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

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Speaker 1: where we discuss the top political headlines with some of

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Speaker 1: today's best minds and Republican megadon Or Harlan Crowe has

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Speaker 1: an extensive collection of Nazi memorabilia. We have such a

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Speaker 1: fun show today. Slates Dalia Lithwick will walk us through

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Speaker 1: the unprecedented ruling out of Texas that seeks to stop

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Speaker 1: abortion pills from being sold nationwide. Then Congressman Maxwell Frost

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Speaker 1: talks to us about the movement to curtail gun violence

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Speaker 1: and what he's seeing in the protests in Tennessee. But

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Speaker 1: first we have former Senator Al Franken. Welcome back to

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Speaker 1: Fast Politics. Out Franco, thank you for having me back.

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Speaker 1: I am delighted to have you back. I feel like

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Speaker 1: you were a favorite guest of the podcast. Immedia h really, okay,

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Speaker 1: I'll take it. I'll take it. I want to talk

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Speaker 1: to you just about what's going on in the world.

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Speaker 1: But I do think it is quite cool that you

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Speaker 1: hosted the Daily Showed. It was a great being back

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Speaker 1: in a regular television spot. Or would you prefer to

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Speaker 1: be in the Senate? I prefer to be in the

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Speaker 1: Senate frankly and regret resigning, and it tears me up

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Speaker 1: all the time. You're not the only person who feels out. Yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: I know, it's just funny because I have grandchildren in

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Speaker 1: New York, so I have a place on the Upper

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Speaker 1: West Side and I can't walk around the Upper West

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Speaker 1: Side without anyone who knows the Upper West Side of

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Speaker 1: manhad and knows why. That's kind of funny. It happens everywhere,

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Speaker 1: but three or four people a block. Okay, anyway, so

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Speaker 1: let's see what we're talking about the Daily Show, because

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Speaker 1: I do think you're a versatile person who can be

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Speaker 1: both abundon and a senator, which is not many people. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: just you and Ted Cruz just kidding. Well, I mean

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Speaker 1: it's funny, is it. Ted considers himself funny and he

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Speaker 1: is not. And every once in a while he would

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Speaker 1: come up to me and say, I've a joke for

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Speaker 1: my stump speech, and I think my crowd will love it.

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Speaker 1: Can I run it by you? And I'd go like, okay,

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Speaker 1: and sure, and he'd starts this joke. And this is

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Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, He's running for president. Hillary's on the other side,

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Speaker 1: of course, and he starts this joke. I'm going long

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Speaker 1: setup and I go, oh, okay, the punchline is gonna

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Speaker 1: be Hillary's phone. I got then more more setup, more setup,

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Speaker 1: finally Hillary's phone and I go, Okay, your crowd will

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Speaker 1: laugh at that, But I have to tell you I

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Speaker 1: knew what the punchline was about a third of the

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Speaker 1: way through the setup. Okay, you tell me a joke.

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Speaker 1: He'd get mad at me. I'm sorry, but I am

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Speaker 1: without words because that is what I would assume hanging

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Speaker 1: out what Ted Cruise would be like. It was amazing.

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Speaker 1: He's so unlikable in so many ways that it's just

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Speaker 1: kind of amazing. And he's very smart, but not smart

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Speaker 1: enough to understand how he comes off and what's wrong

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Speaker 1: with him. Yeah, it's true, very odd. It's very odd.

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Speaker 1: So speaking of Republicans not understanding how they come off

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Speaker 1: to the rest of the world, Tennessee State House, they

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Speaker 1: expel the two black people, but not the white person,

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Speaker 1: the white woman. Yes, so I think that puts a

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Speaker 1: lie to the sexism thing. Well, I don't know what

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Speaker 1: it does, but pretty incredible stuff, right, No, it was,

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Speaker 1: it's such a lie. It was about They compared it

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Speaker 1: to January sixth, of course. And this was just kind

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Speaker 1: of a little protest about not taking up guns in schools,

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Speaker 1: in schools while all these kids are there in the balconies.

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Speaker 1: And after three kids died, three teachers died, and god,

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Speaker 1: it was ugly. And that's the Republican Party. Now. If

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Speaker 1: you look right now this past week in Wisconsin, they

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Speaker 1: have an election. Aside the balance of finally of the

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court, there are a lot of stakes there in

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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of things, redistricting of course, abortion of course,

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Speaker 1: and the Democrat or the Progressive wins very handily, like

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Speaker 1: by a lot ten points. Yeah, and this is the

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Speaker 1: definition of a purple state. But this is in big

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Speaker 1: part about abortion, but also this is the most gerrymandered state.

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Speaker 1: You remember that twenty ten was a census year, and

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Speaker 1: so in twenty ten there was a big vote for

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Speaker 1: Republicans because of all the lying about the Affordable Care Act.

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Speaker 1: We had passed the Affordable Care Act in the Senate House,

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Speaker 1: and they lied about it, death panels, etc. Etc. And

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Speaker 1: also no one knew what was in the act, really

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Speaker 1: didn't understand it, and it took four years really to

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Speaker 1: get the thing up. We had four years of being

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Speaker 1: battered on that thing, and especially that year, and they

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Speaker 1: picked up all these seats and jerrymandered the crap out

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Speaker 1: of the state right to the point where I think

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Speaker 1: I have this right. Ben Wickler is the chairman of

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Speaker 1: the Democratic Party and a very good friend of mine.

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Speaker 1: I think he said it's like, if the vote is

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Speaker 1: fifty fifty, they have only a ten percent chance of

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Speaker 1: getting the majority. That's done wrong. It's worth it. It's

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Speaker 1: an amazingly gerrymandered state. And I should add that statistic

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Speaker 1: right at my fingers, but I don't. But it was

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Speaker 1: Jerrymanderden eleven and this court will be able to address that.

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Speaker 1: And also abortion is on that. Yeah. I mean, it

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Speaker 1: is just kind of incredible. And Republicans are talking about

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Speaker 1: impeaching huh there, I think a couple. I'm not sure

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Speaker 1: if it's as bad as is what's happening in Tennessee. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: what's happened in ten Yeah. Yeah. It's so interesting though,

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Speaker 1: because you do see this collision between this base that

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Speaker 1: is ready to just do crazy shit and the leadership,

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Speaker 1: which is starting to be like, maybe people don't like

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Speaker 1: our message. Yeah, but boy, doesn't leadership take a long time?

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Speaker 1: To get that message. And sometimes the leadership are the

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Speaker 1: problem too. Yeah. I mean, if you look now at

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Speaker 1: the House in Washington, McCarthy, either he played that as

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Speaker 1: stupidly as you could play at the vote to be speaker,

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Speaker 1: or these awful, awful, awful people played it as brilliantly

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Speaker 1: as you could play it, or it just accidentally happened

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Speaker 1: this way. But he is beholden to every one of them.

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Speaker 1: One person can bring it up right and new vote,

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Speaker 1: and so he is. Brings me to the debt limit.

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Speaker 1: That's the thing I'm most scared about. Yeah. I went

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Speaker 1: through that in eleven, and we went to more than

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Speaker 1: the eleventh hour and it hurt. We got our bonds downgraded.

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Speaker 1: And the dollar is the fault currency of the world,

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Speaker 1: and if we go over the cliff on this, it

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Speaker 1: could cause a worldwide recession. Yeah, and we did. They

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Speaker 1: downgraded the America and did yeah. Yeah, which is like

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Speaker 1: kind of an incredible thing to think about, that that

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Speaker 1: could happen. That's right. They downgraded it in eleven after that,

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Speaker 1: and because we came so close to the edge, and

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Speaker 1: these guys are crazier than the Republicans that were there

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Speaker 1: in eleven. Yeah, Oh, definitely. I feel like these guys

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Speaker 1: make the Tea Party look like just lovely gentlemen. But

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Speaker 1: I am curious to know. I mean, if you think

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Speaker 1: about all these Republicans that won in these swingy districts,

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Speaker 1: do you think there's a world in which any of

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Speaker 1: those guys go and make a deal or you think

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Speaker 1: they're just too scared of primary challenges. I don't know

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Speaker 1: you'd think so, because I think there's more than four

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Speaker 1: or five of them, right, No, But I mean they

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Speaker 1: have a five seat majority, I understand, but that's what

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Speaker 1: I'm saying. I think they're more than four or five

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Speaker 1: of these moderates that are saying Republicans who they're saying

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Speaker 1: they probably won in fairly purple districts, and so I

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Speaker 1: think they'd be screwed if they don't save the country.

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Speaker 1: So I don't know how that body works, especially that

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Speaker 1: group there, but they sure hope they come together and

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Speaker 1: that McCarthy works it out so that I couldn't help it.

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Speaker 1: These guys, that's what they're doing, and we got to

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Speaker 1: come up with a compromise. Yeah, it does certainly seem

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Speaker 1: like Republicans have gotten themselves into a situation here that

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Speaker 1: they can't. There doesn't seem like an easy way out

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Speaker 1: for them. No, but this is why we have to

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Speaker 1: change that, because in eleven we bargained with them, right,

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Speaker 1: and we got the sequester, and right, this is eleven,

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Speaker 1: we're still in the Great Recession, and the last thing

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Speaker 1: you needed to do was to spend less money, and

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Speaker 1: that's what happened. So this is all kind of part

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Speaker 1: of Republicans plan was let's slow down at this recovery, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so that we can win in twelve and McConnell and

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Speaker 1: they all did that, so they backed us into a

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Speaker 1: corner and we can't do that this time. We can say, nope,

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Speaker 1: we're just not negotiating on this. If you want to

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Speaker 1: negotiate on a package to bring things down, you've got

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Speaker 1: to do it, but not tied to this. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: I don't know what they'll do, so we'll see. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it just seems really kind of epically bad.

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Speaker 1: Biden has continually overperformed in all these elections. But this

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Speaker 1: polling that came out yesterday not super great. I mean,

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Speaker 1: does it even matter? What do you I didn't see

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Speaker 1: the polling is the top line was and again this

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Speaker 1: is a question. That is what you ask this question.

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Speaker 1: Everyone always says no, they don't deserve it, but basically

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Speaker 1: only sort of Americans. Again, I hate even saying this

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Speaker 1: because I feel like poles are various sort of I

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Speaker 1: don't even know what they are. At this point, about

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Speaker 1: a third think that he deserves to be reelected. Well,

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Speaker 1: he's going to be running against somebody, right, we see

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Speaker 1: how many people believe they need another term if it's Trump,

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Speaker 1: and that I think would be below that, but it

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Speaker 1: could be somebody else, and we shall see, and we'll

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Speaker 1: see how things are at that moment. But again, we

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Speaker 1: outperform this last mid term better than he did anyway,

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Speaker 1: or his side better than anybody except Bush after nine

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Speaker 1: to eleven. So in the wake of nine to eleven,

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Speaker 1: of course Bush did well and FDR in thirty four

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Speaker 1: after saving the country, perceiving to have saved the country

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Speaker 1: from the depression. Other than those two, our party performed

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Speaker 1: the best it has historically. So everyone was predicting this

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Speaker 1: red tiede and it didn't happen. So this is too

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Speaker 1: far out, Yeah yeah, yeah, So what are you looking

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Speaker 1: at right now? What are sort of your thoughts of

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Speaker 1: where we are right now? My thoughts are that the

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Speaker 1: Republican Party is becoming a party that does not believe

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Speaker 1: in democracy. And you're seeing that in all these cases.

