Latest / Pod Save America / “Terry vs. Trump.”

Transcript

“Terry vs. Trump.” · Pod Save America

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: On today's show, Democrats will hold a vote this week
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: on the Freedom to Vote Act while Republicans intensify their
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: efforts to make sure yours doesn't count. Virginia gubernatorial candidate
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Terry McAuliffe talks to Lovett and Tommy about his race
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: against Trump supporter Glenn Youngkin. And we decide how many
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: politicos to award some of the week's worst punditry in
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: a brand new installment of the Take Appreciators.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I'm excited to play.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Are you guys excited to play for the first time?
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: Very excited. Very excited.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I got to hear you and Dan play last
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: week and I was a little bit jealous. Also, Lovett's
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: got a mask that is made of the carpet from
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: The Shining.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: You bet it is.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Where does that land in the anti-mask wars?
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: I think this is.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: If you're wearing a mask associated with a prominent murder.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: I think it's ambivalent.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: A lot of people are wondering.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: I think it's ambivalent. But I like the pattern.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: It's very nice.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: I like the Overlook Hotel stylings.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Do you?
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Before we begin, an important reminder that this will be
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: the last time we release this episode on a Monday afternoon.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Starting next week, October 26th, we're moving to First Thing
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Tuesday mornings. The episode with Dan and I will still
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: be released on Thursday afternoons. This switch will help us
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: cover news that happens Mondays. It will give us our
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Sundays back, which is very important.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Very important. Because, you know, all work and no play
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: makes John's a dull boy.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: Hey, there it is. A little callback.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Was that a callback?
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Oh, I thought I just made that up.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: It will also give you all an extra day to
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: listen to my brand new show, Offline, which premieres next Sunday,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: October 24th. Offline is a series of unplugged conversations about
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: how to improve our hellish online existence.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: John, I think that the discourse around Colin Powell's death
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: today is proving the fundamental premise of your show wrong, right?
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: And that it's a very wonderful, nuanced, and thoughtful discourse online.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Look, the most effective way to prevent future wars is
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: to call dead people war criminals on Twitter and let
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: everyone know that you called them a war criminal so
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: you can virtually signal about how anti-war you are.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: No, no, no. I just want to attack people whose
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: views don't perfectly jive with mine.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Well, it's just an effective... It's an effective discourse every
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: time it happens on Twitter. Every time someone dies and
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: then people yell about them.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: It usually.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: It moves the ball forward is the important thing. It
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: moves the ball forward.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: It's, um... You can't talk about people who are too
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: online without revealing you two are too online.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that's part of why I'm doing this show.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's... If you guys listen to the trailer,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: you're both featured prominently in it. Love it for making
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: fun of us for monitoring every tweet in the sky
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: like we're air traffic controllers. Tommy talking about the, um...
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: His phone screen time, the indication you get on Sunday.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: A little judgmental screen time. John's actually doing the show
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: because it's actually one hour where he physically can't be
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: on Twitter because he's recording something.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: The more I'm on the microphone, the better it gets.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I talk to people like Monica Lewinsky, Megan Rapinoe, Gia Tolentino,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Peter Hamby, DeRay McKesson, and more. Fun show. I've already
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: learned a lot from the people I've interviewed, and you
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: can find it right here on the Pod Save America
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: feed starting next Sunday.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Who's your worst guest so far?
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: The worst guest?
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: Hamby.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Not even a hesitation.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Because I know, because we're such good friends with Peter,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: I can say that really quickly.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Sorry, Pedro.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Peter was terrible.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: You're out.
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Let's get to the news. Chuck Schumer has announced that
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: there will be a vote this Wednesday on the Freedom
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: to Vote Act, which is the compromise voting rights legislation
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: that now has the support of all 50 Senate Democrats,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: including Joe Manchin, who helped write the bill, the compromise bill.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: The bill would guarantee universal early voting, mail-in voting, automatic
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: and same-day voter registration. It would make Election Day a
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: national holiday. It would restore voting rights to the formerly incarcerated.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: It would ban partisan gerrymandering. essentially overturn a lot of
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: the voter suppression laws that states have passed and make
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: it harder to remove election officials for political reasons. So
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: it does something on election subversion, which the original For
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: the People Act did not do. It also includes a
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: voter ID requirement, but not one as stringent as most
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Republicans have proposed in the past. Manchin has been trying
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: for months to find 10 Republican senators who might support
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: the compromise or at least even negotiate. He so far
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: hasn't found those 10. which means the bill will only
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: pass if Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema change their minds on
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: the filibuster. How you guys like our chances?
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: It's a little like being the first person in Squid
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Game to look out over the bridge of glass.
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Scary. It's not good. What if, okay, I got a pitch.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: What if Biden only talked about the election day as
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: a public holiday element and just called it the day
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: off bill? You get a day off.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Joe wants to give you one day off.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: That's all this is about. It's just one day off.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: It's the lowest common denominator thing. We're pitching here.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: We're pitching ideas.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk about some of the shittier things
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Joe Manchin has been up to lately, but pretty good
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: piece of compromise legislation from Joe Manchin. Now, I will
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: say that there's a whole bunch of other Democratic senators
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: who worked on this compromise legislation, which is probably why
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: it's so good, because it wasn't just left in Joe
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Manchin's hands. Amy Klobuchar, Jeff Merkley, who's been very progressive
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: on voter rights for a while, Raphael Warnock, Alex Padilla,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: who we talked to here in studio about this. So
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: it was a good crew that came up with this,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: this compromise bill. Here's my thing on this. Like, I
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: don't want to get my hopes up here at all
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: because I have learned anything related to Joe Manchin and
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Kyrsten Sinema. You should not get your hopes up. I
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: just can't figure out why Manchin and then all these
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: other Democratic senators would go through all the motions and
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: all the work of coming up with this compromise legislation
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: if Manchin knew all along that once he didn't get
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: the Republicans, he was just going to give up and
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: do nothing about the filibuster.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, first of all, on the compromise, like,
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: There's a big give here on voter ID. That's a
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: big deal. It's a big deal that Democrats are giving
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: up on this. It is indulging something that is fundamentally
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: not real, but we're doing it as a sop to
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: Republicans who claim they genuinely believe there should be voter ID,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: even though we know that these are bad faith claims.
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: Fine.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: I agree with that. When I say that there's not
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: a chance, there's not a chance of finding 10 Republicans.
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: No.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: To pass this without reforming the filibuster.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: I read that they found like, um, five or six
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: who were, who didn't like the bill, but were at
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: least willing to sit down at a table and compromise,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: but only five or six. So like, no.
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Look, as Lovett used to say, he
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: has high, high hopes for living. He would say that
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: a lot and he would cheer and he would do
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: like a TikTok dance about it. The way that we're
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: going to get this done is not by finding 10 Republicans.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how many invites they've received to the,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: what's the house, what's the name?
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: The Almost Heaven.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: The Almost Heaven, docked out in the sea, whatever, doesn't matter.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: But I do think like Hopefully, Joe Manchin views this
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: as a necessity to get to a place where he'll
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: do a little carve-out for the filibuster.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Even if you think that Joe Manchin is an annoying asshole,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: which my hand's up in the air.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I would go with idiot.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Idiot. He might have a selfish reason for wanting to
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: reform the filibuster here because he will look like a
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: fucking moron. if his whole thing was like the Senate
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: can work and we can have bipartisanship. And so I'm
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: going to spearhead this compromise legislation and I'm going to
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: find Republicans to get it done with me. And then
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: he doesn't find any. And then he just lets it die.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Like he looks like an asshole. Just for selfish reasons,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: not even Joe Manchin being altruistic here.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: I don't know. He's been made to look like a
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: schmuck many times in the past and hasn't really phased him.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: I agree, though, with what you're saying. I mean, I
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: think I think you have to hope that like the
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: failure to find 10 Republicans for a very reasonable compromise
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: on voting rights when 15 years ago they voted unanimously
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. When you look at
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: the shenanigans over the debt ceiling, when you look at
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: the fact that they blocked a 1-6 commission, you start
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: to add that all up together and you start to
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: see an argument that maybe, maybe Manchin and then Sinema
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: can get behind, do some kind of filibuster reform. Manchin
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: has been all over the place on the filibuster. He
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: has issued really strong assertions that he would never be
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: for reforming it. Then he has entertained all kinds of changes,
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: whether it's carve outs or requiring the minority to show
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: up in full to block bills, require a talking filibuster.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: There's a bunch of reforms that he has at the
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: very least entertained while talking about basic principles about wanting
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: the minority of the Senate to have a voice. And
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: there's a way you can maybe get those things, that
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: Venn diagram to overlap with some kind of change.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: What's the old saying? A smart lawyer never asks a
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: question they don't already know the answer to. You'd hope
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: that in this case, Manchin would not go down this
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: path without knowing that there was an outcome that would
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: look successful. That's the optimistic case. The pessimistic case is
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: we've been talking about whether a bill will be $ 3. 5
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: trillion or $ 3 trillion or $ 2 trillion or $ 1 trillion.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: And the whole time, Chuck Schumer's been sitting on this letter, apparently,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: from Joe Manchin that says $ 1.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: 5 trillion.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Is the cap in his mind. And yet we have
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: this huge expectations management problem, which is a perennial problem
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: for Democrats. We're very good at spinning even successes into
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: feeling like failures. So I don't know. I'm going to
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: try to stay helpful here. I'm going to be the
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: happy guy.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: I was going to say, I'll add to your pessimistic case,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: because I do think we should lay out both cases
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: for everyone, since clearly the Democrats in power have not
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: done that, to Tommy's point about expectations management. The pessimistic
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: case is that if Manchin and Sinema weren't willing to
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: reform the filibuster... to avoid a default, which would have
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: caused a catastrophic global recession, they're not going to do
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: it for voting rights.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: That's that's the pessimistic case.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: But, you know, it's that was one aspect of the
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: debt ceiling fight that I think was under discussed, which
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: is I remember early on before Manchin basically came out
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: and said, I will not do filibuster reform. The question
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: for Manchin was always. why would you come out so
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: strongly against filibuster reform when just allowing for the possibility
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: that you might support it, freeze up, freeze up Republican
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: votes and freeze up negotiations to get some people along
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: a bipartisan compromise? What was interesting about the debt ceiling
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: is there were these two precepts that couldn't both be true.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: If Republicans didn't budge on voting to lift the debt ceiling,
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: which is Manchin said, we will not default and I
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: will not reform the filibuster. If those two things, you
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: got to pick one. You got to pick one. So
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: Republicans saw that. And the moment the possibility of filibuster
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: reform was real, they fucking caved. And my hope. So
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: I think that like the optimistic version of.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: That is in the end.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Democrats are going to lift the debt ceiling through reconciliation.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: It's going to happen.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: But the point I'm making is like, I think that
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: there's a pessimistic version in which Manchin doesn't say, oh, well,
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: we can't do it because I won't support the filibuster.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: There's a pessimistic version where he says something like, I
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: just need more time. This was too soon to have
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: the vote. We got to give the process time to work.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: There's an optimistic version of this not happening where he
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: starts to entertain. He wants to entertain the possibility of
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: filibuster reform and hopes that that cudgel gives him time
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: to get those 10 Republicans. Neither one of these is great.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: I guess there's also, by the way, an outcome where
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Manchin supports a talking filibuster. And, you know, you see
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Ted Cruz and some of these grandstanding assholes just stand
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: on the floor for a month trying to filibuster voting
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: rights legislation, which.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: I just think you can't you can't count to 10
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: and 510 willing participants. And even these negotiations, I like
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: my guess is that someone like McConnell is smart enough
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: to dispatch some of his deputies to play act and
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: pretend to negotiate as a way to just kill time.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: That would be smart.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I was, as I do on the way to work,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: listening to Steve Bannon's fantastic podcast this morning.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: You're going to become radicalized soon.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: I'm getting into it, yeah.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: The first time I thought it was interesting, now it's
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: just you listen all the time.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: I'm a little bit worried about... When was the last
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: time you listened to Love or Leave It? I'm a
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: little concerned about some of these Dominion machines. Don't you
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: guys marginalize me. And what Bannon was talking about with
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Mark Meadows is the need to use the debt ceiling
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: fight to just take as much time as possible, eat
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: up the clock so they can't get anything else done.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: That's their play. That's their strategy. All right.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: So Republicans are widely expected to filibuster this bill on Wednesday.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: What should Joe Biden do after that happens?
