Latest / Pod Save America / Trump Returns to the Scene of the Crime

Transcript

Trump Returns to the Scene of the Crime · Pod Save America

0:20
Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
0:22
Speaker 2: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
0:22
Speaker 1: On today's show, the Supreme Court decides that abortion medication
0:25
Speaker 1: can remain legal in certain states for now... As Senate
0:29
Speaker 1: Republicans block a bill that would protect IVF. House Republicans
0:32
Speaker 1: plot ways to overturn Donald Trump's conviction and try to
0:36
Speaker 1: prosecute Merrick Garland. And the Biden campaign takes voters' cost
0:40
Speaker 1: of living concerns head on while the Trump campaign tries
0:43
Speaker 1: to woo CEOs with more tax cuts. But first, on Thursday,
0:49
Speaker 1: the world's most famous convicted criminal returned to the scene
0:52
Speaker 1: of another one of his alleged crimes. It was Trump's
0:55
Speaker 1: first trip to the U.S. Capitol since he urged a
0:57
Speaker 1: mob of violent extremists to prevent the certification of the
1:00
Speaker 1: election he lost. And boy, did he get a hero's
1:03
Speaker 1: welcome from many of the same House and Senate Republicans
1:07
Speaker 1: who fled for their lives on January 6th. And at
1:10
Speaker 1: the time, many blamed Donald Trump. But even though they've
1:13
Speaker 1: decided to forgive and forget, the Biden campaign wanted to
1:16
Speaker 1: make sure the rest of us don't. Here's the ad
1:18
Speaker 1: they released timed Trump's visit.
1:21
Speaker 3: On January 6th, Donald Trump lit a fire in this country.
1:24
Speaker 1: 140 officers were injured. The siege lasted for seven hours.
1:29
Speaker 3: Stoking the flames of division and hate. Now he's pouring gasoline.
1:34
Speaker 2: They were unbelievable patriots.
1:35
Speaker 3: Pledging to pardon the extremists who tried to overthrow our government.
1:39
Speaker 1: We will give them pardons.
1:41
Speaker 3: Inciting them to try again. There is nothing more sacred
1:44
Speaker 3: than our democracy. But Donald Trump's ready to burn it
1:47
Speaker 3: all down.
1:48
Speaker 4: I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this message.
1:51
Speaker 1: What a good time to plug our book, Democracy or Else,
1:54
Speaker 1: which is on sale. You can preorder it right now.
2:00
Speaker 1: It'll be released a week from Tuesday.
2:04
Speaker 2: I guess that counts as an organic plug. I guess.
2:07
Speaker 1: Look, I came into the recording. The book was on
2:10
Speaker 1: the table, which I guess is just a not so
2:12
Speaker 1: subtle push from everyone on the marketing team to start
2:18
Speaker 1: pitching the book. But anyway, we'll get back to that.
2:20
Speaker 1: I want to get to that ad. Can we just
2:22
Speaker 1: take a second to talk about how unbelievably nuts it
2:26
Speaker 1: is that this man was just welcomed back to the
2:29
Speaker 1: Capitol by the people. He nearly got killed by Capitol.
2:32
Speaker 1: He didn't actually go in the Capitol, we should say,
2:33
Speaker 1: but he was on Capitol Hill. I mean, that is wild.
2:37
Speaker 2: I was thinking back to the footage from the Pelosi
2:41
Speaker 2: documentary that Nancy Pelosi's daughter made that was in the
2:43
Speaker 2: January 6th hearings, and they're all huddled Kevin McCarthy and
2:48
Speaker 2: Steve Scalise, Nancy Pelosi, and they're on the phone begging
2:51
Speaker 2: Donald Trump to send help, to send the National Guard
2:55
Speaker 2: to save their lives from a murderous horde that Donald
2:59
Speaker 2: Trump set there. And he refused to do so. And
3:02
Speaker 2: it's not just that they led him back on the premises.
3:04
Speaker 2: It's that they welcomed him with open arms. They applauded him.
3:07
Speaker 2: They sang him happy birthday. They cheered him. It is
3:11
Speaker 2: just like one of the most intense cases of Stockholm
3:13
Speaker 2: Syndrome ever documented.
3:15
Speaker 1: It is wild. It's just so pathetic. I just can't
3:22
Speaker 1: imagine being like that with any person, let alone someone
3:25
Speaker 1: who almost got me killed.
3:29
Speaker 2: It's delusional in the sense that they've convinced themselves that
3:31
Speaker 2: didn't happen. Certainly, there are some senators, I'm sure McConnell,
3:36
Speaker 2: they're faking it, right? They're begrudgingly allowing this to happen
3:39
Speaker 2: because this is what the voters want or whatever else.
3:42
Speaker 2: But these people in the House, for sure, nope. It's
3:45
Speaker 2: just they have wiped it from their minds and they
3:47
Speaker 2: are just like they have. It's all been rewritten and
3:50
Speaker 2: that Donald Trump wasn't involved and there was an FBI
3:52
Speaker 2: plan and it was, you know, whatever conspiracy they have,
3:55
Speaker 2: just that they're not faking it. I think they legitimately
3:58
Speaker 2: believe that he is their hero and that he did
4:01
Speaker 2: not try to murder them.
4:05
Speaker 1: Ask Mike Pence.
4:06
Speaker 2: Yeah.
4:07
Speaker 1: So the Biden campaign has said they want voters to
4:10
Speaker 1: be thinking about January 6th when they cast their ballot
4:13
Speaker 1: in November. Do you think there will be more of
4:16
Speaker 1: these ads running everywhere the closer we get to November?
4:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I assume so. Like they ran this ad today
4:22
Speaker 2: because Trump was going to the Capitol. There'd be a
4:25
Speaker 2: ton of coverage of Trump going to Capitol Hill. We
4:27
Speaker 2: would all talk about it. Very clever.
4:29
Speaker 1: It worked, right?
4:30
Speaker 2: We are doing it. Mission accomplished. Well, you know, because
4:33
Speaker 2: every social media share or news coverage airing of your
4:37
Speaker 2: ad is free, right? So that's what you want, right?
4:39
Speaker 2: You don't have to pay for everyone. You want to
4:40
Speaker 2: get the free ones. They got some free ones here.
4:42
Speaker 2: You're welcome Biden campaign. You know, what's interesting to me
4:45
Speaker 2: is I think that this will ramp up at the end.
4:47
Speaker 2: I do, certainly for the segment of voters that Sarah
4:50
Speaker 2: Longland and I spent a lot of time talking about
4:52
Speaker 2: on Wednesday's pod, these former Republicans, two-time Trump voters, Trump-Biden
4:57
Speaker 2: voters who are very uncomfortable with Donald Trump, specifically because
5:01
Speaker 2: of January 6th, you want that in their mind. And
5:05
Speaker 2: the question is, how are you going to make that
5:07
Speaker 2: breakthrough at the end, right? Because it's going to have
5:10
Speaker 2: to be more than just ads, right? There's going to
5:11
Speaker 2: have to be a full-bore surround sound style campaign to
5:15
Speaker 2: bring people back into that moment, to remember what they
5:19
Speaker 2: were thinking on that day, that day when most Republicans,
5:22
Speaker 2: hardcore Republicans turned away from Trump on that day for
5:26
Speaker 2: a brief fleeting period of time, but they did. And
5:28
Speaker 2: can you get people back there through high profile events, surrogates, ads?
5:33
Speaker 2: Could you take out a 30 minute spot Right. Or
5:37
Speaker 2: I have a 30 minute YouTube documentary. Like you really
5:41
Speaker 2: sort of need your version of the Michael Moore Iraq
5:45
Speaker 2: war documentary that ran 2004. You need something like that
5:48
Speaker 2: to bring people into that moment to be more than
5:50
Speaker 2: just some digital and television spots. Although you should run
5:53
Speaker 2: those and they will run those.
5:55
Speaker 1: I mean, I do think, I imagine in debate prep
5:58
Speaker 1: that we'll be talking about a moment in the debate,
6:01
Speaker 1: probably in this debate coming up and then maybe even
6:04
Speaker 1: more likely in the one in September. where Biden brings
6:07
Speaker 1: it up, because I think Donald Trump talking about January
6:10
Speaker 1: 6th is not going to be his best moment. I
6:12
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm just guessing. Not in the prediction business,
6:15
Speaker 1: but we'll see. But I do think that the messengers, like,
6:18
Speaker 1: you could imagine some of the police officers that were
6:20
Speaker 1: injured who have already spoken out about this.
