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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly Jongfast, and this is Fast Politics, where

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Speaker 1: we discuss the top political headlines with some of today's

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Speaker 1: best minds. And the Pentagon is planning to purchase one

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Speaker 1: million drones. We have such a great show for you today.

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Speaker 1: Run for something's Amanda Littman stops by to talk about

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Speaker 1: the hidden forces helping Dems win the midterms. Then we'll

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Speaker 1: talk to journalist Elliot Rodriguez about their run to flip

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Speaker 1: Florida's 27th district. But first, the news.

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Speaker 2: Molly, Trump has an AI, quote unquote, constitution. And I'm

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Speaker 2: sure you were just thinking you were watching a runway

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Speaker 2: show when you saw how everyone was dressed at this

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Speaker 2: summit today.

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Speaker 1: So all of the tech oligarchs went to the White

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Speaker 1: House to meet with Donald Trump. And there, Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: did exactly what you would expect him to do. He

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Speaker 1: changed the name of AI to SI, like Sports Illustrated.

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Speaker 1: He berated CNN and he did nothing else, basically. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know, this is like typical Trump. He said he's

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Speaker 1: going to write a constitution with a lot of commonality

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Speaker 1: and praise for what he described as tremendous self-policing. Better.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Trump's not going to police it. It's a

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Speaker 1: lot of vague nothingness. A lot of bread and circuses

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Speaker 1: and not much else.

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Speaker 2: Can I tell you my favorite part of the bread

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Speaker 2: and circus?

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Speaker 3: Yes.

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Speaker 2: David Sachs went to X and he said.

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Speaker 1: I'm blocked by him on X.

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Speaker 2: You know, you're really missing out. You could be seeing

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Speaker 2: one of the most boring man you lie all day.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Anyway, he said that this is clear that the companies

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Speaker 2: were accepting responsibility for AI safety. So I want us

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Speaker 2: to put a pin in that. So when something goes wrong,

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Speaker 2: we can blame them for the lack of AI safety.

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Speaker 1: This is, by the way, the document where they misspelled

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Speaker 1: the United States, right?

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Speaker 4: Yes. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I like that.

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Speaker 2: Which is the most chat GPT thing to do possible,

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Speaker 2: in my opinion.

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Speaker 1: This is such a fascinating story in the fact that

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Speaker 1: here is a president who does not want to do

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Speaker 1: any regulation for a company with a bunch of CEOs

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Speaker 1: who do not want any regulation. So in some ways,

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Speaker 1: they do have the same idea. you know, making a

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Speaker 1: show of regulation because the midterms are a little more

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Speaker 1: than a month away.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. Okay.

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Speaker 2: But in other AI news, we have other big news

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Speaker 2: out of the government, of course, which is that we

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Speaker 2: have our new America.gov AI chatbot. And I don't know

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Speaker 2: if your social media feed was anything like mine yesterday,

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Speaker 2: but all I did was watch people break this with other,

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Speaker 2: with funny things like saying, can you do the Macarena?

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Speaker 2: And it just would crash.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. And you'll be, you know, my favorite thing about

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Speaker 1: AI is that it doesn't work that well. So, except

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Speaker 1: sometimes when it does work and then the Trump administration

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Speaker 1: needs to fix it, quote unquote. And that's what happened here. Basically,

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Speaker 1: if you ask the AI chatbot who won the 2020 election,

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Speaker 1: it says the person who won the 2020 election and

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Speaker 1: not the person who didn't win the 2020 election. In

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Speaker 1: case you're wondering, the person who did not win the

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Speaker 1: 2020 election was one Donald Trump. And so America.gov chatbot

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Speaker 1: is in the service of Donald Trump. And so he

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Speaker 1: fixed it. So now it says he won the election.

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Speaker 1: I mean, again, we laugh, but it's actually really bad because.

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Speaker 4: What we're Pure Orwell. Like this is.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Like I recently watched that Orwell documentary that just came

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Speaker 2: out and like. What's it called?

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Speaker 3: What's it called?

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Speaker 2: Orwell plus 1984, I believe. And it really puts a

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Speaker 2: fine point on like it basically says, here's what we're coming.

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Speaker 2: We're looking at soon is that they're going to use

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Speaker 2: AI to rewrite history.

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Speaker 1: And that's where we are right now, is that they're,

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Speaker 1: you know, that's what they're doing. And that's what, you know,

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Speaker 1: when you see Elon Musk talking about, like, making AI unwoke,

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Speaker 1: what he means is making grok so that it lies.

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is not unwoke. This is just his truth.

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Speaker 1: And so this kind of thing, you know, who won

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Speaker 1: the 2020 election, we all know that Joe Biden won

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Speaker 1: the 2020 election. If Donald Trump had won, he would

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Speaker 1: have been president and he wouldn't be president now.

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Speaker 3: Which would be nice.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Well, welcome to the true doublespeak era. We were heading

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Speaker 2: towards it and we've been smacked in the face with

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Speaker 2: it now. So Ken Paxton, the Mr. Bean of America politics.

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Speaker 3: I love him so much.

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Speaker 2: He has a audio tape leaked where he's not saying

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Speaker 2: very nice things about Mr. Trump's convention.

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Speaker 1: So first of all, I think it's important to pause

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Speaker 1: for a minute and just Ken Paxton would not be

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Speaker 1: the nominee. were it not for Donald Trump. Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: endorsed him. He was already winning, but it was the

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump endorsement that put him over the top. Had

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump not endorsed him, Cornyn probably could have eked

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Speaker 1: it out. So that's number one. Number two, Ken Paxton

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Speaker 1: is a mini Donald Trump, right? He got impeached but

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Speaker 1: not removed by basically doing what is tantamount to a bribe,

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Speaker 1: going around with donors and being like, if you vote

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Speaker 1: to remove me, I will fund your primary opponents, which

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Speaker 1: is actually just what Trump basically did, too. I mean,

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Speaker 1: we don't have evidence, but it does certainly seem like

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Speaker 1: something to that effect was done. And so here we are.

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Speaker 1: And Paxton is talking to someone who had a tape

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Speaker 1: recorder and he says, so to be honest with you,

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Speaker 1: the numbers when we did that convention, it dropped our numbers.

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Speaker 1: Everybody's numbers dropped right now. Yeah, not good. Now, why

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Speaker 1: this is, I think, the most interesting besides the fact

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Speaker 1: that it's just amazing and like you could see. Paxton

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Speaker 1: was going to get here because Donald Trump is always like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: Ken Paxton, he's not that attractive. Yeah, Ken Paxton, he's

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Speaker 1: not that good a speaker. Yeah, Ken Paxton, he dresses terribly.

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Speaker 1: But what I love about this story is that I

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Speaker 1: had long suspected that this midterm convention, that bringing Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump to Texas to advertise two more years of this

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Speaker 1: was going to be bad for the Republicans running in

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Speaker 1: the midterms. And now we have a real, you know,

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Speaker 1: we now know that that is true. And so while

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Speaker 1: it's fascinating that Paxton has no loyalty to anyone, and

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Speaker 1: that's kind of fun, what is, I think, the most

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Speaker 1: important thing about this is that uh he actually is

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Speaker 1: a drag and we're seeing so and if this is

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Speaker 1: happening to paxton you can bet this is happening around

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Speaker 1: the rest of the uh map and so here we.

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Speaker 2: Are 100 ed yeah i i think a lot of

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Speaker 2: people started to believe the polls a little bit more

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Speaker 2: after seeing this so um Yet again, everything to Trump

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Speaker 2: touches dyes.

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Speaker 1: And it's also like worth thinking about, like Trump is

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Speaker 1: doing these ads right now. He's using MAGA Inc. money

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Speaker 1: to do ads and he's using taxpayer dollars to do

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Speaker 1: ads that tie him to the midterms. So like even

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Speaker 1: more of that bad stuff is coming for Republicans.

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Speaker 2: So, Molly, we have an interesting thing here. Trump's going

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Speaker 2: to start sending $ 500 ACA refund checks to one million Americans.

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Speaker 3: It's called a bribe.

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Speaker 1: First of all, I don't even understand where this money

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Speaker 1: is coming from.

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Speaker 2: The Treasury Department, hello.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 3: Our tax dollars.

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Speaker 1: But it's always coming from our tax dollars. But this

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Speaker 1: is money that could be spent on Pete Hegseth testing

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Speaker 1: our troops' waistlines for, you know. I mean, this is

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Speaker 1: just a very strange. I mean, I think it's a bribe.

