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MTG: Jesus Was a Felon Too · Pod Save America

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: On today's show, Trump whines about sharks, teleprompters, and the
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: heat in Las Vegas, while his team pitches more corporate
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: tax cuts and a, quote, post-constitutional vision for a second term.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Exciting.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Sounds great. The Biden campaign sharpens its attacks on their
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: convicted felon opponent. And then, Pod Save America has been
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: granted the very first... World exclusive interview with America's newest
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: reality show sweetheart and or villain. We don't know yet.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: John Lovett. Since we're not allowed to ask him how
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: he did or even what he did. Or where he was.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Or where he was. Tommy and I will be quizzing
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Lovett about all the news he missed since he has,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: this is very important, he has not seen or read
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: anything about what happened while he was gone. He will
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: be joining us in studio soon. We haven't even seen
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: him yet.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: No.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: We got a brief message that he was back. And
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: that's it.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: The prodigal son returns. Some of you might be wondering,
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: no preparation. How is this different than a normal week?
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: And to that we say, good joke.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait. But first, Tommy,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: you know how you get the Sunday scaries when thinking
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: about your first Monday morning meeting? Always. Now imagine that
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: meeting is a video call with a New York probation officer.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: That's how Donald Trump's week started. after he got special
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: permission to do the meeting remotely and with his lawyer, because,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: of course, separate set of rules for Donald Trump than
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: most other convicted felons. Usually in these meetings, the officer
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: asks you about your criminal record, employment history, any health conditions,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: whether you have family responsibilities. Can't imagine Trump's ever had
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: any of those. This is an especially tough one for Trump.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: They usually ask whether you're in contact with anyone with
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: a criminal record, which apparently you're not allowed to be
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: if you're on probation. all of which will get bundled
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: into a report that will go to Judge Juan Merchan
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: and typically includes a recommendation for what a sentence should be.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: That report will likely not be made public. Trump's defense
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: team has until Thursday to submit its own sentencing recommendation
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: to Judge Merchan and Alvin Bragg will as well. And
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: then Merchan will hand down the sentence a month from
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: now on July 11th. What do you think, Tommy? On
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: the one hand, no previous criminal convictions yet. On the
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: other hand, Trump is guilty on 34 counts.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: He's shown zero remorse. Right. Openly trashes the judge and
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: the process. Massive civil liabilities in the recent past, including
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: being held liable for sexual assault and fraud. What's your recommendation?
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: And 10 violations of his own gag order.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's a good one. Got that one.
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: Before we get to the recommendation, drumroll. I had some
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: dark thoughts reading about this, then some less dark thoughts.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Which do you want first? Oh, let's start with the dark.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: So, if Trump wins.
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: he can make all the federal cases go away, right?
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: But not the state cases. However, if he wins, the
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: Supreme Court will probably say, okay, the Georgia case, the
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: New York case, all of that has to go on
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: ice while you're president because you have to be able
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: to do the job, which means Trump now has a
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: very compelling reason to stick around for a third term
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: or a fourth term, or you get my gist here.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, that is a dark thought, but it's also See,
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: the political hack in me was like, that's a good argument.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: We should be making that argument. Let's make it. I mean,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: because the Biden people and everyone's already making the argument
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: that Trump is basically running to keep himself out of jail.
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: But really, this goes beyond just his general authoritarian nature, too.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: And just it's a.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: Real survival issue. OK, so enough of that.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Less dark.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: It is so funny that he's going to have to
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: zoom with this P.O. and they're going to be like,
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: so tell me about your living situation. It's like, well,
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: I live in a club. He's got a golf course
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: and a pool.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Employment history?
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: Well, it's a little spotty. Yeah, what kind of financial
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: resources do you have? Well, at the moment, but pretty soon,
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: I'm going to have to cut some checks.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Just references? References.
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: Also, did you know that Trump can submit letters of
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: recommendation from family and friends?
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: You know that? You think he can get any?
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: I wonder, like, you get a group letter from, like,
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: Fox and Friends? I think that Don and Eric would
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: do it in, like, crayon.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: I think the... I didn't know this, that you're not
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: able to be in contact with other people who have
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: criminal records while you're on probation. Just a list for
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: a reminder for people, people in Trump's orbit who are
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: convicted felons. His former campaign manager, former campaign vice chairman,
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: his former chief campaign advisor, three former campaign advisors, his
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: former CFO, former personal lawyer, his former national security advisor,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: his former White House aide, and two of his former lawyers.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: And about a dozen others are currently facing federal felony
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: charges and felony charges in multiple states. God, that's a
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: lot of people. It's going to be tough to run
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: a campaign and staff a White House if he can't
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: be in contact with other people with criminal records.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: Or just be at his own club, which is full
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: of scumbags and, you know, ne'er-do-wells. I asked Chad GPT
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: to write a brief letter of recommendation from a friend
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: of Trump's in New York, a New York financier.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Want me to read it aloud? Okay.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: Dear probation officer, I'm writing to advocate for leniency for Mr. Donald,
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: last name, I didn't want to do Trump because I
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: didn't want it to know, A 77-year-old real estate professional
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: recently convicted of financial crimes. As a close friend, I
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: believe he deserves the lightest sentence possible. Donald and I
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: have shared many wonderful times together, including memorable visits to
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: my private island and rides on my private plane. His
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: advanced age and the nonviolent nature of his offenses should
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: be considered in your decision. Thanks for considering this request.
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: I'm difficult to reach these days, but please contact my associate, Ghislaine,
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: for further questions. Sincerely, Jeffrey. So that's someone who could
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: weigh in for him.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Chat GPT. That's pretty advanced.
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's from Jeffrey... last name brackets, jet-setting New York financier.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize that the AI was getting that smart.
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: It's getting good.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's very exciting. So in advance of his sentencing,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Trump has, of course, been on his best behavior. He's
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: speaking carefully and respectfully everywhere he goes so as not
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: to leave a bad impression on the legal officials who
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: will determine his fate. Here he is at a rally
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: in Las Vegas over the weekend after a lovely introduction
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: from Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Democrats and the fake news
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: media want to constantly talk about, oh, President Trump is
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: a convicted felon. Well, you want to know something? The
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: man that I worship is also a convicted felon. And
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: he was murdered on a Roman cross.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: By the way, a lot of shark attacks lately.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: Did you notice that? A lot of shark attacks. I
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: watched some guys justifying it today. Well, they weren't really
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: that angry. They bit off the young lady's leg. He said,
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: there's no problem with sharks. They just didn't really understand.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: A young woman swimming now really got decimated and other
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: people to a lot of shark attacks. I said, you know,
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: we have a deranged individual named Jack Smith. He's a deranged,
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: dumb guy. He's a dumb son of a bitch. But
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: those J6 warriors, they were warriors, but they were really
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: more than anything else. They're victims of what happened. All
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: they were doing is protesting a rigged election. That's what
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: they were doing. By the way, isn't that breeze nice?
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Do you feel the breeze?