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: Listen, I don't want to I don't think I'm the
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: first person to say it. It's time for a pivot.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: Ladies and gentlemen.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Who are we pivoting?
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Where?
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: What direction?
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: We're pivoting. We're pivoting to a voting rights anti filibuster.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: I mean, he's another Washington term. Might be time for
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: a full court press.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, the debate is going to be you're reading
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: all these articles that are like demands for Joe Biden
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: to give a big speech or make this the focus
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: of his external messaging and yada, yada, yada. I don't
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: know that that's the right move. I think it's like
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Joe Biden should get in a car, drive to Capitol Hill,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: go to Joe Manchin's office, lock the door and say,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: we're not leaving until you figure out what you can
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: be for.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: I think he should announce that he is for a
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: carve-out for democracy reform on the filibuster.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: He should, but he doesn't have a vote, so who
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: gives a fuck on some level, right? It's like Manchin
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: and Sinema and all these people who actually vote on
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: the filibuster.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: The reason I think he should, I don't think that
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: him saying that publicly is going to move Manchin and Sinema.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: I think we are at the point now where Joe
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: Biden should fucking throw the hot potato to Joe Manchin
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: and Kyrsten Sinema so that they get the blame because
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: right now, when voting rights advocates and progressives say Joe
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Biden didn't fight hard enough because he never came out
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: for filibuster reform, They are correct.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Toss him the smoldering coal, Ember.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: And I think he should. And look, Joe Biden.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Of course he should. Of course he should. But like
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: in terms of like things that we debate, whether they
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: really will make it, get it done or not, this
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: is one of those times where it's like, yes, he
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: should do that. But also it's all the actions in
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the Senate.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: But I do think there are activists that are pressuring.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: They want to know Joe Biden is with them in
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: this aspect of the fight. And I think there is,
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: I think, very little cost at this point to coming
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: out and saying, We have tried everything to get these
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Republicans to compromise. They have failed. Protecting the majority of
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: voters in this country is more important than protecting a
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: group of minority Republican senators. And it's time to do
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: whatever we can to protect democracy in this country.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: He can do it in a very Joe Biden way, right?
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: You know, like we tried bipartisanship. Joe Manchin tried bipartisanship. Like,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: nothing in this bill would inherently favor one party over
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: the other. These are all nonpartisan provisions. I ran for
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: president because I thought democracy was at risk. This is
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: central to my whole presidency.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I thought you were going to say, like, while getting
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: ice cream at an OTR, like a very Joe Biden way.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: That's fine, too.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: That's fine, too. But, like, you know, like, Joe Biden,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: of course, likes bipartisanship, likes the Senate, is a creature
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: of the Senate. Bipartisanship and the Senate working doesn't matter
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: if we don't have basic democracy in the country, right?
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: That comes first.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's right. And I... You know, I
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: understand why activists and people who are paying attention are,
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: you know, pressing the red button, being like, this is
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: an emergency. This is a crisis. They're absolutely right. They
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: are right. We are in a crisis. Our democracy is
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: at risk. What is not clear is if whether or
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: not Biden making that the centerpiece of what he talks
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: about every day to the detriment of other important issues
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: like getting his bills through immigration, a host of other issues.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: redounds to the benefit of his political prospects, our midterm prospects,
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: or even the ability to get something done when we've
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: actually successfully made the case on democracy reform. There is
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: a big majority that supports it in the House. There
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: is actually a 50, all Democrats support protecting our democracy
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: in the Senate. The problem is not making the case.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: The case has been made. The problem is two human
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: beings that have shown themselves in just the last couple
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: of weeks, not receptive in a lot of ways to
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: ordinary pressure. Manchin, because his politics are different and Sinema,
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: because she's Kyrsten Sinema and she's on some kind of
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: a fucking soul journey involving wine and Europe and on
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: Iron Man's and proving she's John McCain. And that is
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: something that Joe Biden making this a kind of national fight.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: I don't know if it helps. I would like it.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: I agree.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: I think it's an inside game.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden talking about all those other issues isn't doing
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: much good either.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: That's true too.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: That's true too.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Full on nihilism as politics here.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: Well, no, when I say, look, There are plenty of
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: people who are still people who don't pay attention to
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: politics very closely, don't follow the news very closely. And
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: they say they don't see anything getting done. And they're like,
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Democrats are fucking up. And I want to be like, actually,
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: who's fucking up is Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, not Democrats.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: But the more I think about it, like then more
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: Democrats in office and in the White House should say
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: what you just said.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Love it.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: You know that like, yeah, we want to do this.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: And the reason we're not doing this is because of
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: these two. Like fucking it's time to. turn the attention
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: on these two. And I know they haven't up until
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: now because they are very concerned that they were going
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: to say something that pisses the two of them off
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: so bad that they don't vote for Build Back Better
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: or even worse, they leave the party altogether. So I
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: get the sensitivities there, but I do think it's time
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: to turn up the heat a little bit, as Hillary
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Clinton would say in 2008.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: I like that, yeah.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, turn up the heat.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: Again, one of Lovett's best lines.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: One of the best lines I've ever wrote was obviously
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: the famous mid-January slogan, turn up the heat, turn America around.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Seriously? Did you make that up or is that real?
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: I did not.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: It's a real slogan.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: It is not mine.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: Wasn't there also an if you can't stand the heat?
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Which I think that was new for her. It was
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: a new line, right?
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: Those were both from the Iowa. I believe those were
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: from the Iowa JJ because I remember that there were
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: green and yellow signs that said turn up the heat.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: And then on the other side it said turn America around,
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: I believe. But you also had to turn the sign around.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: That's confusing.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: We bust people in from Illinois.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Are you wearing a Squid Game colored sweatshirt? Am I
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: right about that? Or is the Squid Game outfit more red?
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: This is an audio format. It's a bright pink.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: I'm wearing a bright pink neon sweatshirt. They do know
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: what the Squid Game colors are. But I did more pink.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: I recognize it from your Abby on Twitter.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: This is my go-to.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: It is from my Abby.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: You know why it's always on?
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: It's because of my car.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: Mansion has also reportedly told the White House that he
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: opposes including a clean electricity program in the Build Back
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: Better bill. which would reward utilities that transition from fossil
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: fuels to renewable energy and penalize those who don't. This
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: is a policy that would do more to cut carbon
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: emissions than anything else Biden has proposed and really anything
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: else the federal government has ever done. How big of
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: a deal is the Manchin opposition to the Clean Electricity
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: Performance Program, which I believe is the CEPP? Yeah.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: I think it's a huge, huge deal. The question is
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: how bad it will be is determined by what is
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: allowed to replace it. Because Manchin has said pretty frequently, actually,
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: and has now reiterated that he is against rewarding utilities
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: for doing on clean energy what they would have done anyway,
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: which is an interesting way for him to describe this
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: because he's talking about the carrot piece and not the
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: stick piece. He's talking about the carrot for rewarding renewables
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: as opposed to the stick piece for making companies pay
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: for not switching to renewables.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Well, it sounds like he's against both. Well, he has
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: to- He's complaining about the carrot piece, but he was
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: also complaining about that he doesn't want coal companies penalized.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: Well, the question is, will he be okay? The focus
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: being on not wanting to reward renewables, is he open
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: to any kind of a carbon tax? As I say that,
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: I am worried that we will see a statement of
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: him coming out against a carbon tax by the time
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: I get to the end of this- In.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: Fact, when we were prepping for the pod, I was
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: looking for just such a statement because I'm like, the
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: New York Times broke the story and then did a
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: follow-up story about Democrats now looking into a carbon tax
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: a couple days later. And I was just reading the
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: story like, why? would Joe Manchin support a carbon tax,
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: which would also require coal companies to pay more if
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: he didn't like the clean electricity program because it required
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: coal companies to pay more? I don't understand.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Look, there's some, the modeling of this bill suggests that
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: this clean energy performance program would drive over 50% of
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: the emissions reductions that we need to see by 2030
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: and then again by 2035. So right now, 40% of
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: electricity in the U.S. comes from clean energy sources. That
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: includes nuclear. Biden wants us to get 80% by 2030
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: and 100% by 2035. This is the key driver. And
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: getting clean electricity is the linchpin to lowering emissions generally, right?
