Latest / The Chuck ToddCast / Chuck’s Commentary - Trump’s Deadline To End The War? + Chuck Schumer Is Losing His Grip

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Chuck’s Commentary - Trump’s Deadline To End The War? + Chuck Schumer Is Losing His Grip · The Chuck ToddCast

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  Speaker 1: I'm constantly working on this for years myself, and here's
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  Speaker 1: hands as well. Hello Aaron, Welcome to the Thursday edition
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: of the Chuck Podcast. We've got a lot going on
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: this episode. I've obviously got a lot going on in
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: this feed over the last week the launch of Dynastic,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: my new sports history podcast with Jadande. We are just
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: incredibly moved by the initial response, an amazing number of downloads,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: already terrific feedback, and it has only made me more
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: motivated to find more nuggets and stuff you didn't ever
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: know about. When it comes to our next topic for Dynastic,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: which is the Pittsburgh Steelers. Obviously, you can find Dynastic
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: and it's in my audio feeds here and you can
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: find it wherever you find your podcast or on the
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio network as well. A few more headlines that I'm
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: going to get into in this podcast. Number one, a
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: quick update where we are in the war. I think
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: we have a new potential end date and I'll tell
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: you about that in a minute, or at least a
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: potential goal to try to where I think the President
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: is going to try to wrap up the Iran war,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: although his ability to wrap up this war I think
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: is very minimum. But the biggest news of the week
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: has not taken place in Washington Tehran. It has taken
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: place in two courtrooms, one in Santa Fe and one
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. And that is the first signs that
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the tobacco affication, if you will, of the social media
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: companies has begun. Massive court losses by Meta and YouTube
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Meta twice this week, once in New Mexico, second time
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: in La YouTube part of the LA One. This is
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: going to be, I think an escalating story. I'm going
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: to get to that in a minute. And we also
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: want to it was a tale of two parties all
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: within the same party. It was the best of times,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: it was the worst of times. That's pretty much a
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: tale of the Democratic Party that we want to discuss
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: also in this episode. And then finally, Happy Opening Day.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I'm wearing my wash in a NAT's shirt. I'm really
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: hoping we can win game one because if we win
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: game one, it's probably the only time we're gonna have
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: a winning record here in that's baseball. I fear we're
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: looking at one hundred losses or more. This is a disaster,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: but there's always hope, right We've got The upside is
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: rooting for these young kids and getting to know them,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: whether it's Bratty House James Wood. So. So I have
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: a little bit of baseball and a modest proposal to
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: bring back the fun in the NCAA tournament and satisfy
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: the major powers all at the same time. This is
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: a simple solution, folks, but you're gonna have to wait
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: until the end of the episode to hear that solution.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: But let's get started with the serious stuff. So I
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: tease the idea that we now have an end date,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the new deadline for the president to wrap up the war.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: According to my friends at CNBC just before I began taping,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: that the Chinese and the United States have agreed on
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: a new date for President Trump's visit to Beijing. It
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: will now take place May fourteenth and fifteenth. You will
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: see a reciprocal visit both the first family will host
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: she and his wife, Madame Pang li Yuan a yet
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: to be announced date later this year. But the reason
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I say that May fourteenth and fifteenth, one of the
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: reasons why they delayed the April meeting was this ongoing war,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: which means if there is not resolution, if we are
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: not directionally headed to a conclusion to this war of
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: some sort, one would assume this either gets delayed or
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: we're going to start normalizing this war. And this war
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: has no end in sight. So the point being is
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: that we now apparently you can, in the next fifty
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: days approximately from where we are today to May fourteen,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: somehow we either are going to find out one of
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: two things. We're going to have a glide path to
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: 're figuring out what an uncomfortable ceasefire looks like, which
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: appears to be politically where the President is feeling the desperation,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: you can see it. At the same time, he's getting
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: pressure not to essentially give the regime a win. And
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: anything short of regime change or no control of the
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: straight of horn moves is going to give this regime
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: the ability to say they stood down the Americans. Because
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: who's begging to stop right now. It isn't the Iranians.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: It is the United States. And why does President Trump
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: desperate for an exigram Because this thing is politically out
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: of control for him. He has hit another all time
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: low in his weekly average unapproval. He has got more
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: problems with the energy markets. You've got even the most
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: bullish banks and financial analysts when it came to I
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: think Goldman finally flipped and said, no, it is now.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Even if everything stops today, these energy markets are going
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: to take months to recover, in fact, in some cases years. Yes,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the United States is going to be in better shape
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: than pretty much every other region around the world during
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: this heightened energy crisis because we get less of our
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: oil from this region. But the markets and the markets
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: and everybody's going to be impact. And this tax on
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Trump voters, remember, this is the biggest problem. And frankly,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: the Iranians are a lot more sophisticated about our political
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: issues than I think we give them credit for. Certainly
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: this administration gives them credit for. And they're fully aware
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: that the voters that are currently feeling the worst parts
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: of this war so far, of the fallout from this war,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: are Trump voters. Again, if you drive more miles in
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: a given day, and just by if you live in
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: rural or excerm in America, you just drive more. This
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: is something you This is something I learned over the years.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: You know, living in Florida. Florida is a place you're
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: driving all the time. And I was in Miami and
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: in fact, I just in a small way just to
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: understand I think why sometimes people in DC are totally
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: immune to the gas price issue is actually how few
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: miles you have to travel if you live in the
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: DMV it is a very compact area you could be
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: stuck in. I'm not saying you're not gonna it's not
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: gonna take you an hour to go fifteen miles, Okay,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: that is you know, ditto with New York City. You
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: can have plenty of ways that it takes you forever,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: but your actual mile it's travel is very minimal, so
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: you tink a gas goes farther, and you know, talk
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to anybody that lisas cars. Okay, if you lease a car,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: and I will tell you I lisa a car. I
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: don't you know I I own we don't own a car.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Some cases I lise a car. Right, whatever makes financial sense.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: But if you lease a car, you can put your
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: lease payment down, if you agree to a minimum, you know, like,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to drive more than fifteen thousand miles
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: in a year, twelve thousand miles in a year, ten
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: thousand miles in a year. Well, in Florida, If you
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: lease a car and you would think you're going to
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: drive less than ten thousand miles, you're a moron. It's
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: almost impossible. You gotta drive everywhere. There's no public transportation,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: nobody now walking. You're always driving. So when you lease
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: a car, you're always in the twelve thousand to fifteen
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: thousand range in a year, and likely more, you know,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty thousand miles in a given year. Every
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: time I've leased a car in this area, I have
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: I've always been paranoid to do the seventy five hundred mark,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: thinking oh, I'm gonna go over that, and I never
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: go over it. And yes, you could say, well, you
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: have the luxury of living inside the Beltway, but that's
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the point. It is compact area, and most of official
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Washington lives in a compact area. So the we here
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: are in a gas bubble, gas price bubble. We don't
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: feel it the way you will feel it in a Texas,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: in a Florida, in an Iowa, in a Kansas. You
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: get my point. So this is the political pressure, the
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: absolute political pressure that the president is feeling that is
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: domestic sort of those that those of its advisors that
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: are more worried about the current political environment than they
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: are the geopolitical environment right now. At the same time,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: the president's getting cross pressures now at the moment from
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: the from the Saudi's and UAE, and that they are
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: petrified now that this this is he is going to
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: retreat too soon, It's going to keep Essentially, nothing will
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: change for them, right. They have not wanted the Iranians
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: to have this leverage over the region, and they will
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: still have leverage in the region, leverage over the strait
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: of hormones. Yes, they are a week in state. Yes,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: in theory, what's in America's best interest might turn out
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: to be we might get everything we want out of
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: this in the medium term, but the region will not,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: which means we are not going to have stability, we
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: are not going to have peace, and you're going to
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: continue to have low grade proxy fights, and they'll probably
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: be proxy fights that the United States government isn't interested in.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: And that is why I'm not saying I agree with
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: what the Saudis in Ua saying, but I understand their
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: point of view from this, and they figure the minute
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: the US bails on this and pulls the plug, they
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: are not coming back into quote unquote mow the lawn. Right,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: this idea of that somehow, every once in a while,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the US and Israel will just whatever military ramp up
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the regime in Iran does that they will just mow
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: it down again. That worked with Saddam for a while, right,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, it was just sort of it felt like
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: we had, you know, we had air strikes about every
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: six months against Saddam after the first Golf War, right
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: tailing a Bush, I think it felt like about every
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: three to six months. It was probably further gaps than that,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: but that you would have, you know, just a consistent
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: degrading of what Iraq was trying to do. So I'm
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: not sure that there is going to be that kind
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: of appetite for something like that. So once again, in
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: some ways, nothing has changed in this situation from when
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: he got into this war. He's boxed himself in. It's
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: all bad options, and the question is what is he
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: going to prioritize. Is he going to prioritize risking negative
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: political fallout for his party in the midterms here in
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: this country, or is he going to risk his personal
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: family's business interests with two of the most important patrons
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: in the golf to him, the Saudi's and UAA. I
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: know some people wouldn't put you know, the whole point
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: of this podcast is to sort of be straightforward with you. Right,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: this is He's got his own personal they have the
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Saudi's and UAE have personal business leverage over Trump in
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: his family, and they want one thing. The current political
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: climate has its own and the markets have its own
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: version of leverage over Trump. Right, he doesn't want to
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: be a loser and he doesn't want to suddenly lose support.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: I know, I know what some of you are thinking
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: if he's going to pick a side. He's going to
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: pick them aside on money, I certainly would make that
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: the three point favorite, if you were to make it
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: a point spread. You know, Yeah, it's probably fifty two
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: forty eighties more likely that he will listen to his
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: financial patrons and his family's financial patrons more then he's
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: necessarily going to listen to the polls and to the public.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: But I don't think I think it's a much closer
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: call than even the most cynical sort of person about
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Trump being a you know, sort of running a kleptocracy here,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: right probably, you know, so I once, like I said,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: he's in a box and he's going to make some
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: entity and he's trying to there's no needle to thread here.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: There just isn't. And that's the situation he's in. So
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: at this point, there's really not a lot more to
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: say about this, but it will be It is interesting
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: to see while Trump talks a big game about trying
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: to have talks and they've traded absurd proposals for each side. Right,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: we continue to send ground forces into the region ready
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: to be deployed. Eighty second Airborne now has joined some
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: marines that are our over there. So it does feel
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: as if and I, you know, I I think if
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: he decides he needs to finish the job, ground troops
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: are inevitable because the only way we can take control,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: the only way they can manage the situation is to
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: take control of the straight of hormones. And the only
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: way to take control of the straight of hormones put
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: boots on the ground in the shorelines. And so it's,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: you know, either we're accelerating towards either way. I want
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: to circle back to what I said before. Circle May
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: fourteenth and fifteenth on your calendar and figure that that
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: is the window that he is going to if he
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: can get out of this. He is going to try
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: to get out of this. Let's just say I'm mostly
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: skeptical that he can do that in that time frame.
