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

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

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Speaker 1: today's best minds and Trump envoy Steve Wickoff watches Netflix

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Speaker 1: documentaries to study world affairs. We have such a great

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Speaker 1: show for you today. To the Contrary Newsletter author Charlie

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Speaker 1: Sikes stops by to talk to us about Trump's Middle

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Speaker 1: East trip and all its chaos. Then we'll talk to

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Speaker 1: Congressman Greg Kazar about how Democrats can win back voters.

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Speaker 2: But first the news Sabali James Coombe, You and I

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Speaker 2: are not two of those people on the Democrats side

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Speaker 2: of things who think he's are homie. But now he's

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Speaker 2: the victim of a Trump conspiracy theory, which makes me

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Speaker 2: almost want to pour out a beer for him. But

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Speaker 2: also I'm really having trouble feeling sorry for him.

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Speaker 1: James, call me. I don't feel sorry for him at all.

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Speaker 1: This is another fake scandal. Well basically he saw an

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Speaker 1: Instagram post on the beach. Maybe again. I want to

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Speaker 1: point out that James Comy is writing trashy books and

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Speaker 1: profiting off of the resistance like being a resistance hero.

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Speaker 1: No single person has made more money off of fucking

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Speaker 1: up the twenty sixteen election than James Comy. Okay, he

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Speaker 1: drops the letter which loses the election for Hillary Clinton. Okay,

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Speaker 1: the letter that says we don't know private server might

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Speaker 1: open investigation. That letter twenty days or fifteen days before

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Speaker 1: the election, completely fucks up the election. Goes on to

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Speaker 1: do nothing but get fired, feel disappointed, give long interviews,

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Speaker 1: sell his story to CBS where it is made into

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Speaker 1: a movie, write numerous best selling books that no one,

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Speaker 1: not even him, have read. He should be locked up

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Speaker 1: just for that. Okay, So again, fake outrage. They're very

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Speaker 1: mad because he said eighty six forty seven, and all

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Speaker 1: of the right is saying he was making a threat

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Speaker 1: of violence. There's a piece in the Washington Post which

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Speaker 1: lists all the times Donald Trump has done the same thing. Whatever.

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Speaker 1: The point here is that do not buy James Comy's books.

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Speaker 1: Send James Comy to the Hague. You're welcome.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And just to put a fire point on this,

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Speaker 2: like I can remember working in bars in the nineties

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Speaker 2: and we would eighty six people meaning throw them out,

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Speaker 2: Like this is not a new term here, like I

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Speaker 2: was saying this thirty years ago.

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Speaker 1: Look, this is a fake outrage thing. But there should

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Speaker 1: be real outrage because this person is not a real writer.

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Speaker 1: Buy books by real writers. Don't buy books by James Comy.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, FBI, those guys were always very

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Speaker 1: right leaning. It's possible he's threw the entire election to Trump. Well,

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Speaker 1: that James call me is why we're all here. So

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Speaker 1: let us not even for a minute just say anything

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Speaker 1: nice about that guy. The best thing about him is

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Speaker 1: that he's tall. You're welcome.

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Speaker 2: First they came for James Kobe and I set this

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Speaker 2: one up because yeah, yeah, first.

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Speaker 1: They came for James Koby, and I was like, send.

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Speaker 3: Him to the Hague. Uh.

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Speaker 2: So Elon Musk's AI bought Grock very cursed, very very cursed.

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Speaker 2: It's now telling everybody about white genocide and that everybody

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Speaker 2: thinks they know the province of how this happens.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I know the province of how this happened,

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Speaker 1: all right. So Elon Musk has underwritten a large part

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Speaker 1: of this presidency. Right, he gave Trump a gazillion dollars.

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Speaker 1: He's the bank roller, he's you know, he was the

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Speaker 1: one who was able to pass the cr by saying

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Speaker 1: he would primary other Democrats, other Republicans or whatever fund

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Speaker 1: primary challenges. My man is very obsessed with South Africa

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Speaker 1: and protecting white people in South Africa because he grew

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Speaker 1: up in South Africa as a fancy white person. So

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Speaker 1: he's trying to program GROC to do things like say

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Speaker 1: there is white genocide in South Africa. There isn't white

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Speaker 1: genocide South Africa. But again, what is important about this

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Speaker 1: is not that it's about white genocide. It's like with

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Speaker 1: the birthright citizenship. This is the Canarian the coal mine right.

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Speaker 1: I mean, obviously birthright citizens will get into that later.

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Speaker 1: I hope that's on the topics. Should we just go

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Speaker 1: into birthright citizenship right now?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Okay. So the point is Grock is if you start

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Speaker 1: messing with what is true and what is not true

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Speaker 1: when you open the door to AI, I think you're

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Speaker 1: gonna have a lot of problems, right, because some things

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Speaker 1: are objectively true. And even if we live in this

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Speaker 1: sort of post truth era where you have people you know,

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Speaker 1: you have Trump saying that the guy was a gang

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Speaker 1: member that had MS thirteen tattoos, even though they were

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Speaker 1: clearly photoshop. Even if you are in a post truth era,

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Speaker 1: even then you feed AI post truth, you're going to

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Speaker 1: get AI filled with lies. And since there is no

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Speaker 1: fact check on the internet, because why would there be,

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Speaker 1: we are really like on our way down the rabbit

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Speaker 1: hole of like a post post post truth, where it's

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Speaker 1: impossible to know what is real and what is fake.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, speaking of this very cursed.

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Speaker 1: Trial of birthright citizenship.

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Speaker 3: Yes, the discourse around it, you'll be shocked to hear,

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Speaker 3: is not good.

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Speaker 1: They're mad at what amy Cony Barrett said during this

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Speaker 1: birthright citizenship oral argument, which was not about birthright citizenship.

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Speaker 1: It was actually about a president being able to overrule

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Speaker 1: judicial decisions. So again you think it's about birthright citizenship,

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Speaker 1: but it's really about who has more power than judiciary

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Speaker 1: or the president. And Emy Barrett, I guess she was

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Speaker 1: indifficiently maga.

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Speaker 2: She seemed to be to I roll one of the

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Speaker 2: lawyer's arguments, and even just as Cavadol was like, dude,

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Speaker 2: you gotta help me more if you want to overturn this,

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Speaker 2: like he really seemed like come on, man. Yeah, So

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Speaker 2: the discourse around this has been extremely cursed. As per usual,

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Speaker 2: one Raphael ted Cruise has weight in You will remember

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Speaker 2: him as someone who was not born in America, and

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Speaker 2: as usual with him, it's do as he says, not

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Speaker 2: as he's done.

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Speaker 4: Let's listen are the argument is here, that is the

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Speaker 4: absolute heart of the argument, and I think birthright citizenship

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Speaker 4: is terrible policy. It is right now current US law

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Speaker 4: before the Trump executive order, that if an illegal alien

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Speaker 4: is here and she gives birth to a child, that

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Speaker 4: baby is instantaneously a US citizen. The problem is that's

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Speaker 4: an incredible magnet for illegal immigration. You see people crossing

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Speaker 4: the Southern border. You see pregnant women crossing the Southern

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Speaker 4: border explicitly to give birth in America. So there baby

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Speaker 4: can be an American citizen. We also have this phenomenon

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Speaker 4: called birth tourism.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is very stupid. First of all, again this

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Speaker 1: is not about birthright citizenship. I mean there are two

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Speaker 1: things going on here. One is ken Donald Trump edit

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Speaker 1: the Constitution with executive orders. He cannot, So that is

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Speaker 1: not how any of this is supposed to work, number one.

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Speaker 1: And then number two is can he overrule judicial orders?

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Speaker 1: And he can't. So this is like one of these

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Speaker 1: things where I think you get Alito and Thomas because

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Speaker 1: they are basically Fox News hosts, so you'll have the

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Speaker 1: two of them be like, yes, Orange Man, good retweet

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Speaker 1: if truth. But everyone else who has a working cerebral

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Speaker 1: cortex is going to be like no, no, no, you

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Speaker 1: can't edit the constitution. So again, lion, Ted is going

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Speaker 1: to birthright citizenship being a terrible policy, doesn't matter, right,

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Speaker 1: It's in the Constitution. I don't think the Second Amendment

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Speaker 1: is great, but it's not how any of this works.

