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“Monsters on the Hill.” · Pod Save America

• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: On today's show, Mike Pence joins the Classified Hoarders Club.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: The MAGA House grabs the third rail of American politics.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump is on top of the polls and back
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: on Facebook. Congressman Ruben Gallego stops by to talk about
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: his run for Arizona Senate. And later, we test our
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: knowledge of Trump's posting habits with a new game called
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Truth or False. Fantastic.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: How do we pass up on just two truths and
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: a lie?
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Two truths. Oh, we have two truths and a fake.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: We have two takes in a fake, two truths.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Two takes in a fake, that's what it's called.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: We have two takes in a fake, we have two
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: truths in a lie. Either way, it doesn't matter.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Look, it's a narrow band that we're ideating around.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Good use of ideating.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: As the tech bros say.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: TLDR, it's the same game.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Anyway, grab some crooked coffee to start your day right. See,
• 1:22
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• 1:27
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• 1:31
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• 1:36
  Speaker 1: America's Every Last Vote Fund. Dunkin' does not. You can't
• 1:39
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• 1:42
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• 1:43
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• 1:46
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• 1:49
  Speaker 1: and is delicious. All you have to do is head
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: over to cricket.com slash coffee to give it a try today.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Do you think that's the endorsement that the marketing team wanted?
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I think that it's very likely that Elijah's going to
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: spend this afternoon trying to black out the giant cup
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: of Dunkin' Coffee you've recorded that promo with.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Pry it from my cold, dead hand. All right, let's
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: get to the news. Former Vice President Mike Pence of
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Hang Mike Pence fame finally might be headed to the
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: gallows after the FBI picked up a few classified documents
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: from his home, which is apparently where you stash all
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the state secrets that all the cool presidents and vice
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: presidents are treating like White House souvenirs these days. Everyone's
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: doing it. Pence initially said during an interview that he
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: didn't take any classified documents, but after the interview, he
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: got a lawyer to look around just in case, and
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: sure enough, there they were. Like Biden and unlike Trump,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Pence notified the authorities immediately and has promised full cooperation.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Though the whole situation has put his right-wing pals in
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: a tricky spot, here's esteemed journalist Jesse Waters reacting to
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: the news.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: I mean, Pence, seriously. We have this great thing.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Going with Joe. Yeah, and he just ruined it. Come on, man.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Well, what are we going to do? And then he
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: confessed to it.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, he could have just destroyed it. We never
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: would have known.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: And we have to be fair and balanced and show
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: both sides.
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: I know.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Now we have to show both sides.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Honestly. Elijah says that that is one of the best. No,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Elijah says the five is one of the best.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: That is the five.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: That's the five.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: That's the five.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I thought Jesse Watershow was different than the five.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Well, John.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: The five is Greg Gutfield.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Let me explain to you how this works.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: We're off on a tangent already.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: There is the Iron Man movie, the Thor movie. Then
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: they all get together for the Avengers. That is the five.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Gutfeld has his own show. Jesse Waters has his own show.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: But it's all The Five.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Then they all come together for The Five.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: It's all part of the Fox cinematic universe.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Yes, and The Five has now beats Tucker Carlson on
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: a regular basis and is the most watched non-sports show
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: on cable television.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Well, I brought that up because, you know, A... Points
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: for honesty. B, that's thoroughly entertaining. Thoroughly entertaining. You know,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: they're just admitting it, which I think is great. All right.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: What the hell is going on here, Dan? Why does
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: everyone have classified documents? By the way, right before we
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: started recording, there was breaking news.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: Oh, no.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: The National Archives has now formally sent a letter to
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: all the living presidents and vice presidents saying, hey, could
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: you recheck... Everything, could you recheck your homes for any
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: classified documents or any other presidential records you may not
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: have returned. So now they all get a letter from
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the National Archives.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: It's like nine people. Send a group text.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like Dan Quayle woke up and got a letter
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: this morning. That's probably the first time anyone remembered Dan
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Quayle was around. Is Dan Quayle around? Yeah, I think so.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: I was doing a quick mental check. It's like he
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: was trending on Twitter recently. Does that, did he do
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: something dumb or is, is it a Murphy Brown anniversary
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: or is he dead? I think he's alive.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: You know, apparently representatives for the, for the living presidents
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: now have all already told CNN that they have returned
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: all classified documents. I mean, of course that's what they say.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Who knows?
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, Their reasons make sense. Obama's, he's incredibly responsible
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: and assiduous. George W. Bush, he doesn't read. There are
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: all kinds of reasons.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: I know you asked a question in there somewhere, and
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: I think it was, what's going on?
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Like, what the hell's going on here? Why does everyone
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: keep taking classified documents?
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: The only reason I can come up with is our
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: government is run by a secret cabal of document hoarders.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: That's the only thing. I have no idea what is happening.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, I do think probably we're going to find
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: out at some point down the road that over classification
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: is a problem, which people have been saying for a
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: long time. And perhaps some of these documents are not
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: super top secret and do not contain the nuclear secrets,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: which trumps may. But as we learned with the great
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Hillary email fiasco, the original classified document hoarder of 2016,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: as we learned from that, that like, you know, some
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: of her emails that were marked classified were like a
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: newspaper article that the government decided to mark secret for
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: some stupid reason.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's, it's really, I guess everyone over learned
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: the lessons of Hillary's problem, which is she puts her
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: classified documents on a private server, gets in trouble. So
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: they go, no, we're going to, we're going to keep
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: hard copies.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: And then they get, we're going to print them out
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: and put them in our fucking garage.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: She didn't just for the record, she did not keep
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: classified documents on her personal server.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Just want to stipulate that. Yeah, that's because she used
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: the bleach bit and the hammer to destroy it. Sorry.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: All right, so Donald Trump had a surprising reaction to
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the news, flip-flopping from his position that his former vice
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: president deserves to be hung to his new position that, quote,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Mike Pence is an innocent man. He never did anything
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: knowingly dishonest in his life. Leave him alone. Donald Trump
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: goes with the leave Britney alone defense. What do you
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: think that was all about?
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Not a clue. Honestly, not a clue. Maybe I think
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: he reflexively defends fellow criminals. This is probably the first
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: time he's ever felt a connection of any sort with
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Mike Pence. And it is like pretty funny that he
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: hears Mike Pence may have committed a crime. So he
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: rushes to his defense, but he endorses his hanging for
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: refusing to commit a crime on January 6th.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, that's very on brand. I mean, I was
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: going to say my guess is like the conspiracy that
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the deep state is after Trump and his MAGA crew
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: is more valuable to him right now than picking a
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: fight with Pence, who he sees as weak and not
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: particularly a threat in the next election. Really? If calling
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: for Mike Pence's hanging was more valuable to Trump, he
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: would do that. That's sort of my guess. And has.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: And has. And has, yeah. And may again. Do you
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: think the Pence revelation changes the politics of this issue
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: for either Biden or Trump.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Here's my lukewarm take. The politics of the document stuff
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: is dramatically overstated for Biden and Trump.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's sort of my lukewarm take as well.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: I guess it's not really that lukewarm take.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Do you tell everyone why you think that?
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: I think the two caveats to that lukewarm take are, one,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: if Trump were to be indicted for his handling of
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: the documents, his obstruction of justice, then the politics would
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: matter somewhat.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Think an indictment of a former president, current front runner
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: might move the needle?
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Only a little bit, to be honest. And I think
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: that it is possible that the way Trump handled it,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: the looming legal investigation could be an argument that someone
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: can make against his electability in a Republican primary. But
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: if you fast forward to the general election, it's just
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: hard to imagine that this is an issue one way
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: or the other. And a lot of the way people
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: talk about the political problems for Biden, is that it
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: has nullified some advantage he has over Trump, as if
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: he was ever going to run his campaign in the
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: fall of 2024 about how Donald Trump, a man who
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: cheated on his taxes, incited insurrection, rigged the Supreme Court
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: so it could overturn Roe v. Wade, that the issue
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: that would be the centerpiece of his campaign would be
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: document management in the year 2022. I just don't think
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: that was ever going to really.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, when has that ever been in Central?
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Well, I think that that is....
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, the pushback to that that you're hinting at is, well,
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: Hillary's emails were a problem for her. And I just
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: think it's a very unique situation with a very different
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: candidacy and a very different race. And Trump is a
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: different candidate in 2024 than he was in 2016 in many,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: many ways.
