Latest / Pod Save America / “How we beat Trump.”

Transcript

“How we beat Trump.” · Pod Save America

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I'm Jon Levitt.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: On today's pod, we're answering some of your questions about
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the state of the 2020 race and more. We also
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: have a very special guest today to talk about an
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: exciting new Vote Save America program. Crooked Media's chief content officer,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Tanya Somanator, is here. Hey, campers. Yeah.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: There we go.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Before we get into all that stuff, Love It, how
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: was the show this weekend?
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I'm switching. One of these lights is flickering.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: There we go. All right.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Well, see, now it's making my teeth light up. It's fine. Okay.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Keep it.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: So I have a real problem. I'm keeping it.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: It's fine.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: We had a fantastic Love It or Leave It. We
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: were joined... At long last, by Senator Elizabeth Warren, she
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: agreed to do a quiz where she surprised members of
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: the audience. Also, Cal Penn joined to judge the monologue.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: And John Milstein, played a high school graduate who was pissy,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: had to give a commencement from home. It was all very.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: She did announce that she'll be the VP candidate on
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: your show, right?
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I tried to surprise her with the question, but she
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: didn't fall for it.
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: So I would say that one of the most common
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: questions we get from people is... I live in a
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: solid blue state or I live in a solid red state.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: What can I do to help in 2020? How can
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I make a difference? So we finally created an entire
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: program to answer this question. It's called Adopt a State.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: It'll be our most important Vote Save America initiative between
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: now and election day. And instead of trying to explain
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: it ourselves, we convinced the brains behind the operation to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: join us today. Crooked Media's content queen, Tanya Somenator. Tanya,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: tell us what Adopt-A-State is and how it came to be.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Tell us the story of Adopt-A-State.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: Oh, so the election is going to come down to
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: a very specific set of states. It's just how it is.
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: It's how presidential elections work. But a majority of people,
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: especially a lot of people who are fans of Crooked Media,
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: don't live in those states. And so we were thinking,
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: you know, when we first started thinking about the program,
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: how can we help people who wanna have the biggest
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: impact they can on November 3rd connect with volunteers, organizers,
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: strategists in battleground states to really lend a hand in
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: a way that will actually have the impact that those
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: people need to turn out the vote and get voters
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: ready to do what they need to do.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: On November 3rd.
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: We started talking about that a year ago and turns
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: out it's hard to plan for a pandemic Uh, so we, well,
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: it shouldn't be that hard, but it was hard. Um, and, uh,
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: so we had to put our plans on hold and
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: reconfigure the program to go completely remote and completely digital.
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: And that is what it is now. So adopt a
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: state is now a program where you can adopt one
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: of the six battleground states that we're focusing on for
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: November 3rd. And you'll get calls to action that you
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: can do from your couch that will have There'll be donations.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: You can help people sign up for vote by mail.
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: You can make sure they get their ballots in on time.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: You can make calls to make sure people know when
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: and where and who is running for what and get
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: people out to vote in a very strange and new
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: time for digital campaigning. If you go to votesaveamerica.com backslash adopt,
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: you can see exactly what you need to do to
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: sign up and pick a state and sign up and
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: get all the CTAs that your little heart desires.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: It's forward slash. I mean, everyone says it's forward slash.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: So Tanya, if you sign up to adopt a state,
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: how are you going to learn what that means? How
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: will we train you to be the best at-home field
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: staffer you can be? Right.
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: So, yeah, it's not just we're not going to be like, OK,
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: text this text, Jane, go for it.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: It's scary.
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: You know, like you don't just want to pick up
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: a phone number and cold call into Michigan. That could
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: be rough for anybody. I mean, or maybe you do.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: You know, we don't recommend it. So. What we're basically
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: doing is we're working with a really great group called
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: Organizing Together. And what we're doing is when you sign up,
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: we're not just going to throw you cold into being
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: a digital organizer or being active without any help. We're
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: going to walk you through a couple of trainings with
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: Organizing Together that are running trainings for everybody in battleground
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: states on how to organize and how to help out
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: from your couch or your home. Um, and so we
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: will train you through what are the best practices to, uh,
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: when you're making a phone call, uh, what, how do
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: you text in an effective way? Uh, what's your leadership style.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: If you're trying to get a group of people to
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: do something, which is super fun. Um, I'm really scared
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: for that one. Not sure.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I want to know.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: And, uh, and yeah, just, uh, walk you through step-by-step
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: all of the things that and actions you are gonna
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: need to take and you can practice doing it with
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: people who've been doing it for a really long time.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: So when you get your call to action, you feel
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: really confident in being able to do it and not
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: worrying about it so much.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: And just so folks are like organizing together, they are
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: some of the best in the business. If you listen
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: to my Iowa series, you heard Paul Tooze, who was
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Obama's state director in Iowa in 2008, I interviewed him.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: He's helping run the show. So these are like really experienced,
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: amazing people who will help us win the election and
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: help train you.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Without further ado, what are the states?
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: They're Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan, Florida.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: Don't be like Hillary.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: Don't be like Hillary. There we go.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Hillary Somanator.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: I really, really.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: Wanted to do that in alphabetical order and that just
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: did not happen.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: All right. So we are asking people to adopt one
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: of those states. Then you're going to be on team
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: that state. We're going to try to get competitive between
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: all the people. We're all going to adopt states ourselves.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: We're going to make it fun. We're going to make
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: it fun. We're going to make it fun. It's going
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: to be a competition.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: Which states are you guys adopting?
