Latest / Pod Save America / Other Than That Ms. Boebert, How Was The Play?

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Other Than That Ms. Boebert, How Was The Play? · Pod Save America

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I'm Jon Lovett, and I never think about the Roman Empire.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: On today's pod, Trump gets hit from the right. Republicans
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: inch closer to a government shutdown. Congresswoman Alyssa Slotkin joins
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to talk about the politics of the UAW strike and
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a race for Senate. Mitt Romney says goodbye to the
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Senate and good riddance to the Republican Party. And local
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: theater enthusiast Lauren Boebert apologizes for the lewd behavior that
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: got her kicked out of Beetlejuice.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: What a sentence.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: What a sentence. But first, Jack Smith is now asking
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Judge Chukin to impose a gag order on Donald Trump
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: to protect witnesses from his attacks. But that unsurprisingly hasn't
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: stopped the Republican frontrunner from saying all kinds of crazy
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: shit over the last few days, including during his first
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: network television interview since his attempted coup. What a milestone.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: What a milestone. In Trump's Meet the Press sit-down with
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: new host Kristen Welker, he talked about banning abortion, pardoning insurrectionists,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and his criminal charges in a way that will certainly
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: make life more difficult for him and his lawyers.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: Let's listen.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: I mean, DeSantis is willing to sign a five-week and
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: six-week ban.
• 1:25
  Speaker 5: Would you support that? You think that goes too far?
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: I think what he did is a terrible thing and
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: a terrible mistake. And Republicans should go out and say
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: the following, because I think the Republicans speak very inarticulately
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: about this subject.
• 1:38
  Speaker 6: Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years
• 1:43
  Speaker 6: in jail. Now that you know what the sentence is,
• 1:46
  Speaker 6: 22 years in jail, will you give him a pardon?
• 1:50
  Speaker 6: Will you give other Proud Boys a pardon?
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: Will you pardon him?
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: In Minneapolis, I'd certainly look at it. I'd look at that,
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: and I'd look at all the other people that have suffered,
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: the J6 people.
• 2:00
  Speaker 6: Were you calling the shots, though, Mr.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: President, ultimately? As to whether or not I believed it
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: was rigged?
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: Sure. It was my decision.
• 2:08
  Speaker 6: Are you saying you needed those votes in order to win?
• 2:10
  Speaker 6: Are you acknowledging you didn't win?
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: I'm not acknowledging.
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: No, I say I won the election.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: That's what I say.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Why do you think so many legal experts are saying
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: that Trump's comments may have made his case harder to win?
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: What kind of trouble might he have gotten himself in there?
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: I think they want retweets.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: I think part of it. That's a very good point.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: You did talk to Larry Tribe last week, though. Reposts. Reposts.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Oh, they're sorry. They're reposts. They're rethreads. Oh, back to
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: your question. Do you want to answer it? I can
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: say two things.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: That's my question.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: No, I was pointing it to answer your question.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Sure, sure, whatever.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Listen, the point is people like Lawrence Tribe, Neil Katyal
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: are pointing out that basically one of Trump's big defenses
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: is going to be like, my lawyers were giving me advice.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: He's saying I wasn't taking that advice. Then Andrew Weissman,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: friend of the show. So then on top of that,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: he says also during the interview, basically something like at
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: 10 p.m. I said, stop counting the votes. And that's
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: that's a no, no, no, no, no.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Well, she has said before, but, you know, reiterating it
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: after you've been charged.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: It's an election.
• 3:06
  Speaker 7: No, no.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Look, I'm famously not a lawyer. I will say if
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: you go back, you look at these like it's clear
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: what Trump is trying to kind of like say to
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: her and not like a snide way, but in like
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: a kind of like like like a smarty pants way
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: is Well, the thing that I thought, yeah, I was
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: in charge of thinking that. It seems to me, if
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: you actually look at it, what he was doing.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he's just... The other thing that's interesting is, you know,
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: the judge is looking at whether there should be a
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: gag order. I'd imagine saying that I hope Mark Meadows
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: is still loyal. Oh, yeah. That can't help.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Don't forget about that. Yeah, that was not good. And also,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I think he also called Jack Smith deranged again. Because
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: the gag order is supposed to protect, first and foremost,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: the witnesses. supposed to prevent the jury pool from being tainted,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: but it's also supposed to protect the prosecutors and the
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: judge from attacks, which he's been leveling.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: There's, there was something funny about the way, uh, Welker
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: asked the questions and not actually a criticism of the questions,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: but just, it's just sort of the world we live
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: in when people interview Trump, which is a lot of
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: the questions were like that experiment where you put one
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: marshmallow in front of a kid and say, if you
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: don't eat it, you get two later because they're like, Hey,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: what do you think? Mark Meadows? Well, Hey, would you, uh,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: interfere with the fed? hey, would you tell the DOJ
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: what to do? Come on, would you? You know, like
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: there's like a little like, he's being tempted by the questions.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which is where she was getting at when she
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: got him to say, I listened to myself.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: It was my choice. She put the word loyal in
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: his mouth too.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, for the Mark Meadows, yeah.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: She's like, do you think he was loyal?
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: And also, I do think though, the whole context of
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: the remarks, right?
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: The full set of the remarks.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: He's like, he basically said that, she's like, oh, you listen,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: you called some of these people crazy. Some of their theories,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: like Sidney Powell, like why'd you listen to them? And
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: he's like, well, why didn't you listen to your campaign
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: lawyers and your White House lawyers? He said, well, every
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: lawyer who told me it wasn't rigged is a rhino.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he called them all rhinos.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Which doesn't really, that doesn't help your defense of counsel.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Doesn't seem like it does. Your advice of counsel defense.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: He also said he'd testify in the classified documents case,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: which he always says he's going to testify and then doesn't.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: He told Megyn Kelly in his interview with her last
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: week that he was allowed to steal the classified documents.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: And that he doesn't think he had to comply with
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the federal subpoena. She's like, well, but you get a
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: subpoena for the documents. And then, of course, you have to.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: He goes, no, I don't know that's true because I
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: had a right to have those documents, which is also
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: not a great, not going to help his defense either.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I felt on the whole, I see the point
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: that he's sort of, I found this all to be
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: quite incremental. Like there's a lot of what he is
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: saying is a is a different phrasing or reiteration of
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the kinds of things that were already in some of
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: the indictment documents anyway.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: But, yeah, the classified documents discussion is was frustrating, but
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: interesting on Megyn Kelly's show because he he repeatedly says
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: that the presidential record acts governs his. stealing classified documents.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: It absolutely doesn't.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: It just doesn't.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: It's one of those things where he says it so
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: often and he says it with such conviction and he
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: just steamrolls over anyway that if you stop to think
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: about it for even one second, you realize how stupid
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: and inane it is. The way the law works is,
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: isn't a, if you don't break one law, you can't
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: break the others. You know, it's all, it's not like,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: you know, it doesn't really make sense at all.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: It makes no sense. And Megan didn't push back on
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: that at all, but she was like, look, I was
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: a lawyer for a very long time. If you get
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: a subpoena, you have to turn over the stuff. And
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: he's like, I know that. I don't know that. He like,
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: he contradicted himself in the same sentence because his little
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: legal brain turned on.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't, I think that was very damaging because
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: remember the defense on the subpoena is, oh no, no,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: we gave you everything. What are you talking about? We didn't,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: it wasn't, It wasn't, oh, you sent me a subpoena
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and I said, fuck you, which is basically what he
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: just said to Megyn Kelly.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: No, because, well, he's saying I didn't have to. What
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: he's saying both about that, I don't know if he's
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: confusing it or I'm confusing it or there's no way
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: to not confuse it. But he talks about the documents
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: the same way he talks about the footage, which is
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: I don't have to give you anything. I did it
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: to be nice. I gave you everything you asked for.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: I didn't even have to.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: He's sort of taking every position. He's saying they're my documents.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: I didn't have to give them to you, but I
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: gave them all to you. And I didn't try to
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: delete the footage, but we didn't delete the footage. So
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: everyone just be happy.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: He's saying he didn't have to comply with a federal subpoena,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: which you just can't say.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Sure, yeah.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: It's not debatable.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: If you've been charged with obstruction of justice for not
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: complying with a federal subpoena. Can't say it.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Well, okay. I'll tell you something. For someone who can't
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: say something, He.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Certainly said, well, that's why he got in trouble. No
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: gag order from my president. That's why I think Jack
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Smith's probably pretty happy. So let's talk about the abortion comments.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: He certainly seemed like there and other places he's pivoting
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: to a general election message on abortion. Can that work
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: for the guy who also takes credit for eliminating the
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: constitutional right to an abortion, Tommy?
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: I don't think so. I mean, just let's just talk
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: about the polling. So he was criticizing Ron DeSantis in
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: the clip we heard for signing into last six week
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: abortion ban. 73% of all U.S. adults believe abortion should
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: be allowed up to six weeks of pregnancy. 56% of
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: Republicans say abortion should be allowed in their state up
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: to six weeks. So the DeSantis position is wildly unpopular
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: in the Republican Party. I don't think, though, that Trump
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: is going to be able to fool anybody on abortion.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: He's wisely, I think, not taking the bait in the primary.
