Latest / Pod Save America / Harris and Walz Meet the Press
Transcript
- 0:20Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
- 0:22Speaker 2: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
- 0:23Speaker 1: On today's show, Donald Trump now wants you to believe
- 0:25Speaker 1: he's a champion of reproductive rights. His campaign also continues
- 0:29Speaker 1: their fight with the U.S. military over Trump's visit to
- 0:31Speaker 1: Arlington National Cemetery. Always a fight you want to pick.
- 0:35Speaker 1: And we got a whole raft of new polls showing
- 0:38Speaker 1: an extremely tight race. But first, Kamala Harris and Tim
- 0:43Speaker 1: Walz sat down for their first TV interview since becoming
- 0:46Speaker 1: the Democratic ticket. And the world will never be the same.
- 0:50Speaker 1: That's right, it's 10 p.m. Eastern as we're recording this.
- 0:54Speaker 1: About four hours later than we usually record. because we
- 0:57Speaker 1: were not about to let this episode of Pod Save
- 1:00Speaker 1: America become overtaken by events.
- 1:02Speaker 2: Knock on wood. You have no idea what's going to
- 1:04Speaker 2: happen between now and 6 a.m. tomorrow.
- 1:06Speaker 1: It's... Okay. Yeah, well, you know what? It's 10.15 East
- 1:09Speaker 1: Coast time now, so I'm willing to take my chances.
- 1:12Speaker 2: Okay, we'll see.
- 1:13Speaker 1: How about that? I just put it out there. So, anyway,
- 1:16Speaker 1: we waited around for CNN to air Dana Bash's interview
- 1:19Speaker 1: with Harris and Walls, which they sat down for after
- 1:21Speaker 1: wrapping up a bus tour through southern Georgia. Not surprisingly...
- 1:26Speaker 1: When the first excerpt of the interview dropped today, it
- 1:28Speaker 1: was Dana asking Harris about why she's changed positions on
- 1:31Speaker 1: some key issues from past campaigns. Let's listen.
- 1:35Speaker 3: Do you still want to ban fracking?
- 1:38Speaker 4: No, and I made that clear on the debate stage
- 1:41Speaker 4: in 2020, that I would not ban fracking. As vice president,
- 1:45Speaker 4: I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not
- 1:48Speaker 4: ban fracking. My values have not changed. So that is
- 1:52Speaker 4: the reality of it. And four years of being vice president,
- 1:55Speaker 4: I'll tell you, one of the aspects, to your point,
- 1:58Speaker 4: is traveling the country extensively. I mean, I'm here in Georgia.
- 2:02Speaker 4: I think somebody told me 17 times since I've been
- 2:05Speaker 4: vice president in Georgia alone. I believe it is important
- 2:09Speaker 4: to build consensus. And it is important to find a
- 2:14Speaker 4: common place of understanding of where we can actually solve problems.
- 2:18Speaker 1: All right, Dan, so we knew this one was coming,
- 2:21Speaker 1: and so did Kamala Harris. How do you think she did?
- 2:23Speaker 3: Great.
- 2:24Speaker 2: It's the right answer. She didn't get weighed down in
- 2:27Speaker 2: the details of it. She didn't let Dana Bash play
- 2:29Speaker 2: gotcha with her. She just laid it out on message
- 2:31Speaker 2: in a way that I think is easily understood to
- 2:34Speaker 2: people because unlike politicians, people change their mind all the
- 2:37Speaker 2: time and they're allowed to do so when they get
- 2:39Speaker 2: new information of different experiences. So I think it was
- 2:42Speaker 2: a good answer to a question that they have known
- 2:44Speaker 2: was coming since the day she became the nominee.
- 2:48Speaker 1: That line, my values haven't changed, she repeated several times.
- 2:52Speaker 1: I saw some folks on the Harris campaign tweeting that. Clearly, like,
- 2:57Speaker 1: they wanted that to be the message that people take
- 3:00Speaker 1: away from that. And, you know, basically, it's like two
- 3:04Speaker 1: parts to this answer. Like, one, my values haven't changed, but,
- 3:08Speaker 1: and you heard her at the end there talk about,
- 3:10Speaker 1: you know, as I've been vice president and traveled around
- 3:13Speaker 1: the country, like, one thing I've learned is how to
- 3:15Speaker 1: build consensus. She's also trying to signal that, like, and,
- 3:18Speaker 1: you know, she did this in her convention speech as
- 3:20Speaker 1: well when she said, I'll be a president who's practical,
- 3:23Speaker 1: who's realistic, She wants to convey that she has these
- 3:27Speaker 1: deeply held values that are not changing. But in terms
- 3:31Speaker 1: of how she gets to a solution, she is willing
- 3:34Speaker 1: to compromise, work with other people, find consensus, which I
- 3:38Speaker 1: think is pretty smart. I thought it was a great answer.
- 3:40Speaker 1: I thought it's going to like get her through. It
- 3:43Speaker 1: got her through this interview very well. I do think
- 3:46Speaker 1: that during the debate, she will probably get pushed back.
- 3:53Speaker 1: even harder either by the moderators or definitely by Donald
- 3:56Speaker 1: Trump on some of these. Like, okay, so you changed
- 3:59Speaker 1: your mind. You're not for fracking anymore. You're not for,
- 4:05Speaker 1: you know, decriminalizing border crossings anymore. Like what made you
- 4:09Speaker 1: change your mind? Why did you change your mind? And so,
- 4:11Speaker 1: you know, I'm sure they are workshopping like one additional
- 4:15Speaker 1: answer if she continues to get pushed on it. But
- 4:18Speaker 1: I don't think, I don't think she should have gone
- 4:20Speaker 1: there during this interview because you don't want to make
- 4:22Speaker 1: The whole interview, which was 18 minutes, all about you
- 4:26Speaker 1: defending your past positions or talking about why you changed
- 4:29Speaker 1: your mind or whatever.
- 4:30Speaker 2: Yeah, you're going to need a specific answer for some
- 4:32Speaker 2: of the specific changes. And Dana Bass tried to get
- 4:34Speaker 2: her there. She was like, you know, is there a
- 4:36Speaker 2: specific science you looked at? And you could see that
- 4:40Speaker 2: in a debate, although it's just hard to imagine. Trump
- 4:42Speaker 2: will push her on it. but it's hard to imagine
- 4:44Speaker 2: him like pushing her in the way in which Kamala
- 4:46Speaker 2: Harris will probably push Trump, like in a sort of
- 4:48Speaker 2: a lawyer cross-examination sort of way. I'll just probably just
- 4:50Speaker 2: sort of yell at her and assert positions for her.
- 4:52Speaker 2: But you're going to need some specifics.
- 4:53Speaker 1: Because he doesn't know what he's talking about. Right.
- 4:55Speaker 2: He doesn't understand the previous position, doesn't understand the current position.
- 4:59Speaker 1: Doesn't know what fracking is, doesn't really know what decriminalizing
- 5:01Speaker 1: border crossings are. He doesn't know any of that.
- 5:03Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 5:04Speaker 1: Speaking of Trump, he did jump on the phrase, my
- 5:07Speaker 1: values have not changed in a truth social post where
- 5:10Speaker 1: he said he agreed with her. Her values haven't changed.
- 5:13Speaker 1: And that quote, The border is going to remain open,
- 5:16Speaker 1: zero fracking, et cetera, et cetera. So clearly an attempt
- 5:19Speaker 1: by him to saddle Kamala with her old positions. You
- 5:23Speaker 1: think that'll work?
- 5:24Speaker 2: Well, not him truthing about it or whatever he's going
- 5:27Speaker 2: to do next. There's tens and tens of millions of
- 5:30Speaker 2: dollars of money that's going to be spent on TV
- 5:33Speaker 2: over the next 11 weeks here or whatever it is.
- 5:35Speaker 2: And they can do that, right? Not that many people
- 5:37Speaker 2: will see this interview, even though all of Washington waited
- 5:40Speaker 2: for this as if it was– inauguration itself. There was
- 5:44Speaker 2: so much anticipation about this interview. I mean, we're recording
- 5:46Speaker 2: four hours later.
- 5:47Speaker 1: We had countdown clocks earlier in the week.
- 5:50Speaker 2: People like this very seriously. And look, it's important. You
- 5:53Speaker 2: should do interviews. She did it. It went very well.
- 5:55Speaker 2: But what was said in this interview is going to
- 5:57Speaker 2: be less consequential over the course of the next several
- 6:01Speaker 2: months than how this argument plays out in television and
- 6:06Speaker 2: digital advertising. There will be ads that just simply assert
- 6:10Speaker 2: that she is for banning fracking in Pennsylvania. And how
- 6:13Speaker 2: you effectively push back on that is going to be key.