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Speaker 1: In Wisconsin, attempt to recall someone elected yesterday, that's unusual,

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Speaker 1: Tennessee voting out members for nothing. In Georgia, there's state

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Speaker 1: legislators who want to pass something where legislature can get

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Speaker 1: rid of DA's Yeah, and so Fannie willis being I

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Speaker 1: guess the one they were. It seems very slanted, doesn't it. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And in North Carolina there was just a flip of

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Speaker 1: a Democrat who comes from pretty democratic area and has

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Speaker 1: been a Democrat forever to give the North Carolina state

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Speaker 1: legislative Republicans a Vito proof majority, and evidently she got

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Speaker 1: a bigger office and some other committee chairmanship or something,

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Speaker 1: has gotten an abortion herself, Yeah, and has pledged to

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Speaker 1: protect abortion rights. So North Carolina now is the only

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Speaker 1: Southeastern state that allows abortions. So that's a pretty important

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Speaker 1: thing to keep an eye on. But I just it

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Speaker 1: feels like the Republican Party just is way out of

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Speaker 1: the ordinary in terms of respecting democracy and how they

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Speaker 1: go about getting power. Yeah, I have to say, I

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Speaker 1: think it's kind of shocking. I was hoping you could

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Speaker 1: talk a little bit about this ProPublica reporting. I feel

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Speaker 1: like this is not Son Thomas. Yeah, well, we kind

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Speaker 1: of knew this stuff was happening. Sheldon Whitehouse has been

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Speaker 1: talking about this forever. Didn't we know that they were

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Speaker 1: paying for your hunting lodge? I mean, didn't Scalia die

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Speaker 1: at a hunting loge? A book? Yes? Yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: it's like, so, oh, it doesn't matter whether a donor

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Speaker 1: is a multi billionaire or just a simple billionaire. I mean,

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Speaker 1: what does that make And does it matter that it

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Speaker 1: was a free stay at Alige for ten days and

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Speaker 1: they had flock law or it was only eight days

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Speaker 1: and they just ate the pheasant that the help clean

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Speaker 1: the simple man. I mean, I'm not quite sure what

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Speaker 1: the differences other than they changed the rules so he

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Speaker 1: had to come clean. He had to report this, so

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Speaker 1: I know there's other reasons for him to resign, including

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Speaker 1: being the only vote to try to block his wife's

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Speaker 1: tweets seemed pretty bad. So I'm not sure about this one.

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Speaker 1: I think we kind of this was going on. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if we knew the price tag in the

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Speaker 1: scope and yeah, how many and that he doesn't like

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Speaker 1: to fly commercial and that he perhaps doesn't vacation does

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Speaker 1: the fly commercial if they have a choice. It's just

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Speaker 1: most people don't have a choice, and he seems like

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Speaker 1: he does. He does. That's right, congratulations Squared Stamas. I

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Speaker 1: don't know does she go hunting? I doubt if she

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Speaker 1: was plotting something? Who is she talking to? Didn't she

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Speaker 1: isn't there the latest tweet to meadows that has some

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Speaker 1: nutcase shit in it. Yes, I have to say she

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Speaker 1: is my favorite unhinged spouse. Like when we go through

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Speaker 1: a history, I mean everything you go in there is

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Speaker 1: just completely beyond the pale. But I think that Jenny

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Speaker 1: Thomas will win the title of most unhinged Supreme Court spouse. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't know the other ones. Well, there you go. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think Robert's spouse em and only makes a lot

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Speaker 1: of money recruiting lawyers or big firms to clerk or

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of ugly, isn't it. It doesn't

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Speaker 1: seem like they're beyond politics now, it doesn't seem right. Well,

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Speaker 1: this is a feminist thing. Supreme Court wives should be

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Speaker 1: able to have a business funneling lawyers to firms will

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Speaker 1: because argue in front of her husband. Yeah, powerful people

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Speaker 1: have powerful friends. Is that what she said or something

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Speaker 1: like that? Are very accomplished people are very accomplished friends.

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Speaker 1: Al Franken, just you're just as a light. I hope

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Speaker 1: you will come back maybe. Darlia Lithwick is a senior

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Speaker 1: editor at Slate and the author of Lady Justice, Women Law,

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Speaker 1: and the Battle to Save America. Welcome back to Fast Politics.

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Speaker 1: My personal hero and the person I wanted to talk

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Speaker 1: to most at this moment, Dahlia him Molly. I saw

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Speaker 1: this ruling and I wrote to Jesse. I was in

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Speaker 1: an AA meeting last night, and I wrote to Jesse

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Speaker 1: right because it was nighttime, and I was like, what

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Speaker 1: the fuck? And then I said, we have to talk

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Speaker 1: to Dahlia. I was getting in an uber to go

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Speaker 1: to wait for it, Depeche Mode with my two teenage

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Speaker 1: sons of my husband, and I spent the entire concert

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Speaker 1: reading the opinion and sobbing silently as my boys jumped

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Speaker 1: up and down delightedly beside me. So they sure do

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Speaker 1: know how to wreck a weekend down there in Amarilla.

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Speaker 1: I mean, they really do. So, I mean, will you

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Speaker 1: just remind our listeners a little bit about how the

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Speaker 1: anti choice crew really strategically went to this judge and

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Speaker 1: set this whole thing up. Yeah, I mean this is

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Speaker 1: part of a new phenomenon. We always used to have

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Speaker 1: sort of venue shopping, which is you'd file your lawsuit

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Speaker 1: in a place where you were more likely than not

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Speaker 1: to pull the kinds of judges you wanted. This is

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Speaker 1: a brand new iteration of that, Molly, it's judge shopping.

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Speaker 1: So in this particular jurisdiction in Amarillo, Texas, your chance

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Speaker 1: of drawing this one judge as the thing. It's like

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Speaker 1: a vending machine, like you put in your quarter, you

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Speaker 1: get a Snicker's bar every time. And so this case,

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Speaker 1: which has nothing to do whatsoever with Amarillo, Texas, gets

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Speaker 1: filed there because the folks who are seeking to end

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Speaker 1: medication abortion nationwide know that this is a lifelong person

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Speaker 1: who's worked in the trenches alongside them. He's going to

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Speaker 1: not just be the Snickers bar they want, He's also

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Speaker 1: going to give them precisely what they want. And so

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Speaker 1: that's it. This case has no connection to AMROLLA beyond that.

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Speaker 1: So I want to ask you a little more about this.

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Speaker 1: So we knew this ruling was coming. He had made

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Speaker 1: machinations to that effect, but he had said he was

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Speaker 1: going to wait right wait for his order to be

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Speaker 1: he you mean, which part do we ask? He was

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Speaker 1: sort of waiting around to do it. We sort of

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Speaker 1: knew this was coming. We had this long four hour

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Speaker 1: hearing where he pretended to do all this chin stroking

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Speaker 1: about how complicated this was, and it was just especially

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Speaker 1: now if you read the opinion he wrote, which I

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Speaker 1: suspect he wrote like in law school or when he

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Speaker 1: was actually working for one of these groups, there was

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Speaker 1: no thought put into this. In other words, he was

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Speaker 1: not open to arguments on both sides, all of the

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Speaker 1: kabuki around, Oh, this is really tricky, and I have

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Speaker 1: serious issues with declaiming for the first time that I

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Speaker 1: can withdraw FDA approval like that was just all a

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Speaker 1: bunch of bunk, because this really is. I mean, one

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Speaker 1: of the things that's depressing about the opinion, Molly, in

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Speaker 1: addition to the fact that it's ridiculous, is that it's

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Speaker 1: just not even original ridiculousness. It's cutting and pasting from radical,

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Speaker 1: rapid religious pro life groups, pre existing ridiculous like be creative, dude,

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Speaker 1: do one line in this that is, you know, interesting

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Speaker 1: and novel, but it's just hackneed stuff about you know,

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Speaker 1: all these debunked stuff about maternal suicide. Everything that he

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Speaker 1: says is debunked. And I think maybe the other thing

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Speaker 1: that's really striking about this and maybe hasn't gotten quite

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Speaker 1: enough attention, is he goes way farther than Justice Alito

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Speaker 1: would go even in Dabbs, to kind of lay the

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Speaker 1: scenes for fetal personhood right to say, there's this astonishing

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Speaker 1: footnote where he says jurists use the word quote fetus

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Speaker 1: to inaccurately identify unborn humans. And he goes on to

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Speaker 1: say throughout the thing that he's going to use unborn

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Speaker 1: human or unborn child, which is all playing the groundwork

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Speaker 1: for the kind of thing even Sam Alito wasn't brave

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Speaker 1: enough to do in Dubs, which is to suggest that

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Speaker 1: this is human life, it starts at conception, and that

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Speaker 1: even states that allow abortion are participating in murder. Wow. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I have a question for you about saying I read

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Speaker 1: yesterday and I can't remember where I read it, but

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Speaker 1: the sort of thesis was there are federal judges and

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Speaker 1: there are Trump judges. Do you think these Trump judges

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Speaker 1: are just sort of operating, you know, that they're not

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Speaker 1: bound by the same conventions that normal quote unquote politicians were,

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Speaker 1: normal quote unquote jurists were. Yeah, I think that that's

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Speaker 1: happening around the country that we're seeing Trump judges and

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Speaker 1: judge Becausemark is by no means the only one who

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Speaker 1: are really outside the bounds of the kinds of norms

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Speaker 1: that say a Bush judge or you know, even a

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Speaker 1: Reagan judge is at least somewhat bound by notions of

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Speaker 1: you know, what the rule of law means, what precedent means,

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Speaker 1: you know, caring at least somewhat that the integrity and

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Speaker 1: the reputational interests of the courts are protected. And then

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Speaker 1: you just get Trump judges who are not all of them,

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Speaker 1: but many of them seemingly raised in like underground labs

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Speaker 1: to break shit and that's just what we have. And

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Speaker 1: so there's no regard for you know, in this case,

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Speaker 1: this guy has no authority. There is absolutely no authority

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Speaker 1: for one Loan District Court judge to counterman twenty three

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Speaker 1: years of FDA approved. This is the same judge, by

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Speaker 1: the way, who gave himself the authority to Micromani President

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Speaker 1: Biden's policies in Mexico international law. So I think there

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Speaker 1: is a difference, and part of it is, I guess

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Speaker 1: I would just say a self reinforcing loop, because these

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Speaker 1: guys are not just breaking things, they're also auditioning for

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Speaker 1: higher courts. And what they know is if they wave

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Speaker 1: their arms around in the air and say, no, I'm

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Speaker 1: the craziest of them all, it's a sure rocket to

