Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds, and Pew research says Donald Trump's approval
Speaker 1: ratings stands at thirty seven percent, down from forty percent
Speaker 1: in the fall, and soon to be much lower. We
Speaker 1: have a great show for you today. New York's twelfth
Speaker 1: district congressional candidate George Conway stops by to talk about
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's assault on the free press, his jailing of
Speaker 1: my friend Don Lemon, and his many, many other impeachable offenses.
Speaker 1: And then we'll talk to Kim Hardy, who is running
Speaker 1: in North Carolina seventh, a swing district. But first, the
Speaker 1: stories the media is missing.
Speaker 2: Molly, We're seeing a huge drop of the Epstein files today.
Speaker 2: One of the biggest things we're seeing is that Chislad
Speaker 2: Maxwell shielded twenty nine different Trump associates and peers to
Speaker 2: contain thirty two hundred documents that mentioned President Trump. What
Speaker 2: are you seeing?
Speaker 1: So the Trump administration has supposedly they're saying this is
Speaker 1: the final release of Epstein documents. I bet you there's
Speaker 1: going to be more.
Speaker 2: It doesn't seem like this could be ninety nine percent
Speaker 2: of them, right.
Speaker 1: I think they've released something like three million, a little
Speaker 1: more than three million pieces of evidence from the Epstein files.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's more. Pretty interesting, and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of interesting stuff in here. One is that Howard Lutnik
Speaker 1: in two thousand and five he said he would never
Speaker 1: be in a room with that disgusting person. Ever, while
Speaker 1: in twenty twelve he was planning a trip with his children,
Speaker 1: teenagers and a seven year old to Little Saint James,
Speaker 1: so that's pretty interesting. In twenty seventeen, Jeffrey Epstein donated
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars to an organization in Lutnix's honor, So
Speaker 1: that's certainly pretty recent. There's a lot of stuff in there.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of stuff that's redacted, and this is
Speaker 1: so Trump administration. They put it up and then they
Speaker 1: took it down. So there's this spreadsheet of allegations against
Speaker 1: Trump released by the DOJ, then taken down. I can't
Speaker 1: imagine who called the DOJ to ask him about this.
Speaker 1: There's Elon Musk, right, who wanted to visit the island.
Speaker 1: This is pretty great. So New Year's Eve twenty thirteen,
Speaker 1: Musk was in the calendar for New Year's a year
Speaker 1: later too, So Elon had said he was refusing to
Speaker 1: go to the island. But actually I guess Elon had
Speaker 1: been uninvited. Elon is really mad, by the way, it's
Speaker 1: Sky News for reporting that he is in the Epstein files.
Speaker 1: But here's an email to Elon from I think it's
Speaker 1: Jeff Gee vacation. I will send Helly for you. I
Speaker 1: will be in British Virgin Island, Saint Barts over the holidays.
Speaker 1: Is there a good time to visit? Still having friendly
Speaker 1: conversations In twenty thirteen talking about sleep, Elon Musk to
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Ebstein. So that is something. So we're definitely seeing
Speaker 1: that Elon is in fact in the Ebstein files. Now
Speaker 1: the incredible bit that I think is fascinating here is
Speaker 1: you'll remember that when Elon had a big fight with Trump,
Speaker 1: he said Trump is in the Epstein files. Boom. So
Speaker 1: it turns out that Elon is in the Epstein files,
Speaker 1: so boom. Also, FYI, Jeff Epp says, how many people
Speaker 1: will you be for the helicopter to island? And Elon says,
Speaker 1: just to Lula and me, what day night will be
Speaker 1: the wildest party on your island. That is something that
Speaker 1: Elon Musk types to Jeffrey Ebstein as one does with
Speaker 1: there is a lot, there's a lot here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like this weekend is just going to
Speaker 2: be this every hour on the hour, if not every
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes on the fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1: Trump's new pick for fed share also in the Epstein files. Okay,
Speaker 1: so pretty good, pretty pretty good. He's in the Epstein files.
Speaker 1: That is really something.
Speaker 2: Sounds like the pedophile cable.
Speaker 1: Brett Ratner too.
Speaker 2: Of course, yes, well we do that actually. So in
Speaker 2: other fun news, mister Trump says he wants to drive
Speaker 2: housing prices up instead of lowering costs for people who
Speaker 2: didn't work very hard.
Speaker 1: So Donald Trump, during one of those Zeni cabinet meetings,
Speaker 1: he says, We're not going to destroy the value of
Speaker 1: their homes so that somebody who didn't work very hard
Speaker 1: can buy a home. Okay, that is kind of the
Speaker 1: opposite of affordability, isn't it.
Speaker 2: I think that he said that's a democratic coax.
Speaker 1: Actually, yeah, this is where we are. We got a
Speaker 1: mad king who is running the country in a completely
Speaker 1: insane way. He is trying desperately to pivot to be
Speaker 1: slightly more popular. I do not see him laser focused
Speaker 1: on affordability, despite the musings of one susie. While I
Speaker 1: just don't think he's laser focused on affordability.
Speaker 2: It seems like he's focused on pretending he won a
Speaker 2: different election if you ask me so. ICE has begun
Speaker 2: buying mega warehouse detention centers across the US, according to
Speaker 2: new reporting across a few different outlets.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that. ICE is buying up the is
Speaker 1: mega warehouse detention centers across the United States. There are
Speaker 1: nearly two dozen communities have sparked protests over proximities to
Speaker 1: houses and schools. By the way, you know what's happening here, right,
Speaker 1: they're making jails. Okay, two warehouses one hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: two million. A third in now Paso, Texas could be
Speaker 1: among the largest jails of any kind in the country
Speaker 1: as envisioned, with eight thousand, five hundred beds. So the
Speaker 1: goal here is to make these twenty three warehouses into
Speaker 1: detention centers. But they're not really detention centers, okay, you guys,
Speaker 1: because they're not going to be set up in the
Speaker 1: kind of humanitarian ways that you supposed to set up
Speaker 1: a detention center. These are going to be like makeshift jails.
Speaker 1: These are going to be like black sites to detain
Speaker 1: thousands of immigrants arrested by federal agents in Minneapolis and
Speaker 1: other cities. Some of these people are not in this
Speaker 1: country legally. Some of these people are right. They killed
Speaker 1: two American citizens over the last two weeks in Minnesota.
