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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 a majority of Americans have a

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Speaker 1: negative view of billionaires spending more money to buy elections,

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Speaker 1: according to a Washington Post IPSOS poll. We have such

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Speaker 1: a great show for you today. Author of Evil Geniuses

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Speaker 1: Kurt Anderson stops by to talk about Trump, saying the

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Speaker 1: Democrats should be hung. Then we'll talk to Aten ben

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Speaker 1: about her run for Congress in a swing district in Tennessee.

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Speaker 1: But first, the news and disapproval of Donald Trump is

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Speaker 1: now higher than in his first term. At the same time,

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Speaker 1: we have such a great show for you today as

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Speaker 1: the world churns Andy Levy stops by to talk about

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Speaker 1: the fight inside Democratic leadership. Then we'll talk to Inside

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Speaker 1: Elections Jacob Rubashkin about the Democratic chances of flipping the

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Speaker 1: House and perhaps even the Senate. But first, the stories

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Speaker 1: the media is not covering enough.

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Speaker 2: So Lally, you're going to be shocked to hear this,

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Speaker 2: But Lindsay Halligan totally really, really really messed up. I

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Speaker 2: wanted to say something much more bad, but I know

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Speaker 2: I caught myself and didn't say the same, and body

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Speaker 2: vows to take this up to the top of the

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Speaker 2: courts to get mister Kobe from mister Trump.

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Speaker 3: But I don't know. This doesn't look good for them.

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Speaker 1: Despite being a pageant Queen Lindsay Halligan Lindsay Michelle Halligan

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Speaker 1: born in nineteen eighty nine in Portland, Maine. She is

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Speaker 1: the interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

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Speaker 1: And here's the problem. Here is the problem is that

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Speaker 1: she has no experience doing anything pretty much at all

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Speaker 1: besides pageants and industrial law commercial properties. And then eventually

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Speaker 1: she was an insurance lawyer and also pageant Queen Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump's lawyer, and it turns out putting her as the

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Speaker 1: US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, she should

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Speaker 1: have maybe had a few jobs between insurance law.

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Speaker 4: And that, and she didn't. And now you know who's

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Speaker 4: benefiting from.

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Speaker 3: That, mister James Kobe, who is not by.

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Speaker 1: Hobie, mister James Comy, who is too dall and a

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Speaker 1: terrible writer. But in this case, we want him to

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Speaker 1: not go to jail for a trumped up crime. And

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Speaker 1: so we will in fact say that this is actually good.

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Speaker 1: Both cases, the Comy case the James case both dismissed

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Speaker 1: because Judge Cameron Curry said the loyalist prosecutor and still

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Speaker 1: by mister Trump to bring the cases was in her

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Speaker 1: position unlawfully. And so it turns out you can be

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Speaker 1: hot and still be very, very bad at your job.

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Speaker 1: There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Abby Law, the

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Speaker 1: lawyer for missus James James, since there are only five

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Speaker 1: people in the world, also was the lawyer for Hunter

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Speaker 1: Biden Avilall said mister Trump went to extreme measures to

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Speaker 1: substitute one of his allies to bring these base those

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Speaker 1: charges after career prosecutors refused. This case was not about

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Speaker 1: the justice owned law. It was about targeting Attorney James

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Speaker 1: for what she stood for and who she challenged.

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Speaker 4: Bill Baldy Yet again.

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Speaker 3: That guy is battle average a good well.

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Speaker 1: The fact that he is able to find mortgages at

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Speaker 1: every point that Trump can then use to go against

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Speaker 1: his enemies.

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Speaker 4: And by the way, at every point this doesn't work.

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Speaker 1: So Bill Poulti is being I don't know if they've

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Speaker 1: quite opened a formal investigation, but expect to hear the

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Speaker 1: name Bill Paultie again and again and again so.

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Speaker 2: By Yesterday on Twitter Republican Propaganda News, I'm sorry, punch

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Speaker 2: bowl News, Jake Sherman sent out a tweet saying that

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Speaker 2: there are many Republicans were looking to exit just like

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Speaker 2: Barjorie Taylor Greed, and that they're fed up with big

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Speaker 2: props for mister Trump. Politico has a giant explator of

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Speaker 2: what's going on today? Where do you see him?

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Speaker 1: Okay, first of all, don't be me into Jake Sherman.

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Speaker 1: He is got it.

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Speaker 4: I'm serious.

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Speaker 1: Covering Congress is a thankless job, and they do some

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Speaker 1: really good reporting, and then I.

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Speaker 3: Won't be saiding committee.

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Speaker 5: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: You can send him an edible arrangement. Mike Johnson, let's

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Speaker 1: talk about this because it's interesting. House Republicans are really

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Speaker 1: mad at Mike Johnson. Here's why they're mad at him,

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Speaker 1: because he took advantage of what they let him do. Okay,

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Speaker 1: Like this is an incredible bit of House Republicans, Like

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Speaker 1: why did you let me hit me? You know, like

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Speaker 1: just so bad? Okay, So Donald Trump's Republican Party goes

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Speaker 1: in there when Donald Trump gets sworn in. We said

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Speaker 1: this was coming, We told them it was coming, right,

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Speaker 1: got Russ Vought, and the crew is like, you're not

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Speaker 1: gonna have the power of the person anymore. Sorry, Congress,

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Speaker 1: that's ours. Now. Congress rolls the fuck over with everything.

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Speaker 1: They roll over on cabinet appointments, they roll over on spending.

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Speaker 1: They let the Trump administration do this five billion dollar

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Speaker 1: pocket recision which takes back all the foreign aid money.

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Speaker 1: At every point, they just roll over. Now Republicans are mad.

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Speaker 1: They don't like the job anymore because they have no power.

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Speaker 1: They took this job for power. They give all their

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Speaker 1: power to Trump, and now they're mad they have no power.

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Speaker 4: Okay, I mean you didn't have to give.

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Speaker 1: Trump all your power, So good news for Democrats. Mike

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Speaker 1: Johnson is not good at his job. If you had

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Speaker 1: a Tom Emmer in there, you had someone who had

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Speaker 1: been doing the job for a while, they might be

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Speaker 1: able to stop these discharge petitions. They might be able

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Speaker 1: to whip votes. But luckily you don't. You have Mike

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Speaker 1: Johnson in there. So Mike Johnson has Now there's another

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Speaker 1: diste arch petition. These discharge petitions are ways to get

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Speaker 1: around leadership, to find a piece of legislation, and to

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Speaker 1: get around leadership by getting the two hundred and eighteen

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Speaker 1: signatures you need to force a vote on legislation. This

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Speaker 1: is something that does not usually happen because usually you

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Speaker 1: have a Speaker of the House who has some control

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Speaker 1: over their caucus. But Mike Johnson has no control over

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Speaker 1: his caucus. And so we have a discharge petition palooza.

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Speaker 4: And Republicans did this to themselves. You guys.

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Speaker 1: By the way, Nashville, Tennessee, you have this special election,

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Speaker 1: so and there are more special elections or two more

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Speaker 1: special elections coming up, so one in Texas. Mike Johnson's

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Speaker 1: his majority is getting thinner. So we'll see what happens.

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Speaker 1: But it's nice to see these Republicans reap what they sew.

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Speaker 2: So byie, mister Trump seek the writing on the wall

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Speaker 2: of the affordability crisis. That might be because he just

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Speaker 2: had his crush at the office or on Bob Dottie

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Speaker 2: who talks about it extensively. Anyway, he's announce saying an

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Speaker 2: extension of ACA tex credits for two years.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is Trump has decided he's going to

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Speaker 1: solve healthcare. You'll remember that in Trump one point zero,

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Speaker 1: which is the world we live in forever and ever,

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Speaker 1: until we die. Trump said, he who knew healthcare could

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Speaker 1: be so complicated?

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Speaker 3: You remember that I do it, did lives rent free

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Speaker 3: by Edge.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it turns out is very complicated, and so

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Speaker 1: in typical Donald Trump fashion, he's decided that he's just

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Speaker 1: going to quick fix it. So he said on Monday

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Speaker 1: he was going to announce a new like a Trump Care.

