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"Thanksgiving Mailbag!" · Pod Save America

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  Speaker 1: The Supreme Court has had a busy summer loosening gun
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: restrictions in states, overturning Roe v. Wade, and severely threatening
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: our Miranda rights. I'm Leah Lippman, and each week on
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Strict Scrutiny, I'm joined by my co-hosts and fellow law professors,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Melissa Murray and Kate Shaw, to break down the latest
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: headlines and the biggest legal questions facing our country. It's
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: more important than ever to understand the repercussions of these
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Supreme Court decisions and what we can do to fight
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: back in the upcoming midterm elections. Listen to new episodes
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of Strict Scrutiny every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Now is the perfect time to stock up on merch
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  Speaker 2: from all your favorite Crooked Media pods thanks to our
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: limited-time Black Friday offer. Now through Monday, November 29th, take
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: 15% off site-wide and free shipping on all orders from
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: the Crooked store. That's 15% off fan-favorite shirts and mugs
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: plus our brand-new holiday collection including our first-ever Pod Save
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: America sweatpants.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Ooh.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: Are nice.
• 0:53
  Speaker 5: Nice. Yes, we damn.
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  Speaker 2: This is the first time we've ever had free shipping.
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  Speaker 2: So take advantage. The discount will be applied to check
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  Speaker 2: out to shop. Now head to crooked.com slash store.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
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  Speaker 5: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
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  Speaker 4: Happy Thanksgiving. Welcome to our traditional mailbag episode where we'll
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  Speaker 4: answer some questions you sent us. And then you'll hear
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  Speaker 4: Tommy narrate a special segment our team has been working
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  Speaker 4: on about how Democrats can better engage with Latino voters.
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  Speaker 4: It features a lot of smart voices, so tune in
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: for that. But first, Dan, you're in luck.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, wow.
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  Speaker 4: We're having ourselves quite a Black Friday weekend offer in
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  Speaker 4: the Crooked store. I know you're excited.
• 1:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: This Friday through Monday, November 29th, take 15% off site-wide
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: and free shipping on all orders. This includes brand new
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: holiday items like our new holiday ornament, plus new Pod
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: Save America merch, new Lover Leave It merch, Dan merch,
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: and more. There's Dan merch. Now, here's the thing. There's
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: Dan merch in the store. There's a wonderful Yes We
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: Dan mug. There's a Yes We Dan t-shirt. I have
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: something here that is not a piece of merch that
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: is not from our store, but it is very important anyway.
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  Speaker 4: Here it is. It's Dan Pfeiffer for Senate. It's a
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Dan Pfeiffer for Senate mug. You can't see it because
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: this is an audio podcast, but if you're tuning in
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: on our video, it's a beautiful mug. I bought this
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: a long time ago as a joke. when you, when
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: the Dan for Senate thing first started and I forgot
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: to do the joke on the pod, but we got
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  Speaker 4: so many questions in the mailbag about when you're running
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  Speaker 4: for Senate and you didn't want us to answer that question. Um,
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  Speaker 4: so I decided to bring the mug out to make
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  Speaker 4: the joke anyway.
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  Speaker 7: There it is.
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  Speaker 5: I have a couple of thoughts. First, those of you,
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  Speaker 5: I'm mortified on every level. Um, my great fear when
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  Speaker 5: my parents arrived with my whole family for Thanksgiving this
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  Speaker 5: week was my dad would be wearing a yes, we
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  Speaker 5: Dan t-shirt. Uh, And it frankly is a failure of
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  Speaker 5: the marketing department that he is unaware that it still,
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: as of right now, unaware it exists. So that is grateful. Second,
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  Speaker 5: those of you listening who can't see the video, miss
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  Speaker 5: the amazing logo on this bootleg mug where the stem
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: to the P is the state of Delaware. Like that
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  Speaker 5: is very clever. But I would just like to state
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: for the record for the Federal Election Commission that which
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: is deadlocked and can do nothing. The impotent body that
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  Speaker 5: it is, but I've never seen this mug before. This
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  Speaker 5: was not created. This is not part of any sort
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: of exploratory committee. It is not an FEC violation.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 5: We can proceed with the pod.
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  Speaker 4: I think, I think I Googled like Dan for Senate
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  Speaker 4: and found, I don't have no idea where I found it.
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  Speaker 4: So if the FEC asked me, I'm not going to
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  Speaker 4: be able to figure out.
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  Speaker 5: Where you better go to jail for Steve Bannon.
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  Speaker 4: Don't, don't worry about this Dan for Senate mug. You
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: can get real Dan merch. legitimate Dan merch at the
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: Crooked store, crooked.com slash store. Again, 15% off Friday through Monday,
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  Speaker 4: go to the store. Okay, let's get to your questions.
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  Speaker 4: Patrick Roth asks, you guys frequently cite polls showing how
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  Speaker 4: popular Democratic progressive policies are. Why then have Dems done
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  Speaker 4: so poorly in recent elections? Is this a messaging and
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  Speaker 4: branding problem or maybe a polling error with these policies? Dan,
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  Speaker 4: what do you think?
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  Speaker 5: Well, I would say for a party that's done really
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  Speaker 5: poorly in recent elections, Democrats who control the House, the Senate,
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  Speaker 5: and the White House, and took 140 House seats in 2018.
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  Speaker 5: So we've done pretty well in recent elections. But your
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  Speaker 5: point is well taken, which is you keep saying, you
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  Speaker 5: tell us these polls and say, people love what Democrats
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  Speaker 5: are doing. They hate the fact that Republicans are opposing them,
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  Speaker 5: yet they just elected a Republican governor in a pretty
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  Speaker 5: blue state in Virginia, and we almost lost in New Jersey.
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  Speaker 5: So I understand that you can also look at that
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  Speaker 5: and say, People love what Biden is for, but Biden's
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  Speaker 5: ratings are down. So I think let's unpack that in
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  Speaker 5: a couple of ways. First, it's important to understand how
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  Speaker 5: these polls work, which is someone gets a call and
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  Speaker 5: then a pollster reads them or shows them, if it's
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  Speaker 5: an online poll, a set of policies and asks their
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  Speaker 5: opinions on it. In most cases, we know from some
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  Speaker 5: of this polling and some other polling that voters do
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  Speaker 5: not know that on the run. They don't know what's
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  Speaker 5: on the menu. Someone has to read them the menu
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  Speaker 5: to know what their options are. So problem number one
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  Speaker 5: is Yes, people like this stuff when they're told about it,
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  Speaker 5: but they don't know about it on their own. So
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  Speaker 5: unless every person in America gets polled, we still have
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  Speaker 5: this information gap. Two is, I think, an assumption among
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  Speaker 5: Democrats that really needs to be questioned, which is the
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  Speaker 5: idea that people vote in their own interest, right? That
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  Speaker 5: necessarily that their primary reason for voting is this is
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  Speaker 5: good for my wages, my salary, the economy. It's not
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  Speaker 5: about something much bigger, right? That it's all about their pocketbook.
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  Speaker 5: It's sort of the What's the matter with Kansas thesis
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  Speaker 5: that sort of dominated Democrats for years? And the other
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  Speaker 5: thing is, is that we don't ask people to rank
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  Speaker 5: these things necessarily. People, there are lots of things people like.
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  Speaker 5: You got poll people about education. They care passion about education,
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  Speaker 5: but they rarely vote on it. Virginia being an exception,
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  Speaker 5: but historically that is the case. And so just because
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  Speaker 5: someone tells a pollster that they like it does not
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  Speaker 5: mean that that is the reason that they A, know
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  Speaker 5: about it on their own. And if B, if they did,
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  Speaker 5: that would be the primary driver of their vote. Does
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  Speaker 5: that make sense?
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  Speaker 4: That all makes sense. I would add one more thing.
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  Speaker 4: People don't vote when you go into the voting booth.
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  Speaker 4: You don't vote for policies unless it's a ballot measure.
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  Speaker 4: You vote for a candidate. And while a candidate's positions
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  Speaker 4: on certain policies can help voters make up their minds,
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  Speaker 4: they also make their decisions based on a few other factors.
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  Speaker 4: A candidate's position on other policies, right? A candidate has
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  Speaker 4: a position on a suite of policies. You might think
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  Speaker 4: one is popular, you might disagree with the other, right?