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Because I don't want anybody going on me. We need
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: every voter. I don't care about you. I just want
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: your vote.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: I don't care.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: See, now the press will take that and they'll say
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: he said a horrible thing.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, giddy up. Yeah. Believe it or not, Tommy,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: there was policy news in Trump's event. He said that
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: as president, he'd asked Congress to stop taxing income from tips,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: which is obviously a pretty attractive proposal in Vegas, where
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: so many people work in casinos and service industry jobs.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: But you really had to dig around to find that news.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: The headline of the AP story from the event was, quote,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Trump complains about his teleprompters at a scorching Las Vegas rally.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: We didn't include it, but there's a long riff where
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: he's done this before. He yells at the teleprompter operators. Yeah.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: because he can't see the teleprompters, and then he says...
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: And riffs. Yeah, when contractors are shitty, I don't pay them.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to pay them for this. It's whatever.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Part of the brand. People like that. What do you
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: make of Trump's famous message discipline there? Do you think
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: that rally was politically or legally helpful? So I'll divide
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: this in three parts, like the Recovery Act.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: Sorry, Jesus Christ.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: The shark attack aside, I think it's just.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: Kind of funny and entertaining and why people go to
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: these things.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: The breeze stuff, too. I do think there's something about.
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: A politician saying at a rally... hey guys, don't die.
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: I don't care about your health. I just need your votes.
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: It's kind of like refreshingly honest in a way.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: The Biden campaign made an ad from that. Okay, sure.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: The I don't care about you. I just want your
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: vote line. I think it's very useful. It's funny. Even
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: though he said like, you know, the media is going
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: to make a big thing with it. And he was
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: like trying to say he's joking. It's one of those
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: jokes where there's like a lot of truth in it.
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: He's half kidding.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: He's half kidding. Not even half kidding. Like he just
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: does want their votes. And so I think it does
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: feed into the message that The Biden campaign, and I
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: think all of us should be using against Trump, that
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: he only cares about himself.
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the line about the January 6th insurrectionists, he called
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: them warriors, that I do think is a real problem
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: for him. And it's also, it's kind of like the
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: latest tick up this escalatory ladder.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Just going to say that, yeah.
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: We are this close to him calling on the police
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: officer who shot Ashley Babbitt to be arrested or prosecuted
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: or tried.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Honestly, don't give him any ideas.
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: I like, you know, it's like he's really... he's just,
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: he's going to be marching with the Proud Boys in
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: a couple months.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think that is actually an incredibly, it's
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: interesting that the Biden campaign went with the line about,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: I don't care about you. You know, it's funny. It
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: sums up their message.
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: It folds into their broader message.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: So it's great, right? Very well. But like that line,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: because right, he's obviously talked about, you know, them being
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: political prisoners and all that kind of stuff, but calling
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: them warriors who just got, you know, they didn't do
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: anything wrong. They were just protesting a rigged election. This
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: stuff is not, I'll tell you, this stuff polls fucking awful.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: And it even polls awful with, unfortunately, not all Republicans,
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: but quite a few Republicans as well.
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: The line was they were warriors, but they're really, more
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: than anything else, they're victims of what happened. Again, these
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: are people who... you know, kicked down the doors of
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: the Capitol, smashed through windows, marauded through, beat the hell
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: out of police officers, pulled them down steps, tear gassed them,
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: brutalized people.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, come on. I also like it. It's one
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: thing to say, I don't know if the conviction is
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: going to matter to my vote or maybe it was
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: a political prosecution and it's not really a big deal
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: to me. That's very, very different from Marjorie Taylor Greene's
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: line that Trump is like Jesus, who was also a
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: convicted felon. It's not just like they're going with this
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: like he is our martyr.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: That's not going to fly with people.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: You went to a Jesuit school, Holy Cross.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: I'm less religious, I think, than you. Does that track
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: with your understanding.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Of the Bible?
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: It was actually– Was there a hearing? He was 33
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: when he died, and it was the 33 felony counts.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Did he have a PO? Yeah, it was one less
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: than Trump.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: He did. He was not able to do it remotely, though.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: Imagine Christmas at her house.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. What did you make of the actual proposal
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: on income from TIPS? The TIPS proposal?
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think it's one of those ideas that
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: sounds very good and described in shorthand, but I think
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: in practice gets complicated and is more likely to benefit
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: corporations and.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: So the perfect Trump policy.
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: Literally, I wrote that down. So the argument for not
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: taxing tips is that tipped workers generally make lower wages,
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: they deserve a tax break, and the accounting process can
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: be onerous for both them and for small businesses. Also,
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: taxing tips could encourage people not to report them in
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: the first place, right? So you can see the challenges there.
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: The argument for taxing tips is you want all income
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: to be taxed uniformly just for fairness reasons. And taxes
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: on tips go to essential services like any other tax.
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: They also go to Social Security, Medicare, etc. But most
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: of all, the real concern about Trump's idea is if
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: employers know tips aren't taxed, they will probably try to
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: pay the lowest wages possible and push employees to make
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: it up themselves with tips. So Democrats, the employers, have
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: to pay the tax as well.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: And so Democrats generally say, let's keep tips taxed, but
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: let's increase the minimum wage. Let's put in place strong
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: labor protections, et cetera. Let's, you know, get to a
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: Medicare for all like system. Republicans, they pitch this idea
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: because they're anti-government, they're anti-tax, and they want to cut regulation.
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: So exactly as you said, this idea probably sounds really
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: good to people, polls really well, but I think in
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: the end could hurt workers.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Well, and also Democrats now don't just want to raise
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: the minimum wage. they want to eliminate, Joe Biden wants
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: to eliminate the tipped minimum wage. And that's a better
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: way to do it so that a lot of workers
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: don't have to rely on tips, that they can get
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: the same minimum wage as everyone else and then increase
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: that minimum wage for all workers. In fact, Biden already
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: in the last four years has issued an order requiring
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: federal contractors to pay tipped workers the same minimum wage
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: as everyone else. So I think that's a better way
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: to do it. But You know, Trump saying that in
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Vegas with a lot of service workers, you can see
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: people be like, oh yeah, all they see is like,
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: oh yeah, it's a tax cut and I don't have
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: to pay tax anymore. Like that's kind of cool, even
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: though will he get it through a Republican Congress?
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: No.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Or any Congress, right? And wouldn't it be better to
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: just give people a higher minimum wage? Yes. So last
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: time Trump was president, his economic agenda consisted almost entirely
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: of a corporate tax cut and tariffs. And it looks
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: like he's planning to double down on both of those
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: in a second term. Washington Post reported on Monday that
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: he actually wants to give corporations and rich people yet
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: another tax cut if he wins. The New York Times
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: also had a report over the weekend about how it
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: was planned to cut taxes on corporations, raise taxes on
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: anything you buy that's made abroad, that's the universal across-the-board
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: tariff that he wants to do, and deport millions of
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: undocumented immigrants, all will likely increase prices and make inflation
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: much worse. How do you think Democrats should push back
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: on this? Like, do you lose people as soon as
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: you start talking about, you know, economic policy and get
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: into the weeds? On the other hand, like every poll
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: I've ever seen, you know, tax cuts for the rich
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: are the most unpopular policy or one of the most
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: unpopular policies. And that's sort of where Democrats traditionally have
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: Republicans on the ropes. Yeah.
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: I mean, I want to know what you think about this.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: I absolutely believe that these policy ideas would be inflationary.
