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Harris Hits the Airwaves · Pod Save America

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm John Lovett.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: And I'm Simone Sanders-Townsend.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Simone, welcome.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: I am happy to be here. Me and my USA shirt.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: You know, because... Taking patriotism back.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: You know, bringing patriotism back one piece of clothing.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: At a time. On today's show, Kamala Harris and Tim
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Walz launch their first post-convention campaign swing to rural Georgia.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump, not to be outdone, is selling digital trading
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: cards of himself. And Jack Smith is back with an
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: indictment remix. Indictments... Alito's version with me to discuss it
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: all is the one and only Simone Sanders Townsend, friend
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: of the pod, co-host of The Weeknd on MSNBC, former
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: press secretary for Senator Bernie Sanders, and of course, former
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: senior advisor and chief spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris. Simone,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: it's so good to have you back.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: It's good to be back. This is what a week
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: to be here. I mean, there's not much to talk about.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Every week for the last 60 days has been a
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: good week.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: To be here.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: This is actually very true.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: As we are recording this, things are kicking into high
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: gear for the post-convention campaign push. or at least the
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Democrats are. Kamala Harris is getting ready to start a
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: bus tour in southern Georgia later today. We'll talk more
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: about that in a minute. And Tim Walz, on his
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: way to join her, stopped at the International Association of
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Firefighters Convention in Boston. Let's take a listen. When Donald Trump.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: Was president, he blocked overtime benefits for millions of workers.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: He opposed efforts to raise the minimum wage. This is
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: the big thing. One of the goals of their Project
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: 2025 is to screw the middle class, making it harder
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: for workers to collectively bargain, allowing employers to drastically cut
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: overtime or eliminate it. Slash taxes for the ultra-wealthy. by
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: imposing a national sales tax on the rest of us.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: When Republicans used to talk about freedom, they meant it.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Not anymore.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: These guys over there, they want government to have the
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: freedom to invade every corner of your life. So let
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: me tell you exactly what Vice President Harris and I
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: will do when we get elected. Then President Harris will
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: sign the PRO Act, making it easier for unions to organize.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: Lowering taxes for working families and finally making corporations just
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: pay their fair share.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: They're doing fine.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Sisters and brothers in labor, it's time for you to
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: step up to the plate.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Simone, before we get to analysis of the speech, I
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: want you to know that I was also campaigning with firefighters.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you could see this, but I
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: did some campaigning of my own at the Minnesota State
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Fair with these shirtless firefighters.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: You know who had a photo like this? Amy Klobuchar.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Amy Klobuchar. I know.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: I know.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: That's what gave me the idea.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I'm like, this was in Minnesota. We love the firefighters.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Shout out to the firefighters.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: So this was a really pro-labor, kind of a throwback
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: type of speech. What's your take on the campaign's approach
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: to the labor vote?
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Look, I think... I think it's important, first of all.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Labor is very important. Labor looks different, I think, than
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: a lot of ways that we talk about it. It
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: would have you believe, the way that we talk about
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: it in general, is that people who are union households
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: are older white men. But there are younger members of unions.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: There are women. There are a large amount of people
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: of color. I mean, SEIU is one of the largest
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: unions in the country made up of majority working class
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: people of color. So I think the union vote is
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: important because working people are important. And I mean, look,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: in an election where we're talking about the economy, people's
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: chief concerns about the economy are about affordability. They're about households.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: They're about paying their bills. That is directly connected to
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: how much money they make at work. So the unions,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: they absolutely matter. I think that the approach that the
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: campaign has had is an earnest one, right? I don't
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: feel like that Governor Walz or Vice President Harris are
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: like putting on a union outfit, if you will, to
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: go and campaign with the union folk when they go
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: to these union halls and do these events. Their whole careers,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: they have been very tied to labor to union workers.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: In California specifically, we talk about the firefighters. I mean,
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: in California, Vice President Harris and the firefighters were like this, okay?
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: There were many times when I worked for the vice
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: president that I was on the phone with the head
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: of the firefighters union in California because they needed something.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: So it's authentic. And I frankly think it's a breath
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: of fresh air because my father was a union worker,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: if you will. He was a member of a union.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: He was a government worker for years. And my grandfather
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: was a Pullman porter for Union Pacific Railroad. And so
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: I take grave offense to this idea that labor is
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: something that, and union workers and union households are something
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: that were like off the table for Democrats for a
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: while because they didn't know how to talk to working people.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: So I like what I'm seeing from the campaign.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like there's two parts of it. One
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: is just reminding, like there's some concern that we're losing
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: some of these younger men and if they are members
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: of a union or if they are middle class or
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: working class, just to remind them what the stakes are.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: And I think so for those union members, this is
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: just a speech to sort of remind, like there's, Walls
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: is very direct, like forget what he's saying, right? Forget
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the kind of populist vibes that Trump and Vance are
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: trying to put out there. Look at the actual record.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: There's another part of the speech that was really interesting
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: on healthcare. Walls goes into a part about Obamacare and
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: he says, that may not apply to you personally because
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: you're covered through your union. but it applies to your families.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: It's about what your families need too. And sort of
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: using Tim Walz as not just a tribune of labor,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: but that as a stand-in for the fight between Donald
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Trump being out for corporations and the wealthy and the
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Harris campaign being out for the middle class. What's your
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: take on Walz as a messenger more broadly? They are
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: sending him out to speak to various unions?
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, he has literally hit the union beat. Now,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: this could just be a function of everyone's conventions, if
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: you will, and large gatherings. It just happens to be
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: around this time in August when these conventions are happening
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: and the meetings are happening. So that could just be
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: a function of, you know what, it works for Governor
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Walz's schedules. Folks would like to see him and that's
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: where he's going. Because I don't think it is Only
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: the governor, because the vice president has done some union
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: events as well, and she heads the labor council. I
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: like Tim Walz, not just because he is a native
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Nebraskan like myself, okay? Although he's from the country, I'm
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: from the city, but we all, you know, bleed Husker red, honey.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: But because- It's honestly, but it's all country to me.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: You city people, you East Coast, West Coast folk, y'all,
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: I don't expect y'all to know any better. I know, yeah,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: and I don't- This is why we need people like
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: myself and Tim Walz out there to show y'all a
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: different view of the Midwest, okay? Tell you what's real.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Take you to a Runza, as he did when he
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: was in Nebraska. Look, I think Governor Walz is somebody
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: that knows how to talk to people. And if you
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: juxtapose that with Donald Trump's running mate, who seems kind
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: of quite uncomfortable in settings with regular folks, it is
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: a boon to the ticket. I also think he's someone
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: with a really good record Not just from his time
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: in Congress, but since he's been a governor. You know,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: people want to make him out to be some kind
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: of like blazing radical progressive. But I mean, like Minnesota
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: is one of the fifth best places in the country
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: to do business. Some of everybody's favorite corporations. Okay, where
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: we all go in and spend our money in the
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: place with the little red circle all the time. is
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: headquartered in Minnesota. And so they can't be doing that bad, right?
