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Trump "Proudly" Supports Abortion Bans · Pod Save America

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: I'm Jon Lovett.
• 0:22
  Speaker 4: I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: On today's show, Donald Trump promises his billionaire donors more
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: tax cuts and whiter immigrants. Joe Biden announces student debt
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: relief for another 23 million people and finally gives Bibi
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Netanyahu an ultimatum. And later, Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin stops
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: by the studio to talk through her tough reelection campaign, TikTok,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: and what actually counts as milk.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, what does count as milk?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Stay tuned to find out.
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: Is this a continuation of the Wisconsin trip I wasn't on? Yeah.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Sure, yeah. Everything happened there. The great nook today. The
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: best trip we've ever been on.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: That was an incredible trip.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: The inside jokes from that trip that you don't understand
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: never stops.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: We still talk about it. But first, Trump said over
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: the weekend that he'd finally be releasing a statement on
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: abortion that was designed to, quote, win elections. That was
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: in his post. And in a video posted on Monday,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: he again took credit for overturning Roe v. Wade and
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: promised that his president, He let states pass even the
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: most extreme abortion bans without any exceptions. Here's a clip.
• 1:17
  Speaker 5: Many people have asked me what my position is on
• 1:20
  Speaker 5: abortion and abortion rights, especially since I was proudly the
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: person responsible for the ending of something that all legal scholars,
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: both sides, wanted and in fact demanded. Roe v.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Wade.
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: They wanted it ended. It must be remembered that the
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: Democrats are the radical ones on this position because They
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: support abortion up to and even beyond the ninth month.
• 1:46
  Speaker 5: The concept of having an abortion in the later months
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: and even execution after birth. And that's exactly what it is.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: The baby is born.
• 1:55
  Speaker 5: The baby is executed after birth is unacceptable. And almost
• 2:00
  Speaker 5: everyone agrees with that. My view is now that we
• 2:03
  Speaker 5: have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint.
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both.
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: And whatever they decide must be the law of the land.
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: In this case, the law of the state. Many states
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: will be different. Many will have a different number of
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: weeks or some will have more conservative than others. And
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: that's what they will be. At the end of the day,
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: this is all about the will of the people.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Just beautiful. Beautiful. Guy's pretty sick. A little deranged. It's the, uh, also, uh,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: just a little all over the place at the end there. He's,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: he's clearly was reading some of it from a, from
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: a prompter and he still couldn't fucking, he reads the riffs.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: It's the most, it's the most, um, when he has
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: to do something like this, it's the most like a hostage.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: He sounds, you know, he's, he's, uh, deeply uncomfortable.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: So, uh, Trump had been weighing a 15 or 16
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: week national ban, but ultimately decided that whatever that was,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: it's better politics. What do you guys think?
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: Is he right? I think so. I think he's trying
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: to muddy up an incredibly extreme, unpopular position on abortion.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: And he's betting that this video will make someone the
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: right angry, like Mike Pence, his former vice president, who
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: angrily tweeted, I guess, or truth. I don't know what
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: he does anymore. Whatever Pence does, he's mad about this.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: But Trump is betting the far right is going to
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: turn out no matter what. And they'll at least get
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: that he's winking here about his real position. I think
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: The political challenge for Biden is that a lot of
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: people believe the Trump persona from the Apprentice days. They
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: don't believe that he's personally opposed to abortion, especially low
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: education swing voters don't necessarily know that he's the reason
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: Roe versus Wade was overturned. So I think this is
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: the right political bet.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: What do you think, Leavitt?
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's right.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: I also think he's banking on the fact that the
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: statement is going to be covered at face value. Yes. A,
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: it's going to be covered as if the position he's
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: taking is a position he will continue to hold. Or B,
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: that you can even accept this characterization of what he's saying,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: because there's nothing in his statement that actually says, I
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: oppose or I will not sign a national abortion ban.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: There's nothing. There's nothing in it that precludes, you know,
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: if he were to end up signing a national abortion ban,
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: there are people that say he's changing, that he's going
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: against his word. He has not given his word. He
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: has made no promise to not do what everyone expects
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: him to do, which is sign a national abortion ban.
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: You say, if Congress passes a federal ban, will you
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: veto it?
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Honestly, he didn't say much new.
• 4:34
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: For all the buildup to this, it wasn't much new.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: So I think it was better politics than him endorsing
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: a 15 or 16 week ban. But I still think
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: better politics isn't necessarily good politics. Like, I do not
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: think he has solved his problem at all here. He
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: still hasn't answered, will he sign a national abortion ban
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: if it comes to his desk? He still has not
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: answered the question, as a Florida resident, is he going
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: to vote to keep the six week ban in Florida?
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: And the big one, will he ban abortion medication? A
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: lot of his goons have been telling reporters that they
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: want him to invoke the Comstock Act, which would ban
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: medication abortion.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: A law from 1873.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: From 1873. And of course, two-thirds of abortions are through
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: abortion medication. The Texas Solicitor General who designed their state's
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: ban said to Politico at one point, we don't need
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: a federal ban when we have Comstock. So you have to...
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: To believe that Donald Trump is not going to further
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: restrict abortion, you would have to believe that even though
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: he filled his administration with fundamentalist right-wing kooks last time around,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: that he's not going to do it this time around.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: And now that Dobbs has been decided, that they're not
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: going to just decide to do what they want to
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: do and have wanted to do for a long time,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: which is use the federal government to ban medication abortion
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: that you can send through the mail. I mean, okay.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: If you want to believe that, that's fine.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: By the way, it's going to be the same kooks.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: It's not a big new group of kooks.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Worse kooks.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: I would say there's worse kooks.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: There'll be more and worse kooks, but the same people
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: that helped put together the plan to promote the judges
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: and write the executive actions to do everything they could
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: to restrict or overturn or ban abortion will be the
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: same people that come in next time. The Heritage Foundation
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: had this report, the 2025 project. In it, they talk
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: about how the next conservative administration has to, obviously, sign
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: a national abortion ban if they can get it through Congress,
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: but even if they can't, yes, they want to go
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: after Mifepristone. But there is a part that I went
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: through it, and I just looked through all the parts.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: First of all, this thing is fucking insane. Just one
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: sentence that I happened upon by accident. It's like 500 pages.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: it should be imprisoned. Just kind of in there.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: Good to know.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: But one part of it says, the FDA, this is
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: about Mifepristone, the FDA is statutorily charged with guaranteeing the
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: safety and efficacy of drugs and therefore should withdraw this drug, mifepristone,
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: that has proven to be dangerous to women and by
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: definition fatally unsafe for unborn children. And if that is
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: their logic, right, their logic is that no abortion drug
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: can be definitionally safe, right? That means any kind of
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: abortion treatment, anything, any kind of care that could lead
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: to an abortion would be something that the FDA would
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: try to overturn. And so there could be no technical
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: ban on the books in California, but they will go
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: bit by bit through every single way that a person
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: accesses abortion care and make sure that that is inaccessible
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: or punishable or criminalized.
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: And then there are the steps that would land a
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: national abortion ban on his desk. If Donald Trump wins
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: the presidency, it is virtually guaranteed that Republicans will have
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: the Senate. It is pretty likely that Republicans will have
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: the House. They get the House, it'll easily pass through
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: the House an abortion ban. The Senate, I do think,
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: is more of a challenge. Because if they have 51 votes, yes,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: they could get rid of the filibuster to pass one,
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: but they probably don't have Collins and Murkowski for an
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: abortion ban. But they could still have 53, 54 seats, right,
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: if Donald Trump wins. So then imagine a Republican House
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: passing a ban and a Republican Senate passing a ban
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: and then it getting to Donald Trump's desk, Donald Trump
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: who does not have to face voters again.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: We think he's going to be like, no, no, no, no, no.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: I'm going to veto at this point.
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: He's going to sign it.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: So Biden responded saying Trump is responsible more than anyone
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: in America for the cruelty and chaos unleashed by Dobbs.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: And Biden promised to make the freedom to choose the
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: law of the land if he's elected with a Democratic Congress.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Here's a clip.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump just endorsed every single state ban on reproductive
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: care nationwide. All across the country, women are being turned
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: away from emergency rooms. or being forced to travel hundreds
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: of miles or ask a judge just to get the
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: basic care they need. That's Donald Trump's vision for this country?
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: He said it himself. He punished women who seek out
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: the care they need. If MAGA Republicans put a federal
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: ban on his desk, he'd sign it. Donald Trump is
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: the reason Roe's ended. If you reelect me, I'll be
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the reason why it's restored.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Campaign's also out with an absolutely gutting new ad about
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: a woman from Texas who nearly died twice after she
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: was denied care for a miscarriage. because of the state's
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: abortion ban. What did you guys think of the Biden
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: campaign response, which has really been pretty full-throated and been
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: happening all day? They've had surrogates out, they've got ads,
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: they've got the president out, they had the vice president out.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: What'd you guys think?
