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Biden and Haley Tag Team Trump · Pod Save America

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: I'm Jon Lovett.
• 0:22
  Speaker 4: I'm Tommy Detour.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: On today's show, Nikki Haley hits Donald Trump hard and
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: promises to stay in the race through Super Tuesday.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Hell yeah.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: And Joe Biden gives a fiery speech in South Carolina
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: and puts together a campaign strategy that includes Taylor Swift.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: That's right, we're going to include Taylor Swift in the opening,
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: just to.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Get those numbers up. Get that Kansas City achievement. Get
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: that NFL traffic. Have you guys seen that there's a
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: whole conspiracy theory that the Super Bowl was scripted because
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: an Outback Steakhouse had a poster that said Kansas City
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Chiefs versus San Francisco 49ers a couple weeks ago?
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: I did not know about the Outback. Was that a
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: poster from 2020 when they played each other in the
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Super Bowl?
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: I don't know. I obviously don't know.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: They were pushing on an open door with this. There's
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: a lot of NFL-rigged conspiracy theories. There was a... There
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: was a rumor out there that there was an actual
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: script written that someone had gotten their hands on. That's cool.
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: It's all nonsense.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: The vague thinks it was a deep state thing that
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: the Chiefs are going to the Super Bowl and Taylor Swift.
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: I don't think it's rigged, but the NFL is definitely like,
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: hell yeah, thank God. Oh, yeah.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, for sure.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: For sure.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Well, that's capitalism. That's not.
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Which is also often rigged.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: And she can get here in time from Tokyo.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she can. She gets a private plane. Tokyo Saturday night.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: She's got to fly right after that, and then she's
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: got to go right to Vegas. But first, the big
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: issue in Congress and the 2024 campaign right now is immigration.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: We talked last week about Trump trying to kill the
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: bipartisan deal to secure the border so that Republicans can
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: run on that issue. The whole party is doubling down
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: on that after President Biden endorsed the deal, said that
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: it would give him emergency authority to shut down the
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: border when it becomes overwhelmed, and promised to do that
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: the day he signed the bill into law. Trump called
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: the deal a political gift to Democrats, told a crowd
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: in Las Vegas that he wants the blame for killing it,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: and praised Speaker Mike Johnson for saying the deal would
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: be dead on arrival in the House. Republicans are instead
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: attempting to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for not
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: addressing the border crisis, even though he's the guy who
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: helped negotiate the bipartisan deal to address the border crisis. Meanwhile,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: the lead Republican negotiator in the Senate, Oklahoma's extremely conservative
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: James Lankford, who was condemned by his own state party
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: over the deal, went on Fox and called out his
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: colleagues for playing politics.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: It is interesting.
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: Republicans four months ago would not give funding for Ukraine,
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: for Israel, and for our southern border because we demanded
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: changes in policy. So we actually locked arms together and said,
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: we're not going to give you money for this.
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: We want to change in law.
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: And now it's interesting, a few months later, when we're
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: finally getting to the end, they're like, oh, just kidding.
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: I actually don't want to change in law because it's
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: a presidential election year. We all have an oath to
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: the Constitution, and we have a commitment to say we're
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: going to do whatever we can to be able to
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: secure the border.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: Uh-huh.
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  Speaker 2: So we'll get into the politics in a second. But
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: what's your take on the deal based on what's been
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: reported so far? I know we don't have text of
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: the deal yet.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, we don't have it. First of all, the
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: Oklahoma Republicans are denouncing him for a deal they have
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: not seen. It doesn't exist on paper. We've only seen
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: like we were right before recording, like looking around to
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: find if there was anything with more than a few
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: sentences and kind of passed on descriptions of it. Like
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: Biden refers to it in a statement. Reporters have vague
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: details in their stories that they've probably gotten from staffers
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: and senators. So, you know, basically all we know is
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: that there's what amounts to a conservative border proposal that
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: has been sort of negotiated between Democrats and Republicans. And,
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: you know, we have like the vaguest of details.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: He got in trouble for the sin of negotiating with
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Democrats in the first place. I mean, we sort of
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: know the broad strokes of the deal, right? They're going to,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: that if border crossings get to a certain level, then
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Biden would be required to shut down the border.
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: If it gets over an average of 5,000 people a
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: day for a week, or I think if it spikes
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  Speaker 4: to one day of 8,500 crossings, you can suspend asylum
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: screening at non-official ports of entry.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: And that's a rate that's been hit most days in
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: the past month.
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  Speaker 4: Yes. Yes.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: And there's also just going to be funding. There might
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: change the timeline for getting your asylum hearing. Right now,
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: it's like up to a year, but they're going to
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: try to Bring that down to six months because part
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: of the problem is there's just not enough judges and
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: the hearings are taking too long.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: Not up to a year, years. Yeah, years. They want
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: to get it down from years to six months.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: They're going to try to do more work permits because
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: another issue that's happening is when people claim asylum and
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: then they are released into the country. They can't get
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: jobs anywhere because they don't have work permits. So that's
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: an issue they're trying to fix as well. So that's
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: sort of the broad strokes of the deal. The Republicans
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: are saying that because it's up to 5,000 a day
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: to close the border down, that basically that Biden and
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: the people supporting this deal want to let in 5,000
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  Speaker 2: a day.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that is a permission, that it's a number. The
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: idea that we're saying, Langford, a right-winger, and they sent
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: him to do this. They sent him to his death
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: to go do this.
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  Speaker 2: The American Conservative Union in 2020- named James Lankford the
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: second most conservative senator in the United States Senate. This
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: is the squish. This is the liberal squish who's betrayed
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: the Republicans on this deal.
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, look, I don't know the guy, but
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: he does seem like he's sincerely trying to lead a
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: process to solve the problem. You know, I heard him
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: talk about what his final bill would look like, and
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: he basically thought he could put together something that would
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: get half Democrats and half Republicans to get to maybe
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: 70 votes. But he's talking about something. It is a
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: real problem. I mean, I heard Lankford say in an
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: interview that Uh, in 2010, 21,000 people applied for asylum
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: on the Southern border. The U S now sees that
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: number in two days. So you can understand how the
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: system is just completely overwhelmed and overtaxed. And you have
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: this perverse incentive where, uh, people know that if you
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: apply for asylum, you can get released into the U
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: S and basically wait out your asylum hearing for years
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: and years and years. But that has led to, you'll
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: have people flying from like Uzbekistan to Mexico to pay
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: a cartel or a trafficker to take them to the border.
