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Speaker 1: Welcome to Fast Politics. I'm Molly Johnpost and we have

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Speaker 1: such a great show for you today. Later in the show,

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Speaker 1: we'll talk to Senator Tammy Baldwin about holding Trump accountable. Plus,

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Speaker 1: as a bonus, we have journalist and author Beth Macy,

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Speaker 1: who will talk to us about her run to flip

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Speaker 1: Virginia's sixth congressional district. But first, we have The Lincoln

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Speaker 1: Project's Rick Wilson to talk about the weaponization of Trump's

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Speaker 1: Justice Department. Rick Wilson.

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Speaker 2: Hey, how are you?

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Speaker 1: The Trump DOJ exists to prosecute the enemies of Donald Trump.

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Speaker 1: whoever they may be.

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Speaker 3: Yes.

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Speaker 1: And nothing else, as far as I can tell, right?

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Speaker 2: It is also to keep the Epstein files under, on

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Speaker 2: ice until such time as Donald Trump falls off the

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Speaker 2: face of the earth. It is true. At which point

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Speaker 2: everyone will go, how did they keep this horror from

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Speaker 2: us for so long?

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Speaker 1: The Epstein files, I mean... You find a DOJ, find

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Speaker 1: a person who can make, who can get rid of

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Speaker 1: stuff the way the DOJ can get rid of the

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Speaker 1: Epstein Files, because we know.

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Speaker 2: And I want to bring Todd Blanchard over to clean

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Speaker 2: out my garage. Because there will be spotless. You can

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Speaker 2: eat off the floor at this point.

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Speaker 1: We know there are at least 3 million more Epstein files, right?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I do.

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Speaker 1: And the other thing which I always wondered about was

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Speaker 1: the tapes, because there are also tapes, tapes, tapes.

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Speaker 2: The ones that Blanche one time said, there are absolutely

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Speaker 2: no tapes, and then all the inventories talk about videotapes

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Speaker 2: seized from Epstein's house in Little St. John, his house

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Speaker 2: in Palm Beach, his house in New York, his house

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Speaker 2: at the Zorro Death Ranch out there in New Mexico.

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Speaker 2: The fact that Todd Blanch is about to face a

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Speaker 2: Democratic Senate. Delights me more than I can say.

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Speaker 1: Wait, do you really think Democrats are going to flip

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Speaker 1: the Senate?

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Speaker 2: I do now.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so the DOJ, besides hiding the Epstein files, which

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Speaker 1: we know they have, and FYI, fighting with New Mexico's AG,

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Speaker 1: Raul Torres, who's been on this podcast, preventing him from

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Speaker 1: doing the investigation into Zorro Ranch, which was bought by

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Speaker 1: a Trump ally. I mean, by the way, this is

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Speaker 1: like such an amazing, we know, or at least some

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Speaker 1: of the girls have said they believe that there are

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Speaker 1: girls buried around Zorro Ranch, an investigation into that would

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Speaker 1: make clear if there were or were not. And we'd

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Speaker 1: be able to see because human remains remain.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they tend to.

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Speaker 1: They stick around. Especially in dry desert climates. Right. But instead,

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Speaker 1: the DOJ has fought really hard to prevent that from going.

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Speaker 1: So there's all different ways in which this DOJ has

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Speaker 1: covered for Donald Trump. The most recent of which is

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Speaker 1: now they are investigating TV networks for antitrust. after signing

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Speaker 1: off on letting on the paramount right where the saudis

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Speaker 1: are going to essentially control cnn cbs and various other.

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Speaker 2: Networks and outlets and both they're going to control both

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Speaker 2: news and entertainment in america because the ellison's even the

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Speaker 2: ellison's did not have the cash to pull off this

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Speaker 2: deal so they went to the saudis they went to

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Speaker 2: the emiratis and they said um hey, listen, we need

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Speaker 2: this money to make this happen. Donald will be happy

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Speaker 2: if you do this for us and with us. And look,

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Speaker 2: the Saudis are not unsophisticated investors. When they want to

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Speaker 2: buy something and control it, they go out and spend

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Speaker 2: the money. This is a huge, huge national security question

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Speaker 2: that none of these people will grapple with, but it is.

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Speaker 1: But the real antitrust problem, the real one, the one

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Speaker 1: that is- For the ones we made along the way? Right.

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Speaker 1: Is the networks not covering Donald Trump, President Xi's arrival,

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Speaker 1: where Donald Trump went to pick him up at the airport?

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Speaker 1: that's unusual.

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Speaker 2: Donald Trump sending the federal government after the networks for

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Speaker 2: an antitrust complaint, I think actually is a good thing.

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Speaker 2: And I'll tell you why, because it's going to expose

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Speaker 2: just how much of a near monopoly now exists in

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Speaker 2: the media infrastructure in America with, with the Ellison's controlling

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Speaker 2: essentially CBS and CNN with, with the greater and greater

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Speaker 2: media consolidation. And while on a First Amendment basis, I

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Speaker 2: think it's absurd, I do think it's illustrative. And Donald

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Speaker 2: Trump will not be in power forever.

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Speaker 1: So we're in a moment here where it looks like

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Speaker 1: you think Democrats are going to flip the Senate, which

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Speaker 1: would be catastrophic for Republicans because of any number of reasons.

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Speaker 1: So go.

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Speaker 2: Look, the panic and the copium that normally infests the

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Speaker 2: Democrats right around this time of every election season is

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Speaker 2: now showing up in the Republicans. There's a clip of

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Speaker 2: Bannon going off on this bullshit conspiracy theory, now completely debunked,

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Speaker 2: that Tallarico was in rehab or he was dead.

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Speaker 1: Mental health facility.

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Speaker 2: Mental health facility or he'd been replaced by a clone. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: All this insane shit that was coming out of MAGA.

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Speaker 2: There's a clip.

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Speaker 1: Transgender surgery. Yes, we saw that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. There's a clip of Bannon where he just goes

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Speaker 2: off on this like complete wild hair, like 74 way

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Speaker 2: bank shot thing. Like Tallarico is going down. He's dead.

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Speaker 4: He's out.

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Speaker 2: And once he goes, all the Democrats will lose. I'm like, dude,

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Speaker 2: get help. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So let's talk about just what that looks like with

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Speaker 1: Democrats flipping the House and the Senate. North Carolina is

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Speaker 1: definitely going to be a flip.

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Speaker 2: Georgia is a plus. Georgia is a keep.

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Speaker 1: Michigan is a keep. And then where else do you

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Speaker 1: see flips?

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Speaker 2: I think Alaska is going our way.

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Speaker 1: Right. That every poll has had Mary Patola.

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Speaker 2: Everybody. I think Texas is going to go our way.

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Speaker 1: If Democrats manage to flip Texas, that will be, it's

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Speaker 1: the equivalent of Republicans flipping California. Yes.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it is. It will have so much, um, so

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Speaker 2: much corrosive impact on the Republicans' self-image. It will have

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Speaker 2: so much impact on the Republicans' own idea of what

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Speaker 2: their party is and is defined by and what their

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Speaker 2: safe spaces are. And I will say this, I'm still

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Speaker 2: not there on Gina Hinojosa winning against Abbott, but I'm

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Speaker 2: getting a little closer every day because the undertow of

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Speaker 2: Trump and Paxton is is pulling every Republican candidate, including

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Speaker 2: Greg Abbott, who has run for office statewide, got 17,000 times,

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Speaker 2: it is pulling all of them under the water. And

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Speaker 2: I'm really feeling that the shape of that is coming

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Speaker 2: our way.

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Speaker 1: And I want to say one more thing about Abbott,

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Speaker 1: because this will be Abbott's third term. And you and

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Speaker 1: I both know the third term... is the term where

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Speaker 1: you fuck up, right? Like, people don't want you for

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Speaker 1: a third term. They just don't. I mean, I'm thinking

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Speaker 1: about Bloomberg. Like, you can be popular, but that third term, like.

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Speaker 2: It starts to give people a very shitty vibe.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: And one of my examples is, if you look at...

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Speaker 2: or Mario Cuomo in New York, right? Back in the day.

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Speaker 2: By the third term, even though people, he was beloved before,

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Speaker 2: they're like, okay, come on.

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Speaker 1: And I also think there's another thing about Texas that

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Speaker 1: will really make Republicans crazy is like Elon Musk. Basically

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Speaker 1: every Republican in California moved to Texas so that, because

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Speaker 1: the governor was like, I'm your ATM. You want less taxes?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you want tax breaks? Come on down.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 1: You want your own town?

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Speaker 2: You don't want zoning?

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Speaker 1: Sure.

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Speaker 2: Come on. I'll take care of you.

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Speaker 1: So if Gina were to win, like there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of shit that the governor did that Abbott did that's

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Speaker 1: like maybe legal, maybe not legal, certainly reversible by executive

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Speaker 1: order because it wasn't passed through the legislature. Like you

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Speaker 1: could see a world where Gina gets in there and

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Speaker 1: is like, Elon Musk. I don't think you should have

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Speaker 1: towns that are your own towns. Oh, I think you

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Speaker 1: should pay taxes.

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Speaker 2: Texas's governor has some power.

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Speaker 1: Right. Tell us about that.

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Speaker 2: I will tell you, there's a parallel to that in

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Speaker 2: Florida right now. I emailed with a Republican on Friday

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Speaker 2: who I've known a long, long time, very much in

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Speaker 2: the Republican apparatus of Florida establishment kind of guy. And

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Speaker 2: he said, my worry is it's not just going to

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Speaker 2: be Hope, Florida. They're going to go into our whole thing.

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Speaker 1: What's our whole thing?

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Speaker 2: Which is the fact that Florida is a wildly corrupt,

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Speaker 2: sacks of cash kind of state. And no one understands it.

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Speaker 2: And if the governor starts sending inspector generals out and

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Speaker 2: starts pulling lobbyist records and starts going after some of

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Speaker 2: the things like Hope, Florida, the overt corruption, then it

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Speaker 2: will cause a collapse of of the Republican money machine

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Speaker 2: in the state. That's also, I think, on the deck

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Speaker 2: in Texas because the Republican money machine there has basically

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Speaker 2: been very top-down from the Wilkes' and a few other

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Speaker 2: oil and gas guys, all of whom are aging out,

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Speaker 2: by the way. But there are areas where suddenly, if

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Speaker 2: the railroad commissioner goes Democratic, which is a possibility, And

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Speaker 2: the governor goes Democratic, which is a possibility. Even the

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Speaker 2: oil and gas guys are going to hedge. They're going

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Speaker 2: to go, well, maybe we shouldn't give everything to Ken

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Speaker 2: Paxton or Greg Abbott. It also, again, if you get

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Speaker 2: governors in particular, that starts to change the complexion of

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Speaker 2: how the Democratic primaries are going to run.

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Speaker 1: I see more.

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Speaker 2: Those states... will allow those candidates to come and raise

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Speaker 2: more money, to get more visible more quickly, because you'll

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Speaker 2: have the infrastructure of a governor, which always has a

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Speaker 2: government infrastructure and a political infrastructure. And so when, let's

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Speaker 2: just say it's David Jolly and Andy Beshear wants to

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Speaker 2: come to Florida and get a lot of media and press,

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Speaker 2: he does something with the governor. Or if it's Pritzker

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Speaker 2: or if it's Newsom or whomever, anybody can come down

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Speaker 2: at that point. Or in Texas. If it's Governor Gina Hinojosa,

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Speaker 2: they can go and do something that's going to automatically

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Speaker 2: draw press and eyeballs and coverage rather than showing up

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Speaker 2: on your own with a county commissioner.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I also think the Texas Railroad Commissioner, the guy who's

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Speaker 1: running for that, is highly batshit.

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Speaker 3: Whoa.

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Speaker 2: He's second only to the Republican running for governor of Colorado.

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Speaker 1: Yes, that guy's nuts too.

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Speaker 2: That guy is truly fucking bonkers.

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Speaker 1: But Bayless something, right, is in Texas. And he's like

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Speaker 1: deeply racist in a way that is pretty amazing even

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Speaker 1: for Texas.

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Speaker 2: He's deeply racist in a way that racists go, hey bro,

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Speaker 2: too much.

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Speaker 1: Beau French is running for Texas Railroad Commissioner. He is

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Speaker 1: a I mean, if Democrats were smart, we would have,

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Speaker 1: you know, hey, answer for Beau French. Like, why can't

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Speaker 1: Ken Paxton answer for Beau French?

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Speaker 2: An old mentor of mine in politics called it shifting

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Speaker 2: the stink.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 2: You want to move the stink that's on Beau French

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Speaker 2: over to Greg Abbott.

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Speaker 1: Ken Paxton has his own stench. Ken Paxton is such

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Speaker 1: an amazing candidate. I mean, if you're Democrats, like, That

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Speaker 1: is a once in a lifetime Senate candidate for us.

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Speaker 2: That is correct.

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Speaker 5: Right?

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Speaker 2: Look, I will say this. I believe James Tallarico is

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Speaker 2: a singularly talented candidate.

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Speaker 1: Yes.

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Speaker 2: He's exceptional.

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Speaker 1: Yes, correct.

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Speaker 2: But he's also been given an exceptional gift in the.

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Speaker 1: Form of- From God.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: My Lord, what a complete train wreck candidate. shit show

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Speaker 2: Ken Paxton is.

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Speaker 1: Because he's not charismatic. He's not attractive. He has 17 houses.

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Speaker 1: He's made millions of dollars since he's been in office.

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Speaker 1: And when you get him in a debate, he's like,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to, I'm going to.

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Speaker 2: I just make money. I'm just a good old boy

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Speaker 2: making money.

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Speaker 1: But what is interesting to me about Ken Paxton, Is

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Speaker 1: there are, and I'm going to say this now and

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Speaker 1: you may think I'm wrong, but like there are a

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Speaker 1: bunch of states where the similar dynamic is playing out.

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Speaker 1: I mean, a great example is in Kansas.