- 6:16Speaker 1: Yes. And I do think that part of the way
- 6:19Speaker 1: you push back on that is bringing the debate forward
- 6:21Speaker 1: and talking about the future and what you're going to
- 6:23Speaker 1: do versus what Donald Trump's going to do. And I
- 6:26Speaker 1: think she did that a lot. I think it was
- 6:28Speaker 1: great too when Dana Bash asked like, what would your
- 6:30Speaker 1: priority be on day one? You know, she didn't like
- 6:33Speaker 1: name a specific executive order. Executive orders are tough these
- 6:36Speaker 1: days since they continue to get overturned by the Supreme Court.
- 6:39Speaker 1: And she didn't even name a specific piece of legislation,
- 6:41Speaker 1: but she said, the middle class is my priority. Like
- 6:44Speaker 1: day one, I'm going to talk about how to strengthen
- 6:46Speaker 1: the middle class, how to expand the middle class. And
- 6:48Speaker 1: she started talking about some of her policies that she
- 6:50Speaker 1: has already proposed regarding bringing down costs of groceries, of housing,
- 6:56Speaker 1: et cetera. And she actually got a chyron on CNN
- 7:00Speaker 1: when she said this, that I'm sure the campaign just loved.
- 7:04Speaker 1: And the chyron just says, Kamala Harris, day one priority
- 7:08Speaker 1: is the middle class. That's like a fucking pollster's dream, Dan.
- 7:12Speaker 2: Put it in an ad, people. Put it in an ad.
- 7:15Speaker 1: Another question we knew was coming was how Harris feels
- 7:17Speaker 1: about Trump calling her race and identity into question. Here's
- 7:21Speaker 1: that exchange.
- 7:22Speaker 3: What I want to ask you about is what he
- 7:25Speaker 3: said last month. He suggested that you happened to turn
- 7:28Speaker 3: black recently for political purposes, questioning a core part of
- 7:33Speaker 3: your identity. Yeah.
- 7:37Speaker 4: Any same old tired playbook. Next question, please.
- 7:42Speaker 1: That's it?
- 7:43Speaker 4: That's it.
- 7:43Speaker 3: Okay.
- 7:45Speaker 1: I absolutely loved that response. I'm sure there are some
- 7:49Speaker 1: people who may have wanted to hear a more visceral
- 7:53Speaker 1: response from her or hear her attack Trump for this.
- 7:56Speaker 1: Why do you think that she and her team decided
- 7:59Speaker 1: to brush it off?
- 8:01Speaker 2: Because they are smart. They have watched the last nine
- 8:03Speaker 2: years of democratic politics and learned something. which is you
- 8:07Speaker 2: cannot follow Trump down his rabbit holes. This is what
- 8:10Speaker 2: he wants to talk about. He wants to make it
- 8:12Speaker 2: about race. If she were to respond to that, that
- 8:15Speaker 2: would be the headlines of this whole piece. Not what
- 8:18Speaker 2: she would do for the middle class, not how she
- 8:20Speaker 2: would secure the border, any of that. It would be Harris,
- 8:23Speaker 2: Trump spar over her race. And she understands, as Barack
- 8:28Speaker 2: Obama did, that the best way to deal with this
- 8:30Speaker 2: is to push it aside and pivot. And it can
- 8:32Speaker 2: be incredibly frustrating because it is such a What he
- 8:37Speaker 2: does is so offensive that it feels like you have
- 8:39Speaker 2: to call it out. But our outrage is often his fuel.
- 8:43Speaker 2: So we take it, we brush it off, which drives
- 8:46Speaker 2: him fucking nuts, which is a huge bonus, and move
- 8:49Speaker 2: on to something else. And she did this. The moment
- 8:52Speaker 2: when I was most confident that Kamala Harris was going
- 8:55Speaker 2: to be a great presidential candidate was the day when
- 8:59Speaker 2: he brought up this attack at the National Association of
- 9:01Speaker 2: Black Journalists Conference. And she was speaking in front of
- 9:04Speaker 2: a convention of a black sorority And she stood up
- 9:08Speaker 2: there and just, she smiled, chuckled, and then said, same
- 9:12Speaker 2: old stuff and moved on. It's like, she's got it.
- 9:15Speaker 2: She has figured this out. She knows how to talk
- 9:17Speaker 2: about Trump. She knows how to drive him insane. She
- 9:19Speaker 2: knows how to make this campaign be on her terms,
- 9:21Speaker 2: not his. I thought it was great. I loved it
- 9:23Speaker 2: so much.
- 9:24Speaker 1: Donald Trump has made an entire career out of saying
- 9:29Speaker 1: and doing sexist and racist and xenophobic shit. That is
- 9:34Speaker 1: who he is. And every time he does it, calling
- 9:39Speaker 1: it out does not do anything else. It makes the
- 9:43Speaker 1: person who calls it out feel better. It probably makes
- 9:45Speaker 1: a lot of us feel better, who feel the same way.
- 9:48Speaker 1: We're trying to win an election here by moving and
- 9:50Speaker 1: persuading voters. Donald Trump was elected president saying these things already.
- 9:55Speaker 1: And like you said, he would like nothing more than
- 9:58Speaker 1: to have the entire campaign about her reactions to his provocations.
- 10:04Speaker 1: That is what he wants. That is what his campaign wants.
- 10:07Speaker 1: That is how they think they'll win. And the Harris
- 10:09Speaker 1: campaign is incredibly smart and not taking the bait. And
- 10:13Speaker 1: like you said, it is a lesson that has been
- 10:15Speaker 1: learned over many years. I think the Biden campaign did
- 10:17Speaker 1: a pretty good job of that in 2020 as well.
- 10:20Speaker 1: not taking the bait. I think there were a lot
- 10:21Speaker 1: of lessons learned from Hillary's campaign in 2016 before we
- 10:25Speaker 1: knew what worked for Trump. So it's understandable. But I
- 10:30Speaker 1: think I'm just, I was very, very happy with that answer.
- 10:33Speaker 1: Dana also asked Harris if she would appoint a Republican
- 10:36Speaker 1: to a cabinet post. And it seemed to surprise Kamala
- 10:39Speaker 1: in a pleasant way. Let's take a listen.
- 10:41Speaker 3: You had a lot of Republican speakers at the convention.
- 10:44Speaker 3: Will you appoint a Republican to your cabinet? Yes, I would.
- 10:48Speaker 3: Anyone in mind?
- 10:49Speaker 4: No one in particular in mind. We've got 68 days
- 10:52Speaker 4: to go with this election, so I'm not putting the
- 10:54Speaker 4: cart before the horse, but I would. I think it's
- 10:57Speaker 4: really important. I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion.
- 11:05Speaker 4: I think it's important to have people at the table
- 11:07Speaker 4: when some of the most important decisions are being made
- 11:10Speaker 4: that have different views, different experiences. And I think it
- 11:14Speaker 4: would be to the benefit of the American public to
- 11:17Speaker 4: have a member of my cabinet.
- 11:18Speaker 1: Who was a Republican. So our Never Trump Pal, Sarah Longwell,
- 11:23Speaker 1: suggested on Twitter that Kamala name Mitt Romney for Treasury.
- 11:27Speaker 1: What do you think about that? And then maybe he's actually,
- 11:29Speaker 1: it's a package deal. He's going to come with Paul
- 11:31Speaker 1: Ryan as budget director.
- 11:32Speaker 2: Look, put the Paul Ryan thing aside. And I say
- 11:34Speaker 2: this with all respect for Sarah Longwell, who's one of
- 11:37Speaker 2: the smartest people in politics, but abso-fucking-lutely not. That is
- 11:40Speaker 2: an insane idea.
- 11:41Speaker 1: I kind of think Sarah was just trolling us. She is.
- 11:43Speaker 2: I consider me trolled.
- 11:45Speaker 1: I think it was a joke.
- 11:46Speaker 2: I think the idea that we would appoint a multimillionaire
- 11:49Speaker 2: private equity executive who ran on cutting taxes for the
- 11:52Speaker 2: rich and raising them on the middle class as our
- 11:54Speaker 2: treasury secretary is insane. We cannot do that. I already
- 11:57Speaker 2: know what job this Republican will have. It'll be transportation secretary.
- 12:01Speaker 2: It's always transportation secretary. Ray LaHood.
- 12:05Speaker 1: Who was great. We loved Ray LaHood.
- 12:06Speaker 2: Ray LaHood was great, but he was our Republican.
- 12:08Speaker 1: I still love Ray LaHood.
- 12:08Speaker 4: Sorry.
- 12:09Speaker 2: George W.
- 12:09Speaker 4: Bush.
- 12:10Speaker 2: Similarly, appointing a Democrat to his cabinet, it was Norman Etta,
- 12:13Speaker 2: Transportation Secretary. So there was some never-Trump Republican running around
- 12:16Speaker 2: out there. Maybe Trump, maybe it's like Jeff Flake or
- 12:19Speaker 2: someone like that who's been drummed out of Congress by Trump,
- 12:21Speaker 2: who is going to be the Transportation Secretary in 2025, guaranteed.
