Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Mollie John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: where we discuss the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds. And even Fox News won't air Republicans
Speaker 1: embarrassing President Biden impeachment hearings, all bad witnesses and one
Speaker 1: was in jail. We have such an interesting show for
Speaker 1: you today. Minnesota Governor Tim Walls tells us about feeding
Speaker 1: hungry children. Then we'll talk to Congressman Eric Swawell about
Speaker 1: the vibe shift in the Vibes based Biden impeachment. But
Speaker 1: first we have MSNBC columnist and contributor.
Speaker 2: And my friend Charlie Sykes.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Fast Politics, my friend Charlie Sikes.
Speaker 3: Hey, good to be back with you. It's good to
Speaker 3: be anywhere these days for me.
Speaker 1: I mean, so you are in the great state of Wisconsin, hi, am,
Speaker 1: where this selection will yet again come down to.
Speaker 4: Well, that's right.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, everything in Wisconsin is closed. It
Speaker 3: feels like every election has decided to be about twenty
Speaker 3: thousand votes. And by the way, before we get into
Speaker 3: all of that, I want I'll apologize on behalf of
Speaker 3: the entire state of Wisconsin for sendra Ron Johnson. I'm
Speaker 3: really really sorry about that. Damn.
Speaker 1: He did make a cameo in yesterday's Hunter Biden Criming
Speaker 1: hearing and again Lev Parnass hard to know. There were
Speaker 1: a lot of people testifying at those hearings who maybe
Speaker 1: were not completely ready for prime time, but he did
Speaker 1: say that all his intel went right through Ron Johnson.
Speaker 2: John Solomon to Ron Johnson.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you you never want to be called
Speaker 3: out as a as a complete Toty four Russia, even
Speaker 3: if it's Lev Parnass.
Speaker 4: It's just it's kind of embarrassing you.
Speaker 3: Ron Johnson could have become anything he wanted to become,
Speaker 3: and he chose to be this. He chose to become
Speaker 3: like the doppel ganger of Joe McCarthy. Another one up.
Speaker 3: Are great, it's going from institutions here. Yeah, and I'm
Speaker 3: really sorry because you know, when I when I first
Speaker 3: got to know Ron Johnson, I thought he was going
Speaker 3: to be another William Proxmyer. I don't know if you
Speaker 3: know this, but my dad actually wrote Bill Proxmeyer's biography.
Speaker 3: So I actually and then and I gave Johnson a
Speaker 3: copy of it. I said, yeah, you know, this long
Speaker 3: tradition of being a Maverick in Wisconsin. You can be
Speaker 3: the new Proxmayer. Instead, the fucker decided to become Joe McCarthy.
Speaker 4: What can I say?
Speaker 1: Well, yes, he has brain worms. The man has brain worms.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm trying to say. But you never know
Speaker 1: when a senator like for example, jd Vance, he ran
Speaker 1: as a maga, but he's turned into like Donald Trump's
Speaker 1: personal pr.
Speaker 3: You know that one's is amazing when you think about it,
Speaker 3: because Jade Vance is a smart guy. I see, I
Speaker 3: don't really get upset over you know, the complete wand
Speaker 3: from birth senators, you know, the Tommy Tubberville's and everything.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, okay whatever, Marsha Blackburn, Yeah, I
Speaker 5: was actually thinking of it's the same, Marshall Blackburn. I
Speaker 5: mean in that category, fine, you know, you're as dumb
Speaker 5: as a box of hair.
Speaker 4: Whatever we can do, you know.
Speaker 3: But it's the guys who are really intelligent, who you know,
Speaker 3: have good educations and who sit down and think, you know,
Speaker 3: I can be anybody I want to be, and I've
Speaker 3: decided that I want to be this this dark Iago character.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And Jady Vance, I mean, Jady Vance is a best
Speaker 3: selling author he and movies made about his stuff. I mean,
Speaker 3: one time he wrote for The New York Times and
Speaker 3: he's looking around and he goes, you know, I want
Speaker 3: to be the craziest son of a bitch in this body,
Speaker 3: and he's succeeding.
Speaker 2: Yes, it turns out that's not so hard.
Speaker 4: Actually it's not crazy. I don't want to apologize.
Speaker 3: I don't mean crazy, because he knows what he's doing.
Speaker 3: It's more dangerous than crazy. Crazy is crazy. This is
Speaker 3: somebody who is basically decided, you know, I am going
Speaker 3: to move into a dark corner of right wing politics,
Speaker 3: and I'm going to carve myself a niche, and I'm
Speaker 3: going to try to drag my party, you know, from
Speaker 3: the extreme position it's in right now, into some place
Speaker 3: even more extreme and darker. It's easy to cast that
Speaker 3: off as clown like or crazy. It's not. It's very
Speaker 3: very intentional. It's very dangerous.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and calculated and very I think that's right.
Speaker 1: It is this kind of brinksmanship that the burn it
Speaker 1: All Down Caucus has really embraced. Are you of the
Speaker 1: George Conway school that this Republican Party just needs to
Speaker 1: be burned down?
Speaker 3: Well, here's the problem. You know, whether you think it
Speaker 3: should be burned down or not, it's it's a fact
Speaker 3: of life right now that we have two political parties
Speaker 3: and one of them has ceased to be interested in governing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and that is that is dangerous. Mean We're never going
Speaker 3: to have a moment where we wake up and all
Speaker 3: fifty states are governed by Democrats and the Democrats have
Speaker 3: complete control over over Coagos. That's probably not likely to happen.
Speaker 3: So what does it mean when you have a political
Speaker 3: party that is completely held hostage by this performative minority
Speaker 3: who is far more interested in generating clicks and hits
Speaker 3: on Newsmax and the Nancy Maces of the world who
Speaker 3: just just want you want to be seen, and have
Speaker 3: no interest in actually doing the basic job. And the
Speaker 3: basic job is keeping the lights on. That's kind of
Speaker 3: the bare minimum. Okay, whatever else are you going to
Speaker 3: do as a member of Congress. You keep the lights on.
Speaker 3: You do not shut down the government that you are
Speaker 3: sworn bold. And yet this has become this kabuki theater
Speaker 3: now for more than a decade. I have to admit
Speaker 3: I'm bored by these things because it is this kabuki
Speaker 3: dance and in the end they decide not to actually
Speaker 3: blow themselves up, which is I suppose we should be
Speaker 3: thankful for that. I mean we're at the point like, hey,
Speaker 3: it's a good day in Washington, d C. They did
Speaker 3: not blow themselves and the rest of us up. Hey,
Speaker 3: this is great. You have a good weekend too. But
Speaker 3: I mean this has become this theater of the dangerously
Speaker 3: absurd that we've been enduring ever since, you know, Ted
Speaker 3: Cruz decided to you know, I can become famous by
Speaker 3: being the biggest dick in the Senate. And I am
Speaker 3: not talking about the size of his male member here.
Speaker 3: I do not want to be misinterpreted there.
Speaker 2: We're getting very naughty. Charlie seikes. Yeah, I'm sorry, it's hilarious.
Speaker 1: And look, you know, the whole system is a two
Speaker 1: party system. So when one party gives up on American
Speaker 1: democratic norms, I mean, that is going to upset the
Speaker 1: whole way we do things in this country, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: is that the thing that keeps you up at night?
Speaker 2: Because that is the thing that keeps me up at night.
Speaker 3: Well, and it's not going to go away anytime soon.
