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Are Republicans About To Impeach Biden? · Pod Save America

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: And I'm Alyssa Mastromonaco.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Alyssa, thank you for joining us again. This is, I think,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the third time you filled in during the month of vacations.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Here at Crooked Media.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: I love it. It's my insurrection.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: The question is, will you be here next week when
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: we do the Zoom?
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'll do anything. Anything you ask of me, Pfeiffer.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Anything if you ask me, I'll be there.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: All right. Excellent.
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Let's get into it.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: On today's pod, the House Republicans might impeach Joe Biden.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: The right wing hatches a plan to destroy the federal government.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Senator Maziarono talks to Alyssa about the tragic fires in Maui.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: And we answer some of your questions. All right. Despite
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: no evidence, and I literally mean zero evidence, it appears
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: that the House Republicans are about to embark on an
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden having something to do with
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: the business dealings of his son, Hunter. Here's what Kevin
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: McCarthy had to say to Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on Sunday.
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: So if you look at all the information we've been
• 1:22
  Speaker 5: able to gather so far, it is a natural step
• 1:25
  Speaker 5: forward that you would have to go to an impeachment inquiry.
• 1:28
  Speaker 5: And just so your viewers understand what that means, that
• 1:32
  Speaker 5: provides Congress the apex of legal power to get all
• 1:37
  Speaker 5: the information they need.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: All right, Alyssa, I'm not sure why this is not
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: a bigger story. And I think there's a very good
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: chance this would maybe be the dominant story in American
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: politics when Congress comes back next week. But it really
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: seems like based on the reporting and Kevin McCarthy's habit
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: of doing whatever the Freedom Caucus tells him to do,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: like the House is actually going to embark on this
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: impeachment inquiry maybe as soon as next week. Here's my
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: question for you. Have these people lost their fucking minds?
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Buddy, the SNL skit writes itself.
• 2:08
  Speaker 6: I mean, this is like he's practically hyperventilating in that
• 2:13
  Speaker 6: interview because he's already stressed. This is such a circus.
• 2:19
  Speaker 6: It's like, what do they say?
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: You elect a clown. It doesn't make the place a kingdom.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: It makes it a circus. I don't know, something like that.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: But that's basically what he's done. And that is.
• 2:28
  Speaker 6: What Congress is going to be like when they come back.
• 2:31
  Speaker 6: The world, there are so many important problems on this planet, buddy.
• 2:35
  Speaker 6: But let's make sure that we use the apex of
• 2:38
  Speaker 6: political power for this.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, just so people are clear, the launching of
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: an impeachment inquiry- does not necessarily mean they are going
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: to impeach Joe Biden. But in the history of the
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: United States, impeachment inquiries have been launched quite rarely. And
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: they almost always end in impeachment because these things get
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: a momentum of their own. And this is truly, truly bizarre.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: And it's particularly bizarre in a world in which Kevin
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: McCarthy has an incredibly narrow majority. He can barely pass
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: mildly controversial bills, let alone the impeachment of the He
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: has 19 members who are currently in districts that Joe
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Biden won in 2020. And he is going down this path. Now,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy, because he is the kind of guy who
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: likes to read the stage directions out loud during the play,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: decided to do an interview with the New York Times
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: this week where he basically told the New York Times
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: that the reason he was doing this was as a
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: way to convince the far right members of his caucus,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: to avoid shutting down the government. Does that make any
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: sense to you? Or is that a plan so crazy
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: that it could work?
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Honestly, I think it's not a bad plan for him. Like, look, every... Yes, yes, no.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Hear me out.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Hear me out.
• 3:59
  Speaker 6: I'm not saying I think it's a good idea in general.
• 4:02
  Speaker 6: I'm saying, here's the deal. Kevin McCarthy has three constituencies, right?
• 4:07
  Speaker 6: He's got Trump, he's got the Freedom Caucus, and he's
• 4:11
  Speaker 6: got the Moderates. Every day is about survival for this man.
• 4:14
  Speaker 6: He serves two out of three with this move. He'll
• 4:19
  Speaker 6: be able to raise some money off of it. I mean, buddy, listen,
• 4:23
  Speaker 6: there is a time back in the day when you
• 4:25
  Speaker 6: could buy votes with a bridge to nowhere, you know?
• 4:29
  Speaker 6: But like now you got to try and impeach somebody.
• 4:31
  Speaker 6: And so like, I don't know, call me clairvoyant, but
• 4:34
  Speaker 6: I can't help but think that old Kevin hasn't heard
• 4:37
  Speaker 6: the last from the Freedom Caucus on shutting down the government.
• 4:40
  Speaker 6: Like they aren't exactly– rational or cohesive.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Now, to try to explain the substantive logic, and I
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: use the term logic quite loosely here, the argument that
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: McCarthy is making is that if the government were to
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: shut down, Congress would have to stop this impeachment inquiry
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: into Biden. And therefore, if you really care about impeaching Biden,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: you want to keep the government open. Now, a couple
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: of flaws in this point. One is, Kevin McCarthy is
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: essentially the one who determines what Congress can and can't
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: do during a shutdown.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: So the Freedom Caucus just has to come to Kevin
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: McCarthy and say, no, this is an urgent thing, and
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: we're going to keep it going.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: Right, right.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Two, there is a very obvious way here in which
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the House Freedom Caucus can have their shutdown and eat
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: it too, because they can start the impeachment inquiry, shut
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: down the government, take a break for three weeks while
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: the government shut down, come back, and continue the impeachment inquiry.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: So now Kevin McCarthy has the worst of both worlds,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: which is the government is shut down, something he thinks
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: is quite unpopular and damaging, and he has this impeachment inquiry,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: which he has decided, I think incorrectly, to be slightly
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: less politically damaging than shutting down the government.
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: So I just, like, I just, as a political professional
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: and a human being who believes in rational thinking, this
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: makes me want to scream. Because the most basic task
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: of being Speaker of the House is keeping the government open.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: That is it.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: That is table six.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Byford, that's what you think, buddy. That's what you think.
• 6:15
  Speaker 6: Kevin McCarthy thinks his only job is to try to
• 6:18
  Speaker 6: keep his job. And that's all he's thinking about right now.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: And he doesn't care.
• 6:22
  Speaker 6: He's like Jean Valjean in Les Miserables. He just keeps
• 6:25
  Speaker 6: looking at the mirror and saying, one day more, one
• 6:27
  Speaker 6: day more.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: That is the first... musical theater reference on a Thursday
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: pod to date. So congratulations.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much. It's why you brought me here.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing. I guess the question is, what
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: is the job Kevin McCarthy cares more about? Is it
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: leader of the Republican caucus or speaker?
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Speaker, right?
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Well, then he is choosing incorrectly because polls show that
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: 56%– now a poll came out and we will see
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: more And this poll is done by a Democratic group,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: so take it with a modicum of salt. But that
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: 56% of people think that impeachment of Joe Biden would
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: be a partisan witch hunt or partisan phishing expedition, whatever
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: the language is. But people don't like it, right? The
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: majority of people don't like it. To keep his majority,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: he has to convince some number of people who voted
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: for Joe Biden in 2020 and are likely to vote
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: for him again in 2024 to also vote for a
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Republican member of the House. how is impeaching Joe Biden
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: or wasting taxpayer dollars on this thing, on this completely
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: bogus thing, how is that going to help him do that?