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Speaker 1: So basically, he's returning money for allegedly overcharging for health

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Speaker 1: care coverage from the federal ACA exchange.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Which the Republicans allowed to expire, making health care much

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Speaker 1: more expensive for most people. So, again, this seems like very,

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Speaker 1: very strange to me. I think the timing cannot be overlooked, right?

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Speaker 1: We're on the way to midterm. Trump loves to send

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Speaker 1: checks to people. So maybe that's what's happening here. Amanda

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Speaker 1: Lipman is the co-founder of Run for Something and the

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Speaker 1: author of the new book, When We're in Charge, The

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Speaker 1: Next Generation's Guide to Leadership. Welcome, welcome, Amanda Lipman. Hi, Molly. Amanda,

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Speaker 1: we are seeing candidates run wildly from Donald Trump. They

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Speaker 1: are running the way you might think they would run

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Speaker 1: in an environment that The Economist has as a D

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Speaker 1: plus 15. One of the examples is this Maria Salazar

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Speaker 1: in the Miami-Dade area who won by 20 points and

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Speaker 1: is now putting out anti-ICE aids. Talk to me about

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Speaker 1: this phenomenon.

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Speaker 3: You know, I think you're seeing Republicans realize that Trump

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Speaker 3: is toxic. I mean, there was a release tape maybe

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Speaker 3: earlier today or yesterday where Ken Paxton was caught on

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Speaker 3: tape telling donors like the midterm convention that the Republican

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Speaker 3: Party held hurt their numbers, was toxic for them. You're

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Speaker 3: seeing it with people running away on Iran. You're seeing

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Speaker 3: it with the Republican in Florida, who you just mentioned,

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Speaker 3: doing an ad specifically saying, like, we will not let

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Speaker 3: you deport. people who are here as they're supposed to be.

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Speaker 3: It is inspiring, honestly. I mean, you never, I never

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Speaker 3: put faith in Republicans to do the right thing, but

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Speaker 3: I think it does tell you that actually, like, fighting

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Speaker 3: Trump and drawing attention to the shitty things he's doing

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Speaker 3: has political consequences. The further his approval rating plummets, the

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Speaker 3: more Republicans will run away from him, the better I

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Speaker 3: think it is for Democrats.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, interesting to me, I think there are

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Speaker 1: two really interesting things that are your points here. One

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Speaker 1: is that Clearly, this stuff is not popular. Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: is not popular. So that's part of why they're. But

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Speaker 1: but also that it does actually provide a strange roadmap

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Speaker 1: for Democrats. Mm hmm.

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Speaker 3: I mean, like I'm always wary because, you know, if

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Speaker 3: we win in this November, which I do think we are,

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Speaker 3: I think we're going to take the House. I think

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Speaker 3: we're going to take the Senate. I think we're going

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Speaker 3: to win hopefully hundreds of down ballot races, you know,

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Speaker 3: certainly enough to flip a bunch of state legislative chambers.

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Speaker 3: And I think it will be very tempting to be like,

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Speaker 3: it's because we did everything right. No, it is because

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Speaker 3: Trump is wildly unpopular. People feel bad about prices. They

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Speaker 3: feel bad about the war in Iran. They're pissed that

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Speaker 3: he broke his promises. And it's like there is a

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Speaker 3: roadmap here, but it is not one that we should

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Speaker 3: over learn, you know.

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Speaker 1: I want you to talk about this idea that there's

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Speaker 1: a roadmap here, that this is not necessarily a Democratic

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Speaker 1: victory as much as it's a Trump disaster. And what

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Speaker 1: Democrats need to learn from this.

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Speaker 3: I think the roadmap, at least as ISA, is probably twofold.

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Speaker 3: One is that he broke his promises. He made a

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Speaker 3: promise that prices would go down and no new wars.

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Speaker 3: Prices have gone up and he started a stupid war

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Speaker 3: in Iran. It is a very clear cause and effect

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Speaker 3: in a way that like he betrayed you. He let

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Speaker 3: you down. He fooled you. He disappointed you. And it

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Speaker 3: has nothing to do with his behavior or like the

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Speaker 3: insane shit that he says every day. It is quite

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Speaker 3: explicitly he made you a promise and he didn't keep it.

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Speaker 3: The second is that while he's breaking his promises, he's

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Speaker 3: getting rich. I think pointing to the corruption, the grift,

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Speaker 3: you know, whether it's crypto or the ballroom or the

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Speaker 3: things that he's focusing on instead of your bottom line.

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Speaker 3: He and his cronies are getting rich and you are

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Speaker 3: shelling out more and more for gas every day. And

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Speaker 3: when you can connect the dots on those two things,

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Speaker 3: and then hopefully in 2028, the presidential nominee will be

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Speaker 3: able to plot forward a path. Here are the new

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Speaker 3: promises I'm going to make to get you rich again,

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Speaker 3: to fulfill the promise that we've made for affordability, to

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Speaker 3: protect your job from AI, to better regulate these corporations,

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Speaker 3: like to take back power in a way that benefits you,

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Speaker 3: not them. That's the path forward. I think, or at

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Speaker 3: least it's one very clear path forward.

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Speaker 1: When you look at sort of what's what what's I

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Speaker 1: think interesting about this cycle to me is that it

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Speaker 1: seems as if the environment has gotten much better for

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Speaker 1: Democrats as the as time has gone on. And it's

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Speaker 1: interesting to me, there have been really good, you know,

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Speaker 1: a lot of these places where historically Democrats have kind

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Speaker 1: of not gotten their part. I think of you as

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Speaker 1: part of the group that got in there and started

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Speaker 1: like being like, we need to run in every race.

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Speaker 3: We need to.

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Speaker 1: So explain to our viewers and listeners just what your

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Speaker 1: theory of the case is when it comes to elections.

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Speaker 3: You know, our theory of the case is really twofold again.

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Speaker 3: One is that who the candidate is matters. Like the

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Speaker 3: person on the ballot, their name, their story, their connection

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Speaker 3: to the community, it really, really matters. And the kind

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Speaker 3: of person you need to run in a place like

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Speaker 3: New York is going to be different than the kind

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Speaker 3: of person you need to run in order to win

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Speaker 3: in somewhere like Iowa or Texas or Washington. And as

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Speaker 3: long as they are genuinely tight on values, you can

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Speaker 3: be pretty flexible on how those values show up in

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Speaker 3: policy and how you communicate that. Because I don't expect

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Speaker 3: someone who's running for, you know, Senate or State House

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Speaker 3: or school board in Texas to talk about things like,

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Speaker 3: I don't know, reproductive health in the same way that

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Speaker 3: someone would in New York or California. That's okay. And

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Speaker 3: we really do believe that you shouldn't write anywhere off.

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Speaker 3: That's sort of the second sort of plank of our

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Speaker 3: approach to elections, which is that battleground is a dynamic term. Literally,

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Speaker 3: it changes definition year to year, moment to moment, and

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Speaker 3: at this point, week to week. If I told you

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Speaker 3: a year ago that somewhere like Kansas or Nebraska, or

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Speaker 3: I just saw a poll out of, I think, South Dakota,

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Speaker 3: where the independent there is actually polling pretty well If

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Speaker 3: I was going to tell you those are competitive places,

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Speaker 3: places worth investing in, you would have laughed me out

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Speaker 3: of a room. And in fact, I have gotten laughed

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Speaker 3: out of rooms for suggesting we invest in places like those.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: And you never know what's going to happen. You want

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Speaker 3: to be prepared for an environment like this one. And

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Speaker 3: you want to build the infrastructure so that when we

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Speaker 3: don't have an environment like this one, we're ready to

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Speaker 3: win anyway.

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Speaker 1: And state legislatures are.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if everybody quite understands how important state

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Speaker 1: legislatures are. And because like in a moment like this,

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Speaker 1: where states like Nebraska may be in play, they may

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Speaker 1: not be in play for another 50 years. So there's

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Speaker 1: an opportunity here to grow the state legislature, to protect

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Speaker 1: people of Nebraska from bills that are, for lack of

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Speaker 1: a better word, bat shittery. Explain that, will you?

