Latest / Vibes Only / Steve Kornacki, Five USB Drives, and the Wisconsin Upset

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Steve Kornacki, Five USB Drives, and the Wisconsin Upset · Vibes Only

0:00
GLENNIS: Welcome back to Vibes Only.
0:01
GLENNIS: This week we have primary results.
0:04
BRIAN: The Wisconsin gubernatorial was a nail-biter.
0:06
BRIAN: Crowley just eked it out over Francesca Hong.
0:10
GLENNIS: South Carolina is dumb versus dumber.
0:13
BRIAN: And Steve Kornacki had a meltdown over some hard drives.
0:16
GLENNIS: For Clickbait or Double-Click, Trump pulls a Taylor Swift to hide from Iran in Turkey.
0:23
BRIAN: Mayor Mamdani takes on a fight with Amazon.
0:26
GLENNIS: And bipartisan hate for Flock cameras watching your every move.
0:31
BRIAN: For our Good Vibe Goodbye, Mayor Mamdani helping New Yorkers find love because it's too damn expensive to date right now.
0:40
GLENNIS: Good morning, Brian.
0:41
BRIAN: Good morning, Glennis.
0:44
BRIAN: It's a good one.
0:45
BRIAN: We have so much good stuff to talk about.
0:47
GLENNIS: I feel like you always have a pep in your step the morning after an election.
0:51
BRIAN: I do when they go well.
0:53
BRIAN: I know.
0:54
BRIAN: I definitely do when they go well.
0:56
BRIAN: And last night meets that bar because we got a lot of really awesome results last night in primaries.
1:03
GLENNIS: Should we talk about it?
1:05
BRIAN: I think we should talk about it.
1:07
BRIAN: Let's tell them.
1:07
GLENNIS: Beep, boop, boop, boop, boop.
1:08
BRIAN: Okay.
1:09
BRIAN: We had primary elections in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, South Carolina.
1:15
BRIAN: Kind of the last really big primary day.
1:17
BRIAN: There are still a few more Tuesdays left, but the big headline races were pretty much wrapped up.
1:24
BRIAN: Of course, the most prominent being the Wisconsin gubernatorial-
1:29
GLENNIS: Yes
1:29
BRIAN: primary for Democrats, where you had Francesca Hong versus Crowley, and it was a nail-biter.
1:35
BRIAN: It was so close.
1:36
BRIAN: Were you watching live?
1:37
GLENNIS: No, I went to bed at, like, 9:30 last night.
1:40
GLENNIS: So you know how I kind of die on the hill of, like, text your friends, relational organize, margins are so small, make sure everyone has a voting plan.
1:48
GLENNIS: 2,600 votes is where we're sitting right now.
1:51
GLENNIS: That is the margin for Crowley to take this win.
1:56
GLENNIS: That is so small.
1:58
BRIAN: Mm-hmm.
1:59
BRIAN: Mm-hmm.
1:59
BRIAN: Especially when you consider how many votes went to other candidates, right?
2:04
GLENNIS: Mm.
2:04
BRIAN: Like, the margin is so small.
2:07
BRIAN: We're talking about right now, just I'm staring at it, it's .5%.
2:11
BRIAN: Watching it live was so stressful because it's rare that we have multi-directional results reporting live.
2:21
BRIAN: For the last few cycles, especially since vote by mail has become as popular as it is, there's usually such a bent in the early vote versus the late vote in terms of how they count it.
2:33
GLENNIS: Right.
2:33
BRIAN: That usually somebody starts with a big margin, and then it moves in one direction, and the question is, like, how much is it gonna move?
2:40
GLENNIS: Mm-hmm.
2:40
BRIAN: Is it gonna cross that line or not?
2:41
BRIAN: It kind of did that, where Crowley started out in front, and then it got within inches, and then she was ahead, and then he was ahead, and then it was literally within, like, .1%-
2:51
GLENNIS: It was crazy… BRIAN: for so much of the night.
2:53
GLENNIS: Then it got called around 3:00, 4:00 AM Eastern Time.
2:55
GLENNIS: Okay.
2:56
GLENNIS: That was my next question.
2:57
GLENNIS: Uh- Did they call it, like, late last night?
2:59
GLENNIS: I saw on Twitter this morning, Steve Kornacki had some sort of meltdown at some point with some flash drives that didn't get delivered.
3:05
GLENNIS: I don't know what happened, but someone tweeted, "This was the most awkward four minutes of television I've ever watched."
3:12
BRIAN: He did.
3:13
BRIAN: He did.
3:13
KORNACKI: 12: 54 in Milwaukee is still not, uh, any, there's any sign of any-
3:20
PRODUCER: They're giving an update right now, but it appears there were some irregularities in the, uh, reporting process.
3:27
PRODUCER: So I think they have to go back to, um, the city location and, uh, do some work there, and then potentially kinda restart that process.
3:36
PRODUCER: That's what I'm gathering.
3:37
KORNACKI: Really?
3:39
KORNACKI: Really?
3:40
KORNACKI: That's, um, so we're back to square one on this
3:44
BRIAN: I was not watching it live, but basically one of the counties was supposed to dri- in some places they literally have to drive USB sticks-
3:53
GLENNIS: Right.
3:53
GLENNIS: Okay
3:53
… BRIAN: that have the results on them, that have all the vote tallies and stuff from the machines, to some sort of central counting location.
4:00
GLENNIS: Mm.
4:00
BRIAN: And remember, we do that because voting machines are not connected to the internet, so you can't just be like click, click, upload.
4:06
BRIAN: And so they have to physically drive them.
4:08
BRIAN: I don't know exactly quite, they had either brought the wrong ones or they had forgotten them, the ones that they needed.
4:13
BRIAN: And everyone was waiting on this one county.
4:15
BRIAN: They couldn't make a call until- Mm … this county had the results.
4:18
BRIAN: Okay.
4:19
BRIAN: And they just had to sit there for 90 minutes.
4:20
BRIAN: And so Kornacki, I think he was being told in his ear, like, "Just vamp, just talk," because- Yeah … that's their prime time.
4:27
BRIAN: People tune in for Kornacki.
