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Doug Emhoff Is Ready to Win (Fantasy Football) · Pod Save America

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: I'm Jon Lovett.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I'm Tommy Detour.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Joining us in studio today is a man of many firsts.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: The first ever second gentleman, the first Jewish spouse of
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: a U.S. Vice President, and the first person... to be
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: without a phone at the West Hollywood SoulCycle when his
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: wife called to say she just became the likely Democratic
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: nominee for president. Doug Emhoff is here. Doug, welcome to
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: the pod.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Good to see you all. Doug, Doug, Doug, Doug.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: And welcome back home to Los Angeles.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Where's your signs? It's great to be home. It's great
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: to be here.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: So 45 days ago, your life was still normal enough
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: for you to be getting coffee with your LA friends
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  Speaker 2: at SoulCycle. You now have 61 days left. to help
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: your wife defeat Donald Trump and make history as the
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  Speaker 2: next president of the United States. What has it felt
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: like to get shot out of a cannon like this?
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: How have your lives changed? How much have your lives changed?
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: It's so interesting to be right back in LA, in Hollywood.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I was at the West Hollywood SoulCycle, the 930 Soul
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Survivor class.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: So I did 60 minutes at my advanced age. And
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I was with my friends. So we walked out And,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: you know, people were coming by and saying hi. I
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: was like, you know, we're going to be fine. Don't worry.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Everything's good. And we're just, I've known them a long time.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: And then, I don't know, 20, 30 minutes in, my
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: friend's partner just shows me the phone. And at first
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: I thought it was fake. Then I don't believe it.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Then being a good lawyer, I always read the last
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: line first. And that, if you recall, was something like,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I will address the nation later this week, thinking, oh,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: he's coming back from COVID. And so he said, read
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: above that. And then, you know, you see this whole crew.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: I said, let's go. We got to go. And we're running.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: And if you know that SoulCycle, it's not like the
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: car's two feet away. It's several hundred yards. So I'm running, running.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Jumping over gate guys left and right. In the car.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: Glitter and things dodging.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: And then to go from that, the phone, like I've said,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: it's like literally steam is coming out of it. And
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: it's some variation of call Kamala, call Kamala. And It
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: wasn't just her calling. It was every family member, including
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: my kids and my parents, like, where are you? And
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: then I finally talked to her and she said, where
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: the F were you? I need you. It's a tough one.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: And it was a very short conversation. And then it
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: really has been like getting shot out of a cannon
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: because the next day I was in Wilmington addressing the
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: now Harris campaign. And it was so Surreal, too, because
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the president called in. So just as I was about
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: to go up on stage and I had barely seen
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: her and had been 72 hours since I had seen
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: her since this all happened. And I just about to
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: walk out there and then you hear Joe's voice and
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: we all it just it just hit so hard. Yeah.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: And then I went out and introduced her and then
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: it's just been nonstop. It has literally been nonstop. I
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: barely seen her. I've been back and forth across the
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: country several times. I've been to Paris for the Olympics
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: in the middle of all this and the convention in
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: the middle of all this, including the speech. And that
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: feels like a distant memory because two weeks later, I've
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: literally been crisscrossing the country still. So that's how it's been.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Very little time to reflect. And there's not a lot
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: of like happy couple chit chat with us. It's not like, hey,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: this is pretty amazing. She's like, get back to work.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: You can't even say anything to her because she's so
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: focused that it's just, yeah, I'm not going to pay
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: attention to that. Just get back out on the road.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: One thing that was interesting because you talked about this,
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  Speaker 3: that basically because you had been at SoulCycle and then
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: getting some food after, like this ship was sailing. Was
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: there any conversation like, hey, are we doing this? Like,
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: was there any kind of like, hey, do you want
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: to run for president? Was there, it was just, it
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: was happening.
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  Speaker 1: By the time I talked to her, she had already
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: been on the phone. with the president and had already
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: been working the phones to nail down the nomination.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: It was minute 45 of Soul Survivor.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: That it happened. I guess I lost... I guess because
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: I didn't answer the phone the first time, I lost
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  Speaker 1: any right of negotiation. Because you're on your way.
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  Speaker 3: You have some stake in this. You're going to be
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: first gentleman. Do you think they should put a little
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: plank on that seat that said, this is where Doug's
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: butt was when Joe Biden stepped aside?
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: So apparently it's a thing. I guess some reporters have
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: shown up there to check out the class and like, ooh,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: this was the SoulCycle class he was in. But I've been...
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: that was, you know, my normal routine when I'm here.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Not enough arms. I know it's a problem.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: You know, it's a problem.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: It's like 45 minutes in, it's like, here's some free weights.
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  Speaker 3: It feels like an afterthought and they should, they should
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  Speaker 3: talk about it.
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  Speaker 1: You know?
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, also like just having worked on campaigns, presidential campaigns,
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  Speaker 4: I mean, usually it's like a, it's a two year
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: process and the number of things that you and the
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: vice president are having to do in less than a
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: hundred days is unbelievable. I mean, we were, joking before
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: we started recording, that we had gotten podium passes from
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: a friend at the convention to go up to the
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: very front to watch Michelle Obama and Barack Obama speak,
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: which meant when you were coming off stage for your speech,
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: we were literally standing there and almost accidentally greeted you
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: in this incredible moment. Luckily, you did not remember until
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: I reminded you, but it's just another thing you had
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: to do right away was get.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: The speech done. Yeah, and that speech, because when we
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: were still on the VP side, you know, second gentleman.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: I think I was going to speak, but I'm sure
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: it would have been somewhere, maybe. And so then when
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: she got on the top of the ticket, they said, okay,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: you're gonna have a bigger speech. We're not sure when.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: And I just assumed I'd be introducing her foolishly on Thursday.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: And then they said, we're moving around. Then I found
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: out pretty close on that You're going Tuesday, and you're
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: going prime time. And I said, oh, okay, who am
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I speaking with? The Obamas. You mean Barack and Michelle Obama? Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: You're going to go, and then that's like our prime
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: time package, you and the Obamas. I said, okay, I
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: need to work on this speech. Because they're very good speakers, famously.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: As it turns out, they are.
