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 in Trump's first one hundred days,
Speaker 1: the word Biden was his fifth most frequently used, According
Speaker 1: to a Time analysis of transcripts of Trump's public remarks,
Speaker 1: we have such a great show.
Speaker 2: For you today.
Speaker 1: As the world churns, host Andy Levy stops by to
Speaker 1: talk about Trump's meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Carney and
Speaker 1: Trump's complete inability to understand how trade works. Then we
Speaker 1: will talk to Kentucky Governor Andy Burscher about how to
Speaker 1: deliver to your constituents and help their lives.
Speaker 2: But first the news Somali.
Speaker 3: Some things in this world they're not for sale, and
Speaker 3: apparently one of them is Canada, because mister Mark Carney
Speaker 3: told that that Trump today and a lot of people
Speaker 3: were saying he may not have the Riz of Justin
Speaker 3: Trudeau to stand up to him, But I have to
Speaker 3: say I think he did a good job today.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm glad you got Riz in there.
Speaker 1: Listens, kids, Yes, my kids actually abanned me from saying
Speaker 1: the word rez. One of the ways in which we
Speaker 1: upset them is when my husband says, your mother has riz.
Speaker 2: That gets them very upset.
Speaker 3: How do they feel about you dressing chugi?
Speaker 1: I don't know what chugi means. We'll talk about this.
Speaker 1: We're getting Is it fat? Is cheugy fat?
Speaker 3: No doubt it's not.
Speaker 1: I think you might want it. We've just come off
Speaker 1: the raist. Canada is not for sale. Let's just talk
Speaker 1: about this for a minute. So one of the things
Speaker 1: Trump invites the press in. He talks the press. He
Speaker 1: you know, talks back and forth. This was like the
Speaker 1: second time he's met Carney. Carney, he really did antagonize Trudeau.
Speaker 1: The whole fifty first day thing was meant to be
Speaker 1: kind of a way of antagonizing Trudeau. Now, Carney is
Speaker 1: like the dream politician for this moment. If I were Canada,
Speaker 1: this would be my dream. He has managed Brexit, he
Speaker 1: was able to try to manage Brexit. He's a free trader,
Speaker 1: he's an economist, and he's been able to handle living
Speaker 1: over a crackhouse, which is what Canada is experiencing right now.
Speaker 1: We are the people who are smoking crack and our government.
Speaker 1: It's interesting to see him try to push back against Trump.
Speaker 1: So he starts off like a lot of European leaders
Speaker 1: have with some success. You know, mister Trump, you're the
Speaker 1: biggest and tallest and most beautiful, real sort of pravda
Speaker 1: kind of North Korean, the kind of Mussolini esque praise
Speaker 1: that Trump needs. Then he says, you know, Canadian people
Speaker 1: who he represents. I mean, we've you know what's nice
Speaker 1: about Trump is he's completely forgotten about the whole elected
Speaker 1: for the people by the people. So Carney says, well,
Speaker 1: the Canadian people don't want to be a fifty first state.
Speaker 1: They've pretty definitively said that that's not what they want,
Speaker 1: you know. And then Trump's sort of what is interesting
Speaker 1: if there's something to be gleaned from this dysfunction, which
Speaker 1: is that you do see Trump he says, at one point,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not going to be as bad as
Speaker 1: it was when I was so mean, and I shouldn't
Speaker 1: be laughing to the President of Ukraine, because he did
Speaker 1: say in that meeting where you had the vice president
Speaker 1: being horrible to him, there was that he said, you know,
Speaker 1: this is not as combative as that.
Speaker 2: I guess that's good. I don't know. I mean, Canada has.
Speaker 1: Been our number one trading partner of Canada and Mexico.
Speaker 1: This is a completely self created crisis is that we're
Speaker 1: trying to manage. Now, completely self created crisis is because
Speaker 1: there are many that were trying to manage. But I
Speaker 1: felt for Carney and there was certainly a moment there
Speaker 1: when Trump was trying to explain he wants to stop
Speaker 1: buying Canadian cars, where it felt like he did not
Speaker 1: quite get what was going on and how any of
Speaker 1: this works.
Speaker 3: So the Supreme Court has allowed mister Trump's administration to
Speaker 3: enforce the transgender military bin and uh, yeah, that's just lovely.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean again, this is like to sort of aside here.
Speaker 1: Main Governor Janet Mills told Trump World they could not
Speaker 1: take away federal funds because Trump was they were trying
Speaker 1: to sort of do this anti trans stuff with the schools,
Speaker 1: and she won in court. So a lot of times
Speaker 1: this stuff is pretty blatantly unconstitutional.
Speaker 2: And now you have to remember we have this very.
Speaker 1: Conservative court that has decided that discrimination is okay. Right,
Speaker 1: I mean that's really what we're saying here. Right, They're
Speaker 1: allowing Trump to enforce transgender military band.
Speaker 2: They're doing that.
Speaker 1: That's discrimination, right, You're discriminating against transgender people and the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court is allowing it. Look, ultimately, this Supreme Court
Speaker 1: may sort of be able to stop some of the
Speaker 1: really scary stuff that Trump's going to do.
Speaker 2: But ideologically they are saying.
Speaker 1: That discrimination is okay and that I think needs to
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, this is should not This is
Speaker 1: what this court is is very conservative court that he
Speaker 1: is very much in the tank for a lot of
Speaker 1: the stuff that we know is not okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So when Mitch McConnell decided to step aside of
Speaker 3: being the Senate majority leader, many people wondered this, Tom
Speaker 3: tillis fella. I haven't heard much about him over the years.
Speaker 3: He's kind of had a low profile. How is he
Speaker 3: going to rule? And I think we got an interesting
Speaker 3: hint today.
Speaker 1: So Tom tillis again, when you get brave right before
Speaker 1: you're up for election, that I think should be noted.