4:28
BRIAN: Yeah.
4:28
BRIAN: And the network just wanted him to talk, and he was like, "I'm not gonna stand here and talk for 90 minutes when I have no new information- Yeah to share." That's what, that's what the vibe I was getting from the, the ballot.
4:39
BRIAN: Yeah.
4:39
BRIAN: Maybe that's
4:39
GLENNIS: wrong.
4:39
GLENNIS: It's also like he's not a vamper.
4:41
GLENNIS: He ha- you know, he has his board, he does his thing.
4:44
GLENNIS: Yeah.
4:44
GLENNIS: He's not a razzle dazzle- People, people- … kinda guy.
4:46
GLENNIS: I totally understand the reason why we are not connected to the internet for voting, but so much can go wrong.
4:54
BRIAN: Yeah.
4:54
GLENNIS: In voting, in that way.
4:55
GLENNIS: Yeah.
4:55
GLENNIS: But anyway, we got, we got- Well- … the USB drives.
4:58
BRIAN: We got the USB drives.
4:59
BRIAN: It got called for Crowley.
5:00
BRIAN: Let's talk about what it means, because- Yes … people on the internet were shocked.
5:05
BRIAN: I don't often take loud victory laps, but I'm gonna this time.
5:11
BRIAN: Oh.
5:11
BRIAN: I posted on my story, I usually don't try and make predictions.
5:14
BRIAN: I posted on my story, I was telling everyone in my meetings yesterday, I was like, "No, Crowley is absolutely winning this election." Hong had a 96 or 97% chance of winning on the prediction markets.
5:27
BRIAN: Mm. And I was like, "You guys are all nuts." And obviously it was really close.
5:30
BRIAN: I actually am more surprised that his margin wasn't bigger, but-
5:34
GLENNIS: Okay, yeah
5:35
BRIAN: it doesn't surprise me that he won at all.
5:37
GLENNIS: Okay.
5:37
GLENNIS: Let's talk about that.
5:38
GLENNIS: You also Instagrammed this morning polls are not predictive.
5:42
GLENNIS: Mm-hmm,
5:42
BRIAN: mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
5:43
GLENNIS: I wanna… You know, 2,600 votes is not an alarming amount of votes.
5:47
GLENNIS: It's not a mandate by any means from- No … either side.
5:51
GLENNIS: We talked a little bit about this already.
5:53
GLENNIS: I really do think, and I think you probably think differently, but I think some of those gaffes that Hong had really came to bite her in the ass.
6:02
GLENNIS: 2,600 votes is, I think 2,600 people who are pissed off that she wanted to cancel Thanksgiving and hated cheese curds.
6:11
BRIAN: No, 100% they did.
6:13
BRIAN: That's, that's my whole thing, is like look at the race.
6:16
GLENNIS: We agree?
6:17
BRIAN: We agree on that, actually.
6:18
BRIAN: Uh, out of the context of progressives on the march and the media narrative and the El-Sayed win in Michigan, look at the race.
6:26
BRIAN: She had no backup from national progressives.
6:29
BRIAN: Mm-hmm.
6:29
BRIAN: No AOC, no Bernie Sanders, no Elizabeth Warren.
6:32
BRIAN: Nobody swooping in to help.
6:34
BRIAN: No endorsements of that caliber.
6:36
GLENNIS: Yeah.
6:36
BRIAN: She is a bad communicator.
6:38
BRIAN: I'm sorry, you can like her or her policies or whatever, but was not a good communicator about what she stood for.
6:44
BRIAN: She had n- No signature policy proposals that broke through like Mamdani did.
6:49
BRIAN: She doesn't have, like, the rizz of Abdul El-Sayed.
6:52
BRIAN: She doesn't have the signature policies of a Mamdani.
6:55
BRIAN: She doesn't have the villainous opponent that some- Yeah … other progressives did who were running against 70-year-olds.
7:03
BRIAN: And when you just looked at it in that context, I'm surprised that she pulled as much as she did.
7:09
BRIAN: She wasn't doing herself any favors, and I think had the election been one more week from today- Yeah or two weeks from today, her- Could've
7:17
GLENNIS: recovered.
7:18
BRIAN: No, the opposite.
7:19
BRIAN: I think her- Oh, you think?
7:20
BRIAN: … vote share would've continued to drop and drop and drop.
7:21
BRIAN: Hmm.
7:21
BRIAN: The only reason it was so close is because Crowley literally dropped out for a portion of the early vote, where- Hmm… a huge chunk of ballots in Milwaukee, which is one of his strongholds, were cast while he was not even in the race.
7:36
BRIAN: And so he missed out on, like, a chunk of votes there.
7:39
BRIAN: Otherwise, I think it would've been, like, three points or four points.
7:41
GLENNIS: Right, 'cause Milwaukee is literally his backyard.
7:44
GLENNIS: There's another- Right … wild card I wanna throw into this.
7:46
GLENNIS: There was a New Yorker Radio Hour interview with the co-chair of the DSA that was published, I believe, this weekend.
7:53
GLENNIS: The New Yorker is a very progressive, lib-coded, boomer-adjacent magazine.
7:58
GLENNIS: You said Hong had communication problems.
8:01
GLENNIS: She was a bad communicator.
8:03
GLENNIS: The co-chair of the DSA also has serious communication issues.
8:07
GLENNIS: And that interview did a lot of harm to the party, and I think if anyone in Wisconsin who was maybe considering voting for a DSA candidate listened to that interview, they would've done a full 180.
8:19
GLENNIS: It was a deeply unserious interview.
8:22
BRIAN: To, to clarify, you mean the party of, of DSA, not the Democratic Party?
8:26
GLENNIS: Correct.
8:26
GLENNIS: The DSA.
8:26
GLENNIS: Yeah.
8:27
GLENNIS: Yeah.
8:27
GLENNIS: Yes.
8:27
GLENNIS: And Hong was a DSA candidate, and I think DSA is, is all over the news.
8:31
GLENNIS: We've talked about it, like, ad nauseam on this pod.
8:33
GLENNIS: And that was a real moment for them to come out as a party on a national platform.
