Latest / Pod Save America / Republicans Strap On for Biden Impeachment

Transcript

Republicans Strap On for Biden Impeachment · Pod Save America

0:20
Speaker 1: Welcome to Positive America. I'm Jon Favreau.
0:22
Speaker 2: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
0:23
Speaker 1: On today's show, Joe Biden takes on Donald Trump's magnomics.
0:26
Speaker 1: Republican senators make a book ban hearing not safe for work.
0:30
Speaker 1: And later, Congressman Jamie Raskin joins to break down the
0:33
Speaker 1: Democratic strategy around our first topic, Kevin McCarthy's announcement on
0:37
Speaker 1: Tuesday that House Republicans will be opening an impeachment inquiry
0:42
Speaker 1: into President Biden. Let's listen.
0:45
Speaker 3: Our job here is a serious job. Our job is
0:48
Speaker 3: to focus on the American public. Our job is to
0:51
Speaker 3: make tomorrow better than today. Our job is to legislate,
0:56
Speaker 3: not to continue to investigate something in the back when
0:59
Speaker 3: you cannot find any reason to impeach this president.
1:02
Speaker 1: Oh, sorry, Dan. That was a clip from September 2019
1:07
Speaker 1: of McCarthy talking about the first impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump.
1:12
Speaker 1: Here's what he said on Tuesday.
1:13
Speaker 3: That's why today I am directing our House committee to
1:18
Speaker 3: open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. This
1:23
Speaker 3: logical next step will give our committees the full power
1:27
Speaker 3: to gather all the facts and and answers for the
1:31
Speaker 3: American public. That's exactly what we want to know.
1:35
Speaker 4: The answers.
1:36
Speaker 1: Surely, for Kevin McCarthy of 2023 to disagree so strongly
1:40
Speaker 1: with Kevin McCarthy of 2019, there must be some kind
1:43
Speaker 1: of credible evidence that Joe Biden committed a high crime
1:45
Speaker 1: or misdemeanor, right, Dan?
1:47
Speaker 4: Oh, of course, obviously.
1:48
Speaker 2: Kevin McCarthy is a man of deep principle, and he
1:50
Speaker 2: wouldn't just flip-flop like that for no reason at all.
1:52
Speaker 2: We're just waiting for him to tell us what that
1:54
Speaker 2: piece of evidence is. He's hiding it closely.
1:56
Speaker 1: Which he was not able to at the press conference,
2:02
Speaker 1: and he hasn't been able to, and nor have any
2:05
Speaker 1: Republicans in either House of Congress. We've called this an
2:09
Speaker 1: impeachment about nothing, and it is, but before we get
2:11
Speaker 1: into the politics of it all, what's happening with the
2:14
Speaker 1: impeachment inquiry, how it works, can you give us the
2:16
Speaker 1: short version of what Republicans are alleging and investigating?
2:22
Speaker 2: I'm going to do it right now.
2:22
Speaker 4: You ready?
2:23
Speaker 3: Okay.
2:24
Speaker 1: You're going to say nothing. I mean, it is.
2:30
Speaker 2: The idea here is some insinuation, some allegation with no
2:37
Speaker 2: evidence that Joe Biden did one of two things. Either
2:41
Speaker 2: benefited financially from Hunter Biden's business dealings with foreign entities
2:48
Speaker 2: or took an action as vice president to aid one
2:52
Speaker 2: of those clients of Hunter Biden. No one, not even
2:57
Speaker 2: the sketchiest Republican witnesses, has alleged that. It's not even,
3:02
Speaker 2: like we say there's allegations, there's an allegation of that even.
3:05
Speaker 2: There is just the idea fabricated in the head of
3:08
Speaker 2: a bunch of pickled MAGA brain Congress people that that happened,
3:11
Speaker 2: but even their witnesses don't say that.
3:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, look, just, since we aim to give
3:18
Speaker 1: you all useful information here on Pod Save America- Someone
3:21
Speaker 1: actually comes up to you and asks you what they're alleging.
3:26
Speaker 1: There's basically a couple allegations that are all bullshit, but
3:30
Speaker 1: just to go through them. They think Joe Biden was... Well,
3:33
Speaker 1: one allegation is that Joe Biden was bribed by Burisma,
3:37
Speaker 1: where Hunter Biden served on the board. That is based
3:39
Speaker 1: on an anonymous tip that the FBI and Justice Department
3:43
Speaker 1: under Donald Trump already investigated. They found nothing. Dropped the case.
3:48
Speaker 1: Rudy Giuliani... during the last campaign, paid some henchmen to
3:51
Speaker 1: go dig up dirt on that same tip, found nothing.
3:55
Speaker 1: House Republicans found nothing. And even dipshit Senator Ron Johnson
4:00
Speaker 1: said it was probably just a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch that
4:04
Speaker 1: was making shit up. So that's the bribe. Then there
4:08
Speaker 1: was the allegation that we all heard back in the
4:11
Speaker 1: Trump impeachment trial when he tried to withhold military assistance
4:16
Speaker 1: in order to force Zelensky to dig up dirt on
4:19
Speaker 1: Joe Biden. God, that sounds like a long time ago now.
4:22
Speaker 1: And the allegation there is that when Joe Biden was
4:24
Speaker 1: vice president, he got a Ukrainian prosecutor fired to stop
4:27
Speaker 1: him from investigating Burisma. Only problem is it was the
4:31
Speaker 1: entire Obama administration, other countries, anti-corruption organizations all around the
4:36
Speaker 1: world who wanted the guy fired because he wasn't doing
4:40
Speaker 1: enough to investigate corruption, including he had refused to investigate Burisma.
4:46
Speaker 1: So that's that one. Republicans said that Hunter Biden's business
4:49
Speaker 1: partner was going to be their star witness, star witness.
4:53
Speaker 1: And he was going to link Joe Biden to Hunter
4:55
Speaker 1: Biden and the whole thing was going to unravel. So
4:58
Speaker 1: they bring him in and they have him testify. And
5:02
Speaker 1: it turns out that Devin Archer testifies that Hunter Biden
5:05
Speaker 1: never even discussed business or policy with his father. And
5:10
Speaker 1: when they then subpoenaed thousands of pages of financial documents
5:13
Speaker 1: and bank records, they found no evidence whatsoever that Joe
5:16
Speaker 1: had anything to do with Hunter's business. And then the
5:19
Speaker 1: last one is that they claim that somehow Biden interfered
5:22
Speaker 1: with the criminal investigation into his son. Just as we
5:25
Speaker 1: were recording, we learned that David Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney,
5:29
Speaker 1: did in fact indict Hunter Biden on three charges related
5:33
Speaker 1: to false statements and the purchase of a firearm. So
5:36
Speaker 1: no interference there. David Weiss got to do what he
5:39
Speaker 1: wanted to do, just like he said he'd be able to,
5:42
Speaker 1: just like Merrick Garland said he'd be able to. And yes,
5:45
Speaker 1: Joe Biden let his own Justice Department and a Trump-appointed
5:48
Speaker 1: attorney indict his own son. So there you go.
5:51
Speaker 2: And said he was never interfered with. The allegation from
5:53
Speaker 2: one of these whistleblowers was that David Weiss, this Trump-appointed U.S. attorney,
5:57
Speaker 2: wanted to become special counsel, and Merrick Garland denied his request.
6:01
Speaker 2: David Weiss went public and said that did not happen.
6:04
Speaker 2: And when David Weiss asked to become special counsel, Merrick
6:07
Speaker 2: Garland made him special counsel.
6:09
Speaker 1: So honestly, it's like the worst fucking, it's the worst
6:12
Speaker 1: scam ever. It's the worst corruption scam ever because Joe
6:16
Speaker 1: Biden made no money off of it, didn't make any
6:19
Speaker 1: policy decisions that would have helped his son, really only
6:21
Speaker 1: have made policy decisions that his vice president probably would
6:24
Speaker 1: have hurt his son by firing someone who wasn't investigating Burisma.
6:27
Speaker 1: And as president, his son's about to face charges through
6:30
Speaker 1: his own justice department.
6:32
Speaker 2: You just gave, with all the appropriate rebuttals, of course,
6:36
Speaker 2: a more cogent explanation of what this impeachment is about
6:38
Speaker 2: than any single Republican has done since they began pushing
6:42
Speaker 2: for it this summer. They just sort of yell the
6:45
Speaker 2: word bribery and corruption and Biden crime family. They don't
6:47
Speaker 2: even lay out the actual allegations because they've all been disproven.
6:52
Speaker 2: So they're just using vague terms for the purpose of
6:56
Speaker 2: smearing Joe Biden to help Donald Trump.
6:59
Speaker 1: Yeah. The one thing that they keep hanging on is like,
7:03
Speaker 1: There's probably a couple of times where Hunter Biden was
7:06
Speaker 1: trying to make money off the Biden family name. And
7:09
Speaker 1: he was saying things like, oh, you know, my dad
7:12
Speaker 1: and my dad, you know, like he was trying to
7:15
Speaker 1: make it seem like his father was part of it
7:17
Speaker 1: in order to get money, which is like, again, this
7:20
Speaker 1: is why Hunter Biden is facing all kinds of challenges.