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: And no one thinks that that's how the process should go.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: Because if you're coming from Uzbekistan, you're going through all
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: these other countries where you could seek asylum if you
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: actually had a political concern or need.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's tough to understand the extent of the crisis
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: because for so long, Republicans have used Fox and everything
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: else to make people think that we're getting invaded by immigrants, right?
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: That's their whole shtick. But last month, illegal border crossings
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: from Mexico were the highest ever recorded in history, over 300,000
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: in December. And so border patrol, immigration courts, completely overwhelmed.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Migrants and asylum seekers waiting forever for hearings. They're getting
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: bused to cities that do not have the resources to
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: help them. They cannot get work permits. So the current
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: system isn't working for anyone, including migrants.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 4: People have sincere asylum needs who can't get a hearing.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah. The Biden administration also put in place this, they
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: had an app, So that you could, instead of coming
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: to the border, like in your home country, you could
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: try to schedule at a port of entry, an asylum hearing.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: And the wait times just for that app, like sometimes three,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: four months just to get through because the demand is
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: so high because there's just so many people. So it's just,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: it's just a mess.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: It was also a mistake, I think, to push that
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: U2 album as part of the app.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: Timely. Timely joke there. Wow.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Aging.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Aging millennial.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: Well, everyone's aging, John. Find me a person who isn't aging.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: He's got a good point.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: That is a good point. So immigration activists are angry
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: with Biden for saying he'll shut down the border. I
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: would say that, as Tommy mentioned, they're still going to
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: allow people to apply for asylum at ports of entry.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: And because there's a Republican House, the choice is not
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: between a deal and a better deal. It's between this
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: deal and the status quo, which the vast majority of Americans,
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: elected officials of both parties, people in border communities and
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: now big cities do not want. They want to get
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: control of the border. The polling is very terrible.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: By the way, and the polling shows that like, I
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: think it's like between, it depends on the poll, but
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: like let's say between 55 and 60% when asked prefer
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: Republicans to Democrats on the border. Like it's also an
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: issue in which Republicans feel like they have an advantage
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: and like having Biden in a position to be making
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: this deal is one we'd prefer than.
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: Then Donald Trump making this deal.
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: There's also a lot of money in there for Border Patrol,
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: but also immigration judges, asylum officers, so people to actually
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: process these claims and try to help people get heard.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: There's also, it would provide green cards for refugees from
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: Afghanistan who are in the U.S., so that's another important
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: wrong the administration's trying to write through this process.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: And just to come back to the polling for a second,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: it's wild. I was surprised by this too. So immigration
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: judges When you ask people what their top issue is,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: immigration has always been sort of up there for Republicans,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: at least in the last several years in the Trump era.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: It's now getting to be the top issue for voters.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: In a couple of polls, it was the number one issue.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: It's now like overtaking inflation as a big issue. And YouGov,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: just I was out with a poll today, and this
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: was not a small sample, it's 40,000 adults. And they
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: asked the question, do you support or oppose building a wall?
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Support 50%, oppose 33%. With plurality support from the following groups,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: 18 to 29-year-old voters, black voters, Hispanic voters, basically every
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: single demographic group they tested except for registered Democrats. It
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: wants a fucking wall, which, first of all, is bad
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: and would not solve the problem and is just, like, ridiculous.
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: Waste of money.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: So if that's the, if that's the pulling on the wall,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: imagine the pulling on, well, at least secure the border.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And I do think like on this issue and
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: a bunch of other issues, I do think like there
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: is a broader, a broader recurring theme, which is The
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: more people feel like a problem is outer control, not
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: well maintained, that there's a sense of danger, the more
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: conservative their responses get on other issues related to it.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: If people feel that crime is high, they want more
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: funding for the police. If people believe the border is
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: a mess, their immigration positions move to the right. And
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: so there is a connection between wanting a long-term, humane, compassionate, open,
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: welcoming society and a set of policies that put Biden
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: in a position to say the border is more under
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: control or, you know, on the path to being kind
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: of protected, whatever.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: I bet people also support the wall because it's the
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: only policy solution they've heard about for the past decade, right?
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: Because our immigration system is this confusing dated patchwork of
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: laws and processes, and Trump is offering them a very
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: simple one, a simple fix. We're going to build the
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: wall and we're going to lock people out, right? And
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: like that kind of populist demagoguery is highly effective, especially
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: when you're demagoguing groups or just attacking, you know, government
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: that's not working.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: And again, people's views on the border are very different
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: than people's views on legal immigration and what to do
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: about the tens of millions of undocumented immigrants who are
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: already here and who've been here for a while. The
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: majority of Americans still want a pathway to citizenship for
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: undocumented immigrants who are here and they want more legal immigration.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: It's just that the border is Um, and now that
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: the border problem has not just become an issue for
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: border communities, but for cities all across the country that
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: has pissed a lot of people off and they want
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: it fixed. So I don't see how this gets done
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: now because, uh, Johnson said it was dead on arrival
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: in the house. I don't even know if it will
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: pass the Senate at this point, because I don't think
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: a lot of Senate Republicans might not want to take
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: a hard vote if they know that it's not going
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: anywhere in the house. But I don't know. Do you
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: guys see any way this gets done? I.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: First of all, it's just amazing that this has become
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: a hard vote.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Uh, and just, it is, I know, we should talk
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: about the Trump of it all.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: This is fucking wild. This border debate is a concession
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: to a concession. This is a border debate that was
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: made necessary by Republicans insisting on it in order to
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: pass funding for Ukraine. And then inside of that border negotiation,
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: you have Democrats and the Biden administration conceding on a
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: number of grounds to get to a bipartisan compromise that
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: can conceivably pass both houses. And the idea that that
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: like a border control measure that they sought out that
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: is ultimately like, you know, I'm sure that Democrats that
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: are part of the negotiation are fighting hard to make
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: it as humane, compassionate, you know, as much funding as
