Latest / The Chuck ToddCast / Chuck’s Commentary - Donald Trump Ruined America 250 By Making It About Donald Trump + SCOTUS Proved It’s Not A “Trump Court”

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Chuck’s Commentary - Donald Trump Ruined America 250 By Making It About Donald Trump + SCOTUS Proved It’s Not A “Trump Court” · The Chuck ToddCast

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  Speaker 1: dot com slash chuck. Hello Aaron, Welcome to the Thursday
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: episode of the Chuck Todcast. And you know, it seems
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: to me that I need to let you know every
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: day of what my goal is and what I'm doing here.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: And let me just put it simply, I'm just trying
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: to explain politics to the rest of us. There's a
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: lot of left wing content and right wing content, anti
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Trump content, pro Trump content. I'm just here trying to
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: explain politics to the rest of us and So if
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: that's what you're looking for, understand what is and understand
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: what should be. And that was always the goal of
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: what I'm trying to do every episode. But hey, there's
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: nothing like a little repetition to remind you of what
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: we're up to here. So that's what it is. Welcome
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: to the Chuck Podcast. It's politics for the rest of us.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: And to get there, let me give you a quick
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: little rundown of today's episodes. Obviously, we got some big
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Supreme Court rulings, and we had another round of elections
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: in Colorado, and some important pull information that came out
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of the New York Times and my friends at AARP
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: that I think serve as a good sort of benchmark.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Here we are sort of five months to go before
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: election day, we've got some benchmark ideas is of where
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the electorate is at the moment and where the electorate
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: could be headed. And I also have my top five list.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: It's a fun one this week. My five favorite fictional presidents.
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  Speaker 1: I'll be very curious if you can guess what number
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  Speaker 1: one is. Let's just say I'm it is a fictional
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  Speaker 1: president that looks more real all the time. And then
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: of course I've got your questions, But where am I
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: going to begin. I'm going to begin where we're what
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: we're all doing this weekend, and that is wanting to
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: celebrate the fourth of July. But let's be honest, the
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: celebration of America at two fifty sucks. And I know
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: that is not the word you could argue that I'm
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: supposed to use. I should come up with something a
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: bit more mature than just simply saying, who this sucks?
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  Speaker 1: But guess what. Maybe I'm supposed to say the celebration
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: is challenging or compliict, catered or uneven. But the fact
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  Speaker 1: of the matter is now it just simply sucks. And
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  Speaker 1: it's not because America sucks. It's quite the opposite. America
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  Speaker 1: at two fifty should be so much bigger than what
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: we're what we're sort of experiencing at the moment. It
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  Speaker 1: should feel like one of those moments when the country
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  Speaker 1: pauses long enough to take itself seriously, not worship itself,
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  Speaker 1: not lie to itself, not wrap itself in bunting and
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  Speaker 1: pretend the story has always been noble and clean, but
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  Speaker 1: to take it seriously. This is an incredible experiment that's
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  Speaker 1: still going two hundred and fifty years since the Declaration
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: of Independence, two hundred and fifty years since this country
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  Speaker 1: announced a radical promise that it did not yet live
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  Speaker 1: up to, and then spent the next two and a
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  Speaker 1: half centuries fighting over whether it really meant what that
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: declaration said. To hell of a story. And yet as
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  Speaker 1: this fourth gets closer, this celebration feels smaller and smaller,
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  Speaker 1: and it really bothers me. It's funny, it's sort of
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: like what angers me. It's shit like this that angers
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: me because this should have been an easy one, at least,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: as these things go. Not easy because the story is simple.
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  Speaker 1: It is not simple. It's never been simple. It's fascinating,
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  Speaker 1: but it's easy because the country gave us the material.
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  Speaker 1: A republic born in contradiction, a founding document that declared
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  Speaker 1: equality while slavery still existed, a constitution that created a
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  Speaker 1: structure for self government but left millions of people outside
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  Speaker 1: the circle of full citizenship. A nation that has been
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: visionary and hypocritical, cruel and generous, exclusionary and expansive, self
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  Speaker 1: satisfied and self correcting. It's not a boring story, certainly
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  Speaker 1: not a weak story. It is quintessential American. This is
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  Speaker 1: the American story. It's a great story, and I wish
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  Speaker 1: that we're the story we were telling right now, because
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  Speaker 1: I do not believe America is disappointing. I believe exactly
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  Speaker 1: the opposite. The American experiment is one of the most
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  Speaker 1: remarkable achievements in the history of self governance. It is
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  Speaker 1: hard to govern a large country, It is harder to
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: govern a large, diverse country. And it is really hard
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: to govern a multi ethnic democracy where people have the
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: right to disagree with each other, sue each other, organize
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  Speaker 1: against each other, vote each other out of power, and
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  Speaker 1: still somehow remain part of the same constitutional system. We
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  Speaker 1: should not undersell this. We spend a lot of time
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: looking at what we do not have, or what we
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  Speaker 1: might lose, or where the country has failed. I do
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  Speaker 1: that all the time in politics. That is usually where
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  Speaker 1: the action is. But every once in a while it
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  Speaker 1: is worth stepping back and saying the obvious thing. When
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  Speaker 1: America is built is extraordinary, and it is also much
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  Speaker 1: younger than we pretend. The country is two hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty years old. The version of America that the founders
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  Speaker 1: created is only actually about sixty years old, because if
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  Speaker 1: we are being honest, the modern version begins with the
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  Speaker 1: Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Acts of sixty
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  Speaker 1: four and sixty five. Before that, yes, we had democratic forms,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: we had elections, we had parties, and we had courts,
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  Speaker 1: and we had all the language of democracy. But for
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  Speaker 1: millions of Americans, that promise was not real in any
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  Speaker 1: practical sense. By the way, this does not diminish the country.
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  Speaker 1: It just simply tells the truth about how we have
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  Speaker 1: made a more perfect union. The greatest phrase of the
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Founding documents right, it's doing so much right that phrase,
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  Speaker 1: and it matters so much more perfect. Is not a
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: claim of perfection. It is an admission that the work
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: is never finished, that societies evolved, and there's constantly opportunities
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  Speaker 1: to make a more perfect union. Now, the words were
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  Speaker 1: there before the reality showed up. The idea were there
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  Speaker 1: before the law ever caught up. The country had to
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: be pushed and forced, embarrassed, sometimes shamed, sometimes inspired, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: dragged closer to the thing it said it wanted to be.
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  Speaker 1: That is the American story. I wanted to see us
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  Speaker 1: celebrate at our two hundred and fiftieth birthday, not some
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  Speaker 1: cartoon version of seventeen seventy six, not a history that
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  Speaker 1: is afraid of slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow, immigration, civil rights, tossent,
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  Speaker 1: protest war, corruption, or any of the uncomfortable chapters that
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  Speaker 1: make a story worth telling. Right, it's the uncomfortable parts
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  Speaker 1: that make a story interesting. It's what makes it our story.
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  Speaker 1: America is not remarkable because it was born perfect. It
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: is remarkable because it created enough room over time for
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  Speaker 1: people to keep fighting to make it better. And that
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: is why the Supreme Court rejecting Donald Trump's attempt to
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  Speaker 1: restrict birthright citizenship in this moment matters a lot. I
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: know some people want to focus on the folks who
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: disagreed with the majority. We are always going to folks
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  Speaker 1: that disagree with a majority in this democracy. What's important
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: is what was agreed upon, and a conservative court refusing
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: to let this president narrow that inheritance is not some
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: side issue. It is part of the story. It is
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: another reminder that the multi ethnic democracy we have built
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  Speaker 1: is more durable than its enemies want to believe. And
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: it is a reaffirmation that America is an idea, not
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  Speaker 1: an ethnicity. The Court and I'm sorry anybody that does
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  Speaker 1: not believe American is an idea is not an American.
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  Speaker 1: In my book, the court struck down Trump's order in
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  Speaker 1: June thirtieth, with the majority reaffirming birthright citizenship under that
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  Speaker 1: fourteenth Amendment. And it kind of is it a six
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  Speaker 1: to three decision? Is it a five and a half
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: to three and a half because Justice Kavanaugh agreed in
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  Speaker 1: the result on statutory grounds, which is why the legal
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: split is probably more nuanced than a headline alone suggests.
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  Speaker 1: But it's proof that this country, in this republic, is durable.
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  Speaker 1: It's not indestructible, but it is durable. And the durability
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  Speaker 1: of an idea is no small thing. So this anniversary
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  Speaker 1: should have been a moment to think seriously about the country,
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  Speaker 1: to celebrate it, but also to understand it. Do a
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  Speaker 1: little civics education, right, And we failed at that too,
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  Speaker 1: To tell the story of a republic that has been
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: all of these things all at once, visionary and hympocritical,
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  Speaker 1: brutal and generous, exclusionary and expansive, arrogant and self correcting.
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  Speaker 1: That's not anti American. That is the only kind of
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  Speaker 1: patriotism that makes sense to me. And instead, here we
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  Speaker 1: are and I do not think there is any way
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: to avoid the obvious reason this anniversary feels so much
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  Speaker 1: smaller than it should be. Donald Trump has made the
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  Speaker 1: country's birthday about Donald Trump. Now, did we all see
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: this coming? Yes, we did. We most of us did.