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: I think they understand that this is one of the
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: most important ways that they're gonna defeat Donald Trump, but
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: they're not gonna let him get away with this statement.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: And they're really gonna not, and what's I think really
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: important about it is they're not gonna let it be
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: reported at face value. They're gonna make sure that they're
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: in the story Calling him a fucking liar, which he is,
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: but also pointing out all the ways in which he's
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: responsible for Roe being overturned. The ways in which Roe
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: being overturned doesn't just affect people who need abortions, but
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: affects people who need all kinds of medical care.
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm glad that they jumped all over this. I mean,
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: I too was a little disappointed with how credulous the
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: reporting was. Yeah. at least the first round of it
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: on this video. I think Biden did a good job
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: of being clear what he would do. I think we
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: need to push back even more on this disgusting claim
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: that Democrats want to kill infants after they're born. I mean,
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: that is murder. It is illegal, even in blue states.
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: It's outrageous. That doesn't happen. It never happened. But it's
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: a Trump talking point. But I do think the ad
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: that you're talking about is those kind of stories will
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: do the most to influence opinion. But Biden in his statement,
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think his point is going to be,
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: look what Trump did, not what he says. That's all
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: you need to know. Make this broader argument about it's
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: not just Trump that will get elected. It's this right
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: wing extremist crop of zealots in his coalition that wants
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: a national abortion ban. And then I think you have
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: to point out the inconsistencies, which is Trump can say
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: that he's for certain exceptions for the life and health
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: of the mother or for rape or incest. But if
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: he's okay with these extreme state by state bans, that
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: completely undercuts that position.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And I thought the Biden campaign just has been
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: tweeting out like state by state, some of the most
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: heinous extreme bans. And now Trump owns all of those bans.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: There's a little bit of like people trying to convince,
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Democrats trying to convince people like, This is what Trump
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: would really do. This is what's in his mind. He's lying.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: And like, do I think he's a liar? Yeah, of course.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: But we don't have to convince people of that. We
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: don't have to exaggerate much here. All you have to
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: do is exactly what he's already done, what Tommy was
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: just saying. And he owns every single ban that is
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: currently in place right now.
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: Including his home state.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: Well, I would also say, you know, he actually doesn't
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: say health of the mother. He says life of the mother,
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: which there's a lot of reasons a person would need
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: an abortion because of their health. One being that they
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: would like to have children in the future. Right. that
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: this doesn't provide exemption for. The other thing is, you know,
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: I think sometimes Trump, Trump gets exempt from normal politics
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: because he's crazy. And then when he's normal, gets, gets
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: exempt from normal politics because he's crazy. And I, in like,
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: in this case, like treat him like a normal politician,
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: like John, you mentioned this, but Florida, Florida voters will
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: have the opportunity to either protect abortion access in Florida,
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: or basically approve a six week ban. No, there's no
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: 15 weeks. There's no, oh, we're going to find the
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: perfect thing. He's going to have a very simple choice
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: for the next year that will be ahead of him,
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: whether he would be in favor of a six-week ban
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: or protections. It's an either-or, and he should just be
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: hammered on that until he provides an answer, because I
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: assume he's going to avoid answering for as long as
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: he possibly can.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: And medication abortion is popular among Republicans. You know, this
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: is like very early. It's an 80-20 issue. Yeah, it's
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: used in early stages of pregnancy. It's 60% of abortions,
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: medication abortion. I mean, there's some weirdness on the numbers
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: when you talk about whether people approve of getting shipped
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: over state lines. I think because the polling was bad
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: more than anything, but it's a very popular path for people. Yeah.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: And you can, you know, you can debate what he's
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: going to do, what he might do, what he has
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: done this span, this many weeks. But I think him owning...
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: what has already happened proudly, as he said in the video,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: and then watching an ad like that from the Biden
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: campaign for most voters, that's how this is going to land,
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: this debate.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: And by the way, we're going to get another cycle.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Like he's going to be asked the next time he
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: does any kind of a mainstream interview, like, does this
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: mean you're going to veto a national abortion ban? And
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: he is going to fump for, I mean, who knows
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: what he's going to say, but that is going to
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: be the next.
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: Round of this. Hopefully we'll get it on the right
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: wing interviews too. I know Hugh Hewitt doesn't have a spine,
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: but eventually he'll talk to like a, you know, some
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: Christian outlet or something.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: You know what he's going to say? He's going to say,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: before it even gets to that, I'm going to bring
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: both sides together. We're going to make everyone very happy.
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he just lied. So you would sign him. So
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: you would sign him, man.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: We're going to make everyone very happy. Look, you know
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: what I did? I killed Rove versus Wade. Everyone wanted
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: me to. Anyway.
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Anyway, have you seen the eclipse?
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: Beautiful, beautiful eclipse.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: So Trump also hosted a big fundraiser in Palm Beach
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: over the weekend with some of the worst billionaires on
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: the planet. People who profited off of the subprime mortgage crisis,
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: compared higher taxes to the Holocaust, and opposed the Civil
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: Rights Act, just to name a few.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: John, just be careful, because for two of those, they
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: could be our billionaires, too.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: Trump promised the billionaires more tax cuts, said he only
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: wants immigrants from, quote, nice countries like Denmark and Norway,
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: and accused Joe Biden of pooping on the Resolute Desk.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: You guys catch that one?
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: I mean, I didn't catch that one, but I read
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: the story.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: You read the story?
• 14:19
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: The campaign claims that the event raised $ 50 million, which
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: would be double what Biden raised in New York the
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: other week. Lots to unpack there, starting with the money.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: You guys buy the $ 50 million number?
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: Here's how I feel about this. Do I believe they
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: would lie to say it's double, say it's double? Oh,
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: we doubled it.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: We doubled it.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: Do I also believe that a group of the country's
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: absolute fucking worst billionaires would get together to give $ 50
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: million to the guy whose only legislative accomplishment is cutting
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: their taxes?
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: Yes, I believe that as well.
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: So I'm really open.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: I'm really open. My mind is open.
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: We will not know for sure until we see the
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: campaign finance reports, but it's possible. So remember, they're raising
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: money for the Trump 47 Committee, which is a joint
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: fundraising account that goes to the Trump campaign, the RNC,
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: state parties, and Trump's super PAC. So that committee can
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: accept a check up to $ 824, 600 per person. So is
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: it possible that they found 60 billionaires? Like the ones
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: love it just described and said, right. The max possible.
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: I mean, one person I talked to said they heard
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: this event was all the low hanging fruit for Trump. Uh,
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: and like you said, this is like, you know, they
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: view this as an investment in a future tax cut.
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: It's not a donation.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: That was a lot of low hanging fruit.
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: I mean, there's a lot of fruit in that room,
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: like super rich people, right? You have big check, but
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: it's also possible that they're just screwing with the accounting
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: and that a big chunk of what they're reporting was
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: super packed donations. which can take unlimited money from whomever.
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: And also, by the way, that will end up paying
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: Trump's legal bills. So the Biden campaign thinks that they're
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: reporting a bunch of super PAC money and that this
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: is just an apples to oranges comparison with his event
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: in New York.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Can I just say one more thing on this? If
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: they want to lie about raising $ 50 million from some
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: of the worst billionaires in the country who he then
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: just promised a whole bunch, like another trillion dollars worth
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: of tax cuts to, go for it.
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: I would gladly cede the title of big money campaign.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: I don't know why we get into this thing where
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: it's like, oh, the Biden is 25 million. Oh, it's double.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: We're more than you. Like, no, but raising a lot
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: of money like this is a necessary evil in politics.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Who the fuck cares who raised money? We just need
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: a well-funded campaign to run a bunch of ads and
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: beat Donald Trump.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they were doing the kind of, they
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: did the 25 million number to show like, look at
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: the strength of this thing.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Which is good.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: At a time when the polling wasn't great. This is
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: just like, Trump double, we double, you bad, we double,
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: you old shit on desk, we double.
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: That's what that is. You can certainly imagine Trump reading
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: the $ 25 million headlines and saying, we need to double this,
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: figure out how to make it happen.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: And also like, you know, it could be donations that
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: have been coming in for a long time.
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: It could be a bunch of earmarked things for this event.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: It seems to me like tax cut for billionaires and
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: white immigrants only isn't the message to win over those
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: swing voters, but maybe some of these voters are cross-pressured
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: to By their opposition to Joe Biden shitting in the Oval?
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: What do you guys think?
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: LBJ famously took meetings on the toilet.
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: The mountain comes to Muhammad with Biden.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: Hustle culture has gotten pretty bad. So maybe you're just
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: sort of skipping a step here and being even more efficient.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: Just reading the words in The New York Times, when
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: we asked attendees, they said he was referring to Biden
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: actually defecating on the desk.
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: Because when I first saw it, I assumed it was
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: fake news. Meticulous reporting.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: I assumed it was fake news. I assumed that people
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: were misreporting a Trump ridiculous statement.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: That he was saying. You think it was just a
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Friday news dump?
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: I did the usual DC bullshit. But no, what I
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: thought is, I thought that he was saying Biden is
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: so old, he's soiling himself at the desk. But then
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: you look at the text and he says, I don't
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: even want to touch the desk.