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Speaker 3: I mean, there are some of these states where It

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Speaker 3: is so obscene, the legislation they are trying to pass,

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Speaker 3: whether it's, you know, putting things like the 10 Commitments

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Speaker 3: into schools, whether it's, you know, kicking trans kids out

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Speaker 3: of all kinds of activities, you know, basically defunding public education,

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Speaker 3: making it much, much harder to vote. Now, let me

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Speaker 3: get me started on the kind of gerrymandering that a

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Speaker 3: lot of these state legislatures have already done and will

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Speaker 3: absolutely keep doing. You know, it's worth naming. Mississippi is

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Speaker 3: likely to redraw their maps. This fall after the election

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Speaker 3: and their state legislature is elected in 2027. It's one

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Speaker 3: of the places we're actively recruiting. We want to make

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Speaker 3: sure that we can really win in these places. And

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Speaker 3: we've actually made a lot of progress. You know, if

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Speaker 3: we flip, I think it's 22 seats in a couple

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Speaker 3: of states, we could have, I think, five more Democratic trifectas.

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Speaker 3: That's huge. There is an opportunity here to build back

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Speaker 3: long term power in a really meaningful way. Like, yes,

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Speaker 3: we need to win Congress. Yes, we need to prepare

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Speaker 3: to win the White House. But you know what the

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Speaker 3: best way to help win Congress and prepare to win

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Speaker 3: the White House is? To win state legislatures. Win locally.

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Speaker 3: It is going to be so, so, so important. And

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Speaker 3: it will change people's lives. Like, we could win upwards

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Speaker 3: of 400 state-led seats nationwide. We could have a majority

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Speaker 3: of state-led seats for the first time since 2009, according

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Speaker 3: to Chas Nericon, who runs State Navigate. There is opportunity here,

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Speaker 3: and we cannot miss it.

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Speaker 1: Explain what state legislatures do besides that. Like they do redistricting, right,

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Speaker 1: for congressional seats. They do vote. I mean, aren't they

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Speaker 1: the people who would close your polling place, I mean,

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Speaker 1: or protect you from a governor who might try to?

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Speaker 3: Talk us through that. State legislatures do basically everything that

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Speaker 3: actually affects your quality of life. They do things from,

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Speaker 3: as you noted, voter registration laws, voter access polls. or voters'

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Speaker 3: access to the polls. They redraw congressional maps about, I think,

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Speaker 3: at least a third of the country, if not more.

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Speaker 3: They redraw their own maps in many states. They do

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Speaker 3: things like AI regulation. They help fund higher education. They

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Speaker 3: take things like recycling and electricity usage. They fund health care.

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Speaker 3: They can accept or limit Medicaid expansion. They can do

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Speaker 3: things like build roads and bridges. It is so fundamentally

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Speaker 3: important who serves in these offices. especially since, you know,

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Speaker 3: God willing, we win the House and the Senate, we're

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Speaker 3: still not going to get governing out of Congress. Trump's

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Speaker 3: not going to sign anything that a Democratic House or

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Speaker 3: Senate pushes through. Maybe we'll have a veto-approved majority on

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Speaker 3: some stuff, but I kind of doubt it. So it's really,

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Speaker 3: when you're thinking about how can we keep the Democratic

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Speaker 3: Party's promise to make life better for people over the

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Speaker 3: next two years, it's going to have to come from

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Speaker 3: the states. And that is so important to rebuilding the

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Speaker 3: party's brand, because one of the challenges we have based

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Speaker 3: on a lot of the research I've seen, is that,

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Speaker 3: you know, even if people like what we're saying, they

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Speaker 3: don't believe we'll do it. There's a credibility gap here. Right.

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Speaker 3: So in order to close that credibility gap, we've got

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Speaker 3: to win. Then we've got to do shit. Then we've

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Speaker 3: got to talk about the shit we're doing.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 3: It's a virtuous cycle.

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Speaker 1: And that is the thing we've seen Zoran do really well,

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Speaker 1: is because that was something we really saw Biden world

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Speaker 1: fail at, was transmitting.

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Speaker 5: good policy to voters in a way that they understood.

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Speaker 5: What does that look like in your mind for going forward?

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Speaker 3: You know, I think it's making sure that we have

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Speaker 3: candidates and then hopefully elected officials that are really comfortable

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Speaker 3: using modern communication tools. So whether that's vertical video or

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Speaker 3: social or, you know, thinking about how else people are

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Speaker 3: getting information, understanding that a lot of folks are going

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Speaker 3: to get stuff mediated through chatbots or LLMs. being so

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Speaker 3: mindful that it is not enough to just like issue

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Speaker 3: a press release or do a Sunday morning cable hit or,

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Speaker 3: you know, do a press conference. You've got to create visuals.

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Speaker 3: You've got to give people some compelling story to hook onto.

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Speaker 3: You've got to show them how it affects their lives,

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Speaker 3: how you have kept your promises. And then you have

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Speaker 3: to do it over and over and over again. Part

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Speaker 3: of being a politician at this point is to be

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Speaker 3: a salesperson for the.

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Speaker 1: Work that you're doing.

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Speaker 6: Right.

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Speaker 1: And that I think is a really important point because

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Speaker 1: If you're not selling it, voters are not understanding what

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Speaker 1: they're getting and they're not appreciating it. Can you explain

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Speaker 1: to us the races you're focused on?

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Speaker 3: I'm excited for so many of these races. Actually, I

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Speaker 3: was thinking today as we were talking about like an

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Speaker 3: expanding map, who are the ones that are running in

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Speaker 3: just really hard places, places where, you know, historically there

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Speaker 3: probably wasn't even a chance. But this year, who knows?

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Speaker 3: So I'm thinking about Andrew Harbaugh, who's running in Pennsylvania

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Speaker 3: House District 63. It's nested within a congressional district that's

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Speaker 3: like R plus 19. It's a county that Trump won 70-30.

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Speaker 3: But Andrew flipped a council seat there last year. He

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Speaker 3: covers the NFL for his day job. He's hitting utility

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Speaker 3: costs driven by data centers. He's talking about schools. He's

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Speaker 3: talking about rural health care. He's like really of the community.

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Speaker 3: If anybody can win in a place like that, it's

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Speaker 3: someone like him. I'm also thinking about Whitney Ekinike, who's

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Speaker 3: running for Georgia House District 2. This is, again, in

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Speaker 3: a district that is like R plus 19-ish. She spent

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Speaker 3: two decades working in professional baseball. Her husband is an

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Speaker 3: immigrant from Venezuela. They own a small business. She's facing

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Speaker 3: down a Republican. I think, again, the kind of person

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Speaker 3: who in a maybe quote unquote normal year you wouldn't

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Speaker 3: think twice about, but this time around, incredible. I'd also

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Speaker 3: look to somewhere like Wyoming. which is kind of crazy,

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Speaker 3: but bear with me. Gavin Lobmayer is running in Wyoming

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Speaker 3: House District 7. Wyoming's like an R plus 23 points,

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Speaker 3: but Gavin is 29 years old. His family has lived

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Speaker 3: in the district for 50 years. He's campaigning specifically on

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Speaker 3: how young people are leaving Wyoming. He had to leave

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Speaker 3: the state himself a little bit to find work. That's

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Speaker 3: the kind of thing where like It can really bring

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Speaker 3: in a different kind of voter because it speaks to

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Speaker 3: the anxiety both young people have and also older folks

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Speaker 3: have about their kids or their grandkids not being able

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Speaker 3: to stay.

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Speaker 6: I want you to talk about what when you're a

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Speaker 6: Democrat running in these kind of like hyper local state

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Speaker 6: level races, what are the benefits?

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Speaker 1: What are the sort of things that you stay away from,

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Speaker 1: things that you focus on?

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Speaker 3: You know, we really encourage candidates to just keep it local,

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Speaker 3: as local as you possibly can. We have a lot

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Speaker 3: of folks talking about data centers, in part because that's

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Speaker 3: something that elites, whether it's state legislature or city council,

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Speaker 3: like they can really control. A lot of folks talking

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Speaker 3: about housing, cost of housing, cost of housing, cost of housing.

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Speaker 3: You know, whether it's talking about rent control or tenant

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Speaker 3: protections or rezoning, they're talking about housing. A lot of

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Speaker 3: people talking about education. We have a young woman running

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Speaker 3: in Oklahoma in Cherokee County who is a district that's

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Speaker 3: like R plus 28 or something like that. Wow. Her

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Speaker 3: trigger for running was seeing school vouchers go to mostly

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Speaker 3: wealthy families. She was like, this is bullshit. This is

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Speaker 3: defunding public education. This is not the purpose of this program.