Speaker 3: I would like to think two things. Number One, that
Speaker 3: the election can somehow break the fever. It's not going
Speaker 3: to because the fever is really deeply engaged. I would
Speaker 3: also like to indulge the fantasy of thinking, you know,
Speaker 3: it's just politics and we can just ignore politics. I mean,
Speaker 3: the rest of life is great, everything's going long, well,
Speaker 3: you know, you step outside social media, people are going
Speaker 3: about their lives. But the reality is is that no
Speaker 3: matter how successful a society is, if it gets the
Speaker 3: politics wrong, everything, Yeah, and my evidence for that is
Speaker 3: the entire twentieth century. Just as the Germans ask, the
Speaker 3: Cambodias ask the Chinese, get back to me when you
Speaker 3: hear the answer. It would be nice to think that
Speaker 3: these people don't matter, or that we could just simply
Speaker 3: sit back and watch the theater of their idiocy, but
Speaker 3: it affects all of us, so we are kind of
Speaker 3: crapps in this doom.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that's a really good point, and
Speaker 1: you really can History is lettered with people who think,
Speaker 1: you know that if they just stay in their lane.
Speaker 2: The authoritarians will stay in theres right.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. You know, I'd like to go, you know, walk
Speaker 3: my dog's tender garden. But the authoritarians generally historically do
Speaker 3: not leave people alone. Now, having said that, can we
Speaker 3: just go back to the whole you know, leb Parnass
Speaker 3: thing yesterday and Ron Johnson, I have to admit that
Speaker 3: was extraordinary, even by the extra ordinary standards of the
Speaker 3: clownishness of Congress, you know. And again I'm not trying
Speaker 3: to trivialize it, but it's really hard to imagine that
Speaker 3: this Republican impeachment effort could have ended in a more
Speaker 3: spectacularly embarrassing way if these people were capable of embarrassment,
Speaker 3: if we were not living in a post shame world.
Speaker 3: This has fallen apart so dramatically. And I'm not trying
Speaker 3: to carry any water for Hunter Biden or Joe Biden.
Speaker 3: There's some things that are sleazy that are going on,
Speaker 3: but it's almost impossible to write a script at which
Speaker 3: James Comer could make himself and his committee and the
Speaker 3: Republican Party in Congress look more completely feckless. And I
Speaker 3: mean just dragging in these dregs and these foreign agents
Speaker 3: and having somebody testify jail.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean so the testifying from prison thing was unbelievable.
Speaker 1: And then that Jared Moscow at the moment where he
Speaker 1: was saying, you know, let's vote to impeach him, right now,
Speaker 1: let's go, And then Jim Jordan cracked up and could
Speaker 1: not stop laughing.
Speaker 3: Well, because the thing has become just this sort of
Speaker 3: herody inside of a farce. Yeah, And and then I
Speaker 3: think at some point you start to recognize this. We
Speaker 3: all understand what this is about, right. I mean, there's
Speaker 3: the political and psychological necessity of Republicans who have to
Speaker 3: find a way to rationalize supporting Donald Trump. And the
Speaker 3: only way they can really do that is to say, well,
Speaker 3: what about this. You know, it's not you know, yes,
Speaker 3: Donald Trump was impeached, but we're going to impeach Joe Biden. Yes,
Speaker 3: Donald Trump is thoroughly, thoroughly corrupt, but everybody's corrupt, right
Speaker 3: and Donald Trump it demanded this, wanted this, pushed themselves
Speaker 3: into it. The base wants this.
Speaker 1: I mean, wow, I think wow is the operative word here,
Speaker 1: like wow. The thing again is Republicans trying to keep
Speaker 1: the House, and they have all of these swing state
Speaker 1: swing destruct Republicans who voted not only to impeach Joe
Speaker 1: by on neither high crimes nor misdemeanors, but instead on vibes.
Speaker 1: But also you had a cabinet secretary. They voted to
Speaker 1: impeach a cabinet secretary for some in one hundred years,
Speaker 1: and they voted to impeach him not because of high
Speaker 1: crimes and misdemeanors, but because they were mad about his policy.
Speaker 4: Right, it's totally forgotten about that.
Speaker 3: That's still going well, seriously, I mean, it's just but
Speaker 3: the problem is is that they do these big performative
Speaker 3: things and like, look here, you know, this is our record.
Speaker 4: We have done absolutely nothing.
Speaker 3: We are the ultimate do nothing Congress, which, by the way,
Speaker 3: somebody should be able to run against. I don't know,
Speaker 3: Harry Truman managed it.
Speaker 4: So this is our number one accomplishment. And what oh yeah, okay,
Speaker 4: so where's that going? Nowhere?
Speaker 2: Nowhere?
Speaker 3: Hope it felt good while you were doing it. But
Speaker 3: that's it, you know, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean we shouldn't laugh. We have to laugh because
Speaker 1: we would cry. Yes, but it is it is really
Speaker 1: not what Congress is supposed to be doing. And they
Speaker 1: have passed like something, you know, twenty seven bills or something.
Speaker 2: I mean, they really have been one of the most
Speaker 2: in effective congresses in history.
Speaker 3: I probably should have done some Ectual Research BEFO. I
Speaker 3: brought this up. You probably know more about this than
Speaker 3: I do. This this new Republican Study Committee legislative agenda.
Speaker 3: This is one of those moments where for people who
Speaker 3: I don't know if you've talked about this before, but
Speaker 3: they've come up with now, let's lay out our agenda.
Speaker 3: And you can tell that they live in a bubble
Speaker 3: inside of a bubble because they have crammed into this,
Speaker 3: you know, one radioactive issue after another. You know, whether
Speaker 3: it's it's banning in vitro fertilization or supporting you know,
Speaker 3: the right to life from the moment of conception to
Speaker 3: messing and screwing around with Social Security and medicare. It's
Speaker 3: like you would think that there'd be somebody that would
Speaker 3: be rushing down the hall going God, people do not
Speaker 3: put that on the xerox machine. Do not send send
Speaker 3: on this. We have vulnerable incumbents. Even Donald Frump with
Speaker 3: his lizard brain, knows you do not talk about well,
Speaker 3: actually he's forgotten that you don't talk about social But
Speaker 3: I mean, these these things are just absolute gifts to
Speaker 3: the Democrats. I mean, they have to be sitting in
Speaker 3: the White House going are you kidding me? Are they
Speaker 3: really going to be running on these things? Because it's
Speaker 3: it's not as if Democrats will like say, by the way,
Speaker 3: if you rote for Republicans, it's not just that they're
Speaker 3: a clown car. This is what they intend to do,
Speaker 3: and they put it in writing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're raising social security and medicare raising the age
Speaker 1: of social security and medicare. That's something that no one
Speaker 1: has ever been forever.
Speaker 3: Look, we have raised the age, but there's so much
Speaker 3: else in there. And I guess it's it's part of
Speaker 3: your reminding people that these are deeply unseerious. On one level,
Speaker 3: they're deeply unserious. On another level, they're they're quite reckless
Speaker 3: and and I'm ideologically and ideologically extreme, and you know
Speaker 3: this year to go into and this is the problem
Speaker 3: around the country now. So it's not just that you know,
Speaker 3: Donald Trump is the head of the ticket, but Donald
Speaker 3: Trump is putting people like Bernie Moreno on the ticket
Speaker 3: for Senate in Ohio. And this is a guy who's
Speaker 3: like a caricature of every extreme Republican position you could
Speaker 3: have out there. I mean, Shared Brown could not be luckier.