Speaker 1: They've kidnapped numerous children anywhere from the ages of five,
Speaker 1: probably younger two. We saw a two year old. What's
Speaker 1: happening here is the never again stuff. This is the
Speaker 1: stuff what happened in other countries we came in and
Speaker 1: rescued people. Now it's happening here. And I think the
Speaker 1: real question is where we rescue ourselves.
Speaker 2: YEP. One of the things, though, to remember is this
Speaker 2: is deeply, deeply unpopular. What are the greatest sizes of
Speaker 2: this by I always think of an interview we did
Speaker 2: a while ago where we were talking about where the
Speaker 2: Democrats don't run candidates, and the one place that the
Speaker 2: person could see it as like, Wyoming is very hard
Speaker 2: to have in roads in because it's so deep red.
Speaker 2: And yet the woke has come to Wyoming and they
Speaker 2: booed Harriet Hageman out of her town hall for refusing
Speaker 2: to denounce ice killings.
Speaker 1: So, Harriet Hageman, I want to pull back and talk
Speaker 1: about Harriet Hagerman. Harriet Hageman was the woman who ran.
Speaker 1: She occupies the seat that used to be occupied by
Speaker 1: Liz Cheney. She ran for that seat because she is
Speaker 1: a craven opportunist. Right. She knew there's only one congressional
Speaker 1: seat in Wyoming. It had been Liz Cheney's for a
Speaker 1: long long time. Trump took Liz Cheney out because she
Speaker 1: was not loyal to him. Harriet Hageman was happy to
Speaker 1: move in there. She has the craziest as I've ever
Speaker 1: seen in my life.
Speaker 2: Makeup artist if I've ever seen one personally.
Speaker 1: That is not relevant here to this, but let's just
Speaker 1: go so that I am a student here at CC,
Speaker 1: and I was here at your last town hall back
Speaker 1: in August. You mentioned Lake and Riley, a male student said,
Speaker 1: referring to the twenty two year old who was murdered
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four by a Venezuelan immigrant. They love
Speaker 1: this poor woman. They have made her just like as
Speaker 1: the one name they know. However, you did not mention
Speaker 1: today either of the people who were killed in Minnesota recently?
Speaker 1: Why is that the question? Elicited? In uproar from the crowd,
Speaker 1: one older man shouted shot ten times in the back,
Speaker 1: referring to the times that agent shot Alex pretty And
Speaker 1: then she said, when I was speaking in August, I
Speaker 1: was describing the Lake and Riley Act that we had
Speaker 1: passed in the last year. Hageman responded, before the student
Speaker 1: cut her off. That's not the question. Why haven't you
Speaker 1: mentioned either of the people killed in Minnesota? He pressed,
Speaker 1: and she couldn't answer. You know why she couldn't answer,
Speaker 1: because this is not about justice. It's about giving Trump
Speaker 1: as much power as possible, letting him get away with
Speaker 1: any kind of weird, illegal shit he wants to do.
Speaker 1: Is how we got here. This is autocracy. These Republican
Speaker 1: congresspeople are handmaids of autocracy. George Conway is a candidate
Speaker 1: in the Democratic primary in New York's twelfth congressional district.
Speaker 1: George Conway, Hello, another truly insane day in Donald Trump's America.
Speaker 1: I'm on Morning Joe this morning. Don Lemon has been
Speaker 1: arrested last night in the lobby of his Beverly Hills
Speaker 1: Hotel by federal agents, and now he has spent the
Speaker 1: night in jail discuss.
Speaker 3: Fucking outrageous, fucking illegal, and fucking dangerous. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: Mom might be using that line, but that's the only
Speaker 3: way I cannot and describe it. And I don't even
Speaker 3: know where to start. I mean, he was basically just
Speaker 3: covering a protest and they try to ding him under
Speaker 3: some law that says you can't interrupt church services. Let's
Speaker 3: leave apart the question of the legality of that law.
Speaker 3: I guess it makes sense. I mean, if you're really
Speaker 3: truly disrupting and you're impringing on for somebody's First Amendment
Speaker 3: rights to worship, I guess that's or you know, I
Speaker 3: guess that's that's certainly protectable. But if you're a journalist
Speaker 3: and you're there and you're simply observing something, whether it
Speaker 3: be a disturbance or something else, you're clearly not you're
Speaker 3: not engaging in that kind of disruption, and you're in
Speaker 3: any event your actions are and should be protected by
Speaker 3: the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,
Speaker 3: and I you know, it's it's just absolutely it's nothing
Speaker 3: to do with that particular incident in the urch. It's
Speaker 3: got to do with the fact that he's been annoying
Speaker 3: the ship out of Ice for weeks. He was in Portland,
Speaker 3: we saw him there, we saw him in Minneapolis. He's
Speaker 3: been he's been an absolute brilliant you know he's been.
Speaker 3: He's been. He's been out there shoe leather in the cold,
Speaker 3: doing journalism, doing independent journalism, more of which we need.
Speaker 3: And you know, his rights are our rights. I mean,
Speaker 3: if if, if the government can shut him down, he
Speaker 3: can shut anybody down, and we have to stick up
Speaker 3: for him. And I think I think he's gonna I
Speaker 3: don't know. I think he will prevail in court. But
Speaker 3: that doesn't mean that, you know, it means, but it
Speaker 3: doesn't mean that this doesn't hurt because because other people
Speaker 3: might not have the wherewithal, might not have the volunteer
Speaker 3: lawyers to to to to help in his circumstance. I mean,
Speaker 3: this is so bad. The government couldn't even get a
Speaker 3: US magistrate judge to sign the arrest warrant, which is
Speaker 3: normally you just get the Act. But David and and
Speaker 3: and they'll sign the arrest warrant, and there are an
Speaker 3: and the FBI is off to the races. And here
Speaker 3: not only did the manistrate judge not issue the arrest
Speaker 3: of warrant, they took it up to the US Court
Speaker 3: of Appeals for the A Circuit, and the A Circus said,
Speaker 3: what the fuck, No way, we're going to reverse the judge.
Speaker 1: I want you to talk about the Eighth Circuit judge
Speaker 1: who said what the fuck because he feels like a
Speaker 1: real George Conway type.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't, I don't do you ever know him.
Speaker 3: I don't know him at all. I kind of saw
Speaker 3: a little online that he's a pro.
Speaker 1: First Yeah, yeah, you know, he's a rule of lock
Speaker 1: on a guy. It strikes in the job by W,
Speaker 1: by W by W.