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Speaker 3: Or maybe it is and it's not serving. So we

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Speaker 3: want to make sure that we're really seeing people talk

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Speaker 3: about education. But we tell folks to stay away from

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Speaker 3: is anything like a hyper nationalize it or anything that

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Speaker 3: you think like my neighbors don't give a shit about that.

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Speaker 3: My neighbors don't care. Don't feel like you have to

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Speaker 3: get drawn into the discourse of the day or to

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Speaker 3: national news like, you know, you know, your people stick

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Speaker 3: where they are.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's really especially when you're looking at

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Speaker 1: these local races for people to stick where they are.

436
00:23:17,900 --> 00:23:20,379
Speaker 1: Do you get the sense when you talk to candidates

437
00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:24,050
Speaker 1: that Trump and Trumpism is really unpopular?

438
00:23:24,070 --> 00:23:27,050
Speaker 3: I mean, they hear it from voters who are open

439
00:23:27,070 --> 00:23:30,290
Speaker 3: to a conversation with them because they, you know, are

440
00:23:30,369 --> 00:23:32,010
Speaker 3: pissed at the way things are. They're pissed at the

441
00:23:32,050 --> 00:23:35,110
Speaker 3: people in power. And especially for younger candidates who, you know,

442
00:23:35,430 --> 00:23:37,930
Speaker 3: just simply by nature of their age reflect the change,

443
00:23:38,470 --> 00:23:41,200
Speaker 3: like a changing of the guard. They're also people who

444
00:23:41,220 --> 00:23:42,320
Speaker 3: are pissed at the Democratic Party.

445
00:23:42,340 --> 00:23:42,899
Speaker 4: Right.

446
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:44,919
Speaker 3: It's always worth coming back to this. They may not

447
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:46,640
Speaker 3: like Trump, but they don't like us either. What they

448
00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:48,920
Speaker 3: do like is the person coming to their door, having

449
00:23:48,940 --> 00:23:51,980
Speaker 3: a conversation about them with them about the things they

450
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:52,360
Speaker 3: care about.

451
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:56,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's really important. And when I talk

452
00:23:56,900 --> 00:24:00,900
Speaker 1: when we talk about that, Democrats need to be very

453
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:04,369
Speaker 1: focused on that, too. Right. On the on the kitchen

454
00:24:04,390 --> 00:24:06,330
Speaker 1: table issues on the things voters need.

455
00:24:06,410 --> 00:24:06,730
Speaker 6: Right.

456
00:24:06,810 --> 00:24:07,050
Speaker 4: Yeah.

457
00:24:07,590 --> 00:24:09,129
Speaker 3: You got to connect it back to like not why

458
00:24:09,150 --> 00:24:10,709
Speaker 3: do I want to win or why do we want

459
00:24:10,730 --> 00:24:12,270
Speaker 3: to win? But why do you want us to win?

460
00:24:12,869 --> 00:24:14,570
Speaker 3: And voters want you to win because you're going to

461
00:24:14,609 --> 00:24:16,290
Speaker 3: make life better for them in a way that they

462
00:24:16,330 --> 00:24:19,020
Speaker 3: can feel and they can see and they can experience,

463
00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:23,180
Speaker 3: they can measure. Like it can't be some abstraction about,

464
00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:25,280
Speaker 3: you know, even I hate to say this, but like

465
00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:28,340
Speaker 3: we can't make an argument about democracy. We've got to

466
00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:31,480
Speaker 3: make an argument about property taxes or housing costs and

467
00:24:31,500 --> 00:24:34,070
Speaker 3: then also protect democracy. That is also part of this.

468
00:24:34,330 --> 00:24:36,310
Speaker 3: But people need to know what's in it for them.

469
00:24:37,310 --> 00:24:41,990
Speaker 1: And I think they also have to understand that getting

470
00:24:42,250 --> 00:24:45,210
Speaker 1: their vote counted will cause them to have the things

471
00:24:45,250 --> 00:24:49,890
Speaker 1: they want, right? The connection between being able to afford

472
00:24:50,130 --> 00:24:55,619
Speaker 1: your flood insurance and having your vote counted. Totally.

473
00:24:55,660 --> 00:24:57,420
Speaker 3: And you can connect the dots. Part of the reason

474
00:24:57,440 --> 00:25:00,000
Speaker 3: they're trying to take your right to vote away or

475
00:25:00,020 --> 00:25:01,280
Speaker 3: make it harder for you is because they don't want

476
00:25:01,300 --> 00:25:03,340
Speaker 3: to have to deliver for you. They don't want to

477
00:25:03,380 --> 00:25:06,820
Speaker 3: have to make promises to you. But even that is

478
00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:09,380
Speaker 3: almost a step removed. It really does have to be

479
00:25:09,460 --> 00:25:14,520
Speaker 3: about people's material lived experience. You can then govern and

480
00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:16,919
Speaker 3: do the things that make it easier for democracy to thrive.

481
00:25:17,090 --> 00:25:19,230
Speaker 3: But when you're trying to convince someone to show up

482
00:25:19,250 --> 00:25:21,610
Speaker 3: in the first place, especially for people who don't believe

483
00:25:21,630 --> 00:25:25,450
Speaker 3: the system works anyway, make the argument they need to hear.

484
00:25:26,530 --> 00:25:29,390
Speaker 1: Amanda Lippman, thank you. Thank you.

485
00:25:29,570 --> 00:25:30,530
Speaker 3: Thanks, Molly. Thank you.

486
00:25:30,590 --> 00:25:36,460
Speaker 1: You're the best. Elliot Rodriguez is a journalist. running for

487
00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:41,040
Speaker 1: Congress in Florida's 27th district. Welcome, welcome, Elliot.

488
00:25:41,740 --> 00:25:44,140
Speaker 4: Thank you, Molly. Pleasure to be here with you.

489
00:25:44,180 --> 00:25:49,760
Speaker 1: Okay. First time candidate. Tell us about what, first of all,

490
00:25:49,780 --> 00:25:56,830
Speaker 1: you're running against Maria Salazar. She won by 20 points,

491
00:25:57,010 --> 00:25:59,170
Speaker 1: but her fortunes have faded.

492
00:25:59,970 --> 00:26:02,550
Speaker 4: Yes. Before I start, I want to thank Maria Salazar

493
00:26:02,590 --> 00:26:05,630
Speaker 4: for for bringing me all these supporters from all over

494
00:26:05,670 --> 00:26:11,690
Speaker 4: the country. After she kind of self imploded and said

495
00:26:11,710 --> 00:26:14,280
Speaker 4: all these crazy things about Donald Trump, I started getting

496
00:26:14,340 --> 00:26:16,979
Speaker 4: calls from supporters saying, I'm going to help you out.

497
00:26:17,020 --> 00:26:20,880
Speaker 4: You're running against that batshit crazy woman in Florida. Sounds

498
00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:23,000
Speaker 4: like you could use some help. And I'm saying, yeah,

499
00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:25,750
Speaker 4: she is batshit crazy, but she's got a lot of

500
00:26:25,790 --> 00:26:28,709
Speaker 4: money coming her way. So we need the help. And

501
00:26:28,930 --> 00:26:30,850
Speaker 4: I am grateful for the attention that I'm getting.

502
00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:34,660
Speaker 1: So, Elliot, I think what's really interesting about your race

503
00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:39,260
Speaker 1: is that you are Cuban. And this is a very

504
00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:44,300
Speaker 1: Cuban race, right? In a very Cuban district that is

505
00:26:44,380 --> 00:26:47,139
Speaker 1: about a lot of what is happening in the Cuban

506
00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:48,859
Speaker 1: community right now. Is that fair?

507
00:26:48,859 --> 00:26:54,320
Speaker 4: 100%. I would say the Cuban-American community. I have Cuban parents.

508
00:26:54,340 --> 00:26:56,879
Speaker 4: I was born in New York, but I'm Cuban-American.

509
00:26:57,090 --> 00:26:57,270
Speaker 3: Right.

510
00:26:57,330 --> 00:26:58,030
Speaker 1: That's what I mean.

511
00:26:58,070 --> 00:26:58,310
Speaker 5: Sorry.

512
00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:02,840
Speaker 1: So talk us through what is happening in the Cuban-American

513
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:07,260
Speaker 1: section of Florida where you are in your district.

