Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: DeSantis vs. Florida Republican Legislators

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Normally Podcast: DeSantis vs. Florida Republican Legislators · Normally

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, he's friends. Normally it's Kendryman. Here. We are
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: back on normally the show with normalist takes for when
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the news gets weird. I am Mary, Kathy.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Ham, I am Carol Marcowitz him Mary Catherine, how are you?
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I'm good. It's busy out there, Carol.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: It really is where recording this as RFK Junior is
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: testifying and I don't know. I don't know where his
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: nomination ends up. What do you think?
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I think the funny thing about the folks who seem
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: on the knife edge, like a Tulsa Gabbard or an RFK,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: is that there is still the possibility that they pull
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: a Democratic vote or two.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: It's true.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that changes the math because we have this
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: weird coalition that is, you know, the RFK Maha moms
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: are sort of a horseshoe of establishment, skeptical public health,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: skeptical right and left leaning crunchy mom. This is why
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the governor of Colorado has been so defensive of RFK,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: because he knows that the capital of crunchy moms yeap hippies.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: OK So it's funny because I don't love RFK. I
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: am suspicious of him. He's a big lib. I'm a conservative.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: I just you know, a Kennedy in our home.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I'm suspicious of all Kennedys for all time.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So I don't know. But there's no doubt that
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Trump ran with RFK as his you know, health guy,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: and he recruited Mohammam's and he got a lot of
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: new people into the coalition. I know some of these voters,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: I've met them where they've never voted Republican before, but
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: RFK brought them over. So there's no doubt this was
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: what Trump ran on. And so I don't know. Again,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure what I like. I like to think
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: what I would do if I was a Republican senator.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: I think I voted yes on this one, even though
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: I'm not a fan.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: I think I would hear him out, skeptically, ask hard questions,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: which is what's happening now. We can do an update
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: on it later and TBD. I don't because there are
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: there are things that he will have to answer about
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: that are quite controversial. Yeah, and whether he's going to
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: hue to his takes of the past and what that
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: looks like for the agency, particularly on life issues, that's
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: something that matters to a lot of light leaning senators,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: so we shall see how he answers. Performing well in
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: these settings can change the game.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: It really can. And you're wise because I just said
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: I would vote for him, but yeah, he might say
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: something crazy like as we're on this show, true have
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: to be like, no, no, forget it, I don't vote
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: for him. Yeah, so from what I've heard so far,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: I would, but I don't know. Yeah, you're right, smart.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: So the question is how much how much difference does
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Trump deserve? And in this case, like he was very
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: explicit about this guy specifically.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Extremely Yeah, you could say, you know, again, I've been
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: a big defender of Pete Hegseth, But you could say
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: you didn't see Pete Hegseth coming. I could agree with that,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: but you had to have seen RFK coming, and you've
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: had dev seen Chelsea coming. They were on stage with
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: him all the time.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: One last point, Yeah, I do have a rule about
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Kennedy's which is that I am skeptical of all of
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: them deeply. However, Kennedy family in particular. If you are
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: for the first time ever objecting to a Kennedy's behavior
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: now and you've never objected to a Kennedy's behavior ever before. Yeah,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: there are other people's critiques I'm going to be listening to,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: not yours.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: I hear that very much. So we have this whole
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: situation going on down in Florida, and I don't think
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: that it's been explained very well. National media is not
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: really covering it. I've tried to read a bunch of
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: stories on it. They're mostly Florida local press, which is
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: good because there's a lot of detail in those stories
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: that I think national media might miss. But what's happening
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: is I think a lot of people hearing the story.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: So I want to talk about what is going on
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: in Florida as I think it's going to be a
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: bigger deal. And you know, I think Florida is a
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: kind of a model red state right now, and what
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: goes on here I feel I could easily spread to
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: other states.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: So yes, I'm on the edge of my seat because
