Latest / The Chuck ToddCast / Full Episode - Trump’s Republican Party Is Infected With Intellectual Rot + How Democrats Can Compete In Florida Again

Transcript

Full Episode - Trump’s Republican Party Is Infected With Intellectual Rot + How Democrats Can Compete In Florida Again · The Chuck ToddCast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This episode of the Chuck Todd cast is brought to
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: you by Chapter. Now, almost everything you hear about Medicare
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: is somebody quietly trying to steer you somewhere. And you're
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: skeptical of that, as you should be. I get it.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's a federal lawsuit going on right now
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: over exactly this. Companies that branded themselves as unbiased while
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: allegedly pointing people toward whatever would pay them the most
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: as some sort of broker. So if your default is
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to distrust everyone in this space, honestly, I get it.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I'm a bit distrustful these days myself. That's the whole
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: reason I want to tell you about Chapter. They're independent
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Medicare advisors whose entire model is that their advisors are
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: not paid to push any one plan. They're just trying
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: to help. Yes, there's compensation that goes with it. but
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: it's across the board is what they're trying to do.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: At the end of the day, they're advocating for you.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: They're not the insurance companies themselves. They're an actual person
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: who actually goes through your doctors, your prescriptions, your needs,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: and then compares them to every single plan available to
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: find the best one that will work for you and
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: hopefully save you a couple dollars too. And here's the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: part that sets chapter apart. They don't disappear once you've
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: been in They will keep advocating for you. They're kind
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of like almost like a concierge service. You're just there.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I need help. You're like customer service. You know, the plan,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: you know, help me navigate this again. So you ever
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: get hit with a wrongful medical bill, they'll help you
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: fight it. They want to stay an advocate for you
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: even after you've done this. So look, I get it.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I think there's all sorts of space. You see a
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: lot of people are throwing themselves in this healthcare space.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: What I like about these chapter folks, I've spent time
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: with them. This is a very transparent organization. It is
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Medicare and all of its affiliated stuff can be very confusing.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: The whole point of this is to make this easier
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: and less confusing. Okay, so look, take the skepticism you
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: already have in all of this, point it at your
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: own plan for 20 minutes. It's free. There's no pressure.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: And then call chapter today at 980-734-4255. Three, nine, eight, five. Surprise.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: It's October. Happy October 1st. The October surprises now can
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: officially be unveiled. All of you campaigns that have been
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: waiting and holding back that magic bullet that is going
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: to absolutely torture opponent and get you to the finish line.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: it is now the month that you're supposed to release
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: all this stuff. I half kid. I don't think, I'm
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: not saying there aren't things that are probably being held back,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: maybe key advertisements. I mean, we've already seen some surprising
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: ads during this campaign season, including the January 6th commercial,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the January 6th rally goer who is doing an endorsement
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: ad for Gina Hosa in Texas. So could call that
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: a bit of a surprise, certainly was a curveball, if
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: you will. So those are the type of planned surprises
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I would expect. Of course, it's the unknown, right? And
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: to quote the late, great Don Rumsfeld, it's the unknown unknowns.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: And one thing is for sure, it's the unexpected that
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: could have a huge impact on where things happen. And
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: let's say we dodged one of those unexpected potential early
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: October surprises in the Middle East early on Wednesday morning.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: But before I get to that, I want to give
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: you a quick rundown of what to expect from this episode.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I've got a bunch of stuff, including about Paxton and
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Schmidt and about, I don't know how else to put this,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: because it's going to come across as a partisan statement,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: and it's not meant to be a partisan statement. but
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the intellectual rot inside the Republican Party, Trump's Republican Party.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: And it's important that I wanna isolate it there because
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the conservative movement is not rotten. There is intellectual, there
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: is plenty of consistent conservatives that exist like my friend,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Jonah Goldberg and Steve Hayes and with the work that's
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: being done at the dispatcher, plenty of scholars at AEI,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: sort of the, you know, people like George Will. So
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: this is, this is, this is not, it's not an
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: attempt to quote unquote be a biased statement about left
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: versus right. Trump's Republican party has rot in it. And
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I think both the Eric Schmidt and the Ken Paxton
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: episodes in the last 48 hours help, I think, tell
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: that story. I'm going to get into that a little bit.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about what I think is a
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: hidden issue that I think is going to have is
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: certainly going to have an impact on independent voters and
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: why it looks like they're so decidedly moving in one direction.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: And then I want to share an interesting observation by
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: my friend Doug Sosnick. He's been a guest on this
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: podcast a long time. He was the White House political
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: director back in the Bill Clinton days. He had a
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: very interesting column about what the next two to three
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: years and really sort of the paralysis, political paralysis that
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I think we should expect as we transition from the
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Trump era to whatever the hell we're about to enter, right?
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: And I think that's what we're, we know we're not
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: going backwards. Whatever we're going is not going to be familiar.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: It may, you know, it may have a few ingredients
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: that we're used to, but it feels like we're headed
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: somewhere else, not necessarily a return to anything. There's a
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: new Wall Street Journal poll that I want to share
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: with you as well, because the issue matrix right now,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: it just is, it's in a huge lopsided favor for
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: the Democrats at this moment. And these polling numbers will
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: show that. My interview is with Angie Nixon. I interviewed
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: her earlier this week. And since I've interviewed her, she's,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: of course, the surprise Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: in Florida. And after her win, many people were going
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: to write the race off, except she hasn't dropped in
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the polls. I think Ashley Moody, the appointed senator, remember,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: she replaced Marco Rubio when Marco Rubio was appointed secretary
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: of state. I think she breathed a sigh of relief
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: when Vindman lost that primary. And then they've noticed, hey,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: the polls haven't moved here. This is a dead heat.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: So I suspect Moody's going to have to spend a
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: lot more money, perhaps, than she expected. She's still the
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: favorite in this race. But what's interesting is you have
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Emily's List decided to endorse her. Interesting that they didn't
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: do it in the primary. I guess if you're Angie Nixon,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: better late than never. And there are real national donors.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: But it feels to me that that's Emily's List trying
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: to make sure they don't make anybody mad in the
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: progressive movement or perhaps over at the CBC by their
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: lack of enthusiasm earlier. Either way, it's a potential financial
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: shot in the arm and something I think that she'll
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: take any help that she can get here. And it's
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: an interesting conversation. Look, she's not a comfortable mainstream Democrat,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and she'll tell you. But she does view her running
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: with David Jolly as a, a partnership in some ways,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: even if they don't agree. Uh, I pointed out at
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: one point, she was thrown out a few critiques. I said, boy,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: that could apply to person you're running on the same
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: ticket with and Mr. Jolly. And she kind of acknowledged that.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: And so, and I think that's something you'll see about
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Angie Nixon. She's not a, she's not somebody that's interested
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: in sounding like a Washington progressive. You know, this is
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: somebody who I think is truly in the grassroots, uh,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and connected to the grassroots, uh, definitely an activist. Um, And,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: you know, it's one of those things, like my interview
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: that I had with Abdul El-Sayed, which was, okay, what
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: are you going to do with this Senate? And what
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: I found striking was that the answers were somewhat similar there.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: We'll do some questions, of course, and I will have
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: a good college football preview. Look, this is not a
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: week like last week. Last week was one hell of
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: a week, and we've got a couple of great Saturdays
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: coming up. But, hey, This isn't a bad Saturday. Don't
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: get me wrong. And certainly for Miami, they're going to
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: one of the two Death Valleys, the one in South Carolina.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: So it is something that I have tickets to. We
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: will see if I can make it down there. I
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: will let you know on Monday whether I did make
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: it down there because Got a little travel myself. In fact,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I'll give you a few highlights there. I'm headed out
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to Kansas City with the Poynter Institute, one of the
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: great media watchdogs and media training and purveyors of independent
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: journalism and media out there. I'll be joining them in
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Kansas City. And oh, by the way, I got a
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: sneak preview of Musk the movie. the new Alex Gibney documentary,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: and also sat down with Alex for my New Sphere
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: show that you will catch on Sunday. It's a fascinating portrait.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: And I think this is one of those with Elon Musk,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: he's a Rorschach test. Some people think he's this incredible
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: genius and there's a cult-like obsession about him. And some
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: think he is a Bond villain in real life. Yeah.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure he's going to love this documentary, but
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know if he would disagree with some of
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the conclusions that are in it. So there's your set
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: of teases for there. But look, before I get into
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: my larger sort of political point for this episode that
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I want to leave you with, I got up pretty
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: early on Wednesday morning and, you know, when I say early,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm a middle-aged guy. So you know what
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: that means. It's somewhere in the four to five hour,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: four to 5 a.m. hour here on the East coast.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: And I made the mistake of checking my phone and
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: saw this was following the breaking news that was taking
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: place in real time. What was happening aboard that flight
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: from Dubai to Tel Aviv. That attempted hijacking, the attack
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: of the cockpit, the plane plunging suddenly some 20,000 feet,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: and ultimately the passengers and crew preventing this from becoming
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: something much, much worse. And look, I'm going to resist
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: doing the sort of old-fashioned cable news thing here and
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: just walking you through every imaginable nightmare scenario had this
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: been a successful hijacking. But you can use your imagination.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I certainly did. because think about the moment we're in
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: and the geographic region this was taking place. Israel and
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Iran are already at war. The United States is involved.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: The entire region is a tinderbox at the moment, right?
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: You've got Iranian proxies in the Houthis attacking Saudi Arabia.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Russia's war in Ukraine continues. There is some serious people
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: who have worried for some time about whether the two
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: different conflicts will somehow merge. We tend to cover them
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: as separate stories, but there's definitely some overlap. We know
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Iranian technology is being used, drone technology has been used
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: by the Russians, and then vice versa now, the Russians
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: helping the Iranians, Ukrainians helping the Israelis, Ukrainians helping the UAE. So,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: you know, it's been like these two wars have been
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: dancing near each other, and just one match could have
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: exploded this, but into that environment and attempted hijacking of
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: an Israeli-bound passenger plane? We don't know what the intended
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: endgame was just yet. We don't know where the plane
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: might have gone, what the hijacker intended to do with it,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: or what governments might have believed in those first chaotic
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: minutes if the attempt had succeeded, and whether there was
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: any government behind this. but luckily it didn't succeed. And
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: thankfully we don't have to find out and think about
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the various nightmare scenarios. But that's the part of this
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: story I don't want us to skip over because sometimes
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: history turns on things, on the thing that happens, and
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: sometimes it turns on the thing that almost happened but didn't.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: There are moments when a handful of people, without realizing
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: the larger stakes, prevent an event that might have set
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: off a chain reaction nobody could control. And given the
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: state of the world right now, given the state of
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: the Middle East in particular, this one feels like we
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: had one of those moments. I don't know exactly what
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: we avoided, but I'm pretty goddamn sure we did avoid it.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: And thank God we did. All right. So I just
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: leave that out there because it's a reminder, frankly, right?
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: There's My old friend, Tom Brokaw, he had his own
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: expression about October surprises. He used to call them UFOs.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: And I never thought the acronym worked that great because
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: he was big. UFO, the unforeseen will occur. I don't
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: know where the W goes, right, in his U-F-W-O aspect.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: But you get, right? The point is, is that there's
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: going to be something we're not talking about. It's going to,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: and it's, you know, maybe it only roils one race.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Maybe it is, you know, something that's concentrated. that just
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: impacts one race that might impact the balance of power
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: or something that's as scary as the what if scenario
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: that I hinted at with that. But the point is,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: is that this is, we are now inside, you know,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: we are inside that window where everything is going to
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: feel like it has potentially the potential to have an
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: outsized impact. All right. Let's get into the midterms a
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: little bit and get into politics where, you know, We're essentially,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: what is it, October 1. So let's just do the math.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: We're 33 days. By the time some of you listen
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: to this, we're going to be under 30 days. So
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: next time I come on the air, we're going to
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: be less than a month out. And I think it's
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: fitting that we start with Ken Paxton, because I think
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: it actually helps us tell a larger story about where
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: the Republican Party is at this particular moment. Paxton got
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: caught either on a hot mic, you want to call it,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: or more accurately, a recording of a private fundraiser. It's amazing.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: These private fundraising recordings are the best, right? You know,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: it was private fundraising recordings that we got the 47%
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: on Romney. It was a private fundraising recording that we
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: got Barack Obama clings to their guns and Bibles, right?
