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“Get Mitch Or Die Trying.” (LIVE from Denver) · Pod Save America

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: What's up, Denver?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: I'm Erin Ryan.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I'm John Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Later in the show, we'll talk to your governor. Jared
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Polis is here.
• 0:52
  Speaker 5: But first, let's talk about this week's top story, which
• 0:55
  Speaker 5: is the president being a racist. On Tuesday, the House
• 1:00
  Speaker 5: of Representatives passed a formal resolution to condemn the president's
• 1:03
  Speaker 5: racist attack against four.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Congresswomen of color.
• 1:09
  Speaker 5: Four House Republicans and the newly independent Justin Amash joined
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: every Democrat in supporting the resolution, while the rest of
• 1:15
  Speaker 5: the Republican Party tried to sabotage the vote, defend Donald Trump,
• 1:20
  Speaker 5: and attack Democrats as deranged socialists who hate Jews and America.
• 1:26
  Speaker 5: Now that the vote has passed, we've reached the stage
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: of every racist outburst from Donald Trump where anonymous Democratic
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: strategists tell reporters that the president wants this fight in 2020.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Let's start with Tuesday's vote.
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: Obviously, a House resolution doesn't have the power to stop
• 1:46
  Speaker 5: the president from being racist.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: What did it did, John?
• 1:51
  Speaker 5: But the White House and Republicans still made a real
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: effort to try to stop this thing from happening. Tommy,
• 1:59
  Speaker 5: why do you think that was, and what did you
• 2:01
  Speaker 5: make of yesterday's antics?
• 2:04
  Speaker 6: I think they, it does matter. I think the resolution
• 2:08
  Speaker 6: does matter. I think that there's a lot of members
• 2:11
  Speaker 6: of Congress, a lot of Republicans in Washington who would
• 2:14
  Speaker 6: love to pocket the Trump's tax cut, to pocket a
• 2:17
  Speaker 6: bunch of conservative judges, and then pretend that the other
• 2:21
  Speaker 6: horrible things he does do not exist, right?
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: That was Paul Ryan's whole strategy. Boo! That was his
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: strategy with his therapist.
• 2:30
  Speaker 6: Yeah, Paul Ryan would sit in the car with a reporter,
• 2:34
  Speaker 6: read Trump's tweets with him, and then say, well, I
• 2:36
  Speaker 6: don't really pay much attention to the tweets, right?
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Like, that was their whole goal.
• 2:39
  Speaker 6: But we need to tie them to what Trump does,
• 2:42
  Speaker 6: good and bad. And I think the fact that there
• 2:44
  Speaker 6: were four defections, like, look, do we wish it were more?
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 2:48
  Speaker 6: But the fact that Doug Collins, the Republican congressman, not
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: the Sixers coach, I learned... today.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: Not the same person.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Similar flaws. Similar flaws. Trust the process, Dan.
• 3:02
  Speaker 6: Objected to the resolution on the grounds that for some
• 3:04
  Speaker 6: reason Nancy Pelosi's comments violated the rules of decorum is
• 3:09
  Speaker 6: a reminder that irony is dead. Trump shot it on
• 3:12
  Speaker 6: Fifth Avenue and no one gave a shit. He was
• 3:14
  Speaker 6: right about that. But it showed how deeply they didn't
• 3:17
  Speaker 6: want to deal with this. So I think politically it
• 3:20
  Speaker 6: was smart of them to put this resolution forward. But
• 3:22
  Speaker 6: just stepping away from politics, I think it's good... for
• 3:25
  Speaker 6: kids in the United States, people around the world, to
• 3:27
  Speaker 6: know that there is a big swath of people in
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: the United States and in the US government that doesn't
• 3:32
  Speaker 6: think racism is okay or acceptable, and to send that
• 3:35
  Speaker 6: message out.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, including the federal government. Like, if you were
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: a federal employee who was not the president, and you
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: told somebody to go back to their country, you would
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: get fired for being a racist according to the definition
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: of the federal government. I mean, look, America is not
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: like a wife. You can't just leave it if you
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: don't like it, you know?
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: Aaron, what do you think about Trump's attempt and the
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: Republican attempt to sort of turn this into a referendum
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: on patriotism versus socialism?
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: That was like the move yesterday.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: Well, what I thought was, I think the patriotism versus
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: socialism thing is really interesting because, to paraphrase former Senator
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: Al Franken, Democrats love America like an adult loves another adult,
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: which is they critique, they're honest with themselves, and Republicans
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: expect people to love America like a toddler loves their mommy,
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: which is where you just love, everything mommy does is good,
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: and anybody who doesn't like mommy or makes mommy sad
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: is the very worst. I think that true patriotism is
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: engaging with criticism and maturity with what you're talking about. Also,
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: the socialism thing, I think that's kind of an antique fear.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: The people who are Trump's most ardent supporters tend to
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: be in an older demographic and they tend to be
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: I guess the Fox News demographic, like the demographic that's
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: like too old to be charted. Those people who remember
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: a time when like they were actually they agreed with
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: Joseph McCarthy. Socialism was scary. Those are that's not something
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: that is fresh in the memory of younger voters. So
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: I think that what they're trying to do is froth
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: up people who are already at maximum froth.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I also....
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Maximum froth.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that blender's been going pretty hard for a couple
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: years now. Yeah, those are some stiff peaks. It's ready.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Guess what?
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: You got a meringue.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: You got a meringue on your hands.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Love it.
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: I also think, like, of all people to critique others
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: for critiquing the country, Donald Trump ran his entire campaign
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: in 2016... I mean, the slogan was make America great again.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Which is just not currently great.
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: Which is not currently great. He talked about how we're
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: no better than some other countries. You know, Putin was
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: a killer. We're killers too.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: American carnage.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: American carnage.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Remember that one?
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: I don't think there's ever been a president who has
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: shit on America more than Donald Trump before he got
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: to office.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Well, yes. No, and it's actually worth... Absolutely true, but
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I think it's actually worth breaking down the nuances of
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: the way you're allowed to hate America. Right. According to that.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: If you're white. Well, yes. There have been Republicans that
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: have loved America so much they threatened to secede quite recently.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: I think some of them are in the cabinet. There
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: was a great article about this actually in New York Magazine.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: basically saying that, like, what are they actually demanding when
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: they say, don't criticize America, love America the way we do?
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: They demand that loyalty to America requires disloyalty to those
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: who are marginalized. Why is it that pointing out racial injustice,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: the history of racial injustice, that the continuing systemic inequities
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: in our society is seen as being somehow inappropriate for
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: an immigrant? Why is it not the opposite? Why isn't
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the failure to point that out a kind of entitlement
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: that shows a kind of disloyalty to the millions of
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Americans who don't have an equal shot. Why are black
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Americans less entitled to the benefits of citizenship and the
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: benefits of a defense from their fellow citizens? Why does
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: that not count?
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: Because, you know what, because to say that the founding
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: promise of this country is equality and is justice would
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: require actions on behalf of Donald Trump and the Republican
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: Party that they do not want to take.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 7:50
  Speaker 6: But it's just as dumb as saying that supporting the
• 7:52
  Speaker 6: troops means you want to send them into every single
• 7:54
  Speaker 6: war possible.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: That's just not how this works.
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: Just imagine if Donald Trump had taken his own advice
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: circa 2009 and left.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Where would he go back to, Dan? We don't know.
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: So, Dan, there's been a lot of commentary that Trump
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: wants this fight. and that Republicans want to make the
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: squad the face of the Democratic Party in 2020. The
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: New York Times reported, moderate Democrats from swing districts said
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: that while the president's comments had been racist, the party
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: was playing into his hands by spending so much time,
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: so much time condemning the remarks. Do you agree that
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: this is what Trump wants, and do you think it's
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: a smart strategy?
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: Trump doesn't know what he wants.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: He just says things and they happen. There is no, like,
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: place where the brain, there's no distance between the brain
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: and the mouth, right? It just happens. And then everyone
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: spends time, whether it's the Trump campaign or Republicans or
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: stupid pundits or moderate Democrats who hate themselves to try
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: to figure out how to make this good for Trump
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: and bad for Democrats. And so a couple points on this.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: One, the idea that.
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: Democrats should find ways to Let me put it this way.
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: Democrats spend too much time trying to find ways to
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: avoid the fights Trump wants to pick than figuring out
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: how to win those fights. And I think we also
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: have to recognize that there is not an option where
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: Trump says something horribly racist that is one of the
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: most inflammatory things that any sitting president has said in decades.
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: And that what Democrats can do is they can pretend
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: like that didn't happen and then talk about pre-existing conditions.
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: That's not how the world works, right?
