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Transcript

“All Your Midterm Questions Answered.” · Pod Save America

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I'm Jon Lovett.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Tommy Vitor. On today's show, we answer your questions about
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the midterms and everything else and hear what Lovett was
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: up to in North Carolina last week. Can't wait to
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: hear that. I don't know.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Can you hear someone gaining five pounds in audio?
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Potentially. Before we dive in, check out our interview with
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Barack Obama, if you haven't yet. He had some good
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: advice for Democrats. We chatted about the midterms, Russia, Iran,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the Supreme Court. Lovett even made him laugh.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Cancel culture.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: A couple times.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: We hit cancel culture.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: We hit cancel culture. There's also a bunch of other
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: great crooked content from us over the weekend. I interviewed
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Rachel Maddow for offline. Tommy released another episode of world corrupt. Uh,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: you can listen to my final focus group with black
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: voters in Atlanta over on the wilderness feed right now.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Love it. You have anything?
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: We put out a couple of love to leave it
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: somewhere about it. Check him out. Talk to Josh Shapiro.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: That's good.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: He was pretty good.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Is he going to win?
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: If he'd, if he's not being Doug Mastriano, we had
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: some problems. We're going to hold a vigil on election night.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: That's good. That's good.
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Uh, let's get to the mailbag. So, um, Me on
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: YouTube asks, I was confused by that too. It could
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: make me, it was an abbreviation. Who knows? All right.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I am in Oregon and scared shitless. We Dems are
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: going to lose the governorship and other key positions. Why
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: are young people or Dems in general, I guess, refusing
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: to vote, even though Dems have given them everything, especially
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: here in Oregon. Love it.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Well, all right, let's, first of all, no, first of all,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: no Dem has given you everything. Not a place in
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: this country where Dems have given you everything. First of all, second,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: There are a lot of places where we need to
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: do more to get young people to turn out to vote,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: to make them believe their votes matter, to make sure
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: that the political system is delivering in a way that
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: makes young people feel invested in the political process. But
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Oregon is a special case right now because there's this
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: three-way election and, you know, the Nike billionaire honcho is
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: throwing money into multiple coffers to try to stop a
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Democrat he just doesn't like. So it's a little bit
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: more complicated than just young people not turning out in Oregon.
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I haven't seen any turnout or polling based on
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: age that says it's like a young person. The issue
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: here is there's three people in this race and there's
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: an independent that's getting 19% of the vote and has
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: raised $ 13. 2 million, which is more than either of the
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: other two candidates. That's why this is such a crapshoot
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: and a toss-up.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the fact that there's this independent run
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: from a Democrat tells you that there's real problems in
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: the Democratic Party, but that's not the proximate cause.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: So you've got Democrat Tina Kotak, who's the former speaker
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: in the state legislature. She's running against Republican Christine Drazen,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: who's the former minority leader. She's the Republican. And then
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Betsy Johnson is the independent. She's a former state legislature.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Former Democrat. Democrat of 20 years. And so Betsy Johnson
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: is pulling right now about 20% of the vote, which
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: is why it's so tough. And she's raised a ton
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: of money. She's raised more money than either the Democrat
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: or the Republican vote. And she's sort of hitting the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Republican on being anti-abortion. And she's hitting Tina Kotek, the Democrat,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: on she's sort of tying her to the currently unpopular
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Democratic governor of Oregon right now, Kate Brown, tying her
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: to saying that she's made the help make the state
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: woke and broke.
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: Apparently, Kate Brown is a 40 percent approval rating, 55
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: percent disapprove. So that's that's challenging headwinds on top of
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: the challenging Biden headwinds on top of a bisexual candidate.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: To have a 40% approval, 55% disapproval.
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: On top of a state that has struggled with COVID
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: lockdowns and increasing crime. There were some articles that talked
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: about how they set a record for the number of
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: murders last year and they might beat it again this year.
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: There's affordable housing issues.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: There's questions around homelessness.
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: So there's, you know, I think we all recall not
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: so fondly the constant street battles in Portland.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that was tough to live through. Yeah. And
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: to Luffett's earlier point about Democrats not giving anyone anything,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: everything that they've wanted anywhere, because what people most want
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: is like, you know, being able to afford their rent, housing,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: cheap gas, groceries. And that is the problem all across
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: the country. And for most people who aren't paying close
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: attention to politics, but still vote, they look to who's
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: in charge right now. And in Oregon, Democrats are in charge.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: And have been for decades. It happened for decades. So
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: that is the challenge in Oregon.
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: And by the way, this is not like this isn't
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: just an Oregon story. We might lose a congressional race
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: in Rhode Island that I think Democrats have held for many, many,
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: many years. I mean, there's lots of weird things happening
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: out there and normally liberal things.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Bastions but look if you're worried about um winning losing
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: the governorship in oregon to a republican uh help out
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: democrat tina kotech she's going to come on positive america
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: at some point soon and uh you can donate to
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: the campaign you can go volunteer organize go help out
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: that's that's the best way to uh get her over
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the finish line all right i want to hear you
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: read this next question oh oh from uh flubber puff
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: on instagram yeah flubber puff anyway Flubberpuff wants to know
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: our thoughts on the Utah Senate race. Tommy?
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: So we got Mike Lee versus Evan McMullin. Mike Lee
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: voted to, he supported Trump's effort to overturn the election.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Not a good idea. Bad. Love it. He's been doing
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: this for five years and he's got his phone on.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Spam call.
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: Mike Lee's approval rating is in the low 40s. McMullen's
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: running as a true independent at a time when I
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: think everybody hates Washington.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: The latest poll has.
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: Mike Lee winning 41% to 37% with 12 undecided. But look,
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: it's creating some great content for everyone. Mike Lee went
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: on Tucker Carlson and bagged Mitt Romney to endorse him.
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: Probably not the way you reach Mitt Romney, by the way,
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: via Tucker Carlson.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: It was interesting that he did that because I thought
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: that the polls, I'm like, who knows? It's like, like
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: you said, Lee's up by a few points in all
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: these polls, which is, we should say Trump won the
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: state by around 20 points both times. Lee won his
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: last two races by even more than that, right? So,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Evan McMullin has no business being this close to Mike Lee. Surprising.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: And it's interesting because Democrats didn't, so Democrats just didn't
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: feel to candidate partly because Evan McMullin ran as a
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: third party and they figured, all right, let's push all
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the Democrats in Utah to Evan McMullin. And it appears
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: at least to be keeping the race close. And I
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have thought it was real, except clearly Mike Lee's
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: getting a little nervous if he's begging for Mitt Romney's
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: endorsement on a Fox show.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: It's interesting. There has been a kind of strangeness to
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Utah politics, a resistance to the vulgarity and mean spiritedness
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: of Trump that has not shown up, I think in
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: the general, maybe in part because of abortion, but that
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: has showed up in, in Romney winning. Um, uh, and
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: that's showing up here, it shows up with, uh, McMullen
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: getting whatever he got, like 20% as an independent candidate.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: So there is something, there is a kind of conservatism
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: in Utah that kind of reflects the That kind of
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: answers the question we've asked for five years, which is
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: why are more actual conservatives upset by what Trump is doing?
