Latest / Pod Save America / “Democracy or the Filibuster.” (with Alyssa Mastromonaco!)

Transcript

“Democracy or the Filibuster.” (with Alyssa Mastromonaco!) · Pod Save America

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: I'm Alyssa Mastromonaco.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Alyssa is here.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: I'm here.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Alyssa, why are you filling in for Dan?
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Because I'm beloved. No, just kidding.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: That's true.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Because he's at the hospital. He's at the hospital right
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: now with Howley. We have no news to report, but
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: I am on the notification phone tree. I'm at the
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: very top. So if there's anything to report, I am
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: allowed to report it. So we will see.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I didn't get any fucking notice about a phone tree.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Okay, because you're not good at that.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: I'm not good at that. Hopefully I'll get a text
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: from Dan, though.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: On today's show, Joe Biden announces he's filibuster reform curious.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Republicans play politics with immigrant children at the border. And
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Alyssa and I answer some of your questions. Before we start,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: two housekeeping notes. Check out the latest season of Anna
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Marie Cox's show with friends like these, which is all
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: about forgiveness and reconciliation this season. This week, she'll be
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: speaking to Rebecca Traister about the accusations against Governor Cuomo.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: get your podcasts. And you must check out America's favorite
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: new sports podcast, Take Line, which is now number one
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: in the Apple sports charts. Some of you have already
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: heard the first episode, which includes a really powerful and
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: timely interview with Jeremy Lin about his NBA journey. and
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: his own experience with the racism against Asian Americans that
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: has exploded into thousands of violent attacks over the last year.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: To talk more about that interview, as well as the
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: deadly shooting in Atlanta this week, we are joined by
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: one of Take Line's co-hosts, Jason Concepcion. Jason, welcome to
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: the pod, and welcome to the Cricket family. We are
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: so happy to have you and your insanely talented co-host,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Renee Montgomery, on the team.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much. It is a delight to be here.
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: I could not be more thrilled. I could not be
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: more thrilled to be speaking in two mics with Renee Montgomery,
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: two-time WNBA champion and co-owner of the Atlanta Dream. It's
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: been really wonderful. Thank you for having me.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Well, it is great to have you. Your interview with
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Jeremy Lin just happened to go out the same day
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: as the horrific shootings in Atlanta. Why was it important
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: to you to have that conversation about anti-Asian violence and
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: racism as part of the first episode?
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: Well, it's been so much a part of so many
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: people's lives over the last couple of years, certainly since
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: the emergence of COVID and the really horrific blaming of China,
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: which is easily conflated with anyone of Asian descent. blaming
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: them for the emergence of this virus using terminology such
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: as Kung Flu, China virus, etc. We've just seen attacks
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: against Asian Americans, Asian people in this country explode by
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: immense numbers, thousands of attacks documented by the AAPI, among others,
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: over the last several years. So it's just been troubling.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: And then Jeremy, Had he spoke out about a week
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: and a half before we had him on just about
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: his own experiences as an Asian-American in the league, the
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: things that have been said to him on the court,
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: someone calling him coronavirus, et cetera, and just raising awareness
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: around that. The fact that the words matter, that there's
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: a level of of, you know, Discourse that is tolerated
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: against Asian Americans who traditionally have just kind of been
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: quiet about certain things that they've endured and kind of
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: like gone about their business. But certainly it's important right
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: now when you're seeing these violent attacks happen to just
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: let people know that this is happening and it needs
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: to stop.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: I thought one of the most depressingly predictable examples of
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: how pervasive this racism is was the BuzzFeed story about
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: the Georgia sheriff's official who described the man who murdered
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: six Asian women and two others as, quote, having a
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: bad day. And then it turns out, surprise, surprise, that
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: cop had previously posted a picture of a T-shirt with
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: a beer label that read COVID-19 imported virus from China.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: What was your reaction to the shootings themselves and sort
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: of the aftermath that unfolded yesterday?
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: My reaction was, you know, right before that, the NYPD
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: had like announced that they were going to step up
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: patrols in Chinatown and the various Chinatowns throughout the New
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: York metro area. I think Seattle had also said they
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: were going to do the same things. Some other localities
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: had announced that they would do the same things. I
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: think that what I thought was the response to this
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: cannot simply be more police in more non-white neighborhoods. That's
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: not a solution. And while I'm sure that residents of
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: those areas drew some amount of comfort for that, the
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: enemy and the problem is white supremacy as we see here.
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: It's the immediate instinct to empathize with a white terrorist
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: over the victims themselves. And also, like, you know, it's weird.
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: It's tragically humorous. Also, the idea that a bad day,
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: you know, the idea that these people, This person is
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: walking around all day using every ounce of his energy
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: and concentration to not carry out racist attacks. And then
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: it's just, you know, some bump in the road happens.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: And that's just and just snap and a murder might
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: occur or several. And the fact that, you know, the
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: authorities are willing to couch it in those terms is just.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: it's horrific, it's really sad, and it's unfortunately not surprising.
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: And I think the reveal that, you know, Deputy Baker
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: is taking part in this really awful anti-Asian discourse shows
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: that policing cannot be the end-all be-all solution to this.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: There are you know, white supremacist ideology is virulent. We
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: have seen the damage that it can do most recently.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: At the Capitol.
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: And we need to dismantle that. That needs to be
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: dismantled piece by piece.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Alyssa, what was your reaction to the shootings?
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: I mean, well, it's fucking terrible. It's fucking terrible. But
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: to Jason's point, you know, compounding the catastrophe are these
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: press conferences, right? Which to me, I mean, we've been
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: through crisis comms before. Either say, talk about it when
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: you know about it or just fucking hold your fire.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: Because saying that they knew that they didn't think it
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: was anti-Asian violence, but that they knew he was a
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: sex addict. It's like, why did anybody think the guy
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: was going to cop to it being a hate crime
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: when the penalties are 10 times stiffer? Like it was just,
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: it was a tragedy compounded by a further tragedy.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like no one expects you to have the legal
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: motive nailed down at the press conference, even if the
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: assumptions are there. But we do expect you not to
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: just like run your mouth off about random facts that
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: could shade people's perception of the crime before you actually
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: do the investigation. Absolutely. Also, guess what?
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: You can be racist without a conscious awareness of your
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: motivations in any particular area.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: Like that taking.
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: Essentially taking the murderer's word for it in that moment,
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: less than 24 hours after the attack, was just dumb
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: and irresponsible.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And then, you know, more understandable when you saw
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: the BuzzFeed story about who that official was. You're like, oh,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: now I get it, of course. Jason, you and Renee
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: talked on the show about how sports are one of
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: the few areas left in an extremely divided country where
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: we can still come together. How does that inform... the
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: show you guys are looking to create with Take Line?
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: It informs it in the sense that we're going to
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: lean into these conversations that are on the forefronts of
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: any conversation about sports these days and have always been,
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: but are just harder to ignore. Those are conversations about
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: racial and social justice, economic justice, labor relations, gender relations.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: All those conversations are part of any conversation sports conversations.
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: This is a medium of force in our society that
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: has always kind of been the main driver of integration
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: of new people into mainstream American society. And, you know,
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: as American society becomes more fractured, as we retreat into
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: our echo chambers, as we are divided by economic lines,
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: racial lines, et cetera, increasingly, These kind of like big
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: tents like sports or big pop cultural events like Marvel movies,
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: the comic book movies, Harry Potter, et cetera. These, these big, uh,
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: metaphorical buckets are fascinating because this is, these are increasingly
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: at the forefront of these kind of like culture war
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: conversations about how we relate to one another. Um, and
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: that is, those are conversations that Renee and I are
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: very interested in and that we want to explore, uh,
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: as a top line priority while talking about sports in
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: the way that other podcasts talk about sports, talking about
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: the games, talking about player movement, et cetera. But we
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: want to really steer into these kinds of conversations.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: You know, and people on the right will say like,
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: why do you have to politicize sports too? But I
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: thought you guys made a great point on the first episode.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: That's like, you would love nothing more than to just
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: enjoy sports, have fun with sports, talk about sports. But
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: like sometimes there's fucking, you know, announcers saying race at
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: shit on hot mics. Like what are we supposed to
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: do with that? You know, you got to talk about
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: that shit.
