
- 1:41Speaker 1: I want her to go stay all the way in.
- 1:43Speaker 1: Go to the convention, Nikki.
- 1:45Speaker 2: 12 points? That's fucking, that's this, that. Some people might
- 1:48Speaker 2: say that in any other election on earth that that's
- 1:51Speaker 2: a landslide. Not me. This razor thin margin.
- 1:54Speaker 1: 11 points. All the way to Milwaukee. Come on, Nikki.
- 1:58Speaker 4: I wonder what the last primary is. I'll Google it.
- 2:00Speaker 1: Yeah, you Google that. Why do you guys think she
- 2:02Speaker 1: decided to stay in?
- 2:03Speaker 2: Dan?
- 2:04Speaker 3: I don't think she did.
- 2:08Speaker 2: What are you talking about?
- 2:09Speaker 3: Wait, hold on a second there.
- 2:10Speaker 2: We watched this whole thing. She got dressed up. She
- 2:13Speaker 2: went down there. She said, here we go.
- 2:15Speaker 7: Okay, I'm going to flash you back to eight days ago.
- 2:18Speaker 7: We sat in your office eight days ago. We watched
- 2:20Speaker 7: Ron DeSantis give a speech.
- 2:22Speaker 1: That was not a stay in the race speech.
- 2:24Speaker 2: That was absolutely a stay in the race. It was
- 2:25Speaker 2: four minutes, no message.
- 2:27Speaker 1: That was pathetic.
- 2:28Speaker 3: Look, maybe she will stay in the race. Maybe she will.
- 2:32Speaker 3: But I don't think that matters one iota.
- 2:35Speaker 1: I find myself rooting so hard for her to stay
- 2:37Speaker 1: in the race. I don't think it matters. Nikki Haley's
- 2:40Speaker 1: not going to win the Republican nomination.
- 2:42Speaker 2: Not with that fucking attitude.
- 2:44Speaker 1: What are we doing here? Unless we get the hamburger
- 2:46Speaker 1: from heaven. But I think the longer she's in this
- 2:50Speaker 1: race attacking Donald Trump, pissing him off, absolutely.
- 2:53Speaker 2: I'll take it.
- 2:54Speaker 7: I mean, maybe she will stay in. The month between
- 2:58Speaker 7: New Hampshire and South Carolina is traditionally a death march
- 3:00Speaker 7: for Republican politics.
- 3:01Speaker 3: George W.
- 3:02Speaker 7: Bush, in some of the dirtiest politics of that time,
- 3:05Speaker 7: seems like, frankly, nothing now. Quaint.
- 3:06Speaker 2: Quaint.
- 3:08Speaker 7: Destroyed John McCain in that period to then essentially lock
- 3:11Speaker 7: up that nomination in South Carolina. Nikki Haley is going
- 3:13Speaker 7: to be under a brutal assault for a month to
- 3:17Speaker 7: go to her home state where she's polling in the
- 3:20Speaker 7: single digits and losing to Trump by about 30 points
- 3:23Speaker 7: in an electorate that is so, and we can talk
- 3:24Speaker 7: about how it's so unfabled her, maybe she will want
- 3:26Speaker 7: to go through that humiliating process.
- 3:28Speaker 3: I would be surprised.
- 3:30Speaker 1: What has she got to lose?
- 3:32Speaker 4: Well, I think the big question is how much money
- 3:34Speaker 4: she can raise in the next 24, 48 hours. If
- 3:36Speaker 4: she can't raise money, she's got to get out.
- 3:39Speaker 7: Her campaign is billionaire dependent. She has no grassroots fundraising base.
- 3:42Speaker 7: And there's this fund. These billionaires are holding this fundraiser
- 3:44Speaker 7: for in a week. And we'll see if they're still
- 3:46Speaker 7: holding it a few days from now.
- 3:48Speaker 4: Apparently she's going to campaign in the Virgin Islands tomorrow.
- 3:50Speaker 1: Tomorrow, yeah.
- 3:51Speaker 4: For their February 8th caucus, and there's Nevada.
- 3:53Speaker 3: I figured it out.
- 3:54Speaker 4: The last primary is the June 4th, Montana, New Jersey,
- 3:57Speaker 4: New Mexico, and South Dakota primary. So that's how long
- 3:59Speaker 4: this could last.
- 4:00Speaker 1: June 4th.
- 4:00Speaker 2: Oh, please.
- 4:01Speaker 3: Tommy, when is the... Can you find the Virginia primary?
- 4:04Speaker 4: That's... Sure can, yeah.
- 4:06Speaker 7: That is the one primary she has a legitimate chance
- 4:08Speaker 7: to win.
- 4:09Speaker 1: Well, so they... She... Their argument, the Haley team, they
- 4:13Speaker 1: put out a memo this morning sort of signaling that
- 4:15Speaker 1: they were not going... She was not going to drop out.
- 4:17Speaker 1: If it was the 20 or 30 point blowout that
- 4:20Speaker 1: the poll suggested, maybe that wouldn't have been an operative memo.
- 4:24Speaker 1: But their argument is basically, so we've got South Carolina,
- 4:26Speaker 1: our home state, is on February 24th. And Democrats can
- 4:32Speaker 1: also vote. Anyone can vote in that primary. Unless you're
- 4:36Speaker 1: a Democrat that votes in the February 3rd primary, the
- 4:38Speaker 1: Democratic primary, for Joe Biden, then obviously you can't vote again.
- 4:42Speaker 1: But if you don't vote in that, you can vote.
- 4:44Speaker 1: So that's an open primary in South Carolina. And then
- 4:46Speaker 1: they go to Michigan. Michigan is open. And then D.C.,
- 4:50Speaker 1: good district for her. Then the caucuses in Idaho and
- 4:54Speaker 1: North Dakota. And then Super Tuesday on March 5th. And
- 4:57Speaker 1: 11 of the 16 states on Super Tuesday have open
- 5:00Speaker 1: or semi-open primaries.
- 5:03Speaker 4: That is true, but it's far less important than the
- 5:04Speaker 4: fact that the Trump team has completely rigged the rules
- 5:08Speaker 4: so that now if he gets 51% of the vote
- 5:11Speaker 4: in some of these states, he will take all the delegates,
- 5:13Speaker 4: including states like California.
- 5:15Speaker 7: It is true that some of these states have open primaries,
- 5:18Speaker 7: but none of them have open primaries with the tradition
- 5:20Speaker 7: of independent participation like New Hampshire.
- 5:22Speaker 2: Half of the.
- 5:23Speaker 7: Voters in this election were either independents or Democrats who
- 5:27Speaker 7: re-registered as independents to participate in this process.
- 5:30Speaker 8: Right.
- 5:30Speaker 2: It almost sounds like independents and Democrats infiltrated to take
- 5:34Speaker 2: a clean victory away from Donald Trump.
- 5:36Speaker 4: Who managed to stop this deal.
- 5:38Speaker 2: Yeah, it does seem as though like if your campaign
- 5:43Speaker 2: memo is about how don't worry about the Republican primary
- 5:46Speaker 2: has lots of opportunities for people who aren't Republicans to vote,
- 5:49Speaker 2: you do have a deeper problem that can't be overcome
- 5:52Speaker 2: by a calendar.
- 5:53Speaker 7: That would be the memo written by the campaign that
- 5:56Speaker 7: lost Republicans by 50 points in this election tonight.
- 5:59Speaker 1: So you would say- She didn't do so well with
- 6:01Speaker 1: Republican voters. Which is tough when you're running for the Republican.