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  Speaker 4: So it's a whole bunch of policies. People make their
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  Speaker 4: decisions based on a candidate's party, their identity, their personality,
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  Speaker 4: their message, perceived ability to govern, to manage the economy,
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  Speaker 4: to deliver on their promises. There are so many things
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  Speaker 4: that factor into a voter's choice of candidate. And I'll Unfortunately, today,
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  Speaker 4: party is probably the biggest because we're so polarized. But
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  Speaker 4: people who don't have any, you know, people who don't
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  Speaker 4: identify as a Democrat or Republican, identify as an independent
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  Speaker 4: or who don't vote that many, don't vote that often.
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  Speaker 4: They have a lot of things that factor into their
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  Speaker 4: decision that aren't just a very high polling policy. Aaron
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  Speaker 4: on Twitter asks, should we be addressing the actual education
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  Speaker 4: issues that parents are concerned about in response to Instead
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  Speaker 4: of taking the bait on critical race theory, how would
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  Speaker 4: we speak to that? I kind of think we should. Yeah,
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  Speaker 4: I think we should address the actual education issues.
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  Speaker 5: I think I know where Aaron's coming with this question.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, look, you know, here's the deal. I saw
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  Speaker 4: a lot of people react to the Virginia results by saying, well,
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  Speaker 4: you know, aren't most schools open again now? Yes, that's true.
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  Speaker 4: But I do think that there's a lot of schools
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  Speaker 4: that are still shutting down for a day or two
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  Speaker 4: or a week when there might be a COVID outbreak,
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  Speaker 4: when there might be an exposure. There's a lot of
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  Speaker 4: schools that are doing something called a test-to-stay policy, which
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  Speaker 4: means that if a kid has COVID... then instead of
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  Speaker 4: sending like everyone home and canceling school for a week
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  Speaker 4: and going back to remote learning for a week, which is,
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  Speaker 4: as we found in 2020, is incredibly disruptive to a
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  Speaker 4: lot of children, especially children from low-income communities, then they
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  Speaker 4: just test every other child. And if the other child
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  Speaker 4: or other children are negative, those students are negative, then
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  Speaker 4: they can stay and the school can remain open. So
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  Speaker 4: that's actually been working in a lot of areas, but
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  Speaker 4: there's a lot of places that don't do that. Like
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  Speaker 4: Detroit Public Schools is moving to remote learning on Fridays
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  Speaker 4: in December, because I guess like COVID takes Fridays off.
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  Speaker 4: It just makes a lot of sense. It's just, there's
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  Speaker 4: a lot of, and look, this is disproportionately hurting, not
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  Speaker 4: just like suburban kids and suburban parents, but particularly disproportionately
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  Speaker 4: kids in low-income communities and communities of color. So I
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  Speaker 4: do think it's a problem that people should talk about.
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  Speaker 5: I don't know.
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  Speaker 4: What do you think? Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: I mean, there was a set of focus groups that
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  Speaker 5: was done by Third Way of Biden voters who voted
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  Speaker 5: for Youngkin or Biden voters who considered voting for Youngkin.
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  Speaker 5: So sort of soft Biden voters, I think is what
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  Speaker 5: you would call them. And they asked about education. And
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  Speaker 5: education was very important to their vote. It wasn't just
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  Speaker 5: critical race theory, critical race theory. They were aware of
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  Speaker 5: that debate. They were aware of McCullough's statement about parents
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  Speaker 5: not having a say. But there was sort of a
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  Speaker 5: very complex set of concerns about sort of lack of
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: control of their children's own education that was largely about COVID,
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  Speaker 5: but not entirely about COVID. And there is this, I
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  Speaker 5: think you're making a very important point where people are like, well,
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  Speaker 5: schools are open, so who cares? One, this happened, this
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  Speaker 5: election was two months after schools opened, and there's a
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: ton of complications still in place in a lot of communities.
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: I saw, I think it was Michelle Goldberg from the
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: New York Times tweeting that Her child has to eat
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: lunch at 10.45 in the morning because of social distancing rules.
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: And they don't do snacks, so it doesn't get to
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: eat for the rest of the day. There are some
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: kids who are still doing, on the East Coast in
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: the winter, doing outdoor lunch because that is obviously better
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: for spread of disease. But if your kid is forced
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: to eat lunch when it's 35 degrees outside, you can
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  Speaker 5: see why parents would be particularly concerned about that. So
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: I think we have to, Democrats, this is going to
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: continue to be an issue. Hopefully it's less of an
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  Speaker 5: issue next year. We'll have a whole other school year
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: Hopefully spread is down. Kids are all vaccinated. So this
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  Speaker 5: could be very different as it looks in the midterm.
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: But clearly, I mean, this is sort of one of
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: those Twitter strumming arguments, just simply yelling kids are not
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: actually really being taught critical race theory is not the
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: right answer to some very legitimate concerns. Does that make sense?
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: It does. And look, the safety of our children in
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  Speaker 4: schools is like the number one priority, their health and safety,
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: of course. But like you said, you know, in the
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: coming months, now that vaccines are available and made available
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: and authorized for all school-aged children, right? Like then hopefully
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: in a couple of months, a lot of this gets fixed.
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: But I mean, back to the, I think the question
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  Speaker 4: too is like, what should the message be from Democrats
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  Speaker 4: on this? And sort of to fold in some of
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: the critical race theory stuff, which I don't think Democrats
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: should necessarily take the bait as Aaron asked. But I
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: think the Democratic candidate should say like, you know, every
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: child should go to a school where their success and
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: well-being is the number one priority, no matter where they
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: live or what they look like, right? Like, we just
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: got to talk about our, we can talk about education
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: like Democrats talk about education all the time. We want
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: better teacher pay, right? We want our schools open. We
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: want to make sure that there's enough testing so that
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: our kids can stay in school and that they don't
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: have to close school all the time, you know? And
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: I do think on the critical race theory stuff, I
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: think we should say that, yeah, in our history classes,
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: in our kids' history classes, we want them to learn
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: that this is a country where people came together and
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: overcame and fought to overcome slavery and racism and all
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: kinds of discrimination. And even though we have a lot
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: of work left to do, the progress that Americans before
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: us have made should teach us that a better country
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: is possible. And there's a dark history to this country,
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: but there's also people who have tried to overcome that
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: dark history. Like, There's a message on this from Democrats.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: We don't have to be either afraid of it. We
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: don't have to take the bait on it. Like, you know,
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: I just don't I don't know why we wrap ourselves
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: around the axle on the on the messaging.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Part of this.
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  Speaker 5: Just as a general rule, when someone says, should you
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: take the bait? The answer is always no. Because what
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: happens when you take the bait? You get a hook
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: in your mouth and you end up on someone's dinner plate. Like, no,
• 12:58
  Speaker 5: don't take it. It's also like, should Democrats panic? Of course,
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: Democrats shouldn't panic. Well, should we run around like a
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: crazy person, not be able to find the exit during
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: the fire?
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: No.
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: So, no, we should not take the bait.
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Chandra V asks, is there any chance we will
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: gain House or Senate seats in the 2022 midterms or
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: are we completely doomed? And Dan, there were quite a
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: few variations on that question. Take it away.
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: So you're saying there's a chance? I mean, we should be,
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: I want to be brutally honest in this way, which
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: is that historically the deck is stacked against the party
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: in power. Like history is very clear on that. The
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: deck is particularly stacked against us in this cycle in
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: the house because of redistricting in a process that is
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: going to favor Republicans. So I don't want to be
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: seen as our old, uh, our old friend, Robert Gibbs
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: used to say, uh, peeing on my leg and, uh,
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: tell me it's raining. We're not doing that here, right?
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: There is no, it's just pee, right? That's what I'm saying.
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: And I say, pee, not piss because.
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: This, I guess it's a Southern thing. Gibbs always said
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: that all the time. And he said something.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, no.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: Oh, man.
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: I saw that go three or my.
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: Some of the sayings haven't aged as well. Some of
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: the sayings haven't aged as well.
