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 Trump World's star witness has sunk
Speaker 1: their case against Fanny Willis.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, we have such an interesting show for you today.
Speaker 1: Senator Tammy Baldwin joins us to talk about the Republican
Speaker 1: billionaire handpicked to run against her.
Speaker 2: Spoiler, he doesn't live in Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: Then we will talk to congressional candidate Sue Altman, who
Speaker 1: is taking on a vulnerable House Republican in.
Speaker 2: Central New Jersey.
Speaker 1: But first we have the host of the Time of
Speaker 1: Monsters the Nations, G Tire. Welcome back, too, Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: fan favorite and my personal favorite, G Tier.
Speaker 3: You always be my favorite.
Speaker 1: This is like one of these weeks where I keep thinking, well,
Speaker 1: they can't, They're not They're not going to do this
Speaker 1: because it's too politically stupid. And at every point we
Speaker 1: need to talk about Mitch McConnell because yesterday, the grim
Speaker 1: Reaper of the Senate, he gave a speech on the floor.
Speaker 1: Father Time is undefeated. He's going to roll it up.
Speaker 1: He's going to make room for Maga. He is no
Speaker 1: longer going to be Minority later discussed.
Speaker 3: What interesting what Mitch McConnell his announcement that he's going
Speaker 3: to retire is the reaction to the Freedom Caucus because
Speaker 3: they had this kind of like really nasty basically like
Speaker 3: you know, Dad saying on his grave before he's buried.
Speaker 3: The thing is like, if you were a Republican, you
Speaker 3: would think, like, well, this is a guy who's given
Speaker 3: us everything we wanted. Mitch McConnell more than anyone else,
Speaker 3: is responsible for the six to three Supreme Court, which
Speaker 3: will you know, ensure that the Supreme Court is in
Speaker 3: right wing hands for the next generation and has really
Speaker 3: like really pushed the federal courts to the right, has
Speaker 3: really weaponized every power the Senate has like you know,
Speaker 3: overturned all these bipartisan traditions to do so, and has
Speaker 3: been like to give the devil his due, you know,
Speaker 3: has been really effective. So the fact is like even
Speaker 3: that legacy is like, you know, it's not a dub
Speaker 3: and in fact, he is now seen as like you know,
Speaker 3: rhino right, rhino Mitch McConnell, which really shows you where
Speaker 3: the party is. And it seems like the Ukraine issue
Speaker 3: is like the big kind of fault line. And it's
Speaker 3: interesting that you know, you mentioned his age. The younger
Speaker 3: Republicans in the House and in the Senate are all
Speaker 3: the ones who are like really the hosped of opposition
Speaker 3: to funding Ukraine, and the people that are like still
Speaker 3: supporting Ukraine and have sub vision of a you know,
Speaker 3: bipartisan foreign policy, they're all like Rich McConnell, like they're
Speaker 3: all like, you know, one foot in the grave, not
Speaker 3: to be you know, offensive to our loved elderly senior citizens. Well,
Speaker 3: this is the fact that shows you where the Republican
Speaker 3: Party is going, which is you know, like unfortunately like
Speaker 3: Whichmakano a person as responsible for the sort of gridlock
Speaker 3: and polarization as anyone, even I would say more than Trump,
Speaker 3: but still a rhino. This is a preview of where
Speaker 3: we're going.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what I'm struck by with McConnell, though,
Speaker 1: Like McConnell is really good at his job, Like he
Speaker 1: is really genuinely truly with the exception of wanting to
Speaker 1: fund Ukraine, which is really you know, I think more
Speaker 1: about his belief, his sort of Reaganish belief in nation building,
Speaker 1: and less about his care for the Ukrainian people. But okay,
Speaker 1: like that's one of the few times where he's really
Speaker 1: sort of been on the right side of things. But
Speaker 1: he is a truly, truly evil His political calculus is evil, but.
Speaker 2: Brilliant and very good at it.
Speaker 1: And so what I think is kind of amazing about this,
Speaker 1: and we see this in the House of Representatives right now,
Speaker 1: is that Maga, the people who are willing to go
Speaker 1: along with Mega tend, Yeah, they tend.
Speaker 2: To be morons.
Speaker 1: And so what we see in the House right now,
Speaker 1: I mean Mike Johnson is unbelievably bad at this job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, no, I mean in some ways, I mean
Speaker 3: like it has to be grateful for this, and they
Speaker 3: have decided we'd rather be stupid than win, and you know,
Speaker 3: like good luck to you guys. I mean they would
Speaker 3: rather and 'spuctually because MAGA. I mean, like, you know,
Speaker 3: one things of Trump it is a politics of expression.
Speaker 3: It's a politics we're just going to you know, go
Speaker 3: on Fox and say these like incendiary things and beatrolls
Speaker 3: and get people mad at us and then racking the
Speaker 3: dough that you're gonna get from small donors. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's one model of politics. And in some ways, I mean,
Speaker 3: it's it's bad, and I would say, I would say
Speaker 3: it's less bad or more bad, but it's bad in
Speaker 3: a different way than Mitch mcconne, who really actually had
Speaker 3: an agenda of basically, I mean, the thing with Rich
Speaker 3: McConnell is he wanted to serve the donor class, you know,
Speaker 3: like the wealthy people.
Speaker 2: You got bang for your back with McConnell.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, heat delivered. He delivered you know. The MAGA people,
Speaker 3: I mean it is more of a sort of small
Speaker 3: donor bottle, and it's more of an entertainment bottle where
Speaker 3: you know, you really become the Fox New celebrity and
Speaker 3: you can rake in money that way. Well, both end
Speaker 3: up making America dysfunctional, but maybe in different ways. I
Speaker 3: do actually think that the Democrats will have it's always
Speaker 3: better luck with Mega, like in terms of like winning
Speaker 3: on the margins and keeping them from doing destructive things.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, what's interesting to me about Maga is
Speaker 1: that it's not so appealing to most people. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're even like there was recent recent again, I hate poles,
Speaker 1: So I hate every time I say Pole. I want
Speaker 1: to like I have to like give myself an electric shock.
Speaker 1: But there was some recent evidence that Christian nationalist beliefs
Speaker 1: are actually wildly unpopular, shocking, like wildly unpopular in this country.