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: It is so dumb. And I do think we ought
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: to stipulate, and this is very important. I should have
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: said this earlier, and I just got so worked up
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: about this, I went down a path of attacking Kevin McCarthy,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: which I do sometimes, is I just want to be
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: very clear. Congress has investigated this for well over a year.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: A US attorney has investigated Hunter Biden, a Trump-appointed U.S.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: attorney who is now a special counsel, has invested Hunter
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Biden for five years, dating back to the Trump administration.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: In that time, the media has also dug deep into this.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Right-wing media, mainstream media have thrown all their resources at this.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: And never at any time have they found a piece,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: a single shred of evidence that Joe Biden did anything
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: improper as relates to Hunter Biden's business dealings. Not once.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Not a single piece of evidence. The person they're basing
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: this on is the testimony of a former business partner
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: of Hunter Biden named Devin Archer, who has been convicted
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: of multiple crimes, is awaiting a sentence to prison, and
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: also did not, according to the Democrats who heard his deposition,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: indicate that Joe Biden did anything other than say hello
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: to his son and the people someone was speaking to
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: while on speakerphone. Buddy.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Buddy, buddy, buddy. Are you under the impression that.
• 8:46
  Speaker 6: that they're tethered to reality in any way, in any
• 8:50
  Speaker 6: way whatsoever.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Of course not.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Or that they're linear thinkers.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Well, yes. I think we should hold them to account
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: for not being linear thinkers.
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: I agree.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: And to think more than one move ahead. There has
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: never been a human being in the history of the planet,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: with the possible exception of Donald Trump, more likely to
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: fail the marshmallow test than Kevin McCarthy. If you said
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: to Kevin McCarthy, I can prick your finger today or
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: I can cut off your arm in six months, he
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: would choose having his arm severed in six months.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: It is always what happens down the line.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: And it just, it makes no sense. And this is
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: just so, such idiotic galaxy brain thinking that I can't
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: take it. And it's frankly bad for, it's bad for
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy, it's bad for the House, it's bad for
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: the Congress in general, it's bad for the country. It
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: is just, It's idiocy, and it's about to be upon us.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: As you said, there's real things happening here. They have
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: to pass a bill for funding for natural disasters. There's
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: a hurricane hitting the southeast United States right now as
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: we say this. You just talked to Senator Hirono about
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: the Maui fires. They have to give money to people.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: What are they going to do instead of that? This bullshit.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: Yep. Yep.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: But this tracks. This tracks.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: I mean.
• 10:00
  Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: It's on brand. We don't have to like the brand.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: We don't have to like the brand.
• 10:04
  Speaker 6: But this is like they, none of them, I'm just
• 10:07
  Speaker 6: going to go out on a limb here. None of
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: them wanted to be in Congress to help people.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: That's not why they're here.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Other than Donald Trump. They want to be there to
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: help Donald Trump.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Oh my God, yes. Help Trump.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: One interesting wrinkle here is that in the past, most
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: impeachment inquiries begin with a vote of the full House
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: to say this is of such a serious nature that
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: we're going to have a vote and to declare that
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: we're going to look into this.
• 10:35
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Now, in 2019, Nancy Pelosi, quite deftly, I would think, decided,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: given the members that she had in vulnerable districts, said,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: we are not going to have a vote of the
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: full House. We're just going to begin, which is procedurally
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: you can do. That made Kevin McCarthy and every Republican
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: quite angry at the time. He called it an abusive process, illegitimate, blah.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: Blah, blah.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give you one guess. How do you
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: think Kevin McCarthy plans to launch this inquiry as soon
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: as September?
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: The same way?
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: The exact same way, without a vote of the House.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, they're nothing if not hypocritical.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Now, do you think that's a good, should we like
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: slam him for some hypocrisy? Are we going to get
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: him that way?
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: No, of course not. Who cares?
• 11:19
  Speaker 6: They don't care if their shit's devoid of merit. They're
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: fine with it. They don't care if, I mean, they
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: just don't care. And so there's no point in trying
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: to argue the point because we did it.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: So now they do it, even though.
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: Donald Trump actually committed crimes, some on national television. And,
• 11:36
  Speaker 6: you know, these guys are trying to chase a Biden
• 11:38
  Speaker 6: down a rabbit hole.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, just so we can, because everyone's memories have
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: grown so short in this terrible age we live in,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: the reason the House impeached Donald Trump, It's because he
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: was on tape blackmailing the president of Ukraine. Of where?
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: Ukraine? Oh, right.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes. Holding, extorting him over funding for the military
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: weapons he would need to oppose, at the time seemed
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: like a nebulous threat from Russia, in order to get
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: dirt on Joe Biden's son, Hunter. And that was on tape.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: So it seems like these are not two of the
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: same things.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Not apples to apples here.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Now, even if the House launches inquiry and then Kevin
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: McCarthy somehow gets the requisite number of Republicans to vote
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: to impeach Joe Biden on all of this bullshit, we
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: know Joe Biden is not going to be convicted and
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: removed from office because, as a reminder, it takes a
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: vote of two-thirds of the Senate to make that happen.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: That did not happen for Trump. Either time he was impeached,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: it's not going to happen for Joe Biden here, especially
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: because he did nothing wrong. But if you're in the
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: White House, how do you view this? Do you view
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: this as a gigantic pain in your ass? Something you
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: can maybe welcome politically? What's your take on it?
• 12:55
  Speaker 6: You know, I don't think they welcome it. I don't
• 12:58
  Speaker 6: think it's that bad. I don't know that anybody welcomes it.
• 13:00
  Speaker 6: It's going to be a huge fucking pain in the ass.
• 13:03
  Speaker 6: You know, it's like, I think that this is a
• 13:04
  Speaker 6: White House that is more than capable of walking and
• 13:08
  Speaker 6: chewing gum at the same time. They will have a team.
• 13:11
  Speaker 6: There will be people outside, you know, an external group
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: that will help them. They will keep doing the people's business.
• 13:17
  Speaker 6: You know, they will keep getting things done for this country.
• 13:20
  Speaker 6: But it's a distraction and it's a pain in the ass. Again,
• 13:23
  Speaker 6: a lot of other things happening in this country that
• 13:25
  Speaker 6: they should be focusing on.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: And I mean, I think they'll continue to focus on
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: those things. But this is like, it's a pain in
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: the ass. It's a huge pain in the ass.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the reason why this is more of a pain
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: in the ass than the other oversight investigations that have
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: been ongoing for a year and a half now is...
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Under the rubric of an impeachment inquiry, Congress has its
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: highest power to investigate.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Its subpoenas– well, we thought at least that its subpoenas
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: would be taken more seriously. A lot of court decisions
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: during the various Trump impeachments probably brought that into question.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: But various officials or requests for documents, emails are more
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: likely to have to be negotiated or acceded to under
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: an impeachment inquiry potentially than under the normal bullshit that
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: like Jim Jordan is doing every day to– end up
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: on Newsmax or whatever else. Now, I will say, and
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: this is maybe a bit of fortune for the Biden folks,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: is they just named Ed Siskel, the new White House counsel.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Who is terrific. We love Ed.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: We worked with him in the Obama White House. He
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: was very instrumental in helping us respond, although Obama was
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: on peach, but he was the target of one gazillion
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: bullshit investigations, helped us navigate all of those things. And
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: so they have a very able hand to help them
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: handle this. They have some really smart people doing the
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: comm stuff on this. Beth LeBold, who's the communications director,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: was the person who handled the response to all of
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: the Republican bullshit and the legal investigation stuff for us
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: as well. So they are certainly not rookies in this
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: in any way, shape, or form.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: No, they can handle it.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: What do you think the politics of this are for Biden?
