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"Impeaching to the Choir." · Pod Save America

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I'm Jon Lovett.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: I'm Tommy Vitor. Bring some energy to that. Bring some energy.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: On today's show, Republicans finally release a policy agenda for
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the midterms. Our old boss, David Plouffe, joins to talk
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: about the final stretch of the campaign. And we try
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: out a new game called Q-Tier.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Q-Tier.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Q-Tier. But first, check out this week's America Dissected, where
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Abdul talks to Malcolm Gladwell about the science and practice
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: of public health. New episodes of America Dissected drop every Tuesday.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: There's also a brand new Wilderness episode out this week.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I talk to undecided Biden voters in Pittsburgh. But inflation, guns, abortion,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: the January 6th hearings, and what they think of the
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania Senate and governor's races.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Any previews? Any hints?
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: They like John Fetterman.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Who doesn't?
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: They like John Fetterman.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: They don't like Dr.
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: Oz.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: They don't like Dr.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: Oz.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: No.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: In fact, I think I've said this before, but the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: reviews of Fetterman were better than I've ever heard from
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: a focus group about a politician.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Just from a political standpoint, maybe Dr. Oz should consider
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: having a stroke.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. And you have made.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: It's a different version of the same joke I've been making.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: The twist on that one is that it's good politics.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: All right, let's get to the news. With just about
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: six weeks left until Election Day, Republicans have unveiled a
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: vague policy platform they're calling a commitment to America. Kevin McCarthy,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the man who would likely become Speaker of the House
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: if Republicans flip the chamber, announced the plan with a
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: big rollout that included a video meant to show scenes
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: of America that was actually stock footage filmed in Russia.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: And a letter with a fake Lincoln quote that was
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: actually a Lehman Brothers ad.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah. They also had footage from a kid in Ukraine
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: and a supermarket in Europe. So great work all around.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Nailing it. On the stock footage front. I love when
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: stupid shit like that becomes a thing. Like who cares,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: but it's fun.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: It's the best.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Fake Lincoln quote.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: They always get in trouble with the stock footage.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: And the fake Lincoln, look, I think we had a- I.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Was about to say, those without fake Lincoln quotes throw
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: the first fake Lincoln quote.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: What happened? What was the quote? I can't remember what
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: the speech was. I remember.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Wasn't it the one he told, wasn't it right before
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: the ACA?
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Remember he went to speak to members of Congress and
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: he gave this really moving speech about about courage and
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: doing the right thing and past the Affordable Care Act.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Most of which he ad-libbed.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: But he dug deep and he found the perfect Lincoln quote.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: And it was perfect in part because it was made up.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: It was a made-up quote.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's what McCarthy took. Yeah.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Anyway.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: So the agenda is mostly limited to four broad themes.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: An economy that's strong, a nation that's safe, a future
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: that's built on freedom, and a government that's accountable. Here's
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: McCarthy with Elise Stefanik and Steve Scalise talking about the
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: plan to a Fox News reporter. And they're doing it
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: from where else? Pennsylvania Diner.
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: Think about this. We're in Washington, not Washington, D.C. We're
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: in Washington County, Pennsylvania.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: Because this plan is about all these people. We want
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: an election to have a contrast. If they put their
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: trust in us, this is exactly what we'll do. Hold
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: our feet to the fire. And on the very first day,
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: we're going to repeal 87,000 IRS agents. So they're not
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: going after you.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: We work for you.
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: You don't work for us.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: They're in Washington County, Pennsylvania, Tommy.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: No, no, no. I'm issuing a verbal cease and desist.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: It's coming from me. It has the force of law
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: because I did the very tired. We're in Washington. We're
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: listening to Washington insiders in Washington County, Iowa, not Washington, D.C.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: in 2007 or 8 because from my perspective, history begins
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: with me and my political experience.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Which, by the way, was a hit on Lovett's political mentor,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton. Right.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: She was listening to the lobbyists.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Learn everything I know. Tommy all my tricks. Uh, yes, I,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: I do. I do like that. It's like, hold my
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: feet to the fire. The first sentence is simply not true.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: They cannot do anything that's in there. Even if it
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: wasn't vague, even if it was written out, they can't
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: do it. And also their very first and most important
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: agenda item is a lie. The first thing you need
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: to know is that we're going to repeal something that
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: is not happening based on a right-wing fever dream. And
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: we're on it.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: This plan is about the people. the people here. It's
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: a plan about people.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: One thing you have to understand if you haven't seen
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: the video is that you have Steve Scalise, Elise Stefanik,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: and Kevin McCarthy sitting at a table in some sort
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: of restaurant surrounded by what look like NPCs, just non-playable characters,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: standing in perfect silence with dull expressions on their faces,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: watching these four people, one of whom is a Fox
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: News reporter, in front of the same order from the
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: diner All of their napkins are still beneath their forks.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: The only person who looks interested in eating is Steve Scalise.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: And if you actually watch the video, if you actually
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: watch the video, his right hand is kind of twitching
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: a little like he's like, can I go for my fork?
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Can I go for my fucking fork? At least Stefanik
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: doesn't doesn't care about that.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: So Republicans are still favored to flip the House and
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: they're trying to make this election a referendum on Biden
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: and the Democrats. Why do you think McCarthy did this, Tommy?
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: And why do you think the platform is so vague?
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think part of it is that there
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: are no new ideas. And we all pretend that Newt
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: Gingrich's 1994 contract with America was some sort of game-changing
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: political document that led to Republicans winning tons and tons
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: of seats. I also bet these guys actually want to
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: have something to point to and say, this is our plan,
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: not that Rick Scott thing that is really, really politically damaging.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Because Rick Scott wants to raise taxes on half the
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: country and potentially cut Social Security and Medicare, which seems
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: like a bad idea, I think.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: It is certainly not a popular one.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, not a popular one. It is smart. If you're
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: going to do something like this, you roll it out now,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: late September, when people are paying attention. I think it's
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: probably useful for normal candidates to have something to point
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: to and say, this is the agenda that we're going
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: to work on as a party. I do think it's
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: very funny that the B-roll included Russian oil rigs. It's
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: kind of too perfect. But yeah, look, the problem for McCarthy, though,
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: is Newt Gingrich could command the media and news cycle
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: as an opposition leader in ways that McCarthy cannot. He
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: can only dream of, in part because Trump is still
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: out there flailing away and dominating the news, you know,
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: on Fox News at least.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Newt Gingrich could also control his caucus in a way
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: that McCarthy clearly can't. I mean, Newt Gingrich's contract with
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: America was like a specific set of bills that they
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: were going to introduce. McCarthy doesn't have any of that.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: He has a parent's bill of rights in there, but
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: he doesn't even say what's in there. This isn't like
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: a specific, and the reason he couldn't include a list
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: of bills that he was going to introduce if they
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: win the house is because he can't get the fucking
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: crazies in his caucus, although the far right part of
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: the caucus and the rest of the caucus to agree
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: on anything.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: And, and if they could make, he can't. And if
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: they could, it would be extremely unpopular where they are
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: as extremely unpopular being strong and safe and free or
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: popular banning abortion and cutting taxes for the rich and
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: stripping the social safety net is not popular. The other
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: piece of this is they have this sort of vicious circle,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: which is because their policy agenda has been so unpopular,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: they run on grievance and vilifying Democrats. And then the
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: base now has sort of this taste for blood. So
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: that's all they can really run on. And so this
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: is vague for the same reason the Republicans didn't have
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: a platform in 2020. The Democratic Party, for all of
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: its many... Look, the Democratic Party is perfect. That's the
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: most important thing.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we always say that.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: We have a policy agenda. The Republican Party doesn't really
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: have a true motivating policy agenda. They have an enemies list.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: And that's really, that's the thing that galvanizes their base.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: So you have to make this set of vague platitudes
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: so they can get back to doing what they want
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: to do, which is talk about trans people, talk about immigrants,
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: talk about crime.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like they basically wanted something that was enough
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: to answer what are Republicans for, but not enough detail
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: to potentially split their party or give Democrats fodder for attacks.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: That's what he was trying to navigate there.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Especially because if they have a slim majority, and we
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: all hope they don't, this is... This is not Kevin
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: McCarthy giving speeches about healthcare policy. This is Matt Gaetz
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: pulling Kevin McCarthy on a leash like the gimp in
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Pulp Fiction. It's Jim Jordan impeaching Biden for one count
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: of having a son that likes Coke and two counts
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: of not building the wall. It's Elise Stefanik going full
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Brothers of Italy. It's Lindsey Graham passing a nationwide abortion
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: ban and having the first erection in his life he
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: didn't pay for. That's the future. That's the commitment.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Leave that in. You know what I'm saying?
