Latest / The Chuck ToddCast / Chuck’s Commentary - Trump Has Become The Entire Election + We Need To Update The 25th Amendment

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Chuck’s Commentary - Trump Has Become The Entire Election + We Need To Update The 25th Amendment · The Chuck ToddCast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This episode of the Chuck Todd cast is brought to
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: you by Chapter. Now, almost everything you hear about Medicare
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: is somebody quietly trying to steer you somewhere. And you're
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: skeptical of that, as you should be. I get it.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's a federal lawsuit going on right now
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: over exactly this. Companies that branded themselves as unbiased while
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: allegedly pointing people toward whatever would pay them the most
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: as some sort of broker. So if your default is
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to distrust everyone in this space, honestly, I get it.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I'm a bit distrustful these days myself. That's the whole
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: reason I want to tell you about Chapter. They're independent
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  Speaker 1: Medicare advisors whose entire model is that their advisors are
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  Speaker 1: not paid to push any one plan. They're just trying
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  Speaker 1: it's across the board is what they're trying to do.
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  Speaker 1: part that sets chapter apart. They don't disappear once you've
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  Speaker 1: been in They will keep advocating for you. They're kind
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  Speaker 1: I need help. You're like customer service. You know, the plan,
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  Speaker 1: get hit with a wrongful medical bill, they'll help you
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: fight it. They want to stay an advocate for you
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: even after you've done this. So look, I get it.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I think there's all sorts of space. You see a
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: lot of people are throwing themselves in this healthcare space.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: What I like about these chapter folks, I've spent time
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: with them. This is a very transparent organization. It is
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Medicare and all of its affiliated stuff can be very confusing.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: The whole point of this is to make this easier
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: and less confusing. OK, so look, take the skepticism you
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: already have in all of this, point it at your
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: own plan for 20 minutes. It's free. There's no pressure.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: And then call chapter today at 980-734-4200. Hello there. Happy
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Monday and welcome to another episode of the Chuck Todd cast.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: I am coming to you from St. Louis, Missouri. I've
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: been here over the weekend for a family gathering. Always
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: a wonderful way to catch up with people, no matter
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: what the event may or may not be. A few
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: other housekeeping items. I have my interview this week on
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Newsphere is with the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan,
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  Speaker 1: Abdul El-Sayed. And while interviewing him is not a coup anymore,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: meaning he does a lot of interviews, I did try
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: to focus ours on a topic that he's not been
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: questioned about very much, what he's actually gonna do in
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the United States Senate. It's one thing, I think we
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  Speaker 1: all know where he stands. We all know many of
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: the issues he stands. The question is, how is he
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  Speaker 1: going to use that platform? What does he believe that
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: platform is for? And it's fascinating. As I've said in
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: shorthand about him, I don't think he's running to become
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  Speaker 1: the future chair of the Senate Banking Committee or the
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Senate Commerce Committee. Whether he ends up as that anyway,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not saying he doesn't want to end up as
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: that someday when we know how the seniority system works.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: But he's interested in making the Senate a more active body.
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  Speaker 1: And I will tell you, I have had there and
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I even invoke this with him. I have had plenty
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: of incoming senators claim they are going to change the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: way the Senate works and force some forced deliberation in
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the world's most deliberative body and things like that. And
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the Senate has a way of stifling that. But I
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  Speaker 1: want you to stew on this one image with Abdul El-Sayed,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: because in some ways he strikes me very similarly, not
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  Speaker 1: in ideology or anything like that, and not necessarily even
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: in personality. But this is how Mike Lee and Ted
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Cruz had viewed the Senate when they came in. And
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  Speaker 1: their own party hated it and others hated it, meaning
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  Speaker 1: they were constantly trying to make the Senate a more
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  Speaker 1: active body, whether it was using it for shutdowns, using
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  Speaker 1: it for different votes. And I think Abdul El-Sayed sees
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  Speaker 1: the operations of the Senate as an opportunity to talk
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: about issues and force issues to the front, force debate
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  Speaker 1: on issues. I think some people are going to love that.
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  Speaker 1: And I can tell you, United States senators hate it.
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  Speaker 1: So it's just going to be fascinating if he ends
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  Speaker 1: up getting there. And of course, we still got a
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  Speaker 1: month to go to get there. But that was the
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  Speaker 1: I've been digesting the conversation. And I think it's going
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  Speaker 1: to be interesting. I think he wants to force votes.
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  Speaker 1: I think he wants to force conversations. and put it
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  Speaker 1: in a public forum as a free speech democracy guy,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: as somebody who believes in pluralism and wants to see
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: these conversations out in the open, I think it can
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  Speaker 1: be quite healthy. But it doesn't always work out the
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  Speaker 1: way those who have an idealistic version of this want
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  Speaker 1: it to be. So we'll see if it happens, right?
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  Speaker 1: We've got a long way to go before November 3rd.
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  Speaker 1: But I definitely think... Whatever your views are about him,
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  Speaker 1: I'd like to think we went to some new territory
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: when it comes to that race and when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to that candidate. Hey, before we get back into it,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: I want to give you a quick word on something
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: I'm involved in, and I'm pretty excited about it. On
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  Speaker 1: October 22nd and 23rd, I'm going to be hosting NextPredict
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: in New York City. It's the world's largest prediction markets conference.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Two days. two weeks out from the midterms with the exchanges,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: the traders, and the regulators all in one room, right?
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  Speaker 1: So if you want to try to understand what is
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: this industry, where is it headed? What does it mean? Well,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: next predict, this is going to be the place to be.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: So like I said, I'm going to be hosting quite
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  Speaker 1: a few panels. I'm involved with this project. Registration is
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  Speaker 1: at nextpredict.io. That's N-E-X-T-P-R-E-D-I-C-T dot I-O, nextpredict.io. If you want
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  Speaker 1: to try to understand the prediction markets, not as something
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: to participate in, but more as what is this industry?
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  Speaker 1: Where is it headed? What is it about? How will
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: it be regulated? All of those things. That's what this
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: conference is about. So take a look. All right. Let
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  Speaker 1: me dig in here a little bit and let's start
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  Speaker 1: with what my focus has been this weekend and what
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  Speaker 1: I've been thinking about and what I think we ought
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  Speaker 1: to be thinking about going forward. And of course, it
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  Speaker 1: starts with the president, right? Look, he is the focal
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  Speaker 1: point of this entire election season, right? If everything is
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  Speaker 1: in his hands, right? If the Republicans have a disaster,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: it's Donald Trump's fault. And if they somehow mitigate this,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: that means he's done something. He's pulled a rabbit out
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  Speaker 1: of his hat. But it was interesting to watch Donald
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  Speaker 1: Trump this weekend because I think it was quite revealing.
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  Speaker 1: He spent Saturday at a college football game and he
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: spent Sunday at a golf tournament. Really? Glad he's enjoying
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: himself because a whole lot of Americans are not enjoying
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: much of anything about this economy right now. Everything is
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: harder at the moment. Gas is more expensive. Electricity is
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: more expensive. Groceries are more expensive. Good luck getting a
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: loan to buy a house at the moment. Mortgage rates
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: suck for first-time homebuyers, let alone anybody searching for a home.
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  Speaker 1: We're seven months into a war with Iran that has
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: helped push the national average for gas to about $ 4. 50.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: We're going to creep towards $ 7 a gallon on diesel.
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  Speaker 1: Look for it now. Careful. It's all due to the disruptions.
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  Speaker 1: A choice, right? A choice. Remember, why is the Strait
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  Speaker 1: of Hormuz blocked? Because this administration ignored their own warnings
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  Speaker 1: about how the Iranians would respond. Remember, we're having to
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  Speaker 1: negotiate over something that wasn't an issue before we started
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  Speaker 1: this war. The blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, right?
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  Speaker 1: This was supposed to be about their nuclear arsenal. And
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  Speaker 1: now it's about preventing a global energy crisis. Again, war
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  Speaker 1: of choice. So by all means, Mr. President, I hope
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: you enjoyed the football game. I hope you enjoyed the
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  Speaker 1: golf tournament. I know you're obsessed with still trying to
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: make people love you, and we're going to get to
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: that in your weird cult ads here in a minute. But,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting with him. I think he's kind
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  Speaker 1: of in grasping mode, and this is why– He keeps
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: trying to play the hits, and he's obsessed with just
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: finding any audience possible that might not boo him, right?
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: College football fans skew a bit Republican, and he thought, oh,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: I'm in a red state like Tennessee. It's just Tennessee
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: and Texas. Maybe I won't get booed there. Golf tournament,
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  Speaker 1: golf skews really Republican. Maybe he won't get booed there.
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  Speaker 1: He's just desperate not to feel how unpopular he's become
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  Speaker 1: in the moment and how much he is the scourge
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  Speaker 1: inside his own party right republicans are running away from
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: him every day there's a new story about a republican
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  Speaker 1: trying to run away from so he's he's you know
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  Speaker 1: he's looking for a blankie uh to put it in
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  Speaker 1: those terms he's clinging for something anything to make himself
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  Speaker 1: feel better right he's clearly got this massive self-esteem issue
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  Speaker 1: and that's had it pretty much his whole adult life
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: but he's clearly right now desperate to recreate the feeling
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  Speaker 1: that he had at the height of his poverty. Right.
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  Speaker 1: When you could go to a big crowd and there
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  Speaker 1: was there was yeah, there were boos, but there was
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  Speaker 1: he felt he only heard the cheers. Right. Go to
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  Speaker 1: a big event. And he like forced him like like
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: when he like forced himself into the celebration of the
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  Speaker 1: World Cup. Right. He's just looking for any moments he
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: can find where everybody gets to look at him and
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  Speaker 1: he gets to pretend that cheering might be about him.
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  Speaker 1: Even when seven times out of 10, it's not. But
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: he always wants to be in the middle of the
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: spectacles of the rest of America's joints. And it's really
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: frustrating because, frankly, you want to say, dude, just read
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: a room, will you? Leave us all alone. If you
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: actually stayed quiet, you might mitigate some of your political problems.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: But he can't help himself. And you would say, ah,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the sporting events, eh, whatever. He's going to do what
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: he's going to do. But I have to tell you,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: I think these are politically just beyond dumb, right? And
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: the timing of this particular weekend was, to me, comically
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: out of touch, okay? Because Saturday morning, before heading off,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: to enjoy the football game. Trump announced that he had
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: rejected Iran's latest proposal for ending the fighting, even temporarily,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Now, I'll be fair,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: this wasn't, Iran wasn't offering unconditional surrender with their offer.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: It was far from it. But it was an interesting
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: exit ramp that the public is begging him to take,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: and he refused to take it. Iran's seven-point proposal included
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: some things that were workable, but literally a seven-day ceasefire.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: They were offering to talk. Now, they wanted money to
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: go with the ceasefire, a release of $ 12 billion in
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: frozen Iranian assets. I have no doubt we're not ready
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: for that. They wanted immediate sanctions relief on Iranian oil
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: and an end to the native blockade. But they made
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: an offer. And instead of rejecting it, don't you counter?