- 6:05Speaker 2: At some point, right, presumably she has to, at some
- 6:08Speaker 2: point she has to win Republicans. to win the Republican primary.
- 6:11Speaker 2: That would be sort of, I don't know.
- 6:13Speaker 9: I'm not listening.
- 6:13Speaker 1: This is what you guys pay the big bucks for.
- 6:15Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 6:15Speaker 2: Like I'm a speech writer. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not,
- 6:17Speaker 2: I'm not a data guy.
- 6:18Speaker 1: I'm not a dad.
- 6:19Speaker 2: I was more, more poetry than pose, but I have
- 6:21Speaker 2: to say, just, I also was a math person. And
- 6:24Speaker 2: I do think at some point she has to win Republicans.
- 6:28Speaker 1: I'm just trying to get inside there. The campaigns, her head,
- 6:31Speaker 1: the campaigns. I think what they might be thinking is, um,
- 6:35Speaker 1: As Tommy said, Trump has rigged the rules. So a
- 6:38Speaker 1: lot of these are like either winner take all or
- 6:40Speaker 1: you hit a 50 percent threshold in the primary and
- 6:43Speaker 1: then you take all the delegates. But maybe she's thinking,
- 6:46Speaker 1: if I can just keep picking up a few delegates
- 6:49Speaker 1: here and there and then March 5th comes along or
- 6:52Speaker 1: whenever Trump is tried in D.C., then Trump is convicted.
- 6:57Speaker 1: Suddenly the polls start shifting again. We go to the convention.
- 6:59Speaker 1: She's the only other one with delegates, except I guess
- 7:02Speaker 1: Ronnie D has a couple from Iowa. Like six or something.
- 7:05Speaker 1: He's got six from Iowa. No one else is going
- 7:06Speaker 1: to get delegates except Trump and maybe her now. So
- 7:09Speaker 1: maybe she thinks then, you know, who knows what might happen.
- 7:12Speaker 1: It's all crazy, but I'm thinking that's what must be
- 7:15Speaker 1: going through their heads.
- 7:16Speaker 7: I think what's going through their heads is everyone gets
- 7:18Speaker 7: up in a campaign and they care passionately about it
- 7:21Speaker 7: and they can't make the decision to drop out between
- 7:25Speaker 7: when the votes are counted and when she speaks.
- 7:27Speaker 4: Yes.
- 7:27Speaker 7: So they do this. And then this is exactly what
- 7:29Speaker 7: happened with DeSantis. Then over the course of time, the
- 7:33Speaker 7: checks stopped coming in. Sorry, I'm going to lay staff off.
- 7:36Speaker 7: People start, your endorsers start calling and saying, you know what?
- 7:39Speaker 1: How many does she have?
- 7:41Speaker 3: Like Sununu.
- 7:43Speaker 4: It's just like stuck to her.
- 7:44Speaker 1: Sununu and Ralph Norman.
- 7:47Speaker 3: Yeah, not even, I guess that's right.
- 7:48Speaker 7: They start calling and saying, you know, I'm kind of thinking,
- 7:51Speaker 7: or the billionaires who are funding this thing say, it's
- 7:54Speaker 7: time to get on board with Trump.
- 7:55Speaker 3: And then you drop out. Like this is the process
- 7:57Speaker 3: they all go through.
- 7:58Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 7:58Speaker 4: I think that that would help explain why she spoke
- 7:59Speaker 4: so early. It's like, you know what, let's just go
- 8:01Speaker 4: out there and get it over with, give the speech
- 8:03Speaker 4: we need to give for tonight, get to tomorrow, do
- 8:05Speaker 4: some thinking, spend time with your family, and then really decide.
- 8:08Speaker 2: I also think they must've seen the numbers and said,
- 8:11Speaker 2: your lead is never, Trump's lead is never going to
- 8:14Speaker 2: get smaller than it is right now. Get out there
- 8:16Speaker 2: before there's a one in front of that number.
- 8:18Speaker 3: That's right.
- 8:19Speaker 4: Trump noticed that too.
- 8:20Speaker 2: He's furious.
- 8:21Speaker 3: We'll get to it.
- 8:22Speaker 7: The speech hit different when she was down seven, I suppose,
- 8:24Speaker 7: now when she's down 14 or whatever it is at
- 8:26Speaker 7: this moment.
- 8:27Speaker 1: I think she's going to stay in all the way
- 8:28Speaker 1: to South Carolina. I'm pulling for her.
- 8:30Speaker 3: It's my wish cast.
- 8:31Speaker 1: It's total wish cast.
- 8:32Speaker 4: What we want and what we think will happen are
- 8:34Speaker 4: unfortunately different.
- 8:35Speaker 2: We all light a candle to Saint Isidore of content,
- 8:37Speaker 2: but I want her to stay in too. I think, Dan, look,
- 8:41Speaker 2: obviously you're making... the right, like that's the most sensible,
- 8:44Speaker 2: obvious path. But hey, we got to put something before
- 8:48Speaker 2: the Helix mattress ads.
- 8:50Speaker 1: And I feel like people on campaigns and people when
- 8:54Speaker 1: you're in it, you don't make sensible decisions. Like I don't,
- 8:57Speaker 1: I just don't.
- 8:57Speaker 7: Well, every campaign manager has to go tell their boss
- 9:00Speaker 7: to drop out is saying, lay me off, right? That's
- 9:04Speaker 7: not a message people deliver that easily. And all these
- 9:06Speaker 7: other people who've been in the trench with us for
- 9:08Speaker 7: a year now, we're all gonna become unemployed. And possibly
- 9:11Speaker 7: unemployable in Trump's Republican Party.
- 9:14Speaker 2: If you are someone who is spending a ton of money,
- 9:17Speaker 2: if you would put money behind Nikki Haley, you are
- 9:20Speaker 2: a person who has deluded yourself into believing that at
- 9:23Speaker 2: some point the Republican Party is gonna come to its senses.
- 9:26Speaker 2: That is like the core, that is core to your being,
- 9:29Speaker 2: that you believe that something is gonna shift, the fever
- 9:31Speaker 2: is gonna break. A year ago, it wasn't true. What's
- 9:34Speaker 2: to say these people won't keep believing that for another
- 9:36Speaker 2: three or four months? You know, the trials are coming.
- 9:40Speaker 1: She's also, she's just, she's bored. She likes running for president. She's,
- 9:45Speaker 1: you know, she's getting some attention.
- 9:48Speaker 7: She likes it now in New Hampshire where 48% of
- 9:50Speaker 7: the voters are independent Democrats.
- 9:52Speaker 3: I don't know what she's going to do.
- 9:53Speaker 1: People say she can't fill an event in South Carolina.
- 9:56Speaker 3: I mean, just one proof point.
- 9:57Speaker 4: I mean, one of her big donors was the CEO
- 9:59Speaker 4: of Home Depot. Ken Langone, I think is his name.
- 10:02Speaker 4: He said that his financial support for Haley would be
- 10:06Speaker 4: contingent on New Hampshire results. So you're going to have
- 10:08Speaker 4: guys like that deciding whether they're going to light 10
- 10:10Speaker 4: million more on fire and give it to a super
- 10:12Speaker 4: PAC or not. And I think that's going to make
- 10:14Speaker 4: the decision for her.
- 10:15Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe he said at some point you stop
- 10:17Speaker 2: throwing money down a rat hole. which begs the question
- 10:20Speaker 2: why you ever start throwing money down a rat hole. Right, yeah.