Speaker 3: And you kind of wonder whether or not there might
Speaker 3: be a reverse effect where Bernie Moreno actually serves as
Speaker 3: a kind of a boat anchor on Trump because Democrats
Speaker 3: can say, look, look how extreme these guys are on
Speaker 3: every one of these issues, one after another. And meanwhile,
Speaker 3: the serious, grown up Republicans, and then many of them
Speaker 3: are conservatives, not just you know, you know, moderate, but
Speaker 3: I mean conservative Republicans, but who actually understand how the
Speaker 3: process works. They're being driven out of the party. They're
Speaker 3: basically saying screw it. Like Mike Gallagher and Wisconsin, Well,
Speaker 3: you know what, I you know, I have a great
Speaker 3: future ahead of me. But if I had to spend
Speaker 3: two years sitting in the caucus with Jim Jordan, Lauren
Speaker 3: Bilbert and Marjorie Taylor Green, I am out of here.
Speaker 3: I'm just it is just not working right exactly.
Speaker 1: People like Ken Buck, I mean, yeah, they can't keep
Speaker 1: their normal Republicans anymore.
Speaker 2: The few that were left.
Speaker 1: Does strike me that there is a group waiting in
Speaker 1: the wings. If Trump is a manages to you know,
Speaker 1: if fast forward and again we're six long months away
Speaker 1: from this, so who even knows?
Speaker 2: And you and I may be having our.
Speaker 1: Next conversation from Portugal, but there is a world in
Speaker 1: which I feel like a Liz Cheneys is in the
Speaker 1: wings and perhaps again we don't know what she's going
Speaker 1: to do, but a Nikki Haley keeping their you know,
Speaker 1: if Nicki Haley keeps her powder dry, she could theoretically,
Speaker 1: you know, help pick up the sort of rubble of
Speaker 1: this Republican party if Trump loses again.
Speaker 2: Mollie, I'm sorry, is that casting?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: No, no, I was going to say that, I know
Speaker 3: we're being recorded here, but could I have some of
Speaker 3: what you're smoking? Unless now I could I could use that.
Speaker 3: I wish, I wish that were true. I think it's
Speaker 3: more likely what you're going to see is the rage
Speaker 3: directed at the Nikki Hayleys and the Liz Chinese and
Speaker 3: even the Mike Pences of the world that they are
Speaker 3: Judaseserian but they have betrayed the Orange Jesus, so they
Speaker 3: can never be forgiven. Unfortunately, I don't see this fever
Speaker 3: breaking anytime soon.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: I mean, I wish that at some point sanity would prevail,
Speaker 3: but it's really hard to see how in fact that happens,
Speaker 3: because I think what has to happen I think traditionally
Speaker 3: is that is that a political party needs not only
Speaker 3: to be defeated, but needs to be defeated in multiple elections.
Speaker 3: I think I read somewhere the political scientist said, I
Speaker 3: think they have to you know, suffer you know, three
Speaker 3: consecutive you know, pretty convincing defeats too. I wish, yeah,
Speaker 3: I wish I could tell you that that's going to
Speaker 3: happen this year. But of course, as we know, the
Speaker 3: Republicans have now set up this narrative in which they
Speaker 3: never lose.
Speaker 5: I do that.
Speaker 4: They never lose.
Speaker 3: So the one thing that will purify our political party
Speaker 3: is the acknowledgment we have been defeated, and yet they
Speaker 3: will never be defeated. So you kind of have a
Speaker 3: an undrum.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a really good point, right, they will not
Speaker 1: admit that they've been defeated. And again we're seeing already
Speaker 1: the rigged narrative going. The irony here, right that Trump
Speaker 1: won the primaries because he changed the primary calendar, right,
Speaker 1: made it easier to consolidate votes. Thus, I mean, he
Speaker 1: probably was going to win anyway, but there certainly you could,
Speaker 1: if Nikki Haley wanted, you could accuse him of rigging if.
Speaker 4: You want to do that.
Speaker 3: But the reality is is that he won because the
Speaker 3: Republican base wants what it wants. He was fortunate enough
Speaker 3: to have incredibly weak candidates. I mean, there was a
Speaker 3: moment there was a little sliver of possibility that Ron
Speaker 3: de Santis might have been the trump Ism without Trump.
Speaker 3: But as you and I both know, he turned out
Speaker 3: to be an absolutely craptacular candidate and who decided not
Speaker 3: really to run against Donald Trump, and so who knew
Speaker 3: that would have failed? But this is Trump's Republican Party,
Speaker 3: and Trump's Republican Party did not want any substitutes. They
Speaker 3: wanted the real thing, and by god, they're going to
Speaker 3: get it good and heart.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you, Charlie Sikes, You're the best. Tim
Speaker 1: Walls is the governor of Minnesota.
Speaker 2: Welcome too Fast Politics.
Speaker 4: Governaball Hi Balie, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: You know, Jesse and I have long wanted to have
Speaker 1: you on this podcast because some of the progressive legislation
Speaker 1: you have passed has become sort.
Speaker 2: Of like the wish list of all liberals. So you're
Speaker 2: kind of a big deal.
Speaker 4: It's like the new Deal. We did the new Deal
Speaker 4: out here.
Speaker 1: So yes, you and Governor Pritzker are sort of two
Speaker 1: of our people where you've done the impossible. So you
Speaker 1: shot to fame in my mind when I saw that
Speaker 1: picture of you and the children.
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so talk to me about some of this progressive legislation,
Speaker 1: how you've done it, and also can we talk about
Speaker 1: that photo of the children when you've signed the free breakfast?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, thank for bringing it up, Molly. I can
Speaker 4: die a happy man after that. And look, I've got
Speaker 4: a great comms team and everything. And people were writing
Speaker 4: them saying this was the most brilliant thing, and they're
Speaker 4: also very humble. They said, look, this was organic. We
Speaker 4: in Minnesota passed free breakfast in lunch for all of
Speaker 4: our kids. No more meal shaming, no more different colored ticket,
Speaker 4: no more families having to worry about filling out all
Speaker 4: the paperwork whatever. For goodness sake, we can feed our children.
Speaker 4: So we went out to Webster Elementary School to sign that,
Speaker 4: and I did a signing and we had all the
Speaker 4: advocates in the legislator, but we were in a school
Speaker 4: with these kids and they were kind of just all
Speaker 4: setting around. These are elementary school kids, and they were
Speaker 4: into this. And I remember my signing statement. I said,
Speaker 4: and now all your classmates can eat, and these kids,
Speaker 4: they're pure joy of understanding what it means to be
Speaker 4: a decent human being just sprung up and they just
Speaker 4: kind of mobbed me. It was this happy grandfather photo
Speaker 4: type of thing, but just symbolic of what we can do.
Speaker 4: So and I think that, you know, going back to
Speaker 4: why do we get this done? Because how do you
Speaker 4: argue about that? It is just a smart thing. Look,
Speaker 4: these are also markets for our farmers out here or
Speaker 4: a big agricultural state. I always try and drop troop
Speaker 4: bombs on all of you. We produce more turkeys than
Speaker 4: any other state, so just so you know, we're the
Speaker 4: turkey capital of the world, and so we have all this.
Speaker 4: We produce a ton of food and our kids can eat.
Speaker 4: And I think we went into this session saying, look,
Speaker 4: there has been a pent up desire and people ask
Speaker 4: me what you know, what are you most proud of?
Speaker 4: There is a list of things here that is really awesome.
Speaker 4: It's things that we bought for decades over. I think
Speaker 4: for me it was changing this app Progressives by nature
Speaker 4: are you know, we're progressive and we're hopeful, but we
Speaker 4: can also be pessimistic. People. Oh, it's a nice day,
Speaker 4: but it may snow tomorrow type of thing. Very minnesotent
Speaker 4: about that, but I said, we were conditioned to that.
