Latest / Pod Save America / How Many Nobel Prizes Can Trump Win?

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How Many Nobel Prizes Can Trump Win? · Pod Save America

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• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau.
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Packed show today, Dan. Liberation Day Part 3 is upon us,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: and we're officially on Taco Watch.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: Fuck my life.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: We'll also talk about Trump and Republicans getting mad at
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Josh Hawley over trying to ban stock trading in Congress
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: and in the White House. Trump volunteering creepy new details
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: about Epstein recruiting girls at Mar-a-Lago. Stephen Miller's ad campaign
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: for his secret police force. Democrats getting ready to fight
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: back on redistricting and Kamala Harris's big announcements about the
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: California governor's race in her new book. Then you'll hear
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Tommy's conversation with Colorado Congressman Jason Crow, who happens to
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: be in charge of recruiting House candidates today. for 2026.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: But let's start with some news on the rapidly changing
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: politics around the war in Gaza. On Wednesday night, for
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the very first time, a majority of Senate Democrats voted
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: for Bernie Sanders' proposal to block the sale of $ 675
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: million worth of U.S. bombs and guns to Israel. Among
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: the 27 Democrats voting yes were senior establishment types and
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: longtime supporters of Israel like Jeanne Shaheen, Jack Reed, Patty Murray,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: and Dick Durbin, who said, quote, For many of us
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: who have devoted our congressional careers to supporting Israel, it
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: is impossible to really explain or defend what is going
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: on today. Gaza is starving and dying because of the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: policies of Bibi Netanyahu. There's also growing opposition on the
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: right from Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massey in Congress
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: to media types like Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and a
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: lot of the younger MAGA influencers. New polling from Gallup
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: shows that just 32% of Americans support now support Israel's
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: military action in Gaza. That is an all-time low that
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: includes just 8% of Democrats and 25% of independents. Netanyahu's
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: favorability is at 2952, his worst ever. The Trump administration
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: seems to be getting the message, kind of. Special Envoy
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Steve Witkoff traveled to Jerusalem Friday to meet with Netanyahu,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: presumably to press him on a ceasefire and to let
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: in more aid. The administration also announced new sanctions on
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Palestinian political leadership. And Trump did write on Truth Social, quote,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: the fastest way to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: is for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages. I'll
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: also note that according to the Associated Press, in just
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: the last 24 hours before this recording, at least 91
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Palestinians have been killed and more than 600 have been
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: injured while trying to get food, which is still just
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: trickling into Gaza. Dan, what do you make of the
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: shifting politics on Gaza among elected Democrats?
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: Before I get to that, I just want to say
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: that I thought the conversation that you and Tommy and
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: Lovett had about this on the Tuesday podcast was one
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: of the best ones we've had on this podcast.
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: It was.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think Twitter agreed, but that's okay.
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: That proves my point. I thought it was just powerful,
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: emotionally resonant. It was smart. You could feel... the anguish
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: that you guys felt about what's happening in Gaza to
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: the people there, and certainly the children there, and your
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: rage against the way the conversation about this was happening.
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: I just thought it was very powerful. And I just
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: want to say, I certainly share your anguish that it
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: is impossible to not think about, impossible to imagine children
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: or anyone dying that way in such a preventable way.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: And your rage at what is, at how this conversation
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: is happening, that there are people who can look at
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  Speaker 4: starving children with trucks of food, not that many miles away,
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  Speaker 4: and not think that the first thing you do is
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: figure out how to save those children. There is like,
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: you guys went through this, but there's, you can debate
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: and have a conversation about who, what policies got us here,
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: who was responsible for this, what role Hamas plays, and
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: certainly stipulating that Hamas is a terrorist organization who committed
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: just atrocities on October 7th and many times. But it
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: is also very clear that Israel can do more to
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  Speaker 4: help people. They have the power to do it. And
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: just in watching the conversation, the thing I'd say is
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  Speaker 4: there's nothing wrong with holding a US ally like Israel
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  Speaker 4: to a higher center than Hamas. And that's all that
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  Speaker 4: you guys are doing. That's all that these Senate Democrats
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: are doing. On the politics, which does feel very pedantic
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  Speaker 4: to talk about in this moment, but on this vote,
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  Speaker 4: if you think about the more than a half century
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  Speaker 4: of near bipartisan unanimity on Israel, and particularly military support
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  Speaker 4: for Israel, these were must-passed bills that always went through
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  Speaker 4: with just rubber stamp through. So the fact that half
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  Speaker 4: of the Democratic caucus voted against it is shocking. But
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  Speaker 4: then when you think about what's happening in Israel, and
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  Speaker 4: you look at the polling that you cited that 8%
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  Speaker 4: of Democrats approve what Israel is doing there, it's shocking
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  Speaker 4: that the other half voted for it, right? And the
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  Speaker 4: politics are moving here in one direction. And I think
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  Speaker 4: it is because of Netanyahu, it's because of what is
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  Speaker 4: happening in Gaza, and that there is a place for
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  Speaker 4: people to come back if Netanyahu were to go, or
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  Speaker 4: you saw a different approach from Israel in Gaza or
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: anything else. But right now, I think this is the beginning,
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: not the end of a fundamental shift in politics in
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  Speaker 4: the Democratic Party.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I was personally surprised to see that many
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Democratic senators vote with Bernie, pleasantly surprised particularly in light
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: of the conversation we.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Had just had.
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  Speaker 1: And, you know, we got a lot of people, obviously,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: I sort of made a half joke about Twitter, but,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: you know, people we know, we're friends with, have been
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: talking to us since then, and people who are very
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: supportive of Israel. And one thing I've noticed is it really,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: it is very hard to bridge the two realities that
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I think some people in good faith have believe. And
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  Speaker 1: the challenge here is, you know, I remember since the beginning,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: since right after October 7th, you know, there was, you
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: can't trust the Gaza health ministry because that's Hamas. And
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  Speaker 1: so you can't trust the numbers that are there, but
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  Speaker 1: it's like at some point we've reached a point now
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  Speaker 1: where you've got, you know, Israeli Holocaust scholars calling it
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: a genocide, Israeli human rights organizations. It's at the top
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: organizations calling it a genocide. You've got like this this U.S.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Green Beret, Purple Heart, who fought ISIS and the Taliban,
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  Speaker 1: and he's telling his story. But every time someone comes
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  Speaker 1: out and tries to offer evidence that this is happening,
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  Speaker 1: that there's slaughter, that Israel is not upholding international law,
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  Speaker 1: there's always some ready excuse, right? Which is like, oh, well,
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  Speaker 1: the Green Beret, he was fired, and so we shouldn't
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  Speaker 1: trust him. And well, that's just the Gaza health ministry
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: saying that. And there's always like some reason that we're
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: not supposed to trust the reporting, what we're seeing with
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  Speaker 1: our own eyes on the ground. And I just like,
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  Speaker 1: I guess we could all say that we only, we
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  Speaker 1: will only believe the Israeli defense forces and the Israeli government.
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  Speaker 1: But I don't know why anyone should be satisfied with
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: only believing that, even though there are plenty of international organizations, Israelis,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Israeli press, other reporters, international reporters, humanitarian organizations, the U.N.,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know how many other sources of information we
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: could have before people who just believe that we should
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: continue the course that we're on and give BBNet and
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Yahoo a blank check. I don't know how many more
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: sources of information we could have that are more credible
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: before people can say, oh, maybe, maybe what I've been
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  Speaker 1: thinking the whole time isn't quite right. Maybe Israel is
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: at fault here, or at least much more. at fault
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: than I previously thought. Like I just, it's really tough.
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  Speaker 1: And like, yes, Hamas is a terrorist organization. And you know,
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  Speaker 1: Trump's truth about this, like, you know, Hamas could release
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  Speaker 1: the hostage and end this. I read that and I'm like, again,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: do you think Hamas is like reading social media And
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Hamas is, like, who are, like, trapped in a tunnel somewhere,
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  Speaker 1: fucking cowards in a tunnel. Don't give a shit about
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: the Palestinian people. Don't give a shit about Israelis. Don't
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: give a shit about human life. You think they're going
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: to be like, oh, well, people are calling on us
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: to release the hostages, so I guess we'll end the
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: war now because there's been more pressure. Like, they're a
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: fucking terrorist organization. That's what they do. And so, like,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I understand that, like, how evil Hamas is. Like,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: of course I understand that. But we don't fund Hamas.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: We don't send checks to Hamas. We don't do weapons
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: sales with Hamas. We do it with Israel. And so
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: we have some leverage over Israeli policy as Americans. And
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: it's our tax dollars that are going to a government
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: that is causing this death and causing this starvation. So
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: But I do think like, look, I mean, and you
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: were there for this. I think back a lot to
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: just from the political side of it, the Iraq war.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: And at the time, how many Democrats were like, sure,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: we're going to vote for the authorization in Iraq. And
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: then everyone regretted their decision later. And now everyone looks
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: back on it. And even the people who were very
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: in favor of the Iraq war were like, oh, yeah,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: obviously it was a catastrophe. Well, OK, obviously it was
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: a catastrophe. Did we look back and think about what
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: lessons we've learned? And are we going to apply those
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: lessons moving forward? And obviously, you know, there are a
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: million ways these conflicts are different. But I just think
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: from the political side, of course it is uncomfortable to
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: be called a terrorist sympathizer, to be called weak, to
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: be saying that you don't want to stand up for
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: allies or that you're, you know, and I get that,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: but like, you know, I'm at least, I'm proud of
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the 27 Democrats who were willing to take that vote.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: And all I'll say about the Democrats who voted no is,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: you know, I hope they get there and I hope
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Republicans get there too. And I hope we can keep
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: persuading them. And this is not, you know, some people
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: were saying like, Is this a litmus test you guys
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: are having now? Are you driving people out of the party?
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: It's not that at all. It's like, this is what
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: I believe should happen. And that's my view. And I
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: also understand that this is a big tent party and
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: it's going to have people with different views. But I
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: think if our goal is to end the war and
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: our goal is to save lives, then our job is
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: to say what we believe and try to persuade people
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: to think that.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: Exactly right.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: You know, how do you think Trump sees this? And
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: do you have any hope that pressure from his base
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: that is growing is leads him to take a tougher
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: stance with Bibi?
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: I worry that Trump obviously does not understand what's happening.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: He is reacting to, as you guys talked about on Tuesday,
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: he's reacting to the images he sees on TV. One
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: day he'll hear from Marjorie Taylor Greene and think they
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: should do one thing, and then he'll hear from the,
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: you know, in that poll, it is 70-some percent, I think,
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: of Republicans who support Israel's actions in Gaza. He can
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: go the other way. no matter what he believes, what
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: I worry about, even if we were, he were to
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: be convinced that the right thing to do for whatever reason,
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: political moral was to pressure BB to do something different here.
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: I worry that BB is both tougher and smarter than Trump.