8:38
GLENNIS: New Yorker Radio Hour, whether you listen to it or not, is listened to nationally.
8:41
GLENNIS: And it was clipped continuously on Twitter, which was seen by tens of millions of people.
8:48
GLENNIS: To your point on Mamdani and El-Sayed having very strong policies, you said it last week.
8:54
GLENNIS: You knew El-Sayed's three policies like-
8:57
BRIAN: Right
8:57
GLENNIS: the back of your hand, you could say them.
8:59
GLENNIS: Same with Mamdani.
8:59
GLENNIS: I saw the Twitter, uh, clips, and I said, "Okay, maybe this isn't totally fair. Let me listen to it." It was worse than the clips.
9:05
GLENNIS: It was worse than the clips.
9:07
GLENNIS: It was really bad.
9:09
MEGAN ROMER: But we do believe in taxing the hell out of millionaires.
9:11
MEGAN ROMER: Yeah, absolutely.
9:12
DAVID REMNICK: Uh, well, what is taxing the hell out of them mean?
9:15
MEGAN ROMER: Uh, y- yeah, you know, I, again, I don't have, like, a solid… But, but I think-
9:19
DAVID REMNICK: Shouldn't, but shouldn't you?
9:21
MEGAN ROMER: Um, that's a, that's a good question.
9:23
DAVID REMNICK: I mean, if you're the co-chair, if you're the co-chair of the, of the DSA, shouldn't you be more specific than just taxing the hell out of something?
9:30
DAVID REMNICK: What, what, what exactly do you mean?
9:33
MEGAN ROMER: So again, it's democracy
9:35
BRIAN: I didn't watch it.
9:35
BRIAN: I did see the clips, of course.
9:37
BRIAN: I think that it's an interesting result last night in that voters clearly are able to distinguish between progressives and DSA.
9:50
BRIAN: I should say that's one of the potential takeaways from last night.
9:53
BRIAN: It's not the only explanation.
9:55
BRIAN: Like I said- Yeah … candidate quality and other things play a big factor.
9:58
BRIAN: But Hong is not El-Sayed.
10:01
BRIAN: They are not in the same place politically.
10:03
BRIAN: They are not the same ideologically.
10:05
BRIAN: DSA is separate and apart.
10:08
BRIAN: And when you look at their actual platform, to your point, when you really engage directly or, or give DSA an equal seat at the table, there is risk there.
10:17
BRIAN: We should just acknowledge that when you say things like you want the Supreme Court and the president to answer to Congress and sort of upend our three branches of government, or you wanna abolish prisons entirely and things like that, you are losing a kind of voter that is an important part of the coalition that Democrats have relied on for the past 20 years.
10:41
BRIAN: So- Yeah … that's the trade-off.
10:44
BRIAN: And it, it appears from last night like voters distinguish between them.
10:48
BRIAN: Mm-hmm.
10:48
BRIAN: That you can have a El-Sayed or a Mamdani that can get over the line, but that once a candidate is seen as pushing too far into DSA land, that that might just be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
11:03
GLENNIS: Yeah.
11:05
GLENNIS: And you need media training, and you need actual policies that are gonna get you to your end goal.
11:09
GLENNIS: And but that's all I'll say.
11:12
GLENNIS: See- I literally listened to the podcast and I, I wrote down,"Media training," underlined.
11:17
BRIAN: I mean, we've been talking about this for many, many months.
11:19
BRIAN: A lot of the energy behind the left surge in the party, 'cause, uh, it's not exclusively DSA, is about rizz, is about people looking for candidates that can talk- Yeah on a mic, that are relatable, that they see in their news feeds, that think like they do, and talk like their friends do.
11:39
GLENNIS: All politics is local.
11:40
GLENNIS: You can't say cheese curds are trash in the state of Wisconsin.
11:46
BRIAN: We see the Wisconsin gubernatorial race as a must-win election for many reasons.
11:51
BRIAN: For protecting the 2028 presidential, where Wisconsin will be really important.
11:56
BRIAN: For the national popular vote interstate compact, which could help us get rid of the Electoral College in 2028.
12:03
BRIAN: And because Wisconsin is likely going to pass a new, more fair congressional map between 2026 and 2028 if we can get a Democratic trifecta.
12:12
BRIAN: So for all of those reasons, Crowley is going to be our Oath Candidate of the Week.
12:18
BRIAN: We've already raised a bunch of money into a nominee fund that he will get today as the winner of the primary, but people should actually be dumping money into that campaign right now because he's essentially starting from zero and has a ton of work to do to make sure that he wins in November.
12:36
BRIAN: The Wisconsin gubernatorial was not the only primary that we had.
12:39
BRIAN: No.
12:39
BRIAN: We also had Minnesota US Senate race.
12:41
BRIAN: Peggy Flanagan, lieutenant governor, seen as more progressive, versus Angie Craig, lesbian congresswoman who flipped- Oh … a district in, I think, '18.
12:49
BRIAN: I think '18 was her first cycle.
12:50
BRIAN: 16? Peggy crushed her.
12:52
BRIAN: No surprise there.
12:53
BRIAN: I love Peggy.
12:54
BRIAN: That was… Yeah, that was like a 20-point- Lieutenant
12:55
GLENNIS: governor
12:56
BRIAN: margin.
12:56
BRIAN: Yeah.
12:56
BRIAN: Something like that.
12:57
BRIAN: That's a more classic take of where the party is at right now, where you have someone who's validated, held office before, has mainstream progressive views- Mm-hmm … that are very anti-system.
13:14
BRIAN: Made a big chunk of her campaign about ICE.
13:17
BRIAN: Yeah.
13:17
BRIAN: Taking on a, a corrupt government that Trump has used against the American people.
13:23
BRIAN: Against Angie Craig, who is seen as core establishment, extremely by the book, has never been seen not in a pantsuit.
13:31
BRIAN: That's not a lesbian joke.
13:33
BRIAN: Just extremely, like, system- Yeah.
13:36
BRIAN: Mod … coded.
13:36
BRIAN: So that, to me, in 2026, that's an easy call every time, and that one was never really- Yeah … in, in question.