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I'm like, what's happening, carol'dise.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: I know, I have notes, I have names, I have details.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: We're going to do this, Okay, So here's the story.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Trump wins and DeSantis goes into full on Ron DeSantis mode.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: You know, I say he's the Vanilla Ice. If you've
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: got a problem, yo, he'll solve it. He's like, got it,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: he won you know, immigration's important. Let's go. He calls
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: a special session of the Florida legislature because he wants
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: to enact a proposal to fight illegal immigration even more
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: than where already doing in Florida. The legislators bucket this,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: which is surprising because they're majority Republicans, so you think
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: they'd be like, Trump wants this, rond de Santis wants this,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: let's go. Well, and they also they've all ran on
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: some version of I want to fight illegal immigration, because
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: that's what Republicans, you know, have run on in the
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: last few years. So they don't want to come back
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: into the special session.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: They say no.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: At this point, Trump weighs in and he says he
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: loves what Ron de Santis is doing, and he hopes
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: other governors follow. Now they've got no choice but to
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: come back. So they come in for a special session,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: but not on the date Ron de Santis wanted. They
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: come in a day before he wanted, so they showed him.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: DeSantis releases what he wants in this bill, and the
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Florida Republicans are like, no, this is this doesn't work
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: for us. They water down his bill. And here's the
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: crucial part. To me, this is really the main crux
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: of the bill, because when you read their bill, you're like,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: this isn't bad. But the worst part of their bill
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: is that they move enforcement from the Governor's office to
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: the Agriculture Commissioner, which makes no sense. Particular Commissioner Wilton
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Simpson has previously pushed for things like in state tuition
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: for illegal immigrants or driver's license for illegal immigrants, which
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: is not even popular among Democrats down here, and it
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: is just generally considered soft on immigration. So what's going on.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: DeSantis has had to veto previous bills pushed by Simpson
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: because they were pro big sugar industry, and DeSantis again
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: has been tough the whole time. This new bill that
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: the legislature passed prevents any action on illegal immigrants that
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: doesn't go through the Agriculture Commissioner's office, which again has
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: shown a propensity for illegal immigrants or supporting interests that
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: rely on cheap labor. So if any county in Florida
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: comes upon, say, a house full of illegal immigrants, which
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: just happened two days ago in Pine Crest, a city
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: south of Miami. They discovered a home of Chinese nationals,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: and two different police departments acted on it. They would
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: now have to go through the Agriculture Department Commissioner's office
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: to get ICE to go do anything about it. Of course,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: those people could be long gone. But beyond that, their
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: version of the bill doesn't make law. Local officials follow
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: state law about legal immigrants. You can now have sanctuary
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: cities or towns where you largely could not before. The
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: governor's plan requires participation from counties and municipalities. Now the
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Agriculture Commissioner's office could also just stop cooperating with ICE.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: What if the next Agriculture commissioner is a Democrat? You
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: just can't possibly know. In fact, the last one was
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: really the last Democrat standing in the state. Nikki Freed,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: all right. So it's just a startling amount of power
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: for an office that's soft on illegal immigration. And you
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: and I were on the show Politics, Politics, Politics, Justin
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Robert Young is the host. He's a originally from Florida,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: and he saw me tweeting about this. He's a very
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: honest broker. He saw me tweeting about this, and he said, ah,
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: the old Florida lesson big sugar gets what it wants. Now,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: I'm not ascribing bad motives to anyone, but yeah.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, those influences matter. Well, my question is, like,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: isn't this obviously a law enforcement issue not an agriculture issue?
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: You would think, right. So The Tampa Bay Times, a
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: liberal newspaper, summed up some of the previous battles that
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: the Agricultuurre Commissioner and Santa's have had, saying DeSantis veto
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: the Simpsons supported bill that would have changed the state's
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: policies for Everglad's restoration. Critics derided the bill as a
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: giveaway to Florida's powerful sugar industry. Now, how are they
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: getting away with this? How are Florida Republicans pushing a
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: soft on illegal immigration bill?
