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Speaker 1: They're happy Wednesday and welcome to another episode of the

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Speaker 1: Chuck Toodcast. So I will. I don't want to call

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Speaker 1: it jet lag, but I have been quite a bit

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Speaker 1: of course, have been on my own little fun emotional

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Speaker 1: roller coaster, being a Miami Hurricanes fan. Was at the

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Speaker 1: National title game. I have a lot more to share,

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Speaker 1: a lot more to say on it, and I will

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Speaker 1: save it for the end. There's also have a diverse

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Speaker 1: you know, I know some of you are saying, Okay,

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Speaker 1: college football, we get it. You love your Hurricanes. You

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Speaker 1: know at some point, you know, we like you doing

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Speaker 1: a little bit of sports. Can you do some other sports? Well,

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry the Hurricanes made it all the way to

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Speaker 1: the title game. I'm sorry I had to take it

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Speaker 1: all the way to the last day of the year.

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Speaker 1: I promise I will not do weekly portal updates on

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Speaker 1: who's been signed and who's shown up in spring practice.

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Speaker 1: But today also happens to be we last night we

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Speaker 1: got to find out about who's the newest members of

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Speaker 1: the Baseball Hall of Fame. And you know, I'm a

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Speaker 1: guy of a certain age, which means I have definitive

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Speaker 1: hot takes on Baseball Hall of famers. But all of

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Speaker 1: that I will put to the end. Let me give

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Speaker 1: you a quick little table of contents for today's episode.

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Speaker 1: We got more fallout from what we discussed on Monday

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Speaker 1: and this sort of destabilizing moment that we have with

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Speaker 1: the world order. Uh, and that is this is a

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Speaker 1: we're we're no to say we're in a weird place

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Speaker 1: as an understatement, which we've we've been discussed for quite

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Speaker 1: a bit. My interview today is with a gubernatorial candidate

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Speaker 1: out of the state of Texas. As I've told you California, Texas, Florida,

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Speaker 1: the big states. I think those governorships are always important

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Speaker 1: to keep track of follow and you know, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: get a new governor in California, a new governor in Florida,

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Speaker 1: and one of the longest serving governors in America continues

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Speaker 1: to run for reelection. It's Greg Abbott in Texas. Well,

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Speaker 1: I've got the potential Democratic nominee Gina. You know, it's

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Speaker 1: an Austin area politician who appears to be the you know,

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Speaker 1: right now, appears to be the leading Democrat. A lot

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Speaker 1: of the attention in Texas pol sixes all in the

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Speaker 1: Senate race. But as you know, and I've brought this

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Speaker 1: up before, I think what's happening in our public education system.

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Speaker 1: Everybody's angry. People on the right are angry, people on

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Speaker 1: the left are angry. We've had a voucherization movement that

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Speaker 1: was attempt, an attempt to appease the right those that

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Speaker 1: were upset conservative upset. But guess what a lot of

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Speaker 1: rural Americans who culturally are conservative, school choice idea, you know,

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Speaker 1: sounds good in theory doesn't really work in practice. Ultimately,

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Speaker 1: whether you're a liberal or a conservative, you want a

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Speaker 1: good public school system. And I think some of these

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Speaker 1: states that have gone a bit voucher crazy, a little

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Speaker 1: too aggressive on the privatization, the voters have backtracked on that.

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Speaker 1: You know, Trump voters that may vote a certain way

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Speaker 1: in a federal election don't necessarily like to see their

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Speaker 1: public dollars use that way. On a state level, we've

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Speaker 1: seen we've seen that in the places like asas the

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Speaker 1: Iowa governor's racist heere if Democrats win, I promise you

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Speaker 1: it is because of that issue, that issue alone, and

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Speaker 1: if this race is competitive, and some polling in Texas

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Speaker 1: has indicated surprising competitiveness here, and I've always thought, look,

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Speaker 1: I have made it clear I thought Democrats focusing more

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Speaker 1: on that Senate race in Texas.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 1: I understand the the the initial appeal Cornan may not

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Speaker 1: be the nominee. An ethically and morally challenged attorney general

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Speaker 1: named Ken Paxton might be the nominee. Suddenly he's very beatable,

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Speaker 1: you know, and we've we've seen how competitive Texas Senate

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Speaker 1: races have gotten. These are single digit affairs. So if

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Speaker 1: you have a truly morally an ethically challenged nominee, which

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Speaker 1: many Republicans have said about Ken Paxton, and not just

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Speaker 1: never Trumper's have said this. Many Republicans that are very

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Speaker 1: supportive of Trump have said this about Paxton. I understand

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Speaker 1: the appeal and why a guy like James tallerco a

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Speaker 1: rising star of the party, thinks oh, that might be

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Speaker 1: the easier path. But I think he missed an opportunity

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Speaker 1: but not running for governor, and I think I wouldn't

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Speaker 1: be sleeping on whoever the Democratic nominee is could very

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Speaker 1: well be Gina you knowsa. So that is why I

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Speaker 1: thought it was worth everybody's time to take a listen

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Speaker 1: to what she has to say. Very much. We're focused

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Speaker 1: on education policy on this front because I do think

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Speaker 1: that this is again it is sleeper issue, is not

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Speaker 1: the right way to treat it. We saw, particularly right

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Speaker 1: after COVID, a lot of parental frustration at the public

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Speaker 1: school system across the board. Count me as one of them,

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Speaker 1: as somebody as a parent that had kids in the

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Speaker 1: public school system where you felt as if they just

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Speaker 1: were overwhelmed by the COVID moment. On this front, there's

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Speaker 1: a desperation out there for some reform, and I think, look,

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Speaker 1: we essentially have the same model for our public school

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Speaker 1: system that we came up with over one hundred years ago.

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Speaker 1: We haven't modernized it. We don't have a public school

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Speaker 1: system that meets the moment of the twenty first century.

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Speaker 1: And we haven't had some good leadership here to sort

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Speaker 1: of see what everybody's been a bit in their corners.

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Speaker 1: Cultural conservatives in one place, teachers' unions in another, and

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Speaker 1: it's gotten overly politicized sort of too much in the

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Speaker 1: culture wars. When when when really what we really want

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Speaker 1: is a reliable public school system to take care of

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Speaker 1: our kids and to help give them the skills that

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Speaker 1: they need. There it is a it is a It

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Speaker 1: is a Wednesday, which means I owe you a top

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Speaker 1: five lists, and we've got some senate races. I think

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Speaker 1: to recalibrate a bit, so we will do a top

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Speaker 1: five list on that. I'll take a few questions. But

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Speaker 1: before we get into that, look, I I made a

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Speaker 1: pretty strong case that you know what is happening right

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Speaker 1: now with Donald Trump, and that he is potentially stumbled

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Speaker 1: stumbling into a war where he's going to get we're

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Speaker 1: going to be less safe and secure than we've ever

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Speaker 1: been before. And it makes doing political analysis here quite challenging,

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Speaker 1: right because look, it's it's obvious to anybody that has

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Speaker 1: been a practitioner of campaign politics, of campaign messaging, anybody

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Speaker 1: with a just a minute interest and understanding of American

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Speaker 1: political history knows that what Donald Trump is doing right

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Speaker 1: now is not good politics, at least if you're judging

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Speaker 1: him by any conventional measure that we've relied on over

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Speaker 1: the last half century. And before anybody starts screaming, wow,

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Speaker 1: we know Trump, conventional politics doesn't apply to Trump. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: of course, but let me becauve this isn't some clever,

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Speaker 1: disruptive strategy either. It's erratic, it's destabilizing, and it's increasingly

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Speaker 1: detached from the basic assumption that have governed American leadership

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Speaker 1: for generations. And you know, look, I did my Monday

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Speaker 1: monologue before we saw this nonsense of a one year

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Speaker 1: presser or whatever you want to call the two hour

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Speaker 1: diatribe that he had before he left for Davos on Tuesday.

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Speaker 1: But it is you know, this is why I am

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Speaker 1: dubbing this a man who may have the Yolo virus,

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Speaker 1: which I will get into that in a minute. But

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Speaker 1: I think what's most unsettling and striking about this moment

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Speaker 1: is how none of the usual political penalties seem to

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Speaker 1: apply to Trump. And I think this is why we've

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Speaker 1: had such paralysis and responding to what I think is

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Speaker 1: a absolute international and national emergency right now if we

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Speaker 1: want to prevent the entire free world order from completely cracking.

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Speaker 1: I mean, when you listen to what Mark Carney, the

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Speaker 1: Prime Minister of Canada, had to say in Davos, you

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Speaker 1: know this is a country that is preparing and worrying

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Speaker 1: that it's neighbor to the south could invade, right And

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Speaker 1: that seemed like ridiculous and silliness even saying that six

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Speaker 1: months ago, six weeks ago, maybe even six days ago.

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Speaker 1: But given the situation we're in, I think everybody is

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Speaker 1: recalculating how they handle Trump. The appeasement of Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: of the last year by Europe and the Western world

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Speaker 1: is coming to an end, and the question is who

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Speaker 1: is he going to get angry at and punished for it?

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Speaker 1: So far, he continues to attack American taxpayers when he

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Speaker 1: gets angry at a European response to what he wants

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Speaker 1: to do with Greenland, he threatens tariffs or increases tariffs.

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Speaker 1: The irony to this is it does not punish France

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Speaker 1: and it does not punish the UK the way he

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Speaker 1: thinks it does. It punishes all of us. All it is,

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Speaker 1: all of these tariffs are paid for by us. Again,

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Speaker 1: the magical math that he keeps trying to claim it

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Speaker 1: is amazing to me how excited the Secretary of Treasury

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Speaker 1: in the President of the United States are on how

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Speaker 1: much they've taxed the American people over the last six

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Speaker 1: months and how much more taxes the American people are

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Speaker 1: going to be paying over the next year. And they

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Speaker 1: think this is good politics. But here we are and

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Speaker 1: the conventional ways that politicians get punished have disappeared. So

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Speaker 1: it raises an uncomfortable question. What's keeping people who call

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Speaker 1: themselves Trump supporters, especially elected Republicans who know what's happening

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Speaker 1: here is wrong, from speaking out. Well, we know that

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Speaker 1: part of the answer sphere. That's always been the case,

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Speaker 1: not fear of voters, but fear of what happens inside

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Speaker 1: the Republican party when dissent becomes visible. We've seen this

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Speaker 1: movie before. Go back to the first term remember Bob Corker,

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Speaker 1: then a senator from Tennessee. He had want to hear

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Speaker 1: he's a great Tennessee, East Tennessee accent, and I used

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Speaker 1: to try to impersonate a little bit. But you know,

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Speaker 1: you know, Chuck, I just I don't want to have

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Speaker 1: to talk about Trump. But he used to say he

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Speaker 1: was the one that used that expression that the White

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Speaker 1: House had become an adult. And of course, right Trump explodes,

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Speaker 1: Bob Corker's political career is over. And you haven't even

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Speaker 1: heard from Bob Corker. While I understand why he is

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Speaker 1: just out right, he is out a lot of that

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Speaker 1: sort of the Tennessee Republicans of ten years ago, Lamar Alexander,

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Speaker 1: Bob corkor Bill Frist, none of them have been wanted

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Speaker 1: to get near the Trump era, and it is and

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Speaker 1: in some ways they've been ostracized themselves a little bit.

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Speaker 1: So we know why there's so much silence. Right, silence

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Speaker 1: for many of them feels like self preservation in the

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Speaker 1: moment that we're in, but it comes with a huge cost,

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Speaker 1: because if you believe what Trump is doing is reckless,

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Speaker 1: even dangerous, staying silent doesn't make you neutral. It makes

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Speaker 1: you complicit with voters. Eventually, voters are going to ask

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Speaker 1: the most basic question, where were the guardrails? And in

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Speaker 1: this case, there is one guardrail, Congress. It's the only

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Speaker 1: one that's going to work, okay, And that's really the

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Speaker 1: heart of the problem. The guardrails that the founders gave us,

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Speaker 1: the Constitution, the separation of powers, institutional norms. They don't

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Speaker 1: activate themselves, right, You got to have human beings to

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Speaker 1: do it. Institutions are just paper without people willing to

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Speaker 1: defend them. And paper does not restrain power. Certainly, paper

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Speaker 1: does not restrain Donald John Trump. People will And one

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Speaker 1: of my biggest fears right now is that, well, it's

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Speaker 1: how numb we've become to all this and see and

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Speaker 1: you see it even in the reaction that I've gotten

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Speaker 1: from you know, the crowd that just wants to tune

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Speaker 1: it all out. Right. Oh, you know, politics has just

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Speaker 1: gotten crazy, and Trump's just the lead crazy guy. You're like, no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: this is different and dangerous. Trump's norm breaking, unfortunately, is

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Speaker 1: barely registering right now. My new favorite was sort of

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Speaker 1: instead of Trump derangements, and we have Trump exhaustion syndrome,

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Speaker 1: as I think is what the Atlantic dubbed it, and

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Speaker 1: there is this exhaustion is almost as bad as appeasement,

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Speaker 1: because in some way to deal with exhaustion, you end

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Speaker 1: up appeasing and that is not a healthy reaction either.

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Speaker 1: But that's where we are because each one of these

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Speaker 1: violations that Trump makes, gets absorbed, gets rationalized, gets dismissed,

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Speaker 1: is just another Trump era headline. He now operates in

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Speaker 1: an environment where the consequences frankly feel optional, and from

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Speaker 1: his perspective, why wouldn't they. I mean, he incited right

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Speaker 1: on January sixth and almost overturned an election, He was impeached,

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Speaker 1: he wasn't convicted, and then he was elected president again.

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Speaker 1: So what political lesson do you take from that? If

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Speaker 1: you're Donald Trump? Probably the following, the more radical, the better.

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Speaker 1: Never give in, never give up. What feels impossible today

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Speaker 1: becomes someone else's capitulation tomorrow. And that's what he's counting

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Speaker 1: on with Greenland here. And it's interesting we're watching and

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Speaker 1: I don't know what we're seeing with the European and

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Speaker 1: Western leaders right now, whether we're seeing the Bob Corkers

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Speaker 1: of Europe speaking out like many Republicans spoke out during

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Speaker 1: the crazy of the first term, and you had you

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Speaker 1: had more erected guardrails around him, whether it was John

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Speaker 1: Kelly or Ryank's previous or Rex Tillerson or even Jared

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Speaker 1: Kushner at times, Gary Kohane, you had a siri, you know,

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Speaker 1: in that cabinet, which in Mike Pence. Of course, I'm

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Speaker 1: of two minds on this, right, is this is Europe now? Finally?

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Speaker 1: Is this is Europe one point zero? And it just

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Speaker 1: like with Trump one point zero? Or are they serious?

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Speaker 1: And if they're serious, we all have to be both

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Speaker 1: nervous and at the same time. The more serious Europeans get,

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Speaker 1: does it actually strengthen the spine of nervous Republicans who

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Speaker 1: have been afraid but so far right. That's why he's

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Speaker 1: behaving the way he is. So even those of us

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Speaker 1: in the media and in politics who've warned for years

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Speaker 1: that this behavior is dangerous, we've become numbed by the repetition.

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Speaker 1: Many of the worst case scenarios so far haven't fully materialized,

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Speaker 1: but damage doesn't have to be immediate to be real.

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Speaker 1: Trump has steadily weakened American credibility abroad in ways that

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Speaker 1: are subtle, cumulative, and now harder to reverse than ever before.

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Speaker 1: And because you know it was one thing to reverse

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Speaker 1: it after one term, it's much harder after two. And

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Speaker 1: because there's no single moment when the bill comes due,

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Speaker 1: the reckoning may arrive too late to stop. Now here's

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Speaker 1: the paradox. One year into Trump too point zero. Periodically, politically,

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Speaker 1: he's in terrible shape, just terrible shape. And under normal circumstances,

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Speaker 1: this would matter because when public sentiment turns through polls, elections,

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Speaker 1: or pressure. All of this has happened. Right. He got

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Speaker 1: a disastrous twenty twenty five election result. Every special election

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Speaker 1: has gone against him. His numbers are as low as

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Speaker 1: they've ever been normally under those circumstances. When it happened

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Speaker 1: at George W. Bush, he decided to fade a bit

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Speaker 1: in the background. Barack Obama fade a bit in the background.

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Speaker 1: What happened to the party in power? Party in power

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Speaker 1: sought a little distance from the president. Right, you're not

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Speaker 1: seeing that happen at the moment. Trump has remade the

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Speaker 1: Republican Party in his image. There are no Bob Corkers.

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Speaker 1: They're not as many Corkers, right. Some of his biggest

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Speaker 1: critics from Trump one point zero have become surrogates, Ted Cruz,

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Speaker 1: Marco Rubio. Some just simply headed for the exits, are

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Speaker 1: heading for the exits, Tom Tillis, Mitch McConnell. And then

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Speaker 1: there is a couple that just survive on political islands.

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Speaker 1: They're visible, but they're powerless. Think Lisa Murkowski or Thomas Manny.

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Speaker 1: So what's left to be a check on the damage

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Speaker 1: that he's inflicting. Well, we did get a little clue

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Speaker 1: on Tuesday morning, and on Tuesday it's the markets, it's

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Speaker 1: the economy in general. Right when foreign policy guardrails fail,

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Speaker 1: the only one that reliably moves voters is the guardrail

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Speaker 1: of the wallet. But even that has its limits. Most

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Speaker 1: Americans don't connect alliance erosion overseas to higher prices or

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Speaker 1: diminished security until it's unavoidable. But the stock market can

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Speaker 1: put a big spotlight on this issue. And the stock

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Speaker 1: market just cratered Tuesday. And we'll see if that changes

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Speaker 1: his tune when he actually heads to Davos to talk

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Speaker 1: Greenland later this week. Because what the markets understand and

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Speaker 1: what equity understands is that trade wars turn into security

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Speaker 1: nightmares much faster than we'd like to admit we are

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Speaker 1: not a long view political culture which brings us to us.

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Speaker 1: You know, one of the things about so called the

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Speaker 1: American consensus is actually how narrow the consensus ends up being,

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Speaker 1: even as it sort of ends up being representative of

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Speaker 1: all of us at some point. So the point being

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Speaker 1: is this, it's usually fifty two or fifty five percent

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Speaker 1: of the population that help us with our quote American consensus.

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Speaker 1: It's not like a seventy percent landslide. An example of

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Speaker 1: this in nineteen fifty two, when Republicans finally rejected isolationism

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Speaker 1: and American first protectionism by nominating Dwight Eisenhower over where

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Speaker 1: the base of the party wanted to be right. They

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Speaker 1: didn't do that out of purity, and they didn't do

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Speaker 1: that out of a total rejection of isolationism. They actually

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Speaker 1: just did it out of desperation because they were tired

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Speaker 1: of losing the presidency after twenty four years. Remember when

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Speaker 1: Eisenhower gets elected in fifty two, Republicans hadn't won a

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Speaker 1: presidential election since nineteen twenty eight. Let me repeat fifty two.

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Speaker 1: They elect Eisenhower, they hadn't elected president in twenty eight,

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Speaker 1: So that Republican Party a generation to realize isolationism and

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Speaker 1: protectionism is terrible politics and more importantly, terrible for the country.

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Speaker 1: Is it going to take another twenty four years first

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Speaker 1: to learn this time? And what's the country going to

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Speaker 1: look like after twenty four years of having to learn

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Speaker 1: that lesson? We'll see. But the point was it was

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Speaker 1: a narrow vote, right, It wasn't really a huge consensus. Right.

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Speaker 1: Republicans rallied around Eisenhower, not out of some sort of

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Speaker 1: ideological agreement, but just out of a desperation to win.

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Speaker 1: I point out that history because that actually is what

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Speaker 1: I use to give myself optimism. You know that. I

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Speaker 1: always go back into history and say, well, that was

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Speaker 1: something similar, and we eventually figured it out, and YadA

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Speaker 1: YadA ya. This episode of The Chuck Podcast is brought

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Speaker 1: But it does raise a more urgent question, how do

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Speaker 1: we get from here to there in one piece? Because

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Speaker 1: the truth is the only institution capable of restraining the

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Speaker 1: damage Trump is doing to America's role in the world

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Speaker 1: is Congress. And Congress is failing. We've pointed this out

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Speaker 1: numerous times. And when Congress and the courts choose not

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Speaker 1: to act, I mean the courts also are failing. They

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Speaker 1: are still not going to come out with their terar fouling.

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Speaker 1: Another month. We have another month where you've got Scott

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Speaker 1: Bessett trying to trying to make the tariff compare the

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Speaker 1: illegal tariffs that Trump has been like that are likely

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Speaker 1: illegal if you read the letter of the law and

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Speaker 1: the Constitution that somehow it's comparable to Obamacare, and it

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Speaker 1: was Obama's signature initiative. No way the Spring Court would

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Speaker 1: overturn it. This is Trump's signature initiative. First of all,

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Speaker 1: Scott Bessett, you want to make raising taxes on the

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Speaker 1: American people ten to twenty five percent a signature accomplishment

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Speaker 1: of Donald Trump. That is some messaging you got there, brother.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if I would want to make tax

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Speaker 1: sikes my signature signature thing, but it is that is

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Speaker 1: an interesting spin. But the courts are delaying yet another

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Speaker 1: month before they're going to rule, and the longer they delay,

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Speaker 1: the harder it is to unwind these things, and the

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Speaker 1: more chaos following the constitution may create. And then if

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Speaker 1: you start art making, you decide, well, boy, the toothpaste

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Speaker 1: is out of the tube. So even though we should

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Speaker 1: rule it as unconstitutional, we're not because we don't want

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Speaker 1: to create chaos that would be That would be one

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Speaker 1: of the first signs that the republic is failing if

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Speaker 1: we have a judiciary that is behaving behaving that way.

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Speaker 1: But the fact is, when Congress chooses not to act,

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Speaker 1: it's not the democracy who's going to collapse overnight. It doesn't,

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Speaker 1: but it does hollow it out, and that's when citizens

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Speaker 1: begin to feel powerless. Right, and all that's left are elections,

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Speaker 1: and hopefully citizens will use elections to do this and

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Speaker 1: not try to take matters into their own hands. And

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Speaker 1: you know, that's that's another fear I have understandable fear,

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Speaker 1: but it's one. So maybe the midterms become a revolt

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Speaker 1: something like nineteen seventy four, and that's possible, and maybe

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Speaker 1: that sobers up the party. It sobered up Republicans post Nixon.

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Speaker 1: But there's a lot of time between now and November

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Speaker 1: of twenty twenty six, and if a president feels untouchable,

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Speaker 1: if he's infected. But what I can only described as

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Speaker 1: the political Yolo virus, because I really think a few

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Speaker 1: things here. He feels untouchable because of what he got

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Speaker 1: away with on January sixth, and he just he beat

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Speaker 1: back this whole thing, right, it all worked. He shot

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Speaker 1: somebody on Fifth Avenue. Basically he did it, and he

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Speaker 1: was more than forgiven. He was re elected. So he

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Speaker 1: seems untouchable, and we've seen him he does all the

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Speaker 1: only thing he seems truly concerned about his mortality, which

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Speaker 1: I think creates the wrong focus for him and puts

427
00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:49,760
Speaker 1: him in a mindset of he's just desperate for that.