13:42
BRIAN: The last thing that I'll say about Minnesota.
13:44
BRIAN: When we think about 2028, I think that we should be learning more lessons from the Minnesota race than we are from the Wisconsin race.
13:56
BRIAN: And I'll leave it at that.
13:58
BRIAN: Okay, so in Connecticut we got Luke Bronin, who took out 28-year incumbent, something like that, John Larson, who was a- Yeah, he was
14:07
GLENNIS: 78 years old.
14:08
BRIAN: Yeah, he was an oldie.
14:09
GLENNIS: Did you also know that he had a medical incident on the House floor?
14:14
GLENNIS: He
14:14
BRIAN: had a- Yeah, he had a viral moment- … a seizure … where he froze mid-speech, kind of Mitch McConnell vibes.
14:20
BRIAN: You know, people don't like their elected officials who hold their wellbeing in the palm of their hands like a baby bird, having the shakes and looking like they- Wow belong in an assisted living facility.
14:34
BRIAN: So this is now the seventh House incumbent to lose re-election who actually ran.
14:40
BRIAN: That's in addition to all the House incumbents that chose not to run again because they knew that they were fucked, or are so old that they accepted their time has come.
14:50
BRIAN: Five of the seven were over 70.
14:53
BRIAN: We are seeing this retirement party plan that we've been pushing for.
14:56
BRIAN: Yeah.
14:57
BRIAN: Some of them snuck through.
14:58
BRIAN: It's a big win.
14:59
BRIAN: A- anyway, in Connecticut, I'm really thrilled to see it.
15:02
BRIAN: Luke did a great job and raised tons of money very early on, and built a lot of momentum, and he deserved to win, and he won by over 20 points.
15:10
GLENNIS: Former Navy intelligence officer, right?
15:11
BRIAN: Yeah.
15:12
BRIAN: Yeah, the Vote Vets- Good- … came in for him because of that.
15:14
BRIAN: Yep.
15:14
GLENNIS: Good credentials, yeah.
15:15
GLENNIS: South Carolina.
15:17
GLENNIS: Can we talk about that for a second?
15:17
GLENNIS: South Carolina.
15:18
BRIAN: Yeah.
15:19
GLENNIS: I didn't, I didn't- I was not following.
15:20
GLENNIS: I wasn't tracking.
15:21
GLENNIS: I know that, that Lindsey Graham's sister was- Yeah appointed.
15:24
GLENNIS: This other guy who's lost a couple times- Yeah … who's super conservative.
15:28
BRIAN: So now, yeah, we have a runoff between dumb and dumber.
15:30
GLENNIS: Yeah.
15:31
BRIAN: Uh, Lindsey Graham's sister.
15:34
BRIAN: I wish she was named Lindsey.
15:35
BRIAN: Too good.
15:36
BRIAN: But whatever her name is- That'd be weird
15:37
GLENNIS: naming.
15:38
GLENNIS: Yeah.
15:39
BRIAN: And Ralph Norman, crazy guy.
15:42
BRIAN: He's a far right-winger.
15:44
BRIAN: She has no business being in DC.
15:47
BRIAN: It's a lose-lose situation.
15:49
BRIAN: My money is on her in a runoff because he is as extreme as he is.
15:53
BRIAN: It's a little tricky because this was what happened with Cornyn and Paxton- Mm… where in Texas- But it's the Trump card.
15:58
BRIAN: Correct.
15:59
BRIAN: Right.
16:00
BRIAN: And Trump has endorsed her, so- Yeah That, that's true.
16:04
BRIAN: But also, who is her base?
16:07
BRIAN: When you think about a special runoff that has a very short runway, who's gonna turn out to that election?
16:13
BRIAN: No one really, like, owes this woman anything.
16:16
BRIAN: She hasn't done anything.
16:18
BRIAN: She's never voted on anything.
16:19
BRIAN: She doesn't have meaningful ties to, like, big chunks of South Carolina.
16:23
BRIAN: So I, I don't know.
16:24
BRIAN: I don't live there, but I would put my money on her winning the runoff.
16:26
GLENNIS: One other comment I wanna make about Republicans, blast from the past, My Pillow guy.
16:31
GLENNIS: I didn't realize he was running.
16:32
BRIAN: Oh my God, Mike Lindell.
16:33
GLENNIS: Like, what is he doing?
16:35
GLENNIS: Literally, what is he doing?
16:36
GLENNIS: He lost.
16:37
GLENNIS: Good riddance.
16:37
GLENNIS: Thank God.
16:38
GLENNIS: Good riddance.
16:39
BRIAN: Yeah.
16:39
BRIAN: The speaker of the State House beat him.
16:42
BRIAN: Yeah, he's done now, thank God.
16:44
GLENNIS: Brian, I wanted to talk to you s- like, speaking of woke gaffes, did you see… Although this wasn't a gaffe, but did you see the AOC interview where she said woke one was crazy?
16:58
BRIAN: Oh yeah, I did.
16:59
BRIAN: With her baby shots.
17:01
BRIAN: What are they called?
17:02
GLENNIS: Oh my God.
17:04
GLENNIS: She's freezing her eggs, and there's an uproar about this online.
17:07
GLENNIS: But I think honestly, Republicans are just showing their cards, that they actually never really cared about family planning, 'cause freezing your eggs is family planning.
17:15
GLENNIS: Newsflash, Republicans, you need ovaries and a uterus to create human life.
17:21
GLENNIS: Every person comes from a mother.
17:25
GLENNIS: So Republicans are freaking out that she's freezing her eggs, and it's just like, so you actually never did care about family planning.
17:29
GLENNIS: You only wanna control women.
17:31
GLENNIS: Right.
17:31
GLENNIS: I digress.
17:32
GLENNIS: She was on an ABC News interview and was like, "Oh, one of my colleagues said woke one was crazy."
17:39
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: A lot of these races, even right now, they'll have a tendency to be nationalized.
17:45
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Yeah.
17:45
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: But these races ultimately are local, and all politics are local.
17:50
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: My understanding is that, um, is, is that Francesca Hong has made clear her present stances to her electorate.