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Speaker 2: Roger Marshall was on nobody's radar screen earlier this year. Right.

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Speaker 2: I think we had a conversation about him, I don't know,

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Speaker 2: a couple months ago and we were both like, eh.

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Speaker 5: Kansas, maybe.

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Speaker 1: Probably not.

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Speaker 2: It's Kansas. It's a Trump 27,000% state. Right. But Roger

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Speaker 2: Marshall is now in what I like, that death of

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Speaker 2: a thousand cuts thing in the campaign. He has now

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Speaker 2: spent two solid days over the fact that he didn't

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Speaker 2: pay a $ 675 bill for cookies. And people are like, well,

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Speaker 2: who cares?

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Speaker 1: This is the man who put people in jail.

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Speaker 2: Who had people arrested for not paying a $ 50 medical bill.

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Speaker 2: And when he was asked to defend that decision, his

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Speaker 2: answer was one for the ages. Well, my lawyers told

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Speaker 2: me to.

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Speaker 1: Right. Well, the bakery's lawyers told him to pay his

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Speaker 1: fucking bill for the goddamn cookie.

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Speaker 2: Right. Yeah. And so he is in... He is in

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Speaker 2: a little bit of that spiral right now. And I

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Speaker 2: mean this about all the candidates. I said this on Friday.

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Speaker 2: I wrote a piece called Run Through the Tape. You've

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Speaker 2: got to run through the tape. Keep doing what you're

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Speaker 2: doing everywhere, folks. It's working. Now, in some places, you

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Speaker 2: are going to get tempted. You're going to say, oh,

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Speaker 2: I'm seven points up. I'm nine points up. I'm going

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Speaker 2: to start talking about my vision for the future.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to start doing the Bill Clinton impression. Oh, no, no.

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Speaker 2: You got to hit these guys in the face with

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Speaker 2: a stick until the last possible minute. I mean, hell,

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Speaker 2: we're even seeing Dan Osborne now showing numbers against Pete

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Speaker 2: Ricketts that the National Democratic Party, it's an inexpensive state.

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Speaker 2: I know you don't like him because he's independent, but

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Speaker 2: for God's sake, run negatives against Pete Ricketts. He looks

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Speaker 2: like the human worm hybrid. Come on. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, and also Pete Ricketts is a billionaire trying to

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Speaker 1: buy a seed from And that's very unpopular. But also,

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Speaker 1: I just want to get back to Kansas for a second.

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Speaker 1: Adam Hamilton is also a once-in-a-lifetime candidate.

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Speaker 2: Yes. Something in the Midwest and the West this year

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Speaker 2: has given us Rob Sand and Adam Hamilton and James Tallarico.

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Speaker 1: And- And Turek, Josh Turek.

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Speaker 2: Josh Turek. And if you go to the upper Midwest-

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Speaker 2: The guy who Trump calls Mohammed Al-Sayed, that's not racist

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Speaker 2: at all. Right. Al-Sayed has also proven to be a

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Speaker 2: very good candidate.

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Speaker 1: Very good candidate.

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Speaker 2: He's fast on his feet. He's social forward. And it's

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Speaker 2: getting harder for these guys. Again, watch the copium coming

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Speaker 2: on the right right now.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Because it is now requiring a lot of bank shots,

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Speaker 2: like banners. Well, if Talladega goes down, then so... No, dude.

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Speaker 2: This is not about... A lot of this, Molly, is

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Speaker 2: about the fact that everybody's being lifted on a tide.

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Speaker 2: The Republicans are being dragged down by what Charlie Cook

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Speaker 2: calls the red undertow. And the blue wave is following.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And I also think, like, the blue... We have red undertow.

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Speaker 1: We have really good candidates. We have Republican candidates who

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Speaker 1: have never had to defend their seats, like Roger Marshall.

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Speaker 2: Correct.

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Speaker 1: So it just ends up being a perfect storm. Now,

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Speaker 1: I still think there's a world where Susan Collins survived.

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Speaker 1: I don't like it, but I think it's very possible.

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Speaker 2: I don't love it.

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Speaker 1: But Bernie Sanders will have done everything he could because

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Speaker 1: he did show up and campaign with Troy Jackson, which, again,

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Speaker 1: he's a Vermont senator, very popular. He's from that area.

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Speaker 2: Well, Bernie's coming to Florida for four cities, apparently.

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Speaker 3: Really?

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Speaker 2: For Angie Nixon.

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Speaker 1: Will you just talk about Angie Nixon for two seconds

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Speaker 1: for me?

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Speaker 2: Listen, most of the polling has her seven to nine

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Speaker 2: points back. That's an honest answer. A couple of polls

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Speaker 2: have her very close, but something's going on at the

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Speaker 2: grassroots level that she's working that isn't about the money.

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Speaker 2: And I really believe Angie Nixon has... We've never seen

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Speaker 2: since 2008, when Barack Obama was on the ballot, an

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Speaker 2: impact like she's having on African-American voter enthusiasm in Florida.

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Speaker 2: And there's a weird world... where Angie Nixon doesn't make it,

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Speaker 2: but she pulls across, because of that voter turnout, a

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Speaker 2: couple of congressional races. And maybe David Jolly... and maybe

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Speaker 2: Jose Rodriguez, and maybe Annette Taddeo in the statewides. And

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Speaker 2: that would be a massive game changer.

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Speaker 1: And again, we don't want to get high on our

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Speaker 1: own supply here, but there are a bunch of candidates

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Speaker 1: in the South who are overperforming. And we're seeing this.

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Speaker 1: And again, the early voting is showing this. We don't

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Speaker 1: know if it's real. We don't know what the fuck

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Speaker 1: it is. But we're seeing huge numbers. of Latino and

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Speaker 1: Black voters coming out early.

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Speaker 2: The numbers we have now in Virginia and Pennsylvania in

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Speaker 2: particular of Hispanic voters voting early, they're through the roof.

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Speaker 2: They're like five times what they were in 24. And

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Speaker 2: in 24, they were going for Donald Trump, or a

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Speaker 2: meaningful fraction of them were. That is, as our friend

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Speaker 2: Mike Madrid says, that is a de-alignment of Hispanics towards

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Speaker 2: the Republicans, toward the Democrats. And And if that trend

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Speaker 2: holds up in Florida, Cubans are different. I know Florida

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Speaker 2: Cubans are different. This is my world.

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Speaker 1: Though Representative Salazar, I still believe she would not have

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Speaker 1: done that ad.

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Speaker 2: Oh, no, she's scared shitless.

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Speaker 1: She knows something's going on here.

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Speaker 2: She lives in a state of endless panic.

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Speaker 1: Rick Wilson.

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Speaker 2: Molly John fast. I sure will. Molly.

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Speaker 4: Time to go over the headlines for today. So this

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Speaker 4: is pretty funny. A House Republican who's invoking Ronald Reagan,

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Speaker 4: the great, the great, my favorite president, obviously. to block

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Speaker 4: Trump's Russia oil deal.

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Speaker 1: Brian Fitzpatrick, poor Brian Fitzpatrick, the last slightly swingy Republican.

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Speaker 1: He wants to force a House vote to block Russian

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Speaker 1: oil purchases. So what happened over this weekend is that

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump decided to buy diesel from Vladimir Putin, thus

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Speaker 1: basically reversing everything that everyone has ever done. Buying fuel

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Speaker 1: from Vladimir Putin, like an insane... If Lindsey Graham were alive,

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Speaker 1: he would have a complete meltdown. He would go to

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Speaker 1: Mar-a-Lago crying. This is so insane that Donald Trump wants

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Speaker 1: to buy diesel from Vladimir Putin. And a few things here. One,

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Speaker 1: this is because Donald Trump is worried about the midterms

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Speaker 1: and because he's worried about the price of diesel. And

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Speaker 1: the price of diesel is broadening the map for Democrats.

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Speaker 1: The reason... We're talking about Kansas Senate. And the reason

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Speaker 1: we're talking about Iowa and the reason we're talking about

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Speaker 1: all of these states in the Corn Belt is because

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Speaker 1: and the reason that Dan Osborne is doing better in

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Speaker 1: Nebraska is because of the price. So Donald Trump, Mr.

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Speaker 1: Quick Fix, is hoping that buying diesel from Vladimir Putin will, A,

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Speaker 1: mean that Vladimir Putin will love him. Why Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: wants Vladimir Putin to love him is an interesting open question.

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Speaker 1: We don't know the answer to. But the other reason

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Speaker 1: why Donald Trump is doing this is because he's hoping

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Speaker 1: it'll bring down diesel prices. The evidence, just like remember

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Speaker 1: when he brought in the foreign meat, there is evidence

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Speaker 1: to support the idea that it actually won't, that it'll

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Speaker 1: be temporary and it won't do much. But this is

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Speaker 1: a discharge petition that Fitzpatrick is trying to do. It

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Speaker 1: will require 218 signatures, which shouldn't be a problem because

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Speaker 1: this idea is insane. But we'll see. Mike Johnson actually

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Speaker 1: sent everyone home, you'll remember. because they wanted to impeach

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Speaker 1: Secretary of War Pete Hegsath, Mr. Pete Hormones Hegsath, or

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Speaker 1: as we call him on this podcast, Whiskey Pete.

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Speaker 4: You know, I want to do an amendment. Did you

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Speaker 4: watch Saturday Night Live last night? They had this great

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Speaker 4: segment where he had an ammunition belt across his chest

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Speaker 4: of Fireball whiskey. And so I think Fireball Pete is

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Speaker 4: a little bit more accurate for how cheap disgusting and

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Speaker 4: awful he is.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to stick with whiskey, Pete, but I

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Speaker 1: still like it. I still like it. I appreciate the discourse.

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Speaker 4: I can't say I love Syria a lot these days,

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Speaker 4: but that was a shining moment.

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Speaker 1: So the point here is that Trump is just desperately

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Speaker 1: trying to throw things against the wall in the hopes of,

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Speaker 1: you know, he is as unpopular as he's ever been,

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Speaker 1: and he just is in a continual free fall. And

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Speaker 1: so he's doing anything he can. To try and stay

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Speaker 1: in power.

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Speaker 2: We shall see. Yeah.

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Speaker 4: And after we saw reports this week out of the

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Speaker 4: New York Fed that inflation was pretty much solely caused

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Speaker 4: by his tariffs. And the other big factor is, of course,

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Speaker 4: these diesel prices, because it affects the trucks driving across

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Speaker 4: the country to do our supply chain.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I mean, look, there are two reasons for inflation,

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Speaker 1: Trump's war and Trump's terror. Like even, you know, you

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Speaker 1: don't need to have like brilliant local reporting to understand

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Speaker 1: that Donald Trump went to war in Iran and gas

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Speaker 1: got more expensive and that and Donald Trump went on

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Speaker 1: a trade war and everything got more expensive. So like

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Speaker 1: this is all I mean, it's funny because it's like

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Speaker 1: we talk a lot about people are like, well, how

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Speaker 1: will Democrats fix this? It's like Get rid of the

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Speaker 1: tariffs and end the war and things will get cheaper.

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Speaker 1: It may take a little while, but like this is

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Speaker 1: not like this didn't happen by itself. This is not

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Speaker 1: like COVID where the inflation came from supply chain problems.

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Speaker 1: This is like Donald Trump did stupid crap and the

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Speaker 1: rest of us have to pay for it.

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Speaker 5: I mean, this is really clear.

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Speaker 1: And and I don't understand why this is, you know,

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Speaker 1: this happens to be a time when Democrats can actually

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Speaker 1: solve the problem.

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Speaker 4: 100 percent. Um, so, uh, we have many patterns that

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Speaker 4: Trump follows all the time. Um, and one of them is,

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Speaker 4: completely bullshitting about things that don't happen. And here we have, uh,

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Speaker 4: Trump is claiming that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to

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Speaker 4: an energy ceasefire. But Zelensky is saying news for me, chief.

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Speaker 1: Well, Donald Trump also said this week and that Ukraine

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Speaker 1: needs a new president, which is totally not appropriate.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 1: Like, imagine if I mean, that's like, you know, Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump every day breaks norms. But like, this is just

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Speaker 1: an insane one, especially considering Trump. If you're Ukrainian, Zelensky

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Speaker 1: has done a pretty good job in this war. Everyone

441
00:23:04,820 --> 00:23:07,359
Speaker 1: thought they would just lose, and it's been going and

442
00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:11,310
Speaker 1: going and going. So the point here is that Donald

443
00:23:11,330 --> 00:23:14,090
Speaker 1: Trump clearly has his finger on the scale, and it's

444
00:23:14,130 --> 00:23:17,669
Speaker 1: not for the good guys. There's a larger question as

445
00:23:17,750 --> 00:23:20,530
Speaker 1: to why Donald Trump has his finger on the scale

446
00:23:20,630 --> 00:23:23,130
Speaker 1: and what Donald Trump has his finger on the scale.

447
00:23:23,170 --> 00:23:25,689
Speaker 1: Like why? What is causing him to do this is

448
00:23:25,770 --> 00:23:26,510
Speaker 1: a real question.

449
00:23:26,690 --> 00:23:30,090
Speaker 4: The Ukraine war is a losing war for both sides

450
00:23:30,170 --> 00:23:33,470
Speaker 4: in ways that like, you know, one, Ukraine doesn't enjoy

451
00:23:33,530 --> 00:23:36,970
Speaker 4: having its entire infrastructure destroyed. And one of the better

452
00:23:36,990 --> 00:23:39,850
Speaker 4: things I heard recently was the idea that we all

453
00:23:40,380 --> 00:23:42,940
Speaker 4: looked at war recently as if it was this endless

454
00:23:42,980 --> 00:23:45,399
Speaker 4: resource because we pay so much to fund it uh

455
00:23:45,500 --> 00:23:48,000
Speaker 4: in this country but what we're seeing is our munitions

456
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:51,580
Speaker 4: go low very very fast and it's because the last

457
00:23:51,619 --> 00:23:53,859
Speaker 4: time we learned this lesson was 80 years ago and

458
00:23:53,900 --> 00:23:56,679
Speaker 4: much of the population isn't alive right now yeah we

459
00:23:56,700 --> 00:23:58,899
Speaker 4: had to do an enormous lift to do.