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  Speaker 1: But it doesn't make it hurt any less. Look, it's
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: not the only thing that is wrong with this moment.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: There's other things that are wrong, but this is the
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  Speaker 1: defining thing. Donald Trump has ruined the American brand and
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the American Birthday celebration. The country had a bipartisan congressionally
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: created America two fifty effort, you know, years ago. In
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: the Planning America two fifty, the organization describes itself as
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: a bipartisan initiative for the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: at the US semi Quincentennial Commission was created by Congress
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen to lead this nationwide commemoration. There was
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: supposed to be state and local events, history, civics groups, schools, museums,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: cities and towns, all capable of telling their own peace
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: of the great American story. It could have been broad.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: It might have been a little messy, might have even
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: been a little bland at times. But that would have
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: been fine, because sometimes bland is the point. Sometimes bland
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: is how you make room for everybody. Maybe a little
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: bit hochey in bland, right, but that's okay. You're trying
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: to widen the atmosphere aperture here. But Trump couldn't do it.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: He couldn't leave it alone. He created his own version
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: of the celebration. First, he created this task Force in
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: celebrating America's two fiftieth Birthday with Freedom to fifty, with
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the President his chair and the Vice President his vice chair,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: and it competed and overshadowed the congressionally created taxpayer funded
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: America to fifty effort. Trump just took it all over.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: He staged his own little UFC fight on the White
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: House lawn. A literal cage gets erected, or a bouncy
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: house that looks like a cage gets erected in the
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: backyard on his birthday. And it was supposed to also
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: be about the two hundred and fiftieth birthday too, Right,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: what's there to even add on this? Right? The image
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: does the work. There's a cage on the White House lawn,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: a national birthday turned into his own personal political rally,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: a celebration of the country made to orbit one man.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: And this is why so many people are opting out.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: This is why so many polls have shown how uninspired
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: people feel at this moment. And this is the part
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: that Trump's supporters refuse to take responsibility for. They want
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: to say that Democrats are being petty, or the left
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: is pouting, or Trump's critics just refuse to feel patriotic
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: while he is president. Well, Number one, the beauty of
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: this country is that you get to feel whatever the
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: hell you want. It's your first Amendment right. There's no
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: law that says you have to love America every hour
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: of every day. There's no requirement that we all feel
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: proud at the same moments or for the same reasons.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: What made me proud as American may not have made
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: you proud to be an American at a given point.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Some people feel patriotic when they see military power. Some
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: feel it when they see protest. Some feel it when
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: they watch fireworks on the Fourth of July. Some feel
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: it watching a naturalization ceremony, one of the most moving
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: things I've ever attended. Some feel it when the country
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: honors the founders. Some feel it when the country finally
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: tells the truth about the people the founders excluded. This
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: is not a defect in America. It's what makes us
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: different from every other fricking country on this planet. This
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: is the feature of this country. And a president who
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: understood the country would understand that. He would understand that
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: his job in a moment like this is not to
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: force everybody into his version of patriotism. His job is
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: to make room for other people's patriotism too. But Trump
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: cannot do that. He can't even fake it, couldn't bake it.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Talk about the ultimate insult to all of us as Americans.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: He always thinks everyone else should accommodate him. He never
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: thinks he should accommodate anyone else at all. That's why
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: our allies are not really there for us anymore. And
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: that is a real problem when the job is to
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: lead a country where half the people did not vote
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: for you, once did not support you, and may never
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: support you. They are no less American than you are.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: This is the thing that gets lost on a lot
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: of the coverage of him. Character is not some side issue.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: It is about whether someone is personally admirable. It's not
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: about that either character matters because there are moments when
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: the country needs a president to rise above himself. Do
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: you have the character to just put anybody else before yourself.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: I'm not even asking you to do it all the time,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: just per small period of time, just long enough to
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: let the country have this moment. It's not your moment.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump, you selfish you. But he couldn't do it.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: He turns participation into endorsement. He turns every handshake into
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: a trophy. He turns this natural ritual into some branding opportunity.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: And the self enrichment is just disgusting. I mean, you
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: want to know why. Jd Vance now says that Nixon
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: no longer would be a ten hour stories because the
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: corruption taking place in the administration he's serving in totally
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: overshadows anything Nixon attempted to do. And then we're all
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: supposed to pretend the people who stay away are the
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: ones being divisive. Please, this is so backwards. If you
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: make every shared space feel like your personal property, you
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: should not be surprised when people stop showing up. The
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Great American State Fair on the National Ball could have
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: been amazing, could have been Epcot comes to DC. Instead,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: it became another example of the problem, a patriotic showcase
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: that many people could not quite separate from the man
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: who had seized it. There's a reason there are sparse
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: crofts withdrawn performers, states declining to send delegations, accusations of partisanship,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: and grift around everything. Freedom two fifty as an organization
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: is touched. And what makes this especially frustrating is that
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: these big anniversaries almost never you know, we don't have
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: a lot of them. And ironically, our big anniversary moments
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: have come at some really inopportune times. And maybe that's
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: the lesson we need to take away from this. Maybe
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: anniversaries are less like celebrations and more like mirrors. At
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: one hundred, the country was about to abandon reconstruction. We
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: were on the edge of one of the worst retreats
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: from equality in American history, right, the eighteen seventy six Compromise,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: one of the worst things we have done in our
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: country's history. That was just after we turn one hundred.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: At one hundred and fifty in nineteen twenty six, the
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: country was still living with the stench of Teapot Dome
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: and the corruption of the Harding era, which at the
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: time was probably the worst taxpayer grift we've seen yet.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Until now, at two hundred, the country was still coming
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: out of Vietnam, Watergate, Nixon in a profound loss of
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: trusted government. So here we are, at two fifty, we
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: have this. Maybe that isn't an accident. Maybe the big
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: round numbers forced us to look at ourselves. Sometimes we
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: do not like what we see. I do not like
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: what I see right now. I do not like that
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: we had a chance to celebrate the country in a
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: serious way and are instead watching this president cheap in it.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I do not like that younger Americans are being taught
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: that this is normal, that natural rituals are just campaign
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: events with better fireworks. I do not like that a
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: country with this much to celebrate as a leader who
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: cannot share the stage with the country, he leaves. And
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: I should be clear about something. I'm not mad at
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: the voters. Voters make choices for all kinds of reasons.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Some are whise, some are not. That's democracy. I'm mad
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: at the leader. I'm mad that someone handed this responsibility
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: keeps showing he does not understand the story he's supposed
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: to be helping this country tell Trump does not see
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: himself as one president in a long constitutional chain that
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: begins with George Washington. He sees himself as the exception
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: to this chain. He treats the presidency as if it
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: begins a new book, instead of being one chapter and
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: a very old, very messy, very consequential book. That is
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: not patriotism. Patriotism is not being afraid of history. It
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: is not pretending the country was perfect in seventeen seventy six.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: It is not acting as if the only way to
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: love America is to stand off every rough edge and
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: call the result pride. I love the American story because
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: it is so complicated. I love it because this country
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: keeps producing people who force it to become better than
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: it was. I love it because the Constitution gives us
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: a way to argue and repair and restrain power and
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: expand liberty, and to keep going when we get it wrong,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: and we have gotten plenty wrong. That's part of the
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: story too. But I remain an optimist about America. I
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: really do. I think it is possible that someday we
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: will look back on the Trump era and be grateful
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: for some of what had exposed, not grateful for the
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: damage or for the cruelty, or for the corruption, but
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: for the clarity. He has shown us what needs fixing.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: It's been an MRI. He has shown us how fragile
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: norms are. He has shown us how much depends on restraint, institutions, character.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: He has shown us what happens when the president does
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: not see the country as something larger than himself. And
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: maybe that is the lesson of America two fifty. Not
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: the celebration we deserve. In some ways, Donald Trump's doing
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: all of us a favor by selfishly trying to steal
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: this anniversary from us. We now see who he really is.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: So now it's not the celebration we deserve. It's not
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: the one we could have had. But we get a mirror,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: and the mirror is telling us something. The country is
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: a lot bigger than Donald Trump. It is bigger than
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: any president, and it's obviously bigger than any political party.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: And there's no one definition of patriotism. But it still
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: needs leaders who understand that, it still needs citizens who
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: insist on it, and it still needs people willing to
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: say that the national story belongs to all of us,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: not just to whoever happens to hold power at any
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: one moment. America at two fifty may be a lost opportunity.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump has absolutely sullied the brand of America, but
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: America two seventy five does not have to be. Maybe
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: by then we will want to make up for what
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: we missed in this, in this, in this anniversary. Maybe
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: by then we're going to remember how to celebrate the
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: country without making the celebration feel like an endorsement of
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: one man or one political movement. Maybe by then we
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: will have learned again that the American story is the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: most powerful when it is told honestly right. We make
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: other countries behave better when we own up to our mistakes.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: That story is still the most important one to me.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: For some people, the central text in their lives is religious,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: and I respect that. For me, the Constitution has always
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: carried that kind of weight. So that's why I'm so
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: angry and feel betrade. I do. I feel be traded
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: as an American by him on This Constitution is not perfect,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: but it gives us a way to keep going. It
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: gives a structure for disagreement, It gives us a method
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: for repair. It gives us the possibility of becoming better
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: without pretending we were always good may it makes some
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: of the same promises that some religious texts do for people.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: And this is why I'm so pissed off, Not because
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: I love the country less, but because I love the
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: idea of America enough to resent seeing it cheapened by
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: this man. America deserves better at two fifty someday, I
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: believe it will get better. Let's sin your hands. Don't
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: let him steal your patriotism. You don't have to pay
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: attention to anything he does. On the fourth of July
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: belongs to you. This episode of The Chuck Podcast is
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: brought to you by now Almost everything you hear about
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: medicare is somebody quietly trying to steer you somewhere, and
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: you're skeptical of that, as you should be. I get it.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's a federal lawsuit going on right now
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: over exactly there's companies that branded themselves as unbiased while
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: allegedly pointing people toward whatever would pay them the most,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: as some sort of broker. So if your default is
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: to distrust everyone in this space, honestly, I get it.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: I'm a bit distrustful these days myself. That's the whole
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: reason I want to tell you about chapter. They're independent
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: medicare advisors whose entire model is that their advisors are
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: not paid to push any one plan. They're just trying
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: to help. Yes, there's compensation that goes with it, but
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: it's across the board, is what they're trying to do.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: At the end of the day, they're advocating for you.
