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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 Congressman John Larson has introduced articles

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Speaker 1: of impeachment against President Trump. We have such a great

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Speaker 1: show for you today. Notice his own Evan McMorris. Santorro

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Speaker 1: stops by to talk about the bipartisan calls to invoke

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Speaker 1: the twenty fifth Amendment on Trump. Then we'll talk to

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Speaker 1: The New Yorker's own Antonia Hitchins about the Groper movement

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Speaker 1: and whether it's the future of the right wing. But

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Speaker 1: first the news.

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Speaker 2: Smike, there's some interesting stuff we're going to get into.

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Speaker 2: But last night, Tucker Carlson sent a real, I don't

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Speaker 2: want to say the Franz Ferdinand moment of the mega

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Speaker 2: Civil War, but it's definitely, I think, a line that

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Speaker 2: you can't go back on, where he basically for an

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Speaker 2: hour and a half built up a speech where he

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Speaker 2: says that Donald Trump is the Antichrist. I tried to

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Speaker 2: listen to all that, but I got bored. Fast Forward

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Speaker 2: you'll be shocked to hear. But among other things, President

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Speaker 2: Trump is fired back and saying he's a blow iq

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Speaker 2: person but also he said the military should defy the

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Speaker 2: orders of the president. And the candae Owens of the

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Speaker 2: world are jumping on this. What do you think.

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Speaker 1: I think that we're in a real fucking moment here.

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Speaker 1: So basically, Tucker is saying that Trump is the Antichrist.

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Speaker 1: Tucker is saying this because he's anti the Iran war.

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Speaker 1: He has gone and met with Trump a bunch of

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Speaker 1: times to try to get him not to do this,

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Speaker 1: so it makes sense now. Also, Tucker says a lot

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Speaker 1: of anti Semitic stuff, you know, like we can agree

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Speaker 1: with him, but no, he is not a good guy. Right,

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Speaker 1: I think that's a fair We can both agree with

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Speaker 1: some of the stuff he is saying, but no, that

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Speaker 1: he is very much an anti semmit I.

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Speaker 3: Don't agree with him.

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Speaker 2: Trump's the Antichrist.

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Speaker 1: That's Peter Teel right, Okay, so there you go. But

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Speaker 1: also another anti semi cande OANs. So this crew, this

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Speaker 1: is the worst people, you know. Thing, right, we're the

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Speaker 1: worst people you know have a good point about Trump,

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Speaker 1: and they do. And you'll remember that the thing Trump

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Speaker 1: paid the most, which why Trump was so obsessed with

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Speaker 1: David from and both Crystal and Liz Cheney and his

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Speaker 1: first administration was because there was no one Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: hated more than someone who had betrayed him. And so

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Speaker 1: when asked about it, this is, by the way, Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump spent like much of the day on the phone.

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Speaker 1: But he told the reporter from New York Post, Tucker's

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Speaker 1: a low IQ person that has absolutely no idea what's

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Speaker 1: going on. He calls me all the time. I don't

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Speaker 1: respond to his cause I don't deal with him. I

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Speaker 1: like dealing with smart people, not fools. So this is

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Speaker 1: what it looks like. When MAGA comes apart. It's good

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Speaker 1: news because it means that, you know, it's enough of

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Speaker 1: a schism, so probably this crew can't get back together

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Speaker 1: and overturn American democracy, hopefully, but it's high stakes. I mean,

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Speaker 1: we've gotten to, you know, Donald Trump basically saying he's

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Speaker 1: gonna wipe this society off the face of the earth.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, it's not like these people like

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Speaker 1: we still have never gotten an explanation as to why

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Speaker 1: any of this is happening, which I think could be useful.

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Speaker 1: And it's wildly unpopular. He's wildly He's as unpopular as

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Speaker 1: he's ever been. He is as unpopular as a Nixon

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Speaker 1: during Watergate. I mean, like, so if Republicans are breaking

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Speaker 1: with him, which it doesn't, it certainly seems like Maga

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Speaker 1: is breaking. But whether or not elected Republicans we'll see

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Speaker 1: later on they're not as much. But like, if you

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Speaker 1: are breaking with Trump, it's certainly your own self interest, right, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I just you know, there's a lot of things that

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Speaker 2: you can put the genie back at the ball. I

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Speaker 2: don't know how you campaign and put yourself next to

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Speaker 2: the guy you called the Antichrist in their world.

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Speaker 1: I don't see a world in which Tucker and Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump are back on the stump together, though anything could happen.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's mostly bullshit.

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Speaker 1: I mean, like, for example, and this is all today,

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Speaker 1: which is Tuesday, which you will be listening to this

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Speaker 1: in the morning on Wednesday, which hopefully we'll all be alive.

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Speaker 1: And this is Miles Taylor quote which I think we

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Speaker 1: should just talk about this tweet. The people who got

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Speaker 1: Trump elected are now saying he's demented. Talker Megan Kelly,

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Speaker 1: Joe Rogan, Candice Owen's, Alex Jones, Marjorie Taylor Green. That

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Speaker 1: is a pretty shocking term of events.

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Speaker 2: So speaking, of strife inside the Party of the Republicans.

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Speaker 2: They're facing an eternal revolt over their plan to end

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Speaker 2: the shutdown because the Freedom Caucus is big mad.

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Speaker 1: So the Freedom Caucus is big mad. Here's where we are.

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Speaker 1: There is a shutdown. It is the longest shutdown. The

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Speaker 1: homeland security shutdown is the longest in American history. It's

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Speaker 1: fifty seven days, or it's fifty three days. It's some

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Speaker 1: crazy number of days. We are not funding homeland security. Well,

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump is threatening Iran. We are not funding homeland security. Like,

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Speaker 1: just think about that for a minute. Donald Trump threatening

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Speaker 1: a country that is deeply religious, filled with zealots, committed

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Speaker 1: to having its people carry out attacks. We are not

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Speaker 1: funding the part of the government that is supposed to

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Speaker 1: protect us from such things. So something to think about.

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Speaker 1: The Senate put together a deal. It came back to

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Speaker 1: the House. The Freedom Caucus was like, no, thank you,

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Speaker 1: We're not doing this. That is because the House had

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Speaker 1: been back and forth on this deal before.

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Speaker 3: So here we are.

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Speaker 1: House Freedom Caucus not interested in a deal. Everyone on

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Speaker 1: spring break while Donald Trump is threatening the Iranians. If

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Speaker 1: you're a member of Congress, go the fuck back to

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Speaker 1: work and if you're in leadership, you need to be

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Speaker 1: back at work today. And if you're a Democrat, go

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Speaker 1: back to work. If you are an elected official on

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Speaker 1: the left or the right in the Congress or the Senate,

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Speaker 1: would go back to work. The fact that Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: is making these threats, even if they're just threats, the

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Speaker 1: people that elected you want you in your office. They

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Speaker 1: do not want you on vacation. They don't even want

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Speaker 1: you in your district office. They want you there in

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Speaker 1: Washington doing anything you can to run a check on

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Speaker 1: the executive. Your job, Republicans and Democrats. And I understand

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Speaker 1: that Mike Johnson has sent you home. But Mike Johnson

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Speaker 1: only has one move, which is send everyone home. And

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Speaker 1: quite frankly, if you are in leadership, if you're john Soon,

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Speaker 1: you know better, right, You know your people are going

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Speaker 1: to have to run. You know, you have this wildly

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Speaker 1: unpopular president. You know your job is to run a

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Speaker 1: check on the executive. And so I really do think

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Speaker 1: go back to the office. People have sent you to

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Speaker 1: Congress in order to protect them from a rogue president. Okay,

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Speaker 1: we have a rogue He is taking to the internet,

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Speaker 1: like if Alex Jones is saying that this guy is

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Speaker 1: out of control, then I think it might be a

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Speaker 1: moment to go back to work.

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Speaker 2: So one of the signs of how rogue he is

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Speaker 2: is that the ways Republicans are defending him are very,

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Speaker 2: very pathetic and not coming off as the most confident

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Speaker 2: moments I've seen on television.