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Speaker 1: So sorry, buddy, you don't get to do that. And also,

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Speaker 1: by the way, just to point out, we are like

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Speaker 1: in the middle of a population crisis. Nobody is coming here.

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Speaker 1: The southern border is pretty quiet. I mean it just

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Speaker 1: this is like a made up crisis and a made

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Speaker 1: up this and a made up that, and no one

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Speaker 1: should be surprised because this is just they have one

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Speaker 1: sort of thing that they're excited about and this is

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Speaker 1: what they keep doing. So you know, I mean, I

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Speaker 1: just all I can say is I'm very impressed with

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Speaker 1: Ted Cruz's facial. Charlie Sykes is the author of To

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Speaker 1: the Contrary and the book How the Right Lost Its Mind.

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Speaker 1: Welcome Charlie Sykes, Welcome, Welcome.

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Speaker 5: Well, I just want to come along with this journey, Molly,

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Speaker 5: I mean, what are we going to talk about this week?

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Speaker 5: I feel like, you know, everything that could possibly be

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Speaker 5: said has been said, but I'm willing to do it anyway.

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Speaker 1: Yes and yes, and it is an exhausting moment for

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Speaker 1: American punditry.

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Speaker 3: Do you think so?

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Speaker 1: I think so. But you know, here's the thing. The

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Speaker 1: one bright spot in my mind is Planegate.

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Speaker 5: Oh I can't get enough of that. I can't get

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Speaker 5: an I actually did a podcast with David from and

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Speaker 5: we walked through, you know what a total scam. The

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Speaker 5: whole thing is how Donald Trump has basically been duped

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Speaker 5: because the Guitaris had to off load this white Altin

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Speaker 5: that's been sitting around since twenty twelve. They've been trying

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Speaker 5: to spell this thing. Nobody's gonna buy it. They couldn't

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Speaker 5: sell the other plane, so they had to give it

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Speaker 5: away to the President of Turkey, and people like five

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Speaker 5: years ago were speculating, what are they gonna do with

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Speaker 5: this thing? They're probably gonna have to find somebody else

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Speaker 5: to give it to. Sure enough, who comes along, Donald Trump?

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Speaker 5: You know you get I get a gaudy plane for free,

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Speaker 5: which is not for free, obviously.

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Speaker 1: I'm telling you that is so Erdawan has the other one.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right. He apparently got the gaudy plus one.

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Speaker 5: So Trump's gonna have to, like, you know, find a

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Speaker 5: way to make this you know, Vegas in the sky

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Speaker 5: even more tasteless than Ertiwan's plane.

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but the fact that Erduwan got the better

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Speaker 1: plane and that Trump is getting the less good version

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Speaker 1: of the President of Turkey. It's not even like the

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Speaker 1: President of China, where it's like, Okay, this is an

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Speaker 1: economy that's like America, humongas whatever. But Turkey, I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's a sad footnote and what is otherwise a preposterous,

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Speaker 1: completely self created scandal.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's preposterous and it's incredibly brazen, particularly when

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Speaker 5: people start to realize that the free plane will probably

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Speaker 5: cost American taxpayers a billion dollars to retro fit to

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Speaker 5: Air Force one, and then Donald Trump takes it with

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Speaker 5: him when he leaves the presidency, which means we're going

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Speaker 5: to need more air Force ones. We're going to have

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Speaker 5: to pay not only the retro fit the fancy white

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Speaker 5: Elephant air Force one, the Katari Air Force one. We're

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Speaker 5: going to have to have other Air Force one. This

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Speaker 5: thing is going to be one of the biggest boondoggles

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Speaker 5: white elephants in American history. And Donald Trump just owns

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Speaker 5: it from Stem distern.

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Speaker 1: And again, like if you look back, So we're like

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Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five days into this second presidency

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Speaker 1: of Donald J. Trump, it's been a sort of slow

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Speaker 1: roll again of self created crisis, is right. We had

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Speaker 1: trade war with China, which is still bubbling under the surface.

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Speaker 1: We have the plane we have I think the I

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Speaker 1: think the crisis that is right around the corner. Besides

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Speaker 1: the China tariffs, we saw Walmart as planning to raise prices.

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Speaker 1: Walmart is everywhere. If you live in America, you shop

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Speaker 1: at Walmart. It's something like some huge percentage of American

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Speaker 1: shop at Walmart. So everyone in the world is going

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Speaker 1: to feel this. American people hate inflation. They were biden

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Speaker 1: because of eggs. Think about how mad they're going to

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Speaker 1: be when they go to Walmart and everything is twenty

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Speaker 1: percent thirty I mean the tariff is thirty percent right now.

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Speaker 5: Could be problematic, could.

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Speaker 1: Yes, But I think that what's coming down the pike

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Speaker 1: is one big beautiful bill.

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Speaker 5: Well yeah, I mean there's some other crises coming, like

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Speaker 5: maybe the measles epidemic and planes falling out of the

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Speaker 5: air because the Secretary of Transportation is too dumb to

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Speaker 5: know what to do about it. But yes, the big

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Speaker 5: beautiful bill, which really, when you think about it, is

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Speaker 5: you know, if you really wanted to put together a

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Speaker 5: tax package and you wanted to come up with the

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Speaker 5: worst possible way of doing it, They've nailed it. They

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Speaker 5: really have. With all the fiscal cliffs, all the favors,

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Speaker 5: all the things that expire, the fact that it's going

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Speaker 5: to blow up the deficit. And yet look, let's not

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Speaker 5: engage in irrational exuberance. He's going to get the thing passed.

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Speaker 5: All these all these stories about the hard liners are,

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Speaker 5: you know, taking a stand. You know what, what Republican

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Speaker 5: hardliners do, the same thing as republic Can moderates do.

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Speaker 5: They always fucking cave in the end. Always he is

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Speaker 5: going to get it passed.

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Speaker 1: I don't know what that looks like. And remember, it'll

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Speaker 1: be a totally different bill when it comes out of

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Speaker 1: the Senate. But I would like to talk about one

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Speaker 1: Chip Roy. You will remember Chip Roy as being impossibly woke.

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Speaker 1: Chip Roy said, and again, like out of the mouths

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Speaker 1: of Chip Roy. I'm going to give you this one

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Speaker 1: because I feel like this is an important bit. This

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Speaker 1: is something he tweeted yesterday. Spending cuts that don't cut

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Speaker 1: in for four years seems awfully specific.

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Speaker 5: Of course, it's very specific. It's very cynical. It's like

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Speaker 5: they're basically trying to set it up for twenty twenty

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Speaker 5: eight so that JD. Vans or whoever is running, can

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Speaker 5: go to his buddies and say, you know, if I

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Speaker 5: don't get elected, all these sweet deals, all these tax

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Speaker 5: cuts just go away. Yeah, these socialist Democrats are going

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Speaker 5: to take away all your goodies. So they've set it up.

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Speaker 5: The problem is create all these fiscal cliffs, all of

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Speaker 5: this uncertainty. But these guys are looking No nobody's ever

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Speaker 5: confused them with rocket scientists.

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Speaker 1: But again, nobody's ever confused them with rocket scientists. They

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Speaker 1: are taking away stuff from the American people. And yet,

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Speaker 1: and I say this, as you know, what's side of

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Speaker 1: the aisle I'm on, Democrats are having a very tough

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Speaker 1: time messaging this. How is this possible?