• 24:49
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• 24:58
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• 25:03
  Speaker 1: and hopefully send save you a couple of dollars too.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: And here's the part that sets chapter apart. They don't
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: disappear once you've been in a role. They will keep
• 25:12
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  Speaker 1: concierge service. You're just there, I need help. You're like
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: customer service. You know the plan, you know, help me
• 25:20
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• 25:22
  Speaker 1: wrongful medical bill, they'll help you fight it. They want
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: to stay an advocate for you even after you've done this.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: So look, I get it. I think there's all sorts
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: of space. You see a lot of people are throwing
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: themselves in this healthcare space. What I like about these
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Chapter folks, I've spent time with them. This is a
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: very transparent organization. It is Medicare, and all of its
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: affiliated stuff can be very confusing. The whole point of
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: this is to make this easier and less confusing. Okay,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: so look, take this skepticism you already have in all
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: of this. Point it at your own plan for twenty minutes.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: It's free, there's no pressure, and then call Chapter today
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: at nine eight zero seven three four three, nine eighty
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: five that I want to go to a few things.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: I've done some short form videos on a few things,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: but I want to talk a little bit about a
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: few of the headlines that we've had over the last
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: three or four days. One, let me tackle the court
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: real quick, because I will say this. I think between
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: the birthright citizenship case, the campaign finance case, and the
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Eging Carol case. Right, here's one thing that you cannot say.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: This is not a Trump court. Okay, it is a
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: conservative court, but it is not a Trump court, and
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: that is an important distinction. I think some of the
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: coverage of the court, you know, this is where you
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: know this is why I'm doing what I'm doing, right.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: I don't you know, I have no desire to ever
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: go back to this to the world of legacy media,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: because I just don't think. I just think that time
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: is coming gone. Not in just my career, I think
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: for legacy media in general. But you know, there's there's this,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: you know, binary way that the court gets covered, and
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: it's complicated. It's ironic by the way that the trumpiest
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: justices are two that he never appointed, right, the trumpiest
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: justices or two that were appointed by H. W. Bush
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: and George W. Bush stick that in your establishment hat
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: and uh and and and Stewart right, But you see
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: that that the that this is, This is a there
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: is a majority conservative, no doubt, there are partisans on
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: this court, but the court itself has not become partisans.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: And that's important. I will say this. The look the
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: campaign finance decision is, you know, this court has been
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: consistent on money, so it didn't surprise me, but it
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: is shouldn't be lost on anybody. And this is where
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: I think why so many in the left believe the
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Court just simply is pro Republican because two of their
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: biggest decisions have basically bailed Republicans out here in the midterms.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Decision one was the gutting of the voting rights ack
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: that essentially greenlit you know, and it's not lost on me.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: It seems as if this Supreme Court will green light
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: any Republican remap, but seems to not have the same
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: enthusiasm for green lighting democratic remaps. And yes, there were
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: technical distinctions, and you can sit here and say that they're,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: you know, following the letter the law. They just seem
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: to find the letters. The letters seem to be easier
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: to find in red states than they do in the
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: blue states. But it's an important right, it is. It
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: is cut down the number of swing seats. And then
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: this decision on campaign finance, And why is it such
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: a bailout of the Republican Party in a moment that
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: they needed to bail out, Because what it does is
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: it allows their big donors to have the money go farther.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Let me explain. So right now, when you purchase a
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: television ad as a campaign, the candidate trying to purchase
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: that ad time has to be sold that ad time
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: at the lowest rate. There is a special political rate, right,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: they're not allowed to gouge that outside groups have to
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: pay the same rate that Colgate pays or that Progressive
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Insurance pays. They got to pay the higher rate. And
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: so what the court said is the party money. Now
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: that is that for the for the National Party. So
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: this is just the RNC, NRSC NRCC, right, the National
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Party Committee, the Senate Committee and the House Committee, and
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: the DNC, the d SEC and the d Triple C
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: same construction there the National Party that they can now
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: coordinate their spending and the money that is spent by
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: the National Party to help a specific race, it can
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: be used to buy the low ad rate possible. Well,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: this is why this matters, right. There used to be
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: this distinction where candidate raised dollars were given the discount,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: but party committee dollars or independent Expenditure Committee dollars that
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: are essentially where they can raise unlimited funds or huge six,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: seven and eight figure checks. Right, those those used to
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: have to pay at a higher rate. Well, now that
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: you could pay that lower rate. Well, Democrats are better
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: at raising small dollar contributions than Republicans are these days.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Act blue is this is why Republicans have targeted Act Blue.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: It's been an incredible organizing tool to sort of take
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: grassroots money and move it smartly. The Republicans have tried
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: to come up with a competitor and win Red to
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: try to do the same, but they just really have
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: a small donor problem. But on the six figure and
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: seven figure checks, there are more Republicans six and seven
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: figure donors than there are Democratic donors in that level, right,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: the super big donors both parties have about the same,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: but it's sort of this upper middle class donor, the
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: person that can write the million dollar check, but that
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: can't write the ten million dollar check, right, Republicans that
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Democrats have the same amount of people that can write
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: the ten, fifteen, and twenty five million dollar checks. But
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: where the Republicans dominate to say, I have a hell
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: of a lot more people that will write the five
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: hundred to willion dollar checks compared to the Democrats. And
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: that's where this becomes a huge asset. So the point is,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: this is a huge financial asset for particularly for House Republicans.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: But if you just look at it, right, the National
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: Republican Party committees and they're big donors, they're able to
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: you know, I think this will financially bring Republicans basically
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: on par and probably means that Republicans will end up
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: out spending the Democrats. The last couple national cycles, Democrats
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: have been able to outspend Republicans out advertise Republicans because
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: they've had this advanceage of buying lower advertising rate, using
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: dollars to buy lower advertising rates. Now the Republicans are
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: able to essentially do the same thing. So it does
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: this is a huge help in a midterm cycle where
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: all the enthusiasms on Team Blue and this is an
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: attempt to mitigate it. So it's a huge deal. But
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: you can't sit here and say the same court that
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: does this but then also said that Egen Carroll had
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: to be paid and also about birthright citizenship. So my
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: point is it's a conservative court and this has been
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: you know that is fact. It is not a Trump court,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: and we should be relieved and thankful that it is
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: not a Trump court. If there is one thing that
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: this court is consistent about. By the way, and I
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: think another reason why birthright citizenship. If you care about
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: this issue, you need to don't assume this is done.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: The thing you need to be concerned about is what
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: this court, Well, this Court will show death reference to
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Congress if they are explicit in what they want. Right,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: if you want to prevent the firing of some of
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: these independent you need to be more explicit and exactly
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: what the what the regulatory body should do, what happens
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: when certain people end up being fired by the president,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: how does the replacement process work? Right? I think a
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: good lesson has been learned in the Director of National
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Intelligence and how the statute was very specific. If Congress
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: wants to protect the independent regulators at the SEC, the FTC,
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: the FCC, FEC, and at the FED, I think it's
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: it's clear that Congress needs to be more explicit and
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: exactly how it wants this regulatory body to function, how
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: vacancies are supposed to be filled, who gets to fill it,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: what are the qualifications. And it's clear to me that
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: if you add more on the on the side of
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: the statute, you make it harder for the for the
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: courts to simply default to the executive authority. And that's
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: what this court's gonna do, all right, They're going to
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: continue to default to the executive unless there's explicit legislative
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: language here that's put into the statute. So I think
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: you're going to see a conservative effort to try to
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: restrict some part of birthright citizenship. Maybe it's birth tourism
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: or something like that, And the courts may be more
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: open to something like this, but it's going to have
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: to come from the legislative branch. But that, to me
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: is the big lesson that policymakers should take away from
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: this court that if you want to protect some of
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the regulatory powers of these quasi independent agencies in the
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: executive branch, you've got to be more explicit. I know
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: this sounds a little wonky, but I think that this
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: is the lesson and this is what we're going to
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: find out. Right until Congress is a functional body and
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: cares about its independence again, we're going to continue to
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: have these sort of problems between the executive and the
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: judiciary because of the way Congress has abdicated its its responsibilities. Now,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: a quick little thought on what happened in Colorado, and
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: I think the question is are we seeing right? The
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: is this has the DSA movement broken through from the
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: coasts into the heartland. And I just simply think to TBD,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: all right, Denver is a I think a small sample
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: size I'll go back to what I said before. The
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: real test for the DSA movement and DSA adjacent movement
