Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: where we discuss the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds. And Governor Gretchen Whitmer has proposed a
Speaker 1: tax credit for caregivers.
Speaker 2: We have a star studded show. Today.
Speaker 1: Congressman Andy Kim tells us about his Senate run and
Speaker 1: the bizarre New Jersey ballad structure that allows party insiders
Speaker 1: to have enormous advantages. Then we'll talk to CNN anchor
Speaker 1: and my personal bestie Jim Acosta about the media failures
Speaker 1: covering the twenty twenty four election. But first we have
Speaker 1: former Vermont governor and presidential candidate Howard Dean. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Fast Politics, Howard Dean, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: This is always light.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: So I can't take another conversation about polls. Make us
Speaker 1: all understand how insane and stupid this whole thing is.
Speaker 3: I don't think I can. I try not to pay
Speaker 3: too much attention to the polls because one of the
Speaker 3: problems is that the media engages in clickbait and that's
Speaker 3: about it, and that's always been the case. I mean,
Speaker 3: I can remember finding that out when I ran for
Speaker 3: president myself. It's all clickbait, it's not news. It's a
Speaker 3: problem because the so called low information voters are basically
Speaker 3: all cranked up. This is the only thing good Trump
Speaker 3: is good at. I mean, basically, the Republicans are running
Speaker 3: on a platform that can be summed up in two words,
Speaker 3: rage and hate, and it's successful with people who don't
Speaker 3: think about the issues. It's amazing what the public doesn't know.
Speaker 3: Part of it is because the press doesn't focus on
Speaker 3: what they know, and part of it is because there
Speaker 3: is no press for a lot of the folks that
Speaker 3: are getting their news through Fox and places like that.
Speaker 1: I think about Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, right, and how
Speaker 1: a lot of economists would the exception of Paul Krukman.
Speaker 2: Basically, we're like, this is going to be a recession.
Speaker 1: Even we have a very smart guy called Justin Wolfer's
Speaker 1: on the podcast all the time, and Justin was like,
Speaker 1: you know, you don't know, he was bullish, but even
Speaker 1: he was cautious. And what happened was we didn't have it.
Speaker 1: And the reason we didn't have it was because of
Speaker 1: bold legislative infusions to our government, to our manufacturing sectors,
Speaker 1: through the Inflation Reduction Act, which actually reduced inflation.
Speaker 3: And furthermore, most of the investments in the Inflation Reduction
Speaker 3: Act went to the places which are full of people
Speaker 3: who are Trumpists. Yeah, a lot of money went into
Speaker 3: rural areas, rekindling factories to make chips and cars, electric
Speaker 3: cars and all this kind of stuff. I heard a
Speaker 3: maddening interview from a member of the United Auto Workers
Speaker 3: the other day, who have endorsed Biden for good reason,
Speaker 3: and they saying, well, you know, we don't do what
Speaker 3: our union says. I think that we both voted for
Speaker 3: Trump the last time, and all this stuff, and I thought,
Speaker 3: you know, it is so frustrating. People are demanding this
Speaker 3: and demanding that, and then you give it to them
Speaker 3: and then they turn against you. Anyway.
Speaker 4: It's really tough.
Speaker 3: I think the country is at great risk and they
Speaker 3: don't see that either. He is not a high education
Speaker 3: group of people. But still this is a democracy.
Speaker 1: It's interesting to me because, like so much of Trump's
Speaker 1: message in twenty sixteen was this economic populism, which I
Speaker 1: think was one of the reasons he won against Tilly
Speaker 1: Clinton was he said I'm going to bring back, you know, jobs,
Speaker 1: I'm going to bring back coal, which, by the way, coal,
Speaker 1: besides being just horrendous for the planet, is also wildly expensive.
Speaker 1: So even if you were like, I hate the planet
Speaker 1: and we have to like get this coal, even then
Speaker 1: it still doesn't make any financial sense. But he had
Speaker 1: this message of economic populism. Meanwhile, fastward, Joe Biden delivers
Speaker 1: economic populism.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: He does these things.
Speaker 1: You know, he brings chip manufacturing back to the Middle West,
Speaker 1: which was like, you know, a fantasy really of previous presidents.
Speaker 1: There seems to be a disconnect between what he's done
Speaker 1: and what he gets credit for.
Speaker 3: Right, here's what I think is really happening, and it's irrelevant, unfortunately,
Speaker 3: to all the good stuff that Biden has done. This
Speaker 3: is a group of very angry people for the first
Speaker 3: time in my life and maybe in the history of
Speaker 3: the country. If you're a fifty year old white guy
Speaker 3: and you lose your job in rural America, you're not
Speaker 3: getting another one unless you're a reader at Walmart or
Speaker 3: something like that. Minority communities are very familiar with this syndrome,
Speaker 3: but white folks aren't, and they think, well, you know,
Speaker 3: why are women have all these rights? How come black
Speaker 3: people have all these rights? How come gay people have
Speaker 3: all these rights? And so in some ways, what Trump does,
Speaker 3: what he sells is none of this is your fault.
Speaker 3: It's all the liberal elite and the college educated people
Speaker 3: and the you know people are teaching about African American
Speaker 3: history and the universities. It's all their fault and none
Speaker 3: of it's your fault. So he really is absolving people
Speaker 3: of any responsibility to improve their own communities. I'll do
Speaker 3: it for you. I'll just get rid of these people,
Speaker 3: And of course he never does. It is the same
Speaker 3: playbook that Mussolini Hitler played that was.
Speaker 2: Talking Eddy cut about this.
Speaker 1: It's sort of the last rebellion, the backlash of a
Speaker 1: multi racial democracy. Right, We've never had a multi racial democracy. Theoretically,
Speaker 1: at least there was a sense we might be getting
Speaker 1: closer to it, and then Trumpism came in and took.
Speaker 2: All of that away.
Speaker 1: The math on that, like, there may be white men
Speaker 1: in the middle of the country who lose their jobs,
Speaker 1: but the numbers on unemployment dictate that actually it's a
Speaker 1: very very tight labor market, and so they should technically,
Speaker 1: I mean again, I don't know, you know, people's personal stories,
Speaker 1: but they should be able to get another job.
Speaker 3: It's not what it's about. It's not about the economy.
Speaker 3: It's about their economy to a certain extent. But what
Speaker 3: it's about is the forty year creep towards a multi
Speaker 3: racial democracy where women goal rights. I mean, the reason
Speaker 3: so many Republicans are against abortion and against now against
Speaker 3: IVF is it's really not about IVF or Republicans. What
Speaker 3: it's about is controlling women even in their own towns.
Speaker 3: They've seen women get more rights than they used to have.
Speaker 3: They've seen gay people allowed to get married before they
Speaker 3: were just cast out and made fun of for their
Speaker 3: whole life. It is in the sense Eddie, who is
Speaker 3: one of the smartest people I ever met, is right
Speaker 3: in the sense that it's the loss of white privilege.
Speaker 3: But it's more than that.
Speaker 4: It's an absolution.
Speaker 3: It's a giving up on making progress or redefining what
Speaker 3: progress is. Progress is not living in a peaceful country
Speaker 3: where democracy hails. It is resentment towards a lot of
Speaker 3: the change that's been made. And the other problem is
Speaker 3: this is all fueled by the billionaire class. It's not accident.
