1
00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:04,200
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,

2
00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,160
Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of

3
00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:12,920
Speaker 1: today's best minds. And Nebraska Independent Dan Osborne is pulling

4
00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:17,720
Speaker 1: one point ahead of deb Fisher in the latest senepol

5
00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:21,799
Speaker 1: in the great state of Nebraska. We have such a

6
00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:25,439
Speaker 1: good show for you today. MSNBC contributor of Charlie Sykes

7
00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:30,360
Speaker 1: stops by to roast the idea, the mere notion that

8
00:00:30,800 --> 00:00:35,279
Speaker 1: Donald Trump and Vice President Harris are at all similar

9
00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:37,920
Speaker 1: in any way. Then we will talk to the Washington

10
00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:43,040
Speaker 1: Post Dana Milbank about his new book, Fools on the Hill,

11
00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:49,120
Speaker 1: The Hooligans, Saboteurs, conspiracy theorists, and Dunce's who burn down

12
00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:49,520
Speaker 1: the House.

13
00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:53,440
Speaker 2: But first the news, Mali Jung Fast, there's forty days

14
00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:57,360
Speaker 2: until election day. Harris is making some really interesting speeches

15
00:00:57,560 --> 00:00:58,440
Speaker 2: in Pennsylvania.

16
00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:00,000
Speaker 3: What are you seeing today?

17
00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:02,760
Speaker 1: Harris gave a speech that focused on the economy and

18
00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:06,800
Speaker 1: her economic plans. You'll remember mainstream media has been seriously,

19
00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:12,480
Speaker 1: seriously offended that Harris has not released enough clear, very concise.

20
00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:15,640
Speaker 1: They're looking for a three hundred page policy paper. And

21
00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:19,600
Speaker 1: you'll remember Donald Trump has dropped such nuggets as childcare

22
00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:23,480
Speaker 1: as childcare. So we're seeing Harris give a really detailed

23
00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:26,399
Speaker 1: speech at the Economic Club of Pennsylvania, so the must

24
00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:31,119
Speaker 1: win state of Pennsylvania with its nineteen electoral College votes.

25
00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:34,480
Speaker 1: Laid out a sort of eighty page policy paper that

26
00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:38,479
Speaker 1: included cutting taxes for the middle class, investing in small businesses,

27
00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:41,120
Speaker 1: and I think a really important top line there was

28
00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:44,399
Speaker 1: she said she would not be constrained by ideology and

29
00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:48,240
Speaker 1: she would instead seek practical solutions to problems. Her speech

30
00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:52,360
Speaker 1: was followed by an appearance by mister Trump in North Carolina,

31
00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:56,240
Speaker 1: where he did not mention the late great Hannibal Lecter,

32
00:01:56,480 --> 00:01:58,960
Speaker 1: but he did quite a lot of the usual riffing.

33
00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:00,720
Speaker 3: That's what I call progress.

34
00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:02,240
Speaker 1: That's what I call progress.

35
00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:04,560
Speaker 2: My jag fast, I saw this tweet come down the

36
00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:08,640
Speaker 2: pike about these grim, grim abortion statistics coming out of

37
00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:09,080
Speaker 2: the South.

38
00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:10,000
Speaker 3: What did you see there?

39
00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:14,160
Speaker 1: So two states have and they've did this before the

40
00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:17,160
Speaker 1: overturning of Rob Wade, but they've been doing it even

41
00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:19,160
Speaker 1: more now. A study came out to find that the

42
00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:22,000
Speaker 1: number of women charged with crimes related to their pregnancies

43
00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:25,040
Speaker 1: jumped the year after the US Supreme Court overturned Row

44
00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:29,240
Speaker 1: So now we're seeing in these two states, Alabama and Oklahoma,

45
00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:35,040
Speaker 1: women are actually being charged. They're being charged for endangering

46
00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:39,520
Speaker 1: the life of their fetuses. They can be jailed. It

47
00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:42,840
Speaker 1: does two things here. What this does is it makes

48
00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:46,520
Speaker 1: it easier if the state wants to take away your child,

49
00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:48,520
Speaker 1: and if they want to take away your if you

50
00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:51,200
Speaker 1: already have a child, that will help them with that.

51
00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:55,920
Speaker 1: And then also you can end up being jailed while pregnant.

52
00:02:56,160 --> 00:02:58,880
Speaker 1: And again I think some of this really is a

53
00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:02,040
Speaker 1: way the state wants to maybe take away the children. Also,

54
00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:05,240
Speaker 1: you're seeing people who are like deliver a stillborn baby.

55
00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:08,560
Speaker 1: An example here a story is that this woman Wendy Baker,

56
00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:11,400
Speaker 1: professor at the University of Tennessee, was one of the

57
00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:14,320
Speaker 1: lead researchers on this project. She said, a woman delivered

58
00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:17,280
Speaker 1: a stillborn baby at her home and then she went

59
00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:19,520
Speaker 1: to the funeral home to make arrangements, and the funeral

60
00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:21,480
Speaker 1: home alert bit the authorities, and the woman was charged

61
00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:23,840
Speaker 1: with homicide. So we're going to see more of that.

62
00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:26,960
Speaker 1: But the sort of states where we're really starting to

63
00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:29,360
Speaker 1: see it, and we've seen it before but it's gotten

64
00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:35,120
Speaker 1: worse is Oklahoma and Alabama. Much of this is in Alabama.

65
00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:38,960
Speaker 1: You know, misogyny is not just happening with women in abortion.

66
00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:43,600
Speaker 1: It's also happening with the Republican Senate candidates in Ohio.

67
00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:46,840
Speaker 2: So one of the things I think about a lot

68
00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:50,040
Speaker 2: is obviously shared. Brown is an amazing candidate, But one

69
00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:53,080
Speaker 2: of the gifts he's really had is that man he

70
00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:56,280
Speaker 2: has run against some fucking dunces in the past, I

71
00:03:56,480 --> 00:04:00,880
Speaker 2: Josh Mandel, Jim Urnassi, and Bertie Marino is telling them

72
00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:02,160
Speaker 2: all to hold his beer.

73
00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:07,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, you'll remember. Bernie Marino is known most famously for

74
00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:11,120
Speaker 1: having owned car dealerships. He was no one's first choice

75
00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:14,680
Speaker 1: except for Donald Trumps. He is exactly the candidate one

76
00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:19,480
Speaker 1: might think he would be. Marino in Ohio he mocked

77
00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:23,400
Speaker 1: women for caring about abortion, and he said it's a

78
00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:25,720
Speaker 1: little crazy, by the way, especially for women who are

79
00:04:25,839 --> 00:04:29,440
Speaker 1: like past fifty. Mister Marino said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

80
00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:32,360
Speaker 1: I'm thinking to myself, I don't think that's an issue

81
00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:36,200
Speaker 1: for you. Now you'll remember that Jade Vance also got

82
00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:40,120
Speaker 1: in trouble for wondering pondering if there was any use

83
00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:44,240
Speaker 1: for post metopausal women. Nikki Haley, who is not at

84
00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:46,920
Speaker 1: all brave even a little bit. She did, in fact,

85
00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:49,839
Speaker 1: tweet are you trying to lose the election? Asking for

86
00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:52,480
Speaker 1: a friend? I assume that friend is her. She repeated

87
00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:55,760
Speaker 1: this quote from Bernie Marino, which said, sadly, by the way,

88
00:04:55,760 --> 00:04:57,840
Speaker 1: there's a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban

89
00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:01,000
Speaker 1: women that are like listen, abortion is. I don't think

90
00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:04,120
Speaker 1: making fun of people for what they care about as

91
00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:07,240
Speaker 1: voters is going to help you win an election, but

92
00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:08,159
Speaker 1: I could be wrong.

93
00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:11,360
Speaker 2: I saw that all those books I read on how

94
00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:14,159
Speaker 2: to win elections just make fun of the voter's passions.

95
00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:17,480
Speaker 1: Yes, what voters care about, make fun of it and

96
00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:20,040
Speaker 1: tell them they're stupid for caring about it. So we'll

97
00:05:20,080 --> 00:05:23,200
Speaker 1: see what happens. Ohio is a tight state, but right

98
00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:25,800
Speaker 1: now Sharon Brown is winning by a view points.

99
00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:26,760
Speaker 3: I noticed too.

100
00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:29,880
Speaker 2: One of Donald Trump's favorite things to talk about is

101
00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:32,800
Speaker 2: Kamala and the border, and she's going to it.

102
00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:33,920
Speaker 3: What are you seeing there?

103
00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:37,760
Speaker 1: So you'll remember, Donald Trump actually rejected this border legislation

104
00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:42,760
Speaker 1: that was cooked up by James Langford, super super super

105
00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:48,080
Speaker 1: conservative Senator James Langford. You know, the whole idea was

106
00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:52,720
Speaker 1: Trump wanted that Biden Harris administration to fail on this

107
00:05:53,279 --> 00:05:57,040
Speaker 1: and to make it so hard for them. And Trump

108
00:05:57,200 --> 00:05:59,839
Speaker 1: really did think the border was something he could run on.

