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Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday, Welcome to another episode of the Chuck Podcast.

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Speaker 1: I've got a bit I don't want to call it popari,

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Speaker 1: but in my focus before we get to my interview,

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Speaker 1: day is going to be very campaigny, if you will,

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Speaker 1: some interesting developments on the campaign trail for twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: six plus. I want to sort of do a quick

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Speaker 1: little side by side comparison to what the Republicans are

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Speaker 1: doing with the so called Save Act, their election reform

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Speaker 1: proposal and compare it to the failed Democratic version of this.

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Speaker 1: It was known as HR one back during the Biden era,

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Speaker 1: and of course it passed the House but didn't make

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Speaker 1: it out of the Senate. We're going to see a

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Speaker 1: similar situation. This bill is going to fail, and I'll explain.

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Speaker 1: But what you have as two parties are who both

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Speaker 1: created bills that were designed to fail, not designed to pass,

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Speaker 1: and I want to talk about.

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Speaker 2: That also this episode.

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Speaker 1: I have a fantastic top five list, or maybe a

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Speaker 1: depressing top five list, depending on your point of view,

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Speaker 1: but it's a fun one, I think.

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Speaker 2: Actually i'll tell.

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Speaker 1: You so in case you really are so excited you

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Speaker 1: want to quickly jump to it, which.

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Speaker 2: Is the top five.

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Speaker 1: Laws that used to be that you won't believe used

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Speaker 1: to be legal when it came to politics, and then

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Speaker 1: a top five list of things that we ought to

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Speaker 1: make that fifty years from now someone's going to say,

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Speaker 1: I can't believe you guys, let this that this was

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Speaker 1: as legal as long as it was.

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Speaker 2: So we'll get to that.

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Speaker 1: Do a few questions, but bottom line are pretty robust episodes.

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Speaker 1: Let me start with sort of the state of politics

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six, because We've had a lot of movement.

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Speaker 1: Probably the most significant disaster has been averted for the Republicans.

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Speaker 1: And what do I mean? Susan Collins finally announced that

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Speaker 1: she is definitely going to run for reelection. Had there

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Speaker 1: had been certainly she had done, she had taken a

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Speaker 1: while to confirm that she was running for reelection. There

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Speaker 1: was starting to become some growing concern in some Republicans

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Speaker 1: circles that the the the entire national electoral atmosphere was

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Speaker 1: getting to her. That look, did she want to run

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Speaker 1: in what is the most uphill race she's ever had

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Speaker 1: to run? Right, She's never been simultaneously unpopular with Republicans

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Speaker 1: and unpopular with Democrats. She certainly has has made some

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Speaker 1: conservatives angry in the days, but it's usually come the

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Speaker 1: loss of that vote has come with the gain of

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Speaker 1: votes of center or even center left voters in the

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Speaker 1: state of Maine. But since her Cavanaugh, since since her

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Speaker 1: Cavanaugh support and a few other things, she is in

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Speaker 1: some ways, you know, used to be Lisa Murkowski in

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Speaker 1: Susan Collins, it was almost they were interchangeable. They're not

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Speaker 1: so interchangeable anymore. I think Lisa Murkowski really is more

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Speaker 1: of a political independent than a partisan. I think she

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Speaker 1: almost says it herself. She coxes with Republicans because that's

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Speaker 1: where she's caucused. You know, one of the more intriguing

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Speaker 1: potential post election storylines I think of twenty twenty six

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Speaker 1: is if Democrats net three seats and it's a fifty

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Speaker 1: to fifty Senate with Jadvan's breaking the tie. I promise you,

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Speaker 1: before that Senate is sworn in, Chuck Schumer and other

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Speaker 1: Democrats are going to be all over Lisa Murkowski to

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Speaker 1: see if they can get her to switch parties. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, there's always been a small part of me

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Speaker 1: that thinks that Democrats actually have to need three Senate seats,

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Speaker 1: get to fifty to fifty, then at that point they

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Speaker 1: might be able to convince Lisa Murkowski to hand power

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Speaker 1: over to the Democrats.

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Speaker 2: Will that happen? Unlikely? Is that more probable possible than

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Speaker 2: people realize? Yes, it is.

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Speaker 1: She herself has opened that door, Lisa Murkowski, that is so.

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Speaker 1: The point is with Susan Collins. Look, what's interesting about

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Speaker 1: the Susan Collins development is the fact that Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: will simultaneously complain about Susan Collins when she votes against

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Speaker 1: him on certain things, but does not get so angry

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Speaker 1: that he searches for a challenger.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: He found a primary challenger to Murkowski, right, and that's

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Speaker 1: when she ended up running and winning as a write in.

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Speaker 1: And you know, there was tea party movement. They've tried

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Speaker 1: to get rid of Makowski and they have failed. He

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Speaker 1: has never done that with Susan Collins. It's almost as

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Speaker 1: if even though there's sort of a mini Trump in

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Speaker 1: that state in Paula Page, the former governor who's running

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Speaker 1: for the what is now an open main second congressional

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Speaker 1: district with Jared Golden not seeking reelection, and yet that

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Speaker 1: is never that it is. It's fascinating that Republicans in

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Speaker 1: the Senate on the campaign side of things, Tim Scott

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Speaker 1: John Thune in particular, have been able to get him

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Speaker 1: to be pragmatic about Susan Collins. But really, nowhere else

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Speaker 1: does he get this pragmatic.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: He has not been this pragmatic in Louisiana, He's not

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Speaker 1: been this pragmatic in Texas, but he's willing to be

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Speaker 1: this pragmatic. Wasn't willing to be this pragmatic in North Carolina,

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Speaker 1: but he was willing to be this pragmatic in May,

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Speaker 1: perhaps they realized she is the only candidate that can

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Speaker 1: remotely have a chance at winning. I'm pretty pessimistic about

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Speaker 1: her chances because she is entering this campaign with sort

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Speaker 1: of the she's acquiring the same problem that Mitch McConnell

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Speaker 1: and Chuck Schumer are both experiencing in poll numbers to

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Speaker 1: this day, and that is the base of her own

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Speaker 1: party is not happy with her, and the base of

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Speaker 1: the other party is very angry with her. Right, Mitch

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Speaker 1: McConnell's numbers are extraordinarily low, or were extraordinarily low, because

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Speaker 1: he simultaneously had the entire Democratic Party hating him and

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Speaker 1: the Trump wing of the Republican Party not liking him,

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Speaker 1: so it made his negatives look even more. Chuck Schumer

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Speaker 1: is starting to experience that, where the base of the

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Speaker 1: Democratic Party is no fan of Chuck Schumer these days,

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Speaker 1: and they are more likely to rate him negatively than positively,

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Speaker 1: And of course the entire Republican Party is pretty anti Schumer,

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Speaker 1: so it in some ways makes his numbers look worse.

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Speaker 1: And that's the situation that I wonder while she's I

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Speaker 1: don't think Susan Collins has got the super negatives on

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Speaker 1: the right, she does so on the left. And this

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Speaker 1: is the first time where I don't think she starts

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Speaker 1: you know, she starts easily with the lowest personal favorable

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Speaker 1: rating that she's ever had in trying to seek reelection.

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Speaker 1: So I think this is an uphill battle for her.

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Speaker 1: But the fact of the matter is, had she not

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Speaker 1: sought reelection, the seat's done.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: If anything, it just becomes a you know, it's the

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Speaker 1: big primary fight between Graham Platner and Janet Mills. Now

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Speaker 1: that's not the case, and it makes you know, this

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Speaker 1: is probably a good day for Janet Mills. If there

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Speaker 1: is a if there's a growing belief that that Grand

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Speaker 1: Platner's mouth has gotten him in too much trouble and

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Speaker 1: it provides too much baggage, and that it's the wrong.

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Speaker 2: The wrong.

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Speaker 1: Profile to be running against Collins, you know that there

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Speaker 1: will be the conventional wisdom crowd will gravitate more to Mills.

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Speaker 1: Now I'm sort of torn on this, right, I think

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Speaker 1: there is an out I think we're in an outsider

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Speaker 1: insider phase, and if you're the outsider, you're in a

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Speaker 1: better position than if you're the insider, right, And in

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Speaker 1: some ways Grant Platner could run the campaign he runs

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Speaker 1: against Mills. It's the same campaign he runs against Collins.

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Speaker 1: And my guess is that's the campaign he tries to do.

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Speaker 1: As a primary voter. Mills has a tougher job. She's

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Speaker 1: got to both defend a little bit of her own

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Speaker 1: incumbency and then at the same time, you know, does

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Speaker 1: she is it just purely a character campaign against Platner,

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Speaker 1: which doesn't always work in competitive prime, So it's it's complicated.

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Speaker 1: I think it certainly will help her financially, help her organizationally,

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Speaker 1: that's Janet Mills. But if you're Platner, you do get

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Speaker 1: to put the campaign together. That was sort of where

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Speaker 1: it's very much emblematic of what Trump did in sixteen, right.

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Speaker 1: He ran against both the Bushes and the Clintons all

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Speaker 1: at the same time, so it gave him a little

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Speaker 1: extra appeal from that sort of outsider. And you know,

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Speaker 1: I always think about the main independent as sort of

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Speaker 1: the In my head, I always think of the Petrick

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Speaker 1: farm guy, that the cranky and this is I'm going

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Speaker 1: to date myself, but some of you will remember the

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Speaker 1: sad campaign of the cranky old man who used to

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Speaker 1: sell Petrick Farm cookies. That's you know that you know,

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Speaker 1: kind of a crank and I always think of the

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Speaker 1: New England crank a little bit, and it's, you know,

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Speaker 1: that's the that's the main swing voter. There's a little

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Speaker 1: crankiness to him. And I do think Platner and Collins

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Speaker 1: both know how to appeal to that cranky, cranky person.

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Speaker 1: But I do think that that's so it's it's, you know,

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Speaker 1: is this is this a left right election or is

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Speaker 1: this an inside outside election right? And I think if

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Speaker 1: it's the inside outside thing is what I think is

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Speaker 1: is Platner's is Platiner's strength there, But either way it

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Speaker 1: the fact is, you know, Republicans are breathing a huge

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Speaker 1: sigh of relief, especially given in a week where the

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Speaker 1: developments in Texas are just terrible for them. Right, You've

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Speaker 1: got Ken Paxton getting the endorsement of the Turning Point organization,

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Speaker 1: just giving him his first sort of first sort of

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Speaker 1: official endorsement from more of the Trump wing of the party.