• 15:58
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  Speaker 1: And yes, I too, am a customer. So I want
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  Speaker 1: to pivot now to to sort of my tale of
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: two parties. And it's really not a tale of two party.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: It's a tale of one party. With the Democrats, right,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: things have never been better, and yet the party feels leaderless, directionalists,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and the voters don't have a lot of confidence in it,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: even as they're ready to vote for pretty much any
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Democrat if they're going up against a mega Republican. Right.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: The big news from Tuesday night was the Democrats won
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: a couple more special elections thirty and oh right now
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: in flipping state legislative seats and Trump took office. Meaning
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the Democrats have flipped thirty across the country count of
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: three zero state legislative seats held by Republicans, and the
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Republicans have flipped exactly zero Democratic held seats in that
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: same time period. So that's a pretty impressive. Is my
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: friend Crystalizza point out thirty and oh that is and
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: that is As he pointed out, there's a lot of
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: noise in politics right now. But that is a signal
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: and we know that this is this is where this
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: looks like twenty eighteen all over again, which led to
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: a forty seat House game. Obviously with redistricting, gerrymandering everything
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: you know, twenty seats is the new forty seats, right,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: you know, And any to me, anything twenty or above
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: is the definition of a wave in this in this reapportionment,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: in this era of reapportionment that we have, so things
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: have never looked better on the opportunity front. And I
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: will take it a step further. The Democrats have orchestrated
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: two shutdowns now of the government. One are a more
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: a larger shutdown over healthcare that started before the twenty
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: twenty five election day and went through those elections. And
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: then the one that we're currently in with the just
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the partial shutdown of DHS, which is being felt most
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: acutely at our airports. And Democrats are winning both shutdowns
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: and it's actually very I mean to just show you
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: what this is a sign of just how unpopular Trump is.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Nine times out of ten, ninety nine times out of
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: one hundred, the party that forces a shutdown eventually gets
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: blamed and so far in both cases, Krets forced the
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: first shutdown, not only did they not get blamed, they
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: got healthcare front center in this second shutdown, which was
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: arguably triggered by the actions, the illegal and unconstitutional actions
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: that ICE took in Minneapolis. The death of two American
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: citizens by murdered by ICE agents certainly I think drove
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: the party to do what they did, and largely the
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: public has been with them on this. And we've hit
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: a point in this shutdown, and I hinted at it
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: a couple I hinted at about a week ago. I said,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: you know, the Democrats have probably gotten everything they're going
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: to get out of this. Politically, They've got the Republicans
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: begging to make a deal, and you know, at some point,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: you know they're crying uncle. They got to say, Okay,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: let's go. You got a deal, because there's a risk
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: where this suddenly it just becomes about the pain being
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: inflicted on TSA and travelers and less about ICE. Though
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I do think the administration and the Republicans did the
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Democrats a huge favor by deploying ICE agents in the airports.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: I don't think that does what they think it does.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: It may make their base happy. But think about this
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: idea that the White House believes that Ice has become
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: such a negative that it can be used as leverage
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: to scare travelers and scare Democrats in a cutting a deal,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Like they now know they've created a menacing agency. Like
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: that's what's so surreal about this decision. They're accepting the
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: premise that the Democratic Party's description of Ice is what
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the public thinks and is what it is, and that
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: they can somehow leverage that for their gain. Oh, they
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: fear ice. Wait till we put ice at the airports.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: You're just like, I mean, it really is. I know,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: I keep reusing this old movie metaphor, but in Blazing Saddles,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: when the sheriff pulls the gun on himself, he says,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: don't let anybody come near I might shoot. I mean,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: it reminds me of a version of that is. It
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: is a strange It was I think a strange tactic,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: and I don't think it does the Republicans any good
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: and certainly doesn't help ICE's image at all. But the
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: bigger thing is the Democrats have accomplished a lot with
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the shutdown. When this shutdown began, Christy Nome was that
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: the was the Secretary of Homeland Security. She is no longer.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: There's already been a confirmed new secretary, and Mark wayn
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Mullen has essentially agreed that there should be body cameras.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: He seems to be open to getting rid of the masks,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: you know, beyond essentially unless you're at the border, which
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: I think was a fair proposal, right, you know, if
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: you're dealing with the cartels, they don't want to show
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: their face because those cartels do try to assassinate people.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: But outside of that, they got to abide by the
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: exact same laws that all law enforcement agents have to
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: abide by in this country. Hard stop. So the body care.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: The point is is that it did. It does seem
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: as if the Democrats have gotten a lot out of
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: this shutdown the long if they you know it, and look,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: I get that they're not going to get everything they
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: want at ICE, and there's some things they I mean,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: the part the problem the Democrats have is they don't
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: have that much leverage over the ICE funding, right because
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: it was done as part of the big beautiful bill.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: That stuff was already leveraged in at best. And I
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: understand why they're hesitant to take the deal that's on
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: the table because they want to codify these changes to
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: ICE protocols without just taking for it and things like that.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: So I understand the hesitance, But the big picture here,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: all of the coverage on this now in whatever's left
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: of legacy media is just focused on the harm it's
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: doing the TSA agents and the burden it's putting on
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: on travelers. This is no longer about ICE. So the
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: point is when you get to a situation when you
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: sort of you're playing a little politics here with the government,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: you're playing politics with the budget. There's that fine line,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: and you know, there's some Look, ultimately, I think it's
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: ridiculous that a political dispute somehow disrupts all travel, right Like,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: we've got to figure out how to insulate travel, insulate
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: the public from this nonsense. You know, this is I am.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I am more than convinced that a sort of quasi
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: privatization of TSA. What do I mean by quasi? That
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: essentially TSA works for these airport authorities period The airport
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: authorities get reimbursed for the security from the government, but
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: essentially they're making payroll, they're keeping consistent there is no
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: skipping paychecks because a couple of members of Congress want
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: to want to stand on ceremony for a variety of reasons,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: and you're minimizing the impact on the public. And I
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: know some of you may arguement, no, forcing the public
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: to get irritated and to focus their aires is part
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: of the problem. I hear you on that, but I
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: don't think at this point the eyre is going to
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: be a focused ire right. And the Democrats probably ought
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: to take this deal before the weekend ends, and I
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: anticipate that a deal is going to get done before
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: the next time you hear me on this. I kind
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: of think they have to. What's interesting here is is
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: is what is how I think one of the reasons
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: why Democrats have yet to take the deal is they
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: don't really have a leader at the moment. Chuck Schumer
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: has never seemed more unsteady on his feet than he
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: does at the moment. He does absolutely, you know, at all.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: And I don't know how much of it is connected,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: but I think a lot of this is connected to
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: a fascinating Wall Street journal piece from last week that
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: got went into the weeds on the effort to push
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Chuck Schumer aside from leadership, and I encourage you. I
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: encourage you to read the story in full in the
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal because it it What was amazing about
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: it is how kind of open everybody is about the
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: various factions now in the Senate Democratic Conference and the
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: sort of the reality check right oh, the heace and
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: The Wall Street Journal opens with an anecdote of Chris Murphy,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Democratic Senator from Connecticut at a dinner with a bunch
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: of progressive activists who's you know, they're having this dinner
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: and they're saying okay, and they're basically pushing Murphy, and
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Murphy is somebody who may run for president more on
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: the progressive side of things, and they're pushing Murphy. We
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: got to deal with the elephant in the room. What
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: about you know, we got to got to get rid
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: of Chuck Schumer and what surprised apparently folks at that dinner,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: and of course what leaked out. And then Murphy basically
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: owned up to the comments without being overly critical as
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Schumer the person. For what it's worth, what he said was, well, look,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: a bunch of us have essentially done some vote counting,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: and the votes aren't there to get rid of Schumer,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: which doesn't surprise me, and you're certainly not going to
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: see this in an election year. But what you're darting
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: to see is the fact that this is being talked
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: about openly, like there's a pressure campaign to get him
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: not to run for leader after November, to he simply
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: accept the premise that this is his last year's leader.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: They seem to be hoping against hope that he will
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: decide not to seek real announce that he's not going
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: to seek reelection in twenty eight and that he will
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: not stand in essentially just like Mitch McConnell did, right,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell decided not to seek reelection in twenty twenty six,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: but chose to step aside as leader at the end
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four, allowing new leadership to take over,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: and he would essentially be there as the as a,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: as a, as a godfather at emeritis of sorts. I
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: allow with Nancy Pelosi, although she apparently you know, she's
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: been there a few cycles, but essentially similar to how
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Pelosi handed over the reins to Jeffreys, on that front,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: we've had smoother transitions there than we did, of course,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: with what the House Republicans have done. What look, I
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: think what makes this story amazing, Number one is how
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: public everything is. And when this leaked out, Murphy certainly
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: seemed to admit that they've done some nose counts right,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: and he's on the side. You've got Elizabeth Warren. What
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: this piece did was clarified who's behind the it's time
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: for Schumer to go. So it appears to be Chris Murphy,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: appears to be Elizabeth Warren, appears to be retiring Senator
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Tina Smith from Minnesota. That mildly surprised me that she
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: was a part of this. Then you have folks that
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: are sort of in the category of they don't want
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: to tick Schumer off, but they want to be there
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: ready to replace him. Right, Brian Shatz is in that column,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: And in fact, it looks like Shatz has played his
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: cards so well that according to this piece, Schumer or
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Schumer's allies are, you know, if they have a say
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: and who replaces him, they'd like to see Shatz. That
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: might be a kiss of death. But Schatz went out
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: on a limb and went ahead and defended Schumer, and
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: he said Chuck's got broad and deep support, even as
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: detractors would have to admit that we have an extraordinary
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: class of candidates for the Senate and that wouldn't have
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: happened without him. He's referring to Roy Cooper, He's referring
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: to Janet Mills, but one could argue that in three
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: of the most important and Mary Patola in Alaska. And
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: the question is does he get credit for tall Rico?
