Latest / Pod Save America / "Memorial Day Mailbag."

Transcript

"Memorial Day Mailbag." · Pod Save America

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. Your tone switch is
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: getting me every time.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Hope you've all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: What color are those pants?
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Again, this is an audio format.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: I would say they're... It's called pink? No, it's more
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: of a lilac. Okay, it might be lilac.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: On today's show, we'll dig into the mailbag to answer
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: some of your questions, and then our chief take officer,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Elijah Cohn, is here for another round. Virtually, yeah, he's
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: not in the office because he's in North Carolina. For
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: another round of Take Appreciator. But before we begin... We
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: got a merch announcement here.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: What is it?
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Our Memorial Day weekend sale is almost over. Thursday, June 2nd,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: also my birthday, is your last day to get 15% off.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Big 5-0.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Fuck you. You're older than me.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: You're older than him. And you're both older than me.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: 15% off site-wide and up to 80% off new sale items.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: It's our biggest sale ever. So if you have your
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: eye on something, now's the time to nab it before
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: it's gone for good. This is the part where the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: hosts have to name their favorite merch store item. For me,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: it's anything Dan related.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Yes. A listener named Charlie was asking when we're going
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: to sell trucks.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Trucks. He wants some garbage trucks. We could do some
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: garbage trucks.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Some take trucks. Garbage take trucks.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Crooked.com slash store. Again, 15% off site-wide, up to 80%
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: off new sale items. Pretty good.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Let's get to your questions. The first one is from
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: AP on Twitter. Please talk about Biden's potential upcoming decision
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: on student loan debt and the pressure that could be
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: placed on him or members of his administration in order
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: to get a result that actually helps people financially. Just
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: for context on AP's question, Friday morning's Washington Post reported
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: that White House officials are currently planning to cancel $ 10, 000
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: in student debt per borrower and limiting debt forgiveness to
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: individuals who earned less than $ 150, 000 last year or couples
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: that earned less than $ 300, 000 last This is according to
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: three sources. The timing on the announcement is apparently imminent.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: We don't know exactly when. Tommy, what do you think?
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: What was Dan's line? Saturday in the third biggest media
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: market in Delaware.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there was some thought that he would announce it
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: at his commencement address over Memorial Day weekend, but that
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: didn't happen.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: It leaked earlier. Listen, I mean, 10,000 is what we expected, right?
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Because that's what Joe Biden campaigned on. It seems like
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Biden has clearly signaled that he has some reservations about
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: going higher. I understand the... desire to target it to
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: a certain income threshold, I worry about how that will
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: be executed. I don't know that we know more about
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: how that will work, the under $ 50, 000.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: You mean the under $ 150, 000? Yeah. I mean, listen.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Income thresholds can be a bit of a blunt instrument where,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: I don't know, it doesn't necessarily talk about your ability
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: to pay or not pay back your debt. But look, $ 10, 000
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: is great. I hope he does it. I hope he
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: does it soon.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I actually, yeah, I'm much happier with the income threshold
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: than the, like, I think you could have gone from,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I think you could have gone up to 50. But
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: like you said, Tommy, he campaigned on 10. That was
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: his promise. And he was elected on 10. So that's
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: what we got is 10. But on the $ 150, 000, 97%
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: of all federal student debt is held by people earning
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: below the threshold of $ 150, 000. In fact, the poorest 20%
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: of Americans hold just 8% of the debt. So like, look,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: this is tax dollars.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: I don't think.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: With all the need out there in the country on
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of different issues, I don't think that
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: people making over $ 150, 000, if they want to make that
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the threshold, that's totally okay with me. I think that's
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: very fair, especially since 97% of debt is held by
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: people who make underneath that.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: Look, it's the official position of my burgeoning desire to
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: challenge Dianne Feinstein for re-election, assuming she's run because she
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: has technically filed for re-election.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: So when I do challenge Dianne Feinstein. She's opposed?
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: What?
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: She's opposed to this plan?
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Uh, no, but I'm expressing my distinct position, which is
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: we should forgive all student debt except for student debt
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: held by MBA and law students.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Oh, got it. Got it. Yeah. Got it.
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: People talk about postgraduate and I'm like, but I think
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: we do want more doctors. I just do want to
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: encourage the doctor to the medical school.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Listen, if your MBA was useful to you, that's fine.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: I don't respect the degree. Wow.
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: You heard me.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: People also know the average amount of debt is $ 28, 000
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: held by an individual, and the majority owe less than $ 20, 000.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: So it would help a lot of people. It wouldn't
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: help everyone under $ 150, 000 who have a lot of debt,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: but it would help a lot of people. So I
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: think it's good. I hope he announces it soon.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Also, Data for Progress just released some polling on the
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: best and worst messages for cancellation of student debt, and
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: the best message was helping low-income borrowers.