514
00:27:07,740 --> 00:27:11,399
Speaker 4: What's happening is that the Cuban-American community down here in

515
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:15,690
Speaker 4: Miami is opening its eyes. We are opening our eyes

516
00:27:15,830 --> 00:27:21,110
Speaker 4: to the cruelty and inhumanity of Donald Trump's immigration policy,

517
00:27:21,150 --> 00:27:28,139
Speaker 4: but we're also experiencing this Donald Trump economy People in

518
00:27:28,220 --> 00:27:32,410
Speaker 4: Miami are being driven out, pushed out of their hometown

519
00:27:32,450 --> 00:27:35,590
Speaker 4: because they can't afford to live here. I know that

520
00:27:35,609 --> 00:27:37,870
Speaker 4: we're having an economic crisis all over the country, right?

521
00:27:38,150 --> 00:27:41,830
Speaker 4: We're all in agreement, but I will suggest that it's

522
00:27:41,910 --> 00:27:44,639
Speaker 4: worse in Miami than anywhere else. And I'll tell you why,

523
00:27:44,700 --> 00:27:47,700
Speaker 4: because after the pandemic, it seems like the world discovered

524
00:27:47,740 --> 00:27:51,300
Speaker 4: Miami and people started flocking to here because, oh, we

525
00:27:51,340 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 4: have great weather. Well, guess what? We've always had great weather. Also,

526
00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:57,780
Speaker 4: people came down here because Florida doesn't have an income

527
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:00,940
Speaker 4: tax and save money. Well, guess what? Florida has never

528
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:03,459
Speaker 4: had an income tax. But it seems like people have

529
00:28:03,510 --> 00:28:05,950
Speaker 4: just discovered it. They're all moving down here. They're buying

530
00:28:06,430 --> 00:28:11,469
Speaker 4: luxury condos and luxury waterfront mansions. You know, Jeff Bezos,

531
00:28:11,510 --> 00:28:15,570
Speaker 4: Sergey Brin, all these tech billionaires are moving here. And

532
00:28:16,030 --> 00:28:18,290
Speaker 4: I welcome them. They're adding to the tax base. That's fine.

533
00:28:18,530 --> 00:28:21,840
Speaker 4: But they are pushing out working people. They are pushing

534
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:26,260
Speaker 4: out middle class people. They are pushing out young families

535
00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:29,619
Speaker 4: like my daughter and my sons-in-law who have moved out

536
00:28:29,660 --> 00:28:31,960
Speaker 4: of here because they can't afford to live in Miami.

537
00:28:32,260 --> 00:28:34,400
Speaker 4: And that's being ignored by our member of Congress.

538
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:38,090
Speaker 1: So part of what's happening here, though, too, part of

539
00:28:38,150 --> 00:28:42,110
Speaker 1: why Florida is being hit so hard by the affordability

540
00:28:42,130 --> 00:28:46,890
Speaker 1: crisis is about flood insurance. And that is hyper-local, but

541
00:28:46,970 --> 00:28:48,610
Speaker 1: I wonder if you could talk about it because I

542
00:28:48,650 --> 00:28:49,750
Speaker 1: think it's really important.

543
00:28:50,290 --> 00:28:52,010
Speaker 4: Well, it's funny that you should ask me about flood

544
00:28:52,050 --> 00:28:55,100
Speaker 4: insurance because Right now, we are going through something called

545
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:58,160
Speaker 4: the king tides. And that's certain times of year where

546
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:02,200
Speaker 4: the tide naturally rises. So we have had historic flooding

547
00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:05,700
Speaker 4: in low-lying areas in Miami in the last few days.

548
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:08,740
Speaker 4: In Miami Beach, in parts of the city of Miami,

549
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:13,050
Speaker 4: downtown Miami, Brickell, where so many people are moving. Right now,

550
00:29:13,110 --> 00:29:14,750
Speaker 4: we got a little bit of rain or we have

551
00:29:14,770 --> 00:29:17,610
Speaker 4: the high tides and we have two feet of water

552
00:29:17,650 --> 00:29:21,030
Speaker 4: in some of our streets. Climate change is real. Sea

553
00:29:21,090 --> 00:29:24,650
Speaker 4: level rise is real. And we are ground zero for

554
00:29:24,710 --> 00:29:27,690
Speaker 4: it here in Miami. And again, our member of Congress

555
00:29:27,780 --> 00:29:28,290
Speaker 4: ignores it.

556
00:29:28,940 --> 00:29:29,140
Speaker 3: Right.

557
00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:33,660
Speaker 1: That's a really important point. Now, you come from journalism world,

558
00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:36,170
Speaker 1: which is where I come from, too. And you wrote

559
00:29:36,210 --> 00:29:39,970
Speaker 1: for the Miami Herald, which has one of my favorite.

560
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:43,400
Speaker 1: some of my favorite writers, some of the great American

561
00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:45,720
Speaker 1: writers come from the Miami Herald. And then you went

562
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 1: to television. Talk us through what that's like coming from

563
00:29:50,140 --> 00:29:53,970
Speaker 1: journalism world, your first time candidate. How does that inform?

564
00:29:53,990 --> 00:29:55,950
Speaker 4: Well, let me drop a couple of names for the

565
00:29:55,990 --> 00:29:58,490
Speaker 4: Miami Herald. Privilege to work with.

566
00:29:58,770 --> 00:30:01,120
Speaker 1: Carl Hyacinth, That's who I was thinking of.

567
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:03,060
Speaker 4: Dave Barry. Yes!

568
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:04,320
Speaker 1: The king.

569
00:30:04,820 --> 00:30:07,610
Speaker 4: Leonard Pitts. I mean, over the years, the Miami Herald

570
00:30:07,630 --> 00:30:11,770
Speaker 4: has been such a gem. But it's suffering. They've had layoffs.

571
00:30:12,210 --> 00:30:15,930
Speaker 4: They're going through whatever newspaper, major newspaper across the country

572
00:30:15,990 --> 00:30:19,470
Speaker 4: is going through. It's hard for them to survive economically.

573
00:30:20,070 --> 00:30:25,280
Speaker 4: And that's a shame. That is shameful for our local

574
00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:28,620
Speaker 4: community where people are not getting the news that they need.

575
00:30:29,530 --> 00:30:31,910
Speaker 4: Do I need to remind everybody that the Jeffrey Epstein

576
00:30:31,930 --> 00:30:35,690
Speaker 4: story was broken by a reporter at the Miami Herald?

577
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:36,660
Speaker 1: Julie K.

578
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:40,860
Speaker 4: Brown. That's right. That's right. The $ 10 million that was

579
00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:46,200
Speaker 4: stolen by the executive branch of this state, that story

580
00:30:46,260 --> 00:30:49,860
Speaker 4: was broken by the Miami Herald. We need good journalism,

581
00:30:50,260 --> 00:30:53,000
Speaker 4: and we're losing it. And that's just sad. That's a

582
00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:55,570
Speaker 4: sad state of affairs. But I did. I did work

583
00:30:55,610 --> 00:30:57,690
Speaker 4: in the media. I started out as a newspaper reporter.

584
00:30:58,010 --> 00:31:01,490
Speaker 4: And then I worked in local news stations for 40 years.

585
00:31:01,630 --> 00:31:04,590
Speaker 4: I worked in Miami. I worked in Philadelphia for a while.

586
00:31:05,030 --> 00:31:07,430
Speaker 4: I loved Philadelphia, but not enough to want to stay,

587
00:31:07,450 --> 00:31:09,850
Speaker 4: because after you live down here, you get kind of

588
00:31:09,930 --> 00:31:13,050
Speaker 4: used to this weather. So I came back to Miami,

589
00:31:13,110 --> 00:31:15,930
Speaker 4: and I was the anchor at CBS News Miami for

590
00:31:15,930 --> 00:31:19,580
Speaker 4: 25 years. And the way I see it, people trusted me.

591
00:31:19,630 --> 00:31:21,920
Speaker 4: They invited me into their homes, and I worked hard

592
00:31:21,940 --> 00:31:24,380
Speaker 4: to earn their trust each and every day. And now

593
00:31:24,420 --> 00:31:27,490
Speaker 4: that I'm not in the news business anymore, I'm asking

594
00:31:27,540 --> 00:31:28,020
Speaker 4: for their votes.

595
00:31:29,220 --> 00:31:33,040
Speaker 1: Elliot, if you win, can you figure out some kind

596
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 1: of tax incentive for local news so that these local

597
00:31:36,300 --> 00:31:37,660
Speaker 1: newspapers can come back?

