Latest / Pod Save America / Hot Zohran Summer
Transcript
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- 1:25Speaker 2: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
- 1:27Speaker 3: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
- 1:27Speaker 2: On today's show, we're going to talk about the Republican
- 1:29Speaker 2: plan to gut people's health care, which is running into
- 1:31Speaker 2: some roadblocks. We'll cover the absolute meltdown over Zoran Mamdani's
- 1:36Speaker 2: big win in New York City on Tuesday. And then later,
- 1:38Speaker 2: I chat with California Congressman Robert Garcia about his big
- 1:41Speaker 2: win in the race to be the top Democrat on
- 1:43Speaker 2: the Oversight Committee, what fights he plans to pick, and
- 1:46Speaker 2: what he really thinks about Stephen Miller, your friend and mine.
- 1:50Speaker 2: But let's start with the military strike on Iran's nuclear
- 1:54Speaker 2: facilities that Donald Trump wants us to believe was the
- 1:56Speaker 2: most perfect, successful operation in the history of the United States.
- 2:02Speaker 2: Eat shit, D-Day. This is it. This is the most
- 2:06Speaker 2: perfect strike you've ever seen.
- 2:09Speaker 3: Can I give you some D-Day numbers just while we're here,
- 2:12Speaker 3: just to put this in perspective? And not to demean
- 2:14Speaker 3: this very excellent strike that happened, but there were 5,000
- 2:17Speaker 3: ships in D-Day. 13,000 planes, 156,000 troops, and 600,000 pounds
- 2:25Speaker 3: of equipment removed on that day.
- 2:26Speaker 4: Okay.
- 2:28Speaker 2: I think you've wandered into the wrong podcast. The Pod
- 2:30Speaker 2: Save the World records on Tuesday.
- 2:34Speaker 3: Look, I don't know what podcast I'm on. I thought
- 2:37Speaker 3: it was a fact-based podcast. They wanted to push back
- 2:39Speaker 3: against misinformation from the Trump administration.
- 2:42Speaker 2: So the president started crashing out about this when CNN
- 2:46Speaker 2: broke the news earlier this week that the Defense Department's
- 2:50Speaker 2: initial intelligence assessment found that the strike only set back
- 2:54Speaker 2: Iran's nuclear program by a few months, that their stockpile
- 2:57Speaker 2: of enriched uranium was not destroyed, and that their centrifuges
- 3:01Speaker 2: are largely intact. Trump responded by rage posting 21 times
- 3:06Speaker 2: on Wednesday while he was at the NATO summit, I guess,
- 3:09Speaker 2: in Europe. He also responded by attacking CNN's Natasha Bertrand
- 3:14Speaker 2: for breaking the story. He has ordered an FBI leak investigation.
- 3:18Speaker 2: He's limiting access to classified information for Congress. And the
- 3:23Speaker 2: White House has orchestrated an aggressive PR campaign where Trump
- 3:29Speaker 2: officials in the White House and the cabinet are now
- 3:31Speaker 2: saying that actually the intelligence says that the nuclear program
- 3:35Speaker 2: was obliterated, that the centrifuges were destroyed, the enriched uranium
- 3:39Speaker 2: wasn't moved, the program was set back years, and anyone
- 3:43Speaker 2: who says otherwise is basically a a lying traitor who
- 3:46Speaker 2: hates the troops. Let's listen to Pete Hegseth's early morning
- 3:49Speaker 2: presser from today.
- 3:50Speaker 3: Are you certain none of that highly enriched uranium was moved?
- 3:53Speaker 4: Of course, we're watching every single aspect.
- 3:55Speaker 5: But Jennifer, you've been about the worst, the one who
- 3:59Speaker 5: misrepresents the most intentionally. How many stories have been written
- 4:03Speaker 5: about how hard it is to, I don't know, fly
- 4:05Speaker 5: a plane for 36 hours? Has MSNBC done that story?
- 4:10Speaker 3: Has Fox?
- 4:11Speaker 5: Have we done the story how hard that is? Have
- 4:13Speaker 5: we done it two or three times? Because you cheer
- 4:16Speaker 5: against Trump so hard. It's like in your DNA and
- 4:20Speaker 5: in your blood to cheer against Trump.
- 4:22Speaker 2: I haven't heard Pete that mad since he missed last call. No.
- 4:28Speaker 2: That's pretty good.
- 4:28Speaker 3: I like it.
- 4:29Speaker 2: I laughed. He was talking there to Jennifer Griffin of
- 4:31Speaker 2: Fox News, his former home, where he was the weekend
- 4:35Speaker 2: anchor on Fox and Friends, for just... asking a very
- 4:40Speaker 2: legitimate question. What did you think about Hegseth? What do
- 4:43Speaker 2: you think about this whole freakout that the Trump administration
- 4:47Speaker 2: and the president are having over the aftermath of the strikes?
- 4:53Speaker 3: I mean, the event that Hegseth had with the chairman
- 4:56Speaker 3: of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was pitiful. They made
- 5:00Speaker 3: everyone go to the Pentagon at 8 a.m. for this
- 5:02Speaker 3: press conference. At no point, and this was a press
- 5:05Speaker 3: conference that was touted by the President of the United
- 5:08Speaker 3: States on one of the many truths he sent while
- 5:09Speaker 3: sitting in a NATO summit. And yet they didn't talk
- 5:12Speaker 3: at all about the damage assessments, right? As General Kane said,
- 5:17Speaker 3: the military doesn't grade their own homework. So all they did,
- 5:20Speaker 3: they didn't push back on the thing. They did not
- 5:22Speaker 3: talk about the actual results or success of the mission.
- 5:25Speaker 3: They detailed the tremendous difficulty it takes to fly those planes,
- 5:31Speaker 3: to successfully launch the missiles or to drop the bombs
- 5:34Speaker 3: where they're supposed to be dropping all of that. But
- 5:35Speaker 3: it doesn't get at the question everyone had, which is,
- 5:38Speaker 3: what next for Iran's nuclear program? Where is the highly
- 5:43Speaker 3: enriched uranium? You played that point. He was asked the
- 5:46Speaker 3: question about where it was. He didn't answer that. They
- 5:48Speaker 3: don't know. And that's the big thing. It is very pitiful.
- 5:51Speaker 4: And it.
- 5:53Speaker 3: Is how we've seen this. It's the intellectual Zamboni, to
- 5:55Speaker 3: use Lovett's phrase, of Trump goes out before there's a
- 5:58Speaker 3: single battlefield damage assessment and says, we obliterated the whole thing.
- 6:03Speaker 3: And now it turns out that's not the case. And
- 6:04Speaker 3: the entire government intelligence apparatus has to run behind Trump
- 6:08Speaker 3: and try to make that true, even though it's obviously
- 6:11Speaker 3: not true.
- 6:12Speaker 2: There was one excellent explanation for why they're spinning this
- 6:15Speaker 2: so hard from a surprising source. Let's listen.
- 6:18Speaker 5: When you have a totalitarian regime, you have to save face.
- 6:21Speaker 2: That was Caroline Levitt from today's briefing. She kept up
- 6:30Speaker 2: the party line. it's the most successful operation ever. The
- 6:34Speaker 2: president has now also threatened to sue the New York Times,
- 6:38Speaker 2: which confirmed CNN's reporting. He's gone after Natasha Bertrand of CNN,
- 6:42Speaker 2: you know, personally, directly. They're all going after her. So
- 6:47Speaker 2: did Caroline Levitt, going after the New York Times. The
- 6:49Speaker 2: New York Times, I was proud to see that they
- 6:52Speaker 2: put out a statement that said, there will be no apology.
- 6:55Speaker 2: There will be no retraction. There will be nothing. We
- 6:58Speaker 2: reported the truth the best we could.
- 7:00Speaker 3: But it's... The whole thing is so bizarre because at
- 7:02Speaker 3: no point are they saying that this report does not
- 7:05Speaker 3: exist or that the way it was characterized is wrong.
- 7:09Speaker 2: And you know that it exists because they've started a
- 7:13Speaker 2: leak investigation and have complained publicly about who leaked it.
- 7:15Speaker 2: So they have admitted that the report exists. What they're
- 7:20Speaker 2: trying to say now is it was an early assessment.
- 7:24Speaker 2: And lo and behold, since new assessments have come out,
- 7:28Speaker 2: much different now. much different.
- 7:29Speaker 3: But those assessments have not been shared.
- 7:31Speaker 2: No, of course not. In fact, they had a closed-door
- 7:35Speaker 2: classified briefing, I believe, with Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Today,
- 7:41Speaker 2: Chris Murphy walked out of the briefing and he told
- 7:43Speaker 2: reporters that he is, quote, still under the belief that
- 7:46Speaker 2: we have not obliterated the program. It's certain there's still
- 7:49Speaker 2: significant capability and equipment that remain.
- 7:52Speaker 3: So in the end, what the report said, it's worth
- 7:55Speaker 3: noting the New York Times and CNN said it was
- 7:57Speaker 3: an early assessment in their reporting. I think the headline
- 7:59Speaker 3: was early assessment says, but we are where we are
- 8:03Speaker 3: and all the rest of this is just fucking noise.
- 8:06Speaker 3: And it's a press conference with an audience of one.
- 8:08Speaker 2: It's just like lying all over the place and people
- 8:12Speaker 2: that you can't trust and have lost their credibility all
- 8:14Speaker 2: over the place. Because in the original story, even before
- 8:16Speaker 2: the early Intel assessment that leaked, David Sanger wrote a
- 8:21Speaker 2: piece about everything that happened, the strike, the aftermath of
- 8:25Speaker 2: the strike, like a day or two after. And That
- 8:28Speaker 2: was the piece that had Israeli officials saying that they
- 8:31Speaker 2: think that the enriched uranium was moved and all that
- 8:34Speaker 2: kind of stuff. And then Barak Ravid, the Axios reporter, said, oh,
- 8:39Speaker 2: now Israeli officials telling him that actually they agree with Trump,
- 8:43Speaker 2: that it was completely obliterated and it's been set back years.
- 8:45Speaker 2: But it's like, who can trust Netanyahu and his government now?
- 8:49Speaker 3: And there was a report today that European countries were
- 8:52Speaker 3: given an assessment that seemed very similar to the early
- 8:55Speaker 3: one for the United States.
- 8:56Speaker 6: Right.
- 8:56Speaker 3: All of this is so stupid. it's so dumb because
- 8:59Speaker 3: it's all beyond the point. Like we're arguing about how
- 9:04Speaker 3: far the bombs went down the hole, right? We're not having,
- 9:09Speaker 3: and like, and how the, how damaged facilities were, which is,
- 9:11Speaker 3: I guess is somewhat relevant. The bigger question, there are
- 9:14Speaker 3: two bigger questions. One is where is the highly enriched uranium, right?
- 9:19Speaker 3: No one has an answer to that. Seems like a problem.
- 9:21Speaker 3: No one is contending it was destroyed. I mean, other
- 9:23Speaker 3: than Trump, but like no one, there's no report saying
- 9:26Speaker 3: that no one seems to know. There's no one explaining
- 9:29Speaker 3: why it wasn't moved because obviously it was moved, but
- 9:33Speaker 3: to where and were we able to destroy it? And
- 9:36Speaker 3: the second point here is, even if this really was
- 9:40Speaker 3: the perfect strike, the most successful possible version of this mission,
- 9:45Speaker 3: all you're doing is delaying Iran's ambitions longer. Maybe it's
- 9:52Speaker 3: not a few months. Maybe it's a year. Maybe it's
- 9:54Speaker 3: two years, but you're going to end up in the same.
