Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly john Fast, and this is Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds and GOP Congressman Klaigan says the FEDS
Speaker 1: are staging a civil war in Texas should stand their
Speaker 1: ground after the Supreme Court's ruling that the Biden administration
Speaker 1: and not Texas, has jurisdiction over border enforcement. We have
Speaker 1: such an interesting show today. White host Press Secretary Kareeine
Speaker 1: Jean Pierre joins us to talk about the Biden Administration's achievements.
Speaker 1: Then we'll talk to Congressman Brendan Boyle about his unusual
Speaker 1: take on dealing with Speaker of the House, Mega Mike Johnson.
Speaker 1: But first we have the host of the focus group podcast,
Speaker 1: the publisher of the board, my friend, Sarah Longwell. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Fast Politics.
Speaker 2: Sarah Longwell, Molly Jock Fast.
Speaker 1: What's happened you do these focus groups? I want to
Speaker 1: know what they're telling you. They are all so excited
Speaker 1: for Nicki Haley.
Speaker 3: If only if only the centrist dreams of my heart
Speaker 3: were coming true and the Republican Party was abandoning Trump
Speaker 3: and going for that old school Paul Nikki Haley. But no, no, no,
Speaker 3: Mostly what we hear about Nikki Haley from folks is
Speaker 3: they don't trust her, which I don't know.
Speaker 4: To me is always sort of well, I don't know,
Speaker 4: she's a uterus.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't laugh, because this is how democracy dies. But
Speaker 1: it is kind of amazing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, I mean, look, actually, i think there is
Speaker 4: a little bit of that.
Speaker 3: And I've actually been shocked by how many people have
Speaker 3: said in the focus groups that they just don't see
Speaker 3: themselves voting for a woman. I mean genuinely surprised. Very
Speaker 3: little surprises me anymore, but I've been surprised by that.
Speaker 3: But actually, I think the main reason that she is
Speaker 3: not more of a fan favorite with these voters is
Speaker 3: that they don't like these pre Trump Republicans, and Nikki
Speaker 3: Haley to them represents a Republican party that they have
Speaker 3: come to not just a shoe, not just put aside,
Speaker 3: but actively hate. Donald Trump really taught them to hate
Speaker 3: what they call, you know, establishment politicians, and she is
Speaker 3: to them the ultimate establishment politician. She is somebody who
Speaker 3: in an old Republican party, her foreign policy experience would
Speaker 3: be an asset, but here they see her as a warmonger.
Speaker 2: You saw her.
Speaker 3: She's had to come out and say to them, my
Speaker 3: husband's in the military, not a warmonger. I don't want
Speaker 3: people to go to war because my husband's But she
Speaker 3: has to defend herself against that because she's hearing it
Speaker 3: all the time, and you know, I just people say
Speaker 3: things like she'll be owned by corporate interests.
Speaker 2: She's a rhino.
Speaker 3: And I think it's nice that Nikki is the last
Speaker 3: person standing against Trump, but Desanta's dropping out this early,
Speaker 3: it's actually bad for her.
Speaker 4: Vivid to the it's underappreciated. I think there was a
Speaker 4: for a long time.
Speaker 3: People are like, well, the field needs to consolidate around somebody,
Speaker 3: And I think that would have been true if the
Speaker 3: field could have consolidated around DeSantis. But what's happening is
Speaker 3: the field is consolidating around Trump. Because if you add
Speaker 3: up Trump's polling DeSantis's polling, and like Vivagues, you get
Speaker 3: like eighty five percent of the party. Right, There's just
Speaker 3: not that many voters who want the old school kinds
Speaker 3: of Republicans. They they want Trump or somebody like Trump.
Speaker 3: And I think that Nikki Haley and Mike Pence, Chris
Speaker 3: Christie and a lot of others, Maybe not Chris Christie,
Speaker 3: because I think he was more on a mission. But
Speaker 3: I do think a lot of these folks just misunderstand
Speaker 3: what's happened with the voters and they don't realize that
Speaker 3: the party that they thought they knew was gone. There's
Speaker 3: just not enough people to vote for Niki. He the
Speaker 3: reason that she's getting all this buzz in New Hampshire
Speaker 3: is because there's a ton of undeclared voters. And look,
Speaker 3: when I've done focus groups with the undeclared voters who
Speaker 3: are going out to vote for Niki, they are MSNBC
Speaker 3: watching Democrats who are turning out, who are turning out
Speaker 3: to like vote against Trump, and they don't feel disgusting
Speaker 3: doing it for her in a way that they might
Speaker 3: have for DeSantis. But Desanta's is wrapping out like all
Speaker 3: that does, it's sending more. There's a reason that the
Speaker 3: and it's a reason the polling has started to divide again.
Speaker 3: And you know she was running close there for a
Speaker 3: little bit, but now you know she's back down twenty points,
Speaker 3: and it's because the consolidation is helped Trump.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really good point, and it's funny because
Speaker 1: there's so many people in my life who I am
Speaker 1: socially friendly with. And this is purely anecdotal, so it
Speaker 1: should go in the New York Times. Is that they
Speaker 1: you know, they definitely are like secretly, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: they're Democrats, but they're secretly very optimistic about a Nicki
Speaker 1: Haley candidacy. And I'm like, you, guys, there is no
Speaker 1: mass where Nicki Haley can win this primary. And in fact,
Speaker 1: Trump has sort of raped this a little bit too.
Speaker 1: He changed the rules, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So there's a couple of things.
Speaker 3: One, the rules were actually changed in twenty twelve in
Speaker 3: order to have a much more truncated primary, Like the
Speaker 3: Republican Party basically decided these protracted primaries are bad for
Speaker 3: us and so we don't want them, and so the
Speaker 3: rules were changed a long time ago. But then he
Speaker 3: and the RNC, and he's got a very talented campaign
Speaker 3: staff now in Susie Wilds, formerly of the Santus campaign,
Speaker 3: who hates around Asantis, so she went to work for Trump.
Speaker 1: He really screwed up there.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, you alienate like talented people, and like
Speaker 3: she decided that she hated him so much that she
Speaker 3: was going to go work for Donald Trump just to
Speaker 3: like end his political career, which he did. But they also,
Speaker 3: you know, they frontloaded a bunch of these states that
Speaker 3: are winner take all or winner take most, and so
Speaker 3: for people who love the drama of you know, a
Speaker 3: Super Tuesday and a long primary leading up to convention,
Speaker 3: that is not what we're going to get. Now, maybe
Speaker 3: Nikkihilia has enough money to take a run at Trump,
Speaker 3: you know in South Carolina. She doesn't drop out right
Speaker 3: after New Hampshire. But I mean, when you get crushed
Speaker 3: in your home state, staying in, I mean, unless don't
Speaker 3: donors come to her and say, like, we really want
Speaker 3: to protract in primary and they give her enough money
Speaker 3: just to like run it out. I guess it's possible,
Speaker 3: but typically that is not how it works well.
Speaker 1: And I want to ask you, like, is someone who
Speaker 1: all of us have faced the ire of MAGA before.
Speaker 1: It does seem to me it's it's scary to go
Speaker 1: against Trump. You have all of these Republican senators who
Speaker 1: have decided not to do this, right, almost all of
Speaker 1: the Republican Party has just been like, he'll go away
Speaker 1: if we close our eyes hard enough. So I mean
Speaker 1: doesn't she have some of that experience too.
Speaker 2: I think so.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think what's happening is she's not having
Speaker 3: that in New Hampshire, right, just because of the unique
Speaker 3: makeup of New Hampshire's voters and there's so many undeclared voters.
Speaker 3: So like Nikki Hay's walking down the street and people
Speaker 3: are like, hey, Nikki, and everywhere she goes.