109
00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:02,599
Speaker 1: So now what Harris is doing, I think this is

110
00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:06,600
Speaker 1: the same as when She's shot across the stage and

111
00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:09,640
Speaker 1: shook Donald Trump's hand at the beginning of the debate,

112
00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:13,200
Speaker 1: which he is doing. She's trying not to let him

113
00:06:13,720 --> 00:06:17,240
Speaker 1: intimidate her, so she's going to the border. Look, fundamentally,

114
00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:18,880
Speaker 1: the problem with the border, and you and I both

115
00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:21,359
Speaker 1: know this because we've done like a million interviews with

116
00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:24,680
Speaker 1: legislators in those areas, is they don't have money. They

117
00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:28,040
Speaker 1: don't have money for judges, they don't have money for deportation,

118
00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:32,120
Speaker 1: they don't have money for putting people, processing people. They

119
00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:35,640
Speaker 1: don't have the money they need. So the system is broken,

120
00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:38,279
Speaker 1: and it's broken on purpose to give Republicans something to

121
00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:41,480
Speaker 1: run on. So I do think this is smart. Again,

122
00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:44,080
Speaker 1: Republicans are going to do crazy stuff with this, But

123
00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:46,600
Speaker 1: I think as long as Harris is really really focused

124
00:06:46,839 --> 00:06:49,960
Speaker 1: and careful about the way she messages this, I actually

125
00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:50,800
Speaker 1: think it's a winner.

126
00:06:51,279 --> 00:06:56,080
Speaker 2: I would agree so lastly, and I can't tell you

127
00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:58,840
Speaker 2: how much I would like to never think about this

128
00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:02,120
Speaker 2: guy ever again. We need to talk about our mayor,

129
00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:05,560
Speaker 2: one Eric Adams, and the walls closing in on him.

130
00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:08,520
Speaker 1: Our moment of levity for this podcast.

131
00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:10,640
Speaker 3: You didn't tell me we had a new segment.

132
00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:14,800
Speaker 1: This is our moment of levity. Politics can be bad,

133
00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:18,680
Speaker 1: but New York City politics is always worse. And I

134
00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:21,480
Speaker 1: want you to just appreciate that you guys don't live

135
00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:23,200
Speaker 1: in New York City, and those of you who do

136
00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:25,000
Speaker 1: join us in our sadness.

137
00:07:25,120 --> 00:07:28,600
Speaker 2: We lost our police chief, now we lost our school's chancellor,

138
00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:33,320
Speaker 2: and then the FBI indicted four days are acting police commissioner.

139
00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:35,720
Speaker 2: It's been a very fun ride at the table of success,

140
00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:38,800
Speaker 2: as he likes to call visitors circle, It's the.

141
00:07:38,840 --> 00:07:42,280
Speaker 1: Table of success. It's soon to be the table of rikers.

142
00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:44,520
Speaker 3: The poker table at record.

143
00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:48,280
Speaker 1: So anyway, Eric Adams, things are looking very dicey. But

144
00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:52,120
Speaker 1: the good news is he got an absolutely ringing endorsement

145
00:07:52,240 --> 00:07:56,640
Speaker 1: from a minority leader, Hakim Jeffries, who said one asked

146
00:07:56,880 --> 00:07:59,480
Speaker 1: that Mayor Adams was working as hard as he can

147
00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:03,120
Speaker 1: the best mayor possible, and then he added, we need

148
00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:05,960
Speaker 1: Eric Adams to be successful as mayor because he is

149
00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:07,920
Speaker 1: the mayor at this moment in time.

150
00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:08,800
Speaker 3: There's a voter.

151
00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:13,120
Speaker 1: He is the mayor at this moment in time. I

152
00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:18,440
Speaker 1: don't know how good that is. Not great?

153
00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:23,400
Speaker 2: We have even more tour dates for you. Did you

154
00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:25,800
Speaker 2: know the Lincoln projects Rick Wills that have fast politics,

155
00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:28,000
Speaker 2: MALEI jug Faster are heading out on tour to bring

156
00:08:28,040 --> 00:08:31,320
Speaker 2: you a night of laughs for our dark political landscape.

157
00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:33,679
Speaker 2: Join us on August twenty sixth at San Francisco at

158
00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:36,680
Speaker 2: the Swedish American Hall, or in la on August twenty

159
00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:37,840
Speaker 2: seventh at the Region Theater.

160
00:08:38,240 --> 00:08:39,640
Speaker 3: Then we're headed to the Midwest.

161
00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:42,280
Speaker 2: We'll be at the Vivarium in Milwaukee on the twenty

162
00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:44,880
Speaker 2: first of September, and on the twenty second we'll be

163
00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:47,120
Speaker 2: in Chicago at City Winery. Then we're going to hit

164
00:08:47,160 --> 00:08:49,840
Speaker 2: the East coast. On September thirtieth, we'll be in Boston

165
00:08:49,880 --> 00:08:52,160
Speaker 2: at Arts at the Armory. On the first of October,

166
00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:55,040
Speaker 2: we'll be Infiliates City Winery, and then DC on the

167
00:08:55,080 --> 00:08:57,720
Speaker 2: second at the Miracle Theater. And today we just announced

168
00:08:57,720 --> 00:08:59,400
Speaker 2: that we'll be in New York on the fourteenth of

169
00:08:59,400 --> 00:09:02,240
Speaker 2: October at City Winery. If you need the laugh as

170
00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:04,920
Speaker 2: we get through the selection, hopefully never hear from a

171
00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:06,240
Speaker 2: guy who lives in a golf club.

172
00:09:06,280 --> 00:09:07,720
Speaker 3: Again. We got you covered.

173
00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:10,120
Speaker 2: Join us in our Surprise Guests to help you laugh

174
00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:12,440
Speaker 2: instead of cry your way through the selection season and

175
00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:15,080
Speaker 2: give you the inside analysis of what's really going on

176
00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:17,920
Speaker 2: right now. Buy your tickets now by heading to Politics

177
00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:22,959
Speaker 2: as Unusual dot bio. That's Politics as Unusual dot bio.

178
00:09:24,679 --> 00:09:29,360
Speaker 1: Charlie Sikes is an MSNBC contributor. Welcome back to Fast Politics,

179
00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:31,120
Speaker 1: Charlie Sikes, Thank you for coming.

180
00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:32,480
Speaker 4: It's always good to be here.

181
00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:36,160
Speaker 1: We're in this interesting moment. We've got a lot going on.

182
00:09:36,520 --> 00:09:38,800
Speaker 1: But you know, there are three sort of paths that

183
00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:41,200
Speaker 1: it looks like they're sort of the scenario where she

184
00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:44,760
Speaker 1: wins by a lot with the scenario where she wins

185
00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:48,760
Speaker 1: by a a little bit and whatever happens happens after that,

186
00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:52,200
Speaker 1: God knows, and the scenario where he eaks it out.

187
00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:54,600
Speaker 1: Talk to me about what this looks like in your mind.

188
00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:56,880
Speaker 4: Well, let's just step back from the horse race punditry. You,

189
00:09:56,880 --> 00:09:59,000
Speaker 4: I mean, you can make yourself crazy by looking at

190
00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:02,160
Speaker 4: each of the individual they're going to bounce around. But

191
00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:04,240
Speaker 4: the true insanity of this moment is that there is

192
00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:07,000
Speaker 4: a possibility that Donald Trump might be elected president of

193
00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:09,720
Speaker 4: the United States again, despite everything we know about him

194
00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:13,480
Speaker 4: that he is a chronic liar, seditionist, rapist, who is

195
00:10:13,559 --> 00:10:16,600
Speaker 4: you know, openly talking about bowling the need of Ladimir

196
00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:19,160
Speaker 4: Putine he had tens of millions of people are apparently

197
00:10:19,160 --> 00:10:22,000
Speaker 4: looking at him and going, yeah, that's okay, let's put

198
00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:25,080
Speaker 4: him back into power. The fact that there's a remote

199
00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:29,160
Speaker 4: chance that this man might win the election is I'm afraid,

200
00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:32,840
Speaker 4: not a terribly flattering commentary on the state of American

201
00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:33,640
Speaker 4: culture today.

202
00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:36,600
Speaker 1: It's so true, and we spend so much time talking

203
00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:40,680
Speaker 1: about like how, in fact, still more people believe that

204
00:10:40,880 --> 00:10:44,560
Speaker 1: he is better on the economy than she is, despite

205
00:10:44,559 --> 00:10:48,160
Speaker 1: the fact that he says such chestnuts as childcare is.

206
00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:52,520
Speaker 4: Childcare, Yeah, child cares childcare and Gettysburg. Wow, I mean

207
00:10:52,559 --> 00:10:55,200
Speaker 4: he I mean the thing about Donald Trump. But I

208
00:10:55,200 --> 00:10:57,679
Speaker 4: have these conversations with some of my conservative friends and

209
00:10:57,720 --> 00:10:59,800
Speaker 4: they'll say, well, okay, you know, he's a terrible character,

210
00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:01,959
Speaker 4: you know, as the mean tweets, but I agree with

211
00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:03,839
Speaker 4: him on policy, and you need to take a deep

212
00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:06,720
Speaker 4: breath and point out the policy that he's talking about

213
00:11:06,760 --> 00:11:09,800
Speaker 4: is gibberish. He has no interest in policy. He is

214
00:11:09,880 --> 00:11:12,960
Speaker 4: throwing stuff up against the wall. He's handing out free stuff.

215
00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:15,400
Speaker 4: He's talking about these various and you could tell that

216
00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:19,679
Speaker 4: there's no deep core in this man, with the possible

217
00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:23,079
Speaker 4: exception of the profundity of his belief in tariffs.