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: And then it'll take one phone call for him to
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: just fold. And then where Trump will end up is
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: someplace even worse. Like just finish it faster and get
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: these things off TV.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I worry about that too. He doesn't have, he, he,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: he both doesn't understand the situation and he's not a
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: details guy. And he has the attention span of his
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: favorite platform. And so he moves on to the next thing.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: And so unless something's in his face, I worry about
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: that as well. Before we move up this, you should
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: check out the Pod Save America YouTube channel because Tommy
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: just hosted a debate this week between our friend Mehdi
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Hassan and Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street about how Democrats
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: should approach Israel going forward. And it was a great conversation.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: It's very much worth a watch. So check out the
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America YouTube channel for that. All right, so
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: this episode is out on Friday, August 1st, also known
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: as Trump's self-imposed, off-delayed deadline to set tariff rates with
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the rest of the world, also known as Liberation Day
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Part 3, The Final Reckoning. Trump said on Wednesday that
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: this time, he really means it, the deadline will not
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: be extended, no taco. And then on Thursday... He announced
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: a 90-day extension for Mexico. There's only been a handful
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: of other deals, most of them very light on details.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: All of them include new permanent taxes of anywhere from
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: 15% to 50%, maybe higher, who knows when we get
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: the final numbers, on the stuff we buy from overseas,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: paid for by some combination of American companies and American consumers.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Those new taxes, along with rising inflation that's been ticking
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: back up again, are why the Fed announced this week
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: that they will not be cutting interest rates, earning Jerome
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Powell another Trump tirade on Truth Social, in which the
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: president called his Fed share stupid, among other things. Nevertheless,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: White House trade advisor Peter Navarro believes that starting a
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: global trade war that will lead to higher prices deserves
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: global recognition. Here he is on Fox.
• 15:25
  Speaker 6: A lot of people, Maria, talk about Donald Trump for
• 15:28
  Speaker 6: the Peace Prize, the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm thinking that
• 15:32
  Speaker 6: since he's basically taught the world trade economics, he might
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: be up for the Nobel on economics.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: All right, here's the question. Can one person win the
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Nobel Prize for Peace and Economics in the same year?
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: Well, John, I did a little research today. I wanted
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: to see if it was possible for Trump to win
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: not one, not two, but three Nobel Prizes. Because I
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: thought he might have a chance at a Nobel Prize
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: for art for his naked girl pubic hair signature.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: For the pube drawing, yeah.
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, for Jeffrey Epstein. Alas, there is no Nobel Prize
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: for visual art. So he will have to settle for
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: these two Nobel Prizes.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: It is incredible that they think he's the one teaching
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: the world about economics as he has... being the leader
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: of the wealthiest economy in the world, just dragged the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: entire rest of the world through this trade war that
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: is just going to hurt everyone. Us, them, the whole
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: world just gets a little dent in economic growth because
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: of Trump's trade war.
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: Did you see Caroline Levitt's very desperate plea for Trump
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: to get the Nobel Prize today at the briefing?
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: No, I missed that.
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: She basically argued that he has negotiated a trade deal
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: or a peace deal every month since being president.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Where was the peace deal? Is it in Gaza?
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Is it in Ukraine?
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: He takes a lot of credit for the India-Pakistan situation.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. No, I'm sure.
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: Iran, obviously, there's a very peaceful resolution there.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Very peaceful there, yeah.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: No, he's really nailed it.
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: It is just so funny that MAGA is turning the
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: Nobel Peace Prize into a participation trophy.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: And how many of them know it's just a couple
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Norwegians just sitting in Oslo, just trying to figure this out,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: who are not... I bet they're not MAGA, but who knows?
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Who knows?
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: You just don't know these days.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the trade war and Liberation Day or
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: whatever the fuck we're calling this. Once we are past
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: this August 1st deadline and the trade war news recedes
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: from the headlines, how much do you think Democrats should
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: focus on tariffs in the lead up to the midterms
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: next year?
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: I think we need a narrative. I want to be
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: very clear. I'm about to offer a stage direction. These
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: are not words I want people to say.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: This is what we have to say now.
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: This is important.
• 17:48
  Speaker 7: The.
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: The broader narrative is that Trump, because of Epstein, his
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: crypto scams, his billion-dollar free jet, the golf courses he's
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: building all over the world, the tax cut for all
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: of his friends, is part of the corrupt political system
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: that is raising your costs, making your life harder. And
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: then a data point underneath that narrative is... costs, right?
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: There's a poll out on Thursday from the Century Foundation,
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: which found that 83% of people think that, believe that
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: the cost of eating dinner has gone up. And you
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: see that in all the data. People believe prices have
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: gone up because they have gone up. Partially because of inflation,
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: partially because of Trump. But Trump promised he was going
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: to reduce your costs. And he hasn't done it. He's
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: made them worse. And even worse than that is that
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: he is, he raised your costs and he cut taxes
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: for the very corporations that are raising your prices.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: I think that's sort of, it is about cost of living.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: It's about, that is a data point under a larger
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: argument about Trump as a, as part of a corrupt
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: political system.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: In that same poll, nearly half of Americans are worried
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: about their current ability to pay their rent or mortgage.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Nearly two thirds, 64% worry about their ability to pay
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: an unexpected medical expense. If one should arrive nearly half
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: of all Americans believe they would have difficulty paying an
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: unexpected $ 500 bill without borrowing. And notably the, Six in
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: 10 believe that after just six months on the job,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Trump administration has negatively impacted their cost of living.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: I'm doing this off the dome because I don't have
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: my notes in front of me, but I'm pretty sure
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: it's 24% of Americans spend three hours a day worrying
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: about costs in financial security. And I think it's 47%
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: maybe who spend at least an hour a day on that.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: No, it is.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: And it was a fascinating poll. Yeah, I think, yeah,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: you did.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: You did.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Good job. Good job. You nailed it. Yeah, this was
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: a YouGov poll that the Century Foundation helped conduct. I just,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: I think that almost every day, you know, like there's
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: this whole debate over Trump's economic plan and the Medicaid
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: cuts and if they go into effect after the midterms,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: is that going to be an issue? Well, like, Bill aside,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: and I only want to put it aside for this conversation. Obviously,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about that from now until the midterms.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: These cost increases are going to be hitting all the time.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: And I think the challenge is to make sure that
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: every time you see a headline about a cost increase,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: people know. And we can connect the dots for people.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Like Procter & Gamble just announced 2.5% price increase on
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: their products. They have all, you know, Procter & Gamble,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: gigantic company that makes a lot of the toiletries we
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: use and cleaner products and everything else. Walmart, Target have
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: already announced increases on school supplies, clothing, baby items, Adidas products.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: on clothes and shoes. I mean, it's, it's already happening
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: and people just need to, people just need, we just
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: need to remind people every day from, and look, we're
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: going to have a whole bunch of headlines about this
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: because every time a company decides to jack up prices, uh,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: we're gonna be able to talk about it. And if,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: if there's not a headline about it, then when we
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: notice price increases, people should talk about it.
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: I mean, this get like, we're going to go through
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: this podcast has like nine different topics we have to hit.
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: It's been an insane three days of news.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: But one of the things to think about is why
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: I did that sort of narrative at the top is
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: the way you combat the flood the zone strategy or
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: just the insanity of news in the Trump era is
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: you need an overarching narrative that you can fit all
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: the things in. You don't have to– you're not trying
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: to shoehorn in or try to fit a square peg
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: in a round hole. But you– like as a party,
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: we need to focus– we need to pick a story
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: first and then a message second.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: On that note, one more piece of notable economic news.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Speaking at a Breitbart event this week– Treasury Secretary Scott
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Besson said Trump's new Trump accounts enacted in his economic plan,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: which give every baby born from now until 2028 $ 1, 000
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: to be invested in index funds, might serve a longtime
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: right-wing goal. Let's listen.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: In a way, it is a backdoor for privatizing Social Security.
• 21:58
  Speaker 7: Oh.
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: Whoa. Backdoor, eh?
• 22:00
  Speaker 8: What?
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: So, The Bush era Hill staffer in me wants Democrats
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: to jump all over this, but what do you think?
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: They did. They tried to clean it up. Bess had
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: tried to clean it up. Carolyn Leavitt at the briefing
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: tried to clean it up. And she's like, no, no.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: When he said, he said, in addition to social security,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: it's like, what? Nope.
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: He didn't say that.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: That's not what he said. He said privatization and backdoor.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: It was very, very clear.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: We should absolutely jump on this. We remember in 2022,
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: cuts to social security and Medicare were a big part
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: of the Democratic message that worked. And We should use
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: them again. And I think the cuts to Medicaid make
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: these more believable than even they were back in 2022.
• 22:38
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: And I think what he actually meant there was, yeah,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: you're going to have these savings accounts. Eventually, it could
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: be retirement accounts. And when we someday cut Social Security,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: this will be fine. This will be your new Social Security.
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: I take him at his word that he wants to
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: prioritize Social Security.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Of course they do. Of course they do.
• 23:03
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• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Speaking of investments, it's time for another corrupt date.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: Corrupt date.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I have to say, that was better handled than than
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: the one on Tuesday, we're getting better at the sting there.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: It's really.
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: It's only taken us 12 opportunities to do it. And
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: here's the good news. We could probably do a corrupt
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: date every episode until 2029.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: So this one comes courtesy of Senator Josh Hawley, whose
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: bill to ban stock trading by members of Congress, the president,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: and the vice president advanced in the Senate thanks to
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: all the Democrats on the committee voting yes. All of
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: the Republicans, except for Hawley, voted no.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Then.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: One very important Republican voiced his displeasure. Trump raged on
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Truth Social that the bill would be bad for the country,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: a win for Democrats, and he called Hawley a, quote,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: second-tier senator. True. Hawley then chatted with Trump. It's so
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: funny that Trump just does this on Truth Social, by
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the way. He doesn't, like, call Hawley and be like, hey,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: what the fuck, man? You know, he just puts him
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: on blast. Can't even call him first. So anyway, then
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Hawley talks to Trump on the phone, and then he
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: told reporters about his conversation with Trump. And he said
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: that the president said that he's for the stock trading ban,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: but he was angry because people had told him the
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: bill would force him to sell Mar-a-Lago and divest of
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: all his assets, which isn't true only because of a
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: carve-out in the bill that exempts Trump from this requirement.
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: But even that part's not true, right? Like, he would
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: not have to sell Mar-a-Lago.
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: No, no.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: But you do have to... I think the... After... after
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: the Trump administration, the next administration and then future senators
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: and representatives would have to divest of, I think, any
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: kind of equity holdings.
• 26:27
  Speaker 8: Interesting.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: I think that's what I think. So, you know, which
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: is why Ron Johnson, Rick Scott were very upset. They're like,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: they were saying, you know, this is punishing success and
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: this is going to discourage wealthy people from running for office.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: What a shame that would be.
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: Oh, no.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: Oh, no.
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: Oh, no.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: What do you think about this? Did Trump just need
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: to make sure nothing would interfere with how hard he's
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: working to profit from the presidency?
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think so. I think he believed, apparently incorrectly,
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: that the spigot was about to be turned off for
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: his many, many schemes to profit off the presidency to
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: make money at taxpayer expense. And because he is both
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: corrupt and a moron, he reacted without knowing it was
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: actually in the bill.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: And originally, the bill... So originally the bill included the
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: president and vice president, and then they had to do
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: some compromise where they said, okay, we can include the
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: vice president and president, but only if it's not this
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: president and vice president.
• 27:23
  Speaker 7: Of course.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Because these Republicans in Congress, they're not even protecting themselves
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: in this bill. They just wanted to protect Donald Trump
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: because I guess that's their most important job.
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: And then they voted against it anyway. So what was
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: the point?
