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

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

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Speaker 1: best minds. And an Associated Press poll has Donald Trump's

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Speaker 1: approval rating for the economy at 26 percent. That's lower

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Speaker 1: than Joe Biden's lowest economic approval rating. We have such

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Speaker 1: a great show for you today. I've had it. Jennifer Welch.

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Speaker 1: stops by to talk about her new book, Not Today, Fascists.

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Speaker 1: Then we'll talk to Nebraska Senate candidate Adam Hamilton about

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Speaker 1: his run against Senator Roger Marshall.

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Speaker 2: Molly, Trump, he's groveling. He needs Europe to help him

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Speaker 2: bring down diesel costs because, my God, are they crazy.

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Speaker 2: When I filled up my tank this week, it was

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Speaker 2: twice as much as it was before the war.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, look, This is a Donald Trump has put himself

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Speaker 1: in an impossible situation.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 1: He's made gas prices higher. He spent like the first

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Speaker 1: half of his the last two years trying to alienate Europe. Right.

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Speaker 1: Trying to attack Greenland. Well, now. Right. Saying that he's

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Speaker 1: going to attack Greenland, saying that he's going to take

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Speaker 1: over Greenland, saying he's going to make Canada the 51st state. Well,

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Speaker 1: now he needs to get Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,

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Speaker 1: and the UK's help because he is hoping to get

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Speaker 1: them to release millions of barrels of oil from their stockpiles. Now, remember,

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Speaker 1: there's a reason why Trump is doing that is because

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Speaker 1: he's already released a ton of oil from our stockpiles, right?

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Speaker 1: Our American reserve is as low as it's been in

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Speaker 1: 20 years. So this is and again, I want to

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Speaker 1: point out this is because Donald Trump is worried about

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

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Speaker 1: it is breaking records and how expensive it is. And

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Speaker 1: it's breaking records because Donald Trump attacked Iran. And that

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Speaker 1: is why they closed the straits. If Donald Trump would

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Speaker 1: make peace with Iran, then the end, again, who knows

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Speaker 1: what they would want. It would probably be something less

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Speaker 1: good than the Iran nuclear deal, which Obama had. If

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Speaker 1: he were to be able to do this, then they

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Speaker 1: would reopen the straits and the cost of diesel and

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Speaker 1: the cost of gas would go back down. I mean,

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Speaker 1: this is really yet another one of these problems that

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump has created for himself and for the rest

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Speaker 1: of us and for Europe.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Something we were talking about a lot at the start

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Speaker 2: of the year was we hoped that Renee Good's family

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Speaker 2: would sue the Trump administration over her fatal shooting. And

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Speaker 2: we've seen it come now. And this is an expansive lawsuit.

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Speaker 2: There's even non-defendant co-conspirators in here like Chris Ruffo and

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Speaker 2: Nick Shirley. It's a very, very big lawsuit.

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Speaker 1: Remember, Chris Ruffo and Nick Shirley are both people who

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Speaker 1: have spread things that were not true, who were quick

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Speaker 1: to say things about Renee Good, you know, to say

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Speaker 1: that she wasn't who she was or to say that

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Speaker 1: she was somehow at blame for being murdered by ICE.

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Speaker 1: And so, again, this family is really kind of doing.

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Speaker 4: The work here.

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Speaker 1: And again, like I said, you know, we do not

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Speaker 1: have any kind of fact checking on the Internet.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 1: We don't have any kind of with the closest we

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Speaker 1: have is community nodes. The reason we don't have that

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Speaker 1: is because Congress has never legislated any technology yet. period paragraph.

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Speaker 1: So that's why we have a situation like this. And

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Speaker 1: when you have a lawsuit like this, what it does

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Speaker 1: is it creates accountability and it makes it so that

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Speaker 1: people maybe don't do things like that. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: almost feel like I'd like to see her sue the

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Speaker 1: tech companies that spread the lies about her, which is

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Speaker 1: like what we've seen. We've seen other plaintiffs do that,

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Speaker 1: like sue Meta, right? In California, we saw big suit

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Speaker 1: against Meta and against some of these other tech companies

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Speaker 1: for the information that was carried on them. And that's

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Speaker 1: the only way, really, that we're going to be able

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Speaker 1: to stop that kind of information. But anyway, this is

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Speaker 1: still really good. And it is like one of the

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Speaker 1: first of these major civil actions taking against Donald Trump.

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Speaker 1: But I'm going to tell you that it's not going

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Speaker 1: to be the last. Like, we're going to see a

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Speaker 1: lot more of this stuff. And I wonder also, again,

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Speaker 1: I'm not a lawyer and maybe we'll have somebody who's

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Speaker 1: a lawyer on to talk about this. Maybe, you know,

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Speaker 1: the person we should have is Robbie Kaplan. But to

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Speaker 1: talk about these kind of lawsuits, because remember, Robbie Kaplan

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Speaker 1: is the only person who's ever gotten any accountability for

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump when it comes to his sexual misconduct. So

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Speaker 1: I think it is a really good example of just

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Speaker 1: how the legal system, you know, you may not get

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Speaker 1: criminal charges, but you can get civil charges. And this

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Speaker 1: is two different lawsuits against Jonathan Ross. He is the

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Speaker 1: ICE agent who shot good. And also there are senior

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Speaker 1: Trump administration officials who are, who are, you know, being

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Speaker 1: accused of unconstitutional negligence, excessive force. And the violation of

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Speaker 1: the civil rights of Renee Good. So look, I hope

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Speaker 1: that Alex Preddy's family follows suit and does the same thing.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the only way that someone like Donald Trump,

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Speaker 1: who is so loose with pardons, who's gotten this carte

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Speaker 1: blanche from the Supreme court, the only way that someone

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Speaker 1: like him has any accountability is going to be in

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Speaker 1: the civil arena. And like, luckily he's so obsessed with

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Speaker 1: money that this is something that he actually does care about. And, uh,

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Speaker 1: And he should be a plaintiff. I mean, especially in

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Speaker 1: a situation like this, where here was a person who

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Speaker 1: really was used politically by the Republicans and the Trump world, smeared,

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Speaker 1: treated terribly, had her, you know, just just in a

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Speaker 1: horrible way. And so the idea that there's some accountability

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Speaker 1: here is really the one positive sign.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: And we do need to teach people to stop seeing

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Speaker 2: people who've literally been killed. just be a pawn in

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Speaker 2: a culture war. And, you know, I think this will

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Speaker 2: be one of the great discouragements of that if it

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Speaker 2: is successful.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree.

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Speaker 2: So you said the word unconstitutional back there, and you

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Speaker 2: know what rings in my brain every time that word

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Speaker 2: is used right now? Pete Hegseth creating a Pentagon office

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Speaker 2: of religious affairs that reports directly to him.

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Speaker 1: This is just, I'm telling you, it's just such... a

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Speaker 1: very Pete Hegseth thing.

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Speaker 2: Can you think of anything else? Like, if you were

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Speaker 2: trying to find the most embarrassing way to combine church

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Speaker 2: and state, could you get worse than this?

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Speaker 4: Well, I would also.

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Speaker 1: Just add, like, this is not what the military, this

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Speaker 1: is not what, like, what we're seeing here, I think,

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Speaker 1: is two things, right? Pete Hegseth thinks there are two

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Speaker 1: different scenarios here, and I'm not sure which one it is.

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Speaker 1: One is Pete Hex says things is truly, truly delusional

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Speaker 1: and thinks that he can be president, that he can

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Speaker 1: appeal to the right to the right wing, get them excited.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I really do think that that's part of

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Speaker 1: what's happening. He thinks, you know, that he can.

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Speaker 2: Modern day Rudy Giuliani here.

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Speaker 1: Right. So that's that's one very delusional idea that Pete

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Speaker 1: Hex says is having. The other is that he thinks

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump likes this. which may very well be true, right?

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Speaker 1: He gave this insane speech this week where he said,

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Speaker 1: no fatties, no... I mean, just, you know... And then, no...

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Speaker 1: You know, he had a bunch of sort of racist words,

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Speaker 1: a slur towards people who are trans. I mean, just

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Speaker 1: very shitty and really appalling. And also, just more importantly...

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Speaker 1: not what the military does. Him running around with his

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Speaker 1: hair gel and his little outfit saying, we're not going

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Speaker 1: to have any people with beards and we're not going

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Speaker 1: to do this, we're not going to do that.

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Speaker 4: Okay.

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Speaker 1: I mean, so again, I think ultimately this stuff really

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Speaker 1: does backfire on him because look, why is the House

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Speaker 1: out of session right now? The House is out of

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Speaker 1: session because Democrats wanted to impeach Pete Hegseth. And the reason, like,

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Speaker 1: that Speaker Johnson was so freaked out by that was

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Speaker 1: because he didn't know if that was going to go,

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Speaker 1: if Pete Hegseth might get impeached. And so I think

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Speaker 1: there's a real— look, are there enough senators to remove Pete Hegseth?

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Speaker 1: I was talking about this with someone today during a

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Speaker 1: TV break, and we're, like, doing the math. Probably not.

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Speaker 1: But it is like this kind of stuff is really

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Speaker 1: what I think if Democrats are smart, like Hegseth, RFK,

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Speaker 1: like these guys, you will have trials, you will have hearings,

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Speaker 1: because even if you can't get the numbers to remove them,

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Speaker 1: like the trials, the votes, like this will be horrible.

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Speaker 1: And for someone like Whiskey Pete, who's got so many

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Speaker 1: other problems that we know about, and someone like RFK Jr.,

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Speaker 1: who is really just there to make money and spread

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Speaker 1: disinformation about vaccines, those two, they're not going to like it.

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Speaker 3: No.

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Speaker 2: And I think that that was some of his Johnson

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Speaker 2: knows that that would be his ass handed to him

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Speaker 2: and have a political enemy if that embarrassment was to

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Speaker 2: come exits.

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Speaker 1: And it's coming. Yeah, it's definitely coming. Yeah.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Thomas Massey is going to have a bunch of sessions

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Speaker 2: even after this election. So it's coming. So guess who's

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Speaker 2: back in Washington, Molly? Elon Musk is returning to the U.S.

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Speaker 2: government to do a Pentagon war study. What do you

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Speaker 2: think the grift is here?

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Speaker 1: Elon Musk and also, you know, who else is involved

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Speaker 1: in this?

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Speaker 2: The man with the worst haircut in all of America.

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Speaker 1: Newt?

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Speaker 2: Oh, no, I was thinking Palmer Luckey.

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Speaker 1: Palmer Luckey and Newt. My guess is like this is

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Speaker 1: a way for them to get some Pentagon money. Elon

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Speaker 1: is a major Republican donor. He's going to bankroll a

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Speaker 1: lot of these midterms. And so you could see where

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump is like, you scratch my back, I scratch yours.