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Right, obviously.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: And that was a means-tested message that was about making
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: sure that it was for people under $ 200, 000, I believe,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: in the date of progress.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Yep, $ 200, 000, yep.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: All right, next question is from Sarah. What's your take
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: on David Gergen's pleas for the World War II and
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: baby boomer leaders in Congress to retire? Just for context
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: on this one, well, the first piece of context is
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Tommy really wanted to answer this question. The second piece
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: of context is David Gergen, for those who don't know,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: because maybe some people don't know, was a White House
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: advisor to four presidents before retiring to a CNN panel
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: where I think he lives now.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: On the CNN panel.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's got a cot on the set. It's technically
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: a tiny house.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's what Rick Caruso's talking about.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one of Rick Caruso's tiny houses.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's where David Gergen lives, right under, and then
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Wolf Blitzer wakes him up every morning.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Makes him pancakes.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: He just kind of shakes him. He's under the desk
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: and he says, all right, sit in your chair.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: It's like, uh-oh, Gloria Borges, Gloria Borges playing her, her,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: her music again.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Ugh.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Oh, jazz.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: Can't stand living in a tiny house next to Gloria Borger.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: So, he recently, I guess we should get to the question.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: He recently wrote a book about the baby boomers and
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: made the following comment during his book tour saying, quote,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I just turned 80 and I can tell you, you
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: lose a step, you're not as sharp. Tommy, what's your
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: take on this? That Gergen wants the boomer leaders in
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Congress to retire?
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it's a bit of a broad brush. Listen,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: I love it for some reason to go wild swerve
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: at Dianne Feinstein earlier, but there have been multiple articles
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: written over the years suggesting that she should step down.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: I think that's a good take. I don't think anyone's saying, hey,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Bernie Sanders is really slowing down. He's a progressive. He's great.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: I do think that Congress is very stagnant, especially at
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: the leadership level, and it would be good to have
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: more younger members. They just communicate differently and better and
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: understand technology and so.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah in that they use technology no I'm.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Look I don't want to be yelled at by boomers
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: I'm not in the love it camp here I'm just
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: saying like AOC comes to Washington and uses Instagram live
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: and people act like it's landing a you know spaceship.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: On the moon I'm gonna make a couple quick points
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: point number one hey David Gergen don't put yourself down
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: alright you are fucking sharp as a tack you are
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: crushing it every goddamn day and you know what there
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: are a lot of 30 year olds.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Not running against David Gergen there are a lot.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: Of 30 year olds that would kill to have the
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: The lithe mind of a David Gergen just crushing it
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: on those panels every day.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: I love that CMN Plus show with him that got
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: the ceremony canceled.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: You and David Gergen doing a Stanley Tucci and sit
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: somewhere eating their way through the beltway.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're doing... What.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Was point two?
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, David Gergen and I. Yeah, and will they or
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: won't they?
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: We do. We do.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Eat, pray, love.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: Several times. That's how crazy this... It's really wild. Ayahuasca happens.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: This is a show where I do ayahuasca with David Gergen.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Did you do some before this pod?
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: I'm a little loose today. Listen. Wait, but I have
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: another point. Here's the point I wanted to make.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: There's no.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: It's not that any specific person needs to retire. Actually,
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: I know that I have made bones with.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: The boomers, but it's not.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: It's not about any one person being too old for
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: the job, although there are plenty of people that are
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: too old for the job in their jobs. It's that
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: the fact of living in a gerontocracy is a symptom
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: of a larger problem, which is a system that does
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: not elevate new people and that does not create the
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: space for new people to run. Part of the reason
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: we're stuck with all these old people is we're in
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: this sort of fractured media environment where just building a
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: name has become nearly impossible. It's part of the reason
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: Joe Biden is president right now. And I think we
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: pay a price every single day for not having leaders
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: who who are able to kind of speak in a
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: language that is more familiar to people under 50, under 40,
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: under 30. And every time you see someone just a
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: little bit younger, like Brian Schatz or Chris Murphy kind
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: of take to the floor or AOC take to the
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: floor and just sort of speak in a way that's
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: sort of clear and transparent and not like kind of
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: mired in the language of Washington, you know the price
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: you pay when all the leaders of all the committees
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: are septuagenarians or octogenarians, that's all.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's just as, Congress needs to do
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: a lot better in terms of diversity by race, gender,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: sexual orientation, age too. They just need to do better
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: to have a more diverse.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: But it's not a panacea as Madison Cawthorn showed us.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, of course. That's very good. Well, fun follow-up question
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: from Laura. Tell us your fantasy league of House and
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Senate Democratic leadership.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: This one, I don't know.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: I got some.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: What do you got, please?
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: All right, in the House. There's just some names that
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: I would like to see in leadership. That's all this is.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Jayapal.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she's great. Right?
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Ro Khanna.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: We love Ro Khanna.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Katie Porter.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Please. For sure.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Joe Neguse.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: Everyone loves that guy.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: He's great. Those are just four I could think of
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: in the house.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Neguse was on mine. Josh Gottheimer.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Josh Got... I almost wrote that down as a joke.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: You got it.