460
00:23:58,820 --> 00:24:02,220
Speaker 1: World war ii yeah that's right so.

461
00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:05,270
Speaker 4: Molly um we know that Trump, one of his many

462
00:24:05,310 --> 00:24:09,470
Speaker 4: obsessions is vanity prizes like the Nobel Prize. And right

463
00:24:09,490 --> 00:24:12,770
Speaker 4: after he lost the Nobel Prize, he sanctioned the ICC,

464
00:24:12,869 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 4: which truly disgusting.

465
00:24:15,100 --> 00:24:18,300
Speaker 1: I want to point out, there's a word that you're

466
00:24:18,340 --> 00:24:20,680
Speaker 1: missing when we talk about the Nobel. It's the Nobel

467
00:24:20,740 --> 00:24:21,520
Speaker 1: Peace Prize.

468
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:21,950
Speaker 2: Yes, yes.

469
00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:25,760
Speaker 1: And Donald Trump, Mr. Peace, is always like, I ended

470
00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:28,700
Speaker 1: all these wars. I ended 57 wars. I ended this war.

471
00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:29,300
Speaker 1: I ended that war.

472
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:30,440
Speaker 2: It's the brand.

473
00:24:30,900 --> 00:24:35,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're into real Orwell territory. We have the president

474
00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:41,110
Speaker 1: of Venezuela in a jail with his wife in New York. Like,

475
00:24:41,369 --> 00:24:46,770
Speaker 1: this guy has done so much international fuckery. From Venezuela

476
00:24:47,310 --> 00:24:51,770
Speaker 1: to Iran to, you know, he wants to take Cuba now.

477
00:24:51,950 --> 00:24:55,340
Speaker 1: He's to his fights with Canada. Like, this is not

478
00:24:55,380 --> 00:24:57,739
Speaker 1: a person who should get any Peace Prize except the

479
00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:00,439
Speaker 1: FIFA Peace Prize, which he already has. But like the

480
00:25:00,500 --> 00:25:03,820
Speaker 1: point that he's like so obsessed with it. Nobel Peace Prize.

481
00:25:03,900 --> 00:25:08,580
Speaker 1: And he's like, I am going to sanction the ICC

482
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,720
Speaker 1: because I didn't get this prize when like there is

483
00:25:11,890 --> 00:25:14,390
Speaker 1: no one is ever giving you that prize. Like you

484
00:25:14,450 --> 00:25:17,490
Speaker 1: have to make peace to get the prize. It is

485
00:25:17,590 --> 00:25:21,290
Speaker 1: just so I mean, it's very stupid because like if

486
00:25:21,330 --> 00:25:23,689
Speaker 1: you wanted to win a peace prize, you should be

487
00:25:23,730 --> 00:25:27,220
Speaker 1: focused on peace. And the idea that Donald Trump focused

488
00:25:27,300 --> 00:25:31,800
Speaker 1: on war with the department of war, uh, wants his

489
00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:34,149
Speaker 1: peace prize and is mad at other people get it.

490
00:25:34,220 --> 00:25:36,600
Speaker 1: It's just like, it's, it gives me a headache because

491
00:25:36,660 --> 00:25:36,940
Speaker 1: it's so.

492
00:25:37,060 --> 00:25:40,400
Speaker 4: Well, my, I have really bad news for you then

493
00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:43,200
Speaker 4: for this next deadline, because, um, so we're in about

494
00:25:43,220 --> 00:25:46,780
Speaker 4: to enter. We're just, we're about 30 days from entering

495
00:25:47,100 --> 00:25:50,740
Speaker 4: in the new season of the Trump administration being the

496
00:25:50,900 --> 00:25:56,310
Speaker 4: general election season of, uh, 2028. And with that, you know,

497
00:25:56,330 --> 00:25:59,750
Speaker 4: we always get new characters. And yes, we've early had

498
00:25:59,810 --> 00:26:02,740
Speaker 4: a onset walk from one of our newest, stupidest characters,

499
00:26:02,900 --> 00:26:06,260
Speaker 4: Katie Zachariah, the new press secretary to replace Carolyn Leavitt,

500
00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:10,000
Speaker 4: who says that the abortion pill came from Nazi Germany

501
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:13,139
Speaker 4: because she's about what you'd expect for this job.

502
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:13,330
Speaker 5: Yeah.

503
00:26:13,910 --> 00:26:17,490
Speaker 1: My favorite thing about her, she comes she's a former

504
00:26:17,730 --> 00:26:21,639
Speaker 1: employee of Fix California, a nonprofit group founded by By

505
00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:25,610
Speaker 1: the way, that should not be a nonprofit, whatever. That

506
00:26:25,690 --> 00:26:31,129
Speaker 1: is something our 2028 candidates need to really get in there. Right.

507
00:26:32,250 --> 00:26:36,540
Speaker 1: A former employee of Fix California, she worked for Rick Grinnell,

508
00:26:36,980 --> 00:26:37,980
Speaker 1: known genius.

509
00:26:38,300 --> 00:26:38,720
Speaker 5: Oh, yeah, yeah.

510
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:41,620
Speaker 1: My favorite thing about her is that she looks just

511
00:26:41,660 --> 00:26:45,439
Speaker 1: like all the other press secretaries. Like, if you're Scott

512
00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:47,879
Speaker 1: Jennings and you really thought you were going to be

513
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:51,420
Speaker 1: press secretary, like, are you dyeing your hair blonde right now?

514
00:26:52,060 --> 00:26:53,820
Speaker 1: Are you getting a peel?

515
00:26:53,980 --> 00:26:56,980
Speaker 4: Did you see Mallory McMorrow's tweet? It was 10 out

516
00:26:57,020 --> 00:26:57,619
Speaker 4: of 10.

517
00:26:57,619 --> 00:26:58,460
Speaker 1: No, what did it say?

518
00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,780
Speaker 4: It was basically like, I, too, was trying to get

519
00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:03,270
Speaker 4: a job and it didn't work out.

520
00:27:03,310 --> 00:27:05,629
Speaker 2: Sorry, buddy. I mean... Yeah.

521
00:27:05,710 --> 00:27:08,149
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just like I mean, I'm happy to

522
00:27:08,210 --> 00:27:10,890
Speaker 1: see anything that makes Scott Jennings sad is good. But

523
00:27:11,290 --> 00:27:15,050
Speaker 1: like it is incredible that she like he did not

524
00:27:15,090 --> 00:27:17,970
Speaker 1: have a chance. Like you have to be blonde and

525
00:27:18,010 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 1: you have to look a certain way. But the point

526
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:23,540
Speaker 1: here is like we're going to lying about the abortion

527
00:27:23,580 --> 00:27:27,540
Speaker 1: pill is one of Republicans favorite hobbies. It has been

528
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:29,540
Speaker 1: a real problem for them because they were trying to

529
00:27:29,700 --> 00:27:33,240
Speaker 1: end choice. I still think you're going to see more.

530
00:27:33,830 --> 00:27:37,790
Speaker 1: of Republicans versus the abortion bill. But I also think like,

531
00:27:38,210 --> 00:27:42,770
Speaker 1: this is just such an insane lie. And I think

532
00:27:42,910 --> 00:27:47,640
Speaker 1: it's definitely, it's definitely, it's just like, makes a lot

533
00:27:47,700 --> 00:27:50,699
Speaker 1: of sense. And this is where we are. And also

534
00:27:50,780 --> 00:27:54,310
Speaker 1: Donald Trump has hired some really, really stupid blonde people

535
00:27:54,350 --> 00:27:58,630
Speaker 1: to work in his administration. Tammy Baldwin is the junior

536
00:27:58,670 --> 00:28:04,409
Speaker 1: Senator from Wisconsin. Welcome, welcome, Senator Tammy Baldwin.

537
00:28:04,930 --> 00:28:07,010
Speaker 3: It's great to join you. Thanks for having me.

538
00:28:07,170 --> 00:28:09,930
Speaker 1: You're sort of back on the road, and I want

539
00:28:09,950 --> 00:28:13,409
Speaker 1: you to talk about, this is actually something that I

540
00:28:13,470 --> 00:28:18,560
Speaker 1: believe is like, if the midterms go the way I

541
00:28:18,580 --> 00:28:20,719
Speaker 1: think a lot of us think they will go with

542
00:28:20,740 --> 00:28:25,180
Speaker 1: the polling, farms are going to be like, I think,

543
00:28:25,220 --> 00:28:32,670
Speaker 1: the undercover story of this. election. So you have the

544
00:28:33,070 --> 00:28:37,630
Speaker 1: diesel and then you have the tariffs. And the fertilizer.

545
00:28:38,150 --> 00:28:40,950
Speaker 1: And the fertilizer. So talk to me about farms. Oh,

546
00:28:40,970 --> 00:28:41,450
Speaker 1: my goodness.

547
00:28:41,610 --> 00:28:46,110
Speaker 3: So I started, you know, I love visiting Wisconsin farms.

548
00:28:46,270 --> 00:28:50,290
Speaker 3: We have crop farmers. We have dairy farms. That's what

549
00:28:50,330 --> 00:28:54,590
Speaker 3: we're really known for. And we also have livestock operations.

550
00:28:54,650 --> 00:28:56,490
Speaker 3: And I've been visiting all of them. And I started

551
00:28:56,510 --> 00:29:00,910
Speaker 3: in this year in planting season. So we're already a

552
00:29:01,890 --> 00:29:08,110
Speaker 3: couple months into the war against Iran. The Strait of

553
00:29:08,130 --> 00:29:12,990
Speaker 3: Hormuz is functionally closed. And we hit this spring a

554
00:29:13,590 --> 00:29:18,150
Speaker 3: record high in diesel, $ 5. 80. And I remember being on

555
00:29:18,190 --> 00:29:21,530
Speaker 3: a crop farm and pointing to their combine and said,

556
00:29:21,630 --> 00:29:24,800
Speaker 3: how many gallons of diesel does that hold? And the

557
00:29:24,860 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 3: answer was 200.

558
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:28,300
Speaker 1: I mean, wow.

559
00:29:28,420 --> 00:29:31,940
Speaker 3: I know what my car holds, so it's not that much.

560
00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:38,130
Speaker 3: And they, in preparation for planting, go through that in

561
00:29:38,250 --> 00:29:40,260
Speaker 3: a day, a day and a half. And they're really

562
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:45,840
Speaker 3: working round the clock to get their fields planted. Also,

563
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:49,420
Speaker 3: there was a shortage of fertilizer and a high cost

564
00:29:49,460 --> 00:29:50,020
Speaker 3: of fertilizer.

565
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:52,420
Speaker 1: And so they were rationing.

566
00:29:51,820 --> 00:29:56,120
Speaker 3: 70% of the farmers in Wisconsin could not afford all

567
00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:59,050
Speaker 3: the fertilizer they needed this plant season. So they were,

568
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:03,460
Speaker 3: you know, painstakingly looking at each field, each acre, what

569
00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:04,960
Speaker 3: do we need to supplement here?

570
00:30:05,020 --> 00:30:06,050
Speaker 1: What can we do without?

571
00:30:06,850 --> 00:30:13,470
Speaker 3: And, and anyway, so now move forward all these months

572
00:30:13,550 --> 00:30:16,610
Speaker 3: and I do another round of visits during harvest season

573
00:30:17,190 --> 00:30:20,040
Speaker 3: and diesel hits a new high.

574
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:20,700
Speaker 1: Of $ 6 and 81 cents.

575
00:30:20,740 --> 00:30:27,210
Speaker 3: A record high. And, and, you know, in the spring,

576
00:30:27,310 --> 00:30:30,510
Speaker 3: some of these farmers had forward contracted. So they had

577
00:30:30,570 --> 00:30:32,130
Speaker 3: locked in a price for last year.

578
00:30:32,150 --> 00:30:32,790
Speaker 2: Right.

579
00:30:33,170 --> 00:30:33,870
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.

580
00:30:34,110 --> 00:30:38,550
Speaker 3: Those, um, deals are not available anymore. Uh, and the

581
00:30:38,590 --> 00:30:41,760
Speaker 3: wholesalers probably aren't going to give them because they got

582
00:30:41,820 --> 00:30:46,340
Speaker 3: hit so hard also. So anyways, and then add to

583
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:50,300
Speaker 3: that Trump's tariffs, Trump's trade wars. So I was at

584
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:55,820
Speaker 3: a beef, uh, uh, operation in, um, South Central Wisconsin

585
00:30:56,020 --> 00:31:00,820
Speaker 3: last week. And, you know, they're talking not only about

586
00:31:00,900 --> 00:31:06,110
Speaker 3: diesel and about fertilizer, but they're talking about how President

587
00:31:06,190 --> 00:31:11,200
Speaker 3: Trump willy-nilly signed an executive order importing hundreds of thousands

588
00:31:11,300 --> 00:31:12,740
Speaker 3: of tons of ground beef.

589
00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:17,800
Speaker 1: What the heck? You know, yeah, I that's something we

590
00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:21,740
Speaker 1: hear a lot from. So I've been interviewing these these

591
00:31:21,900 --> 00:31:24,900
Speaker 1: members who these people are running for Congress in Texas

592
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:29,390
Speaker 1: in the Rio Grande Valley, the area where a lot

593
00:31:29,430 --> 00:31:33,610
Speaker 1: of the redistricted seats are. And they say that the

594
00:31:33,710 --> 00:31:36,810
Speaker 1: imported beef thing really got farmers angry.

595
00:31:37,370 --> 00:31:38,209
Speaker 5: Absolutely.