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Speaker 1: Well, if you're a member of Congress, like either go

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Speaker 1: into work or hide, but don't go on television. So

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Speaker 1: John Fuon and Mike Johnson are smart enough to not

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Speaker 1: comment because you know, it's just insane. And so we

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Speaker 1: have some people though, the sort of lesser Republicans in there.

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Speaker 1: We've got Mike Lawler, who has to both run in

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Speaker 1: a Hillary seat, right it's a seat Hillary Clinton want,

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Speaker 1: but also just defend anything Trump does. So he was

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Speaker 1: on CNN saying Trump wasn't talking about ending a civilization,

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Speaker 1: despite the fact that Trump was in fact tweeting about

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Speaker 1: ending a civilization. He says, he's talking about the energy

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Speaker 1: and civilian infrastructure. That's what he's talking about. By the way,

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Speaker 1: he shouldn't be doing that. That's a war crime anyway.

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Speaker 1: That is a war crime, civilian infrastructure war crime. John Berman,

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Speaker 1: who emphasized that Trump's message stated never to be brought

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Speaker 1: back again. Berman said, you know, never to be brought

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Speaker 1: back again. That's pretty much like the end. And Mike

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Speaker 1: Lawler just tried to defend. I mean, look, the good

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Speaker 1: news about Trump is that he makes everyone defend the

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Speaker 1: indefense ball. The bad news about Trump is everything else.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that the indefensibles in charge.

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Speaker 2: So judges blocked Trump's ten billion dollar child care funding

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Speaker 2: for Blue states because obviously this was ridiculous, but more

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Speaker 2: good news than judge lend.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. So look, a federal judge on Friday granted an

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Speaker 1: injunction and a case concerning the Trump administration's freeze on

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Speaker 1: ten billion dollars in childcare and family planning to five

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Speaker 1: Blue states. Trump a lot of this stuff gets knocked

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Speaker 1: down in the courts, as it did in the first

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Speaker 1: Trump administration. It's illegal, it's not okay, it'll get overturned.

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Speaker 1: The problem is, and I think this is the real problem,

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Speaker 1: is that like eventually, the highest court in our land

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Speaker 1: is the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court is filled

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Speaker 1: with maga extremists. I mean not all the way which

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Speaker 1: way around, but certainly quite a lot of maga extremists.

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Speaker 1: So like, you know, when it comes to social programs,

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Speaker 1: they are they're not fans of social programs. So I

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Speaker 1: do think it's going to be tough for them to

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Speaker 1: win on all these things, but certainly this one will

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Speaker 1: likely I mean blocking, I think likely that it'll end

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Speaker 1: up being the Dems will be able to do this

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Speaker 1: in those days. Evan McMorris Santorro is a reporter. I notice,

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Speaker 1: Evan Molly, how are you I'm agreeing with Alex Jones

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Speaker 1: because Alex Jones said Donald Trump is crazy and that

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Speaker 1: we need to do the twenty fifth Amendment. I don't

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Speaker 1: think I should be agreeing with Alex Jones, but he

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Speaker 1: sounds more sensible than all the Republicans in Congress.

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Speaker 4: Well, this is really what we're dealing with, is that

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Speaker 4: this whole Iron thing has been the strongest, the biggest

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Speaker 4: stress test of this maga idea that we've seen the

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Speaker 4: entirety of Trump's arrival on the scene. Right, the whole

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Speaker 4: thing is that this is the guy who said I

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Speaker 4: can go out in Fifth Avenue, I can shoot five

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Speaker 4: people and people will still love me. I can do

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Speaker 4: whatever I want. And as this Iran thing has both

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Speaker 4: begun and gotten bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger

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Speaker 4: and bigger. We have seen more and more people who

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Speaker 4: were you know, fellow travelers with Trump and with Maga

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Speaker 4: get really freaked out. I mean, Alex Jones has kind

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Speaker 4: of had his ups and downs with Trump. And know

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Speaker 4: Marjorie Taylor Green is somebody out there who you know,

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Speaker 4: she's saying from at Amendment as well, and she's had

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Speaker 4: her uption downs obviously.

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Speaker 5: But you mentioned converse.

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Speaker 4: You know Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, who is like

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Speaker 4: a pretty maga e guy. He didn't say to leave

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Speaker 4: at Amendment, but he did say the rhetoric that Trump is.

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Speaker 4: Trump has been using the promises he's making to attacks

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Speaker 4: Abilion infrastructure in Iran. This is over the line. This

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Speaker 4: is stuff that I hope it's once or I hope

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Speaker 4: it's not real. You're really seeing a blowback on this

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Speaker 4: president and on this White House from like people who

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Speaker 4: he never has to worry about usually, now he really

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Speaker 4: has to worry about them.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I think today I went into Morning

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Speaker 1: Joe this morning and like the vibes were like, oh

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Speaker 1: my god, this is really scary stuff. And it is

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Speaker 1: like this, you know, Democrats spend so much time being like,

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Speaker 1: we can't break through. When can we break through? How

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Speaker 1: do we break through? How do we get people to

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Speaker 1: hear our message? Like this was something those crazy tweets like,

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Speaker 1: I think it's hard to find someone who's not like

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Speaker 1: very freaked out about eight o'clock tonight.

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Speaker 6: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Look, I can tell you my texts all day are

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Speaker 4: like from strategists and stuff who like wanted to say

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Speaker 4: smarty things, what was going on in the political world.

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Speaker 4: You know, this person's an idiot, A look at this

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Speaker 4: idea is never going to work, that kind of thing.

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Speaker 4: And today one of them just text me to say,

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Speaker 4: can I say something like, really dark, do you think

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Speaker 4: that bombing back to this stone Age means like the

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Speaker 4: nuclear codes?

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Speaker 3: I mean, what are we talking about?

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Speaker 4: Obviously I have no answers for any of this, but

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Speaker 4: people are like, actually pretty freaked out. I mean, this

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Speaker 4: is the President of the United States saying this stuff,

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Speaker 4: And I think to more than just kind of this moment,

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Speaker 4: because who knows what's.

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Speaker 3: Going to happen.

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Speaker 4: We're all sitting around waiting to see what this actually means.

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Speaker 4: But there has been a real shift in the rhetoric

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Speaker 4: and tone of how we think about our military, you know,

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Speaker 4: in every way. Obviously, you can think of many mistakes

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Speaker 4: in military as aid, many things that the military has

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Speaker 4: done that we wish they hadn't done, or a wife

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Speaker 4: of what wish they hadn't done. But this is the

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Speaker 4: first time I can really think of a president saying like, yes, civilians,

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Speaker 4: we are coming for you. We are going to punish

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Speaker 4: you for the actions of your government. That's what we

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Speaker 4: are actually going to do. That's our plan. And not

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Speaker 4: only we're gonna do it, We're gonna wipe your civilization

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Speaker 4: off the map. This is just not stuff that you

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Speaker 4: hear people talk about. And it's one thing when it

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Speaker 4: comes from like sort of like a blustery person on

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Speaker 4: social media, but when that person is the commander in chief,

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Speaker 4: it really sends a pretty chilling message I think.

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Speaker 3: All around the world.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 5: I mean, this is the one military that can actually

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Speaker 5: do the thing that.

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Speaker 4: Trump is promising, And we don't know if he's gonna

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Speaker 4: do it or not, but the fact that promise has

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Speaker 4: been made feels like a like a certain set of

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Speaker 4: glass has been broken, right, a certain kind of thing

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Speaker 4: that we didn't ever really talk about, that we could actually.

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Speaker 3: Do but we won't do We're not those people. Now

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Speaker 3: maybe we are. It's very confusing, I think.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I also think there are no grown

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Speaker 1: up There is no John Kelly. There is no like,

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Speaker 1: the closest you get to a John Kelly is Susie Wiles.

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Speaker 1: And Susie Wiles is allowed to stay in that job

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Speaker 1: because of her refusal to say to say the hard

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Speaker 1: things to Donald Trump. Right, so there's no one who

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Speaker 1: can say, like, you can't do that. It's a war crime.