Speaker 1: So like smart Mega would have been like, wow, you know,
Speaker 1: we want to do this, but we're going to pretend
Speaker 1: to be normal. But there is no smart maga, right,
Speaker 1: it's an oxymoron.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, that's right.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 3: Maybe another way to put it is that the smartness
Speaker 3: comes from a different way of achieving goods. I do
Speaker 3: think that the producer theory of Donald Trump was right
Speaker 3: all along. You know, he did kind of think like,
Speaker 3: you know, if I lose this thing, I can make
Speaker 3: a lot of money. I think that there is a
Speaker 3: way in which the audience that you can get from
Speaker 3: being stupid and incendiary and not getting things done but
Speaker 3: riling people up. You know, you can make money on
Speaker 3: that model. And he does seem like the career goals
Speaker 3: of people like Green say the House is to you know,
Speaker 3: become future right leg celebrities, to become kind of like
Speaker 3: Newt ging Ridge type figures where you can like do
Speaker 3: a lot of speaking tours and rake in the dough
Speaker 3: from that audience, and whether you achieve anything or not
Speaker 3: is like in some ways in material you can make
Speaker 3: more money. And I actually I think Santos in the
Speaker 3: most interesting example of this, because I think his goal
Speaker 3: was actually to lose, and unfortunately he ran against New
Speaker 3: York State Democrats who actually, like, you know, like they
Speaker 3: direct his plaid by being like even less confident than
Speaker 3: he was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that, just to take a minute to
Speaker 1: fully talk about how stupid my state is. Our governor
Speaker 1: just signed in to law a gerrymander which basically does
Speaker 1: nothing right. So they redistrict in New York State and
Speaker 1: instead of giving themselves a bunch of seats, which you
Speaker 1: would do in any other red state ever, right, I
Speaker 1: mean most red states, they've gerrymandered so badly that the
Speaker 1: courts have to come in instead of jerremander even just
Speaker 1: a tiny bed to make it fucking fair. Our governor,
Speaker 1: who is theoretically a Democrat, just signed in this thing
Speaker 1: which basically shores up a few incumbents and fucks everybody else.
Speaker 3: Well, again, you have to ask what is the business model.
Speaker 3: The business model is you protect the incumbents and not
Speaker 3: care what the party as a whole. And I think,
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm as grateful that Democrats have many other
Speaker 3: parts of the country are not out like that, but
Speaker 3: you are, as you seeing state democratic parties, that's you know,
Speaker 3: a lot of power to govern, to like actually do things.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately as things not said. That is not the New
Speaker 3: York model.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Pritzker, please come here and run for governor.
Speaker 3: That's right. Yeah, I would also Michigan and Wisconsin. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I just like New York is a little bit anomaly
Speaker 3: in a sense. It is an old style political machine
Speaker 3: of this art where you know, it's all about jobs,
Speaker 3: your critic, jobs for your buddies.
Speaker 1: Exactly, and just very annoying on all parts. Let's talk
Speaker 1: for a minute about Michigan. Democrats, Republicans. You can make
Speaker 1: Michigan as unhappy as you want for any number of reasons.
Speaker 1: But why I want to talk about Michigan with you
Speaker 1: is because I want to talk about a guy called
Speaker 1: Bill Ackman, who is very, very very rich, and because
Speaker 1: he's very very rich, he believes that he knows a
Speaker 1: lot about politics because he's very rich. So one of
Speaker 1: the things he did was he gave a bunch of
Speaker 1: money to a guy called Dean fell Ups, who, to
Speaker 1: quote Darwin Greenfield, who the hell is Dean Phillips still
Speaker 1: not clear, but he predicted the Dean Phillips would win Michigan.
Speaker 2: Did Dean Phillips win Michigan.
Speaker 3: Dean Phillips not only did not win Michigan, he got
Speaker 3: considerably fewer votes than uncommitted. The thing is, like the
Speaker 3: details like always struck me. I was thinking about writing
Speaker 3: about it, but like, honestly, one of my editors, who's
Speaker 3: not as rich as Bill Ackman, said, you know, like
Speaker 3: you really want to waste your time riding about Dean Phillips,
Speaker 3: Like this guy's a non entity. His whole campaign like
Speaker 3: actually makes no sense because I mean additionally, he started with,
Speaker 3: you know, maybe a plausible premise, which is I'm a
Speaker 3: Biden Democrat, but you know Biden is too old and
Speaker 3: you'll elect fail do everything Biden does except I'll be young.
Speaker 3: You know, Okay, fair enough, right, But that wasn't really
Speaker 3: like resonating because people didn't say, well, who's Dean Phillips.
Speaker 3: And then he like started to like run to Biden's
Speaker 3: like right, like.
Speaker 2: Well and also his left.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's why he did both things. First he actually said,
Speaker 3: you know, for you know, like I've supported Ready Care
Speaker 3: for all, you know, and that to work and then
Speaker 3: like later started playing fit see with the no labels guys,
Speaker 3: which I think is where Bill Ackman maybe comes in
Speaker 3: with that sort of I'm a centrist road. You know
Speaker 3: Biden has gone too far. Laugh. So basically you have
Speaker 3: a campaign look like to the very small number of
Speaker 3: sickles like you would be who actually don't who deed
Speaker 3: Phillips is You're watching this and you're like, you know, like,
Speaker 3: what what is this man doing? Like well, like he's
Speaker 3: actually like occupied every space in the political spectrum, always
Speaker 3: getting the same results. With Bill Ackman, I have to
Speaker 3: say lassic case, you know, the saying is if you're
Speaker 3: so smart, why aren't you rich? But I think it's
Speaker 3: actually like, if you're so rich, why are you so dumb?
Speaker 3: There's evidence for this that once you reach a certain
Speaker 3: level of wealth, which I pray you and I reach,
Speaker 3: and have this problem. But once you level of wealth
Speaker 3: and actually like imparis you cognitively like you cannot understand
Speaker 3: the world the way normal person does. And you know
Speaker 3: once he's is like repeatedly in build Ackman's behavior, I mean,
Speaker 3: even beyond this, he started this feud with a former
Speaker 3: president of Harvard, which ended up leading to this massive
Speaker 3: embarrassment of Acman's wife, because you know, there's the accusations
Speaker 3: of platiarism against a former president. But it turns out
Speaker 3: that like, you know, Acman's wife, you know, had did
Speaker 3: a PhD, but on a much greater skill like and
Speaker 3: she literally did you know the stuff that high school
Speaker 3: students are word against, which is taking Wikipedia and just
Speaker 3: like cutting it past it into your work. I would
Speaker 3: say that, like, you know, the recent career of Bill
Speaker 3: Ackman does kind of indicate that, like you know, once
Speaker 3: you reach a certain level of wealth, you're sort of
Speaker 3: feel immune to anything and you cannot absorb reality the
Speaker 3: way that ordinary people have to because they live in
Speaker 3: a world of consequences.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: One of the things I'm struck by is that Republicans
Speaker 1: they always say, like liberals live in an echo chamber,
Speaker 1: like we live in a bubble. We're in a bubble.
Speaker 1: They're in the real world. And when you listen to
Speaker 1: that little video of Bill Ackman on this guy LEXI whatever,
Speaker 1: there's a whole like can Valley.
Speaker 5: Lex Friedman, He's not Silicon value, Okay, what is a
Speaker 5: He's an MIT scientist who went on Joe Rogan and
Speaker 5: then decided he was Joe Rogan.
Speaker 2: Okay, so that asshole.
Speaker 1: He has a podcast and he invites other people who
Speaker 1: he deems to be wealthy tech bros. Basically, there's a
Speaker 1: terrible group of wealthy tech bros who are torturing us
Speaker 1: because they've decided their pundits. But one of the things
Speaker 1: that I think is really interesting about listening to Bill
Speaker 1: Ackman talk is like it's clear that wherever he gets
Speaker 1: his information, there's this sort of self referential kind of
Speaker 1: media bubble that he is in that has convinced him
Speaker 1: that maybe Dean Phillips will win the state of Michigan.