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: But everyone knows his judges are the ones who overturn
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: Roe versus Wade. He brags about it in front of
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: evangelical audiences. In the past, he said that women should
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: be punished for getting an abortion. I just don't buy
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: that anyone's going to be fooled by this.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he kind of lumbers into this issue and he
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: treats it like negotiating over the price of marble. You know,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: it's like six weeks is crazy, seven months is crazy.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: We'll get together, we'll find a number where everybody walks
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: away happy, which is, of course, not the way this
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: issue works.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Well, it's in response to... the polling that a lot
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: of Republicans will hang on to forever, even though I
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: don't really agree with this, is that, you know, if
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: you ask people late-term, right, and, you know, we've all
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: said a million times that abortions late in pregnancy are
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: extremely rare. Usually they're because of medical complications, et cetera,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: et cetera. But if you just poll the question without
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: people having a base of knowledge, you'll have people say, oh, well,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: we don't want late-term abortion. So he's heard that from
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Republican pollsters, and he thinks— he's going to get some
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: kind of middle position here. I worry a little bit
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: that it could work unless Democrats constantly remind people about
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: what Tommy just said, which is that he said that
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: women should be punished for having abortions. And then of course,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: that he's out there bragging about appointing the three justices
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: that overturned Roe v. Wade and Dobbs. And I think
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: that's why the Biden campaign in one of their first
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: ads basically has him saying both of those things in
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: an ad they have with the rest of the Republicans too.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: But like, Democrats, Joe Biden, with ads, with speeches, have
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: to keep hammering it because no one remembers anything in
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: this fucking country. And he's trying to like, you know,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: it was the same thing in 2016 when he sort
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: of danced around and tried. to make himself seem moderate
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: on LGBTQ issues, which of course he was not. Same
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: thing on like, I'm not going to be a warmonger, right?
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: We have the collective memory of a goldfish in this country.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: That is absolutely true. I just think that the people
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: who have been turning out in record numbers at the
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: midterms know exactly where he stands on abortion rights are
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: not going to be fooled by this at all. And
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: I think the challenge, you know, the thing that people
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: are frustrated about in this interview is him saying Democrats
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: want to abort babies after they're born, which is not
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: a thing that ever happens in the world. Or acting
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: like late term abortions or something that Democrats want or,
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: you know, just sort of a decision that's made by
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: choice when the reality you hear the specifics and it's
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: people are like, I had twins. One of the twins died,
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: the other wasn't viable because their organs were growing outside
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: of their body. The baby would have died the minute
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: they were born. That's why I had a late-term abortion.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: That's the reality of why these exceptions exist that people
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: have to better understand or.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Be educated on. Yes, we've got to make that case.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Of course we do. I just think it's the easiest
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: ad ever. He's bragged about all of this.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: He's talked about women getting punished.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I think the people who turned out in the midterms
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: are turned out, especially around this issue, when it was
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: on the ballot, when it was, it was fresh, it
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: was in those States. Also, these were like more highly
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: college educated people. I think those people are certainly not
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: going to forget Trump's position on this, but you have
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: a general electorate, people who didn't vote in the midterm
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: and they are potentially pro-choice and Trump's up there on
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: a debate with Biden or whatever and says, you know what? Yeah,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: we returned it to the States and now the States
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: get to do what they will and stuff like that. Well,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: let's just put, I'm not going to do anything. Let's
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: just put this behind us. I'm not going to do anything.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: It's like, you can just see the bullshit space.
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: He is benefiting from the fact that every other person
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: in the field has taken an extreme and radical and
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: deeply unpopular position on abortion. And just by dint of that,
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: if you were just paying attention, he is trying to
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: and seeming reasonable on the issue. Across this whole interview,
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: he is trying to seem reasonable on a number of issues.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: And because Ron DeSantis signed a six-week ban, because Mike
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Pence is calling for a national ban, he gets to
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: sound like this.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: I think the.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: the part of it where he's dodging, right? He's like, oh,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: you know, we're going to come together and make a
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: great deal. The reality is that if whatever, if there
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: was a Republican Congress, they will pass a ban and
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Trump would sign that ban.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: And that's what Democrats just have to keep saying over
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: and over and over again.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: And he's like, state ban, federal ban, I don't know.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: He won't tell you. He's talking about it like he's
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: negotiating over a price.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: And look, the upside of this is he's doing this
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: and he's trying to wriggle out of this position because
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: he knows how politically damaging it is.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: And because he's acting like a general election candidate because
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: he's not afraid of any of these people. And he believes,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: probably correctly, that this will have no impact on the
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: fact that he is winning amongst the furthest right, most
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: religiously conservative Republicans that will vote in Iowa.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Trump's been getting more criticism than usual from right-wing pundits
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: and his Republican opponents. The DeSantis campaign just attacked him
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: in a tweet recently. for a long list of what
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: they see as gaffes, including denouncing the six-week abortion ban,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: promising to compromise with Democrats on abortion, struggling to answer
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Megyn Kelly's questions about, as she put it, whether a
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: man can become a woman. And she asked him why
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: he gave an award to Dr. Fauci right before he
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: left office. And the DeSantis campaign also criticized him for
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: sounding a bit senile during his Saturday speech in D.C.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: Let's listen.
• 13:32
  Speaker 8: As you know, Crooker Joe Biden and the radical left
• 13:35
  Speaker 8: thugs who have weaponized law enforcement to arrest their leading political.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Opponent, leading by a lot, including Obama.
• 13:42
  Speaker 8: I'll tell you what, you take a look at Obama
• 13:45
  Speaker 8: and take a look at some of the things that
• 13:47
  Speaker 8: he's done, this is the same thing. The country is
• 13:49
  Speaker 8: very divided. And we did with Obama. We won an
• 13:53
  Speaker 8: election that everyone said couldn't be won.
• 13:56
  Speaker 9: We have a man who is totally corrupt and the
• 13:59
  Speaker 9: worst president in the history of our country, who is
• 14:03
  Speaker 9: cognitively impaired. in no condition to leave, and is now
• 14:08
  Speaker 9: in charge of dealing with Russia and possible nuclear war.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Just think of it. We would be in World War.
• 14:18
  Speaker 9: II very quickly.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Yes, World War II.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: World War II.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: World War II. Put that in an ad.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: Let's get it out.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: Come on.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Let's get it out there. He's old, too.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Enough with the issues. Put that in an ad.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Sick of the issues. Sick of them.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: He's a crazy old man.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: He's so old. He sounded like a guy who had
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: taken a painkiller and was feeling the effects. That's what
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: it sounded like to me.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Let's get some deaf-vision training for Tom.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: When you're about to lie.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Allegedly.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: You believe. Again, that's all you have to say.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: You believe. I believe.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: When you're going to launch an attack on your opponent
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: for being senile, you shouldn't sound like that.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: You shouldn't talk about World War II. World War II
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: did happen, I believe.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Confuse him for Barack Obama, then confuse Hillary Clinton for
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Barack Obama.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: I would say this.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Look, I know we're in the middle of yet another
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: freakout about how old Biden is, and every day it
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: gets a little bit older, and it's a problem. But
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: I just would like to point out that nobody is
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: doing a better job saying that Biden isn't too old
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: than Donald Trump, because in that interview with Welker, he says,
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: So Welker says, is it time for a new generation?
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: And he goes, well, it's always time for a new generation.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: But you know, some of the greatest world leaders have
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: been in their 80s. I'm not anywhere very near 80,
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: but by the way, and Biden's not too old. I
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: don't think Biden's too old.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Put that in the ad too.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: Fascinating.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: If he can say it, why can't you say it?
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Just say it.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: See how it feels. Speechwriters though. having a dude there
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: like doing some live synth, giving you vibes under your mark.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: What do you think was going on there?
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: Fantastic.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: I want, yeah, it's an innovation. I want you to
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: know that I have.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Been, I would do that during the State of the Union.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: I have been predicting, I have been predicting music for
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: speeches for a long time. Sam, if you're listening to this,
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: send me a text so I can screenshot it. I've been, this,
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: who's Sam?
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: Who's Sam? Someone I went to college with.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Uncle Sam?
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: He's just a person. I know that.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: I just figured you should. Ryan, call me after this. Oh,
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: that's my friend, Ryan.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: He's a composer.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: What the fuck are you talking about?
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: What do you use this pod for? You don't use
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: it to talk to your friends. Sometimes I use it for,
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: that's what I'm using it for today.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Okay. Minor chords, major chords at the end.
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: Beautiful.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: I think an innovation would be during the State of
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: the Union, an intermission between the domestic policy section and the.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: Foreign policy section. I love that idea.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: You just play a little music.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Get some popcorn. Yes.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: Snacks.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: When we come back, I'll take a tour through all
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: seven continents.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: You get a real bar?
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Do we think any of these attacks have the potential
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: to hurt Trump in the primary?
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: And I will.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Say that for any of them to make any difference,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: probably needs to be more than a tweet from a
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: random staffer, if you're Ron DeSantis. But beyond that, do
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: you think the message... Sorry, go.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: Ahead, Don.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: No, no, no.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: I mean, my take on this is they haven't so far.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: And maybe now you could argue, well, it's mid-September, people
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: are paying more attention, the evangelicals in Iowa are waking
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: up to the fact that Donald Trump isn't with them
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: on the six-week abortion ban. But I think they all...