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I'm going to, so I'm adopting Arizona. I have been,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I've been bullish on Arizona ever since we did the
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: wilderness ever since 2018, really.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: It's all about the suburbs. We got Kyrsten Sinema elected
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: in 2018. We got Mark Kelly there running for Senate.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: He's up by a lot. We talked to a wonderful
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: teacher named Christine Marsh, who's running for state Senate in
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Arizona for the wilderness. We've been following that race. Hillary
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Clinton lost by three and a half points in 2016.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Feeling good about it for 2020. So I picked Arizona.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: What about you guys?
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: What do you got? Love it. All right.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: I have chosen Pennsylvania.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: Pennsylvania.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: And I've chosen Pennsylvania for a simple reason. Pennsylvania screwed
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: the pooch in 2016. You really blew it. And I
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: did get in some trouble for saying that around 2018,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: particularly when we talked to Chrissy Houlihan in the run-up
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: to the midterms. But Pennsylvania did a great job in
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: the midterms, and we're hoping they can build on that success.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: We are counting on Pennsylvania. And so I am here
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: to tell Pennsylvanians... Prove me wrong. You know, prove me wrong.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: I chose I chose Wisconsin. Trump's margin in Wisconsin in
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: 2016 was twenty three thousand votes, which is devastating to
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: this day. And so, you know, look, they've done a
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: lot of really important work in the interim. Ben Wickler,
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: the Democratic State Party chair, has been on the show
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: a bunch of times. They're organizing their asses off. They
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: just won a really important state Supreme Court seat. Ira Madison,
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: the third, is from Wisconsin. They've got cheese curds. And look,
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: I like I don't give a shit about this Pennsylvania,
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: Arizona nonsense. These guys are spouting. We're going to beat
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: your ass because my team is going to be the
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: most dedicated hardware. We're not flashy. You know what I mean?
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: I mean, you do pretend you own a football team.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: That's a bit, you know, a bit highfalutin. I will
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: say the citizens do. I will also.
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: Low key.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: I was going to.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Nothing.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Look, when I think of Wisconsin, like I think Ira
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Madison is the archetypal. And Aaron Ryan.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: We forgot about Aaron.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: We have two crooked hosts from Wisconsin.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: I was just picking a nemesis of John's. Aaron is
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: the nicest person ever and treats everyone with respect.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: So, you know, I will say this as well. Oh,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: this was the joke I was going to make. Here
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: was the joke I was going to make, which is
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: maybe Hillary Clinton was just socially distancing in Wisconsin early
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: because it seems as though Biden and Hillary will be
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: able to have the same number of rallies there.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: You're going to go missing and it's going to be
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: like a team of staffers. And I don't know what
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: kind of barrel they're going to melt you in, but
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: it's going to be. Oh, what?
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Tommy, you're on the one that's going missing. You're the
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: one spreading conspiracy theories that Hillary Clinton makes people disappear.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Touche.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: Touche.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: I'm just making, I'm making a Wisconsin joke. You're going
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: to the deep cuts.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: So guys, you can already see how fun this is
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: going to be.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: It's going to be so much fun. It doesn't matter.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Where you live in this country. You have no more
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: excuses now. You can go to votesaveamerica.com slash adopt. You
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: can pick one of these six states and that is
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: going to be your state and your responsibility from now
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: until election day. You're going to be calling people in
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: that state, texting people in that state, donating money, getting
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: your friends to donate money, getting people to register. And
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: we're going to tell you how to do it all.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: We're going to give you instructions. We're going to give
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: you information. We're not going to spam you, but we're
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: going to like let you know.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: And I'll just say this. If you're listening, all right,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: you're a political fiend at this point.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: You've been paying attention for three years in this nightmare.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: It all led up to this. If you don't start
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: signing up for the stuff we tell you to sign
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: up for now, it was all a big fucking waste
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: of time.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: Let's go.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Great.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: I don't want to step on that really uplifting note,
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: but I do want to say like, you know, it
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: can be, a lot of people can ask the question, like,
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: is this really going to work and are we going
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: to win? And if I put all of this energy in,
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: what is it actually going to mean? I just would
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: love to point to Tommy's now adopted state of Wisconsin
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: where Ben Wickler has been working his ass off to
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: like figure out how to organize in a state where
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: the margins have always been close, and it's always really
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: hard for Democrats to really show up and make a
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: difference and flip seats. And just this summer, in the
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: middle of a pandemic, through digital organizing, through doing exactly
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: what this program is going to do, Democrats and voters
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: surprised everybody by flipping a Supreme Court seat. And it
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: was because of programs like this.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: It was all digital.
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: He was able to organize that way. People obviously had
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: to show up physically, which was ridiculous. But it's going
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: to be, we're going to need that at a national scale.
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: And we're going to need that in every single state
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: in order to actually get the result that we need
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: on November 3rd. And so if you get in now,
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: if you get in the ground game now, you can
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: actually make a huge difference in making sure people know
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: when their deadlines are, know how to get their ballots,
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: get everything in on time, because we just don't know
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: what this election is going to look like. Nobody's ever
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: been in this situation before. So it really is going
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: to take more than just crossing your fingers and hoping
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: that people are out there doing this. We need to
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: do it, too. And so, yeah, so we're adopting states
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: and that's out now. So pick one and we'll see
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: you out there.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: And like, you know, tweet about the one you picked.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Let us know. Post about it. You know, let's get
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: some pride in your in your adopted state.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Send a message to, you know, the human jello
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: shots in Arizona or mini Ed Rendell, my friend here
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: in Pennsylvania. Sign up for Wisconsin.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: I think it's a compliment.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: Let's win this thing.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: I think it's a compliment.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: Let's win.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: Pick Florida.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Speaks his mind.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: We got this. Says whatever.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: Like, you know, every state.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: It's got something.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: Travis is Florida, right?
