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 a CBS you gov poll has
Speaker 1: Trump at his lowest approval rating of thirty seven percent.
Speaker 1: We have such a great show for you today. The
Speaker 1: Lincoln Project's own Rick Wilson joins us to discuss Senator
Speaker 1: Bill Cassidy losing his Senate seat and what it means
Speaker 1: for trumps support. Ben We'll talk to Assemblyman Michael Lasher
Speaker 1: about why he thinks he's the candidate to choose in
Speaker 1: New York twelfth's crowded congressional race. But first the News.
Speaker 2: Molly that this was a really good article on NBC News.
Speaker 2: It's entailed what GOP officials are hopeful and worried about
Speaker 2: six months from the mid terms, because I think we
Speaker 2: don't often get that perspective.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so b, It's actually a really smart way to go.
Speaker 1: NBC News no longer a part of MS now loved
Speaker 1: them anyway. NBC News spoke to roughly thirty Republican National
Speaker 1: Committee members and GOP activists around the country. We saw
Speaker 1: Politico Playbook did this the other day where they talked
Speaker 1: to a very big guy from the Trump administration who
Speaker 1: is going onto the campaign side, and he basically said
Speaker 1: he's totally convinced that they're going to win and they're
Speaker 1: the best, which seemed very trumpy.
Speaker 2: That felt more like spin. This felt a little more honest.
Speaker 1: And you know why it's honest because you're not getting
Speaker 1: anyone's names, Whereas with James Blair from the White House,
Speaker 1: you've got his name, and you've got Trump who's you
Speaker 1: know who might see that, whereas here nobody's giving their names.
Speaker 1: And so they said they see reason for optimism, Okay,
Speaker 1: and what is that optimism? They think there's optimism because
Speaker 1: everybody who does use their name does actually say that
Speaker 1: everything's going to be right. Who is delivering real results
Speaker 1: for the American people? Says Joseph would char Of, the
Speaker 1: chair of the Arkansas Republican Party. President Trump's administration has
Speaker 1: already run circles around failed President Biden. Okay, Joseph, I
Speaker 1: want whatever you're smoking, you know. So there's a lot
Speaker 1: of that. And then some of them are saying that
Speaker 1: because the redistricting, they might win, which is what we
Speaker 1: call cheating. In case you're wondering, a North Carolina Republican
Speaker 1: said we stopped the largest tax increase in American history.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it's sort of true that his
Speaker 1: tax cut would have expired, but the rn C refused
Speaker 1: to comment. You know, we're in the third month of
Speaker 1: the Iranian War, and there's been a real divide between
Speaker 1: America Firsters and Trumpy Trumpers. So that's a real split
Speaker 1: for them, you know, and Trump has been like a
Speaker 1: little involved, but mostly in trying to go off enemies,
Speaker 1: so I think, and you know, whenever Trump starts talking
Speaker 1: about the midterms on social when he starts posing about them,
Speaker 1: he basically says that they have to pass the same
Speaker 1: America Act so that they can so that make it
Speaker 1: harder for people to vote, which I think is a
Speaker 1: pretty good sign that he is a little bit worried
Speaker 1: about what's coming down the pike.
Speaker 2: Yep, we saw Governor Jared Poulis, who, while they have
Speaker 2: a democratded next to their name, is long thought to
Speaker 2: be much more of a libertarian Democrat, part in election,
Speaker 2: denier and mischief maker. To put it nicely, Tina Peters,
Speaker 2: this says people very very very very bad, and I
Speaker 2: would agree.
Speaker 1: So the governor of Colorado. Jared Paulis is going to
Speaker 1: release Tina Peters from jail. And I think that what's
Speaker 1: important here is Tina Peters did a lot of crimes,
Speaker 1: election crimes, and Polis is going to commute her sentence.
Speaker 1: She's serving a nine year sentence, Like this is not
Speaker 1: some minor thing, right, she tried. Trump had wanted him
Speaker 1: to pardon her, and he's like cutting Colorado's federal funds
Speaker 1: in order to make Polis partner her. Like it's a
Speaker 1: real blackmail stuff and it's really bad that he's doing it,
Speaker 1: But I bet what happened was he felt like he
Speaker 1: had to in order to get the money for Colorado.
Speaker 1: This is not how the federal government is supposed to
Speaker 1: work any which way. It was a I think it's
Speaker 1: a huge mistake to do it that way. Pardoning her
Speaker 1: was terrible because it's sense of precedent. But I certainly
Speaker 1: could see how it happened, and I could see like
Speaker 1: Polus being set being in a situation where there was
Speaker 1: just nothing where he had sort of no choices. But
Speaker 1: I still think, like he's going to to regret this.
Speaker 1: We're all going to regret this, and you know, again,
Speaker 1: like we are still cruising into this midterm cycle, and
Speaker 1: while it looks like it may be okay, it's still
Speaker 1: far from We're still far from sure that this is
Speaker 1: every that everything here is going to be fine. It
Speaker 1: seems like a really dicey moment for American democracy, and
Speaker 1: the idea that a democratic governor would pardon someone who's
Speaker 1: done election crimes is pretty dark.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we are now seeing a big reaction also
Speaker 2: to another governor, Abigail Spinberger down in Virginia. There are
Speaker 2: a lot of people who feel like she's giving up
Speaker 2: the fight on redistricting a little fast after some court losses.
Speaker 1: She could in fact take this to the Supreme Court,
Speaker 1: and I'm not entirely sure why she wouldn't. Now, the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court is filled with partisan hacks, but you'll remember
Speaker 1: the very conservative of Virginia court, filled with Republicans, voted
Speaker 1: it down. But she can still take it up, and
Speaker 1: she seems like she's not wanting to. This Supreme Court
Speaker 1: has thwrown out this demended constitution which people voted for,
Speaker 1: and the referendum costs Democrats seventy million, and they really
Speaker 1: did play by the rules to get over lined. I
Speaker 1: still think that Democrats will ultimately win. Again. This is
Speaker 1: this thing with asymmetrical warfare, where Democrats refuse to play
Speaker 1: in the same way that Republicans do. And so you
Speaker 1: have these Republican governors like the governor of Louisiana who's
Speaker 1: very maga and he's doing stuff like redistricting when people
Speaker 1: are already voting in the primaries, and then your democratic
Speaker 1: governors refusing to do that. And the incentive structure is
Speaker 1: now that Republicans behave in a way that's anti democratic,
Speaker 1: and that's just it, you know, that's just what's expected
Speaker 1: of them, and Democrats still follow the rules. And you
Speaker 1: know what will happen eventually if this doesn't get rectified,
Speaker 1: and it may not. If it doesn't get rectified, then
Speaker 1: Democrats will ultimately be what's happening really now, which is
Speaker 1: they won't be operating in the same political universe as Republicans,
Speaker 1: and that will mean that Democrats will play by the
Speaker 1: rules and Republicans will cheat.