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Speaker 5: I can't believe that I'm going to be on the

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Speaker 5: opposite side of this question, because the fact is that,

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Speaker 5: And I agree with Karen Tummlety from the Washington Post

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Speaker 5: who describes the way they both like a lot, Yeah,

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Speaker 5: very much. You know, I've been around a long time,

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Speaker 5: and she calls it a masterclass of resistance. The way

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Speaker 5: the Democrats in fact are handling the Medicaid cuts. They

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Speaker 5: keep putting up amendments, they keep getting Republicans on the

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Speaker 5: record on this issue. They've been pounding it. So this

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Speaker 5: is one of those rare moments where I think that

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Speaker 5: they're doing probably what they should be doing. And of

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Speaker 5: course all of the is kind of the preseason because

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Speaker 5: once they pass this bill, once they in fact do

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Speaker 5: you know, slash Medicaid, then they own it. They have

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Speaker 5: to live with it, and we see the consequences. And

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Speaker 5: one of the things we've seen is the fact that

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Speaker 5: a lot of these policies may poll well until they

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Speaker 5: become specific, until we put a human face on them,

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Speaker 5: until we see all the downstream effects. And there will

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Speaker 5: be downstream effects when you toss millions of people off

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Speaker 5: of their healthcare. So well, I mean, I'll agree with

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Speaker 5: you to this point that if the Democrats can't message

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Speaker 5: all of this stuff, they really ought to find a

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Speaker 5: different line of work. They all ought to become Walmart greeters,

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Speaker 5: starting with Chuck Schumber.

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Speaker 1: It's too expensive. I think that's a really good point.

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Speaker 1: What you're saying though about Medicaid. Medicare these cuts what

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Speaker 1: they will mean? And again, they don't pall well. Cutting

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Speaker 1: them doesn't pall well. It polls well, but it doesn't.

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Speaker 1: It's not popular. And then what is going to happen

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Speaker 1: is you're going to see rural hospitals close and nursing homes.

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Speaker 1: So Grandma comes to live with you because the nursing

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Speaker 1: home closed. You have a car accident and you have

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Speaker 1: to drive three hours to a hospital. I mean, you're

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Speaker 1: going to have story after story for that. Now here's

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Speaker 1: the question. Donald Trump with the tariffs. Okay, so had

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Speaker 1: these huge traffs with China. The TikTok the Wall Street Journal,

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Speaker 1: there was a really good TikTok about this. Maybe was

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Speaker 1: the Washington Post. I think it was a Wall Street Journal, right,

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Speaker 1: really good TikTok of how they got him to back down,

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Speaker 1: which was basically they were like, you're hurting your people.

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Speaker 1: Now it's the tariffs with China are still the highest

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Speaker 1: they've been since World War two or some crazy I

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Speaker 1: mean they're not They're humendously high. They don't shut off China, right,

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Speaker 1: they just make China more expensive. And they're going to

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Speaker 1: have huge inflationary effects because they will, there's no way,

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Speaker 1: and I think those effects are coming down the pike.

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Speaker 1: We haven't seen it yet, clearly because the markets are rallying,

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Speaker 1: so we haven't seen it. But we did see consumer

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Speaker 1: confidence today way down big right, and consumer confidence like

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Speaker 1: that in itself can get you into recession. So the

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Speaker 1: question is, really, as we are walking through this, is

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Speaker 1: there a world in which he's medicaid cuts. These are

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Speaker 1: cuts to red states. A lot of Red states are

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Speaker 1: going to feel the hospitals and nursing homes. So do

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Speaker 1: these members vote for this anyway? And does Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: sign it anyway knowing because remember he cares about his people,

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Speaker 1: So does he sign it anyway or does he? I mean,

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Speaker 1: this will be a straight line between Trump your rural

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Speaker 1: hospital closing.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, they will vote for and he will sign it,

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Speaker 5: and then he will come out and say this is

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Speaker 5: a big, beautiful bill and it's a huge win and

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Speaker 5: everybody is going to be better off because Donald Trump

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Speaker 5: doesn't care about the substance of a policy. He only

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Speaker 5: cares about how he can market it, and he feels

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Speaker 5: that he can sell any shits in which is Filet

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Speaker 5: Mignon understand that the superpower. Also, I'm not sure this

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Speaker 5: is directly in response to this, but sometimes I feel

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Speaker 5: like we're watching the wrong movie. We think that Donald

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Speaker 5: Trump is doing one thing, when in fact he's doing another.

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Speaker 5: So I start trying to write a piece about about,

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Speaker 5: you know, Elon Musk and what a complete fraud Doge was.

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Speaker 5: We're finding out now that you know, despite all the chainsaw,

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Speaker 5: all the performative slashing and cutting and frankly, you know

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Speaker 5: a lot of the damage that he's done, and it

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Speaker 5: is in fact dangerous, but it didn't actually cut much

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Speaker 5: government spending. And I mentioned this to some smarter person

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Speaker 5: than me, and he said, yeah, but that you know,

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Speaker 5: why do you think that that's what Doge was really

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Speaker 5: all about? Assume that Elon Musk is still a savvy guy.

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Speaker 5: So while we're all focused on these cuts and these layoffs,

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Speaker 5: what Elon Musk was doing was gutting all the regulatory

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Speaker 5: agencies that might have held him accountable, the SEC, any

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Speaker 5: of these other organizations. He's basically feathering his nests. And

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Speaker 5: the same thing with Donald Trump. You know, we think

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Speaker 5: that Donald Trump is focused on the big beautiful bill. Look,

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Speaker 5: donald Trump was in the Middle East last week, basically

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Speaker 5: just coining money, you know, taking care of, as David

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Speaker 5: Frum says, taking care of his retirement fund. So the

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Speaker 5: mistake with Donald Trump is ever to think that he's

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Speaker 5: serious about public policy. Now, what you're saying is that

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Speaker 5: he might think that the optics were so terrible that

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Speaker 5: he wouldn't sign. He's definitely going to sign that big

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Speaker 5: beautiful bill because he has to. Failure is not an

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Speaker 5: option for him. But right now I think that what

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Speaker 5: Donald Trump is doing is, you know, Donald Trump is

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Speaker 5: rigging the government and the world economy for the benefit

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Speaker 5: of Donald Trump. He is not lying awaken night worrying

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Speaker 5: about grandma in a rural hospital. He give a shit

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Speaker 5: about that. So the movie here is not Donald Trump's

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Speaker 5: economic plans. It's Donald Trump really doing his business the

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Speaker 5: way he thinks it should be done. For Trump, it's

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Speaker 5: just a matter of being able to declare a win.

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Speaker 5: So say, let's take this China thing that we're talking about.

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Speaker 5: Thirty percent tariffs are stunningly high. The only reason the

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Speaker 5: markets are going, oh my god, what a relief is

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Speaker 5: because they're not high compared to one hundred and forty

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Speaker 5: five percent, right.

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Speaker 1: Which is really no more in China.

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Speaker 5: So Donald Trump lit this, you know, the entire forest

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Speaker 5: on fire, came in, put out a portion of it.

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Speaker 5: The woods are still on fire. But people are going, well, okay,

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Speaker 5: that's not so bad. But it is going to be inflationary.

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Speaker 5: It is going to happen effect. But Donald Trump believes

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Speaker 5: that all he has to do is say CI won.

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Speaker 5: He loses to China, right, he blinks. But as long

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Speaker 5: as he can declare to win, he's going to be

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Speaker 5: happy and just take that, you know, one after another.

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Speaker 5: It doesn't matter what actually happens in the real world.

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Speaker 5: Donald Trump believes that he can sell it.

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Speaker 1: So is that post truth?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, oh very much. It's post truth. It's post shame,

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Speaker 5: it's post accountability, it's post rule of law, it's post ethics,

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Speaker 5: it's post every one of those things.

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Speaker 1: So the bill passes, they start kicking people off, you know,

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Speaker 1: rural hospitals. This kind of stuff happens. We cruise into

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Speaker 1: the mid term with Democrats poise to win. What happens.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, do you think that's just how

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Speaker 1: it goes, or do you think that.

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Speaker 5: There is Yeah, probably, Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about Elon Musk and Doge. So clearly Doge

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Speaker 1: has done something because now we're starting to have really

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Speaker 1: bad problems with our faa.

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Speaker 5: Oh my god, it's terrifying.

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Speaker 1: But again, like this is the thing about Doge, which

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Speaker 1: I think is so brilliant, is that no one really

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Speaker 1: knows what the fuck they did in there right.

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Speaker 5: Right, except that it didn't actually shrink the size of

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Speaker 5: government or deficit or any of those things. No, there

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Speaker 5: are really still potentials for terrible things. I mean, going

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Speaker 5: to the summer that if the national parks are a disaster,

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Speaker 5: that has consequences, If planes start falling out of the sky,

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Speaker 5: that has consequences, And there are all sorts of other

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Speaker 5: things that we don't fully understand because he didn't care

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Speaker 5: about them. So yeah, that's all a possibility. But Elon Musk,

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Speaker 5: I think has generally gotten what he wanted out of

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Speaker 5: all of this. He's continuing to I mean, the fact

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Speaker 5: that they just this may seem so small, but what's

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Speaker 5: going on at the Library of Congress is so bizarre.