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: I'm just going to say that. That's so funny. Anyhow,
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: it is going to be tough. But just because it
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: is tough. the odds are stacked against us doesn't mean
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: we can't win. Doesn't mean we don't have agency in
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: the process. And in fact, the Senate map is very
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: favorable to us, right? All of the key races that
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: we would need to win, not just to hold the Senate,
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: but to expand our majority are happening in states that
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: Joe Biden won. One narrowly, but one. And that's much
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: better a map than we had in 2018, in 2014,
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: in 2016. And so like there are some things in
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: our direction. And if you want me to make sort
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: of the The bull case for Democrats for next year is, yes,
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: if you look right now, we would lose the House
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: and the Senate if the election were tomorrow. If you
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: see any sort of swing like we saw in Virginia
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: and New Jersey, we cannot sustain that very well. But
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: the election is not happening now. It's not happening next week.
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: It's not happening next month. It's not happening for nearly
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: a year. And next year could look very different than
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: this year in the following ways. One, COVID could be
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: much better under control. The economy could be much better.
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: Gas prices could be down. Inflation could be down. The
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: economic renaissance and the life renaissance we thought was going
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: to happen this summer when the bulk of American adults
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: started getting vaccinated could happen next summer. The hot vac
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: summer we all wanted could be next year. Just postponed
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: a year.
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: Hot vac summer postponed one year. You could see a
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: national set.
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: Of relief and joy over be able to do a
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: whole bunch of things, return to normalcy without the sort
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: of paralyzing anxiety of the pandemic. It's also very possible
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: and probably probable that this sort of candidates, the bulk
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: of candidates who are going to run next year look
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: more like Larry Elder than Glenn Youngkin, right? That's a
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: very unique set of circumstances in Virginia primary that had
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: them end up with Glenn Youngkin and not Amanda Chase,
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: who was a very Trumpy candidate. And the list of
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: people running that Trump has endorsed is really a masterclass
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: in political vulnerability. And then the third thing is, is
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: that Trump was so far in the background in Virginia,
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: in a way he's unlikely to be next year when
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: he is out campaigning for these people, these people he's endorsed.
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: And so, you know, you have a world where the
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: stars could align, the Democrats could have a much better
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: chance to hold on to the majority than political prognosis
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: today would suggest. Doesn't mean that's going to happen. Doesn't
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: mean it's a given. I'm Just because things are bad
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: now doesn't mean they will be bad next year. And
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: the work we do between now and then will affect that.
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: For sure. And just so people, I'm sure you might
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: be listening, wondering, what about gerrymandering? It's happening all over
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: the place. So Dave Wasserman, folks at the Cook Political Report,
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: they're the best at this. They currently have our gerrymandering
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: losses at two and a half seats. Democrats have two
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: and a half, will lose two and a half seats,
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: which is much better than it was. Of course, we
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: have a three seat majority in the House, so pretty narrow.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: So if everything falls into place and we end up
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: only losing two and a half seats from redistricting, yeah,
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: then it's like a really tight race for the House
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: in the best possible economic conditions. Still really hard, still
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: a lot of safe seats that we lost from gerrymandering,
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: but You know, Senate, like you said, is in, again,
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: good economic conditions. And again, I know the economy is growing.
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: Job numbers are low. But again, we're talking about inflation
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: and gas prices going down by next year, which, again,
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: is very possible. You mentioned the Senate, Matt. Just so
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: everyone knows, here's what we have to do. We have
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: to reelect Mark Kelly in Arizona, Raphael Warnock in Georgia,
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, and Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: Those are the four seats that we have to hold.
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: And then to gain a Senate seat, to stop hearing
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: so much from either Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema, we
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: have to win either Pennsylvania or Wisconsin. Again, like you said, Dan,
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: two states that Joe Biden won narrowly. Or flip North Carolina, Ohio,
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: or Iowa, or Florida. Much more difficult, but those are
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: probably all the competitive races. So got to get to work.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: Marianna Pecora on Twitter asks, my 18th birthday is the
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: day after Thanksgiving. Now that I'm almost a legal adult,
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: what more can I be doing to prep for the midterms?
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: That's the kind of question I love.
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: Take it away.
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: Just you go to votesaveamerica.com. That's what you do. And
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: we have our no off years fund, which is we're
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: raising money. We're trying to raise money. A lot of
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: money by the end of the year to donate to organizations,
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: grassroots organizations on the ground in swing states who are
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: trying to register voters now ahead of the midterms and 2024.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: One of the big problems is, you know, we always
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: like register voters towards the end, close to an election,
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: towards the end of a campaign. And we know that
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: if you register voters early, if you start having conversations early,
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: if you start canvassing early, you have a better chance
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: of registering voters and getting people mobilized. So go to VoteSafeAmerica.com now.
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: Now you can donate to off years in the new year,
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: early in the new year. We should have some more
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: actions for people to take from volunteering to. everything else.
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: So stay tuned for that. There's going to be a
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: lot more to come early in the new year, but
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: we will have stuff for everyone to do in 2022.
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: So that's our message to you, Marianne. Congrats on almost
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: turning 18. We're excited for you to be involved. Anything
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: else you'd add, Dan?
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: No, that's exactly right. Go to votesaveamerica.com. Get involved. We're
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: excited to have you in this electorate. We need more
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: people like you.
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: We're going to do some deep canvassing. Should we talk
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: about deep canvassing? Because I keep hearing this from Democratic organizers,
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: and I never knew what deep canvassing was, in case
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: you hear it. It's just talking to people earlier.
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: You just got disinvited from next week's political check-in at
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: Crooked Media.
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm just trying to, you know, I'm a
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: speech writer. I just try to make language accessible. It's
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: just talking to folks, talking to folks earlier, longer, having
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: more conversations so that you're not just knocking on the
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: door and saying, hey, there's an election next week. Can
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: I expect your vote? Like, it's good to have conversations
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: with voters or potential voters all year round and to
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: really dig into what their concerns are, what they care about,
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: what they want to see in their candidates. Like, that's
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: how we build sort of organizing momentum and strength as
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: a party. Deep canvassing. Who knows?
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: All right. Since it's Thanksgiving, Dan, we get one question
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: that allows us to engage in completely irresponsible speculation. How's that?
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: Just one? Just one. It's ridiculous.
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: Carrot Kate on Twitter asks, I can't figure out who
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: Trump would pick as his running mate. If you had
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: to guess right now, who would it be? Go for it.
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: Okay. So this is not easy. So I've tried to
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: identify which of the Republicans we would get there by
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: process of elimination. So what do you, what is Trump
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: looking for in a running mate?
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: Um, Oh, I thought you were asking.
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: No, no, no, no.
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: Go, go. Well, we can do that.
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: We can do this thought exercise together.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: Someone who's not going to steal the spotlight from him.
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: But we'll steal an election. Very important.
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: We'll steal an election. Yeah, that's good. Someone who is,
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: let's say, presentable on television, who has that star appeal, right?
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: Because he's a fucking television person. You can stretch that
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: definition pretty far.
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: Like Mike Pence?
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: Well, Mike Pence looked like he fucking played a Ronald
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: Reagan character on television, and that's how his whole fucking
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: political career looks. But anyway, those two things. And then
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: maybe someone who can help win him some constituencies that
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: Republicans have been having some problems with in the past.
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: So do you have a name?
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: That's what I would say.
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: Do you have a name?
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: I want you to go first. We're switching off who
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: goes first with each question. This is your question.
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: So my view of what he needs is obviously someone
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: who he believes when push comes to shove will steal
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: the election. He does not want to be in a
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: situation where his supporters have to attempt murder again. Like
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: that is not something he wants. Second, it needs to
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: be someone who just has no self-respect. Like you have
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: to be willing to be made fun of, ridiculed, demeaned
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: on a daily basis. And then three, has to be
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: someone who is incredibly loyal no matter what. That sort
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: of thing. The only person I could come up with
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: who would fit that, which goes against a couple of
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: your criteria, was Ted Cruz. Like, would Ted Cruz steal
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: an election for Trump?
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: Really? Has Ted Cruz proven that no matter what Trump
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: does to him, no matter how much he makes fun
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: of him, no matter how much he demeans him, that
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: he will stay loyal? Yes. I mean, he accused his
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: father of killing JFK and called his wife ugly, and
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: Ted Cruz is still right there with him. So I
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: think Ted Cruz would be high on the list of
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: people who would do whatever Trump wants.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: That's interesting. I did not expect that from you. We
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: were told to pick one person. I have four names
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: on a list.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: Okay, good.
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: Way to follow instructions.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: It's our podcast. We can do what we want.