Speaker 1: Now I want to pause for a minute and just
Speaker 1: add the caveat that not only did Dean Phillips not
Speaker 1: win the state of Michigan, but Mary and Williamson, who
Speaker 1: had dropped out of the race.
Speaker 3: A friend of the podcast and family friend Williams did
Speaker 3: So Yeah, I know, I mean, I just it. He's
Speaker 3: close to show you the limits of teen Philips. And
Speaker 3: I have to say, like I said, like really honestly,
Speaker 3: like you have to be a really hardcore political sicko
Speaker 3: of the sort that we are. We even know who
Speaker 3: the films is, but Beyond that, I mean, like to
Speaker 3: accept that people paid attention to that. I do think
Speaker 3: that his political meandering is the fact that he has
Speaker 3: run both you know, as Biden to the left of Biden,
Speaker 3: to the right of Biden, circling around Biden below Biden,
Speaker 3: above Biden. I think that might have put off voters
Speaker 3: and made Williams a more attractive candidate.
Speaker 1: Well, I think they like Mary and Williamson because she
Speaker 1: has crystals, and I think crystals are very you know,
Speaker 1: if you're going to run for president, you should have crystals.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I know. I mean to be honest, like
Speaker 3: if I were, you know, thinking about voting for someone
Speaker 3: that wasn't Biden and wasn't uncommitted, Yeah, Williams, what actually
Speaker 3: be my preferred choice. And beyond the crystals, you know,
Speaker 3: like she she actually stands for what she stands for.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I do think hats off to the voters
Speaker 3: of Michigan in the category of third and fourth place.
Speaker 3: They read the right call.
Speaker 1: Right, It's true in the category of third and fourth
Speaker 1: Pat good point, Jeet. One of the other stories that
Speaker 1: I feel like has really fallen under the fallen below
Speaker 1: the radar is the story of and I think it's
Speaker 1: a doozy. The Biden impeachment, which they were really excited.
Speaker 1: They had this great, great, great witness. He was an
Speaker 1: FBI informant. He turns out to have been lying. He
Speaker 1: is now sitting in a jail cell in Nevada. Yesterday
Speaker 1: they had what they thought was going to be this
Speaker 1: sort of moment for them, the Hunter Biden testimony, closed
Speaker 1: door testimony, which they had been working so hard to get.
Speaker 2: Wah wah wah discuss.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know you're talking about that fishing expedition. I
Speaker 3: mean this is like, literally the only reason this has
Speaker 3: ever come up is because Trump was impeached twice. I
Speaker 3: think the mena theory of all tho is that the
Speaker 3: House is maga. Johnson is speaker because of Maga. He
Speaker 3: wants to serve MAGA. And they have been very eager
Speaker 3: to create a trumped up case to use the appropriate
Speaker 3: word against Biden. And I think it's kind of significant
Speaker 3: that even honestly, like I feel like I could do
Speaker 3: a better job, Like I'm pretty sure I could go
Speaker 3: through write his record and find something that could make
Speaker 3: a you know, like semi plausible, not totally offensive impeachment
Speaker 3: case for you know, like maybe he said something that
Speaker 3: wasn't true and you could make a case that he
Speaker 3: was like underwriting trust or whatever. I don't know anything
Speaker 3: at all. Like I feel like like like the fact
Speaker 3: that they go to this dog pood that is like
Speaker 3: you know, the Hunter Bidens, they're really committed to this.
Speaker 3: And again this goes back to what we were saying earlier,
Speaker 3: which is, you know what's the bottle?
Speaker 4: Here?
Speaker 3: Is the bottle that you're going to do like effective
Speaker 3: politics and achieve your goals or is it that you're
Speaker 3: going to serve the vast entertainment complex that is the
Speaker 3: Traveling Trump road Show And within that Traveling Trump road Show,
Speaker 3: you know all the Hunter Biden, Biden crime family, laptop
Speaker 3: stuff that really resonates them with that particular group of people,
Speaker 3: thankfully a small minority of Americans, and like win for
Speaker 3: everyone else and didn't like okay, yeah, well yeah, we've
Speaker 3: been having a lot of fun. I have to say,
Speaker 3: you know, like there's some dark clouds for the Democrats.
Speaker 3: But I have to say the one thing that gives
Speaker 3: me hope is that the Republicans have lost the ability
Speaker 3: to be normal to one can posit that we've always
Speaker 3: been dealing with lizard people that have worn human masks.
Speaker 3: But in the past some of those masques who are
Speaker 3: like semi plausibly human, such as even our friend Mitch mcconnells,
Speaker 3: but they've lost that ability.
Speaker 1: Brilliant, brilliant point get here. I hope you will come back.
Speaker 3: You can't keep me away, Bally.
Speaker 2: Did you know.
Speaker 1: Rick Wilson and I are bringing together some friends for
Speaker 1: a general election kickoff party at City Winery in New
Speaker 1: York on March sixth. We're going to be chatting right
Speaker 1: after Super Tuesday about what's going on, and it is
Speaker 1: going to probably be the one fun night for the
Speaker 1: next eighty days. If you're in the New York area,
Speaker 1: please come by and join us. You can go to
Speaker 1: City Winery's website and grab a ticket. Tammy Baldwin is
Speaker 1: the junior Senator from Wisconsin. Welcome back to Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: Senator Tammy Baldwin.
Speaker 2: I am delighted to be back. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: We are delighted to have you. Also, first we have
Speaker 1: to talk about what's happening in the United States Senate.
Speaker 2: Right now.
Speaker 1: You got to talk to me about the IVF thing,
Speaker 1: because it's like it's so top of right now, and
Speaker 1: the whole way it went down is, can you just
Speaker 1: talk us through what happened yesterday in the United States
Speaker 1: Senate with IVF and your namesake, Tammy Duckworth.
Speaker 2: The other Senator Tammy.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 6: Well, let me start a little bit further back, which
Speaker 6: is to say, when the US Supreme Court overturned Roe
Speaker 6: versus Wade, that was devastating enough news, but we knew
Speaker 6: it implied that other rights and freedoms were going to
Speaker 6: be under attack, and whether that was access to contraception
Speaker 6: or other cases they decided based on a right to
Speaker 6: privacy or IVF, we knew that they were coming for
Speaker 6: these rights and freedoms. And sure enough, last week, an
Speaker 6: Alabama court ruled that embryos, whether they are inside or
Speaker 6: outside a uterus, our children and must be protected under
Speaker 6: Alabama's wronged Death of a Minor Act. My gosh, I
Speaker 6: think of it as embryonic personhood exactly. That's exactly what
Speaker 6: they're saying. And so people who need IVF in vitro
Speaker 6: fertilization to build their families, and my colleague, Senator Duckworth
Speaker 6: is a perfect example, felt the immediate threat by this case,
Speaker 6: and so she has long been a champion through this
Speaker 6: legislation to protect the right to build a family using
Speaker 6: IVF and other reproductive technologies. So we've brought it up
Speaker 6: to the floor this week. And while there's a number
Speaker 6: of Republicans across the country are tripping over themselves to say, oh, no,
Speaker 6: I support IVF, I support IBF, when it comes to
Speaker 6: the opportunity to.
Speaker 2: Enshrine that in law, they object.
Speaker 6: They prevented it, they blocked it, and it is so
Speaker 6: frustrating and so.