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: They put French fries in the sandwiches in Pittsburgh.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Okay. Proud of my state.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: We are making Travis Helwig adopt Florida. So that's just
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: a long reason for you.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: To do it. Also, you guys got shit else to do.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: Come on. We all got some more free time all
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: of a sudden.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: This is it. All right. Tanya, thank you. Thanks for joining.
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: Thanks to you guys.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: Tana, also, thank you for upping your game on the
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: Zoom angle today. Normally, it's just the bar cart, which
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: I think sent a message to all of us here.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: At Crooked Media.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Now you've got that beautiful bookcase. This is, yeah, very fancy.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Sometimes there's a bar cart in Tanya's office. Sometimes there's
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: an office cart in Tanya's bar. You know what I'm saying?
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Bye, Tanya. We have fun.
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: Whatever.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: All right, let's get to some of your questions and
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: a big thank you to everyone who reached out. We're
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: going to try to get through as many as we can.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: The first question comes from Iris Henley. If the plan
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: is for Biden's vice president to be the nominee in
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: four years, is Elizabeth Warren's age an issue? I should
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: say that we don't yet know if Biden will only
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: serve one term. He's been noncommittal on that. There's been rumors,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: but it's not the plan yet, but it's a rumor.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: And Elizabeth Warren would be 74 in 2024. Lovett, what
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: do you think?
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: I think Elizabeth Warren has the energy of Paris Hilton
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: right after she emerged from a bathroom refreshed. I just
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: think it's just like not something to really worry about. Like,
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: I just don't like age is just a number. And like,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: we will overcome any allegation that someone seems old if
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: they seem young. And I mean, have you seen Elizabeth Warren?
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: She bounds around like she just got recharged. She's a
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: cell phone at 99%. I'm not worried.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Tommy, do you have anything to add on that?
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: It's tough to look. I can't top that and I
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: won't even try. But I did look back at some
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: polling from last year around this time where someone polled
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: whether Democrats cared about the age of a candidate, whether
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: you were more or less likely to support a candidate
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: over 70. And at the time, 54% of Democrats age
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: 18 to 34 said they were somewhat or much less
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: likely to support a candidate over 70. 58% of Dems
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: 35 to 54. And then 59% of Dems 55 plus, again,
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: said they were somewhat or much less likely to support
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: a candidate over 70. Guess who won? Joe Biden.
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: And Bernie Sanders took second, right? So clearly this is
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: something people tell pollsters, but it seems like they don't
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: actually give a shit. So I agree with Lovett. Like
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: Elizabeth Warren literally sprints to and from events. I don't
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: think it's going to be an issue if she's the
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: VP nominee.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: She walked into our office for that interview and was
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: like a whirlwind, you know, just shaking every hand, talking
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: to every person, playing with every dog. Like, you know,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: her answers are energetic. Yeah, no, I don't think it's
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: an issue either. And like you said, you know, Young
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: people in progressives, young progressives, particularly in the primary, supported
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren more than any other candidate.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: So I don't know that age is that big of
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: a deal. But good question. This one comes from Hogan McHugh.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Thoughts on Biden going on Desus and Mero, but still
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: nothing with Crooked. Tommy, what do you think?
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: So look, Desus and Mero is a great show. He
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: should absolutely do Desus and Mero. Biden should go on
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: as many shows as he can where the day-to-day conversation
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: is not about politics, right? The people who watch CNN
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: all day or MSNBC all day, they probably don't need
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: to be as convinced or informed as much as voters
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: who pay less attention. I would love Joe Biden to
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: come on Pod Save America for a different reason. I
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: think people who listen to this show are very engaged politically.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: They want to hear directly from the candidate they will
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: be voting for to feel inspired to not only vote,
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: but to volunteer, to give money. to get more engaged
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: in the process. So that's why I think it would
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: be beneficial for him. Obviously, he's going to make his
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: own decisions. I do think like the most important thing
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: he can do is reach people who aren't focused on
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: politics day in and day out. But that's my pitch.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Love it. You have anything to add? You got a pitch?
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look, this is an audience of people
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: who are incredibly engaged, who pay attention to the news,
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: and who are going to do everything they can to
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: get Donald Trump out, keep the House, win the Senate.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: And I think it's just a kind of the right
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: thing to do to come and say thank you and
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: to encourage them and to push them to be involved
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: and to remind them why the stakes are so high
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: and why the energy they're about to put into the
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: most important election in our lifetimes is worth it. And
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: so I just think it's, um, it's, uh, a little
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: bit confusing to me because, you know, look, he's got
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: his own podcast and I'm sure, uh, that listener is
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: getting a lot of really good advice, but, um, Uh,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: you know, there's also others that.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Reach more people. That was going to be my point that,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: you know, Dan always says that, uh, time is the
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: only non-renewable resource in a, in a campaign, especially candidate time.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: And I just think if you're gonna have a candidate
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: spend some time doing his podcast, like he does that
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: reportedly reaches about 30, 40,000 people an episode. You know,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: come on Pod Save America, reach two to three million
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: people in one of our episodes, and then he'll get
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: more listeners for his podcast. That's all.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: It's just about- Which is all, it's obviously the most
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: important thing. Look, the bottom line is this is about subs.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: This is about getting those subs on Apple Podcasts.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Well, it's like if we didn't, like it's what Tommy said,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: you want to reach as many people as possible. Obviously,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: and I agree with Tommy that non-political people in a
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: general election, people who aren't as engaged as partisans and activists,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: it's probably even more important. So I do think those
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: are the most important media appearances for him. But you
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: got a bunch of people listening to PSA, you know,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: give him some Biden. Give him some Biden, see what happens.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: All right. Nicholas DeCarrado asks, why does the GOP cry
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: foul about mail-in fraud when statistically it is virtually a non-issue?