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, I totally agree with this. Right now, most
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: voters think that both Trump and Biden did something bad,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: even though most voters think that Trump did something worse
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: than Biden, but they're not happy with either of them
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: over this. And I don't think that surprises voters because
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: voters tend to believe all politicians do bad things and
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: don't have a lot of faith in politicians right now, unfortunately.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: And I think Mike Pence, to voters, is probably just
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: another politician who did a bad thing and not a
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: politician that most voters think too much about ever since
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: he escaped the gallows.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: It may actually be good for Mike Pence because it
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: just simply is an opportunity for people to be reminded
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: that he exists.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah. No, Mike Pompeo is wishing he had some classified
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: documents that he could turn over so he gets in
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: the news. My case for why it might matter politically
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: is like, you know, you can imagine a story about
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: how both a Democrat and a Republican who were found
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: with classified documents, you know, alerted the authorities, pledged cooperation
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: while Trump obstructed an investigation, lied, et cetera. So, you know,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: you can make that case. I don't particularly think that
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: case will stick with people, but I think you can
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: make it.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sure. Why not? I mean, just to be fair
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: to the takes that the document stuff matters, the one
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: place where it it matters to Biden. It's just a distraction.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: It's an opportunity cost. They have to deal with it
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: in the White House. It sucks up oxygen you can
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: use for other things. But I think, is what is
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: happening now going to matter significantly when people actually are
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: starting to make decisions about how they're going to vote
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: in 2024? I find that unlikely.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, likely at all. They all cancel each other out.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: And I totally agree with you that the advantage over
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Trump on this issue was never really much of an
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: advantage anyway, because there's plenty of other things to prosecute
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Trump over during a campaign. Or in court.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's both. Prosecute is the operative word there.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay, so here's some painfully predictable analysis of the
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: document mess from the New York Times' Peter Baker. Quote,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: even if nothing comes of the new special counsel investigation
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: into Biden's team's mishandling of classified documents, politically, it has
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: effectively let former President Donald Trump off the hook for
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: hoarding secret papers. Agree or disagree, Dan?
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: We think it may be letting him off the hook
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: because we are writing that it's letting him off the hook.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Political analysis of this sort is a self-fulfilling prophecy because
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: I know Peter Baker, who you and I have worked
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: with for many years and is a very smart, well-respected journalist,
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: but they view themselves as passive observers of what happens.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: But they also, they influence what happens because they write
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: in the most powerful media entity in the world, that
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: X is happening, therefore makes X more likely to happen.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: This is observer bias. By saying something is happening, you're
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: making it more likely to happen.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, even more simple, like the only way
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: to judge the political effect of this is to know
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: what voters think, which is already an imprecise science. But
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: to the extent that we have data about what voters think,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: it doesn't suggest that Peter Baker's analysis of the situation
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: is correct. It suggests that voters very much think Donald
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Trump did something bad. And more voters than not believe
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: that he should be criminally charged for it.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: And what happens if he is criminally charged? He's probably not.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Off the hook then. And I would say that Peter
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: doesn't even try to offer any data to support his
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: assertion in the piece. So it falls short to me. Yes.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is just another example of why these
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: political analysis columns that are supposed to be seen as
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: objective— should be on the opinion page. Because it's Peter
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Baker's opinion that that is what is going to happen.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: And you can have that opinion. That is obviously a
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: take you can take. But there's just this irreconcilable tension
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: between this idea that we as political journalists are reporting
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: on what happens without fear or favor. We're just telling
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: you what's happening and the idea that we're also this
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: incredibly powerful and important force for accountability. You can't have
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: no impact over here and all the impact over there.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: So everything you write affects what's going to happen in politics.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: And so if you're offering analysis without facts, without proof,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: without data, then you're offering opinion and you ought to
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: just put it on the opinion page.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Yep, exactly. So there's now an immediate consequence to this
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: drama in terms of President Biden's ability to govern. Tom
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Cotton says he's blocking all Biden nominees until he gets
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: access to the Trump-Biden-Pence documents, which the special counsels are
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: currently withholding from Congress. while the investigation is ongoing. Can
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: anything be done about that? Or is that just, we
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: just stuck with Tom Cotton being an asshole again?
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, we are perpetually stuck with Tom Cotton
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: being an asshole. As long as he walks this planet.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Just the fact the existence of Tom Cotton, as long
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: as he's alive on this planet, he's going to be
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: an asshole. That's who he is. He cannot actually stop
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: all of these people from getting jobs. He can't truly
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: block them. You only need 50 votes to confirm that.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: an executive branch nominee, thanks to filibuster reform that happened
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: over a decade ago. But what he can do is
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: dramatically slow down the process, where it becomes virtually impossible
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: to get all the people through. Because now, he won't
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: give consent, which means they have to have 30 hours
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: of debate here. He can grind it to a halt.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: And oftentimes, you have to go through that whole process
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: for high-profile nominees, but this is for you know, undersecretaries
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: and deputy secretaries and things that normally can sort of
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: fly through, sometimes in a big tranche of them at
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: one time. And as long as he's doing this, that
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: won't happen, which makes it harder to legislate, harder to govern.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: And it's just annoying as all get out, which is very,
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: as you would say, on brand for Tom Cotton.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: And he knows that Biden can't ask the special counsel
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: to release the docs because it would be interfering in
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: an investigation process. Into his own actions. So, like, it's
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: not up to Biden to really do that. The special
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: counsel's not going to do that. The DOJ is not
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: going to do that. It's an ongoing investigation. You can't
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: be just, like, giving all the information to Congress while
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the investigation is happening. That's not how law enforcement works.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: So he's just using this as a way to stop
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Biden from staffing the government. That's it. Which is what
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Tom Cotton has been doing for many years now.
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: For many, many years.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Many, many times.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: So... When Republicans in Congress aren't busy launching investigations, they're
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: using the debt ceiling to hold the economy hostage. Only
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: problem is they can't seem to agree on what the
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: ransom should be. The Republicans from Donald Trump to Kevin
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: McCarthy to random Freedom Caucus yahoos say that they are
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: against cutting Social Security and Medicare. But The Washington Post
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: reported this week that House Republicans are weighing legislative proposals
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: to do just that. What's going on here? Do these
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: people not realize that legislative proposals have to become public eventually?
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: I think that they are really conflicted between, on one hand,
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: their desire to remain in public office, and on the
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: other hand, their desire to take money and health care
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: away from working class people in this country.
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: How do you think that's going to resolve itself?
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's all going to come around the debt ceiling.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Because there is no– they could put up legislation to
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: raise the retirement age or privatize Social Security or privatize
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Medicare like they did under– when Paul Ryan was in
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: the House. But they probably can't even get a majority
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: of this House for that, let alone a Democratic Senate
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: and a Democratic president. Like that can't happen. The one
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: place where they– if they really want to do this,
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: the one place where they have a chance to do
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: it is on the debt ceiling. Are they going to
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: say– agree to cuts to the Social Security and Medicare guarantees,
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: or we'll default. That's the one place where it's going
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: to come to a head, and we don't yet know
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: how that's going.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: To play out. What we do know is House Republicans
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: have promised to release a balanced budget proposal in the
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: next few weeks. And again, they are saying it will
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: not include cuts to Social Security or Medicare guarantees. benefits
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: for current beneficiaries, which we can get into why that's
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: sort of a sneaky way of saying it. So let's
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: say it doesn't include cuts to Medicare and Social Security.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Some Republicans have also ruled out cuts to defense spending,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: particularly Republicans who are chairing the committees that would decide that. Yes.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: They have all ruled out tax increases. How do you
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: balance the budget with all that stuff ruled out?
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: You would have to cut all the other, well, two options. One,
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: you could do what Kevin McCarthy suggested, which is to
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: eliminate all funding for wokeism in the government, which is
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: his plan.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Didn't realize that was a big line item.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: It's almost as big as foreign aid. That's how big
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: it is. Or the other option is if.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: You do- The rare foreign aid joke.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Yes. Just standing on that- Well struck, well struck. The
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: other thing you can do is cut all other spending education, healthcare, FEMA,
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: Homeland Security by 85%. That's your choice.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: It's so funny that number. I remembered that number because
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: I wrote that line many times in many an Obama
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: speech in the 2010, 2011 era. It's like, oh, time
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: to get to the part of the speech where we
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: get to how much you'd cut non-discretionary domestic spending by
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: in order to balance the budget.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: If you ever got a, when a speech would circulate
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: in the, in that era and I didn't have time
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: to like go line by line through it, I would.