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: I can hear Andy laughing in the other room.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Is she laughing or is she crying?
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Find B-roll of that. That's what they should be promoting.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Find B-roll of that.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Don't find B-roll of that.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: You know what else I love? I went to their
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: website and you could click on things and expand the
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: policy positions out and then you go to the next issue.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: But the website is an infinite loop because it'll just
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: take you back around.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: I was very frustrated trying to do research for this podcast.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: It's bullshit all the way down, boys.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: So Republicans have offered some details. You guys heard McCarthy
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: talk about firing IRS agents in that clip. As you
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: pointed out, Lovett, that is a lie.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: Can we just pause on that?
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Let's do it.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: Actually, the mainstream media coverage, even the New York Times story,
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: was very annoying. The $ 87, 000 is the amount of IRS money.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: staffers that might be hired over a decade. That includes
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: replacing people who will quit because we're talking about a decade.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: A lot of it is like IT support, people answering
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: the phones to help you out if you have questions,
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: stuff like that. It's not like 87,000 new auditors start
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: on day one. It's a decade's worth of hiring.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Not at all.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: It's so stupid.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I had the same reaction. And then I was like,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: you know what? We can't do our typical liberal fact
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: check about the IR.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: This is our liberal fact check.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Excuse me, nerds. You're wrong about the $ 87, 000.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Why would you set Tommy up to debunk it?
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: I did the same thing. I was mad at myself.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: I was mad at myself. You were mad at yourself?
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: We did this on stage at a live show a
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: couple months ago.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: Tommy was a good example of hurt people hurt people.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: So what should we do, John? We can't fact check
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: these people.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: This is what's getting lost.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: What's getting lost?
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: They are mad that Joe Biden and Democrats made it
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: harder for rich people to cheat on their taxes. Of course,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: of course. They want to make sure that the IRS
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: can't catch rich tax cheats. That's it. That's all it is. Right.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Forget the... Don't.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Get involved in their 87,000 bullshit.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Well, it's actually like they're saying, don't hire people because
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: they're coming after you. The whole reason... we need to
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: fix this is because these people have spent years gutting
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: the IRS so that it only targets middle-class and poor people.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Not enough for rich people to get tax cuts for Republicans.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Now they want people to actually break the law and
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: not have to pay taxes if you're rich, if you're rich.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: I love this plan.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Anything else you guys found especially notable in there in
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: terms of the details that were on the website that
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: was an endless loop?
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: I mean, it was perfectly vague. I don't really expect
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: more from someone like McCarthy in this case. I do
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: like when you get a foreign policy section. They're like, okay, here's,
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: here's our four bullet foreign policy section. One of the
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: bullets is exercise peace through strength with our allies to
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: counter increasing global threats. Like, ah, that's solved. That's bold.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: One of the four education bullets was recover lost learning
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: from school closures. Like that's a small, easy task that
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: could be handled by the Congress.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Also not a.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Lot of privatization of public schools.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Right. It's also, it's written so vaguely and with so
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: many bromides that you actually can go through it and
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: circle all the things that Democrats are for. Uh, One
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: note would be that it only plays just the, it
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: gives the shortest of shrift to their most important policy agenda,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: which is banning abortion, which is they've included a line
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: that says they will protect the life of the unborn
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: and their mothers. And it's interesting that they include, it's
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: clearly a, even in that brief sentence, you feel their
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: fear that they've had a lot of overreach on abortion.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah. You can learn from what they don't mention, which
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: was that's the abortion piece. And then Interesting to me
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: how much they talk about fentanyl as part of the
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: immigration story. I think that's a huge issue all across
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: the country that doesn't get covered that much. It doesn't
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: seem like they mentioned repealing the ACA. I don't know
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: how new that is, but it's not noted.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: They are going after it.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: Okay. Well, they'll get there eventually. I didn't see student
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: debt forgiveness in there despite all the protestation. The core attacks, though,
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: were crime, schools, border chaos, and then, you know, like...
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: flipping out about women's sports as their other pillar here. Yes.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: So that was in there. The ensure that only women
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: can compete in women's sports. Not much detail, but make
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: sure that that's in there.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Not a lot of detail about like foreign policy got
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: the five words that you said.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: But made sure they made sure they had the detail
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: about women's.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: No, no detail, but no detail anywhere. But no enemy missed.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: Right. Exactly.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: What's interesting to me is that the they had that
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: one page and then they had the Web site. And
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: then they all did some interviews on Friday. And during
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: the interviews, some more of what they're looking for, what
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: they're going to try to do started leaking out. So
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: they're still going after the Affordable Care Act. They also
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: want to block Medicare from being able to negotiate for
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: cheaper prescription drugs.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: They want to undo. Which is the opposite of what
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: their plan says.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Incredibly popular provision in the Inflation Reduction Act. McCarthy also said,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: We're going to find out where the origins of COVID started.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: Their whole oversight thing, the oversight section is a little
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: fever dream.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we should talk about that in a second.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: But how are you guys feeling about the Republican plan
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: to fight inflation? I thought that was robust.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's basically summarized as cut government spending, which might
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: have made sense, I think, during the COVID era stimulus
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: checks that they all were for back in the day,
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: but doesn't make sense anymore. And then it's pro-growth tax
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: policy and deregulation policy, which as long as we're being nerds,
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: That's acceptable.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: That would lead to more inflation. Budget cuts and tax cuts.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: That's all they got.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: Basically, the whole inflation platform is saying Biden did it.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: It's also just like it's our one economic policy that
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: we've had for the last 50 years. Tax cuts for
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: rich people paid for by cutting health care and education.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: They're still playing the hits. Trump in the streets, Paul
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Ryan in the sheets. To this day.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: They got nothing else. They got nothing else. Data for
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Progress did a poll of voters in eight swing states,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: by the way, and they found that The Democratic messages
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: on Social Security, health care, and taxes are the most
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: convincing reasons for voters to vote for Democrats over Republicans.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: This is a new poll that they had out. So
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: it just goes to show you why they're trying to
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: cover up the Social Security, Medicare stuff, why they're trying
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: to reframe the tax thing into an IRS thing.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: Rick Scott is terrible.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: This thing is written so vaguely that this does not
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: necessarily contradict the Rick Scott sunsetting plan.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Does not contradict it.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: No.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: That's still active.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: And they've all taken votes that line them up with
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the Rick Scott plan.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: Right. All right.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: So Republicans won't be able to pass this agenda so
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: long as Joe Biden is president. But they will be
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: able to launch all kinds of investigations, including impeachment proceedings
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: against Biden or his cabinet. Here's South Carolina Republican Nancy
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Mace on Meet the Press this weekend.
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: You expect an impeachment vote against President Biden if Republicans take.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: Over the House?
• 15:16
  Speaker 6: I believe there's a lot of pressure on Republicans to
• 15:19
  Speaker 6: have that vote, to put that legislation forward and to
• 15:22
  Speaker 6: have that vote. I think that is something that some
• 15:25
  Speaker 6: folks are considering.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 15:27
  Speaker 6: Again, I'm someone who wants to, yeah, I want to
• 15:29
  Speaker 6: follow the Constitution.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: It's really important.