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: like Trump and they think that he will implement their agenda.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: And I don't know.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: I think they are also, I think these other Republicans
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: are paying for what, what really is going to be
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: an advantage. You know, we were talking before the show
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: that like the Lauren Boebert clip, not on Fox, right.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump seeming to old, like if, if Joe Biden
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: has a moment like that, it's all of a right-wing media.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: Those are not the moments they take out. And I
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: would just say like watching Trump with Welker, he was
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: fucking on it. He was sharp. He was responsive. He like,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: he just, He was like as strong. Look, he's obviously
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: fucking cuckoo. And you look at the you look at
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: the transcripts, you can barely make sense. But as of
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: as like the sharp version of him, the most sharp
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: we've seen, it was there.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: So I've been noticing this. He was better. He's been
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: he's been better and sharper with mainstream journalists, with Caitlin
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Collins during the CNN town hall and now with Kristen
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Welker on Meet the Press. Then he's been with his
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: pals in the right-wing media. Like, he sounded like fucking
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: nuts on the Tucker Carlson interview. And he sounded, he
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: was really bad with Megyn Kelly.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: Because he gets to fight them. He gets to fight
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: the mainstream media. And Tucker's over there being like, but again, Epstein.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: Killed himself?
• 18:08
  Speaker 8: No?
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to pin you down here. And he's like,
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: what the fuck are you talking about?
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: And I think he wasn't expecting Megyn Kelly to be
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: as tough as she was with him.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she did a pretty good job. He made a
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: couple oblique references to the debate question that led to
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: her eventual ouster from Fox. So, you know, I feel
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: like there was a sword hanging over the whole time.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: You know, I do think that I don't think that
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: like he's not conservative enough works really well. I didn't
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: notice as I was prepping, like it is bubbled up.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Some of these attacks from the right that DeSantis has
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: been doing have bubbled up more in the conservative media,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: like Eric Erickson was attacking him for the question on
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: on the answer on trans issues with megan kelly and
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: he got a couple he's got like a bad new
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: york post story about it and you know bob vanderplatt's
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: out there getting pissed about the abortion stuff the guy
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the even.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: Hated trump for years yeah so.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: It's like you know steve dees he's like a right-wing
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: radio guy from iowa but like i think that attacking
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: trump as someone who's lost a step and doesn't know
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: what the hell he's talking about is probably a more
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: effective and i'm i think it could be too late
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: but like i wonder why desantis and others didn't you
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: could start with the like he was a great president
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: and he served us well and now we're moving on
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: you could start there and then as the primary goes
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: on you could be like he's a little crazy yeah
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: you know like you don't have to be i just
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: think that's more effective than going issue by issue but
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: just because republican voters don't really care about issues.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: But then you have a DeSantis staffer taking a shot
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: at him through a statement. And then what is DeSantis'
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: seemingly best swing at news of the day? It's like
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: going after John Fetterman for not wearing a bow tie.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: What was that? So that's how you're going to be done.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: You are 40 points behind. You're talking about a fucking
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: dress code in the Senate?
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: Me?
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: I think you'll beat Fetterman in the primary.
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: Man of the people.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: I think you're going to get a few points more
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: than John Fetterman in the Republican primary in Iowa.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: He didn't get a question about it. He was like,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: out of his way, he's at a little press conference
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: and he's like, I want to talk about something that's
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: on my mind.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: He was like Leno.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, here comes the Donald Trump hit on the, no, no, no, no, no.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: No, it's like fucking Leno. He's like, you hear about this?
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: You guys see this? You guys hear about this? Like,
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: what the fuck are you doing? In defense of Seersucker Tuesday.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: And he sounds like such a goddamn asshole.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: We should say, by the way, the hit is, in
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: case people didn't know this news, Chuck Schumer changed the
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: dress code in the Senate so that you don't have
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: to wear a suit and tie all the time, which
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: John Fetterman has not been doing. So, and this has
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: freaked out some people on the right, including... Megyn Kelly
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: and Ron DeSantis.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: And I can't think of anything that makes Ron DeSantis
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: seem more like the absolute worst version of himself that's like,
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: I think you should be wearing a tie when you
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: come to my house. It fucking sucks.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: Also, man, you work in like Tallahassee. Like, you want
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: to wear a tie down there? I do think DeSantis
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: has tried an age hit. I can't remember which one
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: of them, either Megyn Kelly or Krista Welker, was kind
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: of like Ron DeSantis says, you won't be as effective
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: at age 80. And Trump's response was, well, he won't
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: be affected. He's a bad candidate and just like blasted
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: right through it. So it's good.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: So Joe Biden, let's talk about Joe Biden. He's at
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the U.N. General Assembly this week, though he's dealing with
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: quite a few challenges on the domestic front right now.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: House Republicans are trying to impeach him and shut down
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: the government. His own Justice Department just indicted his son
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: on gun charges. And Democrats are freaking out over bad
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: polls that show real concern about his age in the economy,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: which is still being weighed down by inflation, gas prices
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: and now potentially unemployment. the United Auto Workers strike. Let's
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: start with the strike. I'll get into the details more
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: with Representative Slotkin, but what do you guys think about
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: the politics? Biden and Democrats are obviously supporting the workers.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: The White House is trying to broker a deal, but
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Republicans are trying to drive a wedge between auto workers
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: and the UAW leadership, car companies, and Biden by blaming
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: the transition to electric vehicles for the strike.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: So if you step all the way back The UAW,
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: the big three, the Biden administration are completely aligned, right?
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Like they want there to be a big electric car
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: industry by unionized workers in America. Big union shops making
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: the next generation of cars. Tesla is not unionized. The
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: giga plant that makes the batteries, not unionized. I got
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: rid of my Tesla because I'm a good person and
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: it rattled. And I got a Volvo, which was made
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: in Belgium. And it's a fucking Volvo. And it was
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: made in Belgium.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: It rattled. Menchie's on Twitter about Elon Musk.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: It's out.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: I can't be sitting in a car that is getting
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: me bad replies and makes a little noise.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: You know what else is making a noise? Those replies.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Rattle in your head.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: But the Inflation Reduction Act incentivized a ton of investment
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: in manufacturing in the United States. One criticism from the
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: unions is that it didn't do enough to incentivize that
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: that production be done by unionized workers, by administration.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: We know why. We know why it didn't include that.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: like everything else that went bad over the last several years.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Joe Manchin took it out.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: I think you're talking about Joe Manchin. But then right before,
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: you know, a couple of weeks ago, the Biden administration
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: has been trying to address this. But, you know, GM, Ford,
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: they've been doing these kind of joint ventures to build
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: battery manufacturing facilities.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: Those facilities haven't been unionized.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: So underneath this is a fight about, yes, for these
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: workers at these plants right now, but also for the
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: future of the industry. And, you know, it's not just
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: about Ford and GM and Chrysler versus these workers in
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: this negotiation, it's them collectively trying to make sure, in
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: the same way that the US auto industry faced competition
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: from Japanese cars in the 70s and 80s and faced
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: a crisis in 2008, it's can they get to the
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: other side of this and work together to make sure
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: that US companies and union workers are the ones that
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: make these cars?
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna step even further back.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: Hank Ford. Oh, God.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: Jesus, Hank Ford?
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: Henry.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Oh, Hank. I forgot that he goes by Hank. I
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: just remember that he was an anti-Semite. Apparently you didn't
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: care enough. That's why you called him Hank.
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: I'm worried about the politics too, because you have the
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: Republicans trying to create this wedge issue and their narrative
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: is being reinforced by the UAW leadership and by the
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: car companies who are all kind of complaining about the
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: competitiveness and the EV mandates in the future. And I
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: also think Union workers are particularly susceptible to inflation and
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: gas prices going up because if you're making an hourly
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: wage that's negotiated years ago, that's incredibly challenging. And exit
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: polls showed that four in 10 voters in union households
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: voted for Trump in 2020. So I think there's probably
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: some cultural issues where Trump and Republicans are pushing on
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: an open door and will find ways to split union
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: voters from the Democratic Party So I hope that it's
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: really good that Biden came out in favor of the strikers.
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: Obama did, too. Basically every Democrat, a bunch of Democrats
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: on the picket line. But, you know, UAW's got 150,000
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: workers like it's this could this could swing swing states.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: I think Democrats should say about this like Republican attempt
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: to drive a wedge between the monoelectric vehicles. These people
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: are full of shit. They don't want. the Inflation Reduction
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Act incentives to suddenly go to, they don't want these
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: loans to go to union shops that are making electric vehicles.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: They just don't want electric vehicles. And, you know, J.D.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Vance was saying that. He said, oh, we're just importing
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: parts from Tesla parts from China, and that leaves out U.S.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: Workers.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: They just don't want electric vehicles, right? But, and, you know,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Congressman Slotkin brings this up in our interview, too. Like,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: The market is moving towards electric vehicles. People want electric vehicles.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: It's going to be more and more and more. So
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: the question is, do we want to have them built
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: in China, overseas, or do we want to have them
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: built in the United States? And Democrats want them built
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: in the United States. Biden administration wants them built in
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: the United States. The UAW wants them built in the
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: United States. And so does the big three automakers, right?