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: We have to learn how to take things on.
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: These people think that Democrats can just be like, healthcare, healthcare, healthcare, healthcare,
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: every time Trump says something racist.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: And so I think the thing for Democrats here is, one,
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: we have a moral obligation to call out racism from
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: our president, right? And we have, because I don't think
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: you can overstate the damage that it does long-term to
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: this country. The president of the United States says something racist.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: and then one half of our two-party system says that's fine.
• 10:03
  Speaker 7: Right?
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: That is incredibly damaging to the moral fabric of this country.
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: But I also think from a political strategy point of view,
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: it's not enough just to say the President's racist. I
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: think you have to call out the racist statement and
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: call him out for being a racist. but also talk
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: to voters about why Trump and the Republicans, from the
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: Koch brothers to Kevin McCarthy, Donald Trump, want to divide
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: Americans on race. And that is to distract them from
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: the other things they are doing. Giving huge tax cuts
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: to Wall Street, paying for it by taking your health
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: care and cutting your Medicare. He says he's racist because
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: he's a racist, but also because he wants to distract
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: from the fact that he is running the federal government
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: like a massive Ponzi scheme to put money in his
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: own pockets. We have to draw a connection between what
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: he says and what is happening and how it affects
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: people's daily lives.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: I also think it's worth remembering, I think about election
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: night 2016 and I think about Melania being shocked and
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: weeping at what was about to happen. Because she knows
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: him best. The reason I point that out, there was
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: a reason, no there is a reason. She was shocked.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: They were all shocked. You know, I think there's a
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: lot of lingering anxiety that we don't know how to win.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: We don't know how to run because Donald Trump is president.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: And it subverted a lot of our expectations and understanding
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: about politics. But Donald Trump doesn't have all the answers, too.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: He was just as surprised as anyone. And Donald Trump
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: can think something's good politics for him without being right
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: about it. Yeah.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: He's not well acquainted with his own political interests.
• 11:35
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: And then one other thing, too, about the moral stakes
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: of all this. It is very intense after a president
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: of the United States tells U.S. citizens to go back
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: and members of the crowd at the rally shout, send
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: her back, send her back, to immediately for pundits to
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: go right to the political implications. It would be quite
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: insensitive on the day the Titanic sank for someone to
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: write a story about how this is a good day
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: politically for the Lusitania. Yeah. Because you have to deal
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: with the emergency itself, the tragedy itself, before you get
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: to those, which it very well might have been. Where
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: do you get these topical references?
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very zeitgeisty. Well, first of all, Donald Trump declares
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: victory no matter what happens. Donald Trump could.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: Shit his pants and fall over and been like, I
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: totally own the lips. So he's not a reliable source
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: of whether or not he won.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: People shouting, shit your pants! Shit your pants!
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: Are you triggered, snowflakes? The president just shit his pants.
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: John F.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Kennedy Jr. is alive and he shat his pants!
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: But the second part of it is that we're kind
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: of I find this happens again and again. That's quite
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: a sentence, by the way. I find this happens again
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: and again is that the political media treats Trump as
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: though he's some sort of master manipulator.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Magic beans.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: He's a chess player. The only people who play chess
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: involved in this are the Russians. Donald Trump is not
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: playing chess. Donald Trump is playing 52 pickup. Secondly... Thirdly,
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: I can count.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Thirdly.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: Maybe as a millennial democratic woman, I want those people
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: to be my face. I want the four fucking horsewomen
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: of the apocalypse. Maybe people like me represent what 2018
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: was and why the blue wave happened. And maybe, yeah,
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: get those people out there. Get those people behind a microphone.
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: I totally agree with this because I realize we all have,
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: we can't remember anything, every day is memento, but we
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: have memory hold the 2018 election so fast. We were
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: sitting here in October of 2018, and Donald Trump was
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: talking about the caravan every single day, and he was
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: talking about an invasion of America, and the Brett Kavanaugh
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: thing was supposed to sink the election for the Democrats,
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: and then we won the biggest House majority in decades,
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: and it did not work. And like, As all these
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: pundits and all these moderate Democratic lawmakers are like wringing
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: their hands today, there's a USA Today poll out that
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: says that like 65% of Americans believe it was a
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: racist comment. That's 75% of Democrats and even a small
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: plurality of Republicans, 45% to 34%. agree that it was
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: a racist comment, which for them is something. And so
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: like this idea that we always have to be afraid
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: of him and that we can't speak our mind when
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: it's something fucking obvious. Like we overthink everything, you know,
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: like people like, oh, do we really want this in
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: voters' minds when they go to the polls? Like the
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: president of the United States is telling black and brown
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: citizens that they should leave the country. The question is,
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: Do you want to have a president like that or not?
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: It's that simple. It's that fucking simple.
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: There is so much about this whole conversation that represents
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: what's wrong in the political conversation in this country. The
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: first is the conventional wisdom among every reporter writing about
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: this is that it is bad for the Democrats to
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: have the squad, as the face of the party, to
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: Aaron's point. Because we only are capable in mainstream media
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: of thinking about politics through the eyes of an imaginary
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: white person in the exurbs of Ohio, right? And that is,
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: it's just such a painfully narrow view of how elections
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: happen and who decides elections. It's these swing voters who
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: are white and they're scared of people of color, and
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: it's just, it's so stupid. And then, the idea that
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: we're taking, the president says something racist, and then the
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: first analysis is not the moral consequences of that, or
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: what that says, the leader of this country says something
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: racist to a rapidly diversifying country, what it means to
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: all the naturalized citizens of this country, everyone who are parents,
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: children of immigrants, what it means, it's like, what are
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: the politics of it? And the idea that you have
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: these moderate Democrats calling up Jake Tapper to talk about it,
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: it's like, Being against racism is not a liberal or
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: a conservative issue. It is just the right or wrong issue.
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: And that is like what is so fucking bad about
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: Trump is he's moved the Overton window towards awful. And
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: that is now Democrats being for Medicare for all is
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: the polar opposite of Republicans being racist. And that is
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: just such a stupid way of thinking of politics.
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: And I'm not advocating throwing politics out the window here.
• 16:29
  Speaker 5: I definitely get the tough spot a lot of moderate
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: Democrats are in. Impeachment, I'm for impeachment, but I get
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: that it's a tough debate. Immigration can be a tough debate.
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: Medicare for all is a tough debate. But when there's
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: a comment like this, this is a fucking easy one, guys.
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: This one is not hard.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: And that is honestly why I think Republicans are hemorrhaging
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: conscientious voters that needed a plausible deniability before. They needed
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: to be like, well, they're not all racist. This one
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: really loud person is racist. No, it's like, no. Not
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: only is this one really loud person racist, basically the
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: entire House of Representatives of that party agreed that it
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: was fine. And that, I think, matters a lot to,
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: not to generalize by gender, but I think to women voters,
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: that shit matters. And the Republican Party has been hemorrhaging
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: female voters because of issues like this.
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: Yeah, but to John's point, this is easy on a
• 17:23
  Speaker 6: moral level, but it's also, how many times have we
• 17:26
  Speaker 6: seen Donald Trump tweet something stupid because he saw a
• 17:29
  Speaker 6: segment on Fox and Friends, and then watched the Kellyanne
• 17:32
  Speaker 6: Conways of the world try to spin it as being
• 17:34
  Speaker 6: some strategic political decision. It was clearly not. He's a sad, angry, old,
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: racist weirdo who tweets crazy crap all day long, and
• 17:45
  Speaker 6: the political consequences come to him later. Like, stop buying
• 17:49
  Speaker 6: their spins, guys.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: This strategy.
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: Now, I realize that it wasn't, it was not an
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: intentional distraction, right? But, Aaron, we were talking about this yesterday.
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: And you were saying that these kind of outbursts from
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: Trump do tend to distract from other important issues that
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: we should be talking about. So how do you think
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: we should handle these racist outbursts, which we're going to
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: get so many more of between now and 2020, and
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: still make sure that we as Democrats are talking about
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: and focusing on other important issues for people? Mm-hmm.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, to bring up memento again, I think
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: we should just start writing it on our arms. Like, oh,
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: Title X gag rule in effect this week. Abortion rights
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: still under attack across the country. Immigrants being treated like animals. Like,
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: write it on your arm.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: Just make sure we know every morning.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: And go to a dinner party. It'll be great. But
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: I think that we've done a pretty good job as
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: conscientious people of keeping things in mind. Because I remember...