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: possible to fix the judicial process, to fix the asylum
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: system and what have you. But ultimately, like, this is
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: the nation of laws part of the immigration reforms. There's
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: also the nation of immigrants part that is not even,
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: that is not, that is mostly outside of this conversation.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: And the idea that that's become a hard vote is
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: just such a testament to the kind of like control
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: republicans have had and why you've seen romney but even
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: people like langford who are normally not this outspoken against
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: republicans saying like that this is a joke.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Well a lot of them have realized that saying we
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: don't want to do this deal because it would help
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: joe biden and donald trump wants to our boss donald
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: trump wants to run on it they realize that that's
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: probably not the smartest thing to say some of them
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: yeah some of them have realized that others have not
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: including donald trump but now their complaint is and mike
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: johnson uh said this in his statement that um And
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Trump's been saying this too. Biden doesn't need a bill
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: to close the border. That Biden should be able to
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: do this on his own, which is just a lie.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: During the Trump administration, Trump and Johnson both wanted Congress
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: to pass legislation that gave Trump the authority to close
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: the border. Most of the executive actions that Trump took
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: on his own to deal with the border were overturned
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: by the courts. And also, by the way, while Trump
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: successfully reduced legal immigration during his four years, thanks to
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Stephen Miller, He didn't really succeed at reducing illegal immigration
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: by much at all. And partly because he tried to
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: do all these fucking executive actions on his own, didn't
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: work with Congress. The courts overturned them. And that was that.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: And by the way, before they've discovered this idea that
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: the president could have solved this on their own the
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: whole time, even though this is a decades long problem
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: that no president's been able to solve of either party.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: You had Cornyn going out there saying Greg Abbott wants
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: a bipartisan bill to pass because he can't wait a year.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: for there not to be these policies in place. Before
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: they discovered that the president could do this without legislation,
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: the critique they were trying to dampen was the idea
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: that Trump could do a better deal. And so before
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: they even got to the idea that they didn't need
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: a law at all, they thought that they had to
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: do is convince people they couldn't get a better deal
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: under Trump. So this is an idea they've come up
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: with in the last, what, week and a half?
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: It also just doesn't make sense. It's like, oh, if
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: you think the president doesn't need the authority, then what's
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: your problem with the bill? Just pass the bill. If
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: you want to do a stronger bill, Donald Trump, if
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: you become president, then you can do a stronger bill then. Like,
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: what are you fucking talking about? It doesn't make any sense.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: So Biden and the Democrats want to flip the politics
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: on this issue by making sure Trump and Republicans get
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: the blame for refusing to help do something about the border.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: You guys think that's doable? Any ideas what they should
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: be doing?
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's going to take a huge messaging push.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: I think it's doable. I mean, because you have the
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: Trump comments, right? You have Lankford saying what he's we
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: heard the clip earlier that he's basically saying Republicans are
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: changing their minds on this. There was a Republican congressman
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: from Texas who said he's, quote, not willing to do
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: damn much right now to help a Democrat and to
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: help Joe Biden's approval rating. Again, reading the state directions there.
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: There's all these reports about Mitch McConnell's comments that Trump
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: is trying to kill the bill. So The challenge is
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: it's going to be an uphill climb for Biden because
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: of the political context we talked about earlier. There was
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: an ABC News Washington Post poll that had Biden at
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: an 18% approval rating on the issue of immigration. So
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: people are disinclined to trust him on this. And you
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: will have to convince some very skeptical people that you
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: care about the issue, that you're on it, that you're
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: sincerely trying to fix it. But I do think you
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: have to try because Republicans have handed you political gift
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: here by being so ham-handed and stupid about their actual motives.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. I'd lean in really hard on this
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: because most people only think that Trump and Republicans are
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: tough on the border and Biden's just presided over a mess.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: That's all they think. They're not following the details of this.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: I would run ads. I would give speeches and If
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: I was Joe Biden, I'd call them out in the
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: State of the Union. That's a pretty big audience and
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: they're sitting right there. Yeah, have them yell back at you.
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: And make it a moment. Like they're giving us so
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: many quotes, like some of the ones Tommy read, J.D.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Vance said, we're going to take a vote that only
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: harms us politically. That's why he doesn't want to do it.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump has been saying it. You've got Lankford, the
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: clip that we played of Lankford being like, yeah, my
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: fellow Republicans are just not solving the problem. Nikki Haley
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: has been doing it.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: And this is not the first time these cowards have
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: seen the politics on immigration reform and then decided to cave.
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: In 2013, there was a big bipartisan effort led by
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: Marco Rubio until, uh-oh, he saw the politics and decided
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: to blame it on Obama and say he was walking
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: away from the deal because he didn't trust the administration
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: to implement the policy that he didn't have the courage
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: to try to put forward anymore.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: The difference between that 2013 proposal and this proposal, like
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: these are light years apart. That was a comprehensive immigration
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: plan that had a path to citizenship as part of it.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: And the politics had shifted. This was like the post-autopsy
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: where Republicans thought they were going to appeal to moderates
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: and Hispanics by shifting on this and a bunch of
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: other issues. And then Donald Trump shows up and they
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: realize they can't. We are so fucking far from that.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: My hope too, by the way, is that some of
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: these Republicans in the Senate are so fucking pissed that
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: they still bring this to a vote and go along
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: with passing it. Because I do think it matters. Because
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: I am sure there's going to be a lot of
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: pressure to make sure that this is just a Democratic vote, right?
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: And that no Senate Republicans go along with it. And
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: maybe they would rather not, right? It's an easier vote.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: If they're at the point where this is going to
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: be dead in the House and you have whatever, 38,
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: 39 Republicans willing to vote against it, can they get
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: Republican votes? I don't know.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess they need 10 because it would be filibuster-y.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: you'd have to deal with the filibuster. Right.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: What I'm saying is if they're at the point where
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: they think they have four or five, six or seven,
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: are they going to get any?
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: I just don't think they'll get all the Democrats. There's
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: a bunch of Democrats already said they're opposed to this.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: In the Senate that are going to vote now?