596
00:31:38,270 --> 00:31:40,690
Speaker 3: And, you know, a lot of these are artists and

597
00:31:40,730 --> 00:31:46,290
Speaker 3: farmers around Wisconsin where they're You know, people, their customers

598
00:31:46,370 --> 00:31:50,070
Speaker 3: want to know where their food comes from. And they

599
00:31:50,090 --> 00:31:54,170
Speaker 3: prefer local. And there's not even any labeling to say

600
00:31:54,210 --> 00:31:58,709
Speaker 3: what country these imports are coming from. You know, and

601
00:31:58,910 --> 00:32:04,100
Speaker 3: this is on top of so much other activity of

602
00:32:04,130 --> 00:32:07,900
Speaker 3: Donald Trump that makes their lives harder. Farming is hard

603
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:10,860
Speaker 3: to begin with. These are the hardest working people I know.

604
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:14,840
Speaker 3: And you're dealing with Mother Nature and other things that

605
00:32:14,900 --> 00:32:18,890
Speaker 3: are beyond your control. But these were self-inflicted wounds by

606
00:32:18,930 --> 00:32:26,130
Speaker 3: Donald Trump. Tariffs affected fertilizer even before the war in Iran.

607
00:32:27,300 --> 00:32:31,600
Speaker 3: We get most of our potash from Canada. That was

608
00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:35,740
Speaker 3: a big deal. Then his trade negotiations with other countries

609
00:32:35,780 --> 00:32:40,930
Speaker 3: where we lost contracts with China for soy. And so

610
00:32:41,050 --> 00:32:43,710
Speaker 3: we have fewer markets for our farmers. They're losing money

611
00:32:43,790 --> 00:32:48,290
Speaker 3: per acre. And it is all avoidable. These are all

612
00:32:48,410 --> 00:32:51,950
Speaker 3: choices Donald Trump made. And they all fly in the

613
00:32:51,990 --> 00:32:54,890
Speaker 3: face of the promises he made when he was running

614
00:32:54,950 --> 00:32:58,440
Speaker 3: in 2024, which is on day one, I will bring

615
00:32:58,500 --> 00:33:02,890
Speaker 3: down costs. On day one, I will end foreign conflicts.

616
00:33:03,580 --> 00:33:05,180
Speaker 3: And he's done just the opposite.

617
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 1: I think that the thing I'm struck by is that

618
00:33:08,500 --> 00:33:14,220
Speaker 1: there is farmers, and I've interviewed Rob Sand in Iowa,

619
00:33:14,300 --> 00:33:15,960
Speaker 1: and one of the things he talked about was the

620
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:23,910
Speaker 1: polluted groundwater. So there's also the climate change bill coming due, right? Absolutely.

621
00:33:24,450 --> 00:33:29,570
Speaker 3: And our farmers have the receipts, so to speak. We've

622
00:33:29,610 --> 00:33:35,010
Speaker 3: had massive flooding. We've had periods of drought. We have

623
00:33:35,730 --> 00:33:38,510
Speaker 3: contaminants in the water. We have some areas of the

624
00:33:38,590 --> 00:33:43,600
Speaker 3: state where the water table for the wells is affected

625
00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:49,080
Speaker 3: by how much water is required in agriculture. We have

626
00:33:49,330 --> 00:33:53,209
Speaker 3: all those challenges. And we're also a great lake state.

627
00:33:53,290 --> 00:33:57,060
Speaker 3: So we sit Um, uh, you know, our, our, uh,

628
00:33:57,230 --> 00:34:00,730
Speaker 3: East coast is Lake Michigan. Our North coast is Lake Superior.

629
00:34:01,190 --> 00:34:05,670
Speaker 3: Largest bodies of fresh water in the entire world. And

630
00:34:05,730 --> 00:34:09,460
Speaker 3: yet we still have, uh, challenges, um, and we have

631
00:34:09,540 --> 00:34:13,440
Speaker 3: to commit to the stewardship of those waters, uh, because

632
00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:17,460
Speaker 3: they are our largest source of fresh drinking water, uh,

633
00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:24,450
Speaker 3: but also for recreation, for fishing, um, for commercial, uh, Navigation,

634
00:34:24,469 --> 00:34:29,180
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of our farmers get their products

635
00:34:29,300 --> 00:34:33,780
Speaker 3: to market through barges and Great Lake Lakers.

636
00:34:34,680 --> 00:34:38,129
Speaker 1: So I want you to talk about election security, because

637
00:34:38,190 --> 00:34:41,569
Speaker 1: this feels like the big thing that everyone I know

638
00:34:41,690 --> 00:34:45,330
Speaker 1: is worried about. And I wonder if you could tell us,

639
00:34:45,570 --> 00:34:48,830
Speaker 1: Wisconsin is a swing state. You have this hotly contested

640
00:34:48,870 --> 00:34:53,930
Speaker 1: governor's race. Tom Tiffany, Republicans would love to have Tom

641
00:34:53,969 --> 00:34:57,660
Speaker 1: Tiffany in there for any number of reasons. So how

642
00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:00,640
Speaker 1: are you guys, what can you do to make elections safe?

643
00:35:00,700 --> 00:35:02,940
Speaker 1: How are you doing it? And should people worry?

644
00:35:03,770 --> 00:35:05,989
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to make just a comment about the

645
00:35:06,150 --> 00:35:14,479
Speaker 3: governor's race. Tiffany denied Wisconsin's 2020 election results. We cast

646
00:35:14,520 --> 00:35:19,359
Speaker 3: our ballots. They were counted. They were counted again. And

647
00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:24,960
Speaker 3: the person sitting in the governor's office should be the

648
00:35:25,400 --> 00:35:28,580
Speaker 3: first line of defense to make sure that our votes

649
00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:31,020
Speaker 3: are counted. And I know David Crowley will do that.

650
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:32,860
Speaker 3: But when Tom Tiffany.

651
00:35:34,420 --> 00:35:39,040
Speaker 3: Just persists in his election denialism and votes with Trump

652
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:41,779
Speaker 3: 100 percent of the time. You know, he's not fit

653
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:48,430
Speaker 3: to be the person protecting Wisconsinites votes. And David Crowley is.

654
00:35:48,650 --> 00:35:51,350
Speaker 3: But OK, we're going to go beyond the governor's race.

655
00:35:51,590 --> 00:35:54,590
Speaker 3: We have been on high alert in Congress and the

656
00:35:54,650 --> 00:36:02,310
Speaker 3: Senate because every day this president throws out either veiled

657
00:36:02,370 --> 00:36:07,570
Speaker 3: or not so veiled threats to our elections or reheats

658
00:36:07,830 --> 00:36:12,270
Speaker 3: old conspiracy theories and lies about the outcome of previous elections. So,

659
00:36:12,710 --> 00:36:17,370
Speaker 3: you know, he did a primetime address. He, you know,

660
00:36:17,570 --> 00:36:21,650
Speaker 3: is continuing, I think, over 100 times. He's spouted out

661
00:36:22,290 --> 00:36:24,190
Speaker 3: that the 2020 results weren't.

662
00:36:24,030 --> 00:36:26,150
Speaker 1: What were recorded.

663
00:36:27,030 --> 00:36:31,650
Speaker 3: And he's talked frivolously about, or that's maybe not the

664
00:36:31,690 --> 00:36:34,170
Speaker 3: word I want to use, but he's talked about sending

665
00:36:34,550 --> 00:36:39,130
Speaker 3: ICE agents and border patrol agents or National Guard members

666
00:36:39,570 --> 00:36:43,610
Speaker 3: to polling places. And there's no reason for that. And

667
00:36:43,710 --> 00:36:46,860
Speaker 3: it would be illegal, but he's talking about it. And

668
00:36:47,460 --> 00:36:51,759
Speaker 3: Then he's talking about, well, he's obviously seized ballots in

669
00:36:51,860 --> 00:36:56,420
Speaker 3: Georgia before. And so we worry about what will be

670
00:36:56,480 --> 00:36:59,839
Speaker 3: the security of the ballots after the election. And then

671
00:36:59,860 --> 00:37:03,700
Speaker 3: the mail-in ballot issues, his executive orders there. So we're

672
00:37:03,810 --> 00:37:05,930
Speaker 3: in a sort of position of chaos. And when I

673
00:37:06,010 --> 00:37:08,430
Speaker 3: say we think about this all the time, we've gotten

674
00:37:08,610 --> 00:37:12,250
Speaker 3: to the point where we go through scenarios. What if

675
00:37:12,890 --> 00:37:16,149
Speaker 3: He does this, declares some sort of emergency a week

676
00:37:16,210 --> 00:37:17,090
Speaker 3: before the election.

677
00:37:17,410 --> 00:37:18,129
Speaker 1: What do we do?

678
00:37:18,510 --> 00:37:23,050
Speaker 3: And I've been in touch with everyone from our governor

679
00:37:23,210 --> 00:37:27,090
Speaker 3: and our attorney general to the mayors of big cities,

680
00:37:27,150 --> 00:37:31,189
Speaker 3: the county executives of big counties, but also the municipal

681
00:37:31,370 --> 00:37:33,850
Speaker 3: election clerks. And we have more than any other state

682
00:37:33,890 --> 00:37:38,109
Speaker 3: in the country. We are a decentralized. There's no way

683
00:37:38,150 --> 00:37:39,629
Speaker 3: to rig that either, by the way.

684
00:37:39,969 --> 00:37:41,839
Speaker 1: But we have local clerks.

685
00:37:42,570 --> 00:37:45,310
Speaker 3: Who run our elections, and they do so in a secure,

686
00:37:45,770 --> 00:37:46,670
Speaker 3: effective manner.

687
00:37:46,730 --> 00:37:48,950
Speaker 1: Later today, I'm going to be.

688
00:37:49,170 --> 00:37:53,710
Speaker 3: Meeting with another group of local election officials, but I've

689
00:37:53,850 --> 00:37:57,250
Speaker 3: met with them in Milwaukee, in Madison, in Green Bay,

690
00:37:57,690 --> 00:38:02,489
Speaker 3: in La Crosse, and every one of them talks about

691
00:38:02,700 --> 00:38:07,300
Speaker 3: how meticulously they plan for elections and how they train

692
00:38:07,340 --> 00:38:12,319
Speaker 3: their Election Day workers and their early vote workers to

693
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:17,040
Speaker 3: make sure they are conducting a fair, secure, and accurate election.

694
00:38:17,739 --> 00:38:22,719
Speaker 3: And it's transparent, and I know it's reliable. And so,

695
00:38:23,140 --> 00:38:25,529
Speaker 3: you know, we're trying to boost people's confidence at a

696
00:38:25,590 --> 00:38:30,850
Speaker 3: time when Trump is saying everything he can to sow

697
00:38:30,870 --> 00:38:33,450
Speaker 3: doubt about the elections of the midterm, because he doesn't

698
00:38:33,469 --> 00:38:34,450
Speaker 3: want to be held accountable.

699
00:38:35,540 --> 00:38:39,319
Speaker 1: Well, I wonder if these polls are right, and that's

700
00:38:39,380 --> 00:38:41,940
Speaker 1: a big if, and we have been here before, but

701
00:38:42,060 --> 00:38:47,009
Speaker 1: if they are right, it would mean maybe 50, 52.

702
00:38:47,010 --> 00:38:51,230
Speaker 1: I mean, who even knows, right? I mean, there could

703
00:38:51,270 --> 00:38:54,090
Speaker 1: be a number of flips in the Senate. What is

704
00:38:54,130 --> 00:38:57,890
Speaker 1: the case for flipping the Senate for those who don't

705
00:38:58,070 --> 00:39:02,170
Speaker 1: totally know what that would mean? Because you won't have

706
00:39:02,210 --> 00:39:04,360
Speaker 1: the presidency. You'll have the House, and then you'd have

707
00:39:04,390 --> 00:39:08,070
Speaker 1: the Senate. So, And you won't have 67 votes to

708
00:39:08,219 --> 00:39:11,399
Speaker 1: remove if you were to do an impeachment. So tell

709
00:39:11,460 --> 00:39:14,180
Speaker 1: us what you could do with a flip Senate.

710
00:39:15,020 --> 00:39:19,120
Speaker 3: Well, let's start with the idea that we would set

711
00:39:19,180 --> 00:39:22,790
Speaker 3: the agenda of what comes to the Senate floor and

712
00:39:22,830 --> 00:39:26,270
Speaker 3: what doesn't. So we wouldn't be playing defense as we

713
00:39:26,350 --> 00:39:31,719
Speaker 3: are now when they bring bills that are detrimental to

714
00:39:31,860 --> 00:39:39,130
Speaker 3: our constituents, our folks. And secondly, this has been in

715
00:39:39,170 --> 00:39:46,610
Speaker 3: the news recently, what if a Supreme Court justice decides

716
00:39:46,710 --> 00:39:51,770
Speaker 3: to retire? if we are in charge, Trump is going

717
00:39:51,790 --> 00:39:57,239
Speaker 3: to have to send somebody who's acceptable to the majority.

718
00:39:58,010 --> 00:40:01,640
Speaker 3: And that's a very different person than he would send

719
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:05,540
Speaker 3: if he has the majority still in the Senate. And

720
00:40:05,580 --> 00:40:09,980
Speaker 3: I don't think on the progressive side of the ledger,

721
00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:14,320
Speaker 3: we talk enough and think enough about the impact of

722
00:40:16,250 --> 00:40:19,730
Speaker 3: of the Supreme Court. And maybe we know it, but

723
00:40:19,810 --> 00:40:22,570
Speaker 3: do we plan and vote that way? And that's really

724
00:40:22,670 --> 00:40:25,090
Speaker 3: one of the critical reasons why we need to win

725
00:40:25,110 --> 00:40:28,560
Speaker 3: the majority back. But we would set the agenda of

726
00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:33,920
Speaker 3: what comes up for consideration. And it would make an

727
00:40:34,020 --> 00:40:39,640
Speaker 3: enormous difference instead of only being poised to play defense.

728
00:40:40,850 --> 00:40:44,160
Speaker 3: We'd be able to set the foundation for so that

729
00:40:44,380 --> 00:40:47,960
Speaker 3: when there is a Democratic president, we'd be ready to go.