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Falkhorn. Gottheimer.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: In the Senate... You guys must have senators.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is where the generational argument becomes quite clear. Like,
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Brian Schatz goes to the floor and speaks like a
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: human being, communicates on Twitter like a human being. You
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: feel like you know him, and he's just really good
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: at the job. Yeah.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: And this is where this cuts against the age thing.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth Warren. I mean, she's in leadership now, but Elizabeth
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Warren would be great in leadership. Cory Booker, Chris Murphy,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: both great.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: I love Cory Booker.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Raphael Warnock. I know he hasn't been there that long,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: but he'd be great in leadership as well.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been a Murphy stan for a while because
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: he likes to geek out on world stuff.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: OK, a few questions on guns in the wake of
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: the school shooting in Uvalde. Leah and several of you asked,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: can Biden do anything by executive action on gun control
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: that he hasn't already done? He did do something on
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: ghost guns.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: He just did the ghost guns. I mean, I tried
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: to look into this a bit. Biden himself said there's
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: not much on executive action that he can do or
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: that's left to do. Some advocates say you should have
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: DOJ unilaterally close the gun show loophole by basically deciding
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: that gun shows and online marketplaces have to get licenses
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: like other dealers. That seems like a good idea.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess they think that the Giffords organization has
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: been pushing this as well. And Kamala Harris, Joe Biden's
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: vice president, had this proposal when she was running, which is,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: you redefine what engaged in the business of selling firearms
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: means from a federal via executive action, and then you
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: can do what you were just talking about, Tommy, which
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: is expand background checks.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Some people want a gun czar, gun coordinator. That's one
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: that will get demagogued by right-wing idiots, but it might
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: be worth it.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Another thing that Kamala Harris proposed as an executive action,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: which she was running, is the banning of assault weapon
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: imports from overseas, which would make Some kind of difference,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: even though most of the a lot of the assault
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: weapons are manufactured right here in the United States, unfortunately.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: But you might as well stop imports from overseas. That
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: seems like common sense. And then she also advocated taking
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: executive action to keep domestic abusers from getting guns. March
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: for Our Lives has said that Biden could do more
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: on stopping firearm trafficking as well through executive action.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And some people just want him to or the
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: administration just to release more data on gun sales so
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: you can trace it better or get the ATF nominee involved.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: confirmed or better enforced red flag laws than the other things.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: But sadly and tragically, you need Congress to do anything
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: that would truly, truly make a difference. Yeah.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: And Mitch McConnell's the most cynical human being on the planet.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. We got some questions about voting in campaigns. Jennifer asks,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: I would love to know your thoughts on phone banks.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Every organization wants people for these and it would be
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: helpful to know as someone who rarely talks to an
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: unknown number, why is this the push and is it smart?
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: I feel like we're all quiet because like we... We
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: have all done phone banking and we know that like,
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: I don't know, whenever I've done phone banking, you make,
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, sometimes you'll make a dozen, two dozen, three
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: dozen calls before you get somebody who picks up. But
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: then once in a while, you'll have a really, really
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: great conversation. My instinct is to say it remains a
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: really important and really valuable tool, but I do worry
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: that it is becoming less and less valuable over time.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: I think the hit rate is getting lower and lower.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: And I felt that difference between 2016, 2018, and 2020.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: I felt the same thing. I remember making calls in 2020.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: Part of it may be just the nature of the pandemic,
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: but I found that I would sit there and I
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: was really dialing and dialing and dialing. That said, it
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: is still a tool that we have. And as much
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: as it feels sometimes like you're kind of beating your
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: head against the wall, I vividly remember... Even in 2020,
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: I had a few conversations, like one or two every
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: time I phone banked, that was actually just, first of all,
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: you got somebody to talk about making sure their ballot
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: got in, that you felt like you were doing something,
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: but also the conversations themselves were.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Helpful.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: It's useful, I think, and something short of inspiring, but
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: a nice feeling to kind of talk to somebody about
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: voting who's maybe not paying attention that much.
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: It's also a question of if people aren't picking up
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the phones... Are they more likely to answer their doors?
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Like it's just at some point you've got to figure
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: out a way to reach people.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It's sort of a question of like, are we
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: talking about phone banking or nothing or phone banking or
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: something else? Right. If it were up to me, I
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: would rather knock on doors than phone bank. I also never,
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: ever answer my phone. Hey, all you politicians, I don't
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: care how many times you call. I'm not ever going
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: to take your fucking call. I'd rather give you money
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: than take your call. And you know what my response
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: is to your text? My response is stop.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Well, I was going to say, I think text banking
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: is probably more effective, but only if it's not a
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: form text. We got to figure out a way because
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: I know it's easier to send a bunch of the
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: form text, but we got to figure out a way
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: to actually sit people, sit volunteers in a room and
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: just like actually text, hey, I'm from whatever.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: You think this text wasn't from Steve Kerr?
