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"Trump's Missed Vance." · Pod Save America

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. We recorded this episode just before news broke
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: on Monday night about a leak of a draft Supreme
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Court opinion suggesting that there is a majority planning to
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: overturn Roe versus Wade in the coming weeks. We wanted
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: to point to the Strict Scrutiny podcast where Leah Lipman,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Kate Shaw, and Melissa Murray will be putting out an
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: update Tuesday afternoon to help break down this draft ruling,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: what we know, what we don't. They are an incredible resource,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and we are so glad they're part of the Crooked Network,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: so please check that out. And we'll be covering this
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: story here at Pod Save America, talking through the politics,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: but also pointing to ways each of us can help
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to protect abortion access for people everywhere and to make
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: certain that the huge majority in this country that believes
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: in and supports reproductive health care is heard in November.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Much more to come on that front. But for now,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: let's go to the show.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I'm Jon Leavitt.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: On today's show, the midterms are six months away, and
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: new polling has the race closer than you might expect.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump forgets who he endorsed in Ohio. And later,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: we have some fun with the highlights and lowlights of
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Saturday's White House Correspondents Dinner. But first, this week on Offline,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: I talked to tech policy expert Rene DiResta about Elon
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Musk buying Twitter. What else? Rene is a brilliant expert
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: on content moderation and algorithms who makes the case that
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Elon fundamentally misunderstands free speech on the internet. Definitely check
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: that out. Also, check out the latest episode of Stuck
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: with Damon Young. This week, Damon discusses mental health and
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: the benefits of therapy with KSA Lehman and Dr. Joy Harden-Bradford.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: New episodes of Offline drop every Sunday, and you can
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: listen to all episodes of Stuck with Damon Young for
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: free only on Spotify. All right, let's get to the news.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: We got to keep it moving, boys. I am so
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: late to the Met Gala. We got to go. Let's go.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Is the Met Gala happening this week?
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's happening right now.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: Oh, wow.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: I felt like everyone was just yelling about AOC's dress
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: like three weeks ago. It's been a year already?
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Time flies when you're having fun, you know?
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Wow. Wow. Okay. Anyway, we're now six months out from
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: the 2022 midterms, and a new poll from ABC and
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: the Washington Post gives us a picture of where things
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: stand that pretty much tracks with the 538 averages. Joe
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Biden's approval is 42% positive and 52% negative, which is
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: a slight increase from the last few months. It's something.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: 46% of voters say they'd vote for the Democrat in
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: their congressional district, while 45% say they'd vote for the Republican.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Also a slight increase for Democrats, though the 538 average
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: still has Republicans leading by a little over two points.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: The most important issues to voters in the polls are
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: the economy and specifically inflation. Two issues where they say
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: they trust Republicans over Democrats by around 20 points.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Woof.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Republicans. Yeah, woof. Republicans are also more trusted on the
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: issue of crime by 12 points and immigration by a
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: closer three points. I was kind of surprised about that.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: While Democrats are more trusted by double-digit margins on the
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: issues of abortion, education in schools, and equal treatment of
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: people regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: In another sign that Democrats are growing more comfortable taking
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: on what we've all said is Republican overreach, on the
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: so-called culture war issues, President Biden took on book banning
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: at last week's Teacher of the Year ceremony at the
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: White House.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: Today, there are too many politicians trying to score political points,
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: trying to ban books, all because it doesn't fit somebody's
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: political agenda. We've got to stop making the target of
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: the culture wars.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Guys, what are your general reactions to the post-ABC poll
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: on where Democrats stand six months out from the midterms?
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Tommy? Pretty nervous to quite nervous, plus or minus five nervouses.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: I mean, I know it's better than some of the
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: other polls we've seen, but nine out of 10 Americans
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: concerned with inflation, 44% upset about it. That's a big problem.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: And it's a big problem that you have very little
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: ability to solve even as president. Because the challenge with
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: inflation is you can have a great job. There's some
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: other economic indicators in the poll that more people feel
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: like they can find a good paying job, but The
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: problem with inflation is you can have a job that
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: pays you well, but you still worry that the economy
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: can slip away from you because prices are going up.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: And there's just a lot of headwinds economically. The war
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: in Ukraine is not slowing down. That's going to keep
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: energy and food costs high, like lockdowns in China. The
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: stock market is down for the year. So I'm nervous.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: And the Republicans have a much easier job, which is
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: just block everything Joe Biden tries to do with Joe
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: Manchin's help. And yeah, it's not a great setup.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Love it.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: I already issued my woof. One other number that is
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: troubling is how much more enthusiastic Republicans are about turning
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: out right now than Democrats, which makes me skeptical of
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: how close these generic ballot numbers are. And, you know,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: when Republicans have a 20 point advantage on the two
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: most important issues going into the midterms, that's a very
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: bad And it was striking, actually. It was striking, actually, too.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: The thing I thought, my biggest takeaway from looking at
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: this is like, why are these fucking idiots talking about Disney?