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Speaker 1: It was the Monday before Thanksgiving, not a time that

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Speaker 1: Congressional anyone want.

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Speaker 4: To do anything.

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Speaker 1: They want to go home for Thanksgiving because they're extremely

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Speaker 1: hard working. Politicians basically ended the shutdown because they were

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Speaker 1: worried about traveling home for the holidays. Okay, they ended

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Speaker 1: the government shutdown because they were worried about holiday travel.

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Speaker 1: This is a crew that takes holidays very serious. Anyways.

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Speaker 1: So Donald Trump wanted to extend the ACA tax credits

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Speaker 1: for two years. This is what Democrats wanted from the

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Speaker 1: government shutdown. I am interested to see if this happens.

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Speaker 1: If it happens, it's billions of dollars. It will increase

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Speaker 1: the deficit. But you know, none of these Republicans particularly

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Speaker 1: care about that. If it happens, it will be so

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Speaker 1: interesting because it runs contrary to basically all of the

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Speaker 1: Republican goals. So we'll see what happens. But I could

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Speaker 1: see how Trump would want it, because they're going to

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Speaker 1: get killed on these premiums. They're going up, up, up, abup.

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Speaker 1: You have voters who are very mad by inflation, and

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Speaker 1: now they're going to be even madter.

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Speaker 4: So let's see what happens.

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Speaker 2: Yes, so famously, Senator Jib Justice, very new to the Senate,

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Speaker 2: former governor of West Virginia. He is not so into

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Speaker 2: paying taxes. And we now see that his legal woes

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Speaker 2: or even bigger because his wife's been sued for five

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Speaker 2: million dollars in unpaid taxes from two thousand and nine.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is interesting. Jim Justice, my man, he

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Speaker 1: flies back and forth to Congress on a private jet

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Speaker 1: every week. So okay, that is insane. You can get

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Speaker 1: an apartment at private jet, okay, to work. He does

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Speaker 1: not have an apartment in DC. He takes a private

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Speaker 1: jet there and back. Even for a rich person, that

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Speaker 1: is wild. But he has a little bit of a

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Speaker 1: tax problem. So the US government on Monday. Now, by

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Speaker 1: the way, this is the Trump government. Okay, so think

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Speaker 1: about just what had to happen here for the Trump

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Speaker 1: government's irs to decide that they were going to sue

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Speaker 1: a Republican senator from West Virginia. We're more than five

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Speaker 1: million dollars in unpaid federal income taxes, penalties, and interest

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Speaker 1: dating to the two thousand and nine tex following you.

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Speaker 1: I think this is wild, and Jim Justice is supposed

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Speaker 1: to have billions of dollars. We'll see where this lands,

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Speaker 1: but this strikes me as wild.

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Speaker 4: Andy Levy is the host.

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Speaker 1: Of As the World churns Andy Levy.

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Speaker 5: Hello, Molly john Fest.

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Speaker 4: You know what the first rule of fight club is?

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Speaker 5: I do what is it?

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Speaker 1: Well?

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Speaker 5: You know, even the fact that we are violating.

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Speaker 1: It now.

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Speaker 6: He's not great.

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Speaker 5: But obviously the first and second rules of fight club

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Speaker 5: are that you do not talk about fight club. So

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Speaker 5: let's talk about that.

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Speaker 4: Let's start fight club. Yeah, Tux Humor.

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Speaker 1: And a woman you may know, Kristian Jili Brian. They're

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Speaker 1: catching a little heat for their wildly unpopular senate picks,

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Speaker 1: putting their hands on the scale for Haley Stevens. Gifted

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Speaker 1: Orator Haley Stevens and the always young and refreshed seventy

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Speaker 1: seven year old Janet Mills discuss.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, you're referring, of course, to this group of is

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Speaker 5: it six Democratic fake senators? Yeah, we're calling themselves the

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Speaker 5: fight club, and yeah, they're not happy with Schumer and

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Speaker 5: Joe Brand and look good for them, and they want

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Speaker 5: to win. They want to win. And this is way overdue,

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Speaker 5: but better late than never, and it would be nice if, yeah,

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Speaker 5: if we could get different leadership. Molly, do we have

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Speaker 5: to have this leadership? Is there? Is it a rule somewhere?

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Speaker 5: Is it another rule of fight club that we have

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Speaker 5: to not fight?

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Speaker 1: So here's what I would say, Chuck Schumer does not

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Speaker 1: need to be the leader of the Senate Democrats. In fact,

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Speaker 1: Chuck Schumer is a choice. And I think that you know,

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Speaker 1: Chris Murphy is available, Brian Schott is available. Even you

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Speaker 1: know Tina Smith or your favorite from Minnesota, Clomentum. God,

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Speaker 1: even those people are all available to be in leadership.

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Speaker 4: And by the way, this is a job everyone wants.

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Speaker 5: I understand why Schumer got the position. He you know,

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Speaker 5: he's been working his whole life for it.

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Speaker 7: And it was one of those things where you know,

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Speaker 7: the Democrats are very big sometimes on sort of I

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Speaker 7: don't know if coronation is the right word, but it's

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Speaker 7: sort of you know, next in line, like you know, oh.

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Speaker 5: Your suppers coronation is I think you it doesn't work.

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Speaker 5: And all those people you named, with the possible exception

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Speaker 5: of my not so favorite senator from Minnesota, would be

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Speaker 5: much better than Chuck Schuman. None of them. It's going

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Speaker 5: to be an imperfect person. We know that. And so

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Speaker 5: the idea to me is get someone who's at least

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Speaker 5: less imperfect than Chuck Schumer. And I know that sounds

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Speaker 5: like damning with fate praise, but that's the way politics works.

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Speaker 1: The problem with Schumer is not that he's not perfect.

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Speaker 1: The problem with Schumer is that he's not a fighter.

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Speaker 1: And this is again goes back to this adage from

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Speaker 1: Pritzker's chief of staff. It's not left versus senator, it's

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Speaker 1: fight versus cave. And with the fight club the six senators,

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Speaker 1: what you see is they're not ideologically all the same.

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Speaker 1: Maryland Senator Chris van Holland and Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy

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Speaker 1: are not the same as Bernie Sanders of course, and

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth Warren, but they are the same in the fact

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Speaker 1: that they want to fight. Whereas the Gillibrands and the

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Speaker 1: Schumers want to raise money and pick bad candidates.

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Speaker 5: It's twentieth century politics versus twenty first century politics. And

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Speaker 5: that's not even necessarily an age thing because you look

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Speaker 5: at the people in that fight club. You've got Bernice Anders,

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Speaker 5: You've got Liz Warren. You know, it's not like these

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Speaker 5: are people in their forties or fifties or whatever. They

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Speaker 5: are elder statespeople. But they at least recognize that it's

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Speaker 5: not nineteen ninety six. This is not George H. W.

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Speaker 5: Bush's Republican Party. I mean, let alone Mitt Romney's Republican Party.

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Speaker 5: But they recognize that it's Donald Trump's Republican Party. And

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Speaker 5: you can't sit there and do twentieth century politics in

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Speaker 5: this environment. And Chuck Schumer does not and apparently never

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Speaker 5: will understand that. I don't think Jilli brand does either.

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Speaker 5: And look, Joe Biden was and should have been the

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Speaker 5: last gasp of twentieth century politics for the Democrats. That

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Speaker 5: caused a lot of problems his not being comfortable going

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Speaker 5: after the jan six people. You know, So I'll let

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Speaker 5: that be in the past. Let's move forward. That the Mark.

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Speaker 4: Garland school of not doing anything.

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Speaker 5: Exactly exactly, and that's the same school that Schumer and

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Speaker 5: Julibrand are part of. And it just it has to

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Speaker 5: it has to go. It has to die. That school

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Speaker 5: of politics has to die.

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Speaker 1: I think that what you're going to see is and

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Speaker 1: this is not from the pundit class.

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Speaker 4: This is from the base.

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Speaker 1: The base is mad about Biden, the pundit class. And

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Speaker 1: I was as skilty of this as anyone said, go

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Speaker 1: along with Biden. He'll be good. Voters will like him.

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Speaker 1: He's not too old. He's going to just do one term.