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: And so the question is, can we make sure that
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: incentives to build new battery plants are and electric vehicles
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: go to places where there are unions, where their unions
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: are allowed. Because part of the problem is some of
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: these loans are going to like Georgia and the Carolinas
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: where they're right to work states and they don't have
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: to be unions. And that's not Joe Biden and the
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Democrats' fault. That's fucking Republicans' fault because they don't want
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: to have union protections in those states. And I think
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Democrats just have to call out the bullshit that it is.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Republicans have never been on the side of workers. They've
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: never been on the side of unions, especially unions. They've
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: been trying to break up unions. So I think it
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: is a real problem and it's a real challenge because
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: some of these loans have gone to shops that aren't
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: union shops and, and workers are worried about that. And
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: they're also worried that it takes fewer parts to make
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: electric vehicles. So it might not be as much, it
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: might not be as much work for auto workers.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: That's the real structural challenge. And also these workers, you know,
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: they have not benefited the way that the executives have
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: these companies since, uh, the Obama administration bailed out the
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: big three automakers. Also, you know, the broader context is
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: that Biden has done some incredibly important things for unions
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: very recently. Like the NLRB under Biden has taken all
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: sorts of really important pro-union steps. They're just complicated and
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: hard to explain and people may not know about them.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: But I do think it's, in the end, where the
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: union and these companies are aligned is they together are
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: in a competition with Rivian, with Tesla, with companies all
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: around the world. And they want to prove that that
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: these union shops can compete and they can make the
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: best cars, they can make the most beautiful and well-run
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: and interesting and creative and innovative cars that people are
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: excited to buy. They want to get to the other
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: side of this negotiation so they can do that, but
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: they have to do that together. And there's like, you know,
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: we can talk about what the politics mean and what
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: Democrats should be saying and all the rest, but underneath
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: that is the substance. And that is the question.
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: That will determine whether or not the U.S.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Succeeds and has unionized auto plants making the next generation
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: cars where they can make a deal and then actually
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: move forward and make the cars that can beat Tesla,
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: that can beat Riven, that can beat their international competitors.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And by the way, to the point about having
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: more work, like also ensuring that these battery plants and
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: these battery factories are unionized as well, because maybe there's
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: fewer parts for cars, but like we're also building these
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: batteries and that should be like all of this clean
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: energy transition has to like put workers at the center
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: of the transition.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: And it's not a coincidence that like You know, Ford
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: does a deal with like I think it's Samsung and
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: and GM does a deal with another South Korean company
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: so that those joint ventures aren't covered by the collective
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: bargaining agreements. Like they're not these things are not happening
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: by accident.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: All right. Let's talk shutdown, which now seems even more
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: likely than it did last week. A supposed deal between
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy and the House Freedom Caucus to pass just
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: a short term funding bill has apparently fallen apart. And
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of Republican leaders seem to be in favor
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: of a shutdown, including Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence and Donald Trump.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: conventional wisdom is that a shutdown will be bad politics
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: for Republicans and good politics for Joe Biden. What do
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: you guys think?
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: I think it's probably right. I mean, every headline is
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: about Republicans attacking Kevin McCarthy. You know, like Biden is
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: sort of absent from this. The Senate's kind of absent
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: for this, at least for now.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: I think it's also helpful that Donald Trump says to Welker, like,
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: if they don't get a good deal, shut the government down.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: You know, I don't think people won't know where to
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: lay the blame for this. I do worry Yes, maybe that,
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: you know, if you run a poll, it'll say that
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: more people hold Republicans responsible than they do for Democrats.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: But in the end, the way press coverage is, the
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: UAW strike gets laid at Biden's feet, a government shutdown
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: gets laid at Biden's feet, inflation gets laid at Biden's feet.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: So it's, you know, a.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Country in which people have. insecurity and fears and concerns
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: about the economy, even as the numbers improve, where there's
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: all these sort of chaotic markers, I don't think ultimately
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: redounds to Biden's benefit.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think everyone who is going to follow this
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: story will know that it's Republicans' fault, but most of
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: the country won't follow the story. And when they wake
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: up one day and just see headlines that the government
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: shut down, are they going to be like, did Republicans
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: do it? Did Democrats do it? Probably Republicans, but I
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: don't know, Joe Biden, fix it. But I think it's
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: a good opportunity for Biden to show that he is
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: fighting for the vast majority of Americans who don't want
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: to see cuts in education, healthcare, disaster relief, basic government services,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: just because Donald Trump and a few fucking goons in
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: the House want to impeach Joe Biden over nothing. I
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: think that's, you know, and I think if Biden ends
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: up being the adult who gets the government back open
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: and also is out there fighting on behalf of people
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: who don't want to see these cuts, I think that's
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: a good position for him to be in.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, just there have been 15 government shutdowns since 1990.
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: And like, I do wonder if people just you just
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: like I asked you guys before we started, hey, there
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: was the longest government shutdown ever was in 2019. Why
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: did it happen? None of us could remember why.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: First, you said, do you remember what the shutdown in
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: 2019 was about? I'm like, and I said, I don't know.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: I think it was short. And you go, actually, it
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: was the longest in history. I was like, wow, I
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: do not remember that.
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: Don't remember.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: 35 days?
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: Didn't retain it. Yeah.
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: And so the question is, like, these 18 moderate Republicans
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: who represent districts that Joe Biden won, None of them
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: like the politics of this. But, you know, by Election Day,
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: do their voters remember? I don't know anymore.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's just the only hope McCarthy had here
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: was to do what he did in the debt ceiling,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: get something out of the House by telling everyone in
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: the House, look, none of you agree on this.
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: None of you are happy.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: But unless we send something over to the Senate, we
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: can't do anything here and we're going to have to
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: cut a deal with Democrats. And let's just send something
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: over to the Senate or else we're going to get
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: jammed by the Senate because they're going to pass a bill.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: That was his only hope. And he thought that he
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: had something. And now it does seem like, now this
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: happened last time, of course, and then they cobbled something together.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: But this time, the way that your Matt Gaetz's and
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: your Chip Roy's and all these people are talking, it
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: sounds like they just want McCarthy to fail because they
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: want to try to go for a motion to vacate him.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: It's a fool me once situation. Yeah, I don't, you know,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: that was the same deal with the debt ceiling, which
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: was this idea that if McCarthy could just pass something
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: out of the house with his majority, with anything, somehow
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: that that would strengthen his hand. There's nothing that can
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: pass the Republican house with just Republican votes that can
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: pass the Senate. So we will ultimately, and so, you know,
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: maybe like maybe in an, maybe in the world, McCarthy
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: helped destroy.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: It seems like there's nothing that can pass the Republican house, period.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: They're blocking a defense spending bill as we speak.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: But like, we don't live in the, in part because
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: of what McCarthy and his politics have done. We don't
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: live in a world where the fact that a house
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Republican bill was able to pass gives him leverage and
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: working with the Senate. No, if there's, if they want
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: to keep the government open, it's going to be a
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: bipartisan vote in the Senate. It's gonna be a bipartisan
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: vote in the house. And the only way that's going
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: to happen is if it's with democratic votes in the house.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: And the only way that's going to happen is, is
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: if there is a negotiation, which the house freedom caucus
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: would never agree to.
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, And just as an example, what this short-term
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: funding bill that is probably never going to see the
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: light of day, what it did is it had like
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: a pretty hefty cut to spending, way below the levels
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: that Biden and McCarthy agreed on. 8% cut.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: 8% across the board.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: And that's just like a deal that already took place.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: We made a deal. We're living under the deal.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Even if it was just the 8% cut and nothing else,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't have passed. They throw on their immigration bill, essentially,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: that the House Republicans wanted. which would rebuild the wall
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: and sort of do all the most stringent immigration thing,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: cut asylum, refugees, all that kind of stuff. But they
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: cobbled this together without realizing that the 8% cut across
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: the board would cut enforcement of immigration.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: Solid.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: It would just decimate enforcement at the border. Genius. Because
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: there's nowhere for him to go. There's just nowhere for
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: him to go.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: Boebert looks up from a playbook, what?
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: And there was no money for Ukraine, no disaster relief funding,
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: like none of the above the line thing. They know
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: the Senate wants, but it's the Republicans want to.
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: But, you know, listen, my guy, Congressman Dusty Johnson, has
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: been working this package hard.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: That's a name he made up.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: That's Dusty Johnson, South Dakota, my favorite. What about him?
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: Have hope. Oh, he's just working on it.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: One Republican who is quite done with his party's antics
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: is Willard Mitt Romney. whose announcement last week that he'll
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: be retiring from the Senate was accompanied by quite an
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: exit interview with McKay Coppins, who spent hours with Romney
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: for a forthcoming biography. Should be out next month. The
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Atlantic ran an excerpt where Romney torches his Republican colleagues
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: as phonies who privately share his disdain for Donald Trump,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: but refused to do anything about it, specifically calling out
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence, Josh Hawley. And J.D. Vance, who
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: he does not care for.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: He does not like J.D.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Vance. I'm there with you, buddy. Romney sums up his
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: feelings by telling McKay, quote, a very large portion of
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: my party really doesn't believe in the Constitution. Good for Mitt.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: What else did you guys find noteworthy about this piece?
