Latest / The Chuck ToddCast / Chuck’s Commentary- Chuck’s Message To The Class Of 2026 + Trump’s DOJ Has No Credibility

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Chuck’s Commentary- Chuck’s Message To The Class Of 2026 + Trump’s DOJ Has No Credibility · The Chuck ToddCast

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  Speaker 1: dot com use the code toodcast. Hello Aaron, Welcome to
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: the Thursday episode of the Chuck Podcast. So a little
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: little seam setter here as I was promoting to you
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: on Monday, and I am continuing to wear today. I
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: am in Miami because tomorrow my oldest graduates from college.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: It's very exciting. I have been here. We already had
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: an evening events. My mother is a University of Miami
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: graduate and soon her granddaughter will be one. So they
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: had a nice little ceremony for students of legacies who
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: either had parents or grandparents. So we were here for
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: that we get the big commencement. Hopefully, as you're listening
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: to this podcast, I get to watch my oldest daughter
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: do that. So it is exciting times. I have a
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: few more things to say about only a few things
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: that I'd like to say to the class of twenty
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: twenty six, And who knows, maybe my own member of
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the class of twenty six might listen to one or
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: two pieces of those advice, pieces of the advice that
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I might have. I mean, I have to say one
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: thing you got to know about this class. This is
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: the COVID class. Right when we went on college tours
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: when my daughter was a junior, everything was shut down.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: In fact, we toured six or seven different universities, and
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: there was only one building we were ever allowed in.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Not on the campus of UCLA, not on the campus
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: of Two Lane, not on the campus of UC Santa Barbara,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: not on the campus of Occidental, of the I'm trying
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: to think what other schools we looked at. Every school
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: we looked at except one building, the Rosensteel School at
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: the University of Miami, where my daughter's about to get
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: her Bachelor of Science from. So it shows you that
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: in that period when You could go to those universities,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: but you couldn't. You could peek into the doors of
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the buildings, but you couldn't go in anywhere. But think
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: about this class has just been through the Ringer, right,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: They got high school life taken away from them. Now
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: they're entering the real world, and it's about the toughest
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: job market they've had well since. Frankly, since my generation
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: entered the job market. We didn't enter the best job
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: market in the early nineties either, but we didn't have
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: to do with the COVID mess we were. Our coming
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: of age was a time when it seemed like America
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: was ascending. This is not the same coming of age
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: period for my daughter's generation. But I really there's something
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: about this class that gives me hope because of this resiliency.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Everything they've had to go through already at twenty two
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: in different ways, it has definitely shaped them. But there's
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: something something tells me that this is going to shape
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: them for good, all right, And I think we should
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: all feel a little bit of hope on that, all right.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: So let me give you a rundown of everything you
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: should expect in this episode. My guest is a good one.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: It's Kevin Williamson. If you don't know him, you should.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: He's one of the lead columnists at The Dispatch. Before that,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: he was a writer for National Review. He is what
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: he's been writing on Iran in particular, and sort of
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: the lack of strategy, if you will, from this president
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: on Iran, just how badly this has gone he has
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: in many ways channeled. It will read familiar to some
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: of you if you've been listening everything I've been saying
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: about Iran, but it is I think it'll be an
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: interesting conversation, definitely worth having. And the timing is perfect,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: considering that it looks like we are now coming to
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the end of this thing, and if you know, it's
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: playing out pretty much exactly as we've been laying out
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: here on this podcast. That he is. You know, he
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: loves to talk about who's got the cards. Well, he
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: knows he doesn't have many cards. And the big blow,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: another big blow just happened in the last twenty four hours.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: NBC News was reporting that the Saudis said no to
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: the United States using their airspace to essentially conduct that
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: operation in the Strait. Everybody who's trying to figure out,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: you know, Trumps announces this operation in the Strait that's
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: going to escort these ships and promise that they're going
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: to get through, apparently without consulting our golf allies first.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: So however that went down, The Saudis didn't like it.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: They said no. Despite apparently a couple of phone calls,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: it still was a no. And it is. They basically decided,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: you're not going to finish the job. And look, this
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: is the part. I think we're not one hundred percent sure,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: because we know the Saudis would love nothing more than
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: to see this regime go away and roll. But it's
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: likely that they have decided this president isn't going to
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: go all the way. They don't have the stomach for it,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: and I don't think he has the political room to
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: do it. I think it's pretty clear now that the politics,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: you know, his political problems are not good. If he
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: continues to pursue this war and it drags on, what
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: it would take would take ground troops that would only
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: make the political situation for his party that much worse.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: So it's pretty clear to anybody that follows US politics
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: that he was not he was looking for an exit ramp,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: and at this point if you're you know, if you're
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: sitting there from the perspective of Saudis, it makes perfect
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: like stop this, stop dragging it out, Just hurry up
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: and get to the negotiating table. At this point, everybody
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: knows how this is going to end, So just start
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the endgame sooner rather than later, which is now apparently
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: where we are. And what is this endgame going to
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: look like? Exactly as we've been outlining for the last
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: three weeks. It's the nucle It's the Iran nuclear deal
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Part two. Is it going to be a palette of cash?
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Is it going to be a palette of Trump mean coins?