Speaker 2: There's cameras following her.
Speaker 3: She's flanked by her work husband, Chris sa Nunu, and
Speaker 3: that I think feels good to her. I think when
Speaker 3: she goes back to her home state and people are like,
Speaker 3: why are you running against my man Trump? Get out
Speaker 3: of here, I think it becomes a less pleasant experience.
Speaker 3: I think that when it becomes unpleasant, the incentives for
Speaker 3: staying in start to diminish for her.
Speaker 1: And then also there's like the security. Now, can you
Speaker 1: answer this question for me? Because one of the things
Speaker 1: that I've been struck by is it seems like the
Speaker 1: Trump base and again, this is polling. This is what
Speaker 1: I've read. I read something political about it today. It
Speaker 1: seems like the base has gotten smaller but harder.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's right.
Speaker 3: There's a couple of things I always say to as
Speaker 3: like just truisms for how to understand what's happening to
Speaker 3: the Republican Party. One is sort of Trump owns the base,
Speaker 3: but the base is quite large in the sense that
Speaker 3: it could win any primary. However, the gap between what
Speaker 3: that base wants, like what they demand, and what swing
Speaker 3: voters will tolerate, that GAP's gotten really wide, and so
Speaker 3: I think that there's an intensity to the base that's
Speaker 3: really high that allows him to him and his people
Speaker 3: to essentially win any Republican primary that they want, but
Speaker 3: it's getting harder and harder for them to win general
Speaker 3: elections because of how many voters they're alienating, people who
Speaker 3: are sort of right leaning, independent, soft GOP voters, former moderates,
Speaker 3: people who liked Romney and John McCain, And so I
Speaker 3: do think that this is how it ends. People are
Speaker 3: always like, well, how are we gonna go back? How
Speaker 3: are we gonna save the Republican Party? And I think
Speaker 3: there's only one path, and it is sustained electoral defeat.
Speaker 3: As the party continues to put up Trump and candidates
Speaker 3: like him, and only then only through sustained electoral defeat
Speaker 3: will there eventually be the right political incentives to reform itself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that seems to be the only way
Speaker 1: this goes. And the funny thing when I think about,
Speaker 1: like I was listening to Trump, It was listening to
Speaker 1: a clip of c Span. He was giving a speech
Speaker 1: in Iowa, and he said, and the next Senator of
Speaker 1: the state of Arizona Carrie Lay. And I was like,
Speaker 1: he doesn't even believe that. Yeah, she said she's still governor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know how she runs for both positions
Speaker 3: at once. Really talented. Yeah, I don't think she's going
Speaker 3: to be the next senator. But look, I mean, I
Speaker 3: don't know if you remember Katie Hobbs, who she ran
Speaker 3: against for governor last time. Yeah, but God bless Katie Hobbs.
Speaker 3: But this is a negative charisma person who didn't run
Speaker 3: a particularly good campaign, and turnout in Arizona among Republicans
Speaker 3: was quite high. A bunch of those Republicans voted for
Speaker 3: Katie Hobbs, the negative charisma democrat, over Carry Lake.
Speaker 1: Because they knew what was at stinct.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right. People know Carrie Lake is nuts.
Speaker 3: And look, the fact is that, like I said, there's
Speaker 3: a big part of the party, big chunk that demands nuts,
Speaker 3: and then there are a bunch of swing of your
Speaker 3: voters who refuse to engage nuts, refuse to indulge it.
Speaker 3: That's what saves us time and time again. It saved
Speaker 3: us in eighteen, it saved us in twenty, and it
Speaker 3: saved us in twenty two, and now we got to
Speaker 3: do it again in twenty twenty four, and we're all
Speaker 3: more tired, and we're all more used to it all.
Speaker 3: It's not shocking or breathtaking anymore. It's all going to
Speaker 3: be harder. But I do think that's what happened as
Speaker 3: long as the third party nonsense doesn't overtake us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly what you say, what you just said is
Speaker 1: what I say to everyone, is that ultimately we are
Speaker 1: in a situation where historically, and by historically I mean
Speaker 1: in the last eight years, not fourteen ninety two, historically
Speaker 1: voters have said, no, we don't want this. But that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that if we are not vigilant in twenty four,
Speaker 1: I mean, he can win the electoral college. We've seen
Speaker 1: that happen before.
Speaker 2: Totally. No Trump can absolutely win.
Speaker 1: If no Labels runs a third party candidate, he.
Speaker 3: Will certainly if there's a third party candidate, but also
Speaker 3: just if there's kind of, you know, a malaise that.
Speaker 4: Overtakes people like in twenty six Yeah, where they're just.
Speaker 3: Like, I don't know, I don't like Biden. I'm not
Speaker 3: doing it. I'm not going out there. But my big hope,
Speaker 3: not even just hope, that's sort of my expectation, is
Speaker 3: that local elections are really going to matter to young people. Abortion,
Speaker 3: there are a bunch of issues that these young voters
Speaker 3: care about. I think that nothing papers over the divisions
Speaker 3: in the Democratic Party quite like Donald Trump. I think
Speaker 3: that people have forgotten what they hate about Donald Trump,
Speaker 3: and they're very focused on what they don't like about
Speaker 3: Joe Biden because he's the president. I'm one of the
Speaker 3: few people and I get yelled out at Twitter for
Speaker 3: this particular piece of analysis.
Speaker 2: People don't like it.
Speaker 3: But I actually think if look, if Trump's going to
Speaker 3: be the nominee, I think not having a protracted primary
Speaker 3: is fine. I think the sooner it's a contrast election
Speaker 3: between Trump and Biden, the faster Biden's numbers start to
Speaker 3: go up and voters re engage and we are reminded
Speaker 3: of what they don't like about Trump, and that starts
Speaker 3: to turn the vibes around, It starts to turn the
Speaker 3: negativity around around Biden.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and one of the things I'm so struck by
Speaker 1: is that, I mean, if you were to pause for
Speaker 1: a second and just make this case. For Trump to win,
Speaker 1: he needs massive turnout of an electorate that only exists
Speaker 1: for him, right with these low frequency voters who maybe
Speaker 1: never voted. Right. The reason he won and the reason
Speaker 1: the polling was so off was because people voted for
Speaker 1: him who hadn't voted that's right, or voted once. So
Speaker 1: it was a shifting electorate. So now here we are
Speaker 1: that electorate has to get out and in Iowa that
Speaker 1: is not what happened.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was tough, just I mean, so that is
Speaker 3: one hundred percent tro I am shocked by how small
Speaker 3: the turnout wasn't Iowa. It's just tough though, because both
Speaker 3: it was not a competitive race, right, so everyone knew
Speaker 3: Trump was going to run away with it. They were
Speaker 3: not excited by the Trump alternatives. I think this is
Speaker 3: like the under just underappreciated. They're like, why did Trump?
Speaker 3: You know, why is Trump running away with it? And look,
Speaker 3: there's a lot of reasons that people are devoted to Trump,
Speaker 3: but like, also, you can't beat something with nothing, and
Speaker 3: nothing's what these other candidates were giving us.
Speaker 4: And then it was cold as hey, you know, like
Speaker 4: it was like the coldest day ever.
Speaker 3: And so I don't know, I don't know that I'll
Speaker 3: read so much into that, but I will be interested
Speaker 3: just generally if turnout and across the board and these
Speaker 3: primaries is way down. Although but it's again, it's gonna
Speaker 3: be trd because there's not a real race, so people
Speaker 3: are like it's Trump's.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I want you to talk about that,
Speaker 1: because that's one of the things I've been really struck
Speaker 1: by is like they never gave us and I'm not
Speaker 1: a Republican primary voter, so whatever, but they never gave
Speaker 1: any choices. There wasn't even jab right. There was never
Speaker 1: a world where the Republican governor who got in trouble
Speaker 1: for bridge Gate was going to be the nominee.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is right, And look he ran as kind
Speaker 3: of a kamikaze candidate to make the case against Trump,
Speaker 3: and I think that's fine. The big thing is that
Speaker 3: DeSantis kind of cleared the field early because everybody was like,
Speaker 3: this is going to be the guy, right, and so
Speaker 3: a bunch of other people didn't run that. I think
Speaker 3: we're looking at it. You're Tom Cotton's your Josh hawleies.