Speaker 2: Frightening to people who rely on iv.
Speaker 1: The way they did it was you saw people like
Speaker 1: Nancy May saying they believed in ivfs.
Speaker 2: And in fact, Nancy Mays had a sort of.
Speaker 1: Lame messaging bill that she put on or she said
Speaker 1: she was going to put on the floor.
Speaker 2: I don't know if she actually put on.
Speaker 1: The which would have said they believe in IVF, I
Speaker 1: guess or something. And no, you know, I mean, these
Speaker 1: Republicans are not so good at legislating. But then Tammy
Speaker 1: Duckworth they sort of set up an IVF bill and
Speaker 1: Cindy Hyde Smith was.
Speaker 6: Like, no, thanks, that's exactly right. And this is the
Speaker 6: second time she has gone to the floor to block
Speaker 6: important legislation like this. Again, the Supreme Court in the
Speaker 6: Dobbs decision tipped its head of what was coming next
Speaker 6: and what we might see from the states, and of
Speaker 6: course now we are seeing it, we have very strong
Speaker 6: reason to try to pass legislation to protect the many,
Speaker 6: many families who couldn't build a family but for in
Speaker 6: vitro fertilization and other assistan to reproductive technology.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I'm struck by is so
Speaker 1: Republicans wanted to use a woman to block this legislation.
Speaker 1: I guess I mean was that the thinking in Mississippi
Speaker 1: is a state where voting is very hard, So despite
Speaker 1: the fact that the electorate looks very different than the senators,
Speaker 1: they have these very white conservative senators.
Speaker 2: Is that correct?
Speaker 6: Well, I certainly have no idea what they're thinking, but
Speaker 6: that's optics.
Speaker 2: I mean she did. Indeed, I think.
Speaker 6: This is the second occasion where she's taken to the
Speaker 6: floor to block this very important legislation to protect IVF
Speaker 6: and the sist of technology for those who want to
Speaker 6: build their families. I would say it's also not a
Speaker 6: coincidence that Mississippi is right next door to Alabama. So
Speaker 6: I think that they're setting us up for some really
Speaker 6: scary days ahead, and you know, we've got to fight back.
Speaker 2: Listen, they took.
Speaker 6: Forty nine years trying to use every method they could
Speaker 6: to overturn way. They took to state legislatures, they took
Speaker 6: to state courts. They ultimately had a case that made
Speaker 6: it through up to the Supreme Court. They overturned Rovers's way,
Speaker 6: and then not so subtly told us all were after
Speaker 6: other things next.
Speaker 2: Right, It's just shocking to me.
Speaker 1: So you are running for reelection the state of Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: one of the very few states that.
Speaker 2: Actually matters in a presidential contest.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about how important your state is and also
Speaker 1: what your reelect looks like.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so it's not an exaggeration to say that Wisconsin
Speaker 6: could decide which party controls the US Senate and who
Speaker 6: occupies the White House. Trump one in sixteen in Wisconsin
Speaker 6: with a very narrow margin, under one percent. Biden won
Speaker 6: in twenty twenty, again by a razor thin margin. Our
Speaker 6: state often has statewide races that are pretty close to
Speaker 6: fifty to fifty. We had the closest US Senate race
Speaker 6: in the country in the midterms in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 6: So that's Wisconsin for you. I think that with a
Speaker 6: very likely rematch between Trump and Biden, it's going to
Speaker 6: be hard fought. And now in Wisconsin we have just
Speaker 6: last week a candidate recruited by Washington DC Republicans launching
Speaker 6: his campaign. Let me tell you a little bit about
Speaker 6: my opponent, Eric Hovedy. He's a California bank owner. He's
Speaker 6: the president and CEO of Sunwest Bank, a two point
Speaker 6: eight billion dollar California bank. He has a seven million
Speaker 6: dollar ocean view estate.
Speaker 2: In Laguna Beach.
Speaker 6: He lives so much of the time in California that
Speaker 6: three years in a row he was named among the
Speaker 6: most influential business people of Orange County. Wisconsin doesn't have
Speaker 6: an Orange County.
Speaker 2: This guy.
Speaker 6: This guy hangs around at California, but he is coming
Speaker 6: back to Wisconsin to run and fund. You know, it's
Speaker 6: no wonder he was recruited by Washington d C Republicans.
Speaker 6: They want these candidates who doesn't matter where they live.
Speaker 6: They want him to come to Wisconsin spend his own
Speaker 6: fortune on the race. Eric Hovdey has said he'd spend
Speaker 6: as much as twenty million dollars maybe more on the race,
Speaker 6: and within one week of the launch of his campaign,
Speaker 6: he's up on television. He did a million dollars statewide
Speaker 6: TV buy to get up. You know, it's eight and
Speaker 6: a half months out. That's a long time.
Speaker 1: You know. They have to do that because all of
Speaker 1: the other Republican donor money is going to Donald Trump's
Speaker 1: legal bills. So they had to pick very rich candidates
Speaker 1: this cycle.
Speaker 6: And they're doing that all over the United States, including
Speaker 6: in the battleground state of Wisconsin. So in my campaign,
Speaker 6: it's people power. I can't self fund, so we rely
Speaker 6: on folks to join in from all over the country
Speaker 6: on Tammy Baldwin dot com and help fuel this campaign.
Speaker 6: But he's just writing his own check, right, And I want.
Speaker 1: To talk about this as a broader trend in Republican
Speaker 1: politics because it is a fascinating broader trend. You see
Speaker 1: that in Wisconsin, right, you have a guy who doesn't
Speaker 1: live in Wisconsin running for Senate. You got that in
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania you have a guy who doesn't live in Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: running for Senate, right, he lives in Connecticut. You're seeing
Speaker 1: that these sort of billionaire carpetbaggers coming in on the ground,
Speaker 1: so you have to raise it ten times more money
Speaker 1: than you would otherwise, right, I mean that's the net
Speaker 1: of this or is there other I mean, like on
Speaker 1: the ground, do people see that this guy doesn't even live.
Speaker 2: Here or are they sort of being lulled?
Speaker 6: He was born in Wisconsin, but since he hasn't really
Speaker 6: lived in Wisconsin, people don't know who the heck he is.
Speaker 6: But he can buy that name recognition. And that's what
Speaker 6: he's doing right now by spending a million dollars in
Speaker 6: the first couple of weeks of his campaign on television
Speaker 6: saying Hey, this is who I am and trying to
Speaker 6: up his name recognition. So that's what's happening right now.
Speaker 6: But as we see this playbook, what I really want
Speaker 6: people to start focusing on is, Okay, where are we
Speaker 6: on the issues? He does not represent Wisconsin values. We
Speaker 6: just had a long conversation about reproductive choice and freedom
Speaker 6: IVF et cetera. By the way, he ran in twenty
Speaker 6: twelve for US Senate, lost, came in second in the
Speaker 6: Republican primary, and then left the state again. In twenty twelve,
Speaker 6: he said he is absolutely opposed to abortion rights, that
Speaker 6: he was opposed to embryonic stem cell research that he
Speaker 6: you know, was one hundred percent pro life. He's now
Speaker 6: being very squishy on the IVF issue, as many Republicans are,
Speaker 6: but I have to hold him in his original word.