• 15:31
  Speaker 6: Oversight's important.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: But if these impeach Biden votes come up, how are
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: you going to vote?
• 15:38
  Speaker 6: Again, I'm going to read how that bill is filed,
• 15:41
  Speaker 6: what's in it, what evidence there was. I didn't vote
• 15:44
  Speaker 6: to impeach the former president of the United States because
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: I felt like due process was stripped away. I will
• 15:49
  Speaker 6: not vote for impeachment of any president if I feel
• 15:51
  Speaker 6: that due process has been stripped away for anyone.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: What a fine public servant. You guys think it's weird
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: that Chuck didn't ask what Republicans might impeach Biden for?
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: I just skipped that one important question. Would you vote
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: for impeachment? For fucking what? That's like a really big
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: part of it.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: It's irrelevant.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: Look, I don't know if your history buffs listening, but
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: that's a big part of it. Why?
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: This is, you know, like this is not a Chuck
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: specific problem, though. I mean, like the Republican cynicism around
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: impeachment is so baked into the political cake and expectations
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: for Republicans that they're like, yeah, well, Democrats impeached Trump twice.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: So Biden should expect to be Impeached at least once. Why?
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: Did he hold up military aid to Ukraine? Did he,
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: you know, send a mob into the capital? No, whatever.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Who cares?
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Let's not even get into it. Ted Cruz basically admitted
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: this on his podcast. He was like, yeah, he'll be
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: impeached whether it's justified or not.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: It's just revenge.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: It's just revenge. They will find their reason. They've been
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: floating Afghanistan. They've been floating the border. And they obviously
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: are not fans of Hunter Biden.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Go for it. Impeachment, very unpopular.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, it doesn't seem too... politically
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: astute for Republicans at this stage in the midterm campaign
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: to openly talk about impeaching Joe Biden?
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: I think yes, like the MAGA base that they're desperately
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: trying to cling to wants blood and reciprocity. So I
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: think this is a message targeted at those people. I
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: think you, you, talk about this on Fox News and
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: right-wing radio and everywhere else. But no, I mean, I
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: don't think this is your message for swing voters that
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: you're going big with on ads.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's sort of a preview of coming attractions if
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: they do win the House, because they're in that Washington
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Post story about the Freedom Caucus basically saying, we're going
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: to want a whole bunch of changes that give us
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: more power if we're going to ever vote to make
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Kevin McCarthy speaker. And His only response is, can we
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: just do this after the election, please?
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, they might say it to their base, but
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: they don't want to talk about this at all. And
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: I hope they get asked about it more. And I
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: think Democrats should incorporate it into their message. Like, you
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: give Republicans the House. You think that they're actually going
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: to take care of inflation? They're going to do anything
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: that you want to be done? No, they're going to
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: protect Donald Trump. run investigations for him, run investigations about Biden.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: It's going to be investigations for two years.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: It's going to be a circus.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: It's Trump-adjacent stuff. The oversight agenda is like DOJ politicization,
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: which is saying that Trump was unfairly targeted by the FBI,
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: COVID origins, and then big tech censorship. So it's all
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: very Trump-adjacent grievance stuff.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Investigate Fauci. Investigate... We should get to the bottom of
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: that guy. We should get to the bottom of that guy.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: We should investigate. Bring, you know, Hal Garland down there.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy already said, you know, clear your calendar to
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Merrick Garland because he had the audacity to try to
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: retrieve the nuclear secrets that Trump stole and stashed in
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: his fucking beach house.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: Clear your calendar, sir.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: So they're going to do that for a couple years.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: You shouldn't clear his calendar. Propose some fucking dates. We're
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: trying to run a government here. Honestly, the most annoying ask.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: Do you have time for lunch in the next six weeks?
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: No, give me a specific date.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: You send me the invite.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: You send the dates and then I'll say I'm busy.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: I'll either say accept or I'll say tend to.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: Do you have time for a quick call about what?
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: About what?
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: Could it be an email? Kevin.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: So, Lovett, you mentioned that there's only one reference to
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: abortion in the platform, a promise to protect the lives
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: of unborn children and their mothers. This is, of course,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: after Lindsey Graham proposed a national abortion ban just a
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: few weeks ago. And after just this weekend, when a
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: judge in Arizona ruled that an 1864 law in that
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: state that bans nearly all abortions must now take effect
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: because of the Dobbs decision. Republicans in competitive races clearly
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: do not want to talk about abortion. Is that a
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: plausible strategy at this point?
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Plausible strategy. I'm sure that's what they'll try to do.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: It's our job to make sure it doesn't work. And
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: remind everyone everywhere all the time that every that that
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: abortion is on the ballot in every congressional race.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: Abortion is on the.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Ballot in every statewide race and drive home the point
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: that they can try to moderate all they want in
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: the three weeks before an election. But they are on
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: the record for the year, five years, 10 years, 20
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: years before. And no matter what they say, no matter
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: how they try to allow. to their actual agenda, their
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: goal is to ban abortion everywhere without regard for the
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: health of women and pregnant people.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: That's it. And this is especially true now in Arizona,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: which has some of the tightest and most competitive midterm
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: races in the country. Tommy, what do we know about
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: where the candidates, the major candidates are on this issue
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: in Arizona and how this ruling might change the race?
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: I mean, the ruling in Arizona just put into place
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: an abortion law that mandates two to five years in
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: prison for anyone who provides abortion services. So Blake Masters
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: was incredibly anti-abortion. He just scrubbed his website, though, so
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: we don't really know anymore. It's all a big mystery now. Yeah,
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: and everything disappears on the internet. Carrie Lake is also
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: a right-wing loon, although until recently she was an Obama supporter. So,
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: you know, I think The job is to tie these
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: candidates around this decision and make a very compelling case.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: The hard part is going to be when they all
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: try to pull a DeSantis and change the conversation to immigration, crime, inflation,
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: and manufacture a caravan narrative with Fox News. And, you know,
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: that's the fight.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: And one other piece, too, is just this is not
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: perspective anymore. It's already happening, right? This is already happening.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: People are already having to leave states to get health care.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Women with with issues unrelated to being pregnant or being
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: unable to get the treatment and care that they need
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: in states that have put in place bans.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: So it's here.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: They are getting exactly what they want. They can't pretend
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: they're not. It's not for the future. It's now.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: I think in the Pennsylvania governor's race, one thing that's
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: really hurt Doug Mastriano, aside from being a fucking lunatic,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: is we say abortion's on the ballot everywhere. In Pennsylvania,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Doug Mastriano is governor. He signs an abortion ban on
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: day one, full, complete abortion ban. If he's not, if
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Josh Shapiro is governor, abortion remains legal in Pennsylvania, right?
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Like it's that simple. Arizona, now Carrie Lake and Blake
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Masters are sort of in that position in Arizona. Blake
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Masters tried to erase the website, even though he has
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: called abortion. He does his own web IT stuff. Yeah,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: he does not use Squarespace. He has called abortion demonic.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: He wanted a constitutional amendment to ban abortion. That's how
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: extreme it was. Carrie Lake said, you know, this weekend
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: in response to this, she said, oh, I'm I'm pro-life,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: and she started attacking Katie Hobbs for saying, she's like, oh, well,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: she's saying that if you have a miscarriage, that she's
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: confusing it with abortion care. Well, it's like, you know what?
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: All the abortion clinics in Arizona are shutting down now.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: So health of the mother, life of the mother, whatever
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: it may be, women are not going to have access
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: to abortion care.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: It's nearly identical, an abortion and the care you have
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: to receive after miscarriage. It's the exact same fucking thing.
