Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly john Fast and this is Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: where we discuss the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds. And Mike Pence is no longer running
Speaker 1: for the GOP presidential nomination. We have a very special
Speaker 1: episode with two different House candidates.
Speaker 2: That we want you to meet and get to know.
Speaker 1: One is Ron Harris. He is running for Congressman Dean
Speaker 1: phillips seat. You'll remember Dean Phillips has recently decided.
Speaker 2: To primary President Biden.
Speaker 1: Then we'll talk to former Arizona State Senator Kirsten Engel,
Speaker 1: who is running for Arizona's sixth congressional district.
Speaker 2: But first we have my friend and.
Speaker 1: Yours, the host of the Enemy's List, Every Monday's special guest,
Speaker 1: the one, the only, Rick Wilson. Welcome back, too, Fast Politics.
Speaker 1: I mean you shouldn't be welcome. You're here, Rick Wilson,
Speaker 1: Rick Wilson, Mully.
Speaker 3: Jong Fast as always, I'm pleased to join you.
Speaker 1: It's a Monday, so it has to be Rick Wilson time.
Speaker 1: I think we start with talking about everybody's favorite religious zealot,
Speaker 1: Maga Mike Johnson.
Speaker 3: Maga Mike Johnson. That's here in the arena for the
Speaker 3: kind of thrills and spills you the crowd want to see.
Speaker 3: And here it's Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. We're weird, going to
Speaker 3: oppose our religious intolerance on you, the American people. That
Speaker 3: was my weekend monster truck, Mike Johnson pitch. But there
Speaker 3: you have, yeah, and so.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 1: So first of all, it's been since he was elected
Speaker 1: Speaker and had to have those eighteen Republicans who won
Speaker 1: and Biden districts vote for him.
Speaker 2: Good luck team.
Speaker 1: I mean, they all voted for him, like they found
Speaker 1: Jim Jordan a bridge too far. But we're more than
Speaker 1: happy to vote for the guy who believes that women
Speaker 1: should drive.
Speaker 2: He doesn't quite believe that. But Basil, here's the thing.
Speaker 3: They were able, the Biden eighteen, the so called problem solvers,
Speaker 3: all the good guys, the moderates, we're the centrists who
Speaker 3: are just trying to get through MAGA. All of them said, well,
Speaker 3: he may be more crazy than Jim Jordan, but he
Speaker 3: does have magnificent hair and much better suits. And that's it.
Speaker 3: And that's it. He's got Warby Parker glasses. He can't
Speaker 3: possibly be an insane fascist and so that's their excuse,
Speaker 3: and they will go out by the way and the campaign, well,
Speaker 3: I've voted against Jim Jordan because I thought Jim Jordan
Speaker 3: was just too extreme, so instead I voted for and
Speaker 3: they will pretend that there is some sort of qualitative
Speaker 3: improvement over Kevin McCarthy, who, as you know, I've had
Speaker 3: any number of disagreements with. But look, this was an
Speaker 3: inevitable moment where the terrorists got what they wanted, and
Speaker 3: mad Gates and the Terror Caucus got what they wanted.
Speaker 3: They've now have the first post Trump Speaker of the House.
Speaker 3: He came in in twenty sixteen. He was shaped as
Speaker 3: a younger candidate by the post Tea Party culture war
Speaker 3: movement that led us into MAGA. He is a product
Speaker 3: of the Trump era. He's in a Republican R plus
Speaker 3: four thousand district. He is safe as houses. He has
Speaker 3: no external political pressure on his life, so he is
Speaker 3: going to go out there and do what he wants
Speaker 3: to do. And he represents a part of the Republican movement.
Speaker 3: To speak the old Republican language. The party used to
Speaker 3: be divided into three parts, and they balance each other out.
Speaker 3: Social Conservatives, foreign policy conservatives and economic liberty conservatives. Now
Speaker 3: it's Trump conservatives, social conservatives, and conspiracy conservatives and those
Speaker 3: three legs. Mike Johnson is perfectly at home in all
Speaker 3: of those things. Remember he signed and wrote the amicus
Speaker 3: brief that one hundred and twenty six members of Congress
Speaker 3: center the Supreme Court falsely saying Donald Trump won the
Speaker 3: twenty twenty election.
Speaker 2: He's more conservative than the Trump Supreme Court.
Speaker 3: Oh by far. He looks at Cavanaugh says, get that
Speaker 3: libtard shill off my court. This is a guy who, really,
Speaker 3: it's not that he believes these things. It's that he
Speaker 3: has a sense of absolute moral certitude, that he's fighting
Speaker 3: a fight as a Christian warrior against the foul deviltry
Speaker 3: of the rest of society.
Speaker 1: Your race, creed, and sex are what you do, while
Speaker 1: homosexuality and cross dressing are things you do. He wrote,
Speaker 1: this is a free country. We don't give special productions
Speaker 1: for everybody's bizarre choices.
Speaker 4: Bizarre, just bizarre. It's bizarre.
Speaker 3: Really.
Speaker 1: He called homosexuality inherently unnatural and a dangerous lifestyle that
Speaker 1: would lead to destroy the entire democratic system.
Speaker 3: I will tell you one rule that I have Molly,
Speaker 3: And this is a rule that has held up so well.
Speaker 3: And I don't have any evidence that Mike Johnson falls
Speaker 3: in this category, but it's a rule that has held
Speaker 3: up so well for me. Anytime you have a Republican
Speaker 3: elected official who's really into getting into other people's business
Speaker 3: in their bedroom, in their vagina, who they marry, how
Speaker 3: they have sex, anytime that happens, there's a one hundred
Speaker 3: percent chances a goddamn dimp suit in their basement, or
Speaker 3: they have some kind of weird thing going on. Used
Speaker 3: to be a joke in the White House. Is someone
Speaker 3: so gay? No, he's not conservative enough, right, I'm not
Speaker 3: exactly right. I tell you that's a real rule of
Speaker 3: thumb that used to be in Republican administrations, and that
Speaker 3: idea that somehow or another, that somehow or another, you
Speaker 3: end up with a guy like Mike Johnson who has
Speaker 3: no secrets. It would be shocking if he has no secrets.
Speaker 3: I was told by an evangelical friend of mine he
Speaker 3: is a member of this in called the Seven Mountain Movement.