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Because if you have clean power, you can then plug
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: in your electric vehicle into your clean power at your
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: home and you're not burning fossil fuels and it makes
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the whole thing work. Manchin coming out or the New
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: York Times reporting that Manchin opposed this part of the
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: program made me want to put my fist and then
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: my head through a fucking wall. It's the key. It's
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: the linchpin of the bill. It's an existential issue for
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the planet. And I think one of the frustrating things
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: is we often talk about climate as a coastal problem.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: It's like, oh, Miami is going to be screwed. Oh,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: you know, this part of New England is going to
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: be underwater. There was a big report in the New
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: York Times, I believe, that talked about how vulnerable West
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Virginia is to flooding because there's near all these rivers
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: and streams because all these residents have nowhere to really
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: go in mountainous regions. Half of West Virginia power stations
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: are at risk, fire stations, police stations. So it's a
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: real existential problem for the state of West Virginia. So
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: you're left to wonder, hmm, what's Joe Manchin's motivation here?
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Which brings us to his personal financial incentives and the
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: investments he has in the coal energy. industry. And so, yeah,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It's, it's, it's, it's exhausting.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: I think he's just an idiot. I don't know. You
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: had a, you had a good idea that we were
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: talking about before the show.
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Here's my idea.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: There are 14,000 coal miners in the state of West Virginia,
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: about 10,000, I think work in the mines. I think
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: there's some, some several thousand that work at the surface level.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: I'm not an expert in mining. I'm a, I'm a
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: gauge you from Long Island. Uh, neither here nor there.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Those aren't mutually exclusive.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: You find me a gay Jew from Long Island mining
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: coal in West Virginia, we can continue this conversation.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Tweet, tweet, I love it.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Tweet, I love it. But you've got to back it up.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: You've got to prove your work.
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: Show your work. Wow.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: The point I was making is 14,000 people, we can
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: give each one of them a million dollars. One million
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: dollars in the bill. That's 14 billion dollars.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Let's start at half a million.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: I'm cool with buying off just the executives.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Let's try it all.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: But that's my pitch.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: I like that pitch.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: So there's that pitch. There's a carbon tax that's being floated.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: And again, the carbon tax would also include rebates to
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: consumers and particularly to people who work in the coal
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: industry because energy prices– because corporations could respond to the
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: carbon tax by raising their energy prices, which could affect consumers.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: And so there's rebates involved in that program. Also, key
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: to that would be the carbon tax– That if you're
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: producing gasoline, that wouldn't count towards the carbon tax, so
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: then it wouldn't raise gas prices on vehicles. So that
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: would be one way politically to get it through. So
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: that's why I did it. Jeff Merkley from Oregon, who's
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: been a climate hawk forever in the Senate, he said
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: he would not vote for a reconciliation package that did
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: not have significant climate provisions, but he said he was
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: open to any option to cut carbon dioxide emissions in
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: half by 2030 and produce carbon-free electricity by 2035. He
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: suggested additional wind and solar subsidies or proposals to speed
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: up the transition to clean energy vehicles. I haven't seen
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: any proposals that would get us those reductions, similar to
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: a carbon tax or a clean energy standard, just through
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: incentives and tax credits, but if they can figure something out, great.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: And also, by the way, all of this is predictions
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: about what these incentives will ultimately do. And actually, there
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: have been plenty of times in the past where the
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: incentive was smaller than people wanted, but in the end,
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: it caught a moment where it resonated with what the
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: markets were doing anyway. And all of a sudden you
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: could hit your targets anyway. AOC even said, There are
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: many ways to do it, but we can't afford to
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: give up. Everybody is kind of recognizing that, look, what
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: we're fundamentally talking about is we need incentives for renewable,
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: we need disincentives for fossil fuels. How do we do that?
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: There are a lot of ways to do it, and
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of ways to turn those dials to
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: achieve what you would have achieved in a clean energy
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: program as they had previously drafted. Will they get all
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: the way there? I don't think any of us know.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I just don't know how important the balance of care
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: is versus sticks. We need a phone, a friend. We'd
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: be conferencing someone from Vox to tell us exactly how
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: the policy works. But I mean, the thing... The other
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: part of this, I think people need to understand, is
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: that Joe Biden goes to this big climate summit on
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: October 31st in Glasgow. It's this big international summit. It's
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: the latest effort to bring countries together to take urgent
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: action to stop climate change. The U.S. is responsible for,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I think, 15% of global emissions, but we've, over time,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: released more CO2 than any other country. If Biden goes
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: to Scotland... with nothing to show the rest of the
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: world about how the U.S. is doing things that are
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: difficult politically to deal with climate change. It's going to
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: be very hard to ask the Chinese or the Indians
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: or European allies or anybody else to do tough things there.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: You should bring Joe Manchin with him and say, you
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: fucking explain yourself to everyone. All right. So while Democrats
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: can't seem to get centrists like Joe Manchin to help
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: save democracy or the planet, Republicans are busy trying to
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: elect only the most extreme candidates who are willing to
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: help overturn future elections if necessary. Big lie believers are
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: running in secretary of state races to be the top
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: election officials in Georgia, Nevada, Michigan and Arizona, where the
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: Republican front runner for governor is a woman named Carrie Lake,
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: who has called for the 2020 results in her state
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: to be decertified and for the Democratic secretary of state
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: and various journalists to be imprisoned. That's who's running for
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: governor and who's a front runner in Arizona right now,
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: also in Arizona. The guy who may have started the
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: QAnon conspiracy, Ron Watkins, has announced he's running for Congress.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: And last week, Donald Trump himself released a statement that said, quote,
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: if we don't solve the presidential election fraud of 2020,
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: Republicans will not be voting in 22 or 24. It's
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: the single most important thing for Republicans to do. What
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: do you guys make a Trump statement there? Good news,
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: scary news or both?
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: I don't know how you're reading good news into that.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: If Republicans don't vote in 22 and 24, I think
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: that's fantastic news.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, sure. But look, I think that that is
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: his cudgel for telling Republican candidates all across the country
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: that they need to mimic his language and say, this
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: is the most important issue. That's what Glenn Youngkin has
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: now said in Virginia. That is what he's trying to
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: get even people that are not particularly Trumpy when they
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: start out to end up looking like Trump when the
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: time comes to vote.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the good news part of it would be,
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: I kind of think it's both because Republicans who don't
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: embrace the big lie are both better for democracy and
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: easier for Democrats to beat because they will cause some
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Trump voters to stay home. There's evidence that happened in
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: the Georgia Senate runoff. But you're right. The pessimistic case
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: and probably the more realistic case is that every Republican
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: will take that statement as a signal. I better fucking
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: embrace the big lie.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I also think the other thing it does, though, in
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: the nearer term is it just it creates a series
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: of incentives to go further and further to the right
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: for primary candidates. So I think it's radicalizing the people
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: running in Republican primaries like Eric Greitens in Missouri. He's
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: one of the first people to come out and say
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't support Mitch McConnell as leader. That I heard
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: about on my favorite podcast, the Steve Bannon War Room,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: whatever the fuck show. And so like that's what he's
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: doing here. Like he's further radicalizing the Republicans who are
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: running for office and who may or may not win
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: these primaries.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: I think what's really scary about this is that nothing
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: in any of the proposed voting rights protections would prevent
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: some Trumpy governor or secretary of state from refusing to
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: certify an election. So then the question is, like, how
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: do Democrats handle this development in these candidates? And I
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: do think– look, I think they have to make it
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: a centerpiece of their campaign in 2022. This is back–
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, we've had this debate before, but I think
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: it's kind of an emergency.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, the emergency is keeping– the House and or
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: the Senate, that if we lose both the House and
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: the Senate, the ability for Republicans to overturn the election
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: becomes far easier. How do we as a country deal
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: with the fact that one of our two major political
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: parties that wins roughly half the elections no longer believes
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: in basic democratic norms and precepts? It's one of the
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: greatest threats we've ever faced. We have to win elections.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: We have to make it easier to vote. We have
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: to do everything we can. And we have to assume,
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: by the way, that they will use all these institutions
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: as cudgels. They will stack the courts and they will
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: use the courts against us. They will fill Secretary of
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: State roles, and then those people will become Trumpy and
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: refuse to certify election results they don't like. We have
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: to be honest, I think, about the threat, first and foremost.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the good thing about the Freedom to Vote Act
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: is it prevents the firing of election officials for political reasons.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: The disappointing part about it is there isn't much that
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: would prevent election subversion, which is clearly the greatest issue
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: or the thing happening at the state level in these
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: gerrymandered state legislatures. I'm not sure why that didn't land.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: Well, because the election subversion proposal is what you just said.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: It's it makes it harder to fire the election officials.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: But then it was taking the authority away.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: There's nothing to.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, ideally, because there's nothing there's nothing federal to
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: do about it, like state by state, because states have
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: so much power over elections and have since the beginning
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: of time.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Like what?
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Basically, every state would have to say, OK, when it
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: comes to elections, no partisans, no Democrats, no Republicans involved
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: in the running of elections, in the certification of elections.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: It has to be all nonpartisan from the top to
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: the bottom so that governors shouldn't have the ability to
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: certify an election, right? Like secretaries of state shouldn't be partisan, right?