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: You know, it's funny, even at fundraisers with donors, right? The,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: the principals, they want to make the donors feel like
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: they're getting some insider information. And sometimes the candidates, you know,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: commit what is, um, what, uh, What many of us
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: now call is a Michael Kinsley gaffe, meaning when a
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: politician accidentally speaks the truth. Paxton got caught, you know,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: apparently on this mic or in this Q & A
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: with the donors here in Washington. It's a small fundraiser.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Apparently there's only 12 or 13 people because who's excited
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: about giving money to Ken Paxton in Washington? Trust me.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: They loved John Cornyn. These people do not like Ken Paxton.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: The people that showed up for this fundraiser were the
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: ones that felt like They didn't want the White House
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: to know that they wouldn't show up.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: That's the that's who's there. And Paxton knows he needed
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: those folks. So he he felt like he had to
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: give him something. So apparently he acknowledged what some Republicans
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: have been whispering privately for a while. Donald Trump's big
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: midterm convention in Dallas was did not help a thing.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: And if anything. it did harm. And you can see
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: some people put together some graphs. There does seem as
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: if after that midterm convention, polling even got worse for Republicans. Now,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: is it a cause and effect? Does it correlate it?
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: I happen to think that we were already in that direction.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: The midterm convention did nothing to stop that momentum. And
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: here's what we got. But to be very accurate about
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: this recording, Paxton was asked whether he, And the assumption
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: was Trump is the he in this case was becoming
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: a drag. Now, the audio is apparently a bit muffled
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: enough that you can't definitively tell who the he is here.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: But Paxton responds by saying, essentially, look, after the convention,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: everybody's numbers went down. Of course, this gets out. Times
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: makes a big deal of it. And then the then
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: the cleanup happens. And it's the way a cleanup happens
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: that kind of tells you that. the level of panic
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: inside Paxton world. So his campaign now says the story
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: is manipulated nonsense, but they're not denying it was his voice.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Paxton starts reminding people about how much he loves Donald Trump.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: And here's the picture of me and Trump. Can't wait
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: to campaign with Trump. Everything's wonderful. Nothing to see in here.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: And what's funny is we've just seen this movie about
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: two weeks ago. Remember what happened with Byron Donalds? When
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: material disappeared from his website, the Miami Herald reported it.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: And suddenly everybody was pretending nobody had ever thought anything differently.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: And then somebody must have called up Byron Donalds and said, hey,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: the big guy's ticked off that you're scrubbing your website
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: of Trump and letting political reporters know that you did it.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: And suddenly, Byron Donalds tweets out a photo. No, what
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: do you mean? I'm glad you're interested in my website.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: And I love Donald Trump. And here you go. So clearly,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Paxton was nervous that if he ticked off Trump, that
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: would be it. But there was another reason this episode
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: was interesting to me. Because Look, it's not news that
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: a Republican candidate thinks Trump is hurting them. Trump's hurting
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: the entire Republican Party, right? But if there's one candidate
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: where Trump's not the main issue, it's this guy. What
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: kind of delusional world does Ken Paxton live in, where
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: he apparently thinks Trump is the bigger problem for Ken
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Paxton than Ken Paxton? I mean, come on. Look, there
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: are plenty of states where Donald Trump is clearly a
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: problem for Republican candidates. Kansas is in play because of
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump and his policies. Iowa is looking really good
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: for the blue team because of Donald Trump and his policies.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: There are plenty of places where the national environment is
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the problem and it's Donald Trump's policies. Republican governance generally
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: is a problem for all Republicans on the ballot right now.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong. But if Ken Paxton loses Texas,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Ken Paxton is going to have played a pretty significant
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: role in Ken Paxton losing Texas. This ain't a Donald
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Trump problem. And by the way, same thing applies to
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Greg Abbott. Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton are not in
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: trouble because Donald Trump is unpopular in America. Trump is
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: an ingredient. He certainly makes it a little bit harder.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: But he's not the main ingredient. For Paxton, it's Paxton's
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: ethics and low character that's the main ingredient. And with Abbott,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: it's data centers and more importantly, school vouchers that is
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the main ingredient. Neither one of which you could tag
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Trump a little bit on data centers. And you could
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: certainly tag Trump on the fact that a guy like
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Paxton even gets elected in the first place because somehow
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: character went out the window. This episode of the Chuck
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Todd cast is brought to you by Kalshi. It's an
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: exchange where you can trade on what you actually think
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: is going to happen. Sports, politics, culture, whatever's on your mind.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: For example, one market, of course, that I'm monitoring very
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: closely is the U.S. Senate and control of the U.S. Senate.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: As recently as September 10th, Republicans were favored to retain control.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Fifty two percent right to to to buy a share
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: of Republicans retain control is going to cost you fifty
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: two cents. would have only cost you 48 cents to
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: buy essentially a share of the prediction that Democrats would
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: win control. But boy, have things changed in two weeks, right?
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Democrats are now favored, according to the markets, the market
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: to buy Democratic control is up to 62 cents. The
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: market for Republican control is 38 cents. So it's the Democrats'
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: high watermark so far of the cycle. And so far,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: the number is growing by the day. And so you
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: know what that means. If you're confident, you think this
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: number is only going to grow, then you better hurry
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: up and get in now if you believe the Democrats
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: are going to do this. And if you look at
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: this and go, hey, I think the Republicans are going
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: to retain. And in fact, whether they retain or not,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: I think we're going to see some polls. There'll be
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: the natural tightening of October. I better get in on this,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: get a piece of this Republican number before it goes
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: back up. And, you know, either way, you can make
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: a couple of bucks. So it's fascinating. And depending on
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: how you view the next three weeks are going to go,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: not necessarily election day, but the narrative of the next
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: three weeks may impact which side of that equation you
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: want to purchase. So here's what you need to know
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: about CalSheet. You're going up against other traders directly. There's
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: no house setting the odds, just people putting their own
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: opinions and predictions on the line. So if you trade
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: $ 25 and you use the code Chuck Todd, they'll throw
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: in another $ 25 instantly. As always, please remember to trade responsibly.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: But this gets me to something else that happened this week.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: You know, the whole the whole dog Schmidt episode, if
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: you will, or the Hawkeye Schmidt episode, because I actually
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I want to connect the two.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: The whole this whole, you know, Eric Schmidt basically. Living
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: in a conspiracy fever dream. and thinking he's gonna nail
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Jack Smith and become a hero of the right. So
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: confident was this hack from Missouri. I don't know what
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: else to call him, because I think this is clearly
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: a hack move, right? That he clearly had some friendly
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: person whispered Axios that, hey, J.D. Vance loves Eric Schmidt, right?
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: It was clear that Schmidt had told all of this
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: sort of Trump ecosystem and this MAGA influencer world, I've
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: got the goods, I'm going to be doing it right here.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: It was all pre-wired. And it's pretty obvious now in
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: hindsight that that wasn't an accidental, that wasn't just a
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: happenstance leak in Axios about, oh, yeah, Schmidt's going to
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: be You know, one of the people J.D. Vance thinks
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: of as a running mate. And then lo and behold,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: he would have this incredible moment proving that Jack Smith
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: was part of this grand conspiracy to work with Fannie
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Willis and all this business, right? And it blows up
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: in their face and it all looks ridiculous. I mean,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: I'd love to know who the clown that was behind
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: that nugget to my friends at Axios because I don't
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: doubt that it was, you know, I'm not saying it
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: was a manufactured nugget. That's not the thing. But now
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: you sort of see that it was, there was an
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: attempt to boost up Eric Schmidt's profile. He saw this
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: as an opportunity. Well, congratulations, buddy. We all know who
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: you are now. And this is one, this is one
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: you're not going to beat. Think about, we had Tommy
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Topperville doing speeches on the Senate floor, claiming that like
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: all airline pilots are like furry people or something. The
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: conspiracy is so whacked, I don't quite understand it because
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I'm almost afraid of allowing my algorithm to go down
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: some of these roads. But what dark dystopian world does
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: this current Republican Party live in?
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Because think about the number of people That the Eric Schmidt,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: you know, he thought he had Jack Smith in Atlanta
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: and he thought him nailed, right? Think about the number
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: of people that Schmidt, Schmidt didn't do this research himself, okay?
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: If he did, it's even more damning, right? But he
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: had some staff obviously do this. Think about the number
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: of people, something like that presumably passes through before a
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: United States Senator says it into a microphone at a
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: nationally televised congressional hearing, right? Somebody researched this. They wrote
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: it up. They created a big poster board of the
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: supposed texts, if you will. He got briefed by it.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: He got shown all the supposed evidence. I am curious.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: I wonder, did they manufacture this or was this brought
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: to them by some sort of Joe DeGeneva dropout, if
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: you will, clerk dropout or something? Because there wasn't any
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: adult apparently in Eric Schmidt's office who said, hey, do
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: we have all the facts here? Have we double checked this?
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Are we at all? You know that expression, the higher
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: you up climb on the ladder, the more your ass
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: starts to hang out, right? Because Eric Schmidt decided to
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: climb up that thing and reveal his bare ass to
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: all of us. And boy, was it a reveal, right?
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: And I think we now know. But there's something larger
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: going on here. What happens to an institution when loyalty
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: becomes more valuable than competence? You know, when you watch
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: a dictatorship unravel, it unravels because loyalty is prioritized over competence.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: And over time, right, you may have the first, you know,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: wave of the dictators. There usually are some competent people.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: And then eventually, the paranoia of the dictator or the authoritarian,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: you know, starts to purge people out. Oh no, you're
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: not sufficiently loyal enough, right? So the competent, whatever competent
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: people existed, get pushed out. Trump 1.0 had a lot
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: of competent people trying to prevent Trump from doing dumb shit. Well,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump figured that out. And in Trump 2.0, loyalty
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: was prioritized. But this has been true up and down
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: the Republican ballot, right? A clown like Eric Schmidt never
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: is a United States Senator on earth too. On Earth 2,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Missouri is still a place where a Republican Party is
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: headed with people with the character of John Ashcroft or
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Jack Danforth or Kit Bond. And instead, right, I have
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: to tell you, look, Josh Hawley wouldn't have put himself
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: in this position. Josh Hawley has a much bigger brain
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: on that head of his than his Senate colleague from Missouri.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Because this Schmidt episode isn't simply a senator making a mistake.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Senators make mistakes. I make mistakes. Journalists, everybody makes mistakes.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: It's how does a mistake this obvious, this elementary survive
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: a process, right? Well, it's because it's what happens when
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: you no longer operate in a political culture where facts
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and competency are prioritized.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: You know, literally before Trump came down that escalator, essentially
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: congressional staffers, for the most part, left and right, highly competent.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Many of them understood that part of the job was
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: to prevent the boss from saying something embarrassing. And you
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: want staffers, the smart senators, made sure they had staffers
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: who knew what the hell they were doing. Now, what
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I'm wondering is whether too many people in Washington are
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: hiring staffers whose job is simply to salute the flag,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: be loyal, or on some approved loyalty list that the
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: White House says you're allowed to hire from. that it's
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: more important to virtue signal to MAGA than to actually
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: be a competent. And what has happened to the Missouri
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Republican Party? There's this clown that got elected secretary of
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: state that is literally probably put the entire state's congressional
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: delegation on ice. I don't think this is a legal
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: election that they're about to hold. And it is the
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: singular fault of this secretary of state. The Missouri Republican
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Party is rotten. What has happened to it? This was
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: one of the most competent Republican state parties when I
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: started covering politics in the 90s.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: St.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Louis was the second or third most important fundraising stop
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: for a Republican in national office. It was a different
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: type of Republican party. And the Missouri Republican Party has
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: gone off the deep end. The state's pretty conservative, but
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: the party has gone really extreme. It's frankly, I think
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: the further it moves to the right, it's actually why
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: it's driven some suburbanites in Kansas City, Missouri, to move
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: to Kansas City, Kansas. The growth of Kansas City, Kansas
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: is is is happened sort of in conjunction with the
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: hard right maga turn of Missouri politics and Missouri governance.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: And I think we just saw an example. And I'm
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: old enough to remember when Eric Schmidt was actually the
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: higher character guy that you had to get behind because
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: you had Eric Greitens, the former governor who had to
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: resign in disgrace because he essentially was sexually assaulting a woman.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Or was accused of That's how Eric Schmidt became a
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Senator because he was lucky enough to have somebody else
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: in the race who was pretty low character person. But
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: we are now seeing what happens when loyalty becomes the
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: primary vetting that takes place when a party has sort
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: of become what it is, this sort of cult of Trump.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, we saw it in plain sight during this hearing, right?