17:59
JONATHAN KARL: Yeah, she's moved away from a lot of that.
18:00
JONATHAN KARL: Like-
18:00
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Right.
18:00
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: She's moved away from it.
18:01
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: And I have a local city councilman that- Yeah … has this, uh, uh, saying, "Woke one was crazy."
18:10
JONATHAN KARL: Woke one was crazy.
18:11
JONATHAN KARL: Okay, that's
18:12
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: a true-
18:12
GLENNIS: And I think I said this to you, but like how I kind of view woke one verse woke two, it's like woke one is rhetoric and not really policy, and woke two is policy and not as much rhetoric about the wokeness.
18:25
BRIAN: Yeah.
18:26
BRIAN: I am glad that there's language for- Mm … the shift.
18:31
BRIAN: That's a positive thing.
18:34
BRIAN: It makes me wanna have a whole episode and we can go through first wave, second wave, third wave feminism and talk about it.
18:40
BRIAN: But I do think that woke one, I associate it with being politically correct.
18:45
BRIAN: Yeah.
18:45
BRIAN: It was the era where people wanted to like say the right thing, be as inclusive as humanly imaginable, and then add 50% on top of that.
18:54
BRIAN: Yes.
18:54
BRIAN: And I won't say from the very beginning,'cause I'm sure if I like went back in my nonexistent journal or something, I was probably woke one at some point in time.
19:05
BRIAN: But for a long time, my position has always been, you can call me faggot if you vote for the Equality Act.
19:11
BRIAN: I literally do not care what you say or how you say it, as long as you do the things that actually improve people's wellbeing.
19:21
BRIAN: If you're down for equal rights, for non-discrimination law, for women's right to vote, I think that has to be said in 2026- Yeah … then I don't really care all that much about what you say that's like virtue signaling type of shit, and who you associate with, which is probably an even more controversial one.
19:40
BRIAN: But I don't care if you're friends with homophobic people if you're down for the agenda
19:47
GLENNIS: Yeah, I think that we disagree on, on that.
19:50
GLENNIS: Uh, but I do think that there was an over-indexing for using the right words and being politically correct versus actually organizing for elections that would give us incremental progressive policy changes.
20:05
BRIAN: A book that changed my life called Politics Is for Power by, I think his name is Eitan.
20:11
BRIAN: It's E-I-T-A-N.
20:13
BRIAN: Eitan, yeah.
20:13
BRIAN: Hersh, Eitan.
20:15
BRIAN: It is all about how the sole purpose, the exclusive goal of participating in politics is to accumulate and exercise power.
20:25
BRIAN: That is the only reason to do it.
20:26
BRIAN: And I think that we've drifted.
20:27
BRIAN: Woke one drifted very far from that, where it was much more about being right or sending a message or symbolic wins and those kinds of things.
20:38
BRIAN: My core animating force is- Yeah … accumulate and exercise power.
20:43
BRIAN: We wanna do that to benefit everyone, to help normal everyday working people- Mm-hmm … be able to afford their rent, give their kids a better life, all these things.
20:51
BRIAN: Republicans wanna do it to benefit themselves and- Totally … their donors.
20:55
BRIAN: That's why they accumulate and exercise power.
20:57
BRIAN: But at the end of the day, it is literally about power.
21:01
BRIAN: And I think that that is what woke two is gonna be about.
21:03
GLENNIS: Yeah.
21:03
GLENNIS: I will say woke one is still very much alive on the internet.
21:06
GLENNIS: There's a lot of infighting, finger-pointing.
21:09
GLENNIS: Even after the Wisconsin election this morning, I was online, I was like,"Can everyone just take a breath and take a beat and not try and blame and point fingers?" Especially given what we are up against, which is the Trump administration and Republicans consolidating power to take away basic human rights of the American people.
21:30
BRIAN: The one question that I would have for you is, can someone who was loud and out front on woke one be our 2028 nominee?
21:41
GLENNIS: Yeah.
21:42
GLENNIS: 'Cause I think they could own woke one maybe was too rhetorical and less power, action-based.
21:53
GLENNIS: Do you think AOC was out and proud woke one?
21:58
BRIAN: Yeah.
21:59
GLENNIS: She's my candidate for '28, and I think part of this press circuit she's doing or going on the record and saying woke one was crazy is her adjusting for potentially communicating to and reaching more moderate Democratic audiences.
22:19
GLENNIS: To own- Mm … that I think is very powerful, and I think is very persuasive.
22:24
GLENNIS: So yes.
22:26
BRIAN: Okay.
22:26
BRIAN: I, I respect that.
22:27
BRIAN: I-- for me, I would say the jury is out.
22:30
BRIAN: It is going to be hard, not impossible necessarily, but I think it's gonna be really hard.
22:36
BRIAN: The reason that AOC might have sort of cracked the code on it is that she is a flood the zone person, where there's thousands and thousands of hours of AOC saying all kinds of stuff, very similar to someone else that we know who does controversial things and says controversial things that create backlash regularly.
22:56
BRIAN: Donald Trump And so-
22:59
GLENNIS: Got that… BRIAN: the most extreme opposite Mm. Who the only thing that I think a lot of people know about her nationally is that she hates Thanksgiving, that she tried to cancel Thanksgiving.
23:11
GLENNIS: And she tried to walk it back, right?
23:13
GLENNIS: She tried to, to pivot that as woke one to woke two with- without using that language.
23:18
GLENNIS: Did not work at all.
23:19
GLENNIS: And the thing that people remember is, "Oh, this person wanted to cancel Thanksgiving." For you to believably pivot from woke one to woke two, there has to be a really compelling strategy there, and it probably involves long-term flood the zone strategy, where you can't sort of pin one opinion or one hot take on a person because they have thousands.
23:39
GLENNIS: Yeah, and AOC specifically, she wasn't being woke one for shits and giggles.
23:44
GLENNIS: She actually wants to create real progressive policies and long-term infrastructure for this country.
23:51
GLENNIS: When she was asked, "Do you have presidential ambitions? Do you wanna be president?" She said, "I care less about that. I care more about creating long-term policy change in this country that benefits working people." That, that wasn't her exact quote, but she's a master communicator, so let's see.