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: I think he does. He seemed to be on the
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: side of those consultant worlds that was trying to get
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Taller Rico in there. But they're these huge primaries. There's
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: basically one faction in the Senate wanting to see the
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: grand Platners of the world win, wanting to see a
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: gentleman by the name of Zach Walls win in Iowa
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: instead of Schumer's pick of Josh Turek. And of course
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: you have the Michigan primary that is a three way
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: race between sort of strongest lablishment, one that straddles progressive
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: and establishment, and one that is super progressive. And you
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: do have a group of Senators that are basically running
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: against Schumer's candidates and endorsing whoever Schumer's not for they
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: seem to be endorsing and vice versa on that front.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: But the fact that this went public and apparently one
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: of the beefs and I got to share with you
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: this one anecdote because the story itself and the way
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Schumer responds to the story in this Wall Street Journal piece,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: I think is a tell that he is both slightly
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: out of touch, a bit stubborn about this and is
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: probably going to fight and is not going to roll
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: over here. But we shall see, oh one other This
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: was really telling, according to the Wall Street Journal story
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: about Sumer, and Schumer agreed to do an interview with
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: here almost as a way to sort of pushback on
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: this narrative that he was two week to lead. The
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: journal points out a number of Democratic senators provided the
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal with interviews or statements in support of
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: the leader. They included Shats Catherine Cortes, Masto, Sheldon Whitehouse,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Kirsten Jillibrand she's the current DFCC chair, Chris Coons, and
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Tim Kane. Right, those are sort of everybody's been there
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: essentially more than a term. When you look at these
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: folks right there, this is what you would expect that
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: it would be more of the establishment types, more that
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: have always run more center left campaigns, Catherine Cortez, all
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: of these folks. You know, I'm old enough to remember
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: when Kirston Jilli Brand represented an upstate New York seat
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: and wanted a pretty good NRA rating. Chris Coons very
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: middle of the road kind of guy in Delaware, always
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: involved with any bipartisan talks, and Tim Kane has always
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: straddled that fence as well. So it's notable who would
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: put their name on the record, And it's of course
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: notable who chose not to do that, right, You didn't
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: see some others because there's quite a few senators. What
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Tumor's problem is, he is he seems to be at
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: that moment where he's so paranoid of leaks and he
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: doesn't know who to trust, that he doesn't share information enough,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: and of course that pisses people off. This episode of
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  Speaker 1: in fact, they share an anecdote. And I'm going to
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: talk about this anecdote here because it leads into an
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: amazing Trump esque Chuck Schumer moment. So here it is.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: I'm going straight from the article here. Tensions among Senate
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: Democrats over Schumer style reached a tipping point during the
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: lengthy government shutdown last fall. In a closed door meeting
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: with top Senate Democrats the day after the parties November
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: election wins. You'll remember, right, we're in the middle of
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: the shutdown. Democrats have a huge November twenty twenty five, right,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: double digg victories in Virginia, New Jersey just killed it everywhere. Right,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: The mood wasn't celebratory in this closed door meeting with
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: top Senate Democrats. Why Senators Jeff Merkley and Maggie Hassen
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: were arguing over whether the victories gave Democrats new reason
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: to continue the shutdown their leverage for extending healthcare subsidies.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: They believe the election was a chance to essentially double down.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: When Senator Gary Peters, who's the retiring senator from Michigan,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: that's the big Michigan primary is the open seat that
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: is trying to replace him, he stepped into note that
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: a breakaway group of Democrats had already initiated a quote
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: secret deal with Republicans to end the shutdown. This was
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: according to people in the meeting. Apparently. Elizabeth Warren then replies,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: who's also in this meeting with Merkley and Hassen. Wait,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: they didn't negotiate anything. And then she apparently turns to Schumer,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: and Elizabeth Warren says, Chuck, you told me no one
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: was negotiating. Then the leader of this breakaway centrist group
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: of Democrats that did negotiate with the Republicans Jeanie Shaheen, who,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: of course she's retiring from the New Hampshire open seat.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: She responds that they had kept the leader, meaning Chuck Schumer,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: a breast of the developments. Warren, one of the Senate
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: you know, one of the folks on the side of
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: fighting much harder here and has been pretty critical of Schumer, responded, well,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: that's not what Chuck told me. And then Murkley admits
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: in an interview with the Journal that he was in
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: shock when he heard that this group was going to
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: strike a deal. He goes, it was all news to him.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Now they eventually have a all Democratic senator meeting, and
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: Merkley said he thought eventually Schumer heard him, but it
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: was clear that Schumer wasn't telling everybody what was happening
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: with right and the incident, as the Journal points out,
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: was seen as a quote prime example of the leader
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: trying to appease all sides by telling senators what they
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: want to hear. And apparently some current and former Senate
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: staffer are calling it getting shumed, meaning they thought they
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: had one, they thought they knew what was happening, and
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Schumer's working
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: with some other entity, has a deal. Stories over. Oh
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: my god, I've been shoomed. Right now. Here's my favorite
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: part of this article. And again, maybe you have to
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: be me covering Schumer for nearly thirty years to appreciate
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: this moment. But any of you, and I know a
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: bunch of you listening actually used to work for Schumer,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: and I think you will. Guys will laugh at this
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: due Schumer is you know again he does this interview
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: with the Journal, Schumer said he wasn't familiar with the
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: current usage of the term getting shoomed. But then Schumer
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: offers up to the journal reporters the following anecdote. He said,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: actually getting shumed originated in New York and it used
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: to refer to Schumer's rush to be the first to
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: show up at a press conference to taut a new
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: issue to reporters, says Schumer. To the reporters, I would
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: be ahead of everybody else. Someone would be thinking of something,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: but I'd be out there with a press conference. I
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: understand what Schumer was up to, right, But if you
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: want to this is like to me, this is the moment.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: This is sometimes you got to understand subtext when you
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: read these stories. Look the reporters are they include this
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: anecdote in here for obvious reasons. They're like going, yeah,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: he is not fully plugged in to what people really
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: think of him in the Senate. He is got there
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: is a loss of trust, and he is sort of
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: in his own bubble here, right, And there's still a
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: lack of self awareness. Even in this piece you offer
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: up an alternative definition of getting shumed because he it's
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: very trump esque, right. Let me tell you when it
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: was a positive? Is that what this piece is about
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: at the moment? Really, Oh, that you're really smart about
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: getting out in front of some viral issue just as
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: it's going viral, so it looks like you're on top
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: of things. These are these famous Sunday press conferences back
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: when Schumer was a back bench House member then a
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: back bench senator, and this is the you know, this
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: is the part of Schumer when he had his fastball.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: And I think now it's clear he is absolutely constantly
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: nervous about you know, he's looking over his left shoulder
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: at AOC. He's looking over his shoulder apparently now at
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: Chris van Holland and Brian Shatz, and you know, now
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: he's orchestrated. He's hoping to at least and here'd be
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: my message to Senator Schumer and anybody that wants to
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: talk to him and to say look, you've been an
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: incredibly successful Democratic leader. He really has. You know, he
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: is a he is not a policy guy. He's a
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: politics guy. And he you know, starting with two thousand
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: and six, frankly, starting with his own politics. I mean,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: he out maneuvered and outsmart at everybody in his ninety
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: eight Senate race. You know, he won that race by
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: basically being the only guy to campaign in Buffalo before
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: anybody else was doing it, and then worked his way down.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: It was brilliant strategy. Sort of was the first to
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: come up with the ten second ad before ten second
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: ads were harder to make happen. But he stretched his money.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, is it is like watching Willie Mays
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: play with the Mets. You're like, I don't want to
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: see him field flyballs, right, you don't want to see it, right,
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: you don't want to see Mickey Mantle strike out. And
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: I think that Schumer is at this moment where he's
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: just look, part of it is there's nothing he can
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: do about it. He is sort of the last dem
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: standing from the previous era, right, so he is the
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: stand in for Biden. Frustrations about Biden. He's the stand
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: in for Clinton frustrations about Clinton. Right, he's just the
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: stand in for the establishment because he's the most familiar
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: face left. So some of this is not about him
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: and his decision making. Some of this is just simply
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: it's about that wing of the party, right, the sort
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: of what you want to call it, the pragmatic wing.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: But if he cares about trying, and look, he has
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: a theory of the case, right, he has a theory
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: of the case. And the type of candidates he nominates,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: he's you know, and who he's encouraging to run. Right,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: he wants a Josh Turreck to be the nominee in
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: Iowa rather than is Zach Wall. Zach Walls is a
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: bit more progressive. I think you can make the case.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: It is interesting the NRSC and Republicans want the progressive
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: to win too. They're all excited about that. And you know,
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: Schumer's touting another candidate. Now, progressive activists get frustrated that
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: he wants to put his thumb on the scale in
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: the primary. Well, guess what, so does Bernie Sanders want
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: to put his thumb on the scale in the primary.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: So you know, you know, people that get upset that
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: somebody's playing favorites are really upset that they're not the
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: ones being favored, if that makes sense, Meaning most people
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: complain that they're not getting the extra help or the
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: extra attention, they're actually not arguing for fairness. But let's
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: set that aside. If Schumer cares about that wing of
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: the party, he cannot be seen as essentially fighting the
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: progressives and then losing the best way for him to
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: beat the Progressives is to stand down and hand and
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: then he has more say and who replaces him and
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: he might be able to preserve. You know, it's sort
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: of like McConnell, you know, had he pushed the envelope
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: more than he risked losing to a Rick Scott and
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: then suddenly that wing of the party is running the
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: Senate Republican Conference instead he put himself in it. He
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: got out just in time where he knew essentially he
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: can hand the reins over to Jonathan. And that's the
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: situation Schumer's in right now. He's got to make and
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: this is not going to be easy for him. Schumer
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: has had success charting his own path, and he has
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: kind of at times bulldozed his way, and he has
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: overcome skepticism whether it's from mainstream media, Washington, the Midwest,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: you name it. You know, you talk to a Claire
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: mccaskell or John Tester and they will tell you Schumer
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: always understood their electorates almost as well as they did.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, he in this stuff. You know, I'm not
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: trying to use this as a way to beat up
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: on Schumer, but it is pretty clear it is he
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: has passed. It is it is time to move on.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: And if he wants more say in how this works
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: and if he wants to control this process, he probably
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: only has a couple more months before he sort of
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: loses that ability to do it. And I think I
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: think every you could sort of see, you know, obviously,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: I mean it would be a fool's air. And if
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: somebody tried to overthrow Schumer, now there's really not a
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: mechanism the way the Senate works and it and it
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: would blow up in their face. But it is clear
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: that you have a chunk of senators worried that Schumer's
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: waiting to see that if they get the majority, he's
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: going to want it. And that's where this You know,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: you don't want to begin. The last thing you want
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: to do if you're the Democrats is right. Now there
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: is a bunch of infighting. Well in some ways, let
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: the infighting happen now, because if you're infighting after the elections,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: after you succeed, then it looks worse. Take Abigail Spamberger, right,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: she is starting in I think this has been a
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: nightmare way for her to start. She tried, she's there's
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: an interview on the Washington Post this week. You know,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: she ran as a bit you know, said basically like, look,
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: she's a Democrat, but if she went a partisan right,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: that was the vibe she gave off that she was
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: a pragmatist. And yet what does she have to do.