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: And so Governor Walz can just speak to a bunch
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: of different pieces. And he was head of the Democratic
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Governors Association. To me, that means he understands having to
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: allow the different members of the association do what they
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: need to do for their constituents in their states, but
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: also knows how to pull people together. They could come
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: from very different walks of life, obviously different parts of
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: the country, under one umbrella and one agenda, which was
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: with the Democratic, what he did as the head of
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: the Democratic Governors Association. So I just think he makes
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: sense and he's fun. He's a nice guy. Like who
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: can hate Tim Walz? Who?
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I was at the Minnesota State Fair and there was
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: something really sort of discordant, which is both there's the
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Democratic Party has a booth and the Republican Party has
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: a booth and the Democrats hand out pro-Democratic buttons and
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the Republicans hand out pro-Republican buttons. But then there was this,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: I think it's a PAC or some organization, They have
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: a Never Walls booth and they were handing out Never
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Walls merch. First of all, which is, I think, like,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It was like you're it sort of
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: was like broke the like there's sort of like an
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: unspoken rule at these kinds of like events, which is
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: like you can be political, but don't be an asshole.
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: These people have obviously never been to a fair. OK.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Right. There is something about walls where that like the
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: idea of anybody hating Tim Walls is so strange and
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: makes you seem. strange. And here's a guy that was
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: head of the Democratic Governors Association. Here's a guy that
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: was actively campaigning for the job of vice president. But
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: he has this aw shucks vibe that kind of makes
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: it seem like this is all just happening to him.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: And there's just nothing more potent than a politician whose
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: ambition isn't on the surface.
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Like he's clearly an ambitious guy. You know, he's He's
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: a governor. He's a governor. He's a governor. He's a
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: member of Congress, became a governor, wanted to be vice president.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: But you see him and you just think, wow, it's
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: so cool that this has just happened to him, that
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: he just happened across this. But I think it's like
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: a powerful part of his appeal because the ambition on
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of politicians, Democratic and Republican, and on J.D. Vance,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: it just comes across. He just reeks of it.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: You know, J.D. Vance is what we like to call
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: in the streets a pick-me. He's like, oh, pick-me, pick-me.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: He gives strong pick-me energy. I don't think there's anything
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: wrong with ambition, but I do think that there's something
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: wrong or just not relatable when you come across as
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: just Like not being a good person, not being uncomfortable
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: in just regular settings where we're supposed to be able
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: to do normal things that we all do as just humans.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: And Tim Walz doesn't give that off. I also think
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: there's something to be said about the fact that there
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: were lots of people that wanted this job, i.e. the
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: job of vice president, and Vice President Harris chose him.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: And because of how she felt in the conversation, the
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: rapport that they had, that they built up in a
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: short amount of time, And also that he was just
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: very straight up and forthcoming, is my understanding, about the
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: fact that he did not have desires to be president.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: You know, that is something that's like, you know, Tim
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Walz is like, look, this is a job I want
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: to do. I'm here to do it. I'll be good.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: We're gonna have a good time. You can pick me
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: or you can not pick me, but I'm here. And
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: she was like, we'll take it. I love that. Let's
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: do it together.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Exactly the right thing to say. And to be clear,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I love, I'm not one, I think, I think it's like,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: there's a, Voters tend to be anti-ambition, especially with women,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: especially people that aren't white guys. I love ambition. I
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: think the more ambitious, the better. But it rubs some
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: people the wrong way. They kind of they like politicians
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: who seem to stumble into it. I don't think it's
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's right or wrong, but it's just
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: it does seem like that. That is part of the
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: part of I think the why why Vice President Harris
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: has been received so warmly is because she's been able
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: to evade some of the misogyny that would have come
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: along with a woman actively seeking the jobs.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Well, look, honestly, I think maybe a little yes, but
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: also I believe that, to me, I find it a
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: little misogynistic for folks that have been sitting around like, well,
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: if Joe Biden can't be the nominee, we're going to
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: have to have an open convention because who is going
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: to do it? As though the vice president hadn't been
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: working as the vice president for the last almost four years.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: And then when Joe Biden does get out, says, okay,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: it's my vice president, and forcing people to either go
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: against now he and his vice president or just go
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: along with the get along. They went along with the
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: get along and she actively went out there and earned
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: the votes and the delegates. People then are like, oh, wow,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: I didn't know she was doing X. Wow, she really
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: is good on the trail. Oh, my goodness. People like her.
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: Well, well.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: What y'all think she been doing? He's like, who y'all
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: think helped shore up Roe versus Wade in the aftermath
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: when Roe fell? Who y'all think helped shore up the
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: activists and the advocates and the state legislators across the country?
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: It was Kamala Harris walking around doing the tour. So
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: to me, there's just a little bit of a, mm.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Why weren't y'all paying attention to her? And some of
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: it is the nature of the vice presidency. Nobody, I mean,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: you cannot tell me what a vice president did every day,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: the last four vice presidents. Maybe Dick Cheney, and that's
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: a whole nother story. But you generally don't know what
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: a vice president does every day. But when push came
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: to shove and folks were like, well, where? Where is
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: the bench? It was like people looked over the vice president.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: And part of that, I do think, is rooted in
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: a little misogyny. There were people that felt like she
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: wasn't ready, right? That she couldn't rise to the occasion.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: And I'm glad that Joe Biden didn't... One of the
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: best things Joe Biden ever did is.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: After he put his statement out, put out another statement
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: that says, I endorse the vice president, because it eliminated
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: the chatter. And now people have been able to see, frankly,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: now that they're deciding to pay attention, what Vice President
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Harris has been doing. And so it's not a shocker
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: to me that people like her, because if you've been
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: paying attention to where she's going and folks she's interacting with,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: they do like her. People have just been caught in
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: this doom loop of, I think, her first presidential campaign,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: and then that one interview with Lester Holt. And I'm
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: just kind of like... Or can we not elevate? Can
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: we not see full pictures? And maybe not.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Well, I do think, yes, I think all that's true.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: I do think some of it was an overcorrection. What's
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: been so, I think, first of all, she's been put
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: in the position of going from being the vice president
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: to being the standard bearer of the party in the
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: fight to save democracy that happened in 48 hours. And
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: she rose to the occasion in such an extraordinary way
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: that even if expectations weren't artificially low, and I agree,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I think they were, she's still doing extraordinarily well. I mean,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: the way this campaign came out of the gate, the
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: way she kind of took this mantle and rose to it,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: I think that that is an extraordinary achievement, even if
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: she wasn't underestimated. I will say, I do think it
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: is the combination of the 2020 campaign being one in
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: which she felt like she had to run away from
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: her biography as a prosecutor straight into being vice president,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: which is a job in which you kind of subsume
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: your identity in a different way led to a kind of,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: I think, undervaluing of the Kamala Harris stock.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I think about, I remember, obviously, we
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: all remember 2020. I remember that primary, the 2019 primary.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: And her campaign started with, first she came out, she
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: was a progressive prosecutor. And some of the activists were like, no,
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: you're not. What is progressive prosecutors? You're not as progressive as,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: look at all these current prosecutors, when literally she was
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: a prosecutor before all those other people were prosecutors. It's
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: how we When she was a prosecutor, she was progressive.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: But that initial brushback, her campaign recalibrated. And then they
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: went through all these different reiterations. But frankly, what we
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: are hearing from the vice president now is where her
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: campaign ended. She ended on this riff about, you know,
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: I prosecuted, you know, I locked up rapists, sexual predators, fraudsters.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: You know, I know a criminal when I see one.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Let me read you his rap sheet. That's what she
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: used to say about Donald Trump at the campaign trail.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: and the end of 2019. Fast forward to 2024, she
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: comes out of the gate in her own campaign now,
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: and she says, I was a prosecutor. I took on
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: fraudsters and sexual predators, and I know a perpetrator when
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: I see one. I know Donald Trump's type. So it
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: is not a huge divergence. I just think it was
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: a It was a message, frankly, that she found too
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: late and that she has been able to hone over
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: the course of some years because it is authentic to her.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: And there is something to be said about an authentic
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: campaign message. And the problem was like one of the
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: many problems with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance is that
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: they just lack authenticity. It's like you don't, they would
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: love to paint the picture that you don't know what
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz believed. But I think on
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: a number of things we do. I think there's some
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: questions about her policy, which people don't get answers for
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: when they roll out policy positions. A month ago, Joe
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Biden was a Democratic nominee. Like, let's be serious here.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: But what does Donald Trump believe? Does he believe women
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: have the right to their own reproductive freedom? I highly
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: doubt it because he brags about, you know, putting the
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: judges on the court that overturn Roe. But he wants
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: to tell us that he's the best for women, you know?