428
00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 1: He's constantly thinking about a legacy that he thinks he

429
00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:56,359
Speaker 1: might be leaving sooner than he wants to. So the

430
00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:58,879
Speaker 1: point is elections alone may not be enough in the

431
00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:03,320
Speaker 1: short term. So we've been here before. Senate Republicans choked

432
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:05,960
Speaker 1: after the second impeachment. We now know this. Mitch McConnell

433
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,600
Speaker 1: now says the right things when it comes to Greenland

434
00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:12,200
Speaker 1: and what's happening to NATO. But he once had the

435
00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:16,320
Speaker 1: chance to change the trajectory of his party and change

436
00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:22,520
Speaker 1: but instead he chose the path of least resistance. I've

437
00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:26,159
Speaker 1: said it before. I assume I don't know if you know.

438
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:29,119
Speaker 1: He's tough as nails, Mitch McConnell, and I say that

439
00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:31,480
Speaker 1: as a compliment and being a congressional leader, you got

440
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:33,960
Speaker 1: to have the thickest mick skins, and he has it.

441
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:40,640
Speaker 1: But if anything haunts him, I gotta think that decision

442
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:45,040
Speaker 1: he made has got to haunt him. Maybe it doesn't,

443
00:26:45,119 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 1: and maybe that I'll let you guys decide what that means,

444
00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:51,359
Speaker 1: but I gotta think it does. And that choice that

445
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:53,680
Speaker 1: he made explains a lot about how we got here.

446
00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:56,679
Speaker 1: And I don't want to dance around this. Trump has

447
00:26:56,680 --> 00:27:00,520
Speaker 1: made America more vulnerable than it's been in decades. We

448
00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:03,800
Speaker 1: are more isolated than at any point since before World

449
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:07,439
Speaker 1: War Two. And we don't fully grasp what that means, because,

450
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:10,440
Speaker 1: let's be honest, none of us alive today have lived

451
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:14,280
Speaker 1: through that kind of vulnerability. The Trump era has been

452
00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:17,920
Speaker 1: filled with near missed disasters of his own making, week

453
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:20,760
Speaker 1: after week and month after month, right, and it is

454
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:24,040
Speaker 1: created a bit of the chicken little mindset, Oh my god,

455
00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:26,159
Speaker 1: what is he doing now? This could be it, this

456
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:29,800
Speaker 1: could be it, And we've just you know, we've gotten

457
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:33,639
Speaker 1: lucky sometimes, but at some points luck runs out, and

458
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:36,760
Speaker 1: the only real question is whether he can be restrained

459
00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:44,040
Speaker 1: by Congress, the courts, or the voters before our luck

460
00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:49,000
Speaker 1: runs out. And I will say this, the clock is ticking.

461
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:52,800
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you this, judging by what Mark Carney

462
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:57,600
Speaker 1: has said, and I want to repeat a few things.

463
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:03,800
Speaker 1: His speech in Davo in some ways feels as if

464
00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:08,560
Speaker 1: it was clearly aimed directly at Donald Trump and the Americans.

465
00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:13,600
Speaker 1: And I really hope that John Thune reads this word

466
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:19,160
Speaker 1: for word. Roger Wicker, these are sort of the Republicans

467
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:23,359
Speaker 1: that know what he's doing is bad, but are afraid

468
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 1: of speaking out. So Carney argued the following He said

469
00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:35,560
Speaker 1: that the global order hasn't just transitioned. It's broken to

470
00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 1: quote him today, I will talk about a rupture in

471
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:41,200
Speaker 1: the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and

472
00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:44,920
Speaker 1: the beginning of a harsh reality where major geopolitical powers

473
00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:48,440
Speaker 1: operate with few limits and constraints. The old order is

474
00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:51,520
Speaker 1: not coming back, and we should not mourn it. Nostalgia

475
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:55,440
Speaker 1: is not a strategy. So then he addressed the weaponization

476
00:28:55,520 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 1: of trade and regarding specific regarding Greenland right where Trump

477
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 1: wants to punish Europe for not acceding to his wishes there,

478
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:09,400
Speaker 1: and he said this, great powers have begun using economic

479
00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:15,000
Speaker 1: integration as weapons, Tariffs as leverage, Financial infrastructure is coercion,

480
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:19,080
Speaker 1: supply changes, vulnerabilities to be exploited. You cannot live within

481
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:23,360
Speaker 1: the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes

482
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:27,440
Speaker 1: the source of your subordination. So this gets it to

483
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:30,840
Speaker 1: what I've been warning about. When we decide to be

484
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:35,080
Speaker 1: isolationists in America first and raise up our barriers, what

485
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 1: do you think everybody else is going to do? And

486
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:43,320
Speaker 1: that's essentially what Mark Carney is saying, we have no choice.

487
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:46,640
Speaker 1: And then he talked about that there's a choice now

488
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:49,680
Speaker 1: for what he called the Middle Powers. The Middle Powers

489
00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:52,800
Speaker 1: are basically everybody in the first world that isn't China,

490
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:58,200
Speaker 1: Russia or the United States. Here's what he Here's what

491
00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 1: he said. He said middle powers must act because if

492
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:02,880
Speaker 1: you are not at the table, you are on the menu.

493
00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:07,800
Speaker 1: When we only negotiate bilaterally with one of these superpowers,

494
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 1: we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered. He goes,

495
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:15,920
Speaker 1: this is not sovereignty, it is the performance of sovereignty

496
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:21,240
Speaker 1: while accepting subordination. So then he outlined what he called

497
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:26,560
Speaker 1: Canada's third path, and he basically said that Canada has

498
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:32,080
Speaker 1: shifted towards strategic autonomy. Our closest ally north of the border.

499
00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:35,000
Speaker 1: Is basically said, we're tired of the United States treating

500
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 1: us like shit, and we're going it alone and we're

501
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:43,600
Speaker 1: going to have strategic autonomy. So how did he define that? One?

502
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 1: Trade diversification. So he's got new Canadian partnerships with or

503
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:52,960
Speaker 1: without the Americans, with the EU, with China, and with

504
00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:56,360
Speaker 1: katar and I promise you more are coming with the

505
00:30:56,400 --> 00:31:01,480
Speaker 1: Gulf States, with India, with you know, Boboli, Brazil, maybe

506
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:08,120
Speaker 1: even some African countries. How about on defense, Canada is

507
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:12,960
Speaker 1: a huge part of norrad. I mean, let's be honest,

508
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,680
Speaker 1: the Canadian military was in some way seen as sort

509
00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:23,640
Speaker 1: of just part of the North American security system. Now

510
00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 1: he's got to join what he calls the European Safe

511
00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:30,640
Speaker 1: Defense Procurement arrangements, and he's doubling defense spending, and they're

512
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:34,720
Speaker 1: fast tracking their own investments in AI, critical minerals and energy.

513
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:37,240
Speaker 1: We out to scare the United States? Is that Carney

514
00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:39,920
Speaker 1: basically saying, all right, we can't rely in the United States.

515
00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:43,320
Speaker 1: We're not you know, And normally the Canadian posture has

516
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:46,320
Speaker 1: been you know, they're the mouse sleeping next to the elephant,

517
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:48,280
Speaker 1: and you know, they got to be careful the elephant

518
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 1: doesn't acidentally roll over on them. But now they're taking

519
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:53,960
Speaker 1: all of this, they're taking these threats more seriously. Whatever

520
00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:57,760
Speaker 1: he plans to do in Greenland, like I said, they're

521
00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:04,520
Speaker 1: having to increase their own defense spending, their war gaming.

522
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:07,480
Speaker 1: What would happen if the United States invaded from the

523
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:14,920
Speaker 1: south again, that sounds insane except for the rhetoric that

524
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:20,760
Speaker 1: our president has been using. But he wants to develop

525
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:23,120
Speaker 1: and here's the thing, it's going to leave. So he

526
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:29,640
Speaker 1: wants to develop essentially what he calls bridges, right, you know,

527
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:36,440
Speaker 1: essentially a diversification of a trading block of these middle countries.

528
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 1: So he envisions a trading block that would essentially be

529
00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:45,480
Speaker 1: very similar to the trans Specific Partnership TPP. Right. That

530
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 1: the thing that Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump blew up

531
00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:51,440
Speaker 1: both on the left and the right during the twenty

532
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:54,400
Speaker 1: sixteen campaign. It was a it was the idea was

533
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:56,880
Speaker 1: to create essentially a check on China. It's going to

534
00:32:56,920 --> 00:32:59,800
Speaker 1: be led by the United States and Japan and India,

535
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 1: and was you know, it all got sort of, you know,

536
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:09,520
Speaker 1: swept away by the fear of globalization, the popular stuprising

537
00:33:09,520 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 1: on the right, the popular stup rising on the left,

538
00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:15,200
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden everybody backed away from it. Right,

539
00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:18,440
Speaker 1: mainstream chamber of commerce Republicans backed away from it, and

540
00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:23,000
Speaker 1: mainstream sort of center left business democrats like Hillary Clinton

541
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:25,200
Speaker 1: walked away from it, even though she was the initial

542
00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 1: champion of this. So he wants to do something similar

543
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:33,840
Speaker 1: and essentially create different sort of middle power trading blocks

544
00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:38,320
Speaker 1: so that if they collaborate together, then they can be

545
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:42,320
Speaker 1: essentially on a more equal footing when having to negotiate

546
00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:46,280
Speaker 1: with a Russia, a China, or the United States. But

547
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:51,360
Speaker 1: they see themselves as independent, right, they see themselves as

548
00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:54,240
Speaker 1: not having to They do not want to be suckered

549
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:58,160
Speaker 1: into these binary relationships with these bigger countries because the

550
00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,640
Speaker 1: terms always suck for these middle powers. And there was

551
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:05,360
Speaker 1: a time where the United States was not seen as

552
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:07,800
Speaker 1: somebody that was just going to take advantage of any

553
00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:09,800
Speaker 1: of these middle powers who agreed to be part of

554
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:13,440
Speaker 1: our trading blocks. But we were actually using this to

555
00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:18,799
Speaker 1: create a rules based order. Now, of course we have

556
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 1: a president that's trying to get rid of the rules

557
00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:27,920
Speaker 1: based order. He also said something else that was quite striking.

558
00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:32,839
Speaker 1: He said Canada is fully committed to NATO's Article five

559
00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:35,560
Speaker 1: and he said it's unwavering. And he said that Canada

560
00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:40,040
Speaker 1: stands firmly with Denmark if they get if they are

561
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:43,520
Speaker 1: a piece of land that they control, think Greenland comes

562
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:49,080
Speaker 1: under military threat. This is what Donald Trump has done.

563
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:54,240
Speaker 1: He has taken our allies and they are actively looking

564
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:59,840
Speaker 1: for new defense, new trade partners in order to confront

565
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:04,680
Speaker 1: and aggressive United States. I understand a lot of people

566
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:09,320
Speaker 1: don't like this, don't like globalization, think somehow that America

567
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:12,480
Speaker 1: is subsidizing other countries, whether it's subsidizing by being the

568
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:17,680
Speaker 1: beat cop. I'm sorry that we do such a poor

569
00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:21,280
Speaker 1: job of teaching trade and economics that people don't understand

570
00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:27,279
Speaker 1: how much we've benefited. The fact that Mississippi, which is

571
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:33,560
Speaker 1: considered supposedly one of our poorer states in the Union,

572
00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:36,880
Speaker 1: has a higher standard of living than I think Japan,

573
00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:41,960
Speaker 1: and I don't think many Americans would would that might

574
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:47,760
Speaker 1: shock many Americans. The point is we have thrived being

575
00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:50,520
Speaker 1: at the top of the heat of this rules based

576
00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:57,520
Speaker 1: order of global trade. It has benefited other countries, it

577
00:35:57,560 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 1: has raised the standard of living all over the world.

578
00:36:00,640 --> 00:36:05,560
Speaker 1: But we've benefited a lot. We've benefited in security, we've

579
00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:10,600
Speaker 1: benefited financially, and now Donald Trump is putting all of

580
00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:15,240
Speaker 1: that at risk, either because he believes in a failed

581
00:36:15,280 --> 00:36:17,839
Speaker 1: economic model that was such a failure that it cost

582
00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:22,000
Speaker 1: the Republican Party twenty four years of being in the

583
00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:26,000
Speaker 1: wilderness and the presidency, and it's certainly making us less secure.

584
00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:30,320
Speaker 1: So it is a we'll see what happens to Davos,

585
00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:34,920
Speaker 1: But this is a very fired up europe I you know,

586
00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:38,279
Speaker 1: I think European leaders, I think you you know, we'll

587
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:42,560
Speaker 1: see if Donald Trump exploits this. There's definitely a divide

588
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:46,480
Speaker 1: among European leaders. Some are trying to find ways Is

589
00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:48,919
Speaker 1: there a way to work with him? I ran into

590
00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:51,040
Speaker 1: a Republican member of Congress during my travels over the

591
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:54,120
Speaker 1: last couple of days, and I I, you know, who says,

592
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:56,840
Speaker 1: you know, I'm doing my best to do this or

593
00:36:56,880 --> 00:37:03,400
Speaker 1: this in Greenland, and and he goes, you know, I,

594
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:05,880
Speaker 1: you know, I think there's you know, he's got to

595
00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:08,600
Speaker 1: be satisfied with a treaty that allows for you know,

596
00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:14,040
Speaker 1: to access to critical minerals and more robust defense spending

597
00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:17,880
Speaker 1: that we can do via NATO. It's thinking too logically.

598
00:37:18,200 --> 00:37:21,799
Speaker 1: And the problem we have right now is Trump's not

599
00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:25,719
Speaker 1: behaving very logically, and there's a group of people around

600
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:30,160
Speaker 1: him that aren't interested in restraining him enough, or he's

601
00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:34,120
Speaker 1: got something else going on. Now. I know there's a

602
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:36,319
Speaker 1: whole bunch of people out there with you know, chit

603
00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:40,440
Speaker 1: chat about the twenty fifth Amendment all this stuff. I

604
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,320
Speaker 1: actually I view the twenty fifth Amendment as true incapacitation.

605
00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:47,560
Speaker 1: Think Woodrow Wilson and the stroke. Think James Garfield, you know,

606
00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:51,160
Speaker 1: essentially alive for about four months as he was dying

607
00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:54,040
Speaker 1: from the bullet wound. And it was an amendment that

608
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:57,239
Speaker 1: was passed when there was when you know, after the

609
00:37:57,320 --> 00:38:00,920
Speaker 1: Kennedy assassination, you know it's possible he could have been

610
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:04,239
Speaker 1: kept alive but have been a vegetable. Well, what would

611
00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:07,880
Speaker 1: we have done in that situation? And so that you know,

612
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,200
Speaker 1: that was the intent of the of the amendment. So

613
00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:11,759
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I would use it. And I think

614
00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:19,920
Speaker 1: using it because you think he's just erratic and all that.

615
00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:23,799
Speaker 1: I mean, this has been who he's run as. So

616
00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:26,360
Speaker 1: ultimately it has to come from the small deed. Democracy

617
00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:28,360
Speaker 1: has to come from the voters, has come from the

618
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:32,760
Speaker 1: elected officials. And there is only one way to restrain

619
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:39,640
Speaker 1: him that will keep the republic that we like, and

620
00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:42,920
Speaker 1: that is for Congress to do its job, for the

621
00:38:43,120 --> 00:38:46,200
Speaker 1: for the for these guys to go back and realize

622
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:48,640
Speaker 1: what the founders intended when it came to the executive branch,

623
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:53,919
Speaker 1: and to do their job and to assert their authority here,

624
00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:58,160
Speaker 1: assert their authority on taxing Americans with these tariffs, and

625
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:04,560
Speaker 1: assert their authority when it comes to military escapades. But

626
00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:09,280
Speaker 1: if they don't, then maybe the Republic is crumbling right

627
00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:13,960
Speaker 1: before our eyes. So on that dour negative note. I

628
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:15,759
Speaker 1: did have a few other campaign things that I wanted

629
00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:18,600
Speaker 1: to get to. I'm gonna save those since I have

630
00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:22,560
Speaker 1: another podcast on Thursday. I've got a few thoughts on

631
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:25,439
Speaker 1: Josh Shapiro versus Kamala Harris. What do we got going

632
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:30,200
Speaker 1: on here? And is is anybody gonna win this little No?

633
00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:32,680
Speaker 1: She said this, no, he said this, and she all

634
00:39:32,719 --> 00:39:37,000
Speaker 1: of that. I kind of feeling everybody's losing their one two.

635
00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:41,799
Speaker 1: There's an interesting David pluff op ed in the New

636
00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:45,080
Speaker 1: York Times that didn't get the traction that I thought

637
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:46,400
Speaker 1: it would, and I think part of it is that,

638
00:39:46,520 --> 00:39:49,040
Speaker 1: you know, Donald Trump sort of threatening the end of

639
00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:52,040
Speaker 1: the of the of George H. W's New World Order

640
00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:56,080
Speaker 1: is clearly more front and center than this. But essentially

641
00:39:58,080 --> 00:40:00,120
Speaker 1: he was saying that while the party may be in

642
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:03,399
Speaker 1: good shape for the midterms, it is nowhere near ready

643
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:05,600
Speaker 1: to win the presidential in twenty eight And I think

644
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:08,080
Speaker 1: it's an important op ed to deal with. But I

645
00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:12,440
Speaker 1: want to put a pin in that, take a break,

646
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:15,960
Speaker 1: bring in get to the other conversation that I did

647
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:19,480
Speaker 1: want to spark today with public education, and I want

648
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:24,640
Speaker 1: to hear from you guys on this of different ideas

649
00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:28,440
Speaker 1: and thoughts about sort of reimagining our public school system,

650
00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:33,600
Speaker 1: because I think there's definitely needs some reimagining, definitely need

651
00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:37,239
Speaker 1: some remodeling for the twenty first century. And I don't

652
00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:41,880
Speaker 1: think we have near enough innovators and people running for

653
00:40:41,960 --> 00:40:45,239
Speaker 1: office thinking about this enough. But you'll hear from Gena

654
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:47,640
Speaker 1: and Osa, who is somebody who is trying to make

655
00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:50,680
Speaker 1: this a signature issue of a good natorial campaign. So

656
00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:55,960
Speaker 1: sneaking a break and when we come back Gena and Osa.

657
00:40:56,200 --> 00:40:59,799
Speaker 1: Having good life insurance is incredibly important. I know from

658
00:40:59,840 --> 00:41:02,959
Speaker 1: personal experience. I was sixteen when my father passed away.

659
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:05,400
Speaker 1: We didn't have any money. He didn't leave us in

660
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:09,800
Speaker 1: the best shape. My mother single mother, now widow, myself

661
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:11,640
Speaker 1: sixteen trying to figure out how am I going to

662
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:14,839
Speaker 1: pay for college and lo and behold, my dad had

663
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:18,080
Speaker 1: one life insurance policy that we found wasn't a lot,

664
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,160
Speaker 1: but it was important at the time, and it's why

665
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:24,520
Speaker 1: I was able to go to college. Little did he

666
00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:28,319
Speaker 1: know how important that would be in that moment. Well

667
00:41:28,440 --> 00:41:30,520
Speaker 1: guess what. That's why I am here to tell you

668
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Speaker 1: about Etho's life. They can provide you with peace of

669
00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:36,960
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670
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Speaker 1: comes to pass. Ethos is an online platform that makes

671
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Speaker 1: getting life insurance fast and easy, all designed to protect

672
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673
00:41:47,719 --> 00:41:51,359
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674
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675
00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:56,440
Speaker 1: can get a quote in as little as ten minutes,

676
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Speaker 1: and you can get same day coverage without ever leaving

677
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Speaker 1: your home. You can get up to three million dollars

678
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Speaker 1: in coverage, and some policies start as low as two

679
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:07,920
Speaker 1: dollars a day that would be billed monthly. As of

680
00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 1: March twenty twenty five, Business Insider named Ethos the number

681
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Speaker 1: one no medical exam instant life insurance provider. So protect

682
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683
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Speaker 1: quoted ethos dot com slash chuck. So again, that's Ethos

684
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:27,880
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685
00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:31,080
Speaker 1: rates themselves may vary as well, but trust me, life

686
00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:34,359
Speaker 1: insurance is something you should really think about, especially if

687
00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:39,840
Speaker 1: you've got a growing family. Well, I told you that

688
00:42:40,120 --> 00:42:41,840
Speaker 1: there were going to be some cases where I wanted

689
00:42:41,840 --> 00:42:46,279
Speaker 1: to be spending time interviewing governor in the big States.

690
00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:49,319
Speaker 1: Just got done with one of the candidates in California.

691
00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:55,000
Speaker 1: You've heard from some Florida candidates. Well, let's talk Texas. Right,

692
00:42:55,960 --> 00:43:00,880
Speaker 1: State Representative Gina Heinosa is the leading day Democratic candidate

693
00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:03,640
Speaker 1: for governor in Texas. You've heard me say, you know,

694
00:43:03,640 --> 00:43:07,120
Speaker 1: there's all this focus on on that Senate race, and

695
00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:10,719
Speaker 1: yet I kind of think if Texas Democrats are ever

696
00:43:10,760 --> 00:43:14,560
Speaker 1: going to sort of break through, it may be on

697
00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:19,759
Speaker 1: state issues that particularly the issue of education, which is

698
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:23,960
Speaker 1: exactly how Democrats broke through in Kansas. It's exactly likely

699
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:28,400
Speaker 1: why what we'll explain if Democrats win the governor's mansion

700
00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:34,440
Speaker 1: in Iowa. The sort of this national move towards privatization, voucherization,

701
00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:37,520
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, is one of those

702
00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:42,600
Speaker 1: that there's a lot of rural conservatives who are like, yeah,

703
00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:47,239
Speaker 1: school choice sounds great, the next school to choose from

704
00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:51,120
Speaker 1: is thirty miles away type of mindset. So it is

705
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:55,719
Speaker 1: the idea and the reality. It is that nexus that

706
00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:58,719
Speaker 1: has really opened the door in many of these red

707
00:43:58,719 --> 00:44:03,080
Speaker 1: states for inal upsets on the Democratic side of the isle,

708
00:44:03,160 --> 00:44:05,239
Speaker 1: and the issue of education is going to be front

709
00:44:05,239 --> 00:44:09,080
Speaker 1: and center in this campaign. And Gina, you know so,

710
00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:12,680
Speaker 1: state representative who has been sort of I'm going to

711
00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:16,680
Speaker 1: let her tell her origin story, but educate the education issue,

712
00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:20,520
Speaker 1: the school choice issue, in many ways her political origin story.

713
00:44:20,560 --> 00:44:23,120
Speaker 1: And she joins me, Now, state representative, you know so,

714
00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:24,120
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast.

715
00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:27,240
Speaker 2: Thank you check, it's great to be here. And please

716
00:44:27,320 --> 00:44:28,040
Speaker 2: just call me Gina.

717
00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:31,640
Speaker 1: Fair enough, Well, Gina, let me just look. I don't

718
00:44:32,120 --> 00:44:34,040
Speaker 1: I could tell your story, but you know, you tell

719
00:44:34,080 --> 00:44:37,359
Speaker 1: me what you know? What got you active in politics? Is?

720
00:44:37,400 --> 00:44:41,239
Speaker 1: I love school board origin stories when it comes to politics.