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: I am skeptical about our ability to explain it to
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: voters in a concise way, especially when you get into
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: the specifics of some of the policies, because part of
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: the argument is about Trump's immigration policies, which is an
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: area where Joe Biden starts way, way, way underwater as
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: compared to Trump. Another piece is tariffs on Chinese imports
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: or Chinese goods that come to the country. And again,
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: it seems like voters like policies that are harsh on China. Now,
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: you're right that Trump has also proposed just an across
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: the board tariff on all imports.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: But I agree.
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: I think the lowest hanging fruit here is the Republican
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: plan to give more tax cuts to the richest people
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: in the country and to corporations. There was some recent
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: Pew polling that found 60% of voters say they are
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: bothered a lot by the feeling that rich people and
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: corporations don't pay their fair share of taxes. I think
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: those people are right to be pissed. And the Republican
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: plan would also explode the debt. I think it's $ 4. 6
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: trillion over a decade, just if you extend the 2017
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: Trump tax cuts. But Trump and his buddies in Congress
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: apparently want to go further than just the 2017 tax cut.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it can be a very powerful, compelling story,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: but you've got to tell the story and you've got
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: to include sort of motivation in it instead of just
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: talking about the policy. And, you know, Trump basically passed
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: one major piece of legislation in four years in the
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: White House. And it was a tax cut for the
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: rich that cost... $ 4 trillion and that he wants to extend.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: So it costs $ 4 trillion over the next 10 years.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: And then he wants to add another trillion dollars to it, right?
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: So he wants to spend $ 5 trillion in a tax
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: cut that goes mainly to the rich. He wants you
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: to pay for it because it's adding to the deficit
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: and he's not paying for it. And he didn't pay
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: for the last one. That's all he did last time.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: Did he pass anything to help workers?
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: No.
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: By the way, he could have done this tipped wage
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: proposal last time too. He just didn't want to do it, right?
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Because he's bullshit. And now he is meeting with campaign
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: donors and telling them, like rich billionaires and saying, Hey,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: vote for me and I'll get you another tax cut.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: He's meeting with oil companies and being like, Hey, vote
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: for me. And I'll make sure that you get more
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: subsidies as well. And I'll cut regulations for you. So
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: that's what, that's what Trump's out there doing. And I
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: think Joe Biden, like, this is a good one for
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: the debate. Like Donald Trump keeps attacking Joe Biden about inflation.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: It's like, what are you going to do for inflation?
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: How does giving a huge tax cut to rich people,
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: how does that help inflation? How does that help people
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: with their costs? I'm going to do X, Y, and Z, right? Like,
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden wants the rich to pay more in taxes
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: so he can cut the deficit and give everyone else
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: a break. You know, it's tricky because it doesn't get
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: covered as much as the more identity inflected cultural issues
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: that we talk about, these economic issues, because it's not
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: 2012 anymore. Like last time we ran this campaign. But again,
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: I think you can tell a story that paints Trump
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: as just. there to take care of himself and his
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: rich friends and not you. And I think that works
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: on a more emotional level than just the policy. Yeah.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: And Biden wants to let the tax cuts expire for
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: people who make more than $ 400, 000. But he also wants
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: to put new taxes on businesses. I think he wants
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: to raise the rate from 21% to 28% to pay
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: for investments in child care, elder care, housing, education. So
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: things people really, really care about.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: And again, like I.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: Republicans will call it tax and spend liberalism, but I
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: think there's a big majority in this country who don't
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: think that corporations pay enough in taxes, period.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: And by the way, this is one of the larger
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: stakes in the election. You can sit here and think,
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: maybe this won't happen because the Congress will look like
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: this and the president won't get this done. The tax
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: cuts are set to expire at the end of the year.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: So no matter who's president, there's going to be a
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: major fight about taxes early on in 2025. And again,
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: like $ 4 trillion is at stake here. And either they're
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: going to be renewed for a decade or they're not.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: And that's going to mean a lot for people's taxes,
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: for the deficit, for what people pay, for affordability. And
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: so like no matter who wins, no matter what happens
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: in Congress, this is getting decided next year. And so
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: people should focus on it as a big issue in
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: this election. So the guy in charge of Trump's budget
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: proposals during his first term, former OMB director Russell Vogt,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: may play a big role in a second Trump term.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Along with Stephen Miller, Vogt has been floated by people
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: close to Trump as a possible White House chief of staff.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: And that should scare the shit out of us. Vogt
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: is currently spearheading the infamous Project 2025 blueprint that would
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: turn America into a Christian nationalist paradise. And he has
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: written that, quote, we are living in a post-constitutional time.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: Still don't know what that means.
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it means Trump can act like a dictator.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, who cares about the Constitution? Yeah, that's what I
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: take it as. The Washington Post just ran a chilling
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: rundown of who vote is and what he's planning. You
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: can read it and see what you think post-constitutional means
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: from the article. Tommy, what should people know about RussVote?
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think you gave the top lines. Some
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: of the specific things he thinks is that we should
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: no longer treat the Department of Justice like an independent agency.
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: So that means the president can direct the attorney general
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: to target his or her enemies.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: He feels so strongly about that. Apparently, he said, if
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: anyone brings up the DOJ's independence in a White House meeting,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: I want them out of the meeting.
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: That's, yeah, that's a rational way to think about a conversation.
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: He wants to redefine illegal immigration as an invasion and
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: use that authority to authorize wartime powers to stop it.
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: Not sure exactly what that means. They want, Russ Vought
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: wants Trump to be able to unilaterally withhold funding appropriated
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: by Congress. I think the constitution is pretty clear about
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: appropriations being Congress's job. So basically, I mean, I think
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: the big picture on guys like this is that any
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: Trump term, a second Trump term is scary, but there's
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: a version of it that is primarily staffed by an
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: army of Stephen Millers. And I would account this Russ
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: Vought guy as among them. who not only have very
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: scary and extreme views, but are willing to do things
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: that are extra constitutional to fully erode our democracy and
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: push us into a situation where we're more like a
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: country like Hungary, where our courts are packed with right-wing judges,
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: districts are gerrymandered to entrench Republican control, the DOJ is
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: going after the press, they're going after opposition leaders, and
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: we're talking about fundamental changes to the character of America.
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: that would be very, very difficult to walk back. And like,
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: that is what's so scary when you read about these
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: people in totality, their plans, their staffing, and the fact
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: that they have just like a vengeful boss at the
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: top of the ticket that is willing to do anything
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: to win and then just punish the people he hates now.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: I also think that's a version that we're almost certainly
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: going to get. It's the more likely version. Much more
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: likely for a few reasons. One, There's a lot of Republicans,
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: career officials, even Democrats who are just never going to
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: work in a second Trump term, right? He lost a
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: whole bunch of people at the end of the first
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: term because of the whole insurrection thing. Two, they are
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: giving loyalty tests to every single person who worked there.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: So they're going to be smarter in who they hire.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: So now they are scraping the bottom of the barrel
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: and they are making sure that when they scrape the
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: bottom of the barrel, they only get people who are super,
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: super loyal to Donald Trump. And then the other thing is,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of like debate about, you know, is
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Trump going to spend time and effort doing all these
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: horrible things or is he just going to be so
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: lazy that he doesn't care and he just, you know,
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: sort of is corrupt and makes himself rich and tweets
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: all the time and that's about it. You don't really
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: even need to solve that debate on this because if
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: he is not paying attention and he's just like an
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: idiot hanging around the Oval Office watching TV and eating hamburgers,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: The rest of the government is going to be staffed
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: by people like Vote who have a lot of power
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: and can do all this shit without Trump.