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: They've reached their conclusion. Jack Smith was part of an
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: enormous conspiracy against Donald Trump. And now the staffer's job
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: was to go find the evidence to prove it so
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: that the boss could look good to the MAGA public.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: And so when you begin with a conclusion, eventually an
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Atlanta hawk becomes an Iowa hawkeye because the information isn't
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: being used to determine the conclusion anymore. It's just simply
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: being used to validate it. That's this confirmation bias virus
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: that is running deep. Look, I'm worried about it in
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: both political parties. I'm worried about it in a lot
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: of folks, right? There's a presumption of guilt all the
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: time that some people have on the left of anybody
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: in Congress that is a Republican. But in this case, right,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Eric Schmidt told us who he was. We now know
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: who he is. And he's obviously not somebody that you
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: can take at face value no matter what comes out
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: of his mouth. Period. And he's not the only senator.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Which brings me to artificial intelligence. Because we also had
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: this extraordinary gathering earlier this week at the White House.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: The leaders of the most powerful AI companies in the
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: world came together with the president and they signed what
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: the White House is calling an accord on superintelligence. Trump's
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: narcissism knows no bounds, and he's decided he wants to
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: rename artificial intelligence superintelligence. I don't know why. It just
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: makes me want to go rewatch the movie Team America
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: World Police. Intelligence. Remember, that was the name of the computer.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: It was something like it was an acronym. Intelligence. I'd
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: love to see Claymation Trump in that movie in some form.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: But Trump called this accord morally binding. Morally binding. That's
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: a legal term. Did you know that? We've invented the
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: regulatory equivalent of pinky swear. So to be fair, there
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: is more in this document than nothing. He called it
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: an executive order that says the word superintelligence, but it
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: doesn't really do anything. The companies are essentially pledging to
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: have internal controls. They're pledging to have internal safety teams.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: They're pledging to allow for outside audits. and that there
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: would be board oversight. But the entire structure is voluntary.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Trump himself praised these companies for self-policing. What if they policed?
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: They keep releasing these models. But what was weird about
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: this is, this is something, I don't get the politics
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: of this. Let's forget for a moment whether you believe
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: light touch regulation is substantively the right approach. Make the
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: strongest argument for it if you want.
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: Fine.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: America is in a race with China. This technology is
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: moving incredibly fast. Washington shouldn't smother innovation before we understand
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: what we're regulating. All right. That's an argument. It's a
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: legitimate argument. But politically, what did this invent at the
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: White House solve for Republicans on the ballot? Because if
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: you're running for office right now as a Republican, you
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: are looking for some evidence you can take home and say, hey, Washington,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: we understand that people are nervous about AI and We
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: understand you're nervous about the data center that's going up
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: down the street. And we understand you're nervous about your job.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: We understand you're nervous about what your kids are interacting with. Oh,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: there was none of that, right? Instead, what did you
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: get out of this? A voluntary agreement signed by the
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: companies themselves. Companies none of us trust in the first place.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Companies that have already poisoned the minds of our kids
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: with this social media shit. And how they've, all of
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: this happened to us, happened to our kids without any
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: of us having any say over this. But we're supposed
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: to trust them with super intelligence. This brings me to
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: this Wall Street Journal poll. Very revealing. And again, you
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: know why I love, there's only a handful of national
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: polls I like. NBC, the national poll that they use
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: when it's Hart, McInturff. Wall Street Journal, when NBC and
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal broke up, they formed a polling team
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: that is very similar to how Al Hunt and Tim
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Russert formed the original polling team back in the day.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: The Wall Street Journal polling team is Joe Biden's former pollster,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: John Anzalone, and Donald Trump's and J.D. Vance's pollster, Tony Fabrizio.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: And we got an extra sort of release of the poll.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: I told you a little something about it before, but
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: they released the generic ballot and sort of what policies
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: were popping with voters. By the way, another eight point,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: this is, again, the president's polling firm is involved with
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: this poll. So when the president says it's fake news
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: or whatever he will with the Wall Street Journal, he's
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: got to yell at his own pollster for this. But
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: when you look at the issue set that polls the best,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: it's not an issue set that Donald Trump and the
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Republican Party are talking about right now. So for instance, 90%
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: in this poll support banning surprise medical bills.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: U.S.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Senate pass anything like that this week? Yeah, I didn't
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: think so. 87% support capping prescription drug prices. Anybody see
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: a vote on that bill? 79% support stopping illegal immigration
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: at the border. That's the one right-leaning issue that polls
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: extraordinarily well. And also another 79% support capping credit card
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: interest rates at 10%. That is a Bernie Sanders, Josh
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: Hawley proposal where the ends are meeting, folks. 75% want
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: restrictions on giant institutional investors buying up single family homes. 75%.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: This is not just the left that wants this. When
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: you're getting in the 70s for support of this stuff,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: what it really is telling you that there are, it's
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: huge chunks in both parties. And 75%, by the way,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: support a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who've been here
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: for years and contributed to their community. So think about that.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: You're 75, 75, 79, 79, 87. Let me read you
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: those issues again. Surprise, banning surprise medical bills, capping prescription
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: drug prices, stopping illegal immigration at the border, capping credit
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: card interest rates, preventing restrictions on private equity from buying
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: single family homes, pathway for citizenship for the dreamers. That's like, 6-1, right?
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: There's like one issue that sort of favors team right,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: where Democrats don't have a lot of credibility, the border security.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Everything else sounds like a Bernie Sanders proposal. But the
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: point is, this was popular left and right. The pitchforks
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: are sharpening on the left and the pitchforks are being
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: sharpened on the right. And they seem to be pointed
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: at the same institutions. When you ask about artificial intelligence, 63%
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: support pausing the development of AI. Again, it's not a
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: majority of Republicans, but to get to 63%, you're getting
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: a huge chunk of them. 62% support pausing the development
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: of data centers. I don't need to go over this,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: how bad the data center issue is. I mean, I'm
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: half expecting now after that meeting about AI that he's
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: gonna just promote data centers when he goes on the stump.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, this would be what I would fear If
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: I were John Husted, if I were Ken Paxton, we
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: know Trump's going to bully his way into going on
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: these trips. He's trying to throw largesse at states and
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: hope that it sticks. But this is not a country.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: This is why this AI meeting couldn't have been more
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: tone deaf considering where the country is. Because when you
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: look at those numbers about data centers, about pausing AI,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: those numbers are screaming something. The American people, they want
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: somebody representing them in this conversation. Look at the picture
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: from the White House. It was Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, XAI,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: and NVIDIA, and the president. You know who wasn't represented
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: in that meeting? The consumer, the parent, the teacher, anybody
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: from labor, anybody from communities being asked to absorb these
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: enormous data centers. Where was somebody at that meeting sitting
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: at that table and saying, okay, but who's looking out
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: for the rest of us? In theory, it should be
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: the president of the United States, but he has no
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: interest in showing any empathy or any concern about what
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: all this is gonna do. Hey, this episode of the
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: Chuck Toddcast is brought to you by Ethos. Look, let
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: me tell you about life insurance. As you know, Ethos
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: is an incredible portal for helping you find the right
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: life insurance policy. I'm a huge believer in life insurance.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't have gotten to college in Washington, D.C. without
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: life insurance. My father had a policy buried somewhere that
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: we discovered, and it wasn't a lot of money, but
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: it was an important bucket of money at a time
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: that my mother, newly widowed, single mom, me, I'm 16,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: It was of enormous, enormous help at that time. And
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: this is why I believe in life insurance. You don't
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: know what could happen to you on any given day.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: This is literally an insurance policy for that. So let
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: me tell you a little bit about Ethos. Ethos makes
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: getting life insurance fast and easy. It's 100% online. You
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: get a quote in seconds. You apply in minutes and
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: you can get coverage the same day you begin this process.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: There's no medical exam. You just answer a few simple
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: health questions. You can get up to $ 3 million in coverage.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Some policies are as low as $ 30 a month. And
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: you'll get your lowest rate from their network of trusted carriers.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Ethos has gotten 4.9 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: with over 5,500 reviews. So take 10 minutes to get
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: covered today. Life insurance through Ethos. Get your free quote
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: at ethos.com slash chuck. That is E-T-H-O-S dot com slash chuck.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Application times may vary. The rates may vary. That Trustpilot
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: rating was as of August of 2026. Now, there's one
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: green shoot that happened this week when it comes to
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: big tech and AI. The Federal Trade Commission has opened
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: a broad investigation of OpenAI Anthropic and other AI companies
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: using its existing consumer protection authority. And I've been arguing
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: for months that Washington doesn't have to wait around for
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: some grand new AI regulatory architecture before it begins using
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: the powers that already exist. The FTC, you're there to
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: protect consumers. AI is going to use surveillance pricing, use
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: all sorts of, you know, digging up data on us
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: and then repurposing it as marketing material. trying to sell
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: us stuff. This is where the FTC, they have authority now.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: So they should investigate. But here's the test. What happens
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: if they find something that they believe is nefarious? Does
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: the investigation go wherever the facts take it? Does the
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: public get to see what they find or what they're
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: worried about? Or does somebody decide that enforcement might interfere
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: with the great race against China and that it gets.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: Stymied, brushed aside, gets put, you know, whatever the investigation,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: whatever they do is going to be put next to
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: the arc from Raiders of the Lost Ark. If you
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: remember the last scene of that movie where they put
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: it in some massive government storage facility. Maybe it's next
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: to the Epstein files. All of this is happening against
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: an economic backdrop that is getting increasingly difficult for Republicans
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: to ignore. So The conference board, this isn't the Michigan
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: Consumer Confidence Survey, but it's very similar. The conference board
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: reports its own consumer confidence number, and they report that
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: it has fallen nearly seven points in September to 81.9
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: on their 200 scale. It is the lowest level they've
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: recorded since 2014 when it comes to consumer confidence. Consumers
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: are increasingly worried about prices and the labor market. So 2014,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: what happened in 2014? Well, it ought to get the
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: attention of anybody who works in politics because 2014, midterm
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: election year. Democrats were seen as the party in power.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: They controlled the Senate. They controlled the White House. They
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: didn't have the House. Well, what happened in 2014 with
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: that crappy consumer confidence number? Republicans expanded an already existing
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: House majority and they took control of the Senate. Look,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: history doesn't have to repeat itself because one consumer confidence
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: number happens to resemble another consumer confidence number But you
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: don't have to be James Carville to understand that a
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: governing party heading into a midterm with consumers feeling this
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: lousy about the economy, the party in power is a
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: huge problem on their hands. And it's why I'm skeptical,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: like Trump's trying it, right? New steel, you know, they're
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: going to build a new steel mill in Iowa. You know,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: he tried that yesterday. Apparently, he's going to go to
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: Alaska to announce a $ 54 billion South Korean investment into
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: a natural gas project. in Alaska, thinking that that'll help
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: Dan Sullivan. I'm sure Dan Sullivan wishes Trump wouldn't come.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: But you can't say no to him. Good luck saying no.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, look what Ken Paxton accidentally told the truth. Although, again,
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: I think Ken Paxton is a bigger drag on the
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: Republican ticket in Texas than Donald Trump is. But Donald
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: Trump is a problem. And that midterm convention not only
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: wasn't a help, it probably was adding an anchor to everybody.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: But Trump clearly sent a message. They all knew. If
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: I were John Thune, you have your excuse to stop
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: wasting money, putting good money after bad. Jackson's not winning
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: this race. And I think the Senate Republicans are going
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: to piss away $ 200 million having to prove that to themselves.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: We'll see. But the other thing that I don't get,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: if I were a Republican on the ballot, there'd be
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: like a small part of me that would wonder, does
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump want the Democrats to win Congress? Because Trump
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: is avoiding things that actually could help in the short term, right?