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: And it seems like there is a contingent in Utah
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: that is.
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: What's fun about this is, so Mike Lee goes on Fox,
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: begs Mitt Romney to endorse him. Trump sees it and
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: then attacks Romney and says, Trump said Romney has abused
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: Mike Lee in an unprecedented way.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure what that means.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: There's some subtext there that I don't really want to know.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: And McMullen has said that if he wins, he... like
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: won't promise to caucus with either the Republicans or the Democrats,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: which is probably cool why he's close in this, in
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: a very, very, very Republican state. Just win buddy. Um,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: so that's what's going on in Utah. It's an interesting one.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: I would, uh, you know, I.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: Wouldn't, I would put more money in Bitcoin than in, um,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: McMullen winning is I guess where I'm at emotionally. You
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: know what I mean? But I would do neither in
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: terms of betting.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: You do.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: That's yeah. You're going to put a bunch of money
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: in Bitcoin. I will sell high. All right. Liz Conway
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: on Twitter wants to know, Why are national Democrats not
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: pouring money into the Ohio Senate campaign? Tim Ryan has
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: a real shot.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: Says you, Liz. Hope so.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: What do you guys think?
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: I think this question sort of presupposes that there's just
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: sort of a big pot of unspent money sitting around,
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: which unfortunately that's.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Not the case.
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: I do think as individuals, I have not been paying
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: as much attention to this race as I might have
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: been because Trump won it overwhelmingly in 2020. I think
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: he got 53.29%. to Biden's 45.25% in 2020. I mean,
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: that's a pretty, that's a very conservative state. But the
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: latest polling, there's a poll out today, USA Today poll
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: on Monday, shows it's basically a tie with Vance up 47.4
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: to 45.4. There's also a debate tonight, which was brilliantly
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: scheduled at the same time as the sudden death Yankees-Guardians
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: playoff baseball game. So great timing there.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Where, what are the, oh, Ohio. That's what they used
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: to be.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: They changed the IC from the... from the bad.
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: But Tim Ryan's raised $ 39 million and spent $ 36. 9. So,
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: you know, he's been able to raise money. It's just
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: that what happens in all these races is Mitch McConnell
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: comes in with this super pack and they just blanket
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: you with special interest money and attack ads.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: So I just gave Tim Ryan today. And he will
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: be on this very program Thursday. We're going to have
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Tim Ryan on. No, here's why it's hard. It's like
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Tommy said. There's, you know, Ohio is about 12 points
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: more Republican than the nation as a whole. So Trump
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: wins it by eight the last two elections. All statewide
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: office holders are Republicans there now, with the exception of
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Sherrod Brown. Sherrod won by about 10 points. nine or
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: 10 points in 2018. But again, that was a year
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: where Democrats nationally won the House vote by 8.6. So
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Sherrod didn't even really outperform National Democrats in 2018, a
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: year where Democrats obviously had the wind at their backs.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: This is a year where it's really tough. Now, is
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Tim Ryan running a fantastic campaign? Yeah, maybe one of
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the best Senate campaigns out there right now. If Tim
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Ryan was John Fetterman in Pennsylvania or running in Michigan,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: do I think he'd have a shot? Yeah, I think
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: he'd probably be the favorite. Ohio's just a tougher state
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the question is not why are National Dems not
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: pouring money into Ohio. It's why should National Dems pour
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: money into Ohio versus Pennsylvania versus Arizona versus.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Even whatever, Georgia.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Um, and then also, you know, you put Ohio in
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: the same kind of category as North Carolina, maybe Florida.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: And you say, well, we just don't know. Like if, if,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: if we're watching a, you know, the votes come in
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: in Ohio and it's super close and Democrats are having
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: a surprisingly good night, then yeah, we should have put
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: more money in, but we just don't know.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I don't trust any polling. I just, I really don't.
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: But the other eye popping poll I saw over the
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: weekend was in Iowa where the latest Des Moines register,
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: Iowa poll has Chuck Grassley at 46% and Mike Franken
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: at 43%.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Can you believe that people in Iowa are concerned about
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: giving a six-year term to an 89-year-old man?
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: I know. And look, that poll was... Apparently, people in
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: California didn't really... Yeah. Look, that.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Again, they're all using Ruth Bader Ginsburg's trainer.
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: Iowa has been going more and more conservative over the years.
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: It's a challenging state. But like Ann Seltzer, I think,
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: is the best pollster in the business. The margin of
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: error is 3.5%, which basically means it's a statistical tie.
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: You could also argue the Democrats should be pouring money
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: into Iowa and maybe Franken is doing better than others
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: in that race because he's not facing the same onslaught
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: of ads.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: I don't know that to be true.
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: I'm kind of guessing because it's sort of been off
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: the radar, but that's another one people should take a
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: look at.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah. In all these races, I'm looking less at the
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: margin at this point than the number that the Democrat has.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Because I think if you are in the low to
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: mid 40s as a Democrat in this environment, when it
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: could be likely that undecided voters end up breaking towards
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the party that has the political wind at their backs,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: which is going to be the Republicans in this year.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: It's going to be hard to get there. I want
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: to see like Democrats at 48, 49, 50.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: It's also, look, I don't, I don't think there's been
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: a midterm where the like probability curve has felt as
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: flat in a long time. Like the, like we don't try,
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: polling is less and less reliable and, It's all based
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: on modeling that you can't totally trust. There are these
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: larger forces that put Democrats at a great disadvantage. There
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: have been these election results that show Dobbs is pretty potent,
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: but though maybe that is fading, we could wake up
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: and there was this huge, massive, untapped vote of people
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: that came out to support abortion rights that also could
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: not manifest. We really, really don't know. What we do
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: know in the Tim Ryan example here is like, Yeah.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Are there examples of the Senate candidate like really outperforming
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: the national candidate in a state like that?
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That's why Joe Manchin is senator from West Virginia
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: right now after Joe Biden lost the state by like
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: 30 points. So it happens. It happens, which is why,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: you know, again, if you if you want to donate
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: to Tim Ryan like like Tommy just did, then go
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: for it and make some calls in Ohio.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: So, yeah. And donate to our to our Senate fund.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: Support all these candidates.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: That's right. All right. David Dennison on Twitter. asks, why
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: won't Katie Hobbs debate Carrie Lake? Good question. Good question.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: It's confusing.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: It's an odd one.