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: And they know how to use the levers of power. Also,
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: they want to do something called Schedule F. They want
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: to get rid of civil service protections, which will basically
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: allow them to push out a bunch of professional technocrats
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: from government and install political appointees. They've talked about going
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: after attorneys at agencies who have stymied them at times
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: by telling them things were not legal. They want to
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: change the... the nature of those attorneys so they get
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: the answers they want. So it's very, very scary.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: Trump, we were a little bit, look, there was very.
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: Annoying narrative early on in the Trump administration about the
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: Committee to Save America, all the adults in charge, blah, blah, blah.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: I think those people on balance are a hell of
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: a lot better than the second Trump term. But also
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: I think we benefited from the fact that no one
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: knew what they were doing. It was chaos. It was
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: like Steve Bannon, you know, just knifing his opponents in
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: the press all day, every day. The second round will
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: be streamlined.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: And this guy, Russ Vogt, I mean, he said he
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: wants to stock federal agencies with disciples who would wage
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: culture wars on abortion and immigration. He's not just against
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: illegal immigration, but against legal immigration. He said that it
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: isn't healthy. He's questioned whether immigration at all is healthy,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: whether it's legal or not. He also argues for no
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: separation of Christianity from its influence on government and society.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: And then on abortion, he said, it's not just that
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: he is very anti-abortion. He thinks that the family, quote,
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: there's a quote from him, the families of the West
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: are not having enough babies for their societies to endure.
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: There's, yeah, if you hear someone just in your family
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: or in your life talking about the declining birth rate,
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: you should start to inquire about what they're reading because
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: it's a real sign. It's a real red flag or
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: orange flag if it's in the community. He also has
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: talked about abolishing abortion drugs and talked about a Christian
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: immigration ethic. When it comes to immigration policy.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: That means it's white people only. Yes. That's what it is.
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: It's very concerning.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: They interviewed this Mike Pence advisor for the piece. This
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: guy's like, they interviewed Mark Short, who was his former
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: chief of staff, and then someone else, this guy, Chapman,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: who's at Pence's group, Advancing American Freedom. And he said,
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: there's a marriage of convenience between Russ and Trump. Russ
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: has been pursuing an ideological agenda for a long time
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: and views Trump's second term as the best way to
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: achieve it, while Trump needs people in his second term
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: who are loyal and committed and adept at using the
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: tools of the federal government. To me, that like perfectly
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: sums up what we're going to get in a second
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Trump term is a bunch of like right wing freaks,
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Christian nationalist freaks who like don't necessarily love Trump, but
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: are like, oh, I can get in there and do
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: all the shit that I've been wanting to do forever
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: because he's kind of an idiot who's not going to
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: pay attention and I'm going to have all this power.
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, use the mechanics and processes of democracy to subvert it.
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: It's not good.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about Joe Biden. The president just returned from
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: his trip to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: the D-Day invasion. He echoed Reagan with his speech at
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Pondahawk and talked about the struggle to defend democracy and tyranny. Predictably,
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Magoworld took this as an attack on their favorite tyrant,
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: even though Biden didn't mention Trump by name or allude
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: to him in any way. Biden also didn't mention Trump
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: when he visited the cemetery for Americans killed in France
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: during World War I. Though the campaign was happy for
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: the coverage to note that it was the same cemetery
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: that Trump reportedly refused to visit in 2018 because it
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: was filled with, quote, losers who were, quote, suckers for
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: getting killed. A story confirmed by Trump's former White House
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: chief of staff, John Kelly. Tommy, what do you make
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: of the contrast here? On the one hand, you know,
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: suckers and losers, a deep cut. That's a deep cut
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: from 2018, 2019, 2020, maybe.
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: So this story, that anecdote first emerged in an Atlantic
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: story in 2020 that at the time was sourced to
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: anonymous officials. But clearly what happened is Jeffrey Goldberg, the
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: editor of The Atlantic, was at the Aspen Ideas Festival
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: or something, and he got boozed up with John Kelly,
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: who laid this all out. And then last year, 2023,
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: John Kelly got pissed off and confirmed everything on the
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: record to Jake Tapper via email. He told Jake that,
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: you know, Trump said the troops who were held as
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: POWs or were killed were suckers, didn't want to be
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: seen in the presence of amputees because it didn't look
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: good for him, called dead Americans in World War II losers,
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: refused to visit their graves in France because he didn't
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: want to get his hair messed up, right? So, like,
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: Now that that's on the record, I think like now
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: we're cooking with gas, right? It shows how selfish Trump is,
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: shows how awful he is.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: It's visceral.
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: But what I think we're missing is like, John Kelly,
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: go do an interview with Jake Tapper on camera about this.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: You really could use his voice on this.
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: Biden is deeply, profoundly, personally offended by these comments. You
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: can hear it in his voice. But I think Sun
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: served in Iraq.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: But I think what really matters is the messenger. And
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: I think it will be even stronger coming from veterans themselves.
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: And God, if you could get someone like John Kelly
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: to be like, this is what he said to me.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I also found the MAGA reaction to the D-Day
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: speech like hilariously telling. Breitbart's Joel Pollack said that Biden's
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: speech was, quote, a veiled attack on his domestic political
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: opposition in the upcoming election. And Eric Erickson said, I
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: don't think it was appropriate for Biden to turn the
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: remembrance of D-Day into a political attack on his opponent.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: So I read the speech and I was like, I
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: wonder if there was like one of those veiled Trump references. No,
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: not at all. It's just he talks about hateful ideologies
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: that aren't democracy.
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of there's a lot of like maybe
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: Trump people out there. I put Erickson in that camp
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: of like they're offended by him. They know he is
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: a bad person. Uh, he doesn't ascribe to their sort
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: of like personal moral viewpoint, the views of the world,
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: but they need to find a way to manufacture a
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: way to get themselves to come back and support him again.
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: So they just make up stuff like this.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: It's like, oh, I was just talking about how democracy
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: is good and tyranny is bad. That's an, that's an
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: attack on your guy. I didn't, I didn't know he was, uh, yeah,
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: I didn't know this was a 1930s Germany. I mean,
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: part of it is like, he was, he was directly
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: talking about Vladimir Putin, right? He like mentioned Russia and Putin.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: But the fact that they take an attack on Putin
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: is also now an attack on Trump.
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: Or any just comments about World War II.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: Right. Defeating the Nazis. It's fucking wild. So the Biden
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: team has been much sharper and more direct in their
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: attacks on Trump lately, especially on his status as a
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: convicted felon. The vice president herself delivered a speech in
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: Michigan on Saturday night where she went harder at Trump's
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: conviction than I think anyone in the administration so far.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Let's listen to Kamala Harris.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump openly.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: Tried to overturn the last election. And now he openly
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: attacks the foundations of our justice system.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Cheaters don't like getting caught.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: So there was also a Politico story about the Biden
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: folks ramping up the campaign to, quote, calm Democratic nerves,
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: where one senior Biden official is quoted as saying, the
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: sky is blue and Donald Trump is a convicted felon.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: We're not going to shy away from what the reality is.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: What's your take? Do you see any difference in the
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: campaign's approach over the last couple of weeks? Any additional
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: insight you gained from talking to Michael Tyler, who's the
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: communications director at the Biden campaign?