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Speaker 1: be at a circuit court and someday, if they're lucky,

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Speaker 1: to be on the Supreme Court. So this is entirely lawless,

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Speaker 1: but it's also freakishly rewarded in the way that Fedsock

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Speaker 1: promotes these people. Right, it's such an interesting phenomenon. It

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Speaker 1: does strike me that it is a similar phenomenon of

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Speaker 1: what you're seeing with the Marjorie Taylor grains, right, like

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Speaker 1: these the zalad As Republicans who are being rewarded for

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Speaker 1: being as crazy as possible. Right, that's George Santos, Right,

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Speaker 1: you just you crime. It's not just failing up. You

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Speaker 1: like crime up. Like, the more crime they find, the

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Speaker 1: more they lavish, you know, plot it's on you, and

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Speaker 1: it's so weird and it's also, you know, it's kind

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Speaker 1: of antithetical to the way even like I'm thinking of

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Speaker 1: like Justice Scalia. In fact, this is like probably a

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Speaker 1: good segue to Clarence Thomas. But even Justice Scalia was

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Speaker 1: capable of shame. Right when antonin Scalia goes like duck

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Speaker 1: hunting with Dick Cheney a party to a suit in

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Speaker 1: front of him, at least Justice Scalia has the good

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Speaker 1: grace to like try to defend himself and be sort

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Speaker 1: of sheepish and say, like, dude, I know this looks bad,

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Speaker 1: but let me explain why we weren't in the same

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Speaker 1: duck blind. So it's okay, But Clarence Thomas is like

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Speaker 1: this whole new flavor of like, oh hell yeah, I

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Speaker 1: took a half a million dollars worth of like lavish

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Speaker 1: vacations and yacht rides and plane rides to Indonesia, and

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Speaker 1: I do it again. And that's what's different, is the

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Speaker 1: utter lack of shame. That is what I want to

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Speaker 1: talk to you about. Because so we had this blockbuster

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Speaker 1: reporting from pro publica leftist rag. Pro Publica iSight, Oh

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Speaker 1: that was Byron York saying it's a leftist rag if

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Speaker 1: the truth is leftist. Then Pro Publica is leftist with

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Speaker 1: this reporting basically, I mean, I think, like the most

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Speaker 1: evocative moment and the whole thing is they got the

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Speaker 1: photos from Instagram, so it's not like people who were

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Speaker 1: hiding this. Right, But Clarence Thomas has a billionaire friend.

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Speaker 1: He vacations with him to the tune of half a

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Speaker 1: million dollars a year. He hasn't been documenting any of this.

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Speaker 1: But again, there aren't larger ethics rules for these justices. Right,

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Speaker 1: There are ethics rules. There are canons of ethics and

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Speaker 1: statutes that apply to every Article three federal judge. The

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Speaker 1: problem is the Supreme Court doesn't by them to itself,

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Speaker 1: that the nine justices on the Court have persuaded themselves

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Speaker 1: in the country that their own excellent awesomeness is such

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Speaker 1: that And I think the word that John Roberts used,

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Speaker 1: I love this. We consult the rules, you know, like

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Speaker 1: the way you consult a map or you know, YELP.

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Speaker 1: So they consult them and then they apply them to themselves,

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Speaker 1: and then they there's no way to enforce them. And

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Speaker 1: the other thing that I think is so important, it's

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Speaker 1: one of the reasons I was like to talk to

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Speaker 1: you about this story is there's a kind of everything

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Speaker 1: all at once vibe here because that photograph of Harlan Crowe, right,

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Speaker 1: sit sit with that awesome knives out name he and

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Speaker 1: Clarence Thomas, and what Leonard Leo right, the head of

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Speaker 1: the Federal Society, right, you'll remember him from season one.

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Speaker 1: You may remember him from I bought the Federal Judiciary

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Speaker 1: and they got a billion dollars to do it again.

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Speaker 1: And like Mark Poletta, right, who is working in the

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Speaker 1: Trump ad registration but insists that he's reimbursed his travel.

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Speaker 1: And these guys are sitting around and we're to believe

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Speaker 1: a that they don't discuss. Kate says, I guess they're

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Speaker 1: just discussing season one. But then more like unbelievably that

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Speaker 1: this is all like totally fine, this is normal, and

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Speaker 1: that we should just agree to this, because Clarence Thomas

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Speaker 1: tells us it's fine. And also he tells us in

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Speaker 1: a statement on Friday, which he never explained. So the

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Speaker 1: fact that he tried to even justify this is so funny.

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Speaker 1: And he's like, oh yeah, dude, when I came on

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Speaker 1: the court, I asked some people and they said it

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Speaker 1: was fine. Right. So here's a textualist who says you

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Speaker 1: have to read every word of the statute so that

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Speaker 1: it is plain meaning, is manifestly true. And he's like, yeah, no,

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Speaker 1: I don't read the statutes. I just asked some people

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Speaker 1: and they said I could fly around on jets. And

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Speaker 1: it's just so snot out your nose funny that they

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Speaker 1: have constructed this world in which Clarence Thomas, right, is

426
00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:09,800
Speaker 1: sitting on the court when Citizens United opens this bigot

427
00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 1: for dark money, Right, that's dark money that goes to

428
00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:16,440
Speaker 1: Jenny Thomas. He's sitting on the court when it decides

429
00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:19,520
Speaker 1: Shelby County, right, that does away with the Voting Rights Act,

430
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:23,600
Speaker 1: that does away with you any check on partisan jerrymandering

431
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:26,679
Speaker 1: in the root showcase. So Clarence Thomas is literally being

432
00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:30,719
Speaker 1: paid to construct the America we live in now. And

433
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:34,720
Speaker 1: that's the america that can throw legislators from Tennessee out

434
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:38,359
Speaker 1: of the House because it's a jerrymanderis supermajority, like he

435
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:42,280
Speaker 1: built this, he built this. Yeah, it's unfucking believable. I

436
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:46,600
Speaker 1: want to talk about this Washington d judge who issued

437
00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:52,360
Speaker 1: a dueling injunction prohibiting the FDA from pulling metha preston

438
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:55,359
Speaker 1: off the market. I mean, I think what it does.

439
00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:59,040
Speaker 1: My colleague Mark Joseph Stern put up an amazing piece

440
00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:04,080
Speaker 1: Friday night. It essentially sets up a constitutional crisis because

441
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:10,160
Speaker 1: Judge because Mark's order right, says you have one week

442
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:12,919
Speaker 1: at which point we have to pull a drug from

443
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:16,800
Speaker 1: the market. It's done right, there's no methopristone left. And

444
00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:20,399
Speaker 1: then you have a dueling injunction from this judge in

445
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:24,399
Speaker 1: Washington State who says, actually, I'm going to compel the

446
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:29,919
Speaker 1: FDA to keep allowing methopristone in the seventeen states and

447
00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:33,280
Speaker 1: the districts. So with eighteen jurisdictions that had brought this

448
00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:37,160
Speaker 1: separate suit in Washington, So now you have essentially got

449
00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:41,080
Speaker 1: a situation where the FBDA is being ordered to do

450
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:44,040
Speaker 1: two things that cannot both be done right. They either

451
00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:48,360
Speaker 1: need to suspend the drug nationwide or they need to

452
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:51,840
Speaker 1: preserve access to the drug in these eighteen jurisdictions that

453
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:55,160
Speaker 1: have prevailed in Washington State, and they can't do them.

454
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:59,480
Speaker 1: And so immediately you have a situation where we don't

455
00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:02,520
Speaker 1: know what they're going to do. There's really good thinking

456
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:07,200
Speaker 1: on whether you even can compel the FDA to do anything.

457
00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:10,280
Speaker 1: It's actually no authority for a judge. There's if the

458
00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:13,000
Speaker 1: FDA is going to withdraw a drug, it has to

459
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:16,160
Speaker 1: go by its own regulations and processes. So it's not

460
00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,440
Speaker 1: even clear that this could happen. But we really are

461
00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:22,040
Speaker 1: in a situation now where say this rockets up to

462
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 1: the Fifth Circuit, that's the jurisdiction that controls appeals from Texas,

463
00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:28,960
Speaker 1: it rockets up to the Ninth Circuit, right, that's the

464
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:31,560
Speaker 1: jurisdiction that's going to have to look at a Washington

465
00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:35,360
Speaker 1: State decision. And then what happens you have to conflicting

466
00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:39,440
Speaker 1: appellate court opinions. So there's this other crazy problem which

467
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:41,600
Speaker 1: is in addition to the FDA not knowing what the

468
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:44,520
Speaker 1: hell it's meant to do. Next week, we have the

469
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:47,440
Speaker 1: problem of the Supreme Court is about to enter its

470
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:50,920
Speaker 1: last month of oral argument. The term's over it, So

471
00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 1: what are they going to do. Are they going to

472
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:56,120
Speaker 1: from vacation whatever? Are they going to list it for

473
00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:58,600
Speaker 1: next fall? Are they going to do this on their

474
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:02,040
Speaker 1: like emergency chef ato docket the way they did SBA?

475
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:05,160
Speaker 1: You remember they did the Vigilante Bill they're like, oh,

476
00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:08,560
Speaker 1: it's two in the morning. I guess we'll write some sentences. So, like,

477
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:12,200
Speaker 1: there's no good option for the Supreme Court to resolve this.

478
00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:15,600
Speaker 1: And this is in some sense, like very seriously the

479
00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:19,520
Speaker 1: kind of definition of a constitutional crisis where you have

480
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,920
Speaker 1: dueling entities that have authority over something and they're both

481
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:27,040
Speaker 1: pushing you to do different things. Could be right, Yeah, right,

482
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:30,480
Speaker 1: So when you now, I want to add another wrinkle

483
00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 1: to this constitutional crisis, Senator Ron Widen, There's no way

484
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:37,600
Speaker 1: this decision has a basis and law. It is instead

485
00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:42,840
Speaker 1: rooted in conservatives dangerous and undemocratic takeover of our country's institutions.

486
00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:46,440
Speaker 1: So the FDA, doctors and pharmacies can and must go

487
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:50,680
Speaker 1: about their jobs like nothing has changed and keep methophist

488
00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:54,280
Speaker 1: one available to the women across America. If they don't,

489
00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:57,600
Speaker 1: the consequences of banning the most common method of abortion

490
00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:00,920
Speaker 1: every single state will be devastating. And we're seeing this again,

491
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:04,520
Speaker 1: and we're also seeing democratic governors say that they're just

492
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:07,400
Speaker 1: gonna that these Republicans can go fuck themselves. I mean,

493
00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:09,680
Speaker 1: does this add a wrinkle? It strikes me that this

494
00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:12,680
Speaker 1: adds a wrinkle. Yeah, it's exactly the same problem. Governor

495
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:15,920
Speaker 1: Jay Insley and Washington State did the same thing earlier

496
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 1: this week. He knew that judge because Mark's ruling was coming,

497
00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:24,520
Speaker 1: so he just announced that Washington State had purchased thirty

498
00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:29,000
Speaker 1: thousand doses of mithipress stone as an insurance policy. And

499
00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:32,400
Speaker 1: he's just and then he stockpiled another ten thousand doses

500
00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:34,880
Speaker 1: and they went through the Department of Corrections in their

501
00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:36,959
Speaker 1: state and was like, stop me, come get me. And

502
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:39,920
Speaker 1: so this starts to feel right, This starts to feel

503
00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:43,720
Speaker 1: like massive presistance. It starts to feel yeah. And the

504
00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:46,640
Speaker 1: other thing, you know, AOC said this, I think on

505
00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:51,840
Speaker 1: TV on Friday night. Again, you cannot force the FDA.