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  Speaker 1: And don't you give off a little bit of hope
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: that maybe we can cease this at some point? Now,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: at the end of seven days, Iran promised they would
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: reopen the Strait. And then they would be open to
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: negotiations over the future of their nuclear program. Now, again,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: not everything in there that they're offering is trustworthy. And
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: so I'm not saying that. But Trump just rejected it
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  Speaker 1: out of hand. Now, what the administration wants to believe
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: is that, oh, Iran's desperate. And maybe they are. Okay,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: maybe the blockade is working. Maybe Tehran thinks the midterm
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: elections and rising gas prices will force Trump to blink, right?
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: And the administration doesn't want to look like that they're
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: letting politics impact their decision making. Now, somehow the administration
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: continues to try to say Trump holds all the cards. Well,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: if he held all the cards, why would we be
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: here in the first place? I mean, these anonymous officials
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: that Fox News quotes, right, for the State Department, oh,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: the president holds all the cards. You can think that
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: all you want, buddy. But there is no evidence that
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: You may hold cards, but I think they're like two
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: of clubs, three of diamonds. And there is nothing on
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: the flop that's anywhere close to a winning hand. And look,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: we've heard. We've heard variations of this before. The other
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: guy's about to fold. The sanctions are about to break them.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: The regime is weaker than anybody realizes. Trump's personal leverage
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: is going to produce a deal nobody else could get
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: because he's Donald Trump. And look at all these great
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: deals for the American economy he's already done. Oh, right. Yeah.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Just give it a little more time. Well, forgive me
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: if I'm not ready to take this one to the bank, right? Look,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump's record of predicting what his adversaries are about
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: to do is nowhere near perfect. And if his calculation
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: is that Iran is so weakened internally that another turn
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: of the screw is going to produce a dramatically better deal,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: or perhaps even some kind of internal collapse, well, that's
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: quite a bet. It's the bet he continues to make.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: It's the bet he made when they took out the Ayatollah.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: They keep making this bet. They keep misreading the Iranians
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: left and right. And obviously, you can't really trust this
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: gang to know what they're doing because they didn't apparently
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: see closing the Strait of Hormuz coming when they picked
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: this fight and they let Israel talk America into doing this,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: doing this military intervention that is now making the Iraq
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: war look like a smart decision. So we've been here
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: a million times. Now, it's interesting to me that on
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Sunday morning, What did the president do? And I think
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: this is what the next couple of weeks are gonna
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: look like for what it's worth. Now he tells Axios, oh, no, no, no,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: we expect to talk. And it's always convenient. It's always
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: somewhere on Sunday that that happens, right? Because he's trying
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: to impact the markets, right? He wants to jawbone down.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: So just maybe he can prevent $ 7 diesel. If he
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: can keep it at 665, right? He'll feel like this
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: is a win. But it is just the optics of
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: this whole thing And again, he keeps saying, you know,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: maybe it's coming, maybe it's coming, and this is going
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: to be a win. Well, there's a big price for
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: being wrong on this. It's a price being paid by
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: people who aren't getting to sit in those luxury boxes
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. And the administration is finally
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: acknowledging the fact that their war is causing economic pain.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Marco Rubio says the economic cost is real. Now, he
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: argues that the cost of allowing Iran to eventually obtain
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: a nuclear weapon would be much greater. Okay. Fine, that's
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: the argument. I thought you guys blew this up twice.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: So what the hell is America supposed to believe? I
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: thought we blew up the nuclear facilities in July of 2025.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Then I thought we did it again in the first
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: part of this war. Is the planning for this effort
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: so bad that you still haven't done it? All of
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: this pain that the world has experienced in this economy
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: and Iran's still got an active nuclear program that apparently
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: we've been able to do very little about, is that
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: the argument that's being made? Or are you still trying–
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: or have we done destroyed and set them back? And
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: yet we're still trying to rationalize and justify what we're
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: doing because they shut us straight in a strategic blunder
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: that this administration didn't see coming. This argument about the
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: nuclear facilities and the nuclear weapon is just fear-mongering at
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: its worst. Again, you told us it was obliterated. Are
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: you lying then or are you lying now? We're all
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: paying the cost for it right now. But here's where
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Trump's political problems and this Iran problem are colliding. We
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: got yet another high-quality national poll, this one from the
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal, which modeled its poll when NBC and
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal split up the partnership. They knew that
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: the poll model we had developed, that Al Hunt and
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Tim Russert had developed, was the correct model to do
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: a national poll, get leading pollsters from both parties to
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: put together. And the Wall Street Journal... did a good
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: job of finding the second best Democratic pollster they could
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: find and the second best Republican pollster they could find.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: It's a little wink and a nod there. Point is,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: they now have the president with a lower job approval
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: rating than the NBC poll found last week. Wall Street
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Journal has him at 37%. The Wall Street Journal, this is,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: guess who conducts this poll? The president's pollster. Anyway, keep
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: that in mind. 61% disapprove. Now, maybe that's why he
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: needs to be at a football game, right? He needs
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: his blankie because there seems to be increasingly frantic attempt
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: around Trump to manufacture the old feeling for him, right?
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: He is like an old man, desperate for nostalgia in
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: the good old days, or at least the good old
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: days that he'd manufactured in his head, right? He wants
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: his old mojo, his old crowds, the cheers. And if
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: you think I'm overstating his desire for adulation, Can I
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: introduce you to perhaps the strangest government-funded television advertisement I've
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: ever seen? It's essentially a Donald Trump cult commercial. I
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: wouldn't call it a campaign commercial. It's cultish. It's on
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: a level I've never seen in a democracy. This is
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Reverend Sung Young Moon shit. It's weird shit, okay? Or
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: as George W. Bush said, said at the first Trump inaugural,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: that was some strange shit, right? That's what this ad is.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: It's paid for by the government, which in and of
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: itself is illegal, should be investigated. But it's weird, okay?
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: It's images of Trump flashing across the screen. His supposed
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: accomplishments appear in giant letters. They have Dana White from
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: a rally that he did Talking how tough Trump is.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I'm just curious. Dana White, do you really want to
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: be associated with this garbage? Do you? I mean, the
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: UFC is a growing brand. Do you really want to
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: attach your brand this closely to him? I'm curious how
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: he feels about being showcased in this. But underneath all
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: of it is a song that repeatedly just says the
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: following two words. Love me. Love me. love me. I'm
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: sitting here, you know, you think, did AI hallucinate? Are
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: we really having a sitting president manufacture ads like this?
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: And at the end, it says paid for by the U.S. government.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: So what exactly is it? Well, let's just say a
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: lot of inquiring minds have wanted to know. So the
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: White House is simply calling it a public service announcement.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: For what? A PSA for what? Register to vote? Donald
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Trump's self-esteem? Hey, your president is feeling very fragile at
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: the moment and you need to make him feel better.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: So love him. Is that the PSA? We're using taxpayer
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: dollars to make the president feel better about himself because
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: his presidency is an historic disaster. And this is going
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: to be seen as one of the great historic mistakes
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: in American history. It's strange, man. Hey, this episode of
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the Chuck Todd cast is brought to you by Ethos. Look,
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  Speaker 1: rating was as of August of 2026. I know a
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: lot of these folks that are still left that manage Trump,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: that have made the decision, they're in for a dime,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: in for a dollar. And there's this attempt to just
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: try to make them, I don't know, just, you know,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: let the old man have this, you know, let him
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: do this. Let's just make the ad. We'll use this
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: PSA dollars. Maybe people won't notice. He'll see it and
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: it'll make them feel better. Well, then people noticed and
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: we're all going, what the F is this? How sick
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: is this? And there, look, there's serious, legit questions about
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: whether the federal government ought to be buying television, everything
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: that looks remotely like this kind of weird propaganda. But again,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: To call it campaign propaganda undersells the cult-like bizarreness of
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: this thing. Can you imagine somebody sitting at their kitchen
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: table trying to figure out how to pay the electric
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: bill who sees 12 pictures of Donald Trump and somebody
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: sings Love Me and thinks, you know what? Oh, I
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: do love him. I feel better now. My love for
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: him means I will pay gladly more money for this
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: electric bill for his data center obsession. And I'll gladly
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: pay more money for his blunder in the Iran war.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Think about this. Like I said, this feels North Korea-ish.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: This entire thing feels increasingly disconnected from the country Trump
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: is actually governing. People are frustrated. They think everything costs
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: too much. We're fighting a war that was supposed to
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: demonstrate American strength. And seven months later, we're still fighting it.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: We don't have enough munitions, apparently. Gas is around four
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: and a half dollars. And the president's political response to
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: this moment where he is the walking disaster for his
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: party seems to be, put me on television. Put me
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: at a football game. Put me at a golf tournament.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Let's tell everybody to love me. Oh, by the way,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: put me in the campaign trail because I'm just, you know,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: only I can do this. Now, it's funny. It goes to,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: like I said, there's clearly a group of folks in
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the White House that say, all right, let's appease the
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: crazy old man. By the way, my time machine today
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: is about what do you do when you don't know
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: whether you've got a president that's all there. But we're
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: going to get to that. So they're trying to appease him, right?
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: He wants to be relevant on the campaign trail. He
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: wants to hold rallies. And there's a lot of red
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: states that, in theory, if he could get his voters out,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: they'd be helpful. Do they send him to Iowa? No,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Ashley Hinson doesn't even want to be seen next to J.D. Vance.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Do they send him to Florida? Byron Donald scrubbed Donald
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Trump from his website. Do you send him to Texas? Well,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: we know what's going on in Texas, right? And they
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: already sent him to Texas. That didn't go so hot
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: with this midterm convention. Do they send him Ohio? Nobody.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Nobody wants him there in Ohio. So they've set up
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: rallies for him in Oklahoma and Alabama. And again, this
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: goes back to nostalgia brain. And it might be nostalgia
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: brain rot in Trump's head at the moment. Why do
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Oklahoma and Alabama feel familiar? Well, Alabama was the site
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: of his sort of first big rally in Mobile. I
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: remember we covered it quite thoroughly when I was at
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Meet the Press at the time back in 2015. And
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: it was a remarkable rally and how many people showed
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: up in a state that really wasn't. So he wants
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: to go to Mobile where, again, the first time he
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: felt the feeling. So he's desperate to recreate the feeling.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: And then Oklahoma. I remember Oklahoma was one of the
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: few places he went during COVID. He was desperate to
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: have a political rally. I think that's where Herman Cain
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: caught COVID and died, reportedly. So... Again, there's this group
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: of folks trying to make him feel better, right? That's
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: why they just look the other way with this Natalie
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Hart business. That's why they look the other way with
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: this weird ramblings about auto pens and embarrassing the country
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: and his own party in front of the head of
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: the Chinese Communist Party. I mean, it's some weird stuff, right?