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Speaker 5: They fired the Librarian of Congress and then the head

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Speaker 5: of the Copyright Office.

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Speaker 1: Why because she was black?

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Speaker 5: Well yes, well okay, but the Copyright Office firing takes

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Speaker 5: place like the week after they issue this detailed report

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Speaker 5: that pushes back on Elon Musk's position on AI. So,

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Speaker 5: I mean, he has his own agenda and he's making

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Speaker 5: sure that he's taken out everybody is doing it. So,

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Speaker 5: but by the way, can we talk about this as

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Speaker 5: the weirdest story of the day. I mean, there are

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Speaker 5: so many weird stories of the day.

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Speaker 1: Yes, please, I want a weird story. Let's go.

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Speaker 5: When I first heard this, I thought, okay, this is

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Speaker 5: a misunderstanding. It's a misreport. It's a parody of some guy.

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Speaker 5: Christy Nome actually wants to have a Hunger Games type

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Speaker 5: TV show where migrants compete on the air for citizenship.

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Speaker 5: And it's one of those where you have to read

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Speaker 5: it a couple of times and go, Okay, this cannot

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Speaker 5: be true, right, Can Homeland Security Barbie actually have come

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Speaker 5: up with something like this? At this point, nothing is

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Speaker 5: beyond parody. If she was proposing a TV show where

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Speaker 5: people competed with who can shoot the puppy, you know,

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Speaker 5: in the face of the first I no longer would

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Speaker 5: be genuinely shocked by it. But this is a real story.

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Speaker 5: So these people, honestly, for all the problems they've been having,

432
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:26,399
Speaker 5: there's no sense whatsoever that they're back on their heel

433
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:29,760
Speaker 5: or that they think that they've gone too far, or

434
00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:32,199
Speaker 5: that perhaps they ought to rain things. And you know,

435
00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:33,879
Speaker 5: people like, why.

436
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,320
Speaker 1: Do you think that is? I mean, clearly, Christy nom

437
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:40,720
Speaker 1: wants to be famous and that's it, right, don't stop.

438
00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:43,080
Speaker 1: She doesn't care why she's famous, just wants me famous,

439
00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:45,960
Speaker 1: wants to make money. I mean obviously that you don't

440
00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:49,600
Speaker 1: have a fifty four page deck for a reality show

441
00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:52,679
Speaker 1: or a thirty seven page deck for reality show. Hell,

442
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:55,639
Speaker 1: if you're not pretty convincing you want to So she

443
00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:58,040
Speaker 1: wants me famous. But what's the end goal? I mean,

444
00:23:58,080 --> 00:23:59,600
Speaker 1: I think a lot of these people just want to

445
00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:01,400
Speaker 1: make money and be famous, right.

446
00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:05,320
Speaker 5: Yeah, right, and then and be powerful and be influential. Now,

447
00:24:05,359 --> 00:24:07,680
Speaker 5: Stephen Miller does have an end goal, which is which

448
00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:10,639
Speaker 5: is deeply ugly. I just have the sense that the

449
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:14,760
Speaker 5: hubris in this administration is getting more and more intense.

450
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:18,560
Speaker 5: Now that's the bad news is that they are you

451
00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:21,480
Speaker 5: know at ramming speed. The good news is the story

452
00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:25,399
Speaker 5: of Hubris seldom ends well when you fly too close

453
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,520
Speaker 5: to the sum When Stephen Miller comes rolling out last

454
00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:33,399
Speaker 5: weekend and say we're thinking of yeah exactly, it's like

455
00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:36,600
Speaker 5: he thinks and all these stories now saying he's the

456
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:39,720
Speaker 5: President's ID, that nobody else has as much cloud as

457
00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:42,080
Speaker 5: he does. I don't know how Donald Trump, you know,

458
00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:43,480
Speaker 5: reacts to that that.

459
00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:46,120
Speaker 1: He's running the DOJ. Did you see that story?

460
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:46,560
Speaker 6: Yes?

461
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:49,600
Speaker 5: And you know, isn't that isn't that remarkable? But not

462
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 5: a total shock that the Fox News hosts chosen by

463
00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:56,320
Speaker 5: Trump are merely figureheads, right, They're the people there's the

464
00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:58,439
Speaker 5: talking head you put on TV. They don't actually like

465
00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:01,399
Speaker 5: do shit? So who does shit? I mean some of

466
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:04,439
Speaker 5: these evil humunculuses, like Stephen Miller.

467
00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:08,200
Speaker 1: But it is amazing to me that there was some

468
00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:12,000
Speaker 1: report in the reporting of the James Comy eighty six

469
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:16,159
Speaker 1: forty seven, that whole crisis that they got cash Fatel,

470
00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:19,800
Speaker 1: because like cash Fattel has been curiously absent from the discourse.

471
00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 5: Yes, but not the discothechts, So I'm certainly not doing that. Well, Okay,

472
00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:29,119
Speaker 5: what's hilarious about this whole you know, eighty six forty

473
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:31,280
Speaker 5: seven thing is now people are coming up with all

474
00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:34,320
Speaker 5: sorts of times when Maga folks were saying, you know,

475
00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:38,560
Speaker 5: eighty six forty six, or they were actually marketing merch,

476
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:42,360
Speaker 5: you know, with eighty six, because as many people know,

477
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:45,440
Speaker 5: eighty six does not necessarily mean kill them. It means,

478
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:47,880
Speaker 5: you know, to get rid of them, or means take

479
00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:50,600
Speaker 5: it off the menu or whatever. So some of the

480
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:54,040
Speaker 5: delicious stuff on social media will be actually putting tweets

481
00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:57,680
Speaker 5: side by side of a Maga folk, somebody in Maga saying,

482
00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:00,560
Speaker 5: you know, we should eighty six Biden, and then right

483
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:03,359
Speaker 5: next to it, oh my god, Jim Comy is calling

484
00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:06,600
Speaker 5: for the assassination of Donald Trump for saying the exact same.

485
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,160
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, it's just it's all performative bullshit

486
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:10,000
Speaker 5: at this point.

487
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:12,920
Speaker 1: Charlie Sikes, thank you for joining us.

488
00:26:13,359 --> 00:26:15,800
Speaker 5: Thank you. I cannot wait to read your book, Molly,

489
00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:17,680
Speaker 5: I cannot wait to read your book.

490
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:26,679
Speaker 1: Congressman Greg Kazar represents Texas's thirty fifth congressional district. Welcome

491
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:31,480
Speaker 1: to Fast Politics, Representative Kazar, thanks so much for having

492
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:34,119
Speaker 1: me a new Ish member of Congress.

493
00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:37,240
Speaker 6: That's right here, a few months into my second term.

494
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:41,960
Speaker 1: You have already sort of emerged as a star. You're

495
00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:45,240
Speaker 1: the head of the Progressive Caucus, and you have been

496
00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:52,200
Speaker 1: going around with AOC and Bernie, but also with other people.

497
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:54,760
Speaker 1: So I want you to talk to me about how

498
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:58,640
Speaker 1: you've found it since you've been in Congress, and how

499
00:26:58,680 --> 00:26:59,840
Speaker 1: you've kind of found your voice.

500
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:02,960
Speaker 6: Well, what's happening in the world and what's happening in

501
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:07,240
Speaker 6: the country is crazy. It's just awful if you really

502
00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:12,080
Speaker 6: take in what the Trump administration is doing to our

503
00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:15,600
Speaker 6: government and to people in our country any given day.

504
00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:19,119
Speaker 6: But when you ask me how I've found Congress, you know,

505
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:23,119
Speaker 6: I go into these committee meetings and people aren't really

506
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:27,400
Speaker 6: debating policy or how to make the country better. It's

507
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:31,760
Speaker 6: not like I'm having a reasoned debate with my Republican colleagues.