218
00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:25,240
Speaker 1: He loves tariffs and.

219
00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:28,280
Speaker 4: The tariffs are not actually taxes, which is delivered, and

220
00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:32,400
Speaker 4: his deep belief that by playing to the deepest, darkest

221
00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:36,040
Speaker 4: racial animus of the American public, that that is a

222
00:11:36,040 --> 00:11:39,120
Speaker 4: winning formula. Beyond that, it's like, hey, you know, let's

223
00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:41,600
Speaker 4: not tax Social Security, let's no taxes on tips. He's

224
00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:43,600
Speaker 4: just throwing shit up against the wall at this point.

225
00:11:43,880 --> 00:11:47,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, it does seem as if he will say literally

226
00:11:47,200 --> 00:11:49,880
Speaker 1: anything to get elected. And I feel like this is

227
00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:52,959
Speaker 1: the moment, Like, clearly he's seen some focus groups that

228
00:11:53,080 --> 00:11:56,240
Speaker 1: say women are not having it. So now we see

229
00:11:56,240 --> 00:11:59,360
Speaker 1: these all cap tweets that are like, clearly, this is

230
00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:02,160
Speaker 1: the offer he made to all those wives, right, I

231
00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:05,440
Speaker 1: will protect you all caps. You'll never have to think

232
00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:07,360
Speaker 1: about abortion all caps.

233
00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:11,880
Speaker 4: The vacuousness of it, you know, never ce never ceases

234
00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:14,200
Speaker 4: to amaze. And this is part of the problem of

235
00:12:14,240 --> 00:12:16,400
Speaker 4: dealing with him. Do you laugh at him because he's

236
00:12:16,080 --> 00:12:19,160
Speaker 4: so clown like, or are you alarmed by him because

237
00:12:19,160 --> 00:12:22,480
Speaker 4: of his rhetoric? And this is the kind of dilemma.

238
00:12:22,679 --> 00:12:25,240
Speaker 4: So can I just tell you that I stumbled into something.

239
00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:29,080
Speaker 4: I'm getting flayed on the far right social media for

240
00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:31,600
Speaker 4: just sort of acknowledging that, Yeah, a lot of Donald

241
00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:34,600
Speaker 4: Trump's rhetoric sounds like that a German politician from the

242
00:12:34,640 --> 00:12:37,880
Speaker 4: nineteen thirties. I understand that people think that's over the top.

243
00:12:37,920 --> 00:12:40,880
Speaker 4: And Godwin's law is that anybody that invokes Hitler, you know,

244
00:12:40,880 --> 00:12:43,160
Speaker 4: immediately loses the debate. But I guess I was just

245
00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:45,880
Speaker 4: channeling my inner jd Vance, who was actually one of

246
00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:48,040
Speaker 4: the first guys that compared him to you know, America's

247
00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:50,640
Speaker 4: Hitler right in twenty sixteen. And then we have this

248
00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:53,439
Speaker 4: weird thing where it's like he's leaning into it. It's

249
00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:56,200
Speaker 4: like they are, you know, immigrants are poisoning the blood

250
00:12:56,280 --> 00:12:58,240
Speaker 4: and I'm going to blame the Jews if I don't

251
00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:00,320
Speaker 4: get elected and all of this sort of thing. And

252
00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:02,360
Speaker 4: did you see the Mike Lindell story, the my pillow

253
00:13:02,360 --> 00:13:05,840
Speaker 4: Guy story. No, this is wild. I actually thought that

254
00:13:05,920 --> 00:13:09,160
Speaker 4: this was a spoof. He's actually selling pillows and he's

255
00:13:09,200 --> 00:13:12,280
Speaker 4: priced them at fourteen dollars in eighty eight cents, fourteen

256
00:13:12,320 --> 00:13:15,679
Speaker 4: eighty eight, which is a white supremacist, not even a

257
00:13:15,679 --> 00:13:18,560
Speaker 4: dog whistle, And of course Mike Lindell is saying, what

258
00:13:18,559 --> 00:13:21,440
Speaker 4: do you mean the fourteen words are, you know, basically racist?

259
00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:23,720
Speaker 4: And then eight eight is supposed to be Heile Hitler, like,

260
00:13:23,760 --> 00:13:27,120
Speaker 4: don't get ye into that world. But there's this weird

261
00:13:27,320 --> 00:13:29,800
Speaker 4: sort of vibe out there that we're going to troll

262
00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:33,000
Speaker 4: you by sounding as much like fascist as possible. And

263
00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:36,359
Speaker 4: then if you point out, hey, you guys sound like fascists,

264
00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:39,080
Speaker 4: then their reaction is look at these over the top

265
00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:42,719
Speaker 4: trunch Trump derangement syndrome folks out there. So this is

266
00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:44,400
Speaker 4: why we all feel like we're losing our minds.

267
00:13:44,679 --> 00:13:46,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I mean I think there is a fair

268
00:13:46,760 --> 00:13:49,920
Speaker 1: amount of gaslighting going on, and I think that's the goal, right,

269
00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:52,400
Speaker 1: The goal is I mean, this is not something I said.

270
00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:55,640
Speaker 1: This is a quote we've seen before, is that the goal,

271
00:13:55,880 --> 00:14:00,840
Speaker 1: the road to authoritarianism is paved with people saying you're overreacting, right, Well.

272
00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:04,080
Speaker 4: Exactly, yes, calm down, he won't start a coup.

273
00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:07,320
Speaker 1: He's playing golf. He'll file a few lawsuits.

274
00:14:07,440 --> 00:14:07,959
Speaker 4: Humor him.

275
00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:09,000
Speaker 3: Just humor him.

276
00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:13,120
Speaker 4: What's the danger exactly? And yet this year it's not

277
00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:16,080
Speaker 4: that they're being subtled. I mean, Donald Trump is telling

278
00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:18,880
Speaker 4: us every single day what he intends to do. And

279
00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:20,920
Speaker 4: by the way, I actually take him at his word

280
00:14:21,080 --> 00:14:22,600
Speaker 4: when he says that he's going to push for a

281
00:14:22,600 --> 00:14:25,880
Speaker 4: mass deportation policy, that he's going to round up millions

282
00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:28,040
Speaker 4: of people, put them on trains and buses and camps

283
00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:31,240
Speaker 4: and who knows what else. And I think that people,

284
00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:33,320
Speaker 4: if in fact there was a Trump two point zero,

285
00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:35,360
Speaker 4: I'm just I'm kind of waiting this kind of my

286
00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:38,560
Speaker 4: morbid curiosity the people who are like, wow, he really

287
00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:39,080
Speaker 4: meant that.

288
00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:41,120
Speaker 1: I'm shocked, shocked.

289
00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:43,120
Speaker 4: To find out that Donald Trump is who Donald Trump

290
00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:46,000
Speaker 4: has been saying is for the last nine fucking years.

291
00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:49,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, he wants to put barcodes on people, like, don't

292
00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:52,960
Speaker 1: know what he wants. He said during a rally. I

293
00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:56,400
Speaker 1: don't know exactly the quote serial numbers, serial numbers, right,

294
00:14:56,480 --> 00:14:59,480
Speaker 1: serial numbers, but serial numbers. That's what I mean. That

295
00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:03,240
Speaker 1: is literally what Hitler did. Like people had tattoos of

296
00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:07,160
Speaker 1: serial numbers on their arms. The older Jews who survived

297
00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:10,120
Speaker 1: the Holocaust, I mean, as a Jew myself, Like, I mean,

298
00:15:10,160 --> 00:15:12,640
Speaker 1: my family came over in the eighteen hundreds, but we

299
00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:15,520
Speaker 1: had certainly relatives who died in the Holocaust, And like,

300
00:15:15,640 --> 00:15:18,000
Speaker 1: you know, it's never just the Jews, right, It's never

301
00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:22,080
Speaker 1: just the Haitians. It's always you know, the Haitian stuff

302
00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:25,920
Speaker 1: is like, is probably scarier than anything, right, dehumanizing.

303
00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:28,400
Speaker 4: Well, let's just stick with the Haitians, Okay. So, I mean,

304
00:15:28,560 --> 00:15:30,840
Speaker 4: I understand the danger of doing the Hitler chard acause

305
00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:33,480
Speaker 4: they just set that aside here, although I would urge

306
00:15:33,520 --> 00:15:36,040
Speaker 4: people to read Catherine Rimpel's column in the Washington Post,

307
00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:39,120
Speaker 4: who says, if you're bothered by the comparisons, maybe Donald

308
00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:41,000
Speaker 4: Trump should stop actually trying to sound like him. But

309
00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:44,080
Speaker 4: let's leave that aside. The Haitian thing is so extraordinary

310
00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:47,720
Speaker 4: because it is so raw. He has moved on from

311
00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:51,520
Speaker 4: scary rapist Mexicans to now, let's be honest, the blackest

312
00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:54,040
Speaker 4: immigrants he can find, and he's decided that he's going

313
00:15:54,080 --> 00:15:58,000
Speaker 4: to demonize them with lies that are refuted. But they're

314
00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:00,640
Speaker 4: sticking with the line. I think the fact that they

315
00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:03,840
Speaker 4: persist with the law is such a tell because the

316
00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:07,400
Speaker 4: facts don't matter. As jd Vance sort of conceded. We

317
00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:10,240
Speaker 4: created the story because there's this larger truth that these

318
00:16:10,560 --> 00:16:13,800
Speaker 4: black Haitian immigrants are dangerous and scary and poisoning the

319
00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:16,400
Speaker 4: blood of America or whatever it is. And the other

320
00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:20,800
Speaker 4: day when Donald Trump led his rally crowd in the

321
00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:24,760
Speaker 4: chant of send them back, send them back, it was

322
00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:26,360
Speaker 4: one of those moments where you feel like raise your

323
00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:28,720
Speaker 4: hand and say, do you understand what he's doing here?