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Speaker 1: And that's why the refusing Illegal Orders video got Trumps

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Speaker 1: so upset. Now today Tucker Carlson said the exact same thing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: I don't know if he's gonna be indicted for saying

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Speaker 4: that or not, but yes, listen, I think that there

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Speaker 4: are people in this political movement who are really concerned

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Speaker 4: about the future, their political future. Like this is a

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Speaker 4: group of people who came in because they really had

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Speaker 4: the Democrats on their run, right, they really had that

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Speaker 4: like this wokeness stuff that that really kicked off and

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Speaker 4: kicked a whole bunch of internet debate.

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Speaker 5: Remember Joe Rogan, Oh my god, Joe Rogan.

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Speaker 4: He's like the best and he like loves he loves

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Speaker 4: us now, and you know, he's moved away from the

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Speaker 4: Republicans as well over this stuff. And so I think that,

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Speaker 4: And so I think that when you think about the

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Speaker 4: people who are saying that, when think Aboutucker Carlson and

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Speaker 4: these and these folks, they're not saying they're not having

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Speaker 4: an epiphany today. If like, oh my goodness, I can't

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Speaker 4: believe I was wrong about Mega, I was wrong about No.

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Speaker 4: They want MAGA to do the things they've always wanted

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Speaker 4: it to do. They think that this is going to

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Speaker 4: cost him the opportunity to do that, that this is

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Speaker 4: really it, that that they're really moving away from having

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Speaker 4: any political relevance whatsoever. And you know, right now it's

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Speaker 4: them saying it. There are a lot of Republicans have

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Speaker 4: to run for office in the next few months. Few

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Speaker 4: of them are saying it, but they're the ones who

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Speaker 4: will be on the front end of this thing. Well,

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Speaker 4: I don't know if they are or not, because that's

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Speaker 4: the thing. Trump is very powerful over them. But this

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Speaker 4: thing that you're hearing is people crying out. I think

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Speaker 4: we're losing the plot here much less the really dangerous

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Speaker 4: scary things we were talking about. But there is this

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Speaker 4: fear that like this is going away from us. We

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Speaker 4: had a chance to you know, break the universities and

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Speaker 4: take over all the media outlets, and you know, silence

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Speaker 4: saw these people we've always wanted the silence.

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Speaker 5: Maybe roll back the calendar on LGBT rights all that stuff.

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Speaker 3: Wait, women voting their hands?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, right and now and and this kind of adventurism

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Speaker 4: in in Iran could cost them that.

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Speaker 3: I think that's what they're afraid of.

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Speaker 1: I think that's a really good point. The thing is,

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Speaker 1: Jesse and I have this ongoing argument about it's not

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Speaker 1: really an argument. We have an ongoing conversation about Ben

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Speaker 1: Shapiro because Ben Shapiro is losing his audience. And the

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Speaker 1: question is is Ben Shapiro losing his audience because of

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Speaker 1: anti Semitism or because he is still towing a pro

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Speaker 1: war line, which the rest of mag really, you know,

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Speaker 1: unless you're Trump, there's pretty much no one who is.

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Speaker 1: There's not no one. But it's very hard to sell

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Speaker 1: this war to MAGA when Maga's whole thing was no war.

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Speaker 1: So the question, I think is like how much of

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Speaker 1: what Tucker is doing is trying to keep the project going,

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Speaker 1: and how much of it is him try to reflect

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Speaker 1: his listeners, his viewers, the comments.

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Speaker 4: He's got it well, I would say, when it comes

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Speaker 4: to that question, Ben Shapiro, the answer can be both, right.

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Speaker 4: I mean, Tucker Carlson and these folks have really engaged

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Speaker 4: in some rhetoric and invited in rhetoric. I mean, look,

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Speaker 4: it's you know, these group chats that have been exposed

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Speaker 4: and things like that. It's been pretty bad on the

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Speaker 4: anti semotism front, right, But also I can say that

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Speaker 4: there's there would be nobody who would advise anyone in

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Speaker 4: American politics at this moment to.

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Speaker 3: Start a war with Israel.

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Speaker 4: The country Israel itself has really trashed its reputation basically

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Speaker 4: every American under the age of I don't know fifty,

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Speaker 4: maybe even than that. And so there is that aspect

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Speaker 4: of like the more sort of standing with Israel that

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Speaker 4: you do, the sort of less appealing you are to

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Speaker 4: a broad swath of the electorate. In addition to that,

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Speaker 4: there is this real kind of you know, it has

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Speaker 4: never really gone away, but like breaking out anti senitism

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Speaker 4: that people are talking about, but you know, is this

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Speaker 4: gets us you know, this pulled it away.

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Speaker 5: From Tucker to the other side of the conversation too,

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Speaker 5: which is that.

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Speaker 4: It's still not entirely clear that what the Democrats totally

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Speaker 4: think about this moment, right because they have their own

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Speaker 4: sort of political issues to deal with.

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Speaker 5: So it's not like you're seeing a lot.

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Speaker 4: Of lawmakers say, you're seeing an increasing numbers say, but

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Speaker 4: you're not seeing a lot of them say, Hey, if

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Speaker 4: we were in power right now, we would shut this

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Speaker 4: whole thing down tomorrow, it would be over.

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Speaker 3: They all the money.

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Speaker 4: Will go away, will be pulled out, we'd be finished

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Speaker 4: with this whole conflict. You are seeing a growing number

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Speaker 4: of Democrats starry to talk like that, but you still,

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Speaker 4: you know, just a couple of weeks ago, my colleagues,

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Speaker 4: you know, we're in the Senate talking to Senate to

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Speaker 4: you know, to senators, and you could find plenty of

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Speaker 4: Democrats who were like, well, I could be open to

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Speaker 4: funding this war if they were you know, if they

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Speaker 4: made a good enough case to me. This is still

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Speaker 4: a problem for the Democrats too, to figure out sort

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Speaker 4: of where they stand politically in this moment.

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Speaker 5: Ben Shapiro was facing it earlier from as you mentioned.

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Speaker 4: Because the but the sup the Democrats are in it

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Speaker 4: also exists and they have not yet you figured like

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Speaker 4: what to do. Trump has really blown up American politics

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Speaker 4: by striking Iran the way he has and the fallout

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Speaker 4: I'm not sure exactly what it's going to be in

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Speaker 4: the end, but we are seeing right now MAGA sort

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Speaker 4: of coming a part of the seams, and we are

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Speaker 4: seeing a really emboldened anti war left now that feels

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Speaker 4: very confident in sort of pushing aside those establishing that

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Speaker 4: you know, Democrat notions of being you know, afraid of

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Speaker 4: being passed as peace mixed or whatever, or you know,

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Speaker 4: you know, too soft, and say no, this is bad.

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Speaker 4: We're not doing this, no more money for this, any

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Speaker 4: of this. You know, this is all bad, even to

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Speaker 4: the point that some people like AOC are talking about

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Speaker 4: no more military aid to Israel at all. The Democratic

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Speaker 4: parties side of this conversation too, it's different and entered

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Speaker 4: of uglier on the Republican side and my.

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Speaker 5: From my read of it, but both are sort of

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Speaker 5: in it.

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Speaker 1: It's so insane because it seems so obvious nobody wants

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Speaker 1: this war. The fact that we're even involved in it

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Speaker 1: is insane. It's for no one. It does nothing. The

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Speaker 1: fact that they could have maybe had a new like,

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Speaker 1: that's not a reason if we're gonna go to war

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Speaker 1: with people like it just feels such like such a

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Speaker 1: moment for moral clarity, like nobody wants this. It makes

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Speaker 1: no sense. Nobody shopped us any any bit of information

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Speaker 1: as to why we would be doing this, and so

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Speaker 1: you have no explanation for it and why we're in it.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there's just in my mind, unless you're net Yaho,

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Speaker 1: even if you're just a random Israeli, unless you're net Yahoo,

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Speaker 1: there's absolutely no reason for this war.

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Speaker 4: Well, I'll say the way I look at this full

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Speaker 4: moment in time now is just if you think about

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Speaker 4: Trump as being Biden, it all makes much more sense

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Speaker 4: because you know what happened with Biden is that a

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Speaker 4: lot of people who voted for Biden thought he was

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Speaker 4: gonna run for one term, and all of a sudden

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Speaker 4: people are like, well, look if you parse the words

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Speaker 4: and he didn't actually say that, so you know he's

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Speaker 4: running again, and that's you know, that's actually not a lie.