7:23
Speaker 1: And so they're basically saying, oh, you know, well, Joe Biden,
7:25
Speaker 1: you know, he'd be with a business interest and he'd
7:28
Speaker 1: call Joe Biden and get him on the phone and
7:29
Speaker 1: be like, hey, dad, and then be like, see, I
7:31
Speaker 1: was talking to my dad. But that, like, Joe Biden,
7:34
Speaker 1: there's no evidence that Joe Biden knew what that was
7:36
Speaker 1: going on. Or was Joe Biden not supposed to take
7:37
Speaker 1: calls from his son?
7:38
Speaker 2: I mean, and also, it's just.
7:40
Speaker 1: It's so fucking ridiculous.
7:41
Speaker 2: It is. I'm, like, legitimately enraged we're speaking about this
7:45
Speaker 2: because it's so stupid.
7:48
Speaker 1: I know, but it's one of those things that you gotta, like,
7:50
Speaker 1: people should just know because everyone's gonna be throwing out allegations,
7:53
Speaker 1: and so it's good to know the facts. I heard
7:55
Speaker 1: one of these Republican congressmen the other day being like, well,
7:57
Speaker 1: why does Joe Biden have all these houses? I was like,
8:00
Speaker 1: why does Joe Biden have these houses? Do we not
8:02
Speaker 1: remember that when Beau Biden was dying of cancer and
8:06
Speaker 1: Joe Biden couldn't afford his medical bills, he was about
8:09
Speaker 1: to sell his house, he was about to mortgage his house,
8:11
Speaker 1: and then Barack Obama gave him a loan because he
8:14
Speaker 1: didn't want to have Joe Biden sell his house, which
8:16
Speaker 1: was like one of his only assets at the time? Like,
8:19
Speaker 1: Joe Biden has never been wealthy. He made a bunch
8:23
Speaker 1: of speaking fees when he left the White House. That
8:25
Speaker 1: was it. That's how they made their net worth.
8:27
Speaker 4: And he wrote a book. And he wrote a book.
8:30
Speaker 1: Right. That's it. That's the extent of it. He used
8:32
Speaker 1: to be one of the poorest senators in the United
8:34
Speaker 1: States Senate.
8:35
Speaker 2: Look, I understand why Republicans are upset about this. Their
8:38
Speaker 2: hero is an up-from-the-bootstraps kind of guy like Donald Trump,
8:41
Speaker 2: who was given money by his dad, or someone who
8:43
Speaker 2: just goes out there on their own like Jared Kushner,
8:46
Speaker 2: just persuades the Saudis to give him billions because of
8:49
Speaker 2: his moxie and grit. It's like, come the fuck on, people.
8:54
Speaker 1: So- Just days ago, McCarthy told Breitbart that House Republicans
8:57
Speaker 1: would only move forward with an impeachment inquiry by holding
9:00
Speaker 1: a vote, quote, not through a declaration by one person.
9:04
Speaker 1: Why do you think he went ahead with an impeachment
9:06
Speaker 1: inquiry through a declaration by one person, him? What changed
9:09
Speaker 1: over the last several days?
9:11
Speaker 2: I think the original reason that he said he would
9:14
Speaker 2: only do it by holding a vote was a way
9:15
Speaker 2: to try to put off the idea of an impeachment inquiry. Well,
9:19
Speaker 2: we have to have a vote and the votes aren't there. Therefore,
9:21
Speaker 2: that'll persuade the Freedom Caucus to stop threatening my job
9:24
Speaker 2: if I don't give them an impeachment inquiry.
9:26
Speaker 4: But they didn't care.
9:27
Speaker 2: And so he, Matt Gaetz went and gave a speech.
9:29
Speaker 2: He ran to the, basically ran out immediately.
9:32
Speaker 1: And announced it. Yeah, we have a clip of Gaetz's
9:36
Speaker 1: speech here.
9:37
Speaker 5: I rise today to serve notice.
9:40
Speaker 4: Mr.
9:40
Speaker 5: Speaker, you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed.
9:44
Speaker 4: You to assume this role.
9:47
Speaker 5: The path forward for the House of Representatives is to
9:50
Speaker 5: either bring you into immediate total compliance or remove you
9:56
Speaker 5: pursuant to a motion to vacate the chair.
9:59
Speaker 1: So that worked. That worked. Kevin got results.
10:02
Speaker 2: I mean, just the, if Kevin McCarthy had any actual
10:08
Speaker 2: dignity or even strategic thinking, you don't let a goofball
10:12
Speaker 2: like Matt Gates treat you like that. And your response
10:15
Speaker 2: has to be to stand up, right? I mean, I
10:18
Speaker 2: don't know. I guess this is the first time in
10:20
Speaker 2: history that a strategy of impeachment has not yet worked.
10:23
Speaker 2: It is just absolutely embarrassing that he did it this way.
10:27
Speaker 2: And he just enters this even weaker than before.
10:32
Speaker 1: Yeah. And it wasn't just Gates. Basically, the Freedom Caucus, hardliners,
10:39
Speaker 1: the MAGA nuts, none of them were really happy with
10:41
Speaker 1: the impeachment inquiry. bunch of them have called it a
10:44
Speaker 1: distraction from their gripes over spending, which is why they
10:48
Speaker 1: want to shut the government down. They want McCarthy to,
10:51
Speaker 1: you know, just cut more, even though he made an
10:54
Speaker 1: agreement with Joe Biden to avert the debt ceiling disaster.
10:58
Speaker 1: So it didn't appease them at all. And some of them,
11:01
Speaker 1: by the way, just want to hold an impeachment vote.
11:03
Speaker 1: They don't even want a hearing. They don't want an inquiry.
11:05
Speaker 1: They just want to impeach Joe Biden. They've said that publicly.
11:08
Speaker 2: That's what Donald Trump wants them to do.
11:10
Speaker 1: McCarthy... did this. He, I guess he went into the
11:13
Speaker 1: caucus meeting today and said, okay, well, if I know
11:18
Speaker 1: you're trying to scare me, if you want to have
11:19
Speaker 1: a motion to vacate, go do it, see what happens.
11:22
Speaker 1: So he basically challenged Gates back to like, go, go
11:25
Speaker 1: try him.
11:27
Speaker 2: After he gave Gates everything he wanted.
11:30
Speaker 1: I mean, well, clearly not. I think, I think Gates
11:33
Speaker 1: is basically, Gates called the impeachment inquiry a baby step
11:38
Speaker 1: because he wants the full thing.
11:39
Speaker 2: The full impeachment. Yeah. I mean, the context here also
11:43
Speaker 2: is we are two weeks away from a government shutdown.
11:47
Speaker 2: The last thing the House did before they left on
11:51
Speaker 2: their prolonged recess or Biden impeachment fact-finding mission or whatever
11:56
Speaker 2: you want to call it, the month of August for them,
11:58
Speaker 2: was they were trying to pass a far-right conservative agricultural
12:03
Speaker 2: appropriations bill. McCarthy couldn't get the votes, pulled it from
12:06
Speaker 2: the floor. The first thing he tried to do when
12:08
Speaker 2: he came back was pass the defense bill. And he
12:12
Speaker 2: had to pull it because he couldn't get enough votes
12:13
Speaker 2: to pass the rule, not even the bill, just the
12:15
Speaker 2: rule to consider the bill because the Freedom Caucus wouldn't
12:17
Speaker 2: do it. And so here's where McCarthy is. We're two
12:19
Speaker 2: weeks away. He has said he will not pass a
12:22
Speaker 2: short-term extension. The Freedom Caucus Republicans will not do that.
12:25
Speaker 2: He will not pass an, quote-unquote, omnibus bill, some sort
12:28
Speaker 2: of overall budget deal. And so he wants to pass
12:31
Speaker 2: all of the individual appropriations bills, but he can't pass those.
12:34
Speaker 2: So we are barreling towards a shutdown. And so he
12:36
Speaker 2: is flailing in the most desperate, weak way humanly possible.
12:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess he, I saw there was a quote
12:44
Speaker 1: he said to Jake Sherman at Punchbowl today, like, I
12:47
Speaker 1: don't know what they want. They don't want to vote
12:48
Speaker 1: for an omnibus. They don't want to vote for a
12:51
Speaker 1: continuing resolution. They don't want to vote for individual appropriations bill.
12:54
Speaker 1: I don't know what they want. He's got control. Now,
12:58
Speaker 1: McCarthy's reportedly telling people that he'll eventually hold a vote
13:02
Speaker 1: to make the inquiry official. You know, I'm sure he's
13:05
Speaker 1: saying this partly because back in 2019, He also said
13:08
Speaker 1: that when Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry that he's like, oh,
13:13
Speaker 1: you can't do that without taking a vote in the
13:16
Speaker 1: full House. She ultimately did hold a vote in the
13:19
Speaker 1: House and opened the impeachment inquiry officially. Do you think
13:22
Speaker 1: McCarthy will go through with this and hold this vote?
13:26
Speaker 4: I don't know. Maybe.
