WEBVTT - Why voters are in their populist era 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:06.840 Welcome to off the cop with me, se Cup. So 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:10.200 last weekend I was in Washington, d C. With almost 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:12.240 everyone else who does what I do for a living, 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:16.280 and I go every year for the White House Correspondence Dinner. 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.800 In years past, I've attended the dinner and there's parties 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:21.800 and events and it's a fun chance to see colleagues 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:25.919 and friends. Sometimes I bring my family down and we 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:28.160 have a little fun in DC. But in the past 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:32.280 few years I've actually gone down to cover the dinner 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:37.680 for CNN, so not to attend, which is a relief, honestly, 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:40.800 that dinner is not It hasn't been fun in a 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:42.559 long time. I'll just say that, Okay, there was a 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:44.400 time it was fun. It's not been fun in a 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:48.680 long time. So happy to not be at it. And 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:50.920 CNN is one of the only cable networks that airs 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:53.400 the entire dinner wall to wall, and we have reporters 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:56.000 on the carpet interviewing guests, we comment on the speeches, 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:59.160 all of it. So I've done that the past few years, 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:02.600 and this year I was in studio at CNNDC with 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:06.759 my colleagues covering the dinner. When you know, all held 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:11.920 broke loose, and then we had to cover the breaking 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:15.120 news for four plus hours, bringing you all the information 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.199 we could from our sources in and out of the room, 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:20.720 from law enforcement, from our own colleagues who were there, 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:25.319 like like Wolf Blitzer, who was actually in the same 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:27.760 place as the shooter. He was tackled by police for 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.240 his own protection. And it was a lot. It was 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:34.520 a lot, as breaking news always is. I've had to 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:40.240 cover breaking news a lot over my career, from Sandy 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:48.160 Hook to wars and other incidents and political breaking news, 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:52.080 and you know, it's a lot of pressure. The difference 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:53.880 this time is I was covering a breaking news story 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:58.240 that involved all my friends, Like I knew lots of 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.000 people in that room, both you know, in journalism but 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:04.720 also in the administration. And I've talked a lot about it, 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:06.880 so we don't need to like get into it all again. 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:08.920 But I did want to take this opportunity, since we 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:12.560 haven't spoken since that dinner, to say before we get 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:15.040 into the news, that I was so proud of my 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:19.440 friends and colleagues for the poise and the professionalism that 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:22.720 they exhibited that night, even while they were worried about 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:25.600 their own safety, they were reporting on what was happening. 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.960 They were running down sources, you know, while they were 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:32.720 under tables. They were taking bikes to the White House 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:35.440 to cover the President's briefing in their ball gowns and tuxas. 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:39.280 And this was a night where they were preparing to 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.200 be roasted by the president to their faces. And I've 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:47.440 talked about that and what I thought, how that was 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:53.280 a bad decision, But they would have taken it like 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:57.960 the adults that they are. They wouldn't have tried to 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:00.160 sue him or silence him. They wouldn't have threatened or 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.600 intimidated him. Instead, they would have just sat there and 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:05.560 taken it, because that's what we do. We take it. 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.040 We take it from the President, we take it from 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:10.880 Brendan Carr, we take it from Pete Hegseth, we take 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:14.560 it from whomever in the administration because they're the thin 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.960 skinned ones and we just do our jobs. So they 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:22.440 would have taken it, but they didn't have that night. Instead, 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:26.519 they faced a different kind of chaos and indignity thanks 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:31.320 to a deranged lunatic who believed that violence was righteous 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.120 and justifiable, even like too many people do these days. 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:36.600 It was an awful night in so many ways, but 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:38.760 also it was a real testament to the point of 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:42.360 the night, which is press freedom. And all the people 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:46.040 in that room are attacked on a near daily basis 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:48.680 by people who call them fake, who call them enemies, 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:52.760 who send them death threats, myself included. And as professional 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:56.920 as they were and are, they're also human. So I 0:03:57.000 --> 0:03:59.680 just want to shout out my colleagues. I'm just proud 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.040 of them, and I'm proud to be in this community. 