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: Like you'd have to, it'd be pretty fundamental reforms, but
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: you're right. Like there's nothing, no proposals to fix that
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: in a lot of these states, which is quite scary.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: And, but also by the way, you look at like
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: what the conservative, like intellectual, like legal minds have been
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: cooking up and they can use laws that have nothing
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: to do with subverting an election to create a new
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: precept or a new principle around state legislators should be
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: able to overrule the courts and whatever electors they want,
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: the rules governing that six step plan for Mike Pence
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: to overturn the election. Fundamentally, we have to defeat these people.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: There is a fascist movement inside the Republican Party. The
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: laws don't matter. The rules don't matter to these people.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: So we can craft all kinds of restrictions. They will
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: blow right through them. They have to beat them.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: And look, Ruby Kramer had a story in Politico today
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: that when the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee called out Republican
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: state legislative candidates who took part in the January 6th insurrection,
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: it raised their profiles and helped them raise money. I realized, like,
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: you could take from that, like, well, don't elevate them.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: I totally disagree.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Like we've been talking about this for months or not,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: if not years about like Marjorie Taylor Greene and some
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: of these other people too. I mean, look, when they
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: say things that are crazy or outlandish or they make,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: you know, disgusting comparisons to the Holocaust or say things
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: that are racist, at some point you have to call
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: it out and talk about it. I know it's going
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: to raise money for them, but that doesn't mean they're
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: effective legislators.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: I totally agree.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: I also think part of this too is like, we're
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: going to, we're going to talk to this with Tara
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: McAuliffe about Virginia. Like we have to figure out how
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: to get based Democrats as enthusiastic about defending democracy as
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: Republican-based voters seem to be about overturning it.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: And the way we- Because they're not right now.
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: Because they are not.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: They are not.
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: And so a lot of, I think this, we talked
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: about this in the first segment, we talked about Biden
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: not doing enough to promote voting rights. I think a
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: lot of the activist frustration is fair to be pointed
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: at Biden, and often is also pointed at the media, fine.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: But when you go beneath that, the real problem is actually,
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: we need to get the American people, vast numbers of
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: Americans to care about this more.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: The- The power of negative partisanship and polarization as well
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: as like the clear and present danger of these maniacs
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: taking power means that that's how you should run your campaign,
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: making sure voters know about their extremism. It's got to
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: be a centerpiece.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, again, it just brings you back to the
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: power of Fox News and conservative media.
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Because fights over what's being taught in schools or what
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: textbooks are acceptable, et cetera, et cetera, like that's as
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: old as time. but Fox news with that goofball, uh,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Christopher Rufo, I think is his name manufactured a new
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: term for it, critical race theory. And now it is
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: all that Republicans are talking about. They are very good
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: at creating like a demand, a thing to antagonize their
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: base and get them worked up. And then you got
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: the Steve Bannon's of the world who are telling his listeners, okay,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: now you need to go to school board meetings or
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: run for school board or show up at these meetings.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: And that's how they're affecting change. I, yeah. And I,
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: I totally agree that the conservative media is a huge
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: part of that. And that's, that's why they can do
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: this so well. Um, But there is this debate on
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: the Democratic side. We've had it before that it's like
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: if we deliver results and talk about the results we've delivered,
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: that's going to be enough. And I think when you're,
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: you know, talk to Gavin Newsom about his recall effort
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: and what he had to do at the end to
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: make sure he won. He talked about his opponent and
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: what could happen. You guys will talk to Terry McAuliffe
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: about this. He's talking a lot about Glenn Youngkin. He's
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: not talking about all the things he delivered for Virginia.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: Like at the end of the day, this is a
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: more effective campaign strategy to talk about the threat we
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: face than to only talk about the goods that you've delivered.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: That's the thing on like critical race theory specifically. I
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: think there's like, we end up in this sort of
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: kind of cul-de-sac where we're like, it's actually not critical
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: race theory is actually a legal scholarship thing at the
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: highest level in a reality. What we're just talking about,
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: Republicans do not want our kids to learn history in school.
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: They are afraid of American history. We need to like
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: make our own version of what is actually a far
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: more accurate way to describe what is happening and drive
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: it home without speaking to the terms that they constantly use.
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah. All right.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: When we come back, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe talks
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: to John and Tommy about the final weeks of his
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: race against Republican Glenn Trumpkin.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Is that something?
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Is that something?
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: We already knew it was.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Ask him about that. Ask him about it.
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: We are just over two weeks away from the Virginia
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: gubernatorial election. Here to talk about it is the Democratic
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: candidate himself, former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. Welcome to the pod.
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: Great to be with the pod, man. It's exciting.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: First question. Seems like Yunkin sucks. Why is this so close?
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: Virginia, off year, always close. Republicans always get about 45%
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: of the vote. The guy ran against Mark Warner got 45.
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: Cuccinelli got 45. Gillespie got 45. You know, presidential turnout,
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: huge turnout. We're off, off. No federal candidates. So it
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: always drops dramatically. And you got to remember, in 44
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: straight years in Virginia, the party that wins the White House,
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: the other party wins the governor's mansion. I'm the only
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: guy to break it. I won in 13. Of course,
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: President Obama won in 12. So We got to get
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: what we call those federal voters out in a non-federal year.
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: But we're going to do it. This guy's a Trump wannabe,
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: been endorsed by Trump six times, says so much of
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: the reason why I'm running is because of Donald Trump.
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: He'll ban abortions. He's very public on that. He wants
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: to get rid of gay marriage. I mean, this guy's
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: out there.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: So, Governor, so there's a Republican rally in Virginia recently
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: where the people there were asked to pledge allegiance to
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: a flag that was carried during the January 6th terrorist
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: attack on our Capitol. I know we talk about Youngkin's
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: connection to Trump or how conservative it is, but what
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: does that say to you about the kind of campaign
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: he's trying to run, especially given that he reportedly thanked
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the organizers of the rally profusely for being there?
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: And he did. And this was his rally for the ticket.
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: And Trump called in and said, Glenn Youngkin will do, quote,
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: whatever we want him to do. But the most pathetic
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: thing for me and sickening was that they actually brought
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: a flag up that was used on January 6th. The
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: symbol of our democracy, the American flag, that flag was
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: used to destroy the very democracy that it's supposed to symbolize.
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: And I got to tell you, it was sickening. And
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: they all stood and did the Pledge of Allegiance to
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: this flag. And this was a Glenn Youngkin rally. And
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: when asked about it, he didn't say anything. And then
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: we pushed him and he came out and said it
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: was weird. And let me tell you, if this were
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: a McAuliffe surrogate rally. and someone had done that, I
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: wouldn't say it was weird. I'd be a lot more forced.
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: I mean, people have fought and died. I mean, I'm
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: the son of an army captain, the father of a
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: marine captain. This is sickening. People have fought and died
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: for the right to vote. And then the idea that
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: Trump calls in, and then Youngkin profusely thanks the organizer
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: for being a great event. It wasn't a great event.
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: It was an embarrassment to this country.
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: It does seem like Youngkin's trying to have it both ways.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: So in ads and in speeches, he's trying to seem
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: like a norm core business dad. And then he needs
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: to whip up the Trump base or at least not
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: piss them off. He's doing election lies. He's doing critical
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: race theory. He's encouraging people not to get vaccinated. And
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: as you said, talking about restricting a right to choose,
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: how do you think about beating an opponent like that?
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: How do you get less engaged Democrats to understand the
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: stakes when so much of their messaging is trying to
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: get them to see him as acceptable?
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's it. So he got tossed out of
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: his firm, Carlyle Group. And he walked out with like
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: 500 million bucks. He spent 16 million winning, getting 7,000
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: votes in his little drive-through primary thing they had. And
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: he's trying to run these TV ads, pretending he's something
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: he's not. But we've released tapes of him saying he'll
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: ban abortions, but we're not going to tell voters because
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: if they find out, the independents won't vote for me.
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: We've got him on tape saying, you know, the most
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: important issue facing Virginia is election integrity. We've got him
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: on tape saying that Donald Trump represents so much of
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: why I am running. So we got him with all
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: of his crazy statements. You know, he has no experience
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: in politics in Virginia, doesn't know anything about it. The
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: Speaker of the House, she went up to him the
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: other day. He had no idea who she was. First
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: woman in 402 years. He's just clueless. You know, he
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: got tossed out. He had a lot of money. But,
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: you know, running for governor is not a consolation prize
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: from getting fired from your private equity company. But he's dangerous.
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: And so we're running ads. We're up. Massive digital programs
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: going on. We did knock on over 100,000 doors this weekend.
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: People talk about it. People are excited. I just announced
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: I've raised $ 45 million with 100,000 donors, seven times what
• 37:51
  Speaker 4: he was able to do. No governor's race has been able.
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: I've raised $ 2 million just online. I'm talking average contribution
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: of like 15 bucks just since Wednesday night. So people
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: are paying attention. We've got people hitting the doors. We've
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: knocked on over a million doors so far. But it's
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: always going to be tight. This is Virginia. We've got
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: to get those federal voters out. But once they hear that,
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: you know, he's anti-gay marriage, he is anti-choice. And I
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: got to tell you, when I became governor, I inherited
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: a horrible economy from the Republicans, a $ 2. 5 billion deficit.
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: I got to work. I recruited 1,100 companies, left a
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: huge surplus, created 200,000 new jobs. Personal income went up 14%.
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: Unemployment dropped in every city and county. That's what you
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: get with Democrats. But Glenn Youngkin, you know, I wrote
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: the bid for Amazon. It was the biggest deal in
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: 50 years. We won it here in Virginia. Amazon, Google,
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: Facebook all came to Virginia. I negotiated these deals. They're
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: not coming to a state that discriminates against women, gays,
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: or anyone. Glenn Youngkin will destroy our economy. He'll destroy
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: our education system. 43,000 teachers will be cut. And Washington
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: Post has endorsed me a number of times They've gone
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: so far as to say, if Glenn Youngkin is elected governor,
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: it will be a grave mistake for Virginia. You guys
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: know they don't normally do that in editorial pages.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: No, they do not. So even in this answer, you
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: talked a lot about what your record, what you would
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: do for the state of Virginia. We also talked a
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: lot about Youngkin's record and what he might mean for
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: the state if he's elected. You're on the trail every day.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: You're talking to voters. Which part of that message resonates more?