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Speaker 1: The other thing here is that I just think all

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Speaker 1: of this is very, very, very, very bad. And all

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Speaker 1: of this is why we need to overturn Citizens United.

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Speaker 1: We need to go back to a time when we

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Speaker 1: had a little bit of a we had a little

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Speaker 1: bit of separation where you couldn't just have donors write,

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Speaker 1: you know, checks and you didn't have super PACs. collaborating

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Speaker 1: with candidates. And we didn't you know, we the Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court got us to this moment. So, again, I still am.

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Speaker 1: This is Project Meridian. Palmer Luckey, who is, you know,

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Speaker 1: also stands to make money on this. And then 83

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Speaker 1: year old Republican former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is

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Speaker 1: most famous. His biggest technological achievement is that his wife,

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Speaker 1: facetunes herself on instagram but does not facetune him or

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Speaker 1: maybe she's just.

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Speaker 2: Blurry well i like to think of her as our

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Speaker 2: greatest facetune artist in the world one day we will

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Speaker 2: hang her facetunes and she's showing how good she is

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Speaker 2: at her by not doing newt and showing how bad

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Speaker 2: he looks that's that's my theory of the case.

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Speaker 1: I think she might actually just be naturally blurry.

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Speaker 2: That that that's Probably not it, but sure.

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Speaker 1: She's just very, when you meet her, you're like, whoa.

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Speaker 4: Very blurry.

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Speaker 1: Jennifer Welch is the host of I've Had It and

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Speaker 1: the author of Not Today, Fascists. Welcome, welcome, Jennifer. Hi, Molly.

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Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me back on Fast Politics.

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Speaker 1: So it seems as if like not great jobs numbers

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Speaker 1: and feeling that the economy feels pretty shaky. Diesel skyrocketing,

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Speaker 1: gas expensive, tariffs not working. But Claude is going to save.

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Speaker 4: Us all, you know, or kill us all. Exactly. And

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Speaker 4: it was. an anthropic whistleblower that came out and said that.

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Speaker 4: And so, you know, I think it's no coincidence, Molly,

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Speaker 4: that this week you have Donald Trump rolling out the

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Speaker 4: red carpet for all of these AI oligarchs. And they

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Speaker 4: are all incredibly invested into Donald Trump because Donald Trump

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Speaker 4: has no principles, no morals, could give two Fs if

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Speaker 4: AI killed every single one of us. He genuinely doesn't care.

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Speaker 4: And so- Donald Trump is attractive to very bad actors.

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Speaker 4: Vladimir Putin is attracted to him because he's very easy

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Speaker 4: to manipulate. Benjamin Netanyahu had a vested interest in Donald

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Speaker 4: Trump winning because it was easy to dog walk him

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Speaker 4: into a war with Iran. These tech oligarchs are attracted

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Speaker 4: to him because they can make up participation trophies, give

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Speaker 4: them to him, tell him he's incredible, say, hey, we're

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Speaker 4: going to give you a little cut of our company.

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Speaker 4: as long as you don't regulate us. We cannot have

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Speaker 4: any states regulate us. We want complete free reign on this.

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Speaker 4: Trump has zero shits left to give. He's kind of

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Speaker 4: into his bisexual era, talking about how hot he thinks

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Speaker 4: men are. I don't know if you saw that. He

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Speaker 4: was in an Oklahoma rally in my home state. He

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Speaker 4: mentioned about four or five different times and his interior

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Speaker 4: design projects and architecture projects. So the AI thing, I think,

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Speaker 4: is so much bigger than everything because I've read articles

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Speaker 4: and I'm not an economist. And so I don't understand

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Speaker 4: this very well, but it's my understanding The stock market

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Speaker 4: is kind of being artificially propped up by this AI

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Speaker 4: that hasn't actually interned any income back yet, but they're trading.

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Speaker 4: The magnificent seven companies are trading to keep it propped

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Speaker 4: up because if the stock market were down right now,

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Speaker 4: could you imagine how bad it would be for Trump?

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Speaker 4: So these guys are propping it up. These oligarchs are

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Speaker 4: propping up this fascist and Now here they are swooping

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Speaker 4: in to make sure the stock market doesn't crash before

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Speaker 4: the midterms. And it's my understanding they're doing some shaky

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Speaker 4: rollout of Anthropic and IPO. And I just think we're

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Speaker 4: going to find out when the dust settles that AI

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Speaker 4: has been completely overrated and is not quite the product

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Speaker 4: that they all have told us that it is. And

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Speaker 4: that our economy is, the stock market in particular, is

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Speaker 4: just People trading oxygen at this point. They're trading air

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Speaker 4: back and forth to each other, not real money.

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Speaker 1: Right. And the building of these data centers is actually

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Speaker 1: making the is that that's the spending that's supporting the economy,

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Speaker 1: basically building data centers that they don't necessarily have, you know,

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Speaker 1: that will fuel an economy that doesn't really exist, I

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Speaker 1: think is is right. But I also think I don't

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Speaker 1: know if I'll be relieved that I won't kill us

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Speaker 1: all and take all our jobs or I'll be sad

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Speaker 1: that the economy has crashed.

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Speaker 4: I'm conflicted.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: And I think it's important, you know, for for us, Molly,

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Speaker 4: the economy hasn't crashed, but for a lot of people

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Speaker 4: it has.

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Speaker 1: Right. You know, that's because the stock market is not

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Speaker 1: the economy.

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Speaker 4: It's not. And and for working class Americans out there,

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Speaker 4: the economy is already crashed. I mean, they're they're living

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Speaker 4: on a fixed income. You double the price of gas

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Speaker 4: and insurance, insurance, you know, groceries. it just is the

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Speaker 4: pain is being piled on and piled on and piled on.

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Speaker 4: And I, you know, you and I are not really

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Speaker 4: affected by a lot of the decisions he makes other

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Speaker 4: than it's stressful and it's painful, but the majority of

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Speaker 4: Americans are. And I know that you and I both

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Speaker 4: share in this, that we feel a moral obligation to

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Speaker 4: fight for everybody in this country and not just our

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Speaker 4: own interests. And so I think, you know, Donald Trump

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Speaker 4: has been razzle dazzled and, um, probably, um, superficially flattered,

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Speaker 4: and that works with him incredibly well, by these tech oligarchs.

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Speaker 4: And I'm sure they're probably rigging the algorithms as we

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Speaker 4: sit here right now. I'm sure YouTube's gonna suppress this

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Speaker 4: video because we're bashing him, and Zuckerberg's gonna mess with

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Speaker 4: the Facebook stuff, as we know they do, and Elon Musk,

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Speaker 4: that's just a day of the week for him to

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Speaker 4: do that. And so they all have a vested interest

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Speaker 4: to not have accountability, and it's terrifying.

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Speaker 1: Right. And you've seen the Alex Gibney movie, which where

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Speaker 1: they talk about how the Alex Gibney movie that no

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Speaker 1: one wants you to see and Elon doesn't want you

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Speaker 1: to see where they talk about how they moved the

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Speaker 1: For You page to make. Elon Happy. Now, I would

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Speaker 1: love you to talk about, like, you come from one

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Speaker 1: of these red states that are, I mean, your state

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Speaker 1: is not necessarily in play, but Kansas may be. And

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Speaker 1: so I wonder if you could talk about what you

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Speaker 1: think is happening there, like, because clearly something is happening.

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Speaker 4: So it's interesting. So I'm from Oklahoma and lived there

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Speaker 4: all of my life. Last year, I moved to New York,

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Speaker 4: as you know. We're New York buddies now. But Donald

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Speaker 4: Trump last night was in a town called Durant, Oklahoma.

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Speaker 4: This is in the southeast corner of Oklahoma. And I

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Speaker 4: can't even put into appropriate words how MAGA and how

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Speaker 4: rural this part of the country is, this part of

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Speaker 4: Oklahoma is. I'm sure he probably won that county by

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Speaker 4: Trump plus 40 or something just insanely red. So he's

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Speaker 4: out there campaigning in red states, but not like the

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Speaker 4: cities in red states, in rural town, like safe, safe,

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Speaker 4: safe Trump country. So that's really interesting to me because

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Speaker 4: in places like where I'm from, Oklahoma City, which is

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Speaker 4: a purple city, it's trending blue, but it's very purple.

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Speaker 4: I think it was 48, 49 in the 2024 presidential election,

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Speaker 4: Oklahoma County. This is anecdotal, Molly, but from my producer, Kylie,

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Speaker 4: whose family lives in rural Oklahoma, to a lot of

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Speaker 4: my friends, to a radicalization among people that are having

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Speaker 4: a visceral reaction to Trump. And it's such a radicalization

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Speaker 4: that people that Kylie and I know that were Republicans

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Speaker 4: two years ago are huge fans of Zoran Mamdani. I

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Speaker 4: don't I mean, yeah, it's now I don't know that

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Speaker 4: we're going to see red states turn blue. I'm not

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Speaker 4: going that excited. But do you remember at the end?

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Speaker 4: of 2024 when we had to wake up and it

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Speaker 4: was awful. And then just to pour salt in the wound,

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Speaker 4: they're like, and this area of New York even turned

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Speaker 4: redder and these areas turned redder and these areas turned redder.

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Speaker 4: And you're just like, oh, oh, oh, it was so painful.

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Speaker 4: I think we're going to see in these midterms, we're

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Speaker 4: going to see the bluing of places. We're going to

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Speaker 4: see the, the pinking of deeply red counties. And we're

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Speaker 4: going to see the bluing of like, I bet Oklahoma

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Speaker 4: city You know, that district, I hope, of course, they've

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Speaker 4: gerrymandered the shit.

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Speaker 1: Out of it.

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Speaker 4: But I think we're going to see a lot more

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Speaker 4: blue and and from the red turning to pink.

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Speaker 1: Why do you think what are the reasons? Because you

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Speaker 1: lived in Oklahoma City for a long time and you

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Speaker 1: really do know Oklahoma. You've lived there your whole life.

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Speaker 1: What are the reasons that people in a place like

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Speaker 1: Oklahoma City change their mind? I mean, like because that

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Speaker 1: is the real secret sauce to how Democrats win elections.

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Speaker 4: You know, I don't think they're changing their mind because

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Speaker 4: of anything the Democrats have pitched to them.

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Speaker 1: Right. No, I agree.

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Speaker 4: I think this is so objectively bad that it's making

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Speaker 4: people go, oh, my God. You know, the Republican Party

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Speaker 4: has been incredible with how ambitious they are to make

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Speaker 4: progress voting Republican as important to an individual as identifying

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Speaker 4: as a Christian or a follower of Jesus Christ. And

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Speaker 4: in Oklahoma, those two things, if you meet a churchgoer

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Speaker 4: in Oklahoma, you're meeting a Republican. If you meet a

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Speaker 4: Republican in Oklahoma, you're meeting a churchgoer. They are so enmeshed.