- 10:23Speaker 3: And what's a rat hole?
- 10:23Speaker 7: And these guys also know that the longer they wait,
- 10:27Speaker 7: the longer they support Nikki Haley, the more expensive it's
- 10:29Speaker 7: going to be to get back in Trump's good graces.
- 10:31Speaker 1: I will say, it's her home state. She can run
- 10:34Speaker 1: a pretty lean campaign in South Carolina. She doesn't have
- 10:37Speaker 1: to go anywhere.
- 10:38Speaker 2: You know, she makes a point in that.
- 10:39Speaker 3: She's down 50%.
- 10:41Speaker 2: In her victory speech, she's given two victory speeches and
- 10:43Speaker 2: she hasn't won a thing.
- 10:45Speaker 1: This is what I'm saying.
- 10:46Speaker 9: I love it.
- 10:47Speaker 1: We're acting like this is on the level and she's
- 10:49Speaker 1: going to be like, Oh, look at my, look at
- 10:50Speaker 1: the data.
- 10:51Speaker 2: John, I'm on your side of this fucking table. But, but,
- 10:54Speaker 2: but she, in her speech, she makes this point like you,
- 10:57Speaker 2: you know, I'm from, she speaks, she's really, we were
- 11:00Speaker 2: talking about this before the, the pod that like, she
- 11:02Speaker 2: really is just like, she's, she is just a quintessential politician.
- 11:07Speaker 2: She's very, she's good at it, but she's such a
- 11:08Speaker 2: quintessential politician, but she gets up and she says, Now,
- 11:11Speaker 2: they can't come down to South Carolina and lie about
- 11:13Speaker 2: me or whatever they can say about me. Sure they can.
- 11:17Speaker 2: But also, they know me in South Carolina. South Carolina
- 11:20Speaker 2: is my home state. Where you're polling at 6%, the
- 11:25Speaker 2: argument goes both ways. If they know you, they've already
- 11:27Speaker 2: decided on you. What story can you tell a South
- 11:31Speaker 2: Carolina voter to convince them to go from Donald Trump
- 11:34Speaker 2: to Nikki Haley when you were the governor for eight years.
- 11:36Speaker 1: She's going to wake up tomorrow and figure out.
- 11:39Speaker 2: And you know what? And she can do it. And Nikki,
- 11:42Speaker 2: I believe you can do it.
- 11:44Speaker 1: So Trump was none too happy about Haley's decision to
- 11:47Speaker 1: stay in the race. Gone was the low energy, somewhat
- 11:49Speaker 1: gracious Trump we saw during his Iowa victory speech. Thank God. Instead,
- 11:53Speaker 1: we got our guy back.
- 11:57Speaker 8: I can go up and I can say to everybody, oh,
- 11:59Speaker 8: thank you for the victory. It's wonderful. Or I can
- 12:02Speaker 8: go up and say, who the hell was the imposter
- 12:05Speaker 8: that went up on the stage before and, like, claimed
- 12:09Speaker 8: a victory? She did very poorly, actually. We won in 2016.
- 12:13Speaker 8: And if you really remember it, if you want to
- 12:15Speaker 8: play it straight, we also won in 2020.
- 12:20Speaker 10: By more.
- 12:22Speaker 8: Ron beat her also. You know, Ron came in second
- 12:25Speaker 8: and he left. She came in third, and she's still
- 12:28Speaker 8: hanging around. And just a little note to Nikki. She's
- 12:32Speaker 8: not going to win.
- 12:33Speaker 1: She's not going to win.
- 12:35Speaker 2: But if she did, she.
- 12:37Speaker 10: Would be under investigation by those people in 15 minutes.
- 12:41Speaker 8: And I could tell you five reasons why already.
- 12:43Speaker 10: Not big reasons. A little stuff that she doesn't want
- 12:47Speaker 10: to talk about. But she will be under investigation within minutes.
- 12:52Speaker 10: And so would Ron have been. But he decided to
- 12:55Speaker 10: get out. He decided to get out. Now, Vivek, I
- 12:58Speaker 10: don't think, would be at all because he's perfect, right?
- 13:02Speaker 10: I find in life, you can't let people get.
- 13:05Speaker 8: Away with bullshit.
- 13:07Speaker 1: Okay?
- 13:07Speaker 8: You can't. You just can't do that. And when I
- 13:11Speaker 8: watched her in the fancy dress that probably wasn't so
- 13:14Speaker 8: fancy come up, I said, what's she doing? We won.
- 13:18Speaker 1: Just classic. Classic Trump.
- 13:20Speaker 2: Can we just talk about one, before we get to
- 13:22Speaker 2: all of it, can we just talk about one piece
- 13:23Speaker 2: of it, which is Did he forget that Ron DeSantis
- 13:26Speaker 2: endorsed him one second? He just got mad and kept going?
- 13:28Speaker 2: Or what's going on there? He was supposed to be
- 13:30Speaker 2: nice to Ron. Ron's emotionally on that stage with him now.
- 13:33Speaker 2: Did he forget?
- 13:34Speaker 7: There are some legislators in Florida who are trying to
- 13:37Speaker 7: pass a bill to give Donald Trump $ 5 million in
- 13:40Speaker 7: taxpayer money to pay for his legal bills. And Ron
- 13:43Speaker 7: DeSantis declared on Twitter that he would veto that bill.
- 13:46Speaker 1: And that was that. He also gave his, in his
- 13:48Speaker 1: first interview, I think with Steve Deese, he said that
- 13:52Speaker 1: Trump's got a real problem with, swing voters and he's
- 13:55Speaker 1: going to have to fix it. Like he kind of
- 13:57Speaker 1: went after Trump today in his interview.
- 13:59Speaker 3: They don't like each other.
- 14:00Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 14:01Speaker 1: I think it's, I don't know if he forgot. I
- 14:02Speaker 1: think he fucking hates Ron DeSantis. He was in no
- 14:05Speaker 1: respect for DeSantis. He was in flow.
- 14:07Speaker 2: He was in his flow.
- 14:07Speaker 1: He was trying to play that like, oh, I'm going
- 14:09Speaker 1: to be gracious and okay for Ron DeSantis. He fucking
- 14:12Speaker 1: hates him.
- 14:12Speaker 7: Ron DeSantis offers him nothing. Like Tim Scott could be
- 14:15Speaker 7: a valuable asset in his campaign, right? Nikki Haley would actually,
- 14:19Speaker 7: I don't think he's going to take advantage of this,
- 14:20Speaker 7: but would be a potential asset in his campaign. Ron
- 14:22Speaker 7: DeSantis brings nothing to the table. He needs him for nothing.
- 14:26Speaker 7: Especially now that $ 5 million in taxpayer money is off
- 14:28Speaker 7: the table.
- 14:30Speaker 1: What did you guys think of the speech? What did
- 14:32Speaker 1: you guys think of Trump's big victory speech?
- 14:36Speaker 2: He was pissed.
- 14:37Speaker 4: I mean, that came through loud and clear. Yeah, he
- 14:39Speaker 4: suggested Haley would be investigated. He also suggested that Governor
- 14:43Speaker 4: Sununu is on drugs.
- 14:44Speaker 1: Yeah, he did.
- 14:45Speaker 4: You guys catch that part?
- 14:46Speaker 1: He's got to be on something.
- 14:47Speaker 4: Said this guy has got to be on something. There
- 14:49Speaker 4: was the mocking of the dress, which was just petty
- 14:51Speaker 4: dickish stuff. Then he said to Tim Scott, you must
- 14:54Speaker 4: really hate her about Nikki Haley because Tim Scott endorsed him.