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  Speaker 2: Well, in addition to your wife's speech, which got rave
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: reviews— Almost everyone we talked to and all the reports
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: we saw, people mentioned three speeches, which is the Obama's
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: speeches and yours. That was obviously probably the biggest audience
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  Speaker 2: you've ever spoken to. How did you want the speech
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  Speaker 2: to go? Did you practice? Were you nervous about addressing
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  Speaker 2: a big audience like that?
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  Speaker 1: I knew I needed to be able to talk about
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: her and a little bit about myself, too, because even
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: though second gentleman, married to the vice president, I'm out
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: there a lot. It's not like, and people know me,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: but it's not the same. And so the part of
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: it was, you know, who am I? Just a little
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: intro on myself. And who is she? The Kamala Harris
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: that I know, that I wanted everyone else to know,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: that those of us in her family know. And then
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: when you see the caricatures of her and the parody,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: you know her a little bit. That's just not her.
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  Speaker 1: And so for all of us, there's just been this
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: just not bemusement. It's just like, that's just, it's not you.
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  Speaker 1: And so I think part of what I wanted to
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  Speaker 1: do is just show the world, the woman I married,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: the woman I love, the woman who was there for
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: me at a, you know, a rough time in my life,
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  Speaker 1: who was able to come in and be mamala to
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: the kids and be now really great friends with my
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: ex-wife and integrate with her family and So I just
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: wanted everyone to see what we get to see each
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: and every day. But I also wanted to talk about
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: her as a badass. She's the joyful warrior. So that
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: kind of part about her was the joyful part. Let's
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  Speaker 1: end with the badass warrior, the person I also see,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the person that I was fearful of when she was
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: attorney general and I was representing business clients. And then
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I wonder what she's going to be
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: like on a date. She was great. And so to
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: show that side, the woman who grilled those folks in
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  Speaker 1: the Judiciary Committee, the woman who's on the world stage,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: the woman that we see because we're in the office
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: of vice president. So we also get to see her
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  Speaker 1: at work each and every day as vice president, Oval Office,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Situation Room, doing all the stuff that we see. And
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: then she just stepped up because we talk about how
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: surreal it was that I wasn't there, but was also there.
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  Speaker 1: She just stepped up when we needed somebody to step up.
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  Speaker 1: This country needed a leader to step into the void,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: step into the breach. And she did that. And so
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: to say that to the whole world on that stage,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: that was what I wanted to cross. It was, I
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: don't get nervous really. I mean, I was a trial
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: lawyer here in Hollywood. So, you know, you can't, no
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: one wants to hire a shaky lawyer. So you always
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: learn to be really calm. In highly stressful situations, you
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: got to be prepared. So a lot of the skills
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: that I've already brought to the table as a lawyer
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: here really help, but nothing prepares you for that. Nothing.
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  Speaker 1: And so you walk out there. and you see the
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Doug signs and it's like the noise and the intensity.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: I'm looking up, my parents are up there and my
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: son had directed the video. It was amazing. He introduced me.
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  Speaker 1: And so I'm a little I was a little shaky
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: because I had all this planned, you know, that Mike Tyson,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: you always have a plan until you get hit in
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the face. So I almost felt like, okay, you better regroup,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: take a breath. And if you see that tape of it,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I just, and then reset. And then I just went
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: for it. Beta blocker, what are those things called? Yeah,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: beta blocker. You can take a beta blocker. The speech
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: went well. Have you thought about a debate? Maybe challenging Melania.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: To a bid. We can table that idea if you
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: prefer not to. All right, I'm going to ruin the
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: vibes here. So on Tuesday night, you attended a vigil
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: for Israeli hostages being held in Gaza. And so, you know,
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: the last 11 months, I think, have been unimaginable for
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: those hostages, their families. The news over the weekend that
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: six hostages had been executed and found just days after
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: that execution is just, you know, it's unbearable. One of
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: the people killed was an Israeli American named Hirsch Goldberg Poland.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: I know you spent a lot of time with his family.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: And so I just, I wanted to ask you about
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  Speaker 4: your impressions from that vigil, but also about a disconnect.