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: The ones that put their picture.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: But the key distinction here is the answer is not that.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: phone banking isn't useful. It is useful, especially if you're saying,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: should I phone bank or do nothing? You should absolutely
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: phone bank, especially when you're doing GOTV and just trying
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: to turn people out and remind them that the election's
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: coming up. Yeah.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: And Kalen served us up a big old softball. Midterms,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: where to put our energy now? Well, Kalen, have you
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: heard about votesaveamerica.com?
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Have you heard about it?
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: We have a fantastic midterm program. We are signing up
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: people by region. Midterm Madness. You can take one of
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: four regions around the country. We've all taken a region.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: And we'll set you up with volunteer opportunities in some
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: of the most competitive Senate and House and down ballot
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: races in the country.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Right. You can choose between signing up for the Midwest
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: or being a loser. And I know.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Or the West, where I think we have the most
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: signups right now. Just saying, I think we have the
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: most signups in the West right now.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: Biggest audience. Biggest audience. Also, I'll just say this to everybody.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Are no one in New York listens to us?
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: We have a lot of people in New York, slightly less,
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: which is why we're doing our, and listen, we're obviously
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: the East Coast. We're punching above our weight, as we
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: always do. But here's the thing. I know how many
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: people listen to Pod Save America, and I know how
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: many people have signed up for Midterm Madness.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: It is too big of a difference. Like, we're talking
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: to you. You sign up. Do it now. Bruce. Take
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: two seconds.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Bruce.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: Pick a region, Bruce, and sign up right now.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: All the Bruce's out there, sign up. You're Bruce listening
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: to this episode.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Ellen, you have some free time.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: It's not a contract. It just puts you in the game.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: You'll get the information you need.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Maybe you'll help. Maybe you don't care about this country.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know you. But I'm just
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: saying sign up and then you have a chance. Just
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: pick a region.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Pick a region.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: I'm sick of this. All right.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: We got some fun questions.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: Great.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Michael asks, I'm heading to Boston for a work trip
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: in July, and this is my first time visiting. Anything
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: you guys recommend I should see or do while I'm there?
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I recommend trying New York. It's just a hop, skip,
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: and a jump. Son of a bitch.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Asshole.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: One of my favorite things to do in Boston is
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: to go to New York. You're the worst person in
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: the world.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Go to a Red Sox game. Go to a Red
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Sox game. Even if you don't go to the game,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: hang out around Fenway.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Assault a Yankees fan.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Assault a Yankees fan right around Fenway. The New England
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Aquarium rules. I love the aquarium. Yeah, you're a big
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: fish guy.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Isabella got in a museum. We've discussed that before. One
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: thing people love in Boston.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Is- The Mugara Omni Theater at the Museum of Science.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: How about that?
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Bostonians love Dunkin' Donuts. And what's great about Dunkin' Donuts
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: is it's also available in New York City. Oh, my God.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Go whale watching on the Cape?
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: It tastes different in Boston.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: You do that in New York City?
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Well, now we're leaving Boston. We're going to the Cape?
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Now we're on the Cape. I love the Cape. Listen,
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: it's a hop, skip, and a jump.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: It's the big hop. That's a big hop. You can
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: go on the duck boats. I love. How great are
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: the duck boats?
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, most people live those. Those haven't been turned over
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: in a while, right?
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Most people what?
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Don't those things turn over? Don't they kill people?
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Did you say most people live those? You didn't even
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: have a right to say. You know how to speak?
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: I wanted to do a best of, and you insisted
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: on the recording.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: I said I was burnt out. Love was going to
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: give you a bunch of recycled C-blocks. I said let's
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: do a best of.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: I said I was burnt out. You're like, no.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Just C-blocks you already have. Just attached to news cycles
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: that happened long ago. The best Christmas movies list.
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: Oh, you guys really need to find out what Biden
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: can do if Congress won't act?
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Legal seafood. Go to Legal Seafoods.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I love Legal Seafoods.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Beat up love it that's usually in Boston hi I'm.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: The comment the comment is beautiful you're a beautiful comment.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: Can you stop making fun of an avatar of our
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: listener thank you you're.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Welcome love y'all Tommy defended all of you guys Jesus
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: to love it I got your back love it we
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: have a question for you from Amber you have to
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: pick high speed rail or daylight savings this.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: Is easy high speed rail I'm not gonna hesitate I'm
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: not gonna beat around the bush of course high speed
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: rail we need high speed rail I don't it's it's
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: time All right.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: And you know what? Would I like high.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Speed rail to travel through a country that doesn't needlessly
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: switch its clocks for no reason twice a year?
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: Of course I would. Of course I would. But I'd
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: take the trains. What route are we looking for? What's
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: the first?
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: I want, you know what I want? I want Los
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: Angeles to San Francisco. It has 10 times the people
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: of Barcelona, Madrid, and they built it. They did it with.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: With siestas, with environmental rules, with labor protections. They built it.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Why can't we?