- 14:57Speaker 4: So yeah, it was old school raging Trump.
- 15:00Speaker 1: He also, yeah, he let all of his new supplicants
- 15:03Speaker 1: give a quick little speech. Vivek did a tight two minutes.
- 15:07Speaker 3: 60 seconds.
- 15:08Speaker 1: Yeah, Vivek did a tight 60 and then Tim Scott
- 15:11Speaker 1: was clearly not prepared that he was going to be
- 15:13Speaker 1: asked to say something, and he got up there and
- 15:15Speaker 1: sort of mumbled through. And then when Trump said, you
- 15:19Speaker 1: must really hate her, he came up and he goes, no,
- 15:21Speaker 1: I just really love you.
- 15:23Speaker 3: I just.
- 15:26Speaker 1: That's your guy. That's Lovett Scott. And you know what?
- 15:27Speaker 1: What do you think?
- 15:28Speaker 2: Here's what I think.
- 15:30Speaker 1: Here's what I think.
- 15:31Speaker 2: Do you want to live in a world where you
- 15:32Speaker 2: don't open up your heart to somebody, even if you
- 15:34Speaker 2: know there's a chance you might get fucking disappointed? Yes.
- 15:37Speaker 2: Am I disappointed that Tim Scott is not just a
- 15:39Speaker 2: fucking failed presidential candidate, but a sniveling little fucking worm
- 15:42Speaker 2: that Trump is now going to take out of the
- 15:44Speaker 2: gimp box to march down to South Carolina?
- 15:46Speaker 1: What box?
- 15:47Speaker 2: The gimp box. It's from a film called Pulp Fiction.
- 15:50Speaker 2: Learn film. Go to cinema. Tim Scott is out of
- 15:55Speaker 2: the gimp box. That's what we're talking about. Yeah, I'm
- 15:59Speaker 2: pissed about it. Yeah, it's frustrating to me to have
- 16:04Speaker 2: Tim Scott there. But just like, obviously the Tim Scott
- 16:08Speaker 2: thing was humiliating, embarrassing. But even the Vivek thing, he's like,
- 16:11Speaker 2: I told Vivek he could speak, but no more than
- 16:13Speaker 2: a minute. No more than a minute. He's got these
- 16:16Speaker 2: guys on a leash.
- 16:18Speaker 1: But you know what? I was like, and I know
- 16:21Speaker 1: MSNBC and CNN, after we complained about this, they did
- 16:25Speaker 1: take Trump's speech tonight. Although then they cut away and
- 16:28Speaker 1: they were like, see, this is the problem with taking
- 16:29Speaker 1: Trump's speech because he lies so often. It's like, yeah,
- 16:32Speaker 1: there's definitely a lot of lies, crazy lies. They had
- 16:34Speaker 1: to fact check it. But I'm happy for all the
- 16:36Speaker 1: voters in America to see the Trump that we saw tonight.
- 16:39Speaker 1: More of it. This is why I want Nikki Haley
- 16:42Speaker 1: to stay in so badly because Donald Trump talked about this. Dan,
- 16:45Speaker 1: you've written a message box about this. Like, he is
- 16:47Speaker 1: a strong man. He wants to appear strong. he made
- 16:50Speaker 1: himself appear weak tonight because he was so pissed. Even
- 16:53Speaker 1: though he fucking won, he was so pissed at Nikki
- 16:56Speaker 1: Haley that he seemed like he was just angry, he
- 16:59Speaker 1: was agitated. It was great.
- 17:03Speaker 2: I was thinking about this too because, you know, look,
- 17:05Speaker 2: we've gone through so many fucking endless conversations about platforming and,
- 17:10Speaker 2: you know, you can't show Trump because it spreads misinformation,
- 17:13Speaker 2: but if you don't show Trump, people forget how threatening
- 17:15Speaker 2: he is. And I do think, like, what I was
- 17:17Speaker 2: taking away from because I heard you guys talking about
- 17:19Speaker 2: it and I agree, we talked about this before, but
- 17:21Speaker 2: that it's like, yes, Trump is a vehicle for spreading
- 17:26Speaker 2: misinformation and that can be dangerous, but also the lies
- 17:30Speaker 2: that Trump spews, especially the ones that are just like
- 17:33Speaker 2: not plausible that most people don't believe, they are a
- 17:36Speaker 2: vehicle for exposing Trump, right? Like we do, you do
- 17:40Speaker 2: need to like, and I don't know what's like, you know,
- 17:43Speaker 2: I don't know what the best thing is. I don't
- 17:45Speaker 2: think there's an easy decision there, but man, is it
- 17:47Speaker 2: better to have people seeing Trump being at his most
- 17:50Speaker 2: unhinged and angry and all the rest.
- 17:53Speaker 7: I think we might be in a different place politically
- 17:55Speaker 7: if Trump had not been essentially exiled from public view
- 17:58Speaker 7: on January 7th, 2021.
- 18:00Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 18:01Speaker 7: Because if he had been rage tweeting about being improperly
- 18:07Speaker 7: persecuted for this and how the election was in that moment,
- 18:09Speaker 7: as opposed to just disappearing for a few months and
- 18:11Speaker 7: then being slowly welcomed back in, it'd be a very
- 18:14Speaker 7: different world. And for a whole host of reasons that
- 18:16Speaker 7: you've talked about offline, The information environment has changed so
- 18:20Speaker 7: much since that time that now people just never see Trump.
- 18:23Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 18:23Speaker 7: And now the one nights and the few nights when
- 18:25Speaker 7: they might see him, we're like, don't show him. I
- 18:27Speaker 7: think that I just think.
- 18:27Speaker 1: That he has been rage truthing and also doing these
- 18:32Speaker 1: rallies the whole time. But the rallies aren't being covered
- 18:35Speaker 1: and that no one sees the truth, really.
- 18:37Speaker 2: So and as viewership of cable declines, we're an increasing
- 18:40Speaker 2: share of the audience. So we want to see it.
- 18:42Speaker 2: So just give it give the people what they want.
- 18:44Speaker 1: Two quick housekeeping notes. There's a lot to keep track
- 18:46Speaker 1: of in a high-stakes election year. Voting deadlines, emergency therapy,
- 18:50Speaker 1: and maybe also your job or whatever. That's why Cricket
- 18:53Speaker 1: and Vote Save America created a comprehensive 2024 planner. It's
- 18:56Speaker 1: filled with important dates and some fun extras to keep
- 18:58Speaker 1: you focused, sane, and organized. For the record, we tried
- 19:01Speaker 1: to include a few Xanax, but the lawyers said we couldn't. Losers.
- 19:05Speaker 1: Head to cricket.com slash store to get your planner now. Also,
- 19:09Speaker 1: pre-order our book, Democracy or Else, How to Save America
- 19:12Speaker 1: in 10 Easy Steps. It's a fun, useful guide to
- 19:14Speaker 1: getting involved while keeping whatever's left of your sanity intact. Plus,
- 19:18Speaker 1: Cricket will donate its profits from the book to support
- 19:20Speaker 1: Vote Save America and other organizations mobilizing for the 2024
- 19:22Speaker 1: election so you're helping make a difference before you even
- 19:25Speaker 1: crack it open. Democracy or Else is available on June 25th,
- 19:28Speaker 1: but you can pre-order your copy now at cricket.com slash
- 19:31Speaker 1: books or wherever books are sold. Let's talk about the
- 19:47Speaker 1: results in the primary. You guys see anything notable in
- 19:50Speaker 1: the results of the exits or anything that might tell
- 19:52Speaker 1: us something about the general election? We talked about in
- 19:55Speaker 1: Iowa how Trump's win there might have showed some weakness
- 19:59Speaker 1: since it wasn't a commanding win. Obviously, this was even
- 20:02Speaker 1: less of a big win in New Hampshire. What do
- 20:04Speaker 1: you guys think, Tommy?