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Is it somewhat, even if it's annoying in the short term,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: is the mere fact that this a little bit of
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: a political gift?
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: Think a little bit.
• 15:01
  Speaker 6: I think that President Biden is really good at taking
• 15:04
  Speaker 6: on the Republicans when they really sort of piss him
• 15:07
  Speaker 6: off by just making them seem small and seeming unafraid
• 15:11
  Speaker 6: of them.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: And I think that that's what he'll do.
• 15:13
  Speaker 6: He will get asked a gazillion questions when he's out campaigning.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: And he'll be like, yep. I mean, like, look, when
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: you think about it, Donald Trump He obfuscates. He denies.
• 15:24
  Speaker 6: He tries to get away with things. And Joe Biden's
• 15:26
  Speaker 6: just going to like damn into the torpedo. He's going
• 15:28
  Speaker 6: to be like, yeah, okay, fine.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Come for me. Here you go.
• 15:31
  Speaker 6: We'll give you whatever you want. Like take everything. You know,
• 15:35
  Speaker 6: like dust on his shoulder. So I think it's, you know,
• 15:38
  Speaker 6: I just.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: It's hard to imagine.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: You mean dirt on his shoulder, right?
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: What did I say?
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: Dust? Yeah.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Did I mess up a rap lyric?
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: You messed up the Jay-Z reference, yes.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: Okay. I meant. All right.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Whatever I'm supposed to have said. But I did the
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: brush thing right.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Yes, you did.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 15:57
  Speaker 6: But no, I mean like it's hard to say it's
• 15:59
  Speaker 6: like a net positive, but I think that they will
• 16:04
  Speaker 6: make the best of it, I guess.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: No one wants to be impeached.
• 16:07
  Speaker 7: No.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: No one wants to deal with these things. It will
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: be supremely annoying. if the House actually goes through with this,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: it becomes one of these things that is like hard
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: to explain generations from now.
• 16:17
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Like when people are just like going to whatever the
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: hologram 3D metaverse version of Wikipedia is and they read
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: about Joe Biden and it's like, how do we explain
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: to these people that there was this period in time
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: the Republican Party was run by idiotic weaklings who decided
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: to impeach the president for no reason? Like that will
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: be a hard thing to explain.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: But it, From a pure, raw politics point of view.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to use this poll that I mentioned
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: before that was done by the Congressional Integrity Project, which
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: is a Democratic group that pushes.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: Back- You know, for someone who hates polls, you love polls.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: I think that they just provide us a little snapshot
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: in time.
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: That's good. I just wanted to take a minute.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: And so this poll showed that 56% of voters, as
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: I said, thought that this basically was stupid partisan bullshit.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: But in 88% of Democrats thought that. I would like
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: to speak to the 12% who didn't, but- When you
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: look at the 2024 polling today, the race is much
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: closer than you want it to be. And the main
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: reason for that is Joe Biden is currently underperforming with
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Democrats and people who voted for him in 2020. And
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: he's getting, in some cases, about 77% of Democrats. I
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: wrote a long piece about this in the message box
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: earlier this week. But one thing that will quickly solve
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: that problem is Republicans impeaching him. This is exactly what
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: happened to Trump's approval numbers. In 2019, early 2020, when
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Democrats impeached him, Republicans went back to Trump.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: And his approval numbers actually went up during the course
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: of that inquiry. And so there will probably, this will
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: in some ways remind people why the Republicans are fucking
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: nuts and remind them. One of the validations of Joe
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Biden's presidency will be that these hateful morons are attacking him.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Like that's how negative partisanship and polarization works in this.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: Day and age.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Oh, thank you for breaking that down.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Sorry, did I do that in an obnoxious way?
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: No, it was perfect.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, thank you. Okay, switching gears for a second. And
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: speaking of cockamamie right-wing schemes, the Heritage Foundation.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm so upset about this.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: That's why we had you here. A right-wing think tank
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: has put together a 1,000-page plan and plans to recruit
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: thousands of people to come to Washington to, literally destroy
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: the federal government as we know it and fire up
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: to 50,000 civil servants if Donald Trump or some other
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: MAGA-friendly candidate wins in 2024. This is called Project 2025.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: It sounds very scary, but it's quite confusing. Alyssa, when
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: you were White House Deputy Chief of Staff, you had many,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: many responsibilities. One of those was you were in charge
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: of presidential personnel, staffing the government, essentially. Can you help
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: explain what it is the Republicans are trying to do
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: here and why it'd be so bad?
• 19:06
  Speaker 6: Just know that I'm about to embark on a nerd spiral,
• 19:09
  Speaker 6: so you can just sit back. This is, first of all,
• 19:13
  Speaker 6: these heritage people, they call their plan, it's actually packaged
• 19:17
  Speaker 6: as like a coffee table book. Just, I don't know,
• 19:19
  Speaker 6: think about that for a minute. There's something about that
• 19:21
  Speaker 6: that makes it even more pretentious and annoying. But, okay, first,
• 19:25
  Speaker 6: the US government currently has about 4,000 political appointees. These
• 19:30
  Speaker 6: are people who switch from administration to administration. And we
• 19:35
  Speaker 6: have about 488,000 civil servants who are known as FTEs,
• 19:40
  Speaker 6: full-time equivalents. Okay, those are the people who keep the
• 19:44
  Speaker 6: government going. They don't change from administration to administration. I
• 19:50
  Speaker 6: oversaw the political appointees. That's how it should be. We
• 19:54
  Speaker 6: were in the administration, I oversaw the political appointees.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: The FTEs are basically our safety net.
• 20:00
  Speaker 6: They're the reason we have a smooth transition of government
• 20:03
  Speaker 6: because they're the career employees with specific expertise that keeps
• 20:07
  Speaker 6: the government running. And if you actually go to USAjobs.gov,
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: you can see the process that they have to go
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: to to apply for a job. What the right wants
• 20:17
  Speaker 6: to do is return to the spoil system. This is
• 20:21
  Speaker 6: what they want to do. It was actually President Carter
• 20:24
  Speaker 6: who reformed the civil service in an effort to end
• 20:27
  Speaker 6: political bias, which had been a problem since the 1800s.
• 20:30
  Speaker 6: The civil service is what the GOP has dubbed the
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: deep state because they believed they stood in the way
• 20:37
  Speaker 6: of Trump. But to be honest, these people are meant
• 20:41
  Speaker 6: to be the guardrails for all of us. This is
• 20:45
  Speaker 6: what they do. We all come into government. Most people
• 20:49
  Speaker 6: haven't done it before. They have the depth of knowledge
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: that helps every administration be successful. So basically what the
• 20:57
  Speaker 6: GOP wants to do is bring in 50,000 people to
• 21:01
  Speaker 6: eliminate the people I just told you about. So in essence,
• 21:04
  Speaker 6: I'm just going to make a real clear example. They
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: want to be able to hire somebody to work at
• 21:09
  Speaker 6: the USDA Forest Service who isn't required to know how
• 21:12
  Speaker 6: to put out a forest fire.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: That's what they want to do. Or like, they don't
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: even have to know what a tree is.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: It's fine.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: They just want to bring in all of these new people.
• 21:21
  Speaker 6: And this is the best part, buddy, as I went
• 21:23
  Speaker 6: down the rabbit hole in this. The Heritage Foundation actually
• 21:27
  Speaker 6: held a jobs fair for the government in waiting. And
• 21:30
  Speaker 6: do you know where they held the jobs fair?