506
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:55,600
Speaker 1: There's no jurisdiction for one sitting district court judge in

507
00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:59,640
Speaker 1: Amarilla to force the FDA to withdraw du There's just

508
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:02,440
Speaker 1: no mechanism to do it. And so I think that

509
00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:06,760
Speaker 1: this kind of ignore ignore ignore strategy both signals what

510
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 1: feels like lawlessness. That's what you're asking me, Molly, like,

511
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:13,680
Speaker 1: are people going to just nullify this? That's kind of scary.

512
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:17,280
Speaker 1: But there's a way in which if he actually doesn't

513
00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:20,440
Speaker 1: have the jurisdiction or the authority to do this, then

514
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:21,880
Speaker 1: what the hell are you going to do to comply?

515
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:24,520
Speaker 1: And so it's another you're exactly right that it sort

516
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:28,520
Speaker 1: of sends us down this nihilist path of we all

517
00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 1: choose our own legal ending. Right, it does seem like

518
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:35,640
Speaker 1: a larger problem of like what are we going to

519
00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:39,360
Speaker 1: live in fifty different countries? Right? And also, I know

520
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:41,520
Speaker 1: you and I talked about this after Dobs, but this

521
00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:45,680
Speaker 1: other problem where the uncertainty is the point, right, Like

522
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:50,480
Speaker 1: the big winner post SBA, post Dobs. In so many

523
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:54,640
Speaker 1: of these contexts, the big winner is uncertainty. Because when

524
00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:58,280
Speaker 1: you have doctors, for instance, we're hearing like fleeing Texas, right,

525
00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:01,720
Speaker 1: I can't be a gynecologist in Texas. You're seeing hospitals

526
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,280
Speaker 1: closing around the country, clinics that don't know what to do.

527
00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:07,960
Speaker 1: That's all just the fruit of I don't know what

528
00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:10,480
Speaker 1: the law is and I can't take a chance then

529
00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:12,960
Speaker 1: I'm going to go to jail or that I'm going

530
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:15,800
Speaker 1: to face hundreds and thousands of dollars of fines, and

531
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:18,600
Speaker 1: so part of the I don't want to say beauty

532
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:22,280
Speaker 1: because it's a horror show, but the elegance of what

533
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:26,200
Speaker 1: they are doing. Post abs is just sowing the seeds

534
00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:28,760
Speaker 1: of nobody knows what the law is because everybody gets

535
00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:31,520
Speaker 1: to do what they want, and the people who suffer

536
00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:36,200
Speaker 1: in moments when uncertainty prevails and nobody knows how to

537
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:39,840
Speaker 1: protect themselves, and that caregivers don't know what the law is,

538
00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:42,680
Speaker 1: and you know, uber drivers don't know, and kids don't

539
00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:45,640
Speaker 1: know if they can drive someone across state lines. Right,

540
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 1: what prevails is this total massive doubt, and that means

541
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:53,680
Speaker 1: the most vulnerable people are the ones who suffer most.

542
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,640
Speaker 1: And those are the stories we're seeing, right, And that's

543
00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:59,400
Speaker 1: what they've always wanted. I just want to ask you

544
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:02,720
Speaker 1: one last question. I don't want to be hopeful, because

545
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:06,920
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court does truly suck, but they refuse to

546
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:11,600
Speaker 1: rule on the trans athlete band out of West Virginia

547
00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:14,840
Speaker 1: and the three trumpy justices said they weren't going to

548
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:17,840
Speaker 1: way in I mean, and the descent was, of course,

549
00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:21,400
Speaker 1: the two worst members of the court, Thomas and Alito.

550
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:23,960
Speaker 1: Did that make you a little bit hopeful that there

551
00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:28,200
Speaker 1: they know they're over their skis. I spent Friday night

552
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:32,560
Speaker 1: in that with depeche Mode, admittedly bringing in my ears

553
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:37,520
Speaker 1: in that like liminal space. Hold me, Justice Kavanaugh, Hold me,

554
00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:41,640
Speaker 1: Justice Barrett, like you keep telling me you're moderates, right.

555
00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:46,960
Speaker 1: Justice Kavanaugh was so so so sanctimonious in his Dub's

556
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:49,440
Speaker 1: concurrence where he was like, oh, wow, you know this

557
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:53,040
Speaker 1: is really tricky, and I'm certainly not saying that people

558
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:55,640
Speaker 1: can't cross state lines, and far be it from me

559
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,480
Speaker 1: to say that, you know, we could criminalize. So I

560
00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:03,399
Speaker 1: suppose now we're in this completely tragic moment where we

561
00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:08,800
Speaker 1: are relying on the shame response of Amy Coney, Barrett

562
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:11,640
Speaker 1: and Brett Kavanaugh. And so what you're asking me is

563
00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:16,839
Speaker 1: this unanswerable question about whether they're prepared to do now

564
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:18,880
Speaker 1: what they wouldn't do in Dobbs, which is say the

565
00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:21,759
Speaker 1: quiet parts loud, which is say yes, we want to

566
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:25,520
Speaker 1: make abortion illegal from conception around the country, and if

567
00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:29,800
Speaker 1: we have to use the eighteen seventy three Comstock Act,

568
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:33,120
Speaker 1: will do it. I don't know. I literally don't know

569
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:35,880
Speaker 1: what the answer is in a very creepy way, and

570
00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:37,719
Speaker 1: I'm going to say something that's going to freak you out.

571
00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:42,160
Speaker 1: What scares me about this moment we're in is that

572
00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:46,080
Speaker 1: the more we anger. Clarence Thomas and the more we

573
00:35:46,239 --> 00:35:49,760
Speaker 1: anger Brett Kavanaugh, the more we say things like wow,

574
00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:53,880
Speaker 1: his concurrence in Dobbs was full crap, the more likely

575
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:56,439
Speaker 1: we are to get a bad outcome. Right, it's real

576
00:35:56,480 --> 00:36:01,000
Speaker 1: abuser stuff, abuser exactly. And we're in this classic abuser

577
00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:04,000
Speaker 1: moment where I guess my answer to your question has

578
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:06,960
Speaker 1: to be yes, Molly. I am certain that in the

579
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:11,200
Speaker 1: fullness of time and their infinite wisdom, Amy Cooney, Barrett

580
00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:13,719
Speaker 1: and Brett Kavana are going to realize that they don't

581
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:18,360
Speaker 1: want people to die on tables of sepsis because of

582
00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:22,200
Speaker 1: their ruling. But do I believe that? But how long

583
00:36:22,239 --> 00:36:25,719
Speaker 1: does that take? Who knows? It's very weird. And this

584
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:28,880
Speaker 1: is the problem with like, you know, unchecked infinite power.

585
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:32,240
Speaker 1: To get back to Clarence Thomas, like, if we really

586
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 1: really want a good result in these medication abortion cases,

587
00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:38,279
Speaker 1: I think what we're supposed to do is say that

588
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:41,000
Speaker 1: they're awesome and turn a blind eye to their misconduct.

589
00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:44,719
Speaker 1: All of this is a loser for Republicans, right, Like

590
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:47,640
Speaker 1: people hate it. People hate the idea that you can

591
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:51,200
Speaker 1: arrest a grandmother for taking her granddaughter to get an abortion,

592
00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:55,520
Speaker 1: Like this is not popular, Like those swing steady voters

593
00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:58,120
Speaker 1: don't like the handman's tail stuff. They may not be

594
00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:01,359
Speaker 1: pro choice, but they don't like whatever this is. I mean,

595
00:37:01,480 --> 00:37:04,760
Speaker 1: do you think that these guys, these three trumpy justices

596
00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:06,719
Speaker 1: have sort of been like, we don't want to completely

597
00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:08,839
Speaker 1: screw over the Republican Party, or you think they just

598
00:37:08,880 --> 00:37:10,719
Speaker 1: don't care. I mean, I think this is back to

599
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:14,560
Speaker 1: my slightly dispiriting everything everywhere, all at once answer, which is,

600
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:17,680
Speaker 1: I think if you look at what happened in Tennessee

601
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:21,040
Speaker 1: this week, which is, we don't care how people vote.

602
00:37:21,360 --> 00:37:24,040
Speaker 1: This is not about vote suppression. This is about stripping

603
00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:29,160
Speaker 1: power of duly elected people with authority to act right.

604
00:37:29,239 --> 00:37:32,440
Speaker 1: And I think this is where Cheryl and Eiffel wrote

605
00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:34,600
Speaker 1: this kind of chilling piece for us at Slate a

606
00:37:34,600 --> 00:37:37,239
Speaker 1: few weeks ago, saying, when they say we're going to

607
00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:41,719
Speaker 1: make it impossible for the Wisconsin Supreme Court duly elected

608
00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:45,000
Speaker 1: to rule on voting or abortion, When they say we

609
00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:47,680
Speaker 1: and Georgia are going to make it impossible for Fannie

610
00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:51,400
Speaker 1: Willis duly elected to bring this, what they're doing is

611
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 1: saying this is way beyond vote suppression. This is way

612
00:37:55,120 --> 00:38:00,120
Speaker 1: beyond jerrymandering. This is actually stripping democratically elected folks of

613
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:02,799
Speaker 1: their power. And the reason it's relevant to this conversation

614
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:08,160
Speaker 1: is that I deeply, deeply believe that even if sixty

615
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:13,240
Speaker 1: seventy eighty percent of voters hate these anti abortion moves

616
00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:17,400
Speaker 1: and want, for instance, you know, rape exceptions, and want

617
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:20,920
Speaker 1: doctors to make the decisions and not hospital boards, it

618
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:23,799
Speaker 1: almost doesn't matter if you can suppress their votes. And

619
00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:28,160
Speaker 1: what we are seeing, I think is a really existential

620
00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:31,759
Speaker 1: and I don't use that word lightly, foot race between

621
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:37,040
Speaker 1: pro democracy right students who want gun control and people

622
00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:41,440
Speaker 1: who hate dabs and people who are fighting for one person,

623
00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:45,160
Speaker 1: one vote, fighting radical jerrymanders on the one hand, and

624
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:48,400
Speaker 1: then you're seeing this vote suppression that's happening on such

625
00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:51,560
Speaker 1: a large scale that it's not even vote suppression anymore.