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: Announcing these big investments, they're going to do nothing. People
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: have lived experience, but he could do some things, right?
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: There are things Trump could do right now that might
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: create just enough of a fig leaf of attention to
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: the problem and sort of admitting that that he knows
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: he's got to provide some relief, then maybe some of
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: his voters come home, right? He could pursue this diplomatic
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: off-ramp with Iran, who basically handed him a ceasefire talking
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: point if he wanted to take it. This is the
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: man that ends all these wars, he tells us. And
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: yet when somebody was willing to offer a ceasefire, again,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: not all the terms were great, but it was an
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: easy opportunity to start that process and at least give
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: a jolt of confidence to the oil markets, but he
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: didn't do it. He could reduce some of the trade
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: uncertainty with Canada. He could lower some tariffs on the
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: ag sector. That would have to admit that his policies
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: are the reason that the Republicans are so unpopular at
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: the moment. So he can't bring himself to do that.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: And it's certainly not where his attention is. And it
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: brings me finally to something I wrote about this week,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: both in, some of you may have seen it on
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: my Newsphere's website. I also wrote it on my sub stack.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: And it's about sort of the hidden tax of Trump.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: I call it the Trump anxiety tax. And we used
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: to have something called the misery index, which I think
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: was like consumer confidence plus unemployment or something like that.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: But we spend a lot of time trying to measure
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: inflation and unemployment and wages and consumer confidence. But how
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: do you measure the cumulative cost of never knowing whether
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: today's rules are going to be tomorrow's rules. How do
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: you measure exhaustion? And I'm not talking about just the
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: basic Trump outrage. We know we're all exhausted from that.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about the small business owner who doesn't know
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: what the tariff will be six months from now. How
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: about the farmer who doesn't know which export market is
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: going to be open next month and whether that market's
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: open in six months and what should they plant at
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: this moment if they have to start planting? How about
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: the military family wondering what the next deployment means and
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: how long they're going to be gone? How about the
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: parent trying to figure out which public health guidance to trust?
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: How about the person approaching retirement wondering what another war
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: does to oil prices and interest rates in their own
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: retirement account?
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: The uncertainty that Trump has given us for 10 years
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: is in itself a cost. It's a tax. And I
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: think It's a tax that people know they're paying and
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: they're tired of paying it.
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: I think this is why independents in a large chunk
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: who don't like either party. Remember, the Democratic Party is
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: the most unpopular political party in America. More unpopular than
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: the Republican Party. But Trump is exhausting everybody. And the
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: uncertainty is the cost. So people aren't saying, because, you know,
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: this is where I think Charlie Cook's got it right.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: This is not a, we should probably not, it's not
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: a blue wave. It's a massive red undertow, right? Nobody's,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: they're not necessarily saying I want the Democratic Party's agenda,
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: although voters seem to be supporting the Bernie Sanders agenda,
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: which isn't necessarily the Democratic Party agenda. But I do
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: think they're saying something much simpler. Can we just make
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: some of this stop? Can we turn down the volume?
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: Can we make government a little more predictable? You know,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: we don't have to live this way. Donald Trump chooses
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: to create this instability, right? He's like the guy who
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: intentionally gets into a boat and rocks it. The rest
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: of us vomit and he's having a hell of a time.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: Can we change things that aren't working without living in
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: a permanent state of disruption, right? Whether it's, you know,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: Kennedy Center is like a perfect sort of metaphor for this, right?
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: He just decided he wanted his name on it. He
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: wanted to control it. So he literally trashed the place.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: The place was fine. It was flush with cash. Yes,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: it had some COVID issues, but it was raising money.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: It had artists performing, just had a renovation. The complex
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: is fantastic. They had a board chair, David Rubenstein, who
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: was always willing to spend money out of his own
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: pocket to better the Kennedy Center. And Trump comes in
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: and just eviscerates the place. And now it's a shit show.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: And he kicks out the Washington Opera and kicks out
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: the National Symphony. Man, really is offensive. This is not
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: your cultural arts center. That sucker belongs to everybody. This
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: is the music major in me coming out. And Trump
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: supposedly likes opera and the arts. Thanks for ruining. but
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: that's what he did. If he couldn't have his way,
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: he just wanted to ruin it. And this is sort
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: of the state. Imagine being a member of the National Symphony.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump, I mean, that's the thing. He put thousands
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: of people who actually make a living connected to that
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Kennedy Center into this world of uncertainty, all because of
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: his massive ego. I want to talk about one other
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: column besides my own. This morning, I read a column
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: from my friend Doug Sosnick. He's been on this program
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: before in the Washington Post. And I actually think it
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: pairs pretty well with the column I wrote the day before.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: Doug's argument is essentially, don't assume the end of the
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Trump era means we're going to return to something. We're not.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: We're headed somewhere else. But we don't know where we're headed.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: He thinks, his theory is this, that the next two
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: years could actually become more politically volatile, believe it or not,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: because both parties are about to have enormous internal fights
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: over What comes next and who comes next? On the
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: Republican side, he posits, he asks, what survives Trumpism when
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: Trump is no longer the organizing principle of the party?
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: Is there a coherent ideology at all? On the Democratic side,
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: how much power does the progressive populist wing accumulate in
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: these midterms? And what do they do with it if
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: they do? And I do think he's right about this
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: larger transition. The political system that existed before Donald Trump
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: is not coming back. Just like the media ecosystem that
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: existed before the iPhone is not coming back. We're going
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: to have a new everything. And when it comes, I
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: don't know if voters even want either of those systems back.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: They clearly don't want to revert to the old politics.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: That's why they handed us Donald Trump. It was their message. Hey, look,
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: we don't like what you're doing. We'll even send this
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: buffoon to Washington. But the fact that people don't want
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: the old system doesn't mean they're happy living permanently inside
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: this unstable demolition moment that Trump's created. Because eventually change
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: has got to lead to something. You've got to build something.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: And I think that's the larger question sitting underneath this election.
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: Not simply whether voters are tired of Trump or whether
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: they're open to Democrats, or whether they think Republicans know
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: what they're doing. It's whether they believe all of this
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: disruption is actually taking us anywhere. Because you'll tolerate contractors
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: in your house when you think eventually you're getting a
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: new kitchen. But if you've been tearing up your house
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: for years, the bills keep getting larger, nobody can tell
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: when you're leaving, and now they're talking about knocking down
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: another wall. Eventually, you have to ask a pretty basic question.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: What exactly is this renovation supposed to be finished, right?
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: Trump just demolishes things for demolishment's sake. And it feels
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: like that's where American politics is right now, right? There's
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: been a destruction of the old era, but we have
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: not been able to figure out what to build in
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: its place. I think they're done with Trump, but they're
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: not ready to pick a side just yet. And I
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: think what Sosnick's point was is that, hey, look, buckle up,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: because 27 and 28 are going to be super volatile. And,
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: you know, remember, we're going to have a lame duck
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: president who's not going to like not being the center
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: of attention. And that is going to lead to its
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: own kind of chaos and its own kind of disruption,
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: exhaustive disruption. And whatever happens on November 3rd is going
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: to have an outsized impact on how some of these
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: Republicans behave immediately. I think it's there are two things
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: that I think are interesting. You know, the Senate punted.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: trying to do anything and they took off a day early.
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: They're just rolling the dice. Well, they know they're unpopular.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: But the agenda and the lame duck. If it's a wipeout,
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: how many Republicans who have lost in November are going
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: to be willing to carry Trump's water on unpopular legislation
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: that they want to jam through via reconciliation? Now, the
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: chaos could be immediate. We could have a government shutdown
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: very quickly. They've got to agree on government funding. And
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: if you recall what happened after the 2018 midterms, we
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: ended up with a government shutdown where it started with
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: all Republican control and we got the new Congress in
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: the middle of a shutdown. You know, the chaos may
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: just be beginning.
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: With that, let's sneak in a break. And when we
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: come back, my conversation, get to know Angie Nixon. I
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: didn't know her. This is the first time I interacted
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: with her. I'd met with her.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: And.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: I did my best to introduce her to you. How
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: competitive can this race get? How much of this is
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: about the national environment? How much of this is about
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: her grassroots activism? And is she actually the single most
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: important campaign that's not named David Jolly in Florida? Meaning
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: if Jolly wins, will it be because she won that
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: Senate primary, even if she comes up short of the
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: Senate race? Think about all those questions as you hear
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: the interview. So with that break, interview with Angie Nixon.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: On the other side, questions on my college football.
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: Preview.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: Well, joining me now is at the time was an
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: upset winner in the Democratic primary in Florida. It is
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Angie Nixon. And this
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: is a few weeks, maybe a couple months in preparation.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: We've been trying to make this happen. I'm glad to
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: have you here. I know you're literally on the road.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: So thank you for taking a few minutes. Look, I
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: think a lot of people think they know something about
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: your candidacy. They think they may know something about you.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: But let's start from the beginning. Tell me how you
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: got into politics.
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, Chuck, you're going way back. You're going
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: way back. So I got into politics. I actually went
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: to the University of Florida and I was going to
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: become this gynecologist, this obstetrician. And then I took chemistry
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: and I was like, hell no, I'm not doing that.
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: Chem 101, I'll never forget it. And so I wound
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: up then saying I wanted to do telecommunications news. And
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: so we had to take a course, a political science
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: course together. State and local government and another one. And
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: then I fell in love with it. And I changed
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: my major to political science. And on my final semester,
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: I was actually nine months pregnant. And I went to
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: I went to Mia Jones, who was a city councilwoman
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: at the time. And I asked to intern with her.
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: And so I did.
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: I interned with her my final semester.
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: And where was this in Jacksonville County? Yeah.
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: And I just like I fell in love with public service.
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: And when she resigned to run for state rep, which
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: is actually the seat that I'm currently in right now,
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: she resigned to run for state rep.
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: I actually ran for her seat. I ran for city council.
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: Fresh out of college, you know, I think I was
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: like 24.
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: My daughter was not just one at the time.
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: And so I ran to replace her. I didn't win,
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: but that really opened up doors and I wind up
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: becoming a community organizer from there. I helped elect the
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: first black mayor, the first democratic mayor in 20 years
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: in Jacksonville. And so since then, I've just been very
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: heavily involved and also been a union organizer and And
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: I wind up running for office while I was a
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: union organizer because the theory, right, our theory of change
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: is that regular, hardworking, everyday people should get to shape
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: what their communities look like and what their economies look like.
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: And so we need to make sure that we are
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: empowering them and educating them and getting those folks to
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: become leaders and leaders who actually start running for office.
• 58:23
  Speaker 3: And that's what happened.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: So it's interesting to me, you were basically in Jacksonville
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: as it moved from being a red-leaning city to what
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: it is today, purple-leaning, maybe even a little blue-leaning. What
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: did you learn from that? What's your explanation for how
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: Jacksonville's become this? I don't know if it's polarized. I'll
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: be curious of how you describe it, but it's certainly
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: very competitive. Why is it so evenly divided?
• 58:53
  Speaker 3: So I would say that it is it is so
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: evenly divided.
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: And what I've learned from just working in Jacksonville is.
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: That you can win anywhere.
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: You just have to go talk to people and you
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: cannot just talk to people.
• 59:10
  Speaker 3: People who are agree with you ideologically.
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: And you should never want to be a lawmaker that
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: only listens to.
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: People who you agree with ideologically.
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: That's not how we'll ever push towards progress. And so
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: that is actually how we were able to win the
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: mayor's race back in 2011. It's how we were able
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: to win the mayor's race back in recently with Donna Teagan.
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: And so that's how I was able to honestly win.
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: This primary, even though it was a Democratic primary. We
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: were able to get a lot.