Speaker 3: Really, these are the real old style we believe in
Speaker 3: individual rights conservatives who are on the bench. These are
Speaker 3: the same people who did a lot remember in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty and twenty to early twenty twenty one to stop
Speaker 3: the bullshit that you know, when Trump was Shawn is
Speaker 3: steel an election. I remember the guy Bibus on the
Speaker 3: Third Circuit who was a Trump appointee and basically affirmed
Speaker 3: that this, you know, the dismissal of Ludi Julianne is
Speaker 3: bullshit cases like these judges aren't buying this. I mean
Speaker 3: it's only the most recently appointed hacks that they have
Speaker 3: really any chance with and leopart the Supreme Court because
Speaker 3: the Supreme Court's like, well, h.
Speaker 1: But they are you can tell they see which way
Speaker 1: the wind is blowing up absolutely things.
Speaker 3: You know, the court's on balance, particularly the lower federal
Speaker 3: courts have been fantastic defending the rule of law. The
Speaker 3: problem is they are not the solution. They are not
Speaker 3: the solution that the framers intended to a criminal executive.
Speaker 3: You know, the court says, and we've had this discussion
Speaker 3: a bunch of different times, it's like the courts can
Speaker 3: stop one thing at a time, or order one thing
Speaker 3: stopped at a time, but they can't stop everything. And
Speaker 3: not only that, to enforce the court orders actually requires
Speaker 3: the cooperation of the Justice Department, which isn't going to
Speaker 3: fully cooperate when push comes to shop. You know, the
Speaker 3: most important mechanism to fight a criminal executive is impeachment
Speaker 3: and removal. And the other thing that actually can be
Speaker 3: useful at least as a stopgap measure before you remove
Speaker 3: the president is you know, it is actually the funding
Speaker 3: mechanisms of the government, which we actually are seeing some
Speaker 3: kind of interesting maneuvering in the Senate today.
Speaker 1: I guess, yeah, well, I want to talk about the Senate,
Speaker 1: but I first want to talk to you about mister
Speaker 1: Todd Blanche, attorney to Donald J. Trump. I know you've
Speaker 1: been busy running for Congress, but I spat.
Speaker 3: With him, remember a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1: Remind us now, I had.
Speaker 3: A little spat with him, and I forget what it
Speaker 3: was about, but he went out and attacked me, and
Speaker 3: I cleaned his clock somehow. But he's just a ridiculous.
Speaker 3: He's a ridiculous, shameless person who basically is he got to.
Speaker 1: Be Deputy Attorney General because Donald was liked how he
Speaker 1: was as a lawyer.
Speaker 3: Well, because he was one of the few criminal defense
Speaker 3: lawyers who represent Trump. And I don't know, I mean
Speaker 3: this was a he represented Trump in the in the
Speaker 3: case in which he was convicted on thirty four counts. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I guess your reward, good job, good job, Todds.
Speaker 1: So he gave it. He gave a presser today when
Speaker 1: they released all of these Epstein files, which, now, by
Speaker 1: the way, in an incredible bit of insanity, they released
Speaker 1: all these Epstein files and then and a lot of them,
Speaker 1: by the way, and I'm not defending anyone here, but
Speaker 1: there are a lot of allegations in these Epstein files
Speaker 1: that may or may not be true, right, Like every
Speaker 1: allegation is in there. So the DOJ now has started
Speaker 1: pulling them off the internet. So there's a spreadice last time. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's a spreadsheet with Donald Trump a lot of pretty
Speaker 1: serious allegations and then redacted names of people who said
Speaker 1: he had committed the crimes. They were put up and
Speaker 1: then we saw them disappear in real time.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: And the law that was written and it was passed
Speaker 3: doesn't allow them to do that carriod full stop unless
Speaker 3: there's an active investigation going on. I think you know
Speaker 3: they're not investigating.
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, certainly not. And what I thought was interesting
Speaker 1: when Todd blanche was talking today, he said there are
Speaker 1: no other men who are culpable in any way.
Speaker 3: And and he did that after what looking at all
Speaker 3: the documents, say, look at all three million invages of
Speaker 3: the documents.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he did not, but that was what he said,
Speaker 1: he said, And if there were, then they would have
Speaker 1: charged them already.
Speaker 3: Correct, And the fact is that none of that keeps,
Speaker 3: none of that allows them to to pull back these documents.
Speaker 3: But of course, you know what happened. Somebody at the
Speaker 3: White House started screaming about it, maybe some guy with
Speaker 3: orange chair. It was a little a little weak in
Speaker 3: the brain, maybe a little cooked, a little bit cooked
Speaker 3: up there, a.
Speaker 1: Little cooked Donald Trumps. It seems as if the only
Speaker 1: thing that could stop Donald Trump is an impeachment. You're
Speaker 1: running for Congress.
Speaker 3: It is not a question of politics anymore. It is
Speaker 3: not a question of g how does impeachment Paul? In fact,
Speaker 3: it should never be that. This is a solemn power
Speaker 3: and obligation of the United States Congress to preserve constitutional
Speaker 3: government by removing people who commit high crimes and misdemeanors.
Speaker 3: And there is nobody in the history of this country
Speaker 3: who has committed more high crimes and misdemeanors in such
Speaker 3: a short time or at all, than Donald fucking Trump.
Speaker 3: And by high crimes and misdemeanors, we mean actual statutory
Speaker 3: crimes which he's been committing, like you know, bombing these
Speaker 3: people out in the Caribbean. And I can't imagine that
Speaker 3: some of the some of the money that's been floating around.
Speaker 3: You know, he's a criminal. We already knew that he's
Speaker 3: a trump coin, but trump coin, I mean all of
Speaker 3: this crypt But even apart from that, high crimes and
Speaker 3: misdemeanors means just basically violating your growth of officing your
Speaker 3: duties to the people.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: It's like, let's say you're a trustee of a trust
Speaker 3: right as a beneficiary, and you're required to you know,
Speaker 3: manage the money, and you start spending it on yourself. Okay,
Speaker 3: that's that's a violation of your legal obligations. And the
Speaker 3: fact presidency is the ultimate trust in the United World.