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: I don't think Bernie would vote for this. I mean,
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: there's a bunch of progressives that think this is too draconian.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's going to be tough. So one of the
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: few Republicans who's attacking Trump for killing the deal is
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Nikki Haley, who's hitting Trump on everything these days. She's
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: apparently decided to make the next month as miserable as
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: possible for Trump, which we love. Haley said over the
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: weekend that she's staying in the race through Super Tuesday
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: on March 5th and that she doesn't need to win
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: South Carolina, her home state, just show improvement. Sure.
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: Whatever.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: I love it.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: That's great.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: Maybe she's a millennial.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: But she also spent the weekend laying into Trump. She
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: weighed in on the E. Jean Carroll verdict. and accused
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: him of being an insecure, overly sensitive establishment insider who's
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: in decline and can't stop throwing tantrums. Let's listen.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: He was a bit sensitive.
• 19:25
  Speaker 6: And I think his feelings were hurt, but he threw
• 19:27
  Speaker 6: a temper tantrum out on stage, seriously.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Threw a total temper tantrum.
• 19:31
  Speaker 6: Look, I mean, he can't bully his way through the nomination.
• 19:34
  Speaker 6: I think that, you know, it's not surprising that he
• 19:37
  Speaker 6: is surrounded by the political elite. But let's keep in
• 19:39
  Speaker 6: mind the political elite has got nothing done for us
• 19:42
  Speaker 6: in stopping the wasteful spending, has got nothing done to
• 19:45
  Speaker 6: secure the border, has got nothing done to keep us
• 19:48
  Speaker 6: more safe as we see wars.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: Around the world.
• 19:51
  Speaker 6: I absolutely trust the jury. And I think that they
• 19:54
  Speaker 6: made their decision based on the evidence. I just don't
• 19:56
  Speaker 6: think that should take him off the ballot. I think
• 19:58
  Speaker 6: the American people will take him off the ballot.
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: I do think that he.
• 20:02
  Speaker 6: Is in decline, and I think that he needs to
• 20:04
  Speaker 6: know to step away. I do think that he surrounds
• 20:07
  Speaker 6: himself in chaos, and we can't be a country in
• 20:09
  Speaker 6: disarray and have a world on fire and be in chaos.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Isn't it sad that it's like quite notable breaking news
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: that an elected Republican trusts the justice system?
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: I don't know. Also, Trump absolutely can bully his way
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: to the nomination and she definitely needs to win South Carolina.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: He may already have.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: As much as I enjoyed that super cut. Come on, Nikki.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, what do you think she's up to here?
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Do you think she thinks she can actually win?
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: This is the part of the campaign, the kind of
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: like pre-South Carolina moments where the candidates, they unburden themselves
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: and they let rip. And I think part of it
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: is go for broke. Let's see if this harsher message works.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: Part of it is probably just cathartic, right? I mean,
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: this is around when in late February of 2016, Marco
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: Rubio started cracking jokes about Trump's penis, for example. That
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: was a very high-minded policy debate. Trump has also screwed
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: up a lot recently. He's given her some fodder here.
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: I mean, confusing her with Nancy Pelosi is not normal.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: a rare miss for Trump. Some of this is just
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: an amped up version of what she's been saying. Like
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: she's been making an age argument. She's been talking about
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: the chaos, but it's a lot more pointed now.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah. The chaos used to be the chaos follows him around.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Now it's like, he loves chaos.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: That was so strange about it. Is that like that,
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: you know, there's parts where she's sort of still has
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: the kind of careful avoidance of certain lines. Like, when
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: she describes the E. Jean Carol, she says she trusts
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: the jury, but in her campaign speeches, she makes it
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: much more about, you know, when he's out there talking
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: about this verdict, he's not talking about inflation. He's not
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: talking about the jobs, whatever. And so it's less about
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: the moral and ethical horror that he represents and more
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: like the politics and the distraction. Right. So there's still
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: those lines, but then she says he's in decline. And
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: not only that in the, I don't know, like, I
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: don't know if it's purposely going further, if it's just
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: organically gone further than she was before. She now said
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: in the speech, the country cannot afford four years of
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: Biden or Trump, that the country won't survive it.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: That is going much further.
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: Is that a debt argument, though? Is that a literal
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: debt thing? She's hitting him on debt.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: That was a broader point that leads into when she
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: says the part about President Kamala Harris.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: She's trying to get Simpson and Bowles. That's fair.
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: No, no, that's good.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: Hey, hey, that was good. But so it's like, you know, she's,
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: that's a new, to say the country will not survive
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: four years of Trump is like, but you also won't
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: say that you're following the case as closely. It's strange.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: So I feel like she is smart enough to know
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: that she simply cannot win more delegates than him at
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: this stage.
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: Like I know that. One would hope.
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: But if she doesn't want to win South Carolina, then probably.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: But if she goes through Super Tuesday and picks up
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: a bunch of delegates- and he gets convicted before the convention,
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: and his polls versus Biden crater, then she's the candidate
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: with the next most delegates, and maybe she thinks she
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: wins it there. It's basically the Dean Phillips strategy. It's
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: basically what he told us. He's like, we'll see what
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: happens in the convention if the polls are all.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: There were two other things that came across. One is,
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: it's really interesting when she talked about all the South
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: Carolina politicians that endorsed Trump, and she said, oh, like
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: the person I beat, oh, like the legislators who I
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: came after for not recording their votes and for being
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: basically corrupt. Oh, and Tim Scott, well, I'm not going
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: to talk about that. He has to live with his choices.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: I'll let you all deal with Tim Scott.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll let you all deal with him. I don't
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: know what that meant.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Made fun of Lindsey Graham too.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: Yes, like who cares? Who wants Lindsey Graham on their side?
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: So like there does feel like a little bit of
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: like a local, like fuck these people. I am pissed
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: and this is my state. That was the first thing.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: The second piece of it is, It was true when
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: she declared victory in Iowa. Also true when she declared
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: victory in New Hampshire. There is a like... She is
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: sharp and she is sharpening. And I watched the speech
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: she just did in South Carolina. It is a ton
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: of details, facts, numbers. She's on her game. She's hitting
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: her points. The audience is really engaged with her. There
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: does feel... I do think she's getting feedback. And because
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: I think she's sharpened her message, it no longer feels...
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: like a politician's slog and a set of message points,
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: you do feel like there's a genuine kind of purpose
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: to the campaign, even though it's a, you know, all
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: likelihood a fool's errand. But like, I do think that's
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: like propelling it a little bit. There's like a real
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: thing happening.