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: They're going to win this thing in a row if
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: they just keep their mouths closed. Jesus.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: This is what I'm saying.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: It's unbelievable.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: It's just like they, like, you know, we've talked a
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: million times about this, about the culture war issues, but
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: like they have on a number of issues now, book banning,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: And that's why Biden was talking about it on Disney
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: on a couple of things. They have far overreached where
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: the polling is and, uh, they don't really need to
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: do it, but they can't help themselves because they're extremists.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, I do think love it to your point. Like, yes,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Republicans are more enthusiastic to vote. This is not terribly surprising.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Party in power has a more difficult time getting their
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: voters motivated than the party out of power. That happens
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: almost every single midterm we've been alive. Um, There had
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: been some thought that maybe this would change because the
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Democratic Party now has the disproportionate share of college educated
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: voters in our coalition, which we didn't always used to have.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: And college educated voters tend to be the more reliable
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: voters in a midterm. But the problem there is, as
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: we saw in Virginia in 2021, non-college educated Trump voters
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: seem to be turning out even in midterm and off
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: year races, which had not usually been the case before 2020.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Trump was president, which is something now we have to
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: contend with. I do think, Tommy, too, to your point,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: like it may be boring, redundant, not make for the
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: most exciting content, but like it's clear from this polling
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: and all the polling that we've seen that the election
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: is going to hinge on voter concerns over inflation.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: And there's like there's very little control you have over inflation.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: But and also to the point, you know, that a
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: lot of liberals on Twitter make, which is like, oh,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: the media, it's the media's fault because the media is
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: not covering the booming economy and all the jobs created. Well,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: there's a question in here about like, how easy do
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: you think it is to find a good paying job?
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: And people are saying pretty easy, including Republican voters.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: Mostly Republican voters.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: And so the problem is not necessarily that people don't
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: know that under Joe Biden, we've created a lot of jobs.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: It's that they're like, yeah, that's not my problem. My
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: problem is shit's expensive.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: People aren't stupid. They go to the store and they're like, oh,
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: hamburger meat is more expensive. That is bad. They drive
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: by the gas pump and they say, oh, four gallons, five,
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: like it's, It's so insulting when we treat voters like
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: they're just victims of the media when it comes to
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: something as simple as inflation. Sure, it can get covered
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: too often or it can disproportionately, but people are really
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: feeling this. And if you try to explain it away
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: like that, you just seem dismissive of their concerns. It's
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: so stupid.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: And I have seen some experts point out, I think correctly,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: that But for stimulus, we could have been in a
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: much darker economic position, right? With like far more job losses,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: far more dislocation, far more misery. But it's just tough
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: to make the argument that this form of economic pain
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: is better than the alternative. It's not a great message. Yeah.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: And again, I think that there was a section of
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Biden's State of the Union where he nails what I
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: think is the best, most effective message, or at least
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: the message that gives you the best shot, which is like,
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Here are all my plans to lower costs for people
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: since costs are the most important concern for voters. Republicans'
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: plans would make your costs even higher than they are now.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: I'm for lowering costs for these things. They're for raising costs.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to get stuff done. You give me more
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Democrats because I have two Democrats in the Senate who
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: aren't very cooperative. You give me more Democrats, I will
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: pass this legislation to lower your costs. You put them
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: in power, guarantee costs aren't going down because they're not
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: going to do that. I mean, like, again, that might
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: not win it for you, but it seems to me
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: the most effective message among a lot of bad options.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: And you can throw on top of that the Rick
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Scott plan to cut taxes for the richest people in
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the country, to flood the economy. Not only is it unfair,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: not only does it help no one except the richest
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: people in this country, it would flood the economy with
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: more money to raise prices even more, right? There's an
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: argument to be made to tie back to what the
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: head of the Republican senatorial campaign is trying to do
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: if they win.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: Now, there was an Axios story over the weekend that
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: has quotes from both progressive and moderate Democratic politicians saying
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: they've been inspired by Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow's speech
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: hitting back at Republicans on culture war issues. And of course,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: we just heard Biden take on the book banning thing. Now,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: just knowing what we just said about inflation and the
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: economy being sort of the top concerns, does it make
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: sense for Democrats to take on these issues still? What
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: do you think, Tommy?
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: I mean, I don't think they have a choice. These guys,
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: Republicans are so good at manufacturing things. these issues, manufacturing
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: anxiety about whatever social issue it is, especially when it
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: has to do with schools and school curriculum, that we
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: can't ignore them. You also just can't win a fight
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: that you're not a part of. And I think what
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: Biden did was smart because he made it not about
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: what the Republicans wanted to discuss, but he reframed it
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: on more fertile ground for Democrats, which is to say
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: they want to ban books. Banning books is not popular.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: There was a CBS poll from like three months ago
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: that found 80% of voters don't want to ban books
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: that are about history or race. So you have to
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: make the debate about that. Similarly, if we're in Florida
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: debating the appropriate amount of sex education for kindergartners, that
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: is not the ground you want to be fighting on.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: You have to reframe these debates. So I'm glad he
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: took it on. I thought Mallory McMurray's speech was excellent.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: She looked like she was fighting. She reframed the debate.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: I mean, two years ago, Republicans were really mad about
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: you know, people trying to tear down statues of Confederate soldiers.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: Now they don't want us to be able to teach
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: kids about them. They want that to be illegal, right?