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: J.D.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: Vance says he believes in all families and the child
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: tax credit, but he skips the vote. So it's just
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: kind of like... I just, I feel like the people
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: that are fraudsters here and really not showing us who
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: they are, are not the Democrats running for president.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, when Biden stepped aside and endorsed Kamala, people were
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: circulating this ad where Kamala, it was, you know, the
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: very kind of gravelly voiceover saying, Kamala Harris, she's the anti-Trump.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: The people said, wow, that ad could run today. That's
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: where she would have ended up had she made it
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: through the primary. Had she made it through the primary,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: she would have... And it would have infuriated a bunch
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: of people that because she would have if she had
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: become the nominee in 2020, the day she was the nominee,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: that is the day she would have become a prosecutor again.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: And and it just and it just never happened. So
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: the campaign is also out with a new ad that
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: that is pretty different in tone. One goes after Trump
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: on Project 2025. The other touts Harris's housing policy. Let's
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: start with the Trump ad. And she's got two new
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: ads out. Here's the first.
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: Donald Trump's back. And he's out for control.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: I would have every right to go after them.
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: Complete control.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: I will wield that power very aggressively.
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: And he has a plan to get it.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: Detailed plans for exactly what our movement will do.
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: It's called Project 2025, a 922 page blueprint to make
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: Donald Trump the most powerful president ever. Donald Trump may
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: try to deny it, but those are Donald Trump's plans.
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: Well, revenge does take time. I will say that. And
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: sometimes revenge can be justified.
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: He'll take control. We'll pay the price.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: I was a really interesting ad. I was surprised by
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: how much it's about Donald Trump. and Donald Trump being
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: in control? What did you make of it?
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: I think that it is important to not allow Donald
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Trump to, for someone who is running against Donald Trump,
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: you cannot allow him to assume the passenger seat, right?
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: To say that, oh, you know, it's really all these
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: other people and not just him. He really doesn't know
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: what's going on. He's a doddering fool. Because I actually
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: don't think that that's the case to a certain extent, right?
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: He is very much so. in charge. As you know,
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: who the president is matters and who the people around
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: the president are matter as well. And they can either
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: affirm a president's best intentions or they can affirm and
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: reinforce their worst intentions. So who the president is matters.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: And this ad squarely puts that in the forefront. Project 2025,
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: the work to put it out there into the public ethos,
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: it has taken a hold. And I know sometimes there
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: is not enough time in a campaign to educate the
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: electorate about something. You can either, you can, depending on
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: where you are in an election cycle, you can choose
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: to take your time educating the electorate, but that could
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: be at the expense of of earning their vote. On
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Project 2025, it is something that the electorate, young people,
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: older people, folks that don't do politics every day, they
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: are bringing it up on their own. Melissa Murray and
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: I were at this nail shop in DC. We were
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: filming for a project at my nail shop in Washington, DC,
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: and we had three young women who were there with us,
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: millennial black women, two from North Carolina. Unsolicited brought up
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Project 2025 in the suburbs of Butler County, Pennsylvania, talking
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: to an intergenerational group of black women. Unsolicited brought up
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Project 2025. People don't know about what's in every single page,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: but they know that it is ominous. They know that
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: it is bad and that is not good for government
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: and democracy. And they know that People that worked for
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump wrote it. And so it's hard for them
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: to divorce him from this plan. And frankly, I think
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: the only reason he wants to divorce himself from the
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: plan is because people now know about it.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: A couple of quick things before we go to break.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Here it is, the moment you've been waiting for, an
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: update on Vote Save America's Organize or Else volunteer drive.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: So far, Vote Save America has signed up 52,000 people
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: to phone bank and canvas for Democrats up and down
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: the ticket. But we need you to help reach 75,000
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: volunteers by National Voter Registration Day on September 17th, which
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: is just 18 days away. If you've never volunteered before,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: don't stress. Vote Save America will walk you through it
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: on a weekly welcome call and their office hours so
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: you can volunteer with confidence. Please sign up. Go to votesaveamerica.com
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: slash 2024. We need everybody to finally do it. I
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: know there's no right, like it doesn't, We've been talking
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: about this election forever. It's been the wildest couple of weeks.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: The fall is here. As of this episode, the election is,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: I believe, 65 or 64 days away. So we need
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: you to sign up. Now is the time. I get it.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: You're listening. You're in the car. Take a second. Please
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: do us a favor and sign up at votesaveamerica.com slash 2024.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: This message has been paid for by Vote Save America.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: You can learn more at votesaveamerica.com. This ad has not
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: been authorized by any candidate or candidates committee. Also, in
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: case you missed it, on the latest episode of Assembly
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Required with Stacey Abrams, Stacey recorded live from the DNC
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: with the youngest member of Congress, Maxwell Frost, and civic
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: engagement influencer Haley Lickstein. Together, they impact everything about Gen
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Z politics, from what matters to the youngest generation of
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: voters to how their generation is working to mobilize their
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: peers this election. A new episode of Assembly Required with
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Stacey Abrams drops tomorrow. Make sure to subscribe now so
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: you never miss a new episode every Thursday. So you
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: could imagine a version of a Project 2025 campaign that
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: would say Donald Trump is bad because of Project 2025.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Here's what Donald Trump will do. Here's what Project 2025
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: does on abortion, on the middle class, on taxes, on
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: the environment, on LGBTQ issues. But this ad goes the
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: other way. It says Project 2025 is bad because of
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump. This is not an ad for people who
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: are undecided on Donald Trump's character. It's an ad saying
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: you should be worried about Project 2025 because of your
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Trump fears.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Yes, they are essentially again, they're essentially the ad that
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: essentially says Who the president is matters. And they have
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: to put Donald Trump in the driver's seat. Otherwise, he's
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: some passive person. And if he's that passive and other
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: people are pulling the strings, then why does it matter
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: if he's elected president or not? To your point about character,
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: people know how they feel about Donald Trump. Even folks
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: who are these, quote unquote, undecided voters. Democrats know how
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: they feel about Donald Trump. Independents know how they feel
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: about his character, right? Republicans even know how they feel
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: about his character. The question is, do you want to
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: vote for him? And when you ask voters, like, okay,
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: these are your choices. There are voters still out there
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: right now that are saying, there are some people that
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: are saying, I don't know if I'm going to vote.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: Some will say, I don't know if I'm going to
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: vote for Vice President Harris. And then if you push
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: and you ask, you say, well, are you considering voting
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: for Trump? And some of these younger voters and what
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: we would call persuadable, like non-registered, but persuadable, non-registered voters,
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: they will say, oh no, I'm not voting for Trump.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: It's not Trump. I'm not considering Trump. He's crazy. This
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: is what I've heard them, you know, they've told me
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: when I'm out there talking to them. So it is
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: important to put Donald Trump in the driver's seat because
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: that is what is going to push somebody over the
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: edge to cast a ballot for Vice President Harris or
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: against Donald Trump. If you allow him to be this
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: passive figure... It's not motivating for someone that may, in fact,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: be on the fence, not saying that the fence is,
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: do I vote for him or not? Do I vote
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: for him or vote for her? The fence is, am
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: I voting or am I staying home? Or am I
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: voting but not checking the top of the ticket?