508
00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:35,680
Speaker 6: They're just they're ramming through healthcare cuts. They're just there

509
00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:39,520
Speaker 6: ramming through billionaire tax cuts, and then they say whatever

510
00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 6: words it is they have to say around it. And

511
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:45,000
Speaker 6: so I've recognized how important it is for us to

512
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:47,480
Speaker 6: go out there and speak to the country and organize

513
00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:50,399
Speaker 6: the country and mobilize people if we want to stop

514
00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:53,920
Speaker 6: what's happening in Congress. The horrible thing's happening in Congress.

515
00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:56,160
Speaker 6: And so you know, I can go to a committee

516
00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:59,560
Speaker 6: meeting and argue with chairwomen of my subcommittee, Marjorie Taylor Green,

517
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:01,000
Speaker 6: till I'm blue in the face.

518
00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:04,040
Speaker 1: Is that doj Is that this committee we're talking about?

519
00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:04,719
Speaker 5: Yeah?

520
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:07,840
Speaker 6: But you know when the report came out whatever that

521
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:10,399
Speaker 6: was a week and a half ago, that the Republican

522
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:13,680
Speaker 6: plan was going to kick nearly ten million people off

523
00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:16,399
Speaker 6: of their healthcare and just one with just one vote

524
00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:20,080
Speaker 6: from the Republicans. Chairwoman of the Committee on DOGE, Marjorie

525
00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:24,399
Speaker 6: Taylor Green called a hearing on trans fencing, not like

526
00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:26,960
Speaker 6: the fences around a building, but like the sport with

527
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,800
Speaker 6: the swords. And while I'm sure fencing is a great sport,

528
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:33,159
Speaker 6: I've never met a fencer. You know, there's less than

529
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 6: one thousands collegiate fencers in America. There's less than ten

530
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:41,640
Speaker 6: trans collegiate athletes in all of American college sports. And

531
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:44,960
Speaker 6: so while I'm in Congress, that's what Marjorie Taylor Green

532
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 6: wants to have hearings about. That's what she wants headlines about.

533
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:49,360
Speaker 6: And if we want to beat that, it's so important

534
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 6: to go out into public and go and do rallies

535
00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:56,040
Speaker 6: with AOC and Bernie, but also I'm on Fox News

536
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:59,440
Speaker 6: and on Univision with the exact same message, which is,

537
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:01,480
Speaker 6: we want to make your life better. We want to

538
00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:04,640
Speaker 6: not just protect healthcare but expand it. And we could

539
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:06,720
Speaker 6: do that if we're willing to stand up to the

540
00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 6: billionaires that are stealing your taxpayer dollars and screwing you

541
00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 6: over every single day here in the government. And that

542
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,160
Speaker 6: kind of message I think should be at the heart

543
00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:19,719
Speaker 6: of a new progressive message of the Democratic Party's new

544
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 6: message to people to say, look, this is crazy, and

545
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,840
Speaker 6: we can unite more people if against this, if we

546
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 6: go and get folks stirred up, because the vast majority

547
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:31,080
Speaker 6: of Republican voters and Trump voters don't believe that we

548
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 6: should be kicking millions of people off their healthcare all

549
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:37,760
Speaker 6: to give some Republican billionaire donors a bigger tax cut.

550
00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:42,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm like very agitated. My new hobby horse

551
00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:47,120
Speaker 1: come with me is Democrats who speak like thep you know,

552
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:50,160
Speaker 1: like from the show Weep Right. They speak in this

553
00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:53,520
Speaker 1: sort of like you gotta bring the amer and the

554
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:56,280
Speaker 1: CA and then you have America right where they say

555
00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:58,800
Speaker 1: stuff that doesn't mean anything, and you think, I'm so

556
00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:01,440
Speaker 1: bored that I will do anything to get off of

557
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:05,320
Speaker 1: this interview. You don't talk like that. Do you see

558
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:08,840
Speaker 1: that people actually respond to it? And can you talk

559
00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:12,000
Speaker 1: to other Democrats and make them talk normally.

560
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 6: I'm new to Congress, and so it means that there

561
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:17,720
Speaker 6: are things that I don't know right because I'm new here.

562
00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:20,200
Speaker 6: But it also means that when I see something weird

563
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:23,400
Speaker 6: that everybody treats as normal, I'm like, that's really weird.

564
00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:26,400
Speaker 6: And I'm in some of these rooms and have been here,

565
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 6: you know, as a newer member where we get sat

566
00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:32,200
Speaker 6: down dozens and dozens of members of Congress on the

567
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:35,560
Speaker 6: Democratic side, and we're showing a slideshow and it says

568
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:39,720
Speaker 6: things like say these specific words defend social security. Just

569
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 6: say it, and ninety percent of voters agree, But nobody

570
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,160
Speaker 6: asks themselves, like you just said, Molly, what if nobody

571
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 6: hears you? What if you're totally tuned out? What if

572
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:51,520
Speaker 6: that tree falls in the forest and nobody cares? Who

573
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,680
Speaker 6: are so focused on saying the magic words instead of

574
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:58,000
Speaker 6: actually connecting with people and saying, isn't it freaking nuts?

575
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:01,480
Speaker 6: That they're talking about game years off of Social Security,

576
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:05,080
Speaker 6: taking your mom, your grandmother off of Social Security while

577
00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:07,440
Speaker 6: they get a bigger tax gut And isn't it crazy.

578
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 6: I didn't even know this fully until I was in

579
00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:12,080
Speaker 6: Congress that if you're Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, you

580
00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:14,840
Speaker 6: don't pay into Social Security every paycheck they pay in

581
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:17,520
Speaker 6: like three days and then they're done because there's like

582
00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:21,280
Speaker 6: a special carve out for gajillionaires on Social Security. What like,

583
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 6: we could pull every senior in the country out of poverty.

584
00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 6: You could have every young person that has to support

585
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:30,720
Speaker 6: some of their just tax the res if you just literally,

586
00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:33,400
Speaker 6: if we just tax Jeff Bezos, Yeah, you could make

587
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 6: it so that tons more folks could just support themselves

588
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:38,400
Speaker 6: and pay their own ment or mortgage instead of having

589
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:41,719
Speaker 6: to support themselves and their parents who work their entire lives.

590
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:44,960
Speaker 6: And just connecting with people a little more authentically in

591
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:47,680
Speaker 6: that way has big results. But I think it also

592
00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:50,440
Speaker 6: requires that we're willing to call out a villain so

593
00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:53,240
Speaker 6: that people are interested in our story instead of sounding

594
00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:56,480
Speaker 6: like we're just policy wonks and like Harvard moot court,

595
00:31:56,760 --> 00:31:59,160
Speaker 6: because like, yeah, that turns people off.

596
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:02,120
Speaker 1: I have a friend who's a member of Congress who

597
00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:05,200
Speaker 1: I love, and I saw this person. I'm not going

598
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:06,800
Speaker 1: to say what gender they are because I don't want

599
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:08,360
Speaker 1: to give it away. I saw this person the other

600
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:11,280
Speaker 1: day and I said, how you doing? And this person

601
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 1: was like, I am not fucking getting what I deserve

602
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:23,160
Speaker 1: in leadership world because the older people are keeping me

603
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:27,720
Speaker 1: out of it. Are you seeing that? And why is

604
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:28,400
Speaker 1: that happening?

605
00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 6: Well, you know, there's this long established seniority system in Congress,

606
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:35,880
Speaker 6: and it exists for a variety of reasons, and I

607
00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:38,440
Speaker 6: think that it's kind of served out. It's most of

608
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:41,400
Speaker 6: its usefulness where people just like anybody else, and folks

609
00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:43,400
Speaker 6: have been like when I came in, the rule was

610
00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:46,360
Speaker 6: once I've been here twenty years, then I get a

611
00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:48,600
Speaker 6: certain amount of influence. And now I've been here eighteen

612
00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:50,840
Speaker 6: years and you're changing the rules on me last minute.

613
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:53,479
Speaker 6: And the answer is kind of that's what's happening, and

614
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:55,640
Speaker 6: it's going to be better for everybody. And there are

615
00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:57,640
Speaker 6: some folks that have been here twenty and thirty years

616
00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:00,960
Speaker 6: that are much older than me, that are actually bought

617
00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:03,200
Speaker 6: on and have more energy than I do.