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: Meanwhile, Jerry Brown tries to get the fucking train built.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: Gavin Newsom comes in and he's like, we don't need
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: a train from San Francisco to Los Angeles. We need
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: a train from Bakersfield to Merced.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Cars are made of jamon.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: We just got a Slack comment from our fearless head producer, Andy.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: She said, shocked that he picked high-speed rail. Andy, you
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: shocked Andy.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: You know what? You know what? That's tough. I'm a
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: clown to you people. That's what I think.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: I'm a clown. I'm a fool.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Was there some other intention?
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I suppose. It's hard to remember now. A fast
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: train is pretty cool, though.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: A fast train is pretty cool.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: We need this trance.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Lauren asks, who on the team are keto and who
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: are normal?
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: I am not down with this keto nonsense.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: I've sort of been experimenting with a little less keto lately.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's worked so well.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Here's the thing.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: You know, I don't know if I'm keto with exceptions
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: or just a person who eats whatever he wants.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Keto curious.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: I'm getting that. I'm sort of just like less, fewer carbs,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: I would say.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Fewer carbs.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: I'm not strict keto at all.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: I would, like, I basically, I had a Taco Bell
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: last night after the show. Mexican pizza. It's back. It's
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: better than ever. What a delight. I'm trying to cut
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: these carbs, you know? We're in Hollywood. My first boss,
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: back on the John Edwards for President campaign in 2004,
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: wonderful man David Ginsberg, would send me to Wendy's to
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: buy him multiple burgers. Then I'd come back and I'd
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: remove the bun and he would eat it without the
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: bun because he was keto. And I was like, buddy,
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: I just took away the best part. You know, the
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: rest of that shit's going to kill you slowly. That's
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: why it wasn't keto at the time. We lost a
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: lot of weight. It was Atkins.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Atkins was very, yeah.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Is that different? It was pre-keto. Is it different?
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Sounds like a rebrand.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: It's like when Ecstasy became Molly.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Let's move on. Sean Patrick Maloney will tell you about that. Yep.
• 21:08
  Speaker 5: Yep.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: He bragged about doing Molly on Morning Joe. Just that's
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: something that happened. Second part of that question from Lauren.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: What's the funniest thing Charlie did in the past month?
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Molly.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Charlie was in this office yesterday.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: Wait, if this is a Flintstones chewable.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Charlie was in this office yesterday sitting in Lovett's seat.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: And the two of us did an entire interview about trucks.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: And he really carried on. And then he now knows
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the name of this podcast. He says, Podmerica.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: Nice.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Podmerica.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: That's pretty good. Yeah.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: He's got quite the retention. He does have quite the retention.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: We went home last night. Emily said, who did you
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: see at the office that you know? He said, Tommy.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: And then she said, who else did you see? John Lovett.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: And he says your whole name now.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: I like that. I like that.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: And then he talked about how he gave Pundit a treat.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: He was very excited to give Pundit a dog treat. Yeah.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: The second Charlie was out of eyeline, I took the
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: treat away. I was in time for a treat.
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: Cool.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, Charlie doesn't know. That's not his fault. But
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: I took it right away.
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: What the fuck are you doing, kid?
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: All right. It really did.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Here's a question that Lovett demanded we pick last minute,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: but was too lazy to find the tweet on his own.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: What does Lovett think about Elon Musk's Eldon build?
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Why has it got so many shields? What's he doing
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: with all those shields? And I don't know about a dex. Wait, pause.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: What are these things?
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: Elden Ring is a new game from FromSoftware, which is
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: a famously difficult, challenging world type of game. In it,
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: you can build a character that can be strong or
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: dexterous or use faith or use magic. Elon has built
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: a character that is primarily intelligence-based.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: That's magic. But has a little bit of dexterity so
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: that he can use a weapon like a katana, for example.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Just sort of an annoying troll. No, I mean, look.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: You said katana to me like I'm experienced with katanas.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: Like, as you know, a katana.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: You sort of landed, yeah, as I know.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: A curved sword.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: It's a fast-moving curved sword. A famous for a dexterity build.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: But his inventory had two shields.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: What are you doing, Elon? You don't need two shields.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: You don't need two shoulders to make you heavy. Now
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: you're going to heavy roll. Deflecting box. You don't want
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: to heavy roll. Get yourself down to a light roll,
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: my friend. All right?
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: Come on.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Are we talking Mac and Molly?
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: Light roll. Get yourself. Yeah, listen. Elon, Elon, Elon, listen.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: I know there's some context where you like to heavy roll.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: But this is a place where you want to light roll,
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: my friend. I know what those 5 a.m. tweets are about, pal.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Okay. We also got a few fun summer-related questions from
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: a listener who goes by Tommy Vitor.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: Tommy? Yeah. I mean, it just feels like we got
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: some summer vibes.
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: That was the goal we were going for in this mailbag.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: Summer vibes achieved. You guys got a favorite summer blockbuster?
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: I really want to see Top Gun 2. So this
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: is like of all time though, right?
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Mostly because for the science.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: I can't figure out which is my favorite summer blockbuster
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: from growing up. Either Jurassic Park.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Or Independence Day.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Correct answer both.