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: and the Justice Democrats is going to be Michigan. And frankly,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: the real test isn't Michigan on primary day with Abdul Sayad.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: It is whether, if he's the nominating whether he can
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: win the general election, right, and that is that is
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: that is going to be the big I think the
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: big judgment on that front. But I think you can't
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: discuss the success of the DSA candidate in Denver on
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: Tuesday night and ignore what also happened with John Hickenlooper
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: where he got held under sixty percent by somebody he
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: had bet nine to one, and the loss by Michael
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: Bennett in the gubernatorial primary to the City Attorney General
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: Phil Wiser. If there was a common thread between the
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: the GAT race, the gov race, and the and the
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Senate race, it was all three sort of Washington figures here,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: because obviously Bennett wasn't the incumbent, but he kind of
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: he kind of ended up being treated as the incumbent.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: The critique that seemed to hit that was hardest for
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: them to push back on was this idea that hey,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: you're part of the system that created this mess and
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: you have not done enough about it. In fact, you
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Michael Bennett even voted to confirm a Trump cabinet secretary. You,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: John Hick and Hooper even confirmed. And this is what
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: we saw with the Tea Party early on, where a
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: firing offense would be something like that, where that used
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: to be not considered a fireable offense, sort of the
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: confirmation of cabinet secretaries, which is just kind of like
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: perfunctory to many people. When that starts right, you saw
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: the right would just get mad that they even by
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: by by confirming in Obama a cabinet official. You've given,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: you've accepted the premise that he can govern or whatever
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: it is. And and I think there is this anger
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: on the left that feels very similar to that. We
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: saw that sort of your anger on the right. And
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: if you're fighting Trump, you need to be fighting them
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: all the time. You can't ever give an inch. And
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: what seemed to unify in what what hit all three
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: of those races is was was if you if you
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: just want you know, you need to get caught fighting,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: is what it was. And I have to say, I mean,
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: you know, I saw somebody note with these New York
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Times polls that showed that the you know, the candidate
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: seems to be the safest is Roy Cooper, and there
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: needs to be more notice of how did Roy Cooper
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: do this? Well, I've got a simple answer. Cooper avoided
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: a primary. And you know, we're in a moment right now,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: just like we saw it's like how did Glenn Youngkin
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: win in Virginia and he didn't have a real primary.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: We're in a moment right now where this is a
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: restless These are restless electorates. The base of the Republican
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Party distrusted its establishment. The base of the Democratic Party
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: basically looks at the second election at Trump and says, Okay,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: this is now a reflection on you guys. You guys
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: had a chance to eradicate him and you failed. And
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: anybody associated with the Biden era in twenty four and
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: let this be a lesson to Pete Bootage. Let this
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: be a lesson to anybody that Kamala Harris, if you're
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: if you've got fingerprints in the Biden era, they're going
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: to be voters are saying you didn't do enough to
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: stop Trump the first time. Why should we trust you
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: with power this time? That may be what we're hearing
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: out of here. And this is why I'm not convinced
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: that Republicans are going to easily be able to say, hey,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: look the Democrats are going crazy left. I think it's
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: something that could that they can weaponize for a presidential race.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: I think it's a little harder to weaponize in different races.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: In fact, the New York Times polling shows me that
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: I think Iowa was one of those places where you
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: see the numbers where people say, yeah, I think the
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: National Party's too liberal, but I don't believe that of
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: my nominee in my state right, and in Iowa, like
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Turrek does better than the national brand, and it's almost
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: consistent across the board. So the fact that voters see
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: a distinction between their candidate and the national brand, I
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: think tells you that this is going to be I
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: think harder. I think it's I'm not as convinced that
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: DSA is a is full baggage yet in some of
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: these races, especially when you have an unpopular president and
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: all this, I'm not saying it eventually isn't a problematic,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: and I think it becomes you know, the real question
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: is what happens if you know, there's sort of to me,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: there's three outcomes that will determine this sort of civil
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: war that's perhaps going to take place inside the Democratic Party.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: There's sort of three outcomes that I think, depending on
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: what happens, will trigger different types of fights. So if
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: Democrats win both the House and the Senate, I don't think,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: you know, I think I Kim Jeffries is going to
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: have a fairly smooth path to the speakership. I don't
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: think you will see the Justice Democrats or DSA adjacent
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Democrats or DSA ors who look like they're going to
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: be a caucus of somewhere between twelve and twelve and
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: twenty right twenty in the high end, sort of ten
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: to twelve on the low end. You know, if if
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Democrats are picking up more seats than the entire size
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: of the Justice Democrats DSA caucus, then you should have
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: nothing to worry about. But if Democrats win the House
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: but don't win the Senate, that's where things I think
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: get hinky for a Nakim Jeffries and that vote for speaker,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: because I do think a failure to win the Senate
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: you're going to have fingerpointing going both ways. Right, You're
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: going to have the establishment pointing to the socialists and
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: the progressives and saying it's your fault we didn't pick
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: up the Senate. And you're going to have the left wing,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: the socialist progressive saying, hey, we picked up the House.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: You guys suck. Schumer sucks. That's the reason. And in fact,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: we need to put some more guardrails on Jeffries because
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: we don't trust Jeffries down the road. So that's a
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: scenario where the split decision, right, I think, totally sets
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: you know, then of course there's a scenario where nobody
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: wins anything right, where the Republicans hold both the House
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: and the Senate. That's Katie brought to the door. That
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: becomes existential crisis and it's like everybody could get could
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: get thrown out. But that is I think that's the
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: scenario we're seeing. Look, ultimately, it's cleared Democratic voters are
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: fired up about fighting Trump. The question is what can
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: get these voters to fifty percent plus one in a
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: general election. Resistance to Trump has not been enough to
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: win over these voters, or if it would, you would
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: you you know, there wouldn't be a second Trump term.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Is it? Affordability is a corruption? Every day. Trump makes
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: it a lot easier for Democrats to make their case right.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: And that's probably the best asset they got it going,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: is that Donald Trump refuses to retreat, in fact, the
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: fact that he wants to nationalize his elections and have
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: a national convention in September. I promise you, I think
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: James Tall, Rico and others would help fund this convention
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: to make sure. Please Republicans go ahead, get closer to
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: Trump nationalize this election. A nationalized election is terrible for
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: the party in power. And I don't care where you are, right,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: that is exactly what you make this a referendum on Trump,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: I promise you, I know what that result is going
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: to be. And him leaning into this convention, I get
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: their thinking. Their thinking as well. They've got to find
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: they've got to find a way to motivate the Trump
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: voter to show up to the midterms, because they this
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: may simply be an energy turnout contest. That's true in
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: a few states, that's not necessarily true in some other states.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: Now again, I get I think the Republican line of
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: thinking on this and I'll I get to it more
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: later in this show when I talk about the potential
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: for an Alito retirement, is whatever it takes for them
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: to get that presidential voter to show up in a
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: mid Trump. So this is the whole idea of the
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Trump experiment that somehow it's going to get mag and going.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: I think that that, you know, It's like, put it
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: this way, if you signed Justin Verlander, do you think
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: you've got Justin Verlander from fifteen years ago or do
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: you have a version of Justin Verlander who might have
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: lost his fastball. I think Donald Trump's lost his fastball.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: So I don't know if he can motivate the way
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: people think he can motivate. So we shall see. So anyway,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna look, I really wanted to spend more time.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: I'm stilling, I'm angry, I'm really just I'm sorry that
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: this president screwed up an opportunity that could have been
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: an incredible educational experiment, experience, all of these things. It's
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: so depressing because it was a real opportunity and he
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: ruined it, and he's the reason why we have we're
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: all feeling kind of disappointed and how and how this
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: has all turned out. This should be a better party,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: this should be a better celebration, but we just we
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: have the wrong person in charge. He just can't. He
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: doesn't know what it's like. He doesn't know what it's
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: like to be an American. And that's the God's honest truth.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: All right, with that, taking a break and we've come
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: back my conversation on what the centrist wing of the
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: Democratic Party how they planned to deal with the rising
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: progressive wing of the party. The test top five top
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: to test top well in the spirit of Independence Day
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: America two fifty, which of course I've lamented, and how
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: much unfortunately this has been ruined by the current president.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: I thought, instead of talking about real presidents, we talk
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: about fictional presidents. Because I'll be honest, when I think
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: of Independence Day, I think of the greatest fictional presidential
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: speech today is not just our Independence Day by Bill Pullman.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: So I thought, you know what, I'm gonna give you
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: my five favorite fictional presidents. This doesn't mean they're who
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: I think would have made good presidents per se. There's
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: one or two on here that I think would have
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: would have made good overall presidents. But I think in
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: the spread. I'd love to hear from you, who would