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: That's the only thing we don't know here. But they
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: are not going to permanently say no to having a
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: nuke despite whatever he says. We'll end up finding this out.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: They'll be able to delay that again and essentially, whether
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: he realizes he's doing this or not, when he eventually
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: agrees to an agreement, that's, by the way, probably going
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: to take months to actually get done. You know, they
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: may have a handshake to at least stop hostilities, and
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: it's going to be an agreement to continue to negotiate.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, the the actual deal that the last Iran
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: nuclear deal took two years. Even after it looked like
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: that there was that there was an agreement, it still
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: took time to dot all the i's and cross all
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: the teas, and so this is certainly going to take months,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: not days or weeks. But when you look at the
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: sort of what happened over the line last forty eight hours,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: you had the Iranian foreign minister in China, you had
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: the Saudi's doing what they did with the United States,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the Pakistani's playing it almost feels as if the Americans
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: were squeezed. It was sort of like, Okay, end this already.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: And it look it's not as if the Iranians didn't
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: have a clock on their own. There's only so much
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: money that they had. There's only so much that they
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: could only so long that they could keep this going. Either,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: so they have to come to a deal. And there's
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: no doubt the message the Chinese were sending to the
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Iranian foreign minister was just get a deal already, you know,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: get get to the negotiating table and let's get this
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: straight of horror moves open. So but what's fascinating is
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: how essentially outsiders squeezed both the Iranians. The Chinese squeezed
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: the Iranians and the Gulf States squeezed the Americans on
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: this the person that's uh and you can see this.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: There are there are those around the president very hawkish
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: about this, who are not happy. They are trying to
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: get him to at least take out more of their
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: and this will do something to weaken them. But it
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: looks like that ship has sailed this. This war has
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: set us back. We did not. It is hard if
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: you're trying to sit there and say, what did America
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: get out of this war that wasn't net game? You
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: could say a depleted Iranian military. I guess they certainly
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: have fewer friends in the region. You know, their behavior
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: and the in the decision to attack every American asset,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: no matter the country that that asset was in, has
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: created more hard feelings with countries that they didn't have
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: the best relations with. But they certainly had okay relations
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: with Katar being the main one that I'm referring to there.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: But it's hard to find any net positive that came
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: out of this. If anything, it exposed us a bit.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: You know. It's the question is and this would be
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: my caution. I know there's many of you that are
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: not big Trump fans, that are in some ways enjoying
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: the shuldenfreud. But this is bad for the United States,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: you know. And this is the this is this is
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: what frustrates me sometimes about our political debate. It's like, look, yes,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: he's made a bad decision. Yes this is bad for
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: him politically, and if you want to see him lose politically,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: I understand why you're happy. This is bad for the
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: United States long term. This war has handed China more
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: leverage than ever before on a variety of things. They
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: are now seen as the more stable economic partner to
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: a lot of countries in the world. They are also
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: going to be the resource for many countries that decide,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: you know what, given all the hostilities in the Middle East,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: maybe we need to do some energy transition and some
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: energy diversity. And if you want to go to renewables,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: if you want to diversify your energy sources, you don't
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: buy materials from the United States. You need to buy
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: solar panels from China because they have cornered the market
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: on that. Because we have an administration that so doesn't
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: believe in it doesn't even want to have anything to
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: do with it. So this is at this point mitigate
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the damage. He is lucky the economy has not tanked
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: on this. And there's only one reason the economy hasn't
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: tanked because of this war, and that's thanks to the
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: seven hundred billion dollar essentially private sector stimulus package that
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the four or five big tech companies have been spending
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: on AI AI investments that alone has essentially served as
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: a stimulus package. That's seven hundred billion. We learned about
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: that total number over the last ten days during these
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: earnings reports of of the big tech companies. That has
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: essentially been a savior to the president on this. But
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: the fact is, it's not as if this war ends
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: in a week, and it's not like things are going
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: to turn around right away. It's not like the price
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: of gas is going to collapse and go down. It
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: will gradually start to come down, but it is still
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: going to be nearly a dollar fifty more than when
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: he took office, and by election day, he'll be lucky
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: if it's only a dollar more or seventy five cents
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: more than when he took office. But the point is
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: is that there's not going to be a story for
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: him to tell that people have more money in their
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: pocket at the halfway mark of his presidency than when
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: this presidency started. And that's the biggest problem he's facing
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: as far as the voters are concerned. But this thing
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: has not gone well, and he was flailing there at
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the end. But this is what happens when you don't
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: have a defined endgame. I mean, this seemed to violate
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: every supposed lesson that was learned after Vietnam, every supposed
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: lesson that was learned after the Iraq War. Apparently we're
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: just never going to learn these lessons because you knew,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: who does learn the lessons from these war Everybody that
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: we end up going to war with, they all have
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: figured out Asymmetric warfare is how you defeat these great superpowers.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: And I do think there's an entire you know, when
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: we all step back here and you look at Russia's
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: inability to win this war of Ukraine, the United States
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: inability to essentially overrun the Iranians here. I do hope
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: it's serving as a cautionary tale to the Chinese when
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: they think about trying to grab Taiwan. Right, it has
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: never been easier to engage in asymmetric warfare. It has
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: never been easier for a small power to use drones
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: to create big problems for big powers. And you know
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: if if, unfortunately the United States had to learn a
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: hard lesson in that again, given that we've supposedly we've
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: we've had, we've we've had to learn these two lessons
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: twice the hard way with Vietnam in the Rock. The
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Russians are now having to learn this twice first time
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: in Afghanistan. They're learning it again now with the Ukrainians.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Hopefully this is good news for folks that live in Timewan.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: I'm as you can see, I'm desperate to find some
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: sort of positive that may have come out of this,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: but it is hard. It is hard to find a
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: lot of positives. And I know for some of you,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the only positive you're going to take out of this
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: is it's created enough political damage to the president that
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: he is. It's only going to add to the political
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: problems that he has. This episode of the Chuck Todcast
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• 17:50
  Speaker 1: Speaking of some domestic political problems, I do want to
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: touch on a couple more things here. The running joke
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: in Washington right now is that the leadership of the
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: that John Thune and Mike Johnson must have big bats
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: on Polymarket and Calshee, that the Democrats are going to
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: win the House and Senate. And why do I say
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: that so snarkily and cynically, because why else would they
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: agree to greenlight a billion dollars of taxpayer funds to
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: help build Donald Trump's East wing ballroom. I mean, if
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: you could have designed if you asked any Democratic strategist, hey,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: what's something that would be just like a layup for
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: you to attack a Republican incumbent and Congress of it,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: they would say, boy, it'd be great if they somehow
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: were using taxpayer dollars for one of these Donald Trump
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: narcissistic monuments to himself. And sure enough, this Republican Congress
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: has delivered. Dave Wigel treated this political reporter for some afore.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: He said it was it was a pretty funny sweet
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: he said, go pop an edible, sit back and ask yourself.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Imagine if Barack Obama in twenty eleven had asked for
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: and received from the Democratic Congress controlled Congress a billion
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: dollars to build a new East wing ballroom. What do
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: you think the media coverage would look like for that?