721
00:44:41,600 --> 00:44:43,879
Speaker 1: It's been one of my favorite I've interviewed. I've done

722
00:44:43,920 --> 00:44:45,799
Speaker 1: all I used. I love to do exit interviews when

723
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:48,520
Speaker 1: people to choose to retire. And you know, I remember

724
00:44:48,600 --> 00:44:51,279
Speaker 1: I interviewed this one member of Congress, republican member of

725
00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 1: Congress from California, and I said, so, what got you

726
00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:56,000
Speaker 1: into politics? He says, well, I didn't like that they

727
00:44:56,000 --> 00:44:58,759
Speaker 1: read threw the boundaries and I was really upset about it.

728
00:44:58,760 --> 00:45:00,440
Speaker 1: So I ran, I won, and then I found out

729
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:02,319
Speaker 1: the school board had nothing to do with the boundaries.

730
00:45:02,600 --> 00:45:04,560
Speaker 1: It was like the funniest story, but it was sort

731
00:45:04,560 --> 00:45:06,920
Speaker 1: of like that's what made me get active in politics.

732
00:45:06,960 --> 00:45:08,759
Speaker 1: And that's it is for a lot of people. It's

733
00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:09,200
Speaker 1: your kids.

734
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:10,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's your first.

735
00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:12,920
Speaker 1: Time that you really interact with government. So tell the

736
00:45:12,960 --> 00:45:13,640
Speaker 1: origin story.

737
00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:19,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I can sent in you just from everything

738
00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:24,280
Speaker 2: you said. An education nerd like me, and I love it, Chuck.

739
00:45:24,560 --> 00:45:29,799
Speaker 2: So I am an accidental education nerd. I just I'm

740
00:45:29,840 --> 00:45:33,200
Speaker 2: a parent, right, and I'm a parent with kids who

741
00:45:33,239 --> 00:45:36,279
Speaker 2: had kids in public schools. I still have a son

742
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:41,080
Speaker 2: in public school. But when my first child was in kindergarten,

743
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:45,840
Speaker 2: his school was threatened for closure. And this school was

744
00:45:45,880 --> 00:45:50,280
Speaker 2: the longest continually operating in the whole state of Texas.

745
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:55,560
Speaker 2: P's Elementary, a stone's throw from the state's capital, a

746
00:45:55,640 --> 00:45:59,800
Speaker 2: beloved school in this community. And so when his school

747
00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:02,600
Speaker 2: was foreclosure, along with many others, I just got mad.

748
00:46:03,400 --> 00:46:06,080
Speaker 2: And this is how much I never wanted to run

749
00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:09,920
Speaker 2: for office. So before I got married, I made my

750
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:14,680
Speaker 2: husband promise to never run for office, because he had

751
00:46:14,719 --> 00:46:18,799
Speaker 2: been working for a senator in law school and so

752
00:46:18,920 --> 00:46:21,680
Speaker 2: we'd like to talk about it, but he said, like, no,

753
00:46:22,719 --> 00:46:26,560
Speaker 2: just make this promise, and so he did. So that's

754
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:29,799
Speaker 2: how much I didn't want to be part of You.

755
00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:32,920
Speaker 1: Weren't going to marry somebody who was interested in politics.

756
00:46:33,239 --> 00:46:36,600
Speaker 2: That's right. So anyway, I ran and I won, and

757
00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:39,839
Speaker 2: it was part of this grassroots effort in the community

758
00:46:40,040 --> 00:46:42,520
Speaker 2: to save our schools and we did. We flipped the

759
00:46:42,520 --> 00:46:47,480
Speaker 2: school board and none of the schools were closed and

760
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:50,760
Speaker 2: there and I loved being on the school board. I

761
00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:54,319
Speaker 2: recommend it to people who want to serve and who

762
00:46:54,400 --> 00:46:58,279
Speaker 2: have an interest in we all in the education of

763
00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:01,839
Speaker 2: our kids, but they never understood that the reason why

764
00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:04,600
Speaker 2: our schools are threaten for closures because the state under

765
00:47:04,640 --> 00:47:07,799
Speaker 2: Greg Abbott's leadership, takes our money and then doesn't put

766
00:47:07,840 --> 00:47:13,520
Speaker 2: it back into our community needs and schools are the

767
00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:17,120
Speaker 2: school issue demonstrates better, I think than almost any other

768
00:47:17,239 --> 00:47:20,719
Speaker 2: issue how that is working. I ran for the Texas

769
00:47:20,760 --> 00:47:24,600
Speaker 2: House one and this was almost ten years ago, so

770
00:47:24,719 --> 00:47:28,160
Speaker 2: this is my first my fifth term in the Texas House,

771
00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:31,640
Speaker 2: and I've mostly focused on public schools. Though when you

772
00:47:31,719 --> 00:47:34,000
Speaker 2: are a House member, you have to know about everything

773
00:47:34,080 --> 00:47:36,400
Speaker 2: right kind of everything under the sun you have to

774
00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:41,279
Speaker 2: vote on. But what I have found after almost ten

775
00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:44,200
Speaker 2: years in the Texas House is that the bigger, biggest

776
00:47:44,280 --> 00:47:49,200
Speaker 2: driver of policy in Texas is corruption and it's not

777
00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:55,080
Speaker 2: necessarily illegal corruption. It's just a friend of the governor

778
00:47:55,120 --> 00:47:58,839
Speaker 2: as hire as a former lobbyist to get at our

779
00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:03,000
Speaker 2: taxpayer dollar and most of the big bills we've out

780
00:48:03,120 --> 00:48:07,400
Speaker 2: on our vendor contracts that go to friends of Greg Abbott, right,

781
00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:11,360
Speaker 2: And it's really gross, and especially when it comes to

782
00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:12,240
Speaker 2: our public school.

783
00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:14,640
Speaker 1: I to sound this cynical. You know, you're describing pretty

784
00:48:14,680 --> 00:48:20,160
Speaker 1: much every part time legislator legislature situation in the country.

785
00:48:20,239 --> 00:48:22,120
Speaker 1: This is why I'm very much a skeptic of part

786
00:48:22,120 --> 00:48:25,759
Speaker 1: time legislature in general. But you're describing very you know.

787
00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:29,480
Speaker 1: I just it's funny. And more people are getting or

788
00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:33,000
Speaker 1: noticing this. Columbia, South Carolina has got a huge sort

789
00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:34,960
Speaker 1: of there. More of these stories are coming out about

790
00:48:35,000 --> 00:48:38,080
Speaker 1: how all of this has been political consultants and vendors

791
00:48:38,480 --> 00:48:41,920
Speaker 1: using the legislative process to essentially make money off of

792
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:43,520
Speaker 1: the government. Yeah.

793
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:47,919
Speaker 2: We I had a former legislator sum it up this way.

794
00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:53,480
Speaker 2: Most legislators in Texas are either independently wealthy, they're supported

795
00:48:53,520 --> 00:48:57,000
Speaker 2: by their spouse, or they're on the take. And I

796
00:48:57,120 --> 00:48:58,200
Speaker 2: find that too.

797
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:00,400
Speaker 1: It's pressing.

798
00:49:00,800 --> 00:49:04,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, is depressing. So anyway, well we digress, go, yes,

799
00:49:04,760 --> 00:49:09,040
Speaker 2: we digress. So, and it's especially gros when you think

800
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:11,960
Speaker 2: about our schools right because we've been an exodus of

801
00:49:12,040 --> 00:49:14,480
Speaker 2: teachers leaving the classroom. They're not paid and up they're

802
00:49:14,520 --> 00:49:18,759
Speaker 2: not respected. We've had in my community now there are

803
00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:21,440
Speaker 2: ten schools slated foreclosure. Two days ago, I was in

804
00:49:21,480 --> 00:49:24,960
Speaker 2: Corpus CHRISTI they've got seven schools slated for closure.

805
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:28,200
Speaker 1: Is this due to low enrollment? What is the reasoning

806
00:49:28,239 --> 00:49:30,839
Speaker 1: for Is there an enrollment? Is it low enrollment? Is this?

807
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:35,000
Speaker 1: Is it basically because people are using the state vouchers.

808
00:49:34,560 --> 00:49:38,360
Speaker 2: To move to private The biggest reason is budget cuts.

809
00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:43,560
Speaker 2: So Greg Abbott first rolled out his voucher scam in

810
00:49:43,640 --> 00:49:48,360
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three. And you should know about Texas that

811
00:49:49,719 --> 00:49:52,319
Speaker 2: public schools are very much a part of who we

812
00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:55,960
Speaker 2: are as Texans. They are our identity. It is about

813
00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:59,000
Speaker 2: Friday night lights and many of our rural communities. It's

814
00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:02,480
Speaker 2: the same as bigger, biggest employer. Think of it almost

815
00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:05,640
Speaker 2: like the Chamber of Commerce in these rules, will.

816
00:50:05,520 --> 00:50:08,360
Speaker 1: Can I just make one observation? It seems like any

817
00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:14,239
Speaker 1: community can declare itself an independent school district, right like it? Yeah,

818
00:50:14,280 --> 00:50:17,000
Speaker 1: there's sort of a it's it's a weird I will

819
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:19,440
Speaker 1: be it does you know, it doesn't feel like it

820
00:50:19,480 --> 00:50:23,680
Speaker 1: breaks on county lines, right, it's suddenly right, suddenly, Oh

821
00:50:23,719 --> 00:50:27,520
Speaker 1: there's a new housing development. Welcome to the independent school

822
00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:30,680
Speaker 1: district of Frisco, you know, or something like that.

823
00:50:30,840 --> 00:50:33,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is true. We do have a lot of

824
00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:36,640
Speaker 2: school districts. But what has happened since in twenty twenty

825
00:50:36,640 --> 00:50:42,640
Speaker 2: three the governor held hostage school funding in exchange to

826
00:50:42,680 --> 00:50:46,600
Speaker 2: try to get his voucher scam passed. It didn't work,

827
00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:50,239
Speaker 2: but meanwhile our schools went without funding. And this was

828
00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:53,520
Speaker 2: at a time of record inflation. So fast forward to today,

829
00:50:54,080 --> 00:50:59,919
Speaker 2: our schools have about ten billion dollars less in buying

830
00:51:00,239 --> 00:51:05,680
Speaker 2: power than they did in twenty nineteen because of inflation

831
00:51:05,760 --> 00:51:08,760
Speaker 2: and because we're so far behind and funding our schools.

832
00:51:08,760 --> 00:51:12,799
Speaker 2: We're one of the bottom funded states when it comes

833
00:51:12,840 --> 00:51:15,400
Speaker 2: to public education in the whole country. I think bottom

834
00:51:15,760 --> 00:51:20,040
Speaker 2: last I knew it was bottom three. So that's why

835
00:51:20,040 --> 00:51:23,279
Speaker 2: that is the biggest reason why our schools are shutting down.

836
00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:26,480
Speaker 2: And so to think that where a lot of our

837
00:51:26,520 --> 00:51:31,319
Speaker 2: money is going is these vendor contracts for nonsense that

838
00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:36,359
Speaker 2: we don't need, is really insulting. And this is an

839
00:51:36,400 --> 00:51:42,400
Speaker 2: observation that goes beyond partisanship. I had a press conference

840
00:51:43,120 --> 00:51:46,759
Speaker 2: for a bill that I filed this year to do well,

841
00:51:46,840 --> 00:51:50,000
Speaker 2: and I think, check, maybe you know this, but help

842
00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:53,040
Speaker 2: me remember if you can to do zero based budgeting.

843
00:51:53,080 --> 00:51:55,960
Speaker 2: That was associated with the big maybe in the nineties,

844
00:51:56,040 --> 00:51:58,239
Speaker 2: maybe it was New Gingridge, I don't remember who, but

845
00:51:58,280 --> 00:52:04,680
Speaker 2: it was a big Republican policy approach to wipe the

846
00:52:04,840 --> 00:52:10,200
Speaker 2: slate clean in spending and then build what's important prioritized.

847
00:52:10,239 --> 00:52:12,000
Speaker 1: Oh, it was back when trying to like they were

848
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:15,240
Speaker 1: pushing for balanced budget amendment nationally and they were, of course,

849
00:52:15,320 --> 00:52:17,120
Speaker 1: I mean that debt was a huge issue to them

850
00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:17,680
Speaker 1: at that time.

851
00:52:18,680 --> 00:52:21,280
Speaker 2: And here the issue and here it fits so well,

852
00:52:21,360 --> 00:52:25,560
Speaker 2: I believe, because we've had thirty years of one party

853
00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:28,440
Speaker 2: in control and so there's been no accountability when it

854
00:52:28,480 --> 00:52:31,879
Speaker 2: comes to our spending. There is so much grift that

855
00:52:32,040 --> 00:52:34,480
Speaker 2: is now baked into the system that we just need

856
00:52:34,520 --> 00:52:36,799
Speaker 2: a fresh start. So I filed a bill to do

857
00:52:36,840 --> 00:52:40,200
Speaker 2: that with our education dollars at the state level, and

858
00:52:40,880 --> 00:52:47,439
Speaker 2: I was surrounded only by mothers who had voted for Trump. Right.

859
00:52:48,080 --> 00:52:53,160
Speaker 2: They were maga moms who understand that our money is

860
00:52:53,200 --> 00:52:59,320
Speaker 2: being wasted because of these vendor contracts with Greg Abbott's friends,

861
00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:02,040
Speaker 2: and they stood side by side with me at a

862
00:53:02,040 --> 00:53:05,720
Speaker 2: press conference at the Capitol and support. These were also

863
00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:09,640
Speaker 2: allies that I had made in this voucher fight, which

864
00:53:09,680 --> 00:53:16,160
Speaker 2: is one big grift, right. Greg Abbott in twenty twenty

865
00:53:16,200 --> 00:53:19,880
Speaker 2: three ended up pursuing vouchers for the first time ever.

866
00:53:20,040 --> 00:53:23,960
Speaker 2: It was a big shock to put the people who

867
00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:26,160
Speaker 2: have been observing politics and Texas for a long time

868
00:53:26,200 --> 00:53:29,919
Speaker 2: because it's so anti text and then so deeply unpopular.

869
00:53:30,440 --> 00:53:34,120
Speaker 2: But he got a six million dollar check from jeff

870
00:53:34,200 --> 00:53:39,320
Speaker 2: yaz an At, a state billionaire from Pennsylvania who was

871
00:53:39,360 --> 00:53:44,160
Speaker 2: pushing vouchers and so and now like, and we've already

872
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:47,560
Speaker 2: had stories about grift happening in this voutuer program that

873
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:51,359
Speaker 2: hasn't even started, right, So that's what this is. It's

874
00:53:51,400 --> 00:53:55,879
Speaker 2: taking our taxpayer dollars and spending them in a way

875
00:53:55,920 --> 00:54:00,719
Speaker 2: where there's no transparency, no accountability, and a lot of

876
00:54:00,800 --> 00:54:04,560
Speaker 2: Republicans are against it. To your point about how education

877
00:54:04,840 --> 00:54:08,920
Speaker 2: vouchers can be the issue that cuts through partisanship, I

878
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:12,560
Speaker 2: saw it here in Texas in a big way.

879
00:54:12,719 --> 00:54:15,759
Speaker 1: I think the difficulty with the education issue is twofold.

880
00:54:15,960 --> 00:54:19,360
Speaker 1: One is we're all experts, right, because either we have

881
00:54:19,400 --> 00:54:21,560
Speaker 1: a kid in school, I'm an expert. Right. It's the

882
00:54:21,560 --> 00:54:23,799
Speaker 1: same with healthcare. Right. Why is it so hard to

883
00:54:23,840 --> 00:54:28,719
Speaker 1: get sort of big ideas to sort of both lower

884
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:32,600
Speaker 1: the cost of healthcare and expand coverage Because it's such

885
00:54:32,600 --> 00:54:35,400
Speaker 1: a personal issue, right, just like education is so personal.

886
00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:39,640
Speaker 1: So take the school funding issue. Look, you got on

887
00:54:39,680 --> 00:54:41,880
Speaker 1: you were fighting. You were upset that money from Austin

888
00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:47,160
Speaker 1: was not staying in Austin. Now one could argue that

889
00:54:47,239 --> 00:54:49,760
Speaker 1: you want to make sure everybody has got an equal

890
00:54:49,840 --> 00:54:53,319
Speaker 1: you know, has an equal access to good education. How

891
00:54:53,320 --> 00:54:56,680
Speaker 1: do you feel about that recapture system that Texas uses

892
00:54:56,840 --> 00:54:59,279
Speaker 1: in general? Are you in favor of it or are

893
00:54:59,320 --> 00:55:01,520
Speaker 1: you not? Like at right now because of how it's

894
00:55:01,560 --> 00:55:02,560
Speaker 1: currently being managed.

895
00:55:03,440 --> 00:55:05,560
Speaker 2: You are an education nerd, aren't you.

896
00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:09,600
Speaker 1: Well it's because these are well it is. Look, I'll

897
00:55:09,640 --> 00:55:11,960
Speaker 1: just be honest, I think it's one of these. You know,

898
00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:14,839
Speaker 1: sometimes when we look at a we talk about our

899
00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:18,320
Speaker 1: national problems, like what should be our focus, Like we

900
00:55:18,480 --> 00:55:22,280
Speaker 1: have the same public school funding model and public school

901
00:55:22,280 --> 00:55:25,320
Speaker 1: model that was first developed right at the beginning of

902
00:55:25,360 --> 00:55:28,319
Speaker 1: the industrial age, and we have not modernized. You know

903
00:55:28,520 --> 00:55:31,279
Speaker 1: the reason, Like I am empathetic to people that are

904
00:55:31,280 --> 00:55:34,399
Speaker 1: pro voucher because they just have given up. They're like, well,

905
00:55:34,440 --> 00:55:36,840
Speaker 1: the system's not going to fix this, So can I

906
00:55:36,880 --> 00:55:40,520
Speaker 1: at least how can I help my kid? Now? Right? Right?

907
00:55:40,680 --> 00:55:43,640
Speaker 1: So I get it right, I understand this isn't working.

908
00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:46,799
Speaker 1: I want this now. You know, when you look at

909
00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:48,799
Speaker 1: it from a big picture, you realize, you know, if

910
00:55:48,840 --> 00:55:51,000
Speaker 1: we voucherize everything, then we're just going to have this.

911
00:55:51,560 --> 00:55:53,799
Speaker 1: You know, we're going to gut the middle class, We're

912
00:55:53,840 --> 00:55:55,799
Speaker 1: going to gut the working class because they can't all

913
00:55:55,840 --> 00:55:58,879
Speaker 1: afford to just go find a perfect education for their kid.

914
00:55:59,080 --> 00:56:03,400
Speaker 1: So this is always why it's such I think, you know,

915
00:56:04,239 --> 00:56:08,279
Speaker 1: extraordinarily hard, and you know and and all that. So

916
00:56:08,320 --> 00:56:12,360
Speaker 1: I guess the what's a what's ah, We've got to

917
00:56:12,360 --> 00:56:15,880
Speaker 1: remodel this system. So what are your thoughts of remodeling

918
00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:16,440
Speaker 1: this system?

919
00:56:16,560 --> 00:56:19,000
Speaker 2: Okay, well let me answer it, because I don't. I

920
00:56:19,040 --> 00:56:24,080
Speaker 2: didn't mean through seven questions in there. Let's do recapture first, Okay, recapture.

921
00:56:24,120 --> 00:56:26,680
Speaker 2: So I'm originally from South Texas, from the Rio Grande

922
00:56:26,760 --> 00:56:28,839
Speaker 2: Valley where there is a lot of poverty. I grew

923
00:56:28,960 --> 00:56:31,920
Speaker 2: up and I went to public school in Brownsville, right

924
00:56:31,960 --> 00:56:37,120
Speaker 2: the southernmost tip of Texas, and yeah, we went without

925
00:56:37,560 --> 00:56:40,839
Speaker 2: right and that shouldn't happen. So I do believe conceptually

926
00:56:41,360 --> 00:56:45,320
Speaker 2: in the recaptures this equal everybody should get a good education,

927
00:56:45,400 --> 00:56:49,560
Speaker 2: regardless of the wealth of your community. I think that

928
00:56:49,719 --> 00:56:52,440
Speaker 2: is right. Well we have now, and so I have

929
00:56:52,560 --> 00:56:55,680
Speaker 2: this jar. Can you see this star? Yes, jar, I'm

930
00:56:55,680 --> 00:56:57,920
Speaker 2: going to make my point with this star. Usually have

931
00:56:57,960 --> 00:56:59,960
Speaker 2: a water bottle, but I just have crap all over

932
00:57:00,440 --> 00:57:02,480
Speaker 2: this computer right now, and right now I have a jar.

933
00:57:04,000 --> 00:57:07,560
Speaker 2: So this is what's happening. Though with that recapture system.

934
00:57:07,920 --> 00:57:11,440
Speaker 2: The state is saying, this is only how much you

935
00:57:11,480 --> 00:57:16,520
Speaker 2: can spend on public education, so they are suppressing and

936
00:57:17,320 --> 00:57:20,160
Speaker 2: the amount we can spend on our students. And this

937
00:57:20,240 --> 00:57:24,560
Speaker 2: big jar, that's all the money that is coming from

938
00:57:24,560 --> 00:57:29,240
Speaker 2: our property taxes, so you pour it into what can

939
00:57:29,280 --> 00:57:32,840
Speaker 2: be spent on education for everybody, regardless whether they're a

940
00:57:32,840 --> 00:57:36,320
Speaker 2: property wealthy or property poor school district, and most of

941
00:57:36,360 --> 00:57:40,560
Speaker 2: it falls out and all that money is being spent

942
00:57:40,680 --> 00:57:43,680
Speaker 2: on nonsense, and it is not education. It's spent on

943
00:57:43,760 --> 00:57:46,920
Speaker 2: all sorts of other things. Because now I'm getting really

944
00:57:47,080 --> 00:57:49,000
Speaker 2: nerdy and into the weeds, which I should not do

945
00:57:49,120 --> 00:57:50,960
Speaker 2: in which my team's going to get mad ut before.

946
00:57:51,320 --> 00:57:57,720
Speaker 2: But it is state dollars are fungible, right, so they

947
00:57:57,880 --> 00:58:00,600
Speaker 2: just don't put in the state dollars they would otherwise

948
00:58:00,600 --> 00:58:05,440
Speaker 2: put into education, and they use our property taxes instead.

949
00:58:05,720 --> 00:58:09,920
Speaker 2: And what we have is everybody is struggling when it

950
00:58:09,920 --> 00:58:12,240
Speaker 2: comes to our neighborhood public schools, and schools are shutting

951
00:58:12,240 --> 00:58:13,400
Speaker 2: down and teachers are leaving.

952
00:58:16,360 --> 00:58:23,080
Speaker 1: There's a conundrum here. The Texas is very low in funding,

953
00:58:23,080 --> 00:58:27,640
Speaker 1: as you've pointed out, very low in teacher salaries, but

954
00:58:27,760 --> 00:58:33,280
Speaker 1: student outcomes are good. What's your explanation. Why do you

955
00:58:33,320 --> 00:58:33,800
Speaker 1: think that is?

956
00:58:34,000 --> 00:58:37,720
Speaker 2: Well, I think it depends how you look at it, right.