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: Hobbs said she wouldn't debate Lake because Lake is a
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: conspiracy theorist and didn't want to share the stage with her.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: That was the reason.
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: Now, you know, I think strategists might wonder maybe it's
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: also because Carrie Lake is a lifetime TV anchor and
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: that the format could be her strong suit. She doesn't
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: seem to care much about the truth. She's just a
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: fucking wackadoodle who attacks everything. And maybe, you know, they
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: figured that format would put them at a disadvantage.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: My argument, if I were working on the campaign.
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: Would be lower expectations, just like Herschel Walker did, because
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: the press falls for that every time. And then kind
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: of just meet them instead of being called a coward
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: by your opponent or too weak to debate or whatever
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: it's been happening. It's sort of like, multi-day, multi-week news cycle.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't know. I am really struggling. I
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: think you should debate. I'm really struggling to understand this one. Like,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: if you're running against someone who you think is a
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: threat to democracy, act like it. Yes, she's extreme. Yes,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: she lies. Yes, she's good at lying. Yes, she's a
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: conspiracy theorist. That's who you're running against. That's the reality. Like,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: you can't expect people just to know that she's a
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: conspiracy theorist or liar. You have to make the case.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: You have to persuade voters. And to do that, You
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: need to stand up in front of a huge audience
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: and make your case and make a better argument.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: It's really strange. It really struck me as being incredibly
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: dystopian to see Carrie Lake in this sort of gauzy
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: filter room.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Dude, the Diane Sawyer filter. It's like you just wandered
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: into the afterlife.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: It's very weird. I respect the hell out of it.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Just like I want to be shot through two inches
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: of fucking cotton fiber. I want basically to see two
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: eyes and a nose, the Madonna TikTok filter. That's how
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: I want me to see. But just to see somebody
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: in this very gauzy, like kind of beautifully lit room,
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: lit like a Baroque painting saying that they'll only accept
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: the election results if they win was just the most
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: man in the high castle shit I've seen on CNN
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: in a long time.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: But then, you know, Katie Hobbs goes on CNN and says, oh,
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: my opponent won't do interviews. And Dana Bash is like,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: I was just talking to her. So it's a bad call.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: It also is like, is it outrageous that Carrie Lake
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: wouldn't commit to accepting their election results? Yes. Then go
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: on stage and debate and yeah, and pin her down
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: on it. It's weird.
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: Some interesting things in the recent reporting about Lake, her
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: husband owns a production company and they record every interview
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: that she ever does on their own, which Actually, it's
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: standard practice. Like when I was a flack for Barack Obama,
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: I had an audio recorder where I would get like
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: digital audio of everything he did. But they have a
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: camera and a boom mic trained on print reporters in
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: the middle of the interview. It just seems like it's
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: designed to be intimidating.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Well, did you see from that Washington Post long profile
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: on Carrie Lake that because they had links to some
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: of the campaign's videos that They film the reporters interviewing
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Carrie Lake, and then they put it up on their
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: YouTube page. And then they cut it so it's like,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Carrie Lake destroys reporter.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: And the irony of a hard right-wing journalist who used
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: to be a newscaster bitching about media bias.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: It's a lot, right?
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: But it's not a lot if you figure out that
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: the goal is to own the libs. The goal is
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: to be entertaining. The zeal of the converted, too. She said,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: I was part of the media. I get it.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: Now I'm... Yeah, burning down the house. It's the... being
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: an asshole is sort of like, like it's, it's the
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: connection between like this authoritarianism and it's just like kind
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: of just being a prick. Like I'm a prick. That's
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: what I do. I don't respect these people. I don't
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: treat them with respect. I don't, that's because I don't
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: respect them. I don't respect the role that they provide.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: It is just like another, another person taking advantage of
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: the kind of right wing permission structure that you just
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: being a dick is politically advantageous.
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: And just to show your base, all your enemies. So
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: you look at all my enemies, you hate them as
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: much as they hate me. I will fight them for you.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: That's why there's a way to turn that around, which
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: we were talking about this earlier today. Tim Ryan has
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: a new ad out where it's basically like J.D. Vance's
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: culture wars aren't going to like fix bring jobs back
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: to Ohio. And like J.D. Vance is obsessed with bathrooms
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: and he's obsessed with abortion bans and obsessed with this.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: And like, meanwhile, people in Ohio just like want jobs back,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: you know, and it's a very good way to like
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: like Carrie Lake being an asshole to the media is
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: not going to fix Arizona.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just divisive. Right. That's the thing. People don't
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: like that. They don't like divisiveness. It always pulls well
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: over and over again. It's also like, you see, that's
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: why Jim Jordan, who has nothing to say about the
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: January 6th hearings, while they're going on, he says, this
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: January 6th committee hearing, it won't create a single job.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: That won't bring down a gas price.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: You know, that probably works with some people.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: You read these profiles of Lake and it's like, you know,
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: friends from Channel 10 knew her as a free spirited,
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: more than Bible loving. They say she was into Buddhism,
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: loved her vacations to Jamaica, became swept up in the
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: energy around President Obama, threw big parties, went out to
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: gay bars and thrived on like cultivating a television audience.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: It's just look me.
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: I think there's two parts of it. Like she's clearly
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: an opportunist and is just running in this moment is
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: figure out how to do it. There's also this sense
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: that Trump has radicalized or was a lightning rod for
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: pretty radical political change in a lot of people in
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: a lot of ways that we all just like, I
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: fundamentally can't understand. And she seems like she's one of them.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought what was most interesting in that profile
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: is when they said, is she an opportunist or is
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: she really been converted? What does it matter? She's like,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: you still got to run against her anyway, right? It's
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: the same thing that you're dealing with.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and also like, I think it's a little bit
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: also naive about, I think the way in which your interests,
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: your motivations, your performance can kind of become one thing.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: You can't convince somebody to believe something. Their livelihood depends
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: on not believing. All of a sudden, she found this,
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: and you say something enough to an audience, to yourself,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: you start to believe it.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: All right. Acklefin2 on Instagram. Thoughts on black voters in
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Georgia voting for Herschel Walker?
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: I hope they don't do it. I think it's a
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: bad idea for every voter of every color. That's my
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: personal take.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: It's good. Good take. I like that. I will say
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: that I just, you know, the wilderness episode that's out
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: today is an Atlanta focus group. I did it with
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: young black voters, ages 21 to 35, classified themselves as moderate.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: They all voted for Biden, though. That whole group of
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: people thought that Herschel Walker is extreme, unqualified, crazy. There
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: were no Herschel Walker fans there. But they're like, what
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: has happened to Raphael Warnock? What's he going to do?