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: What kind of feeding frenzy would have started over at
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: the network owned by the Murdox. The point is is
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: that this when you give campaigns easy symbols to use
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: to make a larger point that you want to make
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: that hey, they're not looking out for you, they're looking
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: out for him, and you need a simple example to show. Literally,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the Republican Congress said, hey, guys, we know this is
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: really we haven't given you an easy enough way to
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: show how government has been used to enrich the Trumps.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Let us give you an easier way for you to
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: understand it. I mean, it is. It's one of those
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: you're just like, I'll be honest. When I first saw
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: the news, I thought, no, no, no, no, this has
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: to be this has to be fake news. I mean,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: I can't think of a politically dumber idea than using
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: taxpayer money to get involved with this ballroom mess. And
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: lo and behold, this is what they do. This is
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: what they're going to use a reconciliation bill for. It
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: is shocked. Two things on a couple of investigations that
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: sort of surfaced. One, look, I'm always very careful not
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: to you should be very careful to presume you think
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: you know what's happening when news of an FBI investigation breaks,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: and you know, the FBI has made it clear. Justice
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Partners made it clear that the investigation into Louise Lucas,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: the very powerful Democratic state senator who's basically the godmother
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: of the redistricting effort in the state of Virginia, that
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: this investigation was apparently an investigation that was started during
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the Biden administration. It doesn't mean it was that it's
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: a clean We don't know. I mean, here's the unfortunate part.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: The credibility of this Justice Department is so low that
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, you need third and fourth sources to feel
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: comfortable that you at least have an idea of what
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: they're telling is the truth. And you want to see
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: some of the evidence. I mean, we're already seeing their
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: case against the Southern Poverty Law Center is falling apart,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: and it's possible that entire indictment falls apart. Now it's
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: very possible that success wasn't the point. The point was
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: to create such an ugly news cycle for the Southern
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Poverty Law Center that it would be incredibly damaging to
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: their efforts. And it may very well be. I mean,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: this could still succeeded in doing the damage that the
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Trump administration intends to do to the Southern Poverty Law Center,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: But the actual case looks like it's going to fall
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: apart that they don't. I mean, they've already had to
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: admit that they've lied in one of the initial things.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: They've had to backtrack, and so it's very possible the
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: whole thing falls apart. But they've done a lot of
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: pr damage to the organization and it trust me, I
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: know people that have considered themselves long time sources. The
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: initial narrative that the Justice Department is using has made
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of supporters of the SBLC very uncomfortable. But
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: the fact that the initial narrative is starting to erode
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: you have to Unfortunately with this administration, you can't take
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: them at face value, and they haven't earned it right.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: They do not have credibility. I mean, you know you
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: can if you're a partisan, you know, superpartisan supporter of theirs,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: you may think whatever they're saying is true and whatever
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: anybody else says. You know, you're the one drink and
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: the kool lady, YadA, YadA, YadA. But the fact is,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: anybody that isn't caught up in the partisan clap trap,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, you know, is there a there there?
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: And I think there's some questions that there's there there
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: with this SPLC case. So that's why I want to
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: be a little bit cautious on this. But it may
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: be a legitimate case. It may be that she's got
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: real problems, but in the meantime, this looks very political.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: The fact is they have when you look at the
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: you know, this is why their decision to do that
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: trumped up charge against Callmi makes any other charges they
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: bring against other people. It makes it easy for someone
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: who doesn't want to believe the charges are true to say, well,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: we know you made up this stuff with callmy, so
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: why should we take your word for it on this one.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: So she's going to get a benefit of the doubt
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: from many members of her party and many people in Virginia,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: maybe not because they believe and trust her, but because
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: they don't believe in trust this Justice Department. Meantime, one
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: thing you need to understand about Louise Lucas is she's
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: got she is. She is more than just a prominent
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: African American politician in the state of Virginia. She's she's
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: you know, she's she's she's got her own following, she's
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: got her own iconic status in her community. In a
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: way that you know, I will say that this this administration,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: you're throwing the Voting Rights Act decision by the Supreme Court,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: they are really poking the bear when it comes to
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: African Americans, and it may turn out that these charges
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: against Louise Lucas are legitimate, and it's a legitimate investigation.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: But on top of every other way that it appears
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: the Trump administration is targeting African American political power. I
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: just don't think they realize what they may have awoken
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: and this continue. This is an election year, there's a
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: lot of people watching, there's a lot of it is
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: so I would just I would just don't underestimate how
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: what's been done over the last ten days to African
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Americans in power that is going to reverberate come election.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: This is why, and I firmly believe. I think whether
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: it's Alabama governor, Mississippi Senate, all the races in Georgia,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: maybe even Florida governor, maybe these races in South Carolina.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: In general, you have a supercharged African American turnout that
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: changes the calculus plenty of states, not just in Southern states.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: It's a benefit in Ohio to Democratic candidates, it's a benefit,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: it's a benefit in Nevada. So it's not just in
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: southern states that this has potentially a huge impact. This
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: benefits Democratic candidates in Michigan, in Wisconsin, in Pennsylvania, so
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: I would just be I would just sort of just
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: continue to keep an eye on that. I'm pretty convinced
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: that this is going to have a massive impact on
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: black turnout in the midterms. The other investigation that US
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: journalists are very obsessed with is whatever the FBI is
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: or isn't doing to the reporter at The Atlantic who
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: reported about Cash Betel and his behavior. You're as FBI director,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: and the question is are they investigating the reporter, are
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: they investigating are they doing an internal investigation in search
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: of leakers? What exactly are they doing? Well, this is
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: where I find you know, sometimes a spokesperson accidentally tells
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: you what they've done, and tells you what they are doing,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: and tells you what they aren't doing. And so Ben Williamson,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: who is the spokesperson for the FBI, gave a statement
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: to ms NOW about the supposed allegations that they're investigating
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: the reporter from the Atlantic. And here's what Ben Williamsy
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: you say. He denied the existence of that investigation, and
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: here's his full quote. This is completely false. No such
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: investigation like this exists, and the reporter you mentioned is
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: not being investigated at all. All Right, So let's unpack
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: that sentence. The only investigation he denies is the investigation
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: and the reporter when he says, and the reporter you
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: mentioned is not being investigated at all. The first part
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: of the sentences, no such investigation like this exists. So
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: it's the description of the leak investigation that he's denying,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: not the premise that there is some investigation into who