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: So do not try to let anyone... fuzz this up.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Ted Cruz was doing the same thing over the weekend,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: trying to say, oh, we're all for the health and
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: life of the mother. We would never do that. Well,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: when abortion access is banned everywhere and a doctor has
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: to fucking call a lawyer before giving a woman care
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: because they're not sure if it's within the letter of
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: the fucking random law that was written 100 years ago.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, re-upped in 1906, right, where the lawyer could get
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: two to five years. By the way, Doug Mastriano, to
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: your question of can they avoid talking about this issue,
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's a guy who is just running something
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: interesting off the grid campaign where he doesn't talk to
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: any mainstream media no he just does like the q
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: anon variety hour on twitch or whatever.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Doesn't get a lot of folks uh coming to these
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: rallies either 50 people five zero showed up at his
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: event not raising a lot of money over the weekend
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: but that is interesting you know and i when i
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: did this um uh focus group in pittsburgh i talked
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: to um Rebecca Katz, who's John Fetterman's senior advisor, and
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Malcolm Kenyatta, who ran against Fetterman in the primary. And
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: I was asking them about, you know, is Josh Shapiro,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: do you think, is he going to go big on
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: democracy as a theme because of Mastriano and Mastriano wanting
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: to overturn the election? And they were like, no, I
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: think the easier play here is abortion. They're like, you
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: don't have to, you have to be creative about it.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: He wants to ban abortion in the state of Pennsylvania completely.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: That is unbelievably unpopular. And if he just runs on
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: that issue the whole time, he could definitely win. And
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: sure enough, he's ahead in the poll. So we shall see.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: When we come back, we'll talk to our old pal,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: David Plouffe. That's where you do all your podcasting? I
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: see you got a fancy mic there.
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I used to do it in a closet.
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: I have an office I share in the Presidio with
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: some guys, but the Wi-Fi was spotty. So I found
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: this nice spot in my house. It's pretty quiet, unless
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: my dogs bark.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well.
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: If they do, I'll shoot them today. This is a
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: real podcast, so we can have no dog barking.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: We literally have a dog right here that might bark,
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: so you're good.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: At any moment.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Just go put them on your roof.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: A Romney joke?
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: All right, yeah. No context for a Romney joke. Can
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: we make those now?
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: I don't know if we can make Romney jokes. Oh, wait, oh.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: What?
• 24:34
  Speaker 6: Yeah, no.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Have you heard Dan lately?
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: Hey, David Plouffe, question for you. Are you ready to
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: apologize for the fact that trying to beat Mitt Romney
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: destroyed democracy? Why didn't you realize when you were running
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: a campaign against Mitt Romney that what you should have
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: done is just waved a little white flag and shown
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: him how to get into the White House? Because otherwise,
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: Republicans would decide then that they were fucking fascist.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: He's just trying to bait Plouffe, aren't you?
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: We should keep that in and do the intro and
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: we should roll from there.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: You should keep that in.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're keeping it in. Well, perfect.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: On the pod today, in case you didn't know, former
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Obama campaign manager and senior White House advisor, our old
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: boss and current podcast colleague, the first few episodes of
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: his new season of Campaign HQ are out now. David Plouffe,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: welcome back to the pod.
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: Well, John, I never thought we'd be referred to in
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: that way, podcast college.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: I don't consider us podcast college. I consider us podcast competitors.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: That was the dream in 2008, Plouffe. That's why we
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: signed up. We knew that someday we'd be podcasters.
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: I'm in the single A. But, you know, the minor
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: leagues are good. It's lovely ballparks.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you get to know the fans.
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: It's a more intimate experience.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: Yes, exactly.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: You get invited on Hacks on Tap once in a while.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: Sweet gig if you can get it.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: All right, Plouffe, we're six weeks out. How are you
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: feeling about these midterms?
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: Well, John, I know you're on the polar coaster. I
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: know Tommy and John try and keep you off that.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Plouffe, Plouffe.
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: It's hard.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: John literally turned to me and Lovett the other day
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: and he said, it's getting.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: Chilly outside, some fall weather, going to be some poles soon.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: And he wasn't kidding.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: That's word for word. Word for word. It's getting chilly out.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Rubbed his hands together. We're going to get some poles soon.
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: That's a disturbing image.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: I did say that.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: It was so sweet. It was like you got to
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: see him as a little boy for a moment.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: Anyway, sorry.
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: Are you in your 40s yet, Favreau?
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: I am, unfortunately.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Oh, he's deep in them.
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: This is what happens.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: You can barely see 40.
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: You get excited about polls in the winter. These didn't
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: happen to you in the 20s. Listen, I think that
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: a couple of things can be true. The environment's as
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: good as any Democrat had any right to hope. you know,
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: probably four or six months ago. And this is still
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: a super challenging election. So we always talk about the
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: outliers in off years. 2002 was one when Bush was
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: president in the aftermath of 9-11-98, which was a result of,
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: you know, a Republican overreach on impeachment. But let's remember,
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: even in that election, which is a great Democratic election,
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: we won zero Senate seats and won five House seats.
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: So this is going to be really hard. You've got,
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: we're the party in power. I think about 25% of
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: Americans say the economy is in good shape. But they're
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: balancing that off with, you know, Dobbs, abortion, the fight
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: for democracy, the fact that the Republican brand and many
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: Republican candidates are just shit awful. So you put that
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: all together. And, you know, I think you might have
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: said six months ago we wouldn't have had a chance
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: to hold the Senate and we'd lose 50 House seats.
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: You know, now it looks like we have a chance
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: to hold the House or at least keep those gains
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: very minimal so we can win it back in 24.
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: And the Senate looks quite plausible. And a lot of
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: these governor's races look positive. That being said, it's going
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: to be super close. We shouldn't kid ourselves. Here's the
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: thing about the polar coaster, John. When one party is
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: doing well in polls, and that's tended to be us
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: the last six years, but it's been Republicans in other cycles,
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: you're at your ceiling in polls. You're like 49, 48,
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: and the other opponent's at 44. Well, they're going to
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: get most of the vote back. So what matters is
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: 100% of the vote and how does that get allocated.
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: And my sense is Republicans are going to gain from
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: that dynamic. But right now in most states, Particularly in
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: the Senate, I'd rather be us than them. And that's
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: a pretty remarkable thing to say.
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: So David, I listened to the last three episodes of
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: Campaign HQ. You went deep on Pennsylvania and Nevada and Georgia.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: The weirdest race, if we can start there, I'd say
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: is Pennsylvania because you've got Fetterman and Shapiro running like
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: pretty traditional, not traditional campaigns. Like Fetterman is not a
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: traditional candidate. They're running a really smart digital campaign, but
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: they're running campaigns. They're running TV ads. They're doing interviews
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: and stuff. You have Dr. Oz, who's a weirdo, but
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: he's running a recognizable race and he's going to spend
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: money and he's going to talk to the press. And
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: then you have Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate for governor,
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: who's just on Mars, right? The guy is not running
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: TV ads. He doesn't have any money. He doesn't talk
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: to mainstream media sources. And it's like, he's just running
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: kind of like a QAnon adjacent kind of weird strategy.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: You're someone who used to work on campaigns. You ran
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: a million campaigns. How do you figure out how to
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: run against that? Like this guy's running an off the
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: grid strategy. You're trying to run traditional strategy? How do
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: they figure this out?
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: Well, I think their digital and their social has been
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: pretty smart and modern and not super traditional. I mean,
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: so I think in that way, they've really run, I think,
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: a campaign a lot of Democrats can learn from. Fetterman's
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: now getting back out on the trail. So that's the
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: thing about that campaign. Your candidate was sidelined for a
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: long time. So it's super challenging. So listen, what's an election?
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: Election's about candidates, and it's about messages, and it's about timing.
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: It's about so many things, as you guys know. But
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: it's also about math. How many votes do I need
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: to win? Pennsylvania is a perfect example of what is
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: it required to win. A Democrat, by definition, has to
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: win the center of the electorate because there's more conservatives
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: than liberals in Pennsylvania. And you've got to make sure
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: you either win the turnout game or don't get followed.
