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Speaker 1: Hello there, welcome to Thursday edition of the Chuck Toodcast.

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Speaker 1: We have a fantastic episode for you. My big guest

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Speaker 1: today is Fiona Hill. You may remember Fiona Hill from

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Speaker 1: the very first Trump administration. She was on the National

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Speaker 1: Security Staff with the portfolio of Russia. She is not

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Speaker 1: somebody you would call trumpy. I think she was arguably

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Speaker 1: brought in by the hr Holdeman team and she was

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Speaker 1: sort of part of that part of that group of

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Speaker 1: Trump staffers. In term one that was there to restrain Trump,

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Speaker 1: if you will, I don't know if she would put

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Speaker 1: it as starkly as I put it, but whether it's

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Speaker 1: hr McMaster or you had John Kelly or even a

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Speaker 1: Wright's prebus, and you know that there was a lot,

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Speaker 1: particularly in the national security space, of making sure all

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Speaker 1: the guardrails were there, and it was about keeping him

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Speaker 1: from going too much off the reservation. Obviously, folks like

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Speaker 1: Fienna Hill were not welcome back into a second Trump term.

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Speaker 1: But Fiona Hill's expertise on Russia in particular is no

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Speaker 1: less important these days, and so we have a great

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Speaker 1: conversation about how Russia may view Iran at the moment,

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Speaker 1: how they view this war, where's this headed, but most importantly,

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Speaker 1: where are we headed post Trump? What's the world going

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Speaker 1: to look like? What is geopolitical politics going to look like.

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Speaker 1: It's a pretty healthy exchange. And if you've ever spent

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Speaker 1: time reading or hearing from Fiona Hill, I think you

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Speaker 1: will enjoy this conversation. We spend a lot of time

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Speaker 1: in the war, it so in Iran and sort of

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Speaker 1: the whether Trump fully appreciates what he has gotten himself into.

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Speaker 1: And in fact, if you just look at the headlines

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Speaker 1: in the last twenty four hours. You know, what is

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Speaker 1: happening is exactly what people like Fiona Hill and others

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Speaker 1: would have warned him about and probably did warn him

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Speaker 1: about in the first term, and did warn him when

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Speaker 1: he made the decision to go after Solomoni, and did

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Speaker 1: warn him when he made the decision to bomb Iran

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Speaker 1: the first time, of what could happen. The fact that

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Speaker 1: you may get an asymmetrical response. Well, we're in that

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Speaker 1: awkward phase of this war where militarily it's a huge success.

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Speaker 1: There's no doubt the targets that we have chosen to bomb,

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Speaker 1: we've been successful with it. So as a military operation,

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Speaker 1: everything is going fairly well. But the problem is that

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Speaker 1: the definition of victory for the Iranians now is simply surviving. Right,

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Speaker 1: just like in some ways in Fiona Hill, well she

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Speaker 1: makes this direct comparison. It's sort of similar to how

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Speaker 1: Russia viewed Ukraine. They thought it would be quick and dirty,

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Speaker 1: they thought it would be easy, and then it wasn't.

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Speaker 1: And then suddenly, even though maybe tactically Russia can make

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Speaker 1: more advances into Ukraine and they're acquiring territory here, the

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Speaker 1: fact that the Ukrainians haven't folded is in itself a

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Speaker 1: loss for the Russians. And when you make regime change

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Speaker 1: the focal point, which the President did when he first

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Speaker 1: began this effort, when he said the goal he hoped

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Speaker 1: that Iranians would stand up and take their government back,

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Speaker 1: wasn't as direct as what the Israelis want. The Israelis

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Speaker 1: have made no secret about their goals in this war,

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Speaker 1: and they actually have very clear goals in this war.

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Speaker 1: It is to eradicate the threat of this Iranian regime

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Speaker 1: that includes regime chains, and this is why they're trying

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Speaker 1: to eradicate as blood and right. So whatever, you may

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Speaker 1: disagree with some of Israel's tactics, but unlike the United States,

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Speaker 1: they have a clear mission. They have a clear set

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Speaker 1: of goals, and they're trying to execute a strategy in

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Speaker 1: order to achieve those goals. Obviously, we do not have

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Speaker 1: those same set of goals. What does that look like?

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Speaker 1: And he is he has boxed himself in because the

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Speaker 1: military success is not leading to a policy victory, right,

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Speaker 1: and suddenly just the regime surviving is in and of

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Speaker 1: itself a victory for the Iranian reas because they weren't

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Speaker 1: knocked out. They weren't taken out by the big bad

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Speaker 1: Satan of the United States. Right, So he's got an

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Speaker 1: energy crisis on his hands. And then if he wants

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Speaker 1: to leave and I spend some time with her, it's

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Speaker 1: like okay, Fiona Hill. He's going to want to get out.

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Speaker 1: He knows this thing is on. How does he do it?

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Speaker 2: And it's not.

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Speaker 1: Clear how easily he can get out. He can stop

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Speaker 1: the bombing, he can stop participating, but it doesn't mean

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Speaker 1: the straits of horn Moves are going to be open

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Speaker 1: for business for shipping, whether that's for oil or for goods.

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Speaker 1: And they're still going to be a tactical need by

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Speaker 1: the US military to protect our allies and to protect

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Speaker 1: and to keep the waters open there. So he is

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Speaker 1: going to get dragged in. So the question is does

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Speaker 1: he get tucked into ground troops. One would assume he wouldn't,

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Speaker 1: but if he wants to achieve the goal of regime change,

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Speaker 1: he would have no other choice. Does he just keep

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Speaker 1: this up and hope that over time they just wear

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Speaker 1: them down? That awfully costly, it's softly expensive. And then

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Speaker 1: you get accidents like the US military targeting a girls'

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Speaker 1: school rather than it was it was the wrong target.

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Speaker 1: We are now admitting this. We'll see if the President

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Speaker 1: puts his own face behind this. It's unlikely he tried

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Speaker 1: to say it might have been the Iranians that did it,

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Speaker 1: using us stolen US weapons to somehow blame America for this.

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Speaker 1: It is pretty clear that we either had old information

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Speaker 1: targeting the wrong thing, but we are accepting the blame

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Speaker 1: for this. The question is what you know, how how

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Speaker 1: do we behave? How does the president behave and actually

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Speaker 1: put this information out or is it a typical Trump

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Speaker 1: and he refuses to do it and makes egg Seth

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Speaker 1: do it or makes General Kine do it, which is

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Speaker 1: also a possibility. Few other headlines that you shouldn't miss

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Speaker 1: in the war itself. ABC News is reporting that the

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Speaker 1: FBI let California sheriffs and other law enforcement officials know

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Speaker 1: of a potential threat of Iranian drone strikes from the

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Speaker 1: Pacific Ocean targeting California towns that would be and this

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Speaker 1: is the fear of this war is that it essentially

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Speaker 1: goes asymmetrical or horizontal, where they try to make the

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Speaker 1: cost of this very expensive bombing ports, putting minds in

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Speaker 1: the straight of horn moves. There are sleepers, perhaps sleeper

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Speaker 1: cells in western cities all over the world that get

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Speaker 1: targeted with Iranian supported terrorist attacks. These are the concerns,

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Speaker 1: and this is the metastasizing that's always been something that

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Speaker 1: many a policy advisor to many a president who who

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Speaker 1: is asked, Okay, what should we do here? Should we

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Speaker 1: try to take out this regime has always been sort

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Speaker 1: of pulled back by all of the potential fallout and

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Speaker 1: how complicated.

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Speaker 2: The fallout is.

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Speaker 1: Unlike unlike Liberation Day, he can't just turn it off.

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Speaker 1: And so it is we're we're He is in this.

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Speaker 1: That's why I called it quicksand the other day. He's

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Speaker 1: in quicksand now and it is hard to imagine how

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Speaker 1: he's fully going to extricate himself from this without still

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Speaker 1: doing a lot of damage to our alliances, leaving the

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Speaker 1: Middle East in total shambles and screwing up the economy.

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Speaker 1: Other than that, this is going really well. And again

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Speaker 1: militarily it is, and it's and you know, I think

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Speaker 1: there's a noble goal here. Getting rid of the scourge

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Speaker 1: that is this Iranian regime would be good for the region,

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Speaker 1: would be good for the Iranian people. But is this

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Speaker 1: the best way to do it? And are we blowing

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Speaker 1: our credibility to a point where this stuff's going to

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Speaker 1: get harder down the road, not easier. So, and we

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Speaker 1: also learned that the initial drone attack that killed those

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Speaker 1: first service members that died, it's a pretty vicious attack.

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Speaker 1: We've got seriously injured soldiers. This was a CBS News

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Speaker 1: report that indicated this serious, seriously injured soldiers in that

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Speaker 1: attack on an American installation in Kuwait. So the costs

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Speaker 1: of this war are escalating and the actual cost of

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Speaker 1: this war is going to be expensive, and it's going

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Speaker 1: to be an extraordinarily tough vote in Congress that I

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Speaker 1: can promise you. And Republicans already know this because they're

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Speaker 1: thinking about doing a reconciliation bill, believe it or not. Right,

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Speaker 1: they can't figure out an electioneer agenda. They can't agree

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Speaker 1: on anything. They just had their House retreat where half

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Speaker 1: the members didn't even show up. Right, this is a

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Speaker 1: House republ look and majority that kind of knows it's

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Speaker 1: over right. The rank and file look like they've already

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Speaker 1: pulled ripcord. Half of them didn't show up. Now some

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Speaker 1: of them are probably among that one hundred plus that

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Speaker 1: didn't show up. A bunch of them are retiring, and

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Speaker 1: a bunch of others are running for higher office and

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Speaker 1: don't want to be associated with the House Republican brand

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Speaker 1: at this point. But this is a demoralized majority. They

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Speaker 1: don't know what to run on, and the war in

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Speaker 1: Iran has now complicated this, and they're going to have

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Speaker 1: to figure out how to fund this war, and it's

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Speaker 1: possible the only way they could avoid a potential sixty

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Speaker 1: vote threshold to fund this war in the Senate is

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Speaker 1: to do this under the rules of reconciliation, which means

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Speaker 1: no filibustering.

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Speaker 2: Which means fifty votes.

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Speaker 1: And the fact that they're already talking about that as

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Speaker 1: a way to fund this war, in some ways, it's

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Speaker 1: pretty self defeating. And they realize what a political loser

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Speaker 1: this is, that the only choice they have is to

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Speaker 1: make this a loyalty test for the President and that

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Speaker 1: they're going to need him whipping the vote for this,

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Speaker 1: and I think we know where that's going to come from.

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Speaker 1: The other one other sort of extraneous war nugget that

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Speaker 1: I wanted to get to is the boy this Pete

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Speaker 1: hegseth Man.

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Speaker 2: He is, he is.

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Speaker 1: I'd say he's so thin skinned he has no skin left.

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Speaker 1: Apparently they have now barred press photographers from the press

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Speaker 1: briefing because they thought the photos that were circulating in

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Speaker 1: the various syndication sites where people get photographs were unflattering

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Speaker 1: to mister hag seth.

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Speaker 2: Man.

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Speaker 1: This guy's got a lot of issues. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if they're Freudian these issues, if there's something else, but

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Speaker 1: you know, his he definitely that guy. You could put

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Speaker 1: him on the couch and go a lot of different directions,

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Speaker 1: but he clearly that the fact that he's the guy

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Speaker 1: in charge of this war at the moment. I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: be honest, it's not very reassuring. You have somebody who's

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Speaker 1: this thin skin, somebody who can't take any negative criticism

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Speaker 1: at all, is supposed to be out there, you know,

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Speaker 1: making the tough calls that are necessary when running a war.

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Speaker 1: I mean talk about talk about not giving reassurance to

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Speaker 1: the American people. This guy cannot give any real and

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Speaker 1: his his overt his religiosity or I don't know if

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Speaker 1: it's even real. It may be, it may be real, Right,

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to question his faith, but to to

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Speaker 1: insert it into the public square. The way he's doing

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Speaker 1: it is it's not a unifying thing to do, and

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Speaker 1: it certainly makes those that serve who are who don't

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Speaker 1: share his faith and don't share his belief system really

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Speaker 1: isolates them. And uh and and I think makes it

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Speaker 1: that much harder to have a cohesive unit. So this is,

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Speaker 1: you know, with a very serious war we're engaged in,

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Speaker 1: and we have an completely unseerious and unprepared leader at

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Speaker 1: the Defense Department. You know, look, he never should have

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Speaker 1: been confirmed. A handful of Republican senators knew it, and

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Speaker 1: they got They got extorted, basically. And when I say

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Speaker 1: they got extorted, they got threatened, right, I think it's

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Speaker 1: pretty clear Tilla Scott and Jonny Ernst were both threatened

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Speaker 1: to points. And I think there's a reason neither one

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Speaker 1: of them are running for reelection. And I think it

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Speaker 1: has a lot to do with the confirmation fight over

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Speaker 1: Haigsith because it was clear he was unqualified for this job.

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Speaker 1: It was clear Jenny Earnst thought he was unqualified. It

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Speaker 1: was clear Tom Tillis thought he was unqualified. They both

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Speaker 1: ended up having to support this and they both decided

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Speaker 1: not to seek reelection. That wasn't a coincidence, but we

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Speaker 1: are now seeing why. And I'm sorry that they didn't

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Speaker 1: have the guts then to stand up to what they

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Speaker 1: knew it was wrong. They knew he was unqualified, and

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Speaker 1: now we are paying the price for what happens. We

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Speaker 1: have a very serious event here. Look, President made the decision.

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Speaker 1: How we conduct ourselves, how we unwind from this. You

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Speaker 1: need serious leadership with the Pentagon, and we do not

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Speaker 1: have it at the moment. It's very disconcerting, and I

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Speaker 1: think we this is one of those things where there's

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Speaker 1: kind of a bipartisan consensus that that knows this. Yet

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Speaker 1: we know you have to stay silent apparently if you're

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Speaker 1: on the Republican side of aisle, and that that is

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Speaker 1: a considering that life and death. These are somebody in

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Speaker 1: charge of life and death decisions at the moment.

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Speaker 2: I know if I was the parent of.

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Speaker 1: A servant, an active duty service member right now, I'd

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Speaker 1: be very very concerned about who is calling the shots here.

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Speaker 1: All right, I want to move. I want to spend

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Speaker 1: a little bit of time. This is a this is

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Speaker 1: a request actually from from a few folks close to me,

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Speaker 1: who I think there hasn't been a good explanation for

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Speaker 1: what's this, This fight over the so called the Save Act,

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Speaker 1: which is the Republican version of trying to deal with

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Speaker 1: election integrity, and we had a Democratic version of this

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Speaker 1: that was known as HR one back in twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 1: and I thought it would be important to explain the

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Speaker 1: actual details and explain the philosophical debate that is actually

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Speaker 1: taking place between the two parties, and then the sort

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Speaker 1: of demagoguery aspect of this that Trump is inserted in

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Speaker 1: that is blowing this whole thing up. And of course

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Speaker 1: the irony is that the fight over this, the polarization

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Speaker 1: and the partisan weaponization of this bill, could lead Republicans

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Speaker 1: in the Senate to get rid of the filibuster. Now

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Speaker 1: I'm skeptical, but now, John Cornyn, I mean, here's a reminder.

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Speaker 1: When you're desperate to win reelection, your principles are the

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Speaker 1: first thing that go out the door. Apparently he is

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Speaker 1: somebody that has been a fierce defender of the filibuster

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Speaker 1: until it was got in the way of his need

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Speaker 1: to get Donald Trump to endorse his runoff candidacy in Texas.

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Speaker 1: And now he's flipped and he is willing to get

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Speaker 1: rid of the filibuster if it is used to pass

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Speaker 1: the so called Save Act. So maybe this is real.

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Speaker 1: Maybe this is on the table. I'm skeptical the Republicans

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Speaker 1: have the votes to kill the filibuster. I don't think

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Speaker 1: they do. I think, you know, we know the least

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Speaker 1: trumpy constituency left in the Republican Party are Senate Republicans.

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Speaker 1: You know, I don't believe Mike Grounds will do this. Okay,

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Speaker 1: I don't believe Tom Tillis is going to do this.

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Speaker 1: I don't believe Bill Cassidy is going to do this,

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Speaker 1: of course, but I would have said two days ago,

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Speaker 1: I didn't believe John Cornyn was going to do this.

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Speaker 1: But you know, everything is for sale in this version,

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Speaker 1: in Donald Trump's version of the Republican Party, including integrity

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Speaker 1: and principles. So thought I thought I would instead, let's

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Speaker 1: lay out sort of the larger debate here over elect

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Speaker 1: integrity and what are the true north stars of both parties.