24:07
BRIAN: Let's talk about the economy.
24:08
GLENNIS: Ugh, the economy is so stressful.
24:11
GLENNIS: You know my elevator's out?
24:12
GLENNIS: Have I told you this?
24:13
GLENNIS: So- No … I'm on the sixth floor, so I'm up and down all day.
24:18
GLENNIS: And but I, I listen to a lot of podcasts.
24:19
BRIAN: What do you guys think about when you think about the economy?
24:21
BRIAN: Glennis thinks about her elevator.
24:24
GLENNIS: No, 'cause it's really hot in New York.
24:26
GLENNIS: The, the higher you get, you're getting less of the AC from other people's apartments.
24:30
GLENNIS: Anyway, one of the podcasts I listened to, and it was about is gas gonna be on the ballot in November, and the fact that people cannot afford $4 a gallon for their gas, and they live in these cities where there is not public transportation.
24:44
GLENNIS: It was Today Explained, and the interviewer kept asking, "Who do you blame for that?" And people who voted for Trump, they were like, "It's Trump's fault.
24:51
GLENNIS: It's Trump's fault that my gas is this expensive."
24:54
BRIAN: Yeah, it's delicious.
24:56
BRIAN: I'm not gonna lie.
24:57
BRIAN: It is really getting me going that he shot himself not in the foot, directly in the face, and literally is so screwed it's hard to even capture.
25:09
BRIAN: So
25:10
GLENNIS: breaking news- Which also,
25:11
BRIAN: by the
25:11
GLENNIS: way, the Strait of Hormuz is still closed
25:16
BRIAN: It's even worse than that.
25:17
BRIAN: I mean, Iran just came out with this list of demands to reopen it that's like-
25:22
GLENNIS: They want reparations.
25:23
GLENNIS: They literally said, "We want reparations." Bananas.
25:25
GLENNIS: If we- Yeah … give the country of Iran reparations for a, a unconstitutional war that we started before we give Black people in this country, who are descendants of slaves, reparations.
25:37
BRIAN: Did you see the poll of K Street on Iran?
25:41
GLENNIS: K Street, like the lobbying street?
25:43
BRIAN: Yes.
25:43
BRIAN: So for our listeners, Punchbowl does a regular poll survey of K Street, which is the street in DC, they just call it K Street, where all the lobbying shops are.
25:55
BRIAN: All the lobbyists who are, like, in and out of congressional offices constantly.
25:58
BRIAN: A bunch of them are Democrats, a bunch of them are Republicans.
26:01
BRIAN: They give very frank answers about what's going on.
26:05
BRIAN: They did it.
26:05
BRIAN: They've been, been doing it for years under both parties.
26:08
BRIAN: K Street leaders view the Trump administration's MOU with Iran as a failure for the United States 91%.
26:16
BRIAN: 91% said that the deal is a failure.
26:19
BRIAN: In fact, over 70% said that former President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran was a more beneficial deal for the United States That's half Republicans saying that.
26:32
BRIAN: That's bananas.
26:34
GLENNIS: Yeah.
26:35
GLENNIS: Did you see the vaccine poll?
26:37
BRIAN: No, tell me.
26:37
GLENNIS: Unrelated to the economy, but speaking of shaking people, RFK Jr. was in the Oval Office.
26:44
GLENNIS: I think what's happening is that MAHA is pissed, a huge base for the administration.
26:50
GLENNIS: MAHA is pissed because of the pesticides.
26:53
GLENNIS: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
26:54
GLENNIS: The fact-- This is like people-- I don't know if people don't know this, but RFK Jr. started his career and became very famous in the environmental world because he won a landmark lawsuit against glyphosate Roundup that allowed people to sue for damages because it causes cancer.
27:10
GLENNIS: There is a direct correlation.
27:11
GLENNIS: Mm-hmm.
27:12
GLENNIS: Cut to he's in the administration.
27:13
GLENNIS: The administration opens the floodgates for pesticides to be used.
27:16
GLENNIS: Trump, I think, realizes he's losing MAHA, and that's a problem.
27:19
GLENNIS: They made this vaccine executive order two days ago.
27:21
GLENNIS: Did you see this?
27:22
GLENNIS: Trump like- Mm-hmm … fell asleep and like farted.
27:24
GLENNIS: No, it was like another one of those crazy press conferences.
27:26
GLENNIS: RFK Jr., I mean, I'm sorry that he's ill, like I really am.
27:29
GLENNIS: I have empathy.
27:30
GLENNIS: But it was a disaster saying that they're gonna recommend-- It's not CDC recommendations, it's just Trump being an idiot.
27:36
GLENNIS: They're gonna recommend less childhood vaccines.
27:38
GLENNIS: And then there's- Yeah a poll that came out, 79% of Americans support requiring childhood vaccines for school, including 68% of Republicans, 66% of those are MAGA supporters, and 91% of all Americans say childhood vaccines are safe.
27:52
GLENNIS: Trump's policies are wildly unpopular, and they are hurting American people, their wallet, their actual health.
28:00
BRIAN: And the economy.
28:02
GLENNIS: The economy.
28:03
BRIAN: Boop, boop, boop, ba-doo, ba-doo, boop, boop, boop, breaking news.
28:05
BRIAN: Just in the last 10 minutes that we've been recording, we got a breaking news alert that the CPI, Consumer Price Index, was just announced from July at 3.4%.
28:18
BRIAN: We're still continuing to see this spike in inflation because gas prices are higher because of Iran, because of the Strait of Hormuz, because Trump wanted to start a war.
28:26
BRIAN: And Trump continues to levy tariffs that make everything more expensive.
28:31
BRIAN: And so in every way-
28:32
GLENNIS: That you're paying for
28:34
BRIAN: While he refunds the corporations.
28:35
BRIAN: Two additional reports came out recently that really characterize how much damage Trump has done to the economy.
28:42
BRIAN: First was a jobs report.
28:44
BRIAN: We were expecting around 80,000 new jobs in July.
28:48
BRIAN: Instead, the economy lost 23,000.