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Speaker 1: Trump hasn't weighed in yet, but it is it is,

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Speaker 1: you know, I I am I am surprised Turning Point

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Speaker 1: wants to associate themselves with Ken Paxton and his questionable

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Speaker 1: character not just personal morals, professional ethics like that. I I,

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Speaker 1: you know, I thought they might stay out considering how

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Speaker 1: competitive this primary is in but that maybe just driven

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Speaker 1: by a rank and file, could be driven by donors.

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Speaker 2: But either way, it's a big.

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Speaker 1: Get for Paxxton because it kind of like he hasn't

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Speaker 1: gotten many endorsements. He seems to me like an illegitimate

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Speaker 1: candidate for office, given that he was impeached although he

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Speaker 1: never was not convicted, but the stuff around him is

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Speaker 1: really some ugly stuff. So I am mildly surprised that

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Speaker 1: they went with him, though I know that as far

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Speaker 1: as the type of the way he wants to pursue

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Speaker 1: conservative a little bit of that pugilistic, aggressive nature of

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Speaker 1: politics is something I think that appeals to Turning Point,

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Speaker 1: the Turning Point crowd a little bit. But I thought

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Speaker 1: maybe they wouldn't want to be associated with what is

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Speaker 1: Paxton's really questionable morals and ethics on that one.

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Speaker 2: But look, that's either way.

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Speaker 1: Republicans do have a mess on their hands in Texas,

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Speaker 1: and the only thing that they've got going from in

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Speaker 1: Texas is that the Democrats have a bit of a mess,

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Speaker 1: and the last thing they need is a racially divisive

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Speaker 1: primary on that side, and it's tall Rico's trying to

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Speaker 1: calm the waters. There after he was quoted as insulting

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Speaker 1: Colin already a former Senate candidate who's now running for

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Speaker 1: a congressional seat. And look already I think there was

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Speaker 1: some hope pre slight from tallar Rico that already would

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Speaker 1: have supported tol Rico. I think ideologically he fit there.

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Speaker 1: But now he's a Jasmine Crockett supporter, so you do

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Speaker 1: have that mess there. The other interesting development over the

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Speaker 1: week is Alexander Vindman, the retirement retired Army lieutenant colonel,

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Speaker 1: kicked off his Florida Senate bid. He's, of course, he

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Speaker 1: was the whistleblower that helped launch the first impeachment on

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Speaker 1: Trump when it came to the quid pro quote that

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Speaker 1: Trump was demanding from Zelensk during twenty eighteen twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 1: You know, we'll see I don't think of Vinman as

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Speaker 1: a Floridian, but you know that is not We've had Floridians,

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Speaker 1: you know, are Floridians are used to people sort of

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Speaker 1: parachuting into campaigns that you didn't know they were Florida natives.

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Speaker 1: You're like, oh, I didn't know Rick Scott was a

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Speaker 1: Floridian or I didn't know, you know.

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Speaker 2: So it is not unusual for that. And there's.

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Speaker 1: There can be a penalty in a primary maybe if

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Speaker 1: it's a local race, but there's less of a penalty

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Speaker 1: for sort of becoming a new Floridian on the state

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Speaker 1: wide race. It's same in Arizona, Nevada. It's like the

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Speaker 1: states where there are a lot of people who aren't

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Speaker 1: native who move, who choose to move there. You know, politically,

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Speaker 1: that's a problem if you're a newcomer in a Michigan

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Speaker 1: or even in a South Carolina or a Mississippi or

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Speaker 1: an Arkansas. It is not a penalty if you're a

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Speaker 1: Floridian in Arizona. And I mean, look at Arizona senators,

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Speaker 1: most of them.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: John McCain you know, was hit with being a carpetbagger

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Speaker 1: when he first ran, and he said, you're right. The

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Speaker 1: place I've had residents the longest was in the Hanoi Hilton.

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Speaker 1: So you know, it sort of blew up in their

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Speaker 1: face when they hit. Then Mark Kelly was able to Dodge.

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Speaker 1: You know that he was a newcomer as well. It's

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Speaker 1: sort of an accept you know, it's accepted there because

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of residents in those states that choose

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Speaker 1: to move there. But Vinman can raise some money nationally,

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Speaker 1: and he might be able to raise a ton of money.

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Speaker 1: And I you know, I think this is one of

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Speaker 1: those on the on the watch list because you do

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Speaker 1: have an appointed senator situation there in Ashley Moody, and

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Speaker 1: that's you know, she's just not as well known yet.

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Speaker 1: So let's see if Vinman can raise money closer to

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Speaker 1: how val Demmings did against Marco Ruby. And now, look,

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Speaker 1: demy'sn't do well against Rubio at the ballot box, but

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Speaker 1: financially she raised quite a bit of money. Whether Vinmin

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Speaker 1: can do that is he sort of is it too

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Speaker 1: old of an impeachment for people to care in the

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Speaker 1: blue donor world.

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Speaker 2: We'll see.

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Speaker 1: But that's a that's an intriguing potential development, and it's

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Speaker 1: sort of like I said, you sort of keep an

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Speaker 1: eye on it. You check in, you see if it

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Speaker 1: if it has much. Look, Vinmin is the profile of

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Speaker 1: the type of Democrat that can win in light red states.

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Speaker 1: I think the fair question is is Florida's still a

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Speaker 1: light red state. I think it still is, but we're

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Speaker 1: going to we'll find out this cycle how light red

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Speaker 1: it is.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: I expect Republicans to win most of those state wide offices,

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Speaker 1: but is it with fifty two fifty three or is

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Speaker 1: it with fifty seven to fifty eight?

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Speaker 2: Right? And that tells you light red dark red? Right?

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Speaker 1: In a national environment like this, that's going to have

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Speaker 1: the win that the Democrats back. You know, it's if

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Speaker 1: if democrat. If Democrats can't hold Republicans to the low

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Speaker 1: fifties in an environment like this in Florida, then maybe

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Speaker 1: it will be time to write the state off for

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Speaker 1: state wide elections. So he is a good profile of

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Speaker 1: a candidate that you'ld be looking for on that fund.

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Speaker 1: builds on what I said on Monday and I turned

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Speaker 1: it into my Substack newsletter lead on Tuesday is the

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Speaker 1: fact that the House. I think the House has slipped

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Speaker 1: away from the Republicans. I think the question now isn't

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Speaker 1: whether Democrats get control of the House. The question is

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Speaker 1: whether it's by a big margin or a small margin.

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Speaker 1: And when you just look, it's just more the data

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Speaker 1: is screaming it.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: We've hit fifty one open seats, right, thirty of them

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Speaker 1: or Republican open seats. Twenty of them are Democratic open seats.

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Speaker 1: But the fact that we've crossed fifty this is only

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Speaker 1: a third time ever we've had this many retirements, and

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Speaker 1: the other two times saw massive turnover and massive gains

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Speaker 1: for the out party, if you will, including a flip

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Speaker 1: in eighteen for the Democrats and a near and then

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Speaker 1: essentially what happened in ninety two when you had sixty

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Speaker 1: five open seats, and I'm going to get to that

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Speaker 1: a little bit later in this broadcast, that it's still

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Speaker 1: led to huge churn, which of course gave Republicans the

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Speaker 1: momentum to end up picking flipping the House for the

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Speaker 1: first time in forty odd years come nineteen ninety four.

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Speaker 1: So and when you look there, I've put some great

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Speaker 1: charts in the substact you used to take a look

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Speaker 1: at it of just everything is pointing towards a Democratic flip.

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Speaker 1: The only thing preventing this at this point is something

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Speaker 1: changes the entire political environment right a massive And you know,

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Speaker 1: when you look at the two exceptions of when the

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Speaker 1: party in the White House in the last sort of

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Speaker 1: fifty years that the party in the White House actually

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Speaker 1: did well in a midterm, you had two outside events

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Speaker 1: that totally scrambled the sort of the normal pattern of

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Speaker 1: American politics. Ninety eight and the Monica Lewinsky scandal, an

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Speaker 1: impeachment attempt, which Boomer hanged on Republicans and ended up

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Speaker 1: helping Democrats. And then twenty oh two, the first election

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Speaker 1: that we held post nine to eleven, which where George W.

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Speaker 1: Bush was still sitting over sixty percent. Essentially, both Bill

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Speaker 1: Clinton and George W. Bush in those two midterms had

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Speaker 1: approval ratings in the sixties. So then you have to

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Speaker 1: ask yourself, what would it take for Donald Trump's approval rating?

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Speaker 1: Forget the sixties, what would it take for him to

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Speaker 1: get to fifty or fifty one? Well, the only thing

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Speaker 1: you can think of is some sort of crisis where

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Speaker 1: there's a rally around the flag effect, and he certainly

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Speaker 1: makes it a little bit harder I think, for independence

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Speaker 1: to rally around him, But it would have to be

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Speaker 1: something outside an extraordinary event. The point is all the

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Speaker 1: data here is showing. The only thing we don't know

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Speaker 1: is it a small Democratic majority is.

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Speaker 2: Are going to be a big one.

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Speaker 1: And what's interesting there is Democrats are starting to feel cocky.

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Speaker 1: The d tripleC just on Tuesday morning added five new

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Speaker 1: seats to their target list, and they were all seats

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Speaker 1: that Trump won by double digits. In these new seats

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Speaker 1: that they added, including Ryan Zinkey's seat in Montana, which

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Speaker 1: I think is an interesting one, a more rural, the

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Speaker 1: old Tim Wall's seat that went Republican in Minnesota's first district,

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Speaker 1: the open Charleston seat, the Nancy May seat in South Carolina,

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Speaker 1: one which was held by a Democrat a couple of

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Speaker 1: times this century Joe Cunningham, a retired member of Congress there,

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Speaker 1: but it actually had been redistricted and made a bit

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Speaker 1: more Republican. So the fact that they think they can

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Speaker 1: get that on the ballot and then they throw a

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Speaker 1: Virginia seat in there, which of course Virginia is all

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Speaker 1: getting scrambled, is the Democrats are redrawing a map that's

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Speaker 1: going to make it very beneficial to them.

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Speaker 2: But the point is is that.

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Speaker 1: When you look at this political environment we've seen the

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Speaker 1: special elections, I do think any district that Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: carried with fifty nine percent or less is theoretically in

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Speaker 1: play as long as his approval ratings are sitting at

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Speaker 1: forty four and below. And that's the situation we're staring at,

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Speaker 1: which is why you see Democrats doing that. I think

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Speaker 1: the thing to watch for on the Republican side is

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Speaker 1: when do they get to when do they get to

435
00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:18,280
Speaker 1: the point that Democrats got to in twenty twenty two,

436
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:20,840
Speaker 1: There was a point where Democrats knew they were going

437
00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:21,840
Speaker 1: to lose the House.

438
00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:23,760
Speaker 2: So then it became.