- 12:25Speaker 1: Make Adam Kinzinger VA secretary.
- 12:28Speaker 2: That is another option. How about that? I would love that.
- 12:30Speaker 1: There's plenty of cabinet jobs that are not like, look, you're.
- 12:33Speaker 2: Not- You can't do the big three.
- 12:35Speaker 1: Well, the man we worked for- I know, we did.
- 12:38Speaker 1: Defense secretary, there were a few Republicans defense secretary.
- 12:42Speaker 2: In hindsight, did we possibly regret that?
- 12:45Speaker 1: You know what? We'll pause here and Rhodes and Tommy
- 12:47Speaker 1: are listening. They can pick it up on Pod Save
- 12:49Speaker 1: the World.
- 12:49Speaker 4: That's right.
- 12:51Speaker 1: The thoughts on our Republican defense secretaries. Uh, anyway, um, no,
- 12:55Speaker 1: I thought it was, I think it's a great idea
- 12:57Speaker 1: to do though. It, it, look, it's, it's a simple
- 12:59Speaker 1: little thing, but it is a, an important signal to
- 13:02Speaker 1: the electorate about who she is and what she stands
- 13:05Speaker 1: for and how she'd govern. And it is important for
- 13:08Speaker 1: her to do that more than it would have been
- 13:10Speaker 1: for Joe Biden because people, a lot of voters still
- 13:14Speaker 1: want to know more about her before they make up
- 13:16Speaker 1: their mind to vote for her. And this is a
- 13:17Speaker 1: signal that she is going, and she also talked in
- 13:20Speaker 1: the people, they want their politicians, whether you're on the
- 13:26Speaker 1: left or on the right or in the center, you
- 13:28Speaker 1: don't have to be a centrist to want this. There's
- 13:30Speaker 1: just a vast majority of voters want their leaders to
- 13:34Speaker 1: seek consensus. That's just what they want.
- 13:36Speaker 2: I assumed based on all of the tweeting about this
- 13:39Speaker 2: from various people on the Harris-Walls campaign and the fact
- 13:42Speaker 2: that they put out a statement or press release sort
- 13:44Speaker 2: of announcing that she said this, that this was their
- 13:46Speaker 2: planned piece of news for the interview. I thought it
- 13:49Speaker 2: was very smart. But now that I've watched it, it
- 13:50Speaker 2: seems like.
- 13:52Speaker 1: No, it doesn't seem like it was me because she
- 13:53Speaker 1: seemed surprised.
- 13:54Speaker 2: But sometimes it's better to be lucky than good because
- 13:55Speaker 2: she gave the exact right answer.
- 13:58Speaker 1: So the fun part of the interview, which Dana and
- 14:01Speaker 1: CNN teased very effectively this afternoon many times by promising
- 14:05Speaker 1: a TMI answer, was Harris's account of the moment Joe
- 14:09Speaker 1: Biden called her to say he was dropping out. Again,
- 14:12Speaker 1: Dana said, like, what were you doing? And she said, well,
- 14:14Speaker 1: let me tell you, maybe this is TMI, too much information.
- 14:18Speaker 1: And we were all left wondering. What could she have
- 14:20Speaker 1: possibly been doing when the president of the United States
- 14:23Speaker 1: called her to tell her he was stepping aside from
- 14:25Speaker 1: the race? Let's listen. It was a Sunday.
- 14:27Speaker 4: So here, I'll give you a little too much information.
- 14:31Speaker 4: Go for it.
- 14:31Speaker 3: There's no such thing, Madam Vice President.
- 14:34Speaker 4: My family was staying with us, including my baby nieces.
- 14:41Speaker 4: And we had just had pancakes and You know, Auntie,
- 14:47Speaker 4: can I have more bacon? Yes, I'll make you more bacon.
- 14:49Speaker 4: And then we were sitting down to do a puzzle.
- 14:57Speaker 4: And the phone rang, and it was Joe Biden. And
- 15:01Speaker 4: he told me what he had decided to do. And
- 15:06Speaker 4: I asked him, are you sure? And he said yes.
- 15:11Speaker 4: And that's how I learned about it.
- 15:16Speaker 1: The puzzle, is the puzzle TMI? Is the bacon TMI? Yeah.
- 15:20Speaker 1: I thought you were going to be like, Doug was
- 15:23Speaker 1: on the toilet and got the call.
- 15:25Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 15:25Speaker 2: I mean, the thing, we already know so much about
- 15:26Speaker 2: this is you already said that to me at one point.
- 15:28Speaker 2: And then I pointed out to you that we already
- 15:30Speaker 2: knew that Doug was at SoulCycle and then having a
- 15:32Speaker 2: latte when this happened.
- 15:33Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
- 15:34Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 15:34Speaker 1: He was at SoulCycle. He was at SoulCycle in West Hollywood,
- 15:37Speaker 1: which is the SoulCycle I used to go to back
- 15:40Speaker 1: in my, when I first moved here.
- 15:41Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 15:41Speaker 2: Remember how our old friend David Axelrod used to say
- 15:43Speaker 2: the last thing you want to do is bring out
- 15:45Speaker 2: the cannon, and then when it goes off, it's just
- 15:46Speaker 2: a little flag that says Powell comes out? I kind
- 15:48Speaker 2: of feel like that's how this was. CNN teased this
- 15:50Speaker 2: so much, and then it was just a very charming
- 15:52Speaker 2: story about the Vice President of the United States making
- 15:54Speaker 2: bacon and doing puzzles with it. It wasn't TMI.
- 15:57Speaker 1: It was charming. Charming is the right adjective for that story. Yeah. Anyway,
- 16:02Speaker 1: that's the story. Stepping back here for a minute, because again,
- 16:06Speaker 1: the TMI thing was teased. Everything was teased. There was
- 16:09Speaker 1: so much conversation in Washington and in political press about
- 16:15Speaker 1: this interview, we're up a good hour past our bedtimes.
- 16:19Speaker 1: And when I say our bedtimes, I mean like me
- 16:21Speaker 1: and you, we live on the West Coast. Still, 7.30.
- 16:26Speaker 1: I'm usually getting close to bed right now. What do
- 16:28Speaker 1: you make of all the hysteria around this interview? She's
- 16:31Speaker 1: she's got to do it. And then she says yes.
- 16:33Speaker 1: And then, oh, but she's doing it with walls. So
- 16:35Speaker 1: it doesn't count because it's a joint interview. And then, oh,
- 16:38Speaker 1: it was only 18 minutes. And what is she doing?
- 16:40Speaker 1: And all this, but just the amount of ink spilled
- 16:42Speaker 1: and tweets and segments on cable news. It's wild.
- 16:48Speaker 2: It really was sort of an example of the press yearning,
- 16:53Speaker 2: the political press in particular yearning for a different era, right?
- 16:56Speaker 2: There's still a little like cable news, news consumption is
- 17:00Speaker 2: changing in dramatic ways, particularly in this election. You know,
- 17:02Speaker 2: there was so much like hand-wringing about the 200 creators
- 17:07Speaker 2: that were invited to the democratic convention as opposed to
- 17:09Speaker 2: the 1400 credentialed press.
- 17:10Speaker 1: Um, Like us, we had badges.
- 17:14Speaker 2: Even though I like to think of myself as a creator,
- 17:16Speaker 2: we were in the credential. We were counted in that 1,400
- 17:17Speaker 2: credential press.
- 17:18Speaker 1: And we did walk up to many real reporters and
- 17:21Speaker 1: show them our badges and say, see, we're just like
- 17:23Speaker 1: you now. Which they loved.
- 17:26Speaker 2: They thought it was charming, as always. They always find us.
- 17:30Speaker 1: They find us as charming as the button.
- 17:33Speaker 2: Interviews are an important part of the process, but they
- 17:37Speaker 2: are a tool in which you communicate your message. It's not...
- 17:41Speaker 2: You are not required by the Constitution to do some
- 17:44Speaker 2: sort of journalistic decathlon to reach the White House. And
- 17:47Speaker 2: the challenge for a lot of the press, and this
- 17:50Speaker 2: has been going on for a long time, but it's
- 17:51Speaker 2: kind of hit a tipping point in this election, is
- 17:54Speaker 2: there was always this sort of Faustian bargain, which is,
- 17:57Speaker 2: I'm going to take your really hard questions, many of
- 17:59Speaker 2: whom will be process-oriented and totally antithetical to what my
- 18:02Speaker 2: message is or what I think the voters care about.
- 18:04Speaker 2: But in exchange for that, you're going to take that
- 18:07Speaker 2: interview and you're going to show it to a whole
- 18:08Speaker 2: bunch of people. I need to see it. But the
- 18:11Speaker 2: connection between the credibility that comes from doing that interview
- 18:16Speaker 2: and the reach of that interview has been largely severed
- 18:18Speaker 2: in this media environment. And so there's just a lot
- 18:20Speaker 2: of trying too hard to make this a thing. Now,
- 18:24Speaker 2: the Harris campaign waited a very long time to do
- 18:26Speaker 2: their first interview. So obviously, pressure was going to build.