598
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:41,719
Speaker 4: Tax incentive, sure. I mean, you know, you never want

599
00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:46,020
Speaker 4: to have the government financing journalism. You want journalism to

600
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:50,680
Speaker 4: be independent. And, you know, my heart breaks for local

601
00:31:50,740 --> 00:31:54,190
Speaker 4: journalism suffering the way it is. But the fact is

602
00:31:54,250 --> 00:31:57,100
Speaker 4: that you know, viewing and reading habits have changed. People

603
00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:00,080
Speaker 4: rely on their phones for information. And this is why

604
00:32:00,140 --> 00:32:03,660
Speaker 4: we have so much misinformation and disinformation because you don't

605
00:32:03,700 --> 00:32:06,150
Speaker 4: know where it's coming from. You don't know what's true

606
00:32:06,190 --> 00:32:09,510
Speaker 4: and what's not true. And now with AI, all bets

607
00:32:09,550 --> 00:32:12,150
Speaker 4: are off. So I would do whatever it is in

608
00:32:12,190 --> 00:32:15,860
Speaker 4: my power as a member of Congress to support local

609
00:32:16,060 --> 00:32:19,740
Speaker 4: independent journalism because it's so important. And that brings me

610
00:32:19,780 --> 00:32:22,460
Speaker 4: to something that just happened the other day where Donald Trump-

611
00:32:23,350 --> 00:32:28,150
Speaker 4: some media outlets from the White House briefings. My opponent

612
00:32:28,530 --> 00:32:32,040
Speaker 4: said that's okay because she said, oh, Donald Trump has

613
00:32:32,100 --> 00:32:35,469
Speaker 4: a peculiar personality. What she said made no sense, but

614
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:40,580
Speaker 4: she was defending Trump barring some news outlets from the

615
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:44,900
Speaker 4: White House briefings. And what I said is, this is censorship.

616
00:32:45,100 --> 00:32:48,940
Speaker 4: This is a violation of the First Amendment. And without

617
00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:52,820
Speaker 4: freedom of the press, we do not have democracy in

618
00:32:52,860 --> 00:32:57,860
Speaker 4: this country. Freedom of the press is fundamental. So I

619
00:32:57,980 --> 00:33:01,160
Speaker 4: asked my opponent, who's always pointing fingers at people saying,

620
00:33:01,180 --> 00:33:04,840
Speaker 4: you're a communist, you're a communist. I asked her, Maria,

621
00:33:04,980 --> 00:33:07,770
Speaker 4: are you a communist? Because this is what happens in

622
00:33:07,810 --> 00:33:13,270
Speaker 4: communist countries where communist leaders censor the press because they

623
00:33:13,290 --> 00:33:16,070
Speaker 4: don't want to ask tough questions. That's what the president

624
00:33:16,110 --> 00:33:17,670
Speaker 4: is supposed to do. And that's what the press is

625
00:33:17,710 --> 00:33:20,230
Speaker 4: supposed to do. So that's why I've asked her several times,

626
00:33:20,470 --> 00:33:21,210
Speaker 4: are you a communist?

627
00:33:23,410 --> 00:33:27,410
Speaker 1: Does she? So it strikes me that another reason why

628
00:33:27,590 --> 00:33:31,220
Speaker 1: she put together so she put this ad out, which

629
00:33:31,260 --> 00:33:36,280
Speaker 1: made Donald Trump pretty mad about how these deportation squads,

630
00:33:36,340 --> 00:33:40,120
Speaker 1: the way ISIS is operating in Florida is pretty awful.

631
00:33:41,010 --> 00:33:43,550
Speaker 1: It's also operating that way in the rest of the country. Um,

632
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:53,440
Speaker 1: She's clearly responding to something real in your community. Tell me,

633
00:33:53,550 --> 00:33:54,170
Speaker 1: what is it?

634
00:33:54,610 --> 00:33:57,390
Speaker 4: Oh, she's responding to something real, all right. She saw

635
00:33:57,450 --> 00:34:01,030
Speaker 4: the real results of our polls. Two polls have she

636
00:34:01,090 --> 00:34:05,650
Speaker 4: and I dead even. So this was her response. They're panicking.

637
00:34:05,690 --> 00:34:07,910
Speaker 4: They're worried that they're going to lose the election. So

638
00:34:07,930 --> 00:34:11,860
Speaker 4: she tried to distance herself from Trump. And you'll recall

639
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:14,490
Speaker 4: right after it happened, Trump was pretty easygoing on her.

640
00:34:15,620 --> 00:34:18,469
Speaker 4: He said, that's okay. But then other Republicans started to

641
00:34:18,510 --> 00:34:20,710
Speaker 4: do the same to see if they can take a

642
00:34:20,750 --> 00:34:23,210
Speaker 4: few steps back. And then we saw Byron Donalds, who's

643
00:34:23,250 --> 00:34:27,110
Speaker 4: running for governor here, totally erased Donald Trump from his website.

644
00:34:27,890 --> 00:34:31,580
Speaker 4: I think what happened is that Trump said, uh-oh, children,

645
00:34:31,660 --> 00:34:35,300
Speaker 4: come back to Papa. And so she set her straight.

646
00:34:35,340 --> 00:34:39,239
Speaker 4: That's why she posted those negative posts the other day.

647
00:34:39,910 --> 00:34:42,670
Speaker 4: to rein her back in, said, hey, that's far enough, Maria.

648
00:34:42,750 --> 00:34:45,810
Speaker 4: You voted with me 100% of the time. We allowed

649
00:34:45,850 --> 00:34:48,930
Speaker 4: you to put that little video out there, but that's it.

650
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:51,960
Speaker 4: You know what? People here are not fooled. They know

651
00:34:52,020 --> 00:34:54,600
Speaker 4: that she voted for all of that. They know that

652
00:34:54,780 --> 00:34:57,960
Speaker 4: when we had a horrible detention center here that they

653
00:34:58,020 --> 00:35:03,140
Speaker 4: named Alligator Alcatraz, what a horrific thing to do. And

654
00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:06,279
Speaker 4: when you think about somebody actually came up with this?

655
00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:09,480
Speaker 4: What kind of evil Dr. Frankenstein type person would come

656
00:35:09,540 --> 00:35:11,380
Speaker 4: up with something? Well, I'll tell you who it is.

657
00:35:11,860 --> 00:35:15,299
Speaker 4: It's James Uthmeyer, our current attorney general of the state

658
00:35:15,340 --> 00:35:18,530
Speaker 4: of Florida who's running for reelection. But when that happened,

659
00:35:18,969 --> 00:35:22,910
Speaker 4: Maria Salazar didn't say anything. She visited Alligator Alcatraz and

660
00:35:22,930 --> 00:35:26,810
Speaker 4: she said that the beds were clean, were comfortable, and

661
00:35:26,850 --> 00:35:29,850
Speaker 4: that the cages seemed like they were clean too. Nobody

662
00:35:29,890 --> 00:35:32,569
Speaker 4: wants to be in cages, but the cages were okay.

663
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:37,070
Speaker 4: Nobody wants to be in a cage that That's putting

664
00:35:37,110 --> 00:35:40,469
Speaker 4: it mildly. I mean, this is a community made up

665
00:35:40,530 --> 00:35:44,670
Speaker 4: of immigrants. Right. And so this cruelty is what people

666
00:35:44,730 --> 00:35:47,250
Speaker 4: here are responding to. And they're saying, no, we did

667
00:35:47,290 --> 00:35:48,010
Speaker 4: not vote for this.

668
00:35:48,610 --> 00:35:51,319
Speaker 1: So just when you're talking about this, because I think

669
00:35:51,340 --> 00:35:55,720
Speaker 1: this is really important, it strikes me that a lot

670
00:35:55,739 --> 00:36:00,900
Speaker 1: of people have fallen victim to ICE, especially in your area,

671
00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:04,859
Speaker 1: who did not think that ICE was going to target them.

672
00:36:05,590 --> 00:36:08,790
Speaker 1: Have you seen that firsthand? Have you heard that firsthand?

673
00:36:08,969 --> 00:36:13,400
Speaker 1: And also, is that correct? And talk us through what

674
00:36:13,420 --> 00:36:14,219
Speaker 1: you've seen or heard.