Speaker 2: So interesting thing. You know, when Trump first got into office,
Speaker 2: we talked a lot about Alligator Alcatraz and this was
Speaker 2: their big, big own, the Libs saying about how much
Speaker 2: the cruelty is going to be awesome. Well it looks
Speaker 2: like it's over with.
Speaker 1: Some of these really dumb ideas. It's funny because Alligator
Speaker 1: Alcatraz was little death camps they built in the Everglades,
Speaker 1: and it was where they were going to send migrants
Speaker 1: some migrants there. It was hot, it was shitty, and
Speaker 1: it cost It was so expensive. And by the way,
Speaker 1: my favorite part is as they're closing it, Ron DeSantis says,
Speaker 1: we save taxpayer money. No, honey, you didn't. And in fact,
Speaker 1: so the total spent on an Alligator Alcatraz and Deportation
Speaker 1: Depot Depot, Florida's other state run detention centers, is at
Speaker 1: least four hundred and sixty million dollars. The highest bill,
Speaker 1: ninety two million, went to Duty Calls, a portable toilet
Speaker 1: and sanitation company. So basically, they spent like hundreds of
Speaker 1: millions of dollars and more than a million dollars a day.
Speaker 1: The Agency PROTECT projected the center would cost one point
Speaker 1: one billion. By June twenty twenty six, they spent four
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars to Taser or International. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: you look at this spending and you are like, what
Speaker 1: the fuck, what the fuck?
Speaker 2: So this is giving Putin's Russia grafted a real run
Speaker 2: for its money.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's what we call fraud, waste and abuse.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you've heard of it.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, yes, that's familiar. Why does it suff
Speaker 2: so familiar?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just I think Just Dance is
Speaker 1: doing it right now. Hey, it's Molly john Fast here.
Speaker 1: My memoir, How to Lose Your Mother is out now
Speaker 1: on paperback, arriving just ahead of Mother's Day. How to
Speaker 1: Lose Your Mother has garnered a lot of praise from
Speaker 1: Good Morning America, then Your Times, Book Review, Vogue, Vanity Fair,
Speaker 1: and a lot of other outlets Washington Post. The book
Speaker 1: is about what it's like to be part of the
Speaker 1: Sandwich generation, to take care of your mother and your children.
Speaker 1: And I talk about being a mother and a daughter
Speaker 1: and the relationship I have with my mother and all
Speaker 1: of its complexities. It's funny and it's fraught, and it's sad,
Speaker 1: and it's about life. My story, this story, the story
Speaker 1: of How to Lose Your Mother, follows a year in
Speaker 1: which my mother, Erica Johng, is diagnosed with dementia, my
Speaker 1: husband faces a life threatening illness, and what unfolds is
Speaker 1: a really honest story about what happens when the shit
Speaker 1: hits the fan and everything goes wrong. As The Washington
Speaker 1: Post said, the book is filled with lines so good
Speaker 1: you won't just want to underline them. It's a memoir
Speaker 1: that continues to resonate, so please pick it up. Rick
Speaker 1: Wilson is the founder of The Lincoln Project and the
Speaker 1: host of the Lincoln Project podcast. Rick Wilson by John
Speaker 1: Fast How are you Oh? Every day is another day
Speaker 1: of everything.
Speaker 3: Fun, bridal, joy and pleasure.
Speaker 1: Everything Trump touches die. Now it has.
Speaker 3: Been said to be the case that everything Trump touches dies.
Speaker 1: And the Louisiana Primary edition so amazing that Saturday Louisiana
Speaker 1: has a primary. It is no longer a jungle primary.
Speaker 1: It is a one party Republican primary. It is you'll
Speaker 1: notice there's not a congressional primary that day because the
Speaker 1: governor of Louisiana, who is a big Trump humper, decides
Speaker 1: that he's going to redistrict because the Donald Trump Supreme
Speaker 1: Court has killed the Voting Rights Act. So I'm just
Speaker 1: going to set you up for this. We have John,
Speaker 1: we have Bill Cassidy. He votes to confirm RFK Junior
Speaker 1: despite the fact that he's a doctor. And then he
Speaker 1: comes in not first, not second, but third in his
Speaker 1: primary to keep his seat.
Speaker 4: All these people that go to these MAGA rallies, they've
Speaker 4: heard that thing about the snake thousand times, right, they've
Speaker 4: heard that the thing about the snake. You knew I
Speaker 4: was a stake before he took me in. Bill Cassidy
Speaker 4: should have known that the minute he voted to impeach
Speaker 4: Trump after January sixth, that he would never be forgiven
Speaker 4: and that in and Trump is a terrible president. He
Speaker 4: is deeply, wildly unpopular in the country. He is failing
Speaker 4: in every axis. But Molly, he still has a hypnotic
Speaker 4: control over the Republican base, and they are going to
Speaker 4: go out and do what he tells them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so you know. And by the way, the.
Speaker 4: Other thing about about about voting for RFK, that's ironic
Speaker 4: for Cassidy. Casey Means, who runs the MAHA super Pack,
Speaker 4: went out and up to a million dollars against Cassidy
Speaker 4: even though he voted to confirm RFK, because.
Speaker 1: He voted not to confirm.
Speaker 4: Correct, these people, these Republicans, you can make one of
Speaker 4: two choices. You can choose exile with honor or, you
Speaker 4: can choose eventually being eaten by the alligator. And I
Speaker 4: mean this, just this week, You've got Lauren Bobert. Okay,
Speaker 4: now on the wrong side of Trump. Now he's trying
Speaker 4: to get somebody to primary Lauren Bobert. It goes off.
Speaker 1: Why is he mad at Lauren Bobert.
Speaker 4: I don't even know Molly. It could be anything. I mean,
Speaker 4: she's not blonde enough. Who knows. But nothing about this
Speaker 4: should surprise any single Republican. They all of them, they
Speaker 4: drive by the car, crash, they go, that'll ever be me.
Speaker 4: Trump loves me. I'm never going to get on the
Speaker 4: wrong side of Trump. And if you do not display
Speaker 4: one hundred percent utter devotion at all times, he will
Speaker 4: turn the base against them and destroy them. And look,
Speaker 4: it's okay with me. I want them to be stuck
Speaker 4: with him this point. I want them to be stuck
Speaker 4: in the in the hole with him at this point.
Speaker 1: I'm hot, take hot take. The only way when Trump
Speaker 1: comes after you like this to survive is what Zoran
Speaker 1: did is to have game Like I think so much
Speaker 1: about Zoran versus least of honor, Okay, at least Dephonic
Speaker 1: bounced scrapes, gets put up for a job, gets taken
Speaker 1: down for a job, back and forth. In the end,
Speaker 1: he refuses to endorse her talk about that Trump has Trump.