Speaker 3: It is it is. You know, if you violate that
Speaker 3: trust and you operate the government for your own benefit
Speaker 3: and not for the people's benefit, you don't execute the
Speaker 3: laws faithfuble, You violate the laws because it's in your
Speaker 3: interest personally to do so. Those are high crimes and
Speaker 3: misdemeanor and just being generally incompetent. Maladministration of an extreme sort,
Speaker 3: you know, maladministration of ice, which is absolutely appalling. What's
Speaker 3: what he's doing, maladministration through doge everything, all of this
Speaker 3: stuff is impeachable. Virtually everything he's doing this these days
Speaker 3: is impeachable. And the problem, the thing that concerns me
Speaker 3: other than you are we going to make it through
Speaker 3: the next three years, is there's a lot of people
Speaker 3: who don't get that that is supposed to be the remedy.
Speaker 3: A lot of people think, you know, it's kind of
Speaker 3: like you ever hear the term that psychologists use, learned helplessness. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and this is to some extent the body politic, including
Speaker 3: our electeds. And we're not just talking here. I mean
Speaker 3: the Republicans are absolutely craven and cowardly and shameless, but
Speaker 3: even some Democrats are like, well, we can't really do
Speaker 3: anything about Trump for three years. We just have to
Speaker 3: big grint it. We have to just bear it, and
Speaker 3: you know, we have to make do with what we
Speaker 3: can do and try to try to work on other
Speaker 3: issues and de size Trump for every all sorts of
Speaker 3: other issues. Like to it's a huge mistake. It's wrong
Speaker 3: as a legal matter, it's wrong as a moral matter.
Speaker 3: It's wrong as a political matter because he's like, you're
Speaker 3: creating the self fulfilling, self defeating prophecy. And it's also
Speaker 3: wrong because of the things, the things that affect people's lives,
Speaker 3: negatively higher cost because of illegal tariffs. You know, I
Speaker 3: look out the window from my apartment in West Chelsea
Speaker 3: and I see the Gateway construction project, which is the
Speaker 3: new Amtrak tunnel that Trump is cutting off funds for
Speaker 3: because he wants to punish New York. That's an example.
Speaker 3: Jobs are all our transportation system is on the line.
Speaker 1: But a king, right, he's not a king.
Speaker 3: He's not a king, but he's but he's he's an
Speaker 3: elected official. His oath of offices to enforce the laws
Speaker 3: and and and bide by the Constitution, and his you know,
Speaker 3: to douce so own the best interests of the nation.
Speaker 3: And he can't he can't do that. All he cares
Speaker 3: about is himself and his seven forty seventh in his ballroom,
Speaker 3: and and the Millennia movie showing at the Trump kennedyly
Speaker 3: named Trump Kennedy Center, where he's putting these marble armrests
Speaker 3: and so on and so forth. I mean, it's all
Speaker 3: fucking bullshit, and he seeks to go.
Speaker 1: They took four journalists, all of whom are black. Oh, surprise, surprise, surprise, surprise,
Speaker 1: all of whom are independents. So they don't have big organizations.
Speaker 3: They don't have right exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do think like this is like Kimmel, This
Speaker 1: is like taking kim off there. It is a moment
Speaker 1: where you ask yourself, like, how do we go on
Speaker 1: like this?
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's it's and it's worse though, but it's
Speaker 3: I mean with Kimmel, they were basically intimidating somebody to
Speaker 3: then in their private business to screw Kimmel. This is
Speaker 3: physically arresting people. This is cashappo type taxings. This is insane.
Speaker 3: I don't think it will stand, but I think it's
Speaker 3: really really important for people to understand how important those
Speaker 3: individual journalists' rights are to our rights. Yeah, because their
Speaker 3: rights are our rights. Their right to inform us affects
Speaker 3: our right to be informed. It's all one and the same.
Speaker 3: And ultimately, if they don't have the right to inform
Speaker 3: other people, then neither do we, and we we just
Speaker 3: absolutely have to. I mean, you know, the First Amendment
Speaker 3: is just essentially essential to the lifeblood of a democracy
Speaker 3: in a free country, and they're trying to choke it off.
Speaker 1: And I think that why they don't like journalists, why
Speaker 1: autocrats don't like journalists, comes down to very simple calculus,
Speaker 1: which is they do not want their crimes reported on.
Speaker 3: They don't want truth. And you know, I mean, scholars
Speaker 3: of fascism will tell you that the entire superstructure of
Speaker 3: a fascist government is lying lies like this administration tells
Speaker 3: about things that we can see with our own eyes,
Speaker 3: like the murder of Renee Good and the murder.
Speaker 1: Of Alex pretty lies as lies.
Speaker 3: I mean, I know, I have a friend, a professor,
Speaker 3: a professor of of of of history, who writes, who
Speaker 3: has written a book called Fascist Lies, and he goes
Speaker 3: through all you know how how essential it is. The
Speaker 3: gaslighting is absolutely essential to maintain a fascist regime. You
Speaker 3: can't believe what your eyes see, don't you know, you
Speaker 3: believe the propaganda. And you know, fortunately, you know, we
Speaker 3: have a video in HD and that's important.
Speaker 1: I do think if we didn't have that video, who
Speaker 1: even knows what would be right now?
Speaker 3: No, And and God bless these people who are out
Speaker 3: there standing in the cold, risking them, risking their their lives.
Speaker 1: Holy, I've been killed who have been killed, so they
Speaker 1: are technically risking their lives.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, man at least, and you know, and there are
Speaker 3: other people have been shot. We forget that there are
Speaker 3: other incidents where people have been hurt and injured. You know,
Speaker 3: though you know, any one of those could have could
Speaker 3: have been another death.
Speaker 1: It's so incredibly insane to be in this moment because
Speaker 1: it was like there have been so many times over
Speaker 1: the last decade where you and I have sat down
Speaker 1: and been like, this is really fucking bad. But this
Speaker 1: is like, no.
Speaker 3: We've reached out of the we we talk about when
Speaker 3: we talked about this. You know, we've been talking about
Speaker 3: this for years. We were talking about how insane it was,
Speaker 3: and then we would extrapolate, right, what could keep going?
Speaker 3: This would be fascism.
Speaker 1: M hmm.
Speaker 3: Okay, we are way up that chart. Now, okay, now
Speaker 3: we're kind of it's more like, you know, one of
Speaker 3: those hockey stick grass. We're all of a sudden like
Speaker 3: this and it's not like that, and we all are
Speaker 3: you know, and all the people have said, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: he'll go a ways. It's you're exaggerating.
Speaker 1: He's going to just play some golf.
Speaker 3: Remember that down you know, Susan Collen has learned his lesson.
Speaker 3: He doesn't. He never will. He's going to get more
Speaker 3: and more dangerous.