6:23
Speaker 2: And have been traveling the country, right?
6:24
Speaker 1: Michael Phelan. Right, right.
6:26
Speaker 5: Yep.
6:27
Speaker 1: So you can imagine that. Or like a Cassidy Hutchinson, right?
6:29
Speaker 1: People who testified in the at the January 6th hearing. So,
6:33
Speaker 1: you know, I do think that'll get ramped up. And
6:35
Speaker 1: I think you're right. Primary audience is certainly the voters
6:38
Speaker 1: that Sarah's talking about, the two-time Trump voters who are
6:41
Speaker 1: now sick of Trump. I also think, you know, we've
6:45
Speaker 1: heard Biden mention January 6th now at the NAACP event
6:50
Speaker 1: where he said, does anyone doubt if these were, if
6:53
Speaker 1: the protesters were black, that Donald Trump wouldn't have sent
6:56
Speaker 1: in the National Guard to put them down? which he
7:01
Speaker 1: refused to send any help at all. So I think
7:04
Speaker 1: that there is, for some voters, I think voters who
7:07
Speaker 1: are tuned out, voters who maybe aren't too happy with
7:10
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, who aren't sure if they're going to vote,
7:12
Speaker 1: I think reminding them of the kind of, not just like, hey,
7:15
Speaker 1: this happened January 6th, but this is the kind of
7:19
Speaker 1: violence that Donald Trump has incited. This is the kind
7:22
Speaker 1: of chaos that he has incited. And why would you
7:25
Speaker 1: think that he's not going to do that again?
7:27
Speaker 3: Yeah.
7:27
Speaker 2: In general, you probably want to try to focus people
7:30
Speaker 2: on the fact that one of the two people running
7:32
Speaker 2: for president tried to violently overthrow the government four years ago?
7:35
Speaker 1: Just, you know, just something that you want to file
7:37
Speaker 1: away when you head into the voting booth. There's something
7:40
Speaker 1: you want to think about. So Trump met privately with
7:42
Speaker 1: all the House Republicans, then all the Senate Republicans. There
7:45
Speaker 1: were no reporters in either meeting, but there were plenty
7:48
Speaker 1: of sources leaking to reporters who were in the meeting.
7:51
Speaker 1: So here's a rundown of what happened. Trump called Milwaukee.
7:57
Speaker 1: the swing state city that's hosting the Republican convention, a, quote,
8:01
Speaker 1: horrible city. He referred to the Justice Department as dirty bastards.
8:05
Speaker 1: He complained about Taylor Swift not endorsing him. He said
8:08
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi's daughter once told him that if things had
8:10
Speaker 1: been different, he and Nancy would be perfect together. And
8:16
Speaker 1: he once again praised one of his favorite make-believe friends.
8:19
Speaker 5: Apparently the former president made reference to Hannibal Lecter. and said,
8:24
Speaker 5: nice guy, quote, he even had a friend over for dinner.
8:27
Speaker 5: So we've seen Trump out on the campaign trail praising
8:29
Speaker 5: Hannibal Lecter. Apparently he did it again this morning. Not
8:31
Speaker 5: sure we fully understand the context of that.
8:35
Speaker 1: What fucking world are we living in, Dan? What is happening?
8:38
Speaker 2: I mean, the scariest part is CNN report.
8:41
Speaker 1: Like he did mention Hannibal Lecter again, the guy who's
8:44
Speaker 1: the Republican nominee for president, a convicted felon. Once again,
8:47
Speaker 1: talking about Hannibal Lecter for no discernible reason.
8:50
Speaker 2: Stay tuned for more contacts. We're calling our sources to
8:53
Speaker 2: see what he's talking about. As opposed to just like
8:56
Speaker 2: so much of Trump coverage should just be someone yelling
8:59
Speaker 2: like what the fuck is all they possibly can into
9:01
Speaker 2: a microphone. Instead, it's just like not entirely sure what
9:04
Speaker 2: that meant there, but I'm sure there was there was
9:06
Speaker 2: a reason. why he mentioned a fictional serial killer in
9:09
Speaker 2: a meeting with congressional Republicans.
9:11
Speaker 1: So this is not that he's been doing frequently for
9:13
Speaker 1: some reason. I don't know. What do you think about
9:16
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee thing? This is sparked. Every I think every
9:20
Speaker 1: elected Democrat from Wisconsin has now tweeted about it. I
9:24
Speaker 1: think like the mayor has already said something.
9:27
Speaker 2: About a press conference.
9:28
Speaker 1: The mayor did a press conference already. This is that
9:30
Speaker 1: we're recording this Thursday by like like an hour after
9:33
Speaker 1: it was tweeted. The Trump said that it was just
9:35
Speaker 1: it's full blown, probably billboards coming up everywhere. It's going
9:39
Speaker 1: to be great.
9:40
Speaker 2: I love it because it just is a reminder that
9:43
Speaker 2: with like as much as everything's changed, the media is disintegrated.
9:47
Speaker 2: Trump's insane. Is that there's still just like some old
9:50
Speaker 2: school politics that happens. Politician says something bad about a
9:53
Speaker 2: swing state. You just dust off the playbook. You leap
9:56
Speaker 2: into action. You get the mayor out there. You get Congress.
10:00
Speaker 1: People.
10:00
Speaker 2: I'm sure they're getting small business. There's going to be
10:02
Speaker 2: an ad on Milwaukee radio by the end of the day.
10:05
Speaker 2: There's going to be a bunch of like small business
10:06
Speaker 2: people and veterans from Milwaukee talking about just, I love it.
10:10
Speaker 2: It's great. Hammer them for it. Is it going to
10:11
Speaker 2: really matter that much? Probably not. But can you make
10:15
Speaker 2: it slightly uncomfortable for a few minutes? Can you just
10:17
Speaker 2: as a way to like throw some grist in the
10:20
Speaker 2: mill during the Republican convention in Milwaukee?
10:23
Speaker 1: Absolutely. It's funny that all these Republicans from Wisconsin and
10:27
Speaker 1: other Republicans who were in the meeting, the stories are
10:30
Speaker 1: all different. Some of them are like, he never said that.
10:33
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're talking about. That's completely false.
10:35
Speaker 1: And then others said, oh, he did say that, but
10:37
Speaker 1: he was referring to the fact that the crime rate
10:39
Speaker 1: is so high in Milwaukee. So he was talking about
10:41
Speaker 1: the crimes. And then someone else was like, oh, no,
10:44
Speaker 1: he was talking about how they stole the election in
10:47
Speaker 1: Milwaukee in 2020. It's like, none of this is making
10:50
Speaker 1: it better, you dipshits.
10:51
Speaker 2: Just stop talking.
10:53
Speaker 1: But, like, this is how Trump views cities in America now, right? Like,
10:57
Speaker 1: he knows that cities are full of Democrats and Democrats
11:01
Speaker 1: don't like them. And so every city has to be.
11:04
Speaker 1: a hellhole that's crime-ridden and dirty. He says it about D.C.
11:08
Speaker 1: He says it about Chicago, Milwaukee. It doesn't matter if
11:11
Speaker 1: it's a swing state city or not. He just says
11:14
Speaker 1: every urban area where there are Democratic voters that do
11:18
Speaker 1: not like him, he wants to turn the rest of
11:20
Speaker 1: the country against. And by the way, this is part
11:23
Speaker 1: of his plan that he wants to send the National
11:25
Speaker 1: Guard into the cities. He wants to invoke the Insurrection
11:29
Speaker 1: Act and send the army into these cities to fight
11:31
Speaker 1: crime and and to deport immigrants and he wants to
11:36
Speaker 1: have police do mandatory stop and frisk. Like, this is
11:39
Speaker 1: his agenda. This is how he actually feels about cities.
11:42
Speaker 1: So it is funny and a traditional politics thing, but
11:44
Speaker 1: it's also the guy deeply hates cities right now.
11:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it is the Fox News view of urban America, right? Like,
11:50
Speaker 2: that's how he knows about cities, right?
11:51
Speaker 3: It is that.
11:52
Speaker 2: It's how it's portrayed. And it has, yes, it is
11:56
Speaker 2: amusing in this weird context, but it has some knock-on
11:59
Speaker 2: effects down the line about policy And Trump's actions that
12:03
Speaker 2: it could be very damaging to the people who live
12:05
Speaker 2: in those cities, regardless of what he called them.
12:08
Speaker 5: Yep.
12:09
Speaker 1: So according to the media outlet Notice, one source in
12:11
Speaker 1: the room said that Trump's speech was, quote, like talking
12:14
Speaker 1: to your drunk uncle at the family reunion. Finally, some honesty.
12:19
Speaker 1: But let's hear what Republicans said in public about the meeting.
12:23
Speaker 3: He was funny.
12:24
Speaker 1: He was joking around constantly with everyone. He was really
12:28
Speaker 1: sweet to me. He saw me in there and he
12:30
Speaker 1: was like, hello Marjorie. He's always so sweet. He said
12:36
Speaker 1: very complimentary things about all of us. We had sustained applause.
12:40
Speaker 3: He said, I'm doing a very good job.
12:42
Speaker 1: I mean, we're grateful for that.
12:44
Speaker 2: And you know what Trump meetings are like.
12:45
Speaker 3: He's electric.
12:46
Speaker 2: He's got an incredible fastball.
12:49
Speaker 1: And I think that was just exciting.
12:50
Speaker 5: After all he'd been through, how strong this man is.
12:53
Speaker 3: This is an outstanding group of people. I'm with them
12:56
Speaker 3: a thousand percent.
12:57
Speaker 2: There was me a thousand percent. We agree just about
13:00
Speaker 2: on everything.
13:02
Speaker 1: And if there isn't, we work it out. I like
13:04
Speaker 1: Marjorie Taylor Greene being like, he recognized me.
13:07
Speaker 2: He said hello.
13:08
Speaker 1: No shit he recognized you. So judging from that North
13:14
Speaker 1: Korean propaganda clip, it seems like Trump doesn't have to
13:18
Speaker 1: worry too much about support from Republicans in Congress. What
13:21
Speaker 1: do you think was the purpose of these meetings? I
13:22
Speaker 1: know they're traditional, like the nominee goes to Capitol Hill,
13:26
Speaker 1: meets with the members of their party and whatever. But
13:30
Speaker 1: is it like coordinating message and strategy? Is it just
13:33
Speaker 1: Trump telling stories and everyone gets to fawn all over
13:35
Speaker 1: him and tell him how wonderful he is. Yeah, it's
13:38
Speaker 1: the latter.
13:39
Speaker 2: It is just part of a long running, really lifetime
13:44
Speaker 2: effort to fill the giant gaping hole that is his self-esteem.
13:49
Speaker 2: He knows they're going to applaud him. He knows they're
13:51
Speaker 2: going to love him. They're going to sing him happy birthday.
13:53
Speaker 1: He wants to be there.
13:54
Speaker 2: He was in town anyway for this business roundtable event
13:57
Speaker 2: where he's meeting with CEOs. So you might as well
13:59
Speaker 2: swing by there. Have Marjorie Taylor Greene and others throw
14:03
Speaker 2: some adulation your way. Get to kind of lord your
14:06
Speaker 2: dominance over people like Mitch McConnell and some other senators
14:09
Speaker 2: you hate. It seems like a real win-win for him.
14:13
Speaker 2: I don't think there was a lot of message coordination
14:15
Speaker 2: going on there in any way, shape, or form.
14:17
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to talk about abortion in a bit.
14:19
Speaker 1: But he did tell them all, like, hey, chill out.
14:23
Speaker 1: Go with the message. We left it to the states.
14:27
Speaker 1: That's the winning message. So he did a little bit
14:29
Speaker 1: of that. It does seem like from all the coverage overall,
14:32
Speaker 1: he's playing really nice with Republicans, even the Republicans who
14:37
Speaker 1: he's fought with in the past. He met with Mitch
14:39
Speaker 1: McConnell and by all accounts, they had like a cordial
14:43
Speaker 1: meeting with Mitch McConnell and he endorsed Larry Hogan for
14:46
Speaker 1: Senate after Larry Hogan told people to respect the verdict
14:50
Speaker 1: and Trump's senior advisor, Chris LaCivita, like tweeted at Larry
14:55
Speaker 1: Hogan that his campaign is over. But Trump today said
14:57
Speaker 1: he was endorsing Larry Hogan, which, by the way, was
14:59
Speaker 1: an endorsement that then Larry Hogan said he's not really accepting.
15:03
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, I'm not endorsing Donald Trump. I'm not
15:04
Speaker 1: voting for him. Sounds like he really wants to win
15:06
Speaker 1: this thing, huh, Donald Trump?
15:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, they all do.
15:09
Speaker 1: They all want to win.
15:10
Speaker 2: And it's very clear. It's clear in how they're acting.
15:12
Speaker 2: It's clear how now they're coordinating. It's clear in the
15:14
Speaker 2: candidates they're nominating, right? Sam Brown, Tim Sheehy. These are
15:18
Speaker 2: not great candidates, but they're not Dr. Oz and Hershel
15:21
Speaker 2: Walker either, right? They have lost enough time, particularly at
15:24
Speaker 2: the Senate level, That they are being very ruthlessly strategic
15:28
Speaker 2: about who their candidates are. And Trump has, you know,
15:33
Speaker 2: I don't think these people are political geniuses, but he
15:35
Speaker 2: has people around him who are steering him towards being
15:38
Speaker 2: smarter about this, like endorsing Larry Hogan. I'm sure Mitch
15:41
Speaker 2: McConnell asked him to do it. It's an easy yes.
15:43
Speaker 2: And he wants that Senate seat, right? And he's been
15:46
Speaker 2: convinced he has a chance. And it's also true that
15:49
Speaker 2: nothing focuses the mind like the chance of spending the
15:52
Speaker 2: rest of your life in prison.
15:53
Speaker 1: I was just going to say, this is why. It's Trump.
15:57
Speaker 1: And I'm sure people around Trump have told him these
16:01
Speaker 1: kinds of things for years. And it's just like in
16:03
Speaker 1: one ear, out the other. And he immediately goes back
16:06
Speaker 1: to his undisciplined, crazy self. As we heard from the meeting,
16:12
Speaker 1: that part of Trump is still there. But when it
16:15
Speaker 1: comes to political... decisions and political moves. He's more disciplined
16:21
Speaker 1: than he's been because you're right, he wants to keep
16:23
Speaker 1: his ass out of jail.
16:24
Speaker 2: Well, it's like you think about 2016, right? Ultimately, Trump
16:28
Speaker 2: wins or loses, what's the difference in his life? One
16:30
Speaker 2: is he becomes President of the United States and he's
16:31
Speaker 2: got to theoretically do a lot of work, or he
16:33
Speaker 2: just goes back to playing golf every day. 20, has
16:37
Speaker 2: to keep doing the hard job or goes back to
16:38
Speaker 2: playing golf every day. Now it's get back in the
16:41
Speaker 2: White House or go to prison, right? It's not get
16:43
Speaker 2: back in the White House and go back to playing golf.
16:45
Speaker 5: Right.
16:46
Speaker 2: And so, yeah, that's obviously going to focus your mind, right?
16:48
Speaker 2: The stakes are incredibly high for him in a way
16:50
Speaker 2: they've never really been before. He's really always had all
16:53
Speaker 2: his businesses and all his politics in his life. He's
16:55
Speaker 2: had a giant, probably gold-plated safety net underneath him, and now.
16:58
Speaker 1: He does not. Which is, again, why the message about
17:02
Speaker 1: Trump's only doing this for himself and he only cares
17:05
Speaker 1: about himself and he's only running for himself and he's
17:07
Speaker 1: only going to fight for himself in the White House.
17:09
Speaker 1: just it works so well because it happens to be
17:12
Speaker 1: true and truer than ever before. He's always been for himself,
17:15
Speaker 1: but now you know that this is the only fucking
17:17
Speaker 1: thing he's thinking about, right? He's not thinking about anything
17:20
Speaker 1: else he does, any other policy, anything else.
17:22
Speaker 2: I did see some testing that showed the post-conviction that
17:25
Speaker 2: one of the most compelling messages about Trump is that
17:29
Speaker 2: he is running to stay out of prison.
17:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've heard that too.
17:32
Speaker 2: And that has become more intense after the conviction.
17:46
Speaker 1: So not sure they discussed this in the meeting, but
17:49
Speaker 1: Trump apparently called Mike Johnson after the guilty verdict and
17:52
Speaker 1: told him that Johnson needed to help Trump overturn the
17:55
Speaker 1: conviction and or defund special counsel Jack Smith's investigations. And
18:01
Speaker 1: sure enough, there's been some movement on a bill that
18:04
Speaker 1: would allow presidents charged in state courts to move those
18:07
Speaker 1: cases to federal courts.
18:09
Speaker 2: What a coincidence.
18:11
Speaker 1: Just what if there's a scenario where there's a state
18:13
Speaker 1: court and there's an ex-president and let's say he was caught,
18:18
Speaker 1: I don't know, trying to overturn an election, falsify business
18:21
Speaker 1: records to deceive voters. You know, I don't know. Let's
18:26
Speaker 1: say there was something like that. What if we move
18:28
Speaker 1: those to federal court? And then what if that guy won?
18:30
Speaker 2: And what could that person do if they were in
18:32
Speaker 2: federal court, if the case were in federal court? Would
18:34
Speaker 2: they have any recourse to avoid going to prison? Are
18:38
Speaker 2: we just it just is happening by coincidence that that's
18:40
Speaker 2: also the court whereby the president could pardon himself?
18:43
Speaker 1: I just think like even if this passed the House,
18:45
Speaker 1: it's obviously not going anywhere else. And it's not even
18:48
Speaker 1: clear that it'll pass the House. There's, you know, a
18:50
Speaker 1: few Republicans were quoted in Politico being like, I don't know,
18:53
Speaker 1: we're talking about the Democrats weaponizing the Justice Department. We're
18:56
Speaker 1: going to do this. It does seem like a bill
18:58
Speaker 1: that's like only designed to make Donald Trump happy. But
19:02
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's the best politics for them
19:03
Speaker 1: beyond getting in with Trump or beyond making Trump happy and,
19:08
Speaker 1: you know, making Fox News viewers happy. Like, why? Why
19:12
Speaker 1: do this?
19:14
Speaker 2: You said it to make Trump happy.
19:15
Speaker 1: That's it. That's sort of it. I think it's an
19:18
Speaker 1: argument for another argument for Democrats to make like that.
19:20
Speaker 1: They're just in Congress. The Republicans in Congress, instead of
19:23
Speaker 1: doing anything to help you, are trying to. overturn trump's
19:28
Speaker 1: conviction they tried to overturn the election form when he
19:31
Speaker 1: lost that and now they're trying to overturn the conviction
19:34
Speaker 1: this is this is what the republicans in congress are
19:36
Speaker 1: for this is what they do that.
19:37
Speaker 2: That is exactly right like this they're focused on themselves
19:40
Speaker 2: and donald trump and we're focused on you right it's
19:42
Speaker 2: it is a very simple message.
19:44
Speaker 1: And at the same time as they're trying to overturn
19:46
Speaker 1: trump's conviction they are also trying to prosecute joe biden's
19:49
Speaker 1: attorney jim Merrick Garland. You may wonder what for? Well,
19:53
Speaker 1: they voted to hold Garland in contempt of Congress because
19:56
Speaker 1: he hasn't turned over the audio of special counsel Robert
19:59
Speaker 1: Herr's interview with Biden about Biden's handling of classified documents.
20:04
Speaker 1: Congress does have the full transcript, of course. But the
20:08
Speaker 1: allegation now is apparently that Biden or Garland or the
20:12
Speaker 1: deep state or some combo of all of them edited
20:15
Speaker 1: the transcript to leave out the damaging parts, which it
20:20
Speaker 1: seems like they did a pretty shitty job editing the
20:22
Speaker 1: transcript because the one that we saw seemed damaging enough.
20:26
Speaker 1: So it feels like it feels like they missed a
20:28
Speaker 1: few edits, missed a few deletions in the transcript. What
20:31
Speaker 1: what is this? This is it. They just they're just
20:34
Speaker 1: looking for the audio so they can. have another news
20:36
Speaker 1: cycle and run ads, right? Yeah, it's ads.
20:39
Speaker 2: It's really hard to put a written transcript in an ad.
20:41
Speaker 2: It's very easy to take audio and put it in
20:43
Speaker 2: an ad. And so they're pushing aggressively for it. I
20:45
Speaker 2: am sure there are legitimate, substantive law enforcement, executive privilege,
20:50
Speaker 2: separation of powers reasons not to return this over. But
20:53
Speaker 2: with my political hack hat on, if were I in
20:54
Speaker 2: the White House, I would be screaming that we find
20:57
Speaker 2: a reason not to release this. Because We know from
21:01
Speaker 2: the transcript that there are moments that are not awesome, right?
21:05
Speaker 2: Which is what happened to anyone under the age of
21:08
Speaker 2: you talk for five hours straight.
21:10
Speaker 1: Of course.
21:11
Speaker 2: Just as we're recording this, there is this clip going
21:14
Speaker 2: around of the president at a parachutist ceremony, and it's
21:19
Speaker 2: been very deceptively edited with a narrow view. So it
21:23
Speaker 2: looks like Joe Biden is just like wandering off into
21:25
Speaker 2: the distance by himself when he's actually going to speak
21:27
Speaker 2: to another person. That person is just out of frame.
21:30
Speaker 2: Fox News is doing it. The right's all doing it.
21:32
Speaker 2: So just imagine what would happen if five or however
21:34
Speaker 2: many hours of audio of the president came out. What
21:37
Speaker 2: would be done with that? It's not just the mega
21:40
Speaker 2: super PACs and Trump would put in ads. Think of
21:43
Speaker 2: all of the TikTok videos that would be deceptively cut
21:45
Speaker 2: from this.
21:45
Speaker 1: It would be a.
21:46
Speaker 2: Disaster, right? In an unfair way.
21:49
Speaker 1: Also, it's a win-win for them either way, because now...
21:53
Speaker 1: they're going to treat it like, oh, the tapes, release
21:55
Speaker 1: the tapes because they know they're not going to get it, right?
21:57
Speaker 1: And so they're holding Garland in contempt. They know that's
22:00
Speaker 1: not going to go anywhere because basically they're holding him
22:02
Speaker 1: in contempt. So what happens is it's a criminal referral
22:04
Speaker 1: to the Justice Department. Who runs the Justice Department? Merrick Garland.
22:07
Speaker 1: I don't think Merrick... I know Merrick Garland's a straight shooter.
22:11
Speaker 1: I know he's no politics, Merrick Garland, but I don't
22:14
Speaker 1: think he's going to be like, ah, unfortunately, I do
22:16
Speaker 1: have to prosecute myself. You know what?
22:19
Speaker 2: I wouldn't put it past Merrick Garland, who is... annoyingly
22:23
Speaker 2: straight shooter to a point like Bill Barr to investigate
22:25
Speaker 2: Merrick Garland.
22:26
Speaker 1: Oh my God, please don't. Don't do that. Don't do that,
22:28
Speaker 1: Merrick Garland. I know you're a listener. I know you're
22:30
Speaker 1: a big fan. But yeah, so, but what they want,
22:33
Speaker 1: this will be like a Hunter's laptop thing, you know?
22:36
Speaker 1: We got to have the tapes. If only they released
22:37
Speaker 1: the tapes, then we would see that the Biden crime
22:40
Speaker 1: family would be, you know, all the crimes would be
22:42
Speaker 1: uncovered and blah, blah, blah. It's fucking ridiculous.
22:44
Speaker 2: I don't think the tapes, to be honest, would be
22:46
Speaker 2: that bad, but they would just be, they would be
22:48
Speaker 2: used in malicious ways.
22:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, 100%. So Trump also spent some time on Thursday
22:53
Speaker 1: meeting with leaders from the Business Roundtable, which is just
22:57
Speaker 1: a bunch of CEOs and shareholders of big companies. You
23:00
Speaker 1: get your Jamie Dimons, your Tim Cooks. Biden is in
23:04
Speaker 1: Italy for the G7 summit. So his White House chief
23:07
Speaker 1: of staff, Jeff Zients, went instead. The meetings were closed
23:11
Speaker 1: to the press, but the Biden campaign did jump on
23:14
Speaker 1: the opportunity to use the occasion to pick a fight
23:17
Speaker 1: on the economy. They dropped another new ad called No
23:21
Speaker 1: One in English and Spanish. Let's listen.
23:24
Speaker 4: When I was a young man, my family left our
23:26
Speaker 4: hometown so dad could find a decent job. I know
23:31
Speaker 4: what it's like to struggle. I know many American families
23:35
Speaker 4: are fighting every day to get by. That's why no one,
23:39
Speaker 4: especially a billionaire like Donald Trump, will stop me from
23:43
Speaker 4: fighting the lower cost for food and rent because hardworking
23:46
Speaker 4: families deserve a chance to get ahead.
23:49
Speaker 1: Now that's an economic message. There we go. What do
23:53
Speaker 1: you think?
23:53
Speaker 2: Love it. Love every part of it. I think it is,
23:57
Speaker 2: it understands so much about economic messaging that has sort
24:02
Speaker 2: of alluded the very circular navel-gazing conversation that we have
24:06
Speaker 2: participated in about how Democrats talk about the economy. Feel
24:10
Speaker 2: the pain, Bidenomics, Biden boom, all of that.
24:12
Speaker 1: Seems like we won, Dan. Seems like it was good
24:14
Speaker 1: that we got in that conversation. We have- Emerge Victoria.
24:19
Speaker 2: Once again, our tweets made a difference. People tell you not,
24:23
Speaker 2: don't post, don't listen. Now, I think the important part
24:27
Speaker 2: about this is it understands that the best economic message
24:33
Speaker 2: against Trump is that he is a rich person for
24:37
Speaker 2: other rich people. Voters believe that, right? There is polling.
24:41
Speaker 2: We've talked about this poll many times. Blueprint, the Democratic
24:44
Speaker 2: research firm, looked at Trump's biggest vulnerabilities, like voters' biggest
24:49
Speaker 2: concerns with Trump, and Trump giving tax cuts to rich
24:52
Speaker 2: people like himself, Bray is high up there, particularly with
24:54
Speaker 2: working class and non-college educated voters. Very powerful. The voters
24:57
Speaker 2: were losing. It also understands that Democrats focus so much
25:03
Speaker 2: in our economic investing discussion around policy, right? What are
25:05
Speaker 2: we going to do? What are they going to do?
25:06
Speaker 2: And that's not really what this is about. All economic
25:10
Speaker 2: discussions in a campaign, and frankly, all policy discussions in
25:13
Speaker 2: a campaign, ultimately are not about what's in the white paper,
25:16
Speaker 2: It's about whether you're giving voters a sense of if
25:18
Speaker 2: you're going to fight for them or not, right? That
25:20
Speaker 2: is the core question in any election. And Trump is
25:23
Speaker 2: winning on that question right now, but he's winning by
25:26
Speaker 2: a lot smaller margin than he is on the broader
25:28
Speaker 2: question of who do you trust on the economy. And
25:30
Speaker 2: so this is a soft underbelly for Biden to go after.
25:34
Speaker 2: And being seen as someone who fights also goes right
25:37
Speaker 2: at other core concerns around age and energy and capacity, right?
25:41
Speaker 2: Because it shows these fighters, like this is exactly what
25:43
Speaker 2: they should be doing. I love it. I want to
25:46
Speaker 2: see more of it. It's gradually released today. I hope
25:48
Speaker 2: it is a theme that runs through their advertising around
25:52
Speaker 2: the economy for the rest of time.
25:54
Speaker 1: Well, I noticed that they have made the turn, not
25:56
Speaker 1: just with this ad, but in their statement, both from
26:00
Speaker 1: the campaign and the White House, about the inflation report
26:03
Speaker 1: this week. And so inflation came down. It's declining. It's
26:07
Speaker 1: a good inflation report. But I think we have both
26:11
Speaker 1: criticized this in the past. Instead of doing a statement
26:13
Speaker 1: that's like, Inflation came down because we have the greatest
26:15
Speaker 1: economy ever and unemployment is low and doing all the
26:18
Speaker 1: statistics that are objectively true about the economy. Instead of
26:22
Speaker 1: doing that, which I think doesn't land well with people
26:25
Speaker 1: who are clearly not feeling the recovery yet in their
26:29
Speaker 1: own lives because cost of living is still too high
26:31
Speaker 1: for them. Either because, you know, they actually feel that
26:35
Speaker 1: and it's true in their lives or whatever the narrative is.
26:37
Speaker 1: It's a dumb argument. Who cares? It's not working with people.
26:42
Speaker 1: People are not feeling it. And so now they have
26:45
Speaker 1: really pivoted to talking about people are struggling. I'm going
26:48
Speaker 1: to fight for you. He is not. He is the billionaire.
26:52
Speaker 1: I am the guy from Scranton. I am going to
26:54
Speaker 1: fight hard. And that's what you can, by the way,
26:57
Speaker 1: for proof points in that argument, you can start talking
26:59
Speaker 1: about your accomplishments over the last four years within that context.
27:03
Speaker 1: you know that I'm going to fight for you and
27:04
Speaker 1: I'm going to be on your side because I've already
27:06
Speaker 1: done X, Y, and Z. And if you give me
27:08
Speaker 1: another four years, I'm going to finish the job by
27:10
Speaker 1: doing these other things, right? So like that, I think,
27:13
Speaker 1: and I think he can also, I would bet that in,
27:15
Speaker 1: and they've started to do this as well, but I
27:17
Speaker 1: bet in the next couple of months, he will also
27:19
Speaker 1: have like, corporate villains and not just Donald Trump, right?
27:23
Speaker 1: That it's like these companies that are price gouging. Some
27:26
Speaker 1: of them were at the CEO, the business round table
27:28
Speaker 1: today where, you know, Donald Trump was like, give me a,
27:31
Speaker 1: give me campaign donations and I'll cut your taxes. That's
27:34
Speaker 1: what he, that's what he reportedly told all the CEOs
27:38
Speaker 1: is like lower taxes and lower regulations, but you just
27:40
Speaker 1: got to donate to my campaign. He already did that
27:43
Speaker 1: with the oil companies. He told them he's that with
27:45
Speaker 1: the oil companies is like, give me give me cut
27:47
Speaker 1: me a big check and I'll make sure that you
27:49
Speaker 1: get a whole bunch of tax breaks and subsidies for
27:51
Speaker 1: the oil companies. So I think this is like a
27:54
Speaker 1: very powerful message. And it's how I mean, I would imagine, again,
27:57
Speaker 1: that as they're thinking about the debate, they're probably circling
28:02
Speaker 1: one moment where Biden can really drive home that Trump
28:06
Speaker 1: is going to fight for rich people, and Biden is
28:08
Speaker 1: going to fight for everyone else.
28:09
Speaker 2: Yeah. And the fact that Trump, one of the things
28:11
Speaker 2: that Trump told the CEOs was that he was going
28:13
Speaker 2: to further lower the corporate tax rate if he was elected, right?
28:16
Speaker 2: It's not just extending it, but he would make it
28:17
Speaker 2: even lower, right? That is just incredibly unpopular. It's incredibly powerful.
28:21
Speaker 2: It's what you're going to do. And I think you're
28:23
Speaker 2: exactly right. Let's pick some corporate villains, right? I hate
28:25
Speaker 2: the term shrinkflation. I don't think it's one that should
28:27
Speaker 2: come out of the president's mouth.
28:28
Speaker 1: If I hear about the fucking Snickers one more time,
28:29
Speaker 1: it's not going to happen.
28:30
Speaker 2: But that is a real thing you hear people talk about, right?
28:32
Speaker 2: Have you seen the TikTok video of the Chipotle CEO
28:37
Speaker 2: trying to justify that their portions haven't gotten smaller. It
28:40
Speaker 2: is a thing you hear from people all the time,
28:43
Speaker 2: particularly parents who pack kids' lunches. It's very real. And
28:46
Speaker 2: so talking about that price gouging, that Trump's going to
28:49
Speaker 2: reward these people with more tax cuts, they're just going
28:51
Speaker 2: to go to higher CEO pay, more money in the
28:53
Speaker 2: pockets of wealthy investors. There's just such a rich vein
28:57
Speaker 2: to tap here. And I very much hope and expect
29:00
Speaker 2: that's what they'll do in the debate too.
29:02
Speaker 1: Also, he didn't say this at the business roundtable, but
29:05
Speaker 1: reportedly Trump told Republicans, House Republicans in that meeting, he
29:09
Speaker 1: floated an all-tariff policy that would lead, he said, to
29:13
Speaker 1: completely getting rid of the income tax. So it sounds wonky.
29:18
Speaker 1: What is that all about, tariff policy? He already has
29:21
Speaker 1: said he wants to put a tax on every single
29:25
Speaker 1: thing that is imported into this country. That's not like,
29:29
Speaker 1: you know, the Chinese made cars, right? Like, you know,
29:33
Speaker 1: Biden's doing some stuff like that too. That is every
29:36
Speaker 1: every item that even has a part in it that's
29:39
Speaker 1: made somewhere else. He wants to slap a tax on
29:41
Speaker 1: that and then he wants to get rid of the
29:43
Speaker 1: income tax. So the income tax is paid mostly by
29:48
Speaker 1: really rich people. And so the rich people in this
29:51
Speaker 1: country now would have to pay no tax. 40% of
29:54
Speaker 1: people in this country pay no federal income tax because
29:56
Speaker 1: they don't make enough money to do it, or they
29:58
Speaker 1: pay negative because they get like a tax credit. So
30:01
Speaker 1: those people would suddenly have a huge tax bill because
30:06
Speaker 1: they'd be paying the higher prices for all of these
30:08
Speaker 1: goods that are now going to be taxed more under
30:10
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's all-tariff policy, while rich people don't have to
30:14
Speaker 1: pay any fucking income tax at all, will have more money,
30:16
Speaker 1: and the extra price increases won't bother them at all.
30:19
Speaker 1: It's wild.
30:20
Speaker 2: Not to front run a forthcoming message box post, but
30:25
Speaker 2: the Trump economic agenda is so easy, right? It's higher
30:29
Speaker 2: prices for you, lower taxes for the rich and corporations,
30:32
Speaker 2: like over and over again, over.
30:33
Speaker 1: And over again. He wants them to pay less. He
30:35
Speaker 1: wants you to pay more. There we go. That's it.
30:38
Speaker 1: And he wants himself to pay less and he wants
30:41
Speaker 1: himself to stay out of jail. It's just- There's a
30:45
Speaker 1: good message here, Dan. There's a good message. We just
30:49
Speaker 1: got to start repeating it and making sure it breaks
30:52
Speaker 1: through to all the people who aren't paying any attention
30:53
Speaker 1: right now. Thursdays in June are Supreme Court opinion days.
31:08
Speaker 1: And while, as of this recording, we still haven't had
31:11
Speaker 1: a ruling on Trump's presidential immunity claim, We did get
31:15
Speaker 1: a long-anticipated opinion in the case FDA versus Hippocratic Alliance.
31:21
Speaker 1: This is the case challenging the FDA's approval of mifepristone,
31:24
Speaker 1: the main drug used in medication abortion. Good news is
31:27
Speaker 1: that the court unanimously held the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine,
31:31
Speaker 1: which is basically a consortium of anti-abortion medical professionals, did
31:35
Speaker 1: not have standing to bring the case in the first place,
31:38
Speaker 1: which is what legal experts expected to happen. So abortion medication...
31:42
Speaker 1: will remain legal in the states where abortion is legal.
31:46
Speaker 1: But there will almost certainly be other legal challenges to
31:50
Speaker 1: abortion medication from some of these same groups, from other groups,
31:53
Speaker 1: from Republican attorneys general and red states. And they may
31:58
Speaker 1: have more standing than this group. And so we could,
32:01
Speaker 1: you know, the Supreme Court did not rule on the
32:03
Speaker 1: merits here. It just said that they didn't have standing
32:05
Speaker 1: to bring the case. So, yeah. There will almost certainly
32:08
Speaker 1: be other legal challenges. And if Trump wins, he'll still
32:11
Speaker 1: be able to try to take executive actions or change
32:15
Speaker 1: regulations that could restrict access to abortion medication nationwide, even
32:20
Speaker 1: in states where abortion is legal. So that's the Supreme
32:23
Speaker 1: Court decision. Meanwhile, Republicans in the Senate on the same
32:27
Speaker 1: day blocked a bill that would protect access to IVF.
32:30
Speaker 1: Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski were the only Republicans that
32:33
Speaker 1: voted with all the Democrats to protect IVF. That was
32:36
Speaker 1: the same voting coalition that voted to protect contraception. All
32:39
Speaker 1: the rest of the Republicans, if we remember, voted to
32:42
Speaker 1: block a bill that would protect access to contraception. Now
32:45
Speaker 1: they have voted to block a bill that would protect
32:47
Speaker 1: access to IVF. This comes after the Southern Baptist Convention,
32:52
Speaker 1: which represents the largest Protestant denomination in the United States,
32:55
Speaker 1: voted to oppose IVF on Wednesday. So certainly seems like conservatives,
33:02
Speaker 1: anti-abortion activists, they are not taking Dobbs as a win.
33:05
Speaker 1: They want a national abortion ban. They want to ban
33:08
Speaker 1: abortion medication. And they're going after contraception and IVF. So
33:12
Speaker 1: I guess it's good that the court did what legal
33:15
Speaker 1: experts expected it to do in this case. But it
33:17
Speaker 1: seems like the fight is far from over, right?
33:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, they punted, right? They want to take this question up.
33:24
Speaker 2: This was just a very imperfect vehicle for doing so, right?
33:28
Speaker 2: We've seen them do this. We saw them do it
33:30
Speaker 2: on abortion, right? They waited for Dobbs. They took a
33:33
Speaker 2: pass on a whole bunch of other... poorly written state
33:36
Speaker 2: laws or with plaintiffs with questionable standing and waited for
33:40
Speaker 2: a law where they can make the decision. And they
33:43
Speaker 2: could have written in their opinions. They could have said
33:45
Speaker 2: something about the Comstock Act that would have sent a
33:47
Speaker 2: warning sign to a future Trump administration that they can't
33:50
Speaker 2: use the Comstock Act to ban the nationwide distribution of
33:55
Speaker 2: these drugs. But they did, right? They left it. We
33:58
Speaker 2: don't know what's going to happen here. We must remain vigilant.
34:01
Speaker 2: This issue remains a live issue. And I think it's
34:04
Speaker 2: for Democrats. The point here is to make that it's
34:08
Speaker 2: going to require a President Joe Biden to protect access
34:12
Speaker 2: to these sorts of drugs, protect access to these sorts
34:15
Speaker 2: of reproductive freedoms.
34:17
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I think it is very much on Democrats
34:19
Speaker 1: to keep the issue front and center, not just talking
34:22
Speaker 1: about abortion generally, but making sure people know, especially people
34:26
Speaker 1: in states where abortion remains legal. that Donald Trump and
34:30
Speaker 1: a Republican Congress will do everything in their power to
34:34
Speaker 1: restrict access to abortion, despite whatever they're saying now, and
34:37
Speaker 1: they will have that ability if they get into power. 170,000
34:41
Speaker 1: people traveled out of state since Dobbs to get an abortion. 170,000.
34:45
Speaker 1: There was also a poll. Gallup asked this question, and
34:49
Speaker 1: there are a record high percentage of voters who told
34:53
Speaker 1: Gallup that they are single-issue abortion voters in this election.
34:58
Speaker 1: And three-fourths of those are pro-choice voters.
35:00
Speaker 2: Which is a dramatic shift from pre-Dobbs.
35:03
Speaker 1: Right.
35:04
Speaker 2: The consensus always was is that we were sort of
35:07
Speaker 2: at parity between pro-choice and anti-choice, but the anti-choice voters
35:11
Speaker 2: were much more motivated to turn out, to volunteer, to vote.
35:16
Speaker 2: And so Dobbs has created a fundamental shift in the
35:21
Speaker 2: political firmament more than anything in decades, is my guess.
35:26
Speaker 2: One other thing just on the importance of doing these votes.
35:28
Speaker 2: So you sort of wonder, I feel like a person
35:30
Speaker 2: listening is like, this vote was never going to pass.
35:32
Speaker 2: Why are we taking the time to do this? And
35:34
Speaker 2: it's one, these are ads that can be run later on.
35:36
Speaker 2: That's partially why I do this. But something Sarah said
35:39
Speaker 2: to me in Wednesday's pod that I think is just
35:41
Speaker 2: really worth honing in on, which is when she gets
35:44
Speaker 2: a group of people together and she asks them what
35:46
Speaker 2: issues they care about, abortion doesn't come up. Doesn't matter
35:49
Speaker 2: the group. Could be two-time Trump voters, could be disaffected
35:52
Speaker 2: Biden voters. Abortion rarely is brought up. But when you
35:55
Speaker 2: bring abortion up, people get very intense, very focused, very
35:59
Speaker 2: angry about Dobbs. And so what the message to Democrats
36:03
Speaker 2: there is, is you have to keep bringing it up.
36:05
Speaker 2: You have to keep it front of mind, which is
36:07
Speaker 2: why this number is no longer true, but why, as
36:10
Speaker 2: of a few months ago, 90% of the ads the
36:12
Speaker 2: Biden campaign had run mentioned abortion, right? And so everything
36:16
Speaker 2: you can do, right? Senate votes, press conferences, ads, talking
36:20
Speaker 2: about it, talking about the convention, bringing it up in
36:22
Speaker 2: the debate, like that's going to be a really important moment.
36:25
Speaker 2: It's one where Biden's going to have to be very
36:27
Speaker 2: comfortable doing it and doing it sort of proudly and aggressively.
36:30
Speaker 2: Just every opportunity to bring it up is critically important
36:33
Speaker 2: because voters have to know, like think about Arizona, right?
36:37
Speaker 2: Where you're going to have a initiative on the ballot
36:41
Speaker 2: and you can either, if voting for Trump and voting
36:44
Speaker 2: to protect abortion rights, you're canceling your votes out in
36:46
Speaker 2: that state, right? If you really want to protect abortion rights,
36:49
Speaker 2: you've got to vote for Joe Biden.
36:51
Speaker 1: I mean, we talked about how Republicans and Trump clearly
36:55
Speaker 1: want to win. They are clearly trying to muddy the
36:57
Speaker 1: waters on this issue. Republicans in Congress, even as they
37:01
Speaker 1: voted against this bill to protect IVF, you know, they
37:04
Speaker 1: put out a statement saying that they all support IVF.
37:07
Speaker 1: They have an alternative bill that they say is protecting IVF.
37:11
Speaker 1: They also have like an alternative bill that they said
37:13
Speaker 1: is protecting contraception. So you can imagine they're going to
37:17
Speaker 1: be running ads. They're going to be out on the
37:18
Speaker 1: trail saying, yeah, of course we support contraception. Of course
37:22
Speaker 1: we support IVF. course, we support exceptions for rape and
37:26
Speaker 1: incest and life and health of the mother. And we
37:28
Speaker 1: just want this issue to go to the states and
37:30
Speaker 1: it's Democrats who are extreme. How do you think that
37:33
Speaker 1: has been? Do you think that's been effective so far?
37:36
Speaker 1: Do you think, does it worry you, that message?
37:39
Speaker 2: I mean, it worries me more than them just continuing
37:41
Speaker 2: to light themselves on fire, which is what they did
37:43
Speaker 2: from the day after Dobbs passed it through yesterday, basically.
37:47
Speaker 2: But voters are not dumb, right? They understand what's at
37:51
Speaker 2: stake here. They understand how, you know, they understand that
37:55
Speaker 2: it's Republicans in these states who were passing these extreme bans.
37:58
Speaker 2: They understand that it's a Republican-led Supreme Court that overturned it.
38:02
Speaker 2: So we're going to have to push back on it
38:04
Speaker 2: to be aggressive, call them out on it. force their hand,
38:07
Speaker 2: but they have yet to find any words that undo
38:12
Speaker 2: the damage done by Dobbs politically. 15-week ban, 12-week ban,
38:17
Speaker 2: leave it to the states. None of those have as
38:19
Speaker 2: of yet proven to be some sort of salve for
38:23
Speaker 2: the political wound that was Dobbs.
38:25
Speaker 5: Yeah.
38:26
Speaker 1: Before we go, quick thing on debates. We do have
38:29
Speaker 1: a- Two weeks from today. Oh, wow. I just got
38:33
Speaker 1: nervous about that. And I'm not even Joe Biden or
38:35
Speaker 1: on his campaign. So there was a report in Axios
38:38
Speaker 1: today that Biden's going to have to leave most of
38:40
Speaker 1: his debate prep to the week before because of his
38:43
Speaker 1: busy schedule. He is right now on his second Europe
38:47
Speaker 1: trip of the week. Dan, you would have never let
38:50
Speaker 1: this happen in the White House. Two trips, two foreign
38:56
Speaker 1: trips in the middle of a campaign? I mean, he obviously,
39:00
Speaker 1: the D-Day... Normandy trip was a big trip. It was a,
39:03
Speaker 1: he used it to, you know, for speech defending democracies.
39:06
Speaker 1: That was important. And I guess wisely, they didn't want
39:09
Speaker 1: him to stay in Europe for the G7 because then
39:12
Speaker 1: he would have been in Europe this whole week or
39:14
Speaker 1: the whole last week too. I don't know what day
39:15
Speaker 1: it is. So he went back, he came back to
39:18
Speaker 1: the US. Now he's back in Italy for the G7.
39:21
Speaker 1: And then he's flying here to Los Angeles for this
39:25
Speaker 1: fundraiser with Obama on this weekend. I mean, you know,
39:29
Speaker 1: it's not, to Italy?
39:31
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, right?
39:33
Speaker 1: I know.
39:34
Speaker 2: I mean, I frankly thought he should have stayed in
39:37
Speaker 2: Europe and gone to see the Phillies play in London,
39:40
Speaker 2: which would have been a phenomenal OTR because the Phillies
39:42
Speaker 2: and the Mets were playing in London over the weekend.
39:43
Speaker 1: That would have been nice. That would have been good.
39:45
Speaker 2: But, yeah, it's... Look, the Biden team picked this debate time.
39:51
Speaker 2: They picked June. They obviously knew they had these foreign
39:54
Speaker 2: trips on there. So I am incredibly confident that expectations,
39:58
Speaker 2: managements from both candidates aside, that when they picked June,
40:02
Speaker 2: they had already blocked out what would be the times
40:04
Speaker 2: in which you would prep. Now, having said all of that,
40:08
Speaker 2: and you know this better than anyone else, prepping an
40:11
Speaker 2: incumbent president for a debate is brutal. And it's not
40:15
Speaker 2: just that the president has had everyone in the room
40:18
Speaker 2: stand up every time they've walked in for the last
40:20
Speaker 2: four years, which makes you less willing to be told
40:22
Speaker 2: to be pithier by some whippersnappers, but it's also just
40:26
Speaker 2: they have so much on your mind, right? It's just
40:28
Speaker 2: like you're dealing with so much stuff. In debate prep,
40:32
Speaker 2: the president would go from a meeting where intelligence reps
40:35
Speaker 2: would tell him about the most serious threats to the U.S.
40:37
Speaker 2: homeland and then go into a meeting to practice one-liners
40:40
Speaker 2: with Mitt Romney. That is Like it's hard to be
40:43
Speaker 2: focused like that in a way that you don't have
40:44
Speaker 2: to worry about in a campaign in the same way.
40:47
Speaker 1: This is just a preview of coming attractions. But if
40:50
Speaker 1: you are a subscriber, if you're a Friends of the
40:52
Speaker 1: Pod subscriber, which you can subscribe to at cricket.com slash friends,
40:56
Speaker 1: the next episode of Inside 2024 is me and Ben Rhodes,
41:00
Speaker 1: who were two of those whippersnappers in debate prep in 2012.
41:04
Speaker 1: Didn't we do a bang up job?
41:06
Speaker 2: But you were both equally in charge of that first debate, right?
41:12
Speaker 1: They finally brought in everyone else after that first debate.
41:16
Speaker 1: The second debate, yeah. And we tell all the stories
41:19
Speaker 1: about what it was like in 2012 prepping Obama. I
41:22
Speaker 1: went back, I mean, I had forgotten some of the
41:24
Speaker 1: stuff until I was prepping for the episode, but there's
41:27
Speaker 1: some good stories and some stories that were tough to
41:30
Speaker 1: tell again. But yeah, no, I think, and then on
41:33
Speaker 1: the Trump side of it, the Trump campaign told Axios
41:37
Speaker 1: they're planning zero prep Zero prep. Here's the quote from
41:41
Speaker 1: Jason Miller. Trump does not, quote, need to be programmed
41:44
Speaker 1: by staff and he will demonstrate, quote, elite stamina like
41:49
Speaker 1: he does at rallies. They're just not, they're not playing
41:54
Speaker 1: the expectations game. What are they doing?
41:56
Speaker 2: I mean, it doesn't, there are, you can't set expectations
42:00
Speaker 2: for Trump.
42:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. He said somewhere else today that he's
42:03
Speaker 1: going to, he might throw the debate. He might just
42:05
Speaker 1: lose the debate on purpose. So maybe he's trying to
42:07
Speaker 1: set expectations.
42:08
Speaker 2: The only expectation they said is just that If Trump,
42:12
Speaker 2: quote unquote, wins the debate, Trump wins. And if Biden
42:14
Speaker 2: wins the debate, it's because Biden was on drugs, right?
42:16
Speaker 2: That's the choice they're setting up.
42:18
Speaker 1: But what they have done is if Joe Biden, as
42:21
Speaker 1: long as Joe Biden doesn't forget his name or poop
42:23
Speaker 1: his pants on stage, it's going to be a win. Boy,
42:26
Speaker 1: I hope so. I mean, that's how they're setting the bar.
42:31
Speaker 2: I mean, it's the state of the union thing all
42:34
Speaker 2: over again, where they have just set it so low
42:36
Speaker 2: that the president can Clearly, just being himself on a
42:40
Speaker 2: normal day will clear that bar, but you got to
42:43
Speaker 2: clear it. It's a very different... In the State of
42:46
Speaker 2: the Union, Biden's being compared against the character of himself. Here,
42:48
Speaker 2: he's being compared in a debate, the character of himself
42:50
Speaker 2: and Trump at the same time. It's obviously a more
42:52
Speaker 2: complex enterprise than the speech.
42:55
Speaker 1: I do think that a week and a half for
42:58
Speaker 1: debate prep, which is what he'll get, is enough. One
43:01
Speaker 1: thing we learned with Obama is you don't want to
43:04
Speaker 1: fill the candidate's head with Too much info.
43:07
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
43:07
Speaker 1: Too many briefings. Obama was walking around with a big
43:11
Speaker 1: binder this thick.
43:12
Speaker 2: I hated that binder.
43:13
Speaker 1: For those of you who are audio only, it's a
43:15
Speaker 1: huge binder.
43:16
Speaker 2: It's a thick binder is the point he's making.
43:17
Speaker 1: Thick binder, yeah. Not full of women.
43:21
Speaker 2: I was like, should I make that joke?
43:23
Speaker 1: Would anyone remember that? I had to. I physically couldn't
43:27
Speaker 1: avoid doing it. It was just too much in his head, right?
43:30
Speaker 1: I would give Biden just a couple moments of, that
43:33
Speaker 1: they want to get out in that debate. Like make sure,
43:35
Speaker 1: you know, if it's, if it's January 6th, then who's
43:38
Speaker 1: for you on the economy and something else, whatever it
43:40
Speaker 1: may be, just like have those, have like, get the
43:43
Speaker 1: style down. Here's how you should approach Trump. Here's how
43:46
Speaker 1: you should handle when he lies. Here's how you should
43:48
Speaker 1: handle when he yells at you about this. And then
43:50
Speaker 1: just like, sort of let him go.
43:52
Speaker 2: It, I mean, it's going to be nerve wracking, but
43:54
Speaker 2: fascinating because it's not, you know, Obama had to learn
43:57
Speaker 2: all this stuff about Mitt Romney. Like he didn't know
43:58
Speaker 2: it before I read it. Biden has already prepped for
44:01
Speaker 2: two debates with Trump.
44:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's another reason why you probably only need a
44:05
Speaker 1: week and a half and don't need to be. You
44:07
Speaker 1: can be flying all around from Europe to L.A., which
44:09
Speaker 1: is what he's doing now. Poor guy. All right. Well,
44:12
Speaker 1: that's our show for today. And by the way, Democracy
44:15
Speaker 1: or Else, look at this book. Look at this beautiful
44:17
Speaker 1: hardcover book. Here's the deal. I saw that on Amazon.
44:22
Speaker 1: You know who's ahead of us on the list, on
44:23
Speaker 1: like the political humor list? Bill Maher. Come on.
44:28
Speaker 5: Come on.
44:29
Speaker 1: We don't want Bill Maher ahead of us. That's ridiculous.
44:31
Speaker 2: All I would say is, I'm not going to use
44:33
Speaker 2: any numbers here, but I have been told by the
44:35
Speaker 2: marketing department that the pitch that I did for this
44:37
Speaker 2: book on Wednesday delivered a very large number of pre-orders.
44:42
Speaker 2: And I don't think we should let that stand. You
44:44
Speaker 2: should at least beat that number.
44:46
Speaker 1: Well, then Tommy jumped in to say, well, he's like,
44:48
Speaker 1: I did a pitch on Pod Save the World. So
44:50
Speaker 1: how do we know the numbers aren't due to the
44:52
Speaker 1: Pod Save the World pitch?
44:53
Speaker 2: Because the purchases came from America.
44:57
Speaker 1: We don't know that. Maybe if you're abroad, we'd also
45:01
Speaker 1: love you to buy Democracy or Else. Anyway, go pre-order Democracy. Remember,
45:06
Speaker 1: all the proceeds go to Vote Save America, so you'll
45:09
Speaker 1: be helping actually save democracy. We don't just think you're
45:12
Speaker 1: going to save democracy by reading the book, though that
45:14
Speaker 1: will help too. There's lots of great advice in here.
45:17
Speaker 1: It's from very smart people who aren't just us. It's
45:20
Speaker 1: also really funny. And they're great pictures.
45:22
Speaker 2: The pictures are great.
45:23
Speaker 4: Great.
45:23
Speaker 1: But great pictures. Yeah.
45:25
Speaker 2: Illustrations. Illustrations. No photos. Just illustrations.
45:28
Speaker 1: No photos. Just illustrations. Democracy or else. Go pre-order now. Also,
45:32
Speaker 1: from Pride Month, help us hit our $ 100, 000 fundraising goal
45:36
Speaker 1: in support of organizations fighting in states where conservatives are
45:39
Speaker 1: banning gender-affirming care and targeting trans youth because they're nasty
45:43
Speaker 1: little freaks who won't stop infringing on our most intimate
45:46
Speaker 1: personal freedoms. Currently, we are at 7%, so we have
45:49
Speaker 1: quite a ways to go. Donate directly to the fund
45:52
Speaker 1: or pick up items from our new Pride or Else
45:54
Speaker 1: collection and let Crooked do it for you with a
45:56
Speaker 1: portion of proceeds going directly to the fund. Learn more
46:00
Speaker 1: at crooked.com slash pride. All right, everyone, have a good weekend,
46:03
Speaker 1: and we will see you next week. If you want
46:07
Speaker 1: to get ad-free episodes, exclusive content, and more, consider joining
46:10
Speaker 1: our Friends of the Pod subscription community at crooked.com slash friends.
46:14
Speaker 1: And if you're already doom-scrolling, don't forget to follow us
46:17
Speaker 1: at Pod Save America on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube for
46:20
Speaker 1: access to full episodes, bonus content, and more. Plus, if
46:23
Speaker 1: you're as opinionated as we are, consider dropping us a review.
46:27
Speaker 1: Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our show
46:30
Speaker 1: is produced by Olivia Martinez and David Toledo. Our associate
46:33
Speaker 1: producers are Saul Rubin and Farrah Safari. Reid Cherlin is
46:36
Speaker 1: our executive producer. The show is mixed and edited by
46:39
Speaker 1: Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer with audio
46:43
Speaker 1: support from Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis. Writing support by
46:46
Speaker 1: Hallie Kiefer. Madeline Herringer is our head of news and programming.
46:49
Speaker 1: Matt DeGroat is our head of production. Andy Taft is
46:52
Speaker 1: our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn,
46:56
Speaker 1: Haley Jones, Mia Kelman, David Tolles, Kiril Pallaviv, and Molly Lobel.