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: Of Republicans and NPAs, independents, to change their party affiliation
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: to vote me in the primary. And that's because I
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: go and meet people where they are and I have
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: conversations with them. And I also include them in the
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: process of like talking about the issues, but also helping
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: us come up with solutions. This should be government for
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: the people by the people. But right now, the people
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: that are in power is government for the rich by
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: the greedy billionaires and corrupt corporations.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: And that's what's frustrating people right now.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: The people who are making the decisions are.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: the ones who write the biggest checks.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: And instead, the people that are making decisions, it should
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: be just the regular, everyday, hardworking people. And that's why
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: I'm running, because I want to make sure that is,
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: in fact, the case moving forward.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: So as you know, because you deal with this, there
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: are some in Washington, even in your own party, who say, yeah,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: she registered with DSA. This is Florida. I'll admit I'm
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: skeptical that the S word is going to play in
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: South Florida where you need to do well. Tell me
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: how you push back on that. What do you tell
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: people that are saying, you know what, I wish you
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: hadn't joined the DSA or tell me why you're in
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: the socialist adjacent camp, I guess.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So thank you for that, Chuck. You know, it's
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: not about just three letters, right?
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 3: It's bigger than that.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: Right now, we are witnessing a return to the worst
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: chapters of our history. And so what we need is
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: all hands on deck. There's absolutely nothing wrong or radical
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: about me wanting to ensure people have access to quality healthcare,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: access to quality affordable housing, access to fully funded public schools.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 3: And so what's interesting is the only people that question.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: That or talk about that are like, The political pundits, right?
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 3: The folks that are super plugged into the parties.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: It's a fair critique.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: When you go out and you have conversations like we're
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: having and knocking on doors. I remember when it first
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: started coming out, like immediately after the primary, I went
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: to Little Havana and I knocked on some doors and
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: I was let in by a Cuban man who was retired,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: but who left.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: Cuba. He fled Cuba. And he was talking to me
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 3: and he was like, I voted for you. I'm going
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 3: to vote for you again.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: He's like, I agree with you standing up for Medicare
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: for all, right?
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 3: And so it's like.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: The only people that are upset about the policies that
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: I'm supportive of and the reason I joined DSA are
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: the people that are okay with people dying if they
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: don't have healthcare, right? And so like the folks that
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: are in power, like they're frustrated about that because they're
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 2: worried that.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 3: They won't get kickbacks. They won't get all this windfall
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 3: of cash, right?
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: And so I have always spoke out against authoritarianism, the
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: rise of a dictatorship, which is what I have seen
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: being a state lawmaker here in the state of Florida, right?
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: And I don't agree with everything in the Democratic Party.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: I also don't agree with everything that DSA agrees with.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: But the core tenets, the pillars that they support, universal
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: health care, affordable housing, right, ending bigotry of all forms, right,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: fully funded public schools, right, those are fully funded social
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: security system.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 3: Those are the.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: Things that The Democratic Party has professed that they were
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: supportive of and would fight for. But it's a lot
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: of what we don't see the leadership fighting for this.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 3: Day and age.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: And so in a time in a time, Chuck.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: Where you have like Donald Trump.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: Weaponizing agencies and Ashley Moody rubber stamping them, they're literally
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: creating paramilitary forces. We need everybody to join hands, Working
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 2: Family Party, all these different groups and organizations across the
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: state and country to come together and to vote the
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: right way and hold Donald Trump accountable.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: What's your diagnosis as to why Democrats went from highly
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: competitive in Florida not that long ago, we're talking the 2018,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: probably as close of a couple of statewide elections we've
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: ever seen, to what it turned into in 2022? And
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: I think, look, I'm curious about this, right? Was 2022
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: an outlier? Was it the beginning of something? What's your
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: explanation for it? And what's your path back?
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 3: There was a.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: Huge divestment from the state after 2018. And it was
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: an excuse that was made because, oh, a progressive couldn't
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: have won.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 3: A progressive couldn't have won. Yes, a progressive could have
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: won if.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: You know, there were some things that could have been
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: done a lot differently.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 3: But also from the campaign. But but if the.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: Entire party apparatus would have got behind Andrew Gillum, we
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: would not be in the state that we are in today.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: We don't know. Well, yes. I mean, it's hard to
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: separate Andrew Gillum, the person from that campaign at this
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: point a little bit. I mean, given his own personal challenges.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: What are you referring to in 2018?
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 3: What I'm saying is, like, if Andrew Gillum would.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: Have won, if the entire Democratic Party apparatus would have
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: gotten behind him, even some of the more moderates, we
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: would have won, right?
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 3: Like, he won by... He lost by.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: 5 % of a percentage point, right?
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 3: And so....
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: You know, the argument is that Gwen Graham would have won.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: Do you accept that premise?
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 3: I don't. I don't.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 2: Because we had someone who ran the same policies like
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: Gwen Graham soon after, and he lost miserably.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 3: And so what we have.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 2: Seen time and time again is that progressive policies win
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: in the state of Florida. We want a fifteen dollar minimum.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 3: Wage, which I help lead, by the way, as a
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: statewide organizer.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 2: We would have won getting getting political interference out of
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: abortion if Donald Trump and Ashley Moody wouldn't have sold
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: ten million dollars and. use that money to divert it
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: to political slush funds and PACs that cause political interference, right?
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: We also want automatic rights restoration for returning citizens.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 3: All of these are progressive policies, but time.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: And time again, we keep running people who don't run
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: on progressive values.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 3: Republicans like progressive policies. It benefits them, right?
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: Like, and so we have won progressive issues up and
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: down the ballot. Like we won rent stabilization in Orange County, right?
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: That's a progressive, that's a progressive issue, right? We are winning,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: we are winning all of these things.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 3: And so, but yeah, and still they keep trying.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: To run candidates who unfortunately don't even really align with
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: some of these progressive policies.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: You're sharing a ballot. You're sharing a ballot with David Jolly.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: And I can, it sounds like you're describing his style
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: or his brand of democratic politics. Are you?
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: I didn't say, I didn't say that. David Jolly has
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 3: some progressive issues.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: I know you didn't. That's why I'm asking you. Yeah.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah. David Jolly is running on like the policies that.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 3: He wants are progressive and for the people. Right.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: And so, Also, again, we are forming a very unique ticket.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 3: I am somewhat to the left. He is somewhat middle
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 3: of the road. That's fine, though. He crosses the spectrum.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: The policies are speaking towards people, and that's what people want.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 3: It's not even about a label. Let's be clear.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: It's about issues that people care about that would help
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 2: benefit and improve their quality of life.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 3: And that's what I'm running on. That's what I've always
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 3: ran on. That's what I've always supported. And that's what
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 3: David Jolly is running on, too.
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: I have two paths I want to go down with you.
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: One is what you would do as a U.S. senator.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: But before I get there, I find the Florida state
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: legislature to be the single most gerrymandered. I don't know.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: It is non-reflective of the state of Florida. It has,
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: and it's been this way for decades. It strikes me
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: as a really hard place to get things done, that
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of lobbyist control. The term limits issue
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: has made lawmakers come in and out and that they
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: have less power. Am I being overly cynical? Tell me
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: how this the legislature can become a workable, functioning body
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: of government. Because right now, every once in a while,
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: they try to be an equal branch of government, but
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: not often. It is just the idea that you pick
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: a Speaker of the House years in advance so that
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: they can get job offers. And the fact that people
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: can work and get full-time jobs with people with business
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: before the state It just feels like a corruptible institution.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: I don't want to say everybody in it's corrupt. That's
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: not fair. But it allows for corruption to be easier.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: That's what it looks like from this layperson.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And so. Oh, my God.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: Am I overly cynical? I mean, I have a feeling
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: you'll say amen on some of them.
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 3: No, no.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: You know, the state of Florida is a very toxic,
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: hostile work environment. They actually put my office in the
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 2: basement with rats because I was pushing back against the
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: unconstitutional maps that Ron DeSantis drew back in 2022.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: You believe your office space was punishment a little bit?
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 3: Oh, I was told that by the Speaker of the House. Like... Yes.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 3: Like he put me there to reprimand me and he
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 3: took me out because he didn't like that. I went
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 3: on social media and called him out about it. Right.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 3: He literally, what he said afterwards, afterwards was.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 2: Before you have any issues, please make sure you come
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: and talk to me about it first. And I'm so
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 2: honored and happy that he did not win his nomination
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: to become the governor of Shout out to you, Paul,
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 2: what's his name?
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 3: Paul Renner.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: Renner, I think, yeah.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Paul Renner. So funny.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: Anyways, but yeah, so like, it's pay to play.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 3: It is pay to play there. And, but you can
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 3: at times get things done.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 2: You have to be able to navigate. I was able
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: to expand access to early childhood education. That's because Senator
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 2: Erin Raul was a representative at the time. She took
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 2: one of my bills and put it in her omnibus bills.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 2: And so you just have to know how to navigate.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 3: And build relationships. A lot of Republicans like me in
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 3: the state.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: Is it two parties? Is there two Republican parties in
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: the state legislature? No. You know what I mean when
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: I say that? No.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 3: No, I do. It's one, right? They all fall in line.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: But.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 2: behind the scenes they will work with you and put
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 2: your amendments on and all that stuff if you don't
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 2: make them look bad right and you don't rock the
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: boat i must say even though he was still he
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 2: still did some bad stuff i would say that speaker
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 2: danny perez was probably the better of the speakers that
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 2: i've ever had to work.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 3: With um and so and that's saying a lot.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: Give me one or two that you think semi-simple ideas
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: that would make me, I can still consider myself a Floridian,
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: though I don't vote in Florida. I may end up
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: voting in Florida again because that's what all of us
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: do when we get older. Is it a small d
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: democratic institution? What would it take to make it feel
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: a bit more democratic? Small d.
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 3: Well, what it would take. I mean, we just we
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 3: got to get rid of these Republicans.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: But in regards to policies and that type of stuff, look,
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: we got to stop allowing them to defund public education.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 3: Like that's the main moneymaker.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 2: But what we did, what we learned this past legislative
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 2: session was.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 3: That there are a lot of them.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 2: There are a lot of lawmakers that have charter school
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 2: management companies or they have stocks in charter school management
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 2: companies or they have stocks in for-profit prisons. And so
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 2: big money needs to get out of politics all around.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 3: But for sure, we need to make sure that....
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 2: The people don't like we got to get.
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 3: Money out of this stuff. A lot of this stuff
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 3: is just a massive shakedown.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: Even when you're thinking about like how they decided to
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: use how Ron DeSantis decided to use our emergency funding
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 2: that was supposed to be used in time of a
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: natural disaster to instead stand up a modern day internment
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 2: camp in Alligator Alcatraz and use some of that money
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 2: in Baker County and some of these other detention centers.
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 3: And he only did it so that he can give
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 3: his campaign.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 2: Donors literally his Donald Trump's Ashley Moody's no big contracts.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 2: Like there's so much grifting happening right now. And it
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 2: is it's absolutely absurd and it's absolutely ridiculous and it's frustrating.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: Well, you didn't it. It just feels like a. It
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: feels like a place that could use a lot of
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: political reform, whether it's open primaries. Do you think it
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: is the issue open primaries? Is it the gerrymandering?
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: The lack of what would you say?
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 3: Well, we have seen since.
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 2: Since Andrew Gillum got so close to the governor's mansion,
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 2: we have continually seen a rollback on our voting rights.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 2: Every year they say we have the safest and most
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 2: secure elections, but every year they change the process for elections,
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 2: around elections. And so that needs to be Like we're
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 2: sending a.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 3: Lot of those bills need to be repealed. We're a democracy.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: We should be trying to make sure that everyone who
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 2: is eligible to vote should be voting.
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 2: Also, like, yeah, they they drew illegal maps like that's
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 2: one thing that should have never happened.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 2: Right. Also, I'm trying to say it's just it's so
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: much that's just really jacked up.
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 2: But like those are the most basic points right there.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 2: They literally they literally have changed the voting laws for
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 2: like the past past six years. I believe the past
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 2: six years, every year is something.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 3: That they're changing.
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: Let's go to if you get to the United States Senate.