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: talked about cash Betel's behavior. And that's clearly what is
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: bothered some FBI agents who on one hand feel like
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: they have to follow orders or perhaps risk being fired,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: and at the same time fear that they're essentially violating
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the law or certainly crossing an ethical or moralne But
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: I do it is one of those cases. I love
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: to read statements from from government officials when they don't
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: want to lie, and how they try to word a
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: sentence so that they think that so that the average
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: person just sees it as a full denial. But when
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: you want to when you sit there and you parse
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: every word, you realize they're not denying the entire premise
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: of the question. They're denying very specific parts of the question.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: And that's what mister Williamson did there. So Hey that's
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: not you know, I'm not asking you to have to
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: parse every every statement that you see from a from
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: a government spokesperson. That's why you subscribe to people like me, right,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: all right, now, let me get to a little bit
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: of let's get a little bit up beat here. It's
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: it's look, it's we're we're not in. We're not in
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: the glory days of American politics. I think a lot
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: of us know that. And I'm not going to lie
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: to you. I'm very nervous about this current world that
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: my daughter is walking into, in this real world. I'm
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: very worried about this class for all the reasons I
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: discussed before. They've really taken it on the chin. In fact,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: if you told me that this class will be the
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: heart of the pitchfork carriers when they're coming for the
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: establishment at their frustrations of mismanaging this country and mismanaging
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: this economy, and you told me it's this generation that didn't,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised, right, given what they had to
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: go through in high school thanks to the decision making
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: of the establishment, and what they've gone through, and what
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: kind of economy and what kind of world they're walking into.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Thanks to the leadership of this generation that is in charge.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: So I do. I uh, it does make it does
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: make me concerned for this generation. But hey, I have
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: a few things that I'd like to sort of. Here's
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: the reality. When I was in my twenties, I probably
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: listened to only half the advice my parents in their
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: fifties were given me, my mother, or what other people
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: that I looked up to were given me. I think
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I heard some of the advice, but I probably didn't
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: hear all of the advice. But I know why we
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: you know, the older you get why you want to
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: get it because we're so desperate for our kids not
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: to make the same mistakes we did. We're like, look,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: we've learned this really bad lesson. We don't want you
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: to repeat it. And yet there's always part of me
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: that understands it. You know what. Everybody sometimes has to
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: make their own mistakes and need to learn lessons in
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: their own time, and I get that. I guess that
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: this could be best sum up is that here's here's
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the advice that I hope my daughter takes from me.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: But I don't know if I'm if she will ask
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: every ask me enough to get all of this, but hey,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: it's on tape, so maybe she'll go grab it when
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: she needs it. And you know what, at this point
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: in time, and any of you that have had kids
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: graduate college, I'm sure you've been the same way. You
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: become a full time advice machine, which I feel like
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: I have become. But we'll see, right, we know twenty
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: somethings you do absorb the advice, you just don't always
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: follow it. Sometimes until it's ten years later, who knows.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: But I still want to share some of it because
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of what young people are walking
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: into right now probably feels pretty overwhelming. Right the job
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: market looks very insecure, the economy looks precarious. Our culture
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: is it feels like we're at war with each other
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: over culture. There's social pressures that are greater than before.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: And then of course there's that feeling that every twenty
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: something has, which is everybody else must already have their
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: life figured out, so I've got a hurry up and
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: do it too. Right. So here's the first thing I
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: would say to the class of twenty twenty six. Adulthood
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: is not a race, and it's advice that I didn't
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: always take for myself. People think adulthood is a sprint
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: of opportunity acquisition, right. If you get an opportunity, you
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: better go and grab it, because sometimes you think it's
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: not going to be there. And I think I was
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: in a hurry. I was in a hurry. I was
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: always worried about money, so I felt like I had
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: a hurry up and make a living quickly, and hurry
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: up and make it. I don't know why I had
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: that in my head, but I just did. I wish
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: I didn't treat life in my twenties as a race,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: because I think it's one of the biggest misconceptions right
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: about adulthood is that it's a race. Everybody feels pressure,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: pressure to optimize immediately if you want to get the
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: perfect first job, find the perfect city to live in,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: build a perfect resume, start the perfect career path. Social
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: media can make it, I think, ten times worse because
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: everybody else is presenting as if their life looks fully
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: formed at the age of twenty three, right, And guess what,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: most lives are not straight lines, and I know mine wasn't. Right,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: So don't paralyze yourself searching for the perfect first job. Frankly,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: just get a job, take any job, and don't behave
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: as if it's going to be the job that you
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: have forever. But take a job, maybe take a job
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: that you didn't think you wanted to take, because you
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: need to figure out how the world works. You need
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: to learn how offices work, You need to learn how
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: people interact with each other. In jobs you know in
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: some ways, you don't want to do that in your
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: dream job, being your first job. You want to sort
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: of get those get those hard lessons learned at maybe
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: a job that you don't hope to have for the
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: next thirty years. And if you stay in that first
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: job for six months, that's okay. Movement teaches you things
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: that perfection never will and don't confuse a setback with failure.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: Most setbacks become lessons later. And I know that sounds
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: like I'm being you know, a phony Confucius or something, right,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: but it's true. You learn more lessons from failure than
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: you do from success. A lot of times, when you
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: get success, you forget about the mistakes you made to
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: forget that success, But when you fail, you remember every
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: little detail, right, which is why you end up learning
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: more from failure than you do success. And then, of course,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: the thing that you can't really learn until you're in
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: your fifties is that sometimes the thing that feels like
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: bad luck turns out to be the thing that taught
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: you how to navigate adulthood. Or another way that I
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: like to put it is everything happens for a reason.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: You just haven't figured out what that reason is yet.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: Respect your elbers and respect experience, because I promise you,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: everybody older than you know something you don't. Even when
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: you think you're smarter than somebody that's older than you,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: especially when you think you're smarter than somebody's on you
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: know that they probably know things that you don't. Anybody
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: who's been on this earth longer than you have has
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: survived something you haven't had to survive yet. They're resilient
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: in ways you haven't discovered yet. Maybe they succeeded, maybe
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: they failed. Either way, there's something to learn. You can
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: learn from somebody else's failure. Don't mock it, don't avoid it,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Empathize with it, and learn something from it. You can