Speaker 6: And so we need voters in Wisconsin to note that
Speaker 6: he is fine with a national abortion ban, that he
Speaker 6: is fine with the fact that there is very very
Speaker 6: little access to reproductive abortion care and reproductive care in
Speaker 6: the state of Wisconsin. And then you know, that's just
Speaker 6: one issue. He wants to overcur in the Affordable Care Act.
Speaker 6: He wants to cut back on Social Security and Medicare.
Speaker 6: He's okay with lowering his own taxes for the ultra rich,
Speaker 6: but he wants middle class of working families to pay
Speaker 6: a little more.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this is what Wisconsin I need to know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's such an interesting thing because IVF
Speaker 1: it's very hard to find normal educated people who don't
Speaker 1: believe that IVF is a net benefit, right, I mean
Speaker 1: most people. I mean it's hard to find people who don't,
Speaker 1: you know, who either haven't had a kid through IVF
Speaker 1: or haven't at least been grateful that it's available if
Speaker 1: they need it. I mean, one of the things I've
Speaker 1: really been impressed with this Republican Party is at every
Speaker 1: point they have let the zealots lead, and.
Speaker 2: So at every point, even though it was.
Speaker 1: Politically quite stupid, even in my head, I thought, well,
Speaker 1: they'll never go after if it's too stupid.
Speaker 2: IVF doctors a huge amount of money.
Speaker 1: It's a you know, like there's a reason we don't
Speaker 1: have tort reform, right, Like this is a group that's
Speaker 1: very powerful, Like you're not going to go against them.
Speaker 2: And in fact, at every point.
Speaker 1: Republicans have just made the stupidest, shockingly stupid choices.
Speaker 6: Yes, we're seeing it unfold in real time.
Speaker 1: Bully, Here you are speaking to a you know, people
Speaker 1: of Wisconsin.
Speaker 2: You're on the ground.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're also in the Senate, but you're back
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin a lot.
Speaker 2: What is the mood on the ground, Because one of
Speaker 2: the things.
Speaker 1: I've really been struck by is that it feels like
Speaker 1: the mood in the pundit industrial complex is somewhat.
Speaker 2: Removed from the mood on the ground.
Speaker 1: So I'm curious what you're seeing in Wisconsin when you're
Speaker 1: talking to constituents.
Speaker 6: Well, certainly, the issue of access to full reproductive options
Speaker 6: is still very resonant in Wisconsin. And I want to
Speaker 6: just talk about that for a quick second here, because
Speaker 6: I do get a chance to travel, and in the Washington,
Speaker 6: DC area, there are very few restrictions, and there's a
Speaker 6: palpable difference to be in a state or the district
Speaker 6: where the consequence of DOBBS is pretty minor, and then
Speaker 6: to be in a state like Wisconsin, which for fifteen
Speaker 6: months had no access at all because of a law
Speaker 6: passed in eighteen forty nine that was initially widely viewed
Speaker 6: as a criminal abortion ban, and to hear the harrowing
Speaker 6: stories of Wisconsinites who had a crisis in their pregnancy
Speaker 6: who miscarried or partially miscarried and couldn't get services and
Speaker 6: were literally bleeding or becoming getting a high fever and
Speaker 6: not being able to access healthcare, and so you know,
Speaker 6: when I'm home, this issue is still very palpable. I
Speaker 6: just want to explain there are now a couple of
Speaker 6: Planned parenthood clinics providing service, three in fact, but that
Speaker 6: means three counties have service. Sixty nine counties don't have access.
Speaker 6: And that's because a trial court judge said that they
Speaker 6: believe this eighteen forty nine statute was not intended to
Speaker 6: cover this particular situation. But again, Wisconsin is one of
Speaker 6: those states where people get at a fundamental level what
Speaker 6: the Dobbs decision has meant and are very aware that
Speaker 6: folks are coming after other rights and freedoms that were
Speaker 6: implicated in the Dobbs decision. So that's certainly something that
Speaker 6: I think will motivate many voters. But beyond that, you know,
Speaker 6: I think we are still feeling the sting of prices
Speaker 6: at the grocery store.
Speaker 2: Even though you.
Speaker 6: Know, we read reports all the time that show how
Speaker 6: dramatically inflation has come down, We're seeing that the corporations
Speaker 6: have not lowered the price of their products that people
Speaker 6: rely on at the grocery store. But constituency democrats taking
Speaker 6: on that fight, whether it's to lower the price of
Speaker 6: healthcare and prescription drugs or standing up to corporate greed
Speaker 6: and saying, look, there needs to be a watchdog on
Speaker 6: behalf of consumers. And so you know, that's resonant also,
Speaker 6: So those are our issues that are on the top
Speaker 6: of line, but these are really in Wisconsin, it's pocketbook
Speaker 6: issues that people are focused on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the thing that like with the Biden
Speaker 1: shrink flation, like pundits really made fun of that, but
Speaker 1: actually think that people are quite irritated that they buy
Speaker 1: a bag of Doritos and there are less Dorinos.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, they do it because they don't think we're going
Speaker 6: to notice, like, oh, it's still the same price, but oh,
Speaker 6: family sizes went from sixteen ounces for your weekends to
Speaker 6: fourteen ounces. The toilet tissue is smaller, and the paper towels,
Speaker 6: and they're putting less dish soap in the same sized bottle,
Speaker 6: but it's just filled a little bit less. Come on,
Speaker 6: Consumers have enough on their minds to have to be
Speaker 6: measuring every ounce is kind of crazy. We do need
Speaker 6: a sort of government watchdog on our side, I.
Speaker 2: Think, Yeah, I think it's really interesting.
Speaker 1: I mean, one of the things I've really been struck
Speaker 1: by with Joe Biden, and pundum world is very mad
Speaker 1: at him right now for some reasons real and some
Speaker 1: reasons imagine. But what I am very struck by is
Speaker 1: that she makes these sort of old school pushes for
Speaker 1: things that voters want, like more chips in the bag
Speaker 1: of chips and junk fees.
Speaker 2: I think another great example, yeah, junk fees.
Speaker 6: When he talked about that at the last State of
Speaker 6: the Union and dress and I think a lot of
Speaker 6: people were like, what are junk fees?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 6: Then they look at their you know, all the different
Speaker 6: fees and things that are attached to various lonthly bills
Speaker 6: they pay or one time only.
Speaker 2: It's quite something.
Speaker 6: It stacks up, it piles up, and people see it
Speaker 6: every day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's incredible. Tammy Baldwin, I hope you will
Speaker 1: come back.
Speaker 6: Well, thank you. I really appreciate the invitation.
Speaker 1: Sue Altman is a congressional candidate in New jersey is
Speaker 1: seventh district. Welcome to Fast Politics, Sue Altman.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Walie, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: So you're running for the United States House of Representatives tell.
Speaker 2: Us, yes, I am so.
Speaker 7: New Jersey's seventh district, which is the district that goes
Speaker 7: from coast to coast in New Jersey, from the Delaware
Speaker 7: River all the way to whatever that body of water
Speaker 7: is that separates us from Staten Islands. It's a very
Speaker 7: interesting district. It's not the Hudson. It's a different body
Speaker 7: of water. What is it, I don't know, has a
Speaker 7: long dut name. So NJ seven is currently represented by
Speaker 7: Tom Kain Junior. And this is a guy whose dad
Speaker 7: is the former governor back when I was a baby.