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: She starts her gubernatorial term and she only gets one
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: to make the most political fight any governor would have
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: to do, which is this which is pushed for this
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: ridiculous redistricting amendment. And I say it's ridiculous because it
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: runs counter to everything Abigail Spaanburger stands for. Right. The
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: original concept was fairness and maps to take politics out
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: of things. That is the Abigail Spamburger platform, if you will,
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: that she ran on. It's been sort of her political
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: identity from the very beginning when she ran for Congress,
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: and she's having to make the case, just like watching
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: Barack Obama use his political capital to sell what they're doing,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: that this is a way to make it more fair
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: compared to Texas, leaving out the part that it makes
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: it incredibly unfair essentially to all voters in Virginia. Right,
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: there is no good argument you can come up with
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: to me to give me to say that this is
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: a good idea, because I would argue, you actually want
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: if Republicans win competitive districts, then you're more likely to
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: have a Republican who's more likely to buck the crazy
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: Maga wing, and it actually is healthier for democracy if
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: you have it in that way. So the point being,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: as fair districts will get you a better quality member
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: of Congress. Period. When you have unfair districts that are
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: overly partisan, then you get partisan hacks, whether they're on
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: the left or the right, because all you have to
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: worry about is winning a primary. And then you have
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: this absurdity where you know, literally you know Don Bayer
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: is currently my congressman, and the new map you will
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: not be because Arlington is going to get divided into
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: two and essentially South Arlington is going to be in
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: Buyer's district, and it's going to go all the way
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: to the Northern Neck, Okay, which is sort of on
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: the where the Bay Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean and
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: the and the Northern Neck and the River down they
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: are all sort of come in the one as you
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: can see. I'm not that familiar with that area. I've
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: been there a few times. It is uh, if it
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: were a slightly shorter drive, that would be an ideal
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: place to have a vacation home. And I know some
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: people who do. It's it's it's I've chosen to I've
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: chosen the state of Florida for mine. But it is
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: a great place. I remember why Off and I looked
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: out there. We enjoyed it, we liked it a lot.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: But it is almost nothing in common with Arlington, and
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: yet those communities are all going to be in the
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: same district. You know. It's basically Virginia is going to
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: turn into this weird sort of I guess you could
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: call it like a half octopus, where the body is
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: all northern Virginia and then all of the districts, you know,
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: a tentacle, a tentacle to the west, a tentnical to
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: the southwest, a technical d South, et cetera, et cetera.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: And then and then there's this blob you know that
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: will be the one Republican district. It's probably going to pass,
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: but I don't think this is going to pass like California.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: And you could just hear Spamberger in this interview, and
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: you know, she's you know, she has been pushing back
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: on the Democratic legislature on some business taxes and some
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: things like that. So she's still trying to sort of
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: keep her pro business credentials, which in you know, sort
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: of basically in line with what Tim how Tim Kane
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: was as governor at Mark Warner was his governor of
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: Terry mcauiffe. Like it's it's not unique, you know, the
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: Democratic governors of the twenty first century in Virginia have
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: all been have all all wanted to make sure they
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Virginia stays in the top five places to do business
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: in the CNBC rankings, which they have for pretty much
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: all of the twenty first century. So but she's she
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: is now having to be the face of the Her
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: and Barack Obama are having to be the face of
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: this ad campaign for redistricting, and you know, I'll tell
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: you this. I like I said, I think they went.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: But I think the Democrats are giving up something here
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: that they're going to wish they have backed. And I
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: do think one reminder I'm going to leave you with,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: and then we're going to go to my conversation with
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: Johnny O. The base of the Republican Party is larger
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: than the base of the Democratic Party. And what does
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: that mean? Democrats need more moderates to get to fifty percent.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: The good news for Democrats is a majority of moderates
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: lean left on some social issues and they want they're
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: more uncomfortable siding with the Republicans and the Democrats liberal
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: modern conservative. This is what I'm referring to when I say,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: when you have the idea outpolling, ideological service. But those
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: moderates sort of like actually believe you know, they've been
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: siding with the Democrats because they're the pragmatic ones, they're
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: the normal ones. If they start behaving, no, you know,
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: ends justifies the means type of politics. I think the
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: Democrats are endangering that part of their brand right now. Look,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: they're using two people who I think plenty of people
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: in the center politically in this country, see as pragmatists
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: Barack Obama, Abagail Spamberg. But they're advocating for something that's
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: frankly indefensible, and it just is going to chip away.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: It doesn't happen overnight. But you know, Democrats have to
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: realize they're thirty to zero in the special election. Things
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: are going great for them on paper. They're on track
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: to win the House with a decent majority, and frankly,
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: it's probably getting close to a coin flip for Senate
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: control because I also believe Lisa Murkowski, if it's fifty
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: to fifty, she's going to flip. And again, I have
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: no other evidence. I'm not you know, I have no
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: inside knowledge in this. I'm just that's a tea leaf. Okay,
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: I am reading a tea leaf incredibly carefully in this one.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: But I'm pretty confident of it. Especially if Mary Ptello
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: wins that sentencing, I think it's a get. If that's it,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: it's almost a given. Denmarkowski hands the Democrats the Senate
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: majority couldn't be going swimmingly. And yet what did we
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: see in that Marquette polarlier this week? The Democratic brand
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: had a lower favorable rating than the Republican Party and mega.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: So that's you know, and this that bill will come
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: due in twenty eight if they're not careful. But how
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: twenty six goes, how they govern, how they resolve these
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: internal fights, how messy does this get? Right? All of
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: this is going to be determined. I think in the
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: next three to six months. All Right, we're gonna sneak
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: in a break and when we come back, my conversation
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: with Johnny oh and what could be the twenty eighth
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: Amendment to the US Constitution. Hey, it's the weekend. It's
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: time to turn to the Chuck Todd sports page here,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: if you will, And I want to start with a
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: modest proposal for the NCAA basketball tournament. And by the way,
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: this applies to men and women when I'm about to
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: propose here, But it is more of a reaction to
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: the results of the men's tournament. Right, there's a big
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: let's call it what it is. There's kind of a
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: disappointment that there are no right that it's all major
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: conference teams that are left. There's no mid major Cinderella.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: We have no FA Florida Atlantic, no George Mason, no
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: Saint Peter's frankly not even a Gonzaga, although they were
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: a three seed, but still, you know, they're kind of
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: at least from a non power four and a half conference,
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: I say four and a half. I'm gonna put the
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: Big East in the power side of the conferences, but
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: I think it's pretty clear that Saint John's and you
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: Connor like power schools, and I think, well, you know,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: and we know Villanova aspires to be, Georgetown aspires to
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: be you know it is. Let's just say the Big
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: East basketball now reminds me of where Big East football
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: was right before Miami left for the ACCI. I could argue,
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: as a GW guy and an A ten advocate, that
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: the Big East is closer to catch the Big East
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: is closer to be the A ten than it is
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: to catching what would be the fourth best conference this year.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: I guess you would put it. I guess you would
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: say the number four conference was the ACC given the
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: results of the of the tournament, right, I think the
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: Big East is closer to the A ten than it
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: is to the ACCI. If you're asking, I think i'd
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: go Big ten, Big twelve, SEC A c C. This
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: year just just sort of in your power order of
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: the of the of the conferences in college basketball. But
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: there's a huge disappointment, right, there's just it's all power
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: four schools right that dark horses are like Iowa Nebraska.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: We're in eleven seeded Texas that was seen as a
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: top ten twenty school earlier this year. And I think
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: there's always been this conundrum about the NCAA tournament in
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: that we love upsets in the first round, and the
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: last thing we want to see are these schools actually
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: in the final four. We think we do, but once
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: they appear in the final four, nobody watches these games,
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: right when Butler or Mason or gonzaie And it's not
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: like Florida Atlantic. They've not been ratings juggernauts. Right. What
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: we want is we want them to get almost there.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: We want them to get to that. We love them
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: in the sweet sixteen, we like them in the eight,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: and then we want Duke playing Yukon in the final,
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: right or you know, fill in your top tier score
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: so you know me, I don't want to sit here
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: and just identify problems, whether it's in our politics or
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: in our sports fandom. I am year to propose solutions
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: and have I got a solution for you, and I'm
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: going to begin telling you my bias. I went to GW,
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: So in this case, my bias is for the mid majors,
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna explain why it's good for everybody involved.