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Speaker 4: There is no separation of church and and political party.

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Speaker 4: And that's just swiped all through the Bible Belt. And

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Speaker 4: they've been really, really good at this. And what's so

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Speaker 4: terrifying about it, to tie in with the first story

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Speaker 4: you talked about with Anthropic, is this group of Republican

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Speaker 4: evangelicals is very culty. And no disrespect to any of

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Speaker 4: your Christian listeners that are Episcopalian or Methodist or Presbyterian

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Speaker 4: and don't attend some tongue-talking megachurch. But where I come from,

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Speaker 4: those evangelical churches are ubiquitous. They are powerful. And they

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Speaker 4: are highly, highly, highly politically engaged. This group of people

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Speaker 4: are very easy to co-opt. So Jerry Falwell Jr. was

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Speaker 4: able to be convinced by Michael Cohen, Trump's fixer, to

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Speaker 4: deliver the evangelical vote for Donald Trump. Without the evangelicals,

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Speaker 4: we would have never had Trump. Vladimir Putin injects himself

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Speaker 4: into the evangelical community in the United States of America today.

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Speaker 4: through the National Prayer Breakfast and through the NRA. The

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Speaker 4: NRA completely has co-opted the followers of Christ to where

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Speaker 4: they're like gods and guns, which, I mean, I'm not religious,

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Speaker 4: but I'm very familiar with the Jesus Christ character. He

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Speaker 4: doesn't strike me as a, you know, he's going to

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Speaker 4: holster up and pack heat around town. Well, now the

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Speaker 4: AI guys are co-opting the religious right. And I read

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Speaker 4: an article today that Silicon Valley invited all the megachurch

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Speaker 4: pastors out to California to talk to them about AI

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Speaker 4: and how good it was. And AI has a soul. Again,

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Speaker 4: these people are super easy to co-opt. Benny Johnson is

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Speaker 4: now influencing on Instagram that he asked Grok, he put

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Speaker 4: a picture up of all the gods, of all the religions.

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Speaker 4: And he asked Grok, eliminate all the fake gods. And

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Speaker 4: the only God that remained is Jesus. So not only

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Speaker 4: are they pitching us this product, they're going to lobotomize

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Speaker 4: it and try to propagandize and indoctrinate people at a

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Speaker 4: very young age, which is ding, ding, ding, ding, ding,

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Speaker 4: the evangelical church business model. Indoctrinate them young, mind control

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Speaker 4: them forever. And that's why this portion of our electorate

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Speaker 4: is the most co-opted, dangerous portion of our electorate. And

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Speaker 4: the tech oligarchs are onto it now, too. Hell, even

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Speaker 4: Benjamin Netanyahu invites all the megachurch pastors over there to

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Speaker 4: Israel and says, you know, this is where Jesus is

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Speaker 4: going to come for the rapture. You know, these people

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Speaker 4: are very easily co-opted.

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Speaker 1: When you were talking about the megachurches and the evangelicals

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Speaker 1: and Jerry Falwell Jr., It reminded me of season one

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Speaker 1: of this fiasco, which was a mere decade ago with

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Speaker 1: Jerry Falwell. And you remember Jerry Falwell and the junior

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Speaker 1: and the pool boy? Remember that?

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Speaker 4: Of course. One of my favorite stories of all time. Absolutely.

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Speaker 4: He is the president of Liberty University, also the alumni

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Speaker 4: of Natalie Harp, a.k.a. the Bunny Boiler. She's a Liberty

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Speaker 4: University alum. But at Liberty University, you cannot have one

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Speaker 4: sip of beer. You cannot hold hands. If you're dating somebody,

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Speaker 4: you cannot hold hands with that person. But meanwhile, the

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Speaker 4: president of the university, Jerry Falwell, has hired a pool

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Speaker 4: boy to bang his wife while he masturbates in the

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Speaker 4: corner and watches. And here's the thing. As crazy as

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Speaker 4: that sounds.

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Speaker 1: And that is known. I mean, that was, we read

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Speaker 1: the stories on it. It's reported. It's known. Go on.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: And this is the same situation as Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski,

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Speaker 4: and Big Titty Brian. You know, this is, this seems

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Speaker 4: to be a feature of the louder the evangelical Christian community.

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Speaker 4: The kinky or the secret. And I'm not, if Brian

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Speaker 4: wants to be trans, the husband of Christina, I support him.

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Speaker 4: I just cannot stand the hypocrisy because that hypocrisy is

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Speaker 4: dangerous and exacerbates suicide rates and an already high suicide

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Speaker 4: rate for the LGBTQ plus community as compared to the

430
00:25:58,040 --> 00:25:59,260
Speaker 4: heteronormative community.

431
00:25:59,960 --> 00:26:03,659
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the book, Not Today, Fascist.

432
00:26:03,900 --> 00:26:04,540
Speaker 4: I have it right here.

433
00:26:04,619 --> 00:26:05,260
Speaker 1: Let's see it.

434
00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:06,619
Speaker 2: Yes.

435
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:10,960
Speaker 1: So tell us how you decided to write this book

436
00:26:11,100 --> 00:26:12,640
Speaker 1: and give us a little bit about this.

437
00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:16,210
Speaker 4: So Molly, one thing that my friends would always ask

438
00:26:16,290 --> 00:26:18,170
Speaker 4: me that, and I've always had a lot of friends

439
00:26:18,210 --> 00:26:21,630
Speaker 4: that would live in New York or LA or Europe, Jennifer,

440
00:26:21,750 --> 00:26:24,890
Speaker 4: you live in a religious community. How is it that

441
00:26:24,970 --> 00:26:29,500
Speaker 4: people vote for Donald Trump? How is it? And for me,

442
00:26:29,540 --> 00:26:32,660
Speaker 4: it wasn't surprising at all. It didn't surprise me one

443
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:37,409
Speaker 4: bit that evangelicals turned out For Donald Trump, because if

444
00:26:37,450 --> 00:26:41,270
Speaker 4: you think about like a megachurch pastor, he's exactly like that.

445
00:26:41,450 --> 00:26:45,190
Speaker 4: He's a grifter. He's a liar. The swoopy hair, you know,

446
00:26:45,250 --> 00:26:49,679
Speaker 4: the bullshit artist schtick. But then I dove deeper into it.

447
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 4: And I remember growing up and I was an atheist

448
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:55,220
Speaker 4: raised by atheist progressive parents. And I remember I was

449
00:26:55,260 --> 00:26:57,660
Speaker 4: just fresh meat for everybody. Like, we've got to turn

450
00:26:57,700 --> 00:27:02,710
Speaker 4: her like evangelical Christians feel a real compulsion to proselytize

451
00:27:02,850 --> 00:27:05,430
Speaker 4: and convert people. It's like a real compulsion for them

452
00:27:05,490 --> 00:27:08,020
Speaker 4: to do it. And so you can imagine, I don't

453
00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:09,540
Speaker 4: go to church, I'm not interested in going to church.

454
00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:13,540
Speaker 4: So like, we got one here. So every time I

455
00:27:13,580 --> 00:27:15,760
Speaker 4: would ask them questions when they were trying to pitch

456
00:27:15,820 --> 00:27:19,580
Speaker 4: their faith to me, I would ask a question like, well,

457
00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:20,820
Speaker 4: how old do you think the earth is? And they

458
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:23,060
Speaker 4: would say, you know, 5,000 years old, 6,000 years old.

459
00:27:23,140 --> 00:27:25,550
Speaker 4: I said, what about, you know, dinosaurs? And they would say, well,

460
00:27:25,619 --> 00:27:30,710
Speaker 4: Satan hid the dinosaurs to question our, Satan buried the

461
00:27:30,750 --> 00:27:33,290
Speaker 4: dinosaur bones to question our faith. They had an answer

462
00:27:33,330 --> 00:27:33,990
Speaker 4: for everything.

463
00:27:34,010 --> 00:27:34,090
Speaker 1: What?

464
00:27:34,910 --> 00:27:38,280
Speaker 4: Crazy shit. This is normal in Bible Belt America, what

465
00:27:38,300 --> 00:27:44,820
Speaker 4: I'm telling you. And everybody is so incredibly shockingly religious.

466
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:49,139
Speaker 4: It's shocking how religious they are. But I started to

467
00:27:49,180 --> 00:27:56,149
Speaker 4: see a pattern that evangelicals are very authoritarian parents. Their

468
00:27:56,210 --> 00:28:00,189
Speaker 4: kids have no voice. It is the parent's way or

469
00:28:00,210 --> 00:28:06,480
Speaker 4: the highway, period. So authoritarian parenting... comes from authoritarian religions.

470
00:28:06,940 --> 00:28:10,350
Speaker 4: And that sets the psychological soil that these people feel

471
00:28:10,470 --> 00:28:14,389
Speaker 4: most comfortable in an authoritarian government. And the mistake that

472
00:28:14,430 --> 00:28:18,330
Speaker 4: we make a lot is we project our critically thinking brains. Well,

473
00:28:18,350 --> 00:28:20,050
Speaker 4: don't they want to be free? Don't they want to

474
00:28:20,090 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 4: be able to have their own opinions? They don't. It's

475
00:28:23,390 --> 00:28:27,220
Speaker 4: not comfortable for them. Donald Trump is comfortable for them.

476
00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:31,639
Speaker 4: As uncomfortable and unhinged as we feel at this stage

477
00:28:31,700 --> 00:28:36,420
Speaker 4: in this, For a lot of these deeply indoctrinated evangelicals,

478
00:28:37,330 --> 00:28:40,930
Speaker 4: he is comfortable because he's normal. Having a leader that's

479
00:28:40,970 --> 00:28:44,230
Speaker 4: a liar, that tells you don't believe your lying eyes,

480
00:28:44,290 --> 00:28:47,150
Speaker 4: who's stealing money from you like their megachurch pastors do,

481
00:28:47,990 --> 00:28:51,050
Speaker 4: and says, I alone can fix it. This is all

482
00:28:51,110 --> 00:28:53,950
Speaker 4: very normal for these people. Yeah.

483
00:28:54,840 --> 00:28:58,240
Speaker 1: And I think that, and you know, we've talked about

484
00:28:58,270 --> 00:29:01,710
Speaker 1: this before. You've mentioned this to me, how much you

485
00:29:01,750 --> 00:29:05,490
Speaker 1: felt like people tried to indoctrinate you growing up into

486
00:29:05,530 --> 00:29:08,190
Speaker 1: their churches and religions. And it must have been like

487
00:29:08,230 --> 00:29:10,670
Speaker 1: a little bit traumatic, right?