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: learn from what people did right, and you can learn
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: from what people did wrong. But in both cases pay
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: close attention learn both lessons. One of the best pieces
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: of wisdom I ever got was from my wife. She
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: likes to remind people that your problems are your problems,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: and what she means by it is this just because
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: something wouldn't bother you doesn't mean it isn't a real
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: problem to somebody else. You know a lot of times
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: we say things I wish I had their problems. Maybe
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: it might be somebody who's wealthier than you are. Maybe
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: it might be somebody you know who looks like their
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: life is more successful than yours. It's an easy thing
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: to say, but it's actually an impossible thing to know.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: If something feels overwhelming to somebody, then it's real to them,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: regardless of whether it would not be a problem to you.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: So don't be embarrassed by your struggles, and don't dismiss
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: somebody else's. Again, these, in some ways are things that
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: you you will realize or common sense over time. Here's
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: another thing that nobody tells you. Life gets annoying, life happens,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: responsibilities pile up, and some things become harder later. So,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: as I told you before, I was in a hurry.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: I got a job before I finished college. I didn't
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: want to borrow money at the time it felt necessary.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. But there were things
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: I didn't do in my twenties, like finish a degree
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: at GW that became much harder in my thirties. Because
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: life happens. So if you want to travel, do it
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: in your twenties. Travel. If you want to take a
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: road trip, take it. If you wait for the perfect time,
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: you may discover the perfect time never arrives. Priorities change
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: because life changes. That's not failure, it's simply adulthood. And
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: by the way, real When speaking of road trips, there's
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: nothing better to learn about America than a good old
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: fashioned road trip. And you are at your peak ability
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: to handle road trips when you're in your twenties. I've
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: been on every interstate from I five to ninety five,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: from Eye ten to I ninety and I love a
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: good road trip. They're exhausting, but it's the best way
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: to see America. And in some ways, you know, I
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: know many of you want to see the world, but
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: don't forget to see America. And in some ways, once
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: you see America, it's going to make you appreciate what
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: you see in the rest of the world. Speaking of
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: your first job. My father had a rule when I
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: was a kid. He would tell me stop saying yeah
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: but so you know, he would ask me to if
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: I was going to move law, or if I was
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: going to do my yard work, whatever chore I had
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: to do, I'd say yeah, but I've got it, and
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: he just as soon as I was doing the buddies
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: no buttheads. Don't be a butthead no yeah butts. The
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: answer is yes, I'm doing it, don't. You may have
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: an explanation for why you haven't done it, don't burden
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: your boss with your explanation. They don't need to know
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: your explanation. They expect you to do or not do right.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: I know it's a little Yoda eat right, but if
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: somebody asked you to do something, especially when you're in
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: a first job, do it. Don't lead with excuses or explanations,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: don't negotiate before you start. Just get it done. And
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: then you have to there's something that you think was
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: sort of a bad order right after you've accomplished the job,
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: then question it, but do it first. Young workers who
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: become indispensable, who just get shit done, they usually aren't
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: the smartest people in the office. They become the most
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: reliable ones, and they're the ones who finish the assignment
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: before complaining about the assignment. They also get the next
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: good jobs. Responsibility creates opportunity, Reliability creates trust, and trust
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: creates more opportunity. Again, none of this, none of this
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: is sort of rocket science. A lot of this. You
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: may say, hey, I've seen this in fortune cookies. You
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: know why they're in fortune cookies because it's time tested
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: advice one other thing, and I think this is a
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: particularly big challenge in our era of sharing everything with
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: each other. Life is not in competition with your friends' lives.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Everybody's lane is different. Some people get lucky early, some
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: people get lucky late. Some people look successful in twenty
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: five and are miserable and in their third marriage by
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: forty five. Some people look lost at twenty five and
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: become a billionaire at forty. The point is hard work
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: eventually looks like luck from the outside. But people see
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: the breakthrough, they usually don't see the years before the
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: breakthrough happens. You've always heard that, you know, why do
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: you know? What does it take to get lucky? A
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: lot of hard work. There's a lot of truth to that.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: And finally, and trust me, your parents always wants you
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: to know this. It's okay to ask for help, particularly
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: from family. Your parents are usually rooting for you harder
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: than you realize. Sometimes we parents will overcorrect, will over advise.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: Sometimes we rescue when we should step back. But I'm
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: always going to get caught rescuing. But most parents are
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: not trying to live through their kids. They just want
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: their kids to have opportunities that they didn't have themselves.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: My parents gave me opportunities that they didn't get to have,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: and I've given my kids opportunities that I didn't get
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: to have. That's kind of It's kind of the isn't
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: that the goal? Every generation hopes the next one just
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: gets a little bit further And I'm you know, one
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: of the reasons why I'm so proud of my daughter
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: today is I feel like I think I might have
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: done that. And that's all you can ask for, is parents.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: One thing I do worry about for your generation is
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: you've inherited a very angry version of America. I'm sorry
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: about that. Sometimes I'm not sure we taught you how
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: remarkable this experiment actually is. America is one of the
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: only places on Earth that's built around an idea instead
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: of ancestry. That's unusual. And I'm sure some of you
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: have made friends with kids who've grown up in other countries.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: You're luckier, trust me. But it's a fragile place and
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: it's worth protecting. So try to remember talk to people
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: who disagree with you. Life's just more interesting when you're
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: talking to somebody you disagree with them when you agree
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: with them. Go see the country. Like I said, there's
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: nothing like a good road trip. It's the best way
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: to find out what life is like. Because the more
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: you see of America, the more you're going to understand Americans.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: And if you want to be a good citizen, find
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: out how Americans live all over this country. Look, we're
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: a loud country, where country. We're a frustrating country sometimes,
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: but we're a remarkably connected country. And if you only
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: experience America through digital algorithms, you're going to misunderstand it.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: Trust me, there's a lot of people grifting money off
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: of you right now, intentionally misunderstanding America. Go see it
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: for yourself, and don't worry if your life doesn't look
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: finished yet. Some lives never get done. They just end,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: and that's the whole point. Life's about the journey, not
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: the last chapter. So to my daughter, I love you,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: I'm proud of you. The class of twenty twenty six.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: Realize how resilient you've been. I think you're going to
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: be a remarkable generation. And I'm going to be a
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: little bit hockey. And if you guys don't like it
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: and suck it, right, I tease. All right with that,