957
00:58:38,320 --> 00:58:40,600
Speaker 2: I will say that when we have looked at the

958
00:58:40,640 --> 00:58:46,320
Speaker 2: only comparitor that I know on outcomes are NAPE scores,

959
00:58:47,560 --> 00:58:49,480
Speaker 2: And I don't know that I can tell you what

960
00:58:49,560 --> 00:58:53,480
Speaker 2: NAPE stands for right now, the National Assessment I'm making

961
00:58:53,520 --> 00:58:56,520
Speaker 2: that up, so we refer to it as NAPE scores,

962
00:58:57,120 --> 00:59:00,880
Speaker 2: and it is a kind of snapshot of different schools

963
00:59:00,920 --> 00:59:03,880
Speaker 2: in different states, and they compare them all together. Our

964
00:59:04,000 --> 00:59:08,960
Speaker 2: NAPE scores have either been have mostly been decreasing. When

965
00:59:08,960 --> 00:59:14,920
Speaker 2: you look at Texas okay, so so I would I

966
00:59:14,960 --> 00:59:18,720
Speaker 2: will say, you know, there we have some some schools

967
00:59:18,800 --> 00:59:22,200
Speaker 2: where they're achieving there at a very high level. They

968
00:59:22,200 --> 00:59:25,960
Speaker 2: make some top one hundred lists. I think that happened recently.

969
00:59:26,760 --> 00:59:31,200
Speaker 2: But when you look overall at our out at our outcomes,

970
00:59:31,440 --> 00:59:34,080
Speaker 2: they're not better, and in fact, in many areas they

971
00:59:34,080 --> 00:59:37,480
Speaker 2: are worse. And I and I think we just have

972
00:59:37,520 --> 00:59:39,960
Speaker 2: to get back to the basics. And that is something

973
00:59:40,160 --> 00:59:43,280
Speaker 2: where I have found agreement with Republicans, kind of getting

974
00:59:43,320 --> 00:59:45,640
Speaker 2: back to basics. What do we know as our rocket science.

975
00:59:45,640 --> 00:59:47,560
Speaker 2: What's the best thing we can do for our kids' education?

976
00:59:48,440 --> 00:59:51,360
Speaker 2: A great teacher in the classroom, right, But to pay

977
00:59:51,400 --> 00:59:55,040
Speaker 2: their teachers their worth, we have to treat them like professionals.

978
00:59:55,320 --> 01:00:00,560
Speaker 2: We just passed legislation I hated about two years ago

979
01:00:00,680 --> 01:00:05,600
Speaker 2: to create this can curriculum where teachers are timed, their

980
01:00:05,680 --> 01:00:09,920
Speaker 2: lesson plans are sequenced and timed, and there's very little

981
01:00:09,920 --> 01:00:14,720
Speaker 2: freedom for them to be the professionals that we expect

982
01:00:14,720 --> 01:00:17,280
Speaker 2: them to be. Where they assess where my kids, how

983
01:00:17,280 --> 01:00:20,200
Speaker 2: do I differentiate, Where do I slow down? Where do

984
01:00:20,240 --> 01:00:22,800
Speaker 2: I press on the gas? Like we're throwing that out

985
01:00:22,800 --> 01:00:25,760
Speaker 2: the window. It was an almost billion dollar bill a

986
01:00:25,800 --> 01:00:30,280
Speaker 2: big grift in my opinion. But if we gave teachers

987
01:00:30,320 --> 01:00:33,320
Speaker 2: the respect they deserve, the professional treat them as the professionals,

988
01:00:33,360 --> 01:00:36,520
Speaker 2: and the pay, that's the single best improvement we can

989
01:00:36,560 --> 01:00:41,640
Speaker 2: have in our classroom and smaller classes. Right now, class

990
01:00:41,640 --> 01:00:44,360
Speaker 2: sizes are too big in many of our schools, and

991
01:00:46,040 --> 01:00:48,640
Speaker 2: that makes it harder just to teach these kids.

992
01:00:57,040 --> 01:00:59,640
Speaker 1: Do you think any tax dollars should be used for

993
01:01:00,400 --> 01:01:04,440
Speaker 1: private or parochial schools? No, I do not.

994
01:01:05,640 --> 01:01:09,560
Speaker 2: With one exception that is already that already exists in

995
01:01:09,640 --> 01:01:11,840
Speaker 2: federal law and a lot of people don't know about it.

996
01:01:13,040 --> 01:01:16,760
Speaker 2: There are some times when the child has some kind

997
01:01:16,800 --> 01:01:20,040
Speaker 2: of disability where the public school cannot meet the need,

998
01:01:21,240 --> 01:01:31,360
Speaker 2: and federal law requires that the school district interview that family,

999
01:01:31,480 --> 01:01:35,360
Speaker 2: understand those needs, and help place that family in a

1000
01:01:35,440 --> 01:01:38,800
Speaker 2: private school and funding those to that private school. Usually

1001
01:01:38,800 --> 01:01:40,480
Speaker 2: the state will flop the bill for that.

1002
01:01:41,120 --> 01:01:45,120
Speaker 1: But this is if public school system can't can't deal

1003
01:01:45,160 --> 01:01:50,120
Speaker 1: with it, maybe maybe you've got a learning challenge or

1004
01:01:50,280 --> 01:01:52,960
Speaker 1: you know whatever, it is a behavioral issue or something

1005
01:01:53,040 --> 01:01:56,360
Speaker 1: like that and you need special sort of special attention.

1006
01:01:57,520 --> 01:02:01,440
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, So that I think is something probably that

1007
01:02:01,480 --> 01:02:05,439
Speaker 2: we should be doing more of in Texas. I will

1008
01:02:05,480 --> 01:02:09,840
Speaker 2: say that a lot of frustration when it comes to

1009
01:02:09,840 --> 01:02:13,440
Speaker 2: our public schools, and especially in the past when it

1010
01:02:13,560 --> 01:02:16,960
Speaker 2: was less clear that it was about funding, is that

1011
01:02:17,480 --> 01:02:23,520
Speaker 2: special education is very expensive, and I think too often

1012
01:02:24,200 --> 01:02:28,919
Speaker 2: kids aren't getting what they need because the systems are

1013
01:02:28,960 --> 01:02:34,040
Speaker 2: just trying to sustain themselves and so their requests for

1014
01:02:34,960 --> 01:02:38,840
Speaker 2: accommodations or their requests for help are being or not

1015
01:02:38,920 --> 01:02:39,479
Speaker 2: being met.

1016
01:02:40,120 --> 01:02:41,960
Speaker 1: Well, this is where the federal this is the one

1017
01:02:41,960 --> 01:02:44,480
Speaker 1: place where federal government has tried to be involved in

1018
01:02:44,520 --> 01:02:47,800
Speaker 1: the public schools, is that in theory they were to

1019
01:02:47,840 --> 01:02:49,640
Speaker 1: try to at least share the burden. If you've got

1020
01:02:49,640 --> 01:02:55,320
Speaker 1: a severely autistic student who just you know, I've got

1021
01:02:55,320 --> 01:02:57,919
Speaker 1: this in my family. You know, they just need five

1022
01:02:57,960 --> 01:03:00,640
Speaker 1: extra years in the school system, five or six extra years,

1023
01:03:00,640 --> 01:03:02,440
Speaker 1: and then over time they you know, I think what

1024
01:03:02,440 --> 01:03:05,160
Speaker 1: we're learning the good news is the more we learn

1025
01:03:05,200 --> 01:03:08,320
Speaker 1: about these bout autism, the more is that, you know,

1026
01:03:08,960 --> 01:03:12,240
Speaker 1: you just need longer to process. Sometimes you need not

1027
01:03:12,360 --> 01:03:15,640
Speaker 1: everybody is going to get through the system in twelve years.

1028
01:03:16,600 --> 01:03:18,960
Speaker 1: But that's where the federal government was supposed to backstop

1029
01:03:19,120 --> 01:03:20,400
Speaker 1: with the Department of Education.

1030
01:03:21,200 --> 01:03:24,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I agree with that. And in Texas it

1031
01:03:24,480 --> 01:03:28,880
Speaker 2: got so bad. The special education system was so bad

1032
01:03:28,920 --> 01:03:32,960
Speaker 2: that even Betsy Devas had to step in and hold

1033
01:03:32,960 --> 01:03:37,320
Speaker 2: Texas accountable under Greg Abbott because we were cutting The

1034
01:03:37,400 --> 01:03:41,600
Speaker 2: state under Abbot, under his tea commissioner was cutting corners

1035
01:03:42,120 --> 01:03:48,600
Speaker 2: and not identifying kids who deserved more legally entitled to

1036
01:03:49,000 --> 01:03:52,600
Speaker 2: a special education because it's expensive. Right. So when Betsy

1037
01:03:52,640 --> 01:03:56,840
Speaker 2: Devas has to come into your state and say your

1038
01:03:56,840 --> 01:04:00,640
Speaker 2: special education system is broken, I mean a real problem.

1039
01:04:00,680 --> 01:04:02,440
Speaker 2: And there still are big problems.

1040
01:04:02,920 --> 01:04:04,200
Speaker 1: Where are you on charters?

1041
01:04:04,600 --> 01:04:04,720
Speaker 2: Uh?

1042
01:04:04,920 --> 01:04:06,800
Speaker 1: In magnets? And I say this, I grew up in

1043
01:04:07,000 --> 01:04:11,200
Speaker 1: Miami and I hate what's happened to the Miami Dade

1044
01:04:11,400 --> 01:04:15,880
Speaker 1: school system. It is now a four tiered system. There's

1045
01:04:15,920 --> 01:04:19,640
Speaker 1: there's privates, There's those that can navigate to find out

1046
01:04:19,680 --> 01:04:21,640
Speaker 1: if their kid belongs in a magnet, you know, a

1047
01:04:21,680 --> 01:04:25,600
Speaker 1: specialization program. There's your charters, and then there's those that

1048
01:04:25,640 --> 01:04:27,360
Speaker 1: can't figure out the system. And you go to your

1049
01:04:27,400 --> 01:04:30,280
Speaker 1: local school and you and you hope you've hit the

1050
01:04:30,280 --> 01:04:35,320
Speaker 1: the geographic lottery, and it's a mess. It's really hard

1051
01:04:35,320 --> 01:04:38,720
Speaker 1: to navigate. But all these charter schools are most of

1052
01:04:38,760 --> 01:04:42,040
Speaker 1: them are started with in good faith. Right there there

1053
01:04:42,080 --> 01:04:45,880
Speaker 1: there are good you know, and they're kind of quasi public.

1054
01:04:46,480 --> 01:04:48,960
Speaker 1: Where are you on that system? And I think Houston

1055
01:04:49,000 --> 01:04:50,640
Speaker 1: has done a lot of this right.

1056
01:04:52,160 --> 01:04:54,680
Speaker 2: Right, And you know, the Houston Independent School District was

1057
01:04:54,720 --> 01:04:58,840
Speaker 2: taken over by Greg Abbott and that's other another can

1058
01:04:58,840 --> 01:05:04,479
Speaker 2: of worms conreisation and serious. So probably nobody has been

1059
01:05:04,800 --> 01:05:09,200
Speaker 2: a grade at our champion of holding charter schools accountable

1060
01:05:09,280 --> 01:05:13,040
Speaker 2: than I have in the legislature, but I wouldn't. But

1061
01:05:13,080 --> 01:05:16,680
Speaker 2: this is what my concern is. But my concern is

1062
01:05:16,720 --> 01:05:22,560
Speaker 2: to your point, it is a parallel school system that

1063
01:05:22,720 --> 01:05:26,360
Speaker 2: is taking resources from our neighborhood public schools, but it

1064
01:05:26,400 --> 01:05:28,440
Speaker 2: doesn't take all kids. Is the problem?

1065
01:05:28,720 --> 01:05:29,160
Speaker 1: Right and.

1066
01:05:30,640 --> 01:05:33,640
Speaker 2: Right? And so what happened, what has been happening in

1067
01:05:33,680 --> 01:05:37,800
Speaker 2: Texas is that the charter schools will take the kids

1068
01:05:37,840 --> 01:05:42,160
Speaker 2: who don't have disciplinary problems. They take the easier who

1069
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:45,680
Speaker 2: don't need a special education, the kids who are easier

1070
01:05:45,680 --> 01:05:48,960
Speaker 2: to educate. Right. Well, I'll tell you that both of

1071
01:05:49,000 --> 01:05:51,400
Speaker 2: my sons have been to the principal's office because I

1072
01:05:51,440 --> 01:05:54,480
Speaker 2: am their mother and I had it coming. And so

1073
01:05:55,360 --> 01:05:59,160
Speaker 2: there are charter schools that would not take these kids

1074
01:05:59,200 --> 01:06:02,520
Speaker 2: who had been even just going to the principal's office

1075
01:06:02,960 --> 01:06:06,040
Speaker 2: and they were denied admission. I got past this year

1076
01:06:06,800 --> 01:06:10,160
Speaker 2: legislation that I said, you cannot discriminate against kids because

1077
01:06:10,160 --> 01:06:14,880
Speaker 2: of their disciplinary records. But that's just one example. There's

1078
01:06:14,960 --> 01:06:17,200
Speaker 2: also we need to make sure there is that same

1079
01:06:17,240 --> 01:06:22,080
Speaker 2: accountability when it comes to transparency for decision making, when

1080
01:06:22,080 --> 01:06:24,840
Speaker 2: it comes to parents' rights, when it comes to spending,

1081
01:06:25,360 --> 01:06:28,040
Speaker 2: when it comes to nepotism we've had we have had

1082
01:06:28,080 --> 01:06:31,400
Speaker 2: a nepotism problem in charter schools that I don't think

1083
01:06:31,640 --> 01:06:34,200
Speaker 2: tax pay dollars should be a part of. So it's

1084
01:06:34,280 --> 01:06:37,720
Speaker 2: these kind of accountability measures. I will say overall, big picture,

1085
01:06:39,520 --> 01:06:43,760
Speaker 2: we have had just a boom in charter school growth

1086
01:06:44,560 --> 01:06:48,320
Speaker 2: in Texas and there's no strategic plan as to why.

1087
01:06:48,400 --> 01:06:51,560
Speaker 2: It is just the spending of more taxpayer dollars. And

1088
01:06:51,600 --> 01:06:54,400
Speaker 2: I think we need a time out. Let's assess the

1089
01:06:54,440 --> 01:06:57,040
Speaker 2: big picture, what it is the plan here.

1090
01:06:57,960 --> 01:06:59,400
Speaker 1: Let me put a pin in this and let's move

1091
01:06:59,400 --> 01:07:04,040
Speaker 1: on another. Issues with it this way? Is the education

1092
01:07:04,280 --> 01:07:08,360
Speaker 1: problem in Texas a funding issue or more of an

1093
01:07:08,400 --> 01:07:09,600
Speaker 1: allocation issue?

1094
01:07:11,040 --> 01:07:11,560
Speaker 2: Allocation?

1095
01:07:12,160 --> 01:07:15,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you're not sitting here saying we need more

1096
01:07:15,640 --> 01:07:18,680
Speaker 1: dollars yet, got to maybe raise revenue here or something

1097
01:07:18,720 --> 01:07:21,360
Speaker 1: like that. Right now, you view it as this is

1098
01:07:21,400 --> 01:07:24,760
Speaker 1: an allocation challenge. Maybe there's a funding challenge down the road,

1099
01:07:25,120 --> 01:07:28,240
Speaker 1: but right now it's an allocation issue.

1100
01:07:28,680 --> 01:07:32,480
Speaker 2: So education is paid for in large part by our

1101
01:07:32,480 --> 01:07:37,560
Speaker 2: property taxes. Our property taxes have skyrocketed Undergrad Abbot. I mean,

1102
01:07:38,000 --> 01:07:39,760
Speaker 2: everybody's angry, rightfully.

1103
01:07:39,840 --> 01:07:42,600
Speaker 1: So if you don't want state income taxes and.

1104
01:07:42,480 --> 01:07:48,439
Speaker 2: You're well, that's high taxes, that's another conversation. But we pay.

1105
01:07:48,800 --> 01:07:51,560
Speaker 2: We are a high tax state because our property and

1106
01:07:51,600 --> 01:07:55,920
Speaker 2: taxes are so high, and so I do believe the

1107
01:07:56,040 --> 01:07:59,960
Speaker 2: money is there to deliver the solid education that are

1108
01:08:00,120 --> 01:08:03,040
Speaker 2: kids need. But the way I refer to it is

1109
01:08:03,080 --> 01:08:06,360
Speaker 2: we are all paying the Greg Abbot corruption tax. And

1110
01:08:07,000 --> 01:08:11,760
Speaker 2: I mentioned the vendor contracts. This governor is so out

1111
01:08:11,800 --> 01:08:14,680
Speaker 2: of control when it comes to corruption. And by the way,

1112
01:08:15,280 --> 01:08:18,240
Speaker 2: just kind of also a big picture point. I think

1113
01:08:18,240 --> 01:08:22,759
Speaker 2: a lot of the terrible things we see in DC

1114
01:08:23,000 --> 01:08:26,280
Speaker 2: they're incubated here in Texas. And I'll give you an

1115
01:08:26,320 --> 01:08:29,599
Speaker 2: example of one of them that ties into this corruption.

1116
01:08:30,400 --> 01:08:34,280
Speaker 2: So there was an independent watchdog group, Public Citizen, that

1117
01:08:34,439 --> 01:08:37,559
Speaker 2: found and released a report about two three months ago

1118
01:08:38,000 --> 01:08:41,479
Speaker 2: that found Greg Abbotts given almost a billion dollars in

1119
01:08:41,560 --> 01:08:46,160
Speaker 2: no bit contracts to his donors. Right, and you can't

1120
01:08:46,200 --> 01:08:48,640
Speaker 2: even make this stuff up, the largest of which is

1121
01:08:48,720 --> 01:08:52,160
Speaker 2: one called Gotham Gotham Corporation.

1122
01:08:52,680 --> 01:08:52,880
Speaker 1: Right.

1123
01:08:54,320 --> 01:08:58,200
Speaker 2: And so what he has done since twenty twenty he

1124
01:08:58,439 --> 01:09:04,280
Speaker 2: started with COVID. He started signing an emergency executive order

1125
01:09:04,360 --> 01:09:08,880
Speaker 2: every month waiving competitive bidding laws. And that was right,

1126
01:09:08,960 --> 01:09:11,080
Speaker 2: I mean, it was COVID. We needed ppe, there was

1127
01:09:11,320 --> 01:09:15,720
Speaker 2: you know, we needed things fast. But he just got

1128
01:09:15,760 --> 01:09:19,680
Speaker 2: fat and happy of that kind of power and continues

1129
01:09:19,720 --> 01:09:22,640
Speaker 2: it to this day. And as a result, many of

1130
01:09:22,680 --> 01:09:26,639
Speaker 2: his friends are getting contracts. There was a an Egle pass.

1131
01:09:26,840 --> 01:09:31,080
Speaker 2: One of the emergencies sided has been border security. Right

1132
01:09:31,960 --> 01:09:35,960
Speaker 2: that that's one of the excuses to do non competitive bidding.

1133
01:09:36,120 --> 01:09:39,320
Speaker 2: I think that's what's happening in Washington right now as well.

1134
01:09:39,360 --> 01:09:41,920
Speaker 1: By the way, well you know it's funny about pay

1135
01:09:41,960 --> 01:09:46,600
Speaker 1: to play. Yeah, you know, I think your challenge on

1136
01:09:46,640 --> 01:09:50,920
Speaker 1: this issue is, yeah, they all do it. You know,

1137
01:09:51,200 --> 01:09:53,639
Speaker 1: like there's like, you know what I mean, the electorate.

1138
01:09:53,680 --> 01:09:57,040
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're you've seen this in some of your research,

1139
01:09:57,120 --> 01:10:01,400
Speaker 1: which is they believe your child, your your charge against Abbott,

1140
01:10:01,880 --> 01:10:04,640
Speaker 1: but they think this is how it all works, that

1141
01:10:04,760 --> 01:10:08,200
Speaker 1: they're all and I've just got to decide which corrupt

1142
01:10:08,280 --> 01:10:10,760
Speaker 1: side am I picking from? Right, Hey, how do you

1143
01:10:11,960 --> 01:10:15,479
Speaker 1: how do you convince these swing voters who might be

1144
01:10:15,520 --> 01:10:17,599
Speaker 1: skeptical of Ariight, we're just going to go with from

1145
01:10:17,720 --> 01:10:21,240
Speaker 1: one political party getting you know, playing favoritism to another.

1146
01:10:22,560 --> 01:10:26,720
Speaker 1: How can you what's your accountability promise? Right? You know,

1147
01:10:26,800 --> 01:10:29,160
Speaker 1: it's sort of the trust but verified mindset, because I

1148
01:10:29,160 --> 01:10:31,479
Speaker 1: think this is I think the corruption issue is both

1149
01:10:31,560 --> 01:10:35,320
Speaker 1: ripe everywhere and at the same time, it's a very

1150
01:10:35,320 --> 01:10:38,840
Speaker 1: cynical electorate that exists these days, who just assume everybody's

1151
01:10:38,840 --> 01:10:39,240
Speaker 1: on the take.

1152
01:10:40,360 --> 01:10:43,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's fair. And look, I think most people

1153
01:10:43,800 --> 01:10:49,040
Speaker 2: recognize that politics as usual as broken Democrats. So there

1154
01:10:49,040 --> 01:10:53,519
Speaker 2: are plenty of blame when it comes to that sense

1155
01:10:53,720 --> 01:10:57,680
Speaker 2: amongst the electorate. And we for too long have defended

1156
01:10:57,880 --> 01:11:02,120
Speaker 2: as Democrats systems that are not defensible, systems where they're

1157
01:11:02,200 --> 01:11:05,519
Speaker 2: using our own I mean, what's happening in Texas is

1158
01:11:06,800 --> 01:11:10,080
Speaker 2: Greg Abbitts using our own money against us with the system.

1159
01:11:10,240 --> 01:11:14,800
Speaker 2: And that's why my proposals are clean slate, fresh start,

1160
01:11:15,520 --> 01:11:19,720
Speaker 2: zero based budgeting. Right, you have you hide in a

1161
01:11:19,800 --> 01:11:25,080
Speaker 2: zero based budgeting approach to government. I mean, we're saying

1162
01:11:25,120 --> 01:11:27,320
Speaker 2: we're going to wipe the slate clean and let's build

1163
01:11:27,320 --> 01:11:30,559
Speaker 2: this budget. That's teacher pay, small class size, at school safety,

1164
01:11:30,600 --> 01:11:36,880
Speaker 2: special education. That's it, right. So we're proposing approaches that

1165
01:11:37,000 --> 01:11:41,200
Speaker 2: are not traditional democratic approaches to just good government. And

1166
01:11:41,200 --> 01:11:44,000
Speaker 2: that's why to this day I will I do have

1167
01:11:44,360 --> 01:11:49,960
Speaker 2: maga moms who will send me tips and information to

1168
01:11:50,040 --> 01:11:53,000
Speaker 2: try to help me in this race because they see

1169
01:11:53,160 --> 01:11:57,240
Speaker 2: everything is broken right now. And in fact, that on

1170
01:11:57,520 --> 01:12:01,920
Speaker 2: Greg Abbott's side in the primary's ten opponents right now,

1171
01:12:01,960 --> 01:12:05,720
Speaker 2: that's never happened before, and it is their number one

1172
01:12:05,760 --> 01:12:10,000
Speaker 2: talking point. His corruption is their number one talking point.