- 20:05Speaker 4: I thought it was interesting that Trump did best among
- 20:07Speaker 4: the 18 to 29 year old cohort. He got 61%
- 20:12Speaker 4: versus 52% or 53% of the older voters. That was
- 20:16Speaker 4: interesting and I think does say something about his super
- 20:19Speaker 4: fans and the people who like him.
- 20:21Speaker 2: And also it says something about the self-selecting sample of
- 20:25Speaker 2: young Republican voters too.
- 20:27Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 20:27Speaker 2: That they're the more radical, sort of the TPUSA types.
- 20:31Speaker 4: Also, the most important issues were the economy, 36%, immigration, 31%.
- 20:34Speaker 4: Trump mopped up with immigration voters. 77% of that cohort
- 20:36Speaker 4: went for him. No surprise there, but it does tell
- 20:42Speaker 4: you what issues are really driving this primary and then
- 20:45Speaker 4: the general election for Republicans.
- 20:47Speaker 7: I think you can sum up how Trump won by
- 20:50Speaker 7: these numbers. Is Haley won moderates by 50 points and
- 20:55Speaker 7: Trump won conservatives by 42 points, but conservatives made up
- 20:58Speaker 7: two thirds of the electorate and moderates one third.
- 21:01Speaker 1: Do you think that portends anything for the general election?
- 21:05Speaker 1: I mean, I thought if you're going to look for
- 21:07Speaker 1: numbers that might say that Trump is a weaker candidate.
- 21:11Speaker 1: They again asked in the exits, is Trump fit to
- 21:14Speaker 1: be president if he's convicted? 52% said yes. 44% said no.
- 21:19Speaker 1: Your feelings if Trump wins the nomination? Again, this is
- 21:21Speaker 1: just the Republican primary. 59% said satisfied. 40% said dissatisfied.
- 21:27Speaker 1: So for someone who's running as basically an incumbent, you know,
- 21:31Speaker 1: probably not the numbers you want.
- 21:32Speaker 7: There are many, many flaws in our presidential nomination process.
- 21:35Speaker 7: One may be the fact that Trump is going to
- 21:37Speaker 7: receive about 200,000 votes and basically be the nominee by tomorrow.
- 21:41Speaker 3: We're a country with 80 million Republicans.
- 21:43Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 21:43Speaker 1: That's something more about the Republican Party.
- 21:44Speaker 7: But one thing where the New Hampshire primary is useful
- 21:47Speaker 7: for at least projecting forward for the general election is
- 21:51Speaker 7: you do get a pretty significant sample of prototypical swing
- 21:56Speaker 7: voters participating in this, right? It is suburban, college-educated, moderate.
- 22:02Speaker 7: The largest group of voters in the state by far
- 22:04Speaker 7: are undeclared voters. And those are the exact voters that
- 22:08Speaker 7: Trump lost ground with from 2016 to 2020. Those voters
- 22:13Speaker 7: are overrepresented in some of the states he lost, like Pennsylvania, Georgia,
- 22:17Speaker 7: and Arizona. And if he is going to win, and
- 22:20Speaker 7: we talk all the time about all the things Biden
- 22:21Speaker 7: has to do, Trump has to do better with college-educated
- 22:25Speaker 7: suburban voters. And nothing that happened tonight suggests that he
- 22:29Speaker 7: is doing not even better, anywhere near as well as
- 22:32Speaker 7: he did in 2020. That is a big flashing light
- 22:35Speaker 7: with a segment of voters that he has to improve with,
- 22:37Speaker 7: and there is no evidence he has done so.
- 22:39Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 22:39Speaker 1: And we don't know if any of these Haley voters,
- 22:42Speaker 1: we don't know how many of them are going to,
- 22:44Speaker 1: if Trump's the nominee, vote for Trump or vote for
- 22:47Speaker 1: Biden or not vote for either of them. But certainly
- 22:49Speaker 1: it doesn't show a lot of strength.
- 22:51Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 22:51Speaker 2: I feel like there's two things that I took from this.
- 22:54Speaker 2: One is actually just how strong and dangerous a general
- 22:56Speaker 2: election candidate Nikki Haley would be.
- 22:58Speaker 1: That's one.
- 22:59Speaker 2: But two, Trump in his, you know, rambling, infuriated speech, he, he,
- 23:05Speaker 2: he didn't want to say it exactly like, don't worry. Yeah, sure.
- 23:09Speaker 2: Nikki Haley is doing better against Biden than I am,
- 23:10Speaker 2: but anybody can beat Joe Biden. But he basically got there. And,
- 23:14Speaker 2: you know, Nikki Haley is making like, it's like a
- 23:16Speaker 2: vaguely sophisticated point about how Trump costs people the House
- 23:19Speaker 2: and costs people the Senate. Like it's a coattails thing,
- 23:21Speaker 2: but Republicans want to win. And he made a point
- 23:24Speaker 2: of saying, hey, don't worry, we got this thing. You
- 23:26Speaker 2: nominate me, we're going to win. And he's clearly like,
- 23:28Speaker 2: there is an argument that Nikki Haley is making that
- 23:30Speaker 2: he's not totally unconcerned by, right? Like he is responding
- 23:34Speaker 2: to it and making a point that's like, oh, Joe
- 23:36Speaker 2: Biden is so frail and weak. Don't you worry about that.
- 23:38Speaker 2: I'm going to beat Joe Biden. Nikki Haley, any of
- 23:40Speaker 2: us could beat Joe Biden. That's not important. That's not important.
- 23:43Speaker 4: It's also notable that they asked in the exits, would
- 23:46Speaker 4: you favor or oppose a federal law banning most or
- 23:48Speaker 4: all abortions nationwide? And only 27% of voters favor banning
- 23:52Speaker 4: most or all abortions nationwide.
- 23:55Speaker 7: One concerning point in that number is that Trump Only
- 23:59Speaker 7: lost the people who opposed a nationwide ban by 10%.
- 24:03Speaker 4: 55-44. Yep.
- 24:05Speaker 7: But here's one other thing on the electability number. Yes,
- 24:06Speaker 7: I do think it gets under Trump's skin because down
- 24:09Speaker 7: deep in his very dark soul, he knows he lost
- 24:11Speaker 7: the 2020 election and that haunts him. But only 15%
- 24:15Speaker 7: of voters in the exit poll listed defeating Joe Biden
- 24:19Speaker 7: as their top quality, the quality they cared most about
- 24:22Speaker 7: in a candidate.
- 24:23Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 24:23Speaker 7: And Trump won those voters overwhelmingly. So there is, this
- 24:26Speaker 7: is Nikki Haley's argument. There is zero audience for that
- 24:29Speaker 7: argument in New Hampshire. And nationally, we talked about this
- 24:32Speaker 7: the other day, is that they asked Republicans in this
- 24:33Speaker 7: YouGov poll, regardless of who you support, who do you
- 24:37Speaker 7: think is going to win? 84% of Republicans think that
- 24:39Speaker 7: Donald Trump's going to win the election.