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Speaker 1: So the primary goal, right, I think this is an

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Speaker 1: easy way to explain it. The primary goal of HR

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Speaker 1: one Right for the People back in twenty twenty one

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Speaker 1: was expansion and access. Essentially, they wanted to federalize standards

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Speaker 1: to make voting easier. The primary goal of the Save

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Speaker 1: America Act is security and verification. They want to federalized

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Speaker 1: standards to make voter registration stricter. The Democrats and HR

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Speaker 1: one wanted automatic voter registration right, they wanted to move

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Speaker 1: the burden to the government to register you via the DMV.

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Speaker 1: With the Republicans, they go the opposite way, and they

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Speaker 1: wanted proof of citizenship and they are moving the burden

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Speaker 1: to the voter to provide physical proof of citizenship in

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Speaker 1: order to get to vote. When it comes to the

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Speaker 1: voter rolls. HR one wanted to protect purging to prevent

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Speaker 1: voters from being removed, whilst the Save Act wants to

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Speaker 1: mandate frequent purges using DHS citizenship databases.

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Speaker 2: To do this.

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Speaker 1: Then, of course there's the issue of mail voting. Mandatory

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Speaker 1: access required. The HR one was going to require states

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Speaker 1: to offer that you had to offer no excuse mail

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Speaker 1: in ballot options. They didn't say how many dates or

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Speaker 1: whatever it was, but you know, whether it's a week,

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Speaker 1: two weeks, etc. What the Save Act would do in

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Speaker 1: its current form, it would seek to end universal mail

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Speaker 1: in voting, and of course Trump wants to even put

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Speaker 1: more curbs on that, which that version of it would

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Speaker 1: have to pass one more time in the House because

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Speaker 1: that wasn't in this version. So let's dig in deeper

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Speaker 1: in here into the Save Act. There's a significant gap

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Speaker 1: between the bill that cleared the House and the version

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Speaker 1: that President Trump has been championing on the bully pulpit

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Speaker 1: over the last couple of days. Here's what the actually

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Speaker 1: passed the House. The core of it is the documentary

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Speaker 1: proof of citizenship. So to register to vote in this

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Speaker 1: bill that passed the House, you need a passport, a

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Speaker 1: birth certificate, or a so called real ID that specifically

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Speaker 1: denotes citizenship on the ID. And it also requires states

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Speaker 1: to submit voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security

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Speaker 1: for quote unquote scrubbing. Now, what Trump is advocating, he

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Speaker 1: actually is up the Annie. He said he's not going

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Speaker 1: to sign any major spending bills unless this Save Act

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Speaker 1: is gold plate it. So he wants the following additions

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Speaker 1: that were not in the original House text. He wants

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Speaker 1: a total ban on mail in ballots except for military

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Speaker 1: and disability. He wants a one day, one vote manday.

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Speaker 1: He wants all voting on one day, and then he's

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Speaker 1: got some unrelated culture war writers that he throws in

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Speaker 1: their bands on transgender participation in sports.

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Speaker 2: Things like that.

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Speaker 1: sixty five day returns quints dot com slash chuck. Now,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about the reality of the Senate. The bill

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Speaker 1: is currently stalled in the Senate, and this is the

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Speaker 1: bill without those extra gold plated editions that Trump wants advocated.

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Speaker 1: It needs sixty votes to overcome a filibuster, and Republicans

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Speaker 1: have a narrow majority. They don't have the sixty votes,

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Speaker 1: and they're obviously this is the moment we're in. They're

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Speaker 1: having this quote debate about whether they should nuke the filibuster,

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Speaker 1: and like I said, I don't think they have the

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Speaker 1: votes to do it, and if they do, and I

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Speaker 1: specially think they don't have the votes to do it.

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Speaker 1: Now when the reality of Democrats winning control of the

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Speaker 1: Senate is not a fantasy anymore, it is a pretty

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Speaker 1: realistic outcome of the twenty twenty six elections. Is it

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Speaker 1: the most likely outcome? No, but it is not an

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Speaker 1: unlikely outcome.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: We are sitting in the forty percent range, forty to

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Speaker 1: forty five percent range when it comes to Democrats' chances

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Speaker 1: of taking the Senate, and I promise you, if the

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Speaker 1: Republicans are the one to get rid of the Philipbuster,

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Speaker 1: Democrats aren't going to be the ones to put it back. Now,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about the core argument and what I think

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Speaker 1: is a trap of this partisan power graph.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: You see the framing of this, particularly with partisan influencers

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Speaker 1: and partisan members of the press, that this is voter

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Speaker 1: integrity versus voter suppression. But what this really is is

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Speaker 1: I don't think election laws have any moral authority the

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Speaker 1: public when they are passed on a fifty one to

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Speaker 1: forty nine basis, And if you do this on a

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Speaker 1: partisan basis, you literally delegitimize the democracy. And maybe that's

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Speaker 1: the feature not the bug of what Donald Trump is

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Speaker 1: up to. But let me set that aside. Here's what's

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Speaker 1: interesting is how similar the oppositional rhetoric is to both bills. Right,

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Speaker 1: when Democrats try to pass HR one, right, the same

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Speaker 1: thing that happened here. Right, they passed it in the House.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't get it done in the Senate. When Democrats

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Speaker 1: passed HR one, Republicans called it a federal takeover and

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Speaker 1: a power graph because it was written by one party

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Speaker 1: to to benefit a their perceived base of younger urban voters. Well,

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Speaker 1: we're sort of got a mirror image in the Save Act.

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Speaker 1: The Save Act is seen by the left as a

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Speaker 1: power grab designed to disenfranchise voters who lack easy access

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Speaker 1: to birth certificates or who rely on mail in voting,

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Speaker 1: like seniors and roll of voters. Now here's the problem.

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Speaker 1: When the rules of the game change every four years

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Speaker 1: based on who holds the power, the public will lose

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Speaker 1: faith in the results of the game. Right, It's like

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Speaker 1: allowing allowing the University of Miami or Indiana University. If

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Speaker 1: the University of Miami's a home team, they get to

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Speaker 1: pick the officials, and if Indiana University's they get to

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Speaker 1: pick the officials, right, they get to hire the officials.

434
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:19,720
Speaker 2: We wouldn't.

435
00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:23,640
Speaker 1: We're already a little skeptical when in these interconference matchups,

436
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:28,720
Speaker 1: when say it's Miami versus Florida and you have to

437
00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:32,600
Speaker 1: deal with SEC officials or ACC officials, Right, one side

438
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:35,120
Speaker 1: doesn't trust that the other conference doesn't have you know,

439
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:38,639
Speaker 1: you want a neutral third party conference, right. I believe

440
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:40,120
Speaker 1: we had either big I think we had big ten

441
00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:44,159
Speaker 1: officials doing the Miami Indiana National title game. He's not

442
00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 1: big ten officers, big twelve officials, I believe, or yes,

443
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:49,160
Speaker 1: it was big twelve officials. Then we had SEC officials

444
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,640
Speaker 1: I think for a game when we played Ohio State.

445
00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:55,239
Speaker 1: But the point was you had neutral arbiters because there

446
00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:58,400
Speaker 1: would have been questions of legitimacy and concerns that there

447
00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:01,119
Speaker 1: wasn't going to be fairness there, particularly since there's a

448
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:04,120
Speaker 1: financial incentive for conferences to do well.

449
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:06,639
Speaker 2: In these in these in these deals.

450
00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:10,840
Speaker 1: So this is you know, we're going to change the

451
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:13,800
Speaker 1: rules fifty one to forty nine. Right, Eventually the loser

452
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:17,720
Speaker 1: is never going to accept the outcome. And so this

453
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:20,119
Speaker 1: is why the Save Act isn't just about citizenship. It's

454
00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:23,720
Speaker 1: a fundamental shift in the contract of American voting.

455
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:25,600
Speaker 2: It moves from.

456
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:30,600
Speaker 1: A system of self attestation, meaning I sign a legal

457
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:33,159
Speaker 1: oath under penalty of perjury if I'm lying about my

458
00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:37,600
Speaker 1: citizenship or lying that I'm dual registered somewhere, to a

459
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,800
Speaker 1: permission based system where you have to have government has

460
00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:43,760
Speaker 1: to verify whether you're allowed to vote. That's what the

461
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:47,320
Speaker 1: you know, Iranians decide who gets to vote, the Iranian

462
00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:49,919
Speaker 1: government does. That's not the way the United States system

463
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 1: was meant to work, all right. Now, let's dive into

464
00:26:55,040 --> 00:27:00,239
Speaker 1: this election integrity war. It's a term, depending on who

465
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:02,600
Speaker 1: you ask, is either a shield for democracy or sel

466
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:06,199
Speaker 1: sledgehammer against it. So right now we are seeing a

467
00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:08,840
Speaker 1: collision of two very different, very partisan visions of how

468
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 1: you and I actually get a ballot. On one side,

469
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:14,400
Speaker 1: you have the ghost of HR one. On the other side,

470
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:17,200
Speaker 1: you of the current battle over the Save America Act. Now,

471
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:19,200
Speaker 1: if you're getting your news from social media, you probably

472
00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:22,239
Speaker 1: think the Save Act is just common sense or total suppression, right,

473
00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:26,960
Speaker 1: depending on which algorithm you're fed. But let's be honest,

474
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:30,040
Speaker 1: the policy reality is a lot more complicated, and the

475
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:35,120
Speaker 1: political strategy is even more cynical than itutlooks. So let's

476
00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:37,680
Speaker 1: go back to twenty twenty one. Democrats wanted to federalize

477
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:42,240
Speaker 1: elections by mandating automatic voter registration. The idea the government

478
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:44,119
Speaker 1: should find you if you're at the DMV, you're on

479
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:47,920
Speaker 1: the rules. Well, fast forward to twenty twenty six. House

480
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:50,840
Speaker 1: Republicans pass the Save America Act, and it is the

481
00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:55,200
Speaker 1: exact inverse. It doesn't just reject automatic registration. It makes

482
00:27:55,240 --> 00:28:00,000
Speaker 1: registration eight show your papers event. It mandates documentary proof

483
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:05,120
Speaker 1: of citizenship. We're talking birth certificates, passports, and specific real

484
00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:09,879
Speaker 1: IDs that denote citizenship. So this is what actually passed

485
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:13,359
Speaker 1: the House last month. A requirement for documentary proof of

486
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:16,920
Speaker 1: citizenship to register. So you'd have to go and get

487
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:20,600
Speaker 1: a birth certificate, which could take days or weeks depending

488
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:23,560
Speaker 1: on the jurisdiction you were born in. You need a

489
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:27,400
Speaker 1: mandate for states to purge voter roles using DHS databases

490
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:32,600
Speaker 1: controlled by people like Corey Lewandowski or once were you

491
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:35,720
Speaker 1: tell me whether you trust that a man who's bragging

492
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:37,880
Speaker 1: by the way that he thought he was bulletproof because

493
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:39,640
Speaker 1: no matter what he did, he'd get a pardon from Trump.

494
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:43,959
Speaker 1: That should make you feel good about DHS systems. And

495
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:46,520
Speaker 1: then there were strict voter idea requirements for both in

496
00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 1: person and mail in voting. But there's a massive gap

497
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:53,280
Speaker 1: between the bill of the House actually sent to the

498
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:57,400
Speaker 1: Senate and what Donald Trump is actually demanding. Untrue social right.

499
00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:01,200
Speaker 1: The President wants even more this bill, which means they'd

500
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:03,200
Speaker 1: have to go back to the House and pass this again.

501
00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:06,320
Speaker 1: Good luck doing that. But he you know, he told

502
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:09,800
Speaker 1: Senate Republicans not signing anything, effectively threatening a shutdown unless

503
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:13,080
Speaker 1: they add what he calls his non negotiables, total ban

504
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:15,920
Speaker 1: on mail in ballots except for the military. And get this,

505
00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:19,640
Speaker 1: he wants to attach writers banning transgender women from sports

506
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:22,160
Speaker 1: and ending gender affirming care for minors, all in.

507
00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:22,760
Speaker 2: This Save Act.

508
00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:27,240
Speaker 1: So he took a focused, albeit controversial election bill and

509
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:29,680
Speaker 1: turned it into a Christmas tree of culture war grievances.

510
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:32,680
Speaker 1: He's not asking for just a change of the rules.

511
00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 1: He's asking for total transformation of the American voting experience,

512
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:39,760
Speaker 1: and he's doing it through ex executive pressure that even

513
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 1: some of his own party in the Senate, namely John Thune,

514
00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:45,920
Speaker 1: the Senate Republican leader, are looking with the hey, buddy,

515
00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:48,040
Speaker 1: do you have a plan to get to sixty votes,

516
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:52,719
Speaker 1: whether it's HR one or the Save Act. We are

517
00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:58,360
Speaker 1: stuck in this cycle of partisan electioneering. And here's the

518
00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:03,760
Speaker 1: Here's important because we've had this game gamesmanship on elections

519
00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:07,400
Speaker 1: before that were used to deny black people the opportunity

520
00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 1: to vote in the late nineteenth century, in most of

521
00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 1: the twentieth century, and there was and we know, when

522
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:17,600
Speaker 1: one party changes the rules, it is not there to

523
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 1: benefit everybody. It is there benefit only that one party.

524
00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:24,720
Speaker 1: And there had been kind of an unspoken rule in

525
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:27,360
Speaker 1: the American democracy that you didn't change the rules of

526
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:29,719
Speaker 1: the game unless you had members of both teams agreeing

527
00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 1: to the rules changes. Democrats didn't bother to find Republicans

528
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:39,880
Speaker 1: or find a way to find broader appealing parts of

529
00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:44,440
Speaker 1: their parts of the bill are very popular, just like

530
00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:47,520
Speaker 1: parts of the Save bill for Republicans are very popular.

531
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:54,520
Speaker 1: But they're parts. And here's the reality that the Republicans

532
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:58,080
Speaker 1: jammed this through. It's a political nightmare for them and

533
00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:00,280
Speaker 1: actually I think will only serve as a get out

534
00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 1: the vote mechanism for the left and the less actually

535
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:05,360
Speaker 1: going to do everything they're going to have, you know,

536
00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:07,920
Speaker 1: you'll see people on tic tac.

537
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:09,480
Speaker 2: I'm showing my age.

538
00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:13,680
Speaker 1: You'll see people on TikTok, you know, doing little songs

539
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:15,680
Speaker 1: and dances and how do you find your birth certificate?

540
00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:17,440
Speaker 1: How do you request a copy of it? And this

541
00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:20,080
Speaker 1: is what you do, and YadA, YadA YadA. Trust me,

542
00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:23,880
Speaker 1: they'll figure it out pretty quickly and it will serve

543
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 1: as an automatic motivator. I mean, the likelihood that this

544
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:28,960
Speaker 1: blows up in their face if they actually do this

545
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:32,680
Speaker 1: is just I mean, I mean, my God, to get

546
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 1: rid of the filibuster to do this, and it would

547
00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:36,840
Speaker 1: you know, it's like it's like, it's like Trump and

548
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:40,240
Speaker 1: his absurd demand for partisan redistricting. Careful what you ask for.

549
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:42,200
Speaker 1: You might get it and it may end up blowing

550
00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:45,600
Speaker 1: up in your face. Take the state of Virginia they're

551
00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:47,480
Speaker 1: now going to who had them having a ten to

552
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 1: one delegation on their bingo card a year ago? The

553
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:54,080
Speaker 1: answer is no one. Welcome to karma it So you

554
00:31:54,120 --> 00:32:02,800
Speaker 1: know what, So now we ought to get to the

555
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:05,640
Speaker 1: uncomfortable part. And there are parts of both people's agendas

556
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:08,040
Speaker 1: that are both popular, in parts that are not at

557
00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 1: all okay. There is a pretty big disconnect between Washington

558
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:18,840
Speaker 1: and the rest of the country on some of these bills.

559
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:20,600
Speaker 1: Because if you listen to the debate on the House floor,

560
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:23,680
Speaker 1: you'd think the Save America Act was the most polarizing

561
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:25,080
Speaker 1: piece of legislation since.

562
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:25,840
Speaker 2: The Affordable Care Act.

563
00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:28,760
Speaker 1: But if you actually look at the polling from this

564
00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:32,360
Speaker 1: year Pew Gallop, even Maris, you're going to see something different.

565
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 1: The voter ID concept is not controversial now. Most people

566
00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:39,000
Speaker 1: are assuming it means the same, you know, same thing

567
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:40,760
Speaker 1: you do at the airport. You know, you just show

568
00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:43,960
Speaker 1: your driver's license, that you should show your driver's license,

569
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:47,720
Speaker 1: your government issued photo ID right before you go vote.