324
00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:33,680
Speaker 4: These immigrants are here legally. We're not talking about illegal immigrants.

325
00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:36,040
Speaker 4: We're not talking about people who broke the law. We're

326
00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:38,800
Speaker 4: talking about people who followed the law, played by the rules,

327
00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:44,240
Speaker 4: who are working, working hard. The Republican governor of Ohio says, no, no, no,

328
00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:47,040
Speaker 4: don't demonize these people. We need them in our economy.

329
00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:51,600
Speaker 4: And Donald Trump is leading this chance send them back?

330
00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:56,440
Speaker 4: Why because he wants people to fear and loathe these

331
00:16:56,520 --> 00:17:00,520
Speaker 4: dark immigrants. And it's hard to come up with example

332
00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:05,840
Speaker 4: of raw racism or more raw racism in American presidential

333
00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:09,040
Speaker 4: politics for decades. In fact, I can't even think of

334
00:17:09,080 --> 00:17:12,440
Speaker 4: any direct parallel within our lifetimes.

335
00:17:12,840 --> 00:17:15,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean I also think that othering a

336
00:17:15,880 --> 00:17:18,760
Speaker 1: group of people, saying that the base is in danger

337
00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:26,320
Speaker 1: from them and then pushing very conservative, extremist policies. History

338
00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:30,000
Speaker 1: has shown us that that's the play for authoritarians. So

339
00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:34,440
Speaker 1: this is a continual history rhymes exercise right.

340
00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:36,600
Speaker 4: Yes, and look at this is what he's running on.

341
00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:39,240
Speaker 4: These things are not gas, These are not one ofs.

342
00:17:39,359 --> 00:17:42,520
Speaker 4: This has been a consistent theme that he's had from

343
00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:45,360
Speaker 4: the beginning. And I think it's interesting that he sort

344
00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:48,800
Speaker 4: of moved on from building the wall that Mexico would

345
00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:51,120
Speaker 4: pay for, which was bullshit. Then a couple of years

346
00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:53,800
Speaker 4: later it was the you know, caravans coming, that we're

347
00:17:53,800 --> 00:17:56,639
Speaker 4: going to overwhelm America. They were going to take your jobs,

348
00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:59,800
Speaker 4: rape your women, et cetera. And now it's the Haitian immigrants.

349
00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:02,080
Speaker 4: But the through line is not subtle.

350
00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:06,960
Speaker 1: Yes, it's not subtle. So let's talk about Mark Robinson.

351
00:18:07,440 --> 00:18:12,359
Speaker 1: We had more APO dumped. Maybe we don't know by who,

352
00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:14,960
Speaker 1: but it was right before the deadline to drop out.

353
00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:18,000
Speaker 1: Was maybe a hail Mary hoping that he would drop out.

354
00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:20,080
Speaker 1: Who knows, I don't know who would think that, because

355
00:18:20,119 --> 00:18:24,720
Speaker 1: the man seems completely unapologetic for anything real or that,

356
00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:27,639
Speaker 1: for anything he's done or pretended he didn't do, you know,

357
00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:30,840
Speaker 1: or maybe he didn't who knows, but I think he did.

358
00:18:30,840 --> 00:18:33,920
Speaker 1: But you know, that's just my opinion. But there may

359
00:18:34,040 --> 00:18:40,320
Speaker 1: still be more unearthed because this person seems very, very messy.

360
00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:44,000
Speaker 1: But I'm curious what you think. You know, Trump could

361
00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:45,919
Speaker 1: have and again, of course he wouldn't have, but he

362
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,560
Speaker 1: could have said, you know, I withdraw my endorsement. He

363
00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:51,359
Speaker 1: did not, but he didn't have him at his event,

364
00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:53,280
Speaker 1: which I guess right.

365
00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:56,040
Speaker 4: Yeah, But you know, Mark Rebinson is such a creature

366
00:18:56,119 --> 00:18:59,800
Speaker 4: of the Maga universe. The utter deplorability and then the

367
00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:03,359
Speaker 4: pet shamelessness of the people who leaked this information actually

368
00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:06,040
Speaker 4: seemed to believe that we were on Earth two point zero,

369
00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:08,719
Speaker 4: where this sort of thing would be automatically disqualifying. It

370
00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:12,359
Speaker 4: wasn't that long ago that no rational political party would

371
00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:15,359
Speaker 4: stick with somebody who is this bizarre. I have to

372
00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:17,720
Speaker 4: admit there's a certain irony of the people who are

373
00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:20,720
Speaker 4: now withdrawing their endorsements after it turns out that he

374
00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:24,080
Speaker 4: said these wild things on a porn side, because apparently

375
00:19:24,119 --> 00:19:26,679
Speaker 4: the being a Holocaust denier was not a deal breaker

376
00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:29,240
Speaker 4: before that. I mean, you can be a Holocaust denier,

377
00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:32,000
Speaker 4: but don't do it on a porn site. Called neod Africa.

378
00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:34,080
Speaker 4: Just I mean, we're willing to put up with all

379
00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:36,720
Speaker 4: kinds of other stuff, but I'm shock shocked to find

380
00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:40,359
Speaker 4: out that this clear extremist nut job was an extremist

381
00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:43,720
Speaker 4: nut job and like kinky sex with his wife's sister

382
00:19:43,800 --> 00:19:46,320
Speaker 4: or something like that. I mean so, but the way

383
00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:48,879
Speaker 4: in which people like this are continuing to rise to

384
00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:51,960
Speaker 4: the top of the Republican Party winning primaries. I mean,

385
00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:56,160
Speaker 4: keep in mind that voters in North Carolina, Republican voters

386
00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:59,919
Speaker 4: chose him despite all kinds of warning signs that he

387
00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:00,760
Speaker 4: was bad news.

388
00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:03,960
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean they did, and he is the

389
00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:07,520
Speaker 1: lieutenant governor. Now there's this polling out now that shows

390
00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:11,159
Speaker 1: that the attack on Tim Walls from the right is

391
00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:14,880
Speaker 1: not actually working. They had worked really hard, and actually,

392
00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:17,160
Speaker 1: I'm sure you saw those polls over the weekend where

393
00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:20,280
Speaker 1: Harris is more as popular as Bush was right after

394
00:20:20,359 --> 00:20:22,880
Speaker 1: nine to eleven. Right that she has had that kind

395
00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:26,159
Speaker 1: of spike in popularity, So it shows that the attacks

396
00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:30,120
Speaker 1: on her didn't work either. So make it make sense.

397
00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:33,040
Speaker 4: Well, almost nothing makes any sense, But this is actually hard.

398
00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:35,720
Speaker 4: This is quite interesting because for people who don't spend

399
00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:38,040
Speaker 4: a lot of time immersed in the insanity of right

400
00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:42,320
Speaker 4: wing media. The attacks on walls were absolutely relentless, and

401
00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:44,560
Speaker 4: they went on and on and on. They never actually

402
00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:46,240
Speaker 4: made any sense to me, But I was wondering, and

403
00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:49,320
Speaker 4: this is this playing and the evidence would suggest that no,

404
00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:52,400
Speaker 4: it's not. And then this was my big question mark

405
00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:55,879
Speaker 4: about the month of August, what would happen to Kamala

406
00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:59,320
Speaker 4: Harris's numbers when they dumped one hundred million dollars more

407
00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:02,679
Speaker 4: of negative on her. I mean they threw everything at her,

408
00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:05,639
Speaker 4: I mean everything, And the fact that her approval rating

409
00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:08,240
Speaker 4: has gone up, I think is one of those numbers

410
00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:12,080
Speaker 4: that did get my attention because it suggests that Americans

411
00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:15,400
Speaker 4: are still looking at this race and going, we don't

412
00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:18,480
Speaker 4: know who Kamala Harris is. They're making up their minds

413
00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:22,119
Speaker 4: about her, and the Republicans tried to define her and

414
00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:25,760
Speaker 4: probably succeeded with the base, but overall it's not working.

415
00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:27,480
Speaker 4: So one of the things that I think, you know,

416
00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:29,119
Speaker 4: when I was talking about how insane it is that

417
00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:31,199
Speaker 4: this is closed, I think the part of it is

418
00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:33,359
Speaker 4: that you know, people like you and I need to

419
00:21:33,359 --> 00:21:35,760
Speaker 4: take a deep breath and remember that for the vast

420
00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:38,919
Speaker 4: majority of Americans, they had no idea who Kamala Harris was,

421
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:42,760
Speaker 4: and if they did, it was probably negative. And so

422
00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:47,840
Speaker 4: you know, this process of reintroducing herself, introducing herself, and

423
00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:51,240
Speaker 4: defining herself is ongoing. And even though there's only six

424
00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:54,400
Speaker 4: weeks left, there are six weeks left where she can

425
00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:58,160
Speaker 4: do some of this, And that number you decided would

426
00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:01,480
Speaker 4: suggest that some of that's working. People are people are

427
00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:05,159
Speaker 4: getting their heads around this idea, which you know, we

428
00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:07,560
Speaker 4: need to keep reminding ourselves what was two three months

429
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:10,120
Speaker 4: ago was absolutely unthinkable and now here we are.