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  Speaker 4: I feel in the conversation about Gaza in the U
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: S versus in Israel, in Israel, it feels like people
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: are clear eyed that Hamas is responsible for October 7th.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: They're responsible for the execution of these hostages. They're an
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: evil terrorist organization. Everyone is clear-eyed about that. But there
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: are many people in the streets also blaming Bibi Netanyahu
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: for his failure to get to yes on a ceasefire
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: and hostage release deal.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: But in the U.S., in the U.S. coverage, in the U.S.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: Political debate, including statements out of the Biden administration, I
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: feel like it's far less direct about the frustration with
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: Netanyahu than what you hear in Israel. And so I
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: was just wondering if you agree with that observation, If
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: it's something you've seen and if you think the missing
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: piece to get to yes on that hostage release deal
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: is maybe more pressure on Netanyahu's government.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Well, let me start with the first part about what
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: it was like to be there last night at Addison, D.C.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: And remember, the parents, John and Rachel, spoke at the
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: DNC conference. I think just two weeks ago. They did
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: a beautiful job. And they were just the strength. And
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: what I talked about last night about them was in
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: that speech, they were almost just reminding the vast majority
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: of people what had happened on October 7th, that Hamas
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: was responsible, that women and babies and grandmas and young
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: people at a music festival were murdered, tortured, raped. And
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: there's people who don't know that, and actually there's people,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: even worse, that don't believe it. So the fact that
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: even though their son at that time had been in
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: captivity for many, many months, they used that time to
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: educate the public and to educate about the plight of
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: not only their son, but of others. And to talk
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: to them over the weekend when their son had been executed,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: just shot with five other people, you know, execution style
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: in cold blood when they were, you know, almost about
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: to be rescued. Just unbearable. But on that phone call, again,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: we had met them. I saw them at the convention.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Kama had met them several times. And then to just
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: their strength, their grace, their compassion, and their empathy towards us,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: the fact that they were concerned about how we were doing,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: when we couldn't even find the words to talk to
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: them about how sorry we were. So, I mean, just
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: so on the human element, that's what last night was about.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: It was a vigil for those victims. It was families
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: of survivors, families of those killed there. And it was
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: a way for the community to just come together. And
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I'm a part of the community. So I really approached
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: that as a Jew, as a congregant. as a mourner,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: someone to pray with them and to just really express
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: how I feel. And, and in terms of the politics
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: of that, I mean, I'm not going to address it.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's not for me to do. Um, I know, um,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: she's working on this night and day as, as the president.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: I know there has to be, um, a deal. There
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: needs to be consequence for Hamas and there needs to be, um,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: and the leaders and you, you've seen that. And, um,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: There needs to be peace. And that's what they're working towards.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: And so that's what the administration is doing.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: There was this moment during President Biden's last day of
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: the union. It's where you're up in the stands and
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: the vice president is standing behind Joe Biden. And you're
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: kind of trying to get her attention. And you finally
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: get her attention. And there's this incredible look between the
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: two of you.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: I loved it.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: It's really moving. It seemed to, just as somebody just
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: watching from the outside, just two people who genuinely love
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: each other. And people really took to it. The last
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: man to almost become first gentleman was a former president
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: with a not insubstantial ego of his own. You are
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: seeking not just a supportive role, but a role that
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: is both official and unpaid. because it's gendered, because it
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: is based on the presumption that the president is a
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: man and his spouse is a woman. How do you
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: think about that? How do you think about addressing that?
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Well, I'll take your question in parts. I think the
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: first part, yes, I love my wife very much. But
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: this is part of the... Everyone's watching everything. So you're almost...
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting there, I'm up there. It's like, wow, there's
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: my wife's, you know, sitting behind the president, the state
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: of the union, each state of the union. There's been
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: something where I'm like waved and blow a kiss. Um,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: and it's always on camera. So you, those moments are the,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: but that's us. I mean, we're, you're still trying to
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: be a normal couple amongst all this stuff. Um, Bill Clinton, he, um,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: I've developed a pretty good relationship with him. He's really
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: been there for me and for Kamala as someone who's
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: been through all this, someone who is just so smart
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: and still follows everything so well. And we did an
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: event after the convention, right after, and he introduced me
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: at an event. I'm thinking, I just spoke. with the Obamas,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: and now Bill Clinton's introducing me. And here I am,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: this entertainment lawyer from right here where we're sitting, just
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: so surreal. But he said, and here's the man who's
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: trying to get the job that I tried to get
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: for 20 years, Doug Emhoff, the next first gentleman. So
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: I've thought a lot about your actual question, how to
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: approach just being second gentleman as the first man ever
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: to do this role. And someone who loved my career
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: very much. I was very good at it, very successful.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Said humbly with modesty, but it's true. And I miss it.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: But to take a step back so my wife can
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: become vice president was something I gladly did. I did
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: it without bitterness, without anger. And then with her, you know,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: her goading was what are you going to make of
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: this role? try to find something in this role that
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: you can move the needle on. And those were, one
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: was really being the first guy doing this, let's talk
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: about gender issues. So I talked a lot about gender equity,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: pay equity, family leave, childcare. Then of course, when Dobbs hit,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I spent two years talking to men about why the
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Dobbs issue and reproductive freedom And this crisis that Dobbs
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: has caused is an issue for all of us, not
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: just for women. And then being the first Jew, it's
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: first Jewish principle ever. There's a lot of anti-Semitism. There's
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of hate. Lean into that. And so that's
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: how I approached it. And that's how I'll continue to
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: approach it if we are so fortunate to win the election,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: which we have to win. I'm going to approach it
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: the same way. Where can I be most useful to
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: her as her husband, support her? lover, as always, but
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: be there for her. But also, how can I help
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: her as president, help the administration, help the American people
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: being the first? And what issues can I really drive?
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: But also, there's a lot of traditions that are really cool.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: I've tried to uphold those as second gentleman. Fun fact,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: as second gentleman, I am the president of the Senate
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: spouses because she's the president of the Senate. And I
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: was a former Senate spouse. And so, you know, there's
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: some lunches, there's an event at the vice president's residence.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: So I just made sure that I participated in those
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: traditional events. events. And as first gentleman, there's certain traditions
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: that I fully expect that I will faithfully uphold.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: So I'm a gay person and I notice that if
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: you go to a fancy hotel, there's a presumption that
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: there's going to be a man and a woman in
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: that room because there'll be things that are meant for
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: men and things that are meant for a woman. When
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: you're at the observatory, when you're in any of these events,
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: have you ever gone into a space and were like, oh,
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: no one ever thought a man would be here before?