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: you have added to this list and let's have a
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: little bit of fun that. So here's my top five
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: list has always brought to you my friends at FANDAL.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: So number five is President David Palmer Dennis Haysbert from
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: twenty four and I will this is the most presidential
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: of my picks, if you will like he could have
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: been president now. I'm also going to put him on
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: the list because Dennis was the voice of Meet the
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: Press when he used to introduce Meet the Press, the
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: longest running television show that was of course the voice
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: of Dennis Haysberty's and just like his voiceover for the
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: introduction to me on Meet the Press and twenty four,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: he was calm, he was grave, he was believable. He
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: was one of the fictional president link. I vote for
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: that guy, and it did seem as if he was
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: constantly dealing with national security crisis. At least the fictional
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: resume is pretty strong, So count me in. Number four
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: in my list is of course one of the worst
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: presidents fictional presidents we've ever had, but perhaps the funniest
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: fictional president we've ever had, and that is President, Selena Meyer,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Julie Louis Dreyfuss on the Mount Rushmore of all time
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: great comedic actors. Look Veep. As many of us tell
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: you all the time. You know what's more real, viep
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: or west Wing. I'm telling you Washington is more Veep
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: than west Wing. There is no you know, the world
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: that Aaron Sorkin has created does not exist and may
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: never have existed. But the world created by Veep very
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: much exists. And look she is. What Selena Meyer exposes
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: is those that have the super ambition. Now the irony
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: is most of the of the truly ambitious, driven, want
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: to be presidential candidates never actually get the office. We do,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: we're usually pretty good at sniffing out those who just
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: want the office to have the office's sake, right that
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: everything like that, And I say, we're usually pretty good
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: at sniffing that out. I said, we're usually pretty good
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: at sniffing that out. We don't always sniff that out
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: very well, but Selena Meyer, all that I mean, Veep
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: Deep is one of those shows that I when I
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: now watch it in the Trump era, it just hits
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: different important, but it hits different. Number three on my
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: list is President James Marshall. You may know him as
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: Harrison Ford. Get off my plane, right, Look, Harrison Ford.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: You know I have a son named Harrison. I love
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: Harrison Ford. I didn't technically name him after Harrison Ford
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: for those of you wondering, But you know, it's funny
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: if there's like two actors that sort of have been
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: with me in more movie theaters than any other. Two
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: actors that I would go to for the longest period
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: of time, whether in movie or TV, it is Kevin
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: Costner and Harrison Ford. So there is this affinity I
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: certainly have for Harrison Ford. I'm a middle aged white guy,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: so I'm probably not alone on that front. I don't
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: know if that character would have been a good president,
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: but I know that if I wanted to deal with
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: the Russians, I would want fictional President James Marshall. And
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: get off my plane is It's basically what happens if
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Indiana Jones had the nuclear codes. Because the beauty of
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: Harrison Ford. You know, I've always I heard I one
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: time heard this interview about acting. There are two types
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: of actors, humans and aliens, and the point being is
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: that the alien is like a Meryl Street or Gary Oldman.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: They become the character and you can't even recognize the
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: actor playing the character. They are so good at essentially
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: becoming this character. And then there are people like George
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: Clooney Harrison Ford, who are always George Clooney and Harrison Ford,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: and yet they know how to play Harrison Ford as
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: a fictional president, or Harrison Ford as the archaeologist, or
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Harrison Ford is the swashbuckling smuggler right in a space movie.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: The point being is, you know, they're kind of the
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: same guy, but we really like that guy, and I
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: think that's Harrison Ford. So he's number three, number two
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: on my list. Normally would have been number one because
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: it's the greatest fictional speech anybody's ever written. It is
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: Thomas Whitmore otherwise the fictional president played by Bill Pullman
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: an Independence Day. It is the speech, right if Harrison
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: Ford is defined by get off my plane when he
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: kicks him off the plane, this president, you know, it's funny,
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: It's like he's kind of feels like a weak president
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: in over his head, like that's kind of how they
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: paint him, right, And Jeff Goldbloom's the smart guy in
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: the room, and then by the end you're like, I'm
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: gonna follow that guy. You know, when he gets up
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: there and grabs the microphone and does this, you know,
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: July fourth will no longer be remembered as an American holiday.
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: And here you're you're finding yourself all fired up about
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: some manufactured fictional aliens that don't really exist. Right, that's
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: when you know somebody who's written some pretty good sci
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: fi and some pretty good fantasy. But number one on
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: my list should be a joke. And yet I'm putting
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: them on my list because you and I both know
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: that this isn't going to be filled with much subtext.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: It is President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain de Herbert Camacho, played
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: by Terry Crews in Idiocracy. Yes, it's the Klos pick,
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: it's the ridiculous pick. He's loud, he's vulgar, he's the
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: pro wrestling coded president in Idiot and Mike Judge's Idiocracy.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: But it's an unforgettable character and he's actually even though
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: you may think I am picking this as a not
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: so subtle subtext of our current politics, which yes I am.
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: So there's no subtext here, absolutely, But you know, the
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: big distinction between my fictional president Camacho and our current
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: President Camacho in the White House is that the President
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: Camacho in Idiocracy was self aware on one point. He
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: had one presidential virtue that when he found someone smarter
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: than he was, he gave that guy power. I don't
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: think in the real world that our real President Camacho
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: would do that. So there you go. There's my top
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: five list of this week. Enjoy it. My five favorite
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: fictional president. Who's yours? I think at this point, given
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: the real world that we live in, it is hard
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: not to put Camacho at number one. But you tell
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: me who's your number one one number one? That's the
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: most important to sort of show what we're living in.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: And of course i'd love to know who's the fictional
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: president that you'd actually like to see as president. And
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: I know what some of you're gonna say, where's the
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: West Wing? And as I told you, it's a it's
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: just a little too unrealistic to me, which is why
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: I'm leaving Josia Bartlet off of this one. But I
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: know many of you will put him on your top five. Look,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: he's a he's a strong honorable mention. Don't get me wrong.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: But there you go. There's my top five for the week. Well,
• 53:40
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  Speaker 1: and Tomahanna Pennsylvania writes, Hey, what's the point of voting
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  Speaker 1: down ballot? As so many members of Congress singm to
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  Speaker 1: vote along party line? You said, temperament is one of
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  Speaker 1: the callers you value in politicians. But it does it
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  Speaker 1: still matter if representatives are more focused on party leadership
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  Speaker 1: than their constituents? Am I wrong? Jim? And by the way,
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  Speaker 1: put him in the new stadium's Ring of honor or not?
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  Speaker 1: I'm just curious where you standing. I was asked this
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  Speaker 1: very question. For what it's worth, I sort of leaned
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  Speaker 1: on the side of I think you, I think honoring
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  Speaker 1: him feels wrong and erasing him feels wrong. So you've
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  Speaker 1: got to find what is that. You can't tell the
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• 57:11
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  Speaker 1: I think it's a I don't think it's as it's
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  Speaker 1: as easy as some people want to make it. But anyway,
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  Speaker 1: let me get to your question. You know, this is
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  Speaker 1: a chicken and egg situation, I assume, which is, you know,
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  Speaker 1: so many members of Congress and swing districts swear they're
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  Speaker 1: going to be you know, they're gonna you know, they're
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  Speaker 1: not going to follow party leadership. They're going to you know,
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: do what they're supposed to do. And yet you're right, right,
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: there's a reason why each side can run the ad
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: that's so and so votes ninety five percent of the
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: time with President Trump and so and so votes ninety
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  Speaker 1: five percent of the time. But you know, Chuck Schumer,
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: you know, whatever it is because there's so many procedural
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: votes that are party line, you know, their rules, so
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: it sort of inflates that. So sometimes the statistics can
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  Speaker 1: be a bit misleading, but the fact is in the
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: sort of polarized world that we live in. You know,
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: part I think part of the expectation and part of
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  Speaker 1: the job where you sort of you may like an
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  Speaker 1: idea that's coming from across the aisle, but that idea
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  Speaker 1: is attached to two other ideas that are bad ideas
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: that will undermine your side of the isle, and you're
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out what to do. I think this
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: is what frustrates the average voter who isn't a partisan, right.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: I always say, like, you know, what am I doing
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: here at the check tile is basically I'm trying to
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: explain politics to the rest of us. For the rest
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: of us, which is if you're not a hard partisan
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: on the left or right, you know, why is it
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: so hard to get a member of Congress to just
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: sort of, you know, sort of vote where the public is,
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: not where they're party is. And it is It is
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: just harder than you think it is. And I think
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: part of it is what I just described. It's you know,
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: you may like one idea, but you can't vote on
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: it separately. It's attached to three other things, right, because
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: each party essentially wants to create poison pills, if you will,
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: in order to it's like, fine, we know this part
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: is popular, but I really want to get my unpopular
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: idea to pass, so I'm going to sneak it through
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: a popular idea. And that's how partisan's left and right,
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: no matter which side of the of the aisle has
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: the power at the moment, tries to sneak things in.