Speaker 4: Bad things happened. Pasting good things took decades. So for me,
Speaker 4: it changed people's attitude, and especially with young people. I
Speaker 4: had a young eighteen year old who worked on a
Speaker 4: lot of this stuff, was interning it first and working
Speaker 4: and said, you know, I worked on your campaign, Governor.
Speaker 4: We want and five months later we have paid family,
Speaker 4: medically free breakfast and wheat is legal. This stuff's not
Speaker 4: that hard. And I'm like thinking, oh my god, we
Speaker 4: created monsters here, but in a good way. So that's
Speaker 4: how that came about, and that I think that photo
Speaker 4: was just accumulation of what kind of progressive dreams is.
Speaker 4: Look when our people, you know, they want to make
Speaker 4: it like we have an extreme agenda. Yep, it just crazy.
Speaker 4: We want these elementary kids to eat. That is just
Speaker 4: really wild, and it really just stuck. It was pretty
Speaker 4: hard to push back against that photo.
Speaker 1: When you watch Republicans argue about free meals and those
Speaker 1: days like we don't want you know, some middle class
Speaker 1: kid getting a free breakfast, and you really do see
Speaker 1: how little this whole thing makes any sense, right, Like
Speaker 1: you are a wealthy country.
Speaker 4: That's where they're stuck right now. They don't have anything, Molly.
Speaker 4: And on this one they actually said this to me, Look,
Speaker 4: there's going to be people that don't need this tax break.
Speaker 4: When have they ever talked about wealthy people that they're
Speaker 4: worried that somebody's going to get a who doesn't need it.
Speaker 4: And I'm telling you what I heard on this problem
Speaker 4: was for those families who did not qualify for free
Speaker 4: and produced lunch, whose kids wanted to eat at school
Speaker 4: and now could and because of the way our country
Speaker 4: still you know, the division of labor still falls heavily
Speaker 4: on women. Er mothers say, thank god, I don't have
Speaker 4: to make breakfast in the morning. It's like my life
Speaker 4: so much better. That was the thank you, Like, look,
Speaker 4: we can afford it and everything, but this is just
Speaker 4: so much easier. So I agree, they got no pushback
Speaker 4: on it. That's your pushback. We can't afford to feed
Speaker 4: our kids.
Speaker 1: So one of the stark contrasts I think of between
Speaker 1: blue state and red steak governors is in Arkansas and
Speaker 1: a lot of other states, you have a red steak
Speaker 1: governors signing slation that makes it easier for companies when
Speaker 1: they have underage children working, to not have to pay
Speaker 1: the same kind of fines because likely they have underage
Speaker 1: children working. That has been real movement in these red
Speaker 1: states to make the fines lesser for child labor. Talk
Speaker 1: to me about what it looks like to be a
Speaker 1: blue state governor in that kind of America.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it feels like Victorian England. David Copperfielders. It was
Speaker 4: a really great when showed the contrast. I think it
Speaker 4: was the same week I signed the free breakfast. I
Speaker 4: think the governor of Arkansas signed you know, child labor laws.
Speaker 4: And I'll tell you what. Her picture did not look
Speaker 4: as happy as the kids in my picture who were
Speaker 4: organically thrilled. Look that's what they're doing, and unfortunately this
Speaker 4: is in very dangerous business. We also are you know,
Speaker 4: protein backing states from meatpacking plants. These are dangerous places.
Speaker 4: There are no places for kids and trying to look
Speaker 4: we're all dealing with, you know, labor shortages that we're
Speaker 4: trying to get. We simply take a different approach and
Speaker 4: said we're going to protect union workers and we're going
Speaker 4: to pay pay people more and lo and behold when
Speaker 4: you pay people more and give them worker protections, people
Speaker 4: move to your state and start working in those businesses.
Speaker 4: So this truly is the race to the bottom versus
Speaker 4: the idea of lifting up and building. And again we're
Speaker 4: making the case out here. We did all of these
Speaker 4: things and for the first time on the CNBC they
Speaker 4: do their survey of the best states for the business climate.
Speaker 4: We moved into the top five, replacing Texas. Because it
Speaker 4: works when your workers are well paid, they have paid
Speaker 4: them in medically, they have healthcare, their children have daycare,
Speaker 4: they have cool meals, and you have an education level. Look,
Speaker 4: we made college free to folks that are making less
Speaker 4: than eighty thousand dollars. Those are those working families that
Speaker 4: we need to participate in our economy. So I agree
Speaker 4: with you. The contrast could not be greater. And when
Speaker 4: we start measuring this, you really start to see it.
Speaker 4: And I don't know where the end state is for them.
Speaker 4: I don't know how telling people forcing your kids, oh,
Speaker 4: it'll teach them character whatever, as they lose an arm
Speaker 4: and you know in the equipment, it makes no sense.
Speaker 4: And we made the case here in Minnesota as Look,
Speaker 4: it is moral imperative that people be safe, that they
Speaker 4: be protected, and we provide healthcare for those children.
Speaker 1: Yeah, talk to me about healthcare and then just talk
Speaker 1: to me about what you're doing on a local level
Speaker 1: for healthcare.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, we have no system that makes any
Speaker 4: sense in this country. We spend twice as much as
Speaker 4: the next country in terms of that, and yet we
Speaker 4: rank what thirty eighth in maternal mortality rates. It's just
Speaker 4: a shame and it really comes home to press here.
Speaker 4: We've got more people ensured than I think almost any
Speaker 4: other state, and of course we're home to like the
Speaker 4: Mayo Clinic. So these are just recognized as the best
Speaker 4: healthcare system in the world, which is great if you
Speaker 4: can get in. And so what we've done is we
Speaker 4: have Minnesota Care, which you know, folks can buy in
Speaker 4: and need it. We expanded that to folks regardless of
Speaker 4: their documentation status, because once again, you know, the basic
Speaker 4: human rights of being able to take care of folks
Speaker 4: on These are folks that are here working in proceeds
Speaker 4: that they're waiting for a legal system that is again
Speaker 4: takes seven to nine years to get your asylum claim process.
Speaker 4: Would have been nice if Congress would have passed the
Speaker 4: legislation that would make that ninety days and put money
Speaker 4: into it.
Speaker 2: But you know, Trump didn't want them to, so of
Speaker 2: course they.
Speaker 4: Don't want to because they want to complain about this.
Speaker 4: And these are in our community. So I think for
Speaker 4: us here, what really is interesting about this, Molly, it
Speaker 4: becomes harder and harder. What you know, we asked asking
Speaker 4: Republicans and those who don't look at this this way,
Speaker 4: is what's your complaint and what's the alternative? You know,
Speaker 4: where where's this workforce going to come? And I think
Speaker 4: there's a real dynamic shift happening and we'll see if
Speaker 4: it happens fast enough the business community. The business community
Speaker 4: understands that we need to have immigration reform. The business
Speaker 4: community needs to believe, and they know that we need childcare.
Speaker 4: That's a big issue for parents that can't find working
Speaker 4: out of the workforce. They get all these things, but
Speaker 4: there's sence so conditioned that many of these chambers of
Speaker 4: commerce are just they think it's the old Republican party.
Speaker 4: This is not where elected officials in the Republican Party
Speaker 4: are at today. So I'm actually somewhat hopeful that we're
Speaker 4: making the case that, look, not only can we take
Speaker 4: care of people and do the right thing, and these
Speaker 4: progressive ideas about you should have health care and food
Speaker 4: in a safe place to live, and you should be educated.
Speaker 4: In the long run, that's how you grow the economy.