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: a litany of distractions. Like when he demonized Frederico Wilson forever, 10,000
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: years ago, back when we were young. Or when Maxine
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Waters was in place of the four horsewomen of the apocalypse.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: Like he's constantly trying to throw out distractions. And I
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: think it's just important for us to remember, okay, like
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: here's this explosive shiny object, this thing that we're looking
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: at today, but what is it obscuring? Mueller's about to
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: testify next week. Another Trump crony is like, on trial
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: right now. There's a lot of shit going down, and
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: I think we're sort of getting good at being able
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: to remember a bunch of things at once, I think.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: I do think it's actually instructive, because this is the
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: status quo ante. It is true, we're getting older. We
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: can see it in the mirror. But America does, amidst
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: all the kind of chaos of Trump, our politics is
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: quite frozen. It's frozen in a sense. We won the
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: House And that was a huge victory. But like Trump
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: and the Republicans, his relationship to the media, our relationship
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: to the media in our fight with Trump, that's all
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: pretty frozen. And so the thing that question I had
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: when I was seeing this unfold is, okay, let's presume
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: he's going to do some more heinous version of this
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: in September and October of 2020. I'm thinking to myself, okay,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: who is the Democrat currently running for president that I
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: think is best able to do what Dan is saying
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: we need that person to do? which is not run
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: away from the fight, because that's what people are going
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: to be talking about. That's when they're going to cut
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: to your campaign speech. That's when they're going to cut
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: to your rally. But who is the best person to
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: take to sort of, you know, like how Black Panther,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: his suit can catch the energy and then throw it back.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Who's the best person to put on that Armor. Marianne Williamson.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Marianne Williamson. Catch.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: It's a.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: No-brainer. Who is our Black Panther? Who is going to
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: be our Black Panther who can absorb the energy, make
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: it something good, and push it back, right?
• 20:45
  Speaker 8: All right.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: You can all shout the four people everyone in this
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: room supports. Yes, I know. Okay.
• 20:50
  Speaker 8: All right.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: All right. All right. We know where Pod Save America
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: stands at. Bill Weld?
• 20:56
  Speaker 8: All right.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Well, we'll figure that out soon.
• 20:59
  Speaker 8: All right.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: And now we're going to play a game.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Now it's time for OK Stop. You son of a...
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Now it's time for OK Stop. We'll roll a clip.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: The panel can say OK Stop at any point to comment.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Kellyanne Conway, she and her husband started a... Just get
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: with me to the end of this. All right. She
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: and her husband started a sexual role-playing game three years
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: ago where he'd pretend to have principles and she'd say
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: anything to win, but they forgot the safe word, accidentally
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: made Trump president, and now don't know how to get
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: out of it. Oh, my God. The safe word was integrity.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: She also was asked about Trump's racist tweets, and her
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: response was pretty alarming. Let's watch.
• 22:07
  Speaker 9: If the president was not telling these four congresswomen to
• 22:12
  Speaker 9: return to their supposed countries of origin, to which countries
• 22:17
  Speaker 9: was he referring?
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: What's your ethnicity?
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Why is that relevant? Okay, stop. Hey, Kellyanne, you said
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: the part you're supposed to just think to yourself. You're
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: in the middle of a giant fracas over whether or
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: not your White House is run by a racist goon
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: who views people and they're... What do we think? I'm
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: halfway through a sentence. Are you? I'll fucking finish it now.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: And whether all Americans belong here, don't ask Jews what
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: their ethnicity is.
• 23:09
  Speaker 6: Sorry, John.
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: I've watched this clip many times now. What do you
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: think she meant by this? That's a fascinating thing. Was
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: this planned? Was it in the spur of the moment?
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Definitely planned. It was 100% planned.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Is she talking to John Carl? Is that who it was?
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: No, it wasn't. It wasn't.
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: Is it Brian Karam, right?
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: I thought that question too. I look at it and
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, what was she going for?
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: I feel like she's got her self-satisfied smug look on.
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: She practiced this in the mirror. It was supposed to
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: be like, oh, your relatives were from Italy.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: 60 years ago. That's what he meant.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: Don't get me wrong.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: It makes no sense.
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: And it's equally offensive. It's really her brand is stupid offensive.
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: Thankfully we've got the Kellyanne Conway whisperer out there.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Let's shadowbox Kellyanne's reflection. Like, okay, if I said... I'm not.
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: Kellyanne has no reflection.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: But if I were to say.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: But back to Tommy's point. Kellyanne Conway asked Tommy where
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Tommy's from. Tommy says, I was born on the Mayflower.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: I was told somewhere to go back.
• 24:16
  Speaker 6: No, but if I said I was Irish in Boston
• 24:18
  Speaker 6: 40 years ago, there were signs that said, Nina, no
• 24:21
  Speaker 6: Irish need apply. So discrimination and racism is not okay
• 24:25
  Speaker 6: in this instance. What is she fucking saying?
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: By the way, like, Like, Trump gave the game away
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: at the rally tonight because he was like, when I
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: was talking about those four Democratic congresswomen, and now I
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: will list them off one by one.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: So the whole first defense was like, who could he
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: have been talking about? He could be talking about anyone
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: going back.
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: Nadler.
• 24:43
  Speaker 8: He was talking to Nadler.
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: I feel like maybe it was just like a conversation
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: that's come up among her friends that week. Like, she
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: and her cross-burning circle had all gotten the results from Ancestry.com. Ooh,
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: I'm 80% white hood.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I'm asking you a question. My ancestors are from Ireland
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: and Italy.
• 25:06
  Speaker 9: My own ethnicity is not relevant to the question I'm asking.
• 25:09
  Speaker 10: No, no, it is, because you're asking about, he said originally.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: He's tired.
• 25:14
  Speaker 10: A lot of us are sick and tired of this country.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: Okay, stop.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Honestly.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: We should clip that, put it in an ad, and
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: just run it everywhere.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: A lot of us are sick and tired.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: We can tell, Kellyanne. Because there's a context coming, but whatever.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: He's old.
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: He's only exercised his golf. He drives a cart.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: He eats a Big Mac for lunch. He's not up
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: for the job. It is interesting, too, though, to watch
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: how the defenders have to change their tactic midway through.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Because when Trump first tweeted it, his squad... Was... Goon Squad. Graham. Graham.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Who's the squad? McCarthy? Graham McCarthy. Graham McCarthy. But one
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: of his rapid response... Responder that... Powder from the movie Powder.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Let's not say his name.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: Who cares?
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Permit Patty. The....
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: The bad guys from Roadhouse.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, the company from RoboCop, one of his biggest backers.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: But no, they were like, Donald Trump didn't say go back.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: If you look, the tweets clearly say he meant like
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: go on a trip, go and come back. You're being ridiculous.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Everyone is lying. And then by the next day, he's
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: like said it, meant it, doubling down, tripling down.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: Well, at least she looks miserable.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Yes. I mean, last.
• 26:48
  Speaker 10: To people who swore an oath of office, sick and
• 26:50
  Speaker 10: tired of our military being denigrated, sick and tired of
• 26:54
  Speaker 10: the Customs and Border Protection people I was with, who
• 26:57
  Speaker 10: are overwhelmingly Hispanic, by the way, in McAllen, Texas, sick
• 27:01
  Speaker 10: and tired of them being, no, you don't understand, because
• 27:03
  Speaker 10: you didn't go, being criticized.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Okay, stop.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: No, just stop.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: Why, yeah, why is the girl you wish you hadn't
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: started a conversation with at a party in the White House.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Talking about Rush Week or whatever.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: Seriously, Cecily Strong does a great bat.
• 27:23
  Speaker 10: By a bunch of Hollywood D-listers who have nothing else
• 27:25
  Speaker 10: to do but sit on their asses on Twitter all
• 27:27
  Speaker 10: day and try to dox.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, stop.
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: Nothing to do but sit on their ass and be
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: on Twitter all day.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Look, the thing that Trump has done, that because he
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: is so... It's ironic, right, that he is one of
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the great liars ever to grace the office, and one
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: of the least transparent human beings ever to grace the office,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: and yet psychologically, spiritually, he is so broken and unexamined
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: that he is quite revealed before all of us. And
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: what it does is it really does force everyone around
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: him into this sort of very primitive and quite basic
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: accidental projection all the time. It almost like requires everyone
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: around him to lead an unexamined life. And so they
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: all run around all day with these unexplored thoughts and
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: they go in front of television and say, I know
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: what our enemies are doing. They're tweeting all day and
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: eating fast food. Oh, and they don't love this country. No,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: they barely care about their jobs at all. And sometimes
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: I think they don't even know why they ran. Sometimes
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: I think they don't even know why they're in the
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: job to begin with. Maybe it's like for their own
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: personal gain. And maybe they thought it'd be a great
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: way to build some name recognition for your polling firm.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Then all of a sudden you're the only one around
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: and you think, well, maybe I should see this thing through.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: And before you know it, nobody wants your polls anymore
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: because you're tied to this guy. And you realize, well,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: if he sinks, I sink. So you might as well
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: see it all the way to the end. And then
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: your husband's like, I'm moving to New York. LAUGHTER You know?