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:04.440 All right, let's move on to the news. We're gonna 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:06.480 do a little left right today. I want to start 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.600 with the right and the news that Trump's DJ is 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:13.560 once again going after James call Me, because this is such, 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:18.400 this is such a layered and interesting story, and in 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:22.599 many ways it's a very sad story as well. This week, 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.919 Acting Attorney General Todd blanche who, as you know, is 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:31.320 auditioning to drop the acting and just become Trump's new ag, 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.200 he announced he had indicted former FBI director James call 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:37.840 Me for the second time in less than a year, 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.920 over an Instagram post in which Comy had arranged seashells 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:48.280 on a beach to spell out eighty six forty seven. Now, 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:51.960 Trump is saying that eighty six means kill. We know. 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:54.360 Forty seven refers to Trump, the forty seventh president, but 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:58.479 to literally everyone else in the free world, eighty six 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:02.760 means to Nick. Yes, it comes from restaurant jargon. Nick's 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:07.040 a menu item. But Trump and Blanches DJ are actually 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.039 making the case that this amounted to a threat of violence. 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:14.360 That sounds silly. It's because it is, and there are 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:19.520 many reasons why it's silly. First, a message made out 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:26.440 of seashells a year ago, photographed and posted on Instagram 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:28.960 for the world to see. Yes, this sounds like someone 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:33.560 who is definitely hatching a plan to go kill the president. Yeah, 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.479 gonna make a I'm gonna make a message in shells, 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.680 take a picture of it and post it with my 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.200 name on it. Yeah, doesn't really feel like an imminent threat, 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:45.760 does it? Like? If Trump really felt like he was 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:50.640 in danger from Jim Comy, wouldn't the FEDS have arrested 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:55.040 him immediately. Comy was so dangerous to the president that 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:58.159 they waited a year to indict him. That makes no sense. 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:04.560 Come on, weren't born yesterday. Second, it's just impossible. It's 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.359 flat out impossible to divorce this indictment from the politics 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:10.360 of revenge that we know Trump is so obsessed with. 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:13.839 He already tried indicting him last fall. It was tossed. 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:17.760 It was tossed because of a procedural error at the DOJ. 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:21.599 You'll remember, the judge in that case ruled that the prosecutor, 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:27.200 Lindsay Helligan, was unlawfully appointed. And that's because the other 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:30.720 prosecutors who got the case refused to take it. They 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.600 knew it was baseless, they knew it was politically motivated. 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:36.360 They refused to do it. So Trump had to find 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:38.200 a lawyer who was willing to take the case, and 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:41.920 he did, and she was a joke. And that's why 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:47.760 that judge dismissed the case. So anyway, they're back at it, 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:49.920 and let me just read you some of the headlines 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.680 about how people think it's going to go this time around. 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:59.440 Close Trump ally in the House shades Jim Comey indictment. 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:04.440 Judge Andrew Napolitano says frivolous Comy indictment will be tossed. 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:11.160 Trump allies are privately trashing embarrassing Comy indictment. Fox News 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:18.960 legal analyst shreds Trump DOJ's absurd Comy prosecution weak case. 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:22.160 Fox is Jonathan Turley skeptical of Trump. GJ is new 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.840 comy indictment every headline I just read. That's from his 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:30.800 side of the aisle. Guys, his friendlies on his networks 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:38.840 are calling this indictment quote frivolous, embarrassing, absurd. Week with 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:40.840 friends like that, who needs enemies? I don't even need 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.400 to come on and do this. His own side is like, dude, dude, 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:50.000 let it go. This is this is stupid. But that's 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:53.360 not all you want it. It gets even stupid, are you? Guys? 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:57.480 Trump may have killed this case before it's even begne 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:01.120 cee an it's Caitlyn Collins asked him this week in a 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:05.320 briefing if he really took that message in seashells I'm 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:10.760 paraphrasing as a threat to his life, and Trump typical 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:20.000 Trump fashion, says, I don't know, probably so good as 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:24.440 senior CNN legal analyst Elly Honig pointed out after that, well, 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:28.600 that gives the jury reasonable doubt. If Trump doesn't know 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:31.520 whether he thought he was his life was in danger, 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:35.280 I don't know. Probably how is a jury supposed to 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:37.480 know if he thought his life was in danger? And 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.640 that's the ruling. If he really thought his life was 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:48.400 in danger, he just said, I don't know. Probably they're 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:53.360 just so bad at this. Trump can't keep his mouth shut. 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:56.559 His DOJ is running out of competent prosecutors to take 0:08:56.559 --> 0:09:01.120 these garbage loser cases. And for what for Trump to 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:05.600 lose case after case after case. I mean, it's humiliating. 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:10.200 They have failed to put like any of Trump's enemies 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:14.679 in prison, and yet he is pathologically consumed with old 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:19.760 and irrelevant grudges. I think Trump never looks weaker than 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:24.120 he does in these moments when he's pursuing these personal 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:28.720 vendettas and losing. Just in the past year, Trump's DOJ 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.400 has lost numerous high profile cases it sought to use 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:36.760 to appease the president's bloodlust. I'm going to tick through them. 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:40.000 It failed to get an indictment against those six Democratic lawmakers, 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:44.480 including Senator Mark Kelly, over a video they released regarding 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.080 illegal orders. Remember he was going to prosecute this gang 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:52.920 of six. Yeah, nothing, it was dropped. Grand Juries rejected 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:56.120 various cases against protesters in Washington, d C. That Trump 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.679 tried to have arrested, an attempt to charge a man 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:02.160 with a f tell any assault for throwing a sandwich 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.760 at an officer, well that failed to secure a felony indictment. 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:12.680 Attempts to prosecute to James New York AG, former CIA 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:16.560 director John Brennan, fed Shaer Jerome Powell thus far have 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:21.080 all failed. Trump's also failed to successfully sue a number 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.960 of his political opponents, from Hillary Clinton to the DNC, 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:27.360 the New York Times to CNN. Remember he was going 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:32.559 to put us all in jail. No judges have overruled 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:36.760 his attempts at silencing news outlets, blocking a Pentagon policy 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:40.520 limiting reporter access, ordering the White House to lift restrictions 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:44.320 on the AP after Trump had banned the news agency 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:46.599 for refusing to use the term Gulf of America. I 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:50.880 remember how stupid that was. Yeah, judge ordered the White 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.120 House to love you can't do that, and blocking an 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:56.880 executive order to cut funding for NPR and PBS. He 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:02.760 loses and loses and loses. He's lost so many of 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:07.439 these petty personal fights. It's hard to imagine why he 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.120 keeps going back to the trough only to suffer more 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:15.240 humiliating losses. I guess if he thinks the process is 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:16.920 the pain, right, because he doesn't have to pay for 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:20.080 any of these lawsuits. Taxpayers do. We do, we get 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.960 that honor. But the targets of his law fair do 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:26.640 have to pay for their lawyers to defend his nonsense attacks. 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:28.280 So I guess that's what he gets out of it. 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:37.360 But for a guy who understands optics and appearances like 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:41.559 the TV of it all, I don't understand why he 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.679 likes losing over and over and over and over and 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:49.720 over and over and over again. I don't get it. 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:52.679 It's so small, it's so embarrassing, it's so dumb. But 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:54.880 it's a trophy goes back and back to because he 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.600 just can't help himself. He fired Pambondi because she didn't 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:01.600 get enough or any scalps. We'll see if Todd Blanche 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:13.040 can do better. It's just such a waste. Okay, I 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:14.840 want to move on to another story from the week 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:18.840 This is over on the Left. Did you happen to 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:23.080 catch Pod Save America's John Favreau and his interview with 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:27.920 DNC chair Ken Martino. Boy, Oh my god, you gotta 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.120 go watch it. I watched the whole thing. It was 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:35.560 let's just say it was uncomfy. John Favreau asked some 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:40.480 very very good questions of Ken Martin of his own side, which, 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:43.520 believe me, I know, can be hard to do, but 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:47.599 it's so necessary and important. So I was really, you know, 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:51.040 but proud of John Favreau, impressed by John Favreau for 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:54.440 really going after Ken Martin, and he did. And one 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.319 of the main lines of questioning came around the dem 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.199 autopsy that the party did last year. We've talked about 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:03.760 it a bit here, and having been through the Republican 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:06.480 autopsy in twenty twelve, which which I personally worked on, 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:10.200 I can tell you how valuable this exercise can be. 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:13.600 And in twenty twenty four, when Democrats lost all seven 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.319 swing states to a convicted criminal and a guy, we 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:20.360 knew it was crucial that they do that autopsy. It 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:24.320 was the right thing to do, to ask how did 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:27.400 this happen, what mistakes did we make? What can we 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.040 learn from twenty twenty four and not repeat in twenty 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:35.600 twenty eight. Good questions, right, like obvious, obvious need for 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:40.280 this autopsy. But in December of last year, Ken Martin 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:44.280 announced he wouldn't be releasing the results of that autopsy, 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:49.480 which I could not believe. I couldn't believe when I 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:55.160 heard that. What a dumb decision and a huge missed opportunity. 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:58.760 For a couple of reasons, a releasing the autopsy would 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:01.200 have inoculated the party from years of having to answer 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:05.200 this same question, what was in the autopsy? They look 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:09.360 so scared running from their own shadow, and they're going 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:13.920 to face these questions from folks like Jon Favreau for 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:16.400 the next couple of years. What was in the autopsy? 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.760 What were you so afraid of? But it also would 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:23.760 have given Ken Martin and other Democrats the opportunity to 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:28.520 do something really important, which is reassure voters, voters who 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.000 at the moment are giving the Democratic Party a twenty 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:36.680 eight percent approval rating abysmal. It would have given them 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:40.800 the opportunity to reassure voters that they get it. Okay, 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:45.640 they understand, they got what they did wrong, they learned 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:50.000 from their mistakes, and here's how they're moving forward to 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:53.720 win those voters back and put the party in a 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:57.280 better position for twenty twenty eight. What Democrat wouldn't relish 0:14:57.360 --> 0:14:59.240 that opportunity to come out and say we got it, 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.800 we got it, we're correcting it, not gonna happen again. 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.600 We're not gonna we're not gonna let you down again. 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:09.280 They did none of that. They get to do none 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:12.960 of that because they're scared of whatever's in that autopsy. Now, 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.880 maybe there are a few surprises in that autopsy. I 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:21.480 don't know. I doubt it. For me, it's hard to see. 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:27.600 It's hard to imagine that the reasons the party lost 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.880 aren't the obvious ones we can see, like we can 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:38.760 decide like there were bad candidates. Biden should not have run, period, 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:42.560 and Kamala basically ran as Biden. You know she had 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:46.360 to because he was still her boss. The divide on 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:50.160 the Israel issue divided the party two. But the main 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:52.000 reason I know that they lost, and I'm sure you 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:53.800 know that they lost, is because they look voters in 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.600 the eye and they said that the three problems you're 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:02.120 most concerned about aren't real, they're imaginary. The economy it's great. 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:06.680 What are you complaining about. Crime, it's down, you're safe. Relax. Immigration, 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:11.720 there's no migrant crisis. You're just racist. It was such 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:16.400 an insane dereliction of duty to campaign that way. It 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:20.000 was political map practice, and it was just stupid. It 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:22.600 is not rocket science to figure out what happened. But 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.520 you know, again, because I've been through an autopsy, it 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:30.360 does reveal things you can't maybe see in front of 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:33.880 your face. It might have drilled down into all kinds 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:38.480 of strategic mistakes, maybe some media mistakes, fundraising mistakes, map 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.120 and math mistakes, all kinds of things that would be 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:45.560 really great to know. And especially if you're a Democratic voter, 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:48.480 you deserve to know what the party did wrong and 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:52.760 what it learned. You should demand that, in fact, because 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.440 let's just be honest here and say what really happened. 