488
00:29:11,170 --> 00:29:14,430
Speaker 4: It is traumatic because at the end of the day,

489
00:29:16,060 --> 00:29:18,840
Speaker 4: you have this notion that you think a religious person

490
00:29:18,900 --> 00:29:22,760
Speaker 4: is good and therefore they are nice. Evangelical Christians are

491
00:29:22,820 --> 00:29:26,670
Speaker 4: not kind people. As a default setting, there might be

492
00:29:26,830 --> 00:29:29,730
Speaker 4: individuals within the movement that are kind, but as a

493
00:29:29,810 --> 00:29:33,709
Speaker 4: group of people, these are not kind people. They are

494
00:29:33,830 --> 00:29:39,230
Speaker 4: very judgmental, sanctimonious, stupid about the ways of the world,

495
00:29:39,310 --> 00:29:44,080
Speaker 4: but completely oblivious to their own stupidity and ignorance. They

496
00:29:44,380 --> 00:29:49,280
Speaker 4: are very controlling. They're very codependent. They believe who you

497
00:29:49,340 --> 00:29:52,860
Speaker 4: sleep with is their business. They believe what your children

498
00:29:52,900 --> 00:29:56,550
Speaker 4: do is their business. They believe what you think about

499
00:29:56,640 --> 00:30:02,750
Speaker 4: existentially is your business. And It's a very abusive faith.

500
00:30:02,850 --> 00:30:06,370
Speaker 4: It's a very abusive cult, if you will. And there

501
00:30:06,410 --> 00:30:09,820
Speaker 4: is a zero tolerance for criticism of it, which is

502
00:30:09,860 --> 00:30:13,260
Speaker 4: the telltale sign of a cult. Like if you're involved

503
00:30:13,300 --> 00:30:15,540
Speaker 4: in a group and you hear criticism of that group

504
00:30:15,580 --> 00:30:18,020
Speaker 4: and you freak out about that criticism, then you're probably

505
00:30:18,060 --> 00:30:21,900
Speaker 4: in a cult. Because for me as an atheist, anybody

506
00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:24,100
Speaker 4: can say whatever they want to say about atheists or

507
00:30:24,700 --> 00:30:27,739
Speaker 4: because there's not it's not a movement. It's just. It's

508
00:30:27,780 --> 00:30:31,080
Speaker 4: not an organization. So somebody could mouth off and write

509
00:30:31,140 --> 00:30:34,710
Speaker 4: multiple books about how atheists are terrible. It wouldn't faze

510
00:30:34,790 --> 00:30:39,290
Speaker 4: me in the least bit. But evangelical Christians are so

511
00:30:39,370 --> 00:30:44,130
Speaker 4: incredibly sensitive to criticism because their whole faith is built

512
00:30:44,190 --> 00:30:46,840
Speaker 4: on such a house of cards. I mean, these people

513
00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:52,720
Speaker 4: believe literally in the Noah's Ark story. They literally think

514
00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:53,180
Speaker 4: it happened.

515
00:30:53,620 --> 00:30:57,380
Speaker 1: Right. But there clearly are some deviations to this, right?

516
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:00,160
Speaker 1: Some of them do, some of them don't. I mean, obviously,

517
00:31:00,180 --> 00:31:02,390
Speaker 1: there are people who roll their eyes and go along

518
00:31:02,410 --> 00:31:05,470
Speaker 1: with it because their spouse likes it or because, I mean,

519
00:31:06,150 --> 00:31:08,450
Speaker 1: so let me ask you, which gets me to this

520
00:31:08,530 --> 00:31:11,050
Speaker 1: other idea. Some of these people are going to either

521
00:31:11,130 --> 00:31:14,030
Speaker 1: not vote because they're mad about diesel prices. I think

522
00:31:14,070 --> 00:31:17,950
Speaker 1: that's a more likely scenario. Or they're going to vote

523
00:31:18,020 --> 00:31:20,900
Speaker 1: for the Democrat. I think that's a less likely scenario,

524
00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:21,800
Speaker 1: but still possible.

525
00:31:22,900 --> 00:31:23,420
Speaker 2: What do.

526
00:31:26,290 --> 00:31:29,290
Speaker 1: You think the sort of mental gymnastics that gets a

527
00:31:29,330 --> 00:31:30,170
Speaker 1: person there is?

528
00:31:30,190 --> 00:31:34,370
Speaker 4: You know, for this type of voter, for the person

529
00:31:34,450 --> 00:31:39,170
Speaker 4: who has been deeply indoctrinated that Republicanism is Jesus and

530
00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:43,700
Speaker 4: Jesus is Republicanism and liberals are libtard demon, they're not

531
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:47,380
Speaker 4: going to vote for Democrats. They'll sit it out. They'll

532
00:31:47,420 --> 00:31:49,580
Speaker 4: sit it out. And that's good news for us because

533
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:52,070
Speaker 4: Donald Trump was able to get people off the couch.

534
00:31:52,350 --> 00:31:55,770
Speaker 4: Kamala Harris wasn't. Donald Trump got a lot of first

535
00:31:55,830 --> 00:31:59,570
Speaker 4: time voters. And so they won't bring themselves to vote

536
00:31:59,630 --> 00:32:04,150
Speaker 4: for a demon rat or vote for that libtard. But

537
00:32:04,510 --> 00:32:06,450
Speaker 4: I think they probably won't vote, which is what a

538
00:32:06,510 --> 00:32:09,330
Speaker 4: lot of them probably hadn't before. But what's so insidious

539
00:32:09,410 --> 00:32:13,770
Speaker 4: about the Republicans party's approach in injecting themselves into the

540
00:32:13,890 --> 00:32:17,090
Speaker 4: evangelical church is they know that one of the best

541
00:32:17,150 --> 00:32:21,590
Speaker 4: indicators of voting frequency is church attendance. And so a

542
00:32:21,650 --> 00:32:25,010
Speaker 4: lot of these people that I know in red states

543
00:32:25,610 --> 00:32:30,050
Speaker 4: will continue to go vote for Republicans, even though he

544
00:32:30,090 --> 00:32:33,470
Speaker 4: has been an absolute failure. And even though people in

545
00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:36,080
Speaker 4: my state of Oklahoma, which is a bottom 10 state,

546
00:32:36,190 --> 00:32:40,380
Speaker 4: education ranked 50th, 50th place for women to live, they'll

547
00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:42,560
Speaker 4: complain about the state. But if you live in a

548
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:46,240
Speaker 4: red state and it's a red state supermajority, and you

549
00:32:46,280 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 4: don't like it, the only political party you can blame

550
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:52,600
Speaker 4: are Republicans. That's it, because the Democrats have no power

551
00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:57,640
Speaker 4: in that state. But despite that, the reputational brand damage

552
00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:02,030
Speaker 4: that the Republican Party has done via churches, they inject.

553
00:33:02,050 --> 00:33:03,970
Speaker 4: And I remember in the 80s, long before Trump was

554
00:33:03,990 --> 00:33:08,210
Speaker 4: a political player, I remember my friends being so attached

555
00:33:08,250 --> 00:33:12,670
Speaker 4: to the Republican Party, spiritually attached to it. They have

556
00:33:12,690 --> 00:33:16,620
Speaker 4: done such reputational brand damage to the Democratic brand in

557
00:33:16,780 --> 00:33:20,620
Speaker 4: the Bible Belt. These people will never, ever vote for

558
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:21,180
Speaker 4: a Democrat.

559
00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:23,160
Speaker 1: Yeah.

560
00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:24,160
Speaker 4: That's depressing.

561
00:33:25,860 --> 00:33:29,350
Speaker 1: It's a little depressing. But I think you're right. But,

562
00:33:29,530 --> 00:33:33,730
Speaker 1: I mean, I do think you're right. Jennifer, will you

563
00:33:33,790 --> 00:33:36,150
Speaker 1: please come back and could we just do more stuff

564
00:33:36,230 --> 00:33:37,870
Speaker 1: and hang out? Yes, yes.

565
00:33:37,890 --> 00:33:39,410
Speaker 4: You know, I always love you so much, Mollie.

566
00:33:46,990 --> 00:33:50,090
Speaker 1: Welcome, welcome, Adam Hamilton.

567
00:33:50,770 --> 00:33:52,630
Speaker 5: Molly, I am so pleased to be with you today.

568
00:33:52,650 --> 00:33:53,390
Speaker 5: Thank you so much.

569
00:33:53,730 --> 00:33:56,459
Speaker 1: So I was like, I got to get him. Poor Jesse,

570
00:33:56,480 --> 00:33:58,260
Speaker 1: my producer. I'm like, we have to get him. And

571
00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,520
Speaker 1: he was like, it's not even in play. But the

572
00:34:01,580 --> 00:34:05,100
Speaker 1: reason why I thought that it could be, even before

573
00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:08,480
Speaker 1: we started seeing the numbers shift, is because you are

574
00:34:08,500 --> 00:34:12,410
Speaker 1: a unique candidate for your state. Will you explain to

575
00:34:12,510 --> 00:34:12,950
Speaker 1: us why?

576
00:34:12,969 --> 00:34:13,750
Speaker 3: Sure, sure.

577
00:34:14,380 --> 00:34:17,589
Speaker 5: Well, probably several reasons, but one, I pastor a large

578
00:34:17,620 --> 00:34:20,450
Speaker 5: church in the state and that I've written like 30

579
00:34:20,450 --> 00:34:23,150
Speaker 5: or 35 books and they're used by Sunday school classes

580
00:34:23,190 --> 00:34:25,750
Speaker 5: and churches across the state. And so, and I'm a mainline,

581
00:34:26,110 --> 00:34:28,110
Speaker 5: you know, church, largest United Methodist church in the country.

582
00:34:28,150 --> 00:34:30,930
Speaker 5: But so when I traveled across the state to deeply

583
00:34:31,030 --> 00:34:33,750
Speaker 5: red areas, I show up in the town and people

584
00:34:33,790 --> 00:34:35,950
Speaker 5: come up to me like, Pastor Adam, you've been teaching

585
00:34:35,969 --> 00:34:37,850
Speaker 5: my Sunday school class for the last 20 years because

586
00:34:37,870 --> 00:34:39,469
Speaker 5: they use all my books and videos that go along

587
00:34:39,489 --> 00:34:41,839
Speaker 5: with it. So I can't go anywhere across the state

588
00:34:41,860 --> 00:34:44,160
Speaker 5: without people coming up and they already knew who I was.

589
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:46,020
Speaker 5: They know what I stand for. They know the kind

590
00:34:46,060 --> 00:34:48,089
Speaker 5: of person I am. And a lot of them have said,

591
00:34:48,110 --> 00:34:50,290
Speaker 5: you know what? I've never voted for a Democrat before,

592
00:34:50,469 --> 00:34:53,230
Speaker 5: but I'm voting for you. And then they mobilize their friends.