430
00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:13,159
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a really good point. And it's interesting to

431
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:17,199
Speaker 1: me too, because Walls has this sort of Upper Midwest

432
00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:21,560
Speaker 1: nice thing. It's funny because I was interviewing Governor Pritzker,

433
00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:26,240
Speaker 1: and you know, he is sort of made this name

434
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:29,200
Speaker 1: for himself as a progressive hero of the laugh despite

435
00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:33,040
Speaker 1: his incredible Walls. And one of the ways he's done

436
00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:35,240
Speaker 1: that is by doing a lot of the same policies

437
00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:38,520
Speaker 1: that Walls has done, these kind of and Jos Shapiro too,

438
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:42,960
Speaker 1: these kind of like free breakfasts paid sickly different kind

439
00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:47,080
Speaker 1: of safety net stuff. And I wonder what you think

440
00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:50,520
Speaker 1: about this sort of Democrats. It's sort of almost recreating

441
00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:55,359
Speaker 1: themselves as a kind of like friendly Midwestern party, the

442
00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:57,919
Speaker 1: Amy Klobashah kind of trope.

443
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:00,440
Speaker 4: Well, I think this is absolutely necessary in order to

444
00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:03,040
Speaker 4: win this election. But yeah, there's no question about it.

445
00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:05,320
Speaker 4: There has been this effort to say, no, we're not

446
00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:08,320
Speaker 4: San Francisco Liberals. No, we're not going to We're not

447
00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:10,480
Speaker 4: going to be playing that card. We understand the election

448
00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:13,080
Speaker 4: is not going to be decided in the faculty lounge

449
00:23:13,119 --> 00:23:15,480
Speaker 4: of Dartmouth, that it's going to be decided in places like,

450
00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:18,840
Speaker 4: you know, Pennsylvania, in Michigan and Wisconsin and Minnesota. So

451
00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:21,359
Speaker 4: from my point of US and Midwestern I find it

452
00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:25,040
Speaker 4: very very refreshing because the entire Republican line right now

453
00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:27,119
Speaker 4: is you should really be scared of these people. These

454
00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:30,240
Speaker 4: people are dangerous, dangerous radicals. And then a guy like

455
00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:33,200
Speaker 4: Tim Walls comes out and he's got a very progressive record,

456
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:36,520
Speaker 4: but he does not read as a dangerous radical, and

457
00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:38,800
Speaker 4: things like yeah, it's like, okay, I'm going to give

458
00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:41,239
Speaker 4: free lunches to the kids in school. Now there are

459
00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:42,720
Speaker 4: conservative becom you know.

460
00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:45,639
Speaker 1: Right, you could be upset about them, but the cost

461
00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:47,560
Speaker 1: of it, but not the idea of it.

462
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:50,159
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, see, this is the thing. This is not

463
00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:52,760
Speaker 4: This is not a red line kind of issue. And

464
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:56,200
Speaker 4: as Donald Trump becomes more and more incoherent on the economy,

465
00:23:56,359 --> 00:23:58,880
Speaker 4: I think that there's an opening as well. But also

466
00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:02,040
Speaker 4: I just think fundamental, and I said this on Nicole

467
00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:05,080
Speaker 4: Wallace's show yesterday, I don't think this election is going

468
00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:06,360
Speaker 4: to turn on policy in the.

469
00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:09,520
Speaker 1: End Tony either at all.

470
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:12,040
Speaker 4: So you know what I mean. I'm thinking back at

471
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:14,520
Speaker 4: the classic question of American politics, are you better off

472
00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:16,520
Speaker 4: than you were four years ago? And I think the

473
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:19,080
Speaker 4: answer is clearly yes. But I don't think that's the

474
00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:21,040
Speaker 4: question in twenty twenty four. I think the question in

475
00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:22,960
Speaker 4: twenty twenty four, and you can help me formulate this,

476
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:24,679
Speaker 4: is like, do you really want to do this for

477
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:27,359
Speaker 4: another four years? Do we want as a country to

478
00:24:27,359 --> 00:24:29,639
Speaker 4: put up with another four years of Donald Trump? Aren't

479
00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:33,639
Speaker 4: you exhausted by this? Don't you want to turn the page?

480
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:38,000
Speaker 4: And I think that there is a small but potentially

481
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:42,120
Speaker 4: decisive group of absolutely freaking exhausted voters, many of whom

482
00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:45,000
Speaker 4: were voted for Republicans, maybe voted for Trump twice, and

483
00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:47,760
Speaker 4: are thinking I just can't take this for another four years.

484
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,439
Speaker 4: I just don't want to do this anymore. Yeah, or

485
00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:54,159
Speaker 4: maybe I'm just projecting because that's me. That's me too.

486
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:57,160
Speaker 1: You know. It's funny because it's like the conventional wisdom

487
00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:00,760
Speaker 1: is that a Trump when would make people like us

488
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:04,560
Speaker 1: more important before we go to jail, but it actually

489
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:08,399
Speaker 1: is just nobody wants that because it's so scary and

490
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:11,560
Speaker 1: it's just and to watch him just torture people, it's

491
00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:12,760
Speaker 1: just not worth it.

492
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:15,040
Speaker 4: This is part of the struggle because there are days

493
00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:16,440
Speaker 4: when I wake up, I'm going to confess this to

494
00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:18,359
Speaker 4: you since it's just you and me, Molly.

495
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:20,360
Speaker 1: Yes, and I won't tell anyone I think.

496
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:22,760
Speaker 4: Is there anything that we can say about Donald Trump

497
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:25,719
Speaker 4: that we haven't said before that is not obvious? I mean,

498
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:27,880
Speaker 4: how many times do you have to say that this

499
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:32,000
Speaker 4: man is demented and a menace and reckless and clearly

500
00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:34,720
Speaker 4: not fit for office? How many times can you say that?

501
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:37,679
Speaker 4: And is there any part of that that you know

502
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:40,240
Speaker 4: has penetrated to the people who need to hear it.

503
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:43,639
Speaker 4: I hope the answer is yes. But at a certain

504
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:46,639
Speaker 4: point you go, Okay, he's told us who he is.

505
00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:49,159
Speaker 4: He has told us who he is over and over again.

506
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:52,280
Speaker 4: We've seen this. All you have to do is spend

507
00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:55,800
Speaker 4: five minutes listening to him, and so, you know, let's

508
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 4: stop the commentary and get home.

509
00:25:56,960 --> 00:25:57,359
Speaker 3: With a voting.

510
00:25:57,440 --> 00:26:01,119
Speaker 4: Let's just do this. Let's just because vote is going

511
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:02,639
Speaker 4: to tell us a hell of a lot more about

512
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 4: who we are as Americans than it is about Donald Trump.

513
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:08,400
Speaker 4: This election. At this point, it's not about Donald Trump anymore,

514
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:11,080
Speaker 4: because we know that we've done that. Okay, Now the

515
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:14,240
Speaker 4: question is who are we? And I think it was

516
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:16,800
Speaker 4: Barack Obama you kept saying, you know that, you know

517
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:18,639
Speaker 4: this is not who we are. We are better than this.

518
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:21,920
Speaker 4: Well maybe we are, maybe we aren't. We're going to

519
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:22,320
Speaker 4: find out.

520
00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:27,520
Speaker 1: Charlie Sikes, thank you, thank you. Are you concerned about

521
00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:30,760
Speaker 1: Project twenty twenty five and how awful Trump's second term

522
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 1: could be, Well, so are we, which is why we

523
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:36,639
Speaker 1: teamed up with iHeart to make a limited series with

524
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:40,840
Speaker 1: the experts on what a disaster Project twenty twenty five

525
00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:44,000
Speaker 1: would be for America's future. Right now, we have just

526
00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:48,160
Speaker 1: released the final episode of this five episode series. They're

527
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:52,159
Speaker 1: all available by looking up Molly John Fast Project twenty

528
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:54,960
Speaker 1: twenty five on YouTube and if you are more of

529
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,880
Speaker 1: a podcast person and not say a YouTuber. You can

530
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:01,520
Speaker 1: hit play and put your phone in the lock screen

531
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:04,480
Speaker 1: and it will play back just like the podcast. All

532
00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:08,200
Speaker 1: five episodes are online now. We need to educate Americans

533
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:11,480
Speaker 1: on what Trump's second term would or could do to

534
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:15,400
Speaker 1: this country. So please watch it and spread the word.

535
00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 1: Dana Milbank is a columnist at The Washington Post and

536
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:23,840
Speaker 1: the author of Pools on the Hill, The Hooligans, Saboteurs,

537
00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:29,320
Speaker 1: Conspiracy Theorists, and Dances who Burned Down the House? Welcome

538
00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 1: Back Too Fast Politics, My friend, Dana Milbank.

539
00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:35,760
Speaker 5: Molly, it is always a real treat to get to

540
00:27:35,800 --> 00:27:36,159
Speaker 5: talk to you.