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: we'll sneak at a break. Then we're going to do some lifting,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: talk about American form policy, and a rod with Kevin Williamson.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: This episode of the Check Podcast is brought to you
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  Speaker 1: And yes, I too, am a customer. Ask Chuck. First
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: question comes from Jared F. For Dodge, Iowa. I love it.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: After years teaching high school history and government, I recently
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: transitioned to the community college level and have been rethinking
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: my approach since these student have already seen much of
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: this material. I'm torn between covering a broad timeline for
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: general knowledge or focusing on fewer topics with more depth
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: and nuance. How would you approach that balance, especially knowing
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: these courses still need to transfer to for your schools.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Jared F. Fort Dodge, IOPs. I start each of my
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: political science courses with your quote about politics as being
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: a way to solve problems without beating each other up.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: I appreciate. I think sometimes we have to remember that.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: I think the I think the quote I usually lose
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: is like, you know, why did why did we? Why
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: did we human beings invent politics? Was to resolve disputes
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: without violence. And that's the point, right The point isn't
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: to find a way to force somebody to agree with
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: you one hundred percent of the time. It's about figuring
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: out how to live with each other even if we
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: don't agree on how to do it. Look, I I
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: will tell you this. I the success I've had in
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: teaching political science courses has always been to grounded in
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: the current events right as best as you can. And
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: it sounds like that that's and I think, you know,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: going to community college in some ways it is probably
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: you know, look, there's nothing like having students who are
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: intentionally wanting to be in your class, right, versus high
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: school where they kind of have to be there, right,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: So number one just sort of really just sit back
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: and appreciate that you've got people who want to be there.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: Maybe they don't want to be in that specific class,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: but they really want to be at the school because
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: they want to get to that next step, right, they there,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: So I think, you you know, you're already dealing with
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: a quality a high quality student, right, somebody who is
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: aspirational or they wouldn't be spending their own money to
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: be there. So I do think, you know, And so
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: I say this, I haven't taught high school, and I
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: think that's I think, you know, I think it's much
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: harder than teaching college kids, because again it's choice versus
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: versus really not having a choice. But I try, you know,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: I think trying to take the same lessons and figuring
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: out how to use the current and it's always tricky, right,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: because you know, I even though many people think I
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: want to you know, push things in a certain way
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: politically or something, I don't want that in the classroom, right.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: I want people to sort of understand the why why
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: is this happening and sort of explaining how to do
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: it and all that stuff. But if you could sort
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: of ground it in current events while you're sort of
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: using historical examples to connect with the current events, I
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: think I think it just allows you to be flexible
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: in how much you know. But again, the one thing
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know, right is are there certain checks you have,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: certain sort of markers that you have to you know
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: that you have to teach them in order for them
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: to qualify, you know, to get that credit so that
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: they don't have to take the course again. So you know,
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: some of these specifics you know better than I do.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: But if you if you can, you will have a
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: more engaged student, especially a college student. I have found
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: if they feel like what they're paying attention to in
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: the day to day connects with what they're learning in
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: the class. I hope that was helpful, And if it wasn't,
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: I'm you know, if there's more detail you can give them.
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: I'm happy to talk further. Next question comes from I
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: think it's uh, it's my man, Adam from Davey, Florida.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: I always, I always, I think I always make a
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: reference to Day and I'm curious and Adam, the next
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: time you write, tell me if I'm right about this.
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: I've always thought of Davy as sort of the most
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: southern of communities in Broward County. Broward County is not
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: much of a southern county, if you will, but Davy
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: is about the closest you can get to the south
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: in South Florida. But I digress anyway, Adam who is?
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: He says he's a five time er extraordinaire, which means
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: I think he's gotten more than five questions right. Anyways, Hello,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: check love the pod. Would it not be in everyone's
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: best interest to pay executive style wage to our senators
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: and House reps? No wonder so many House reps leave
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: for corporate lobbying gigs when making about one hundred and
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: eighty thousand dollars a year. Would we not get better
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: talent and avoid the backdoor bribing of big paying lobbying
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: jobs if we paid our congressional members the same as
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: a fifth round NFL rookie about a million dollars a year.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: Maybe the Congress has such low approval because you get
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: what you pay for. Well, look, I am somebody who
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: believes that members of Congress are underpaid, and good luck
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: trying to make that case to people. It is, but
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: I would probably I think the more politically easier thing
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: to do is to look, what makes the salary seem
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: low is the idea of having two households, right, one
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: in the nation's capital, one in your district. I think
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: instead of paying them more money, I would I would
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: give them housing. I think we should have some sort
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: of housing, not just a stipend, actual housing. And I
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: would frankly force them to have to live in these
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: nice dormitories, because I think having them be together, right,
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: having them live together while they try to figure out
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: how to run the country, while they hopefully try to
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: figure out how to improve congress our broken branch, would
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: be a good thing. So, look, I do agree that
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: it is. I think that Look, there are some people
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: in Congress who it's the best job they'll ever have,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: and they're the exact like the sort of the implication
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: you're making that we're getting what we pay for, and
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: there are quite a few and there is an argument
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: to be made that it is the salary isn't high
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: enough to encourage some of our best and brightest to
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: actually give up their day jobs to serve in Congress.
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: And we certainly don't want to have Congress only be
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: you know, certainly it feels like you have to be
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: a millionaire to have a chance at being a senator.
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: That seems to be not a good thing. But I mean,
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: let's be politically realistic, right, it is going to be
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: tough to tough to to get them to vote themselves
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: to pay race. It's just such bad politics, right, But
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: you could, like I said, the things that they have
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: done in the last decade that have that have been
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: attempts to try to make it easier for less wealthy
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: people to run for Congress. You can now draw a salary.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: You know, it's legal to essentially pay yourself to be
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: a candidate if you're running for Congress. So that way,
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: if you have to quit your job, you can at
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: least pay your bills while you run for Congress. So
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: I think it's things like that is probably a better
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: way to go to make this a more doable thing
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: for somebody who isn't a multimillionaire. But the fact is right,
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: if we're asking them to have two households one hundred
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: you know, tell me where you go in America to support.