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: That makes sense, because then if you're somebody out there
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: that's like, I'm not happy with my choices or I've
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: been unhappy with the Democrats, but I don't like Donald Trump,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: you might think an ad that is more focused on
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: the actual substance of Project 2025, regardless— of Donald Trump's
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: particular failings might be better at a different kind of
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: undecided voter, a voter who's actually undecided between Trump and Harris.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: But seeing this as saying, here's the menace Donald Trump poses,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: that's why you have to come out and vote for Harris.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: This to me says that the campaign understands that there
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: are people that would be considered base voters or, and
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: sometimes in polling, again, they refer to these folks as
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: unregistered voters, i.e. people who, they're just not registered, but
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: they are primed and ready to participate in the act
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: of democracy and voting, there are people that are still
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: not all the way convinced that they are going to
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: go out there and vote for her. And so this
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: to me says that they understand that it is not
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: in the bag, as they have been saying, but this
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: is them putting literally their money where their mouth is
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: to put these ads on the air and target and
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: on digital. So I think it's really, really smart. And
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: this is a critical, critical time. Early vote ballots are
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: going out first week in September. And then people are
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: going to start voting in places all over this country
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: by mid-September. You can't wait and can't hope that people
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: are paying attention and seeing all the things. You got
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: to take it directly to them where they are early
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: and often. And I could bet you that's what we're
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: going to see from the Harris campaign and also the
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Trump campaign in this home stretch.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that also speaks to what they're doing
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: on housing as well. Here's a sample of a new
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: ad that the Harris campaign has just put out.
• 26:37
  Speaker 6: For most of my childhood, we were renters. My mother
• 26:41
  Speaker 6: saved for well over a decade to buy a home.
• 26:45
  Speaker 6: I was a teenager when that day finally came, and
• 26:47
  Speaker 6: I can remember so well how excited she was. Today,
• 26:51
  Speaker 6: corporate landlords buy hundreds of houses and apartments, then turn
• 26:56
  Speaker 6: them around and rent them out at extremely high prices.
• 26:59
  Speaker 6: I will fight for a law that cracks down on
• 27:02
  Speaker 6: these practices. We will end America's housing shortage by building
• 27:06
  Speaker 6: 3 million new homes and rentals.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Yimby's across the country rejoicing. I'm going to quote the
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: campaigns released directly. Vice President Harris is running to lower
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: costs and the housing shortage while Donald Trump has a
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: long history of exploiting tenants as a landlord, upholding racist
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: housing practices and giving handouts to wealthy real estate developers
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: while working to jack up rent for working and middle
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: class Americans. The way that was written also to me
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: spoke to the same dynamics that you're talking about, right?
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Like basically specifically talking about racist housing policies, specifically talking
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: about how Donald Trump is a slumlord. It It sounds
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: like something going after more disaffected voters rather than the
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: kind of suburban moderates, the women we're hoping to bring
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: into the fold with, say, abortion. Yeah. Why do you
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: think they're opening so hard on housing as opposed to, say,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: other places where people are pointing to prices as being
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: a huge problem?
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: I think because housing is the top issue for people
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: across the country. This is why I love focus groups
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: and I do not care for polls. Because in the
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: focus groups, as you know, you get to ask follow-up
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: questions and people tell you what they're really thinking. In
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: the polls, people say their top issue is the economy. Okay, yes,
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: but what about the economy? Affordability, housing, the rent is
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: too damn high. It is unattainable for some people to
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: buy a house. I've been saying this. We bought a house.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: I'm in the house we bought right now, okay? I'm
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: enjoying this bill. We bought a house last year and
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: I made good money. And even I felt broke. And
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: I'm like, well, damn, if I feel like this, how
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: are people? It is unattainable. The interest rates are like 7%.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: And I would argue that this is also a function
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: of these tours, for lack of a better term, that
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: the vice president had been doing when she was number
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: two on the ticket still. She did an economic opportunity
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: tour where she was talking about what the Biden-Harris administration
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: has done to shore up businesses with a particular focus
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: on small businesses and businesses of color, black businesses, and
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: has been doing these tours on college campuses. When you
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: are out there talking to people, housing comes up and
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: you cannot talk about that the United States has had
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: the greatest recovery of all the G7 countries, GDP is up,
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: unemployment is hitting record lows. All of that is true.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: But what does GDP mean for You know, someone in
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: North Omaha, Nebraska who cannot afford their rent. The rent
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: keeps going up and up and up and they have
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: to move because they cannot afford to live where they
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: had lived. And so this is something that's speaks directly
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: to people's current lived situation. Now, I would also say, though,
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: one of the things that the campaign has not done
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: as much of that I think they need to start doing,
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: and I'm just, I don't know why, but she is
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: a sitting vice president. They have been doing things about
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: housing right now. I mean, when Marsha Fudge was the
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: HUD secretary, they took on the price gougers directly. Marsha
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Fudge took on the appraisal folks that were doing the
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: bias appraisals directly. They did an assessment, and they put
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: rules in place to mitigate some of that. There was
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: a bill in this current Congress, the last two Congresses,
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: particularly about housing. It didn't pass. The Republicans, I don't think,
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: have even put it on the floor. So this idea
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: that like these are, you know, once she's elected president,
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: these are some of the things she will do. Well,
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: she's vice president now. And I think that's a very
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: fair statement to make. And the Biden-Harris administration has been
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: doing things on this issue. But they got to talk
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: about both. They acting like the lady is just out
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: here like she's a governor. She's not a governor. She's
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: sitting vice president of the United States of America.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: I do think, yes, I think pointing to places where
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Republicans have stopped policies that would address Housing prices is
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: a good thing to do. I think the reason that
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: I would say that probably they're not doing that is
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: because if you ask people, they feel like nothing's been done.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Things aren't getting better. As you go around taking credit
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: for policies that may have mitigated this issue in certain places,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: what they're really seeing is a generational failure to build,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: a generational failure to keep housing prices low. I'd be
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: more worried about the fact that this is a promise.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: I hope we do build $ 3 million. new houses, but
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: that's going to take time.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: Well, she's paying four years, which I also think is important, right?