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: Was that the political story that also folded in, like
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: allowing Ukraine to hit targets in parts of Russia with U.S.
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: weapons as like a campaign reset?
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, campaign shakeup. That's one of the campaign shakeup things. Yeah.
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: So the whole story was a touch overwritten to me.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: Voters were clamoring for that.
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: I don't think Jake Sullivan and the national security team.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Was like, let's let him hit.
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: Targets in Russia near Kharkiv. No, but I was glad
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: to hear the vice president just unload like that because
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: it is a fact that he's a convicted felon. It
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: is a fact that he led an insurrection.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: It is a fact that he's a cheater.
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: And whether it's like golf or marriage or campaign finance laws,
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: he doesn't like getting caught. I do think it folds
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: nicely into their frame of this is a guy running
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: for himself and his rich buddies. I, the one like
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: note that always kind of lands off to me is
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: I do think they need to be careful about seeming
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: angry at criticisms of the justice department or justice system
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: at all, because the voters we really need know that
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: the justice system is flawed they know it makes mistakes
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: they know it can be racist and they know it
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: can disproportionately harm poor people and there are times in
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: the messaging that's kind of like how dare he attack
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: our justice system it's like no we're allowed to criticize
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: the justice system but what you need to know is
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: this wasn't the system that found him guilty this was
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: 12 citizens who heard a bunch of.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Evidence on the on the wilderness this weekend this latest
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: episode is an episode focused on Black voters, undecided Black voters.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: And I talked to our friend Terrence Woodbury, who's conducted
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: countless focus groups of Black voters, as well as LaVor Barnes,
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: who's the chair of the Michigan Democratic Party. And I
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: asked them about this, about Trump's like, oh, I'm going
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: to now win over Black voters because they're also pissed
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: at the criminal justice system. And they said the voters
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: they've talked to, the voters LaVor talked to in Michigan,
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: and then Terrence did a focus group after the conviction.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: Like they clearly think it's ridiculous that Donald Trump has
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: something in common with them, right? And they think it's
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: like kind of a racist statement to make. But Terrence
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: said to me, he's like, there is something real in
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: there with feelings about the justice system and feelings about
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: institutions in general. And I do think that the more
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: effective message is one set of rules for Donald Trump,
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: one set of rules for everyone else, because everyone else
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: who faces the justice system does not get anywhere near
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: the benefits and the special favors that Donald Trump has
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: received since he has been a convicted felon or ever
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: since he's been a defendant.
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no one else is getting to meet with their
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: PO via Zoom with a lawyer from a country club.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: No one else could violate a gag order 10 times
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: and not end up in fucking prison.
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and Terrence, I think, made very similar points about
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: the way we talk about democracy is not this sort
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: of perfect... system that we need to protect at all costs. It's,
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: you know, something that we need to constantly improve.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You can't be, I mean, the challenge that Joe
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: Biden has that every Democrat has now is defending democracy,
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: which is also defending a set of institutions that people
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: have lost faith in. And that's a real challenge. So
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: you have to continue to be the person who's going
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: to fight to fix those and make them fair for
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: everyone against someone who wants to rig those institutions just
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: for themselves. Like, I think that's the message.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: Broadly, it's challenging to be an incumbent right now. We
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: just saw a bunch of elections in Europe for the
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: EU parliament that didn't go very well for a lot
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: of incumbents, including the French and the Germans and others.
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean, it's hard to defend the system.
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: It's hard to defend government generally because it's imperfect and flawed.
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: And it's especially hard right now with inflation and coming
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: off a pandemic when people feel like maybe the government
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: didn't get it right at times.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and what worries me is The more people tune
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: out and the less they pay attention, the harder it
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: is on incumbents. And it's not just an ideological thing.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: Like you guys have been talking about Rishi Sunak. Like
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: he's in trouble. It doesn't matter where you are in
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: the political. He is a moron. He's a moron. But
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: incumbents across the political spectrum are facing the similar sentiment, right?
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: Which is I'm just pissed off. I'm angry. Who's in charge?
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: I'm going to vote them out. And I think that
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: that's why, you know, Biden constantly has to turn it
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: into a choice.
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: No, you're seeing elections all over the world where incumbents
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: mostly are doing very badly. And you're seeing instances where
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: brand new political parties are getting propped up and created
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: and peeling off big chunks of the vote because people
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: are like, you know what? All politicians are bad. They're
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: all the same. So let's burn it down or try
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: something totally new and radical.
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: I don't just mention that as a downer. Like, we
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: should realize that this is not just a Biden problem
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: that Biden's facing, right? And so that if Biden were
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: anyone else, if he were younger, if he was like,
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: you know, the most talented communicator America has ever had, right?
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: He would still be facing a lot of these challenges
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: because they're just systemic, which again is why you've got
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: to make it about the choice. A couple of quick
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: things before we go to break. Pride is in full
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: swing and you can help us hit our $ 100, 000 fundraising
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: goal for our Pride or Else Fund in support of
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: organizations fighting bans on gender affirming care and protecting trans kids.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: You can donate directly to the fund, or you can
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: let Crooked do it for you when you shop our
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: new Pride or Else collection in the Crooked store. We'll
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: donate a portion of the proceeds to the fund. Learn
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: more at crooked.com slash pride. And speaking of the Crooked store,
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: we're kicking off summer with an accessory sale. Tons of
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: items are up to 30% off, so now's the perfect
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: time to stock up on totes, candles, mugs, and more.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: Everything you need to add a little Crooked to your
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: morning coffee, your next canvassing shift, or your sock drawer.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: The sale ends at midnight. Head to cricket.com slash store
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: to get up to 30% off the best accessories. When
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: we come back, the man himself, John Lovett. Whoa! There
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: he is. Look who's here. Well, well, well.
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: I'm back.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: We're rolling. Did you find your way here in a raft?
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: He is offensively tan.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: The only thing, I'll say, the only piece of news
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: that has been spoiled for me is when I turned
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: on my phone, it would have been spoiled anyway, but
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: the first thing I saw that had a spoiler was
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: a fundraising text from Ro Khanna. telling me that Trump
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: had been convicted. But then everyone had texted me that.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: Fucking Ro Khanna. Oh, so was everyone. They all did.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: All of the fake bots did. No, no, no. Don't
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: absolve him. Congressman Khanna, we want an apology. Yes, we do.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: But so he was the first. Yeah, so there was
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: a crush of text about that, but that was the first.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: One I saw. Okay, so now that you're back, we
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: thought it would be fun to give you a little
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: news quiz about what happened while you were gone. This
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: is a game we're calling The Immunity Idol Can't Save
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: You Now, Bitch.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: And Tommy had a baby.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: All right. So as you just mentioned, Ro Khanna did
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: spoil the biggest piece of news for you about Donald
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: Trump's conviction. But we do have one question about some
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: of what happened outside the courtroom. Which of these things
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: did not happen? Did not happen. So two of them happened.