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: Two households on the Hunter one thousand dollars a year, right,
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: and let alone one of the two places being one
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: of the most expensive places in the country to live Washington, DC.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: Katie writes, thank you for sharing your experience from the
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: Correspondence dinner, so honestly it really resonated with me. I'm
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: a city council woman in Dubuque, Iowa, and after a
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: recent incident where someone attempted to enter chambers with a
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: loaded handgun, safety has been on my mind in a
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: very rare way. Given challenges across the country with recruiting
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: and retaining local law enforcement. What do you think can
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: be done to make it more viable and an appealing
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: career path, especially as public safety concerns grow. Love your
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: perspective and how communities and leaders can address this moving forward. Well, Look,
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: we definitely need more law enforcement, but I also don't
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: believe that the more security we add, the safer will be.
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: I think we have to de escalate, right, we need
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: to do both. First of all, we need more. I
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: don't know a community that isn't short on police officers.
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: I mean in Washington, d C. Mariel Bowser literally, I
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: think at one point was wearing a sign around her
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: neck that said, please apply to be a police officer.
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: You know, we are accepting applications now.
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: In DC is not alone. I mean there are many
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: of these communities need more. And look, it's been it is.
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: Look I've always thought, and unfortunately there's been this. I
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: always thought that our public servants, police, firefighters, teachers who
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: essentially agree to sort of be the community's workforce law
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: you know, law and order protectors, teachers, educators, that the
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: fair deal is, Okay, you're going to make a decent,
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: a livable salary, but we're going to make sure you
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: have a really good pension in retirement. And so it
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: always is. I've always thought that that was sort of
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: the trade off. Right. The trade off is they they're
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: going to get this guaranteed pension that many of us
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: won't get, but they've agreed to put their life on
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: the line for you and me, and they've agreed to
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: essentially hold back their earning power in order to serve
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: the public. Many of these folks, whether they're cops, firefighters, teachers,
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: could go into the private sector and likely make more
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: money if they chose to do it, but they've chosen
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: to be public servants. And so I think that, you know,
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: I've always been you know, I know there's this debate
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: about I've always thought this is this is a this
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: is a pretty fair deal. They're agreeing to sort of
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: limit their earning power to serve the public in exchange
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: for a guaranteed retirement that I may not get, but
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: I have, I have the opportunity potentially to earn more
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: in my job. So then I will, you know, be
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: in charge of my retireronment. You know, I've always thought
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: that was kind of and my point is is that
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: I think that, you know, the last thing we need
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: to do is jeopardize that deal. And I wonder if
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: in so many communities that deal seems jeopardized. So you've
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: had fewer and fewer people wanted to go into these
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: key public service jobs, whether it's teaching by firefighters, first responders,
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: or police officers. So you know, whether it's you know,
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: in this see this goes where I'm a huge fan.
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: I think one of the ways we could bring the
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: country together is to have mandatory national service. I know
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: there's some people don't like the mandatory anything. I'm not
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: saying reinstitute the draft, but mandatory national service and whatever
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: that might mean. But I think this would be a
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: good way to recruit. You know, we've had teach for America.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: It's a good way to recruit young police officers. Could
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: be a good way to recruit young fighters. Can be
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: a good way to recruit more young public school teachers.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: And you know, those are the three big public service
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: jobs that I'm highlighting here, but there are others that
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: matter a lot. Whether you work at the Department of
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: Natural Resources in a given community, which is an important
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: aspect in every community, or you work at the Department
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: of Taxation or the Division of Motor Vehicles. So I
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: do think we need to respect some of these public
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: service jobs a little bit more. And if we show
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: more respect for me, you're going to have more people
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: that want to be in them. And I know that
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: seems a little pollyannish, but I think, you know, some
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: combination of that. But the biggest thing we have to
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: do on this safety stuff is just de escalate. The
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: leaders at the top of the food chain here right,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: our national political leaders, starting with the president. As I
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: always say, it is president's control the thermostat of politics
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: in the country, all right. It isn't a speaker of
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: the House that does it. It isn't some loudmouth influencer
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: that does it. It is the president that does it.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: He's got to take the temperature down. He's got to.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: He's got his hand on the thermostat. That doesn't mean
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: we all don't play a role too, but this is
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: much harder to do if you don't have a president
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: willing to do it. Thank you for your service. My
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: grandmother is buried in Dubuque, so I have I have.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: Dubuque's was her hometown. My grandmother is my daughter's namesake anyway,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: so when I see anything from Dubuque, it makes me smile.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: Katie drew A writes, he really appreciate the pod and
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: all the work you and the team do. With Trump,
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: the typical lame duckt dynamic doesn't seem to apply. He's
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: already taken major high risk actions earlier than expected, So
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: how do you see the evolving this vaulting from here?