Speaker 1: That's not bravery, that's just like trying to survive trump Ism.
Speaker 1: For example, there were two high profile people who have
Speaker 1: decided not to run in twenty twenty six. They are
Speaker 1: New new in New Hampshire and Brian Kemp in Georgia.
Speaker 1: And you could say they're doing it because they don't
Speaker 1: agree with trump Ism or their principal, but they're really
Speaker 1: doing it because they know that Trump's going to be
Speaker 1: a drag on the midterms, and they know it's not
Speaker 1: politically expedient. They've waited this long, They'll wait a little longer.
Speaker 1: And I think there's a similar motivation behind this. Till
Speaker 1: his nose he's up. He likes to be in the Senate,
Speaker 1: or maybe he's going to resign, but I think I
Speaker 1: think he's going to try to run again. And North
Speaker 1: Carolina is not Alabama, right, it's a pretty purple state,
Speaker 1: and so you know he's going to vote against some
Speaker 1: of the really insane nominees Ed Martin, so he wants
Speaker 1: to be the new top prosecutor in DC.
Speaker 2: He is. I just want to give you a few reasons.
Speaker 1: Why he's completely I mean, he's just famous. Like go
Speaker 1: on his Twitter and you will be really freaked out.
Speaker 2: This guy is not what you want.
Speaker 3: He's not fit for office. So, in an interesting turn,
Speaker 3: many people were hoping that after Jerry Connelly unfortunately has
Speaker 3: stepped down as head of Oversight, that AOC would run,
Speaker 3: But she is going to stay on her position as
Speaker 3: the Energy and Commerce.
Speaker 1: Committee yeah, she said, the dynamics have not changed. So
Speaker 1: Connolly is stepping down. Then there Eleanor Holmes Norton has
Speaker 1: put her hat in the ring. She is eight thousand
Speaker 1: years old. The Daily Caller was delighted to draw attention
Speaker 1: to that. But there are other people on that committee
Speaker 1: who are extremely good communicators, and they are Garcia Rocanna,
Speaker 1: Melanie Stansberry, who's freshman, Greg ciz Are, summer Lee, Maxwell Frost.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are a lot of people on that
Speaker 1: committee who would be great to have on there as
Speaker 1: the ranking. This committee is such an insane I mean,
Speaker 1: and oversight is such an insane on the Republican side,
Speaker 1: I mean, you have just the craziest Marjorie Taylor, Green
Speaker 1: beaupert Ana, Paulina Luna, Nancy Mace, Andy Biggs, I mean,
Speaker 1: Paul Gosar, I mean, just craziness. But yeah, I mean, look,
Speaker 1: I think that this is a real opportunity here to
Speaker 1: elevate someone who's not ten thousand years old and no
Speaker 1: one's ever heard of. We'll see what happens. I don't
Speaker 1: want to get my hopes up.
Speaker 3: Get your hopes up that we don't have ten thousand.
Speaker 2: Years years old.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Andy Levy is the host of the new podcast
Speaker 4: As the World Churns, which you can find on your
Speaker 4: favorite podcast player, and he is the former host of
Speaker 4: the new Abnormal.
Speaker 2: Here we Go, Andy Levy.
Speaker 5: Molly john First.
Speaker 1: Welcome back chart rated podcaster Andy Levy.
Speaker 5: That's your Yeah, I know, I'm so bad.
Speaker 6: It's self promotion.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Molly is talking about the new podcast that Daniel
Speaker 5: Moody and I have launched this week, As the World Churns.
Speaker 5: You can find it anywhere you get your podcasts and
Speaker 5: also on YouTube.
Speaker 1: So let's talk today. Donald Trump. You may have heard
Speaker 1: of him. He had a meeting with Mark Karney, the
Speaker 1: newly elected Prime Minister of Canada, and it was, I
Speaker 1: have to say, incredible they did, because Trump is good
Speaker 1: at getting people's attention, which is something Democrats could absolutely
Speaker 1: learn from.
Speaker 2: He invited the.
Speaker 1: Pool spray in and there he explained to that that
Speaker 1: he has no idea how trade works, and it was
Speaker 1: a pretty amazing moment in which he said yes, so Carney,
Speaker 1: who was like very smart and knows how to do
Speaker 1: stuff and was involved in the disaster that is Brexit,
Speaker 1: trying to keep Britain from ruining itself, which spoiler he
Speaker 1: was not able to do.
Speaker 2: Said, well, you know, we have all.
Speaker 1: These cars where they're made partially in Canada and partially
Speaker 1: in the United States, which is true. You know, you
Speaker 1: have these car parks that go back and forth to
Speaker 1: different factories. And the whole idea here is that you
Speaker 1: shouldn't tear if things multiple times, and Trump said, yeah,
Speaker 1: but we don't want to buy Canadian cars anymore. We
Speaker 1: only want to buy American cars. Are we all going
Speaker 1: to die?
Speaker 6: I don't know that I've ever had.
Speaker 5: This is the guy that supposed to be a businessman,
Speaker 5: like I keep being told that in this businessman billionaire
Speaker 5: mixed deals. This is a guy who I guess steals
Speaker 5: today said that we don't care about accessing foreign markets. Tatum,
Speaker 5: that's good to come. I think as a surprise to
Speaker 5: a lot of American companies. Maybe I'm wrong because I
Speaker 5: don't you know, look, I don't want to argue with
Speaker 5: the business genius. It's entirely possible that I'm wrong. But
Speaker 5: my understanding of economics is that you want as many
Speaker 5: people as possible to buy your products, to buy your services,
Speaker 5: and that means you don't care really where they live
Speaker 5: in the world. So you know, Am I wrong, Molly?
Speaker 6: Am I wrong?