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: You kind of like point out the hypocrisy. It's all
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: about politics. It's phony populism. Pivot to Rick Scott. But
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: I do think you have to take it on.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: It is funny that we're sitting here, like having to
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: bring out poll numbers, like, hey, you know what? Banning books,
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: not so popular. I got a poll that says it's
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: not that popular.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And I also think it's also like, don't get
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: wrapped around the axle of the bullshit they've been spewing
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: about the technicalities that they're trying to claim are written
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: into the law. They want to bully gay kids. They
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: want to threaten gay teachers. They want to ban books.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: They don't want to teach history to your kids. They
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: want to make, you know, like these are the simple,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the simple arguments we need to make that I think
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: are pretty popular with people. And that point out that
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: this Republican party is extreme, which is our only hope
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: of drawing a contrast to them as we head into
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: the fall, that it's not just that we can make
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: a case about what we would do on inflation versus them,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: but we also have to make a case that these
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: people are have lost it. That this is a party
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: unmoored from reality, chasing ghosts, fighting imaginary threats, attacking people,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: bullying people. That's where we got to be.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: They want to use the power of the state to
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: retaliate against private businesses who hold different beliefs than the
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: ruling party. That's where they are now. That's the Disney thing.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: It's like, come on. So this is yet another poll
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: where The Democrats' generic ballot number is better than Joe
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Biden's approval rating. Lubbock, why do you think that is?
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: And if you're running a competitive Democratic midterm campaign, do
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: you try to separate your candidate from Joe Biden?
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: You know, honestly, John, when I saw that you might
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: ask me that question, my first step was to look
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: to see if there was a message box with an answer.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: But there wasn't. It was just a fucking mailbag. Dan
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: phoned it in.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: So right now, Joe Biden is getting tagged. uh, uh,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: with a lot of dissatisfaction and anger in the country, right?
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: There was this great hope that he was going to, uh, uh,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: restore some kind of normalcy, restore stability, take on some
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: of the chaos of the last few years. He is
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: being tagged for some of the problems, many of which
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: are outside of his control that we're still going through the, the, the, the,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: the pandemic that seems to be without end inflation, uh,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: gridlock in Congress, not all of which can obviously be
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: laid at his feet. Uh, And I do wonder, too,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: if what's also happening is, you know, people are really
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: unhappy with what's happening in Washington. They blame Democrats, but
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: they also blame Republicans. It is not like people are
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: approaching this ballot unaware of the chaos and nonsense coming
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: out of the Republican Party. They see Marjorie Taylor Greene
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: making the news just like the rest of us.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Tommy, what do you got? Listen. Were you able to
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: were you able to contact him? Yeah.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: As a wise person once said, where we go one,
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: we go all. And I don't think it's really possible
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: to separate yourself from Biden at this point. I mean,
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: especially these lesser known congressional candidates. These elections are so national.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: I saw some candidates are kind of trying, like Maggie
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: Hassan is like, and that's why I called on Joe
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: Biden to release more energy from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Like,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: that's fine. That's a gentle lift. I just think like
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: you can say, hey, Mr. President, please don't come to
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: my district. Don't come to my state. don't come campaign
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: for me. Like you can spend your time elsewhere. That's fine.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: But I think if you're like actively giving the president
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: of your party, the Heisman in the midterm, that's going
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: to hurt him. That's going to hurt you. That is
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: a stupid, stupid, well, that's stupid strategy. It's just not
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: going to work.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: You know what else was funny about, you know what
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: else was funny is Dan's message box said, check out
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Ezra Klein's podcast. Dan, I don't need message box to
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: point me to Ezra Klein's podcast. Listen to every episode.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: You're not on three jokes about Dan's message box. Can
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: you write those for me too?
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: I'm on two jokes about them. I'm on two jokes
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: about them. We cut one, you son of a bitch.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: That's the second one. John, do you have any jokes
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: about Dan?
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: No, I don't. I don't, guys. Tommy, I agree with
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: you that it's just, unless you have built up a
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: brand over years and years as sort of an independent-minded Democrat.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: Like Joe Manchin, your mentor. It's going to be very hard.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: It's going to be, right, yeah. It's going to be
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: very hard come election season. To suddenly separate yourself. And
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: as with each successive election, the amount of split ticket
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: voting has declined over and over again. So they become
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: very close now to the original question of like why
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: this is happening with Biden and the Democrats. I think
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: that my best guess on this is we always talk
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: about Joe Biden's quote. Don't compare me to the almighty.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Compare me to the alternative. When you ask people whether
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: they approve or disapprove of Joe Biden, there is no alternative.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: It's either you're happy or you're not happy. And there's
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: a lot of unhappy people right now. When you have
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: a generic ballot and you say, do you like the
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Democratic Party or the Republican Party? Guess what? The Republican
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Party isn't fucking popular. Not to say the Democratic Party
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: is that popular, but the Republican Party ain't so popular either.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: And like, you know, people are giving Ron Klain, the
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: White House chief of staff, some shit because after Macron
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: won in France, he was saying, oh, Macron's approval rating
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: going into that election was like, Low 30s, I think.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: But of course, he beats Le Pen by a good amount.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: And he's like, basically, it was like, maybe that'll happen
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: here with Joe Biden. Now, that might be a reach.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: We don't know.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I'll say one thing. It definitely is. It's an indoor thought.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: It's an indoor thought.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: But the same– but I think the same dynamic applies,
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: which is if– and we've talked about this. If you
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: try to make the midterms just, hey, Democrats have delivered,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: and even if you don't think so, we're telling you so.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: It's not going to go well. If you make the midterms,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: here's what we're doing and here's what they want to do,
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: then you have more of a fighting chance because you're
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: reminding people of what the alternative is.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: And, you know, there's– yeah. One other simple thing that
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Trump manages to always get right is there's only two
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: kinds of problems, like problems he solves or problems that
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: are someone else's faults that he's going to solve, right?