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: In a Fox News green room?
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Even better, it was at the Iowa State Fair.
• 21:38
  Speaker 6: They held their jobs fair at the Iowa State Fair because, buddy,
• 21:42
  Speaker 6: bring your turkey leg and beer and come over and
• 21:44
  Speaker 6: learn about working at Treasury. That's what they want to do.
• 21:50
  Speaker 6: They're government and waiting.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: And, buddy, they are putting so much effort into this.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: And it is.
• 21:55
  Speaker 6: Truly so stressful to me because at first, like when
• 21:59
  Speaker 6: you get in the government, you meet the career employees, right?
• 22:03
  Speaker 6: might be a little judgy of you they're like who
• 22:05
  Speaker 6: are these political whippersnappers and the truth is you're like
• 22:08
  Speaker 6: who are these people who've been here for forever and
• 22:10
  Speaker 6: guess what you fucking need them america needs them we
• 22:13
  Speaker 6: all need them they're american heroes and this is such
• 22:17
  Speaker 6: a tragic.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Situation i mean to put it into just like some
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: real world context from our lives yeah like you and
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: i and I think Vavs was with us, were on
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: the first bus of people who went from Barack Obama's inauguration,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the moment he becomes president.
• 22:31
  Speaker 6: I was already there. I had to miss inauguration. You
• 22:34
  Speaker 6: always forget this. You always forget this.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Well, then you can speak to that because, uh, You
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: walk in to the White House. And Obama became president
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: during what we now know to have been an active
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: terrorist plot.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Big deal.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: And the White House feels empty. All the office, the
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Bush people are all gone.
• 22:53
  Speaker 7: Totally.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: It is tumbleweed. Tumbleweed through the hallways.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: You think it's tumbleweed, right, in the offices that we're
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: going to sit in, right? There's a little Post-it note
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: with your name on it. Your desk is empty other
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: than some nice people put like some pencils and pens there.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: And there's a phone. And there's a post-it note on
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the computer with your temporary password.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: Yep. Yep.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: And that's it.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: But then you go downstairs and you were like, who
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: are all these people waiting in line to get coffee?
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: And you realize it's all the people, the full-time national
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: security professionals who've been there for years who are monitoring
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: the sit room to make sure that the country is
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: protected and thought through and there is a continuity plan
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: if something were to happen while we're there.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: And they want to get rid of those people. And
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: the reason they want to get rid of them, and
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: you have to think about this in the context of
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: January 6th.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: The reason Trump could not pull off the things like
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: seizing the voting machines, instituting martial law, various things he
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: wanted to do with the Justice Department was because there
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: were career employees there who would not sign off on it,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: who threatened to resign en masse if he did these things.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: That's why he had such trouble with the Pentagon because
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: there were all these career military people who were not
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: going to do what he wanted. And so they want
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: to get rid of those people because that is the
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: bulwark against the craziest things that the Republicans want to do.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: And then you have to put that in the context
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: of the overall vision of right-wing government, which is, as
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Grover Norquist, the Republican anti-tax advocate once said, is shrink
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: it down to the size you can drown it in
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: a bathtub. Because if you get rid of all these people,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: you can't do research on climate change. You can't Implement
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: the food stamp program. Everything they want to get rid
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: of is they want to break government so that people
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: don't want government anymore. And that's what this is about.
• 24:31
  Speaker 6: I mean, one of their plans is to give employees
• 24:35
  Speaker 6: at DHS power.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Of law enforcement.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Political appointees.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Everybody. A whole bunch of people. A whole bunch of people. Just,
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: you know what? You work here, you're now law enforcement.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: What?
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: And there's no one to stop them.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: There's no one to stop them.
• 24:49
  Speaker 6: If Donald Trump wins or that other guy.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: They will do this.
• 24:57
  Speaker 6: They will absolutely do this.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: Everyone should be really terrified. This is truly terrifying.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: It's hard to explain to people, but I think you
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: did an excellent job of explaining why it affects people's lives.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: And that's the thing we're going to have to do
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: during this campaign for a lot of people.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Okay. Alyssa, Donald Trump, the former president of the United States,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: with a hurricane hitting his home state of Florida, went
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: on Instagram to offer a message to Floridians, and frankly,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: all Americans. Let's take a listen.
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: Wow, my interview with Tucker Carlson has turned out to
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: be the single most watched video and interview in the
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: history of the world, I guess. Such a great honor
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: to have participated, 262 million views, and counting more than
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: doubling the longtime reigning champ, the Oprah Winfrey interview of
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: Michael Jackson. So I want to congratulate Tucker and I
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: want to thank everyone.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Alyssa, tough hit for Oprah, huh?
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: How do you think she's handling this?
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: You know what? I think she's doing great. You know why?
• 26:02
  Speaker 6: I don't know what other people did, but I went
• 26:04
  Speaker 6: back and watched the Oprah Michael Jackson interview.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: What a fucking trip. I had totally.
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: Forgotten about that. 1993 never felt so fresh.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Alyssa, I decided to put this in the outline.
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Two and a half hours ago.
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: In that time, you have interviewed a United States Senator
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: and you watched a 1983 interview with Michael Jackson.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: It was incredible. Elizabeth Taylor was there.
• 26:26
  Speaker 6: Buddy, you know that when you invite me to do
• 26:28
  Speaker 6: the pod, I was prepped and ready to go by
• 26:30
  Speaker 6: last night.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: I had nothing but time on my hands this morning.
• 26:33
  Speaker 6: So yes, I watched the video, the interview of Oprah
• 26:37
  Speaker 6: at Michael Jackson's house, Neverland Ranch.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: That shit was wild.
• 26:40
  Speaker 6: But also, I think you and I both know, like
• 26:42
  Speaker 6: as many people watch the Donald Trump interview, has attended
• 26:45
  Speaker 6: his inauguration.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Are you saying it was not the largest crowd to
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: ever witness an inauguration in history?
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Listen, buddy.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: As the soon-to-be Dancing with Stars contestant Sean Spicer said.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: I was just like, what is he doing? He's so pathetic.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: He's just so pathetic. How does Melania even look at him?