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.440 The Democratic Party let you down in twenty twenty four. 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.280 It let us all down in twenty twenty four. I 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:04.560 voted for Biden in twenty twenty first Democrat I have 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:08.320 voted for president. It let me down in twenty twenty four. 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.800 And we are here today in a war we've never 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:17.199 asked for. Tariff, no one wanted immigration policies that have 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:21.000 militarized our cities and gotten Americans killed. A Republican Congress 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:23.800 who's turning a blind eye to every un American, undemocratic, 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:27.639 unconstitutional thing. The president is doing, an economy that is tanking, 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:31.640 and on and on. We're here because the Democratic Party 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:35.480 let us down in twenty twenty four. We're here because 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:39.760 the party didn't listen to its voters. Instead of listening 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:42.080 to the issues that voters said they cared about, it 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.840 wanted to tell voters the issues they should care about. 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.960 It's indefensible. It's indefensible what happened in twenty twenty four. 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:53.600 So you shouldn't just assume that the Democratic Party has 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.199 it's shit together this time. You shouldn't just assume that 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:58.119 they're going to run candidates who can win in twenty 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:01.639 twenty eight. You shouldn't assume they'll make her decisions. You 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.880 should demand that the party be accountable to you, the voters, 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:09.680 And part of that is releasing the autopsy and telling 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:13.600 you what happened. Because it's been accountable, it seems only 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.520 to consultants and corporations and special interests that have their 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:21.200 own agendas, and those agendas are hurting the party, they're 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:25.359 hurting us. This goes to another issue that became relevant 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:29.560 this week. Did you see that Janet Mills means pretty 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:34.200 popular governor dropped out of her bid for Senate. Mills, 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:37.640 a Democrat, was running to unseat Republican Susan Collins, who 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:41.120 has been there for twenty nine years. Guys and Mills 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:46.200 was actually recruited by Chuck Schumer. Well, she dropped out 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:47.680 this week because she says she doesn't have the money 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:50.920 to keep running, So that leaves Graham Platner, the progressive 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:56.040 oyster farmer with no political experience and some baggage to 0:18:56.160 --> 0:19:00.840 run against Collins. Democrats hope of unseating Susan Collins now 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:05.439 rests with Graham Plattner now. Mills campaign reminded me a 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:10.320 lot of Andrew Cuomo's campaign in New York City. I 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:13.320 covered the Mumdanni mayoral election every day last year, and 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:17.359 the Democratic Establishment aka the Party kind of ran the 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:21.840 same playbook against Mumdanni as it is against Platner. The 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:26.240 Democrats tried to make Mumdanni scary in the primary, scary 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:28.199 to other Democrats. They thought if they pointed out the 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:30.840 things that he had said about cops and Israel, that 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:33.199 that would be enough to turn voters off. And it 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:35.760 did turn some voters off. It certainly turned me off, 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.600 and they could have ended up being problems for Mumdanni, 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:42.080 but ultimately they weren't because voters were more concerned with 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:46.639 issues and ideas. They liked Mumdanni's ideas. They liked that 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:51.080 he wasn't an establishment politician. They ignored the DNC, they 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.800 ignored Cuomo, and in fact, the Democratic Party hardly helped 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:58.240 Mumdanni at all. Schumer didn't even endorse Mumdanni when he 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:02.240 became the nominee. Jeffries only did the last minute. The 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:07.480 main race to me, feels similar. The Democratic Party was 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:10.400 backing Mills, and it tried to ward voters off Platner 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:14.399 by making him seem scary, the Nazi tattoos, his comments 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:17.000 about rural America and cops, I mean, all of which 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:21.880 could be disqualifying and again turn me off. But it's 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:24.920 a new era. Voters like Platner because of his ideas, 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:29.520 because he's not an establishment politician. They're sick of the 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:34.119 gerontocracy telling them how to vote. And Schumer's running a 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:37.800 playbook from like twenty twelve, it's twenty twenty six. He 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:39.960 is so out of touch. How does the party not 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:43.560 get that? And look what worked from Momdannie in New 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:46.359 York City may not work for Platner in Maine or 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:48.960 James tell Rico in Texas will have to see but 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:54.200 backing Mills the way that the Democratic Party did, only 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:57.800 to have her drop out and leave Graham Plattner may 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:03.240 have guaranteed Collins gets another their term. So they don't 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:07.080 have it all together. Guys, Trump is an insane person. 