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: And twenty five not.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Even a few weeks after Donald Trump takes office. They've
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: promoted this lie that this is just a power struggle.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: They just don't want Ron DeSantis to have more power.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: And what they really want to do is punish him
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: for running against Donald Trump, because how dare he all
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: of that's a lie? Trump himself is for what DeSantis
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: is doing. He pushed a strong bill. Why would a
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: random legislator be displeased. Also, DeSantis remains massively popular in
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: the state and is in pole position to be a
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: king maker for many years to come. Make it make
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: sense that they would want a power struggle with this guy.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: So he is not per reelection, why would they need
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: to bring him down a notch? It makes no sense.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: And already he has a list of accomplishments a mile
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: long over his last You know, it'll be eight years
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: when he's done here. This one blip is not going
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: to be like, oh, well, he didn't get the Republican
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: legislators to do what he wanted. He now and now
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: he can't be in higher office or a lobbyist or
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: whatever position he wants. Is that these legislators are trying
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: to cover up this weak bill by pretending like, oh no,
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: this is just a power move. And they actually called
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: this bill the Trump Act because they want to cover
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: up that it's weak on illegal immigration. It's not a
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: serious bill. Jesse Kelly talks about this kind of stuff
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: all the time, how Republicans in red states quietly move
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: their state leftward. Texas didn't have school choice, for example.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: So it's important to remember the Republicans were not always
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: against illegal immigration. That's really only something that's happened in
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: the last few years, and a lot of industries are
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: trying to push them back to where they were. That's
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: what's happening down in Florida.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Well, I am a former immigration moderate that they turned
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: into a hawk, and I bet Florida is populated with
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: the same. Yeah, And I imagine yes, if the truth
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: gets out about this, that people will be hearing from
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: their constituents. Right.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: So I've heard from a lot of normy people, just
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: you know, friends, neighbors, that kind of thing, who are like,
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: what is going on? And they're very worried because, you know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: we only have DeSantis for two more years and this
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: is what the future looks like. That's kind of scary
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: that these people are being so dishonest about it, even
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: if you take them at their word, like, oh, we
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: just don't like Ron DeSantis and we want to punish him,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Like are you serious with this? He's extremely popular, He.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Went by a land dogs doing that.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: The people love him anyway, so what are you doing?
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: So that's that's the situation here. I think that if
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: this bill did pass, now DeSantis has to decide whether
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: or not to veto it. But I think if this
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: bill doesn't get kind of pushback, maybe even nationally, it
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: will spread. Because bad ideas spread, weak Republicans spread. All
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: of this is very easy to bring to other states.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Desanta's has always been good at really messaging forcefully about
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: things he does not like, so I imagine we will hear
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: much more about this.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I look, you know, I love his press team,
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: I love his office, but I'll tell you, like, just
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: straight up, zero people have contacted me about this bill
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: from his office. So as good as they are, like,
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: they can't be everywhere and they can't talk to everyone.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: And well, if you get if you get behind the
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: ball on these things very easy, I go behind the ball. Quote,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: don't say gay right, if you don't push back on
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: that immediately, and the characterization of it, people don't have.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Normal people don't have a lot of time in their
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: lives to be parsing this, which is why we do it,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: and they can lose track of what has actually happened.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: You really, you nailed the problem here. So again, while
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: his press team is amazing, and you know, I think
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: that they do great work. The fact that this hasn't
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: been a national story and the fact that the details
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: aren't laid out somewhere for people to just easily access
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: is concerning to me.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: All Right, well, thank you for the explainer, Carol.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Mary Catherine, thank you for listening to me.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, as a person who lives in a purplish state
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: within the extremely successful and popular, unfortunately term limited Republican governor,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: it's hard to keep track of the sometimes dastardly deeds.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: It really is, even when you have someone at the
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: top who is keeping watch over it. And we'll see
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: what happens in Virginia in the future as well, though
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: we do have a solid Republican candidate running to be
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: the governor again and win some series amazing.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back on normally.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Second story for today, the briefing room is a whole
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: new vibe at the White House. Carolyn Levitt, who's the
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: twenty seven year old Press secretary, took to the podium
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: for the first time yesterday to a very crowded press
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: briefing room. Here's a little bit of her opening, just
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: to get a flavor of how she's going to be
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: heard to the KJP of.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: The past speaking on behalf of the president of the
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: United States.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: That is my job, and.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: I will say it's very easy to speak truth from
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: this podium when you have a president who is implementing
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: policies that are wildly popular with the American people. And
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: that's exactly what this administration is doing. It's correcting the
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: lies and the wrongs of the past four years, many
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: of the lies that have been told to your faces
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: in this very briefing room. I will not do that.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: But since you brought up truth seek I would like
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: to point out, while I vow to provide the truth
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: from this podium, we ask that all of you in
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: this room hold yourselves to that same standard. We know
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: for a fact there have been lies that have been
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: this president, about his family, and we will.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: Not accept that.