- 24:42Speaker 1: Tells you everything about why he's walking away with it.
- 24:44Speaker 2: Yeah, but there is this sort of like, you know,
- 24:46Speaker 2: voters aren't good at telling you how they're going to
- 24:48Speaker 2: feel about something in the future. I think, and that
- 24:50Speaker 2: could be a double-edged sword. But we are in this
- 24:52Speaker 2: strange scenario where a bunch of Republicans voted for Donald
- 24:55Speaker 2: Trump today and also told a pollster that if he's
- 24:57Speaker 2: convicted of a crime, he's unfit and they won't vote
- 24:59Speaker 2: for him again. And he is on track, you know,
- 25:02Speaker 2: to our minds to be convicted, hopefully before the election,
- 25:04Speaker 2: but we don't know. And so it's like.
- 25:07Speaker 1: We know they think you wouldn't be fit, but we
- 25:10Speaker 1: don't know if they wouldn't vote for him. Because they
- 25:12Speaker 1: didn't ask, would you vote for him? Which they did
- 25:14Speaker 1: ask in CNN's poll. No, they asked it in the
- 25:17Speaker 1: Des Moines Register poll.
- 25:18Speaker 7: But even, I didn't look at it in the New
- 25:20Speaker 7: Hampshire poll. And I just got a text from Reid
- 25:23Speaker 7: that said, who we work with, who said, organic polar
- 25:26Speaker 7: coaster pitch, which I think means right now I'm supposed
- 25:29Speaker 7: to mention that we're going to dig deeper into these
- 25:30Speaker 7: exit poll numbers in the episode of Polar Coaster that's
- 25:32Speaker 7: coming out in two days.
- 25:33Speaker 1: Wow, amazing. That's how the magic happens.
- 25:35Speaker 2: I just felt like it was right there, part of
- 25:36Speaker 2: the conversation.
- 25:38Speaker 1: All right. Well, let's talk about the Democratic primary in
- 25:40Speaker 1: New Hampshire. There was one. And Joe Biden won it
- 25:42Speaker 1: despite not appearing on the ballot. Again, he did not
- 25:45Speaker 1: appear on the ballot since Biden and the DNC decided
- 25:48Speaker 1: that South Carolina will be the Democrats' first primary. New
- 25:51Speaker 1: Hampshire went ahead with their primary anyway, so they are
- 25:54Speaker 1: not going to have any delegates at stake. So Joe
- 25:56Speaker 1: Biden didn't go on the ballot. Dean Phillips and Marianne
- 25:59Speaker 1: Williamson did. The Biden allies in New Hampshire, Biden supporters
- 26:03Speaker 1: in New Hampshire, did not want Joe Biden to be embarrassed.
- 26:06Speaker 1: So they organized a write-in campaign and boy, did it work.
- 26:11Speaker 1: So he won over, so far right now, he's got
- 26:13Speaker 1: over 70% of the votes, the write-in votes. We'll find
- 26:17Speaker 1: out the final number when everything's counted and they read
- 26:20Speaker 1: all the write-in votes. Dean Phillips only won around 20%
- 26:24Speaker 1: and Marianne Williamson took 4%. What do you guys think?
- 26:29Speaker 2: But Mercury's in retrograde.
- 26:30Speaker 1: I kind of think that Biden... Look, they were hoping
- 26:32Speaker 1: to avoid embarrassment, but I think they also demonstrated some enthusiasm.
- 26:36Speaker 1: I don't think it's easy to organize a write-in campaign. And, like,
- 26:42Speaker 1: if you're a Democratic primary voter and you know there's
- 26:44Speaker 1: not much of a primary, to get up, walk out
- 26:47Speaker 1: of your house, go to the polls, write in Joe
- 26:49Speaker 1: Biden's name, that tells you something.
- 26:52Speaker 7: Yeah, I think it definitely demonstrates some enthusiasm, but I
- 26:55Speaker 7: think demonstrates even more is organization. And for all of
- 26:59Speaker 7: the Democratic... complaining and worrying and everything about the state
- 27:03Speaker 7: of the Biden campaign, whether Biden can win. One thing
- 27:05Speaker 7: that the Biden campaign has been very, very good at
- 27:07Speaker 7: from the very beginning, right? Going back to the primary
- 27:09Speaker 7: when they overperformed in the Nevada caucuses is organization. And
- 27:14Speaker 7: so this is something that I think that they would
- 27:17Speaker 7: be very good at helping engineer is something like this.
- 27:20Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 27:21Speaker 1: Dean Phillips and Dean Phillips affiliated Super PAC spent $ 5
- 27:24Speaker 1: million in New Hampshire for his 20%. Here's what he
- 27:26Speaker 1: said tonight. about his loss. What I'm saying is this.
- 27:30Speaker 1: I don't know what my name recognition is. It was
- 27:32Speaker 1: zero just 10 weeks ago. I would imagine in this
- 27:34Speaker 1: country right now, it's probably five to 10% tops. I
- 27:36Speaker 1: was a brand builder before this in the private sector.
- 27:39Speaker 1: It takes recognition of a name or a brand in
- 27:41Speaker 1: order to actually test it. I need some months to
- 27:43Speaker 1: do that. And so basically he said he's going to
- 27:46Speaker 1: take a few more months. And once polls start testing
- 27:49Speaker 1: Dean Phillips against Donald Trump, he's going to look at
- 27:51Speaker 1: those numbers and then he's going to make a decision.
- 27:53Speaker 1: This is just a whole race. It's a whole campaign
- 27:55Speaker 1: based on polls.
- 27:57Speaker 4: What a waste of time.
- 27:57Speaker 1: He got in because of polls. He's going to get
- 27:59Speaker 1: out because of polls. He's going to stay in because
- 28:01Speaker 1: of polls. Whatever the polls say, that's what Dean Phillips
- 28:03Speaker 1: is doing with his life.
- 28:04Speaker 7: I'm going to suggest that perhaps Dean Phillips' strategy to
- 28:07Speaker 7: campaign in a state, relentlessly, to move to a state
- 28:12Speaker 7: where the president.
- 28:13Speaker 1: Was not on the- Where he did go to summer camp.
- 28:15Speaker 7: He did go to summer camp. That's where he discovered
- 28:18Speaker 7: his passion for America and public service, at summer camp,
- 28:20Speaker 7: as one does.
- 28:21Speaker 4: Yep.
- 28:22Speaker 7: To base the entirety of his campaign and this $ 10 million, whatever,
- 28:26Speaker 7: spending in a state with no delegates was not the
- 28:29Speaker 7: right choice.
- 28:29Speaker 1: Yeah. I will also say, too, we have worried a
- 28:34Speaker 1: lot about Joe Biden as the nominee. What if another
- 28:38Speaker 1: Democrat challenges him? Another Democrat challenges him in New Hampshire,
- 28:41Speaker 1: and Joe Biden's not even on the ballot. And the
- 28:44Speaker 1: Democratic voters in New Hampshire went out and said, no,
- 28:46Speaker 1: I don't want Dean Phillips. I want Joe Biden. They
- 28:48Speaker 1: had the alternative. They saw his ads. spent $ 5 million
- 28:51Speaker 1: in the state and they just, you know, that's, that's
- 28:54Speaker 1: part of the reason this primary has turned out the
- 28:56Speaker 1: way it is because democratic voters, when they get the chance,
- 28:58Speaker 1: they wanted to vote for Joe Biden.