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: She didn't say she's going to build by the end
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: of her first term. So you've got four years to
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: get 3 million homes.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: And what a goal. Hope we get there. But the
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: bigger issue is that getting housing prices, what you're trying
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: to do is build enough supply. You should be going
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: after landlords that screw people and all the rest. But
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: The actual challenge is building huge amounts of housing to
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: make up for decades in which we failed to build
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: enough to either stop the rise in prices or slowly
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: bring prices down. So as people's incomes rise, housing takes
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: up a lower share of people's income. That is a
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: very long-term project. There was a reason Obamacare, it took, what,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: five or seven years for it to become popular, right?
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: I do worry that this is one of those areas
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: where people are going to be looking for signs of success.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: And it's a, it's a tough, it's a, it's a
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: very tough problem.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Well, when you think, I just, I think of this
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: a lot like, um, the, the actual infrastructure projects. I
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: think that there is, we, we, we don't have to
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: go down a rabbit hole about like binomics. You know,
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: I'm one of the people that was like, well, just stop,
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: stop just calling it a thing and just say what
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: you're doing. We'll need to put a cute little label
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: on top. Nobody knows what that is. And then they
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: stopped putting a cute little label on top and just
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: Talk about the machinery. But you can see a bridge
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: being repaired. When I fly into LaGuardia in New York,
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: I can see which parts of LaGuardia have gotten the love.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: You can see when there is construction being done on
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: your bridges. Those are things that people can see and
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: touch and feel. Building new housing is something you can see. Now,
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: I do think this is why public-private partnerships are important.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: If I know the vice president and the people around
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: her who have been helping advise her on these policies,
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: as I do, using the engaging private business into what
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: public good is something that the vice president believes in
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: and is a model that can work. It's what she
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: did with the root cause of migration work in the
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: areas called the Northern Triangle that no one should refer
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: to as the Northern Triangle anymore. El Salvador, Guatemala, and Venezuela.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: She pulled in the corporate entities like Nespresso and MasterCard,
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: who had equities in the region, to see what they
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: could do about some of these particular issues. I think
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: housing is a place where that can happen. And look
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: at T.D. Jakes. I interviewed him last year. He has
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: a public-private housing partnership program. effort, if you will, that
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: he's doing in Atlanta, in Georgia, that is something that
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: has been a couple years in the making, but he
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: has the money to do it. And so this is
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: just not on the government. Our problems that this country
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: has are absolutely vast. And if we just always look
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: just solely to the government to fix them as though
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: the companies who have been made rich and wealthy off
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: the working people in this country who have helped put
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: the money in their pockets, if they don't have any onus,
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: to help fix some of the ills that they have exacerbated,
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: then we're going to be in a deeper hole. And
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: there is some work that companies can do. And that
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: is a very populist type message. And it's a message
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: that I think resonates with folks, maybe not the wealthiest
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: people in this country, but definitely resonates with those working
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: class folks that we started talking about, those union, those
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: labor folks who feel that viscerally. And if that is
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: where this policy is going, you can mirror those two.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: it can be very, very successful, but it will take time.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: This is not going to be overnight.
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: It's also just, yeah, look, I love a politician standing
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: in front of a construction site, cutting a fucking ribbon.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: Cutting a ribbon, honey, yes.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: That's a new bridge behind us. That's a new embankment. That's,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: you know, this is a new train station. This is
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: a new light rail. I love all that. Housing is tougher.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: It just is. It's just a tougher issue because a
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: lot of the problem, right? Like this has become, I think,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: a kind of debate, an interlop debate over the last
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: couple of years is, is the abuse of environmental rules,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: sort of the high cost of building in places like California,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: the NIMBYs trying to stop every piece of construction.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, you can't get insurance. Let's just be honest.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: In places like Florida, because of the climate crisis, places
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: like Florida and someplace in California, you cannot get insured
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: if you would like to build.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: And the London-breed mayor of San Francisco has this line,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: which is America is not a museum. And like, we
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: need to build and to build and we need to
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: build a lot and we need to cut and so
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: some of this is about a difficult conversation about regulations
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: money of which have done good right i mean you
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: know the rivers don't catch fire anymore that's cool but
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: but sometimes but but people have been abusing environmental rules
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: that were put in place for good reason to prevent
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of housing construction and it's not just look
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: going after corporate landlords going after private equity uh putting
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: in place protections for renters. These are all great things.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: Rent control can be a very good thing, but these
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: are all band-aids on a problem, which is about supply,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: which is why I think it's so awesome to hear,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: you know, Gavin Newsom, when he ran in 2017, talked
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: about building 3 million new houses in just California. Talking
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: about building millions and millions of new housing is really important.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: I just, I wanna, I think you're right that you
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: have to take credit for it. by taking credit for
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: the projects, because it's gonna be a very long, this
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: is not just a three or four or five, it's
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: a 10, 20 year project.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: You know, as you say that, it makes me think
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: about the kind of promises that candidates make on the
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: campaign trail. And one of the lessons that I took
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: from the campaign in 2020 was that there were things
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: that we as a campaign at that time said And
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: I don't know if we did enough work to bridge
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: the gap between the, what we were saying and then
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: all of the different pieces that were necessary for that
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: to happen. So it's to the point where now you
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: talk to some, and I'm not just talking, I'm not
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: talking about college students. I'm talking about millennia, the oldest
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: millennials this year turned in like 40, 43, 44.
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: The oldest millennials are turning 43. You talk to millennials,
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: millennials who are like, are you voting in this election?
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: What are you going to do? And they're like, look,
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: I haven't seen anything on my student loans. And I'm like,
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: does it matter to you that this administration instituted the
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: policy and then the Supreme Court blocked it? And they're like,
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: I don't know anybody whose student loans have gotten forgiven. Meanwhile,
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: I know people who have. They didn't pull my ticket,
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: but I know some people who did. But there are
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: people out there that don't. And there is, one could argue,
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: this administration has been punished, if you will, for how
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: the courts have blocked what they have tried to do.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: And there is a gap between the understanding of what,
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: not even an understanding, but just a gap between the
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: policies that were instituted and how the people feel about
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: what has happened and what they see. And so in
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: this election, it is going to be really important, I think,
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: to be very actual and factual with the voters about
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: what it is that you are trying to do and
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: how you are trying to go about it. Which is
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: why if you really take a look at the, at
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: least the housing proposals that I've seen and then What
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: we do know about the price gouging proposals, they are
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: specific in some ways and then nondescript in others. But
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: one of the specific ways is about utilizing attorney generals
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: and mobilizing them within their roles with the authority that
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: they already have. to hold companies accountable, to hold corporate
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: landlords accountable. That is a doable thing, right? And I
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: think it's a function of the fact that the vice
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: president was an attorney general. So she's like, well, I
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: know what they can do. Let's use them. We need
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: to marshal the attorney generals. Put them to work. So
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: there is some of this, like, you want to be
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: aspirational because that's what voters want. Hope does well, as
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: you know. People want joy and hope. It does well
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: giving people something to vote for, something to look forward to.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: They want to be inspired. but they do not want
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: to be inspired at the expense of their current living.