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Day one, because there's actually a org chart for everything
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: in the government, including the office of the vice president.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: And the first org chart that was presented to us
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: said something like, you know, vice president on the top.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: And then there's a line to it said second lady.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: They crossed it out and just said second spouse. And
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: then under that, it said family life. And I said, okay.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: She said something like, yeah, we're doing that together. And
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: so the implication was that I would be in charge
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: of family life and whatever else that entailed. So we
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: just played through it. And, you know, again, as second gentleman,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: I spent most of my time first year vaccinations, getting
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: the economy going again, supporting the American Rescue Plan. And throughout,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I spent most of the time helping her and helping
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the administration. And that's how I would approach being first gentleman,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: whatever the flow chart there is, because it helps her.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm there to support her. And also, look,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: this is a two-way street. It's not a one-sided deal.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, when I was practicing lawyer, I mean, we
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: supported each other's careers. And I mean, she knew this
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: was going to be difficult for me to step away,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: even though, again, I did it gladly. So she has
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: really enabled me, through her support, to lean into issues
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: like anti-Semitism, lean into these other issues, and be able
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: to go out there and do a lot of really
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: amazing things as Second Gentleman. And that's what I expect
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: to do, whatever the chart says.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: It's been pointed out that you and Tim Walz are
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: presenting a very different, healthier version of masculinity in this
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: campaign than Trump and J.D. Vance, who are obviously selling
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: a very different version that appeals to their base voters.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: But also the voters who haven't decided yet in this
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: election are more likely to be younger, more moderate men.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: The New York Times just ran a piece about how, quote,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: the Trump campaign has been aggressively courting what might be
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: called the bro vote, the frat boy flank, a slice
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: of 18 to 29 year olds that has long been
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: regarded as unreliable and unreachable, but the Republicans believe may
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: just swing the election this year. How do you think about,
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: in the campaign, what it will take to motivate that
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: group of young men to vote for Kamala Harris? I
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: know your son Cole is 29, so he's in that
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: demographic as well.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Well, he did the video. I hope he's going to vote.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: Put that in the win column.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: I'm actually going to go do my fantasy football draft
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: with him right after this. We're going to come back
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: to that. I want to ask you that. We're going
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: to come back to that. Great question. It's something I've
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: thought a lot about, not just because of the election.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: I've just thought a lot about this, this state of,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: of where we are as, as men and how I can,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: how I can talk about it. And I, what I've learned, uh,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I think through trial and error is just to talk
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: about me and what I do and how I feel
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: and how I felt even as a young man. So
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: when I was married to Kirsten, we both had big
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: careers and supported each other, supported her. And so for me,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: it was just kind of where my mindset was, um,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: growing up is that I'm going to be somebody who
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: is supportive of my partner and their career and other women.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I came up through law firms and, you know, you
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: can see we start around, you know, 50-50 men and
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: women in the law firm. And by the time I
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: left four years ago, the equity, senior equity partner ranks
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: where I was, was, you know, very low percentage of women.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: And it's just not right. It's not fair. And so that's, again,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: why I tried to use the second gentleman purse to
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: just talk about just fairness, like what's fair, what's not.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: And sports, using women's sports as a way to talk
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: about pay equity, training equity, travel equity, media rights equity,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: and all the things we're now seeing are starting to
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: get better. And that's a good thing. And that means
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: there's more men watching women's sports and more people watching
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: women's sports. And we're happier for it. So there's lots
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: of ways to do it, lots of ways to reach them.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: But I've learned that you can't be a scold. You can't,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: you know, lecture. You just try to show by example.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: And one great story is in this post-Dobbs. There's a group,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: literally called a group called Men for Choice. And it's
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: primarily men in college and just out of college, maybe
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: up until they're late 20s, early 30s. And so they
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: understand that it's, one, it's the right thing to do.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: It's not fair if women are being treated, literally being
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: treated as less than, but also it impacts so many
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: other rights. And you saw what Thomas said in the
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: concurring opinion of Dobbs, anything based on this Griswold right
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: of privacy, which Roe v. Wade was, is at risk.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Gay marriage, contraception, you know, literally the right to do
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: what you want in your bedroom. This is where cue
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the Tim Walls, you know, memes of, you know, stay
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: out of my goddamn bedroom. So that's what we're talking about.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: By the way, he's a great guy. He's a good
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Tim Walls. I thought he was in the room. So
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: it's the one good, two funny Tim Wall stories already
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: within a few weeks. So I met him once as
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: second gentleman out on the road. I was in St.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Paul doing a small business event. I was very impressed.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: You know, he knew about business and the economy. And
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: then I didn't see him until that night in Philly
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: when we jumped up on the stage.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: Oh, wow.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: And so we kind of bonded backstage and we get
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: up there and we just do this big bro bear hug.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: And I cannot tell you how many texts I got
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: from my actual friends and actual family members like, you
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: never hugged me like that. What's going on? You literally
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: just met this guy.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: Did you.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: Hit him on the back to preserve your heteronormativity? Did
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: you give him the back pat?
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: No, if you see the video, we just did this
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: full on. And I think, you know, he was like this,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I was like this. And then it was just this
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: bro hug. And I heard from a lot of actual friends.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: And then the other one, I love when he said,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: I'll sleep when I'm dead. And I said, I'll sleep
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: on November 6th because I want to actually enjoy the
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: fruits of winning this election.
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: The vice president has a debate with Donald Trump next week.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: She does? Yeah. Well, we hope.
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: I assume no one has debated with her more often
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: than you have. Do you have any– what should we
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: expect here?