- 18:29Speaker 2: If they had done an interview a week into the campaign,
- 18:33Speaker 2: then there would not have been all of this hysteria, obviously.
- 18:36Speaker 2: But they obviously had a lot to do, right? They
- 18:37Speaker 2: had to pick a vice president. Do a convention. Figure
- 18:41Speaker 2: out who is going to work on the campaign. Do
- 18:42Speaker 2: all of that in the short period. But it does
- 18:45Speaker 2: show that these sort of traditional interviews are probably going
- 18:48Speaker 2: to be less of a part of the campaign than
- 18:50Speaker 2: they've ever been before. And that's true on Trump's side too.
- 18:53Speaker 2: All of his interviews are with Fox and Newsmax and
- 18:55Speaker 2: all of that. When was the last time he's sitting
- 18:57Speaker 2: down with Dana Bash or Lester Holder or any of
- 19:02Speaker 2: that stuff? It's just we're in a very, very different
- 19:04Speaker 2: media environment. And I think the very insider, and even
- 19:08Speaker 2: people like us, right, who've been part of this for
- 19:09Speaker 2: a long time, are struggling to figure out how to
- 19:12Speaker 2: think about how some of these changes are happening.
- 19:16Speaker 1: I have tried to cut down on my media criticism.
- 19:20Speaker 1: I don't do it as much anymore, partly because I
- 19:22Speaker 1: think a lot of the media criticism out there is,
- 19:24Speaker 1: some of it's unfair. A lot of it's unfair.
- 19:26Speaker 2: A lot of it's unfair.
- 19:27Speaker 1: A lot of it's unfair. I think most of it
- 19:29Speaker 1: is ineffective. I think it's just the constant... Twitter arguing
- 19:34Speaker 1: about the headlines and what does the New York Times
- 19:36Speaker 1: headline do? I don't want to get into it, but
- 19:38Speaker 1: I think it's ineffective. But I will say on this point,
- 19:43Speaker 1: it was fair to ask when she would do her
- 19:46Speaker 1: first big interview, like before the convention, when? this first
- 19:50Speaker 1: started swirling. Right. But then like a week before the convention,
- 19:54Speaker 1: she says, I will schedule an interview by the end
- 19:58Speaker 1: of the month, a sit down interview. She said it
- 20:01Speaker 1: to a reporter who was talking to her because she
- 20:04Speaker 1: took questions as she stepped off the plane. And then
- 20:08Speaker 1: she had her convention and, And then after the convention,
- 20:10Speaker 1: she picked a running mate. And then after the convention,
- 20:13Speaker 1: which was a very busy week where nominees typically don't
- 20:17Speaker 1: do a bunch of interviews because it's the convention week
- 20:20Speaker 1: and you're giving speeches and that's the message. The week
- 20:23Speaker 1: right after the convention, she does her first sit down
- 20:26Speaker 1: interview with her running mate, which is also a tradition.
- 20:30Speaker 1: A lot of the, you know, you get, you pick
- 20:32Speaker 1: a running mate, you sit down, you do a joint interview.
- 20:34Speaker 1: And The swirl around it, the debate after we had already,
- 20:39Speaker 1: she already said she was going to do it. She
- 20:41Speaker 1: already said she was sitting down. She had a convention. Like,
- 20:44Speaker 1: what are we still talking about it for? They were
- 20:47Speaker 1: like interviewing people who've interviewed her and what it was like.
- 20:51Speaker 1: And it's just, it was so silly. It's just such
- 20:53Speaker 1: a insular, navel-gazy, inside DC thing, which again, I don't
- 20:58Speaker 1: complain about much anymore. But in this case, I was like,
- 21:01Speaker 1: it's not great.
- 21:02Speaker 2: The press can and should demand all the access interviews
- 21:06Speaker 2: they can get. Of course. That's their job.
- 21:08Speaker 1: That's their job. That's what they're here for.
- 21:10Speaker 2: But you do have to sometimes separate that from the
- 21:14Speaker 2: broader discussion of democracy and what's worthwhile and all of that.
- 21:19Speaker 1: Right.
- 21:20Speaker 2: There's this balance between if it's not worth the candidate's
- 21:23Speaker 2: time to take questions, they're not going to take questions.
- 21:25Speaker 2: So you have to have interviews that are worth their time,
- 21:27Speaker 2: that actually reach people to be seen, which is why
- 21:31Speaker 2: Through the rest of this campaign, I imagine the number
- 21:33Speaker 2: of local interviews she does will dramatically outpace the number
- 21:36Speaker 2: of national interviews because the efficiency of a local television
- 21:40Speaker 2: interview dramatically outstrips the efficiency of a national television interview
- 21:43Speaker 2: in terms of reaching the small sliver of people who
- 21:46Speaker 2: are going to decide the selection.
- 21:49Speaker 1: Yeah, and time is finite on a campaign, especially this campaign,
- 21:53Speaker 1: and we're heading into the week of the debate, so
- 21:55Speaker 1: I don't imagine a big sit-down interview before that. And
- 21:59Speaker 1: then after the debate, it's sort of a sprint to
- 22:01Speaker 1: the finish. And you're right. There's a lot of value
- 22:03Speaker 1: in local interviews in terms of reaching voters. And there's
- 22:06Speaker 1: a lot of value in, we still call them non-traditional,
- 22:09Speaker 1: but they're becoming more traditional. Like all these other, you know,
- 22:13Speaker 1: whether it's sitting down with creators, whether it's sitting down,
- 22:15Speaker 1: you know, whether it's reaching people through other mediums, other channels,
- 22:19Speaker 1: like there's just a lot to do and a lot
- 22:21Speaker 1: of people to reach in a very fractured environment from
- 22:24Speaker 1: the campaign's perspective that they can't use a ton of
- 22:27Speaker 1: her time just sitting down with the same cable networks, reporters,
- 22:32Speaker 1: national networks. Like they can't just like do a round
- 22:34Speaker 1: of all those because the group of people who are
- 22:36Speaker 1: watching NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN are like the same group
- 22:40Speaker 1: of people generally. And so they've got to find the
- 22:43Speaker 1: voters who aren't consuming that content in order to win
- 22:46Speaker 1: the race.
- 22:47Speaker 2: And like my view is going forward, like get past
- 22:49Speaker 2: the debate, right? So you got to prep for this debate.
- 22:51Speaker 2: What she's being asked to do in this short period
- 22:53Speaker 2: of time is totally unprecedented and almost impossible to imagine.
- 22:57Speaker 1: Extremely difficult.
- 22:58Speaker 2: But going forward, her strategy should probably be some version
- 23:03Speaker 2: of everything, everywhere, all at once, right? Do the local TV.
- 23:07Speaker 2: Do drive time radio in Milwaukee and Detroit and Philly.
- 23:11Speaker 2: Do some big national thing. Do 60 Minutes again if
- 23:15Speaker 2: you can. Do a bunch of non– I hate the
- 23:18Speaker 2: term non-traditional, but do a bunch of stuff that will
- 23:21Speaker 2: actually reach people who don't pay attention to politics, right?
- 23:23Speaker 2: Tim Walz did this interview on this TikTok show, Subway Takes,
- 23:26Speaker 2: where he gets really deep into gutter repair, which is
- 23:30Speaker 2: very important. And this is one thing, Trump shows up
- 23:36Speaker 2: and does a lot of podcasts that are very explicitly
- 23:39Speaker 2: targeted to young men, right? He was on Theo Vaughn's
- 23:43Speaker 2: podcast last week, having a very inquisitive conversation about cocaine use.
- 23:48Speaker 2: He was on this other podcast that gets a ton,
- 23:50Speaker 2: the clips of which get a ton of traction on
- 23:53Speaker 2: TikTok from a guy named Sean Smith, who's a former
- 23:56Speaker 2: special operations guy. He did the Jake and Logan Paul's podcast.
- 24:01Speaker 2: He is, their media, for all the craziness around the
- 24:04Speaker 2: truth and everything, their non-traditional media strategy is incredibly smart
- 24:08Speaker 2: and it's so specifically designed to hit the exact people
- 24:11Speaker 2: they need who are young men of all races who
- 24:15Speaker 2: do not pay attention, who do not follow regular news.
- 24:17Speaker 2: And as we get further in this campaign, the Harris-Walls
- 24:20Speaker 2: campaign is going to, they have an amazing digital team.