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: So it's like, oh, so it's on the desk. I
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: don't know if he put a lot of thought into it.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: He's just riffing.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: He's just riffing.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: He's just riffing.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: He's just looking for stuff.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. See him at work. All right. So
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: speaking of the president, when he's not pooping at his desk,
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: he was in Wisconsin Monday where he announced a new
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: plan to provide debt relief to more than 23 million
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: people who are still paying off their student loans. Ever
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: since Republicans in Congress and the Supreme Court blocked Biden's
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: earlier plans to provide debt relief, the administration has been
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: able to use its existing legal authority to help more
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: than 4 million Americans. The plan he announced this week
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: would obviously be a much bigger deal, up to 23
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: million people. Here's the president talking about it.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Today, I'm proud to announce five major actions to continue
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: to relieve student debt from more than 30 million Americans
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: since I started my administration. Starting this fall, We plan
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: to deliver up to $ 20, 000 in interest relief to over
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: 20 million borrowers and full forgiveness for millions more.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: So the question with all these Biden student debt plans is,
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: can he actually get it done without it getting blocked?
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: And who does it help? What do you guys think?
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: I hope we can get the checks out before Clarence
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: Thomas gets back from Bora Bora. Just get those checks out.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: We've got an election to win here.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: Hopefully there's no clawback provision.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: You know, I remember the first round of this.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: I said early fall. They think the first time I,
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: the first.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: Time we went through this round of student debt, I
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: remember like reading carefully about like the, the re the
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: rationalizations and all the reasons and the different ways he
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: could like kind of structure the thing. Now I'm just like,
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: fucking get the checks out. We got to win. I
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: don't care. Get the kids some money.
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: And this one's hard because obviously in the first round,
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: President Biden was pushed very hard by progressives to cancel
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: student debt. He was concerned that it might get struck
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: down in the courts, which is why he hesitated for
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: a while. Then he put forward what was actually a
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: more generous plan. in a lot of ways than I
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: think people were expecting. Then the court struck it down
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: and then everyone was like, God damn it, Biden.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Then some progressives were like, what's wrong with you?
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: You should have just used another law somewhere and found
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: it and blah, blah, blah.
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think that's what he did. So, well,
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: what they've done is, you know, they've tried some creative
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: approaches that they've as you said they think they've provided
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: nearly 150 billion in student debt relief despite the supreme
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: court ruling so they're trying another path they know they're
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: going to get sued i mean we talked to them
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: and they said yes we know we're going to get
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: sued but i think the idea is to get caught
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: trying here and make clear this time that the republicans
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: are the ones blocking him not president biden blocking student
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: debt from getting canceled.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: And i mean they did have their lawyers go back
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: and look and see like what could be more feasible
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: to do.
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: So this is a different, this is all according to
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: the Washington post. This is a different law. They had
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: the 2003 heroes act is what they tried the first
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: time it got struck down. This is based on the
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: authority they have in the 1965 higher education act. And, um,
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: which allows the education secretary to compromise wave or release
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: loans under certain circumstances. So in this instance, there's four
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: groups of people who would be helped by this. So
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: they would wipe away some or all of the interest
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: on loans that have become bigger than what was originally borrowed.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Also cancel debt for people who do qualify for some
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: existing student loan relief programs but just haven't applied yet.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: So they would just cancel it for them. People who
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: are still paying off their loans 20 years after they
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: took them out or 25 years for graduate degrees. And
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: then they are creating a special hardship program. So if
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: you also have high medical debt or child care or
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: something like that, then you can apply and potentially get
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: a waiver. So they do seem like they're not like
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: this blunt force. Everyone gets student debt relief that a
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: court could use. I mean, the court could still strike
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: it down, but you can see where they're trying to find.
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah. The other, the other instance specifically is if you got, uh,
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: convinced to go to a school that lost his accreditation,
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: like one of these junk for profit schools. but you
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: still have a huge debt, uh, and no diploma anymore,
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: they will cancel that debt too.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: I mean, like a lot of sense. Yeah.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: I mean, where I'm at with all this is like, okay,
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: like I, I think it's great. I think we should
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: be doing everything we can to fulfill the promise of
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: canceling student debt, go through the law books, find some
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: fucking thing, get the lawyers in there with, I don't know, microfiche,
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: probably not. And just like find ways to.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: Do this fine.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: But like we do like, The idea that the way
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: the government now works is Congress does nothing and then
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: administrative lawyers comb through the books to find various little
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: rules they can abuse to do the things. Okay, I
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: guess that's the world we're going to live under. That's
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: what we did for DACA.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: That works.
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: Pen and a phone.
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: Come on. That's what, look, that's what like, look, DACA
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: was a way to get around the fact that Congress
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: wouldn't do anything on immigration. These are all ways in
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: which the administration is basically legislating. I'm for it. I
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: think we should do it. I think we should do
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: as much as we possibly can, as long as we
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: have a completely fucking useless and feckless Congress. But it
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: is like in the long term, like we have accrued
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: more and more power to the White House, and then
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: these presidential elections feel like the stakes are total because
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: they are.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think there's also a lot of gray area
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: in some of these laws that are open to interpretation, right?
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Like, I don't think it's obvious. Sure.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: But, like, do I think that whatever law they're using
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: was written so that decades later the president could go
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: through and wipe away vast swaths of student loan debt?
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: Probably not.
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: I don't care.
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: Go for it.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: Do it and be legends.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: We'll see. We'll see.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: What a country.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: The president has also been making news on one of
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: his biggest challenges with young and progressive voters, the war
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: in Gaza. Last week, after an Israeli strike killed seven
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: aid workers from Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen, Biden finally
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: told Netanyahu that if Israel doesn't change course by immediately
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: announcing steps to, quote, address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: the safety of aid workers, that, quote, we won't be
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: able to support you. That last quote is from an
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Axios report on the call. Bibi responded by finally allowing
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: more humanitarian aid into Gaza, where millions are suffering, many
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: on the verge of famine. Biden hasn't specified what the
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: consequences will be if Netanyahu doesn't do more, but conditioning
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: military aid is presumably now on the table. This comes
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: as more Democratic politicians and voters well beyond the progressive
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: base have criticized Biden's Gaza policy. Tim Kaine applauded Biden
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: for the move, but said, quote, this was an obvious
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: solution that should have happened months ago. Senator Chris Van
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: Hollen of Maryland said that it shows, quote, when the
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: president uses leverage to enforce his demands, he gets results.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: but that we will, quote, look feckless if we do
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: not match our words with deeds. Seems right to me.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: What about you guys? Do you think this could be
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: a turning point?
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: I hope so. I mean, in the near term, 419
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: A-trucks got into Gaza on Monday. 322 A-trucks got in
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: on Sunday. In February, the average per day was 98 trucks.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Two highest totals since October 7th.
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: So there's been an impact. That increase is good. Also,
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: it proves that the slowdown in the previous months was
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: entirely the result of a policy choice made by the
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: Israeli government, not other complications that you saw blamed in
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: the media. It's also gross that it took the death
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: of seven Western aid workers to get here, but I'm
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: glad we're here. So yeah, I agree it's long overdue.
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: I think The next step is getting a ceasefire agreement.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: That gets more complicated because it's a negotiation that involves
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: Hamas to secure the release of these remaining hostages, at
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: least the ones that are still alive. But the negotiators
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: were reportedly mad that Netanyahu was not giving them enough flexibility.
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: Biden pushed him on that too. So we'll see if
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: that gets things moving. And then there's the question of Rafah,
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: which is that city in southern Gaza where there's like
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: a million people sheltering. The U.S. position is that the
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: Israeli military should not launch an invasion into Rafah, at
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: least until they get a plan that shows how they'll
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: protect civilians. The U.S. has said they're yet to see
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: such a plan, but Netanyahu today or Monday said that
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: he has set a date for a Rafah invasion, and
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: he keeps saying things like, we're in the middle of
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: this war. So I do hope the message is, no,
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: we're not. We're at the end of this war, and
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: you need to end it. The problem, though, is politically,
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: Netanyahu sees this war as a lifeline, and he is
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: worried that he will you know, face elections. Once it's over,
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: that his party will get destroyed, he will lose power,
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: and then face a bunch of corruption charges. So that's
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: the long-term complicating factor that makes all of this harder
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: going forward.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: I do think that the politics here for Biden have
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: changed pretty significantly in that you have, I mean, you
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: have all kinds of people criticizing him for his Gaza policy, including,
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: according to the New York Times and other reports, like
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: Jill Biden.
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: Chris Coons.
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Like his wife has been saying, Joe, this needs to end. So,
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: and it is, it was amazing. And also just like
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: really frustrating to see that, like, he does one call
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: to BB where he finally gives him an ultimatum and
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: then immediately see the aid truck start going into Gaza.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: And it's like, well, I don't know. I don't know
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: how the people who were, who were defended the, like,
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: you know, the hug BB strategy in private and he's
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: got to maintain his leverage. It's like, well, well then.
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: Self-evidently stupid from the beginning.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: And by the way, also the people that defended the
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: claim that Israel couldn't get aid in for weeks and
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: weeks on end. And then also, by the way, on
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: the other, the second Biden does shows just puts puts
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: the puts like real pressure on Netanyahu in this call.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: Republicans immediately put forward a resolution to say that he's
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: being insufficiently pro-Israel.