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: That's what we think.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Ron DeSantis, Kristi Noem. I think
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: that's the four.
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: I think Kristi Noem could fit all those Ted Cruz qualities.
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: Like when she's still in the election, yes.
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: So I did some searching around for this question because
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: before I named Tim Scott or Nikki Haley, because I
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: was like, I wonder if Either of them have been,
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: I didn't wonder about Nikki Haley because she is a,
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: she'll say whatever. She has clearly proven that she will
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: criticize Trump and then not criticize Trump. And now she
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: loves Trump and she's embraced him. She is completely shameless. Just,
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: we have seen that from her. So the loyalty thing,
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: I actually think is fine with her. But Tim Scott,
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: I was unclear about. Tim Scott recently said that he
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: would absolutely back Trump in 2024. And I didn't realize this,
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: but after the insurrection- Tim Scott was quoted as saying,
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: the one person I don't blame for the insurrection is
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump.
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: Okay, Tim Scott seems reasonable.
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: You know, and I think like having a black man
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: on the ticket or having a woman on the ticket
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: or Nikki Haley's case versus Indian American on the ticket,
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: like I think you could see Trump and his advisors,
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: if they're somewhat smart thinking that that would help in
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: some way. And then DeSantis, you could just, DeSantis is,
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: DeSantis is the one I'm actually least sure about because
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: He's such a star in the Republican Party in his
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: own right.
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: What a sense.
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: I know. I know. Sorry to say it, but it's true.
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: You wonder if Trump would want that. Yeah.
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: See, I think that's the other piece of this, which
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: is I think when– because you remember the– it was
• 25:28
  Speaker 5: kind of between Christie, Newt Gingrich, and Pence. I can't
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: believe we're still talking about this, so apologies to everyone,
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: in 2016. And eventually I think it went with Pence
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: because– In their own bizarre, strange Fox News ways, Christie
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: and Gingrich have star power, right? They have personality. They
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: have charisma. They've been more famous. They've been like Republican celebrities.
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: And Mike Pence is just– I think I once referred
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: to him maybe even in writing in a book as
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: a homophobic bottle of paste. So it's like I think
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: that star power is actually a negative for Trump, right?
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: And that's– So that's why I think he would worry
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: about Nikki Haley or Tim Scott.
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: It's interesting. But anyway, those are my thoughts.
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: Who cares? Also, talk about something we have no say over.
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: That's what I said. It's irresponsible speculation. We admitted it.
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: Joy on Twitter asks, is there any reason to be
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: hopeful for America's future? What keeps you guys sounding so
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: optimistic and upbeat despite what is happening in the courts
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: with climate change and the brazen attack on our civil
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: liberties and voting rights? I need an answer that will
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: help me sleep.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: I struggle with this all the time. I'm sure you do, Dan.
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: I'm not always optimistic and upbeat. The news makes me
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: sad and angry and outraged and alarmed all the time.
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: I would say two things. One, I don't think about
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: this in terms of predictions, like whether the future will
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: be good or bad, because we have no idea. I
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: think about it in terms of actions. And there are
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: only two. There is to give up or keep fighting.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: Right. And I want to keep fighting. I decide I'm
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: currently deciding to keep fighting. Maybe it'll change in the future,
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: but right now I'm in the fight. And the reason
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: that I'm doing that is because like, I think it's
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: really important, especially to fight for people who aren't in
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: as privileged a position whose future and lives depend on
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: us winning even more than mine. That's why I want
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: to keep fighting. That includes our kids. That includes a
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: lot of other people in this country. So that's why
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: I want to keep fighting. Number two, um, I think
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: a lot about something that our friend Jason Kander tweeted
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: during the withdrawal from Afghanistan where he served and also
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: has wrestled with PTSD because of it. And so it
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: was a hard day for him during the withdrawal. And
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: he tweeted, you know, I'm sad and angry, but I
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: have come to realize in life that denying myself joy
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: serves no purpose. And I think that's true in life,
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: but I also think it's true in politics and especially
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: in organizing. We are trying to get people to join
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: our movement, to join our team. Would you want to
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: join a team that's always outraged and cynical and self-serious
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: and scolding everyone who's not part of it? Of course
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: you wouldn't. You wouldn't want to join that team. Joy
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: said that she wanted an answer that will help her
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: sleep tonight. I don't sleep well when I am scrolling
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: through bad news before bed, which happens quite a bit.
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: I sleep well when I think about what I'm going
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: to say on this pod about that bad news. When
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: I think like, how am I going to persuade people
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: to think differently or act differently and How are we
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: going to get people to join our movement, to join
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: our team? I'm hopeful when I talk to volunteers. I'm
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: hopeful when I talk to organizers. I'm hopeful when we
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: go on the road and talk to listeners, which hopefully
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: we'll be doing soon. I'm hopeful when someone like Mariana
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: texts a question, sends us a question that she's 18
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: and she wants to help out. Those are the things
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: that make me hopeful. So I don't know if I'm
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: hopeful for America's future, but I am hopeful in our
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: ability to change it. That's where I land on this.
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: I think that's exactly right. And I always think... about
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: what kept me hopeful pre-pandemic was when we would travel
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: and we would meet all these people. And it would
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: be listeners of this podcast or audience who was engaged,
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: who were coming to our shows to be able to
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: sign petitions to get ballot– like $ 15 minimum wage ballot
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: initiatives on the ballot. Or when we would meet with
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: activists like the kids from Parkland and people who were–
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: high school kids who are registering voters in Virginia and elsewhere.
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: And when you meet people like that, you find– powerful
• 29:59
  Speaker 5: reasons for hope amidst what can feel like a very,
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: very dark political and news landscape. You're exactly right. No
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: one is promising you things are going to be better,
• 30:11
  Speaker 5: but we are promising you that we have a chance
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: to make them better if we do the work.
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: Yes, that's right.
• 30:16
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: We will be back in a minute with some of
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: your lighter questions.
• 30:29
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: We're back with some more of your question. The team
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: tells me that, unfortunately, a very common question was whether
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: I'll eat carbs on Thanksgiving. My answer is I'm not
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: a monster. I'm a 40-year-old dad. Of course I'm going
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: to eat carbs on Thanksgiving.
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: Are you telling the truth right now? Yes, of course.
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: Look, I have been on a low-carb, diet, I would
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: say for a couple of years. It's not like strict keto,
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: which is crazy strict on the carbs. I just try
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: to like cut more carbs. I don't need as much bread,
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: as much pasta, as much sweets. But there are times
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: when I just say, yeah, I'm going to do whatever.
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: And Thanksgiving is absolutely one of those days. Probably to
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: be completely honest with you, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas,
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: there'll probably be quite a few cheat days or cheat weeks.
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: I mean, it's, this is sort of when it all
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: starts to fall apart for sure.
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: That's what I said. I'm a 40-year-old dad. All right.
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: Justin on Twitter asks, did Barack Obama really hate pardoning
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: the turkeys or was it all an act? Dan?
• 31:36
  Speaker 5: This is really your thing. I paid– like there are
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: certain things when we worked in the White House that
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: you just could pay no attention to. I picked two
• 31:45
  Speaker 5: things I just ignored. Those two things were foreign policy
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: and the turkey pardoning. I just was not going to
• 31:52
  Speaker 5: engage in any of them.
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: Tough hit to the worldos. Well, no.
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: I mean it makes me the Posse of the world
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: number one fan because I'm learning so much about what
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: happened just down the hall from me. That's so funny.
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: Because it always happened like the– I guess the Tuesday
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: before Thanksgiving and it's sort of like we're trying to
• 32:12
  Speaker 5: wind things down. It's like a really busy time in
• 32:15
  Speaker 5: the White House because there's a whole bunch of stuff
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: you're trying to finish before you actually get to go
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: on a few days of break. And so I just
• 32:20
  Speaker 5: never engaged. The speech would come by and see there'd
• 32:23
  Speaker 5: be some jokes. They seemed funny. People laughed. Didn't care.
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: He didn't hate it, but he did think it was silly.
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: Like he thought that the correspondence dinner was silly. He
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: thought that all of these like.
• 32:37
  Speaker 5: Yeah, he hated that.
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: Joke.