Speaker 3: Everyone was like, all right, DeSantis has got this. And
Speaker 3: then DeSantis both he was a bad candidate and he
Speaker 3: had a bad strategy. The more people saw of him,
Speaker 3: the less that they liked him, and instead of you know,
Speaker 3: I don't know if I was on the show talking
Speaker 3: about this a year ago, I bet I was though
Speaker 3: about how many people who were kind of there was
Speaker 3: a chunk of move on from Trump voters in the
Speaker 3: Pulican primaries, and they were all very dasantis curious and
Speaker 3: as DeSantis, instead of trying to consolidate that group, he
Speaker 3: decided to wrestle Trump for his death cult of always
Speaker 3: trumpers right, he alienated much like Trump did the move
Speaker 3: on from Trump voters because they didn't like six weeks
Speaker 3: abortion ban or his unwillingness to defend Ukraine, Like these
Speaker 3: were the people who wanted to get beyond that. And
Speaker 3: then on top of it, just like a black hole
Speaker 3: of charisma or like actively off putting and weird, and
Speaker 3: then Trump started attacking him, and like a lot of
Speaker 3: those people, the maybe trump ors whatever, they kind of
Speaker 3: just drifted back to Trump.
Speaker 2: Well, I think he's he's the only one who could
Speaker 2: do it. He's the only one who's tough enough.
Speaker 3: And like DeSantis, you cannot set expectations that you're a
Speaker 3: fighter and then like not fight, not fight for it.
Speaker 3: So it was never I don't know, I've been saying
Speaker 3: this now forever since Desanta's sort of got in, I
Speaker 3: was like, oh, it's over because he waited too long
Speaker 3: to get in, and once he did and you got
Speaker 3: any look at him, I was like listening to myself
Speaker 3: back in March of la We're on a debate and
Speaker 3: like it was like resolved, DeSantis will be the nominee,
Speaker 3: and I was like, I'm taking the opposite of that.
Speaker 2: I'm taking the opposite. This guy's not doing.
Speaker 1: It, like just even conventional wisdom wise, like he's wearing lifts.
Speaker 1: You know, there's so many reasons why in the television age,
Speaker 1: we don't nominate people like that. The moment I'll remember
Speaker 1: of Ron Desanta's on the campaign trail is a little
Speaker 1: girl is eating an icy at the Iowa State Fair
Speaker 1: and he says there's a lot of sugar in.
Speaker 2: That totally normal, super fun guy. Yeah, wants to hang out, right.
Speaker 1: I mean it was like imagine Donald Trump or any
Speaker 1: retail politician being like, that's too much sugar for you,
Speaker 1: little girl. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean I remember when Donald Trump told the seven
Speaker 3: year old that Santa wasn't real.
Speaker 4: So right, but like this is where this is where.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is a thing.
Speaker 3: I obviously find Trump repellent, but like there's a kind
Speaker 3: of charm that I think people find in Trump when
Speaker 3: he's doing things like that, because it's sort of funny,
Speaker 3: whereas DeSantis seems like a like a scold. Hey, but
Speaker 3: can I ask you something? You and I got in
Speaker 3: an argument at our New York show about like the
Speaker 3: Dysanti is more dangerous than Trump.
Speaker 1: Yes, I still believe it.
Speaker 4: Really, Can I tell you why?
Speaker 1: Okay, So I know we did get into it. I
Speaker 1: mean it was, yes, yeah, okay, So this is why.
Speaker 1: Because policy wise, he's much much smarter and he's much
Speaker 1: more organized. Again, he's a terrible candidate, not charismatic, can't win,
Speaker 1: thank god. But the anxiety I had was like, for example,
Speaker 1: in Florida and I've actually I was talking to Jason
Speaker 1: Stanley from Yale about this, and he was saying, like,
Speaker 1: one of the scarier things that Dissantis did was New
Speaker 1: College in Florida, because he took over an academic institution,
Speaker 1: and that was something that actually I had said. I
Speaker 1: was talking to another academic and I said, this is like,
Speaker 1: so I'm getting over my skis here. I said, no
Speaker 1: other American president, presidential candidate, or governor, and he was like, no,
Speaker 1: Actually Nixon did that, so there is some history of that.
Speaker 1: But that scared me. And then also just the way
Speaker 1: in which he used his state as a lab. But
Speaker 1: the thing that scared me the most about DeSantis was
Speaker 1: how virulently anti LGBTQ he was. I had a lot
Speaker 1: of anxiety that they might be able to make that
Speaker 1: a Republican issue or that because like those kind of
Speaker 1: things where we as a culture had won so many victories,
Speaker 1: that he might be able to start rolling those things back,
Speaker 1: which I mean, I think the Supreme Court would like to.
Speaker 1: But I was really gratified that that stuff didn't take off.
Speaker 3: In fact, the opposite, which is that Congress codified it
Speaker 3: as a result of their people feeling like there was
Speaker 3: any threat to that at all.
Speaker 1: But I still think he's smarter than Trump, and policy wise,
Speaker 1: he has you know, he's got that sort of heritage foundation.
Speaker 3: This is just to me, not like I mean, this
Speaker 3: is the difference between I guess me being having spent
Speaker 3: my life as a Republican, like I don't know if
Speaker 3: he like cuts taxes too much or focuses too much
Speaker 3: on energy and ebends or even talks too much about
Speaker 3: sort of woke cultural policies. To me, this is like
Speaker 3: a lot different than Trump being like, oh, I'm not
Speaker 3: going to leave now, which I think is a real
Speaker 3: possibility in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Oh, no question, agreed. But I do think with DeSantis,
Speaker 1: like the stuff with the book banning like the Moms
Speaker 1: for Liberty, Like I know it was culture war stuff
Speaker 1: that he thought would help him, but it ultimately undermined
Speaker 1: so much of the public school system. I feel like
Speaker 1: that stuff that they do in the public schools with
Speaker 1: the anti trans stuff and then don't say gay stuff
Speaker 1: like and the book banning that to me is so insidious.
Speaker 1: And maybe that's because I come, you know, my grandfather
Speaker 1: was jailed during the House on American Activities, So I
Speaker 1: do feel like when they start coming for the intellectuals.
Speaker 1: You know that you're in a lot of trouble. So
Speaker 1: maybe it's my own historical hysterical, you know, anxiety, but
Speaker 1: that always really worried me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I guess I understand that like Trump, you know,
Speaker 3: Trump's like, hey, white sopremacist, let's have dinner.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The one thing about Trump is that he has
Speaker 1: a lot of enforced errors.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately so does DeSantis. So maybe it's you know.
Speaker 3: We still hold our positions on that then, but I'm
Speaker 3: glad I wanted to check in.
Speaker 1: I see your point, and we can we can be
Speaker 1: panicked about all of the people. Sarah Longwhile, I really
Speaker 1: appreciate you joining us so interesting, Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thanks Molly.
Speaker 1: Kareem. Jean Pierre is the White House Press Secretary. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Fast Politics. What is your title as press secretary?
Speaker 1: Do people call you like madam secretary?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 2: Right, it's so funny.
Speaker 4: I have people who call me madam Press secretary, Madam
Speaker 4: secretary Press sec.