Speaker 3: The billionaires who are lean Republican are founding no labels
Speaker 3: because it's the way of making sure that Trump wins.
Speaker 3: And that's because they benefit from the system. What all
Speaker 3: of this does is divert attention from the abuses that
Speaker 3: white working class people are taking it the hands of
Speaker 3: billionaires because it works to abuse white working class people.
Speaker 3: They've been doing it for years and blame it on
Speaker 3: the usual suspects, women, gay people, people of color, and
Speaker 3: so forth and so on. That's what Trump is really
Speaker 3: good at. He's not good at anything else. Ailed businessman,
Speaker 3: as Judge anger On said, he's a crook, he's a narcissist,
Speaker 3: he was incompetent when he was president.
Speaker 4: But he's really really good at this.
Speaker 3: It does remind me of a story of aut Alf Hitler,
Speaker 3: because Adlf Hitler was an incompetent and a failed artist,
Speaker 3: and he had this tremendous gift for blaming other people.
Speaker 4: Unfortunately it ended up with a holocaust.
Speaker 3: And I think they're a fair number of people in
Speaker 3: the Republican Party who wouldn't think that was so bad.
Speaker 3: How about the guy who got up at Seapack and said,
Speaker 3: welcome to the end of democracy. And that is for
Speaker 3: reasonable political dialogue in the United States of America. I
Speaker 3: don't think so. So this election really is about the
Speaker 3: survival of the United States of America as a world power.
Speaker 3: And if we know people think, oh, it's great not
Speaker 3: to be a world power, why should we be because
Speaker 3: we have the level of prosperity we have because the
Speaker 3: dollar is the current of the recurrency reference for the world.
Speaker 3: If it isn't, we don't get away with a thirty
Speaker 3: one trillion dollar deficit. So I think these folks have
Speaker 3: absolutely no idea what they're doing to their children by
Speaker 3: voting for somebody like Trump.
Speaker 2: It's interesting.
Speaker 1: You know, you're a doctor and you've done a lot
Speaker 1: of work lining the ground works for how we got Obamacare.
Speaker 1: So I'm curious what you think about the embryonic personhood
Speaker 1: stuff out of Alabama. It seems like ideologically the Christian
Speaker 1: right has for a long time wanted to make sure
Speaker 1: that a five celled embryo had the same rights as
Speaker 1: a person. Insane, But I mean, what do you think
Speaker 1: about that? And I feel like, politically that's very stupid
Speaker 1: and it's going to bite Republicans.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is going to bite Republicans, and so is
Speaker 3: the right wing partisan Supreme Court is going to bite
Speaker 3: Republicans and they realize that, but it's too late for them. Now,
Speaker 3: you know, the court has degenerated and nothing but parsians
Speaker 3: in Republican operation, and that's what it is. So the
Speaker 3: institutions that are already beginning to crumble, there's a lot
Speaker 3: of work to be done to fix it. But we
Speaker 3: can't fix it with somebody like Trump in the White House.
Speaker 3: It'll just get worse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But there have been like some kind of like
Speaker 1: huge healthcare jumps, like five dollars insulin Medicare expansion, like
Speaker 1: we're seeing, you know, quietly none of this is getting
Speaker 1: any attention, which happens to actually be good for people
Speaker 1: like Andy Burschers and different other states where they're trying
Speaker 1: to do Medicare expansion quietly so that Republicans can't make
Speaker 1: it a partisan issue. But I mean, these policies are
Speaker 1: weirdly like once they get in place, people love them.
Speaker 1: Like people don't want to give up Obamacare.
Speaker 4: Well that's what.
Speaker 3: They don't want to give up Obamacare, and they certainly
Speaker 3: don't want to give up Social Security and Medicare, which
Speaker 3: they're certainly not. I finally turned the volume down on
Speaker 3: cutting because they know it's murder for them if you
Speaker 3: cut them. The stuff about IVF is just right wing
Speaker 3: white Christian nationalism, which is incredibly sexist. If you read
Speaker 3: the scriptures about it, it's basically they underline all the
Speaker 3: stuff that's about subjugation to women, and that's what these
Speaker 3: people are doing. And the incredible part about the opinion
Speaker 3: in Alabama was it was written by a right wing
Speaker 3: Christian nationalists. I think he was the justice that wrote
Speaker 3: out the opinion, and he basically said, this is right
Speaker 3: wing Christian nationalism and women shouldn't be doing any of
Speaker 3: these things. I mean, you know, it's pretty extraordinary. That's
Speaker 3: who's going in charge of HHS if Donald Trump wins.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And by the way, like even if you look at
Speaker 1: that Heritage Foundation twenty twenty five document, you know they
Speaker 1: want to make the Department of Health and Human Services
Speaker 1: the Department of Life.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, HEREDAGE used to be a respectable organization and
Speaker 3: when that guy Dement took over, it became just another
Speaker 3: right wing group of crackpots. They actually had a fairly
Speaker 3: decent healthcare operation. They were conservative, but they were thoughtful.
Speaker 4: And very very knowledgeable.
Speaker 3: When Dement came in it just turned into a party
Speaker 3: than shipwreck, and that's what it is now.
Speaker 2: It's kind of amazing.
Speaker 1: But I do think it's interesting, Like as we look
Speaker 1: at so you know, Republicans, everybody in the House is up.
Speaker 2: Then you have this Senate map.
Speaker 1: Which is really good for Republicans, but you know, a
Speaker 1: lot a lot of the candidates we're seeing, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think this is really interesting. Are these self funded
Speaker 1: carpetbaggers coming from other states? And I have to wonder
Speaker 1: how much of that is because a lot of this
Speaker 1: money is already sort of allocated to Donald Trump's legal fees.
Speaker 3: Carpetbaggers from out of states has been a Republican strategy
Speaker 3: for a long time, and it most doesn't work. Times
Speaker 3: it does, but mostly it doesn't.
Speaker 4: So we'll see.
Speaker 3: I mean, look the election. I do not think in
Speaker 3: the end that Donald Trump is going to be the
Speaker 3: next president of the United States, because I do believe
Speaker 3: that Americans are going to look at this at the
Speaker 3: end of the day. Now, we don't know when Trump
Speaker 3: beat Hillary. It was mostly because James Comey changed the
Speaker 3: subject at the last minute from Trump's anti women stuff
Speaker 3: to Hillary's supposed emails, and he changed it not because
Speaker 3: he wanted to influence the election, but because he wanted
Speaker 3: to save his butt in case of Republican Committee that
Speaker 3: he'd promised to tell everything to got into power. So
Speaker 3: as Rick Santorum once said, is the only smart thing
Speaker 3: he ever said, so I could tell he said he
Speaker 3: was asked about this. We were doing a panel in
Speaker 3: Toronto about the election, and somebody asked about the election,
Speaker 3: and he said, these are the two most unpopular people
Speaker 3: that have ever run for president, and which everyone we're
Speaker 3: talking about last is the one that's gonna lose. And
Speaker 3: that's exactly what happened. I think eventually Biden is going
Speaker 3: to come to the top. I saw it read an
Speaker 3: article today and I can't remember where it was. I
Speaker 3: think it might have been in Semaphore. Biden really wants
Speaker 3: to get much more aggressive with Trump, and I think
Speaker 3: that's the right thing to do. Actually, I've always thought
Speaker 3: that Biden ought to challenge Trump to a push up contest,
Speaker 3: because kick his butt, and I think if Trump could
Speaker 3: do a single pushup, I'd be amazed. So you know,
Speaker 3: that'd be fun. But absent that, which is unlikely, I
Speaker 3: think that Biden needs to go after Trump and kick
Speaker 3: his butt publicly and not be so focused on the
Speaker 3: demeanor of the presidency because this is not a time
Speaker 3: for demeanor. This is a time for brawling, and Biden's
Speaker 3: not a brawler.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1: One I think is really interesting about all this reporting
Speaker 1: that comes out of the White House is like, he's angry,
Speaker 1: he dresses people down.