730
00:40:48,010 --> 00:40:50,590
Speaker 3: And in the meantime, there would be some incremental progress

731
00:40:50,650 --> 00:40:51,230
Speaker 3: we could make.

732
00:40:52,350 --> 00:40:56,489
Speaker 1: Especially if Trump is so unpopular, will make Republicans vote

733
00:40:56,510 --> 00:40:59,470
Speaker 1: with you. Now, I wonder if you could talk about, like,

734
00:40:59,910 --> 00:41:02,420
Speaker 1: one of the things I'm struck by in this moment

735
00:41:02,540 --> 00:41:05,819
Speaker 1: is that voters are extremely mad, right? Like, we see

736
00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:09,700
Speaker 1: this all over the map. They're mad, and for any

737
00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:13,380
Speaker 1: number of reasons. They can't afford their lives. Yeah, but

738
00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:16,219
Speaker 1: it's all, yeah. That's maddening. They also, I think they

739
00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:19,380
Speaker 1: feel betrayed. I think they, you know, they're just, I

740
00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:24,540
Speaker 1: think it's hit an emotional level level that I haven't

741
00:41:24,620 --> 00:41:29,660
Speaker 1: seen recently in historical elections. So but I wonder if

742
00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:33,279
Speaker 1: you could talk about you if you guys did win

743
00:41:33,300 --> 00:41:35,759
Speaker 1: back the House and the Senate, there is like the

744
00:41:35,900 --> 00:41:39,460
Speaker 1: danger of what happened in the Biden presidency, which is

745
00:41:39,620 --> 00:41:41,600
Speaker 1: even though Biden did a lot of good stuff and,

746
00:41:42,420 --> 00:41:45,980
Speaker 1: you know, there was a certain they were mad like

747
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:50,050
Speaker 1: they didn't you know, Biden was unable to fix some

748
00:41:50,090 --> 00:41:52,920
Speaker 1: things that were maybe unfixable. And so they were a

749
00:41:52,940 --> 00:41:55,980
Speaker 1: little bit resentful. So like there is a danger there

750
00:41:56,080 --> 00:41:59,260
Speaker 1: that you are able to do some things, but not everything.

751
00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:04,879
Speaker 1: Do you think Democrats understand just how sort of what

752
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:08,680
Speaker 1: how catastrophic this moment is for most Americans and are

753
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:13,910
Speaker 1: willing to sort of, you know, not just restore normalcy,

754
00:42:13,969 --> 00:42:17,049
Speaker 1: but try to push for more for their constituents?

755
00:42:17,790 --> 00:42:21,569
Speaker 3: One of the things I'm doing on this recess is

756
00:42:21,719 --> 00:42:25,120
Speaker 3: spending some time with people who are running for state legislature.

757
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:29,620
Speaker 3: And the reason I'm bringing this up is that 201,

758
00:42:29,620 --> 00:42:33,399
Speaker 3: they've lived the lives that their constituents are living. They've

759
00:42:33,420 --> 00:42:38,540
Speaker 3: walked in the same shoes. They came from places of

760
00:42:38,620 --> 00:42:43,420
Speaker 3: challenge and struggle and are running for office because they

761
00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:49,140
Speaker 3: get this moment. I heard from a candidate who said,

762
00:42:49,219 --> 00:42:51,610
Speaker 3: I decided to run for office the day that our

763
00:42:51,640 --> 00:42:56,109
Speaker 3: local school closed and I had to send my, you know,

764
00:42:56,130 --> 00:42:59,149
Speaker 3: my kindergartner on a bus for 90 minutes to get

765
00:42:59,210 --> 00:43:03,270
Speaker 3: to their new rural school. And that was not acceptable

766
00:43:03,330 --> 00:43:07,989
Speaker 3: to me, you know. Another who said, talked about how

767
00:43:08,070 --> 00:43:11,969
Speaker 3: she grew up volunteering in the food bank and thinking that, oh,

768
00:43:12,270 --> 00:43:15,609
Speaker 3: we volunteer. Well, we volunteer because we get food from

769
00:43:15,650 --> 00:43:17,790
Speaker 3: the food bank. And her mother never told her that's

770
00:43:17,930 --> 00:43:21,270
Speaker 3: why they volunteered, but that was one of the agreements

771
00:43:21,290 --> 00:43:23,509
Speaker 3: that if you got food from the food bank, you

772
00:43:23,550 --> 00:43:25,830
Speaker 3: had to volunteer at it. And she didn't know that

773
00:43:25,870 --> 00:43:28,370
Speaker 3: growing up, but she learned about.

774
00:43:31,070 --> 00:43:34,850
Speaker 3: Food insecurity. And so I do think that we're a

775
00:43:34,910 --> 00:43:38,250
Speaker 3: party of people who have gotten that, who get that,

776
00:43:38,610 --> 00:43:44,150
Speaker 3: and are living that. And that was kind of a

777
00:43:44,190 --> 00:43:48,170
Speaker 3: digression from your larger question. Are we ready to govern?

778
00:43:48,969 --> 00:43:52,029
Speaker 3: So again, I focus a little bit on the state legislature.

779
00:43:52,050 --> 00:43:55,510
Speaker 3: We have a possibility, in fact, maybe even a probability

780
00:43:55,570 --> 00:43:58,540
Speaker 3: of flipping our state legislature for the first time in

781
00:43:58,540 --> 00:43:58,839
Speaker 3: 16 years.

782
00:44:00,540 --> 00:44:01,360
Speaker 1: They're ready.

783
00:44:01,380 --> 00:44:05,640
Speaker 3: They've been thinking about what it is that they would

784
00:44:05,700 --> 00:44:08,520
Speaker 3: get done if they're able to finally be in the

785
00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:13,319
Speaker 3: majority and not just playing defense. And I think, you know,

786
00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:16,739
Speaker 3: at the congressional level, the same is true. We haven't

787
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:20,640
Speaker 3: just been thinking about how we stand up to Trump

788
00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:25,069
Speaker 3: on every one of his illegal and unconstitutional overreaches, but

789
00:44:25,190 --> 00:44:29,370
Speaker 3: also if given power, what we will do proactively to

790
00:44:29,430 --> 00:44:32,830
Speaker 3: make the lives of Americans more affordable and better and

791
00:44:32,870 --> 00:44:34,410
Speaker 3: to create greater opportunity.

792
00:44:36,219 --> 00:44:40,840
Speaker 1: If that means, like, I think there are some older

793
00:44:42,030 --> 00:44:44,550
Speaker 1: I don't want to say older. There are some members

794
00:44:44,790 --> 00:44:49,790
Speaker 1: of the Senate who really do, who are much more

795
00:44:49,830 --> 00:44:53,250
Speaker 1: business as usual. Do you think, are you open to like,

796
00:44:53,510 --> 00:44:58,690
Speaker 1: if the need be, to really doing things in very

797
00:44:58,750 --> 00:44:59,430
Speaker 1: different ways?

798
00:45:00,410 --> 00:45:03,350
Speaker 3: You know, I think that the moment, look, we have

799
00:45:03,390 --> 00:45:05,969
Speaker 3: a president who does things in very different ways. I

800
00:45:06,510 --> 00:45:11,730
Speaker 3: am not for... doing things that are illegal or unconstitutional

801
00:45:11,870 --> 00:45:17,390
Speaker 3: as he does. But we have to rise to this moment.

802
00:45:18,270 --> 00:45:23,219
Speaker 3: And this has been extraordinary, unprecedented, words that we've used

803
00:45:23,360 --> 00:45:30,420
Speaker 3: over and over again about very concerning things that are happening.

804
00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:33,170
Speaker 3: We have to defend our democracy. But really, you know,

805
00:45:33,950 --> 00:45:37,170
Speaker 3: This is about what is top of mind for voters.

806
00:45:37,230 --> 00:45:41,410
Speaker 3: And I think for voters, it is making life affordable,

807
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:45,860
Speaker 3: making sure that hard work means a good life. And

808
00:45:45,900 --> 00:45:50,200
Speaker 3: that's not a given right now. And and then beyond that,

809
00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:55,870
Speaker 3: reinstituting the checks and balances and accountability that need to

810
00:45:55,969 --> 00:45:58,930
Speaker 3: exist for a healthy, functioning democracy.

811
00:45:59,210 --> 00:46:03,090
Speaker 1: Tammy Baldwin, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Baldwin.

812
00:46:03,530 --> 00:46:04,509
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me.

813
00:46:04,750 --> 00:46:09,050
Speaker 1: Good to see you. Beth Macy is a journalist, author,

814
00:46:09,469 --> 00:46:15,600
Speaker 1: and the Democratic nominee for Virginia's 6th District. Welcome, welcome,

815
00:46:15,660 --> 00:46:17,980
Speaker 1: Beth Macy. Thanks, Molly.

816
00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:19,340
Speaker 5: It's great to see you again.

817
00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:24,220
Speaker 1: It's great to see you. And I'm so I'm really

818
00:46:24,620 --> 00:46:29,029
Speaker 1: just delighted to have you. So because the author to

819
00:46:29,450 --> 00:46:32,930
Speaker 1: Congresswoman Pipeline has a particular place in my heart for

820
00:46:33,010 --> 00:46:38,510
Speaker 1: obvious reasons. So let's talk about you come from book world.

821
00:46:39,180 --> 00:46:39,880
Speaker 1: talk to me.

822
00:46:40,200 --> 00:46:42,560
Speaker 5: So I just wrote my fifth book that came out

823
00:46:42,600 --> 00:46:46,200
Speaker 5: last year. You and I met at an awards thing

824
00:46:46,219 --> 00:46:49,320
Speaker 5: that we both lost. So users unite.

825
00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:53,220
Speaker 1: That's right. Listen, I'm just shocked I was ever nominated

826
00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:53,859
Speaker 1: for anything.

827
00:46:55,160 --> 00:46:57,129
Speaker 5: So at the end of my last book, Paper Girl,

828
00:46:57,170 --> 00:47:00,390
Speaker 5: which is a memoir in which I'm finishing it at

829
00:47:00,430 --> 00:47:03,989
Speaker 5: the exact moment that Trump is reascending the throne. And

830
00:47:04,110 --> 00:47:09,700
Speaker 5: I'm feeling so just depressed and at a loss and

831
00:47:09,739 --> 00:47:13,219
Speaker 5: I start rallying outside of our no show MAGA congressman's

832
00:47:13,380 --> 00:47:16,120
Speaker 5: office and people start asking me to run. And at

833
00:47:16,140 --> 00:47:19,040
Speaker 5: the end of the book, I say, um, not thinking

834
00:47:19,060 --> 00:47:21,060
Speaker 5: it would ever be me. Cause there's about 15 things

835
00:47:21,100 --> 00:47:23,089
Speaker 5: I wouldn't have put in the book. Had I known

836
00:47:23,110 --> 00:47:25,089
Speaker 5: I was going to run for office. I say, we

837
00:47:25,110 --> 00:47:27,750
Speaker 5: got to elect better people for office. And then the

838
00:47:27,790 --> 00:47:30,710
Speaker 5: people at these rallies, which we just have met for

839
00:47:30,730 --> 00:47:33,570
Speaker 5: the 88th week in a row as of Monday, um,

840
00:47:36,230 --> 00:47:39,189
Speaker 5: started encouraging me to run. And I still said, no,

841
00:47:39,270 --> 00:47:42,610
Speaker 5: I've got a great life. It's pretty easy compared to

842
00:47:42,650 --> 00:47:45,549
Speaker 5: my old job of being a news reporter. Yeah, my

843
00:47:45,590 --> 00:47:48,350
Speaker 5: own boss. But then it's just like the country's on fire.

844
00:47:48,910 --> 00:47:51,850
Speaker 1: I would love you to talk about Dope Sec just because,

845
00:47:53,370 --> 00:47:57,910
Speaker 1: you know, I'm rereading this this another book that runs

846
00:47:58,950 --> 00:48:02,820
Speaker 1: into it about the Empire of Pain.

847
00:48:02,900 --> 00:48:03,680
Speaker 5: Oh, that's a great book.

848
00:48:04,250 --> 00:48:04,630
Speaker 3: Yeah.

849
00:48:04,670 --> 00:48:06,830
Speaker 1: So I was wondering if you could talk about Dope

850
00:48:06,870 --> 00:48:11,320
Speaker 1: Sick and because also it is a Danny Strong miniseries, too.

851
00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:13,560
Speaker 1: It went on to do a lot of stuff and

852
00:48:13,600 --> 00:48:17,719
Speaker 1: to talk about a crisis which dovetails with your congressional run.

853
00:48:17,739 --> 00:48:24,390
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly right. So after the midterms, a whole bunch

854
00:48:24,430 --> 00:48:26,510
Speaker 5: of millions of people are going to lose their Medicaid

855
00:48:26,550 --> 00:48:29,710
Speaker 5: and it's going to send addiction treatment back decades. That's

856
00:48:29,730 --> 00:48:32,089
Speaker 5: not me saying that. That's all the experts that I've

857
00:48:32,110 --> 00:48:35,670
Speaker 5: been interviewing for the last 15 years. And you started

858
00:48:35,730 --> 00:48:39,730
Speaker 5: to see a slight decrease in overdose deaths. And that's

859
00:48:39,790 --> 00:48:41,609
Speaker 5: mainly because of the Medicaid expansion.

860
00:48:41,790 --> 00:48:42,630
Speaker 1: And with this.

861
00:48:44,390 --> 00:48:49,719
Speaker 5: D expansion, it's, you know, in Virginia, 3,000 people, 300,000

862
00:48:49,719 --> 00:48:52,060
Speaker 5: people alone are going to lose their Medicaid.

863
00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:53,180
Speaker 1: It's going to be really bad.

864
00:48:53,219 --> 00:48:57,440
Speaker 5: Last night I was at a fundraiser and the husband

865
00:48:57,460 --> 00:49:00,759
Speaker 5: of somebody or the wife of somebody I know came

866
00:49:00,820 --> 00:49:03,680
Speaker 5: up to me and said, my sister lives in your district.