Speaker 4: Grew up in the culture of New York celebrity of
Speaker 4: page six. You could have a mistake, you could do
Speaker 4: something wrong. As long as you can build up some
Speaker 4: idea that you had star power or charisma or presence
Speaker 4: or game or game, you were gonna be Okay. He
Speaker 4: looks at mom Damie and says, that guy has charisma,
Speaker 4: that guy has game. You look at Alista Fanic is
Speaker 4: like the female Ron de Santis. Okay, I think that's
Speaker 4: charismo whatsoever? Zero charisma, Like no one wakes up and
Speaker 4: goes man, that's the most compelling person I've ever met.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Trump, if Bill casting.
Speaker 4: Him out there swinging it around and being a big
Speaker 4: character instead of like, I'm just a doc from Louisiana,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna do the best for my people. If it
Speaker 4: had been like, yeah, whatever, fuck yourself, Donald, go for it.
Speaker 4: You ain't gonna come down here and fuck with me.
Speaker 4: If he had done that, Trump is a is kind
Speaker 4: of a pussy, he's kind of a week guy. And
Speaker 4: and if he had done that. It might not have worked,
Speaker 4: but it would have at least made Trump like skip
Speaker 4: a beat. He would have like been uh oh uh oh,
Speaker 4: this guy's not given in, which is what Tom Massey
Speaker 4: is doing, which is like right in his face.
Speaker 1: And that's gonna be. So next week is the Tom
Speaker 1: mass in prime. Stay, we'll see, Yeah, is it Tuesday,
Speaker 1: So we'll see if he survives, if he wins, he.
Speaker 4: Is if he wins, if he wins, And look, I
Speaker 4: can tell you I heard from somebody last late last
Speaker 4: week that they are pouring in resources into this race
Speaker 4: that that that other Republican candidates will need later in
Speaker 4: the year won't have.
Speaker 3: So I'm fine with that.
Speaker 1: But they have gone a four Republicans who is pouring
Speaker 1: into money to.
Speaker 4: Republican super PACs or pouring money in against Massy to
Speaker 4: make Trump happy. Wow, Spending millions and millions and millions
Speaker 4: in millions of dollars in a congressional race that they
Speaker 4: won't have in the budget later in the year to
Speaker 4: defeat Democrats looks good with me. But yeah, I mean, look,
Speaker 4: Massy has Massy is very iconoclastic. He has a personality.
Speaker 4: He has a bigger character than Bill Cassid dead. But look,
Speaker 4: I go back on this again and again. Bill Cassidy
Speaker 4: should have understood that the only way to separate yourself
Speaker 4: from the vulnerable maga herd is to go out and
Speaker 4: build a bigger legend. Yeah yeah, and and go out
Speaker 4: and and frame it like if Trump, if Trump loses this,
Speaker 4: it's all all that stuff could have been done psychologically
Speaker 4: because Trump is vulnerable to psychological warfare, as we all know.
Speaker 4: But you know, he proved it in Indiana, and he
Speaker 4: proved it again in Louisiana. The Republican base voters and those,
Speaker 4: by the way, the ones that are voting out in
Speaker 4: these off year or excuse me, you know off the
Speaker 4: early primaries and all that stuff. Those people are the
Speaker 4: hardest core of the hardcore. They're the cuckoos. Okay, they're
Speaker 4: the they're the they're the wack a doodles. But they
Speaker 4: came out and voted in a a in a Saturday primary.
Speaker 1: And I mean it also, I mean.
Speaker 4: Closed primary, by the way, closed primary. They changed it
Speaker 4: from open to closed primary.
Speaker 1: So you didn't so in an open primary he would
Speaker 1: have had a much better shot.
Speaker 3: Be curc Cassie always won by crossover.
Speaker 1: Democratic votes right, So right now that I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to look up the polling on UH to see whether
Speaker 1: Massy what Massy looks like in these polls.
Speaker 3: It's it's closer.
Speaker 4: It's been closing up because I think the negatives have
Speaker 4: started to have a pretty strong effect on Massy.
Speaker 3: But I will say this, I will say this.
Speaker 4: The real reason we all know, the real reason he's
Speaker 4: against MASSI it's Epstein, right, and and yeah, Trump hasn't
Speaker 4: figured this out yet. Okay, you defeat Thomas Massey. So
Speaker 4: for the rest of this year, he's a suicide bomber
Speaker 4: on Epstein every day. Oh yeah, it goes out and
Speaker 4: reads names in the congressional record.
Speaker 3: What are you going to do? Fire him?
Speaker 1: Yeah? And I actually think that while Cassidy will not
Speaker 1: be a well, Cassidy will not be a firebomber is
Speaker 1: suicide bomber. Massy will be right.
Speaker 4: But here's the thing. I think Cassidy will look a
Speaker 4: lot like Tom Tillis.
Speaker 1: Right. Well, you'll get a little bit of it where.
Speaker 4: He'll he'll he'll blue card if you of the appointees
Speaker 4: that are coming. He's not going to be an instant,
Speaker 4: reliable vote. And I have heard also that Cassidy repeatedly
Speaker 4: went to Thune and said, the NRSC is supposed to
Speaker 4: protect incumbents. What the fuck are you doing? Why aren't
Speaker 4: you helping me? And they went hammaahammahammada.
Speaker 1: Trump, Yeah, Thune is really, if.
Speaker 4: You're not going to protect your incumbents, you're going to
Speaker 4: lose your leadership and how hard rule.
Speaker 1: And part of this race that is we need to
Speaker 1: talk about is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and
Speaker 1: other pro Israel groups have uncorked nine million. So it's
Speaker 1: not just Republicans. And you'll remember that Massey is super
Speaker 1: against foreign wars like that, huh his thing.
Speaker 4: So it's not even it's not even a right massive
Speaker 4: Massi is one of these guys you comes from that.
Speaker 3: Ron Paul.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's a libertarian Ron Paul like tradition of wrong
Speaker 4: foreign involvement is wrong. We've got to do war powers
Speaker 4: if we're going to do this, And he's not incorrect
Speaker 4: in the in the in the case of this war
Speaker 4: against Iran, we are.
Speaker 3: Violating the law right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Trump is saying, oh, we're on a We're on
Speaker 4: a It's like we're on a break. Really, so what
Speaker 4: you tell all your girlfriends.
Speaker 1: Doll because no, I mean, here's the problem. And I
Speaker 1: think you and I can agree on this. As someone
Speaker 1: who's very anti war, the worry I have with some
Speaker 1: of these anti war Republicans, and it's certainly the worry
Speaker 1: that I have with Tuckercalls, and not necessarily the worry
Speaker 1: I have with Thomas Massey, but certainly the worry I
Speaker 1: have with Grand Paul is that there's a there's a
Speaker 1: deep antisemon.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: It's one thing to be against foreign wars. It's another
Speaker 1: thing to not want to give any money.