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Is it the positive message about what you can do
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: with four more years, or is it the damage that
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: Youngkin and his allies are trying to do or could do?
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Because I think Democrats across the country are trying to
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: figure out what exactly to run on. Is it the
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: Biden agenda? Is it the return of Trump? What are
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: you finding?
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: You know, listen, people are very happy when I was governor.
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: In fact, several dozen Republicans just endorsed me, including Bill Kristol.
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: They don't want Trump off the mat. They don't want
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: him to use this as a kickoff for 2024. So
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: I think it's both. Everybody was happy when I was governor.
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: I got recruited to come back, the leadership of the
• 39:55
  Speaker 4: Black Caucus, the House and Senate. Everybody said, you know, Terry,
• 39:58
  Speaker 4: you saved our economy before. And as you guys know,
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: I restored more voting rights than any governor in American history. 206,000.
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: I got sued, taken to the Supreme Court, sued for
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: contempt of court. I won. I used executive authority. I
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: banned the Confederate flag from Virginia license plates. I kept
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: the 16 women's clinics open. I'm the first governor to
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: perform a gay marriage after the ruin. I just wanted
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: my state to be an open and welcoming state and
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: treat everybody with dignity and respect. So they're happy, but
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: also they need to be scared because they need to
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: know that he will ban abortions. He's against gay marriage.
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: Election integrity, he said, is the number one issue. But
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: we've got everybody coming in. I just had Dr. Biden
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: here on Friday. I had Stacey Abrams. I had the
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: mayor of Atlanta. I got President Obama coming in on Saturday.
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: I got the president of the United States coming in
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: after that. We got everybody on the playing field. And
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: for all your listeners, if you could text me, text
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: Terry to 50550, get in the game. We can't let
• 40:55
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump off the mat. He wants to use this.
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: He's endorsed him six times. He wants to use this
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: to begin his comeback for 2024. I've beaten him twice here.
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: I've been overseeing both presidential. I've beaten Trump twice. I'm
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: going to beat him again. I'm going to be Terry
• 41:09
  Speaker 4: McCall three, Donald Trump zero.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: If they text you, will you personally text back? Because
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: you haven't written back to me the last couple of
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: times and we're trying to get together and you ghosted me. Okay,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: thank you.
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: Do it after midnight when I get home.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, deal.
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: So you talked.
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: About- Do it after midnight. I'd love to do it. Okay.
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: He's a late night texter. He's a you up kind
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: of guy.
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: Sleep when you're dead, man. I don't believe it. I
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: think sleep's a total waste of time.
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: So I'm glad that a lot of you have people
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: coming in to campaign for you. You've also talked a
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: little bit about being pretty annoyed with national Democrats around
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: some of this legislative wrangling. How is that playing out
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: for you in this race on the infrastructure bill, the
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: reconciliation bill?
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: See, I come in from places as a governor and
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: You know, we don't have filibusters and all this kind
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: of stuff they got up in Washington. You know, we
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: got to produce every day. You know, I got to
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: run a budget. I got to balance my budget. I
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: got to build roads, clean them. I run education. I
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: run health care. And, you know, sometimes you get tired
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: of all the squawking going on without some action. I
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: want this infrastructure bill passed. It's $ 7 billion of roads here.
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: It passed the Senate with 69 votes. So I'm hopeful
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: they can get both of them done. I also want
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: child care. I want family medical leave. I want elderly care.
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: So let's just get it done. And I like, you know,
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: how I would do business. I'd get everybody in a room,
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: Democrats and Republicans or whatever. When I was governor and
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: the governor's and I closed the door, I locked the
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: door and we ain't leaving until we get resolution.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Like a squid game.
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: That's how I did that. That's what governors generally have
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: to do to get things done. And I got 74
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: percent of my bills passed with a Republican legislature.
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: Do you think Biden should be doing that more with like,
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: you know, your Joe's mansion, your Kyrsten Sinema's, your game squid?
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: I hope that that's what they're doing today and getting
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: everybody in that room and saying, OK, what do you need?
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: What do you need? You know, just we don't need
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: all the press conferences and everybody's negotiating in the press.
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: You just can't do business that way. Get in a
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: room and let's get this thing done. And I know
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: Speaker Pelosi and she is working this very hard to
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: get everybody at the table and get to a place.
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: And what I do, you know, listen, I'm very happy.
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: President Biden got us in Virginia, fourteen point three billion dollars.
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: through the American Rescue Plan, 300 billion I got for education. So,
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: you know, we're close, but, you know, people want to
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: see us deliver and I want to see us deliver.
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: This is a historic moment for our country. COVID has
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: been so tough. They want to see leadership. They want
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: to see action. They want to see people get things done.
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: You mentioned this earlier, but Glenn Youngkin was caught on
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: tape saying that he has to limit his anti-abortion rhetoric
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: in public because he wants to appeal to independent voters.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: But that if he's elected, he will go on offense
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: against abortion rights if he wins office. What do you
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: think that means? What does it mean to go on
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: offense against abortion rights if Youngkin is elected?
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, good question. So he will ban abortions. He has
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: said he will do that. And here's the issue. That's
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: why every person in Virginia needs to pay attention to
• 44:02
  Speaker 4: this election for, you know, for 50 years. We felt
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: that the Supreme Court would protect Roe v. Wade. So
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: it was always a backstop. We talked about abortion rights
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: and women's reproductive rights, but we always knew the court
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: would protect it. That's over. It's gone. With the new
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: Trump Supreme Court, abortions are now gone in Texas. It's over.
• 44:21
  Speaker 4: Women doesn't know they're pregnant within six weeks. You can
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: now sue doctors and Uber drivers. That's the law in
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: Texas today. And they're going to have the Mississippi case
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: coming up when they're going to go after viability. And
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: I'm just telling you, a governor... And a legislature, and
• 44:36
  Speaker 4: especially in these southern states, they are going to abolish abortion.
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: Glenn Youngkin will abolish abortion in Virginia. It will put
• 44:44
  Speaker 4: women's lives at risk. So they're either forced to get
• 44:48
  Speaker 4: in a legal, dangerous abortion, or they leave the state.
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: And doctors could be put in jail. And as I'm saying,
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: there's no businesses will come. This is no longer a
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: scare tactic. People usually say, oh, you know, women's reproductive
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: rights will go away. But we always felt the court
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: was closed, but the court would protect it. That's over.
• 45:07
  Speaker 4: This is Trump's court, 6-3. It's over. Abortion is over.
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: So the only protection we have is a governor who
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: will veto bad legislative bills that want to outlaw abortion.
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: I was a brick wall. When I took office, Virginia
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: had the most anti-women, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-environment, pro-gun legislation in America.
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: I stopped all their nonsense. I had a record 120 vetoes.
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: I never lost one. I only had 34 Democrats in
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: my house out of 100. That means I did not
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: lose one Democrat for four years. All of their insane
• 45:42
  Speaker 4: defund Planned Parenthood and you could carry shotguns in your
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: back of your truck. I got rid of all that nonsense.
• 45:48
  Speaker 4: It made our state open and welcoming. Fired the Board
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: of Health and kept all 16 women's clinics open. I
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: was a brick wall to protect women's rights. I'm tired
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: of men telling women what they ought to be doing
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: with their bodies.
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: So- I think you're getting at some of the kind
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: of extremism that people are sort of a little bit
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: complacent about. Another place where you see this is on
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: voting rights. We just had this big conversation about getting
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: people to wake up to the threat nationally in voting rights.
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: I'm just curious, just you as a kind of message
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: guy and on the campaign trail, when you talk to
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: people about the threat to voting, what is working for you?
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: What is making sense? What is getting people to click
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: on how important and serious it is?
• 46:27
  Speaker 4: Great question. So here we are. In Virginia, where 42
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: states are now rolling back voting rights, as you know,
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: making it difficult for more people to vote. We are
• 46:37
  Speaker 4: one of the few states that actually expanded voting rights
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: this year. We have early vote here in Virginia, 45 days,
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: no excuse absentee bound. And yesterday was historic in Virginia.
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: First time in Virginia history you could vote on a Sunday. Now,
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: what I tell voters all the time, you got to
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: get that early vote in because people say if they
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: don't take advantage of it, we will take that away
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: from people. When I hear what's going on, this is
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: voter disenfranchisement. They are trying to make it more difficult
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: for Democratic voters to actually vote. I had Stacey Abrams
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: here with me yesterday. Don't forget the governor of Georgia
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: disenfranchised 1.2 million voters in Georgia before Stacey's gubernatorial election.
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: If people vote, we win. And a good message is sent.
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: And that's what we have to do here. It is
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: absolutely critical that we do it. I mean, John, voting
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: rights is the fundamental bedrock of our country. And they
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: can't win if people vote. So that's why they're trying
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: to roll back, make it more difficult for folks. And
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: this is Glenn Youngkin's whole message. I mean, he said
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: the other day, let's audit the Virginia voting machines. That's
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: what Glenn Youngkin said.
• 47:46
  Speaker 5: Really?
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: Guess what Trump said the day before? Remember at his rally?
• 47:49
  Speaker 4: We're going to audit voting machines. What I hate about
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: this is it runs down our country around the world.
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: It makes us look like a kangaroo court. Oh, they
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: don't even know how to have elections. They are doing
• 48:00
  Speaker 4: such damage to the prestige of the United States. We're
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: supposed to be the symbol of democracy. Donald Trump, Glenn Young,
• 48:06
  Speaker 4: and the people like him are making our country look disgraceful.
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: And I hate it.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we hate it too. A bit of an aside here.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: In a previous life, you were known as one of
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: the best fundraisers in the entire Democratic Party.
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: Thank you, Tommy.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: Does it ever piss you off when you see the
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: kids these days, just like clicking a fucking link and
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: getting money on the internet? I mean, come on. Like
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: that seems too, is that too easy?
• 48:26
  Speaker 4: It used to be harder.
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: It used to be a typewriter involved.