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: One of them did not. A. Donald Trump appeared on
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: stage at a post-conviction rally in the Bronx with a
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: rapper who's been indicted for attempted murder. B. Robert De
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: Niro called a Trump supporter a fucking idiot during a
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: Biden campaign press conference that he headlined outside the courtroom. C.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: Tim Scott went on Fox News to decry the verdict
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: and actually ended up literally crying. Wow.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: That's actually very difficult. I don't think Tim Scott cried.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: Is that right?
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: Yes!
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: I don't think he cried.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: I'm sure he did something.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Very pathetic, but I don't think he cried.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: I don't really know what he did. I just, but, um,
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: how about Robert, Robert De Niro doing a press conference
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: at the organized by the Biden campaign?
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: So, you know why, you know, I thought that was true. I,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: you know, I thought that was true is because you
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: can get Robert De Niro to go to something in
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: New York. That's right.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: He went to try that. That's right.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Like, it's basically, I think it's like, it's like a
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: quick drive for him.
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: That's why I figured it was true. He'd get a
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: press conference. He got in a heated exchange with some,
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: with some hecklers, Trump supporter hecklers. They were telling, they
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: were saying, fuck him. He was saying, fuck you back.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: It was a real, and that was before the verdict.
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: It was real New York. It was before the, any
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: other questions about how the verdict went down?
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Well, so I guess what I want to understand is, okay,
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: so he's a, he's convicted. So he's a felon.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: And my first thought was, If again, if I had
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: like Google or if I'd like gone to look at
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: anything and I like I was going to go find
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: out what was happening, it would be like to look up. OK,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: does Ron DeSantis have to give him his vote back?
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: Like, oh, oh, that was funny. That was one of
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: the first questions. The Florida law is if you're out
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: of state or if you were convicted out of state,
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: it's up to the state's laws that you were convicted in.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: So New York. unless you're in prison in New York,
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: you can vote.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, okay.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: All right. Someone asked Ron DeSantis and Ron DeSantis said,
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: of course, oh, I will, I will, if necessary, I'll
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: do whatever we need to make sure he gets his
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: vote back. Even though other convicted felons in Florida, despite
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: the passage of Amendment 4, the ballot measure, they still
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: have to like pay all these fees in order to
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: get their rights back.
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: Trump did a Zoom with his probation officer today.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Today was the probation officer meeting and the sentence
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: will be July 11th. He has a, this is so fun.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Okay so wait what so oh wait wait when's sentencing.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: Sentence is july 11th wow three days before the uh
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: republican national convention.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: Perfect but if it's i mean if he's sentenced to
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: jail they don't it could happen that day like.
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: No because they'll this sentence he probably won't have to
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: serve the sentence until the appeals process goes through and
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: the appeals process will push it well past the election
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: so Right.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: Because Martha Stewart eventually said, fuck it, take me to jail.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: Right, so we're not going to get Trump jail time before,
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: we don't think, before the election. But yeah, about nine
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: hours of deliberation and they came back with the verdict.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Have we heard from any of the jurors? Have any
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: of the jurors done any press tours?
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: No, but there was a hoax where someone on Facebook
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: posted a post on Facebook that said, hey, my cousin
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: is a Trump juror and guess what? He's going to
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: be convicted. And then Judge Mershon had to like, say
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: that this is a post that was there, and then
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: MAGA was like, this is it, it's going to be
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: a mistrial, and then the guy was like, I'm a
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: shit poster, it was just a joke. That just happened
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: this weekend. That's a recent one. Wow, okay. We haven't
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: heard from any of it. There was a whole story about...
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: maybe one of the jurors was a Trump plant. Everyone
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: was worried before the verdict that like Mark Caputo for
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: the bulwark wrote this whole thing that was like, there's
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: this one juror that every time Trump and all of
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: his friends come into the courtroom is like smiling at
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: them and nodding. And they lit up when JD Vance
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: walked in. It was the entire story about eye contact. Wow.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: And so nine hours. Nine hours, but they said yes.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: They convicted on all counts.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: All counts. 34 counts.
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: Oh, there's a lot of specious reporting that Joe may
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: have been sleeping and farting throughout the trial.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: No, he was sleeping.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: No, sleeping and farting was reported before I left.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: I thought that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, the farting was ongoing,
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: so you know.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Was there any new farting developments?
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: There was no new farting. You didn't miss any new farting. No, no, no. Okay.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: All right, Tom. Okay. So there was some big debate
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: news while you were gone. Which of these things didn't happen? Okay. A.
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: Joe Biden challenged Donald Trump to two debates in a
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: video that ended with, make my day. B. Donald Trump
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: said he wants Joe Biden to take a drug test
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: before they debate.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: He said that before. I believe that that's real. C.
• 40:28
  Speaker 4: The two campaigns couldn't agree on the rules. The moderators
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: were the networks. And as of now, there are no
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: debates scheduled. D. The first debate will be in June
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: and the second will be in September. One did not happen.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: Only one did not happen.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: I'll say no debates. We got a debate in just
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: a couple weeks. June. The night between our Brooklyn event
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: and the Boston PSA show Thursday night, there's going to
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: be a debate.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: What? Was it like a game of chicken? Why are
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: we debating in June?
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: It happened so fast.
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: It happened so fast. One day, Biden releases this video,
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: says that they want to do away with the commission. Great.
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: And I don't like the sets. So it was it
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: was first thing in the morning that Biden campaign released
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: the video. And within like two hours, the Trump campaign
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: was like, we agree. Let's do it. Done. Two debates.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: One in June. Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, CNN in Atlanta.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: And then this no audience. That was part of the rules.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: And they get to cut off your mic if you
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: go past. That's good. So it's like all the rules
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: that the Biden folks wanted, which is really weird that
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: Trump agreed to it. And then the second one is ABC,
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: I believe. Right. Yeah, I think so. ABC in early September.
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: Hosted by Cat Turd 2.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, they got Cat Turd 2. And yeah, honestly, I
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: can't even remember some of the people we hate.
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: Well, here comes the next one. And the vice presidential
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: debate's going to be, they haven't figured out the date yet,
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: but they've agreed to that sometime after, obviously, Trump picks
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: the VP. Right, right.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: I was about to say, I was like, right, okay,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: so we don't know who that is yet, so it
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: has to be after. But wait, but why, I don't understand,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: they've never, it's before they're even officially the nominees.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: I know. Yeah, it's weird. I know. Oh, and RFK
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: is very upset about it, which we're going to get
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: to next. RFK is very upset about it because he
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: thinks that he could qualify.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: For the commission debates.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Well, and CNN has rules that you have to be
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: 15% in four national polls or you have to be
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: on the ballot in enough states that equals 270. And RFK,
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: I think, has hit the polling threshold, but not necessarily.
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: He's saying he hit the ballot thing, but no one
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: else has confirmed that yet. Yeah, it's a problem. But
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: he thinks he can get it by September, but I
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: don't think he can get it by June. But we
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: don't know. That's still ongoing. Speaking of RFK.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: It is June.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: 17 days. Yeah, 17 days. Can you imagine that? It's
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: going to be a big.
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: It's going to be a big last week of June.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: It's before or after the show? It's between shows. It's Thursday.