Speaker 2: It is very very interesting.
Speaker 1: There's got to be like a protocol, right.
Speaker 4: I have no idea. If there is, I don't know
Speaker 4: what it is, but it's so it's actually really the
Speaker 4: secret Service guys call me press sec, which is actually
Speaker 4: really cute. It's funny at the same time. But I
Speaker 4: don't think there's a protocol. I'm just Koreed.
Speaker 2: That fine.
Speaker 4: With Koreed, I.
Speaker 1: Do feel like I am informal, but I also want
Speaker 1: to be you know, respectful too, because you know, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of hard work that goes into getting these jobs.
Speaker 1: And I feel that way with members of Congress too,
Speaker 1: except Chip roy So and Louis Gomert, but he's not
Speaker 1: even in Congress anymore. Let's talk first about yesterday. It's
Speaker 1: fifty first anniversary of a right that is no longer
Speaker 1: that was a constitutional right that women lost. Roe v.
Speaker 1: Wade talk to me about we never knew a pre
Speaker 1: Row world, but we do know a post Row world.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: What we've been seeing since twenty twenty two, since the
Speaker 4: Supreme Court overturned Row is completely devastating and the impacts
Speaker 4: of a tax on women's freedom, it is just again
Speaker 4: devastating and quite unbelievable to the fact that we're here
Speaker 4: and we're seeing what it looks like to not have
Speaker 4: Row as a constitutional right, a constitutional law.
Speaker 2: Is this a sad day?
Speaker 4: It is truly a sad day. But what I'll say
Speaker 4: is this, the contrast between what we're seeing the Bien
Speaker 4: Harris administration and the Republican elected officials is so clear.
Speaker 4: Right we are standing the president, this president, President Biden
Speaker 4: and Vice President Harris, and this entire administration is standing
Speaker 4: with majority of Americans right. Majority of Americans want their
Speaker 4: rights protected. Majority of Americans want to see women have
Speaker 4: the ability to make these really deeply difficult decisions on
Speaker 4: their bodies and medical decisions. Obviously, they want to see that.
Speaker 4: We saw that coming out of the mid term elections
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty two, we saw that coming out of
Speaker 4: the elections in twenty twenty three. That's what they want.
Speaker 4: And so Republican elected officials are standing against that. They're
Speaker 4: not standing on the right side of history. And if
Speaker 4: you look at the statistics and the data of what
Speaker 4: we're seeing just across the country, you're looking at twenty
Speaker 4: one states have abortion bands. In effect, it affects twenty
Speaker 4: seven million women right of reproductive age right now who
Speaker 4: live in the states with abortion bands. You have nearly
Speaker 4: one in three women would need to be able to
Speaker 4: travel in hour both ways to seek abortion care. You
Speaker 4: have over three hundred and eighty state bills restricting access
Speaker 4: to abortion care were introduced just last year Congression Republicans
Speaker 4: have introduced three national bands. And so these are extreme
Speaker 4: and these anti abortion extreme bands hurt women of color
Speaker 4: in particular. I'm sure we've talked about that. Moly, when
Speaker 4: you think about black and Indigenous women are already two
Speaker 4: to three times more likely to die from pregnancy related
Speaker 4: causes that white women. You think about the six point
Speaker 4: five million Latinos, which is like forty two percent of
Speaker 4: all Latinas ages fifteen to forty nine live in those
Speaker 4: twenty six states. So it has all it has done
Speaker 4: is provided chaos and confusion across the country. It is
Speaker 4: incredibly dangerous. These warring stories about women who have a miscarriage.
Speaker 4: They're experiencing a miscarriage and they can't get the care
Speaker 4: that they need. They're turned away from emergency rooms, and
Speaker 4: you know, they nearly die of blood loss. And so
Speaker 4: this should not be happening in America, but this is
Speaker 4: what's happening. This is what's happening in this country.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so maternal fetal health for black women in this country,
Speaker 1: our numbers are embarrassing, I mean astonishing for an affluent country.
Speaker 1: I know that this has been something you've talked about.
Speaker 1: Vice President has talked about like the amount of like
Speaker 1: medical racism that is baked into the system is sort
Speaker 1: of shocking. I was wondering if you could talk about
Speaker 1: that for a minute.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is very high among women of color, black
Speaker 4: women in particular. You've seen Congress actually put a legislation
Speaker 4: to deal with this about two years ago, I believe.
Speaker 4: And so because this is such a huge issue.
Speaker 2: So if you think about.
Speaker 4: Those numbers were high before Row was overturned. Now you
Speaker 4: have a situation where Roe is overturned. So it's even
Speaker 4: more dangerous now for women of color. And so look,
Speaker 4: this is something as you mentioned. You know, the Vice
Speaker 4: President kicked off her tour on Reproductive Freedom's tours. She
Speaker 4: kicked it off in Wisconsin yesterday, which is kind of
Speaker 4: ground zero for the fight for reproductive freedom. And what's
Speaker 4: happening right now how that state legislature wants to push
Speaker 4: a pretty restrictive ban.
Speaker 1: Will you talk our listeners through exactly what's happening in Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: because I think it's important. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: states where you have a democratic governor. So can you
Speaker 1: just Yeah, the machinations there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I'll talk a little bit about that. But
Speaker 4: as I as I stated yesterday, she kicked off her
Speaker 4: she kicked off her tour in Wisconsin. She's going to
Speaker 4: be going to other states to really lift up what's
Speaker 4: going on posts Will Row and these attacks on women's
Speaker 4: women's right to make decisions, as we all know, on
Speaker 4: their own healthcare. So, following Dobbs, Republicans elected officials they
Speaker 4: fought and are continuing their fight right to enforce these
Speaker 4: extreme abortion ban and that's what we're seeing. And so
Speaker 4: if you look at Wisconsin, these bands are from like
Speaker 4: eighteen forty nine and it includes no exceptions, including in
Speaker 4: cases of rape or incest. And so that's what the
Speaker 4: Vice President went to Wisconsin to talk about, these dangerous
Speaker 4: attempt to continue to curtail reproductive rights and how is
Speaker 4: it impacted patients women and also doctors. Let's not forget
Speaker 4: doctors are also being put in horrible positions because all
Speaker 4: they're doing is trying to do their jobs. And so
Speaker 4: women in Wisconsin being forced to travel to different states
Speaker 4: for care, and clinics being forced to close their doors.
Speaker 4: And if you think about what Republicans did last week
Speaker 4: in the States, Republican officials they proposed another new abortion ban.
Speaker 4: So that's what the Vice President went to do in
Speaker 4: Wisconsin to highlight that, to take it directly, take it
Speaker 4: directly to the state legislature. And that's what we're seeing.
Speaker 4: We're seeing that across the country because of what the
Speaker 4: Supreme Court did in twenty twenty two, because of how
Speaker 4: the extreme decision that they made to overturn Row. This
Speaker 4: is what we're seeing across the country. As I mentioned
Speaker 4: at the top, twenty one twenty one states.
Speaker 1: Right, and the thing that I'm struck by is not
Speaker 1: just that, but it's much more dangerous to be pregnant
Speaker 1: in those states.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 4: It's a lot more dangerous because you may not get
Speaker 4: the care that you need to save your life. Again,
Speaker 4: these are difficult, deeply, deeply personal, difficult decisions that women
Speaker 4: have to make. And I also want to add the
Speaker 4: President he brought together he convened his task force right
Speaker 4: after Roe was overturned. He put together a task force.
Speaker 4: It was his fourth meeting with the task force that
Speaker 4: he did yesterday to talk about ways that we can
Speaker 4: continue to do what we can from the federal level
Speaker 4: to protect women's rights and women's women's right to make
Speaker 4: a decision on her own body. But look, the President
Speaker 4: has been very clear, the Vice President has been very clear.