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: So, first of all, I think it's just worth just,
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: this is a very sad story about a very sad man.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: who is very lonely in his isolation from the Trump-supporting
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: parts of the Senate.
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: And his family.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: And his family. Well, because he's stuck because he's here.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: But he talks about, like, McKay Coppin says at one
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: point that his conversations often last for hours, in part
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: because he thought Romney liked the company. But it was
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: really striking, right? Like, there's one part where he says
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: authoritarianism is like a gargoyle lurking over the cathedral. And
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: it was just... We've seen Mitt Romney giving Josh Hawley
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: the eyes from behind.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: Behind him during his speech after the insurrection. And we've
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: seen him give these statements. And it really was just
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: interesting to see what it was actually like to live
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: behind the scenes with these people who are all telling
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: him one after another that they don't believe any of
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: the things they are saying and how much of a
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: personal crisis it created for Mitt Romney, who was, I think,
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: genuinely trying to sort out how to work in this environment.
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I thought it was interesting where he named names
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: because there were a lot of like blind anecdotes about
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: senators saying things to him that sort of told you
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: something about how broken the institution was. But he destroys J.D. Vance,
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: Josh Hawley and Mitch McConnell. And I thought that was
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: interesting and telling. Like, for example, McConnell says to Romney,
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: you're lucky you can say the things that we all think.
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: It's like, buddy, you represent Kentucky. You are the leader
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: of your party. Why can't you say what you think?
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: Just because you're pathetic.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, I mean, I think McConnell believes that
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: saying what he thinks would fracture the party and a
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: divided party is always less successful, right? And so he can,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: and Romney says it, they keep saying like, well, it's
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: just more, we can't let the Democrats take over, right?
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: That's the whole, the underlying, the whole thing is the
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: worst thing that could happen is not authoritarianism or Donald
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Trump or anything like that. It's Democrats running the government.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: That is, I think the most, that was, that was
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: also striking, which is They don't believe a word of
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: what they're saying about Donald Trump, but they believe every
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: word they're saying about Democrats. I actually, I do think
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: that they believe that because one of the points Mitch
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: McConnell makes to Mitt Romney is like, they'll do the
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: Green New Deal. Some other stuff that is just funny.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: They'll save us from planetary collapse.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: Could you imagine there are 20 senators here who do
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: all the work and there are 80 who are just
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: along for the ride? Welcome to having a job, buddy.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: Richard Burr walks on the treadmill in his suit, pants
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: and loafers. Sherrod Brown and Dick Durbin pedaled so slowly
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: on their exercise bikes that Romney couldn't help but peek
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: at their resistance settings. Durbin was a one, but Brown
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: was at an eight.
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: And one person you didn't mention that he goes after
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: incredibly hard is Paul Ryan.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: Paul Ryan, who's not in office, calls to whip votes
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: against him on impeachment. What, just for fucking fun?
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: You know what? I'm glad you brought that up. Because
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: I wanted to yell at everyone. I wanted to especially
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: talk to Dan about that, who knew how he feels
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: about Paul Ryan. That was wild to me because I
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: looked at the date of when that was because I'm like, oh,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: was Ryan Speaker at the time? No, he's out of office.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: He's gone.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: He's already doing his like, oh, I don't like Trump.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: I'm standing up. But then he's like, oh, you know, Mitt,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: you can't. You got to you got to acquit Trump
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: on impeachment. You got to do it.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: He's whipping votes for him. And then the other the
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: other thing and that and Paul Ryan makes the kind
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: of political argument.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: Coward.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: It's worse than coward. Worst thing, Carrick, because he had
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: nothing to be afraid of. Useless coward. He's just being
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: a terrible person. He's just being terrible. No one's coming
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: after him. It was a private phone call. He couldn't
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: tell the truth on a private phone call. But, you know,
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: the argument that keeps being made, there's a moment where
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: he's with his staff and he's telling his staff he's
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: going to vote for impeachment. And some of the staff
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: are like beside themselves because it's like their political careers
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: are going to be affected. And then a senator, he's
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: a senator, a member of leadership. And this is one
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: of your one of your anonymized ones has that he
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: was leaning to vote to convict and the others urged
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: him to reconsider. You can't do that, Romney recalled someone saying,
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: think of your personal safety, think of your children. The
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: senator eventually decided that they were right.
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: That is true.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: And the fact that, you know.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: And that's a theme through the piece because when they
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: talk about January 6th and Romney texts McConnell and is like, hey,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: I just talked to Angus King and he said that
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: there's like real concerns about security on January 6th and
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: I'm getting threats and also... people are threatening to like
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: go to your house, Mitch and blah, blah, blah. And
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: McConnell never responds.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: Uh, Yeah, he may not be, he just may not
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: be a good texter. But like Romney says.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: It was sitting there, it's a green bubble on his phone.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a green, definitely a fucking green text.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: McConnell gets 100% green text. He's on T9, freezing 30
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: seconds at a time. It's hard to type when you
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: freeze fully for 30 seconds at a time.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: He and Schumer are like T9-ing each other during the
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: AI hearing.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't believe we have regulated big tech. Chuck
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: Schumer's on a flip phone. The Republican minority leader is
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: frozen solid. But the but but he's Romney's talking about
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: being driven with security behind him and he's worrying what's
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: going to happen if someone takes a shot at him
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: with a car behind him won't really help. And we
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: really kind of have like gotten to the point where
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: the former Republican nominee for president is saying that the
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: threat of violence, that the fear that Republicans will do
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: violence against Republican politicians is so great that it is
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: changing the way people vote in Congress.
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: Romney says he spends $ 5, 000 a day on security.
• 40:34
  Speaker 8: A day.
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: No one can afford that.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: I was saying this to Tommy, but every time I
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: read another account of January 6th, I become radicalized all
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: over again in my anger about that day. And that
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: image of when Josh Hawley is objecting to and trying
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: to overturn the election, after After January 6th happens and
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: then there's Mitt Romney in the background like giving him
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: the eyes, you realize how infuriated he must be because
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: when he talks about what they all went through, how
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: they were all scared for their lives, how they were
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: at the doors, there were weapons, there was all this
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff. And then Romney's like, well, it's all
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: done now. We're going to get back in there and
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: they're going to drop their objections and we're going to.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: you know, make Joe Biden president.
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: It's all going to be fine.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: And then they go up there and they all still
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: fucking object.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: He couldn't believe he wrote a speech and he thought, well,
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: I won't need this. Certainly I won't need this now.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: And the other, just to reading again, another account of the,
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: of like a first person account of the insurrection, you know,
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: Trump to Welker made up something about how, uh, uh,
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: Nancy Pelosi rejected.
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: He blames her.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: Um, and they, of course there's been, you know, different
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: accounts about why there wasn't more security, but like, you
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: realize like how terrifying it was in part because nobody
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: thought this was going to happen. Nobody expected it. There
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: was a lot of ineptitude. There's one moment where he's
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: in the elevator and someone says, oh, the senators don't
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: know where to go. And they're like, we are the
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: senators and we don't know where to go.
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: The security guards were like, I don't know where you go. Yeah.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: And yeah, it's also just like Mitt Romney. There's a
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: part where he quotes Tennyson. He says, you know, this
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: madness has come on us for our sins. It's a
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: beautiful sentiment. It's a beautiful quote. The days of senators
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: from the Republican Party quoting Tennyson are at an end.
• 42:15
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: Well, he also there's there's the part where he had
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: flirted with an independent run for president just so he
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: could get on the debate stage with Trump and go
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: after him, which I'm sure is the fantasy of a
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: lot of politicians to do that.
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: But then some of them named Donald Trump pointing like
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: this in the shower.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: But yeah. But then he does say that he has
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: talked to Joe Manchin about what a mistake it would
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: be to run on the no labels ticket. So, you know,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: doing all the right things, Mitt Romney, doing all the
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: right things.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: We also talked about starting a, he said, don't run
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: for president. Let's start a party, which is.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Right, that pushes one of the parties.
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: I noticed that Joe Biden's former chief of staff, Ron Klain,
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: tweeted like, you know, something complimentary about Mitt Romney and
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: this interview, but that said, There is one more thing
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: you can do, which is get behind Joe Biden.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: And you haven't done that. And Ron has a good point.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: And I get it. And I get that's hard for
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: Mitt Romney because Barack Obama ran against Mitt Romney in 2012.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: And there was a big and honest debate over the
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: size and role of government. Mitt Romney believes in a
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: very small government. And we do not. And I think
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: that that debate is real. And so I think for
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: Mitt Romney, evolving to the point where he's like, all
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: my policy considerations are secondary to to this threat from
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: authoritarianism that is coming within my own party. I think
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: that it takes some effort, but very few other Republican politicians,
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: except for Liz Cheney and a couple others, have made
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: that journey.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: Well, I will say, I really appreciate this version of
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: Mitt Romney, but I do think that one of the
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: things he's grappling with when he sees all these other
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: politicians is the way he himself subsumed his own principles
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: for the purpose of elective office.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: He did the event with Donald Trump.