Speaker 4: And I think in Ministerota starting to work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's a really good point.
Speaker 1: And Paul Krugman had a really good piece on the
Speaker 1: idea that maybe that this migrant served is actually maybe
Speaker 1: one of the things that saved us from having a recession,
Speaker 1: which is kind of an incredible idea. So talk to
Speaker 1: me about what you are doing with the DGA to
Speaker 1: bring this idea of abundance national a.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, and I'm really proud of the DGA. You
Speaker 4: mentioned that you've got folks like Baby Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer,
Speaker 4: You've got, of course Gavin Newsom, but you've got folks
Speaker 4: Roy Cooper, you got Basher Andy Basheer at in Kentucky
Speaker 4: and on Saturday this last Saturday, I was at the
Speaker 4: Democratic dinner in Topeka, Kansas with Democratic Governor Laura Kelly.
Speaker 4: These ideas work everywhere, and I think one of the
Speaker 4: things that DGA does is we're out there to make
Speaker 4: the case that governors are the front lines of protection
Speaker 4: on all of these things, certainly on reproductive care in
Speaker 4: vitro and voting rights and protections of our children and
Speaker 4: food and all this. As Congress becomes more grid luck
Speaker 4: and paralyzed, it becomes more important than ever to elect
Speaker 4: these governors. It's super inspirational. See Lord Kelly, Andy Pasher win.
Speaker 4: But now we've got to win down in North Carolina.
Speaker 4: And so what the DGA does is it goes out there,
Speaker 4: it supports, and we're super successful. We've defended twenty three
Speaker 4: of twenty four of our incumbent governors over the last
Speaker 4: three cycles. This year, we have no incomebent governors, but
Speaker 4: we've got as I said, in North Carolina. After Rui
Speaker 4: Cooper's term limited, Jay Insley up in Washington State, John
Speaker 4: Carney and Delaware, we had an open seat in New Hampshire.
Speaker 4: The DGA goes out and helps these local candidates. They
Speaker 4: know their best message, they know what stands, but we
Speaker 4: raise the money, have some of the technical expertise and
Speaker 4: try and provide the support to get them elected. Because
Speaker 4: you said it, mind, you just want to start comparing
Speaker 4: life expectancies healthcare. Heck, compare happiness they've got to think.
Speaker 4: Happiness in Minnesota, by the way, usually ranked second in
Speaker 4: this and I'm okay with that because we're behind Hawaii.
Speaker 1: In the happiest right, and you guys have some weather issues.
Speaker 4: Yeah, COVID brought this to the front. It's statistically provable.
Speaker 4: If you lived in a red state, your chance of
Speaker 4: surviving COVID was greater, was lesser.
Speaker 1: If you lived in a blue state, your chances of
Speaker 1: surviving COVID were greater.
Speaker 4: He shooes me. Yeah, exactly right, and that these red
Speaker 4: state governors put you that's exactly right. We're very proud.
Speaker 4: We're One of the things we had is we're one
Speaker 4: of the ten states with the lowest death rates on
Speaker 4: that and lo and behold, our economy recovered pastor and
Speaker 4: we had surpluses. So I think we're out there making
Speaker 4: the case that if you want to see your personal
Speaker 4: life improve, elect a democratic governor. So if your listeners, Molly,
Speaker 4: I'll put in a shameless plug for the DGA on
Speaker 4: that if they want more information on these great governors,
Speaker 4: and trust me, Like in North Carolina with Josh Stein,
Speaker 4: he is literally running against the guy as central casting
Speaker 4: of a marble villain. This guy is demonized the survivors
Speaker 4: of school shootings. He's called school teachers the most evil
Speaker 4: thing on the planet. He said, when you're pregnant, it's
Speaker 4: not your baby, it's all baby now, just insanity.
Speaker 2: So he doesn't think women should vote correct.
Speaker 4: I mean, the guy is on every front. So if
Speaker 4: they want more information on these this, if you want
Speaker 4: to know where your impact makes a difference, these state
Speaker 4: right races make everything. We're able to codify abortion rights,
Speaker 4: we're able to make sure that we're a trans sanctuary
Speaker 4: state here in Minnesota. And be clear, I ran against
Speaker 4: a guy who had the absolute opposite opinion and all that,
Speaker 4: and in states where those type of guys won, life
Speaker 4: is hell. Women's life is put at risk. The vice
Speaker 4: president was out of here last week. For the first
Speaker 4: time in American history of setting vice president or president
Speaker 4: stood in an abortion clinic. Abortion clinics are healthcare clinics,
Speaker 4: by the way, that's what they're referred to. And stood
Speaker 4: in there and talked to a young woman from Idaho
Speaker 4: who had to travel from Idaho to Minneapolis figure out
Speaker 4: how to do that. Luckily she had the resources and everything.
Speaker 4: But it's just unacceptable Democratic governors protect that. So if
Speaker 4: they want to text me here it is Molly, it's
Speaker 4: Tim at three zero two zero one. And what they'll
Speaker 4: do is get information on these races.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the things I've been really struck by
Speaker 1: is the Medicare expansion. One of the things Democrats have
Speaker 1: done when they've been in red states is they've been
Speaker 1: able and again it depends on state legislature, but they've
Speaker 1: been able to pass these expansions.
Speaker 2: Explain to us what happens when they do.
Speaker 4: That, for example, and there's two things that are the
Speaker 4: most despicable things in the world. Using Medicare expansion, using
Speaker 4: federal dollars. And you know, many of the cases of
Speaker 4: Minnesota is a payer state, we get far less back
Speaker 4: from the federal government to give a lot of these
Speaker 4: red states get an awful lot of federal dollars back.
Speaker 4: But in the case of Medicare expansion, you're able to
Speaker 4: expand it to more people, make the eligibility there. And
Speaker 4: from a person's on, the most basic level of this
Speaker 4: is it means somebody who couldn't get access to affordable
Speaker 4: health care does in the easiest way, and it comes
Speaker 4: with the federal money that helps you've got to put
Speaker 4: in a little bit on state. But there's two things
Speaker 4: that I find the most despicable thing in the world.
Speaker 4: They turn this down, they being Republican governors, turn it down.
Speaker 4: And there's been a new program that is an absolute
Speaker 4: godsend is the Summer EBT program, the Summer SNAP and
Speaker 4: I believe it's fifteen of these states have turned it down. Now,
Speaker 4: these are folks that my bed is is I bet
Speaker 4: in their businesses they took VPP loans for themselves. I
Speaker 4: bet you they take upsidy payments. I bet you they
Speaker 4: take other breaks. But on this the governor of Nebraska said,
Speaker 4: this just creates dependency, and the governor of Iowa said,
Speaker 4: we don't have hunger here, which you all know is crazy.
Speaker 4: So I think tying back to this, having Roy Cooper
Speaker 4: in North Carolina meant eight hundred thousand more North Carolinians
Speaker 4: were able to access Medicare at affordable healthcare, which, again,
Speaker 4: even if you're a crul not caring about human beings
Speaker 4: getting this, it means they're healthier, they spend less money
Speaker 4: in the long run. At the end, more people are
Speaker 4: able to work and take fewer days off work, and
Speaker 4: your economy growth. When people are healthier, your economy does better.
Speaker 4: So no, they turn it down. And it's because we
Speaker 4: don't want the iman. You know, they don't want socialism.
Speaker 4: It's their message. It is the most despicable and those
Speaker 4: two programs the most damaging things they can do. But
Speaker 4: it apparently appeals to their base. I don't know, I
Speaker 4: don't get it.