1173
01:12:10,200 --> 01:12:13,800
Speaker 2: So I do think to your point, people think they

1174
01:12:13,840 --> 01:12:17,720
Speaker 2: have a sense that government is corrupt, but when we

1175
01:12:17,760 --> 01:12:21,080
Speaker 2: talk about Greg Abbott, it's just a new level of corruption.

1176
01:12:21,840 --> 01:12:25,240
Speaker 2: And the way we tie it to people so that

1177
01:12:25,280 --> 01:12:28,479
Speaker 2: they care is we talk about you're paying the price,

1178
01:12:28,600 --> 01:12:31,760
Speaker 2: you're paying the Greg Abbitt corruption tax, and let me

1179
01:12:31,920 --> 01:12:36,040
Speaker 2: you know, and I can give you some examples of that.

1180
01:12:36,760 --> 01:12:41,080
Speaker 2: So when it comes to, for instance, our electric bills

1181
01:12:41,120 --> 01:12:46,080
Speaker 2: in Texas. In Texas, we spend about forty dollars more

1182
01:12:46,280 --> 01:12:50,160
Speaker 2: a month on electric bills since winter Storm Mury hit

1183
01:12:50,200 --> 01:12:54,439
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one. Why did that happen? That happened

1184
01:12:54,640 --> 01:13:00,320
Speaker 2: because at that time we had gas companies whole ding

1185
01:13:01,040 --> 01:13:04,479
Speaker 2: the fuel that our grid needed while Texans were freezing,

1186
01:13:04,800 --> 01:13:08,720
Speaker 2: literally freezing in their homes. I went with electricity for

1187
01:13:08,760 --> 01:13:13,599
Speaker 2: four days in my home. Texans died in that winter storm.

1188
01:13:14,280 --> 01:13:18,040
Speaker 2: The gas companies waited until the price was high up

1189
01:13:18,040 --> 01:13:22,200
Speaker 2: that they could make billions in minutes. Right now, that

1190
01:13:22,760 --> 01:13:25,440
Speaker 2: price that our utilities have to pay is being socialized

1191
01:13:25,439 --> 01:13:27,960
Speaker 2: to mix. Now we're all paying the price for that.

1192
01:13:29,080 --> 01:13:32,479
Speaker 2: And that is an example of the Greg Abbot corruption tax,

1193
01:13:32,560 --> 01:13:35,800
Speaker 2: because Greg Abbott got a million dollar check after that

1194
01:13:35,920 --> 01:13:40,360
Speaker 2: legislative session that gave these gast companies a pass and

1195
01:13:40,479 --> 01:13:45,040
Speaker 2: passed the cost on to rate payers and consumers.

1196
01:13:45,439 --> 01:13:47,960
Speaker 1: One of your big challenges is not going to be

1197
01:13:47,960 --> 01:13:50,200
Speaker 1: the issues you're talking about. It's going to be where

1198
01:13:50,240 --> 01:13:54,599
Speaker 1: you where you're from. There's an Austin liberal, right, and

1199
01:13:54,640 --> 01:13:58,679
Speaker 1: I say this, this is true with Colorado and people

1200
01:13:58,680 --> 01:14:01,280
Speaker 1: that ran from Boulder. This was true for most of

1201
01:14:01,280 --> 01:14:05,000
Speaker 1: my life until Jeb Bush won people that ran from Miami. Right.

1202
01:14:05,040 --> 01:14:07,760
Speaker 1: Part of it is whatever the big Blue city is

1203
01:14:07,880 --> 01:14:10,800
Speaker 1: or whatever the big city is. Their skepticism took over

1204
01:14:10,920 --> 01:14:14,559
Speaker 1: two hundred years before Amya Philadelphia ever got elected governor

1205
01:14:14,720 --> 01:14:17,200
Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania. So in some ways this is sort of

1206
01:14:17,240 --> 01:14:21,679
Speaker 1: a not unique. But you know that's the card Abbot's

1207
01:14:21,680 --> 01:14:27,680
Speaker 1: going to play. You're essential Austin Liberal, the crazy Austin progressives.

1208
01:14:28,560 --> 01:14:31,080
Speaker 1: What does she know about Abilene? How are you going

1209
01:14:31,120 --> 01:14:32,920
Speaker 1: to respond to those attacks?

1210
01:14:33,800 --> 01:14:36,960
Speaker 2: So I'd like to see Abbott come after me as

1211
01:14:37,040 --> 01:14:41,960
Speaker 2: being from Austin as an attack, because there's nobody who's

1212
01:14:42,000 --> 01:14:44,760
Speaker 2: more from Austin than Greg Abbott. He has been in

1213
01:14:44,880 --> 01:14:48,160
Speaker 2: statewide office for more than a quarter of the century,

1214
01:14:48,760 --> 01:14:51,639
Speaker 2: living in Austin. He's lived in Austin longer than I have, look,

1215
01:14:52,080 --> 01:14:55,120
Speaker 2: I don't have. I am honored to have served the

1216
01:14:55,120 --> 01:14:59,040
Speaker 2: community of Austin in the Texas House. I'm originally from

1217
01:14:59,040 --> 01:15:01,400
Speaker 2: the Rio Grand Valley and we've been back there about

1218
01:15:01,439 --> 01:15:05,520
Speaker 2: six or seven times since we launched. We launched in Brownsville.

1219
01:15:05,760 --> 01:15:09,879
Speaker 2: The real Grand Valley went for Trump last election cycle.

1220
01:15:10,160 --> 01:15:15,280
Speaker 2: Trump won it. And so what's your explanation why do

1221
01:15:15,320 --> 01:15:17,880
Speaker 2: you believe it is battleground? Well, I think a big

1222
01:15:17,920 --> 01:15:21,400
Speaker 2: one was border security. So at the time, I was

1223
01:15:21,520 --> 01:15:25,160
Speaker 2: chair of the House Campaign Committee. I was appointed by

1224
01:15:25,280 --> 01:15:28,960
Speaker 2: our Democratic Caucus chair to lead up that effort. So

1225
01:15:29,680 --> 01:15:33,280
Speaker 2: I went to the Valley for campaign purposes. We had

1226
01:15:33,320 --> 01:15:37,000
Speaker 2: a House seat in play, and people were so angry

1227
01:15:37,040 --> 01:15:39,280
Speaker 2: about border security. But remember at the time, there were

1228
01:15:39,280 --> 01:15:43,160
Speaker 2: the caravans coming over. It was chaotic, people were living

1229
01:15:43,200 --> 01:15:46,200
Speaker 2: under bridges. Biden was mums. I mean, he did not

1230
01:15:46,280 --> 01:15:49,240
Speaker 2: show the leadership we needed and we all paid it.

1231
01:15:49,240 --> 01:15:51,519
Speaker 1: They blew it. Do you feel like Biden really harmed

1232
01:15:51,560 --> 01:15:53,599
Speaker 1: the Democratic brand on border security?

1233
01:15:54,560 --> 01:15:58,160
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Absolutely, and there was no reason for it. I

1234
01:15:58,200 --> 01:16:02,360
Speaker 2: will tell you that about a month before his last

1235
01:16:02,400 --> 01:16:05,960
Speaker 2: year in office, said December before this last year in office,

1236
01:16:06,000 --> 01:16:07,880
Speaker 2: I got a call from one of my members in

1237
01:16:08,360 --> 01:16:12,440
Speaker 2: Eagle Pass who was in a swing district, and he said, Gina,

1238
01:16:12,880 --> 01:16:15,080
Speaker 2: they just shut down the border and it's the week

1239
01:16:15,120 --> 01:16:21,840
Speaker 2: before Christmas, and this is not We cannot this cannot continue.

1240
01:16:22,280 --> 01:16:24,720
Speaker 2: So we called and said, hey, can we get a meeting.

1241
01:16:24,760 --> 01:16:26,639
Speaker 2: We called the Biden administration. Can we get a meeting

1242
01:16:26,680 --> 01:16:29,759
Speaker 2: with your top border people, because we got real problems.

1243
01:16:29,800 --> 01:16:32,400
Speaker 2: We had all our border members on there, and they

1244
01:16:32,479 --> 01:16:34,959
Speaker 2: heard an earfold. The next week they sent a delegation

1245
01:16:35,040 --> 01:16:38,639
Speaker 2: to Mexico so that Mexico would start enforcing for security

1246
01:16:38,680 --> 01:16:42,759
Speaker 2: on their side. And at the time crossings plummeted, it happened.

1247
01:16:42,880 --> 01:16:44,759
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, like within a week.

1248
01:16:45,520 --> 01:16:48,200
Speaker 1: Oh no, I I look, I have spent some time

1249
01:16:48,200 --> 01:16:51,439
Speaker 1: with people that worked at DHS, and you know they

1250
01:16:51,520 --> 01:16:54,160
Speaker 1: were they knew what they needed to do, they just didn't.

1251
01:16:54,240 --> 01:16:56,880
Speaker 1: They were they were handcuffed by the West Point.

1252
01:16:57,560 --> 01:16:59,960
Speaker 2: By the West Point. It did hurt us, but I

1253
01:17:00,000 --> 01:17:01,920
Speaker 2: I will tell you when I go now, it's a

1254
01:17:01,920 --> 01:17:05,639
Speaker 2: one to eighty on that issue, because everybody knows someone

1255
01:17:05,760 --> 01:17:10,480
Speaker 2: who's been detained or deported, some beloved member of their community,

1256
01:17:10,800 --> 01:17:13,840
Speaker 2: who's been there twenty years, who reads the bonandaia, the

1257
01:17:13,880 --> 01:17:18,840
Speaker 2: bakery down the street, and that's what nobody had in mind.

1258
01:17:18,920 --> 01:17:22,200
Speaker 2: In fact, last week we were meeting with the executive

1259
01:17:22,200 --> 01:17:28,519
Speaker 2: director of the Builders Association and all their members, most

1260
01:17:28,560 --> 01:17:31,559
Speaker 2: of a lot of their members better Republican, and they're

1261
01:17:31,600 --> 01:17:34,799
Speaker 2: not there anymore because what ICE is doing is waiting

1262
01:17:35,080 --> 01:17:40,400
Speaker 2: until those job sites are they've poured the concrete, and

1263
01:17:40,439 --> 01:17:43,080
Speaker 2: then they'll go around and everybody up. They even had

1264
01:17:43,120 --> 01:17:48,479
Speaker 2: an American detained because they asked they take you first,

1265
01:17:48,520 --> 01:17:51,479
Speaker 2: and they ask questions later, are.

1266
01:17:51,439 --> 01:17:54,840
Speaker 1: You on ICE? Is is is the Ice? Is ICE

1267
01:17:55,160 --> 01:17:58,080
Speaker 1: something that needs to you know, there's a whole abolish

1268
01:17:58,120 --> 01:18:01,479
Speaker 1: ICE movement. And then you know, the other argument is

1269
01:18:01,800 --> 01:18:04,439
Speaker 1: ICE isn't the issue. It's the leadership, it's the training,

1270
01:18:04,600 --> 01:18:08,599
Speaker 1: it's you know, you need to have an you know,

1271
01:18:08,840 --> 01:18:15,240
Speaker 1: an law enforcement agency to enforce border security and and monitor,

1272
01:18:15,479 --> 01:18:17,519
Speaker 1: you know, foreigners that are coming in out of the

1273
01:18:17,520 --> 01:18:20,839
Speaker 1: country at the same time. I don't think anybody believes

1274
01:18:21,040 --> 01:18:24,840
Speaker 1: they're getting the proper training that the way that it's

1275
01:18:24,880 --> 01:18:27,599
Speaker 1: being used. So I guess the question is I can

1276
01:18:27,680 --> 01:18:30,840
Speaker 1: understand both arguments. I can understand that says I just

1277
01:18:30,840 --> 01:18:34,720
Speaker 1: gotta go. We need to rethink the entire agency, so

1278
01:18:34,840 --> 01:18:37,920
Speaker 1: start from scratch versus No, this is a leadership issue.

1279
01:18:38,000 --> 01:18:40,639
Speaker 1: This is this is a Christy Nome Tom Homan issue,

1280
01:18:41,960 --> 01:18:43,920
Speaker 1: And if we had better training, we could have a

1281
01:18:43,960 --> 01:18:44,439
Speaker 1: better ICE.

1282
01:18:46,280 --> 01:18:49,439
Speaker 2: So here's what I know. I know that what ICE

1283
01:18:49,560 --> 01:18:55,240
Speaker 2: is doing right now is terrorizing communities, hurting Americans, and

1284
01:18:55,320 --> 01:18:56,439
Speaker 2: he needs to stop now.

1285
01:18:57,400 --> 01:18:57,680
Speaker 1: It is.

1286
01:19:00,880 --> 01:19:04,280
Speaker 2: Let's just start even setting this aside, the fact that

1287
01:19:04,360 --> 01:19:06,679
Speaker 2: an American mom was shot in the face and killed.

1288
01:19:06,840 --> 01:19:09,080
Speaker 2: Let's set that aside and.

1289
01:19:09,240 --> 01:19:11,160
Speaker 1: Hard to set that aside, But yes, I take your point.

1290
01:19:11,280 --> 01:19:14,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that there's no investigation in it. And there's

1291
01:19:14,240 --> 01:19:18,559
Speaker 2: nobody in leadership in the Trump administration who will say

1292
01:19:18,560 --> 01:19:22,240
Speaker 2: they are even concerned about what we all witness as

1293
01:19:22,280 --> 01:19:27,120
Speaker 2: an atrocity. Right, just let's start with the fact that

1294
01:19:27,160 --> 01:19:31,559
Speaker 2: we've masked law enforcement on the streets. I'm in America.

1295
01:19:31,760 --> 01:19:33,439
Speaker 1: That should be illegal, right, That should be.

1296
01:19:33,439 --> 01:19:36,240
Speaker 2: Illegal because none of us are safe when that happens,

1297
01:19:36,240 --> 01:19:40,599
Speaker 2: because you can't have accountability when somebody does you wrong.

1298
01:19:40,680 --> 01:19:42,920
Speaker 2: And this happens. We all know this is not the

1299
01:19:43,040 --> 01:19:47,000
Speaker 2: first time that an American has been hurt or even

1300
01:19:47,160 --> 01:19:51,800
Speaker 2: killed by law enforcement or harassed. But we have to

1301
01:19:51,840 --> 01:19:55,000
Speaker 2: hold those people accountable, and you can't do it when

1302
01:19:55,040 --> 01:19:58,200
Speaker 2: you have masked agents who are doing this work.

1303
01:20:07,640 --> 01:20:10,760
Speaker 1: You are your father was the longtime chair of the

1304
01:20:10,840 --> 01:20:13,800
Speaker 1: state Party, so you've had a front row seat this

1305
01:20:14,120 --> 01:20:18,640
Speaker 1: sort of this the of the transition in Texas. You know,

1306
01:20:18,680 --> 01:20:21,400
Speaker 1: when I first started covering politics, I think you and

1307
01:20:21,400 --> 01:20:24,920
Speaker 1: I are about the same age. You know Texas was

1308
01:20:25,840 --> 01:20:28,320
Speaker 1: you could see it shifting to the right. But you know,

1309
01:20:28,439 --> 01:20:30,040
Speaker 1: I'm old enough to remember what a big deal it

1310
01:20:30,160 --> 01:20:33,000
Speaker 1: was to Republicans when Kate Billy Hutchinson won, right, it

1311
01:20:33,120 --> 01:20:37,439
Speaker 1: was like, Wow, they broke through on that front, and

1312
01:20:37,640 --> 01:20:39,599
Speaker 1: then you saw it go We've seen it go all

1313
01:20:39,640 --> 01:20:42,439
Speaker 1: the other way. Now. It feels like I always tell

1314
01:20:42,479 --> 01:20:44,920
Speaker 1: my friends who don't quite understand Texas, I said, it's

1315
01:20:45,000 --> 01:20:47,160
Speaker 1: kind of a three party state right now. You do

1316
01:20:47,320 --> 01:20:50,560
Speaker 1: have sort of two different Republican parties and you have

1317
01:20:50,600 --> 01:20:53,880
Speaker 1: a Democratic Party and you witnesses look at your I

1318
01:20:54,280 --> 01:20:56,920
Speaker 1: point people to the State House, which is just a

1319
01:20:57,040 --> 01:21:00,120
Speaker 1: fascinating development we've watched over the years where you've had

1320
01:21:00,160 --> 01:21:05,080
Speaker 1: these coalition majorities, which frankly I find kind of healthy,

1321
01:21:05,520 --> 01:21:09,840
Speaker 1: right because I think if we had more coalition politics

1322
01:21:09,920 --> 01:21:12,479
Speaker 1: and more political parties, you know, we might we might

1323
01:21:12,560 --> 01:21:16,040
Speaker 1: be less polarized. How do you describe the state and

1324
01:21:17,640 --> 01:21:20,360
Speaker 1: what's your recipe for growing the Democratic Party so that

1325
01:21:20,439 --> 01:21:23,200
Speaker 1: it's not just a third but that it is truly

1326
01:21:23,280 --> 01:21:25,000
Speaker 1: the alternative.

1327
01:21:26,600 --> 01:21:30,160
Speaker 2: What I have seen in the House, and I so

1328
01:21:30,320 --> 01:21:32,760
Speaker 2: I work with these Republics. I mean, actually, I think

1329
01:21:32,760 --> 01:21:35,360
Speaker 2: we would all be better off. When you have to work,

1330
01:21:35,680 --> 01:21:38,040
Speaker 2: we're forced to work with people in one room from

1331
01:21:38,080 --> 01:21:42,840
Speaker 2: every part of the state, of every mindset. It helps

1332
01:21:42,920 --> 01:21:47,160
Speaker 2: to create understanding and relationships, and so it's been a

1333
01:21:47,840 --> 01:21:50,600
Speaker 2: area of growth for me just to get to know

1334
01:21:50,960 --> 01:21:53,160
Speaker 2: Republicans right and work with them.

1335
01:21:54,800 --> 01:21:58,720
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm a believer that if you force people, you know,

1336
01:21:58,760 --> 01:22:02,599
Speaker 1: if it takes you know, if it takes a coalition

1337
01:22:02,760 --> 01:22:05,719
Speaker 1: to get a majority, then you're more likely to compromise

1338
01:22:05,760 --> 01:22:06,640
Speaker 1: when you're legislating.

1339
01:22:07,840 --> 01:22:13,880
Speaker 2: Yeah. You Well, here's the problem though, the problem is

1340
01:22:14,080 --> 01:22:20,200
Speaker 2: that now those maybe I guess you would think of

1341
01:22:20,320 --> 01:22:25,640
Speaker 2: as more country club or chamber type publicity.

1342
01:22:25,520 --> 01:22:27,439
Speaker 1: I refer to you. I guess I just now refer

1343
01:22:27,520 --> 01:22:30,720
Speaker 1: to them the Bush Republic. I joke like someone my

1344
01:22:30,800 --> 01:22:33,200
Speaker 1: son's at SMU and I'm like, yeah, you're in the

1345
01:22:33,360 --> 01:22:36,000
Speaker 1: you're in the last Romney precinct of Dallas over there.

1346
01:22:36,080 --> 01:22:40,680
Speaker 1: Probably right, but they're but they're John Cornan voters and

1347
01:22:40,680 --> 01:22:42,479
Speaker 1: they're always going to be John Cornan voters. Right.

1348
01:22:42,600 --> 01:22:45,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, But here's the problem. The problem is that they're

1349
01:22:45,960 --> 01:22:50,240
Speaker 2: not free to vote their districts anymore much less than conscience.

1350
01:22:50,760 --> 01:22:53,840
Speaker 2: What happened, and the voucher fight exemplifies it better than

1351
01:22:53,920 --> 01:22:58,479
Speaker 2: any other fight. We beat vouchers in twenty twenty three

1352
01:22:58,600 --> 01:23:01,920
Speaker 2: because we had rural republics with us, and we had

1353
01:23:02,240 --> 01:23:07,439
Speaker 2: some some bushare of Republicans with us. Greg Abbott put

1354
01:23:07,479 --> 01:23:09,479
Speaker 2: in a million dollars against each of them in their

1355
01:23:09,520 --> 01:23:12,160
Speaker 2: primaries and most of them won. He took out nine,

1356
01:23:13,320 --> 01:23:18,800
Speaker 2: and since then they've been very reluctant to not tow

1357
01:23:18,960 --> 01:23:22,160
Speaker 2: the party line. The party line at this point is

1358
01:23:22,800 --> 01:23:26,600
Speaker 2: Trump's line, because Abbott is the enforcer for Trump. So,

1359
01:23:26,880 --> 01:23:29,640
Speaker 2: I mean, on the day of the vote for vouchers

1360
01:23:29,880 --> 01:23:33,160
Speaker 2: last year, Trump called in and talked to all the

1361
01:23:33,240 --> 01:23:35,960
Speaker 2: Republican legislators and he said, I'll come down there if

1362
01:23:36,000 --> 01:23:38,800
Speaker 2: I have to, Right, he said, I need you to

1363
01:23:38,880 --> 01:23:40,720
Speaker 2: vote for this voucher, and I'll come down there if

1364
01:23:40,760 --> 01:23:44,960
Speaker 2: I have to. So they are not freaking. I have

1365
01:23:45,280 --> 01:23:48,320
Speaker 2: had several Republican colleagues say, I hope you win this.

1366
01:23:50,000 --> 01:23:53,040
Speaker 2: They they have lost.

1367
01:23:53,080 --> 01:23:55,800
Speaker 1: They feel trapped by the politics. Yeah.

1368
01:23:56,479 --> 01:23:58,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, they've lost control of their party. They don't agree

1369
01:23:58,760 --> 01:24:02,600
Speaker 2: with what is happening. They don't have the courage to

1370
01:24:02,960 --> 01:24:06,960
Speaker 2: risk their primary by stepping out of line and doing

1371
01:24:07,000 --> 01:24:12,160
Speaker 2: what they know is right, because they they tell themselves that, well,

1372
01:24:12,360 --> 01:24:14,400
Speaker 2: it would be worse if I weren't here.

1373
01:24:15,400 --> 01:24:24,640
Speaker 1: Right, If you're running your race without the national environment,

1374
01:24:25,120 --> 01:24:28,920
Speaker 1: I imagine you would feel like your challenge, my guess

1375
01:24:29,040 --> 01:24:31,440
Speaker 1: is one of your challenges not to let them nationalize

1376
01:24:31,479 --> 01:24:33,000
Speaker 1: this race. Is that fair?

1377
01:24:35,280 --> 01:24:37,720
Speaker 2: Well, let me say, I don't even see it like that.