Speaker 1: I'm excited to tear off foreign films, the cash cow
Speaker 1: that is foreign films.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but you have always and this is one thing,
Speaker 5: and you know, a lot of us we talk about
Speaker 5: this about you off air. You've always had a jingoistic
Speaker 5: streak always, it really does. It borders on the xenophobic,
Speaker 5: and you are apt to be muttering those damn foreigners
Speaker 5: a lot. I give you credit because you've managed to
Speaker 5: keep that. I guess until now you've got just keep
Speaker 5: that sort of private sort of you haven't done it
Speaker 5: on your podcasts or i'm MSNBC, but not yet. But
Speaker 5: the fact, but the fact of the matter is now
Speaker 5: the world knows exactly what you are. So I guess
Speaker 5: I understand why you sort of agree with Trump here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, certainly we don't need those foreigner Well,
Speaker 1: he is a genius. No, listen, Yeah, it is very stupid.
Speaker 1: This is very very stupid. But the good I think
Speaker 1: like we are careening into what seems like it is
Speaker 1: about to be an economic disaster completely of Trump's making.
Speaker 1: I feel like the one bright spot here is that
Speaker 1: it undermines the authoritarianism.
Speaker 5: Well, it undermines the authoritarianism. By that, do you mean
Speaker 5: there are people in this country who might support Trump
Speaker 5: on the authoritarianism.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there are quite a lot of people in this country.
Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say for whom attacking universities
Speaker 1: and disappearing grad students is not a disqualifier or a problem, right,
Speaker 1: you you know, it's it's not good. They don't even
Speaker 1: I don't think they even think it's particularly bad, right,
Speaker 1: They just are okay with it. But crashing the economy
Speaker 1: for no reason that actually does seem to have gotten
Speaker 1: even the people for whom you know, the rest of
Speaker 1: trump Ism is fine, pretty pissed. Yeah.
Speaker 5: No, I think that's right. And I do think that, like,
Speaker 5: like you said, the people who either are gung ho
Speaker 5: about shutting down those damn elite universities and about cancer,
Speaker 5: yeah exactly, and kidnapping people and sending them to a
Speaker 5: foreign country because their skin is darker than ours. The
Speaker 5: people who are either gung ho for that, or they're
Speaker 5: okay with it, or they simply don't care. They are
Speaker 5: all going to care about, as you said, about if
Speaker 5: the economy crashes and they can't afford things, and they
Speaker 5: look at their dolls. Well, that's the other thing. It's like,
Speaker 5: I'm older. Remember I was working at Fox News when
Speaker 5: Bernie Sanders said something about you know, it was about
Speaker 5: deodor it's and he was talking about how you go
Speaker 5: into a drug store and they are like, you know,
Speaker 5: thirty forty different brands of deodorant. He's like, that's crazy,
Speaker 5: we don't need that. And the outrage at Fox News
Speaker 5: when he said this, how dare he? How dare he
Speaker 5: say we don't need all those choices? That's capitalism. And
Speaker 5: we've gone from that to of course, the same people
Speaker 5: who were saying that supporting the president who is out
Speaker 5: there saying, you know, you only need two dolls.
Speaker 2: It's funny because on this podcast you're about to hear
Speaker 2: me interview Andy Beshore.
Speaker 1: It's Andy Day, It's Andy Day on whatever his politics.
Speaker 1: And Andy said, it's not the difference between thirty five
Speaker 1: dollars and two dollars. It's the difference between two dollars
Speaker 1: and no dolls. And as someone who really has come
Speaker 1: from a lot of privilege, it didn't occur to me
Speaker 1: because as much as I, you know, understand that people
Speaker 1: who have less than I do, or who have been
Speaker 1: discriminated again, have a harder time. In some ways, it
Speaker 1: didn't occur to me. I was as much guilty of
Speaker 1: the Trump affluent affluenza, you know, the way of thinking,
Speaker 1: as as anyone, because I thought there, you know, I thought, well,
Speaker 1: that's not a message anyone's going to like. But what
Speaker 1: Andy Bushers said is exactly right. It's it's not it's
Speaker 1: two dollars or no dolls, and and we're going to
Speaker 1: have and there's going to be a Christmas where because
Speaker 1: we already see the shipping, and we already see China
Speaker 1: and the toy manufacturing, and we just saw Mattel saying
Speaker 1: toys are going to be more expensive. So this is
Speaker 1: not going to be a you know, they're a two
Speaker 1: dollars versus thirty five dollars Christmas. It's going to be
Speaker 1: people without toys.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and our children, not.
Speaker 2: People children, right, children or adults without toys.
Speaker 5: Adult adults gonna have toys.
Speaker 1: If you're an adult and you don't get anything for Christmas,
Speaker 1: it is not that you are not talking about in
Speaker 1: therapy twenty years later.
Speaker 5: Wow, okay, Gritch, I just want to say that, you know,
Speaker 5: when we're talking about adults, we don't call them dollars.
Speaker 5: We call them action figures. That's very important.
Speaker 2: PlayStation four five, thank you seven. It's going to be
Speaker 2: more expensive.
Speaker 5: I know. I'm glad I have it already, and I've
Speaker 5: been talking to some other people about this, and I
Speaker 5: am like convincing myself to buy stuff now that I
Speaker 5: don't necessarily need, but like, you know, know that I
Speaker 5: kind of want because I'm like, it's it's only smart
Speaker 5: to buy it now before these tariffs really kick in.
Speaker 5: I'm saving myself money, is what I'm doing. I'm being
Speaker 5: smart by buying all these things.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: If we're going into our own mental on this for
Speaker 1: a minute, I was saying, when are we not you
Speaker 1: and I together, we're just diving into mental in this here.
Speaker 1: But I was like, you know, I need more paper towels,
Speaker 1: like the tariffs are going to hit the paper.
Speaker 5: House right Well, the tariffs may not, but the shelves
Speaker 5: may be bare.
Speaker 1: I mean, so I was like, I'm going to need
Speaker 1: to buy seventy dollars worth of paper house right now.