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: And if he can find a way... to evolve from
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: being pro-choice to pro-life. He can find a way to
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: evolve from being a Republican member of the Senate to
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: a person who is endorsing Joe Biden to save the
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: country he clearly loves and believes is threatened by Donald Trump.
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: He can do it. Yeah. And look, Ron's tweet is right,
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: but also the smart thing to do if you're going
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: to make that endorsement is to do it like in
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: late October. Yes, I agree. You know, make news.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: Okay. Before we go to break, two quick housekeeping notes.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: The second Republican presidential debate is coming up on Wednesday,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: September 27th. which means it's time for another Friends of
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: the Pod exclusive group thread. Join us on Discord for
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: live reactions and commentary during the debate from your favorite
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Crooked hosts and staff. Subscribe to Friends of the Pod
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: to join our group thread at crooked.com slash friends. Also,
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: if you live in the Midwest, get out your malort.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: Love It or Leave It is coming to Chicago this
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: week on September 21st and Madison on September 22nd. With
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: wonderful guests like Brandon Johnson, Peter Sagal, Alice Waterland, Jillian Flynn,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: Ben Wickler, and more, tickets are going fast. Head to crooked.com
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: slash events to get yours today.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, just one thing. I'll just say that the
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: Madison and Chicago shows are almost sold out.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: But Love It or Leave It is going to be
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: across the country. Pod Save America is going to be
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: across the country. So go to crooked.com slash events.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you can't go wrong if you go to crooked.com
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: slash events.
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: You can't go wrong.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: When we come back, I talk more about the UAW
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: strike with Michigan Representative Alyssa Slotkin. Last week, the United
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Auto Workers initiated a strike against all three major automakers
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: in the United States. Here to discuss this historic strike,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: the political implications, and her race for the U.S. Senate,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: Representative Alyssa Slotkin. Welcome to the podcast.
• 45:37
  Speaker 5: Thanks for having me.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: So you joined a UAW picket line at a Ford
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: plant in Wayne, Michigan last week. What was the mood like?
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Did the workers you met seem like they are ready
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: to strike for as long as it takes? Or did
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: you get the sense that they're ready and willing to
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: give a bit to get a deal?
• 45:55
  Speaker 10: No, I think the energy was really good. I mean,
• 45:57
  Speaker 10: morale was good. I was there on the very first
• 46:00
  Speaker 10: day and people had been moving towards this. And I
• 46:05
  Speaker 10: think the energy was positive. look, people were there signing
• 46:08
  Speaker 10: up for strike benefits. So they are obviously watching their
• 46:12
  Speaker 10: own pocketbooks. And I don't think anyone in Michigan wants
• 46:16
  Speaker 10: a really long, prolonged strike, no matter who you are.
• 46:20
  Speaker 10: But the energy was good. And it was interesting. I
• 46:23
  Speaker 10: met a couple of people who had had parents who
• 46:26
  Speaker 10: were UAW workers at that same plant the last time
• 46:30
  Speaker 10: it struck, that specific plant struck in the 80s. And,
• 46:35
  Speaker 10: you know, just kind of talking about being ready to
• 46:38
  Speaker 10: do what they needed to do to make sure they
• 46:40
  Speaker 10: got a good deal.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: So the Ford CEO said the union's demands for a
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: 46% pay increase in a four-day workweek would bankrupt the company.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: The basic automaker argument is labor costs are already higher
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: than foreign automakers like Toyota and Tesla that don't have unions.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: And they offered a 21% pay increase, which the UAW
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: has rejected. What's the best counter to the argument from
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Ford and other automakers, in your opinion?
• 47:11
  Speaker 10: Well, I mean, I think the strongest statement about these
• 47:14
  Speaker 10: negotiations is that the die was cast months ago, right?
• 47:18
  Speaker 10: It's the context for these negotiations. The context is you
• 47:23
  Speaker 10: have a bunch of people who gave up things in 2008, 2009,
• 47:27
  Speaker 10: because we were in recession in Michigan, in a real recession,
• 47:33
  Speaker 10: where we are now, fast forward, making record profits at
• 47:36
  Speaker 10: those same companies. I mean, that's just fact. And these
• 47:41
  Speaker 10: companies are also getting help in setting up new things
• 47:45
  Speaker 10: like electric vehicle battery plants, right? So against that context,
• 47:50
  Speaker 10: you have workers who are saying, hey, we gave up
• 47:52
  Speaker 10: stuff before and now you're doing really, really well. We
• 47:55
  Speaker 10: want to do better and we want more money in
• 47:58
  Speaker 10: our pockets. And that to me is like the greatest
• 48:01
  Speaker 10: statement about where we are in these negotiations. I'm not
• 48:04
  Speaker 10: in the negotiations, so I don't know the back and
• 48:07
  Speaker 10: forth that's happening on an hour-to-hour basis. I know that
• 48:11
  Speaker 10: they're looking for a better deal than what they have,
• 48:13
  Speaker 10: and I don't think that's a crazy thing.
• 48:16
  Speaker 5: To ask for.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: Politico ran a story yesterday that said the GOP sees
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: the UAW walkout as a potential lifeline in Michigan and
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: talks about how Republicans are trying to win over rank-and-file
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: union members and non-union working-class voters. By blaming the strike
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: on the Democratic Party's climate policies, Donald Trump is reportedly
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: planning a trip to the same Ford plant that you
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: just visited and said that the union should prioritize the
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: repeal of Biden policies that accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: You've gotten this attack yourself from Republicans. Does it worry
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: you at all? Like, do you hear these concerns about
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: electric vehicles from auto workers in your state?
• 48:56
  Speaker 10: So I'll be honest, most of the people that I
• 49:00
  Speaker 10: talk to, and I, of course, represented an electric vehicle plant.
• 49:04
  Speaker 10: The Chevy Bolt was made in my district before it
• 49:06
  Speaker 10: was redrawn. We have an electric vehicle battery factory coming
• 49:10
  Speaker 10: to my current district in Delta Township, Lansing. The next
• 49:14
  Speaker 10: generation of vehicles is going to be made, right? And
• 49:17
  Speaker 10: right now, places like China are are ahead of us.
• 49:21
  Speaker 10: So if we're going to make those vehicles somewhere in
• 49:24
  Speaker 10: the world, I would always rather make them in Team
• 49:27
  Speaker 10: America than Team China. And so there's a second order
• 49:31
  Speaker 10: question that comes after that. How do we make sure
• 49:34
  Speaker 10: people in those facilities are making a living wage? only
• 49:38
  Speaker 10: have to work one job in order to sustain themselves.
• 49:41
  Speaker 10: They should be able to have a good middle-class life.
• 49:44
  Speaker 10: But if the question is who should make those vehicles,
• 49:47
  Speaker 10: Team America should make those. So every time they say that,
• 49:51
  Speaker 10: I mean, I just say, would you rather it be China? Like,
• 49:54
  Speaker 10: what is your alternative here? Now, there's a very good
• 49:57
  Speaker 10: conversation to have about making sure we push the car
• 50:01
  Speaker 10: companies to give people a fair shot at life in
• 50:04
  Speaker 10: those facilities.
• 50:05
  Speaker 5: I have a huge interest in that. We've got to
• 50:07
  Speaker 5: get that right.
• 50:09
  Speaker 10: And certainly for the bipartisan group of us that signed
• 50:14
  Speaker 10: onto the CHIPS Act, that cared about incentivizing American manufacturing,
• 50:18
  Speaker 10: we have a huge incentive to making sure they get
• 50:20
  Speaker 10: that right. But the first order of business is make
• 50:23
  Speaker 10: it in America and not in China.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: So you don't think that this, and Republicans have been
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: trying to do this for a long time to pit
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: labor against climate activists, You don't think that's really gonna work?
• 50:37
  Speaker 10: Well, look, I mean, they're certainly, they're trying, but I
• 50:42
  Speaker 10: don't think you can, I think they have this fundamental
• 50:45
  Speaker 10: conundrum that they're gonna have to deal with on the
• 50:47
  Speaker 10: Republican side, which is you got a lot of people,
• 50:49
  Speaker 10: including a lot of senior folks in Michigan, Republicans, who
• 50:53
  Speaker 10: have for 20 years voted against anything related to labor.
• 50:58
  Speaker 10: But now because of Donald Trump, they're suddenly populists and
• 51:01
  Speaker 10: now they care about the working man. When you've got
• 51:04
  Speaker 10: a 20-year record of voting against right to work and
• 51:07
  Speaker 10: prevailing wage and all of these things, it is pretty
• 51:10
  Speaker 10: hard to turn around and be Mr.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: Union.
• 51:12
  Speaker 10: And that is the needle they're trying to thread. And
• 51:16
  Speaker 10: all I know is that when I was out on Friday,
• 51:18
  Speaker 10: no one's talking about Trump. No one's talking about Biden.