- 29:00Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
- 29:01Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 29:02Speaker 2: It's like, I do think like, oh, you know, you know,
- 29:05Speaker 2: we look back on this moment. If a year from
- 29:08Speaker 2: now and Donald Trump has won, we look back in
- 29:10Speaker 2: this moment, I want to make sure that like, you know,
- 29:13Speaker 2: were we too cavalier about this specific challenger? And I
- 29:18Speaker 2: actually think the answer is no. There are legitimate and
- 29:22Speaker 2: very real concerns about Joe Biden's ability to get reelected.
- 29:25Speaker 2: And the issues that made Dean Phillips so anxious about
- 29:28Speaker 2: the polls to get in are not.
- 29:31Speaker 4: Invalid.
- 29:32Speaker 2: They are very real concerns that I think we all share.
- 29:34Speaker 2: It's just, this wasn't the candidate. And there was no
- 29:38Speaker 2: amount of, I think... He also did a terrible job.
- 29:41Speaker 4: Like if you, if you really had these concerns, you
- 29:43Speaker 4: had to get in a year earlier, you had to
- 29:45Speaker 4: actually run hard. You had to know when deadlines, like
- 29:48Speaker 4: getting on the ballots in various States occur. And instead
- 29:51Speaker 4: he waited too long. He fucked it up. He hired
- 29:53Speaker 4: all the wrong people. And now he's just left with
- 29:56Speaker 4: this sort of embittered message where he's complaining about the
- 29:58Speaker 4: DNC and the process. trying to whine his way to
- 30:01Speaker 4: the White House. And it's just, it's not going to work.
- 30:03Speaker 4: Not easy running for president. It's not helping.
- 30:06Speaker 7: And perhaps you should not decide to run for president
- 30:08Speaker 7: because you get a DM on Twitter from Steve Schmidt,
- 30:10Speaker 7: which is how this happened.
- 30:11Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 30:12Speaker 1: Good advice, Dan. So speaking of Biden, he kicked off
- 30:27Speaker 1: the general with a campaign event in Virginia on Tuesday
- 30:30Speaker 1: focused on abortion rights just a day after the 51st
- 30:32Speaker 1: anniversary of Roe v.
- 30:33Speaker 11: Wade.
- 30:34Speaker 1: He was joined on stage by Vice President Kamala Harris,
- 30:36Speaker 1: First Lady Jill Biden, and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. Here's
- 30:40Speaker 1: a clip of Biden in Virginia.
- 30:42Speaker 11: In the United States Congress, extremists are trying to pass
- 30:46Speaker 11: a national abortion ban to outlaw abortion in every single state.
- 30:53Speaker 11: But what they need to know... is that if Congress
- 30:56Speaker 11: passes a national abortion ban, President Joe Biden will veto it.
- 31:02Speaker 9: Donald Trump is betting you won't vote on this issue.
- 31:07Speaker 9: But guess what? He's betting we won't hold him responsible
- 31:12Speaker 9: either for taking away the rights. He's betting you're going
- 31:15Speaker 9: to stop caring. By the way, that you'll get distracted
- 31:22Speaker 9: and discouraged and stay home.
- 31:25Speaker 2: Well, guess what?
- 31:27Speaker 1: I'm betting he's wrong. Campaign also released a new ad
- 31:30Speaker 1: that features Dr. Austin Dennard, a Texas mother and OBGYN
- 31:35Speaker 1: who was forced to travel out of state for an
- 31:37Speaker 1: abortion after learning her pregnancy was non-viable and life-threatening. White
- 31:40Speaker 1: House also announced a series of executive actions aimed at
- 31:43Speaker 1: protecting reproductive rights. What did you guys think about the event,
- 31:47Speaker 1: the ad, the policies? Dan, we were talking about this,
- 31:50Speaker 1: I think, on the last pod. Obviously, this was them
- 31:53Speaker 1: trying to get some attention. especially counter-programming a New Hampshire primary?
- 31:59Speaker 1: Do you think they got the attention they were hoping for?
- 32:01Speaker 3: I think they certainly got.
- 32:03Speaker 7: You never get the attention you're hoping for. They certainly
- 32:05Speaker 7: got more attention than any other- Just love it.
- 32:07Speaker 3: You're right.
- 32:07Speaker 2: It's a daily grind. It's a campaign of inches.
- 32:13Speaker 7: I mean, it got more attention than your typical White
- 32:21Speaker 7: House event, right? We don't know what the audience was
- 32:24Speaker 7: for television coverage tonight, but it's certainly more than- On
- 32:27Speaker 7: a typical political night, right? And even on some of
- 32:29Speaker 7: the network stuff where you're going to see those clips,
- 32:31Speaker 7: you're going to see that message, you're going to see
- 32:32Speaker 7: the Restore Roe banner that was behind them. And so, yeah,
- 32:35Speaker 7: I think it achieves that goal for sure.
- 32:38Speaker 11: Yeah.
- 32:39Speaker 1: So this is it. This is going to be the
- 32:40Speaker 1: longest general election in history.
- 32:42Speaker 4: What a remarkable stat.
- 32:44Speaker 2: There is an ongoing competitive Republican primary. I don't know
- 32:47Speaker 2: what we're doing. Three pods a week.
- 32:51Speaker 1: I know it was timed because of the anniversary of
- 32:53Speaker 1: Roe v. Wade, but I do think it was telling that...
- 32:56Speaker 1: As we kick off the general election, they started with them.
- 32:59Speaker 1: I mean, he did the January 6th speech on the
- 33:02Speaker 1: anniversary of that. And then he just did a series
- 33:04Speaker 1: of events and ads around abortion. You know, I think
- 33:07Speaker 1: that seems to be what they're going to, that's going
- 33:09Speaker 1: to be the message, the main message for the campaign.
- 33:12Speaker 1: And I'm guessing there'll be an economic component as well soon.
- 33:15Speaker 2: Yeah, I think jobs, freedom and democracy. I mean, it
- 33:18Speaker 2: seems like the three things.
- 33:19Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 33:20Speaker 1: Jobs, freedom, and democracy.
- 33:21Speaker 7: That's the ultimate question here, right? They've called it jobs
- 33:24Speaker 7: and democracy as their strategy. And the question is, how
- 33:28Speaker 7: much do they have to narrow the gap on the
- 33:30Speaker 7: economy to have that strategy work? And we don't know
- 33:33Speaker 7: the answer to that. And I think it is the
- 33:35Speaker 7: source of probably the biggest debate within the Democratic Party
- 33:38Speaker 7: right now. The question is whether the larger general election
- 33:41Speaker 7: electorate is going to place a higher premium on economic
- 33:45Speaker 7: performance and economic approval than the midterm electorate who clearly
- 33:48Speaker 7: voted on abortion, freedom.
- 33:51Speaker 3: Democracy, and those issues. And that we don't know.
- 33:54Speaker 2: And how persuadable.
- 33:55Speaker 4: Right.
- 33:56Speaker 1: Those voters.
- 33:56Speaker 5: Right.
- 33:57Speaker 1: Even though there is technically still a Republican primary going on, technically,
- 34:03Speaker 1: the Biden campaign did put out a statement tonight, basically
- 34:05Speaker 1: saying that like, you know, the general is here. We
- 34:07Speaker 1: know Donald Trump's good. Do we think that Biden's going
- 34:10Speaker 1: to be out there now all the time? Like, is
- 34:12Speaker 1: he going to go campaigning? Is he going to be
- 34:14Speaker 1: freer to campaign? Should he? In the next month or
- 34:18Speaker 1: so while Nikki Haley is still doing whatever Nikki Haley
- 34:20Speaker 1: is going to do?