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: So Mike Johnson has said, That he's for this, we'll see.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, like it advanced out of committee. I guess
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: you could imagine a situation where Thune puts it up
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: for a vote if Hawley's for it and you get
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: a few other Republicans and then it would pass with
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Democratic and Republican votes, maybe. I don't know. What do
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: you think the prospects are of this passing?
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: You know, it's a tough no vote, but it really
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: depends on it. Now, it depends on how much Trump
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: cares now that he knows he's exempted from it. If
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: he does not care, then I think it really could
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: pass because if you are a Republican senator- who's up
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: this cycle or just someone who has ambition for something
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: in the future, voting to allow yourself to keep doing
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: insider trading, not a great vote.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Hasn't stopped them before from taking bad votes and embarrassing votes.
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: Well, they've benefited from it not coming up before. That's
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: the thing. They've kept it off the floor, I think,
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: for years now.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: It is wild, though. You just mentioned some of this.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: It's like we also learned today Trump is building a
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: ballroom on the White House. $ 200 million in because he's
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: always wanted a ballroom. He's good at ballrooms, he said,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: so he wants to build one in the White House.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: $ 200 million for that.
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: And it's going to be privately funded from donors who
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: can have yet another way to buy access with Trump.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: What do you think? Middle Eastern autocrats or tech oligarchs?
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Or some combo of both?
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: Why do you have to choose?
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Or oil tycoons?
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: Uh, crypto guys facing indictment. There's a whole list of people.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Arms dealers, whatever. What else?
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: Basically a pardoned silent auction.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Also, while the Holly thing was going on, Chris Murphy
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: offered an amendment in the Senate that just said, Trump
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: can have his plane, his billion dollar plane that we
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: all have to pay for from Qatar, but he can't
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: take it with him when he leaves office. Because if
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: we're going to pay, the taxpayers are going to, we're
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: all going to pay a billion dollars to retrofit this
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: fucking plane from the Qataris. then guess what? The next
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: future presidents, we should use it for a little while
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: instead of giving it to Donald Trump. as a fucking keepsake.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: All the Republicans voted no. Didn't get a single Republican vote.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: Amazing.
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: For what, like what reason?
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: What's the reason?
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: Party favor when he leaves?
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: What?
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: It's un-fucking-believable. You know what? We can't, we can't win
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: this midterm.
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: We need a whole, we actually need a whole separate
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: podcast called Corrupted Date. Corrupted Date. Corrupt date.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Corrupt date. So one thing Donald Trump inexplicably can't stop
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: talking about, Jeffrey Epstein, who he just keeps offering new
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: details about every time he's asked. Trump got a few
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: questions on Air Force One this week about his claim
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: that he kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago for poaching some
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: of Trump's employees, not because he was a, quote, creep,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: which is what the White House had originally said. Here's
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Trump trying to clear all that up.
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: Were some of them young women?
• 30:36
  Speaker 5: Well, I don't want to say, but.
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: Everyone knows the people that were taken. And it was
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: the concept of taking people that work for me is bad.
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: But that story's been pretty well out there.
• 30:50
  Speaker 8: And the answer is yes.
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: Yes, they were.
• 30:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: In the spa.
• 30:54
  Speaker 8: In the spa.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: People that work in the spa. I have a great spa.
• 30:58
  Speaker 5: One of the best spas in the world at Mar-a-Lago.
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: And people were taken out of the spa. Hired by him.
• 31:04
  Speaker 5: In other words, gone. And... Other people would come and complain,
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: this guy is taking people.
• 31:11
  Speaker 9: From the spa.
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: I didn't know that.
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: And then when I heard about it, I told him,
• 31:15
  Speaker 5: I said, listen, we don't want you taking our people,
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: whether it was spa or not spa. I don't want
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: him taking people. And he was fine. And then not
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: too long after that, he did it again. And I said,
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: out of here.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Mr. President, did one of those stolen, you know, persons,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: does that include Virginia Jeffrey?
• 31:37
  Speaker 5: I don't know. I think she worked at the spa.
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: I think so.
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: I think that was one of the people. He stole her.
• 31:47
  Speaker 5: And by the way, she had no complaints about us,
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: as you know. None whatsoever.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Unbelievable.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: We originally had just a short clip of that, but
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: I really wanted everyone to just hear the whole thing
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: because his answers, first of all, he's like, I shouldn't say,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: did he hire young girls? I shouldn't say, I shouldn't say,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: but yes, the answer is yes. The answer is yes,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: I should say. And, you know, from the, yes, from
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: the spa. By the way, one of the best spas
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: in the world. Everyone should know. But then, yeah, he
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: stole her. Spa, no spa, don't take it.
• 32:19
  Speaker 8: It's like unbelievable.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Then he confirms it was Virginia Giuffre. So just a
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: reminder of the timeline here. Virginia Giuffre got a summer
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: job working at the Mar-a-Lago Spa when she was 16.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: In 2000, Ghislaine Maxwell approached her at the spa and
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: offered her a job with Epstein, who then sexually abused
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: and trafficked her until 2002. The same year, by the way,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: that Trump was quoted in New York Magazine saying that his, quote,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: good friend Jeffrey Epstein, quote, likes women on the younger side,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: no doubt about it. It wasn't until at least 2004,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: and maybe later, that Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: and ended their friendship. Giuffre died by suicide in April,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: but her family responded to Trump's latest comments with a
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: statement to The Atlantic asking if Trump was aware of
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: Epstein and Maxwell's criminal actions. He was asked that today, Thursday,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: at an event at the White House. And he sort
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: of said, no, I don't know, I don't know. Just
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: kind of brushed it off. Feels pretty serious, doesn't it?
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, this is a... He admitted that he knew about
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: a 16-year-old girl being, quote-unquote, stolen from his spa. After
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: that happened, he remained friends with the guy, praising him
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: in a magazine, talking about how he loves young women
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: for another couple years.
• 33:45
  Speaker 8: And it's just.
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: Given how close they were in the 90s, the parties
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: they went to, the creepy event with the calendar girls
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: where they brought all these people to Mar-a-Lago for a
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: party and the only two party attendees were Trump and Epstein.
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: It's just impossible to imagine that he did not have
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: some sense that something sketchy was going on. And it
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: did not bother him. He stayed friends with a guy
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: for another four years. And that the falling out eventually
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: is not over. There is no evidence. to suggest it's
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: over Epstein taking girls from the spa or anywhere else,
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: the world-class spa, obviously. It is believed to be the
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: reason they stopped being friends is a dispute over a
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: Palm Beach real estate transaction.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: I have a few questions.
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: Maybe I can answer them.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: One is, how did Donald Trump come to know about
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the employment status of a young girl who worked as
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: a locker room attendant in his spa at Mar-a-Lago? Is
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: he deep in the The HR records.
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: Details guy.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: He knows that. So first of all, very bizarre that
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: he knew this. Second of all, did he think that,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: was he under the false impression that Jeffrey Epstein owned
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: a competing spa?
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: She was hired to be his personal masseuse.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Personal masseuse, yeah. And so he knew that a 16-year-old
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: was hired from Mar-a-Lago to be Jeffrey Epstein's personal masseuse.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: And then he just kind of sat on that. And
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: then call Jeffrey Epstein a great guy who likes young women.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: And then next time he quote unquote stole, we're saying
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: stole now, like it's like property.
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: Those are Trump's words, yes.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: Next time he did it, that was too far.
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: What is critical here is that Trump is admitting to
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: contemporaneous knowledge of her being stolen by Epstein. What would
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: have been believable is he just found out years later
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: because she eventually sued Epstein and Maxwell. And her case
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: got a lot of attention in the news. So he
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: could have learned that and his name comes up in
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: the court filings in that case. So he could have,
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: if he were to say, and I learned about this
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: years later, that would be very believable. Just the fact
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: that he's saying in the year 2000, I knew that
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: Jeffrey Epstein quote unquote stole a 16 year old from
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: my spa. And I told him not to do it again.
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: He says that he knew at the time that he
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: was going after these young girls.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Right, because how could he tell him not to do
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: it again if he found out much later?
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: Exactly, exactly. That is just a huge critical admission on
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: his part because he is a dummy and he can't
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: figure out how to get out of this because he
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: can't stop lying about it, is the thing. Because he
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: clearly is so afraid about whatever is in the Epstein files,
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: about something that is out there. Whatever it is, I
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: don't know what his fear is, I don't know if
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: it's rational or not, but his behavior... is of a
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: man deeply paranoid of the truth getting out.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: It's wild. And I don't know where it goes from here.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Maxwell's lawyer said she wouldn't testify to Congress now unless
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: she gets full immunity, which the people in Congress were
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: saying they're not going to give her full immunity for that.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: So now we're not getting testimony. We're probably not getting
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: testimony from her in Congress, which is public. But we
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: still got Todd Blanch who Deputy Attorney General sat down
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: with her. No one knows what that conversation was like.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: She's asking for a pardon.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: I don't know what else, where this goes from here.
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, Trump is going to keep it in
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: the news for sure.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: All you have to do is ask him. He'll give
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: you new information.
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: I mean, there is, as you guys talked about Tuesday,
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: there are now documents running around which have all of
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: the early, some of the Trump mentions in the Epstein
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: files out there. Will those leak out at some point?
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: Will the infamous birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein leak out,
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: we actually see the potentially Nobel Prize winning drawing. There's
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: just a lot more here. There's a lot of threads
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: to pull. And when the Congress comes back, Democrats will
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: once again push for a vote to compel the release
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: of the Epstein Files.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So Trump has had most of his administration working
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: overtime to distract from the Epstein scandal by cooking up
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: a laughably dumb conspiracy about Russia involving Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: All his favorite deep staters. Only problem is the whole
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: thing is so convoluted and confusing that even Trump can't
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: keep up with it now. Here he is answering a
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: question about Kash Patel allegedly finding a trove of documents
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: in a burn bag somewhere in the FBI.
• 38:23
  Speaker 6: He said what? The whole thing is a scam.
• 38:34
  Speaker 9: It's a scam set up by the Democrats, and they
• 38:37
  Speaker 9: love talking about it. But I would like.
• 38:40
  Speaker 5: To see people exposed that might be bad, and we'll
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: see how that all works out.
• 39:00
  Speaker 9: It's getting to be very old news. You know, if
• 39:02
  Speaker 9: they had anything, they would have done it the week
• 39:04
  Speaker 9: before the election because they were losing by a lot.
• 39:07
  Speaker 9: If they had anything, they would have done it. They
• 39:09
  Speaker 9: controlled the file. The Democrats controlled it. Comey and all this,
• 39:15
  Speaker 9: you know, sleazebags, every one of them that you read
• 39:17
  Speaker 9: about all the time. And I guess they've got some
• 39:20
  Speaker 9: problems now having to do with yet a different scandal.
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: Very big one.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: He gets a softball served up to him, undoubtedly. by
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: some MAGA influencer hack at the White House about Kash Patel,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: his new deputy, now that Dan Bongino has his mental
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: health days, like a deputy burn bag. So he gets
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: the question to him. And what does he do? Write
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: to Epstein.
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: Cannot help himself.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: I was saying this to love it. It's like the
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: opposite of like the communication strategy advice, like the central advice,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: like always go back to home base here when you
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: get the question. Home base is Epstein files.