• 51:21
  Speaker 10: No one's talking about politics. They're talking about being able
• 51:24
  Speaker 10: to have more money in their pockets so they can
• 51:26
  Speaker 10: do well and their kids can do better. It's really not,
• 51:30
  Speaker 10: to me, as desperately political as everyone would like it
• 51:34
  Speaker 10: to be, made out to be.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: So the New York Times interviewed a few dozen striking
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: workers and found that many who voted for the president said, quote,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: inflation had so undercut their wages that they felt pushed
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: out of the middle class, laying the blame with Mr.
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: Biden.
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: How do you persuade those workers to vote for Democrats
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: like you and Joe Biden next year?
• 51:56
  Speaker 10: So, you know, I think there's no doubt about it, right? People,
• 52:00
  Speaker 10: because of inflation, this is the point.
• 52:02
  Speaker 5: They have.
• 52:04
  Speaker 10: Less money in their pockets and more of a desire
• 52:06
  Speaker 10: to make more money. That is sort of a fact
• 52:10
  Speaker 10: of life. And all we can do is try to
• 52:14
  Speaker 10: demonstrate that we care about this core American value of
• 52:18
  Speaker 10: the middle class. Like that to me is the sun
• 52:21
  Speaker 10: and the moon of American, frankly, national security is how
• 52:25
  Speaker 10: do you have a strong middle class and how dangerous
• 52:28
  Speaker 10: it is in a multiracial, multiethnic experiment to have only
• 52:32
  Speaker 10: rich and only poor.
• 52:33
  Speaker 5: And I think that if you just put on.
• 52:36
  Speaker 10: Merit the policies of one party over the other, it
• 52:40
  Speaker 10: is very clear which one supports a middle class life.
• 52:46
  Speaker 10: And all we can do is demonstrate that. But we
• 52:49
  Speaker 10: also can't shy away from the fact that inflation is
• 52:52
  Speaker 10: a real thing. And while we hope it's getting better,
• 52:56
  Speaker 10: it's not better yet for many, many people. And if
• 53:00
  Speaker 10: you try and shy away from that and say, well,
• 53:01
  Speaker 10: but jobs are growing and all this, that may be true.
• 53:04
  Speaker 10: But to the people I represent, they have less money
• 53:06
  Speaker 10: in their pockets. there's a whole lot of reasons for that,
• 53:10
  Speaker 10: but you can't shy away from that.
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: Biden's also, of course, dealing with concerns about his age.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: Democratic pundits and strategists are in full freak out mode,
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: but we're also seeing it from voters in poll after poll.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: What would you say to a Biden voter in Michigan
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: who's worried about whether the president's too old to serve
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: a second term?
• 53:31
  Speaker 10: You know, look, I think I've said repeatedly, that it's
• 53:35
  Speaker 10: not just one person. You look at a lot of
• 53:37
  Speaker 10: the candidates in, you know, looking for the White House,
• 53:40
  Speaker 10: the Senate, the House.
• 53:41
  Speaker 5: It is definitely, you know, as someone who's kind.
• 53:44
  Speaker 10: Of like a Gen Xer, it is definitely feels like
• 53:47
  Speaker 10: we need a new generation across the board and you
• 53:50
  Speaker 10: can feel that interest. The president is running for a
• 53:54
  Speaker 10: second term. There's nothing more natural than a president running
• 53:58
  Speaker 10: for a second term. That's typically how we do it
• 54:00
  Speaker 10: in this country. Um, and, uh, all I can say
• 54:04
  Speaker 10: is that, you know, he, he is the president of
• 54:06
  Speaker 10: the United States. His policies have helped a place like Michigan.
• 54:10
  Speaker 10: And so, you know, it, it, to me, it's only
• 54:12
  Speaker 10: natural that he runs and I support that. Um, but
• 54:15
  Speaker 10: do I think we need a new generation across the board?
• 54:18
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: Mr.
• 54:19
  Speaker 10: Trump is well, not a spring chicken, um, you know,
• 54:22
  Speaker 10: folks in the Senate.
• 54:23
  Speaker 5: Oh my Lord.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 54:24
  Speaker 5: In the house. Oh my Lord.
• 54:26
  Speaker 10: So that's, I think I can feel that generational push.
• 54:30
  Speaker 5: Across the board.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: Michigan's a place where Democrats have done quite well since
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton barely lost the state in 2016. Though people
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: like you and Gretchen Whitmer and Debbie Stabenow, who you're
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: running to replace in the Senate, have all won by
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: much larger margins than national Democrats like Biden or how
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: Hillary narrowly lost. What do you think Michigan Democrats can
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: teach national Democrats about winning states like yours?
• 54:58
  Speaker 10: Well, I mean, I think that in Michigan... I mean,
• 55:01
  Speaker 10: I'm someone who likes math. And if you're going to
• 55:03
  Speaker 10: be successful in the state of Michigan, you need to
• 55:06
  Speaker 10: understand math. And math means that we are a state
• 55:10
  Speaker 10: where independent and swing voters usually decide our elections, right?
• 55:15
  Speaker 10: We're a swing state for a reason. So I think
• 55:18
  Speaker 10: it's important to understand that while you always want to
• 55:21
  Speaker 10: turn out the base and be in touch with the base,
• 55:23
  Speaker 10: that it is about appealing to a broad group of people,
• 55:26
  Speaker 10: which I if you've been elected.
• 55:28
  Speaker 5: In Michigan, that typically you've demonstrated that.
• 55:32
  Speaker 10: But I think it's also about, if I can be honest,
• 55:36
  Speaker 10: getting into areas and going to places where Democrats have
• 55:39
  Speaker 10: not shown up in 40 years, not writing off rural areas.
• 55:43
  Speaker 10: I represent a rural district. Not writing off those areas
• 55:48
  Speaker 10: where people may not be able to be out marching
• 55:51
  Speaker 10: in the streets, but they want a better world. And
• 55:56
  Speaker 10: they're willing to vote that way. You know, I always
• 55:59
  Speaker 10: told people that, frankly, you know, there are a lot
• 56:03
  Speaker 10: of Democrats and progressively minded people in very conservative areas.
• 56:07
  Speaker 10: And they risk a hell of a lot more to
• 56:10
  Speaker 10: be a Democrat than anyone in New York City or L.A., right?
• 56:14
  Speaker 10: And some of them don't tell their husbands how they vote.
• 56:17
  Speaker 10: They don't tell their kids. And I want them to
• 56:20
  Speaker 10: be a part of the family. And in Michigan, that
• 56:23
  Speaker 10: is part of the family, right? And I just think
• 56:27
  Speaker 10: that that is a lesson that could be learned in
• 56:30
  Speaker 10: other parts of the country. We want to be an open,
• 56:34
  Speaker 10: welcoming party of reasonable people. And that usually works.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: What's the number one issue you're hearing about in the
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: campaign trail? And what will be your number one priority
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: if you get to the Senate?
• 56:47
  Speaker 10: Number one issue I'm hearing about generally is like people
• 56:50
  Speaker 10: either have no hope of getting in the middle class
• 56:53
  Speaker 10: or they've fallen out of the middle class. And they
• 56:56
  Speaker 10: want back in. And so it's literally kitchen table economics.
• 57:00
  Speaker 10: How do I have a one job, a good job
• 57:02
  Speaker 10: with benefits that helps me save every month? And then
• 57:06
  Speaker 10: how do I bring down the insane costs of healthcare,
• 57:09
  Speaker 10: prescription drugs, housing, childcare, and post-secondary education? Somewhere in that
• 57:15
  Speaker 10: zone is 90% of what people raise with me. And
• 57:19
  Speaker 10: then there's the issues of making more things in America.
• 57:25
  Speaker 10: There's the issue of like protecting our kids from the
• 57:28
  Speaker 10: things that are truly harming them, like gun violence and,
• 57:32
  Speaker 10: you know, the diseases of despair, mental health issues and
• 57:36
  Speaker 10: opioid addiction, and then protecting our rights and our democracy.
• 57:40
  Speaker 10: But first and foremost is like, how do we as
• 57:44
  Speaker 10: a nation grapple with the fact that after World War II,
• 57:47
  Speaker 10: we did such a good job of building this strong
• 57:49
  Speaker 10: middle class and now people are are falling out of
• 57:52
  Speaker 10: it or have no hope of getting in. So that's
• 57:55
  Speaker 10: what I want to work on. Frankly, I'm a national
• 57:57
  Speaker 10: security person, you know that. But I think this is
• 58:01
  Speaker 10: the national security issue of our era because if we
• 58:03
  Speaker 10: don't get it right at.
• 58:04
  Speaker 5: Home, what can we do abroad?
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: Representative Alyssa Slotkin, thank you so much for coming on
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America and good luck out on the trail.
• 58:13
  Speaker 5: Thanks very much. Thanks for having me.
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, unfortunately, we cannot end the show without talking about
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: Lauren Boebert. We covered the story last week on our
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: subscription show, Terminally Online, which you can sign up for
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: at crooked.com slash friends. But there have been quite a
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: few developments since then. To recap, Boebert and her boyfriend
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: attended a performance of Beetlejuice the Musical at the Buell
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: Theater in Denver, Colorado, where we once did a live
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: taping of this very podcast.