• 27:12
  Speaker 6: But also, he's always so pathetic. horny to like be
• 27:17
  Speaker 6: with the elites. Like he had to say Oprah because
• 27:20
  Speaker 6: secretly he wants Oprah to like him. He wants Oprah
• 27:23
  Speaker 6: to call him up and say, good job. And that's
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: never going to happen because that interview is iconic.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, it is. He has many times over the
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: last seven, eight years mentioned the fact that Oprah used
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: to be nice to him and now she's not.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 27:37
  Speaker 6: He also invited the Clintons to his wedding. Just saying
• 27:40
  Speaker 6: he's had a real journey.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: I don't want to play the role of fact checker,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: something I pointed myself to in last week's pod with Tommy.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: But to be clear, when Donald Trump says 262 million
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: people watched his interview, that is not true.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: No.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true. Oprah's record stands the test of time.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: With one extra view right over here.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Everyone's going to be shocked to hear this, but Elon
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Musk is playing a little fast and loose with the
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: view count on Twitter. What a Twitter view means is
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: really is what we used to call an impression. All
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: it means, it doesn't mean you watched the video. It
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean you started the video. It doesn't mean you
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: paused on the video as you were scrolling through Twitter feed.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: It means it showed up in your feed. So if,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: for instance, you follow Donald Trump, you follow Tucker, some
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: reporter you follow retweeted it, that counts as a view.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Some progressive person you followed quote tweeted to tell you
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: how stupid Trump is, that counts as a view. The
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: folks at Mashable did an estimate based on the video
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: view count. And that just means you watched some of
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: it or started it. You don't have to watch all
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: of it or even most of it. That it was
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: closer to like 12 or 14 million people, I think.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: And that was actually not the most watched video in history.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: It's not even Tucker Carlson's most watched interview. His interview
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: with Andrew Tate, the sex trafficker and misogynist, that one
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: actually had more video views at the time than Trump.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: So- The only reason I bring this up is because
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Trump's a nut and we should make fun of him.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: But also I think there is like an object lesson
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: here for progressives, which is Donald Trump did the Tucker
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Carlson interview because he's a shallow, spiteful man. He wanted
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: to screw over Fox. Like there's nothing more to tell
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Fox that he is mad at them than to do
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: an interview with the person that Fox is currently in
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: litigation for over violating his non-compete. But he also was
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: doing something that is like, It's not intentionally strategic, but
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: it's something that ends up happening so often that it
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: is like a downstream strategic benefit of Trump's sort of
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: crazy media style which is Donald Trump believes that Tucker
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Carlson helps him become president yeah And therefore, he takes
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: his time and he lays hands on Tucker Carlson as
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: a media figure. Because Tucker Carlson went off to do
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: this Twitter show. And if you really, has anyone even
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: thought about Tucker Carlson since he launched this Twitter show? No,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: no one sees it. No one cares about it.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Also, can I just say, I think I'm a better
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: interviewer than Tucker Carlson. That was like a bad interview.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's terrible.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: That was a bad interview.
• 30:03
  Speaker 6: It's also why people don't have to like dunk on Trump.
• 30:06
  Speaker 6: Like we all hate him, but stop quote tweeting. It's
• 30:09
  Speaker 6: just giving him more views.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Yes, you're giving him, what he wants is your attention.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: He doesn't care if your attention is good or bad.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: He just wants your attention. But what Trump does by
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: doing this interview is he helps make Tucker Carlson a
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: more influential figure, gives him more followers, more viewers, bigger
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: part of the conversation. And that is a lesson that
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Democrats up and down the ballot can learn from Trump,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: which is we should do the same thing for our
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: media allies, right? It is why we level politicians do
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: interviews on Positive America or hysteria. It's why Elijah and
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Ben make me beg people to smash the subscribe button
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: on Positive America YouTube channel because that helps build up
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: our following and make sure more people see our stuff.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: And so if you think progressive media is– if you're
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: a progressive politician, you think progressive media is a net
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: benefit for progressive causes and progressive politics, then you have
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: to do more stuff with them. That is my pitch
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: for people to come on Positive America and hysteria.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: That was well done.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 31:11
  Speaker 6: I didn't totally see where it was going right at first.
• 31:13
  Speaker 6: Then I was like, oh, I get what he's doing.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: It forced, it made me force people to listen to
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump for 28 seconds, but hopefully, hopefully there's a
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: payoff here.
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: Or Oprah and Michael Jackson.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: That's right. And you got to watch that interview. Okay.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: When we come back, Alyssa talks to Senator Mazie Hirono.
• 31:41
  Speaker 6: Senator from Hawaii, Mazie Hirono, welcome to Pod Save America.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: Good to be with you always. Aloha.
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: Aloha.
• 31:49
  Speaker 6: We are a few weeks out from the fires that
• 31:51
  Speaker 6: ravaged Maui, specifically in Lahaina and Kula. We see the
• 31:55
  Speaker 6: aftermath of Hurricane Edalia across the south.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: Mother Nature feels very pissed at us right now.
• 32:02
  Speaker 6: I saw that a recent brush fire, another one, albeit brief,
• 32:06
  Speaker 6: caused an evacuation of Lahaina. Are the fires fully contained
• 32:10
  Speaker 6: on the island at this point?
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: The fires are contained 100% as far as I know
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: in Lahaina, but everyone is ever watchful, you can imagine.
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: The fires have been contained as far as I know.
• 32:24
  Speaker 6: What are the unique challenges of being an island state
• 32:29
  Speaker 6: when it comes to recovering from a disaster like this?
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: We are also a very tourist dependent state and when
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: something like this happens and And people no longer come
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: to our state. It's going to have a devastating impact
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: on our economy and our ability to recover. And that
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: is why the governor and the mayor of Maui County
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: is asking people to help with the economic recovery by
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: continuing to visit not Lahaina, but the other parts of Maui,
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: being very sensitive to the fact that there is a
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: lot of grieving and loss being experienced by the people
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: of Maui. But still, the recovery is going to take
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: time and resources. And part of that are tourists who
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: will come in and support the economic recovery of Maui. Again,
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: being very sensitive to what we are going through.
• 33:25
  Speaker 6: Are there other ways that people traveling to Maui can
• 33:28
  Speaker 6: be conscientious tourists other than just not going to Lahaina?
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Are there ways that they can help?
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: Well, they can certainly go to a website that I've
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: been suggesting people go to. It's called hawaiicommunityfoundation.org, and they
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: have set up a special fund for Maui recovery. hawaiicommunityfoundation.org, all,
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: not underscore, just type that in. And they are accepting
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: contributions from literally all over the country and the world.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: There are a lot of people who hold Hawaii and
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: Maui dear to their hearts. And so those kinds of
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: contributions are really, really important right now.
• 34:12
  Speaker 6: And I have been following them as well, Senator, and
• 34:14
  Speaker 6: they have been very transparent about how much money they're
• 34:17
  Speaker 6: getting and what they're giving away and to whom. So
• 34:19
  Speaker 6: they have really been doing heroic work.
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 34:22
  Speaker 6: On Maui, there are still 300 people reportedly missing. Several
• 34:27
  Speaker 6: news reports are saying the mayor of Maui was derelict
• 34:30
  Speaker 6: in his duties and didn't call the state for backup.
• 34:33
  Speaker 6: Are you confident that if people made catastrophic mistakes that
• 34:36
  Speaker 6: they'll be held accountable?
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: I think that that is all going to reveal itself
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: as we continue to recover. And as you probably know,
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: there are multiple lawsuits. The county has already filed a
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: lawsuit against the electric company. Electric company will probably countersuit.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: Then there are private suits going on. So all of
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: that kind of information will reveal itself. And there will
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: be a lot of finger pointing, I'm sure. But at
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: the same time, the recovery is going to require time, resources,
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: and really the recovery should reflect the values and the
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: voices of the people of Lahaina in particular. It is
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: not about, as the president said yesterday, It is not
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: about the federal government or anybody else swooping in and saying,
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: here's what you all are going to do. Here's what
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: Lahaina is going to look like. No, it's got to
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: be done very much reflecting the values and voices of
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: the people there.
• 35:35
  Speaker 6: To that point, I think for a lot of folks,
• 35:38
  Speaker 6: it's hard to imagine a drought on an island. But
• 35:42
  Speaker 6: Maui was in fact experiencing a drought and the fires
• 35:44
  Speaker 6: were largely fed by non-native plants. Something I think it's
• 35:48
  Speaker 6: really important for our listeners to know. Loads of plants
• 35:51
  Speaker 6: were brought onto the island in the late 1700s and 1800s,
• 35:55
  Speaker 6: like guinea grass, for purposes they no longer serve, like
• 35:58
  Speaker 6: feeding cows. Colonists turned from cattle farming to other forms
• 36:02
  Speaker 6: of agriculture, but left these grasses that grow up to
• 36:05
  Speaker 6: six inches in a day. They're both drought resistant and
• 36:09
  Speaker 6: decompose less quickly, making them essentially kindling in a situation
• 36:12
  Speaker 6: like this. Will recovery efforts include addressing issues like these
• 36:16
  Speaker 6: invasive species that make your lands more vulnerable to fires?