1378
01:24:38,520 --> 01:24:41,680
Speaker 2: Our issues, our biggest challenges are so Texas. I mean,

1379
01:24:41,760 --> 01:24:45,639
Speaker 2: look right, Frost governors like I mean, it's like ready

1380
01:24:45,680 --> 01:24:48,400
Speaker 2: for president. This is a big, diverse state. We are

1381
01:24:48,720 --> 01:24:53,600
Speaker 2: a world economic powerhouse. Our issues we got enough to

1382
01:24:53,720 --> 01:24:58,000
Speaker 2: deal with here in Texas, and so that is what

1383
01:24:58,240 --> 01:25:02,360
Speaker 2: I focus on. And at the same time, I know

1384
01:25:02,880 --> 01:25:06,599
Speaker 2: that what happens in this midterm election will affect every

1385
01:25:06,720 --> 01:25:11,920
Speaker 2: single American and that's because of our size. So I

1386
01:25:12,000 --> 01:25:17,200
Speaker 2: don't know if you have heard this, but about three

1387
01:25:17,280 --> 01:25:20,479
Speaker 2: years ago I first learned from a national kind of

1388
01:25:20,520 --> 01:25:24,160
Speaker 2: political player, a donor who came to talk to a

1389
01:25:24,200 --> 01:25:27,960
Speaker 2: few of us and said, Texas is going to gain

1390
01:25:28,040 --> 01:25:29,960
Speaker 2: four to five more congressional seats by the end of

1391
01:25:30,000 --> 01:25:35,160
Speaker 2: the decade. That's the Brennan Center, right. And then that's

1392
01:25:35,200 --> 01:25:37,479
Speaker 2: just because we're growing faster than everybody. And so that

1393
01:25:37,600 --> 01:25:40,240
Speaker 2: if Texas doesn't flip before the end of the decade,

1394
01:25:40,560 --> 01:25:44,040
Speaker 2: there cannot be democratic control of Congress. Math doesn't work.

1395
01:25:45,040 --> 01:25:48,040
Speaker 2: And because congressional seats are quite to electoral votes, there

1396
01:25:48,080 --> 01:25:51,840
Speaker 2: cannot be democratic control of the White House and the ended.

1397
01:25:52,080 --> 01:25:54,719
Speaker 2: And this was like after like my fourth special session

1398
01:25:54,960 --> 01:25:57,200
Speaker 2: fighting this voucher, and I was like, cleary id and

1399
01:25:57,640 --> 01:25:59,759
Speaker 2: I was like, what is this meaning I'm going into?

1400
01:26:00,240 --> 01:26:02,840
Speaker 2: And he said, and so the way we see it,

1401
01:26:03,000 --> 01:26:06,880
Speaker 2: the fate of the Union depends on Texas. And I

1402
01:26:06,960 --> 01:26:11,200
Speaker 2: was like, you got to be kidding me, But that

1403
01:26:11,479 --> 01:26:15,479
Speaker 2: is a motivator for me. We have an opportunity in Texas, yes,

1404
01:26:15,640 --> 01:26:19,920
Speaker 2: to save ourselves and to deliver real results for Texans,

1405
01:26:20,720 --> 01:26:25,320
Speaker 2: but we also have an opportunity in this race to

1406
01:26:25,439 --> 01:26:29,320
Speaker 2: be the difference for this country. And because the state

1407
01:26:29,400 --> 01:26:32,479
Speaker 2: legislature and the governor has veto power over the next

1408
01:26:32,600 --> 01:26:36,679
Speaker 2: maps that will be drawn, what happens in these state

1409
01:26:36,840 --> 01:26:38,519
Speaker 2: races is huge.

1410
01:26:39,240 --> 01:26:40,960
Speaker 1: Let me get to the business community, because you know,

1411
01:26:41,040 --> 01:26:43,040
Speaker 1: one of the other things press releases you get all

1412
01:26:43,080 --> 01:26:45,760
Speaker 1: the time from Greg Abbott is you know some new

1413
01:26:45,840 --> 01:26:48,240
Speaker 1: survey Texas is the best place to do business or

1414
01:26:48,280 --> 01:26:50,960
Speaker 1: a new place is moving to Texas. So he is

1415
01:26:51,120 --> 01:26:54,360
Speaker 1: going to tout that record, right, the record of you know,

1416
01:26:54,840 --> 01:26:57,800
Speaker 1: job growth in the state. You know, every day there's

1417
01:26:57,840 --> 01:27:00,000
Speaker 1: a new headline of another new company moving into place

1418
01:27:00,439 --> 01:27:03,479
Speaker 1: or Frisco or you know, so even someplay not everything's

1419
01:27:03,520 --> 01:27:05,519
Speaker 1: North Texas, though a lot of it is these days.

1420
01:27:05,520 --> 01:27:07,720
Speaker 1: Are I love I love the story of it. Is

1421
01:27:07,760 --> 01:27:10,880
Speaker 1: it San Angelo the halfway point between San Antonio and

1422
01:27:10,960 --> 01:27:13,800
Speaker 1: Austin that is now becoming its own megapolis?

1423
01:27:13,920 --> 01:27:14,040
Speaker 2: Right?

1424
01:27:14,360 --> 01:27:15,559
Speaker 1: You know? Do I have it right?

1425
01:27:16,400 --> 01:27:18,320
Speaker 2: Are Saint Marcus? Maybe San marcous That's what.

1426
01:27:18,360 --> 01:27:21,519
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of San Marcos? My apologies, but it's like

1427
01:27:21,880 --> 01:27:23,479
Speaker 1: every day you turn, it's like there's a whole new

1428
01:27:23,720 --> 01:27:30,720
Speaker 1: city like rising up. Right. How do you uh, how

1429
01:27:30,760 --> 01:27:33,280
Speaker 1: do you get the I don't want to say support

1430
01:27:33,320 --> 01:27:35,400
Speaker 1: of the business community. You may not get the support.

1431
01:27:35,760 --> 01:27:40,680
Speaker 1: You know, maybe it takes a term, but you know,

1432
01:27:40,840 --> 01:27:42,760
Speaker 1: how do you get the business community not to be

1433
01:27:42,920 --> 01:27:44,360
Speaker 1: antagonistic to what you're doing?

1434
01:27:46,520 --> 01:27:50,200
Speaker 2: The business community's pissed right now, let me tell you, okay,

1435
01:27:51,160 --> 01:27:57,480
Speaker 2: because because of tariffs, because of immigration raised right builders,

1436
01:27:57,640 --> 01:28:01,880
Speaker 2: builders who have typically been Republicans in this date contractors,

1437
01:28:03,600 --> 01:28:08,000
Speaker 2: They are very angry at Republicans. It just politics is

1438
01:28:08,080 --> 01:28:13,840
Speaker 2: broken and it creates opportunities. I will say my response

1439
01:28:14,040 --> 01:28:18,559
Speaker 2: to Abbot touting his business record is that the people

1440
01:28:18,600 --> 01:28:24,040
Speaker 2: of Texas are not benefiting from our economic power in

1441
01:28:24,160 --> 01:28:27,200
Speaker 2: this way. We have the highest uninsured rate for working

1442
01:28:27,280 --> 01:28:32,160
Speaker 2: Texans of any other state, highest mount of uninsured veterans kids.

1443
01:28:32,320 --> 01:28:39,280
Speaker 2: That goes on. We have more people making below fifteen

1444
01:28:39,360 --> 01:28:43,000
Speaker 2: dollars an hour than everywhere else. We work longer hours

1445
01:28:43,320 --> 01:28:47,840
Speaker 2: than anyone when you look at national average for hours work.

1446
01:28:48,240 --> 01:28:51,000
Speaker 2: We work really, really hard, and we don't get the

1447
01:28:51,080 --> 01:28:54,480
Speaker 2: benefit of that work. And that's because Greg Abbot basically

1448
01:28:54,640 --> 01:28:57,320
Speaker 2: hands over the keys to the castle. An example of that,

1449
01:28:58,240 --> 01:29:02,720
Speaker 2: he's become big buds with el Elon Musk now has

1450
01:29:03,720 --> 01:29:08,080
Speaker 2: his star base in South Texas. He just gave Elon

1451
01:29:08,320 --> 01:29:13,240
Speaker 2: Musk the ability to open our and shut our public

1452
01:29:13,320 --> 01:29:16,320
Speaker 2: beach booka Chika beach. This is a beach that in

1453
01:29:16,439 --> 01:29:20,000
Speaker 2: the Texas Constitution says shall be free and open to

1454
01:29:20,080 --> 01:29:22,839
Speaker 2: the public. It is our constitutional right to have access

1455
01:29:22,840 --> 01:29:25,360
Speaker 2: to that beach. It is being bought in state court

1456
01:29:25,560 --> 01:29:28,679
Speaker 2: right now, but it is predicted that they will shut

1457
01:29:28,760 --> 01:29:31,080
Speaker 2: down this beach about three months out of the year.

1458
01:29:31,840 --> 01:29:35,479
Speaker 2: My word, So you know, it's those kinds of deals

1459
01:29:35,560 --> 01:29:38,840
Speaker 2: that are raw deals for the people of Texas at

1460
01:29:38,920 --> 01:29:44,160
Speaker 2: the exp and only really benefit fitting these CEOs of

1461
01:29:44,240 --> 01:29:48,160
Speaker 2: global corporations. My business approach is. Look, we say we

1462
01:29:48,360 --> 01:29:53,960
Speaker 2: value our small business owners, Let's give them a lega.

1463
01:29:54,280 --> 01:29:57,400
Speaker 2: So cut sales taxes for our small business owners. Let's

1464
01:29:57,439 --> 01:30:02,160
Speaker 2: have a tax free small business Saturday, Saturday after Thanksgiving. Right,

1465
01:30:02,560 --> 01:30:07,480
Speaker 2: Our small business owners in Texas make below the average

1466
01:30:07,720 --> 01:30:11,680
Speaker 2: for profits for small business owners in this nation, have

1467
01:30:11,760 --> 01:30:16,080
Speaker 2: a harder time getting access to debts. So again, it

1468
01:30:16,240 --> 01:30:20,040
Speaker 2: is a clean slate, a fresh start to build an

1469
01:30:20,080 --> 01:30:23,880
Speaker 2: economy that actually works for Texans, including small business owners

1470
01:30:23,920 --> 01:30:27,560
Speaker 2: who have this bold ambition that we are proud of

1471
01:30:27,720 --> 01:30:31,120
Speaker 2: in Texas to create their own business, provide for their family,

1472
01:30:31,200 --> 01:30:32,679
Speaker 2: and create good jobs in our community.

1473
01:30:33,200 --> 01:30:34,720
Speaker 1: Let me get you out of here on this which

1474
01:30:34,800 --> 01:30:38,840
Speaker 1: is that grid, your electric grid, which I feel like

1475
01:30:39,240 --> 01:30:45,120
Speaker 1: is a ticking timeline. It's you know, every time there's this,

1476
01:30:45,439 --> 01:30:48,559
Speaker 1: you know, you know, whether it's super heat or super cold. Right,

1477
01:30:48,680 --> 01:30:50,360
Speaker 1: You're like, is it going to hold? Is it going

1478
01:30:50,439 --> 01:30:55,680
Speaker 1: to hold? Is it as simple as saying that deregulation

1479
01:30:55,880 --> 01:30:56,439
Speaker 1: was a mistake.

1480
01:30:59,280 --> 01:31:06,439
Speaker 2: So here's what I think was deregulation and mistake. I

1481
01:31:06,600 --> 01:31:10,320
Speaker 2: think that there are some pros to tregulars to deregulation,

1482
01:31:10,720 --> 01:31:14,599
Speaker 2: but definitely we have had big problems when it comes

1483
01:31:14,720 --> 01:31:18,600
Speaker 2: again to the corruption question. I mentioned the issue of

1484
01:31:18,720 --> 01:31:26,040
Speaker 2: letting the gas providers get away with basically price gouging Texans.

1485
01:31:26,880 --> 01:31:30,519
Speaker 2: We also have the new big concern, frankly for our grid.

1486
01:31:30,720 --> 01:31:33,360
Speaker 2: Are these data centers that are popping up all over

1487
01:31:33,680 --> 01:31:35,560
Speaker 2: this state. Greg Gaba has said, we're going to have

1488
01:31:35,640 --> 01:31:38,679
Speaker 2: more data centers than any other state in the nation,

1489
01:31:38,880 --> 01:31:40,280
Speaker 2: and it's going to cost any better.

1490
01:31:40,640 --> 01:31:43,800
Speaker 1: You guys better start four one K electric bills or something, you.

1491
01:31:43,840 --> 01:31:46,000
Speaker 2: Know, I mean, right, I mean, it's so it is.

1492
01:31:46,160 --> 01:31:48,679
Speaker 1: I'm in northern Virginia and we're already feeling the impact.

1493
01:31:48,840 --> 01:31:52,200
Speaker 1: Are electric bills of skyrocketed over the last six months,

1494
01:31:52,400 --> 01:31:57,160
Speaker 1: and it is you know, this is this sensitivity is out.

1495
01:31:57,040 --> 01:32:01,439
Speaker 2: There in Texas. It's predicted we will have to pay

1496
01:32:01,760 --> 01:32:07,120
Speaker 2: about six hundred more dollars a year with the cost

1497
01:32:07,240 --> 01:32:11,120
Speaker 2: of electricity, right because they want to socialize the expense

1498
01:32:11,400 --> 01:32:17,360
Speaker 2: and then privatize the profits. These are data centers that

1499
01:32:17,400 --> 01:32:19,479
Speaker 2: are owned by the richest men in the world, and

1500
01:32:19,600 --> 01:32:23,400
Speaker 2: they should pay for themselves. So there are Look, the

1501
01:32:23,520 --> 01:32:26,320
Speaker 2: whole data center AI thing is something that we're all

1502
01:32:26,400 --> 01:32:31,479
Speaker 2: struggling to get ahead of. But at big, basic bare minimum,

1503
01:32:31,720 --> 01:32:34,559
Speaker 2: they should pay for themselves there are, but there are

1504
01:32:34,720 --> 01:32:37,160
Speaker 2: big challenges with how our grid is going to be

1505
01:32:37,280 --> 01:32:41,639
Speaker 2: able to meet the energy needs of these data centers.

1506
01:32:42,160 --> 01:32:44,679
Speaker 2: And also I will say that there is in Texas

1507
01:32:45,080 --> 01:32:50,240
Speaker 2: a big problem that we have part bisins who are

1508
01:32:50,280 --> 01:32:57,200
Speaker 2: in the legislature who are insistent that renewable energy should

1509
01:32:57,240 --> 01:33:00,559
Speaker 2: not be part of the equation. Renewable energy has essential

1510
01:33:00,720 --> 01:33:03,920
Speaker 2: to keeping this grind going and Texas renewable energy has

1511
01:33:03,960 --> 01:33:07,679
Speaker 2: been essential to helping with the cost of electricity in Texas.

1512
01:33:08,280 --> 01:33:14,480
Speaker 2: But on so many issues, it's the ideology, the ideological

1513
01:33:14,600 --> 01:33:18,040
Speaker 2: kind of true believers on when it comes to fossil fuels,

1514
01:33:18,120 --> 01:33:21,519
Speaker 2: who are just opposed and who threaten the viability of

1515
01:33:21,560 --> 01:33:21,920
Speaker 2: our grid.

1516
01:33:22,000 --> 01:33:27,320
Speaker 1: Tune, where are you on nuclear energy? Just curious, that's

1517
01:33:27,360 --> 01:33:29,960
Speaker 1: a that's a I get it, you know, but you

1518
01:33:30,040 --> 01:33:32,000
Speaker 1: know it could be the it could be the solution

1519
01:33:32,120 --> 01:33:32,800
Speaker 1: to clean energy.

1520
01:33:33,439 --> 01:33:36,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I'm not against it. I know there are concerns,

1521
01:33:36,680 --> 01:33:38,599
Speaker 2: and I think we need to make sure that we're

1522
01:33:39,160 --> 01:33:42,559
Speaker 2: addressing any externalities. Any going to fall up fall out

1523
01:33:42,600 --> 01:33:44,639
Speaker 2: to the wrong word, So I should use that any

1524
01:33:46,560 --> 01:33:52,240
Speaker 2: any kind of externalities that come from it. It's my understanding. Also,

1525
01:33:52,320 --> 01:33:57,919
Speaker 2: water intensive we have a severe water challenge in Texas.

1526
01:33:58,200 --> 01:34:00,599
Speaker 2: We're running out of water, and so these are all

1527
01:34:00,640 --> 01:34:02,360
Speaker 2: things that need to be looked at. Look, I'm not

1528
01:34:02,600 --> 01:34:04,719
Speaker 2: an expert on it. I don't have all the answers,

1529
01:34:05,000 --> 01:34:08,560
Speaker 2: but I can always promise the voters of Texas that

1530
01:34:08,680 --> 01:34:11,519
Speaker 2: I will make sure we evaluate it all and that

1531
01:34:11,680 --> 01:34:15,720
Speaker 2: whatever we do is about putting Tuxans first and not industry.

1532
01:34:16,640 --> 01:34:18,640
Speaker 1: All right, I'll get you out on here on this.

1533
01:34:18,800 --> 01:34:25,600
Speaker 1: So give me your favorite sort of it's you know,

1534
01:34:26,880 --> 01:34:32,040
Speaker 1: it's nine o'clock, you're campaigning. Are you looking for a tacorea?

1535
01:34:32,320 --> 01:34:35,800
Speaker 1: Are you looking for barbecue? What's the what's the road?

1536
01:34:35,880 --> 01:34:40,280
Speaker 1: What's your campaign road trip? Food to refuel and and

1537
01:34:40,600 --> 01:34:43,200
Speaker 1: you know, do you have any specific favorites You're like, boy,

1538
01:34:43,200 --> 01:34:46,200
Speaker 1: I hope we're running late, you know, in Fort Worth

1539
01:34:46,280 --> 01:34:48,479
Speaker 1: because I love this place, you know, or something like that.

1540
01:34:48,960 --> 01:34:52,599
Speaker 2: So like my favorite and like with that exception where

1541
01:34:52,680 --> 01:34:56,960
Speaker 2: we land is always tacos. And because any mom and

1542
01:34:57,040 --> 01:34:59,120
Speaker 2: pop and those are the best tacos you can get

1543
01:34:59,200 --> 01:35:03,800
Speaker 2: at some mom, little not well known Mexican restaurant. You

1544
01:35:03,880 --> 01:35:06,759
Speaker 2: can always it's good to go food, right, you can.

1545
01:35:07,000 --> 01:35:09,920
Speaker 1: If you don't recognize the name of the restaurant. It's

1546
01:35:10,000 --> 01:35:10,559
Speaker 1: going to be good.

1547
01:35:10,920 --> 01:35:11,600
Speaker 2: That's it.

1548
01:35:12,040 --> 01:35:15,360
Speaker 1: You got it, Jack, I love that. No, it's by

1549
01:35:15,400 --> 01:35:17,560
Speaker 1: the way, it's true. Fried chicken. In the South, the

1550
01:35:17,720 --> 01:35:21,200
Speaker 1: best fried chicken is usually the family that runs the

1551
01:35:21,280 --> 01:35:24,040
Speaker 1: local gas station, who has the fryer in the back.

1552
01:35:24,120 --> 01:35:26,800
Speaker 1: And it's like you think gas station fried chicken. Trust me,

1553
01:35:27,040 --> 01:35:28,600
Speaker 1: it's the best fried chicken you're gonna find in the

1554
01:35:28,640 --> 01:35:31,240
Speaker 1: state of Georgia, you know, or the state of Alabama.

1555
01:35:31,600 --> 01:35:34,080
Speaker 1: And I believe that. In Texas, you know, it's by

1556
01:35:34,080 --> 01:35:36,680
Speaker 1: the way, this is true. In Iowa, you go up

1557
01:35:36,720 --> 01:35:39,720
Speaker 1: I thirty five and the best place to eat is

1558
01:35:39,840 --> 01:35:44,280
Speaker 1: usually a first generation Mexican owned restaurant.

1559
01:35:45,000 --> 01:35:45,479
Speaker 2: Is that right?

1560
01:35:46,040 --> 01:35:48,240
Speaker 1: And you will get it. The best best home made

1561
01:35:48,280 --> 01:35:50,400
Speaker 1: mole I've ever had was in Carroll County, Iowa.

1562
01:35:51,040 --> 01:35:52,320
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I don't know.

1563
01:35:53,320 --> 01:35:57,000
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'll find better, but if I go to

1564
01:35:57,240 --> 01:36:00,479
Speaker 1: I'm not denying that, but I think what the point

1565
01:36:00,560 --> 01:36:04,400
Speaker 1: being is, you know, the less known, the more authentic, Right.

1566
01:36:06,200 --> 01:36:08,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, that's right.

1567
01:36:08,479 --> 01:36:11,680
Speaker 1: Amen, All right, we'll be safe on the trail. You uh,

1568
01:36:12,479 --> 01:36:14,640
Speaker 1: do you have a preference in that Senate race or

1569
01:36:14,760 --> 01:36:19,599
Speaker 1: you just or are you gonna stay out of that primary.

1570
01:36:19,760 --> 01:36:26,000
Speaker 2: I'm check on team Jazzeriko. They have both endorsed me,

1571
01:36:26,120 --> 01:36:27,920
Speaker 2: and I wish them both the best.

1572
01:36:29,680 --> 01:36:32,519
Speaker 1: At all. Were I assume you just look forward to

1573
01:36:32,600 --> 01:36:35,560
Speaker 1: running against Ken Paxton. Is that the uh that he

1574
01:36:35,680 --> 01:36:37,479
Speaker 1: helps your messaging more than anybody else?

1575
01:36:39,000 --> 01:36:42,560
Speaker 2: Well, there's certainly a corruption issue there, so yeah, I

1576
01:36:42,640 --> 01:36:46,599
Speaker 2: mean he would be Yes, I think that's right. But look,

1577
01:36:46,680 --> 01:36:49,320
Speaker 2: I think no matter who, there's more than one way

1578
01:36:49,360 --> 01:36:51,720
Speaker 2: to win a race, and no matter who it is,

1579
01:36:51,880 --> 01:36:55,799
Speaker 2: I think Democrats just have a great opportunity this election cycle.

1580
01:36:56,160 --> 01:36:58,120
Speaker 1: Well we'll see if the National Party, the National Party

1581
01:36:58,200 --> 01:37:01,360
Speaker 1: kicking in. You know that Texas is always next cycle

1582
01:37:01,400 --> 01:37:01,720
Speaker 1: they're going.

1583
01:37:01,720 --> 01:37:05,479
Speaker 2: To invest, isn't that right? Well, you know I mentioned

1584
01:37:05,560 --> 01:37:09,200
Speaker 2: the national implications of this race. I've talked about them

1585
01:37:09,240 --> 01:37:11,240
Speaker 2: to Ken Martin. He seems to get at it and

1586
01:37:11,439 --> 01:37:14,240
Speaker 2: he seems to be on board. It's like the future

1587
01:37:14,360 --> 01:37:17,040
Speaker 2: is now in Texas and we need to make this happen.

1588
01:37:17,680 --> 01:37:19,920
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we'll be watching, Tina. You know, it's

1589
01:37:19,920 --> 01:37:21,360
Speaker 1: a be safe for the trail.

1590
01:37:21,600 --> 01:37:24,000
Speaker 2: All right, all right, great, thank you appreciate it.