Speaker 3: I have not had time to dig into it yet,
Speaker 3: but this guy was a like pretty religious person, pretty
Speaker 3: evangelic person. He's like, yeah, there are a lot of
Speaker 3: a lot of a lot and it's the Christian dominionus
Speaker 3: thing that understand that they believe that the Lord told
Speaker 3: them to come here and take over the country. But
Speaker 3: the Constitution has other things to say about that.
Speaker 1: Yes, they're basically just giving up the whole church and state.
Speaker 3: Oh completely, The church is the state in their minds, right.
Speaker 3: He actually is a person who says the words, we
Speaker 3: don't live in a democracy. We live in a biblical republic.
Speaker 3: No fuck face, we don't. In fact, if you go
Speaker 3: and read the Constitution or any of the founding documents
Speaker 3: or the opinions of any of the founders, including Thomas Jefferson,
Speaker 3: who once said, at some point the belief that Jesus
Speaker 3: was spontaneously generated will fall like all other myths, so
Speaker 3: we shouldn't base our government around it. There's an abundant
Speaker 3: scholarship that fleeing Europe from religious intolerance in the founding
Speaker 3: stages of this country fundamentally shaped how our constitution and
Speaker 3: our early governance was devised. And he says I'm a
Speaker 3: constitutional originalist, except for the part where he wants a
Speaker 3: seven foot tall golden baby Jesus in every classroom. Now,
Speaker 3: I may have paid that part up, but try me.
Speaker 3: If you ask him if we should put a statue
Speaker 3: of golden baby Jesus in every classroom, he'd probably say, well,
Speaker 3: of course the founders would have appreciated that, especially if
Speaker 3: he was wearing the late Elvis White jonsure.
Speaker 1: All right, so let me ask you, He's not the
Speaker 1: only person in the house who's great. There's a guy
Speaker 1: called the Mighty med Gates, and he does.
Speaker 2: Not play well with others. Do you know what I'm
Speaker 2: talking about?
Speaker 3: Or I am aware of what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: So Chairman of the House Ways and Means says Matt
Speaker 1: Gates is a foolish liar. Gates responds by outing Jason
Speaker 1: Smith as a closeted gay man.
Speaker 3: Scott Well, when Matt came out and said, oh he
Speaker 3: lives a lie every day. That flew around some Florida
Speaker 3: political circles at the speed of light, and I tweeted
Speaker 3: about it yesterday and I said, Oh, it's better than
Speaker 3: autoware product asphociation, isn't it. Matt?
Speaker 2: Oh what does that mean?
Speaker 3: I'll just leave that out there. People can figure that
Speaker 3: out on their own. The Google machine may have clues
Speaker 3: for it. But if Matt is worried about bodies being
Speaker 3: buried and people living wise, right, man, if I may
Speaker 3: quote the political philosopher Walter White, perhaps his best date
Speaker 3: would be tread lightly. That's a very ambitious guy. He
Speaker 3: is flush with power right now. He is the Robespierre
Speaker 3: of the Republican Party. He has started the revolution and
Speaker 3: started the purges of people he believes are politically impure
Speaker 3: or insufficiently loyal to him or Trump. I would remind
Speaker 3: Matt that Robespierre the guillotine took rose Pierre's head two
Speaker 3: at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you a question about that from
Speaker 1: a purely strategic point of view. So Matt Gates hated Kevin, Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: mad Gates hated.
Speaker 2: Tom Emmer's fine.
Speaker 1: But what they did here is now they have someone
Speaker 1: who is new to the house right, only been in
Speaker 1: that since twenty sixteen, and is new to fundraising, has
Speaker 1: very little fundraising money, very little fundraising acumen.
Speaker 2: Are they really just screwing themselves here?
Speaker 3: Well, there's one thing about Kevin that people forget. Kevin.
Speaker 3: As I've said before, I think even on the show,
Speaker 3: Kevin could wear normy drag. You could go out to
Speaker 3: a boardroom or a golf course or somebody's very fine
Speaker 3: home and say, I just need you to help us
Speaker 3: out because I got to keep this place running. Man,
Speaker 3: I don't want the craziest to take over after me
Speaker 3: the flood. This guy, tell me for one second, I
Speaker 3: will to tell your audience a little secret about Republican
Speaker 3: mega donors. Eighty five percent of them are pro choice.
Speaker 3: One thousand percent of their wives or spouses are pro choice.
Speaker 3: They are not extremists, they are not evangelicals. They are
Speaker 3: not biblical Republicans.
Speaker 2: Right. They just want the tax cuts.
Speaker 3: They are economically driven, transactionally driven. Give me my tax cuts.
Speaker 3: Shut the hell up, stay out of my business. Do
Speaker 3: you regulate my oil field? Okay? They do not care
Speaker 3: about whether Jesus talks to my Johnson and tells him
Speaker 3: what to do or not. I can't wait to see
Speaker 3: this guy go in a room with those people. It's
Speaker 3: going to be remarkable. Again. I have many, many, many, many,
Speaker 3: many thousands of critiques about Kevin McCarthy. But the some
Speaker 3: bitch could raise money, good at raising money, and he
Speaker 3: was good at raising money from rich people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so what happens now.
Speaker 3: I believe we are in the phase where the Republican
Speaker 3: Party is in the finding out phase of this sexercise.
Speaker 1: We have eighteen vulnerable seats. You have Mitch McConnell, who
Speaker 1: is not one hundred percent at best. You have Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: who is spending most of his time in court trying
Speaker 1: to save his family business. Not to put a flattering
Speaker 1: spin on this in any way, but Wui is minding
Speaker 1: the shop.
Speaker 3: There's no there there, Molly. There is no one in
Speaker 3: control of the Republican Party. There is no one out
Speaker 3: there who has a intellectual framework that they're trying to
Speaker 3: save the party in the House of Representatives. Look, even McConnell,
Speaker 3: for all his flagging help, is slipping abilities to control
Speaker 3: his caucus, is still going to be a formidable obstacle
Speaker 3: to Mike Johnson. Because Mike Johnson takes pride in the
Speaker 3: fact that he doesn't know like how to do legislation.
Speaker 3: He doesn't understand process, procedure, parliamentary rules, all of the
Speaker 3: all the mechanical things that come with being one of
Speaker 3: the leaders of the body.
Speaker 4: Mitch McConnell.
Speaker 3: Mitch McConnell could be in a coma and you could
Speaker 3: ask him, how do you pass a CR and I
Speaker 3: was like, well, we're gonna go put all of those
Speaker 3: committee at that point. I'm going to talk that a little.