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: That's it, right? Here's all the progress we've made so far.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Here are the two plans to address inflation. They want
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: to cut taxes for rich people, make your costs for
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: healthcare go up, sunset some of the most important social
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: safety net programs in the country to leave you fending
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: for yourself against rising prices. Here's what our plan is.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: They want to ban books. We want to invest in teachers, right?
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: You can just go back and forth.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Trump would definitely brag about the shit he's done,
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: but he would never do it in a vacuum. He'd say,
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: I created more jobs than any president in human history,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: and they're going to ruin it if you send them
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: into Congress. They're going to screw up the whole economy.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: I can't wait till election night. Ron Klain is tweeting,
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: college arrondissements are still out. That's a Paris joke for you.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I cannot believe the audacity, the audacity. of Tommy Vitor
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: not minutes ago, his mind foggy with COVID, trying to
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: attack me for making a Dan joke. He's out there
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: talking about some French nonsense.
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: I mean, look, if I make a second France joke,
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: then you can go after me for this, but I
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: was going for the redundancy, not the Dan part.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Or a third, or a third that we cut.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: We cut one.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: The first one was the best.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about the Republicans who are obviously in a
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: good position, but as even Mitch McConnell said the other week, quote,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: it's actually possible for them to screw it up by
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: nominating the more extreme candidate in their party's primaries. Sure enough,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: we are at the beginning of a month of Republican
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: primaries that will tell us whether Donald Trump's favorite candidates
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: will prevail in Nebraska, West Virginia, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Ohio,
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: where Trump held a rally this weekend and completely forgot
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: who he endorsed.
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: We've endorsed.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: JP, right?
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: JD Mandel.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: And he's doing great. Wow.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: Did he get it wrong twice? Did he say JP
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: then JD Mandel?
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Yep. Oh yeah.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: He got it. He all sorts of, you know what?
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: All sorts of run.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: I know this is nonsense. I know this won't matter.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: I know this is resistance. Clickbait idiocy that won't move
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: a single voter.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I don't care. I love this. I love this.
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: This is for me. I, you cannot take this away
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: from me. This race triggers me like no other. JD
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: Vance is terrible. Josh Mandel is bigger. His most MAGA
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: opponent is terrible. I hate them both. They're both likely
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: to win. This is my moment. Don't take it away.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't dream of it, Tommy.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Love it.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: Do you think that was a Freudian slip or should
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: we make Donald Trump draw a clock?
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: What do you you think? Look, I never think it's
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: a mistake to try to see where Donald Trump is cognitively.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: I think it's always a good idea. He's whatever. He's
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: an idiot. He forgot which person. He doesn't care. He's
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: barely paying attention.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: I'm for whoever they told me they thought was going
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: to win because I don't want to be a fucking loser.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm for whoever Peter Thiel told me.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: I don't give a fuck. These guys all suck. Also,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: by the way, shame on J.D. Vance for being younger
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: than us.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: He's young. What? Yeah, he is. But you can't see
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: it on his face because I think the lying has
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: aged him.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the lying has aged him. Tommy, I know that
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: you care a lot about this Ohio Senate primary. What's
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: happened in the Ohio and Pennsylvania Senate races since Trump's endorsed...
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: JPD Mandel and Dr.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Oz.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, JPD ZV is definitely, you know, surge from
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: the Trump endorsement. I don't know if that's because it's
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: just Trump or because J.D. Vance's opponents are terrible and
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: they spent weeks attacking each other. And I think that
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: helped J.D. Vance here. I mean, initially, J.D. 's opponents
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: were all in on just pointing out that he was
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: a never Trumper and that he criticized Trump back in
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: 2016 and that hurt him. But I think Dave Weigel
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: from The Washington Post pointed out that John Kasich won
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: the GOP primary in Ohio. So there's a lot of
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: Republicans in Ohio who were against Trump before they were
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: for him. But this guy Gibbons, what's his name? I
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: forget his first name. He spent $ 10 million of his
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: own money. He nearly got into a fistfight with Josh
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: Mandel on stage at an event. It's not that hard
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: to look like the reasonable guy. And J.D. Vance, as
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: much as he drives me crazy, Mike Gibbons, thank you, Elijah,
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: has some political skills. He is... you know, pandering relentlessly
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: to the base and triggering us on Twitter. But that's effective.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: There's one state senator named Matt Dolan, who is the
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: kind of like move on from Trump candidate, but he
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: gets attacked because his family changed the name of the
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: Cleveland Indians to a name that wasn't racist. And that's
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: just a sin in 2022. You can't do that. So
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: that's Ohio.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Trump is very upset. Trump said he doesn't belong in
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: the Senate because he changed, his family changed the name
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: from the Indians to the Guardians. I will say, About
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Matt Dolan, State Senator Matt Dolan. So the primary is today.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: You're listening to this on a Tuesday. The primary in
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: Ohio is today. The last poll. Tralfager. Remember Tralfager?