Speaker 5: Look, everything I've been reading is that. And as you
Speaker 5: alluded to the shipping earlier, that you know the ports
Speaker 5: are not as crowded as they were, and they're they're
Speaker 5: continuing the ports in America and they're continuing to become
Speaker 5: less and less crowded. And you know, I've seen people
Speaker 5: talking about how as early as later this month, we're
Speaker 5: going to really be noticing it at at the store,
Speaker 5: you know. So my I think my point here is
Speaker 5: that I may be stopping by Molly to get some paper.
Speaker 2: Talks, and I may not be giving them. You know him,
Speaker 2: I think, no, no.
Speaker 1: You.
Speaker 5: During COVID too, You're like, I'm order surrounded. You made
Speaker 5: like a toilet paper roll for it.
Speaker 3: And you.
Speaker 1: The episode of CARB where they go into the closet
Speaker 1: and they realize that that once his name is in order,
Speaker 1: he's such a great guy, but he's actually he's got
Speaker 1: all the toilet paper. And it's incredible when you think
Speaker 1: about it, that we have made the stupidest person in
Speaker 1: America president and then we have made him the most powerful.
Speaker 2: President in modern political history.
Speaker 5: I've always felt that sometimes there are like the president
Speaker 5: can only do so much with the economy, and I
Speaker 5: feel like sometimes presidents get too much blame or too
Speaker 5: much credit for the state of the economy. But with
Speaker 5: what's happening now and what's gonna probably continue to happen.
Speaker 5: This is solely Donald Trump's fault. I mean, it's it's
Speaker 5: nobody else's fault, not counting to sycophants around him and
Speaker 5: in the Republican Congress. But this is this is like
Speaker 5: a self made recession which may turn into a self
Speaker 5: made global depression, all because of this one guy. It's
Speaker 5: really I don't think it has a like there's no
Speaker 5: reference point for this in our lives. I don't think
Speaker 5: molly like, well, we could say this, oh, this is
Speaker 5: just like when this president did that. Like, there's really
Speaker 5: I can't think of one.
Speaker 1: I mean, COVID a little bit, right, we saw it coming,
Speaker 1: but again it was in once in a lifetime pandemic, right,
Speaker 1: So that in a sense is a little bit different.
Speaker 2: It's not the same at all.
Speaker 1: But like the credit crisis, we were saved by a
Speaker 1: president who understood because that could have turned into I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously the way it was done, a lot of people
Speaker 1: didn't like bailing out the banks, and perhaps there would
Speaker 1: have been a way. I think what we saw, what
Speaker 1: Biden learned from it was that you should bail out
Speaker 1: everyone if you're going to bail out the banks, you
Speaker 1: got to bail out also small businesses. Now, the problem
Speaker 1: is when you start bailing out small businesses, you open
Speaker 1: yourself to PPE fraud. By the way, so many people
Speaker 1: in Trump world got PPE loans, I mean incredible numbers.
Speaker 1: And then when you open the door to like paying
Speaker 1: out small businesses, why are you not paying out student loans?
Speaker 1: You know, you really do sort of open the door
Speaker 1: to moral re love. And see, there have been many
Speaker 1: times in sort of Trump's first term where I thought, oh,
Speaker 1: he's not going to do that. He's not going to
Speaker 1: do that, He's not going to do that, and that
Speaker 1: he was sort of talked out of it. That's what
Speaker 1: we saw earlier this month with the public markets, that
Speaker 1: he was talked out of it. Eventually, the hope is
Speaker 1: that that will happen again. But when you listen to
Speaker 1: him talking to Mark Karney, it seems as if he
Speaker 1: still doesn't understand.
Speaker 2: That he's wrong.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Oh for sure, he absolutely doesn't understand that he's wrong.
Speaker 5: And when we talk about him being talked out of things,
Speaker 5: I don't think that's fully accurate because I think what
Speaker 5: ends up happening is like he names some outrageous figure
Speaker 5: like we're gonna put a one hundred percent tariff on this,
Speaker 5: and people are like, you know, the markets react to
Speaker 5: that badly. People are like, oh, this is a bad idea.
Speaker 5: And then he says, all right, we're only going to
Speaker 5: do twenty percent, and still like, but that's still wrong. Yeah,
Speaker 5: Like that's still not good. It's just that we are
Speaker 5: being conditioned by you know, him going to this far
Speaker 5: extreme and then when he comes back a little, we're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 5: see he listens, but it's like, no, because he shouldn't.
Speaker 5: He shouldn't be doing these things at all. And and
Speaker 5: you know, look, I don't know. I think at a
Speaker 5: certain point he is going to stop piling things back because,
Speaker 5: as you said, he is convinced that he is right
Speaker 5: and it doesn't matter how many people tell him he's wrong.
Speaker 5: I mean we saw that even with a lot of
Speaker 5: the tariffs that even Elon Musk was like, I don't
Speaker 5: want him to be doing this, and he didn't really care.
Speaker 2: Is Elon Musk still running Doge? What is Doge doing?
Speaker 2: And why are we not hearing about it every die?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: No, that's a good question. I guess they did have
Speaker 5: that little press conference with big balls. Yeah it's big balls,
Speaker 5: we know a couple days ago. But look, I think
Speaker 5: Musk is a little scared. I think he's a little
Speaker 5: scared of that move by the Tesla shareholders or the
Speaker 5: board to you know, maybe replace him if he doesn't
Speaker 5: dial it back. And I think that that is the
Speaker 5: sole reason that he hasn't been as public with the
Speaker 5: Doge stuff. But also, I mean, look, they talked about
Speaker 5: dose as going to have all this transparency, and they
Speaker 5: launched that ridiculous website with the supposed dollars amazing, right,
Speaker 5: but that even on their own website, like that dollar
Speaker 5: figure is shrinking, like their supposed savings, and it's like,
Speaker 5: you know, I was going to say, we are learning,
Speaker 5: but we already knew this. But the people who didn't
Speaker 5: understand that Elon Musk just pedals absolute lies and nonsense
Speaker 5: for a living. That's and I mean that for real,
Speaker 5: Like that's literally what he does talking about. I think
Speaker 5: it's been now fifteen years where he said we're going
Speaker 5: to be on Mars in five years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my favorite is what it would you like? Would
Speaker 2: you like to take nine minutes to get to Boston? Right?