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: Lose by 20.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: You know, it's my special purpose.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: But she's making that electability argument and like, yeah, maybe
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: she's hanging on for a bad verdict, but maybe also
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: like a couple bad polls that start to make that
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: electability argument get a little bit more purchase. I don't know.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: I do want to talk a little bit more about
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: her answer on the E. Jean Carroll verdict, because we
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: haven't been able to talk about that yet. It happened
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: late last week. Donald Trump is an adjudicated rapist who
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: a jury decided owes the woman he assaulted $ 87 million
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: for defaming her. That plus the ruling in New York states,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: the civil trial, the business fraud that the New York
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: AG has brought against him, put a serious dent in
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: his net worth.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that one can go up to $ 370 million. I
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: was talking to a friend who was a clerk in
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: the New York City courts and dealt with some of
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: these punitive damages. And he was telling me a story
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: about how basically, you know, these jurors get so pissed
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: and it's not their checkbook. And so they write big checks.
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: And he was saying that one time there was a
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: trial and someone had lost a leg. And the jury
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: had awarded I think it's like $ 200 million or $ 300
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: million for a lost leg. And he said to my
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: friend as the clerk, he said, if I gave you
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: $ 250 million, would you give me your leg below the knee?
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: And he's like, hell yeah. And he's like, that's why
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: I have to lower this. It shouldn't be a deal
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: you'd take. I mean, it is a bold thing for
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: her to include.
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that analogy helps. It's an article of faith among
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: Republican voters in part because of Nikki Haley and Ron
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: DeSantis and everyone who ran against Donald Trump, that all
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: of these trials are unfair and that the justice system
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: is rigged against him. But I bet this is what
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: she really believes. And I think she's making an important
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: point here, which is that this is not just a
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: handful of liberal judges going after Donnie T. These are juries,
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: grand juries who are awarding damages, who are deciding if
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: they should issue charges against him or not. And so, yeah,
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: like some of this is like liberal people in liberal cities.
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: But There's a grand jury in southern Florida who thinks
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump did some bad things. And maybe she's kind
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: of like going to spell that out a little more.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I do think it leaning on the jury. I
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: think that tells us something, too, about we've all seen
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: these polls where when they ask people, you know, if
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump is convicted, what do you think? And will
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: you vote for him? And then suddenly, like Joe Biden's
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: winning the race.
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: And I think that there is still widespread trust in juries.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: even if Donald Trump has radicalized the Republican Party against
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: the justice system, courts, saying that everything's like, you know,
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden and his DOJ trying to go after everyone.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: And I do think that as he, as juries start
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: finding him liable or potentially guilty on some of these charges, that,
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: you know, it's not going to be as easy to
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: just blame Joe Biden and Merrick Garland and the DOJ
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: on this kind of stuff. And I think that's why
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: she said that. And Also, don't think that Donald Trump
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: helped himself too much. You know, he's stormed out of court.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: His lawyer's yelling at the judge. Like, you're sitting there
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: as a... He thinks that his, like, tough guy, I'm strong,
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: I'm going to yell at everyone. Like, that might work with, like,
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Republican-based voters. I think just, like, a jury sitting there
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: listening to E.G. and Carol and listening to Trump's lawyer
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: and listening to all the evidence, like, they're going to
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: think differently. Yeah, I also.
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: It's, you know, he... Right now... Like, yes, this may
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: not ultimately redound to Nikki Haley being the Republican nominee,
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: but Trump is getting it from Joe Biden and the Democrats,
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: and Nikki Haley is hitting him pretty hard on this stuff.
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: And I do think, like, that together, if that can
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: keep going over the next couple months.
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: I like it.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: Now, do you think she's veering too heavily into Chris
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Christie territory, or is this the right message? From an
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: analysis point, I mean, obviously, you know how we feel
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: about Chris Christie's message.
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: I mean, the old message had her taking third in
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: Iowa and losing by 30 points, so maybe switch it up.
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: I support that. I mean, the writing might be on
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: the wall, but we'll see. Maybe it's the hamburger from heaven.
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: Maybe it's the court cases.
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: I also think that's like, when in doubt, make the
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: strongest argument and tell the best story. I think she
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: is not doing what Chris Christie, like, look, she's going
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: much harder, but she, there is a care. She, she does.
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: Chris Christie was not playing for, for, for a majority.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: He just wasn't. And he, but like, you see when
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: Chris went, when Nikki Haley is on stage, you watch
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: her couch things based on conversation she's had or polling.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: She's seen like, There's a discipline to it, even when
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: she's going really hard. Like, she always throws in, like,
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: I don't want to disparage anybody, but... Or when she
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: goes after... I mean, it's ridiculous.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: But he's in decline.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: But, like, it's very clearly, like.
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: That was our defamation training.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: That's how you save yourself. What I've heard is.
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: She'll endorse him by the convention. Are we kidding?
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: I hate that I'm asking this question. Did you guys
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: read that Ross Douthat column?
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, John.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: I didn't save you because I... Moments ago, I almost said,
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: we've all read the Ross Douthit column.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: What was interesting is- So Ross Douthit writes a column, basically,
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: that said she is veering too heavily into Chris Christie territory.
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: Is it dooth it or dooth it?
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: I've never known.
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: I've never known.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Sorry.
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: Didn't mean to interrupt.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: Sorry, Ross. Don't mean to disparage you. So, and he
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: basically said she is veering too much into Chris Christie
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: territory and that she should try to actually expand her
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: coalition if she wants to win. And his advice is to, like,
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: she should be focusing on issues and criticizing Trump for, like,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: not getting enough done while he was president. my feeling
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: that is like Ron DeSantis tried that.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: It read like the thing that Ross wrote, read like
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: a Ron DeSantis, some speech.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: And now I agree that Ron DeSantis, his loss was
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: overdetermined because he was terrible in every way humanly possible. But,
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: but the other thing I took away from the Ross
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: Douthat column with which we're all familiar is the part
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: where she does either. She either has great minds or
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: she read the column, uh, She's making an elitist argument.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I was wondering if she got that from the column.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: Listen, everybody's reading this column. Tommy, what do you think
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: of Ross Douthat's column?