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: We're weeks away from a midterm election with Republican Senate
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: candidates fighting for their lives across the map, and Donald
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Trump's next big rallies are in Oklahoma and Alabama because
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: nobody else wants him anywhere. Trust me, if he set
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: up a shop in Iowa, I think some of the
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Republican candidates would protest themselves. By the way, the Democratic
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: equivalent of sending Trump to Oklahoma and Alabama is essentially
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: it would have been like sending Biden to Delaware and Vermont.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: You want to make the president feel like he's relevant? Sure.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Call it a turnout rally, right? This is an attempt
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: to both make him feel better and hide him in
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: place inside, right? Give him his rally. in a place
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: that he can't do any damage on. Although there's now
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: the governor's race in Alabama with the weird furry comments
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: and conspiracies that Tommy Tupperville is doing. And I'm sure
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Doug Jones would be like, please, Donald Trump, go rally
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: with Tommy Tupperville. But anyway, give him a rally, give
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: him a crowd, give him an applause, make him feel
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: important and relevant, boost his self-esteem because they're fearful of
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: a Donald Trump who actually realizes how unpopular he is.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: because nobody knows how he'll behave. But it's pretty clear.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Nobody wants him next to any actual Republican candidates in
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: a tough race. And they're not putting him anywhere near
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: any red state that's remotely flippable at the moment. And
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: if you think I'm being overly cynical about the political
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: environment Republicans are confronting, Why don't you listen to Republicans
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: themselves and what they were saying over the last few days?
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: While Trump was making his sports tour, the National Republican
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Senate Committee was holding a big donor retreat on Sea
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Island in Georgia. It's one of the more popular places
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: on the right side of the aisle to hold there.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: If Democrats do retreats in the Hamptons and Martha's Vineyard,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Republicans usually do it off of Sea Island. I mean,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: a Republican pollster got up and suggested Republicans could actually
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: pick up Senate seats in November. And six months ago,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: that wouldn't have been a laughable comment, right? But according
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: to Axios, the reaction from some people in the room
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: ranged from seriously to outright laughter. One attendee described the
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: presentation afterward with one word as delusional. Another said the
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: mood is not good. Look, clearly this was about somebody,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: you know, put somebody who's a Trump apologist up there
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: to do a preview and to give everybody some positive spin.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: And sure, there's a 15% chance this guy's right. There
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: was a chance that Texas A & M could have
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: beaten LSU on Saturday. There was a chance Central Michigan
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: could have beaten Miami on Saturday. That's pretty much where
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: we're at at the moment. And apparently Republicans were walking
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: around according to Axios, sarcastically telling each other, hey, we're winning.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Everything's good. And it may be funny, but it's pretty revealing, right?
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Because these people aren't stupid. They're actually talking to voters.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: They're actually reading their own polls and they can see
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: a map. The NRSC is asking donors for another $ 9
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: million to help Republican Senate candidates in the deep blue
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: states of Alaska, Iowa, and Ohio. And they're about to
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: pick up a Senate seat, right? Like one message is
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: we're desperate for help over here. The other message is, hey,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: we can pick up a seat. According to Axios, the
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: increasingly competitive Texas Senate race wasn't even discussed at the retreat.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Don't bring up bad news, right? So think about what
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: we're having here, right? There's sort of two realities that
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Republicans are living in at the moment. You have two
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Republican campaigns happening simultaneously, a very public one. Everything is great,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: and it's really just about making sure Donald Trump doesn't
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: say stupid stuff and hurt the party. Trump has all
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: the cards. He's going to do great. Republicans are going
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: to win. The economy is going to boom. Gas prices
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: will come down. Iran's about to crack. Just wait and see.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Then there's the campaign that John Thune and sober Republicans
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: are actually running and aware of. Emergency money for Alaska,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: emergency money for Iowa, emergency money for Ohio. John Thune
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: telling senators, hey, you do what you got to do
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: to survive. Republican candidates figuring out when they need to
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: separate themselves from Trump, right? So it actually gets me
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: to an interesting observation that my old friend Charlie Cook
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: made with his most recent column, which I think he
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: just nailed something. And it's, you know, this is Charlie.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: This guy's been doing it longer than I've been doing it.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: And I think he made the most correct observation about
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: what we're watching with this election. This isn't a blue
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: wave election. He called it a red undertow. And there's
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of support for this because his argument was
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: blue wave would suggest that voters have suddenly fallen in
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: love with Democrats. That they have not. The Democratic brand
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: remains damaged. Last week, I showed you that poll that
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: the Democrats were more unpopular than the Republicans. All right.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: So they're not embracing Democrats. They're punishing Republicans because they're
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: the party in power. And in many of these red states,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: they've been in power a half generation or longer, if
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: you look at a Texas. And I think red undertow
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: and you've seen the Nate Silver post where Democrats seem
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: to be doing even better in red states than they
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: are in blue states. That things are slightly more competitive
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: for them in blue states. where Republicans look in striking
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: distance in Minnesota or in New Hampshire or I guess
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: you could call Michigan a blue state or do you
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: count it as a swing state given that Republicans haven't
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: won a Senate seat there since 1994? It feels like
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: a blue tint to its purple nature a little bit there.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: But I think red undertow is a much better description.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: And it could be a massive undertow, right, that literally
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: drowns the party. And an undertow doesn't necessarily look dramatic
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: from the shore either, right? It keeps pulling things out
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: to sea. You can see Republican senators beginning to feel it.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Susan Collins is desperate for her bipartisan insolent bill to
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: be brought to the floor. How the hell did they
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: not do this sooner? I mean... The Senate Republicans, because
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Trump forced them and Mike Lee forced them into this
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: obsession over the over rigging the federalizing the national elections,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: because that's what the SAVE Act was about, is about
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: nationalizing elections and essentially taking away credibility of the election
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: process from the states. But the obsession over that cost
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: them time to get a bipartisan bill that might have
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: given Susan Collins something to run on. John Husted, who's
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: the appointed senator in Ohio, he's desperate for a vote
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: on a bill that he introduced that he says would
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: protect consumers from higher electricity costs associated with data centers.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: He's desperate to look like he wants to do something
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: against data centers. Republicans in general, you would think, would
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: be desperate to do this because they're owning this. Ron Johnson.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: He's the one championing the bill that would ban members
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: of Congress from trading stocks. How is it that this,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: everybody says they're for banning stock trading in Congress and
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: yet nobody can seem to pass this bill? Again, something
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: the Republicans now own because they have both houses of Congress.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: So these are Republicans begging their leadership, give me something
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: I can go home and talk about that has some
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: relationship to the things that voters actually are upset about. Affordability,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: electric bills, corruption, And in this last week, what has
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: the United States Senate been spending its time on? College sports.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: It's so strange that they're literally pushing so hard between
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: college sports, crypto a couple of weeks ago. They're nowhere
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: near where the public is. Right. And look, I'm not
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: going to belabor where I'm at. You know how I
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: think this sports. Here's the irony. They're spending all this
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: time on a bill that is never going to get
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: through the courts. So it's an even bigger waste of time.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: This is the political environment as we're headed into this
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: final stretch. Which brings me, I want to transition to
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: a race that I think illustrates something else that's happening
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: underneath the surface of this election. And an acknowledgement by
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: a Democrat that this is a, in Charlie Cook's words,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: a red undertow election. This is not a blue wave election.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Because while Republicans are trying to figure out how to
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: survive this undertow, there's a Democrat in Texas who's doing
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: something that I think the party ought to be studying
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: very carefully. We spend a lot of time talking about
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: a certain Texas race. Well, that's not the race I
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: want to talk about. I want to talk about the
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: governor's race. I want to talk about a Democratic candidate
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: who's probably running the most interesting, tactically the most interesting
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: campaign in the country. Her name's Gina. She's been on
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: this podcast. You've heard me talk about this race before.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: And I want to start with her newest television ad.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: And if you guys haven't seen it, make time to
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: see it. Okay? She's a new ad that features a
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: woman named Lynn Davenport. Now, Lynn Davenport is not just
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: simply some suburban Republican who voted for Nikki Haley and
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: now considers herself politically homeless. She begins the ad by
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: telling people that she was at the January 6th rally.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: She's a January 6th. She believed the 2020 election was stolen.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: She calls herself a staunch conservative. And she's appearing in
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: an advertisement for the Democratic candidate for governor in Texas,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: saying she just cannot vote for Greg Abbott. And why
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: can't she vote for? Because of schools, because of the
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: voucher program, because of data centers, because of the way
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: corporations have easy access to. The sense that Abbott is
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: listening to donors first rather than the people in communities
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: like hers. And Hinojosa is not hiding from who Davenport is.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: She's going out of her way to highlight it. At
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: the Texas Tribune Festival last week, she put it this way. Look,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: she voted for President Trump. And she rides hard for me.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: That's how Inosa put it, right? Think about that sentence.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: Because what I think Gina Inosa may be running is
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: literally the smartest campaign in red America right now. She's
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: essentially telling Texas, look, I'm not asking you to become
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: a Democrat to support me. That's not what this is about.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: In fact, she said almost exactly that at the trip fest.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: I'm not asking voters to trust Democrats. It's hard enough
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: to get people to trust me. But that's what she's doing.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: She's saying, look, don't worry about the brand I'm associated with.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: I know it's a shit brand. She doesn't say it
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: that way. I will. I know you don't trust the Democrats.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: But try to trust me and hear the promises I'm
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: going to make. And what's interesting is that she's refusing
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: to run the campaign Republicans were hoping she would run. Frankly,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: she's refusing to run the campaign that many Democrats have
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: run in Texas and lost. Wendy Davis got crushed running
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: the campaign that many progressive Democrats were cheering on. Even