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: Jaws is up there.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Jaws.
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Do the Right Thing is a good summer movie. Yep. Adventureland, Caddyshack.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Do the Right Thing is not a summer blockbuster. It's
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: a summer movie. Yeah, I guess there's... Right, you're thinking
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: like big budget popcorn action.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: I was also thinking like that were released when I
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: was growing up that I can remember. Which Caddyshack doesn't
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: really fit the bill there.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: Right, that was an old one. Yeah. Okay.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: So anyway, yeah, those are mine.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: It's funny. I'm trying to think, like, what is the truly,
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: the best action, big budget.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: I was so excited to see Jurassic Park. I can
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: remember just going to the theater.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: The best big budget action movies of all time that
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: I've loved in the theater.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Oh, Armageddon for you, right?
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: Listen, I'm a deep impact man in an Armageddon world, right?
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: The science was better in Deep Impact, although I do
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: not understand and will never understand why Tia Leone decided
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: to go back to be on that beach with her
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: fucking dad. Didn't make any sense. You're going to die
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: so you can have one last hug with this absent father?
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: The world needed you on MSNBC. That was the whole point.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: The world needed you. And she dies in the ocean.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: And meanwhile, she just gone uphill with, um, Elijah Wood. Uh,
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: she'd have been fine.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: I don't remember this movie.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: I don't either at all.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Neither do I. Is it good?
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: I barely, I barely remember it. Uh, best month of
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: the summer, June, July, August, September are your options.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Oh, you're throwing September in there. I guess that makes sense. Um,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: I'm an August boy.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: I love August.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: I'm going July because I feel like June is still
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: too busy, too many, it doesn't, no one treats it
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: as summer enough yet. I think July is your real
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: total summer month.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go June.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: You got 4th of July.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: Right. No, no, I go June because I'm an August
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: 31st birthday. And so there's something about August, the month
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: of August will forever make me think Summer is about
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: to be over and now I'm going to be back
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: at school. Even having lived in Los Angeles for five
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: years where it stays warm all the time. And frankly,
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: it's nicer in September and October and November sometimes than
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: it is earlier in the summer because of June gloom.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: It's a thing we have out here called fog that
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: we whine about when it's 57 or 65 degrees. June,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: you have the whole summer ahead of you.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I do love June too. It's my birthday month.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: But if you live your life Viewing the times in
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: which there's more good ahead as a reason to judge
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: those moments as good. Can anything be good when everything
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: is limited and everything will run out no.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Matter what you do?
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Therapy boys.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Uh-oh.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: Is it time for another chapter in the story of
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: the therapy boys?
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: I have an idea. What if we just all did
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: a 10-minute mindfulness meditation and we released it?
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: It's just Elijah has to wait for 10 minutes to
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: come in for Take Appreciator.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: He can deep breathe with us. Everybody close your eyes.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Think of one good thought. I don't think my other
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: questions were good. If you guys have predictions on who
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: will drop the song of the summer, I'd love to
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: hear it. That's a tough prediction.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I was thinking that I hope Rihanna finally drops
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: her album.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: Finally. Put some money on it.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Get a future on Megan. That would be the album
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: of the summer, I bet.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Megan Thee Stallion. Put a future on her. I bet
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Bieber will do something stupid. Everyone will like it. John?
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Maybe a film score? Yeah, maybe. Film score.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Maybe there'll be a nice film score. Maybe something Ira
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: Glass releases. You mean Philip Glass?
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: I was going for the podcast version. I'm sure Taylor
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: will re-release 1989 soon. That'll be something.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: There we go. Should we do Take Appreciators?
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah, let's do it.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Folks, we're back with another round of Take Appreciator. Our
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: chief take officer, Elijah Cohn, joining us by video.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Hey, guys.
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: Rock solid A-block. That was really tight.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: Stephen A. Cohn, how's it going out there?
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: One of our better A-blocks.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: You got big plans for the weekend? You got big,
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: big holiday plans?
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: Well, the weekend already happened for everyone who's listening.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: But, you know, that's risky.
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: I did want to say that it's risky to do
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: a take appreciator interview. this far in advance of release
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: so we'll see how this ages.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: We'll see how it goes yeah like a fine wine
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: i'm sure.
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: All right so just a reminder for everyone how the
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: game works i'm going to share some takes with you
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: all the producers have seen them john john and tommy
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: have not they'll react and rate them on a scale
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: of one to four politicos with four being the worst
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: are you guys ready.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah we're ready we're ready couldn't be all right we'll.
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: Get started then uh we agreed there are a lot
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: of horrible gun control takes out there right now very
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: trolly and bad and we agreed that we would avoid
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: them for this segment, but we'll go adjacent to it.
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: So after the Evaldi shooting, Beto O'Rourke interrupted a press
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: conference that Governor Greg Abbott was holding saying that Abbott
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: wasn't doing enough on gun control. That spawned this piece
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: from the Daily Mail, which has an extremely long title.