675
00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:20,759
Speaker 4: Absolutely right. Even in her ad, Salazar says, Mr. President, 50%, 50%

676
00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:22,839
Speaker 4: of the people have no criminal records. I think that's

677
00:36:22,900 --> 00:36:24,860
Speaker 4: putting it, that's kind of low. I think it's more

678
00:36:25,430 --> 00:36:28,270
Speaker 4: than 50. And I see it because I've been to

679
00:36:28,310 --> 00:36:31,109
Speaker 4: these detention centers. We have one in Miramar, Florida, just

680
00:36:31,170 --> 00:36:33,650
Speaker 4: outside Miami. And it's not even supposed to be a

681
00:36:33,650 --> 00:36:36,680
Speaker 4: detention center. It's just an office, a processing center. And

682
00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:41,380
Speaker 4: they're keeping people in there, like 50 people in a

683
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:44,420
Speaker 4: room that's just a waiting room. This is horrific. And

684
00:36:44,500 --> 00:36:48,620
Speaker 4: so people are showing up for immigration appointments and they're

685
00:36:48,660 --> 00:36:52,610
Speaker 4: being detained. And the family members are outside. They're nervous

686
00:36:52,710 --> 00:36:55,130
Speaker 4: on pins and needles, not knowing if their loved one

687
00:36:55,170 --> 00:36:57,410
Speaker 4: is going to come out or going to stay in.

688
00:36:57,730 --> 00:37:01,469
Speaker 4: And you talk to them and their stories are heartbreaking.

689
00:37:02,070 --> 00:37:05,510
Speaker 4: And so the community is seeing this and they're telling

690
00:37:05,530 --> 00:37:08,890
Speaker 4: me the same things. This is not what we voted for.

691
00:37:09,380 --> 00:37:12,240
Speaker 4: We were told they were going to deport the worst

692
00:37:12,300 --> 00:37:16,319
Speaker 4: of the worst, right? Violent criminals. I'm for sending them back.

693
00:37:16,420 --> 00:37:19,680
Speaker 4: That's perfectly fine with me, but that's not what's happening.

694
00:37:19,719 --> 00:37:22,900
Speaker 4: They're picking up people in Home Depot parking lots and

695
00:37:22,980 --> 00:37:26,000
Speaker 4: bus stops on their way to work. That should not

696
00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:28,279
Speaker 4: be happening in this country. My parents came to this

697
00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:31,609
Speaker 4: country as immigrants. And they had an opportunity to live

698
00:37:31,630 --> 00:37:34,770
Speaker 4: the American dream, which is to come work. My father

699
00:37:34,850 --> 00:37:37,250
Speaker 4: owned a bodega in New York, a grocery store. My

700
00:37:37,290 --> 00:37:40,719
Speaker 4: mother was a seamstress in the garment district. I mean,

701
00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:46,600
Speaker 4: that's not the typical American success story. And they had

702
00:37:46,660 --> 00:37:51,460
Speaker 4: children born in this country, first-generation Americans. My daughters are

703
00:37:51,500 --> 00:37:54,589
Speaker 4: now married. One's married to a guy from Georgia whose

704
00:37:54,650 --> 00:38:00,230
Speaker 4: parents came here Before the revolution of the United States,

705
00:38:00,290 --> 00:38:02,430
Speaker 4: the other one is married to a guy who was

706
00:38:02,469 --> 00:38:05,370
Speaker 4: born in Serbia. The other one is married to a

707
00:38:05,370 --> 00:38:08,670
Speaker 4: guy in Peru. So that's what this country is all about,

708
00:38:08,830 --> 00:38:11,989
Speaker 4: isn't it? That's the way I was raised. And this

709
00:38:12,070 --> 00:38:14,370
Speaker 4: is not what we're seeing. What we're seeing is cruelty

710
00:38:14,410 --> 00:38:15,170
Speaker 4: and inhumanity.

711
00:38:17,190 --> 00:38:21,489
Speaker 1: Do you think that, like, for example, I know the mayoral,

712
00:38:21,989 --> 00:38:27,299
Speaker 1: the Miami mayor flipped that seat. had been Republican. Do

713
00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:31,510
Speaker 1: you think people from the Cuban community have put together,

714
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:34,490
Speaker 1: like that there was a sense that they might not

715
00:38:34,610 --> 00:38:38,149
Speaker 1: get deported because the community has been here for such

716
00:38:38,190 --> 00:38:40,950
Speaker 1: a long time? And then they were, I mean, do

717
00:38:40,989 --> 00:38:43,950
Speaker 1: you think there was some kind of surprise when ICE

718
00:38:44,469 --> 00:38:45,759
Speaker 1: started targeting them too?

719
00:38:46,180 --> 00:38:50,380
Speaker 4: Yes, I definitely think that the local Cuban American community thought, oh,

720
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:53,000
Speaker 4: we're going to be spared because we've been such loyal

721
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:55,830
Speaker 4: Trump supporters. Yeah. of his time. They even put out

722
00:38:55,870 --> 00:38:58,709
Speaker 4: a song, I Will Vote for Donald Trump, and gave

723
00:38:58,730 --> 00:39:03,430
Speaker 4: him all these rallies here and named streets after him.

724
00:39:03,489 --> 00:39:07,839
Speaker 4: And now we even have a quote-unquote Trump library that's

725
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:12,540
Speaker 4: going up in downtown Miami. A $ 350 million lot that

726
00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:17,759
Speaker 4: belongs to the local college was given away, given away

727
00:39:18,060 --> 00:39:22,970
Speaker 4: to the Trump family to build quote-unquote library in downtown Miami.

728
00:39:23,010 --> 00:39:25,750
Speaker 4: So that's still being fought in the courts and we're

729
00:39:25,790 --> 00:39:29,730
Speaker 4: hoping that that doesn't happen because that land belongs to

730
00:39:29,750 --> 00:39:34,160
Speaker 4: the students of Miami Dade College, not to Donald Trump.

731
00:39:34,180 --> 00:39:36,140
Speaker 4: But I think the local community thought, oh, we've done

732
00:39:36,340 --> 00:39:39,890
Speaker 4: all this for Donald Trump. He's going to spare us. No,

733
00:39:40,030 --> 00:39:42,790
Speaker 4: not at all. In fact, we're being hit hard right now.

734
00:39:43,300 --> 00:39:46,259
Speaker 4: Right now, this is ground zero for ICE. They're in

735
00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:49,820
Speaker 4: different neighborhoods grabbing people, and it's wrong. We have an

736
00:39:49,940 --> 00:39:53,630
Speaker 4: area here called Doral, which has a big Venezuelan community.

737
00:39:53,690 --> 00:39:57,270
Speaker 4: These are people who fled the Maduro regime. And as

738
00:39:57,310 --> 00:39:59,690
Speaker 4: you know, the United States went and picked up Maduro,

739
00:39:59,710 --> 00:40:02,109
Speaker 4: but they left the regime there. It's the same.

740
00:40:02,230 --> 00:40:04,410
Speaker 1: Dulce Rodriguez, yeah. That's right.

741
00:40:04,510 --> 00:40:06,790
Speaker 4: And the only difference is that Donald Trump is taking

742
00:40:06,830 --> 00:40:11,610
Speaker 4: their oil. And in Cuba, we... blockaded them from getting

743
00:40:11,969 --> 00:40:14,850
Speaker 4: Venezuelan oil. So now they are in the dark. They

744
00:40:14,930 --> 00:40:17,910
Speaker 4: can't get food or medicine. They're suffering more than ever.

745
00:40:18,630 --> 00:40:21,110
Speaker 4: And what's the end game? The end game seems to

746
00:40:21,130 --> 00:40:24,009
Speaker 4: be for Donald Trump to build a resort in Cuba.

747
00:40:24,050 --> 00:40:26,219
Speaker 4: He said so himself. He said, oh, Cuba doesn't have oil,

748
00:40:26,500 --> 00:40:30,140
Speaker 4: but it has beaches. Well, that's not what we were told.