Speaker 1: He's a total depo baby, which again a condition near
Speaker 1: and dear in my heart, but not so good for leadership.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 7: So he was a state senator for a long time.
Speaker 7: He doesn't hold town paulls, he doesn't make public appearances.
Speaker 7: Just last week, we had a whole big demonstration outside
Speaker 7: of this fancy schmancy golf course in Union County because
Speaker 7: guess what he was hosting, Mike Johnson, the awful Speaker
Speaker 7: of the House Republican, obviously, where a fundraiser there, and
Speaker 7: the people of New Jersey just weren't having it. So
Speaker 7: they actually ended up moving the fundraiser, I think because
Speaker 7: they were so scared because we had this whole protest
Speaker 7: going on outside and God forbid we disturb them. But
Speaker 7: he doesn't make public appearances, and so instead he takes
Speaker 7: his marching orders from Johnson, he takes his marching orders
Speaker 7: from Trump is no spine. And what I have to
Speaker 7: bring to the seventh is I'm a lifelong fighter for
Speaker 7: the people of New Jersey and I plan on continuing
Speaker 7: that fight in Congress.
Speaker 2: So one of the reasons why we're having you on
Speaker 2: is because you are part of these flippable seats to
Speaker 2: one of these d triple c red to blue where
Speaker 2: the House of the.
Speaker 1: Control of the House of Representatives, which right now my
Speaker 1: Johnson has by two seats YEP, will come down to
Speaker 1: districts like yours. So tell us about your district and
Speaker 1: sort of about how you plan.
Speaker 2: To win it.
Speaker 7: Oh, it is such a winnable district. So it turns
Speaker 7: out this is the most highly educated district in the
Speaker 7: whole country still represented by a Republican with his prime
Speaker 7: for the taking. It's the place I've lived most of
Speaker 7: my life. I grew up in Hunting County. You actually
Speaker 7: have three components of this district. You have the rural part,
Speaker 7: the last remaining rural area in the northern part of
Speaker 7: New Jersey, which has got Warren in Sussex County, which
Speaker 7: is really interesting because Tom Kain Junior is not, by
Speaker 7: no means a guy who's familiar with farms or rural
Speaker 7: areas or has any connection to that lifestyle at all.
Speaker 7: So I think there's a lot of votes we can
Speaker 7: get out there. Then we have a big affluent suburban area,
Speaker 7: and I grew up and I know we grew up
Speaker 7: in this area. I know a lot of people who
Speaker 7: are Republicans in this area, particularly women on affiliated voters,
Speaker 7: and they are so frustrated with the direction the Republican
Speaker 7: Party has taken. When they signed up to be voters,
Speaker 7: they signed up with Christine Todd Whitman was the governor,
Speaker 7: a pro environment, pro choice. Look, I don't agree with
Speaker 7: her on a lot of issues, but she was part
Speaker 7: of that sort of old school Republican, kind of normy
Speaker 7: Republican world that is not the Republican Party that we
Speaker 7: have today.
Speaker 2: And the people in this.
Speaker 7: District are extremely frustrated and think that the Republican Party
Speaker 7: has gone completely off the rails. And Tom Kane Junior,
Speaker 7: who maybe they thought might have been a moderate or
Speaker 7: he ran as a moderate the last time he ran,
Speaker 7: simply hasn't been acting like a moderate in Congress. He
Speaker 7: has no spine at all. But then on the eastern
Speaker 7: side of the district is the more urban side of
Speaker 7: the district Rahway and Linden, and those are directly connected
Speaker 7: to New York City by train, as is much of
Speaker 7: my district. So we can find votes in every nook
Speaker 7: and cranny of this district. It is a district that
Speaker 7: Biden won by four points, so this is not a
Speaker 7: trumpy district. It's a presidential year, so turnout will be
Speaker 7: very high. And I think people are ready for change.
Speaker 7: They're sick of cronyism, they're sick of the nepotism, and
Speaker 7: they're ready for someone who will go to Congress and
Speaker 7: fight for the people represent them. Tom Pain doesn't have
Speaker 7: town halls. It's disrespectful to the people in this district.
Speaker 7: So I will make myself available.
Speaker 2: I already have.
Speaker 7: He's creating a vacuum, and this campaign's going to fill it.
Speaker 1: One of the things I think is quite interesting about
Speaker 1: this kind of Republican is there used to be you
Speaker 1: would have these sort of center of the road Republicans,
Speaker 1: But because the leadership in the House is so incredibly dysfunctional,
Speaker 1: they don't have the votes to let those people vote
Speaker 1: against crazy stuff.
Speaker 2: So Tom has had to.
Speaker 1: Vote for I mean, unless I'm not completely sure, but
Speaker 1: I would assume he's had to vote for the majorcus
Speaker 1: of peachment, Biden impeachment. He's had to vote for, you know,
Speaker 1: cutting a cr that cuts to the budget for twenty percent.
Speaker 1: You know, he's probably voted for some pretty insane messaging bills.
Speaker 1: I mean, there is no room for moder it's anymore
Speaker 1: in that party.
Speaker 7: And look, that's their problem, that's not our problem. Our
Speaker 7: problem is to punch them in the ballot box for
Speaker 7: choosing extremism as a party, which is what they've done.
Speaker 7: Have enabled Trump, They've enabled extremism. There is so little
Speaker 7: courage in that party. They deserve to lose this race,
Speaker 7: and they lose it badly, and not just this right
Speaker 7: all over the country, and they deserve to love the House.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I never thought that they would come out against IVF.
Speaker 1: You know, they refuse to support the bill to codify it,
Speaker 1: and in the House, and a Paulina Luna you may
Speaker 1: remember her as a complete lunatic, just took her name
Speaker 1: off the House version of it.
Speaker 7: The attack on women's rights is appalling, and I think
Speaker 7: in my district in particular, this is what I'm hearing
Speaker 7: the most from a lot of the swing voters who
Speaker 7: might otherwise be Republicans. This has settled law in New Jersey,
Speaker 7: not just on the books, this is settled law culturally. Abortion, IVF,
Speaker 7: contraception gain marriage. I mean, these are issues that, like
Speaker 7: people in New Jersey haven't litigated for a generation. And
Speaker 7: the idea that the Republicans are forcibly taking us back
Speaker 7: to have to have these conversations again. I mean, I
Speaker 7: will tell you the eyebrows have been raised in this
Speaker 7: district and there's just noo for the way this party
Speaker 7: is treating women. And I think you're going to see
Speaker 7: a major backlash this cycle. And then as a woman running,
Speaker 7: I think I'm a great messenger for that. And I've
Speaker 7: had many friends who've had IVF and you know, and
Speaker 7: the idea that this is that all controversial really boggles
Speaker 7: the mind.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I guess they think that women don't vote,
Speaker 1: or don't read, or don't notice, or they just don't care.
Speaker 7: I'm not sure there's a galaxy rain strategist think at
Speaker 7: all this stuff out.