Speaker 3: Mitch mac Johnson and Spikers Irish. Yeah, and McConnell for again,
Speaker 3: a guy I can criticize all day long. He has
Speaker 3: been absolutely stalwart on Ukraine and Israel and on keeping
Speaker 3: the government open. He's been absolutely like a blast from
Speaker 3: the distant distant like thirty year ago passed like, he's
Speaker 3: been the responsible Republican in the room. And they hate
Speaker 3: him all you want, but in that enemy of my
Speaker 3: enemy thing, I'll take it for right now.
Speaker 2: It's the best you're going to get from this Republican party.
Speaker 3: We should wish Mitch McConnell right now, at least another
Speaker 3: happy year of good health to hold hold back the
Speaker 3: tide of these fucking lunatics.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that is the big question is like
Speaker 1: where we have Mike Johnson now has to pass a
Speaker 1: CR in less than thirty days. He's got to figure
Speaker 1: out the funding for Ukraine. I thought that Biden was
Speaker 1: smart to put this all together with Ukraine especial and
Speaker 1: the southern border whatever that means.
Speaker 2: And if he passes that.
Speaker 1: Remember, the people who put him in there put him
Speaker 1: in there to not do government.
Speaker 3: That is correct. They put him in there for chaos, opposition,
Speaker 3: a sort of defiant, ugly, shitty behavioral structure. This is
Speaker 3: not a guy who has been installed there with a
Speaker 3: long list of do gooder things to accomplish. They've put
Speaker 3: him in there because they want the slowdown. They want
Speaker 3: the shutdown, they want the chaos, they want the investigations,
Speaker 3: they want all the performative spectacle that he can deliver.
Speaker 3: I think very easily. We won't have Jim Jordan to
Speaker 3: kick around the same way. He's a more slick personality Republicans.
Speaker 3: That's a common mistake by Democrats is to think, well,
Speaker 3: he's from a red district in the Deep South, he
Speaker 3: must be some sort of mouth breather. This guy's smart.
Speaker 3: Jim Jordan not smart. This guy is actually smart. Don't
Speaker 3: underestimate your opponent in this game. He's not stupid. That's
Speaker 3: not a compliment to him, that's a reality. It's the
Speaker 3: old will read the enemy generals, and he is not stupid.
Speaker 3: Don't underestimate him. He will come out by the way,
Speaker 3: and I will say this, our friends in the Washington
Speaker 3: media are going to get played. I'm just going to
Speaker 3: tell you right now. They're going to say, well, he
Speaker 3: seems normal. Look, that's a perfectly good suit, and that
Speaker 3: hair is pretty good, and he doesn't scream, and he's
Speaker 3: not drooling and weird like Jim Jordan, and he's not
Speaker 3: biting the shrubbery like Mad Gates. He must be kind
Speaker 3: of normal. All while he will sit there and say, well,
Speaker 3: Joe Biden, obviously the computers in Italy change the vote.
Speaker 3: He's no less insane than Mike Lindell.
Speaker 2: Is Mike lindal with normal hair, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, as we're in this sort of bizarro world,
Speaker 1: Republicans now need to what they have, this map that
Speaker 1: is like the best they will ever.
Speaker 3: Have ever ever your So let's talk about that.
Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell is not exactly going to be out on
Speaker 1: the stomp you have In Arizona. Now we have Blake
Speaker 1: Masters and Carrie Lake, despite being governor, both running for
Speaker 1: that Senate seed.
Speaker 3: My delight at Blake Masters and carry Lake both being
Speaker 3: on the ballot in Arizona, And I assure you, while
Speaker 3: I haven't spoken to them about it, the delight of
Speaker 3: the Biden campaign on that matter. Oh yeah, it's not inconsiderable.
Speaker 3: This is really good news for the presidential race. It's
Speaker 3: really good news for the governor's race, for the US
Speaker 3: Center race. Let the feeding frenzy begin, Let the blood flow,
Speaker 3: Let a thousand schools be piled upon the mound. This
Speaker 3: is going to get awesome. Because, by the way, if
Speaker 3: you think Carrie Lake and Blake Masters are less insane
Speaker 3: than they were two years ago, oh, I'll contrare my friends.
Speaker 2: So you have that crew.
Speaker 1: And then in Pennsylvania you have you may remember him
Speaker 1: as a Westport, Connecticut resident, Dave McCory.
Speaker 3: He'll be back. He's coming back, baby, Dave McCormick. You
Speaker 3: know what the maagas are screaming out for in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 3: They won a private equity bro in a sweater vest.
Speaker 3: That's what the magas, That's what they did. I mean
Speaker 3: nothing says to the red hat guy in the tight
Speaker 3: trucker hat and the wife beater t shirt at the
Speaker 3: Trump rally, my blood brother in the fight for liberty
Speaker 3: as a multi billionaire married to a Washington socialite who
Speaker 3: wears a seven and fifty dollars sweater vest.
Speaker 1: Who takes his private jet Pennsylvania every week.
Speaker 3: Who commutes by private jet from Westport, Connecticut to Pennsylvania
Speaker 3: every week. Nothing screams out to them, salt of the Earth,
Speaker 3: man of the people, my brother in the struggle. Like that.
Speaker 3: Here's the last time I saw Dave McCormick. I saw
Speaker 3: David Dina earlier this summer. We were all in Aspen.
Speaker 1: Ron Harris is a former chief resilience officer for the
Speaker 1: City of Minneapolis and a candidate for Minnesota's their district.
Speaker 2: Welcome, too Fast Politics, Ron.
Speaker 4: Harris, excited to be here, Thanks so much for the invitation.
Speaker 1: You are running for Congress in Minnesota's third district.
Speaker 4: Yes, right now.
Speaker 1: It is a safe blue seat, right, relatively safe. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: but it has been occupied by Dean Phillips, who is
Speaker 1: now bafflingly trying to primary President Joe Biden. Give us
Speaker 1: like a two second TLDR on this.
Speaker 5: You know, when I talk to folks, most folks are
Speaker 5: kind of in a similar space of not really sure
Speaker 5: why or what the thinking is behind it. And you know,
Speaker 5: he has his own calculus that he's putting together. The
Speaker 5: way I think about it is, this is his way
Speaker 5: of making the point, I guess whereas I view it
Speaker 5: a little bit differently. I'm actually here to support the president,
Speaker 5: the only person that ever beat Donald Trump, which is
Speaker 5: why we decided to put together campaign so we can
Speaker 5: focus on the district to make sure that we're getting
Speaker 5: people excited actually about the ticket coming up. And yes,
Speaker 5: we know that the president is eighty and that's not
Speaker 5: going to change, nor will his status as the incumbent
Speaker 5: and the nominee going to change. And so let's get
Speaker 5: people excited and tell the story about all the good
Speaker 5: work that's happened in the last few years.