- 9:56Speaker 3: This is why this was an ill-fated decision from the
- 9:59Speaker 3: very beginning. because you're going to end up back in
- 10:01Speaker 3: the place where they are on the cusp of having
- 10:03Speaker 3: a nuclear weapon. And now, because we took this strike,
- 10:07Speaker 3: the chances of resolving that through diplomatic means are greatly reduced.
- 10:12Speaker 2: Yeah, because Trump believed he could bomb them back to
- 10:14Speaker 2: the table. which seems unlikely, or it seems unlikely that
- 10:19Speaker 2: if they do come back to the table, they'll have
- 10:20Speaker 2: any level of credibility, any level of trust in the
- 10:23Speaker 2: Trump administration, and why should they? And this is the whole, like,
- 10:27Speaker 2: no one is suggesting that it was the military or
- 10:31Speaker 2: the pilots that didn't successfully obliterate it. They did everything
- 10:36Speaker 2: they were told to do. The person who told them
- 10:38Speaker 2: to do it made a dumb fucking move by deciding
- 10:42Speaker 2: to bomb these sites and without letting more diplomacy take
- 10:46Speaker 2: hold or having no plan for what happens after the
- 10:49Speaker 2: sites were bombed. And also, by the way, blabbing his
- 10:52Speaker 2: fucking mouth about the fact that he might bomb them
- 10:56Speaker 2: and so they could move the enriched uranium in time,
- 10:59Speaker 2: which he did and which the Defense Department told the
- 11:03Speaker 2: New York Times on background that, by the way, he
- 11:05Speaker 2: was their biggest OPSEC problem, the President of the United States.
- 11:10Speaker 3: It's such, this is like the, this is a pre-Trump
- 11:13Speaker 3: Republican playbook move, which is if you disagree with a
- 11:16Speaker 3: military operation, you're anti-Trump. If you oppose the Iraq war,
- 11:19Speaker 3: you are anti-Trump. And they're doing the same thing here.
- 11:21Speaker 3: And it's like, it doesn't wear very well. It was like,
- 11:25Speaker 3: I guess, a somewhat effective cudgel in the early 2000s,
- 11:27Speaker 3: but right now it looks ridiculous.
- 11:30Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 11:30Speaker 2: It's also, they're all, because Trump has to say everything
- 11:34Speaker 2: is perfect and everything was obliterated and it's the greatest
- 11:37Speaker 2: operation in history. Imagine if Trump had come out and
- 11:39Speaker 2: just said, like, yeah, I think we set back their
- 11:42Speaker 2: program for a few years. No one's going to say, like, actually,
- 11:44Speaker 2: it was a few months. Like, you might get a
- 11:46Speaker 2: little reporting on that. But just say that the mission
- 11:50Speaker 2: was successful. We severely, you know, hamper their ability to
- 11:54Speaker 2: make a nuclear weapon. And now we're going to do X,
- 11:56Speaker 2: Y and Z. But they can't do that because they
- 11:57Speaker 2: don't have a plan and because all they want is
- 12:00Speaker 2: a short term success to brag about. That's it. That's
- 12:02Speaker 2: all they think. That's all. That's how Trump thinks.
- 12:04Speaker 3: And Trump can only speak in superlatives.
- 12:06Speaker 2: Yes.
- 12:06Speaker 3: Everything's the greatest, best ever. And now we have a
- 12:08Speaker 3: government that has to then go back and try to
- 12:10Speaker 3: make all of those things true, which is an impossible
- 12:12Speaker 3: and ridiculous and stupid standard.
- 12:14Speaker 2: Quinnipiac poll came out and apparently only 41% of Americans
- 12:19Speaker 2: support the strike. And this is after the strike and
- 12:21Speaker 2: 50% opposed, which is actually lower numbers than I thought.
- 12:25Speaker 2: I thought that more people would be for it just
- 12:28Speaker 2: because it seemed to have gone okay. And there's, thank God,
- 12:31Speaker 2: no US casualties and no wider war yet. But I
- 12:35Speaker 2: think people are smarter than they're given credit for and
- 12:39Speaker 2: get that this could mean that we're drawn into a
- 12:42Speaker 2: larger war, if not now, later.
- 12:44Speaker 3: There's been several polls that have come out since the strikes.
- 12:46Speaker 3: You have a Reuters poll, you have a CNN poll,
- 12:48Speaker 3: you have this Quinnipiac poll, and all of them show
- 12:51Speaker 3: the same thing. Majority opposition to the strikes, somewhere between
- 12:54Speaker 3: 70% and 85% of people concerned that this is going
- 12:57Speaker 3: to draw us into a wider war. The CNN poll
- 13:00Speaker 3: finds that people think that the result of the strike
- 13:02Speaker 3: is that Iran is more likely to build a nuclear
- 13:04Speaker 3: weapon than to not do so. I think it's 49%
- 13:07Speaker 3: that see an end poll, don't trust Trump to make
- 13:09Speaker 3: the right decisions here. We are so far beyond sort
- 13:13Speaker 3: of reflexive post 9-11 rally around the flag on these things.
- 13:17Speaker 3: People have seen this movie before. They know what happens.
- 13:21Speaker 3: They know, and they know the results is nothing good
- 13:23Speaker 3: for America.
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- 14:43Speaker 2: See site for details. So Trump had a big event
- 14:49Speaker 2: on the White House on Thursday. The point was to
- 14:53Speaker 2: sell his big bill of bullshit.
- 14:56Speaker 3: Well, look at you with your new BBBBB.
- 14:59Speaker 2: Honestly, I've found myself saying it. I hate saying it,
- 15:03Speaker 2: as I said earlier today in our meeting. And so
- 15:06Speaker 2: bullshit was just the easiest thing to come out of
- 15:07Speaker 2: my mouth.
- 15:08Speaker 3: I like it.
- 15:08Speaker 2: I don't know if it'll stick. We should think of
- 15:12Speaker 2: other B words, though. It's also beleaguered right now. It's
- 15:16Speaker 2: a beleaguered bill. Is that a word that really rolls
- 15:19Speaker 2: off the tongue?
- 15:20Speaker 3: No, it doesn't roll off the tongue, but it is
- 15:22Speaker 3: used in the correct context here.
- 15:23Speaker 2: It is a political coverage. The media likes to use that.
- 15:27Speaker 2: Everyone's beleaguered. Anyway, so he does this event. He stands
- 15:32Speaker 2: in front of a backdrop of regular Americans dressed up
- 15:35Speaker 2: like the village people to make it obvious what jobs
- 15:38Speaker 2: they have, what they're going through. They can tell their stories,
- 15:42Speaker 2: why each of them might benefit from the bill. Trump
- 15:46Speaker 2: listed off a bunch of things that are in the bill,
- 15:47Speaker 2: some things that aren't in the bill. He's talked about
- 15:49Speaker 2: no tax on Social Security. That's not in the bill
- 15:51Speaker 2: at all, but he promised that in the event today.
- 15:55Speaker 2: And then he urged Congress to pass it before his
- 15:58Speaker 2: July 4th deadline. Seems unlikely because here's where we are
- 16:02Speaker 2: with this shitburger. You might remember that during the interminable
- 16:05Speaker 2: debate over the Biden administration's BBB, because everyone has their
- 16:09Speaker 2: own BBB apparently, there was a point in the process
- 16:13Speaker 2: where the Senate parliamentarian, who is possibly the most powerful
- 16:17Speaker 2: nerd in America, ruled on whether anything in the bill
- 16:20Speaker 2: broke the budget rules. And the budget rules are, you
- 16:23Speaker 2: can only include stuff in a budget bill that primarily
- 16:26Speaker 2: impacts the federal budget. And so you can't use a
- 16:30Speaker 2: budget bill to change laws. That's cheating. Because if you're
- 16:34Speaker 2: changing the laws, you got to find 60 votes instead
- 16:37Speaker 2: of 51. You only need 51 to pass a budget bill.
- 16:40Speaker 2: You need 60 votes to pass anything else. So when
- 16:42Speaker 2: there's a budget bill, parliamentarian goes through it and says, no,
- 16:45Speaker 2: this doesn't just primarily impact the federal budget. It also
- 16:48Speaker 2: changes a lot here or changes this or that. So
- 16:51Speaker 2: on Thursday, the parliamentarian said that a lot of the
- 16:53Speaker 2: changes to Medicaid do not comply with the rules. Uh,
- 16:58Speaker 2: John Thune, who's in charge of the circus said, uh,
- 17:01Speaker 2: we have contingency plans and quote, we're plowing forward, but
- 17:05Speaker 2: the coverage on this matter includes heavy usage of the
- 17:09Speaker 2: word scramble. Okay. Everyone is scrambling. Republicans are scrambling right now,
- 17:17Speaker 2: scrambling for votes, scrambling to figure out the math, scrambling
- 17:20Speaker 2: to figure out whether they can throw more or less
- 17:24Speaker 2: people off their health care. What do you think, Dan?
- 17:27Speaker 2: How big of a deal is what the parliamentarian is
- 17:29Speaker 2: doing to the bill and what are Republicans' options? Sure.
- 17:33Speaker 3: So let's try to take this in two parts. How
- 17:36Speaker 3: does the parliamentarian's ruling affect the substance of the bill
- 17:38Speaker 3: and how does it affect passage of the bill? So
- 17:40Speaker 3: the substance of the bill, there are a whole bunch
- 17:41Speaker 3: of really pretty onerous, stupid, cruel things that are in
- 17:44Speaker 3: there that get tossed out. Bans on using Medicaid funding
- 17:48Speaker 3: for gender-affirming care for trans youth and adults. A bunch
- 17:50Speaker 3: of things to make it harder for people to repay
- 17:52Speaker 3: their loans or get their student loans forgiven. Some provisions
- 17:55Speaker 3: to make it harder for legal immigrants to access benefits
- 17:58Speaker 3: that are guaranteed to them by law. A bunch of
- 17:59Speaker 3: really bad stuff that gets tossed out.
- 18:01Speaker 2: Mike Lee's thing about selling off public lands.
- 18:03Speaker 3: Federal lands, yeah.
- 18:04Speaker 2: Federal lands, yeah.
- 18:06Speaker 3: And then the Medicaid provider tax provision. is a huge deal.
- 18:10Speaker 3: It would bankrupt rural hospitals. It would force states to
- 18:15Speaker 3: cut services, which could lead to hundreds of thousands of
- 18:19Speaker 3: people losing coverage over the course of the next several years.
- 18:22Speaker 3: It's a very big deal. And so the Medicaid provisions
- 18:26Speaker 3: of the bill are less bad with that out. Now,
- 18:29Speaker 3: in terms of passage, here's where we are. If the
- 18:33Speaker 3: Medicaid provider tax provisions stay out, then They either have
- 18:38Speaker 3: to find even less popular Medicaid cuts or send a
- 18:43Speaker 3: bill back to the House that raises the deficit even more,
- 18:47Speaker 3: which compounds the problems they were already having. Because there
- 18:50Speaker 3: are sort of three main buckets of problems between the
- 18:53Speaker 3: Senate and the House right now. The first will be
- 18:55Speaker 3: the deficit. And if the Medicaid provider tax is not
- 18:57Speaker 3: in there, higher deficits. The Chip Roy's of the world,
- 19:00Speaker 3: the Freedom Caucus people, they get kind of squirrely. The
- 19:02Speaker 3: second is the state and local tax exemption. The Senate
- 19:05Speaker 3: has trimmed that back. The quote unquote salties from New
- 19:10Speaker 3: York and California are quite salty, if you will. And
- 19:15Speaker 3: then the third thing is the Senate delays the repeal
- 19:19Speaker 3: of some of the clean energy tax credits from the
- 19:22Speaker 3: Inflation Reduction Act. And the House is very pissed about that.
- 19:24Speaker 3: Steve Scalise today came out and said you'd have to
- 19:26Speaker 3: go back to where the House was to get it passed.