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: We will call you out when we feel that your
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: reporting is wrong or there is misinformation about this White House.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: So yes, I will hold myself to the truth, and
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: I expect everyone.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: In this room to do the same. There you have it, folks. Look,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: she's very good, just on a skills level, taught answers, forceful,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: has facts at her disposal. She said in an interview
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: before she started this job that her binder's in her head.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: YEP, I was gonna say, Noder, where's the binder?
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Her binders in her head. We've come a long way
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: since Mitt Romney's binders full of women and the ridiculous
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: smear by the press corps over that to the binders
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: in my brain. So here we are, and I appreciate
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: what she's saying. Here the very crowded press room, some
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: of them were not did not seem to be enjoying themselves.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: For this reason, there are a lot of new folks
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: in the briefing room. And Levitt offered just a sample
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: of what the new policy is going to be moving forward.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: I think we have a little bit of that clip too.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: This White House believes strongly in the First Amendment. So
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: it's why our team will work diligent to restore the
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: press passes of the four hundred and forty journalists whose
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: passes were wrongly revoked by.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: The previous administration.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: We're also opening up this briefing room to new media
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: voices who produced news related content and whose outlet is
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: not already represented by one of the seats in this room.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: We welcome independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, and content
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: creators to apply for credentials to cover this White House.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I had no idea that four hundred
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: and forty journalists were cut from the White House briefing room.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: You'd think there might have been an uproar about that
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: had it come the other way.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Right, Imagine Jim Acosta would like read a poem, which.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Is Mary Margaret Olhan who she's Daily Wire. She was
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: in the briefing room. She snapped a picture of people
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: kind of jostling and trying to find their seats. There
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: is a seat reserved now for a new media person,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: which would new media is kind of like a passe
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: term at this point because it is media, which is
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: the point of this rearrangement. At any rate, there will
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: be a seat for one of these non traditional sources
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: in the room in the front, I believe. And there's
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: a great shot of like all the traditional outlet reporters
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: sort of trying to find their seats and looking around
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: disdainfully at people who are occupying seats who did not before.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: And April Ryan's right in the middle just like annoyed
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: that this change has come upon them. But the fact is,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: I love that she said we'll call you out right.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: She didn't say we'll shut you up if you're lying
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: about it. She said we will counter that speech in
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: this room. I love that they're inviting more voices in.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: And for those in the traditional media who are annoyed
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: by this, I would just say that the non traditional
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: outlets were three to five years ahead of you guys
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: on most of the ajor storylines of the past four
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: or five years. COVID school closings, the lab leak theory,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Biden's dementia, just to mention a few, right, so perhaps
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: they belong there.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Chris Kaliza had a whole thread the other day
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: about how how he got the lab leak theory wrong
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: and why he trusted Fauci over Donald Trump. And it's
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: like it's too late for this, like you should have
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: figured this out years ago, and you know, it's just
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: it's sad to watch. But look these new media outlets again,
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: You're right, the new media name, I mean Daily Wire
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: is not new anymore. They've been around for a long
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: long time. They get a lot more eyeballs and listeners
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: than the traditional media outlets in a lot of cases.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: So why shouldn't the White House try to talk to
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: as many people as they can in as many different
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: avenues as they can. Why should they limit themselves to
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: only a few outlets? And I would say this is
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: an issue for any future Democrat president. Also, why would
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: you want to limit yourself to CNN and MSNBC and
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: watching posts like you already have their vote? Why not
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: try for others.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: It is interesting because it does seem to have thrown
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: off the mainstream media. I've been watching like Stephen Miller
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: argue with anchors about immigration, and they're using all the
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: same arguments that they used for years, like which essentially
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: at this point amounts to life, but who will pick
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: our crops? It's a very strangely racist argument. Yeah, there was.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: There was literally a woman on CNN, a Democratic strategist
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: yesterday saying to Scott Jennings, I can't wait until women