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: So I think Fetterman and Shapiro both in different ways
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: are making appeals to the true swing voters that live
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: outside of Pittsburgh, in those suburbs outside of Philadelphia, in
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: the center part of the state on Harrisburg, but also
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: trying to motivate the base. So I think those two
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: races may diverge a little bit. I mean, again, we
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: can't believe a poll, but it does look like Shapiro
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: may win that race. You're not going to Pennsylvania by
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: 20 points, but he may win it by a margin.
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: And the center race is likely to be a little
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: bit more And so I think if you're the Fetterman campaign,
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: you have to understand who are those voters, who actually
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: is considering Shapiro and Oz, and what's the best way
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: to tear them off Oz. That is probably the campaign
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: within the campaign that's most important. And then, of course,
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: are you going to get the turnout of Philadelphia? And
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: that affects both Shapiro and Fetterman. The one thing I'm
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: sure that's going to happen again is the Republicans are
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: coming out. They're going to come out like zombies. They're
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: coming out like a horde we should all be very
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: afraid of. So that's the thing you just bake into
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: the cake. We saw it in 16. We saw it
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: in 18, despite what happened in the House. They had
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: really good turnout in a lot of places, and we
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: certainly saw it in 20. They're coming out in big,
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: big numbers. And so that's the question. And if you're
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: a Fetterman, the thing they're very focused on trying to
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: eat into some of these exurban and rural margins. Biden
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: did a good job of that. So, you know, if
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: you can lose these these outlying counties by 65-35 rather
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: than 75-25, That all adds up in a close race.
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: So I think they're running a smart race. But I
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: do think that those two races, of all the states
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: you look around the country that are battleground states, that
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: one has the potential for the most divergence. When I
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: say most divergence, we're talking about 10 points. But is
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: it possible that those races are not within two or
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: three points of each other? It's possible.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: Fetterman is a uniquely good candidate.
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: Dr.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Oz seems to be a uniquely bad candidate. And yet
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: I think everybody has been watching that race and saying, wow,
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Fetterman is, the Fetterman campaign seems to be having a
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: lot of fun. They're doing incredible things online. And what
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: aspects of what they've been doing to just make their
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: campaign seem like a fun one to be a part of,
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: do you think other Democrats could be replicating, even if
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: they're not going up against someone as conducive to mockery
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: as Oz?
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: Well, John, I mean, You do have to be authentic
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: to your candidate and campaign. I mean, so that's a
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: lesson we've all learned, which is you just can't plug
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: and play. So Fetterman seems to be someone, this kind
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: of campaign suits him. But I think one, they're not,
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: they don't focus group and test everything they do. They
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: just go with their gut. And what I love is
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: it's probably a bunch of people, 22, 23, 24 saying,
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: I think this is a good idea. And there's not
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: a lot of friction to get that out in the ether.
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: So I love that. So I think more campaigns have
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: to be, more comfortable with throwing an errant pass every
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: once in a while. And I think to really be
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: tough on your opponent. I mean, they've really gone at Dr.
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: Oz's character, I think, in a really, really strong way.
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: And I think they understand elections. I wish elections were
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: about policy papers and distinctions on tax rates and how
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: many people get health care and don't. That's not what
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: politics is today. It's a performance, unfortunately. And I think
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: they get that. Now, of course, that's got to be
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: undergirded by values and who you're fighting for and your
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: biography and your story. But I think they understand that
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: it's a performance and you've got to go out there
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: every day and put your opponent on the defensive and
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: have some fun. So again, I wish politics wasn't in
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: that state in the year 2022, but it is. That's
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: why when we think about who's going to run for
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: president in 24 or 28, like let's forget the resume
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: or the paper. In a way, Obama changed that. Trump
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: changed that. I'm still naive enough to think it should
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: matter that someone should be a good president, but you
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: don't have to have a long resume. Like when you
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: think about all the Democratic candidates, people say, You know,
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: particularly if Biden doesn't run or even if he does
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: run in 28, we've got no bench. I mean, you
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: look at all the people running this time, Tim Ryan,
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: you know, Fetterman, Mark Kelly, Val Demings, you know, Stacey Abrams,
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: you know, Beasley. All these people could run for president,
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: whether they win their race or not. You know, and
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: so I think that we have to understand that this
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: is much more performance than policy. And that's just something
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: the Republicans have understood, I think, much more consistently than
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: we have.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: What do you think's going on in Nevada? Because I
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: think of all of the Democratic incumbents who are up,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: I sort of worry about Cortez Masto the most. And
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: I think she's a great candidate and running a good race.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: But it seems like that, and I listened to your
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: interview with John Ralston, it sounds like that state is
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: sort of drifting away from Democrats a bit. You know,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Biden sort of didn't really overperform Hillary in that state,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: unlike he did in almost every other state, competitive swing state.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: And I'm just not quite sure what's going on there.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: But what's your read on that race?
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: Well, first of all, John, as it relates to 24,
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: we should be very concerned about Nevada. As you know,
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: I know you probably spend a lot of time on
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: the websites where you piece together the 270 electoral votes.
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: And in a close election, Nevada plays a pretty critical
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: role in a lot of those scenarios. And so, yes,
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: Nevada is trending in a challenging. I mean, we see
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: Wisconsin's doing the same thing. Nevada is excited as we
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: get about Georgia and Arizona as we should. And hopefully
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: at some point, Texas will join that party. It's concerning.
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: So I think that and there's no doubt that. Listen,
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: I think the pandemic hurt the Nevada economy in an
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: outsized way. I think you are seeing some some Republican
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: gains with non-college voters of color there, particularly men, which
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: is concerning. I'd say this, though. Laxalt is a shit candidate.
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: He doesn't get the the. headlines that Walker gets or
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: Masters gets, but this guy's got a long history. He
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: ran for governor. He's not particularly popular. So I do
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: think Masto has benefited in that candidate. But yeah, I mean,
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: I think that she is someone, she's a first term candidate.
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: Nevada's got a lot of transient folks. It's not like
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: she's got a deep relationship with a lot of people
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: in that state. So I worry about that. I think
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: the governor's race is going to be close as well.
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: There's also three toss up house races in that relatively
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: small state. So So, yeah, it's going to require, you know,
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: holding your vote share with Hispanic voters and certainly with
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: black voters, getting the right kind of turnout. You've got
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: to blow out Clark County, not just the city, but
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: the suburbs. And then, you know, you've got Washoe County.
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: You remember when we ran back in 08 and 12,
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: that was one of the definitive swing counties in the country.
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: It's now moved more blue.
• 36:14
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: But that's been counteracted by some of those exurban rural
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: areas really, really turning deep, deep, deep red. So I
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: think both of those races are sheer toss-up. I think
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: Cortez Masto got lucky that Laxalt's her candidate and it
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: wasn't somebody who's kind of a fresher face. The other
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: thing about Nevada is, I mean, the Secretary of State
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: there is an election denier. You've got other down-ballot candidates
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: for Republicans statewide who are election deniers. I mean, they've
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: gone completely off the deep end there. And so it's
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: concerning because, I mean, I don't know. We don't know
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: who's going to, you know, is it Biden-Trump? Are there
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: other match-ups in 24? But hard to believe Nevada won't
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: be close. And so if we have that Secretary of
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: State on the Republican side presiding over that election, it
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: gets even scarier.
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: It's been interesting seeing the different strategies evolve in the
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: major races in Georgia. Stacey Abrams has really embraced Biden.
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: I think it's a little more of a nationalized race.
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: She seems a little more comfortable sounding partisan. Senator Warnock
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: is not attacking Biden, but he's not clinging to him.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: He's emphasizing working with anyone, going anywhere, that kind of message.
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: Do you think that those strategy differences are born of necessity,
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: given how they've been maybe defined in the states differently?
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: Or are these differences in approach? What did you take
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: away from that?
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: Well, listen, some of your listeners will think this is defeatist.