439
00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:29,800
Speaker 1: A mitigation, Right, you were just mitigating your losses. And

440
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:32,600
Speaker 1: they started messing around on Republican primaries and they got

441
00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:35,680
Speaker 1: some really bad nomine helped get some really bad Republican

442
00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:39,080
Speaker 1: nominees into general elections, which allowed them to win in

443
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:42,040
Speaker 1: some places that they probably wouldn't have won had literally

444
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:44,720
Speaker 1: there just been a generic Republican on the ticket. I

445
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:47,240
Speaker 1: think you're going to see because the only thing standing

446
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:49,840
Speaker 1: in the way of Democrats having a big night versus

447
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:54,040
Speaker 1: a small knight is if they have flawed nominees, and

448
00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:57,720
Speaker 1: if they somehow the nominees are so flawed that Republicans

449
00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:02,160
Speaker 1: can make those flaws part of the general election conversation. Right,

450
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:05,359
Speaker 1: the more this is a referendum on Trump, and the

451
00:25:05,359 --> 00:25:10,400
Speaker 1: more generic the messaging is on a national front, advantage Democrats.

452
00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:14,080
Speaker 1: If Republicans can somehow and it may only be a

453
00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:18,280
Speaker 1: race by race situation, but you want to put yourself

454
00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:21,520
Speaker 1: and what Democrats did in twenty two by mitigating, by

455
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:25,200
Speaker 1: getting involved in Republican primaries, they were able to limit

456
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:27,800
Speaker 1: their losses and make both twenty four and twenty six

457
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:32,400
Speaker 1: biable campaigns to try to win control of Congress. That's

458
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:35,520
Speaker 1: the situation Republicans find they they can't afford to let

459
00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 1: this slip away. They can't afford Democrats picking up twenty

460
00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:43,280
Speaker 1: five to forty seats, right, because that gives them padding

461
00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:46,440
Speaker 1: going into twenty eight and it probably cements a House

462
00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:49,040
Speaker 1: majority at least for two cycles. I know we've been

463
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:52,399
Speaker 1: very tumultuous over the last over the century. In fact,

464
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:54,439
Speaker 1: if the House changes hands again, this will be the

465
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:58,439
Speaker 1: fifth time the House has changed hands this century. The

466
00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:01,240
Speaker 1: House only changed hands twice in fifty in the last

467
00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:04,320
Speaker 1: fifty years of the twentieth century, so we are definitely

468
00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:07,760
Speaker 1: living in more tumultuous times. Finally, I want to close

469
00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:13,520
Speaker 1: a little bit on the absurdity. It's sort of and

470
00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:17,080
Speaker 1: I'm going to come at this from my crankiness about

471
00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 1: about politics and about congressional politics, which is, you know,

472
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:25,680
Speaker 1: do you are you trying to pass a bill or

473
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,960
Speaker 1: are you trying to raise money? And when the Democrats

474
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:30,879
Speaker 1: had there, and what I want to do is I

475
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:34,320
Speaker 1: want to do a little comparison here. Right, the Republicans

476
00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:37,360
Speaker 1: are trying to shove through this SAVE Act. It's called

477
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:41,280
Speaker 1: the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, and it's been boiled

478
00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:43,679
Speaker 1: down to just this is about voter ID. It's not

479
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:47,360
Speaker 1: about voter I D if this were simply about voter ID,

480
00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:49,240
Speaker 1: like should you have to show voter ID at the

481
00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:51,320
Speaker 1: polls to get your ballot? Which I do in the

482
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:54,159
Speaker 1: state of Virginia. Quite a few states already mandate this.

483
00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:57,239
Speaker 1: Let's say you said that at the pedigram and it

484
00:26:57,280 --> 00:26:59,680
Speaker 1: was just a standalone bill, not you have to produce

485
00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:03,399
Speaker 1: a certificate. I'm just saying, just produce your you know,

486
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:07,399
Speaker 1: a passport or driver's license or you know ID before

487
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:10,679
Speaker 1: you get your ballot. You get bipartisan support for that.

488
00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:14,160
Speaker 1: But that is not what this bill does. This bill

489
00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:18,600
Speaker 1: wants to complicate the ability to even register to vote. Right, Look,

490
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:20,920
Speaker 1: it's difficult to go get a driver's license and you've

491
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:22,840
Speaker 1: got to prove you've got to bring a birth certificate.

492
00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:24,720
Speaker 1: I remember that's the last I think the last time

493
00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:29,000
Speaker 1: you bring a birth certificate, driver's license, and potentially to

494
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:33,199
Speaker 1: get a passport. We've never had it be used to

495
00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:39,160
Speaker 1: try to get a voter registration card and so that that's,

496
00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:42,159
Speaker 1: you know, among the things it's trying to do. And

497
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:45,280
Speaker 1: the thing is is that both parties took their voter bills, right,

498
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:49,080
Speaker 1: The Democrats essentially wanted to what they really wanted to

499
00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:51,199
Speaker 1: do with their first HR one, Right, what was the

500
00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:53,560
Speaker 1: thing that had the most support, But what had most

501
00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:59,119
Speaker 1: support is to create a minimum amount of windows for

502
00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:00,960
Speaker 1: early voting in all fifty states.

503
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:01,160
Speaker 2: Right.

504
00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:03,680
Speaker 1: You're not mandating that it has to be this way

505
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:06,359
Speaker 1: in all but a minimum like fifteen days. That you

506
00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:10,120
Speaker 1: got to provide a fifteen days of early voting windows.

507
00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:12,280
Speaker 1: But then how you go about doing it is up

508
00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:13,600
Speaker 1: to you. Do you want to do it in person,

509
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:16,920
Speaker 1: you want to do it, whatever it is. But they

510
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,439
Speaker 1: threw in this other stuff, right, Democrats wanted to do

511
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:22,679
Speaker 1: public funding of elections, which was not very popular. They

512
00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:25,560
Speaker 1: wanted to throw in other things like that. And that's

513
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:30,520
Speaker 1: the thing. Both parties are using these election bills to

514
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:33,400
Speaker 1: put other stuff in there. They're not interested in actually

515
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:41,440
Speaker 1: passing and actually passing it. Instead, there's all these poison pills.

516
00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:47,640
Speaker 1: I think the if Democrats had simply pursued and this

517
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:53,560
Speaker 1: is where get this is where can't we have some

518
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:56,840
Speaker 1: pragmatism in any of our politics, in any of our

519
00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:00,640
Speaker 1: election rules. If you gave a bill that did the following, Okay,

520
00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:04,000
Speaker 1: you had to show voter ID to go to the polls,

521
00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:07,880
Speaker 1: and then you did what democrats want, which is every

522
00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:09,880
Speaker 1: voter in every state would have the right to vote

523
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:13,040
Speaker 1: by mail for any reason, no excuse absentee voting, and

524
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:16,800
Speaker 1: fifteen days of early voting. You do that, and maybe

525
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:18,840
Speaker 1: you agree that, Hey, and you've got to get your

526
00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:21,280
Speaker 1: battle in by election day. There's no there's no fudging

527
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:23,800
Speaker 1: that right. You got to put that you'd vote I

528
00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 1: D there is. You know, in the old days of

529
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:32,840
Speaker 1: give each side gets something that they care about, but

530
00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:37,360
Speaker 1: that that isn't what anybody's interested in. Nobody seems to

531
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:41,360
Speaker 1: be that interested in actually passing any of these reforms.

532
00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 1: And the only way you're going to get reforms like

533
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:44,480
Speaker 1: this is if you do one at a time and

534
00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:47,760
Speaker 1: you start from the middle out, and you know, and

535
00:29:47,800 --> 00:29:52,560
Speaker 1: you start from sort of common sense pragmatism. People want

536
00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:57,520
Speaker 1: convenience voting. We're very busy. They want that, and they do, Hey,

537
00:29:57,600 --> 00:29:59,880
Speaker 1: we show our ID almost everywhere else. They don't think

538
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:03,800
Speaker 1: that that's an extra burden. But again, right, this is

539
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:07,560
Speaker 1: not about showing your birth certificate, and that is so

540
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:10,840
Speaker 1: the point is is that there's a there's a path

541
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:16,040
Speaker 1: here to pass sort of pragmatic, reasonable reforms that both

542
00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:20,800
Speaker 1: create more conveniences to voting. And I know some philosophically

543
00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:25,080
Speaker 1: think other you shouldn't make voting convenient, right, but hey,

544
00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 1: you know, we live in a very, very large and

545
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:32,160
Speaker 1: diverse country. And I promise you if you put it,

546
00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:34,440
Speaker 1: if you made everybody vote on the same day, it

547
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:37,840
Speaker 1: would take even longer for election days to finish, it

548
00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:40,719
Speaker 1: would take even longer to count our votes, and there

549
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 1: would be a lot more distrust to it. So there

550
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:47,560
Speaker 1: is a path to do some common sense reforms. If

551
00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:50,840
Speaker 1: Republicans really cared about voter ID the most, as much

552
00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:53,800
Speaker 1: they say it, they do it as a standalone vote.

553
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:56,960
Speaker 1: And if Democrats cared enough just simply about allowing for

554
00:30:57,080 --> 00:31:01,160
Speaker 1: more access to voting so that there's more opportunity for

555
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:03,840
Speaker 1: vote by mail and more opportunity for early voting, they'd

556
00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:06,440
Speaker 1: have made it stand alone. But they didn't make it.

557
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:10,479
Speaker 1: Neither side made it stand alone. The poison pills that

558
00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:13,240
Speaker 1: were involved in either the Save Act or the HR

559
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 1: one were features, not bucks. And yes, you can jam

560
00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:18,800
Speaker 1: it through in the House because the House is always

561
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:22,280
Speaker 1: the most partisan side for either party, and it is

562
00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:24,120
Speaker 1: the Senate where you have a harder time doing this.

563
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:26,720
Speaker 1: But if you did this piecemeal, you'd have a better

564
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:30,960
Speaker 1: idea and you you might have a stronger leg to

565
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:33,440
Speaker 1: stand on when you accuse the other side of not

566
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:42,280
Speaker 1: being interested in these issues. This episode of the Chuck

567
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:45,440
Speaker 1: Podcast is brought to you by American Financing. Let's be honest,

568
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570
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571
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572
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Speaker 1: Having good life insurance is incredibly important. I know from

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Speaker 1: personal experience. I was sixteen when my father passed away.