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: But here's my thing. He hated it. I'm doing air
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: quotes right now. But he really got into it knowing
• 32:47
  Speaker 4: that he had to do it. That was the same thing. Now,
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: the turkey pardoning was different because for the Correspondence Center,
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: I think we wrote and a lot of outside comedians
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: helped us write some legitimately funny jokes. For the turkey pardon,
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: our goal from the beginning was to write really bad jokes.
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: That's like the whole purpose of the turkey pardoning. is
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: to tell a bunch of dad jokes that are pretty bad.
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: But I think years after I was, like, in the
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: years that I was gone from the White House, he
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: actually had, like, Malia and Sasha join him, and they just, like,
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: rolled their eyes in disgust at their dad for telling
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: these bad jokes, which I think I still helped write
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: in those years. But, like, again, our goal was as
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: cheesy and corny as possible, plenty of puns. That's the
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: fun of the turkey pardoning. It's dumb, it's silly, and
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: so you tell stupid jokes.
• 33:33
  Speaker 5: I mean, it is a bizarre... white house tradition. You
• 33:36
  Speaker 5: have these two turkeys, they're named by someone else. They
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: stay in a suite, I think at the Waldorf for
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: the four seasons.
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: They do. Yes, they do.
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: Is it the four seasons?
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: No, it's what's the, uh, whatever the W now. No,
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: It doesn't, it doesn't fucking matter if it's a holiday
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: and express. It's two turkeys in a hotel room. God
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: knows why.
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 33:57
  Speaker 5: Does that matter? It's just like, yeah, it's a bizarre,
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: bizarre thing.
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: Um, Kai Tuck on Instagram asks most embarrassing thing you've
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: done in front of president Obama. So for me, this,
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: this was, um, early in the campaign. This was the,
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: during the primary and we would, the president would fly
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: a lot from Chicago to Des Moines, uh, on a
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: very small plane. Uh, I don't use, I don't usually
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: go on that trip, but one time I had to,
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: cause I was like working on a speech. Um, We're
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: about to get on the very small plane back home
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: to Chicago, I believe. And Tommy, who was the Iowa
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: press secretary, decided to tell Obama, by the way, you
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: should know that Favs is incredibly afraid of flying, which
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: Obama started laughing at. That was his response to my
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: terrible phobia. We get on the plane. It's a very
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: small plane. It's like a six-seater. You know that was
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: a very small plane. And I'd never been on a
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: plane that small. And I was sitting directly across from Obama.
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: And he was asking me all about my fear of flying.
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, oh, no, no, no, it's fine. It's
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: under control. Tommy was just exaggerating. We start climbing. And
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: the entire time, I am shaking my foot uncontrollably, not
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: realizing that I was doing that. And Obama just looks
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: up from his papers that he was reading. And he's like,
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: are you going to keep doing that the entire flight
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: with the foot? And I was like, oh, sorry. And
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: then the plane, right at that moment, just drops. It
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: was probably like a small pocket of turbulence. It was
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: probably nothing. And I leapt out of my seat and
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: yelled so loudly that he laughed so hard. And not
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: only did he laugh so hard the rest of the flight,
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: everywhere we went after that, he would tell people about
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: what I did and how afraid I was and make
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: fun of me for my fear of flying, which, you know.
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: That's that. I was very embarrassed.
• 35:55
  Speaker 5: So two things about that. I was on that flight
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: where you had that.
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: You were?
• 35:59
  Speaker 5: Yes, I was on that flight.
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: I forgot you were on that flight.
• 36:01
  Speaker 5: And then the other thing is Obama never forgot that
• 36:04
  Speaker 5: because in 2014, we are- God, that's a long time.
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: It's a long time. We are on Air Force One
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: and we are having a conversation about a relatively shitty
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: political landscape. And part of it is people, there was
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: some poll that we had done or someone had done
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: which showed a tremendous fear that people had of ISIS
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: in their communities. And we got, Obama got this very
• 36:28
  Speaker 5: philosophical conversation with a group of us about how people
• 36:31
  Speaker 5: are not good at assessing their own risk, right? Like
• 36:34
  Speaker 5: in their life, the odds that they're going to get Ebola,
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: which is what's happening this time, or that ISIS is
• 36:38
  Speaker 5: going to come to their community are incredibly small compared
• 36:42
  Speaker 5: to very real risks you have, just like getting in
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: the car every day. And he said, but you know,
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: it's Even Favs, even Favs. He's a smart guy and
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: he can't figure out that he's at more risk when
• 36:56
  Speaker 5: he gets in his car to drive in the office
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: than to get on a plane.
• 36:58
  Speaker 7: But look at him.
• 36:59
  Speaker 5: He can figure it out. So you became the prototypical
• 37:01
  Speaker 5: example of irrational fear. Probably to this day, he tells
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: world leaders that.
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: I embrace my irrational fear. That's what a phobia is.
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: It's not necessarily rational.
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: You've gotten much better over the years as someone who
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: pre-pandemic used to fly a lot with you.
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: Well, I try to hide it now. And also once
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: in a while, like, You know, some Xanax helps. Okay,
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: so Sarah Steinberg on Twitter asks, what are Dan's thoughts
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: on this season of Below Deck? And Annie on Twitter adds,
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: Below Deck, Below Deck Med, or Below Deck Sailing? I
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: don't even know what that means, but I assume that
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: you do.
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: Let me put it in language you understand. Bachelor, Bachelorette,
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: Bachelor in Paradise.
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: Okay, okay, I got you.
• 37:44
  Speaker 5: It's all versions of the same thing, just... One of
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: them happens on a sailing yacht. One happens in the Mediterranean.
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: One happens in an array of different locations.
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: Fascinating.
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: And so in the last year or so, we've gotten
• 37:58
  Speaker 5: a situation where the sun never sets in the below
• 38:00
  Speaker 5: deck empire. As soon as below deck is over, then
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: below deck sailing yacht starts. And then as soon as
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: that ends the next week, below deck met. So it's
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: all kind of become a blur as to which, but
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: they're all great. And the We're probably maybe four or
• 38:14
  Speaker 5: five episodes into this season of Below Deck. It's quite good.
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: But the most previous season of Below Deck Med, which
• 38:20
  Speaker 5: was just like a month ago, was one of the
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: all-time greats.
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: What made it so great?
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: The cast members or the yachties all got along really well.
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: They were very fun. The yachties. And they've sort of
• 38:38
  Speaker 5: figured out how to do this in the pandemic in
• 38:40
  Speaker 5: a way because a big part of the show is
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: they– They work hard and they play hard, John. So
• 38:45
  Speaker 5: they work. And then in between charters, they go out
• 38:48
  Speaker 5: on the town. But that became very challenging in the pandemic.
• 38:51
  Speaker 5: And so they started renting out restaurants for them. They
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: have these dinners, which usually people get very over-served and
• 38:57
  Speaker 5: into huge fights or all kinds of things happen. If
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: you're looking for a show that will not stress your brain,
• 39:03
  Speaker 5: that shows you really nice places around the world, I
• 39:07
  Speaker 5: highly recommend Bullet Deck.
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: Samantha Jo Brown on Instagram. Thoughts on Red Taylor's version.
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: What does Emily love on the album? As you can imagine,
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: we've been listening to this nonstop in our household. Obviously, obviously,
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: the 10 Minute All Too Well is a masterpiece. It
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: is a fantastic song. She did an incredible job. Um, the, uh,
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: nothing new with Phoebe Bridgers also tremendous gives me a
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: little existential angst when I listened to it, but great song. Um,
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: better man. I bet you think about me, Charlie, who
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: only really likes wheels on the bus up until now
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: actually likes this album. Um, really likes Message in a Bottle,
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: starts dancing around to that. So that's, Charlie's becoming a
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: Swiftie at a young age. But yeah, we're just huge
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: fans of, huge fans of Red, Red Taylor's version here
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: in this household. Unapologetic about it.
• 39:58
  Speaker 5: And nor, you should not apologize for it. Everyone should
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: love what they love. I would say that I admittedly
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: have some cultural blind spots. Taylor Swift is one of them.
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: All I really know, like I've heard lots of Taylor Swift,
• 40:12
  Speaker 5: seems great, but all I really know about the Taylor
• 40:14
  Speaker 5: Swift discourse is, comes from your wife's social media presence.
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: So it seems great.