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: How has this false narrative become so pervasive? You take
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: this one, Favreau.
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: Me?
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: Me? Yeah, you voter, comma, fraud.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Because they don't want people to vote.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: Oh, it's because they don't want people to vote.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: They don't want people to vote. That's why they're making
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: it an issue. They are scared of democracy. It's something
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: that we have learned so far. No, I think it's
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: also ridiculous. It's even politically stupid for them because... There
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: is no data that suggests that if we had mail-in voting,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: universal mail-in voting, that it would benefit Democrats over Republicans.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Colorado is a universal mail-in voting state. They have Cory Gardner,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: a Republican in the Senate. They have a Democratic governor,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: a Democratic senator otherwise. So the evidence is mixed on this.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: It's just one of those insane things that's become polarized
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: because of Donald Trump. Donald Trump thinks roll-in voting mailing
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: is bad now. And so now Republicans are going to
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: take their cues from him and think that mail-in voting
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: is wrong. It is bad and it's fucking nuts. That's
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: all it is. And they're afraid of more people voting.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: They're afraid of what it will mean, especially if it's
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: people of color, especially if it's young people. And that's
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: been the story with Republicans and voting for quite some
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: time now. So get the news out. That's all. Get
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: that out there. That's all I have to say about that.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Jacob Reynolds says, longtime listener from Texas, the Biden campaign
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: sent out an email recently, including Texas and Georgia as
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: battleground states in 2020. Do you think these are actually
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: viable states for Biden in 2020, or are they being
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: overly optimistic? Tommy, what do you think?
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: Do I think the Biden campaign will be actively competing
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: and spending money in Georgia and Texas come October? No,
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: I do not. It's probably wishful thinking, but I do
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: think it's smart to start with the widest map possible. Build, build, build.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: See how things look the closer you get to the
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: election and then go from there in terms of like,
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: you know, resource allocation questions. But, you know, I think
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: soon Texas and Georgia will be battlegrounds. I'm not yet
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: confident that it's this cycle.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Um, I'll, I'll go with the, a little more confident case.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: I think Texas, I think, I think Texas is hard
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: because Texas is expensive, right? It's like, it's an insanely
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: expensive state to compete in. Um, You know, Beto O'Rourke
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: is down there right now and they are, you know,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: he was saying the other day that a million Democrats
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: moved to Texas over the last couple of years and
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: still haven't updated their voter registration. It's still in the
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: state that they used to live in. So he is
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: right now they're sending ballots, applications for ballots, even with stamps.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: to all these voters who just recently moved to Texas
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: who we know are Democrats to try to sort of
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: get registration up there. So there's some good work being
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: done in Texas. I do think it's hard in a
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: presidential because it's a lot of money. Georgia, I'll make
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: the Georgia case that Stacey Abrams made to me. She said,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: we're a cheap date because it is the state with
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: sort of the most educated, youngest, most diverse population. And
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: obviously the Atlanta media market is expensive, but if you're
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out between Texas and Georgia and maybe
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: some other states, it actually is probably in terms of
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: bang for your buck with a younger, more diverse electorate
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: that has been changing because a lot more people are
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: moving to Atlanta and the suburbs. And especially there's a
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: lot of voters of color that... Stacey Abrams has worked
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: to register over the last couple of years. You know,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: it's a you could get some bang for your buck there.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: And there was a recent poll this week that showed
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Joe Biden up one in Georgia, 48, 47. And we
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: have two Senate races there in 2020 as well. So Georgia,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Georgia's a maybe Georgia's a maybe. Todd Eastman asks, who
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: should the DNC turn to for help producing a virtual convention?
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: It needs to be more than a giant Zoom call.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Love it. You've had a long history in Hollywood. Very
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: successful one. Why don't you take that?
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: You know, this is like the second day in a
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: row I've been asked this question because Axe asked this
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: question during, we did a talk for students at the
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: IOP and Axe asked this question. It's a really hard question. Look,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: the key problem here is I do think this is
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: a bigger problem for Democrats than for Republicans for the
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: simple reason that the convention is a place where a
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: nominee gets to seem big, seem like a president, have
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: a big stage that is usually only reserved for the president.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: So I think that's really challenging. That said, I think
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: there are ways to build events, even while social distancing,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: that look big, that feel big, that feel presidential. I
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: think about Barack Obama giving a speech in the East
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Room where he would walk down that long hallway and
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: and reach the podium in this sort of ornate space
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: and address the nation. That did not require a big audience,
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: but it still felt big and presidential. So I'd be
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: looking at a way to design speech locations that create
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: that sense of bigness, even if we can't have big crowds. And,
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: you know, John, a point you made, I think, is
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: just making sure we figure out a way to hear
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: from Barack Obama, to hear from Michelle Obama, ideally with
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: people in some way, so that we are still programming
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: out over the course of those days, even if we're
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: not all in the same place, events that tell the
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: story of the election and tell a story about helping
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden win.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: There's like a long tradition in Hollywood of Hollywood folks
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: telling Democrats like, we can help, we have creative ideas.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: And usually I'm not thrilled with that. In this instance,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: I actually think that some folks who are organizing the
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Democratic convention Getting some ideas from some creative types, directors,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: whoever else in Hollywood might help.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: I agree too. One thing I'd also add too is
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: I think the other half of this is, okay, so
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: that's about making, I think, the visuals tell the story
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: you want to tell, which I think is really challenging.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: The other piece of it is the organizing that's inherent
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: to a convention and thinking through interesting ways to do
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: teleconferencing that feels engaging, that feels different, that doesn't just
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: feel like Zoom, and that makes these meetings worth attending.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: gatherings that connect people the way they would connect at
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: a convention, I think is also really important and something
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: difficult to think through. That's all.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Kate Staudenmayer asks, I'm a college educated adult, tune in
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: regularly to PSA and the news, and I still have
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: no freaking clue what this unmasking stuff is about. So
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: if it's confusing to me, I have to think it's
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: confusing to the general population. Does it even matter politically?