749
00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:32,779
Speaker 4: We were told this was about restoring democracy. We were

750
00:40:32,820 --> 00:40:35,640
Speaker 4: told this was about freeing political prisoners. We were told

751
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:38,040
Speaker 4: this is about freedom of the press. Turns out it's

752
00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:40,890
Speaker 4: none of that. It's just enriching Donald Trump. And the

753
00:40:40,950 --> 00:40:44,359
Speaker 4: local community sees it. And that's why they are going

754
00:40:44,380 --> 00:40:48,820
Speaker 4: to send Democrats to Washington. And the Cuban-American community has

755
00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:52,720
Speaker 4: voted for Democrats in the past. They voted for Bill Clinton,

756
00:40:52,739 --> 00:40:56,640
Speaker 4: voted for Barack Obama. We had a senator and governor

757
00:40:56,680 --> 00:40:59,560
Speaker 4: here by the name of Bob Graham, who was in

758
00:40:59,580 --> 00:41:03,680
Speaker 4: this community. Lawton Childs, our former governor. Maurice Ferre, our

759
00:41:03,719 --> 00:41:07,900
Speaker 4: former mayor here. So this community has had a history

760
00:41:08,100 --> 00:41:13,160
Speaker 4: of voting. for Democrats when the right Democratic candidate comes along.

761
00:41:15,239 --> 00:41:21,080
Speaker 1: You mentioned this missing $ 10 million. I want you to

762
00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:24,279
Speaker 1: talk about this $ 10 million because I think it's a

763
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:28,890
Speaker 1: pretty interesting story that I'm curious your take on.

764
00:41:28,910 --> 00:41:34,190
Speaker 4: Sure. The state of Florida was overcharged $ 10 million for

765
00:41:34,350 --> 00:41:40,469
Speaker 4: Medicaid services. The money was demanded from the provider and

766
00:41:40,570 --> 00:41:42,830
Speaker 4: returned to the state of Florida. And it should have

767
00:41:42,850 --> 00:41:47,210
Speaker 4: been returned to the Medicaid program, right? To provide medical

768
00:41:47,330 --> 00:41:51,029
Speaker 4: care for the most vulnerable kids and people who are

769
00:41:51,170 --> 00:41:56,169
Speaker 4: on Medicare. Instead, it was diverted. It was diverted to

770
00:41:56,250 --> 00:42:01,000
Speaker 4: political action committees, Republican political action committees who were fighting

771
00:42:01,060 --> 00:42:05,600
Speaker 4: against legalizing marijuana in the state of Florida, fighting against

772
00:42:05,640 --> 00:42:11,160
Speaker 4: that constitutional amendment. $ 10 million. It was investigated by a

773
00:42:11,219 --> 00:42:16,470
Speaker 4: grand jury in Tallahassee, and the grand jury determined that

774
00:42:16,670 --> 00:42:23,899
Speaker 4: this money was misappropriated, but we can't exactly determine who misappropriated. Well,

775
00:42:23,940 --> 00:42:27,620
Speaker 4: that tells me that the prosecutor didn't do a very

776
00:42:27,660 --> 00:42:29,680
Speaker 4: good job with this grand jury because we've all heard

777
00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:32,060
Speaker 4: the saying that a prosecutor can get a grand jury

778
00:42:32,080 --> 00:42:34,900
Speaker 4: to indict a ham sandwich if they want. So there

779
00:42:34,920 --> 00:42:37,960
Speaker 4: was plenty of evidence to show that this was a conspiracy.

780
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:42,460
Speaker 4: This was a conspiracy that involved the governor, his wife,

781
00:42:42,860 --> 00:42:47,180
Speaker 4: the current attorney general, and our current senator to divert

782
00:42:47,239 --> 00:42:51,529
Speaker 4: this money to political action committees and not use it

783
00:42:51,710 --> 00:42:56,870
Speaker 4: for children who need health care. This is an abomination.

784
00:42:56,890 --> 00:43:01,350
Speaker 4: This is horrific. And somebody should be held accountable for this. Yeah.

785
00:43:02,210 --> 00:43:05,590
Speaker 1: Really good point. And that scandal is just mind blowing.

786
00:43:05,630 --> 00:43:08,990
Speaker 1: And the fact that and you're the the Republican who

787
00:43:09,050 --> 00:43:12,489
Speaker 1: is running for Senate now was involved in this, too.

788
00:43:12,510 --> 00:43:17,680
Speaker 4: Right. That Republican has her name. Her name is Ashley Moody. Yeah.

789
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:20,980
Speaker 4: Running for the Senate. She's our current senator, but she

790
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:24,680
Speaker 4: was never elected. She was appointed. Yeah. To replace Marco

791
00:43:24,719 --> 00:43:28,020
Speaker 4: Rubio and Marco Rubio became secretary of state. The other

792
00:43:28,060 --> 00:43:32,020
Speaker 4: person involved. is James Uthmeyer, who is our current attorney general.

793
00:43:32,420 --> 00:43:36,719
Speaker 4: He wasn't elected either. So here we have these unelected

794
00:43:36,940 --> 00:43:42,480
Speaker 4: officials who are making these decisions to divert money from

795
00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:45,339
Speaker 4: sick kids to use it for political action committees. So

796
00:43:45,390 --> 00:43:48,489
Speaker 4: that's what voters need to keep in mind when they

797
00:43:48,530 --> 00:43:49,130
Speaker 4: go to the polls.

798
00:43:50,210 --> 00:43:53,910
Speaker 1: Yeah, very much so. Elliot, thank you. Thank you. Thank

799
00:43:53,930 --> 00:43:54,989
Speaker 1: you for coming on.

800
00:43:55,010 --> 00:43:57,690
Speaker 4: Thank you, Molly. Great talking to you.

801
00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:05,009
Speaker 1: And now your moment of suffering. Jesse Cannon.

802
00:44:05,710 --> 00:44:08,630
Speaker 2: Molly Jung Fast, I know you're a big fan of lapdogs.

803
00:44:08,710 --> 00:44:10,790
Speaker 2: I have one as well. But the lapdogs in the

804
00:44:10,830 --> 00:44:13,049
Speaker 2: Supreme Court, not such a big fan of. And they've

805
00:44:13,110 --> 00:44:16,110
Speaker 2: greenlit Trump's third country deportations.

806
00:44:16,330 --> 00:44:19,390
Speaker 1: By the way, these third party deportations are one of

807
00:44:19,430 --> 00:44:23,319
Speaker 1: the worst, cruelest things that our government is doing right now.

808
00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:29,140
Speaker 1: And here's why. It is you are taking people who

809
00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:32,280
Speaker 1: have very little and putting them in countries they can't leave.

810
00:44:32,940 --> 00:44:35,239
Speaker 1: And they are stuck there. Right. Like this is not

811
00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:38,830
Speaker 1: like putting you know, this is not like sending someone

812
00:44:38,870 --> 00:44:43,590
Speaker 1: who has an American passport and an Amex to a

813
00:44:43,810 --> 00:44:46,950
Speaker 1: country where they have to, you know, get an Uber

814
00:44:47,250 --> 00:44:50,630
Speaker 1: to the airport. These are sending people who have very

815
00:44:50,750 --> 00:44:57,060
Speaker 1: little being sent to places where they don't, they can't leave.

816
00:44:57,540 --> 00:45:01,600
Speaker 1: And it's like one of the cruelest parts of the

817
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:05,069
Speaker 1: Trump administration. I would also add, I'm not sure how

818
00:45:05,250 --> 00:45:07,509
Speaker 1: feasible this is. Like one of the things that the

819
00:45:07,590 --> 00:45:12,219
Speaker 1: Obama administration had problems with was trying to find countries

820
00:45:12,260 --> 00:45:15,900
Speaker 1: that would take like the Uyghurs, people who needed to

821
00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:19,700
Speaker 1: be moved for their own safety. So I'll be very

822
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:24,570
Speaker 1: curious as to who accepts these refugees. But I also

823
00:45:24,630 --> 00:45:27,810
Speaker 1: think it's just like yet another way to torture people,

824
00:45:27,890 --> 00:45:31,370
Speaker 1: yet another way to make life terrible for them. And

825
00:45:31,810 --> 00:45:35,510
Speaker 1: if you listen to our interview with Mahmoud Khalil, you

826
00:45:35,570 --> 00:45:42,650
Speaker 1: can hear just some of how terribly this administration treats people.

827
00:45:43,350 --> 00:45:44,270
Speaker 3: It's really dark.

828
00:45:45,010 --> 00:45:49,410
Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in

829
00:45:49,790 --> 00:45:55,140
Speaker 1: every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday to hear the best

830
00:45:55,219 --> 00:45:59,540
Speaker 1: minds in politics make sense of all this chaos. If

831
00:45:59,580 --> 00:46:02,660
Speaker 1: you enjoy this podcast, please send it to a friend

832
00:46:03,140 --> 00:46:06,280
Speaker 1: and keep the conversation going. Thanks for listening.