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Speaker 3: He didn't lie to you.

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Speaker 4: With Trump, Trump was like a look at of people

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Speaker 4: who supported Trump were, well, this guy doesn't like wars,

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Speaker 4: this guy's against war.

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Speaker 3: The Iraq war he thinks is stupid.

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Speaker 4: He called out John McCain for like being shot down

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Speaker 4: in Vietnam, like that is a stupid thing.

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Speaker 3: This guy's against wars.

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Speaker 5: I'm the peace guy.

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Speaker 3: I don't like worse. I'm against it.

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Speaker 4: Maybe I'm gonna pull us out of helping Ukraine. That's

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Speaker 4: how against war I am.

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Speaker 3: We're going to be.

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Speaker 4: And then now that the war has happened, his people

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Speaker 4: are doing the same kind of parshing that Biden's people

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Speaker 4: used to do it, like.

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Speaker 5: Well, actually he's always around. That's a little bit of

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Speaker 5: a thing here, and there's a little thing there.

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Speaker 6: You know.

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Speaker 4: This is that thing the old adage when you're explaining,

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Speaker 4: you're losing. Like they are really trying to explain, and

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Speaker 4: they can't. They cannot get people, like a broad swath

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Speaker 4: of their own base on board with this, and that

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Speaker 4: is a huge problem for them because they had, you know,

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Speaker 4: had to convince the whole country, especially with this escalation

436
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:26,240
Speaker 4: that has been promised. Right if this escalation really is

437
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,000
Speaker 4: real and we don't know where we're sitting right now,

438
00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:30,399
Speaker 4: what's going to happen, But if you can escalate this

439
00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:33,720
Speaker 4: war into more and more and more without public buy in.

440
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:38,159
Speaker 4: That really is a real sort of uncharted territory for

441
00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:40,639
Speaker 4: me in my lifetime. Like, I've never seen anything like that,

442
00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:42,440
Speaker 4: So I don't know what that would do to politics,

443
00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:43,760
Speaker 4: but I don't think it would be good for the

444
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:44,520
Speaker 4: guy in charge.

445
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:49,240
Speaker 1: No, and it is I mean even now, the fact

446
00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:54,360
Speaker 1: that we're seeing such high level defections from MAGA, I mean,

447
00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:57,040
Speaker 1: obviously they're not defections, but the fact that we're seeing

448
00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:01,480
Speaker 1: people like Talkars being out that's meaningful. You know, he

449
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:05,480
Speaker 1: spoke out before, but so loudly, and the sense that

450
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:08,440
Speaker 1: he's Trump is so unhinged is a real break through

451
00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:08,879
Speaker 1: a moment.

452
00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:12,440
Speaker 4: What I mean, twenty fifth Amendment is not even criticism.

453
00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:15,959
Speaker 4: They're literally saying remove this man from office now. I mean,

454
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:18,720
Speaker 4: that's the kind of thing that you could never have

455
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,639
Speaker 4: said before, and they would never say because there were

456
00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:24,280
Speaker 4: a lot of people who liked, who really liked Trumbelot.

457
00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:26,359
Speaker 4: I mean, they'll be interesting to see what happens with

458
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,320
Speaker 4: these guys down the road. You know, if this is

459
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:32,800
Speaker 4: in fact actually Taco Tuesday and not you know, war

460
00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:37,120
Speaker 4: escalation Tuesday. If they change their tune tomorrow about what

461
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:39,480
Speaker 4: Trump said about civilizations, you might drop them out.

462
00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:41,639
Speaker 5: It'll be interesting to see what they do. But this

463
00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:42,760
Speaker 5: is really for them.

464
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:45,399
Speaker 4: I think that they do not feel afraid of crossing

465
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:47,439
Speaker 4: this bright line now just saying that Trump is actually

466
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:48,480
Speaker 4: a bad president.

467
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 3: This is not going well.

468
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:54,240
Speaker 4: We need to stop this now, which again is sort

469
00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:57,280
Speaker 4: of some voices we're starting to say about Biden. They

470
00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:00,480
Speaker 4: were ignored by the establishment kind of like what's happening now, and.

471
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 3: It did not work out that well for them.

472
00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:06,360
Speaker 1: Threats, but you could not I mean Biden, like just for.

473
00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:09,320
Speaker 4: A minute, I'm.

474
00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:09,840
Speaker 5: Not a direct line here between the two things.

475
00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 7: Like it's imagine, right, Trump is bombastic, but like imagine

476
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:21,639
Speaker 7: Biden even being like we might bomb this country back

477
00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:22,720
Speaker 7: to the Stone Age.

478
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:28,160
Speaker 1: And I mean the rhetoric was so shocking, and this

479
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:32,080
Speaker 1: is for Trump, who was so shocking that. I mean,

480
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:36,159
Speaker 1: I think there's a feeling that it's hard because Trump

481
00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:39,960
Speaker 1: has plumbed the depths, right, I mean, over the last decade,

482
00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:43,840
Speaker 1: we've certainly seen tweets where we've been like huh, you know,

483
00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:49,720
Speaker 1: but this weekend between his like his tweets about Easter

484
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:54,879
Speaker 1: and the sort of like anti Muslim stuff in the

485
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:59,919
Speaker 1: tweets and then his his stuff this morning about Iran, Like,

486
00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:03,800
Speaker 1: it's hard to see this not be a huge escalation

487
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:07,679
Speaker 1: in his ability, in his inability to use his frontal

488
00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:09,400
Speaker 1: lobe to moderate his behavior.

489
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 5: Well, I can't even go that far. I mean, we've

490
00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:12,880
Speaker 5: been talking about Tucker and all them.

491
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:14,080
Speaker 4: This is this is what makes this hard for me,

492
00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:15,800
Speaker 4: right as somebody who's been studying this and covering this

493
00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:18,439
Speaker 4: since the very beginning. It's all fun in games with

494
00:25:18,560 --> 00:25:21,160
Speaker 4: this rhetoric until it gets to this point where maybe

495
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:23,840
Speaker 4: he's gonna bomb you know, right iron in the way

496
00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:26,560
Speaker 4: that you don't like. I mean, these people, this political

497
00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:32,840
Speaker 4: movement has embraced a style of sort of violence in rhetoric, politics,

498
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:35,639
Speaker 4: even actions when you look at things like became migration

499
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:38,639
Speaker 4: stuff that they're really that they were really into that

500
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:40,520
Speaker 4: now all of a sudden to be like, oh my gosh,

501
00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:43,240
Speaker 4: can you believe this? Is quite surprising to me that

502
00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:45,400
Speaker 4: they're trying to do that, which is why I sort

503
00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:48,280
Speaker 4: of keep pushing myself back towards the line of like

504
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:50,800
Speaker 4: what they're afraid of is that they're losing their chance

505
00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:54,760
Speaker 4: to finish their political revolution that they started. Because you've

506
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:58,160
Speaker 4: never I had never seen them, you know, they love

507
00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:02,040
Speaker 4: to be to laugh at people who are upset by

508
00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:03,879
Speaker 4: this rhetoric from this president, right, I mean they, I

509
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:06,400
Speaker 4: mean they love to you know, poke at them.

510
00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:08,320
Speaker 3: They love to do this stuff.

511
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:11,280
Speaker 4: You think back to just back in Minneapolis, the way

512
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:13,320
Speaker 4: that they treated those two Americans who.

513
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:15,720
Speaker 5: Got shot by federal officials.

514
00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:18,080
Speaker 4: You know, the languages around them, this kind of thing

515
00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:22,159
Speaker 4: is like very exciting to them. And this level of

516
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:23,800
Speaker 4: like we have to stop this, like twenty fifth of

517
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:26,200
Speaker 4: Amendment is like stop this today. That's like the that's

518
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:28,640
Speaker 4: like the big break button, like get him out of

519
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:32,280
Speaker 4: office to day. That is like less of a in

520
00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:34,560
Speaker 4: my opinion, I will say, from what I've seen in

521
00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 4: what I've been you know, reporting on for a long time,

522
00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:39,119
Speaker 4: that is less of an introspection and more of a

523
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:44,760
Speaker 4: oh holy shit, we've taken it in real trouble now.