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: I've heard a lot about him attacking Walker, but I
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: want to know what he's actually going to do for me.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: And like, is he just going along with Joe Biden
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: or does he have got real plans? You know, because
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: they were not that happy with Joe Biden. So it
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: did make me understand why, you know, they had this
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: debate on Friday night between Walker and Warnock. And on Twitter,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: you heard a lot of like, why isn't Warnock throwing
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: more punches at Walker? And I think it's because of
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: some of what I saw in that focus group, which
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: is they don't think that disqualifying Walker is the challenge now.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: They think it's actually getting people to show up and
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: vote for Warnock, who are just sort of down about
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: politics in general.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Also, there was a mini debate about how hard Warnock
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: should be going on the accusations against Herschel Walker. And
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: it kind of speaks to the fact that he kind
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: of has to do both. He's getting the people. He
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: has the people believing that Hershel Walker doesn't deserve a
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Senate seat, but how does he close the deal for others?
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I also just think that the path for him,
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: for Warnock, is more about moderates and split-ticket voters. I
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: have zero hope that conservative Republicans are going to stay
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: home because Hershel Walker paid for one abortion, two of
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: them for any reason.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: They only care.
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: The sort of hardcore religious right only views their candidates
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: as a vehicle to enact the policies they want. So
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: if you vote their way, they will look past any
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: perceived personal flaws or imperfections.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: That's how we got Trump.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: Actually, we found out. It turns out when we beat
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: that pedophile in Alabama, Roy Moore, we found the line.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: That was it.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah. In a good year, though. One more thing on
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: this I would just say about black voters. One of
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the panelists I talked to about the focus group was
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Terrence Woodbury. He's a pollster who's working on the Warnock race.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: And he said Democrats have to be really careful who
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the messenger is attacking Herschel Walker, because if it is
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: because he's seen in focus groups and in the polling
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: they've done, if it's a bunch of white people attacking
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Herschel Walker, then specifically with black voters, they don't trust
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: that messenger as much. And so he said that as
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: sort of the national environment starts making Walker into a
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: joke and turning Walker into a joke, there's a little
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: bit of backlash there within the black community in Georgia,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: which I thought was interesting.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Nick Brandon Jones on Twitter. Can you speak to the
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: GOP's perceived trust advantage on inflation slash the economy and
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: how Democrats can reverse it through 2022 and beyond? Go
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: for it. I mean, I think we can either fix
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: inflation or the economy.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you can't. like their advantage is coming from the
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: fact that there is inflation and we are in power.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, look, we're Republicans have had a, an
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: advantage on the economy for a long time in polls. And,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: you know, there are times there have been many occasions
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: where Democrats have still won elections, where voters tell exit
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: pollsters that they still trust the Republicans on the economy.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: I think with inflation as it is right now, that's
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: more difficult. And I think the Republican advantage on economy
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and especially on inflation right now is sort of higher
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: than it's been in many years. Yeah.
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: The CBS poll that came out over the weekend, I think,
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: they asked what's causing higher prices. 63% said supply and
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: manufacturing issues, 58% global factors, 47% said democratic policies.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: So not great.
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: They also, they asked, they're like CBS said democratic policies
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: have fill in the blank, 48% said harmed the economy,
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: 29% helped the economy 68% said Biden could be doing
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: more on inflation. Sum it all up, people are pissed
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: off about inflation and they're blaming the people in power.
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: And I think like so, so much of this is
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: gas prices, but grocery prices are also staying sticky and high.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: So, you know, to the question of like, how can
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Democrats reverse it through 2022 and beyond, aside from being
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: able to control inflation when there's only so much any
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: politician in either party can do, I do think like,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Relentlessly hammering the message that Republicans are fighting for the
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: rich and Democrats are fighting for everyone else Finding creative
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: ways to break through with that message over and over
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: and over again is the best path because Democrats usually
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: do have an advantage even when Republicans have an advantage
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: on the economy Democrats tend to have an advantage on
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: fights for people like you fights for the middle class
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: fights for fairness healthcare healthcare And so when you try
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: to reorient the economic argument so that you're saying that
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Republicans are fighting for the rich and Democrats are fighting
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: for everyone else, Democrats usually do better. And I don't
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: think we, I think if you look at a bunch
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: of ads, Democratic ads in the midterms right now, you'll
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: see that message. But when you, you know, get your
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: news and information from the media and stuff like that,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: you just don't hear these issues talked about as much.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: And you don't hear that Democratic message breaking through.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's right. And just Republicans are relentlessly
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: hammering the Democrats on inflation and I mean, if you look,
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Democratic ads right now have been more about Republican extremism
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: and abortion. Republican ads have been about crime and inflation.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: And so it's a bit of a bit of like
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: two different arguments kind of driving past each other and
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: our hope being we can get people to appreciate the
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: stakes on abortion and extremism, not not necessarily making as
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: good of an argument on inflation.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Sam, you play these on Twitter asks, what are you
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: most worried about for the midterms, Tommy?
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: I'm worried about some sort of thing happening that spikes
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: gas prices again. Like, OPAC came out the other day.
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: They announced a production cut. They clearly did it to
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: stick it to the United States. The Saudis led this
• 25:49
  Speaker 5: whole effort. They did it to, you know, get Putin's
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: back in the war. I could see that happening again.
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: Prices go up really quickly. They don't go down very quickly.
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: And the media covers it ad nauseum. And that makes
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: me really worried.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Love it.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: I'm still worried that... moment of enthusiasm when we were
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: passing the Inflation Reduction Act, when there was the student
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: loan cancellation, then the Dobbs decision that we've kind of,
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: that that has faded from memory and it won't be
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: strong enough now as people are going to vote that
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: we haven't actually done enough to activate the big pro-choice
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: majority to turn out.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: That's my big worry. I'm worried about these Secretary of
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: State races and these government races and having a bunch
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: of election deniers win these races and then be in
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: place for 2024. I still think that is a real
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: big threat in these midterms. So go donate to the
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: fund for Secretary of State and AG races that we
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: have in Boats of America because it's super important right now.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Asin Ram on Instagram. Is it beneficial to have Democratic
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: fundraising messages have the tone of desperation slash defeat? Tommy,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: what do you think?
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: I don't know if it's effective and it's driving me crazy, man.
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: I mean, like I never opened these emails. I unsubscribe
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: from the texts. Like it's, it's my kink. Like I
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: think it's embarrassing.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Your kink is texting stop to people who text you.
• 27:16
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, it is.