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: Of course, there are other areas of Hawaii that are vulnerable.
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: Hawaii has wildfires just like any other state. And the
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: numbers of acres percentage wise is akin to other states.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: But of course, this was the most devastating in loss
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: of life and property in an entire town burned to
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: the ground, a very historic town. And yes, so the
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: conditions that led to this disaster will need to be investigated,
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: including the presence of invasive grasses that needed to be
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: cut back. There are other places where these invasive grasses
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: have grown, and we need to make sure that the
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: management of the lands, the fallow lands, is part of
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: our efforts to prevent and mitigate these kinds of disasters.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: This morning, some news broke.
• 37:10
  Speaker 6: You can always count on Oprah to make a splash.
• 37:12
  Speaker 6: This morning, news broke that Oprah and The Rock have
• 37:15
  Speaker 6: launched an assistance fund called the People's Fund of Maui.
• 37:19
  Speaker 6: They donated $ 10 million to kick it off and say
• 37:21
  Speaker 6: every cent will go to the people of Maui. According
• 37:25
  Speaker 6: to the press release, residents 18 and over who live
• 37:28
  Speaker 6: in the affected area and who were displaced by the
• 37:30
  Speaker 6: fires will be eligible to receive $ 1, 200 a month to help.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: Through the recovery period.
• 37:35
  Speaker 6: Maisie, do you think we're at a point now where
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: climate disasters are so frequent that we're going to have
• 37:39
  Speaker 6: to rely on private citizens to provide relief for survivors?
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: I'm really glad that private citizens, particularly, I would say,
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: the people of Maui, when I was visiting the shelters,
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: it was very clear all the people were there volunteering,
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: including high school kids who were volunteering. But this is
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: a joint effort by government. We have to acknowledge, we,
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: our country, has to acknowledge, I would say, the connection
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: between global warming, climate change, and the frequency and how
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: damaging All of these disasters are. So hurricanes and flooding
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: and wildfires, these, in my view, and the view of scientists,
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: are connected to global warming. And we need to acknowledge
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: that and, as a country, deal with it. And that
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: is why the Inflation Reduction Act has $ 300 billion to
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: deal with global warming and climate change. But we know
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: that there are some states where you can't even use
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: the words climate change. Well, hey, everybody, wake up. Because
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: this is a time for all of us in a
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: bipartisan way to say that we are doing things in
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: our globe that is really setting the stage for these
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: kinds of global climate damaging events to continue to happen.
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: And we need to deal with it in a way
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: that will prevent and mitigate global warming.
• 39:08
  Speaker 6: You touched on this a little bit ago, but we
• 39:11
  Speaker 6: have been hearing stories about unsavory developers and real estate
• 39:15
  Speaker 6: agents trolling to buy up land. Do you have confidence
• 39:18
  Speaker 6: that the people in Maui will be provided with the
• 39:20
  Speaker 6: means to keep the land they own and rebuild the
• 39:23
  Speaker 6: homes that may have been destroyed?
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: I believe that there will be ways that, especially at
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: the county level, there may be a moratorium on building
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: or sales of land. And whether that will be challenged,
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure. But there is a general, I would say,
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: consensus and support. This is no time for people to
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: come flocking in and trying to buy up the land
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: that's in Lahaina. This is not the time for any
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: of that kind of activity to be happening. I believe
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: that there is a moratorium on this kind of activity.
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: I certainly hope so.
• 40:02
  Speaker 6: Let's talk a little bit more about giving and how
• 40:04
  Speaker 6: people can help. I have focused my giving toward the
• 40:07
  Speaker 6: Maui Humane Society. I am wearing their t-shirt today. Since
• 40:11
  Speaker 6: in Hawaii, pets are considered part of the Ohana, the family,
• 40:15
  Speaker 6: they're doing incredible work. Are there other organizations? We already
• 40:18
  Speaker 6: talked about the Hawaii Community Foundation. Are there other organizations
• 40:22
  Speaker 6: you would love our listeners to be aware of and
• 40:24
  Speaker 6: to support?
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: If you go to Hawaii Community Foundation, there is a
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: list of all of the organizations. They're trusted organizations that
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: the money that goes into this special fund through the
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: Hawaii Community Organization. Please check through that to see if
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: the Humane Society is among them. Or you can probably
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: just go to Humane Society Maui and scroll through. But
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: make sure that these are legitimate organizations that are accepting
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: these funds.
• 40:53
  Speaker 6: And we will make sure to link to these organizations
• 40:56
  Speaker 6: in our show notes so people can just click over
• 40:59
  Speaker 6: and support. And also, I just want to say that
• 41:02
  Speaker 6: for me, growing up, we always went to Maui in
• 41:05
  Speaker 6: the winter and our favorite thing was coconut syrup. So
• 41:08
  Speaker 6: I have ordered loads of coconut syrup to help support businesses.
• 41:11
  Speaker 6: So if you are near me, you'll be getting coconut
• 41:13
  Speaker 6: syrup soon.
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: Well, there you go. Thank you.
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: Maisie, thank you. Thank you so much for taking the
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: time to talk to us today. Mahalo.
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: And thank everyone who cares about Hawaii to help our recovery.
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: Mahalo nui loa. Thanks for the focus. It's going to
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: take a long time for us to recover from something
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: as devastating as this. It's so heartbreaking.
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: It's so heartbreaking just watching.
• 41:35
  Speaker 6: And I really feel it's terrifying to hear people talk
• 41:37
  Speaker 6: about the conspiracy theories.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: Of what they think happened. So- I really wanted to
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: get you on today to be able to kind of like.
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: Yes, we need to push back and focus our energies
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: and what's really going to help. And then that is
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: not about, you know, there's going to be as Kevin McCarthy,
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: he wants to do an investigation to the federal response.
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: Politicizing this tragedy is not what we need. No moment
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: or any time, frankly. Thank you so much.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: Hawaii Community Foundation dot org.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: All right, before we go, Alyssa and I wanted to
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: answer a few questions submitted from the friends of the
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: pod community on Discord. If you love Pod Save America,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: if you love Crooked Media, if you want more content,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: you want ad-free episodes of Pod Save America, if you
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: just want to be part of a community of people
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: who are working together to defeat MAGA Republicans and save
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: our democracy, particularly an online community that Elon Musk has
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: banned from, you should go to crooked.com slash friends and
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: join us. the Friends of the Pod subscription community. I
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: promise you, if you like what you're listening to here,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: you will love that. And these questions were submitted by
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: people as part of that community. Alyssa.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: Our first question is from Mont Govern, who asks, in
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: light of McConnell's apparent health issues, if he does retire
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: in the near future, who do you think would replace
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: him as the party's leader, and what would that mean
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: for the Senate?
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: Thune, right? John Thune. Wouldn't Thune replace him?
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: There is a battle between three Johns. John Thune, John Cornyn,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: John Barrasso, who I swear is a real person in
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: the Senate.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: But John Thune, don't tell anyone. John Thune's the most handsome, though.
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: Alyssa.
• 43:27
  Speaker 7: What?
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: You were speaking to someone who spent two years of
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: their life running campaigns against John Thune.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: I didn't say that he was smart or capable. I
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: don't think any of the three of them are, but
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: he's the most handsome.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: Would you say Mitch McConnell was a successful Republican leader?