626
00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:55,280
Speaker 1: It's democracy suppression. And what scares me is that I

627
00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:59,000
Speaker 1: think the Supreme Court, because you know, I just rattled

628
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:02,920
Speaker 1: off those cases since United Shelby County rucho, they're in

629
00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:07,160
Speaker 1: the vote suppression business, Molly, that's how they do it, right. No,

630
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 1: it's true. Thank you so much for joining us on

631
00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:13,520
Speaker 1: a weekend. I appreciate you. If I were a better

632
00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:18,080
Speaker 1: person I'd sing us out with some grim voicing depeche Mode,

633
00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:20,719
Speaker 1: but I'm not that person. Thank you for having me.

634
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:30,560
Speaker 1: Thank you, you're amazing. Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost represents Florida's

635
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:36,240
Speaker 1: tenth congressional district. Welcome back to Fast Politica, Congressman Maxwell Frost,

636
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:38,920
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having me on. We're delighted

637
00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:41,080
Speaker 1: to have you back. I want to talk to you

638
00:39:41,239 --> 00:39:50,759
Speaker 1: about this movement of young legislators are just it's just

639
00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:55,160
Speaker 1: exploding around you. Yeah, I mean, you know, young legislators,

640
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:58,719
Speaker 1: young activists, organizers, I mean, you know, you see what's

641
00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:02,600
Speaker 1: going on in Tennessee, r Now, that's which is okay, Yeah,

642
00:40:02,640 --> 00:40:05,799
Speaker 1: which is both incredibly sad, but also when you see

643
00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:08,960
Speaker 1: with the response to just the horrible things going on

644
00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:13,439
Speaker 1: in terms of guns and violence, and then obviously these

645
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:16,520
Speaker 1: three lawmakers that may be expelled, I think they're the

646
00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:18,520
Speaker 1: vote is this morning. I think it's happening right now.

647
00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:21,400
Speaker 1: Most people know. But just can you explain how you

648
00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:24,520
Speaker 1: got into politics because I feel like it dovetails so

649
00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:27,000
Speaker 1: nicely with what's happening right now. Yeah. So I got

650
00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:29,719
Speaker 1: involved in politics because of gun violence. It was the

651
00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:32,560
Speaker 1: Sandy Hook shooting that really put me into action. It

652
00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:35,560
Speaker 1: was my call to action. After seeing what had happened,

653
00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:37,759
Speaker 1: I went to DC. I was fifteen years old. I

654
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:40,120
Speaker 1: went to the memorial that was going on. I had

655
00:40:40,160 --> 00:40:44,200
Speaker 1: found someone online named Sarah Clements. She was a leader

656
00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:47,600
Speaker 1: with the Junior Newtown Action Alliance and her mother was

657
00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:50,840
Speaker 1: actually a teacher at Sandy Hook. Her mother survived the shooting,

658
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:53,239
Speaker 1: but her mom was a teacher there, and so I

659
00:40:53,360 --> 00:40:56,440
Speaker 1: connected with Sarah and I just kind of set her

660
00:40:56,520 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 1: message on Facebook and said, hey, you know, I'd love

661
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:01,720
Speaker 1: to be involved, and she sent me a Google form

662
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:04,480
Speaker 1: for the trip. I applied, my parents signed a waiver,

663
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:06,880
Speaker 1: and I went over a fifteen years old and really

664
00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:11,600
Speaker 1: being there with the students and the families who had

665
00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:14,080
Speaker 1: lost loved ones and lost their children in the shooting,

666
00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:17,680
Speaker 1: it really changed everything. And the moment for me was

667
00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:19,920
Speaker 1: I was sitting across from Matthew Soto, who lost his

668
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:22,120
Speaker 1: sister Vicky in the shooting, and just seeing as someone

669
00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:24,520
Speaker 1: who's sixteen with the demeanor of someone who's sixty talking

670
00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:27,240
Speaker 1: about his sister was murdered for just going to school

671
00:41:27,239 --> 00:41:29,560
Speaker 1: that morning. I Juan straight to my Howatl room. I

672
00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:32,040
Speaker 1: was crying and called my mom, my mom to teacher

673
00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:35,200
Speaker 1: of thirty seven years and I, you know, said I

674
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:36,799
Speaker 1: want to fight for a world or no one has

675
00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:39,040
Speaker 1: to feel that way. And you know you get him

676
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:41,120
Speaker 1: for want the reason you feel. You find up there's

677
00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:44,839
Speaker 1: a lot of problems, but that's where I firstly dedicated

678
00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:47,920
Speaker 1: myself being a part of this fight, ed And it

679
00:41:48,120 --> 00:41:50,759
Speaker 1: grows and changes as you get into it because you

680
00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:53,160
Speaker 1: find out about all the different issues and how they're connected.

681
00:41:53,239 --> 00:41:55,560
Speaker 1: But gun violence is really the issue that put me

682
00:41:55,600 --> 00:41:59,279
Speaker 1: to action. So right now here you are, are you

683
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:03,000
Speaker 1: the youngest man of Congress ever? Now? No, so, I

684
00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:07,960
Speaker 1: mean in the eighteen hundreds and the book exactly, so

685
00:42:08,080 --> 00:42:10,960
Speaker 1: in the eighteen hundreds, you know, there's like twenty one

686
00:42:11,040 --> 00:42:13,959
Speaker 1: year old members of Congress and stuff, so not ever,

687
00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:16,839
Speaker 1: but I am the youngest right now. And I do

688
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:20,520
Speaker 1: believe one of your favorite people was actually maybe a

689
00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:23,280
Speaker 1: month or two younger than me when he was elected.

690
00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:30,600
Speaker 1: Who's that? Madison? Oh? Yes, thank you very nice. So

691
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:33,840
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you so mean, I wanted to

692
00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:37,960
Speaker 1: ask you here you are in Congress now, we had

693
00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:41,120
Speaker 1: you on this podcast right after you got elected. You

694
00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:44,840
Speaker 1: have probably had a pretty steep learning curve. Tell us

695
00:42:44,920 --> 00:42:48,200
Speaker 1: what has really surprised you about Congress. Honestly, I would

696
00:42:48,239 --> 00:42:52,239
Speaker 1: say there's two things. Number one is just how partisan

697
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:55,879
Speaker 1: the operation of Congresses, because I feel like a lot

698
00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:59,600
Speaker 1: of times we would attribute how partisan Congress is just

699
00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:03,279
Speaker 1: like people, you know, the media and people you know

700
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:05,520
Speaker 1: the wild person from one side and the wild person

701
00:43:05,560 --> 00:43:06,719
Speaker 1: on the other side, and put them on the TV,

702
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:09,040
Speaker 1: and you know, that's all part of it. But really,

703
00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:12,320
Speaker 1: I mean when you go to Congress itself, for instance,

704
00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:15,719
Speaker 1: you go to orientation, you're only with your people from

705
00:43:15,800 --> 00:43:19,239
Speaker 1: the other side for the morning when you are in

706
00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:21,880
Speaker 1: class that you're trying to listen and you know, figure

707
00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:24,680
Speaker 1: out how to be a member of Congress, so you're

708
00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:27,279
Speaker 1: not really talking much. And then after lunch you are

709
00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:29,560
Speaker 1: completely separated by party for the rest of the day.

710
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:32,120
Speaker 1: And that's every day in orientation. And then once you

711
00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:36,040
Speaker 1: get in the Congress, you're so busy and anytime you're

712
00:43:36,080 --> 00:43:38,560
Speaker 1: with you know, other members, you're on the floor, you're

713
00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:42,160
Speaker 1: sitting on separate sides of the aisle. You have different

714
00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:44,200
Speaker 1: you know cloak rooms, which the cloakroom is like the

715
00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:46,359
Speaker 1: kind of like a break room that's there for when

716
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:48,640
Speaker 1: we're voting, and you really have to go out of

717
00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:52,200
Speaker 1: the way for that kind of bipartisanship. And so it's

718
00:43:52,239 --> 00:43:54,319
Speaker 1: just interesting and it was a little surprising to me.

719
00:43:54,680 --> 00:43:57,560
Speaker 1: The other thing, as I say, is I'm still getting

720
00:43:57,640 --> 00:43:59,719
Speaker 1: used to the schedule and the pace. And what I

721
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:02,600
Speaker 1: mean that is I've always worked pretty long hours working

722
00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:05,839
Speaker 1: on campaigns, and even as a candidate. Right Like, as

723
00:44:05,880 --> 00:44:08,480
Speaker 1: a candidate, I was working twelve to sixteen hours a day.

724
00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:11,760
Speaker 1: But the difference now is I'm just working the same hours,

725
00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:15,960
Speaker 1: but it's like twenty minute increments of completely different subjects,

726
00:44:15,960 --> 00:44:18,360
Speaker 1: and you're using a lot of a lot more brain

727
00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:20,640
Speaker 1: power because on a campaign, you're just thinking about winning,

728
00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:24,040
Speaker 1: knocking doors or raising money. In office, you're thinking about

729
00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:26,759
Speaker 1: a million different priorities. And so I joke around that

730
00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:30,360
Speaker 1: on the campaign, I'd come home and I'd be exhausted,

731
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:33,120
Speaker 1: and now I come home and I'm exhausted and my head.

732
00:44:35,960 --> 00:44:38,759
Speaker 1: Do you have any hopes that there can be a

733
00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:42,560
Speaker 1: sort of bipartisan I mean, you're gonna we're gonna hit

734
00:44:42,560 --> 00:44:45,480
Speaker 1: the debt ceiling and there's gonna have to be something

735
00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:51,640
Speaker 1: bipartisan happening. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's unfortunate that Republican

736
00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:54,880
Speaker 1: leadership wants to use the debt ceiling to kind of

737
00:44:54,920 --> 00:44:57,799
Speaker 1: negotiate on the budget, especially because I don't think people

738
00:44:57,960 --> 00:45:01,279
Speaker 1: fully understand that, I mean, the US hitting the debt,

739
00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:03,640
Speaker 1: stealing and defaulting on our debt. You know that that

740
00:45:04,160 --> 00:45:06,960
Speaker 1: doesn't sound worse than the government shutdown, but it's actually

741
00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:09,359
Speaker 1: much worse than a government shutdown. Right. But we're looking

742
00:45:09,400 --> 00:45:11,239
Speaker 1: at way because we can help educate our constituents and

743
00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:13,239
Speaker 1: kind of what's going on as we get close to this,

744
00:45:13,880 --> 00:45:16,600
Speaker 1: because it will be serious, like people will see serious

745
00:45:16,840 --> 00:45:23,040
Speaker 1: cuts to you know, things like Social Security, etc. To

746
00:45:23,160 --> 00:45:25,960
Speaker 1: keep that in mind. So we'll see what happens. I mean,

747
00:45:26,200 --> 00:45:27,879
Speaker 1: like you know, the Freedom concuss came out and said

748
00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:31,240
Speaker 1: there will be no discussion less it involves major cuts.