• 48:28
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, I, you know, I traveled, I, you know,
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: I did this all as a volunteer, you know, I've
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: always helped and, you know, I never got paid for it.
• 48:35
  Speaker 4: I was always out doing helping candidates. I believed in,
• 48:38
  Speaker 4: but you know, on the one hand, Tommy, I enjoy
• 48:41
  Speaker 4: going out, meeting people, having fun and, you know, convincing
• 48:44
  Speaker 4: them to write a check. I actually enjoy that. Now,
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: as a candidate for governor, we have raised close to
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: $ 10 million online this year. That is historic for governors.
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: So as a candidate, you're right. It's pretty good. It
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: really does matter. I mean, it's important because remember, I'm
• 49:03
  Speaker 4: running against a private equity guy who said he was
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: going to spend $ 75 million of his own money. And
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: what did he do? He was a CEO of a company.
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: They would go in and buy nursing homes, cut staff,
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: put elderly lives in jeopardy. They bought dental clinics and
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: performed a hundred medically unnecessary root canals on babies. Some
• 49:21
  Speaker 4: of them without anesthesia. And he made the company billions. Yeah,
• 49:26
  Speaker 4: that's wrong. So that's why people are helping me. I
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: think in such a degree, it's disgraceful what went on.
• 49:32
  Speaker 4: And he shipped thousands and thousands of jobs overseas.
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: So you talked about, uh, uh, meeting people now, uh,
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: I think in order to woo some people from the
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: beer industry to create jobs in Virginia, you put in
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: a keg in the Virginia governor's mansion. Then you offered
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: beers to people at rallies. Then a couple people actually
• 49:52
  Speaker 3: showed up at the gates to the governor's mansion. But
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: you were at the gym at the time and they
• 49:58
  Speaker 3: did not have an appointment, but you still made time
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: for them to come in and have some beers with you.
• 50:03
  Speaker 3: I feel like that sets a really, really terrible precedent.
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: of random people showing up all the time seeking beers
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: with you. It's not sustainable. And I want you to
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: respond to that.
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: It is sustainable. I disagree because I can, you know,
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: I'm Irish, man. I can handle all this. So I did.
• 50:19
  Speaker 4: I was the first governor, put a kegerator in the mansion.
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: And every night I would have a different craft brewery.
• 50:24
  Speaker 4: I think when I was governor, I opened like 160
• 50:27
  Speaker 4: craft breweries. I love the craft brew business. Number one,
• 50:30
  Speaker 4: great for tourism, great for employment. They locally source all
• 50:34
  Speaker 4: their ag products. And it's good beer.
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: Let me get you on the record here. Let me
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: get you on the record. I want to get you
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: on the record here. IPAs suck.
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
• 50:42
  Speaker 4: They suck.
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: They are bitter and they are terrible. IPAs are terrible.
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: Don't you say that about my beer business.
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: I like, look, I like a Pilsner.
• 50:50
  Speaker 4: What are you sitting around with a little Chardonnay?
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: I like a Rosé. I like a sparkling Rosé. It's
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: the Diet Coke of beers.
• 50:57
  Speaker 4: You look like a Rosé type. I think that's great.
• 50:59
  Speaker 4: I love it all. I love Rosé. I love red wine, vodka.
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: I am a Rosé type.
• 51:04
  Speaker 4: But, Literally, the first governor put a kegerator in the mansion,
• 51:07
  Speaker 4: which I was great. But, you know, we're outselling. But
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: I did. I was down at Browns Island at a
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: huge concert. You know, I gave the opening remark. And
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: I said, I'll come by and have a beer. Everybody laughed, blah, blah, blah. Well,
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: sure enough, I was at the gym, which was next
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: door to the governor's mansion. And I was coming back.
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: It was nine o'clock in the morning. And there were
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: five people in the gate said, we're picking up. And
• 51:26
  Speaker 4: the police officer who guards the mansion said, you know,
• 51:29
  Speaker 4: move away. I said, no, no. Listen, deal's a deal.
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: So I brought him in. And at 9 o'clock in
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: the morning, they each had a beer out of my kegerator.
• 51:36
  Speaker 4: It took about 20 minutes, and I was happy to
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: do it.
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: The only thing I didn't like is they secretly recorded
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: the whole thing, which I thought was, you know, here
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: you are. I'm inviting you into the house.
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: That's not cool.
• 51:47
  Speaker 4: It didn't matter, but whatever. But, you know, I'm a
• 51:50
  Speaker 4: cool guy. I mean, it's okay.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: That's lame. Yeah, don't record it.
• 51:53
  Speaker 4: Last question. The guy invites you into their house and
• 51:55
  Speaker 4: gives you a beer at 9 o'clock in the morning.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a friend.
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: They immediately posted this when he walked out. I didn't care, but,
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: you know, come on.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: Come on. Come on. Uh, last question, I think. So, uh,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: last week, last week, a couple hours.
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: We're going to do a couple hours. We're here as
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: long as you want to be here. Uh, last week, uh,
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: John Gruden, the head of the coach, the Las Vegas
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: Raiders resigned after emails he sent in 2011 came out
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: where he had been emailing with Bruce Allen, uh, the
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: GM of the Washington Redskins at the time. Now the
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: Washington football team that used, you know, racist words, uh,
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: anti LGBT words, et cetera, et cetera. Um, Is it
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: time for Dan Snyder to leave that organization, turn over
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: the reins of someone else, and give people in Virginia
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: and the Washington, D.C. area a football team that's not
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: racked with scandals every other year? Is it time for
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: Snyder to go?
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: I think it's time for the Washington football team to
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: start winning. We just lost to Kansas City the other day,
• 52:55
  Speaker 4: as you know. I don't tell who owns or not.
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: That's up to the NFL. But I want teams that win.
• 53:01
  Speaker 4: And I think that's important for us. We're what? Two
• 53:03
  Speaker 4: and four now. So, you know, I was governor. I
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: want you know what I wanted. I want to have
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: one of those big old Super Bowl rings. That's what
• 53:12
  Speaker 4: I wanted as the governor of Virginia. Now, 60 percent
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: of the people who go to the Washington football are
• 53:18
  Speaker 4: Virginia residents. Right. Every player lives in Virginia because we're
• 53:21
  Speaker 4: low tax.
• 53:22
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 53:23
  Speaker 4: You know, and all the merchandise. So, you know, we
• 53:26
  Speaker 4: have an affinity. But, you know, I'm going to be
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: governor again. Let me make it clear. I don't care
• 53:29
  Speaker 4: how they do it. I want a Super Bowl ring.
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: Do you guarantee it?
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: Will you guarantee a Super Bowl win if you win
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: the governor's mansion?
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I guarantee I'm going to get that Super Bowl ring.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: One way or the other. There we go.
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: I would always go.
• 53:41
  Speaker 4: To preseason camp. I'd throw the ball around. I'd receive.
• 53:44
  Speaker 4: I mean, listen, I was a great inspiration.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: You're going to Vladimir Putin and you're going to steal
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: it like you did to Bob Kraft.
• 53:50
  Speaker 4: He did. He took Bob Kraft's ring and never gave
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: it back.
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: That sucks, by the way. And the Bush administration was like,
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: don't say anything. Don't say anything. Like, that sucks.
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: I would have gotten a wrestling match with him right
• 54:00
  Speaker 4: at that, right there. I know he has the wrestling
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: bearings and stuff. I mean, I would have gotten my
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: ring back.
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: No one's taking a ring off your finger. By the way,
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: this is how you win it. This is how you
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: win in an off year. A chicken in every pot,
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: and I'm going to give you a Super Bowl ring.
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: I see how you do it. I see why you're
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: a good politician. Governor McAuliffe, thank you so much. All right,
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: thank you, guys.
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: Remember, text Terry, T-R-Y, 50550. Get in the game.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: Get in the game.
• 54:23
  Speaker 4: Trump down, McAuliffe three, Trump zero. Yunkin gone.
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: Yunkin gone.
• 54:29
  Speaker 4: Thanks, Governor. All right, thanks, everybody.
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: Crooked's own chief take officer, Elijah Cohn, is back for
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: another round of Pod Save America's new hit game, Take Appreciators.
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: Take it away, Elijah.
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: Hi, guys.
• 54:49
  Speaker 5: Welcome back to the Take Appreciators. I'm going to share
• 54:56
  Speaker 5: some notably bad punditry with you. The producers have seen
• 54:59
  Speaker 5: these takes. John, John, and Tommy have not.
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: We haven't.
• 55:02
  Speaker 5: We'll get their reactions in real time. and rate them
• 55:04
  Speaker 5: on a scale of one to four politicos. Bear with
• 55:07
  Speaker 5: us as we continue to work out the kinks of
• 55:08
  Speaker 5: this segment in real time. John, John, and Tommy, are
• 55:11
  Speaker 5: you ready?
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: Ready. Yes.
• 55:14
  Speaker 5: All right. This first one is thematic for today from
• 55:16
  Speaker 5: the Washington Post, titled, How Glenn Youngkin Could Become the
• 55:20
  Speaker 5: Education Governor We Need.
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: We need.
• 55:25
  Speaker 4: Go ahead.
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: Give us the take.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: Give us the take.
• 55:28
  Speaker 4: Here's a quote.
• 55:29
  Speaker 5: If Glenn Youngkin wins, it will be because he convinced
• 55:32
  Speaker 5: parents that he would tackle the malaise that affects so
• 55:34
  Speaker 5: many public schools. His appointments in that area will be
• 55:37
  Speaker 5: his most important. His legislative priorities, his most urgent. And
• 55:41
  Speaker 5: if he succeeds more than Virginia will be winners.
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: We first have to play the game of who wrote
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: this take. This was sort of a.
• 55:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: So like, can we. Is it a writer for the post?
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: This isn't like an op ed, right?
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: Is it a guest writer? But is it a guest
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: writer or is it a regular contributor?
• 56:03
  Speaker 5: I'm not sure, but he is deeply triggering to you guys.
• 56:06
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: Mark Thiessen.