570
00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:50,960
Speaker 1: That has eighty three to eighty four percent support. That's

571
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:55,200
Speaker 1: not a Republican number, that's a consensus number. And there's

572
00:32:55,240 --> 00:33:00,720
Speaker 1: even support for proof of citizenship for first time registrants

573
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:04,760
Speaker 1: that clocks in it over eighty percent support. All right,

574
00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:08,040
Speaker 1: eighty percent. That's a big deal. Now again, first time registrants,

575
00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:14,120
Speaker 1: that is not what this is. So this is where

576
00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:19,520
Speaker 1: you see a lot of partisan commentators claim this is

577
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:23,520
Speaker 1: enormously popular. The Save Act is enormously The Save Act

578
00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:27,680
Speaker 1: is not enormously popular. One piece of the Save Act

579
00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:37,200
Speaker 1: is enormously popular. Right, this is friction versus the function functionality. So,

580
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:42,000
Speaker 1: and this is where we are having a debate over

581
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:44,320
Speaker 1: how much friction there should there be in the issue

582
00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:46,960
Speaker 1: of voting. And right now, Republicans believe it should be

583
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:49,360
Speaker 1: harder to vote, and Democrats believe it should be easier

584
00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:52,320
Speaker 1: to vote. Right and the Save Act moves friction to

585
00:33:52,360 --> 00:33:54,080
Speaker 1: the front end, and it says you don't get in

586
00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:57,000
Speaker 1: the door to vote until you prove who you are

587
00:33:57,320 --> 00:33:58,720
Speaker 1: with a birth certificate.

588
00:33:58,320 --> 00:33:58,960
Speaker 2: Or a passport.

589
00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:03,520
Speaker 1: And guess what, roughly twenty one million Americans, most of

590
00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:06,200
Speaker 1: them elderly, are the rural poor. Don't have those papers

591
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 1: in our drawer ready to go. Then the Democrats with

592
00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:12,080
Speaker 1: HR one wanted to get rid of all friction. It

593
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:15,920
Speaker 1: wanted automatic voter registration, basically saying the government should do

594
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:18,960
Speaker 1: the work for you. So the Democrats want to make

595
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:21,040
Speaker 1: the funnel as wide as possible to ensure no one

596
00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:24,000
Speaker 1: is left out. The Republicans want to filter as fine

597
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:27,600
Speaker 1: as possible to ensure no one is in who shouldn't be. Now,

598
00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:30,400
Speaker 1: both sides claiming they are protecting the sanctity of the

599
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:33,920
Speaker 1: vote and the spirit of democracy, but both sides are

600
00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:36,200
Speaker 1: actually trying to engineer the electorate.

601
00:34:35,719 --> 00:34:37,200
Speaker 2: To their own advantage.

602
00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:43,560
Speaker 1: Right and the other parts of the Save Act are

603
00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:46,400
Speaker 1: not popular. By demanding a total ban on mail in

604
00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:49,840
Speaker 1: balance and attaching culture war writers to the bill, Trump

605
00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:52,600
Speaker 1: is taking a simple policy like voter idea at the polls,

606
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:56,960
Speaker 1: that most Americans actually agree with, and wrapping in in

607
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:00,640
Speaker 1: a package that half the country finds tocks. And he's

608
00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:03,279
Speaker 1: doing exactly what the Democrats did with HR One. They

609
00:35:03,280 --> 00:35:06,560
Speaker 1: took some popular ideas like ethics reform and ending jerrymandering,

610
00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:08,440
Speaker 1: and they stuffed him in a seven hundred page bill

611
00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:11,880
Speaker 1: that included federal funding for campaigns. Total non starter for

612
00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:14,920
Speaker 1: the right. But this is a classic Washington playbook. You

613
00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:18,520
Speaker 1: take one popular idea, you poison it with partisan must haves,

614
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:21,080
Speaker 1: and then you blame the other side when it fails.

615
00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:24,239
Speaker 1: It's a win win for the consultant community, it's a

616
00:35:24,239 --> 00:35:28,480
Speaker 1: win win for your social media fundraising, but it's a

617
00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:34,400
Speaker 1: lose lose for voter trust. And it brings us back

618
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:37,000
Speaker 1: to the larger point. You cannot save an election system

619
00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 1: by yourself. If the Save Act passes the Senate, by

620
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,239
Speaker 1: nuking the filibuster and getting fifty one Republican votes, half

621
00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:45,320
Speaker 1: the country will view the twenty twenty six midterms is

622
00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:49,480
Speaker 1: rigged before single ballot is cast, just as Republicans viewed

623
00:35:49,560 --> 00:35:51,719
Speaker 1: HR one as a democratic coup in twenty twenty one.

624
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:55,600
Speaker 1: Stability in a democracy does not come from a fifty

625
00:35:55,640 --> 00:36:00,000
Speaker 1: one percent majority. And I know right now everybody's assumption is, well,

626
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:02,160
Speaker 1: Trump is proving you can take a forty six percent

627
00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:05,279
Speaker 1: majority and jamm through if you know how to use

628
00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:09,200
Speaker 1: power or abuse power. But this stuff is not going

629
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:12,920
Speaker 1: to stick. There's a reason he can't couldn't get reelected

630
00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:16,840
Speaker 1: once and he's yet to have a successful midterm. Okay,

631
00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:21,080
Speaker 1: Stability in a democracy comes from consent, And when you

632
00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:23,360
Speaker 1: change the rules of the game on a partisan basis,

633
00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:26,799
Speaker 1: you aren't fixing the pipes. You're poisoning the well. And

634
00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:30,480
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six, the well is already running pretty dry.

635
00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:34,680
Speaker 1: So let's get out of the theoretical and into the

636
00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:40,840
Speaker 1: real world. Proponents of the Save Act say this is

637
00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:44,799
Speaker 1: about one thing, ensuring that only citizens vote, and they

638
00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:47,480
Speaker 1: point to the eighty percent of Americans who say, yeah,

639
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:50,080
Speaker 1: that sounds reasonable. Only citizens should vote, By the way,

640
00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:53,040
Speaker 1: it's already the law of the lay it. But if

641
00:36:53,040 --> 00:36:54,840
Speaker 1: we look at the states that have already tried a

642
00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:58,359
Speaker 1: version of this bill, we're going to see a very

643
00:36:58,360 --> 00:36:59,000
Speaker 1: different picture.

644
00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:00,360
Speaker 2: Let me tell you the story of Arizona.

645
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:03,440
Speaker 1: For years, Arizona was the only state in the Union

646
00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:11,120
Speaker 1: that required documentary proof of citizenship to register for state elections.

647
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:14,239
Speaker 1: And what did we find out? By the end of

648
00:37:14,239 --> 00:37:17,600
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four there were nearly thirty four thousand federal

649
00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:21,319
Speaker 1: only voters in Arizona. These are people who could not

650
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:24,719
Speaker 1: produce a birth certificate or a passport, so they were

651
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:29,440
Speaker 1: legally barred from voting for governor or state house. But

652
00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:32,520
Speaker 1: thanks to the Supreme Court carve out, they could still

653
00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 1: vote for president and Congress. Thirty four thousand people. That's

654
00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:41,520
Speaker 1: more than the average margin of victory in swing state

655
00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:45,160
Speaker 1: Arizona these days. Right, These weren't illegals, by the way,

656
00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:47,480
Speaker 1: They were citizens who just didn't have their papers in

657
00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:54,560
Speaker 1: a shoe box. And here's the kicker. Georgia, another swing state,

658
00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:57,840
Speaker 1: conducted its own Remember this is a Republican controlled state,

659
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:03,279
Speaker 1: Georgia that its own massive citizenship audit in twenty twenty four,

660
00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:06,880
Speaker 1: cross referencing their roles with every database they can find.

661
00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:10,839
Speaker 1: How many non citizens did they find? On a voter

662
00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:13,400
Speaker 1: roll of millions of people in the state of Georgia,

663
00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:16,720
Speaker 1: not in a small state, mind you, they found twenty

664
00:38:18,120 --> 00:38:24,680
Speaker 1: two zero, not twenty thousand. Twenty out of those nine

665
00:38:25,239 --> 00:38:29,240
Speaker 1: had actually voted over the span of seven years nine

666
00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:31,760
Speaker 1: So eleven of the people they found never even voted.

667
00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:35,960
Speaker 1: So the question for the Save Act isn't this bogus

668
00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:41,319
Speaker 1: non citizen voting business that Trump claims. By the way,

669
00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:44,280
Speaker 1: it's already a felony to vote if you're not a citizen.

670
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:49,840
Speaker 1: The question is is it worth adding a paperwork wall

671
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:56,200
Speaker 1: for twenty one million eligible Americans to catch nine people

672
00:38:56,280 --> 00:39:00,759
Speaker 1: in the state of Georgia. In the policy world, that

673
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:05,440
Speaker 1: would be called a disproportionate response. In politics, we call

674
00:39:05,480 --> 00:39:11,040
Speaker 1: it a barrier to entry. But the Save America Act

675
00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:13,880
Speaker 1: that passed the House goes even further than what the

676
00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:17,319
Speaker 1: state of Arizona did. It isn't just one and done

677
00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:22,839
Speaker 1: check if you move or if you change your name,

678
00:39:22,920 --> 00:39:26,719
Speaker 1: say because you got married. The Save Act treats you

679
00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:31,080
Speaker 1: like a brand new applicant to vote, so you have

680
00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:35,200
Speaker 1: to produce a whole round of new documentation all over again,

681
00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:37,960
Speaker 1: not just a birth certificate but a marriage license.

682
00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:40,080
Speaker 2: Think about that.

683
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:43,560
Speaker 1: There are seventy million married people in this country who

684
00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:46,080
Speaker 1: have a different last name than the one on their

685
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:50,319
Speaker 1: birth certificate. Under the strictest reading of this House bill,

686
00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:52,920
Speaker 1: if you don't have a passport, you might need to

687
00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:55,440
Speaker 1: produce a birth certificate plus a marriage license just to

688
00:39:55,520 --> 00:39:59,120
Speaker 1: update your address. Now, I don't want to go and

689
00:39:59,120 --> 00:40:01,680
Speaker 1: do a huge amount of deep tales on my personal life,

690
00:40:01,680 --> 00:40:06,960
Speaker 1: but my wife went through this where her passport didn't

691
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:12,640
Speaker 1: match your driver's license after we got married, and they

692
00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:14,359
Speaker 1: wouldn't let her on a plane. This is after nine

693
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:16,520
Speaker 1: to eleven. We got married first, we got married just

694
00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:19,840
Speaker 1: after nine eleven, less than a year after nine eleven,

695
00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:20,560
Speaker 1: so there was you.

696
00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:21,080
Speaker 2: Know, we were.

697
00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:27,600
Speaker 1: And they said yet to produce a marriage certificate, which

698
00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:30,080
Speaker 1: needed to know the exact date. Well, the marriage certificate

699
00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 1: that Nevada gave us did not have the exact date

700
00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:34,480
Speaker 1: of when we got married, just the month in the year.

701
00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:37,799
Speaker 1: And they said, no, no, no, you need a date. So

702
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:40,680
Speaker 1: we put we just wrote the date in. We're look,

703
00:40:40,719 --> 00:40:44,719
Speaker 1: we don't know what else to do. It was a

704
00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:48,640
Speaker 1: complicated mess. We missed a couple of flights because of it.

705
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:53,080
Speaker 1: We eventually got it worked out. This is a this

706
00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:55,760
Speaker 1: is this you know, we've already you know, we already

707
00:40:55,760 --> 00:40:57,440
Speaker 1: make it harder for women in this country and a

708
00:40:57,440 --> 00:41:00,719
Speaker 1: lot of things due to you know, catching up on

709
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 1: rules where we had sort of gender imbalance, whether it's

710
00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:08,399
Speaker 1: for finances and all sorts of things. You know, wasn't

711
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:10,600
Speaker 1: that long ago then a married woman couldn't get a

712
00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:16,759
Speaker 1: credit card without her husband's permission. So seventy million married

713
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:20,200
Speaker 1: people with a different last name. So in order to vote,

714
00:41:20,239 --> 00:41:23,800
Speaker 1: if you just happen to move because your job transferred,

715
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:25,960
Speaker 1: you would have to produce a perth certificate plus the

716
00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 1: marriage license just to update your address. So we've moved

717
00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:33,640
Speaker 1: from voter ID. Okay, which is what all of these

718
00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:37,960
Speaker 1: misleading right wing commentators shoved down your throat and their feet.

719
00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:41,680
Speaker 1: They are knowingly lying to you. And there's some really

720
00:41:41,719 --> 00:41:45,120
Speaker 1: people that I used to respect who are just bullshitting

721
00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:48,120
Speaker 1: all the way on this stuff. This is not about

722
00:41:48,200 --> 00:41:52,160
Speaker 1: voter ID anymore. It's a long way away from voter ID.

723
00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:55,319
Speaker 1: This is an entire elaborate piece of legislation just to

724
00:41:55,360 --> 00:41:58,120
Speaker 1: make suthe Donald Trump's ego because he didn't win the

725
00:41:58,160 --> 00:42:00,920
Speaker 1: popular vote in twenty sixteen, which he claimed is because

726
00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:05,600
Speaker 1: undocumented immigrants voted in mass numbers against him, and he

727
00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:07,680
Speaker 1: claims that mail in balloting is the reason why he

728
00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:09,880
Speaker 1: lost in twenty twenty, not the fact that maybe he

729
00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:12,080
Speaker 1: just wasn't popular enough to win the popular vote in

730
00:42:12,080 --> 00:42:14,279
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, and maybe it's because people thought he was

731
00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:17,439
Speaker 1: sucked was president during COVID and they wanted to change

732
00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:21,040
Speaker 1: in leadership. And they've just they literally are writing a

733
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:24,719
Speaker 1: bill in order to make his bullshit seem like it's

734
00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:30,280
Speaker 1: a real grievance that should be fixed. So we've moved

735
00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:34,520
Speaker 1: from voter ID which most people support, to voter paperwork,

736
00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:38,160
Speaker 1: which most people will find exhausting. Do we really want

737
00:42:38,239 --> 00:42:42,000
Speaker 1: to have the dmv afication of the most sacred right

738
00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:48,359
Speaker 1: we have? I'll tell you though, Donald Trump terrible poker player, right.

739
00:42:48,440 --> 00:42:51,200
Speaker 1: His recent pivot here is very revealing. By adding his

740
00:42:51,280 --> 00:42:53,239
Speaker 1: demand for a ban on universal mail in voting and

741
00:42:53,239 --> 00:42:55,840
Speaker 1: cultural world writers to the bill, he signaled that he

742
00:42:55,840 --> 00:42:59,360
Speaker 1: actually doesn't want to see this bill pass. He simply

743
00:42:59,400 --> 00:43:02,600
Speaker 1: wants to fight, just like HR one was never designed

744
00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:04,759
Speaker 1: to pass. They just wanted to fight to say, Hey,

745
00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:06,880
Speaker 1: those guys don't believe in democracy. They don't believe in

746
00:43:06,880 --> 00:43:09,759
Speaker 1: election integrity, and what Trump wants to be able to

747
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:11,920
Speaker 1: say to his base is I tried to secure the elections,

748
00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:15,120
Speaker 1: but the Democrats and the Senate Rhinos blocked me. So

749
00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:18,400
Speaker 1: using a legitimate policy debate about citizenship verification as a

750
00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:21,600
Speaker 1: trojan horse for a total overhaul of the voting calendar

751
00:43:22,239 --> 00:43:25,520
Speaker 1: just to make his bullshit about what happened in twenty

752
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:31,200
Speaker 1: sixteen and twenty twenty seem like it was legitimate. So

753
00:43:31,239 --> 00:43:33,480
Speaker 1: when you take a common sense idea like citizen should

754
00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:35,840
Speaker 1: vote and you turn it into a twenty one million

755
00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:39,600
Speaker 1: person hurdle, you're not protecting the system. You're testing the

756
00:43:39,640 --> 00:43:43,000
Speaker 1: breaking point. You don't want the democracy to succeed, You

757
00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:46,799
Speaker 1: don't want more voters to the polls. If you do

758
00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:48,600
Speaker 1: it without a single vote from the other side, you're

759
00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:50,400
Speaker 1: telling half the country the only way to win is

760
00:43:50,400 --> 00:43:52,360
Speaker 1: to change the rules so the other side can play.

761
00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:54,520
Speaker 1: And Donald Trump actually said the quiet power out loud.