Speaker 2: I think they've caught the car.
Speaker 7: With the Row versus Wade overturning and now it's just
Speaker 7: a completely uncontrollable wildfire against women. And I don't know
Speaker 7: if there's some kind of electoral strategists behind this.
Speaker 2: It doesn't appear like that to me.
Speaker 7: And I know Tom Kane has been in completely without
Speaker 7: courage when it comes to these issues. There was a
Speaker 7: bill over the summer or before the summer that wouldn't
Speaker 7: allow women who needed abortions to leave military bases and
Speaker 7: go get them if the abortions were not legal in
Speaker 7: that area. And he voted for that bill when Guy
Speaker 7: the River, Brian Fitzpatrick voted against it. And that's a Republican.
Speaker 7: So when Tom Kane has had the opportunity to stand
Speaker 7: up for women, he simply has not. And that's a
Speaker 7: terrible look. And I don't think you get away with
Speaker 7: that this cycle.
Speaker 1: So the big question that I'm very curious about is
Speaker 1: do voters get it?
Speaker 2: Do voters hear it? Do voters now?
Speaker 7: I think they do everywhere I go, and I've now
Speaker 7: talked to thousands of people, and I've talked to people
Speaker 7: across all party lines and people who are unaffiliated, and
Speaker 7: this and other issues a democracy. Trump's corruption have definitely
Speaker 7: filtered into the regular people. And sometimes things take time.
Speaker 7: I mean, I know that the road decision should have
Speaker 7: been a play last cycle, but sometimes it takes time
Speaker 7: for people to really understand the ramifications of that and
Speaker 7: just see firsthand that there's no handbreak in the Republican Party.
Speaker 7: There're just nobody who can control this extremist element, and
Speaker 7: the quote unquote Republican establishment is just hanging on for
Speaker 7: the ride, and that puts us all in danger.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: I think like one of the things that I feel
Speaker 1: like in pundent world is we're always like how much
Speaker 1: of what's happening is getting to voters? Like, because you know,
Speaker 1: we see the numbers for people who engage in mainstream
Speaker 1: media or even television, you know, and those numbers are down, down, down,
Speaker 1: So it's more of a sense of like, you know,
Speaker 1: our voters activated on the ground, and are you seeing that?
Speaker 2: And it sounds like you are, yeah, I would say so.
Speaker 7: I mean there are different circles of voters, right there
Speaker 7: are the grassrooms activists who I think are very activated,
Speaker 7: and I think everyone's kind of come to terms because
Speaker 7: many of these grassroots advocates came into the political awareness
Speaker 7: when Trump got elected in twenty sixteen, and that's now
Speaker 7: like eight years ago, and so you're talking about a
Speaker 7: group of people who went from oh my gosh, Trump's selected,
Speaker 7: let's start organizing, to now, this is a commitment they're
Speaker 7: making in their lifestyle, in their lives for democracy. You're
Speaker 7: in and you're out. This is a seasoned bunch in
Speaker 7: NJ seven. The grassroots organizations, the local municipal parties, they
Speaker 7: are a season group of organizers, a seasoned group of people.
Speaker 7: They know how to knock doors, they know how to
Speaker 7: talk to voters, and my.
Speaker 2: Faith is with them.
Speaker 7: They are committed and they see what I see, which
Speaker 7: is that all of us this is the price we
Speaker 7: have to pay to live in a democracy. Right now,
Speaker 7: we have to commit to getting people registered, signed up
Speaker 7: for vote by mail, persuading voters to might not normally vote,
Speaker 7: and making sure I mean that's the job of the
Speaker 7: campaign and our grassroots organizers. It's our job to make
Speaker 7: sure that people understand what's at stake. And based on
Speaker 7: my conversations with people so far, I think the ground
Speaker 7: is very fertile for that conversation. And I think a
Speaker 7: lot of people are pretty aware of what the Republicans
Speaker 7: are trying to pull and the citicism through which they govern,
Speaker 7: and I think that really frustrates people. You have the
Speaker 7: least effective, the least productive Congress we've ever had in
Speaker 7: American history, and there's a real people are real sick
Speaker 7: and tired of it, and they're sick and tired of
Speaker 7: the games because actual human beings are suffering as a
Speaker 7: result of it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny because I think about there was
Speaker 1: a piece in The Times recently about how liberals are
Speaker 1: tired and not engaged, But it does seem to me.
Speaker 2: Like they're not. It seems like they're quite engaged.
Speaker 1: And I think that the threat to democracy plus these
Speaker 1: weird additions to the Republican war on women's health, have
Speaker 1: been very motivated.
Speaker 2: They're very motivating. I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 7: I didn't read that New York Times piece. I probably
Speaker 7: wouldn't know if I saw it, but I would invite
Speaker 7: that reporter to come to New Jersey seven because we've
Speaker 7: been packing rooms. There's a lot of buzz in the
Speaker 7: air right now. We have a lively US Senate primary.
Speaker 7: There's a lot of conversation about what it means to
Speaker 7: be in a democracy in New Jersey but also across
Speaker 7: the country, and people are fighting fiercely for the right
Speaker 7: to live in this democracy. And we see it as
Speaker 7: part of what's happening around the globe. So I feel
Speaker 7: very strongly that the people in NJ seven big advocates,
Speaker 7: but eventually to the voters will be very engaged.
Speaker 2: In this race.
Speaker 7: This is a sophisticated district with a lot of commitment
Speaker 7: to democracy, the idea of democracy, the ideals behind electing
Speaker 7: a representative who goes to Congress and actually represents the district,
Speaker 7: not a distant entity like the National Republican Party.
Speaker 2: Those ideals hold firm.
Speaker 7: In this district, and I know that our voters will
Speaker 7: see what's happening and vote accordingly.
Speaker 1: What do you think that's sort of thinking on the
Speaker 1: ground there is like I mean, is he out?
Speaker 2: Is he campaigning? I mean, what does it look like?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Tom Kane doesn't campaign No way. People ask me what
Speaker 2: you can date you?
Speaker 4: I was like, I would love a debate with Tom
Speaker 4: ka can bring it on. I love a debate, I
Speaker 4: love a one on one basketball game. Whatever he wants
Speaker 4: to participate in with me, I am there. But he
Speaker 4: won't do it because he's a coward. He never showed
Speaker 4: up as a state senator.
Speaker 7: He didn't show up as a candidate for US Congress,
Speaker 7: and he's not showing up as an actual congressman. Imagine
Speaker 7: getting elected to the US Congress. It is the honor
Speaker 7: of a lifetime. It is the most humbling responsibility anybody
Speaker 7: could be tasked with. And your response to that challenge
Speaker 7: is to never come out in public and to only
Speaker 7: hang out with donors and only hang out with National
Speaker 7: Republican Party figures. I mean, it's one thing to make
Speaker 7: that choice as a candidate and they say, Okay, my
Speaker 7: strategic advantage is DIVI I don't stick my head out.
Speaker 7: But it is entirely different. It is a dereliction of
Speaker 7: duty to make that choice as a sitting congressman. And
Speaker 7: the people in ninj seven they're hard workers. They care
Speaker 7: about feeling represented, and Tom Kaye Tunior is not doing
Speaker 7: his job. And you say that, and you get a
Speaker 7: lot of ears perking up from people across the political spectrum.