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: Legitimately. What are we supposed to do? And the other
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: thing is, and I say this all the time, but it,
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: but it just drives me crazy. Like this idea of like, keep,
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: politics out of sports. Yeah, sure. Let's keep politics out
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: of sports. Meanwhile, you know, before every NFL game, they
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: unfurl a 200 foot American flag and they fly fighter
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: jets over the stadium and every member of, you know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: representatives of every member of the military come out. Like
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: there is a very specific political lens that is accepted
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: as absolutely fine and baseline and within sports commentary, and
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: that is expanding, and that is expanding with some opposition
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: from other people.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: That's right. Jason Concepcion, thanks for stopping by the pod,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: and thanks for joining the Cricket family. Everyone, go subscribe
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: to Take Line right away. It is fantastic. Thanks for
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: stopping by, man.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: Thanks for having me.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: All right, let's get to the news. Alyssa, I want
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: to go through a timeline here. You tell me if
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: anything jumps out at you. Okay. 2020 Democratic primary. Most
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: of the presidential candidates come out in favor of eliminating
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: the filibuster. Joe Biden says, no, let's keep it. Summer 2020.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: Barack Obama says the filibuster is a Jim Crow relic.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden still supports the filibuster.
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: 2021.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Bunch of Democratic senators come out in favor of killing
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: the filibuster. Joe Manchin, filibuster's fiercest defender, says maybe it's
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: time for a talking filibuster. White House says no change
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: from Biden just yet. This week. One of Politico's nightly
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: newsletters leads with a big story about Crooked Media's brand
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: new Abolish the Filibuster t-shirt. That very night, we get
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: this clip.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: Aren't you going to have to choose between preserving the
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: filibuster and advancing your agenda?
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: But here's the choice. I don't think you have to
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: eliminate the filibuster. You have to do it what it
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: used to be when I first got to the Senate.
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: And that is that a filibuster, you had to stand
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: up and command the floor. Once you stop talking, you
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: lost that and someone could move in and say, I
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: moved the question of. So you got to work for
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: the filibuster.
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: So you're for that reform.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: You're for bringing back the talking filibuster.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: I am.
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: That's what it was supposed to be.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: Just put a hold on it.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: It almost is getting to the point where democracy is
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: having a hard time functioning. I'm not saying this is
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: going to be easy, George. But I do believe there's
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: enough Republicans over time.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: They haven't had that epiphany you said you were going
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: to see in the campaign.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: No, no.
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: I've only been here six weeks, pal. OK, give me
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: a break. I've been here six weeks. I think the
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: epiphany is going to come between now and 2022.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Do we get results or do we get results?
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: OK, fab. Crooked merch changes hearts and minds. That is
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: no malarkey.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: So that was something. How significant do you think what
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: Biden said to Stephanopoulos about the filibuster is?
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, look, it is Joe Biden is nothing if
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: not true to his principles. Right. And I think that
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: he has finally seen that Republicans may not be on
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: the level, don't want to find common ground. And we're
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: not going to get anything done unless you blow up
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: the filibuster.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: I actually thought that the most revealing part of that
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: answer was not even when he started talking about the
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: talking filibuster, but his very direct yes to George when
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: George said, are you going to have to choose between
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: your agenda and the filibuster? Which shows me that like
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: what you just said, he finally gets it. Yeah, the fever.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: Fever's not breaking.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Fever's not breaking. Remember Barack Obama in 2012 used to
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: tell us the fever is going to break if he
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: won the 2012 election. We were like, yeah, sure, I guess. No,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: did not break. Did not break. And now 10 years later,
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: almost 10 years later, it still has not broken. It
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: was interesting to me the White House this morning went
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: even further than Biden in that Stephanopoulos interview. Kate Bedingfeld
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: said to NBC's Hallie Jackson, the White House won't allow
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: progress and benefits to the American people to get held hostage.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: There are going to be conversations on process. And they
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: are open to discussion.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: So you've got to wonder, is this really a further iteration?
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: Is this a shot across the bow that's like, if
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: you don't, Republicans, find God soon. I'm actually going to
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: do this. You know I don't want to do it.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: I've made it clear to all of America I don't
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: want to have to do this. But, you know, we
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: might just have to do this because you're hurting the
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: American people just because you're assholes.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: I know. I think it's a shot across the bow Republicans.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: I also think it's, I wonder what the conversations are
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: like between the White House and Manchin and Sinema and
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: some of, and it's not just the two of them.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: We bring them up all the time because they're the
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: most public. There's a couple other Democratic senators who are
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: on the fence about this. I wonder what kind of
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: conversations the White House is having with these senators. And
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: I also wonder, and I've wondered up to this point,
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: whether the White House thinks it is more productive to
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: push these senators publicly and to be out in front
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: on this filibuster debate, or if they sort of want
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: to hang back because they think that them pressuring these
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: senators publicly will actually hurt their cause.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Well, and now you've got someone like Dick Durbin, who
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: has been full-throated in his support of change, who is
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: part of this new gang of 20, which is like
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: half the Senate at this point, of senators, bipartisan, who
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: want to talk about the filibuster. So, you know, as
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: we know, this all happens in the Senate and, you know,
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: they have to, the senators have to be the ones
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: to take the action. But I mean, Favs, it's time.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: It's time. So there are, there are a few different
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: versions of the talking filibuster and we are not sure
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: which kind Manchin or Biden would support. When Manchin speaks,
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: you have to be a, you have to be a
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: Manchinologist and really sort of just like detect every word
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: and sort of unpack it all.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: Because some versions of the talking filibuster are, Nothing.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: Well, that's so let's go. Let's go through them.
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: There's one version where senators who want to filibuster have
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: to make sure at least one senator is on the
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: floor speaking at all times. You could tag out with
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: that senator, take turns, do a little tag teaming. But
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: as long as just one senator is talking at all times.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: They could sustain the filibuster. So that seems fairly easy
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: to sustain. Just one person talking, then you switch them
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: out when they get tired. Biden seemed to be suggesting
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: to George a version where the senators can't take turns
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: filibustering and that the filibuster ends when one senator just
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: gets tired of talking, because when that happens, another senator
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: from the other side can say point of order. whatever,
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: some procedure, and then that stops them. And then Senator
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Jeff Merkley has another proposal where all 41 senators in
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: the minority have to be on the floor at all
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: times in order to sustain the filibuster. So instead of
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: 60 votes to break the filibuster, you need 41 votes
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: to keep it going. That would mean everyone who's against
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: that piece of legislation, like if the Republicans decided to
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: filibuster H.R. 1, 41 Republican senators would have to be
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: on the floor at all times. Now, Alyssa, as someone
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: who has worked with and scheduled these little Senate monsters,
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: which version or versions, if any, do you think could
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: actually weaken the filibuster?
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: So the one I think that would weaken the filibuster
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: is the one that Biden, well, there are two, I think.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: The one where it can just be the one senator
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: on the floor, which I think is And Biden is
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: speaking from experience because I think that this is the
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: filibuster that existed in 1973 when he came to the Senate,
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: which is if you're so pissed off, go down and
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: keep talking. And when you're done talking, you can, I
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: think it's called move to the question. And that's that.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: The version with the 40 members of the minority or
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: whatever it is who have to remain on the floor
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: is also kind of a delicious and interesting option. But
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: I think that mostly because you know how bad they
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: all want to go home on the weekend.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Well, that's what I'm saying. Can you imagine trying to keep,
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: can you imagine if you were like Mitch McConnell's office, right?