541
00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:39,879
Speaker 1: So we're talking about your book today, but happens to

542
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 1: be your book, which.

543
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:45,359
Speaker 5: Is called The Fools on the Hill.

544
00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:50,359
Speaker 1: Yes, Republicans and the House. We're happy to oblige by

545
00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:54,359
Speaker 1: providing you with a lot of material. Take us through

546
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:57,159
Speaker 1: when you started this book, because there's a lot of

547
00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: bad Republican actors on the Hill. But what period did

548
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 1: you start writing this book about?

549
00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:05,280
Speaker 5: So I started thinking about it just as the twenty

550
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:08,600
Speaker 5: twenty two elections were coming up. I didn't realize, of course,

551
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:12,320
Speaker 5: what a catastrophe of leadership it was about to become.

552
00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:14,879
Speaker 5: But you could kind of tell with all these exotic

553
00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:17,840
Speaker 5: characters that you know something was going to be up.

554
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:20,199
Speaker 5: So I talked with my editors about getting up to

555
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:22,800
Speaker 5: the hill and starting to cover it from the beginning

556
00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:26,119
Speaker 5: of last year twenty twenty three and into the early

557
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 5: parts of this year. Then we rushed to put this

558
00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:31,120
Speaker 5: in book for him. So we got all this in motion.

559
00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:33,760
Speaker 5: You know, long before there was going to be fifteen

560
00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:36,960
Speaker 5: ballots to elect Kevin McCarthy. Then they'd kick out a

561
00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:39,920
Speaker 5: speaker for the first time in history. Then they'd shut

562
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 5: the house down for twenty two days. Then they'd come

563
00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:45,320
Speaker 5: up with the new Moses, Mike Johnson, who turned out

564
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:47,920
Speaker 5: to be a false prophet and made things even worse

565
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:49,040
Speaker 5: than they were under.

566
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 1: McCarthy talked to us about this speakership battle and how

567
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:53,240
Speaker 1: Mike Johnson came to be.

568
00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 5: I mean, Mike Johnson came to be because of Donald Trump.

569
00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:00,560
Speaker 5: It is as simple as that. Kevin McCarthy still be

570
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:03,840
Speaker 5: speakers today, for better or worse, if Trump had stuck

571
00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 5: by him. But remember McCarthy had said, well, maybe Donald

572
00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:10,040
Speaker 5: Trump isn't the strongest candidate to have representing us in

573
00:29:10,040 --> 00:29:12,640
Speaker 5: the election, And that was basically the end for Kevin

574
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:16,360
Speaker 5: McCarthy that allowed Matt Gates to bring him down. Trump

575
00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:19,920
Speaker 5: very clearly knocked down some others in there, Tom Emmer,

576
00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:23,360
Speaker 5: Steve Scalise during that twenty two days of shutdown when

577
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:26,280
Speaker 5: the House couldn't function at all, he did like Jim Jordan,

578
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,680
Speaker 5: Trump did, but there was some opposition there and finally

579
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:33,760
Speaker 5: he got behind Mike Johnson. And Mike Johnson, like many

580
00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 5: other Republicans, originally was saying, I do not think Trump

581
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:38,640
Speaker 5: has the temperament to be in the White House. But

582
00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 5: of course he became slavishly devoted to Trump. The most

583
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:46,120
Speaker 5: important element of his career was leading the legal effort

584
00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty to help Trump overturn the election results.

585
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:53,760
Speaker 5: Mike Johnson has rewarded Trump in every way. Trump says,

586
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:56,960
Speaker 5: shut down the government. If you can't get this Save Act,

587
00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:00,200
Speaker 5: this voting poison pill attached to the spending, then that

588
00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:03,760
Speaker 5: becomes Mike Johnson's strategy. Trump says, you've got to kill

589
00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:07,400
Speaker 5: this Order Security legislation to help me with a campaign.

590
00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:10,560
Speaker 5: Mike Johnson had been calling for almost exactly that bit

591
00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:14,000
Speaker 5: of legislation for months, if not years, gets on board

592
00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:17,040
Speaker 5: to kill the legislation, you know. And then there's Mike Johnson,

593
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:20,480
Speaker 5: you know, having a press conference outside the courthouse during

594
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:22,960
Speaker 5: Trump's hush money trial, you know, and it just sort

595
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,320
Speaker 5: of goes on and on, and you basically, he has

596
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:28,560
Speaker 5: one job, and that is to represent the interests of

597
00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:31,760
Speaker 5: Donald Trump. And that really explains why we had so

598
00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:33,240
Speaker 5: much chaos at the House.

599
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:38,400
Speaker 1: There's no reporting, which is that Democrats are starting to

600
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:41,520
Speaker 1: be by democrats, I mean people who are concerned about

601
00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:43,320
Speaker 1: American democracy.

602
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:43,800
Speaker 5: Small D democrats.

603
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:49,640
Speaker 1: Small D democrats have started worrying about not January sixth,

604
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:53,120
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, but January sixth, twenty twenty five, that

605
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 1: they have started worrying that perhaps picking the guy who

606
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 1: helped undermine twenty election, who wrote this legal brief, could

607
00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:08,520
Speaker 1: mean that when given the chance, he would not do

608
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:13,360
Speaker 1: as Mike Pence did, but instead do as Donald Trump

609
00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:17,240
Speaker 1: wanted Mike Pence to do and delay certification or perhaps

610
00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:20,040
Speaker 1: deny certification, or do whatever he could to kick it

611
00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:22,840
Speaker 1: up to the Supreme Court, who are very much on

612
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:26,960
Speaker 1: team Trump. You aren't a student of these people, what

613
00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:27,680
Speaker 1: say you?

614
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:31,600
Speaker 5: I think there's every possibility that Mike Johnson would do

615
00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:34,560
Speaker 5: exactly that. You have to understand the extent to which

616
00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:38,520
Speaker 5: he is always one tweet away from losing the speakership. Now,

617
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:42,000
Speaker 5: he may well lose his speakership anyway, because he's basically incompetent,

618
00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:43,960
Speaker 5: only been in Congress for a few years, and has

619
00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:47,440
Speaker 5: really no idea what he's doing. But he's always hanging

620
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:50,680
Speaker 5: by a thread. And if Trump says one bad word, okay,

621
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:53,520
Speaker 5: that motion to vacate Marjorie Taylor Green's on the floor

622
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:56,120
Speaker 5: with their motion to vacate, and the Republicans will have

623
00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:58,920
Speaker 5: to go along with that. Of course, this has already happened,

624
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 5: and Trump did not go along with it, and not

625
00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:04,000
Speaker 5: enough Republicans went along with it, so the Democrats were

626
00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:07,000
Speaker 5: able to bail him out. But you know, because he's

627
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:10,520
Speaker 5: hanging by a string there, he is almost certainly going

628
00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 5: to continue to do whatever it is that Trump asks him,

629
00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 5: whether that was, you know, shutting down the government or

630
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:20,360
Speaker 5: whether that's with border security or god forbid, attempting to

631
00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 5: overturn the election results.

632
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:22,040
Speaker 3: Again.

633
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:25,200
Speaker 5: Now, the other externalities are much better than they were

634
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:28,360
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty. Because a Democrat is in the White House,

635
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:31,800
Speaker 5: you won't have a failure to send the National Guarden

636
00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:34,920
Speaker 5: or its equivalent this time around, so things will be

637
00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 5: different in that sense. But you know, Mike Johnson has

638
00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:40,560
Speaker 5: made very clear that he is there at the pleasure

639
00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:42,720
Speaker 5: of and to serve Donald Trump.

640
00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:45,160
Speaker 1: So that sounds like a yes.

641
00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:48,360
Speaker 5: I'd be highly confident that he would do exactly what

642
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:51,120
Speaker 5: is asked of him. And it's I mean, who knows

643
00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:53,880
Speaker 5: what Mike Johnson is thinking, you know, in his heart

644
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:56,720
Speaker 5: of hearts. In a sense, it doesn't really matter. I mean,

645
00:32:56,880 --> 00:32:59,960
Speaker 5: it is very clear he you know, one false move

646
00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:02,920
Speaker 5: Trump says one bad word about him, he is out

647
00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:05,400
Speaker 5: of his job. He's not shown himself to have any background.

648
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:07,560
Speaker 5: I mean, he has made Kevin McCarthy it look like

649
00:33:07,600 --> 00:33:09,280
Speaker 5: one heck of a vertebrates.

650
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:12,959
Speaker 3: Like, you know, that's not easy to do.

651
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:17,360
Speaker 1: Tell me what it looks like sort of since the

652
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,680
Speaker 1: Republicans have been in power here, Like, what have the

653
00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:22,920
Speaker 1: last two years looked like? I mean, you have been

654
00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:25,440
Speaker 1: in DC for a while.

655
00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:27,880
Speaker 5: Yes, I like how you always mentioned that.

656
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:32,920
Speaker 1: Molly, and you've seen many things. I'm always just delighted

657
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:36,360
Speaker 1: when I'm talking to someone who's older than I am.

658
00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:39,560
Speaker 1: It just is so great. But what has surprised you?

659
00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:40,360
Speaker 3: All right?

660
00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:44,280
Speaker 5: The level of incompetence that I've seen in this Congress.