13:27
Speaker 2: It seems hard to imagine he could get the vote
13:29
Speaker 2: as we sit here today. And if they really want
13:33
Speaker 2: to pursue this, they're probably going to have to take
13:34
Speaker 2: the vote because In the 2019 impeachment, the Trump Office
13:40
Speaker 2: of Legal Counsel, the office in the Department of Justice
13:42
Speaker 2: that essentially issues the official legal position of the federal government,
13:46
Speaker 2: wrote an opinion that said an impeachment that is not
13:51
Speaker 2: authorized by the full House is not a valid impeachment,
13:55
Speaker 2: and therefore the administration does not have to comply with
13:57
Speaker 2: document requests, subpoenas, witnesses, etc. That opinion is still on
14:02
Speaker 2: the books today. So that is ultimately one of the
14:05
Speaker 2: reasons that motivated the House to go forward with voting
14:07
Speaker 2: for 2019. And so if you want, they're just going
14:10
Speaker 2: to basically, the Biden White House administration, if they want to,
14:14
Speaker 2: can just basically take the Trump motions from 2019 and
14:17
Speaker 2: refile them now with the same arguments if they don't
14:20
Speaker 2: do it. How does McCarthy get 18 House Republicans who
14:24
Speaker 2: represent districts won by Joe Biden to vote for an
14:27
Speaker 2: impeachment of Joe Biden based on nothing? Seems like a
14:29
Speaker 2: tall order to me, but we'll see.
14:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, I could. I wasn't sure he'd be able to
14:34
Speaker 1: get the votes for opening an inquiry. This is different
14:38
Speaker 1: than actually the votes for impeachment. That's sort of put
14:41
Speaker 1: that aside for now. But just to get the votes
14:43
Speaker 1: to open an impeachment inquiry, I could see him getting them.
14:46
Speaker 1: I couldn't before. But then I saw like, you know,
14:49
Speaker 1: Mike Garcia, who represents a Biden district just north of
14:53
Speaker 1: Los Angeles here, where Biden won, I think, by 13 points.
14:57
Speaker 1: And he was on Fox or somewhere yesterday being like, oh, yeah,
15:00
Speaker 1: I'm for an impeachment inquiry. Don Bacon, who's like, the
15:03
Speaker 1: most moderate, one of the most moderate members of the
15:06
Speaker 1: Republican caucus, uh, who reporters always go to for, for
15:09
Speaker 1: quote shitting on Republicans. Um, Don Bacon said that, uh,
15:14
Speaker 1: he was against the inquiry, but if the administration stonewalls
15:18
Speaker 1: and doesn't hand over what they ask for, then he'd
15:20
Speaker 1: be for it. So you can imagine the scenario where
15:23
Speaker 1: the Biden white house does what you say says, okay,
15:25
Speaker 1: there's this opinion on the books for D from DOJ
15:28
Speaker 1: that it doesn't count unless there's a vote. So we're
15:30
Speaker 1: not going to hand over anything. And then the Republicans
15:33
Speaker 1: in the House say, oh, well, we're voting to open
15:35
Speaker 1: an impeachment inquiry, not necessarily because we think there's evidence
15:39
Speaker 1: of a crime, but because the Biden White House is
15:41
Speaker 1: obstructing and stonewalling. So that's why we're doing it. I
15:44
Speaker 1: could see that rationale. Yeah.
15:46
Speaker 2: If you're one of those 18 members in these Biden
15:50
Speaker 2: districts and you have a choice to Every politician would
15:54
Speaker 2: rather defer pain. And so you would vote for it
15:57
Speaker 2: now and then face if it ever were to come
16:00
Speaker 2: to a vote for impeaching Biden, then you might have
16:02
Speaker 2: to make a different choice. But in the short term,
16:04
Speaker 2: you can probably argue, well, I just opened the inquiry
16:06
Speaker 2: to see if we found anything.
16:07
Speaker 4: Oh, we didn't find anything.
16:08
Speaker 2: I didn't vote to impeach or whatever else. You'd rather
16:10
Speaker 2: do this and face the wrath of Donald Trump, particularly
16:12
Speaker 2: while the filing deadline has not been reached yet in
16:14
Speaker 2: some of these states where you could get a primary
16:16
Speaker 2: challenge from a MAGA Republican.
16:19
Speaker 1: One thing I can't figure out is, you know, all
16:22
Speaker 1: these committees in the House, all these Republican-led committees have
16:24
Speaker 1: been investigating Biden and the Biden family and all this
16:29
Speaker 1: other bullshit for many, many months now. How does the
16:32
Speaker 1: impeachment inquiry look different than what they're already doing?
16:37
Speaker 2: Well, theoretically, they would have a stronger argument to make
16:40
Speaker 2: in court over witnesses, documents, etc. Now, we remember from
16:46
Speaker 2: 2019 that didn't really pan out the way we had
16:49
Speaker 2: thought it would when these things take longer. Even if
16:53
Speaker 2: you're going to get the right result, the length at
16:56
Speaker 2: which this takes sometimes can exceed the patience of the
16:59
Speaker 2: House to actually have an impeachment vote. Now, Democrats were
17:03
Speaker 2: on a shorter timeline because they wanted to wrap this
17:05
Speaker 2: thing up before the presidential race started in 2019 slash 2020.
17:10
Speaker 2: I could see McCarthy in the House just letting this
17:12
Speaker 2: thing go the whole way, right? If they never think
17:14
Speaker 2: they can actually get the full vote, than just keep
17:17
Speaker 2: the inquiry going. The other way it may look different,
17:19
Speaker 2: and we'll get to this a little bit later, is
17:22
Speaker 2: the hearings that are currently being held by Jim Comer
17:25
Speaker 2: and Jim Jordan don't really get a.
17:27
Speaker 4: Ton of attention.
17:28
Speaker 2: You call it an impeachment inquiry, and you can see,
17:31
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, rating-starved cable channels covering them live,
17:36
Speaker 2: the networks which cover the Trump impeachment hearings live, carrying
17:41
Speaker 2: them live. And it raises the stakes in the coverage.
17:45
Speaker 1: One person clearly pleased with McCarthy's announcement is the MAGA
17:49
Speaker 1: king himself, Donald Trump, who's reportedly and unsurprisingly been pressuring
17:53
Speaker 1: Republicans in Congress to impeach his likely opponent. You think
17:57
Speaker 1: this is just pure vengeance, feral Trump, or is there
18:01
Speaker 1: a political calculation here as well? Both.
18:04
Speaker 2: I mean, ironically enough, he wants to impeach Biden for
18:08
Speaker 2: the same strategic reason that he himself got impeached in 2019.
18:11
Speaker 2: which is Trump always knows that he's never going to
18:14
Speaker 2: convince the public that his opponent is more corrupt than
18:17
Speaker 2: him or more of a criminal than him. But if
18:18
Speaker 2: he just convinces them that they're corrupt enough, that everyone's crooked,
18:22
Speaker 2: that you either can give permission to some people to
18:25
Speaker 2: come vote for you or more likely and perhaps more
18:27
Speaker 2: damaging to us, convince people it's not worth voting. All
18:32
Speaker 2: he wanted in 2019 was just for Zelensky to say
18:35
Speaker 2: they were investigating Biden so Trump could go out and
18:37
Speaker 2: say Biden was under investigation. And so he wants him
18:39
Speaker 2: being impeached for this same Exact reason. Was that on
18:42
Speaker 2: a whiteboard somewhere at Mar-a-Lago? Probably not, but there is
18:45
Speaker 2: a strategy behind it.
18:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just how he understands how the media works
18:50
Speaker 1: and how politics work, right?
18:51
Speaker 2: And he's right.
18:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, because a lot of people are not going
18:55
Speaker 1: to dig into the details of this. And if, like
18:58
Speaker 1: you say, it gets a lot of coverage and people
19:01
Speaker 1: just hear Biden impeach, Biden impeach, or impeachment hearing or
19:04
Speaker 1: impeachment investigation, whether or not it actually, you know, impeachment happens.
19:08
Speaker 1: You could see this working on the margins for him, perhaps.
19:12
Speaker 1: Or at least it's without a lot of risk for
19:15
Speaker 1: Donald Trump.
19:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's all upside for him.
19:30
Speaker 1: Let's talk about how the White House and Democrats in
19:31
Speaker 1: Congress plan to deal with the impeachment inquiry. If this
19:34
Speaker 1: reaction from John Fetterman is any indication, they don't seem
19:37
Speaker 1: too worried.
19:40
Speaker 4: Speaker McCarthy has formally launched an impeachment inquiry.
19:43
Speaker 3: He said he's going to.
19:44
Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
19:44
Speaker 5: Really?
19:45
Speaker 4: Oh, my gosh.
19:46
Speaker 5: You know.
19:47
Speaker 4: Oh, it's devastating. Oh, don't do it. Please don't do it.
19:53
Speaker 5: Oh, no.
19:54
Speaker 2: Oh, no.
19:57
Speaker 1: What do you think? Are you still as sanguine about
19:59
Speaker 1: the politics as Fetterman?
20:01
Speaker 2: I'm not that sanguine. I think the most likely scenario
20:04
Speaker 2: here is this is very is bad for House Republicans,
20:06
Speaker 2: but it's not without risks for President Biden. And we
20:11
Speaker 2: have to understand that. Anytime this is a huge unknown
20:14
Speaker 2: that's being injected into an incredibly close election, you're putting
20:20
Speaker 2: yourself in the hands of just– it has risk, right?
20:25
Speaker 2: It absolutely has some risk to it for the very
20:28
Speaker 2: reasons that we were just talking about, that people will
20:30
Speaker 2: just surf the headlines and think all of a sudden
20:32
Speaker 2: that Joe Biden is corrupt without– No one will ever
20:36
Speaker 2: get to, which the press will probably almost always report,
20:40
Speaker 2: no evidence. That may be in paragraph two or three
20:42
Speaker 2: or 12. And the facts will get lost in the
20:46
Speaker 2: overall vibes of a bunch of corruption and crime.