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Speaker 1: He got in there, he was not going to do

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Speaker 1: one term. Everything was exactly the worst case scenario, right,

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Speaker 1: he was too old, he did this, he stayed in

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Speaker 1: too long. They couldn't have a primary process at every point.

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Speaker 1: It was just a disaster. And so you do not

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Speaker 1: have the base's full faith and credit now like in

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Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, Chuck Schumer could tweet Orange Man bad and

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Speaker 1: raise ten million dollars. No no, no, no no. And we

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Speaker 1: see this when we look at the DNC number, like

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Speaker 1: they're taking out loans to pay for the DNC. Like

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Speaker 1: voters are not happy. And even if they want Democrats

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Speaker 1: to win more than they want Republicans to win, you

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Speaker 1: don't have a blank check.

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Speaker 5: No, but look, I think if they send me one

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Speaker 5: more text that'll do it. You know, I just it's

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Speaker 5: it's unreal. But you're absolutely right. Look the base and

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Speaker 5: forget about the pundit class, forget about you know, well

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Speaker 5: except for me, because I really am. I'm much more

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Speaker 5: of a man of the people, a man of the

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Speaker 5: base than I am.

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Speaker 1: You were in the army, certainly more than many a

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Speaker 1: NASCAR come on, yeah, but you're.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely right when it comes to the base. And that

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Speaker 5: gets back to what you were saying before from Pritzker's

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Speaker 5: people about it's fighting versus not fighting, and everybody wants

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Speaker 5: fighting now. And the thing is, Chuck Schumer will now

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Speaker 5: get on Twitter, I suppose, and definitely on Blue Sky

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Speaker 5: where I see it, and he'll post things that maybe

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Speaker 5: ten years ago would have been effective or you would

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Speaker 5: have said, all right, good for you, Chuck. Now what

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Speaker 5: they look like, because it's what they are, is a

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Speaker 5: guy who is trying desperately to catch up and to

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Speaker 5: be someone he's absolutely not, and so it just comes

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Speaker 5: across as completely performative when he sits there and goes,

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Speaker 5: we will fight this, and we you know, we have

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Speaker 5: to do this. It was like, you've been in power

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Speaker 5: for a long time and you haven't done any of this,

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Speaker 5: and so you get a lot You look at it

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Speaker 5: and you see people applying saying, why are you telling

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Speaker 5: us this, Why aren't you doing this? Because that's who

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Speaker 5: Chuck Schumer is, so it all rings false when he

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Speaker 5: tries to do it now and again it's, you know,

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Speaker 5: twentieth century versus twenty first. The twentieth century politicians have

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Speaker 5: got to, if not completely go they've got to step back.

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Speaker 5: They've got to step back. We saw this when AOC

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Speaker 5: wanted to be the I forget which committee it is now,

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Speaker 5: and we went with the guy that oversight, guy that

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Speaker 5: nally he died, who died in office, who you know,

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Speaker 5: had cancer, and the.

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Speaker 4: Democrats sex he was seventy six. It wasn't like he

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Speaker 4: was a young guy.

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Speaker 5: Right, and the Democratic leadership said, no, we need to

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Speaker 5: give this position to him. It was not term exactly,

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Speaker 5: and that shit has got to go away. And it's

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Speaker 5: one of the biggest things I think holding back the

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Speaker 5: Democratic Party right now is this sort of refusal to

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Speaker 5: let the next generation, or at least the people you know, again,

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Speaker 5: Liz Warren is not young. Bernie Sanders certainly isn't young.

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Speaker 5: But they know what's going on and they always have

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Speaker 5: because they've been those kinds of politicians in their whole

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Speaker 5: lives where they do fight. You've got to start turning

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Speaker 5: it over to the people who recognize the world in

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Speaker 5: which we live in twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, now I want to talk about where we are

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Speaker 1: right now because Donald Trump he's going to bring peace

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Speaker 1: to Russia Ukraine. Like, I feel like he's doing everything

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Speaker 1: he can to distract from the Epstein files, right Like

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Speaker 1: he's like hoping that if he just keeps going on

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Speaker 1: with the news sources like that, how that the that

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Speaker 1: Pam BONDI will never release any of the Epstein stuff,

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Speaker 1: even though he had to file, he had to sign

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Speaker 1: that discharge petition which says in his law that they're

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Speaker 1: going to release it within thirty days.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, but Molly, remember he instructed everyone to vote for

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Speaker 5: that because he really wants it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, he did.

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Speaker 1: He changed the very last minute when he saw he

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Speaker 1: was going to lose. He was like, I think we

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Speaker 1: want those, you want those?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, And look at least he's not, you know, maybe

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Speaker 5: starting a war in it with the South American country

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Speaker 5: to distract from everything else.

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Speaker 1: But look where your favorite of the way the ways

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Speaker 1: in which Donald Trump is trying to distract is your

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Speaker 1: favorite that he's starting a war, or is your favorite

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Speaker 1: that he's trying to bring peace to Russia Ukraine.

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Speaker 5: It's the war for me. It's always the war for me.

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Speaker 5: I mean, if you're going to distract, you got to

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Speaker 5: do it with a war, because that's when you get

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Speaker 5: the CNNs of the world can prepare their their theme songs.

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Speaker 4: Right and exactly, Caribbean.

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Speaker 5: Caribbean freedom. You know, that's when you get all the

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Speaker 5: all the newspapers and everyone's there, well, we have to

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Speaker 5: support the president.

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Speaker 3: We're at war.

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Speaker 5: You get people saying this is the day Donald Trump

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Speaker 5: became president. You can't beat a war if you're trying

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Speaker 5: to take the focus off of something else. I mean,

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Speaker 5: I'm fairly certain there was a whole movie that was

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Speaker 5: kind of about that. Yes do yeah, that sort of

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Speaker 5: gave us a praeze. So it's absolutely that for me.

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Speaker 5: The the Ukraine Russia stuff is I mean, have you

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Speaker 5: seen anything more incompetent than well, this is our plan. No,

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Speaker 5: this isn't our plan. Marco Rubio have nothing that doesn't

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Speaker 5: even know about this plan. Oh, Marco Rubier wrote this plan.

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Speaker 5: It's unbelieve and beyond the incompetence, just the national security

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Speaker 5: implications of having a plan out there. And we can't

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Speaker 5: get a straight answer as to whether this plan is

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Speaker 5: Russian talking points or whether it's from the administration because

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Speaker 5: we can't tell the difference.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know, it's nuts, but it's part of

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump's tri facta for trying to get the Nobel

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Speaker 1: Peace Prize, which he has now missed the window on

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Speaker 1: at least for twenty twenty five. But it is funny

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Speaker 1: to me because it's like, you know, he does on

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Speaker 1: some level like he kind of wants to do the

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Speaker 1: stuff presidents do, but just not with any of the

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Speaker 1: follow up for any of the you know, like he's

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Speaker 1: like he's like, yeah, I'm gonna bring peace and I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna do this. Like it's a very sort of distracted view,

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Speaker 1: kind of you know, half hearted view on presidenting. But

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Speaker 1: ultimately he's really just trying to make money.

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Speaker 5: Well, he's just trying to make money, finds me of

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Speaker 5: you know, there's a sort of a famous saying that

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Speaker 5: writers have I love to have written, but I hate writing.

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Speaker 4: Speak for yourself. I hate all of it.

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Speaker 5: Right, But it's the same. That to me, that's Trump

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Speaker 5: with presidenting. He doesn't like presidenting, you know. He doesn't

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Speaker 5: like having to negotiate a peace treaty or doing any

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Speaker 5: of the work. What he wants is the credit. And

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Speaker 5: it's just that simple. That's all he wants is the credit.

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Speaker 5: He's not interested in the work. He couldn't care less

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Speaker 5: if there was peace between Russia and Ukraine. Obviously he'd

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Speaker 5: probably just be happier if Russia had been able to

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Speaker 5: swallow up Ukraine. Yeah, but he just ultimately doesn't care.