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: And you're trying to figure out how to get 41
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: members of your caucus on the floor, like in perpetuity
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: until I guess the Democrats get tired. It's basically a
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: game of chicken. I think that's pretty hard to do.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: That's pretty hard to sustain.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: I agree. I agree. I think either of those being
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: able to tag in and out is just hot trash.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's I think that's not going to work. There's
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: another one, too, that's called three fifths present in voting.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: So that would mean that if all 50 Democrats showed
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: up to call for the end of debate to move
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: to a simple majority vote to end a filibuster, Republicans
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: would need 34 to show up and stop them. So basically,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: you need three fifths of the number of senators in
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: the chamber present and voting, which is sort of like
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: the 41 on the floor thing. I think one of
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: those versions would be good. The question is, does Manchin
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: support one of those versions? He has said to reporters
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: so far, I want to get to 60, I want 60,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: I want 60. You can make an argument that you're
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: still getting to 60 if you do the flip side
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: and say, okay, 41 have to be on the floor.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: So I think Manchin's still playing fast and loose there
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: and he's still amenable to these, but we'll see.
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: I also think that Manchin, like, here's the thing. Do
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: I want to believe that he is opening his heart
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: and mind to the idea of this?
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: I do.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: I also think that he doesn't want to be ratioed
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: on social media or have his phone lines blow up.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: So let's just say the proof shall be in the pudding.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Also, there is a good argument to be made that
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Joe Manchin is more powerful in a Senate where there
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: is no filibuster. Because look how powerful Joe Manchin was
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: on the American Rescue Plan where he needed to be
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: the 50th vote. And so he could basically tell the
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: White House whatever he wanted in that package. If we're
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: going to require 60 votes, there's going to be one
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: more reconciliation bill that gets done and nothing else. So
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: suddenly Joe Manchin isn't that powerful anymore. So he actually
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: gets more power by reforming the filibuster.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: I hope he's listening.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Joe Manchin listens to every pod, undoubtedly. So this is
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: all going to come to a head soon. Chuck Schumer
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: said this week that he's putting H.R. 1, the For
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: the People Act, on the Senate floor for a debate,
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: hopefully a vote. Joe Manchin said he will not accept
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: a car vote for voting rights legislation like H.R. 1.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: So he's still for the 60 vote threshold there. That's
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: what he's saying. But Mitch McConnell must not believe Joe
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Manchin because that guy had a complete meltdown on the
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: Senate floor this week. He threatened to retaliate against the
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Democrats if they get rid of the filibuster by grinding
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: the Senate to a halt. And then he threatened to
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: pass a slew of right-wing policy priorities if Republicans win
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Congress and the presidency again. Here's a clip.
• 21:18
  Speaker 6: Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin, can even
• 21:24
  Speaker 6: begin to imagine what a completely scorched earth Senate would
• 21:30
  Speaker 6: look like. Everything that Democrat Senates did to Presidents Bush
• 21:36
  Speaker 6: and Trump, everything the Republican Senate did to President Obama
• 21:42
  Speaker 6: would be child's play compared to the disaster that Democrats
• 21:47
  Speaker 6: would create for their own priorities if, if they break
• 21:53
  Speaker 6: the Senate. As soon as Republicans wound up back in
• 21:57
  Speaker 6: the saddle, we wouldn't just erase every liberal change that
• 22:01
  Speaker 6: hurt the country. We'd strengthen America with all kinds of
• 22:06
  Speaker 6: conservative policies with zero input from the other side. How
• 22:13
  Speaker 6: about this? Nationwide right to work for working Americans. Defunding
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: Planned Parenthood in sanctuary cities on day one. Sweeping new
• 22:24
  Speaker 6: protections for conscience and the right to life of the unborn.
• 22:30
  Speaker 6: Concealed carry reciprocity in all 50 states and the District
• 22:34
  Speaker 6: of Columbia.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: He sounds like a fun guy to grab a beer with.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: Jesus Christ.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: You have a drink with Mitch McConnell.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: You have a drink with Mitch McConnell.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: So I thought Talking Points Memo had a great headline
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: about this, which was McConnell threatens to grind Senate to
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: a halt if Democrats don't let him keep the power
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: to grind Senate to a halt.
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: Right?
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: I mean, also, you've been in charge for four years.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: The fuck did you do? I mean, like he, he.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: He has gone scorched earth already. So I'm not real
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: scared of his threats.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: Well, there's that, of course. Also, like it is an
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: empty threat. And I think he understands that because at
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: one point in the speech, he said, oh, and if
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: I grind the Senate to the halt, I suppose the
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Democrats could just change the rules again. What Mitch McConnell
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: realizes as someone who understands the Senate very well is
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: that When you are in the majority, you have the
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: power and you can change the rules. If Democrats are
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: willing to blow up the filibuster and then Mitch McConnell
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: does a whole bunch of procedural moves to grind the
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: Senate to the halt, Democrats will change those rules too.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: and continue to pass it. Which, by the way, is why,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: you know, back in the day when people were like, oh,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: Democrats should try to grind the Senate to the halt
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: when we don't like something Republicans are doing. When we're
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: in the minority, we really don't have that power. There's
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: only so much power you can have in the minority.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: You don't really have power to grind the Senate to
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: a halt. You do, but the majority could just pass
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: a rule that overrules whatever stunt that you're pulling. Whoever
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: has the majority has the power, is where it comes
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: down to.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: It's very true. And he really just reveals himself as
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: the bitch baby he is.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: He is a bitch baby. He's a bitch baby. How
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: worried are you about his threat to pass a bunch
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: of right-wing policies with simple majorities if Republicans gain power again?
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: I noticed he talked about defunding Planned Parenthood. He talked
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: about abortion restrictions. I have heard from Democratic senators, staff
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: on the Hill, one of the reasons that a lot
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: of sort of longtime Democratic senators who may be more
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: liberal and more progressive are nervous about this is that
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: they believe that for so long the filibuster has protected
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: precisely things like funding for Planned Parenthood and abortion restrictions.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: So you can't help but not be a little concerned,
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: at least, right? On the one hand, Planned Parenthood is popular.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: Roe v. Wade is popular.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: A lot of these, don't forget, you know, this would
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: ultimately have to involve the House at some point. And
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: a lot of GOP members are going to be loathe
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: to vote against Planned Parenthood because it provides the health
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: care to a lot of fucking people in their districts.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: You know, they like to paint, in McConnell's rhetoric, he
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: loves to blow up this like Planned Parenthood equals abortion.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: People who live in places know that Planned Parenthood equals
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: fucking health care. So I think that he would have
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: a hard fight in a debate about well-woman exams, cancer screenings,
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: birth control, health care, et cetera. Also, the thing that's
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: kind of funny, not to be a basic bitch, but
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: he didn't really pass that much legislation when he was
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: in power. Like, he did pass $ 2 trillion in tax cuts.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: And then he just ramrodded judges.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: Both of which he could do with a 50-vote margin.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Republican priorities are tax cuts, gutting spending, confirming judges, all
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: things that you can do with just 51 votes and
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: not 60. Exactly.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: So, you know, his threat sounds great in newsletters and
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: on television, but I will not be bullied by Mitch McConnell.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Good.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: And to your first point about just stuff not being popular, like,
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: let's also remember what he tried to do with 51
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: votes and not 60, which was to destroy the Affordable
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: Care Act. And the reason he couldn't do it is
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: because it was too popular. He couldn't get enough Republican votes.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Exactly.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: And I think like, so, you know, if you want
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: to defund Planned Parenthood, you've got to count on Susan
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Collins and Lisa Murkowski and a bunch of other Republican
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: senators who have voted consistently in favor of funding Planned Parenthood.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: So I think it's... Exactly.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: And that's a hard vote.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: It's a hard vote. Look, there is, we've said this before,
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: there's risks, obviously, to getting rid of the filibuster. But
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: I think when you weigh the risks of, okay, what
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: would happen if Republicans had the presidency, the Senate and
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: the House, what would they do with no filibuster? If
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: you weigh that risk with, OK, well, if we have
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: the filibuster in place, like we're we're never getting to
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: 60 Democratic senators, probably for the next decade at least.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: So there is no world where we get 60 Democratic
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: senators and just pass whatever we want. So then we're
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: basically thinking that the Republican Party is going to completely
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: change and there's going to be a bunch of moderate
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Republican senators who work with us. I don't think that's
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: fucking happening either. So there's no other choice. There's either
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: like gridlock and obstruction for as long as we're alive
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: or we do something about the fucking filibuster. I mean,
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: that's where I come down.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: It's time. I'm with you.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: All right, you're with us. Let's do this. Should we,
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: we got to send the White House the Abolish the
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Filibuster t-shirts just to get them.