Speaker 1: And what I think is very interesting is that you
Speaker 1: have this opportunity. One of the things that I've really
Speaker 1: tried when I did this podcast is to interview people
Speaker 1: who when the Democrat who has the seat fucks up,
Speaker 1: like what happened with Bob Menendez, that that person jumps
Speaker 1: in the fray, that person does not wait to be anointed.
Speaker 1: They get in there and they say, like, the only
Speaker 1: way Democrats win is if they go for those seats
Speaker 1: and they're not polite and they do this the way
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be done.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you got pressure not to go into this race.
Speaker 4: Right, lots of pressure.
Speaker 5: A lot of people wanted me to wait and see
Speaker 5: what Dean would decide to do. A lot of people
Speaker 5: were actually a little upset with me, like why are
Speaker 5: you doing this against Dean? And I'm like, well, you
Speaker 5: guys are mad at the wrong person. I haven't heard
Speaker 5: enough conversation about what's going on in the third district,
Speaker 5: and I know that in order for us to make
Speaker 5: sure that Minnesota stay is blue, to make sure that
Speaker 5: we recapture the House, the seat is very important, not
Speaker 5: only just for winning the seat itself, but to generate
Speaker 5: this sort of excitement and energy that can happen when
Speaker 5: you're a positive for looking campaign and supporting of the ticket.
Speaker 5: For me, I'm running because I want to make sure
Speaker 5: that young people and people of color and other folks
Speaker 5: see themselves in politics. I'll share my story in a
Speaker 5: little bit, but it was really about It's not about Dean. Really,
Speaker 5: it's not even about myself. It's about the people there,
Speaker 5: and I wanted to make sure we got in there
Speaker 5: and communicated to them.
Speaker 1: I find it really infuriating that there's this feeling that
Speaker 1: these seeds should be saved. Do you know if you're
Speaker 1: going to do something. I mean, we had Andy Kim
Speaker 1: on this podcast. Andy Kim is primarying Bob Menendez because
Speaker 1: he's got a second set of indictments.
Speaker 2: Like this idea that you.
Speaker 1: Should be polite when somebody does something that's crazy destructive
Speaker 1: is just madness. So I would love you to tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about your story.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, and again, I don't think that these seats are
Speaker 5: coronations by any means. I mean, we're democracy and will
Speaker 5: compete and make sure that we earn the trust.
Speaker 3: Of the voters.
Speaker 2: But at least somebody is competing. I mean, otherwise you
Speaker 2: have no one competing.
Speaker 5: That's right, and it's something that I really believe in. Again,
Speaker 5: I believe in the progress of this past administration, and
Speaker 5: I also believe that there are a lot of voices
Speaker 5: there who wants to energize and excite them. Big reason
Speaker 5: why I'm in this race and why I decided to
Speaker 5: run for office. You know, when I was two months old,
Speaker 5: I was raised by a single mom, and when I
Speaker 5: was two months old, I actually got an ammonia and
Speaker 5: she was working a job that didn't have paid sick
Speaker 5: time or any sort of paid leave, and she had
Speaker 5: the tough choice between Hey, do I stay at work
Speaker 5: to make sure we get the money to pay these
Speaker 5: bills and leave my kid with a caretaker? Or do
Speaker 5: I stay at home, not work, not get paid, but
Speaker 5: take care of my kid. And the first time I
Speaker 5: got a pneumonia, she left me with a caretaker who
Speaker 5: didn't take very good care of me, and she got
Speaker 5: worse and I almost died.
Speaker 4: That second time I got in pneumonia, she didn't even
Speaker 4: question it.
Speaker 5: She's like, you know what, I'm going to take care
Speaker 5: of my own kid if I missed money whatever and
Speaker 5: ended up getting fired for her job. You know, I
Speaker 5: grew up in public housing and grew up with assistants
Speaker 5: and all sorts of things. I had a great childhood,
Speaker 5: but saw the ways that people slipped through the cracks
Speaker 5: when it comes to government right, and there are a
Speaker 5: lot of people who are in those situations who have
Speaker 5: to face those tough choices. And for me, I'm like that,
Speaker 5: that's so much of what shifting my politics. When I
Speaker 5: went to college freshman year, this was two thousand and eight.
Speaker 5: When I was a freshman. Just before I got to college,
Speaker 5: I got into the honors program at Hampton University, which
Speaker 5: is in HBCU, and as part of RAM, they sent
Speaker 5: me a book to read and a report to write
Speaker 5: before I even got into campus. And the book that
Speaker 5: they sent me was The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama.
Speaker 5: And this was, Hey, you're June of two thousand and eight,
Speaker 5: so we're at the peak or the tail end of
Speaker 5: the Democratic primary season, and so I got super obsessed.
Speaker 5: Once I read the book, I finally saw somebody who
Speaker 5: were asking similar questions that I was asking at the
Speaker 5: time about identity and my role in the society and
Speaker 5: really hitching myself to something bigger than me. And so
Speaker 5: when I got to campus, I just started organizing and
Speaker 5: knocked the doors and make phone calls and all sorts
Speaker 5: of stuff.
Speaker 4: And I'll never.
Speaker 5: Forget the the day of the election, we're watching the
Speaker 5: results of my room, and I don't think we'd actually
Speaker 5: pull it off. But I remember when Virginia blew for
Speaker 5: the Democrats first time at forty four years and it
Speaker 5: was just an amazing feeling, like, Wow, we were a
Speaker 5: part of something. We actually did this as students. We
Speaker 5: organized on our campus, we organized emphases, and then about
Speaker 5: ten fifteen minutes later, they called deal Brock and I
Speaker 5: swear you hear a pin drop, for it felt like eternity,
Speaker 5: but it was probably just four or five seconds. And
Speaker 5: then it was like I was at a sporting event.
Speaker 5: I could hear the entire campus erupt in euphoria, just
Speaker 5: everybody just cheering and dancing, and I was I remember
Speaker 5: sprinting to the student center, hugging people, singing, dancing.
Speaker 4: It was the evil of.