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: In all the ways we hate, but would you say
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: he was successful?
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, probably.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: Would you say he's handsome?
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: Definitely not.
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Just some context here for people who may not have seen.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell, earlier this year, had a bad fall. He
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: was absent from the Senate for weeks. He was very
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: mysterious about what caused the fall or how he was
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: dealing with it. He came back to the Senate. During
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: a press availability a month or so ago, he froze up.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: And during that, it had a clear health issue while
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: speaking to the press and had to be escorted away
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: from the microphones by the three Johns I just referenced.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: And then just yesterday on Wednesday, he was in Kentucky.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: He had a similar incident where he was asked a
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: question about running for reelection and then just froze. He
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: did not speak. An aide had to come up and
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: talk to him. He eventually had to be sort of
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: taken away from the microphone. McConnell staff has told no
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: one anything about what is happening, what the issue is.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: They haven't had a doctor talk to anyone. And so
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: there's real questions about not just whether McConnell will run
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: for reelection in a few years, but whether he can
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: continue to be Senate leader or even get Senator from
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: Kentucky right now.
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: And you were probably right. So the order here is
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: that Thune is the number two in the Senate. Um,
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: Cornyn has been in Senate leadership for a long time.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: He's a sort of a little bit more of a
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: political person than Thune is. He ran the NRSC. He's
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: a little more of a mega media personality. Um, I
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: could tell you nothing about John Barrasso.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: Like at all.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know that anyone could either.
• 45:17
  Speaker 6: And I appreciate that you could tell me a little
• 45:18
  Speaker 6: something about the second John. But the reason I said
• 45:21
  Speaker 6: that John Thune should do it because he's the most
• 45:22
  Speaker 6: handsome is because that's all I know about any of
• 45:24
  Speaker 6: the three of them.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: John Thune, as I mentioned, I worked on two Senate
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: campaigns against him. We won the first one, lost the
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: second one. He is a able politician. I would say
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: he is not a deep thinker. would be a fair
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: way to say it. He certainly was not strategic like McConnell,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: but he would probably be a better messenger if he
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: were to become the leader of the Senate. McConnell is
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: never on television.
• 45:48
  Speaker 7: Ever.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: Because, I mean, he- Is utterly un-telegenic.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: And he speaks, like every McConnell interview, his whole career
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: has been basically like someone reading the Almanac of American.
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: Politics with marbles in their mouth.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: You just can't understand the words. I mean, you can't
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: understand the words. It's in Senate jargon. It's terrible. Thune
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: is a good messenger and probably better for that. Cornyn
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: is really kind of a gross, disgusting individual in his politics,
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: but also a smoother messenger. And like I said, if
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: John Barrasso walked in this room right now, I wouldn't
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: recognize him. So maybe he's probably not the one who's
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: going to win. But the change in the Senate would
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: probably be same politics, less able execution than McConnell had.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: I buy it. I buy it. Okay, next question. Listen,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: this one is definitely right up your alley. MG– asks,
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: who is the person in the White House in charge
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: of all the flags? Is there a room full of
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: every country's flag, and they just pull it out during
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: state visits? Do you send along flags before international visits?
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: MG wants the flag scoop and also wants to know,
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: if this person in charge of the flags retires, can
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: they apply for the job?
• 46:54
  Speaker 6: Well, as a matter of fact, flags are handled by
• 46:58
  Speaker 6: the visits division at the State Department. And they work
• 47:03
  Speaker 6: in coordination with the White House military office when the
• 47:06
  Speaker 6: visit is at the White House. And since MG is
• 47:11
  Speaker 6: very stoked on flags, I will add this little nugget,
• 47:14
  Speaker 6: which is that the lowering of the flag over the
• 47:17
  Speaker 6: White House is a function of the White House staff
• 47:19
  Speaker 6: secretary's office.
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: And they actually draft a proclamation for the president to
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: sign that determines how long the flag will be at
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: half mast.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Is there a room with the flags?
• 47:29
  Speaker 6: I mean, they're not kept in a bunker, so yeah,
• 47:32
  Speaker 6: there's a room somewhere with flags.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Where are the state flags?
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: Like the United States of America?
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the 50 states, because aren't those always put up
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: all the time?
• 47:41
  Speaker 6: Why are you trying to make me look like an
• 47:43
  Speaker 6: asshole who doesn't know anything? I don't know where the
• 47:45
  Speaker 6: fucking state flags are kept.
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: I'm just kidding.
• 47:48
  Speaker 6: I am fairly confident in saying that they are kept
• 47:51
  Speaker 6: in the White House military office.
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: Okay. That's good.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: That's a good answer.
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 47:56
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: Katrina asks, people make fun of the West Wing for
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: its rosy portrayal of an idealistic White House team, but
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: surely you had a few West Wing moments over the years.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: What's one you remember?
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: What's one you remember?
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Mine's not that rosy, but I'll give it to you
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: anyway because it was quite funny.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: Mine's funny. Mine's not rosy. Mine's just funny too.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: I remember early, early days of White House. We'd only
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: been there maybe like a month or so. And for
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: those who don't know, on the weekends, White House staff
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: When the president is not working in the West Wing,
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: White House staff can give family, friends, a private tour
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: of the West Wing where you can see the Oval
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Office behind rope and stanchion and the cabinet room and
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: all this other stuff. And they can happen after hours
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: during the week and on Saturdays and Sundays. And particularly
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: in the early days when a Republican– right after a
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: Republican had been in the White House for eight years,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: the White House was packed. Particularly there was so much
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: excitement over Obama being president. The White House was packed
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: with people giving tours. And it was like– there was
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: like traffic everywhere. on Saturdays and Sundays, like trying to
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: get to your office because there were so many people
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: doing tours. And I was stuck walking up the steps
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: from the basement of the West Wing where you would
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: get coffee and breakfast.
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: And visit me. And visit me.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: And visit you, yes. And so I had gone and
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: got breakfast and I was headed up to my office
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: and I was behind a family getting a West Wing
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: tour from a staffer. And the– one of the people
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: on the tour says, you know, this looks nothing like
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: the TV show, The West Wing, which is true. It
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: does not. But at the exact moment she said that,
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: for reasons that are still hard to explain, around the
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: corner comes Rob Lowe.
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: No! No!
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: Like, just as she says it. No, Sam Seaborn! It
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: was wild. Yeah, he had been in the White House
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: for a meeting on environmental policy, I think, with our
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: climate change people. But it was just, like, exact perfect time.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: And he was just like, so that's what you think, huh?
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: Or something like that. And they just, like, jaws dropped everywhere.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: Buddy, that's an amazing story. I actually never knew that.
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: I didn't know that story.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: One day I'll tell the story about when the entire
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: cast of True Blood was trapped outside of the White
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: House trying to get on a tour on the day
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: Bin Laden was killed.
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: Because everyone was in town for the correspondence dinner. Yeah,
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: that's right.
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: Anywho, what's your- Okay, so my.
• 50:09
  Speaker 6: Story is about the two of us, and I bet
• 50:10
  Speaker 6: you won't remember it, but I, every time I'm like
• 50:14
  Speaker 6: a little down in the dumps or something, I will
• 50:16
  Speaker 6: think about this. You and I, it was, I don't
• 50:19
  Speaker 6: know what year it was, but our offices were across
• 50:21
  Speaker 6: from each other, right, next to the Oval. And you know,
• 50:24
  Speaker 6: you and I, we would always bop into the other
• 50:25
  Speaker 6: person's office.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: That was January 2013 until March of 2014.