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Beto O'Rourke ran a campaign that was more focused on
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: national Democrats than it was on Texans, right? Now, look,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: you know, Osa's very liberal. She's from Austin, right? She
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: spent a decade as one of the more liberal members
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: of the Texas House. She even co-chaired the Progressive Caucus.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: But she doesn't particularly want the label progressive because she
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: says it's become associated with cultural issues that just aren't
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: what she's running on. So she calls herself a populist now.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: And when she was asked about which conservative policy victories
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: in Texas she'd like to reverse as governor, you know
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: what she told the Tribune Festival interviewer? Look at the legislature.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Democrats aren't taking it over. She goes, I live in reality.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: And she was basically pledging, look, she's not going to
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: take on every culture fight that the national left has
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: been complaining about with Texas for a while. She's simply
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: meeting voters where they are in the moment. That's what
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: a politician who wants to win does, not a politician
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: who wants to make a point. Remember the TV show
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: I've been quoting quite a bit, do you want to
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: win or do you want to fight? Well, you know,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: this has been fighting for a long time. She's making
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: the choice to win. I don't know if she's going
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: to win, but she's trying to win. She's not just
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: trying to have a fight and raise a bunch of money.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: from people that don't live in the state of Texas. Now,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: she's not pretending. She suddenly changed all of her beliefs.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: She's saying, those aren't the things I'm running for governor
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: to spend my time fighting about. She's running on schools.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: She's running against vouchers, which rural conservatives have just seen.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: It's been a disaster for public schools. By the way,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: these anecdotes, the state budget cuts have been irritating many
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: conservative voters on some things that matter a lot to
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: many rural communities. So for instance, there's no more, you know,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: how important high school football is. Well, guess what else
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: is important to high school football? The pageantry. So cheerleaders
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: and band. But now a lot of schools can't afford
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: to send cheerleaders or bands to away games anymore. So
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: there's this, there's gone is the competition, gone is all
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: of that. All, this is what Greg Abbott has done.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: His policies have actually damaged what many conservative Texans loved
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: about the passion of high school football. Hey, you know
• 40:25
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• 42:29
  Speaker 1: This is why this voucher program is just such a disaster.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: Everywhere where Republicans have gone down this road, it's backfired
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: on them everywhere. It backfired in Kansas. It's backfiring in
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: the moment in Iowa. That's what's powering Rob Sand more
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: than anything else, is the disastrous education policies that Reynolds pursued.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: And this is what has gotten rural... Voters in Kansas
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: and Iowa and Texas going, you know, there's a lot
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: of things I like and I'll vote that way nationally
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: and federal races, but I want some investment in public schools.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you don't get a choice in rural America. But look,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: she's running on data centers too and electricity prices and
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: all of those things. And she's running against corporate power,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: which Abbott has been flexing until suddenly he realizes it's
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: a bad look. And she's trying to find issues where
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: a Democratic voter in Austin, a Latino Trump voter in
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: South Texas, and a MAGA mom in a rural school
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: district might actually all agree on. What's interesting here is
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: that I'm impressed that so far, the professional left, if
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: you will, right, the ecosystem of left-wingers that like to
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: pounce on any member of the press or any member
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: of the media that doesn't, you know, that somehow pushes
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: back on the issues they care about. But the Democratic
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: left is giving her room to do it. I don't
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: know if a Democratic candidate for governor in Massachusetts, New York,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: or California could make those pledges. Could they tell Democratic
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: interest groups in those states, I agree with you on
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: a bunch of these issues, but I'm not going to
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: spend my entire campaign relitigating every cultural fight because I
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: need voters who disagree with you on some of them.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I think it would be a lot harder.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: What I'm impressed here is he also seems to understand
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: something pretty basic. Texas hasn't elected a Democrat statewide in
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: more than 30 years. The assignment isn't to assemble the
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: perfect Democratic coalition. The assignment is to find 50% plus
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: one to go win in our race. Go find the fulcrum.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: You know my view on this. Every state has a 50% fulcrum.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: It's on the campaign to figure it out. And and
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: you're not going to win in Texas for governor if
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: you don't have some Trump voters as part of your coalition.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: And to, you know, the permission slip. Right. This TV
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: ad by Linda Avenport to say I was at the
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: January 6th rally. That's a permission slip structure. Right. That
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: is an attempt by saying, hey, look. Voting for Hinojosa
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean you're all of a sudden a Democrat. If
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: you think Abbott has just been in there too long,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: that he's basically captured by donors, which is, I think
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: the most reasonable case against Abbott is he's been there
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: too long, he's gotten too comfortable, and he seems to
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: care more about how big his war chest is than
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: whether he's going to get anything done in Texas. And
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: he seems to pursue ideological goals rather than just simply
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: what's in the best interest of Texas. And that's a classic,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: you know, fatigue. It's actually a classic fatigue campaign when
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: you're running against an entrenched incumbent like that. So we'll see.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know if she can win, but we know
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: this is going to be a very, very close race.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: And I think that it is, you want to know,
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: you want to know if this red undertow has created
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: a blue tsunami. Jeannie Noho says the next governor of
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Texas would be a pretty big clue. Now, what's interesting
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: here is how few national Democrats are coming in to
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: help her. The national party's coming in to help Tallarica.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: And yet, there's been a hesitance to spend some money
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: on behalf of Hinojosa. I get it. Texas is very expensive.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: But I'm really surprised. This brings me to Andy Beshear.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: He's the current chair of the Democratic Governors Association. And
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: I'm just surprised he's been so cautious with his money
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: and with this map. Because look, the gubernatorial map is
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: fundamentally different from the Senate map for Democrats in this cycle.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: Senate Democrats don't have a luxury here. They need four
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: seats to get, they have the net four seats to
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: get control. There's only a certain set of races that
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: are up. And there's a certain realistic path to find
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: their net of four seats. You can sit down with
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: a legal pad and do the math. Here are the
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: Republican seats where those four could plausibly come from. Here
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: are the Democratic seats that they need to protect. In
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: this case, it's Michigan, Georgia, New Hampshire, Minnesota. And then
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: we know the targets they're making. They have sort of
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: an initial target. Five targets, North Carolina, Maine, Alaska, Ohio,
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: now Iowa and Texas are in that first tier. And
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: then you have Kansas, Nebraska, Mississippi, South Carolina in the
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: next tier. But a failure of netting their four seats.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: And I get that you can have this argument that like, well, boy,
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: Kansas is possible, but don't blow it in Maine, right?
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: So there's just going to be some priorities there. And
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: there's a penalty if you make the wrong calculation here.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: That's not what's happening with governors. The DGA doesn't have
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: the problem, this sort of targeting necessity, if you will,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: that the Senate does. There's certainly plenty of important races,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: but the DGA is in much better shape on the
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: defense front than the DSCC is, right? Yes, there's, you know,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: And when you look at these governor's races, you look
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: at them first through the prism of the presidential battleground states.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: And then you look at it through the prism of
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: are there any blue states that are suddenly in trouble,
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: that have major donors in it, right? In this case,
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: the three most important in those cases would be California,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: New York, and Massachusetts. Well, all three of those are
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: going to be fine. So they don't have like a
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: money suck. They don't have the equivalent of a Texas
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: Senate that the Republicans have, right? A place they have
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: to spend money they've never had to spend money before
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: and like, oh, shit, right? Now, they certainly have some
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: reasonably pricey places to make a defense. Georgia and Wisconsin
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: are two of those. Nevada, Las Vegas is never cheap.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: And they have opportunities in Iowa and Ohio that they're
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: taking advantage of. But some of the biggest, like I said,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: they don't have everything. Michigan and Minnesota look like they
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: could be problematic at the start of this calendar year.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: They look a lot more manageable now. Arizona could have
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: been problematic. They don't. The Republicans nominated Andy Biggs, right?
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: Josh Shapiro is going to be fun. They're in a
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: much stronger position in Democratic governors than they are, frankly,
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: with some Democratic senators. So. The DGA, I think, has
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: the luxury to look much further beyond the obvious map
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: than the Democratic Senate campaigns. And rhetorically, the DGA seems
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: to get this. They've started an expand the map fund.
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: And Andy Beshear, a red state Democratic governor who wants
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: to run for president, is perfectly positioned to make that case. Hey,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: look at me. I'm an example of somebody that can
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: pull this off. As he even said, I'm living, breathing
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: proof that Democrats can compete and win everywhere. But the
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: DGA says one thing, but they haven't put their money
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: where that mouth is. Because Texas isn't the only place
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: they have yet to invest in that is incredibly competitive.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: David Jolly is trying to do something similar in Florida,
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: and there's clearly something happening. I'm a skeptic that he
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: can get to 50%, but it's really close. Doug Jones
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: in Alabama, in fact, Jones is running against Tommy Tupperville,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: probably the most There's a lot of unqualified people that
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: have served as the United States Senator. So to claim
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: he's the most unqualified is hyperbole. But he has yet
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: to demonstrate much qualification beyond being over the age of
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: 30 when it comes to being United States Senator. Because
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: Tommy Tuberville went to the floor of the Senate earlier
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: this week and spent much of a nearly 22-minute speech
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: talking about transgender Americans and then, yes, furries. And I
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: know what you're thinking. What? Yeah, that's what I did.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: Tuberville claimed that airline pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: controllers are part of the furry community. He said it
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: was terrifying to think that a pilot flying your airplane
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: might have what he called a deranged fetish of dressing
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: like an animal. If this were happening, I guess he
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: would be right that this would be weird, except he
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: didn't offer any evidence of this. And when a reporter
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: asked him about it, Tuberville insisted there's some sort of
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: furry pilots organization. He says, they have a club, they
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: have an organization. And then he conceded that they're, well,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: they're probably not a whole lot of them. Really? You think? Really?