Speaker 5: Did you right?
Speaker 4: And look, look you are seeing. While there is an
Speaker 4: element in the progressive side of the Democratic Party now,
Speaker 4: not a majority, but an element of anti Semitism. Now
Speaker 4: it has become a defining characteristic of a rising cohort
Speaker 4: in the Republican Party, specially eighteen to thirty year old
Speaker 4: men who aren't just like I disagree with the policies
Speaker 4: of the Yahoo administration.
Speaker 3: It's like that the Jews burn. It's not good.
Speaker 1: It's not good. And so when we talk about the
Speaker 1: mass he race, we have to talk about all the
Speaker 1: different proxies that are trading in it. But I do
Speaker 1: think it's a very interesting moment. And as someone who
Speaker 1: because we've been talking about this guy for so long,
Speaker 1: it's interesting to me to see, like what can survive
Speaker 1: in Trump two point zero and what can right? You know,
Speaker 1: talk to me about that.
Speaker 3: Look, the number one thing that Donald Trump wants, number
Speaker 3: two thing donald Trump wants, Number ten thing donald Trump
Speaker 3: wants is obedient. He is about one hundred percent blind obedience,
Speaker 3: even in seats that are in danger. He doesn't care
Speaker 3: if you cross him, doesn't matter. So you got Brian
Speaker 3: Fitzpatrick last week who's against the ballroom, and now Baga
Speaker 3: is turning onto the Jihad to try to get rid
Speaker 3: of him, and they'll lose that seat. They'll lose that.
Speaker 4: Seat if if, if he takes a lot of political
Speaker 4: damage from his own side, and he's gonna do it,
Speaker 4: he's gonna they're gonna hurt him, and they're gonna try
Speaker 4: to punish him to prove that if you cross Trump
Speaker 4: on any issue ever, you cannot disagree with him. You cannot,
Speaker 4: you cannot. You have to play the Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, JD.
Speaker 4: Van's game of mister President. You're so right, And I
Speaker 4: was hoping that I could offer you the slightest, tiniest
Speaker 4: hint of a suggestion that if I may lick your boots, sir,
Speaker 4: then perhaps you would consider the humble of blah blah
Speaker 4: blah balance.
Speaker 1: Right, But it is interesting to watch like this administration
Speaker 1: with the ballroom because so the Senate parliamentarian was like,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, So the way they're trying to do this
Speaker 1: is they're trying to put it in this package called
Speaker 1: uh reparation. No, not reparation. Yeah, somebody Saturday Live, this
Speaker 1: group right Saturday A Live was talking about how uh Iran,
Speaker 1: the Iranians were not getting reparations. Like they were like,
Speaker 1: here's what you're not getting. It's called, uh, what's it
Speaker 1: called when you're when you do it that way? Recision recision, right,
Speaker 1: the recisions package package. So there's recision package. It's meant
Speaker 1: to be about the budget. And in this budget is
Speaker 1: a billion dollars for ballroom. And the Senate parliamentarian, the
Speaker 1: same one who said you can't forgive student loans, that
Speaker 1: same one said no billion dollars from right.
Speaker 4: And here's the other part of this that that, as
Speaker 4: as as Ray pointed out to me, the arch they
Speaker 4: started moving construction equipment to build the arch. Yeah, they're
Speaker 4: also counting that under the ballroom budget now, and it's like, no,
Speaker 4: this is not how it works. You don't just get
Speaker 4: to slapshit into the budget. Willy nilly. Now what Trump
Speaker 4: will try to do this and he'll build pressure a Thune. Now.
Speaker 4: Thune said no before on overriding the parliamentariat. And it's
Speaker 4: a very slippery slope if you do that. But every
Speaker 4: Republican out there, I say this a lot. Now, I
Speaker 4: want to make sure I make this clear. I want
Speaker 4: you guys to push for the ballroom. I want you
Speaker 4: to vote for the ballroom. I want you to fight
Speaker 4: for the ballroom. I want you to make Donald Trump
Speaker 4: the happiest man on earth by being front and center.
Speaker 3: On the ballroom.
Speaker 4: Mike Lawler comes out front and center on the ballroom.
Speaker 4: I mean, dude, thank you, thank you, Mike Lawler. The
Speaker 4: ads right themselves and they already Mike.
Speaker 1: Mike Lawler is a is a Republican in a district
Speaker 1: that rushing New York district that yes, yeah, it's the
Speaker 1: Hudson Valley. So you know, it's pretty great to have him.
Speaker 1: He really went pro ballroom.
Speaker 4: He went hard pro ballroom. The president needs this for
Speaker 4: his security.
Speaker 1: It's interesting. I mean, one of the really interesting things
Speaker 1: about this moment is, if you're a strategist, pretty much
Speaker 1: everything Republicans are doing is.
Speaker 4: Wrong, right, It's an embarrassment of riches right now, Yeah,
Speaker 4: the ballroom telling people just suck it up on the
Speaker 4: gas prices.
Speaker 1: Right Trump? And whenever you get Trump talking, he's like,
Speaker 1: did you see my new granite? Look what I'm doing
Speaker 1: for the reflecting.
Speaker 3: I don't think about America's economic problems.
Speaker 5: I just think about yeah.
Speaker 1: Like do you And even like even when he talks
Speaker 1: about the war, he says like, don't worry, it's not
Speaker 1: nearly as long as Vietnam.
Speaker 4: Like Vietnam, you know, the super popular Vietnam war.
Speaker 1: It's like yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not as long as
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just completely like at every point he
Speaker 1: just does what is the thing a strategist would tell
Speaker 1: him to do? I mean, do you think? And we
Speaker 1: have the gas prices, so tell me what you think.
Speaker 1: The movie Pharaohs look.
Speaker 4: For Democrats to move is to absolutely continue to hammer
Speaker 4: their Republican counterparts and opponents on the economy. People do
Speaker 4: not trust Trump on the economy anymore, and that includes
Speaker 4: a majority of Republicans now think Trump's doing a bad
Speaker 4: job on the economy. Folks, they still love him on
Speaker 4: foreign policy. Why who knows, but they I think because
Speaker 4: Iran is like their foreign policy version of Hillary Clinton.
Speaker 4: They just hated it for so long that it's automatic.
Speaker 3: That's pretty good.
Speaker 1: Good, I'll take it.
Speaker 4: But I think what's really happening underneath the waterline is
Speaker 4: that is that Democrats have a golden opportunity. Stay on target,
Speaker 4: do not walk away from the target. The target is
Speaker 4: the target. It's the economy. This is crazy. Trump is
Speaker 4: hurting you. Republicans are with them one hundred percent. We're
Speaker 4: going to change it and make your life better. It's
Speaker 4: an easy narrative and they just need to stick with it.