762
00:43:54,520 --> 00:43:56,080
Speaker 1: He said, if we get this save bill pass the

763
00:43:56,120 --> 00:43:58,239
Speaker 1: way I want it, Democrats won't win an election for

764
00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:04,680
Speaker 1: fifty years. I don't happen to think that's true. But

765
00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:07,000
Speaker 1: the fact that he said it only poisoned the well

766
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:09,200
Speaker 1: even more and made it an even to me, an

767
00:44:09,239 --> 00:44:13,200
Speaker 1: easier decision not to support that bill. But here are

768
00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:16,080
Speaker 1: some fun facts here about the access gap. This is

769
00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:19,520
Speaker 1: just projections. In twenty twenty six, among total registered voters,

770
00:44:19,560 --> 00:44:23,439
Speaker 1: fifty two percent do not have an unexpired passport. Among

771
00:44:23,480 --> 00:44:25,600
Speaker 1: voters under the age of thirty, fifteen percent lacked easy

772
00:44:25,640 --> 00:44:29,440
Speaker 1: access to a birth certificate. Among married women, thirty five

773
00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:32,160
Speaker 1: percent have name match issues between their birth certificates and

774
00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 1: their ideas. And among low income voters, a disproportionate lack

775
00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:41,320
Speaker 1: the one hundred dollars for a new passport and certified records.

776
00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:48,200
Speaker 1: But let me conclude with the most uncomfortable truth of all,

777
00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:53,360
Speaker 1: one that usually makes some of my poly sized students,

778
00:44:53,360 --> 00:44:56,600
Speaker 1: if they haven't realized this yet, it can make their

779
00:44:56,640 --> 00:45:00,520
Speaker 1: head spin. If you scour the US Constitution from the

780
00:45:00,520 --> 00:45:03,759
Speaker 1: preamble to the last Amendment, you will not find the

781
00:45:03,760 --> 00:45:07,200
Speaker 1: phrase that says, quote every citizen has an affirmative right

782
00:45:07,239 --> 00:45:10,840
Speaker 1: to vote, because it's not there. What we have is

783
00:45:10,840 --> 00:45:12,840
Speaker 1: a list of things you cannot do to stop someone

784
00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:16,040
Speaker 1: from voting. You can't stop them because of their race.

785
00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:19,520
Speaker 1: That's the fifteenth Amendment, their sex, that's the nineteenth amendment.

786
00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:21,960
Speaker 1: Their failure to pay a poll tax, that's the twenty

787
00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:24,719
Speaker 1: fourth Amendment, or because they're over eighteen, that's the twenty

788
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:28,160
Speaker 1: sixth Amendment. But as the Supreme Court famously reminded us

789
00:45:28,160 --> 00:45:31,560
Speaker 1: in Bush v. Gore, the individual citizen has no federal

790
00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:34,200
Speaker 1: constitutional right to vote for electors for the president of

791
00:45:34,200 --> 00:45:37,759
Speaker 1: the United States. Maybe that is something we ought to

792
00:45:37,840 --> 00:45:46,560
Speaker 1: change because the federal document, the US Constitution, is silent

793
00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:49,720
Speaker 1: on this issue. There are state constitutions actually aren't. Nearly

794
00:45:49,800 --> 00:45:55,960
Speaker 1: every single state constitution Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona explicitly guarantees that

795
00:45:56,080 --> 00:45:59,399
Speaker 1: quote election shall be free and equal, or that every

796
00:45:59,400 --> 00:46:03,239
Speaker 1: citizen shall be entitled to vote. And this is where

797
00:46:03,239 --> 00:46:05,799
Speaker 1: the Save America Act hits a massive legal wall. If

798
00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:09,879
Speaker 1: it's somehow magically passed. By mandating federal show us your

799
00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:14,800
Speaker 1: paper requirements, Congress is essentially trying to override state level

800
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:18,160
Speaker 1: constitutional guarantees. Remember, the Constitution says it is up to

801
00:46:18,200 --> 00:46:23,280
Speaker 1: the states to implement voting processes. So if a state

802
00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:27,080
Speaker 1: constitution says a resident is entitled to vote and the

803
00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:30,839
Speaker 1: federal government says not without a passport, you're not. We're

804
00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:34,720
Speaker 1: looking at a pretty interesting tenth Amendment showdown that would

805
00:46:34,719 --> 00:46:36,839
Speaker 1: make the nineteen sixties look like a warm up act.

806
00:46:38,360 --> 00:46:41,799
Speaker 1: We actually already got a preview this when Kansas tried

807
00:46:41,800 --> 00:46:45,520
Speaker 1: to version the Save Act. The courts eventually struck it down,

808
00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:49,680
Speaker 1: partly because it created a dual class system of citizens,

809
00:46:49,840 --> 00:46:51,919
Speaker 1: just like we have in Arizona. Right you have state

810
00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:55,759
Speaker 1: voters and federal voters. You can't have federal voters and

811
00:46:55,800 --> 00:46:58,200
Speaker 1: state voters living in the same house but using different rules.

812
00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:03,520
Speaker 1: It's a recipe for administration. So here's the bottom line.

813
00:47:03,520 --> 00:47:06,279
Speaker 1: When Democrats try to pass HR one, they were trying

814
00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:08,720
Speaker 1: to use federal power to force states to make voting easier,

815
00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:11,120
Speaker 1: and now with the Save Act, Republicans are trying to

816
00:47:11,160 --> 00:47:14,520
Speaker 1: use federal power to force states to make voter registration harder.

817
00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:18,200
Speaker 1: Both sides trying to build a national election system on

818
00:47:18,239 --> 00:47:21,759
Speaker 1: a constitutional foundation that is frankly too thinner than it

819
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:26,960
Speaker 1: should be. So if you want to fundamentally change how

820
00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:28,879
Speaker 1: Americans vote, you can't do it through a fifty one

821
00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:31,680
Speaker 1: vote yatcha bill or a last minute writer on a

822
00:47:31,719 --> 00:47:35,680
Speaker 1: spending package. You need a consensus that transcends the next

823
00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:38,440
Speaker 1: election cycle. Because right now we're not saving the vote.

824
00:47:38,640 --> 00:47:41,160
Speaker 1: We're just turning the rules of democracy to a partisan weapon.

825
00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:43,520
Speaker 1: And when the rules become the weapon, the only thing

826
00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:47,440
Speaker 1: that ends up dead is the public's trust in the outcome.

827
00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:50,920
Speaker 1: So look, I hope I created a little bit of

828
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:54,360
Speaker 1: clarity of what this bill actually is, what the impact

829
00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:58,600
Speaker 1: would be. I know I've been pretty dismissive. I am

830
00:47:58,680 --> 00:48:01,680
Speaker 1: a hugely cynical about both of these bills because they

831
00:48:01,680 --> 00:48:07,000
Speaker 1: were not designed to pass right. This is not about

832
00:48:07,040 --> 00:48:09,560
Speaker 1: being a moderate a centrist. It is about me being

833
00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:12,840
Speaker 1: an incrementalist, which means if you were trying to change

834
00:48:12,840 --> 00:48:16,080
Speaker 1: the rules for three hundred and fifty million Americans, you

835
00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:26,720
Speaker 1: better do it with massive consensus, not partisan demagogri Having

836
00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:31,040
Speaker 1: good life insurance is incredibly important. I know from personal experience.

837
00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:33,560
Speaker 1: I was sixteen when my father passed away. We didn't

838
00:48:33,600 --> 00:48:36,640
Speaker 1: have any money. He didn't leave us in the best shape.

839
00:48:36,760 --> 00:48:41,040
Speaker 1: My mother, single mother, now widow. Myself sixteen trying to

840
00:48:41,040 --> 00:48:42,640
Speaker 1: figure out how am I going to pay for college

841
00:48:43,160 --> 00:48:46,200
Speaker 1: and lo and behold, my dad had one life insurance

842
00:48:46,200 --> 00:48:48,960
Speaker 1: policy that we found. It wasn't a lot, but it

843
00:48:49,080 --> 00:48:51,880
Speaker 1: was important at the time, and it's why I was

844
00:48:51,960 --> 00:48:55,279
Speaker 1: able to go to college. Little did he know how

845
00:48:55,280 --> 00:48:59,120
Speaker 1: important that would be in that moment. Well, guess what.

846
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:02,000
Speaker 1: That's why I am here to tell you about Ethos Life.

847
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:04,680
Speaker 1: They can provide you with peace of mind knowing your

848
00:49:04,719 --> 00:49:08,000
Speaker 1: family is protected even if the worst comes to pass.

849
00:49:08,400 --> 00:49:11,640
Speaker 1: Ethos is an online platform that makes getting life insurance

850
00:49:11,680 --> 00:49:14,760
Speaker 1: fast and easy, all designed to protect your family's future

851
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852
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Speaker 1: one hundred percent online. There's no medical exam require you

853
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Speaker 1: a quote in as little as ten minutes, and you

855
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Speaker 1: can get same day coverage without ever leaving your home.

856
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Speaker 1: You can get up to three million dollars in coverage

857
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Speaker 1: and some policies start as low as two dollars a

858
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:38,719
Speaker 1: day that would be billed monthly. As of March twenty

859
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Speaker 1: twenty five, Business Insider named Ethos the number one no

860
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Speaker 1: medical exam instant life insurance provider. So protect your family

861
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862
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863
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864
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Speaker 1: themselves may vary as well, but trust me, Life insurance

865
00:50:01,920 --> 00:50:04,600
Speaker 1: is something you should really think about it, especially if

866
00:50:04,640 --> 00:50:09,719
Speaker 1: you've got a growing family. Ass Chuck, all right, this

867
00:50:09,760 --> 00:50:11,839
Speaker 1: one comes from Julie from Portland. Hey, Chuck, it used

868
00:50:11,880 --> 00:50:13,640
Speaker 1: to be that we had a long time in between

869
00:50:13,640 --> 00:50:15,800
Speaker 1: a major crisis, and now we seem to beginning several

870
00:50:15,880 --> 00:50:17,879
Speaker 1: every week since the beginning of the year. I can

871
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:20,640
Speaker 1: recall we've had Venezuela, Greenland, Minnesota, and now we're with Iron.

872
00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:21,560
Speaker 2: And I feel that.

873
00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:23,960
Speaker 1: There have been several more crises in between these things,

874
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:26,279
Speaker 1: but they come and go so rapidly that I can

875
00:50:26,440 --> 00:50:28,560
Speaker 1: keep up. How's the psyche of the American people supposed

876
00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:30,719
Speaker 1: to endure? With all these major changes and threats coming

877
00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:33,399
Speaker 1: coming at us so quickly, the midterms seemed very far away.

878
00:50:33,440 --> 00:50:36,520
Speaker 1: Not to mention twenty twenty eight, appreciate your thoughts. Things Well,

879
00:50:37,719 --> 00:50:40,080
Speaker 1: this is when you hear the word chaos, right, And

880
00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:45,000
Speaker 1: this became a popular buzzword on the campaign trail in

881
00:50:45,040 --> 00:50:48,920
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen and twenty twenty because it grew out of

882
00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:52,279
Speaker 1: a lot of good old fashioned voter focus groups. Right,

883
00:50:52,320 --> 00:50:56,000
Speaker 1: And say what you will about focus grouping everything and

884
00:50:56,000 --> 00:50:59,320
Speaker 1: things like this, I find voter focus groups pretty helpful

885
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:03,320
Speaker 1: because you do you know, you hear the words of

886
00:51:03,360 --> 00:51:09,440
Speaker 1: actual voters, not you know, some posters interpretation, and what

887
00:51:09,520 --> 00:51:12,960
Speaker 1: you're describing this is that it's you know, why you

888
00:51:13,080 --> 00:51:15,000
Speaker 1: hear a lot of politicians, Hey, can we just stop

889
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:18,440
Speaker 1: the chaos? You know, can we just can we just

890
00:51:18,600 --> 00:51:21,040
Speaker 1: you know, put a halt to this. Look, Joe Biden

891
00:51:21,120 --> 00:51:23,680
Speaker 1: won because he was the anti chaos candidate, and then

892
00:51:23,960 --> 00:51:25,799
Speaker 1: I think the mistake he made is he brought his

893
00:51:25,840 --> 00:51:29,120
Speaker 1: own set of chaos to governing right when really.

894
00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:32,080
Speaker 2: People just wanted to take a breath, you know.

895
00:51:32,960 --> 00:51:35,680
Speaker 1: I think, you know, a little bit of Trump disruption

896
00:51:35,920 --> 00:51:38,800
Speaker 1: was good. A lot of bit of Trump disruption is exhausting.

897
00:51:40,719 --> 00:51:41,520
Speaker 2: I'm going to choose.

898
00:51:41,560 --> 00:51:43,480
Speaker 1: I do think that in the long term we will

899
00:51:43,480 --> 00:51:47,280
Speaker 1: look at Trump's presidencies as an important MRI for the country,

900
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:52,959
Speaker 1: for our soul, and hopefully we now see some things

901
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:54,600
Speaker 1: that we don't like and we want to do something

902
00:51:54,640 --> 00:52:03,000
Speaker 1: about them. But I actually think this, this feeling that

903
00:52:03,040 --> 00:52:06,239
Speaker 1: we don't have control of events right, that everything is

904
00:52:06,280 --> 00:52:09,799
Speaker 1: moving so quickly we can't wrap our arms around it,

905
00:52:09,840 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 1: is actually one of the It's one of those it's

906
00:52:13,160 --> 00:52:17,400
Speaker 1: a it's a tough question to pull, you know, when

907
00:52:17,440 --> 00:52:19,680
Speaker 1: you say, what are the most important issues? You know,

908
00:52:19,920 --> 00:52:21,759
Speaker 1: if I ask you that as a polster, you're going

909
00:52:21,840 --> 00:52:25,080
Speaker 1: to give me issues. But it sounds like for you

910
00:52:25,120 --> 00:52:27,239
Speaker 1: one of the most important issues to Can we just

911
00:52:27,280 --> 00:52:27,640
Speaker 1: slow down?

912
00:52:27,640 --> 00:52:28,640
Speaker 2: Can we stop the chaos?

913
00:52:28,920 --> 00:52:30,839
Speaker 1: Can we stop the you know, just sort of like

914
00:52:31,000 --> 00:52:35,000
Speaker 1: you know, I think this is a feature of Trump, right,

915
00:52:35,040 --> 00:52:37,879
Speaker 1: this is you know, he's got short attention span, he's

916
00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:40,959
Speaker 1: got his version of add so he's making us all

917
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:44,640
Speaker 1: sort of conform to his way of doing things. He

918
00:52:44,719 --> 00:52:48,400
Speaker 1: loves this, He doesn't he can't folk. Anybody that has

919
00:52:48,440 --> 00:52:50,600
Speaker 1: ever tried to brief Donald Trump on a serious topic

920
00:52:50,640 --> 00:52:52,560
Speaker 1: knows you've got about ten minutes. And you better bring

921
00:52:52,600 --> 00:52:56,080
Speaker 1: pictures because if you go thirty minutes, forty five minutes

922
00:52:57,000 --> 00:52:58,560
Speaker 1: and you know you're going to lose him. He's going

923
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:00,920
Speaker 1: to fall asleep. He's going to be distracted. He's going

924
00:53:00,960 --> 00:53:02,359
Speaker 1: to take a call, he's going to ask for six

925
00:53:02,400 --> 00:53:05,240
Speaker 1: die cokes. He is just not going to stay focused.

926
00:53:06,640 --> 00:53:08,839
Speaker 1: He's going to order you in Floorsheim shoes if you're

927
00:53:08,880 --> 00:53:14,600
Speaker 1: a guy, by guessing your shoe size. But he's he's

928
00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:17,640
Speaker 1: he's not gonna and don't leave him something to read.

929
00:53:17,840 --> 00:53:21,600
Speaker 1: He's not going to read it. This is going to

930
00:53:21,640 --> 00:53:24,560
Speaker 1: sound snarky and cynical. I don't believe he has read

931
00:53:24,560 --> 00:53:29,640
Speaker 1: a book from beginning to end in thirty years, specifically,

932
00:53:29,719 --> 00:53:33,800
Speaker 1: and certainly not his own books. That that has been proven, actually,

933
00:53:34,360 --> 00:53:36,800
Speaker 1: but I would love to be proven wrong that he

934
00:53:36,840 --> 00:53:40,319
Speaker 1: has read a book from front to back, just one

935
00:53:40,560 --> 00:53:42,560
Speaker 1: this century one.

936
00:53:43,120 --> 00:53:43,719
Speaker 2: I don't buy it.

937
00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:47,880
Speaker 1: That's how short his attention span is. And so this

938
00:53:47,960 --> 00:53:50,160
Speaker 1: is why this is kind of a feature of this administration.

939
00:53:50,280 --> 00:53:53,520
Speaker 1: He just gets bored. He can't singularly focus on one thing.

940
00:53:53,360 --> 00:53:53,839
Speaker 2: At a time.