• 56:10
  Speaker 4: No.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: One of these days it's going to be Mark Thiessen.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: If it's not about supporting the torture or some sort
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: of war crime, it's probably not Mark.
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: Here's what I'll say about that take. I think there
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: is a malaise. in America's schools. And fundamentally it is
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: that we are learning too much about what happened in
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: America between the declaration of independence and Elvis. Uh, and
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: we basically, if we want to get rid of the malaise,
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: we should just skip right from, we hold these truths
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: to be self-evident all the way to like hippies in
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: the sixties and maybe NAFTA. And if we can skip
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: all the other stuff that happened in the middle, I
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: think kids would be a lot happier. Parents would be
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: a lot happier. Teachers would be a lot happier. And
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: you know what?
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: Be good. I'm giving Levitt's take three politicos. Yeah, Jesus.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: Absolute junk.
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: Oh, man. Well, first tell us who it is. Tell
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: us who it is. This helps with the rating.
• 57:00
  Speaker 5: Hugh Hewitt. Jesus Christ.
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: That fucking guy.
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: I didn't even.
• 57:06
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: That might have increased. See, that might have increased my rating.
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: I think I'm. I think. I think I'm going to
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: have to give three. I think it's a three.
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: I'm between two and a half and three. Do we
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: get 2.5s in this?
• 57:20
  Speaker 5: Sure.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: Two and a half.
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you get half a Politico.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: Congrats. Axel Springer will be sending you a contract you
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: have to sign about what you are allowed or not
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: allowed to say. Yeah.
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: I will say that McAuliffe's campaign, there was some story
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: about this, McAuliffe's campaign said that in all their internals,
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: even when the race is really close, they're just not
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: finding swing voters anymore. who actually, and undecided voters who
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: actually care about this issue. This has become like a
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: media fascination more than anything else. Yeah.
• 57:47
  Speaker 5: Boatsaveamerica.com slash Virginia guys. All right. That was just the warmup.
• 57:52
  Speaker 5: This next one is an absolute banger. It's a piece
• 57:57
  Speaker 5: from the Washington Examiner titled Armed Insurrection, colon. What weapons
• 58:02
  Speaker 5: did the Capitol rioters carry?
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: Oh my God.
• 58:06
  Speaker 5: Here's some highlights from a tweet thread by the author.
• 58:09
  Speaker 5: He points out that only 12% of people charged that
• 58:12
  Speaker 5: day had weapons charges. And here's a quote. The problem
• 58:16
  Speaker 5: with the armed insurrection talking point. By any standard of
• 58:20
  Speaker 5: civil disorder, January 6th was a riot. But look at
• 58:23
  Speaker 5: the DOJ prosecutions. It does not make the case that
• 58:25
  Speaker 5: January 6th was a, quote, armed insurrection.
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: Gotcha.
• 58:30
  Speaker 4: Your thoughts.
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: I have to say, like, I do not appreciate this
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: take because saying that admitting that 12% of the people
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: were armed and then saying it's not an armed destruction
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: isn't even a that's not even a you didn't even
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: make an effort there.
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: I would just point out that several of the murder
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: weapons in the game Clue included candlestick. Rope. Lead pipe.
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: So, right, this sort of dovetails with, I think it
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: might have been a Rich Lowry tweet over the weekend
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: where he was chastising people for suggesting that the gallows
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: that were built outside the January 6th insurrection were workable.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: And his beef was that they weren't.
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: This couldn't have supported Mike Pence's weight.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's exactly what he was saying.
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: Oh my God.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: Is it Rich Lowry or is he right for this?
• 59:13
  Speaker 5: It's Byron York.
• 59:15
  Speaker 4: Oh, same thing.
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: Are they different? Byron York and Rich Lowry?
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: Maybe I got it wrong. Maybe it was Byron York.
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: I think it's whatever. Like I said, it's the same person.
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he might have said the stupid thing
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: about the gallows.
• 59:27
  Speaker 5: Let me read this to you guys. Some of you
• 59:29
  Speaker 5: point to the gallows as evidence that the riot was
• 59:32
  Speaker 5: an armed insurrection. Call it a threat. Call it an
• 59:34
  Speaker 5: ugly symbol. Call it what you like. But it wasn't
• 59:36
  Speaker 5: real gallows.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: What?
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: Was it real gallows? Did he measure that? Did he
• 59:44
  Speaker 3: look at the cross beam? What are we talking about here?
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: I'm going to rate the armed... insurrection take as two
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: politicos if if you gave us the gallows one i
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: might have gone up a few politicos.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah i'm gonna go three politicos for the armed and
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: yeah the the gallows thing is a full playbook it's
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: it's four it's four.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: Plus i'll split the difference i'll say three and a
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 3: half three and a half politicos.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: A full playbook is gonna that's you just coined a
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: new thank you a new term yeah that's your it's
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: a full playbook.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 5: All right well speak of the devil on to the
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 5: next one From Playbook last week, titled, Can Pete Buttigieg.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 4: Have It All?
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: Oh, my God. I think I know what this one's about.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 5: Here's a quote. Pete Buttigieg is MIA. While U.S. ports
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 5: faced anchor-to-anchor traffic and Congress nearly melted down over the
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 5: president's infrastructure bill in recent weeks, the usually omnipresent transportation
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 5: secretary was lying low. Your thoughts?
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: So the context is that Pete just had a baby.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: So he's been on paternity leave.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 4: Twins. Yeah.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: Premature. So they were home-taking premature twins. Also, he and
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: Chasten are not rich. Chasten's a teacher. Pete's been in
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: politics for his whole life. He's a public servant. So
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: they're probably not, like, you know, dripping with nannies and things.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 3: It's not Downton Abbey. There's not somebody who walks the
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: little kids in after the end of the day and says,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 3: here's a picture of your kids drawing. You pat them
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: on the head and they go back to boarding school.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: Now, that said, I would like to see Pete in
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: one of those big machines where he's personally offloading containers
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: from ships and stuff.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: It's also like.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, wouldn't we all?
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 3: Secretary Pete has faced many kinds of criticism. I believe
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: I can't think of anything that is less likely to
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 3: stick or seem real than someone who claims that he's
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 3: not a hardworking.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 4: Elijah.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: So this is one of these controversies that I sort
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: of caught the back end of the controversy when it
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: was fully in the discourse, but I didn't know how
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: it started. Was that, was that playbook saying that, or
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: was that a Republican attacking him? Like what, who, who's,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: who actually was responsible for that garbage take?
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 5: That is playbook.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: Playbook wrote that take that he was missing an action,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: knowing what they knew.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 2: Wow. I thought it was some Republican that started this
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: that hit Pete Buttigieg. I didn't know that Playbook called
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: him missing in action.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 3: Look, paternity leave is fake. And men should not do
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 3: things with babies. That is for women and facts. That
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 3: is the fundamental point Tucker Carlson is making. That is
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 3: the point a lot of these Republicans like touching, caring
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 3: about your children, changing diapers, being kind of emotionally engaged
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: in the raising of your children. This is gay shit.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 3: That belongs on a rainbow flag.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: Steven Crowder, who's a right-wing, like, I don't know, YouTube
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: host or something, he said, quote, he tweeted, paternity leave
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: is for pussies.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 4: There.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 3: There you go. I didn't even know that.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: I also, like.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 3: I predicted that.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: Anat Shankar Osorio made this point this morning, and she
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: said that in Australia, they don't call it, like, family
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: leave or paternity leave or paternity leave. They call it, like, paid...
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: time to go care right because the tempest like the
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: idea that it's about leaving and leaving work instead of
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: emphasizing the fact that you take that time to care
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: for another human being and that is important work that
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: should be rewarded in society including your spouse potentially right
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: exactly like that is a i actually like that reframing
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: of it unbelievable that's four fucking politicos that is a
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: full playbook and which is fitting for this yeah wow
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: that kind of one sort of writes itself huh if
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: it's already in playbook Politico? I'm now disappointed I didn't
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: tweet angrily at Playbook about this.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 3: Oh, that would have helped.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: Again, just like the workroom thing. That moves it along.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 3: It moves it along.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: That moves the debate forward, stops the next person.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 3: Look, if you don't say that Colin Powell's dead body
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 3: is the body of a dead war criminal, the next
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 3: day you're going to turn on television, another Secretary of
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 3: State is holding up a little fit photo. That's it.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: That's what happens.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 5: All right. Steaming right along to the next one here.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 5: I want to give credit to producer Olivia Martinez for
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 5: this one. A piece from the Wall Street Journal titled, quote,
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 5: Dave Chappelle may have helped tame wokeness. Here's a quote
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 5: from the actual article. The special is a hit and
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 5: Dave Chappelle seemed comfortable because he knows he is talking
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 5: to regular people, not ideologues. If Netflix CEO Ted Sarando
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 5: stands firm, it will be progress. Free speech won and
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 5: the mob lost.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: Dan's firm.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: Did Jay Chappelle know he was talking to real people?
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: Was that the purpose of that?
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: I didn't notice a real or fake button when I
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: signed up for Netflix.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: I didn't have to check that box. I think I
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 2: remember this take. I think I remember someone tweeting about it.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to imagine who did this for the Wall
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: Street Journal.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 5: You were the author?