- 19:28Speaker 3: So all of that We've been saying this for a while,
- 19:32Speaker 3: that it's very tough to reconcile the desire to make
- 19:35Speaker 3: these deep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance and other programs.
- 19:40Speaker 2: Saying this for a while, that it's very tough to
- 19:43Speaker 2: reconcile the desire to make these deep cuts to Medicaid
- 19:48Speaker 2: and food assistance and other programs and also not add
- 19:54Speaker 2: trillions more to the deficit. It's just a math problem.
- 19:57Speaker 2: The worse this is going for them, the more I think,
- 20:02Speaker 2: I wonder why they don't just extend the tax cuts
- 20:06Speaker 2: and call it a day and just say that we're
- 20:08Speaker 2: going to do everything else next year or some other time,
- 20:10Speaker 2: or we're going to split it into two big bills
- 20:14Speaker 2: of bullshit. You know, I don't know. Like, do you
- 20:19Speaker 2: feel like, I mean, because just reading the comments from,
- 20:23Speaker 2: and I realize that most of these people, I realize
- 20:26Speaker 2: that the high likelihood is that all these people cave
- 20:28Speaker 2: in the end. Whether you're mad about deficits, whether you're
- 20:31Speaker 2: mad about the Medicaid cuts, whether you're mad about SALT,
- 20:33Speaker 2: like Donald Trump at the end tells you, you vote
- 20:36Speaker 2: for the bill, you vote for the fucking bill. But
- 20:39Speaker 2: Marjorie Taylor Greene posted today that she's a no right now.
- 20:43Speaker 2: You know, the Chip Roy's, the Andy Harris's, all those
- 20:45Speaker 2: people in the Freedom Caucus, they're like, this is crazy.
- 20:47Speaker 2: Bill Cassidy, senator, Republican senator, said the Medicaid cuts and
- 20:51Speaker 2: the senator too much now. And so he wants to
- 20:53Speaker 2: go back to the House Medicaid cuts, which were still
- 20:55Speaker 2: fucking awful. So I don't, it's definitely not, I can't
- 20:59Speaker 2: see it getting done by July 4th, that's for sure.
- 21:02Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm skeptical to do that because at every other
- 21:04Speaker 3: recent time where we've thought they can't get this done
- 21:06Speaker 3: on a short timeframe, they have gotten it done because
- 21:08Speaker 3: Trump was able to bully these folks into it. I
- 21:11Speaker 3: think when you think about– to answer your question about
- 21:13Speaker 3: why don't they just extend the tax cuts and you
- 21:16Speaker 3: have to put the debt ceiling in there as well.
- 21:17Speaker 3: I think it's going to be hard to get people
- 21:19Speaker 3: to vote to extend the debt ceiling without some form
- 21:22Speaker 3: of cuts in there. So that becomes a problem unless
- 21:24Speaker 3: Democrats have to bail them out on that, which we
- 21:25Speaker 3: absolutely should not do. But the other– there's also just
- 21:28Speaker 3: a mentality change. Like In our mind, Republicans paid a
- 21:31Speaker 3: huge political price in the 2018 midterms because they tried
- 21:35Speaker 3: to repeal the Affordable Care Act. In the Republican mindset
- 21:39Speaker 3: and in Trump's mindset, they paid a huge price in
- 21:41Speaker 3: the 2018 midterms because they failed to repeal the Affordable
- 21:43Speaker 3: Care Act. It was the failure, not the attempt. And
- 21:46Speaker 3: so the idea that you– and a simple year extension
- 21:51Speaker 3: to year extension of the tax cuts would be seen
- 21:53Speaker 3: as a failure. And so that is a– that is
- 21:55Speaker 3: why Thune and others say failure is not an option
- 21:58Speaker 3: because they think that would be worse for them. I
- 22:00Speaker 3: don't agree with this analysis, but it deflates the base,
- 22:03Speaker 3: it deflates the donor base, all of that, if you
- 22:05Speaker 3: can't get what you promised done. It's literally the only
- 22:08Speaker 3: bill they've tried to pass the whole year.
- 22:10Speaker 2: I mean, I do agree that if they fail to
- 22:14Speaker 2: pass it, they could get donors and some base voters
- 22:18Speaker 2: pissed off. And they also... still get the Medicaid ads
- 22:23Speaker 2: that they tried to cut Medicaid. So they sort of
- 22:25Speaker 2: get the worst of all worlds because everything they proposed
- 22:28Speaker 2: is still out there or something that they proposed. So
- 22:32Speaker 2: the parliamentarian screws them over and in their mind. And,
- 22:36Speaker 2: you know, one thing is to just figure out a
- 22:38Speaker 2: way to make the math work by doing other cuts
- 22:42Speaker 2: or tax increases, who knows, or just adding to the
- 22:45Speaker 2: deficit or whatever else. But then, of course, there's already
- 22:47Speaker 2: some Republicans who are arguing that you can also either
- 22:51Speaker 2: overrule the parliamentarian, ignore the parliamentarian, get the votes to overrule,
- 22:55Speaker 2: or fire the parliamentarian. And Thune has already said this
- 23:00Speaker 2: is not a good option. So in some key quotes
- 23:04Speaker 2: on this from Republicans, one is, how is it that
- 23:07Speaker 2: an unelected swamp bureaucrat who was appointed by Harry Reid
- 23:11Speaker 2: over a decade ago gets to decide what can and
- 23:13Speaker 2: cannot go in President Trump's one big, beautiful bill? That
- 23:16Speaker 2: was Florida Congressman Greg Stubbe. There's also this quote, Democrats
- 23:20Speaker 2: can't let an unelected bureaucrat stand in the way of
- 23:22Speaker 2: popular and necessary policies. That was Dan Pfeiffer in 2021.
- 23:27Speaker 3: All right. Thank you, Tim Russert, throwing my old quotes
- 23:29Speaker 3: back against me.
- 23:30Speaker 2: Honestly, that was a Reid Cherland special.
- 23:32Speaker 3: Oh, after I told Reid that I held this position,
- 23:34Speaker 3: so I'm sure he's not digging through the message box
- 23:36Speaker 3: archives to find that. The context of that quote, which
- 23:38Speaker 3: I 100% stand by because I am not someone who
- 23:41Speaker 3: clings to norms as America falls into a fascistic dystopian
- 23:45Speaker 3: future like some of you, is, Was during the- You
- 23:48Speaker 3: know what.
- 23:49Speaker 2: Another word for norms is, Dan? Democracy.
- 23:51Speaker 3: You know what another word for democracy is? To quote
- 23:55Speaker 3: a Matt Iglesias is norms in a trench coat. So
- 24:01Speaker 3: the context of that quote was when Democrats were trying
- 24:04Speaker 3: to pass the Voting Rights Act and we had 50
- 24:07Speaker 3: votes for it. But we did not have the 60
- 24:10Speaker 3: needed for the filibuster to get by the filibuster. And
- 24:13Speaker 3: we had two senators who you may remember from that
- 24:16Speaker 3: period of time, Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin. who would
- 24:18Speaker 3: not eliminate the filibuster to pass a voting rights bill.
- 24:22Speaker 3: And so I believe that, and I believe now that
- 24:24Speaker 3: the right thing to do would have been to do
- 24:25Speaker 3: everything we possibly could to pass that voting rights bill,
- 24:28Speaker 3: because ultimately.
- 24:29Speaker 2: But that wasn't a, that wasn't a parliamentarian issue.
- 24:32Speaker 3: It was a parliamentarian issue because they were trying.
- 24:34Speaker 2: To do, they were trying to do voting rights in
- 24:35Speaker 2: a budget bill.
- 24:36Speaker 6: Yes.
- 24:36Speaker 2: There was a, obviously that doesn't comply.
- 24:39Speaker 3: You can do that. You couldn't do the whole thing,
- 24:41Speaker 3: but there was a whole theory you could do. You
- 24:43Speaker 3: could do some of it, some of it that way.
- 24:45Speaker 2: I remember with minimum wage was the big, that's what
- 24:47Speaker 2: the one that everyone got bad at cinema because we
- 24:49Speaker 2: tried to put minimum, a higher minimum wage in the
- 24:50Speaker 2: budget bill, which you could argue is like, you know,
- 24:53Speaker 2: tangentially related at least to the federal budget. And then
- 24:55Speaker 2: they overruled that.
- 24:56Speaker 3: I mean, look, obviously to follow Miles's law, like where
- 24:58Speaker 3: you stand depends on where you sit. So right now
- 25:00Speaker 3: I'm very pleased with the parliamentarian, but the idea that
- 25:02Speaker 3: we are allowing a rule set by Robert Byrd, a
- 25:06Speaker 3: Senate rule set by Robert Byrd, not a law, right?
- 25:09Speaker 3: Not a, you know, not some, something in the constitution that,
- 25:13Speaker 3: to determine what the majority of the country and the
- 25:15Speaker 3: majority of the Senate wants, I think is one of
- 25:17Speaker 3: the problems with the Senate writ large.
- 25:20Speaker 2: I mean, I still think that the filibuster is a
- 25:22Speaker 2: problem and it should go, even though we're standing where
- 25:24Speaker 2: we are right now and Republicans have the Senate, because
- 25:27Speaker 2: I just think that the chances that Democrats ever get
- 25:31Speaker 2: 60 Senate seats with the map the way it is, like,
- 25:34Speaker 2: I don't know if we'll see it in our lifetime.
- 25:36Speaker 2: Certainly not in the next several Senate elections. And we're
- 25:39Speaker 2: lucky if we get 51. So I think that you know,
- 25:42Speaker 2: if we ever want to do good things again in
- 25:44Speaker 2: this country and pass them through legislation, we're going to
- 25:47Speaker 2: need to depend on 51 votes and not 60. So, yeah.
- 25:50Speaker 2: I mean, which is, by the way, why all this
- 25:51Speaker 2: stuff is getting done in budget bills, right? Because that's
- 25:54Speaker 2: the only kind of bill that you can get 51 votes.
- 25:57Speaker 2: The real problem here is the filibuster, again.
- 26:01Speaker 3: It's a stupid way to run a railroad, too, not
- 26:04Speaker 3: in a polarized world where neither party can really get
- 26:07Speaker 3: to 60 cents. Republicans have a better chance than we do,
- 26:09Speaker 3: but it's still quite challenging. You just can't solve big
- 26:12Speaker 3: problems this way. And the consequence of that is that
- 26:15Speaker 3: sometimes it's going to fall where the Republicans have the
- 26:17Speaker 3: trifecta and you're going to get really bad policies. I
- 26:20Speaker 3: think I personally am of the view that over the
- 26:23Speaker 3: long course of time, that is a better– I would
- 26:25Speaker 3: rather have that risk and be able to do good
- 26:27Speaker 3: things when we have it than the country be able
- 26:28Speaker 3: to do literally nothing other than pass one budget bill
- 26:31Speaker 3: per presidency for the future.
- 26:34Speaker 2: A hundred percent. And for people who disagree and think
- 26:37Speaker 2: we should keep it, I would just ask you, just
- 26:39Speaker 2: give me the states. that will get us to 60 senators.
- 26:44Speaker 2: Go through the map, look at the votes in the
- 26:46Speaker 2: last couple elections, tell me where we get 60 senators from.
- 26:49Speaker 2: Just try it. You mentioned the failure is not an
- 26:51Speaker 2: option thing. So that came from a closed door meeting that,
- 26:58Speaker 2: and it leaked from a closed door meeting among Republican senators.