• 27:15
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good. He's going to deal with that. I mean,
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: I've heard a lot of people cast doubt on whether
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: this is a real political problem for Biden. Certainly the
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: polls say now show that his Gaza policy is unpopular
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: with a majority of voters.
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: Sending more weapons is unpopular, too.
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Now, whether voters' opposition to his Gaza policy is a
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: deal-breaker for them is still unclear, but I would say
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: two things. One, in a rematch against a guy you
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: beat by only 40,000 votes last time, every single thing matters.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: And also, it's beyond the politics. I just haven't heard
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: a moral case or any case at all for why
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: the only way to dismantle a terrorist organization and free
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: hostages is to kill and starve tens and tens of
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: thousands of people, including children and babies.
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: It's because there is no case. This war is a moral, strategic,
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: and political disaster. The morality of it is the death toll,
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: the number of children who've been killed using starvation as
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: a tool of war. But then strategically, even the Israeli
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: military intelligence services do not believe that you can defeat
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: Hamas entirely. They will exist as a terrorist organization, as
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: a guerrilla organization. They're not going to go away. you
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: can diminish their capabilities and reduce the threat, but you
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: cannot kill off the organization or kill an idea or
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: a resistance to occupation. So they're not going anywhere. And
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: I worry that a generation of young people are being
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: radicalized and that that radicalization is not just going to
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: be pointed at the Israeli government. It's going to be
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: pointed directly at us. And you're seeing this thing metastasized
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: into the Middle East. You're seeing the Israelis bombing Iranian
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: generals in a diplomatic facility in Damascus now we're all
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: waiting to see what the Iranian response is and whether
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: they're gonna fucking attack Israel directly or attack some US
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: interests in the region like Nothing about this is making
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: anyone safer. It is all just getting worse.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: You know, it really drives me nuts as people were
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: like well No one's calling on Hamas to just release
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: the hostages Hamas could end this war tomorrow It's like
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: of course the Hamas Hamas being murderous monsters who use
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: their own people as human shields, that doesn't absolve the
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Israelis or any of us from our duty to protect
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: people and to think about the consequences that you just
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: laid out of carrying on this war. Of course they're
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: murderous terrorists. We get that.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah. You can't spend six months running all the civilians
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: into one city and then bomb that city. You just
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: simply can't.
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: There's no.
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: it's not complicated.
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: The calling on Hamas argument frustrates me so much because
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: everyone is calling on Hamas to release the hostages. They
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: have been since the very beginning. They're holding innocent civilians.
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: Everyone wanted to release the hostages. The U.S. doesn't have
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: diplomatic relations with Hamas. We don't talk directly with Hamas.
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: We talk to Hamas directly. through intermediaries like Qatar or
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: Egypt or other countries, right? So we don't even have
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: a relationship with them. So there's no leverage there. We
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: have leverage with the Israeli government. We can shift as
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: we just saw the way they prosecute this war. And
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: that's what everyone's been looking for. Netanyahu after October 7th
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: had bad options and worse options. And he chose the
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: worst of all options, which is this war and this
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: death toll. and starvation as a tool of war in
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: this disastrous situation we're now in. And by the way,
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: he's facing massive protests inside of Israel. You're starting to
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: see big protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. You're seeing
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: former hostages who have been released calling on him to
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: do more. You're seeing the families of hostages. I mean,
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: the real question is how many of these hostages are
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: alive at this point. And I don't say that to
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: blame Netanyahu or the government. But again, like the only
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: time hostages have gotten back is through a negotiated ceasefire,
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: temporary ceasefire between the two sides. And I think that's
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: what everyone's been looking for. You saw it.
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: Netanyahu today, well, morning is Monday, once again said there's
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: a date for when we're going to go into Rafah.
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, obviously he intends to do that, but he's
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: also negotiating.
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, look, you could, I wonder if he's
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: using that to put political pressure on Hamas, but I
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: don't know. Are they feeling political pressure at this point? Like,
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: I can't, we have no read on what they think.
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: You know, even the negotiations that are happening at Qatar,
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: like with some political operatives in, that don't even live
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: in the Gaza Strip most of the time. They negotiate
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: with the U.S. and Israel and Egypt, and they try
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: to pass a message into Gaza to get it to
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: Yaga Sinwar, who's sitting in a tunnel somewhere hiding out.
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: I see the people in Qatar really speaking for him.
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: The military leaders on the ground, we just don't really know.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Well, I wish it had happened a lot sooner, but
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: I'm really glad that Joe Biden made that call.
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: Bibi Netanyahu is a bad guy. Again, There are not
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: great options here for Biden or for the Israelis after
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: October 7th, but Netanyahu is a bad person, a bad leader,
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: and he should not have been given.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: This much rope.
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: Before we go to break, I thought we'd just talk
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: about maybe some other quick stories everyone should be paying
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: attention to. I noticed today, first of all, RFK Jr.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: 's campaign, what a fucking mess.
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: It's a juggernaut. It's a real mess. You're doing great.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: First, there was something on Friday where he released a
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: full statement about the January 6th rioters, okay? insurrectionists, and
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: basically was like, I have not examined the evidence in detail.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: It's always great when you put that out in your statement,
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: even though the evidence is there for all to see.
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: It was on television.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: It was on television, yeah.
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: Famously on television. Trump watched it.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: But reasonable people tell me there is little evidence of
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: a true insurrection. They observed that the protesters carried no weapons.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: Then he promised to appoint a special counsel to investigate
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: the prosecutors instead of the people who pleaded guilty or
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: were convicted by a jury of their peers for violently
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: assaulting police officers. Then when everyone pointed out to RFK Jr.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: in his campaign that actually they carried a lot of
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: different kinds of weapons, flagpoles, mace, explosives, all the kind
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: of stuff, he goes, oh, yeah, yeah, I was told
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: there actually were weapons. So that was great. And then
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: the campaign's New York director was caught on video talking
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: to some supporters and said the following. She said, the
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: Kennedy and Trump voter, our mutual enemy is Biden. If
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: nobody gets 270, Congress picks the president. So who are
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: they going to pick? If it's in a Republican Congress,
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: they'll pick Trump. So.
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: A quiet part out loud there.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: But it doesn't actually make... I can't... How does it
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: make sense? Because, like, I like the idea that there's
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: Kennedy people out there being like, it's Trump and Kennedy
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: versus Biden. That's great. Keep doing that. But you still
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: have to get electoral votes. So what are we talking
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: about here?
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: I think what she was saying is, like, the most
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: important thing is to make sure that Joe Biden doesn't
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: become president. And obviously, we'd love if RFK Jr. becomes president, but...
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: you know, on the, on the, on the chance that
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: he's not going to be, we'll get Trump.
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: But there's another guy that hates vaccines up there. Donald Trump.
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's probably the rest of her sentence.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: It's a, what a fucking dilettante. It's just like, it's
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: just unbelievable. This is like, this is blundering oaf running around,
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: making absolutely no sense for RFK to help Donald Trump
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: by throwing it to Congress. He would have to get
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: an electoral vote.
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sure they believe all kinds of crazy things.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: I'm sure they think he's going to do great in Omaha.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: I don't get it. Maybe it's an Omaha play.
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah. One other story worth watching. So this is a
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: very weird one. So this is about the Montana Senate race.
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: So there's a Republican named Tim Sheehy. He's running for
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: Senate in Montana against John Tester. He's a former Navy SEAL.
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: Apparently at some point in his life, he got shot
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: and he still has a bullet lodged in his arm.
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: Over the years, the story about how that bullet got
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: into his arm has changed. He died. once said that
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: the bullet was from his time in Afghanistan when he
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: was serving in the U.S. military. Other times he says
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: he accidentally shot himself during a visit to Glacier National
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: Park in Montana. He dropped his gun. It discharged. The
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: bullet went into his arm, whatever. So both these stories
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: are on the public record. The Washington Post was like, hey,
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: what's the deal with this discrepancy? So he says, oh, actually,
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: I lied about shooting myself by accident at Glacier National Park.
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: The real story is I fell and I hurt myself
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: on a hike. I had to go to the ER.
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: Someone was like, what's up with that bullet in your arm?
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: And he said, then he had to talk to a
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: park ranger. So he lied to the park ranger and said,
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: I shot myself because he wanted to avoid an investigation
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: into the shooting in Afghanistan because he never reported it
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: and didn't want to get his buddies in trouble. Now,
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: that's weird on a number of levels. One might imagine
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: that an ER doctor would notice the difference between a
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: bullet wound from that day and And one from a
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: few years ago. That's one area where it seems to
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: fall apart.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: He also previously said that he was shot multiple times
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: in Afghanistan. In his book, he said he was shot
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: multiple times. So who knows where, like if he was
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: a Democrat, you'd have swift boat veterans for truth, you know,
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: chasing him out of the state as we speak because
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: he's a Republican. First thing that popped into my mind
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: is like John Kerry, John Kerry.
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: Who knows how this will play. But what a weird story.