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: Does he follow a more traditional path of losing influence
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: or could it look more like unpredictable moves to stay
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: central and maintain control of twenty twenty eight approaches well drew.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: As I shared with you the last time, and as
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: a friend of mine likes to put it, the biggest
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: mistake we make with Trump is failure of imagination. So
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: I think you are right to at least point out
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: that we auto not assume everything he does. He does
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: what most sort of fading leaders do, which just just
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: start fading away, right, just start doing the Homer Simpson
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: and backing into the bush. Right. However, he's not well right.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: He is definitely getting very old before our eyes. His
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: hair is thinning dramatically. I don't know how much many
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: of you have noticed this, but he's going bald. Look
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: he's he's slowed it down pretty well. He's I know
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: he took I don't know if he still does, but
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: at one time he was. He took propecia, and wean
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: pretty clear he had transplants at some point, which means
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: he was probably he probably should have a head of
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: hair that looks closer to mine than when he's got
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: but you can kind of tell it's really thinning now
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: more than ever. And look, I think his health issues
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: are catching up to him, and he's clearly taking a
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: variety of medicines that give him some bruising that he
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: doesn't always want to that. He's clearly you know, doesn't
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: like the cameras to notice. I don't think he realizes
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: how easily we all notice all the makeup he puts
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: on the bruises. But he might be better off just
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: letting the bruises show. But it's just a side effect
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: from the medicine he's taking to keep a circulation flowing.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: I'm actually sorry he wants to hide it. He ought
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: to make other members of his geneneration feel better that hey,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: they're not alone. See it even happens to him, But
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: that is not who he is. But I point that out,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: is that there think that if he does end up
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: looking like a traditional lame duck president allah George W.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: Bush for instance, or even the last year of Bill Clinton,
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: the last year of Barack Obama and just sort of
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: pulling the Homer Simpson right fading into the bushes, I
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: think it would be just energy, right there are there
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: are a lot more low energy Trump days than there
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: have been in the past. That said, there's nothing he
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: hates more than when people like me say, oh, look
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: he's got low energy. It looks like he's he's done.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: It looks like he's a lame duck. Right, She's going
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: to want to prove that he's not. So I do
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: think there'll be some unpredictability. But and I do think
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: what you know, what he did Forestall with his success
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: in the Indiana primaries was looking weak enough where Republicans
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: felt comfortable backing away publicly. And the fact that that,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: you know, that is the the longer, you know, as
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: long as that doesn't happen, I actually think he doesn't
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: lash out too much when that if and when that
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: starts to happen, I happen to think it will maybe
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: it's you know, maybe it's before these midterms, or maybe
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: it's you know, in twenty seven, is people start to
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: really realize that they may have to start to run
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: away from him a little bit. He may lash out initially,
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: but what does he want? Right? You know? Is there
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: something else he wants that he can't have? And so
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: it's very possible he himself decides to feel stated and
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: does it. Maybe I'm maybe I'm the one that's under
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: underreacting on this one, but I think I think the
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: combination of his health, he just doesn't have the energy
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: he once had. I think there, you know, I think
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: it's at least a fifty to fifty chance it's a
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: traditional name in that simply because he just peters out.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: All right, last question, and then I'm going to get
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: to my full on celebration with my family. Michael and
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: Long Island City Rights. Hey, on a recent episode, you
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: suggested that rulings on jerry mandering and the voting right
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: tech could s for voter backlash, particularly in the South,
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: But after Dobbs, it seemed like even a major Supreme
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: Court decisions won't always translate into sustained voter mobilization. What
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: makes you think redistricting could be a stronger motivator given
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: that it's more a technical issue, and how much do
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: voters really engage with or respond to Skota's decisions overall? Well,
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: first of all, Michael, I would sort of disagree with
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: you about Dobbs. Dobbs did have a backlash in twenty
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: twenty two, it just did not continue in twenty twenty four.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: But I mean, you saw the big referendums in Kansas,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: you had the big reference in Michigan. And I think
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: we are forgetting that Democrats had as good of a
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: bad midterm as they could have had, right, you know,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: they yes, they lost the House, but they barely lost
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: the House. Why because voters were upset and engaged on Dobbs. So,
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: you know, I think because Democrats didn't dominate the twenty
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: twenty two midterms, that there's a narrative that's set in
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: that somehow, oh well, Dobbs wasn't a motivating force. I
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: think to the contrary, Democrats should have gotten s shellacked
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two. It should have been a big
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: red wave. I think the reason there wasn't a big
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: red wave was because of Dobbs. But because there was,
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: you know what happened in twenty twenty two is you
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: basically had almost equal enthusiasm. We've rarely had that for
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: a midterm. That doesn't happen very often, where both parties
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: are about equal by election day in interest and motivation
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: in the election. And the only reason that Democrats were
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: just about on par with Republicans was overdopped. I agree
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: with you about jerrymandering. I think on the Voting Rights
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: Act that this this is one of those where I think,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: if you know, you know, I think this is going
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: to that this is this is not a story being
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: ignored or glossed over in the black community. So I
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: think there is real engagement on this. Just like there
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: was real engagement among women on the Dobs issue, I
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: think there's real engagement on this. I think the outrage
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: is real. I think the ability to mobilize voters is
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: going to be there, and then I think you're going
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: to see a lot of money used to make sure
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: that the black community is engaged on these issues. But
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: I take your point on the idea of jerrymandering, and
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: I agree on jerrymandering. But if it's about again, I
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: go back to sort of how I phrased it before,
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: when the messaging, which I think is going to be
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: quite easy whether you're in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: But let's just take the states that are rushing to
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: redistrict now. They are so excited to take political power
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: away from you that they are that they are going
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: to make sure they are not going to allow for
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: two more years of an African American member of Congress
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: to represent the state of Mississippi, or to represent the
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: state of Alabama, or you get fill in the blank.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: I think the urgency that Republicans are engaging and in
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: these state legislatures is just it is. It is. It
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: is like it's taunting African American voters. So I'm I
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: understand your skepticism. I get sort of how you're viewing
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: Dobbs and using that as a but I guess where
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: where I don't accept the premises. I actually think Dobbs
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: did motivate Democrats. It's just it happened to help Democrats
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: neutralize a Republican advantage. Let me put it in another way.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: Had Dobbs happened while there was well, well, well there
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: was a Republican in the White House, it would have
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: been a massive blue wave, and then the narrative would
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: have been, oh, Dobbs motivated voters. Look, ultimately, hold me
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: accountable this way in Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and Florida,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: and let's throw in Georgia. If one of those five
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: states has a Democratic governor, you can thank the Supreme
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: Court and these and these and these aggressive redistricting efforts.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: If it doesn't happen, write me again and remind me
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: it didn't happen. And I will, I will, I will,
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: I will see the point, all right, everybody, Uh, as
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: they say down here in Coral Gables, it's great to
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: be a Miami Hurricane. Thanks for letting me share my
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: excitement about my daughter's graduation with you this week. I
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: don't normally like to get that personal on this podcast,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: but uh, you know, I'm pretty proud of her, and
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: uh it's an exciting time. And uh, you guys have
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: been terrific as it is, and very supportive, and the
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: fact that this has been a successful venture has given
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: me the opportunity to enjoy this experience that I'm enjoying
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: this week with my daughter. So I thank you for
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: that as well. I'll see in seventy two hours