20:50
Speaker 4: Yeah.
20:50
Speaker 1: And I mean, you were talking about just leaving the
20:52
Speaker 1: inquiry open. It seems very unlikely that now that the
20:56
Speaker 1: inquiry is open, there's going to be a day where
20:58
Speaker 1: they say, you know what? We got all the answers.
21:00
Speaker 1: We didn't find anything. Joe Biden's got a clean bill
21:03
Speaker 1: of health. We'll back off now.
21:05
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly.
21:07
Speaker 1: That's not going to happen. So they're going to need
21:09
Speaker 1: to find something. And probably it's going to be made up.
21:11
Speaker 1: There's also, by the way, a number of foreign entities
21:14
Speaker 1: with authoritarian tendencies that have an interest in Donald Trump
21:18
Speaker 1: being elected and Joe Biden not being elected again. And
21:21
Speaker 1: so there's all kinds of like crazy conspiracies that could
21:24
Speaker 1: go out there. I mean, there's just a lot of shit.
21:26
Speaker 1: And then in the back of my mind is, you know,
21:29
Speaker 1: we went through the Benghazi shit. And Remember Hillary Clinton
21:34
Speaker 1: had to testify for like 15 hours and everyone was like, oh,
21:37
Speaker 1: she kicked their ass and there was nothing there, blah, blah, blah.
21:39
Speaker 1: But then they kept going and going and going. And
21:41
Speaker 1: that's how they found her email server. And then it
21:43
Speaker 1: went on and on and on. We know how it
21:45
Speaker 1: went from there. So it's like not saying that they're
21:47
Speaker 1: going to actually find something here, but they will continue
21:50
Speaker 1: to dig and dig and dig and dig until they
21:52
Speaker 1: either find something small that they can blow up into
21:56
Speaker 1: something big or find nothing at all and just make
21:58
Speaker 1: shit up.
21:59
Speaker 2: No, I mean, you have a court system with a
22:01
Speaker 2: bunch of right wing judges that ends in a rigged
22:04
Speaker 2: conservative Supreme Court making decisions about what is executive privilege,
22:07
Speaker 2: who has to testify, what documents can hand it over.
22:09
Speaker 2: And that gets alarming very quickly.
22:12
Speaker 5: Yeah.
22:13
Speaker 1: So the White House sent a letter yesterday to news
22:15
Speaker 1: organizations debunking all the Republican allegations, which read in part,
22:19
Speaker 1: it's time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny
22:21
Speaker 1: of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies.
22:24
Speaker 1: Covering impeachment as a process story. Republicans say X, but
22:28
Speaker 1: the White House says Y. is a disservice to the
22:30
Speaker 1: American public. Sort of an unusual shot across the bow,
22:33
Speaker 1: though they're certainly correct about how these things get covered.
22:36
Speaker 1: Why do you think they sent the letter?
22:38
Speaker 2: A largely probably futile, but attempt to work the refs, right?
22:43
Speaker 2: And what was also notable in this is they included
22:45
Speaker 2: a 14-page fact check with it, which pushed back basically
22:48
Speaker 2: a Yeah, a more footnoted version of what you did
22:53
Speaker 2: at the top of this podcast. And that was useful
22:56
Speaker 2: to get in their hands. And just it's a warning shot, right?
22:58
Speaker 2: Is it going to really affect you think they're all
23:00
Speaker 2: sitting around in the in the in the meetings this
23:02
Speaker 2: morning going, well, you know, but I do think that
23:04
Speaker 2: this is a legitimate conversation within networks of good faith,
23:09
Speaker 2: which is they know it's bullshit.
23:11
Speaker 1: Right.
23:11
Speaker 2: And so there's going to be this tension between the
23:12
Speaker 2: journalistic side and the people who care about ratings and
23:15
Speaker 2: advertising rates. And all of that. So a little push
23:18
Speaker 2: here or there. There's no downside to the White House
23:20
Speaker 2: in doing this, in my opinion.
23:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, just it reminded me of what you were
23:23
Speaker 1: saying earlier, which is they're going to have to make
23:25
Speaker 1: decisions about coverage on an impeachment inquiry. And do they
23:29
Speaker 1: give these guys airtime or as much airtime as they
23:34
Speaker 1: gave the Trump impeachments, which were over legitimate issues and
23:38
Speaker 1: legitimate crimes? And they're going to have to make that decision.
23:41
Speaker 1: And I don't think we're going to be happy with
23:43
Speaker 1: all the decisions that they make regarding this. the media elites,
23:46
Speaker 1: but at least it is an attempt, like you said,
23:49
Speaker 1: to work the refs, and it's a shot across the bow.
23:51
Speaker 1: How would you handle the strategy around this if you
23:54
Speaker 1: were in the White House or on the campaign? And also,
23:58
Speaker 1: I'm interested in how they split it up between the
24:00
Speaker 1: White House and the campaign here, since this is a...
24:02
Speaker 1: It's clearly a play to hurt Joe Biden's approval ratings
24:08
Speaker 1: in this campaign that he's running in, but also they're
24:11
Speaker 1: impeaching the president.
24:12
Speaker 2: I do not think... this is how Joe Biden will
24:16
Speaker 2: want to handle this because it involves his family. And
24:19
Speaker 2: he handled it a certain way when the original impeachment
24:21
Speaker 2: of Donald Trump was about his son, and he tried
24:24
Speaker 2: to not stoke the fires. And that is an admirable
24:31
Speaker 2: example of why Joe Biden is such a good person.
24:34
Speaker 2: But from a purely political point of view, the Republicans
24:37
Speaker 2: have handed Joe Biden a gift, and he should beat
24:40
Speaker 2: the living shit out of them every single day. Look
24:43
Speaker 2: at what they're doing instead of dealing with inflation or
24:46
Speaker 2: raising wages or making your health care more affordable. Just
24:49
Speaker 2: hammer them. This is ridiculous. And it leads right into
24:53
Speaker 2: this shutdown. Like if you look at where Joe Biden's
24:55
Speaker 2: political standing has basically been frozen for two years, the
25:00
Speaker 2: next two to four months are probably his best opportunity
25:05
Speaker 2: to upend that dynamic, much like it was for Barack
25:07
Speaker 2: Obama in his reelection. Because you're going to have this impeachment,
25:11
Speaker 2: potential shutdown, the Republican primary heating up. And use this
25:16
Speaker 2: as a huge example to brand Republican extremism focused on
25:19
Speaker 2: a bunch of bullshit instead of actually trying to help
25:24
Speaker 2: people and solve problems. You can contrast it to stuff
25:26
Speaker 2: you're doing every day. Like, look at what I'm doing.
25:28
Speaker 2: Why these guys are doing this, right? Like, you have
25:30
Speaker 2: a foil. Use it.
25:32
Speaker 1: And he started to do that. He was at an event,
25:36
Speaker 1: I think, at a fundraiser last night and was asked
25:38
Speaker 1: about it. I don't think there was sound from it,
25:40
Speaker 1: but the quotes were much along the lines of what
25:43
Speaker 1: you were just saying, which is like, I don't wake
25:45
Speaker 1: up every day thinking about impeachment and I'm trying to
25:47
Speaker 1: avoid shutdowns and I'm trying to help the middle class.
25:50
Speaker 1: And I mean, it is sort of tailor made for
25:53
Speaker 1: a message about why he's focusing on things that matter
25:56
Speaker 1: and they're focusing on bullshit because they want to elect
25:59
Speaker 1: Donald Trump and that's all they care about.
26:01
Speaker 2: Usually you tell politicians to show, not tell the message.
26:05
Speaker 2: This is a case, I think, where you tell as
26:06
Speaker 2: much as show. You can't just be like one of
26:09
Speaker 2: the hard parts for Joe Biden. One of the challenges
26:11
Speaker 2: is the press doesn't cover all the things he's doing.
26:13
Speaker 2: So if the strategy is I'm just going to go
26:15
Speaker 2: do all the things and have that be the contrast
26:17
Speaker 2: to the circus on Capitol Hill, they're not going to
26:20
Speaker 2: see what you're doing. They're only going to see the circus.
26:22
Speaker 2: So you got to go out and define that circus aggressively.
26:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. One more item before we get to
26:27
Speaker 1: your interview with Jamie Raskin. First, we had Bidenomics. Now
26:31
Speaker 1: we got Magnomics. The president is giving a major speech
26:34
Speaker 1: today where he'll use the term which originally came from
26:37
Speaker 1: the Trump administration, they coined it first, to frame the
26:40
Speaker 1: Republican economic agenda. He'll talk about the House Republicans' proposal
26:44
Speaker 1: to raise the retirement age for Social Security so they
26:46
Speaker 1: can give more tax cuts to the rich. Just this week,
26:49
Speaker 1: Jeff Stein at the Washington Post had a story about
26:51
Speaker 1: how Trump's advisors are working on a campaign proposal to
26:55
Speaker 1: give another huge tax cut to big corporations, possibly lowering
26:59
Speaker 1: the corporate tax rate to as little as 15% or
27:02
Speaker 1: even lower, if you read the story. What do you
27:05
Speaker 1: think about the Bidenomics versus Magnomics framing?