524
00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:48,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've taken it too far. Right, We've gone too far.

525
00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:54,880
Speaker 4: It is, or we allowed things to go on too

526
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:57,919
Speaker 4: far without kind of was like waving it like a

527
00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:00,320
Speaker 4: little like maybe waving a flag a little or earlier,

528
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:00,560
Speaker 4: you know.

529
00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:01,080
Speaker 3: I mean.

530
00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 4: Marjorie Taylor Green is interesting case obviously, but she's had

531
00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:06,000
Speaker 4: a lot of crazy stuff herself.

532
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:07,760
Speaker 5: And put up with a lot of crazy stuff for.

533
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:08,320
Speaker 3: A long time.

534
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 5: Now is sort of warning that it's bad.

535
00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:13,560
Speaker 3: You already knew it.

536
00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:14,760
Speaker 4: I mean a lot of people say to her, like,

537
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:16,600
Speaker 4: we already knew it was bad. The question now is

538
00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:19,719
Speaker 4: what are you, like, what are you really telling us?

539
00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:22,280
Speaker 4: And when you're telling us, is that maybe something is

540
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,119
Speaker 4: over that we thought was going to be around for

541
00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:25,680
Speaker 4: a long time.

542
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:27,280
Speaker 3: That's the way it looks to me.

543
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:31,600
Speaker 1: It is kind of interesting though, Like today, while this

544
00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:36,080
Speaker 1: is happening, Marjorie Taylor Green, the runoff from Marjorie Taylor

545
00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:40,520
Speaker 1: Green's seat in Rome, Georgia is happening, and the Democrat,

546
00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:42,960
Speaker 1: who is not expected to win because it's a very

547
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:46,440
Speaker 1: red seat, is running on an anti war ticket, and

548
00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:51,600
Speaker 1: the Republican is running in this very strange way of

549
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:56,320
Speaker 1: having to defend a war that nobody I mean, at

550
00:27:56,359 --> 00:27:59,960
Speaker 1: least in Wag the Dog, the war had a purpose, right,

551
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:02,639
Speaker 1: It wasn't a real place, it wasn't real war, but

552
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:06,240
Speaker 1: at least had you know, this is like, the purpose

553
00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:10,560
Speaker 1: is what? Because Iran has been a bad actor for

554
00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:15,120
Speaker 1: the last forty seven years, Okay, but like so has Russia,

555
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:18,239
Speaker 1: so has North Korea, so has I mean, we're just

556
00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:21,600
Speaker 1: going to go to you know, why not. Just any

557
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:25,840
Speaker 1: number of countries have been bad actors and any number

558
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:30,600
Speaker 1: of countries could get nukes, So none of that is

559
00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:33,200
Speaker 1: enough of a reason to go to war with them.

560
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 4: I mean, this has been the problem for Trump in

561
00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:37,720
Speaker 4: this whole war right along, is that you know, they

562
00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:40,320
Speaker 4: sort of debuted the shakanaw aspect, you know, on that

563
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:42,320
Speaker 4: Saturday or you guys it was a Saturday or Friday,

564
00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:45,640
Speaker 4: and everybody was like what and they have never said

565
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:47,880
Speaker 4: what it was. I mean every speech he's given has

566
00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:50,640
Speaker 4: sort of been more meandering as in terms of.

567
00:28:50,560 --> 00:28:52,840
Speaker 5: The actual you know, solutions to this thing.

568
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:54,880
Speaker 4: And those of us who were around, you know, for

569
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:57,200
Speaker 4: the Iraq war, that's where it gets you where.

570
00:28:57,360 --> 00:28:59,800
Speaker 5: You know, those guys had plans, but when they weren't.

571
00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:04,160
Speaker 1: They actually had plans, it was yeah.

572
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:06,400
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we skipped over all that part. We skipped

573
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:09,240
Speaker 4: over all the let's get excited about the potential for

574
00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:11,680
Speaker 4: this and just to the like we're doing it. You

575
00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:13,240
Speaker 4: got to believe us that we're doing it, and like

576
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 4: that has been very difficult sales job for the president.

577
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:16,920
Speaker 5: And so I think it's you know, it's it's a

578
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:18,520
Speaker 5: real challenge. It'll be interesting to see.

579
00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:21,880
Speaker 4: What happens in that runoff race and just how many

580
00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:25,520
Speaker 4: Republicans sound like that candidate who's running to replace Marko

581
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:28,760
Speaker 4: Tyler Green Republicans sounds tonight, how many of them actually

582
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 4: sound like that in November, we'll see.

583
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:34,520
Speaker 1: It's hard to imagine the candidate who sounds like that,

584
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:37,880
Speaker 1: like this war is maying US safer, which seems like

585
00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:41,520
Speaker 1: such a stupid line, could ultimately win. But I guess

586
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:42,320
Speaker 1: we'll say.

587
00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:45,400
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I mean these Congression races, in these runoffs,

588
00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,320
Speaker 4: I mean, the turnout will be tiny, the wines are

589
00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:52,040
Speaker 4: very tightly drawn. But we saw Mike Lawler, you know,

590
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 4: who's kind of like this. He's real canary coal mine

591
00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:57,800
Speaker 4: guy because he's in this purple district. But you know,

592
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:00,520
Speaker 4: Democrats you want to get rid of him. And he said,

593
00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:02,120
Speaker 4: you know, i'll meet the press. I think over the weekend.

594
00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:05,040
Speaker 4: He was like, look, you know, if this goes on until,

595
00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:07,800
Speaker 4: you know, for sixty days, maybe Congress should have to

596
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 4: do something about that.

597
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:10,040
Speaker 3: Well that would be April twenty ninth.

598
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:13,640
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you know, you know, he started to throw

599
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:17,040
Speaker 4: a couple of flares up about this. But We'll see

600
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:19,840
Speaker 4: how long that goes and you know, and what happens.

601
00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:24,120
Speaker 4: But it really is, I think again, as clean a

602
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 4: political failure for a president as we have seen, is

603
00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:30,720
Speaker 4: this with is this war with this president.

604
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:33,080
Speaker 3: That's why he has supposed.

605
00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:35,520
Speaker 4: Allies on his own base, you know, calling him out,

606
00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:37,760
Speaker 4: that's why he has you know, senators there are really

607
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:40,080
Speaker 4: strong supports of his, like Ron Johnson being like, hey,

608
00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:42,120
Speaker 4: they have not figured out how to make this into

609
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 4: something other than a mistake.

610
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:50,120
Speaker 1: Evan. I hope you'll come back, of course. Antonia Hitchins

611
00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:54,120
Speaker 1: covers politics for The New Yorker. Welcome, Welcome, Antonia, Thank

612
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:56,440
Speaker 1: you so much for having me. You spent some time

613
00:30:56,480 --> 00:30:59,480
Speaker 1: with the Gropers. First, Why don't you explain what Groypers are.

614
00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:03,400
Speaker 6: It can be a little bit of a contentious definition.

615
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:06,760
Speaker 6: To some, you know, it would just be a follower

616
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:10,960
Speaker 6: or you know, occasional watcher of the Streamer and Nick Fuentes.

617
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:12,880
Speaker 6: You know, it could be just a simple kind of

618
00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:15,800
Speaker 6: fandom of tuning into that show. For others, it's a

619
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:20,160
Speaker 6: more kind of overarching worldview that entails being very skeptical

620
00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:24,680
Speaker 6: of Jewish influence and very incensed about having America refocus

621
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:26,840
Speaker 6: on the rights of white people, so.

622
00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:30,320
Speaker 1: They're antisemitic, though they would say they're not. I think

623
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 1: is an important point in this agreed or now.

624
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:35,840
Speaker 6: One of the first times I asked a Graper what

625
00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:38,760
Speaker 6: are the things you follow? They said, you're the most

626
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 6: inclusive movement. As long as you love Jesus Christ and peace,

627
00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:45,760
Speaker 6: you can be a Raper. And so I think the

628
00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 6: kind of definitional strangeness of it, be a bit hesitant

629
00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:51,840
Speaker 6: to quantify them all is one way or another.