Speaker 4: In order to make real change and to protect lives,
Speaker 4: we have to make sure that rose the law of
Speaker 4: the land. So Congress has to act. This is something
Speaker 4: that Congress needs to take action to protect women. Again,
Speaker 4: majority of Americans, this is where majority of Americans stand.
Speaker 4: This is what they want to see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So tell us about that task force, who's on it, etc.
Speaker 1: And then also I want you to talk about there
Speaker 1: was a court ruling about doctors being allowed to perform
Speaker 1: emergency abortions, and then the Biden administration is trying to
Speaker 1: push back federally, which I think is really important and interesting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so a couple of things that the President was
Speaker 4: able to announce, took us some executive actions, and he
Speaker 4: took new actions yesterday. Is trying to see what we
Speaker 4: can do right to make sure that we protect these
Speaker 4: women legally and these doctors. And so you have doj
Speaker 4: who actually you know, are handling those pieces as I mentioned,
Speaker 4: when when they are in a state where they can't
Speaker 4: have an abortion and they go to another state, there
Speaker 4: could be legal ramifications for them, and so the Department
Speaker 4: of Justice is some thing under the direction of this
Speaker 4: president is certainly helping in that way. And so we're
Speaker 4: going to continue to make sure that women receive the
Speaker 4: medical care that they need in an emergency such as
Speaker 4: a miscarriage. You heard me talk about the horroring stories
Speaker 4: that we've heard from women about that We're going to
Speaker 4: defend access to safe and effective medication abortion. So that's
Speaker 4: really important that something that the President is doing, you
Speaker 4: know with HHS. Obviously expand access to affordable contraception, another
Speaker 4: thing that the Department of HIHS is doing, and then
Speaker 4: also strengthen privacy protections for patients and doctors. So those
Speaker 4: are the many ways that the President is zeroed in
Speaker 4: on on making sure that we protect We do everything
Speaker 4: that we can to ensure that we protect women and
Speaker 4: their freedoms to make these decisions and trying to figure
Speaker 4: out they how are they going to protect their own
Speaker 4: health and so that's what the President has been doing
Speaker 4: and that's part of what the Task Force is doing
Speaker 4: as well. This is the different parts of what the
Speaker 4: task Force talks about and try to figure out, Okay,
Speaker 4: what else can we be doing to really assist women
Speaker 4: across the country.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really important. And it's also because we have
Speaker 1: this very conservative a Supreme core. It really is like
Speaker 1: an added tension, right because they still have this methapristone
Speaker 1: case on the docket.
Speaker 4: Exactly. No, that's exactly right. And let's not forget Mallie.
Speaker 4: The overturning of Roe was just the tip of the iceberg.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: If you think about what Thomas said, you know, there
Speaker 4: are other rights and freedoms that they want to zero
Speaker 4: in on, and so that is really important that the
Speaker 4: American public understands like this is just the tip of
Speaker 4: the iceberg. And so we have to be really clear
Speaker 4: about what's what's ahead of us here. And when you
Speaker 4: talk about majority of Americans saying, hey, we don't want that.
Speaker 4: You don't want a freedoms to be attacked. We want
Speaker 4: to have our freedoms. We want our freedoms to be protected.
Speaker 4: That's what the president is talking about, right, That's what
Speaker 4: the President wants to do. He wants to make sure
Speaker 4: that we're protecting those freedoms, not just for women, and
Speaker 4: obviously that's really important as we talk about role here,
Speaker 4: but for everyone else.
Speaker 1: So you guys are a very like loan drama white house.
Speaker 2: Right, That's right.
Speaker 1: It's mostly a criticism I hear lobbed at this white
Speaker 1: House is like there's not a lot of turnover. A
Speaker 1: lot of the stuff you read, it's sort of like,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of like innuendo and gossip,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, it's about things
Speaker 1: that aren't even that salacious. So why do you think
Speaker 1: A that you, Chris are such a low drama white
Speaker 1: house and b why people seem mad at you for it?
Speaker 4: I'll say this, when the president walked into this administration,
Speaker 4: let's not forget what she was dealing with. He was
Speaker 4: dealing with multiple crises. There was the pandemic, right that
Speaker 4: was killing thousands of people a day when he walked
Speaker 4: into this administration. So he had to put together a
Speaker 4: comprehensive plan to deal with a strategy to deal with
Speaker 4: COVID and making sure people were getting shots, making sure
Speaker 4: people are getting masks, making sure people were getting the
Speaker 4: basic needs, just to make it through the pandemic. And
Speaker 4: why did he have to do that because the last
Speaker 4: president didn't put together a comprehensive plan. So that was
Speaker 4: one crisis. The economy was on a tail spin, right.
Speaker 4: We had to deal racial inequality. There was climate change. Now,
Speaker 4: if you look at all of those crises that I
Speaker 4: just named were coming out of the pandemic. Why because
Speaker 4: the President took that very seriously and knew that he
Speaker 4: had a job to do. You look at the economy.
Speaker 4: The economy is strong right now. It is strong when
Speaker 4: you think about unemployment at four percent, creating fourteen million
Speaker 4: jobs in his first two to three years of this administration,
Speaker 4: more than fourteen million job. You think about wages have
Speaker 4: risen faster than inflation for ten months in a row.
Speaker 4: You think about all of those things, and consumer sentiment
Speaker 4: is high. That's because of the work that this president
Speaker 4: has done climate change. He has taken more bold progressive
Speaker 4: action than any other president on climate change. And we're
Speaker 4: going to continue to make a big, bold announcement on
Speaker 4: how we're going to make sure we protect our climate
Speaker 4: here racial inequality. The first couple of days of this administration,
Speaker 4: he made sure he signed an executive order for all
Speaker 4: the agencies to look at how can we really deal
Speaker 4: with racial inequality in these agencies, to do a real
Speaker 4: policy review on how agencies are working through that. Look,
Speaker 4: there's always a lot more work to do, always, and
Speaker 4: the President understands that, and so he's going to continue
Speaker 4: to do that. Right right now, we continue to talk
Speaker 4: about the economy, building an economy from the bottom up,
Speaker 4: biddled out, making sure that we leave no one behind,
Speaker 4: making sure we continue to lower cost for Americans. So
Speaker 4: that's what the President understood.
Speaker 5: Ray.
Speaker 4: He understood that there was a crisis happening. He didn't
Speaker 4: have to run for president. He didn't have to, but
Speaker 4: he understood where the country was at the time. He
Speaker 4: understood that we needed to save the soul of this nation.
Speaker 4: After what he saw at Charlottesville, he decided, I'm going
Speaker 4: to run and I'm going to try to make a
Speaker 4: difference and do the work that needs to be done,
Speaker 4: you know, because he believes this country is so great,
Speaker 4: and it is great. And so look, this is a
Speaker 4: president who was centered for thirty six years.
Speaker 1: Thirty million years.
Speaker 4: Yes, he was been vice president for eight years, and
Speaker 4: he has the experience. He understands how this town works.
Speaker 4: He understands what the American people are talking about around
Speaker 4: the kitchen table because he's been there when he was
Speaker 4: growing up in the middle class middle class, working class family,
Speaker 4: and he gets it. He gets it, and so he's
Speaker 4: going to take this very seriously because of what we're
Speaker 4: dealing with as a country and in the world.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the economics. Soft landing. We had inflation,
Speaker 1: it was still lower than a lot of countries. One
Speaker 1: of my great joys in life has been going on
Speaker 1: GV News and gb News. Is this like terrible right
Speaker 1: wing station that was created to protect Brexit, you know,
Speaker 1: brexoneers owned by the Murdocks, of course, going on and
Speaker 1: saying like, you guys sanctioned yourselves, which by the way,
Speaker 1: they hate it, and you say that, but it is true.