593
00:34:53,270 --> 00:34:55,169
Speaker 5: They tell other friends, you know, I know this guy.

594
00:34:55,410 --> 00:34:58,630
Speaker 5: I've read 20 of his books. He deeply cares about people.

595
00:34:59,330 --> 00:35:02,200
Speaker 5: He's a thoughtful person. He cares about making the world

596
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:04,180
Speaker 5: a better place. And so when they tell their friends,

597
00:35:04,239 --> 00:35:06,880
Speaker 5: then they get excited about it too. And so Yeah,

598
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:09,120
Speaker 5: so that's one of the pieces. And another is just

599
00:35:09,380 --> 00:35:11,640
Speaker 5: we've been really focused on serving the community and the world,

600
00:35:11,700 --> 00:35:13,049
Speaker 5: and people know that about our church.

601
00:35:13,610 --> 00:35:16,370
Speaker 3: So anyway, it's fun.

602
00:35:16,690 --> 00:35:19,390
Speaker 5: And people say like, well, yeah, wait a minute. You're

603
00:35:19,410 --> 00:35:21,130
Speaker 5: not really a politician.

604
00:35:21,270 --> 00:35:24,170
Speaker 3: You're not a lawyer. You didn't serve your life as

605
00:35:24,190 --> 00:35:24,930
Speaker 3: a politician. I'm like, no.

606
00:35:25,690 --> 00:35:29,050
Speaker 5: I spent 40 years trying to care for people, listening,

607
00:35:29,330 --> 00:35:30,910
Speaker 5: caring for them, and trying to inspire people to go

608
00:35:30,950 --> 00:35:33,310
Speaker 5: out and live a life that changes the world in.

609
00:35:33,270 --> 00:35:33,810
Speaker 3: A positive way.

610
00:35:34,810 --> 00:35:38,250
Speaker 1: And one of the things you did, you were willing

611
00:35:38,410 --> 00:35:39,570
Speaker 1: to accept gay marriage.

612
00:35:39,969 --> 00:35:41,669
Speaker 3: Would you talk about that? Sure.

613
00:35:42,130 --> 00:35:44,029
Speaker 5: So, you know, I've been a pastor at the church

614
00:35:44,110 --> 00:35:46,420
Speaker 5: I'm serving for 36 years. From the very beginning, I

615
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:48,080
Speaker 5: would have people who were coming who would be gay

616
00:35:48,140 --> 00:35:51,219
Speaker 5: or lesbian and say, look, I love you and I love,

617
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:53,600
Speaker 5: you know, how you preach. And is it safe for

618
00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:55,259
Speaker 5: me to be at this church? And my answer was always,

619
00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:58,450
Speaker 5: of course, I love you. You know, and my views

620
00:35:58,650 --> 00:36:00,330
Speaker 5: changed over a long period of time. I would say

621
00:36:00,370 --> 00:36:02,650
Speaker 5: like 25 or 30 years ago, my views were changing.

622
00:36:03,450 --> 00:36:05,690
Speaker 5: And then there came a place where, again, I've studied

623
00:36:05,710 --> 00:36:08,640
Speaker 5: the scriptures probably 20,000 hours. I have two degrees in

624
00:36:08,680 --> 00:36:11,379
Speaker 5: theology and in Bible. I read the Bible every day.

625
00:36:12,020 --> 00:36:13,660
Speaker 5: But part of what you come to know the longer

626
00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:16,379
Speaker 5: you study scripture is that scripture is contextual. It's written

627
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:19,700
Speaker 5: in a particular historical and cultural context. It's shaped by

628
00:36:19,739 --> 00:36:23,420
Speaker 5: that context and in response to it. And so, you know,

629
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:25,219
Speaker 5: there came a point in time where I had so

630
00:36:25,239 --> 00:36:26,920
Speaker 5: many different people who would come to me who were

631
00:36:27,300 --> 00:36:29,859
Speaker 5: part of our congregation. Some I baptize as babies. They'd say,

632
00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:31,989
Speaker 5: you know, at 13 or 14. you know, I think

633
00:36:32,030 --> 00:36:33,360
Speaker 5: I'm gay pastor. I don't want you to still love me.

634
00:36:33,370 --> 00:36:35,110
Speaker 5: And like, there's no question. I'm going to still love you.

635
00:36:35,790 --> 00:36:38,370
Speaker 5: And that led me listening actually to a lot of

636
00:36:38,390 --> 00:36:40,310
Speaker 5: people led me to change my own views and to say,

637
00:36:40,330 --> 00:36:43,210
Speaker 5: I really, you know, I look at gay, lesbian people.

638
00:36:43,250 --> 00:36:45,640
Speaker 5: I look at everybody else. These are God's dearly loved children.

639
00:36:45,780 --> 00:36:49,509
Speaker 5: They have a desire to be in relationship with somebody else. And, um,

640
00:36:49,820 --> 00:36:51,580
Speaker 5: and I don't think God sees them differently than God

641
00:36:51,620 --> 00:36:52,680
Speaker 5: sees somebody like me.

642
00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:54,600
Speaker 3: You know, I love being married to my wife. We've

643
00:36:54,620 --> 00:36:55,200
Speaker 3: been married for 44 years.

644
00:36:55,219 --> 00:36:59,140
Speaker 5: And, um, And I know that other people have a

645
00:36:59,180 --> 00:37:01,480
Speaker 5: deep longing to share that kind of relationship with somebody

646
00:37:01,500 --> 00:37:04,600
Speaker 5: of the same gender. And so it was probably 2004

647
00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:07,020
Speaker 5: when I preached and said, so 21 years ago, 22

648
00:37:07,020 --> 00:37:09,620
Speaker 5: years ago, I said to our congregation, my views have

649
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:13,239
Speaker 5: changed on this. And I understand that yours might be

650
00:37:13,260 --> 00:37:13,859
Speaker 5: in a different place.

651
00:37:13,900 --> 00:37:14,340
Speaker 3: It's okay.

652
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:15,400
Speaker 5: But I just want you to know that this is

653
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:18,940
Speaker 5: how I see and read and understand scripture. And that

654
00:37:18,980 --> 00:37:21,460
Speaker 5: led to some people leaving the church and other people

655
00:37:21,500 --> 00:37:23,460
Speaker 5: joining the church and saying, this is exactly the kind

656
00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:25,779
Speaker 5: of church I'm looking for, a place that's serious about

657
00:37:25,820 --> 00:37:26,799
Speaker 5: our faith, about scripture.

658
00:37:27,550 --> 00:37:29,970
Speaker 3: And welcomes and loves all of God's children.

659
00:37:30,930 --> 00:37:34,950
Speaker 1: Were you scared when you did that? Oh, yeah. Because, yeah,

660
00:37:34,989 --> 00:37:38,560
Speaker 1: I mean, a church, you don't exist without people in it.

661
00:37:38,650 --> 00:37:41,260
Speaker 1: Were you worried that you were going to just alienate

662
00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:41,980
Speaker 1: so many people?

663
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:42,680
Speaker 3: I was.

664
00:37:42,700 --> 00:37:44,440
Speaker 5: I think, you know, for a long period of time, though,

665
00:37:44,460 --> 00:37:46,620
Speaker 5: people had kind of known that I was, you know,

666
00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:48,799
Speaker 5: we were always going to be a place that welcomed people,

667
00:37:48,860 --> 00:37:52,620
Speaker 5: baptized the children of gay and lesbian couples. But, yeah,

668
00:37:53,100 --> 00:37:54,860
Speaker 5: I was worried, you know, that how many people, and

669
00:37:55,060 --> 00:37:57,220
Speaker 5: I had at one point, I had somebody say to me,

670
00:37:57,230 --> 00:37:58,810
Speaker 5: you know, well, you don't understand, Adam.

671
00:37:58,870 --> 00:38:02,350
Speaker 3: The silent majority is not with you. Wow. Well, maybe.

672
00:38:02,450 --> 00:38:02,790
Speaker 3: I don't know.

673
00:38:02,810 --> 00:38:05,670
Speaker 5: I guess I'll be really disappointed if that's the case.

674
00:38:06,670 --> 00:38:09,650
Speaker 5: And so we did a vote. This was back in

675
00:38:09,750 --> 00:38:11,890
Speaker 5: like 2016. So this is 10 years later, 12 years later.

676
00:38:12,610 --> 00:38:15,040
Speaker 5: And we had a meeting in the church where I said, look,

677
00:38:15,060 --> 00:38:16,940
Speaker 5: I want you to understand. Here's how I read scripture.

678
00:38:16,980 --> 00:38:20,040
Speaker 5: Here's how I think about it. It's okay if you disagree.

679
00:38:20,580 --> 00:38:21,719
Speaker 5: You can be a part of the church and we

680
00:38:21,739 --> 00:38:24,700
Speaker 5: can disagree. But we have to agree we're going to

681
00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:27,140
Speaker 5: love and welcome everybody. This is like, if they, if

682
00:38:27,180 --> 00:38:28,840
Speaker 5: you can't do that, then this is probably not the

683
00:38:28,860 --> 00:38:30,779
Speaker 5: right church for you. But, but there's a place for

684
00:38:30,820 --> 00:38:33,320
Speaker 5: all of us, you know, because if somebody told me

685
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:35,180
Speaker 5: 25 years ago or 30 years ago, I hope I

686
00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:37,120
Speaker 5: would hold the views I hold today. I would have

687
00:38:37,140 --> 00:38:39,120
Speaker 5: thought no way, you know, it's, it's, we change. We're

688
00:38:39,180 --> 00:38:41,740
Speaker 5: all in, you know, we're all growing and changing. And

689
00:38:41,989 --> 00:38:43,770
Speaker 5: so I said, everybody's welcome here. But I thought, well,

690
00:38:43,790 --> 00:38:45,790
Speaker 5: let's just find out. And I was kind of nervous.

691
00:38:45,830 --> 00:38:47,589
Speaker 5: I remember this meeting we had, I think it was

692
00:38:47,610 --> 00:38:49,609
Speaker 5: like 1600 people. I can't remember, but something like that

693
00:38:49,650 --> 00:38:52,730
Speaker 5: who came to this church meeting. And I walked through,

694
00:38:52,770 --> 00:38:55,010
Speaker 5: you know, the, various ways that people look at scripture

695
00:38:55,030 --> 00:38:57,150
Speaker 5: and look at the, at the question of, of how we,

696
00:38:57,469 --> 00:39:00,790
Speaker 5: you know, how we understand human sexuality. And then I said, okay,

697
00:39:00,810 --> 00:39:02,270
Speaker 5: it's time for you to vote, get out your phones.