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: Control F discretionary.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: That's why I stopped saying, I I didn't, I never
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: put the fucking word discretionary in there. Our boss did. Yes.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: That's exactly that. That was the point at which I
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: did control us discretionary was that when it left your desk.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: So anyway, yes, this whole thing is a shell game. Um,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the Republicans are, and you wrote a great message box
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: about this this morning. Like Republicans are terrified of, of
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: voters knowing that they want to cut Medicare and Social Security.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: And so they want to hide the ball on that.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: I don't think they can hide it forever. When they
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: say they don't want to cut benefits for Social Security
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: and Medicare, what they could do is say, we're not
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: cutting any benefits for current Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: but we will raise the age, uh, for people who
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: will retire someday, which is all the rest of us, uh,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: for both Medicare and social security, or they will cut
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: payments to Medicare providers, which is just another way of
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: cutting Medicare because if the providers have less money, they
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: will raise costs and there will be fewer resources for
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Medicare beneficiaries, or they could do a whole bunch of
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: other things. So there's plenty of other cuts they can
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: do to social security and Medicare that don't touch benefits
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: that would, so that would still be a bullshit way
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: of doing it. And we'd, and we'd rightly accuse them
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: of cutting Social Security and Medicare if they do that.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Or if they truly don't touch either program, then yeah,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: then they have to massively cut spending everywhere else. And
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I think that, I mean, you talked about how cutting
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Social Security and Medicare is unpopular. I think massive, massive
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: cuts to education, transportation, clean energy, border security, public health,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: scientific research, repealing the ACA, Medicaid, agriculture, student loans, law enforcement.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: I think that'd be pretty unpopular too.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's incredibly unpopular. It's why Republicans always lose these
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: budget battles over the funding of the government, because their
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: position is deeply unpopular. Just to go a little bit
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: deeper for the 95% of people currently listening to this
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: who are not yet MessageBox subscribers, the polling on Social
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Security and Medicare is mind-boggling. In a CBS YouGov poll
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: from earlier this year, 7 in 10 voters think that
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: protecting Social Security and Medicare should be a priority for
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: this Congress. That is exceeded only by fighting inflation. And
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: it well exceeds the number 300, which is reducing crime.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: But that's not something driven by independents and Democrats. 7
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: in 10 Trump voters think that. 7 in 10 self-identified conservatives.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: And 78% of white, non-college-educated voters, the core of the
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Republican Party base, want This Congress protects Social Security and Medicare.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: The number of white, non-college-educated voters who believe that exceeds
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: the number of self-identified liberals who believe that protecting Social
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Security and Medicare should be a priority. The politics of
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: this are deadly, which is why Democrats hold such a
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: strong hand in this upcoming battle. No matter what they choose,
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: they come to anywhere near grabbing what is referred to
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: as the third rails of American politics, Social Security and Medicare.
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: So.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Obviously, we're not in the prediction business here, but I
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: do want to entertain the possibility that for the reasons
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: you just cited, Republicans do not propose cuts to Medicare
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: and Social Security and tie those cuts to the debt ceiling,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: not out of the goodness of their heart, but for
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: pure electoral self-preservation. And because the people who really want
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: to cut Social Security and Medicare just can't get a
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: majority for it.
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: And not just a majority through like the regular order
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: of governing here, but even a majority around the debt ceiling,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: using the debt ceiling as leverage here. And there was
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: a roll call story yesterday that said that Republicans are
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: considering now a short-term extension of the debt ceiling that
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: kicks it to the fall so that the debt ceiling
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: deadline lines up with negotiations that will already be happening
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: over passing the yearly budget and funding the government. And
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: so that way they could sort of suck the Democrats
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: into negotiating because Democrats are obviously going to negotiate over
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: the annual budget anyway. And perhaps then they get their
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: cuts that way. And maybe McCarthy thinks that he can
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: like shut the government down instead of holding the debt
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: limit hostage.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: I feel like and I also think that if they,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: you know, they want then they want to get the
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: whole Republican caucus on board with what their proposed budget is.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: And if they can get the Social Security, Medicare stuff
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: out of the way and maybe just kick it to
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: some commission, then they can propose massive cuts to other
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: government spending and perhaps believe that holding the government hostage
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: to those cuts will be more popular than holding the
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: debt ceiling hostage to Medicare and Social Security cuts.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: The good news about the fact that we, particularly I,
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: are quite old is that none of this is new.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: We did this exact same play in 2013. This is
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: exactly what the Republicans did. In 2011, the debt ceiling
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: crisis that everyone keeps talking about was all about the
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: debt ceiling, that we had already funded the government for
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: the year at that point. We'd had a brief showdown.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: It hadn't shut down, but it went right up to
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: basically past midnight. But it was resolved. So it was
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: only the debt ceiling. And that kind of sort of
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: advantaged Republicans in that battle because the debt limit is esoteric.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: It's hard to explain to people. It's terribly named in
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: the sense that it makes it seem like not lifting
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: it is good for debts and deficit as opposed to
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: the opposite. So that played itself out. But then 2013,
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: not by choice by the Republicans, but they decided to
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: shut down the government at the same time that the
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: debt limit was coming up over the defund– because they
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: said we will not fund the Affordable Care Act. They
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: tried to essentially repeal the Affordable Care Act a year
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: after the country had reelected the president who passed the
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: Affordable Care Act and that the bill was basically named after.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: And it really disadvantaged the Republicans in that fight because
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: a government shutdown is palpable and easy to understand. And
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: you have visuals like there are signs at parks that
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: say closed and signs in museums. And the federal federal
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: government employees are not just in Washington. They're all over
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: the country. Every community in America has some federal employees,
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: a FEMA office and a local IRS office, a military base,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: all these things where there are people who will lose
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: their jobs and be furloughed, which will be fodder for
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: local news, community conversation. And so I think that that
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: is a strategic mistake on their part. If they really
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: want to have a fight over the budget, they should
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: dispense with the debt limit and then have a fight
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: over just the shutdown. Doing both at the same time,
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: I think, makes their life a lot harder. What it
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: tells me what they want is, like you said, To
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: somehow avoid the Social Security and Medicare fight. And I
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: think what they want to try to get to is
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: some sort of spending control plan along the lines of
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: the deal that we struck with the Republicans in 2011,
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: that we regretted at the time, we regret more to
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: this day, that puts caps on growth in spending.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: So, you know, Nancy Mace was on the Sunday shows
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: last weekend, and I think she was pressed on like, OK,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: what do you want to cut? She's like, well, not
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Social Security and Medicare.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Or Medicaid.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Or Medicaid.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: She even said Medicaid, too.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: She even said Medicaid.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Which, by the way, is something that you could see
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: them coming for, because if they don't want to touch
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: retirement programs for everyone, they can always kick poor people
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: off their health care. And I think that that's a
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: little bit more popular. Right. At least with with some
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: of their voters. So then she was asked, OK, well,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: just name something that you want to cut. And she's
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: like she couldn't do it. She couldn't do it. And
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: none of them have been able to do it because
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: I think what they want to do is what you're saying,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: which is say, all right, we want to cut X
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: billion dollars from the budget over the next 10 years
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: and then just leave that top line number, have it
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: pass and then make all the agencies actually make the
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: hard cuts so that people don't see what the cuts are.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: So the only reason any of this matters, because who
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: knows what's going to happen over the Democrats should keep
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: pressuring Republicans to detail what they want to cut every
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: single day and pressure reporters to ask them what they
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: want to cut every single day so that they don't
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: get to just name a top line number and get
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: away with not detailing the cuts. And yes, Social Security
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: and Medicare would be very unpopular to cut. But I
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: think we have to make the case that any of
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: the cuts that they're envisioning would be incredibly unpopular across
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: any of the issue areas that we just mentioned. And
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: so I don't want to put all our eggs in
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: the Social Security Medicare basket because I do think Republicans
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: could rig a lot of that and just decide that
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: it's too unpopular to do Social Security and Medicare. Who knows, though?
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: They could be that stupid, I guess.
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, no one ever got rich betting against Republican stupidity.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: But this one, I mean, we're going to blow up
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: the economy if you don't let us stick it to
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: your grandparents. It's just... It's just too easy. It's too easy, man.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: You mean, you don't want to stick it to the
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: only cohort of voters that we win in every election?