Speaker 1: George Conway, I have a question for you which I
Speaker 1: think you will appreciate. So Susan Collins we're just talking about,
Speaker 1: is running for reelection the state of Maine. Yes, she
Speaker 1: calls a White House, tells them they got to pull
Speaker 1: out ice.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 1: Why do you think Susan Collins did that?
Speaker 3: Because she's trying to save her own skin and that's
Speaker 3: all she cares about. Obviously, it's good for the people
Speaker 3: of Maine that ice is withdrawn from Maine, but that
Speaker 3: doesn't help the rest of the country, and it shouldn't
Speaker 3: be that. If you have a vulnerable Republican incumbent senator,
Speaker 3: you get up, you know, you get past the government
Speaker 3: from ice. Okay, we're all in this together, We're all Americans.
Speaker 3: This only highlights the vindictive and political nature of how
Speaker 3: the federal government, this criminal regime is using ice. You know,
Speaker 3: we saw out a bit of that in Minnesota when
Speaker 3: Bondi wrote that letter to Governor Walt saying, Wow, it
Speaker 3: might would draw ice if you do like give us
Speaker 3: the give us your voter rolls, which has absolutely nothing
Speaker 3: to do with law enforcement, nothing to do with relation.
Speaker 1: Isn't it illegal to trade ice occupation? I mean, I
Speaker 1: know we've moved so beyond legal and not legal but
Speaker 1: legal real ice occupation for voter rolls. I mean, isn't
Speaker 1: that the craziest thing you've ever heard?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, absolutely, positively insane, particularly when you consider that under
Speaker 3: the constitutional structure that we have, states are principally responsible
Speaker 3: for the administration of elections, even elections to federal office,
Speaker 3: like running for Congress that's run by like hear New York.
Speaker 3: You know you run for you run for Congress, which
Speaker 3: you're on a ballot that's created by the New York
Speaker 3: State or New York City Board of Elections. The same
Speaker 3: way across the country. So you know, this is absolute.
Speaker 3: I mean, these conservatives who are supposedly respectful of federalism,
Speaker 3: they're trampling it. Don't give a fuck about it. They
Speaker 3: don't give a fuck also about the Second Amendment, right
Speaker 3: because they figures if if if Alex pretty has a gun,
Speaker 3: he gets to be shot. That's that's their position. Now,
Speaker 3: I mean, they're just unbelievably unbelievable gas lighting hypocrites.
Speaker 1: Any conservatives. Are they losing any conservatives because they're losing
Speaker 1: it in the polling, But we're not seeing that on Twitter.
Speaker 3: Look, I mean you look, you all I can tell
Speaker 3: you is I don't talk to these people, and but
Speaker 3: I can tell you that you know, you can see it.
Speaker 3: You can see it in some of the press. You
Speaker 3: can absolutely see it in some of the press. He
Speaker 3: saw some of the you know acts. I think Axios
Speaker 3: had a story about how Republicans are just doing you know,
Speaker 3: they're they're they're worried that going to get destroyed. And
Speaker 3: when then we saw the most amazing example is that
Speaker 3: gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota who is going to be the
Speaker 3: Republican nominee, or it was the Republican nominee. BASICI says,
Speaker 3: I give up. Yeah, you can't. You know, how can
Speaker 3: you run with an art after your name? I don't
Speaker 3: know how anybody after over the last several years. I mean,
Speaker 3: I quit the Republican Party in twenty eighteen because I
Speaker 3: was just out of control and it was a personality call.
Speaker 3: It was better then than it is today. I don't
Speaker 3: know how you can face the electorate as a Republican.
Speaker 3: It's just it's shameful. And you know, this guy realized
Speaker 3: it's untenable to run as a Republican in Minnesota now
Speaker 3: because because the state has just been so thoroughly abused
Speaker 3: by Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: Kim Hardy is a candidate for North Carolina seventh Congressional District.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Fast Politics, doctor Harvey.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to
Speaker 4: be here with you.
Speaker 1: So first explain to us what you're running for, what
Speaker 1: the scene looks like, Who are you running against. What
Speaker 1: is the congressional district line.
Speaker 4: So I'm running for North Carolina seventh Congressional District, which
Speaker 4: is in the southeastern part of North Carolina. So for
Speaker 4: anyone who's unfamiliar or slightly familiar, it runs the top
Speaker 4: of it is think Fort Bragg, so Fayetteville and Cumberland County,
Speaker 4: all the way down to Wilmington, over to Brunswick County
Speaker 4: and back up. We have a total of eight counties,
Speaker 4: but just little portions of two of them, and the
Speaker 4: rest of them are pretty much intact. Unfortunately, this district
Speaker 4: has changed five times in the last ten years, owing
Speaker 4: to our expertise in Jerry manderin here in North Carolina.
Speaker 4: But I think that is not going to benefit the
Speaker 4: incumbent Republican. So I'm running against David Rouser and he's
Speaker 4: pretty much been there for about ten years, we have
Speaker 4: to say pretty much because we haven't seen him. He
Speaker 4: hasn't done a public facing event with his constituents in
Speaker 4: over eight years. Meanwhile, when I launched my campaign in
Speaker 4: jill Lie, we did eight launch events in all eight
Speaker 4: counties in eight consecutive days, because It's important to me
Speaker 4: that the people of my district know that every single
Speaker 4: one of them matters. I'm not just going to launch
Speaker 4: in the county where I live or the county with
Speaker 4: the biggest population density. I will be a representative for
Speaker 4: all of these people, and I wanted all of them
Speaker 4: to have the opportunity to meet me. So it is
Speaker 4: an R five to an R seven, depending on which
Speaker 4: report you look at. Cooks has us somewhere between a
Speaker 4: R five and seven, But it is trending bluer, and
Speaker 4: so we know it will still be an uphill battle,
Speaker 4: as all races are, but we feel like this is
Speaker 4: the moment to absolutely flip this seat and start changing
Speaker 4: the tide in Congress. If you look at national trends,
Speaker 4: it's in our favor as DIMS, and we think we're
Speaker 4: going to capitalize on that.
Speaker 1: Explain to us what the shift has been just from
Speaker 1: the most recent election. And if you look at the
Speaker 1: generic yeah, if.
Speaker 4: You look at what we're seeing nationally, not even just
Speaker 4: special elections, but also special elections, right like last November,
Speaker 4: you saw Virginia change its legislature and give a woman governor.