• 28:59
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: That segment brought to you by BetterHelp.
• 29:05
  Speaker 10: Women who are diving into the Rio Grande to save
• 29:08
  Speaker 10: people who are drowning, who are taking other people's babies
• 29:11
  Speaker 10: into custody.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: Okay, stop.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry. Is that a good thing?
• 29:16
  Speaker 5: Taking other people's babies into custody? Don't take other people's
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: babies into custody. Those brave men who are stealing children
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: from people and you're criticizing them.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: How dare you? We are separating children at the borders
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: and these people are not grateful at all.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: There's not a fake you among them.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: We're not letting them have showers. We're not giving them soap.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: How dare they hate us?
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Too dark? That's okay, stop. All right.
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: We spent a lot of time talking about the 2020
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: presidential primary, but I want to focus on another set
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: of 2020 elections that are incredibly important. Last week, the
• 29:54
  Speaker 5: battle for the US Senate got a little more interesting
• 29:56
  Speaker 5: when former Navy fighter pilot Amy McGrath announced that she's
• 29:59
  Speaker 5: running to unseat Mitch McConnell in 2020. Republicans overall currently
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: hold a three-seat majority and will have to defend 22
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: seats in the next election, while Democrats will have to
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: defend just 12 seats. Still, the overall map for Democrats
• 30:16
  Speaker 5: is only slightly better than it was in 2019, and
• 30:17
  Speaker 5: nothing less than then the fate of the party's entire
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: legislative agenda hinges on taking back the Senate.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: So no pressure there.
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: Aaron, yeah, well, that's why we're doing this.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: You think we're not going to talk about Cory Gardner?
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: You guys, he's the top target. He's the most obvious
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: flip here. So you guys fucked us up.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 30:46
  Speaker 5: Aaron, let's start with how important this is for Democrats.
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: If we win the presidency and hold the House but
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: don't flip the Senate, what do the next four years
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: look like in Washington?
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: Mitch McConnell's face, really big on a lot of TVs.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: You don't want to look at that. But to be
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: a little bit more serious, what that means is all
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: of the legislative agenda items that we are excited about
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: will just tend to be talking points. We're not going
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: to get any of it done They're all going to
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: die in the Senate and we're going to spend another
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: four years becoming so frustrated with the democratic process that
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: we elect someone even worse. We elect Omarosa. That's what
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: we're going to do. What's going to happen is four
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: years of people being so frustrated with gridlock in Washington
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: that they elect somebody even crazier than who is in office.
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: And we can't have that.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: That is my.
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: my biggest fear, like, well, the big fear is that
• 31:44
  Speaker 5: we don't get any progressive legislation passed, right? But all
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: these Democrats come, we get rid of Trump, we have
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: a Democratic president, Democratic House, and people think, well, we
• 31:51
  Speaker 5: didn't get the Senate, but at least good things can
• 31:53
  Speaker 5: start happening. Mitch McConnell has a tremendous amount of power
• 31:57
  Speaker 5: in the Senate to just say absolutely no to anything
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: that the next Democratic president wants.
• 32:03
  Speaker 6: This is the structural advantage Republicans have as a party.
• 32:05
  Speaker 6: Democrats believe in government and using it to help people.
• 32:08
  Speaker 6: Republicans want to shrink democracy. the government to the size
• 32:11
  Speaker 6: of something you can drown.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: In a bathtub.
• 32:13
  Speaker 6: That is their stated belief in role in life. So
• 32:17
  Speaker 6: we have a much harder job. We want to do things.
• 32:19
  Speaker 6: We want to give people health care. We want to
• 32:21
  Speaker 6: cut tax for middle class families, not for giant corporations.
• 32:24
  Speaker 6: They believe the opposite. So it's going to be tough.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: But I think it's kind of a vicious cycle because
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: the reality is, and I think that all the fact
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: that the Republicans have sided on the side of gerrymandering
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: and Democrats are like, no, democracy indicates that There's an
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: acknowledgement that the majority of this country is liberal or progressive,
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: but the minority has enough entrenched power that it can
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: kind of worm themselves into the structures for generations to come.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: And what is kind of a cycle that I've noticed
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: is that What happens, like, the majority will have an outcry, like,
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: this is what we want. We want people to have
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: health care. And the conservative minority will use that to
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: make themselves out to be aggrieved. And Mitch McConnell will
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: wield that power into blocking things as though it's actually
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: the majority. And I think that that cycle will continue
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: to repeat itself the longer that Republicans hold the Senate.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, until we get rid of Mitch McConnell.
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: Let me just put a hypothetical here. So let's say
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: Democrat X wins the presidency, inauguration. During inauguration, a Supreme
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: Court justice falls, hurts their knee, decides they don't want
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: to use crutches to go to Supreme Court and retires.
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: Mitch McConnell will hold that seat open for four years.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: Four years. Four years.
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: I know we're not a prediction game, but there is
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: basically zero chance, particularly if it is a conservative justice
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: that would shift the balance of the court, zero chance
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: that McConnell would allow there to be a vote on
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: a Supreme Court justice. That is the effect. of what
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: he did on the Garland thing. It's not anything about elections,
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: it's about that a majority will not confirm a Supreme
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: Court justice for another president.
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: Yeah, like people talk about court packing and changing the
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: makeup of the Supreme Court and is this radical or not?
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: Mitch McConnell will single-handedly, for the second time, change the
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: makeup of the Supreme Court on his own.
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: Against the will of the voters.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: Against the will of the voters by.
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: Just saying, we're going to have eight justices instead of
• 34:20
  Speaker 5: nine because I'm not confirming one until I get a
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: Republican president.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: So we have McConnell packing the courts to lock in
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: the judicial branch as a conservative, and we have gerrymandering
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: trying to lock up the legislative branch that basically means
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: we're behind the eight ball forever. Right.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: So.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: With all that said, it's very important.
• 34:40
  Speaker 5: Dan, how tough is the Senate map in 2020, and
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: what do you think is the easiest or most likely
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: path to a Democratic majority?
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: So the Senate map is relatively good for Democrats, but
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: all Senate maps are bad for Democrats.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: Cool, cool, cool.
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: I mean, it is a fundamentally anti-democratic institution in the
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: sense that Wyoming has the same amount of power as California, right?
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: In this case, we're defending very few seats. We're only
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: defending one in a tough state, which is Doug Jones
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: in Alabama. We need to net three wins. We have
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: two Senate seats in blue states here in Colorado and Maine.
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: We have potential pickup opportunities in battleground states in 2020,
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: which is Martha McSally in Arizona, Tom Tillis in North Carolina.
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: We have potential, if we get the right, if the
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: candidates are good and the Political Windsor are back in
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: Georgia and Iowa. It is going to be tough, but
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: it is a doable proposition if we have a strong
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: candidate at the top of the ticket. Because in almost
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: every case, in order to pick up a Senate seat,
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: you need the presidential candidate of your party to win
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: that state. We picked up a Senate seat in New
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: Hampshire in 2016. Hillary Clinton won New Hampshire. We lost
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: incredibly valuable pick-up opportunities in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, because Hillary
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: Clinton lost those seats. In almost every state that Obama
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: won in 2012, we picked up Senate seats. And so
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: it's going to have to be a marriage between good
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: candidates running good campaigns in these states and a strong
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: top-of-the-ticket effort.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: Love it.
• 36:17
  Speaker 5: How excited should people get about Amy McGrath in Kentucky? Obviously,
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: on the first day she announced... I think she raised
• 36:25
  Speaker 5: like $ 2 million or something like that on the first day.
• 36:28
  Speaker 5: McConnell's approval rating in Kentucky is like stuck around 36%
• 36:31
  Speaker 5: or something like that. But what's the reality there?