Speaker 1: But there has been much softer landing here, almost miraculous.
Speaker 1: Why do you think that the Biden administration gets so
Speaker 1: I mean this morning, I don't know if you saw
Speaker 1: the New York Times, perhaps you've heard of it. I
Speaker 1: have to read you this headline, and you tell me
Speaker 1: if this is not slightly shocking. Biden can't bank on
Speaker 1: good economic sentiment.
Speaker 4: The President is going to continue to do what he's
Speaker 4: been doing, which is talked directly to the American people
Speaker 4: about what we have been able to do as an
Speaker 4: administration and how we have been able to deliver on
Speaker 4: the most important issues that they have, right, and the
Speaker 4: economy is a big one. I mean, the fact is
Speaker 4: inflation has fallen by two thirds. That's the fact. Let's
Speaker 4: not forget. There were predictions, prediction after prediction after prediction
Speaker 4: that there was going to be a recession. And what
Speaker 4: the President was able to do is he helped maintain
Speaker 4: a strong job market as inflation fell. And we're going
Speaker 4: to do the contrast right while we got to do
Speaker 4: the contrast right, while we're trying to make sure we're
Speaker 4: create eating, good paying jobs. And we're doing that because
Speaker 4: of the policies that this president has put forward, because
Speaker 4: of the Inflation Reduction Act, because of the Bipartisan Infrastructure
Speaker 4: Deal live. And let's not forget I send bipartisan that
Speaker 4: in that word, right, because this is a president who
Speaker 4: knows how to bring the other side and get things done.
Speaker 4: Because of the chips and science ac right, we're able
Speaker 4: to bring manufacturing jobs back at all of these things
Speaker 4: that I'm talking about. That is really very much part
Speaker 4: of the reason we're seeing an economy that is much stronger.
Speaker 4: And meanwhile, on the other side, congressional Republicans they don't
Speaker 4: have a plan to lower cost You know, Maganomics fails
Speaker 4: middle class, right. They want to do Google ways for
Speaker 4: wealthy and big corporations. They want to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.
Speaker 4: I want to bring you back to the State of
Speaker 4: the Union of twenty twenty three when the President called
Speaker 4: them out during his speech and he got them to
Speaker 4: basically back off. Right, this is congressional Republicans and it
Speaker 4: was one of the best moments during that speech.
Speaker 2: Another thing they want to do.
Speaker 4: They want to raise costs on family to think about
Speaker 4: healthcare to utility bills.
Speaker 2: That's what they want to do.
Speaker 4: The Inflation Reduction Act that I just mentioned. Only Democrats
Speaker 4: voted for that, and that piece of legislation alone is
Speaker 4: going to have the most effect on climate change, fighting
Speaker 4: climate change and healthcare, fighting big farmers.
Speaker 1: So that medicaids do two seconds on the insulin because
Speaker 1: Biden did the thirty five dollars insulin and then didn't
Speaker 1: get credit for it because the drug companies were like,
Speaker 1: we are lowering into thirty five dollars and I was like, wait,
Speaker 1: where have I heard that before? So let's explain that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And they did that because of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Speaker 4: They were called out right. They knew once the Inflation
Speaker 4: Reduction Act was passed that now the President had the
Speaker 4: ability to indeed fight Big Fama right and give the
Speaker 4: ability to Medicaid to really look at those look at
Speaker 4: those certain drug costs, drug prices and lower them, right,
Speaker 4: actually negotiate to lower those prices. And insulin. Can you
Speaker 4: think about insulin for seniors. Seniors were paying hundreds of dollars,
Speaker 4: more than two hundred bucks a month a seniors were
Speaker 4: paying on insulin. Now it's capped at thirty five bucks.
Speaker 2: And you're right, the.
Speaker 4: Big Farmer was looking at that and they were like, Okay,
Speaker 4: now we're going to do thirty five bucks, not just
Speaker 4: not just on insulin for seniors, but for everyone. That's
Speaker 4: this president. That is because of this president. And can
Speaker 4: you imagine that no Republican voted to have insulin capped
Speaker 4: at thirty five bucks for seniors. Not one Republican voted
Speaker 4: for that, not one. And so you know this is Look,
Speaker 4: you know, we're going to try and do everything that
Speaker 4: we can to speak directly to the American people to
Speaker 4: make sure our message is clear and so that they
Speaker 4: know what this President has done because all of these
Speaker 4: issues that I just talked about, these are issues that
Speaker 4: the American people overwhelmingly care about. Whether it's healthcare, whether
Speaker 4: it's climate right, whether it's infrastructure, whether it's good paying jobs.
Speaker 4: Obviously bringing manufacturer, but these are things that they overwhelmingly
Speaker 4: care about, and so we are meeting those needs. And
Speaker 4: we're going to continue to do that. This president is
Speaker 4: not going to stop.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you so much. I really appreciate you. I'm
Speaker 1: really god that you came on.
Speaker 2: Thanks. Welcome.
Speaker 1: Congressman Brendan Boyle represents Pennsylvania's second district. Welcome to Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: Representative Boil.
Speaker 2: Great to be with you, Molly.
Speaker 1: You're a fancy congressman, but not necessarily a famous congressman.
Speaker 2: I'm definitely not famous.
Speaker 5: I think everyone who knows me would dispute the fancy part.
Speaker 5: But you know, I kind of have the best of
Speaker 5: both worlds. I've been in Congress. This is the beginning
Speaker 5: of my tenth year, able to work on some important issues,
Speaker 5: and yet at the same time, you know, I put
Speaker 5: on an eagle shirt and a hat and go fill
Speaker 5: up my gas and my constituents know me. But otherwise
Speaker 5: I can be pretty anonymous. So I really do have
Speaker 5: the best of both worlds.
Speaker 1: You're a ranking member of Budget, which, considering that you
Speaker 1: are actually eleven years old, is pretty amazing. You're actually
Speaker 1: not younger than Jesse and I, which is why you're
Speaker 1: allowed on this podcast. But you look very young.
Speaker 5: I look older on radio and look even older on podcast.
Speaker 5: But yeah, so, as we were figuring out, we're the
Speaker 5: same age, born in the same year, which for congressional
Speaker 5: terms makes you very very young.
Speaker 2: But being forty six.
Speaker 5: And already being in leadership, being a ranking member hopefully
Speaker 5: after November, being chair of the Budget Committee, it's a
Speaker 5: great position to be in.
Speaker 2: And I'm excited about what.
Speaker 5: Really post November could potentially bring with Democrats in charge.
Speaker 1: So I just want to correct the record here. I'm
Speaker 1: just turned forty five, so we are actually not the same.
Speaker 2: For Jimmy, that's right, I apologize more importantly.
Speaker 1: But no, so let's talk about what is happening in
Speaker 1: the United States House of Representatives right now. So, first
Speaker 1: of all, Republicans have what is the majority now? Is
Speaker 1: it one seat?
Speaker 5: So at the moment, Republicans could only afford to lose
Speaker 5: two Republican members voting with Democrats because they've lost three members.
Speaker 5: Kevin McCarthy, after he was booted out, he decided to quit.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine how mad he would have to be?
Speaker 1: Too endangering majority like that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, well, it's very true to who Kevin
Speaker 5: is that he would take his ball and go home
Speaker 5: once he was voted out.
Speaker 2: So that's one seat.
Speaker 5: Then George Santos obviously was booted out, left involuntarily, and
Speaker 5: then a third Republican member just resigned this past week
Speaker 5: to take a different job.
Speaker 2: So with those three seats they are down. Essentially they
Speaker 2: have an.
Speaker 5: Only breathing room of being able to lose two Republican members.