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Speaker 5: He just wants the credit. He wants, like you said,

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Speaker 5: he wants the Nobel Prize. He doesn't want to do

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Speaker 5: the work that you would, you know, like to think

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Speaker 5: is involved in getting a Nobel prize. He just wants

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Speaker 5: the prize. He wants the trophy. And we see this

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Speaker 5: when he goes to these events, the sporting events, and

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Speaker 5: he leaves with the trophy that he was supposed to

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Speaker 5: give the team, and we saw that happen. That's Donald

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Speaker 5: Trump in a nutshell. He just wants the trophy.

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Speaker 1: By the way, this week not didn't like make the

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Speaker 1: top of the newsfeed, But I think it is important

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Speaker 1: is that this week in Las Vegas, Ice Barbie and

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Speaker 1: FBI Director Cash Battl went to some kind of grand.

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Speaker 5: Praise Formula one.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and they had a great time on our tax paradigm.

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Speaker 4: So I'm glad they're having fun.

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Speaker 5: Look, you can't spend all of the FBI's travel budget

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Speaker 5: on your girlfriend. You have to keep some for yourself.

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Speaker 5: It's right, I mean, that's just that's just fair. That

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Speaker 5: seems fair to me. So good for Cash, I say,

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Speaker 5: for getting out of the office, you.

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Speaker 4: Know, Cash Battel.

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Speaker 1: Also this week we discovered the Cash Battel's girlfriend, twenty

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Speaker 1: seven year old conservative influencer Slash Singer, is guarded by

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Speaker 1: the Swat Team.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: The extent to which this entire administration is a grift,

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Speaker 5: it's absolutely unreal, Like even I think, beyond the most

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Speaker 5: cynical person's wildest dreams. Just every possible method or mode

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Speaker 5: of grifting is being taken advantage of by just about

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Speaker 5: every official in this administration. I mean, you know, you

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Speaker 5: absolutely don't have to hand it to them, but it

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Speaker 5: is truly remarkable. I mean, we've Obviously we've lived through

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Speaker 5: both in the history of our country and even in

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Speaker 5: you know, just the short history of my life and

437
00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:25,560
Speaker 5: the longer history of your life. But we've lived through

438
00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:32,359
Speaker 5: grifting administrations, unscrupulous administrations. But I think you could pretty

439
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:35,639
Speaker 5: much stack them all up, all the previous ones in

440
00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:38,320
Speaker 5: one stack, and put the Trump grifts in another stack,

441
00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:41,879
Speaker 5: and the Trump grifts would outweigh I think every single

442
00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:47,320
Speaker 5: previous administration's grifts throughout the history of this country.

443
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:51,520
Speaker 1: We need a word, an expression for what the Teapot

444
00:24:51,560 --> 00:25:00,480
Speaker 1: Dome scandal like with crypto and double dealing and insider

445
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:06,520
Speaker 1: trading and influence trading, and your son in law who's

446
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:10,959
Speaker 1: negotiating all these deals is also not in government, but

447
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:15,359
Speaker 1: he is also negotiating the Russian peace treaty and also

448
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:18,320
Speaker 1: in the Middle East, but he also takes money from

449
00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:22,800
Speaker 1: a lot of Middle Eastern countries for his wealth fund.

450
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:25,080
Speaker 4: I mean, it's like, what is that.

451
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:27,560
Speaker 1: It feels like there's got to be a bigger word

452
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:28,720
Speaker 1: than cryptocracy.

453
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:33,199
Speaker 5: And honestly, I'm out a losstocracy because well, because everything

454
00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:35,480
Speaker 5: you said is it's just I don't know, it's a

455
00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:38,560
Speaker 5: trump oocracy, Like I don't know what else to call

456
00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:43,360
Speaker 5: it like it's every single aspect of his presidency is

457
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:48,080
Speaker 5: to enrich him, to help him. And I mean, we've

458
00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:51,360
Speaker 5: seen Richard Nixon and people like that before, but they

459
00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:55,400
Speaker 5: are rank amateurs compared to the level of.

460
00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:56,440
Speaker 3: What's going on now.

461
00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:59,960
Speaker 5: It's absolutely unreal. You can't even say, like the teapot

462
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:02,880
Speaker 5: dome scandal is a perfect example, because it's the one

463
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:04,720
Speaker 5: thing we remember from that.

464
00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:05,880
Speaker 4: You can't do that.

465
00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:10,320
Speaker 5: Now there's a new teapot dome level scandal every damn day.

466
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:14,159
Speaker 1: Speak for yourself, man, I remember it all from the

467
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:19,080
Speaker 1: teapot Don't periods kidding? I was so mean will you

468
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:20,000
Speaker 1: never come back?

469
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 5: Earlier when I said your longer history as opposed to

470
00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:25,400
Speaker 5: my shorter history.

471
00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:26,359
Speaker 4: Will you never come back?

472
00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:28,600
Speaker 5: Can you always never come back?

473
00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:32,280
Speaker 4: Don't? I would like to invite you not to come back.

474
00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:37,280
Speaker 5: I will accept your non invitation to always come back.

475
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:42,879
Speaker 1: Actually, you can come back because I like you. Jacob

476
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 1: rubash Kin is an analyst and reporter at Inside Elections.

477
00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:51,920
Speaker 1: Jacob Rubashkin, Welcome back to Fast Politics.

478
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:53,600
Speaker 6: Always a pleasure, happy to be here.

479
00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:58,160
Speaker 1: So you are here to be our election whisperer, and

480
00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:00,879
Speaker 1: I'm going to make you start with an election you

481
00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:04,679
Speaker 1: were not prepared to weigh in on. Because what we

482
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:07,919
Speaker 1: do at this podcast is we put people in very

483
00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 1: uncomfortable situations because.

484
00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:12,080
Speaker 4: We don't tell them what we're going to ask them about.

485
00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:15,320
Speaker 1: And we do that because it's a because of being

486
00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:19,760
Speaker 1: very disorganized. So there is a special election in Tennessee.

487
00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 1: It is Mark Green's seat. It is a R plus

488
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:28,640
Speaker 1: twenty two. It is happening the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, and

489
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:34,160
Speaker 1: both Democrats and Republicans are just pouring money into it.

490
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:37,600
Speaker 8: Explain, yeah, this special election, like you said, it's Mark

491
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:39,960
Speaker 8: Green's seats. So Mark Green was a Republican congressman. He

492
00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 8: resigned over the summer. By all rights, this should be

493
00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:47,560
Speaker 8: an incredibly Republican seat, an easy hold for the Republican Party.

494
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:49,840
Speaker 8: But there are two things going on here. The first

495
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:52,680
Speaker 8: is the shape of the district itself. Tennessee drew a

496
00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:56,600
Speaker 8: pretty aggressive gerrymander following the twenty twenty census. There used

497
00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:59,199
Speaker 8: to be two Democratic seats in Tennessee, one in Memphis

498
00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:01,359
Speaker 8: and one in Nashville. And what they did was they

499
00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:04,119
Speaker 8: left the Memphis one, but they cracked the Nashville one,

500
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 8: and they distributed little pieces of Nashville across three different

501
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:11,679
Speaker 8: districts in Middle Tennessee, so that there was no concentration

502
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:14,879
Speaker 8: of Democratic votes. But what that means is that three

503
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:18,480
Speaker 8: districts in Middle Tennessee all have a piece of Nashville,

504
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:23,760
Speaker 8: and if turnout dynamics are such that Democratic voters are

505
00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:26,719
Speaker 8: super fired up and Republican voters are not fired up

506
00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:28,919
Speaker 8: and may not even know that there's an election going on,

507
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:32,040
Speaker 8: that little piece of Nashville can punch above its weight

508
00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 8: in those three districts. And that's exactly what's going on here,

509
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,280
Speaker 8: is that it is a Republican district under normal conditions.

510
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 8: But the Democrats are hoping that the combination of the

511
00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:48,080
Speaker 8: president's poor approval rating, some Democratic momentum, and the fact

512
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 8: that this is a sleepy race the weekend after Thanksgiving

513
00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:54,400
Speaker 8: will allow them to reshape the electorate in such a

514
00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:57,280
Speaker 8: way that they can win what should be an unwinnable

515
00:28:57,320 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 8: seat for them.