630
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 1: So if you love Jesus but are Jewish, can you

631
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:56,080
Speaker 1: be a groper?

632
00:31:56,360 --> 00:31:59,760
Speaker 6: These are the kind of hair splitting conversations one gets

633
00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:02,720
Speaker 6: in when you spend a lot of time with Gropers.

634
00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:04,480
Speaker 6: So to me what was interesting was that the kind

635
00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:07,760
Speaker 6: of defining characteristic and so far as it's politically relevant,

636
00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:10,520
Speaker 6: is that they're very impatient with what they see as

637
00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:14,040
Speaker 6: Trump's kind of moderation as a leader, which to me,

638
00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:16,800
Speaker 6: I think looking at a group of much younger people,

639
00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:19,360
Speaker 6: you know they tend to be called zoomers. The feeling

640
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:21,960
Speaker 6: that Trump, whom they had grown up with as the president,

641
00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:25,040
Speaker 6: was almost like this kind of weak liberal leader I

642
00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:27,680
Speaker 6: think has led them toward wanting a much more radical

643
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:31,200
Speaker 6: solution in politics that is not being met currently by

644
00:32:31,360 --> 00:32:32,240
Speaker 6: this administration.

645
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 1: So they want Trump even worse. But as a Jew

646
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,840
Speaker 1: who has tried to make the case to a lot

647
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:44,680
Speaker 1: of by fellow Jews that the Publican Party is not

648
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:48,480
Speaker 1: broadly supportive of you know, like, did you meet any

649
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:49,520
Speaker 1: Jewish groupers?

650
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:52,920
Speaker 6: I did not meet any Jewish groupers. I met some

651
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:56,760
Speaker 6: gropers who say that the pernicious influence of the Jewish

652
00:32:56,800 --> 00:33:00,440
Speaker 6: people is the most profound threat to politics. Of course,

653
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:03,640
Speaker 6: I think those could be quantified as you describe. And

654
00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:05,920
Speaker 6: then I met some who just occasionally like to watch

655
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:08,920
Speaker 6: Nick Fuentes, and you find his clips on kind of

656
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:12,240
Speaker 6: Israel's influence in our politics to be interesting.

657
00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:15,240
Speaker 1: So in that way, I think it's a arranged Okay,

658
00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:18,800
Speaker 1: So I want you to sort of explain who nickwant

659
00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:22,560
Speaker 1: Does is and what his relationship to Grouper's are.

660
00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:26,200
Speaker 6: In twenty nineteen, when Charlie Kirk was first going on

661
00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:30,080
Speaker 6: to campuses around the country to speak to you know,

662
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:31,880
Speaker 6: I think, what do you imagine to be quite liberal

663
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:35,160
Speaker 6: audiences about conservatism, he was already being met with some

664
00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:37,520
Speaker 6: resistance by those in the audience who you know, were

665
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:40,400
Speaker 6: against many of the tenets of conservatism that they found

666
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:43,800
Speaker 6: to be, you know, exclusionary of certain rights. Nick Flines, however,

667
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:47,160
Speaker 6: felt that Kirk was insufficiently radical because he wasn't speaking

668
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:51,840
Speaker 6: about demographic replacement, he wasn't speaking about kind of civilizational erasure,

669
00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:55,840
Speaker 6: and he wanted those kind of ideas of paleo conservatism

670
00:33:55,880 --> 00:33:59,080
Speaker 6: to be brought back into the GOP. And so at

671
00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:01,560
Speaker 6: this point he had a lot lot of online followers,

672
00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:04,080
Speaker 6: many of whom used a kind of variant of the

673
00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:08,080
Speaker 6: Pepe the Frog meme, which you might remember sixteen and

674
00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:12,399
Speaker 6: there was a kind of chubby, smug looking frog called

675
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:16,960
Speaker 6: a groper or an easter toad. And so Flentes dispatched

676
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:20,239
Speaker 6: his followers to campuses to confront Kirk about, you know,

677
00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:23,799
Speaker 6: did Israel ju nine to eleven? Should black people be

678
00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:27,480
Speaker 6: allowed in the Republican Party? Very fringe internet views that

679
00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:29,640
Speaker 6: I think at that point, even the kind of tone

680
00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:32,640
Speaker 6: in which they were speaking was not considered part of

681
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:36,040
Speaker 6: the Republican Party. But by you know, last year, when

682
00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:39,200
Speaker 6: Kirk died, a lot of the positions that Cropper's initially

683
00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:41,680
Speaker 6: brought up about kind of the role of white people

684
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:45,239
Speaker 6: in the Republican party had become much more mainstream, and

685
00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:48,239
Speaker 6: so I think Fuentes has been influential mainly in the

686
00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:52,239
Speaker 6: sense that the seemingly very fringe internet streamer who's kind

687
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:55,720
Speaker 6: of ranting about organized Jewry all day and is monomaniacally

688
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,600
Speaker 6: focused on the Jews actually ends up kind of having

689
00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:02,640
Speaker 6: a prominence in mainstream GOP, at least the younger members

690
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:05,680
Speaker 6: of it, in terms of feeling like it represents where

691
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:06,960
Speaker 6: they want politics to go.

692
00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:10,800
Speaker 1: These gropers want. They feel that Trump is too slow

693
00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:16,440
Speaker 1: and too woke a terrifying statement. Do they understand just

694
00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:18,560
Speaker 1: sort of how crazy that is or now?

695
00:35:18,719 --> 00:35:22,040
Speaker 6: Well, I think that some of their critiques doesn't even

696
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 6: register in a traditional left or right paradigm. I think

697
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,040
Speaker 6: a lot of the kind of statements Trump made that

698
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:31,759
Speaker 6: they took it face value during the campaign, whether it

699
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:34,959
Speaker 6: was about no new wars or about you know, doing

700
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:37,719
Speaker 6: things for the working class. I think they feel that

701
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:42,400
Speaker 6: the president didn't deliver, especially in breaking from Israel, which

702
00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:45,120
Speaker 6: they hoped he would do. And so I think the

703
00:35:45,239 --> 00:35:49,000
Speaker 6: new war that is ongoing in Iran, in addition to

704
00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:51,480
Speaker 6: kind of the continued funding of what they've called a

705
00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:54,160
Speaker 6: genocide in Gaza, I think led many of them to

706
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:57,560
Speaker 6: fear that he was controlled by Israel and kind of

707
00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:00,960
Speaker 6: confirmed all of these online can be territorial kind of

708
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:04,799
Speaker 6: floating ideas that they already suspected the president. You know,

709
00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:08,200
Speaker 6: Howard Lutnik stands behind him. What does that mean? And

710
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:12,120
Speaker 6: so I noticed this kind of mainstreamification of weird things

711
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:15,000
Speaker 6: you see online and don't think much of suddenly became

712
00:36:15,239 --> 00:36:19,080
Speaker 6: pretty mainstream talking points. And so I think they the

713
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:23,440
Speaker 6: support for Israel is definitely kind of the main critique

714
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:25,600
Speaker 6: they have of Trump, but I think that often goes

715
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:28,480
Speaker 6: hand in hand with a critique that he's not adequately

716
00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:32,160
Speaker 6: focusing on white America, which you know, to critics of

717
00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:35,120
Speaker 6: this movement would say, in fact, he's being quite vocally

718
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:39,400
Speaker 6: supportive of white America in many of the policy decisions

719
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 6: that he makes in his own rhetoric, but they feel

720
00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:44,000
Speaker 6: that it should go much further and that it needs

721
00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:46,400
Speaker 6: to be closer to kind of a dictatorial regime.

722
00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:49,600
Speaker 1: This all sounds like real Nazi stuff. I mean, I'm

723
00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:51,799
Speaker 1: having trouble understanding what this movement is.