- 24:22Speaker 2: They have built up an organic army, but she and
- 24:26Speaker 2: Tim Walls are going to have to show up in
- 24:27Speaker 2: places like that to do those sorts of podcasts, those
- 24:31Speaker 2: sorts of things with creators or influencers that will go
- 24:34Speaker 2: immediately viral on TikTok and get to people. Like that
- 24:36Speaker 2: is going to have to be a big part of
- 24:37Speaker 2: the strategy. And you layer that in with some of
- 24:39Speaker 2: the more traditional stuff because you still have to get
- 24:41Speaker 2: some of those older voters, right? That's a, A group
- 24:43Speaker 2: she's going to have to hold on to is some
- 24:45Speaker 2: of those older Biden voters in the industrial Midwest. And
- 24:49Speaker 2: you're going to do that with like 60 Minutes and
- 24:50Speaker 2: CBS Sunday Morning is more than a Hot Ones interview.
- 24:55Speaker 1: But also do Hot Ones. Also do Hot Ones. Yeah, no,
- 24:59Speaker 1: that's why I was laughing. One quick thing before we
- 25:01Speaker 1: go to break. Stellar News, nearly 55,000 of you have
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- 25:53Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about Donald Trump. Trump campaign has
- 26:06Speaker 1: promised that their candidate would be more active on the
- 26:08Speaker 1: campaign trail and at least... On Thursday, he was. He
- 26:11Speaker 1: did a rally in Michigan and then flew to Wisconsin
- 26:14Speaker 1: for a town hall moderated by Democrat turned independent turned
- 26:18Speaker 1: Trump supporter slash debate coach Tulsi Gabbard. Trump also made
- 26:23Speaker 1: Gabbard and RFK Jr. honorary co-chairs of his presidential transition team.
- 26:30Speaker 1: Quite a team of wackos Trump's assembling, huh? Why do
- 26:33Speaker 1: you think he did that? Why do you think he
- 26:34Speaker 1: named them co-chairs of the transition? Well, I imagine that.
- 26:37Speaker 2: The RFK Jr. thing is some part. I don't know
- 26:40Speaker 2: if it's the quid or the quo in the quid
- 26:42Speaker 2: pro quo that came with the endorsement and dropping out.
- 26:45Speaker 1: It's not the pro.
- 26:46Speaker 2: I know it's not the pro. It's either the quid
- 26:47Speaker 2: or the quo. He clearly, there was a discussion about
- 26:52Speaker 2: RFK Jr. in exchange for dropping out and endorsing Trump
- 26:54Speaker 2: wanted some role. Right. And Trump probably wasn't in position,
- 26:57Speaker 2: although maybe he did promise him like HHS secretary or something.
- 26:59Speaker 2: But this was the first thing they could do. Tulsi Gabbard.
- 27:02Speaker 1: Dr. Fauci is RFK Jr.
- 27:05Speaker 2: I mean, Godspeed.
- 27:08Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 27:09Speaker 2: Tulsi Gabbard has become this sort of MAGA celebrity. And
- 27:12Speaker 2: this she just and I think in Trump's head represents
- 27:16Speaker 2: like this is a former Democratic member of Congress who
- 27:20Speaker 2: is supporting me.
- 27:21Speaker 3: Right.
- 27:22Speaker 2: Who's on my transition team. And it's not like it's
- 27:24Speaker 2: not crazy. to go out to a bunch of voters
- 27:28Speaker 2: who don't love the other candidate, don't love other party
- 27:31Speaker 2: and say that, you know, you say it's gonna be
- 27:32Speaker 2: this dictator and he's got a Kennedy and a former
- 27:34Speaker 2: democratic member of Congress running his transition, right? That does,
- 27:38Speaker 2: that is a, I would say not particularly precise way
- 27:41Speaker 2: or the way I would choose, but it is a
- 27:43Speaker 2: way to try to sand down the edges of some
- 27:45Speaker 2: of the project 2025 stuff of extremism is like, would
- 27:48Speaker 2: a Kennedy really do this? I mean, once you know
- 27:50Speaker 2: about RFK Jr. and his tendency to drive around with
- 27:53Speaker 2: dead animals in his car, you might feel different. But
- 27:56Speaker 2: if you just hear a Kennedy and a former Democrat,
- 27:59Speaker 2: maybe you're less likely to think he's a dictator who's
- 28:01Speaker 2: going to do X, Y, and Z.
- 28:03Speaker 1: I think they are trying to target with RFK Jr.
- 28:07Speaker 1: and Tulsi Gabbard, some of the same voters you were
- 28:09Speaker 1: just talking about, which are these sort of young, they
- 28:13Speaker 1: tend to be younger, tend to be men, tend to
- 28:15Speaker 1: not consume a lot of political content. And most importantly,
- 28:19Speaker 1: their views of politics and institutions writ large is very
- 28:25Speaker 1: cynical and They think that these are types of people
- 28:29Speaker 1: who think we shouldn't be sending any money abroad. They
- 28:33Speaker 1: don't understand the war in Ukraine. They think that corporations
- 28:40Speaker 1: are all out to get them, but not in a
- 28:42Speaker 1: way where it's like when you hear democratic populism in
- 28:45Speaker 1: a You know, they're they're they're putting poison in the
- 28:50Speaker 1: vaccines kind of way. The RFK Jr. stuff. Right. And
- 28:53Speaker 1: so it's very conspiratorial. Right. He's just trying to they're
- 28:56Speaker 1: basically trying to reach out to all the conspiracy theorists,
- 29:01Speaker 1: online trolls, anti-establishment, low information voters with people who like
- 29:08Speaker 1: to who are good at getting attention for taking very
- 29:12Speaker 1: contrarian positions that sound good. good to a lot of
- 29:16Speaker 1: people who are sort of fed up with politics and
- 29:18Speaker 1: fed up with government and by and it's it's it's
- 29:22Speaker 1: interesting because it's sort of like changing the axis from
- 29:25Speaker 1: left right to sort of anti-establishment and then you know
- 29:30Speaker 1: kamala harris joe biden barack obama the never trumpers they
- 29:34Speaker 1: all represent like the establishment and and trump wants to
- 29:38Speaker 1: show that like he and jay Vance and Tulsi Gabbard
- 29:41Speaker 1: and RFK Jr., maybe they're a little wacky, but they're
- 29:43Speaker 1: this like band of rebels. Right. That's that's sort of
- 29:46Speaker 1: the I think what they're trying to do. Now, I
- 29:48Speaker 1: think that the challenge is like if you like RFK Jr.
- 29:51Speaker 1: and Tulsi Gabbard and all the other people like aren't
- 29:54Speaker 1: you already a Trump voter or are they going to
- 29:56Speaker 1: bring you in to vote for Trump? If you don't
- 29:58Speaker 1: like Trump, I don't know about that.
- 30:00Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not sure. I mean, these are not master
- 30:02Speaker 2: strokes they're going to deliver at the election.
- 30:05Speaker 1: But it is. It's something out there. It's this group
- 30:10Speaker 1: of cranks that he's assembling to try to reach out
- 30:13Speaker 1: to people who are just sick of shit and want
- 30:14Speaker 1: to tear everything down. All right. So Trump seemed somewhat
- 30:18Speaker 1: surprised that what his campaign billed for an entire week
- 30:22Speaker 1: as a town hall was indeed a town hall. He
- 30:26Speaker 1: also had some insightful things to say about clean energy
- 30:28Speaker 1: and other topics. Let's listen.
- 30:30Speaker 2: And we're going to make a speech.
- 30:31Speaker 4: I had a speech all set for you.
- 30:33Speaker 1: I was ready.
- 30:35Speaker 3: They said, sir, you're actually doing a town hall.
- 30:37Speaker 2: I said, oh, nobody told me that.
- 30:41Speaker 1: Take a look at bacon and some of these products.
- 30:43Speaker 3: And some people don't eat bacon anymore. And we are
- 30:47Speaker 3: going to get the energy prices down when we get
- 30:50Speaker 3: energy down.
- 30:51Speaker 1: You know, this was caused by their horrible energy policy.
- 30:55Speaker 2: Wind, they want wind all over the place. But when
- 30:58Speaker 2: it doesn't blow, we have a little problem. And one
- 31:01Speaker 2: of the things is that JD and I are weird.
- 31:03Speaker 4: That guy is so straight.
- 31:05Speaker 3: JD is so, he's doing a great job.
- 31:08Speaker 2: Smart, top student, great guy. And he's not weird and
- 31:12Speaker 2: I'm not weird.
- 31:14Speaker 1: I mean, we're a lot of things, we're not weird.
- 31:16Speaker 3: This woman has to be stopped.
- 31:21Speaker 1: I'll tell you something about that woman though. She's eating bacon.
- 31:23Speaker 1: She's cooking bacon. There's multiple times bacon's been referenced in
- 31:27Speaker 1: this podcast tonight.
- 31:29Speaker 2: I'm pretty hungry as is, so.
- 31:30Speaker 1: On message as always, what'd you think of the town hall?
- 31:34Speaker 1: What'd you think of him not knowing it was a
- 31:36Speaker 1: town hall?
- 31:37Speaker 2: That is the most, like as the former staffer in me,
- 31:40Speaker 2: as I can just see that happening. Just someone forgot.