Speaker 5: So he makes these outrageous promises because he's a huckster,
Speaker 5: and he's a he's ultimately he's a grifter and and
Speaker 5: he sells these dreams.
Speaker 2: The richest man in the world.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because it's worked for him.
Speaker 2: Because it's worked with the government. I mean, what kind
Speaker 2: of indictment does this our federal government, that this guy
Speaker 2: has gotten to be the richism in the world basically
Speaker 2: through government subsidies.
Speaker 5: Yeah. I've been saying this for a long time, Like,
Speaker 5: this didn't start with Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this was shut it down Democratic.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this was Democratic administrations working with Elon Musk giving
Speaker 5: him these contracts. The oligarchy works for both parties.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, shut it down, Back it up, Andy Levy, you
Speaker 1: know what time it is, time to end, Time to
Speaker 1: end the podcast.
Speaker 2: Okay, perhaps you'll come back.
Speaker 5: Perhaps I will.
Speaker 3: I would love to.
Speaker 2: All Right, we'll see you soon.
Speaker 1: Andy Burscher is the governor of Kentucky.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Fast Politics. Governor Burshare, very excited to be here.
Speaker 6: Thanks for the invitation.
Speaker 1: There's this amazing moment of you building a house and
Speaker 1: talking about building.
Speaker 2: The house in Kentucky.
Speaker 1: So can you give me the context of why you're
Speaker 1: rebuilding or building in Kentucky.
Speaker 2: What the story behind that was.
Speaker 6: Kentucky, we have been hammered by natural disasters fourteen federally
Speaker 6: declared disasters since I'm a king governor, that's over five
Speaker 6: and a half years. We have the worst tornadoes in
Speaker 6: our history. Wiped out my dad's hometown of Dawson Springs,
Speaker 6: and we're rebuilding there. But in July of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 6: we had the worst flooding that we've ever seen. It
Speaker 6: killed forty five people, which I mean doesn't happen in floods,
Speaker 6: and wiped out thousands upon thousands of homes. So we
Speaker 6: embarked on what is the I think the most challenging
Speaker 6: rebuild that we've seen in America. That's moving people from
Speaker 6: the valleys where it floods to the top of abandoned
Speaker 6: coal mines. We go in and we test them, we
Speaker 6: make sure that the ground is solid. And we have
Speaker 6: seven of these projects all across eastern Kentucky in the
Speaker 6: heart of Appalachia, where we are building homes on high
Speaker 6: ground that will never ever flood. We'll address affordable housing
Speaker 6: at the same time, but most importantly, we're giving people
Speaker 6: who lost everything a forever home. I got to tell
Speaker 6: you, you see lots of great things as governor, but watching
Speaker 6: kids walk through for the first time a new home
Speaker 6: and pick out their rooms after being displaced for a
Speaker 6: couple of years is where I see God. You see
Speaker 6: this amazing joy and resiliency of these children, but just
Speaker 6: a new fresh start. It was very difficult to put together.
Speaker 6: But wanting to actually solve a problem and not have
Speaker 6: to face this type of flooding again.
Speaker 1: Part of what makes governors popular and what makes them
Speaker 1: perhaps even more set up for higher office is that
Speaker 1: you are able to solve logistical infrastructure problems.
Speaker 2: So clearly you are a state that.
Speaker 1: Has been battered by climate issues, right, what other kind
Speaker 1: of infrastructure problems are you addressing and how well?
Speaker 6: A great thing about being a governor, and I think
Speaker 6: what differentiates us from just about any other office is
Speaker 6: we get things done and people see it. They can
Speaker 6: be a part of it. You know, you are so
Speaker 6: vested in your state every day on trying to make
Speaker 6: life better, and if you're doing it, you're trying to
Speaker 6: make life better for everyone. And investing in infrastructure helps democrats, republicans, independents.
Speaker 6: It it just builds a better life for everyone. So
Speaker 6: right now we're engaged in three mega projects around our state,
Speaker 6: the most we've ever done at one time. We're building
Speaker 6: the Brent Spence Companion Bridge in northern Kentucky. President Biden
Speaker 6: came down to help make that announcement. That's one of
Speaker 6: the most traveled thoroughfares in the country, and the existing
Speaker 6: bridge isn't enough. We've got an I sixty nine project
Speaker 6: that's going to open up parts of Indiana and western Kentucky.
Speaker 6: But then we have the Mountain Parkway, which is the
Speaker 6: first four lane highway into Appalachio, which is going to
Speaker 6: open up the possibility of manufacturing, which requires a four
Speaker 6: lane highway to ship in and out. And so this
Speaker 6: will be the first time in our history that this
Speaker 6: is possible with a workforce that is there. Workforce that
Speaker 6: help build America, but America left behind, and so we're
Speaker 6: really excited about what that possibility means. The other infrastructure
Speaker 6: that's helping all of Kentucky but can make a huge
Speaker 6: difference in eastern Kentucky. It's high speed internet and that
Speaker 6: solves so many challenges, from educational opportunities to creating your
Speaker 6: own business. It has a chance when we finally get
Speaker 6: the bead money of being transformational across Kentucky and all
Speaker 6: of America, but especially rural America. As we build to
Speaker 6: be more resilient after floods and tornadoes. We've got to
Speaker 6: rebuild the bridges stronger, capable of standing up to one
Speaker 6: hundred year flood every five or ten years. We've got
Speaker 6: to build our roads in a way to where they
Speaker 6: don't cave and wash away, especially our water and our
Speaker 6: wastewater systems. Most people don't know that when it floods,
Speaker 6: the pressure of that comes through and it bursts all
Speaker 6: those pipes and it's millions upon millions of dollars of damage,
Speaker 6: and that makes the flooding worse because it can't take
Speaker 6: the water out and away. And so knowing that climate
Speaker 6: change is real, and I'm the first governor of Kentucky
Speaker 6: who said out loud that climate change is real, because
Speaker 6: it is. Ask any farmer, us the US military. We
Speaker 6: know that the next probably ten years of ramifications are
Speaker 6: going to happen. Hopefully we can change the ten years
Speaker 6: after that, and so making sure we're building to protect
Speaker 6: our people from all of these challenges. But aside from infrastructure,
Speaker 6: there's a lot of human talent out there helping us
Speaker 6: and very worried about cuts from the Trump administration on
Speaker 6: what that means. The National Weather Service has saved so
Speaker 6: many lives.