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: I get to the, you know, of course that's the
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: way you should be talking. I get that. So, but
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about as a Senator, as you know,
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: on one hand, one Senator's got a lot of power
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: compared to, uh, um, the U S house, but at
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: the same time, you're going to have to get, uh,
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: in order to get the votes you need, you might
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: have to pull back on some of the things you
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: need to get done. As somebody who's worked in a
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: Republican legislature, in some ways, this will feel quite familiar
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: to you. So how do you view trying to make
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: the Senate, what do you make of how the Senate
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: works now? And what is something that you're just itching
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: to do and try the second you get there?
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 3: Chuck, the Senate isn't working right now. Nothing's working in Washington, really.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 2: Like, yeah, they'll pass some bipartisan bills, but it doesn't
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 2: have any real teeth behind it. And, you know, did
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: the Republicans, when the Democrats were in power, did they
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 2: pull back?
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 3: Or did they go all gas, no brakes?
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: You think they pulled back too much or I mean.
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: I assume that's what you believe, right?
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 2: I don't see like I don't see the Republic, the
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 2: Republic when the Democrats were in power. Right.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Thinking around like Obama era. Right.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: Like.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 3: The Republicans, we all gas, no brakes. They did not
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 3: pull back anything.
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 2: They kept pushing and yelling and screaming and disrupting and
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 2: all the things.
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 3: Right now, people are dying. Right now, we.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 2: Have a man in the White House that is laying
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: the foundation to not leave. creating paramilitary forces that are
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 2: pushing the limit to see how far that they can go.
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 2: And so I am not going to continue to compromise
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 2: our values, compromise.
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 3: The lives and the livelihoods of Floridians and Americans. I'm
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 3: going to stand firm. Right. I am going to use
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 3: an aggressive inside outside strategy.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 2: To work to organize my caucus members and organize other
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 2: members within the U.S.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 3: Senate.
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: And then I'm also going to use that same aggressive
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 2: strategy to organize out in the communities.
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 3: One thing I know about being an elected official, we
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 3: do not like bad.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 2: Publicity or pressure, public pressure. And so we need more
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 2: organizers in the U.S. Senate and in Congress. So that
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 2: we can actually put more pressure and be more vocal
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 2: about what's happening.
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 3: Too often times, like people....
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 2: Like get away with stuff in Washington, D.C. because folks
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 2: back home don't know what's going on.
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 3: We don't change that. We're going to change that when
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 3: I become next U.S. Senator, which is actually, Chuck, which
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 3: is actually what I have.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 2: Done as a state rep. Like I have been so
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 2: vocal and caused many members of my caucus to to
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 2: be more vocal and cause many outside groups to be
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 2: more vocal.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 3: And that's why we were.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 2: Able to stop some bad bills, right?
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 3: And to get some amendments on and that type of thing.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 3: And so I'm going to do the same thing when
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 3: I become a U.S. senator.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: It's a you're not the first person who has pledged
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: that they can shake up the Senate. And I've seen
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: people I'm not going to name names. I mean, I
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: like these people. I think they're genuine in their attempts
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: to do it. The place can stifle you. I mean,
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: it is tough. Like I said, there's been some people
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: like yourself, very sort of, who have had success organizing,
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: who've gotten to the Senate and run into an organized
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: brick wall, to be frank. What do you think you
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: could do differently?
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 2: What I think that I can do differently is, right now,
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 2: this country is at.
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 3: an inflection point, right?
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 2: Like we're at a crossroads and it costs too much
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 2: money just to be alive right now. And so I'm
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 2: going to organize the people outside to put pressure year round,
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 2: 24 seven, not just during an election.
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 3: Year on those senators.
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 2: We're gonna demand that these folks come into the communities
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 2: that have in-person town hall meetings. We're going to debate.
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 2: We're going to use social media, right? We're going to, like,
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 2: we're moving away. We're saying, hey, I'm on your podcast, right? Like,
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 2: we are seeing folks move away from traditional media. And
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 2: we are going to amplify with these influencers, with these
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 2: non-traditional folks that are media, non-traditional media, as well as
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 2: just in the community. And so, number one, we need
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 2: to repeal that big BS bill. Something we need to
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 2: do and we need to extend the ACA subsidies. Right now,
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 2: folks are frustrated, which is why we are seeing such
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 2: success with the No Kings rally. There are not just
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 2: Democrats going to these rallies. There are independents and Republicans
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 2: who are fed up. And so now, you know, this
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 2: is the next 250 years of our country to start.
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 3: And so what we have seen, I'm a student of history.
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 2: What we have seen all across the globe is that
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 2: there have been reiterations of different governments. Like we're due
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 2: for a new iteration of something, right? And so we
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 2: have the opportunity to rebuild our country.
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 3: Like our institution, like democracy has fallen here.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 2: We see this guy in the White House who, again,
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 2: is rubber-stamped by Ashley Moody. They're going after the media.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 2: He's going after his political opponents. He has taken control
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 2: of oil from a foreign country.
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 3: It is mind-blowing, right? That is not what a democracy is.
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: Have you run into Venezuelans who are upset about this?
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: And I'm just... I'm just sort of it's kind of
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: a head scratcher to me that that we haven't seen
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: more protests coming out of, you know, communities.
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 3: They're afraid, Chuck. They're afraid.
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 2: That's why they told me they're afraid to come out.
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 2: They're afraid to get deported. Like, that's what they said.
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 3: Even if they're here the right way, right?
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 2: Even if they are citizens of this country, they are
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 2: locking people up without due process.
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 3: So people who are actual U.S. citizens can be locked
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 3: up and.
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 2: Not talk to their family, their attorney for days and weeks.
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 3: There's no freaking process in place.
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: And you think that's having a huge impact on just
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: people not wanting to speak out.
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 3: Hell yes. That's what they told me.
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 2: A guy by the name of Jay that I met
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 2: in Orlando said that his husband is Venezuelan and he
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 2: does not leave the house. He said he wanted to
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 2: be here at your rally today, but he could not.
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 2: He did not come because he does not leave the house.
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 3: And he started crying like they are afraid. They are terrified.
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 2: They're literally going into elementary schools, stealing, kidnapping kids.
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 3: And using them as bait. Like, that's what we're up against.
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 3: This is not normal and this is not OK.
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: You've given your history, especially working in Northeast Florida, which
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: is just such a competitive area. How did the same
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: state vote for Obama and Trump? What did Trump do?
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 3: Because it's what? He spoke to people. He went out
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 3: and talked to them. He went out and had conversations
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 3: with them. He spoke to their concerns. And he didn't...
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 3: He didn't sugarcoat anything, right?
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 2: He spoke to the people that were hurting and that's
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 2: literally what I'm doing, right? And it also like the party,
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 2: the Democratic Party stopped, they divested from the South. They
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 2: divested from the South. And I will say they divested
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 2: from a lot of Black leaders, right? What does that
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 2: say about us now? The party, the party has to
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 2: figure out if they're going to continue to use Black
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 2: people for their labor and not advocate for their leadership.
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: Well, look, it's not lost on me. So you're an
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: African-American nominee in Florida. There's an African-American nominee in Mississippi.
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 3: Louisiana.
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: Louisiana. Every one of those races, there's been polling in
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks showing very close races. The
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: National Party doesn't seem eager. Maybe they go into Mississippi.
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: We'll see. Why is that so difficult? Why do you
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: think that's been so difficult?
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 3: Let me see if I'm trying to be.
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 2: We're the South and, you know, we have to recognize
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 2: that we.
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 3: Can't continue to Say we're going to fight.
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 2: Against systemic and institutionalized racism and we're not addressing it
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 2: within our party. If you look at, you know, Vice
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 2: President Harris was.
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 3: An anomaly with the amount of money she was able
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 3: to raise. And it was great.
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 2: But some of the things that I am hearing from
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 2: people that are part of the party, well, she couldn't
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 2: do it. And so because she was black and so
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 2: we don't need to invest in.
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 3: A black candidate that way. It'll never happen. It won't
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 3: be done. And so that's what we're saying.
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 2: Do you.
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: Think there are voters that won't vote for Byron Donalds
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: because of the color of his skin?
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 3: Within our party and within the Republican Party. Yeah.
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: Why do you think the Republican Party is more supportive
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: of Byron Donaldson than the Democratic Party is supportive of you?
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 3: I don't think all the Republicans... You ain't been on
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 3: the ground, Chuck. It is.
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: Well, I haven't heard. You're right. You think Donald is
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: in trouble?
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 2: It is batshit crazy down here. Oh, Lord, I meant
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 2: to blink that out.
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 3: Sorry. It is a mess down here.
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: We have an E on my podcast. Don't worry. And
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: it's my mouth, not yours. So don't worry about it.
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 3: No, you know, it is... You know, people will say, oh,
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 3: she called for a ceasefire. That's a problem. Or, oh,
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 3: she's not taking APAC money. That's a problem. Or, oh, no,
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 3: now when she joined DSA.
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 2: You got to ask, why did I feel the need
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 2: to join organizations? I just stay with the party, right? Like, yes,
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 2: there needs to be, we're a big team. We need
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 2: to bring all the people in. But also like, I'm
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 2: going to be real. Like the party that I grew
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 2: up in, that I was.
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 3: The vice chair of in Duval County, that.
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 2: I also served as the field director and political director
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 2: of the state party before.
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 3: A lot of folks in the party turned their back
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 3: on me. A lot of folks in.
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 2: The party have been supportive of me, always asked me
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 2: to stand up and do things that come.
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 3: Show up, show out, run bills, do this, do that.
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden, when someone who didn't
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 2: look like me got in the race after me, it was, oh,
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 2: Angie lacks depth.
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 3: Angie lacks experience.
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 2: When I'm the only lawmaker, sitting lawmaker that was running
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 2: for U.S.
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 3: Senate at the time, right?
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 2: And so, oh, Angie, Angie says y'all too much.
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 3: Oh, oh, Angie doesn't dress correctly.
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 2: Those are microaggressions rooted in racism. And so we have to,
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 2: we have to recognize That we got to fix some
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 2: things within ourselves, too, within the party. And so, again,
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 2: I'm an organizer and I am.
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 3: Believe in agitation. Right. And I'm critical.
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 2: I'm also critical of this country because I love it
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 2: and I want it to be better. Just the same
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 2: way I'm critical of my party because I love it
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 2: and I want it to be better. But there's a
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 2: reason my husband... who I've been married to for five
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 2: years now, who he says that the Republican Party and
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 2: the Democratic Party, they're two different wings on the same bird, right?
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 3: There's a reason people feel that way.
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 2: He feels that way being married to a prominent Democrat
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 2: in the party in the state of Florida.
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 3: And so if we don't work.
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 2: To address those issues, then we have a problem and
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 2: we will never win the.
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 3: Way in which we need to.
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: Well, you don't sound like a vote for Chuck Schumer.
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: or leader?
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 2: I am someone who is going to get to Washington, D.C.
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 2: and assess whoever decides to run, ask them the tough questions,
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 2: and then I'll make my decision after.
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 3: That.
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: You're not ready to talk about that stuff. That's interesting.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 3: Right now, Chuck Schumer is the leader and I'm going
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 3: to respect him as such.
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: That will surprise a lot of people that because, you know,
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: it's slow hanging fruit these days to bash Democratic leadership, right?
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: But I find it interesting you won't do that. I
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: respect it.
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 2: I'm not trying to bash anyone. Like, look, it's we
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 2: have one common goal. We need to take back the
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 2: Senate and.
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 3: Take back the House. And I'm trying to do as
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 3: much as possible to do that.
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 2: And in fighting, like, publicly in fighting, it ain't in fighting,
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 2: but publicly fighting is not going to be helpful today.
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 3: And so, you know, we need to move, not left,
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 3: not right, but towards the people.
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 2: And that's something that I've always done.
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 3: I'm going to continue to do and I'm going to
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 3: push people to do as well.
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: Well, look, the whole reason I'm trying to be in
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: independent media is I like trying to stop rounding the
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: edges on everything, right? And I take it you're tired
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: of politics being debated almost too sterilely, it sounds like.
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: It's almost too sterile, our political debate. And you'd like
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: to see a little more- We.
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 2: Just need to get shit done.
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 3: We need to get shit done, Chuck. We need to
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 3: get shit done.