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: With the mustache.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Trafalgar.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Trafalgar? Trafalgar?
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: Trafalca.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: It was always a poll. Trafalca? Rafalca? It was the
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: poll that pissed me off all the time. Their last
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: poll has J.D. Vance, 26.2. Matt Dolan, 22. Josh Mandel, 20.8.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: Fingers crossed. Matt Dolan coming on strong. Coming on strong.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: One thing that I just... One thing that is striking...
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: And I do think it goes to, you know, how,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: what the, what both the effectiveness and limits of a
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Trump endorsement, these primaries, this one taking place in Pennsylvania,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: the Republican primary in Pennsylvania, this, this primary Nebraska, these,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: we are through the fucking looking glass. This is not like,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: there's no policy. There's just, there's just like withering attacks, racist,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: it's all fucking vibes. These guys are going after each
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: other on vibes. There's nothing. There's no substance left whatsoever. Nothing.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: And all the voters that are participating in this thing, right?
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: If you're a Republican primary voter kind of trying to
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: decide between heinous people like J.D. Vance and Josh Mandel,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: You're part of this ecosystem where you are getting just
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: the absolute worst godforsaken information on the planet. You have
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: no guideposts. You are floating in outer space. And it's
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: just like that is the future we are heading towards, right?
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Like what is happening inside of these primaries, complete substance-free primaries,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: it's chilling. It's chilling. I'll just say that.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Whoever wins, we lose.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: That's all I'm pointing out.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: I mean, Pennsylvania is an interesting one because that appears
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: to be tied.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: You have Dr.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: Oz gets the Trump endorsement, but he's still statistically tied
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: with some hedge fund goober named David McCormick. Dr. Oz
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: is the Harvard-educated, formerly liberal quack doctor who served in
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: the Turkish military. Not like an obvious fit for the
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: Republican primary electorate in Pennsylvania, but It's not necessarily catching fire.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: He's got name ID money and he's got Trump. And
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure that he's like wielding the endorsement as
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: deftly as J.D. Vance is. There are some focus groups
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: I saw on the most recent Republican debate in Pennsylvania
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: where people were just kind of groaning when Dr. Oz
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: kept mentioning Trump like every five seconds. It's sort of
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: like all he has, whereas J.D. has like. The hillbilly elegy, meemaw, peepaw,
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: the like opiate stuff, the anti-tech stuff, despite being, again,
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: just a wash in tech money from Peter Thiel. So
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: I don't know. This one's a little more of a
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: toss up.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: What does David McCormick have? Is his hedge fund billions?
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: Cash.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: His wife who works for the Trump administration?
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Some brand spanking new Timberland boots for him to walk
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: around in. A very shiny truck. The two of them
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: pretending to be salt of the earth driving around Pennsylvania.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: So fucking funny. Dr. Oz holding on these, this hedge
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: fund guy wandering around rural Pennsylvania. Like he knows what
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: he's doing. One thing about JD Vance too, like he
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: is just more sophisticated. He is like, he has a,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: he has a, he has a theory. He also like
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: it's a small thing, but he was asked about debt
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: forgiveness on student loans.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was just about to bring that up.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: And he had this answer on it on addressing the
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: ways in which the colleges and universities are responsible for
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: causing a lot of this debt and for being irresponsible
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: in what they did to students, which is absolutely true
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: and not something we talk about enough. And it was
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: a kind of like. undergirding philosophy of populism that I
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: think makes him a stickier, better, real candidate, which is
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: why someone like Oz has to just go around saying Trump, Trump, Trump,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: because there's nothing. There's nothing underneath the surface.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: Lovey, you're totally right. And what's so frustrating about the J.D.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: Vance is he has a little bit of the intellectual
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: heft to deliver an answer like that on student debt cancellation,
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: but he never gets the pushback that's like, okay, you're
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: all in on Trump, though. And he was the guy
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: who just like let all the for-profit colleges off the hook,
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: who got all these veterans in a lot of cases
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: to go to these schools, get huge loans from the
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: GI Bill, never graduate and get bankrupted, right? Like there's
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: a really good substantive argument for all of this that's
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: just not really happening in any of the races. It's
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: just like Trump, Trump, Trump.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: Ohio is a Republican-leaning state. And if J.D. Vance wins
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: the primary, he will appear to be a Republican-leaning candidate
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: in the general election, right? And he will do it
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: probably in a more deft way, almost assuredly in a
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: more deft way than Josh Mandel would.
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: He won't beat up a senior citizen on stage, yes.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: For sure. I have a small complaint, but it just
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: was like, there was a piece in the Times looking
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: at Democrats in Ohio. And it found a man, this
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: is just the perfect kind of semi-real person that ends
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: up in these pieces. Lou McMahon, a registered Democrat who
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: said he did not vote in the last two presidential
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: elections because he did not like his choices, sounded open
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: to Mr. Ryan in an interview, but asked to assess
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Democrats in Washington, he replied, promises not delivered. I don't
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: want that guy's vote.