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: What do you think? I think it's very hard. It's
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: going to be a very hard race to win. He
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: is powerful. He will have a lot of money. He
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: knows how to win in that state. A lot of
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: his people will come home. That said, when we say
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: we need Democrats willing to fight everywhere, we don't just
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: mean everywhere where it's easy to win. And it is
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: not impossible for a Democrat to win a Senate seat
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: in Kentucky unless we don't put up a good fight
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: in Kentucky. And by the way, on the way to
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: winning or losing a very tough race in Kentucky, forcing
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell to campaign, forcing him to go home and
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: make a case for himself has incredible value. It has
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: incredible value to what happens nationally if we have to
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: spend money there. I think it also has psychic value
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: for all of us. If Donald Trump had lost, the
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Republican Party would have engaged in a great reckoning. It
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: was going to happen. It almost happened after 2012. There
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: was an autopsy that says, hey guys, we can't rely
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: on a white majority forever. We need to become cosmopolitan.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: We need to embrace immigration. It was Donald Trump that
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: upended that. This kind of politics can't go on forever.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Things can get worse or they can get better. And
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: if we want them to get better, it means forcing
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Republicans not to confront what's broken in their party because
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: it's morally right, because it hurts our feelings, because history
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: marches in a good direction automatically, but because they paid
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: a price for it. This election is the chance to
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: make them pay that price in a huge way. And
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: if they don't have the power, if they don't have
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: the power in the Senate to prevent us from enacting
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: our agenda, if they really feel like they've truly lost,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: they really feel like they've truly lost, then they will
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: finally have to face what they become, what they had
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: become under Trump. And that has value. That has an
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: incredible value. That's all.
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: So Amy McGrath announces she has this sort of flub
• 38:35
  Speaker 5: the first day or the first week where she says
• 38:38
  Speaker 5: that she found Christine Blasey Ford's story completely believable, but
• 38:45
  Speaker 5: she might have voted for Brett Kavanaugh anyway, and then
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: within 10 hours maybe she said, no, I'm just kidding,
• 38:52
  Speaker 5: I would not have voted for Brett Kavanaugh. I'm sorry,
• 38:54
  Speaker 5: I listened to people that did that. But it sort
• 38:55
  Speaker 5: of brings up a larger issue, which is how closely
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: do you guys think Senate candidates in some of these
• 39:01
  Speaker 5: redder states should align their message with the national party?
• 39:06
  Speaker 5: Or do you think they should sort of run their
• 39:07
  Speaker 5: own race? I mean, Dan, you were saying that these days,
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: like the vote for president and the vote for Senate
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: are so closely aligned, there's not a lot of split
• 39:16
  Speaker 5: ticketing anymore where state votes for a president of one
• 39:20
  Speaker 5: party and a senator from another party.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: Like, what do you think about that?
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: So Trump beat Hillary by 30 points in Kentucky.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: So that's a lot.
• 39:29
  Speaker 4: That is a lot. It's a lot of points. And
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: for Amy McGrath to win, she's going to have to
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: get double digits worth of people who voted for Trump
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: to vote for her over McConnell. That is a very
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: tall order. But it can be done. It's hard, but
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: it can be done. And I think she is not
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: going to do that. She has to be able to
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: run a race that is consistent with who she is
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: and who Kentucky is, right? It's a simple fact that
• 39:55
  Speaker 4: she needs people who are gonna pull the lever for
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: Trump to pull the lever for her, too. Now, I
• 39:58
  Speaker 4: don't think that means that you have to sacrifice all
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: of your progressive credentials, that you have to just be
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: this sort of wishy-washy, moderate Democrat who cares about nothing
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: and just sort of picks the middle between both. I mean,
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: her positions are gonna be different than you know, Kamala
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: Harris in California or whatever. And so I think it's worth,
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: we got to give people space to do that. I
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: have worked for a number of red state Democrats running
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: in tough Senate races. And the best message is not
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: that you are different from the Democratic Party. It is
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: that you are an advocate for that state against both parties.
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: And she has the opportunity, if she runs a very
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: smart campaign, and she'll have the money to do it,
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: to start now painting Mitch McConnell as what is wrong
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: with Washington. And Kentucky, Mitch McConnell has been there forever.
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: And he has been in power forever. And Kentucky's economic
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: situation has gotten worse over that time. But Mitch McConnell
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: himself has gotten a lot richer, right? And so if
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: you start hammering that message now, you have a shot
• 41:03
  Speaker 4: to do it.
• 41:09
  Speaker 5: A lot of these Republican incumbents already, Martha McSally in Arizona,
• 41:14
  Speaker 5: Cory Gardner here in Colorado, Susan Collins in Maine, Tom
• 41:17
  Speaker 5: Tillis in North Carolina, have already raised a shitload of
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: money for their race. So, Tommy, what can Democrats do,
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: whether you're in the state or outside of some of
• 41:29
  Speaker 5: these states, to help take back the Senate?
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Well, John, we've got to get Mitch or die trying.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: That's our new funds that we're putting together. Go to votesaveamerica.com.
• 41:46
  Speaker 6: I'm sure there will be a fun little button there.
• 41:49
  Speaker 6: There might be a fun little graphic that Lovett might
• 41:51
  Speaker 6: have had a fun time designing or helping design.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: Look, it's great.
• 41:56
  Speaker 5: There it is.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: It's an upside-down turtle shell. What does it mean? You
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: can donate money.
• 42:01
  Speaker 6: You can donate money today, tomorrow, whenever you want to
• 42:03
  Speaker 6: do it. to the candidates who are running for Senate
• 42:07
  Speaker 6: in 2020. You can pick who you want to give to.
• 42:09
  Speaker 6: You can say give equally to all of them. But
• 42:12
  Speaker 6: we have to remember that these races are happening and
• 42:15
  Speaker 6: that they matter and that all the things that are
• 42:17
  Speaker 6: being promised to us on the presidential campaign, whether it's
• 42:20
  Speaker 6: Medicare for All, criminal justice reform, all the things we
• 42:22
  Speaker 6: care about, none of them are going to happen if
• 42:24
  Speaker 6: Mitch McConnell's dead-eyed turtle ass is sitting there blocking it.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: So check it out.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: Get big.
• 42:32
  Speaker 5: And look, The reason we're doing this now, it's obviously
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: super early in the primary season. There's going to be
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: a heated primary here in Colorado, which is great. You
• 42:43
  Speaker 5: guys have a bunch of great Senate candidates. We have
• 42:46
  Speaker 5: that situation in a few different of the states that
• 42:48
  Speaker 5: are up. But the idea with this fund is the
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: money that you give will go to the eventual Democratic nominee,
• 42:54
  Speaker 5: whoever she or he may be in that Senate race.
• 42:57
  Speaker 5: So give now, give early. It's super important.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 43:00
  Speaker 5: We'll give you, I think when you go on the site,
• 43:02
  Speaker 5: we'll give you the tiers of who we think is
• 43:04
  Speaker 5: most likely to win, the easier states down to the
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: harder states, and you can give to all equally or
• 43:09
  Speaker 5: you can pick who you want. But yeah, go to
• 43:11
  Speaker 5: Vote Save America and start giving. When we come back,
• 43:17
  Speaker 5: we will have your governor, Jared Polis.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: And we're back. He's an entrepreneur, former member of the
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: House of Representatives, and the Democratic governor of Colorado. Please
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: welcome Governor Jared Polis.
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: Look at that.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: Standing ovations.
• 44:02
  Speaker 7: It's for having Pod Save America right here in Denver, Colorado.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: What a politician. What a pander. All right, so here
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: we are in Colorado. Dems have complete control of the
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: state capitol thanks to huge wins in 2018. You just
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: finished a legislative session where Dems passed free full-day kindergarten,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: limited the cost of insulin. allowed local governments to raise
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: the minimum wage, banned conversion therapy for minors, and signed
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: a plan to get the state to 100% renewable energy
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: by 2040. Do elections matter? Wow.
• 44:42
  Speaker 7: Elections make a huge difference, and it's these people here
• 44:46
  Speaker 7: who made this opportunity for the Democrats to govern. So
• 44:50
  Speaker 7: thank you all for giving us the chance to get
• 44:52
  Speaker 7: all this great work done.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: So one of the laws you passed here, it's called
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: the Red Flag Gun Bill. It would allow guns to
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: be seized from people who are determined by a court
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: to pose a significant risk to themselves or others. Colorado
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: is a state with a lot of gun owners, a
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: lot of people who oppose gun control. What lessons did
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: you learn about how to tackle this issue that's obviously
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: incredibly politicized, especially at the national level?
• 45:20
  Speaker 7: Well, you know, I mean, Colorado has a long track
• 45:23
  Speaker 7: record of leadership in this area, respecting the Second Amendment
• 45:27
  Speaker 7: rights of gun owners. And we have many in the state.
• 45:30
  Speaker 7: And of course, many of them vote for our Democratic
• 45:32
  Speaker 7: candidates as well. But we also want to make sure
• 45:35
  Speaker 7: that we have safety, gun safety measures that are really
• 45:39
  Speaker 7: common sense. And so, I mean, this one is very
• 45:41
  Speaker 7: common sense. I mean, we're talking about folks, you know,
• 45:44
  Speaker 7: here often it's a parent of a 19-year-old or a 20-year-old.