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: The title of the piece is, This Isn't Time for
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: Political Stunts, and Texans Don't Need Two-Bit Washed-Up Politicians Like
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: Beto O'Rourke hijacking their horror for his own selfish political interests.
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: That's just the title. There's a quote. This is not
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: a partisan or political moment. This is not about showboating
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: for the cameras getting follows on Twitter or shares on Instagram,
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: which was clearly Beto's intention. I know there are many
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: people on social media applauding Beto, but as Dave Chappelle
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: once said, Twitter is not a real place. Guys, who
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: wrote it?
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, for the Daily Mail? Who writes for the Daily Mail?
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: Oh my God, I know who it is. I know
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: who it is. It's that fucking shit eating. It's Piers Morgan.
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: It is not Piers Morgan.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Fuck. I thought I had it. I don't know. Am
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: I close?
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: How do you get close to Piers Morgan?
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: It's a, you know.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: Emotionally close.
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: Oft mocked famous pundit. So you're close in that way.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: The Daily Mail.
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: I got it.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: I got it.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: It's Meghan McCain.
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: It's Meghan McCain.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Oh, nice, John. That's good.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Forgot she was writing for the Daily Mail now.
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Mostly the Daily Mail is just that website with a
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: whole side column of just horribly misogynistic photos and garbage.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Let me just say, yeah, you know, if you want to,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Beto O'Rourke is currently running for governor of Texas, and
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: if you want to win the governorship of Texas, definitely
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: the politically shrewd move is to scream about guns in
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: that state, right? Like we like, like Beto's doing it
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: just for his own political fortunes. Like it's not a
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: popular thing to do what he did. He did it
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: because he fucking believes that he needed to do something.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: Come on.
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: I also, even if, even if he is trying to
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: draw attention to the issue, because he believes, believes it
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: might be politically advantageous to try to build more support
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: for this issue by showing his anger and his outrage against,
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: More power to him. I am so fucking sick of
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: theater critics judging the performance of how politicians decide to
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: engage on issues at a time and when like the
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: bigger question is not like Beto's tone and where he
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: decides to speak about the fact that kids are getting killed.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: In their classrooms.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: What Meghan McCain wants is for everyone to mourn the
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: tragedy and then say nothing about gun control at all
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: because she doesn't believe in gun control. That's what she wants.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: So that's what she's trying to do by writing this
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: fucking piece. Like, give me a fucking break.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: Whenever anyone says don't politicize something, what they really mean
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: is maintain the politics as they currently exist because I
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: like them.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: That's of course.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: Also Daily Mail, we kicked your ass 200 years ago
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: so we didn't have to listen to this kind of
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: bullshit opinion.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: There you go. Yeah.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Go write about Boris Johnson.
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: Nice.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Write about Boris Johnson.
• 32:08
  Speaker 5: Nice.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Oh, we didn't break it. It was the whole game. Three.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: I was going to say three, too.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Three. I'm close to giving that a full playbook. I'm
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: really mad.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: I just have a low bar for the source.
• 32:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: I'm giving it a full playbook.
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: I'm doing it. Wow. I'm mad. He's mad.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Well, Worldos. Steam coming out of his ears.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Uh-oh.
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: Worldos, buckle up. This next one is, I can only
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: describe it as delicious.
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: It's as much about the author as the take. They
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: are inseparable. So from the Washington Post, a piece titled,
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: Biden Must Stop the Promiscuous Publicizing of U.S. Intelligence. Pause here.
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: That is a note to myself to pause there.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Leave that in. Leave it in. Leave it in. That
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: was incredible.
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: That's why I have more pauses after the titles. Sometimes
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: I just go right into it. But again, Biden must
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: stop the promiscuous publicizing of U.S. intelligence.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: This piece starts by pointing out that Biden releasing intelligence
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: on Ukraine did not stop Putin from invading. It also
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: attacks the media for not being more critical of the
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: fact that Ukraine did not fall quickly, even though the U.S.
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: warned that it could if Russia invaded. And here's a quote.
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: It's not just coincidence that the intelligence and communication strategy
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: mistakes in Ukraine echoed errors in Afghanistan, two major blunders
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: hardly six months apart. Who wrote it?
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: I think I got this one. I think this was
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Mark Thiessen.
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: Not Mark Thiessen.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: He's a... Wait, do we know the publication? Torture-loving former
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: Bush speechwriter.
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: Washington Post. Guest writer, though.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: Guest writer. Yes. A guest writer.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: So it's not Hugh Hewitt.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was my next go-to. That didn't sound like Hugh.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: Intelligent. Is it some... Is it Ari Fleischer?
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: No.
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: He is a former administration official, though, and an all-time asshole.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: Mike Pompeo?
• 34:15
  Speaker 5: Nope.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: Trump era, question mark.
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: Trump era, but also before.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Was it a CIA director? Oh, it's John Bolton.
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: Yes, it's John Bolton. John, good, too, there.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: John Bolton.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: The stash.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: That was good.