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: I will not be happy until we see George Stephanopoulos
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: and Joe Biden doing a, you know, a catch-up interview,
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: both wearing their merch on the soft lawn.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's what we're fighting for here. Let's talk about
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: the situation on the southwest border. I'm calling a situation
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: and not a crisis just to piss off Republicans and
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: White House reporters. Here is what's going on. Every spring
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: for many years, thousands of migrant families from Central America
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: arrive at our border. Some apply for asylum. Some just
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: cross over and get apprehended. Many are children 17 or
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: under who are traveling by themselves. And this year, the
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: Biden administration says they expect more families and children to
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: arrive at our border than at any time in two
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: decades because of the dangerous and often deadly conditions in
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: their home countries. Alyssa, I believe that you were still
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: deputy chief of staff at the White House during the
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: 2014 surge of unaccompanied minors. Can you talk about the
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: challenge facing the Biden administration based on sort of your
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: own experience with this? You know, because some people might
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: hear this and say, what's the problem? Just grant these
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: kids asylum and send them on their way.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: Right. So, I mean, this is, it's the toughest of
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: the tough, right? Because first of all, let's just level
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: set for a sec that kids who arrive at the
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: border unaccompanied are not doing so because it was fucking
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: easy because, I mean, these are people who face the
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: most sort of catastrophic challenges in their home where they
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: come from. So, but once they get there, what do
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: you do with them? They need to be housed. They
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: need to be cared for. They need to be hopefully
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: united with someone in the country, you know, who can
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: accept them and take charge of them. And so it's
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: really hard. I mean, like there's nothing else to say.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: It's just it's really fucking hard.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: There are laws, first of all, right? Legally, you can't
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: just let children go, right? So let's talk about what
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: the Trump administration was doing. The Trump administration was turning
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: everyone away, right? So they were using and they were
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: using this sort of pandemic regulation to turn away adults
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: and children, all of them, everyone who got to the border.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: The Biden administration is still using that pandemic regulation to
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: and that policy to turn a lot of the adults away.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: But the children, they're saying we're not going to turn
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: children away like the Trump administration did. OK, so they're
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: not going to turn the children away. So what do
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: you do? Legally, you cannot just turn the children loose
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: in the country, even if there was no law. Imagine
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: just like an eight year old showing up at the border,
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: checks in with the border guard. And he says, OK,
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: see you later. Have a good time. That's horrific.
• 30:40
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: So then what do you do? You have to hold
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: the children somewhere. They are being held at the border
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: patrol facilities, which are horrific and not a place to
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: hold children or anyone really for a long, long time.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: The reason they're being held there is because the facilities
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: run by Health and Human Services are completely full, partly
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: because of pandemic restrictions, partly just because there's a surge
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: of migrants. And so there's just they're overrun. So and
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: the reason they're all being held is because you have
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: to call to. So a lot of these kids show
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: up with a phone number. of someone, a relative who
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: was in the United States somewhere. You have to call
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: that relative if you're the government, and then you have
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: to vet that relative to make sure it is a
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: safe home for the children. Because one thing that was
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: happening before that was a requirement is sometimes we were
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: placing children, and this was like years and years and
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: years ago, before Obama even, we were placing children with
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: relatives who were horrible people or people who said they
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: were relatives and they were actually smugglers. So like you can't,
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: you have to be, it's the government making sure that
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: the kids are in good conditions. So that's taking time.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: So there's not enough room at the facilities. The facilities
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: are getting overcrowded. There's not enough staff to just literally
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: call the relatives and find good placement for the children.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: So it's a fucking mess, right? It's a mess. It's
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: a mess, but also it's like the Biden administration has
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: been here six weeks. The Trump administration completely dismantled the
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: entire asylum system. They left them a fucking disaster at
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: the border. So literally, it's just about the Biden administration saying,
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: building facilities as fast as they can, improving the conditions
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: as fast as they can, hiring people to both place
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: the children and to look at the asylum applications and
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: process the asylum applications because there's a backlog a mile long.
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: Well, and that's the thing is that that's what's so,
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: as usual, disingenuous about how it's being covered is that
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: we are where we are now because The Trump administration
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: did everything they could to tear apart every ounce of
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: infrastructure there was to deal with the problem. Something that
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: has really been a fucking bee in my bonnet for
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: a long time was a very important piece of this
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: puzzle is the Office of Refugee Resettlement. And during the
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: Trump administration, do you know who ran the Office of
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: Refugee Resettlement? He's a fuck that guy named Scott Lloyd.
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: whose qualification for the job was having worked at the
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: Knights of Columbus before he got it, and used this
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: position where you should be resettling refugees, so many of
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: whom are children, to enforce his anti-abortion. He had a
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: journal of tracking women's periods. It's a fucking lunatic.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: Terrible.
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: So here we are now, even that organization that's meant
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: to deal with this problem was literally raised. It was
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: burned to the ground. And so now Joe Biden has
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: put in Cindy Huang, who is a, she came from
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: Refugees International, right? So like the thing that everybody has
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: to understand is that yes, it's bad. And the images
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: on television are terrible, but they are moving as fast
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: as humanly possible to try to, I mean, they have
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: FEMA down there now. They have HHS employees down at
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: the border helping to register people faster to help with intake.
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: You know, and FEMA is literally treating this like a crisis.
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: Mind you, FEMA, the money Donald Trump robbed from FEMA
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: to buy his wall. And now FEMA is here solving
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: the problem. Yeah.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: And look, none of this is to like excuse the
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Biden administration or excuse the Obama administration when it was
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: us too. Like, it's just that I think because Trump
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: was such a fucking monster on immigration, it obscured the
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: fact that even if he wasn't a monster, he would
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: have had to deal with some pretty intractable challenges at
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: the border that would have been hard for any president,
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: even of good intentions, to deal with.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: And that is actually exactly what we're seeing right now.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: A president who has good intentions, an administration who has
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: good intentions, still having a real hard time because we
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: have a fucking broken immigration system that's messed up. So
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas You know, he just he
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: finally confirmed and he talked about sort of what we
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: can do about this, what the administration wants to do
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: about this long term. Right now, it's just sort of
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: solving the problem.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: Triage.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: Triage. Right. So you want to invest in Central American
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: countries and create new pathways for people to apply from afar.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: So this is a big one. So if you're, we
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: want to let a lot of these young people know
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: who are coming here or families, if you want to
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: apply for asylum in America, that's great. Don't make the
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: dangerous trek through Mexico to America. Apply for asylum in
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: your home country. That, again, is a big process. Takes
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: a lot of work to send that message, to make
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: sure they get that message, that they have access to
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: doing that. But that, you know, that takes a lot.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: Speeding up processing so asylum claimants aren't left just like
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: roaming around the country and kids could get transferred to
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: guardians faster. So you just need more staff, just something
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: very basic. You need more staff. And then you need
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: to have more humane and bigger facilities to temporarily house
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: children while they're waiting to get placed either with the
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: relative or in foster care. So that's the path out
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: of this, but all of that takes time. And the
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: other big challenge for Biden and why they don't have
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: time is because there's a political challenge here.