724
00:36:52,239 --> 00:36:54,840
Speaker 6: I think it's a very opaque and in some ways

725
00:36:55,080 --> 00:37:00,400
Speaker 6: very silly movement led by online teenagers who have up

726
00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:04,080
Speaker 6: into online thirty somethings who like to joke about the

727
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:07,920
Speaker 6: Holocaust all day, but versus to acknowledge that any of

728
00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:11,040
Speaker 6: it has anything beyond a kind of haha. I think

729
00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:13,960
Speaker 6: part of the difficulty and reporting on it initially was

730
00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:17,080
Speaker 6: just that there's, you know, I think a willingness in

731
00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:19,720
Speaker 6: some corners to take it very seriously and to write,

732
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,440
Speaker 6: you know, as the ADL would do reports on the

733
00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:25,200
Speaker 6: kind of extremist movement. And then there's also a tendency

734
00:37:25,239 --> 00:37:28,879
Speaker 6: to say, you know, this is the most fundamental encapsulation

735
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:31,720
Speaker 6: of online brain rot that kind of has funneled itself

736
00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:33,799
Speaker 6: into politics, and people who would have been you know,

737
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:36,680
Speaker 6: jocks or nerds or goths or something in a different

738
00:37:36,680 --> 00:37:39,360
Speaker 6: time now get to be gropers. But you know, I

739
00:37:39,400 --> 00:37:42,040
Speaker 6: don't think that they don't encourage violence. I mean that

740
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:45,839
Speaker 6: actually is denounced within Frontis as followers. So it's much

741
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:49,759
Speaker 6: more of a kind of silly tendency to focus on

742
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:52,319
Speaker 6: kind of the idea of if we can make fun

743
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:55,400
Speaker 6: of the Holocaust, we can liberate ourselves from this post

744
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:58,680
Speaker 6: war liberal religion that we've found to be stifling. I

745
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,680
Speaker 6: think it's closer to Nazi than it is to kind

746
00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:04,160
Speaker 6: of a real movement that would be kind of in

747
00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:05,080
Speaker 6: the streets.

748
00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:08,920
Speaker 1: Okay, So they have a candidate talk us through this

749
00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 1: candidate who's running for governor in Florida.

750
00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:15,520
Speaker 6: So James Fishback is running for governor in Florida, and interestingly,

751
00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:20,200
Speaker 6: he's running against the America First endorsed candidate, Byron Donalds,

752
00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:23,239
Speaker 6: who Trump has put his full support behind. And I think,

753
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:25,640
Speaker 6: you know, a few years ago, the America First candidate

754
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:28,439
Speaker 6: would have been the most right wing candidate by far,

755
00:38:28,760 --> 00:38:30,880
Speaker 6: and it would have been kind of America First versus

756
00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:34,360
Speaker 6: a Rhino. Now those America First Trump endorsed candidates are

757
00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:37,480
Speaker 6: seen as these kind of pathetic weaklings who take money

758
00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:41,040
Speaker 6: from APAC and you have to be primary by James Fishback, who,

759
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:44,040
Speaker 6: you know, I will say it's the most Holocaust jokes

760
00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:46,879
Speaker 6: I've heard at an Applebee's. But has managed to take

761
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:49,400
Speaker 6: kind of a lot of the talking points of grouperism

762
00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:51,719
Speaker 6: off the Internet and off of fuent as his livestream

763
00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:55,680
Speaker 6: and bring them into a normal electoral context in which

764
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:59,080
Speaker 6: he's giving a stump speech kind of infused with jokes

765
00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:01,600
Speaker 6: that might be made online life streams and that you know,

766
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:04,680
Speaker 6: would not be necessarily distilled to a campaign flyer that

767
00:39:04,719 --> 00:39:07,040
Speaker 6: would make sense to anyone above the age of twenty five.

768
00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:10,640
Speaker 6: But he's arguing for burning down abortion clinics, he's arguing

769
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:14,880
Speaker 6: for bringing back public hangings, he's arguing for Chinese students

770
00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:17,960
Speaker 6: paying a million dollars to attend our universities, and for,

771
00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:20,000
Speaker 6: as he put it to Tucker Carlson, kind of this

772
00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:23,319
Speaker 6: idea that only true Americans who have a blood and

773
00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:26,359
Speaker 6: soil connection to this country can understand in a kind

774
00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:29,160
Speaker 6: of spiritual sense what it means to be a citizen,

775
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:31,839
Speaker 6: and that this notion that anyone else who can kind

776
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:35,040
Speaker 6: of consider themselves part of the country in a propositional

777
00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:38,440
Speaker 6: nation sense, that they actually have no right to this country.

778
00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:41,680
Speaker 6: So I think it's the most radical version of that

779
00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:44,960
Speaker 6: kind of politics I've heard expressed in a traditional stump

780
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:47,319
Speaker 6: speech and goes far beyond what one met here at

781
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:48,040
Speaker 6: a Trump rally.

782
00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:51,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like it's the worst of trumpsm the

783
00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:55,520
Speaker 1: shit posting. Are there other tenets of it besides anti Semitism?

784
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:59,360
Speaker 6: I think there's a skepticism of most of the progressive

785
00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:03,120
Speaker 6: advances of the past if not century, then at least decades.

786
00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:06,960
Speaker 6: You know, women voting definitely is not something they think

787
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:10,360
Speaker 6: has been favorable to the country. Gender roles that go

788
00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:14,120
Speaker 6: beyond kind of traditional nineteen fifties gender roles are seen

789
00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:16,680
Speaker 6: as kind of an error that should be undone.

790
00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:17,080
Speaker 1: You know.

791
00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:20,480
Speaker 6: Fundess would say something like the Jim Crow water fountains.

792
00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:24,040
Speaker 6: You know, no big deal. It's a very retrograde movement

793
00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 6: that is channeling a lot of resentment and anger about

794
00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:29,759
Speaker 6: a kind of current situation they feel themselves to be

795
00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 6: part of by wanting to undo the kind of excesses

796
00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:36,400
Speaker 6: of progressive boomers that they feel kind of ruined their lives.

797
00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:39,279
Speaker 6: Of course, many of the critiques are inaccurate, but I

798
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:42,200
Speaker 6: think have found a really massive appeal in younger people

799
00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:44,840
Speaker 6: who see them over and over again online kind of

800
00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:47,600
Speaker 6: the same thing and realize like, oh yeah, maybe maybe

801
00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:49,800
Speaker 6: it's the Jews, Like that's why I don't have a job.

802
00:40:50,040 --> 00:40:51,560
Speaker 1: Basically it's anti Sammoners.

803
00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:56,600
Speaker 6: Well, sometimes it's Jews, sometimes it's other minority, sometimes it's women,

804
00:40:57,280 --> 00:41:01,360
Speaker 6: sometimes it's you know, it's a it's a kind of

805
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:05,000
Speaker 6: it's a lack of agency as expressed via anti Semitism.

806
00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:07,560
Speaker 6: But you know, a number of other things At the

807
00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:10,960
Speaker 6: same time, it's a very diverse movement with you know,

808
00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:15,560
Speaker 6: lots of women who call themselves the groy Pets, lots

809
00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:17,960
Speaker 6: of non white people, and I think kind of they're

810
00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:20,960
Speaker 6: much more like a fandom than an ideology. It's kind of,

811
00:41:21,239 --> 00:41:23,600
Speaker 6: you know, we're all on tour with the Grateful Dead,

812
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:25,840
Speaker 6: but it's a different kind of concert.

813
00:41:25,880 --> 00:41:29,640
Speaker 1: Right, the concert is a holocaust. Are to see this

814
00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:32,560
Speaker 1: as otherwise as anything other than terrifying?

815
00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:37,799
Speaker 6: Yes, I think that the kind of true success of

816
00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:40,279
Speaker 6: a movement as they imagine it, which would mean a

817
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:45,520
Speaker 6: full political takeover, seems incredibly hard to imagine because these

818
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:48,080
Speaker 6: aren't popular ideas in America.

819
00:41:48,120 --> 00:41:51,520
Speaker 1: Right, I mean, but trump Ism seemed that way too. Yeah.

820
00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:53,560
Speaker 6: No, And I think that's why it mattered to me

821
00:41:53,600 --> 00:41:55,880
Speaker 6: to take this seriously and not to just scoff at it.