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: can't get liberries for the Smith's And I was like, girl,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: this is not this is not the argument, so like
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: the enlightened liberal argument that you think it is, And
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: yet she made it, And I think they're just running
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: into no pun intended a wall right in making the
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: old arguments, and they don't stick. And people like Advance
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: are not backing off when they present these arguments to them.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: They're actually making a proactive argument that protecting people from
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: illegal immigration is actually important, more important even than your smoothie.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Yes. And Stephen Miller, when in talking to Jake Tapper,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: said he was that the president supported a guest worker program.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: So if you want to know who's going to pick
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: the blueberries, the guest workers that are vetted and invited
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: in and given protections, they're going to.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Pick the blueberries.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: So don't worry your blueberries will make it into that smoothie.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Well, and that's the arc, by the way, of the
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: moderate on immigration to a hawk on immigration is somebody
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: who used to go, like, yeah, guest worker programs in
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: a formalized, real sense is probably something we need and
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: is beneficial, and it's a capitalist exchange where everyone's getting
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: something out of it. Then you do the last four
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: years where you add tens of millions of people without vetting. Yeah,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: and as Steven Miller points out, they are not largely
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: agricultural workers in America's cities, and you go, na, I
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: got to put my foot down on this.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: That's right. When I was at the border in March,
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: I met farmers who cannot attract anybody for their farms
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: from the not that they want illegal immigrants working for them,
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: because they really don't. They want a legal process, but
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: they're saying nobody's coming to their farms to be like,
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: can I pick your blueberries? It's not really blueberries down there.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: But the point is that all of this batch of
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: the last four years are moving towards cities where they're
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: getting services for free and cash cards and free hotel
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: stays and all of that, and they're not interested in
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: being in the fields and that's not at all what
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: they're coming for anymore. So that argument just also just
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: doesn't work anymore. And with guest worker programs, we can
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: attract the people that we do actually need, and if
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: we need to fill certain roles, people in other countries
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: could come and fill them. And it's also it's different
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: from the HB one program, which is a longer program.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: This could be seasonal. So you know, there's a lot
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: of answers here, and I think the Trump administration is
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: actually providing those answers, and it's baffling the news media.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: No, that is actually part of it is so different
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: from what was happening for four years. Tom Holman's walking
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: around in the streets just like, yeah, throw anything at me.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: And I truly think, no matter what you think of
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump and his policies, if you are a person
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: of the left, particularly a person in the press, you
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: must acknowledge that having a sentient executive and a bunch
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: of people who talk to the public and the press
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: incessantly is an obvious upbraide, like just on its face. Ye.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: And I do think it's kind of throwing people a
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: little yeah.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: And I don't think that the people who are like, oh,
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: you know, when Trump is president, I have to like
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: focus on politics. Now you don't have to. It's just yeah,
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: you get to hear about a lot more inner workings
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: of the White House. Now, say thank you.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Transparency good, accessibility good.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: We're going to take a short break and come right
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: back with normally.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: I have one last story. Have you heard about the
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: email sent around offering federal workers a BUYO fork in
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: the road? Yeah, fork in the road. It is actually
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: seems as if it was modeled on the Twitter offer
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: of a similar type, and it says basically like, hey, look,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: we've asked that you come back to the office. We've
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: asked that you focus on these levels of performance. If
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: you are committed to those things and you want to
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: stick around, great, If you don't, please email us with
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: resign in the subject head, and then you get eight
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: months of severance and you can be on your way
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: right now. As a friend of mine's other day, shock
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: and awe in these realms can come with some unintended
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: content sequences like that's just part of this. If you're
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: going to Javier Malay the thing and make sweeping changes,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: things can happen. However, I think this is like a
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: very fair way to deal with federal workers. I'm I
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: don't know how the public relations of this go right,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: but I think that a lot of people, normal people,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: are going to learn that federal workers haven't been at