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: So we have the Brooklyn show Wednesday night. The debate
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: is Thursday night after our book event. And then Friday
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: night is the Boston show.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. That's good content.
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: It's good content.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: Great content. So, some RFK news when you were out.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: The New York Times, big story in the New York Times,
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: reported that RFK Jr. has suffered from what medical issue? A,
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: a drug-resistant STD that could have been prevented with the vaccine. B,
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: a parasitic worm that ate part of his brain. C,
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: a hospitalization caused by taking too much ivermectin.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: One's true?
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: One is true, sorry. This one, one is true.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: STD? STD?
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: Brain worms. Brain worms.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: He has brain worms?
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: He had a worm that ate part of his brain.
• 43:41
  Speaker 4: In 2010, he was experiencing memory loss and mental fogginess.
• 43:44
  Speaker 4: So he went to a doctor and they determined that
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: there had been some sort of worm in his brain
• 43:52
  Speaker 4: that consumed a portion of it.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: What? Do we know what part? And then died.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: And died in his brain. He's fully recovered from it.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: So says RFK Jr.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: You can't fully recover from a worm eating your brain.
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: Those don't grow back. You know, no kidding. That happened
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: with RFK Jr. Actually, honestly, okay, that makes sense.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: That's how you go from being an environmental lawyer to
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: whatever this is. Doesn't explain the people around him. Maybe
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: it's contagious.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: Well, speaking of the people around him, there's also a
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: big story that his VP... Kennedy did have sex with
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: Elon Musk while on ketamine at a party. Who hasn't?
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I feel like the ketamine part is sort.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: Of gums with the territory. Tell me, go ahead.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: Does it make it better or worse?
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know. Okay.
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: There was a pretty wild Supreme Court controversy a few
• 44:48
  Speaker 4: weeks ago that is still making big news. We're going
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: to take it in a couple parts.
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: First.
• 44:53
  Speaker 4: What expletive did a neighbor say to Justice Alito's wife
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: as the two of them, the Justice and his wife,
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: were out taking a walk that sparked this multi-week controversy?
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: Is it A, slut, B, shit for brains, C, the
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: C word?
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: Oh, it can't be the C word, can it?
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: I'm going to say shit for brains.
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: See you next Tuesday, pal.
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: Someone... What? Someone on the street?
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: So Alito's wife got astray?
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, it gets so much better. Okay.
• 45:31
  Speaker 4: So the facts of how this fight originated, we'll get
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: to that. So this fight escalated when Mrs. Alito did what? A,
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: keyed a neighbor's car. B, harassed a neighbor on social
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: media with a fake account. C, flew a stop the
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: steal flag outside their home.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: The Alito home.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: It's got to be the fake account, right?
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: Oh no. There was a stop the steal. There was
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: an upside down American flag flown couple weeks after January
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: 6th outside the Alito's home and the neighbors got a
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: picture of it. It was the front page of the
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: New York Times.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: Samuel Alito. Samuel Alito.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: You can't. Flags are not like, oh, whose spouse's flag
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: is in front of the house.
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: Well, it's funny you should say that.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: It's his flag, right?
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: In Alito's very long explanation letter, he said, I cannot
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: control my wife and the flags that she flies.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: What are you talking about?
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: What are you talking about? It's my wife's flag.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: That is the dumbest fucking.
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: My wife is fond of flags. I am not. That's
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: what the letter said. This isn't a letter.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: What the fuck?
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: This isn't a letter where he refused to recuse himself
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: from January 16th.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: So you're telling me Justice Samuel Alito had a Stop
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: the Steal flag flying outside of his fucking house?
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: Just a couple weeks after. It was an upside-down American flag.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: An upside-down American flag?
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and he also claimed in the letter, I didn't
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: know what it meant. It's a distress flag.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: It's a distress flag?
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: Last part of this. Yeah, it gets funny. Things got
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: even worse.
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: News outlets then reported that Miss Alito did what? A,
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: raised a second stop to steal a flag outside their
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: vacation home. B, was heard blasting the J6 choir song
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: in her car. No. C, was spotted wearing a QAnon
• 47:27
  Speaker 4: t-shirt in her backyard.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: Wow. Honestly, it could... There's no... I don't know what...
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: The truth could be anything. I'm going to say QAnon shirt.
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: Second Stop the Steal flag. They're a vacation home in
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: New Jersey. They have a second home in New Jersey.
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: Two years later. Two years later. Two years later. This
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: is the Appeal to Heaven flag, which is another sort
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: of like right-wing Christian nationalist flag that was associated with
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: Stop the Steal people. And so that's their second flag.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: He also said, he's like, I thought that was a
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: flag that dates back to the Constitution. Because apparently the
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: founders flew flags like that. I don't know. It's wild.
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: There it is. It's outside their house. Yeah, that's the
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: appeal to heaven flag. Oh, man.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Well, Justice Samuelito had to stop the steal flag flying
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: in front of his home.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And he won't recuse from the immunity case. It's unbelievable.
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: Which has not been, spoiler, has not been decided yet.
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: We're still waiting. Still waiting on that one. Yeah, I
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: guess that would have been. They haven't taken any of
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: the big cases yet. I mean, we haven't heard any
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: of the big cases yet.
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: I know. I know. And then, like, Here's a pop quiz.
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: Do you think Senate Democrats are investigating Sam Alito over
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: this and subpoenaing him?
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: No.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: Dick Durbin, I think, sent a few nice letters. Dick
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: Durbin's disappointed. He's disappointed. And Roberts. Did Roberts weigh in?
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: I think Roberts weighed in. Well, no.
• 48:52
  Speaker 4: The Senate Democrats asked Alito to recuse. And his response back,
• 48:56
  Speaker 4: which came from Alito himself, because he has to make
• 48:58
  Speaker 4: the decision. Roberts doesn't make it. That's where he included
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: the language that's like, my wife is a flag enthusiast.
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: I am not. A flag enthusiast?
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: She's doing semaphore.
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: Some welcome news. Which of these Trump associates will report
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: to jail in just a few weeks for a sentence
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: that will last through the election? A. Rudy Giuliani. B.
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: Steve Bannon. C. Roger Stone.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: Is Giuliani convicted of anything? I'm going to say Bannon.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: Bannon's going to jail.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: Bannon's going to jail.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: July 1st. Through November.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: For what crimes?
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: Contempt of Congress.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: Okay. Okay.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: Because those are running. Those are still happening.
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: He kept trying to appeal, appeal, appeal. And finally, the
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: judge was like, I'm not letting you just hang in
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: limbo and appeal this for an indefinite amount of time.
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: You're going to jail. Wow. And he gave this big
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: press conference saying, like, I'm doing it as a patriot.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: You're never going to shut me up.
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: So if anybody's, you know, Tommy's got a free 45
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: minutes a day now. That's what I said on the pod.
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: Guest co-host of The War Room right here.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: See if we can pitch something to fill his conviction.
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: Bonus question. Trump recently kicked off Pride Month by kissing
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: which convicted felon pal on stage at a rally in Arizona? Wait.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: Convicted felon kicked off Pride Month? Oh, kissed a convicted
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: felon for pride.
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't for- For pride.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying- That's how he kicked off pride. I
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: just don't know if that feels like a- Is pride
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: a red herring?