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: It's like we're cooking up this Russiagate conspiracy for you.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: Barack Obama's committing treason. You got to go to that.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: You got to go.
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, no.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: He's got to go right to Epstein.
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: He cannot help himself because he can't stop thinking about it.
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: Once again, a man deathly afraid. transparency here.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: Also, I'm not even going to get, I will not
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: get too deep, I promise, into the burn bag.
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, please don't.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: But basically, to believe this, right, which is that there's
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of documents that were in a burn
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: bag somewhere in the FBI that John Durham, after he
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: conducted an investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: who John Durham, appointed by Bill Barr, worked for Donald Trump,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: in the first Trump administration, that John Durham left these
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: incriminating documents that would incriminate Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: and all the rest of them in a burn bag
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: in the FBI, would not burn the documents, just wanted
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: to leave them there thinking that after the Biden administration,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: Trump would return and then someone from the Trump administration
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: would find the documents and expose the lie.
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, seems credible.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: This is what we're supposed to believe. By the way,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: if you don't know, a burn bag is what you
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: have in the White House and other agencies when you
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: want to, when there's classified material, secret material, and you
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: need to get rid of it. You don't want to
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: throw it in the trash because that's not very safe
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: because anyone could go picking through the trash. A shredder's
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: not good enough. You put it in a burn bag
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: and they actually go burn it.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: So, I don't know what John Durham was doing. I
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: don't know what Cash Mattel's talking about, but I don't
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: really think it's revealing anything new.
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: Well, I think if it was, they would put those
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: documents out.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, they have something out today. There's some fucking
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: email that John Durham was like, I think it's a
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: fake email because I think the Russians did something with it.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: But anyway, it's this email that's cooked up that says
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: someone's like, I know that Hillary Clinton's going to work
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: with the FBI to cook up Russiagate with Trump and Russia.
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: Once again, a scandal not announced. An FBI investigation not
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: announced before the election. When it would have been very
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: impactful to announce it. Instead, the FBI director announced the
• 42:20
  Speaker 4: investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails three weeks before the election.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was part of their deal. Let's work together
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: to get Trump, but also I'm going to turn on
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: you right before the election and help elect Trump. So
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: I guess the FBI is filled with a bunch of double,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: triple agents. I don't know. It's hard to follow. I
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: know that Fox and MAGA Media are all over this story.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: It doesn't seem to be getting a lot of traction.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Barack Obama is still roaming free, has not been arrested yet.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: What's going on, Dan?
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: It's really interesting. Theoretically, MAGA, media, and Fox are all
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: over this, but they really aren't in a real way.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: Their hearts aren't in it.
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: Their hearts aren't in it. It is not getting attention.
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: It's one of the first times Trump has decided he
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: is brought to bear all the forces. He literally had
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: the intelligence community cook up a fake document and sent the.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: To accuse his predecessor of treason, punishable by death. Treason.
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: He sent Tulsi Gabbard to the White House briefing and
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: all these places, and he can't get traction.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: He posted a picture of Obama as OJ driving the
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: white Bronco with all the police following him, including the
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: bald J.D. Vance meme in one of the cars.
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's a bonus there. I mean, there's the
• 43:34
  Speaker 4: AI video of Obama getting arrested in the Oval Office
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: with Trump.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: A classic.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: A classic. Who can forget?
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: There's the people in prison jumpsuits, right, of all of
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: our former co-workers.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: The shady bunch, yeah.
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: But so if Trump really wants to make something a thing,
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: like he can't always break, get the media, the traditional
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: media to cover it. He can't always make it like
• 43:52
  Speaker 4: really break through. But he has in the past been
• 43:54
  Speaker 4: able to get MAGA right-wing media to do his bidding.
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: So Resonate, which is an organization that tracks which stories
• 44:02
  Speaker 4: are trending online, they have a subsect newsletter called What's Resonating.
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: And so they looked at this for Wednesday of this week.
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: And so they track what neutral accounts are doing, left-leaning
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: accounts and right-leaning accounts are doing. This is across all
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: the platforms. And more right-leaning accounts on Wednesday were posting
• 44:17
  Speaker 4: about Sidney Sweeney and Barack Obama. It's just not working.
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: This is a true fail from the Trump messaging machine.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: What did she do to commit treason? Was she part
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: of the Durham investigation as well?
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: We don't have the time.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, did she kill Jeffrey Epstein?
• 44:38
  Speaker 4: You know, we can't prove she didn't.
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: Someone should ask her where she was on that night.
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: And was she the orange blob spotted in the CBS video?
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: No, because we know she was wearing jeans. Good jeans too.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Good jeans.
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: Good jeans.
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: I did turn on, I did open up Twitter and
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: it was like trending. American Eagle, Sidney Sweeney, Nazis. I
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: was like, close.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: We talked about it on offline this week.
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: I have no, I can't wait to listen.
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  Speaker 1: this conspiracy mongering is causing the White House to take
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• 47:17
  Speaker 1: announced this week that they'll pay off your student loans
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: and give you a $ 50, 000 signing bonus if you're willing
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: to mask up and join Stephen Miller's secret police force.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: ICE has launched a major recruitment campaign called Defend the
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: Homeland to hire the 10,000 additional agents they'll need to
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  Speaker 1: hit Miller's goal of 3,000 arrests per day and a
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  Speaker 1: million deportations this year. One of the ads features the
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  Speaker 1: has been invaded by criminals and predators. We need you
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  Speaker 1: to get them out. So, question for you. What kind
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  Speaker 1: going to get a great force of just highly qualified
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  Speaker 1: Americans who are interested in law enforcement and doing everything
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: by the book? To help protect the homeland? Do you
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: think that's what we're going to get?
• 48:12
  Speaker 4: Well, I would say that over the last six months, Trump,
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: Elon Musk, Stephen Miller have really shown the world the benefits,
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: the stability of government employment. It seems like a very
• 48:25
  Speaker 4: attractive place to work where once you get started, you
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: can build a career there without having someone come in
• 48:29
  Speaker 4: and just fire you for no reason. So I think,
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: I imagine that this will be the best and the brightest.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is really, as we can joke about it,
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: but it's fucking dark. And it's one of the things
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: I worry about the most of everything, because ICE has
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: been bad enough in these last six months. ICE, which
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: doesn't have anywhere near the standards, hiring standards of local
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: police departments, let alone the FBI. And they don't have
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: the same kind of training, rigorous training that you go through.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: So you can be pretty unqualified. And who knows what
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: kind of political views you might have. You might have
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  Speaker 1: been at You might have been at the Capitol on
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: January 6th. You might have- I'm sure that's a plus.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: You might have been part of, we don't know. Who's
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: doing the background checks, right? Is it where this administration's
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: gonna do a rig background check on these people who
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: are now being told that there's an army of illegal
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: migrants that have invaded the country and they're all the
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  Speaker 1: worst of the worst and they're criminals and child molesters
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: and all this kind. And you know what? You just
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  Speaker 1: come to ICE, we'll give you $ 50, 000 signing bonus right
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: off the bat. We'll pay off your student loans. Here's
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: a gun. Here's a mask. Go for it.
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: I mean, the authoritarian leading president of the United States
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: building a massive unaccountable police force loyal to him, that
• 49:54
  Speaker 4: has some historical echoes that we don't really like.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: It's really bad. And I don't even like, I don't
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: know what Democrats even do about this. I do think
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: that's one area where, you know, we make it to
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: the midterms and You launch a lot of investigations into
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: what the Department of Homeland Security is doing and ICE
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: is doing and who they're hiring. And to the extent
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: that we can learn that, you know, between now and
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: the midterms, I think that's important, too, because they're going
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: to hire some really bad people. And I think that
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: everything we have been seeing on social media, all the
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: videos we've been seeing of ICE becoming violent and especially
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: with not just undocumented immigrants, not just people with criminal records,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: but legal residents, American citizens, protesters, I think it's going
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: to get much worse.
• 50:37
  Speaker 4: I think Democrats should not be afraid when we have
• 50:39
  Speaker 4: power again to use cutting ICE funding as a point
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: of leverage in negotiations.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: Yes, 100%. Meanwhile, one of Miller's comrades in the war
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: on immigrants and the rule of law, Trump lawyer turned
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: DOG hatchet man Emil Bove, got his lifetime appointment to
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. He was confirmed by
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: the Senate this week after lying to Congress, telling DOJ
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: officials that if judges wouldn't let them disappear people to
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: a foreign gulag without due process, they might have to
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: tell the courts to fuck off. Not one, not two,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: three whistleblowers came forward about this guy. Not libs, not
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: deep staters, not just regular conservatives, like Trump people, Trump
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: administration people in DOJ came forward to say that this
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: guy doesn't want to follow the law. He didn't want
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: to follow the law when the judge ordered the plane
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: to be turned around that was going to El Salvador.
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: He also was instrumental in dropping the charges for Eric
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: Adams in exchange for Eric Adams just doing the bidding
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: of the Trump administration. He was instrumental in firing all
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: of the prosecutors who prosecuted the January 6th defendants. He
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: did all these things. He has had numerous complaints about
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: him even before he was working for Trump as far
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: back as 2018. People saying he was abusive to staff.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: that he was corrupt, all this kind of shit. And
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: fucking only Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins voted against him.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: Tom Tillis, Mitch McConnell, all the rest of them, thumbs
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: up for this guy. Lifetime appointment.
• 52:13
  Speaker 4: In general, over the course of time, presidents get their
• 52:16
  Speaker 4: judicial nominees through. But periodically, there are people who are
• 52:21
  Speaker 4: so unqualified, so corrupt, so unfit, that members of the
• 52:25
  Speaker 4: president's party will reject them. Just some of them, right?
• 52:28
  Speaker 4: Or the person will not get out of committee and
• 52:29
  Speaker 4: they'll be forced to drop out. This is evidence that
• 52:32
  Speaker 4: the entire confirmation system is a joke in this Republican Party.
• 52:36
  Speaker 4: They do not care about anything other than Trump put
• 52:40
  Speaker 4: that person's name forward. They have no respect for themselves.
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: They have no respect for the institution. They have no
• 52:44
  Speaker 4: respect for the judiciary. They have no respect for their constituents.
• 52:47
  Speaker 4: It is just Donald Trump said jump, so we just
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: said how high. I mean, it's truly embarrassing.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: This one I really don't understand for people like McConnell
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: and Tillis who have nothing to lose. They're retiring. They're
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: not even running for office again. And Emile Bove is
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: not like even if it was a Brett Kavanaugh, an
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: Amy Coney Barrett, a Neil Gorsuch, right? You could say, OK,
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: this is this is these are nominations where these people
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: are genuinely right wing conservatives and like what they stand
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: for and like their judicial philosophy. And it happens to
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: align with what Trump wants. So that's why they're voting
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: for them.
• 53:22
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: Emile Bove, he's just a Trump hatchet man. Nothing else.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: He doesn't have judicial philosophy. He doesn't have opinions that
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: he's written.
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: Nothing.
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: And it's not like, oh, he's starting off as a
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: federal judge. Right to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals,
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: he could go right from there to the Supreme Court.
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: Just a loyalist to Trump. No judicial philosophy whatsoever. And
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: they're like, thumbs up? It's fucking crazy.