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah. Stick it to the Fox News viewers. Okay.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: So I know we talked about Trump's big South Carolina
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: kickoff on Tuesday's pod, but since then there's been a
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: few new developments worth talking about. Meta announced yesterday that
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: they will reinstate Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts, arguing
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: in a statement that, quote, The fact is, people will
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: always say all kinds of things on the internet. Actual
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: line from the statement. Meanwhile, our fellow journalist at Axios
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: took a look at three polls that show barely any
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: movement in the Republican primary and concluded that Trump has, quote,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: fresh momentum heading into the weekend, calling him, quote, the
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Lazarus of presidential politics. Just when you think he's tapped out,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: he returns from the political dead. The polls do show
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Trump with about a 20 point lead. over DeSantis. And
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Politico reports that all the other potential candidates are so
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: scared of Trump that they've talked about announcing at the
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: same time because, quote, a group launch provides them protection
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: from Trump. Lesson not learned, man. Lesson not learned. Let's
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: start with Meta letting Trump back on Facebook and Instagram.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Are you at all surprised and how big of a
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: deal will this be for Trump?
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: I am not surprised at all. This was basically inevitable
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: when other platforms took Trump off after January 6th, they
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: announced permanent bans. Facebook very pointedly and very vocally said
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: it was a temporary suspension that they were going to
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: revisit over time. They revisited it for the first time
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: back in, I think, 2021. And now that he's an
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: announced candidate for president, of course they were going to
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: do it. You know, Charlie Worzel, who writes on technology
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: and politics of the internet for Atlantic Ferry, had a
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: great subhead on the story, which is Facebook finally adds
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: a user.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: So funny.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: And he made a point, which I think sort of
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: underlies the fact that we're talking about this now, not
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: the beginning of the show, is that since 2020, both
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: Facebook and Trump have declined so much in cultural relevance
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: that this doesn't seem like as big a deal as
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: it would have a long time ago. And I think
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: that's probably right with one big exception. It's right in
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: the sense that when Trump wasn't on Facebook, there were
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: a lot of pro-Trump accounts on Facebook. There was a
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: lot of MAGA-ism on Facebook. That didn't really change the
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: sort of people and voices that were dominant when Trump
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: were there, were dominant when he wasn't there. It has
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: not eroded his connection to his base, per se, to
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: not be on Facebook. Where it does matter is now
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: that he is allowed back on Facebook, he will have
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: access to Facebook's advertising technology. And now not to get
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: too in the weeds about it, Facebook's ad technology is
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: dramatically limited since Apple made it harder for Facebook to
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: track you on other apps. But where it still matters
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: and would matter to Trump a lot is it's still
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: very good at monetizing your existing audience. And so he
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: can use Facebook ads to raise money, to get more
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: email addresses he can get more money on. And so
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: that will help him keep his grassroots fundraising base available.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: So that is a big deal. That will matter. It's
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: not the same persuasion tool it used to be necessarily
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: in politics. But for a guy running in a primary
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: who wants to raise as much money and spend as
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: much money as possible, being back on Facebook is going
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: to help him a lot.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Unless you think that... Then Meta's letting him back on
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: with no guidelines. They have said that he is allowed
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: to lie about the last election, but no lying about
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: the next election. That's where they're drawing the line at Facebook.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, Facebook is such a wonderful corporate citizen. Yes,
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: everything Facebook does is such a galaxy brain groupthink. It's like, aha,
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: we got him.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: I'm just excited for that first post and the first tweet.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: the first, the first, uh, cause he's going to get
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: back on Twitter too. He also, you could tell he,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: he truthed and we're going to get to a lot
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: of truths in our, in our, in our game later on,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: but he truth this week that, um, it was sort
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: of like a farewell to truth social kind of tweet,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: you know, like he, cause he responded to the Facebook
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: news and he was like, truth social, you've been great.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: You've been wonderful. I'm so, I'm so, I'm so grateful
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: to you. And like, he's like leaving.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 32:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Get ready. He's coming back. He's coming back. All right.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the Axios piece about Trump's fresh momentum
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: written by Axios Josh, formerly Hotline Josh. Do you agree
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: that Trump has fresh momentum heading into South Carolina? Is
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: the momentum fresh because of those three polls that show
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: him 20 points over DeSantis?
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: I feel like that was a leading question of sorts.
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't– I'm not– I can argue, yes.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: I'll argue. I mean, whatever.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: I'll do both. Get me on any side of a tape.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: I don't want to pick on Josh, whoever you may be, Josh.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: Or– and this is going to be a bit of hyperbole,
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: but this story does sort of embody everything that's wrong
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: with political journalism.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: I knew you were going to say that.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Just only because we've been on this podcast for more
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: than half a decade together.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, 20 years, 30 years.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: The problem with political journalism is that the need for
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: new narratives exceeds the speed at which politics changes. And
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: so almost nothing has changed in the last month. Donald
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: Trump was around the holidays a frontrunner with great vulnerabilities
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: for the Republican nomination and a deeply flawed general election candidate.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump today, whether before he gives a speech, after
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: he gives a speech, whether Harry McMaster endorses him or
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: not is the same thing. A frontrunner with great vulnerabilities
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: is a deeply flawed general election candidate. Nothing has fundamentally changed,
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: but you can't get clicks, you can't get attention. No
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: one ever clicks on anything that says nothing's changed. That
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: is not a story that is going to drive traffic
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: or drive ad revenue. So we have to squint at
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: things with one eye to try to find a new take.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: And this is one of those examples.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the new take in this piece, the why, if
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: you will, was, boy, did Joe Biden hand Donald Trump
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: a political gift by having classified documents in his house
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: because somehow Joe Biden's document issue made Trump more palatable
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: to Republican primary voters who had been thinking about DeSantis,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: which is Wow. Talk about your galaxy brain take, man.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: That is connecting a lot of dots that I do
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: not think can be connected. But I did look into
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: those polls because I was like, hmm. And sure enough,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: like all these polls that showed Trump with like a
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: 20 point lead on DeSantis, the last polls taken in
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: the same set of polls had basically either the same
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: margin between Trump or DeSantis or actually a worse margin.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: So it's like the idea that Trump is doing better
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: is just not– it doesn't bear out in the facts
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: of the polls.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: It's based on vibes.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: It's based on vibes. It's based on vibes. I continue
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: to think we won't know until– we won't have a
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: hint until at least the first debate how vulnerable Trump
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: is as the frontrunner and whether– how much of a
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: threat to Santus or to a lesser extent to Brian
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Kemp or Youngkin or someone like that. is to Donald Trump.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: I think we just won't know until people announce it,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: until we have a first debate sometime in the summer.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Speaking of all the other candidates, what do you make
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: of all these other potential Republican candidates waiting to announce?
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: Brilliant strategy born of courage.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: These people are neither clever nor courageous.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, in the spirit of getting on any side
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: of a fun take, I kind of understand what they're doing.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: They have a collective action problem where it is in
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: all of their collective interest for someone to get out
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: there and start running against Trump.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: They've had a collective action problem since 2015.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. It's just in no one's collective interest.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: We're in year eight. Year eight of the collective action
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: problem in the Republican Party.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: This is why it's hard to run against someone who
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: has a third of the party locked up. But it's
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: in no one's individual interest to be the first one
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: out there to have to take Trump on themselves. So
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: they wait. But the problem is they wait and they wait.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: And they wait. And then by the time they get in,
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: it's too late. He's a nominee. And we're once again
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: like 40,000 votes and four states away from fucking lunatic
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: being president of the United States.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: I do think that the governors who might run against
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: him all have an excuse. Like they have spring legislative
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: sessions where they're going to be trying to rack up
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: some wins against wokeism. I was just going to say, yes.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: They're going to take to all the MAGA media fans
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: on television to raise some cash, get some primary support. So,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: you know, DeSantis, Youngkin, they're waiting around. But, like, what
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: the fuck? It's not getting any better for Mike Pompeo
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: than it is right now.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, that is a true statement for Mike Pompeo.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: Not to dip into Worldo territory here.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: We're not in the prediction game, but I'm kind of
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: betting this is probably the high point of Mike Pompeo's
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: presidential campaign right now.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: All right. One more fun Trump story from the Palm
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Beach Post.