Speaker 5: My nineteenth birthday as well. So I was getting all
Speaker 5: these happy birthday texts and phone calls. And I say
Speaker 5: all this to say that experience set me on a
Speaker 5: trajectory of political participation that I don't think i'll get
Speaker 5: off of ever again. And that sort of energy it's
Speaker 5: kept me in politics for fifteen years. What I'm going
Speaker 5: to do with this campaign is get folks excited like that,
Speaker 5: to see that political participation is a worthy cause, it's
Speaker 5: worth your time.
Speaker 4: It doesn't have to be boring or whatever folks think
Speaker 4: that is.
Speaker 5: It actually be fine, and you can find yourself in
Speaker 5: that space the same way that I found myself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think what I love about your story
Speaker 1: is I grew up with a single mom too, and
Speaker 1: we had a lot of advantages, but constantly, like the
Speaker 1: decision was are you going to work? Are you going
Speaker 1: to be with the kids, And you know, if one
Speaker 1: of the kids is set and it was just me,
Speaker 1: I was the only child, and just to have to
Speaker 1: make those decisions and then to have it affect the
Speaker 1: long tail of that, it's so hard. And there really
Speaker 1: are ways in American politics, there are things that the
Speaker 1: government can do to make life less crushing for mothers
Speaker 1: and single mothers especial.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, and I think we need more people with that
Speaker 5: story representing us in government to have the experience to
Speaker 5: be able to speak to those situations and we're really
Speaker 5: what it felt like. You can read about it, you
Speaker 5: can hear about it, but to actually experience it has
Speaker 5: a way of shaping you that I think we could
Speaker 5: We should see a lot more of that in our politics,
Speaker 5: to be able to make the connection between political participation
Speaker 5: to political outcomes, to policy outcomes to live experiences. There's
Speaker 5: a very clear through line there, and we have to
Speaker 5: do a better job of making sure that people know
Speaker 5: that number one, participating is a worthy again, a worthy
Speaker 5: cause and it's worth our time. But also do our jobs,
Speaker 5: you know, should I get to Congress, do our jobs
Speaker 5: to make sure that that system then reflects that ambition
Speaker 5: that we actually prove ourselves right in a sense that
Speaker 5: when people do show up and participate, good things do happen,
Speaker 5: and we just have to make sure that people know
Speaker 5: that and we have to do our jobs to make
Speaker 5: sure that actually happens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was such a good point and also really
Speaker 1: what government should be.
Speaker 2: Doing, right, I mean, this is the job. When we
Speaker 2: watch what's happening in Congress right now? What do you
Speaker 2: think when you watch that.
Speaker 5: I talked to voters and I talked to donors, and
Speaker 5: that's one of the questions I asked me, like, what
Speaker 5: are you thinking. You must be a bit delusional to
Speaker 5: want to run into this mess and I laugh. But
Speaker 5: at the same time, it is a bit of a mess.
Speaker 5: And for me, I feel like in the contribute and
Speaker 5: I think that there are a lot of really great
Speaker 5: people in Congress right particularly on our side of the aisle,
Speaker 5: that are really trying to make sure.
Speaker 4: That Garrett actually does work for people.
Speaker 5: At the end of the day, that's the square focus
Speaker 5: and I'm instid of the join a group of people
Speaker 5: who are committed to that. But to answer your question,
Speaker 5: it concerns me, and it concerns me because the mess
Speaker 5: that we're seeing in Washington, it trickles throughout other parts
Speaker 5: of our society. I had this conversation earlier at a
Speaker 5: conference where people are so turned off by what's going
Speaker 5: on that they just don't participate. And when good people
Speaker 5: don't participate, we see what happens.
Speaker 4: Maga, Mike, you see what I mean?
Speaker 5: We get maga, mic, We get some again is affable
Speaker 5: or whatever people describe them as, but is not a
Speaker 5: good choice. And a vote for him is a vote
Speaker 5: for a nationwide abortion bank. Right, it's supporting an election denier.
Speaker 5: We can go down the list, and so when people
Speaker 5: see that, they opt out. As I'm talking to voters now,
Speaker 5: they're like, I don't know if I'm even going to
Speaker 5: vote this upcoming election because of how messy it is.
Speaker 5: So I'm trying to make the case that, look, we
Speaker 5: know what the world looks like when we don't participate,
Speaker 5: what does it look like when we do? How do
Speaker 5: we make sure that it reflects our desires? And the
Speaker 5: only way that it can do that is if we participate.
Speaker 5: But the mess that's going on makes it really difficult
Speaker 5: to make that case.
Speaker 1: We've had such high participation, I do think there's a
Speaker 1: certain amount of burnout. One of the things that Barack
Speaker 1: Obama did so wow was that he was able to
Speaker 1: you know, America is an ideal, right, it's an idea,
Speaker 1: it's founding principles, and I felt like Obama was able
Speaker 1: to make that taste to voters in a way that
Speaker 1: is unusual.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think part of it was a combination of highlighting
Speaker 5: the things that we need to fix. You know, here's
Speaker 5: what's broken, here's what we need to fix. Here's how me,
Speaker 5: as a relative outsider, can help fix that. But the
Speaker 5: thing that really drew me to Obama, and this is
Speaker 5: something that I try to do in other spaces in
Speaker 5: my life, is sure, let's identify the things that we
Speaker 5: need to fix, but let's spend a lot more time
Speaker 5: thinking about the things that we want to build in
Speaker 5: service of our aspiration. And I think that that's what
Speaker 5: he communicated well, was if we build this society, if
Speaker 5: we can build this coalition, here, the dreams that we
Speaker 5: can actually aspire and achieve. Here, the ambitions that we
Speaker 5: can make manifest and make real. Instead of just focusing
Speaker 5: on all the terrible things that are happening and fixing them.
Speaker 5: It's how do we build towards a future, build towards
Speaker 5: the vision that we actually want to strive for.
Speaker 4: And it's a hard walk.
Speaker 5: It's a hard line to walk because you have to
Speaker 5: level with people and acknowledge the pain and the fear
Speaker 5: and the suffering and the challenges that they're experiencing. You
Speaker 5: can't gloss over that and pretend that, oh, let's just
Speaker 5: point to the brighter future. We have to acknowledge it,
Speaker 5: but we also have to say yes, and it can
Speaker 5: be better. And here's how we can actually do that.
Speaker 5: And what he did for me and what he did
Speaker 5: for millions was helped us believe that the future that
Speaker 5: we all wanted it is actually possible, so long as
Speaker 5: we do our part to get there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And I think that's such an important point.
Speaker 1: Tell me kind of what your district looks like. You're
Speaker 1: talking to people, and you're talking to voters. You're probably
Speaker 1: on the ground talking to more people than a lot
Speaker 1: of us. So what are they concerned with? What's happening?