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: Reality.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: And so they're like, yes, inspire me or you're going
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: to fix my problem. And what you put forward to
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: them does need to be aspirational, but also tangible. What
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: does the vice president say? You got to be able
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: to see what can be, but I'm burdened by what
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: has been.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: Right. Yeah. No, I look, and by the way, like, man,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: Can Kamala Harris as president deliver on her pledge to
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: build 3 million new houses? That's a great problem to have,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: and I really want us to have it. And frankly,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: as long as it is a promise that they have
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: a path to keeping, I'm glad she's making it because
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: I think it also just sets a really ambitious goal.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: And hopefully people, I think one challenge, right, as to
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: what you're saying is people are pretty cynical about what
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: administration can achieve. So I hope people are also, I
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: think it is very hard to convince people that government
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: can really help people.
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: They're skeptical. They're skeptical. But that is, look, government cannot
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: do it on its own, but government should work for
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: the people. I mean, the people literally elect the politicians,
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: the elected officials. And so it is on the government,
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: the elected officials, the presidents, the members of Congress, the governors,
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: the mayors, the state legislators, right, to figure out how
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: to put things in place for the people that put
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: them in office. And some of that is public-private partnerships.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: Some of that is, you know, fixing the regulations. Some
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: of that is taking on the people who are exercising
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: corporate greed. But you've got to have a plan. And
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: I'm at least excited that we are continuing to have
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: conversations about those plans, at least on the Democratic side
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: of the aisle. I am kind of, I asked, I've
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: been guest hosting this week, and I asked one of the,
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: I had Tolu Oluwunrunipa on, who's the White House Bureau
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: Chief for the Washington Post. And I said, do you
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: think there's a double standard? as it relates to Donald
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Trump and Vice President Harris, like, do you think that's
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: just a double standard? All this conversation about an interview
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: and the policies, it's like, Donald Trump does a bunch
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: of interviews, and he does not tell the truth, and
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: I don't think he has a coherent policy. And the
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: ones that he has espouse, like, the math is not mathing.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: But we're rewarding people for, like, a lack of just
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: speaking without a lack of specificity and facts. And on
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: the other front, you are picking someone apart for some
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: specifics and some facts. So it's just kind of like,
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: where is the middle ground? And Tolu was like, that
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: is the rub. That is the job that we have
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: to try to do. And I'm like, okay, agreed, whatever.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: It sort of goes to say, it's this idea that
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: you measure accountability by number of interviews that a candidate does.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, she should do the interview.
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: Of course, she should do the interview. But like the goal,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: the question is, is this campaign being organized being honest
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: about what its plans are? Is it speaking the truth
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: to the voters about what kind of administration they would
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: try to run? I think there's an unequivocal yes on
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, unequivocal no on Donald Trump
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: and J.D. Vance. They do tons of press. That is true.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump is doing more interviews. Some of them are,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: you know, phone calls to beleaguered Fox News hosts trying
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: to help him. Uh, uh, but you know, JD Vance
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: did a round of interviews with.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: With, with, uh, the Sunday shows.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But those are opportunities for just, for, for the,
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: for the, the, the, the Trump Vance campaign to get
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: away with as much as possible in their ongoing efforts
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: to deceive the American people into getting their votes. The,
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: the Harris-Walls game is telling us what they'll try to do. Now,
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: there are probably tough questions they would face about how
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: can you achieve these things or, or, uh, uh, here
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: are some questions coming from your left flank.
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: There's tough questions about.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Israel and Palestine. That's the job.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: But I just, I don't know. I kind of feel like,
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: I'm like, are we all existing in the same context here?
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: Are we on two different planes? Because this discourse would
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: literally have you believe That this lady has not answered
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: one question from anybody in the four years that she
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: has been vice president. That she is not out here
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: gaggling on the side of her plane. I agree that
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: they need to sit for an interview. But a month ago,
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden was a Democratic nominee. It's not like this
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: is mid-September and they haven't spoken to anyone. Donald Trump
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: travels on his plane, has reporters on the plane, and
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: does not talk to them. Literally does not talk to them,
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: doesn't answer any questions. And so I want us to, yes,
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: hold everyone accountable. But we need to be, I just
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: think we have to just raise the bar for ourselves
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: as a media apparatus and as people that want to
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: get the information out and get questions answered. Because some
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: of this is like, we're not making sense on some
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: of this. It's not adding up. We're looking like unserious people.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about what Donald Trump has been doing while
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: Harris and Walz are barnstorming the country. Today's big themes
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: are Bidenomics, accusing Kamala of faking her engagement numbers, attacking
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: Judge Mershon for the gag order, and attacking Jack Smith,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: plus congratulating himself on getting Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: to endorse him. As of 12.30 p.m. Eastern today, the
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: top truth social feed was this video.
• 44:48
  Speaker 4: 50 all-new stunning digital trading cards. It's really something. These
• 44:53
  Speaker 4: cards show me dancing and even me holding some Bitcoins.
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: Purchase 15 or more of my Trump digital trading cards,
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: and we'll mail you a beautiful physical trading card. It's really,
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: I think, quite something. Each physical trading card has an
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: authentic piece of my suit that I wore for the
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: presidential debate. And people are calling it the knockout suit.
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: I don't know about that, but that's what they're calling it.
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: purchase 75 of my Trump digital trading cards, and you
• 45:22
  Speaker 4: will also be invited to join me for a gala
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: dinner at my beautiful country club in Jupiter, Florida. I'm
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: keeping my Trump digital trading cards at the same price
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: of $ 99 each. Go right now and collect your piece
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: of American history.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to put my piece of Trump suit
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: right next to my little chunk of the Berlin Wall.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: How That was the real suit. That's what I want
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: to know. Like how? Who believes this is the actual suit?
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: Who believes this man cut the suit up?
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: So six months ago, I would have said, wow, the
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: threat of imprisonment sure has sharpened Trump's mind. And even
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: in the in the weeks and months that followed, it
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: seems like it seemed like, yes, he's an undisciplined menace,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: but he was trying to win. He put in place
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: campaign staff that was better than his previous campaign. Campaign staff,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: he showed his version of discipline after that debate. That
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: seems to be out the window. A campaign that wants
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: to win, a candidate that wants to win is not
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: posting this kind of shit. A campaign that wants to
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: win is staying on message. What's going on here?
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: Somebody had to edit that video. Like, think about all
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: the things that had to happen before that video got
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: to the point. And is it still Dan Scavino that's
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: hitting publish on all these social sites? Like, someone, Donald Trump,
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: had to film it. He did a voiceover, honey, and
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: then filmed it. Somebody powdered him up and combed the
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: hair for the footage. And then they had to overlay
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: the Bitcoin situation on top. And then they put the
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: music track behind it. And then they had to compress
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: it properly in iMovie or wherever they edit these. When
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: I first saw this, I'm like, what is going on?
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: This is not serious. But then I remembered that the
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: grift for Donald Trump has been consistent. And so he
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: has a pattern of, you know, putting these things up.