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: Here's House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy at an event on
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: the border with a bunch of his Republican goons.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: We asked him, which countries are people coming from? Yemen, Iran,
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: Sri Lanka. That's what's coming across. And they're fighting. They
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: even talked about Chinese as well.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: Oh, oh, they. Wow. They even talked about Chinese as well. Also,
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: Sri Lanka. Nice, nice, Kevin McCarthy. Is that the name
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: of the country?
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: Asshole.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: So this is what we're going to hear for the
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: next two years. Joe Biden is letting COVID positive terrorist
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: immigrants into the country so they can pick up their
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: mail-in ballots and their stimulus checks and their vaccines right
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: out of the arms of the elderly. This is the
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: perfect storm of demagoguery for Republicans. How do you think
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: Democrats should handle this? And how does it sort of
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: affect the overall politics of immigration reform?
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, look, Kevin McCarthy is so fucking gross. You know,
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: I mean, he's been around for the last four years
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: because he also, aside from saying that all immigrants were terrorists,
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: he was also like, this is so heartbreaking. OK, like, well,
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: which is it, Kevin? Like, and the thing is, like,
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: the people who want to believe him are like, yeah,
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: it is heartbreaking. And yet they are also terrorists.
• 37:14
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: So.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think you just can't, like, we just
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: have to put him in a box. I mean, like,
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: I know that my answer is always like, just don't
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: listen to him. But, you know, we need immigration reform
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: in a big way. And, you know, he says it's
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: a problem, but you only solve the problem with reform,
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: and they don't want that either.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think your point about how he's both
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: very harsh on immigrants and also saying it's heartbreaking sort
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: of gets to a larger point about public opinion on
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: immigration that he's trying to exploit, which is like public
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: opinion on immigration in this country is fairly complicated. Like
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: you have huge majorities of the public in support of
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: protecting DREAMers. You have a majority in favor of pathway
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: to citizenship. You have huge majorities in favor of like
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: never separating families, right? So like that's where people are
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: on the side of immigrants. You also have majorities that
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: want more border security and You have a majority that
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: like doesn't want to decriminalize border crossings. You have a
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: majority that does think we should deport, you know, some
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: of the more dangerous undocumented people that we shouldn't just
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: have open borders.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: Like so that public opinion on this is is mixed.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: And I think that Republicans are just going to look
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: at this and say, oh, well, what people watching from
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: home think is that it's a fucking mess. And the
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: mess is going to redound to the person in charge.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: And that's Joe Biden. And so all we have to
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: do is just talk about the mess. We don't have
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: to be ideological. Immigrants are bad. We're sad for the children.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: Whatever it is, we're just going to prey on that
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: and exploit people's emotions over this.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, they saw the over the past four years,
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: they saw what Donald Trump did. They saw the race baiting.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: the build the wall, all of this stuff. And he
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: got people all hopped up about it. And they were like,
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: here's the thing. We're very intellectually lazy. And so we're
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: just going to ride that wave for as long as
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: we can. Because, I mean, if they wanted to, there
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: is a lot of common ground here and they just
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: don't want to find it.
• 39:21
  Speaker 6: No.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: Well, look, I think the instinct of some Democrats is
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: to shy away from this fight and this topic and
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: sort of hope it goes away. because they know that
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: the politics of immigration can be fraught. But my advice
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: on that would be like, it's not going to go away.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: First of all, it's not the right thing to do
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: to avoid it because it's an incredibly important problem and
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: we should want to solve it. And we have a
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: good immigration reform proposal and we should fight for it.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: But even if you think the politics are bad, It's
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: not going away. The Republicans are going to make this
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: the issue. Fox News is going to make it an issue.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: The media is going to make it an issue. And so,
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: you know, Cecilia Munoz always talked about this. She was
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: at the White House and sort of ran immigration for
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: us for a very long time, has been an activist
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: for a long time. She said that, you know, Democrats
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: should position themselves as the people who can fix a
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: broken system.
• 40:08
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: Like, yeah, that's what people and I think that's what
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: the Biden administration is, too. Like, we don't have time
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: for the politics that the Republicans are going to play
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: on this. They're going to exploit fear. They're going to
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: exploit division. We just want an orderly, safe, humane immigration
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: system in this country. And we're going to try to
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: do it.
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: That's right, Fabs. Yes, we are.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: Let's take some of. The questions we received from all
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: of you. We got so many questions. This was hard
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: to sift through. I'm going to try to just like
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: cruise through these.
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: Look, I was like, which ones do we do?
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: Well, you should throw some out if I have missed
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: some that you particularly enjoyed. Don't worry, I will. Great. Great.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: All right. Megan via Twitter asks, should Biden team take
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: small bites on tax and immigration instead of a full swing?
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: fixed carried interest, capital gains, corporate tax rate, fixed dreamers,
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: and some immigration aspects instead of doing like sort of big,
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: big reforms. What do you think?
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: I'm torn on this one. On the one hand, you
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: know me. I'm a bull in a china shop. I
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: like to go big. However, however, when I think back, well,
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know, Favs. I'm a little torn.
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think that when we go back to
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: when we were in the White House- You know, sometimes
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: forcing the Republicans to go on record for all of
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: the smaller issues, there is merit to that. You know,
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, the DREAM Act did not pass the first time.
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: It did pass the second time after Republicans went home
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: and got kind of killed because they were like, the fuck,
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: you don't want to take care of the kids who
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: have been here? Like, what's wrong with you? But I
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: don't know. I'm very torn on this one. What do
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: you think?
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: I think you go big and then you take what
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: you can get. Yeah, that's true. I mean, look, I
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: am surprised that we ended up with a $ 1. 9 trillion
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: package because when Biden proposed $ 1. 9 trillion, I thought that
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: was the starting point. I even thought, I'm like, oh,
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: Manchin's going to try to take him down to some
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: smaller amount than this. And he went big and he
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: got it. So like if people in the White House
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: had thought instead of going out with 1.9, let's go
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: out with what we think we can get, which is 1.3, 1.4.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: Good point.
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: Super good point.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: We would have lost a couple hundred billion dollars, you know?
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: So you can't– you don't know until you try. You know,
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: we lost on the minimum wage. But, you know, now
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: that we lost on 15, could you put a group
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: of people together to get 11, to get 12, something
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: like that? 13? Yeah. Like that's not good enough, but
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: I'd take that over nothing.
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: I agree with you.
• 42:40
  Speaker 4: Okay. Okay.
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: So Alaskavery asks, I'm confused about the tax credit for kids.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: How have they changed it? Is it the same money
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: just split up through the year?
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: Go for it.
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: Do you know?
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: Do you know?
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: I do.
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: I know some of it, but go for it.
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: I know. Okay. So the last child tax credit was $ 2, 000
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: per child under the age of 17, right? That's the old.
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: Here's the new. The new is now $ 3, 000 per child
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: under 17, $ 3, 600 per child under six. And you can
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: get half of it in advance from the IRS between
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: June and December.
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: Which is pretty cool.
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: Which is pretty cool. Did I get it right?
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: You did get it right. And yeah, because it's fully
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: refundable now. So there used to be a minimum earning.
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: So you had to earn at least So much money
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: to qualify for the tax credit, which left out a
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: lot of really poor families who probably need it the most.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: So there's no minimum now. So everyone qualifies. Because the
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: thing used to be, oh, if you don't pay taxes,
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: you don't get the credit. Now, if you don't pay
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: income taxes, you don't get the credit. Now, if you
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: don't pay income taxes, you still get the credit. You know,
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: Chris Hayes described this better than anyone, I thought, which
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: was just, this is Social Security for kids. These are
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: Social Security checks.
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's a- That's a great way to look at it.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: I thought it was great.
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: See, so Alaska Avery, it's a complicated issue.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: There you go. Jack Versteeg asks, how can Midwest Democrats
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: in states like South Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota, et cetera,
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: get back to making some headway? Having a D next
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: to a candidate seems to be a guaranteed L in
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: these states lately.