Speaker 1: Just cruel, right, and it's also I mean more likely
Speaker 1: the base doesn't know that it's available to them, right,
Speaker 1: because nobody is.
Speaker 2: Going to turn down good point. Yeah, and nobody's going
Speaker 2: to turn that down.
Speaker 1: And by the way, they when they turn this money down,
Speaker 1: it's not like they get the money for something else.
Speaker 2: They just don't get.
Speaker 4: No, they don't get it. And then apparently they don't care.
Speaker 4: That's what this thing with the summary BD program. You know,
Speaker 4: these are the worst time for kids in hunger is
Speaker 4: the weekends and breaks, as you will, Well, that's why
Speaker 4: they have to pack, backpack send food home. We were
Speaker 4: at a school last year before we were you know,
Speaker 4: got through our school meals program, and there was a
Speaker 4: teacher talking about that she's had some of her children
Speaker 4: eating crayon because they couldn't get enough they didn't know,
Speaker 4: and people are assuming, oh, there's charity things out there, whatever.
Speaker 4: These are parents that are just trying to make ends meet,
Speaker 4: working hard, and it's hard enough to navigate government when
Speaker 4: you're not in that situation. Your child's hungry, or you're
Speaker 4: worrying about homelessness or whatever. I just the cruelness of
Speaker 4: it is what really strikes me. And I'll tell you,
Speaker 4: I'm going to make one more plug for what I
Speaker 4: would encourage states to do and elect democratic governors. During
Speaker 4: the pandemic, the federal government did the child tax credit.
Speaker 4: We saw the big reduction in childhood poverty in our
Speaker 4: nation's history. Well, we took that and put it on steroids.
Speaker 4: In Minnesota, we have the most aggressive and generous child
Speaker 4: tax credit, seventeen hundred and fifty dollars for every child,
Speaker 4: no limit on that. Whether you have to file taxes
Speaker 4: or not, you get that. We have seen over three
Speaker 4: hundred thousand children qualified. We have returned four hundred million dollars.
Speaker 4: And what it basically assures is in those families, for
Speaker 4: the first time, they have a guaranteed income source to
Speaker 4: take care of those children. It is estimated by all
Speaker 4: measures that that will reduce Minnesota's childhood poverty rate by
Speaker 4: a third. We're already the third lowest in the country.
Speaker 4: We will be by far the lowest of childhood poverty
Speaker 4: in the country. And again, what I would say is,
Speaker 4: they'll go to school, they'll have good childcare, their parents
Speaker 4: will pay famin medically. But imagine that mom and dad
Speaker 4: can take time off after they have the baby to
Speaker 4: bond with that child. We're going to have a better, healthier,
Speaker 4: well qualified workforce for jobs of the future. So I
Speaker 4: come back to this again, even if you don't want
Speaker 4: to add the humanity side of doing this, it's just
Speaker 4: smart to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Jesus fundamentally, you know, I spend all day talking
Speaker 1: about politics, and the thing that I'm struck by is
Speaker 1: that Republicans have terrible policies. Yes, like there's just not
Speaker 1: a single policy where you're like, oh, that's actually kind of.
Speaker 4: God Yeah, And I don't know, maybe it's we're bad
Speaker 4: at this year listeners saying this too. For God's sakes,
Speaker 4: how do you argue against these things that were making
Speaker 4: the case And in the long run, you can save money,
Speaker 4: you can have a better economy. Look if if their
Speaker 4: stuff worked, I don't disagree with them because they're Republicans.
Speaker 4: I disagree because their ideas don't work and they're weird.
Speaker 4: In a lot of cases, I think it was that
Speaker 4: it worked. I don't have an ideological dog in the
Speaker 4: fight that I'm going to ram this thing through just
Speaker 4: because I like it. On some things, I am, but no,
Speaker 4: the big ones. On most of them, we just wanted
Speaker 4: to work and they don't really have a response to it. Hell,
Speaker 4: they're fighting here. One of the things Minnesota, you know,
Speaker 4: we're proud we set troops to defend the nation, you know,
Speaker 4: but we had a flag year that was pretty racist.
Speaker 4: It showed you know, indigenous being driven out. You know,
Speaker 4: it's manifest destiny time, and they did it. So we
Speaker 4: got a new flag that included everybody. But oh, you'd
Speaker 4: have thought the world ended for Republicans. Now that's their
Speaker 4: big thing. They need to be elected this year's so
Speaker 4: they can overturn the flag and put back up the
Speaker 4: racist eighteen hundred flag. That's the whole Republican party right now.
Speaker 4: It's like a ven diagram of you know, Gadson flag.
Speaker 4: Some of that I don't get it, but I think
Speaker 4: what we need to do, we need to do a
Speaker 4: better job of telling people. Look, I'm a regular dude
Speaker 4: who hates politics. If you're that guy that's out there, well,
Speaker 4: here's how that's going to save you money. Here's how
Speaker 4: this's going to do this. Oh and by the way,
Speaker 4: we've got background checks and you know, red flag laws
Speaker 4: around the guns, but you can still own a firearm,
Speaker 4: no problem. We just don't want you shooting kids in
Speaker 4: our schools, and we're going to try new things so
Speaker 4: you don't. It's really not that controversial, and I don't
Speaker 4: think we've done a great job. Apparently we haven't. My god,
Speaker 4: my wife, my wife, and our public school teachers, and
Speaker 4: she said, we don't need standardized testing to show we're failing.
Speaker 4: They're still not voting for us on these things, which
Speaker 4: I think we have to do a better job of educating.
Speaker 2: All right, you can be her governor next. Thank you, governor.
Speaker 4: Yes, thanks Bali, you're the best.
Speaker 1: Congressman Eric Swawell represents California's fourteenth district. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: Fast Politics, Congressman Erics.
Speaker 6: Wawell, Hey, Molly, thanks for having me back.
Speaker 2: Delighted to have you back.
Speaker 1: And also, what is happening in the United States and
Speaker 1: representatives right.
Speaker 6: Now, pyos chug absolute nothing that would help anyone who
Speaker 6: listens to this podcaster who doesn't.
Speaker 1: This morning, I was on Morning Joe and they were
Speaker 1: talking about how they did modernize a duck stamp in
Speaker 1: the toe. Let you go, least effective Congress right.
Speaker 6: Yes, and Molly, I'm coming to you from the Judiciary
Speaker 6: Committee Library, which is just adjacent to a Judiciary Committee
Speaker 6: hearing that's been going on this morning and right now.
Speaker 6: The top priority in the Judiciary Committee is an anti
Speaker 6: transgender bill to create essentially gender checks for Olympic and
Speaker 6: amateur athletes. If that's like a thing and like this
Speaker 6: is a problem, maybe we should look at it. But
Speaker 6: last time, I not as it relates to kids, like
Speaker 6: they want to be safe in their school, their parents
Speaker 6: want to get their IVF fertility treatments to start families,
Speaker 6: and they don't want government mandated pregnancies, and we can
Speaker 6: actually work on all those things, which are things in
Speaker 6: the Judiciary Committee. So that's just kind of the chaos
Speaker 6: and nonsense that is happening right now in the House
Speaker 6: Judiciary Committee.
Speaker 2: That sounds insane.
Speaker 1: The thing that I'm struck by is Mike Johnson has
Speaker 1: this ever slimming majority, right, I guess he has two seats.
Speaker 6: Now it's a two seat majority, and if he was
Speaker 6: hoping to make it a three seat majority, the Kevin
Speaker 6: McCarthy seat is all screwed up. Now get that person
Speaker 6: back in a Tuesday special election. But McCarthy's hand pick
Speaker 6: candidate cannot get fifty percent plus one, so he goes
Speaker 6: to a runoff. Oh wow, yeah, so it's still at two.