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: I guess it is. Yeah, a bit of it. A
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: bit of a red herring.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: Who is a convicted felon? Hint.
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: Trump had pardoned him.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: Trump kissed a pal. It's just strange. He doesn't really kiss.
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: That's what he said after he kissed him. He goes,
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: I don't usually kiss men, but this guy- I figured. Well,
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: that's- I don't know who. Joe Arpaio.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: Oh, I would never. That's a tough one. I couldn't
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: think of Arizona convictions.
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: That's why it was a bonus.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: And I was thinking of the electors, but none of them.
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: Okay. Even though Rudy's not going to jail just yet,
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: there was some other fun Rudy Giuliani news. During his
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: 80th birthday party, what did one guest do after serenading
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: him that made headlines the next day? A, got caught
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: on a hot mic using a slur for Italians. B,
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: served him with a subpoena. C, vomited on Rudy and
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: his date.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: I'm going to say, I think the darkest is vomiting,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: so I'm going to say vomiting.
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: Served him with a subpoena.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: That's actually, yeah, maybe that is darker.
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: And the Daily Mail headline was, guests at Rudy Giuliani's
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: 80th birthday scream and cry as the party ends with
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: him being served a subpoena.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: Honestly, I take back what I said.
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: That is the dark.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: That is so, man, you're just sitting at your 80th
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: birthday party and it ends with you being handed a subpoena.
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: I forgot the best part was he tweeted- At the
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: Arizona Attorney General from the birthday party and was like,
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: if you don't serve me by midnight, it expires and
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: you can't get me. And then he has these women
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: in the background, these young women at the party. And
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: so two hours later, they serve him.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: They serve him at the party. That is so fucking funny.
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: And apparently it was someone who was part of the
• 52:03
  Speaker 4: singing of the happy birthday who served him.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: So he's taunting them. He's taunting them that you can't
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: serve me. I'm at my 80th birthday party.
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: And they had somebody at the party.
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: That is so cool.
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: So good. That is so good. That was a fun one.
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: There was that story where he was overheard at Mar-a-Lago
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: saying like every day it's like waking up in a nightmare.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: Remember that? It was just like his day, his life
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: has become like a fucking funhouse mirror terror of what
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: his life was supposed to be. He can't understand it.
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: Okay. Final one. Congress was as productive as ever while
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: you were gone. Sure.
• 52:40
  Speaker 4: Which of these things did not happen? A, Democrat Jasmine
• 52:44
  Speaker 4: Crockett told Marjorie Taylor Greene she had a bleach blonde,
• 52:47
  Speaker 4: bad built, butch body during.
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: A congressional hearing.
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: MTG referred to Lauren Boebert as, quote, the Beetlejuicer in
• 52:55
  Speaker 4: chief during a House Republican caucus meeting. C, AOC called
• 53:00
  Speaker 4: John Fetterman a bully after he compared the House to
• 53:03
  Speaker 4: the Jerry Springer show.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: Two of those did happen?
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: No, one of those didn't happen. The other two did happen. Okay, okay.
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: Fetterman a bully. Beetlejuicer in chief.
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: Blonde butch.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: Bleach blonde, bad built butch body. Thank you.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: I think that feels, honestly, that feels, I think that
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: that's real. And so, Beetlejuicer in chief. I'm going to
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: say Beetlejuicer in Chief is fake.
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: Nice.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: Is that right?
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: In fact, after she called Marjorie Taylor Greene a bleach
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: blonde bad built butch body, Marjorie Taylor Greene started the
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: whole thing as a big surprise by saying something that
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: was rather racist that I can't remember now. And then
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: they started selling bleach blonde bad built butch body merch.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a beautiful term.
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: You got to own that. You got to take that back.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: I get that. It's poetic. And then it was one
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: of those like, You know, obviously everyone realized that MTG
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: was at fault, but everyone was like, oh, Congress is crazy.
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: And Fetterman called it a Jerry Springer show. And then
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: AOC went after Fetterman for it. Aren't you sad you
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: were gone? Jasmine Krok is trying to trademark it. I can't.
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: I just Googled that.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: I just like, I know it's my job to know
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: what's happening. I understand that. And I guess I'll have
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: to keep knowing what's happening.
• 54:31
  Speaker 4: What you're learning is how little value there is in
• 54:34
  Speaker 4: most of what you missed.
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: Right, right.
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: That's interesting. That's interesting. That's interesting. But keep downloading.
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: It was a funny social experiment that, like, I guess
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: you knew about the verdict, but, like, what's the most
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: shocking news? And the Alito flag.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: The Alito flag. Well, I mean, I think here is
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: what's shocking. That story began with someone on the street
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: calling the wife of a Supreme Court justice the C word.
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: And by the end of it, you're like, I get it.
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: I see how that happened. Yeah. The timeline's all weird.
• 55:05
  Speaker 4: Like the Alitos claimed that this neighbor neighbor couple put
• 55:09
  Speaker 4: up some signs that were offensive to them. So that's
• 55:11
  Speaker 4: why she hung Alito. the Stop the Steal flag, but then...
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: She did it in response to the C word, but
• 55:17
  Speaker 4: that's not true.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: Not in response to the C word, okay.
• 55:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but then the timeline got all unraveled. So basically
• 55:21
  Speaker 4: the Alitos are lying about this in addition to flying
• 55:24
  Speaker 4: multiple insurrection flags. So you got Ginny Thomas, Martha Annalito,
• 55:28
  Speaker 4: some just.
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: some Real Housewives shit.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: That's... The fact that, like, the fact that at a
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: Supreme Court justice's home, two homes, there could be two right-wing,
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: like one blatant Stop the Steal flag... flying and like
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: that only comes out because of I guess like a
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: similar beef as the one that happened between.
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: One more oh the Washington Post had this story right
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: after it happened and decided not to run it.
• 55:57
  Speaker 4: They were like ah it was just a dispute between Mrs.
• 55:59
  Speaker 4: Alito and a neighbor but.
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: They knew about the flag yeah yeah yeah and the
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: Times ran it just.
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: Recently But it's such important news.
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: It's really important news.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: It's big and important news.
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: It's interesting, too. There's a whole drama going on with
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: the Washington Post, too.
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: Anyway, welcome back.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: It's great to be back.
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: We missed you. Welcome back. That's our show for today.
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: We'll be back with another episode on Wednesday. Bye, everyone.
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: If you want to get ad-free episodes, exclusive content, and more,
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: consider joining our Friends of the Pod subscription community at crooked.com
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: slash friends. And if you're already doom-scrolling, don't forget to
• 56:33
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• 56:36
  Speaker 2: YouTube for access to full episodes, bonus content, and more. Plus,
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: if you're as opinionated as we are, consider dropping us
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: a review. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production.
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: Our show is produced by Olivia Martinez and David Toledo.
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: Our associate producers are Saul Rubin and Farrah Safari. Kira
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: Wakim is our senior producer. Reid Cherlin is our executive producer.
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: Cantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: Seglin and Charlotte Landis. Writing support by Hallie Kiefer. Madeline
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: Herringer is our head of news and programming. Matt DeGroat
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: is our head of production. Andy Taft is our executive assistant.
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Haley Jones, Mia Kelman,
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: David Tolles, Kiril Pallaviv, and Molly Lobel.