Speaker 4: Nobody cares about anything else right now now. People out
Speaker 4: in the country, all the list of issues that may
Speaker 4: have merit on their own are not in the top
Speaker 4: ten or even fifteen issues. If you look at the
Speaker 4: top ten or fifteen issues, it's the economy. It's against inflation,
Speaker 4: gas prices, food prices, you know, economic uncertainty, the feeling
Speaker 4: the country is on the wrong track, right track, wrong
Speaker 4: track is always a really powerful indicator, and even Republicans
Speaker 4: think we're on the wrong track. Democrats and independents think
Speaker 4: we're on the wrong track in the eighty percent range.
Speaker 1: And the group that he's really lost, which he cannot
Speaker 1: which I think is the biggest red flag, are the
Speaker 1: Republican leaning indies.
Speaker 4: That is correct, You have a lot of those, are
Speaker 4: the some of the people that are the Lincoln Project's
Speaker 4: primary voter target. You go after soft Republicans and conservative
Speaker 4: leaning independents. Those people are gone. Last year around this time,
Speaker 4: they were about two to one against Trump's policies but
Speaker 4: still neutral on him. Now they are three to one
Speaker 4: against his policies and two to one against him.
Speaker 3: He has lost that group. It is cooked, and there's
Speaker 3: not a.
Speaker 4: Lot of There aren't a lot of options for Trump
Speaker 4: to get them back.
Speaker 3: You know. The one thing he's going to try in
Speaker 3: the next couple of weeks is suspension.
Speaker 1: The gas tax, oh eighteen cents and a half.
Speaker 4: That ain't gonna work. Chiefly, it's not going to bring
Speaker 4: those indies back.
Speaker 1: And I mean the gas tax is an amazing opportunity
Speaker 1: for her Democrats because all these Republicans have said, like
Speaker 1: do not suspend the gas tax. Right, and now they're like,
Speaker 1: we should suspend the gas tax, you know what?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean the Democrats if they just stick with
Speaker 4: the most profound weapon they've been given for twenty five years.
Speaker 4: This economy has Americans on the verge of panic. Yeah,
Speaker 4: they are absolutely freaked out every day. And when Trump
Speaker 4: goes out and says, look at my beautiful ballroom and
Speaker 4: look at my beautiful arch and look at my reflecting pool,
Speaker 4: they're seeing, oh god, I can't pay the more if
Speaker 4: I'm also going to pay the pay.
Speaker 3: The gas bill this month.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're they're in a state of economic panic and
Speaker 4: Trump is And this is one of those things where
Speaker 4: you know that Trump has kind of lost his mojo.
Speaker 4: Trump would have gotten this five years ago. He would
Speaker 4: have pivoted already on this five years ago. Now the
Speaker 4: only thing that sort of makes him do something different
Speaker 4: is the bond market.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's funny. I was actually thinking about that.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 1: The way in which I see him having lost his
Speaker 1: step is when people when he comes out and does
Speaker 1: the bulls prays and they, you know, he says, you
Speaker 1: know that that, You know, what do you what do
Speaker 1: you say to people? That question was what do you
Speaker 1: say to people about the gas prizes? And he was like,
Speaker 1: I don't think about that at all. All I think
Speaker 1: about is whether the Iranians will have a nuke? And
Speaker 1: like that is It just was never message, It was
Speaker 1: never clear. And the American people don't find it scary.
Speaker 4: No, they don't find it scary, they don't find it convincing.
Speaker 4: And and and again we have heard the drum beat
Speaker 4: from trum and a group of Republicans for and I
Speaker 4: used to be one of them, that Iran having a
Speaker 4: nuclear weapon was an absolutely global game changer. But you
Speaker 4: know what really was the global game changer Iran taking
Speaker 4: control of the straight or hormones because of what Donald
Speaker 4: Trump did. That has given iron more power in the
Speaker 4: global economy without a nuclear weapon than they would have
Speaker 4: had with one. And that is directly one hundred percent
Speaker 4: a Donald Trump decision. And he has not stopped them
Speaker 4: from having a nuclear weapon. They may get one after all.
Speaker 1: Well, no, and supposedly that reporting we saw that contradicts
Speaker 1: everything the administration said, is that they are in much
Speaker 1: better shape than the administration said they were.
Speaker 4: And then and now they've got China well ready for them,
Speaker 4: to rebuild their military for them.
Speaker 1: By the way, that China trip could have been an email.
Speaker 4: That China trip could have been a signal message. What
Speaker 4: a disaster. He got rolled. He was insulted over and
Speaker 4: over again in ways that the Chinese understood, but he
Speaker 4: didn't because he's a child. But also deeply embarrassing.
Speaker 1: If you're one of those billionaires who went with him,
Speaker 1: what are you thinking, like, do you hitch your wag
Speaker 1: into this quote unquote story.
Speaker 3: This is the guy, this is your guy, this is
Speaker 3: the guy.
Speaker 4: You're going You're gonna live or die by economically going forward.
Speaker 1: Good luck, it's rough.
Speaker 3: Rick Wilson, Molly John Fast.
Speaker 1: MICHAEH Lasher represents New York State Assembly District sixty nine
Speaker 1: and is a candidate for Congress in New York's twelfth
Speaker 1: congressional district. Welcome, Welcome, Michah.
Speaker 5: Glad to be here. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: You're running in this congressional race. It is the district
Speaker 1: I live in. You are the candidate who has all
Speaker 1: the endorsements, right, you're the candidate that you got the
Speaker 1: former Congressman Jerry Nadler who's endorsed k you have Mike Bloomberg,
Speaker 1: who a lot of us who live in this district
Speaker 1: hold in pretty high esteem that his presidential run did
Speaker 1: not didn't do it for You are the candidate that
Speaker 1: most of the sort of establishment has gotten behind.
Speaker 6: Why, well, again, thanks for having me. Look, I've worked
Speaker 6: hand in hand with a lot of these folks on
Speaker 6: tough and important issues going back a lot of years,
Speaker 6: and so I think that there is a sense that
Speaker 6: this is an important seat and they want to know
Speaker 6: that whoever is going to be in the seat knows
Speaker 6: what they're doing and is going to be member of
Speaker 6: Congress that can be effective in a way that reflects
Speaker 6: the sort of the intellectual capital and creative capital and
Speaker 6: kind of power of this district. And I think they
Speaker 6: know me and they have faith that I can be
Speaker 6: that be that congressman.