Speaker 6: Ken Buck is gone on Friday, so dire for them.
Speaker 6: But the good news is we're the only ones that
Speaker 6: get shit done. So I mean, Jackeen Jeffries is for
Speaker 6: all intents and purposes, the speaker, right, because we have
Speaker 6: delivered the majority of the votes on anything that has
Speaker 6: ever mattered in this Congress, which you have never seen
Speaker 6: in the history of our Congress, and frankly, you've never
Speaker 6: seen in the history of any Congress or parliament around
Speaker 6: the world, which is the minority party delivering the majority
Speaker 6: amount of votes.
Speaker 1: But that's because the Republicans, I mean, this is a
Speaker 1: function of the Bernard down Caucus, right.
Speaker 2: They don't want government to work. They want to make
Speaker 2: government small enough so they can drown it in a bathtub.
Speaker 6: Right, yes, that's right, And so many of them were saying,
Speaker 6: as we approach another shutdown, which will be avoided again
Speaker 6: because Democrats will deliver the votes. But many of them
Speaker 6: were saying again this week, just shut it down, like
Speaker 6: with no plan in places to like how you'd reopen it.
Speaker 6: But Tim Burshett said, just shut it down. We need
Speaker 6: to send a message. So I mean that's the mindset
Speaker 6: is to just break things. These guys would be a
Speaker 6: great demolition crew. Probably don't want them as carpenter.
Speaker 1: Yes, well, they never were trained in carpentry, right, They
Speaker 1: were only ever trained in demo.
Speaker 2: So you still have to pass some bills.
Speaker 1: Mike Johnson was installed in this job because Trump wanted
Speaker 1: him there, right, his work overturning the twenty twenty election
Speaker 1: and trying to overturn the twenty twenty election. If he
Speaker 1: wasn't willing to make deals with Democrats, the government would
Speaker 1: have already shut down, right.
Speaker 6: And you know what, credit to him on keeping the
Speaker 6: government open by passing these continuing resolutions that fund the government.
Speaker 6: You know we're going to vote for those. I think
Speaker 6: it's nuts that one hundred plus Republicans will vote against
Speaker 6: it and That's why I hope he understands that he
Speaker 6: should just bring the Ukraine Aid to the floor. His
Speaker 6: crazies they're never you know, going to support anything as
Speaker 6: it relates to Ukraine because they see helping Ukraine hurts Russia.
Speaker 6: Russia likes Trump, so we can't hurt Russia if they
Speaker 6: like Trump. And I'm speaking for myself here. Other press
Speaker 6: reports that other Democrats may feel the same way. But
Speaker 6: for the next eight months, if we're going to keep
Speaker 6: the government open and we're going to provide Ukraine the
Speaker 6: funding that they need, if Republicans were to try and
Speaker 6: punish Johnson by removing him, I don't know if I
Speaker 6: necessarily would be supportive of that.
Speaker 4: If we're right just.
Speaker 6: You know, doing the blocking and tacking Lang, which is
Speaker 6: the bare minimum of what we'd be able to do anyway.
Speaker 6: And I think the sooner he realizes that, and you know,
Speaker 6: the sooner he has confidence that he would remain speaker.
Speaker 6: If he would just you know, do what he believes
Speaker 6: in and what the country wants him to do, I
Speaker 6: think he'd be much more effective. That's not the data
Speaker 6: that we're not going to make Hawkeeen Jeffreys a speaker
Speaker 6: a right.
Speaker 1: If Democrats get the majority, you're not going to want
Speaker 1: to have Maga Mike Johnson in there. But he is
Speaker 1: definitely much less dishonest than McCarthy.
Speaker 6: Also has shown as I said that you know, he
Speaker 6: will keep the government open. He's not you know, making
Speaker 6: baseless personal attacks, you know against Democrats. And remember Democrats
Speaker 6: would deliver the votes to keep the government open and
Speaker 6: then we'd save McCarthy's ass and then he would go
Speaker 6: on television and say and blame the Democrats and that's
Speaker 6: that was why he lost the Democrat We were just like,
Speaker 6: we're not going to bail you out, keep you in.
Speaker 6: God if you're just throw us under the bus. And
Speaker 6: you're right, Johnson has not done that. So again, if
Speaker 6: I'm just thinking what's best for my constituents with a
Speaker 6: Republican majority, well, it's to keep the government open, and
Speaker 6: it's to fund you know, the effort in Ukraine. We're
Speaker 6: not going to get anything more than that. So you know,
Speaker 6: I just as I think it through, I don't know
Speaker 6: if you're going to see a lot of Democrats willing
Speaker 6: to throw him out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's the sort of fundamental problem for
Speaker 1: Democrats and for Republicans. Is that Democrats believe the government
Speaker 1: can war are great and Republicans do not. So like
Speaker 1: these Ukrainians are desperate for help. They could lose this war,
Speaker 1: Kiev could fall.
Speaker 6: Look that the press sure is working because you know
Speaker 6: we have heard behind the scenes. You know that Johnson
Speaker 6: wants to find a way, you know, to pass this legislation.
Speaker 6: Look that the best deal was, of course, the one
Speaker 6: that the President struck with the second most conservative in
Speaker 6: the Senate, James Langford. You know, to do the border Ukraine,
Speaker 6: humanitarian aid in Gaza and is real. That's the best deal,
Speaker 6: that's the most comprehensive. It addresses you know, the global
Speaker 6: and domestic threats and needs Ukraine. They're on the ropes
Speaker 6: right now. And I think we don't articulate enough. And
Speaker 6: I'm guilty of this as well. Is that the funny
Speaker 6: to Ukraine. This isn't a check that we write and
Speaker 6: send to Ukraine and then they cash it and then
Speaker 6: we're billions you know less in our account. No, this
Speaker 6: is a check that we write to us defense companies
Speaker 6: who create us jobs.
Speaker 2: They get our old stuff, right, don't they They.
Speaker 6: Get our old stuff or they get a new stuff.
Speaker 6: But it's manufactured into the US. It creates US jobs,
Speaker 6: it sustains US jobs, and so we send weapons, not troops.
Speaker 6: And it's cheaper to do that if we beat Russia
Speaker 6: there rather than if Russia wins and then attacks a
Speaker 6: NATO country, because then contractually we're obliged to send US troops.
Speaker 6: And then it gets a lot more, you know, costly,
Speaker 6: it gets a lot more, it gets a lot closer
Speaker 6: to US.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's Israel funding, there's Taiwan funding. This is meant
Speaker 1: to sort of be a larger defense aid package. Is
Speaker 1: that how you think it'll end up going through?
Speaker 6: Or now I do? And again, what's so maddening, and
Speaker 6: I think what frustrates most people at home is that
Speaker 6: the majority, overwhelmingly of Congress will vote for this. So
Speaker 6: it's not like they don't have the votes, and he's
Speaker 6: you know, preventing something from coming forward that you know
Speaker 6: doesn't have support. You would see three hundred out of
Speaker 6: four hundred and thirty five members of Congress at least
Speaker 6: vote for this. And so if we're not a place
Speaker 6: that reflects where you know the majority of votes are
Speaker 6: and where you know what the majority of our constituents
Speaker 6: want then we're not really a democracy anymore, right, And
Speaker 6: that's what's really frustrating.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when we look at what's happening in the House
Speaker 1: right now, do you feel like there is a future
Speaker 1: for this Republican Party.