Speaker 4: Like you've seen so many races that were incalculable for
Speaker 4: Democrats at a certain point have changed from being read
Speaker 4: to fifteen twenty points to the left. Even in those
Speaker 4: races where Dems haven't won, they've moved the needles so
Speaker 4: significantly as to suggests that this blue wave that we
Speaker 4: thought we'd get in twenty twenty is actually it's really
Speaker 4: about to crash on into the waves of the political
Speaker 4: scene in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: Right, So, if you are running in an R plus
Speaker 1: five on R plus six in a wave election like this,
Speaker 1: you might not win in a tight election, but in
Speaker 1: a wave election like this, yours is the kind of
Speaker 1: seat that will absolutely flip if the numbers keep up
Speaker 1: the spot correct.
Speaker 4: And here's a thing that's also very good about our seat.
Speaker 4: So I am the only Democrat in North Carolina who's
Speaker 4: trying to flip one of the congressional seats that doesn't
Speaker 4: have a primary. So right now, my incumbent does have
Speaker 4: a primary. We're pretty sure he's going to out spend
Speaker 4: his competitor, but we are not in a primary, and
Speaker 4: that says something. It talks about the trust that the
Speaker 4: people of the district have in me. It talks about
Speaker 4: how ready folks are for us to just get a
Speaker 4: really good, strong candidate in there, and that they think
Speaker 4: that's me and I happen to agree with them on that.
Speaker 4: I think this is the moment and I'm the one
Speaker 4: that can get it done.
Speaker 1: So tell us why you were the choice that everyone packed.
Speaker 4: So one of the other roles I have is I'm
Speaker 4: second vice chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party and
Speaker 4: so as such, and I'm in my second term now.
Speaker 4: So I've been all over the state. I've been all
Speaker 4: over this district. I live in this district, and so
Speaker 4: I know these people. I know what their issues are.
Speaker 4: I'm affected by those same issues as well, and so
Speaker 4: for me showing up for them just as a party
Speaker 4: officer helping other candidates get elected, that gave me great
Speaker 4: insight into what the needs are for the whole of
Speaker 4: this district as well as for the states. So we
Speaker 4: know how our district plays with the rest of the state.
Speaker 4: I'm also a social worker social work professor right now,
Speaker 4: but I know what it looks like when these policies,
Speaker 4: like when they wanted to cut SNAP benefits or when
Speaker 4: they want to get rid of ACA subsidies. I know
Speaker 4: what that looks like in real time to families and communities,
Speaker 4: not just because of the data nerd in me, but
Speaker 4: because I've seen it. I've worked on the front lines
Speaker 4: of it. And so in our district, District seven, we
Speaker 4: have the highest percentage use of SNAP benefits and Medicaid
Speaker 4: in the state, or the second highest rather, and so
Speaker 4: that really matters because we need someone who's in this district,
Speaker 4: representing this district to ensure that things like SNAP benefits
Speaker 4: getting cut doesn't happen. Like he lives in this district too.
Speaker 4: How could you know that this is what's happening to
Speaker 4: people and do nothing. So I've spent my entire career
Speaker 4: building bridges, working with various constituent groups on behalf of
Speaker 4: people who are living on society's margins economically, socially, or otherwise.
Speaker 4: And I know how to get this done. And I
Speaker 4: think the people of my district have seen that in
Speaker 4: me and that's why they were willing to let me
Speaker 4: be the nominee.
Speaker 1: I think that's a really good point. You know, we
Speaker 1: spend so much time at the state level talking about
Speaker 1: implementing policy and so little time at the federal level
Speaker 1: doing it. And you know, it's funny. When I'm listening
Speaker 1: to you, I'm thinking, Oh, that's right. Congress needs to
Speaker 1: pass things. And now that we're seeing a return to
Speaker 1: ear marks, there is a sense where we really are
Speaker 1: seeing legislators able to fight for the specific things that
Speaker 1: their districts need and want.
Speaker 4: And I think that's critical. But it's been missing. Like
Speaker 4: the last time David Rouser had any legislation actually signed
Speaker 4: into law was by President Barack Obama, Like it has
Speaker 4: been ages since he has been of any consequence in
Speaker 4: a positive way to this district. I have talked just
Speaker 4: so many veterans, like this is the home of Fort Bragg, right,
Speaker 4: and so we have so many veterans here who have
Speaker 4: told me that they've written these long and passioned emails
Speaker 4: to David and said, listen, I've had five different Price
Speaker 4: Mary Care doctors in the last five months. Is there
Speaker 4: anything you can do? And they get back a form
Speaker 4: letter that's like, thank you for reaching out to our office,
Speaker 4: Like this is not what representation looks like. There are
Speaker 4: things that he could do to help with those veterans issues.
Speaker 4: Water quality in our district is horrifying. We have the
Speaker 4: p foss chemicals that are in the water and it
Speaker 4: is impacting so many different aspects of life here, from
Speaker 4: everybody's individual homes not having clean water coming in to
Speaker 4: how it's affecting the fishing industry in Brunswick and Wilmington.
Speaker 4: And he does nothing about that. So if earmarks are
Speaker 4: a thing we can do, if your job is to
Speaker 4: go to DC and get some of that budget called
Speaker 4: that back so that we can do something in our
Speaker 4: own district. He has not done any of that work.
Speaker 4: But I can't wait to get there so I.
Speaker 1: Can Those forever chemicals that cause cancer are a big deal.
Speaker 1: The other thing is that there have been members of
Speaker 1: Congress who have been good at constituent services, and maybe
Speaker 1: they've been bad congress people, but because they've been good
Speaker 1: at in their constituents, they still get the vote. So
Speaker 1: it is a good sign for you in a way.
Speaker 1: It's signed that you could flip the seat that he's
Speaker 1: so bad at constituent services. Can you say more about that?
Speaker 4: I have talked to countless people who have reached out
Speaker 4: to him, either because of their own needs, like the
Speaker 4: gentleman I was talking about earlier, about community needs like
Speaker 4: the water issue, or just saying, hey, we don't want
Speaker 4: you to vote for this thing, we want to tell
Speaker 4: you how we feel about a thing, and he doesn't
Speaker 4: respond at all, or if you can get him on
Speaker 4: the phone, and it's been increasingly more difficult to do.