867
00:49:04,090 --> 00:49:07,740
Speaker 5: And she's been on MAT, which is buprenorphine or Suboxone,

868
00:49:08,739 --> 00:49:12,020
Speaker 5: for eight years. She's been in recovery. She hasn't died.

869
00:49:12,640 --> 00:49:14,529
Speaker 5: And she just found out she's going to lose her

870
00:49:14,570 --> 00:49:18,250
Speaker 5: Medicaid next month. And she doesn't know what she's going

871
00:49:18,290 --> 00:49:18,529
Speaker 5: to do.

872
00:49:18,550 --> 00:49:18,630
Speaker 2: Yeah.

873
00:49:19,340 --> 00:49:23,060
Speaker 5: I mean, these are stories I'm hearing. And, you know,

874
00:49:23,180 --> 00:49:26,900
Speaker 5: if you watch the series or you've read the book.

875
00:49:27,700 --> 00:49:30,380
Speaker 5: I talk about, you know, the book came out in 2018.

876
00:49:30,380 --> 00:49:32,890
Speaker 5: The series, I think, came out in 2021.

877
00:49:32,890 --> 00:49:36,790
Speaker 1: Right, which is 10,000 million years ago for those of

878
00:49:37,010 --> 00:49:41,870
Speaker 1: us keeping track at home. We've lived 100 lifetimes since then. Yes,

879
00:49:41,910 --> 00:49:42,110
Speaker 1: go on.

880
00:49:42,110 --> 00:49:45,940
Speaker 5: Yeah, but it's only gotten worse, largely. I mean, when

881
00:49:46,160 --> 00:49:48,800
Speaker 5: Dope Set came out in 2018, I would say, because

882
00:49:48,840 --> 00:49:51,840
Speaker 5: this was the latest data, that one-third of all American

883
00:49:52,100 --> 00:49:56,020
Speaker 5: families are suffering because of this crisis. Now it's two-thirds.

884
00:49:56,280 --> 00:49:58,420
Speaker 5: So it's still the number one killer of people in

885
00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:01,239
Speaker 5: their 20s and 30s. And nobody wants to talk about

886
00:50:01,300 --> 00:50:03,940
Speaker 5: it because it's sad or whatever. You know, I wrote

887
00:50:03,980 --> 00:50:08,259
Speaker 5: a follow-up book, which was much more activist-y, called Raising Lazarus,

888
00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:10,840
Speaker 5: in which Nan Golden was a main character and the

889
00:50:10,900 --> 00:50:13,660
Speaker 5: lawyers that were trying to take down the Sacklers were

890
00:50:13,700 --> 00:50:17,910
Speaker 5: main characters. And, you know, that's when I became an activist.

891
00:50:18,130 --> 00:50:21,759
Speaker 5: It sort of gave me permission because... How's this revolving

892
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:25,509
Speaker 5: door out of Washington working out for anybody? How is

893
00:50:25,610 --> 00:50:30,250
Speaker 5: this family of millionaires that wanted to be billionaires still getting,

894
00:50:30,270 --> 00:50:34,430
Speaker 5: I mean, they paid 7.4 billion recently, the Sacklers did,

895
00:50:34,850 --> 00:50:37,960
Speaker 5: but nobody went to jail. And as a prosecutor in

896
00:50:37,980 --> 00:50:40,799
Speaker 5: Dopesick says, when it's a white collar criminal and they

897
00:50:40,820 --> 00:50:42,840
Speaker 5: don't go to jail, the behavior continues.

898
00:50:43,700 --> 00:50:47,040
Speaker 1: So let's talk. Yes, true. Let's talk. I'd love you

899
00:50:47,080 --> 00:50:51,690
Speaker 1: to talk about you come from newspapers. One of the

900
00:50:51,770 --> 00:50:55,680
Speaker 1: things that I'm so struck by is we, you know,

901
00:50:56,180 --> 00:50:59,270
Speaker 1: all the local news has been you know, died in

902
00:50:59,410 --> 00:51:03,160
Speaker 1: a really just the darkest possible way. And what has

903
00:51:04,219 --> 00:51:09,640
Speaker 1: taken over for them is like red sludge. And, you know,

904
00:51:09,660 --> 00:51:14,110
Speaker 1: a lot of, I mean, reporting is in dire straits.

905
00:51:14,570 --> 00:51:17,010
Speaker 1: I would love you to talk about like, You could

906
00:51:17,070 --> 00:51:20,750
Speaker 1: win your congressional seat and you could end up I mean,

907
00:51:20,790 --> 00:51:24,180
Speaker 1: the way the winds are blowing and you're in Virginia.

908
00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:27,879
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's an R plus 12. But

909
00:51:27,960 --> 00:51:31,939
Speaker 1: like there's a you know, we're seeing early voting that

910
00:51:32,420 --> 00:51:35,360
Speaker 1: and again, we don't you know, polls have been wrong.

911
00:51:35,440 --> 00:51:39,089
Speaker 1: But like we're seeing early voting that's showing, you know,

912
00:51:39,210 --> 00:51:44,600
Speaker 1: Latino voters coming out in droves. to vote against Trump

913
00:51:44,719 --> 00:51:49,630
Speaker 1: and Democratic early vote is like ridiculously high. I wonder

914
00:51:50,750 --> 00:51:53,910
Speaker 1: if you were to win, what would you do? Because

915
00:51:53,950 --> 00:51:58,469
Speaker 1: you are, you are a journalist, you come from journalism world,

916
00:51:58,510 --> 00:52:00,750
Speaker 1: you've written a bunch of books, you understand the importance

917
00:52:00,890 --> 00:52:02,430
Speaker 1: of holding power to account.

918
00:52:03,430 --> 00:52:06,489
Speaker 5: Well, I would do what I've been doing, which is

919
00:52:06,510 --> 00:52:08,960
Speaker 5: this whole race I've been running up and down the

920
00:52:09,000 --> 00:52:13,190
Speaker 5: district on the map behind me, with my reporter's notebook

921
00:52:13,850 --> 00:52:16,910
Speaker 5: and trying to find out what the real impact on

922
00:52:16,950 --> 00:52:21,069
Speaker 5: the ground is of the people being impacted first by

923
00:52:21,110 --> 00:52:24,930
Speaker 5: the doge cuts. So I've been having veteran town halls,

924
00:52:25,110 --> 00:52:28,290
Speaker 5: veterans are, you know, they have to retell their story,

925
00:52:28,310 --> 00:52:31,489
Speaker 5: their traumatic story every time they go because people are

926
00:52:31,510 --> 00:52:35,549
Speaker 5: leaving and they're not being replaced at VA. So farmers,

927
00:52:36,230 --> 00:52:39,420
Speaker 5: I'm talking to farmers who have never voted for a

928
00:52:39,450 --> 00:52:42,299
Speaker 5: Democrat in their life and they're asking for Farmers for

929
00:52:42,340 --> 00:52:45,420
Speaker 5: Macy's signs, big, giant four by eight signs to put out.

930
00:52:45,660 --> 00:52:47,560
Speaker 5: And some of their neighbors are giving them grief and

931
00:52:47,580 --> 00:52:51,740
Speaker 5: they're still putting them out because they said, my opponent,

932
00:52:51,760 --> 00:52:55,460
Speaker 5: Ben Klein, his first commercial TV said, I'm working to

933
00:52:55,500 --> 00:53:00,440
Speaker 5: lower your gas prices. And this woman farmer who is

934
00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:04,400
Speaker 5: also a veteran said, he can't gaslight me about gas prices.

935
00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:09,940
Speaker 5: I'm done with it. He voted against releasing the Epstein files.

936
00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:13,240
Speaker 5: I mean, he's just an awful human. And if he's talking,

937
00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:16,290
Speaker 5: he's lying. And they are starting to realize it. And

938
00:53:16,330 --> 00:53:20,470
Speaker 5: her husband, whose family has been beef farming the same

939
00:53:20,550 --> 00:53:25,930
Speaker 5: property for 300 years, going back to the Revolutionary War, said, look,

940
00:53:26,150 --> 00:53:28,739
Speaker 5: I just want to hang out with my cows. I

941
00:53:28,780 --> 00:53:31,400
Speaker 5: never wanted to be into politics. He had voted for

942
00:53:31,440 --> 00:53:35,200
Speaker 5: Trump twice. But he said, when Trump In the middle

943
00:53:35,219 --> 00:53:38,700
Speaker 5: of the night can release a tweet saying that we're

944
00:53:38,719 --> 00:53:41,779
Speaker 5: going to import beef. He said a quarter of my

945
00:53:41,880 --> 00:53:45,799
Speaker 5: equity in my cows was lost because of him and

946
00:53:45,950 --> 00:53:49,020
Speaker 5: the ridiculousness on the phone. And they're just done with it.

947
00:53:49,330 --> 00:53:50,910
Speaker 5: So I think I can flip this seat.

948
00:53:52,280 --> 00:53:55,970
Speaker 1: So tell me about I I'm thinking about the doge

949
00:53:56,010 --> 00:54:01,169
Speaker 1: cuts because I saw this Elon Musk movie that that

950
00:54:01,290 --> 00:54:05,069
Speaker 1: Alex Gibney did. And in it, there's so you know,

951
00:54:05,350 --> 00:54:08,069
Speaker 1: there's so much video of the all in guys just

952
00:54:08,170 --> 00:54:11,700
Speaker 1: laughing about the doge cuts and that. I mean, just

953
00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:15,420
Speaker 1: the kind of havoc they wreaked on the federal government.

954
00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:17,600
Speaker 1: I'd love you to talk about what you see on

955
00:54:17,620 --> 00:54:19,020
Speaker 1: the ground as a result of that.

956
00:54:19,260 --> 00:54:22,320
Speaker 5: We just had a town hall last week in Winchester, Virginia,

957
00:54:22,340 --> 00:54:25,700
Speaker 5: the top part of the district, for federal workers, those

958
00:54:25,739 --> 00:54:29,560
Speaker 5: who have been doged and those who have left just

959
00:54:29,620 --> 00:54:32,140
Speaker 5: because they thought it was coming and those that are

960
00:54:32,180 --> 00:54:34,460
Speaker 5: still in and couldn't even give their names, but stood

961
00:54:34,520 --> 00:54:37,540
Speaker 5: up and told stories like, I'm a statistician at.

962
00:54:39,260 --> 00:54:39,660
Speaker 2: The U.S.

963
00:54:39,700 --> 00:54:45,580
Speaker 5: Census Department. And she said, we are passionately bipartisan. And

964
00:54:45,620 --> 00:54:50,540
Speaker 5: she's seen all these cuts, people losing their position, having

965
00:54:50,580 --> 00:54:54,239
Speaker 5: to retire early. And she said one of her friends

966
00:54:54,410 --> 00:54:56,870
Speaker 5: retired early and hasn't even been able to get a

967
00:54:56,930 --> 00:55:00,770
Speaker 5: retirement because there isn't the capacity in the federal government

968
00:55:01,050 --> 00:55:05,330
Speaker 5: to process her retirement paperwork. And she's not getting 20%.

969
00:55:05,330 --> 00:55:08,719
Speaker 5: I mean, it was shocking to me. And then, you know,

970
00:55:08,739 --> 00:55:12,100
Speaker 5: I have veterans coming up saying, you know, what is

971
00:55:12,180 --> 00:55:20,030
Speaker 5: happening here? My opponent has voted twice to privatize VA care, which,

972
00:55:20,090 --> 00:55:23,510
Speaker 5: you know, that was all mapped out in Project 2025.

973
00:55:23,510 --> 00:55:26,610
Speaker 5: They voted to cut PAC Act funding, which helps veterans

974
00:55:26,730 --> 00:55:28,370
Speaker 5: with Agent Orange.

975
00:55:28,910 --> 00:55:29,290
Speaker 3: Yeah.

976
00:55:29,870 --> 00:55:34,070
Speaker 5: Get services, you know, and we've been holding town halls

977
00:55:34,170 --> 00:55:36,710
Speaker 5: with veterans too, and we don't, they're not political. We

978
00:55:36,730 --> 00:55:39,509
Speaker 5: just want to hear how their care is being impacted.

979
00:55:40,130 --> 00:55:42,090
Speaker 5: And as a result of one of them, a woman

980
00:55:42,130 --> 00:55:45,660
Speaker 5: reached out, her husband was a Vietnam hero. He went

981
00:55:45,739 --> 00:55:48,580
Speaker 5: on to become a lawyer, lost an eye in a battle,

982
00:55:48,660 --> 00:55:52,380
Speaker 5: saved five of his troops, and then was responsible for

983
00:55:55,430 --> 00:55:58,589
Speaker 5: with a team that built the Vietnam Wall. And he

984
00:55:58,630 --> 00:56:03,340
Speaker 5: now has Agent Orange-related Parkinson's disease. His name is John Morrison,

985
00:56:03,400 --> 00:56:06,020
Speaker 5: and I have permission from him and his wife to

986
00:56:06,060 --> 00:56:09,480
Speaker 5: tell this story because she could not get that man

987
00:56:09,500 --> 00:56:11,820
Speaker 5: a hospice bed when it was time for him to

988
00:56:11,860 --> 00:56:15,460
Speaker 5: go to hospice. And so she knew I was doing

989
00:56:15,500 --> 00:56:17,840
Speaker 5: these town halls. She called me and I put on

990
00:56:17,860 --> 00:56:20,790
Speaker 5: my reporter hat, which meant I called everybody I knew.

991
00:56:21,670 --> 00:56:24,989
Speaker 5: And somebody on my team, one of the volunteers, was

992
00:56:25,110 --> 00:56:28,339
Speaker 5: able to find that man a hospice bed. And I'm

993
00:56:28,460 --> 00:56:30,560
Speaker 5: already doing his job for him.