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: When GW made the Sweet sixteen in ninety three, I
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: know for some of you maybe listening to this podcast,
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: weren't born then, do you know what happened to applications
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: the following year? They're like it went up like fifty percent.
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: And GW went to the NCAA Tournament seven out of
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: ten years in the nineties, and just making the NCAA
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: tournament one Sweet sixteen appearance a couple around to thirty
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: two's consistently playing big time school. So they were suddenly
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: they were in the mix and they were in the conversation,
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: and it had huge implications for GW's status as a
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: top tier university. One could argue that GW, which is
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: now an AAU school, are one university important distinction in
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: the in the world of academics. They they wouldn't have
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: gotten there without that investment in the basketball program. And
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: and there are stories like this all around the country.
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: Shoot this happens even with the power for School Universe
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: to Miami, applications have gone through the roof since Miami
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: made it to the n C Double A title in football,
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: Georgia and Clemson. The current president in gw Ellen Grandberg.
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan of I just think she has
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: brought an energy to the place that that that that
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: that that is that I'm just I haven't felt it
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: like this since the Tractenburg days, for those of you
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: that really know GW's politics. So I'm a huge I'm
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: really supportive of her. I'm really rooting for. She tells
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: a great story about she was the provost at Clemson
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: during the rise of DABA, and she said that it
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: wasn't just you didn't just improve the quality student you got.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: You know, you got they got. Applications went up, which
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: meant they got they got they got to they got
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: to have a higher accept you know, basically a lower
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: acceptance rate, which means you're getting a higher quality student.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: They had more out of state students or more diversified
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: student body. More out of state students means she can
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: give more scholarship money in state. There's all sorts of
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: benefits that come with it, and then she said to
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: one other thing, it improved. It was a differentiator when
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: doing interviews with professors. I think it just got a
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: better quality of professor who saw the excitement around the
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: football program as a feature. You know, you sometimes hear
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: you know university, you get academic, you'll get the academic faculty.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: Faculty sentence will fight investments into sports programs because they
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: think it's being taken away from academics. But I think
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: more and more modern faculties understand that success in athletics
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: actually indirectly translate to success in academics because it allows it.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: It creates more interest in the school. You get more
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: applications that in turn gets more donor dollars into the school.
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: It just it is truly rising tide. So why do
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: I say all this before I give you this preamble here,
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: before I give you my proposal to fix the NCAA
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: tournament and to bring back everything that we love about
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: it and keep what we love about it and have
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: it benefit everybody. It's my proposal to expand the tournament
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: to ninety six teams, because it's clear now with then
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: IHL the situation we're in, which is, look it is gravity.
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: It is allowed that all the great mid major players
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: all are all going to end up in power for schools. Right,
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: you just have to look. You look at any of
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: the top programs. I mean, Iowa was a great example, right.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: Their coach and point guard started together in Division two.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: They had success at Drake together. Now they're at Iowa
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: and they knock off Florida. So all the great mid
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: major players are still having a huge impact in the
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: NCAA tournament. They're just doing it with bigger brands, a
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: bigger brand on their jersey. But there's over three hundred
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: and twenty Division I basketball programs and right now only
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: sixty eight slots for those three hundred and twenty basketball programs.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: That's actually arguably too small of a cut. And even
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: if you if so, if you expanded ninety six, you're
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: still less than one third. Major League baseball has twelve
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: out of thirty teams that make football has fourteen out
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: of thirty two Basketball now has twenty out of thirty
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: if you count the playing games. So having college basketball
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: allow less than a third, but nearly a third of
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: their programs into their postseason isn't diluting the product. It's
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: probably arguably fair and more importantly by expanding in ninety six.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna get to the logistics here in minute, because
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: I've solved all your logistics problems here, Okay, I'm gonna
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna borrow page from my friend Colin Convert. I
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: am giving you the answer. Hopefully the NCAA is smart
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: enough to just accept my proposal as is and just
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: implement it. It is a it is. It is not
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: going to dilute the product. It will enhance all of
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: these universities. It This is a good thing to do
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: for students. It is a good thing to do for academics.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: It is a good thing to do for recruiting everyday
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: Americans to want to go to school wherever. So it
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: has a net positive across the board for higher education.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: I really believe this, and I just laid out a
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: couple of examples to reinforce this notion. And I know, look,
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: I understand the real cynics. Hey, there's these people that
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: get paid to play college sports aren't even going to class. Yeah,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: there's always going to be those examples, but a lot
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: of this still funnels back to the university and only
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: raises only raises everybody's floor, all right, So without further ado,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: this is the simplest, This is an easy way to
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: implement a ninety six team tournament. So let me give
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: you the structure. It's pretty simple. Four regions, just like
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: we have now currently you have four reasons with what
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: do we do with u sevent essentially seventeen? What do
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: we have with every not every region? So right now
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: it's sixty eight teams. Make it with the first four,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: but we have four regions sixteen plus two, so I
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: guess it's eighteen. That can't be right, excuse me. So
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: basically we're averaging not each region has has the eighteen
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: teams in it, so this current so I know I'm
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: confusing things there. So right now we're six four regions,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: sixteen teams, and then of course we have two round
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: of sixteen playans, so we have six sixteen seeds and
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: six eleven seeds. My proposal would have four regions, twenty
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: four teams in each region, giving new year ninety six teams.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: If you have a seed of one through eight, there's
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: only one team in each of those regions, so eight
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: teams per region, so only so you'll have four to
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: one seeds still four, two seeds, four, eight seeds right
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: all the way one through eight. Four of each seed
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: seeds nine through sixteen in each region would have two
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: teams on that line. There'd be two nine seeds in
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: each region, two ten seeds right sixteen teams seeded nine
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: through sixteen, all who would play each other eight teams
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: seeded one through eight the first round. The playing games
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: would also be done on Tuesday Wednesday, just like they
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: are now with the first four. Right now, they're two
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: games on Tuesday night, two games on Wednesday night. So
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: now in order to have all these nine through sixteen
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: playings in the four regions, you'd have to have thirty
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: two playing games to instead of what we have now,
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: which is four, and you would have sixteen of them
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: on Tuesday and sixteen of them on Wednesday, and still
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: start your tournament one through sixty four on Thursday and
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: the next first round game set of games on Friday.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: So the math is pretty simple. We've already done this
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: now know all these games wouldn't be in Dayton. What
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: you would simply do is whoever the first round host
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: city is, instead of hosting Thursday, Saturday or Friday, Sunday.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: They host Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. So you're
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: cutting down in the travel, right, and you see it everybody.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: And if you're asking right, the one through ninety six, right,
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: all the nine seeds are ahead of all the ten seeds.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: If you're doing the s curve, all the ten seeds
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: are heading eleven seeds. And look, you might make slight
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: adjustments here there to maybe prevent playing game rematches. You know,
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: maybe you can't prevent rematches in the first in the
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: in the in the round of sixty four or the
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: round of thirty two, but you do your best in
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: the round of ninety six to do this. But here's
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: what it would give you. More basketball. We like, more basketball,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: more inventory, more one and donees. Ninety six teams. Look,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: we have it now arguably right. You want to know
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: what the other thirty two teams are. Just go to
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: the nit right, and it would be teams like Auburn.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: Maybe my GW makes it, Maybe they don't. I don't
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: think they do. But Dayton probably gets in, but it
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: probably would, you know, improve you know, the eight ten
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: probably becomes four to five or six bid league. Yeah,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: the SEC maybe becomes a fourteen bid league, twelve bid league.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: Who knows, right, But you give a chance to the
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: mid majors. Yes, the obstacle is higher, there's more inclusivity,
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: there's we have plenty of talent, right. The NBA is
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: expanding while I well, you could argue they have a
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: couple of week franchises now that they ought to probably
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: move rather than add teams, but they can't. They act.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: The reason the NBA is expanding is there's enough talent
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: around the world to fill it, and we're now learning
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: there's enough talent to we have you absolutely the ninety
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: sixth team is no, it would be the same as
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: what you see now with the with the sixteen seeds.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: But take the eighty first team in that thing. The
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: difference between the I'll tell you right now, I think
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: it's Nevada is playing Auburn in an NIT game to
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: I think decide who goes to the NIT semis Nevada is.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: It's probably as competitive as Salute. They could be. You know,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: you could put them in a nine seed or you
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: could say they just you know, weren't quite good enough
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: to get in and be in an eleven seed plan.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: But they're not that far out of it, you know,
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: and they've done better in their conference tournament. They may
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: have ended up as an eleven seed plan. I think
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: when you look at the teams seeded nine through twelve, Okay,
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: in particular, the difference between those sixteen teams and the
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: thirty two teams that are in the NIT is negligible.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: So all you're doing is expanding that pool, and you
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: know what, you're giving shots to these mid majors to
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: do what they're going to do. It gives the mid
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: majors the exposure in a national setting. Everybody makes more money.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: Oh did I leave that part out right? They answered
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: all your questions is money. Sometimes your problems is money.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: Everybody would make more money. You can still go back
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: to the sixty four if you wanted to do that.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: You have the fun little there's just it is only
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: going to be more fan friendly. It will Who cares