Speaker 4: He basically just sort of talks around an issue and
Speaker 4: paternalizes folks and that's it. And so if people feel
Speaker 4: completely unheard. A couple of months ago, probably closer to
Speaker 4: a year ago, a big group of folks went to
Speaker 4: his office that he's supposed to have, the constituent office
Speaker 4: he's supposed to have in the district, and there was
Speaker 4: no one there, and so they did a great, big
Speaker 4: protest out front of his office and they said, you know,
Speaker 4: he told us eight years ago that he would do
Speaker 4: a town hall every year, and he hasn't done one since.
Speaker 4: And so when you feel like you know this person
Speaker 4: is I'm paying this person with my tax dollars. It's
Speaker 4: in the name, you're supposed to be a representative. You're
Speaker 4: not listening to me, you're not responding to me, and
Speaker 4: when you do, it's just an empty sleeve that starts
Speaker 4: to make folks feel like they're unheard and unseen. And
Speaker 4: so when I show up, it's like a breath of
Speaker 4: fresh air because folks are like, so you genuinely want
Speaker 4: to hear what I have to say. You're actually listening.
Speaker 4: And there have been times where they've brought a problem
Speaker 4: to me and I was already able to solve that
Speaker 4: for them. And that's what this job is about. David
Speaker 4: isn't taking it very seriously. I absolutely do.
Speaker 1: I wonder if we could talk. You're in North Carolina,
Speaker 1: which is a sort of a swingy state with a
Speaker 1: blue governor. Will you explain to us what it's like
Speaker 1: when you talk to people on the ground, because I
Speaker 1: think there's been a real sea change and a real shift.
Speaker 1: But I wonder what it's like when you talk to people.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you what. We have had some really great conversations.
Speaker 4: I we just received something on our website the other
Speaker 4: day from a woman and her husband who have been
Speaker 4: lifelong Republicans, and they're like, enough is enough. We're behind
Speaker 4: you one hundred percent. It's time to listen to your constituents,
Speaker 4: not your president. I've had moderate Republicans come up and say,
Speaker 4: I'm a moderate Republican, but I'm all in on you.
Speaker 4: So we've had a lot of unaffiliated folks who feel
Speaker 4: very hurt because the issues were addressing and my campaign
Speaker 4: sort of three legged duol is better jobs, better schools,
Speaker 4: better healthcare. You know, they hear themselves in those issues,
Speaker 4: and so what they're hearing is there's potential for us
Speaker 4: to have somebody who actually cares. But why they're feeling
Speaker 4: that way is because they feel hopeless. There's so much
Speaker 4: frustration right now. People feel like there's nothing they can do,
Speaker 4: and it feels kind of like there's like an unsatisfying
Speaker 4: answer to say, well, we just have to get to November.
Speaker 4: But I think the tide is shifting, like you mentioned before,
Speaker 4: where all of the active is class is showing up
Speaker 4: not just at the rallies but at ballot boxes and
Speaker 4: municipals and special elections. And so I think there is
Speaker 4: this sense that, you know what, we have the power
Speaker 4: to change this if we don't like it. And so
Speaker 4: I thought I've seen folks go from it's hopeless or
Speaker 4: I'm scared too, I'm angry and I want to get active.
Speaker 4: And we've heard it from across the political spectrum.
Speaker 1: What do you think the issues are for people on
Speaker 1: the ground in North Carolina.
Speaker 4: I actually ask them this all the time when I
Speaker 4: do call time, when I'm doing events, I go, what
Speaker 4: are the issues that are top of mind for you?
Speaker 4: Some of them do the broader like we're losing our democracy,
Speaker 4: we have to stop fascism. We get those and those
Speaker 4: are real. Then we have the things like that we're
Speaker 4: talking about, you know, the Medicaid and Medicare. We have
Speaker 4: Columbus County, which is a very very low wealth county
Speaker 4: that has one small regional hospital and I am very
Speaker 4: worried that it's going to close. The doctors and nurses
Speaker 4: there are as well, and that means they will be
Speaker 4: forty five minutes away from the next available house.
Speaker 1: That's insane.
Speaker 4: So healthcare and its accessibility, not even just Medicaid Medicare,
Speaker 4: but the ability to have ready access to a place
Speaker 4: where they can go get care, that is a real issue.
Speaker 4: Most of North Carolina is rural, where the second most
Speaker 4: rural state in the country. Most folks don't realize that
Speaker 4: for some reason, but we are. And a lot of
Speaker 4: rural community makes up my district, and so we have
Speaker 4: farmers who were struggling too. We have folks who are
Speaker 4: living in urban spaces where they're struggling as well. Navasa
Speaker 4: is a superfund site, so there's all the dioxins and
Speaker 4: the chemicals in the land. So everybody's got a thing
Speaker 4: that sort of bespoke to where they live. But the
Speaker 4: broader issues really are we have to take back our country,
Speaker 4: save our democracy, and then we need to attend to
Speaker 4: kitchen table issues. It's things like schools, it's things like jobs.
Speaker 4: We have not raised the minimum wage in so many years.
Speaker 4: It was my son was a child the last time
Speaker 4: we raised it and he's in college now. So these
Speaker 4: are all the issues that people are dealing with in
Speaker 4: their day to day lives. Those are the ones you hear.
Speaker 4: And then the existential issues around democracy and fascism.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which makes sense. North Carolina is such a hard
Speaker 1: state to crack like I have in a way, like
Speaker 1: there's Zanete there. The governor is running for the former
Speaker 1: governors running for it. Why do you think North Carolina
Speaker 1: is so hard for Democrats to crack. This is not
Speaker 1: about your race, just in general, because you're there.
Speaker 4: Jerrymandering like in a nutshell, right. Like I joke with
Speaker 4: people and say, North Carolina is great at two things,
Speaker 4: barbecue and jerrymandering. I mean, if you look at the map,
Speaker 4: look what they just did to NC one where Don
Speaker 4: Davis is one of our few Democratic congressional representatives. They
Speaker 4: just drew him out of the district and they made
Speaker 4: it almost it looks on paper anyway, almost impossible to
Speaker 4: win because they made it so red. If you look
Speaker 4: at our congressional map across the state, there are little
Speaker 4: pockets of blue, some pockets of pain. And they're doing
Speaker 4: that with intentionality. They've been doing this since before Trump
Speaker 4: asked for it. This time they're doing this because they
Speaker 4: know that their policies are not popular even with their base,
Speaker 4: and the only way they can win is to rig
Speaker 4: it in this way. I was one of the people
Speaker 4: that Jefferson Griffin wanted to throw out my registration when
Speaker 4: our Supreme Court justice race for Alison Riggs was up
Speaker 4: last cycle. I mean, how can you decide, younilaterally that
Speaker 4: all of these votes no longer count because I'm dissatisfied
Speaker 4: with the results of the election. We fight it out
Speaker 4: on the battlefield of the ballot box, and if your
Speaker 4: team loses, then you need to regroup and try again
Speaker 4: in a way that's more befitting. But when you get
Speaker 4: to pick who your voters are rather than letting your
Speaker 4: voters pick who their representatives are, that is why we're
Speaker 4: so hard to crack. And two cycles ago, our congressional
Speaker 4: delegation was seven and seven. It looked very much like
Speaker 4: North Carolina looks. And yet when you have a Supreme
Speaker 4: Court that allows things like jerrymandering and the lines outside
Speaker 4: of the timeline, this is what you get.