• 50:28
  Speaker 7: Okay.
• 50:31
  Speaker 6: So we were across the hall from each other and
• 50:33
  Speaker 6: I'm pretty sure it was, well, you know how my
• 50:36
  Speaker 6: feet would always get hot and so I would not
• 50:38
  Speaker 6: have my shoes on in the West Wing when I
• 50:40
  Speaker 6: thought no one was paying attention. So I popped over
• 50:44
  Speaker 6: to your office to chat and the door was open
• 50:47
  Speaker 6: and as I'm standing there barefoot in your office, Bebe Netanyahu,
• 50:51
  Speaker 6: I'm pretty sure it was Bebe Netanyahu and POTUS walk
• 50:54
  Speaker 6: by and POTUS, who like didn't always stop and be like,
• 50:57
  Speaker 6: this is Alyssa and Dan.
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 51:01
  Speaker 6: Stopped and immediately looked in and saw my feet and
• 51:04
  Speaker 6: gave me the face.
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: It's like, Jesus fucking Christ, Alyssa. And I was just standing.
• 51:09
  Speaker 6: There in your office and I was like, shrug emoji,
• 51:13
  Speaker 6: nothing I can do now. Anyway, it's like, how can
• 51:17
  Speaker 6: you– I don't– like that doesn't– it's like it was
• 51:20
  Speaker 6: the weirdest, funniest thing and I'll always remember it because
• 51:22
  Speaker 6: you were also quite embarrassed.
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, in fairness, it's Barack Obama's fault. He knew
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: all of us for many years before he hired us
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: to these jobs in the White House.
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: No one should have expected anything more from me. Okay?
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: Utterly professional, got the job done, but often barefoot.
• 51:40
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: Last question.
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: Jen Woda asks, what's the best advice you've given each other?
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 51:46
  Speaker 6: So I'm going to go first because Pfeiffer has given
• 51:49
  Speaker 6: me two hugely important pieces of advice that I.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: I cannot wait to hear what these are.
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: Utilize- weekly. Okay.
• 51:58
  Speaker 6: So the first one was I was in my office
• 52:02
  Speaker 6: and I was like real bummed out. And I wish,
• 52:04
  Speaker 6: the reason I love to tell this is because I
• 52:07
  Speaker 6: think that like people who listen to the pod think
• 52:09
  Speaker 6: of you in a very specific way and I need
• 52:12
  Speaker 6: them to see this side of you. And this is
• 52:14
  Speaker 6: not a 90210 story. So you come in and you're like, Alyssa, buddy,
• 52:21
  Speaker 6: what's wrong? And I'm like, And I tell you a
• 52:24
  Speaker 6: story about someone who has really let me down.
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: And you're like, buddy, okay. I say this with love.
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: And I was like, uh-oh.
• 52:33
  Speaker 6: You're like, you have to stop being constantly disappointed by
• 52:37
  Speaker 6: people who will only disappoint you. And it was like
• 52:41
  Speaker 6: a light bulb went off in my head because that
• 52:43
  Speaker 6: is literally an entire cornerstone of my personality is being
• 52:47
  Speaker 6: disappointed by people who are only in my life to
• 52:50
  Speaker 6: disappoint me.
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: So that was the first one. Here's the other one.
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: Someone new, you might remember this one.
• 52:58
  Speaker 6: Someone new had joined us in the West Wing and
• 53:02
  Speaker 6: I went into your office and I was like, I
• 53:04
  Speaker 6: don't know about this one. And you're like, buddy, listen,
• 53:09
  Speaker 6: you always dislike somebody before you like them.
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: In two weeks, you're going to.
• 53:14
  Speaker 6: Be cackling in your office together and I will be right.
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: And you were right.
• 53:18
  Speaker 6: And so now when I go through life and I
• 53:20
  Speaker 6: meet someone and I'm like, What a fucking asshole. I'm like, Alyssa,
• 53:27
  Speaker 6: hold your fire. Pfeiffer might be right here. And nine
• 53:30
  Speaker 6: times out of 10, you are correct. So you have
• 53:32
  Speaker 6: really just lifted burdens off of my brain.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: I know exactly who you're talking to in both instances.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: And I feel like that advice worked well in both cases.
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: It did, and in life.
• 53:41
  Speaker 6: And so I just, you know, it's been, I don't
• 53:43
  Speaker 6: know how many years we've been friends, but since you
• 53:45
  Speaker 6: gave me that advice, I think.
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: About it routinely.
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: We've been friends for 16 years, Alyssa.
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: And I look better than when we met.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: That is a fact.
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 53:56
  Speaker 6: Thank you so much. Leaving government does wonders for your skin.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: I don't know that I could single out a single
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: piece of advice you gave me because there is no
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: question in my mind that I would not have survived.
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: Because you're a goldfish? Because you're a goldfish.
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: It means you have no memory.
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: It means you have no memory.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: Because there's no way I would have made it through
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: the White House, a whole bunch of really challenging periods
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: of my life without you there. There's no question about that.
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: But the one most– I mean, Anne, you literally saved
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: my life once by sending me to the hospital.
• 54:29
  Speaker 3: I did.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: During a medical emergency and getting me top-notch medical care
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: from someone who's now a right-wing microcosm. Absolute maniac. But
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: at the time, that did save my life. But obviously
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: the most impactful and valuable piece of advice you gave
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: me is that you told me to date my wife.
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: I did.
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: I did.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: You were a full endorseee. You encouraged me. So without that,
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't have, my life would be very different, much sadder.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: And so that was the, couldn't be more lucky to
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: have you.
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: Have done that.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: So thank you.
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: See?
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: We had to give the people what they want.
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: I know I don't have to tell you guys this,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: but everyone needs more Alyssa Mastromonaco in their life. So
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: be sure to check out her podcast, Hysteria, where she
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: and co-host Erin Ryan break down the stories that affect
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: women's lives. talking about everything from reproductive rights to rom-coms.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: New episodes drop every Thursday. Make sure to tune into
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: Hysteria wherever you get your podcasts. Pod Save America is
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: going back on the road. Tickets to our live shows
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: this fall and winter are available now. There are no
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: off years in politics. And with so many important state
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: elections this year, 2023, we're excited to be stopping by
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: battleground states to help break down the news and help
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: you find ways to make an impact. Join us for
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: live shows in cities like Louisville, San Diego, San Jose, Washington, D.C.,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: and New Orleans. Get your tickets now at crooked.com slash events. Alyssa,
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: thanks for joining us today. Thank you to Senator Hirono.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: We will talk to everyone next week.
• 55:56
  Speaker 7: Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive
• 55:59
  Speaker 7: producer is Michael Martinez. Our producers are Andy Gardner Bernstein
• 56:04
  Speaker 7: and Olivia Martinez. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick.
• 56:08
  Speaker 7: Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer with audio support from
• 56:11
  Speaker 7: Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis. Thanks to Hallie Kiefer, Madeline Herringer,
• 56:15
  Speaker 7: Ari Schwartz, Andy Taft, and Justine Howe for production support.
• 56:18
  Speaker 7: And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, Mia Kellman,
• 56:22
  Speaker 7: Ben Hefko, and David Tolles. Subscribe to Pod Save America
• 56:25
  Speaker 7: on YouTube to catch full episodes, exclusive content, and other
• 56:29
  Speaker 7: community events. Find us at youtube.com slash at Pod Save America.