- 31:44Speaker 1: Well, do you think– but like Tulsi Gabbard was the moderator.
- 31:47Speaker 1: Do you think he was just– like did he think
- 31:48Speaker 1: he was going to go out on stage? Like was
- 31:49Speaker 1: he surprised to see her there? Did he think she
- 31:51Speaker 1: was introducing him maybe?
- 31:52Speaker 2: Probably– you know how he– like he has a very
- 31:56Speaker 2: loose speaking program generally. Sometimes he'll just spot a sheriff
- 31:58Speaker 2: in the crowd and call him up and let him speak.
- 32:01Speaker 2: So who knows what he was thinking. But I did
- 32:03Speaker 2: once was headed to CNN with Barack Obama. when he
- 32:08Speaker 2: discovered it was a town hall, not an interview. And
- 32:10Speaker 2: I would say he was displeased. He fortunately kept that displeasure.
- 32:14Speaker 2: I mean, I would say it was written in the
- 32:16Speaker 2: briefing memo and very clear lettering, but you know, he's
- 32:19Speaker 2: a busy guy.
- 32:20Speaker 1: We'll get Obama on for his response.
- 32:22Speaker 2: I mean, look, he's right. I should have written a
- 32:24Speaker 2: clear memo. I fell on my sword. You know, that's
- 32:29Speaker 2: a very, I'm sure Trump did not either, did not
- 32:32Speaker 2: read a brief memo, has never had a brief memo
- 32:33Speaker 2: prepared for him or did not listen when he was
- 32:35Speaker 2: told what was happening. And so, sure.
- 32:38Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 32:39Speaker 1: Well, Trump made his big news of the day before
- 32:41Speaker 1: the town hall, as he often does, because it's not
- 32:43Speaker 1: like he drove a message during the town hall because
- 32:45Speaker 1: that's not really his style. But before the town hall,
- 32:48Speaker 1: he tried to veer drastically away from the anti-choice positions
- 32:53Speaker 1: that even he seems to believe are out of step
- 32:55Speaker 1: with most voters. At his Michigan rally, he announced that
- 32:58Speaker 1: under a second Trump term, IVF treatments would be totally free,
- 33:03Speaker 1: either because the government would cover them directly or because
- 33:05Speaker 1: insurers would be required to cover it. Trump was also
- 33:09Speaker 1: asked by NBC's Dasha Burns how he'd vote on the
- 33:12Speaker 1: Florida ballot initiative that would overturn the state's six-week abortion
- 33:16Speaker 1: ban and guarantee access to abortion through an amendment to
- 33:20Speaker 1: the Florida state constitution. Trump said in response, quote, I
- 33:24Speaker 1: think six weeks is too short. It has to be
- 33:27Speaker 1: more time. I've told them that I want more weeks.
- 33:30Speaker 1: Don't know what any of that meant. Amazingly, Trump immediately
- 33:33Speaker 1: came under fire from the anti-abortion right. And then he backtracked.
- 33:37Speaker 1: The campaign is now saying that he didn't say how
- 33:40Speaker 1: he'll vote, which is true. He didn't say that. He just, quote,
- 33:43Speaker 1: believe six weeks is too short. Where do you think
- 33:46Speaker 1: he lands on this? What do you make of the
- 33:48Speaker 1: whole the abortion ballot measure in Florida?
- 33:51Speaker 2: Trump is very well aware of how politically toxic his
- 33:54Speaker 2: abortion position is. But I am going to presume that
- 33:58Speaker 2: Donald Trump is going to vote no on this amendment
- 34:00Speaker 2: because his position is that it's up to the state's
- 34:03Speaker 2: And this is the position the state of Florida chose.
- 34:05Speaker 2: So ergo, he is fine with this number of weeks,
- 34:08Speaker 2: full stop.
- 34:11Speaker 1: Also, it's like the, him talking about the number of
- 34:13Speaker 1: weeks is beside the point because the amendment, as I said,
- 34:18Speaker 1: would not just overturn the six week ban. The amendment
- 34:21Speaker 1: would enshrine access to abortion as a, as a right
- 34:26Speaker 1: in the Florida constitution. So again, You couldn't do a
- 34:30Speaker 1: 12-week ban. You couldn't do an 18-week. You know what
- 34:32Speaker 1: I'm saying? Which is why I think the campaign and
- 34:37Speaker 1: the anti-abortion groups got so mad because if Donald Trump
- 34:40Speaker 1: made it seem like he was going to vote for
- 34:43Speaker 1: the amendment, it means that he wants to make abortion
- 34:47Speaker 1: legal and guaranteed in the state of Florida, which he
- 34:50Speaker 1: didn't say he wants to, which should tell everyone something.
- 34:53Speaker 1: So that's the abortion question. What do you make of
- 34:55Speaker 1: the IVF proposal?
- 34:57Speaker 2: Do you think that, should we be surprised that Donald
- 35:00Speaker 2: Trump today proposed, from what I can tell, using Obamacare
- 35:04Speaker 2: to force insurers to pay for IVF treatments, which I
- 35:07Speaker 2: think is how he would have.
- 35:08Speaker 1: To do that? I mean, using it, I think you'd
- 35:09Speaker 1: have to open up the legislation again and pass it.
- 35:11Speaker 1: I don't think you could just, I don't think you
- 35:13Speaker 1: can do that via regulation.
- 35:14Speaker 2: I think I am like, we need to get a
- 35:16Speaker 2: smarter person here, but I'm wondering if you can do
- 35:18Speaker 2: it through the same provisions that allows you to do
- 35:19Speaker 2: contraceptive care.
- 35:21Speaker 1: Right. But that was... Wasn't that in the original legislation?
- 35:24Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's either way. It doesn't matter. Either way,
- 35:27Speaker 2: he's either going to pass a law or he's going
- 35:28Speaker 2: to use federal rulemaking authority to require insurance companies to
- 35:31Speaker 2: do this.
- 35:32Speaker 1: And I'm sure plenty of people know this, but if
- 35:33Speaker 1: you don't, like IVF treatments are extraordinarily expensive, right? So
- 35:37Speaker 1: like the idea that insurance companies are going to be like, fine,
- 35:41Speaker 1: this is, you know, not something that I would expect.
- 35:45Speaker 1: And the idea that he's going to get a bunch
- 35:47Speaker 1: of Republicans in Congress to, like, get the government to
- 35:50Speaker 1: mandate it seems also a bit far-fetched. The idea that
- 35:54Speaker 1: he actually wants to do this seems like complete fucking bullshit.
- 36:00Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's absurd. It's so poorly thought out. Like,
- 36:05Speaker 2: is it legislation? Is it regulation? Is there an income cap? Like,
- 36:08Speaker 2: there's no policy here. There's just like, you get IVF,
- 36:11Speaker 2: you get IVF. Like, it's just, it's wild that he's
- 36:15Speaker 2: doing it. I mean, it's just, and it's worth noting
- 36:18Speaker 2: that Donald Trump has refused to support any of the
- 36:22Speaker 2: efforts that have been put forward to protect access to IVF. J.D.
- 36:25Speaker 2: Vance voted against the bill to protect access to IVF
- 36:29Speaker 2: and the Republican platform, which Donald Trump signed off on
- 36:34Speaker 2: and embodies his platform. includes fetal personhood, which would effectively
- 36:39Speaker 2: ban IVF. So this is ridiculous.
- 36:43Speaker 1: That is the most important point is just to go
- 36:46Speaker 1: back to what happened when the Alabama Supreme Court issued
- 36:49Speaker 1: that ruling that put IVF in jeopardy in the state
- 36:52Speaker 1: of Alabama. It is because of this fetal personhood idea,
- 36:56Speaker 1: which is when you have IVF, right? Like some of
- 36:59Speaker 1: the embryos are disposed in the process, or at least
- 37:03Speaker 1: they can be disposed in the process. And fetal personhood
- 37:06Speaker 1: taken to its logical conclusion, as the Alabama Supreme Court
- 37:09Speaker 1: decided to do, would not allow for disposal of those embryos,
- 37:14Speaker 1: which is why a bunch of hospitals after the Supreme
- 37:17Speaker 1: Court in Alabama ruled on that decided to pause IVF treatments.
- 37:21Speaker 1: So yes, IVF is expensive and prohibitively expensive for many families.
- 37:27Speaker 1: So it would be wonderful if insurance companies could cover it.
- 37:30Speaker 1: And it would be wonderful if we could fight for
- 37:32Speaker 1: insurance companies to cover it or the government to mandate it.
- 37:35Speaker 1: But Donald Trump's problem is not that. Donald Trump's problem
- 37:39Speaker 1: is that he has taken a position that is allowing
- 37:43Speaker 1: various states to put IVF access in jeopardy, not because
- 37:47Speaker 1: of the cost, but because the Christian nationalist right thinks
- 37:52Speaker 1: that every single embryo is a person. It is absurd.