698
00:39:02,450 --> 00:39:04,210
Speaker 5: And I just want to see where are you? And

699
00:39:04,250 --> 00:39:07,049
Speaker 5: we had four categories. One were, uh, you know, people

700
00:39:07,090 --> 00:39:08,930
Speaker 5: who said, I can't be in a church with anybody

701
00:39:08,969 --> 00:39:11,549
Speaker 5: who doesn't fully welcome gay and lesbian people. And then

702
00:39:11,570 --> 00:39:12,980
Speaker 5: on the other end where people would say, I can't

703
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:14,680
Speaker 5: be in a church with anybody who does welcome gay

704
00:39:14,700 --> 00:39:16,319
Speaker 5: and lesbian people in gay marriage. I can't be in

705
00:39:16,340 --> 00:39:19,259
Speaker 5: the same church with people like that. And then there was, uh,

706
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:21,680
Speaker 5: I don't agree with this, but I can stay in

707
00:39:21,700 --> 00:39:23,529
Speaker 5: the same church. Or I do agree with the pastor,

708
00:39:23,550 --> 00:39:24,850
Speaker 5: you know, not pastor Adam, but I agree that we

709
00:39:24,870 --> 00:39:26,940
Speaker 5: can walk and get as many people and marriages, same

710
00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:29,739
Speaker 5: sex marriages. And I stood there waiting for the numbers

711
00:39:29,780 --> 00:39:31,980
Speaker 5: to come in. Cause I thought, depending on what comes

712
00:39:32,020 --> 00:39:33,060
Speaker 5: up and it was going to be shown on the

713
00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:35,680
Speaker 5: big screen. And I thought, depending on what these answers are,

714
00:39:35,700 --> 00:39:38,620
Speaker 5: I might not have a job tomorrow. And, or I might,

715
00:39:38,820 --> 00:39:40,819
Speaker 5: I might feel like I need to leave, you know, myself.

716
00:39:40,890 --> 00:39:42,850
Speaker 5: And anyway, it came in and I don't remember the

717
00:39:42,870 --> 00:39:45,610
Speaker 5: exact numbers, but it was like 90, 92% of the

718
00:39:45,650 --> 00:39:47,170
Speaker 5: people said I can be in a church with people

719
00:39:47,210 --> 00:39:50,359
Speaker 5: who welcome gay and lesbian people and welcome same-sex marriage.

720
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:52,060
Speaker 5: And the vast majority of those were people who said,

721
00:39:52,100 --> 00:39:54,920
Speaker 5: that's how I see the scriptures and people too, is

722
00:39:54,940 --> 00:39:56,960
Speaker 5: they were like, I'm good with same-sex marriage.

723
00:39:57,100 --> 00:39:57,600
Speaker 3: I understand.

724
00:39:57,620 --> 00:40:00,739
Speaker 5: And I welcome everybody. And I'm good with us allowing

725
00:40:00,780 --> 00:40:02,690
Speaker 5: same-sex marriage to happen. So that just told me the

726
00:40:02,810 --> 00:40:06,150
Speaker 5: asylum majority was actually not on the other side. The

727
00:40:06,190 --> 00:40:09,170
Speaker 5: vast majority were there, but we'd already made that shift

728
00:40:09,430 --> 00:40:12,870
Speaker 5: sometime before. So I'm really proud of our congregation. You'll

729
00:40:12,910 --> 00:40:14,609
Speaker 5: talk to a lot of people who say, I used

730
00:40:14,650 --> 00:40:17,350
Speaker 5: to hold more conservative views And my views changed over

731
00:40:17,390 --> 00:40:20,170
Speaker 5: time as I studied scripture, as I came to understand people. And,

732
00:40:20,190 --> 00:40:23,450
Speaker 5: you know, resurrection is, I think, the largest church. There

733
00:40:23,469 --> 00:40:26,820
Speaker 5: are thousands of churches in America that welcome and allow

734
00:40:26,860 --> 00:40:30,100
Speaker 5: for same-sex marriage. But it's the largest, I think, of

735
00:40:30,160 --> 00:40:33,279
Speaker 5: those churches. And it's one of the things of many

736
00:40:33,300 --> 00:40:36,040
Speaker 5: that I'm proud of, of the congregation, that their welcome

737
00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:36,480
Speaker 5: is wide.

738
00:40:36,500 --> 00:40:38,960
Speaker 3: And there's room for people who are more conservative. I mean,

739
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:40,739
Speaker 3: it's not like, you know, so anyway.

740
00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:44,500
Speaker 1: And it's a humongous church, right? I mean, explain to

741
00:40:44,660 --> 00:40:46,280
Speaker 1: us how big it is for the state.

742
00:40:46,790 --> 00:40:48,310
Speaker 3: Sure. It's 24,000 members.

743
00:40:48,989 --> 00:40:52,480
Speaker 5: And about 9,000 are as new as we can tell,

744
00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:56,040
Speaker 5: about 9,000 are Democrats, 9,000 are Republicans, 6,000 are independents.

745
00:40:56,500 --> 00:40:59,480
Speaker 5: So it's this beautiful mix of people. And they generally

746
00:40:59,500 --> 00:41:01,860
Speaker 5: are centrist. So we don't have the folks who are

747
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:03,380
Speaker 5: on the far extremes, but a lot of people who

748
00:41:03,420 --> 00:41:05,319
Speaker 5: are kind of in the middle, some lean further right,

749
00:41:05,340 --> 00:41:07,550
Speaker 5: some lean further left. And they figured out how to

750
00:41:07,590 --> 00:41:10,030
Speaker 5: love each other despite their differences, and maybe even because

751
00:41:10,050 --> 00:41:12,969
Speaker 5: of their differences, which is just a beautiful picture of

752
00:41:13,150 --> 00:41:15,150
Speaker 5: what we need in our country today. We need people

753
00:41:15,950 --> 00:41:17,830
Speaker 5: who can say, I disagree with you, but I still

754
00:41:17,850 --> 00:41:20,890
Speaker 5: love you. And you're still my brother, my sister. And

755
00:41:20,930 --> 00:41:22,359
Speaker 5: let's talk about it. I want to hear more about

756
00:41:22,380 --> 00:41:25,480
Speaker 5: where you're coming from. So that's the church and relentless

757
00:41:25,520 --> 00:41:27,280
Speaker 5: in its service to the community. So we're the largest

758
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:30,640
Speaker 5: source of books for low-income kids. We give away 65,000

759
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:33,560
Speaker 5: books through our bookmobile every year. We're the largest source

760
00:41:33,739 --> 00:41:36,200
Speaker 5: of food outside of the community food bank that serves

761
00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:39,060
Speaker 5: 28 counties. We're the largest source of beds for kids

762
00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:44,020
Speaker 5: who needed beds. We invested $ 10 million in the low-income

763
00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:44,979
Speaker 5: schools in Kansas City.

764
00:41:45,010 --> 00:41:45,700
Speaker 3: Build playgrounds.

765
00:41:46,230 --> 00:41:49,230
Speaker 5: Rehab them, and we have 100,000 volunteer hours serving there,

766
00:41:49,730 --> 00:41:51,830
Speaker 5: teaching kids how to read and reading with them, and

767
00:41:51,890 --> 00:41:52,330
Speaker 5: so much more.

768
00:41:52,350 --> 00:41:53,610
Speaker 3: I mean, that's just scratching the surface.

769
00:41:53,650 --> 00:41:57,540
Speaker 5: And again, these are people who, they're very serious about

770
00:41:58,380 --> 00:42:00,259
Speaker 5: what Jesus called the two great commandments, love God with

771
00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:02,020
Speaker 5: all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbors,

772
00:42:02,040 --> 00:42:05,700
Speaker 5: you'll love yourself. They're followers of Jesus who take that seriously,

773
00:42:06,380 --> 00:42:08,410
Speaker 5: and they show grace and mercy to people, and they're

774
00:42:08,489 --> 00:42:10,930
Speaker 5: serious about helping our community look like the kingdom of God.

775
00:42:10,969 --> 00:42:12,969
Speaker 5: That is what the world is supposed to look like.

776
00:42:13,150 --> 00:42:16,049
Speaker 5: So it's a pretty awesome place. And I'm so proud

777
00:42:16,070 --> 00:42:17,430
Speaker 5: of them, which is what made it really hard to

778
00:42:17,469 --> 00:42:20,670
Speaker 5: decide to run for the Senate, to be honest with you. Is,

779
00:42:21,070 --> 00:42:23,610
Speaker 5: you know, I spent 36 years with them and I

780
00:42:23,710 --> 00:42:25,879
Speaker 5: love them so much. And I'm not going to leave.

781
00:42:25,910 --> 00:42:27,590
Speaker 5: Even if I get elected, I'll still, you know, spend

782
00:42:27,640 --> 00:42:30,060
Speaker 5: some time there at the church. But it made it

783
00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:33,180
Speaker 5: really hard, you know, to think about answering a different kind.

784
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:33,960
Speaker 3: Of call at this moment.

785
00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:35,660
Speaker 1: So why did you run?

786
00:42:36,400 --> 00:42:37,859
Speaker 5: I felt like there were so many things that happened

787
00:42:37,880 --> 00:42:40,720
Speaker 5: in the last year and a half that were not normal.

788
00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:43,480
Speaker 5: They were, I would say, indecent, immoral.

789
00:42:43,540 --> 00:42:43,739
Speaker 4: Yeah.

790
00:42:44,910 --> 00:42:47,010
Speaker 5: An assault on the values that I preached and taught.

791
00:42:49,890 --> 00:42:51,330
Speaker 5: People have asked me like, what was the one thing?

792
00:42:51,350 --> 00:42:52,710
Speaker 5: And I'm like, there wasn't one thing. It was death

793
00:42:52,730 --> 00:42:54,570
Speaker 5: by a thousand cuts. I'd watch the evening news and

794
00:42:54,590 --> 00:42:58,069
Speaker 5: I'd just go, that's going to hurt people. And some

795
00:42:58,090 --> 00:43:00,080
Speaker 5: things were just outrageous. Like we're going to send troops

796
00:43:00,100 --> 00:43:03,779
Speaker 5: to take over Greenland. But sometimes it was criticizing our

797
00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:07,500
Speaker 5: allies and belittling people, whether it was the press or

798
00:43:07,540 --> 00:43:10,219
Speaker 5: it was heads of state of other countries. or people

799
00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:12,640
Speaker 5: in the, you know, in one's own political party that

800
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:15,700
Speaker 5: didn't agree with the, you know, with the president. And,

801
00:43:16,020 --> 00:43:18,319
Speaker 5: you know, we gutted the National Institutes of Health, you know,

802
00:43:18,360 --> 00:43:20,759
Speaker 5: doing research on, you know, on medical things that are

803
00:43:20,780 --> 00:43:24,270
Speaker 5: going to be critical to our future. Or, you know,

804
00:43:24,290 --> 00:43:27,370
Speaker 5: I mean, changing, you know, from the Department of Defense

805
00:43:27,410 --> 00:43:29,569
Speaker 5: to the Department of War. And I'm like, you know,

806
00:43:29,610 --> 00:43:31,910
Speaker 5: and then that, you know, anyway, there's just so many

807
00:43:31,930 --> 00:43:32,649
Speaker 5: of those kind of things.