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: But if you're a federal statewide candidate in a southern state,
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: certainly this is true in any battleground state, you have
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: to be a little more careful. And again, I think
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: we don't live in a a West Wing episode where
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: you can say the most liberal thing and voters genuflect
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: and you win. This is still a really, really tough country.
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: The Senate is stacked against us. The Electoral College is
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: stacked against us. So again, as you guys remember, in
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: presidential races, I mean, we win the popular vote with
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: great regularity, but to win the Electoral College, you have
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: to win the middle and you have to do well
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: enough on the base. And so I think if you're
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: someone like Warnock, to appeal to those voters that got
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: you there in the first place, of course, you're not
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: going to trim your sails on the things you believe about,
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: but you've got to talk about, I've worked with Republicans
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: and you're not going to be the same flamethrower. So
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: I think it is. I think with Abrams, the challenge is,
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: and she's running a great race, obviously, and she's a
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: hero to all of us, is Kemp is benefiting from
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: the fact that Trump attacked him. There's just no question
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: about that. I mean, Raffensperger may walk to, you know,
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: I mean, we have a great secretary of state candidate
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: running against him too, but clearly he's benefited from this.
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: There's a lesson there, by the way. I don't think
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: many Republicans will take it. But if you stand up
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: to this guy just a little bit and somehow you
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: can survive your primary, the general electorate will reward you.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: We've been talking about how these Republican candidates are shit,
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: as you said, and have given Democrats sort of a
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: target rich environment. If you were running a Democratic campaign
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: right now, we've got six weeks to go. What would
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: you be having your candidate talk about every day? What
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: would most of your ads be about? What would you
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: zero in on?
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: Well, John, I you know, that all depends on who
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: you're running against and where the polls are and kind
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: of what what progress you're making against your vote call
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: or not. But I think campaigns have always had to
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: be a balance between. And again, if you're an incumbent,
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: you definitely need to make this a referendum, not a choice.
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: But no matter who you are, open seat challenge. incumbent,
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: there's got to be a blend of here's what I'll do.
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: Here's who I am. Here's who I'm fighting for. And again,
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: policy secondary to the values, the policy that supports that.
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: You always did a great job, all you guys, in
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: all your communication and understanding that when you were writing
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: releases and speeches. You've got to do both. There's got
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: to be positive out there, there's got to be comparative,
• 39:51
  Speaker 4: and there's got to be rip-roaring negative. You just got
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: to paint the picture of what will happen if this
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: person gets elected specifically and then generally their party takes control.
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: Democracy is probably over. Women are going to lose even
• 40:05
  Speaker 4: more healthcare rights. They'll try and ban abortion on the
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: federal level. They'll cut taxes for the wealthy even as
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: we're losing jobs in what looks like to be a recession.
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: You got to paint the picture. And none of that
• 40:17
  Speaker 4: is gilding the lily because the evidence is there. But again,
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: if you're managing a campaign, there's dials. How do I
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: get to the number of votes I need to get to?
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: And a lot of that's geographic breakdowns, demographic breakdowns, but
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: it's a blend of making sure you're winning enough true
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: swing voters and they still exist and making sure every
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: race I ran, you tried to overestimate your opponent. Like
• 40:42
  Speaker 4: they're going to turn out more voters than we think.
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: So if we think, If our model says they're going
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: to have 100 voters turn out, let's assume they turn
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: out 110. Can we beat that? So that's the challenging thing. Now,
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: we have seen candidates throughout history in our party be
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: able to have the same message that can both motivate
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: and persuade swing voters and excite the base. And so
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: I think what I would do in the close of
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: a campaign is just all that matters is my vote goal.
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: And maybe you do a little more persuasion because you're
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: feeling better out the base, or maybe not. Or maybe
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: it's 50-50. But also to put your opponent on the defensive.
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: A lot of people decide to vote, to volunteer at
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: the end. A lot of people haven't even checked into
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: these elections, even though ballots are starting to go off.
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: So timing's important. So you want to make sure you've
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: left some good moments here for the end so you
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: can close in a really, really strong way. I mean,
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: I think that's one of the challenges. If you remember
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: back in 16, the last debate ended so early in
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: that presidential race. Hillary had like three weeks to And,
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: you know, I think that was a long way to
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: the finish line.
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, plus you had James Comey jumping out of a
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: trash can.
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: Jimmy C.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: So, you know, you talked about the environment being tough.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: And yet we've had a few places where there are
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: these glimmers of hope. You had New York 19. You
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: had that vote in Kansas around abortion access. What lessons
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: do you draw from those surprising wins on abortion and
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: how it should play? And what lessons don't you draw
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: from it?
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: Well, listen, those are actual elections, not polls. So I
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: think we should all pay a lot of attention to him. And,
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: you know, that should make us feel optimistic. So here,
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: the Kansas election was only about abortion. So lesson one is,
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: to the extent your race can be about abortion more
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: than anything else, that's a good thing. So I would
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: keep that front and center with great ferocity. And turnout
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: was pretty strong. So I think that, you know, it
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: doesn't mean you at all rest on your laurels, but
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: as you're thinking about what kind of turnout you can get,
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: whether that's a House race or a Senate race or
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: a governor's race, I think you should be looking at
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: the outer edge of what's possible. So, you know, but
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: not every race is, no race is only about abortion.
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: But listen, if you're running for the Senate, every state
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: that has a competitive Senate race is at least two-thirds pro-choice.
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: Every state, no matter what, like Blake Masters is erasing
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: his fucking, you know, stuff on his website. Who cares?
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: Like this was his position. And if he gets elected,
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: you know, the first bill he's going to vote on
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: is to ban abortion federally. And that's the other thing.
• 43:21
  Speaker 4: This law in Arizona that just got greenlit.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: That could make the difference in governor's race, secretary of
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: state race and center race because it's real.
• 43:29
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 43:30
  Speaker 4: So I think that's the question for you.
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: What's your advice to all these campaign managers out there
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: who are trying to run races? They believe everything you're
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: saying right now. But the last three weeks of the election,
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: we have another caravan, right, or another DeSantis, you know,
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: sort of like immigration specific stunt. And they try to
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: change the message to the border and crime. Like, what
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: would you do or what would you advise people to
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: do when that happens for how to manage those closing weeks?
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: Well, first of all, not to listen to people my generation,
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: because we're like out of touch with how you communicate today.
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: That would be my first example.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: But I'd say this.
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: So history is important here. I think our party, for
• 44:10
  Speaker 4: the most part in the media, thinks Republicans are geniuses. OK,
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: let's remember the caravan did not work. That was 2018.
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: What was 2020? There's going to be MS-13 people camping
• 44:19
  Speaker 4: out in your backyard, raping your family members. That didn't
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: work either. So I think we should be careful about
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: assigning too much... value to their stunts. So I would
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: just execute your game plan. And there's a lot of
• 44:33
  Speaker 4: things that you can crucify every Republican candidate on. And
• 44:38
  Speaker 4: so keep that front and center. And again, all these
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: campaigns have plenty of money. So you can communicate the
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: message you want to communicate to who you want to
• 44:45
  Speaker 4: communicate it to. Very different than when you're in office,
• 44:48
  Speaker 4: when you're much more at the whims of the press story.
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: So I think you've got your game plan. It's kind
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: of like a football coach who comes in with their
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: first 20 plays. You know what you're going to do
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: those last three or four weeks. And it just doesn't
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: mean that you can't react to an outside event. But
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: for the most part, particularly as it relates to your
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: advertising and your content and what you're driving on the ground,
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: you just got to stay focused on that. So there'll
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: be something. We know that. But again, we think that
• 45:13
  Speaker 4: all this stuff has worked so well in the past.
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: What was 2012? Remember, Obama's going to cut Medicare. And
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: they get all these plaudits from pundits about how brilliant
• 45:22
  Speaker 4: they are putting Democrats on the defensive. And generally, it
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: hasn't worked.
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: Don't freak out. Stick to the game plan.