Speaker 5: And at the moment, Steve Scalise unfortunately is having cancer
Speaker 5: treatment and so they don't have him to vote as well.
Speaker 5: So I mean, functionally speak, well, this has been a
Speaker 5: very dysfunctional House Republican leadership. The reality is their actual
Speaker 5: majority closely as zero.
Speaker 1: Yeah, luckily they are a well oiled machine. Just being
Speaker 1: ironic here, I see two things on the horizon here
Speaker 1: in the Senate. One is this tax bill, which, by
Speaker 1: the way, I've been hearing about this tax bill for
Speaker 1: a long time because full disclosure I actually had dinner
Speaker 1: with Senator Widen a while ago. I was at a
Speaker 1: dinner with him, and they have been working on this
Speaker 1: tax plan for a long time. It would bring back
Speaker 1: probably the single most progressive piece of tax legislation ever,
Speaker 1: the child tax Credit, which lifted children out of poverty,
Speaker 1: which if you're a human and you want children to
Speaker 1: not starve, it's a pretty amazing little bit of legislation.
Speaker 1: That bill will now probably come to the House of
Speaker 1: Representatives right.
Speaker 5: This bill was marked up by the Ways and Means
Speaker 5: Committee last week. It is unclear at the moment what
Speaker 5: Speaker Johnson is going to do. Like so many different issues,
Speaker 5: we are constantly hamstrung by the fact you have Republican
Speaker 5: leaders who are afraid of their own voters, and so
Speaker 5: there's a real question whether Mike Johnson will put this
Speaker 5: bill on the floor ultimately, though I think it's more
Speaker 5: likely than not. And the reality is one of the
Speaker 5: most important things that House Democrats and Senate Democrats achieved
Speaker 5: coming out of COVID was the expanded child tax credit.
Speaker 5: A forty six percent reduction in child poverty in one year.
Speaker 2: Just absolutely remarkable.
Speaker 5: What expanding the child tax credit did, and the fact
Speaker 5: that it was that expansion was allowed to lapse, I
Speaker 5: think is unconscionable. So to me, this is really one
Speaker 5: of the most important things that the government can do,
Speaker 5: and so I'm hopeful that we will be able to
Speaker 5: get it done. But the caveat is we're in such
Speaker 5: a dysfunctional House of Representatives because the rasiest ten members
Speaker 5: or so of the Republican Conference is really running the show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, could this bill come to the floor and could
Speaker 1: Democrats whip the vote and get this passed?
Speaker 5: Oh, there's no question that if this bill is going
Speaker 5: to pass, it will require more Democratic votes than Republican votes. Really,
Speaker 5: for anything substantively to get done in Congress, even with
Speaker 5: Republicans supposedly in charge, it has taken Democratic votes. Whether
Speaker 5: it's raised the debt ceiling, whether it's to keep the
Speaker 5: government funded, and the lights on, whether it would be
Speaker 5: to expand the child tax credit, it always requires Democratic
Speaker 5: votes because the Republicans aren't able to actually forge a
Speaker 5: majority for any sort of policy whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Right because they don't really want to govern.
Speaker 2: They have no agenda.
Speaker 5: I mean, one of the funniest jokes in Washington was
Speaker 5: someone asked me about met Gates's legislative agenda, there is none.
Speaker 5: It's all about owning the Libs. It's about beating up
Speaker 5: on woke. It's about bending down and kissing Trump's ass.
Speaker 5: That is what the Republican Party is about today. There
Speaker 5: is no legislative agenda. I mean, if you talk to
Speaker 5: people like Marjorie Taylor, I can't imagine you're going to
Speaker 5: Marjorie Taylor breenal the podcast.
Speaker 1: Yes, she's coming on next week, so that's next week's show.
Speaker 5: But if you did and you asked her what the
Speaker 5: legislative agenda was, you would get no response that that's
Speaker 5: not why they're there.
Speaker 1: So talk to me about this border immigration bill that
Speaker 1: may or may not happen. What is in it? Will
Speaker 1: it to pass? Does it help Republicans? Could it help
Speaker 1: Biden an election year? Sort of talk us through and
Speaker 1: what's in it?
Speaker 5: Yeah, So unfortunately this is a big unknown at the moment.
Speaker 5: The action on this is happening at the Senate. There
Speaker 5: our negotiation going on between a few Senate Democrats and
Speaker 5: a few Senate Republicans that would essentially be an all
Speaker 5: of the above approach that would include funding for Ukraine,
Speaker 5: israel iwan as, well as a beefed up southern border
Speaker 5: and possibly some asylum law changes as well. There's a
Speaker 5: lot uncertain though, and you know, on the House side,
Speaker 5: I think there is a certain degree of nervousness in
Speaker 5: terms of what exactly is being talked about. The reality
Speaker 5: is there is no agreement at the moment. This is
Speaker 5: really drifting on for months, And speaking for myself as
Speaker 5: someone who's a passionate supporter in Ukraine's fight for freedom
Speaker 5: and believes that if.
Speaker 2: We were to abandon them it would be one.
Speaker 5: Of the greatest mistakes in US foreign policy history, I
Speaker 5: do think that this goes on another couple weeks. We
Speaker 5: really need to start thinking about what Plan B is
Speaker 5: as opposed to the current or and.
Speaker 1: The Biden administration go around Congress.
Speaker 5: Well, I mean, we do see in other sort of
Speaker 5: weapons shipments that there is some ability to go around Congress.
Speaker 5: Now at the kind of scale that is needed to
Speaker 5: help the Ukrainians, probably not. And you know, speaking as
Speaker 5: a member of Congress, I don't necessarily advocate for going
Speaker 5: around what is literally the first Article of the Constitution,
Speaker 5: So it's not something I would necessarily advocate for. But
Speaker 5: the reality is, again we're into late January. Now, this
Speaker 5: can't drift on forever while the Senate sits around negotiating
Speaker 5: with itself.
Speaker 2: At some point we do need to move forward.
Speaker 5: And I'm someone who is talking to other members about
Speaker 5: what a possible plan be could look like for you, Frand.
Speaker 1: It is so interesting to me with this very slim majority.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of members of Congress I've talked to.
Speaker 1: While Mike Johnson's views are very extreme, they find him
Speaker 1: to be actually pretty affable guy. I have a question,
Speaker 1: which is, like, it seems to me from everything I've read.
Speaker 1: I'm not a member of Congress, i haven't been to
Speaker 1: DC in like a month, but it seems like the
Speaker 1: sense I get from everything I read and everything I
Speaker 1: listened to is that Mike Johnson is actually more open
Speaker 1: to making a deal than Kevin McCarthy was.
Speaker 5: You know, I have a kind of a counter intuitive
Speaker 5: or maybe contrarian take when it comes to Mike Johnson.
Speaker 5: I've always felt that it would be a lot easier
Speaker 5: to deal with him than it would be Kevin McCarthy.
Speaker 5: Kevin was constantly, you know, looking over his shoulder. He
Speaker 5: was deeply distrusted and disliked by a number of House Republicans.
Speaker 5: I feel like for Mike Johnson coming out of the
Speaker 5: Freedom Caucus, he has more credibility and it's easier for
Speaker 5: him to reach an agreement with us and make a
Speaker 5: compromise than Kevin Karthy, who was, you know, walking on
Speaker 5: eggshells from the moment he won on the fifteenth ballot
Speaker 5: last January to get the job. So, you know, I
Speaker 5: know there are some House Democrats that might and some
Speaker 5: analysts who might disagree with me on that, but at
Speaker 5: least for the short term, I think that Mike Johnson
Speaker 5: actually gives us more of a chance to reach an agreement.
Speaker 5: There's also the reality that you know, they followed through.
Speaker 5: They made the threat, and they filed through on it.
Speaker 5: They filed the motion to vacate the chair. It happened.
Speaker 5: Are they really going to go to that just a
Speaker 5: couple months later. I'm doubtful of that. So that's another
Speaker 5: reason why Mike Johnson has a little more latitude than
Speaker 5: Kevin McCarthy ever did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it does seem to me, I mean, it
Speaker 1: seems clear that he feels that when he negotiates. I
Speaker 1: also think that ultimately Kevin McCarthy really did he made this.
Speaker 1: There was this sort of like he would say, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a good guy and I'm here to
Speaker 1: sort of work things out. But then he started impeachment hearings.
Speaker 1: He did a bunch of stuff that was really not
Speaker 1: the kind of stuff a good guy does. The idea
Speaker 1: that there's an impeachment going for vibes is kind of nuts, right,
Speaker 1: Like you have to have something to impeach the guy.
Speaker 5: On Yeah, I call it this Seinfeld impeachment. Seinfelder was
Speaker 5: supposed to be a show about nothing. This is the
Speaker 5: impeachment about nothing, literally nothing, just to do it because
Speaker 5: it's one of the few things that you can get
Speaker 5: most House Republicans to agree on. But you know, I'll
Speaker 5: say this about Kevin McCarthy. The reality is, when the
Speaker 5: history of this era is written, no single person did
Speaker 5: more to enable Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: Thank Kevin McCarthy.
Speaker 1: You're talking about that mar Lago trip.
Speaker 5: Absolutely Ultimately, one of the first lines of his oh
Speaker 5: bit will be Kevin McCarthy knowing better, constantly and consistently
Speaker 5: enabled the worst excesses of Donald Trump. And you know,
Speaker 5: say what you will about Mitch McConnell, but at least
Speaker 5: on January sixth, Even before the riot, McConnell stood up
Speaker 5: to Trump, and McConnell made a great mistake by not
Speaker 5: finishing him off when he could have gotten the ten
Speaker 5: additional votes on the impeachment conviction. But nonetheless, there have
Speaker 5: been times when McConnell at least had stood up to Trump.
Speaker 5: Not once ever did Kevin McCarthy stand up to Trump.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. Coming into this election cycle, a lot
Speaker 1: of the more normal Republicans are leaving, both of them.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking. I'm thinking about, you know, the Speaker pro
Speaker 1: Templar mckenry, the kind of people who you know, took
Speaker 1: their job seriously, may not have believed what we believed,
Speaker 1: but were quiet servants of the government.
Speaker 5: What happens now, Yeah, Unfortunately on the Republican side, it's
Speaker 5: the wrong people who are leaving. You know, the kind
Speaker 5: of people who are leaving were inventional conservatives, Republicans pre Trump,
Speaker 5: as we've seen in this era. Unfortunately, a lot of
Speaker 5: them don't have the will to fight, they recognize, and
Speaker 5: we're seeing this playout obviously in the primaries as well.
Speaker 2: The pre Trump Republican party is long gone.
Speaker 5: It is dead, and so what you see is that
Speaker 5: the members who want to stick around on the Republican
Speaker 5: side are the performance artists. They're the people who who
Speaker 5: love the chaos and the craziness, and people who are
Speaker 5: more substantive, like McHenry have decided to leave and do
Speaker 5: something more lucrative in the private sector.
Speaker 2: So I am moving forward.
Speaker 5: I am concerned about the House of Representatives unless Democrats
Speaker 5: are in charge. When we're in charge, even with a
Speaker 5: small majority, we're able to pass big, meaningful pieces of
Speaker 5: legislation like we did last term. If we're not in charge,
Speaker 5: it'll be more chaos and confusion.
Speaker 1: What do you think sort of their argument is like,
Speaker 1: there are so many seats where Republicans sort of we're
Speaker 1: able to you know, I'm thinking of Mike Lawler in
Speaker 1: New York. I'm thinking of d Esposito in New York.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about the special for Santos's seat that's happening
Speaker 1: right now. The seats in California, for example, the Palm
Speaker 1: Spring seat is up where my dad lives.
Speaker 2: Spoiler.
Speaker 1: A lot of these Republicans have had to vote on
Speaker 1: legislation that is cutting the federal government by thirty percent,
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I mean, do you think Democrats will
Speaker 1: be able to be organized enough to use that stuff
Speaker 1: to run against them. Do you think it will matter
Speaker 1: with swing voters?
Speaker 5: Well, I mean, the presidential race is certainly, as usual,
Speaker 5: going to dominate the attention. But the reality is, if
Speaker 5: you're a Mike Lawler, one of those House Republicans, what
Speaker 5: exactly do you have to run on? There is literally
Speaker 5: nothing best Republican majority has achieved. They have been known
Speaker 5: from the very first day for constant in fighting and function.
Speaker 5: So saw an article just a few days ago where
Speaker 5: a couple of House Republicans apparently were out loud saying
Speaker 5: what I just said.
Speaker 2: One of them called it embarrassing. They're right.
Speaker 5: So I think they're going to have a really tough
Speaker 5: time come November because unlike two years ago when House
Speaker 5: Democrats who were in challenging seats had things that we
Speaker 5: could talk about, on the Republican side, there is really nothing.
Speaker 2: They will be able to point to that they achieved.
Speaker 5: All they will really be able to do is engage
Speaker 5: in fear mongering about the border and the sort of
Speaker 5: you know, issues that really adamate the Republican base.
Speaker 1: It's funny because it's like it's not funny, but inflation,
Speaker 1: the murder rates down, inflations down, the economic indicators are better.
Speaker 1: So it's going to be caravan time ifox news.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know. The good news is that we've had
Speaker 5: election after election in which the caravan type campaign has
Speaker 5: proven unsuccessful. The border as laid has become obviously more
Speaker 5: of a real and serious issue, but the sort of
Speaker 5: hype and fear mongering that Republicans have done on it
Speaker 5: historically has actually not really succeeded for them. I mean,
Speaker 5: they lost the twenty eighteen House elections badly. They won
Speaker 5: more seats in twenty twenty, but still lost the majority
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty two in a midterm election in which
Speaker 5: on average they should have picked up a couple dozen seats,
Speaker 5: they only won in the high single digits and left
Speaker 5: them with such a small majority.
Speaker 2: And the reality is.
Speaker 5: They're also going to have to be talking about the
Speaker 5: possibility of a national abortion band in this post.
Speaker 2: Dobbs reality.
Speaker 5: So, frankly, when I look at the White House, when
Speaker 5: I look at the Senate, when I look at the House,
Speaker 5: the elections that I'm the most optimistic about from a
Speaker 5: Democratic perspective are the House elections.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, Representative.
Speaker 2: Boyle, great being on thank you.
Speaker 1: They no moment Secon.
Speaker 5: Jesse Canon, Mali Jong Fasta, did not take a crystal
Speaker 5: ball to know that Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: Was going to win New Hampshire tonight. And all these
Speaker 2: people saying Nikki Hlly was going to do it or.
Speaker 1: Not right, but he lost Dixville, Notch oh Man.
Speaker 2: Damn, that's where all my money was.
Speaker 1: Donald J. Trump. He may have won the great state
Speaker 1: of New Hampshire by totally dominating the primary and making
Speaker 1: all the other Republicans afraid to go against him, but
Speaker 1: he did not win the hearts of the people of Dixville,
Speaker 1: Notch all seven voters. They voted for Nicki Haley and
Speaker 1: for that, Donald J. Trump winning a second state in
Speaker 1: the twenty fucking four Republican primary is our moment. A
Speaker 1: fuck Gray. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics.
Speaker 1: Tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to hear the
Speaker 1: best minds in politics makes sense of all this chaos.
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Speaker 1: for listening.