808
00:43:32,550 --> 00:43:33,050
Speaker 3: That would happen.

809
00:43:33,070 --> 00:43:36,900
Speaker 5: The way the quotas for, you know, for arresting um,

810
00:43:37,180 --> 00:43:38,890
Speaker 5: you know, immigrants. And I'm like, I believe in a

811
00:43:38,910 --> 00:43:41,350
Speaker 5: strong border. I mean, I, I think, you know, strong border.

812
00:43:41,370 --> 00:43:43,009
Speaker 5: I think we need to be really careful. I, I

813
00:43:43,050 --> 00:43:45,469
Speaker 5: don't want to, you know, eliminate ice. I think they

814
00:43:45,489 --> 00:43:47,450
Speaker 5: were formed after nine 11 to make sure people didn't

815
00:43:47,469 --> 00:43:50,110
Speaker 5: fly planes into buildings. I think that's really good. But

816
00:43:50,150 --> 00:43:52,290
Speaker 5: what we're doing today is we're arresting preschool teachers and

817
00:43:52,320 --> 00:43:55,620
Speaker 5: we're arresting, you know, we're, we're communities where people have

818
00:43:55,640 --> 00:43:57,859
Speaker 5: been there for years and years and years. And we've

819
00:43:57,900 --> 00:43:59,940
Speaker 5: just become this thing. We're becoming this thing that is

820
00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:01,540
Speaker 5: not who we are as Americans. And when I think

821
00:44:01,580 --> 00:44:04,480
Speaker 5: about making America great, these are not the values that

822
00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:07,960
Speaker 5: make America great. And so, you know, I kept saying

823
00:44:07,980 --> 00:44:10,279
Speaker 5: to my wife, somebody's got to do something. And people

824
00:44:10,340 --> 00:44:12,280
Speaker 5: kept saying, Adam, you know, you're a strange enough candidate

825
00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:15,870
Speaker 5: that if you ran, you might actually win because people

826
00:44:15,910 --> 00:44:17,870
Speaker 5: are looking for somebody who cares, people are looking for

827
00:44:17,890 --> 00:44:21,069
Speaker 5: somebody with authenticity, somebody who listens, somebody who works to

828
00:44:21,090 --> 00:44:24,989
Speaker 5: solve problems, somebody who has empathy. And after about a

829
00:44:25,010 --> 00:44:27,270
Speaker 5: year and a half of struggling with it, my wife

830
00:44:27,310 --> 00:44:29,250
Speaker 5: and I both said, okay, we're willing to jump in.

831
00:44:30,540 --> 00:44:32,239
Speaker 5: And we'll see what the voters say. And it was

832
00:44:32,340 --> 00:44:34,680
Speaker 5: never our ambition. It was never our, like, this was

833
00:44:34,719 --> 00:44:37,140
Speaker 5: our career goal was to become a senator. We didn't

834
00:44:37,180 --> 00:44:39,509
Speaker 5: want this, but we did want change. We want to

835
00:44:39,530 --> 00:44:42,170
Speaker 5: leave a better country for our granddaughter and for future generations.

836
00:44:42,820 --> 00:44:47,549
Speaker 1: Roger Marshall has, again, is a real red state candidate, right?

837
00:44:47,610 --> 00:44:50,969
Speaker 1: Not has not really ultimately turns out to not be

838
00:44:51,030 --> 00:44:53,610
Speaker 1: ready for a public for more of a national stage.

839
00:44:53,650 --> 00:44:56,370
Speaker 1: And we find this out because he has done this

840
00:44:56,450 --> 00:45:00,250
Speaker 1: really aggressive collection when he was a gynecologist in a

841
00:45:00,310 --> 00:45:04,450
Speaker 1: poor area. He did these aggressive collections, which ended up in,

842
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:08,930
Speaker 1: I think, 81 of his patients being jailed. And he's

843
00:45:09,230 --> 00:45:13,000
Speaker 1: very mad that this story came out and that there

844
00:45:13,020 --> 00:45:13,740
Speaker 1: are ads.

845
00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:16,520
Speaker 5: So there were 700 people that were sued who were

846
00:45:16,620 --> 00:45:19,920
Speaker 5: either late in making their payments or had not paid. And,

847
00:45:19,940 --> 00:45:21,560
Speaker 5: you know, many of these, most of these were people

848
00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:24,739
Speaker 5: in a more, you know, in a struggling financially. And

849
00:45:25,140 --> 00:45:28,160
Speaker 5: of those 700 that were sued by his personal lawyers,

850
00:45:28,180 --> 00:45:29,690
Speaker 5: not by the collection agency, but I think by his

851
00:45:29,710 --> 00:45:31,290
Speaker 5: personal lawyers, of the 700 who were sued, 81 were arrested.

852
00:45:33,300 --> 00:45:35,600
Speaker 5: And I don't know how many spent time in jail.

853
00:45:35,739 --> 00:45:37,700
Speaker 5: I believe it was at least 10, maybe more than that,

854
00:45:37,719 --> 00:45:41,260
Speaker 5: who actually were in jail more than just getting processed.

855
00:45:42,260 --> 00:45:45,140
Speaker 5: And here's what I think about that. First of all,

856
00:45:46,070 --> 00:45:47,890
Speaker 5: when I talk to doctors, we have hundreds of doctors

857
00:45:48,110 --> 00:45:50,570
Speaker 5: that I know, hundreds in our congregation, people in the community,

858
00:45:50,850 --> 00:45:53,089
Speaker 5: events I do. I'm not yet met a doctor who

859
00:45:53,130 --> 00:45:55,029
Speaker 5: says that they've done that. You know, they come up

860
00:45:55,070 --> 00:45:57,069
Speaker 5: and say, this is not what we do. It's not

861
00:45:57,110 --> 00:45:58,509
Speaker 5: how it works, you know. you're not going to have

862
00:45:58,530 --> 00:46:01,410
Speaker 5: people arrested for lack of payment or failing to show

863
00:46:01,469 --> 00:46:04,190
Speaker 5: up for their court hearing. This is not, our job

864
00:46:04,210 --> 00:46:06,830
Speaker 5: is to do no harm. And so, and you know,

865
00:46:06,910 --> 00:46:08,569
Speaker 5: one of those stories, which has been one of the

866
00:46:08,670 --> 00:46:11,390
Speaker 5: ads is, you know, a woman who's eight months pregnant

867
00:46:11,910 --> 00:46:14,779
Speaker 5: and being arrested because she missed her payment. And, you know,

868
00:46:14,930 --> 00:46:16,419
Speaker 5: I didn't show up for a court date or something.

869
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:19,219
Speaker 5: She was, she was being arrested and she had to

870
00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:22,080
Speaker 5: ask the officer, you know, please don't handcuff me in

871
00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:22,840
Speaker 5: front of my children.

872
00:46:23,820 --> 00:46:25,740
Speaker 3: It's just sad. You know, it's just like, Okay.

873
00:46:25,820 --> 00:46:27,719
Speaker 5: And if you found out that was happening, so even

874
00:46:27,760 --> 00:46:29,180
Speaker 5: if you say, well, I didn't, I wasn't the one

875
00:46:29,219 --> 00:46:29,520
Speaker 5: in person.

876
00:46:29,540 --> 00:46:30,420
Speaker 3: I told them to go arrest them.

877
00:46:30,900 --> 00:46:32,680
Speaker 5: If you find that it's happening, tell them to stop,

878
00:46:33,219 --> 00:46:34,720
Speaker 5: you know, tell them to stop. But here's the thing

879
00:46:34,950 --> 00:46:38,589
Speaker 5: for me, the bigger issue, isn't that the bigger issue

880
00:46:38,650 --> 00:46:41,930
Speaker 5: is you go to Washington DC and you decide to

881
00:46:42,210 --> 00:46:45,689
Speaker 5: not include the subsidies in the one big, beautiful bill

882
00:46:45,969 --> 00:46:47,750
Speaker 5: that were part of the affordable care act for people

883
00:46:47,790 --> 00:46:50,810
Speaker 5: who are working. These are not people who are, you know, unemployed.

884
00:46:50,830 --> 00:46:52,570
Speaker 5: These are people who are working and they want to

885
00:46:52,610 --> 00:46:54,870
Speaker 5: have health insurance and they're paying for health insurance, but

886
00:46:55,280 --> 00:46:56,950
Speaker 5: You know, like one woman I talked to, her health

887
00:46:56,989 --> 00:46:59,470
Speaker 5: insurance was like $ 2, 700 a month without the subsidies.

888
00:47:00,910 --> 00:47:01,569
Speaker 3: If you make $ 50, 000.

889
00:47:01,430 --> 00:47:03,570
Speaker 5: A year or $ 60, 000 a year and your health insurance

890
00:47:03,730 --> 00:47:06,250
Speaker 5: is $ 2, 700 a month, how are you going to do that?

891
00:47:06,310 --> 00:47:08,109
Speaker 5: And she said, I had to decide between my health

892
00:47:08,150 --> 00:47:11,360
Speaker 5: insurance and my house payment. And I went with the house.

893
00:47:11,420 --> 00:47:13,040
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, these are the decisions that people

894
00:47:13,080 --> 00:47:15,560
Speaker 5: are making. And he votes not to include the subsidies.

895
00:47:16,060 --> 00:47:19,120
Speaker 5: Then he votes to eliminate a trillion dollars for Medicaid,

896
00:47:19,140 --> 00:47:21,140
Speaker 5: the poorest of the poor, a trillion dollars over a

897
00:47:21,140 --> 00:47:24,529
Speaker 5: 10-year period of time. And so I'm thinking, okay, wait

898
00:47:24,550 --> 00:47:26,840
Speaker 5: a minute, you... you're going to take away these, you know,

899
00:47:26,860 --> 00:47:29,440
Speaker 5: the ability for people to have health insurance. Do you

900
00:47:29,480 --> 00:47:31,140
Speaker 5: want their doctors? They're going to still go to the

901
00:47:31,160 --> 00:47:33,640
Speaker 5: emergency room. They're going to still deliver babies. So then

902
00:47:33,680 --> 00:47:35,960
Speaker 5: what's the answer? You're going to have other doctors sue them,

903
00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:39,060
Speaker 5: have them arrested if they don't pay, or isn't it,

904
00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:41,420
Speaker 5: you know, isn't it compassionate? We're going to try to

905
00:47:41,440 --> 00:47:43,400
Speaker 5: make sure people have health insurance. And in Kansas, we're

906
00:47:43,420 --> 00:47:47,080
Speaker 5: a small state, 3 million people, 63,000 people it's estimated

907
00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:49,299
Speaker 5: have lost their health insurance in the last year and

908
00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:49,560
Speaker 5: a half.