516
00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:00,520
Speaker 1: And the candidate who is running for this seat is

517
00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:05,320
Speaker 1: a woman called aften Bane. Aften Bane, Yeah, we interviewed

518
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 1: her on this podcast and she is really interesting candidate,

519
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:12,080
Speaker 1: and I think she's a really good example of if

520
00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:14,040
Speaker 1: you want to run a candidate in a place you

521
00:29:14,080 --> 00:29:19,080
Speaker 1: can't necessarily win because she is both an activist, grassroots activist,

522
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:20,960
Speaker 1: so she has a lot of connections on the ground.

523
00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:24,200
Speaker 1: It's not like she is parachuting in. And then she

524
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:30,520
Speaker 1: also is very beautiful and young and charismatic and out there. Right,

525
00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:34,719
Speaker 1: I mean, all of these are pieces when you're running

526
00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:37,840
Speaker 1: in anywhere, but especially when you're running in a very

527
00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:38,640
Speaker 1: tough district.

528
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:41,680
Speaker 8: Right, yeah, no, I mean, look, it helps to look

529
00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:45,600
Speaker 8: the part. It helps to you know, have a political base,

530
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:47,960
Speaker 8: as she does having served in the state legislature.

531
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:49,800
Speaker 6: These days, it helps to be young.

532
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 8: Right, We're in a moment where after everything that went

533
00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:56,440
Speaker 8: down last year. I think Biden voters voters place a

534
00:29:56,520 --> 00:30:00,440
Speaker 8: premium on youth, or at least they place a whatever

535
00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 8: the opposite of a premium is on being older.

536
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:07,240
Speaker 1: And again, in voters defense, like they get fucked by

537
00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:10,880
Speaker 1: electing someone really old. They were told to trust the

538
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:14,440
Speaker 1: Democratic Party that this candidate wasn't too old, and then

539
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,560
Speaker 1: exactly the worst case scenario unfolded.

540
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 4: So they're right to be mad.

541
00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 8: Yeah, And so I you know, I think that she

542
00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:25,640
Speaker 8: does bring a fair bit to the table. She's proved

543
00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,320
Speaker 8: to be an able fundraiser. But like you said, she

544
00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:32,000
Speaker 8: is very progressive. She is out there, and she's she's outspoken,

545
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:37,280
Speaker 8: and so the Republicans woman, and she's exactly And Republicans

546
00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:40,120
Speaker 8: have amassed a whole treasure trove of clips of her

547
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:42,360
Speaker 8: over the past couple of years, saying all sorts of

548
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:46,480
Speaker 8: things that don't usually fly in particularly Republican areas, and

549
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:48,280
Speaker 8: they are in the last couple of weeks of this

550
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:51,400
Speaker 8: race putting all of that on TV an attempt to

551
00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:54,640
Speaker 8: push back against whatever sort of momentum.

552
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:56,000
Speaker 6: She has going for her.

553
00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:58,960
Speaker 8: But you know, all of the data that we have

554
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 8: suggests that this race is closer than it has any

555
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:05,240
Speaker 8: right to be. I have not seen anything that convinces

556
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:07,320
Speaker 8: me that this is a race that often is going

557
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:10,000
Speaker 8: to win. But when we talk about a Trump plus

558
00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 8: twenty two district, I would not be surprised if this

559
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:15,680
Speaker 8: is a single digit outcome when all is said and done.

560
00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:18,080
Speaker 6: So a significant shift.

561
00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:20,360
Speaker 8: From where we were just a year ago in the

562
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:22,040
Speaker 8: twenty twenty four presidential election.

563
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:25,000
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the rest and landscape. Why I

564
00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:27,400
Speaker 1: really brought you on here. I want you to talk

565
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:31,960
Speaker 1: us through the dummy mander again. I'm being overly optimistic

566
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:34,600
Speaker 1: because I'm a partisan hack. But I'm just going to

567
00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:36,720
Speaker 1: paint this scene for you and let you go wherever

568
00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 1: you want with it. Trump went to the party and said,

569
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:41,480
Speaker 1: I need you to get me five seats to the

570
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:44,840
Speaker 1: Texas Republicans. They got in five seeds. Court said no.

571
00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:49,200
Speaker 1: Justice Alito at the Supreme Court shockingly said yes, Republicans

572
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:52,479
Speaker 1: can have whatever they want. Now there are five seats

573
00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:55,600
Speaker 1: coming from California. Unless the Supreme Court is able to

574
00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 1: do something, it will look real bad if they take

575
00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:01,560
Speaker 1: the five seats away from cal but give the five

576
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:05,640
Speaker 1: seats to Texas. Though anything is possible. But the landscape

577
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:08,160
Speaker 1: is really all up in the air right now. So

578
00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:11,200
Speaker 1: i'd love you to talk us through what it looks like.

579
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:14,680
Speaker 1: First with the eye to jerrymandering. And then there's also

580
00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:17,800
Speaker 1: the question of Section two of the Voting Rights Act,

581
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:21,080
Speaker 1: and that decision will come down in June. My first

582
00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:23,560
Speaker 1: question for you is, if that decision comes down in

583
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,440
Speaker 1: June and the Supreme Court says you don't have to

584
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 1: have race negative jerrymandering or race sensitive jerrymandering, would that

585
00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:36,960
Speaker 1: affect the twenty twenty six election. Would the South get

586
00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:39,600
Speaker 1: more Republican seats in twenty twenty six.

587
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:42,680
Speaker 8: If that decision comes down in June, and that decision

588
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:47,120
Speaker 8: is a case about the Louisiana congressional map, which currently

589
00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:51,600
Speaker 8: has two black opportunity districts. They had to redraw the

590
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 8: map ahead of last year to take it from one

591
00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:57,080
Speaker 8: to two, that decision does have the potential, like you said,

592
00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:00,520
Speaker 8: to eviscerate a core component of the Voting Act as

593
00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:03,360
Speaker 8: it pertains to redistricting. If it comes down in June,

594
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,080
Speaker 8: that is too late for anything to happen for the

595
00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:07,760
Speaker 8: twenty twenty sixth election.

596
00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:09,760
Speaker 4: But it will affect twenty twenty eight.

597
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:10,440
Speaker 6: Absolutely.

598
00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:10,680
Speaker 3: Yes.

599
00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:15,520
Speaker 8: If the Supreme Court were to say states with significant

600
00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:20,040
Speaker 8: minority populations and largely that means black populations don't have

601
00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:24,200
Speaker 8: to create black opportunity districts, which is the term of art,

602
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:31,120
Speaker 8: then I would anticipate we will see at the least Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi,

603
00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 8: potentially South Carolina, and Tennessee at a minimum all attempt

604
00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 8: a redistrict ahead of twenty twenty eight, because all of

605
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:42,720
Speaker 8: those states have at least one seat that is a

606
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:46,280
Speaker 8: heavily democratic black majority or black plurality district.

607
00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:47,920
Speaker 6: Because they're required to by law.

608
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 8: And then there are additional opportunities potentially in states like

609
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:55,200
Speaker 8: Texas and Florida where obviously it's not just oh, there's

610
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:59,480
Speaker 8: one district where the legislature has drawn most of the

611
00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:02,440
Speaker 8: black vote into you know, these are huge states that

612
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:06,400
Speaker 8: have different pockets of racial concentration throughout the state, some

613
00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:08,560
Speaker 8: of which are protected by the VRA, some of which

614
00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:12,800
Speaker 8: are not VRA. Jurisprudence is actually kind of in flux

615
00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:15,040
Speaker 8: right now, and this is getting very in the weeds here,

616
00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:17,920
Speaker 8: but the Fifth Circuit has said it has to be

617
00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:21,000
Speaker 8: a single racial group to qualify as a VRA district.

618
00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:24,200
Speaker 8: You can't say, well, this really diverse area, you know,

619
00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:27,240
Speaker 8: has thirty percent Black voters and thirty percent Hispanic voters

620
00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:31,000
Speaker 8: and twenty percent Asian voters. Therefore it deserves a district

621
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:33,920
Speaker 8: where those communities can elect a representative of their choosing.