• 58:52
  Speaker 3: Lovely theater.
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: The couple was asked to leave the show after complaints
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: that they were being rowdy, taking pictures, and vaping, despite
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: being asked not to vape by a pregnant woman in
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: front of them. Boebert's campaign initially denied the vaping and
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: dismissed the criticism. Then, security camera footage of the incident showed...
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: the couple not only vaping but groping each other because
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: there's nothing hornier than a musical production of Beetlejuice. This
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: led to a full apology from Boebert for quote falling
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: short of my values and the vaping lie she apologized
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: for which she attributed to either the quote excitement of
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: seeing a much anticipated production or the the natural anxiety
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: of being in a new environment. She then expanded on
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: these thoughts during an interview with One American News, as
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: one does.
• 59:39
  Speaker 7: What's the top story? Lauren Boebert getting kicked out of
• 59:42
  Speaker 7: the Buick Theater in Denver, Colorado.
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: It's what the media does. It's what the media does.
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: So what went down?
• 59:49
  Speaker 7: I was a little too eccentric. I'm very known for
• 59:54
  Speaker 7: having a.
• 59:56
  Speaker 7: Animated personality, maybe overtly animated personality. I was laughing, I
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 7: was singing, having a fantastic time.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she was.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: Fantastic time. Oh, boy. Guys, what's so bad about a
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: little vaping, a little groping at Beetlejuice?
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: It's a musical, not a concert. I'll say it again.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: You don't laugh.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: You can have a great time at a musical. You
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: sit still and quietly because there's human beings on the
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: stage playing characters. There's somebody I follow on TikTok because
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: he does an incredible impression of Patti LuPone. That's why
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: I follow him. He sings as Patti LuPone. I didn't
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: know this, but he had actually been cast, it was
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: his big break, in the traveling production of Beetlejuice. And
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: then he said, I remember that night, I didn't actually
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: know someone got kicked out, but I remember that somebody
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: was doing a lot of flash photography. It was disturbing
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: the performer. She was disturbing the performer.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 3: You can't do flash photography. That's insane.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: It's too far from the stage.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 3: It won't work.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right. It's also useless.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: It's just going to get a bright shot of the
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: people ahead of you.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: Does he say that the musical is as horny as
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: we think it is?
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: He says that nothing makes the performers of Beetlejuice the
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: musical in and of itself something that exists as a
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: testament to the fact that we are a nation in decline.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: Nothing makes them more excited as performers than to know
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: that people have full-on fucking boners. during their performance of
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: the various songs that we all know and love and
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: don't need to say what they are because we all,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: of course, love Beetlejuice the musical, a beautiful adaptation of
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: an important piece of IP. But yeah, no, that's what
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: he said. Is anyone else weirded.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: Out that the theater has really good night vision cameras?
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: Didn't know that when we did our show there, that's
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: for sure. No one at the Buell Theater told us
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: there'd be night vision cameras there.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: Now, granted.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: We didn't do a lot of groping. Not nearly as
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: much as I would have hoped. And you know what?
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: No one in the audience did either because they're at
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: a public fucking event.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: They did it with discretion.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: In between the flash photography and the vaping, they're groping.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: We're going to keep it quiet over here. It was
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: our flash photography, singing, yelling, grabbing.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: I will say this. That is a lesson. First of all,
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: I think when Lauren Boebert says that she had the
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: anxiety of a new place, what she really means is
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: I didn't know there was tape. I didn't know it
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: was on video. But I think as a rule, if
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: you are going to go to a musical production that
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: welcomes children 10 and up, you can either do flash
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: photography or over the shirt groping.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: I prefer neither, but you can't do both because it
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: draws attention to the over the shirt groping.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 3: To me, the OTPHJ is not as bad as saying,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 3: do you know who I am when confronted?
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: I just want to say the acts themselves, like, I
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: don't give a shit. Oh, I'm just saying.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 3: But saying, do you know who I am to someone?
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: Well, that's the worst. You're the worst person in the world.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: I'll be a prude.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: I do not believe you should be publicly getting it
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: on at a theater during a musical where children are present.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: I think you should restrain yourselves.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: Someone found the public indecency law in Colorado. She potentially
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: violated it because it does include groping in public as
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: part of the public. You're not supposed to do that.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: At the very least, quite rude.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: I just think that the existence of the night vision
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: camera is weird. Makes me uncomfortable. Then there was like
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: another discourse where people were like, why are we mocking
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: this right now? And these people were surveilled against their
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: will and blah, blah, blah. And they just leave them alone.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh yeah, you have every right to privacy.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: to grope in a public setting.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: No, you don't.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: I can't follow those people there. I will say this.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: If you ever are in a position, and it happens
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: all the time, like someone, you know, a drunk state
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: legislator will get pulled over. Someone will get a problem
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: at the airport. If you ever say through, you know,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: if you're slurring your words and you're ever shouting, do
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: you know who I am?
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: You lost.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: You're the villain.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: Famously it's a villain famously ineffective.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: It does no one it's it's you know what it
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: is she.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: Did a couple more too she she doesn't say she's
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: like i know the mayor i know that i'm calling
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: the mayor which is i don't know how that's gonna
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: help her and then she also said i'm on the
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: board the board of what i.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 3: Have a theater as a board.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: I do and he's under the board if she had.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 3: Just been like hey i'm sorry you know we acted
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 3: inappropriately i apologize to the theater and the other people
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 3: i disrupted you wonder if they would have released this
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 3: footage maybe they would have just because it's kind of
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 3: funny But she's also just a giant hypocrite. She's the
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: first person to attack gay people for grooming. And she's
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 3: like a total hack who's pretending she's going to protect
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 3: our kids. She sucks.
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: And her boyfriend that was the man in question... is
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: a Democrat whose bar hosts drag shows.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, he seems like he's up for a good time.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: As far as we can tell so far, he's just
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: along for the ride as well. I will say, yeah, saying...
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 2: He's like, oh, we're at Beetlejuice? He's like, I love
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: the finale. When does the musical start?
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 4: Oh, boy.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: Yelling, do you know who I am, is about as
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: effective as yelling relax at somebody. You know what I mean?
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: It just gets the opposite. It gets your haunches up.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 3: She's also, she's not like, she acts a little like
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 3: MTG adjacent, but she's not in a Republican plus 40
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 3: seat the way Marjorie Taylor Greene is. She almost lost.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 3: She won by like 500 votes last time.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: Adam Frisch, go to his campaign website. The best part
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: though is- He's not going to be doing that Beetlejuice,
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: not now.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: No. There's a- He's groping out a victory.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: It's within his reach.
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 3: Not going to be that caucus with Dusty Johnson for long.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: It's not even a caucus.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: Liz Crokin. He doesn't want a premature ejection.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 3: There's a bona fide lunatic on Twitter named Liz Crokin
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 3: who has Pizzagate is real in her bio who said,
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 3: if I were a wagering enthusiast, I would bet that
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 3: the date, Boebert's date, was paid to set her up.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 3: So this is the new conspiracy theory that the deep state,
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 3: the libs were coming in. for Boebert by getting her
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 3: to go out with this guy.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: Her bio also says that she's a seasoned journalist for
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: 20 plus years in addition to Pizza Gatorade. And her
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: pronouns are I slash told slash you slash so.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: And there's no evidence that any liberals came anywhere.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 3: She said these types of tactics and traps are used
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 3: all the time and I would know.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: What would you know, man? What would you know? What
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: a sting operation. Step one, build trust. Step two, mention
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: that in passing that at the Buell Theater in a
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 2: couple weeks, fetal juice is coming. Fetal juice is coming. Hey, Lord,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: I got a crazy idea.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: Install a security camera when nature has night vision. It's
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: going to be dark. Is this a Nathan for you?
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: Good question. By the way, maybe he's a Nathan for
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: you plant.
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: I just think it's also like, man, let's say everything
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: is going according to the deep states plan perfectly. Lauren's
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 2: still up for a little hanky-panky at the Buell Theater.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: You know? Deep State didn't do that. I watched the footage.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: I hated it.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 3: Again, it's Beetlejuice.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: And again, Beetlejuice the musical.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: So hot.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 3: So hot.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: How do you not get horny while watching Beetlejuice the musical?
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 3: Should be NC-17. They must have been so drunk. She said,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 3: I didn't remember vaping.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 8: Okay?
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not all she didn't remember. Unbelievable. Anyway, what
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: a story. What a fun story. Something for all of
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: you to enjoy. Thank you to Alyssa Slotkin for joining us.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 2: And good luck in your race.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 3: Stay out of the theater. Much like Lincoln. Stay out
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 3: of the theater.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: All right, everyone. We'll see you Thursday.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 4: Bye.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: That's funny. The second worst time a politician's had in
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: a theater in living memory.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: Other than that, Ms. Boebert, how was the play? Pod
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our producers are
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: Olivia Martinez and David Toledo. Our associate producer is Farrah Safari.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: Writing support from Hallie Kiefer. Reed Cherlin is our executive producer.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: Cantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: Seglin and Charlotte Landis. Madeline Herringer is our head of
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  Speaker 1: news and programming. Matt DeGroat is our head of production.
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