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Will this really hurt Biden? Tommy, take it away.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: So let's talk about what unmasking is first. So when
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: the intelligence community is spying on some foreign national target,
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: they sometimes pick up those targets either talking to or
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: about an American. And so by law, they are required
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: to protect that American's identity. And in the intelligence reporting,
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: just say, refer to him or her as a U.S. person.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: But sometimes you need to know the identity of that U.S.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: person to make sense of the intelligence. So you can
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: ask for it to be unmasked.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: So, like, for example, what if the person you're collecting
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: on some Iranian person? spy is talking about recruiting an
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: American to join their side, right? You'd need to know
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: who that is. So unmasking is a serious thing because
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: we're talking about the civil liberties of an American. It's
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: highly regulated. It's an audited process. There's nothing nefarious or
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: wrong about it, right? For example, the Trump administration unmasked
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: the identities of Americans 17,000 times in 2018. So it's
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: something that people do as a regular matter, of course.
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: But some things to know, like the Republicans are trying
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: to suggest that this unmasking requests about general Flynn were
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: made by people hunting for information about Flynn. And the
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: reason that's dumb is that by definition, you don't know
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: who you were unmasking until after the fact, right? So
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: you wouldn't know it was about general Flynn until you'd
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: already unmasked it. Sometimes there's a report where a bunch
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: of us persons are mentioned and they're all unmasked at once.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: And Flynn could be caught up in part of that.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: Michael Morrell, who was a former CIA director said, also
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: points out that if you look at who did the
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: unmasking that was released by the Trump administration, it's this
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: wide range of people in all kinds of different jobs.
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: There was White House staff, there was NATO staff, there
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: were counterterrorism people. So that suggests that people weren't looking
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: for Russia info, but rather that Flynn was just like
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: popping up in a lot of places. And that would
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: make sense because he was the incoming national security advisor.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: The last thing that's important to know is like, just
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: because it says this specific staffer requested an unmasking, it
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: doesn't mean that that person personally made that request or
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: even necessarily saw the information. They all have briefers who
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: come from the intelligence community who walk them through intelligence
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: products in the morning. And often those briefers will request
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: an unmasking of an intelligence report in advance in case
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: they are asked. So that's all the unmasking stuff. Just
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: the final point here about why this is so dumb
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: and why I don't think it's going to matter to
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: Biden at all. After the Trump folks released this list
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: of names of people who allegedly unmasked Michael Flynn's name,
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: we learned that Flynn's name and his identity was actually
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: never hidden in the intelligence products to begin with, because
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: the whole product wouldn't have made any sense if you
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: didn't know it was about him. So they like went
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: through this big process to roll out this list of
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: names who unmasked him to try to say, aha, those
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: people were bad, but he was never masked in the
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: first place. So this thing is just a goat rodeo.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: It's a distraction. It's a stupid fucking waste of time.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: feel free to ignore it going forward.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: It's a goat rodeo. It's a goat rodeo. That was
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: a great phrase from the White House that we don't
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: use anymore, but I love it.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: I was trying to think of a simple way to
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: think about this, and it's, so, Lil Wayne was unmasked
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: on The Masked Singer, and nobody believed it was because
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: there was a vendetta against Lil Wayne by the judges.
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: Right, right.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: You know? Something to think about.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: Something to think about.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Dan and I talked about this on Thursday's pod, but like,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: The other thing is, like, the FBI was investigating Michael
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Flynn for all kinds of legitimate reasons, it turns out,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: as he was shilling for all kinds of foreign countries
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: and not telling people as he was about to be
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: national security advisor. And then part of this whole conspiracy
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: is that Barack Obama was somehow trying to, like, take
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: down Donald Trump, which... didn't work so well for a
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: few reasons. Number one, he won the election and all
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: the FBI did before the election is let people know
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: that Hillary Clinton was under investigation and then they found
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: more emails related to that investigation. And number two, after
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Trump won, the Obama coup sort of fell short when
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Obama personally told Donald Trump, hey, watch out for that
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Michael Flynn guy. You should probably get a better national
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: security advisor, trying to be helpful to the new president.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: So the whole thing sort of just falls apart.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: It's almost as if It's almost as if there were
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: a group of Republicans and Democrats before and after the
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: election worried about the future of the country and desperately
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: trying to protect it from what they feared was outside
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: interference and did their best to protect the nation, including
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: warning Donald Trump about it, because they thought it was
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: such a serious threat without regard for the partisan consequences
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: and without trying to help or hurt Donald Trump at all.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: It's almost as if that's what was going on.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: And of course, the other thing. Donald Trump fired Michael Flynn.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: He fired him. He fired him for lying to Mike
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Pence and for lying to the FBI. Why did he
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: do that? Did the deep state make Donald Trump do it?
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: No.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: Tune in next time. Tune in next time. All right.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Enough of that.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Griff Probst asks, in past episodes, I've heard you mention
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Trump having an electoral college advantage. Could you elaborate a
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: little bit on this? What exactly is his advantage?