994
00:56:30,580 --> 00:56:36,380
Speaker 1: You know? So tell me about, I want you to

995
00:56:36,420 --> 00:56:38,379
Speaker 1: tell me about, so you're going up and down this

996
00:56:38,480 --> 00:56:45,110
Speaker 1: huge district, which is, do you, are you seeing MAGA signs?

997
00:56:45,989 --> 00:56:48,740
Speaker 1: Not very many. Not very many.

998
00:56:49,390 --> 00:56:50,980
Speaker 5: In fact, I just went to a wedding way up

999
00:56:51,000 --> 00:56:53,660
Speaker 5: in the mountains and there were way more signs for

1000
00:56:53,700 --> 00:56:55,819
Speaker 5: me than they were for Ben Klein. And people were

1001
00:56:55,880 --> 00:56:57,660
Speaker 5: commenting on it because a lot of people were going

1002
00:56:57,700 --> 00:56:59,819
Speaker 5: up to the wedding and they're like, we've never seen

1003
00:56:59,860 --> 00:57:02,660
Speaker 5: this like this before. I don't know if people are

1004
00:57:02,680 --> 00:57:05,379
Speaker 5: going to stay home. We know some people have, like

1005
00:57:05,420 --> 00:57:08,220
Speaker 5: they've gone on camera for me for my social media

1006
00:57:08,260 --> 00:57:12,060
Speaker 5: posts saying, you know, we have our latest video has

1007
00:57:12,080 --> 00:57:15,210
Speaker 5: somebody taking down a Trump sign and in his garage

1008
00:57:15,670 --> 00:57:18,810
Speaker 5: after he put up the Farmers for Macy sign. And

1009
00:57:19,830 --> 00:57:24,550
Speaker 5: it feels like they're, you know, knock on wood, that

1010
00:57:24,590 --> 00:57:27,790
Speaker 5: people are going to stay home, that they realize they're

1011
00:57:27,810 --> 00:57:32,200
Speaker 5: being gaslit about their gas prices. And they're just struggling.

1012
00:57:32,240 --> 00:57:35,040
Speaker 5: So I'm trying to meet them at the points of

1013
00:57:35,080 --> 00:57:39,400
Speaker 5: their pain, not necessarily their politics. And I've always been

1014
00:57:39,440 --> 00:57:44,040
Speaker 5: an equal opportunity critic of, you know, NAFTA happens under Clinton.

1015
00:57:45,000 --> 00:57:47,900
Speaker 5: The Fairness Doctrine, which, you know, paves the way for

1016
00:57:48,000 --> 00:57:51,220
Speaker 5: Fox and Rush Limbaugh, gets axed under Reagan. But the

1017
00:57:51,260 --> 00:57:55,170
Speaker 5: Communications Decency Act, that's also under Clinton. And that's what

1018
00:57:55,350 --> 00:57:59,070
Speaker 5: allowed for the collapse of local news that you were

1019
00:57:59,110 --> 00:58:02,430
Speaker 5: just talking about and the fact that lies spread six

1020
00:58:02,470 --> 00:58:04,700
Speaker 5: times faster than the truth on social media.

1021
00:58:04,780 --> 00:58:08,820
Speaker 1: So say when, like, let's just talk, because I, this

1022
00:58:08,900 --> 00:58:11,860
Speaker 1: is something that's actually passionate, that's near and dear to

1023
00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:14,400
Speaker 1: my heart. And I have taught, and I feel like

1024
00:58:15,730 --> 00:58:20,810
Speaker 1: I these news operations, the ones that have real reporting,

1025
00:58:20,890 --> 00:58:24,240
Speaker 1: where people are out there holding power to account, where

1026
00:58:24,280 --> 00:58:27,780
Speaker 1: they are in the this is the unglamorous work. This

1027
00:58:27,860 --> 00:58:36,210
Speaker 1: is the stuff that, you know, occasionally gets highlighted. that

1028
00:58:36,250 --> 00:58:40,090
Speaker 1: gets highlighted occasionally in national news, but often doesn't, right?

1029
00:58:40,150 --> 00:58:45,510
Speaker 1: Like this is the lobbyists spending extra time pushing a

1030
00:58:45,550 --> 00:58:48,900
Speaker 1: bill that maybe isn't as good as another bill, or

1031
00:58:48,920 --> 00:58:52,760
Speaker 1: this is the unglamorous stuff, but the stuff that is

1032
00:58:53,120 --> 00:58:58,620
Speaker 1: critical If you're going to have real, you know, real

1033
00:58:58,660 --> 00:59:03,770
Speaker 1: legislation that serves the people, how would you what would

1034
00:59:03,830 --> 00:59:06,910
Speaker 1: be the thing you would do to help local news

1035
00:59:07,050 --> 00:59:11,520
Speaker 1: outlets survive, like to encourage a pro-public? or an NPR

1036
00:59:11,640 --> 00:59:13,960
Speaker 1: or a place that does the real stuff? I mean,

1037
00:59:14,100 --> 00:59:17,480
Speaker 1: is that a tax incentive for local news? Is it

1038
00:59:17,540 --> 00:59:23,620
Speaker 1: making that nonpartisan reporting a 501 C4 C3? I mean,

1039
00:59:23,660 --> 00:59:26,940
Speaker 1: what what is your is there some magic bullet in

1040
00:59:26,980 --> 00:59:27,460
Speaker 1: your mind?

1041
00:59:28,010 --> 00:59:30,390
Speaker 5: Well, I don't know that there's one magic bullet, but

1042
00:59:30,430 --> 00:59:33,410
Speaker 5: you're starting to see there's a great nonprofit org called

1043
00:59:33,470 --> 00:59:37,950
Speaker 5: States Newsroom, and they're doing some really great reporting. Their

1044
00:59:38,010 --> 00:59:41,530
Speaker 5: reporting helped inform my book, Paper Girl, which was an

1045
00:59:41,590 --> 00:59:45,410
Speaker 5: account of me going back home to my rural, red,

1046
00:59:45,550 --> 00:59:48,890
Speaker 5: small town in Ohio, which has no news. I mean,

1047
00:59:48,910 --> 00:59:51,610
Speaker 5: they have like half of a reporter. And when I

1048
00:59:51,650 --> 00:59:54,430
Speaker 5: was there as a young intern, God knows how many

1049
00:59:54,450 --> 00:59:59,280
Speaker 5: years ago, 40 years ago, They had 11 reporters. What

1050
00:59:59,320 --> 01:00:01,260
Speaker 5: does that look like on the ground? Everybody just getting

1051
01:00:01,300 --> 01:00:04,190
Speaker 5: national news from Fox News and Newsmax, including most of

1052
01:00:04,250 --> 01:00:08,730
Speaker 5: my relatives. you can see like i love the new

1053
01:00:08,750 --> 01:00:11,090
Speaker 5: york times i read it every day i read the

1054
01:00:11,130 --> 01:00:14,270
Speaker 5: post sometimes i got mad at them when bezos you

1055
01:00:14,310 --> 01:00:16,420
Speaker 5: know and i quit it and then i was like

1056
01:00:16,460 --> 01:00:17,580
Speaker 5: no i gotta support it and i.

1057
01:00:17,580 --> 01:00:21,700
Speaker 1: Went back it's useful for virginia especially yeah yeah yeah.

1058
01:00:21,540 --> 01:00:23,500
Speaker 5: So so we went back to that of course read

1059
01:00:23,540 --> 01:00:25,880
Speaker 5: heather cox richardson and all that but what we really

1060
01:00:25,940 --> 01:00:32,400
Speaker 5: need is um incentives for smaller places that vote mostly red.

1061
01:00:32,820 --> 01:00:36,380
Speaker 5: So they can really get fact-based news because you would

1062
01:00:36,460 --> 01:00:39,660
Speaker 5: not believe in Paper Girl, the number of my own

1063
01:00:39,720 --> 01:00:41,910
Speaker 5: personal friends that I grew up with that I've known

1064
01:00:41,950 --> 01:00:46,010
Speaker 5: since ages of four and five who now believe in QAnon.

1065
01:00:46,610 --> 01:00:47,350
Speaker 1: Right, still.

1066
01:00:47,510 --> 01:00:50,410
Speaker 5: And they'll say things to me like, I hate the media.

1067
01:00:50,490 --> 01:00:53,280
Speaker 5: And I'll say, Joy, but I'm the media too. You

1068
01:00:53,360 --> 01:00:56,280
Speaker 5: love me. And then I told her this story that

1069
01:00:56,300 --> 01:00:58,800
Speaker 5: I recounted, Paper Girl. I said, you know, when I

1070
01:00:58,820 --> 01:01:00,620
Speaker 5: write an op-ed for the New York Times, and you

1071
01:01:00,660 --> 01:01:04,360
Speaker 5: know this, Molly, it is fact-checked for many, many hours,

1072
01:01:04,420 --> 01:01:08,110
Speaker 5: sometimes for days. I wrote a piece once in which

1073
01:01:08,170 --> 01:01:11,720
Speaker 5: they tracked down A homeless, addicted person who no longer

1074
01:01:11,760 --> 01:01:13,340
Speaker 5: had the cell phone number. I don't know how they

1075
01:01:13,360 --> 01:01:16,040
Speaker 5: found him. Just to verify my account that I had

1076
01:01:16,060 --> 01:01:19,220
Speaker 5: gotten six months before because his story had changed. Like,

1077
01:01:19,320 --> 01:01:21,540
Speaker 5: that's the efforts that they go to. And when I

1078
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:24,570
Speaker 5: told my friend that, she snaps back at me. Well,

1079
01:01:24,590 --> 01:01:28,410
Speaker 5: who fact checks the fact checkers? Like, in a really

1080
01:01:28,550 --> 01:01:33,070
Speaker 5: angry account. You know, they've made it so that, like,

1081
01:01:33,250 --> 01:01:35,550
Speaker 5: a quarter of us can't have Thanksgiving dinner with our

1082
01:01:35,610 --> 01:01:38,320
Speaker 5: families anymore. These new silos, I think we need to

1083
01:01:38,380 --> 01:01:42,220
Speaker 5: bring back some version of the fairness doctrine. I think

1084
01:01:43,320 --> 01:01:46,860
Speaker 5: we need to rewrite the Communications Decency Act so that

1085
01:01:47,320 --> 01:01:52,310
Speaker 5: Zuckerberg is responsible for knowingly spreading innovation to be held

1086
01:01:52,350 --> 01:01:55,030
Speaker 5: to the same standards that the New York Times is

1087
01:01:55,770 --> 01:01:56,170
Speaker 5: held to.

1088
01:01:56,190 --> 01:01:56,650
Speaker 1: For sure.

1089
01:01:57,310 --> 01:01:59,690
Speaker 5: Yeah, because we're just getting rich off of our divisions.

1090
01:02:01,000 --> 01:02:04,410
Speaker 1: So talk me through your opponent talk me through the

1091
01:02:04,430 --> 01:02:07,400
Speaker 1: sort of very the big differences between.

1092
01:02:07,090 --> 01:02:09,910
Speaker 5: You and him So many so many well the first

1093
01:02:09,950 --> 01:02:12,610
Speaker 5: of all he's about half of his donors are from

1094
01:02:12,690 --> 01:02:18,190
Speaker 5: corporate packs big tech big AG Big health insurance. No

1095
01:02:18,230 --> 01:02:24,930
Speaker 5: wonder he's not for Medicare for all Big everything, you

1096
01:02:24,970 --> 01:02:28,880
Speaker 5: know big AG and Big Pharma. Oh, my God. So

1097
01:02:29,060 --> 01:02:31,100
Speaker 5: one of his main donors since he first ran for

1098
01:02:31,300 --> 01:02:35,180
Speaker 5: General Assembly in the state was Abbott Laboratories. And if

1099
01:02:35,220 --> 01:02:38,400
Speaker 5: you remember that scene from the Hulu show, that's the

1100
01:02:38,460 --> 01:02:42,360
Speaker 5: group of sales reps that Purdue first hired to go

1101
01:02:42,420 --> 01:02:45,260
Speaker 5: out into small towns, like towns all up and down

1102
01:02:45,280 --> 01:02:48,700
Speaker 5: the district, and sell the lie to doctors that OxyContin

1103
01:02:48,740 --> 01:02:52,700
Speaker 5: wasn't addictive. And so that's who funds his campaign. He

1104
01:02:52,740 --> 01:02:54,800
Speaker 5: just had a bunch of money come in from the

1105
01:02:54,880 --> 01:02:57,820
Speaker 5: crypto pack yesterday. So get ready to see some really

1106
01:02:57,900 --> 01:03:04,160
Speaker 5: ugly commercials about me next. So that's one huge difference.

1107
01:03:04,260 --> 01:03:06,680
Speaker 5: I'm not taking any corporate PAC money. I got an

1108
01:03:06,920 --> 01:03:10,100
Speaker 5: A on the public integrity scale. He got a D.

1109
01:03:11,780 --> 01:03:15,380
Speaker 5: And I want to repeal the one ugly bill. Hunger

1110
01:03:15,620 --> 01:03:18,470
Speaker 5: in my district is like I have never seen before.

1111
01:03:18,810 --> 01:03:21,750
Speaker 5: People are sleeping in their cars outside of food pantries.

1112
01:03:22,140 --> 01:03:24,620
Speaker 5: So they can be the first in line the morning

1113
01:03:24,760 --> 01:03:29,430
Speaker 5: when it opens. The number of people about to lose

1114
01:03:29,470 --> 01:03:32,470
Speaker 5: their health care and who have already lost their ACA

1115
01:03:32,530 --> 01:03:35,570
Speaker 5: subsidies from last year. We have a lot of farmers

1116
01:03:35,630 --> 01:03:42,060
Speaker 5: going without insurance now. It's one of the most dangerous professions. And,

1117
01:03:42,360 --> 01:03:47,100
Speaker 5: you know, the VA cuts, it's just devastating. So, so

1118
01:03:47,120 --> 01:03:49,590
Speaker 5: many differences between us. But the main thing is he

1119
01:03:49,640 --> 01:03:52,170
Speaker 5: has gone. He was pretty right wing when he started.