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:12.400 This administration is off the rails, that's for sure. Democrats 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:17.159 don't have it together though, And while midterms look like 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:19.560 they're going to be good for Dems, I'm very worried 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:22.680 about twenty twenty eight. You should be too, okay when 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:24.440 we come back. I talked to a former DEM operative 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:35.159 about all of this. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back to 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:38.240 Off the cop I'm joined now by my friend Moa Laitha. 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:42.040 Mo was the DNC spokesman. He's a DEM strategist. Currently 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:44.960 he's the executive director of the Institute of Politics and 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:47.040 Public Service at Georgetown University. 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:49.520 Welcome mo It's so good to be with you. 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:52.640 So good to be with you too. We were talking 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:56.919 about the podsave interview with Ken Martin, and I really 0:21:56.960 --> 0:21:59.680 really want to get your take on it, in which 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:02.439 John Favreau kind of you know corners. Ken Martin on 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:06.840 why the DNC hasn't released the autopsy and apparently has 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:09.440 no plans to. And I can't tell you how dumb 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:11.639 I think that decision is as someone who did a 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:15.439 Republican autopsy and we learned a lot from it. But 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:16.960 what's your take on on all of that? 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:20.120 Yeah, you and me both, I don't. Uh, I don't 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:23.359 get it. Yeah, you know, Look, I'm uh. In my 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:27.160 previous life, I was a I was a communications guy. Yeah, 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:31.440 and like and a great one. You're you're too kind. 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:35.120 But like rule number one, like, don't make a promise 0:22:35.160 --> 0:22:38.040 you know you're not going to keep. And so whether 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:41.600 or not, like it was smart to release the autopsy, 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:45.640 he promised to release the autopsy. He campaigned on releasing 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:48.680 the autopsy. So it just set just set up an expectation. 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:52.960 And so if you're not, if you don't want to 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:57.439 release the whole thing, release something, right, do something. But 0:22:57.680 --> 0:22:59.800 when it gets to the heart of the matter itself, 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:03.960 I think here's the problem. I'm a proud Democrat, have 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:06.280 been my whole life, even though I run this non 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:12.760 partisan institute now like I'm a Democrat. We messed up 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:17.479 the last election, and I think it is important for 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:23.359 people to see why and how Number two, people don't 0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:28.119 like us right now. They like Republicans less, but that 0:23:28.480 --> 0:23:32.359 doesn't mean they like us, and to show a little 0:23:32.520 --> 0:23:39.760 bit of self reflection would probably do us some good, right. 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:42.920 I Mean, one of the reasons people don't trust politics 0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:46.880 in general is because because of that fact, they don't 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:50.959 they think we're tone deaf in both parties, and so 0:23:51.400 --> 0:23:53.800 being able to go out there and say you know what, 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:57.639 we hear you, we see what you don't like, and 0:23:57.680 --> 0:24:00.320 we're going to make some changes like that would go 0:24:00.640 --> 0:24:03.040 a long way to restoring public trust. 0:24:03.720 --> 0:24:06.720 I mean, I just said that, and you weren't here 0:24:06.880 --> 0:24:09.399 for when I said that, so we didn't coordinate this 0:24:09.680 --> 0:24:14.720 like that's it when you in twenty twelve, someone in 0:24:14.760 --> 0:24:17.240 the party, I forget who it was, said, listen, we 0:24:17.280 --> 0:24:18.800 got sent to the woodshed, and when you get sent 0:24:18.840 --> 0:24:21.360 to the woodshed, you sit down, shut up, and think 0:24:21.400 --> 0:24:24.879 about what you've done. And that really stuck with me 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:27.720 because you know, I was a lifelong Republican. That was 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:30.840 my team and we lost badly, and so I wanted 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:33.159 I thought it was important we owed it to voters 0:24:33.240 --> 0:24:37.439 to say we're working on ourselves. You deserve a better party, 0:24:38.480 --> 0:24:41.720 You deserve answers, you deserve to know that we figured 0:24:41.760 --> 0:24:44.720 some stuff out and it did go a long way. 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:48.320 You'll get this right as a parent, like when my 0:24:48.440 --> 0:24:52.199 kids screw up, Yeah, I want them to own up 0:24:52.240 --> 0:24:56.119 to screwing up. When they don't, when they just say no, 0:24:56.240 --> 0:24:59.520 I didn't do anything right, right, that pisses me off 0:24:59.560 --> 0:25:04.320 even more so, Like, you know, it's no different here. 0:25:04.440 --> 0:25:09.560 People want to know that we get it and you 0:25:09.560 --> 0:25:13.000 know we own up to it. It's not going to 0:25:13.000 --> 0:25:16.280 restore trust overnight. Things might even get worse before they 0:25:16.280 --> 0:25:18.960 get better, but that's the first step. That they won't 0:25:19.000 --> 0:25:20.160