Speaker 1: What does your district look like in Minnesota? Give us
Speaker 1: like on the ground what you're saying.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, so District three is the western suburbs Minneapolis, so
Speaker 5: it doesn't include Minneapolis, but a lot of the cities
Speaker 5: to the west. And it's a very diverse district in
Speaker 5: many different ways, certainly in demographics, but also in terms
Speaker 5: of you know, culture, ritual, et cetera. Part of the
Speaker 5: district is very working classed, very diverse in terms of race, income,
Speaker 5: et cetera. And then you get more west into the district,
Speaker 5: there's a bit more median net worth, a bit wider.
Speaker 4: But the district itself is pretty blue.
Speaker 5: Rejected Trump soundly both in twenty sixteen and twenty twenty,
Speaker 5: has been blue for presidential since O eight, has been
Speaker 5: blue in the House races since twenty eighteen. And it's
Speaker 5: a district that is younger, but it's a district that also,
Speaker 5: I believe is can be a microcosm for where the
Speaker 5: country is going.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 5: If you look at the elementary schools and middle schools
Speaker 5: and high schools, you see incredible diversity coming up and
Speaker 5: our young people, and I think that's true across the country.
Speaker 5: That's on the demographics part of it, and then the
Speaker 5: issues that the folks are really thinking about in the
Speaker 5: third district, are you know, again, they really do not
Speaker 5: like the mega agenda. That is something that comes up
Speaker 5: in almost every conversation that I have, that that is
Speaker 5: a real fear of that coming back and have people
Speaker 5: having to live through that. People are also concerned about schools.
Speaker 5: Want to make sure that the school public schools are
Speaker 5: properly funded. Public schools are properly funded, that kids have
Speaker 5: access to a good education from pre k all the
Speaker 5: way through through high school, and that they're set up
Speaker 5: well to do what they want to do next, whether
Speaker 5: it's college or something else.
Speaker 4: I'm going to hear that a lot.
Speaker 5: I hear a pride in safety and security, but I
Speaker 5: also hear a creativity when it comes to that.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: So, yes, there's a lot of folks who are really,
Speaker 5: you know, we need law enforcement. This is where it
Speaker 5: starts and ends. And there are folks that are saying, hey, yeah,
Speaker 5: we definitely need law enforcement, but we also need additional
Speaker 5: comprehensive perspective on how we keep our people safe from
Speaker 5: every aspect.
Speaker 4: And then, finally, what I'm hearing.
Speaker 5: A lot is both fear when it comes to climate change,
Speaker 5: but excitement about the opportunities that come with the inflation reduction. Act,
Speaker 5: the new market opportunities and the green economy. People like
Speaker 5: talking about climate change, but don't like being told what
Speaker 5: to do, which is a very interesting thing that I'm
Speaker 5: coming up on.
Speaker 2: That's really really interesting.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to ask you what sort of a
Speaker 1: hard question, but I think it's a really good question.
Speaker 2: It's actually a Jesse question.
Speaker 1: How would the life of a constituent be different, you know,
Speaker 1: if you were in the majority.
Speaker 5: I think what has happened with a hyper focus on
Speaker 5: the present age, for example, is that it serves to
Speaker 5: suppress the vote, it serves to suppress activity. It injects
Speaker 5: a sense of cynicism all out in the current moment,
Speaker 5: and for me, right through this campaign and ultimately do
Speaker 5: my leadership, I want to reject that sense of cynicism.
Speaker 5: I want to articulate and demonstrate the fact that cynicism
Speaker 5: is actually a strategy. It's a well worn strategy and
Speaker 5: in many ways to affect their strategy if you're trying
Speaker 5: to get people to not believe in what's possible, or
Speaker 5: try to get people not to participate, and so I
Speaker 5: think what they would experience differently is some enthusiasm about
Speaker 5: what we have in front of us recognizing the challenges
Speaker 5: and being clear right about those things, but also being
Speaker 5: honest and recognizing that again for us, Joe Biden's the
Speaker 5: only person that's ever been Donald Trump, and he's well
Speaker 5: positioned to do it again. And if Joe Biden meet
Speaker 5: Donald Trump again, and people's lives will be significantly better
Speaker 5: than if he would have lose that election. And I
Speaker 5: don't think primary Joe Biden helps us when that election,
Speaker 5: I think it actually hurts us, and so my leadership
Speaker 5: will look differently. I do not want to encourage the
Speaker 5: mega agenda by hurting the one person who, behind our
Speaker 5: votes and behind our participation, helped defeat it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really important. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 4: Molly, thanks for the invitation and theokur to ten with
Speaker 4: you soon.
Speaker 1: Kirsten Engo is a former Arizona State senator who is
Speaker 1: running for Arizona's sixth congressional district.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Fast Politics.
Speaker 6: Thank you so much. It's great to be here.
Speaker 1: So you are a Arizona State representative running for Congress.
Speaker 6: Yes, I actually am not currently in the legislature. I
Speaker 6: did serve five years and I did run for Congress
Speaker 6: in twenty twenty one, and I am running for this
Speaker 6: district again.
Speaker 1: So, and you're in Arizona's sixth congressional district. So tell
Speaker 1: us what your race looks like. People are waking up
Speaker 1: in this district. There is a tremendous amount of interest
Speaker 1: in this race for me running again for this district
Speaker 1: after so narrowly losing it last time.
Speaker 2: Right, you lost by five thousand votes, right.
Speaker 6: Yes, And you know, people are watching Congress right now.
Speaker 6: They're watching my opponent. They're seeing that this person who
Speaker 6: ran as a moderate just siding with the far right
Speaker 6: on everything from abortion to issues social security and medicare.
Speaker 6: They're mad, they're disappointed, They're upset with the dysfunction in Congress.
Speaker 6: They really want somebody in there who is going to
Speaker 6: work for them, listen to them. Many of them are struggling.
Speaker 6: Cost of groceries and prescription drugs has gone up. People
Speaker 6: are watching their rights being threatened and taken away. Arizona
Speaker 6: is looking at the potential return of an eighteen hundreds
Speaker 6: law past. At the time that Arizona was a territory
Speaker 6: hoopskirts and women didn't even have the right to vote,
Speaker 6: which makes abortion a crime. People are really really upset
Speaker 6: about this, and they see my opponent going to Congress
Speaker 6: to strip away their rights over their own bodies by
Speaker 6: voting for national abortion restrictions. So I'm a community member,
Speaker 6: I'm a mom. You're a law professor too, Yes I am.