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: Well, it's actually, I think for the two of them,
• 53:49
  Speaker 4: it actually fits with their behavior. Tom Tillis had one
• 53:51
  Speaker 4: moment of courage on Medicaid. He also is the person
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: who introduced Kash Patel at his confirmation hearing. No one
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: has done more to corrupt the judiciary in American history
• 54:01
  Speaker 4: than Mitch McConnell.
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: Man.
• 54:03
  Speaker 4: So this is very much like, I know Mitch McConnell
• 54:06
  Speaker 4: is anti-Trump and we have, some people have some hopes
• 54:09
  Speaker 4: that maybe he'll do the right thing periodically. And he
• 54:11
  Speaker 4: theoretically does not have the political pressure of people like
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: a Susan Collins or other Republicans who may be up.
• 54:16
  Speaker 4: But This is very much on brand for Mitch McConnell.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: Let's check in on the Republican attempts to steal the
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: midterm elections. This week, Texas legislators dropped their new gerrymander
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: of the state's congressional map, a proposal that would create
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: five new House districts that Trump won by 10 points
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: or more in 2024. This would potentially hand Republicans the
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: five extra House seats Trump asked for by packing Democratic
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: voters into urban districts and creating a bunch of new
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: seats that wouldn't have an incumbent, but be in very
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: red districts that Trump won. Hakeem Jeffries flew to Texas
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: to huddle with state Democrats to see what they can
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: do to fight back. Gavin Newsom said he's ready to
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: push forward with a redraw in California if Texas goes
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: through with it.
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: J.B.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Pritzker and Kathy Hochul have threatened to do the same
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: in Illinois and New York. Ron DeSantis says he may
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: do the same in Florida, saying the 2020 census was, quote, flawed.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: Lots of contingencies. Can you walk us through what you
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: think is most likely to happen here?
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: Well, Texas is moving forward. I mean, I think Democrats
• 55:11
  Speaker 4: can and should do everything they possibly can to stop them.
• 55:13
  Speaker 4: When I talked to Congressman Kassar a couple weeks ago,
• 55:16
  Speaker 4: he talked about the importance of it. I've heard Beto
• 55:18
  Speaker 4: talk about the importance of delay. Maybe the members flee,
• 55:22
  Speaker 4: the legislators, Democratic legislators flee the state so they can't
• 55:24
  Speaker 4: get a quorum. We should try to make this as
• 55:27
  Speaker 4: politically painful for them as possible, but they have the
• 55:29
  Speaker 4: votes to do it, and Trump very much wants them
• 55:32
  Speaker 4: to do it. California, it's complicated, but Gavin Newsom has
• 55:35
  Speaker 4: a plan. I fully expect him to proceed. Illinois, somewhat complicated.
• 55:41
  Speaker 4: New York, very complicated. And New York, is limited in
• 55:44
  Speaker 4: what they can do. And it seems, based on some
• 55:46
  Speaker 4: analysis I've seen, that absent everything working the right way,
• 55:50
  Speaker 4: it's unlikely that New York would have new maps in
• 55:52
  Speaker 4: place by 2026. Florida, I imagine, will do whatever. Theirs
• 55:57
  Speaker 4: is also somewhat complicated because of the role the Florida
• 55:58
  Speaker 4: Supreme Court plays. So that may be a little bit
• 56:00
  Speaker 4: of bluster because they were limited in how much they
• 56:03
  Speaker 4: could gerrymander in this last time around. But Democrats are
• 56:08
  Speaker 4: doing the right things, right? We need a strategy of
• 56:10
  Speaker 4: mutually assured destruction. They do this, we'll do it. Republicans
• 56:14
  Speaker 4: just have more opportunities because they have more states where
• 56:16
  Speaker 4: they control the legislature and the governorship. And there has
• 56:21
  Speaker 4: not been a ballot initiative, constitutional amendment, or something else
• 56:24
  Speaker 4: passed that limits the ability of Democrats to do a
• 56:30
  Speaker 4: mid-decade redistricting or do something that, a partisan redistricting. So
• 56:35
  Speaker 4: it's very challenging.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: This is what worries me in the end because it's like,
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: you're right, for California, we've talked about this with Newsom,
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: we have to get a a ballot initiative and holds
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: like a special election, or he can try to just
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: do it and see what the courts say. Illinois, I
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: think there, he can do it. Pritzker can do it,
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: but it's going to be hard to draw, I guess,
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: get to squeeze a few more seats out of Illinois.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: I think they went through.
• 56:59
  Speaker 4: This in two years ago or whatever, two years ago, 2021,
• 57:03
  Speaker 4: they went through this.
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: And, and the reason you're not hearing about a lot
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: more states is because there's just aren't as many states
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: where Democrats have full control over the state legislature. And
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: there's more seats to squeeze out and are able to
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: do it because of, you know, that there's not some
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: constitutional amendment or law or whatever else or nonpartisan district
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: commission set up that prevents them from doing it. So it's,
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: I am glad Democrats are fighting back too. I do,
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: people should be aware that it's a very hard fight
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: to pick and I'm glad they're doing it, but like,
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: I don't, you know, unclear.
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: If it's going to work.
• 57:39
  Speaker 4: Can I just make one point here that I think is,
• 57:41
  Speaker 4: this is, I don't want to say it's optimistic, but
• 57:44
  Speaker 4: Republicans in Texas are making a very big bet that
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: Trump's numbers with Latinos in 2024 is the new norm.
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 57:56
  Speaker 4: And there is really no evidence to support that. Just,
• 57:59
  Speaker 4: I'm going to give you two examples. So nationally, in 2024,
• 58:03
  Speaker 4: Democrats won 54% of the Latino vote. In the midterms,
• 58:05
  Speaker 4: in 2022, we won 62%. Now, here's a stunning number
• 58:13
  Speaker 4: for you. According to exit polls, so take that for
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: what it was, but these are exit polls in Texas.
• 58:18
  Speaker 4: In 2024, Trump won the Latina vote by 11 points
• 58:22
  Speaker 4: in Texas. In 2022, when Beto O'Rourke was losing by
• 58:27
  Speaker 4: 11 points to Greg Abbott, he won the Latina vote
• 58:31
  Speaker 4: by 17 points.
• 58:32
  Speaker 8: Oh, wow.
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: And Abbott won because he won the white vote by
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: 33 points.
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: So there is, like, probably they've obviously thought about this,
• 58:43
  Speaker 4: but if the, if the Latino vote shifts back to
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: where it was before 2020, these are, the Republicans are
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: about to create a bunch of really competitive seats and
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: put themselves in great risk.
• 58:54
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: I think there's a, of the five new seats, a
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: couple Trump won by 15 or more, but then a couple,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: he only won by 10 or more, only 10. But
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: if you're talking about numbers like you just did and
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: they're heavily Latino districts, then who knows?
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: And given demographics, the percentage of the district that is
• 59:12
  Speaker 4: Latino is going to grow over time.
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: And so they could have real troubles in midterms when
• 59:16
  Speaker 4: the midterm Latino electorate, at least in the limited sample
• 59:19
  Speaker 4: size we have where Trump is president, looks very different
• 59:21
  Speaker 4: than when Trump's on the ballot.
• 59:23
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: Okay. Last thing before we get to Tommy's interview with
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: Jason Crow, Kamala Harris announced this week that she will
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: not be running for governor of California after all. We
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: don't know whether that means she'll be running for president
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: in 2028. Her aides have told reporters that people should
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: not read into her decision on the California governor's race,
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: anything about her plans for 2028. But then she also
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: came out with an announcement after that, saying that she's
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: going to be devoting her attention to this.
• 59:54
  Speaker 10: Just over a year ago, I launched my campaign for
• 59:57
  Speaker 10: president of the United States. 107 days, traveling the country,
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 10: fighting for our future. The shortest presidential campaign in modern history.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 10: Since leaving office, I've spent a lot of time reflecting
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 10: on those days, talking with my team, my family, my friends,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 10: and pulling my thoughts together. In essence, writing a journal.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 10: That is this book, 107 Days.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: 107 Days. She's got a book. What's your guess on
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: the book? Is this going to be an interesting book
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: or is it going to be a typical politician book?
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 4: Well, it was reported that she worked with, I don't
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 4: know if it's been confirmed, but I read this online,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 4: a place where nothing's ever wrong, that she worked with
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 4: Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Geraldine Brooks on it.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 8: I read that, yes.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 4: I think this is very interesting. As opposed to your typical...
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 4: I do not mean this in a pejorative sense, John,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 4: your typical political speech writer, ghost writer, which is how
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 4: these things usually happen.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 4: So I think that's very interesting.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: And guess what? Those books, boring.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 4: Like, I obviously don't know what she's going to do next.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 4: I would just say, you know, this is a take
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 4: a lot of people have had online. It's like, it
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 4: was so stupid of her not to run for governor.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 4: It's like, I just, I'm just going to guess that
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 4: maybe she doesn't want to be governor.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: I was like, good for her. It was my first
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: reaction because she has seemed from afar to, that ever
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: since the election that she does not want to be
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: governor of California. There were like plenty of moments where,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: you know, obviously we've been in the mix, national news cycle.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 4: It's been a big year for California.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: Ruined Trump sites over the last six months. And, you know,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: there's times where, you know, she would put out statements
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But I would think, okay, if
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: she wants to be governor, you would imagine that she'd
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: be out there speaking up about this. And I think,
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: you know, if she has decided that, I don't want
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: to be governor of California right now. And I want
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: to write this book and I want to do other
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: things for a while. And I want to think about
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: my future. Then like, you know, go for it. I
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: think that's right. Do you think that she'll, what do
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: you think she's thinking about 2028? Do you think she's
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: genuinely just like, I'll wait and see? Cause that could
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: be too. People always think everything's calculated, but she could
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: just be like, all right, I don't know yet.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 4: I would say like governor, she has done abs, almost nothing.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 4: And maybe this, maybe the book will kick it off,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 4: but she is not the people who want to be president, right?
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 4: or at least we believe are going to want to
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 4: run for president, are out there doing things that make
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 4: it very clear they want to be president.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 4: They're going on the podcasts. We've got people traveling to
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 4: New Hampshire already. We've got people traveling to Iowa and
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 4: New Hampshire, and we don't even know what the map
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 4: is going to be.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 4: And she has been very, very quiet, which is her right.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 6: Right?
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 4: She gets to choose what she wants to do. But
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 4: if she knew she wanted to run for president, there
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 4: are a lot of moments that have happened over the
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 4: last six months that she could have used as a
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 4: big word. She is the biggest voice in the party
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 4: other than President Obama right now.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 4: If she went out, maybe even actually probably get more
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 4: attention if she went out and did something right now
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 4: than Obama, because she has been so quiet since the election.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 4: And so I think I get the sense she's probably
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 4: genuinely undecided, which is probably good.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 4: It was less than a year ago that she, it
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 4: was basically a year ago now that she got thrown
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 4: into this thing that she didn't expect to do and
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 4: then lost. And it's like probably still processing that, which
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 4: there's plenty of time to do that if she wants
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 4: to run for president in 2028.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, we're recording this before we got any
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: news about her appearance on Colbert Thursday night.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 4: Maybe she announces and this is going to look stupid.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: Who knows? But so she's kicking off her public appearance
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: with Colbert. And then I think the book comes out
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: in September. So it'll be interesting to see, like, is
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: the book tour? Is she talking a lot about what
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: happened in the campaign and the book? Is she talking
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: about what's happening right now? Some of that will be,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: of course, dictated by the question she gets. How interesting
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: is the book? Yeah, how interesting is the book? How
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: much she says? What she has to say? You know,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: I think we'll be able to read her intentions about
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: the future pretty quickly when she starts talking.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 4: That's fair enough.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, when we get back from the break, you'll hear
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: Tommy's conversation with Congressman Jason Crow. Two things before we
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: get to that. In case you missed it, we're hosting
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: our first ever CrookedCon this November. CrookedCon is a chance
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: to join America's smartest organizers and least annoying politicians to strategize, debate,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: and commiserate about where we go from here. Hopefully up.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: We'll be in Washington, D.C. November 6th and 7th, starting
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: with a Pod Save America live show at the Warner
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: Theater on Thursday, November 6th. Then on Friday, November 7th,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: we'll be at the Wharf.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: The Wharf. The Wharf.