941
00:53:55,719 --> 00:53:59,040
Speaker 1: So, but I think this is this is what exhausts

942
00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:02,759
Speaker 1: the what I call them the silent majority, right. I

943
00:54:02,760 --> 00:54:06,160
Speaker 1: think I gave that anecdote of sort of an acquaintance

944
00:54:06,200 --> 00:54:07,560
Speaker 1: of mind that I ran into the day after the

945
00:54:07,600 --> 00:54:11,520
Speaker 1: Texas primaries and he didn't realize the Texas primaries were happening,

946
00:54:11,520 --> 00:54:14,359
Speaker 1: and he said, oh, what happened? And I told him

947
00:54:14,360 --> 00:54:16,160
Speaker 1: what happened. He's like, oh, I just didn't want any

948
00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:19,520
Speaker 1: more bomb throwers. Like there's an exhaustion out there. There's

949
00:54:19,520 --> 00:54:22,680
Speaker 1: an exhaustion from the partisan warfare, there's an exhaustion from

950
00:54:22,719 --> 00:54:27,160
Speaker 1: the crisis to crisis governance that that Trump is comfortable in.

951
00:54:27,239 --> 00:54:30,040
Speaker 1: You know, here's the thing. We're all on the same

952
00:54:30,120 --> 00:54:34,839
Speaker 1: roller coaster. He's just not thrown up and the rest

953
00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:39,600
Speaker 1: of us are so I you know, this is why

954
00:54:40,360 --> 00:54:43,000
Speaker 1: I spent a long time deciding to go deep on

955
00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:46,680
Speaker 1: one issue, because I think I've glossed over some things

956
00:54:46,760 --> 00:54:49,239
Speaker 1: because I moved from you know, I get a little

957
00:54:49,239 --> 00:54:51,279
Speaker 1: too reactionary in the moment, and I think the thing

958
00:54:51,320 --> 00:54:54,040
Speaker 1: that we can do best here in the independent space,

959
00:54:54,120 --> 00:54:57,760
Speaker 1: in the podcast space, is to take the unlimited amount

960
00:54:57,760 --> 00:54:59,840
Speaker 1: of time that I do have, unlimited amount of bandwidth

961
00:54:59,840 --> 00:55:04,800
Speaker 1: in theory that is here, and the meticulously explain something

962
00:55:04,840 --> 00:55:07,320
Speaker 1: all the way.

963
00:55:06,280 --> 00:55:07,200
Speaker 2: From beginning to end.

964
00:55:08,760 --> 00:55:12,640
Speaker 1: But you know, you're the feeling you have, you're not alone,

965
00:55:13,520 --> 00:55:17,240
Speaker 1: and in fact, I think it is. It is among

966
00:55:17,360 --> 00:55:19,920
Speaker 1: the most important issues that I think are going to

967
00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:25,920
Speaker 1: drive independence towards candidates that are running against any Republican incumbent,

968
00:55:25,960 --> 00:55:27,360
Speaker 1: whether it's an independent.

969
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:27,640
Speaker 2: Or a Democrat.

970
00:55:29,360 --> 00:55:33,440
Speaker 1: Next question comes from Gaale Woodinville, Washington. Gail Rights, Hey, Chuck,

971
00:55:33,480 --> 00:55:35,600
Speaker 1: thank you for the podcast that always calls it like

972
00:55:35,640 --> 00:55:37,520
Speaker 1: it is. I appreciate you saying that, I know the

973
00:55:37,520 --> 00:55:39,319
Speaker 1: war of the Ron and the Epstein files are taking

974
00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:40,640
Speaker 1: up all of the attention lately.

975
00:55:40,680 --> 00:55:42,440
Speaker 2: But I feel like it's.

976
00:55:41,880 --> 00:55:45,319
Speaker 1: Just a distraction, just distracting us from the real issue

977
00:55:45,320 --> 00:55:47,160
Speaker 1: at hand, which is winning the House in the Senate November.

978
00:55:47,160 --> 00:55:49,760
Speaker 1: Shouldn't we be focus on the GOP enablers or allowing

979
00:55:49,800 --> 00:55:52,680
Speaker 1: the destruction of our country and getting these pedophile protectors

980
00:55:52,680 --> 00:55:53,200
Speaker 1: out of office.

981
00:55:53,239 --> 00:55:56,000
Speaker 2: Thanks for all you do. You know, it's interesting.

982
00:55:57,280 --> 00:55:59,759
Speaker 1: To sort of put these two questions together, right, they

983
00:56:00,120 --> 00:56:02,920
Speaker 1: of go together. And you're both from the Northwest, right,

984
00:56:03,040 --> 00:56:07,800
Speaker 1: Washington and Oregon. Julie from Portland, Gale from Wooden Bill, Washington.

985
00:56:09,719 --> 00:56:14,319
Speaker 1: You know, everything is a distraction in the moment from

986
00:56:14,320 --> 00:56:16,600
Speaker 1: something else that we should be focused on. And this

987
00:56:16,719 --> 00:56:19,040
Speaker 1: is sort of the Trump era in a nutshell, right,

988
00:56:19,680 --> 00:56:23,160
Speaker 1: he has started eight fires. We've got to put all

989
00:56:23,200 --> 00:56:26,680
Speaker 1: eight fires out. Which fire do you put out first?

990
00:56:27,080 --> 00:56:27,279
Speaker 2: Right?

991
00:56:27,440 --> 00:56:35,200
Speaker 1: And it's the prioritization issue as always, look in theory,

992
00:56:35,440 --> 00:56:38,040
Speaker 1: I'm with You're right. Everybody's got to you know, should

993
00:56:38,040 --> 00:56:41,480
Speaker 1: stay in their lane and you know, make the main

994
00:56:41,520 --> 00:56:45,560
Speaker 1: thing the main thing. But it is only March, and

995
00:56:45,600 --> 00:56:47,640
Speaker 1: I would argue, if you're in elective office, you have

996
00:56:47,680 --> 00:56:50,000
Speaker 1: some duty to try to deal with the situation that is,

997
00:56:51,000 --> 00:56:53,880
Speaker 1: before you go to the voters hoping for a different

998
00:56:53,920 --> 00:56:56,880
Speaker 1: set of people to work with to then deal with

999
00:56:56,880 --> 00:57:02,960
Speaker 1: the situation that will be. But you're you know, look,

1000
00:57:04,600 --> 00:57:10,600
Speaker 1: I one could argue that the the the more Trump

1001
00:57:11,040 --> 00:57:16,080
Speaker 1: handles Iran and Epstein, the more the easier for Democrats

1002
00:57:16,120 --> 00:57:20,040
Speaker 1: to focus on the House and Senate because you know what,

1003
00:57:20,080 --> 00:57:23,560
Speaker 1: Trump's not focused on affordability. What Trump's not focused on

1004
00:57:23,680 --> 00:57:28,120
Speaker 1: is what there's domestic issues, the issue of rising health

1005
00:57:28,120 --> 00:57:31,600
Speaker 1: care costs, the issues rising electric bills, the issue of

1006
00:57:31,680 --> 00:57:34,000
Speaker 1: fear of AI job displacement. By the way, the most

1007
00:57:34,080 --> 00:57:37,840
Speaker 1: underreported number in the new NBC News poll is how

1008
00:57:37,960 --> 00:57:42,240
Speaker 1: unpopular AI is right now with the American people. What's

1009
00:57:42,280 --> 00:57:48,520
Speaker 1: interesting is how how cautious Democrats and elected office are

1010
00:57:48,600 --> 00:57:51,360
Speaker 1: at pushing back on AI. What they're really saying is

1011
00:57:51,400 --> 00:57:55,040
Speaker 1: they don't trust these Silicon Valley people to implement AI

1012
00:57:55,240 --> 00:57:59,080
Speaker 1: in a fair and equitable way. That's what this is

1013
00:57:59,120 --> 00:58:02,040
Speaker 1: telling me, right, the same people that brought you the

1014
00:58:02,080 --> 00:58:04,960
Speaker 1: success that is social media and what that's done. Do

1015
00:58:05,000 --> 00:58:06,720
Speaker 1: you think social media has been a success or a

1016
00:58:06,720 --> 00:58:11,680
Speaker 1: failure for American society? My guess is, if you asked

1017
00:58:11,720 --> 00:58:13,680
Speaker 1: it that way, and I would like some of my

1018
00:58:14,080 --> 00:58:16,280
Speaker 1: poster friends to ask this question and as neutral of

1019
00:58:16,280 --> 00:58:18,680
Speaker 1: the way as you can, I have a feeling that

1020
00:58:18,720 --> 00:58:23,080
Speaker 1: the yes no would look a lot like the favorable

1021
00:58:23,120 --> 00:58:25,880
Speaker 1: unfavorable view when it came to artificial intelligencers. Right now

1022
00:58:26,000 --> 00:58:30,520
Speaker 1: is upside down in underwater. So I take your point

1023
00:58:30,560 --> 00:58:33,160
Speaker 1: that everything looks like it's a distraction from a just

1024
00:58:33,320 --> 00:58:36,600
Speaker 1: from something else that ought to be the focus. But

1025
00:58:36,680 --> 00:58:41,240
Speaker 1: in some ways, it is that chaos that may actually

1026
00:58:41,280 --> 00:58:44,720
Speaker 1: serve as a voting motivator for some people who just

1027
00:58:44,960 --> 00:58:54,200
Speaker 1: want off the Trump roller coaster. All right, next question,

1028
00:58:55,520 --> 00:58:58,480
Speaker 1: I think it comes from somebody from Kansas, but I

1029
00:58:58,560 --> 00:59:01,600
Speaker 1: don't have a name, but let me.

1030
00:59:01,520 --> 00:59:01,960
Speaker 2: Read the question.

1031
00:59:02,080 --> 00:59:03,960
Speaker 1: He says, you've spoken a few times about the amount

1032
00:59:03,960 --> 00:59:05,960
Speaker 1: of money necessary for the Republicans to defend their Senate

1033
00:59:06,040 --> 00:59:08,439
Speaker 1: seat in Texas. Would argue that money is becoming less

1034
00:59:08,440 --> 00:59:10,200
Speaker 1: of an issue for two reasons. First, it seems to

1035
00:59:10,200 --> 00:59:13,360
Speaker 1: be available in unlimited quantities, well, if you're willing to

1036
00:59:13,400 --> 00:59:16,960
Speaker 1: wore yourself out for crypto or for AI. Yes, the

1037
00:59:16,960 --> 00:59:19,080
Speaker 1: amount of money spent in every election seems to increase

1038
00:59:19,120 --> 00:59:22,720
Speaker 1: since the last by wider and wider margins. Fact Check true,

1039
00:59:23,320 --> 00:59:25,680
Speaker 1: coupled with the law of diminishing returns, which says every

1040
00:59:25,680 --> 00:59:28,120
Speaker 1: additional dollar spent is less effective than the last.

1041
00:59:28,440 --> 00:59:29,200
Speaker 2: Also true.

1042
00:59:29,360 --> 00:59:30,840
Speaker 1: I think think there will always be enough money in

1043
00:59:30,880 --> 00:59:35,320
Speaker 1: every state that state it's needed in.

1044
00:59:35,840 --> 00:59:36,560
Speaker 2: What do you think? Thank you?

1045
00:59:36,560 --> 00:59:38,120
Speaker 1: I really enjoy your show and continue to wonder if

1046
00:59:38,200 --> 00:59:41,360
Speaker 1: Kansas will ever and then it trails off. So I

1047
00:59:41,440 --> 00:59:45,200
Speaker 1: think we missed one part of your secondary part of

1048
00:59:45,200 --> 00:59:50,960
Speaker 1: that question. I agree with you that you know, it's

1049
00:59:50,960 --> 00:59:53,520
Speaker 1: been interesting. You know, Trump was out spent in sixteen

1050
00:59:53,560 --> 00:59:56,160
Speaker 1: but won the presidential election. Trump was outspent in twenty twenty,

1051
00:59:56,160 --> 00:59:59,600
Speaker 1: but run the presidential election. Republicans are likely to outspend

1052
00:59:59,600 --> 01:00:01,680
Speaker 1: the Demo Crats in the midterms in twenty twenty six,

1053
01:00:01,720 --> 01:00:03,960
Speaker 1: and yet Democrats are likely to have a better.

1054
01:00:03,720 --> 01:00:05,960
Speaker 2: Midterm result than the Republicans.

1055
01:00:06,840 --> 01:00:09,320
Speaker 1: So you're not wrong that there is sort of a

1056
01:00:09,360 --> 01:00:12,760
Speaker 1: diminishing return with this big money. Part of it is

1057
01:00:12,800 --> 01:00:17,280
Speaker 1: the fragmentation issue, right, It is so much harder. You know,

1058
01:00:17,280 --> 01:00:20,600
Speaker 1: it used to be cheaper and efficient to reach ten

1059
01:00:20,640 --> 01:00:24,200
Speaker 1: million people with you know, just a just a you know,

1060
01:00:24,280 --> 01:00:27,840
Speaker 1: not a very diverse ad campaign. Now, of course you've

1061
01:00:27,840 --> 01:00:31,080
Speaker 1: got to you've got to maybe you know, and most

1062
01:00:31,200 --> 01:00:35,560
Speaker 1: political campaigns might produce six or seven unique television ads period.

1063
01:00:36,000 --> 01:00:39,800
Speaker 1: Now you need to do whatever your television message for

1064
01:00:39,840 --> 01:00:41,880
Speaker 1: the week is, you need to do six or seven

1065
01:00:41,920 --> 01:00:45,080
Speaker 1: different versions of it so that one makes sense on TikTok,

1066
01:00:45,080 --> 01:00:46,919
Speaker 1: and one makes sense on YouTube, and one makes sense

1067
01:00:46,960 --> 01:00:49,600
Speaker 1: on YouTube TV, and one makes sense on cable television

1068
01:00:49,600 --> 01:00:50,840
Speaker 1: and one makes sense on broadcasts.

1069
01:00:50,880 --> 01:00:51,080
Speaker 2: You know.

1070
01:00:52,280 --> 01:00:55,800
Speaker 1: So you know, part of it is that the cost

1071
01:00:55,800 --> 01:01:01,360
Speaker 1: of running these campaigns is exponentially grown as well. I

1072
01:01:01,440 --> 01:01:04,040
Speaker 1: understand the feeling that money is sort of like there's

1073
01:01:04,080 --> 01:01:06,360
Speaker 1: a there's always money, right, There's always money in the

1074
01:01:06,360 --> 01:01:11,720
Speaker 1: banana san right, So yes, I tend to agree with you,

1075
01:01:11,760 --> 01:01:17,360
Speaker 1: but we are getting you know, these large giant forces.

1076
01:01:17,680 --> 01:01:22,080
Speaker 1: Crypto AI are the two biggest ones, right. I mean,

1077
01:01:22,080 --> 01:01:24,240
Speaker 1: you look at what's happening in the Illinois Senate race,

1078
01:01:24,280 --> 01:01:27,040
Speaker 1: and it's just like there's a super pack for each

1079
01:01:27,160 --> 01:01:30,000
Speaker 1: candidate that is funded by some interest group that is

1080
01:01:30,120 --> 01:01:33,720
Speaker 1: not actually debate having an issue debated in this primary,

1081
01:01:34,040 --> 01:01:35,640
Speaker 1: but they're trying to buy an ally.

1082
01:01:36,040 --> 01:01:36,200
Speaker 2: Right.

1083
01:01:36,240 --> 01:01:39,640
Speaker 1: The Democratic primary for US Senate in Illinois is attracting

1084
01:01:39,880 --> 01:01:40,520
Speaker 1: huge money.

1085
01:01:40,600 --> 01:01:40,920
Speaker 2: People.

1086
01:01:40,960 --> 01:01:44,200
Speaker 1: Why because whoever wins a Democratic primary is going to

1087
01:01:44,200 --> 01:01:46,920
Speaker 1: be the US Senator in Illinois. So whether you're a

1088
01:01:46,920 --> 01:01:52,920
Speaker 1: crypto advocate, whether you're an AI no regulation advocate or

1089
01:01:52,920 --> 01:01:56,720
Speaker 1: an AI pro regulation advocate, you're trying to find your

1090
01:01:56,840 --> 01:02:03,000
Speaker 1: ally in this Democratic primary. So I don't disagree with

1091
01:02:03,000 --> 01:02:05,000
Speaker 1: you about your theory and money, but I do think

1092
01:02:05,040 --> 01:02:09,880
Speaker 1: we've sort of we've been overserved. It's time to step

1093
01:02:09,960 --> 01:02:13,560
Speaker 1: away from the bar. It's time to put some restrictions here.

1094
01:02:13,800 --> 01:02:16,360
Speaker 1: We're not asking for super restrictions, but we've got to

1095
01:02:16,400 --> 01:02:20,920
Speaker 1: have some because what you know, the fact that crypto

1096
01:02:21,080 --> 01:02:25,120
Speaker 1: and Silicon Valley and AI have essentially hijacked Washington financially

1097
01:02:25,200 --> 01:02:30,240
Speaker 1: right now, and they have is it's unprecedented what we've seen.