27:08
Speaker 2: I think we are at the point now where most
27:11
Speaker 2: of the economic messaging has to be contrast.
27:14
Speaker 4: Yeah.
27:14
Speaker 1: You got to get away from the referendum. You got
27:16
Speaker 1: to get away from like, if we have this fucking
27:18
Speaker 1: debate from now until November where people are like, I
27:23
Speaker 1: think the economy is better, but people aren't feeling it.
27:25
Speaker 1: Are people feeling it? Should he tout economic progress? Should
27:27
Speaker 1: he not? Like, we're just going to get trapped into
27:29
Speaker 1: this fucking cycle that's not going to be productive for anyone.
27:33
Speaker 1: You've got to turn it into a choice.
27:35
Speaker 4: And you do.
27:35
Speaker 2: There is work to be done, and that's what the
27:38
Speaker 2: Biden ads that are up right now and the ads
27:40
Speaker 2: that Future Forward, the super PAC, have put up in
27:42
Speaker 2: battleground states to credential Biden as an economic messenger. You
27:45
Speaker 2: got to go out and say he did things so
27:47
Speaker 2: that people know that, so there's some contrast. But very quickly,
27:50
Speaker 2: we're moving into a choice between two different economic visions.
27:54
Speaker 2: And that's got to help because if it doesn't help,
27:56
Speaker 2: we're in big trouble. But right now Biden is suffering
27:59
Speaker 2: mightily in the economy because people are just, you know,
28:01
Speaker 2: as he would say, judging me against the almighty, not
28:03
Speaker 2: the alternative. So let's get some alternative in there.
28:06
Speaker 1: Yeah. And there's a shorthand too, which is like, do
28:09
Speaker 1: you want the, uh, the Biden economy or do you
28:11
Speaker 1: remember the Trump economy? Wasn't the Trump economy so much better?
28:14
Speaker 1: And of course people forget that then COVID hit and
28:16
Speaker 1: things like really went to shit. And also inequality was
28:19
Speaker 1: pretty brutal at the But if you tell people, OK,
28:23
Speaker 1: this is a choice and it's not just like a
28:25
Speaker 1: political framing. This is a choice in this election between
28:28
Speaker 1: two visions. And here's what Joe Biden has been doing
28:32
Speaker 1: and will continue to do. And here's what he wants
28:34
Speaker 1: to pass if you give him enough Democrats in Congress.
28:37
Speaker 4: Right.
28:37
Speaker 1: Everyone. There was a story today this week about how
28:40
Speaker 1: poverty rates have increased because the child tax credit expired. Well,
28:44
Speaker 1: of course, Joe Biden wanted a permanent child tax credit.
28:49
Speaker 1: Democrats have a whole bunch of other great proposals that
28:52
Speaker 1: would help families. Republicans are blocking them. There's then now
28:56
Speaker 1: the House is controlled by Republicans, so they can't get
28:58
Speaker 1: it done. So Biden can go out there and say,
29:00
Speaker 1: you know, you give me a Democratic Congress. This is
29:02
Speaker 1: all these are all the things I'm going to do
29:04
Speaker 1: as president to help you. You vote for Donald Trump.
29:06
Speaker 1: You get Republicans in Congress. We're going to have more
29:08
Speaker 1: tax cuts. We're going to have gutted Social Security, gutted Medicare,
29:11
Speaker 1: gutted health care, and we're more poverty. We're going to
29:13
Speaker 1: have lower wages. I mean, you just you have to
29:15
Speaker 1: make the case because it has the benefit of being true.
29:19
Speaker 1: And it's so much better to frame it as a choice.
29:21
Speaker 1: It has to be so much more effective. On Trump's proposal,
29:24
Speaker 1: I was told that Republicans are now a working class party.
29:27
Speaker 1: What do you think is going on there with the
29:28
Speaker 1: corporate tax cut?
29:29
Speaker 2: Well, the good news is that most voters don't think
29:32
Speaker 2: the Republican Party is a working class party. They still
29:34
Speaker 2: think Democrats are better for working class people for all
29:36
Speaker 2: the various reasons. The challenge in this, and this is
29:39
Speaker 2: why this this proposal is potentially very significant in the campaign,
29:44
Speaker 2: is voters think of Trump differently than they think of
29:48
Speaker 2: the rest of the Republican Party when it comes to
29:49
Speaker 2: economic issues. And so the question is, can you, they won,
29:53
Speaker 2: as you point out, and you see this, even Democrats
29:56
Speaker 2: in focus groups think fondly of the Trump economy.
29:59
Speaker 4: Yeah.
30:00
Speaker 2: That is a challenge. They mostly blame COVID, not Trump,
30:04
Speaker 2: for what happened. Yet they blame Biden, but not COVID
30:07
Speaker 2: for what happened afterwards, which is very annoying, but actually
30:11
Speaker 2: drives the president absolutely insane, as it should. But can
30:15
Speaker 2: you undermine Trump's working class appeal? Can you show that Trump,
30:21
Speaker 2: like the rest of Republicans, is a plutocrat in populist clothing?
30:24
Speaker 2: Can you do that? He sure as hell got to try,
30:26
Speaker 2: and this is a good way to do that.
30:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think in the larger effort to tie
30:31
Speaker 1: Republicans to Trump and to make them the MAGA party,
30:34
Speaker 1: it actually helps in the reverse here because tying Trump
30:37
Speaker 1: to the Republicans in Congress, who people are already prone
30:40
Speaker 1: to believe love tax cuts and gutting important programs for
30:44
Speaker 1: middle-class families because that's what they do, that's how they vote,
30:47
Speaker 1: that probably ties them all together pretty well for people.
30:50
Speaker 1: All right, before we go to break, one quick housekeeping note. Midwesterners,
30:54
Speaker 1: get your malort out. Love It or Leave It is
30:56
Speaker 1: coming to Chicago on September 21st and Madison on September
30:59
Speaker 1: 22nd with wonderful guests like Brandon Johnson, Shea Coulee, Alice Waterland,
31:03
Speaker 1: Jillian Flynn, Ben Wickler, and more. Tickets are going fast.
31:06
Speaker 1: Head to cricket.com slash events to get yours today. Non-Midwesterners,
31:10
Speaker 1: pour your Malort in the toilet. It's disgusting. It really is.
31:13
Speaker 1: It's fucking gross. But make sure to head to that
31:16
Speaker 1: page anyway to check out Pod Save America's live shows
31:18
Speaker 1: this fall and winter. We are heading to cities like Louisville,
31:21
Speaker 1: San Diego, San Jose, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, and more.
31:26
Speaker 1: Get your tickets now at cricket.com slash events. When we
31:29
Speaker 1: come back, Dan talks to Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin about
31:32
Speaker 1: the House Democrats' strategy on impeachment.
31:47
Speaker 2: Joining us to discuss the Republicans' impeachment gambit and what
31:50
Speaker 2: to expect in the coming weeks and months is It's
31:52
Speaker 2: Representative Jamie Raskin, Congressman. Welcome back to the pod.
31:55
Speaker 4: I am delighted to be with you guys.
31:57
Speaker 2: So let's start with the basics here. The Republicans and
32:01
Speaker 2: to a certain extent, some of the media are trying
32:02
Speaker 2: to draw parallels between what Kevin McCarthy announced the Republicans
32:06
Speaker 2: are going to do this week and the effort that
32:08
Speaker 2: you guys undertook in 2019 when you impeached President Trump
32:12
Speaker 2: for his interactions with Ukraine. Can you just explain why
32:16
Speaker 2: these are two entirely different things? Why the basis is
32:18
Speaker 2: they're two entirely different things?
32:21
Speaker 4: Well, the Ukraine shakedown was an extraordinary assault on the
32:26
Speaker 4: rule of law. Trump withheld hundreds of millions of dollars
32:30
Speaker 4: in order to try to coerce President Zelensky into concocting
32:35
Speaker 4: or at least representing a criminal investigation into Joe Biden.
32:42
Speaker 4: They want to impeach Joe Biden now literally for nothing.
32:47
Speaker 4: I mean, we've been in hearings and oversight committee for
32:50
Speaker 4: seven months, they do not have a single shred of
32:55
Speaker 4: evidence of criminal wrongdoing or what would be an impeachable offense.
33:00
Speaker 4: The constitutional standard is treason, bribery, or other high crimes
33:04
Speaker 4: and misdemeanors. And they don't have even the most meager
33:08
Speaker 4: evidence of any criminal allegation. In fact, they can't even
33:12
Speaker 4: agree what they're saying he did. And there are 25
33:15
Speaker 4: or 30 Republicans who agree with us. And some are
33:19
Speaker 4: very vocal about it now, including Ken Buck, who was
33:22
Speaker 4: formerly the chief of the criminal division of the U.S.
33:24
Speaker 4: Attorney's Office in Colorado. And he just said, there's nothing there.
33:27
Speaker 4: There's no evidence. And so they're saying, well, when would
33:31
Speaker 4: you impeach? He says, when you give me some evidence
33:33
Speaker 4: of a high crime and misdemeanor.