618
00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:07,880
Speaker 1: On Nancy Pelosi, she could run circles around me, you know.

619
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 6: So, Look, it isn't that we should pick it by

620
00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:14,960
Speaker 6: age one way or the other. I just think, as

621
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:18,640
Speaker 6: we've seen on some committees, like the Oversight Committee that

622
00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:21,920
Speaker 6: I'm on, that there is a lot of new talent,

623
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 6: and that we have chosen our leaders oftentimes by who

624
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:29,120
Speaker 6: makes the best pitch. So Jamie Raskin, who led Oversight

625
00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:32,560
Speaker 6: and now leads Judiciary, an incredible leader. He was not

626
00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:35,040
Speaker 6: the most senior person on either of those committees, and

627
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:39,000
Speaker 6: we picked him, and I think everybody benefits, and so

628
00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:41,960
Speaker 6: I look, if the most senior person is the best person,

629
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:45,000
Speaker 6: then I think we go all in. I'm of the

630
00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:49,320
Speaker 6: mindset that we should bring people in, interview them, and

631
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:52,640
Speaker 6: vote for the best person. And I think the Democratic

632
00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:55,720
Speaker 6: Caucus is starting to get there. We're not fully there,

633
00:33:55,760 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 6: and I respect why folks feel like it's not fair

634
00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 6: to change the roles at the last minute. But my

635
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:02,600
Speaker 6: main focus is on Look, we're on the verge of

636
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:05,160
Speaker 6: nearly fourteen million people losing their healthcare for a billionaire

637
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:08,520
Speaker 6: tech cut, Like, let's fight that with everything we got.

638
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:10,959
Speaker 1: So I'm hoping you could tell me where you guys

639
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:12,480
Speaker 1: are with Oversight so.

640
00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:15,680
Speaker 6: I'm on the Oversight Committee. So for folks listening in,

641
00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:19,879
Speaker 6: this is supposed to be the committee that investigates when

642
00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:23,640
Speaker 6: big corporations or the administration are doing corrupt things. Right,

643
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:27,200
Speaker 6: like if you just said, the last few days, Trump

644
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:30,279
Speaker 6: was given a four hundred million dollar jet, He's being

645
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:32,400
Speaker 6: offered a four hundred million dollar jet for free from

646
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:35,759
Speaker 6: the Katari government, which is like illegal in so many

647
00:34:35,760 --> 00:34:38,520
Speaker 6: different ways, and it violates the Constitution in so many

648
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:40,440
Speaker 6: different ways. This is supposed to be the committee that's

649
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:43,000
Speaker 6: supposed to investigate things like that, but it's currently led

650
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:46,040
Speaker 6: by Republicans whose job it is to apologize and cover

651
00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:49,040
Speaker 6: up for things like that. So Jamie Raskin used to

652
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:52,400
Speaker 6: lead us on that committee. Jerry Connelly was elected after

653
00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:56,280
Speaker 6: mister Raskin was he is suffering from a re emergency

654
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:59,359
Speaker 6: of cancer and our thoughts are so deeply with him. Look,

655
00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:02,600
Speaker 6: everybody listen, They themselves or something of their close family

656
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 6: have dealt with the answer that you think goes away

657
00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:07,000
Speaker 6: and then comes back. It's just these are real people

658
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:08,960
Speaker 6: we work with, and so truly like this is a

659
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:11,319
Speaker 6: practices to speak. We are with Jerry on this. At

660
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:14,000
Speaker 6: some point soon, he said, he will step back and

661
00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:16,279
Speaker 6: then there will be an election. And they've been all

662
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:18,720
Speaker 6: sorts of folks that have thrown their names out there.

663
00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:22,480
Speaker 6: Three members of my Progressive Caucus, mister Imfume, who has

664
00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:25,360
Speaker 6: Elijah Cummings Oldti he used to run the committee, Jasmine

665
00:35:25,400 --> 00:35:28,799
Speaker 6: Crockett from my state of Texas. Robert Garcia, who's been

666
00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:31,319
Speaker 6: an incredible leader on this. You've probably see them all

667
00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:35,279
Speaker 6: over the news ripping the administration apart from Long Beach, California.

668
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:38,200
Speaker 6: And then mister Lynch, who's not a Progressive Caucus member

669
00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:40,960
Speaker 6: but you know also currently is like leading the committee

670
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:43,640
Speaker 6: in the interim. So my way of thinking about this,

671
00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:46,600
Speaker 6: because I kind of lead this team of progresses right

672
00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:49,160
Speaker 6: over ninety members of Congress or a part of my caucus,

673
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,440
Speaker 6: is instead of us all going our own separate ways

674
00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:54,719
Speaker 6: and picking who we like, I think that everybody that's

675
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:57,759
Speaker 6: running once mister Connolly steps back and there's an actual race,

676
00:35:58,160 --> 00:36:01,600
Speaker 6: come in present to ninety members of Congress, and then

677
00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:05,160
Speaker 6: we should vote as progressives to get behind somebody whoever

678
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:07,560
Speaker 6: the best person is that we think can push back

679
00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:09,759
Speaker 6: against these Trump musk abuses. And this is going to

680
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:12,000
Speaker 6: be really important because for folks listening at home. If

681
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:14,800
Speaker 6: Democrats regain the majority, even if we don't have the

682
00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:18,480
Speaker 6: White House, we get subpoena power, and in the Oversight Committee,

683
00:36:18,480 --> 00:36:21,160
Speaker 6: that means we could bring folks like Elon Muskin under

684
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:24,279
Speaker 6: oath to talk about all the stuff they did and

685
00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:27,000
Speaker 6: to root out, in my view, probably many things that

686
00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:29,520
Speaker 6: were against the law, because I've been talking about firing

687
00:36:29,560 --> 00:36:31,920
Speaker 6: you On Musk. But I think for folks that we

688
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,279
Speaker 6: find out violate criminal laws, commit real acts of corruption, like,

689
00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:38,840
Speaker 6: the consequences for that are worse. And I think the

690
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:43,120
Speaker 6: only way that we prevent people from unaccountability, stealing from

691
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:46,160
Speaker 6: the taxpayers to benefit from themselves is if those folks

692
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:48,200
Speaker 6: have a feeling that maybe in a year and a

693
00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:50,920
Speaker 6: half Democrats could have the majority and you can actually

694
00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:53,480
Speaker 6: get held accountable for it. Because right now they are

695
00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:57,200
Speaker 6: so emboldened they arrested a mayor in Newark and threatened

696
00:36:57,239 --> 00:37:00,160
Speaker 6: to arrest members of Congress for following the law and

697
00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:02,640
Speaker 6: going and checking in on an ice facility just this weekend.

698
00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:05,120
Speaker 6: They are so emboldened they think that they'll never get

699
00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:07,799
Speaker 6: held accountable, and the Oversight Committee is the place to

700
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:11,240
Speaker 6: do that. And so part of my job. It's probably

701
00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:14,279
Speaker 6: weird for folks at home downe to fully, you know,

702
00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:16,360
Speaker 6: hear how all the insides of this work. But my

703
00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:19,120
Speaker 6: job as Progressive Caucus chair is to kind of corral

704
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:22,760
Speaker 6: my team of ninety something progressives and be like, who's

705
00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:25,560
Speaker 6: the best who's our best pick that we can align

706
00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:29,160
Speaker 6: behind for this very important position, which will be investigating

707
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:32,959
Speaker 6: the Trump administration, dealing with Marjorie Tayler Green and folks

708
00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:36,400
Speaker 6: like that for now, but eventually, if the demost when

709
00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:39,040
Speaker 6: the House, it can actually go investigate all the stuff

710
00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:41,280
Speaker 6: that's happened. And if they know we're going to investigate

711
00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:43,680
Speaker 6: it hard, that actually might be a way of preventing

712
00:37:43,960 --> 00:37:45,640
Speaker 6: some of the horrible things that they're trying to do

713
00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:46,120
Speaker 6: right now.