1098
01:02:31,040 --> 01:02:34,640
Speaker 1: And the dirty little secret is every elected officials kind

1099
01:02:34,640 --> 01:02:38,000
Speaker 1: of grossed out by this, but nobody wants to offend

1100
01:02:38,320 --> 01:02:42,640
Speaker 1: the money people that support them. So that's why this

1101
01:02:42,800 --> 01:02:46,280
Speaker 1: system isn't getting fixed. I mean, I go back to

1102
01:02:46,840 --> 01:02:50,080
Speaker 1: Chuck Schumer telling a closed door meeting of Senate Democrats

1103
01:02:50,080 --> 01:02:52,400
Speaker 1: to suck it up and get on board crypto because

1104
01:02:52,440 --> 01:02:55,520
Speaker 1: the fair Shake people had too much money to go

1105
01:02:55,640 --> 01:03:02,920
Speaker 1: up against. The Senate Democrats have been extorted by the

1106
01:03:02,920 --> 01:03:07,040
Speaker 1: crypto folks is that the system we had in mind?

1107
01:03:07,200 --> 01:03:08,959
Speaker 1: Is that the system the founders had in mind?

1108
01:03:09,040 --> 01:03:09,600
Speaker 2: I don't think so.

1109
01:03:11,200 --> 01:03:13,880
Speaker 1: Next question comes from Jay in New York. Jay initial,

1110
01:03:13,960 --> 01:03:17,840
Speaker 1: not Jay, and Jay asked at what point does a

1111
01:03:17,840 --> 01:03:20,560
Speaker 1: fundraising discrepancy between an incumbent and a challenger outweigh the

1112
01:03:20,560 --> 01:03:23,400
Speaker 1: partisan lean of a race. For example, Lauren Bobert's Colorado

1113
01:03:23,480 --> 01:03:25,439
Speaker 1: four district is R plus nine. Trump got fifty seven

1114
01:03:25,440 --> 01:03:27,080
Speaker 1: percent of the vote, just beneath the fifty nine percent

1115
01:03:27,120 --> 01:03:30,120
Speaker 1: threshold you set. But in Q four, one democrat running

1116
01:03:30,120 --> 01:03:32,200
Speaker 1: against Bobert raised a staggering two million dollars compared to

1117
01:03:32,200 --> 01:03:34,480
Speaker 1: Boberts one hundred and seventy four thousand, and that democrat

1118
01:03:34,520 --> 01:03:36,240
Speaker 1: has two and a half million cash on hand compared

1119
01:03:36,240 --> 01:03:38,080
Speaker 1: to Bobert's two in a nineteen thousand cash on hand.

1120
01:03:38,080 --> 01:03:40,680
Speaker 1: Should Bobert be concerned about that much money? Or is

1121
01:03:40,720 --> 01:03:45,280
Speaker 1: her district truly too Republican? Look, I don't think it's greally.

1122
01:03:45,400 --> 01:03:49,000
Speaker 1: This is the sort of I think the old it's

1123
01:03:49,000 --> 01:03:51,680
Speaker 1: the old Wayne Allard's seat, That's what I remember it as.

1124
01:03:51,720 --> 01:03:54,560
Speaker 1: But it's like the fourth Congresion. The old fourth Congressional

1125
01:03:54,600 --> 01:03:57,320
Speaker 1: district up in Colorado was always sort of the conservative

1126
01:03:57,360 --> 01:04:00,800
Speaker 1: district that wasn't Colorado Springs, it was Greeley. It was

1127
01:04:00,840 --> 01:04:04,320
Speaker 1: always the center of it. I want to say Weld County,

1128
01:04:04,800 --> 01:04:06,800
Speaker 1: I think was the was one of the heart of that.

1129
01:04:07,280 --> 01:04:08,919
Speaker 1: Fort Collins used to be a part of it. They've

1130
01:04:08,960 --> 01:04:10,560
Speaker 1: now moved Fort Collins out of it because I think

1131
01:04:10,560 --> 01:04:15,200
Speaker 1: Fort Collins became too liberal and it was diluting that district,

1132
01:04:15,280 --> 01:04:16,360
Speaker 1: making it more competitive.

1133
01:04:20,600 --> 01:04:22,440
Speaker 2: I think we've learned, right, you can have.

1134
01:04:24,000 --> 01:04:28,400
Speaker 1: There. It really depends on the challenge of themselves, right,

1135
01:04:28,520 --> 01:04:31,240
Speaker 1: which is you have all the money in the world.

1136
01:04:32,520 --> 01:04:35,560
Speaker 1: We saw this in Jamie Harrison had more money than

1137
01:04:35,600 --> 01:04:40,480
Speaker 1: Lindsay Graham and South Carolina, but that wasn't going to

1138
01:04:40,480 --> 01:04:45,680
Speaker 1: be enough, and that that's about arguably about the same.

1139
01:04:46,960 --> 01:04:49,560
Speaker 1: Maybe South Carolina is slightly more Republican than the district

1140
01:04:49,600 --> 01:04:54,280
Speaker 1: you're describing here, So you know, this is kind of

1141
01:04:54,280 --> 01:04:56,760
Speaker 1: a you're you're pointing to about a ten to one

1142
01:04:57,640 --> 01:05:01,520
Speaker 1: cash advantage here. I think when you get to the

1143
01:05:01,560 --> 01:05:04,840
Speaker 1: twenty five to one with an incumbent member of Congress,

1144
01:05:05,200 --> 01:05:06,880
Speaker 1: because you're going to have outside groups that are going

1145
01:05:06,960 --> 01:05:09,040
Speaker 1: to come in for her. And that's the other part

1146
01:05:09,040 --> 01:05:11,040
Speaker 1: of this, right, A challenger might raise a bunch of

1147
01:05:11,040 --> 01:05:14,560
Speaker 1: money in a red leaning district, or a challenger might

1148
01:05:14,600 --> 01:05:16,440
Speaker 1: raise a bunch of money a Blue Republican in a

1149
01:05:16,440 --> 01:05:20,120
Speaker 1: blue leaning district. But are the third party groups, the

1150
01:05:20,160 --> 01:05:23,160
Speaker 1: independent expenditure group's going to come in behind them and

1151
01:05:23,200 --> 01:05:25,080
Speaker 1: to spend money there or are they going to consider

1152
01:05:25,120 --> 01:05:28,280
Speaker 1: it a waste of money versus those that know that

1153
01:05:28,280 --> 01:05:30,400
Speaker 1: that seat is winnable on their side and they come

1154
01:05:30,440 --> 01:05:34,440
Speaker 1: in there. So where what happens is I'm sure Bobert

1155
01:05:34,480 --> 01:05:37,640
Speaker 1: just knows because she's had this before. Outside groups are

1156
01:05:37,680 --> 01:05:41,760
Speaker 1: going to come in and save her if necessary, and

1157
01:05:42,480 --> 01:05:46,480
Speaker 1: outside democratic groups are likely not to spend their money there.

1158
01:05:46,520 --> 01:05:49,800
Speaker 1: There instead, and that it's specific in Colorado, they're probably

1159
01:05:49,800 --> 01:05:52,080
Speaker 1: going to spend money. I think they think they can

1160
01:05:52,080 --> 01:05:55,560
Speaker 1: flip the third district on the other side of the Rockies.

1161
01:05:55,560 --> 01:05:57,840
Speaker 1: They think maybe they can flip the Colorado Springs district,

1162
01:05:59,560 --> 01:06:02,560
Speaker 1: So I think they're more likely to concentrate their resources elsewhere.

1163
01:06:02,680 --> 01:06:07,880
Speaker 1: So it is it is about whether is is your

1164
01:06:07,960 --> 01:06:12,280
Speaker 1: race competitive enough that the outside groups will engage, And

1165
01:06:12,360 --> 01:06:14,400
Speaker 1: in this case, I think that's why that isn't the case.

1166
01:06:14,440 --> 01:06:18,360
Speaker 1: But is there a rule of thumb? Like I said,

1167
01:06:18,360 --> 01:06:20,280
Speaker 1: that's a ten to one, and I wouldn't still view

1168
01:06:20,360 --> 01:06:23,960
Speaker 1: that as you know, look, in a bad year for Republicans,

1169
01:06:23,960 --> 01:06:28,800
Speaker 1: they're going to lose some seats that that are plus

1170
01:06:28,920 --> 01:06:31,800
Speaker 1: nine plus ten Trump maybe even lose a seat or

1171
01:06:31,800 --> 01:06:35,120
Speaker 1: two that is. But usually there's some other reason, right,

1172
01:06:35,360 --> 01:06:40,000
Speaker 1: a scandal, lazy candidate, bad candidate, something like that. Now

1173
01:06:40,000 --> 01:06:43,920
Speaker 1: Bobert is not the best candidate, right, she doesn't always

1174
01:06:44,160 --> 01:06:47,760
Speaker 1: you know, runing come across as a conventional member of Congress,

1175
01:06:48,160 --> 01:06:50,080
Speaker 1: and she's already kind of a carpetbager. Right, it's not

1176
01:06:50,120 --> 01:06:54,200
Speaker 1: really from that area. She shopped that district. So I

1177
01:06:54,200 --> 01:06:58,240
Speaker 1: think she's being a little lazy here because I don't know.

1178
01:06:58,240 --> 01:07:00,040
Speaker 2: If she's as.

1179
01:07:01,560 --> 01:07:04,920
Speaker 1: As entrenched in this district as she was, you know,

1180
01:07:05,040 --> 01:07:07,040
Speaker 1: and you know, she moved district so she feared she

1181
01:07:07,080 --> 01:07:11,000
Speaker 1: was going to lose on that front. So I think that,

1182
01:07:11,240 --> 01:07:13,240
Speaker 1: you know, she probably has a false, a little false

1183
01:07:13,240 --> 01:07:17,000
Speaker 1: sense of security, but there's a reason she has that

1184
01:07:17,080 --> 01:07:20,200
Speaker 1: she feels that security. Next question comes from Andrew d goes,

1185
01:07:20,240 --> 01:07:22,960
Speaker 1: this is a little dark, a byproduct of reading too

1186
01:07:22,960 --> 01:07:27,640
Speaker 1: many Grisham novels. Okay, you're right, Grisham has gotten a

1187
01:07:27,640 --> 01:07:30,320
Speaker 1: little dark. In some of his more recent books. Anyway,

1188
01:07:30,320 --> 01:07:32,800
Speaker 1: he goes what a right wing magazella or even more nefarious,

1189
01:07:32,800 --> 01:07:35,640
Speaker 1: someone in Trump's inner circle set off a catastrophic public

1190
01:07:35,680 --> 01:07:37,720
Speaker 1: bomb and claim it was an Iranian terror cell towards

1191
01:07:37,760 --> 01:07:40,320
Speaker 1: the end of summer, thus resulting in the government having

1192
01:07:40,360 --> 01:07:42,440
Speaker 1: an excuse to shut down the midterm elections. Putin got

1193
01:07:42,440 --> 01:07:45,280
Speaker 1: where he is today doing the same thing, same type

1194
01:07:45,320 --> 01:07:48,640
Speaker 1: of thing in Chechia. I feel getting this out ahead

1195
01:07:48,640 --> 01:07:50,480
Speaker 1: of time could ruin the surprise intent of the people.

1196
01:07:50,480 --> 01:07:52,800
Speaker 1: Thank you PS Sunday's For eight years before my son

1197
01:07:52,880 --> 01:07:55,160
Speaker 1: went to college, was getting our breakfast cooked and ready

1198
01:07:55,280 --> 01:07:56,880
Speaker 1: so we could sit and watch me the press. Thanks

1199
01:07:56,880 --> 01:07:59,840
Speaker 1: for that routine, Andrew d Andrew, thanks for sharing that.

1200
01:08:00,240 --> 01:08:04,960
Speaker 1: Uh love love those father son stories. Uh those are

1201
01:08:04,960 --> 01:08:06,800
Speaker 1: neat When I go to college campuses and people say

1202
01:08:06,800 --> 01:08:09,800
Speaker 1: they grew up watching me, and of course I know

1203
01:08:09,840 --> 01:08:10,840
Speaker 1: they mean it as a compliment.

1204
01:08:10,840 --> 01:08:13,400
Speaker 2: It only makes me feel old. But that's neither here

1205
01:08:13,480 --> 01:08:13,760
Speaker 2: or there.

1206
01:08:14,480 --> 01:08:16,679
Speaker 1: Look, I did a whole thing on the Reichstag fire

1207
01:08:16,920 --> 01:08:19,800
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, which was an important moment

1208
01:08:19,800 --> 01:08:26,519
Speaker 1: for Hitler too. Essentially, uh use use the government against

1209
01:08:26,560 --> 01:08:30,600
Speaker 1: the people and to use government to.

1210
01:08:32,240 --> 01:08:37,880
Speaker 2: Acquire authoritarian legitimacy.

1211
01:08:39,120 --> 01:08:45,680
Speaker 1: So I have to say, I, I mean, you know,

1212
01:08:47,439 --> 01:08:50,320
Speaker 1: the end of succession. I'm starting the fire at the

1213
01:08:50,320 --> 01:08:53,680
Speaker 1: big central counting location in Milwaukee. Right, we've seen that

1214
01:08:53,720 --> 01:08:57,160
Speaker 1: one that would totally have been something you're like that

1215
01:08:57,600 --> 01:08:59,760
Speaker 1: scared the be Jesus out of a lot of people, going, Hey,

1216
01:08:59,760 --> 01:09:07,080
Speaker 1: that's seemed super realistic. Welcome to distrust in America, right,

1217
01:09:07,280 --> 01:09:09,599
Speaker 1: I mean, you know what you're describing, You're right, is

1218
01:09:09,600 --> 01:09:12,400
Speaker 1: something that most Russians just believe is fact, that that's

1219
01:09:12,479 --> 01:09:22,240
Speaker 1: just how the world works. I just I here's why

1220
01:09:22,280 --> 01:09:23,800
Speaker 1: I don't believe it's possible.

1221
01:09:23,880 --> 01:09:25,040
Speaker 2: I just think that.

1222
01:09:28,800 --> 01:09:34,360
Speaker 1: Those conspiracies never hold. They just don't. People break people.

1223
01:09:35,040 --> 01:09:37,519
Speaker 1: People you know, you know, do not let that go.

1224
01:09:38,240 --> 01:09:42,320
Speaker 1: And I just don't think it's you know, it's it is.

1225
01:09:43,880 --> 01:09:46,120
Speaker 1: I don't think that stuff gets suppressed. I think if

1226
01:09:46,160 --> 01:09:48,400
Speaker 1: you're waiting for some bombshell that you think has never

1227
01:09:48,439 --> 01:09:51,040
Speaker 1: been reported, it's never been reported because there's no bombshell

1228
01:09:51,080 --> 01:09:56,680
Speaker 1: there and a lot of these conspiracies that can get

1229
01:09:56,760 --> 01:10:01,679
Speaker 1: us all sent down certain rabbit holes. But hey, look

1230
01:10:01,720 --> 01:10:06,479
Speaker 1: you're not you're not putting out I wish I wish

1231
01:10:06,479 --> 01:10:09,400
Speaker 1: I would say, you're being crazy, Andrew. All Right, I

1232
01:10:09,400 --> 01:10:15,040
Speaker 1: don't believe it'll be and I don't believe that even

1233
01:10:15,120 --> 01:10:18,559
Speaker 1: Trump has enough support to pull something like this off

1234
01:10:19,320 --> 01:10:25,400
Speaker 1: without it, you know, without it sort of somebody whistleblowing.

1235
01:10:27,240 --> 01:10:30,080
Speaker 1: But that's life in a democracy that ultimately I count

1236
01:10:30,080 --> 01:10:32,120
Speaker 1: on somebody being a whistleblower, that at the end of

1237
01:10:32,160 --> 01:10:34,840
Speaker 1: the day, somebody's conscience gets the best of them.

1238
01:10:34,840 --> 01:10:36,559
Speaker 2: And you know, I would you.

1239
01:10:36,560 --> 01:10:39,479
Speaker 1: Know, it's interesting I saw the other day somebody dunking on.

1240
01:10:42,600 --> 01:10:46,639
Speaker 1: Somebody tweeted out a sort of regret on voting for Trump,

1241
01:10:47,040 --> 01:10:49,439
Speaker 1: and it was a long list. You know, I thought

1242
01:10:49,520 --> 01:10:54,400
Speaker 1: I was voting for this, this, and this, and I

1243
01:10:54,439 --> 01:10:58,719
Speaker 1: feel taken and you know, I regret my vote. And

1244
01:10:59,360 --> 01:11:03,080
Speaker 1: somebody tweeted above it and all the responses were, well,

1245
01:11:03,120 --> 01:11:04,400
Speaker 1: you're the more and I can't believe you.