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: What would you look for? I haven't won one. Yeah.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: She knew your mic. Is that a thing in your house? No.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: You know, she is a very good debater. I mean,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: if you look at some of her debates, you know,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: look at her debate with Mike Pence. She had a
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: pretty infamous debate with Loretta Sanchez when she was running
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: for Senate. And she's also a first-class trial lawyer. First-class,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, a first-class lawyer and a first-class trial lawyer.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: And I would say something, you know, the funny husband-wife story,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: it's not like we're in a debate, but I realize
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: if we're talking about something, any really good lawyer will
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: lay little traps for you along the way. And as
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: I'm going through this discussion about some husband-wife thing, I said, oh,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: that's what you're doing. I was a pretty good trial lawyer, too.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: I said, aha. So she is very disciplined. She's very prepared. She's, again,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: a first-class lawyer and a first-class lawyer. intellect. And, you know,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: that's how she's going to approach everything. So it's Donald Trump.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: So who the hell knows what you're going to get?
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: But I know from her, you know, she's going to
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: be talking about us. She's going to be talking about
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: the American people. She's going to be talking about the
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: issues that she's been talking about. She's going to be
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: talking about moving us forward, talking about this economic plan,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: talking about our standing in the world. And I mean, literally,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Everything I just said, including the abortion issue, there's such
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: a clear contrast. I mean, this is such a binary,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: clear contrast. And I think just getting folks to understand
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: that and pay attention to know that everyone's life would
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: be remarkably worse if somehow this guy who's completely unfit
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: for office ever returned. It just, people will be so
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: far worse off including business folks who think, oh, well,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: maybe he was good on the economy. One, that's not true.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: But two, think about the things he's saying. One of
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: the bases of a great economy is stability. It's lack
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: of chaos. It's rule of law. It's our court systems.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: It's all the capital markets. It's innovation. It's trade. It's
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: all these things that really make our economy great, make
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: our country great. And you would think this place is
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: going down the tubes the way Donald Trump talks about it,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: but I love the way she talked about it. This
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: country is awesome. And to see, to hear the USA chants,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: in Paris at the Olympics where you expect to hear them,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: but then to come back and hear them at a
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: democratic convention where you may not normally expect to see
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: that and hear that. Why were you hearing that? Because she,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: her vision of our country is more accurate of what
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: we're experiencing and where she can take it. And we
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: know he's already, was terrible the first time, terrible, even pre-COVID.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: And then COVID is probably the biggest dereliction of duty
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: of any president in history. Hundreds of thousands of people
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: died because he lied about COVID. He continued to lie
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: about it. And, oh yeah, and then he fomented an
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: insurrection when he lost the other election. So yeah, it
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: wasn't great. So this is what we're dealing with. So
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: she's going to just talk about the issues that actually
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: help people. And he's just going to lie and talk
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: about himself.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: What was your relationship to politics when you met Kamala Harris?
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Have you always been politically active? Have you always had
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: like strong political views?
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, I've always been a Dem. Um, I, again,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: you know, building my career. So I was more focused
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: on building my, my career and, um, raising the kids and.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: Uh, I wasn't, like— Your brain was not broken by
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: politics like all of us.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I didn't know. Like, I wouldn't have known, like, whatever
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: precursor you guys were before in the before times. You
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: guys are one off. I was like most— I was just
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: out there. I cared about our country. I cared about
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: the issues. I voted. And I followed it when there
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: were elections, but I wasn't, like, obsessively— you know, watching
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: stuff and reading stuff because I was out there trying
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: to support my big, beautiful, blended, no, that was before that.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: I had a big, beautiful, blended family. So I support
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: my family and I got into it a little bit
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: before I had met her, as it turned out. You know,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: the kids were getting older and it was election season
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: and I was starting to, you know, donate some money.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: You're getting invited to a fundraiser. No, I was going to,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I was starting to go to events because I had
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: more time and, and I was at a place where
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: that seemed more interesting. And then I met her and
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: then all of a sudden I started, you had plenty
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: of events to go. Then I, then I started going
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: to lots of events and learning about it. And, um,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: but my first election was her attorney general reelect and,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: And I was like, wow, politics is easy. You just
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: show up on election day and you get reelected. I
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: didn't realize she was basically running unopposed. And even the
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Senate race, it took a while and she ran for
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: a while, but I was working full time. I was
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: in and out of that. And really my first introduction
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: is when she ran in the primary, when I was
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: like a weekend warrior and went around helping around. And
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: the Then it became a full-time gig that day in
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: August of 2020 when she got that call. And then
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: that was my last day at the firm. And I've
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: been doing this ever since.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's amazing.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: Now it's time for some hardballs.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Okay. Are you ready?
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: So the LA Times published a list of some of
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: your favorite restaurants.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Okay. Okay.
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: Some good important choices there. Two big problems with the list.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: First of all, Tuscana.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Douglas?
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Tuscana?
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: Was that on there?
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: It's 2024. I'm barely here. My point of reference is
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: I haven't been here a lot in the last four years.
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: We're in a red sauce renaissance in this city. Are
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: you not familiar with this?
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: I didn't know we were in a red sauce renaissance.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: We're in a red sauce renaissance. So the thing is,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: I'm not here a lot. And so when I come back,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: I want to just re-experience the LA that I left
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: behind in 2020 or even pre-COVID. So- I don't know
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: many of the new places and it's kind of hard to,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: you know, get around these days. So, um, I've been here.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: For 10 years and never knew like the best Mexican
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: food in LA. And then reading to prepare for this interview,
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: I saw that you guys love El Cholo. And so
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: after I was reading yesterday, my wife and I went
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: to the original location. It's like right down the street
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: from us. We Fantastic.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Isn't it amazing?
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Yes. Thank you for that recommendation.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Well, I started going to that one. I went to
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: USC for law school, and I started going there in
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: the late 80s when I was in law school. Basically,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: that was part of my repertoire the whole time. So
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: as soon as I met Kamala, we just started going.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: And if we can't go, is that El Cholo? You're
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: giving me the look on El Cholo. No, no, no.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: I'm good with El Cholo.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: I'm good with El Cholo. Craig's upset me. What about Craig?