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: So.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: Trump truth to the other day that he won the
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: senior club championship at Trump International Golf Club. Only issue
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: is he didn't play the first round of the tournament
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: because he was at Diamond's funeral giving a eulogy where
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: he admitted that he didn't know who Silk was and
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: complained about missing the tournament. So instead, instead, members showed
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: up the second day of the tournament to see that Trump...
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: that Trump had just given himself a five-point lead over
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: everyone else, which he told the tournament organizers he had
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: done because he played a strong round in the course
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: earlier that week. So he just decided to give himself
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: a five-point lead heading into the second day of the tournament,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: and then he won. He said it was a great
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: honor to win. I don't think it was.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: A great honor to win. It was evidence of his
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: fitness for office that he could win golf tournaments.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, have you ever heard of a more perfect
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: Trump story than that? I think that's decades from now.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: If people want to understand Donald Trump, I'd be like,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: forget about the presidency, the campaigns, the impeachment, the insurrection.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Just look at that story in the Palm Beach Post.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: That's all you need to know.
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is no notes. Perfection embodies him exactly. Just
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: love it. Just absolutely love every bit about it.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad it happened. That's just for all of you.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: You all deserve some fun for the weekend. All right,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: when we come back, Dan talks to Arizona Congressman Ruben
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Gallego about his campaign for Kyrsten Sinema's Senate seat.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back. Joining us now is the congressman
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: from Phoenix, Arizona. He's just announced his run for Senate,
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: Ruben Gallego. Congressman Gallego, welcome back to Pod Save America.
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me, Dan.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: All right, let's get right into it. So you have
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: just entered what could end up being an incredibly unique
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: Senate race. You wouldn't just be running against Carrie Lake
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: or Blake Masters or some other Republican. You could be
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: running in a three-way race that includes Kyrsten Sinema, the
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: woman you were trying to replace. What would you say
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: to people who are concerned about Democrats' ability to prevail
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: in a three-way race that includes a Democrat, Republican, and
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: a former Democrat?
• 40:21
  Speaker 6: Well, number one, the only way for us to keep
• 40:24
  Speaker 6: this race is actually for me to run. Kyrsten Sinema
• 40:26
  Speaker 6: has killed herself so much in terms of her numbers
• 40:29
  Speaker 6: with voters, especially Democrats and independently voters, that she is
• 40:37
  Speaker 6: so low right now that she has very, very, very
• 40:39
  Speaker 6: little support. I think she's down to family. and consultants
• 40:43
  Speaker 6: in terms of her polling number. And so it's a
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: very dangerous territory, and it's not coming back. As a
• 40:49
  Speaker 6: matter of fact, her going independent probably dropped her numbers
• 40:52
  Speaker 6: even further. So our choice is either we run a
• 40:54
  Speaker 6: strong Democrat and we keep this seat, or we don't
• 40:57
  Speaker 6: run a strong Democrat. And what happens is we end
• 41:00
  Speaker 6: up splitting the vote and a Republican does get in.
• 41:02
  Speaker 6: This is the only way we can keep this seat
• 41:04
  Speaker 6: on the candidate to do it. Whether it is Carrie
• 41:06
  Speaker 6: Lake or Kyrsten Sinema or any other Republican, we can
• 41:09
  Speaker 6: win it. But we're not going to be able to
• 41:10
  Speaker 6: win it if we don't run a strong Democrat.
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: And right now, it's it.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: I read a quote from you in Politico where you
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: took on the notion that you and Sinema would split
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: the vote. And you thought that it might actually end
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: up being Sinema and the Republicans splitting the vote. Could
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: you say a little more about that to help maybe
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: address some of the concerns people may have about this
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: three-way race thing?
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 41:29
  Speaker 6: So already we've seen some polling where she is taking
• 41:31
  Speaker 6: more from the Republicans. And I think once we actually
• 41:34
  Speaker 6: are running a full statewide campaign where Democrats know that
• 41:37
  Speaker 6: we are the candidate and we're running a strong campaign,
• 41:39
  Speaker 6: they're going to keep moving in our direction. She's already
• 41:43
  Speaker 6: her numbers are so low with Democrats and we'll make
• 41:45
  Speaker 6: sure they go even lower because, you know.
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: A lot of her stances.
• 41:49
  Speaker 6: And I think at the end of the day, that's
• 41:51
  Speaker 6: going to continue moving in that direction. Also, the Republicans
• 41:54
  Speaker 6: are going to be in a beat up primary election.
• 41:57
  Speaker 6: from now until August of 2024. And in that time period,
• 42:02
  Speaker 6: a lot of moderate Republicans are going to swing over
• 42:05
  Speaker 6: more towards Sinema. And then at the end of that
• 42:09
  Speaker 6: crazy primary, the Republicans are basically going to be battling
• 42:11
  Speaker 6: it out with Sinema and will be very happy with
• 42:13
  Speaker 6: our coalition on the other side ready to win. So
• 42:19
  Speaker 6: there is no real strategy for Sinema to even get
• 42:21
  Speaker 6: out of second place. If she stays in, she is
• 42:24
  Speaker 6: in third place no matter what, and it's going to
• 42:27
  Speaker 6: to really move voters away from the Republican column to her.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: For many, many years, Democrats did not win statewide in Arizona.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: We've had some success in the last three elections. There
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: has been a little bit of a formula for how
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: to do that. Kyrsten Sinema, 2018, was a moderate Democrat,
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: very different than she was after that, and certainly is now,
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: to your point. Mark Kelly won in 2020 and 2022
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: with a moderate persona. Joe Biden- more moderate Democrat than
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: somebody who ran against the primary. You are a proud progressive.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: You've been a very vocal progressive. What is your strategy
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: for winning in a state where Republicans and independents actually
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: outnumber registered Democrats? How are you thinking about building a
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: coalition similar to the one that Mark Kelly had in
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: 2022 to win?
• 43:15
  Speaker 6: Well, you got to remember, a lot of those independents
• 43:19
  Speaker 6: are Latinos, right? And Arizona's been moving bluer and bluer
• 43:22
  Speaker 6: for quite a while. So when we say You know,
• 43:25
  Speaker 6: Kyrsten Sinema won in 2018.
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: That's true.
• 43:27
  Speaker 6: But we also won two other statewides back in the day.
• 43:30
  Speaker 6: And all these things about, you know, you're progressive to progressive.
• 43:33
  Speaker 6: They say that about every Democrat that runs for office
• 43:35
  Speaker 6: in Arizona. It doesn't matter what you do. You are
• 43:38
  Speaker 6: a communist and whatever they want to they call you nowadays.
• 43:41
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: That's what they said in 18. That's what they said
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: in 20. That's what they said in 2022.
• 43:44
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 43:45
  Speaker 6: So it's all about talking to the voters, making the
• 43:48
  Speaker 6: voters understand that you are aligned with their values and
• 43:51
  Speaker 6: you're there to work for them. If we do that well,
• 43:54
  Speaker 6: we're going to get out that vote. We're going to
• 43:57
  Speaker 6: get people to come and vote for us that maybe
• 43:59
  Speaker 6: are Republican-leaning or they're truly independent. Lastly, what has not
• 44:05
  Speaker 6: happened forever is we're going to excite the Latino vote, right?
• 44:10
  Speaker 6: We're going to get that vote out to the point
• 44:12
  Speaker 6: where no one's ever seen it. About 5,000 Latinos turn
• 44:16
  Speaker 6: 18 every.
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: Month in Arizona. We're going to be talking to them
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: as soon as they go.
• 44:20
  Speaker 6: And we're going to talk to a lot of Latinos
• 44:22
  Speaker 6: that we've lost for the last couple of years, not
• 44:24
  Speaker 6: to Republicans, just because they stopped voting because they haven't
• 44:26
  Speaker 6: been communicated to. And then it's not I don't think
• 44:30
  Speaker 6: it's a coincidence, but every time I've ever ran, I've
• 44:33
  Speaker 6: always overperformed the top of the ticket because I also
• 44:35
  Speaker 6: bring a lot of Latino males back into the Democratic
• 44:39
  Speaker 6: column because of my ability to culturally connect with them.
• 44:42
  Speaker 6: The fact that I'm a veteran, the fact that, you know,
• 44:44
  Speaker 6: I understand what it means to be working class and
• 44:46
  Speaker 6: trying to figure out how to pay bills, how to
• 44:48
  Speaker 6: pay a mortgage, how to start a business. All these
• 44:50
  Speaker 6: kinds of things are skills that have not been brought
• 44:53
  Speaker 6: to this campaign, to the state.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: I should say. Basically, I'm throwing a softball right across
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: the plate for you. But obviously, Kyrsten Sinema does things
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: that have infuriated people in your state. infuriate progressives and
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: Democrats in the country, infuriate myself, many of our listeners.