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: That is strange. That is strange, because I think if
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: I shot myself in the arm, I would lie and
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: say it happened in combat, but I wouldn't make up
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: multiple wounds.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: You wouldn't make up a lamer story.
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: No, you wouldn't go worse with it. You wouldn't pay
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: a fine.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: Really weird.
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: Shout out Washington Post, Liz Goodwin. Great story.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: And also, go donate some money to Jon Tester.
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: He's a great candidate.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: Jon Tester needs to win. Cher Bryant needs to win.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: Two really, really tough Senate races, and we have to
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: win both of them and have Biden win to keep
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: the Senate.
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: We have Tammy Baldwin on, and his audio just came out.
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: that her opponent said about nursing home residents, well, you
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: only have a five or six month life expectancy. Almost
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: nobody in a nursing home is in a point to vote.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: What?
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: What?
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's awesome.
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: That's awesome. This guy is, the race is getting tighter.
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: She should kick the ever-loving shit out of this guy.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Love Tammy. Love Tammy.
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: A few bits of housekeeping before we get to Senator Baldwin. First,
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: Love It or Leave It will be in Austin, Texas
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: on April 21st.
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: April 21st.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: Where Love It will be joined by Joyelle Nicole Johnson,
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: Zach Zucker, the Sklar Brothers, and Tim Miller.
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: And Joe Rogan. Sorry.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: No, no.
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: Couldn't get him.
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: Couldn't get him.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: Sorry. And then you're going to D.C. on April 25th
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: for another great show with Josh Gondelman, Sam Jay, Al Franken,
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: and Mehdi Hassan.
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: That one's almost sold out.
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: And finally.
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: It's supposed to be in Austin.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: If you're here in LA, Pod Save America will be
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: live at the LA Times Festival of Books on April 21st.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: Hysteria's own Aaron Ryan, Dan, Tommy, and me, we're going
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: to have a great show.
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: That's a book burning, right?
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: That's a book, yeah, that is a book burning.
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: Well, the tapes will be so hot those books might burn.
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: Huh?
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: We'll be burning our books.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: That's sort of a, like a self-hating thing. Right, right, self-preservation.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: You can get tickets for all of those shows. Be
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: the books you want to burn in the world. You
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: can get tickets for all those shows at cricket.com slash events. Also,
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: Subscribe to Friends of the Pod. I don't know if
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: you guys listened to the Thursday pod. Did you hear
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: Dan do a passionate push for Friends of the Pod subscription?
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: He said that we don't do it as well. And
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: he was like, I'm going to do an actual endorsement
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: of signing up to subscribe to Friends of the Pod.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: And it was really good.
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: As long as you don't ask us any follow-ups.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, of course we did. Anyway, you'll get access to
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: Polar Coaster, where Dan calms your nerves and freaks you
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: out about the state of the polls. You can also
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: listen to Crooked's most unhinged podcast ever. that will probably
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: get canceled for us someday. It's called Terminally Online. Don't
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: you think that'll do it at some point?
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: What a welcome respite.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: It's for subscribers only, and it's where we talk about
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: the craziest shit on the internet that week. Subscribe to
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: Friends of the Pod to listen to our exclusive pods
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: only at crooked.com slash friends. When we come back, Wisconsin
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: Senator Tammy Baldwin.
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: Joining us today, United States Senator and someone who is
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: so pro-dairy, I took a lactate before she sat down
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: just in case. It's Senator Tammy Baldwin.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: Greetings.
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: Good to have you back.
• 38:51
  Speaker 6: It's great to be back.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: So the Wisconsin Democratic primary was this past Tuesday, and
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: people upset with President Biden's Gaza policy organized a push
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: to vote uninstructed, similar to the uncommitted vote in Michigan.
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: That ended up getting 8.3%. Does that worry you about
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: Biden's path to winning Wisconsin in November?
• 39:11
  Speaker 6: You know, one of the things I would reflect on
• 39:13
  Speaker 6: that is these were people who voted and they voted
• 39:18
  Speaker 6: in the Democratic primary. These are people who said, I'm
• 39:22
  Speaker 6: fed up and I'm staying home. They sent a message
• 39:25
  Speaker 6: and this message, I understand the frustration, the heartbreak that
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: we're seeing. What I hope is that both their message
• 39:35
  Speaker 6: is effective and that in November, there'll be a very
• 39:38
  Speaker 6: clear choice, you know, both to support Biden, but also
• 39:43
  Speaker 6: to understand that another Trump presidency would be catastrophic, both
• 39:50
  Speaker 6: domestically and abroad.
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: So let's talk about that. We're meeting here Friday, April 5th.
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: You said in a post that any U.S. aid to
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: our allies must be in line with our values, and
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: we cannot be complicit in Netanyahu's indiscriminate bombing. I should
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: also note that in that tweet, you reiterated that you
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: called for a release to all hostages and your position
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: that Israel has a right to defend itself. But Has
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: your position changed because you supported aid in the last
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: round in February? You did introduce an amendment about making
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: sure humanitarian aid or you supported an amendment about getting
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: aid in. But does that mean you're saying there shouldn't
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: be military aid to Israel as long as they're prosecuting
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: the war in this in this way? Are you calling
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: for conditioning aid?
• 40:32
  Speaker 6: Well, first of all, there are conditions already embedded in U.S.
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: Law.
• 40:37
  Speaker 6: And recently, the president did sign an executive order articulating
• 40:43
  Speaker 6: additional conditions. What I am observing is that Netanyahu is
• 40:49
  Speaker 6: indiscriminately bombing. Netanyahu has charted a course that is not
• 40:57
  Speaker 6: allowing humanitarian aid in. We've seen catastrophic loss of civilian
• 41:03
  Speaker 6: Gazan life, as well as aid workers, as we saw
• 41:08
  Speaker 6: horrifically this past week. And he needs to be held
• 41:11
  Speaker 6: to account. You see protests in the streets in Israel
• 41:16
  Speaker 6: demanding change in course. And I support that. I also
• 41:22
  Speaker 6: have to say that just in the last couple of days,
• 41:26
  Speaker 6: my colleague Tim Kaine talked about our support for defensive
• 41:32
  Speaker 6: weaponry so that Israel can protect itself. But so long
• 41:36
  Speaker 6: as we see this course of the war, that offensive
• 41:39
  Speaker 6: weaponry ought to be limited.
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: So let's talk about the race that you're in. President
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: Trump endorsed your opponent, Eric Laguna Beach-Havde, at an event
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: in Green Bay. He said of you, This is what
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: Trump said. She's a very weak candidate. I mean, if
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: you lose to her, that's not a good thing, right? Now,
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: this is wishful thinking on Trump's part because you're an
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: historically strong Wisconsin candidate. You won by 11 points, the
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: highest percentage achieved by a gubernatorial or senatorial candidate in
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: Wisconsin since 2006. You beat a popular former governor and
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: cabinet official, Tommy Thompson, by five points to win the
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: seat in the first place. And that's in a state
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: where four of the last six presidential elections have been
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: decided by less than one point. But this is the
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: first time you're running when Trump is on the ballot.
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: Does the turnout that that will entail give you any concerns,
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: any challenges you're thinking about?
• 42:32
  Speaker 6: There's a lot baked into that question.
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: There is a lot.
• 42:34
  Speaker 6: Let me start with the end of end of that question.
• 42:37
  Speaker 6: We were just talking about the Democratic presidential primary in
• 42:40
  Speaker 6: Wisconsin on Tuesday. And let's talk about the Republican presidential primary.
• 42:46
  Speaker 6: 12% voted for Nikki Haley, who's been out of the
• 42:50
  Speaker 6: race for a month or so. 3%, I think, voted
• 42:55
  Speaker 6: for Ron DeSantis, who's been out of the race for
• 42:58
  Speaker 6: even longer. So you've got a solid 15% of Republicans
• 43:04
  Speaker 6: participating in the Republican presidential primary who are not voting
• 43:07
  Speaker 6: for Trump. So I don't necessarily see a completely unified
• 43:11
  Speaker 6: front on that side. So how that will impact turnout?
• 43:16
  Speaker 6: how that will impact that 15% of Republicans who just
• 43:20
  Speaker 6: couldn't vote for Trump, even though he was really the
• 43:23
  Speaker 6: only candidate left standing. We don't know how that's going
• 43:27
  Speaker 6: to play out right now. But in terms of my race,
• 43:33
  Speaker 6: I do view it fundamentally differently than I did my
• 43:36
  Speaker 6: first race in 2012 and the midterm race that I
• 43:40
  Speaker 6: won in 2018. Our state has gotten even more divided.
• 43:44
  Speaker 6: You know, Trump won Wisconsin by one percentage point in 2016.
• 43:49
  Speaker 6: Biden won by one percentage point in 2020. This is
• 43:53
  Speaker 6: a rematch. And I don't see as many ticket splitters.
• 43:57
  Speaker 6: So this is going to be a really tough race.