1591
01:37:32,479 --> 01:37:37,439
Speaker 1: All right again, shoot me some thoughts on what are

1592
01:37:37,520 --> 01:37:39,680
Speaker 1: some of the what are some of the details of

1593
01:37:39,720 --> 01:37:42,080
Speaker 1: what you'd like to see in a sort of revamped

1594
01:37:42,960 --> 01:37:46,720
Speaker 1: public school Uh, you know, we're sort of reimagining the

1595
01:37:46,760 --> 01:37:49,439
Speaker 1: public school system. What does it look like? How is

1596
01:37:49,479 --> 01:37:51,680
Speaker 1: it funded? Right, especially when you have this movement of

1597
01:37:51,800 --> 01:37:54,760
Speaker 1: trying to cut or get rid of property taxes. I

1598
01:37:54,840 --> 01:37:56,439
Speaker 1: know there's some movement on the right of trying to

1599
01:37:56,800 --> 01:38:00,559
Speaker 1: get rid of property taxes altogether. I think that would

1600
01:38:00,560 --> 01:38:03,519
Speaker 1: be a nightmare for local and state government if that

1601
01:38:03,720 --> 01:38:06,439
Speaker 1: was ever attempted in any state that tried to attempt it,

1602
01:38:06,680 --> 01:38:09,560
Speaker 1: And if you did it, you'd immediately see, you know,

1603
01:38:09,800 --> 01:38:12,960
Speaker 1: massive fees and tolls and all sorts of stuff. I mean,

1604
01:38:13,439 --> 01:38:15,360
Speaker 1: you know, if you want to know what happens when

1605
01:38:15,360 --> 01:38:18,800
Speaker 1: you have a state that tries to lower taxes, all

1606
01:38:18,800 --> 01:38:20,000
Speaker 1: you have to do is rent a car in that

1607
01:38:20,120 --> 01:38:22,320
Speaker 1: state that lowers taxes and find out how much you're

1608
01:38:22,320 --> 01:38:25,839
Speaker 1: spending in tolls and how many roads become toll roads,

1609
01:38:25,880 --> 01:38:28,720
Speaker 1: and all of that you get feed to death. And

1610
01:38:28,800 --> 01:38:31,760
Speaker 1: I do think we need to have smarter ways and

1611
01:38:31,880 --> 01:38:34,600
Speaker 1: trying to present what your total tax bill is in

1612
01:38:34,680 --> 01:38:41,040
Speaker 1: a given year, because tolls, fees to register cars, reregister cars,

1613
01:38:41,080 --> 01:38:43,040
Speaker 1: all of that, those are all taxes. But if you

1614
01:38:43,120 --> 01:38:45,439
Speaker 1: call it a fee, right, if you call it a

1615
01:38:45,560 --> 01:38:49,559
Speaker 1: toll people for whatever reason don't you know, or a tariff, right,

1616
01:38:49,600 --> 01:38:53,479
Speaker 1: they don't immediately put it in the same category as

1617
01:38:53,520 --> 01:38:55,800
Speaker 1: when they write that one big check. I mean, the

1618
01:38:55,920 --> 01:38:59,920
Speaker 1: fact is we're all easy marks on having government taxes

1619
01:39:00,120 --> 01:39:02,000
Speaker 1: more if you don't call it a tax, if you

1620
01:39:02,080 --> 01:39:04,920
Speaker 1: call it something else, and then that's that's how you

1621
01:39:04,960 --> 01:39:07,439
Speaker 1: end up getting nickel and donnd your on your tax bill.

1622
01:39:08,240 --> 01:39:10,559
Speaker 1: But it is Wednesday, Top five lists to.

1623
01:39:12,479 --> 01:39:13,719
Speaker 2: Top five top.

1624
01:39:17,880 --> 01:39:21,880
Speaker 1: We've had some action in the Senate. I think it's

1625
01:39:21,960 --> 01:39:28,880
Speaker 1: pretty clear that you know, Democrats have now, uh have

1626
01:39:29,080 --> 01:39:32,040
Speaker 1: met the minimum requirement to put the Senate in play.

1627
01:39:32,080 --> 01:39:34,439
Speaker 1: And what do I mean by the minimum requirement. They've

1628
01:39:34,560 --> 01:39:40,439
Speaker 1: got five Republican seats actually in play in legitimate ways. Right,

1629
01:39:40,640 --> 01:39:45,479
Speaker 1: There's North Carolina, Maine, Ohio, Texas, and Alaska. Those five

1630
01:39:45,760 --> 01:39:51,400
Speaker 1: all have legitimate, likely Democratic nominees. In some cases, the

1631
01:39:51,520 --> 01:39:55,120
Speaker 1: primaries in Texas and Maine may not matter who wins

1632
01:39:55,160 --> 01:39:57,240
Speaker 1: the primary. They're going to be competitive due to sort

1633
01:39:57,240 --> 01:40:01,080
Speaker 1: of Republican problems there as well, particularly in Texas. So

1634
01:40:01,479 --> 01:40:04,559
Speaker 1: Democrats need four right to flip the Senate so they've

1635
01:40:04,600 --> 01:40:08,200
Speaker 1: put five Republican health seats legitimately in play. I still

1636
01:40:08,240 --> 01:40:10,680
Speaker 1: think they need a couple of more. You sort of need,

1637
01:40:10,920 --> 01:40:12,519
Speaker 1: you need more on the table if you want to

1638
01:40:12,560 --> 01:40:15,400
Speaker 1: get your four or five, because you're not gonna they say,

1639
01:40:15,439 --> 01:40:17,400
Speaker 1: you're not going to clean sweep. In wave years there

1640
01:40:17,800 --> 01:40:22,600
Speaker 1: we do see sweeps, so that can happen, but you

1641
01:40:22,680 --> 01:40:25,439
Speaker 1: know they're clean sweep. Heers having to win some states

1642
01:40:25,479 --> 01:40:28,200
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump won by near double digits or close

1643
01:40:28,280 --> 01:40:30,960
Speaker 1: to double digits, like your Ohio's, your Alaska's, your Texas.

1644
01:40:31,200 --> 01:40:34,760
Speaker 1: So you know, and and when I just when I

1645
01:40:34,880 --> 01:40:37,679
Speaker 1: just laid out those five seats that that Democrats appear

1646
01:40:37,720 --> 01:40:42,960
Speaker 1: to put in play, he carried four to the five

1647
01:40:43,520 --> 01:40:50,360
Speaker 1: right North Carolina, uh, Ohio, Texas, and Alaska. And he

1648
01:40:50,439 --> 01:40:53,920
Speaker 1: got one congressional district in Maine. Right, So these are

1649
01:40:54,080 --> 01:40:56,280
Speaker 1: these aren't easy. I think they you know, they need

1650
01:40:56,360 --> 01:41:01,519
Speaker 1: to figure out between Florida, Mississippi, Kansas, Iowa, those four

1651
01:41:01,800 --> 01:41:03,479
Speaker 1: I think he's got. They got to get two of

1652
01:41:03,520 --> 01:41:07,439
Speaker 1: those four legitimately legitimately in play. Maybe they throw in

1653
01:41:07,439 --> 01:41:10,760
Speaker 1: a Kentucky on there. I'm a little skeptical on that.

1654
01:41:10,960 --> 01:41:14,439
Speaker 1: But the more elon Musk plays around wherever Elon Musk is.

1655
01:41:14,520 --> 01:41:17,519
Speaker 1: He's not good politics. I think with swing voters and

1656
01:41:17,560 --> 01:41:19,800
Speaker 1: with independence and the fact that he's dabbling in the

1657
01:41:19,960 --> 01:41:26,679
Speaker 1: Kentucky Senate race, might actually might actually boomerang a little

1658
01:41:26,680 --> 01:41:29,720
Speaker 1: bit because of sort of I think the feeling, the

1659
01:41:29,920 --> 01:41:32,960
Speaker 1: growing feeling that voters have about the power of these

1660
01:41:33,000 --> 01:41:36,320
Speaker 1: tech giants, and he in some ways, because he's so famous,

1661
01:41:36,840 --> 01:41:39,960
Speaker 1: is kind of the avatar for big tech, and I

1662
01:41:40,000 --> 01:41:43,680
Speaker 1: don't think he's good politics. But overall, we do have

1663
01:41:43,760 --> 01:41:45,960
Speaker 1: a bit of a shift in the Senate landscape. So

1664
01:41:46,720 --> 01:41:49,679
Speaker 1: under that what are my top five most likely to flip?

1665
01:41:49,760 --> 01:41:52,720
Speaker 1: So number one hasn't changed. The North Carolina Senate race.

1666
01:41:53,040 --> 01:41:55,639
Speaker 1: Roy Cooper remains the front runner. We've yet to see

1667
01:41:55,640 --> 01:41:59,400
Speaker 1: a poll with him trailing. He's financially a juggernaut. Look

1668
01:41:59,439 --> 01:42:03,320
Speaker 1: Michael wattat that republic likely Republican nominee is certainly doing

1669
01:42:03,400 --> 01:42:06,320
Speaker 1: pretty well on the fundraising front. But I still think

1670
01:42:06,360 --> 01:42:08,120
Speaker 1: he's got an uphill battle. The only thing he's got

1671
01:42:08,160 --> 01:42:11,080
Speaker 1: going form of the demographics of North Carolina, Roy Cooper's

1672
01:42:11,080 --> 01:42:16,519
Speaker 1: got almost everything else going for him. Maine, I am,

1673
01:42:16,960 --> 01:42:19,000
Speaker 1: you know, And so North Caroline's on the one spot.

1674
01:42:19,479 --> 01:42:22,840
Speaker 1: I'm keeping Maine in the two spot of most likely

1675
01:42:23,360 --> 01:42:28,680
Speaker 1: to flip simply because I'm not convinced Susan Collins is

1676
01:42:28,800 --> 01:42:32,719
Speaker 1: running for reelection. I still think, Look, she finally deadline

1677
01:42:32,760 --> 01:42:37,840
Speaker 1: hasn't passed yet. She has never been this unpopular as

1678
01:42:37,920 --> 01:42:41,960
Speaker 1: she is going into this race. Do I think John

1679
01:42:42,040 --> 01:42:45,040
Speaker 1: Thune has basically protected her from a from a MAGA

1680
01:42:45,080 --> 01:42:48,280
Speaker 1: primary challenge. I do. I think Trump at a minimum

1681
01:42:48,479 --> 01:42:52,679
Speaker 1: understands that with Collins, which is why he feels carte

1682
01:42:52,680 --> 01:42:56,800
Speaker 1: blanche to do to basically kill Bill Cassidy's political career. Now,

1683
01:42:57,479 --> 01:43:00,479
Speaker 1: which I think he just did. We'll see. I actually

1684
01:43:00,520 --> 01:43:03,080
Speaker 1: think there's a path for Cassidy if he chooses to

1685
01:43:03,160 --> 01:43:06,360
Speaker 1: take it. It's a harder path. It's the Lisa Murkowski path.

1686
01:43:06,760 --> 01:43:12,000
Speaker 1: It's independent, and it's something our system desperately needs. I

1687
01:43:12,120 --> 01:43:14,240
Speaker 1: think he's got the stomach and the spine to do it,

1688
01:43:15,920 --> 01:43:18,559
Speaker 1: but it's his only path to re election. I think

1689
01:43:18,640 --> 01:43:21,400
Speaker 1: trying to win inside a Republican primary in the state

1690
01:43:21,439 --> 01:43:24,479
Speaker 1: of Louisiana is fools is a fool's errand for him,

1691
01:43:26,520 --> 01:43:28,040
Speaker 1: and I don't know if that's the way I'd want

1692
01:43:28,040 --> 01:43:29,760
Speaker 1: to go down fighting I'd want to go to and

1693
01:43:29,880 --> 01:43:33,559
Speaker 1: fighting with the biggest electorate I could use, which when

1694
01:43:33,600 --> 01:43:37,320
Speaker 1: you run as an independent, you can maximize who may

1695
01:43:37,360 --> 01:43:42,000
Speaker 1: support so number one North Carolina, and I think there's

1696
01:43:42,080 --> 01:43:44,519
Speaker 1: a gap growing here. I think the more this political

1697
01:43:44,600 --> 01:43:48,280
Speaker 1: climate deteriorates for Republicans generally, and the lower the President's

1698
01:43:48,320 --> 01:43:51,800
Speaker 1: job rating goes, it feels like the North Carolina race

1699
01:43:51,960 --> 01:43:55,680
Speaker 1: just gets harder and harder, especially now when you have

1700
01:43:55,760 --> 01:44:05,320
Speaker 1: the retiring Senator Tom tillis growing increasingly willing to confront

1701
01:44:05,920 --> 01:44:10,080
Speaker 1: the president on what he's doing, particularly informed policy. I

1702
01:44:10,120 --> 01:44:13,760
Speaker 1: mean Tillius has been leaning in on the concern he

1703
01:44:13,920 --> 01:44:17,960
Speaker 1: has with the saber rattling over Greenland. So North Carolina

1704
01:44:18,040 --> 01:44:21,000
Speaker 1: number one, number two main and again, I think the

1705
01:44:21,120 --> 01:44:23,160
Speaker 1: thing to watch for in the next couple of weeks

1706
01:44:23,560 --> 01:44:27,559
Speaker 1: is signs, you know, is there does she decide I'm

1707
01:44:27,640 --> 01:44:30,840
Speaker 1: not going out losing, And I think there's plenty of

1708
01:44:30,880 --> 01:44:32,920
Speaker 1: politicians don't want to do that. They don't want to

1709
01:44:32,960 --> 01:44:36,920
Speaker 1: go out losing. She's been she's been in the Senate

1710
01:44:36,960 --> 01:44:42,599
Speaker 1: since ninety six, So that's my that's just my I've

1711
01:44:43,120 --> 01:44:47,240
Speaker 1: I've seen this type of incumbent in the past with

1712
01:44:47,479 --> 01:44:51,200
Speaker 1: polling numbers like this in a political environment where your party,

1713
01:44:51,720 --> 01:44:56,160
Speaker 1: political environment is not going to get any better to me,

1714
01:44:56,600 --> 01:45:01,240
Speaker 1: all of the hallmarks of an incumbent. That's I'm not

1715
01:45:01,439 --> 01:45:04,439
Speaker 1: fighting this uphill battle. I'm not gonna do all of

1716
01:45:04,520 --> 01:45:07,439
Speaker 1: the sleepless nights, all of the fundraisers, all the begging

1717
01:45:07,520 --> 01:45:12,519
Speaker 1: for money, because that guy's already tanked my reelection. And

1718
01:45:12,640 --> 01:45:15,400
Speaker 1: that guy I'm referring to is Donald Trump. So and

1719
01:45:15,439 --> 01:45:18,479
Speaker 1: if Maine opens up, Maine becomes number one, Maine one

1720
01:45:18,760 --> 01:45:22,120
Speaker 1: in North Carolina would flip if that happened, because I

1721
01:45:22,200 --> 01:45:26,719
Speaker 1: promise you you'd more likely get a mega adjacent maybe

1722
01:45:26,800 --> 01:45:30,519
Speaker 1: not fully mega, you know, but but somebody that's I

1723
01:45:30,560 --> 01:45:33,400
Speaker 1: don't know if you'd get a Johnny Sinunu type of

1724
01:45:33,600 --> 01:45:36,360
Speaker 1: type of candidate there, I think you'd end up with

1725
01:45:36,439 --> 01:45:39,599
Speaker 1: something something a bit further to the right, maybe even

1726
01:45:39,600 --> 01:45:44,439
Speaker 1: a Paula Page jumps in. So North Carolina, Maine in

1727
01:45:44,520 --> 01:45:47,000
Speaker 1: the number three slot, I'm still keeping Michigan. It is

1728
01:45:47,080 --> 01:45:51,640
Speaker 1: the only Democratic health seat that I think continues to

1729
01:45:51,800 --> 01:45:55,880
Speaker 1: be more problematic for Democrats as this election cycle goes on,

1730
01:45:56,040 --> 01:45:58,920
Speaker 1: not less. And it's all because the primary is shaping

1731
01:45:59,040 --> 01:46:05,240
Speaker 1: up to be very odologically divisive, potentially making the Israel issue,

1732
01:46:05,240 --> 01:46:07,839
Speaker 1: which I think is just going to be a massive

1733
01:46:07,920 --> 01:46:12,680
Speaker 1: challenge to Democrats, right. I mean, look at the commentary

1734
01:46:12,760 --> 01:46:19,880
Speaker 1: in and around Joshapiro. The fact is, if if every

1735
01:46:19,960 --> 01:46:22,760
Speaker 1: Jewish Democrat is going to be asked, you know, could

1736
01:46:23,280 --> 01:46:27,559
Speaker 1: you know about whether they fought in the Israeli army

1737
01:46:27,760 --> 01:46:30,200
Speaker 1: or with some sort of secret idea, I mean that

1738
01:46:31,040 --> 01:46:36,080
Speaker 1: that that is, that is the definition of anti Semitism.

1739
01:46:36,120 --> 01:46:40,479
Speaker 1: It's certainly the definition of prejudice. You know, it's it's

1740
01:46:40,960 --> 01:46:44,720
Speaker 1: so it is. I certainly take offense to it as

1741
01:46:44,760 --> 01:46:48,040
Speaker 1: a Jewish American. So uh, and I know I'm not

1742
01:46:48,160 --> 01:46:51,400
Speaker 1: alone on that. This Michigan primary, I think is going

1743
01:46:51,479 --> 01:46:54,439
Speaker 1: to get really messy on this issue where it ends

1744
01:46:54,520 --> 01:46:57,160
Speaker 1: up right and all that, And it's a three way primary,

1745
01:46:57,800 --> 01:47:01,479
Speaker 1: so it is. And again the Republican nominee, yes, he's

1746
01:47:01,520 --> 01:47:03,400
Speaker 1: got certainly his share of things that he's got to

1747
01:47:03,439 --> 01:47:06,280
Speaker 1: deal with, but he's not super mag he' he's gonna

1748
01:47:06,280 --> 01:47:09,439
Speaker 1: be hard to paint as Trump Maggott. Now, he's certainly

1749
01:47:10,200 --> 01:47:12,760
Speaker 1: tried to get in keeping Trump's good graces so that

1750
01:47:12,880 --> 01:47:18,040
Speaker 1: he that he can keep this nomination. But I continue

1751
01:47:18,080 --> 01:47:22,120
Speaker 1: to believe Michigan is that primary is a potential nightmare

1752
01:47:22,200 --> 01:47:25,080
Speaker 1: for them that whoever comes out of it. And remember

1753
01:47:25,120 --> 01:47:28,120
Speaker 1: they sort of have a very sort of conventional, sort

1754
01:47:28,160 --> 01:47:31,880
Speaker 1: of establishment candidate and Haley Stevens sort of an outsider,

1755
01:47:32,360 --> 01:47:35,640
Speaker 1: but I would say sort of a bit more mainstream

1756
01:47:36,160 --> 01:47:39,720
Speaker 1: liberal in Molly McMorrow. And then you have Abdul say Ed,

1757
01:47:40,640 --> 01:47:44,519
Speaker 1: who is I think much more progressive, has the endorsement

1758
01:47:44,520 --> 01:47:46,400
Speaker 1: of Sanders and AOC in that wing of the party.

1759
01:47:46,880 --> 01:47:50,840
Speaker 1: So it is it is likely that whoever comes out

1760
01:47:50,840 --> 01:47:53,120
Speaker 1: of that primary is in trouble. And then of course

1761
01:47:53,160 --> 01:47:55,160
Speaker 1: the governor's race is also a three way nightmare for

1762
01:47:55,320 --> 01:47:58,280
Speaker 1: Democrats too. So I put I keep Michigan. Is the

1763
01:47:58,439 --> 01:48:00,840
Speaker 1: loan Democratic health seat that I think is in this

1764
01:48:02,120 --> 01:48:04,559
Speaker 1: I still keep in this top five. Then my next

1765
01:48:04,640 --> 01:48:07,559
Speaker 1: two a seat that I've totally dropped by the way,

1766
01:48:08,400 --> 01:48:11,519
Speaker 1: which means is I think Georgia. And you know there

1767
01:48:12,000 --> 01:48:14,120
Speaker 1: are other handicappers that like to use the lean and

1768
01:48:14,160 --> 01:48:15,800
Speaker 1: the likely and all this stuff. I think we are

1769
01:48:15,960 --> 01:48:18,400
Speaker 1: we are, We've george is no longer a toss up

1770
01:48:18,439 --> 01:48:20,880
Speaker 1: center race. I think Georgia is now a you know,

1771
01:48:21,960 --> 01:48:25,000
Speaker 1: across the board, a race where John asoff's the favorite.

1772
01:48:25,560 --> 01:48:29,160
Speaker 1: We'll see if there's a Republican nominee that that can somehow,

1773
01:48:29,720 --> 01:48:32,360
Speaker 1: somehow pull this off. But I think it's a weak

1774
01:48:32,439 --> 01:48:36,800
Speaker 1: field in a tough political environment for Republicans in general,

1775
01:48:37,000 --> 01:48:40,439
Speaker 1: in a swing state where the incumbent has a massive

1776
01:48:40,520 --> 01:48:44,439
Speaker 1: financial head start. So George is not on my top

1777
01:48:44,520 --> 01:48:48,200
Speaker 1: five at all anymore, completely out of race's most likely

1778
01:48:48,320 --> 01:48:51,439
Speaker 1: to flip parties. So number four on this list now

1779
01:48:51,479 --> 01:48:53,880
Speaker 1: I put Ohio. Now, I know we had the news

1780
01:48:53,920 --> 01:48:56,040
Speaker 1: on Alaska, and I'm putting Alaska at five, So I

1781
01:48:56,080 --> 01:48:59,080
Speaker 1: have Ohio at four, most likely to flip in Alaska

1782
01:48:59,080 --> 01:49:02,160
Speaker 1: at five. Right now, I still think Republicans are favored

1783
01:49:02,160 --> 01:49:05,880
Speaker 1: to win both races, even in this current political environment.

1784
01:49:08,160 --> 01:49:11,760
Speaker 1: If you know, I do think everything is happening the

1785
01:49:11,880 --> 01:49:14,160
Speaker 1: exact way you would want it to happen if you're

1786
01:49:14,200 --> 01:49:16,880
Speaker 1: Shared Brown and trying to win back your Senate seat. Right,

1787
01:49:17,040 --> 01:49:19,840
Speaker 1: it's a midterm environment. It's a Republican in the White House,

1788
01:49:20,280 --> 01:49:23,360
Speaker 1: it is an unpopular Republican. The economy is not great, right,

1789
01:49:24,080 --> 01:49:27,040
Speaker 1: Everything in the Shared Brown wheelhouse is there. You're running

1790
01:49:27,040 --> 01:49:29,920
Speaker 1: against an appointed senator who you get to kind of

1791
01:49:29,960 --> 01:49:31,840
Speaker 1: run against as an incumbent, even though he's not the

1792
01:49:31,880 --> 01:49:34,439
Speaker 1: incumbent now. I think some of that, you know, I

1793
01:49:35,600 --> 01:49:38,080
Speaker 1: think that Shared Brown the one thing he doesn't get

1794
01:49:38,120 --> 01:49:41,120
Speaker 1: to benefit from is being an out total outsider, right

1795
01:49:41,200 --> 01:49:45,599
Speaker 1: because he was just there so but in general, everything

1796
01:49:45,640 --> 01:49:49,240
Speaker 1: else is sort of going his way. He's raising a

1797
01:49:49,320 --> 01:49:52,679
Speaker 1: ton of money, not quite Roy Cooper numbers, but pretty close,

1798
01:49:52,880 --> 01:49:55,720
Speaker 1: and he obviously is he never really stopped running, right

1799
01:49:55,800 --> 01:49:58,960
Speaker 1: since he just lost in twenty four and that matters, right,

1800
01:49:59,080 --> 01:50:01,720
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, it's like you don't want to

1801
01:50:01,760 --> 01:50:05,080
Speaker 1: take a break, you get rusty, like John easan Unhu's

1802
01:50:05,080 --> 01:50:07,160
Speaker 1: a bit rusty on the campaign trail, still a little

1803
01:50:07,200 --> 01:50:09,960
Speaker 1: bit you know, you need more batting practice this case, right,

1804
01:50:10,080 --> 01:50:13,800
Speaker 1: Jared Brown's just been running almost NonStop since twenty twelve,

1805
01:50:14,880 --> 01:50:19,879
Speaker 1: and that right that that can matter in a positive

1806
01:50:20,320 --> 01:50:23,400
Speaker 1: for him. And then debuting in the fifth slot, I

1807
01:50:23,439 --> 01:50:25,160
Speaker 1: think the first time that I've got Alaska in the

1808
01:50:25,200 --> 01:50:27,960
Speaker 1: top five. This is to me the recruit of the

1809
01:50:28,000 --> 01:50:31,160
Speaker 1: cycle so far. Mary Peltello the former member of Congress.