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: And that's what makes by partisan agreements so difficult and
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: even more difficult than ever. Look, this is if I
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: were to create the you know this just simply as
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: politics as it is. Right, this is how it works
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: right now. And if you if you're gonna, if you
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: want to try to govern within the system that we have,
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: you're kind of stuck having to do this performative leadership
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: bullshit test. What would be better a situation where individual
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: lawmakers felt as if they had more to worry about
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: from their constituents than more to worry about from their party.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: And right now, the particularly in the legislative branch, is
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: the party has a bigger role over your ability to
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: get anything done. Then if you get elect like, it's
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: easier to be independent minded as a governor, it's even
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: somewhat easy to be in a slightly more independent minded
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: as being a senator. It is really hard in the
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: legislative branch on the on the house side of things,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: whether it's a state house or the US House, if
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: you try to operate outside either of the major party structures,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: you just you can't get anything done. The way these
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: these entities are are structured, make it they This is
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: to me what makes some undemocratic institutions is that essentially,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: even though we have a large constituency of Americans and
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: are a member of either party, they basically punish any
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: member who does not a member of either party in
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: their ability to get on the right committees and their
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: ability to introduce legislation and their ability to do these things.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: So this is why somewhat brought up the chicken and
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: egg problem there, which is, you know, in order to
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: make party matter less, you need to almost see the
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: whole The rules of all of these institutions completely blow
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: up the two party system, and they're totally disincentivized to
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: make the system work better for those not inside one
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: of the two major parties. And I think that this
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: is what makes that that that the problem and why
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: are you know why ultimately why most Senate races now
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: are slipping into party labeled territory where the jersey color
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: matters more than the individual. And I think we're going
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: to write that that is going to that that is
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: being going to be tested the most in the states
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: of Maine in Texas right. Maine is a Democratic state
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: that has consistently elected and re elected a Republican senator
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: and Susan Collins. Because they have you've had a group
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: of voters who prioritized the individual over the party label.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: And then in Texas, right, you have James Tolerrico who's
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: hoping he can get a handful of voters to prioritize
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: the individual over the party label. I just think the
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: voter is more educated than ever and they realize as
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: much as they you know, they see their individual member
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: as being a little bit more independent of say the
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: national party or the state party. At the end of
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: the day, ninety five percent of the time they're going
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: to end up sticking to the party label that they are,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: So you better be comfortable knowing that going again. And
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: I think that that's the I think that's explains why
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: why we we're getting so many party line voters and
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: why you know, it's sort of like you can't really
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: operate in these legislative branches if you're not essentially somewhat
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: party line, if you want to even introduce ideas and
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: get new ideas to even be considered right, So it
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: sort of incentivizes this, and then over time voters are
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: getting educated by it. They get it, and that's why
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: it's possible if Blatner wins. I think it's a reminder
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: that we're going to some people will say character doesn't matter,
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: and I think we're just going to say party jersey
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: matters more than character. If that's the situation that we get,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: all right. Next question comes from Luke previously from Ohio,
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: now from Connecticut. He writes, and he said, Hey, I
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: had a question after your recent comments on on Mamdani
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: and Israel. At the principle is that modern states shouldn't
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: privilege one ethnic or religious group over others. What makes
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: Israel the exception? What do you see as the key
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: principle behind that. Thin should understand that the Jewish people
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: have endured extraordinary persecution, including the Holocaust, but they are
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: not the only people that have experienced genocide or systemic persecution.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: It's transgender man. I certainly wouldn't argue that the answer
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: is transgender ethno state. I'd rather build societies where everyone
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: enjoys equal rights and equal protection under the law. Thanks.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: I think the reason there's some why I take issue
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: with what mam Nani said a little bit because and
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: others have taken a harder line on what he said,
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: is because there are, you know, dozens of states that
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: prioritize one religion over the other. And so the question is,
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: why did you just single out Israel on this when
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: there are plenty of Arab states that prioritize a religion,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: and and it's you know, and it's not even you know,
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: it is a Jewish state, but it is not. It
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: is also an equal rights state. Now, look, I would
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: say the issue is not the state of Israel. The
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: issue is the government of Israel. And so the minute
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: your criticism of Israel gets to the existence of the
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: state itself, it is hard for me to take that
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: criticism as anything other than an othering of a small
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: minority population. Versus, if your criticism of Israel is that
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: they're no longer living up that this government is living
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: up to the founder's vision of Israel, well that's a
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: different story, and you're going to certainly have more credibility
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: with people like me and others who are highly critical
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: of what BB has done. And frankly, you know, there's
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: no doubt who's who's certainly got you know, who has
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: done more damage to the American relationship with Israel. There's
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: no single individual that's done more damage to this than BB. Nenyahu.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: He partisanized it, he polarized it. He you know, everything
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: he did during the Obama era is what led to
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: this moment. And his decision to make it a party,
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: you know, to essentially side with one party damaged Israel.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: Right now, Israel's on an island on its own. So look,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: he's at but you know this, I just, you know,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: the the immediate criticism of Israel for this when literally
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: there are fifty other countries that have a similar relationship
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: with one religion over another. Is it just didn't ring true.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: And the fact that he went there, it was sort
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: of like I said, it was a clever answer, right,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: He didn't want to say he didn't believe in the
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: state of Israel. He just didn't believe in its right
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: to be a Jewish state. And you know, again, it
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: sort of is you could what's the difference between you know,
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: Israel and Pakistan for instance, you know, with that's preferential
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: treatment for religion, or in Indonesia or something like that.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: So again, I just think if you you know your credibility,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: you know, trying to erase the existence of Israel is
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: what makes the debate not a debate with a lot
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: of people making it about how Netnyahu is twisted and
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: tortured the the principles of what the founders of Israel
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: intended and what he's done now is two different things.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: And again, I mean, if if the DSA wants to
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: have credibility with uh with with certain voters, that they
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: need to start there. And when you when you're when
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: you're essentially your starting point is it shouldn't exist. Look,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: I think there should be criticism that Bibi doesn't no
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: longer believe in a two state solution, right, and that
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: should be you know, if you told me American policy
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: and American aid to Israel was tied to Israel pursuing
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: and pushing for a two state solution, I think that
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: is something that would have wide support in the American
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: diaspora on that front. For what it's worth, Mike and Albany, Right,
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: say a few voting questions for you. Do you think
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: expanding vote by mail nationwide could be argued as an
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: issue of equal access given the costs and barrier some
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: voter space. Also, while Trump can't appear on the ballot
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: for president again but illegally a writing camp and after
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: his electoral history, do you think it suggests America still
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: isn't ready to elect a woman as president. Thanks for
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: your insight, MIKEE and Albany, Mike and Albany, Oregon. Excuse me,
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: I just said Albany and people are going to jump
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: to Obeni organ That was That's new to me. All right,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: That's that's quite a few questions there. So let me
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: start with expanding vote by mail. Look, I think, look,
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: each state has to give equal access to voters, right,
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: it is, you know, I think that there's you know,
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: and states you know can't sort of prioritize certain sets
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: of voters over the others. But it is a state
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: by state basis on that. I don't think there's any
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: I think can I call this convenience voting, you know,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: making giving more opportunities to vote that fit on your
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: time rather than having to you know, only prioritize one
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: day when anything can happen that would you know, get
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: in the way of you having an opportunity to get
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: to the polls, et cetera. So so I look, I
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: think that that's been the best argument for vote by
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: mail has been that it gets equal access. But the
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: way to at the end of the day, why it
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: will never go away and why the Republican Party will
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: never be able to kill mail in voting is that
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: suburban voters the up you know, they want the convenience voting.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: And if you get rid of the convenience its voting,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: the snowbirds want the convenience voting, you know, I mean
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: the original the original vote by mail constituency would the
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: snowbirds of Florida and the Republicans dominated that until the
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: Democrats copied the tactics and found an incredible amount of success.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: So I think that that is a I think the
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: best way to sell it is it as an access issue.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: But I think convenience and access together I think make
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: it easier to sell vote by mail all right, now,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: to get to your second question, Well, Trump can't appear
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: on the Battle of President again, could illegally meunt a
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: writing campaign. Well, I mean, you know in theory, yes,
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, the problem is he just can't get certified.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: He can't serve. I will tell you this. So I
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: think there is one legal loophole that those that are
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: obsessed with this, Steve Bannon is somebody that is obsessed
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: with this, that there's one legal loophole in the constitution
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: that could provide Trump an opportunity to run for a
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: third term. And I will walk you through it, because
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: if he did want to run for one more full term,
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: he would need to do the following in the next
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: six months before the new Congress takes hold. And it
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: is the following, resign the presidency and somehow get the
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: Republican and then you can and JD. Vance agrees to
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: a point, Trump the vice president, and the Republican Senate
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: confirms him, and he becomes the sitting vice president before
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: the new Senate takes over. And so why is that
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: the loop poll? Well, there has been sort of agreed
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: upon constitutional scholarship that says that essentially, if you haven't
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: you remember, LBJ gets the presidency after the halfway mark
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: of the Kennedy presidency. And so the interpretation of this
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: of the two terms then was because he had not
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: served more than half of one term, he was actually
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: eligible to serve two full terms. So he could have
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: served almost essentially ten right, you know, nine years plus
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: plus plus about forty days, you know, nine years and
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: forty days plus the extra twenty So basically nine years
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: and two months essentially was what he was constitutionally eligible
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: to serve. Well, if if Donald Trump you know, wanted
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: to and this is how you do it and which
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: is you would have you would get a Justice Department
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: Office of Legal Counsel to do an OLC memo that
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: would sort of address a circumstance like this and just
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: sort of file it away at the LLC as a
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: Justice Department interpretation. You would then execute this plan. Democrats
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: would raise constitutional questions, the Justice Department would release this
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: Office of Legal Counsel, and then the courts would have
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: to decide how to do this. And the point being
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: is then there's a legal thread. Well, he hadn't served
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: a full two years of that second term. Now he's
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: the sitting vice president, he's only served less than six years.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: If LBJ could have been eligible to serve one more
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: four year term, Then why couldn't Donald Trump be eligible
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: to serve one four year term? And oh, by the way,
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: what's magical about becoming the appointed vice president? Guests who
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: would get to oversee his own certification on January sixth?
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: Going in on that. So, what I've outed to you
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: as a completely nightmare legal scenario that I fear has
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: just enough thread to make certain judges find a constitutionality
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: to what would be this brazenly unconstitutional power crab. Right,
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: but you might have it isn't going to be clean
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: on the unconstitutional ruling side of things. So look, it's
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: pretty clear if you're not, you know, eligible to serve
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: you know, it is it is? You know. I'm just
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: saying this is the vulnerability that I've identified and a
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: few other people have identified. If you're looking for a
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: way now this this would mean a JD. Vance would
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: be willing to essentially be a puppet president? Right? Is
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: he willing to do that? Are there there are there
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: fifty Republicans willing to confirm Donald Trump as vice president
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: in this current Senate? Are we sure? Right? Bill Cassidy,
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: Tom Tillis, John Cornyn, Lisa Murkowski? Right? You could just
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: so I don't think this is a realistic scenario politically
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: in our current political environment. But if you're asking me
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: for how would one go about it in a way
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: that would at least create a question about its legality
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: and it would end up in the courts. I think
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: this scenario him running is a right in. I think
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: Democrats would love nothing more for Donald Trump to run
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: as a right in, and you would have this situation.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know it is it is I he could,
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: and I don't think it would be very successful. Now
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: and then your last question, after his electoral history, do
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: you think it suggests America still isn't ready to elect
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: a woman as president? So it's interesting that Donald Trump, right,
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: you know, he's run for president three times, he defeated
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: women twice, he lost to the only man he faced,
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: And I know it's easy to assume it means that
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: women can't win. The problem with being able to make
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: that declaration is, you know how much was Clinton's last
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: name and how much was her gender? What mattered more?
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: I will I've I think some of you have heard
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: me say this a million times, like I'll go to
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: my grave believing Hillary Smith defeats Donald Trump and that
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: it was good that it was her last name, not
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: her first name that was the problem, and that it
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: was the idea that she was not changed. And Clinton
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: was a brand political name, that it was falling out
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: of favor, and brand names and politics were falling out
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: of favor. And we know, my goodness, it's obvious to
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: see this now ten years later. In the moment, it
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: wasn't easy to see, and we can't pretend it was
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: easy to see at that time. So again, we're all smarter,
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: you know, with distance, and it's pretty it's pretty easy
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: to see these days. So I don't think that's a
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: fair test of whether the country is ready to elect
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: a woman president. And then there's Kamala Harris. Well, she's
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: a sitting vice president for an unpopular president trying to
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: seek election on her own. No vice president has been
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: able to pull that off, right, Al Gore couldn't do it,
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: and he had a and Bill Clinton was was popular
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: as president and unpopular personally, and it was that that
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: distinction that caused Gore. You know, that basically is why
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: Gore came up short. Right, Hubert Humphrey in one of
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: the closest elections of the twentieth century in nineteen sixty eight,
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: he was trying to defeat a unpopular you know he's
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: trying he was trying to replace an unpopular president that
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: he was serving. So it is, you know, h unpopular vice.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: You know, vice presidents of unpopular presidents rarely win. It
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: doesn't matter what their gender is. So I guess my
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: argument is we haven't had a fair test yet on
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: this front. And I understand why it's easy to say
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: what you've said because what we've seen, But I just
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: I just don't think we've had a fair test. And
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: because you've had two there were two other issues both
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: Harris and Clinton were dealing with that were very frankly,
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: frankly conventional political problems, meaning they were dragging around somebody
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: else's political baggage and it was simply too heavy for
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: them to get across the finish line with all right,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: next question comes from a man Adam b and Uh
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: the most southern place you can go in South Florida, Davey, Florida.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: He is, of course, I think he might be the
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: at least I think he's an elected officer in the
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: Chuck and the as Chuck five Timers Club at this point,
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: not just a member. I think he's now an officer.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: He goes what you take on the NPR retraction regarding
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: Justice Alito's retirement. How does the story like that happen?
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: Was it a reporting mistake or could the reporter have
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: had solid information that changed? Thanks again, as always, Look,
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to take Nina Totenberg at her word.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: She sort of explained how it happened, which to me
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: explains why you know this was this was the look
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: Nina Totenberg file on her sword, but this was the
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: fault of her boss's Basically, well, it's Nina Totenberg. I'm
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: not going to question her. She must have a better
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: source or you know, she's got this. I that That's
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: what strikes me is the possibility that this happened right,
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: that it was, that it was she misheard something, she
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: thought she heard what she heard. She was sort of
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: It's a classic case of confirmation bias. Right, her ear
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: was already tuned in to the word retirement, and the
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: minute she had retirement, her brain went immediately right, she was,
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: So this is like and by the way, this is
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: confirmation bias in stories are something you're constantly worried about.
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: As a reporter, you're looking to see a divisive story
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: in the electorate, you're trying to cover, and then you
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: find the divisiveness and you lean into it, right, you know,
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: So it is you know, she's she's there in part
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: waiting to see you know, there's all these rumors that
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: Alito's going to retire, and so boom, she takes one
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: word and she jumps to it. So if you were
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: to ask me, I think it's two things. One is,
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: this is a reminder that that that sometimes been there, done,
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: that disease that any reporter can get. I've had it myself,
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: where you just it's always been this way, so oh yeah,
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: this I know exactly what's happening, and then you just
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: sort of and by the way, eighty percent of the
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: time that instinct serves you well. But twenty percent of
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: the time you can have egg on your face, and
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: she had egg on her face. Here's what I want
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: to highlight, though, what a reputable news organization does is
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: exactly what MPR did, which is explain how all this happened.
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: Put the reporter on here. She did every I mean,
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: I you know, it really frustrates me. You know, the
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: way the partisans weaponize mistakes in the press. Everybody makes mistakes,
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: and the weaponization of ah this proves this. This proves
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: that right, whether it's a partisan activist on the left
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: or the partisan activists on the right. And to me, ultimately,
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: a news organization that owns their mistakes explains how it
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: happened is a news organization I'm gonna trust even more
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: than the one that claims they never make a mistake,
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: because it's human beings. Everybody makes a mistake, by the way,
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: even artificial human beings. I mean, any of you that
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: have dabbled in the AR and large language models. This
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: happens every day. You know, it is it is certainly
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: you know my initial use of AI has made me
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: I will not use any one model for anything because
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: I keep for the stuff that I know that where
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: I'm an expert on those things, I see how many
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: things they're missing. So for the stuff I'm not an
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: expert at, I'm extrapolating and assuming, Well, if they're screwing
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: up the stuff I know, I'm sure they're screwing up
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: the stuff I don't know. And you've got to you've
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: got to you've got a triple check and you know,
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: I pit models against each other, and you know, I
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: go down multiple rabbit holes and the same question and
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: then see where I find contradictions and then go to
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: the source. I mean, you just you. You know, as
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: a reporter, you're kind of you're all you have is
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: your credibility on that front. So I sort of see
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: how it happened, and I think that it was you know,
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: she you know, she didn't throw her own editor on
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: the bus, but I might have somebody there just sort
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: of gave her a pass because she's eating tote Berkana
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: Todaberg and you know, she's had some great scoops for
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: MPR of the year. So it just feels like you
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: had an operation that was sort of ready for breaking news,
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: and then you know one of their old timers had
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: it and did it, and lo and behold, you had
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: the mistake that you made. Now a lot of super
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: slutes have noted that that the in the first report
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: that had the word Friday. So now the biggest conspiracy
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: theory as well. She knows she already has it. She
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: just thought it went early and then we'll see it later.
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: By the way, I you know, Alito could retire anytime
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: this summer. And I do I still think that the
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: pressure on Alito to retire is going to is going
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: to increase, because I do think there are plenty of Republicans.