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: about the arguments between ninety seven, ninety eight and ninety nine.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: Who's left out right? Nobody cares about those teams at
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: that point anymore. You know, the best teams are getting
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: a shot at this tournament. This tournament is semi random,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: but it does seem the best does flow to the top.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: You're still likely going to have the top conferences dominate
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: the final four when all of a sudden done, but
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: you're given the mid majors more shots, and guess what,
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: more shots on goal mean, more pucks might go into
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: the goal, and you're going to have and it brings
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: back that long shot. It brings back the opportunity of
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: more cinderellas, and at the same time, it gives an
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: advantage to the power conferences because most of them are
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: going to get essentially a first round by so whoever
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: they fail. And yes, sometimes those teams with fresher legs
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: are going to win a first round game. But guess
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: what if you lose a first round game to somebody
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: you're not supposed to lose, you probably weren't gonna win
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: the whole thing anyway, so we've gotten you out of
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: the way anyway. This is the answer. It needs to
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: go to ninety six. It takes more. Look, my goal
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: in all of sports is to take the subject It
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: take as much subjectivity out of the situations as you
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: possibly can. Lee let the committees do seating. This minimizes
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: how much the committee's decide who gets in and who
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: gets out, and you sort of get rid of all
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: of that issue, because once you hit ninety six, you're
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: just not It's that you can have arguments about seeding
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: and who gets to nine seed. Who gets the eight
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: seed becomes really important, right who avoids the first four,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: first two day, you know, the round of ninety six,
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: and who doesn't. That's kind of fun. But I think
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: that this would solve a lot of problem and essentially
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: be ultimately good for everybody. Good for the future of
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: college basketball, good for smaller schools trying to elevate their brands,
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: Good for basketball players who don't feel like they have
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: to go to the super powerful conferences in order to
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: get some attention in the tournament. It might keep people
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: playing closer to home, and it guarantees that you'll always
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: have the best teams and that they that I think
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: ultimately making it towards the end or at least the
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: hottest teams on that front. So there's your answer, give
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: me a ninety sixteen NCAA tournament. I think in some
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: ways nil is demanding it, and the one five years
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: ago I might have argued against it because the quality
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: and that in that distinction from sixty four to ninety
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: six was shit. That's not the case anymore. That's not
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: the case at all. It's just there is a lot
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: more talent out there, a lot more and the entire
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: globe is being recruited now, not just for the pros
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: but for college. It's why the NBA can comfortably add
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: two more fifteen man rosters. The talent is there to
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: do this now. They may not have the right markets.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: Maybe Memphis needs to be they move the Memphis team
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: to Nashville. Maybe New Orleans needs to go to another place,
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: but Seattle and Vegas also are pretty good places to
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: do this. And who knows maybe, And we're getting awfully close.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: As soon as we figure out how to speed up
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: air travel. London and Madrid and Paris are coming, so
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: we know this is going. You know, the talent is there.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: This isn't difficult to do. There is really no logistic
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: barrier here. And with so many media partners out there
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: looking for a piece of the mid March madness action,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: I promise you there's more money to be made too.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: So Charlie Baker, there it is. You don't have to
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: change a thing. There's your proposal. It's all wrapped up
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: in a nice bow. Let's get it implemented in the
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: next couple of years. Today's opening day. It's the most
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: hopeful time of the year. No, I have no clue
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: how the hell I'm supposed to watch the Nats. I
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: know I will figure it out. There's a great article
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: in the Athletic that I would love to tell people about,
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: and they just use the Yankees at an example. If
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: you wanted to guarantee to watch every single Yankee game
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: is going to be available on TV, it would cost
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: you eight hundred dollars in subscriptions between Prime Cable for
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: the S Network, Mlbpete Cock everything that you would have
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: to buy to see every Yanking game. I thought that
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: was a pretty good exercise that they did, essentially about
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: eight hundred bucks to see everything. Hey, MLB, you need
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: to fix this a sep. I have no clue how
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: the hell I'm watching the Nats. I assume I have
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: to pay some fee directly to the Nats of an
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: extra ten bucks a month, whatever it's going to be.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: It's really going to irritate me as a season ticket holder.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: I don't think I should have to pay any extra
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: money to watch them on TV. I think that ought
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: to be a perk of season ticket holders, mister Lerner,
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: that all access to Nats games should be available to
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: season ticket holders. And perhaps you already have that somewhere,
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: maybe you wait for us to ask, but that should
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: be an obvious perk how this whole thing works. It
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: certainly should be, because right now there's no good reason
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: to have season tickets, so in some ways, using access
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: to television coverage as adding that in as a per
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: probably will make it a lot easier to still continue
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: to convince people to buy season ticket packages, because those
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: things matter. So look, I've got two fantasy baseball drafts
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: this weekend, so I'm obviously knee deep in baseball. But
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: I did a fun little thing. I've been going through
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: all the rankings, and I thought, so I used AI.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: I put the top six hundred rankings into Claude, and
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: I said, hey, divide this up by team, so I
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: know which teams have the most, you know, in the
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: top six hundred. And I thought it was a fun
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: little exercise. Well, it is the Dodgers one, the Yankees two,
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: the Cubs three, the Phillies four, and the Mariners five.
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: All of them were playoff teams right six through ten,
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: or the Braves, Mets, Red Sox, in the Guardians and Brewers.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: And it's the next five that I'm the most curious about.
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: And these are the teams because I I don't have
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: a team to root for this year that I know
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: is going to be a playoff team. I'm just hoping
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: the Nationals don't lose Hunter games, all right. I am
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: just you know, please, please, please, please please win sixty
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: three games. That's all I'm asking. They had a couple
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: of seventy one win seasons a couple of years ago.
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: I thought, oh, we're on our way to eighty this point.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: Just give me sixty three. Please don't embarrass us beyond that.
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: And by the way, my god, right, I think it
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: is funny how Dan Schnyder covered up the inequities of
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: sports owners in DC. But he did. But I digress.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: If I were, you know, the dark Corps what I'm
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: interested in. We know, Dodgers, Yankees, Blue Jays, Mariners. That
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: feels that feels like you know, you know, probably Tigers
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: are in there, right, those are your those are your
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: World Series contenders. But sort of the under you know,
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: somebody's going to come from out of nowhere under the
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: radar right was arguably the Mariners in the in the
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: Blue Jay were two of those teams. So the hot
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: under the radar team that I'm pulling for is the Pirates.
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: So I always try to have a young team that
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: I'm pulling for that I love schemes. They have a
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: really young team. I love the history of the Pirates.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: I love that community. As you know. Dynastic my new
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: sports history podcast with Ja Donde, our first episodes about
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: the Dodgers, or second episode is gonna be about Pittsburgh Steelers.
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: But before they were the Steelers, the most successful Pittsburgh
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: franchise was the Pirates. It's been a debacle the last
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: forty years, but it was, you know, up until Barry
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: Bonds left, it was the Pirates were consistently one of
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: the better franchises in baseball. I certainly hope this is
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: a year that they do because I think if they
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: can get to the playoffs, then those owners will finally
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: spend some money and then maybe the Pirates can can
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: behave and like a major market team. But the team's
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: the sort of I'm going to be, Look, I'm going
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: to be sort of you know rooting for the Orioles.
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: They're in the region. They have all the talent in
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: the world. I have way too many Adlie Rushman rookie
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: cards that I can't get rid of. So I'd really
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: love to see him h get his uh, get get
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: his get his mojo back. We'll see if he does,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: because he's got some motivation. There's a catcher behind him,
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: Sam Bassalo, I believe his name, who who could overtake him?
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: But that's sort of the fun to me. For this season,
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: we know who the top teams are going to be.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: Who's a team we're not expecting that's going to break through? Right?
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: And my candidates are Oriols, Royals, the hated San Francisco Giants.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: I'm a former Dodger fan, I still hate the Giants,
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to go with the Sacramento as this
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: is their last year in that bandbox park, so they're
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: going to have I mean, I love the A's is.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: Anytime you need a fantasy hit or just grab an A,
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: grab a Sacramento A because they're going to hit more
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: homers than they should. Right last year, I was all
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: over Jacob Wilson one dollar shortstop turned out to be
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: brilliant near Rookie of the Year Nick Kurtz is on
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: that team. So those are my dark horses. But I'm
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: just excited about having baseball back because there's nothing like
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: what I love is coming. You're done with the day, Yeah,
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: you have your relaxation drink, whatever your choice is. If
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: you're gonna get sold, you get sold. If you're gonna
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: get glass of red wine, you do that, and you
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: put on the ballgame. Now. Of course, we just have
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: to figure out where the hell we find the ball
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: games this year. But when we find them, that rhythm,
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: the evening rhythm nice to an hour and twenty minute game,
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: I love it. So like my big hope, Nationals have
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: to go one to know so I have one happy
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: day in baseball this year, all right. First question comes
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: from Steve Vernon Hills, Illinois, and he says, ah, he's
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: writing in reaction to my top five all time Illinois
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: statewide campaigns, and he writes, Hey, the eighty six cover
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: race with Adelaie the third deserves to be on the list.
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: As an Adelaie fan since nineteen seventy, I banged on
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: doors for his first Sennic campaign in high school it
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: was especially painful. I suppose the Lincoln Douglas eighteen fifty
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: eight campaign needs to be number one. You're not the
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: only one that asked me about eighteen fifty eight. I'll
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: get to it in a minute. Best debates and it
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: made a president. Love the podcast, but almost too much.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: Don't have time for out Frankins anymore, and I'm retired.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: Oh hey, Al, I don't know if you still listen.