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: We don't have an epidemic of pilots dressed up as
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: animals flying airplanes? One of his pieces of evidence apparently
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: involved animal noises heard over aviation radio, which are actually,
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: it's a long running joke among pilots. Doug Jones called
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: it one of the strangest speeches he's ever heard, which
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: is probably the perfect response. What else are you supposed
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: to say? You know, my opponent is either drunk or
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: insane or just dumb as a rock. I don't know
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: which it is, but it is weird. Now, am I
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: telling you Doug Jones is going to be the ex-governor
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: of Alabama? No. And I don't know if David Jolly
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: is going to win. And we've discussed this, you know,
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: how hard it is for Gina, you know, so. But
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: if you look at those three candidates, and you're Andy Beshear,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: and you want to run for president in 2028 to
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: try to rebrand the Democratic Party, change the perception of
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: the Democratic Party, can I introduce you to three candidates
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: who are trying to run campaigns a little bit differently,
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: that are trying to run as a different type of Democrat,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: that are trying to demonstrate that this adherence to a
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: cultural left-wing ideology Is is not a good idea. And
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: here are three candidates demonstrating versions of this, showing how
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: you talk to meet voters where they are. Dare I
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: say they're emulating a dude from Kentucky named Andy Beshear. Right.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: They're running as Democrats without asking voters to buy the
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: entire national Democratic left wing brand. I'm trying to figure
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: out why Bashir hasn't jumped into these races more. And
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: in fact, I think he's got a lot more at
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: stake here than simply being the guy who decides where
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: the DGA writes checks. Bashir has made it pretty clear
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: he's got another campaign in him. He did it last
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: week in a joint appearance with Wes Moore. Wes Moore
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: interviewed him about his book. Well, if he wants to
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: be a part of this 2028 conversation, What's his argument
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: going to be, right? Well, presumably it's some version of,
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: I know how Democrats win voters we've been losing. I
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: know how to compete in red America. I know how
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: to talk to people who don't like the Democratic Party,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: but might vote for the right kind of Democrat. Well, governor,
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: you've got three candidates trying to prove your theory right now.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: And so far, nothing. Right? And this is a case
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: where losing can still help you. David Jolly makes Florida
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: genuinely competitive. It actually helps prove your theory. Doug Jones
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: loses by a point or two. That's also useful information.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: Gina Hinojosa even wins Texas. You win Texas, you help
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: put her over the top, you might change the map
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: in 2028. And you certainly will have somebody who may
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: help you with Latino voters. You know how big of
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: a national star a governor, you know, also becomes if
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: she pulls this off? Don't you want her in your,
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, and by the way, if she loses, she's
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: not going to lose by much. She's probably the next
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: big thing in Texas with Tallarico. My assumption is Tallarico
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: wins in most circumstances. I think that's how toast Paxton is.
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: It's my opinion. You know, polls seem to support me
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: on this. That's it. I just, you know, and look,
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: Latino voters, they've been some key Democratic leaders have been
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: publicly pushing Bashir to put some serious money into Texas.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: And they're right to push him. Like I said, if
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: he helps make this happen, it's a game changer for him.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: Texas becomes an important fundraising state for his presidential campaign.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: So of all people controlling a large pot of political
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: money to spend in 2026, Andy Beshear may have the
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: most interesting incentive to expand the map. Because every Enohosa
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: he helps elect, or even comes close, is evidence for
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: his own argument about where the Democratic Party needs to go. Right?
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: He doesn't need another Democrat who can win Massachusetts. He
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: needs some more Democrats that can win in places like
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: Kentucky or Florida or Alabama or Texas. So I'm surprised
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: he's been so slow. Do I think they may come
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: in for one or two of these races? I do. Because, again,
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: they don't have a big money suck. Georgia is arguably
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: the most expensive race they're targeting and one that they
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: can't walk away from. And now they're in, I think,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: a near– I don't know if it's an unwinnable seat
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: for Keystone Lance Bonnet, but– The Republicans have the best
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: possible nominee they could have. Somebody who ran against a
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: Trump candidate, beat a Trump candidate, and is funding his
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: own race. So it is not an easy race. But
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: outside of that, they don't have a really... So it
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: is strange to me that they've been so slow in
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: jumping it. But the opportunity is sitting there. And like
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: I said, The single most important. It's interesting. I think
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: the two, so far, the two best campaigns being run
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: in America are both by women nominees for governor. Jocelyn
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: Benson in Michigan. And Gina Enos in Texas. All right,
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: we're going into the time machine, and I know what
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: you're thinking. Aren't we in a time machine already? As
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: I was just joking with my producer, between the weird
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: cult ads of Love Me and Tommy Tupperville and the
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: Furries Senate floor speech, as he said to me, Veep
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: would have rejected these punchlines. It is. And sometimes you
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: just sit there and you're like, You know, if I
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: tell people what's going on, are they going to believe
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: me when I report this crazy? So, yeah, I think
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: we all wish we could have a time machine. But
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: let's go into the time machine. And this week, we're
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: going to go back to October 2nd, 1919, into a
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: bedroom on the second floor of the White House where
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: something had happened to the president of the United States
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: that the American people were not going to be told about.
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: And look, this time machine, like all my time machines,
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: are not meant to just live in the past. there
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: is a very important current point that I want to
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: make with this episode. But let's go back. So here
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: we are. It's October, 1919. Woodrow Wilson was 62 years old.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: First World War just ended. And he had spent much
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: of the year in Europe negotiating the Treaty of Versailles
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: and trying to create what he believed would be his
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: great legacy, the League of Nations. But Wilson had a
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: big political problem. The United States Senate had to ratify
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: the treaty and opposition was growing, right? We were a
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: super isolationist wing of the Republican Party back then. And
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: rather than leave the fight to Washington, Wilson decides he
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: needs to take his case directly to the people. So
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: this is 1919. There's no Air Force One. There's no
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: television and radios in its infant stages. So taking your
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: case to the country meant whistle-stop tour, folks. Hop on
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: a train. So Wilson embarked on an extraordinary speaking tour,
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: traveling something like 8,000 miles in three weeks, giving speech
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: after speech while his health was clearly deteriorating. He was exhausted.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: He was suffering from headaches. He was having trouble sleeping,
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: but he kept going. On September 25th, he gave a
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: speech in Pueblo, Colorado. That night aboard the train, he collapsed.
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: The next morning, the rest of the tour was canceled
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: and Wilson was rushed back to Washington. Less than a
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: week later, on October 2nd, things got a whole lot worse.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: That morning, Edith Wilson, the first lady, noticed something was
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: wrong with her husband's left hand. Wilson told her he
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: couldn't feel it. He tried to make his way to
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: the bathroom, and he collapsed. His doctor, Kerry Grayson, was summoned,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: and according to the White House usher who was there,
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: Grayson emerged after examining the president and said, my God,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: the president is paralyzed. Woodrow Wilson had suffered a massive stroke.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: His left side was paralyzed. His vision was impaired. And
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: at least initially, he needed help with some of the
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: most basic activities of daily life. The president of the
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: United States was severely incapacitated. But the country was never topless.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: Neither was Congress. Neither was the press. In fact, Most
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: of Wilson's own cabinet did not know the extent of
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: what had happened. Grayson issued a vague public bulletin describing
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: Wilson as a, quote, very sick man. But there was
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: no announcement that the president had suffered a stroke and
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: certainly no description of the paralysis. Instead, the White House
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: essentially closed around Woodrow Wilson. Edith Wilson and Grayson tightly
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: restricted access to him. For weeks, almost no government official
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: saw the president and presidential business increasingly flowed through Edith.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: She determined which documents and questions were important enough to
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: bring to her husband, she claimed, and which ones weren't. Now,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: this is where the story frequently gets turned into a
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: bit of historical trivia with Edith Wilson described as America's
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: first woman president. I think that description is a little
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: much because it makes the whole thing sound almost amusing.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: Edith always insisted she wasn't making presidential decisions. And there's
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: an important distinction here. But years later, when she described
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: this period herself, she did acknowledge that she decided what
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: was important and what was not, which felt like a
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: presidential decision, right? Which matters should be presented to him?
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: So you don't have to be the person making the
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: final decision to have enormous power if you're the person
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: deciding which decisions ever reach the president. And nobody elected
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: Edith Wilson to anything. Inside the administration, the Secretary of State,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: Robert Lansing, recognized the constitutional problem almost immediately. And in fact,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: on October 6th, he raised the question of presidential incapacity.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: The Constitution at the time said that if a president
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: was unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: those powers could pass to the vice president. But the
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: Constitution did not explain how or who got to decide
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: that the president was unable to do the functions. Wilson's
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: doctor wasn't going to declare him incapacitated. His family certainly
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: wasn't going to do it. The vice president, Thomas Marshall,
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: was extremely reluctant to assert presidential authority. He didn't want
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: to look like he was taking advantage of a sick
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: president and didn't want people thinking this was a coup.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: And most of the people who might have challenged any
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: of this couldn't even get into the room to see Wilson.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: That's how America ended up with this remarkable situation. Everybody
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: who actually knew how sick the president was had some
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: reason not to be the person who said publicly that
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: Woodrow Wilson could no longer serve. So as the weeks
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: went by, rumors naturally began to spread around D.C. Was
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: Wilson paralyzed? Could he could even speak? Was he mentally competent?
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: Was he actually making decisions? Who's running the government? So finally,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: with the rumors running rampant on December 5th, two senators
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: were allowed into Wilson's bedroom. Gilbert Hitchcock was a Democrat
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: and a Wilson ally, and Albert Fall was a Republican
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: and a Wilson opponent. Their visit became known around Washington
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: as the smelling committee because essentially they were being sent
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: to determine for themselves just how bad things were. Wilson
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: was positioned in bed in a way that concealed his
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: weakened side. At one point, Fall told the president that
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: he and others had been praying for him Wilson reportedly responded,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: which way, Senator? It's a great line, but politically you
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: get why it mattered, right? Wilson could still land a
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: joke on a Republican opponent, and the senators left persuaded
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: that whatever had happened to him physically, his mind was
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: still functioning. And Woodrow Wilson remained president for another 17 months. Now,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: he never fully recovered while in office, and a few
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: months later, he actually fired the Secretary of State, Robert Lansing,
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: in part because he thought Lansing was convening cabinet meetings
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: during Wilson's incapacitation and thought that was inappropriate. So think
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: about that for a moment. The Secretary of State who
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: had raised the question of whether the president was capable
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: of exercising presidential authority gets fired by that president for
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: conducting government business while the president was unavailable. Well, America
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: got through that moment, but we didn't actually solve the
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: underlying problem. It came up again when Dwight Eisenhower suffered
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: a heart attack in 1955. He later underwent major surgery
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: and suffered a stroke himself. Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: tried to work out their own understanding about what should
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: happen if Ike became incapacitated, but none of it was
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: constitutionally binding. Few years later, when Kennedy was assassinated in 63,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: suddenly that hole in the Constitution became impossible to ignore.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: So when Kennedy died, obviously he died quickly in Dallas.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: But what if he hadn't? What if John Kennedy had
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: survived the shooting but suffered catastrophic brain damage and couldn't
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: tell anyone whether he was capable of serving? Who decides
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: whether Lyndon Johnson becomes the acting president? Well, because of
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: that open question and because, frankly, we had a succession
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: of this, Eisenhower in 55 and Kennedy in 63, Congress
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: finally acted. And in 1967, the states ratified the infamous
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: 25th Amendment, created a process for a president to transfer
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: power voluntarily, which presidents have since done temporarily when undergoing
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: medical procedures, right? But there's section four was designed for
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: the much more difficult situation. in which a president can't
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: or won't acknowledge his own inabilities, right? There's a few
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: things that can be done. One, a lot of us
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: know a lot about. And then there's another procedure that
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: many people don't know about. So the vice president and
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: majority of the cabinet can declare the president unable to
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: perform the duties of the office, making the vice president
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: the acting president. If the president fights that determination, the
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: process becomes considerably more difficult. Ultimately, it takes two-thirds of
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: both houses of Congress to keep the president sidelined. Now
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: in nearly 60 years, Section 4 has never been invoked.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: But there's something else in this, in Section 4, that
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: seems particularly relevant today. The amendment doesn't say the vice
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: president must act with the cabinet. The amendment actually allows
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: Congress to create another body to participate in determining presidential inability.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: Guess what Congress has never done? They've never created that body.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: They can do it right now. Do you think there's
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: a justification to do this? So here we did. We
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: fixed a huge constitutional problem after Woodrow Wilson. But I'm
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: not sure we fixed the entire problem because the 25th
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: Amendment still depends on something that was an incredibly short
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: supply in Wilson's White House. And it's incredibly short supply
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: in Trump's White House. Candor from the people surrounding the president.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: And that brings us to the present, because America has
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: now gone through something we've never experienced before. Two consecutive
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: presidents serving into their late 70s and early 80s. Joe
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: Biden left office at 82. Donald Trump is currently 80.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: With Biden, there were things all of us could observe.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: He moved more slowly. His public schedule and his exposure
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: to the press were increasingly controlled. He used the little
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: steps on Air Force One. There were verbal struggles, questions
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: about his memory and stamina. Again and again, the people
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: closest to Biden assured us, no, no, no, no. President,
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: they saw privately, was different from the president. Americans sometimes
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: saw publicly. We get these little anecdotes that the Wilson
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: administration would leak. I mean, the Biden administration would leak.