- 34:22Speaker 4: I think they're constantly striking a balance. They're doing official
- 34:24Speaker 4: events in swing states. I imagine they'll continue to do
- 34:27Speaker 4: a lot of those because it saves you money.
- 34:28Speaker 3: But I don't know.
- 34:29Speaker 4: Dan, are you thinking of doing a big-ass rally in
- 34:30Speaker 4: Michigan soon or something to really kick this thing off?
- 34:33Speaker 4: Or do you wait until the post-State of the Union?
- 34:35Speaker 3: I don't know what they're going to do.
- 34:36Speaker 7: I imagine it's going to be a relatively slow but
- 34:40Speaker 7: steady ramp-up. And there's so much other stuff going on
- 34:45Speaker 7: in the world that he has to attend to. Um, I,
- 34:49Speaker 7: but there is, there is a real, um, asymmetry in
- 34:54Speaker 7: terms of the kind of information people.
- 34:55Speaker 3: Are getting right now.
- 34:55Speaker 7: And that, whether it's through more Biden campaign events, more
- 35:01Speaker 7: louder Biden message events from the white house or aggressive
- 35:06Speaker 7: paid advertising, that asymmetry has to narrow right now. Cause
- 35:10Speaker 7: there's this very interesting poll that our friend Peter Hamby
- 35:13Speaker 7: wrote about in puck, which shows that people are getting
- 35:15Speaker 7: a ton of information about Donald Trump. and not very
- 35:17Speaker 7: much information about Joe Biden. And that is alarming in
- 35:20Speaker 7: two fronts. One, it's allowing Trump to define the four
- 35:23Speaker 7: corners of the political conversation, but also part of the
- 35:25Speaker 7: Democratic argument is that people aren't paying attention to Trump.
- 35:28Speaker 7: Once they realize Trump's still around and still terrible, they
- 35:31Speaker 7: will change, the election will change, the fundamental dynamics will change.
- 35:35Speaker 7: This is a piece of data that suggests we have
- 35:37Speaker 7: more work to do than just waiting for people to
- 35:39Speaker 7: wake up from their political new slumber.
- 35:41Speaker 1: And again, I don't think the Biden campaign has to
- 35:43Speaker 1: choose between, do we go out there and have a
- 35:45Speaker 1: positive message from Joe Biden and accomplishments and what he's
- 35:48Speaker 1: going to do? Or do we just go out there and,
- 35:50Speaker 1: you know, hit Donald Trump every day? I think they
- 35:53Speaker 1: can do a contrast message. Right. And so every time
- 35:57Speaker 1: they go out there, here's something Joe Biden did. Here's
- 35:59Speaker 1: what he wants to do if he's going to get
- 36:01Speaker 1: a second term. And by the way, here's what Donald
- 36:03Speaker 1: Trump would do and the Republicans. And you just constantly
- 36:06Speaker 1: drive the contrast message. And over the next couple of months.
- 36:09Speaker 1: But yeah, I'd get out there soon to try to.
- 36:12Speaker 7: I think it probably begins after the State of the Union.
- 36:14Speaker 1: Yeah, because ideally that's going to be his biggest audience, that,
- 36:19Speaker 1: the convention, and then the debates. And hopefully, I think
- 36:23Speaker 1: in the State of the Union, they'll lay out an
- 36:25Speaker 1: economic agenda for the second term that they'll be able
- 36:28Speaker 1: to then use in the campaign trail. So that'll be
- 36:30Speaker 1: hopefully like the third leg of the democracy Dobbs stool,
- 36:34Speaker 1: if you will.
- 36:35Speaker 3: All right.
- 36:35Speaker 1: Well, that's it. Anything else? Any closing thoughts? Just go, Nicky.
- 36:39Speaker 4: Go get him, Nicky.
- 36:40Speaker 1: Go get him, Nicky.
- 36:41Speaker 2: Tim, you broke my heart.
- 36:42Speaker 4: You got this, Nicky.
- 36:43Speaker 2: All right. And I don't know that I can love again.
- 36:46Speaker 3: That may be it. I'm out.
- 36:48Speaker 1: Congrats on the engagement. I don't know where that came from.
- 36:50Speaker 4: God, Trump can't say that without laughing.
- 36:52Speaker 1: He just can't help himself.
- 36:54Speaker 4: He just laughs.
- 36:54Speaker 2: You know, it's, it's, we just talked about the fucking
- 36:56Speaker 2: Tim Scott engagement. Just like the idea that like, like,
- 37:00Speaker 2: you know, nothing says to me, nothing says love to
- 37:02Speaker 2: me more. than proposing to your girlfriend on Friday and
- 37:06Speaker 2: then endorsing Donald Trump and going to a rally over
- 37:09Speaker 2: the weekend.
- 37:10Speaker 1: And then telling him you love him.
- 37:12Speaker 2: And then telling him you love him. He's still duped.
- 37:15Speaker 2: His heart is big enough for two. And the other thing, too,
- 37:18Speaker 2: is it's like, I don't know Tim Scott's life. None
- 37:20Speaker 2: of us does, right?
- 37:21Speaker 3: Fine.
- 37:22Speaker 2: But man, the idea that this sort of like slapdash
- 37:26Speaker 2: engagement in a photo is going to like mitigate Trump's
- 37:28Speaker 2: concerns about Tim Scott being weird. Like we were talking
- 37:31Speaker 2: about this before we record, like Bertie got duped. by
- 37:34Speaker 2: a kind of an evangelical right-winger who made him a
- 37:36Speaker 2: little uncomfortable with all the Jesus talk, but he swallowed
- 37:39Speaker 2: it to secure the right-wing vote. He's not going to
- 37:42Speaker 2: do that again.
- 37:42Speaker 1: He tried to kill the last one. He told me
- 37:44Speaker 1: a favorite thing about that picture of Tim Scott getting engaged.
- 37:48Speaker 1: The photo caption says, this is Tim Scott getting engaged
- 37:50Speaker 1: with a photo courtesy of Tim Scott.
- 37:52Speaker 4: Courtesy of Tim Scott. He was like, I really hate
- 37:55Speaker 4: that this news broke, but here you go.
- 37:57Speaker 3: Here's a pic.
- 37:58Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 37:58Speaker 2: He also like did this interview. He's like, I'm such
- 38:00Speaker 2: an introvert. It's like, are you, are you such an
- 38:01Speaker 2: introvert publicizing your engagement?
- 38:03Speaker 3: You just ran for president.
- 38:04Speaker 2: Just ran for president. What kind of, you're not really,
- 38:06Speaker 2: you're fucking up being an introvert, Tim Scott.
- 38:08Speaker 1: All right.
- 38:08Speaker 2: We're out.
- 38:10Speaker 1: Pod over.
- 38:12Speaker 10: Bye everyone.
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- 38:36Speaker 1: Our show is produced by Olivia Martinez and David Toledo.
- 38:39Speaker 1: Our associate producers are Saul Rubin and Farrah Safari. Kira
- 38:42Speaker 1: Wakim is our senior producer. Reid Cherlin is our executive producer.
- 38:46Speaker 1: The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan
- 38:49Speaker 1: Cantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle
- 38:52Speaker 1: Seglin and Charlotte Landis. Writing support by Hallie Kiefer. Madeline
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- 39:05Speaker 1: David Tolles, Kiril Pallaviv, and Molly Lobel.