• 45:49
  Speaker 7: And maybe they have a, they're on a temporary hold
• 45:53
  Speaker 7: for a mental health issue. And then when they get
• 45:55
  Speaker 7: out There's no legal way that without that red flag
• 45:59
  Speaker 7: law that they could temporarily lose access to a gun.
• 46:02
  Speaker 7: And tragically, that often ends in suicide. It can end
• 46:05
  Speaker 7: in violence. And so this is a mechanism that other
• 46:08
  Speaker 7: states have. Now Colorado has it that if somebody is
• 46:10
  Speaker 7: having a mental health crisis, the loved ones around them
• 46:13
  Speaker 7: can at least temporarily remove their access to weapons.
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: So.
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: Also here in Colorado, you just joined the National Popular
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: Vote Compact, the Interstate Compact. This is where states agree
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: to give over their electoral votes to the winner of
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: the National Popular Vote. Do you think this has a
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: chance of actually going into effect and becoming how we
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: choose presidents?
• 46:44
  Speaker 8: Well, it should be.
• 46:45
  Speaker 7: I mean, it's common sense in a republic whoever gets
• 46:48
  Speaker 7: the most votes should be president.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: You think so?
• 46:50
  Speaker 7: You think so. And it's a systemic risk to this
• 46:54
  Speaker 7: system with this electoral college. I mean, you know, you
• 46:57
  Speaker 7: can have unfaithful electors. You can have a lot of
• 47:00
  Speaker 7: unpredictable outcomes that could lead towards chaos in the country.
• 47:03
  Speaker 7: We came close to that in Bush v. Gore, and
• 47:05
  Speaker 7: we came close to that again. So, yes, whoever gets
• 47:08
  Speaker 7: the most votes should be president. Ideally, that should be
• 47:11
  Speaker 7: done by Congress through a constitutional amendment. That's something I
• 47:14
  Speaker 7: supported when I was back as a representative in Washington.
• 47:18
  Speaker 7: Whether this workaround will ever happen or not, It's hard
• 47:21
  Speaker 7: to predict. I actually think no. What I think will
• 47:23
  Speaker 7: happen is when it gets close, there's enough pressure on
• 47:26
  Speaker 7: Congress to act and pass an amendment to do it
• 47:29
  Speaker 7: the normal way. But it can happen this way if
• 47:32
  Speaker 7: enough states do it. The other thing I've said is
• 47:34
  Speaker 7: what probably it'll take politically for it to happen is
• 47:38
  Speaker 7: we value our integrity and our intellectual sincerity on our
• 47:41
  Speaker 7: side of the aisle.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: Right, folks?
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: We do.
• 47:45
  Speaker 8: Not everybody on the other side does.
• 47:46
  Speaker 7: What that means is it might very well take a
• 47:49
  Speaker 7: Republican candidate winning the popular vote, but a Democratic candidate
• 47:54
  Speaker 7: for president getting in through the Electoral College.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: By the way, I'll let you know something. On that day,
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: I come to be a great defender of the Electoral College.
• 48:02
  Speaker 8: See, I won't.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: Come on.
• 48:04
  Speaker 8: We have more integrity than that.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: Don't count on it.
• 48:06
  Speaker 7: Whoever gets the most votes should be president. Enough Republicans
• 48:09
  Speaker 7: will flip when that happens.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: You are looking at a crowd of human beings who
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: will come to believe deeply in electoral college. That's the secret.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: That's the secret. You have integrity if you believe it.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about health care. One of the biggest
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: debates we're having among Democrats running for president is around
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: this issue between Medicare for all and those pushing for
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: Medicare access but leaving much of the private system in place.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: One candidate on the trail said this today. If you
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: want to win a Senate seat in the state of Colorado,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: you've got a really great opportunity to do it this year.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: If you're for Medicare for All, you're going to lose.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: And if that's the Democratic Party's position, we're going to lose.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: We have to not disqualify ourselves. His name, it says here,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: is Senator Michael Bennett. Do you think he's right about that?
• 48:55
  Speaker 7: No, I think what people want are solutions that will
• 48:57
  Speaker 7: save them money on health care. And people are smart,
• 49:00
  Speaker 7: and they're willing to listen to what those are. If
• 49:01
  Speaker 7: you want Medicare for All, tell people what that plan is.
• 49:04
  Speaker 7: If you have another plan, tell people what that is.
• 49:07
  Speaker 7: I don't think people are as attached to what you
• 49:09
  Speaker 7: call it as they are to the results. How do
• 49:11
  Speaker 7: we not only cover everybody, but also save people money?
• 49:14
  Speaker 7: Stop the prescription drug companies from ripping us off.
• 49:16
  Speaker 8: Stop the insurance companies from ripping us off. That's what
• 49:19
  Speaker 8: we need to accomplish.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: It seems like on Medicare for All, one of the challenges,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: or at least one of the questions people have is
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: how do you convince people who like their current insurance,
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: who are worried about the transition. What's your argument around that?
• 49:32
  Speaker 7: It's a pretty simple one, really, because while the Medicare
• 49:34
  Speaker 7: for all would be a base level of coverage, you
• 49:37
  Speaker 7: absolutely would allow people, just as people who have Medicare
• 49:39
  Speaker 7: recipients today have supplemental programs, many of them through their
• 49:42
  Speaker 7: retirement program or on their own Medicare Plus. So again,
• 49:46
  Speaker 7: it's the baseline for everybody, but in no way does
• 49:49
  Speaker 7: it preclude additional insurance or private pay on top of
• 49:53
  Speaker 7: that if you want additional services.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: Another issue where you've been, I think, ahead of a
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: lot of Democrats is on impeachment. You were for it
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: for opening an impeachment inquiry when you were a member
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: of the House. It was one of the last things
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: you did, I believe, before you became governor. What is
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: your argument to some of the more reluctant members of
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: the Democratic caucus who are worried about what impeachment means
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: for democratic politics.
• 50:23
  Speaker 7: I think you need to have the investigation and open
• 50:25
  Speaker 7: it up and have the subpoenas and have the hearings.
• 50:28
  Speaker 7: I don't think we should prejudice where it goes, but
• 50:31
  Speaker 7: I think that's Congress's job to a certain extent. Now,
• 50:33
  Speaker 7: it gets complicated as you get into an election period.
• 50:36
  Speaker 7: I mean, Trump is on the ballot. It looks like
• 50:38
  Speaker 7: a political prank if you do it a few months
• 50:40
  Speaker 7: before the election. So again, I wish that Congress had
• 50:43
  Speaker 7: proceeded a year ago, two years ago, maybe they could
• 50:46
  Speaker 7: proceed now. But at some point, you do have to say, look,
• 50:49
  Speaker 7: this is somebody that we have to beat at the
• 50:51
  Speaker 7: ballot box. The American people don't want to see this
• 50:54
  Speaker 7: in the midst of an election. So again, it's the process.
• 50:57
  Speaker 7: Congress should do its job. But at the end of
• 50:59
  Speaker 7: the day, whatever they do, the main thing we need
• 51:01
  Speaker 7: to do is beat Donald Trump.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: Would you say that the fall, this fall of 2019,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: is the last opportunity for an impeachment inquiry? It's tough.
• 51:10
  Speaker 8: I mean, absent some change, right?
• 51:12
  Speaker 7: And by some change, what that means is a political
• 51:14
  Speaker 7: change meaning that all of a sudden there is more
• 51:17
  Speaker 7: bipartisan support, which would be a game changer if more
• 51:21
  Speaker 7: than my brave friend Justin Amash, former Republican at this point,
• 51:26
  Speaker 7: but if other Republicans stood up and supported moving forward
• 51:30
  Speaker 7: with that inquiry, I think that would be a game changer.
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: Before getting into politics, you were an entrepreneur in tech.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: You built businesses. You know more about this issue than
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: most politicians. Where do you stand on this question around
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: monopoly and whether or not Facebook should be broken up.
• 51:48
  Speaker 7: That's interesting. Antitrust is absolutely critical. You have to have
• 51:53
  Speaker 7: competition for a market to work. That means you have
• 51:56
  Speaker 7: to allow an upstart. That's why I support, for instance,
• 51:58
  Speaker 7: net neutrality before we get to Facebook. Net neutrality is
• 52:02
  Speaker 7: incredibly important. And by the way, we passed pretty much
• 52:05
  Speaker 7: everything we could do pushing the envelope for net neutrality
• 52:07
  Speaker 7: here in Colorado in the absence of national leadership.
• 52:10
  Speaker 8: But why is it important? It's not just a consumer issue,
• 52:12
  Speaker 8: it is.