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: Franken and I were supposed to do a home and
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: own way in our pods, and I think we're going
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: to hopefully get that done soon. But now, don't make
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: don't make Al. I'm unhappy, but you know I appreciate
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: that I'm the lead pod for either. Let me tell
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: you why I didn't include eighteen fifty eight and why
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: I just I just made this decision when I put
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: the research together for the book. I told you this
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: was research I did for a book about thirty years ago,
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: and I just decided not to include any campaigns that
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: were not resolved by the voters. Right, And the eighteen
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: fifty eight Senate campaign, Yes, it's the Lincoln Douglas debates.
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: So it's it's it's iconic and maybe because of that,
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: it should. If there is an exception, that would be
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: the loan exception. But it was simply because it's a
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: campaign that the state legislature, right, because Lincoln won the campaign,
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: but he didn't, right, you know, I mean, yes, the
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: debates mattered, the right that mattered in some ways more
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: than the result itself. But a very very very fair
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: question to ask you weren't the only one, and I
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: was glad to get that. So that's why I didn't
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: include it. But you know, I already made one exception
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: of Illinois to include a presidential where I don't want
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: to include any presidential but that one felt iconic because
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: it's been used. It's been so weaponized in our politics
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: to this day. Next question comes from Josh P. You're
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: right to really enjoying your podcast. Thank you for all
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: the hard work involved. I meet the press this morning.
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: Referring to March twenty second, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson told
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: Kristen Welker, we are energy self sufficient. We get an
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: oil from the Strait of Hormuz. If this is true,
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: why have our gas prices risen a dollar or more
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: since we started bombing around? Thank you, Josh B. Well,
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: I think you know the answer, the markets of the
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: markets and that, and it's you know, when twenty percent
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: of you know, yes, where do we get our oil?
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: We get our oil more from you know, we are
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: more energy independent than we even were thirty years ago.
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: But twenty percent of the world, particularly Asia, gets it from.
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: And when you start right, it just raises it. It's
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: a market, right when you suddenly deny supply in one
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: part of the world, then people start looking where there
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: is supply and they start bidding it up because they're
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: desperate for it. So are you know, unless we decided
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: to pipulate our market or have state you know, this
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: is where you would have state controls and stuff. I
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: don't think anybody would be in favor of that. So
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: it is all Scott Bessett and essentially was making the
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: case for us that our economy isn't going to crater
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: because we don't get and that is true. But we're
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: all going to get taxed on this, and essentially we're
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: all going to pay an extra fee for the inability
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: of oil to get through the straight of horm moves
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: to Asia. So it's just you know, there's there, you know,
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: unless when you want price controls on this from the government,
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: which I think long term nobody would want to see
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: that happen. Next question comes from Donovan from Maryland. He says, Hey, Chuck,
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: huge fan of the podcast, looking forward to the commander
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: getting a solid draft pick next month. M it's all
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: about Jeremiah Love, right, that's all the new draft experts
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: are going there if you believe that the commanders don't
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: need it, offensive Lineman, I'd love to see Jeremiah Love
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: on that team anyway. Many Americans feel that national politics
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: has become so dominant that it drowns out the local
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: officials who actually shape our daily lives, our mayor's county, executive,
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: state legislatures. How do you think constituents can actively work
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: to rebalance that power dynamic so that Washington handles the
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: big picture issues like defense, trade, and foreign policy, while
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: local leaders are empowered to address the issues that directly
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: affect our communities. Well, look, I think this is this
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: is an incredible great question. What I love about it
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: is that it's going to allow me to rant about
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: the loss of local media, because ultimately that's the issue.
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: So I think this is a couple things have happened right,
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: you got rid of right. A man named Craig decided
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: classifies out to be free. YadA, YadA YadA. We suddenly
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: had no more local news. And what happens is when
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: you don't have anybody covering locally, when local residents are
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: upset about something happening locally, they're none from they're not
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: familiar with who their local officials are because there's nothing
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: to follow locally, so they're more likely to know who
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: the national officials are or who their congressional officials are,
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: so they end up gravitating towards the federal office holders,
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: towards the names they know, towards their senators or congressman.
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: Because I hear this, you know, you get I teach
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: these these you know, I usually have these students that
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: I teach at. You see a lot of them are
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: interns on the hill, and they're basically they're they're they're
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: the first line of defense, meaning they're answering the phones
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: and they'll get a lot of questions sometimes that have
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with congressional with federal policy, but their
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: complaints about something happening locally that they didn't know how
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: who else to call. So you have that issue. Right,
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: you got out local news and it and it, and
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: you have a less informed local community who doesn't know
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: why certain things are happening. There's a great academic study,
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: by the way, I believe it came out of Stanford
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: that noted that that when local news organizations disappear, essentially
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: within a couple of years, that community tax bill goes up.
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: Essentially when you get rid of the local watchdog government
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: Fiji to death, and they can sneak in stuff because
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: nobody notices. All of a sudden, You're like, huh, there's
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: now a fee to do what. They just added a
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: new recycling fee. And my bill here, they did this
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: to my water bill. They did all these little thing
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: and you're like, and you know, it's a five percent
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: surcharge here, three percent surcharge there. Things that if somebody
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: knew about it, there might be enough people upset about
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: it that there'd be enough of a ground swell that
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: the local politician, the local city councilman, the local mayri, etc.
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: Would say, better not do this. But there is a
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: direct correlation between the lack of local news and government
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: essentially abusing its residents with more tax and fee hikes
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: and I think that is the and that and that
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: gets at to the core of the of the what
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: your folk, which is you're right, I think that it is.
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: I guess my diagnosis is when you lose local news,
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: you you deny the population essentially access to who all
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: of their government officials are. And the irony is that
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: a local elected official has more direct impact on the
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: cost of you of your life financially than a member
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: of Congress does, or a US Senator does, or frankly
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: even a president. And you know, because you know, one
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: of your biggest bills that you pay every year is
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: your property tax bill. Well, that's usually decided by a
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: county official, a county executive or sometimes city that's a
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: big deal, right, Your state income tax, your state fees,
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: you know, all the things, all the little things, you know,
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: whether it's to register your dog, whether it's to you know,
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: get a permit to put up a fence. Right, all
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: of this is money you pay to your local government directly.
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: So you interact more with government that are impacted by
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: people that are elected within county districts or city districts
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: than you are with government that's elected between congressional districts
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: or statewide, and I think that that Unfortunately, I think
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: have we always over indexed on covering federal and national
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: politics at least this century, we have. I think that
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: was the biggest nine to eleven effect. I know this
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: is a weird way of saying of invoking that, but
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: you know, nine to eleven really also was an accelerant
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: to nationalizing all news, including local news became sort of
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: derivative of national news because it was like we were
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: in the sh shared you know, the shared environment. So
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: it's just the nationalization of news consumption really sort of
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: arguably really accelerated right after nine to eleven, And you know,
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: I think that we need to really sort of that's
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: that's where my that's what little the efforts I've been
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: trying to make. Remember Local News Day is April ninth.
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: We basically an awareness day. Is the more people get
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: back to following finding ways to follow local news, the
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: more they're going to realize how much more their lives
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: are impacted by these local officials, as you point on, Tonovan,
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: So terrific question, Thank you for it. Next question comes
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: from Sean King, Colorado. Shaan asked, now, with Christy Nome
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: being kicked to the curb, I was wondering if she
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: has or had ambitions to run for president twenty twenty eight.
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: I got the impression that with all our ads, the
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: DHS and taxpayers paid for, it was more than just
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: educating people on immigration and airport security, but positioning herself
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: so that she could draw interest as a candidate. I
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: mean seeing her wear DHS caps, cowboy hats, and riding
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: horses during her commercial strut, that she was trying to
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: brand herself as a badass woman. Did you get that impression?
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: And do you think that now she's out of Trump's orbit,
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: she may have squandered her chances? Love your podcast, keeping
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: coming uh Man one thousand percent. I mean there's no doubt.
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: You know, Corey Lewandowski, who was her chief political aid,
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: and some would argue more than just a chief political aid,
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: was absolutely as somebody who was the first campaign manager
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: for Donald Trump. You know, he was also the chief
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: advocate of Christy Nome to be Donald Trump's running in
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. In fact, he made no secret he
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: had gotten polling con done and he shared it with me,
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: and he shared it with a lot of reporters. In
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, that showed he had polling that showed
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: Christy Nome adding more a Trump Nome ticket performing better
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: against Harris than a Trump Ban's ticket. So he absolutely
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: this was always about that. There was some chatter that
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: maybe she'd primary Mike Rounds, who's up for reelection this
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: cycle in twenty twenty six. I believe that's not going
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: to happen, and especially the way she was kicked to
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: the curb, and it's all, you know, he gave her
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: a job member, he moved her. Technically she's got some
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: made up job that he created about the Western hemisphere.
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: I think that was just designed to not have her
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: wandering around unemployed talking trash about the Trump administration or
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: Stephen Miller or others to reporters. So I do think
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: her presidential ambitions are derailed. But I will tell you this,
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: if John Thune decides not to seek reelection in twenty
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: twenty eight, and I will say this, I have no
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: reason to think that he's not going to seek reelection.
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: But if Senate, if the Democrats won the Senate and
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: Thune's and it somehow costs them and his leadership post
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: after the twenty six midterms, then I don't think he
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: seeks election twenty eight, then I would say that's the
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: most likely landing spot for her would be the US
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: Senate in an open seat if John Thune chose not
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: to run in twenty eight. But look, I think she
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: wants to run for president. I think she has that ambition.
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: I just think that the realistic paths are blocked for her,
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: and I think if she is, if she wins office
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty eight, it's more likely to be an
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: open US Senate seat in South Dakota than it is
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: an open presidential seat in a national election. All right,
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: next question, Robert r. He says, like your podcast and
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: the new one as well, excellent dynastic. Check it out
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: with Jayadne. Also, we tried wild Grain and are now
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: going to subscribe. Man Hey, wild Grain. Look at that.