594
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Speaker 1: We didn't have any money. He didn't leave us in

595
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Speaker 1: the best shape. My mother, single mother, now widow, myself

596
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Speaker 1: sixteen trying to figure out how am I going to

597
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Speaker 1: pay for college and lo and behold, my dad had

598
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Speaker 1: one life insurance policy that we found wasn't a lot,

599
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Speaker 1: but it was important at the time and it's why

600
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Speaker 1: I was able to go to college. Little did he

601
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Speaker 1: know how important that would be in that moment.

602
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Speaker 2: Well, guess what.

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Speaker 1: Ethos is an online platform that makes getting life insurance

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Speaker 1: it's one hundred percent online. There's no medical exam require

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Speaker 1: you just answer a few health questions online. You can

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: day that would be billed monthly. As of March twenty

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

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Speaker 1: themselves may vary as well, but trust me, life insurance

622
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Speaker 1: is something you should really think about it, especially if

623
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Speaker 1: you've got a growing family. So let's let me move

624
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Speaker 1: to my top five list. And it's inspired by you know,

625
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,880
Speaker 1: So when I was going through all of my research

626
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:07,919
Speaker 1: on how often, you know, the largest retirement classes we've

627
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:12,319
Speaker 1: had in midterm elections, and I was reminded that as

628
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 1: large the fact that we'd crossed fifty retirements and it

629
00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:17,680
Speaker 1: was only the third time we'd ever done it. The

630
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:21,560
Speaker 1: two times in midterms right twenty eighteen we had fifty five.

631
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:24,040
Speaker 1: We're at fifty one encounting now for twenty twenty six.

632
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:28,520
Speaker 1: But the high watermark was nineteen ninety two. That was

633
00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:34,359
Speaker 1: a presidential year, and it was sixty five. And if

634
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:36,480
Speaker 1: you recall I said, you know, there were sort of

635
00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:40,799
Speaker 1: three things that were driving so many retirements that cycle. One,

636
00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:44,520
Speaker 1: it was a redistricting year, and it was no ordinary

637
00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:48,800
Speaker 1: redistricting year. It was the first cycle where the Justice

638
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:56,680
Speaker 1: Department prioritized majority minority reapportionment. So in the South they

639
00:35:56,840 --> 00:36:01,440
Speaker 1: guaranteed a lot more African American representation and in the

640
00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:06,160
Speaker 1: Southwest Latino representation, and the Justice Department was approving or

641
00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:09,200
Speaker 1: disapproving these maps based on that. Well, that really shook

642
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:11,360
Speaker 1: up it. It shook up a lot of different maps,

643
00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:14,439
Speaker 1: drove a lot of retirements. The second thing that drove

644
00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:18,120
Speaker 1: a bunch of incumbents into retirement was scandal, and that

645
00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:22,000
Speaker 1: there was a couple of unique They were basically members

646
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:24,880
Speaker 1: of Congress were able to write checks without having to

647
00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:26,480
Speaker 1: prove they had the cash to do it, like this

648
00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:29,600
Speaker 1: special House bank and members were bouncing checks where some

649
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:32,600
Speaker 1: guys bounced over seven hundred checks and it was just crazy.

650
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:35,600
Speaker 1: There was also a House post Office scandal where people

651
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:38,840
Speaker 1: were getting free postage members of Congress free postage and

652
00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:44,080
Speaker 1: then somehow like parlaying it into cash elsewhere. It's what

653
00:36:44,360 --> 00:36:47,919
Speaker 1: was the downfall of one Dan Rostenkowski, the one time

654
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:51,760
Speaker 1: powerful chairman the Ways and Means Committee, an old Chicago Democrat.

655
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:57,759
Speaker 1: But there was a third reason that drove a bunch

656
00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:02,560
Speaker 1: of incumbents into retirement, and that was nineteen ninety two

657
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:06,719
Speaker 1: was going to be the last year a sitting member

658
00:37:06,719 --> 00:37:11,080
Speaker 1: of Congress, House or Senate could retire and take whatever

659
00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:15,640
Speaker 1: leftover camp campaign money they had and convert it to

660
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:19,400
Speaker 1: personal finances. They could just take whatever whatever campaign money

661
00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:21,279
Speaker 1: was left and it was theirs. They didn't have to

662
00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:23,879
Speaker 1: give it back to donors. They didn't have to, you know,

663
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:26,960
Speaker 1: give it to the party, give it to a pack,

664
00:37:27,440 --> 00:37:30,520
Speaker 1: or open up their own pack and create a political committee.

665
00:37:30,680 --> 00:37:33,160
Speaker 1: They could simply just convert it to their and so

666
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:36,080
Speaker 1: quite a few members had. You know, at the time,

667
00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:39,080
Speaker 1: having a million dollars in your account was a huge

668
00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:42,279
Speaker 1: deal back then, thought hey, I got this brand new

669
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:45,840
Speaker 1: retirement account, you know, in addition to their congressional pension.

670
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:51,680
Speaker 1: I remember South Florida lost three I think long time

671
00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:54,440
Speaker 1: or at least two long time members of Congress, and

672
00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:57,960
Speaker 1: I can't out but wonder how much that contributed to it.

673
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:01,319
Speaker 1: Bill Layman and Dante Facel or two of the guys

674
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:03,359
Speaker 1: that took off in ninety two. Claude Pepper kept going

675
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:07,960
Speaker 1: me he could have probably walked away with money, but

676
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,160
Speaker 1: he was actually he had already passed away, I admit

677
00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:12,680
Speaker 1: claud Pepper by ninety My bad on that. Claude Pepper

678
00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:15,680
Speaker 1: was eight. He passed away in eighty nine. But you

679
00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:18,239
Speaker 1: had I think two other members who chose not to

680
00:38:18,239 --> 00:38:20,759
Speaker 1: seek reelection in one of the perks of that. So

681
00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:23,239
Speaker 1: it made me think, you know what would be good

682
00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:26,480
Speaker 1: a top five list of you won't believe this used

683
00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:32,600
Speaker 1: to be legal in American politics, And it's just a

684
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:38,759
Speaker 1: good reminder that reform is always reactive in American politics.

685
00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:41,520
Speaker 1: We don't outlaw abuses in advance, We don't think about

686
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:44,080
Speaker 1: what could be abused. We wait for the abuse to happen,

687
00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:46,880
Speaker 1: then we pass a law regulation to try to prevent

688
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:50,719
Speaker 1: it in the future. So with that in mind, there's

689
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:53,560
Speaker 1: my top five list of things that were once completely legal,

690
00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:56,840
Speaker 1: followed by a second list that may someday make future

691
00:38:56,880 --> 00:39:01,120
Speaker 1: Americans say, wait, they allowed that. So top five things

692
00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:05,800
Speaker 1: that used to be legal but no longer are top.

693
00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:14,560
Speaker 2: Top five Top It'll shock you that this was so.

694
00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:15,319
Speaker 2: Number five.

695
00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:19,120
Speaker 1: Corporations could give directly to candidates. This was legal until

696
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:23,160
Speaker 1: nineteen o seven and the passage of the then the

697
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:26,440
Speaker 1: Tilman Act. But back then there were no packs. Corporations

698
00:39:26,480 --> 00:39:29,759
Speaker 1: didn't need packs or shell entities to get money to candidates.

699
00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:34,400
Speaker 1: They simply wrote checks directly from corporate treasuries to candidates.

700
00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:38,920
Speaker 1: In fact, Mark Hannah, who was sort of the political

701
00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:42,920
Speaker 1: guru of Bill McWilliam McKinley in the turn of the century.

702
00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:45,480
Speaker 1: In the eighteen ninety six and nineteen hundred elections, Mark

703
00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:49,239
Speaker 1: Hannah while running the McKinley campaigns, he didn't ask corporations

704
00:39:49,239 --> 00:39:55,359
Speaker 1: for donations. He assigned them quotas railroads, banks, manufacturers. They

705
00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:59,640
Speaker 1: were told what they owed based on what he's thought

706
00:39:59,719 --> 00:40:03,799
Speaker 1: was the stake in prosperity. Hey, this is you have

707
00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:07,480
Speaker 1: to give this much money to our campaign. And then

708
00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:11,440
Speaker 1: it sort of blew up when Standard Oil it was

709
00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:15,080
Speaker 1: at the time it was exposed that they secretly funded

710
00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:19,360
Speaker 1: Teddy Roosevelt's nineteen oh four campaign, and when that came out,

711
00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:22,839
Speaker 1: Teddy was so embarrassed, not because it was illegal, but

712
00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:26,040
Speaker 1: because it looked bad that he actually got behind the

713
00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:30,040
Speaker 1: reform that became the Tilman Act that did this. Now,

714
00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:32,920
Speaker 1: of course we have dark money, You've got people that

715
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 1: can make their donations anonymous, and there's certainly plenty of

716
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:39,799
Speaker 1: shell companies now that can be used in shell five

717
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:41,919
Speaker 1: oh one, s threes and fours and stuff like that.

718
00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:44,520
Speaker 1: But believe it or not, back in the day, it

719
00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:49,719
Speaker 1: was not just legal. You had campaigns that essentially invoiced

720
00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:55,600
Speaker 1: that's what Mark Hannah Diddy invoiced railroad companies and oil

721
00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:59,880
Speaker 1: companies for those eighteen ninety six and nineteen hundred campaigns.

722
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:05,800
Speaker 1: Number four on the list, party machines openly bought votes.

723
00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:08,959
Speaker 1: This was legal for much of the nineteenth century. Vote

724
00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 1: buying wasn't hidden. It was simply transactional. So you'd have

725
00:41:12,120 --> 00:41:15,920
Speaker 1: tammany hall operatives. They would just be handing out cash,

726
00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:21,719
Speaker 1: call turkeys, whiskey right outside of polling places. This was

727
00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:25,120
Speaker 1: in New York City. Ballots back then were public, so

728
00:41:25,239 --> 00:41:29,920
Speaker 1: party bosses could actually know how someone voted, and if

729
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:32,680
Speaker 1: you took the money and voted the wrong way, you

730
00:41:32,719 --> 00:41:35,879
Speaker 1: didn't get paid the next time. So basically that's how

731
00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:40,040
Speaker 1: we ended up with a secret ballot. And it's a reminder,

732
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:43,400
Speaker 1: secret ballots they don't make politics moral, It just makes

733
00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:50,279
Speaker 1: it made the corruption unenforceable on that front. The number three,

734
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:54,560
Speaker 1: you won't believe this was legal. Federal jobs being used

735
00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:57,399
Speaker 1: as campaign currency. This was legal until eighteen eighty three,

736
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:01,600
Speaker 1: so before we had Civil service reform, and frankly it's

737
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:05,160
Speaker 1: something that Donald Trump's trying to undo today, but federal

738
00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:08,440
Speaker 1: employment up until eighteen eighty three was basically a spoils system.