Speaker 7: You can't get away with being a lazy congressman in
Speaker 7: New Jersey.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of amazing, right like that, that we've
Speaker 1: had these times where we've seen Republicans refuse too. I
Speaker 1: mean it's happened on the Democratic side too. I mean
Speaker 1: it's why Democrats lost the House. I mean they just
Speaker 1: didn't engage with those flippable seats.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's a mistake.
Speaker 7: This campaign won't make I think we should go after
Speaker 7: and we will go after our voters in every area
Speaker 7: of this district, and we will pursue them and not
Speaker 7: just to get their vote, but to hear what's on
Speaker 7: their mind and to make sure it's incorporated into how
Speaker 7: we run this campaign and how it will serve as
Speaker 7: a congressper and once I get there. People want to
Speaker 7: feel like they have a voice. They want to feel
Speaker 7: like when they elect someone, that person will do their
Speaker 7: darnedest to represent this district. We did a youth round
Speaker 7: table over the summer, and youth are amazing because they
Speaker 7: have such little tolerance for nonsense and bs and over
Speaker 7: and over again, and we did this. I'm a forward teacher,
Speaker 7: so we did a great exercise where it was very
Speaker 7: interactive and over and over again. The underlying message was
Speaker 7: we don't have to agree with every single policy that
Speaker 7: you have or every single stance that you take in
Speaker 7: What we want to feel like is you're going to
Speaker 7: go to Congress and you're going to fight for us.
Speaker 7: You're going to know where we're coming from. You're going
Speaker 7: to understand the struggles we're feeling. And for young people,
Speaker 7: they have to move back to their parents' house. They
Speaker 7: can't afford to break out on their own after college
Speaker 7: or after trade school, and they want to feel like
Speaker 7: somebody's in Congress who's going to fight for that stuff.
Speaker 7: That's it, That's what they care about. They want to
Speaker 7: feel represented, which is the original idea behind Congress. And
Speaker 7: it's what's so awful and disrespectful about the way Tom
Speaker 7: Kane represents this district.
Speaker 2: Tell us your backstory.
Speaker 7: So I grew Laturning County. I played a lot of
Speaker 7: basketballctually ended up playing basketball in college and then professionally
Speaker 7: for two years as well, which was great. I played
Speaker 7: in Ireland and Germany. I wasn't quite good enough for
Speaker 7: the WNBA, although I'm thrilled that women's basketball and women's
Speaker 7: sports right now seems to be having a moment, and
Speaker 7: it couldn't delight me more to see that happening. After
Speaker 7: I was done there, I was a teacher for four
Speaker 7: years in Blairstown, and then I went to Oxford and
Speaker 7: England for two degrees, one the International Comparative Education and
Speaker 7: one in business in NBA. And when I came back,
Speaker 7: I fought both Chris Christy and corrupt Democrats, which you
Speaker 7: might have to be surprised to find out we.
Speaker 2: Have no it's New Jersey.
Speaker 7: It is New Jersey, and you know Bob and endes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, corruption, I.
Speaker 7: Think best example ify by what we've learned about Bob Menendez.
Speaker 7: But I fought corruption in both parties, and particularly I
Speaker 7: fought for school and I fought for schools and school
Speaker 7: funding and saw what Chris Christie was doing, which was
Speaker 7: decimating our public school system, something that you know, my
Speaker 7: parents moved into New Jersey to have. I was the
Speaker 7: beneficiary of a wonderful public school system in New Jersey
Speaker 7: and that remains a centerpiece of my campaign. I was
Speaker 7: recruited from community organizing in Camden, New Jersey, which is
Speaker 7: where I was for seven years of my life doing
Speaker 7: a lot of organizing down there. We fought actually, in
Speaker 7: particular against a tax and centive policy that fleeced, in
Speaker 7: my opinion, fleeced the New Jersey taxpayers to the two
Speaker 7: of a billion dollars. And that really gives me a
Speaker 7: lot of credibility when I go and talk to unaffiliated
Speaker 7: voters who feel like New Jersey's taxes are too high.
Speaker 7: They don't know what happens when they pay their tax money.
Speaker 7: And the fact that I've been able to fight both
Speaker 7: parties against corruption and the poor use of public resources
Speaker 7: really gives me a lot of credibility in some of
Speaker 7: these places where they're a little skeptical both parties, frankly.
Speaker 7: But from there I was recruited to run New Jersey
Speaker 7: Working Families and in a statewide level, created coalitions and
Speaker 7: brought in partners to really fight corruption at a systematic level.
Speaker 7: We used litigation and legislation and other tactics to fight
Speaker 7: for democracy and against corruption in Trenton, which unfortunately really
Speaker 7: needs it and needed it at the time. And then
Speaker 7: when Tom Owin asked, you lost my predecessor, fully predecessor
Speaker 7: in NJ seven. At that point, I'd moved back to
Speaker 7: where I grew up after the pandemic, and when he
Speaker 7: lost it was obviously very heartbreaking, but I knew that
Speaker 7: this was a moment that even though I loved what
Speaker 7: I was doing in state of politics, I loved creating
Speaker 7: a little bit of chaos trying to clean up that
Speaker 7: place and set the record straight in Trenton, I knew
Speaker 7: that what was happening in Washington was a real triage moment,
Speaker 7: and I needed to put my energy and focus and
Speaker 7: my abilities and all that I've been given to try
Speaker 7: to make sure that we had better representation in Congress
Speaker 7: than what tom Kin was ever going to do.
Speaker 2: So that's my backstory.
Speaker 1: Well that is a great and super interesting backstory. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining us, keep us posted.
Speaker 7: Okay, wonderful, Molly, it was a pleasure, and thank you.
Speaker 2: Jesse. Come a visit a moment, Jesse Cannon, Molly jung Fast.
Speaker 5: You know, one of the things you and I discussed
Speaker 5: a lot is how much we hate the governoring body
Speaker 5: and the legislature in our home state of New York.
Speaker 5: What are you seeing here?
Speaker 1: Our governor had a chance, Kathy Hope, to jerrymander some
Speaker 1: seats allah our favorite king Governor Pritzker, and instead she
Speaker 1: decided to just let Republicans have it. And so she
Speaker 1: has signed into law a new redistricting map which basically
Speaker 1: doesn't jerrymander and makes it much harder for Democrats to
Speaker 1: win back the House and is really good proof that
Speaker 1: when Democrats are not pushed, they will just do what
Speaker 1: is easy versus what is right. And so you have
Speaker 1: Republicans jermandering the whole Congress and then you have Kathy
Speaker 1: Hochel somehow pretending that this was a big victory won.
Speaker 2: In fact, if Democrats lose the House, it will be
Speaker 2: because of Kathy Hockel.
Speaker 1: Just like last time when Democrats lost the House, it
Speaker 1: was because of Andrew Cuomo. So you can imagine how
Speaker 1: fucking pissed off Jesse and I are right. That's it
Speaker 1: for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday,
Speaker 1: and Friday to hear the best minds in politics makes
Speaker 1: sense of all this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard,
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Speaker 1: And again, thanks for listening.