822
00:41:55,920 --> 00:41:58,080
Speaker 6: But I also think in response to your question about,

823
00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:00,920
Speaker 6: you know, is Nicholas J. Fuente's to be the president

824
00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:03,799
Speaker 6: in twenty thirty six, I would hesitate to say, you know,

825
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:06,760
Speaker 6: this is the inexorable future of the right. I think,

826
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:09,719
Speaker 6: if anything, there may be a real correction after this,

827
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:13,080
Speaker 6: where you know, we've seen Republicans lose even in the

828
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:15,600
Speaker 6: past few months, given that a lot of the country

829
00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:17,560
Speaker 6: is not they don't want to go further with something

830
00:42:17,600 --> 00:42:19,520
Speaker 6: they see is not working. And I think some of

831
00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:22,520
Speaker 6: these people might end up voting for Gavin Newsom because

832
00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:25,640
Speaker 6: he's white. So it's difficult to course where it goes.

833
00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:28,520
Speaker 6: And you know, they loathe Trump, they loathe jd Vance.

834
00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:32,320
Speaker 6: It's a very kind of desk spiral movement of downward energy.

835
00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:34,160
Speaker 6: I think a lot of it might just be they

836
00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:36,560
Speaker 6: voted for Trump last time and next time they stay home.

837
00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:39,920
Speaker 1: So but you would say that Nick went As is

838
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:41,440
Speaker 1: the leader of this organization.

839
00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:43,799
Speaker 6: I think even to call it an organization is a

840
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:47,000
Speaker 6: bit you know, it's a coterie of people in online

841
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:49,200
Speaker 6: replies who watch a live stream. But I do think

842
00:42:49,239 --> 00:42:51,879
Speaker 6: that in so far as those views have been popularized

843
00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:55,080
Speaker 6: and brought into kind of the sphere of political normal.

844
00:42:55,160 --> 00:42:58,799
Speaker 1: They have a candidate, So you know, I mean, as

845
00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:00,600
Speaker 1: much as anything is in oral organization.

846
00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:03,919
Speaker 6: Yeah, I would say James Fishback is the most kind

847
00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:08,759
Speaker 6: of real world test case for where Funtess's ideas can go.

848
00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:12,520
Speaker 6: And we have seen with younger people it's incredibly popular

849
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:16,160
Speaker 6: with voters above fifty five. It's essentially you know, I

850
00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:18,680
Speaker 6: think maybe three percent, but at least the last time

851
00:43:18,719 --> 00:43:21,320
Speaker 6: I was looking at the polls for this, Byron Donalds

852
00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:25,000
Speaker 6: is being beaten by a factor of four by James

853
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:27,440
Speaker 6: Fishback with voters under thirty five. And so I think

854
00:43:27,480 --> 00:43:30,400
Speaker 6: it is as an articulation of something about our politics

855
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:34,040
Speaker 6: that really isn't working, and also something about America First

856
00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:36,359
Speaker 6: and NAGA that you know, the road has run out

857
00:43:36,360 --> 00:43:39,319
Speaker 6: for them with convincing young people it's a movement that's

858
00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:41,920
Speaker 6: going to make their lives better. And so in that way,

859
00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:44,279
Speaker 6: I think if anything, there's there is a shrewdness to them,

860
00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:47,080
Speaker 6: kind of breaking with something, even if what they've replaced

861
00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:47,600
Speaker 6: it with is.

862
00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:48,960
Speaker 1: Perhaps much much worse.

863
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:54,359
Speaker 6: Really something, was there anything about Gropers that you were

864
00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:56,280
Speaker 6: surprised by reading the piece?

865
00:43:56,280 --> 00:43:58,680
Speaker 1: I wondered if it was something that you had followed

866
00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:03,080
Speaker 1: for it just so tied with anti Semitism. It's hard

867
00:44:03,080 --> 00:44:07,799
Speaker 1: for me to you know, to get past that, but

868
00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:11,920
Speaker 1: it's certainly interesting and you you know, it needs to be.

869
00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:15,680
Speaker 6: Covered when I do think it is a huge problem

870
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:19,600
Speaker 6: for the GOP going forward because they don't have you know,

871
00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:21,600
Speaker 6: if you take JD. Vance as an example of a

872
00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:24,560
Speaker 6: potential torch bearer. He hasn't been willing to weigh in

873
00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:27,279
Speaker 6: on this and say we're against this. He'll say, you know,

874
00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:30,160
Speaker 6: we don't want to focus on purity tests. But I

875
00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:33,120
Speaker 6: think in the absence of being willing to find a

876
00:44:33,160 --> 00:44:35,520
Speaker 6: new way of gatekeeping, whether they like it or not,

877
00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:38,279
Speaker 6: they've become all of them bound up in kind of

878
00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:41,520
Speaker 6: an association with anti Semitism that again, I think is

879
00:44:41,600 --> 00:44:45,920
Speaker 6: broadly very unpopular with Americans. You know that disorder doesn't

880
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:49,719
Speaker 6: want to do Nazi salutes at a political conference.

881
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:52,640
Speaker 1: Right, they do until they don't. But yeah, I do

882
00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:55,000
Speaker 1: not think that you can trust the American people to

883
00:44:55,040 --> 00:44:58,440
Speaker 1: have sense. You've got a lot of stuff. So we'll say, Antonia,

884
00:44:58,520 --> 00:44:59,600
Speaker 1: thank you. That was great.

885
00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:02,120
Speaker 6: Thank you so much for having me on and for

886
00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:04,640
Speaker 6: reading the piece and being curious about it.

887
00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:12,360
Speaker 4: No more costly, Jesse Cannon my junk fast.

888
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:14,560
Speaker 2: So you know, when the American people are hurting, they're

889
00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:17,920
Speaker 2: thinking about gas prices going up, inflation that's about to

890
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:21,640
Speaker 2: be insane. We see headlines today that the White House's

891
00:45:21,680 --> 00:45:24,960
Speaker 2: forecast of the gas prices will be going down anytime

892
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:28,680
Speaker 2: in the foreseeable future. Trump's thinking about a new archway.

893
00:45:29,120 --> 00:45:33,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, He's very into decorating. When not trying to destroy

894
00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:37,960
Speaker 1: other countries or kill everybody in the world or kill

895
00:45:38,080 --> 00:45:42,080
Speaker 1: the Iranians, he is very focused on decorating. So he

896
00:45:42,160 --> 00:45:46,200
Speaker 1: plans to spend fifteen million dollars in the National Endowment

897
00:45:46,200 --> 00:45:49,000
Speaker 1: for the Arts in Humanities funds to finance the construction

898
00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:52,600
Speaker 1: of a massive archway. Why an archway to build across

899
00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:56,480
Speaker 1: the Lincoln Memorial. This is like this whole insane thing

900
00:45:56,600 --> 00:45:59,680
Speaker 1: where he just is, you know, his idea of legacy

901
00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:06,400
Speaker 1: is building, right, is building and doing anything he can.

902
00:46:06,800 --> 00:46:11,600
Speaker 1: And it's just like he's so scary and he's so erratic,

903
00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:15,680
Speaker 1: and the stuff he wants to do is so crazy

904
00:46:16,040 --> 00:46:19,200
Speaker 1: and then he's just building stuff like it's like I'm

905
00:46:19,200 --> 00:46:21,560
Speaker 1: going to kill everyone, and then it's like no, no,

906
00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:24,760
Speaker 1: we'll just build an our choice. So when not doing

907
00:46:24,800 --> 00:46:27,520
Speaker 1: scary stuff, he is dec writing well.

908
00:46:27,840 --> 00:46:31,000
Speaker 2: Like our former colleague Swinton said, he's a catty theater

909
00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:31,840
Speaker 2: mom at heart.

910
00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:37,040
Speaker 1: He really is. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics.

911
00:46:37,520 --> 00:46:43,239
Speaker 1: Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to hear

912
00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:47,880
Speaker 1: the best minds and politics make sense of all this chaos.

913
00:46:48,200 --> 00:46:51,040
Speaker 1: If you enjoy this podcast, please send it to a

914
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:55,120
Speaker 1: friend and keep the conversation going. Thanks for listening.