- 27:01Speaker 2: And it was from Mitch McConnell. I was like, where's
- 27:03Speaker 2: he been? But what he said was, according to Punchbowl,
- 27:08Speaker 2: which got word from the meeting, got a leak from
- 27:11Speaker 2: the meeting, He said, I know a lot of, he said,
- 27:13Speaker 2: failure is not an option. And then he said, I
- 27:15Speaker 2: know a lot of us are hearing from people back
- 27:17Speaker 2: home about Medicaid, but they'll get over it. I mean,
- 27:24Speaker 2: this is, I know we're all having trouble trying to
- 27:27Speaker 2: figure out how like the Medicaid stuff can break through
- 27:29Speaker 2: and how the bill can break through to people. We
- 27:31Speaker 2: got Joni Ernst. She's out there saying someone's like, oh,
- 27:34Speaker 2: people are going to die. Well, we're all going to die.
- 27:37Speaker 2: We got Mitch McConnell saying people back home who are
- 27:40Speaker 2: upset about Medicaid cuts will get over it. Tom Tillis,
- 27:44Speaker 2: maybe the most vulnerable Republican senator in 2026, I guess
- 27:50Speaker 2: Susan Collins too, but he was actually, there's a piece
- 27:54Speaker 2: of paper, we have a picture of this. There's a
- 27:55Speaker 2: piece of paper he was carrying around to his Republican
- 27:59Speaker 2: colleagues that shows how many thousands and thousands of people
- 28:03Speaker 2: in North Carolina are gonna lose their Medicaid and lose
- 28:07Speaker 2: their healthcare if this goes through.
- 28:09Speaker 3: I can't wait to put that in an ad. Yeah,
- 28:13Speaker 3: that at least- When he votes for it in the end.
- 28:15Speaker 2: Yeah, we do have a picture of that. I really
- 28:17Speaker 2: wish we had a recording of Mitch McConnell, but they haven't.
- 28:20Speaker 2: I guess Mitch McConnell's person said, whoa, what he was
- 28:23Speaker 2: actually talking about is the people who will get over
- 28:25Speaker 2: it are the able-bodied people who are getting Medicaid right
- 28:29Speaker 2: now who shouldn't be. They'll get over it.
- 28:30Speaker 3: Oh, of course. Well, you know, in this era of AI,
- 28:34Speaker 3: you could- I'm just saying.
- 28:42Speaker 2: Anyway, we should be talking about it a lot. That's all.
- 28:44Speaker 3: It is helpful that it's Mitch McConnell and not like
- 28:48Speaker 3: Mike Crapo. It's like some of the people actually know
- 28:51Speaker 3: who he is.
- 28:52Speaker 2: I would bet. A ready-made villain for people. Yes.
- 28:55Speaker 3: And I would bet most people think Mitch McConnell is
- 28:56Speaker 3: still in charge of the Senate anyway. I'm not sure
- 28:58Speaker 3: John Thune has swept the nation yet as a political figure.
- 29:02Speaker 2: No, he hasn't really left a mark just yet.
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- 30:40Speaker 2: All right, let's go to the local news. I don't
- 30:45Speaker 2: know if anyone's aware, but a man named Zoran Mamdani
- 30:48Speaker 2: won Tuesday's Democratic primary election. for mayor in New York City. Look,
- 30:52Speaker 2: there were some woos in the studio.
- 30:56Speaker 3: The studio is in Park Slope, right?
- 30:58Speaker 4: Yeah, it is.
- 30:59Speaker 2: It's Bushwick, actually. Zoran beat the polls and Andrew Cuomo
- 31:03Speaker 2: by seven points.
- 31:05Speaker 3: Crazy.
- 31:06Speaker 2: What was the Emerson poll? The Emerson poll had him
- 31:09Speaker 2: leading by a few, maybe?
- 31:10Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 31:11Speaker 2: A couple? No, I didn't see any poll that had
- 31:14Speaker 2: seven points. It was a big enough lead that Cuomo
- 31:18Speaker 2: conceded without waiting for the rank choice process to play out.
- 31:21Speaker 2: So that's not even the final margin yet for Zora.
- 31:25Speaker 2: And it could be bigger than that when they actually
- 31:27Speaker 2: finish the rank choice process. So Mamdani now moves on
- 31:31Speaker 2: to the general election where he will face incumbent mayor
- 31:35Speaker 2: Eric Adams, who's running as an independent and will have
- 31:38Speaker 2: lots of money to spend, along with perennial Republican candidate
- 31:41Speaker 2: Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa? Sliwa? Perennial, but I don't know him.
- 31:47Speaker 2: And various no-names. There have been just a few takes
- 31:50Speaker 2: on Mamdani's win. I don't know if you've heard any.
- 31:53Speaker 2: Let's start with Republicans, who've really been having a normal one.
- 31:57Speaker 2: Going to read you a few choice reactions, Dan. Donald
- 32:03Speaker 2: Trump Jr. reposted a tweet that said, quote, I'm old
- 32:07Speaker 2: enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9-11 instead of
- 32:10Speaker 2: voting for it. So that was cool. That's from the
- 32:13Speaker 2: president's son. Laura Loomer, a proud Islamophobe, is what she
- 32:18Speaker 2: calls herself, also said Mamdani's win would lead to another 9-11.
- 32:23Speaker 2: She just said that. Elise Stefanik, who wants to, now
- 32:26Speaker 2: that she didn't get her dream job at the UN,
- 32:29Speaker 2: might run for governor of New York. She called him
- 32:31Speaker 2: a jihadist terrorist sympathizer. Jihadist, which is, that's really nice.
- 32:36Speaker 2: And then Donald Trump himself called Mamdani a, quote, 100%
- 32:41Speaker 2: communist lunatic. And, of course, the gang over at Fox News,
- 32:46Speaker 2: they took up the course right away. Let's listen.
- 32:48Speaker 3: I cannot believe that New York is about to elect
- 32:51Speaker 3: Adam Sandler, the hairdresser, as mayor of one of the
- 32:54Speaker 3: world's greatest cities. The Democrats have gone so far left,
- 32:57Speaker 3: they're socialists now.
- 32:58Speaker 1: It's President Trump that's really in the middle looking at
- 33:00Speaker 1: everybody and governing that way.
- 33:02Speaker 3: He's going to turn the prisons inside out, and he's
- 33:05Speaker 3: going to turn Whole foods into no foods.
- 33:08Speaker 6: Unless rich New Yorkers band together, donate a lot of money,
- 33:12Speaker 6: and create a groundswell for a viable alternative to Mamdani,
- 33:16Speaker 6: another great American city is going to swirl down the drain.
- 33:20Speaker 2: You know what creates a groundswell? Lots of money. Maga
- 33:27Speaker 2: diehard Andy Ogles of Tennessee, this is some sick shit,
- 33:30Speaker 2: is officially calling for the Department of Justice to investigate Mamdani,
- 33:34Speaker 2: who was born in Uganda. so that he can be
- 33:37Speaker 2: denaturalized and deported on the grounds of material support for terrorism.
- 33:43Speaker 2: I don't know, Dan, what is wrong with these people?
- 33:45Speaker 3: I mean, something's very wrong. I just, this is the
- 33:47Speaker 3: least important point possible, but in the Adam Sandler movie,
- 33:50Speaker 3: Don't Mess With Zohan, he was an Israeli super spy
- 33:53Speaker 3: slash hairdresser.
- 33:54Speaker 2: I didn't even know that was a movie, Dan.
- 33:55Speaker 3: Yeah, I saw the look on your face.
- 33:57Speaker 2: I guess I haven't kept up on my Adam Sandler.
- 33:59Speaker 3: I think it's from a long time ago.
- 34:00Speaker 2: Catalog.
- 34:01Speaker 3: Yes. 2008, you were busy that year.
- 34:05Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I was... Working for another secret Muslim born
- 34:09Speaker 2: in Africa.
- 34:11Speaker 3: Yes, yes.
- 34:11Speaker 2: I guess not so secret now. Yes. So, I'm actually, like,
- 34:17Speaker 2: I'm surprised by the level and breadth of reaction from
- 34:23Speaker 2: the right on this. Like, I thought that they would be...
- 34:26Speaker 2: I mean, I thought that they would say some of
- 34:29Speaker 2: this shit, but the fact that it has been, like,
- 34:31Speaker 2: nonstop for a couple days... I don't know. I guess
- 34:35Speaker 2: I can always be shocked by this. I'm not shocked
- 34:37Speaker 2: at what the sort of the vitriol and the racism
- 34:43Speaker 2: and the hatred, that doesn't surprise me. Just that I
- 34:46Speaker 2: guess they don't have anything else to do right now.
- 34:48Speaker 2: So they're really all in.
- 34:50Speaker 3: Yeah, 100%. This is very much on brand. It's like,
- 34:54Speaker 3: I'm sure it drives ratings for them and makes them happy.
- 34:57Speaker 3: And frankly, the bigwigs in right-wing media, based in New
- 35:01Speaker 3: York City too. Like all these Fox people are living
- 35:03Speaker 3: there in the middle of this.
- 35:04Speaker 2: I don't know how effective this is because it's so
- 35:09Speaker 2: over the top and so extreme. And, you know, Charlie
- 35:14Speaker 2: Kirk and Stephen Miller and Matt Walsh and the rest
- 35:17Speaker 2: of them, they're out there saying, you know, there's just
- 35:20Speaker 2: too many immigrants in New York and there's New York
- 35:23Speaker 2: is full of foreign born. You know, a third of
- 35:26Speaker 2: all the citizens in New York now are foreign born
- 35:28Speaker 2: and two thirds of all children in New York City
- 35:31Speaker 2: live in a in the household. where one of the
- 35:33Speaker 2: parents is foreign born, and we can't have any more
- 35:36Speaker 2: third world migration at all. Just being, just saying the
- 35:41Speaker 2: quiet part out loud, that it's not about illegal immigration
- 35:44Speaker 2: to them at all. It's about legal immigration. They don't
- 35:47Speaker 2: like immigrants in this country. Also, New York City has
- 35:52Speaker 2: been about a third foreign born citizens in New York
- 35:56Speaker 2: City since at least 2000. It's been almost the exact
- 36:01Speaker 2: same argument. And then Really, since New York City became
- 36:05Speaker 2: a city, it was either a little higher than that
- 36:09Speaker 2: or a little lower. They want you to think that
- 36:11Speaker 2: the country is changing and that there's all these foreign-born
- 36:15Speaker 2: people in the country now and mass migration. And really,
- 36:19Speaker 2: in a city like New York, it just hasn't changed
- 36:21Speaker 2: all that much.
- 36:21Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 36:21Speaker 3: I mean, well, obviously, you remember that the Statue of
- 36:24Speaker 3: Liberty went up during the Biden administration. It's like that's
- 36:27Speaker 3: when we truly opened the doors.
- 36:28Speaker 2: That was the gift he took. Yes. Unlike the $ 400
- 36:32Speaker 2: million plane, but it was the same idea.
- 36:33Speaker 3: Yes, exactly.
- 36:34Speaker 2: So the rich Wall Street types, they are also very
- 36:38Speaker 2: upset about Mamdani. They're quoting on CNBC, they're quoting Dark
- 36:42Speaker 2: Knight saying, quote, they're taking Wall Streeters and making them
- 36:46Speaker 2: walk out onto the ice and the East River and
- 36:48Speaker 2: then they fall through. Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman wrote
- 36:54Speaker 2: one of his trademark 1,000 word diatribes on Twitter. begging
- 36:58Speaker 2: someone to launch a write-in campaign, and then he promised
- 37:02Speaker 2: to help fund it and said the money will be there.
- 37:04Speaker 2: If someone wants to just step up and run a campaign,
- 37:08Speaker 2: do a write-in thing, then the billionaires will fund it.
- 37:11Speaker 2: And then the Times reports that Eric Adams has already
- 37:13Speaker 2: met with business and finance leaders to talk about how
- 37:16Speaker 2: to stop Mondani. Nice of these guys to do free
- 37:19Speaker 2: campaign ads for Zorro.