• 40:20
  Speaker 4: Well, I wouldn't have, I do not think I would have,
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: I mean, I wouldn't have become a Taylor Swift fan
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: without Emily. It was just when I met her. When
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: I met her, that's when Red first came out. That
• 40:28
  Speaker 4: was the album that came out right when we met.
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: And it was just nonstop the entire time. And so I,
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: and first I went from being resistant to it to
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: now being like a full-on fan.
• 40:36
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: Mike Jones on Twitter, favorite character on Succession, who takes
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: over in the end? Dan, why don't you start?
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: Favorite character. That's sort of a loaded question, but it's
• 40:49
  Speaker 5: got to be cousin Greg, right? I mean, the most entertaining.
• 40:54
  Speaker 5: That's who I laugh at when he's on there the most. Yeah.
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: It's almost a tie between Tom and Greg for me. Yeah,
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: I would agree. I think that both of them like
• 41:03
  Speaker 4: require the other one to really be as funny. Like
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: the last spoilers, spoilers. No, no, do not do this.
• 41:12
  Speaker 5: Do not do this.
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: I'm going to do it. Well, this is spoilers, but
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: a general spoiler.
• 41:16
  Speaker 5: Do you remember when you had to recut an episode
• 41:18
  Speaker 5: of Pod Save America because of a spoiler?
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: Well, Love It didn't announce spoilers before he like fucking
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: spoiled the end of Game of Thrones or whatever he did.
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: I can't remember. Something bad. But the last episode, which
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: had some sort of heavy themes about politics, let's say.
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: The Tom and Greg scenes were basically the entire time
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: they're thinking about what their life in prison is going
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: to be like. Some of the funniest scenes of the
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: series thus far. I think it's like this is now
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: maybe my favorite show of all time, I would say.
• 41:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I love it. So if.
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: I don't know who's going to take over and hopefully
• 41:55
  Speaker 5: no one does. So the show just goes on forever.
• 41:57
  Speaker 5: Like I do not need any, this is not who
• 42:01
  Speaker 5: is going to sit on the iron throne. I need
• 42:02
  Speaker 5: no resolution. I just want to hang out with these
• 42:04
  Speaker 5: people doing absurd, terrible things for as many years as
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: HBO will let us do it. But if it did
• 42:10
  Speaker 5: have to come to a conclusion and if the show
• 42:13
  Speaker 5: is being made by the people who make game of Thrones,
• 42:15
  Speaker 5: isn't it obvious that Greg would be in charge? He's
• 42:18
  Speaker 5: the brand of the show, right?
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: Like they would. Yeah. They're going to brand it. No,
• 42:24
  Speaker 4: I don't think they can let anyone win. You know,
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: like any of the Roy family. I think there's going
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: to be some kind of ending where either the company
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: goes down. Look, I love the show. These are just
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: awful characters that have almost no redeeming qualities whatsoever. And
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: yet you find yourself really into it. Usually I don't
• 42:46
  Speaker 4: like a show like that where you just don't, you
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: don't like any of the characters, but you sort of
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: either love to hate them or love how pathetic they are.
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: You know, I don't really hate them. They're just, a
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: lot of them are sort of pathetic, but it's like
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: really fun. Like Kendall is a very pathetic character.
• 43:00
  Speaker 5: I mean, don't you think the ultimate resistance Twitter and
• 43:03
  Speaker 5: would be a liberal billionaire buys it and shuts it down?
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: Well i don't want to see that on twitter all
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: right brian metcalf on twitter asks power rank your thanksgiving
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: side dishes here's my question about this you have to
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: does gravy count as a side dish here or no.
• 43:26
  Speaker 5: I mean it's my favorite part of the thanksgiving meal me.
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: Too well that that's what i was gonna say i'm
• 43:30
  Speaker 4: like because if it's counting as a side dish you
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: have to say gravy because without gravy it's not a
• 43:34
  Speaker 4: thanksgiving meal it just sucks.
• 43:37
  Speaker 5: It's just eating turkey.
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: You're just eating turkey.
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah, turkey, which I like, but I like it a
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: lot better with gravy. Mashed potatoes, I like. I like
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: it a lot better with gravy. Stuffing, which I love,
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: but it also exists primarily and only as a vehicle
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: for gravy. I don't have any sort of power ranking.
• 43:53
  Speaker 5: I like them all. This question, which we get almost
• 43:56
  Speaker 5: every year, kicks off my least favorite part of every year.
• 44:00
  Speaker 5: Is your child here?
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: Charlie.
• 44:02
  Speaker 5: Charlie, come here, buddy. Come here.
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: Come say hi to Dan and the Pogs of America audience.
• 44:11
  Speaker 5: Oh, look at that.
• 44:12
  Speaker 4: Say hi, Dan.
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: This is going to be great. What is that? Eating
• 44:18
  Speaker 5: the drawstring, which is a very important kid move.
• 44:21
  Speaker 4: You want to say something, buddy? What do you got
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: to say?
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Nothing.
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: All right, buddy. There we go. Now he's talking. Hold on.
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: I lost my earphone. That's fine. That was just a
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: nice little interlude from Charlie.
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: Anyway, go ahead.
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: You were ranking them.
• 44:37
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so this kicks, I have no rank. Like, I
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: like them all. I like Raven the best. I like
• 44:42
  Speaker 5: stuffing the second best. But here's the thing. There's no
• 44:44
  Speaker 5: wrong answer to this question, right?
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
• 44:47
  Speaker 5: You like what you like. This question goes from this
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: question to best books of the year to best.
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: Movies of the year. You can tell Dan really is
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: running for Senate. He's not going to piss off the
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: stuffing crowd or the gravy crowd.
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: This might be my greatest pet peeve is that in politics,
• 45:07
  Speaker 5: people confuse objective facts versus objective opinion. Democrats say climate
• 45:12
  Speaker 5: change is a huge problem. Republicans say it isn't. But
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: in the rest of life, everyone confuses subjective opinions or
• 45:19
  Speaker 5: objective facts. How fucking dare you say that you love
• 45:23
  Speaker 5: mashed potatoes? Mashed potatoes suck. Actually, this probably begins with
• 45:27
  Speaker 5: your Halloween candy ranking where people are like, you fucking asshole.
• 45:30
  Speaker 5: Why do you like candy corn?
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: I just like it.
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: Leave me alone, right? It's the same thing. It's like
• 45:37
  Speaker 5: there's no wrong answer. Enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner. Eat it
• 45:41
  Speaker 5: however you would like it. There's no right answer. Just
• 45:44
  Speaker 5: like what you like.
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: Gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes. That's my ranking. All other side
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: dishes don't even come close. Vegetables, who needs vegetables? That's it. Gravy, stuffing,
• 45:57
  Speaker 4: mashed potatoes. That's my ranking.
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: Sahal Patel on Twitter asks, what are you most thankful
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: for this year, Dan?
• 46:03
  Speaker 5: I mean, this is going to sound terribly cheesy, but
• 46:08
  Speaker 5: my family, right? We had, our family grew this year.
• 46:11
  Speaker 5: Jack was born in the middle of a pandemic. You know,
• 46:14
  Speaker 5: like it, we, Kelly was not pregnant with him when
• 46:17
  Speaker 5: the pandemic started. We had a child in the pandemic.
• 46:19
  Speaker 5: We spent, you know, I'll, and as you know, because
• 46:23
  Speaker 5: you had also had Charlie in a pandemic that having,
• 46:27
  Speaker 5: having kids is never easy. It's much more complicated when
• 46:29
  Speaker 5: you're worried about keeping them safe from viruses and all
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: of that. But like, I was just thinking about this
• 46:35
  Speaker 5: last night. Cause my whole, my whole family's here. My
• 46:37
  Speaker 5: brother and his wife and my niece are here. My
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: parents are here for, for Thanksgiving is we have this
• 46:42
  Speaker 5: like sort of amazing family of four people. And I never, uh,
• 46:47
  Speaker 5: sort of, you know, you sort of never know what
• 46:48
  Speaker 5: it's going to be like when you add someone to
• 46:50
  Speaker 5: the family and like how it changes and improves. And like,
• 46:53
  Speaker 5: as Hallie said, Jack's this amazing, just this perfect addition
• 46:55
  Speaker 5: to our family. And it's just watching the two of
• 46:57
  Speaker 5: them play together and sometimes disagree vehemently over who's, who
• 47:02
  Speaker 5: gets to play with whose toys, uh, is amazing. So
• 47:05
  Speaker 5: I'm very thankful for my family and how I grew
• 47:07
  Speaker 5: this year. Yeah.