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: I think the lack of targeting speaks to just an
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: imprecise nature of the fundraising.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: I hate it. I think it, I think it like
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: makes us look bad. Yeah.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, I, I, I know that
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: we find it annoying, but I have to assume that
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: people getting these texts are all people who have donated.
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: And so not necessarily. You get on these lists from
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: like people sell these lists. You donate to one thing.
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: You end up on another list. Like it's not targeted.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: It's definitely not targeted enough. I do think it sucks.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: And it has to assume I have to assume it's
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: having diminishing returns. Like I don't know who is responding
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: to these fucking endless texts. I'm sure I've got three
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: or four while we were sitting here. Text stop. Text stop.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Text stop.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I asked Tara McGowan about this. during an offline episode
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: because she's part of this world, democratic strategist. And she
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: said that part of the problem is that so many
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: campaigns outsource this kind of fundraising to like a firm.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: And for the firm, like they just go by open
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: rates and maybe like, you know, whatever, whatever you gain
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: by an open rates and like some scared people donating
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: five or 10 bucks, like you lose in credibility, which
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: the campaign would know if it was within the campaign,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: but because it's just some firm that's doing it. like
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: it's not all connected. And, but so it's like, what
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: we're not realizing is that like the broader brand issue
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: we have by spamming people with these crazy fucking appeals
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: is like hurting us. Even, even if like we're getting
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: good open rates and a couple of people are donating.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: It also, it also just, even a campaign is this
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: strange thing that pops up and then disappears and either works,
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: either worked or it didn't. And then it gets rebuilt
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: and it does speak to the need for like a
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: sustained organizations that exists between campaigns that like are thinking
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: about this more broadly because our goal on the whole
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: is to raise one giant pool of money, but we
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: do it in this way where every campaign is reaching
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: out all the independently and all these, through these same
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: overlapping firms, and it is just relentless.
• 29:11
  Speaker 5: And there's also just like too many people that, you know,
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: you run for Congress against, pick your boogie person, right?
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: Marjorie Taylor Greene, you have no chance of winning, and
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: that person goes super viral and raises like $ 10 million
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: that we might as well have lit on fire. There
• 29:26
  Speaker 5: are these scam packs, like you saw the Fetterman campaign.
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: Their campaign manager getting really pissed about a PAC that
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: seemed to be suggesting that by donating to them, you
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: could help out John Fetterman. So it's just a really
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: cluttered space. It's hard for us to figure out what
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: some of these entities are. I'm sure it's really hard
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: for donors. And of course, you're going to check out
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: if you're getting just annoyed all the time.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: By the party you're supposed to support.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: And I know we point you all to Vote Save
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: America all the time. But I'm telling you, for me
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: as a donor, I only go to Vote Save America
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: because it's like, there's so many answers, so many things.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: And I actually just like really trust our team to
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: have thought through, like, these are the secretary of state
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: races where you can help. These are the attorney general's races.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: These are the congressional races.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: And we put a lot of thought into it just
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: because of this problem. Yeah. All right. Here's one for
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: our world. Oh, bro.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: Here.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Amanda on YouTube wants to know, you always talk about
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: how the right in the USA affects other countries. Do
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: you think other countries politics affects in any way how
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: politics happens in the USA? Probably. Yes.
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: I mean, look, the new conservative government in the United Kingdom,
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: put forward a tax plan that was so terrible that
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: it nearly tanked the global economy. I think that impacted
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: our politics. The Russians invading Ukraine has upended our elections
• 30:35
  Speaker 5: and jacked up the price of gas and sort of
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: upended the whole world. So yeah, I mean, you know,
• 30:39
  Speaker 5: there's these new right-wing governments popping up in Europe. I
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: definitely think they impact our politics. It's just sort of
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: on more of a global macro level.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: And you have like Tucker Carlson and all these goons
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: going over to Hungary.
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, they're doing like CPAC in Hungary. There's a CPAC
• 30:53
  Speaker 5: version in Brazil. Look, I mean, if There's a runoff
• 30:58
  Speaker 5: election right now in Brazil. If Bolsonaro wins, it means
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: that we will likely spend the next, I think, five-year
• 31:04
  Speaker 5: terms down there deforesting the Amazon to the point where
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: maybe it never comes back.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, that would affect us. Yeah. Seems like Vladimir
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Putin's been affecting our politics for quite a few years now.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: For sure.
• 31:15
  Speaker 7: All right.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: On to some lighter fare. Wildman Hanson on Instagram. Favorite
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: foods while you're on the road during events, like PSA
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: live shows.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Here we go.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Culvers and cheese curds in Wisconsin. Juicy Lucy's in the
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: Twin Cities. Deep dish in Chicago.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah. This is the question Lovett did the most research for.
• 31:33
  Speaker 8: Absolutely.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: And I'll say this. I know deep dishes like for tourists. Well,
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: guess what? I'm a tourist and I fucking love it. Pequod's, Genoese's, Malnati's.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: North Carolina barbecue is great, but also love going to
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Bojangles and Austin barbecue. Philly, the pork sandwich at Denix
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: is so good. Lobster rolls in Maine. And whenever I
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: go to Boston, I love to eat in New York.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Unbelievable.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Just a great place. You go to Boston, head right
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: to New York. Incredible food.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to add to this.
• 32:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I just wrote down boring crap because we never
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: eat that cool on the road. The only thing I
• 32:08
  Speaker 5: really wanted you guys to do was get some North
• 32:10
  Speaker 5: Carolina style barbecue.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: And we did.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Hush puppies.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: And it was great.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Should have brought some to DC. That would have been nice.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: MissBecky88 on Instagram. Favorite movies about politics or presidencies?
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: Saw. Saw.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: That's our current political reality.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: You want to do it? I have a list. Any
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: on your mind?
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: I have two.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: What are your two?