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: But she votes most of the time with President Biden.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: She confirms most of his nominees. I'm going to give
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: you a chance to talk a little bit about how
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: a senator, you know, and on some specific issues, how
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: a Senator Ruben Gallego would be different from the people
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: of Arizona than a Senator Kyrsten Sinema.
• 45:29
  Speaker 6: Well, look, let's just begin with where there are the problems, right?
• 45:34
  Speaker 6: Senator Sinema doesn't speak to voters in Arizona anymore. She
• 45:38
  Speaker 6: hasn't had a public town hall where she's sat there
• 45:42
  Speaker 6: and took questions and asked.
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: People what they care about.
• 45:46
  Speaker 6: And which is when she starts making some of these
• 45:48
  Speaker 6: other actions, for example, negotiating for pharmaceuticals to make sure
• 45:52
  Speaker 6: that they actually had more power to raise prices of drugs.
• 45:56
  Speaker 6: She didn't go back to Arizona and talk to the
• 45:59
  Speaker 6: seniors or ARP and say, well, you know, We could
• 46:02
  Speaker 6: have had a better deal, but I decided to water
• 46:04
  Speaker 6: down the deal.
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: Why did you do that? We don't know, right?
• 46:07
  Speaker 6: Because she won't talk to us. She won't talk to
• 46:08
  Speaker 6: you unless you have a check in hand or it's
• 46:11
  Speaker 6: a closed meeting and you're already probably a part of
• 46:13
  Speaker 6: a very powerful group, right? When, you know, they're getting
• 46:16
  Speaker 6: into the closing day of the Inflation Reduction Act and,
• 46:20
  Speaker 6: you know, private equity managers and hedge fund managers were
• 46:23
  Speaker 6: going to have to pay more taxes for their not,
• 46:27
  Speaker 6: you she went and negotiated a deal to make sure
• 46:31
  Speaker 6: they were carved out.
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: Why did you do that, Kirsten? You never told anybody.
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: You didn't talk to anybody beforehand.
• 46:37
  Speaker 6: You didn't go back to Arizona to explain why you
• 46:38
  Speaker 6: decided to use your time and effort to fight for
• 46:40
  Speaker 6: the rich instead of for those that are looking for
• 46:43
  Speaker 6: more help. This is the consistency is that when we
• 46:48
  Speaker 6: need her the most, she is there the least, right?
• 46:53
  Speaker 6: And if you look at some of the biggest times
• 46:56
  Speaker 6: that we needed her, The Voting Rights Act. When Arizona
• 47:01
  Speaker 6: has been consistently under attack, when Republicans are threatening to
• 47:03
  Speaker 6: take away the access to, for example, early voting and
• 47:09
  Speaker 6: things of that.
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: Nature, she ran away.
• 47:12
  Speaker 6: She used a filibuster to basically stop the John Lewis
• 47:14
  Speaker 6: Voting Rights Act, who supposedly was her friend and mentor.
• 47:17
  Speaker 6: Very good way, by the way, to treat a friend
• 47:19
  Speaker 6: and mentor. I hate to see what she does to
• 47:22
  Speaker 6: her enemies.
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: Well, I guess we'll find out. That's right.
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: You just may, yes.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 47:30
  Speaker 6: That's just one of the lists of so many grievances.
• 47:34
  Speaker 6: When we needed her on Build Back Better, it wasn't
• 47:38
  Speaker 6: a constructive position she took. She basically destroyed a very
• 47:42
  Speaker 6: good program, and we ended up having a very watered-down
• 47:47
  Speaker 6: version in the end. Even the infrastructure deal that we
• 47:52
  Speaker 6: all love was extremely watered down to the point where
• 47:56
  Speaker 6: It's good, but it could have been a lot better.
• 47:58
  Speaker 6: And why did we water it down? Did we have
• 48:00
  Speaker 6: 51 votes?
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: We did have. We had 51 votes.
• 48:02
  Speaker 6: We could have gotten a great deal that really would
• 48:04
  Speaker 6: have revolutionized our economy, bring and renew green energy in
• 48:10
  Speaker 6: many parts of the state. But instead, she chose to
• 48:13
  Speaker 6: have the ceremonial position of bipartisanship. We got six more votes,
• 48:21
  Speaker 6: but we got billions and trillions of dollars less in infrastructures.
• 48:25
  Speaker 6: And at the end of the day, again, where we
• 48:27
  Speaker 6: needed her, she wasn't there. She's there for the easy stuff.
• 48:31
  Speaker 6: It's where– when it's there, when she's the hard stuff,
• 48:33
  Speaker 6: where she's missing in action.
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: So just to zone in on a couple of specifics.
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: So I take it that you would vote to eliminate
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: the filibuster if you were in the Senate. You would
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: be part of an anti-filibuster majority in the Senate if
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: we needed it to pass legislation.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 48:49
  Speaker 6: At a minimum, we should be looking at reforming the filibuster.
• 48:51
  Speaker 6: The filibuster is reformed. tons and tons of times, right?
• 48:54
  Speaker 6: It's not just some, you know, secret law. You know,
• 48:58
  Speaker 6: we need to, obviously, it's being abused. It's actually being
• 49:01
  Speaker 6: used all the time, abused all the time. And we
• 49:04
  Speaker 6: need to figure out how to change it. Or if
• 49:07
  Speaker 6: you can't change it to actually be able to functionally
• 49:09
  Speaker 6: administer the Senate, then, you know, then we can look
• 49:12
  Speaker 6: at getting rid of it.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: When Katie Porter, your colleague in the House, was on
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: this show right after announcing her campaign for Senate, she
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: expressed some openness to the idea of adding Supreme Court
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: justices in terms of expanding the court. Where are you
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: on that plan?
• 49:28
  Speaker 6: I'm not there yet. I mean, I think we have
• 49:30
  Speaker 6: to bring some more accountability to the court. They need
• 49:33
  Speaker 6: to have some ethics standards. I think we need to
• 49:37
  Speaker 6: bring more checks imbalances to the court. They seem to
• 49:40
  Speaker 6: think that they have a right to now legislate also.
• 49:44
  Speaker 6: But moving into an expansion of the court, I think,
• 49:48
  Speaker 6: is a step too far for me for now. Now,
• 49:51
  Speaker 6: if they continue to go down the road where they
• 49:52
  Speaker 6: think that they are part of the legislative branch or
• 49:55
  Speaker 6: can do their own legislation with their shadow dockets, then yes,
• 49:59
  Speaker 6: this is something we have to explore.
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: I got to ask you, because you have a new neighbor,
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: On Capitol Hill, as I understand it. Oh, okay. Your
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: office is next to George Santos' office. Have you guys
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: hung out? Are you friends? Can you tell me if
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: those glasses he's wearing are real? Have you had any
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: contact with him at all?
• 50:24
  Speaker 6: I have not had any contact with him. I don't
• 50:26
  Speaker 6: know if those glasses are real. I don't know if
• 50:28
  Speaker 6: he's real.
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: Like, this is, you know.
• 50:31
  Speaker 6: There's a lot going on there. So I don't, I
• 50:34
  Speaker 6: have not had that personal experience.
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: Does it say anything to you about the State of
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: the Modern Republican Party that they are willing to keep
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: George Santos there in exchange for one vote? Oh, absolutely.
• 50:44
  Speaker 6: I mean, look, this is, it says a lot about
• 50:46
  Speaker 6: Kevin McCarthy too. You know, he's devoid of any type
• 50:50
  Speaker 6: of values or, you know, I don't know, even real
• 50:55
  Speaker 6: choices that he can make. I mean, he's, He's trying
• 50:58
  Speaker 6: to keep, you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene on, you know,
• 51:01
  Speaker 6: on his side, trying to keep, you.
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: Know, the Boeberts and Matt Gaetz from jumping ship. And,
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: you know, he'd rather.
• 51:08
  Speaker 6: Keep a con man around that's destroying the reputation of
• 51:12
  Speaker 6: the Republican Party and really the institution of Congress enough
• 51:15
  Speaker 6: so he can keep his watered down position as Speaker
• 51:18
  Speaker 6: of the House.