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: The Code People product is great. Appreciate your comments on it.
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: You're like Shack endorsed things, endorsed things you use, dorse
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: things you use. Question do you think trumble in vader
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: Ron Robert r H. Yes, you're right. I am more
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: comfortable it has always been. You know, Look, I am
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: I am not naive to how the business of independent
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: media works. I'm not shy. I'm a capitalist. I am
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: uh there. You know. I I'm not going to let
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: crooks sponsor me. I'm not going to let unethical people
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: sponsor me. But you know, I I hope you know.
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to guarantee that every sponsor I have
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: is a sponsor I use, is a product I use.
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: But we do we do our best event these folks,
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: that's for sure. Well Trump Vada ran, Well that was
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: I guess in some ways you're you're asking a question
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: that I left you an open answer at the start
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: of this podcast. Right, I think it's more likely that
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: there are some boots on the ground to deal with
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: the straight of Hormos than him completely pulling out. If
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: you were to ask me, which is more likely now?
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: I think we will. We will having debates whether what
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: he does is an invasion or not. Is it boots
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: on the ground or is it simply boots on the
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: straight of coastline, on the straight of Hormoz, right like
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: that sort of business. I think that's it is. Do
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: I think we're going to be marching on the streets
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: of Tehran? I do not, But I think the likelihood
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: that there are American boots in Iranian territory is pretty high.
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: So I guess if I could draw that distinction know
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: in Tehran, Yes, on the coast near the Strait of Hormuz.
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: Next question comes from Mike and Honolulu. He says, I
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: really appreciate the comments and how the Iran War continues
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: to unravel and demonstrate strained, if not damaged, relationships with
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: allies and what feels like a low attention of decades
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: to decades of scenario planning in the region. Also saw
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal coverage of the American Board Citizen one
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: Carlos Valencia Gonzales taking over Mexico's most powerful drug cartel,
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: and so wondering how degraded our intelligence community is and
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: who is advising the administration on probable outcomes that have
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: a far reaching impact things for your work, Mike Honolulu, Well, Mike,
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: I have a bigger problem in the intel community, and
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to I don't want to be careful.
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: I don't want to get any of my sources in
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: trouble on this. But it's pretty clear to me that
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: we have two things simultaneously happening in the intelligence community
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: at the moment. Number one is they do not paint
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: the full picture for this president. Whether it's because they
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: don't want to tell them things he doesn't want to hear,
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: I think that's most likely the reason. When you look
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: at Tulsa Gabbert, John Radcliffe. Ratcliffe at the CIA, Gabbard's
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: at DNI, these are two people who do not want
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: to be in it, you know, who are more accustomed
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: to telling they got to where they got because they
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: tell Trump what he wants to hear. So you have
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: that issue issue too within the IC, meaning the intelligence community,
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: is you have professionals who've been there for decades, worked
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: sources for decades, who don't trust the political leaders in
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: charge of their departments. I think that they follow the
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: law and they report what they believe they need to
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: report to their superiors. But I think that if you
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: told me that they're not getting the best work because
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: of the lack of trust, because their fear that their
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: sources will get exposed for the wrong reason. So I
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: just mike concern, and I have more than just speculative
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: concern about this. I'm just going to leave it at that.
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: My concern is that that we've had that the fault
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: that you've had the following impact on intelligence gathering. It's
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: clear Trump is seen as an irresponsible actor when it
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: comes to intelligence. He shares it with everybody. He doesn't
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: respect classifications. Right, it is, he is a he is
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: a and he uses no secure phones. He's just a
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: he is a he is just a walking target. You know,
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: every single major intelligence agency that is semi adversarial, and
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: some who are friendly have access or ties to Trump,
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: both electronically or literally bought people off inside his circle.
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: You know, it is it is so you have that issue.
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: So what does that mean? What it means is the
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: strength of the American intelligence community has been its sources
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: in other countries and its relationships. We have the best
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: intelligence agencies in the globe. And part of it is
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: because we work in tandem with so many other excellent
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: intelligence agencies, whether it's with the UK you have the
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: five IYES program, Canada, UK, New Zealand, Australia, You've got MASAD.
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: You know, but you know these other intelligence agencies that
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: we rely on for a lot of our work. You know,
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: it's not just what we do, it's some shared with
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: Key Alive. They're well aware that Donald Trump's a leeker.
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: They're well aware that there are way too many rogue
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: actors who have classified security clearances who can't be trusted,
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: and so it's just what you what you have is
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: a slow it's sort of a slow motion train wreck. Right.
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: It starts with our own rank and file being skeptical.
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: Right at first, it starts with the cycle. Right, you
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: have the people in charge who brief the president, who
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: are slightly sycophanic and already or curating that. I mean,
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: my god, they have to make a video of him
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: every day to show them Iran war. They can't give
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: him a verbal briefing. They have to show him pictures.
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: I'll let you make your joke about that. So it
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: begins there, right, Gabbert and Ratcliffe aren't going to tell
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: him bad news. Ratcliffe and Gabbert aren't going to get
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: the professional They're getting a limited view from their rank
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: and file because their rank and file want to protect
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: their sources, and so there's some limitations of what's making
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: its way to them. Then are professional can file Their
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: counterparts are also withholding from them, Maybe not because they
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: don't trust their American counterpart, but they don't trust what
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: happens once that intelligence makes it into the American system.
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: So you tell me, I am you know if, of
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: course we're missing things left and right in this administration
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: because I don't believe the intelligence community. Do I believe
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: we still have the ability to have world class intelligence
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: and know exactly what the hell's going on all over
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: the world. Yeah, goddamn right, I do. But when you
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: look at all the different choke points that likely limit
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: important information getting to the commander in chief, sometimes intentionally,
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: other times unintentionally, you see where this becomes a problem.
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: So is it a shock to me that we're kind
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: of blindsided, whether it's about an American taken over a cartel,
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: we're not one hundred percent sure of that, or you know,
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: us not knowing you know, the fact that she's family
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: members have family members that live in the United States
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: and seems to be something our intelligence community is not
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: that interested in. Anyway. I throw all this out there.
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: It's a terrific question, but it's something that really concerns me.
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: And if you told me we're going it is, the
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: likelihood that we get blindsided by some attack somewhere has
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: never been higher. And it's because we've alienated allies, We've
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: created distrust and they're sort of built in skepticism, and
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: we know this president doesn't trust the intelligence community anyway,
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: so you throw I mean, they could give him all
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: the briefings in the world, and he may not accept
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: the premise because he thinks they're all secretly out to
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: get him anyway. So put all that together and you
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: draw your conclusions. Do you think the president's getting the
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: best intelligence briefings that are to be gotten? I think
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: we know the answer. Next question comes from Brandon Ce.
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: I'm all enough to remember the nineteen ninety four midterms
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: and the Republican Contract with America, and since then control
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: of Congress has one back and forth quite a bit.
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: Given the lack of a clear democratic policy alternative to
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: mega style conservatism right now, do you think Democrats could
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: benefit from putting forward a similar platform ahead of an election,
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: and if so, what kinds of policies would actually be
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: most politically effective to include? You know, Brandon, I hope
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: you listen to the Johnny oh interview. He basically offered
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: up something like this that he, you know, I said,
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: when you know that there needs to be some tangible ways,
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: you know, And he seems to be somebody that doesn't
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: want to just make it all about Trump if they
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: get power back that instead it's you know, it's sort
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: of an agenda that is bills you could pass in
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: the moment that may be Trump signs, and then bills
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: that you're essentially setting up to be the twenty twenty
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: eight platform to take through the American people for I
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: don't know, call it project twenty twenty nine, right if
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: Democrats think they're going to get the trifective by them.
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: But I do think some sort of clear agenda, But
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's going to be possible, because
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: I think you're going to have some Democrats running hard
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: on Trump, hard on accountability of Trump, hard on We're
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: going to you know, feat the the fire all that business,
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: impeached Bondy, impeach Trump and peach this and beach that.
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: I do think you're going to have some Democrats that
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: they are not a majority of the candidate's running, but
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: enough that it kind of comes up the messaging like
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: I don't think you're going to have And I might
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: argue that this party because it goes back to my
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: opening monologue in today's episode, that I think you have
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: a party that that you know, the establishment's not trusted.
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: So if they put out some sort of contract, would
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: it be embraced or would it be seen as why
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: is Washington trying to tell us what to do with
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: the voters these days? Right? So I just don't know
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: if it's if it's organizable. I mean, do I think
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: it would be smart to have, you know, twenty six?
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: You know, here's twenty six is probably too many. I
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: remember Democrats said something six and oh six. You know,
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: you know you could do eight and eighteen, right, I
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: guess you could do six and twenty six, or you
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: could do twenty six bills if you wanted. But some
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: sort of tangible pledge. Maybe it's just maybe it's on
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: social media, something on social media and tech, on jobs,
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: something on cost of living, something on accountability. Maybe you know,
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: he's obviously wanting to see a vote on the pardon amendment, right,
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: you know, an accountability that's more institutional rather than personal.
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: So I think, you know, a combination of ethics, cost
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: of living, and democratic infrastructure, you know, have sort of
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: a pledge, pledge on that it certainly wouldn't hurt. But
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: I guess I'm skeptical this party is organizable right now,
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: around something like that. I think what Graham Platner wants
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: to see, who maybe the nominee in Maine, is different
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: than what Tallerica wants to see, is different than what say,
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: Zach Walls or Josh Turkell in I won't want to see.
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: So I think that I think that would be too difficult.
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: All right, I'm going to stop here. I went long
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: on this episode. If you're listening to it, Soup the Nuts,
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: it's a long one way. It's the weekend episode, so
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: you have an extra day or two to listen to it.
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: Enjoy the opening. Enjoy, and we are spoiled right now.
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: We've got great basketball and opening weekend in baseball. Enjoy.
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: Hope the weather cooperates