• 47:09
  Speaker 4: I had the same answer. I just, I'm, I'm, I'm
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: so incredibly grateful for my family, um, for everyone's health, um,
• 47:15
  Speaker 4: I'm going to, you know, my, I'm very lucky that
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: my brother is in LA and his wife and my
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: parents are just North of us. They're here too. And
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: we're all going to see each other tomorrow. Thankful and
• 47:27
  Speaker 4: incredibly thankful for my wife and our beautiful, very happy,
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: joyful Charlie, who you just saw if you're watching the video. Um,
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: so it couldn't, could not feel luckier or more grateful, um, for,
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: for my family and our, and our help this year
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: and through this, uh, through these last couple of years.
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: So.
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: A lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. When we
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: come back, a special feature that our producers have made
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: for you as we look ahead to the midterms. Welcome back.
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: We're excited to try something new today. We put together
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: a very special feature narrated by our own Tommy Vitor
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: about what Democrats should be doing to better engage with
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: Latino voters. We've talked about this issue on the pod before,
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: but we wanted to take a deeper dive in to
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: better understand what happened in 2020 with the Latino vote
• 48:19
  Speaker 4: and what issues are most important to Latino voters headed
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: into 2022 and 2024. Take a listen.
• 48:22
  Speaker 6: 32 million eligible Latino voters made crucial differences in several
• 48:35
  Speaker 6: battleground states.
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: A new report underscores Democrats messaging shortfalls with Latino voters
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: in the 2020 election.
• 48:43
  Speaker 5: You know, why is the president doing better with Latinos
• 48:46
  Speaker 5: in Florida?
• 48:47
  Speaker 8: Well, a lot is due to Cuban-American voters who are
• 48:50
  Speaker 8: coming out in support of Trump.
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: The 2020 elections had mixed results for Democrats. President Biden won,
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: but a number of Senate and congressional candidates lost.
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: Lost, as you all probably remember.
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: But one of the biggest causes of concern for pollsters
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: and data nerds trying to understand what happened to the
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: Democratic Party was the shift in the Latino vote.
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: The story was that, you know, South Florida had shifted
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: to the right. But I think what I saw was
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: that it wasn't just a South Florida story. It's really
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: the story that was happening across the country.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: Paola Ramos is a journalist and former political staffer for
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: the Hillary Clinton campaign who has spent the last several
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: years talking to Latino voters across the country.
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: The question that I have and that I think is
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: in front of all of us, is this the future
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: of the Latino vote? And I think that's what you
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: need to unpack.
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: A report by the Democratic firm Catalyst found there was
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: an eight percentage point shift among Latinos towards Donald Trump.
• 49:46
  Speaker 5: In no place was that shift more.
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: Apparent than in Florida, where Latinos accounted for 17 percent
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: of registered voters in 2020 and 58 percent of voters
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: in Miami-Dade County alone. But in a swing state like Florida,
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: capturing the Latino vote can be the key to capturing
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: the presidency. So we decided to take a closer look
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: at Latino voters in the Sunshine State. Paolo Ramos and
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: Carlos Odio, co-founder and senior vice president of Equis Labs,
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: are going to help us understand why this shift happened
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: and what Democrats can do to win back Latino voters.
• 50:18
  Speaker 5: Hey, folks.
• 50:19
  Speaker 4: Hey, hey, how are you?
• 50:20
  Speaker 7: Should we talk in Florida?
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: Carlos has served as a liaison between the Latino community
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: and political campaigns.
• 50:26
  Speaker 5: And his team at.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: Equis Labs studies the behaviors, experiences, and political identities of
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: Latino voters. He's observed this shift from the front lines.
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: So I asked him what he thinks is the cause.
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: Do you have a sense of how much of the
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: success in Florida the Republicans had is specific to Trump?
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: Or is it a real partisan shift? Or maybe it's
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: a hatred of Democrats. Maybe it's all of the above.
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: Are you able to separate those things out?
• 50:52
  Speaker 7: I think as far as we can tell, a lot
• 50:53
  Speaker 7: of it is economic.
• 50:54
  Speaker 8: A lot of it is tied in to the pandemic moment,
• 50:58
  Speaker 8: to Trump as businessman, to the way that the economy
• 51:00
  Speaker 8: was looking pre-pandemic, to a fear of Biden coming in
• 51:03
  Speaker 8: and shutting down the economy again. But in South Texas
• 51:06
  Speaker 8: and South Florida, you have a much bigger swing. And
• 51:11
  Speaker 8: in both those places, you have accelerants of the shift.
• 51:14
  Speaker 8: And as far as we can tell in Florida, the
• 51:15
  Speaker 8: accelerant is related to socialism, the socialism attack, which is
• 51:20
  Speaker 8: not just like economic philosophy, right? It's actually an identity.
• 51:23
  Speaker 8: It's like we are pro-American, they are anti-American. That's what
• 51:26
  Speaker 8: socialism means.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: For Latinos in Florida who fled the oppressive regimes of
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: Fidel Castro in Cuba or Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, that word, socialism,
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: can be triggering. Journalist Paola Ramos has seen it firsthand.
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: I think socialism, whether you're from Venezuela or Cuba, and
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: whether you're from Chile or Argentina, that word impacts you.
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: You understand the threat that word poses, not just to you,
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: but to everyone that is living around you.
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: And one of the right strategies is to use this
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: fear to scare voters by conflating communist or socialist dictatorships
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: with progressive American politics.
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: If someone is telling you all day long, a lie,
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: which is a vote for Biden is a vote for
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: socialism or communism. If they tell you not once, but twice,
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: if they tell you not just in a stump speech,
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: but on the radio and then on your local TV station.
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: And then you hear it on a YouTube video and
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: then your grandma saying it. But then your uncle is
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: also saying that if you hear that 10 times, 20, 50,
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: 100 times, you believe it.
• 52:32
  Speaker 5: There's just one problem. Democratic socialism hasn't worked anywhere in
• 52:35
  Speaker 5: the world.
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: And in fact, debates that Bernie Sanders believes in what
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: he's fighting for.
• 52:40
  Speaker 7: He believes in socialists.
• 52:41
  Speaker 4: Not all Democrats are socialists. But all the socialists are Democrats.
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: That's fake news. The term democratic socialism in this country,
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: where people have free and fair elections, it is based
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: on a democracy, and it is based on the voices
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: of people, and it is based simply on the idea
• 52:58
  Speaker 3: that the role of the government is to help people.
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: That is completely misconstrued from what the right wants you
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: to think when suddenly you see someone like Bernie Sanders
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: or AOC or even Biden, who is the most moderate
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: candidate of them all, and just put front and center
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: the term socialism and slap that with communism. That is
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: literally the definition of mis- and disinformation, right? When you
• 53:22
  Speaker 3: are intentionally, intentionally trying to create a falsehood.
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: According to a new report by Nielsen, Latinos are more
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: likely than any other group to receive, consume, and share misinformation.
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: Spanish-speaking Latinos are the perfect victims of mis- and disinformation,
• 53:39
  Speaker 3: the perfect ones, and Republicans know that. The first reason
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: being is that from the beginning of the immigrant story
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: in this country, we literally live on our phones to
• 53:48
  Speaker 3: stay connected.
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: Most recently, we saw the right push misinformation and capitalize
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: on Latinos' fear of socialism during the summer protests that
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: erupted in Cuba over the island's oppressive government and lack
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: of resources.
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: You had Fox News doing town halls in Versailles.
• 54:05
  Speaker 7: And welcome to Little Havana, the heart of my district.
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: You have radio hosts that are once again using these
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: like trigger words, socialism y comunismo.
• 54:14
  Speaker 5: Socialism and its history of failure.
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: These words that we typically hear a year perhaps before
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: elections are already being planted slowly. And that is very dangerous.
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: I think of someone like Senator Ted Cruz. His father
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: is Cuban. Senator Ted Cruz is the first person that
• 54:35
  Speaker 3: wants to block Cuban asylum seekers from entering this country.