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: Uh, John, you take that.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: I'll take that. So the advantage is basically what we
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: saw in 2016. Hillary Clinton wins the popular vote by
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: two percentage points. Donald Trump wins the electoral college because
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: in the states that decide the election, and this is
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: goes back to our interview with Tanya. Um, In Michigan,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: in Wisconsin, in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona, Florida, Donald Trump's
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: approval rating is higher than it is nationally. Why is that? Demographically,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: in those states, there are a lot more non-college educated
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: white voters. Those are Trump's base. That is the group
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: he does the best with. You can go through all
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: the different states and the states with higher educated voters
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: and the states that are more diverse tend to be
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: more blue. The states with lower educated voters that tend
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: to be whiter are going to be redder. And so
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump, because you need 270 electoral votes to win
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: the presidency, in the states that add up to 270,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: he has a slight advantage because he has a higher
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: approval rating and there are more non-college educated white voters
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: in those states. And that is why, when we say
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: he has an electoral college advantage, that's what we mean. Again,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: it is possible this year that Joe Biden- could win
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: the popular vote by a lot. In fact, Joe Biden
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: is a heavy favorite to win the popular vote in 2020,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: but it is possible that he could win the popular
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: vote and again, lose the electoral college because Donald Trump
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: sneaks by in Michigan or Wisconsin or Pennsylvania, even as
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Joe Biden runs up the score in California, in New York,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: or gets it even closer in places like Texas and
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Georgia without actually beating Donald Trump. That's what we mean
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: when we say there's an electoral college advantage. It should
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: make everyone nervous and sign up for adopt a state.
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: Yes. Yes.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: Sign up for adopt a state.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Sign up for adopt a state. All right. Jeff Simpson asks,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: I'm a registered Dem and not a huge Biden fan.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: If I lived in a state like Michigan or Pennsylvania,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: I'd absolutely vote for him because the stakes are so great.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: But I live in Oregon, a safe blue state. In
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: the past, I voted third party for a few reasons.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: Safe blue state, protest vote to send a message to
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: the Democratic Party. And small parties gain access to public
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: funding if they receive 5% of the national vote. The
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: third point is the main reason I voted third party
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: in the past. More funding will lead to greater access
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: for candidates, which is good for democracy. So my question is,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: why should I go against this and vote Biden in
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: 2020 when I live in a safe blue state? Tommy,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: what do you think?
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: So look, man. Donald Trump is a monster. I just
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: don't think now is the time to think we're outgaming
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: the system and offer a protest vote. This is my
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: personal opinion. You do what you want to do. But
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: I think your protest vote comes in the primary. And
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: so I would just want to talk to you about 2016,
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: where in Michigan, Jill Stein garnered more than 51,000 votes,
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: and Clinton lost by fewer than 11,000. In Wisconsin, where
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: Trump's margin was 23,000 votes, Stein attracted 31,000 votes. And
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: in Pennsylvania, she attracted 50,000 votes, and Trump won by 44,000.
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: In 2000, when Bush won Florida by 500 votes, Ralph
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: Nader racked up close to 100,000. So I don't want
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: to blame these third party candidates, but you should just
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: know that Republicans want to prop up people like Jill
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: Stein and the Green Party because they know it will
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: siphon votes away from Democrats. So my argument to you
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: would be do not help them do that. My argument
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: to you would be change the Democratic Party from the
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: inside out and make it more progressive by helping more
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: progressive candidates win at every level. But I do not
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: think that this is the year to fuck around and
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: vote third party. I just hope you do not.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, Oregon's not California. It's safe, but it's
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: still not. Who knows what might happen? And I just
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: think democracy is about choices. Elections are about choices. This
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: election is a choice between the vision that Donald Trump
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: represents and the vision that Joe Biden represents. And they
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: are probably the biggest gap between those two visions that
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: we've ever seen. And that is primarily because of Donald
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Trump as president and because of his authoritarian tendencies. And
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: because of his racism and his xenophobia and the climate
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: and what he's done with the pandemic, you could go
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: on and on and on and on. When you walk
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: into the voting booth in November or when you mail
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: in your ballot, maybe more likely, it will be a choice.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: It's either going to be Donald Trump or Joe Biden.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: That's it. There's not going to be any other choice.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: And I think your vote should reflect which direction you
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: believe the country should go in.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: I'll just add also, you know, maybe Oregon won't be
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: close and maybe Biden won't. wins it by a lot.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: That means you're relying on other people to do the
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: right thing, which you recognize to be the right thing
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: to give you the privilege to cast a protest vote.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: So I would point that out, that you're sort of
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: hoping others do the right thing. So you have the
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: opportunity to do something that maybe, you know, feels good
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: in the moment, but isn't actually helping to get rid
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: of Donald Trump. And the second thing I'd say is,
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: if you're really committed to voting that way, to doing
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: that kind of protest vote, here's my deal. You have
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: to demonstrate to me that you got five Biden votes
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: in a swing state. You really mean what you say?
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: I'm actually comfortable with it, sincerely. Like, I understand your motivations.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: I understand feeling like the Electoral College is an unfair system.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: You think you want to vote to show what you
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: really believe should be the direction of the country? Fine.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: You get me five votes in a swing state. You call,
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: you digitally organize. If you're doing that, you can knock
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: on doors, whatever it is. Then I'm in, and then
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: I totally appreciate it.
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: Great. All right.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: A few fun questions. Michael Erickson asks, what would each
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: of you do to celebrate if Mitch McConnell is voted
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: out this year?
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: I would drink a thousand mint juleps. I would go
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: to the Kentucky Derby. I was going to say that.