739
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:13,640
Speaker 1: Presidents would fire entire post office staffs after election, and

740
00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:16,400
Speaker 1: the postal service back then was seen as part of

741
00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:20,960
Speaker 1: the political arm of presidents and political parties. That frankly,

742
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:25,440
Speaker 1: that was all the way through until Leftdr FDR's, you know,

743
00:42:25,520 --> 00:42:28,400
Speaker 1: chief political strategist was the postmaster General. That wasn't an

744
00:42:28,480 --> 00:42:31,359
Speaker 1: accident because post offices were all over the country. They

745
00:42:31,360 --> 00:42:34,719
Speaker 1: were essentially little organizing hubs at least that's how they

746
00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 1: saw them until they finally sort of separated out and

747
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:40,120
Speaker 1: took the politics out of the postal service. But before

748
00:42:40,160 --> 00:42:43,640
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty three, you'd see just entire post offices would

749
00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:47,840
Speaker 1: just we would turn over if the political party of

750
00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:51,080
Speaker 1: the president changed and they were all replaced with loyalists.

751
00:42:51,080 --> 00:42:55,200
Speaker 1: Federal employees would actually be subjected to political assessments, something

752
00:42:55,239 --> 00:42:57,640
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's trying to do right now with civil servants,

753
00:42:57,960 --> 00:43:02,040
Speaker 1: right and they would be men. Tory kickbacks were expected,

754
00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:06,359
Speaker 1: and if you didn't pay, you lost your job. And

755
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:10,520
Speaker 1: it took the assassination of James Garfield for a former

756
00:43:10,640 --> 00:43:13,520
Speaker 1: party boss or party operative in Chester Arthur to see

757
00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:17,320
Speaker 1: the light, and he helped as president, lead to this

758
00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:21,919
Speaker 1: civil service reform that's actually served the country quite well

759
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:24,200
Speaker 1: until Doge and until what Trump's trying to do now,

760
00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:27,600
Speaker 1: where they're trying to repoliticize the federal government. I promise

761
00:43:27,680 --> 00:43:30,880
Speaker 1: you know, the corruption of the nineteenth century, which was

762
00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:35,880
Speaker 1: huge in government, would come right back if we got

763
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:39,080
Speaker 1: rid of these civil service reforms. Number two on that

764
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:43,279
Speaker 1: list is candidates could accept unlimited, anonymous cash. This was

765
00:43:43,360 --> 00:43:48,359
Speaker 1: legal until essentially Watergate, so before we ever had any

766
00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:50,920
Speaker 1: modern campaign finance, so there was no disclosure requirements and

767
00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:54,120
Speaker 1: no limits, so wealthy donors literally could.

768
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:56,840
Speaker 2: Give bags of cash.

769
00:43:56,560 --> 00:44:00,800
Speaker 1: To presidential campaigns with no public reporting. Campaign he literally

770
00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:07,200
Speaker 1: kept cash safes okay, envelopes stuffed with money, moved through

771
00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:10,560
Speaker 1: hotel rooms, private offices, and voters. None of us had

772
00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:12,400
Speaker 1: any right to know who was funding the campaigns or

773
00:44:12,440 --> 00:44:18,120
Speaker 1: asking for their vote. Essentially, democracy functioned as a blind trust,

774
00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:23,200
Speaker 1: and that blind trust failed miserably. It took Watergate and

775
00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:25,120
Speaker 1: Nixon for it to happen, But look, it was bags

776
00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:29,040
Speaker 1: of cash. Nobody knows how much money John Kennedy's dad spent.

777
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:31,360
Speaker 1: We still don't know how much he spent. We have

778
00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:33,520
Speaker 1: no idea how many people, how much money was spent

779
00:44:33,560 --> 00:44:36,160
Speaker 1: on behalf of Eisenhower, how much money FDR spent on

780
00:44:36,200 --> 00:44:39,600
Speaker 1: his own campaigns, all of those things. At least now

781
00:44:39,640 --> 00:44:41,160
Speaker 1: we have the laws to do that. And then, of

782
00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:44,000
Speaker 1: course number one, I can't believe it was legal, is

783
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:46,360
Speaker 1: what I was telling you about, that retiring members of

784
00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:50,200
Speaker 1: Congress could simply pocket their leftover campaign money for decades.

785
00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:53,399
Speaker 1: When members retired, they just all campaign contributions were seen

786
00:44:53,440 --> 00:44:57,720
Speaker 1: as personal property. Retirement lawmakers retirement simply converted the campaign

787
00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:01,080
Speaker 1: accounts into personal income or retirement money. There was no

788
00:45:01,760 --> 00:45:05,799
Speaker 1: requirement to donate it, refunded, or justify it. And there's

789
00:45:05,840 --> 00:45:07,680
Speaker 1: no doubt in ninety two, which is why we had

790
00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:13,080
Speaker 1: the record breaking amount of retirements still the record because

791
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:14,800
Speaker 1: that was the last time they could take their leftover

792
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:19,560
Speaker 1: campaign balances and do that. So which leads me into

793
00:45:20,280 --> 00:45:23,040
Speaker 1: essentially a second top five list, And this is my

794
00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:27,279
Speaker 1: top five list of things that are legal today that

795
00:45:27,480 --> 00:45:31,960
Speaker 1: perhaps a future version of me, you know, the aid

796
00:45:32,080 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 1: version of me, fifty years from now, we'll do this

797
00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:36,440
Speaker 1: top five list of believe it or not, this stuff

798
00:45:36,520 --> 00:45:40,520
Speaker 1: was legal. And frankly, if some of this becomes illegal

799
00:45:40,560 --> 00:45:42,480
Speaker 1: sooner rather than later, we may have Donald Trump to

800
00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:48,080
Speaker 1: think so top five things that are still legal that

801
00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:49,759
Speaker 1: I think are not going to age.

802
00:45:49,760 --> 00:45:49,920
Speaker 2: Well.

803
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:53,120
Speaker 1: Number five members are Congress trading stocks. Right, We've been

804
00:45:53,160 --> 00:45:55,279
Speaker 1: seeing this back and forth about the stock trading ban.

805
00:45:56,760 --> 00:46:00,000
Speaker 1: The amount of insider info average member of Congress can

806
00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:02,960
Speaker 1: get and can make decisions. We saw this during the pandemic.

807
00:46:03,320 --> 00:46:05,720
Speaker 1: They get some COVID briefings and all of a sudden

808
00:46:05,719 --> 00:46:09,520
Speaker 1: you had members of Congress shorting some places, buying other places.

809
00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:13,960
Speaker 1: You know, members of Congress because they you know, will

810
00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:18,360
Speaker 1: sometimes get access to funded but it's all parts of

811
00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:21,520
Speaker 1: the federal government. People in the Defense Department, government contractors.

812
00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:30,360
Speaker 1: So this is clearly a potential loophole. And I don't

813
00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:32,839
Speaker 1: see you know, I know that the argument says, well,

814
00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:35,520
Speaker 1: and the problem is right, Congress is sitting there going

815
00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:37,920
Speaker 1: why do we have to play by one set of

816
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:40,000
Speaker 1: rules while Donald Trump's going to play by no rules?

817
00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:44,799
Speaker 1: And I and how you apply this across government I

818
00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:48,880
Speaker 1: think is quite difficult. Ultimately, we probably need a constitutional

819
00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:52,000
Speaker 1: menut when it comes to and probably just saying that,

820
00:46:52,200 --> 00:46:54,480
Speaker 1: you know, when you're in an office of public trust,

821
00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:58,880
Speaker 1: federal office, you know you can't you know, you you

822
00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:01,120
Speaker 1: know you got to put an blind trust. You got

823
00:47:01,160 --> 00:47:03,319
Speaker 1: to do maybe monthly reports. You know, I'm not saying

824
00:47:03,360 --> 00:47:05,640
Speaker 1: people are still going to find ways. Perhaps you know,

825
00:47:05,760 --> 00:47:10,480
Speaker 1: a crook's going to crook. But if you create more

826
00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:13,640
Speaker 1: friction in that process, create more accountability windows in that process,

827
00:47:13,640 --> 00:47:16,640
Speaker 1: you're at least going to minimize and at that point,

828
00:47:16,680 --> 00:47:22,600
Speaker 1: you know, perhaps shame and sunshine will will remind voters.

829
00:47:22,640 --> 00:47:26,160
Speaker 1: But the fact that voted right now, and especially you know,

830
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:28,000
Speaker 1: you could have said forty years ago there weren't that

831
00:47:28,120 --> 00:47:29,640
Speaker 1: many people trading in the stock market.

832
00:47:29,719 --> 00:47:31,000
Speaker 2: That's not the case anymore.

833
00:47:32,520 --> 00:47:35,800
Speaker 1: And it does feel, you know, it's look, we already

834
00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:38,080
Speaker 1: know there are plenty of members of Congress who suddenly

835
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:43,360
Speaker 1: end up purchasing land that they get to decide what

836
00:47:43,480 --> 00:47:46,520
Speaker 1: becomes an exit on a federal interstate, and then suddenly

837
00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:49,520
Speaker 1: that land is worth more money. That stuff's been happening

838
00:47:49,560 --> 00:47:56,480
Speaker 1: a long time. That's a little bit harder to to police,

839
00:47:57,560 --> 00:48:01,200
Speaker 1: you know, stock trading is a little simple to do.

840
00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:05,080
Speaker 1: And it seems like I do think this is going

841
00:48:05,160 --> 00:48:08,200
Speaker 1: to get some momentum, especially as there are more and more.

842
00:48:08,560 --> 00:48:11,479
Speaker 1: This feels like it's one of those that the left

843
00:48:11,480 --> 00:48:13,719
Speaker 1: and the right are gonna that's one of those that

844
00:48:13,760 --> 00:48:16,919
Speaker 1: you're going to see a convergence on that one. Number

845
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:21,840
Speaker 1: four Leadership packs right now, leadership packs are essentially little

846
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:25,680
Speaker 1: lifestyle slush funds for members of Congress. Leadership packs they

847
00:48:25,680 --> 00:48:29,680
Speaker 1: can pay for luxury travel, high end restaurants, expensive hotels,

848
00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:32,640
Speaker 1: you can create a family payroll, and it all can

849
00:48:32,680 --> 00:48:37,319
Speaker 1: be labeled as political activity. You know, hey, I've got to,

850
00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:40,239
Speaker 1: you know, go do this fundraiser in Puerto Rico. I'll

851
00:48:40,239 --> 00:48:43,759
Speaker 1: have my leadership pack pay for this nice resort and

852
00:48:43,800 --> 00:48:49,520
Speaker 1: we'll have some great dinners. And it basically became the loophole.

853
00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:53,600
Speaker 1: Since you couldn't use tearing your campaign account into personal funds,

854
00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:56,719
Speaker 1: these leadership packs became sort of the loophole for that.

855
00:48:58,160 --> 00:48:59,240
Speaker 2: They're ripe for abuse.

856
00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:02,759
Speaker 1: It's pretty clear that there needs to be more accountability

857
00:49:02,800 --> 00:49:05,840
Speaker 1: to them, not less lobbyists bundling the fact that a

858
00:49:05,880 --> 00:49:08,880
Speaker 1: single lobbyist right now can gather twenty or thirty maxed

859
00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:12,879
Speaker 1: out checks from clients and then deliver them in one

860
00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:17,480
Speaker 1: fell swoop, signaling influence within that industry right without breaking

861
00:49:18,280 --> 00:49:22,360
Speaker 1: contribution limits. So a pack can help get you a

862
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:25,279
Speaker 1: million dollars in contributions, even if it's twenty five hundred

863
00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:31,960
Speaker 1: dollars at a time and creating the fact that that

864
00:49:32,200 --> 00:49:37,800
Speaker 1: is And again, I think bundling is hard to police.

865
00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:40,640
Speaker 1: I'm not going to tell you I have an easy

866
00:49:40,680 --> 00:49:44,080
Speaker 1: way to come up with a regulation that could minimumze

867
00:49:44,080 --> 00:49:46,920
Speaker 1: that could do this, but just I think a lot

868
00:49:46,960 --> 00:49:55,440
Speaker 1: of this stuff could probably be solved with obsessive transparency

869
00:49:55,600 --> 00:50:00,720
Speaker 1: at least where people you force sort of the Nascar effect,

870
00:50:00,719 --> 00:50:04,240
Speaker 1: You force people to have to show what they're doing,

871
00:50:04,360 --> 00:50:07,440
Speaker 1: who's giving, and how much they're giving at any one time.

872
00:50:08,480 --> 00:50:12,160
Speaker 1: This is one that flies under the radar that sitting

873
00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:16,360
Speaker 1: members of Congress can negotiate private sector jobs while still

874
00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:20,839
Speaker 1: voting on legislation that might have an impact on their

875
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:24,040
Speaker 1: future private sector employment. So, for instance, and we've seen

876
00:50:24,040 --> 00:50:26,080
Speaker 1: this right, we saw Mark Green who was a member

877
00:50:26,080 --> 00:50:30,480
Speaker 1: of Congress and Tennessee. He seemed to be doing to

878
00:50:30,719 --> 00:50:35,279
Speaker 1: negotiating figuring out his private sector future. He ends up

879
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:38,799
Speaker 1: eventually resigning, but he was clearly in the middle of

880
00:50:38,840 --> 00:50:40,640
Speaker 1: doing it, then got exposed that he was doing it,

881
00:50:40,680 --> 00:50:44,520
Speaker 1: and then finally decided to quit quickly. The fact that

882
00:50:44,719 --> 00:50:48,279
Speaker 1: it's legal to negotiate future jobs with industries that are

883
00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:52,359
Speaker 1: affected by legislation they're currently voting on right now. They've

884
00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:54,720
Speaker 1: put in a cooling off period, but it only starts

885
00:50:54,840 --> 00:50:56,280
Speaker 1: after you leave office.

886
00:50:56,280 --> 00:51:02,560
Speaker 2: There probably ought to be just a you know, I don't.

887
00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:06,680
Speaker 1: It's it's sort of like you get expelled, you lose

888
00:51:06,719 --> 00:51:09,239
Speaker 1: your pension, like you know, some penalty if you get

889
00:51:09,280 --> 00:51:11,680
Speaker 1: caught negotiating for a job while you're a sitting member

890
00:51:11,680 --> 00:51:15,640
Speaker 1: of Congress and voting on that industry, right that you've

891
00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:18,400
Speaker 1: got to have some sort of disclosure I'm doing this.

892
00:51:18,640 --> 00:51:20,200
Speaker 1: Maybe you don't have to make a public but maybe

893
00:51:20,239 --> 00:51:24,759
Speaker 1: to the House Ethics Office or something. Because most of

894
00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:27,160
Speaker 1: the time the conflict that you know right now, it's

895
00:51:27,440 --> 00:51:31,440
Speaker 1: the cooling. We've worried about former lawmakers going right into lobbying,

896
00:51:31,480 --> 00:51:33,640
Speaker 1: and there's cooling off periods for that, but it's the

897
00:51:33,719 --> 00:51:38,120
Speaker 1: negotiating why you're voting where you have where it becomes

898
00:51:38,160 --> 00:51:42,400
Speaker 1: potentially corruptible. And of course, the number one thing that

899
00:51:42,719 --> 00:51:48,480
Speaker 1: is legal in this country that frankly is a mistake

900
00:51:48,520 --> 00:51:52,680
Speaker 1: that from the creation of this great Republic, and that

901
00:51:52,800 --> 00:51:56,879
Speaker 1: is the presidential pardon power. The fact that presidents can

902
00:51:56,920 --> 00:52:01,440
Speaker 1: pardon political allies, donors, family members, potential witnesses, even preemptively

903
00:52:02,120 --> 00:52:06,319
Speaker 1: with no transparency, no review, no limits. You know, I

904
00:52:06,360 --> 00:52:08,600
Speaker 1: think it's out I think it was outrageous that Joe

905
00:52:08,600 --> 00:52:14,920
Speaker 1: Biden issued those those sort of pardons before anything was happening.

906
00:52:15,680 --> 00:52:18,399
Speaker 1: And it's even more outrageous that every week Donald Trump

907
00:52:18,480 --> 00:52:25,400
Speaker 1: seems to essentially sell pardons and give pardons out to

908
00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:31,719
Speaker 1: people who are either political allies or financial benefactors. But

909
00:52:32,120 --> 00:52:39,000
Speaker 1: it is clearly a huge gap in our system. It's

910
00:52:39,040 --> 00:52:41,359
Speaker 1: going to take a constitutional amendment to get rid of

911
00:52:41,719 --> 00:52:46,719
Speaker 1: the presidential pardon now. You know, I think that there's

912
00:52:46,760 --> 00:52:48,960
Speaker 1: a way to reform it. You create a pardon board.

913
00:52:49,080 --> 00:52:52,760
Speaker 1: Maybe it you know, there's two members of Congression leadership

914
00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:56,080
Speaker 1: to Supreme Court justice, maybe the two most senior Supreme

915
00:52:56,120 --> 00:52:59,960
Speaker 1: Court justices, plus maybe the attorney general, president and vice president.

916
00:53:00,120 --> 00:53:00,600
Speaker 2: Something like that.

917
00:53:00,640 --> 00:53:04,160
Speaker 1: You can create a pardon board where you still have

918
00:53:04,280 --> 00:53:07,360
Speaker 1: some but it's got to go through a vetting process

919
00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:11,560
Speaker 1: and some sort of process there. It is because right

920
00:53:11,600 --> 00:53:13,759
Speaker 1: now I think we've seen it's the greatest loophole that

921
00:53:13,800 --> 00:53:18,920
Speaker 1: sits in the Constitution for a president to abuse, and

922
00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:23,040
Speaker 1: we probably have a president right now that is abusing

923
00:53:23,360 --> 00:53:26,200
Speaker 1: the pardon power at a rate that no other president

924
00:53:26,200 --> 00:53:29,359
Speaker 1: has even come close to it. So there you go,

925
00:53:29,719 --> 00:53:32,520
Speaker 1: my top five lists of things you wouldn't believe used

926
00:53:32,560 --> 00:53:35,160
Speaker 1: to be legal, and my top five list of things

927
00:53:35,200 --> 00:53:37,800
Speaker 1: I can't believe are still legal.

928
00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:49,200
Speaker 2: Right, little ass, Chuck? Ask Chuck.

929
00:53:52,960 --> 00:53:56,120
Speaker 1: First question comes from Nick Denver, Colorado. Hey, Chuck, thanks

930
00:53:56,120 --> 00:53:58,160
Speaker 1: for the great content. What happened with the Supreme Court

931
00:53:58,239 --> 00:54:01,640
Speaker 1: Tariff's case? It seemed like ruling was coming weeks ago,

932
00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:04,000
Speaker 1: but now there's silence. Are they delaying it to make

933
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:06,040
Speaker 1: the policy harder to reverse and easier for Trump to

934
00:54:06,040 --> 00:54:08,520
Speaker 1: get what he wants? Also, is Trump unique in being

935
00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:13,600
Speaker 1: an unpopular populist? It is sort of a you know,

936
00:54:13,680 --> 00:54:15,560
Speaker 1: if you're You're put it this way, if you're an

937
00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:21,320
Speaker 1: unpopular populist, then you're no longer a populist, right because

938
00:54:22,520 --> 00:54:25,680
Speaker 1: in theory, a populist is supposed to always be the

939
00:54:25,800 --> 00:54:30,680
Speaker 1: ultimate finger in the wind politician. So yes, I think

940
00:54:30,719 --> 00:54:33,120
Speaker 1: he is a unicorn. I think what it's a reminder

941
00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:37,200
Speaker 1: of that populism isn't really an ideology or an agenda.

942
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:40,480
Speaker 1: And I think, frankly, we're I think it's a lazy

943
00:54:40,640 --> 00:54:43,759
Speaker 1: descriptive word. I've used it way too often, you know,

944
00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:47,719
Speaker 1: when I hear the word populism. I can just tell

945
00:54:47,760 --> 00:54:50,520
Speaker 1: you as as I now I can tell you as

946
00:54:50,520 --> 00:54:53,960
Speaker 1: a Jewish American, I duck and I assume. Well, then

947
00:54:54,160 --> 00:54:56,640
Speaker 1: what comes next is the anti semitism, and as a

948
00:54:56,680 --> 00:54:59,560
Speaker 1: matter if it comes from left or the right. But

949
00:54:59,640 --> 00:55:04,560
Speaker 1: what this this really is is nationalism, right, It's economic nationalism,

950
00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:09,120
Speaker 1: it's cultural nationalism. And that's what Trump is. He's a

951
00:55:09,200 --> 00:55:13,200
Speaker 1: nationalist and that's not popular. And ultimately, you know, right,

952
00:55:13,280 --> 00:55:17,759
Speaker 1: we I there are specific ideas that get attributed to

953
00:55:17,840 --> 00:55:20,440
Speaker 1: nationalists that are popular, but the idea of.

954
00:55:20,400 --> 00:55:22,040
Speaker 2: Being a nationalist is not popular.