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: It's like fancy cars, photographers, you know.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: So Craig's, I think this is public, but we went
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: on our first date there. And so it, and I,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: I knew Craig for a long time and it was
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: one of those places where, um, the one in West Hollywood, right?
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Is there this one? And so that's kind of a
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: special place just cause that was literally our first date.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: And it's, um, it's very sceny now. But again, I'm
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: barely here. We're holding you to an unfair standard. I'm
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: really just trying to see the kids or my parents.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: So it's not like I'm out hitting the town.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: Hard to get east of the 405 when you're just here.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up because when I'm talking
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: to the team who are not from LA and they're,
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: they're giving me like the 15 minute travel time to
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: get from the West side. No, literally an hour and
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: 20 minutes.
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: Can we roll lights and sirens now?
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: Uh, I think we got to win this. Okay. Let's win.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: Now, second problem I have.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Oh my God.
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: This may not be your fault. This may be just
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: the mainstream media. Once again, letting us all down, but,
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: There was no deli on that list.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: And I just, I have a couple, Nate and Al's, Cantor's, Art's, Langer's.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Where are we going? What are we ordering? Langer's is,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: and I read an article about Langer's in the LA
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Times that, you know, I think it's, it needs some love. Langer's,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: the first, I'm so old, the first stop on the
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: original Metro line went from downtown 7th Street to right
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: across the street from Langer's. So us lawyers would literally,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: whatever it costs, a quarter dollar, would go to lunch
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: at Langer's, could take the new subway, Metro Line, and
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: go there. So love that place. What's our deli order?
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: We're fighting anti-Semitism.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: We're at the deli. What are we getting? I mean,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: you know, corned beef. It's kind of hard not to.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: But I try to eat a little healthier these days.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: So maybe... I love dry tuna. So I get dry
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: tuna at a lot of these delis, too. Dry tuna? Yeah.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you're going to win.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: I don't think you'll go around talking about dry tuna.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Not super dry, but, you know, just melt. Tuna melt. Okay,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: tuna melt. Love a tuna melt. But the tuna has
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: to be... It can't be, you know, super... We saw
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: the VP, you know, make a tuna melt. Oh, yeah.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: The Mark Warner thing.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And also, like, she... When we're here, she cooks.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, her thing is cooking Sunday dinner. And so... But,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: you know, she's amazing, near-chef-like. So for me, it's like
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: her cooking for us, cooking for the family. You're always winning.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: What did you do with Matza?
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: What did you do with Matza?
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: I think I got her to make me matzo bread once. And, again,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: she does everything great. So she, you know, puts her
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: own touches in it. She probably threw some flavor and
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: some spice in it. But, no, she's good. I was
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: not lying. She makes a very mean brisket. And she
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: puts a lot of love into it.
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: And I read at these Sunday dinners, she spends like
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: five hours on a bouillon or whatever and you do cocktails.
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: Does that sound like the kind of equity you're talking about?
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Well, I think during... What kind of cocktails do we drink? Well,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: I do try. I try to sous chef it up.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: She taught me some of the knife skills. Oh, okay.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: not cutting food.
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we obviously do that.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Shopping. I didn't think you meant samurai. Shopping. So I
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: was famously, she got me onion goggles, which I put
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: on a post once, which I go, oh my God,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: onion goggles. So I take that seriously. I try to
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: help as much as I can. But now that usually
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: the kids come over and everyone's getting older, so they
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: all want to help her in the kitchen. So usually
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: I'm just like, making drinks or now I might even colic.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I'm like down to just make, picking the music, like
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: putting a playlist.
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: You know what though?
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: It's good though. I'm like, this is great.
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: You're fighting for gender equity. You stole your job from a,
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: from a woman. And now we're just doing the playlist.
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: So I'm going to think about, it's something to think about.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: It's my understanding that you're a big sports fan. Is
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: it just L.A. Rams, Lakers, like all L.A.? So I
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: was born in Brooklyn and moved here when I was 16.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: So there's still a vestige of New York teams. So
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: it's a hodgepodge of New York and L.A. teams. But
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: I've been here.
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: So you're a Yankees-Lakers fan?
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay. So the Dodgers have superseded. Dodgers and Lakers superseded.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: the New York teams, but the New York Giants are
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: still in my DNA, and I love the Rams, but
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: remember the Rams were not here, they were in Orange County,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: then they were in St. Louis. They came back. But
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: since they've been back, it's been fantastic. So big Rams fan.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: But the team of my youth, which is still my team,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: is the New York football Giants. But Lakers and Dodgers
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: are They got they kind of got in the blood.
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: Now I heard you tell my guy Rich Eisen that
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: you hate Boston teams and I just wondered if Boston
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: well for those of us who won a victory November
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: I'm wondering if you we should be concerned that you
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: seem to hate winning and.
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah a lot of electoral votes in going
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: after Boston.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Success so it's so funny my son and I went
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: he was in DC during the playoffs and And there
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: are a lot of Boston fans. It was the finals.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: A lot of Boston fans in this big sports bar
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: we were at. And we were, like, not rooting for them.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: And a couple of fans were like, are you not
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: rooting for us? And I'm like, uh. But I will
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: say one of the highlights. But a lot of the
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: folks on our team are from Boston. So I've got to.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: But one of the cool events is we went up
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: to see Robert Kraft, who's been doing a lot of
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: work on anti-Semitism. Fighting antisemitism. And he gave me a
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: tour of his office, and he has a shrine to
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: all the Super Bowl trophies, and I got to see that.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: One of which is dented. I think this story was
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: by Gronk or something. Yeah, Gronk.