749
00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:34,359
Speaker 1: And obviously we're not. You know, we can't have like

750
00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:37,160
Speaker 1: twenty percent cuts across the board. We can't have you know,

751
00:45:37,320 --> 00:45:40,160
Speaker 1: the numbers of twenty twenty numbers for the budget. It's

752
00:45:40,200 --> 00:45:42,680
Speaker 1: just like it won't work and people are gonna feel

753
00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:44,799
Speaker 1: it at home, and so we'll have to see where

754
00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:46,200
Speaker 1: it goes. But yeah, I mean, it's gonna have to

755
00:45:46,239 --> 00:45:48,640
Speaker 1: be done a bipartisan way because we need to have

756
00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:51,240
Speaker 1: the approval from the House of Representatives. Well, and also,

757
00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:55,560
Speaker 1: I mean they're the worst bad faith actors going exactly

758
00:45:55,920 --> 00:45:58,360
Speaker 1: number one. I mean, someone argue that we should the

759
00:45:58,400 --> 00:46:01,520
Speaker 1: debt sealing shouldn't even exist. I'm one of those people.

760
00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:04,400
Speaker 1: It's really just a political tool. So we have this

761
00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:09,080
Speaker 1: kind of near explosion every year that causes unneeded anxiety

762
00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:12,000
Speaker 1: and gives people an opportunity to kind of hold the

763
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:14,080
Speaker 1: whole country hostage to what what do you want to

764
00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:17,120
Speaker 1: cut snap? You know, like, well they would like to

765
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:21,719
Speaker 1: cat snap. So yeah, yeah, why do you think I

766
00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:24,279
Speaker 1: want to get into this idea for a second. So

767
00:46:24,640 --> 00:46:28,479
Speaker 1: you have all these people who voted for Trump, non

768
00:46:28,640 --> 00:46:34,600
Speaker 1: college educated whites who would actually benefit from and often

769
00:46:34,800 --> 00:46:39,520
Speaker 1: are on SNAP or on Obamacare. And I mean I think,

770
00:46:39,560 --> 00:46:42,120
Speaker 1: like my favorite discourse was that, you know, the people

771
00:46:42,239 --> 00:46:46,839
Speaker 1: who after they elected Trump were like, well, I'm on ACA,

772
00:46:47,040 --> 00:46:49,960
Speaker 1: so you know, I'm on I'm not on Obamacare. I'm

773
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:52,799
Speaker 1: on the other thing, which is Obamacare. I mean, do

774
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:55,440
Speaker 1: you I mean, why do you think Democrats have so

775
00:46:55,520 --> 00:46:59,440
Speaker 1: much trouble appealing to those people when they are basically

776
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:02,080
Speaker 1: all they want to do is help those people I've

777
00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:05,320
Speaker 1: been talking a lot about this difference between politics and policy,

778
00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:07,040
Speaker 1: and I think a good case study for it is

779
00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:09,880
Speaker 1: in Florida. Yeah, or if you look at Florida and

780
00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:12,440
Speaker 1: look at our ballot initiatives, over seventy percent of our

781
00:47:12,520 --> 00:47:16,440
Speaker 1: voters said yes to medical marijuana, voting rights for people's

782
00:47:16,440 --> 00:47:19,600
Speaker 1: previous felonies, and a fifteen dollars minimum wage. And if

783
00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:22,960
Speaker 1: you look at the polling, most Flurians want to cloddify

784
00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:26,200
Speaker 1: the right to an abortion, are not for permit less carry,

785
00:47:26,320 --> 00:47:28,879
Speaker 1: and what adult use of marijuana. So it's interesting because

786
00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:31,480
Speaker 1: in terms of policy, you are actually a pretty progressive state.

787
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:35,680
Speaker 1: But then when you introduce politics, then things look a

788
00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:38,080
Speaker 1: little different. And that's why someone like the Santas can

789
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:41,279
Speaker 1: win with the twenty point margin vast November. But you know,

790
00:47:41,320 --> 00:47:43,520
Speaker 1: but we have a good chance of palling the passing

791
00:47:43,560 --> 00:47:46,960
Speaker 1: these progressive ballot initiatives because his policy versus politics. You know.

792
00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:50,360
Speaker 1: It's also why anytime rounda Santas speak, he's never talking

793
00:47:50,400 --> 00:47:53,880
Speaker 1: about policy because he knows it's very his policy is unpopular.

794
00:47:54,040 --> 00:47:57,440
Speaker 1: He's talking about woke and you know, whatever the hell

795
00:47:57,520 --> 00:48:00,480
Speaker 1: that is, And that's kind of what he focuses because

796
00:48:00,480 --> 00:48:02,719
Speaker 1: that's the bread and butter, the politics of all of it.

797
00:48:02,960 --> 00:48:05,799
Speaker 1: So it's very interesting to kind of break it down

798
00:48:05,840 --> 00:48:07,160
Speaker 1: like that, and I think you can break it down

799
00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:10,319
Speaker 1: like that in the national scale. You know, our policies

800
00:48:10,360 --> 00:48:13,560
Speaker 1: that we have as Democrats and progressives. It's the most

801
00:48:13,600 --> 00:48:18,120
Speaker 1: popular thing. It is the most popular policy, but it

802
00:48:18,160 --> 00:48:22,000
Speaker 1: seems like sometimes we have trouble connecting that policy at

803
00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:24,600
Speaker 1: people's day to day life and telling the story of policy.

804
00:48:24,640 --> 00:48:27,919
Speaker 1: The other thing is we oftentimes are obsessed with giving

805
00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:30,640
Speaker 1: people something to vote against and not giving people something

806
00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:32,560
Speaker 1: to vote for. I mean, if you look at what

807
00:48:32,600 --> 00:48:36,080
Speaker 1: happened in Florida, Republicans would set up the trap where

808
00:48:36,080 --> 00:48:39,720
Speaker 1: they're like, you're a socialist, communist, even from the police, whatever,

809
00:48:40,280 --> 00:48:42,040
Speaker 1: and they say that about you. Whether you're a moderate

810
00:48:42,120 --> 00:48:44,399
Speaker 1: or progressive, don't matter if you're a Democrat, they say

811
00:48:44,400 --> 00:48:47,719
Speaker 1: it about you. And then Democrats in Florida spent, you know,

812
00:48:47,719 --> 00:48:50,360
Speaker 1: would spend their media budget saying no, I'm not and

813
00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:53,200
Speaker 1: I'm just not sure no I'm not is a winning message.

814
00:48:53,440 --> 00:48:55,319
Speaker 1: And so I think we should just really focus in

815
00:48:55,400 --> 00:48:58,239
Speaker 1: on what we're fighting for, what it means, how it

816
00:48:58,239 --> 00:49:00,000
Speaker 1: can work for people and not be afraid of those

817
00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:02,960
Speaker 1: kind of north star bold solutions that yeah, I might

818
00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:05,480
Speaker 1: not pass next year, but it excites people to think

819
00:49:05,480 --> 00:49:07,600
Speaker 1: about the future that's possible. We just got to be

820
00:49:07,640 --> 00:49:09,879
Speaker 1: honest with Yeah. I mean that's the thing that I'm

821
00:49:09,920 --> 00:49:12,839
Speaker 1: so struck by. And when you talk about these ballot initiatives,

822
00:49:13,120 --> 00:49:18,160
Speaker 1: ballot initiatives do incredibly well. I mean, they do so

823
00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:22,000
Speaker 1: well that conservatives want to make the bar for them

824
00:49:22,160 --> 00:49:26,400
Speaker 1: sixty percent and not fifty percent because they know, you

825
00:49:26,480 --> 00:49:29,839
Speaker 1: know that the people are much more liberal than politically

826
00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:35,040
Speaker 1: than their ideas. I mean, yeah, that, I mean, it's

827
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:37,640
Speaker 1: just such an interesting and important thing. And I want

828
00:49:37,680 --> 00:49:40,880
Speaker 1: to talk to you about the elections this week because

829
00:49:40,920 --> 00:49:44,799
Speaker 1: there were too you know, in the minutes that we're

830
00:49:44,800 --> 00:49:48,360
Speaker 1: not eating up by Trump getting indicted there the Republican

831
00:49:48,400 --> 00:49:51,240
Speaker 1: Front ran are getting indicted. There were two huge wins

832
00:49:51,239 --> 00:49:54,480
Speaker 1: for progressives. Talk to me about Chicago. I'm curious what

833
00:49:54,600 --> 00:49:57,560
Speaker 1: your take on that is. Yeah, I mean, very very

834
00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:00,799
Speaker 1: exciting what happened in Chicago. I think you have your

835
00:50:00,880 --> 00:50:05,279
Speaker 1: classic progressive or The interesting thing is, I think a

836
00:50:05,280 --> 00:50:07,239
Speaker 1: lot of times we want to boil the sound to

837
00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:11,160
Speaker 1: progressive versus moderate, because that maybe that's what we're used

838
00:50:11,200 --> 00:50:15,719
Speaker 1: to or whatever. But I think it's much more than that.

839
00:50:15,760 --> 00:50:17,879
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously you haven't progressive and you have someone

840
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:20,000
Speaker 1: who's more who's more of a moderate in the race.

841
00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:23,080
Speaker 1: But a lot of this, I'm just not convinced that

842
00:50:23,120 --> 00:50:26,280
Speaker 1: most voters walk into a voting booth and go who's

843
00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:29,239
Speaker 1: the progressive, who's the moderate. I mean, I think there's

844
00:50:29,239 --> 00:50:31,680
Speaker 1: a group of people who do that, like you know,

845
00:50:31,920 --> 00:50:34,640
Speaker 1: maybe the people who are very politically involved, but I

846
00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:38,279
Speaker 1: think most working people go and think about who have

847
00:50:38,360 --> 00:50:41,120
Speaker 1: I heard from, who said things that I believe in,

848
00:50:41,440 --> 00:50:45,040
Speaker 1: Who's inspired me, Who's spoken to what I'm going through,

849
00:50:45,400 --> 00:50:48,280
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. And I think what we saw

850
00:50:48,360 --> 00:50:51,680
Speaker 1: as you know, someone like Mary, like Brandon Johnson, who

851
00:50:51,719 --> 00:50:56,239
Speaker 1: comes from union, who comes from labor, who is progressive,

852
00:50:56,760 --> 00:51:00,000
Speaker 1: and who was talking about a better Chicago for everyone,

853
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:02,200
Speaker 1: and it was building that vision with everyone along the

854
00:51:02,239 --> 00:51:06,160
Speaker 1: campaign trail. And I think that type of campaign is

855
00:51:06,200 --> 00:51:10,240
Speaker 1: so engaging, and that type of campaign brings people together

856
00:51:10,400 --> 00:51:12,680
Speaker 1: from different walks of life that you want that to

857
00:51:12,719 --> 00:51:16,879
Speaker 1: be the future of your city or of wherever you live.

858
00:51:17,280 --> 00:51:20,759
Speaker 1: The campaign itself is like a canvas where you can

859
00:51:20,880 --> 00:51:24,160
Speaker 1: paint the future of whatever place you're running for. And

860
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:27,640
Speaker 1: so if you have an exciting campaign that talks about

861
00:51:27,640 --> 00:51:31,880
Speaker 1: a bold future, that talks about policies that people actually

862
00:51:32,040 --> 00:51:35,520
Speaker 1: believe in, then people will will take that energy and

863
00:51:35,560 --> 00:51:37,239
Speaker 1: bring it to the voting booth. I think you saw

864
00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:40,400
Speaker 1: a Brandon Johnson, who you know I tweeted about this.