Speaker 6: No. They have shown that it's a shit show when
Speaker 6: you let them govern. You know, they spend just as
Speaker 6: much time fighting themselves as they spend fighting for anything
Speaker 6: that they claim to believe in. They're all in on Trump,
Speaker 6: and that's that's got to be quite confusing for them
Speaker 6: because one day they want to ban TikTok, and then
Speaker 6: Trump says, no, don't ban TikTok, and then he just
Speaker 6: kind of scrambles them. And they're trying to figure out,
Speaker 6: you know, what to do, how to govern, and and
Speaker 6: they're not loyal and backing somebody who has like a
Speaker 6: course set of principle. Right, everything that Donald Trump supports
Speaker 6: he looks at first through the lens of like how
Speaker 6: does this help me?
Speaker 3: Me?
Speaker 5: Me? Me?
Speaker 6: And then they have to twist and contort themselves, you know,
Speaker 6: to change their positions, because they have to find a
Speaker 6: new way each day, you know, to reflect what Donald
Speaker 6: Trump wants. And so that that's what is so dizzying
Speaker 6: you know around this place is that it's really just
Speaker 6: a law firm of attorneys who are working for one client,
Speaker 6: Donald Trump, and he doesn't necessarily want the same things
Speaker 6: every day. I mean, he can be quite inconsistent consistently
Speaker 6: you know, about himself, and so that seems to be
Speaker 6: at odds with the priorities of you know what, people
Speaker 6: at home care about it as so many of their
Speaker 6: rights are facing this demolition crew, so many of their
Speaker 6: freedoms are facing this demolition crew.
Speaker 1: You can't talk about what you saw in that TikTok briefing,
Speaker 1: but clearly it's persuasive.
Speaker 4: Letast see this.
Speaker 6: And I voted against you know what could lead to
Speaker 6: the band one at the most basic level, you know
Speaker 6: who bans things?
Speaker 4: Bands things to start.
Speaker 6: I didn't want to do anything that felt like there
Speaker 6: was something China would do.
Speaker 3: Two.
Speaker 6: This is a platform where millions of people between eighteen
Speaker 6: and forty are engaging. It's just a place where small
Speaker 6: businesses are engaging. And it just seemed to me that
Speaker 6: if we want to have a conversation about algorithms and
Speaker 6: data and privacy, we should do that for all social media,
Speaker 6: not just be seen as being in the business of bands,
Speaker 6: and so Mammy, I say all this, like, look, Republicans
Speaker 6: have a crazy, longstanding fantasy about me and China, and
Speaker 6: I knew that, you know, taking this vote would just
Speaker 6: reinforce like this fantasy that they have. But I still
Speaker 6: voted against the ban because I just don't want to
Speaker 6: be anywhere near a band, and I think there's better
Speaker 6: ways to do it without banning it. And you know,
Speaker 6: the President just two months ago went on TikTok, signed
Speaker 6: up for TikTok. He's been quite effective on TikTok. There
Speaker 6: are over two hundred million views of portions of the
Speaker 6: State of the Union on TikTok. So eight months out
Speaker 6: from an election, you know, that's a place where we
Speaker 6: want to communicate, you know, to a very consequential generation
Speaker 6: who is going to make a difference in November.
Speaker 1: Okay, So that is a reason not to ban TikTok.
Speaker 2: In my mind. You know, there are.
Speaker 1: More nefarious owners of TikTok than even the CCP. Right,
Speaker 1: I mean, look at X right, I mean, we know
Speaker 1: what's happening there. But I'm curious, Like the argument for
Speaker 1: banning it is that China bans all American social media.
Speaker 1: I mean, like on the times that I've known people
Speaker 1: to go to China, they tend to have to have
Speaker 1: another phone, right, because it is not necessarily a place
Speaker 1: where you can feel safe about your data.
Speaker 6: That's right, And that's why I think, you know, we
Speaker 6: could go at this in other ways as it relates
Speaker 6: to where data store, order, the transparency and understanding who
Speaker 6: has access to it without as I said, essentially forcing
Speaker 6: a ban. But it was persuasive to me, to be honest,
Speaker 6: that the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee voted against
Speaker 6: it as well. And that person is in what it's
Speaker 6: called the Gang of Eight and has access more intelligence
Speaker 6: information and threats than you know, almost anyone in the world.
Speaker 6: And so that's why I just think, you know, anytime
Speaker 6: we get close to a ban, it just it feels
Speaker 6: like it's a slippery slope. And by the way, I'm
Speaker 6: out on the campaign trail telling people why Republicans you know,
Speaker 6: want to ban books and they want body bands and
Speaker 6: book bands, and I just don't generally like bands unless
Speaker 6: you can articulate that the harm is completer than infriensing
Speaker 6: it on speech. Right, this is a freedom election to read,
Speaker 6: the freedom to vote. You know, the freedom to breathe
Speaker 6: clean air, the freedom of body, the financial freedom, freedom
Speaker 6: from violence. I mean, there's all these freedoms on the line,
Speaker 6: and I just as I said, I'm a little cautious
Speaker 6: when it relates to how we communicate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes sense. What is sort of next?
Speaker 1: I mean, do you do you think that the Democrats
Speaker 1: in the House understand the opportunity they have here with
Speaker 1: this do nothing Congress to flip the House?
Speaker 2: And do you think that they're working on it? And
Speaker 2: are you working on it? Yes?
Speaker 6: This is you know, a good chunk of what I
Speaker 6: am working on because you know it's so tied to
Speaker 6: you know, what freedoms we will enjoy or not enjoy.
Speaker 6: And today women are facing fertility bands, you know, across
Speaker 6: the country, and Trump has appointed federal judges who believe
Speaker 6: that life begins at conception. And that's the underpinning of
Speaker 6: what led to the band in Alabama.
Speaker 2: Embryonic personhood.
Speaker 6: That's exactly right. And they think you're a serial killer
Speaker 6: if you don't use all the embryos. I mean, it's
Speaker 6: just it's nuts. And so that's what's at stake. We've
Speaker 6: got great candidates running all over the country, and that's
Speaker 6: where I'm you know, spending my time and energy to
Speaker 6: make sure that freedom wins the stuff Emperor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, really good point. Thank you, Eric swah Wow, thank
Speaker 2: you for joining us.
Speaker 6: Of course, thanks Molly, No mo Fu, Jesse Cannon my
Speaker 6: junk Fast.
Speaker 3: The press they're saying Little Marco's and the VP running,
Speaker 3: But my money's still on Christinome up in South Dakota.
Speaker 4: What are you see in here?
Speaker 1: I mean, look, Christy Nome runs sponsored content. Yes, right,
Speaker 1: she does advertisement. She did one for Fake Teeth. Again,
Speaker 1: not going to cast dis versions. I love my vineers.
Speaker 4: I was gonna say it's people who make money from
Speaker 4: spot con, which tread lightly. Please right.
Speaker 1: We love sponsored content and we also love fake teeth.
Speaker 2: But we are not governors yet.
Speaker 1: So Christine Nome is definitely in the running, Little Marco.
Speaker 1: Few people have demean themselves so much for so little.
Speaker 1: I don't think Trump picks Little Marco, but I do
Speaker 1: think he gets Little Marco excited enough so that when
Speaker 1: he doesn't pick Little Marco, it will be yet another humiliation.
Speaker 1: And yet we have to quote the Ric Goulson here.
Speaker 1: Everything from Touches Ties. That's it for this episode of
Speaker 1: Fast politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to
Speaker 1: hear the best minds in politics makes sense of all
Speaker 1: this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send
Speaker 1: it to a friend and keep the conversation going. And again,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening.