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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,

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Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of

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Speaker 1: today's best minds, and the US economy added nine hundred

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Speaker 1: and eleven thousand fewer jobs than previously reported in the

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Speaker 1: largest ever revision. We have such a great show for

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Speaker 1: you today. Evil Genius' author Kurt Anderson stops by to

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Speaker 1: talk to us about how the nineties brought us the

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Speaker 1: deranged Republican nightmare we live through today. Then we'll talk

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Speaker 1: to Josh Touric about his run for the open Iowa

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Speaker 1: Senate seat. But first we have the stories the media

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Speaker 1: is missing.

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Speaker 2: My oh boy, it's a day. So I thought this

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Speaker 2: was really interesting. We've talked a lot about this character,

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Speaker 2: Bill Polti, who we haven't said much about before until

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Speaker 2: recent weeks. But the House is going to probe him.

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Speaker 2: And I mean just yesterday there was reports that Scott

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Speaker 2: Bessett was going to well, he was going to be

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Speaker 2: the sixth person that Scott besson threatened to punch. What

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Speaker 2: do you see in here? This is wild?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So I think we can all agree that as

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Speaker 1: much as a lot of us don't agree with Scott Bessant,

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Speaker 1: Treasury secretary. We all respect his ability to get into

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Speaker 1: physical violence. We certainly saw Scott Bessen had an altercation

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Speaker 1: with the Elon Musk. Now he has threatened to punch

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Speaker 1: Bill Pulty in the face. And Poulty is mostly famous

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Speaker 1: for running this very sleepy branch of government, the Trump administration.

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Speaker 1: He's a housing official. But what I think is really

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Speaker 1: interesting about him is that he's basically found all this

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Speaker 1: mortgage stuff. How he's found it, we don't know. So

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Speaker 1: he uses it against the president's enemies. So he used

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Speaker 1: it against Lisa Cook. He has used it against New

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Speaker 1: York ag Tish James, so he basically trots us out.

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Speaker 1: Now we have found that his parents use this using

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Speaker 1: two houses. So basically Poulty had accused Cook of listing

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Speaker 1: both a house in Michigan and a condo and Atlanta

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Speaker 1: as a primary resident. Poultice's parents did this, And I

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Speaker 1: think the bigger question is why is he using this

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Speaker 1: federal agency to investigate Donald Trump's enemies. I don't think

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Speaker 1: any of this is legal. So let's see what happens here.

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Speaker 1: We got democrats. Raskin sent Pulty a letter. He demands

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Speaker 1: that Pulty produce all records related to selective investigations. I

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Speaker 1: think this is really the way forward for Democrats that

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Speaker 1: the only way that anyone is ever going to take

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Speaker 1: them seriously is if they do stuff like this, like

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Speaker 1: they just push and push and push and hold these

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Speaker 1: people accountable. So I think this is really good again,

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Speaker 1: like we're seeing members of the House do this, We're

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Speaker 1: just not seeing it from leadership. And I wish we were.

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Speaker 2: After the drawing of what we thought was going to

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Speaker 2: be a woman's body and now many interpretations say is

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Speaker 2: a girl's body. On Trump's birthday letter to Epstein, we're

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Speaker 2: thinking that this discharge petition might actually go through that

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Speaker 2: Thomas Massey's pushing what do you see him?

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Speaker 1: So basically this is what they told me this whole

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Speaker 1: time there comms people had said that there are two

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Speaker 1: Democratic seats that are going to be filled. One is

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Speaker 1: the seat in Virginia. That was Jerry Connolly's seat. You'll

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Speaker 1: remember they put him as the head of Oversight instead

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Speaker 1: of AOC and then he died. But Democrats wanted because

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Speaker 1: he had seniority, even though he had throw cancer, he

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Speaker 1: got the job even though he was in treatment, and

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Speaker 1: then he died. So that seat is now being filled,

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Speaker 1: and then there's another seat that Democrats are going to get.

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Speaker 1: So even if Republicans don't do the right thing here

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Speaker 1: and sign this discharge petition, they will get to the

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Speaker 1: number in these special elections. So Johnson has already so

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Speaker 1: embarrassed himself with this story. He said that Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: was an FBI in format. There is no evidence to

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Speaker 1: support this that he was trying to shut down Epstein

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Speaker 1: from the inside. Mike Johnson walked it back. Always a

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Speaker 1: great sign and always a little bit shocking when someone

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Speaker 1: from Trump World actually walks something back like amazing. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: walked it back.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's pretty interesting. There's a lot of

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Speaker 2: Milton down there.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Trump is still goetting to sue Rupert Murdoch for ten

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Speaker 1: trillion dollars because numbers, what do they mean?

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Speaker 2: Trump has never met a lawsuit he'll potentially lose that

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Speaker 2: he doesn't like, so it really doesn't matter.

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Speaker 1: And also since numbers no longer have any meanings, Since

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Speaker 1: Trump is getting ten trillion dollars in tariffs, why not

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Speaker 1: sue Rubert Murdoch ten zillion dollars.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: People always say the thing is like Bennon's theory that

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Speaker 2: you throw six things at the wall.

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Speaker 4: Esjra.

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Speaker 2: Trump had some really interesting comments about domess violence that

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Speaker 2: really disturbed a lot of people, including me yesterday, A

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Speaker 2: level fight with the wife is a saying that you

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Speaker 2: don't want to see belittled in language.

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Speaker 1: Ever, this was actually pretty shocking when I saw it.

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Speaker 1: Yet another moment where I was like, that can't be real. This,

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Speaker 1: this is me, my sad gen X situation. That can't

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Speaker 1: be real, young gen X, I might add. Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: went to the Museum of the Bible, which I've actually

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Speaker 1: been to because one of my kids wanted to go.

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Speaker 1: It was funded by the hobby lobby crew. Oh yes, yes, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and it includes lots of artwork that some of which

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Speaker 1: is fake, some of which is looted antiquities, some of

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Speaker 1: which is repurposed to be nonsense. But it's a very

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Speaker 1: interesting museum and everyone should go there. It's also free

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Speaker 1: because they feel it is aligned with their mission. But anyway,

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Speaker 1: so Trump is in this museum giving a talk about

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Speaker 1: religious tolerance. These are like he's trying to hit the

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Speaker 1: notes that get the base excited. So evangelicals are being

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Speaker 1: discriminated against is a big one, and he gets in

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Speaker 1: it and he just starts musing and macking about domestic

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Speaker 1: violence and he calls it a little fight with the wife.

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Speaker 2: Real who amongst us energy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, really does. And he says a little fight with

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Speaker 1: the wife, and then he sort of goes into you know,

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Speaker 1: why should the police be involved if you're just beating

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Speaker 1: up your wife. What I think is so interesting about

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Speaker 1: this moment that we're in is that Donald Trump is,

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Speaker 1: while he has captured all these institutions and we're such

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Speaker 1: a weak and soft country that we've sort of let

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Speaker 1: him do whatever he wants to does, he's really still

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Speaker 1: got a sort of Shakespearean thing where he can't stop

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Speaker 1: telling on himself, he can't stop sort of self destructing.

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Speaker 1: You know, there's a real lesson here about people getting

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Speaker 1: what they want. I think this kind of stuff is

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Speaker 1: pretty interesting. I mean it's obviously quite disturbing. Kurt Anderson

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Speaker 1: is the author of Evil Geniuses and Fantasy Land. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to Fast Politics, Kurt Anderson.

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Speaker 3: Happy to be in Fast Politics once again.

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Speaker 1: Every day is a greater descent into fantasy Land. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it is the myths, the and also everything is nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety four, forever and ever until we die.

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Speaker 3: Discuss I would give anything for it to be nineteen

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Speaker 3: ninety four again.

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Speaker 5: But you know, it certainly is the beginnings of ging

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Speaker 5: Rich and the descent of the Republican Party into that

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Speaker 5: the morass of the last thirty years.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it is. It is. I mean in fantasy land.

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Speaker 3: And as long as we're talking about titles in my

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Speaker 3: books Evil Guiniusness, which came afterwards, I really thought of

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Speaker 3: them both as a double volume, the first one being Yes,

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Speaker 3: this longstanding American weakness for the excitingly untrue right. And

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Speaker 3: Donald Trump has embodied that. He came along just as

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Speaker 3: I was finishing that book, and it was like, you know,

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Speaker 3: I felt some guilt, like, oh, I have my poster

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Speaker 3: boy here for this, but he is so that and

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Speaker 3: you know it was published in his first year, and

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Speaker 3: you know, the week after it was published, QAnon started.

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Speaker 3: And then there's Donald Trump lying about everything and building

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Speaker 3: this movement, this true movement. You can unders states that

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Speaker 3: of people who who share, you know, not a coherent ideality.

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Speaker 3: That's the thing, right, It's interesting they share all kinds

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Speaker 3: of fantasies and conspiracy theories in the Bobby Kennedy flavor

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Speaker 3: and the government's taking over this or that, you know,

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Speaker 3: and and and just the inconsistency and incoherence of it

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Speaker 3: all is phenomenal. And you know, people keep saying, oh,

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Speaker 3: you should update it, right anew and well, no, it's

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Speaker 3: just there, it is. I mean, you know, I could

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Speaker 3: devote my entire life to doing a daily thing about it. No,

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Speaker 3: it's it's nuts. And and I don't know what to say,

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Speaker 3: you know, and I keep waiting for enough people to

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Speaker 3: have since slapped into them. And I think, as I

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Speaker 3: talk about in fantasy land, when the economics go wrong

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Speaker 3: as they did in two thousand and eight, right, you

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Speaker 3: can't pretend there's not a giant, great recession. You can't

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Speaker 3: pretend prices aren't going up, you can't pretend the economy

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Speaker 3: is now starting to go into recession, so that there

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Speaker 3: is the reality slap of economic reality, which at this point,

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Speaker 3: you know, I guess I'm depending on because in political terms,

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Speaker 3: because he can't wish that away. They can't wish that away.

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Speaker 3: And just as you know, not to compare it to

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Speaker 3: Joe Biden, but just as we the Biden and Democrats

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Speaker 3: can say, oh no, the inflation is really yeah, it's

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Speaker 3: going away. It's Okay, shit, you know you're not feeling it. Well,

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Speaker 3: people didn't buy hat and they're not going to buy this.

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Speaker 3: And more than more than ever again my hope, I

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Speaker 3: always find the glimmers of hope and green shoes. You know,

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Speaker 3: this is so clearly and so undern mily his he

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Speaker 3: still occasionally tries as, oh, no, it's Biden. I'm I

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Speaker 3: heerd Biden. You didn't. Terrorists are years, you know, all

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Speaker 3: all of its years, the the the you know, this

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Speaker 3: radical change in the labor market, apart from the grotesque

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Speaker 3: street thug fascism of the master importations, you know, all

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Speaker 3: of it is going to is going to be his

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Speaker 3: and and uh you know, I mean I was already

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Speaker 3: hopeful about the midterms, and and the timing of the

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Speaker 3: of the economic wreckage looks just great for politically speaking,

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Speaker 3: you know, a year from now it's going to be terrible.

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Speaker 3: So that's my failing. But as you said that, you're

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Speaker 3: framing the descent into fantasy land and the degree to

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Speaker 3: which the evil geniuses, which is to say, rich people

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Speaker 3: and corporate ba by and large and the elected Republicans

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Speaker 3: in Washington have all all you know, as we know

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Speaker 3: ninety six percent of them absolutely bought in and hope

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Speaker 3: there will be a price to pay, because and I

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Speaker 3: think there will be. And I think this is not

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Speaker 3: going to last forever anymore. I say to myself, not

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Speaker 3: off in a public anymore than it did in Germany.

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Speaker 3: We just got to keep as nearly as we can

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Speaker 3: shouting the truth in you know, non hair on fire.

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Speaker 3: But it's extreme and it's not normal. And what it's

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Speaker 3: going to take all kinds of new things, whether it's

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Speaker 3: letting the government shut down in a couple of weeks

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Speaker 3: or or whatever it is to it's a new ball game.

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Speaker 3: It's a new ball game.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: That's where I have to say.

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Speaker 1: I'd love you to talk about the Birthday Book, because

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Speaker 1: the Birthday Book feels like something that I mean, it can't.

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Speaker 1: You know, it was put together in the nineties, early

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Speaker 1: two thousands, right before Epstein's first arrest, right when he

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Speaker 1: gets this got the Sweetheart deal, which was two thousand

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Speaker 1: and four. But it exists in this time. I mean,

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Speaker 1: what I think is so interesting about what I've seen

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Speaker 1: of it so far is that you know, there's stuff

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Speaker 1: from Trump, there's stuff from Less Wexler, there's stuff from

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Speaker 1: dersh weed. There's you know, it feels like another world.

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Speaker 3: You know it does. And I said to my wife,

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Speaker 3: yesterd boy, there there was this parallel, dirty, rich universe

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Speaker 3: going on in our midst and we're just you know,

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Speaker 3: Pollyanna innocence. Yes, it does feel like you know the world.

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Speaker 3: But I don't think it is another world. I think

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Speaker 3: that world exists in different form right now, and it's

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Speaker 3: tooner layer it will be exposed too. No, I don't

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Speaker 3: you know it is. It is of another time because

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Speaker 3: of the names and less West and Alan Dershowitz and

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Speaker 3: all the rest are everybody except Donald Trump are gone

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Speaker 3: more or less. The entitlement is still absolutely there. And

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Speaker 3: I see I still see that. I mean, and and

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Speaker 3: I would say, I mean obviously the great wealth and

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Speaker 3: I can do anything because I'm rich. Thing is here

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Speaker 3: more than ever. And I see not Epstein, sex trafficking,

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Speaker 3: examples of it all over all the time, but but

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Speaker 3: similar things. It's just as grotesque. The thing about that too,

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Speaker 3: I mean again in terms of in terms of just

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Speaker 3: the delusional or welly and fantasy. The denial yesterday by

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Speaker 3: the the you know, Deputy White House Chiefs and Staff

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Speaker 3: in charge of comms and by the Press Secretary of like, no, no, no,

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Speaker 3: look these things obviously aren't his. Well, they look just

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Speaker 3: like the ones you were showing. And they look just

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Speaker 3: like the ones I have in my personal files. First

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Speaker 3: of all, and and and then the Wall Street Journal,

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Speaker 3: which in it's.

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Speaker 1: By the famous liberal famous.

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Speaker 3: Are analyzing why the signature looks is the same, Why, yes,

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Speaker 3: he looked at all these drawings he's done. Yes, look

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Speaker 3: at all the times he's used enigmental.

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Speaker 6: You know, it's just like boom boom boom, like this

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Speaker 6: forensic spy magazine, like tickdown that is fantastic, you know,

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Speaker 6: good for in his ya last days alive.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, as he's he ruined the country, but he's getting

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Speaker 1: his last licks and at Donald Trump.

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Speaker 3: So anyway something and again you know, and and and

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Speaker 3: what's her name? Carolyne Lovett said no, and the Wall

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Speaker 3: Street Journal story proves this has all been false. Uh no,

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Speaker 3: it proves the opposite. So anyway it is. It is remarkable,

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Speaker 3: and it's you know, I remember, you know, speaking of

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Speaker 3: the nineties. I don't know, you may be too young,

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Speaker 3: remember bag Dad Bob during the war.

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Speaker 1: But that's what this is.

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Speaker 3: The embodiment of like, no, no, they're not. The Americans

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Speaker 3: are nowhere in there. We're fine, We're good. That's all right,

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Speaker 3: we'll see. I mean, and and and again that you

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Speaker 3: can't make it up daily thing like oh, we're gonna

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Speaker 3: make We're gonna make Eric Adams, Mayor of New York,

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Speaker 3: get out of the way for Andrew Cuomo by making

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Speaker 3: him the ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I amazing, amaze, and.

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Speaker 3: Man, that would be a great reality show, yes, but

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Speaker 3: it's just it is astonishing. And you know, and as

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Speaker 3: I said, so let's well the mom Donnie thing, is

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Speaker 3: it glimo?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but let's I want to stay on this idea

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Speaker 1: that the world that we're living in right now is

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Speaker 1: created in the nineties, because I actually think it was

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Speaker 1: a lot of the people who are funding this presidency

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Speaker 1: or running this White House are creatures of that world.

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Speaker 1: And I think of like Susie Wild who came up

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Speaker 1: under Bush too. You know, Donald Trump obviously most of

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Speaker 1: his friends and the people around him, And I just

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Speaker 1: wonder if you know the the thing that made Trump

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Speaker 1: and the thing you know, I was talking to someone

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Speaker 1: who knew him and had talked to him pretty recently

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Speaker 1: and said that one of the things he spends the

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Speaker 1: most time worrying about is is this breaking through? Like

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Speaker 1: are people watching? Are people seeing me? Are people right?

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Speaker 1: Am I getting the airtime? Is it being shown now?

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Speaker 1: Because he's right, he's still thinking about like traditional linear

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Speaker 1: television and not necessarily where a lot of people are.

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Speaker 1: But I think that you know, he was at the

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Speaker 1: US Open yesterday, He is at He is trying to

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Speaker 1: be at every sporting event. He wants to have USC

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Speaker 1: fighters on the on the lawn of the White House.

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Speaker 1: And I just wonder if you could talk about this

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Speaker 1: idea of being downstream of culture and how Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: learned that and how that equates the nineties.

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Speaker 3: Well, he is was and is a show business person.

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Speaker 3: Right when he was somebody in real estate, he said, oh,

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Speaker 3: I'm I'm you know, sixty years ago, more than six

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Speaker 3: years ago, he said, I was thinking about getting into

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Speaker 3: show business and producing Broadway plays and stuff. But I'm

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Speaker 3: going to do I went to be in real estate

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Speaker 3: and make that show business too. And as I've written about,

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Speaker 3: you know, it was in this long, perfectly calibrated timed

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Speaker 3: way to do what has always been done in America,

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Speaker 3: which is everything is show business, you know, I mean,

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Speaker 3: religion was show business in the United States, or in

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Speaker 3: America before it's the United States unlike anywhere else, and

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Speaker 3: everything and every you know, Buffalo Bill, all of it

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Speaker 3: was show business. And you know, presidential politics had started

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Speaker 3: that becoming how with television and then Robt Reagan and

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Speaker 3: then up to Donald Trump. And he was perfectly positioned

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Speaker 3: to do that. And so being a WWE famous guy

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Speaker 3: before he was you know, I mean, that was as

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Speaker 3: important a part of his fame in the nineteen nineties

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Speaker 3: as anything else. You know, then came apprentice orything and

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Speaker 3: playing the character that this character against that rival evil

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Speaker 3: character and just doing whatever it took to make people

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Speaker 3: watch and cheer and like, Okay, they know it's a fake,

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Speaker 3: but but like, well, we still like it, right, And

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Speaker 3: to bring that to make our politics, at least our

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Speaker 3: Republican politics, at least his unique and singular version of

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Speaker 3: politics that was, you know, I mean, it's like a

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Speaker 3: wild movie, a piece of satire, might judge idiocracy thing

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Speaker 3: that a novel I wrote in nineteen ninety nine about

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Speaker 3: the murder of reality and and and and television and

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Speaker 3: it's it's it's just come true. So yes, the seeds

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Speaker 3: robbed too laid there. And of course all of these

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Speaker 3: people too, just because of their age, because they're you know,

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Speaker 3: the nineties, people were still young enough to now be

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Speaker 3: compositions of power. But so many of these people, of course,

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Speaker 3: were not in politics at all. I mean, Bobby Kennedy

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Speaker 3: of the nineties was still you know, a drug addict

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Speaker 3: and a failed and a failed district attorney who had

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Speaker 3: then become apparently a legit environmental lawyer and stuff. But yeah,

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Speaker 3: I mean, but again there the why is he there

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Speaker 3: because his last name is Kennedy? Period and destroyed? Why

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Speaker 3: is our public health system being destroyed? And and and

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Speaker 3: years and years of important all kinds of medical and

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Speaker 3: other scientific work being destroyed because this kid, my cocaine

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Speaker 3: dealer's name is Kennedy. And again it's this crazy you know,

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Speaker 3: celebrity tale wagging the dog of the republic in a

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Speaker 3: way that yes, it begs all understanding.

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Speaker 1: Right there, There is an attention to brands, an attention

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Speaker 1: to names that is very Trumpian, right. I also think

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Speaker 1: that RFK, that was the way he appealed to women voters,

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Speaker 1: was that he saw that they were Trump friendly women

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Speaker 1: voters who liked Maha and who thought Maha was somehow

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Speaker 1: something that would solve their problems. And I think there

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Speaker 1: is also a sort of post COVID emotional meltdown that

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Speaker 1: has happened in our country that.

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Speaker 3: More the COVID, I think the effects obvious and less

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Speaker 3: of this of COVID are still with us and messing

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Speaker 3: with all kinds of in them.

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Speaker 1: Have Maha without COVID.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, And you know, speaking of Maha, and you know,

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Speaker 3: almost everyone I know says, well, there are a lot

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Speaker 3: of things about Earth. There are some things aboubby Kennedy.

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Speaker 3: Yes he's a nut, yes he's yes, yes he's destroying science.

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Speaker 3: But there's things he says that if you just did those,

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Speaker 3: you know whatever, taking chemicals out of food, you know,

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Speaker 3: taking pharmaceutical prescription, pharmaceutical lives off television, all on there.

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Speaker 3: There are things like yeah, sure, if that's Maha, I'm

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Speaker 3: down with it, until you get into no, all vaccines

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Speaker 3: are bad and and I should be able to not

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Speaker 3: take vaccines if I want all that and tell you

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Speaker 3: into the craziness that there's there's you know, saying Maha

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Speaker 3: and and simply like California, you know, healthiness and and

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Speaker 3: and then there's insanity and and you know you I

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Speaker 3: think it's important to distinguish those and and make make

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Speaker 3: the people who were attracted to the right reasonable part

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Speaker 3: of it. Like I understand like this guy is uh,

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Speaker 3: you know is I mean, you're going to make your

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Speaker 3: kids die and make us make make your parents die.

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Speaker 1: I mean the best example of them how craziness is

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Speaker 1: Florida where they're where they're no longer making kids get vaccinated.

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Speaker 1: I mean that is an intense.

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Speaker 3: And again it takes a while. You know, the herd,

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Speaker 3: the immune herd has protected everybody for so long they

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Speaker 3: they forget if they ever knew or ever understood that

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Speaker 3: that's what That's why people didn't get these horrible, deadly child.

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Speaker 1: We're going to see bad, bad stuff happen real soon,

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Speaker 1: do you think. Like one of the things that I

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Speaker 1: often think to myself is like, we are actually hurtling

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Speaker 1: towards disaster pretty and the question.

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Speaker 3: Is which disaster or disasters are we hurtling toward. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: and I don't know how quickly, but and I don't

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Speaker 3: like it. You know, it's like one of these numbers

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Speaker 3: is going to come up, and whether it's unnecessarily uncontrolled epidemics, well,

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Speaker 3: god knows, I don't need.

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Speaker 1: To, right, it doesn't matter. But you can see that

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Speaker 1: we're hurtling towards something bad. The lack of regulation when

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Speaker 1: it comes to stable coin, the disassembling our security. I mean, like,

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Speaker 1: clearly something catastrophic is we're hurdling towards.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's a reasonable bet. Unfortunately, I think it is.

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Speaker 3: Lenin famously said, and is you know, the worse the better,

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Speaker 3: you know, you get things terrible, and then the revolution

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Speaker 3: will come. I've never been there. Yeah, but this is

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Speaker 3: not going to end well, it just is not going

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Speaker 3: to end well. I hope you know, whatever disaster comes,

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Speaker 3: it's it's not so existential that it can't be recovered.

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Speaker 1: From the thing that I am stressedtruck by is like

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Speaker 1: we have government. Government is good and does things for people,

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Speaker 1: and disassembling it is bad and we're about to find

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Speaker 1: out why.

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Speaker 3: Yes, and you can still stipulate that, Yes, of course,

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Speaker 3: there's lots of blowdered, old fashioned, inefficient things. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,

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Speaker 3: I mean again, there are reasonable versions of everything, just

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Speaker 3: as there are reasonable versions of my mother's are reasonable

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Speaker 3: reasonable version of a doge thing like, yeah, let's see

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Speaker 3: what isn't doing its job anymore. Let's not just assume

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Speaker 3: that the most regulation is the better or all of it.

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Speaker 3: But you know, I mean the buy the crazy binariness,

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Speaker 3: and and here we are way over here like in

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Speaker 3: the real burn it down sense, And and that nihilism,

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Speaker 3: the burn it down nihilism is is a significant part

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Speaker 3: of the Trump uh base movement feeling, you know, just

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Speaker 3: fuck it, fight it, yeah, burn it down. It's not working.

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Speaker 3: It's rigg you know, And and that's that's dangerous.

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Speaker 1: Fuck Kurt Anderson, please come.

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Speaker 3: Back, always will you? And always happy too.

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Speaker 1: Josh Turik is a member of the Iowa House of

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Speaker 1: Representatives from the twentieth district. Welcome to Fast Politics, Josh,

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Speaker 1: thank you, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 4: It's a pleasure to be here.

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Speaker 1: Very excited to have you. So you are running in Iowa.

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Speaker 1: Just tell us your origin story.

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Speaker 4: Sure, origin story. I was born right here. We're not

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Speaker 4: exactly where I'm sitting, but in this town of Council Bus, Iowa,

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Speaker 4: which is a blue collar town, you've got sixty five

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Speaker 4: percent of the people that live at or below the

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Speaker 4: poverty line. Here. I was born to a working class

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Speaker 4: to say lower middle class, oftentimes poor family. I've got

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Speaker 4: three sisters in one brother. I was born to a

432
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 4: Vietnam veteran father that was exposed to agan ORNs, so

433
00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:56,320
Speaker 4: I was born with a condition called spina bifida, had

434
00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:59,040
Speaker 4: my first surgery at one day old and had twenty

435
00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:02,359
Speaker 4: one surgeries by the age of twelve. And someone that

436
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:05,480
Speaker 4: went through an enormous amount of economic adversity and certainly

437
00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:09,760
Speaker 4: on the healthcare side. A family that we shared clothes

438
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:12,320
Speaker 4: and got a lot of our clothes from the Goodwill

439
00:25:12,359 --> 00:25:14,720
Speaker 4: and a mother that at times that was putting the

440
00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:17,920
Speaker 4: groceries on the credit card. In the summer times, we

441
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:20,120
Speaker 4: were going to the free summer lunch programs to get

442
00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:22,800
Speaker 4: our food. And I'm grateful that I grew up in

443
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:24,720
Speaker 4: Iowa at a time when we were number one in

444
00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:26,960
Speaker 4: public education, and I had a lot of support from

445
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:30,720
Speaker 4: the AAS which provides special education here. Thankfully for me,

446
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:32,960
Speaker 4: what really saved my life was I was exposed to

447
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:37,040
Speaker 4: wheelchair basketball and an adaptive sports program across the river

448
00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:41,159
Speaker 4: in Omaha, Nebraska, and that really gave me everything that

449
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:44,880
Speaker 4: I needed from friends and it legitimately saved my life.

450
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,119
Speaker 4: I played well enough in wheelchair basketball that I was

451
00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:50,560
Speaker 4: able to get a partial scholarship to play at the

452
00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:53,080
Speaker 4: collegiate level. I went to a place called Southwest Minnesota

453
00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:56,639
Speaker 4: State University along with the help of vocational Rehabilitation. Had

454
00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:59,239
Speaker 4: it not been for wheelchair basketball or voke rehabit never

455
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:01,600
Speaker 4: would have went to Calle and played well enough there

456
00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:05,120
Speaker 4: that I set a lot of records, scored sixty three

457
00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:07,720
Speaker 4: points in a game, and scored four thousand career points,

458
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:11,120
Speaker 4: which I'm proud I barely eked out Caitlin Clark there

459
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:13,280
Speaker 4: and then had the opportunity to play something I did

460
00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:15,600
Speaker 4: not actually know existed when I was in college, which

461
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:19,240
Speaker 4: is professional wheelchair basketball, which doesn't exist in America, so

462
00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:22,040
Speaker 4: the have to play abroad. So I had the opportunity

463
00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:25,199
Speaker 4: to live and play basketball in places like France and

464
00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:27,879
Speaker 4: Spain and Italy and Australia. But by the time it

465
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:31,280
Speaker 4: was done and the biges accomplishment was I had the

466
00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:33,919
Speaker 4: opportunity which was my goal from day one, which was

467
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 4: to represent the country in the Paralympic Games, which the

468
00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:39,480
Speaker 4: Summer of Paralympic Games is the second largest sporting event

469
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:42,760
Speaker 4: on Earth behind the Summer Olympic Games. Played in four

470
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 4: Paralympic Games and won two gold medals in wheelchair basketball

471
00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:48,760
Speaker 4: back to back, and finished my career in Tokyo. Last

472
00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:51,000
Speaker 4: game that I played was winning a gold medal. Along

473
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:53,560
Speaker 4: the way, got a bachelor's degree in history, got a

474
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:56,920
Speaker 4: master's degree in business administration. Briefly was a small business

475
00:26:56,920 --> 00:27:00,120
Speaker 4: owner as well for more than ten years been a

476
00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:03,840
Speaker 4: director of a nonprofit organization that helps disabled kids have

477
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:07,920
Speaker 4: access to adaptive sports programs like wheelchair basketball, just because

478
00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:10,719
Speaker 4: it honestly had saved my life and profound impact it

479
00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:12,720
Speaker 4: made on me, and to be a role model to

480
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:16,760
Speaker 4: other kids with disabilities because they don't see enough role

481
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:19,920
Speaker 4: models from the from the disabled community. And then as well,

482
00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:22,159
Speaker 4: what got me interested in politics is when I finished

483
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:26,240
Speaker 4: my basketball career, I started working as well with disabled individuals.

484
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:29,359
Speaker 4: Working for a company called New Motion. I was assessing

485
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:33,480
Speaker 4: and providing wheelchairs, power both power wheelchairs and manual wheelchairs

486
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,960
Speaker 4: and mobility devices for the disabled population. And it was

487
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,199
Speaker 4: in there that every single day we were dealing with

488
00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:42,800
Speaker 4: denial rates and delay rates. I was working specifically with

489
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:47,119
Speaker 4: individuals with muscular dystrophe and als LU Garrig's disease, and

490
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:49,200
Speaker 4: these are people that just do not have time for

491
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 4: denial rates. And we were showing that since Iowa had

492
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:55,560
Speaker 4: privatized the medicaid system, we were showing a thousand percent

493
00:27:55,680 --> 00:27:57,919
Speaker 4: increase and the denial rate, and I felt that that

494
00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:00,200
Speaker 4: was wrong. And then with a little bit of recent search,

495
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:02,159
Speaker 4: had found out that Iowa we had never had a

496
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:05,400
Speaker 4: permanently disabled member in the Iowa legislature. That's one hundred

497
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:07,800
Speaker 4: and fifty year history of the state, a governing body

498
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 4: of one hundred and fifty members. Meanwhile, we have one

499
00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:12,199
Speaker 4: in five io ones that are blind or death or

500
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 4: intellectually disabled or physically disabled. And I thought, well, is.

501
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:17,240
Speaker 1: That higher than others dates.

502
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:19,480
Speaker 4: In terms of the lack of representation.

503
00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:22,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also in terms of the level, like one

504
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:24,640
Speaker 1: in five is that what most states are?

505
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:27,840
Speaker 4: Now? There's variants in terms of the statistics on that.

506
00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:30,400
Speaker 4: I would say a bare minimum, the number that we've

507
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:33,879
Speaker 4: always used is the silent fifteen. We the fifteen, So

508
00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:36,800
Speaker 4: a bare minimum, it's fifteen percent of the population would

509
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:39,520
Speaker 4: be considered disabled. It gets a little bit tricky in

510
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:43,680
Speaker 4: terms of that number, especially what is your definition of disability?

511
00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:47,240
Speaker 4: The invisible disabilities, those with autism, et cetera. Right, but

512
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:49,840
Speaker 4: here in Iowa, we could have a slightly higher rates

513
00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:51,720
Speaker 4: one in five here here in Iowa. But you know,

514
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:54,280
Speaker 4: along with our cancer rates, we could have higher levels

515
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 4: of disabilities.

516
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:58,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so you ran for state legislature.

517
00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, ran for state legislature. And I knew it was

518
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:02,760
Speaker 4: to be difficult. I'm out here in the rightest part

519
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:04,920
Speaker 4: of the state, which is western Iowa, and knew it

520
00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:06,840
Speaker 4: was going to be very, very difficult. Especially in twenty

521
00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:08,440
Speaker 4: twenty two. It was not a good year to run

522
00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:11,080
Speaker 4: as Democrats. Most people said it would be impossible to win,

523
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:13,800
Speaker 4: and I did. If you've seen the launch video, that's

524
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:16,320
Speaker 4: exactly how I went out every single day and just

525
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:20,640
Speaker 4: drug my wheelchair upstairs to have conversations with Independence and

526
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:23,440
Speaker 4: Republicans day after day. I outperformed the top of the

527
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 4: ticket by thirteen points and won my first election by

528
00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:28,960
Speaker 4: just six votes, and then turned around in a year

529
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,680
Speaker 4: that was actually twenty four was actually even worse out here.

530
00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 4: Trump won my county by twenty points, one of the

531
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:36,760
Speaker 4: two communities that I represent, by double digits, and I

532
00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 4: was able to win by nearly six percent. So I

533
00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 4: was very proud of that outperformed the top of the

534
00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:43,320
Speaker 4: ticket by much more than any other Democrat in the state.

535
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:45,280
Speaker 1: So how did you do it?

536
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:48,880
Speaker 4: First? Is that it's hard work. I say that the

537
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:51,600
Speaker 4: right candidate, with the right message and the right work ethic,

538
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:54,800
Speaker 4: you can win in very adverse conditions. What I did

539
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,760
Speaker 4: was that I went out every single day. I never

540
00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 4: took a day off, it didn't matter rain or shine harder.

541
00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 4: And I went out and drug my wheelchair up to

542
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:06,880
Speaker 4: have conversations with and it was almost exclusively Republicans and

543
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:10,440
Speaker 4: independence and I found that although I wasn't particularly efficient,

544
00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:12,440
Speaker 4: you know, sometimes it would take me ten or fifteen

545
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:14,800
Speaker 4: minutes to crawl up there, that I became very effective.

546
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:17,600
Speaker 4: And I would find that, regardless of where people sat

547
00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 4: on the political spectrum, always the very first question that

548
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:21,360
Speaker 4: I would be asked is, well, how in the world

549
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:23,200
Speaker 4: did you get up here? Well, I crawled up here.

550
00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:25,440
Speaker 4: That's how important your vote is. And then I would

551
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:28,200
Speaker 4: find that even if it was the most extreme Republican

552
00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:30,360
Speaker 4: or conservative, that they would be willing to give me

553
00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:32,280
Speaker 4: three or four minutes of their time given the fact

554
00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 4: that I just drugged my wheelchair up there and crawled

555
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:37,480
Speaker 4: up there to have a conversation with them, and I

556
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:39,720
Speaker 4: would find that in you know, four or five minutes

557
00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:42,840
Speaker 4: of conversation, I could be very effective about here's who

558
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:45,520
Speaker 4: I am, here's what I've done, here, here's why I'm running.

559
00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:47,760
Speaker 4: And I would focus on the kitchen table issues. That's

560
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,320
Speaker 4: what I talked about was I'm doing this because I'm

561
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:53,000
Speaker 4: someone that's gone through an enormous amount of economic struggle

562
00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:56,720
Speaker 4: and an enormous amount of health care struggle, and people

563
00:30:56,800 --> 00:30:59,320
Speaker 4: are people are struggling legitimately, it doesn't matter where you

564
00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:02,000
Speaker 4: said on the political spectrum of a livable wage, of

565
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:05,160
Speaker 4: keeping food on the table, keeping the lights on, of

566
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:07,600
Speaker 4: you know, struggling with their healthcare cost. I would hear

567
00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:10,800
Speaker 4: over and over and over from people they didn't have

568
00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:14,160
Speaker 4: insurance or they were underinsured, or the waiting list, or

569
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:16,440
Speaker 4: the denial rates, the out of pocket costs, and these

570
00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:18,560
Speaker 4: are people even that were on private insurance. And then

571
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:21,680
Speaker 4: even more grotesque, I would hear over and over from people,

572
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:24,360
Speaker 4: you know, I've changed my job, I've changed my insurance,

573
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 4: and now I can't afford to take my insulin or

574
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:28,960
Speaker 4: I can't afford to take my medication. It's just fundamentally

575
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:31,680
Speaker 4: wrong to live in the richest nation on Earth and

576
00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:35,080
Speaker 4: people happen to make the determination do I take my medication,

577
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:37,080
Speaker 4: do I take my pills, or do I pay my bills?

578
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:39,280
Speaker 4: It's just wrong, and these are things that I focused on.

579
00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:41,440
Speaker 4: I also talked a lot about Iowa was growing cancer rate,

580
00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 4: because that's something that affects people all over. We don't

581
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:47,280
Speaker 4: do anything really about that at the at the Iowa level,

582
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:49,840
Speaker 4: and certainly now with what we're looking at with nih cuts,

583
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:51,520
Speaker 4: we're the only state with a growing cancer rate.

584
00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:53,840
Speaker 1: Are you the only state with the growing cancer right?

585
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:59,080
Speaker 4: Yes, recently, I believe it was Utah that had a

586
00:31:59,360 --> 00:32:02,880
Speaker 4: very very percentage of increase, but their overall cancer rates

587
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:05,959
Speaker 4: are so low it's almost minuscule in terms of the difference.

588
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:09,600
Speaker 4: Now we are number two in terms of overall cancer rates,

589
00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:13,400
Speaker 4: behind only Kentucky, but we are quickly catching them, and

590
00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:15,240
Speaker 4: at the rate that we're continuing, we are going to

591
00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:18,680
Speaker 4: surpass them. We are the only state with a significant

592
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:19,760
Speaker 4: rate of cancer.

593
00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:21,120
Speaker 1: What kind of cancer?

594
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:24,960
Speaker 4: Fith In terms of pediatric cancer, We're seeing a large

595
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:27,400
Speaker 4: amounts of breast cancer, We're seeing a large amounts of

596
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:31,480
Speaker 4: skin cancer. I actually was doing a bill in my

597
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 4: first session, there was something called the EhP that was

598
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,800
Speaker 4: in intermitted catheters, and so those of us with that

599
00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 4: are disabled or are using this to go to the restroom,

600
00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:45,600
Speaker 4: and it's a known carcinogen in this DHP, and the

601
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 4: cather industry has the ability to do this without the

602
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,360
Speaker 4: cancer's cartomes. So I ran a bill for Iowa to

603
00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:53,920
Speaker 4: be the very first state to ban the EhP and

604
00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:56,000
Speaker 4: have no state appropriation go with time. So I was

605
00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:58,240
Speaker 4: actually spending a lot of time at the University of

606
00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 4: Iowa talking with him about the can rates because my

607
00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:03,160
Speaker 4: assumption was where they are going to see the highest

608
00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:06,360
Speaker 4: rates of cancer, we're going to be in the disabled population,

609
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,720
Speaker 4: those that are using intermittent catheters, because we were seeing

610
00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:13,120
Speaker 4: a bladder cancer epidemic, and they were saying no, by far,

611
00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:15,120
Speaker 4: the areas that we are seeing the highest rates of

612
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:17,760
Speaker 4: cancer are in these rural communities and those that are

613
00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:20,640
Speaker 4: exposed to the glaveh of states and the pesticide and

614
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:21,920
Speaker 4: lack of water qualities.

615
00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:23,840
Speaker 1: Brunt Off so crazy.

616
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:25,960
Speaker 4: We have really had rails a rate on here. We

617
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:28,520
Speaker 4: have really high levels of obesity, we have high levels

618
00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:32,320
Speaker 4: of smoking, we have high levels of alcohol. But the

619
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:34,680
Speaker 4: real issue, if you're to look at the cancer map,

620
00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:38,640
Speaker 4: it very closely mimics our water quality epidemic as well.

621
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:41,280
Speaker 4: I think they're directly coordinlated. And we're not doing enough

622
00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:43,120
Speaker 4: about either of those two issues here in Iowa.

623
00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:47,520
Speaker 1: So you talk to these voters who are losing stuff

624
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:53,200
Speaker 1: under Republicans and yet full maga. What's the cognitive dissonance there?

625
00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:56,120
Speaker 4: It is interesting. I think it's twofold one. I think

626
00:33:56,120 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 4: the Republican Party has done a good job of of

627
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:05,080
Speaker 4: diverting the attention to issues that are largely irrelevant, focusing

628
00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:08,480
Speaker 4: on the culture war issues, and so people are showing

629
00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:11,480
Speaker 4: up and that's what they're voting on, is they're voting

630
00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:14,120
Speaker 4: on cultuur war issues. And then the other issue is

631
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:16,880
Speaker 4: that maybe we have not done a good enough job

632
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:21,800
Speaker 4: of ensuring that we are the party of the workers

633
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:24,279
Speaker 4: of the middle class, that we are the party that

634
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 4: is going to ensure that you're going to have a

635
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:30,040
Speaker 4: livable wage, that you're going to have affordable housing, and

636
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:32,239
Speaker 4: that you're going to have affordable healthcare. One of the

637
00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:35,080
Speaker 4: fascinating things for me and going out there and knocking

638
00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:38,080
Speaker 4: basically every single door in my district twice now in

639
00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:41,480
Speaker 4: a very red district. Is that the one singular issue

640
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:44,960
Speaker 4: that I found that was unanimously supported was that our

641
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:49,160
Speaker 4: healthcare system is fundamentally broken, that we're the only country

642
00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:52,359
Speaker 4: that doesn't provide at least a baseline level of health

643
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:54,920
Speaker 4: care for its citizens. That we pay three times as

644
00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:57,160
Speaker 4: much as any other nation on earth for our health care,

645
00:34:57,280 --> 00:35:00,080
Speaker 4: but we get by far the worst outcomes. However, I

646
00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:03,360
Speaker 4: found that it was a complete disconnect of when people

647
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:07,359
Speaker 4: are showing up to vote, them not understanding that the

648
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:10,160
Speaker 4: way that they're voting, both at the local level, certainly

649
00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:12,120
Speaker 4: at the state level, and certainly at the federal level,

650
00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:18,080
Speaker 4: that that was directly correlated to how their healthcout outcomes

651
00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:21,360
Speaker 4: were coming out. So's you're right, there is a disconnect

652
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:23,319
Speaker 4: there and something that I tried to make a good

653
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:26,400
Speaker 4: job of saying, no, No, I am a prairie populist.

654
00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:29,360
Speaker 4: This are the things that I'm focusing on, and that

655
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:31,560
Speaker 4: is driving down the cost and making sure that you

656
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:33,440
Speaker 4: have access to all these things so that you're not

657
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:35,080
Speaker 4: voting against your own self interest.

658
00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:39,080
Speaker 1: So I like this idea of being a prairie populist brand,

659
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:42,799
Speaker 1: the Democratic brand, not super popular at this moment, How

660
00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:47,640
Speaker 1: do you run against the brand but with the brand, because.

661
00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:51,520
Speaker 4: We're internally transforming that brand, and I think by candidates

662
00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:54,360
Speaker 4: like myself, that's how we're doing it is we're saying,

663
00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:57,200
Speaker 4: this is what a democrat is, this is what an

664
00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:01,640
Speaker 4: FDR JFK democrat is, this is what a Tom Harkin

665
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:04,800
Speaker 4: prairie populist democrat is. You asked me what a prairie

666
00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:08,440
Speaker 4: populist is. It is someone that is fighting for the

667
00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:10,799
Speaker 4: average worker. It is someone that is fighting for the

668
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:14,560
Speaker 4: middle class. It's someone that's fighting for working families, someone

669
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:17,960
Speaker 4: that's fighting for small farms. It's someone that's fighting for

670
00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:24,040
Speaker 4: our public schools, that's fighting for affordable healthcare, affordable pharmaceuticals.

671
00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:27,000
Speaker 4: It's voting for affordable housing, which is really the essence

672
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:30,200
Speaker 4: of the American dream. That's fighting for a livable wage

673
00:36:30,200 --> 00:36:32,520
Speaker 4: in a a in a minimum wage. That to me

674
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:35,680
Speaker 4: is what true populism is. I think that one of

675
00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 4: the big mistakes that with that that we have made

676
00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:41,440
Speaker 4: is that too many people have sat back and said, oh,

677
00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:43,720
Speaker 4: you know, there's there's just there's just too many ignorant

678
00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:46,279
Speaker 4: people that are that are voting for the Trump administration

679
00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:48,960
Speaker 4: or for you know, people like Joni Urns and Chuck Grassley.

680
00:36:49,239 --> 00:36:53,759
Speaker 4: I have said that Donald Trump accurately addressed that the

681
00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:56,880
Speaker 4: the status quo is not working for the middle class,

682
00:36:57,000 --> 00:36:59,520
Speaker 4: that the middle class is being hollowed out, the system

683
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:02,400
Speaker 4: is rare, the system is rigged, absolutely, that the middle

684
00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:06,040
Speaker 4: class is disappearing, that the people are legitimately struggling with

685
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:08,080
Speaker 4: keeping a roof above their head and keeping food on

686
00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:11,280
Speaker 4: the table. The problem is that his policies of faux

687
00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:14,480
Speaker 4: populism are not addressing it. They're actually just making it worse.

688
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:17,200
Speaker 4: And that we are now living into Americas the haves

689
00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:20,040
Speaker 4: and the have nots. It is literally a second Gilded Age.

690
00:37:20,080 --> 00:37:22,480
Speaker 4: It is the ninety nine versus the one. And that

691
00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:24,920
Speaker 4: is what I have talked about, is I am a

692
00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:28,480
Speaker 4: genuine populist, a true populist, someone that is not only

693
00:37:28,520 --> 00:37:31,840
Speaker 4: accurately addressing that you're struggling, but I'm going to actually

694
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:34,920
Speaker 4: go up there and fight for you, not just for billionaires,

695
00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:37,600
Speaker 4: not just for large corporations, not just for lobbyists, but

696
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:39,359
Speaker 4: fight for you. And I think that that is an

697
00:37:39,400 --> 00:37:43,680
Speaker 4: important distinction. And I think that people see an authenticity

698
00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:47,000
Speaker 4: and a genuineness to me and to my story. You know,

699
00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:49,600
Speaker 4: I'm someone that I've won gold medals, I've accomplished my goals.

700
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:51,680
Speaker 4: I didn't need to get involved in this, certainly at

701
00:37:51,719 --> 00:37:54,320
Speaker 4: the state level. I've made an enormous amount of sacrifice

702
00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:58,160
Speaker 4: for this. But I understand in like a genuine patriotic

703
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:01,480
Speaker 4: sense that people are strong buggling, and they're struggling both

704
00:38:01,520 --> 00:38:03,600
Speaker 4: on the economic side and on the healthcare side, and

705
00:38:03,680 --> 00:38:06,920
Speaker 4: they need someone that understands that and empathizes with that,

706
00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:10,240
Speaker 4: but also is going to work worth with the party

707
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:12,399
Speaker 4: and with the other party, work in a bipartisan way

708
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:15,719
Speaker 4: to provide solutions to their problems. That's what people want

709
00:38:15,719 --> 00:38:18,200
Speaker 4: at their essence. They don't even care red versus Blue.

710
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:21,480
Speaker 4: They want someone that really cares and is actually going

711
00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:24,400
Speaker 4: to do the hard work to provide solutions to the problems. That,

712
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:26,239
Speaker 4: to me is what a very populist is as well.

713
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:29,480
Speaker 1: How do you win in a place like Iowa that

714
00:38:29,640 --> 00:38:34,080
Speaker 1: is so red, I mean like we've gotten our hopes

715
00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:38,759
Speaker 1: up before, we really have, like Sarah Gillian, and so

716
00:38:38,920 --> 00:38:42,080
Speaker 1: much heartbreak in this political system, And tell me how

717
00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:43,120
Speaker 1: do you win in Iowa?

718
00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:45,640
Speaker 4: Well, I'll tell you first at the Iowa level, and

719
00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:49,200
Speaker 4: then about myself. One is I would say that Iowa,

720
00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:51,440
Speaker 4: we are not a red state. We are a common

721
00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:53,960
Speaker 4: sense state. We are a state that voted twice for

722
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:56,600
Speaker 4: Obama and now three times for Trump. We have more

723
00:38:56,600 --> 00:38:59,160
Speaker 4: Obama Trump counties than any other state in the Union.

724
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:01,680
Speaker 4: We are a state that for thirty years we had

725
00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:04,960
Speaker 4: my political hero, Senator Tom Harkin. We are someone as

726
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:08,279
Speaker 4: recent as Trump's first midterm, and I'm feeling a whole

727
00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:11,279
Speaker 4: lot more energy now than even in Trump's first midterm,

728
00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:13,759
Speaker 4: where we won three of the four congressional races and

729
00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:17,000
Speaker 4: we nearly won all four of our congressional seats. We

730
00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:19,160
Speaker 4: are as recent as twenty twenty two, so we're not

731
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:22,440
Speaker 4: talking about old history in old time that we were

732
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:26,120
Speaker 4: only one point five percent away from having three of

733
00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:30,640
Speaker 4: our six statewide officials being Democrats. We are, at our essence,

734
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:32,759
Speaker 4: we are a common sense state. And I would say

735
00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:35,520
Speaker 4: that I am a common sense Prairie populist. And you

736
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:38,480
Speaker 4: ask how we win, well, the greatest future, you know,

737
00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:41,759
Speaker 4: indicator of future success is previous success. And I am

738
00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:44,480
Speaker 4: the Democrat that has been winning out here in the

739
00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:47,360
Speaker 4: reddest part of the state, outperforming by the largest margin

740
00:39:47,680 --> 00:39:51,400
Speaker 4: of any Democrat, outperforming by fourteen points in what was

741
00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:54,560
Speaker 4: a very very red Trump district. And I did that

742
00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:57,480
Speaker 4: by what I told you. It's the right candidate, the

743
00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:00,520
Speaker 4: right work ethic, and the right message you can win.

744
00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:04,200
Speaker 4: And I believe that my story, my background, my resume,

745
00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:08,000
Speaker 4: but even more so my grit, my determination, my work ethic,

746
00:40:08,280 --> 00:40:10,759
Speaker 4: and arguably most importantly, the issues that I'm going to

747
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:14,399
Speaker 4: focus on the kitchen table issues. Doing something about the

748
00:40:14,440 --> 00:40:18,600
Speaker 4: actual plights of Iowans of driving down cost a livable wage,

749
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:22,680
Speaker 4: affordable healthcare, affordable pharmaceuticals, doing something about our cancer rate,

750
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,960
Speaker 4: doing something about our water quality issues, supporting our public schools,

751
00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:29,480
Speaker 4: supporting infrastructure, supporting family farms. This is what's going to

752
00:40:29,480 --> 00:40:32,600
Speaker 4: win because islands are ready for change. I feel everywhere

753
00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:34,520
Speaker 4: that I go, we're getting turnouts that we haven't seen.

754
00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:37,440
Speaker 4: That's both in the rural areas in the urban areas.

755
00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:39,560
Speaker 4: And I'll tell you this that it is a scary

756
00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:42,800
Speaker 4: time right now to be in rural Iowa, and Trump's

757
00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:47,279
Speaker 4: chaotic tariffs are only making this situation dramatically worse. There

758
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:49,000
Speaker 4: are a lot of farmers that are terrified We're not

759
00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:52,280
Speaker 4: moving any of our soybeans. Commodity prices are going down,

760
00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:56,280
Speaker 4: and we are looking at the possibility of moving into

761
00:40:56,719 --> 00:41:01,239
Speaker 4: a second farm crisis here, and people are tired of it.

762
00:41:01,239 --> 00:41:02,759
Speaker 4: I hear over and over and over everywhere I go,

763
00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:05,960
Speaker 4: but particularly in the rural communities. I voted for Trump.

764
00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:08,040
Speaker 4: I voted for Ernest, but I did not vote for

765
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:10,560
Speaker 4: this naked corruption and certainly not to cut people's health

766
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:14,120
Speaker 4: care and food assistance to poor kids and disabled individuals

767
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:16,120
Speaker 4: just to give tax breaks to billionaires. And I think

768
00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:17,879
Speaker 4: that we are common sence state and we are ready

769
00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:18,400
Speaker 4: for change.

770
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:21,240
Speaker 1: So you really are hearing Trump regret.

771
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:23,359
Speaker 4: One hundred percent everywhere that I go, and we're seeing

772
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:26,200
Speaker 4: turnout in enthusiasm and engagement that we have just not

773
00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:28,400
Speaker 4: seen certainly since Trump's first midterm.

774
00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:32,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so interesting because, like you clearly see, you know,

775
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:37,239
Speaker 1: I'm in a coastal city, but I definitely see, you know,

776
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:40,000
Speaker 1: when I talk to people who are out there, they're saying,

777
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:42,640
Speaker 1: and I see these crowds, you know, these huge crowds.

778
00:41:42,880 --> 00:41:45,399
Speaker 1: So what is the next move for you? What does

779
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:48,400
Speaker 1: it look like now? What's the sort of calendar forward?

780
00:41:48,719 --> 00:41:51,719
Speaker 4: Hard work? It's going out and traveling the state it's

781
00:41:51,760 --> 00:41:55,560
Speaker 4: long days. Like last weekend, I was in Cedar Rapids,

782
00:41:55,600 --> 00:41:58,560
Speaker 4: I was in Iowa City, I did an event in Ames, Iowa.

783
00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:01,320
Speaker 4: Then was back in Des Moines and I did event

784
00:42:01,360 --> 00:42:04,360
Speaker 4: and very very rural Iowa, which we had an amazing turnout,

785
00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:06,800
Speaker 4: about three hundred people out there in Nashville, Iowa. And

786
00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:08,960
Speaker 4: so it's returning home at you know, one or two

787
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:10,920
Speaker 4: o'clock in the morning and starting up and doing it

788
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:13,800
Speaker 4: again at eight o'clock the next day. It's really really

789
00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:15,919
Speaker 4: hard work. We've got an east coast trip coming up.

790
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:18,640
Speaker 4: We're going to go out to Davenport, to Burlington and

791
00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:22,440
Speaker 4: Dubuque and Waterloo. That's what it's going to take is we,

792
00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:26,680
Speaker 4: as Iowans and as Iowa Democrats, we cannot anymore just

793
00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:29,839
Speaker 4: rely on the urban areas turning out and voting for us.

794
00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:32,400
Speaker 4: We've got to be willing to go out there to

795
00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:35,399
Speaker 4: these red communities, to these small rural communities and preach

796
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:38,440
Speaker 4: this message of prairie populism and talk about the issues

797
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:40,840
Speaker 4: that actually matter. We got three point two million islands

798
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:42,360
Speaker 4: that need to have a roof above the head, that

799
00:42:42,440 --> 00:42:43,880
Speaker 4: need to have a Liverpool wage, that need to have

800
00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:47,000
Speaker 4: healthcare and talk to them about enough of the faux populism.

801
00:42:47,160 --> 00:42:49,680
Speaker 4: We need to get back to genuine populism and that

802
00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:52,200
Speaker 4: I'm someone that is practicing what I'm preaching. I'm not

803
00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:55,040
Speaker 4: taking any corporate pack money. I'm going to be up

804
00:42:55,080 --> 00:42:58,319
Speaker 4: there fighting for Iowa in Iowans, not just looking out

805
00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:00,520
Speaker 4: for billionaires in large corps operations.

806
00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:04,239
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us, Josh, Absolutely, my

807
00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:13,239
Speaker 1: pleasure a moment second, Jesse Cannon, Hi, John fast So.

808
00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:15,560
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people don't realize this, but

809
00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:19,160
Speaker 2: like non compete agreements really can for freelancers like me,

810
00:43:19,239 --> 00:43:22,440
Speaker 2: it can be really nightmare things. We have to navigate

811
00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:24,799
Speaker 2: get taken out of contracts all the time. And we

812
00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:26,719
Speaker 2: were on a road where a lot of states were

813
00:43:26,719 --> 00:43:29,120
Speaker 2: banning these and it looked like there would be a

814
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:32,239
Speaker 2: national band, but nope, Trump administration has come in and

815
00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:35,600
Speaker 2: it's estimated that four hundred billion dollars in worker pay

816
00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:36,600
Speaker 2: will be lost from this.

817
00:43:37,200 --> 00:43:41,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, noncompete, anything that makes life better for workers.

818
00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:45,960
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is not into we have just like you know,

819
00:43:46,080 --> 00:43:49,200
Speaker 1: that's what it is. And the Supreme Court will let

820
00:43:49,239 --> 00:43:52,200
Speaker 1: him do all of that stuff. The Supreme Court let

821
00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:57,200
Speaker 1: him fire Rebecca Slaughter. Then, so basically Trump fire Rebecca

822
00:43:57,280 --> 00:44:01,000
Speaker 1: Slaughter who was in the FTC. They brought her back,

823
00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:03,640
Speaker 1: the court said it wasn't allowed, and then the Supreme

824
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:07,080
Speaker 1: Court said, no, do whatever you want. So we see

825
00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:11,040
Speaker 1: Donald Trump just destroying these government institutions and the Supreme

826
00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:13,520
Speaker 1: Court saying he's fine to do it. The other thing

827
00:44:13,640 --> 00:44:15,839
Speaker 1: that just to add for a moment of fucker, because

828
00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:18,440
Speaker 1: I think it really is something that we should is

829
00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:21,920
Speaker 1: that the Supreme Court said that ICE can detain Americans

830
00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:24,760
Speaker 1: based on race. By the way, they said, you can't

831
00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:27,960
Speaker 1: allow people to get into college based on race, but

832
00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:31,440
Speaker 1: you absolutely can detain people based on race. This is

833
00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:35,200
Speaker 1: pretty wild stuff. And it also means that ICE will

834
00:44:35,239 --> 00:44:39,719
Speaker 1: now have open season on Latino's. Latino voters, some of

835
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:43,960
Speaker 1: whom voted for Trump, now have less freedom and if

836
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:46,440
Speaker 1: you look a certain way, you are now less free

837
00:44:46,800 --> 00:44:50,280
Speaker 1: than other people in this country. Just a mind blowing

838
00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:54,080
Speaker 1: thing for the Supreme Court to do. That's it for

839
00:44:54,160 --> 00:45:00,200
Speaker 1: this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday,

840
00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:04,719
Speaker 1: Thursday and Saturday to hear the best minds and politics

841
00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:09,080
Speaker 1: make sense of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast,

842
00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:12,880
Speaker 1: please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.

843
00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:14,480
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.