Speaker 6: And you know I worked in the legislature. It's a
Speaker 6: tough place, the Arizona legislature, but you know I work
Speaker 6: across the isle on issues of education funding. That's why
Speaker 6: I ran in the first place, because I was so
Speaker 6: upset about the Republican legislature and governor's cuts to public
Speaker 6: school funding, not even being able to fund a field
Speaker 6: trip at my daughter's school. And worked on things like
Speaker 6: criminal justice reform, and you know I'm ready to do
Speaker 6: that for the district. I had a reputation of somebody
Speaker 6: who did their damn homework, and I think the people
Speaker 6: of this district deserve someone who will do their damn
Speaker 6: homework for them.
Speaker 1: You're running in a swing district. You lost by very
Speaker 1: small margin last time. You have a new Speaker of
Speaker 1: the House. Right took three weeks for Republican to elect
Speaker 1: Maga Mic. They've done it. Now, do you think I mean?
Speaker 1: You are running on the idea that there are no
Speaker 1: or at least when Democrats run in these swingy districts,
Speaker 1: it's really important to point out that there really aren't
Speaker 1: moderate Republicans anymore. And I think that this speakership you
Speaker 1: have these eighteen and Biden district Republicans and then people
Speaker 1: right who don't have the numbers and who have voted
Speaker 1: for these very severe extremist candidates like Mega Mic.
Speaker 2: So talk to me about what this does for your race.
Speaker 6: Yes, this speakership ending up with Mike Johnson, he is
Speaker 6: as you say, Mega, Mike, I love it. That is
Speaker 6: just so far out of where this district is. And
Speaker 6: for my opponent to have supported him and before him
Speaker 6: of voting not once, not twice, but three times for
Speaker 6: Jim Jordan. I mean, let's real, you know, Mike Johnson
Speaker 6: is is Jim Jordan with a sport code on. Both
Speaker 6: of them are rabidly anti abortion. Mike Johnson has co
Speaker 6: sponsored three major pieces of legislation banning abortion nationwide. Mike
Speaker 6: Johnson is the legal architect of Trump's efforts to overturn
Speaker 6: the election and subvert our democracy. Rabidly anti gay, for
Speaker 6: banning a marriage, for slashing security, privatized security, raising the age,
Speaker 6: denies the science of climate change. This is a moderate district.
Speaker 6: These are Arizonans, are down to earth, independent minded folks,
Speaker 6: and they are not extremists. And what we have is
Speaker 6: an extremist now two spots away from the presidency, two
Speaker 6: heartbeats away, and that my opponent voted for him is
Speaker 6: so out of keeping with the priorities of the people
Speaker 6: in this district.
Speaker 1: It is amazing to me that you have these real extremists.
Speaker 1: I wonder now when you're making this case to the
Speaker 1: American people, I mean, what are people saying in your district?
Speaker 1: Does you campaign? What is their temperature? What are they
Speaker 1: concerned with? What are Arizonians worried about?
Speaker 6: They're very, very frustrated as they watch the Republicans just
Speaker 6: you know, spinning their wheels, you know, wasting weeks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, are they upset about that? Does that permeate? Yes?
Speaker 6: Absolutely, absolutely. There's real issues that people are dealing with.
Speaker 6: There's problems that they want Congress to work on. Abortion
Speaker 6: is top of the mind for people. We are really facing,
Speaker 6: our young people are facing a national abortion ban. Water,
Speaker 6: as you know, the Southwest has really been struggling with
Speaker 6: drought motivated and pushed forward by climate change. And you know,
Speaker 6: I was talking to a farmer the other day in
Speaker 6: the southern part of my district. He is well has
Speaker 6: gone dry because there's been such overpumping of groundwater, and
Speaker 6: he's lost twenty thousand hens. He is really down to
Speaker 6: the bare bones of his farm, and he's looking at
Speaker 6: Congress and what are they doing? Like nothing, And there's
Speaker 6: just real, real frustration. And we're looking at potentially a
Speaker 6: government shutdown. We came within hours of it just a
Speaker 6: few weeks ago, and now with the Republicans just furthering
Speaker 6: away the time, we're up against that again. So are
Speaker 6: we going to be able to pass a farm bill
Speaker 6: to help those I don't know. My opponent has been
Speaker 6: busy doing things like attaching abortion band riders to the
Speaker 6: agriculture appropriations bill. This is nuts who is trying to
Speaker 6: solve our problems. It's somebody who's actually taking us down
Speaker 6: and embroiling us in these culture wars rather than working
Speaker 6: on real issues that people have. Can you say more
Speaker 6: about the importance of the farm bell? Absolutely. I mean,
Speaker 6: this district is both urban and rural, a lot of
Speaker 6: rural areas, and farming has been really difficult for a
Speaker 6: lot of people, especially with the issue of water here.
Speaker 6: You know, the drought on the Colorado River, the lowering
Speaker 6: groundwater table as a result of years of neglect and
Speaker 6: mismanagement here in Arizona over our water issues. And the
Speaker 6: Farm Bill could do a lot to help our farmers,
Speaker 6: to build that infrastructure for water to support the farmers
Speaker 6: where it's needed. Rather than working on issues like that,
Speaker 6: as we're seeing, Congress is frittering the time away with
Speaker 6: these battles over the speaker, resulting in a far right
Speaker 6: speaker who voted for bills to really slash the funding
Speaker 6: across the board for things like the farm industry.
Speaker 1: And you really feel like your constituents, for your soon
Speaker 1: to be constituents understand, they really are aware of what's
Speaker 1: happening with the speakership fight. It's not just some belwet
Speaker 1: stuff that doesn't permeate. Absolutely. We're all part of one
Speaker 1: big news cycle. You turn on the news, what do
Speaker 1: you see is you see this back and forth and
Speaker 1: the headlines.
Speaker 6: So while people may not be following every single change,
Speaker 6: and this Republican is up for speaker, oh two hours
Speaker 6: later he's gone and there's another one.
Speaker 2: They know that.
Speaker 6: Congress is not working on the problems that they have,
Speaker 6: and they don't see my opponent standing up to his
Speaker 6: party in order to stand up for them work up problems.
Speaker 1: When you are talking to constituents in Arizona, do you
Speaker 1: think they see this as a fight between democracy and
Speaker 1: a party that does not believe in democracy or do
Speaker 1: you think that larger point is largely a democratic thought
Speaker 1: that just sort of more partisan Democrats have.