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: And it just kind of tells you in general where
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: the Republican Party is and their candidates. I mean, they're they.
• 51:25
  Speaker 6: All knew that he was a fraud. They all knew
• 51:27
  Speaker 6: that he was lying about his background. And they just
• 51:31
  Speaker 6: decided to keep going forward because number one, all they
• 51:33
  Speaker 6: cared about was that he was a.
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: Republican.
• 51:36
  Speaker 6: And it was a way to really stick it to
• 51:38
  Speaker 6: the Democrats, right? They wanted nothing more than to have
• 51:42
  Speaker 6: a gay Latino member of Congress so they could say, see,
• 51:45
  Speaker 6: we have one of our own and screw you guys,
• 51:47
  Speaker 6: even though he's a fraud on all fronts.
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: On this show, we often talk about controversial takes. We
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: scour the internet. We look for tweets. And 99% of
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: the time, they are from kind of Yahoo pundits, crazy
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: MAGA Republicans, Fox News people. It's very rare that an
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: elected Democrat in good standing has one of their takes
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: bubble up to the top for us.
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: OK.
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: I'm guessing which one.
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: Yes, I bet you are. But we have a recent tweet.
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: Of yours, I need you to defend. In the last
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: couple of weeks, you tweeted, hot take, keep the gas
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: stove and get rid of the air fryer. Only urban
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: elitists use air fryers. I need you to explain what
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: you meant there. And did you know you had an
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: air fryer in your house when you tweeted that?
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: I did. First of all, of course, I was trying
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: to be humorous. Number two, I did not know I
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: had an air fryer.
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: You were just eating healthy, delicious food, and you had
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: no idea where it came from?
• 52:50
  Speaker 6: It looks like a crock pot to me. And I
• 52:52
  Speaker 6: thought my wife was using a crock pot the whole time.
• 52:57
  Speaker 6: And so when she corrected me on Twitter, I quickly
• 53:02
  Speaker 6: realized I was wrong. So no, no, you're not an
• 53:06
  Speaker 6: urban elitist if you use an air fryer. You're perfectly
• 53:10
  Speaker 6: down to earth, and you should be probably wearing plaid
• 53:13
  Speaker 6: and wearing, you know, Carhartt gear, if you're doing that.
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: Well, we will take humility and ability to admit mistakes
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: as a very important quality in our leaders. And so
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: we appreciate that. Congressman Ruben Gallego, thank you for joining us.
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: Let our listeners know who may be interested in your campaign,
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: where they can go to find out more.
• 53:31
  Speaker 6: Please, if you can, go to gallego4arizona. com. We appreciate every
• 53:39
  Speaker 6: help we've had. We've had a great first day, first
• 53:43
  Speaker 6: couple of days.
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: And we need to keep this momentum going.
• 53:45
  Speaker 6: This is a campaign that's going to reach out to
• 53:47
  Speaker 6: all parts of Arizona, but it's going to take a
• 53:49
  Speaker 6: lot of your individual support. And we're fighting a big
• 53:52
  Speaker 6: fight against a lot of big money people.
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: So please help us out.
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us. And we will talk to you soon.
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: All right, we're back. We got a new game called
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: Truth or False. Hosted by our fearless producer, Haley Muse. Hi, guys. Hi.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 54:20
  Speaker 4: So we've already gotten a little bit into the true
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: social stuff, but I have been following Trump's truths for
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: quite some time. And I figured now, before he makes
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: his return to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and is flooding
• 54:31
  Speaker 4: all of your feeds, we could go through some of
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: his greatest hits on true social with this aptly named game,
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: Truth or False. So as the title depicts, you guys
• 54:42
  Speaker 4: are going to Here are three takes, and you're going
• 54:45
  Speaker 4: to decide which of those statements he actually said and
• 54:49
  Speaker 4: which ones I made up.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: Is it two truths and one fake?
• 54:54
  Speaker 4: We mix it up. We mix it up. We're keeping
• 54:55
  Speaker 4: you on your toes. I'll tell you beforehand how many
• 54:59
  Speaker 4: you're looking for.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: Okay. That's good. I'm going deep into the mind of
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump right now.
• 55:03
  Speaker 4: Yes, deep in.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: So we're going to start off with some statements about
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: Diamond and Silk. As John referenced, we've talked about how
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: Trump gave a beautiful eulogy this week for the late Diamond.
• 55:18
  Speaker 4: So of these three statements, which one did Trump actually
• 55:22
  Speaker 4: truth about Diamond and Silk? Number one. That's number one.
• 55:26
  Speaker 4: Number two. Remembering all the great times I had with
• 55:41
  Speaker 4: one of my greatest supporters, the late Diamond of Diamond
• 55:44
  Speaker 4: and Silk, a dear friend who will be missed. Thank you, Diamond,
• 55:47
  Speaker 4: for your support. Number three. The lamestream media is trying
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: to say I was rude to Silk, another fake story
• 55:57
  Speaker 4: to distract from Biden sharing secrets with China. Pay attention.
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: So there's two real ones and one fake one?
• 56:05
  Speaker 4: No, no. One real one, two fake ones.
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: Okay. Oh, two fake ones.
• 56:09
  Speaker 4: Two fake ones.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: I know the answer.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: I think I do too. Okay. Yeah.
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: The first one is the real one.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That's what I think too.
• 56:16
  Speaker 4: Okay. See, I was trying to trip you guys up
• 56:17
  Speaker 4: because a few days later he eulogizes and says that
• 56:21
  Speaker 4: he doesn't know Silk. But right after Diamond died, he
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: was just talking about the Dream Team. So.
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: It was close, though, because I thought the second one
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: when he thanks Diamond for her support, that does sound
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: like Trump. That does sound like something he would truth.
• 56:34
  Speaker 4: I've been doing some method acting with these truths. Okay,
• 56:39
  Speaker 4: round two. Trump was actually very in a giving and
• 56:44
  Speaker 4: loving spirit over the holidays. So which of these passive-aggressive
• 56:50
  Speaker 4: holiday messages did he not truth? So two are real,
• 56:53
  Speaker 4: one is fake. Number one. Happy New Year to all
• 56:57
  Speaker 4: the radical left Democrats, Marxist lunatics, China-loving Coco Chow and
• 57:02
  Speaker 4: her obedient husband Mitch, and clueless rhinos who are working
• 57:06
  Speaker 4: so hard to destroy our once great country. More importantly,
• 57:10
  Speaker 4: Happy New Year to the incredible, brave, and strong American
• 57:13
  Speaker 4: patriots who built, love, and cherish America. God bless you all.
• 57:17
  Speaker 4: All right, number one. Number two, Merry Christmas, everyone, including
• 57:23
  Speaker 4: the radical left Marxists. Shifty Shift and his sham investigation,
• 57:27
  Speaker 4: the thugs and tyrants of the Democratic Party, and most
• 57:30
  Speaker 4: of all, to my children and my beautiful wife, Melania.
• 57:34
  Speaker 4: Peace on Earth. Number three, Merry Christmas to everyone, including
• 57:40
  Speaker 4: the radical left Marxists that are trying to destroy our country,
• 57:43
  Speaker 4: the Federal Bureau of Investigation that is illegally coercing and
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: paying social, and of course, the Department of Injustice, which
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: appointed a special prosecutor who, together with his wife and family,
• 57:55
  Speaker 4: Hates Trump more than any person on earth. Love to all.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: I got to go with the second one is fake
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: because he would never actually wish his family a Merry Christmas.
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: What do you think, Dan?
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with that.
• 58:16
  Speaker 5: Damn.
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: Okay. All right.
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: Again, though, the first one I remember, Coco Chow and
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: her obedient husband. But I was I was it was
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: second and third were tough.
• 58:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: Tough choice.
• 58:27
  Speaker 4: OK, good. All right. Well, this one may be a
• 58:28
  Speaker 4: little bit harder. So in addition to these beautiful words
• 58:32
  Speaker 4: of wisdom from Trump, he on true social way more
• 58:35
  Speaker 4: than Twitter shares a lot of fan art propaganda. So
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: we have some memes to share with you. And and
• 58:43
  Speaker 4: one of his favorite artists is this gal, Andrea, who
• 58:46
  Speaker 4: goes by the handle God underscore bless underscore Trump. And
• 58:51
  Speaker 4: so which of these three pictures with words, so memes,
• 58:56
  Speaker 4: did Andrea not make and thus Trump did not retruth?