- 37:57Speaker 1: Do you think it'll work? Do you think people are
- 38:00Speaker 1: just going to be like... I do wonder in general,
- 38:03Speaker 1: all of the... People... are going to get a general impression,
- 38:08Speaker 1: or I wonder if people are going to get a
- 38:10Speaker 1: general impression that like a lot of these Republicans, J.D. Vance,
- 38:13Speaker 1: Project 2025, the Republicans in Congress, they are very anti-abortion,
- 38:18Speaker 1: don't like it, kind of creeps me out, you know,
- 38:21Speaker 1: want the freedom to choose. But Donald Trump, you know,
- 38:25Speaker 1: he says stuff now and then, but maybe he's a
- 38:27Speaker 1: little more moderate on it. And so maybe I'm not
- 38:29Speaker 1: as worried. That's what they're hoping that voters get is
- 38:32Speaker 1: a very like generalized impression of particularly voters who do
- 38:36Speaker 1: not pay close attention to all this? What do you think?
- 38:38Speaker 2: Absolutely. He benefits from that already. His Manhattan rich guy
- 38:45Speaker 2: who cheats on his wives and sleeps with porn stars.
- 38:48Speaker 2: I've said this in this podcast before, but when Sarah
- 38:51Speaker 2: Longwell has done focus groups in Ohio around the abortion measure,
- 38:55Speaker 2: when she asks people if Trump is pro-life or anti-choice,
- 38:58Speaker 2: whatever language she uses, they laugh. And many people will
- 39:02Speaker 2: just randomly suggest he's probably paid for abortions himself. So
- 39:04Speaker 2: he has this imprimatur of moderation on it already. And
- 39:09Speaker 2: just to give an extent of how important it is
- 39:10Speaker 2: for Trump to fix his problem on abortion or to
- 39:15Speaker 2: prevent Democrats from making him to actually portraying his position
- 39:18Speaker 2: on abortion, in the 2022 midterms and the exit polls,
- 39:23Speaker 2: of the 27% of voters who listed abortion as their
- 39:25Speaker 2: top issue, Republicans lost them 76 to 23. Trump's cannot
- 39:31Speaker 2: look like Blake Masters, Hershel Walker, Dr. Oz on abortion.
- 39:36Speaker 2: And if he does, he will lose this election.
- 39:39Speaker 1: Yeah, no, and he's clearly aware of that. And I
- 39:41Speaker 1: do think that it was very effective in Kamala Harris's
- 39:43Speaker 1: convention speech when, you know, the best answer on this
- 39:46Speaker 1: is Donald Trump promised to appoint Supreme Court justices that
- 39:50Speaker 1: would overturn Roe v. Wade. He then appointed three Supreme
- 39:54Speaker 1: Court justices that he knew would overturn Roe v.
- 39:57Speaker 4: Wade.
- 39:58Speaker 1: They did it. And now a third of American women
- 40:00Speaker 1: live under abortion bans in this country. That's it. So
- 40:04Speaker 1: take whatever he says with a grain of salt, because
- 40:06Speaker 1: that's his record. Incidentally, if you're freaked out about what
- 40:09Speaker 1: a Trump presidency would mean for reproductive rights, and you
- 40:11Speaker 1: should be, You know what you can do? You can
- 40:13Speaker 1: go to votesaveamerica.com slash 2024 and sign up to volunteer.
- 40:18Speaker 1: So go there now. When the Trump campaign wasn't busy
- 40:32Speaker 1: trying to rig a lot of their candidates' record on abortion,
- 40:35Speaker 1: they were doubling down on their fight with Arlington National
- 40:38Speaker 1: Cemetery on about whether they broke the rules and maybe
- 40:41Speaker 1: the law by turning Trump's visit into a campaign photo
- 40:44Speaker 1: op and then shoving a cemetery official who tried to
- 40:49Speaker 1: stop them. Campaign manager Chris Lasavita posted a video of
- 40:53Speaker 1: the event that he hoped would, quote, trigger the hacks
- 40:57Speaker 1: in the U.S. Army. The Army. Picking a fight with
- 41:02Speaker 1: the Army over Trump, putting campaign photos out and TikToks,
- 41:08Speaker 1: of him at a cemetery giving a thumbs up over
- 41:12Speaker 1: the graves of fallen soldiers. That's what we're doing here. Dan,
- 41:16Speaker 1: what's the strategy here? Picking a fight with the army.
- 41:19Speaker 1: And do you think this has legs? I know we've
- 41:21Speaker 1: now gone back to the days of, I like people
- 41:25Speaker 1: who weren't shot down, what you say about John McCain.
- 41:28Speaker 1: Donald Trump has insulted and offended veterans and men and
- 41:34Speaker 1: women who currently serve in the military now for nine years.
- 41:38Speaker 1: And every time he does, it seems like it's going
- 41:40Speaker 1: to be like, how can anyone vote for him? And
- 41:44Speaker 1: this has to be the last straw, especially, you know,
- 41:47Speaker 1: a lot of Republicans who, you know, respect for the
- 41:49Speaker 1: military is like, you know, a core value of the
- 41:52Speaker 1: Republican Party and conservatism. And then, you know, we know
- 41:57Speaker 1: what happens. What do you think about this latest? Do
- 42:00Speaker 1: you think it's at least a data point in a
- 42:02Speaker 1: larger story about Donald Trump that might move some voters
- 42:04Speaker 1: or what?
- 42:05Speaker 3: In.
- 42:07Speaker 2: One of the groups that moved most in Democrats' direction
- 42:11Speaker 2: from 2016 to 2020 was veteran households, right? That's a
- 42:15Speaker 2: category in the Pew Validated Voter Study, which is a
- 42:17Speaker 2: household that has a veteran that lives in it. And
- 42:19Speaker 2: that margin was actually enough to tip some states. And
- 42:22Speaker 2: so this stuff does matter. Ultimately, there's no strategy. There's
- 42:26Speaker 2: just like doubling, tripling, quadrupling down on just being a
- 42:28Speaker 2: giant asshole. And it's like proving– this is something that's
- 42:31Speaker 2: like very endemic to Trumpism, which is like the more–
- 42:35Speaker 2: honorable the person or sacred the institution that you're willing
- 42:39Speaker 2: to poke in the eye, the more true you are
- 42:45Speaker 2: to the MAGA cause. That's ultimately how you end up
- 42:47Speaker 2: with a bunch of people storming the United States fucking capital.
- 42:50Speaker 2: But Chris LaCivita, who is looking over his shoulder at
- 42:54Speaker 2: Corey Lewandowski measuring the drapes in his office right now,
- 42:57Speaker 2: is trying to prove his loyalty to Trump by just
- 43:01Speaker 2: lighting himself on fire. Chris LaCivita is a smart plug
- 43:03Speaker 2: for our group. He knows that there is no upside
- 43:05Speaker 2: in picking a fight with the Arlington national cemetery, but
- 43:09Speaker 2: he has to do it to appeal to Trump. And
- 43:10Speaker 2: that will buy him credibility among mega world because look how,
- 43:13Speaker 2: look at what a giant asshole you are. You must
- 43:15Speaker 2: be one of us.
- 43:16Speaker 1: Also like rule number one in mega world is never
- 43:20Speaker 1: apologize and never back down on anything.
- 43:22Speaker 4: Right.
- 43:22Speaker 1: So they don't have the option of saying like, yeah,
- 43:24Speaker 1: maybe they were, maybe we shouldn't have done this and
- 43:26Speaker 1: we'll pull the video. Like they don't have the option
- 43:27Speaker 1: of doing that. That's just not who they are. So
- 43:29Speaker 1: they got the only way to, the only way to, uh,
- 43:32Speaker 1: You have to double down. That's the only way to
- 43:34Speaker 1: do it. Okay, before we go, there was a ton
- 43:37Speaker 1: of new polling today. And Dan, if you thought we,
- 43:39Speaker 1: the Pod Save America community, were going to let you
- 43:41Speaker 1: go to bed without talking about it, you're sorely mistaken.
- 43:46Speaker 1: In brief, we had a new Reuters Ipsos national poll
- 43:49Speaker 1: showing Harris up 4, 45, 41. A new Wall Street
- 43:51Speaker 1: Journal poll showing her up 1, 48, 47. Quinnipiac poll
- 43:54Speaker 1: showing her up 2, 49, 47. Emerson swing state poll
- 44:01Speaker 1: showing Harris slightly ahead in Michigan, Nevada, and Georgia and
- 44:04Speaker 1: tied in Pennsylvania. Bloomberg morning consult battleground poll showing her
- 44:09Speaker 1: up everywhere and tied in Arizona. And then as you were,
- 44:12Speaker 1: you and I were talking about earlier, the big drama
- 44:15Speaker 1: in the, in the polar coaster community, uh.
- 44:18Speaker 2: It's a big, it's a big community.