Speaker 2: He yells at them, good do it. That's fine. I'm
Speaker 2: okay with that. You know, the stakes are quite high here.
Speaker 3: He needs to focus on dressing Trump down because Trump
Speaker 3: is a total fraud. I don't want the United States
Speaker 3: people of the United States to find that out after
Speaker 3: he gets elected.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that's right. Howard Dean, Thank you so
Speaker 2: much for joining us.
Speaker 4: My pleasure, see you later.
Speaker 1: Did you know Rick Wilson and I are bringing together
Speaker 1: some friends for a general election kickoff party at City
Speaker 1: Winery in New York on March sixth. We're going to
Speaker 1: be chatting right after Super Tuesday about what's going on,
Speaker 1: and it is going to probably be the one fun
Speaker 1: night for the next eighty days.
Speaker 2: If you're in.
Speaker 1: The New York area, please come by and join us.
Speaker 1: You can go to City Winery's website and grab a ticket.
Speaker 1: Andy Kim represents New Jersey's third congressional district and as
Speaker 1: a candidate in its upcoming Senate race. Welcome back, Too
Speaker 1: Fast Politics, my friend, Andy Kim.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me back. We always want to
Speaker 2: have you back, especially right now.
Speaker 1: When we had you the first time, you had just
Speaker 1: done something super brave. You had become the person to
Speaker 1: jump into this race which had a Democrat running for
Speaker 1: reelection who is facing a plethora of legal challenges.
Speaker 2: I think that's a very generous way to put it.
Speaker 1: Talk to me about where you are right now in
Speaker 1: your primary.
Speaker 2: You know, I just want to add this disclaimer.
Speaker 1: We usually don't have people involved in primary fights, but
Speaker 1: this is you know, nepotism, something near and dear to
Speaker 1: my heart, and you know, a really interesting and also
Speaker 1: troubling situation.
Speaker 2: So talk to us about it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, happy to I mean, as you said, you know,
Speaker 5: when you have me on last time, Brown, I had
Speaker 5: stepped up the run against Bob Menendez twice indicted this
Speaker 5: time for gold bars, and I told you about how
Speaker 5: I was doing this to protect our democracy, give the
Speaker 5: people a choice. The race has taken a turn, and
Speaker 5: it's gotten even more dramatic now I am running against
Speaker 5: the first lady of New Jersey, the governor's wife, the
Speaker 5: sitting governor's wife, bever in American history, and we had
Speaker 5: the spouse of a sitting governor run for stay wide office,
Speaker 5: especially having not ever run for office before. In fact,
Speaker 5: she's running as a Democrat, but she was a lifelong
Speaker 5: Republican until about nine years ago. It's a lot of process,
Speaker 5: but the fundamental reason for why I'm doing this remains
Speaker 5: the same, which is that we have to protect our democracy.
Speaker 5: That that means that we have to give the people
Speaker 5: New Jersey a choice. But right now what we're seeing
Speaker 5: is you know that we're I live in the last
Speaker 5: remaining machine politics state in the country, and party elites
Speaker 5: are all in for the governor's wife. Surprise, surprise.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that, because what I've read about it
Speaker 1: is kind of I was actually really chocked when I
Speaker 1: read what's happening right now. So you have this primary
Speaker 1: that's coming up.
Speaker 2: When it's on June fourth. The thing that I think.
Speaker 1: Our listeners should know, which is something that always really
Speaker 1: upsets me, is that you know, I live in a
Speaker 1: blue city in a blue state, but there are things
Speaker 1: that encumbents do to protect themselves. That don't benefit anyone.
Speaker 1: They don't benefit the right, they don't benefit the left.
Speaker 1: They only benefit incumbency. What is happening here is even
Speaker 1: more insidious than that.
Speaker 5: So discuss yeah right now. You know, in New Jersey
Speaker 5: we're seeing this in its worst form. I live, as
Speaker 5: I said, in the last machine politics state in the country,
Speaker 5: and its most pronounced way for the machine to control
Speaker 5: our democracy is to really, you know, manipulate the ballot.
Speaker 5: So forty nine other states use a type of ballot
Speaker 5: called office block, which is the traditional thing. You know,
Speaker 5: you have the other position you run a force Senate,
Speaker 5: and then the name of the candidates below. In New Jersey,
Speaker 5: the system allows party elite to give preferential placement on
Speaker 5: the ballot for their hand pick candidate, which in this
Speaker 5: case is the first Lady of New Jersey, the governor's wife.
Speaker 5: And you know, all this being said, you know, the
Speaker 5: governor just the other day announced is you know budget
Speaker 5: for the year, and mayors and county leaders and others
Speaker 5: that are negotiating with the governor about what money they're
Speaker 5: going to be able to get, you know, for their efforts.
Speaker 5: So I mean it's just a lot mixed into your
Speaker 5: deep conflicts of interest. But as a result, what happens
Speaker 5: is that the first lady in New Jersey announced her
Speaker 5: candidacy and immediately got multiple party leads to back her.
Speaker 2: Many of these.
Speaker 5: People never returned my phone calls, never gave me even
Speaker 5: a chance to be able to make my case, and
Speaker 5: the expectation is that she would be coordinated as the
Speaker 5: next senator from New Jersey. You know, I even have
Speaker 5: party leaders come to me tell me I should drop
Speaker 5: out and let her be able to do this, and
Speaker 5: I just I could not do that.
Speaker 4: I just could not.
Speaker 5: I could not do that. I have a six year
Speaker 5: old an eight year old. I don't think I could
Speaker 5: look kids of the eye if I felt like I
Speaker 5: was just stepping aside for someone who I truly believe
Speaker 5: that I am more capable and qualified of doing the
Speaker 5: job of the United States sent up a three term
Speaker 5: member of Congress. I've been a public servant by entire career.
Speaker 5: I'm a Democrat that won a district Trump won twice.
Speaker 5: You know, I've shown that I can win top races.
Speaker 5: So it's been a frustrating situation.
Speaker 1: Before you were a politician, you were a nonpartisan government official, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I worked in diplomacy and national security, was at
Speaker 5: the National Security Council at the White House under President Obama.
Speaker 5: But you're right, I was a you know, I was
Speaker 5: a career public servant. So you know, I've served this nation.