622
00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:36,759
Speaker 8: It says, if it's not you know, forty or more

623
00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:39,520
Speaker 8: percent Black, or forty or more percent Asian, or forty

624
00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:42,359
Speaker 8: or more percent Hispanic, it doesn't qualify. But that's only

625
00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 8: the Fifth Circuit, so like the Eleventh Circuit in Georgia

626
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,440
Speaker 8: hasn't said whether they agree with that. Yet there's a

627
00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:51,440
Speaker 8: lot up in the air, as there always is with redistricting.

628
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:54,200
Speaker 8: And if the Supreme Court steps in and says we're

629
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:58,040
Speaker 8: going to undermine the last essentially thirty five years of

630
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:02,120
Speaker 8: VRA interpretation, which they might, which they might, they might not.

631
00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:05,080
Speaker 8: I think that people are always get a little overconfident

632
00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:06,959
Speaker 8: when they try and predict out what the Supreme Court

633
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:09,200
Speaker 8: is going to do. But there's a chance that the

634
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:14,560
Speaker 8: redistricting chaos we've seen this year is only multiplied in

635
00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:18,960
Speaker 8: two years when the states are unfettered by the Voting

636
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:20,880
Speaker 8: Rights Act requirements.

637
00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:23,279
Speaker 1: In June, when that comes down, no matter what the

638
00:35:23,320 --> 00:35:26,000
Speaker 1: decision is, it'll be too soon for twenty twenty six.

639
00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:29,600
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, I mean, look, Texas filing deadline is December eighth, right,

640
00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:33,480
Speaker 8: Illinois filing deadline already passed. States filing deadlines are coming up.

641
00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:37,719
Speaker 8: Primaries start in March the earliest. The earliest primaries begin

642
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:40,439
Speaker 8: in March. By the time June rolls around, it will

643
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:44,239
Speaker 8: be far too late for the train to be rewound

644
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:48,279
Speaker 8: on redistricting. So for the twenty twenty six cycle, I

645
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:51,600
Speaker 8: honestly think it's highly unlikely, no matter what the Court rules,

646
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:55,560
Speaker 8: that we'll see the dismantling of VRA districts in America.

647
00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:58,920
Speaker 1: That means in twenty twenty six cycle we have a

648
00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:02,120
Speaker 1: pretty good sense of what the jerry nander will look like.

649
00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:05,279
Speaker 6: Well, not necessarily.

650
00:36:04,640 --> 00:36:06,600
Speaker 4: Okay, so then tell us why.

651
00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:07,120
Speaker 6: Yeah.

652
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:10,360
Speaker 8: So the frustrating thing, of course, is that even the

653
00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:13,200
Speaker 8: maps that have been passed this cycle, there's a tremendous

654
00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:16,520
Speaker 8: amount of uncertainty. So you mentioned the Texas map that

655
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:19,600
Speaker 8: was struck down by a federal district court in al Paso.

656
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:23,080
Speaker 8: The Republicans appealed to the Supreme Court. Now, Justice Alito

657
00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:26,080
Speaker 8: did implement a stay, but that's a very brief administrative

658
00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:29,360
Speaker 8: stay that suggests that sometime in the next week, essentially

659
00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:33,320
Speaker 8: the full Court will consider what to do on that front,

660
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:35,600
Speaker 8: and there's a chance that they will let that lower

661
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:38,480
Speaker 8: court ruling stand. I think most people still think they

662
00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:41,880
Speaker 8: will keep the stay in place and do full arguments

663
00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:45,080
Speaker 8: next year. Maybe, but the Texas map is currently in flux.

664
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:50,320
Speaker 8: You have a map in Missouri that was a gerrymander

665
00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:53,840
Speaker 8: that Republicans drew earlier this year to draw out a

666
00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:58,200
Speaker 8: Democratic representative in Kansas City, and that map could be

667
00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:01,840
Speaker 8: blocked by a referendum, and you've got the potential for

668
00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:08,040
Speaker 8: democratic redistricting in Virginia early next year and Republican redistricting

669
00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:09,799
Speaker 8: in Florida early next year.

670
00:37:10,160 --> 00:37:13,560
Speaker 4: In Florida redistrict, I thought they were pretty tight.

671
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:14,680
Speaker 6: They can try.

672
00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:18,200
Speaker 8: They may run into some timeline challenges just because we're

673
00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:21,400
Speaker 8: later in the game, but remember Florida's primary isn't until August,

674
00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:23,880
Speaker 8: and so by virtue of their own calendar, they have

675
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:25,960
Speaker 8: a little bit more wiggle room. I don't know how

676
00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:28,560
Speaker 8: aggressive they can get, but I think you could probably

677
00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:32,080
Speaker 8: draw a map that gets Republicans in additional two seats

678
00:37:32,160 --> 00:37:35,720
Speaker 8: at minimum out of Florida if they go down that path.

679
00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:38,800
Speaker 8: And that's you know, that's twenty eight districts. Virginia is

680
00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:43,440
Speaker 8: another dozen districts. Texas obviously thirty eight. So we still

681
00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:47,360
Speaker 8: have seventy five congressional districts that are somewhat up in

682
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:50,840
Speaker 8: the air as we know close out twenty twenty five.

683
00:37:51,320 --> 00:37:54,399
Speaker 4: Those five seats in California, though, are set now.

684
00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:56,880
Speaker 8: Yeah, so the California map, I think most of the

685
00:37:56,920 --> 00:37:59,440
Speaker 8: people that I talked to in both parties are pretty

686
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:02,560
Speaker 8: or that the California map is going to be in

687
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:05,279
Speaker 8: place that the Republicans have been unsuccessful in all of

688
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:06,440
Speaker 8: their court challenges.

689
00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:09,319
Speaker 6: You know, the DOJ, the Trump DOJ just filed a

690
00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:10,640
Speaker 6: suit against.

691
00:38:10,280 --> 00:38:13,560
Speaker 8: The California map, but I don't think anyone is particularly

692
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:17,560
Speaker 8: confident that suit will prevail. So, yes, the Prop fifty

693
00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:21,320
Speaker 8: map that was designed to improve democratic odds in five seats,

694
00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:24,680
Speaker 8: five Republican health seats, will be the map almost certainly

695
00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:26,400
Speaker 8: for the twenty twenty six mid terms.

696
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:30,359
Speaker 1: That means Democrats definitely have a five seat advantage at

697
00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:35,239
Speaker 1: least for that jerrymandering that Republicans have done Texas. What

698
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:38,600
Speaker 1: else They couldn't get Indiana though they've been trying.

699
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:43,000
Speaker 6: Yeah, so Republicans got Texas, they got North.

700
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:46,120
Speaker 1: Carolina, right, and that was one seat. That was one seat,

701
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:48,800
Speaker 1: and that's because they have a super majority in the House.

702
00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:53,440
Speaker 8: Correct, and redistricting in North Carolina does not require the

703
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:55,239
Speaker 8: governor's signature.

704
00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:59,560
Speaker 1: Because North Carolina had Democratic governors and super powerful state

705
00:39:00,040 --> 00:39:02,759
Speaker 1: legislatures that have been working hard to screw over those

706
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:04,920
Speaker 1: governors for a couple of years.

707
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,719
Speaker 8: Right, the North Carolina legislature has taken a lot of

708
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:11,000
Speaker 8: powers away from the governors. As like you said, North Carolina,

709
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:13,240
Speaker 8: of course, used to be solid Democratic at all levels,

710
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:17,120
Speaker 8: but over the last twenty years they keep electing Democrats governor.

711
00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:20,680
Speaker 8: But the state legislature is pretty consistently Republican and so

712
00:39:20,719 --> 00:39:23,320
Speaker 8: they've taken a lot of powers away from the governor.

713
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:26,120
Speaker 8: So they got that. You know, Ohio, It kind of

714
00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:29,000
Speaker 8: depends how you do the math. In Ohio. You can

715
00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:32,439
Speaker 8: either give Republicans a seat or not, or a half

716
00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:34,600
Speaker 8: a seat if you want to hedge. But the Marcy

717
00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:37,080
Speaker 8: Captor seat does get a little bit worse for her,

718
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:38,480
Speaker 8: and it was already pretty bad for her.

719
00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:40,880
Speaker 6: So that is another one. Missouri.