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: their jobs for five years, and they're going to learn
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: that they're offered eight months severance severance which I've never
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: received in my life. They're going to learn that they
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: have civil service protections that are greater than anything a
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: private sector worker has, and they might wonder like, huh,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: why do they get that? Right, And I don't get that.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: And if they quit and the government's able to fully
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: function without them, why did we need them in the
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: first place.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: And if they quit, we're interested in quitting just by definition, right,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: I think this point, Josh Barrow says, And look, I
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: think there's some truth into this. There's a possibility of
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: colonel truth in this, he says. I think it might
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: be a big political mistake if they're going to accept
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: all the resignations tendered. Who knows what agencies will end
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: up with, what staffing, what will passport weight times, IRS,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: phone hold times, NPS facility available b in a few months.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: But here's what these critiques always miss. You have to
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: evaluate where we currently stand. And these agencies have been
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: running on a COVID schedule since twenty twenty. Yeah, passport
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: wait times aren't good.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's all going to be news to people.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: I think, No, Yeah, I'm not sure that you're gonna
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: get a fall off in these ways because we've been
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: at a very low bar for a very low for
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: a very long time, and is why people's trust in
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the federal government is extremely low.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: And you know, they all made the same arguments about Twitter,
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: like Twitter is going to collapse in a few days
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: because all the engineers left, and then it just kept
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: running and everything was fine. But this was a common
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: thread in the early days of Elon owning Twitter, where
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: he fired all these people who he said were unnecessary,
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: the British people. Actually, you know what they call it
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: layoffs made redundant, And that's really what he did. He
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: made them redundant, and nothing bad happened. Really, Twitter actually
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: has only thrived since then. It's thrown and even with
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: all the people leaving for Blue Sky, somehow it still
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: continues to attract all the top opinion makers.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Well. Yeah, and as yet another example of the entitlement
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: of federal workers that people will be learning about through
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: this process, a lawsuit has been brought by two federal
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: employees alleging that the Trump administration shouldn't be able to
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: email all of them.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah those are gen z, aren't they?
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: So you allege that your boss should not be able
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: to send a system wide email. That's a federal lawsuit
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: that has been brought a lawsuit because they claim that
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: they need a privacy assessment done before their boss can
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: email them.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Right. And you know, it's also funny because the left
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: is left is left to argue that this eight month
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: severance is a waste of government money. Yeah, they're like,
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: this isn't cutting down and spending. You have to pay
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: these people for eight months? Like, how is this good? Well,
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: I mean they've done the calculations right, they can figure
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: out that you pay them for eight months and not
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: the next twenty five years. It sort of works.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: Out, yes, exactly, as they're upping their pensions while they're there,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: And there are plenty of people who actually do good work,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: and those people are being offered the ability to stay right.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: So I think this is actually kind of a very
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: clever way they're doing this thus far. Ye, And I
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: think that in the PR battle, which there will be one,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: many people will learn new things about how the federal
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: government's workforce works or doesn't work, and they will have
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: questions about that, perhaps more than they have questions about
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: the new rules.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to all of that, and I hope
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: that the Trump administration does focus on that because I
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: think a lot of people just don't understand how much
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: waste is in our government and how much we could
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: cut and how much we should cut, and how much
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: all of this is going to be better in the
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: end for all of us.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Well and Carolyn Levitt repeatedly hit and I think it's
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: smart because it's a great way of framing this that
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: they care about the money sent to them by the
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: taxpayers of the US. And if you don't do something
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: about this, you don't care about that money. You're treating
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: that money irresponsibly.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: It's a great way to phrase it. I love it.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us on normally. Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays,
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts with
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: us at normallythepot at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: and when things get weird, act normally