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: Joined by some of the most influential names in politics
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: for a full day of conversations, workshops, and live pods.
• 1:04:25
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• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: are on sale now. Head to crookedcon.com for tickets, lineup announcements,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: and more. That's C-R-O-O-K-E-D-C-O-N.com. We have a limited amount of
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: discounted tickets available. Use code FREEDOMANDCONTENT. One word, all caps.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: That's FREEDOMANDCONTENT. That's your discount code. In the meantime, we
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: got a new episode of Polar Coaster with our own
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: Dan Pfeiffer that just dropped. Dan, what'd you guys talk
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: about this week?
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 4: This is going to shock you, John. So we'll add
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 4: your city down for this.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: Sydney Sweeney.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 4: No, no. We recorded, I think before this really blew
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 4: up with the internet. Uh, we were talking about Jeffrey Epstein,
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 4: the latest polling, why it's staying in the news. We
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 4: got to talk a little bit about the politics around Trump,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 4: pardoning a convicted sex traffickers co-conspirator in exchange for favorable testimony.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 4: And we talked a lot about Roy Cooper announcing that
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 4: he's running for Senate in North Carolina. And a little
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 4: bit about the Senate maps are to look like for 2026.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: Sweet. Tune in, everyone. And if you're not a subscriber,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: subscribe at crooked.com slash friends or through Apple Podcasts so
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: you can get Dan's pod, you can get our Inside
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  Speaker 2: Positive America is brought to you by Rocket Money. A
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  Speaker 2: Go today. That's rocketmoney.com slash crooked. rocketmoney.com slash crooked. Joining
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  Speaker 2: me now in studio, Congressman Jason Crowe from Colorado. You're
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: a decorated Army veteran, one of the Democrats in charge
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: of recruiting candidates for the midterms. Good luck with that.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: Great to have you.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 3: Thanks.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 8: Good to be here in the land of the cardboard straw.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 8: Thanks for having me back. How's that treating you? Well,
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 8: I mean, they don't taste good, but I appreciate the sentiment.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: John Lovett's pretty radicalized against those things.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm on the path to radicalization against the You know,
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 8: the wooden fork and the plastic and the cardboard straw.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 8: It's not awesome.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: There's a corn-based one that I think is a little
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: better than the paper.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 8: But don't those, like, dissolve and melt with hot liquids?
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: You've got to drink it fast, man. You've got to
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 2: get that thing down. That's a lot of pressure.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 8: I want to, you know, sip it with leisure.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: I kind of want to be forced to drink it fast.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: I want, like, a ticking clock, like a 24-style get
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: it done. I just saw that the White House announced
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: plans to construct a $ 200 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom as part
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: of the East Wing building. of the White House, I guess,
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 2: so we can hold bigger parties. Would you say that's
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: a good use of money or a great use of money?
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  Speaker 8: Yeah, just the best use of money probably, right? Can
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 8: we do it? After kicking 12 million people off their healthcare,
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 8: tripling the budget of ICE, opening up camps throughout the country,
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 8: And now we're going to do this and we'll just
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  Speaker 8: add it onto the pile of, you know, the 400
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 8: million dollar Qatari jet, which, of course, Donald Trump might
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 8: be a billion likely.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 8: Well, that's that's after we have to actually retrofit this
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 8: thing and make it workable for Air Force One so
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 8: that Donald Trump can then keep it when he leaves
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 8: the presidency.
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  Speaker 2: What did you make of the story that the Pentagon
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  Speaker 2: might be shifting money from a program to, I believe,
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: refurbish our nuclear missiles, our nuclear stockpile, to go towards
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  Speaker 2: retrofit or making this plane fit for being Air Force One?
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  Speaker 2: It might cost a billion dollars.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
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  Speaker 8: I mean, they're trying to shift money from a lot
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 8: of different pots right now. you know, Pete Hegseth has
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 8: no idea what's going on. You ask this man and he's,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 8: you know, too busy in his vanity mirror and in
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 8: the new gym that he's built in the Pentagon to
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 8: really give a crap about what's happening with all this money. But,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 8: you know, the whole thing is just, you know, it's
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 8: really beyond the pale, right? They are shifting money around
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 8: for their culture war agendas, for their political grievances, and
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 8: we're all the ones that suffer.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm completely derailing my own list of questions, but
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: it was I mean, I'm sure you, as someone who
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 2: served in the military, you had access to war plans,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: classified information. Hegseth's suggestion early on that sending the strike package,
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 2: the coordinates for where the military was going to hit
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 2: in Yemen to take out the Houthi rebels via signal
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: that there was not classified information was really remarkable. I
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: just can't imagine him walking around that building and looking
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: at his coworkers with a straight face when they all
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: just know he's lying.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 8: Well, he knows he's lying too. That's the biggest thing.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 8: And he does so without remorse, with a completely straight face.
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  Speaker 8: The man lies with complete ease, sits in front of
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  Speaker 8: Congress and does it, sits in front of the cameras
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 8: and does it. And there's no accountability. That's the larger
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 8: issue here is that he knows he can do it
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 8: because there will be no accountability for it. And what's
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 8: worse is Pete Hegseth and I actually come from similar backgrounds, right?
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 8: We were both infantry officers, infantry lieutenants. We led infantry
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 8: platoons overseas. So, you know, presumably we were exposed to
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 8: the same leadership challenges and the same, you know, leadership development.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 8: And what I learned when I was in the military
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 8: is servant leadership is the basis of your leadership. It
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 8: doesn't matter really what you say. It matters more what
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 8: you do, the example that you set.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 8: When I was a paratrooper, you jump out of the
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 8: plane first.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 8: The commander jumps out first and then the other soldiers follow.
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 8: You know, when food comes, the other soldiers eat first.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 8: You know, the junior folks eat first. And then if
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 8: there's any left over, then you eat.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 8: You suffer the most and you give the benefits to
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 8: the people underneath you. That's completely put on its head
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 8: with this administration. No accountability at the top. You know,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 8: do as I say, not as I do. And it's
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 8: corrosive to the culture of the entire organization.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 2: And look, these organizations, they're made up of people, right?
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 2: We're all fallible. We all make mistakes and lie sometimes
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 2: and people get in trouble. But the values that are
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: seen as most important within the military are honesty, candor, accountability,
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 2: like you just said. And I just wonder what you
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 2: think the impact is to the the rank and file,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 2: but also the senior leadership that he works with day
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 2: to day at the Pentagon, for them to have to
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 2: look this man in the eye that they just know
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 2: is completely full of shit.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 8: Well, there's a leadership impact, and that's that corrosive message
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 8: to the culture. You can't be the leader of organization
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 8: and act like this and not have it impact the
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 8: ethos of the people that are serving under you.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 4: It just does.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 8: It has an impact. So that's one. But then there's
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 8: actually the practical effect operationally of this. The man does
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 8: not know what he's doing. The majority of his leadership
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 8: at the Pentagon have resigned in protest to his lack
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 8: of leadership.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: And he lied about them.
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 8: He said that they were disgruntled employees. I'm like, you
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 8: hired them six weeks ago. You are disgruntling people at
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 8: an unbelievable pace. And you can't run an organization of
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 8: over 2 million people that day in and day out
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 8: conducts hundreds of of extremely risky operations that is dealing
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 8: with our adversaries around the world that daily are doing
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 8: things to put our soldiers and Americans at risk. You
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 8: can't run an organization of that complexity with such cavalier
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 8: and sloppiness and not eventually have something really bad happen.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 8: And that's what I'm worried about the most right now.
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, me too.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: So like I said at the top, you are co-chair
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 2: for recruitment of the DCCC, the campaign arm for the Democrats.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 2: How's it going? And how does this, there's a redistricting
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 2: push happening in Texas, maybe a retaliation in California. There's
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 2: other states kind of talking about that. How does that
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 2: impact your job?
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 8: Well, I'm worried about this redistricting, right? I mean, they
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 8: for a long time are saying the quiet part out
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 8: loud now, you know, Trump and the Republicans, they just
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 8: don't care. They're just doing whatever they want to do
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 8: to consolidate power. And it's certainly going to make our
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 8: job harder. But our recruitment is going very well. You know,
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 8: my job among others is to go out and find
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 8: those candidates to flip seats, right? And I always try
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 8: to explain to folks the task of flipping a seat
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 8: is a unique political challenge. You know, I flipped a
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 8: seat in 2018. I'm the first Democrat ever to hold
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 8: my seat in Congress, actually. It was 40 years of
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 8: Republican seat. And when you're trying to convince people to
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 8: change their minds, to switch their vote, and to go
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 8: Republican to Democrat in this environment, and it's gotten worse
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 8: since I was first elected in 18. That is an
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 8: extremely hard thing to do. So there's no factor that's
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 8: more important than the quality of the candidate.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 8: I mean, you can have all the time. People are like,
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 8: you know, who who is the main leader of the
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 8: Democratic Party? What is our slogan? What's our bumper sticker?
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 8: What's our unifying message? All important things and all things
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 8: that we have to refine. And I'm happy to talk
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 8: about that process as well. But in these districts, you know,
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 8: these 35 targeted seats that we've targeted at this point,
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 8: what you're trying to do is convince somebody who voted
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 8: for Donald Trump or who voted for a Republican who
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 8: supports Donald Trump to change their vote. Right. And what
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 8: you're getting is, you know, a woman or a man
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 8: who is deeply rooted in that community, who has an
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 8: independent streak, who's trusted by people, who has a great bio,
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 8: usually outside of politics, right? Because they're being voted to
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 8: be a change maker, not to perpetuate the system, right?
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 8: So it's not a lot of people with political experience.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: And.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 8: You know, that's who we're looking for. That's the tried
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 8: and tested formula. But it actually takes some work, right?
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 8: Because I'm having to go and sit in front of
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 8: these folks and be like, I have a great deal
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 8: for you. I want you to leave your thriving business.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 2: Make less money.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 4: Make less money.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 2: They're going to trash your family.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 8: Yeah, leave your kids half the time. And people are
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 8: going to say terrible things about you. There's going to
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 8: be tens of millions of dollars of ads that lie
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 8: about you. what do you say?
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 2: Right. Right.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 8: So, uh, it's just kind of the job.
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 2: Well, I imagine like a college football coach going into
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 2: a living room. You're like a coach. Oh, from LSU.