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: It's good advice.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: David Plouffe, thank you so much for joining us and
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: for your wisdom. And everyone go check out Campaign HQ.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: It's a fantastic podcast.
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: After you're done with a few crooked pots.
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you got to get through that whole library.
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: You know, that's like a game.
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: So once you're done with Monday, then you can download
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: stuff on Tuesday, yes.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: Thanks, Plouffe.
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: Great to be with you guys.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: All right, talk to you soon. Okay, before we go,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: one of our intrepid producers, Olivia Martinez, is here in
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: studio to host a new game the team came up
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: with today. Olivia, take it away.
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: What's up?
• 46:16
  Speaker 7: I'm Olivia, a producer here at Crooked, and I'm the
• 46:19
  Speaker 7: deputy chief make-the-guys-play-games-on-the-show officer here on Pots of America.
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: Who's the chief?
• 46:26
  Speaker 7: Hallie Kiefer. She's hilarious.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: Shout out to Hallie.
• 46:29
  Speaker 7: Today I'm here to host a new game we've developed
• 46:31
  Speaker 7: called Q-Tier. Shout out to Elijah for this awesome idea.
• 46:34
  Speaker 7: Here's how it works. I will give you an unhinged
• 46:37
  Speaker 7: conservative quote, and you tell me what tier that quote
• 46:40
  Speaker 7: belongs on. Here are the tiers, which we also have
• 46:43
  Speaker 7: up on the screen in studio for you. All right,
• 46:46
  Speaker 7: bottom tier. In our D tier, we have borderline normal.
• 46:50
  Speaker 7: Going up a level in unhingedness is C tier, your
• 46:54
  Speaker 7: uncle's Facebook page. B tier is Fox News Addict. A
• 46:58
  Speaker 7: tier is InfoWars Supplement Users. And finally, our God tier,
• 47:02
  Speaker 7: the goat tier. The Q tier.
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: Nice. All right.
• 47:06
  Speaker 7: But here's the thing. In order for us to move on,
• 47:08
  Speaker 7: you have to agree on where every single one of
• 47:10
  Speaker 7: these quotes should go.
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: Oh, all three?
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 47:12
  Speaker 7: We're trying to get consensus.
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: This is like an early 2000s Homeland Security threat level vibe.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: I like it.
• 47:17
  Speaker 7: That's what I'm going for.
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: Great.
• 47:19
  Speaker 7: And we're ranking the quotes, not the person. Just this
• 47:24
  Speaker 7: one specific incident from each person.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: So try to just not think about the person in
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: your rankings.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: Just a snapshot.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: Hate the sin, love the sinner.
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: Ready?
• 47:32
  Speaker 7: You ready to play?
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
• 47:34
  Speaker 7: On Friday, Tudor Dixon made fun of the failed kidnapping
• 47:37
  Speaker 7: attempt against her opponent, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Here is
• 47:41
  Speaker 7: a clip.
• 47:42
  Speaker 8: The sad thing is that Gretchen will tie your hands,
• 47:44
  Speaker 8: put a gun to your head, and ask if you're
• 47:46
  Speaker 8: ready to talk. For someone so worried about being kidnapped,
• 47:50
  Speaker 8: Gretchen Whitmer sure is good at taking business hostage and holding.
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: It for ransom. I mean, it's like somebody took a
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: Chuck Schumer-style soundbite, you know, and put it through the
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: sociopath machine.
• 48:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because it's really, because it's pithy. Well, it's not pithy.
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: It's cheesy.
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: It's cheesy.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: It's cheesy, but also evil.
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's evil. It's more evil than like, you're getting
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: squeezed at the pump. Well, I'm going to squeeze the
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: government right back for you. But it's about a kidnapping.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: But it's about a kidnapping. I feel like that's Fox
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: News addict.
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree.
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: I think it's B tier.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: I would say B tier.
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: Okay, yeah. Does anyone have a.
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: I would have said A or B.
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: I think it's B.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: It's so early in the game.
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: I think it's B. I think it's B.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: I don't want any Q inflation.
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: She doesn't actually call for a kidnapping.
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: But the name Tudor Dixon, it does a lot for me.
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: It's tough.
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: It's tough.
• 48:38
  Speaker 7: That alone could be its own thing.
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: It's a B. It's a B.
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 48:41
  Speaker 7: Great job on consensus.
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: Thanks, Olivia.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: Don't patronize us.
• 48:47
  Speaker 7: Number two, Twitter baddie Maggie Haberman has a new Trump
• 48:51
  Speaker 7: book coming out called Confidence Man. That's another name we
• 48:55
  Speaker 7: can talk about.
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: How dare Maggie report what she hears. Stop doing that.
• 49:01
  Speaker 7: She previewed the book in The Atlantic today by recounting
• 49:04
  Speaker 7: a conversation she had with Trump about January 6th. The
• 49:07
  Speaker 7: former president apparently told Mike Pence, Mike, you have a
• 49:10
  Speaker 7: chance to be Thomas Jefferson or you can be Mike Pence.
• 49:13
  Speaker 7: He chose to be Mike Pence.
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: That's so funny.
• 49:15
  Speaker 7: How Q is it to tell Mike Pence to throw
• 49:17
  Speaker 7: out the Constitution on the election of 1800?
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: Hmm. Hard one.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's... God, has everything been normalized? Much
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: like the resistance feared?
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: It's got to be an A tier.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: Well....
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: But it's sort of like... It's... It's like you could
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: have been Thomas Jefferson.
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: Evil interpretations of the Constitution have been used by others
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: to great effect.
• 49:40
  Speaker 8: Wow.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: You lost me. Tommy Beschloss over here. All right, fine.
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: I'm okay with A. I guess I'm okay with A.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't feel great about it.
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: I don't love it, but it's fine. A.
• 49:49
  Speaker 7: Can I ask how many of you know what happened
• 49:50
  Speaker 7: in the collection of 1800?
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: We do.
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: It's pretty fuzzy. Pretty fuzzy.
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: You let us know if you don't.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: Pretty fuzzy. I'm just going to be honest.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: I know everything about it, but I don't really want
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: to talk about it right now. Let's keep going.
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: Okay, cool.
• 50:00
  Speaker 7: I actually am just wondering which one of you was
• 50:02
  Speaker 7: the biggest history buff. I thought it would be Tommy.
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: No.
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: No?
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: No. Strike out. All right. Do you know?
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: I don't.
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: Oh, I thought you were going to tell us.
• 50:11
  Speaker 7: No, sorry. Number three.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: So much for informing people.
• 50:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 50:17
  Speaker 7: Ohio House candidate J.R. Majewski recently got caught lying about
• 50:21
  Speaker 7: his military service.
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: It's a no-no.
• 50:23
  Speaker 7: He ran a Facebook ad identifying as a combat veteran
• 50:26
  Speaker 7: and published a biography stating that his squadron was one
• 50:28
  Speaker 7: of the first on the ground in Afghanistan after 9-11.
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: Can I just say, I'm sorry to interrupt, but whenever
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: I hear his name, Majewski, I just think that that's
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: a funny thing to say to a rabbi when you
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: ask for a beer. Bruski Majewski.
• 50:40
  Speaker 7: Put it on a shirt.
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: It's what I think every time. Elijah is so small
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: on the screen, but I can see his little head shaking.
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, definitely shaking.
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: Bruski Majewski.
• 50:53
  Speaker 7: In reality, Majewski was stationed in an airbase in Japan
• 50:58
  Speaker 7: and then deployed to Qatar to load and unload planes.
• 51:01
  Speaker 7: How QAnon is it to inflate your military credentials?
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: The reason I think this is borderline normal is because
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: he got busted and the Republican campaign committees immediately pulled support.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you, Majewski was at Donald Trump rally
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: a couple weeks ago saying a whole bunch of things
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: that would have got him into Q territory. But the
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: inflating the military record.
• 51:21
  Speaker 3: Is not one of them.
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: Some of our favorite Democrats have done it, too.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: As I said, we ran John Takiri.