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: That guy stinks.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: I do not think you should run for office or campaign.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Oh, you sat out 2016 and 2020 because you didn't
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: like your choices? I don't want your vote.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: I don't want it.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: I don't want your vote. We don't need him. We
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: don't need that guy. He calls himself a lawyer.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: We are in Ohio. Tim Ryan has plenty of votes
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: to spare.
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: We don't need him.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Let me ask what other Trump-endorsed candidates we should be
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: keeping an eye on. Have you guys heard about the—
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: The guy in Nebraska? Wow.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: That guy, just a full fucking groper. The governor's like,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: don't endorse this guy. Stay away from him. Trump's all in.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Accused of sexually assaulting eight women.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: Including a state senator.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Trump's like, the media's been unfair to him. It's a picture.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: There's a picture.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: He's just this, Charles Herbster is just groping people at
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: Republican events. groping other Republican elected officials. And Trump's like, no,
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: he's maligned just like me. I mean, like one of
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: the surest ways you can get Trump to defend you
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: is by getting accused of some sort of sexual misconduct
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: because he just folds it into his own grievance.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Of course, of course. In Idaho, Trump's candidate for governor
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: is polling 30 points behind the current governor. I don't
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: think that's going well. And then in Georgia, Brian Kemp
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: is so far ahead of David Perdue, he may actually
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: avoid a runoff.
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: That is.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: That is Trump being more narcissistic than he is strategic,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: because obviously he just hates Brian Kemp for the sin
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: of kind of believing in elections for 15 seconds after
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: stealing it from Stacey Abrams.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: Kind of, yeah.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Just believing it just enough for five seconds, or not
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: disbelieving in them enough. But the problem is he's endorsed Perdue,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: and Perdue... Seems to be unaware why he's running for office.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: He seems to have no interest in it whatsoever. He
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: seems bored by the prospect. Terrible candidate. No energy, no enthusiasm.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: Just a terrible, terrible person and candidate. Yeah.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Here's how Trump's closing out that race. This is what
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Trump said today. A vote for Brian Kemp in this
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: primary is a vote for Stacey Abrams. And I'll tell you,
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: I don't, I know, I love it. And I tell you,
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: I don't believe Republicans are going to go out and
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: vote in a general election for Brian Kemp because they
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: thought we won the election. Keep talking, Trump. Keep talking.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Spread that message far and wide.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: Georgia Republican. I love that. Just do what you did
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: in those Senate runoffs in 2020. That's what we're hoping for.
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: It's also worth remembering that Dr. Oz is his second
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: choice in Pennsylvania because the first one, Sean Parnell, was
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: accused of domestic abuse and had to drop out. So
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: This is not exactly a sterling run year for Mr.
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: Trump.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: Before we go, we wanted to have some fun with
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: this weekend's White House Correspondents Dinner, an annual celebration of
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: journalism and one of D.C. 's biggest and most masturbatory
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: events that was held for the first time in two years.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: That's a long list.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Most masturbatory events. Most masturbatory.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: It's tied for first.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: It's up there.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: It's tied for first with a lot of events.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: Other than that and dinner at Cafe Milano every night.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: That's just sort of a regular occurrence. That's a good one.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: Like always, the dinner was attended by media figures, celebrities, comedians, politicians,
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: and the President of the United States who told some
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: self-deprecating jokes about his age and low approval ratings. Let's
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: take a listen.
• 30:48
  Speaker 6: It's the first time the President attended this dinner in
• 30:52
  Speaker 6: six years.
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: It's understandable.
• 31:00
  Speaker 6: We had a horrible plague followed by two years of COVID.
• 31:04
  Speaker 6: I'm not really here to roast the GOP. That's not
• 31:07
  Speaker 6: my style. Besides, there's nothing I can say about the
• 31:10
  Speaker 6: GOP that Kevin McCarthy hasn't.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Already put on tape.
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: Republicans seem to support one fellow, some guy named Brandon.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: He's having a really good year and I'm kind of
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: happy for him.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Love it. What'd you think? How'd Biden do?
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: You know, Look, he started it and he ended it.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: In the middle, he landed some of those jokes. I
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: think he did fine. I think he did great. I
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: think he got through it. It could have been a
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: fucking disaster.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: I love the Brandon one. In part because like the
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: Let's Go Brandon thing is a kind of genuinely funny
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: thing that emerged from whatever Biden opposition is out there
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: that's not as hateful as their usual screeds. And he
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: kind of like show that he could laugh along with it,
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: own the joke, landed the joke. It was, it was
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: pretty well done. I thought he was good.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: I kind of wish he told that Brandon joke like
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: five months ago when it first happened, just to just
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: at a normal event. That would have been, that would
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: have really popped the whole bubble right there.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: And I also did the thing, like they made a choice,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: which was he did like some jokes. I think he did.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: I think he did pretty well in the comedy section
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: and like, but then there's something about Joe Biden. Like,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Every president ends the Correspondents' Dinner with a serious close.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: It was always like we did every year. You always
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: end it with a serious close. And there was something
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: about the way Joe Biden did it that felt more
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: like it was very important to him. You see that
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: there's that part of him that's just this Washington guy
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: that's been in Washington forever. He really takes it as
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: a relationship that he has rather than an obligation he
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: had to perform. It felt very sincere. He was really
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: thoughtful about what he wanted to say at the end there.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: And I think it worked. I think it was really moving.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: It was actually.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: like surprisingly effective to have him spend that time. Yeah.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden is a creature of Washington in both the
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: best and the worst ways.