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: And wear a Get Mitch t-shirt. I will give $ 1, 000
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: to a sea turtle rescue foundation so that his relatives
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: aren't suffering in this time of need. That's about it.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: I can't top that. I was going to go to the,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: I'll go to the Kentucky Derby too. And then, and
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: then drive by Mitch McConnell's house and just honk a lot.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: That'd be fun.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: I remember the night that Obama won and we knew,
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: and I wasn't on the campaign. I just remember that night.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: And I remember the feeling, you know, there was a,
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: there was a piece that I love about, about World
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: War II. And it talked about how it felt at
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: the end of World War II. And the headlines didn't say.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: So you're saying that Mitch McConnell was like, No, no, no.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: I'm just speaking more generally. And the headlines didn't say,
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: I'm making a serious point.
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: We'll see what happens.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: And the headlines didn't say we won. The headlines said
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: it's over. And if we wake up the day after
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: the election and Donald Trump is defeated and we have
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: won the Senate and we're not predicting it, we have
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: to fight for it and it will be really, really hard.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: To me, I don't think I'm going to feel like
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: we won. I'm going to feel like it's over. And
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: that relief and that sense of accomplishment is what keeps
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: me going. I'll tell you that, boys. That was my
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: serious point.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: It's true. Take a couple deep breaths after it's over.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Julia Lillard asks about Ted Cruz's Twitter fight with Tommy
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: and me. She says, it always seems that Tommy gets
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: the most vitriol. Why is that? Why do you think, Tommy?
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: Because of that face. Because of those cheekbones.
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: I think Lion Ted chose to quote tweet me because
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: I didn't use profanity. I think it's probably that simple. And,
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: you know, I considered replying, you know, Ted, while I
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: didn't use profanity, I still think you're an asshole, but
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: I didn't because I'm in a, you know, I'm very mature.
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: And John, you know, I thought you and Dan, you know,
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: covered this Ted Cruz fight well on Thursday, but he's
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: just like, Ted Cruz is a special brand of shameless, right?
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: You can't blame it on Trump. Ted Cruz has been
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: terrible for a long time. He's just a political chameleon
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: who will morph into whatever he thinks will help him
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: in the moment, but he's a bad actor. He's terrible
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: at it. People reject him left and right. And like,
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: What Ted Cruz has done to himself is meaner than
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: anything I could ever say. Trump attacked his wife in
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: like cruel and vicious personal terms. He accused his dad
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: of killing JFK. He gave this big lofty speech at
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: the convention about principle and values in your conscience. And
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: then he completely caved and fell in line and is
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: like the number one ride or die pathetic Trump. lackey.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: And look, I just want to say to Ted, people
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: don't like you, Ted. They never will. You're not going
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: to be president. All this shit where you're humiliating yourself
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: is for nothing. I would prefer to be able to
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: look at myself in the mirror than look at myself
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: in the Oval Office. And Ted just feels differently. So
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: there we are.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: That's great. I just love that. I just what I
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: just occurred to me that like, oh, my God, we're
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: going to have to watch Mike Pompeo And Ted Cruz
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: debate each other in 2024. Yes. Two of the most unctuous.
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: And Tom Cotton.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: And Tom Cotton. My God, it's going to be the absolute,
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: just a bunch of mini Trump stuff.
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: There.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Tom Cotton reminded me, like the question about why Tommy
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: gets vitriol, there's something, there's a certain segment of the
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: right and the right wing loonies who are like, especially
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: triggered by you and Rhodes and Ben Rhodes. And it's like,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: so it's so they're like, so down a rabbit hole.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: of like knowing your backstories and the fact that you
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: guys are like these like villains for them. It's just,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: it's so funny.
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Let me explain one thing. So like when I
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: left the white house, there was an article written about me.
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: It was very nice. Like in the, in the Chicago Tribune,
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: this wonderful human being, Christy Parsons. And it just mentioned
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: that in the 2004 campaign, one of my jobs as
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: deputy press secretary was driving the press van when we
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: went downstate. On top of that, I did, I wrote
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: all the press releases and I talked to reporters and
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: I went to events and I staffed Obama. And like,
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: These Republicans have decided that like working your way up
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: is bad. So they call me van driver. And it's
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: like it's just it's just them telling on themselves that
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: they just shit on people who have like entry level
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: jobs and, you know, work hard and learn things along
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: the way. And it's telling on themselves that they know
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: this much about me.
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: That's not a position of strength. Who the fuck am I?
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: I'm some two bit spokesman from the White House. You
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: should have bigger fish to fry, Ted Cruz.
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like when they go after AOC for being
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: a bartender. But it's, of course, all the more ridiculous now. Like, oh,
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: you're big credentials people now, are you? Are you? You
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: got the real estate sign on? Yeah, we got a
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: dog breeder handing out antibody tests over at the CDC.
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: Jared Kushner printed his Harvard degree himself from home, and
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: now he's running Mitty's Beasts. What planet are we on?
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Tommy's a problem because he drove a van once. In 2004. 2004,
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: Tommy drove a van. He's not qualified. Are you out
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: of your minds?
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: Let me tell you.
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Aleka Rao asks, will you let your significant others cut
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: your hair during quarantine? Love it. When is Ronan getting
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: those scissors?
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: So Ronan gave himself a haircut and he actually did. Yes.
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: He gave himself a haircut. He did a great, he
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: did a good job too. He like, I like noticed like,
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: how did he do it? And he, it involves him
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: carrying a floor length mirror into the bathroom. I don't
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: know how he did it. I am not getting a
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: haircut till this is over. I'm just good. I'm just going.
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: Whatever happens, happens. That's it. No haircuts, no haircuts, no
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: haircuts till, uh, Till.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: Fauci personally puts the vaccine in.
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: I want Fauci to do mine.