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask about that because you have people
Speaker 1: who are in rural areas where if they can't see
Speaker 1: what's coming, they could die.
Speaker 2: Can you talk us through that?
Speaker 6: Yeah, and in the urban areas too. The National Weather
Speaker 6: Service is an amazing group of people that are constantly
Speaker 6: watching for the next batch of bad weather. They gave
Speaker 6: us a heads up on our February flooding, which was massive.
Speaker 6: We saved one thousand people in the first twenty four
Speaker 6: hours because the National Weather Service told us when it
Speaker 6: would happen and where it would happen, and so we
Speaker 6: pre positioned all these swift water teams in their boats
Speaker 6: ready to go before the storm ever hit. That's what
Speaker 6: the National Weather Service allows you to do. We only
Speaker 6: lost a couple people because of the direct flooding. We
Speaker 6: lost some more because they tried to drive through high water,
Speaker 6: which I wish people wouldn't ever try to do. But
Speaker 6: the National Weather Service saves lives by allowing you to prepare.
Speaker 6: And they not only talked to us they talked to
Speaker 6: all the meteorologists at all the stations, they talk to
Speaker 6: the radio stations, and so we're able to get this
Speaker 6: information out and people are able to prepare, to get
Speaker 6: ready to go stay with relatives. But what we're seeing
Speaker 6: in our massive cuts and concerns that we wouldn't have
Speaker 6: twenty four seven three sixty five coverage in an area
Speaker 6: that has to have that everyday coverage.
Speaker 1: You are a Democrat a red state as a governor.
Speaker 1: We've seen when Democratic governors are in red states they
Speaker 1: tend to do extremely well. This is not always true,
Speaker 1: but like I'm thinking about Cooper, there are just a
Speaker 1: number of these blue governors in red states. But you've
Speaker 1: really had a lot of success in Kentucky, and you
Speaker 1: sort of talk us through why that is and how
Speaker 1: you have people who have voted for you who have
Speaker 1: never voted for Democrats, and just talk to me about
Speaker 1: how that works and how you are able to sort
Speaker 1: of let them know you're there for them despite if
Speaker 1: they are a Trumper or anything like that.
Speaker 6: Being a successful governor is about being a governor for everyone,
Speaker 6: and I think that starts with the same type of focus.
Speaker 6: I'd like the entire Democratic Party, and for that matter,
Speaker 6: the Republican Party to adopt. And that's been an eighty
Speaker 6: percent of your time on the core concerns that people
Speaker 6: wake up thinking about and go to bed worried about.
Speaker 6: And that starts with your job, whether you make enough
Speaker 6: to support your family. We brought in a record amount
Speaker 6: of private sector investment. We've created more jobs than under
Speaker 6: any other governor, the highest wages. We've broken our ex
Speaker 6: sports record, We've broken our tourism record. It shows you
Speaker 6: that Democrats can manage an economy and in fact help
Speaker 6: a state or a country thrive. I think the second
Speaker 6: piece that people worry about is their next doctor's appointment
Speaker 6: for themselves, or their parents or their kids. I've been
Speaker 6: able to expand Medicaid in ways where we have increased
Speaker 6: access all over Kentucky. We just built our first hospital
Speaker 6: in Kentucky's largest African American community in one hundred and
Speaker 6: fifty years. First time people haven't had to take multiple
Speaker 6: buses or drive across town to see a specialist, much
Speaker 6: less their primary care doctor. I think people worry about
Speaker 6: the roads and bridges they drive every day. They worry
Speaker 6: about the public school they drop their kids off at,
Speaker 6: and they worry about public safety in their communities, not
Speaker 6: just whether they are safe under the statistic, but whether
Speaker 6: they feel safe. And when you concentrate all those things,
Speaker 6: people feel better about their lives because you've worked to
Speaker 6: better their lives. And when you're doing that, I think
Speaker 6: people will start giving you a second look. But I
Speaker 6: think there's two other things that you have to do
Speaker 6: at the same time. Number one is you've got to
Speaker 6: speak to people like a normal human being. We've seen
Speaker 6: all these sanitized terms that are out there where you
Speaker 6: lose your emotion and what it means. Kentucky has been
Speaker 6: racked with addiction that we just announced a thirty percent
Speaker 6: decrease in overdose deaths from last year. We've been waiting
Speaker 6: for this moment for so long. But for every person
Speaker 6: I know that's gone through addiction, and I'm known a lot,
Speaker 6: they've never called it substance use disorder. They've called it addiction.
Speaker 6: Somebody who's hungry doesn't call it food insecurity, And I
Speaker 6: don't think that people push these words meaning to hurt dialogue.
Speaker 6: I think they meant it to reduce stigma. But I'm
Speaker 6: not sure changing words reduces stigma, changing arts reduce stigma,
Speaker 6: So focus talk to people like a real human being.