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: And because he has a cult-like following, and I think
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: cult-like is the only accurate way to describe it because
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: there are folks that support him that will literally do
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: whatever he says, whether it is, you know, march on
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: the Capitol or, you know, give me your money for
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: the Bitcoin, for the Bitcoin card. Because of that, he
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: has a consistent way to raise money in an unorthodox
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: manner that we don't know where this money is actually
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: going to. There was an op-ed recently that talked about
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: how if you really take a look at some of
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: these line items within the the finances of the Trump campaign,
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: there's like a black hole of money that's just being
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: siphoned off to somewhere and we don't know where it's going.
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: What is it being used to do? It's just like
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: a black hole, just a money slush fund pot. What
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: is going on with the money slush fund pot? Well,
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: maybe it's funding his legal bills. Maybe it's funding other
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: things that we don't know about. So this is the
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: grift for Donald Trump is consistent, but it has nothing
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: to do with his campaign. And the fact that Again,
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: multiple people conspired, if you will, to put this video
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: together and then get it out there to the world.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: means to me that, again, Donald Trump is not in
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: the passenger seat of his campaign. He is, in fact,
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: in the driver's seat. Because if Chris LaCivita and Suzy
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: Wiles were actually in the driver's seat, I highly doubt
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: that there would even have been the resources to make
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: this video. But Donald Trump is in the driver's seat.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: People cannot forget that. They're not these well-to-do aides chugging
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: him along, going to pull him over the finish line. No,
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: he is the conductor of this orchestra. He is the
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: main character in his movie. And his problems he brought
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: upon himself. And if he does not win this election,
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: it'll be because he lost it. Yeah.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: So they tried to do some kind of a message
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: event at Arlington National Cemetery, though members of his staff
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: seem to have gotten to kind of an altercation, trying
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: to drive a message about the Afghanistan pullout. He's been
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: doing interviews. He went on Dr.
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: Phil.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: He did Theo Vaughn. Let's assume there's a tide race.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: If you're your own evil twin, what would you be
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: advising him to be doing right now?
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: Well, the staff wouldn't be getting into an altercation at
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: Arlington National Cemetery. I just want to back up and
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: note that the worst day, the worst day of... My
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: time at the White House, and I think everyone would
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: say the same thing, was the day that those 13
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: service members were killed in Afghanistan. Everyone who worked at
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: the White House remembers where they were when that happened.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: I was on a plane with the vice president. We
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: were coming back from an Indo-Pacific trip. And we went
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: and we made a stop at an unannounced stop at
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: an Air Force base to stop and have time to
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: speak with service members because of what was happening in
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: the world. And so it is to take that very harrowing,
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: and again, the worst day of my time in the
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: White House, and to then put it in squarely political terms,
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: because that is in fact what was happening. I was
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: just shocked to see it. I don't know. I was
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: shocked to see it. My evil twin cannot advise Donald
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: Trump because it will require him to be disciplined. My
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: evil twin deals with discipline. It would advise him to
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: be strategic. And want to take advice. And what Donald
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: Trump has shown us, because when people show you who
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: they are, we should believe them. That's what Dr. Maya
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: Angelou said. He has shown us that he believes he
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: is his best political advisor. That he believes he can run,
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: if he's listening to his instincts, that's what he should do. Yeah,
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: the aides want me to do this, but I'm doing that. And, uh, you,
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: you can't, you, you cannot corral a person like that.
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: It just doesn't work. That's one of the worst kind
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: of people to work for. That would be a candidate
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: I would quit on because you, and you, but the
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: matter of fact, that'd be a job I wouldn't even
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: take because you figured that out in the first sit down, honey.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: You had your sit down, you ask your questions and
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: then you figure out, oh, you are a fool that
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: will not take advice. I, this is not the place
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: for me.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: Uh, so, uh, one person you did work for is
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: the vice president.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: She took advice.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: She took advice. So she's doing this Georgia swing. They're
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: going to rural Georgia as part of that swing. They're
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: going to do that sit down with Dana Bash of
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: CNN debate coming up in two weeks. How does Kamala
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: Harris prepare for big moments like this? And what do
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: you think the goal of this interview is?
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: So I'm going to go with the goal of the
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: interview first. I wonder if there is a new policy
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: or something that is being unveiled. When I will orchestrate interviews,
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: not just for the vice president, but in any of
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: the other folks that I've ever worked for, I would
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: think about, okay, well, what can we drive? But especially
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: when it was for the vice president, we need to
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: be able to drive something so that you are not
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: just coming to the interview being beholden to the news
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: of the day. So is there something you want to announce,
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: something you want to point to? I think maybe the
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: thing that they're trying to drive is the fact that
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: they are aggressively courting Um, every vote, you know, she has,
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: vice president has said, she said during her convention speech
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: that she essentially wants to be a, she will be
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: a president for everyone. It's about Americans and a bus
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: tour like this to me says, and we are now walking.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: We want to walk it like we talk it. So this,
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: maybe this interview is an opportunity for her and governor
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: walls to do that and talk about that engagement and
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: the people that they've seen and then also be seen together.
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: I know a lot of people are excited about the
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: history that is able to be made and the historic
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: nature of the vice president's candidacy. But there are also
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: a lot of people in this country that will still say,
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I want to vote for a
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: black woman. So the people need to see the vice
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: president out there being a candidate for everybody and sitting
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: next to her running mate, which is a white man, frankly,
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: and to see the juxtaposition of, oh, look at this
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: person that she chose to be her number two, who,
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, oh, okay, maybe this is a thing. Is
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: this where we are, America? It could be if you vote.
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: So I think that's what's happening there with the interview.
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: I would argue that this should be the first of
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: many because there should be many things to drive. And
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: when you have many interviews, as you know, then you
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: don't get hung up on one being like a high
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: stakes situation because you have many things lined up. So
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: perhaps we're going to see the vice president do not
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: just his television interview, but maybe you'll see a couple
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: of print interviews that then drop some days after with
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: journalists or columnists. Maybe she's calling into one of the
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: major radio shows. doing something on NPR, all of these
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: things to flood the zone in her and her own voice,
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: separate from whatever she says on a stage at a rally.
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: When it comes to how she prepares, I think the
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: formula that she developed when she was a prosecutor is
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: the formula that she took with her when she was
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: in the United States Senate as she prepared for the hearings,
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: for example. And that's definitely the formula that I experienced
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: that we used in the last campaign when we prepared
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: for the first vice presidential debate. and the formula that
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: we used when we were in the White House that
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: first year. So she is someone that wants to be
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: very clear about what it is that she wants to say,
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: the contours, where she wants to go. She likes the mocks,
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: but also just wants to be anchored in just what
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: does she want to get across? Because debates are not
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: about the two people on the stage or the couple
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: people on the stage and the moderator and whoever might
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: be in the room. It's about the people at home.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: And so she viscerally, I think, understands that. And it's
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: my understanding that she had already been in debate prep
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: because remember, the vice presidential debate when she was number
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: two on the ticket was supposed to be much earlier.
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: And so she had already started debate prep. And the
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: team that was prepping her then is the same team
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: that is prepping her now. They just retooled the prep.