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: I didn't read it.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: Oh, bullshit.
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: This New York Times columnist should go to some Trump
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: events and talk to the people there because they think
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: he was a great president.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: Who accomplished great things. And literally every poll in every
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: focus group you'll ever watch says this. We'll tell you that.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: Loved his presidency. Loved the policies.
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: I think he was amazing.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: Think he won the election. If they have any complaints
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: about him, it's the complaints that Nikki Haley is making,
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: which is that he like throws him a tantrum and
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: can't control himself, stuff like that. That's the only thing
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: that they might not like about him. And that's like
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: a smaller percentage than you'd hope. Okay, before we go
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: to break, quick housekeeping notes. Washington, D.C. is where we're
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: kicking off Crooked's 2024 tour dates. Love it or leave it,
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: we'll be coming to Washington on April 25th. Hell yeah.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: For a show at the Lincoln Theater. Tickets are available now.
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: They're selling.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: Head to crooked.com slash events to grab your tickets. Also,
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: you don't need to wait till April to hear Lovett's
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: best takes.
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: Oh, Jesus. Oh, God, what is this?
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: Tomorrow, January 31st, he'll be on the Friends of the
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: Pod Discord at 2.30 Pacific time for an AMA.
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: Oh, great. Cool.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: All you have to do is be a Friends of
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: the Pod member. And if you're not, you should sign
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: up at cricket.com slash friends. You get to ask Lovett questions.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: You get to listen to all of our other pod,
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: like Dan Pfeiffer's got a new Polar Coaster pod.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: Terminally online. That pod's great. All kinds of great content.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: So sign up. Also, today is National Help America Vote Day.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: By becoming a poll worker, you can help strengthen our
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: democracy and ensure free and fair elections this November. So
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: head to PowerThePolls.org slash VoteSaveAmerica to sign up. Okay, let's
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: talk about Joe Biden. He campaigned in South Carolina over
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: the weekend. The first official Democratic primary takes place there
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: on Saturday, though the president was mostly focused on his
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: likely general election opponent, Donald Trump. The New York Times
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: has a story about Biden's battle plan for the campaign,
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: which apparently includes a focus on Trump, democracy, abortion, as
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: well as a big surrogate operation of social media influencers,
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: fundraisers with Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and a hoped-for
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: endorsement from Taylor Swift.
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: For 10,000, you meet Bill Clinton. For 20,000, you don't
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: have to.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: Just kidding.
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: Just kidding.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: Biden went pretty hard at Trump during his speech in
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: South Carolina. Let's listen.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Have you noticed? He's a little confused these days. He
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: apparently can't tell the difference between Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi. Folks,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: the bottom line is our economy has grown more in
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: the last six months than it ever did at any
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: point in Trump's entire four years in office. Donald Trump
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: refused to visit a U.S. cemetery outside of Paris for
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: fallen American soldiers. And he referred to those heroes, and
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: I quote, as suckers and losers. He actually said that.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: He said that. How dare he say that? How dare
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: he talk about my son and all of us just
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: like that? Look, I call them patriots and heroes. The
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: only loser I see is Donald Trump. And you're the
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: reason Donald Trump is a defeated former president. You're the
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: reason Donald Trump is a loser. And you're the reason
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: we're going to win and beat him again.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: What did you guys think of the speech and the message?
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: It's good to see him in a rally, you know,
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: and get some energy. You're not in the Rose Garden.
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: You're not stuck at that terrible briefing room podium. That
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: was good. Decided to unload the oppo clip on Trump there.
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: He also hit him for saying Trump said he wanted
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: to see the economy collapse for political reasons. He called
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: him Donald Herbert Hoover Trump. Nice zinger. That's going to stick.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: I like hitting him on the Pelosi-Haley confusion.
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: Did you feel like it would stick?
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: You want to call me senile?
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: How about that?
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: How about this? I'll call you senile.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: I'm rubber, you're glue, you old fuck. Did you think
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: that there was a sentence that was supposed to come
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: after the Haley Pelosi line? He just sort of made
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: reference to it, but he didn't describe it.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: Well, if you listen to the speech, it's a hard
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: transition to the border right after that.
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: That's what I know.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: It's a really hard transition.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: It felt like there was something missing. Maybe there was
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: more to the hit. He skipped it. I don't know.
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: There was a couple of times where there was some
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: assumed knowledge. Like at one point he said to the crowd,
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: did you see that article about Snickers? And they were like, no.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: It's about shrinkflation.
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: Do you know shrinkflation?
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: I do know, yeah.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: It was not bad in the New York Times.
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: Anyway, I think another, it.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Was right next to the Ross Dutton column.
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: It probably was.
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: No, listen, hey, the shrinkflation is real, all right? They're
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: making these peanut butter jars. They're making these peanut butter jars.
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: They're hiding it. You know, they make the divot on
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: the bottom bigger. So the jar looks bigger, less peanut
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: butter inside.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: And the reason he asked about Snickers is that apparently
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: Snickers bars are a little bit smaller now, but the
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: same price.
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: I also think that part of that op-ed was about
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: how the prices of things like a Snickers are not
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: going down as fast as the price of a TV.
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: So if you're buying a Snickers, you're seeing it's $ 1. 20
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: now when it used to be $ 1, and you're still
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: kind of pissed off about inflation, even though, more broadly,
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: inflation's decreasing. Anyway.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: And it's the corporation's fault, right? It's the corporation's fault.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: Because there's no supply chain issue that's making Snickers shrink
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: their bars.
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: No, no. Not that we know of.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: And there's one thing this country needs. It's gigantic Snickers bars.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: We've got to be satisfied. That's his platform.
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: I'm in.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: I had a Snickers this weekend, and it was great.
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: So, I mean, were you going to say something?
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: No, I mean, broadly, I mean, a lot of the
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: speeches focused on accomplishments. There was a riff on promise made,
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: promise kept. It wasn't a ton of here's what I'm
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: going to do if you reelect me in a second
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: term as compared to what Trump would do. But, you know,
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: that's going to take some time to flesh out.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, first of all, it was just nice
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: to see just like a hard hit on Donald Trump.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: I do think it was a bit of like a
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: catch all without like there was not there wasn't a
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: story to the hits on Trump. Like Haley goes out there,
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: the other the other person giving speeches across the country
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: hitting Trump this week. But Haley goes out there, she
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: starts with Trump right away, and she says, you know,
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: Trump's out for himself. He's thinking about himself. He's not
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: thinking about you. And then she kind of goes into it.