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 2: You're trying to recruit them. Is it kind of like that?
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 8: It is kind of like that.
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 8: I mean, but, uh, well, first of all, I'm just honest, right?
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 8: I'm not trying to feed people bullshit, right? I'm just not, uh, I'm,
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 8: I'm honest with them because I'm not doing anybody any
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 8: favors if I'm not honest about how challenging these races
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 8: and how tough it is to be in politics right now. But, um,
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 8: You know, the appeal is pretty simple, actually. I say
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 8: how hard it's going to be. I say how excruciating
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 8: it's going to be. I talk about the impact on
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 8: everybody around them. And then I say, you know what?
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 8: Your country needs you. We right now are at one
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 8: of the inflection points. There have been just a handful
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 8: of them that will absolutely determine the future of this country.
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 8: And none of us wanted to live in this moment.
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 8: None of us woke up saying, oh, I want to
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 8: be in a A moment of political extremism where what
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 8: happens is going to determine the course of the country
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 8: where the very foundations of our democracy are at risk. No,
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 8: we didn't ask for it, but we are here and
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 8: your country needs you. A and B is I'm not
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 8: asking for a lifetime commitment. I'm asking for a minimum
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 8: of a couple of years of your life. And after
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 8: those couple of years, you say this is not for
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 8: you or if it's not working out, you can go
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 8: back and do what you're doing. But right now we
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 8: need you.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: It's a pretty good pitch.
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 8: I think so.
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 2: I'll take it. Am I, you know, I'm a cornerback
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 2: feeling like I might be a Democrat or never mind.
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 2: So the House went into recess early because Speaker Johnson
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 2: was so worried about a vote on releasing the Epstein files.
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 2: Can you help listeners understand how weird that is, what happened?
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 2: And won't they just have to deal with this problem
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 2: in like five or six weeks when you get back?
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, that's exactly what happened, actually, is we
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 8: were supposed to be in session to the end of
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 8: the week last week. And Johnson knew that there was
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 8: going to be a vote forced on releasing the files.
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 8: He knew Republicans were going to vote for it. There'd
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 8: be a bipartisan vote and they would lose it. He
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 8: knew that Donald Trump absolutely do not want these files released.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 8: So he sent us home. He literally recessed Congress and
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 8: sent us home instead of actually holding this vote, which
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 8: is pretty telling. I mean, it is crazy. I would
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 8: like to say though, that that's surprising, but the things
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 8: that I have seen in my six years six and
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 8: a half years now in Congress. This Congress and prior Congresses,
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 8: but Republicans in particular do. It's pretty unbelievable stuff.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 2: I've gone from feeling like the conspiracy was hiding in
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 2: plain sight with Jeffrey Epstein, that he was a rich, well-connected, terrible, pedophile,
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 2: awful human being who uses connections to get away with
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 2: doing evil things, to Over the last month, watching Trump
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 2: try to shut down conversations about Epstein to learning about
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 2: all the factual discrepancies in the administration's story. the video
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 2: missing a minute. Like, I'm completely red-pilled on this thing now.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 2: I'm just, like, wondering.
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 8: Well, watching the mega world's head explode, like, wait a minute, like,
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 8: whose side are we supposed to be on here right now?
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 2: Minecraft head just, like, exploding off. How do you make
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 2: sense of this last month?
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 8: Well, let's not... I think it's important that we not
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 8: lose sight of the actual substance of this, that you
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 8: had a longtime sexual predator that was preying on women
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 8: and girls, and that there had presumably been hundreds of
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 8: perpetrators and accomplices that have not been brought to justice.
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 2: DOJ said a thousand victims in that memo. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 8: A thousand victims. Maybe over, you know, God knows how
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 8: many accomplices, right?
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 2: Right. Shocking.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 8: So that in and of itself should be enough for
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 8: anybody to say, Let's release the files and let's have justice, right?
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 8: It's never too late to name the names and to
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 8: call people out. That's really important. That's the most important thing.
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 8: And then on top of that, you have the corruption
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 8: and yet another cover-up by this administration, right, that doesn't
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 8: want to be transparent, that's clearly hiding something. I mean,
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 8: Donald Trump's, you know, constant true social posts trying to
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 8: get us to move on are damn telling.
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, not going so well either.
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 4: No, it's not.
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 2: On Wednesday of this week, 27 Senate Democrats voted to
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 2: cut off weapons shipments to Israel. That is a reaction
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 2: to the horrific images we've seen recently out of Gaza,
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 2: you know, starved to death children, emaciated children, just massive
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 2: crowds of people just desperately trying to get food. And
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 2: so that vote tally, 27 Democrats voting to cut off
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 2: weapons to Israel, that's unimaginable four or five years ago.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 2: Like Ben Rhodes and I did this event with J
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 2: Street in 2019. They had a bunch of the presidential candidates.
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 2: We tried to get them all to commit to conditioning
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 2: aid if it were to be used, U.S. military aid,
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 2: if it were to be used in the West Bank.
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 2: And we basically only got like Bernie on board with that.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 2: And now, you know, you see this vote. It's obviously
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 2: not enough, right? It's not going to stop these weapons shipments.
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 2: Are you seeing a similar political shift in the House?
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 2: And how are you thinking about whether we should cut
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 2: off or condition military aid to Israel around the war?
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 8: You know, you can't look at those images and see
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 8: what's happening, not just in the last couple of weeks,
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 8: but for, you know, a year plus now, the starving children,
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 8: the sheer desperation of the folks in Gaza, in the
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 8: settler violence in the West Bank, too. Let's not forget
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 8: about that and how terrible that is and that there
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 8: was just a Palestinian killed a couple of days ago
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 8: by a settler in the West Bank and say that
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 8: this is horrible stuff and that it doesn't need to happen, right?
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 8: And that's not That's not mutually exclusive. I'm also saying
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 8: that Hamas is a terrible organization and a terrible terrorist
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 8: organization and needs to be destroyed because I also believe that.
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 8: But my own experience at war, I went to war
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 8: three times for this country, three times in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 8: And I was in the position of leading troops in
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 8: combat where there were civilians everywhere, where I had to
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 8: go after our adversary, the insurgents, but there were civilians
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 8: all around us. And we constantly had to make decisions
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 8: about whether to engage or not engage or how to
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 8: target and to avoid the collateral damage to avoid killing civilians.
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 8: And that is why I actually formed, I was one
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 8: of the founding members of the Protection of Civilians in
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 8: Conflict Caucus. And I have focused a lot of my
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 8: efforts on protecting civilians. And that is why I know
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 8: that it didn't have to be this way. You didn't
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 8: have to choose between security and going after Hamas and
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 8: protecting civilians and ensuring security. that tens of thousands haven't died,
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 8: that there was a better way. And that's why I
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 8: pushed the administration, Biden administration, to actually just uphold our
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 8: own standards, right? Our standards are pretty clear. You know,
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 8: we have a conventional arms transfer policy. We had something
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 8: called NSM 20, National Security Memorandum 20, which is the
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 8: way that we actually enforced the conventional arms transfer policy.
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 8: And I led efforts to say, do the analysis, apply
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 8: the facts to our own laws and standards, and then
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 8: make the determinations. They unfortunately never went through that process
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 8: and did that because my belief is let's just apply
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 8: our own standards like we would to any ally, like
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 8: we would to ourselves. You know, hold others to the
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 8: same standards that we hold ourselves to. So, you know,
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 8: that ship has sailed or did under the Biden administration.
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 8: Right now, what needs to happen is a massive surge
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 8: of humanitarian aid to Gaza. The distribution system has failed terribly,
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 8: terribly in every way. that system needs to be completely revamped.
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 8: The UN and independent aid organizations need to be put
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 8: in charge because they know how to do this. And
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 8: there needs to be a massive surge of aid. But
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 8: I totally agree with that. But I think that there's
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 8: a concern that there might be this surge of aid
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 8: and then Netanyahu will continue the war for political purposes
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 8: because he has this right-wing part of his coalition that
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 8: has basically said, we'll dissolve the government if you don't
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 8: continue the war in perpetuity or adopt the Trump plan.
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 8: which is the full ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 8: and then the Israelis taking control. So I think there
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 8: is a hope among a lot of Democrats, like cards
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 8: on the table, myself included, that this might be a
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 8: moment where the United States government, hopefully led by the
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 8: Democratic Party, although I understand that we're not in power anywhere,
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 8: will try to push Netanyahu to permanently end the war
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 8: or try to force it. And I think a lot
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 8: of people think that a broad support for cutting off
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 8: weapons shipments is part of that.
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 8: Netanyahu is not going to end this on his own.
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 8: He just won't, as you pointed out. Netanyahu hasn't even
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 8: pushed hard and done what's necessary to get the release
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 8: of the hostages. And he has repeatedly throughout history undermined
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 8: opportunities to achieve peace and to dismantle Hamas. Let's not
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 8: forget that years ago, he was actually the one that
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 8: helped facilitate and prompt up what became the foundation for Hamas, right?
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 8: So he's not going to do that on his own.
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 8: He's only going to do that if there is external
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 8: pressure from this administration. And that's why, you know, people
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 8: speaking up. That's why Republicans, too.
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 8: I mean, Donald Trump probably doesn't care that much what
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 8: we have to say, to be honest with you. But
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 8: that's why Republicans and others who are starting to wake
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 8: up to this. Some of them are.
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 2: Marjorie Taylor Greene referred to it as a genocide. There
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 2: are people who are pushing votes to cut off aid.
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 2: And like, I don't agree with her on anything, but
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 2: I think she has spoken pretty eloquently. movingly and compellingly
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 2: about her desire to get out of conflicts overseas.
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 8: You know, when, when, when you are trying to build
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 8: a coalition, when you are trying to increase support for something, um,
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 8: it's not enough just to like double down on, on,
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 8: on language and, uh, on things that, that people who
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 8: already agree with you, uh, like, and agree with, right.
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 8: We have, we have to be, we have to be
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 8: willing to like broaden our aperture here and pull other
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 8: people into the coalition. who know that this is not
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 8: going the right way and this doesn't serve anyone's interests.
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 8: It doesn't serve Israel's long-term interest. It doesn't serve the
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 8: Palestinian interest and is certainly not going to deliver a
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 8: two-state solution, not even starting on the path towards a
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 8: two-state solution. And the only way to do that is
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 8: if we broaden our coalition and pull people in who
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 8: we may not agree with all the time on all issues,
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 8: but we have to be willing to do it.
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 2: Also, I'm sort of hoping there's going to be a
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 2: structural change around this issue or just the way that
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 2: we're thinking about it. Like, for example, a lot of Democrats,
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 2: myself included, Ben Rhodes, who you know well, have said
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 2: Democrats should stop taking money from AIPAC. And that is
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 2: in part because I think their view, their policy on
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 2: Gaza has been indefensible. But also because you see AIPAC
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 2: saying some pretty disgraceful things, like the Twitter account accused
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 2: Bernie Sanders of blood libel. The 80-year-old Jewish man, his
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 2: family died in the Holocaust, blood libel for raising concern
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 2: about the starvation of civilians in Gaza. Do you think
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 2: Democrats should stop taking money from AIPAC?
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 8: I think people should be pushed on their policies, right?