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: And so she is, I think, well-versed in already what
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: obviously the Biden administration was doing and what the Biden
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: policies would be. Right now, I think it's mirroring the
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: two between what she is saying she would want to
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: do with the Biden administration. She has to defend her
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: and Joe Biden's record, but not to a fault. She
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: has to look to the future. And how can you
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: ensure you're doing that on a debate stage, but also
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: standing next to someone who wants to rattle you, wants
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: to get you off your rocker and will just say, whatever.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: And you can't get into You don't want to be
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: in a position where you're in a complete back and
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: forth with Donald Trump. But I think she would love,
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: her team would love one of those moments like that
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: vice presidential debate when Mike Pence tried to interrupt her.
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: And she's like, I'm speaking. We were in the back like, yes,
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: she did it.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: She did it. Where are you on muted versus unmuted mics?
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: Unmute the mics. Like, what is this mess? Unmute the mics.
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: These are adults. Why are we muting people like they're
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: in kindergarten? I was never a muted mic proponent. I
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: think that Donald Trump's crazy needs to be seen. I'm
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: also not a proponent of deplatforming Trump. I'm somebody that
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: believes you need to play his sound. People need to
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: hear him. I believe he should be fact-checked. But the
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: best thing that happened to Donald Trump is that he
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: was deplatformed. Because now what he's saying is not making
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: its way out into mainstream. Because when it does and
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: people do cover it, He often backtracks. He walked back
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: what he said about a bloodless, right? And what happens
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: if he doesn't win. He's tried to walk back what
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: he said about Roe and women and IVF and abortion
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: because he's seeing the reaction and the reception. Heck, he
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: even tried to walk back what he said about the
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: vice president not being black. He's like, well, I don't
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: know what she is. That ain't what you said, sir.
• 56:55
  Speaker 5: What?
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: But because it was covered- it forced him to recalibrate.
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: And so Donald Trump is someone that benefits when people
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: feel as though like, oh, he's too terrible to cover.
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: This man could be the next president of the United
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: States again. Cover him, play his sound, unmute that man's mic.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: Now, Kamala Harris is in Georgia. She's campaigning in rural
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: parts of Georgia. Quentin Fulks talked to Playbook this morning
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: about this strategy. It feels like this is a, and
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: John and Tommy talked about this a bit on Pod
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: Save America yesterday. But it feels like this is two
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: things happening at once. One is trying to drive the
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: margins down in rural parts of the county, but also
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: trying to say Georgia is in play in part because
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: we can run up the numbers with black voters in
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: places like Atlanta, a signal that they are not going
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: to accept this argument that there is a weakness among
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: black voters. Do you think Kamala being the nominee has
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: changed that? What do you think is happening?
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: I think her being the nominee has opened up a newness, right?
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: And one could argue, oh, she's the incumbent vice president, though,
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: so how can she be new? But she is new
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: for a lot of people in the campaign trail. This
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: just feels like a different campaign, and that is to
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: her and Governor Wallace's benefit. What is happening in Georgia, frankly,
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: is also what they are doing in other places across
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: the country. And it's what anybody who has ever won statewide,
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: who is a Democrat, who represents a diverse state, which
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: is many states across this country, has done, is you
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: have to go into the places and spaces where people
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: might not be usually primed to vote for you, or
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: you don't usually win those counties, but you need to
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: close the margins. And frankly, that's what Obama did in 2008.
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: That's how he won. Okay, he closed the margins in
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: some of these spaces and places. People talk about California
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: like it is one huge city party from Mexico all
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: the way up to almost Oregon. But to be very clear,
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: they're very rural parts. They're rural parts of California. Kamala
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: Harris has won statewide multiple times in California. And Quentin Fulks,
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: who obviously was one of the architects of Senator Warnock's
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: win in Georgia. So this is something that Democrats absolutely
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: have to do. And I would also note in places
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: like Georgia, but also in places like North Carolina, there
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: are black voters outside of the city, right? There are
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: black voters outside of Metro Atlanta. There are black voters
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: in some of these rural counties. Quentin Folks is from
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: one of these rural counties. There are other voters of
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: color in Georgia specifically. It was black voters that helped
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: deliver Georgia for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2020,
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: but it was also AAPI voters and Latino voters in
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: the suburban counties and then also in some of these
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: rural areas. And so that's who they are going to
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: need to talk to if they want Georgia to continue
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: to be competitive.
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: Would you put Tim Walz on Joe Rogan?
• 59:53
  Speaker 7: No.
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't, but he should go on Howard Stern. I
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: would put him on Howard Stern. Howard's great. Joe Rogan's problematic.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: No, for sure. Hey, listen, for sure. For sure. I'm
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: just trying to win. I'm just trying to win. I
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: don't care about anything else. I don't care about anything else.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: The people that are probably listeners of Joe Rogan, there's
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: some crossover with the Howard Sterns of the world. But
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: at the end of the day, there is always this
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: idea that From our Democratic friends that are like, oh,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: you got to win the white working class vote. I'm like,
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: what is that? Because Democrats haven't, not even Bill Clinton
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: won the majority of white people. I asked Tad Devine
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: the last time I saw them. I said, did y'all
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: win white people? And he said, no. Tad Devine was
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: one of the pollsters for Clinton. He said, no, we
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: didn't even win white people. OK, so Bill Clinton didn't
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: win the majority of white voters the last time he
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: was on the ballot. And so this idea that if
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: you just do one more podcast over here, do one
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: more thing over here, do one more thing over there,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: you're going to win. You're going to finally get back
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: and win the majority of white voters. It's not happening.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: But I'm not trying to win. I'm not trying to
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: win the majority of white voters. I'm just it's a
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: game of inches. It's a game of inches. I'm just
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: trying to get some of these young men.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: Go to Howard Stern, okay? The young men are on
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: Howard Stern. They're also on... They need to do Travis
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: Kelsey's podcast. Didn't they just.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: Great.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: Do some of the younger, hipper things that the... Maybe,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: maybe I would love to see a little sports center action, okay?
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: A little ESPN action. Football season is coming back up.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: Are the people going to get out on the sports rotations?
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: Those are some of the things. And then they also,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: they need to, you know, they should come talk to you.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: We want them to come talk to us on the weekend.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: Okay?
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: Come talk to us. Come talk to you.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: Come talk to us, okay?
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: Come talk to us. We're so friendly. We're so friendly.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: We got questions.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. Simone Sanders, thank you so much. So good to
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: see you.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: Thank you. It's always a pleasure. I appreciate our hat twinning.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: And I just want to note, I'm wearing my USA
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: shirt because, you know, J.D. Vance said that, you know,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: women that haven't birthed children... They don't care about America.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: And as a woman that has not birthed a child,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: I feel very patriotic.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: You're wearing your Trust Black Women hat. My Trust Cisgender
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: White Gays hat is at the cleaners, so I could
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: not wear that, which is probably for the best. Everybody,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: check out The Weeknd on MSNBC and A Week from
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: Saturday on September 7th. Simone is going to be part
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: of the lineup at MSNBC Live, colon, Democracy 2024. It's
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: a Lollapalooza of... progressive nerds at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: Tickets are on sale at msnbc.com slash democracy 2024. Simone
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: Sanders Townsend.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: For being here.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: My husband will be pleased. We'll be displeased that we
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: left the town.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: Look at that.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: I know, right?
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: He did a good job, right? Please, please. Union on
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: the mic, but billionaire on the finger.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: We love Mr.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 4: Townsend.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: It's so good to see you, my friend.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: Good to see you too.
• 1:02:56
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