720
00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:43,200
Speaker 8: You know, will see what happens, but that one you

721
00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:46,040
Speaker 8: have to put in the Republican column until if and

722
00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:49,479
Speaker 8: until it's paused or rolled back. So you know, five

723
00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:52,600
Speaker 8: in Texas, one in North Carolina, one in Missouri. That

724
00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:55,760
Speaker 8: that gets you to seven and then you know, depending

725
00:39:55,760 --> 00:39:59,320
Speaker 8: on how you want to count Ohio. But the number

726
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:03,520
Speaker 8: is is smaller than Republicans would have liked. I think

727
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:07,279
Speaker 8: when Trump first set down this path in the summer, right,

728
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:10,520
Speaker 8: he wanted five in Texas. He wanted not just your

729
00:40:10,520 --> 00:40:13,120
Speaker 8: one in Missouri and one in North Carolina, but he

730
00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:15,880
Speaker 8: wanted two in Indiana, he wanted one in Kansas, he

731
00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:20,200
Speaker 8: wanted one in Nebraska, probably wanted four in Florida, and

732
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:23,840
Speaker 8: he didn't even think that Democrats might get five to

733
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:28,239
Speaker 8: counterbalance in Texas. So the math has shifted considerably over

734
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:31,239
Speaker 8: the last couple months. And to your point, I think

735
00:40:31,239 --> 00:40:34,680
Speaker 8: there's ultimately an outcome here where Democrats end up with

736
00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:38,960
Speaker 8: more favorable districts across the country when all is said

737
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:42,319
Speaker 8: and done, than they had at the outset, which would

738
00:40:42,320 --> 00:40:46,279
Speaker 8: be a pretty significant turn of events. And underline how

739
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:49,640
Speaker 8: in that scenario, how that push would backfire on Trump.

740
00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:51,279
Speaker 1: And we're going to turn our eye now to the

741
00:40:51,360 --> 00:40:55,880
Speaker 1: Senate math because there's a sense and again we just

742
00:40:56,040 --> 00:40:59,080
Speaker 1: know the twenty five cycle and the polls, and we

743
00:40:59,160 --> 00:41:02,920
Speaker 1: can use that information to extrapolate what we can. But

744
00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:06,239
Speaker 1: there's a feeling that Democrats are in a much better

745
00:41:06,239 --> 00:41:09,719
Speaker 1: position than they have been. But this Senate map is

746
00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:13,960
Speaker 1: still a real cluster fox. So let's just go Maine

747
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:15,880
Speaker 1: across the country. So start with Maine.

748
00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:19,160
Speaker 8: Yeah, so your word mind, But I would say that

749
00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:22,279
Speaker 8: the Senate map is a very difficult one for Democrats,

750
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:24,360
Speaker 8: even in a favorable political environment.

751
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:25,720
Speaker 6: So you've got Maine.

752
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:28,399
Speaker 8: Maine is the only seat on the Senate map held

753
00:41:28,440 --> 00:41:31,680
Speaker 8: by a Republican, but one by Vice President Harris, one

754
00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:34,160
Speaker 8: by Joe Biden, and in twenty twenty one by Hillary

755
00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:36,680
Speaker 8: Clinton in twenty sixteen. By rights, that should make it

756
00:41:36,760 --> 00:41:39,640
Speaker 8: the top target for Democrats in twenty twenty six The

757
00:41:39,680 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 8: only reason why it's arguably not the top target is

758
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:45,680
Speaker 8: because Susan Collins is there, and she has proven to

759
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:49,520
Speaker 8: be an incredibly difficult out. She has beaten back challenger

760
00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:52,520
Speaker 8: after challenger. She's beaten back some really heavy hitters on

761
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:55,000
Speaker 8: the Democratic side, people with a ton of money, people

762
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:58,239
Speaker 8: with a ton of electoral experience, and main voters just

763
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:00,880
Speaker 8: keep on sending her back. Now, that's no reason to

764
00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:04,720
Speaker 8: believe that she can't lose this time, because everybody wins

765
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:07,080
Speaker 8: up until the moment that they lose. But it does

766
00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:10,080
Speaker 8: mean that it's no sure thing to beat her, even

767
00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 8: in a state that Kamala Harris carried by six seven

768
00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:17,160
Speaker 8: points at the top of the ticket. So that's the

769
00:42:17,560 --> 00:42:20,400
Speaker 8: first seat. You know, there are two seats Democrats absolutely

770
00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:22,560
Speaker 8: have to win in order to take back the Senate,

771
00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:25,400
Speaker 8: and one of those is Main where they've got themselves

772
00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:27,560
Speaker 8: a real headache of a primary and then a real

773
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:30,759
Speaker 8: stalwart in Susan Collins waiting on the other side. And

774
00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:34,120
Speaker 8: the other is North Carolina, which is a perennial battleground.

775
00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:37,760
Speaker 8: Democrats haven't won a Senate race here since two thousand

776
00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:40,440
Speaker 8: and eight and kay Hagen, but they get really really

777
00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:43,279
Speaker 8: close every time, and they've got a great recruit there

778
00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:46,400
Speaker 8: and former Governor Roy Cooper, he won four terms as

779
00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:49,400
Speaker 8: state attorney general. He won two terms as governor even

780
00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:52,800
Speaker 8: as the state was voting Republican for many other offices.

781
00:42:53,120 --> 00:42:57,000
Speaker 8: And he's got a good match up there against Michael Wattley, Yes.

782
00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:00,239
Speaker 4: Who's an R and C guy.

783
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:02,560
Speaker 8: Yeah, he's the Trump pick and that's why he gets

784
00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:06,120
Speaker 8: to be the nominee. But realistically, I talked to Republicans

785
00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:09,680
Speaker 8: all the time, you know, I think everyone understands that, well,

786
00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:11,640
Speaker 8: North Carolina is always going to be really close, It's

787
00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:14,160
Speaker 8: always going to be really competitive. On the surface, the

788
00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:19,359
Speaker 8: matchup of popular former governor, former state attorney general, well known,

789
00:43:19,440 --> 00:43:23,600
Speaker 8: well liked in the state, versus former chairman of the

790
00:43:23,760 --> 00:43:26,640
Speaker 8: RNC and chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party who's

791
00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:29,560
Speaker 8: never held office before and who nobody really knows is

792
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:33,600
Speaker 8: not naturally the best contrast for Republicans. So that doesn't

793
00:43:33,640 --> 00:43:36,640
Speaker 8: mean this race mole costs half a billion dollars and

794
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:39,000
Speaker 8: you know, end up in a two point margin one

795
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:39,600
Speaker 8: way or the other.

796
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:42,760
Speaker 6: But I think Democrats are most excited. I would say.

797
00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:46,000
Speaker 8: About about Roy Cooper in North Carolina, but that only

798
00:43:46,040 --> 00:43:48,280
Speaker 8: gets you to two right, and Democrats have to flip

799
00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:51,440
Speaker 8: four seats in order to win back the majority there

800
00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:52,040
Speaker 8: at forty seven.

801
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:53,200
Speaker 6: They need to get to fifty one.

802
00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:55,040
Speaker 8: So then you have to look at this map and say,

803
00:43:55,080 --> 00:43:58,000
Speaker 8: all right, well, where can we find our two other seats?

804
00:43:58,080 --> 00:44:00,759
Speaker 8: And the reality is you got us start. You've got

805
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:02,799
Speaker 8: to start digging a little deeper. And what you come

806
00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:06,240
Speaker 8: up with are you've got Ohio, where former Senator Shared

807
00:44:06,239 --> 00:44:08,680
Speaker 8: Brown is attempting to come back after he lost by

808
00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:10,040
Speaker 8: a couple points last cycle.

809
00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:13,960
Speaker 1: That's kind of a special election because it's to fill

810
00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:15,200
Speaker 1: the JD.

811
00:44:15,360 --> 00:44:15,879
Speaker 6: Van seat.