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: Hit a baseball with it.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so his office and the rings. I got to
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: meet the new coach. Mayo. Yeah, but still not a fan.
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: What happened with Putin taking that ring?
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Still has it, I think. He still has it. He
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: told me that whole story with Putin in the ring.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: He was very gracious. He has some really cool stuff
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: in his office, some amazing bespoke Tom Brady paraphernalia and
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: just stuff going way back. So he's like a real
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: sports fan and also really into politics. He had some
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: great political stuff in there too. But the trophy room,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: it's like, It's one of those scenes you just see
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: in one of these movies where it's just this big,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: long room and there's nothing else in there except these trophies.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: And they're just in this case.
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: But you can't take them with you.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: You cannot take what you feel. When you die? Yeah.
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: You can't be buried in a pyramid. Something to think about.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Kraft, great owner. Is he happy?
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: Don't love his politics.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no. This is not political. I went there not
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: on politics, but on the... Because on this fight against anti-Semitism,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: we're all on that one together. And that's non-political. Maybe
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: you can bring him to our side. I do think.
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: My understanding is we have a hard out on this
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: interview because your fantasy football draft is tonight.
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: The question I think is... Is that a first for
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America? That is a first.
• 42:24
  Speaker 4: But I actually think that says a lot about you
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: and your priorities because I think I've heard you say
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: that this is a league you've been in for like
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: 34 years with.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: Your law school buddies? Yeah. Or is this the White
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: House League? No, the White House League, that draft was
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: last night. Okay. This league is started in 1989 at
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: USC and it merged with my first law firm, which
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: I started in 1990. So it's basically... a bunch of
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: guys that I went to law school with and worked together,
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: but it's the same, basically the same crew and maybe
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: a new owner here or there, but it's, and even
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: the new owners have been there for 15, 20 years.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: We're all now of a certain age that most of
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: us have kids and sons and daughters who are now
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: in their twenties to mid, early to late twenties who
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: have now come in to be a part of the league.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: So Cole joined me about, eight or nine years ago,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: I think, when he was getting out of college. And
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: we're a very hapless team. I won once in 2000.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: So 24 years ago, I won once. And you can now,
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: because it's been on one of the apps for so long,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: it's literally like 12 teams, 12, 12, 11, 10, 11, 12, 12.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: And then two years ago, we decided we got to
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: just take this more seriously. We got to study. This
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: is embarrassing. So two years ago, we made the playoffs.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: And then last year, we were the number one team
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: the whole season. We got to the finals. And I
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: even told the team, okay, just tank. Let us win.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: And if you let us win, we'll do next year's
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: draft in the White House. Didn't work? Well, I'm here.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: So it didn't work. We lost. But it was– This
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: is the year. This league is so much fun. I've
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: got two great group chats. It's the one from my
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: Jersey guys that I grew up with. and this one
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: of the team owners. And when I sort of said
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: the word, and that's when I met my fantasy, there's
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: 500 messages on that group chat. It's just so fun.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: That group chat.
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: Got wild for your friends a couple years ago. This
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: is like Meghan Markle's group chat all of a sudden
• 44:36
  Speaker 4: when she met Prince Harry.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: It's like, I'm sorry, what? What have you been up to?
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: Do they give you a lot of shit on the
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: group chat now? Like, what's it been like the last
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: couple of months?
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: They always give me, we give each other a ton
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: of shit because that's what a group chat does. Yeah, no,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: it's surreal for them. I think the highlight of their
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: lives was when I went on Matthew Barry to talk
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: about our league and our team and my team and
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: my draft. They just, That's better than the convention. Yeah,
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: that was... I got a few, hey, great speech. That
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: was really good. No, on the speech, but it was like,
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: you said the fantasy, team Nirvana. Team Nirvana. Team Nirvana.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: And this is just like a spreadsheet. Is it through Yahoo,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: I assume? That one's through ESPN. Huh. I don't know
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: what it is. No one ever told me. It's really
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: fun because it's a way to watch the games and
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: now it's something that when the games are on, you're literally... FaceTiming,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: texting all the people that you're in the league with.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: And for Cole and I, especially over these last four
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: or five years, it's so hard to stay connected to him.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: And it's a great way for us to stay connected
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: and to have something that's just for he and I.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: And the fact that his dad came out here to
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: sit with him to do the draft, he's just so
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: happy right now that we're going to be, and me too,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: of course, that we're able to do this. So it's a.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: It's one little shred of normalcy in a going back.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: Bringing it all back to your first question, the way
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: good lawyers do, you know, that shot out of a
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: cannon because we are traveling many hundreds of miles an
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: hour right now. And we're hustling for 60 some odd
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: days to save our country to win this election. But
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: this is a working trip. I'm doing all these events
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: while I'm here. But I'm also carving out this time
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: for him because we still have to be parents to
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: Colonella and to everyone else in that family. They still
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: look to us. We still got to be present. And
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: that was one of the great things about the convention, bringing,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, everyone together. And they were all there to
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: just experience this thing together was very special, beyond special.
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: We do want to just quickly show you that we
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: did sell a mug with your face on it.
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: It says Doug on a mug. I like the young
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Doug picture better. that's like super old well.
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: We didn't have one for you because they sold out
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: sold like hotcakes so now maybe the second round we'll.
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: Do and because you're a lawyer just so you know
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: we are legally allowed to use.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: Your life I'm gonna just drop to cease and desist
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: you can't.
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: No we have lawyers we have lawyers too Doug.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: Oh this public domain this is like fair use.