33:36
Speaker 2: I mean, it seems quite bizarre because these investigations have
33:42
Speaker 2: been going on. You've been part of this as the
33:43
Speaker 2: ranking member of the Oversight Committee. Every time Jim Jordan
33:47
Speaker 2: or Jim Comer or whoever else has one of these
33:48
Speaker 2: big hearings, the takeaway has been there's no there there.
33:53
Speaker 2: Congress goes away for a month, comes back, and on
33:56
Speaker 2: basically the first day back, they're launching an impeachment inquiry
33:58
Speaker 2: into Joe Biden. Just what happened over this period that
34:02
Speaker 2: led us to this point?
34:04
Speaker 4: Well, I think it's a classic example of the difference
34:11
Speaker 4: between the MAGA Republicans and the Kevin McCarthy Republicans who
34:15
Speaker 4: are simply craven and power clutching. The MAGA Republicans actually
34:24
Speaker 4: have a program. It's a program that's utterly nihilistic and destructive.
34:28
Speaker 4: They want to tear stuff down. They basically have a
34:30
Speaker 4: three-part program since we've gotten back into the House this week. One,
34:34
Speaker 4: they want to impeach President Biden for no reason at all.
34:39
Speaker 4: They want to shut down the government. And then three,
34:42
Speaker 4: they want to overthrow Kevin McCarthy when it's all over
34:46
Speaker 4: for not being sufficiently avidly sycophantic in responding to Donald
34:54
Speaker 4: Trump's demands. And Marjorie Taylor Greene had dinner with Trump
34:59
Speaker 4: two nights ago where she promised him that it would
35:02
Speaker 4: be an impeachment of Joe Biden that would be agonizingly
35:07
Speaker 4: long and difficult. it would be a form of torture.
35:13
Speaker 2: I guess one basic question is, do the Republicans have access?
35:17
Speaker 2: I am not suggesting they have evidence, but is there
35:19
Speaker 2: anything that they have seen or claim to have seen
35:22
Speaker 2: that you have not been able to access in your
35:24
Speaker 2: role as the ranking member?
35:27
Speaker 4: Well, I wouldn't know what kind of evidence is so
35:32
Speaker 4: exculpatory of biden that they were able just to destroy
35:35
Speaker 4: it and they've certainly kept a lot of things from
35:37
Speaker 4: us for example we've never seen the putative alleged hard
35:42
Speaker 4: drive of uh hunter biden's laptop so when uh marjorie
35:48
Speaker 4: taylor greene or perjury trader queen as some people call
35:51
Speaker 4: her but not me um when she decided to display
35:55
Speaker 4: the pornographic photos in the oversight committee and then asserted
36:01
Speaker 4: that they came from Hunter Biden's laptop, although it was
36:05
Speaker 4: completely irrelevant to the subject of the hearing. We had
36:08
Speaker 4: no way of knowing whether it actually came from the
36:12
Speaker 4: hard drive of the laptop. And if it did, or
36:14
Speaker 4: if she thought it did, whether it really did, because
36:17
Speaker 4: the guy who was responsible for putting it into the
36:21
Speaker 4: world has said he cannot account for the chain of
36:24
Speaker 4: custody and whether it has been contaminated since, um, he
36:29
Speaker 4: let go of it. So nobody really knows. But in
36:32
Speaker 4: any event, they've gotten pretty much everything that they've asked
36:37
Speaker 4: for in terms of documentary production, in terms of witnesses.
36:42
Speaker 4: And so there's no shortage of evidence. There's 12 or 13,000
36:45
Speaker 4: pages of bank records and documents and thousands of pages
36:53
Speaker 4: of these stars, the suspicious activity reports and hours and
36:58
Speaker 4: hours and hours of witness testimony. There's tons of evidence.
37:01
Speaker 4: It's just the evidence all demonstrates that Joe Biden didn't
37:05
Speaker 4: do anything. And They have continually looked for a smoking gun,
37:12
Speaker 4: but there's no smoking gun because there's nothing there. And
37:14
Speaker 4: you don't have to go much further than Lev Parnas,
37:17
Speaker 4: who was Rudy Giuliani's right-hand man in trying to concoct
37:21
Speaker 4: the original Burisma conspiracy theory, who gallivanted all over the
37:26
Speaker 4: world with Giuliani, trying to find dirt on Joe Biden,
37:30
Speaker 4: who wrote us a letter, wrote a letter to Chairman
37:32
Speaker 4: Comer and to me saying there is nothing there. They
37:36
Speaker 4: have not shown anything. Nothing has been proven. And all
37:40
Speaker 4: of it was based on this attempt to get dirt
37:44
Speaker 4: on him that never went anywhere. And so he literally
37:47
Speaker 4: called on Comer to call off what he described as
37:50
Speaker 4: the wild goose chase. And yet Donald Trump won't let
37:55
Speaker 4: them go. because Trump does not want to be the
37:58
Speaker 4: only person on the ballot, presumably the general election ballot
38:02
Speaker 4: as he sees it, who's been impeached. He wants to
38:05
Speaker 4: establish some kind of false moral equivalency between the two sides.
38:08
Speaker 4: The guy's got four federal and state indictments against him
38:12
Speaker 4: worth 91 different criminal charges. He's been involved in hundreds
38:18
Speaker 4: and hundreds of lawsuits of a criminal and civil nature.
38:23
Speaker 4: He's been determined by a jury of his peers to
38:25
Speaker 4: be a sexual assailant and to have sexually abused a
38:33
Speaker 4: woman and then defamed her by lying about her. And
38:39
Speaker 4: yet they double down on it. And Joe Biden's record,
38:43
Speaker 4: whatever you think of his politics or his policy or
38:46
Speaker 4: his age or anything else, has no blemish on it
38:49
Speaker 4: at all. There's no outstanding criminal charges. There's no criminal prosecutions.
38:54
Speaker 4: And so we just can't get dragged down into this
38:59
Speaker 4: authoritarian underworld where anybody can make up anything about anyone.
39:04
Speaker 2: Kevin McCarthy just unilaterally declared that this impeachment inquiry was
39:07
Speaker 2: happening when You guys originally started taking– began an inquiry
39:12
Speaker 2: against Trump. You also did it at the beginning without
39:15
Speaker 2: a vote of the House. The Trump Department of Justice
39:17
Speaker 2: took an opinion, took a legal opinion at that point
39:20
Speaker 2: that that made it an illegitimate inquiry that did not
39:24
Speaker 2: have to be cooperated with. What is your position on
39:26
Speaker 2: whether a vote? of the full House needs to happen
39:31
Speaker 2: for this to be an actual impeachment inquiry?
39:34
Speaker 1: Okay.
39:35
Speaker 4: My position then and my position now are the same,
39:38
Speaker 4: which is the Constitution simply says that the House can impeach.
39:42
Speaker 4: An impeachment inquiry or investigation is something that has evolved
39:49
Speaker 4: through legislative practice. But under the House rules, in order
39:55
Speaker 4: to render subpoenas in the name of the House and
39:58
Speaker 4: to compel production of documents, you do need a vote
40:02
Speaker 4: of the House, which is what McCarthy said then. It's
40:06
Speaker 4: what McCarthy said now up to two weeks ago. And
40:08
Speaker 4: it's what we did. We did have a vote in
40:11
Speaker 4: the House when we launched the impeachment investigation and inquiry
40:17
Speaker 4: against Donald Trump. So look, the curious thing is why
40:22
Speaker 4: Kevin McCarthy did a U-turn other than that's, you know,
40:29
Speaker 4: standard operating procedure for him. But just two weeks ago,
40:33
Speaker 4: he was saying he would only move forward if there
40:36
Speaker 4: were a vote of the House, but he did not
40:40
Speaker 4: proceed with that because the votes aren't there. Yeah, that's
40:43
Speaker 4: the point, right? That's the point, right? Lots of them
40:45
Speaker 4: coming forward saying, I'm not voting for this. I mean,
40:47
Speaker 4: Ken Buck has been the most lucid and outspoken, and
40:51
Speaker 4: he's not a moderate Republican. I mean, he's a Freedom
40:55
Speaker 4: Caucus conservative-style Republican, but he just said, you know, it
41:00
Speaker 4: demeans the meaning of impeachment to do it like this,
41:04
Speaker 4: and lots of them feel the same way. They understand
41:07
Speaker 4: how ludicrous it is. There is no evidence linking Hunter
41:14
Speaker 4: and Joe Biden in terms of the transfer of money,
41:18
Speaker 4: the receipt of money by Joe Biden for any of
41:22
Speaker 4: Hunter Biden's business ventures. There's just nothing there. They've found nothing.
41:26
Speaker 4: I mean, those are just two completely distinct things. And
41:29
Speaker 4: so that's why they keep talking about the Biden crime family.
41:33
Speaker 4: which is revealing because it's obviously a projection of what
41:37
Speaker 4: they understand the Trump family to be. But the reason
41:42
Speaker 4: they keep talking about the Biden crime family is because
41:44
Speaker 4: they can't talk about Joe Biden because they don't have
41:47
Speaker 4: anything on him.
41:48
Speaker 2: There have been reports that you have been helping spearhead
41:52
Speaker 2: some strategy sessions around Democrats about how you will respond
41:56
Speaker 2: to this effort from Republicans. Anything you can tell us
41:59
Speaker 2: about what you guys are thinking about the best way
42:01
Speaker 2: to respond?
42:02
Speaker 4: Well, really, I've just been doing what you and I
42:05
Speaker 4: have been doing now, Dan.