Speaker 1: And so when who lives in this district, it's a
Speaker 1: it's a district that now there was not a fundraising
Speaker 1: powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination. He was more
Speaker 1: of a very sort of like left the nineteen sixties
Speaker 1: kind of you know, he came from a world that
Speaker 1: has changed so much in the very long time he
Speaker 1: was in Congress. So I wonder what you think it
Speaker 1: would mean what your goal would be to be the
Speaker 1: congressman from this district. How might that change look?
Speaker 5: I think that certainly.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the world the district has changed a lot in
Speaker 6: thirty four years. But I think throughout it all, Jerry
Speaker 6: certainly represented a very cerebral member of Congress. I think
Speaker 6: someone that people when he took a position on issue,
Speaker 6: had carried a certain weight, particularly in progressive circles and
Speaker 6: in the Caucus. So I think that you know, at
Speaker 6: this moment in time, this district, certainly the people's district
Speaker 6: want someone who is going to contribute to the fight
Speaker 6: in an outsize way against Trump and trump Ism. They
Speaker 6: want a member of Congress who isn't just going to
Speaker 6: vote the right way who's but who is really going
Speaker 6: to be a leader in the in the resistance. And
Speaker 6: I think they want someone who's going to be legislatively
Speaker 6: creative and effective. Again, more than just your average one
Speaker 6: of four hundred and thirty five. I think the expectation
Speaker 6: is that whoever is representing the center of the universe,
Speaker 6: at least in my view.
Speaker 1: You said it, not me, but I thought it, yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, kind of punches above their weight.
Speaker 1: You're locked in a four way race with an east
Speaker 1: Side congressman, Boras, a never Trump lawyer, Oh east side guy,
Speaker 1: never Trump guy, and a Kennedy So why are you different?
Speaker 1: And what is that like? Those guys all have gotten
Speaker 1: a lot of attention for different things. Why are you different?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Yeah, There's one thing I've learned during this race is
Speaker 6: that the Kennedy's and the last Yers are treated slightly,
Speaker 6: slightly differently. Look, I think I'm different because I spent
Speaker 6: an enormous amount of time planning for what I would
Speaker 6: do in Congress to advance the cause of slowing installing
Speaker 6: the Trump agenda and rebuilding in the aftermath, and that
Speaker 6: that thinking and that planning is informed by a deep
Speaker 6: experience on a wide array of issues.
Speaker 5: You know, we're all running for.
Speaker 6: A very specific job, which is not TikTok star, not
Speaker 6: you know, political pundit. But we're running to be a
Speaker 6: legislator who uses the legislative process to fight back and
Speaker 6: to make change. And I don't think there's anybody else
Speaker 6: in the race that comes close to the proven track
Speaker 6: record of being able to do just that.
Speaker 1: Boris will say that he is for regulating AI. I
Speaker 1: hate AI and want it regulated tomorrow. I have been very,
Speaker 1: very very disappointed with Democrats on regulation, including Chuck Schumer,
Speaker 1: who I continually fight with on this, and I feel
Speaker 1: that tech companies the Democrats have been as complicit as
Speaker 1: Republicans when it comes to the refusal to regulate tech.
Speaker 1: So Bora says he's going to regulate tech. Is he
Speaker 1: going to regulate tech? And if he is explained to
Speaker 1: does why? And if he's not explained to us, why,
Speaker 1: and then tell me are you going to regulate tech?
Speaker 1: And what that looks like.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think there's a I think there's a real
Speaker 6: reason for skepticism around Alex's claim on this. But I'll
Speaker 6: just say for myself, going back to my time a
Speaker 6: decade ago in the state Attorney General's office, where we
Speaker 6: went after basically every big tech company in America over
Speaker 6: one or another ways that they were pretending the law
Speaker 6: didn't apply to them, to my work passing the Safe
Speaker 6: for Kids Act, which prevents algorithmic feeds in New York
Speaker 6: being delivered to kids under sixteen. I think we should
Speaker 6: repeal section two thirty. I think we need a robust
Speaker 6: federal regulatory infrastructure on AI. I think we should ban
Speaker 6: social media for kids. So you know, and I have
Speaker 6: a real track record I think of being willing to
Speaker 6: take on not just these particular powerful corporate interests, but basically,
Speaker 6: you know, all of the various big special interests who
Speaker 6: get used to throwing their weight around in Albany and
Speaker 6: getting what they want. And I would take the same
Speaker 6: independence to Congress. I think Alex is a slightly different story.
Speaker 6: The bill that he did on AI, which I was
Speaker 6: the first cosponsorup, is a good bill and it gored
Speaker 6: the ox, very specifically of Open AI, and they are
Speaker 6: coming after him, and their OX.
Speaker 5: Deserves to be gored.
Speaker 6: I think where it gets a little more complicated is
Speaker 6: if you look there are a string of bills he
Speaker 6: basically went to Albany. The most significant professional experience he
Speaker 6: had before going Albany was four and a half years
Speaker 6: in senior roles at Pallan. Here he goes to Albanie
Speaker 6: says I'm going to be the tech bro in Albany,
Speaker 6: and that.
Speaker 5: Was basically the message to tech companies.
Speaker 6: There are a host of billsulating AI where.
Speaker 5: He was the loan Democrat to.
Speaker 6: Vote against them. And then I think at some point,
Speaker 6: for whatever set of reasons. He decided he was going
Speaker 6: to pursue this one, this one thing and go after
Speaker 6: open AI, and he invited their wrath, and that has
Speaker 6: created kind of a martyrdom narrative. What's happening on the
Speaker 6: other side of this is you have anthropic now spending
Speaker 6: millions of dollars to help his campaign. And the latest
Speaker 6: is we got a crypto billionaire who's spending three and
Speaker 6: a half billion dollars to help So we have million
Speaker 6: dollars to help his campaign.
Speaker 1: So you know, yeah, it does seem like if you
Speaker 1: want to regulate technology, you should it would be strange
Speaker 1: that you would be then supported by the same technology
Speaker 1: you'd want to regulate.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Look, I don't think any of our tech overlords should
Speaker 6: be writing our AI policy, whether that is the most
Speaker 6: evil AI company or the slightly less evil AI company.
Speaker 6: You know, And I think, and I should say, I
Speaker 6: think the crypto thing is also worthy of examination. You
Speaker 6: can go to Stand with Stand with Crypto, plugging Alex's name,
Speaker 6: you'll see his A rating and you know, and now
Speaker 6: we accept the idea that the crypto billionaire is trying
Speaker 6: to help him get elected because he's concerned about AI regulation.
Speaker 5: Instead of maybe he's just doesn't want crypto regulated.
Speaker 1: There hasn't been you say, you're work sort of cruising
Speaker 1: into the primaries in June, and that will be the
Speaker 1: definitive because this is a very democratic but there are
Speaker 1: real issues in this district and they largely come down
Speaker 1: to Israel. This is going to be a hard thing
Speaker 1: for Democrats to negotiate coming up in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: It was a real stumbling block, and perhaps because it
Speaker 1: wasn't addressed. I think there's a lot of frustration in
Speaker 1: the party, in the Democratic Party about the way in
Speaker 1: which Israel has blocked as us on and how I
Speaker 1: would love you to talk about out where you are
Speaker 1: on this.