955
00:55:22,080 --> 00:55:25,200
Speaker 1: And I think more and more people the reason he's unpopular, Nick,

956
00:55:25,280 --> 00:55:26,960
Speaker 1: is that I don't think he's viewed as a populist.

957
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:30,120
Speaker 1: I think he's viewed more as an America first or nationalist.

958
00:55:30,200 --> 00:55:32,040
Speaker 1: He's done a good job branding himself that way, and

959
00:55:32,080 --> 00:55:35,279
Speaker 1: I don't think that's just the popular position to be.

960
00:55:35,480 --> 00:55:38,239
Speaker 1: You know, yes, we're sort of we Americans are kind

961
00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:44,040
Speaker 1: of a tad more isolationist than Europeans. But emphasis on

962
00:55:44,040 --> 00:55:46,400
Speaker 1: the word tad on that one. All right, back to

963
00:55:46,400 --> 00:55:49,239
Speaker 1: your first question, Yeah, well, I mean this is the

964
00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:53,320
Speaker 1: you know, the lack of transparency of the Supreme Court

965
00:55:54,160 --> 00:55:57,800
Speaker 1: decision making process is one of those you know, only

966
00:55:58,880 --> 00:56:04,200
Speaker 1: only the Vatican is more opaque than the Supreme Court.

967
00:56:05,600 --> 00:56:07,640
Speaker 1: The longer this goes, the harder it is to turn.

968
00:56:09,800 --> 00:56:15,360
Speaker 1: I can tell you that, you know, it's clear that

969
00:56:15,719 --> 00:56:20,680
Speaker 1: Trump already has a plan to re implement the tariffs

970
00:56:20,719 --> 00:56:24,200
Speaker 1: in another way and essentially create another lawsuits. So I

971
00:56:24,200 --> 00:56:27,120
Speaker 1: do think this is going to Let's say the ruling

972
00:56:27,160 --> 00:56:29,319
Speaker 1: comes out against them, then it becomes whack a mole.

973
00:56:29,600 --> 00:56:31,640
Speaker 1: I think the question is why is it taking so long?

974
00:56:31,840 --> 00:56:34,280
Speaker 1: Could it be that there are going to be multiple opinions?

975
00:56:35,160 --> 00:56:40,440
Speaker 1: Could it be that Roberts is looking for that Roberts

976
00:56:40,480 --> 00:56:43,759
Speaker 1: is looking for this goldilocks, you know, an opinion that

977
00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:45,800
Speaker 1: only applies to this specific case.

978
00:56:46,560 --> 00:56:46,719
Speaker 2: Right.

979
00:56:46,760 --> 00:56:48,480
Speaker 1: It seemed pretty open and shut to a lot of

980
00:56:48,600 --> 00:56:51,640
Speaker 1: legal analysts and a lot of economic TERRORFF experts. But

981
00:56:52,520 --> 00:56:55,080
Speaker 1: the longer it takes, it's fair. I mean, my guess

982
00:56:55,160 --> 00:56:57,560
Speaker 1: is more people want to write opinions. That's usually what

983
00:56:57,640 --> 00:57:01,880
Speaker 1: explains delays is that you'll have you know, are we

984
00:57:01,920 --> 00:57:04,080
Speaker 1: going to have multiple cents? Are we going to have

985
00:57:04,160 --> 00:57:07,800
Speaker 1: multiple concurrences? That would be my guess is what's taking

986
00:57:07,840 --> 00:57:11,719
Speaker 1: so long? But I do think the White House has

987
00:57:12,000 --> 00:57:15,520
Speaker 1: spent time they've got in this case, they're obsessed with

988
00:57:15,640 --> 00:57:18,720
Speaker 1: keeping this tariff regime implemented in some form or another

989
00:57:19,160 --> 00:57:21,680
Speaker 1: because the President likes the unilateral control it gives him

990
00:57:21,680 --> 00:57:27,400
Speaker 1: in negotiating with countries individually. They're going to find other

991
00:57:27,440 --> 00:57:31,280
Speaker 1: ways to challenge this. But you're right, it's been weird

992
00:57:31,320 --> 00:57:33,800
Speaker 1: to wait this long. Next question comes from Larry Kay.

993
00:57:33,800 --> 00:57:35,560
Speaker 1: He goes, not a question, but did you notice I

994
00:57:35,560 --> 00:57:39,240
Speaker 1: live in Overland Park, Kansas, and noticed that Congresswoman Charis

995
00:57:39,320 --> 00:57:42,120
Speaker 1: Davis recently toured areas well outside our district, which don

996
00:57:42,120 --> 00:57:44,600
Speaker 1: Dodge City, Colby, which suggests she may be eyeing a

997
00:57:44,680 --> 00:57:45,919
Speaker 1: run for Roger Marshall Senate.

998
00:57:45,960 --> 00:57:46,160
Speaker 2: See.

999
00:57:46,320 --> 00:57:48,400
Speaker 1: Trump's effort to redistrict her out of the House may

1000
00:57:48,440 --> 00:57:51,280
Speaker 1: have pushed her in that direction, especially as Marshall's more

1001
00:57:51,320 --> 00:57:55,320
Speaker 1: extreme pro magastances are alienating some voters in eastern Kansas.

1002
00:57:55,600 --> 00:57:59,240
Speaker 1: With Kansas history of electing trailblazing senators, it's an intriguing possibility.

1003
00:57:59,600 --> 00:58:00,960
Speaker 2: Larry, I am.

1004
00:58:01,200 --> 00:58:04,800
Speaker 1: I think Cherise Davis is an interesting politician. She's not

1005
00:58:05,160 --> 00:58:08,440
Speaker 1: easy to categorize.

1006
00:58:08,800 --> 00:58:09,080
Speaker 2: I have.

1007
00:58:09,760 --> 00:58:12,200
Speaker 1: I think she is one of the better. You know

1008
00:58:12,280 --> 00:58:14,520
Speaker 1: a phrase I like to use political athlete, and I

1009
00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:19,240
Speaker 1: think she's a really good political athlete. And you know,

1010
00:58:20,120 --> 00:58:25,280
Speaker 1: if there was ever a political environment for Democrats to

1011
00:58:25,320 --> 00:58:29,480
Speaker 1: get to to take a shot at winning a Senate

1012
00:58:29,480 --> 00:58:31,080
Speaker 1: seat in Kansas. By the way, they won a Senate

1013
00:58:31,080 --> 00:58:34,600
Speaker 1: seat in Kansas since the early nineteen thirties. Okay, I

1014
00:58:34,600 --> 00:58:37,000
Speaker 1: think it's thirty six. It was the last time a

1015
00:58:37,040 --> 00:58:39,960
Speaker 1: Democrat won a Senate a US Senate seat in Kansas.

1016
00:58:41,680 --> 00:58:44,480
Speaker 1: And Marshall has been more more, a little more trumpy

1017
00:58:44,520 --> 00:58:47,480
Speaker 1: than I think the state of Kansas is, right, you know,

1018
00:58:47,520 --> 00:58:51,440
Speaker 1: he certainly it's interesting. I would not be as bullish

1019
00:58:51,440 --> 00:58:54,280
Speaker 1: on David's chances if it was if she were challenging

1020
00:58:54,360 --> 00:58:57,720
Speaker 1: Jerry Moran. But Marshall has been a little more out

1021
00:58:57,760 --> 00:59:03,000
Speaker 1: there on the conservative limb, which find in a primary

1022
00:59:03,040 --> 00:59:07,840
Speaker 1: in Kansas these days. Like you know, I think Kansas

1023
00:59:07,920 --> 00:59:10,880
Speaker 1: is light red and not dark red, and in a

1024
00:59:10,920 --> 00:59:13,560
Speaker 1: political cycle like this one where it looks like the

1025
00:59:13,560 --> 00:59:18,720
Speaker 1: wind is blowing in the direction of the Democrats, I think.

1026
00:59:18,560 --> 00:59:19,960
Speaker 2: She's I can tell you this.

1027
00:59:20,240 --> 00:59:24,880
Speaker 1: I know Chuck Schumer and others in the Senate are

1028
00:59:25,280 --> 00:59:29,680
Speaker 1: working hard to recruit her. So we'll say filing deadline

1029
00:59:29,680 --> 00:59:34,400
Speaker 1: hasn't passed. Next question comes from Mark h Alan, Texas. Hey, Chuck,

1030
00:59:34,400 --> 00:59:39,520
Speaker 1: go Pats. Sorry you probably sent the question before the

1031
00:59:39,560 --> 00:59:40,080
Speaker 1: Super Bowl.

1032
00:59:40,120 --> 00:59:41,680
Speaker 2: Sorry about that for you, he goes.

1033
00:59:41,680 --> 00:59:44,200
Speaker 1: I rarely post political opinions, but after seeing how quickly

1034
00:59:44,200 --> 00:59:46,800
Speaker 1: the victims in the Minnesota I shooting were demonized, they

1035
00:59:46,800 --> 00:59:50,160
Speaker 1: spoke out and was immediately labeled as Satanists with TDS

1036
00:59:50,160 --> 00:59:52,240
Speaker 1: and a trader. The extreme content I was tagged in

1037
00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:54,640
Speaker 1: afterward really highlights on tacks that can polarize the echo

1038
00:59:54,720 --> 00:59:57,040
Speaker 1: chambers have become. How can we heal as a country

1039
00:59:57,040 --> 00:59:59,600
Speaker 1: with this kind of division? Look, I think this is

1040
00:59:59,600 --> 01:00:04,560
Speaker 1: where you know, what's what's what's frustrating is that I

1041
01:00:04,600 --> 01:00:08,560
Speaker 1: do think the algorithms and the tech companies have created

1042
01:00:08,600 --> 01:00:12,560
Speaker 1: an incentive structures too to paint a picture of division.

1043
01:00:13,120 --> 01:00:15,680
Speaker 1: You know, I constantly believe real America is less divided

1044
01:00:15,680 --> 01:00:19,280
Speaker 1: than online America. Increasingly, I think we're all worried that

1045
01:00:19,440 --> 01:00:23,560
Speaker 1: online America is invading real America rather than real America

1046
01:00:23,600 --> 01:00:26,680
Speaker 1: bleeding into online America where we tone things down. But

1047
01:00:26,840 --> 01:00:29,480
Speaker 1: this is where the tech companies have a responsibility. Why

1048
01:00:29,520 --> 01:00:32,000
Speaker 1: are you being you know, why why are why are

1049
01:00:32,040 --> 01:00:37,000
Speaker 1: you getting why are you seeing all this extreme content, right,

1050
01:00:39,760 --> 01:00:41,400
Speaker 1: the tech companies want to make sure you see it,

1051
01:00:41,480 --> 01:00:44,280
Speaker 1: because what do they want you to do? Make you angrier,

1052
01:00:44,800 --> 01:00:47,520
Speaker 1: make you respond more, make you post more, make you

1053
01:00:47,560 --> 01:00:50,960
Speaker 1: sit on there more, create more engagement. All they care

1054
01:00:51,000 --> 01:00:57,160
Speaker 1: about is the engagement. Whether the engagement excites crazies or

1055
01:00:57,200 --> 01:01:00,520
Speaker 1: excites normies, it doesn't matter as long as it creates engagement.