865
00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:42,759
Speaker 1: A big topic of discussion in this in that race

866
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:46,960
Speaker 1: was crime. Nobody likes crime. You know, no one wants

867
00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:49,880
Speaker 1: to crime. Let me just say that straight up. Everyone

868
00:51:49,920 --> 00:51:52,279
Speaker 1: has different ideas on how we deal with it. But

869
00:51:52,680 --> 00:51:54,960
Speaker 1: you know, our country has had a kind of tough

870
00:51:55,000 --> 00:51:58,000
Speaker 1: on crime mentality for a long time, and nothing's really

871
00:51:58,320 --> 00:52:00,799
Speaker 1: gotten better in terms of crime. And I think we

872
00:52:00,880 --> 00:52:02,759
Speaker 1: have groups of people who are saying, well, look, we

873
00:52:02,800 --> 00:52:04,680
Speaker 1: have being tough on crime, why don't we just be

874
00:52:05,080 --> 00:52:08,320
Speaker 1: smart on crime? And that doesn't mean there's no accountability

875
00:52:08,360 --> 00:52:10,759
Speaker 1: for crime. It means let's also look at the root

876
00:52:10,840 --> 00:52:14,440
Speaker 1: causes that push people to commit a crime. How do

877
00:52:14,520 --> 00:52:18,040
Speaker 1: we be how do we have preventative measures not reactionary ones.

878
00:52:18,400 --> 00:52:22,160
Speaker 1: It's the same conversation with gun violence, because people want

879
00:52:22,200 --> 00:52:25,680
Speaker 1: to talk about, you know, ending gun violence, and it's like, well, yeah,

880
00:52:25,719 --> 00:52:27,960
Speaker 1: let's talk about what we do after like a group

881
00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:31,319
Speaker 1: of fricking school kids get mowed down by an AAR fifteen. Sure,

882
00:52:31,760 --> 00:52:33,640
Speaker 1: but I'm more interested in talking about how we make

883
00:52:33,640 --> 00:52:36,040
Speaker 1: sure that those kids are alive and that never happened.

884
00:52:36,400 --> 00:52:38,719
Speaker 1: So I just don't know, And this is something within

885
00:52:38,760 --> 00:52:41,360
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party. Two, why Democrats have a hard time

886
00:52:41,840 --> 00:52:44,920
Speaker 1: using the same logic for all crime. And it's like,

887
00:52:45,000 --> 00:52:48,640
Speaker 1: what are the preventative measures? That's gun control or gun

888
00:52:48,719 --> 00:52:53,840
Speaker 1: violence prevention, universal background checks, those are preventative measures. So it's,

889
00:52:53,880 --> 00:52:56,240
Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of a you know, a debate

890
00:52:56,239 --> 00:52:59,440
Speaker 1: of I guess, ideology and policy. But like, let's apply

891
00:52:59,520 --> 00:53:01,880
Speaker 1: that same line of thinking that most Democrats are for

892
00:53:02,400 --> 00:53:05,080
Speaker 1: gun violence prevention measures, Let's do the same thing with

893
00:53:05,160 --> 00:53:07,600
Speaker 1: crime and let's see if we can fix it. So

894
00:53:07,760 --> 00:53:12,800
Speaker 1: either way, very interesting, but very exciting, very exciting fantasy.

895
00:53:13,200 --> 00:53:15,799
Speaker 1: Judge Janet, Yeah, I want to ask you about Judge

896
00:53:15,880 --> 00:53:17,760
Speaker 1: Janet too, But first I want to talk to you.

897
00:53:17,760 --> 00:53:19,799
Speaker 1: You know, I'm looking at this bill that you did

898
00:53:19,840 --> 00:53:22,880
Speaker 1: with Chris Murphy. Can you just give us like the

899
00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:26,200
Speaker 1: TLDR on that. Yeah, So this is the first bill

900
00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:30,239
Speaker 1: that I've introduced. It is called the Office of Gun

901
00:53:30,320 --> 00:53:33,360
Speaker 1: Violence Prevention active twenty twenty three. It's quite a literal

902
00:53:33,440 --> 00:53:36,879
Speaker 1: title for the bill because what it does is it

903
00:53:36,920 --> 00:53:40,960
Speaker 1: creates a Federal Office of Gun Violence Prevention. And did

904
00:53:41,000 --> 00:53:43,480
Speaker 1: you know there is no one office in the federal

905
00:53:43,560 --> 00:53:45,719
Speaker 1: government that works on the violence every single day. It's

906
00:53:45,760 --> 00:53:49,480
Speaker 1: actually split between multiple different departments and agencies that have

907
00:53:49,600 --> 00:53:53,040
Speaker 1: different functions on this issue. It's the leading cause of

908
00:53:53,120 --> 00:53:55,680
Speaker 1: death for children and has the least amount of money

909
00:53:55,719 --> 00:54:01,960
Speaker 1: dollars and effort in terms of research and data aggregations exactly.

910
00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:04,040
Speaker 1: So that's why most of the data we see on

911
00:54:04,080 --> 00:54:06,480
Speaker 1: gun violence that actually doesn't really come from the government.

912
00:54:06,480 --> 00:54:11,200
Speaker 1: It comes from every town for so brave here these

913
00:54:11,239 --> 00:54:14,279
Speaker 1: different organizations, which is great, but we need to put

914
00:54:14,280 --> 00:54:17,280
Speaker 1: some sweat equity on the line here in getting this data.

915
00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:20,240
Speaker 1: And then also you know, this office would provide recommendations

916
00:54:20,360 --> 00:54:23,240
Speaker 1: on how they feel like we could stop gun violence

917
00:54:23,280 --> 00:54:27,080
Speaker 1: and work with municipal governments, county wide governments, Congress, etc.

918
00:54:27,760 --> 00:54:30,080
Speaker 1: And so I hope that this can get bipartisan support

919
00:54:30,120 --> 00:54:33,600
Speaker 1: because it's not gun policy. It's not a policy on guns,

920
00:54:33,920 --> 00:54:37,520
Speaker 1: it's an office to help us be informed on it. Now,

921
00:54:37,840 --> 00:54:40,440
Speaker 1: I'll I understand that there probably will be some people

922
00:54:40,480 --> 00:54:43,359
Speaker 1: who don't want the office because they understand that from

923
00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:46,200
Speaker 1: an objective point of view, when you look at what's

924
00:54:46,280 --> 00:54:49,600
Speaker 1: going on, the recommendations that might come out of it

925
00:54:49,680 --> 00:54:52,040
Speaker 1: might not be in line with your politics. But I mean,

926
00:54:52,080 --> 00:54:54,520
Speaker 1: we need, we need to save lives. And so that's

927
00:54:54,560 --> 00:54:56,920
Speaker 1: the bill. We're really excited about it. We introduced it

928
00:54:56,920 --> 00:54:58,960
Speaker 1: with Senator Chris Murphy, so it lives in both the

929
00:54:58,960 --> 00:55:00,800
Speaker 1: House and the Senate. I saw you come up in

930
00:55:00,840 --> 00:55:05,600
Speaker 1: the Washington Examiner, which is a gop APO dump shop basically,

931
00:55:06,200 --> 00:55:10,680
Speaker 1: and it was like, I mean, Washington Examiner, Washington Free

932
00:55:10,680 --> 00:55:14,960
Speaker 1: Beacon basically the same, you know, Okay in my mind anyway,

933
00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:17,440
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'll get you know, but yes, basically, and

934
00:55:17,520 --> 00:55:22,960
Speaker 1: it was like Republicans failed to appeal to Generation Z

935
00:55:23,320 --> 00:55:27,760
Speaker 1: or whatever you guys are. Why do you think Republicans

936
00:55:27,960 --> 00:55:32,040
Speaker 1: can't organically appeal to young people? I think it's because

937
00:55:32,200 --> 00:55:34,680
Speaker 1: just young people, and I don't want to say every younger,

938
00:55:35,040 --> 00:55:38,200
Speaker 1: but right, the vast majority of young people in this

939
00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:41,200
Speaker 1: country are just not online with their politics at all.

940
00:55:41,239 --> 00:55:43,600
Speaker 1: I mean, what was it six It was sixty or

941
00:55:43,640 --> 00:55:47,239
Speaker 1: seventy percent of Gen Z voted for Democrats in this

942
00:55:47,360 --> 00:55:50,359
Speaker 1: past mid term. That's a lot. And also studies are

943
00:55:50,360 --> 00:55:52,319
Speaker 1: showing that as we're getting older, we're not getting more

944
00:55:52,320 --> 00:55:55,680
Speaker 1: conservative like other generations have. And so I think it

945
00:55:55,680 --> 00:55:58,719
Speaker 1: shows a like a generational shift in our politics. Even

946
00:55:58,960 --> 00:56:03,840
Speaker 1: young conservatives hold more progressive ideology than their parents do.

947
00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:06,680
Speaker 1: It's really interesting, I think, and I think we part

948
00:56:06,719 --> 00:56:09,960
Speaker 1: of it is the fact that, you know, what separates

949
00:56:10,040 --> 00:56:15,120
Speaker 1: Generation Z from millennials and any other generation is that

950
00:56:15,320 --> 00:56:19,040
Speaker 1: we've been completely immersed in this advanced technology since birth.

951
00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:22,279
Speaker 1: So for many millennials, kind of this technology we have

952
00:56:22,360 --> 00:56:25,960
Speaker 1: now came along and maybe like later teen years or

953
00:56:26,040 --> 00:56:28,160
Speaker 1: like you know, maybe when you're in middle school. For

954
00:56:28,280 --> 00:56:30,080
Speaker 1: Gen Z, it's like since the day you were born,

955
00:56:30,160 --> 00:56:32,879
Speaker 1: this has been around. And there's a lot of these people.

956
00:56:32,920 --> 00:56:34,719
Speaker 1: I didn't have a phone until much later, but a

957
00:56:34,760 --> 00:56:37,080
Speaker 1: lot of folks have phones like as soon as they

958
00:56:37,360 --> 00:56:40,200
Speaker 1: are able to walk or talk, you know, And so

959
00:56:40,680 --> 00:56:42,480
Speaker 1: it's wild. I'll be walking around and see you, like

960
00:56:42,520 --> 00:56:47,080
Speaker 1: a little toddler with an iPhone better than mine. I'm like, oh,

961
00:56:47,120 --> 00:56:50,279
Speaker 1: but either way. So but because of that, you know,

962
00:56:50,360 --> 00:56:53,400
Speaker 1: we're open to all this information since a very young age,

963
00:56:53,440 --> 00:56:56,279
Speaker 1: and that includes a lot of a trauma are. You

964
00:56:56,360 --> 00:56:58,759
Speaker 1: go in a room with people from different generations and

965
00:56:58,840 --> 00:57:01,520
Speaker 1: you ask, tell me moment defining moments for your generation,

966
00:57:01,640 --> 00:57:03,799
Speaker 1: no matter what your ideology is. You'll hear the moon

967
00:57:03,880 --> 00:57:06,680
Speaker 1: landing and postline eleven and the Country came together in etc.