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 59:01
  Speaker 4: The first is a photo of Trump giving a thumbs
• 59:05
  Speaker 4: up in a car with the words, get in patriots.
• 59:09
  Speaker 4: We're going to... make America great again.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: That's pretty cool.
• 59:12
  Speaker 4: Number one. Number two, a collage of photos showing Trump
• 59:17
  Speaker 4: playing sports and holding various balls that reads, My president
• 59:22
  Speaker 4: is the coolest. Number three, a photo of Trump posing
• 59:29
  Speaker 4: with his golf clubs with a poem of sorts that reads,
• 59:33
  Speaker 4: Trump's best on the course. He's got a great swing.
• 59:36
  Speaker 4: Everyone knows that he's the MAGA king. The GOAT on
• 59:39
  Speaker 4: and off the course. Which of these is fake?
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: I think I have. I think the golf one is fake.
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: I think my president is the coolest is fake.
• 59:56
  Speaker 4: Well, that was a trick question. They are all real.
• 59:58
  Speaker 4: Eliza is going to text you guys a photo so
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 4: you can just take in the beautiful artwork of God
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 4: bless Trump.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: The goat on and off the course is so funny.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: We need more of this in our party.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 4: I have to say, if Andrea doesn't pivot over to
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: Twitter along with Trump, I'm going to be very upset.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 4: I'm a big, big fan.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: That is amazing.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 4: Okay. All right. Next one. What random stream of consciousness
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 4: did Trump not truth? So just a random sentence out
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 4: of nowhere. Number one, late night shows are a waste
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 4: of time and the hosts are not funny. Number two,
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 4: whatever happened to global warming? Number three, true social is
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 4: so hot. So one of these is fake, two are real.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, this is a tough one. I think true social
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: is real. I want to say that global warming is fake.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: This is a tough one because when he was on Twitter,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: he used to tweet about the unfunniness of late night
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: hosts all the time. And he would often tweet when
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: it was cold, whatever happened to global warming. So I'm
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: just going to take a stab, although I think Haley
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: is being tricky here in a very Elijah-like fashion. But
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go with True Social is so hot.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 4: All right, the one that is fake is the late
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 4: night shows. So the other two are real, and I
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 4: just want to note that the True Social is so hot,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 4: has four O's. It is True Social is so hot.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I remember that one. Should have gone
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: with the late night shows.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: You are deep into Truth Social.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 4: I'm so deep, you guys. I mean, I could write
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 4: these truths in my sleep, I have to tell you.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: Hayley, has being this much on True Social changed you
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: at all? Like, do you have questions about the election?
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: Are you regretting your COVID shots? Like, what is happening?
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 4: If anything, I feel like I got an ego boost.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 4: I'm like kind of taking on the Trump mentality and
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 4: just feeling good about myself.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: Oh, the goat in and out of the studio, Haley.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the goat in and out of the studio. Goat producer,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 4: you guys.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: I'm going to start introducing you now as goat producer, Haley.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 4: Please do.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 6: I love it.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 4: Okay, we're going to round this out. This is the
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 4: final one. Which of these pop lyrics did Trump truth
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 4: about himself?
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: Oh, no.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 4: One is real. Two are fake. I'm simply the best.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 4: Better than all the rest. Of course, an ode to
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 4: Tina Turner. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger. An
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 4: ode to Kelly Clarkson. Or I'm everything I am because
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 4: you loved me. An ode to Celine Dion.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: So one is fake or two are fake?
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 4: Two are fake.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: Oh, two are fake.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: So one is real.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 4: One is real.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: What was the first one?
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 4: I'm simply the best, better than all the rest. Number
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 4: two is what doesn't kill me makes me stronger. And
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 4: number three is I'm everything I am because you love me.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: I would bet number two.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: Is real.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 4: Going with Kelly.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 3: Is real.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: Is real.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: I think number one is real. I think it's a
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: Tina Turner thing.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 4: It's Kelly Clarkson.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: Dan, you're right.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: Because I think that's a saying that's, it's not like
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: Kelly Clarkson invented that. So I think he's just, it's happenstance.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: It's a Kelly Clarkson song. I don't think he's, was
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: a huge fan of.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: I think he plays that Tina Turner song at his events.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 4: That is why I included it. And I included Celine
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 4: because one of the most underrated stories of the month
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 4: is that Trump DJed Celine Dion at his New Year's
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 4: Mar-a-Lago party.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I can see it.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 4: And the reason that he truthed What Doesn't Kill Me
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 4: Makes Me Stronger was in reference to the House January
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 4: 6th Committee's criminal referrals.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 4: He said... These folks don't get it that when they
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 4: come after me, people who love freedom rally around me.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 4: It strengthens me. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 4: Americans know that I pushed for 20,000 troops to prevent
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 4: violence on January 6th and that I went on television
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 4: and told everyone to go home.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: Yes, we did know that. Wait, so who won this?
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: Did anyone keep score?
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: I think we all lost. I think we all lost.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 4: I won.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 3: You won?
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we were the same. You have the last one.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: I got one right and we both got the last
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: one wrong. So I am now undefeated in this.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: Dan, undefeated in this specific game.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 4: Are we adding this to the take tally?
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to say.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: It can be a separate tally. There are different skills.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: Dan's just undefeated?
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah. All right, well, I'll keep this going as long
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 4: as truth is up and running.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's great.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 4: Whenever you guys want to do this.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good idea. Haley, thank you for this
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: wonderful game.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 4: You're very welcome.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: And before we go, speaking of lyrics, I just want
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: you all to hear what happens when U.S. senators try
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: to be funny. This is from yesterday's congressional hearing into
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: the debacle around Ticketmaster's handling of of tickets to Taylor
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: Swift's Heiress Tour, in which parent company Live Nation was
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: rightly attacked for being a monopoly. Let's listen.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: You have to have competition.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 6: You can't have too much consolidation, something we know all
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 6: too well.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 5: With Senator Klobuchar as chair, I had hoped to get
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 5: the gavel back, but once again, she's chair captain and
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 5: I'm on the bleachers. A purchaser of a ticket, being
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 5: able to sell it to someone else. I think it's
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 5: a nightmare dressed like a daydream. Karma's a relaxing thought.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 5: Aren't you envious that for.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 3: You it's not?
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 5: Ticketmaster ought to look in the mirror and say, I'm
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 5: the problem.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: It's me. I don't know. Okay, so here's the thing.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: That was Amy Klobuchar, Mike Lee of Utah, and the
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: last one was Dick Blumenthal of Connecticut, Democratic Senator. So
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: here's the thing on this. First of all, just bad.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: Bad all around. Yeah. It's just a travesty. But here's
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: the thing. Mike Lee, I appreciate how far he swerved
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: out of the way with those lyrics. Like the karma lyric,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: the dress like it, the you belong with me lyric.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: None of those really made sense in context. He really
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: had to go out of his way and they were
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: all sort of deep cuts. I think Klobuchar and Blumenthal,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: that was sort of low-hanging fruit. And I will say
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: there's nothing more embarrassing than watching Dick Blumenthal try to
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: get that out because you can tell he has not
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: heard Taylor Swift before.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: Do you think he knew what he was doing?
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: I think Lee's a real Swifty, and I think that
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: Klobuchar is probably a real Swifty too, or at least
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: her daughter is, and so is Mike Lee's daughter.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, here's my take. Great job, everyone. Great job
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: to the staff who wrote those. Great job to the
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 2: members who read them. Here's the thing. We do this
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: show twice a week. We never talk about congressional hearings
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: that don't involve violent insurrections. Here we are highlighting the
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: problem of monopolies in ticket sales. Success. Attention is good.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: Great job, people.
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: Monsters on the hill. That's what I say. Thank you
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: to Ruben Gallego for joining today. Thank you to Haley
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: for the game. Everyone have a great weekend, and we
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: will talk to you next week.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 2: Bye, everyone.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: producer is Michael Martinez. Our senior producer is Andy Gardner Bernstein.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: Our producers are Hayley Muse and Olivia Martinez. It's mixed
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: sound engineered the show. Thanks to Hallie Kiefer, Ari Schwartz,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: Sandy Gerard, Andy Taft, and Justine Howe for production support.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, Milo Kim,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: and Amelia Montu. Our episodes are uploaded as videos at youtube.com
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: slash podsaveamerica.