Speaker 6: And the last piece that I think is so important
Speaker 6: is explaining your why. We talk a lot in the
Speaker 6: Democratic Party about the what, what's our position on this,
Speaker 6: what's her nuance on that, what's section A point three?
Speaker 6: But what we don't talk about is why. What drives us?
Speaker 6: And for me, that's my faith. And when I'm vetoed
Speaker 6: the nastiest ANTIOLOGBTQ bill that our state had ever seen
Speaker 6: in my election year, I explain why. I mean, I
Speaker 6: believe that all children are children of God. And if
Speaker 6: I believe that, which I do in my court from
Speaker 6: my faith, it's my job to stand up for those
Speaker 6: kids when other people are picking on what happened after that,
Speaker 6: you know, to show people that politically, when you explain
Speaker 6: your why, they'll give you grace and space even if
Speaker 6: they disagree with you. I didn't lose a point. In fact,
Speaker 6: I have people coming up to me saying I might
Speaker 6: not agree with you, but I know you're doing what
Speaker 6: you think is right. If you explain your why, people
Speaker 6: can disagree with the what, but ultimately still supports you.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about the real talk thing.
Speaker 1: Because I in a little bit of trouble this week
Speaker 1: because I was on with the Democratic Elected and she
Speaker 1: was very McKenzie and she was saying very mckenzy things.
Speaker 1: They're good ideas, right, I mean, there were a number
Speaker 1: of good ideas, but the way she was saying them
Speaker 1: was couched in a lot of very mackenzie kind of
Speaker 1: consultant d language. And when you talk like that, you
Speaker 1: really lose people, including me.
Speaker 6: Sounds like you're talking down to people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I also.
Speaker 1: Just think people get very bored by it, and ultimately
Speaker 1: it's not effective.
Speaker 2: So I liked that you talked about addiction.
Speaker 1: I've been sober since I was nineteen, and I think
Speaker 1: a lot about how we treat addiction, and the problem
Speaker 1: of addiction is a huge problem in this country. One
Speaker 1: of the things that I think is really helpful when
Speaker 1: it comes to addiction is just I talk about it
Speaker 1: because I want to reduce stigma. And when you're talking
Speaker 1: about sort of religion, we also have weird stigma about
Speaker 1: religion in this country, and we shouldn't.
Speaker 6: Talking about your faith can be why Joshapiro does it too.
Speaker 6: We're of different faiths, but we respect each other's. It
Speaker 6: can come from your values it can come from how
Speaker 6: you were raised. But if you or why deals with
Speaker 6: your faith, there are ways to talk about it without
Speaker 6: trying to press it on anyone. And the values that
Speaker 6: I typically talk about, which is loving your neighbor as yourself,
Speaker 6: the parable of the Good Samaritans, saying everybody as your neighbor.
Speaker 6: Those are found in all major religions or in all
Speaker 6: major value systems. And I think there are things that
Speaker 6: people either directly relate to or they appreciate hearing because
Speaker 6: it helps them know how you're going to make decisions
Speaker 6: on the toughness of issues.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about rural hospitals because you mentioned rural hospitals.
Speaker 1: Medicaid expansion is how you paid for a lot of
Speaker 1: these rural hospitals. TODK goes through medicaid expansion. Why you
Speaker 1: took it, why some red steak governors did not take it,
Speaker 1: and what it means now that Trump is targeting it.
Speaker 6: Well, the guy who made medicaid expansion happen in Kentucky
Speaker 6: his named Steve Basher. He was my dad. Lost a
Speaker 6: governor's race in nineteen eighty seven, won a governor's race
Speaker 6: in two thousand and seven, and as a thirty year
Speaker 6: old lawyer starting in two thousand and seven.
Speaker 2: I got to.
Speaker 6: Watch him work go through the Great Recession. But expanding
Speaker 6: Medicaid was game changing, game changing in taking us from
Speaker 6: one of the top rates of uninsured or uncovered individuals
Speaker 6: to one of the lowest. There were over four hundred
Speaker 6: thousand Kentucky and so it got coverage for the first time.
Speaker 6: But it's also very humanizing when you see it. One
Speaker 6: of the reasons that I got into politics, other than
Speaker 6: my kids who deserved a better world than they were
Speaker 6: growing up in, was the time I'm standing on an
Speaker 6: elevator with my dad while he's governor. The woman walks
Speaker 6: in and bursts into tears, and I didn't know what
Speaker 6: to do, and she looks at him and says, I'm
Speaker 6: alive today because of you. That she couldn't get coverage
Speaker 6: until Medicaid expanded, until we took the ACA and created
Speaker 6: the gold standard at that time, and she started getting
Speaker 6: coverage to deal with a very difficult and chronic issue.
Speaker 6: My goodness to see a person alive today because of
Speaker 6: that policy decision and thriving tells you that there is
Speaker 6: real good that you can do in these jobs. But
Speaker 6: then fast forward, I become governor. In three months later,
Speaker 6: we get hit by the pandemic, and thank god we'd
Speaker 6: expanded Medicaid because Kentucky had rural hospitals with the extra
Speaker 6: beds that could take care of people at a time
Speaker 6: when we desperately needed it. We set up a field hospital,
Speaker 6: but didn't have to use it because our rural hospitals
Speaker 6: did an incredible job. They provided a higher level of
Speaker 6: care than they were ever designed for. But they were
Speaker 6: there and the employees were there, and we have so
Speaker 6: many people alive today, both because of regular screenings you
Speaker 6: can get in your community, but also having that during
Speaker 6: the pandemic. But I think people now see Medicaid for
Speaker 6: what it is. Medicaid covers the people we love the
Speaker 6: most in the world, our parents and our kids. Half
Speaker 6: of Kentucky's kids are covered by Medicaid. Seventy percent of
Speaker 6: our long term care call are covered by Medicaid. So
Speaker 6: major cuts to Medicaid are going to mean that people
Speaker 6: have to take in parents that need extra care. That's
Speaker 6: going to purt productivity in the economy. It's going to
Speaker 6: be tough on families. It also means our children are
Speaker 6: going to be less healthy, which is going to be
Speaker 6: a hit to both families and the economy. But then
Speaker 6: look at what happens with rural health care. I mean
Speaker 6: it will devastate it. Most rural health care will shut down,
Speaker 6: and what that means is a huge loss of jobs.