- 44:19Speaker 1: Let me tell you, it's a big community. Nate silver
- 44:22Speaker 1: moved Trump to a slight favorite in his projection, mostly
- 44:26Speaker 1: because of Harris's problems in Pennsylvania and, And by problems,
- 44:31Speaker 1: we should just say that the race seems tied there
- 44:34Speaker 1: or she's like down one, depending on the poll that
- 44:36Speaker 1: you're looking at. And it becomes very difficult to find
- 44:41Speaker 1: a path to 270 without Pennsylvania. So to take that
- 44:45Speaker 1: last part first, what do you think is going on
- 44:46Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania? You talked about this in your message box
- 44:50Speaker 1: on Thursday as well.
- 44:52Speaker 2: In Pennsylvania, thus far in the polling, if you talk
- 44:54Speaker 2: to people involved in the efforts, super PACs elsewhere, about
- 44:58Speaker 2: the battlegrounds, Pennsylvania is acting tougher than Michigan and Wisconsin
- 45:04Speaker 2: right now. And there are a couple of reasons why
- 45:06Speaker 2: that might be the case. I mean, one very simplistic
- 45:08Speaker 2: reason is it is where Trump was shot, and that
- 45:11Speaker 2: got tremendous amount of coverage there. It's hard to go
- 45:15Speaker 2: back to six weeks ago, whenever that was, but everyone
- 45:18Speaker 2: thought the election was over because of the Trump's photo
- 45:22Speaker 2: and that incident and what it all might mean. That
- 45:25Speaker 2: coverage penetrates most there. It's also a state that just
- 45:29Speaker 2: has a huge variety of voters that you need to get.
- 45:33Speaker 2: You have to get tremendous turnout out of Philly. You
- 45:36Speaker 2: have to crush in the suburbs. Then you have this
- 45:38Speaker 2: huge swath of the state, which contains a very MAGA
- 45:42Speaker 2: demographic friendly group, right? A lot of working class white voters.
- 45:47Speaker 2: These are people who turned out and delivered the state
- 45:49Speaker 2: for Trump in 2016. And so it's performing a point
- 45:53Speaker 2: or two different than Michigan and Wisconsin. Now, if you
- 45:55Speaker 2: had asked, it's the beginning of the cycle based on
- 45:57Speaker 2: 2020 and recent elections, you would probably say that Michigan
- 46:02Speaker 2: was the easiest of the blue wall states, Pennsylvania the second,
- 46:05Speaker 2: and Wisconsin the hardest. And that's in part because Wisconsin
- 46:10Speaker 2: is the least diverse, but Trump has made inroads with
- 46:14Speaker 2: Black voters and Latino voters to some extent, right? Not
- 46:18Speaker 2: as much as we probably thought a few months ago,
- 46:19Speaker 2: but still doing better than he was doing in 2020.
- 46:23Speaker 2: And so that's why it's been a little trickier. It's
- 46:28Speaker 2: not entirely clear why that is, but those would be
- 46:29Speaker 2: some of the reasons.
- 46:31Speaker 1: It seems like, and we talked a little bit with
- 46:34Speaker 1: Dan Cannon about this, who's the battleground states director for
- 46:37Speaker 1: the Harris campaign. But it does seem like in Pennsylvania,
- 46:40Speaker 1: what she needs to do is focus on black voters
- 46:43Speaker 1: that Trump has made inroads with, and some who just
- 46:45Speaker 1: don't know her, and some who are not paying close
- 46:47Speaker 1: attention to the race. And also try to increase her
- 46:52Speaker 1: margins in the Philly and Pittsburgh suburbs, particularly with women,
- 46:57Speaker 1: because she probably has more room to grow there. And
- 46:59Speaker 1: then hold, or as best she can, Biden's numbers with
- 47:04Speaker 1: sort of non-college white voters in the more rural areas, right?
- 47:08Speaker 2: And she might have some room to grow over Biden's
- 47:10Speaker 2: numbers with non-college white women because of Dobbs.
- 47:16Speaker 3: Yep.
- 47:17Speaker 1: So that's sort of the path in Pennsylvania. But I mean,
- 47:20Speaker 1: the reason that that affects the entire projection with Nate
- 47:24Speaker 1: Silver or wherever else is because Pennsylvania is so critical.
- 47:26Speaker 1: If she doesn't win Pennsylvania, but she wins Michigan and Wisconsin,
- 47:29Speaker 1: she would need Georgia plus Nevada or North Carolina plus
- 47:34Speaker 1: Nevada or Arizona plus North Carolina or Arizona plus Georgia.
- 47:39Speaker 1: Like you need two other states.
- 47:41Speaker 2: And Arizona and Nevada alone is not enough to make
- 47:44Speaker 2: up the gap.
- 47:45Speaker 3: Right.
- 47:45Speaker 1: That is the key. That is the key. So Kamala
- 47:50Speaker 1: knew she was getting the flip-flop question from Dana Bash,
- 47:52Speaker 1: and you know you were getting this one from me.
- 47:54Speaker 1: Does this count as a convention bounce? Are we in
- 47:58Speaker 1: bounce territory?
- 47:58Speaker 2: Well, the bounce is sort of a fake thing. In
- 48:00Speaker 2: the last three elections, the average bounce of all the
- 48:04Speaker 2: candidates is 1.1 points.
- 48:08Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw that in your message box, and I
- 48:09Speaker 1: was like, wow, I didn't know that. That was only
- 48:11Speaker 1: one point.
- 48:11Speaker 2: Yeah, Obama and McCain had decent-sized bounces in 2008. Biden
- 48:16Speaker 2: had no bounce in 20. Trump had a minus one bounce. Now,
- 48:20Speaker 2: those were bizarre conventions because of the pandemic. So, you know,
- 48:24Speaker 2: give a grain of salt. Very little bounces in 2016.
- 48:26Speaker 2: It's just as we've become more polarized, there's just less
- 48:29Speaker 2: room for bounce. The electorate is less elastic. There's less
- 48:33Speaker 2: places to grow. You have fewer people on the other
- 48:35Speaker 2: side who will come over to your side because they
- 48:37Speaker 2: saw a good speech during the convention. It's harder to
- 48:39Speaker 2: get people to pay attention to the convention now.
- 48:41Speaker 1: And so.
- 48:42Speaker 2: Where the convention– where you see bounces if you go
- 48:45Speaker 2: back in history is when the party is divided before
- 48:46Speaker 2: the convention and then they come together at the convention.
- 48:49Speaker 2: That helped Obama a lot in 2008 because of how
- 48:52Speaker 2: late that primary against Hillary Clinton had gone. But the
- 48:54Speaker 2: party united behind Kamala Harris six and a half minutes
- 48:57Speaker 2: after Joe Biden called her. And so she kind of
- 48:59Speaker 2: got her bounce already. So it's not a statement that
- 49:03Speaker 2: the convention was a failure in any way, shape, or form.
- 49:06Speaker 2: It was actually like a rip-roaring success. But she had
- 49:08Speaker 2: sort of banked much of all the bounce before then.
- 49:11Speaker 2: So maybe– She has a point. I looked at the
- 49:13Speaker 2: New York Times polling average, and it was 49-47 before
- 49:16Speaker 2: the convention, and it's 49-46 now. So she's up. by
- 49:20Speaker 2: three instead of up by two. So I think the
- 49:23Speaker 2: convention balance is a little bit of a fallacy.
- 49:26Speaker 1: And to your point about just consolidating the party, it's
- 49:29Speaker 1: just one poll, but in the Quinnipiac poll, she's winning
- 49:32Speaker 1: Democratic voters 98% to one.
- 49:34Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 49:36Speaker 1: I mean, remember the days when it was like Biden
- 49:38Speaker 1: was winning Democrats like 85%, 84% less? I mean, that's extraordinary.
- 49:46Speaker 1: So yeah, she's got work to do with independents. She's
- 49:49Speaker 1: got work to do with sort of low-info voters, sporadic
- 49:51Speaker 1: voters who don't turn out in every election, for sure.
- 49:54Speaker 1: But that's the work of the next 68, 67, whatever
- 49:58Speaker 1: number of days now we have.
- 49:59Speaker 2: If you want to see how divided the country is,
- 50:01Speaker 2: look at the internals of that Quinnipiac poll, which is
- 50:04Speaker 2: As you said, Kamala Harris is Democrats, 98 to 1.
- 50:07Speaker 2: Trump is at, I think, like 86-4, 96-4, I think, Republicans.
- 50:11Speaker 2: And independents are equally divided, 45-45. So it's like... Yeah.
- 50:15Speaker 1: And it's a close race, close country. Okay. That's our
- 50:18Speaker 1: show for today. Everyone enjoy the long weekend. Huge news.
- 50:21Speaker 1: We're going to have a special episode of Polar Coaster
- 50:24Speaker 1: for you on Tuesday. And then we'll be back in
- 50:26Speaker 1: your feed with more PSA on Wednesday. Bye, everybody. Bye.
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