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: Then came the debate in June of 2024, and suddenly
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: tens of millions of Americans saw the same thing at
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: the same time. And the question wasn't simply whether Biden
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: should remain the Democratic nominee. It was whether people around
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: him had been candid enough with the country about his condition. Well,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: we're having another version of this and presidential health debate
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: with Donald Trump. He's 80 years old. We're all observing
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: the bruising on his hands, the swelling in his legs.
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: There have been public appearances where he's appeared tired or drowsy,
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: speeches that meander into long digressions or include moments of
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: verbal confusion. Any of us with an elderly grandparent, it's
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: quite familiar, right? Social media posts that have caused critics
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: to question his basic judgment. The filter, whatever filter was there,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: he never had much of it, but any little of
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: it's gone now. And recently, there have been photographs, including
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: photographs distributed by people around Trump themselves, showing what appears
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: to be noticeable boxy bulges beneath his suit jacket and
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: suit pants. What does that mean? Hey, guess what? We
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: don't know. And that's a problem. Maybe it's nothing. But
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: there's something up. He's 80 years old. What's being covered up?
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: Does he have a medical condition that they're worried shows
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: a symptom at the wrong time in front of the
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: wrong people in front of the wrong cameras? But this
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: is why I'm incredibly uncomfortable with where we've ended up
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: as a country. Because in the absence of reliable, independent information,
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: people will begin filling in the blanks themselves. Suddenly the
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: internet is diagnosing photographs, inventing explanations, turning every physical change
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: into evidence for one theory or another. And some of
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: them might be correct and some of them might be hogwash.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: But it's not a healthy way to determine whether the
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: president of the United States is competent enough to serve.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: And there's plenty of questions. There are facts on the
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: other side that matter. Trump's physician claims he's in excellent
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: health and that his cognitive screening has produced normal results. Okay.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: Whitehouse says the swelling in his legs is just chronic
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: venous insufficiency and says the bruising on his hands comes
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: from frequent handshaking combined with his use of aspirin. Okay.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: His most recent physical listed his weight at 238, 14
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: pounds heavier than the year before. That's a lot of
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: weight to gain in one year. Now, I happen to
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: think they've been lying about his weight, to be frank.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: That's my opinion because he'd put out weights before that
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: made no sense. So maybe this was the first time
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: we actually got his real weight. But the point is,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: there's been no similar explanation for the appearance of the
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: bulge under his suits. Maybe there's a mundane explanation for it.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's security. Maybe it's a vest. But some of
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: the places where he has these bulges are not where
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: bulletproof vests would be. I'm not qualified to tell you
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: what any of this means medically. And I don't want
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: political reporters pretending they are doctors. But I also think
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: we learned something important from the Biden experience. Saying the
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: public can't diagnose what it sees cannot become an excuse
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: for telling the public to disregard what it sees. Because
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: if our only alternative is to trust whatever the White
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: House tells us about the president's health, then we haven't
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: progressed very far from Woodrow Wilson, as we'd like to think.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: And there's another reason this matters right now. Independent access
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: to the president is becoming another contested political issue. Just
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: look at what happened this past week, the Trump White House. Again,
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: this is because Trump needs his blankie. He banned CNN, MSNOW,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: Politico from the White House grounds. Obviously, it was a
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: First Amendment absurdity. They won. Eventually, the news organizations got
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: back in. Now, the White House is still making it
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: very difficult for these three news organizations to to cover
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: the Chinese Communist Party visit. I mean, it's just astonishing
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: to me that this White House cares more about the
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: Chinese Communist Party than it does about our own First Amendment,
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: but I digress. On Friday, regular television pool coverage finally
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: resumed and CNN itself was part of the pool covering
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: Trump and Xi at the National Archives. But then the
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: White House excluded CNN from its pool duty in Tennessee.
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: So look, it's not clear. This White House clearly wants
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: to hide stuff from journalists, hard stop. And it means
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: independent observation becomes even harder to come by. And this
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: gets to what I think is the unfinished lesson of
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: the Woodrow Wilson years. The 25th Amendment assumes that if
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: a president becomes incapable of serving, that the people around
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: him will eventually say so. Well, guess what? We can't
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: assume that. How many different presidencies do we see that
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: the people closest to the power are afraid of losing
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: their own access and they become delusional? Happened around Biden,
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: happened around Wilson, and we know it's happening around Trump.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: And we know presidents fear looking weak, so they want
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: everything presented in such a way. And families are going
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: to protect their family members. But my goodness. If the
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: president himself insists he's fine, well, Section 4 of the
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: 25th Amendment requires people appointed by that president to effectively
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: turn against him. And if he contests their decision, you're
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: potentially headed toward a vote requiring two thirds of both
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: the House and the Senate. That's a high stakes mechanism
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: to build on the assumption that everybody involved is going
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: to be candid when the moment arrives. I think it's
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: time to take some of this responsibility away from the
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: people who have the biggest political interest in the answer.
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: Congress already has the constitutional authority to create an independent
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: body under the 25th Amendment to help determine presidential incapacity.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: They can do it right now, but as with everything,
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: this Congress does shit. They don't know any of their powers,
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: and they refuse to execute the powers that the Constitution
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: has handed them. This is yet another example of it.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: After nearly 60 years of leaving that provision unused, maybe
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: we ought to use it since we now have two
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: presidents in a row who basically are lying or lied
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: about their health. Section 4 was designed for the crisis
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: after presidential incapacity has become serious enough that people inside
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: the government are willing to act. But it doesn't solve
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: the problem of how the public gets reliable information before
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: we reach that point. Why shouldn't every president undergo regular
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: independent health examinations with a standardized set of results released
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: to the public? Obviously, the hardest question is who gets
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: to choose the independent examiners. You'd need a structure neither
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: party could control. Perhaps a small medical panel appointed on
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: a bipartisan basis with fixed terms, rules established before anybody
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: knows which president they're going to examine. I'm sure there
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: are better ways to design it, but that's a simple,
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: quickie way. Leaving the president essentially responsible for choosing the
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: doctor who tells the public whether the president is healthy,
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: that's not much of a check. And look, I'm not
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: saying Americans are entitled to every detail of a president's
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: medical history, but they're entitled to more than the average person.
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: Their physical and cognitive capacity to perform the presidency is different.
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: And I'm increasingly skeptical that we should leave disclosure of
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: that information entirely as a voluntary thing. And I think
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: this ultimately may belong in the Constitution. Think about presidential
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: tax returns. For decades, we treated their release as a
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: norm because we believe voters would know whether a president
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: had financial conflicts of interest. And then Donald Trump just
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: declined to follow the norm, and now nobody releases tax returns.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: That's a weakness of a norm. It works until somebody
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: decides it doesn't apply to them. And after we've experienced
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: two elderly presidents, I'm beginning to wonder whether presidential health
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: disclosure is too important to work that way. If we
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: believe Americans have a right to independent information about whether
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: the person exercising these enormous powers on our behalf are
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: physically and cognitively capable of doing the job, then we
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: need to make that information a requirement rather than a request.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: Which means it probably needs to be constitutional. Look, we
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: figured out after Wilson and after Eisenhower and after Kennedy
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: that we needed some provision in the Constitution. But it's not.
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: But the 25th Amendment is incomplete, as I've pointed out.
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: How are the rest of us supposed to know? We've
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: got some work to do. And we know trust is
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: in short supply. And we know transparency is no longer voluntary.
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: So if we don't trust and we don't volunteer to
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: do these things, then maybe it's time to get constitutional.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: That's your Time Machine for the week. All right, let's
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: do a little Ask Chuck. This one comes from B. Ray.
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: And B. Ray writes, piggybacking off some recent Ask Chuck
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: questions about how Democrats should govern if they win a majority.
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: Could they use Trump's ego and interest in his legacy
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: as a negotiating tool? Could Democrats potentially secure his signature
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: on legislation by offering relatively harmless concessions like naming a building, airport, statue,
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: or other project after him? It seems like an unconventional
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: but potentially useful bargaining chip. What do you think? You know,
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: I joked with somebody recently, B. Ray. I said, you know,
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: if I were an advocate for D.C. statehood, I would
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: go to him and say– you've heard of, you remember
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: how we got the state of Washington, right? We decided
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: that there should be at least one state named after him,
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: the district of Trump, Trump, you know, now do I,
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: do I, the question is how bad do you want
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: DC statehood? So it was a little tongue in cheek
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: when I offered that, but I'm so glad you asked
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: this question because I do think there are opportunities like this.
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: And I think that, You know, look, we know Trump
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: cares about himself more over and above everything else. He
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: has no ideology or anything like that. We've seen him,
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: how excited he gets around Mamdani, how excited he gets
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: around anybody who's got a following that's greater than his.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: He's always trying to sort of draft off of it.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: If Democrats have both the House and the Senate, I
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: think the question is whether the base of the party
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: can stomach it. And I don't know, right? Um, there's
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: a lot of people offended by what he's done with
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: the Kennedy center. A lot of people offended, you know, I'm,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: I'm among them. I think it's disgusting what he's done
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: with the art center. I just find the whole thing
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: just creepy. It's just weird. Um, but I, you know,
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: there are, I, there, he wouldn't be the first president
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: whose ego was used to secure legislation. And I think
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: that with this president, it's more possible. The question is,
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: is it, you know, how much can they stomach it?