714
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:48,480
Speaker 1: I think the idea of voting as a block too

715
00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:51,760
Speaker 1: is much better than as someone who lives in New York,

716
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:55,680
Speaker 1: where we are under the mayoral curse. What we have

717
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:59,040
Speaker 1: found is that progressives in New York tend not to

718
00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:01,960
Speaker 1: put it together as a group, and just everybody runs

719
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:04,200
Speaker 1: against each other and then everyone loses.

720
00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:07,400
Speaker 6: We have to get organized, and I was a labor

721
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:10,239
Speaker 6: organizer before I was an elected official, and so it

722
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:13,200
Speaker 6: makes my job a little different. Here in Congress. I

723
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:15,600
Speaker 6: can say what it is that I think, and that's important,

724
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:17,640
Speaker 6: but I you know, I can have a bigger impact

725
00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:20,200
Speaker 6: as of one of four hundred and thirty five members

726
00:38:20,239 --> 00:38:23,360
Speaker 6: of Congress if I can get eighty or ninety people together.

727
00:38:23,719 --> 00:38:27,960
Speaker 6: And that's how I think we pushed our agenda beyond

728
00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:31,200
Speaker 6: just defending against stuff. We get ninety one hundred and

729
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:33,040
Speaker 6: one hundred and fifty members of Congress to say, yeah,

730
00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:37,080
Speaker 6: we're going to defend Medicaid and Medicare from these Republican attacks,

731
00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:39,759
Speaker 6: but also put us in office and we'll expand it.

732
00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:42,640
Speaker 6: We'll pull every senior in this country out of poverty

733
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:45,680
Speaker 6: by expanding social security. Maybe we I'm for a Medicare

734
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:47,920
Speaker 6: for all system, But man, if we could even just

735
00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:50,919
Speaker 6: get the age of Medicare down fifty five or sixty

736
00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:53,360
Speaker 6: years old, we can help so many seniors get the

737
00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:56,840
Speaker 6: healthcare that they need. Maybe we can pass universal childcare

738
00:38:56,880 --> 00:38:59,120
Speaker 6: so that your childcare expenses are never more than seven

739
00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:01,279
Speaker 6: percent of your budget. Those are the sorts of things

740
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:03,520
Speaker 6: that if we actually really got done, then I think

741
00:39:03,560 --> 00:39:06,520
Speaker 6: people could believe in us again, not just as the

742
00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:09,040
Speaker 6: anti Trump people, but as the people who really did

743
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:11,759
Speaker 6: something for me because in places like Texas, I'll tell you,

744
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:14,160
Speaker 6: we are at the bottom of the list of voter turnout,

745
00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:15,839
Speaker 6: and a lot of the folks that don't try out

746
00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:17,319
Speaker 6: to vote, they're like, it doesn't really make that much

747
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:19,719
Speaker 6: a difference. I know it makes a difference, but I

748
00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:22,480
Speaker 6: want to show them the huge positive difference we can make.

749
00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:24,920
Speaker 6: And that's part of what I'm trying to rally members

750
00:39:24,920 --> 00:39:27,400
Speaker 6: of Congress around, is let's defend against the bad stuff,

751
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:29,279
Speaker 6: but also put out a vision for how we can

752
00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:30,400
Speaker 6: make people's lives better.

753
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:35,840
Speaker 1: Who are you seeing that you where you feel that

754
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:40,640
Speaker 1: they're good? In Congress and in the Senate where for example,

755
00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:44,840
Speaker 1: here's a question that I often am asked, which.

756
00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:47,359
Speaker 6: Is like, who are the leader of the Democrats right now,

757
00:39:47,520 --> 00:39:51,080
Speaker 6: right all the time? Yeah, And I know people feel

758
00:39:51,080 --> 00:39:51,600
Speaker 6: that way.

759
00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:53,680
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be the leader, but more just

760
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:56,560
Speaker 1: people where you're like, oh, this is impressed by what

761
00:39:56,640 --> 00:39:57,640
Speaker 1: this person is doing.

762
00:39:57,920 --> 00:40:02,000
Speaker 6: Oh, these people are good right now. I understand how

763
00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:04,279
Speaker 6: a lot of folks at home are feeling where they're like,

764
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:07,759
Speaker 6: who is the person driving this for us? My first

765
00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:12,279
Speaker 6: election was Obama's first election. We had that, you know,

766
00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:15,440
Speaker 6: in President Obama, both as a candidate and as president.

767
00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:18,120
Speaker 6: And right now we're in a place where Republicans have

768
00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:20,960
Speaker 6: Speaker of the House, the Republicans have majority leader, they

769
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,000
Speaker 6: have Trump and the White House, and so there's like

770
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:26,200
Speaker 6: this competition for who the biggest voices should be, and

771
00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:28,480
Speaker 6: that can be uncomfortable, and folks are like, well, who's good,

772
00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:30,839
Speaker 6: who's emerging? But right now is the time for that

773
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:33,160
Speaker 6: to happen, for everybody to go out there and do

774
00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 6: their thing. Like I feel like AOC is like our

775
00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:39,160
Speaker 6: number one draft pick. As young Democrats have been amazing

776
00:40:39,200 --> 00:40:42,239
Speaker 6: this year, going across the country, put her voice out there.

777
00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:45,560
Speaker 6: You know, that's amazing and alongside burning it. But then

778
00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:49,120
Speaker 6: there's also folks that have some of these tough Trump

779
00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:51,880
Speaker 6: to Biden districts that are kind of close, and folks

780
00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:56,160
Speaker 6: like Chris Deluzio has been amazing. You know, he's a progressive.

781
00:40:56,440 --> 00:40:59,680
Speaker 6: But somebody who can talk to voters that maybe weren't

782
00:40:59,719 --> 00:41:01,600
Speaker 6: ready to vote for Joe Biden, We're ready to vote

783
00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:04,520
Speaker 6: for him. And so there's you know, there's these emerging

784
00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:08,040
Speaker 6: voices I think that are rallying the country. But I'd

785
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:09,839
Speaker 6: say to the folks what I say to people all

786
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:12,239
Speaker 6: the time is right now. I think the leaders of

787
00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:14,520
Speaker 6: the party right now are like the folks flooding these

788
00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:18,440
Speaker 6: town halls, the people organizing these hands off marches, because

789
00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:21,480
Speaker 6: I want the people to really lead in this moment,

790
00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:23,520
Speaker 6: because what I've seen in DC is, look, the way

791
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:25,960
Speaker 6: that should work is people lead and the politicians follow.

792
00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:28,040
Speaker 6: When folks come and ask me like, hey, what should

793
00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:30,840
Speaker 6: I do? I give them some ideas. But it's even better.

794
00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:33,439
Speaker 6: Like when I was a labor organizer, we weren't asking

795
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:35,920
Speaker 6: members of Congress for permission or big companies for permission.

796
00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:38,120
Speaker 6: Like we were out there pushing. And I think if

797
00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:40,279
Speaker 6: people go out there and push, it's what gives our

798
00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:43,160
Speaker 6: democratic leaders, like a little bit of stepping their step.

799
00:41:43,239 --> 00:41:47,400
Speaker 6: Courage inspires courage. And so look, I encourage people to

800
00:41:47,640 --> 00:41:50,840
Speaker 6: call to march, to call all of our offices.

801
00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:53,880
Speaker 1: All right, tell me who You're not telling me what

802
00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 1: I want? Give me who? Well, yeah, I mean if

803
00:41:56,680 --> 00:42:00,200
Speaker 1: you want a list of my faves, yes, go who

804
00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:03,719
Speaker 1: win leadership? Do you feel like is really doing the

805
00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:05,400
Speaker 1: work in the House or the Senate?

806
00:42:05,520 --> 00:42:07,239
Speaker 6: Okay, I know you're in New York and that this

807
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:11,640
Speaker 6: gets strictly, but I frankly was very very supportive and

808
00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:14,880
Speaker 6: am very supportive of Leader Jeffrey saying we need to

809
00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:17,439
Speaker 6: vote know the Trump budget. You know, I just thought

810
00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:20,799
Speaker 6: that that was a powerful move. He aligned the Democratic

811
00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:24,520
Speaker 6: House members and we did a hard thing now say look,

812
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:26,759
Speaker 6: we're not going to vote for your budget. And I

813
00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:29,920
Speaker 6: do think it was a devastating move by Leader Schumer

814
00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:32,560
Speaker 6: to not just vote for the but Trump budget, but

815
00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:34,920
Speaker 6: in many ways help get it across the finish line.