Speaker 5: I understand the challenges that we're facing. But right now,
Speaker 5: the challenge that I'm facing is from my own party,
Speaker 5: which is crazy because I've spent the last you know,
Speaker 5: five plus years in Congress, you know, knife fighting and
Speaker 5: fighting with Republicans, you know, dealing, you know, being there
Speaker 5: at the Capitol Compound on January sixth and standing with
Speaker 5: President Biden to try to stop the Republicans from damaging
Speaker 5: our theocracy.
Speaker 2: But unfortunately I'm here.
Speaker 5: In New Jersey now having to fight against my own
Speaker 5: party now, which who I think, you know, party leaders
Speaker 5: are doing things that I just just full on considered
Speaker 5: to be on democratic you know, I believe in a
Speaker 5: democracy of fairness and equality, that any citizen has the
Speaker 5: ability to participate, not just the well off, not just
Speaker 5: the well connected. And I'm just not being given a
Speaker 5: fair shot here when I am given something closer to
Speaker 5: a fair shot, Like you know, we have some of
Speaker 5: these counties have these conventions. I've been blowing it out
Speaker 5: of the way. I've been winning these conventions by double digits.
Speaker 5: The problem, though, is that half of the counties in
Speaker 5: New Jersey don't even have conventions, and they just allow
Speaker 5: one or two people to be able to handpick and
Speaker 5: give that preferential placement on the ballot to the first lady.
Speaker 2: And that's what I find to be so frustrate.
Speaker 1: You're still going to be on the ballot, You're just
Speaker 1: not gonna she's going to be above you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like I'll be on the ballot.
Speaker 5: But the way our ballots are designed, it's that I
Speaker 5: can be off to the side, you know. Yeah. So
Speaker 5: basically the ballot is designed in like a column, so
Speaker 5: instead of it being by office, there'll be a one
Speaker 5: column that'll have you know, Joe Biden, Candy Murphy and
Speaker 5: all these other endorsed candidates. I'll be sung in some
Speaker 5: column over to the right, you know, and I won't
Speaker 5: have Joe Biden above me on the It's on the column.
Speaker 5: So obviously, you know, when you're a voter and you
Speaker 5: you go up to the vote, you know you see
Speaker 5: Joe Biden's name, you know, yeah, you'll see Joe Biden's name,
Speaker 5: and you haven't been particularly paying attention to all these
Speaker 5: different races. You may just tick down that column, which
Speaker 5: is what the party leaders want.
Speaker 2: They want voters to not be informed.
Speaker 5: They don't they want voters to not really understand that
Speaker 5: there's a choice before them.
Speaker 2: That's why I say it's manipulate. It is insanitay.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's been proven to give certain candidates upwards of
Speaker 5: double digits advantage.
Speaker 2: And you know, and that's frustrating for me.
Speaker 5: I mean, look right now, like I'm actually double digges
Speaker 5: up in the polls.
Speaker 2: Right, but if they can't find you, they can't oh
Speaker 2: for you. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5: And then so you know, that kind of lead that
Speaker 5: I have in the polls could potentially get degated simply
Speaker 5: because of gallet design manipulation that my own party leaders
Speaker 5: and the Democratic Party are leading the charge on. So
Speaker 5: you know, that's why you know, I've been pushing on this,
Speaker 5: and in fact, I just filed a lawsuit in New Jersey.
Speaker 5: It was not something that you know, I took that
Speaker 5: very seriously. You know, make that decision, but this has
Speaker 5: to end now, you know, it's just such a broken system.
Speaker 5: All I'm asking for is air. I'm not asking for
Speaker 5: any advantage myself. I'm just being asked to be a
Speaker 5: place in a position where I can have some fairness
Speaker 5: here and forty nine other states do this, New Jersey's
Speaker 5: the only one that does this differently, you know that
Speaker 5: should say something, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, I think what's so interesting about this problem
Speaker 1: is that you have a Republican party that is doing
Speaker 1: this kind of thing on the regular. This is one
Speaker 1: of the very few cases where you have a democratic
Speaker 1: party doing but you are running for a seat of
Speaker 1: someone who is in serious legal trouble for corruption.
Speaker 2: Right like, So, if there ever were.
Speaker 1: A time to be above board about everything, this is it.
Speaker 5: And I think that that's why the people in New
Speaker 5: Jersey are not standing for There's been a big backlash,
Speaker 5: and I think that the party elites and the machine
Speaker 5: weren't prepared for this backlash. But it's because of exactly
Speaker 5: what you said. Just you know that on the heels
Speaker 5: of this indictment of the senator regarding gold bars and
Speaker 5: wads of cash, it's the same system that protected the
Speaker 5: senator that is now trying to install and coordinate the
Speaker 5: first lady to be the next senator. So it's the
Speaker 5: same thing, you know, the same few handful of people.
Speaker 5: And I think that that's what's bothering so many people
Speaker 5: is just saying like, look, we can't have the same
Speaker 5: sable politics, like something hasn't changed.
Speaker 2: And in fact, if.
Speaker 5: The Democratic Party does not change, I actually I worry
Speaker 5: about our ability to be able to hold this Senate
Speaker 5: seat this November. I can tell you the independent voters
Speaker 5: in New Jersey are furious right now. They had concerns
Speaker 5: about the Democratic Party after this indictment of the senator,
Speaker 5: and now they're watching the Democratic Party, you know, just
Speaker 5: blatantly trying to push the first lady into a Senate
Speaker 5: position without a fair contest. You know, that's going to
Speaker 5: really hurt our standing with independence, and that's going to
Speaker 5: hurt our ability to hold the seat. And with a
Speaker 5: razor thin majority in the Senate and a tough election cycle,
Speaker 5: the last thing with the Democratic Party needs is a
Speaker 5: potentially vulnerable seat in the Senate here in New Jersey.
Speaker 1: You know what's interesting to me about this is one
Speaker 1: of the things I think Democrats have done really wow,
Speaker 1: and not even Democrats.
Speaker 2: One of the things that I think Biden.
Speaker 1: World has done well is they picked up He's managed
Speaker 1: to pick up all the never Trump Republicans, and you
Speaker 1: know he's done it by saying, you know, you may
Speaker 1: not like some of the social spending, you may not
Speaker 1: like my larger you know, I mean if you look
Speaker 1: at the manufacturing stuff. Though. The point is he's been
Speaker 1: able to really appeal to those voters. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of those voters in New Jersey. Talk to me
Speaker 1: about what your state sort of looks like and what
Speaker 1: your voter base looks like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 5: I mean, look in New Jersey the plurality of voters
Speaker 5: or unaffiliated voters, independent voters, so you know, that's really
Speaker 5: what you have to engage.
Speaker 2: These are people that are unaffiliated for a reason.
Speaker 5: And I know this because you know, I'm a Democrat
Speaker 5: that wanted district from twice. What I've come to learn
Speaker 5: in my experience of winning three tough races is that,
Speaker 5: you know, my district is often called this battleground district,
Speaker 5: and it may just sound like it's like a Blue
Speaker 5: army versus the Red Army duking it out every day.
Speaker 5: But what I learned is that in my district, and
Speaker 5: frankly across New Jersey, a lot of people are frankly
Speaker 5: suspicious and frustrate with both pardons. That's why we have
Speaker 5: to show that we can restore trust and integrity to
Speaker 5: our politics. That's what I am running on because here
Speaker 5: in New Jersey, eighty four percent of people surveyed in
Speaker 5: New Jersey believe that their politicians are corrupt eighty four percent.