• 43:59
  Speaker 6: And of course, the Republicans landed their handpicked recruit, their
• 44:06
  Speaker 6: top recruit, Eric Hovde. Eric, if you don't know anything
• 44:11
  Speaker 6: about him, you know, while he was born and raised
• 44:14
  Speaker 6: in Wisconsin, he spent his adult career either on the
• 44:17
  Speaker 6: East Coast or the West Coast. He is president and
• 44:19
  Speaker 6: CEO of a bank called SunWest Bank, a California-based two-point
• 44:26
  Speaker 6: $ 8 billion enterprise. So he owns a bank in California.
• 44:30
  Speaker 6: He lives in Laguna Beach. He was named among the
• 44:35
  Speaker 6: most influential business people of Orange County three years in
• 44:39
  Speaker 6: a row. So he has a lot of presence in
• 44:44
  Speaker 6: Orange County. We don't have an Orange County in Wisconsin.
• 44:47
  Speaker 6: We don't grow oranges in Wisconsin, right?
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: Dairy.
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: Dairy.
• 44:50
  Speaker 6: Not oranges, right? And so this is... You know, a
• 44:55
  Speaker 6: multimillionaire who's self-funding and is simply out of touch with
• 45:01
  Speaker 6: the people that I fight so hard for every day
• 45:04
  Speaker 6: in the Senate.
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: So he is self-funding and he's already up on the
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: air with millions of dollars.
• 45:10
  Speaker 6: 4.3 so far. 4.3 million dollars so far.
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: But you've been campaigning and working in Wisconsin for such
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: a long time. Are these ads having an impact? How
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: are you trying to blunt the impact? of a candidate
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: who is already promising to produce the most expensive race
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: in the history of Wisconsin.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:31
  Speaker 6: So, uh, make no mistake. We are a pretty evenly
• 45:35
  Speaker 6: divided state and any Republican, a generic Republican, whatever name
• 45:39
  Speaker 6: you want to put, starts with about 44% of the vote.
• 45:45
  Speaker 6: It could be anyone. Uh, but that's, that's what kind
• 45:48
  Speaker 6: of state Wisconsin is. And then when you have somebody, uh,
• 45:51
  Speaker 6: who can put so many millions of dollars on the
• 45:54
  Speaker 6: air and on digital ads, their support only goes up.
• 45:58
  Speaker 6: This is going to be a really tough race. And
• 46:01
  Speaker 6: his investment right now of $ 4. 3 million of his own
• 46:06
  Speaker 6: wealth into TV ads and digital ads has increased his support.
• 46:11
  Speaker 6: This race is kind of a dead heat right now,
• 46:15
  Speaker 6: according to polling that I've seen. And yes, I work
• 46:18
  Speaker 6: really hard, both as a senator and on the campaign trail.
• 46:23
  Speaker 6: One of the things that I try to do every
• 46:28
  Speaker 6: year is just get all around Wisconsin. And so I
• 46:32
  Speaker 6: just wrapped up my Dairyland tour, 1,400 miles on the car,
• 46:36
  Speaker 6: and 19 counties in and stops with farmers and with
• 46:44
  Speaker 6: owner of a brewery, a microbrewery or craft brewery. I
• 46:49
  Speaker 6: started in Superior, Wisconsin. This is the northwestern part of
• 46:55
  Speaker 6: the state in a snowstorm. They canceled the meetings we
• 46:59
  Speaker 6: had planned because schools were closed, businesses were closed. So
• 47:02
  Speaker 6: the first thing I did was stop and thank the
• 47:05
  Speaker 6: snowplow drivers who made it possible for me to get
• 47:08
  Speaker 6: there safely.
• 47:09
  Speaker 4: That's politics. With donuts.
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: Oh, wow.
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: That's how you win.
• 47:13
  Speaker 5: That's how you win.
• 47:14
  Speaker 6: They needed a sugar high to get back out on
• 47:15
  Speaker 6: the roads and keep us all safe.
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: So it actually was when I started talking about the turnout,
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: what I wanted to get at is you're a lesbian progressive.
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: I think you know that.
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: I do.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: I do.
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: But you have done and likely will do better in
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: rural parts of your state than most Democrats could hope
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: to perform. So what do Democrats not understand about competing
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: in rural parts of the country? What have we lost?
• 47:44
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 47:44
  Speaker 6: And I have some solutions in mind, too. So I'll
• 47:47
  Speaker 6: start by saying Wisconsin has had very gerrymandered maps. for
• 47:54
  Speaker 6: our state assembly and state senate. And what that has
• 47:58
  Speaker 6: led to is that almost all the Democrats in the
• 48:02
  Speaker 6: state legislature come from cities, some suburban areas. There are
• 48:07
  Speaker 6: very few Democrats in the state legislature who represent rural areas.
• 48:14
  Speaker 6: For me as a senator, I represent a whole state.
• 48:18
  Speaker 6: But I think the conversation with rural voters has essentially
• 48:24
  Speaker 6: been stymied by those gerrymandered maps. If you are somebody
• 48:28
  Speaker 6: who wants to engage in public service, you live in
• 48:31
  Speaker 6: a rural area, you look at the map and say,
• 48:32
  Speaker 6: there's no chance a Democrat could win in this district
• 48:36
  Speaker 6: and people don't run. So we have new maps now
• 48:39
  Speaker 6: in Wisconsin, which is very exciting. And I really think
• 48:43
  Speaker 6: it's going to change the conversation. If you have a
• 48:46
  Speaker 6: real shot at engaging in public service, running for office, winning,
• 48:51
  Speaker 6: representing your area, we're going to have much more diversity
• 48:55
  Speaker 6: of districts and people who really do understand rural issues
• 49:01
  Speaker 6: as Democrats serving in the state legislature. So I know
• 49:05
  Speaker 6: that's getting kind of technical and in the weeds, but
• 49:08
  Speaker 6: it is, I think, going to make a fundamental shift.
• 49:11
  Speaker 6: I make it a point to get out to my
• 49:14
  Speaker 6: rural areas, to go to red counties and purple counties
• 49:19
  Speaker 6: Lots of times the people I meet with will say,
• 49:21
  Speaker 6: I don't remember the last time we saw a U.S.
• 49:24
  Speaker 6: senator in these parts, and especially a Democrat.
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: I hear you on that there's been a lot of
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: headwinds and a lot of identity propaganda from the right
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: to turn rural parts of the country against Democrats or
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: inoculate rural parts of the country against Democrats. But it's
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: more than just that, right? Because you see not just
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: in politically drawn districts, but at the state level, you'll
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: see a state like Kansas protect abortion rights or a
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: state like Utah expand Medicaid. But these are states where
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: a Democratic policy can do well on the ballot, but
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: a Democratic person is seen as sort of anathema in
• 49:56
  Speaker 3: some way. And I'm wondering if, like, put aside the districts,
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: is there something about how we're communicating, right? Is there
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: something that Democrats have lost in how they communicate that
• 50:08
  Speaker 3: you think is important?
• 50:11
  Speaker 6: That's a great question. First of all, I want to
• 50:15
  Speaker 6: almost respond by saying I think we don't understand as
• 50:18
  Speaker 6: Democrats how Republicans and conservatives and MAGA types are communicating
• 50:23
  Speaker 6: with one another and defining Democrats. So you might show
• 50:29
  Speaker 6: up at a place and they've been hearing, reading, being
• 50:35
  Speaker 6: exposed to in many cases, misinformation, disinformation about Democrats. And
• 50:45
  Speaker 6: if you don't understand the way they're communicating, sometimes it's challenging.
• 50:49
  Speaker 6: But what I find, and I want to get back
• 50:51
  Speaker 6: to the sort of rural-urban issues, is when you show up,
• 50:56
  Speaker 6: you convene, you know, I'm going to keep on hitting
• 51:01
  Speaker 6: on dairy with you, but when you convene dairy farmers
• 51:05
  Speaker 6: who work so hard every day, and yet are challenged
• 51:10
  Speaker 6: by high input costs, low prices. And you listen, and
• 51:15
  Speaker 6: then you move from listening to action. And you're successful
• 51:20
  Speaker 6: with those actions in the Congress of the United States.
• 51:23
  Speaker 6: And then they see the difference. Word gets out. And
• 51:26
  Speaker 6: I think that type of action and success can overcome
• 51:29
  Speaker 6: the disinformation that people are exposed to. But I'm not
• 51:33
  Speaker 6: going to pretend to understand how they're communicating, how which
• 51:37
  Speaker 6: is scary to me. I wish I did, because I
• 51:40
  Speaker 6: do think that there's a lot of myths and stereotypes
• 51:45
  Speaker 6: put out there that before a Democrat or somebody like
• 51:49
  Speaker 6: a candidate like me even engages, they already have preconceptions
• 51:54
  Speaker 6: that aren't true. But you can, with hard work, break
• 51:58
  Speaker 6: through those. I will also just say, you know, on this,
• 52:02
  Speaker 6: you know, my opponent is so sort of unaware of
• 52:10
  Speaker 6: the challenges that real Wisconsinites face, including, you know, comments
• 52:15
  Speaker 6: he's made about farmers. And it's just, you know, we
• 52:20
  Speaker 6: have to get that word out too.