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Election and In the Loop.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, In the Loop's on my list. Here's my list.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: All right. The Hal Ashby movie, Being There with Peter
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: Sellers and Shirley MacLaine. When you see Trump and MTG
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: and Herschel Walker, I think of being there all the time.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: Being there is phenomenal. The Candidate with Robert Redford.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Good one.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Which is what happens when you get popular for being
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: honest and suddenly, all of a sudden, it's like, I
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: got a shot at this thing. Maybe I should trim
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: my sails.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: Helps when you look like him.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: Also helps when you look like him. And then there's
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: the 70s paranoid thrillers, All the President's Men, Parallax View,
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: and Three Days of the Condor. Two Pakula movies, one
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: by Sidney Pollack. Phenomenal. If you've never seen, go back.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: If you haven't watched old movies, if you're like, oh,
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: I don't really watch old movies, start with the 70s
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: political thrillers. The 70s, they're so good. They're just so good.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: This is more about the media, but the Billy Wilder movie,
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: Ace in the Hole with Kirk Douglas. It's from 1951.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: And you would never think a movie from 1951 about
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: the media would be as prescient and relevant as it is.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: But you will be shocked to watch this movie. Basically,
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: a guy named Ace falls in a hole. It becomes
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: a media spectacle. This one reporter played by Kirk Douglas
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: thinks it's his key to getting back to the big city.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: And what he does to keep the story alive, it's
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: worth watching. And then I said In the Loop and
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Death of Stalin, the two Iannucci movies that I think
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: are both worth watching.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Death of Stalin is very good, too. Good list. That's
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: my list. Tommy, you got any? I said saw. Oh, yeah,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: you have saw. Great. Sorry.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: He said saw.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
• 33:54
  Speaker 7: No, you're right.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: All right. Acklefin2 on Instagram. What's Charlie's newest thing? My
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: son's newest thing is role playing. So he likes to
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: say that he is someone, whether a character on TV
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: or someone we know. Like Bluey? And like he says,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: I'm Bluey. You're Bluey's dad or you're Bingo. Or he
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: says that he's like a friend and we're the neighbor,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: the friend's parents. So the other day he likes to
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: wear these big headphones and that I have lying on
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: the desk and he puts on the headphones and I
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: think Tommy was just over and he goes, I'm Tommy.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: And I said, who am I? And he goes, you're
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: John Lovett. Cool. Atta boy.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Cool, cool.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Atta boy. Play the hits, Charlie. Spooky Guardian Paulette on Twitter.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: For the only literate one, Tommy, what are you reading?
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: That's harsh. That's mean to you guys. Tough, tough, tough.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: John read the question just fine.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: I want to point that out.
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: I'm currently reading a book called The Great Successor. The
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: Rise and Rule of Kim Jong-un. It's by a reporter
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: named Anna Fifield who covered the administration frauds. It's like
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: I am shocked at how good it is and how
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: much she figured out about Kim Jong-un that I'd never
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: seen reported before.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: So, like, tough guy to cover, you know? Tough beat.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, famously.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: Talk about access journalism.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Shoots you with, like, a ship-mounted fucking cannon if you
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: don't like him.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: Fucked.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Great book.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: Talk about cancel culture.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: I'm still slowly making my way through The Goon Squad
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: by Jennifer Egan after I read The Candy House by
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: Jennifer Egan over the 4th of July when we went
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: on vacation. Six months ago. I went through The Candy
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: House in like three days on vacation and then I've
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: been back to reality and getting very slowly through The
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Goon Squad.
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: I got stuck in a le carre. I was in
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: The Honorable Schoolboy for months and months and months.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: It was quite long.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: I'm always reading one nonfiction and one fiction very slowly.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: The nonfiction book I'm reading is called Rise and Kill First.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: Great book.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: It's fascinating about the Mossad and targeted assassinations in the
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: early days of the founding of Israel. In the later days.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: In the later days. I'm not up to the later days.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: I'm still in the early days. And then I'm reading
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. I
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: love Kim Stanley Robinson. I just read a book by him.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: I think it's called Aurora. And I read Project Hail
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: Mary a while ago, and it got me on a
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: science fiction kick. So I'm reading this. It's about climate change,
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: and it's been really interesting so far.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Cool. All right. Last question from someone on Twitter. What
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: are the top two most important things Americans should be
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: doing in the remaining days before Election Day? I'm going
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: to say donate and knock doors. Go to Vote Save
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: America and go to Vote Save America.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Here's the thing. We know how many people sign up.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: A lot of people sign up, but a lot of
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: you haven't. And so if you really just, if you're
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: just sort of like just inhaling the news for years
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: on end, and then in the final month when you
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: can actually make a difference, you put it towards fucking nothing,
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: what a waste of space you are.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, well.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: I just don't understand it. Why are you paying attention
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: if you're not going to do anything?
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: Some words of encouragement. We are noticing a bit of
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: a gap between donations, which are doing well, and the
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: actual volunteering. Yes. And I get that it's much easier
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: sometimes to donate, even if it's, you know, you're only $ 5, $ 10, whatever.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: And it does take time to volunteer. But I'm telling you,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: that is what persuading voters at the end of the day,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: making those phone calls, knocking on doors, doing a phone bank,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: doing a text bank, like it is tough and you
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: get a lot of rejection, but that is the stuff
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: that really wins in the end. And it's really useful.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: And just to be clear before I get measured, there
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: are people out there that don't feel comfortable for very
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: legitimate reasons talking to people. I totally understand that. I'm
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: not talking to you. I'm talking to people that could
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: help And could text bank, could phone bank, could knock
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: on doors that are not doing that. I really would
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: suggest you just try it if you haven't.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Done it before.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: That's all.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 37:46
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 37:46
  Speaker 5: Let's get you on that. Let's keep you on that
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: positive persuasion track. A lot of yelling at the questioners.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: And listeners today.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: Little good cop, bad cop, never hurt anybody.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Good thing the questioner was anonymous there.
• 37:55
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: Jeez. Okay. When we come back, speaking of talking to voters.
• 37:59
  Speaker 7: Oh, yeah.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: Let me show you.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you how it's done. We're going to talk
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: about Lovett and Lovett, North Carolina. Yeah. And we're back.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: Love it. You were just in North Carolina for a
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: couple days. What did you do there? What are you
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: two laughing at?
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: We just worked on this.
• 38:26
  Speaker 7: What?
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: This is leaving this in the show. Leave this in.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I was so weird about this. I said, what did
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: you do there?
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: I canvassed with State Senator Jeff Jackson. He's running for Congress.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: He taught me how to canvass in the South. I
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: talked to a bunch of local leaders and candidates running
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: in some state races. We talked about Sherry Beasley. We
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: talked about who's at the top of the ticket running
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: for U.S. Senate. Her opponent, Ted Budd, is endorsed by Trump,
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: so Democrats there are trying hard to turn out the votes.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: I met some college students from a local Christian college
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: who are registering young people and talking to them about
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: reproductive rights, and we recorded the whole damn thing.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: See, that wasn't so hard. I didn't think it was.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: Ted Budd.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Ted Budd. I talked to Alma Adams, who has a
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: hat collection, a member of Congress.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: That's just a lot of hats. I don't want to
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: spoil it.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: She had a lot of hats.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: I don't want to spoil what you're about to hear,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: but she has a lot of hats.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: Anyway, she had a lot of Budd sayings that were
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: pretty entertaining.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Cool. All right. Without further ado, take a listen. Recording, recording.
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're in. Are we in Charlotte? I guess we've started.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: Why not?