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Like he's just he when Barack Obama would do that dinner,
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: he was like excited to tell the jokes by the
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: time we got there. But the whole rest of the
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: time at the dinner, you could tell he was like,
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: what the fuck am I doing here? And Joe Biden
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: was like laughing, genuinely laughing at all of Trevor Noah's jokes,
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: like having a good time. And then, like you said,
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: really believed in the majority of that speech, which was serious,
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: which is not usually what happens, right? Usually it's mostly
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: jokes and then this small, serious close. He actually didn't
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: do that many jokes at the end. And he did most,
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: mostly it was serious.
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was the most serious of those presidential speeches
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: I've ever heard from a White House correspondent. And it's like,
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: Every single year, you could easily be the scold that's like,
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: how dare you joke at a time like this, right?
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: This year, it's Ukraine, financial crisis, whatever it is. I
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: will not lie. I'm a loser.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: I have COVID.
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: So I watched the speech on TV in my home.
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: It was very weird watching a huge panel of CNN
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: people talking about the dinner. And then they cut to
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: some dude in Kiev at 3 a.m. He's like, yeah,
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: we just got bombed. Air raid sirens going off. He's like, oh, yeah,
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: this feels a little weird. But, you know, I thought
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: Biden probably could have told a few more jokes.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: But you know what? Love, it's right.
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: You're there. You're checking a box. You're in. You're out.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: You gave your sincere close. Like, well done.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: I will say, yeah, and you mentioned this, Tommy, the
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: way that he told the let's go, Brandon joke, that
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: style of delivery is like best Joe Biden's best.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: Happy laughing.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: Right. Like that's the most suited for Joe Biden, that
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: kind of style.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Because he's not, you know, like. Joe Biden is more
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: like a traditional politician. When he's up there, it is
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: a bit more like when Bill Clinton was up there
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: or George W. Bush was out there. Obama was like
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: an exception. Obama approached it like a late night host.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: And that's not Joe Biden. He's just an old politician.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: He told some politician jokes. And I thought it went great.
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: Obama was young enough to be cool, relatively tied to
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: the culture, and competitive. So he wanted to kill it.
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: And I think the net effect of that is you
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: get some pundits and people in Washington being like, but
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: was he too funny? Did he go... too far this year.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: It's like, oh, shut up.
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: Come on.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: Well, with Obama, there was always a joke or two
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: that ended up generating a bunch of controversy. It's Monday,
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: late Monday now. There is, we're recording this late Monday.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: There is no controversy generated from Joe Biden's jokes, which honestly,
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: for the White House, great.
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, great.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: That's what you want. They do not need that.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: They're good.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: Trevor Noah headlined the event, giving the traditional roast of
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: the president and the media. Take a listen.
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: We all saw what happened at the Oscars. I've actually
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: been a little bit worried about tonight. I won't lie,
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: you know, I was like, what if I make like
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: a really mean joke, you know, about like Kellyanne Conway
• 35:48
  Speaker 5: and then her husband rushes up on the stage and
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: thanks me. The great chef Jose Andres is joining us
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: here tonight.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Give it up for him, people. My good friend in
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: the room.
• 36:02
  Speaker 5: Whenever there's a disaster anywhere in the world, Chef Jose
• 36:04
  Speaker 5: is there. which I guess is why he's sitting at
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: the CNN table tonight. Fox News is sort of like.
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: A Waffle House.
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's relatively normal in the afternoon, but as soon
• 36:14
  Speaker 5: as the sun goes down, there's a drunk lady named
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: Janine threatening to fight every Mexican who comes in. A
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: lot of big media names in the room tonight.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: Chuck Todd is here.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Chuck, you here? How you doing?
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: I'd ask a follow-up, but I know you don't know
• 36:29
  Speaker 5: what those are.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: Wow. Just absolutely... really murder chuck i my one thing
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: with that is you know all right all right fox
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: news prime time is worse than fox news during the
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: day let's let's dispense with the fiction that fox news
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: during the day is okay all right it's a it's
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: it's a trope it's over.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah those are great jokes i can't believe uh matt
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: negren let that joke through well yeah matt's.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: A uh a guy who works the daily show used
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: to be a political reporter His hands were– fingerprints were
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: all over that Chuck Todd joke since Matt basically watches
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: the Sunday shows every weekend to send himself off into
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: the stratosphere and get angry. But I thought Trevor Noah
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: was very funny.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: Very funny. We didn't play Biden's Chuck Todd joke, but
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: there were two– Chuck Todd got hit by the president
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: and Trevor Noah.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: Biden did a great job, but there was a couple
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: moments where– look, as I've said before, often watching Biden–
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: give a big speech is like watching a small plane
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: in a storm. You know, it's rolling. You just want
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: to get to the ground safely. I feel like around
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: that Chuck Todd joke in the Biden speech, we had
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: some pretty severe turbulence. What was the joke? I forget
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: what it was.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: Well, there was the Donald Trump coup joke didn't really
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: land as well for Biden.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: What was the Biden-Chuck Todd one, though?