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 4: Peggy Noonan.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, of course. Of course.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 3: You know, it is. I remember when that Fox News
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 3: person announced his comedy show on Fox News by saying
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 3: he was finally going to tell the truth about Gutfeld,
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 3: about these woke liberal scolds. There is money in attacking
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 3: trans people and liberals and wokeness. It is a cottage industry.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 3: Barry Weiss just got the David Pearl Journalism Award for
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 3: bravely taking on Twitter. Dave Chappelle just spent 37 minutes
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 3: attacking trans people because they didn't like his jokes. He
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 3: is getting tens of millions of dollars for doing this.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 3: Joe Rogan and Dave Chappelle are about to do comedy
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 3: shows together where they continue doing this. There is money
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 3: in being anti-trans. It is not brave. It is mercenary.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 3: That has been clear from the beginning. And what makes
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 3: me fucking angry and nervous about all of this is that, like,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 3: it is absolutely true that there are millions of young
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 3: men who find... something very appealing about the kind of
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 3: masculinity defense being offered by like, by Joe Rogan and
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 3: Dave Chappelle right now. And it should be chilling to
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 3: all of us and we should figure out how to
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 3: grapple with it, but it's not an attack on wokeness.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 3: It's an appeal to fears on the parts of millions
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 3: of young men. And there's always been money in that
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 3: for Pinocchios or whatever it goes.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: I just do. I think that Peggy Noonan has been
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: able to trigger people even worse with even should I,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 2: I'm going to, I'm going to go with, I'm going
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 2: to go with three. I'll go with three.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 3: When is the last time Peggy Noonan from the Upper
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 3: East Side interacted with a real person? She has been
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 3: writing these fucking screeds.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 2: She goes from the Upper East Side to the Meet
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 2: the Press roundtable and she probably sees people along the way.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: A couple thoughts. One, I don't believe for a second
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: that Peggy Noonan watched the Dave.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: Chappelle special, so we should just stick with that.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: I did watch it. I would say my reaction was
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: it made me very sad because it was someone I
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: used to love and respect and enjoy as comedy. And
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: he just seemed like a bitter old man who can't
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: take criticism and decided to spend an hour of his
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: life lashing out at people on Twitter who decided to
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: criticize him. And to me, that is just kind of
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: a pathetic thing. And I think this is where all
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: the free speech, anti-woke warrior rhetoric kind of falls flat
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: on its face, which is to say that they want
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: to be able to say whatever they want to say,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: but you can't say anything back or else you're a
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: scold or you're annoying or you're this or you're that.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: And I think I find this infuriating, but we also
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: need to recognize that There is, like Lovett was saying,
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: like some power in this rhetoric, the sort of the
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: feeling of aggrievement, especially among young white men where they
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: feel like they've been suppressed in some way or can't
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: say what they want to say or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: It is a rallying cry. It's like it's the only
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: thing that the Don Juniors of the world talk about,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: et cetera, et cetera. And it's like a real sort of.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: unnerving strain of Republican politics.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there is a genuine challenge to masculinity happening right now.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 3: There is a real and genuine change happening. And I
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 3: think it is scary for a lot of people and
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 3: they don't know what comes after it. And people like
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 3: Dave Chappelle and Joe Rogan and Donald Trump Jr. and
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 3: Tucker Carlson and whatever that Crowder guy's name is, they
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 3: are all feeding off of that. And I think our
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 3: question has to be less about like, what do we
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 3: do about Dave Chappelle? And more, what do we do
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 3: about the audience laughing along?
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: Or also like, It would be great if Netflix came
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: out of this thinking like, okay, let's take an inventory
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: of how many transgender comedians that we've paid to release
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: a special or writers or actors. Think about balancing out
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: the ledger that way. Produce more content that is for
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: the people who want to hear those voices.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: I have been avoiding the whole controversy around it and
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: watching it. And then I started watching it Saturday night
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 2: and I was like stealing myself for the part, which
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: was most of it. And I have to say like
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: 30 seconds into when he started the jokes, I was
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: like cringing so badly. And I was like, Oh, this
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: is not, this is not funny. This is not like
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 2: I was, I turned it off. I was like, I'm good.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: It's just bad.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 3: Woo.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 5: Sorry, Peggy.
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 5: Well, this one, uh, bring it back to some more
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 5: typical punditry here. Maggie Haberman responding to Bernie Sanders, uh, Oh, yeah.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 5: There is criticism of the press feeling they covered Bill
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 5: by Biter. This one is sarcastic. She tweeted, it's always
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 5: the press's fault and never the fault of the people
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 5: communicating something. That's just 101. Your thoughts?
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to say that I like Maggie a lot.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: Maggie's been a friend of mine for a long time.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: I think she's a great reporter. I would like to
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: award her one New York Times reporter always circling the
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: wagons because that's the thing they always do. What drives
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: me a little bit crazy about criticism of journalists on
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: Twitter or other forums is it almost never comes with
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: a little bit of introspection, whereas criticism of people who
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: worked in government or government officials– introspection or self-doubt or
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: self-criticism is demanded. And rightly so.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 3: We should look back on our records.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: And the things we've done and critique ourselves and try
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: to improve and do better. That never happens in these
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: conversations about coverage, despite the failures in 16 and during
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: COVID and the anti-mask, like all the things that are
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: happening right now. And I would love to see a
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: little less defensiveness out of journalists in this area.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: Especially the New York Times political desk. They are great reporters,
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 2: but they are among the most offensive and thin-skinned.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: They deal with lots of criticism that would drive me crazy, too.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 2: And I will also say, it is not the New
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 2: York Times' job to sell the Build Back Better bill.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: She is correct about that. But the way that not
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: just the New York Times, but all the media reports
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: about politics and political fights has been broken. There are
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: systemic issues with it that we've talked about at Nazeem here.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 2: For a long, long time.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 3: The word, you know, it's not about the coverage and
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 3: it's not about selling the bill. The fundamental issue is
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 3: that all political coverage in mainstream outlets in this country
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 3: is predicated on the assumption that there is some other
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 3: coverage happening somewhere else that actually gets into the substance.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 3: That political coverage is really existing to evaluate whether the
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 3: real news that real people saw was effective or not.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 3: in helping people understand what's going on. But there is
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 3: no real news. There is no substantive coverage. It's political
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 3: coverage all the way down.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 2: I will say that the New York Times and the
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: Washington Post and even Politico has some very substantive policy reporting.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: It is overshadowed by some of the more garbage shit,
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: especially that Politico does. We freak out about Playbook all
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: the time, as we should, because it's terrible. But there's
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: a lot of good policy coverage in Politico.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 3: Yes, there is a lot of good policy coverage. That's
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 3: absolutely true. But the vast majority of news in this
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 3: country does not educate people as voters as to what
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 3: is inside of these legislation. It is coverage of the fight.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 3: It is coverage of the divide. It is coverage of
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 3: the conflict. And coverage of the conflict is important, but
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 3: it should be a part of the news, not 90, 95,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 3: 99 percent.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: This is the point I think Jon Stewart was trying
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: to make this weekend on CNN. He did an interview
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: with Brian Stelter, and he made some point about how
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: the lead of some I think maybe an Afghanistan story
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: was about like who it will benefit or not in
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: the midterms. And the problem with Stewart's point was I
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: think he got the publication wrong. He criticized Politico and
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: it might have been in roll call, et cetera. And,
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: you know, you should probably like, you know, cross the T's,
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: dot the I's if you're going to unleash that kind
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: of a critique. But I do think the fundamental point
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: stands like Lovett was saying, like sometimes the lead story.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: on a bill or a political item is about how
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: it will impact each party and not about what it
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: would do for people. And I think that's sort of
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: the fundamental failure. And it gets back to the roots
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: and the origins of Politico that we all criticize, which
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: is sort of like an ESPNification of political coverage, like
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: the gamesmanship, sort of like cynical observations of how these
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: policies will impact people's lives instead of putting that front
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: and center.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 3: If a policy is good and Democrats fail to sell it,
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 3: And the media fails to convey, despite the fact that
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 3: Democrats fail to sell it effectively, why it would be
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 3: better than the alternative. That is not just a failure
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 3: of Democrats. That is a failure of the media, too,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 3: because everything is not in the lens of political strategy.
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 3: The goal is actually to make the country a better place.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, we're all yelling at Joe Manchin today
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: about this climate legislation. But, you know, one Republican could
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: decide that climate change is an existential threat to the U.S.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: and the planet and support the bill.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: But it's sort of like it's priced in. That cynicism
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: is priced in. Yeah.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: And sadly, at this point, the cynicism about the press
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 2: communicating it clearly is also priced in. Because for every, like,
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 2: deeply reported piece on climate that the New York Times runs,
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 2: which they do, like, there are many, many more bad
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: tweets about the gamesmanship that, you know, that political reporters
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: will write and terrible cable segments and all the rest
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 2: of it. And that's, I think, what you're getting at.
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: I'll give Maggie's take two politicos.
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 3: You know what? After what we've been through today, one.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah that's fair that's fair i already rewarded it
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 2: uh yeah you had a new thing i like you know.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 5: A circle the wagons okay last one this one is
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 5: disparaging squid game from a north korean propaganda site quote.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: Squid there's gonna be spoilers here right.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 5: No okay no spoilers here it is uh on the
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 5: fundamental premise of the show great great great sure sure
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 5: Squid Game gained popularity because it exposes the reality of
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 5: South Korean capitalist culture, a world where only money matters,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 5: a hell-like horror. Guys, good take for North Korea?
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do something wild. I'm going to award
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: that a Vox. That's when a take is spot on,
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: 100% accurate. Good for you, Kim Jong-un.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: I think the original premise of Take Appreciators was to
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 2: have takes so bad that you appreciate how troll-y they are.
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: It's such a good troll from North Korea, so I
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 2: will give that four. I'll give that four politicos. I
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: appreciate it in the truest sense of Take Appreciator.
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 3: Shame on the two of you for celebrating this terrorist regime.
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 3: I won't participate in it.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 3: I award Elijah....
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: Four politicos? Four politicos.
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 5: All right, guys, thanks for playing Take Appreciators, the game
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 5: where we arguably all lose.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: No arguably there, buddy.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 2: Thank you to Elijah for giving us another round of
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 2: Take Appreciators, and thank you to Terry McAuliffe for joining
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 2: us today. We will talk to you later, and next week,
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 2: we'll see you Tuesday morning, first thing in your phones.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 2: Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: producer is Michael Martinez. Our producer is Haley Muse and
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 2: Olivia Martinez is our associate producer. It's mixed and edited
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 2: by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer. Thanks
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 2: to Tanya Somanator, Katie Long, Roman Papadimitriou, Brian Semmel, Caroline Reston,
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 2: Madison Holman, and Justine Howe for production support. And to
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, and Milo Kim,
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 2: who film and upload these episodes as videos at youtube.com
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 2: slash crooked media.