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: Don't you think? Okay. So there are like a lot
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: of answers to this question, I think. Here's mine. I
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: think that Democrats need to start super, super local. because
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: I think that there is so much more common ground
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: at the local level than when you start talking just
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: like national politics. National politics can be so polarizing. But
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: so I think in those states, they have to make
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: sure that they're running as many Democrats as they can
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: at the local level. This is how you bring communities
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: sort of like into the process. And yeah, that's like,
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: I just noticed like up here in upstate New York,
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: it's very purpley ready where I live. And our assembly person,
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: is a Democrat. And she says that it's just like
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: when you talk about funding libraries and schools and stuff,
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: it's just much less polarizing and people start to believe,
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: you know, she now has Republicans who come up to
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: her and say like, you're not that bad. And so
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: I think that local, I love local.
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: That's the only way to do it. It's to play
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: in all 50 states. It's to play in small towns.
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: This is easier said than done. You have to find
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: Democrats in these areas who are willing to do that,
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: who are willing to both organize, talk to their neighbors.
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: And if you're one of the Democrats asking the questions
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: in one of those states, it can be you. You
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: can be the person who organizes a committee meeting. You
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: can be the person that runs for a small local
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: office to start. You can build up the Democratic Party
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: in your area. with your own neighbors, but it's gotta,
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: it's gotta start somewhere. I also think that, you know,
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: South Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota, those are, those are tough
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: states to flip. Those are going to be some of
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: the toughest states to flip. I think there are some
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: states where no state was probably as primed as Georgia
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: to flip because of, and Arizona, because of sort of
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: demographic changes and, and migration patterns and stuff like that.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: But there are other states where there are sort of
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: urban areas in red states that are growing and That
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: if more people move there, if they kept growing and
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: we know the Democrats win in urban areas, like you
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: could start seeing those states get competitive. Like Alaska, right?
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: Alaska is like people are moving to Anchorage, right? And
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: the more people move in Anchorage, the more blue it gets. Montana.
• 46:34
  Speaker 6: Right?
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: Like there's a reason we still have Jon Tester in
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: the Senate from a red state.
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: Like more people moving to Bozeman, right? Because they like
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: the outdoors. And you're getting a lot of this from
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: like big congested cities on the coast. People are deciding
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: to start moving into the interior of the country. So,
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe a little strategy in where all the
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: young libs move would be– all the young urban professionals
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: would be helpful.
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: I'd like to say that Erin and I forecasted this,
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: the political witches that we are at the beginning of COVID.
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: That people were going to start moving and places might
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: get a little more purple, a little more purple where
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: people start moving.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: That'd be so sweet. Rio Fernandez asks, this is for you, Alyssa.
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: Why are so many Democrats still so spooked about advocating
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: for legalizing marijuana? It polls around 65% in favor. Seems
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: like an easy and popular issue to jump on. Are
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: people still spooked? I guess people are spooked.
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: I couldn't fucking agree more. No, here's what I think, actually.
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: This is... very controversial what I'm about to say. I
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: think more Democrats who are in charge of legislation need
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: to actually try weed. I think that, one, I think
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: that they have never done it. I think they don't
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: understand it. I think they should all take trips to
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: grow facilities. I think they should all talk to very
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: ill people who have used it and who have really
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: been helped in cancer and other things, which is Granted,
• 48:02
  Speaker 3: medical marijuana is legal in many other places, but there
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: are so many conditions that aren't covered under medical that
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: are also so benefit from it. And also, fundamentally, it's taxes, people.
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: Do you know how much the money that states make?
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: It is insane the taxes that you can get from
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: legalizing weed. You can reform major systems. We're talking billions
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: of dollars in California and Colorado. I think weed is
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: like the fourth biggest cash crop in the world. So
• 48:38
  Speaker 3: mostly I think they're scared. I think they all smoked
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: a joint in college and they were freaked out and
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: they're like, this is terrible. I also think, you know,
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: there was a lot of damage done during, you know,
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: dare to get kids off drugs and the war on
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: drugs back in the 80s, which has stuck with people, right?
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: But I just think that if you really fundamentally look
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: at legalizing weed holistically, not just making it legal to buy,
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: but getting people out of jail who sold it, making
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: sure that those folks have ways back in society, making
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: the weed industry equitable, making there be equity and equality, actually,
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: so that the fucking weed industry doesn't look like Silicon Valley.
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: No offense, white dudes. But, you know, I just think
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: that I think they're all just a little scared. I
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: think it really just comes down to that, that they're
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: a little worried to go out and be like, I
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: support weed. It's like, let me tell you, if you
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: don't eventually, the ghost of Jerry Garcia will find you.
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: I think that it's a great idea to have them
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: all try it. I do think we should start them
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: off smoking a little weed.
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: Micro dose.
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: Micro dose. We should not have them do like the
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: Maureen Dowd, I'm going to have a whole chocolate bar, edible,
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: and then write a column.
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: That's ding dong. She did real damage.
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: What?
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: Fucking does that don't don't follow me on instagram i'll
• 49:58
  Speaker 3: tell you how.
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: To do it don't eat the whole chocolate bar members
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: of congress as you're contemplating marijuana legalization that's our that
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: is our advice to you um stacy kitchen uh asks
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: love that you two are doing the pod together what's
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: your favorite memory while traveling i feel like those are okay.
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: This is This is top of mind for me. Do
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: you have one top of mind?
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: No, I was counting on you because my memory is
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: so horrible and all the foreign trips blend together, but
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: you start talking and then maybe it'll jog something for me.
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: Okay. So I have one that is just my favorite
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: because you and I, despite the fact that I'm like
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: seven years older than you, I think, we were always
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: treated like the kids, right? Like always treated like the kids.
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: And so you and I were in Singapore and The
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: Shangri-La Hotel.
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: This is one of the ones I thought about actually.
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: Okay, good.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: I'm glad you– Okay.
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: And so we're at the Shangri-La Hotel and as we
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: love to do.
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: Beautiful hotel.
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: Beautiful hotel in Singapore. I think we have Harvey Wallbangers.
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: He wasn't giving any speeches. He was like doing a
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: bunch of bilats. So like I had nothing to do.
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: I was just– like Ben Rhodes was the important person
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: with the POTUS and I was just chilling.
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: This is– and the thing that was just very funny
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: about Singapore, I think we were there for a conference, right?
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: So some of us had less to do than others.
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: So you and I text, do you want to meet
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: down for breakfast? So we go downstairs to meet for breakfast.
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: And who is there but Pete Rouse, our boss since
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: the beginning of Obama land, and Valerie Jarrett were eating breakfast.
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: And they're like, come eat with us. So you and
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: I sit down and look. Pete and Valerie were like
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: mostly professionally dressed for work. You and I were, I think,
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: in sweatpants. And we sit down with them. Pete and
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: Vijay already had a little bit of breakfast. I'm like,
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: let's go take a tour. And you and I find
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: there is a chocolate fountain in the middle of the
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: breakfast buffet. And we're like, whoa, this is crazy. There's
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: a chocolate fountain. I definitely got something in the chocolate fountain.
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: Me too.
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: And we go back to the table and we sit
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: down and– Hillary Clinton comes over. She's got her hair
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: in a ponytail and a scrunchie. She says good morning
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: to us. You and I start feasting on our plates.
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: And Pete Rouse, without missing a beat, looks at us
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: and he's like, if you two don't want people treating
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: you like fucking kids, you might want to skip the
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: chocolate fountain at the buffet.
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: I forgot Pete said that.
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: And you and I were just like, probably, but we
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: finished our chocolate-dipped pineapple.
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: I think it was very fair. Do you know what
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: had happened the night before to me?
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: Was that? No, vaguely, vaguely.