28:53
BRIAN: We had negative 23,000 instead of the estimated 85,000 new jobs Terrible.
29:00
BRIAN: It also revised down earlier jobs reports, which is not super uncommon, but they revised them down 100,000.
29:08
BRIAN: A 125,000 net drop in jobs from just this last one report, where Biden was averaging 150,000 plus new jobs every month.
29:22
BRIAN: So the gap is insane.
29:23
BRIAN: Mm. This other report that really captured 2026 for me more than anything else, the share of national income currently going to workers has hit a record low.
29:34
BRIAN: So when you think about all the money that's being made in America, how much of that actually goes to employees, to people who are producing the materials and services and goods sold for that profit?
29:47
BRIAN: It's down to 53%, which is crazy.
29:50
BRIAN: It's like all of us, all of us are splitting half of the pie.
29:56
BRIAN: Our billionaire overlords are splitting the other half.
29:59
BRIAN: It's crazy to me.
30:00
GLENNIS: It is crazy.
30:01
GLENNIS: The inequality is historical, and it is because of a system that is designed to benefit the ultra-wealthy.
30:11
GLENNIS: Republicans have been working towards this for decades, and Donald Trump is protecting himself, the Epstein class, the ultra-rich at the expense of working people in America.
30:23
GLENNIS: At the expense of you.
30:24
GLENNIS: You.
30:24
GLENNIS: Literally, literally you.
30:26
GLENNIS: It is Donald Trump's fault.
30:28
BRIAN: Let's do Clickbait or Double-Click.
30:30
GLENNIS: Okay, Brian.
30:31
GLENNIS: First one.
30:32
GLENNIS: Trump said to have secretly used military jet to leave Turkey amid threats from Iran.
30:37
BRIAN: Clickbait.
30:38
BRIAN: I think that it's funny clickbait.
30:40
BRIAN: I love the image of Donald Trump cowering next to the flight attendant carts because of his own doing and him bringing about his own potential demise.
30:51
BRIAN: I think that it's funny clickbait, but ultimately not gonna move the needle with voters, not one of the most important things happening in our country right now.
31:00
BRIAN: What do you think?
31:00
GLENNIS: The only thing I will add to that is if you're in the press corps, you're pissed.
31:05
GLENNIS: Because they knew you were used as a decoy.
31:11
GLENNIS: You were-- They, they still flew Air Force One.
31:13
GLENNIS: They knew- 100%.
31:15
GLENNIS: 100% … because from Israel-
31:16
BRIAN: I thought about it… GLENNIS: they said, "Oh, by the way, gonna nuke your, your plane. So pull a Taylor Swift and go into a little cart and get on another plane, but we're still gonna have Air Force One fly, and if they nuke the press corps and the pilots and everyone, it's fine." So the fact that Donald Trump used these people as a decoy to me is like- Not that cool.
31:40
BRIAN: Couldn't they have just grounded the plane and couldn't they have just made- No, because then they'd be like, "Where is he?" And then they would find him.
31:47
BRIAN: I'm- that part I'm actually fine with.
31:49
BRIAN: I think, I clearly think that it's funny.
31:51
BRIAN: I think that that's standard operating procedure from all the movies that I've watched.
31:56
GLENNIS: It's actually not.
31:57
GLENNIS: They're supposed to report on the president's movements.
31:59
GLENNIS: Whatever.
31:59
GLENNIS: It is kinda clickbait-y, but again, if I was in the press corps or, like, had anything to do with that, I would be like, "Okay, I think I'm gonna consider a new gig."
32:07
BRIAN: What's that Harrison Ford movie?
32:09
BRIAN: Is it literally called Air Force One?
32:10
BRIAN: Air
32:10
GLENNIS: Force One.
32:10
BRIAN: Okay.
32:11
BRIAN: The classic.
32:11
BRIAN: Yeah, yeah,
32:11
GLENNIS: yeah.
32:11
GLENNIS: But that's where, like-
32:13
BRIAN: Where he fake jumps out?
32:14
BRIAN: He did the opposite.
32:15
BRIAN: This was the anti-Harrison Ford move where- Trump's too heavy … Harrison Ford stayed to fight for everyone on board, and Trump is like,"I'm getting my ass outta here."
32:27
GLENNIS: Yeah, no, Trump's like- Good luck … "Put me in this catering car." I would've just, like, lost the key- … if I was in charge of that.
32:34
GLENNIS: Like, "Oh my God, sir, I can't find the key. You're locked in here forever."
32:37
BRIAN: He's just stuck with the muffins.
32:39
BRIAN: See ya.
32:39
BRIAN: Okay, next up, fight brews between Mamdani and Amazon over delivery workers being classified as subcontractors.
32:46
GLENNIS: This, I think, is double-click.
32:48
GLENNIS: All of our conversations about what is DSA's policies.
32:52
GLENNIS: Mamdani is one of the most famous DSA of New York.
32:55
GLENNIS: The DSA also, they have their national chapter, and they have local chapters, and I think there's a lot of tension there between that.
33:01
GLENNIS: I think this is really important.
33:02
GLENNIS: I did not know the Amazon delivery drivers that you see hiking up six flights of stairs or working insane hours, they do overnight deliveries now.
33:11
GLENNIS: They're not actually employed by Amazon, nor is Amazon responsible for the trucks that they drive.
33:17
GLENNIS: Right.
33:18
GLENNIS: And that is just to release Amazon from, like-
33:21
BRIAN: With, with
33:21
GLENNIS: Amazon
33:22
BRIAN: plastered on the side- Amazon
33:23
GLENNIS: all over it … of the truck.
33:26
GLENNIS: It's-- I think this is double-click.
33:27
GLENNIS: Right.
33:27
GLENNIS: I think if Mamdani and the city of New York are able to… I think their goal is to effectively unionize them Right?
33:37
BRIAN: Yes.
33:37
BRIAN: Tiffany Caban on city council has a bill- Tiffany Caban … that would basically be like- She's
33:41
GLENNIS: amazing… BRIAN: you guys actually have all delivery services do.
33:46
GLENNIS: You cannot come up with some fake legal structure in order to avoid accountability.