Speaker 6: Look, if you are I'm forty four, If you are
Speaker 6: you know, any younger than me, you basically don't remember
Speaker 6: in Israel that hasn't been dominated by bibing at Yahoo
Speaker 6: and right wing extremist politics. And I think in many
Speaker 6: ways they've driven the country off the rails. And what's
Speaker 6: happening in the West Bank is abhorrent, and we saw
Speaker 6: tens of thousands of people killed.
Speaker 5: In Gaza, and.
Speaker 6: I should say you know that it really I think
Speaker 6: has been challenging for people like me who who do
Speaker 6: care about the survival of Israel as a Jewish and
Speaker 6: democratic state, and safety and security of Israel's been very hard.
Speaker 5: To grapple with.
Speaker 6: And I think that I can't speak for how the
Speaker 6: Party should deal with this.
Speaker 5: I can say for my own piece.
Speaker 6: I'm going to continue hold on to the idea that
Speaker 6: you can care about the safety and security of Israel
Speaker 6: as a refuge for the Jewish people, and you can
Speaker 6: care about the safety and security and the plight of
Speaker 6: the Palestinian people and ultimately their self determination as well.
Speaker 5: And it's very hard to see.
Speaker 6: A path back to where we were in the nineties,
Speaker 6: and I don't you know, you can't sugarcoat that, and
Speaker 6: you know, settlement expansion has made that really hard, and
Speaker 6: there's also nobody to negotiate with on the Palestinian side.
Speaker 5: It's a really intractable thing.
Speaker 6: But I'm going to kind of insist that those two
Speaker 6: ideas remain compatible.
Speaker 1: The American people have turned against arms, selling arms writ
Speaker 1: large and certainly selling arms with you know where we
Speaker 1: are paying taxpayers are paying for those arms, and as
Speaker 1: we've seen USAID be defenestrated when that is actually a
Speaker 1: really good policy that helps both farmers and people who
Speaker 1: are hungry. It seems harder and harder to make a
Speaker 1: case for arming countries writ large, Israel or anyone. Where
Speaker 1: are you on that?
Speaker 6: Well, look, I think the last thing you said is
Speaker 6: an important point, which is I think we need a
Speaker 6: consistent policy, and we provide military aid to a lot
Speaker 6: of different allies. We have the Leahy Law, which should
Speaker 6: which has been I think largely a dead letter on
Speaker 6: making sure that there is a human rights standard applied
Speaker 6: to all of our allies. But I'm not there on
Speaker 6: singling out Israel. As much as I abhor much of
Speaker 6: what the net Na government has been.
Speaker 1: Doing, I would so tell me kind of what you
Speaker 1: see when you talk to people in this district as
Speaker 1: the issues that they're struggling was.
Speaker 6: I think, Look, I think the this is a district,
Speaker 6: it's a it is a relatively affluent district. There are
Speaker 6: pockets of real need, and I think, but it's a
Speaker 6: district that has real, you know, real liberal values, and
Speaker 6: so I think that the district wants someone who's going
Speaker 6: to go to Congress that represents not just the needs
Speaker 6: of the district, but the values of the district.
Speaker 5: And and right now, I think.
Speaker 6: People's district look at Trump's trampling of the rule of law,
Speaker 6: look at the war in Iran, the recklessness of it.
Speaker 6: They look at what Ice is doing across the country,
Speaker 6: and they first and foremost want the congressman there's going
Speaker 6: to be an outspoken voice on all of those issues.
Speaker 6: And then I think on the issues that are affecting
Speaker 6: this district, cost of housing, which is a nationwide issue.
Speaker 6: You know, everybody wants to talk about affordability right now.
Speaker 6: The biggest piece of anyone's household budget is their housing costs,
Speaker 6: and this district, the housing cost crisis is acute. The
Speaker 6: median rent from Manhattan apartment across all sizes the whole
Speaker 6: borough just crossed five thousand dollars a month. So I
Speaker 6: think that on the issues, I think childcare costs huge issue,
Speaker 6: the cost of raising a kid. I've got I've got
Speaker 6: three kids where on the other side of the dear
Speaker 6: early childcare years. But if you can't, you know, affording housing,
Speaker 6: affording childcare, it's a It's an issue nationwide, it's an
Speaker 6: issue citywide.
Speaker 5: It's an acute issue in this district.
Speaker 1: But I'm just curious, like with rent. I mean you can't.
Speaker 1: I mean, what could you possibly do legislatively to make
Speaker 1: rent cheaper?
Speaker 6: Well, I mean, broadly speaking, we need a lot more
Speaker 6: housing in this country. We need a lot more housing
Speaker 6: in New York, and we need to relieve pressure on
Speaker 6: the housing market. And the federal government can use the
Speaker 6: use the leverage of the dollars that we send to
Speaker 6: states and localities across the country, including New York, to say,
Speaker 6: if we're if we're pumping money into your into your
Speaker 6: infrastructure systems, you've got to have policies that allow for
Speaker 6: housing to get built. So that's a big piece. I've
Speaker 6: also I'm putting out a plan. You know, I think
Speaker 6: a big question I got. I said, I've got three kids,
Speaker 6: I got two teenagers. Lots of people are asking I'm
Speaker 6: in a constant conversation with my peers, what are our
Speaker 6: kids going to do? Where are they going to work?
Speaker 6: Or they can be able to afford to live here
Speaker 6: or anywhere? And so I put out a plan focused
Speaker 6: on first job, first home, first year of parenting, that
Speaker 6: the federal government should be actively involved in the idea
Speaker 6: of guaranteeing that you can get a first job, afford
Speaker 6: a first a first place and get through your first
Speaker 6: year of parenting. And on the housing front, that would
Speaker 6: involve significant assistance, either with a down payment or the
Speaker 6: upfront costs of rentals.
Speaker 5: Right we you know you want to.
Speaker 6: Rent an apartment in Manhattan, you're a kid just out of college.
Speaker 6: You got first month, last month security deposit. That is
Speaker 6: a big chunk of change you have to put up
Speaker 6: front to get that first apartment. That's the renter's equivalent
Speaker 6: of a down payment. The federal government could be involved
Speaker 6: in helping you get over that home.
Speaker 1: How would the federal government be able to help you
Speaker 1: get a first job?
Speaker 5: So I think we should have a paid program of
Speaker 5: national service.
Speaker 1: Oh this is my this is you know, this is
Speaker 1: my obsession, all right, goal but New Europe national This
Speaker 1: is the nerdiest.