909
00:47:49,700 --> 00:47:51,260
Speaker 3: That's one out of every 50 people.

910
00:47:51,900 --> 00:47:54,140
Speaker 5: So this is where like, okay, wait, you're, You know,

911
00:47:54,160 --> 00:47:57,680
Speaker 5: you're upset because people can't pay their bills and you're

912
00:47:57,980 --> 00:48:00,380
Speaker 5: suing them. And then you're taking away the opportunity for

913
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:03,200
Speaker 5: them to have health insurance that pays their medical care.

914
00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:05,140
Speaker 5: It's just, it's not okay.

915
00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:06,080
Speaker 3: It's not okay.

916
00:48:06,900 --> 00:48:07,160
Speaker 4: Yeah.

917
00:48:07,260 --> 00:48:14,339
Speaker 1: And it is, it is just, it is totally not how,

918
00:48:15,090 --> 00:48:17,030
Speaker 1: I mean, it just, there's no humanity there.

919
00:48:17,050 --> 00:48:17,850
Speaker 3: Right.

920
00:48:18,830 --> 00:48:23,430
Speaker 1: It must be very strange, though, to have come from

921
00:48:23,830 --> 00:48:29,200
Speaker 1: the clergy to this. I mean, what is the strangest

922
00:48:29,239 --> 00:48:29,739
Speaker 1: part of it?

923
00:48:31,500 --> 00:48:32,859
Speaker 5: You know, there's a lot of it that's actually not

924
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:35,540
Speaker 5: that strange. So when I'm going out and traveling across

925
00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:38,080
Speaker 5: the state, I'm listening to people, listening to their stories.

926
00:48:38,160 --> 00:48:38,799
Speaker 3: I care about them.

927
00:48:39,140 --> 00:48:41,820
Speaker 5: I feel a deep concern and compassion for the people

928
00:48:42,219 --> 00:48:44,460
Speaker 5: in my state. And so that's very pastoral. If you're

929
00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:47,040
Speaker 5: going to be a senator or a governor— You're trying

930
00:48:47,060 --> 00:48:48,479
Speaker 5: to shepherd the people in your state.

931
00:48:48,500 --> 00:48:49,319
Speaker 3: You're trying to care for them.

932
00:48:49,840 --> 00:48:51,560
Speaker 5: And that's actually why I got into this is like,

933
00:48:52,120 --> 00:48:53,820
Speaker 5: you know, if Washington's doing things that are going to

934
00:48:53,860 --> 00:48:57,180
Speaker 5: hurt people in my state, that's not okay. And, you know,

935
00:48:57,219 --> 00:48:59,940
Speaker 5: it's healthcare, but it's also the war in Iran, which

936
00:48:59,960 --> 00:49:03,980
Speaker 5: has a huge impact on farmers, you know, record diesel prices.

937
00:49:04,060 --> 00:49:06,700
Speaker 5: And sitting with five farmers, young guys, you know, who

938
00:49:06,719 --> 00:49:09,280
Speaker 5: are talking about their fear of losing the farm because

939
00:49:09,660 --> 00:49:12,120
Speaker 5: diesel prices, phosphate, because of a war that the president

940
00:49:12,160 --> 00:49:15,319
Speaker 5: decided to initiate, an offensive war they decided to initiate.

941
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:18,360
Speaker 5: You're hurting people in the state. And the role of

942
00:49:18,400 --> 00:49:21,060
Speaker 5: the senator is to stand up to the, at least

943
00:49:21,160 --> 00:49:22,919
Speaker 5: one role is to stand up to the executive and say,

944
00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:25,360
Speaker 5: even if he's in your party, to say, Mr. President,

945
00:49:26,239 --> 00:49:28,340
Speaker 5: this is not okay. It's hurting the people in my state.

946
00:49:28,920 --> 00:49:31,580
Speaker 5: But that didn't happen. Or the tariffs and the impact

947
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:34,549
Speaker 5: tariffs are having on people. So it's so many different things,

948
00:49:34,630 --> 00:49:39,060
Speaker 5: eliminating SNAP benefits from low-income children, And so what I

949
00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:41,800
Speaker 5: feel is great, I feel a sense of compassion and responsibility.

950
00:49:41,969 --> 00:49:43,770
Speaker 5: I want to be a champion for the people of

951
00:49:43,810 --> 00:49:46,310
Speaker 5: my state. I want to fight for them in Washington, D.C.

952
00:49:47,690 --> 00:49:49,549
Speaker 5: I want to fight for Republicans. I want to fight

953
00:49:49,570 --> 00:49:52,149
Speaker 5: for Democrats and independents. I really care about these people.

954
00:49:52,710 --> 00:49:56,029
Speaker 5: And I feel like our senator has somehow lost that,

955
00:49:56,190 --> 00:49:58,300
Speaker 5: this sense of fighting for all of the people, this

956
00:49:58,340 --> 00:50:01,120
Speaker 5: sense of looking at what decisions are being made in

957
00:50:01,180 --> 00:50:04,310
Speaker 5: Washington that could harm them And instead of speaking up,

958
00:50:04,480 --> 00:50:06,600
Speaker 5: it feels like he just quietly goes along with whatever

959
00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:08,219
Speaker 5: the president says or even comes back to try to

960
00:50:08,260 --> 00:50:10,440
Speaker 5: make the case as though he's the spokesperson for the

961
00:50:10,480 --> 00:50:12,330
Speaker 5: White House and not the champion for the.

962
00:50:12,290 --> 00:50:12,930
Speaker 3: People of Kansas.

963
00:50:13,870 --> 00:50:15,569
Speaker 1: Adam, thank you for coming on.

964
00:50:16,090 --> 00:50:18,049
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I really love you. I'm just

965
00:50:18,090 --> 00:50:22,410
Speaker 3: so grateful. Have me back on again. And now your

966
00:50:22,469 --> 00:50:24,080
Speaker 3: moment of suffering.

967
00:50:24,239 --> 00:50:25,320
Speaker 1: Jesse Cannon.

968
00:50:26,340 --> 00:50:29,299
Speaker 2: Somali, one of the things that is very chicken or

969
00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:32,219
Speaker 2: the egg here is you never know if a Trump

970
00:50:32,320 --> 00:50:35,160
Speaker 2: action is to start initiating a grift or if they

971
00:50:35,400 --> 00:50:37,759
Speaker 2: do an action, then they go find the grift. And

972
00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:41,050
Speaker 2: here we have Jared Kushner's firm is investing in an

973
00:50:41,110 --> 00:50:43,950
Speaker 2: Israeli company that's going to be a major conflict of interest.

974
00:50:45,670 --> 00:50:51,670
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, again, Jared Kushner is. Again, why is the

975
00:50:51,750 --> 00:50:56,770
Speaker 1: president's son in law and his real estate friend negotiating

976
00:50:56,870 --> 00:50:59,200
Speaker 1: peace in the Middle East? Also, they're not doing a

977
00:50:59,200 --> 00:51:02,180
Speaker 1: very good job. So why are you having them do it?

978
00:51:02,219 --> 00:51:05,060
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the thing that makes me so, you know,

979
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:08,680
Speaker 1: among all of the incredibly stupid things coming out of

980
00:51:08,719 --> 00:51:13,300
Speaker 1: this administration is the fact that like this administration does,

981
00:51:13,420 --> 00:51:16,920
Speaker 1: in fact, use insane people for jobs they should not

982
00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:20,589
Speaker 1: be doing. And that's what this is. So I don't

983
00:51:20,650 --> 00:51:24,440
Speaker 1: think anyone is surprised here that to find that Jared Kushner,

984
00:51:24,820 --> 00:51:30,260
Speaker 1: who is family friends with Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wildly

985
00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:35,469
Speaker 1: involved in Israel, who is unable to do anything when

986
00:51:35,510 --> 00:51:39,630
Speaker 1: it comes to peace. is also invested in an Israeli

987
00:51:39,690 --> 00:51:43,490
Speaker 1: company that is involved in the war. I mean, of course,

988
00:51:43,989 --> 00:51:48,469
Speaker 1: that's why you don't let private businessmen negotiate world peace.

989
00:51:48,610 --> 00:51:51,340
Speaker 1: And also, by the way, they're doing a terrible job.

990
00:51:51,480 --> 00:51:54,980
Speaker 1: I mean, like I know that this is not necessarily

991
00:51:55,580 --> 00:51:58,459
Speaker 1: like the main focus of this, but they're obviously doing

992
00:51:58,500 --> 00:52:03,040
Speaker 1: a terrible job. So it's just a very, very, very,

993
00:52:03,239 --> 00:52:08,120
Speaker 1: very stupid time in American life. And, you know, and

994
00:52:08,400 --> 00:52:12,440
Speaker 1: the other thing is, let me add why Hakeem met

995
00:52:12,600 --> 00:52:17,460
Speaker 1: with Kushner when we knew that if you're if you

996
00:52:17,500 --> 00:52:20,050
Speaker 1: know anything about Trump world, if you go to meet

997
00:52:20,070 --> 00:52:24,630
Speaker 1: with him, he is going to tell everyone, including the media,

998
00:52:24,690 --> 00:52:27,290
Speaker 1: he's going to take pictures. Everyone in the world is

999
00:52:27,310 --> 00:52:30,509
Speaker 1: going to end up knowing like that is how it

1000
00:52:30,650 --> 00:52:32,150
Speaker 1: works with Donald Trump.

1001
00:52:32,210 --> 00:52:32,890
Speaker 4: That's how it works.

1002
00:52:33,150 --> 00:52:36,180
Speaker 1: That's how it works. And so. Hakeem was like, no,

1003
00:52:36,219 --> 00:52:38,760
Speaker 1: but it won't work that way for him. And so

1004
00:52:38,780 --> 00:52:41,299
Speaker 1: he went and met with Jared Kushner. And what do

1005
00:52:41,340 --> 00:52:44,299
Speaker 1: you think even happened there? I mean, these are just like,

1006
00:52:44,410 --> 00:52:47,790
Speaker 1: do not do this. Do not let them, do not

1007
00:52:47,969 --> 00:52:52,320
Speaker 1: let them take advantage of you like this, Democrats. That's

1008
00:52:52,540 --> 00:52:59,719
Speaker 1: it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday,

1009
00:52:59,920 --> 00:53:03,799
Speaker 1: and Saturday to hear the best minds in politics make

1010
00:53:03,900 --> 00:53:07,900
Speaker 1: sense of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast,

1011
00:53:08,320 --> 00:53:11,760
Speaker 1: please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.

1012
00:53:12,160 --> 00:53:13,280
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.