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: When you look at the Senate map, if you you know,
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: I know, the average Republican strategists will believe that if
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: you can make the court one of the three or
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: four most important issues, and who's going to be on
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: the court, and you have sort of a tangible opening
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: to show this that it's a way to motivate voters
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: that may not be normally motivated, and the Republicans in
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: particular have a base have a problem there. And when
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: you look at the Senate map, which all leans red
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: right Ohio, Iowa, Alaska, Nebraska, Kansas, Mississippi, Texas, you know,
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: however big or small you want to expand your potential
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: target list, all of them are red leaning states, which
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: means the court, you know it, you know, any way
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: you can goose turn out on the right, I think
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: is a is a net plus for the for the
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: R side. So I actually think, you know, I'm still
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: on a elite all retirement watch, and I'll be on
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: really Elito retirement watch. Really uh, until until September. I
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: think it is I think this is the I think
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: this is the last tool in the toolbox that they
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: will use before the fall, if they have to. Tyler
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: H Cheer from Michigan's fifth District. He says, how difficult
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: do you think it will be for Jadvance to secure
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: the Republican nomination given the political baggage he may inherit
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: from Trump? And do you think he'll continue embracing some
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: of the same Trump isms like claims of election fraud?
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Tyler H. Well, some of it is
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: going to depend on on how is Advance and Rubio
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: running against each other or is there only one sort
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: of Trump friendly candidate, right if he's got one, If
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: there's just if Rubio has stood down and it's just
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: Vance against say Glenn Younkin Ran Paul, then I think
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: it's going to be really difficult to say. Look, a
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: sitting vice president that wants to get a presidential nomination
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: of their party is rarely denied. That. I mean, I'm
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: sitting here, I'm going in my quick back of the
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: envelope math here, right, you know sitting vice presidents? Okay,
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: you know, Dan Quayle, was you know went nowhere in
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: his campaign, but he was four years removed from being
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: the sitting vice president. So you know, it's very you know,
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: the only thing harder is to dislodge the sitting president
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: from a nomination. Dislodging a sitting vice president from a
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: party's nomination is not easy. And so, you know, I
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: expect it that there'll be a moment or two where
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: you're like, oh, this is going to go south? Is
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: this not going to go well? Type of thing? But
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: I suspect, you know, part that again, it's as if
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: there's no other sort of Trump friendly candidates in the race.
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: If there's multiple Trump friendly candidates, then then Vance has
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: less room to maneuver. He can't risk alienating them because
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: we know this seems to still work now, I don't
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: know how much it's going to work a year from now.
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: If Republicans lose the mid terms sort of decisively, does
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: that start to make Republicans wanting to turn the page
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: on Trump and does that become damaging to Vance? Right? So,
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: I think Vance is going to try to be this
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: sort of different Republican that he wants to be, Like,
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: he clearly wants to carve out something different that really
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: isn't trumpy. That is a bit more, that has a
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: little bit more intellectual riggor behind it. Right. I think
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: he's I think there is. I think he's a real nationalist.
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: I think he's a real isolationist, and I think that's
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: where he wants to take the party. I think he
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: has a you know, it's funny, they're gonna they're gonna
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: use this socialism. They're going to attack the left on socialism.
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: But you know he's he's pretty pro socialism on some
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: things too, especially the nationalizing of certain industries and all
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: of that. So I I I think he's going to
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: want to try to sort of be who he really
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: is ideologically. But a lot of that depends on whether
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: whether he can, you know, if Rubio's if both of
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: them are running, he may feel a little bit And
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: I have to tell you, yeah, I'm right now. I
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: think it's not even a close call. Trump would prefer
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: Rubio over over Vance, and it weirdly, it's because Rubio
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: and Trump are closer than Vance and Trump are. Vance
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: is you know, Vance has got the son on his side,
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: but Ruby has got Daddy on his side. Rubio has
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: worked Donald for a little less than a decade now.
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: He worked his way back in. He turned him into
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: a Miami Cuban Republican. He got him, you know, sort
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: of becoming best friends with the remaining living bay of
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: pigs veterans. And you know in that sense, you know,
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: I just think Trump right now, there is a all
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: of Trump's rich friends in mar A Lago would prefer Revio.
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: And Trump spends a lot more time with his rich
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: friends in mar A Lago than he does with the
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: folks that want fans. Just something to think about it.
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: Last question for the weekend here, hope you're enjoying your
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: summer going. For my second question, as I worked toward
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: the five timers club, realistically, what's the latest Supreme Court?
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: I just could retire and still be confirmed by current
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: Republican Senate. Could a retirement after the election is still
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: lead to a confirmation before the new Senate is seated,
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: or other ways Democrats could slow the process. Or a
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: d in Las Vegas their congressional district. PS, it's a
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: Jets fan. Vegas has them and five and a half
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: wins this season? Are you taking the over or the under?
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: Let me take that first? Well, that feels like a
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: correct number. I don't see the big leap, right, I
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: don't see and then you know they've got a division problem, right,
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: they are clearly the fourth worst team. I think the
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: Dolphins have done a lot more work in the off season.
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: I'm a believer in ma Lee willis a little bit
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: of that's the packer in me. Obviously, Buffalo's Buffalo, and
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: Josh Allen, as long as he's healthy, they've got ten
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: to ten to twelve winnings in them many times. Obviously,
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: I think we all assume the Patriots are going to
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: take some step back, but it ain't going to be
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: like six wins, right, it's probably and they're so five
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: and a half. Feels about the right line and being
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: the Jets, you know, yeah, you have to be smoking
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: the hopium if you take the over, right, the the
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: smart betters taking the under on that one. And my
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: guess is the money line shapes to the under on
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: that one. Let me go to your other question about
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: the Supreme Court. I do not think there's enough legislative
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: days to pull that off after the election. And that's
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: why I go back. I should have combined the two questions.
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: You know, that's me not planning well enough here based
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: on the other Supreme Court the question I turned into
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: a Supreme Court question. But what I would but what
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: I would suggest on this one is I do think
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: September one is the realistic And here's the point this,
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: This isn't you know, if you're if you're, if you
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: want to lead a if you're trying to replace that seat,
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: you got to do it where you know, you have
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: a Republican Senate, and you want to do it when
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: you think it could have electoral value. So no, you know,
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: in theory, could they you know, could it be done?
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: It could, but you'd have to have the cooperation of
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: the minority party, and you're just not gonna have the
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: cooperation of the minority party. So no, you know, Now
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: Republicans hold the Senate, that's a different story. But I
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: don't suspect, you know, I don't you know, I think
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: if if, if Alito retires. The point is to try
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: to find electoral benefit out of it. And there are
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: enough red leaning Republican seats that tell me that there
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: is real electoral benefit out of this. Uh, if they
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: it could be may not matter, right, It just may
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: may not matter. Conservative voters may feel more satisfied about
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: the direction of the court than maybe sometimes the press
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: gives out on this right. You know that the social
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: media conservatives are not where normal conservatives are about this court,
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: and they may not feel a sense of urgency since Oh,
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: robivd it's been overturned and I've got you know, what's
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: the what's the compelling reason? You know, with abortion gone
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: as sort of the galvanizing force behind judicial politics. That
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: is a curiosity I have here of whether it does
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: have what would it have the same resonance as it
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: did have in eighteen as it did have in sixteen,
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: where I think in both cases, you know, we talked
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: about some what ifs before. If Scalia is alive on
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: election day November sixteen, Donald Trump ever went to the presidency,
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: and if there's no Brett Kavanaugh confirmation, does Claire McCaskill
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: win reelection in Missouri? Maybe so we have seen this work,
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: But both of those instances took place before the overturning
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: For the Dobs decision, Does it have the same ability
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: to fire up a certain segment of the Republican electorate
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: that it did in twenty sixteen twenty eighteen, that's an
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: open question. I don't have a good answer for that,
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: But that's that's the one counterfactual I'd offer up on that.
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, look, I uh, fourth of July. I'm
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: enjoying some Wimbledon. I'm enjoying some World Cup. I'm really
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: enjoying some that's baseball. And how that's all going? We
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: do we need to worry about what happens if the
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: if the US keeps moving and getting closer and closer
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: to being a realistic contender for the whole thing, how
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: will the world handle that? I will admit to being
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: a little concern at whether we will anger the World
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: War I sort of there's a part of me that thinks,
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: maybe if we get to the final four we should
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: be happy and and and and but if we win
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: the whole thing, will the world celebrate or or or
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: or what? We make our image problem that much worse.
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: So there's there's there's a small part of being worried, like,
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: how's how's the world going to handle if we somehow
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: become a become a real contender here. But in all seriousness, look,
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: enjoy the fourth Remember, the most patriotic thing you can
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: do is to love your country and to criticize your
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: country when they're doing things wrong, and to stand up
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: for what you think should be right. That's the beauty
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: of this place. So enjoy the fourth your way. Don't
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: let somebody tell you what patriotism is. Patriotism is having
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: the ability two give your country tough love when you
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: know tough love is needed, and loving your country is
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: defending the place when others are coming after you for
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: no reason anyway. So with that, I know it's on
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: a little hokey, but I'm just so frustrated that he's
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: ruined America's two hundred fiftieth birthday. But that doesn't mean
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: he can. He has to ruin your celebration the way
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: you want to do it, so please do it here.
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: With that, I'll see you next week. Mm hmmm, mm hmm.