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: Is it worth it? But like I said, I mean,
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: I do think the best way to get him to
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: champion D.C. statehood is if the state was named after him.
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: And to me, that would be my test, B-Ray. Can
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: you stomach that? And then that will tell you whether
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: your strategy is workable. PP comes in with a question,
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: fan of the pod with a quick question. Am I
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: crazy or could bringing back pork barrel legislation actually help
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: foster more bipartisanship in Congress? Could giving members more tangible
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: incentives to work together make compromise a little easier? The
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: answer is yes, that is one way, right? You know,
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: it's just like taking the power of political parties, choosing candidates,
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: took power away from political parties, from vetting candidates, right?
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: Here's what I would say. And I think to modify...
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: quote unquote, pork barrel legislation, I think members of Congress
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: ought to be identify themselves more with the work that
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: they're doing and it should be mandated. And that can
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: be good politics or it could be bad politics, right?
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: But by putting their name on the legislation, by putting
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: their name on the provisions does mean they have more
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: skin in the game. And if you're playing to people's egos,
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: more skin in the game matter. So look, whether it's,
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: I don't think you're crazy. I think there is something
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: to it, but I think it, You know, right now
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: it's just associated with, you know, earmarks or special provisions
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: for your district. But I think it should be in
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: some form, it should be all the time, which provisions
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: are yours should always be identified. And again, you know,
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: in fact, you shouldn't be able to put an anonymous
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: provision in because sometimes people put in provisions for a
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: donor and they don't want you to know it's a donor.
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: So I actually think you could create that if you
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: make this all the time, then you actually create more
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: accountability for misuse of funds, for bad appropriation ideas, right?
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: If it was your idea to appropriate a catamaran from
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: the University of Maine for testing for a naval contract
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: that never got through, well, then your name is on
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: that provision. So in fact, I would, so that's sort
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: of how I view your, A, I think it would,
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: and B, I actually think you could turn it into accountability.
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: And it becomes win, win, win. Just another day, Pete,
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: when you and I are trying to fix Congress. Nice work.
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: All right, Michael T. in Chicago writes, hey, I appreciate
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: you keeping us updated on the Missouri redistricting mess. If
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: Missouri ends up using different district boundaries for the primary
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: and general election, what happens if a voter challenges the
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: November 3rd results and could ultimately throw them out? Could
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: that create chaos as the new Congress is taking office?
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: And what, if anything, would prevent Republicans in Congress from
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: changing the law in December to try to resolve the
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: dispute themselves? Keep up the great podcasting. You make my
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: comments considerably more entertaining. My commute, excuse me, considerably more entertaining.
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you saying this is entertaining. Sometimes I worry
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: that I'm like making it depressed or whatever. I'm glad
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: to hear that. Look, I think this whole thing, I
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: think there's only one resolution that's constitutional here. And the
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: only resolution is special elections. And I think it's already
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: too late to do what they probably should have done,
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: which is all party primaries on this November ballot. And
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: if nobody got 50 in these congressional districts, you'd ever.
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: So what we did in Texas in 96. So this
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: new delay, which they, you know, for whatever, how many
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: times does the Supreme Court have to say no, right,
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: for these Missouri Republicans to stop this? If potential control
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: of Congress is super close, this could be super problematic.
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: This could end up being extraordinary problematic. If it's a blowout,
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: it won't be. And instead, I could see the entire
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: delegation not being sat. I could see, you know, And
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: a force where the government says you force special elections
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: and maybe they happen in December and maybe you can
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: get them done before January 3rd. Maybe they end up after.
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: But there's no part of this the way this is
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: running right now. There's no part of this. If they
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: use if they use the old primaries to determine nominees
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: in different districts, none of this is a legal election.
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: It will get thrown out. Just how you just described
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: it with a voter lawsuit, whatever it is, it is
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: it is it is a Equal protection argument. I mean,
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: it is just it's it's cut and dry. And the
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: remedy is pretty simple because we have we have precedent
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: of the remedy. It's new election. And so it's obvious
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: what the remedy is. And there's a whole bunch of
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: Missouri Republicans in denial about it. Is there a small possibility, right?
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: The most vulnerable part, as you've hopefully learned by listening
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: to this podcast quite a bit, when we've had a
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: couple of guests talking about it, is going to be
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: this period in between November 3rd and January 3rd. And yes,
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: will they be seated? And there could be challenges to them. Again,
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: if we're looking at either 6-2 split in Missouri's eight
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: congressional districts or 7-1 split, you know, that margin has
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: to matter. That net of five or six seats for
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: the Republicans, is it the difference between control and not control?
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: Then we've got a constitutional crisis on our hands. So yeah,
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: I'm absolutely, it's sort of, it's like a political landmine.
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: And you, at least we know this one exists. And
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: you're like, oh man, I really hope we don't end
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: up stepping on that landmine. It's sitting out there. It's
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: only a landmine that could blow up on us if
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: the margins are super narrow, right? And this is a
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: blue mirage election. But it sits there and blue mirage
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: is in the, you know, 15%. That's a one in eight,
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: one in seven chance, right? It's probably more likely, a
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: blue mirage is more likely than Oklahoma State beating Oregon
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: this year. So it is... I think your concerns are
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: valid in this one about what Republicans in Congress could
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: do if they chose to and if the margins matter.
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: But it all goes to what if the margins are relevant. But, yeah,
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: this continues to be a mess. And I just I'm
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: just I'm just offended. by this Secretary of State in Missouri,
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: who your job is to run free and fair elections,
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: and you've gone out of your way not to do it.
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: You've gone out of your way to flout voters. I mean,
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: this guy is on a level of incompetency that, frankly,
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen in any other statewide elected official, Secretary
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: of State, at least on this front. I mean, just
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: astonishing at how damaging he's done and the damage he's done.
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: It's one of those where I wish it were criminal, right?
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: When you intentionally screw up our democracy like this to
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: make something less democratic, right? That's traitors to me. Matthew S. Springfield,
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: Oregon chimes in. Ooh, Springfield, Oregon. The leading suspect of
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: being the Springfield of the Simpsons. Longtime fan, and if
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: you read this, officially a two-timer on my way to
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: the coveted five-timers club. You often point out when something
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: outrageous may actually be a feature, not a bug. So
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: with Xi Jinping's visit looming, which just happened, so it's
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: a little older question. Do you think Trump's decision to
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: ban major media outlets could have been intentionally timed to
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: limit coverage during the visit? Or am I being overly suspicious? Also,
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: your college football segment needs a theme song. Have you
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: considered getting a marching band to record one? Man, that's
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: a great idea. What I need is my friends. I
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: need the littles. I need to borrow the littles from
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: the TK show. To, first of all, I need a theme, right?
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: I need some sort of, maybe I just should just
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: do the University of Miami fight song. It would offend
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: everybody but my University of Miami friends, right? Offend my
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: own son, too. I don't know if I want to
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: offend my wife. Anyway, but I love this idea. I
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: need my own Gary, man. Gary's listening. You got to...
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: You got a theme music for this? Anyway, good stuff
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: in there. I got to answer your question, right? No,
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's that. Donald Trump doesn't want limited media.
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: I think the whole, you know, so many of Trump's
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: declarations are just him watching TV and getting angry in
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: a moment. And he's just in a cranky mood because
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: everything is falling apart around him. Probably his health isn't good.
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: You throw all the, everything. He's just mad about everything.
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: He saw some segment about CNN. And he was already
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: mad about Politico. And he misses– he wishes MSNBC still
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: existed because he loved trying to attack both NBC and MSNBC.
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: And he misses that punching bag. So I think it's
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: all of the above on this. But I don't think
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: it was about preventing. You're right. I think that one
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: is a stumble into that. But I don't know. I think–
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: I think– Look at all the ways that the White
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: House went out of their way to brag about how
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: he wanted to humiliate former presidents in front of the
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. That, my friends, was
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: a pretty un-American behavior that he showed on that one.
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: And maybe people didn't see it as much as they should.
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: All right. Jay chimes in with the last question for
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: the day. Greetings again from California 24. What role do
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: you expect Barack Obama to play as the midterms come
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: to a head? Actively stumping for candidates or mostly sticking
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: to a few speeches and events? And how might that
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: day change after November given the DNC's donor and organizational challenges?
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: Was there a larger role it could have played in
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: strengthening the party's national brand? P.S. Writing this after the
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: dreadful Cal performance against Clemson, Cal and Stanford certainly aren't
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: making the best case for themselves in the next round
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: of realignment. Thanks, Jay. No, they may end up back
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: in the reimagined Pac-12, right? Maybe they can dominate the
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: reimagined Pac-12. I'm bummed about Cal. I thought Cal was
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: going to have a bigger, bigger year. I may have
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: put my money where my mouth was on that one
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: with Clemson. But I'll have my college football thoughts here
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: in a minute or two after this question. Look, you know,
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: Obama's involvement is such a double-edged sword, right? The party
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: needs to have a new generation of leaders. And yet Obama,
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: like Bill Clinton before him for a period of time, right,
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: he is the living avatar of the last time Democrats
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: had Mojo. As for the role he plays, I think
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: the best place, the best, you know, the places he
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: helps the most, I think he would help Keisha Lance
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: Bottoms a ton in Georgia. I would, you know, it's funny. It's,
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: it's look, he can help with turnout among African-Americans in particular.
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: I think the question is, are there some independents that
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: he could, he could go with? It's interesting to me
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: that there's only one national Democrat, Tyler Rico's agreed to
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: appear with in public and it's been Obama. But, you know,
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: I think he's, I think he helps most with donors and,
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: you know, with sort of, you know, maybe, maybe there's
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: a handful of ads. Maybe there's some, but, you know, even,
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: I think even he's hesitant about being too much of
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: the face of the party. And I don't think anybody,
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: you know, it definitely feels as if, you know, it's
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: one of those things, if he were more involved, everybody like,
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: why are you so involved? Right. Your time is over.