- 37:20Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. Billionaires mad at Mondani. It's going to be
- 37:23Speaker 3: a huge, huge, huge political problem for him.
- 37:26Speaker 2: What? I mean, what do you make of this?
- 37:31Speaker 3: This is not surprising. I think the more likely scenario
- 37:35Speaker 3: is they get behind Adams.
- 37:37Speaker 2: It's easier.
- 37:37Speaker 3: He already has ballot access. And we know he can
- 37:41Speaker 3: be bought since he both was indicted for bribery.
- 37:46Speaker 2: Just ask the Turks.
- 37:47Speaker 3: Yes. But then he was bribed again in exchange for
- 37:51Speaker 3: a pardon. Or having his charges dropped, I guess. So yeah,
- 37:56Speaker 3: I think they will get behind him. There will be
- 37:57Speaker 3: a full New York City freakout about this over the
- 38:02Speaker 3: next several months.
- 38:02Speaker 2: Do you think Cuomo gets back in and runs on
- 38:05Speaker 2: some other party's ticket?
- 38:07Speaker 3: I mean, he did so poorly. I'm not sure anyone
- 38:10Speaker 3: would want him to do that. It wasn't like he
- 38:13Speaker 3: got in late and almost got there or started weak
- 38:16Speaker 3: and grew strong. He got his ass kicked and was
- 38:18Speaker 3: a terrible candidate. So I don't know that I don't
- 38:21Speaker 3: know that people will put more good money after bad.
- 38:23Speaker 3: There is an amazing quote from one of the hedge
- 38:26Speaker 3: fund guys who gave $ 250, 000 to this Pro Cuomo super PAC,
- 38:30Speaker 3: who's now going to back Mondani. And he said, don't
- 38:33Speaker 3: mistake my $ 250, 000 donation for enthusiasm for Andrew Cuomo. We
- 38:38Speaker 3: just thought he might win. And this is how you
- 38:40Speaker 3: have to play the game with Andrew Cuomo.
- 38:43Speaker 2: Amazing.
- 38:43Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 38:43Speaker 2: This is amazing. I mean, clearly... you know, the knives
- 38:48Speaker 2: are out for Zoran and the Wall Street people, the
- 38:52Speaker 2: finance people, Republicans, Republicans nationally, we're about to talk about
- 38:58Speaker 2: some Democrats, are going to just sort of empty the
- 39:02Speaker 2: oppo file and really try to raise awareness on some
- 39:07Speaker 2: of his positions, past statements, all the rest. I just think,
- 39:11Speaker 2: I think a writing campaign is hard to pull off
- 39:14Speaker 2: I think a write-in campaign with Adam still in the
- 39:16Speaker 2: race then probably doesn't help. You need to bribe him
- 39:21Speaker 2: to drop out. Right, yeah. Which I guess you could do, yeah.
- 39:25Speaker 2: So you need to bribe him to drop out and
- 39:26Speaker 2: then just have the write-in candidate and Doron. But like,
- 39:29Speaker 2: I still... Eric Adams, the guy, they haven't taken a
- 39:33Speaker 2: poll lately, but as of late March, I think, his
- 39:37Speaker 2: approval rating was sitting around 20%. I suppose it could
- 39:42Speaker 2: get to be a closer race, but I don't know
- 39:45Speaker 2: how you come. You're an incumbent mayor with a 20%
- 39:47Speaker 2: approval rating. And you're running in a city where Democratic
- 39:53Speaker 2: registration and where Kamala Harris, obviously Trump made up some
- 39:56Speaker 2: ground in New York in 2024, but I think Kamala
- 39:58Speaker 2: Harris won the city by like, what, 30, 40 points? Yeah.
- 40:01Speaker 3: I mean, also, let's talk about Eric Adams for a second.
- 40:03Speaker 3: He is a incumbent mayor who left the Democratic Party,
- 40:08Speaker 3: was indicted for bribery, and then in the city that
- 40:12Speaker 3: Kamala Harris won overwhelmingly, he had the charges dropped for
- 40:15Speaker 3: him in exchange for for adopting some of Trump's deportation policies.
- 40:20Speaker 2: Right.
- 40:21Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 40:21Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 40:22Speaker 3: It's not a good profile.
- 40:24Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 40:24Speaker 2: The ice raids that New Yorkers hate right now are
- 40:26Speaker 2: sponsored by Eric Adams because Donald Trump owns him.
- 40:29Speaker 4: Yes.
- 40:30Speaker 3: Yeah. It doesn't see like anything possible.
- 40:33Speaker 4: Yes.
- 40:34Speaker 3: Anything, like anything's possible in American politics in 2025, but
- 40:37Speaker 3: it's not a great starting spot for the Eric Adams
- 40:39Speaker 3: for mayor campaign.
- 40:41Speaker 2: I want to read you some other negative reactions to
- 40:44Speaker 2: Mamdani's win. Quote, absolute wrong choice for New York. Serious concerns,
- 40:49Speaker 2: profoundly alarmed, deeply disturbing pattern of unacceptable anti-Semitic comments. Alas,
- 40:55Speaker 2: those are all from Democrats. The Axios headline says it all.
- 41:01Speaker 2: Democratic establishment melts down over Mamdani's win in New York.
- 41:05Speaker 2: The concern here allegedly is that the party's candidate in
- 41:09Speaker 2: a 2025 mayoral race could, quote, hurt the party's brand
- 41:13Speaker 2: nationally in 2026 and 2028. You wrote a message box
- 41:18Speaker 2: on this already. Would you like to tee off here?
- 41:21Speaker 3: I'll let you go first if you would like.
- 41:23Speaker 2: No, you wrote the message box. Okay. All right. I'm
- 41:27Speaker 2: just a lazy podcaster.
- 41:31Speaker 3: You're running a media empire and you're podcasting every 16 seconds.
- 41:35Speaker 3: I think that you can draw a straight line between
- 41:39Speaker 3: how members of the ossified, sclerotic, democratic establishment have responded
- 41:44Speaker 3: to Trump's deportation raids and the bombing of Iran, and
- 41:49Speaker 3: Mondani's victory, which is they are governed by a culture
- 41:52Speaker 3: of fear. They're so afraid of losing that they're never
- 41:56Speaker 3: going to win. It's like we are thinking and we
- 41:59Speaker 3: are reverse engineering our strategies and ideas, not by what
- 42:02Speaker 3: is best, what the best outcome is. It's how do
- 42:05Speaker 3: we minimize the worst outcome? What are Trump and the
- 42:08Speaker 3: Republicans going to say about us? So you think about
- 42:11Speaker 3: all these Democrats who have refused to endorse Mondani yet.
- 42:14Speaker 3: Maybe they all will eventually. Governor Hochul did a press
- 42:17Speaker 3: conference today, which was, I think, just awkward and weird
- 42:20Speaker 3: and not great.
- 42:21Speaker 2: Said she wasn't ready yet to endorse him?
- 42:24Speaker 3: So let's just think about that for a second. Here
- 42:27Speaker 3: you have a candidate who you may not agree with
- 42:29Speaker 3: on all of the issues, but he sparked a movement
- 42:35Speaker 3: of young people, a diverse working class coalition of young people,
- 42:40Speaker 3: the exact people leaving our party across the board, the
- 42:44Speaker 3: people we have to get back. And you're going to
- 42:46Speaker 3: walk away from him for what? So that you can
- 42:48Speaker 3: support Eric Adams? He's the Democratic nominee for mayor. What
- 42:53Speaker 3: is the alternative here? What are you afraid of?
- 42:56Speaker 2: They're afraid of the ads. They're afraid of the Republican ads.
- 43:00Speaker 3: The ads are coming either way.
- 43:04Speaker 2: You're standing with this Muslim socialist who is anti-Semitic and
- 43:10Speaker 2: all the fucking garbage bullshit that they're saying.
- 43:13Speaker 3: The idea that they're going to use Mondani in ads
- 43:18Speaker 3: to destroy Democrats around the country is absurd. It isn't
- 43:22Speaker 3: borne out by evidence. I've looked at this before. So
- 43:25Speaker 3: in 2014, the Republicans put Nancy Pelosi in all of
- 43:28Speaker 3: their ads, and they did great in the midterms. In 2018,
- 43:33Speaker 3: the Republicans put Nancy Pelosi in all of their ads,
- 43:35Speaker 3: and they got their ass kicked. Nancy Pelosi was in
- 43:37Speaker 3: just about the same number of ads. She was actually
- 43:39Speaker 3: less popular in 2018 than she was in 2014. And
- 43:42Speaker 3: Democrats did great. There was just no connection to that.
- 43:45Speaker 3: It's just, it is absurd. Just like there are things,
- 43:49Speaker 3: you don't have to embrace this entire agenda. You have
- 43:50Speaker 3: to embrace everything he said. Of course not. But the fact,
- 43:54Speaker 3: but what he accomplished in this race, what he speaks
- 43:56Speaker 3: about the future, the hope he's given people is something
- 43:58Speaker 3: that every Democrat should be learning from. It's, I'm infuriated.
- 44:03Speaker 3: Like I, as you can tell, I am infuriated. I'm
- 44:05Speaker 3: speaking calmly, but I am boiling over with rage on
- 44:08Speaker 3: the inside because it's so It's so self-defeating and stupid.
- 44:10Speaker 3: If you wanted to endorse, if you didn't want to
- 44:12Speaker 3: back him in the primary, back someone else, right? I
- 44:15Speaker 3: think it's gross to back Cuomo in that scenario. If
- 44:17Speaker 3: you want to back Brad Lander or one of the
- 44:19Speaker 3: other candidates, great, go do that. But now he's the nominee.
- 44:22Speaker 3: The voters have spoken, and they spoke overwhelmingly. He didn't
- 44:25Speaker 3: win by some like, you know, where he got like
- 44:27Speaker 3: 26% of the vote in a 12-candidate race. He won overwhelmingly.
- 44:32Speaker 3: Support him. He is the nominee.
- 44:34Speaker 2: I'm going to take it from this perspective. let's say
- 44:38Speaker 2: you're a Democrat with good faith concerns about Mamdani. Like
- 44:43Speaker 2: you're just, you're like, it's not about that. I'm scared
- 44:45Speaker 2: about the ads. It's not that I'm just trying to
- 44:47Speaker 2: punch left. I'm genuinely concerned about him. And the concerns
- 44:51Speaker 2: really fall into the concerns that would make you not
- 44:53Speaker 2: support the Democratic nominee for mayor. If someone asks you again,
- 44:57Speaker 2: like most of these, most of these Democrats don't even
- 44:59Speaker 2: fucking live in New York, but they're, you know, but
- 45:02Speaker 2: you know, I'm sure they'll get asked. Right. And so
- 45:05Speaker 2: the concerns fall into two buckets, I think. One is the,
- 45:09Speaker 2: you know, globalize the Intifada answer and all the charges
- 45:13Speaker 2: of anti-Semitism that come with it, right? So if you're
- 45:17Speaker 2: concerned about that, I bet you could call him. I
- 45:19Speaker 2: bet you could meet with him. You could talk to him,
- 45:21Speaker 2: find out what he really thinks, find out what his
- 45:23Speaker 2: beliefs are, because he has denounced anti-Semitism many, many times.
- 45:29Speaker 2: not just in this campaign, but throughout his career. If
- 45:32Speaker 2: there's other things that concern you, just give the guy
- 45:34Speaker 2: a call. I'm sure he'd be happy to talk to you.