Speaker 6: So in most counties that have a rural hospital, it's
Speaker 6: the second largest employer behind the public school system. But
Speaker 6: then think about the people that live in that county,
Speaker 6: because when that hospital shuts down, they're going to have
Speaker 6: to drive two hours to go to a doctor's appointment
Speaker 6: to see the sane doctor who lost their job in
Speaker 6: their hometown and had to move to a bigger city.
Speaker 6: And that's whether you're on Medicaid or private insurance. It's
Speaker 6: going to hit everyone.
Speaker 1: How will the tariffs effect Kentucky.
Speaker 6: Harder than just about any other state? Already seeing it?
Speaker 6: You see major employers like UPS announcing twenty thousand layoffs.
Speaker 6: Not a ton of those are in Kentucky. But as
Speaker 6: we see major employers get hit, that'll hit every community.
Speaker 6: But then I see a lot of mid size or
Speaker 6: small businesses and they get parts from all over the world.
Speaker 6: Then getting parts from all over the world at the
Speaker 6: right cost allow them to employ a lot of Kentuckians,
Speaker 6: a lot of Americans, allow them to grow and add
Speaker 6: more jobs. But as the costs are going up and
Speaker 6: they know they can't pass all that to the consumer
Speaker 6: because then it'd make it unaffordable, they're having to lay
Speaker 6: people off. And when a small business lays people off,
Speaker 6: it's somebody they may go to church with, their kids,
Speaker 6: may play on a baseball team together. It shows you
Speaker 6: how hard this is hitting the American people. And then
Speaker 6: the way it'll tax our families. Now, if it hits
Speaker 6: our families at that forty six hundred dollars number that
Speaker 6: I think the Yale study had out there, that blows
Speaker 6: a hole in a budget you can't make up for.
Speaker 6: And so what that means is a president that was
Speaker 6: elected because the last group of voters thought he'd make
Speaker 6: paying the bills easier are going to be fully betrayed,
Speaker 6: and it's going to be that much harder. And these
Speaker 6: comments that people could use less toys, I guess during
Speaker 6: Christmas coming out of a billionaire's mouth, thirty seven versus two.
Speaker 6: Most Americans can't afford thirty seven toys for their kids.
Speaker 6: It's the difference between a few and none.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and I think that's important.
Speaker 1: How do you talk to you know, you are the
Speaker 1: governor of the state where a lot of people voted
Speaker 1: for Trump.
Speaker 2: How do you welcome those people back into the fold?
Speaker 1: How do you say, like, I get the impulse because
Speaker 1: he offered to make things cheaper, but everything's getting more expensive.
Speaker 6: Well, first thing I won't ever do is judge people
Speaker 6: by how they voted. I'll never talk down to people
Speaker 6: about how they voted. This is a democracy, it's their right,
Speaker 6: and I want people to go out and to vote.
Speaker 6: But what I can do is speak out about the policies,
Speaker 6: and you've got to do it with credibility. Now, there
Speaker 6: are a lot of questions going around about how should
Speaker 6: you engage with this administration. Well, the first thing is
Speaker 6: if you're speaking out, you've got to have credibility. If
Speaker 6: the administration does something good, you've got to admit it.
Speaker 6: Their FEMA response in Kentucky has actually been very good,
Speaker 6: which is ironic wanting to dismantle parts of FEMA when
Speaker 6: it's actually operating on the ground better than I've seen it.
Speaker 6: And I've seen a lot of FEMA operatings. But then
Speaker 6: you look at tariffs and their impact, the chaos that's
Speaker 6: caused in the market, the fact that the stock market,
Speaker 6: the bond market, the value of the dollar all going down,
Speaker 6: concerns about GDP and the rest of the economy. I mean,
Speaker 6: these are terrible policies that have hit the economy harder
Speaker 6: than any policy I've ever seen from a president in
Speaker 6: my lifetime. And I've also never seen something that is
Speaker 6: so directly attributable to one person, because the president has
Speaker 6: owned these tariffs. He held up that board, which is
Speaker 6: I think a picture he's going to regret.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you, Governor Bushire.
Speaker 6: Oh very much enjoyed it. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3: No Moxec, Jesse Cannon, Mai junk Fast. We have been
Speaker 3: covering the subject. We've had Justice Riggs down in North
Speaker 3: Carolina on many a time on this podcast because we
Speaker 3: believe that this is truly gross what the Republicans have
Speaker 3: been doing, and unprecedented, but it looks like a happy
Speaker 3: ending maybe coming our way in America. Molly, what do
Speaker 3: you think of that concept.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to feel better until she's sworn in,
Speaker 1: but it seems as if Justice Riggs this may finally
Speaker 1: be over right. The Republican lost and was like, no,
Speaker 1: I didn't lose, and so real classy stuff here by
Speaker 1: a Republicans. So the federal judge says results in North
Speaker 1: Carolina court race with Democrat ahead must be certified. So
Speaker 1: this justice says that it's.
Speaker 2: Over, so we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: I hope that it's over and that she gets sworn
Speaker 1: in because she did win. And as much as it's
Speaker 1: fun for Republicans to feel that they can fight back
Speaker 1: when they don't win, this is really not how it's
Speaker 1: supposed to work.
Speaker 2: That's it for.
Speaker 1: This episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Speaker 1: and Saturday to hear the best minds and politics make
Speaker 1: sense of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast,
Speaker 1: please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.