661
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:47,040
Speaker 5: It exceeds anything any of us has ever seen in

662
00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:50,600
Speaker 5: our lifetime. Now, you know, I covered the Congress after

663
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:54,320
Speaker 5: the Republican Revolution of ninety four. That was nineteen ninety four,

664
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:55,400
Speaker 5: not eighteen ninety four.

665
00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:59,800
Speaker 1: That is that's my man Newt, right, that was right.

666
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:02,600
Speaker 5: And then you know, after the Tea Party in twenty ten.

667
00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:05,280
Speaker 5: So I've seen sort of high water marks of this before,

668
00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 5: but let me just put a number on it. After

669
00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:11,640
Speaker 5: eighteen months, these guys had managed to enact seventy laws

670
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:14,640
Speaker 5: that puts them on course based on all recent history

671
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:16,960
Speaker 5: for you know, give or take about one hundred and

672
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 5: thirty three, this would be the do nothing as Congress

673
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,040
Speaker 5: since eighteen sixty. No, no, I mean not forever, but

674
00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:28,279
Speaker 5: since eighteen sixty, when the when the Union was dissolving

675
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:31,720
Speaker 5: on the verge of civil war. It's barely one third

676
00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:35,240
Speaker 5: the production of the you know, Nut Gingrich's nineteen ninety

677
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:38,040
Speaker 5: four Congress, and well less than half of the Tea

678
00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:41,759
Speaker 5: Party Congress. So it's just unbelievable the lack of things

679
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:44,080
Speaker 5: they're doing. Of course there, yeah, there's a Democratic Senate,

680
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:46,400
Speaker 5: but they can't do anything without the buy in of

681
00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:49,239
Speaker 5: ten Republicans. So it's much the same problem over there,

682
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:53,520
Speaker 5: and I mean just the legendary getting hung up in

683
00:34:53,600 --> 00:34:56,560
Speaker 5: their own rules, unable to pass anything, although they you know,

684
00:34:56,640 --> 00:34:59,719
Speaker 5: they do pass stuff like the Refrigerator Freedom Act and

685
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:03,480
Speaker 5: the Asked Protection Act and that you know, stop unaffordable

686
00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:06,880
Speaker 5: dishwasher standards. But you know, part of what I argue

687
00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:09,480
Speaker 5: in the book is, I mean we should all be

688
00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:13,160
Speaker 5: thankful that they are so incompetent, because if you look

689
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:15,360
Speaker 5: at what they've actually tried to do, and that is

690
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:18,240
Speaker 5: you know, the vast majority of them have already voted

691
00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:21,640
Speaker 5: to eliminate the Education Department. The vast majority are on

692
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:25,160
Speaker 5: board with a nationwide abortion ban, and even you know,

693
00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:29,160
Speaker 5: a banning if at pristone overwhelming majority of them, one

694
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:32,279
Speaker 5: hundred and seventy seven House Republicans have voted to keep

695
00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:35,759
Speaker 5: the names of Confederate generals on military basis. So you've

696
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:37,839
Speaker 5: seen this, you know, a whole bunch of this white

697
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:42,160
Speaker 5: nationalism going on, a lot of social culture, war issues,

698
00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:45,960
Speaker 5: poison pills in legislation. This is all fun and games,

699
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:48,360
Speaker 5: I suppose, because we know the President would veto it.

700
00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:51,000
Speaker 5: It'll never get through the Senate. But if we're looking

701
00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:54,239
Speaker 5: at heaven forbid a return of President Trump and a

702
00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:58,560
Speaker 5: Speaker Johnson and potentially a Republican Senate that's willing to

703
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:03,280
Speaker 5: kill off the Fster, this becomes a very different situation

704
00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:06,400
Speaker 5: than all these you know, wack adoodle things that they

705
00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:08,799
Speaker 5: you know, suddenly become a real possibility.

706
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:12,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, a real possibility. And I think, you know, a

707
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:14,960
Speaker 1: lot of this really could happen. And the fact that

708
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:18,239
Speaker 1: it's not happening it's really because these ideas are so unpopular.

709
00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:21,000
Speaker 5: I don't think they see them as unpopular. That that's

710
00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:22,960
Speaker 5: the thing is, you know, these guys are I mean,

711
00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:25,640
Speaker 5: think of the lineup of people we've got. I mean,

712
00:36:25,719 --> 00:36:29,040
Speaker 5: it's essentially the power behind the throne is you know,

713
00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:33,160
Speaker 5: Miss Jewish Space Lasers from Georgia, and you've got Beetlejuice

714
00:36:33,239 --> 00:36:36,960
Speaker 5: from Colorado. You've got Matt Gates, who's under an investigation.

715
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:37,759
Speaker 3: You've got the new.

716
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:40,560
Speaker 5: Moses, Mike Johnson. You know, we did have her all

717
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:44,359
Speaker 5: unfortunately all too little time. George Santos. You know, you've

718
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:48,000
Speaker 5: got the candy Man, Ronnie Jackson. You've got Clay Higgins

719
00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:51,400
Speaker 5: from Louisiana sending coded messages to militia.

720
00:36:51,719 --> 00:36:56,520
Speaker 1: I mean, we shouldn't laugh because it's so dark.

721
00:36:56,880 --> 00:36:59,840
Speaker 5: The list goes on and on and on. There is

722
00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:04,160
Speaker 5: so much insanity here, you know, violent people, people faking

723
00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:08,120
Speaker 5: their resumes, ties to white nationalism. The list of characters

724
00:37:08,239 --> 00:37:11,520
Speaker 5: is extraordinary, and so I don't think that they recognize

725
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:14,880
Speaker 5: that what their agenda is unpopular. They think it's terrific

726
00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:18,400
Speaker 5: and this is what every American wants. The rest of

727
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:22,200
Speaker 5: the Republicans, they're, unfortunately for them, being carried along with this,

728
00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:24,640
Speaker 5: but they're not being shy about the things that they're

729
00:37:24,719 --> 00:37:27,120
Speaker 5: trying to do. So I just think people need to

730
00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:30,640
Speaker 5: keep in mind that if this House majority persists and

731
00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:33,359
Speaker 5: Trump is returned to the White House, it's a whole

732
00:37:33,440 --> 00:37:36,080
Speaker 5: different thing. There's no Paul Ryan even to try to

733
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:39,200
Speaker 5: tone things down. There are no grownups, and there's nobody

734
00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:40,439
Speaker 5: who can say no to this guy.

735
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:43,560
Speaker 1: Jesus, that made me feel good. They've done a lot

736
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:47,399
Speaker 1: of messaging bills, they've done a lot of committees, they've

737
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:52,719
Speaker 1: done a lot of trying to get Hunter Biden. What

738
00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:54,280
Speaker 1: has been those sort of most.

739
00:37:54,160 --> 00:37:58,360
Speaker 5: Hilarious Oh man, that's like asking which somebody's children they like.

740
00:37:58,480 --> 00:37:58,839
Speaker 3: The most.

741
00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:03,239
Speaker 5: There were so many great days during this session, but

742
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,320
Speaker 5: I think maybe the best moment was when everything was

743
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:10,040
Speaker 5: melting down and then Kevin McCarthy delivers what it was

744
00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:12,800
Speaker 5: called a kidney punch to Tim Burchett in the basement

745
00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:15,919
Speaker 5: of the House. This is the exact same time over

746
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:19,799
Speaker 5: in the Senate, Mark Wayne Mullen is challenging the head

747
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:21,400
Speaker 5: of I think it was the Teamsters Union to a

748
00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:24,880
Speaker 5: fistfight in the committee room, and Jamie Comer on this

749
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:28,160
Speaker 5: same exact day is erupting at Jared Moscow it's in

750
00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:29,960
Speaker 5: a committee here and calling him a smurf.

751
00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:33,000
Speaker 1: Yes, I remember it well. And Jared Moscow it'z has

752
00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:35,280
Speaker 1: been on this podcast to recount.

753
00:38:34,920 --> 00:38:39,680
Speaker 5: Smurf Gate, indeed, and he's owning that smurf label quite

754
00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:42,000
Speaker 5: a bit and does indeed like to wear some bright

755
00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:45,480
Speaker 5: blue colors. That sort of captured the unraveling for me.

756
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:47,239
Speaker 5: But you know, I mean, god, there are so many

757
00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:51,160
Speaker 5: great moments. Marjorie Taylor Green holding up the photographs, you know,

758
00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:55,319
Speaker 5: barely blocked out of Hunter Biden engaging in sex acts

759
00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:58,080
Speaker 5: in a committee room. I mean, it's really hard to

760
00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:00,319
Speaker 5: beat some of this stuff. You know that the self

761
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:03,680
Speaker 5: loathing has been terrific. Do you remember Chip Royce standing

762
00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:06,440
Speaker 5: on the House floor saying, I want my Republican colleagues

763
00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:08,880
Speaker 5: to give me one thing that I can go campaign

764
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:09,160
Speaker 5: on it.

765
00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:09,959
Speaker 3: Say we did.

766
00:39:11,719 --> 00:39:14,399
Speaker 5: Reading telling Bobert on the House floor she's a little

767
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:17,040
Speaker 5: bitch because she stole her impeachment.

768
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:18,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was great.

769
00:39:19,560 --> 00:39:24,080
Speaker 5: It goes on and on, Matt Gates leaving his motion

770
00:39:24,200 --> 00:39:26,960
Speaker 5: to vacate, McCarthy leaving a copy of it in the restroom.