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: And then there's people, oh, he's not involved enough. I've
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: been critical of, I think, how he managed the party
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: when he was in charge of it. But I think
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: there's only so much you can expect out of it
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: as a former president on that score. I think the
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: things that people want George W. Bush to do and
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: the Republican Party or Barack Obama to do, I think
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: there just is more limitations. And if they got more involved,
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: it would probably backfire more than it would help. on
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: that but I do think he is he is more
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: of a pick your spots cherry pick them right don't
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: necessarily I wouldn't saturate that's for sure I wouldn't all
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: right let me give you a few minutes what a
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: great college football Saturday But I do want to start
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: with a debacle on the NFL, and that is my
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: beloved Green Bay Packers. I think what we see– there's
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of talk. Is this Jordan Love? Is this
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: Matt LaFleur? Is this Gutenkust? And I never say the
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: GM's name right. I'll admit that. I think it's pretty
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: clear it's a front office issue. There was a decision
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: made on essentially– creating an offensive line based on band-aids. Yes,
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: there's been a couple injuries, but the offensive line has
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: not been prioritized very well in draft, hasn't been prioritized
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: in free agency, hasn't been prioritized in trades. It's clear
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: this is affecting Love. He's going to get hurt this year.
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: I'm absolutely concerned about this, but this is a debacle.
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: There's a strong case to fire LaFleur now. I'm not convinced, though,
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: that LaFleur... If the way the Packer organization works with
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: no owner, this is basically a joint decision. And usually
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: the way it's been, the president of the club, in
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: this case, it's Ed Policy, son of former 49ers executive
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: Carmen Policy. It's essentially the way, usually the GM has
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: sort of this kind of unilateral control over the coach. Well,
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: the GM might be equally, if not more to blame
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: for the current Packers roster construction than LeFleur. So it's
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: funny about LeFleur. He does seem to be a more
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: innovative play caller when Malik Willis is quarterback than when.
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: Like he has figured out how to paper over problems
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: when he had to with Malik Willis. He's got massive
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: problems in the running game and he can't figure out
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: how to create an effective offense this way. Um, there's
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: been a running joke that he's going to be the
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: next offensive coordinator for the dolphins working for his old
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: defensive coordinator down there. He's now head coach, Joe, uh,
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: Joel Halfley. And then he'll somehow turn Malik Willis into
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: a Pro Bowl quarterback. But, um, The Packers have had
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: both an extraordinary 35-year run with three quarterbacks, franchise quarterbacks,
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: and five head coaches. More head coaches than franchise quarterbacks.
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: But this has really been an underwhelming results performance. Aaron
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: Rodgers only won the big game once. Only won and
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: couldn't even get there a second time. Was... I used
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: to make the excuses for why we lost all these
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: NFC title games with him. But we were getting the
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: NFC title games with him. We're not even getting the
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: NFC title games with him. So to say Packers fans
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: are frustrated is an understatement. Some want to lash out
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: at LaFleur. Some are saying, well, maybe Jordan Love isn't
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: as good as Aaron Rodgers. Maybe he isn't, but he's
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: good enough. He's not the problem. I'm not sure LaFleur
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: is an asset or a liability yet. but I do
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: know this roster construction is a disaster. And ultimately that's
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: the problem. And I fear wholesale changes need to be made.
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: And what's frustrating is that I think they think it's
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: just a dabble here and a dabble there. So anyway,
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: all right, quick college football reactions. The three, so the
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: team with the best resume is the team nobody thinks
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: is the best team in the country. And that's our
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: friends in Austin, right? Right. There's something it's so funny.
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: And I count myself among the skeptics. Now, I think
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: the Arch Manning problem is not an Arch Manning problem.
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: I think it's an offensive coaching problem. I think it's
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: a Sark problem. I, you know, I'm I look at
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: what my man Shannon Dawson has done with three quarterbacks
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: in Miami in three years, three different types of quarterbacks,
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: three different skill sets. And he designs an offense where
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: all three can succeed in different ways using essentially a
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: similar playbook. In fact, his playbook may be so easy
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: to use that it didn't get Cam Ward prepared for
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: the NFL, but I'll set that aside. My point is,
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: I think Arch Manning would be more successful in the
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: University of Miami offense than he is in the Sark offense.
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: I think Arch Manning would be more successful in Lane
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: Kiffin offense than he would be in a Sark offense.
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: I think it's, I think these are, but then again,
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: a Texas defense is amazing. It is definitely national championship caliber.
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, what they did to that, you know, that rookie,
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: that freshman quarterback looked, this looked like he couldn't, he
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: didn't have a second to think. So they have a
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: championship defense. I don't know if they have a good
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: enough offense, but you can't, they have wins over Ohio
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: State and Tennessee. So their resume looks terrific. Yet the
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: three best consistent teams to me so far are Georgia,
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame, and Miami. And in fact, both Miami and
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame. And yes, I know I'm a homer. But,
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: you know, suddenly victories earlier this year over power for
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: teams that they both got. Right. Notre Dame beat Wisconsin
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: in Lambeau. Miami beat Wake Forest double digits in Wake.
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: And both both teams were both in control of those games,
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: but certainly had a fight on their hands. And at
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: the time, the question was, huh? Should they have beaten
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: those teams by more or not? Then Wisconsin turns around
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: and beats Penn State in Penn State this week. Wake
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: turns around, goes to Louisville, beats a team that probably
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: should have beaten Ole Miss and did beat SMU, ranked team.
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: And suddenly you realize, oh, Miami and Notre Dame are
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: just a little more solid. Then you see what Georgia
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: did to Oklahoma versus what everybody else has done with Oklahoma.
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: And you see why I think those three teams are
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: just a little bit ahead of everybody else. By the way,
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: I'm not putting Indiana in there. I assume you guys
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: saw the game I saw against Northwestern. Indiana may be
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: a very good team, but I don't think they're what
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: they were last year yet, and they got a long
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: way to go to get there. Wow, did they make
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: a lot more flags than we had gotten used to
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: in a Cignetti coach team, including the very first game
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: of the play. By the way, speaking of soccer, the
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: Colin Simmons incident. This is the defensive. Look, the guy
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: had an incredible game. And I understand why Sark didn't
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: want to take him out of the game. But he's
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: the one that did the just obscene gesture of him
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: peeing on the field in Tennessee. And it was just,
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: you were just like, is he doing what I think
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: he's doing? Like, you're just like, you couldn't believe it.
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: In the NFL, he'd probably suspended a game and definitely fine.
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: These guys make money now. There needs to be one
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: of two answers here. I heard, you know, after the game,
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: you know, and everybody, he said he was sorry and
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: he got away from himself, as he should have. But
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: that doesn't mean he shouldn't pay a price. All right,
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: just because we're paying them doesn't mean we don't expect
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: certain types of behavior. So find them. Find them a
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: significant amount of money. He should not play in the
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: next game. There should be consequences for embarrassing the university
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: on national television. There should be consequences for being a terrorist.
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: role model on national television in front of the president
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: of the United States. I know. I think you don't
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: behave this way in front of anybody, let alone even
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: this president of the United States. I just think that
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: the consequences need to be ratcheted up here. And if
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: they're getting paid, we need to have fines. There should
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: be real suspensions. Like there should be a real disciplinary
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: board that isn't university based where, but we really need
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: them on the football field. I mean, we got to have,
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: if we're always making an excuse, oh, well, he got
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: in his head. If people don't think they're– look, the
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: football karma, right, that penalty happens, Tennessee flips the game.
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: And it may have flipped the game. So maybe that's
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: the lesson he'll take away from this. There should be
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: more consequences than just I chewed him out, he said
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: he was sorry, and we're going to move on. Can
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: we be a little bit better than that? I'm not
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: trying to be a hot take here. And I don't
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: want to, I'm not trying to come across like some naive,
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: you know, we let folks celebrate. We let everybody be
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: human behavior. That was a planned thing. And that crossed
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: a lot. And that was on the most, probably was
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: the most watched game of the weekend. If that happened,
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: if anybody's son did that, Would you be proud of
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: him or would you be embarrassed? And perhaps that's what–
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: I know if my own kid did this, he's off
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: the team that week. If the coach wouldn't punish him,
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: I would have as a parent. So, again, I'm not
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: trying to sound like a school mom. I think– but
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: come on. We can draw a line somewhere, can't we? Somewhere?
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: All right. Sorry, I needed to make that one digression there.
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: A few other things from the weekend. What else did
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: we learn? Man, I'm going to hate to admit this,
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: but those Florida Gators look really good. I'm not sure
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: they have the quarterback to win the whole damn thing,
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: but they have the talent to be in the playoffs.
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: let's just hope, and I'm not looking forward to having
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: to play a first round game against Florida. If Miami
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: has to play Florida or a second round game in there,
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: cause that will be, the stakes will be pretty high
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: for supremacy, but boy, that those skill position players, that
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: running game. I mean, I think we saw Ole Miss
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: still doesn't have the best defense, right? That's the same
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: Ole Miss defense that, that Miami was able to exploit with, with,
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: with the quarterback that folks undersold at the time in
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: Carson back. Um, So it is hard for me to
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: admit how good Florida looked, but boy, did they look good. Boy,
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: did they look good. And you start to look at
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: this SEC and you realize, huh, A & M, not
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: so good. LSU's probably there. I think Ole Miss gets
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: a pass. That was a tough spot for them week
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: after having to go into the swamp, week after the
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: most important game in 10 years. By the way, I
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: was quite impressed with Mississippi State. Missouri came back. They're
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: an interesting team. I can't wait to see them play
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: one of the elite in the SEC. We'll see how
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: that goes, especially when one happens in Stark Vegas. So
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: that should be interesting. Miami's got Clemson. This is Clemson
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: week for Miami this week at Clemson. A game that
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: I had planned on attending, but some work things got
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: in the way because, hey, that's okay. I'll certainly be
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: watching that game, but I couldn't quite get the logistics
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: to work out so that I could get there in time, um,
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: to go rub, rub the rock or whatever it is there. But, um, uh,
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: you know, I, I hope there's one thing I hope
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: Miami remembers and I'll bring this up before the, one
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: of the more humiliating losses at home for Miami. Uh,
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: I think it was, I think it was losing to
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: them by some 60 points. And then, and then we
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: fired out golden, I think that night, um, Dabo went
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: out of his way to humiliate the university of Miami.
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: I hope Mario Cristobal has that deep in the back
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: of his head. When we're playing at Clemson this coming week,
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: I want to see our guys look ferocious. I want
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: to see Dabo crying uncle for all of the ways he,
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: you know, he tried to Lord over other programs and
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: humiliate other programs. Hey, he had the, he had the
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: players when he had them and he pulled it off. Um,
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: But it's time for a little payback. All right. With that,
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: I will see you tomorrow when it comes to Super
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: Tuesday with my pal Chris Eliza. With that, thanks as
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: always for listening. Thanks for liking and subscribing. And thanks
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: for spreading the word. Man, our growth has been amazing.
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: And it's, you know, word of mouth is the single
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: best way we can convince people to come on in
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: for politics for the rest of us. We'll see you soon.