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: I went out because we had the hotel where the
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: president was staying and like all the stuff there. And
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: then the press stays at a different hotel, like usually
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: across town. But like all the press staff was with
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: the press. And that's like, you know, Nick Shapiro was
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: there and Tommy and all my friends. I was like,
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go out with them tonight to bars
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: in Singapore. So went out with them. I remember leaving
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: Nick Shapiro at a bar because I was like, I
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: got to go home. I got to go to sleep.
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: I get in the car to go home. I did
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: not have, you were supposed to have a lanyard with
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: a badge for the Asian conference that we were at, right?
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: The Asian countries conference that we were at. And so ASEAN,
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: that's what it was called. So we're at the ASEAN
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: conference and I didn't have my badge. So I get
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: there and there's a perimeter around the hotel, a security perimeter.
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: And the cab drops me off there and I go
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: up to the security perimeter and I just proudly have
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: my secret service pin because I thought that's all I needed.
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: And they said, no, no, you need the badge. I'm like,
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: I don't have the badge. 10 guys surround me with
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: guns and they say, please give us your passport immediately.
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: And so I give them my passport. They walk off
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: down the road to the hotel, which is like half
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: a mile away with my passport. And I'm like, fuck,
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: now I'm sitting here in Singapore with guys having guns
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: trained on me and I don't have my passport. So
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: it was like, and it's like two in the morning.
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: So now the only thing I can think of is
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: to email the White House, people at the White House
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: thinking they would be up because the time difference in D.C.
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: And Ferial said, Someone at the White House got in
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: touch with Ferial, who was the president's personal assistant at
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: the time, and she told the guys who I was
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: and came out and got me because someone from the
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: White House got in touch with her.
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: That is so fast.
• 54:18
  Speaker 6: It was dicey.
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: It was dicey.
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: The reason I remember that story is because I was
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: very clear with everybody before we got off Air Force
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: One that this was not a joke, that we were
• 54:29
  Speaker 3: being given credentials, that we had to have our credentials,
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: and it was everybody listening to me. And everyone was like,
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: I'm listening to you. So the best was you didn't
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: tell me what happened. Rhodes was like, AM, did you
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: hear what happened with Favs last night? Of course.
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: Tattletale.
• 54:44
  Speaker 3: That was– oh, God. I mean, I miss porn trips.
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: I know. Me too. Me too. Well, someone asked– Amy asked,
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: I want to know if Alyssa looks at the Biden
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: administration and misses being in an administration. What do you think?
• 55:00
  Speaker 3: I mean– Of course. I mean, of course, a little bit. Like,
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: here's the thing. This is my, I'm stating it for
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: the record. What I'd like to do at some point
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: in my life, but it only works if it's like
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: a group thing. If you and me and Rhodes and
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: Pfeiffer and Tommy all do it together, I'd like to
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: go back as like a czar for six months for
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: something I really give a shit about. Like, I want
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: to go back. You know what? I want to go
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: back as the weed czar for like six months. I
• 55:30
  Speaker 3: want to get that shit passed. I want weed to
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: be federally legal. And I want to take, like, I
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: think the one thing that we could all look back
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: on is say that because it is so high pressure,
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: it's so, it's such a hard job. Every single job
• 55:43
  Speaker 3: is a hard job when you're at the White House
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: that I'd like to go back and just kind of
• 55:46
  Speaker 3: live it up a little bit.
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: Like, do all the shit we didn't do. Did you
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: ever go bowling?
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: No, I never went bowling.
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: No, I want us to ride the golf carts at
• 55:57
  Speaker 3: Camp David. I want us to just get hammered at
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: a state dinner. And like really live it up for
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: a little bit.
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: I know. I do want to do the fun things.
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: I think there is 0% chance that any of us
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: will be confirmed by any kind of Senate at this point.
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: Ever, which is why I just need a czar. I
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: need to fast track.
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: If a couple of tweets did it for Neera and
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: her tweets did it, my tweets certainly aren't surviving anything.
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: So that's it. But no, I don't feel– I never
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: feel jealous when I see like– I watched poor Jen
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: Psaki at the briefing for like 10 minutes, who's doing
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: an incredible job as White House press secretary. And I
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: listened to some of the fucking questions she gets. And
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: I was like, no, I can't do this anymore. I
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: definitely couldn't be in that role.
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: No, because you just can't hold your tongue.
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: But I have talked to people who've thought about going
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: into the White House, this White House, who've never been
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: in a White House before and just asking me job advice.
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, look, For as hard as it is
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: and there are days when it's a real slog and
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: your life is not your own and you could be
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: called in to work at any moment of the day,
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: there are things that you will do in the White
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: House that will never be matched by anything you do
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: in your professional career. And go into the White House
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: even just for those things. Go to some events in
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: the East Room. Go on a foreign trip. Go on
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: Air Force One. There are things that make it absolutely
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: worth it even though it's really, really hard. So yeah,
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: I'm mixed on that too. Okay, Alyssa, what jam recipe
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: are you most proud of? There are a lot of
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: questions about this.
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: The jam recipe that I'm most proud of, I think
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: I am most proud of these series of marmalades that
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: I've done.
• 57:30
  Speaker 4: Nice.
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: Specifically, because they're very hard. It is a lot of work,
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: and there are many competing. There are like French methods
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: and British methods. Anyway, I've loved it, but the recipe
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: I am most proud of is my– I made Seville
• 57:49
  Speaker 3: orange– spearmint weed marmalade. It is really good. And I
• 57:56
  Speaker 3: was throwing around words like decarbioxalating my weed. But the
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: one thing I love about Twitter, this is like the
• 58:02
  Speaker 3: upside of Twitter, is that when I posted a picture
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: of what I had done, someone's like, wait, do you
• 58:07
  Speaker 3: know that there's a way better way to decarbioxalate your weed?
• 58:10
  Speaker 3: I was like, I did not. So people are just like,
• 58:12
  Speaker 3: people want my jams to be successful. So they're just
• 58:14
  Speaker 3: pushing me across the finish line.
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: I don't even know what that word means and I
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: don't think I could repeat it.
• 58:20
  Speaker 3: So it basically means that you take the weed and
• 58:22
  Speaker 3: you put it in the oven and you cook it.
• 58:25
  Speaker 3: And the way that you make– to get all the
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: turbines like getting going. And the truth is the tip
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: someone gave me because my husband endured our house smelling
• 58:39
  Speaker 3: like a dead show. when I was decarboxylating it, they're like, no,
• 58:43
  Speaker 3: put a damp towel down on a cookie sheet and
• 58:46
  Speaker 3: then put the weed inside a mason jar. And like, anyway,
• 58:49
  Speaker 3: it was a great tip.
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: Nice.
• 58:51
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: I'm going to have to try some of that. So
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: Daniel Riesco asks, hey guys, would love to hear if
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: you guys have experienced any post COVID quarantine anxiety now
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: that people are getting vaccinated and the country is starting
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: to open up. What's the first thing you will both
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: do once you're fully vaccinated? I have to say, I've
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: seen some of these stories. It's going to be so
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: socially awkward when I get back into public and I
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: understand that people have those anxieties. I understand that to
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: each their own, people go through different things. I have
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: none of that. I am getting back out there. I'm
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: going to be running through the streets hugging people. I
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: am getting back to her fucking office. All of these
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: stories like maybe we'll work remotely forever. Again, might work
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: for some people. Again, you know, we're trying to figure
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: out remote working from home policies too for Crooked. I
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: will have my ass in that office all the time.
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: I am so excited to see people again.
• 59:47
  Speaker 4: So.
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: I felt this question in my core because I've had
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: a little anxiety. Mostly though, I think for me, well,
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: the first thing I am doing when I am not
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: just fully vaccinated, but when everything is sort of a
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 3: little bit more open and people are feeling good. is
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 3: that I am coming out to visit you. I can't
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 3: believe how long it has been. I need to squeeze
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 3: that baby's cheeks.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: And then I might just, I can drive the PCH
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 3: up to San Francisco and bomb the Pfeiffer family while
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: I'm there.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: Well, that, that is the, that's the toughest part of this.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: And for, it has been for so many people, right?