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: He said something like.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: He said something about meet the press and I'm not
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: getting invited back.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: That Billy, we said that, you know, Billy, uh, Billy
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Eichner did a great job. He should, maybe he should
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: host me to meet the press. It would help their ratings.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: I don't think I'm getting invited back.
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: And then he kind of like got embarrassed, I think
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: in the moment about how mean he felt. And he
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: was like, Oh, I'm not getting, yeah. He sort of
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: interrupted himself.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: The check Todd was murdered a couple of times. Um, no,
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: I thought Trevor did great. I mean, I think like
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: it's always tough when you're the comedian because like, You think, like,
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: all right, what are the jokes that are funny to
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: the room in Toon DC, who are a bunch of, like,
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: nerdy political insiders, but also funny to people beyond DC
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: who are maybe watching this, right? And so you always
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: have to sort of toe that line. But I actually
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: think he did it pretty well.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, what's... I feel like one thing we
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: learned over the years, though, is that that room has
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: plenty of nerdy insiders in it, but it's actually... it's
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: a pretty broad group of people. And some of the
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: more insidery stuff actually works less well than you'd expect, right?
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: Like they're not actually, I think that the group of
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: people that are truly up on the dumbest of Twitter
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: bullshit is so small that even if they're all in
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: that room, it's not enough people to fill that room.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. Which is a good lesson for us all.
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: And they don't take jokes at the media's expense very well.
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: You are far more likely to get grown as you
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: heard there than anything else.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: Right yeah no they don't although he was he gave
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: a closing that has been going viral that was um
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: very generous i thought towards the media yep so that
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: was good uh anyone want to argue that this is
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: an important tradition that's critical to the future of the republic.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: Look i've said it before i'll say again we cancel
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: it the whole country fell to pieces that's.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: True Keep it going.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: It's really just the most carefully constructed trap in the
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: history of the presidency. It's really all of this. It's
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: like you guys throw this dinner. You invite a bunch
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: of shithead celebrities. You complain that it went to Hollywood.
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: You guys like infect half the city at the gridiron
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: dinner and then you do this and then you're all
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: going to go to the press briefing and like shred
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: Joe Biden for not doing enough against Omicron. I mean,
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: the whole thing, you're just set up to fail. You're
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: too funny. You're not funny enough. You shouldn't have gone.
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: How dare you joke at a time like this? It's, uh,
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: It's a good old catch-22. We all need those.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: I don't care whether the dinner happens or not. I
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: will say that I am in favor of anything that
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: creates any kind of monoculture. Anything that gets a bunch
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: of people, even if it is for the purposes of
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: a ridiculous navel-gazing event. There are so few There are
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: so few events that draw public attention. Like the correspondence
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: center at this point, like it gets wall to wall
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: coverage on the cable networks. It's like it's probably one
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: of the most viewed things that a president gets to
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: do at this point. And I am all for those
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: events because we need more. We need more monoculture moments.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, I'm for it.
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: Different. It's like it's funny.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: It's good.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: Well, I was just saying, like, I think that the
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: media celebrity spectacle that has become the dinner is a lot, right?
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: For sure. You're not going to get me to defend that.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: But I think humor is important in politics and media
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: and in D.C. I think that people take themselves way
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: too seriously. Like, it's one thing to take the issues
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: that they're covering seriously, which we should because it's serious time. But, like, God,
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: people take themselves too seriously. And for, like, politicians to
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: poke fun at themselves, for reporters to poke fun at
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: themselves and to do it so that the public hears it,
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: I think is actually really important.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: I agree. And the other thing is, I'll tell you
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: what my feeling was when I saw it starting. I
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: was surprised by how glad I was to see it exist.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: And I was just trying to interrogate that feeling. And
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: I do think that there are plenty of reasons to
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: take issue with the fact that our media is feckless.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: It doesn't focus on the right things. It is sensationalistic.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: It treats politics like a game. All those critiques are valid.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: They are not made better or worse by the existence
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: of this institution. And like, there are so few of
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: those kind of traditions left that I, that I was
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: kind of surprised by how happy I was to see
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: that this one still existed.
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: Jokes are good. Jokes are good. All right. That's all.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: That's our show for today. We will talk to you
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: guys on Friday is our next show. Cause we have
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: a live show Thursday night in Chicago. We'll talk to
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: you then. Pots of America is a crooked media production.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: The executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our senior producer is
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: Andy Gardner Bernstein. Our producer is Haley Muse, and Olivia
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: Martinez is our associate producer. It's mixed and edited by
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis sound engineer the show.
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: Thanks to Tanya Sominator, Sandy Gerard, Hallie Kiefer, Ari Schwartz,
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: Andy Taft, and Justine Howe for production support. And to
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, Milo Kim, and
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: Amelia Montooth. Our episodes are uploaded as videos at youtube.com
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: slash crookedmedia.