1120
01:03:52,210 --> 01:03:54,610
Speaker 5: But recently he got out of the Problem Solvers Caucus

1121
01:03:54,910 --> 01:03:57,630
Speaker 5: to join the Sharia Free Caucus. This dude.

1122
01:03:57,750 --> 01:04:02,170
Speaker 1: That's a caucus? No. That's a caucus. Sharia Free Caucus

1123
01:04:02,710 --> 01:04:05,070
Speaker 1: is what it's called? Yes. Yes.

1124
01:04:05,180 --> 01:04:07,300
Speaker 5: I might be missing a word, but Sharia Free is

1125
01:04:07,340 --> 01:04:11,780
Speaker 5: definitely in it. And he's so Christian Nationalist. He told

1126
01:04:11,880 --> 01:04:14,030
Speaker 5: his high school government teacher that he wanted to be

1127
01:04:14,070 --> 01:04:17,810
Speaker 5: in Congress one day so that he could overturn Roe v. Wade. And,

1128
01:04:17,830 --> 01:04:18,690
Speaker 5: you know, he kind of did.

1129
01:04:18,710 --> 01:04:19,630
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1130
01:04:19,910 --> 01:04:22,100
Speaker 5: So and what I want to say is I'm a

1131
01:04:22,160 --> 01:04:24,580
Speaker 5: mountain Democrat. You can get the hell out of my

1132
01:04:25,680 --> 01:04:28,790
Speaker 5: my bedroom, my bathroom. I get to love who I

1133
01:04:28,830 --> 01:04:30,610
Speaker 5: want to love. My kids get to be who they

1134
01:04:30,650 --> 01:04:33,890
Speaker 5: want to be. And I will never not stand up

1135
01:04:34,430 --> 01:04:36,790
Speaker 5: for women's rights. So that's a huge difference. He has

1136
01:04:36,850 --> 01:04:39,270
Speaker 5: voted against a ban on child marriage.

1137
01:04:39,330 --> 01:04:44,080
Speaker 1: The Sharia Free America Caucus. And it is a congressional

1138
01:04:44,120 --> 01:04:45,830
Speaker 1: caucus launched in December 2025.

1139
01:04:45,820 --> 01:04:50,320
Speaker 5: The last bill, one of the last bills he introduced,

1140
01:04:50,420 --> 01:04:55,880
Speaker 5: Ben Klein, was to ban trans women from joining the DAR. Yeah.

1141
01:04:56,930 --> 01:04:57,180
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1142
01:04:57,650 --> 01:04:59,990
Speaker 5: I thought it was a headline from the young.

1143
01:05:00,030 --> 01:05:00,180
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1144
01:05:00,720 --> 01:05:01,000
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1145
01:05:01,980 --> 01:05:06,060
Speaker 1: Yeah. That's not. So tell me what's next for you,

1146
01:05:06,600 --> 01:05:08,770
Speaker 1: what you have, you're less than a month away from

1147
01:05:08,790 --> 01:05:11,030
Speaker 1: the midterms. What, what are you doing now?

1148
01:05:11,490 --> 01:05:14,140
Speaker 5: So we are running up and down the district. You know, I,

1149
01:05:14,720 --> 01:05:16,840
Speaker 5: I'm pretty sure I have Roanoke because I've lived here

1150
01:05:16,880 --> 01:05:19,220
Speaker 5: for 40 years and everybody wanted me in the paper.

1151
01:05:19,380 --> 01:05:22,180
Speaker 5: And we've done a ton of events here. I'm getting

1152
01:05:22,220 --> 01:05:24,160
Speaker 5: to know the middle of the district and the upper

1153
01:05:24,200 --> 01:05:26,420
Speaker 5: part of the district. I mean, I have been.

1154
01:05:26,440 --> 01:05:28,660
Speaker 1: What's the middle of the district and the upper part?

1155
01:05:28,900 --> 01:05:31,660
Speaker 5: Well, the middle is Harrisonburg, which is JMU. So we're

1156
01:05:31,680 --> 01:05:34,770
Speaker 5: getting some, we're increasing our field team at JMU, which

1157
01:05:34,830 --> 01:05:38,550
Speaker 5: is a big state college, about 25,000 students. And the

1158
01:05:38,610 --> 01:05:42,690
Speaker 5: upper part is Winchester. And it is purpling because it's connected,

1159
01:05:42,930 --> 01:05:46,300
Speaker 5: you know, since COVID started. to people moving into Northern

1160
01:05:46,320 --> 01:05:50,980
Speaker 5: Virginia and Winchester from D.C. Because it's a little cheaper

1161
01:05:51,200 --> 01:05:54,340
Speaker 5: and a lot of that happened during COVID. Frederick County,

1162
01:05:54,400 --> 01:05:56,160
Speaker 5: which is up in the north part, it's a lot

1163
01:05:56,180 --> 01:06:00,980
Speaker 5: of federal workers, a lot of former military senior leaders.

1164
01:06:01,140 --> 01:06:05,240
Speaker 5: And by the way, the National Security Council, the National

1165
01:06:05,260 --> 01:06:07,930
Speaker 5: Security Leaders for America just endorsed me. That's the former

1166
01:06:07,930 --> 01:06:09,070
Speaker 5: 1,500 senior military leaders that.

1167
01:06:14,280 --> 01:06:17,940
Speaker 5: Sue Trump all the time and usually win in court.

1168
01:06:18,760 --> 01:06:21,640
Speaker 5: And they have endorsed me over a sitting congressman, which

1169
01:06:21,700 --> 01:06:25,380
Speaker 5: I find really interesting. And they're really worried. I mean,

1170
01:06:25,420 --> 01:06:30,230
Speaker 5: you'll see one of them is retired Major General Randy Manor.

1171
01:06:30,290 --> 01:06:33,470
Speaker 5: He goes out and he stumps with me. He gave

1172
01:06:33,510 --> 01:06:37,310
Speaker 5: me a special coin, a challenge coin that apparently I

1173
01:06:37,350 --> 01:06:39,770
Speaker 5: can take to any bar where there's a veteran and

1174
01:06:39,810 --> 01:06:42,750
Speaker 5: I can put it down. And if His rank outranks them.

1175
01:06:42,830 --> 01:06:44,270
Speaker 5: They have to buy me a beer, which I love.

1176
01:06:45,510 --> 01:06:49,430
Speaker 5: But he is going around saying, look, guys, it's early voting.

1177
01:06:49,530 --> 01:06:52,790
Speaker 5: You got to vote in person because we don't trust

1178
01:06:52,950 --> 01:06:56,940
Speaker 5: Trump not to send ICE or who, which he calls

1179
01:06:57,120 --> 01:07:00,800
Speaker 5: Hitler's brown shirts out to the polls to create havoc,

1180
01:07:01,040 --> 01:07:04,120
Speaker 5: creating some faux emergency. So, I mean, he's had a

1181
01:07:04,140 --> 01:07:06,120
Speaker 5: lot of guts to go on.

1182
01:07:06,720 --> 01:07:08,160
Speaker 1: And Virginia has early voting.

1183
01:07:08,750 --> 01:07:11,320
Speaker 5: Yes, we started about two weeks ago, and so far

1184
01:07:11,380 --> 01:07:14,600
Speaker 5: we're killing it. All the counties, I mean, Frederick County,

1185
01:07:14,640 --> 01:07:16,500
Speaker 5: which I was just talking about in the first week,

1186
01:07:17,160 --> 01:07:23,450
Speaker 5: voting was up 578%. which is largely thought to go

1187
01:07:23,510 --> 01:07:26,740
Speaker 5: the Democrat way. I just got put on a list

1188
01:07:26,820 --> 01:07:29,860
Speaker 5: by Tim Miller and the Bulwark last week, who thinks

1189
01:07:30,300 --> 01:07:35,540
Speaker 5: the seat is flippable. And, you know, he said, he

1190
01:07:35,580 --> 01:07:38,520
Speaker 5: pointed out that in the Shenandoah Valley, we have some

1191
01:07:38,880 --> 01:07:43,670
Speaker 5: college towns and in progressive pockets that are considered, you know,

1192
01:07:43,730 --> 01:07:46,330
Speaker 5: less red and that we've really got to hit them hard.

1193
01:07:46,370 --> 01:07:49,050
Speaker 5: But I'm not giving up on any votes. I'm still

1194
01:07:49,070 --> 01:07:52,180
Speaker 5: doing my town halls in small towns and meeting with

1195
01:07:52,220 --> 01:07:57,660
Speaker 5: farmers and veterans. And we've got a healthcare town hall

1196
01:07:57,720 --> 01:08:00,800
Speaker 5: coming up next week in Clifton Forge, which is where

1197
01:08:00,860 --> 01:08:04,740
Speaker 5: those small town scenes in Dopesick was shot, to talk

1198
01:08:04,780 --> 01:08:07,140
Speaker 5: about what's it going to look like when these Medicaid

1199
01:08:07,180 --> 01:08:09,920
Speaker 5: cuts come down. We've got a town hall on data

1200
01:08:09,940 --> 01:08:12,840
Speaker 5: centers coming up in Botetourt because Google is trying to

1201
01:08:12,860 --> 01:08:16,260
Speaker 5: put a triplex of data centers online. there, which is

1202
01:08:16,320 --> 01:08:19,900
Speaker 5: just north of me here and is a very Republican stronghold.

1203
01:08:19,939 --> 01:08:23,320
Speaker 5: But we've had some Republicans out door knocking for me

1204
01:08:23,460 --> 01:08:27,080
Speaker 5: in Baratak. So I'm pretty encouraged. I know it's still

1205
01:08:27,120 --> 01:08:30,680
Speaker 5: a heavy lift, but you know, a newspaper reporter, you

1206
01:08:30,700 --> 01:08:31,680
Speaker 5: can't outwork them.

1207
01:08:32,700 --> 01:08:36,089
Speaker 1: Beth Macy, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Molly.

1208
01:08:38,050 --> 01:08:40,790
Speaker 2: And now your moment of fuckery.

1209
01:08:40,900 --> 01:08:41,690
Speaker 1: Rick Wilson.

1210
01:08:41,720 --> 01:08:42,599
Speaker 2: Hey, Molly.

1211
01:08:42,840 --> 01:08:44,599
Speaker 1: What is your moment of fuckery?

1212
01:08:44,740 --> 01:08:48,520
Speaker 2: My moment of fuckery is a big shout out to

1213
01:08:49,540 --> 01:08:53,190
Speaker 2: the Ukrainians for starting to hit Russian data centers with

1214
01:08:53,229 --> 01:08:56,689
Speaker 2: their bombs. Because in the last 48 hours, there's been

1215
01:08:56,710 --> 01:09:01,639
Speaker 2: a massive drop-off of Russian bot activity on social media platforms,

1216
01:09:01,680 --> 01:09:04,479
Speaker 2: Twitter and Facebook in particular, that was being run out

1217
01:09:04,520 --> 01:09:08,740
Speaker 2: of these Yandex data centers in Russia. So suddenly, MAGA mommy,

1218
01:09:08,840 --> 01:09:14,510
Speaker 2: patriot queen, Trump lover 4,000, she's gone. I miss her.

1219
01:09:14,689 --> 01:09:18,080
Speaker 2: I miss her so much. And all these guys who

1220
01:09:18,120 --> 01:09:23,170
Speaker 2: are like, father, Christian, patriot, veteran, Trump all the way, Texan. Oh,

1221
01:09:23,189 --> 01:09:27,250
Speaker 2: they're gone too. Weird how that happens. I mean, some

1222
01:09:27,270 --> 01:09:30,280
Speaker 2: of the statistical analysis that's happening now when we're recording

1223
01:09:30,300 --> 01:09:33,679
Speaker 2: this on Sunday morning is showing about a 50% drop

1224
01:09:33,720 --> 01:09:36,490
Speaker 2: off already. And the Ukrainians are after the rest of

1225
01:09:36,510 --> 01:09:38,770
Speaker 2: their data centers as we go. And here's the thing.

1226
01:09:39,270 --> 01:09:41,110
Speaker 2: Russia can't rebuild those data centers.

1227
01:09:41,450 --> 01:09:42,390
Speaker 1: Why not?

1228
01:09:42,750 --> 01:09:45,090
Speaker 2: Nobody is selling them the chips to rebuild those data centers.

1229
01:09:45,130 --> 01:09:49,870
Speaker 2: Those things are all backed up for OpenAI and Inetropic

1230
01:09:49,970 --> 01:09:53,390
Speaker 2: and Google and Microsoft and everybody else. So they're going

1231
01:09:53,410 --> 01:09:55,230
Speaker 2: to get to the back of the line. And the

1232
01:09:55,350 --> 01:09:58,480
Speaker 2: Russian bot armies that have shaped American politics for a

1233
01:09:58,660 --> 01:10:02,680
Speaker 2: decade are suddenly lying in in smoking ruins in the

1234
01:10:02,700 --> 01:10:04,750
Speaker 2: Russian countryside. And I fucking love it.

1235
01:10:04,950 --> 01:10:07,290
Speaker 1: What will happen to MAGA123? Trump girl forever.

1236
01:10:07,290 --> 01:10:07,390
Speaker 2: 42069.

1237
01:10:07,390 --> 01:10:08,340
Speaker 1: She's gone and I miss her.

1238
01:10:08,350 --> 01:10:08,790
Speaker 4: Rick Wilson.

1239
01:10:15,270 --> 01:10:19,670
Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in

1240
01:10:20,030 --> 01:10:25,370
Speaker 1: every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to hear the best

1241
01:10:25,450 --> 01:10:29,800
Speaker 1: minds in politics make sense of all this chaos. If

1242
01:10:29,820 --> 01:10:32,900
Speaker 1: you enjoy this podcast, please send it to a friend

1243
01:10:33,400 --> 01:10:36,540
Speaker 1: and keep the conversation going. Thanks for listening.