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: There wasn't that kind of cohesive story to the critique
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: of Trump, and it didn't tie back to the promises made,
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: promises kept section. It felt like just a few chunks
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: of different things they were putting together to try out.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: I liked the parts that they were trying out.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with both of you. I mean, what
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: I liked about the speech, delivery, lively and energetic. Great
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: to see. It was a tight 24-minute speech. Love a
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: sub-30-minute speech from anyone. He went hard at Trump. That's great.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: I think it was focused too heavily on reciting a
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: list of his accomplishments and too heavily on Trump's character,
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: too heavily on what Trump's done in the past. I
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: think that it's great to do the troops line, but
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: that's from years ago, an Atlantic piece, and it just
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: seems old now. What is missing... is a story about
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: what Biden's trying to do for the country versus what
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: Trump's trying to do to the country. Like, I really
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: like Biden's finish. Let's finish the job slogan. But now
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: he's going to talk about the job he wants to
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: finish and talk about how he's going to finish it.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: He had a there was a tweet last week where
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: he talked about it on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: And on abortion, his message is great. It's very specific.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: Give me a bigger Democratic majority. I will codify Roe v.
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: Wade.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: That's simple. People get it. That can go for the
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: entire agenda. And you should say like, we've done a lot.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: Trump has Republicans in Congress blocking everything for politics, even
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: a border deal that they wanted. Get rid of Trump,
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: give me a bigger majority and we can solve a
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: lot of our problems. And that also speaks to some
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: of the disappointment that some voters might have that he
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: didn't do more, he didn't get more done. You have
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: a whole Republican Congress to blame that is being led
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: around by Donald Trump. You gotta tell us, it's gotta
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: be about the future.
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: One of the write-ups of their plan is around the speeches.
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: There were some Biden advisors basically saying that, They want
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: to fight on the economy to a draw so that
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: they can be more on their turf where they feel
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: like they can win, which is democracy, extremism, abortion. And
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: I felt like that's what this speech was about. The
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: promise is made, promise is kept. I do think that
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: they must be seeing, we're all seeing it, a ton
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: of polling that shows people have, forget the stuff that
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: Republicans blocked. They have no idea what Joe Biden got
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: done in the last few years. I see it myself.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: There's a ton of misinformation around student debt, for example.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: The last week he issued that decision that would cancel
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: another $ 5 billion in debt. And there's a ton of
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: stuff circulating on social media that says, oh, Biden has
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: only canceled $ 5 billion in student debt. That's like less
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: than half a percent of the outstanding debt, which just
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: isn't true and misses the billions and billions and billions
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: he's canceled for millions of people. And so I don't
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: know what the answer is there. I agree with you.
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: Like Tim Walz spoke to some reporter and said that,
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: you know, the choice is democracy and freedom versus extremism
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: and chaos, right? Like that to me is like a
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: simple frame, like that that is clearly running through this speech,
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: but wasn't laid out in this speech and you have
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: to get to the choice. But I, you know, the,
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: they clearly want more people to understand what he got done.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: Even on the student loan stuff, he started to tell
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: the story of what he's been doing and what he
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: hopes to do, right? He's like, I wanted to cancel
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: all student debt. The Supreme Court blocked me. I said, fine,
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna just do as much as I can on
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: my own. But- give me a bigger Democratic majority, they
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: can send me a bill and I'll cancel the rest
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: in the second term, right? Like you've got to, even
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: the accomplishments are fine to talk about, but you got
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: to put the accomplishments in the context of what your
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: vision is, what you're trying to do so people understand
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: the story because otherwise it's just a list of policies
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: that people are going to be like, what? Yeah.
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: I think the ship has passed and I think getting
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: credit for the things he feels like he didn't have
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: credit for. I do think, you know, Biden's got a
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: nail biter coming up. Emerson poll in early January had
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: him at 69%, Dean Phillips at 5%. Marianne Williamson at three,
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: so he's got to get that over the finish line.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: Did you guys see, so Dean Phillips also spoke at
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: this event that Biden was at because it is a
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: Democratic primary, and the guy was, it's a painful clip,
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: him trying to get everyone's attention because everyone's like walking
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: out of the room and eating, and he's like, can
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: I just get your attention for two minutes, just two minutes.
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: He was like trying to sell you a car.
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: For two minutes of your time, I'm going to refer
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: to some New York Times polls you may not have seen.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: What did you guys make of the Times story? You
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: guys feeling good about the battle plan? Any other advice
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: you want to give from here in the cheap seats?
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: Listen, my favorite part of that story is that they
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: had to tell people applying for social media jobs to
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: stop telling them that they wanted to get Taylor Swift's endorsement.
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: And basically just sort of like, we agree. It would
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: be nice. We've heard enough ideas on that. Please do
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: not reference that in your strategy deck.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: What's your posting strategy? Don't tell me about your Taylor
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: Swift strategy. Tell me about your posting strategy.
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: We all want Taylor Swift on board. Everybody wants Taylor
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: Swift in the tent.
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: It's tough for the people who applied. I was glad
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: to hear that they're staffing up quickly. The campaign team
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: now is 100 members and they have staff in six
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: swing states and South Carolina for the primary. It also
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: sounds like the surrogate focus is beyond just Taylor Swift.
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: It's not just elected officials, but it's like micro influencers and,
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: you know, people who have Instagram followings that you've never
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: heard of, but matter a lot in their community. So
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: that'll matter. You know, they're betting that concerns about Trump
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: outweigh concerns about Biden's age. We'll see. I don't know.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: I do, you know, Democratic candidate X should have a
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: better surrogate operation is like one of the oldest complaints
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: in politics. I do think it's especially important this time
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: since Biden is so unpopular and there will likely be
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: third party options for people to go to. And it's
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: also going to be really tough to get people's attention
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: just because of the way the media is and because
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: everyone's like, oh, are we having this rerun race again?