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: So if you guys get both, go ahead. Tell me
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: about that.
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 3: No, I spoke with a woman in Broward County the
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 3: other day. She's in her 30s.
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 2: She was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 2: and she was everything was working out.
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 3: And then they passed that big BS bill.
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 2: And they cut back the funding for her to be
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 2: able to have access to certain treatments. And her breast
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 2: cancer returned and she has stage four breast cancer. People
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 2: are dying because people are playing games. I don't have
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 2: time to play games. I'm going to Washington, D.C.
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 3: To do a job.
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 2: And that is to ensure we are improving people's quality
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 2: of life here.
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 3: And so I have no time to.
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 2: For the BS like I'm only beholden to people I'm
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 2: not beholden to corporations I'm not beholden to these billionaires
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 2: and I'm gonna be clear right like we don't see
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 2: as much fight from certain people because they benefit from
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 2: what's happening right now too they straight I'm not straight.
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 2: My family and friends are not straight.
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 3: And so my community is not okay.
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 2: And so I'm going to fight like hell to change that.
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 3: But there are a lot of people within both parties
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 3: who are in office. They're okay. What's happening right now,
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 3: they're benefiting from it.
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 2: And so unless you know what it's like to struggle,
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 2: especially right now in this moment, You're going to keep
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 2: doing whatever.
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 3: It is that you're doing.
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: How much time you want Democrats next year? How much
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: time do you want to be spending on debating whether
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: to impeach Trump? And how much time do you want
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: to be spending debating Medicare for all?
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 2: You know, I feel like you can do both. I mean,
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 2: a man has done some impeachable offenses. You should be
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 2: able you should be able to do both.
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 3: Right. Like Congress doesn't have to move as slow.
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 2: As it moves.
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 3: It doesn't. No, it's a choice. They're trying to make
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 3: it seem like it's such a convoluted process. It's so complex.
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 3: It's not. It's not.
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, when you guys have a special session and there's
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: two days left, how quickly do bills get written and
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: passed in the Tallahassee?
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 3: Come on, Chuck. You need to run for office. You speaking, man.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: Let's lighten up here. What's been your favorite.
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: New town that you've traveled to in Florida that you
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: had no idea. You had no idea. You're like, I
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: can't believe how much I love X. Tell me about it.
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 3: I like the Apalachicola area. It is so beautiful.
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 2: Even though they had an issue with their water.
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 3: But when you're driving, when.
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 2: You're making that drive in like Port St.
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 3: Joe area, it is absolutely beautiful. Beautiful.
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 2: That's the Panhandle area.
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 3: It is absolutely beautiful. So I love going over there.
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 3: It's far as hell, but I love going.
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: And I take it you have a preference on which
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: of the big three football schools. No offense to UCF.
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: I guess I should say big four if I'll count
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: UCF in this.
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 3: You're a Gator.
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: Are you a Gator through and through? I'm a Gator.
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm a Gator.
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: I won't hold that against you. Maybe I will.
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 2: I love my HBCUs sooner. We need to make sure
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 2: they get more funding.
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. We have two really good ones. Bethune-Cookman and Florida
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: A & M. And I'm sure I'm leaving a couple out. Yeah,
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: I'm leaving a couple out.
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Edward Waters University, which is in my current district.
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 3: And then we have Florida Memorial University.
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: Florida Memorial. I shouldn't have left that one out, but obviously.
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: I got a lot of friends, a lot of FAMU friends.
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: So I always have to give them extra shout out. Angie,
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: be safe on the trail. I'm glad you're wearing a seatbelt.
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: Nobody's going to give you a hard time about that.
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: And I appreciate you giving me some time. Be safe
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: out there. Nice to meet you.
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Chuck. Bye.
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: Let's do, I'm doing my Todd dance for the Ask Chuck.
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: We're not going to call it a Trump dance here.
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: This question comes from Michael T. Chicago, Illinois. And he writes,
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: Dear Chuck, during your interview with Dana Bash, you mentioned
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: you're looking for good history books about China. So I
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: have one for you. 1434, the year a magnificent Chinese
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: emperor fleet sailed to Italy and ignited the Renaissance by
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: Gavin Menzies. It'll blow your mind. And if you want
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: to talk about butterfly effects, just imagine if that ship
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: never sailed. Well, that's a really good teaser. Michael, you
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: need to get into like the marketing business. I'm guessing
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: you might already be. That is a terrific tease. I
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: am taking, not only taking the advice, I'm finding it
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: right now. This is one of those things. One of those,
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: I don't do it literally in the moment. So I'm
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: going to find this right now. I get, I do
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: virtual libraries, in case you're wondering. I do Apple Books
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: when I can. 1434. There it is.
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 3: There it is.
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: All right. And not super, I could do it as
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: an audio book. I'm not going to do it as
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: an audio book. I'm a fan of doing it as
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: a hard to cover. But all right. Thank you for
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: that recommendation. And I am officially an owner of said book. Michael,
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: they should throw you, you should get a couple of
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: bucks from Apple for that, right? Anyway, appreciate. Because yes,
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: I think, look, this goes to history curriculums in general,
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: but man, we do a terrible job educating people. our
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: high schoolers on China. Our next question comes from Adam B.,
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: formerly Pennsylvania's first district, but currently resides in West Virginia's
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: second district.
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: As a recently retired third grade teacher and former reading specialist,
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: I really appreciated your thoughtful discussion of the American education system,
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: especially your emphasis on the whole child from pre-K through
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: third grade. You were spot on that children grow academically
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: at different rates, just as they do physically. And in
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: my experience, getting a child excited about school and their
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: classroom community is one of the most important things an
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: educator can do. When you get that right, the sky's
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: the limit. Keep up the great work, Adam B. I
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: appreciate you saying that. I am, you know, it's just about,
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: we got it. It's sort of like, we know that
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: these things we all agree work. So let's get this
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: part right. and everything else will build to it, right?
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: Because if you get that part right, in some ways,
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: then you will have the market kicking in because there'll
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: be a student market who are ready to go and
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: want more. And then you can start, and this is
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: where I do think AI comes in, where we can
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: start to have, I don't want to say necessarily personalized curriculums,
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: but the public school system can be more responsive, different
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: rates and all this stuff. And I just, there's, You know,
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: it's just like what we're learning. We're learning in the
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: medical industry, right? Nobody takes this. nobody's taking the exact
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: same cancer treatment drugs, right? You find out what works
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: specifically well for your physiology, right? We're getting better at
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: being able to almost personally designing these treatments depending on
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: your physiology. Well, there's no reason why education can't be
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: done in the same way. Gina C. writes in, she goes,
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: I'm a teacher in Texas and longtime listener. I used
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: to watch you at Meet the Press while coaching UIL.
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: Current events. I understand Republicans have more money, which may
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: explain why I'm seeing so many Abbott and Paxton ads
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: in East Texas. But you've also talked about Beshear's influence
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: over DNC spending. It's actually DGA spending. So why aren't
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: Democrats putting more into Texas? I've heard about the OSA
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: ad featuring a January 6th participant. And think it could
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: resonate here, but I haven't actually seen it on air. Thanks,
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: Gina C. Well, that's interesting that you're not seeing it. Now,
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: it may be that if their data people know where
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: they're going, maybe they know you don't need to see
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: the ad and perhaps it's airing on the Fox News channel, right?
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: And things like that. And I will say that I
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: do think you do see a... It's not quite asymmetrical,
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: but in a mid, particularly in a midterm, Republicans are
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: spending a little bit more, you know, so, and this
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: used to be reversed, right? The non-college educated voter who
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: used to be a Democratic, usually a Democratic voter has
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: become primarily a Republican voter. And it is, you're, Legacy
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: and mainstream television advertising is still the best way to
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: reach that voter. The voter, the Democratic coalition is more fragmented.
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: And so you see it's they they're they're targeting of
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: ads is much more analytics driven. I'm not saying that
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: the right side analytics driven. It's just that one of
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: the bigger chunks of voting groups that they want to
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: talk to just happen to be easier to reach in
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: legacy in in in sort of the old broadcast and affiliates. scenario,
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: which may, you're probably, if you watch local news, you're
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: going to probably see more of it there. I suspect
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: that in the month of October, you'll start to see
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: more of it. But I am, I, you know, I
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: know why there's always been this hesitance. Democrats feel as
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: if throwing money at Texas is a waste given how
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: much it takes to have an impact. But something's happening
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: here this time. And the opportunity is huge. And I
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: go with Bashir. I think not I don't think it's
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: wasted money even if Hinojosa comes up short. Because even
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: if she comes up short, she's going to be a
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: power player in Texas Democratic politics. And this is, I
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: think that she's doing well not because Donald Trump's unpopular.
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: She's doing well because Republican governance in Texas is unpopular,
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: particularly when it comes to schools and the vouchers. You know,
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: so you can go on anywhere. And that's why I think, look,
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: It's still early. It's October 1st. But I'd be surprised if,
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just, I don't know. I'm surprised Bashir
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: hasn't done something more significant here. Because I think if
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: he really wants to run for president in 28, I
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: think it's really good presidential politics for him. All right,
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: Amanda chimes in with a question. Mr. Todd, you and Mr.
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: Salazar are becoming my Waldorf and Statler. Well, thanks for
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: telling us about a couple of old guys. I appreciate it.
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: The duo I didn't know I wanted, but now I
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: know I need it. Thanks. Would you consider having a
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: former FBI agent, maybe someone like Andrew McCabe, on the
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: podcast to talk about the FBI's role, independence, and how
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: the institution has changed in recent years? Loved a refresher
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: on what the FBI has historically stood for and where
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: it may be headed, because lately I feel like I'm
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: losing sight of both. Thanks for always educating me Monday
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: through Thursday. Well, I appreciate you saying that, Amanda. The
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: answer is it's a great idea. I know Andrew a
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: little bit, both when he was a source for me
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: and since his retirement. And it's a great idea. We'll
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: see if our friends at CNN will let him do
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: some independent media sometimes. But hey, we just had Dana Bash, right?
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: So there's no reason why they shouldn't. But I think
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: it's a good idea. I think we have to totally rethink,
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: you know, norms aren't going to be enough to make
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: the Justice Department and the FBI follow the rule of law.
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: We're probably going to have to. We have to come
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: up with more barriers to minimize political interference. The possibility
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: of political interference is always going to be there. The
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: question is, how do you come up with new ways
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: to safeguard it? And it's clear that the attorney general
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: can't be this, you know, can't be this connected to
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: the presidency. Because what we're doing is we're If we
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: get to the point where you just assume the FBI
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: is politically motivated, you assume anything the Justice Department is
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: doing is politically motivated, and eventually people will stop believing
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: anything that's coming out of arguably the two agencies that
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: have to be the most trusted by the public, not
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: the least. So it's pretty ugly, but it's a good idea.
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: But you should realize, look, the FBI, unfortunately, has a
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: history of ebbing and flowing from being sort of independent,
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: to being partisan, to being independent, to being partisan. So sadly,
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: it's not new. All right, last question.
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 3: All right. Howdy.
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: There's a growing discussion about AOC as a potential 2028
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: presidential candidate. By the way, the person writing this one
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: in here is Hilmar M. He's a professor of political science,
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: Western Norway University of Applied Sciences in Hordaland Electoral District
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: for the starting elections. Hey, you didn't say it had
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: to be an American electoral district. That's very good.
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: So he's chiming in for a professor from Norway and
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: he goes, howdy. There's a growing discussion about AOC as
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: a potential 2028 presidential candidate. But as a foreign observer
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: who has spent a lot of time in the U.S.,
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: I wonder whether a self-described democratic socialist could actually win
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: nationally in a country historically skeptical of socialism. Separately, when
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: King Harold's funeral drew numerous heads of state, the U.S.
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: sent State Department official Alison Hooker, rather than a high-profile representative.
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: Do you think there was any political significance to that decision?
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: For the record, Trump will never get the Nobel Prize either.