Speaker 5: And look, I mean this is a state where the
Speaker 5: majority of politicians are Democrats. So that shows what people
Speaker 5: feel about Democrats right now here. So if we don't
Speaker 5: show that we're changing and don't show that we're trying
Speaker 5: to restore trust and integrity, the independent voters are not
Speaker 5: going to stand for I mean, we saw with you know, government,
Speaker 5: Murphy only won re election by you know, a handful
Speaker 5: of points. I think it was three points reelection a
Speaker 5: couple of years ago. This is something where you know,
Speaker 5: you cannot take things for granted. And I feel like
Speaker 5: the Democratic Party elites are playing with fire.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I agree, Say you win this primary. How
Speaker 1: are you different than Tammy Murphy?
Speaker 5: Well, a couple different reasons. First of all, I have
Speaker 5: experience of working in Congress, of actually working there at
Speaker 5: the Capitol you know, I can be somebody that is
Speaker 5: ready day one. You know, I don't need any on
Speaker 5: the job training. I'm ready for things. And right now
Speaker 5: the world is on fire. There's so many crises and conflicts.
Speaker 5: I'm the only career diplomatic congress right now in the
Speaker 5: House of the Senate. I can be somebody that can
Speaker 5: step in and try to use that experience. I haven't
Speaker 5: been on the ground, working in war zones and working
Speaker 5: at the White House in the State Department to try
Speaker 5: to help.
Speaker 2: I can be somebody that you know already understands.
Speaker 5: You know, how to be able to navigate the legislative process,
Speaker 5: you know, and that's allowed me to you know, push
Speaker 5: forward on key issues. You know, for instance, understanding why
Speaker 5: we need philibuster reform to be able to get the
Speaker 5: things that we need passed in the Senate. Whereas you know,
Speaker 5: the First Lady of New Jersey, she's called the filibuster
Speaker 5: a useful tool. I completely disagree, and so you know,
Speaker 5: those are some differences on that front that but look
Speaker 5: on the other at the other angle too, I think
Speaker 5: that there's a hunger right now in my state and
Speaker 5: throughout this country for a new generation of leadership to
Speaker 5: step up, and I will be the fourth youngest senator
Speaker 5: in the nation. I would be the first Asian American
Speaker 5: ever elected to the US Senate from the entire East
Speaker 5: coast of America. And you know, I think that, you know,
Speaker 5: I think people are excited about, you know, having younger
Speaker 5: voices be able to come up, and certainly for the
Speaker 5: Democratic Party to build out their bench and be able
Speaker 5: to have more diverse, younger leaders that are there showing
Speaker 5: what the future of the party is. And the fact
Speaker 5: that you know, again, I've been a Democrat that can
Speaker 5: win a district Trump one twice. I have a lot
Speaker 5: to offer to the party about how we try to
Speaker 5: build out a wider and stronger coalition that can help
Speaker 5: us build a durable majority going forward. And so, you know,
Speaker 5: those are the things that you know, I hope voters
Speaker 5: see in me as someone who can try to fight
Speaker 5: those fights and make the party stronger and help fix
Speaker 5: and heal our democracy at such a critical point in
Speaker 5: our nation's history.
Speaker 1: As we're looking down this election, tell me what you
Speaker 1: can do now to get your name on the ballot?
Speaker 2: Is there a process here?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 4: Right now?
Speaker 5: A A couple of efforts which is first of all,
Speaker 5: like I will be on the ballot and June fourth,
Speaker 5: and what I need to do is make sure that
Speaker 5: we are raising the resources and building the kind of
Speaker 5: campaign that we need to to be able to get mine,
Speaker 5: you know, making my name out there, to have people
Speaker 5: understand that there's a choice. You know, the last thing
Speaker 5: I want are people showing up on June fourth at
Speaker 5: the primary and be unaware that there's a competitive senate race.
Speaker 5: You know, I need people to be able to walk
Speaker 5: in there knowing that there is a center race, hopefully
Speaker 5: knowing my name and knowing something about me. So you know,
Speaker 5: that's what I'm pushing on, and that people want to
Speaker 5: help out. You know, they can go to Andy Kim
Speaker 5: dot com and beyond that. You know, right now we
Speaker 5: are building up, you know, a grassroots army. Right now,
Speaker 5: this is going to be the largest grassroots mobilization for
Speaker 5: any primary, statewide prime in our state's history. We're building
Speaker 5: up something incredible, and you know, we need people that
Speaker 5: are willing to knock doors or make text calls and
Speaker 5: other things like that that are helpful to get.
Speaker 2: The word out right now.
Speaker 5: You know, those are the types of things that we're
Speaker 5: pushing on, and I do believe that if we can
Speaker 5: pull that together and raise the resources and run the
Speaker 5: campaign that we need to, that we.
Speaker 2: Can win this.
Speaker 5: We can overcome what obstacles the machine politics are throwing
Speaker 5: in by way, and I think people recognize this is
Speaker 5: a potentially historic collection for our state to finally be
Speaker 5: able to have a real democracy here that is going
Speaker 5: to be based on fairness, going to allow people to
Speaker 5: be able to vote the way they want.
Speaker 2: One thing I've learned as they've gone around the stated
Speaker 2: people in New Jersey don't want to be.
Speaker 5: Told to the They despise that, and I think right
Speaker 5: now we're seeing that come to ahead. You know, I'm
Speaker 5: hopeful that people will stand up for their own voice
Speaker 5: in our democracy.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Andy Kim. I really appreciate you well.
Speaker 5: Thank you for letting me let me talk about this race.
Speaker 5: It's certainly an extremely dramatic and crazy race, but it's
Speaker 5: one that I think really gets to this question. And
Speaker 5: you know, I was there with Joe Biden when he
Speaker 5: gave a speech about January sixth earlier this year, and
Speaker 5: he said, we know who Donald Trump is, but who
Speaker 5: are we? And I think that question, who are we
Speaker 5: and who is the Democratic Party? Who are we as Democrats?
Speaker 5: Like that is important and I think that this race
Speaker 5: both in terms of it being about you know, Senator
Speaker 5: Menendez and his indictments and allegations of corruption, and then
Speaker 5: now this issue as you raised about the First Lady
Speaker 5: and nepotism and about machine politics, the question is who
Speaker 5: are we as Democrats? I hope that we show that
Speaker 5: better than what we're seeing right now in New Jersey.
Speaker 5: I believe that, and that's why I'm running. But I
Speaker 5: really do think that kind of gets at the heart
Speaker 5: of this question of like what is the soul of
Speaker 5: the Democratic Party?
Speaker 4: Who are we? What do we stand for?
Speaker 5: And then that's why I think it's been a race
Speaker 5: that has captivated a lot of people, not just in
Speaker 5: New Jersey but across his country. And I hope people
Speaker 5: see the importance of us standing up and showing who
Speaker 5: we are because I think it'll have major implications for
Speaker 5: our abilities to be able to win elections going forward.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Andy m Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Jim Acosta is the host of CNN Newsroom with Jim
Speaker 1: Acosta every weekdays at ten am eest at CNN.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Fast politics. How weird is this I'm hosting you. Welcome,
Speaker 2: Jim Acosta.