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. I'm here with State Senator Josh,
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: State Senator Jeff Jackson. It happened one time. I said
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: Josh Jackson. It's the first time all day that I
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: said Josh Jackson. Well, you know, you could have been
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: on Dawson's Creek. I am here with Jeff Jackson. He
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: is running in a swing district here in Charlotte. What
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: has been motivating people as we head into the homestretch?
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: So I knocked a thousand doors personally over the summer.
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: There was a pre-DOBS door knock and a post-DOBS. It
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: just sort of coincidentally fell right at about the halfway mark.
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: and everything shifted. Not just how often abortion was named
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: as an issue, but just people's anxiety levels.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: Everything spiked.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: It feels like in a new way that not since
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: the Trump era, people were again reminded of how real
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: the stakes are.
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: It's pretty rare that Republicans actually get a big piece
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: of their agenda done because they don't really have so
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: much of an agenda. So this was a rare moment
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: in which the court just executed on a big piece
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: of their longstanding legislative agenda. As it turns out, it's
• 40:17
  Speaker 4: enormously unpopular, and the political backlash is incredibly broad.
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: Hi, I'm John. What's your name? Will Nisbet. So we
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: just canvassed on your door, and you're planning to vote?
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: I am, yes. What do you think of his style
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: of knocking on doors? He kind of doesn't do a
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: hard ask. He just says, do you need anything? Does
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: that work for you? I'm a little biased here.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: I was already going to vote for Jeff, but I
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: would say I long enjoyed his style. Okay.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: And do you, and do you think that there's anything
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: wrong with say a more aggressive, like, Hey, are you voting?
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: Are you planning to vote? Can we get your vote?
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: Where's your, where's your vote? Do we have your vote?
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: Do you think that that is effective?
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't say so.
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: The strategy is politeness, but it's also just who I
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: am as a human being. So I think the difference
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: here might be one of personality, which I fully respect,
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: but I think I got to be what I got
• 41:03
  Speaker 4: to be.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: He's telling me that I got to bring more of
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: a Southern energy. So I guess supposed to be polite
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: and passive aggressive. We're happy to have you as a guest.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: We have certain expectations. I'm doing people, look, by comparison,
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: think how good you look when we walk up to
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: these doors. Do you think I'm not helping? Deep down,
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: do you think I'm not helping? Do you wish I
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: weren't here? When I do try to, as I say,
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: close the deal, people do give me a look like, oh,
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: that's aggressive.
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, like that was maybe unnecessary. I think 100% of
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: people have done that. But so far, you've decided not
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: to take the queue?
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: I'm not taking the queue. I'm not taking the queue.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: We came here to close and get some votes, all right?
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: Not here to make friends. We're here to get votes.
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: I'm here to make friends, just for the record.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: Jeff Jackson here to make friends. He's here to make friends.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: What do you think people listening that aren't from North
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: Carolina should know about the political shift that's happening in
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: North Carolina right now?
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: We have a lot of people moving to North Carolina
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: every single year. So we're getting... We have a higher
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: percentage of college graduates every single year. This district I'm
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: running in right now, I would have been toast here
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: 10 years ago. It would have been a jump ball
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: as of about five years ago, and it leans our
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: way now. That's because of the growth that we've seen.
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: People are sweeping on North Carolina because of some Senate
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: races in the past. Y'all, this is going to be
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: one of the key swing states over the next decade.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: Hi, everybody. I'm here with Congresswoman Alma Adams. Now, look,
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: we're going to talk about politics, but it's come to
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: my attention recently I believe you have a collection, and
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: I found this out unbelievable, that you have 50 hats.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: Is that right?
• 42:30
  Speaker 6: Got 1,400.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: Wait, that's... 1,400 hats! So you wear one a day,
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: and then every couple of years you get back to
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: the beginning? If you get a new hat, do you
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: get rid of one? Are they sorted by color? If
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: someone gives you a hat as a gift, do you
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: have to pretend to be excited? Here's the thing. Here's
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: the thing. Listen, I'm in the market for an absolutely
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: ridiculous church hat. I want to turn every head. Oh,
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: look at that thing. Oh, that's great. That's nice. That
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: lets people know that you're not messing around. I've been
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: focusing too much on the hats and I can see
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: that now. Can you talk a little bit about what
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: you're seeing on the ground in this in this Senate race?
• 43:10
  Speaker 6: Well, it's become a very nasty race, unfortunately. Ted Budd
• 43:16
  Speaker 6: is slinging mud, and we didn't expect much more. But
• 43:20
  Speaker 6: I think they're just afraid because Sherry Beasley is on
• 43:24
  Speaker 6: his tail, and I believe she can win this race.
• 43:26
  Speaker 6: But when people ask me, well, you think Sherry can win,
• 43:29
  Speaker 6: I said, listen, it's up to us. And it's not
• 43:33
  Speaker 6: just about you going to vote. If you tell me, well,
• 43:37
  Speaker 6: I did my part because I voted, you haven't done
• 43:39
  Speaker 6: your part. You do your part when you talk to
• 43:43
  Speaker 6: your family and people you don't know about why it's
• 43:46
  Speaker 6: important to make sure that Sherry Beasley is the one
• 43:49
  Speaker 6: that represents North Carolina. Because this bud's not for you.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: We're going to just nip him in the bud.
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: We're going to nip him in the bud. Bud slinging mud.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: I caught that one, too. I caught that rhyme earlier.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: We brushed by it, but it landed. A lot of
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: the national attention has been on the Pennsylvania race between
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: Fetterman and some out-of-state doctor. Arizona, North Carolina hasn't gotten
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: the same level of attention. What has shifted that makes
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: you think that we have a real chance?
• 44:19
  Speaker 6: People are not only excited about getting the first black
• 44:24
  Speaker 6: woman from North Carolina in the U.S. Senate, but we
• 44:28
  Speaker 6: need the Senate to make sure that we're able to
• 44:31
  Speaker 6: secure for the people what the people need.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: How much of an impact have you felt on the
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: ground around the Dobbs decision? How much has that motivated people,
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: made people understand the stakes?
• 44:43
  Speaker 6: Well, it motivated me enough to get arrested, right? You know,
• 44:47
  Speaker 6: I'll get arrested again. I do think my granddaughter should
• 44:52
  Speaker 6: not have fewer rights than her mother had. And so
• 44:57
  Speaker 6: that issue in and of itself is really pushing people
• 45:01
  Speaker 6: to get out.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: Congresswoman Alma Adams, thank you so much for your time.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: It's so good to talk to you. I'm here with
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: Rachel Hunt. Rachel, you mind telling people about your race?