42:07
Speaker 2: Item number one, come on, Pod Save America, and then
42:09
Speaker 2: it takes care of itself from there.
42:11
Speaker 4: Right. Look, we've been in this process for seven months.
42:15
Speaker 4: They have declared this their paramount top priority investigation. And obviously,
42:22
Speaker 4: it's just the excellent and distinguished members of the Oversight
42:26
Speaker 4: Committee on the Democratic side who have been through this
42:29
Speaker 4: over the last seven or eight months. who are educating
42:34
Speaker 4: the other members of the House and the Senate and
42:38
Speaker 4: the public about what we've learned. And it's pretty open
42:43
Speaker 4: and shut at this point. You know, we've agreed, of course,
42:48
Speaker 4: to follow the evidence wherever it goes. We're not interested
42:51
Speaker 4: in political corruption or public corruption. We're not out there
42:57
Speaker 4: saying anything about Hunter Biden other than let the rule
43:00
Speaker 4: of law And he should be treated fairly, not unfairly,
43:06
Speaker 4: but he should be treated fairly under the law and
43:10
Speaker 4: charges were already brought on him. failure to file taxes
43:15
Speaker 4: and gun charges. And we didn't start whining about that.
43:19
Speaker 4: Imagine if one of Donald Trump's children or Jared Kushner
43:24
Speaker 4: had been charged with gun charges. I mean, you can
43:27
Speaker 4: imagine the Second Amendment riots he would be trying to
43:30
Speaker 4: whip up around the country, right? I mean, you can
43:34
Speaker 4: imagine him completely villainizing and castigating and demonizing any prosecutor
43:41
Speaker 4: who would dare to bring charges against one of his children.
43:46
Speaker 4: But that's not what Joe Biden's doing. That's not what
43:50
Speaker 4: Joe Biden's doing. It's not what the Democrats are doing.
43:52
Speaker 4: We're saying, let's have some respect for the rule of law.
43:55
Speaker 4: But the Republicans turn everything into a partisan club.
44:01
Speaker 2: Before I let you go, Congressman, we are a little
44:04
Speaker 2: more than two weeks away from government funding running out.
44:07
Speaker 2: just today. The Republicans had to pull the defense bill
44:11
Speaker 2: because they could not get their own members to support
44:13
Speaker 2: the rule. It seems like we are headed towards a shutdown.
44:17
Speaker 2: What is your take on where this is going?
44:20
Speaker 4: Well, when we first got back to town a couple
44:22
Speaker 4: of days ago, our Republican friends, if we've got them,
44:28
Speaker 4: I certainly have a few, basically gave us the word
44:32
Speaker 4: that They thought they would be able to avert a
44:36
Speaker 4: government shutdown by launching the impeachment inquiry. That would be
44:40
Speaker 4: the price to be paid by Kevin McCarthy and the
44:44
Speaker 4: House and the country for their agreeing not to drag
44:49
Speaker 4: the whole country into a government shutdown and some kind
44:52
Speaker 4: of economic crisis that would follow. I mean, it's quite
44:55
Speaker 4: a choice to present your own country with either a
44:58
Speaker 4: presidential impeachment based on no evidence or else a government
45:02
Speaker 4: shutdown based on no plan and no purpose. But we
45:07
Speaker 4: thought that that was basically the deal that was cut
45:10
Speaker 4: within the constantly tumultuous and riotous GOP conference. Today, we're hearing,
45:18
Speaker 4: you know, in completely predictable fashion, that that did that
45:23
Speaker 4: did not um, fully satiate the monster. Right. And so, um,
45:30
Speaker 4: he tried to appease the mega right with that, but
45:34
Speaker 4: now it, of course, it's turned them just more ravenous
45:36
Speaker 4: and they're demanding a lot more stuff in a lot
45:39
Speaker 4: of different ways. And of course, as we saw during
45:42
Speaker 4: the first week of this horrific, uh, Congress, when McCarthy
45:46
Speaker 4: had to go, you know, cup in hand, begging from
45:49
Speaker 4: each of the Republicans, something, um, each one of them
45:54
Speaker 4: becomes a solo writer, right? They're acting for themselves. So
45:58
Speaker 4: they're all negotiating for their own thing. So in addition
46:01
Speaker 4: to everything else, it's extremely time consuming, but that's, explains
46:06
Speaker 4: the proliferation of committees and subcommittees and special panels and
46:10
Speaker 4: select committees, because everybody needs a gavel and everybody, you know,
46:14
Speaker 4: we have five or six committees and subcommittees doing exactly
46:17
Speaker 4: the same thing, which is going after Joe Biden. They've
46:19
Speaker 4: got no other program for the country. They, in 2016,
46:23
Speaker 4: they literally adopted no platform and they operate as if
46:29
Speaker 4: they have no platform and no project. They abandoned us
46:33
Speaker 4: with the Inflation Reduction Act. Inflation's gone down from 9%
46:36
Speaker 4: to 3%. You can bet they'd be blaming it on
46:39
Speaker 4: Joe Biden if it was up at 27%, if it
46:42
Speaker 4: was multiplied by three, but it was divided by three, right?
46:46
Speaker 4: They didn't help us on reducing prescription drug care costs, right?
46:51
Speaker 4: to $ 35 a month what diabetics have to pay for
46:54
Speaker 4: their insulin shots. I had constituents paying more than $ 1, 000
46:58
Speaker 4: a month to try to keep up with their insulin shots.
47:01
Speaker 4: It's now $ 35 in the Medicare program. We didn't get
47:04
Speaker 4: a single Republican vote on that, right? I mean, I
47:07
Speaker 4: sat there for four years And we had infrastructure day.
47:11
Speaker 4: We had infrastructure week. We had infrastructure month. We just
47:13
Speaker 4: didn't have an infrastructure bill, okay? But Joe Biden got
47:17
Speaker 4: in and we did that. In the second month, the
47:19
Speaker 4: Democrats got together and we did that. A $ 1. 2 trillion
47:23
Speaker 4: investment in the highways, the roads, the ports, the airports, rail, trail, broadband.
47:29
Speaker 4: high-speed internet access in the rural areas. And so we
47:32
Speaker 4: actually have a program. Say what you will about us.
47:35
Speaker 4: Wherever I go, you Democrats can't message. You don't know
47:38
Speaker 4: how to message. Fine. Well, I accept all of the criticisms,
47:42
Speaker 4: the imperfections, the flaws are ours, but at least we
47:45
Speaker 4: are fighting for America. We've got a vision of the
47:48
Speaker 4: common good. And what do we have on the other side?
47:50
Speaker 4: It's nothing but selfishness and chaos and attempt to reinstate
47:56
Speaker 4: the worst president of our lifetimes. who views government simply
48:00
Speaker 4: as an instrument for personal wealth maximization. That's their vision
48:04
Speaker 4: of government.
48:05
Speaker 2: Congressman Raskin, thank you so much. We appreciate your passion.
48:08
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see you out there fighting against
48:10
Speaker 2: these guys as they try to push this bogus impeachment
48:12
Speaker 2: going forward. Good luck with everything. Talk to you soon.
48:15
Speaker 4: Thank you kindly. And thanks for everything you guys do.
48:23
Speaker 1: Okay, before we go, we obviously talked a lot about
48:25
Speaker 1: the House today. But we'd be remiss if we didn't
48:28
Speaker 1: mention what the Senate's been up to this week. The
48:31
Speaker 1: full Judiciary Committee held an important hearing on a critical issue,
48:35
Speaker 1: during which Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana gave one
48:39
Speaker 1: of the most extraordinary speeches that's ever been delivered in
48:42
Speaker 1: the halls of Congress. Though I would like to warn listeners,
48:46
Speaker 1: with young children and delicate sensibilities, you're about to hear
48:50
Speaker 1: some strong language.
48:51
Speaker 6: I got a new strap-on harness today. It will fit
48:56
Speaker 6: my favorite dildo perfectly. I put some lube on and
49:01
Speaker 6: got him on his knees. This was my ass, and
49:06
Speaker 6: I was struggling to imagine someone inside me. I can't
49:10
Speaker 6: wait to have your cock in my mouth. You're going
49:14
Speaker 6: to look so hot. I'm going to give you the
49:16
Speaker 6: blowjob of your life. Then I want you dead. inside
49:20
Speaker 6: of me.
49:21
Speaker 4: End quote.
49:23
Speaker 1: Sir, this is an Arby's. Wow.
49:28
Speaker 5: Wow.
49:28
Speaker 1: Does everyone need a minute just to sit with that?
49:31
Speaker 4: I do.
49:34
Speaker 1: No pun intended. That was Senator Kennedy. quoting the most
49:37
Speaker 1: sexually explicit passages from the two most censored books in America,
49:41
Speaker 1: Maya Kobabe's Genderqueer and George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue.
49:46
Speaker 1: The hearing was called Book Bans, Examining How Censorship Limits
49:50
Speaker 1: Liberty and Literature. It was actually organized by Dick Durbin
49:54
Speaker 1: of Illinois. Dan, thoughts? Thoughts on the hearing? Thoughts on
49:58
Speaker 1: John Kennedy just, you know, just reading his... Did not
50:05
Speaker 1: expect to hear that in Congress.