Speaker 3: Wow, this is cool. This is like news inception or something.
Speaker 2: It's right, we're through the mirror, through the looking glass.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to have you because, first of all,
Speaker 1: I love to go on your show.
Speaker 2: I can't go on your show at this moment. Yeah,
Speaker 2: somedayon I can give it up, hope.
Speaker 1: But I'm very excited about your move to every day.
Speaker 1: So talk to us about your new time slot.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So now it's Monday through Friday at ten am Easter
Speaker 6: and a seven am on the West. I'm wapping about
Speaker 6: so people waking up on the West coast you can
Speaker 6: tune it in and you can change your viewing on this.
Speaker 4: It's great.
Speaker 6: I mean, you know the weekend thing where you know
Speaker 6: you are on about the debt right that much. But
Speaker 6: you know we're able to do all these interviews. We
Speaker 6: could give them time.
Speaker 3: You know, we did breaking news, a lot of politics,
Speaker 3: and this is going to be a little bit different.
Speaker 3: I have one hour now, so I have to really
Speaker 3: you know, compress, and the segments aren't quite as long.
Speaker 3: But we're going to try to keep it conversational, like
Speaker 3: we're going to try to take the good stuff from
Speaker 3: the weekend and bring it on to the morning showed
Speaker 3: during the weekend, hope people to tune in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was hoping you could talk about like there's
Speaker 1: something very cool about being able to do the news
Speaker 1: every day though absolutely.
Speaker 6: For example, I mean this this week, we've been doing
Speaker 6: binary stuff and the results from that. This morning, we
Speaker 6: had the situation in Gaza. I mean, it was just
Speaker 6: breaking news happening during our program, and Biden went out
Speaker 6: on the South lawn on his way to the border
Speaker 6: and he made a comment about it. So we're jumping
Speaker 6: around in sort of news whackable. We're moving from one
Speaker 6: news story to the next, and it's going to be
Speaker 6: fast moving. But at the same time, you know, emphasis
Speaker 6: on my part, I'm really trying to preserve the those conversations,
Speaker 6: those interviews that we can kind of get it beyond
Speaker 6: the headlines a little bit. As you and I have
Speaker 6: talked about so many times, don't talk about the horse race,
Speaker 6: talk about the stakes, don't just talk about the polls,
Speaker 6: talk about the chow bases, and like try to get
Speaker 6: people something a little little meeting as they're getting these headlines.
Speaker 4: I'm hoping we're doing it.
Speaker 1: You know, we're back to this crazy news cycle of
Speaker 1: just like endless news that it does make it very
Speaker 1: hard to cover it. But let's talk for a minute
Speaker 1: about like stakes versus odds, because that is something you
Speaker 1: and I are both like really passionate about, this idea
Speaker 1: that the way you cover news is as important as
Speaker 1: what you cover, right.
Speaker 2: I mean absolutely.
Speaker 6: One of the things, and you and I've talked about
Speaker 6: this gazillion times, is that we have this extremely important election.
Speaker 6: I know it's a cliche for everybody to say this
Speaker 6: is the most important election of our lifetime, but I
Speaker 6: think this time we can really say it and mean it.
Speaker 6: I come from the experience of having covered the White
Speaker 6: House during the Trump years.
Speaker 2: We saw how administration ended.
Speaker 6: I actually flew on Air Force one with Donald Trump
Speaker 6: when he went down to West Palm Beach and was
Speaker 6: done with being the President of the United States.
Speaker 4: I mean, I was with them on that.
Speaker 3: Final day, and one of the things that I said
Speaker 3: to my colleagues is that, Okay, Trump may be gone,
Speaker 3: but trump Ism todays it remains. It's not going anywhere.
Speaker 3: And I think that's what we are now seeing lay
Speaker 3: out at this very moment. Not only is Trump backed,
Speaker 3: but trump Ism is back on steroids, and it's filtered
Speaker 3: down into our politics to just about every level. And
Speaker 3: it's something that we're going to all have.
Speaker 6: To contend with in the months to god, I mean, disinformation, democracy,
Speaker 6: I mean, these are all the issues we're going to
Speaker 6: be talking about from here until November.
Speaker 1: I think back to those salid days of January twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one. Do you think we were all too naive
Speaker 1: the fact that so many of us thought that, including
Speaker 1: people like Mitch McConnell, thought that Trumpism would resolve itself.
Speaker 4: I think so.
Speaker 3: And honestly, I mean, I've looked at this gazillion different way.
Speaker 3: I did this when I covered the White House.
Speaker 6: Some of this is a coping mechanism that a lot
Speaker 6: of people have, which is, Okay, you know, one of
Speaker 6: these days, it's all got to catch up with Donald
Speaker 6: Trump and he's just going to leave the scene. Guess
Speaker 6: what that did not happen. That that's not happened. Folks
Speaker 6: might have thought up until yesterday or the middle of
Speaker 6: this week. Oh, the Supreme Court. This will all end
Speaker 6: at the Supreme Court. Okay, well, maybe it won't.
Speaker 3: It may on everybody to go out there and vote
Speaker 3: and participate in this democracy. And I think, Molly, but
Speaker 3: you have said it best when you come on this show.
Speaker 3: This is the election about whether we're going to have elections,
Speaker 3: And I think all of this.
Speaker 6: Is extremely important stuff. I do think to some extent,
Speaker 6: we folks wanted to look the other way. They wanted
Speaker 6: to stick their head in a sand and just to
Speaker 6: kind of ignore it and hope some of this extremism
Speaker 6: in our politics would go away. And guess what, it didn't,
Speaker 6: and so we're going to have to deal with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no question.
Speaker 1: And I do think like this idea that trump Ism
Speaker 1: would somehow resolve itself and that.
Speaker 2: We would go back to normal has been interesting.
Speaker 1: This week we saw the Supreme Court decide to look
Speaker 1: at the insane presidential immunity.
Speaker 2: It was so crazy that even people with.
Speaker 1: Low expectations for the Supreme Court were shocked that they
Speaker 1: took it up. It does go back to this question
Speaker 1: of like will our institute, you know, the people who
Speaker 1: have been bragging about our institutions holding, have they really well?
Speaker 6: And I, you know, was talking to a guest on
Speaker 6: my show this morning, Doug High, and he was saying,
Speaker 6: you know, the Supreme Court, and it's becoming like every
Speaker 6: other institution, the media, the NFL, what have you. An
Speaker 6: American society that's just not what it used to be.
Speaker 6: It's not as popular as it used to be, you know,
Speaker 6: and we don't really have as much time as I
Speaker 6: wanted to kind of delve into that, but it's an
Speaker 6: interesting comment to make. The Supreme Court should be above
Speaker 6: all of that, like it should be the one branch
Speaker 6: of government, should be the one institution in American society
Speaker 6: that should be above reproach. And it is damaged right now.