• 52:13
  Speaker 7: But it's also about anybody with a thousand bucks and
• 52:16
  Speaker 7: a server in their garage having the same access to
• 52:19
  Speaker 7: millions of eyeballs as the Googles of.
• 52:21
  Speaker 8: The world and the Facebooks of the world. So, I mean,
• 52:25
  Speaker 8: antitrust is critical.
• 52:26
  Speaker 7: You have to look at defining kind of what is
• 52:28
  Speaker 7: the competitive landscape and no company should be allowed to
• 52:31
  Speaker 7: have market-setting power to the detriment of anybody else. And
• 52:36
  Speaker 7: so that's kind of what you have to look at
• 52:37
  Speaker 7: the lens with. You know, I've been busy being governor,
• 52:40
  Speaker 7: so I haven't been able to think about what that
• 52:42
  Speaker 7: means for Facebook, which it needs a deliberate process about.
• 52:45
  Speaker 7: But that should be applied to everybody, whether it's Amazon, Facebook,
• 52:48
  Speaker 7: Microsoft back in the day. You need to make sure
• 52:50
  Speaker 7: that while we want everybody to compete on a level
• 52:52
  Speaker 7: playing field, nobody can use a monopoly to drive out
• 52:54
  Speaker 7: the competition.
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: So.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: It's time for gay news. You don't know why I
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: did that, and honestly, I don't know why I did it,
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: but they know. You and Kate Brown in Oregon are
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: the first openly LGBT governors in the US. We now
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: have a gay person running for president on the Democratic side.
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: What do you make of Mayor Pete's campaign, as someone
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: who has broken this barrier herself?
• 53:35
  Speaker 8: Well, it's great. I mean, it's great to see the
• 53:37
  Speaker 8: diversity of the Democratic field, right?
• 53:39
  Speaker 7: I mean, to have, you know, African American woman running,
• 53:42
  Speaker 7: to have a gay man running. I mean, to have
• 53:45
  Speaker 7: a field that looks a little bit more like America
• 53:47
  Speaker 7: than any time in American history is very exciting, regardless
• 53:51
  Speaker 7: of which candidate you like, right? And to see up
• 53:54
  Speaker 7: on that stage, you know, women, and not a woman,
• 53:57
  Speaker 7: but women, right? We've had Women, several, a gay man, Latinos,
• 54:04
  Speaker 7: African Americans, plural, right?
• 54:07
  Speaker 8: African Americans. This is really exciting. This is really exciting.
• 54:09
  Speaker 8: This is the face of America.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: Have you ever felt pressure as a gay person who
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: is trying to break this barrier and prove that gay
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: people can win anywhere in this country to, I'm going
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: to say it this way, to not gay it up. That,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: you know... call it whatever you want covering what have
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: you but that people are have you ever worried that
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: people are comfortable with a gay candidate but that you
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: feel pressure to make people who might be uncomfortable with
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: homosexuality or femininity more comfortable by not you know gaying it.
• 54:46
  Speaker 7: Up well I really wanted to be the first gay
• 54:51
  Speaker 7: Jewish political podcast host with a million listeners but.
• 54:56
  Speaker 8: But instead, here I am.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: Two podcasts with a million listeners. There you go.
• 55:03
  Speaker 8: Who's counting? Who's counting?
• 55:06
  Speaker 7: So, you know, I do identify that. I mean, I
• 55:09
  Speaker 7: follow the presidential race, obviously. I'm following the ups and downs,
• 55:13
  Speaker 7: but I mean, I see some of the slack against
• 55:15
  Speaker 7: Mayor Pete, and I felt the same thing in my race.
• 55:18
  Speaker 7: I mean, there's always people who think you're too gay
• 55:20
  Speaker 7: and people who think you're not gay enough. And all
• 55:23
  Speaker 7: you can do in answer to that is just be yourself.
• 55:25
  Speaker 7: I mean, just be yourself, be authentic, be who you are.
• 55:27
  Speaker 7: I mean, you know, I don't I never hide it.
• 55:31
  Speaker 7: I never hit it. You know, people know my partner.
• 55:33
  Speaker 7: He does public things. I also don't bring it into everything,
• 55:36
  Speaker 7: because why would you? If you're straight, you're not like
• 55:38
  Speaker 7: bringing it into everything either. Like, by the way, I'm straight.
• 55:40
  Speaker 7: I mean, it's just not something you say all the time.
• 55:42
  Speaker 7: So it's I treat it just like I was straight,
• 55:44
  Speaker 7: but I happen to be gay. So, I mean, you know,
• 55:46
  Speaker 7: it's just who I part of who I am and
• 55:48
  Speaker 7: don't hide from it and don't run towards it.
• 55:50
  Speaker 8: It's just part of it.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: Even more controversial, you're also openly a gamer. A proud
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: gamer American. As am I.
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: Oh, are you?
• 56:06
  Speaker 8: Cool.
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: Two gay gamers. Let's do it.
• 56:07
  Speaker 8: Let's play sometime. That'll be great.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: Listen, if you think I come on these tour trips
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: without a Nintendo Switch in my backpack, you're incorrect.
• 56:18
  Speaker 8: Oh, I'm actually more of a PC guy than a
• 56:20
  Speaker 8: console guy.
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: PCs!
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: You know, maybe we can't cross this divide. No, but
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: what are you playing right now?
• 56:32
  Speaker 8: League of Legends. League of Legends, anybody? Got some?
• 56:36
  Speaker 7: Yeah, so that's the one, you know, Marlon and I
• 56:38
  Speaker 7: play that a lot. We also play some oldies ourselves,
• 56:41
  Speaker 7: Age of Mythology, Civilization, games like that.
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: I was in Age of Empires, man. Have you ever
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: played Diablo III? Absolutely, we completed it. You played Diablo
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: III all the way to the end? Absolutely. What kind
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: of character?
• 56:52
  Speaker 8: Oh, God, this was a while ago, wasn't it? Oh,
• 56:53
  Speaker 8: it was Diablo 2.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: Diablo 2, you played Diablo.
• 56:56
  Speaker 8: No, we didn't play the multiplayer one. That was three, right? No,
• 56:59
  Speaker 8: we did two all the way through. Two all the
• 57:00
  Speaker 8: way through was the last one we did.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: Wizard, Demon Hunter, what are we looking at?
• 57:04
  Speaker 7: Marlin was whatever that one is that summons all the
• 57:07
  Speaker 7: familiars and animals and stuff.
• 57:08
  Speaker 8: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't remember if it was
• 57:09
  Speaker 8: Barbarian or Fighter. I was like the one that just
• 57:11
  Speaker 8: goes in.
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: Oh, you just like to run into the fucking, you
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: tank it out.
• 57:13
  Speaker 8: I'm a tank.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: You get a good amount, a good shield. Metaphor.
• 57:19
  Speaker 8: I take all of that in politics, so I'm accustomed
• 57:21
  Speaker 8: to it, right?
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: That was my next question. What does this teach you
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: in politics? We can skip it. So, you know, Colorado
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: is going to be the epicenter of one of the
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: most important Senate races. You know, you've just had this
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: incredible legislative session. You're making progress and turning this state
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: reliably blue. What can people here do to get involved
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: and help continue the progress you've made?
• 57:47
  Speaker 7: And the main thing to understand is we're not in
• 57:49
  Speaker 7: any way, shape or form reliably. This is going to
• 57:52
  Speaker 7: be a hotly contested race. And we have a lot
• 57:55
  Speaker 7: of great candidates running, as you know. Any one of
• 57:57
  Speaker 7: them can beat Cory Gardner, by the way. And and
• 58:01
  Speaker 7: that will depend on on your work.
• 58:04
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 58:04
  Speaker 7: And my work and their work and everybody's work. But
• 58:07
  Speaker 7: it'll take all of us working together to do that.
• 58:10
  Speaker 7: I think it's fair to say there's no path to
• 58:11
  Speaker 7: a Senate majority that doesn't go through Colorado.
• 58:13
  Speaker 8: So we have to win this one.
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: You ever play Portal? You should play Portal.
• 58:21
  Speaker 8: Is it on PC or just console?
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: I think you can get it on PC.
• 58:23
  Speaker 8: Okay.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: You should try Portal. Guys, give it up for your governor,
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: Jared Polis. Thank you so much for being here, governor.
• 58:29
  Speaker 4: This is great. This is great.
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: One more time for Governor Polis. When we come back,
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: we're going to play a game.
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: And we're back.
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: Colorado. Nature's resplendence in every direction, crisp mountain air sweeping
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: over snow-capped peaks, raging waters, and marijuana dispensaries of untold beauty.