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah you're a public figure I'm a mug you
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: go This is commentary.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: This is satire. Satire. Parody. Parody. This is a parody.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: You know, I teach this stuff at Georgetown Law School, man. Yeah. Yes,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: you are, you're screwing me, but it's okay. Okay, cool. Thanks.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: Last question for you. What is one thing you know
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: about your wife that you really hope the entire country
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: gets to know over the next few months?
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: Only one thing? Well, I figured. See my speech. Can
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: I read you my speech? No, that, that, She is
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: a badass. I mean, she is a super badass on
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: so many levels. And she has just done this. Her
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: entire career has been for us. I know it's for
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: the people, but it literally has. And everything she does,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: there's always a why behind it. You know, she talked
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: about why she became a prosecutor because of her best
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: friend was being, unfortunately, molested by her stepfather. And you track...
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: So much of her policy and the stuff that she
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: does to help us, there's always some family. There's always
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: some reason. So here, famously, the mortgage crisis in California
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: where they were giving Californians pennies on the dollar. And
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: I was here. And to see her fight for us
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: because she's then thinking about her own mother and the
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: folks that she grew up with who worked so hard
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: to get those homes and then to lose them like that.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: It's the story about shutting down the for-profit colleges here.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: And they're just ripping off people. So for me, I
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: want people to know that she really gives a shit.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: She really does this stuff as a calling. Yes, she's
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: in politics, but I don't see her as a politician.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: I see her as a very devout public servant at
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: the highest level. And she's devoted literally her whole professional
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: career career for us, and that, it's just great.
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: And you decide to call a person like that at 8.30
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: in the morning from your car, like she's a client,
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: like you're rolling calls.
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: Did your assistant pat you through? On a weekday. It's
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: so funny you say that because I'm, it was, it
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: was like, what am I doing? And it was that scene,
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: the other Jon Favreau from Swingers. And it's literally that
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: scene just in my, What am I doing? And then
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: I'm like, don't call back, don't call back. And that's it.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: He just keeps calling back. Um, and now that was, it,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: it's just because, um, you know, I knew who she
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: was and I was just curious, like, okay, is this
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: the person who's the fearsome Kamala Harris prosecutor, attorney general,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: or is this someone who, you know, seems really cool and, um,
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: maybe we'll hit it off. And, It was really when
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: she called, I'm telling you, when she called me back
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: in that miracle where she happened to be at her
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: desk and I happened to be at my desk, which
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: never happens. And we basically talked for an hour and
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: it's like, wow, she's really awesome. She's funny. She's smart. She, she's,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: you know, interesting. Let's do, I'm in. So let's, and
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: she happened to be in LA a few days later
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: and She told me that. I said, okay, we're going out.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: Congrats on winning that fight, by the way. LA versus
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: San Francisco. I lived in both. It's a no-brainer, if
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: we're being honest. Yeah. It's pretty sweeter, yeah. I love LA.
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: And wait until you try some of the Italian food.
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: Okay. After the mic, after we shut these off, you're
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: going to give me a list so I can spread
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: out a little bit from the– The Toscana scene.
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: No offense to Toscana.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: I love Toscana.
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: The bread's cold, but it's okay.
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: Okay, enough with you and Toscana.
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: Did you have a bet? Did they not let you in? Oh,
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: I know what happened. They didn't let him in. They
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: didn't let him in. So he's bitter about it.
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: All right, we're going to let you get to your
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: fantasy draft. Doug Emhoff, thank you so much for coming
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: on Pod Save America. Thanks for the time, and good
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: luck in the draft tonight.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: We're going to need it. Thanks, guys.
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: A couple of quick things before we go. Pod Save
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: America is headed to Phoenix this Saturday, September 7th at
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: Celebrity Theater. Join us, Dan, and guest host Jane Koston
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: for a great show featuring Senate candidate Ruben Gallego. Get
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: your tickets at crooked.com slash events now. Still tickets.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: Grab them.
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: We'll see you in Phoenix. And also in the newest
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: episode of subscription-exclusive podcast Polar Coaster, Dan and Elijah Cohn
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: map out how Harris can win the Electoral College and
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: win explore the campaign's possible routes to securing 270 electoral votes.
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: To check out Dan's subscriber-exclusive show and so much more,
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: subscribe to Friends of the Pod on Apple Podcasts or
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: at cricket.com slash friends. That's our show for today. How
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: about Doug? How great is Doug?
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: I just want to go get dinner with Doug at
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: Tuscana or anywhere.
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: Else, I guess.
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: Anywhere else.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: Tuscana.
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: So much Tuscana.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: He's a nice guy.
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: There's a little too much Tuscana talk.
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: It's just a personal issue.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: But you know what?
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: He was fantastic. Thanks, second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, for coming by.
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: Good luck with the draft tonight. We'll be back with
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: a new show on Friday with Dan and me. We'll
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: be talking about next week's debate with one of the
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: moderators of the last one, CNN's Dana Bash. So tune in.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: Talk to you then. If you want to get ad-free episodes,
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: exclusive content, and more, consider joining our Friends of the
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: Pod subscription community at cricket.com slash friends. And if you're
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: already doom scrolling, don't forget to follow us at Pod
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: Save America on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube for access to
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: full episodes, bonus content, and more. Plus, if you're as
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  Speaker 2: in on this conversation. Pod Save America is a Crooked
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  Speaker 2: Media production. Our producer is David Toledo. Our associate producers
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  Speaker 2: are Saul Rubin and Farrah Safari. Reid Cherlin is our
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  Speaker 2: executive editor and Adrian Hill is our executive producer. The
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  Speaker 2: is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Seglin
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  Speaker 2: and Charlotte Landis. Writing support by Hallie Kiefer. Madeline Herringer
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  Speaker 2: Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Haley Jones, Phoebe Bradford,
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  Speaker 2: and David Tolst.