- 45:37Speaker 2: And then it's, oh, well, he's a socialist, right? We're
- 45:40Speaker 2: worried about social policies. Steve Ratner tweeted this today, and
- 45:45Speaker 2: I believe the tweet was to be like, can you
- 45:47Speaker 2: believe these are his policies? For those not paying close attention,
- 45:51Speaker 2: here are some of the things Mamdani believes. Free buses,
- 45:54Speaker 2: free childcare, and pay for childcare workers equal to teachers
- 45:58Speaker 2: are Free city university tuition, minimum wage of $ 30 per
- 46:02Speaker 2: hour by 2030, rent freeze on apartments, end of mayoral
- 46:05Speaker 2: control of schools, city-owned grocery store program, raise corporate individual
- 46:10Speaker 2: taxes for high earners. I mean, it is very possible
- 46:17Speaker 2: to disagree with some of those policies and to even say, like,
- 46:21Speaker 2: I share the goal of making sure that more New
- 46:24Speaker 2: Yorkers can afford to live, afford to buy a house,
- 46:27Speaker 2: afford rent. I don't know if rent control is going
- 46:29Speaker 2: to work, right? Or, you know, I think that we
- 46:32Speaker 2: need to spend money improving the buses before we make
- 46:35Speaker 2: them free. Like, there's a whole bunch of ways you
- 46:37Speaker 2: can say, yeah, it might differ on some of the policy. But, like,
- 46:41Speaker 2: those policies are not some fucking, like, take control of
- 46:45Speaker 2: the means of production shit.
- 46:47Speaker 3: Also, the grocery store thing is a pilot program with
- 46:50Speaker 3: one grocery store.
- 46:51Speaker 5: Five.
- 46:52Speaker 3: It's one for Burrow.
- 46:54Speaker 2: And as he said to, you know, I heard about it,
- 46:56Speaker 2: because I thought that too. I'm like, People were like,
- 46:58Speaker 2: nationalize the grocery stores. And I'm like, what is that?
- 47:00Speaker 2: And then I heard him talking to Tim Miller about it.
- 47:02Speaker 2: And he's like, it's a pilot program. If it works, great.
- 47:05Speaker 2: If it doesn't work, we don't do it. And that's
- 47:08Speaker 2: why we're trying one per borough.
- 47:10Speaker 3: Yeah, because food deserts are a huge problem. So let's
- 47:12Speaker 3: try to fix it. Maybe it's not the right solution,
- 47:14Speaker 3: but at least he's trying.
- 47:16Speaker 2: Here's the thing. I said this before. The guy could
- 47:19Speaker 2: succeed wildly. He could be fine. He could fail as mayor.
- 47:23Speaker 2: But like, we let a lot of other democratic politicians
- 47:26Speaker 2: run cities, run states, go to Congress, and sometimes they
- 47:30Speaker 2: do well, sometimes they do fucking horrible, and then you
- 47:33Speaker 2: vote them out of office. I just don't understand why
- 47:37Speaker 2: this has to be the biggest fucking deal ever.
- 47:41Speaker 3: You mentioned the idea of punching left, right? This idea
- 47:43Speaker 3: that you're going to show your independence by attacking people
- 47:47Speaker 3: to your ideological flank. The old phrase back in the
- 47:50Speaker 3: 60s was hippie punching, right? And To think that that
- 47:54Speaker 3: is a good idea in this environment shows that you
- 47:56Speaker 3: fundamentally do not understand politics in the post-Trump era. Because
- 48:00Speaker 3: we do not exist on a continuum of left and right.
- 48:03Speaker 3: It is inside, outside. Which is exactly why Trump can
- 48:07Speaker 3: make gains in New York City and a 33-year-old Democratic
- 48:10Speaker 3: Socialist can win the primary against the former governor. Because
- 48:14Speaker 3: both of them are change. We can disagree about Trump,
- 48:19Speaker 3: but they represent change. They represent a challenge to the establishment.
- 48:22Speaker 3: So if you are– this is my advice to Democrats
- 48:24Speaker 3: out there who are looking to show their independence because
- 48:26Speaker 3: they feel weighed down by our absolutely dismal party brand
- 48:30Speaker 3: right now. Don't punch left. Punch up. What people are
- 48:34Speaker 3: mad about is the Democratic establishment. If you feel– if
- 48:38Speaker 3: you have a problem with your party, that's who– they
- 48:40Speaker 3: want to see that you are willing to break with
- 48:42Speaker 3: your party on that. Not that– like just simply attacking
- 48:46Speaker 3: people to the left to show you're moderate isn't answering
- 48:48Speaker 3: the question the voters are asking. They're asking, are you
- 48:51Speaker 3: someone who can take on a broken political system? And
- 48:53Speaker 3: you do that by showing that you are not going
- 48:56Speaker 3: to be obedient to the party bosses.
- 48:59Speaker 2: Donald Trump tried to steal the last election. When he failed,
- 49:05Speaker 2: fomented a violent insurrection against the Capitol. Cops were brutally assaulted.
- 49:10Speaker 2: They tried to kill members of Congress and his own
- 49:13Speaker 2: vice president. He then wins the election, pardons the people
- 49:18Speaker 2: who violently assaulted cops, And what we've had, at least
- 49:22Speaker 2: at the beginning of the administration, is some Democrats being like,
- 49:25Speaker 2: I'll work with them. I'll work with them where it
- 49:27Speaker 2: makes sense. I'll vote for some of his nominees where
- 49:30Speaker 2: they're good. Now, Now we're like, oh, but if it's
- 49:35Speaker 2: the mayor of New York City who wants to give
- 49:37Speaker 2: people free buses and rent control and has said that
- 49:42Speaker 2: he doesn't know if he's going to police the term
- 49:46Speaker 2: globalize the intifada, even though he doesn't use it, which
- 49:49Speaker 2: is admittedly a dumb answer. But for that, for him,
- 49:53Speaker 2: we're going to say, absolutely not. This is very concerning.
- 49:56Speaker 2: But for Donald fucking Trump, be like, well, I'll work
- 49:59Speaker 2: with them where I can.
- 50:01Speaker 3: If you are more concerned about... Democratic Socialist in City
- 50:05Speaker 3: Hall than a fascist in the White House. You're not
- 50:08Speaker 3: living in the right times here, people.
- 50:11Speaker 2: Even if we're talking about right now, there's this whole
- 50:14Speaker 2: debate where it's like, oh, a Democrat called for for
- 50:17Speaker 2: Trump's impeachment and this and that. And it's like, yeah,
- 50:20Speaker 2: I get that impeachment is a road to nowhere because
- 50:23Speaker 2: we don't have the votes, but like, of course this
- 50:25Speaker 2: man should be impeached. If we fucking had the votes,
- 50:28Speaker 2: he shouldn't be in office. But like Democrats are like, Oh,
- 50:31Speaker 2: I don't know. We can't, no one can even say
- 50:34Speaker 2: the word impeachment. It's so scary. We don't want to
- 50:37Speaker 2: look too extreme, but, but you know, when it comes
- 50:39Speaker 2: to talking about Mamdani, they have no problems, no problems whatsoever.
- 50:45Speaker 2: And look, it's, It's been a handful. It's been a
- 50:48Speaker 2: handful of people so far. But I don't want that
- 50:51Speaker 2: to spread.
- 50:51Speaker 3: I mean, the congressional leadership of the House and the
- 50:52Speaker 3: Senate have yet to endorse the Democratic nominee for mayor
- 50:55Speaker 3: from the city in which they both live and vote.
- 50:59Speaker 2: Here's the other thing. You're going to end up endorsing it.
- 51:02Speaker 2: Of course you are. You know where this is going.
- 51:05Speaker 2: Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer aren't going to spend from
- 51:07Speaker 2: now until fucking November just dancing around this. They're not
- 51:12Speaker 2: going to end up in a place where they fucking
- 51:13Speaker 2: endorse Eric Adams. And so what did they think?
- 51:17Speaker 3: No one pulls a Band-Aid off more slowly than a
- 51:19Speaker 3: member of Democratic leadership. It's like, just do it.
- 51:23Speaker 4: God.
- 51:25Speaker 2: Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
- 51:26Speaker 3: This was cathartic. It was cathartic. Yes, I feel good now.
- 51:29Speaker 2: I thought that you would tee off and I would
- 51:33Speaker 2: try to save my anger, but I couldn't do it.
- 51:36Speaker 2: All right. When we come back from the break, you'll
- 51:38Speaker 2: hear my conversation with California Congressman Robert Garcia. Quick announcement
- 51:42Speaker 2: before that, Strict Scrutiny dropped two bonus episodes this week,
- 51:45Speaker 2: one on the Supreme Court's Planned Parenthood decision, which was
- 51:47Speaker 2: fucking awful, and another on the wave of major rulings
- 51:50Speaker 2: that followed. They break down what it means, how these
- 51:53Speaker 2: decisions could affect people's lives. So go check out Strict
- 51:56Speaker 2: Scrutiny wherever you get your podcasts or watch them on YouTube.
- 51:59Speaker 2: When we come back, Robert Garcia.
- 52:10Speaker 1: Positive America is brought to you by Policy Genius. There
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- 53:55Speaker 2: Congressman Garcia, welcome to Plot Save America.
- 53:57Speaker 4: Yeah, happy to be here. Thank you.
- 53:59Speaker 2: So you're now the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee.
- 54:02Speaker 2: Congrats on winning that big election. Thank you.
- 54:06Speaker 4: I'm obviously just very grateful to the caucus. And look,
- 54:10Speaker 4: I think obviously the oversight, as you know, is like
- 54:12Speaker 4: the heart of what Congress does, which is transparency, investigations,
- 54:15Speaker 4: holding the powerful accountable. Obviously, we're going to hold Donald
- 54:18Speaker 4: Trump accountable in new ways, and I'm looking forward to that.
- 54:22Speaker 4: And I think it was good for the party and
- 54:25Speaker 4: the caucus to expand the tent and bring in some
- 54:27Speaker 4: new folks. And I think that's also a good sign
- 54:30Speaker 4: for where the party is going. And I certainly hope so.
- 54:33Speaker 2: What power do you have, for people who don't know,
- 54:36Speaker 2: on that committee as the ranking member, the minority party? Obviously,
- 54:40Speaker 2: Republicans control Congress and control that committee. And so what
- 54:44Speaker 2: powers do you have and what do you plan to
- 54:46Speaker 2: do with them?
- 54:48Speaker 4: I mean, a couple of things. I think one is, look,
- 54:51Speaker 4: as a ranking member and certainly in the minority, we
- 54:53Speaker 4: still have investigative power. So we can still launch investigations.
- 54:56Speaker 4: We can still work and try to get legislation done.
- 54:59Speaker 4: We can still push back in committees and outside to
- 55:02Speaker 4: talk to the American people directly. And I think it's
- 55:04Speaker 4: really important that when we have these hearings, that we're
- 55:07Speaker 4: bringing the fire, that we're being honest and direct with
- 55:10Speaker 4: the American public, that we're pushing back on every lie.
- 55:13Speaker 4: that is told by the far-magic right. I mean, look,
- 55:16Speaker 4: you've got Nancy Mace, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Jim Comer.
- 55:20Speaker 4: I mean, this is kind of the worst of the
- 55:23Speaker 4: worst of the liars and the extreme right in Congress.
- 55:26Speaker 4: And so we're gonna have to push back and communicate
- 55:30Speaker 4: the message, a winning message, a message that's kind of
- 55:32Speaker 4: forward-looking for the country. And then I think also at
- 55:35Speaker 4: the same time, I wanna build the best and the brightest,
- 55:38Speaker 4: not just on the committee and invite new folks to join,
- 55:42Speaker 4: But we're going to build a team of oversight staffers.
- 55:44Speaker 4: There's already some incredible team members. But we want to
- 55:48Speaker 4: bring in even more folks that are committed to this work.
- 55:51Speaker 4: And they're also going to look at our committee structure
- 55:54Speaker 4: that we can communicate more effectively to the American public.