• 51:25
  Speaker 7: Yeah, Majewski also stormed the Capitol. He is a big
• 51:28
  Speaker 7: fan of QAnon memes, and he had a giant Trump
• 51:31
  Speaker 7: mural on his lawn.
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: He looks like what would happen if a F-150 that
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: had never been scratched was a person.
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's how he got famous, Olivia, right? He had
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: the biggest Trump sign ever that he carved into his, like,
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: multi-acre lawn.
• 51:44
  Speaker 7: So here's my question. I had a feeling you all
• 51:47
  Speaker 7: would defend Majewski. So we're going to add a layer here.
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: Interesting framing.
• 51:50
  Speaker 7: How QAnon is it to defend someone lying about their
• 51:54
  Speaker 7: military service?
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: Also borderline normal.
• 51:57
  Speaker 7: Borderline normal?
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: It's way too normal. That's like every day.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: All right. You heard it here first.
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: By the way, I was kidding about John Kerry.
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're terrible.
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: Both of you.
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: Wait, I actually, I don't remember. I thought he didn't.
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: Didn't we decide that he didn't? All right.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: Next one.
• 52:13
  Speaker 7: During the Truth and Liberty Coalition conference this month, Representative
• 52:17
  Speaker 7: Lauren Boebert warned of the end times and called for
• 52:20
  Speaker 7: Christians to rise up. Here's a clip.
• 52:23
  Speaker 9: The end draw near. We know that we are in
• 52:27
  Speaker 9: the last of the last days. but it's not a
• 52:31
  Speaker 9: time to complain about it. It's not a time to
• 52:33
  Speaker 9: get upset about it. This is a time to know
• 52:36
  Speaker 9: that you were called to be a part of these
• 52:40
  Speaker 9: last days. You get to have a role in ushering
• 52:47
  Speaker 9: in the second coming of Jesus.
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's a full cue to me. That's a top
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: end times millennial, you know.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: I disagree.
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: Springsteen yells rise up in a song and you guys
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: give him a Grammy, you know?
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, interesting.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: You libs.
• 53:05
  Speaker 7: Tommy's gone full Republican.
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: You libs, welcome us to the DNC.
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look at this guy. He's, yeah. Salt of the earth,
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: Tommy Vitor.
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: My city of ruin.
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: Okay. With these hands.
• 53:16
  Speaker 7: We got consensus here?
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: Sure, yeah. I'm on our team.
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: That's the cutest thing I've heard today.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: That's super cute.
• 53:22
  Speaker 7: And the last one, Donald Trump re-truthed an image of
• 53:25
  Speaker 7: Jesus beckoning for you to follow him with the caption,
• 53:29
  Speaker 7: Jesus is the greatest, President Donald Trump is the second greatest.
• 53:33
  Speaker 7: How Q is it to call yourself God?
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: That Jesus graphic looks sort of inlodden to me.
• 53:39
  Speaker 7: He compared himself to Jesus.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: He said second. It was very clear he said second.
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think politicians comparing themselves... Politicians claiming that Jesus
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: is on their side is... Pretty normal.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: But saying that you're the second greatest. God is the
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: greatest and you're the second greatest.
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: We've got to go up.
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: We've got to go up for sure.
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: I think it's Fox News addict. That's where I think
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: it goes.
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: Just sort of an outrageous statement that can only be
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: made okay by the conservative media infrastructure that defends everything
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: he does and says. Yeah. Is that their argument?
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: How about Brett Baer emailing the head of Fox News
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: and asking for them to pull back the Fox News
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: early election calls in Arizona? He's a straight shooter for you.
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: He's a straight shooter one, though.
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, in fairness to Brett Baer, they got a
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: little lucky on that call. It was a little early.
• 54:30
  Speaker 7: It was a little early.
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: It was a little early. I'm glad it worked out.
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: I'm glad it worked out.
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: In fairness to Brett Baer, put that on a t-shirt
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: on his tombstone.
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: Remember on Thursday when I defended Brett Kavanaugh?
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: We got another Brett defender on the pod today.
• 54:43
  Speaker 7: All right, on to the next one. Matt Gaetz offered
• 54:46
  Speaker 7: a preview of the agenda ahead, which you all just
• 54:50
  Speaker 7: talked about, saying, I'm going to play a critical role
• 54:53
  Speaker 7: as top member of the House Judiciary Committee, where we're
• 54:56
  Speaker 7: going to be driving a lot of oversight and potentially
• 54:59
  Speaker 7: even impeachments. How cute is it to promise to investigate
• 55:02
  Speaker 7: your political opponents for anything, everything, and nothing at all?
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: That's Fox News tier. That's a Fox News tier to me.
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: Might be Uncle's Facebook.
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: It's becoming borderline normal.
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm going to say I actually think that's right.
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: I go down. Go down. Uncle's Facebook. Uncle's Facebook.
• 55:16
  Speaker 7: Uncle's Facebook.
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: And Peach Biden is all over Uncle's Facebook.
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 55:20
  Speaker 7: And our last one in response to New York Attorney
• 55:24
  Speaker 7: General Letitia James announcing her investigation into Trump. He's been
• 55:30
  Speaker 7: truthing that she is a racist.
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: Which is, again, something all over your uncle's Facebook.
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the most uncle's Facebook thing. Letitia James is
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: the real racist, is what Facebook exists to do. That's
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: basically what the metaverse is. It's a bunch of uncles saying, well,
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: if I can't say the N-word, why do you get
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: to say what you get to say?
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 55:52
  Speaker 7: This is bringing out something in all of you.
• 55:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but they're doing it in Roblox or something? Is
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: that your point about the metaverse?
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: They're doing it in Minecraft.
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: How did you get the metaverse into this?
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: Because that's what they're in there doing. They're bottomless. The
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: fact that also in the metaverse, nobody has genitals is also,
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: I think, important to.
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: Keep in mind. Where the fuck are you hanging out on?
• 56:08
  Speaker 7: Yeah, how do you know that?
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: It's just, that's what he put out there. Those kind
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: of floating torsos on the metaverse.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: That was your reaction, huh?
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: To what? To the metaverse? Well, it was just sort
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: of like, it was like, oh, you're not a person
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: in here. Where are the genitals?
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: Olivia, fantastic game.
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: Great job. Thank you.
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: Thank you to David Plouffe for joining us. Thank you
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: to Olivia and the team for their wonderful game, Q-Tier.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: And we'll talk to you later.
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: Here's the thing, the reason I think they didn't put
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: genitals in the metaverse is because they were so afraid
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: of politics. They're like, we can't deal with gender in
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: the metaverse, so whatever.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: It's just made up. They're just a conspiracy theory.
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: What is it we're referencing when you say these claims?
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: All the pictures on Mark Zuckerberg's video were just sort
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: of floating upper bodies.
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: Because I think they don't want, they also don't want
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: people making funny images inside the metaverse, you know? So
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: there's no one that likes.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: I think there'll be plenty of funny business inside the metaverse.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: That's probably half the point. Yeah.
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: I don't understand the difference between the metaverse and just
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: Second Life. Remember when there was Second Life? And then
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: like John Edwards was like, I got a headquarters in
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: Second Life. Come visit me in here. I'm having an
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: affair in here too.
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: Somebody trashed his Second Life headquarters.
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: Is this still happening?
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Let's have some nice music under this.
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: I hope people aren't listening to this stuff.
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: I don't care.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: producer is Michael Martinez. Our senior producer is Andy Gardner Bernstein.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: Our producers are Olivia Martinez and Haley Muse. It's mixed
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: sound engineer the show. Thanks to Tanya Sominator, Sandy Gerard,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: Hallie Kiefer, Ari Schwartz, Andy Taft, and Justine Howe for
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: production support. And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford,
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  Speaker 1: Milo Kim, and Amelia Montuth. Our episodes are uploaded as
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  Speaker 1: videos at youtube.com slash crookedmedia.