1246
01:11:04,439 --> 01:11:06,000
Speaker 2: Fell for it. And I just was wanting to send

1247
01:11:06,040 --> 01:11:06,719
Speaker 2: There was somebody else.

1248
01:11:06,600 --> 01:11:09,640
Speaker 1: Who was quote tweeting it and just saying, you know,

1249
01:11:09,680 --> 01:11:11,799
Speaker 1: you need to ask yourself why you were so ignorant.

1250
01:11:12,920 --> 01:11:17,240
Speaker 1: And when I want to say to those folks, and

1251
01:11:17,320 --> 01:11:19,360
Speaker 1: I don't know if they listen to this podcast, because

1252
01:11:19,400 --> 01:11:22,200
Speaker 1: I'm not somebody who is a who just tells you

1253
01:11:22,240 --> 01:11:24,600
Speaker 1: what you want to hear. I just would never be

1254
01:11:24,600 --> 01:11:27,519
Speaker 1: able to do that. It's just not that's not who

1255
01:11:27,520 --> 01:11:27,840
Speaker 1: I am.

1256
01:11:28,400 --> 01:11:29,160
Speaker 2: So I'm not so.

1257
01:11:29,320 --> 01:11:32,000
Speaker 1: And I know that this may be saved for those

1258
01:11:32,040 --> 01:11:35,320
Speaker 1: partisan you know, those that you know are trying to

1259
01:11:35,360 --> 01:11:39,800
Speaker 1: save America, that claim they're saving America with their podcasts,

1260
01:11:42,720 --> 01:11:48,120
Speaker 1: which is, everybody's got a line that Trump crosses, but

1261
01:11:48,160 --> 01:11:52,200
Speaker 1: everybody's line is in a different place. I said something

1262
01:11:52,280 --> 01:11:55,080
Speaker 1: to a family member early on in the Trump years,

1263
01:11:55,080 --> 01:11:57,280
Speaker 1: and I said, it be careful being overly critical.

1264
01:11:56,880 --> 01:11:58,040
Speaker 2: Of some of these folks.

1265
01:11:58,960 --> 01:12:01,439
Speaker 1: I said, somebody you don't like today is going to

1266
01:12:01,439 --> 01:12:04,800
Speaker 1: be the hero of this story. And the punchline is,

1267
01:12:04,840 --> 01:12:07,880
Speaker 1: you know, at that moment, little did anybody know that

1268
01:12:07,920 --> 01:12:11,720
Speaker 1: Liz Cheney would be a hero for protecting democracy to

1269
01:12:11,880 --> 01:12:15,799
Speaker 1: many on the left some three years later, and yet.

1270
01:12:15,600 --> 01:12:17,200
Speaker 2: She was turned out.

1271
01:12:17,240 --> 01:12:22,520
Speaker 1: It was January sixth, was the line for her. Everybody

1272
01:12:22,600 --> 01:12:25,559
Speaker 1: has our line. It is not in the same place

1273
01:12:26,880 --> 01:12:31,040
Speaker 1: we live. If you want to live in a thriving democracy,

1274
01:12:31,120 --> 01:12:33,679
Speaker 1: you need to accept the premise that we all don't agree.

1275
01:12:34,800 --> 01:12:37,720
Speaker 1: That we all may have ethics and morals, but they're

1276
01:12:37,760 --> 01:12:45,479
Speaker 1: not in alignment with each other's ethics and morals, and

1277
01:12:45,479 --> 01:12:47,840
Speaker 1: that we all have our we all have our no

1278
01:12:48,000 --> 01:12:50,479
Speaker 1: go zones, right, we all have the line. If they

1279
01:12:50,520 --> 01:12:57,680
Speaker 1: crosses this line, I'm out. Welcome them, Welcome them to

1280
01:12:57,720 --> 01:13:01,559
Speaker 1: the bunker, don't lecture them for taking too long to

1281
01:13:01,560 --> 01:13:15,960
Speaker 1: get there. Next question comes from Amanda, and she writes,

1282
01:13:16,000 --> 01:13:17,439
Speaker 1: I had to stop what I was doing during your

1283
01:13:17,439 --> 01:13:20,040
Speaker 1: March second podcast because once again I found myself shouting,

1284
01:13:20,160 --> 01:13:21,400
Speaker 1: why don't you run for president?

1285
01:13:21,400 --> 01:13:22,000
Speaker 2: Mister Todd.

1286
01:13:22,200 --> 01:13:24,080
Speaker 1: The way you break down something as complex as the

1287
01:13:24,120 --> 01:13:26,640
Speaker 1: Iran assault with legal, historical, in fact driven clarity is

1288
01:13:26,680 --> 01:13:27,240
Speaker 1: exactly what.

1289
01:13:27,200 --> 01:13:28,000
Speaker 2: This country needs.

1290
01:13:28,640 --> 01:13:30,400
Speaker 1: You are truly one of the last honest, fair and

1291
01:13:30,640 --> 01:13:32,400
Speaker 1: balanced voices in the media, and I often have to

1292
01:13:32,439 --> 01:13:33,840
Speaker 1: listen twice just to absorb it all.

1293
01:13:33,840 --> 01:13:35,880
Speaker 2: Thank you for doing what you do. Gives me hope

1294
01:13:35,920 --> 01:13:36,160
Speaker 2: in a.

1295
01:13:36,200 --> 01:13:38,680
Speaker 1: Time when I often feel like we're living through the

1296
01:13:38,720 --> 01:13:42,080
Speaker 1: fall of Rome. Well, Amanda, I wonder what people in

1297
01:13:42,160 --> 01:13:43,800
Speaker 1: Rome at the time. Did they know what was all

1298
01:13:43,840 --> 01:13:45,479
Speaker 1: coming to an end? Or do they all think, oh, no,

1299
01:13:45,560 --> 01:13:48,360
Speaker 1: we can fix this right, whether they're naive like me, No, no, no,

1300
01:13:48,560 --> 01:13:52,960
Speaker 1: we'll figure it out. Well, I think you just described

1301
01:13:53,000 --> 01:13:55,599
Speaker 1: the reason why someone like me will never get elected, right,

1302
01:13:57,400 --> 01:14:00,240
Speaker 1: because you said, fact driven clarity is exactly what this

1303
01:14:00,280 --> 01:14:05,280
Speaker 1: country needs. What president has successfully used fact driven clarity

1304
01:14:05,560 --> 01:14:12,639
Speaker 1: to to get a majority on their side. A sort

1305
01:14:12,640 --> 01:14:18,760
Speaker 1: of half kid. And the candidates that that scratch my

1306
01:14:18,840 --> 01:14:20,400
Speaker 1: itch are usually the ones that are at one or

1307
01:14:20,439 --> 01:14:20,920
Speaker 1: two percent.

1308
01:14:20,960 --> 01:14:22,720
Speaker 2: I remember, you know, I was.

1309
01:14:24,240 --> 01:14:26,160
Speaker 1: One of the candidates that intrigued me the most on

1310
01:14:26,200 --> 01:14:30,920
Speaker 1: the Democratic side in twenty twenty. It was Michael Bennett,

1311
01:14:31,520 --> 01:14:34,760
Speaker 1: and I remember him at one debate he said the

1312
01:14:34,840 --> 01:14:36,519
Speaker 1: issue that I cared the most about. He says, if

1313
01:14:36,560 --> 01:14:39,040
Speaker 1: you elect me president, you might, I might, you might

1314
01:14:39,080 --> 01:14:41,240
Speaker 1: go three weeks without hearing from me. And I thought, yes,

1315
01:14:41,960 --> 01:14:47,960
Speaker 1: give me more of that. That resonated like a wet noodle. Right,

1316
01:14:51,080 --> 01:14:54,240
Speaker 1: But it's I appreciate you saying that. It's very kind

1317
01:14:54,240 --> 01:14:58,400
Speaker 1: of you, and I just I'll tell you why I've

1318
01:14:58,439 --> 01:15:04,360
Speaker 1: never even contemplated entering politics, because I think it would undermine.

1319
01:15:05,439 --> 01:15:06,800
Speaker 2: Elected office. I'll say this way.

1320
01:15:06,800 --> 01:15:09,880
Speaker 1: I always feared to underline my credibility on the media side,

1321
01:15:09,920 --> 01:15:11,880
Speaker 1: and not just mine, but other members of the media.

1322
01:15:14,200 --> 01:15:15,840
Speaker 1: You know, you play into the type that you know,

1323
01:15:15,880 --> 01:15:18,640
Speaker 1: you're an activist and all this stuff, and yet you

1324
01:15:18,680 --> 01:15:22,320
Speaker 1: know I'm a citizen too, and you're right, you know,

1325
01:15:22,439 --> 01:15:25,720
Speaker 1: so I you know, but I've decided to throw my efforts,

1326
01:15:25,800 --> 01:15:31,960
Speaker 1: my political efforts into restructuring the democracy, reforming, updating the

1327
01:15:31,960 --> 01:15:34,280
Speaker 1: infrastructure for the democracy. We need a couple of new

1328
01:15:34,280 --> 01:15:37,000
Speaker 1: constitutional amendments. It's pretty clear we need one on campaign money.

1329
01:15:38,000 --> 01:15:41,120
Speaker 1: It's pretty clear we need one on on some on

1330
01:15:41,200 --> 01:15:44,200
Speaker 1: some jerrymandering, and perhaps we need one and just a simple.

1331
01:15:44,000 --> 01:15:48,280
Speaker 2: Right to vote aspect in the constitution itself.

1332
01:15:49,360 --> 01:15:52,759
Speaker 1: And you know, if I feel like that's the place

1333
01:15:52,800 --> 01:15:57,840
Speaker 1: I can contribute best is sadly, running for president is

1334
01:15:57,920 --> 01:16:01,280
Speaker 1: just simply it's like agreeing to like the cast of Survivor,

1335
01:16:04,080 --> 01:16:07,920
Speaker 1: and that's just not something I've ever wanted to be

1336
01:16:08,040 --> 01:16:12,200
Speaker 1: a part of, if you get my drift. But clarity

1337
01:16:12,280 --> 01:16:14,719
Speaker 1: is my goal here. So the fact that you're getting clarity,

1338
01:16:14,800 --> 01:16:18,680
Speaker 1: I feel as if a mission as a president might

1339
01:16:18,720 --> 01:16:19,960
Speaker 1: say mission accomplished.

1340
01:16:21,920 --> 01:16:22,280
Speaker 2: All right.

1341
01:16:22,439 --> 01:16:25,400
Speaker 1: Last question comes from Jim in Pennsylvania, and he goes, hey,

1342
01:16:25,400 --> 01:16:27,479
Speaker 1: I've heard it said that the next president, regardless of

1343
01:16:27,520 --> 01:16:29,680
Speaker 1: whether they're Republican or Democrat, may have difficulty doing a

1344
01:16:29,720 --> 01:16:31,439
Speaker 1: one eighty on tariff. Says this may be the new

1345
01:16:31,479 --> 01:16:33,840
Speaker 1: norm as a revenue stream. If that is the case,

1346
01:16:33,840 --> 01:16:35,960
Speaker 1: how does the country go about removing tariffs? How did

1347
01:16:35,960 --> 01:16:38,559
Speaker 1: we change course from the Willie McKinley days when he

1348
01:16:38,640 --> 01:16:40,439
Speaker 1: was pro tariff to the free trade that we've had

1349
01:16:40,560 --> 01:16:42,439
Speaker 1: most recently. Is it something that can be done like

1350
01:16:42,439 --> 01:16:44,160
Speaker 1: a band aid that's ripped off, or does it take

1351
01:16:44,240 --> 01:16:48,200
Speaker 1: multiple presidencies and the building of goodwill to develop free trade? Well,

1352
01:16:48,200 --> 01:16:50,920
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be you know, I think

1353
01:16:50,960 --> 01:16:53,559
Speaker 1: goodwill is going to be one issue, right and we

1354
01:16:53,600 --> 01:16:56,479
Speaker 1: may have so many reciprocal tariffs that are impacting US.

1355
01:16:57,520 --> 01:16:59,000
Speaker 1: I don't think getting rid of the tariffs are going

1356
01:16:59,000 --> 01:17:03,960
Speaker 1: to be that difficult. I think what some people claim

1357
01:17:04,000 --> 01:17:06,320
Speaker 1: that will be difficult is giving how do you replace

1358
01:17:06,360 --> 01:17:11,680
Speaker 1: the revenue if it is bringing in so much revenue

1359
01:17:11,960 --> 01:17:16,599
Speaker 1: that it that if you get rid of it, then

1360
01:17:16,600 --> 01:17:19,160
Speaker 1: you have to find a way to replace the revenue. Now,

1361
01:17:19,160 --> 01:17:23,000
Speaker 1: I've always believed what Donald Trump was and what proponents

1362
01:17:23,040 --> 01:17:26,599
Speaker 1: of his tariff strategy were really hoping. Trump has said this,

1363
01:17:27,160 --> 01:17:30,240
Speaker 1: he wanted to get rid of the income tax. He

1364
01:17:30,280 --> 01:17:34,439
Speaker 1: wants to repeal the sixteenth Amendment. He wants to get

1365
01:17:34,600 --> 01:17:37,720
Speaker 1: rid of the income tax. Most rich people do. Rich

1366
01:17:37,760 --> 01:17:40,000
Speaker 1: people hated the income tax. The reason they put in

1367
01:17:40,360 --> 01:17:43,960
Speaker 1: we put in the income tax is because these industrialists

1368
01:17:44,000 --> 01:17:47,200
Speaker 1: were not paying their fair share, and the tariff system

1369
01:17:47,240 --> 01:17:50,439
Speaker 1: of taxation, which was the primary way the government raised money,

1370
01:17:52,080 --> 01:17:54,519
Speaker 1: made it so that essentially the working class and the

1371
01:17:54,560 --> 01:18:00,519
Speaker 1: working poor were actually paying more in tax than the

1372
01:18:00,520 --> 01:18:04,519
Speaker 1: wealthy work and so that's why we ended up with

1373
01:18:04,600 --> 01:18:07,120
Speaker 1: the income tax in the first place, and the property

1374
01:18:07,200 --> 01:18:10,800
Speaker 1: tax structure that we see some governors wanting to get

1375
01:18:10,840 --> 01:18:14,080
Speaker 1: rid of today, which if you get rid of that,

1376
01:18:14,160 --> 01:18:19,240
Speaker 1: all you're going to do is get rid of government

1377
01:18:19,280 --> 01:18:23,240
Speaker 1: services that a lot of people like and find yourself

1378
01:18:23,240 --> 01:18:26,760
Speaker 1: on the wrong end of a pitchfork that I promise you.

1379
01:18:26,880 --> 01:18:34,080
Speaker 1: So it's the revenue, the potential for the lost revenue

1380
01:18:34,080 --> 01:18:35,800
Speaker 1: that I think has made some people think they'll be

1381
01:18:36,520 --> 01:18:38,719
Speaker 1: harder to get rid of, which is obviously what Trump

1382
01:18:38,760 --> 01:18:41,200
Speaker 1: is hoping to do. But terror's not going to be

1383
01:18:41,200 --> 01:18:43,519
Speaker 1: hard to get rid of, not if you really want

1384
01:18:43,560 --> 01:18:47,479
Speaker 1: to do it. And it's but the problem, and I

1385
01:18:47,479 --> 01:18:50,519
Speaker 1: think now it's pretty clear they're not very effective, and

1386
01:18:50,640 --> 01:18:53,160
Speaker 1: they only seem to punish the American consumer, not the

1387
01:18:53,200 --> 01:18:59,120
Speaker 1: country we're intending to impact all right, Well, that does

1388
01:18:59,120 --> 01:19:05,400
Speaker 1: it for questions. It is It is perhaps the single

1389
01:19:05,840 --> 01:19:09,840
Speaker 1: greatest four day period for college basketball that there is.

1390
01:19:09,880 --> 01:19:14,000
Speaker 1: I know we're supposed to say the NCAA Tournament. It

1391
01:19:14,080 --> 01:19:17,479
Speaker 1: is amazing. I love the nca Tournament. And next weekend,

1392
01:19:18,200 --> 01:19:20,519
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's going to be very difficult

1393
01:19:20,560 --> 01:19:26,160
Speaker 1: for me to be doing tapings and paying attention. I

1394
01:19:26,600 --> 01:19:31,200
Speaker 1: have a TV within eyesight, within my eyeline here, I

1395
01:19:31,240 --> 01:19:33,559
Speaker 1: don't have it on. I am taping because right now,

1396
01:19:33,760 --> 01:19:37,360
Speaker 1: what I love about this week and this weekend is

1397
01:19:37,800 --> 01:19:40,559
Speaker 1: there is basketball that starts at ten am Eastern time.