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: Like you, you see your own, hopefully you can see
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: a lot of your immediate family or anyone who's living
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: in your city, right? And you can see them socially
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: distanced or whatever. And I've seen people like, you know,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: I see Tommy lives down the street and I've seen
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: people like that. My parents finally are vaccinated. And so,
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: you know, they would be hanging out with them, but
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: there's a whole bunch of people who you're close with,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: who in the normal course of a year, if you
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: don't live in the same city, you would see, and
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: you would hang out with. And it is like, it
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: is bizarre to me that I have not seen you
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: in a year that you have not met Charlie. Like
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: that is so weird. And that's happened for millions of people.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's just, and I think where my anxiety
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 3: comes from is like, let's all be honest. There are
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: people we haven't seen in a year and it's fine.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 3: And so I think it's like, how do you deal
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 3: with those people maybe? Like when they come a calling,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: it's like, it's that it's stressful is that you've gotten
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 3: used to functioning in your household essentially, right? And so
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 3: I think more than anything, it maybe feels a little
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 3: bit overwhelming in that way, but I cannot wait. I like,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 3: it is, I mean, Fav's like, We have never, ever
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: gone this long without seeing each other ever.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 5: I know.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: And it is, I also think that just like the
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: topics of conversation will change, right? Because right now, like
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: the times in COVID where I've like had a backyard
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: socially distant hang, you're like sitting in a couple of
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: chairs with people and like, what are you talking about? Like,
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: So this pandemic, huh? And you just like talk about
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: the fucking pandemic news and you don't ask things like,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: what have you been up to? What's new with you?
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: Because nothing's new.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 3: Nothing's new.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: So the conversations become sort of like stilted after a
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: while and there is an anxiety there. And so like,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, see, that's the thing.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: Once it's all lifted and everyone's back to normal, you
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: start talking to people about their lives again.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 3: Right, exactly. I mean, because honestly, there's not much happening
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 3: to me beyond what you've seen on Instagram.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: Same, same, same, same.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 3: Oh, wait, I have one.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: Okay, go, go, go, go, go.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 3: Because there are.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: No, no, no.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 3: Just one. Because Derek Peff, who is both a crooked,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 3: he is a big crooked fan all around.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 3: He says, what is the top Grateful Dead jam of
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 3: all time? And was it ever used at a campaign rally?
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 3: Absolutely never used at a campaign rally. But this is
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 3: important because it is Phil Lesha's 81st birthday. And there
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 3: are tons of Deadheads who are fans. So I just
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 3: want to shout out two things. One, the Cornell shows
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 3: in May of 77. are great and I have always
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 3: been a huge fan. However, if we're going for a
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 3: real jam here, I've got to go with Deal into
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 3: Franklin's Tower because that's an unusual combo from Winterland, June 77.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: And I just also want to say hi to Jeffrey Norman,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: who is the sound mixer for The Dead and a
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 3: fan of the show.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: That's cool.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: That's really cool. Okay. Jim says, can Alyssa retell the
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: story of Tommy and John's casual Friday choices that led
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: to policy change?
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 3: Oh, yes. Let's talk about this for a hot minute, okay?
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 3: Because Barack Obama, Senator Obama, was very– he was very
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 3: generous in how he would let us dress on casual
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 3: Friday in the United States Senate. And we all definitely
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 3: pushed the limits a little bit. I had some very
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: odd skirts, but, you know, always normal shoes. I didn't
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 3: wear my Berks to the office. However– You two numbnuts
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 3: on a Friday showed up in the summer with jeans
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 3: that had holes, not small holes, not ironic holes, like
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 3: actual pieces of your pants were missing and you had
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 3: straight up flip flops on. And Pete Rouse, again, it's
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 3: a big Pete Rouse episode. I hope he listens. Pete
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 3: Rouse came back and was like, I hope you two
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 3: know you've ruined it for everybody in the office. People
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 3: can't see that I run an office with people who
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 3: have no respect for any dress code whatsoever. So after that,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 3: we couldn't wear jeans because of you.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure that the reason we were dressed like
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: that is because we came.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 3: You were hungover.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: We came right from the airport because we had been
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: in Vegas. I think we had a trip that we
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: were coming. I think it was like a Monday. So
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: you came to the United States.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: It was like a Monday morning. No, wasn't it a Friday?
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: I thought it was Casual Friday. No, it was during
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: the summer, which meant that all the week was casual. Remember,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: there was Casual Fridays, but then like in.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 3: The summer, it got a little loose in the summer.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: Got a little loose.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: So that was unfortunate.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: Last question. What were John and Alyssa's first impression of
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: each other when they first met?
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 3: I was so– so you came as a package with
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 3: Amy Brundage to the John Kerry townhouse like two days
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 3: after you had graduated from Holy Cross.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 3: And you were– so you were like not uptight. You
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 3: were super fun. And I was like, I never had
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 3: a brother before. I'm going to make him mine.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: That's so funny because I was going to say the
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: same thing about you. I remember going into the scheduling
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: office and Amy worked in the scheduling office and we
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: went to college together. So that was my one friend
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: in the campaign. And it was you and Amy and
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: Karin who ran scheduling. And Karin was extremely good at
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: her job and also a little scary because she had
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: shit locked down. And you were just so approachable and
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 2: kind and fun and And I have to say, like,
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: as we got started getting to know each other, I
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: was like, I had never, like, I went to college
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 2: an hour from home. So I never had really left
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: home before.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: And D.C. was my first, like, leaving home. And I
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: felt to my, and so I was, like, a little
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: nervous about just, like, living in a new city by myself.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: And when I met you and started hanging out with you,
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 2: I was like, this is going to be, like, the
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 2: sister I never had. And she's going to take care
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: of me. And if something goes wrong, like, Alyssa's going
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: to take care of me. Everything's going to be okay.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 5: Always did.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: And you have for the last 15, 17 years.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 3: We were tweeting yesterday or the other day about when
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 3: we actually left each other to go our separate ways
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: before the Iowa caucuses. And the funny thing is I
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 3: talked about how we went to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 3: But the actual reason we went to dinner is because
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 3: I took you to Filene's to get sheets. Remember? So
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 3: that you could take them to Iowa with you. I
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 3: was like, you can't go without sheets. You have to
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 3: bring sheets.
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I showed up to Iowa with like a bag
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: of sheets and Tommy's like, well, there's an air mattress
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 2: on the floor if you want.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 3: You're like, yeah, now I have sheets, motherfucker. But the
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 3: thing too that I always remember that to me is
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 3: like just burned in my head is that the day
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 3: that you left the White House, I actually don't even
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 3: know if I can tell the story without crying a
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 3: little bit. But the day that you left the White House,
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 3: I was so sad because it was like the first
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 3: time we'd ever be separated.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 3: And I didn't want to talk at your going away
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 3: party because I was afraid I'd cry. And I did anyway.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 3: And I cried. And Barack Obama got emotional watching me.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 3: Everyone was like, whoa, okay. We just thought you guys
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 3: got drunk together. We didn't know you were like related.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 2: That was emotional.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 3: It was emotional.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: Well, that's it. That's all the questions we have for today.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: On that very warm and touching note, we can end.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 3: Everybody needs it.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: Much love to Dan and Holly. And we cannot wait
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: for news for the phone tree to get activated so
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 2: we can all find out. Good luck. And we love
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: you guys. And we're very excited for new baby Pfeiffer
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: to come. Bye, guys. Pod Save America is a Crooked
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: Media production. The executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our associate
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 2: producer is Jordan Waller. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 2: Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer. Thanks to Tanya Somenator,
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: Katie Long, Roman Papadimitriou, Caroline Rustin, and Justine Howe for
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: production support. And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Narmal Konian,
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: Yale Freed, and Milo Kim, who film and upload these
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: episodes as videos every week.