• 34:32
  Speaker 5: Nice.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a full playbook. Just sort of hindsight, totally wrong.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Also, just like, yeah, look who's talking about intelligence failures,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: John Bolton.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for a rock.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: Look who's talking about intelligence failures. Yeah, that gets like a,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: just because of the gall to talk about someone else's
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: intelligence failures and also you're doing it incorrectly.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: That's a three. That's three. I'll give that three.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm at three. I'm still at three. It did.
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: It did excite. I want to say that one did
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: excite me a lot.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: See, I like that one too.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: Is that the one that you texted me about last night?
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: You were so excited. Yeah.
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: And I actually made a meme of my reaction to it.
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: That'll slide to you guys after this. It's like the
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: Vince McMahon meme.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: This is someone who loves his work right here.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: Look at that. The passion's radiating. I love that. I
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: love that.
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: All right. Well, let's get to this last one and
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: see if we can get love it onto a full playbook.
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: This one again is also, just as much about the
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: authors as the take. Uh, so the context for it, um,
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: is that in June, the house January 6th committee will
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: be holding multiple televised hearings on the insurrection. We will
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: of course be covering those here at crooked with some
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: live stream group threads. So go subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: So you don't miss them.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: YouTube.com. Pause.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: Elijah.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: Elijah. Don't forget your pauses.
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: Thank you. No, I have it down. So here's the,
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: here's the piece from the wall street journal. It's titled
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: the January 6th committee is weaponizing majority rule.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: Oh my God.
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: The piece asserts that the committee is partisan and it
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: complains about the fact that the committee is subpoenaing some
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: house Republicans. Here's a quote. This attempt to coerce information
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: from members of Congress about their official duties is a
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: dangerous abuse of power, serves no legitimate purpose, and eviscerates
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: constitutional norms. Who wrote it?
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: So it feels like a House member. Do you know
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: the answer?
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Is it the Ed Board?
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: It's not the Ed Board.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: I think it's a House member, and my question is
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: whether or not... So here are the contenders for who
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: wrote this. Kevin McCarthy.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Who?
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: Jim Jordan.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: Elise Stefanik.
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: No, I don't think so. She's not doing anything highbrow.
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: She's not wasting her time.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: At the board. I feel like it's not someone who's
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: the target of the subpoena. But the reason it could
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: be Kevin McCarthy is... It's one of their henchmen to
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: try to get them.
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: It's two. It's a co-written piece, I will say.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Oh. Curveball.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: So who are the minority... Who are the minority... Who
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: are the ranking Republican members? I said Jimmy Jordan, kind of.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Jim Jordan feels involved.
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: That's one of them. Jim Jordan is one of them.
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: Oh.
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Boom.
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we got Jim. So who would do an op-ed
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: with Jim Jordan? What scuzzy fuck... Let's see.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: Danny Hastert?
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: Scuzzy fuck is funny. Jim Jordan and.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: It's not Kevin.
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: It is Kevin. Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan. And they
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: are both subject of subpoenas.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: I would like to say they were the first two
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: I said.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: They were the first two you said. That just moved
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: me to a full playbook because the fucking, the gall,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: the subject of the subpoenas to write. Oh yeah, I'm
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: sure you're an unbiased viewpoint here. You don't want to
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: be subpoenaed.
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like, has Me Too gone too far by
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: Johnny Depp?
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, my God. Wow. That's a full T. That's a
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: full playbook. Full playbook. Also, the Wall.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: Street Journal gets the full playbook for printing that.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: For existing. Yeah. It's funny. The Wall Street Journal is
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: such a... Come on.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: What an embarrassment.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Fuck, man. The Wall Street Journal editorial page.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Also, coercing information. We're going to ask you a question.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: Can't you just answer a question about what you were
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: doing on January 6th?
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: Is that.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: That riles you up that much? Just going to ask
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: you a question about what you were doing.
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: It sort of actually admits, it's a tacit admission, right?
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: Because wouldn't their whole argument be they don't have information
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: because they did nothing wrong?
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: Subpoena a bunch of Democrats in the House about what
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: they were doing on January 6th. They'll all answer questions.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: What's wrong with answering a question about what you were doing?
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: What are you trying to hide, Jim Jordan and Kevin McCarthy?
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable. Yeah. No, not fans. All right, well. Full playbook.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: That's another.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: Full playbook.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: That is another round. Of take, appreciate her. Chief Take
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Officer Elijah Cohn, thank.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: You for your service, as always. Stephen A. Smith of
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Crooked Media.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: Everyone else, we will talk to you again at the
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: New York show on Thursday night. It'll be out as
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: a pod first thing Friday morning, or hopefully if you're
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: in New York, we'll see you at the show.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: Come on.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Bye, everyone.
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: Bye, everybody.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: producer is Michael Martinez. Our senior producer is Andy Gardner Bernstein.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: Our producer is Haley Muse, and Olivia Martinez is our
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: associate producer. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Sessions.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Our episodes are uploaded as videos at youtube.com slash crookedmedia.