- 55:57Speaker 4: We need to be in every single digital space communicating
- 56:01Speaker 4: in a way that the American public can understand these investigations,
- 56:05Speaker 4: that they're relatable to the American public, and that they
- 56:08Speaker 4: can see through the lies and deception of James Comer
- 56:11Speaker 4: and Donald Trump.
- 56:13Speaker 2: So on that note, you know, as you pointed out,
- 56:15Speaker 2: you've got some of the biggest clowns in the Republican
- 56:16Speaker 2: Party on that committee, just attention-starved clowns. How do you
- 56:22Speaker 2: think about balancing the need to push back, as you say,
- 56:26Speaker 2: and call out the lies without helping them turn these
- 56:30Speaker 2: hearings into a circus, right, which is what they want? And,
- 56:34Speaker 2: you know, it also turns off some people who are watching.
- 56:38Speaker 4: Yeah, I think there's two pieces of it. I mean, look,
- 56:40Speaker 4: they're bringing the clown show. We've got Maxwell Frost and
- 56:44Speaker 4: Greg Kassar and Jasmine Crockett, Summer Lee and so many
- 56:48Speaker 4: others that are going to, I think, deliver and communicate
- 56:51Speaker 4: broadly to the American public. At the same time, I've
- 56:54Speaker 4: told them and I've told the committee team that we're
- 56:57Speaker 4: going to build a forward-looking agenda. Not only are we
- 57:00Speaker 4: going to focus on investigations and we're going to investigate
- 57:03Speaker 4: not just Donald Trump, but corporate power that wants to
- 57:06Speaker 4: abuse the American public. We're going to take on some
- 57:08Speaker 4: of the big issues that are happening right now, whether
- 57:11Speaker 4: it's ICE or whether it's big corporations trying to rip
- 57:13Speaker 4: off middle-class families. We're also going to have a forward-looking
- 57:17Speaker 4: agenda of government reform. The committee is oversight and government reform.
- 57:22Speaker 4: And we don't do enough of that. People want to
- 57:25Speaker 4: see the federal government be more efficient, be more effective,
- 57:28Speaker 4: ensure that we're providing services quicker and faster to constituents.
- 57:32Speaker 4: These are all things that are highly popular across the country.
- 57:35Speaker 4: And so, yes, we need to be the opposition party
- 57:37Speaker 4: and have investigations and bring that fire. But we are
- 57:41Speaker 4: going to lay out a vision for how we actually
- 57:43Speaker 4: make government work better for people. I think it's going
- 57:46Speaker 4: to be highly popular. And I'm really excited in putting
- 57:49Speaker 4: together that plan.
- 57:50Speaker 2: And it sounds like that's something that Democrats could run
- 57:53Speaker 2: on in the midterms.
- 57:54Speaker 4: 100%. And I think it's also something, I mean, I
- 57:57Speaker 4: kind of pitched myself to the caucus as someone that's
- 58:00Speaker 4: done a lot of government reform. I was a big
- 58:02Speaker 4: city mayor before I got to Congress just a couple
- 58:04Speaker 4: of years ago, and we made government faster. We used technology.
- 58:08Speaker 4: We brought in innovation. We weren't afraid of efficiency. Efficiency
- 58:12Speaker 4: can't be a word that Republicans co-opt to mean the
- 58:15Speaker 4: destruction of government or doze or eliminating workers. Efficiency can
- 58:20Speaker 4: mean actually making government faster, making employees and the workforce
- 58:24Speaker 4: be more attentive and work closer with the public and constituents.
- 58:28Speaker 4: And using technology... to actually make our services work better.
- 58:32Speaker 4: So I think all of that is under our jurisdiction.
- 58:34Speaker 4: And I think it also could be a forward-looking agenda
- 58:37Speaker 4: that could absolutely help with the midterms.
- 58:39Speaker 2: So there's a story today about a Los Angeles family
- 58:44Speaker 2: suing the Trump administration because armed federal agents wearing no
- 58:48Speaker 2: uniform arrested their nine-year-old and six-year-old who has leukemia as
- 58:54Speaker 2: they walked out of their asylum hearing with their mother.
- 58:57Speaker 2: This is from the story, They were crying in fear.
- 58:59Speaker 2: One of the agents lifted up his shirt to display
- 59:01Speaker 2: the gun he was carrying, and the six-year-old was so
- 59:03Speaker 2: terrified he urinated on himself. No one offered him a
- 59:06Speaker 2: change of clothing. They were shipped to Texas, and the
- 59:08Speaker 2: six-year-old missed a medical appointment. appointment even though his cancer
- 59:11Speaker 2: symptoms got worse. These kids were enrolled in LA public schools.
- 59:15Speaker 2: I have run out of ways to express how outraged
- 59:20Speaker 2: and disgusted I am by Stephen Miller terrorizing communities. And
- 59:25Speaker 2: the question I get asked all the time from people is,
- 59:28Speaker 2: what more can we be doing about this? It feels
- 59:31Speaker 2: like we hear these horrible stories and everyone speaks about them,
- 59:33Speaker 2: but what more can we be doing? What do you think?
- 59:36Speaker 4: First of all, I mean, what's happening right now is just,
- 59:39Speaker 4: it is so inhumane and gross. And as an immigrant
- 59:42Speaker 4: myself who came here as a young kid, it's not
- 59:44Speaker 4: the America that so many immigrants come to to actually
- 59:48Speaker 4: be a part of, to fight for, to fight for citizenship.
- 59:51Speaker 4: The American dream that immigrants are actually drawn to is
- 59:55Speaker 4: being ripped away from people. And the inhumanity the essentially
- 59:59Speaker 4: dehumanizing immigrants so that they're less than human is Stephen
- 1:00:03Speaker 4: Miller doing what he loves to do, which is be
- 1:00:06Speaker 4: essentially the biggest piece of shit on in this country.
- 1:00:09Speaker 4: Stephen Miller should be ashamed for the way he's acting.
- 1:00:13Speaker 4: I can't even believe he's from our state, which actually
- 1:00:14Speaker 4: makes me more, more sick. And I'll, and I'll say
- 1:00:18Speaker 4: that I'll say that like what's, what's happening right now
- 1:00:21Speaker 4: is it's not just that story, which is horrific. I mean,
- 1:00:25Speaker 4: it's the, the dad of those Marines that got essentially
- 1:00:27Speaker 4: beat on a street. It's children that are US citizens
- 1:00:31Speaker 4: being deported, as we know, to other countries without consent.
- 1:00:35Speaker 4: Due process in our Constitution is given to citizens and non-citizens.
- 1:00:40Speaker 3: It's all persons.
- 1:00:42Speaker 4: And I don't know what part of all persons that
- 1:00:45Speaker 4: Kristi Noem, Donald Trump, and Stephen Miller don't understand. And
- 1:00:49Speaker 4: so what has to happen now, I think you're seeing
- 1:00:51Speaker 4: some of that. One is we are winning some of
- 1:00:54Speaker 4: these cases in the courts. And I think that's been
- 1:00:56Speaker 4: a really important vehicle for Democrats. We've got to continue
- 1:00:58Speaker 4: winning in the courts, and that's going to continue. And
- 1:01:01Speaker 4: the other piece of it, people's reaction, the protesting, the anger,
- 1:01:06Speaker 4: the rising up against these actions also is having an effect.
- 1:01:09Speaker 4: And you're seeing that. I mean, what's happening in LA,
- 1:01:12Speaker 4: which was widely, as you know, mostly peaceful. And yes,
- 1:01:15Speaker 4: there were some incidents of violence. We denounced those. We
- 1:01:17Speaker 4: get that. But widely peaceful. The protests are energizing the
- 1:01:21Speaker 4: population and the public to stand up against this. And
- 1:01:24Speaker 4: we are seeing the impact it's having on the Republicans electorally.
- 1:01:27Speaker 4: I mean, Trump's immigration numbers have never been as low
- 1:01:30Speaker 4: as they are right now because they're seeing what he
- 1:01:33Speaker 4: wants to do implemented across the country. So that's going
- 1:01:36Speaker 4: to be really important. And then finally, Democrats in Congress
- 1:01:39Speaker 4: and across the country, we've got to fight. We've got
- 1:01:41Speaker 4: to continue to fight really hard. It does feel in
- 1:01:44Speaker 4: these last few weeks, last month or so, that there
- 1:01:48Speaker 4: is a shift happening. I really do sense that Democrats,
- 1:01:52Speaker 4: people have found their footing in They're being more aggressive.
- 1:01:55Speaker 4: They're getting out in the street more. And so I
- 1:01:58Speaker 4: hope that wave kind of continues. And hopefully we can
- 1:02:01Speaker 4: stop the worst from happening and encourage some actually good
- 1:02:04Speaker 4: legislation moving forward.
- 1:02:06Speaker 2: Do you plan to conduct investigations from your perch on
- 1:02:10Speaker 2: the Oversight Committee of ICE and DHS? And do you
- 1:02:15Speaker 2: think that any of these officials would actually show up
- 1:02:17Speaker 2: at the hearings?
- 1:02:19Speaker 4: One is absolutely. You can take it to the bank.
- 1:02:22Speaker 4: I mean, going after.
- 1:02:24Speaker 4: The corruption of what's happening right now in ICE and
- 1:02:26Speaker 4: Homeland Security is going to be a critical piece of
- 1:02:28Speaker 4: our oversight agenda. And even in the minority, we actually
- 1:02:32Speaker 4: have some oversight investigative work coming up here in the
- 1:02:35Speaker 4: next few weeks specific to ICE. But certainly, that is
- 1:02:38Speaker 4: going to be a big focus of what we do.
- 1:02:41Speaker 4: Broadly speaking, of course, when we're able to have subpoena
- 1:02:43Speaker 4: power and actually take over the investigations, one thing I've
- 1:02:46Speaker 4: told people is you can rest assured that if you
- 1:02:49Speaker 4: are right now causing the level of harm that the
- 1:02:52Speaker 4: Stephen Millers of the world are, that these ICE agents are,
- 1:02:54Speaker 4: that the corruption that's happening to destroy our institutions, you
- 1:02:58Speaker 4: are going to be held accountable. We are not going
- 1:03:00Speaker 4: to forget the harm that you're causing to people and
- 1:03:04Speaker 4: our government. We are going to use the power of
- 1:03:07Speaker 4: subpoena investigations. We're going to ensure transparency, and these folks
- 1:03:11Speaker 4: are going to be held accountable.
- 1:03:13Speaker 2: I know you've been working really hard to get answers
- 1:03:15Speaker 2: from the administration on Andre Romero Hernandez's the Venezuelan asylum
- 1:03:20Speaker 2: seeker who they've disappeared to Seacott. And I know you
- 1:03:22Speaker 2: were talking about this with Lovett and Tim Miller at
- 1:03:25Speaker 2: the Pride event a couple of weeks ago. Any other
- 1:03:28Speaker 2: updates you've gotten on Andre?
- 1:03:31Speaker 4: You know, no, I'm hopeful that we'll get an update soon.
- 1:03:36Speaker 4: There is a lot happening right now with the case.
- 1:03:39Speaker 4: We're in very close contact with the lawyers and the family.
- 1:03:42Speaker 4: And I will tell you that they're some of the
- 1:03:46Speaker 4: most compassionate, Smart people are working on this case right now.
- 1:03:50Speaker 4: And I remind everyone that Andrei came to our country
- 1:03:55Speaker 4: seeking asylum with an appointment that we gave him. We said,
- 1:04:00Speaker 4: come to this appointment on this day and this time,
- 1:04:03Speaker 4: and then we detain him and then send him to
- 1:04:06Speaker 4: a country he's never been to, to a notorious prison.
- 1:04:09Speaker 4: And as you know, someone that's described as very sweet
- 1:04:12Speaker 4: by his family. And so just horrific, the cruelty level.