1056
01:01:00,600 --> 01:01:04,200
Speaker 1: And I think you know, I hate I'm sorry this

1057
01:01:04,320 --> 01:01:09,480
Speaker 1: happened to you, Mark, but in some ways more Americans

1058
01:01:09,520 --> 01:01:11,760
Speaker 1: need to experience how much these algorithms.

1059
01:01:11,840 --> 01:01:13,040
Speaker 2: That's what I keep trying to tell people.

1060
01:01:13,200 --> 01:01:17,320
Speaker 1: We're not as divided as cable TV and and and

1061
01:01:17,400 --> 01:01:19,440
Speaker 1: these social media sites make it seem.

1062
01:01:20,120 --> 01:01:21,000
Speaker 2: It really is.

1063
01:01:21,760 --> 01:01:25,520
Speaker 1: It really is sort of these these warped incentive structures

1064
01:01:25,560 --> 01:01:30,080
Speaker 1: for the information ecosystem that makes it seem like it's

1065
01:01:30,320 --> 01:01:34,800
Speaker 1: it's this crazy, because obviously we're not this crazy. You

1066
01:01:34,800 --> 01:01:37,240
Speaker 1: just look at the polling. Right, Essentially, most people are

1067
01:01:37,240 --> 01:01:40,200
Speaker 1: somewhere in the middle, and they don't like how divided

1068
01:01:40,200 --> 01:01:45,960
Speaker 1: we are. They don't like this divisiveness. All right, next question,

1069
01:01:46,320 --> 01:01:49,280
Speaker 1: I'm going to make this the last question for the day,

1070
01:01:49,280 --> 01:01:51,400
Speaker 1: but I promise I know we've got a lot in here,

1071
01:01:51,440 --> 01:01:54,680
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna I'm gonna make sure the weekend mail

1072
01:01:54,720 --> 01:01:57,320
Speaker 1: bag is a little longer for you since this, you know,

1073
01:01:57,400 --> 01:01:59,560
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. This is just for the you know,

1074
01:01:59,640 --> 01:02:02,960
Speaker 1: the quick turn around show. So this question comes from

1075
01:02:03,000 --> 01:02:05,800
Speaker 1: also comes from Overland Park, Kansas. Man two Overland Park,

1076
01:02:05,880 --> 01:02:11,680
Speaker 1: Kansas questions in the same episode.

1077
01:02:11,400 --> 01:02:11,880
Speaker 2: Hey Chuck.

1078
01:02:12,000 --> 01:02:14,280
Speaker 1: With so much chaos from this administration, it's hard to

1079
01:02:14,280 --> 01:02:16,600
Speaker 1: distinguish what matters most short term versus long term. I

1080
01:02:16,600 --> 01:02:19,800
Speaker 1: wonder if a visual tool like a graph plotting events

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01:02:19,800 --> 01:02:21,880
Speaker 1: by their short and long term INCAC could help news

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01:02:22,000 --> 01:02:26,080
Speaker 1: organizations and the public better prioritize what deserves attention. For example,

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01:02:26,280 --> 01:02:29,439
Speaker 1: Trump's self dealing might rank high short term but low

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01:02:29,520 --> 01:02:32,080
Speaker 1: long term, while the decline of US alliances would score

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01:02:32,160 --> 01:02:35,440
Speaker 1: high on both axes. I love podcasts. Appreciate how you

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01:02:35,440 --> 01:02:37,840
Speaker 1: think through the issues. Helps me develop my own perspective.

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01:02:38,080 --> 01:02:40,280
Speaker 1: That's all I'm trying to do. I am not trying

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01:02:40,280 --> 01:02:43,320
Speaker 1: to tell you what your position should be. I'm trying

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01:02:43,320 --> 01:02:45,800
Speaker 1: to give you as much context as I can possibly

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01:02:45,840 --> 01:02:49,520
Speaker 1: give you so that you can make your own decision.

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01:02:49,600 --> 01:02:52,919
Speaker 1: Then you add go big Red because you're a Husker fan.

1092
01:02:56,640 --> 01:03:00,280
Speaker 1: Football is better when Nebraska football is good in help healthy.

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01:03:02,600 --> 01:03:05,919
Speaker 1: I am not yet a rule truther, but I'm I'm

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01:03:06,040 --> 01:03:11,160
Speaker 1: more I'm still I'm still a believer in rule, but

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01:03:11,560 --> 01:03:13,360
Speaker 1: I have a feeling this has got to be the year.

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01:03:14,400 --> 01:03:16,040
Speaker 1: Twenty six has got to be the year where you

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01:03:16,040 --> 01:03:20,480
Speaker 1: guys see eight or nine wins and and what is it?

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01:03:20,920 --> 01:03:24,600
Speaker 1: You can't keep losing these these one score games. Anyway,

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01:03:24,640 --> 01:03:28,600
Speaker 1: Sorry to rubsult in that room, Dave, that's an interesting.

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01:03:28,440 --> 01:03:31,800
Speaker 2: Idea you have there, you know.

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01:03:32,000 --> 01:03:34,040
Speaker 1: I one of the things I've tried to do is

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01:03:34,160 --> 01:03:37,680
Speaker 1: at least focus on what Trump does unless somebody says right.

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01:03:38,000 --> 01:03:39,680
Speaker 2: And I've and you've seen me.

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01:03:39,800 --> 01:03:41,120
Speaker 1: You know, every once in a while, Ale weigh in

1105
01:03:41,120 --> 01:03:43,720
Speaker 1: on something he says because I think it is, you know,

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01:03:43,840 --> 01:03:47,000
Speaker 1: unnecessarily divisive or puts us in a tough spot. But

1107
01:03:47,520 --> 01:03:51,080
Speaker 1: I kind of think that's the real problem with the

1108
01:03:51,400 --> 01:03:56,880
Speaker 1: with the sort of the legacy media, because they're still

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01:03:56,920 --> 01:03:58,760
Speaker 1: desperate for traffic, desperate for attention.

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01:03:58,880 --> 01:04:01,200
Speaker 2: So what do you do? The stuff he says is.

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01:04:01,200 --> 01:04:04,760
Speaker 1: Very dramatic, and it really like you won't believe what

1112
01:04:04,760 --> 01:04:07,920
Speaker 1: Trump said next. Yeah, you know, okay, Trump says crazy

1113
01:04:07,960 --> 01:04:11,360
Speaker 1: shit all the time. You know, it's when he does stuff,

1114
01:04:11,640 --> 01:04:13,920
Speaker 1: you know, and I kind of think the priority has

1115
01:04:13,920 --> 01:04:17,240
Speaker 1: to be on what he's doing, what he's done, not

1116
01:04:17,360 --> 01:04:19,600
Speaker 1: what he says he might do. I'm not saying you

1117
01:04:19,640 --> 01:04:23,240
Speaker 1: shouldn't ignore what he says he might do, but I

1118
01:04:23,360 --> 01:04:27,400
Speaker 1: kind of think that that's where it sort of learn

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01:04:27,520 --> 01:04:31,440
Speaker 1: to properly react, not overreact or underreact. And so my

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01:04:31,800 --> 01:04:35,120
Speaker 1: whole dividing line is what does he do versus what

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01:04:35,160 --> 01:04:39,520
Speaker 1: he says? And then when he does stuff based on

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01:04:39,600 --> 01:04:41,200
Speaker 1: what he has said, And I think you've got to

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01:04:41,200 --> 01:04:44,440
Speaker 1: point that out too. But that's you know, that's the

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01:04:44,600 --> 01:04:49,720
Speaker 1: difficulty in both covering Donald Trump. It's the difficulty in

1125
01:04:49,760 --> 01:04:53,680
Speaker 1: either being a supporter of Trump, covering Trump, or opposing Trump.

1126
01:04:54,400 --> 01:04:57,480
Speaker 1: He's all over the map. You know, ask ask a

1127
01:04:57,480 --> 01:04:59,840
Speaker 1: Republican who's trying to defend Trump, and and so, you know,

1128
01:05:00,520 --> 01:05:04,360
Speaker 1: help me, help you, right. One doesn't always know where

1129
01:05:04,360 --> 01:05:07,360
Speaker 1: he's going to come down on certain issues. So he

1130
01:05:07,400 --> 01:05:09,840
Speaker 1: has made it very difficult to be a supporter at times.

1131
01:05:09,840 --> 01:05:11,880
Speaker 1: He's made it very difficult to just cover him as

1132
01:05:11,880 --> 01:05:14,000
Speaker 1: an observer, and he's made it very difficult to be

1133
01:05:14,520 --> 01:05:17,600
Speaker 1: in opposition to him at times because of the erratic

1134
01:05:17,600 --> 01:05:22,240
Speaker 1: and chaotic nature so ultimately I'm focusing. I try to

1135
01:05:22,280 --> 01:05:26,800
Speaker 1: focus more on what he's doing and less on what

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01:05:26,840 --> 01:05:29,960
Speaker 1: he's saying. Not ignoring it, but just trying to de

1137
01:05:30,000 --> 01:05:33,919
Speaker 1: emphasize it. All Right, I'm going to shut things down

1138
01:05:34,040 --> 01:05:39,440
Speaker 1: for all of twenty four hours. I will be coming

1139
01:05:39,480 --> 01:05:45,920
Speaker 1: to you actually from from Cambridge for the next episode,

1140
01:05:45,960 --> 01:05:49,240
Speaker 1: or at least for pieces of the next episode. I

1141
01:05:49,240 --> 01:05:51,120
Speaker 1: will have a longer mail bag and i'll explain what

1142
01:05:51,120 --> 01:05:53,160
Speaker 1: I'm doing there. I'll give you a little deep brief

1143
01:05:53,200 --> 01:05:56,640
Speaker 1: of a talk and a conversation that I'll be having

1144
01:05:58,400 --> 01:06:02,080
Speaker 1: with folks at the Kennedy School, and with that, I'll

1145
01:06:02,120 --> 01:06:03,120
Speaker 1: see you in twenty four hours.

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01:06:03,160 --> 01:06:03,880
Speaker 2: Thanks for checking in.

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01:06:09,480 --> 01:06:09,520
Speaker 1: M