816
00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:38,200
Speaker 6: And I just think those are two different styles of leadership,

817
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:41,480
Speaker 6: and in my view, in this moment, we need that

818
00:42:41,560 --> 00:42:43,839
Speaker 6: style of leadership that we saw from Leader Jefferies where

819
00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:46,440
Speaker 6: he said we're going to take a bold stand on

820
00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:48,839
Speaker 6: somewhere where it really makes a difference. And I think

821
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:51,640
Speaker 6: that we're suffering from those repercussions of Leader Schumer's decision today.

822
00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:53,759
Speaker 6: So if if you want me to give you a

823
00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:55,600
Speaker 6: little bit of it, of the of the t you know,

824
00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:57,920
Speaker 6: like that's that to me, that's the real difference right now.

825
00:42:57,960 --> 00:43:02,160
Speaker 1: But here's a question for you that because I don't disagree,

826
00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:05,080
Speaker 1: and I think most people agree with you, But the

827
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:09,000
Speaker 1: question is, wasn't it by the time that bill got

828
00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:12,160
Speaker 1: out of the House like, nobody thought Donald Trump would

829
00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:15,560
Speaker 1: whip the votes on that, right, Nobody saw it coming

830
00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:18,320
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump and Elon Musk would literally call people

831
00:43:18,360 --> 00:43:19,879
Speaker 1: and be like, if you don't vote for it, we're

832
00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:22,520
Speaker 1: got in primary. There was no precedent for that or

833
00:43:22,560 --> 00:43:25,840
Speaker 1: whatever happened that was like that, but clearly something to

834
00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:29,840
Speaker 1: that effect happened. But once it got out of the house,

835
00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:33,080
Speaker 1: and again I'm not defending anyone, I'm more just once

836
00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:35,719
Speaker 1: it got out of the house, it was the Democrats

837
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:37,200
Speaker 1: were going to own the shutdown.

838
00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:41,000
Speaker 6: That's the important question. So look real quick on precedents

839
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:44,680
Speaker 6: and unprecedented Trump Musk stuff. These guys do crazy stuff crazy.

840
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:47,279
Speaker 6: We have to understand that everybody you're going to do

841
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:51,520
Speaker 6: is unprecedented. There is everybody listening is like, oh, I

842
00:43:51,560 --> 00:43:52,840
Speaker 6: knew they were going to do bad stuff, but I

843
00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:55,319
Speaker 6: didn't know this. That's how we should be handling into

844
00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:58,160
Speaker 6: the house. You know, like he's going to pull every

845
00:43:58,200 --> 00:44:01,439
Speaker 6: trick in the book. So we just we can't rely

846
00:44:01,560 --> 00:44:03,560
Speaker 6: on that. In my view, right, that's how we got

847
00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:06,680
Speaker 6: Speaker Johnson reelected even though people opposed him, because he

848
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:10,439
Speaker 6: went in and you know, made the phone calls. So look,

849
00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:15,840
Speaker 6: here's here's my disagreement with Leaderschuomer is that if we

850
00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:19,400
Speaker 6: go in assuming that we're going to get blamed for fighting,

851
00:44:19,840 --> 00:44:22,880
Speaker 6: then the only path is to play dead, you know.

852
00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:26,280
Speaker 6: And I think that we need to pick tough fights,

853
00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:29,240
Speaker 6: ones where we're at risk of losing, where we could

854
00:44:29,320 --> 00:44:32,560
Speaker 6: get blamed for their not being a budget, but where

855
00:44:32,600 --> 00:44:34,720
Speaker 6: we could actually go out there and explain to people

856
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:37,640
Speaker 6: why we aren't going to be a cheap date and

857
00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:41,560
Speaker 6: help them and the Social Security Administration as we know it,

858
00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:44,399
Speaker 6: and the FAA and safe flights as we know it

859
00:44:44,520 --> 00:44:47,440
Speaker 6: and inspection of your food as we know it. I mean,

860
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:50,839
Speaker 6: give me a break. And I believe that we need

861
00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:55,040
Speaker 6: the kinds of fighters and communicators who say I'm willing

862
00:44:55,080 --> 00:44:58,680
Speaker 6: to take a risk and taking a risk involved maybe

863
00:44:58,920 --> 00:45:01,440
Speaker 6: we get blamed, but maybe we don't if we go

864
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:04,160
Speaker 6: out there and work it. But to your point, Yeah,

865
00:45:04,239 --> 00:45:06,120
Speaker 6: if we have a bunch of folks that aren't willing

866
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:08,440
Speaker 6: to go communicate all over the country, then we might

867
00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:10,279
Speaker 6: lose the fight and it's not worth picking it. But

868
00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:12,000
Speaker 6: I think we need folks that are willing to pick

869
00:45:12,040 --> 00:45:14,640
Speaker 6: the fight. And if you show up in poker and

870
00:45:14,719 --> 00:45:17,160
Speaker 6: everybody knows you're going to fold. We're never going to win,

871
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:20,200
Speaker 6: so we have to be willing for people to know, yeah,

872
00:45:20,200 --> 00:45:21,200
Speaker 6: that we're willing to take a risk.

873
00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:24,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. That

874
00:45:24,920 --> 00:45:25,360
Speaker 1: was great.

875
00:45:25,520 --> 00:45:25,800
Speaker 5: Thank you.

876
00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:26,920
Speaker 1: It's really nice to meet you.

877
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:35,880
Speaker 2: No, Jesse Cannon boy, I think you and I are

878
00:45:36,040 --> 00:45:39,040
Speaker 2: the biggest reality TV show watchers. But I know one

879
00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:41,399
Speaker 2: show I would not fucking watch, which is the most

880
00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:45,400
Speaker 2: dystopian bullshit I've ever heard, which is Christy Nomes's little

881
00:45:45,680 --> 00:45:47,960
Speaker 2: Hunger Games for Immigrants show.

882
00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:52,920
Speaker 1: Look, the Wall Street Journal is reporting DHS is considering

883
00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:56,719
Speaker 1: a reality show where immigrants compete for a citizenship. This

884
00:45:56,800 --> 00:46:02,040
Speaker 1: is unbelievably insane. I think we should all be pretty

885
00:46:02,440 --> 00:46:07,480
Speaker 1: I mean, even for this administration. That is wow. I

886
00:46:07,560 --> 00:46:11,480
Speaker 1: mean I am rarely speechless, but Hunger Games for Immigrants

887
00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:14,759
Speaker 1: may have done it. Wow. And there's a thirty six

888
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:17,160
Speaker 1: page slide deck, which you do when you're trying to

889
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:20,440
Speaker 1: sell a show, and it envisions the show is beginning

890
00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:23,319
Speaker 1: with contestants sailing to All Ellis Island, where they are

891
00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:28,400
Speaker 1: greeted by the show's host, a famously naturalized citizen, maybe

892
00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:31,719
Speaker 1: someone like Sophia Vergus Ryan Reynolds by the way.

893
00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:34,160
Speaker 3: None of these people are doing this.

894
00:46:34,320 --> 00:46:38,439
Speaker 1: No, no one is doing this. And yeah, I am

895
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:43,359
Speaker 1: almost without words, but I can find some. What the fuck? Man,

896
00:46:43,760 --> 00:46:44,920
Speaker 1: what the fuck?

897
00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:47,239
Speaker 2: How much do you want to bet that it's like

898
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:51,080
Speaker 2: studio ghibli pictures of like an immigrant outrunning another immigrant

899
00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:52,360
Speaker 2: because it's this white house.

900
00:46:52,719 --> 00:46:56,480
Speaker 1: There are no words, There are no words. Words fail

901
00:46:56,560 --> 00:47:00,839
Speaker 1: may words do in fact fail me. That's it for

902
00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:06,759
Speaker 1: this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday,

903
00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:11,480
Speaker 1: Thursday and Saturday to hear the best minds and politics

904
00:47:11,560 --> 00:47:15,840
Speaker 1: make sense of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast,

905
00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:19,640
Speaker 1: please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.

906
00:47:20,080 --> 00:47:21,200
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.