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: Yet Senator Ted Cruz is one of the first ones
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: that capitalizes on this moment to call for freedom and
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: rights of the Cuban people. That, to me, is a
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: perfect example of the way that their right is capitalizing
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: this moment. Do they really care? And if they really care,
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: then again, why don't you honor the same Cuban people
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: that are out in the streets crying and demanding change?
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: There's thousands of them in this moment, as we're speaking,
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: thousands of them stranded at the border in Texas in
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: Ted Cruz's backyard. And he doesn't want them in.
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: I asked Carlos what frustrates him most about the Democratic
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: Party's response.
• 55:18
  Speaker 7: Obviously, something like Cuba is very personal to me, as
• 55:21
  Speaker 7: it is to other Cuban-Americans.
• 55:22
  Speaker 8: My grandparents were political prisoners.
• 55:24
  Speaker 7: My very existence, the fact I was born in Miami,
• 55:28
  Speaker 7: is politicized. And I just want to see change in Cuba, right?
• 55:33
  Speaker 8: But of course, issues that move people tend to be
• 55:36
  Speaker 8: very personal. It's not the abstract stuff. And I think
• 55:40
  Speaker 8: sometimes we can think about issues like Cuba or related
• 55:43
  Speaker 8: and think about it in very abstract policy terms. But
• 55:46
  Speaker 8: this stuff is super, super personal and showing empathy here
• 55:50
  Speaker 8: is a very big piece. And that's what irks me
• 55:54
  Speaker 8: is when we take these pieces for granted and we
• 55:56
  Speaker 8: get outflanked. We were outflanked because we were so busy
• 55:59
  Speaker 8: reacting to what Trump was doing that we weren't showing
• 56:01
  Speaker 8: up for Colombians and Dominicans and Nicaraguans and Mexicans. And
• 56:06
  Speaker 8: that's what frustrates me. Like, show we care. I think
• 56:09
  Speaker 8: in our hearts we do. That's the Democratic progressive brand
• 56:12
  Speaker 8: is we care.
• 56:13
  Speaker 7: But we got to go show that.
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: You're sitting in the biden white house and you're advising
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: joe biden on like the two or three things he
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: has to deliver in terms of policy to make those
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: tactics effective what are those things.
• 56:24
  Speaker 8: Well one is look the stuff you got delivered for
• 56:27
  Speaker 8: everybody else it's the same right it's then how you
• 56:29
  Speaker 8: go sell it you know latinos are especially attuned to
• 56:32
  Speaker 8: what you're doing to help small businesses for example which
• 56:34
  Speaker 8: by the way democrats are doing a lot to help
• 56:35
  Speaker 8: small businesses and could be doing more even the other
• 56:38
  Speaker 8: piece is immigration we do have to deliver on immigration
• 56:41
  Speaker 8: part of what happens in 2020 different from 2016 is
• 56:45
  Speaker 8: that Trump and his allies muddy the water on immigration.
• 56:49
  Speaker 8: And so you hear from some of these swing voters
• 56:51
  Speaker 8: who went for Trump is, I didn't think there was.
• 56:52
  Speaker 7: A really big difference on immigration.
• 56:55
  Speaker 8: Whereas in 2016, Trump's the anti-immigrant, anti-Latino dude. And I
• 56:59
  Speaker 8: just can't vote for that guy. And maybe I won't
• 57:01
  Speaker 8: vote at all.
• 57:01
  Speaker 7: Maybe I'll stay home.
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: But Paola says there's something else at play that pushed
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: Latinos to vote for Trump.
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: What I found is that there is this deeper cultural
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: gap question among us where there are many Latinos, particularly
• 57:16
  Speaker 3: the ones that you meet in Florida, particularly Cubans, that
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: have found in their journey in this country that proximity
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: to whiteness equals success. And as close as possible as
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: you are to whiteness and as close as possible as
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: you are to that circle of whiteness, then that means
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: that you are American and that means that you made it.
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: And so any way to disassociate yourself from your past,
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: from your immigrant past, from where you came from, It's good.
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: Because I think to me, that's sort of this like
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: undercurrent wave that is happening among all groups, not just Cubans,
• 57:51
  Speaker 3: where there is finally a pass that Trump gave many
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: people to say, yes, I am for Trump. And I
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: think that's what you need to unpack.
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: Of course, as Paola says, that's not the case for
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: all Cubans or Latinos. Latinos are a racially, socioeconomically and
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: geographically diverse group. And making generalizations about their experience is
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: a mistake Democrats, and frankly, everyone else for that matter,
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: need to stop making. That's why Paola says it's important
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: to reach out to people who don't fit into tiny
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: preconceived boxes.
• 58:23
  Speaker 3: That's always where I urge Democrats, like, you know, look
• 58:26
  Speaker 3: at those voices of Cubans or Latinos that may be
• 58:30
  Speaker 3: dealing with two different identities, you know? that may be
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: dealing with different issues at the same time. And it's
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: that complexity that I think we need to go after.
• 58:41
  Speaker 3: And it's the hardest one to understand because it doesn't
• 58:43
  Speaker 3: fit in a perfect box.
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: So how do Democrats start winning back these voters? Turns
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: out a lot of it could be as simple as
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: just showing up.
• 58:50
  Speaker 7: You can be terrible on policy. I want to be clear,
• 58:52
  Speaker 7: Trump was terrible on the policy, right?
• 58:54
  Speaker 8: But if you keep showing up and talking about it,
• 58:57
  Speaker 8: regardless of what you're saying, it's going to come across
• 59:00
  Speaker 8: as caring. It's not just about the intricacies of the policy.
• 59:03
  Speaker 8: It's about saying, this guy's on my side. And maybe
• 59:07
  Speaker 8: the other people, who, by the way, aren't showing up
• 59:09
  Speaker 8: in this way, aren't on my side.
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: I saw a quote from you in the New York Times.
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: You said, this moment requires a full court press. My
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: concern is that there's a belief that last year was
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: an anomaly and that is going.
• 59:20
  Speaker 4: To go back to normal.
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: That's especially troubling if Republicans go back to campaigning.
• 59:24
  Speaker 4: For those votes.
• 59:25
  Speaker 5: What does a full court press look like?
• 59:28
  Speaker 7: You're doing it all, right? You're doing the mail.
• 59:30
  Speaker 8: You're doing the text messages. You're putting organizers in the communities.
• 59:32
  Speaker 8: You are deploying your surrogates. You're deploying your principals' time.
• 59:36
  Speaker 8: You are conveying to that voter, you are important to
• 59:39
  Speaker 8: my coalition.
• 59:40
  Speaker 7: I want you at my table. And it's not just
• 59:42
  Speaker 7: lip service.
• 59:43
  Speaker 8: I am signaling to you your importance through all of
• 59:46
  Speaker 8: the different tactics that I am pursuing to communicate with you.
• 59:49
  Speaker 7: That is what a full-court press looks like.
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: Despite all the work the left has to do, Paola
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: thinks the timing couldn't be better.
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: It is such an exciting time to get this right.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: All of the numbers are on Latino's side. Now we're
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: the largest. the minority voting block, right? We're voting in
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 3: these like unprecedented numbers. Younger Latinas are, I think, are
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 3: more awake than they ever have been. And I think
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: that's exactly the change that we're seeing in Congress, right?
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: Whether you love AOC or not, she is changing Washington, D.C.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 3: as you know it, right? And she's at the end
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 3: of the day, a young Latina that's changing politics. And
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: so it is the time to get it right. Whomever
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 3: gets the right and is smart about it, I think
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 3: we'll see these like incredible long-term effects. And I think
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 3: that is like so exciting.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 4: Thanks to Carlos Odio and Paola Ramos for sharing their insights,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 4: to Flavia Casas and Olivia Martinez for producing this feature,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 4: and Lacey Roberts and Andrew Chadwick for editing and mixing.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 4: We'll see you next week. Have a great Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, Dan.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 5: Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 4: Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 4: producer is Michael Martinez. Our senior producer is Andy Gardner Bernstein.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 4: Our producer is Haley Muse, and Olivia Martinez is our
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 4: associate producer. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 4: Seglin is our sound engineer. Thanks to Tanya Sominator, Sandy Gerard,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 4: Hallie Kiefer, Madison Holman, and Justine Howe for production support.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 4: And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, Milo Kim,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 4: and Amelia Montooth. Our episodes are uploaded as videos at youtube.com
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 4: slash crookedmedia.