Speaker 6: The image and the institution is damaged. And it is
Speaker 6: just a fact of life of this started with Dobbs
Speaker 6: and when you saw those justices when they were nominees
Speaker 6: up on Capitol and I was saying, oh, Roe is
Speaker 6: president president, should be with respective as oo want. And
Speaker 6: then that obviously was not like one hundred percent of
Speaker 6: what was going on in the back of their minds,
Speaker 6: because as soon as they had the chance to throw
Speaker 6: a row versus the way they did and so as tushit,
Speaker 6: it is damaged and it is something that we're going
Speaker 6: to have to do with I think in terms of
Speaker 6: the immunity issue, Thank goodness, if I could say one
Speaker 6: thing about the Supreme Court that they are allowing audio
Speaker 6: out of these proceedings when they do have the oral
Speaker 6: arguments about this immunity issue, It's going to be fascinating
Speaker 6: because I want.
Speaker 4: To know why is it worried Eve been hearing this?
Speaker 6: I mean, it seems to be pretty straightforward if you
Speaker 6: look at USA versus Nixon, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, the Nixon case is insane, I mean, and there's
Speaker 1: not it's just completely wild.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It was pointed out to me that William Renquist accused
Speaker 3: himself in that case and Claire S.
Speaker 4: Thomas is not.
Speaker 6: We're acusing himself in any of these proceedings. And so,
Speaker 6: I mean, I do think it's not unreasonable for folks
Speaker 6: to have questions about how the Supreme Court is conducting itself.
Speaker 6: And it's certainly playing everything that we're seeing right now,
Speaker 6: there's no question about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and just it's sort of shocking, right really, So
Speaker 1: I'm curious now, as you're sort of in this brave
Speaker 1: new world. What I think is pretty interesting about trump
Speaker 1: Ism is that there was so much sort of norm shifting,
Speaker 1: but a lot of those rooms haven't necessarily come back.
Speaker 4: No, I know, it's so true. And you know, when
Speaker 4: I was covering him.
Speaker 6: At the White House, you know, there was this constant
Speaker 6: conversation about are we being too tough? Are we drifting
Speaker 6: into something else besides meeting the potatoes straight down the
Speaker 6: middle of journalism? And honestly, I look back at the
Speaker 6: way we covered it, and I look at the way
Speaker 6: we cover him now. And as I've said in the past,
Speaker 6: I'll say it again, a different kind of president calls
Speaker 6: for a different kind of playbook, and he is right
Speaker 6: to behave in these sorts of ways that I mean,
Speaker 6: sayd that's kind of light you know, Westland past the grade.
Speaker 6: Letther like, I mean, it's beyond that. And so asked
Speaker 6: the cover. So I mean, at least going to not
Speaker 6: tell the truth of it, we have to call that out.
Speaker 6: If he is going to talk about being a dictator
Speaker 6: on day one, we have to we have to call
Speaker 6: that out.
Speaker 4: I mean.
Speaker 6: And so you know, one of the things that I
Speaker 6: tell folks a lot who asks you know, maybe you
Speaker 6: were doing two mins there, maybe it was a liver
Speaker 6: top over there. My question is is like, Okay, what
Speaker 6: do you want us to do. We have to cover
Speaker 6: the news and a former president who represented that's somewhat
Speaker 6: at a threat to democracy. And I'm being diplomatic when
Speaker 6: I say that.
Speaker 2: That's the news. You got to call it the way
Speaker 2: you see it.
Speaker 3: And that's what I've done in the past, and that's
Speaker 3: what I'll continue to do, and that's what a lot
Speaker 3: of my colleagues do, and I think it's it's the
Speaker 3: right way to go.
Speaker 1: I think back to like what George Conway told me
Speaker 1: a while ago. It was like, Trump is going to
Speaker 1: destroy everything, the Republican.
Speaker 2: Party, all of it.
Speaker 1: And you know he was I think a little wistful
Speaker 1: because he you know, he helped build that Republican Party
Speaker 1: and it's going to all have to be destroyed. And
Speaker 1: the thing, like with the Mitch McConnell stuff, it's like,
Speaker 1: you really do see that in fact, there is no
Speaker 1: place for anything that isn't MAGA in this party, despite
Speaker 1: the fact that it started as a populist notion, but
Speaker 1: it's largely morphed into something than most people don't really want.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Mally, it's amazing that you can bring up
Speaker 3: George Conway, because I think George is a perfect example
Speaker 3: of somebody who is in that world, in Trump's world,
Speaker 3: I think almost went to the Trump administration and had
Speaker 3: been in Republican politics for a long time.
Speaker 4: I mean, you and I both done them.
Speaker 6: Like how many former Trump administration and officials have I
Speaker 6: had on my show, Stephanie Grisham, Mark Esper. The list
Speaker 6: goes on and on, who have been on CNN and
Speaker 6: in general on all the networks talking to sixty Minutes
Speaker 6: and so on, who talk about Trump as a danger
Speaker 6: to democracy, to talk about Trump is not being fit
Speaker 6: to serve as president of the United States. And you know,
Speaker 6: if all of those folks are saying something, of course
Speaker 6: that's the do is. We have to cover it. It
Speaker 6: is what it is. I do think what you're saying
Speaker 6: about is the Republican Party going to go by the wayside. Maybe,
Speaker 6: I mean you have.
Speaker 2: To have two parties. I mean you should probably have more,
Speaker 2: but we used to exactly and mainly that's the phase.
Speaker 6: But I think in twenty twenty, I think we might
Speaker 6: see the gap the near twenty twenties.
Speaker 4: But look at that NICKI Haley number. The other night
Speaker 4: with Mischig, there.
Speaker 6: Was all this talk of uncommitted and this protest vote
Speaker 6: against Joe Biden. There were people who vote to Vernickie
Speaker 6: Haley than Donald Trump in the Michigan frontment. That was
Speaker 6: lower that we've seen in some of the other early
Speaker 6: primary states. And I have to think that some of
Speaker 6: those folks are the kind of Republicans who are going
Speaker 6: to say, you know what, we're going to either sit
Speaker 6: this one out and wait until twenty twenty eight, or
Speaker 6: we're going to go and vote for Biden at the
Speaker 6: top of the ticket and vote for Republicans by the
Speaker 6: other parts of the ticket. I think that that is
Speaker 6: quite possible, and so I'm not one of those folks
Speaker 6: who's short are down in the Dumpston thinks it's all
Speaker 6: going to go down the tubes. I just don't see
Speaker 6: that happening just yet, because I think that people underestimate
Speaker 6: how seeply unpopular the former president is. How were these
Speaker 6: sweet districts outside of Philadelphia and Detroit and Phoenix in Atlanta.
Speaker 6: Are they just going to have it out of body
Speaker 6: experience and all of a sudden say, okay, now I'm
Speaker 6: okated with Williams' Donald Trump after they sort of put
Speaker 6: that one to rest. I just don't know, so I
Speaker 6: you know, I really think this is a jump ball
Speaker 6: heading into November and possibly even advantaged Biden at this point.