Speaker 6: People in Arizona are seeing the chaos unfold in Washington,
Speaker 6: d C. And they're wondering who is working to lower
Speaker 6: the cost of gas and groceries. Not Juan Siscamani, not
Speaker 6: my opponent. So yes, they're watching and they're seeing inaction chaos, dysfunction,
Speaker 6: And I don't think with this far right extremist as
Speaker 6: a speaker, we're going to see any function returning to Congress.
Speaker 2: How do people in your state feel about Carrie like.
Speaker 6: Cherry Lake continues to get headlines. I think because she
Speaker 6: is so far out of the mainstream, she that she
Speaker 6: won the governorship of our state. So you know, excuse me,
Speaker 6: I think that's just laughable. So I think Arizona has
Speaker 6: moved on. They're ready for their lawmakers to get back
Speaker 6: to work, and they want Congress to work. They are
Speaker 6: disappointed and frustrated with my opponent and not standing up
Speaker 6: to people like Carrie Lake and others like her that
Speaker 6: are in the US Congress that they're not working to
Speaker 6: make healthcare more affordable, housing more affordable, to restore their
Speaker 6: rights over their own bodies, their own future. They're ready
Speaker 6: for leaders that are willing to roll up their sleeves
Speaker 6: and work. So when I was in the Arizona legislature,
Speaker 6: I got award as a legislator who did her damn homework.
Speaker 6: And you know that's the type of a member of
Speaker 6: Congress that I will be as somebody who does her
Speaker 6: damn homework for the people in this district.
Speaker 1: The guy running against is a co sponsor of h
Speaker 1: R seven. Talk to us about what HR seven is.
Speaker 6: So HR seven, it's a bill that's designed to chase
Speaker 6: women off of their private health care plan and really
Speaker 6: force private health insurance to drop abortion coverage by making
Speaker 6: sure that not a single dollar of federal money goes
Speaker 6: toward any aspect of health insurance. And this is going
Speaker 6: to have huge impacts upon poor women, on women of color,
Speaker 6: and it's going to have a big impacts on our
Speaker 6: women in the military veterans who rely on subsidies for
Speaker 6: their health care. But that isn't the only anti abortion right.
Speaker 2: He's gone after abortion pills to talk to us about that.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, he has voted against medication abortion to make sure
Speaker 6: that it cannot be sold in pharmacies. This is safe
Speaker 6: and legal. Mythipristone been available for years legally by the FDA,
Speaker 6: and he has voted to restricted sale in pharmacies and
Speaker 6: restrict its ability to be sent through the mail. And
Speaker 6: for a large district, a district with a lot of
Speaker 6: people far away from cities and towns.
Speaker 2: Parts of this district are very rural, that.
Speaker 6: Is really going to restrict this right of reproductive healthcare.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it shows that he's not a moderate.
Speaker 6: No, he is certainly not a moderate, and we knew
Speaker 6: that before he was elected. He cheered the repeal of
Speaker 6: Roe versus Wade. When the Dobbs decision came down, he's
Speaker 6: on video running away from voters who asked him about
Speaker 6: his position on abortion. He didn't want to level with
Speaker 6: the voters. And now he's gone to Congress to pass
Speaker 6: national abortion restrictions so that that right is not real.
Speaker 6: He's now voted three times, well, now make that four
Speaker 6: for a Speaker of the House who is rapidly anti abortion,
Speaker 6: Jim Jordan and now Mike Johnson. So he's been very
Speaker 6: clear about this and you know that is not where
Speaker 6: this district is. And you know, I'm a mom of
Speaker 6: a teenage daughter, and you know this really really hits
Speaker 6: our young people super, super hard as they see their lawmakers,
Speaker 6: you know, strip these rights away, their their own rights
Speaker 6: over their and their own future, their ability to direct
Speaker 6: their lives. It's really huge for them.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I really appreciate getting to talk
Speaker 1: to you. Tell us where people can find you.
Speaker 6: People can find me on the web. My website is
Speaker 6: anglefo Arizona dot com. We are on Facebook, We're on Instagram,
Speaker 6: We're on Twitter. They can reach out to us. Love
Speaker 6: to have their support in this election. It couldn't be
Speaker 6: more important in twenty twenty four. Abortion rights are on ballot,
Speaker 6: our democracy is on the ballot. We now have a
Speaker 6: speaker who voted, you know, not to certify the election.
Speaker 6: This is a critical, critical election in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 6: I'm very very proud to be running and would love
Speaker 6: to have folks.
Speaker 1: Support, and you're one of the eighteen people running for
Speaker 1: seats in Joe Biden's district. And if only five of
Speaker 1: those people win, Democrats take the House.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 6: We only need five seats to take back the House
Speaker 6: and restore these basic freedoms, and this district absolutely could
Speaker 6: be one of those seats. The route to a majority
Speaker 6: for the Democrats runs through this district.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Thank you.
Speaker 4: No Sion.
Speaker 1: Kirsten Engel is a former Arizona State senator who is
Speaker 1: running for Arizona's sixth congressional district.
Speaker 2: Jesse Cannon, my junk fast.
Speaker 3: There's an account on Twitter called R and C Research
Speaker 3: that really shows the work that the Republicans put into
Speaker 3: rigorous thought effort and research. Tell me what you're seeing there.
Speaker 1: Republicans got very into becoming keyboard warriors, and they decided
Speaker 1: they would find everything that they felt would embarrassed Democrats.
Speaker 1: But it happens to be that some of the things
Speaker 1: they think embarrassed Democrats are actually quite adorable. And also,
Speaker 1: for some inexplicable reason, this account hates dogs, So anytime
Speaker 1: Biden pets a dog, it ends up there, you know.
Speaker 1: But today they focus their ire on California Democratic Governor
Speaker 1: Gavin Newsom, who is playing basketball bafflingly in China. Basically,
Speaker 1: he knocks over a kid and to make sure the
Speaker 1: kid is okay, he gives them a big hug and
Speaker 1: then sort of picks them up. It's some wholesome, wholesome
Speaker 1: whatever this is. We would like to take this moment
Speaker 1: to call out the RNC Research account on Twitter.
Speaker 2: As our moment of fuck Ray.
Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in
Speaker 1: every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to hear the best minds
Speaker 1: in politics makes sense of all this chaos. If you
Speaker 1: enjoyed what you've heard, please send it to a friend
Speaker 1: and keep the conversation going. And again, thanks for listening.