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 8: You should look hard at what they have said about
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 8: this issue and whether or not they want to show
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 8: leadership on the humanitarian crisis, whether they have a track
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 8: record of pushing for a two-state solution and making sure
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 8: that Palestinians have the right to dignity and a future
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 8: just like the Israelis do, right? And that is the
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 8: ultimate goal, and that's where we need to be. And
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 8: people need to be pressured for that. And people need
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 8: to hear from their constituents on that.
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 2: I think my concern is AIPAC is doing counterpressure, right?
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, they are basically endorsing Republicans. They're intervening in
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 2: Democratic primaries and taking out progressives. And it just feels
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 2: like they're supporting, you know, January 6th truthers. It just
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 2: seems like it's an organization that is not Democratic in
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 2: nature right now. Right.
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 8: I think that people need to feel pressure from their
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 8: constituents to do the right thing here and to push
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 8: back more than any other organization, regardless of what that
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 8: organization is. And I don't agree with these organizations a
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 8: lot and on all issues, but they need to feel
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 8: the pressure on the specific crisis that we have right now.
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 8: And they need to be pushed.
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 2: Next month is the four-year anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 2: from Afghanistan. Republicans have made this push to revisit the
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 2: final stages of the withdrawal, but that's about it, I think.
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 2: Looking back and knowing that you've served in multiple theaters,
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 2: do you think that we are doing the right kind
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 2: of accounting of the mistakes we've made since 9-11 and
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 2: the war on terror or even asking the right questions?
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 8: I think we are undoubtedly going to that process. And
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 8: this is something that a lot of people don't know
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 8: is that we actually created, I helped create along with
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 8: Tammy Duckworth and others, an Afghanistan war commission, which has
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 8: been a multi-year process. It's going to wrap up in
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 8: another year and a half, but it's going to do
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 8: a comprehensive look. It's very similar to the 9-11 commission, actually.
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 8: They are doing a comprehensive look of every facet of
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 8: this war. They're looking back over the 20-year history, every administration,
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 8: Republican and Democrat, every Congress, Republican and Democrat, the civilian leadership,
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 8: the military leadership, and looking at all of the missteps,
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 8: all of the missed opportunities, and what went wrong every
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 8: step of the way. So interviews, how does that work?
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 2: What do you, you guys like talking to the generals
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 2: who are in charge of various?
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 8: Yeah, well, this is an independent, congressionally created commission. So
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 8: it's not members of Congress that are serving.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 2: Sorry, I meant the commission, right?
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 8: Yeah, the commissioners.
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 2: Talking to the guy running RCE.
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 8: They are, they're doing hundreds of interviews, civilian leadership, military leadership.
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 8: They're doing hearings around the country because ultimately, I mean,
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 8: this is something that I feel very passionate about. We
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 8: spent 20 years, trillions of dollars thousands of lost lives,
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 8: you know, tens of thousands of lost Afghan lives, lost credibility,
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 8: and it ended poorly by every metric. So we just
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 8: can't do this again. We can't. And what we need
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 8: to know is, you know, why did it happen? What
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 8: were the missed opportunities? And again, I will say this
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 8: happened under just as many Democratic administrations as Republican ones,
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 8: and just as many Democrat-controlled Congresses as Republican ones. And
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 8: I actually believe one of the biggest problems behind both
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 8: Iraq and Afghanistan is the fact that Congress gave up
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 8: its authority. We have stepped out of our congressionally mandated
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 8: war powers authority, and we have written a blank check
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 8: to administration after administration through these authorizations for use of
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 8: military force, these AUMFs, that basically have allowed president after
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 8: president to continue military operations in dozens of different countries
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 8: now without any more debate without any more votes, and
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 8: largely financed by additional debt.
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 2: Is there any way to require that an AUMF sunsets
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 2: every year or has to be reauthorized? Because you're right. Look,
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 2: in hand up, work for Barack Obama, we surged troops
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 2: in Afghanistan. That's something that, with the benefit of hindsight,
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 2: I think was a mistake. I think that it's fair
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 2: to say that the The AUMF was stretched and strained
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 2: beyond all recognition to justify bombing places where it's impossible
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 2: to argue that Al-Qaeda proper was there, some sort of
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 2: affiliate group. Right.
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 8: These affiliate organizations is the language, right? They name groups
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 8: in the AUMF and then they're like affiliates.
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 8: It's like a spinoff. I mean, the idea behind it
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 8: is understandable, right? They don't want a group just to
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 8: change its name and rebrand and not being able to
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 8: target it. but it has really been abused to like
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 8: spin off and be used in pretty abstract ways, right?
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 8: And I actually believe in sunsets. This is actually a
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 8: key component of this debate. And I'm on that side
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 8: of the debate that no Congress should be able to
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 8: debate and then take a vote and then wash its
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 8: hands of it, right? There has to be a sunset
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 8: where both the administration is forced to come back and
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 8: make the case and Congress has to be held accountable.
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 8: You have to have more votes and more debate because
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 8: until that happens, where's the pressure? Where's the pressure to
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 8: end it? And the best way to have accountability is
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 8: through members of Congress because we are weekly going home
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 8: and we're holding town halls and auditoriums and rotary clubs.
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 8: And we have to stand in front of people and say, yeah,
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 8: your taxpayer dollars, your sons and daughters should be going
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 8: off and fighting this war and conflict. And here's why.
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 8: And if we can't make that case- then we shouldn't
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 8: be taking the vote.
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. And it's so frustrating. I mean, just seeing
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 2: how much inertia there is and how much easier it
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 2: is to bomb a place, start a war, perpetuate a conflict, then,
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 2: you know, get votes on the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear agreement,
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 2: which is an attempt to solve problems diplomatically. And I'm
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 2: really glad you guys are doing this review of sort
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 2: of what happened in Afghanistan, but there's also kind of a,
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 2: just a political problem or incentive structure problem that I
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 2: don't know how to solve in the United States that
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 2: to try to keep us out of these conflicts.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 8: Well, this is where you're seeing a little bit of
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 8: a convergence of, you know, the right and left, if
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 8: you will, right? Where people are like, no, why are
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 8: we going to do another war in the Middle East?
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 8: Why are we spending trillions of dollars?
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 8: And this is a damn good question because our track
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 8: record is not really good, right? You just can't point
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 8: to these and be like, oh, we're, you know, we're
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 8: having great success here.
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 4: We're not, right?
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 8: And that actually should be pretty telling. And we get
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 8: pulled into these quagmires. And then on the flip side, Ukraine,
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 8: which is actually doing its own fighting and is doing
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 8: a remarkable job, we're not supporting them in the way
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 8: that we should. So the incentive structures in the politics,
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 8: to your point, are completely out of whack on this.
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I know last Sunday you were denied entry trying
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 2: to get into an ICE detention facility in Aurora. I
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 2: think it's a facility you've been visiting repeatedly since what,
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 2: like 2019? Since 2019, yeah. I think you guys filed
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 2: suit yesterday against the Trump administration alleging that ICE officials
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 2: violated federal law by turning you away. Can you just
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 2: tell us about what happened and what should have happened
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 2: and where the lawsuit stands?
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 8: Yeah, so I mean, this is something, as you point out,
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 8: I've been doing for over six years now. So when
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 8: I first came in as a member of Congress in 2019,
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 8: this ICE detention center, is in my district, in the
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 8: center of my district, about a mile from where I live.
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 8: And we immediately started to get reports of disease outbreaks
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 8: and abuses and problems at this facility. So I literally
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 8: just showed up. I did an unannounced visit in February
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 8: of 19 and said, hey, I'm a member of Congress.
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 8: I'm here to do an inspection. They turned me away.
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 8: So it took numerous attempts before they finally let me in.
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 8: My team and I looked at the law and they're like, well,
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 8: there's no actual law that requires us to have access.
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 8: So we actually worked with members and we pushed and
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 8: we passed a law. So we created this law that
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 8: now says members of Congress have to be provided immediate
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 8: access to any facility that's run by the DHS that
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 8: receives congressional funding. So any federal money that flows through
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 8: DHS that detains migrants. And it doesn't matter whether that's ICE, CBP, HHS,
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 8: those are the three agencies that that run facilities of
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 8: various types, and that it doesn't need to be announced.
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 8: It can be unannounced visits, because that's actually really important
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 8: in oversight, right? You don't want to show up and-
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 8: It's all spiffied up. It's all spiffy, it's the Lysol
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 8: and fresh paint and the dog and pony show, right?
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 8: You need to get a real look and you need
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 8: to see what's actually happening. So we passed this law.
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 8: It's been on the books for years. I've continued to
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 8: do oversight. I visited this facility at least nine times.
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 8: My staff has been dozens of times. So I show
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 8: up a couple of weeks ago, And they say no.
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 2: Who's they?
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 8: In this case, it was ICE.
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 2: Like the person who runs the facility or something?
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 8: Well, GEO, so this is a privately run detention center.
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 8: And there's no distinction in the law between private and
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 8: not private. In this case, this is run by the
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 8: GEO Corporation, which runs all sorts of these facilities around
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 8: the country. And as a separate issue, I've actually been
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 8: pushing for years, along with Pramila Jayapal and others, to
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 8: end the private for-profit detention system. because it's just gross
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 8: and perverse. There's a profit motivation to incarceration.
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 2: And more people longer is more money.
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, you get all these abuses because it's
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 8: a profit-motivated system, right? And then you see all these
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 8: companies in lobbying for the expansion of these. It's really
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 8: just a really perverse system. So we've been trying to
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 8: close these facilities overall. But notwithstanding, and that's actually another
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 8: point of disagreement I have with the Biden administration, because
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 8: they issued an order ending private detention centers for federal detention,
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 8: but they exempted and carved out immigration detention facilities. So
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 8: we battled them on that. We weren't successful. So these
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 8: facilities still exist. So I was denied entry, which is
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 8: a violation, just a straight up, very clear violation of
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 8: the law. So yesterday we filed a lawsuit in federal court.
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 2: And what's the timeframe on that resolving?
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 8: We don't know. I mean, we just filed it yesterday.
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 8: There's 12 members total, all of whom were denied access
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 8: to facilities around the country because this is a feature,
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 8: not a bug. My denial was not uncommon, unfortunately. I mean,
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 8: they are denying access. They're impeding oversight. They're obstructing all
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 8: over the country repeatedly on a mass scale, actually, not
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 8: just with visits, but all oversight. So we are asserting
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 8: our rights to try to end this obstruction. And what
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 8: they say is they've implemented a new policy, they being
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 8: the Trump administration, that they've implemented a new policy that
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 8: requires seven days notice for a visit, which of course
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 8: guts effective oversight.
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 2: It's not the law, right?
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 8: And it's not the law, right? They can't just be like, nope,
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 8: we're going to do something different, right? That's not how
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 8: it works. Congress makes the laws, the president's supposed to
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 8: follow it. They can't buy executive order or fiat or
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 8: just their opinion, change it.
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 2: Well, We wish you the best of luck. with that.
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 2: Congressman Crowe, thank you so much for coming in. And
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 2: great to be here.
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 8: Thanks, Tommy.
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 2: Good to have you.
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: Thanks.
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 8: Appreciate it.
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: That's our show for today. Thanks to Congressman Jason Crowe
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: for coming on. Tommy Lovett and I will be back
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: with a new show on Tuesday.
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 2: Bye, everyone.
• 1:38:48
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