Speaker 6: That spy what people said.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting when you think about this party's problem
Speaker 1: because there has been like an enormous realignment that we
Speaker 1: don't talk about so much, which is that the more
Speaker 1: educated you are, the more likely you are to vote
Speaker 1: for Democrats. You know, if you look at the numbers,
Speaker 1: some college, college, grad school, postgrad, and it does seem
Speaker 1: to cut completely along those lines, which that was not
Speaker 1: always the case. In fact, until very recently, Mitt Romney
Speaker 1: was a candidate because Mitt Romney was an archetype right
Speaker 1: of a conservative voter. I mean, that shift has to
Speaker 1: be meaningful.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, And I think I covered the Romney campaign. I
Speaker 6: was with him on election dight when he lost to
Speaker 6: Barack Obama, and he was very much sort of the
Speaker 6: last fashion of the establishment of the Republican Party. And
Speaker 6: who knows, maybe Trump will be such a disaster politically
Speaker 6: for the Republican Party that they will go to admit
Speaker 6: Romney type the next time I'm around. I mean, I
Speaker 6: do think that there is an appetite for that. I
Speaker 6: do think, to Biden's credit, I mean on the Democratic side,
Speaker 6: he is not like a movement's figure Joe Biden, but
Speaker 6: as an establishments figure of the Democratic Party, he's managed
Speaker 6: to hang on to the party quite well. Look at
Speaker 6: the way these early primary states have been worked out
Speaker 6: for him, Dean Phillips, what is he pulling?
Speaker 4: And he's just nothing. It's not like a bird situation.
Speaker 6: It is not like a Hillary Clinton versus Baracco o'bama situation.
Speaker 2: No, it's not. It's just not it's not at all.
Speaker 1: In fact, one of my kids came in when we
Speaker 1: were watching results the other day and he's like, who
Speaker 1: the fuck is Dean Phillips? And I was like, you
Speaker 1: read the newspaper every day and you don't know who
Speaker 1: he is?
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Well, when the New York Times has a story about
Speaker 3: how you have a coffee you get the coffee truck
Speaker 3: in New Hampshire and they write a story saying that
Speaker 3: nobody showed up, that is typically not a good sign.
Speaker 2: That is not a good sign.
Speaker 1: But it is like one of the things that this
Speaker 1: White House complains about, and I actually think they're probably right,
Speaker 1: is that this is their complaint. But I think they
Speaker 1: feel that the mainstream media does not like them, and
Speaker 1: we're talking about I know, I hate to, you know,
Speaker 1: speak out of school, but you know, you do see
Speaker 1: the tweets talk to me about like you would think
Speaker 1: that the sane White House would be more liked by
Speaker 1: the mainstream media than the insane White House.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I covered Obama the second term, and
Speaker 3: you know they would get mad at us back then.
Speaker 4: I can tell you the stories about that.
Speaker 6: I do think to some extent it's it's sort of
Speaker 6: the conversations you and I had Molly on my old
Speaker 6: weekend show. There's Earth one on Earth too. Biden having
Speaker 6: problems with the border is sort of an Earth One problem.
Speaker 6: When I covered Obama in the second term in the
Speaker 6: Obamacare website did work for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: That was sort of an.
Speaker 4: Earth One problem.
Speaker 6: People's where I mean the capital on January dits it
Speaker 6: was very much to the Earth too kind of saying
Speaker 6: with Donald Trump. And you know, to some extent, I
Speaker 6: do think that some of the complaints from Democrats on
Speaker 6: the progressive side are warranted when they look at the
Speaker 6: both sides ism that goes on in the media and whatnot.
Speaker 6: And I do think you do have to have some
Speaker 6: sense of perspective. But at the same time, I mean,
Speaker 6: you know this, somebody once said politics ain't being back,
Speaker 6: and I think if your White House, you have to
Speaker 6: expect there's going to be a critical coverage when it
Speaker 6: comes to the word. There's going to be a critical
Speaker 6: covered when it comes to Gaza. I do think the
Speaker 6: president has a really tough problem when it comes to
Speaker 6: Israelal Prime Minister Benjamin Yahoo and how Biden negotiates city
Speaker 6: is as one of these grand negotiators in the old
Speaker 6: school of a way and to negotiate with bb Net
Speaker 6: and Yahoo out of this mess. I mean, I had
Speaker 6: James Carlival on the other day and he made it
Speaker 6: a very good point saying that Joe Biden does not
Speaker 6: want this problem slaaring up at the Democrat at a convention.
Speaker 1: Certainly, not especially we're back in Chicago again and.
Speaker 3: Back in Chicago and exactly so, I mean, I do think, yes,
Speaker 3: that there are times when it's sort of like the
Speaker 3: Obama tan suit phenomenon re yours. It's ugly head, I
Speaker 3: don't know, And yes they do yell when the pool sprays,
Speaker 3: and and the President's sort of like, okay, who do
Speaker 3: I think a.
Speaker 6: Question pro they proud Washington tradition. But I've played a
Speaker 6: party in myself. I have to play guilty to some
Speaker 6: extent to that. The other thing I don't get Molly
Speaker 6: is Okay, Biden comes out, he goes out and gets
Speaker 6: on the helicopter, and you cannot hear the questions.
Speaker 3: You can only hear the brosident of the video. Audio
Speaker 3: quality is terrible, and Trump used to do it when
Speaker 3: he was brother. I wish if I could just put out,
Speaker 3: if I could put one suggestion in the suggestion box,
Speaker 3: that we just don't do those anymore. Those are just
Speaker 3: the harediest TV situations.
Speaker 4: I do think the.
Speaker 6: President would be well served in having more news compens
Speaker 6: I think he does well in those settings. We're not
Speaker 6: here to do them any favors or tell them how
Speaker 6: to do things or where. I just think, you know,
Speaker 6: Obama handled him pretty well. He didn't like to do
Speaker 6: them very much, and I think I miss kind of
Speaker 6: in the same boat.
Speaker 4: I think that that would help him, But I don't know.
Speaker 6: I'm not here to give any pointers here, but I
Speaker 6: think more of those would maybe serve him well and
Speaker 6: maybe take some.
Speaker 4: Of the keep that they are feeling over there.
Speaker 2: Away, Jim Mcosta. I hope you'll come back, of.
Speaker 6: Course, as alwayss that was so fast, but it was
Speaker 6: great to catch up with you.
Speaker 2: No moment, Jesse Cannon, my jump fast. You know.
Speaker 4: It's not often friends of the show get great news,
Speaker 4: but Congressman Ruem Diego got some great news. What are
Speaker 4: you seeing here?
Speaker 1: Kirson Cinema raise no money and is now dropping out.
Speaker 2: I want to take a moment here to extend a hearty.
Speaker 1: I don't want to curse, because this is a kind
Speaker 1: of gentler jong a hearty. You are not a good
Speaker 1: person to both Kirston Cinema and also Joe Manchin, because
Speaker 1: had those two just been a little bit better people
Speaker 1: and not so interested in getting money from lobbyists, we
Speaker 1: would have a lot more progressive legislation. We would have
Speaker 1: a permanent child tax credit. We would have things that
Speaker 1: you can't even dream of, free pre.
Speaker 2: K at the national level.
Speaker 1: You know, we could have a lot of stuff had
Speaker 1: those two not decided they were fiscal conservatives. And also,
Speaker 1: by the way, I am happy to see them both go.
Speaker 1: So Democrats will lose the seat in West Virginia. But
Speaker 1: looks like our friend of the show and great funny,
Speaker 1: brilliant Congressman Rubin Diego will clean the floor with Governor
Speaker 1: Carrie Lake. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics.
Speaker 1: Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to hear the
Speaker 1: best minds in politics makes sense of all this chaos.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send me to
Speaker 1: a friend and keep the conversation going. And again, thanks
Speaker 1: for listening.