771
00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:31,080
Speaker 5: That's how people find out. Yeah, personal favorite Tom Tiffany,

772
00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:36,160
Speaker 5: little known guy from Wisconsin attacking Attorney General Merrick Garland

773
00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:40,600
Speaker 5: over the world naked bike ride. Yeah, he was blaming

774
00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:42,800
Speaker 5: him for people riding bicycles naked.

775
00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:45,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. So these people

776
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:48,359
Speaker 1: don't seem like they can govern, but they also seem

777
00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:51,520
Speaker 1: kind of like idiots. Is there a world in which,

778
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:54,040
Speaker 1: like Republicans have always had a few people like this

779
00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:57,160
Speaker 1: and Democrats? I mean, I don't think that Democrats have

780
00:39:57,280 --> 00:40:00,960
Speaker 1: people like this, but they have people who are out liars, right,

781
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:04,399
Speaker 1: who maybe don't believe what everybody else believes. But how

782
00:40:04,440 --> 00:40:07,080
Speaker 1: do you get here? How do you get to a

783
00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:11,080
Speaker 1: House Republican caucus? That is pretty much led by and

784
00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:12,600
Speaker 1: staffed by morons.

785
00:40:12,840 --> 00:40:15,040
Speaker 5: I want to say, in some ways it's the way

786
00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:17,080
Speaker 5: the party structured and not their fault. But of course

787
00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:19,160
Speaker 5: I don't want to let them off the hook entirely

788
00:40:19,239 --> 00:40:21,480
Speaker 5: for that. But there's a reason why, you know, you

789
00:40:21,600 --> 00:40:23,760
Speaker 5: sort of look at the Squad. It's a much smaller

790
00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:26,800
Speaker 5: group than say, it's equivalent the Freedom Caucus, right, and

791
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:27,720
Speaker 5: it polices itself.

792
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:29,520
Speaker 1: I mean, Jamal Bowman.

793
00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:33,439
Speaker 5: Loses, Cory Bush loses, so it's actually shrinking in that sense.

794
00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:35,839
Speaker 5: But I think it's structural in the sense that there

795
00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:38,080
Speaker 5: are far more constructions.

796
00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:40,720
Speaker 1: Not comparing these lunatics to the squad because the Squad

797
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:41,440
Speaker 1: is totally different.

798
00:40:41,440 --> 00:40:44,080
Speaker 5: But we no, no, yeah, I mean it's the nearest

799
00:40:44,120 --> 00:40:45,799
Speaker 5: ideological equivalent.

800
00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:49,359
Speaker 1: We're talking about people with different ideologies, right.

801
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:52,120
Speaker 5: But if you look at Democratic voters, a far greater

802
00:40:52,239 --> 00:40:56,080
Speaker 5: proportion identify themselves as moderate than do in the Republican Party,

803
00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:59,719
Speaker 5: where the vast majority identify themselves as conservative. So the

804
00:40:59,760 --> 00:41:02,080
Speaker 5: way you get ahead, the way you win. I mean,

805
00:41:02,160 --> 00:41:05,200
Speaker 5: ninety percent of the districts or more are safe districts,

806
00:41:05,239 --> 00:41:06,520
Speaker 5: so it's really only a primary.

807
00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:07,440
Speaker 3: The way you get.

808
00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:10,320
Speaker 5: Yourself to Congress is to be the most extreme, not

809
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:13,120
Speaker 5: as you know, Tom Massey said to be the craziest

810
00:41:13,160 --> 00:41:15,640
Speaker 5: son of a bitch in the race. So what's happened?

811
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 5: I mean, there's always been a tendency in this direction.

812
00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:21,480
Speaker 5: There always been more exotic characters in modern times, at

813
00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:24,359
Speaker 5: least on the Republican side. But since the Trump era,

814
00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:26,800
Speaker 5: we've sort of had wave after wave of you know,

815
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:31,160
Speaker 5: iteration of people getting trumpier and trumpier, and also through

816
00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:34,600
Speaker 5: his endorsements or they're simply emulating him, and the number

817
00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:39,239
Speaker 5: of characters has just expanded so exponentially. At the same time,

818
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:42,200
Speaker 5: you know, the actual grown ups have quit and disappeared

819
00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:44,440
Speaker 5: and moved on. You know, you've sort of lost that

820
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:48,400
Speaker 5: critical mass of you know, normal people who are willing

821
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:50,960
Speaker 5: to push back against it. So that's really what's happened,

822
00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:52,920
Speaker 5: is it's just been It's not just that a lot

823
00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:55,239
Speaker 5: of nuts were elected in twenty twenty two. They were,

824
00:41:55,640 --> 00:41:59,720
Speaker 5: but this follows sixteen, eighteen twenty, and it's really gotten

825
00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:02,719
Speaker 5: to a point where they now have the critical mass

826
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:04,480
Speaker 5: within the party right and so.

827
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:06,960
Speaker 1: There's no way to sort of put the genie back

828
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:07,480
Speaker 1: in the bottle.

829
00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:10,160
Speaker 5: I don't think there is I mean, look, we need

830
00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:12,480
Speaker 5: a healthy Republican party. This is going to have to

831
00:42:12,760 --> 00:42:15,640
Speaker 5: change over time. But what brings about that change? You know,

832
00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:18,600
Speaker 5: would an election defeat? Well you'd think so, but I

833
00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:22,520
Speaker 5: mean think. I think if the Republicans God Willing lose

834
00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:25,160
Speaker 5: the presidency again, I think that'll be nine out of

835
00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:27,680
Speaker 5: the last ten elections where they will have lost the

836
00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:30,880
Speaker 5: popular vote. So there doesn't seem to be a corrective

837
00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:33,320
Speaker 5: in there. We seem to be stuck in this. So

838
00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:37,040
Speaker 5: unless some real penalty is, you know, electoral penalty is

839
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:39,719
Speaker 5: to be brought to bear, which I have not seen

840
00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:41,879
Speaker 5: happen at all, I don't see how they get out

841
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 5: of this rut, because it'd be crazies. Do in fact

842
00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:48,600
Speaker 5: constitute a majority of the caucus right now.

843
00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:52,839
Speaker 1: It seems very clear, so interesting and so important. Thank

844
00:42:52,920 --> 00:42:55,840
Speaker 1: you so much, Danamobank, Molly, thank you so much for

845
00:42:55,960 --> 00:42:56,440
Speaker 1: having me on.

846
00:42:56,680 --> 00:42:57,600
Speaker 5: I really appreciate it.

847
00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:05,520
Speaker 2: Oh no more, sickly, Jesse Cannon, MYI I know you

848
00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:08,160
Speaker 2: have children and I don't. And I know that Matty

849
00:43:08,239 --> 00:43:11,200
Speaker 2: parents regret discussing the birds and bees. I regret what

850
00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:14,880
Speaker 2: we have to discuss. Clay Higgins Representative Clay Higgins He

851
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:18,720
Speaker 2: said some very very nasty things today on the Twitter machine.

852
00:43:19,040 --> 00:43:23,680
Speaker 2: He wrote, loll these Haitians are wild eating pets, foodoo

853
00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:28,240
Speaker 2: foodoo spelled wrong, of course, nastiest country in the Western Hemisphere, colts,

854
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:32,160
Speaker 2: slapstick gangsters. No idea what he's saying there, But damned

855
00:43:32,160 --> 00:43:35,960
Speaker 2: if they don't feel all sophisticated now filing charges against

856
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:39,239
Speaker 2: our president and VP, meaning Trump and JD. Vans are

857
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:41,120
Speaker 2: saying lies about them who are.

858
00:43:41,080 --> 00:43:44,680
Speaker 1: Actually not our president. Data point, they are neither our

859
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:46,000
Speaker 1: president nor our VP.

860
00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:48,920
Speaker 2: All these thugs better get their mind right and their

861
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:51,560
Speaker 2: ass out of the country before January twentieth.

862
00:43:51,920 --> 00:43:57,799
Speaker 1: So you're saying that about legal legal immigrants is kind

863
00:43:57,840 --> 00:44:02,400
Speaker 1: of something worse thinking about this is the continual racism.

864
00:44:02,480 --> 00:44:05,040
Speaker 1: By the way, I would point out that it's so

865
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:09,600
Speaker 1: interesting to me that we're in this moment because we

866
00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:12,600
Speaker 1: have seen that that, in fact, nothing happened, right. The

867
00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:15,759
Speaker 1: Haitian immigrants who were here legally did not eat any

868
00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:19,200
Speaker 1: animals that were you know, people's pets or anything that

869
00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:21,319
Speaker 1: did not happen. They were not eating cats, they were

870
00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:24,839
Speaker 1: not eating the dogs. But instead of apologizing and trying

871
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:28,440
Speaker 1: to do better, these Republicans just continue to double down

872
00:44:28,480 --> 00:44:31,120
Speaker 1: on the live, which is a really just such a

873
00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:35,080
Speaker 1: grim place to be. That's it for this episode of

874
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:38,920
Speaker 1: Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to

875
00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:41,839
Speaker 1: hear the best minds in politics makes sense of all

876
00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:45,439
Speaker 1: this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send

877
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:48,560
Speaker 1: it to a friend and keep the conversation going. And again,

878
00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:49,760
Speaker 1: thanks for listening.