50:07
Speaker 2: Once a staffer, always a staffer. You and I worked
50:09
Speaker 2: on the Hill. We kind of know how these things go.
50:12
Speaker 2: So was there a meeting where they debated how to
50:17
Speaker 2: approach this, that the right choice was to have the
50:19
Speaker 2: senator read this passage? Or, as is often the case
50:23
Speaker 2: with senators who aren't the most assiduous preppers for events,
50:29
Speaker 2: where they just often learn the questions from a hearing
50:33
Speaker 2: for the first time when they open up the book
50:36
Speaker 2: at the hearing? Is this the first he saw this?
50:40
Speaker 2: It was like halfway through when he realized what he
50:42
Speaker 2: was reading.
50:44
Speaker 1: My guess on this, if you ever have seen John
50:47
Speaker 1: Kennedy give interviews, he says crazy shit all the time.
50:51
Speaker 1: He is in a very safe seat in Louisiana and
50:57
Speaker 1: he kind of just does whatever he wants. So I
50:59
Speaker 1: think he, I think his plan was this is going
51:02
Speaker 1: to go viral and this is going to help make
51:04
Speaker 1: my point. And I don't care if I sound like a,
51:07
Speaker 1: fucking just old white Republican from the South who's talking
51:11
Speaker 1: about lube and strap-ons. That's my theory. But could be wrong.
51:18
Speaker 1: Kennedy was reading this, of course, to Illinois Secretary of
51:21
Speaker 1: State Alexi Janoulis, who we know well from the Obama
51:24
Speaker 1: days and who just helped pass a law in Illinois
51:28
Speaker 1: that prevents book bans. I think it was the first
51:30
Speaker 1: in the country. Here's how Alexi responded.
51:34
Speaker 4: With all due respect, Senator, the words you spoke are disturbing,
51:37
Speaker 4: especially coming out of your mouth is very disturbing.
51:40
Speaker 1: Really speaks for all of us there. Really speaks for
51:42
Speaker 1: all of us. I mean, there is a, to get
51:44
Speaker 1: somewhat serious, there is a larger point here about this
51:48
Speaker 1: book ban debate. We've talked about this before. It's an
51:50
Speaker 1: issue that, you know, I think it's polls 70, 80,
51:54
Speaker 1: 90% of people are against book bans when you ask
51:57
Speaker 1: in polls. So it's a majority Republicans, obviously majority Democrats,
52:00
Speaker 1: independents for certain. you know, what they're trying to do here,
52:04
Speaker 1: what Kennedy was obviously trying to do is pick out
52:06
Speaker 1: the most explicit language in some books and try to
52:11
Speaker 1: say that that's all they're doing is trying to make
52:14
Speaker 1: sure that young kids aren't exposed to this until they
52:19
Speaker 1: are age appropriate. And I wonder, like, what would you
52:22
Speaker 1: say to parents who hear that and think, well, you know,
52:25
Speaker 1: I don't have a problem with my child reading that
52:27
Speaker 1: when they're a little older, but is this what's happening
52:30
Speaker 1: when they're 12, when they're 13? And I want to
52:32
Speaker 1: make a decision about what my child reads and I
52:36
Speaker 1: don't want them to learn that. What do you say
52:39
Speaker 1: to that?
52:40
Speaker 2: I think what the way, and this isn't something that
52:43
Speaker 2: I hear in my real life, is that people pick
52:46
Speaker 2: up sort of on social media some of these examples
52:48
Speaker 2: and then become concerned about what is being taught in
52:52
Speaker 2: public schools in their districts. And so the thing you
52:55
Speaker 2: would tell parents is one, Be involved in what is
52:59
Speaker 2: happening in your district.
53:00
Speaker 4: Go to your school board meetings. Pay attention.
53:02
Speaker 2: Know what's happening for two reasons. One, you're going to
53:05
Speaker 2: have examples like these, but these are a way to
53:08
Speaker 2: just distract people so all these Republicans, the Moms for
53:11
Speaker 2: Liberty and the rest can go in and start banning
53:14
Speaker 2: books that teach people the real history of the United States.
53:17
Speaker 2: Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison. They want to ensure that people
53:21
Speaker 2: don't learn what is really happening. They want to know
53:23
Speaker 2: about race and gender. and sexuality and everything else in America.
53:27
Speaker 2: And so don't be distracted by these. Get involved and
53:30
Speaker 2: learn what's happening because there are going to be people,
53:32
Speaker 2: no matter what, whether you are in a rural district,
53:35
Speaker 2: a suburban district, a school district that Biden won by
53:37
Speaker 2: 50 points, there's going to be efforts by some of
53:39
Speaker 2: these groups to try to affect what your kids read
53:42
Speaker 2: and learn and participate.
53:44
Speaker 1: And I think it's important to note, this is not
53:48
Speaker 1: about telling parents that they don't get to decide what
53:52
Speaker 1: their kids read and when. This is about saying that
53:56
Speaker 1: a few parents can't make a decision to censor a
54:00
Speaker 1: book for every other parent.
54:03
Speaker 2: Or a politician.
54:03
Speaker 1: Or a politician, right? And they had Emily Knox speak
54:07
Speaker 1: at the hearing as well. She's a professor at the
54:09
Speaker 1: University of Illinois, and she made a good point. She said,
54:11
Speaker 1: when it comes to parents, they do have the responsibility
54:14
Speaker 1: to talk to their kids about what they are learning
54:15
Speaker 1: and reading and to steer them towards appropriate choices for
54:18
Speaker 1: their children and their family. However, they do not have
54:20
Speaker 1: the right to make those choices for other children and families.
54:24
Speaker 1: You do not have to read books you don't like,
54:26
Speaker 1: and you can work with teachers to find an alternative
54:28
Speaker 1: for your child if necessary. And that has always been true.
54:33
Speaker 1: It remains true. And the idea that there's just these
54:38
Speaker 1: districts where these liberal teachers are secretly teaching six-year-olds about
54:43
Speaker 1: all this kind of stuff and all this explicit language,
54:46
Speaker 1: that's just not happening. It's not happening. And when there
54:50
Speaker 1: is some kind of controversial book, in a curriculum, parents
54:53
Speaker 1: get a chance to weigh in. And like you said,
54:56
Speaker 1: what some parents are trying to do, and most of
54:58
Speaker 1: them are right-wing activists, are trying to ban a host
55:01
Speaker 1: of books that teach about race and gender and sexual identity,
55:06
Speaker 1: and not just for young kids, like all the way
55:08
Speaker 1: through high school. I mean, these books are being taken
55:10
Speaker 1: off the shelves in libraries throughout the entire school district.
55:14
Speaker 1: So this is not about just like what young kids
55:17
Speaker 1: are learning or not or parental involvement. Every parent gets
55:19
Speaker 1: to decide, what their child learns, and they get to
55:22
Speaker 1: be involved in their child education, and they should be.
55:25
Speaker 1: But you don't get to decide other children's education as
55:28
Speaker 1: a parent. You don't get to tell other parents what
55:29
Speaker 1: to do. And neither, like you said, neither does a politician. Anyway,
55:33
Speaker 1: John Kennedy, thank you for that. That was something.
55:37
Speaker 2: I'm glad we somehow turned that into a conversation of
55:40
Speaker 2: substance and value.
55:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, because, I mean, the shorthand for that segment was
55:45
Speaker 1: just lube and strap-ons here.
55:47
Speaker 2: It's what UBITS wanted.
55:51
Speaker 1: I think that's what the clip was titled. Intrepid producers.
55:57
Speaker 1: Farrah listened to two hours of that hearing. Sal cut
56:02
Speaker 1: it a couple times. Yeah, we had a lot of
56:04
Speaker 1: work on that here. But I'm glad we made a
56:06
Speaker 1: real point out of it. Anyway, thank you. Thank you
56:09
Speaker 1: all for bearing with us. Thank you. Thank you, John Kennedy,
56:11
Speaker 1: for giving us that material. Thank you, Jamie Raskin, for
56:14
Speaker 1: joining Pod Save America today. And everyone have a fantastic
56:17
Speaker 1: weekend and we will see you next week.
56:19
Speaker 4: Bye, everyone.
56:21
Speaker 1: Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our producers
56:24
Speaker 1: are Olivia Martinez and David Toledo. Our associate producer is
56:27
Speaker 1: Farrah Safari, writing support from Hallie Kiefer. Reid Cherlin is
56:31
Speaker 1: our executive producer. The show is mixed and edited by
56:34
Speaker 1: Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer with audio
56:38
Speaker 1: support from Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis. Madeline Herringer is
56:41
Speaker 1: our head of news and programming. Matt DeGroat is our
56:44
Speaker 1: head of production. Andy Taft is our executive assistant. Thanks
56:47
Speaker 1: to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Haley Jones, Mia Kelman,
56:51
Speaker 1: David Toles, Kiril Pallaviv, and Molly Lobel. Subscribe to Pod
56:55
Speaker 1: Save America on YouTube to catch full episodes and extra
56:58
Speaker 1: video content. Find us at youtube.com slash at Pod Save America. Finally,
57:03
Speaker 1: you can join our Friends of the Pod subscription community
57:05
Speaker 1: for ad-free episodes, exclusive content, and a great discussion on Discord. Plus,
57:10
Speaker 1: it's a great way to get involved with Vote Save America.
57:13
Speaker 1: Sign up at crooked.com slash friends.