Speaker 1: But they don't have a supermajority now right because of Grigs,
Speaker 1: so they can't make as crazy laws.
Speaker 4: Right, not as crazy. I mean, we still only have
Speaker 4: two Democrats on the state Supreme Court. The other one
Speaker 4: is Justice Anita Earls, who we absolutely also have to
Speaker 4: elect in twenty twenty six. But we do still have
Speaker 4: to flip the other three seats that will have up
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty eight to get the majority back. We
Speaker 4: know that this election's maps are set even with what
Speaker 4: they did to NC one in three, so that's a relief.
Speaker 4: But you know, there are some things that our state
Speaker 4: legislature could be doing, Like, for example, we're the only
Speaker 4: state in the country who still hasn't passed the state budget.
Speaker 4: And so while they're so busy redrawing lines to give
Speaker 4: themselves unfair advantages, the people of the state are still
Speaker 4: without a budget.
Speaker 1: Unbelievable, ulous, annoying, and ridiculous. So you could be the
Speaker 1: person who makes the majority for Democrats, I could, and.
Speaker 4: I would love that. I mean for any sort of
Speaker 4: self aggrandizing reason, but because it's time for us to
Speaker 4: have people in Congress who care about the people they represent,
Speaker 4: who understand the consequential nature of the decisions that they
Speaker 4: are making, who are driven by purpose and not by
Speaker 4: self indulgence and personal wealth. Because the most profitable or
Speaker 4: one of the top most profitable stock portfolios in Congress
Speaker 4: comes from say it with me, David Rouser, right, and
Speaker 4: so like, what are you doing up there? And I'm
Speaker 4: happy that you're making a comfortable living, but I just
Speaker 4: think it's so derelict for you not to make sure
Speaker 4: that the people of your district and the people of
Speaker 4: this state have the same opportunity to do that. Now
Speaker 4: David also takes a lot of corporate pack money. We
Speaker 4: don't do any of that, and so ours is a
Speaker 4: people driven and people powered campaign. I'm so excited to
Speaker 4: have over one thousand unique donors who have donated to
Speaker 4: this campaign. If anyone is out there wanting to know
Speaker 4: if they can donate, they can. Don't want to be
Speaker 4: beholden to anyone except the voters of this district.
Speaker 1: Will you support a congressional stock trading ban?
Speaker 4: I do, and I've got that on my website. So
Speaker 4: that's not even just something like someone could go and
Speaker 4: look right now and see, I don't believe that that's
Speaker 4: what we should be doing using the office for a
Speaker 4: personal enrichment.
Speaker 1: And when you're in converse tif this works. We make
Speaker 1: sure to hold power to account, you know. And if
Speaker 1: you feel that leadership is not doing the job they
Speaker 1: should be, and maybe they will be, and maybe that
Speaker 1: won't be, will you make sure to caucus with the
Speaker 1: right group of people and make sure they do what
Speaker 1: their job is and leadership, Absolutely, I would not have
Speaker 1: voted in favor of this ice budget appropriation for example,
Speaker 1: Like some stuff's just wrong. And you know, both of
Speaker 1: my parents were in law enforcement, All the men in
Speaker 1: my family were in the military. For me, Service and
Speaker 1: purpose and mission have always been a part of my
Speaker 1: life's blood. And that's what I've done as a social worker,
Speaker 1: It's what I do as a second vice chair, It's
Speaker 1: what I'll do as a congresswoman. I am not above
Speaker 1: telling folks because that's what our job is, is to
Speaker 1: speak truth to power.
Speaker 4: And sometimes they need to hear that this is not
Speaker 4: the right way to do a thing, and I don't
Speaker 4: mind being the one to tell them that.
Speaker 1: I love this. Thank you so much. It was great
Speaker 1: to get to talk to you.
Speaker 4: My campaign manager would be very upset with me if
Speaker 4: I didn't tell everyone to please visit Kimberly Party for
Speaker 4: Congress dot com. But thank you so much, Molly. It
Speaker 4: was a real honor to talk to you today.
Speaker 3: No moment second.
Speaker 2: Jesse Caddon b the Trump administration knew about the Minnesota
Speaker 2: fraud way before Nick Shirley's investigation, and what do you
Speaker 2: think they did about it?
Speaker 1: They knew about the Minnesota fraud. People were arrested and jailed.
Speaker 1: If they will happen in twenty twenty and in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: the first Trump administration was worn by the state that
Speaker 1: the nonprofit in question, Feeding Our Future, was likely engaging
Speaker 1: in fraud, and the administration declined to get involved.
Speaker 2: There we go.
Speaker 1: That year, the Minnesota Department of Education asked the US
Speaker 1: Department of Agriculture for support as it considered taking action
Speaker 1: against the nonprofit, and the Trump administration, being lazy, shiftless
Speaker 1: and not all that much against corruption, was not interested.
Speaker 1: A twenty twenty four audit reported by the Minnesota legislature
Speaker 1: examining the Feeding Our Future scandal said officials in the
Speaker 1: Education Department complained that the USDA was unresponsive when they
Speaker 1: asked how to deal with the problems presented by the nonprofit.
Speaker 1: Think about that for a minute. This is Trump World
Speaker 1: ignored the fraud, then Biden World prosecuted the fraud. Then
Speaker 1: Trump World learned about the fraud from a uti tuber
Speaker 1: and went and created chaos in Minnesota because they like
Speaker 1: a Nick Shirley video. If you can't think of a
Speaker 1: more fucked story about Trump one point zero and Trump
Speaker 1: two point zero, I implore you incredible stuff. That's it
Speaker 1: for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday,
Speaker 1: Thursday and Saturday to hear the best minds and politics
Speaker 1: make sense of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast,
Speaker 1: please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.