- 1:04:17Speaker 4: We are, of course, in the courts right now on
- 1:04:19Speaker 4: this case. There is some movement. I'm really hoping that
- 1:04:24Speaker 4: the proof of life piece, which is so critical, we're
- 1:04:27Speaker 4: hoping to get that some proof of life here soon.
- 1:04:30Speaker 4: And I'm hoping there'll be some positive developments, which I'm
- 1:04:34Speaker 4: hoping that will be announced soon.
- 1:04:35Speaker 2: That would be wonderful. Republicans in Congress right now are
- 1:04:37Speaker 2: still trying to get the votes for their bill to
- 1:04:39Speaker 2: cut taxes for the rich and health care for the rest.
- 1:04:42Speaker 2: Do you think any of your Republican colleagues... in the
- 1:04:46Speaker 2: House will actually defy Donald Trump and vote against this bill?
- 1:04:49Speaker 2: And what do Democrats have planned to make noise about
- 1:04:52Speaker 2: this as we get closer to a final vote?
- 1:04:56Speaker 4: I mean, first, I can't believe that they're doing it.
- 1:04:59Speaker 4: This is like literally insane that the amount of people
- 1:05:02Speaker 4: that are going to lose health care, I mean, millions,
- 1:05:04Speaker 4: 16 million people could lose health care and food assistance.
- 1:05:07Speaker 4: I mean, it's just, it has nothing to do with
- 1:05:10Speaker 4: anything that Donald Trump or Republicans actually campaigned on. What
- 1:05:13Speaker 4: happened to lowering the costs groceries and the cost of goods.
- 1:05:17Speaker 4: And if you think about our state alone, right, in California,
- 1:05:20Speaker 4: the Republican Californians could actually stop this bill, but they
- 1:05:24Speaker 4: are just complete cowards and just bend the knee to
- 1:05:27Speaker 4: whatever Donald Trump wants. These, you know, supposedly moderate members,
- 1:05:32Speaker 4: which are not moderate, they're extremists, are not standing up
- 1:05:35Speaker 4: to Speaker Johnson and the president. Take David Valadao. David
- 1:05:39Speaker 4: Valadao has more people on Medicaid, or we call it
- 1:05:44Speaker 4: Medi-Cal here in California, more people on Medicaid than any
- 1:05:48Speaker 4: other member of Congress in the state of California. His
- 1:05:53Speaker 4: population of constituents depend on Medicare for their healthcare, for
- 1:05:58Speaker 4: their livelihood to live. And yet he's going to vote
- 1:06:02Speaker 4: to cut that care. Young Kim here in Southern California
- 1:06:06Speaker 4: likes to talk a good game. She's all in the
- 1:06:09Speaker 4: tank for cutting health care from workers and teachers in
- 1:06:12Speaker 4: her district. And so we're starting by holding these California
- 1:06:16Speaker 4: Republicans accountable. And there are other Republicans across the country
- 1:06:19Speaker 4: who are now very nervous about the progress of this
- 1:06:22Speaker 4: bill in the Senate. I hope that there's some senators
- 1:06:24Speaker 4: that will do the right thing. But we can stop
- 1:06:27Speaker 4: this if we just had a handful of Republicans who
- 1:06:30Speaker 4: didn't believe in cutting health care for our grandparents.
- 1:06:33Speaker 2: Yeah. I want to read you some reactions to Zoran
- 1:06:36Speaker 2: Mamdani's winning the Democratic primary for mayor of New York. Quote,
- 1:06:41Speaker 2: absolute wrong choice for New York. Quote, serious concerns, profoundly alarmed,
- 1:06:46Speaker 2: deeply disturbing pattern of unacceptable anti-Semitic comments. Those are all
- 1:06:50Speaker 2: from Democrats, many of them your House colleagues. I know
- 1:06:53Speaker 2: you've praised Mamdani's win and said Democrats need to get
- 1:06:57Speaker 2: on board. What would you say in response to your
- 1:06:59Speaker 2: colleagues' concerns?
- 1:07:02Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know.
- 1:07:03Speaker 4: Anyone that has followed this campaign or that has seen
- 1:07:06Speaker 4: the way he's connected with voters and New Yorkers can
- 1:07:10Speaker 4: see that this is someone that we should be taking
- 1:07:13Speaker 4: lessons from. Let's be first clear. He is a Democratic
- 1:07:17Speaker 4: nominee for mayor in New York. And so if you
- 1:07:20Speaker 4: are a Democrat, And you believe in building our party.
- 1:07:23Speaker 4: He is our nominee. And I expect that we are
- 1:07:26Speaker 4: going to be on board, not just at the national level,
- 1:07:28Speaker 4: but across the country and certainly in New York. The
- 1:07:31Speaker 4: second thing is there's a lot of, I think, rhetoric
- 1:07:34Speaker 4: about why he won. And people want to attribute foreign
- 1:07:38Speaker 4: policy issues or what's happening in the Middle East or
- 1:07:41Speaker 4: other things. Or he's from the DSA or he's a socialist.
- 1:07:45Speaker 4: I think that is actually not the centerpiece of why
- 1:07:48Speaker 4: he won. He won because he actually had a forward-looking agenda.
- 1:07:52Speaker 4: He had an agenda that was positive, that people felt.
- 1:07:57Speaker 4: He's talking about lowering the cost of living, buses and
- 1:08:01Speaker 4: transit that's free, rent stabilization for New Yorkers across all
- 1:08:05Speaker 4: the boroughs. These are widely popular issues with people. And
- 1:08:09Speaker 4: the people are saying, yes, we think those should be
- 1:08:12Speaker 4: Democratic priorities. So we should be listening to the people
- 1:08:16Speaker 4: on the ground that powered this election. And then he
- 1:08:19Speaker 4: took those ideas, a forward-looking agenda, and matched it with
- 1:08:23Speaker 4: some of the best political retail skills and communication skills
- 1:08:27Speaker 4: that we've seen in modern campaigning. I mean, his digital program,
- 1:08:31Speaker 4: what he was communicating online was insane. I mean, every
- 1:08:37Speaker 4: time I saw something different in the way he communicated
- 1:08:39Speaker 4: with people, I mean, I told folks here in DC,
- 1:08:41Speaker 4: I said, are you guys seeing this? We're going around
- 1:08:46Speaker 4: spending $ 10, $ 20 million to for spending on consultants to
- 1:08:51Speaker 4: figure out how we reach voters. I'm like, can we
- 1:08:53Speaker 4: just like listen and watch what this guy is doing? Look,
- 1:08:58Speaker 4: you don't have to agree with all of his positions.
- 1:09:00Speaker 4: And many folks are going to have different positions than
- 1:09:03Speaker 4: Zoran has, whether it's on foreign policy issues or on
- 1:09:07Speaker 4: economic issues. But he is our nominee. He speaks to
- 1:09:11Speaker 4: New Yorkers. We should get behind him and we should
- 1:09:13Speaker 4: learn from what he's doing in this campaign.
- 1:09:15Speaker 2: So he, last question on this, and then I'll let
- 1:09:17Speaker 2: you go. He, certainly expanded the coalition. He brought in
- 1:09:21Speaker 2: new voters. I think he did better with some working
- 1:09:24Speaker 2: middle-class voters than people expected. He lost to Cuomo by
- 1:09:29Speaker 2: 20 points among people making under $ 50, 000. He lost black
- 1:09:32Speaker 2: voters by 20 points. And this is obviously not a
- 1:09:35Speaker 2: Mamdani thing. This has been a pattern for Democrats stretching
- 1:09:38Speaker 2: back to the 2024 election and even earlier than that.
- 1:09:41Speaker 2: But my thought is, okay, here's someone who has populist,
- 1:09:46Speaker 2: progressive economic policies that were the focus of his campaign.
- 1:09:50Speaker 2: He's a fantastic communicator. He's a really skilled politician. He
- 1:09:53Speaker 2: got to go meet tons and tons of voters. If
- 1:09:56Speaker 2: that can't win over working class voters, where are your
- 1:10:01Speaker 2: thoughts on what Democrats should do in both the midterms
- 1:10:06Speaker 2: and beyond to win over some of these working class
- 1:10:09Speaker 2: voters who, you know, either used to vote Democrat or
- 1:10:12Speaker 2: would certainly benefit from Democratic policies.
- 1:10:15Speaker 4: I mean, I have this conversation all the time with
- 1:10:18Speaker 4: my colleagues here in Congress and friends. I think there's
- 1:10:22Speaker 4: two pieces. I think one is, look, he did overperform
- 1:10:26Speaker 4: in some of those margins. I mean, you look at
- 1:10:28Speaker 4: some of the black and brown voters in New York,
- 1:10:30Speaker 4: he actually, look at the Latino vote, he did better
- 1:10:33Speaker 4: than expected.
- 1:10:33Speaker 2: And I'm grateful to that.
- 1:10:35Speaker 4: And he made the effort, right? Which is really important.
- 1:10:38Speaker 4: thing about the left, and I think something we've all
- 1:10:41Speaker 4: got to grapple with, is yes, class issues and working
- 1:10:44Speaker 4: class issues are key and central and are so important
- 1:10:48Speaker 4: and should be driving policy. But also black and brown voters,
- 1:10:53Speaker 4: especially within the black community that are the bedrock of
- 1:10:56Speaker 4: our party and our voter, issues of racial justice, of
- 1:11:00Speaker 4: racial injustice, and of race are central and are important.
- 1:11:05Speaker 4: And to leave some of that conversation behind off the table,
- 1:11:08Speaker 4: I think is a huge mistake for progressives and folks
- 1:11:11Speaker 4: on the left. And so I think we have to
- 1:11:13Speaker 4: have an honest conversation, kind of both sides of the family,
- 1:11:16Speaker 4: about both are important. And a lot of the folks
- 1:11:20Speaker 4: that I talk to, Latinos, working class Latinos, they feel
- 1:11:23Speaker 4: the system is broken. But they also want the racial
- 1:11:27Speaker 4: injustice to be recognized as part of that broader conversation.
- 1:11:31Speaker 4: So there's a lot of work to do there. We've
- 1:11:33Speaker 4: got some talented people talking about this. I think I
- 1:11:36Speaker 4: think whether it's Zoran or others across this country, we
- 1:11:40Speaker 4: got to bring all of us together and talk about
- 1:11:42Speaker 4: this divide because it is real and it's going to
- 1:11:44Speaker 4: be a challenge for us moving forward to win elections.
- 1:11:47Speaker 2: Congressman Garcia, great talking to you. Thanks for joining and
- 1:11:51Speaker 2: come back again soon.
- 1:11:52Speaker 4: Anytime, man.
- 1:11:52Speaker 2: Thanks. That's our show for today. Dan's going to be
- 1:12:00Speaker 2: back on Sunday with a conversation with epidemiologist Caitlin Gedalina
- 1:12:04Speaker 2: to talk about RFK Jr. and the threat he presents
- 1:12:07Speaker 2: to science and public health. Dan, are you MAHA curious now?
- 1:12:11Speaker 3: No, I'm not MAHA curious. I am quite concerned about
- 1:12:13Speaker 3: what they're doing to our vaccines. But I do want
- 1:12:15Speaker 3: to talk to Caitlin about, because she has actually met
- 1:12:18Speaker 3: with some of the leaders in the MAHA movement, about
- 1:12:21Speaker 3: what it is who brought them, in many cases from
- 1:12:23Speaker 3: our side, to the MAGA movement and how we get
- 1:12:25Speaker 3: them back.
- 1:12:26Speaker 2: I can't wait to listen to that. All right, everyone,
- 1:12:28Speaker 2: have a great weekend, and we'll talk to you soon. Bye, everyone.
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