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: Let's talk about your opponent a little bit more. So
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: he seems pretty wishy-washy on democracy. There's clearly an effort
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: just for politically, he wants the benefits of being embraced
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: by and embracing Trump, but doesn't want the baggage, right?
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: So he says, oh, the election, oh, I don't think
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: it was stolen, but there was some fishy stuff going on, right?
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: Or he says, oh, I don't like this kind of
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: negative politics, but he wants Trump's endorsement. He endorses Trump,
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: the most vicious political, the personal attacking politician we've ever
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: seen in our lifetimes. How do you make sure that
• 52:58
  Speaker 3: he doesn't get to have it both ways? And yeah,
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: how are you talking about the relationship between Hovde and
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: Trump and what it would mean for the kind of
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: senator he'd be.
• 53:10
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so he kissed the ring this past Tuesday when
• 53:18
  Speaker 6: former President Trump flew to Green Bay, Wisconsin and shared
• 53:22
  Speaker 6: a stage with him and endorsed him. We now know
• 53:26
  Speaker 6: where Hovde stands with the MAGA agenda. And We also
• 53:32
  Speaker 6: know because he did once before run for U.S. Senate
• 53:36
  Speaker 6: in 2012, and he didn't win the Republican primary. He
• 53:40
  Speaker 6: came shy of defeating Tommy Thompson. But he's on record.
• 53:45
  Speaker 6: He was 100 percent opposed to abortion rights. He wanted
• 53:50
  Speaker 6: to overturn the Affordable Care Act in its entirety. What
• 53:54
  Speaker 6: he was saying about Social Security and Medicare is made
• 53:58
  Speaker 6: it very clear to me that he would never be
• 54:00
  Speaker 6: in a position to have to rely solely on Social
• 54:03
  Speaker 6: Security for his retirement and doesn't understand the lives of
• 54:10
  Speaker 6: people who do, who don't have a pension, who don't
• 54:12
  Speaker 6: have savings. We have to hold him to his word.
• 54:15
  Speaker 6: You know, we've seen Trump. He lined up everything that
• 54:20
  Speaker 6: needed to happen to overturn Roe versus Wade. It was
• 54:24
  Speaker 6: his three justices.
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: He wants the credit.
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: He takes the credit every time he can.
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 54:29
  Speaker 6: And then he's saying other things. We have to hold
• 54:32
  Speaker 6: them to their original word. They get in power again.
• 54:36
  Speaker 6: Eric Hovde is going to vote for a national ban
• 54:39
  Speaker 6: on abortion. I'm the champion of the Women's Health Protection Act,
• 54:46
  Speaker 6: which would codify Roe versus Wade. I'm the lead Senate
• 54:49
  Speaker 6: author on that. You couldn't have higher stakes in a
• 54:54
  Speaker 6: race like this. You elect him. The Senate goes into
• 54:57
  Speaker 6: Republican hands. They pass a national abortion ban. You reelect
• 55:02
  Speaker 6: me and we're fighting to restore those rights, just like
• 55:05
  Speaker 6: I fought to restore other rights threatened in the Dobbs decision,
• 55:09
  Speaker 6: including by passing the Respect for Marriage Act.
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: So you talked about the stakes.
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: I saw you were in Wisconsin during that race for
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: the Supreme Court seat, which Democrats turned out and were
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: able to win. It was a huge impact on the state.
• 55:24
  Speaker 3: But one of the things that you've said, that Ben Wickler,
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: the head of the Democratic Party in Wisconsin has said,
• 55:29
  Speaker 3: is that Wisconsin has been a bellwether for what's been
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: happening in this country. And one of the ways that
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: that's true is this is an incredibly divided state, a
• 55:36
  Speaker 3: state that has Ron Johnson as one of the senators
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: and you as the other, that's gone from Governor Scott
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: Walker to Governor Tony Evers. That's an incredible shift on
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: just on a tiny number of votes. How is this possible, right?
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: How is it possible that politicians as radical, extreme, ridiculous
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: as Ron Johnson are so competitive in a state that
• 56:04
  Speaker 3: Joe Biden won, in a state that may determine who
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: the next president is? What are we missing? Is it
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: the dairy?
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: Is it all that milk?
• 56:11
  Speaker 3: No, it's not. Okay.
• 56:13
  Speaker 6: Just for a quick history snapshot, I have the honor
• 56:18
  Speaker 6: of serving in a Senate seat that was once held
• 56:20
  Speaker 6: at the turn of the last century by fighting Bob
• 56:23
  Speaker 6: La Follette Sr., an icon in our state and in
• 56:26
  Speaker 6: our country. And later, after his son served, it was
• 56:30
  Speaker 6: McCarthy in the same seat, the same electorate, followed by Proxmire,
• 56:36
  Speaker 6: followed by Cole, followed by me. We do have a
• 56:41
  Speaker 6: very interesting electorate in the state of Wisconsin. And it
• 56:45
  Speaker 6: shows you how high the stakes are this time around
• 56:48
  Speaker 6: to turning the vote out. And I And talking to
• 56:53
  Speaker 6: those never-Trump Republicans as well as those independents about the
• 56:58
  Speaker 6: future of our democracy. You know, we've talked about several
• 57:01
  Speaker 6: of the issues that are at stake, but you said earlier,
• 57:04
  Speaker 6: you know, Trump supported an insurrection and told the big
• 57:09
  Speaker 6: lie about the outcome of the last presidential election. We
• 57:13
  Speaker 6: cannot allow that to happen again if we cherish our democracy.
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: You know, you talked about how you've seen ticket splitting decline.
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: And yet in an election this close, there are people
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: out there that very well may be either Baldwin Trump
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: voters or Baldwin Biden voters. There probably are going to
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: be Baldwin Trump voters because you're probably going to outperform
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: Joe Biden.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: What are those?
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: You must meet them. You must see these people. Talk
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: to them now. What what what have you learned from
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: talking to these kinds of sort of independent or true
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: kind of ticket splitting voters in Wisconsin?
• 57:46
  Speaker 6: Yeah. So I can tell you a couple of stories.
• 57:51
  Speaker 6: I remember going to the groundbreaking of a county-owned rural
• 57:57
  Speaker 6: hospital in Lafayette County. I worked really hard to help
• 58:03
  Speaker 6: them be able to afford to replace their decrepit old
• 58:07
  Speaker 6: hospital with a new state-of-the-art facility and brought home dollars,
• 58:13
  Speaker 6: federal dollars, to help them do that. one of the
• 58:17
  Speaker 6: county board chair, or one of the county board members,
• 58:20
  Speaker 6: with the big Trump bumper sticker on his pickup truck,
• 58:25
  Speaker 6: took the microphone at this celebratory event and couldn't stop
• 58:30
  Speaker 6: singing my praises. I was humbled. And I repeated it,
• 58:34
  Speaker 6: and they're like, that guy?
• 58:35
  Speaker 5: No way.
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: Really? He said great things.
• 58:38
  Speaker 6: But, you know, showing up matters. Listening and delivering matters.
• 58:44
  Speaker 6: And that's where you produce some of those Trump-Tammy voters.
• 58:48
  Speaker 6: Another one that I will never forget actually does deal
• 58:52
  Speaker 6: with substance as well as dollars and support. I was
• 58:57
  Speaker 6: touring a foundry. This was before the last election. And
• 59:02
  Speaker 6: it's a foundry that makes things for our nation's infrastructure.
• 59:08
  Speaker 6: And so I was taking the tour, and the guy
• 59:11
  Speaker 6: showing me around on the tour kind of points at
• 59:13
  Speaker 6: me and says, why do you keep picking on my guy, Trump?
• 59:16
  Speaker 4: Like, what?
• 59:17
  Speaker 6: Why do you keep picking on my guy, Trump? Well,
• 59:20
  Speaker 6: maybe he deserves it, I responded. He was kind of,
• 59:24
  Speaker 6: you know, he didn't really crack a smile. Shows me
• 59:26
  Speaker 6: what he does, and I move on. And one of
• 59:29
  Speaker 6: my staff members said, okay, so you're a big Trump supporter.
• 59:32
  Speaker 6: What do you think of Tammy Baldwin? And he said,
• 59:35
  Speaker 6: do you see what I do for a living? I
• 59:38
  Speaker 6: make components of our nation's infrastructure. If it were not
• 59:42
  Speaker 6: for Buy America policies, I wouldn't have a job. This
• 59:46
  Speaker 6: job would be in India. But Buy America policies that
• 59:50
  Speaker 6: I champion in the United States Senate every day are
• 59:54
  Speaker 6: means that we have this really great paying union job
• 59:58
  Speaker 6: in Wisconsin. Now, I want to make that guy into
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 6: a Biden-Baldwin voter because we've never had a president who's
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 6: been as good on organized labor, first one to ever
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 6: walk a picket line.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 4: My gosh.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 6: So I hope we can do that. But that was
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 6: a great example of a Trump-Baldwin supporter back in 2018
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 6: that I found. And it was like, OK, sometimes it's issues.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 6: sometimes it's listening and showing up. And just, I think
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 6: about all the casework we do, and I don't want
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 6: to get into the details, but I can't tell you
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 6: how many veterans we've helped get their benefits that they've
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 6: earned and deserved, but were, you know, twisted up in
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 6: the red tape. Or how many people who we helped
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 6: with their social security or social security disability. Those stories
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 6: are shared.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you, and, Do you think you can get
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 3: some of those people to understand, right? Like the people
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: that identify with Trump, but who see you as having
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: benefited Wisconsin, do you think you can kind of coax
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 3: them over?