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: We've been watching the show Outer Banks in my house,
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: and I'm going for the pogue look. So that means
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: I have a good four to six months of just full,
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: grow it out, flow, just surfer bro, lax lettuce. It's
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: going to be terrible.
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: I'm going to see how big I can get it
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: right now.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: That is a lot of hair from that show. Dustin
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: Growick asks, during these unfortunate and trying times, I'd like
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: to think back to a simpler era. So I'll ask
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: the question no one else dares to. What is your
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: favorite dinosaur and why?
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: I was a huge Triceratops guy growing up. They were
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: my number one. I don't know. They were just like
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: everyone liked the T-Rex. Yeah, sure. They can eat everything.
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: But Triceratops was just a badass. And then there's like
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: this one called the Spinosaurus, which is like a, a
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: 50 foot long, like gigantic crocodile looking thing that hunts
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: on land and in water. And that seems pretty cool.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get mocked for this, but I liked
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: the Brontosaurus because it didn't eat the other dinosaurs.
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: That is so exact.
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: Of course you did.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: Of course it did. Oh, you like the dinosaur that
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: gets along with everybody. Mosey's on over, puts it, choose
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: on some, choose on some leaves. Not going to get
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: anybody upset. Just going to, Come over here, mosey on over,
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: have a couple bites of some big old ancient eucalyptus.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: Go on about my business.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: Let's see you over there. Think you're doing great.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: Love you over there.
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: Hey, everybody.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: Too big to attack. Too vegetarian to cause any problems.
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: The original edible.
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: For a dip in the lake.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: That's me. What do you got, Lovett?
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: You know, look. I have loved the Raptor ever since
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: Jurassic Park. And I know that there's some Descensus... as
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: to whether Steven Spielberg big-upped a dinosaur or didn't totally
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: capture it. But however accurate it is or is not,
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: I love the raptor. I love the idea of a
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: super smart dinosaur testing the fences. Love them, you know,
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: moving there, you know, working in tandem.
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: All right? I love the raptor. Love the raptor. Dinosaurs
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: are not in the Bible, so I'm passing this conversation.
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: Andrew?
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: Andrew Akins asked, what's the best candy? Reese's peanut butter cups. Done.
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: Great one. Have you ever had those wax bottles? You
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: ever try those? It's a weird kind of, people think
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: they're probably gross. They were fun.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: Those were fun.
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: I like Laffy Taffy. I like yellow Laffy Taffy, which
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: I think no one likes. I also love Raisinets. Ooh,
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: I like those.
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: Raisinets.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: I like Raisinets.
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: I know, man.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: I've always loved a Snickers. I think Snickers is the.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: Like Snickers.
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: I think they accept no imitations. Your baby's Ruth, et cetera.
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: I love a Snickers.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: Christopher Fry asks, last question. Love it. What is your
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: favorite Star Wars film and what is Ronin's?
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: This is a very good question. So, I actually think
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: you have to take Star Wars, the original A New
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: Hope out of the conversation. It created the world. It
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: is the original film. So I don't I just think
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: it's hard to compare it to the others because it
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: created the universe. So I don't think that's fair. So
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: putting that aside, I'm going to tell you all that
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: my favorite film when you put Star Wars, A New
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: Hope aside is Rogue One. Rogue One. I love Rogue One.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: It is, and I know it had like a kind
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: of a difficult production and I think it's a bit controversial,
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: my view, but to me it is the most mature
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: of the Star Wars films. And also it shows you
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: the cost of empire from the perspective of people living
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: through it. And it shows you the value of faith
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: in something like the Force for people who don't see
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: it every day and view it as a kind of
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: myth that helps them stay strong and stay in the fight.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: So the perspective on the galaxy that you get from
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: Rogue One is why it is my favorite. And the
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: introduction of an idea as to why the Death Star
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: has this flaw that it wasn't some deus ex machina
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: from A New Hope, but actually born of the plot
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: and the characters from Rogue One is something I always love.
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: That is my sincere answer.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Rogue One.
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: Can I ask a follow-up?
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: Please. Hannah and I recently watched The Mandalorian. Did people
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: think that was good?
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: Yes, Tommy.
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: So, look.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: My Twitter feed.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: Here's the thing. Baby Yoda, baby Yoda.
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: Like, yes, the little baby Yoda thing is cute. It
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: was so fucking cheesy.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: Because it was a Jon Favreau film, my Twitter feed
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: was just filled for three weeks with people telling me
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: how wonderful it was.
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: I thought it was mediocre. But I don't know.
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: The Mandalorian is good in the same sense that Knight
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: Rider is good. You have to think about what you're
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: watching is Knight Rider in space. And it has all the,
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: it has slightly better production values, but all the cheesiness
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: of classic Hasselhoff and Kit taken on problems, you know,
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: going rogue on their own in the world. So I
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: appreciated Mandalorian the same way I appreciate Hasselhoff and Knight Rider.
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: Interesting.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: On that note, we're all done.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: That's it. That's all the time we have. Um, everyone
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: have a great week and yeah, look, Memorial.
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: Day is now over. So that's probably a huge bummer
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: for you.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: But Hey, it's a short week. It's a short week.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: Only a couple more days till another weekend.
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: You know, more house, more house sitting another weekend.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: All right, everyone.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: This was fun. I'm glad we did this.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: Let's do it more often. All right, guys.
• 47:54
  Speaker 4: Bye.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America is a product of Cricket Media. The
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our assistant producer is Jordan Waller.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin is
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: our sound engineer. Thanks to Tanya Somenator, Katie Long, Roman Papadimitriou,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: Caroline Reston, and Elisa Gutierrez for production support. And to
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Nar Melkonian, Yale Freed, and
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: Milo Kemp, who film and upload these episodes as videos
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: every week.