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: That I can tell you. And he was using his
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: Trump voice. Well, first of all, 100%, it was a
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: political statement. He absolutely holds the entire country and the
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: monarchy and the government. He blames them for not giving
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: him the Nobel Peace Prize. I know what What many
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: people are rooting for, Mark Carney getting the Nobel Peace Prize. Now,
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know what you could say he's done for peace,
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: although I guess you could say trying to create a
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: middle powers check on the both authoritarian and wannabe authoritarian
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: superpowers is an attempt at creating sort of a bulwark
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: of sorts, but I think it's a reach to give them,
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: but you want to talk about a political statement? That
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: would be quite the political statement by our friends in Norway.
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: But the question itself on AOC, look, you're exactly right.
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: I always use the example, Hilmar, where I grew up.
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: I grew up in Miami, Florida. And Miami is home
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: to a lot of dissidents who escaped socialism in Latin America.
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: And you grow up down there and it isn't, you know,
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: socialism and authoritarianism are synonyms. And so, you know, I've
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: always said it's a, it's a real geographic divide in
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: this country and the perception of socialism, the more, the
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: further South you go, the more skeptical of social socialism,
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: you get the further North you go, the more open
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: it is.
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: Um, Bernie Sanders is a northern New England progressive. And
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: so democratic socialism seems perfectly normal to him. And so
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: I think– look, I don't think– I do think, look,
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: that socialism is not as much of a negative as
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: even I thought it would be at this point. It
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: is less of a negative today than I ever would
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: have thought it would be if you had asked me
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: that three years ago. And I think part of it
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: is our skepticism about all of this wealth that's been
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: created in Silicon Valley that doesn't seem to be on
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: the up and up and the weird valuation. So capitalism
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: is a PR problem. And so the openness to other ideas,
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: if they're socialistic ideas, fine. So I think what you
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: have here is a hybrid, but I do believe that
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: if somebody with a lot of shares a lot of
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: beliefs of somebody who's a democratic socialist, they're not going
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: to win if their answer is, I want to pursue socialism.
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: But they could win with ideas that one might say
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: is socialist ideas if they call it an attempt to
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: save capitalism. FDR did not bring socialism to America. FDR
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: was trying to save capitalism. And I think that that's
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: the frame with which you could sell it. And I
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: think there are certain things, right? On retirement security, we've
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: decided we're more in favor of democratic socialism. What's social
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: security but that? And I think increasingly on healthcare, we're
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: more open to a democratic socialist framework rather than a
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: full private capitalistic framework on that. So I think the
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: population itself is showing in specific areas, places where they're
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: more open to it. I forgot your PS because it
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: fits right into my college football. He goes, PS, I've
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: been visiting. I've been a visiting scholar at Texas A &
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: M since 2013. My first time there was right after
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: Johnny Manziel won the Heisen. Gig him. Well, hey, good
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: for you. But as you know, it's tough times for
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: the old Aggies there. Things aren't looking well. So, look,
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: the most important game, obviously, on my calendar is Clemson.
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: It's Miami versus Clemson.
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 2: I am.
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: You know, Clemson beat Miami. One of the more embarrassing
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: beatdowns Miami got was, I think it was in 2016,
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: I want to say, you know, sort of peak, it
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: was peak Clemson at that time. And I think they
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: beat us at home like 63 to zero or 63
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: to seven, something humiliating. And it was so bad. And
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: donors and boosters were so angry. The administration correctly decided
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: they had to do, they had to, They had to
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: fire Al Golden immediately. They did. And then that's when
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: we got Mark Richt, who was about to be pushed
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: out of Georgia. We were the soft landing. Mark Richt then,
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: you know, basically the rebuilding of the Miami football program,
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: you know, as much as Mario Cristobal deserves a ton
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 1: of credit here, he did begin with Mark Richt, who
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: famously was one of the backup quarterbacks to Jim Kelly,
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: for those of you keeping score at home. So Mark
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 1: Richt always has a Soft spot. Soft spot in my
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: heart on that front. I know I have a lot
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: of Northwestern grads that listen to this podcast, a lot
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: of journalism pals, including my friend J.A. Adande, who I
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: do Dynastic with. They're opening their new stadium. It's pretty exciting,
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: and they're hosting Penn State. You know, Northwestern It's been
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: kind of sneaky. You know, maybe they win seven or
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 1: eight games. If they do, it begins with knocking off
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: Penn State. And Penn State's reeling a little bit, right?
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 1: The first tough team, first power forward team they face,
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: they lose. Last week with Wisconsin. So I think the
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: best game on the board, that isn't Miami Clemson, and
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: I hope it's not a good game. I don't want
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: it to be a good game. I would like to
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: see Miami win. Send a few messages to Dabo. Dabo
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: has not been a very great friend of the program.
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: He has used Miami as a punching bag, used our
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: little brother up in Tallahassee as a punching bag. He
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: hasn't been the friendliest guy. You know, we're all in
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: this together, Dabo, and trying to stop this SEC nonsense.
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: And yet, you know, I think he was always just
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: trying to get his self into the SEC. So I'd
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: like this to I'd like to leave a mark. You know,
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: I hope we're super focused. I think the last time
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: we played Clemson, it was the first time I thought
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: Cristobal was building something that I could believe in. It
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: was the year before Cam Ward. We had a backup quarterback,
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: you know, things weren't great, but we basically, he knew
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: he didn't have the offensive firepower to beat Clemson. So
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: we just grinded it out. We forced it overtime game
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: and we just, We were physically tougher than Clemson. And
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: at that time, I think this is 20, right? So
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: what do we have here?
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 3: 2023.
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: And Clemson was still getting some of this benefit of
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: the doubt. And we just physically beat them up in
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. And it was like, oh, Mario is
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: building the Miami team that he had envisioned, that he
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: grew up with, that he was a part of, where
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 1: you better be the stronger team at the end of
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. And those Miami teams of the 80s
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: and 90s always were. And I think you saw, particularly
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 1: in the college football playoff last year, that Miami was
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: in there. But look, there are two games on the
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: board that I think are probably the most interesting games
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: to me that do not involve Miami. One is Alabama's
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: trip to Stark Vegas. I pointed this out to you
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago. Mississippi State's the fun story
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: of September so far. So this is now September has
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: moved to October. Can Mississippi State, you know, is Cinderella
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: still wearing the slipper on this one? The Cowbells are
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 1: going to be out. This could be a super high
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: scoring game because while Mississippi State has a quarterback that's
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: just got a great nickname, Super Camario. His name's Camario Taylor,
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: I believe. But what a cool nickname, Super Camario. Alabama's
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: can score some points with Keelan Russell. I mean, they
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: put up a 50 burger on Florida State, even as
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: Florida State scored 36 of their own. Point is, is
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: that this could be just a highly entertaining game. And scheduling-wise,
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 1: I love it. It's a noon game. So that's a
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: bummer for Mississippi State because Stark Vegas in primetime, cowbells
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: and boos, you know, a noon kick, which is really
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: 11 a.m. kick in Stark Vegas. I'm not saying they
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: won't be primed and ready to go, but it isn't
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: going to be the same level of cowbell, I think,
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: that you would have gotten if this had been a
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 1: night game. So Alabama's breathing a sigh of relief. This
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: just should be a highly entertaining game. And obviously, if
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: Mississippi State pulls this upset, you have to start thinking
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: about them as a playoff team. I don't think they
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: have the defense. I think they're an 8-9 win team
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: when all is said and done. My guess is Alabama
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: will outscore them and they'll end up pulling away late.
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: But that's why you play the game, right? The other
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: intriguing matchup is in the Big Ten. And it's Ohio
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: State traveling to Iowa. This is one of those on-paper games,
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: neutral side. Ohio State should win this quite handily, right?
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: Yet Iowa does Iowa things, right? Iowa, you know, they
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: have a bunch of one or two stars that Kirk
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: Ferentz figures out how to put in the right place
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: at the right time. They'll end up with some quirky
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: punt return, or they'll have the best punter in the league,
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: or they'll keep down in the, you know. What you
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: got to love about Iowa is, And, you know, I
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: was one of my adopted home states. That's where my
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: dad grew up. So I claim it. A lot of
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 1: Todd's are buried in Iowa. So Iowa, I'm partial to
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 1: both Iowa schools. My grandparents went to Iowa State. My
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: family grew up in the eastern part of the state.
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: So plenty of black and gold in the Todd family
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: as well. I would just play smart. They just out-discipline teams.
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: They don't have the athletes. They never have the athletes. Occasionally,
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: they find one like a Cooper Djejin who is super
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 1: fast and doing pretty well in the NFL these days,
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 1: the Philadelphia Eagles. But this is one of those weird
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 1: games that if Ohio State isn't– look, if they can
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: get to 20 points by halftime, they're going to win
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: the game and probably cover a double-digit spread. But if
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: this is one of those 10-7 games at halftime, oh, man.
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 1: And they aisle it up. And then, you know, Ryan
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: Day in a close game in the fourth quarter. How
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: confident are you? My friends in Ohio State land. Mr. Kasich,
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: how confident are you and Mr. Day in Iowa City
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter if it's a three-point game? So,
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: it's possible. Ohio State just steps on the gas and
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: Iowa just doesn't have the athletes to keep up. It's possible.
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: There is one other rank versus rank matchup, technically, because
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: for some, you know, the SEC bias, if you count AP,
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 1: apparently they don't think there are other conferences. I don't
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: know why Missouri's ranked and Wake Forest isn't, right? Because
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: Wake Forest has beaten teams. Missouri has not. Yes, they're
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 1: three and one, but the first tough team they play,
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: they lose. They lost to Mississippi State, but they still
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: stayed at 25. They host Florida. And I will say
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 1: this about Mizzou. And I got Mizzou in my family too,
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: so I can't be totally over-trashing Mizzou, especially against the
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: hated Gators. Mizzou's a lot better at home than they
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: are on the road. They are like super Jekyll and
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: Hyde on this too. It feels like ever since they
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: joined the SEC, they can never win on the road,
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 1: but nobody likes going to Columbia to try to beat them.
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: And Florida is riding high. This is one of those...
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: If the market is super high on Florida, super low
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: in Missouri. So if you care about those things, and
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: some of us are hobbyists that care about those things,
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: that's the most interesting part of this, is Mizuga. too
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: many points at home. Other than that, those are my
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: favorite games of the weekend. Let me see anything else
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: that is totally jumping out at me. BYU-TCU. BYU, they
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: sort of pull rabbits out of their hat, but this
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 1: is a road game. This one's in Fort Worth. TCU
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 1: is a pretty– this is a night game. And it's
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 1: kind of a– TCU is supposed to be better than this. This–
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: you should get their best effort. If BYU is going
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: to lose a game that isn't Texas Tech or something
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: like that, this is one I would keep an eye on.
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: So that's of small interest to me. And then, boy,
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 1: that is.
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 1: Indiana's going to blow out Rutgers, right? They struggled with Northwestern.
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 1: They're not going to struggle with Rutgers, right? At Rutgers,
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 1: USC struggled, but they're.
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 2: Not, right?
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: Right, Indiana?
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: I think I think that, but after watching... Indiana did
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 1: not look very disciplined against Northwestern last week. That did
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: not look like the Cignetti's teams that we've gotten used to.
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: A lot of weird, small mistakes. Part of me assumes
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: that Cignetti isn't going to let his team do that
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 1: two weeks in a row. So I have a feeling
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to be Greg Sciano's Rutgers Scarlet Knights
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: this week when Cignetti's just Google me Indiana Hoosiers show up.
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: So we'll see. All right, with that, I should be
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: talking about Packers Bears week. And you know how bad
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: the Packers-Bears matchup has gotten to the NFL? It's already
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: been flexed back into the 1 o'clock time slot. That's
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: what's happened to both the Packers and the Bears. Nobody
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: apparently wants to see Jordan Love get sacked every down
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 1: and Chicago and Green Bay playing some sort of 17-16 game.
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 1: That makes nobody happy. But with that, I will enjoy
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 1: the college football weekend. I am headed to Kansas City.
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 1: If I see some of you at the Pointer event,
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 1: I look forward to that. And if not, I will
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: see you back here on Monday. Thanks for listening. Thanks
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 1: for subscribing. Thanks for liking. Thanks for caring about what
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 1: we're doing here. I'm just trying to offer up politics
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: for the rest of us. See you, Mike.