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: So I do think you need the biggest coalition possible
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: of notable people who can build a permission structure for
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: different groups of voters to to think it's okay to
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: vote for Joe Biden again, even if they're not super
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: thrilled about it. Taylor Swift for young people who aren't
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: sure if they're going to vote. Liz Cheney and Mitt
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: Romney for Republicans who don't like Trump, but are like
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: not so sold on Joe Biden, like AOC and Bernie
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: for disappointed progressives. Like you just need as many people
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: out there on the field as possible saying like, we
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: need to do this. This is good. This is for us.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: It's not about Joe Biden or Donald Trump. It's about
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: for the, it's about the country, you know.
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: Tippecanoe at Tyler too. You know, the original. Yeah, for sure. 100%.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: Tommy's been waiting to unleash that one.
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: You're playing the bongos over there, man. Hammer. Sorry. Sorry.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: No, no.
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: I thought it was funny.
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: Audiophile over here.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: This guy. This guy.
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: He's like that guy in that pose.
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: I'm responding aggressively to my friend.
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the response is aggressive.
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: I really hope Biden wins.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: Taylor Swift did endorse him in 2020.
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, she did. She endorsed. And she's also used her
• 43:01
  Speaker 4: Instagram to get a ton of people to support. registered
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: to vote. So, like, she's been out there.
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's... She sort of... She does the more, like,
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: I'm voting. She does it... She did it more subtly
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: in 2020.
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: She's very focused on Tennessee.
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: And I think for this time around, she'd want to be... Like,
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: the Biden campaign would probably want her to be a
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: little more forceful.
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: Yes, and by the way, like, it's not... Like, I
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: hope the Biden campaign figures out how to convince... To
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: coax Taylor out of her den like a scared lost puppy. But, like,
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: it's also on Taylor Swift.
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: Like, hey.
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: You just did the biggest tour ever. You made some,
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: some references to politics in some places as part of
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: the tour, but it was a largely apolitical tour and
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: you built up a ton of goodwill and it's like,
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: it's time to spend it.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: You know, the country needs you.
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: It's like, that's it.
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: And like, you're the black mirror of the people yelling
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: at her for ruining the NFL. I like this. Let's just,
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: let's just heap responsibility on this woman.
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: Well yeah I think with great power comes great responsibility
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: do you not agree with that statement or have you.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: Not read a comic book those are like loud annoying
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: voices on social media like most people are like oh
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: I love Taylor Swift or I love football and they
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: watch it that's it that's most people in the country
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: and he's mad anyone mad.
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: About Taylor Swift appearing in their screens for like 15
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: seconds over the course of a.
• 44:12
  Speaker 4: Three hour game you know the biggest babies in.
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: The world yeah go outside and maybe ask your mom
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: what it's like to be a.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: Woman So that's the campaign. One challenge every president running
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: for reelection has to deal with is unexpected events that
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: divert attention from your message and campaign plans. That has
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: obviously been happening to Biden with the war in Gaza.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: It just escalated over the weekend when Iran-backed militias killed
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: and wounded American troops in Jordan. Biden said in South
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: Carolina on Sunday when he was in church that the U.S.
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: will be responding. And a lot of Republicans are already
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: demanding that he hit Iran hard. I think Tom Cotton
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: said he'd be a coward if he didn't hit Tehran.
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: Sounds right. And Lindsey Graham has been going after him.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: Trump's been going after him on this. Tommy, what's your
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: level of concern over what might happen next year?
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: Extremely high. I mean, over the weekend, this is the
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: first time that U.S. troops have been killed and 30
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: were wounded. So this is like a big attack. But
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: it's just the most recent of I think the last
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: count was 150 attacks on U.S. troops by these Iranian
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: linked proxy groups in Iraq, In Syria, and then on
• 45:17
  Speaker 4: top of that, you have the Houthi rebels firing at
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: ships all through the Red Sea. The U.S. has been
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: hammering targets in Yemen itself since January 11th, basically a
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: daily basis. So this, you know, because of these Iranian
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: proxy responses to what's happening in Gaza, the tensions in
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: the region have been going up and up and up
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: and up. And I think the White House is probably deciding, OK,
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: do we hit like IRGC bases, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard
• 45:42
  Speaker 4: bases in Syria? or Iraq, or do we actually hit
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: targets in Iran itself? And that is a pretty scary,
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: terrible choice to have to make. Or not, frankly, they
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: don't have to make it. They could not respond if
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: they want to, but I suspect that they are going to,
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: and they're going to do so in a pretty heavy way.
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: Man, this unyielding supporter of Bibi Netanyahu is really paying dividends, huh?
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: I mean, I do think that's the frustrating part is,
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: you know, I know that they're working very hard to
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: get a ceasefire in Gaza. There's all these reports that
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: they're like close to getting a one month or two
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: month ceasefire, but You know, I think we should take
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: the Houthi rebels and some of the other groups at
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: their word that part of the impetus for this increase
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: in attacks on U.S. forces is because of what's happening
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: in Gaza. And if you can get a ceasefire there,
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: hopefully a permanent one to get the hostages back, then
• 46:31
  Speaker 4: you could ratchet down tensions everywhere in the Middle East.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: But, you know, we'll see. And of course, Trump's critiques
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: on this are all bullshit, right? He's like, this never
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: would have happened if I was president.
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: I mean, who knows, right? It's just like the simplest,
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: stupidest thing to say.
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: He also said today or yesterday that the stock market
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: is up because they're doing so well in the polls
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: that it's for me.
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: Investors are saying Trump's going to win. And so we're
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: all excited.
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: When the stock market's up, that's Trump. When the stock
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: market's down, that's Biden. When the jobs are up, that's Trump.
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: When the jobs are down, that's Biden.
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, Trump likes to pretend that the Iranians
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: weren't doing very similar things when he was president. They
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: absolutely were. He's just, you know, he's exploiting everything he can.
• 47:09
  Speaker 4: for maximum political gain, including the death of U.S. troops.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: Going to be a fun year, guys. Going to be
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: a fun campaign. Well, that's all we have for today.
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: We will talk to you again on Wednesday, and that's it.
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: See you at the movies.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: See you at the movies. If you want to get
• 47:25
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• 47:28
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• 47:47
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• 47:51
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• 48:01
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• 48:13
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