1398
01:19:40,600 --> 01:19:45,160
Speaker 1: And there's basketball that I was watching last night Wednesday

1399
01:19:45,200 --> 01:19:48,200
Speaker 1: night that is Eastern Washington and I was watching that

1400
01:19:48,280 --> 01:19:51,360
Speaker 1: game and and uh and that was well past midnight

1401
01:19:51,479 --> 01:19:57,439
Speaker 1: one o'clock. And every game means something, right, everybody's got

1402
01:19:57,479 --> 01:20:03,040
Speaker 1: their own little uh march madness potential, right it is.

1403
01:20:03,760 --> 01:20:08,439
Speaker 1: This is it's it's funny, and it's like every other sport.

1404
01:20:08,560 --> 01:20:11,160
Speaker 1: You know, college basketball has a regular season problem, although

1405
01:20:11,200 --> 01:20:13,559
Speaker 1: I think this year was one of the better regular seasons.

1406
01:20:14,040 --> 01:20:19,760
Speaker 1: And please more more interconference scheduling in February that is fabulous.

1407
01:20:19,760 --> 01:20:21,879
Speaker 1: We had a lot of I mean that seeing Michigan

1408
01:20:21,920 --> 01:20:24,320
Speaker 1: and Duke play, you know, in a non conference game

1409
01:20:24,360 --> 01:20:26,559
Speaker 1: in the middle of so called conference season. In fact,

1410
01:20:26,600 --> 01:20:29,280
Speaker 1: I'd love to see a flip right start the conference

1411
01:20:29,320 --> 01:20:33,320
Speaker 1: schedules earlier in November and December, go ahead and the

1412
01:20:33,520 --> 01:20:37,200
Speaker 1: first matchups then and you know those are on campus

1413
01:20:37,240 --> 01:20:39,479
Speaker 1: games and all that stuff, and then like have some

1414
01:20:39,520 --> 01:20:42,559
Speaker 1: bigger games to start showcasing. Because one of the things

1415
01:20:42,600 --> 01:20:44,960
Speaker 1: we're learning about college basketball, I think in the NIL

1416
01:20:45,040 --> 01:20:51,599
Speaker 1: era is basically, if you're under six', five you now

1417
01:20:51,640 --> 01:20:53,760
Speaker 1: are more likely to, play and no matter how great you,

1418
01:20:53,760 --> 01:20:56,160
Speaker 1: are you're more likely to play for all four. Years

1419
01:20:56,200 --> 01:20:59,720
Speaker 1: and college one is it's just not a lot of

1420
01:20:59,760 --> 01:21:02,080
Speaker 1: appetite in THE nba for anybody under six.

1421
01:21:02,240 --> 01:21:02,719
Speaker 2: Five.

1422
01:21:04,600 --> 01:21:06,720
Speaker 1: And then if you're obviously if you're a center that's

1423
01:21:06,760 --> 01:21:09,600
Speaker 1: six 's nine, or shorter Unless you're bam Out of,

1424
01:21:09,600 --> 01:21:13,080
Speaker 1: bio right the shortest center. THERE is i mean talking

1425
01:21:13,080 --> 01:21:16,320
Speaker 1: about a guy who plays almost half a foot taller

1426
01:21:16,320 --> 01:21:20,439
Speaker 1: than he. Actually is i'm still just shocked by his

1427
01:21:20,439 --> 01:21:25,639
Speaker 1: eighty three, point, Game Right, kobe Bryan Not, luca RIGHT

1428
01:21:25,800 --> 01:21:28,280
Speaker 1: not i Mean. Not lebron like when you think who's

1429
01:21:28,360 --> 01:21:31,120
Speaker 1: number Two to, will right it's going to be such

1430
01:21:31,160 --> 01:21:33,720
Speaker 1: a such a great question in thirty, years right and

1431
01:21:33,720 --> 01:21:34,919
Speaker 1: people are going, To, guess.

1432
01:21:34,720 --> 01:21:36,880
Speaker 2: Wow maybe Was It? Magic johnson did he? Do It Did?

1433
01:21:36,920 --> 01:21:37,559
Speaker 1: Larry Bird And?

1434
01:21:37,600 --> 01:21:38,679
Speaker 2: Michael Jordan Did?

1435
01:21:39,120 --> 01:21:41,840
Speaker 1: Turk Nowitzki tim duncan you start? GO through, i MEAN

1436
01:21:42,880 --> 01:21:47,120
Speaker 1: if i put together thirty names top names in THE,

1437
01:21:47,160 --> 01:21:49,920
Speaker 1: CURRENT nba i don't KNOW when i would GET. TO

1438
01:21:50,000 --> 01:21:52,400
Speaker 1: bam i don't know if i'd GET to bam as

1439
01:21:52,560 --> 01:21:55,120
Speaker 1: potential for having an eighty three. Point game but when

1440
01:21:55,160 --> 01:21:57,360
Speaker 1: you start the first quarter with thirty, one points, you

1441
01:21:57,400 --> 01:21:59,720
Speaker 1: know you gotta love it that they, just fed, you

1442
01:21:59,720 --> 01:22:02,479
Speaker 1: know found ways to keep feeding them and keep.

1443
01:22:02,479 --> 01:22:05,439
Speaker 2: Doing THAT but i digressed a.

1444
01:22:05,479 --> 01:22:07,720
Speaker 1: Little bit the point being IS that i think that

1445
01:22:07,760 --> 01:22:12,559
Speaker 1: we are this the top twenty five teams in. College

1446
01:22:12,600 --> 01:22:14,800
Speaker 1: basketball so this will be when it comes to the

1447
01:22:14,840 --> 01:22:19,519
Speaker 1: seeding when we see the Brackets, on sunday the ONE

1448
01:22:19,560 --> 01:22:22,240
Speaker 1: through i would put here the one through, five SEEDS

1449
01:22:22,280 --> 01:22:24,720
Speaker 1: and i might expand it to the. SIX seeds i

1450
01:22:24,720 --> 01:22:26,559
Speaker 1: do think this is such a top heavy year that

1451
01:22:26,640 --> 01:22:29,120
Speaker 1: there is nobody outside the top six seeds will be

1452
01:22:29,120 --> 01:22:29,240
Speaker 1: In a.

1453
01:22:29,320 --> 01:22:29,920
Speaker 2: FINAL four.

1454
01:22:31,439 --> 01:22:33,400
Speaker 1: I do not think you'll see a seven or. HIGHER

1455
01:22:33,439 --> 01:22:36,840
Speaker 1: seat i think there is a. Huge gap, the gap

1456
01:22:36,920 --> 01:22:39,840
Speaker 1: THERE'S a i think there's there's sort of like there's

1457
01:22:39,880 --> 01:22:44,519
Speaker 1: the there's eight teams that seem super elite and seem

1458
01:22:44,600 --> 01:22:46,800
Speaker 1: like and obviously four of them aren't going to at

1459
01:22:46,840 --> 01:22:48,360
Speaker 1: least four of aret going to Make the final four and.

1460
01:22:48,400 --> 01:22:49,360
Speaker 2: All that then you.

1461
01:22:49,320 --> 01:22:51,880
Speaker 1: Have sort of the next twelve who can beat those

1462
01:22:51,920 --> 01:22:54,800
Speaker 1: top eight teams on any. Given night the question is

1463
01:22:54,840 --> 01:22:57,200
Speaker 1: can they beat two of them in a row right

1464
01:22:57,240 --> 01:22:59,400
Speaker 1: to make it to the to an eight or a

1465
01:22:59,479 --> 01:23:00,400
Speaker 1: sixty or.

1466
01:23:00,479 --> 01:23:01,240
Speaker 2: Final four.

1467
01:23:03,439 --> 01:23:07,960
Speaker 1: But enjoy these games because we are getting its high

1468
01:23:08,080 --> 01:23:12,000
Speaker 1: quality of college basketball matchups then we've gotten since. THE eighties,

1469
01:23:12,720 --> 01:23:15,240
Speaker 1: i mean, YOU know i think back at those golden

1470
01:23:15,320 --> 01:23:18,880
Speaker 1: years Of The, big east when you had When The

1471
01:23:18,920 --> 01:23:21,960
Speaker 1: big east was the. Deepest conference one year they came

1472
01:23:22,080 --> 01:23:25,000
Speaker 1: really close to getting. All four, in Fact At, boston

1473
01:23:25,080 --> 01:23:29,679
Speaker 1: college who was In The. Big east Then At, BOSTON

1474
01:23:29,720 --> 01:23:32,960
Speaker 1: college i think not lost In the elite Eight. To

1475
01:23:33,120 --> 01:23:37,679
Speaker 1: memphis the final four that Featured, For Villanova saint John's

1476
01:23:37,680 --> 01:23:40,479
Speaker 1: and georgetown would have been An All Big east. Final Four,

1477
01:23:40,560 --> 01:23:42,599
Speaker 1: BUT memphis i think is the BACK then i think

1478
01:23:42,600 --> 01:23:44,120
Speaker 1: they were Known As. MEMPHIS state i think it Was

1479
01:23:44,160 --> 01:23:48,240
Speaker 1: The keith lee team broke through and it was three of.

1480
01:23:48,280 --> 01:23:52,559
Speaker 1: The four but the quality of college basketball in the

1481
01:23:52,560 --> 01:23:54,760
Speaker 1: mid eighties when everybody had to stay, three years three,

1482
01:23:54,840 --> 01:23:57,080
Speaker 1: or fourth so you'd have these incredibly sort of. Mature

1483
01:23:57,160 --> 01:23:59,599
Speaker 1: teams that was one version. Of it now IN the, Nil,

1484
01:23:59,640 --> 01:24:03,439
Speaker 1: era no you're not going to get maybe players growing

1485
01:24:03,520 --> 01:24:07,320
Speaker 1: up with, each other solidifying over. Multiple seasons but you

1486
01:24:07,400 --> 01:24:09,479
Speaker 1: do see a big difference between the beginning of the

1487
01:24:09,479 --> 01:24:11,559
Speaker 1: season and the end of. The Season right i'm watching it.

1488
01:24:11,640 --> 01:24:14,000
Speaker 1: Very closely IN. The acc the hottest team IN the

1489
01:24:14,000 --> 01:24:14,880
Speaker 1: aec is not going to make.

1490
01:24:14,880 --> 01:24:15,880
Speaker 2: The Tournament It's.

1491
01:24:15,920 --> 01:24:21,520
Speaker 1: Florida State florida State since, february first has been fantastic

1492
01:24:21,600 --> 01:24:26,679
Speaker 1: and classic, new coach young team finally. Coming together they're

1493
01:24:26,720 --> 01:24:27,880
Speaker 1: the team no one wants to face in THE a.

1494
01:24:27,920 --> 01:24:31,400
Speaker 1: Sec Tournament RIGHT if i don't think they're going to

1495
01:24:31,439 --> 01:24:33,880
Speaker 1: win THE A, sec tournament but if they make the

1496
01:24:33,920 --> 01:24:37,439
Speaker 1: semis or, the finals not going to. Be shocked they've just,

1497
01:24:37,479 --> 01:24:39,960
Speaker 1: been playing, you know they've they've quote figured. It out

1498
01:24:39,960 --> 01:24:41,639
Speaker 1: and that's what's kind of, Fun. About right you can

1499
01:24:41,840 --> 01:24:43,439
Speaker 1: get hot in a tournament and suddenly you can find

1500
01:24:43,479 --> 01:24:46,400
Speaker 1: yourself in in the biggest of the biggest, of dances

1501
01:24:47,000 --> 01:24:49,479
Speaker 1: but enjoy. THESE matchups, I mean i just think we're

1502
01:24:49,600 --> 01:24:52,920
Speaker 1: we're going To have we're going to have as good

1503
01:24:53,360 --> 01:24:56,280
Speaker 1: Of an elite Eight and, sweet sixteen and these are

1504
01:24:56,280 --> 01:25:01,799
Speaker 1: going to be high. LEVEL matchups, i mean we are

1505
01:25:01,520 --> 01:25:11,960
Speaker 1: the depth of this year's. COLLEGE basketball I, Mean, Florida, Yukon, Houston,

1506
01:25:13,040 --> 01:25:21,960
Speaker 1: Arizona Duke. Saint john's, YOU know, i look i'd love

1507
01:25:22,000 --> 01:25:24,679
Speaker 1: to SAY my I think. Miami is i'm Really hoping

1508
01:25:24,720 --> 01:25:28,439
Speaker 1: miami gets a. Sixth SEED My, gw colonials, You Know

1509
01:25:28,760 --> 01:25:31,680
Speaker 1: i'm i'd like to see them make. A splash i

1510
01:25:31,680 --> 01:25:36,120
Speaker 1: think they're kind of running out of, gas unfortunately but

1511
01:25:37,280 --> 01:25:42,360
Speaker 1: uh My Buddy chris capudo's had a. Great season we are,

1512
01:25:42,760 --> 01:25:44,639
Speaker 1: you know we're not gonna get, twenty wins, but.

1513
01:25:44,920 --> 01:25:45,960
Speaker 2: Boy there there.

1514
01:25:46,000 --> 01:25:48,200
Speaker 1: Are three there are three or four wins sitting in

1515
01:25:48,240 --> 01:25:51,040
Speaker 1: that lost column THAT that, i think, you know a,

1516
01:25:51,120 --> 01:25:53,280
Speaker 1: bounce here a, bounce there and maybe we're a twenty

1517
01:25:53,320 --> 01:25:56,360
Speaker 1: one win team and maybe we're on the bubble on.

1518
01:25:56,400 --> 01:25:58,439
Speaker 1: That front and we came within three points of beating

1519
01:25:58,520 --> 01:26:00,280
Speaker 1: the one team of the eight ten that could make

1520
01:26:00,360 --> 01:26:03,800
Speaker 1: noise in the, nca tournament and That's The Saint. LOUIS

1521
01:26:03,840 --> 01:26:07,200
Speaker 1: billigans i bet you didn't know That the atlantic ten

1522
01:26:07,439 --> 01:26:09,520
Speaker 1: stretched all the Way To, saint louis.

1523
01:26:10,040 --> 01:26:10,280
Speaker 2: But, it.

1524
01:26:10,320 --> 01:26:13,120
Speaker 1: Does Right The atlantic ocean eventually finds its way Into,

1525
01:26:13,160 --> 01:26:15,880
Speaker 1: the mississippi which is close Enough To Saint.

1526
01:26:15,920 --> 01:26:17,400
Speaker 2: Louis university.

1527
01:26:19,439 --> 01:26:21,640
Speaker 1: But. ENJOY this I know. I am this is an.

1528
01:26:21,680 --> 01:26:25,719
Speaker 1: Amazing weekend throw IN the WBC and nfl, free AGENCY

1529
01:26:25,760 --> 01:26:27,800
Speaker 1: and i am getting a little concerned about what my

1530
01:26:27,800 --> 01:26:31,200
Speaker 1: packers are. Up to a lot of offensive linemen leaving

1531
01:26:31,240 --> 01:26:36,559
Speaker 1: the building waiting for the replenishment. Of, supplies, here guys

1532
01:26:37,080 --> 01:26:41,080
Speaker 1: totally Understand The romeo, dobbs thing Understand the gary trade

1533
01:26:41,920 --> 01:26:45,439
Speaker 1: less less sort of bought in on what's happening on the.

1534
01:26:45,439 --> 01:26:49,840
Speaker 1: Offensive line getting very nervous here. About that what was,

1535
01:26:50,000 --> 01:26:52,160
Speaker 1: you know that's been, a strength so we. Shall see

1536
01:26:52,160 --> 01:26:54,559
Speaker 1: we've got a pretty deep, receiver room but we have

1537
01:26:54,600 --> 01:26:57,040
Speaker 1: no first round draft pick. This Year That's michael parsons

1538
01:26:57,240 --> 01:26:57,760
Speaker 1: that's sitting on.

1539
01:26:57,800 --> 01:27:01,760
Speaker 2: The il so a little.

1540
01:27:01,800 --> 01:27:05,360
Speaker 1: Bit concerned but the, point is if you're looking to

1541
01:27:05,360 --> 01:27:09,240
Speaker 1: get distracted, by sports this is an amazing weekend to

1542
01:27:09,320 --> 01:27:12,439
Speaker 1: distract yourself from the horrors of what we're dealing with at.

1543
01:27:12,439 --> 01:27:17,400
Speaker 1: The moment to what is the euphoria had a lot

1544
01:27:17,439 --> 01:27:21,840
Speaker 1: of fun, to watch, and look these guys may, get

1545
01:27:21,840 --> 01:27:25,960
Speaker 1: paid they, deserve it and they still seem pretty excited.

1546
01:27:26,000 --> 01:27:29,200
Speaker 1: About it so enjoy, the weekend enjoy. The games i'll

1547
01:27:29,200 --> 01:27:29,800
Speaker 1: see in seventy.

1548
01:27:29,800 --> 01:27:30,240
Speaker 2: Two hours