812
00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:19,319
Speaker 8: Yes, so John Hustad is the incumbent Republican. He was

813
00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:21,919
Speaker 8: appointed to that seat. He's the former lieutenant governor. He

814
00:44:22,120 --> 00:44:25,880
Speaker 8: has been elected statewide before, but not to that Senate seat,

815
00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:28,680
Speaker 8: and he's new in the chamber. Shared Brown, of course,

816
00:44:28,760 --> 00:44:32,520
Speaker 8: heavily recruited by Democrats to run this time around and

817
00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:37,120
Speaker 8: avoids a primary and all that stuff, So he's one potential.

818
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:40,560
Speaker 8: Then you've got Iowa, where you have an open seat.

819
00:44:40,640 --> 00:44:44,000
Speaker 8: Senator Joni Ernst isn't seeking a third term. Democrats have

820
00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:47,839
Speaker 8: a primary there essentially a three person primary between state

821
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:52,160
Speaker 8: Representative Josh Turik, State Senator Zach Walls, and veteran Nathan Sage.

822
00:44:52,280 --> 00:44:55,280
Speaker 8: Republicans have all lined up behind Congresswoman Ashley Hinson.

823
00:44:55,560 --> 00:44:58,360
Speaker 4: Iowa was a what and R plus Trump wonted.

824
00:44:58,160 --> 00:45:00,359
Speaker 8: By like twelve last time he went it by ten

825
00:45:00,560 --> 00:45:04,120
Speaker 8: or nine in twenty twenty and twenty sixteen. It's gotten

826
00:45:04,120 --> 00:45:06,640
Speaker 8: pretty republican. But here's what I'll say about Iowa and

827
00:45:06,640 --> 00:45:08,960
Speaker 8: the reason why I think that Iowa, of all of

828
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:11,000
Speaker 8: these states that I'm mentioning here kind of in this

829
00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:13,960
Speaker 8: second and third tier, Iowa is the most intriguing to

830
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:17,160
Speaker 8: me is for two reasons. Firstly, there's clearly something in

831
00:45:17,160 --> 00:45:19,600
Speaker 8: the water there if you look at special election results

832
00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:22,439
Speaker 8: at the state legislative level. Since the beginning of the year,

833
00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:26,200
Speaker 8: Iowa has been the location of the greatest Democratic overperformance

834
00:45:26,440 --> 00:45:29,120
Speaker 8: relative to twenty twenty four. We've had now half a

835
00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:31,839
Speaker 8: dozen state Senate and state House races in Iowa over

836
00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:35,080
Speaker 8: the last twelve months, and Democrats have I believe in

837
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:38,520
Speaker 8: almost perhaps every single one of them overperformed well into

838
00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:41,479
Speaker 8: the double digits. They had some big wins, flipping state

839
00:45:41,520 --> 00:45:44,799
Speaker 8: Senate districts. They are breaking the Republican super majority. So

840
00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:48,920
Speaker 8: I think that there is an element of democratic energy

841
00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:49,480
Speaker 8: in Iowa.

842
00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:50,880
Speaker 6: Arguably, Iowa is.

843
00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:53,120
Speaker 8: In a bit of a localized recession right now due

844
00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:57,280
Speaker 8: to the outsize impact of the tariffs, of the soybean policy,

845
00:45:57,320 --> 00:45:58,400
Speaker 8: of the beef policy.

846
00:45:58,800 --> 00:45:59,959
Speaker 6: You know, you have a reason why.

847
00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:03,719
Speaker 8: You know, Chuck Grassley is very vocally pushing back against

848
00:46:03,920 --> 00:46:07,520
Speaker 8: Trump on tariffs, and that's because I think Iowa is

849
00:46:07,640 --> 00:46:11,920
Speaker 8: uniquely vulnerable to those challenges. So I think that there's

850
00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:15,240
Speaker 8: a possibility for Democrats to put up a real fight there. Plus,

851
00:46:15,239 --> 00:46:17,680
Speaker 8: you've got Rob sand running for governor who's going to

852
00:46:17,719 --> 00:46:19,480
Speaker 8: spend a ton of money and run a very good

853
00:46:19,520 --> 00:46:21,920
Speaker 8: campaign at the top of the ticket. So that's always

854
00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:25,120
Speaker 8: helpful for every other Democrat in the state. After Iowa,

855
00:46:25,200 --> 00:46:28,240
Speaker 8: you got to look to Texas, where Democrats have tried

856
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:31,600
Speaker 8: and failed to make something happen for the last twenty

857
00:46:31,600 --> 00:46:35,000
Speaker 8: five years, not since Anne Richards has a Democrat won

858
00:46:35,120 --> 00:46:38,320
Speaker 8: statewide in Texas, so it's been quite a long time.

859
00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:41,920
Speaker 8: They've got a primary amongst themselves Colin Allread and James Tallerico.

860
00:46:42,120 --> 00:46:45,160
Speaker 8: But the real drama here is the Republican primary.

861
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:48,799
Speaker 1: Yes, which we will continue on next time you come back.

862
00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:53,160
Speaker 1: Will you please come back? This was like one of

863
00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:57,600
Speaker 1: the I just I'm like obsessed with this interview.

864
00:46:58,120 --> 00:47:01,080
Speaker 4: I am a huge fan and also I've just learned

865
00:47:01,080 --> 00:47:02,440
Speaker 4: a lot of new stuff. So thanks.

866
00:47:02,760 --> 00:47:05,319
Speaker 8: Yeah, no, absolutely, there's We've got a full year to

867
00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:08,720
Speaker 8: digest all this, so there's a lot to talk about.

868
00:47:09,800 --> 00:47:10,839
Speaker 3: No more.

869
00:47:11,120 --> 00:47:16,839
Speaker 4: Pet Jesse Cannon BII. Mister Trump, Yes, I've heard about him.

870
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:21,640
Speaker 2: He really loved the socialists Zorad, you know, the TikTok Bolshevik,

871
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:22,880
Speaker 2: and he's showing it.

872
00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:24,720
Speaker 3: He's socializing fucking everything.

873
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:29,360
Speaker 1: Yes, so this should be a shmongous scandal, a huge

874
00:47:29,600 --> 00:47:34,160
Speaker 1: mangus scandal. So Trump administration is buying parts of companies

875
00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:35,520
Speaker 1: now in itself.

876
00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:37,839
Speaker 4: Who doesn't love socialism? We love it.

877
00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:40,920
Speaker 1: And look, the American government has done this before, and

878
00:47:40,960 --> 00:47:44,120
Speaker 1: the thinking behind it is maybe not so insane. The

879
00:47:44,200 --> 00:47:46,960
Speaker 1: problem is because of Trump, He's done a lot of

880
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:50,000
Speaker 1: crypt shit. Also, we don't know how he's vetting these companies.

881
00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:53,640
Speaker 1: But what you have to realize is, okay, so a

882
00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:57,600
Speaker 1: few things. There's no real strategy here. Some of it

883
00:47:57,800 --> 00:48:00,839
Speaker 1: is Trump wanting to, like king make or you know,

884
00:48:01,040 --> 00:48:03,399
Speaker 1: make over chores towards people he likes.

885
00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:06,239
Speaker 4: So that is for sure true.

886
00:48:06,320 --> 00:48:09,080
Speaker 3: Picked up winners and losers, pretty capitalism.

887
00:48:09,120 --> 00:48:13,440
Speaker 1: There's no strategy. It's a lot of cronyism one of

888
00:48:13,480 --> 00:48:17,360
Speaker 1: these situations. Then he went and bought oh in Intel,

889
00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:20,080
Speaker 1: I think he went and bought three million dollars of debt,

890
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:22,880
Speaker 1: so personally I think it was Intel.

891
00:48:22,960 --> 00:48:26,320
Speaker 4: But you know, so there's real, like real.

892
00:48:26,200 --> 00:48:31,080
Speaker 1: Corruption level corruption here, which I think is also worth noting.

893
00:48:31,880 --> 00:48:35,120
Speaker 4: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics.

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00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:41,319
Speaker 1: Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to hear

895
00:48:41,560 --> 00:48:46,000
Speaker 1: the best minds and politics make sense of all this chaos.

896
00:48:46,239 --> 00:48:49,080
Speaker 1: If you enjoy this podcast, please send it to a

897
00:48:49,120 --> 00:48:51,520
Speaker 1: friend and keep the conversation going.

898
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:53,160
Speaker 4: Thanks for listening.