968
00:57:07,080 --> 00:57:09,239
Speaker 1: And you ask a member of Generation Z, and you're

969
00:57:09,239 --> 00:57:13,440
Speaker 1: going to hear Parkland and George Floyd and Brianna Taylor

970
00:57:13,560 --> 00:57:17,200
Speaker 1: like death, death and death. And I think that trauma,

971
00:57:17,440 --> 00:57:20,040
Speaker 1: that pool of trauma builds up in someone and builds

972
00:57:20,080 --> 00:57:22,080
Speaker 1: up in a generation, and they're kind of defined by it,

973
00:57:22,440 --> 00:57:25,280
Speaker 1: and they demand a better world. They demand a world

974
00:57:25,320 --> 00:57:27,880
Speaker 1: where black people aren't being you know, killed on the

975
00:57:27,920 --> 00:57:31,200
Speaker 1: streets that are unarmed, and where you know, we aren't

976
00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:34,360
Speaker 1: being shot in our schools, and where people have healthcare,

977
00:57:34,440 --> 00:57:37,200
Speaker 1: and you know, we're just kind of like it's very basic,

978
00:57:37,920 --> 00:57:40,040
Speaker 1: you know. And I think a lot of young people

979
00:57:40,040 --> 00:57:42,200
Speaker 1: are just confused on why these things aren't already here.

980
00:57:42,200 --> 00:57:44,280
Speaker 1: And obviously there's a lot of reasons, but we want

981
00:57:44,280 --> 00:57:45,880
Speaker 1: to be part of the solution. And I think that's

982
00:57:45,880 --> 00:57:48,440
Speaker 1: really exciting. That's why I'm actually even though things can

983
00:57:48,480 --> 00:57:51,280
Speaker 1: seem pretty gloomy, even though yesterday or not yesa Tuesday

984
00:57:51,320 --> 00:57:53,720
Speaker 1: was a good day for campaigns. You know, you're in

985
00:57:53,760 --> 00:57:56,000
Speaker 1: a state like Florida, things can seem pretty down, but

986
00:57:56,520 --> 00:58:02,960
Speaker 1: I think time is on our side. Yeah, what's happening

987
00:58:03,000 --> 00:58:05,600
Speaker 1: in Florida right now with the Democratic Party. I mean,

988
00:58:05,640 --> 00:58:11,480
Speaker 1: how much time do you have? You know? I think so.

989
00:58:12,160 --> 00:58:14,680
Speaker 1: I mean there's a lot, right, I mean, I can't

990
00:58:14,760 --> 00:58:16,800
Speaker 1: you can't talk about what's going on in Florida without

991
00:58:16,880 --> 00:58:21,360
Speaker 1: bringing up Governor round Santus because he really brings something

992
00:58:21,360 --> 00:58:23,080
Speaker 1: to the table that I think just Florida has never

993
00:58:23,080 --> 00:58:25,200
Speaker 1: seen before, and I think it's important. I mean, look

994
00:58:25,200 --> 00:58:27,400
Speaker 1: at what's going on the Floorda state legislature. This is like,

995
00:58:27,560 --> 00:58:29,840
Speaker 1: I think this is possibly the worst session that the

996
00:58:29,880 --> 00:58:33,520
Speaker 1: Florida legislature has had in modern history. The bills that

997
00:58:33,520 --> 00:58:35,440
Speaker 1: are coming out of them are all championed by the governor.

998
00:58:35,880 --> 00:58:38,320
Speaker 1: We just passed a permitless carry bill, which allows people

999
00:58:38,360 --> 00:58:41,000
Speaker 1: to carry any gun any place and any person anywhere,

1000
00:58:41,120 --> 00:58:43,160
Speaker 1: so you don't have to get a permit. There's a

1001
00:58:43,200 --> 00:58:46,880
Speaker 1: new bill that might pass that it makes it a

1002
00:58:46,920 --> 00:58:52,320
Speaker 1: felony to harbor a undocumented person, and that what they

1003
00:58:52,400 --> 00:58:55,480
Speaker 1: mean by that is you can't drive an undocumented person.

1004
00:58:56,000 --> 00:58:58,280
Speaker 1: You can't have them over at your house or it's

1005
00:58:58,280 --> 00:59:01,120
Speaker 1: a felony. I mean, it's some of the most disgusting,

1006
00:59:01,400 --> 00:59:03,240
Speaker 1: you know. And then not to mention all the attacks,

1007
00:59:03,400 --> 00:59:05,560
Speaker 1: there's a new one that just came up too, that

1008
00:59:05,680 --> 00:59:11,040
Speaker 1: makes a Pride parade illegal if anyone, if anyone there

1009
00:59:11,280 --> 00:59:14,200
Speaker 1: is dressed in drag. It's horrible. And I think with

1010
00:59:14,240 --> 00:59:16,520
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party, I mean I kind of explained before,

1011
00:59:17,040 --> 00:59:19,160
Speaker 1: you know, we have a shift of kind of a

1012
00:59:19,320 --> 00:59:22,360
Speaker 1: different tactics and style of politics. And I think the

1013
00:59:22,520 --> 00:59:25,600
Speaker 1: GOP has moved quickly into this kind of aggressive style

1014
00:59:25,640 --> 00:59:28,000
Speaker 1: of politics. So I would argue they've always had that,

1015
00:59:28,040 --> 00:59:30,560
Speaker 1: but like even more aggressive. And I think Democrats are

1016
00:59:30,560 --> 00:59:32,240
Speaker 1: still trying to figure out, like are we still in

1017
00:59:32,240 --> 00:59:35,800
Speaker 1: this era of like back room by partisan deals or

1018
00:59:35,840 --> 00:59:39,960
Speaker 1: like going you know, being on TV and completely you know,

1019
00:59:40,120 --> 00:59:42,520
Speaker 1: lying about the other side, which is what we see

1020
00:59:42,640 --> 00:59:44,600
Speaker 1: Republicans do all the time. And I'm not saying we

1021
00:59:44,640 --> 00:59:46,600
Speaker 1: need to go on TV and lie, but we need

1022
00:59:46,600 --> 00:59:49,800
Speaker 1: to be aggressive truth tellers. And I think there's a

1023
00:59:49,840 --> 00:59:52,560
Speaker 1: lot of Democrats who are hesitant to get into that

1024
00:59:52,960 --> 00:59:56,120
Speaker 1: type of politics. That's why when I started defining what

1025
00:59:56,240 --> 00:59:58,280
Speaker 1: Rond de Santis is as a fascist like I on

1026
00:59:58,400 --> 01:00:01,080
Speaker 1: a tongue. But I received some calls and text furn

1027
01:00:01,120 --> 01:00:02,800
Speaker 1: people were saying like, hey, Max, with that, and I

1028
01:00:02,800 --> 01:00:04,720
Speaker 1: don't think it's helpful to us and Florida and this

1029
01:00:04,760 --> 01:00:06,200
Speaker 1: and that, And I'm just like, what do you want

1030
01:00:06,200 --> 01:00:07,760
Speaker 1: to do? Do you want to lay down and let

1031
01:00:07,800 --> 01:00:10,240
Speaker 1: him step on us? Because then the next election cycle,

1032
01:00:10,240 --> 01:00:12,480
Speaker 1: people see the bootmark on your face, and I'm not

1033
01:00:12,520 --> 01:00:15,080
Speaker 1: going to do that. And so either way, I think

1034
01:00:15,080 --> 01:00:16,400
Speaker 1: there's kind of a push and pull there. But we

1035
01:00:16,400 --> 01:00:18,720
Speaker 1: have a new party chair and Nicki Freed, and you know,

1036
01:00:18,800 --> 01:00:21,880
Speaker 1: she's been out there and being aggressive and but you know,

1037
01:00:21,920 --> 01:00:25,880
Speaker 1: beyond the party chair, it's also the elected and the organizers,

1038
01:00:25,880 --> 01:00:28,120
Speaker 1: and so we just have a lot of infrastructure work

1039
01:00:28,120 --> 01:00:30,840
Speaker 1: to do here in Florida, and it's gonna take time,

1040
01:00:31,040 --> 01:00:32,880
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, we're not gonna flit Florida in

1041
01:00:32,960 --> 01:00:36,760
Speaker 1: one year or two years. But I think that the

1042
01:00:36,800 --> 01:00:39,520
Speaker 1: margin that we saw, that twenty point margin, I think

1043
01:00:39,560 --> 01:00:41,960
Speaker 1: that we can more than cut that in half this

1044
01:00:42,280 --> 01:00:44,960
Speaker 1: sex cycle, and I think we can be I think

1045
01:00:45,000 --> 01:00:47,000
Speaker 1: we can get back to being a real background state

1046
01:00:47,240 --> 01:00:51,800
Speaker 1: just here in the next couple of cycles. Maxwell Frost congressman.

1047
01:00:51,920 --> 01:00:54,600
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you

1048
01:00:54,600 --> 01:01:04,240
Speaker 1: for having me on Molly Junk Fast Jesse Cannon, what

1049
01:01:04,440 --> 01:01:08,520
Speaker 1: would you like a presumptive Republican nominee to not be

1050
01:01:08,800 --> 01:01:11,880
Speaker 1: truthing about? My top of my list might be world

1051
01:01:11,880 --> 01:01:16,000
Speaker 1: War three. I think that when you are Donald Trump

1052
01:01:16,160 --> 01:01:19,040
Speaker 1: and the thing most people are worried about you doing

1053
01:01:19,280 --> 01:01:23,240
Speaker 1: is causing World War three, perhaps it might be better

1054
01:01:23,440 --> 01:01:26,880
Speaker 1: not to all caps tweet about world War three and

1055
01:01:27,080 --> 01:01:30,280
Speaker 1: just that too. Like you just wrote world War three,

1056
01:01:30,520 --> 01:01:35,320
Speaker 1: world War three. Case you're wondering, I mean civil War

1057
01:01:35,520 --> 01:01:37,919
Speaker 1: right up there with World War three. But like this

1058
01:01:38,000 --> 01:01:41,120
Speaker 1: is this is not good. What's interesting about this is

1059
01:01:41,120 --> 01:01:46,280
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump's truth no longer store the conversation and

1060
01:01:46,360 --> 01:01:49,440
Speaker 1: he says crazy stuff like this and it doesn't make

1061
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Speaker 1: a ripple, which is good. But it's also bad because

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Speaker 1: he is the Republican front runner for president in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty four. And that is why world War three all

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Speaker 1: apps is our moment of Fuckeray. That's it for this

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Speaker 1: episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday and

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Speaker 1: Friday to your the best minds in politics makes sense

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Speaker 1: of all this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard.

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Speaker 1: Please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.

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Speaker 1: And again thanks for listening.