33:51
GLENNIS: Amazon is such a good example of how moneyed interests have broken our system, where they have so much money, they have so many lawyers, they just do what they want and then make the paper trail work for them.
34:05
GLENNIS: They bend the law to their will so that they avoid the regulation that makes us all safe, keeps the markets- Yeah fair, all these oth- other things.
34:14
GLENNIS: So I- Pays people fairly.
34:16
GLENNIS: Yeah.
34:16
BRIAN: Yes.
34:17
BRIAN: Pays.
34:19
BRIAN: Hazes or pays?
34:19
GLENNIS: Pays.
34:20
BRIAN: Oh, yeah,
34:21
GLENNIS: yeah, yeah.
34:21
GLENNIS: Not hazes.
34:21
GLENNIS: They're already being hazed.
34:23
GLENNIS: They're, they're having to deliver Amazon packages in 98-degree heat.
34:26
GLENNIS: 100%. And people are ordering 20-pound weights or whatever it is.
34:30
BRIAN: Yeah, totally.
34:30
BRIAN: This is a double click, and I think that Mamdani is picking the right fights.
34:35
GLENNIS: Mm-hmm.
34:35
BRIAN: And Democrats have a lot to learn.
34:37
BRIAN: I mean, I posted about it.
34:38
BRIAN: Congress has done nothing.
34:39
BRIAN: Amazon manipulates markets- Yes … and is absolutely using monopolistic practices, done outright illegal things, stealing IP from third-party vendors on the platform.
34:53
BRIAN: Yeah.
34:53
BRIAN: All kinds of things, and Congress has done nothing, has not- Yeah lifted a finger.
35:00
BRIAN: And Mamdani in eight months is like,"Boom, we're taking on one of the biggest companies in the world."
35:04
GLENNIS: Period.
35:05
GLENNIS: This one has been hot on the internet wire.
35:07
GLENNIS: I've seen it everywhere the last couple days.
35:10
GLENNIS: "Flock cameras can track every car in America. Police love them. Citizens don't."
35:16
BRIAN: I think it's a double click.
35:17
BRIAN: A lot of this hasn't quite gained traction over the last couple of years, but it's hitting a sort of tipping point.
35:24
BRIAN: When it comes to Flock cameras, all of the AI-driven surveillance, I think back to the Patriot Act and post 9/11-
35:33
GLENNIS: Yeah… BRIAN: period of time when motivating issues for voters and were being debated every day- Mm in par- as part of the national conversation.
35:44
GLENNIS: As we all got more comfortable with people posting every second of their lives online, it faded somewhat.
35:51
GLENNIS: Yeah.
35:52
GLENNIS: And now that it's robots that are policing us- Yeah … and ticketing us and rejecting us from things and interviewing us, people are way more motivated by it again.
36:03
GLENNIS: So it's a double click.
36:04
GLENNIS: I definitely feel like it's an invasion.
36:06
GLENNIS: There's talks of states using Flock cameras to track cross-border abortion access.
36:11
GLENNIS: It's too much.
36:13
GLENNIS: It's too much.
36:14
GLENNIS: I would prefer not to have a flock camera tracking my every move.
36:17
GLENNIS: Also, I can imagine they're very easily hacked.
36:20
BRIAN: Yeah.
36:21
GLENNIS: That's not good.
36:21
GLENNIS: People should care about this.
36:24
BRIAN: People should care.
36:25
BRIAN: What do you think?
36:25
BRIAN: Should we send them off with a good vibe?
36:27
GLENNIS: Yeah.
36:27
GLENNIS: I have a good vibe of the week, and I need you to be a little patient'cause I have to kind of explain why I think it's a good vibe.
36:33
GLENNIS: But on the internet- Tell me, tell me … there's trend of people all over the country, and if not the world, pointing to a pothole or something saying, "Mamdani, I need you to fix this."'Cause to your earlier point, Mamdani's picking the right battles.
36:47
GLENNIS: He's doing the right things.
36:48
GLENNIS: And even New York City, you know, in the first 60 days, he did a lot of things that were very tangible for people, like the bike ramp off the Williamsburg Bridge and, and all these different things.
36:57
GLENNIS: So there's a video that went very viral of someone outside the Brooklyn Museum pointing and saying, "Mamdani, there's something here I need you to fix." And it's a guy, and he's saying, "My man, he's not there. I need you to find me a partner or a date." I don't know if you saw this on his Instagram.
37:12
GLENNIS: His team took that.
37:13
GLENNIS: They, like, framed that, and they said,"Actually, we have a bunch of summer programming in the city of New York that the mayor's office puts together.
37:19
GLENNIS: There's plenty of opportunities for meet cutes." I know we were talking about dating- Where are we at?
37:24
GLENNIS: … last episode, and it, it's almost as though the mayor heard us talking about how it's too expensive to date.
37:31
GLENNIS: And on his Instagram, he posted across all the boroughs these amazing community events, movies under the stars, stitch knitting and crocheting, date night at The Met, Summer Streets, Bryant Park movie nights, paint studios, Sunday socials at Queens Theatre.
37:48
GLENNIS: So there's plenty of things to do in the city of New York this summer, and it just felt like a great use of the mayor's office.
37:54
BRIAN: God, I love New York.
37:55
BRIAN: It's so good.
37:56
BRIAN: That's so
37:57
GLENNIS: epic.
37:57
GLENNIS: He really is.
37:58
GLENNIS: It's so good.
37:59
GLENNIS: Just such an expert use of digital communication and seeing the trends that are being specifically directed at him and the office of the mayor, and marketing a really amazing program in the city of New York for the summer.
38:12
GLENNIS: So bravo, as per usual, to the office of Mayor Mamdani.
38:16
BRIAN: Nailed it.
38:18
BRIAN: All right, y'all, have a good week.
38:19
BRIAN: We'll be back here, same time, same place next week.
38:22
BRIAN: If you still haven't left us a review, run and do that right away.
38:26
BRIAN: It helps other people find the pod, and we wanna make sure everyone's tuned in for the midterms.
38:31
BRIAN: We will see you next week