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: That's what we're going to try to do.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 6: I want to run a campaign that is successful and
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 6: helpful to all Democrats on the ticket from our state
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 6: assembly and state Senate candidates who are now sprouting up
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 6: all over the state now that we have a fair map. And,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 6: you know, up through the top of the ticket. And
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 6: I hope we can do that.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: So I want to ask you about two more things.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 3: One is Senate's currently debating this House bill about TikTok.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 3: You came out in support of the House version.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: Of the bill.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 3: The ACLU says that the bill is a violation of
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 3: the First Amendment. It's also been strange to me. There
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: may be very valid concerns about TikTok and its effect
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 3: on privacy and the fact that it has this foreign interest,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 3: but it feels as though there's been a lot of
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 3: classified briefings for members of Congress and senators, but not
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 3: enough leveling with the American people about something that they're
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 3: choosing to use. Do you think the American people deserve
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 3: more information before any kind of bill is passed, even
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 3: if the goal is to have TikTok sold to an
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 3: American company that could potentially lead to a ban?
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 6: So the answer to the specific question is yes. And
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 6: let me say of the House-passed bill, you know, I'm
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 6: still studying it. I'm likely to support it. I think
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 6: the goal of divesting it from PRC influence and Chinese
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 6: ownership is very important for our data security and all
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 6: sorts of But I would have written a different bill.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 6: What I think is that we do not have any
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 6: sort of apparatus that would not just evaluate TikTok, but
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 6: evaluate all sorts of devices and applications, software, and educate.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 6: These are the risks. And then be empowered to take
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 6: certain steps up to and including banning. But that is,
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 6: I think, a better approach because this one is pretty platform-specific, right?
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 6: But I can give you any number of examples of
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 6: other products that we have in maybe our households that
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 6: we should be informed about. And we don't have any
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 6: way of voicing that. And you talked about classified briefings,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 6: and I can't disclose what I hear in classified briefings.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 6: But some of the information that we could gather if
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 6: we put our efforts behind it, I think would inform consumers.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: I like to.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 6: Know about my products, whether it's food and nutrients or
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 6: where it comes from. Or in this case, are there
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 6: risks of losing control of my data, somebody being able
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 6: to surveil my whereabouts? I don't want to.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 6: Too much bring it back to the Dobbs decision, but
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 6: there was a lot of concern when this reverted to
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 6: states like Texas that your location data could be surveilled.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 6: And if you were three hours in a Planned Parenthood
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 6: parking lot, you could be prosecuted or pursued. People should
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 6: know that their devices allow that to happen and be
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 6: educated about the choices they make.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because it does seem like if the goal was
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 3: to get TikTok to go from being Chinese-owned to American-owned,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: then whatever data is being collected is still being collected.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 3: We all have kind of resigned. Right now, we have
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 3: resigned ourselves to just having absolutely no idea. But you're
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 3: saying you would like to see some kind of larger
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 3: privacy bill beyond just focusing on TikTok.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 6: Absolutely. I want to be an educated consumer.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: Oh, I don't.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 3: I don't want to know what's in the food.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 2: I don't want to know what the phone's collecting.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 3: I just want to live my life.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 4: Don't tell me.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 3: I don't want so many calories are in my sandwiches.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 3: Don't tell me.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 4: I'm trying to live.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 6: I think that you can just pass up on that information,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 6: but I'm going to look at it.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: All right, great. Fine. I think that's fine.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 3: Now, speaking of giving consumers information, you've introduced a bill
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 3: and called on the FDA to make sure non-dairy milks
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 3: don't get to gallivant around town wearing the milk label,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 3: that you think the milk label belongs on dairy products,
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 3: not whatever they're squeezing out of almonds and soybeans. What
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 3: should we call what they're squeezing out of almonds and soybeans?
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 6: Well, we could even do a contest around that. I
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 6: think almond beverage sounds great.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 3: Almond beverage? Almond juice?
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 6: Almond juice. That would be okay. So there's not a
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 6: statutory definition of beverage or juice. There is a statutory
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 6: definition of milk.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 4: Of milk.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 6: And it comes from an animal.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 3: That So goats, that counts.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 6: Yes, you can say goat milk.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 3: We can still say goat milk, everybody. And cow milk,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 3: but none of this almond milk.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 6: That would be my preference that the FDA actually enforce
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 6: the law that they are required to enforce.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 3: I'm kind of with that.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: They're declining.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 6: They're declining to do so right now, which is very
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 6: frustrating to my farmers. So- You know, the use of
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 6: the name actually has a serious impact on their business.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 6: There's a lot of consumers, again, you don't need to
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 6: have knowledge about what you consume if you don't want to.
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm a little information consumer, yeah.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 6: But what I would say is, you know, it's not
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 6: a nutritional equivalence. And if you just like hear that, say,
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 6: almond milk is better for you because it's plant-based, you know,
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 6: children need calcium. Babies need nutrients that milk provides. Don't
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 6: suggest that this is a nutritional equivalent by using dairy names.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Wisconsin's culture is not your costume, almonds. Is that
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 3: what you're saying?
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 6: Yeah, that's right.
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 3: Getting some looks.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 6: I was going to say, but, you know, we were
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 6: just talking about TikTok. I'm not talking about banning almond beverage.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: No, no.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 3: No one's saying you are. You just want to label
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 3: it differently. I think juice. I think we have to
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 3: face the fact that just because it's milk in its appearance,
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 3: it's just juice. Because you get it the same way
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 3: you get juice, don't you? You squeeze, I don't know
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 3: what they do to make almond milk.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 6: There's some great YouTube videos about it. I'll let you
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 6: know the link later.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 3: Now, last question.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 4: You're gay.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 3: We talked about that earlier.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 4: Let me ask you this.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 3: And you may not have an answer. Moona or boy genius?
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 6: I don't have an answer.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 3: I'm a Moona girl. What are your thoughts on Renee Rapp?
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 4: Oh, gosh.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 6: You're going to show how....
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 3: No, no. Listen, I think, look, these coastal elites, they
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 3: know about Rene Rapp. They know about Muna and Boy Genius.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 3: Not the hard scrabble, milk chugging. You're too busy. You're
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 3: too busy under a cow doing this to know what
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 3: Muna is.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 6: I think the answer is yes. And that's really, you're
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 6: supposed to brief me before this interview.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: This is part of the fun. Senator Tammy Baldwin, thank
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 3: you so much for your time.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 3: And what can people do to help in the campaign
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 3: right now?
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 6: Go to TammyBaldwin.com. There's all sorts of opportunities there. So
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 6: obviously people can give, people can volunteer. We even have
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 6: a toolkit on how people can amplify the message online
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 6: using all sorts of social media, including TikTok.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 4: Including TikTok.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 6: So yeah, a lot people can do to help.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 4: All right. Senator, thank you so much.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 5: Thank you. All right.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 6: Are you going to give me the cultural references?
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 3: Let's actually keep, let's leave this on.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 2: Let's, uh, yeah.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 2: So basically here's what we got.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 3: So Muna and Boy Genius are two groups that they're both, uh, have, uh,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 3: three members. They are a mix of, uh, bisexual and
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: queer performers. I like, I'm a Muna person. I'm a
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 3: Muna person. Um, your boy genius, your boy genius, but
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 3: they're just, can I tell you.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 6: That my arrow, it would be Elton John or queen
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 6: for sure.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 3: And what would you have chosen?
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 6: Elton John.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 3: I think, and I think that's fine.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 6: Both of the movies, the biopics came out like right
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 6: about the same time. And, um, I found them both
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 6: very fascinating, but yeah, that's my, you know, in my
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 6: high school, uh, uh, you know, basketball games when I'm
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 6: in the stand, it was, you know, we are the
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 6: champions and, will rock you so that you know.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 3: I have Elton John phases and I have Queen phases
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 3: I absolutely love both I will see neither of those
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 3: movies for very simple reasons I do not like movies
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: about artists making art because it always ends up with
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 3: somebody going like what kind of rhapsody should it be
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 3: what kind of rhapsody bohemian rhapsody you know what I
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 3: mean it's like I don't want to know how this
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 3: was made I don't want to see how the sausage
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 3: is made you know okay okay well we're definitely done
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 3: a second time thank you thank you.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: Thanks to Tammy Baldwin for joining us today, and we'll
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 2: have another episode for you on Wednesday. If you want
• 1:10:28
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• 1:10:31
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• 1:10:35
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• 1:10:48
  Speaker 2: Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our show
• 1:10:51
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• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: producers are Saul Rubin and Farrah Safaree. Kira Wakim is
• 1:10:57
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• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor
• 1:11:04
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• 1:11:07
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• 1:11:11
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• 1:11:13
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• 1:11:16
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