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: So I am currently a representative in North Carolina House,
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: and I'm running for the North Carolina Senate in one
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: of the toughest districts in Mecklenburg County and in all
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: of North Carolina. So, you know, it's going to be
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: a tough race.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: We're excited.
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: So one of the things that we see across the
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: country is there's this sense that it's a really tough
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: year for Democrats generally, but then there is this engagement
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: around Dobbs that maybe isn't necessarily manifesting in all the polls,
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: but that you might see if you're talking to people
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: face to face. Are you seeing that?
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: Yes, I am seeing that. But, you know, we all
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: know it comes down to turnout. And if we can
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: get younger people and people who don't normally vote out
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: to vote because of the DOPS decision, then it's going
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: to be great.
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: Jeff Jackson, that's a smooth guy.
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: He's smooth.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: Sure is.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: We went door knocking with him and he didn't ask
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: anybody for a vote. He just says, can I help you?
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't ask for votes either.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: What is going on down here?
• 46:04
  Speaker 8: I'm volunteering with Rachel Hunt, my favorite, most favorite candidate ever.
• 46:08
  Speaker 8: And my name is Mary Clance. Young women, women of
• 46:12
  Speaker 8: my age, fathers, men, talking and bringing up abortions. And
• 46:18
  Speaker 8: I knocked on the door and a guy opened the door.
• 46:20
  Speaker 8: And I said, what's your hot issue? Abortion. I have
• 46:24
  Speaker 8: three daughters and I do not want them to have
• 46:29
  Speaker 8: to endure some of the things we hear about. I
• 46:33
  Speaker 8: was amazed. And the second one was gun safety. So
• 46:37
  Speaker 8: it was really revealing to me.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: Hi, what is your name? And can you tell us
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: a little bit about this town that we're in and
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: what you're doing here to organize in this rural part
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: of North Carolina?
• 46:48
  Speaker 9: My name is Carolyn Berringer, and we're talking about the
• 46:51
  Speaker 9: school systems. We're talking about the hungry.
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: We're talking about people that don't have any housing.
• 46:57
  Speaker 9: The town is, you know, it's a great town, a
• 47:00
  Speaker 9: hometown when you talk about hometowns.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: And are you hopeful about Sherri Beasley winning in North Carolina?
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: What do you think? I am very, very hopeful. Very
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: hopeful for her. You're going to get this done?
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: Yes. All right.
• 47:12
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 47:14
  Speaker 7: Okay.
• 47:14
  Speaker 9: We're going to do it.
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: We're going to do it.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: Yes. All right.
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: I am here in, what's this county called? Oh, it's
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: Cleveland County.
• 47:19
  Speaker 8: Cleveland County, yeah.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: We have the leaders of the college Dems from Gardner-Webb College. Hi,
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: what's your name?
• 47:24
  Speaker 7: My name's Emily. I'm the president.
• 47:26
  Speaker 6: I'm Mikayla.
• 47:27
  Speaker 9: I am the communications director.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: I'm Justin. I'm just on the team. You're not just
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: on the team. You're the heart and soul of the team.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: Take a compliment. Do you struggle to take compliments, Justin?
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: Apparently.
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: I do, too.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: They rake it.
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: You're like, oh, no, no, no. But you got to
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: take the compliment.
• 47:41
  Speaker 7: All right.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: Let's focus on the issues here. We have this huge
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: Senate race, a lot at stake. You talk about some
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: of the some some what's been happening on campus.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 47:47
  Speaker 7: So we actually just had a voter registration drive and
• 47:51
  Speaker 7: we actually co-hosted with the nonpartisan organization. You can vote
• 47:55
  Speaker 7: because a big part of our movement on campus is
• 47:58
  Speaker 7: just getting people out there to vote, getting the youth involved.
• 48:01
  Speaker 7: to stand up and take civil responsibility and go out
• 48:04
  Speaker 7: there and vote.
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: Michaela, how big of a deal, how much has it
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: changed in terms of just how much people are focused
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: on politics when the Dobbs decision came down?
• 48:15
  Speaker 9: I think abortion was always like a hard topic for people,
• 48:19
  Speaker 9: but to have the option of like the Supreme Court saying, well,
• 48:22
  Speaker 9: it's a state rights issue, really like put a fire under.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: A lot of people. Is Gardner-Webb a religious school?
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: It is a.
• 48:29
  Speaker 9: Baptist Christian school, so stuff like that is a little
• 48:32
  Speaker 9: hard to talk about. But at the same time, if
• 48:35
  Speaker 9: you frame it as freedom, that's what it is. It's
• 48:39
  Speaker 9: a freedom to choose what you do when you go
• 48:41
  Speaker 9: to your doctor's office. Most people are going to look
• 48:44
  Speaker 9: at that as it's a freedom that I'm losing.
• 48:46
  Speaker 7: It's scary.
• 48:47
  Speaker 9: Especially, we live in the South. So North Carolina right
• 48:50
  Speaker 9: now is about the only state that doesn't have regulations
• 48:53
  Speaker 9: on it. If you go 25 minutes down the road,
• 48:57
  Speaker 9: but eight minutes, you hit South Carolina border.
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: It's real. Are you going to turn people out to
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: elect Cherry Beasley? Are you going to get it done?
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: We're going to get it done. We're going to get
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: it done. We're going to get it done. Hell yeah.
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: We just finished a lovely day of canvassing with Jeff Jackson.
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: He's running for Congress. And I learned a lot from
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: canvassing with you, to be honest. You know, if you're
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: listening to this and you haven't gone canvassing before, you've
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: been afraid to knock on doors. People are so nice.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: And face-to-face canvassing is the most effective way to persuade somebody,
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: change somebody's mind, get somebody who wasn't going to vote
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: to vote. So go to votesaveamerica.com and sign up. We're
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: in the home stretch. Believe it or not, you may
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: have been paying attention for the last year, but a
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: lot of people are just starting to pay attention right now.
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: And you can be on their doorstep helping them figure
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: out what they need to do to vote and to
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: make sure they know the stakes in the election by them.
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: So sign up.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: Thanks to John Lovett for giving us that live report
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: from North Carolina today.
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: I was in the field.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: In the field. Field report, whatever.
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sure.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: And we'll talk to you all on Thursday. Bye, guys.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: producer is Michael Martinez. Our senior producer is Andy Gardner-Bernstein.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: Our producers are Haley Muse and Olivia Martinez. It's mixed
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: sound engineered the show. Thanks to Hallie Kiefer, Ari Schwartz,
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: Sandy Gerard, Andy Taft, and Justine Howe for production support.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, Milo Kim,
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: and Amelia Montuth. Our episodes are uploaded as videos at youtube.com
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: slash podsaveamerica.