Speaker 5: Breed guilty to nerd nom.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Look, the idea of national service has been in the
Speaker 6: ether for a while, but I think in a moment
Speaker 6: that there's a bunch of things that I think make
Speaker 6: it really salient at this time. Number one, we're looking
Speaker 6: at enormous economic upheaval because of AI. Because of technological change,
Speaker 6: careers that exist today are going to vanish.
Speaker 1: More or maybe AI is being used as an excuse
Speaker 1: to fire people. But whatever it is, we're gonna what
Speaker 1: age do you make this national service start at? How
Speaker 1: long does it go for, and how does the funding
Speaker 1: mechanism work?
Speaker 6: Sure, So I think that it should be it should
Speaker 6: be available to anybody basically who has a high school
Speaker 6: degree or ged or coming out of college, you know,
Speaker 6: any anyone in that age range. And I think it
Speaker 6: should be focused on professions where we have significant workforce
Speaker 6: shortages today. So we have we have a whole bunch
Speaker 6: of jobs that are really societally important that should be
Speaker 6: done by human beings today and a decade from now,
Speaker 6: jobs in mental health care jobs and education particular jobs
Speaker 6: in particularly in the kind of caring professions. These are
Speaker 6: jobs where human work is really important, and we should
Speaker 6: We should fund whatever training and education one.
Speaker 5: Needs for those jobs.
Speaker 6: And we should fund salary for at least the first
Speaker 6: year through qualified nonprofit agencies or government agencies that is
Speaker 6: a living wage along with healthcare benefits.
Speaker 5: And we should.
Speaker 6: And it's national service, but I think it should be
Speaker 6: framed as and it should in fact be a first
Speaker 6: job guarantee.
Speaker 1: So let's we're just almost out of time but I
Speaker 1: want you to talk about anti corruption measures. If Trump
Speaker 1: ever leaves office, which hopefully are you, well, you guys
Speaker 1: are going to have to completely rethink the way. What
Speaker 1: is the difference between norms and laws in uh so
Speaker 1: that a lot of that will follow to Congress. Congress
Speaker 1: is not exactly themselves in glory. So tell us how
Speaker 1: you would make Congress work in that way.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I've written you know, I'll put a plug.
Speaker 6: If you go to Michael Asher dot com slash project
Speaker 6: twenty twenty six, you will see a series of plans
Speaker 6: that I've written on. First, how democrats, even in the minority,
Speaker 6: can use the power we have to slow install what
Speaker 6: Trump and Mike Johnson are doing. Second, what a plan
Speaker 6: for oversight looks like in a House majority. And third
Speaker 6: is the idea of a legal reconstruction. What are the
Speaker 6: statues that these guys have exploited that we need to
Speaker 6: go in and shore up. And that's everything from taking
Speaker 6: the post Nixon era norms around DOJD, politicization codifying them
Speaker 6: in law, the Impoundment Act the Empowerment Act in nineteen
Speaker 6: seventy four intended to prevent the president from subverting the
Speaker 6: will of Congress when it comes to the appropriation and
Speaker 6: release of funds.
Speaker 5: These guys have completely flipped it on its head.
Speaker 6: We need to go in and fix the Empowerment Act,
Speaker 6: the Alien Enemies Act, and the mccaren Walter Act, which
Speaker 6: Trump has used to deport people. We need to go
Speaker 6: in and shore those laws up. The War Powers Resolution,
Speaker 6: which I wish we could say that Donald Trump was
Speaker 6: the first president to flout the will of Congress in
Speaker 6: launching military misadventures, but that's been a bipartisan tradition, and
Speaker 6: Congress needs to go in and reassert it's constitutionally afforded
Speaker 6: authority over matters of war and peace.
Speaker 5: So there's the work of legal reconstruction.
Speaker 6: These guys have been winning forty percent in the district
Speaker 6: and circuit courts, eighty percent in the Supreme Court, and
Speaker 6: we need to start taking away the legal arguments they've
Speaker 6: been making so that a future president can't repeat what
Speaker 6: this guy's done.
Speaker 1: Mikeah Lasher, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4: A moment.
Speaker 5: Rick Wilson, Yes, MOLLI.
Speaker 1: So around January twenty six, Donald Trump suddenly got very
Speaker 1: interested in trading stocks. Yes, and d FT has this
Speaker 1: incredible graph with a very smart piece about how Donald
Speaker 1: Trump as soon as when he swore into his second presidency,
Speaker 1: he got a bit of a you know how congress
Speaker 1: people are not supposed to how I want there to
Speaker 1: be a law against congresspeople, against Senator Thoing Stocks. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: guess who's who's become quite a trader. That's right, it's Vegas, Donnie,
Speaker 1: that's right.
Speaker 4: You know what's amazing is that he has. Steve Ratner's
Speaker 4: quote was terrific. I don't know if you saw it.
Speaker 4: Ratner said, I've been a professional investment of an investment
Speaker 4: professional for thirty five years, and I've never done I
Speaker 4: haven't done thirty seven hundred trades in my career. Donald
Speaker 4: Trump's said thirty seven hundred trades this year, and a
Speaker 4: lot of them. He's been out there like I love
Speaker 4: powervolunteer the day after he buys Palenteer. Yeah, and folks,
Speaker 4: the corruption is the center defining characteristic of this term.
Speaker 4: The incompetence is right up there, but the corruption, molly
Speaker 4: is what astounds me that in a world where we
Speaker 4: had a functioning justice Department and not the Daine Maxwell
Speaker 4: cover up department, these people would would he'd go to jail.
Speaker 4: He's insider trading at a scale that's unimaginable.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I really look forward to just
Speaker 1: Dance or as he's known jd Vance when he starts
Speaker 1: on his waist fraud and abuse tour, because that it's like,
Speaker 1: just remind people of what your boss is doing twenty
Speaker 1: four secs.
Speaker 4: He's going to have a very high hill to climb
Speaker 4: in the future when he runs for when he runs
Speaker 4: for president, because people are going to say, are you
Speaker 4: going to pardon Donald Trump? Not for January six or
Speaker 4: any of the other things, but for thirty seven hundred
Speaker 4: and least by this by it'll be a lot more
Speaker 4: by then illegal stock raids where he traded on inside
Speaker 4: information and confidential government information. And by the way, the
Speaker 4: Statute of Limitations is going to be around for a
Speaker 4: lot longer than Donald Trump is going to be president.
Speaker 1: That's right, Rick Wilson.
Speaker 4: And by the way, if he goes to jail, he's
Speaker 4: not going to be a tough He's not gonna be
Speaker 4: tough like Martha Stewart was.
Speaker 3: He's gonna squeal it was Eric. Eric made me do it.
Speaker 3: I can't I couldn't stop him.
Speaker 5: He's too powerful.
Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in
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