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: It is truly a state of wonders. But that's not
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: all Coloradans share. What brings you together as you hike
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: and bike and snowboard, which is just skiing for people
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: who think Hoobastank is underrated, is a deep and abiding
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: love for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. No. I don't
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: know what you're booing, you love Mitch McConnell, you outdoorsy
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: Trump enablers. While you're walking down a quaint street that
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: ends in a Bob Ross quality vista, you're empowering Mitch McConnell.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: While you're testing out a new sativa lemon drop, you're
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: giving Mitch McConnell the votes to put anti-choice judges on
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: the bench. And while you're waiting for that bittersweet moment
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: when the snow and tourists arrive with jackets that still
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: have last year's ski tags on them as if that's
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: fucking cool, You're helping Mitch McConnell block investigations into Trump's
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: abuse of power, because Colorado, you send Cory Gardner to
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: the Senate, and he may play a moderate on television,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: but in reality, he's anything but. So as we launch
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: Crooked's Senate campaign to get Mitch or die trying, it's
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: time to play Cory Gardner, moderate in the streets, McConnell
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: in the sheets, and MAGA where it counts. Sorry. Sorry
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: for the image. Would someone out there like to play
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: the game?
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: Yes!
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: Wow. Fully freaking out. Hi, what's your name?
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 8: I'm Shannon.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: Shannon!
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 3: Hi.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: How you doing?
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: I'm doing great. And you're from Colorado. I am, yeah.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: And are you going to do everything you can to
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: defeat Cory Gardner? Absolutely. Great. Shannon. You guys have your cards?
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: We're ready. Are you ready? I'm so ready. Let's talk
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: about Trump's border wall. According to the Denver Post, Gardner
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: told reporters in 2017, quote, I don't think the wall
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: is the best idea, and in a telephone town hall
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: a month later said, I believe we have to have
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: border security, but I do think billions of dollars on
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: a wall is not the right way to proceed. Sounds moderate.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: What happened when Trump declared a national emergency to fund
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: his dumb border wall, even after Trump shut the government
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: over the wall and Congress still said no to that funding?
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: Is it A?
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 5: Cory Gardner took the floor and said, it's imperative for
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 5: the president to honor Congress's constitutional role. A national emergency
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 5: declaration is a tool to be used cautiously and sparingly
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 5: before joining 59 senators of both parties to vote no.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: Or is it B?
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: Cory Gardner took the floor and said, if your faithfulness
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 3: to this constitution depends on which party controls the White House,
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 3: then you're not faithful to it. Before joining 59 senators
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: of both parties to vote no.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: Or is it C? Cory Gardner took the floor and said,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: as a U.S.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 6: Senator, I cannot justify providing the executive with more ways
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 6: to bypass the Congress before joining 59 senators of both
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 6: parties to vote no.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: Guys, for those listening at home, Cory Gardner did not
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: walk out here and do that reading. That was un-fucking-canny.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: I'm freaking out. Or is it D?
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 4: Cory Gardner took to the Senate floor and said nothing.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 4: Voted with McConnell and Trump, then put out a statement
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 4: blaming Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. I'm going to go D.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: You're right. And fun fact, Shannon, all those quotes about
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: the border will that Gardner supported were from Republicans who
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: voted no. Fascinating.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 3: Also, he only does telephone town halls.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 4: You mentioned that. He doesn't do town halls in person.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: He doesn't do town halls in person. Thank you. He
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: doesn't do that. It was great. I'm glad you chimed
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: in there. No, I'm kidding. Sorry. Got to mix it up.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: I got to mix it up.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: All right, question two. Shannon, you're doing so good. I'll
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: be good. Cory Gardner may be a Republican, but he's
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: a Republican that's willing to buck his party. and vote
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: with Democrats when he thinks it's the right thing to do,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: no matter what the consequences may be. He's not like
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: a famous Trump flunky like Lindsey Graham, and he's not
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: some right-wing attack dog like Tom Cotton. He's Cory Gardner,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: a good guy. Which senator has a more pro-Trump voting
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: record according to the website FiveThirtyEight? Is it A?
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: A famous Trump flunky like Lindsey Graham. Or is it B?
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 3: Some right-wing attack dog like Tom Cotton.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: Or is it C?
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: It's Cory Gardner.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: Or is it.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: Or is it D?
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's clearly Cory Gardner. C and also D.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: Correct. Bonus question. That's right. He has a more pro-Trump
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: voting record than those two guys. Bonus question. Without going over,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: how often does Cory Gardner vote with Trump? 75? No, no, 90, 95.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 3: Oh, God.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: 92? 92? You got to just go with your gut.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. It's 90. Let's just say you got it.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: It was one of the numbers you said.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Question three. Now it's time for the Cory
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: Gardner so moderate it hurts lightning round. That's a new one.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 3: That's bad.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: Here's how it works, Shannon. We're going to go around
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: and around, and we're going to read you facts that
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: may or may not be facts. If you think they're
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: true statements about Cory Gardner, you say true. If you
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: think they're not, you say false. Are you ready?
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 3: Ready.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: John, kick us off.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 5: Cory Gardner spent years complaining about deficits, so he took
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 5: a principled stand against the Republican tax cuts, which sent
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 5: the deficit back up to.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: A trillion dollars. False.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 7: False.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: Correct.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 3: Cory Gardner spent years complaining about deficits and then voted
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: for the Republican tax cut because he never actually cared
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 3: about deficits at all.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: True. Got it.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 6: When a group of disability rights protesters organized a sit-in
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 6: in Cory Gardner's office over health care, Gardner sat with
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 6: them and listened.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: despite disagreeing with their views.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: False.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: Correct. Oh, sorry, no.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 4: He had them forcibly removed by the police.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 8: True.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: True.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 5: Cory Gardner is just Ben Shapiro aged up with that
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 5: face app.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: Honestly, true.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 4: It's true.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: Technically false.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: See, Shannon, I disagreed with that one.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: The games aren't a democracy. It's American 2019. Nothing is. Sorry.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: Too much? All right.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 8: Next.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 3: He's voted to confirm every single Trump judge and nomination
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 3: without exception, no matter how unqualified or radical.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: True. No, that's actually false. Okay.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 6: He's voted to confirm every single Trump judge and nominee
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 6: except for once. Just once, which means it's not like
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 6: he doesn't know how.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, true. That one's true, yeah. You got one no
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: because he's crafty. Because he's crafty.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 4: The League of Conservation Voters gives Cory Gardner a 7%
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 4: score on environmental issues, which is only slightly better than
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 4: both Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz, two of the most
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 4: extreme members of Congress.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: True.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 8: False.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: This is hard.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 5: The League of Conservation Voters gives Cory Gardner a 7%
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 5: score on environmental issues, which is worse than both Mitch
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 5: McConnell and Ted Cruz, two of the most extreme members
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 5: of Congress.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: Oh, that one hurt, didn't it?
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: True. That's true. You got it.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 3: After Congress failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Gardner
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 3: complained privately to his fellow Republicans that, quote, donors were
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 3: furious because they didn't keep their promises.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 2: False.
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: No, that's true. He was mad for the donors.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 6: When Trump said four women of color who were also
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 6: citizens and elected members of Congress should, quote, go back
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 6: to where they came from, which is literally used as
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 6: an example of racism from the government manual on racism.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 6: Bipartisan hero Cory Gardner denounced Trump immediately.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 3: False.
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: Correct.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 4: Gardner waited until Monday to denounce the comments as racist.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 5: True.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: No, that's false. It was weak.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: That's false.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 5: Gardner waited until Tuesday to denounce the comments as racist.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: False. Still false.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 3: False. When a conservative radio host asked Gardner about the
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 3: Trump tweet on Monday, he responded by talking about the
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 3: Bureau of Land Management.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: True.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 3: And the host then laughed in his face. And when
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 3: he finally was forced to respond under pressure from Democrats,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 3: he said bravely, I disagree with the president's comments.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 5: True.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 4: I remember that statement.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: So he said nothing on Monday. Then on Tuesday, under
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: pressure from Wednesday. Wednesday.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 8: Wednesday.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: On Wednesday, he finally managed to muster, I disagree with
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: the president's comments. Bipartisan hero, Cory fucking Gardner. Shannon, you've
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: won the game. And so Colorado, after you go to votesaveamerica.com
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: slash getmitch, where we will get Mitch or die trying.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: Do everything you can to knock on doors and help
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: defeat Cory Gardner because as your governor said, we cannot
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: win the Senate unless we win in Colorado. Thank you
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: guys for playing.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 5: Thank you to Governor Polis for joining us. Thank you
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 5: all for sticking with us. We love you, Denver.
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: We'll be back again soon.