1810
01:50:32,000 --> 01:50:35,360
Speaker 1: She won thanks to rank choice voting that at large

1811
01:50:35,400 --> 01:50:38,479
Speaker 1: House seat back when Sarah Palin was running for that seat.

1812
01:50:40,200 --> 01:50:42,080
Speaker 1: She had the support of Lisa Murkowski at the time.

1813
01:50:43,240 --> 01:50:44,760
Speaker 1: I don't think she's going to have the support of

1814
01:50:44,800 --> 01:50:47,200
Speaker 1: Lisa Murkowski in this race. And like I said, the

1815
01:50:47,479 --> 01:50:51,519
Speaker 1: Republican she's challenging Dan Sullivan. He's no maga guy. He

1816
01:50:51,880 --> 01:50:57,800
Speaker 1: just looks conservative when standing next to Lisa Murkowski. But

1817
01:50:58,280 --> 01:51:00,880
Speaker 1: you know, if Peltello can can sort of hug that

1818
01:51:01,040 --> 01:51:05,960
Speaker 1: center lane in Alaska, it's it's just being an Alaskan first,

1819
01:51:06,439 --> 01:51:09,000
Speaker 1: not a Democrat, not a Republican, but an Alaskan first.

1820
01:51:09,080 --> 01:51:12,599
Speaker 1: There's a there's a lane there she has, she has

1821
01:51:12,640 --> 01:51:15,280
Speaker 1: an opportunity to do it. She's gonna raise a ton

1822
01:51:15,360 --> 01:51:17,360
Speaker 1: of money, and an Alaska you don't need a ton

1823
01:51:17,439 --> 01:51:19,240
Speaker 1: of money, and she's gonna have plenty of it. But

1824
01:51:19,360 --> 01:51:24,680
Speaker 1: so Stan Sullivan. But this overal race now, uh and

1825
01:51:25,000 --> 01:51:28,200
Speaker 1: and it is it is It is literally to me,

1826
01:51:29,120 --> 01:51:32,719
Speaker 1: you know, before getting her, I did not think Democrats

1827
01:51:32,760 --> 01:51:35,120
Speaker 1: had put enough seats in play to legitimately say they

1828
01:51:35,120 --> 01:51:37,240
Speaker 1: had a shot at winning the Senate. Getting her in

1829
01:51:37,320 --> 01:51:41,880
Speaker 1: this race, now the numbers are there, all right, they

1830
01:51:41,960 --> 01:51:44,560
Speaker 1: have to do a clean sweep. That can't you know,

1831
01:51:45,479 --> 01:51:48,479
Speaker 1: can't necessarily lose Michigan in this scenario. But even but

1832
01:51:48,600 --> 01:51:51,160
Speaker 1: they've at least got padding right. If they somehow swept

1833
01:51:51,200 --> 01:51:54,599
Speaker 1: the five competitive Republican health seats and then lost Michigan,

1834
01:51:54,600 --> 01:51:57,479
Speaker 1: they could still net four. That seems like an odd

1835
01:51:57,520 --> 01:52:00,759
Speaker 1: scenario if it would happen, But the Michigan is complicated

1836
01:52:00,880 --> 01:52:05,000
Speaker 1: enough where that's not a crazy outcome on that front.

1837
01:52:05,640 --> 01:52:08,320
Speaker 1: So there it is my top five right now, the

1838
01:52:08,400 --> 01:52:11,680
Speaker 1: five Senate seats most likely to flip in order. Number one,

1839
01:52:11,760 --> 01:52:14,240
Speaker 1: North Carolina it's a Republican held seat. Democrat is the

1840
01:52:14,280 --> 01:52:16,840
Speaker 1: front runner. Number two is main a Republican held seat.

1841
01:52:17,280 --> 01:52:19,800
Speaker 1: I question whether Susan Collins is definitely running for re election.

1842
01:52:19,960 --> 01:52:23,320
Speaker 1: Number three is Michigan a Democratic held seat open seat.

1843
01:52:23,400 --> 01:52:27,800
Speaker 1: Gary Stevens's Gary seem Gary Peters Miami on the brain.

1844
01:52:27,840 --> 01:52:30,240
Speaker 1: Gary Stevens was an old offensive coordinator for the University

1845
01:52:30,240 --> 01:52:33,280
Speaker 1: of Miami back in twenty twenty four. Who back in

1846
01:52:33,600 --> 01:52:37,160
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five and eighty six, And there's always been

1847
01:52:37,200 --> 01:52:39,639
Speaker 1: this great rumor talk about it, and aside that Gary

1848
01:52:39,680 --> 01:52:42,639
Speaker 1: Stevens once punched a Sports Illustrated reporter in the face,

1849
01:52:42,680 --> 01:52:44,880
Speaker 1: which is why s I really did the cover that

1850
01:52:44,960 --> 01:52:47,960
Speaker 1: said Miami had to drop football. That's at least always

1851
01:52:47,960 --> 01:52:50,879
Speaker 1: been the Miami version of events. But I digress. Gary Peters,

1852
01:52:51,080 --> 01:52:54,040
Speaker 1: so Michigan sitting in the number three slot the loan

1853
01:52:55,240 --> 01:52:58,519
Speaker 1: Democratic health seat that's in my top five. Then Ohio

1854
01:52:59,040 --> 01:53:03,000
Speaker 1: shared Brown John Houstad is the Republican incumbent there, he's

1855
01:53:03,000 --> 01:53:08,320
Speaker 1: the appointed senator and number five on the list the

1856
01:53:08,400 --> 01:53:13,360
Speaker 1: Dan Sullivan's seat with Democratic challenger Mary Piltello. So there

1857
01:53:13,400 --> 01:53:18,519
Speaker 1: you have it. The political environment continues to get better

1858
01:53:18,600 --> 01:53:22,280
Speaker 1: for Democrats, or at least it's one of those where

1859
01:53:22,320 --> 01:53:24,880
Speaker 1: I don't think the Democratic brands improved. It's just that

1860
01:53:25,080 --> 01:53:28,400
Speaker 1: Trump has made things that much worse for Republicans across

1861
01:53:28,479 --> 01:53:33,320
Speaker 1: the board. So there's your top five for them on

1862
01:53:33,560 --> 01:53:36,160
Speaker 1: Senate for the month of January. I'll do my gubernatorial

1863
01:53:36,280 --> 01:53:49,479
Speaker 1: races next week. All right, let's do some questions. Ask Chuck,

1864
01:53:53,520 --> 01:53:57,840
Speaker 1: get a little ask Chuck. Remember ask Chuck at lechucktodcast

1865
01:53:57,920 --> 01:54:02,160
Speaker 1: dot com. Best way to communicate with my team and myself.

1866
01:54:02,360 --> 01:54:06,320
Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from you, whether it's on your ideas,

1867
01:54:06,600 --> 01:54:14,040
Speaker 1: on your ideas on reimagining our public education system for

1868
01:54:14,360 --> 01:54:16,920
Speaker 1: primary and secondary, as well as just any questions you

1869
01:54:17,000 --> 01:54:19,880
Speaker 1: might have. So with that, I'm going to jump in here.

1870
01:54:21,960 --> 01:54:27,360
Speaker 1: First question comes from Connor, who says he's from Oklahoma

1871
01:54:27,439 --> 01:54:30,920
Speaker 1: City and Morocco. He may be in Morocco at the

1872
01:54:30,960 --> 01:54:34,800
Speaker 1: point and originally from Oklahoma City. Let me read his question.

1873
01:54:35,000 --> 01:54:37,240
Speaker 1: He says, here, long overdue, thank you for answering my

1874
01:54:37,320 --> 01:54:39,120
Speaker 1: last question and hoping this finds you in a great

1875
01:54:39,200 --> 01:54:43,280
Speaker 1: mood after the Knees incredible season. Well, great mood, No,

1876
01:54:43,440 --> 01:54:44,760
Speaker 1: but I'm not in as bad of a mood as

1877
01:54:44,760 --> 01:54:47,320
Speaker 1: I thought i'd be. If not. It was a great

1878
01:54:47,360 --> 01:54:49,360
Speaker 1: year for the you and they've got a great future ahead.

1879
01:54:49,400 --> 01:54:51,160
Speaker 1: I recently got into a debate about what would be

1880
01:54:51,200 --> 01:54:53,920
Speaker 1: more dangerous the current Trump presidency or a potential JD.

1881
01:54:54,080 --> 01:54:58,800
Speaker 1: Vance presidency. I've had that debate myself. Connor most argued

1882
01:54:58,800 --> 01:55:01,960
Speaker 1: Trump's on predictability and like following make him uniquely dangerous.

1883
01:55:01,960 --> 01:55:04,000
Speaker 1: But I made the case that Vance's extremism, combined with

1884
01:55:04,280 --> 01:55:06,720
Speaker 1: coherence and focus, could be even more threatening. Curious to

1885
01:55:06,800 --> 01:55:09,040
Speaker 1: hear your take on this, especially Advance, or to assume

1886
01:55:09,080 --> 01:55:19,320
Speaker 1: off this mid term under chaotic circumstances. Gokaines, So three

1887
01:55:19,400 --> 01:55:24,800
Speaker 1: months ago, I would have said, Look, my my concern

1888
01:55:24,840 --> 01:55:28,400
Speaker 1: about JD. Vance is his relationship with Peter Teal. And

1889
01:55:28,520 --> 01:55:30,640
Speaker 1: I say this because Peter Teel has a worldview that

1890
01:55:30,800 --> 01:55:34,760
Speaker 1: is not small D democratic, right, He's part of this

1891
01:55:35,280 --> 01:55:38,919
Speaker 1: movement in Silicon Valley that you know, I think believes

1892
01:55:38,960 --> 01:55:42,080
Speaker 1: that you know, there's certain people are you know, you

1893
01:55:42,160 --> 01:55:45,880
Speaker 1: know that essentially wants a monarchy some form of it,

1894
01:55:46,160 --> 01:55:48,840
Speaker 1: you know, you and I would call it authoritarianism. But

1895
01:55:49,160 --> 01:55:52,360
Speaker 1: there is like this weird sort of and uh a

1896
01:55:52,480 --> 01:55:55,880
Speaker 1: really that we know best type of mindset, however you

1897
01:55:55,920 --> 01:55:59,040
Speaker 1: want to look at it. And part of look this

1898
01:55:59,240 --> 01:56:02,680
Speaker 1: is there's a lot of this in Silicon Valley that

1899
01:56:02,840 --> 01:56:05,720
Speaker 1: you know, we you know where we know best, you

1900
01:56:05,800 --> 01:56:09,880
Speaker 1: know where the future we have all the answers, We're

1901
01:56:09,960 --> 01:56:12,200
Speaker 1: inventing all the answers. We're going to cure all these

1902
01:56:12,280 --> 01:56:19,360
Speaker 1: problems just with technological advances. So I just think that

1903
01:56:19,520 --> 01:56:23,360
Speaker 1: relationship and the fact that Vance never really has done

1904
01:56:23,440 --> 01:56:27,080
Speaker 1: anything for a living other than been supported by him

1905
01:56:27,240 --> 01:56:29,560
Speaker 1: in one way or the other by Peter Teel. So

1906
01:56:29,720 --> 01:56:31,680
Speaker 1: I do think that, you know, and I think we've

1907
01:56:31,760 --> 01:56:34,760
Speaker 1: always been as a country skeptical of any politician who's

1908
01:56:34,800 --> 01:56:40,320
Speaker 1: sort of who sort of owes one person for everything, right,

1909
01:56:40,440 --> 01:56:45,680
Speaker 1: and in that sense, he would, so I understand the

1910
01:56:45,720 --> 01:56:49,760
Speaker 1: the case you're making. I think right now, though, what's

1911
01:56:49,840 --> 01:56:53,520
Speaker 1: happening with Donald Trump is this is it's incredibly destabilizing

1912
01:56:53,520 --> 01:56:59,560
Speaker 1: because one thing JD. Vance isn't is incoherent and there

1913
01:56:59,720 --> 01:57:03,480
Speaker 1: is there is a pragmatism to him, There is a reality.

1914
01:57:04,640 --> 01:57:08,360
Speaker 1: I think he lives in reality. He doesn't seem to

1915
01:57:08,480 --> 01:57:11,480
Speaker 1: be as consumed with his with a with a with

1916
01:57:11,640 --> 01:57:14,920
Speaker 1: a narcissism that Trump is that I think has made

1917
01:57:15,000 --> 01:57:18,760
Speaker 1: things worse, right, his obsession with a peace prize and

1918
01:57:18,800 --> 01:57:20,480
Speaker 1: all this stuff and how it's like led to just

1919
01:57:20,560 --> 01:57:25,160
Speaker 1: some deteriorating relationships that matter a lot more for the

1920
01:57:25,240 --> 01:57:33,360
Speaker 1: United States. But I understand the debate. I understand the

1921
01:57:35,120 --> 01:57:39,880
Speaker 1: that this isn't a clean eighty twenty answer on that front.

1922
01:57:43,040 --> 01:57:45,880
Speaker 1: And I do think in a weird way, I get

1923
01:57:45,920 --> 01:57:50,760
Speaker 1: your point there that that Vance's would be a lot

1924
01:57:50,880 --> 01:57:56,280
Speaker 1: smarter about building or rebuilding or you know, you know,

1925
01:57:57,280 --> 01:58:01,520
Speaker 1: Donald Trump wants to knock things over. JD. Vance wants

1926
01:58:01,600 --> 01:58:07,280
Speaker 1: to rebuild it in a different image, right, and so,

1927
01:58:09,320 --> 01:58:12,120
Speaker 1: but I also believe he would articulate what he's doing,

1928
01:58:12,160 --> 01:58:15,400
Speaker 1: he would try to make his case. I guess maybe

1929
01:58:15,440 --> 01:58:18,720
Speaker 1: I'm being naive that I think that. I do think

1930
01:58:18,880 --> 01:58:23,560
Speaker 1: jd Vance as president would want to at least try

1931
01:58:24,880 --> 01:58:26,640
Speaker 1: to make the case to the public with what he

1932
01:58:26,760 --> 01:58:29,400
Speaker 1: was doing and look for popular support for what he

1933
01:58:29,520 --> 01:58:32,960
Speaker 1: was doing. It's not something Donald Trump wants to do.

1934
01:58:34,560 --> 01:58:38,200
Speaker 1: Might have given you an unsatisfactory answer there, but I

1935
01:58:38,280 --> 01:58:41,520
Speaker 1: get the debate. Let's just say I've had it myself

1936
01:58:41,640 --> 01:58:46,920
Speaker 1: with a few people. Next question comes from Debamp, Greensboro, Georgia. Hey,

1937
01:58:46,920 --> 01:58:48,600
Speaker 1: I followed you since your early meet the press days.

1938
01:58:48,640 --> 01:58:50,520
Speaker 1: Didn't think anyone could fill Tim russell shoes, but you

1939
01:58:50,640 --> 01:58:52,560
Speaker 1: proved me wrong. Well, I still don't think anybody can

1940
01:58:52,600 --> 01:58:55,280
Speaker 1: fill Tim's shoes, but I appreciate the sentiment. I have

1941
01:58:55,360 --> 01:58:57,720
Speaker 1: probably a naive question. If most Americans are center left

1942
01:58:57,760 --> 01:58:59,919
Speaker 1: or center arrived, why can't we elect more centrist presidents.

1943
01:59:00,800 --> 01:59:02,720
Speaker 1: It's the primary system to blame. Also, I'm a sixty

1944
01:59:02,760 --> 01:59:04,840
Speaker 1: seven year old woman who never misses the podcast, even

1945
01:59:05,680 --> 01:59:08,160
Speaker 1: the college football bets. Do you know the demographics of

1946
01:59:08,240 --> 01:59:11,800
Speaker 1: your audience? Debborough, Georgia. We know a little bit, but

1947
01:59:12,040 --> 01:59:15,320
Speaker 1: we actually know less than we ever have before. Sometimes

1948
01:59:15,400 --> 01:59:19,120
Speaker 1: because part of it is you get some it's easier

1949
01:59:19,120 --> 01:59:23,440
Speaker 1: to see the demo. You know, YouTube gives you demographics

1950
01:59:23,880 --> 01:59:27,960
Speaker 1: that are easier to to sort of figure out a

1951
01:59:28,000 --> 01:59:31,720
Speaker 1: little harder on the audio only side of things. But

1952
01:59:32,240 --> 01:59:36,640
Speaker 1: trust me, it's uh, we're we're constantly doing. I think

1953
01:59:36,720 --> 01:59:40,760
Speaker 1: on gender we're pretty evenly split. I think it's a

1954
01:59:41,040 --> 01:59:43,280
Speaker 1: you know, I think if you look at it through

1955
01:59:43,280 --> 01:59:46,960
Speaker 1: the prism of pro Trump anti Trump, it's probably not

1956
01:59:47,080 --> 01:59:49,680
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty on that. But I think I think

1957
01:59:49,720 --> 01:59:52,760
Speaker 1: I have a big chunk of centrists center right, center left,

1958
01:59:52,800 --> 01:59:54,960
Speaker 1: because I could just tell from the anecdotes that I have.

1959
01:59:56,880 --> 01:59:59,959
Speaker 1: I don't think I have a lot of super progressive

1960
02:00:00,200 --> 02:00:05,320
Speaker 1: in super maga. So on that front, that's the sense

1961
02:00:05,880 --> 02:00:08,480
Speaker 1: I get. But your your basic question, you know, what's

1962
02:00:08,520 --> 02:00:14,560
Speaker 1: interesting is in our system? Are you know? I could

1963
02:00:14,640 --> 02:00:17,480
Speaker 1: argue that, going back to Eisenhower, that we always ended

1964
02:00:17,600 --> 02:00:21,120
Speaker 1: up with as centrist of a president as the time

1965
02:00:21,160 --> 02:00:25,240
Speaker 1: would allow, right, as that era will allow. Right. Eisenhower

1966
02:00:25,360 --> 02:00:30,800
Speaker 1: super centrist. You know, Kennedy compared to Nixon was closer

1967
02:00:30,840 --> 02:00:34,440
Speaker 1: to the center, Johnson compared to Goldwater, closer to the

1968
02:00:34,520 --> 02:00:39,840
Speaker 1: center Nixon. Humphrey. Nixon was certainly campaigning closer to the

1969
02:00:39,960 --> 02:00:44,240
Speaker 1: center than Humphrey was, or at least there Nixon McGovern,

1970
02:00:44,360 --> 02:00:47,400
Speaker 1: Nixon sort of had the center, Lane Ford, Carter. I

1971
02:00:47,480 --> 02:00:50,840
Speaker 1: think that was a case where you know, we would say,

1972
02:00:50,920 --> 02:00:53,120
Speaker 1: now you would have said Ford was the center, was

1973
02:00:53,480 --> 02:00:55,720
Speaker 1: closer to the center, but the public was ready to

1974
02:00:55,760 --> 02:01:01,879
Speaker 1: punish the Republicans for Nixon, Carter, Reagan. I think actually

1975
02:01:02,840 --> 02:01:05,640
Speaker 1: when you throw in form policy that Reagan looked like

1976
02:01:06,200 --> 02:01:08,480
Speaker 1: was closer to the center. So my point is is

1977
02:01:08,480 --> 02:01:10,760
Speaker 1: that I always have felt as if our elections kind

1978
02:01:10,800 --> 02:01:14,240
Speaker 1: of got us to where because I think the center

1979
02:01:14,360 --> 02:01:17,040
Speaker 1: moves a little bit, you know, I think we you know,

1980
02:01:17,160 --> 02:01:19,480
Speaker 1: sometimes we think it's all you know, where you know,

1981
02:01:19,600 --> 02:01:24,040
Speaker 1: everything the Overton window shifts right, and so in that sense,

1982
02:01:24,520 --> 02:01:26,680
Speaker 1: what is considered the sort of the center of where

1983
02:01:26,720 --> 02:01:31,000
Speaker 1: America is in a given moment, And I think we've

1984
02:01:31,000 --> 02:01:33,360
Speaker 1: always found that. I might argue that even the election

1985
02:01:33,440 --> 02:01:39,240
Speaker 1: of Donald Trump in sixteen was sort of I think

1986
02:01:39,280 --> 02:01:41,520
Speaker 1: that's what some some Trump voters in the middle would

1987
02:01:41,600 --> 02:01:45,000
Speaker 1: argue of what they're doing. And I think certainly the

1988
02:01:45,080 --> 02:01:48,400
Speaker 1: election of Biden was seen as he was closer to

1989
02:01:48,480 --> 02:01:52,920
Speaker 1: the center. And I think in an own weird way,

1990
02:01:53,440 --> 02:01:56,640
Speaker 1: the voters that didn't like either Harris or Trump saw Trump,

1991
02:01:56,640 --> 02:01:59,040
Speaker 1: at least on economics as closer to the center. So

1992
02:02:00,680 --> 02:02:03,320
Speaker 1: I think that's where are where the where the swing

1993
02:02:03,440 --> 02:02:07,880
Speaker 1: voters try to pull themselves to. But the primary system

1994
02:02:08,480 --> 02:02:11,360
Speaker 1: is definitely a blame here of why we have and

1995
02:02:11,440 --> 02:02:15,600
Speaker 1: it's it's the it's the you know, I think I

1996
02:02:15,680 --> 02:02:20,880
Speaker 1: don't think we should have partisan primaries. It is it

1997
02:02:21,000 --> 02:02:23,240
Speaker 1: is I think we should all voters should be you know,

1998
02:02:23,400 --> 02:02:25,320
Speaker 1: having a say, I don't think we certainly shouldn't have

1999
02:02:25,320 --> 02:02:28,640
Speaker 1: taxpayer funded partisan primaries. I think there's a violation of

2000
02:02:28,640 --> 02:02:31,160
Speaker 1: the equal protection clause. The idea that if you live

2001
02:02:31,200 --> 02:02:33,640
Speaker 1: in a state that is party registration and this state

2002
02:02:33,760 --> 02:02:37,080
Speaker 1: pays for the primary, and that yet you cannot participate

2003
02:02:37,080 --> 02:02:39,440
Speaker 1: in that primary because you're not a member of this

2004
02:02:39,600 --> 02:02:43,400
Speaker 1: private organization called the Democrats of the Republicans. How the

2005
02:02:43,560 --> 02:02:44,960
Speaker 1: hell is that constitutional?

2006
02:02:46,440 --> 02:02:46,600
Speaker 2: Right?

2007
02:02:46,880 --> 02:02:49,440
Speaker 1: So, if if you're a political party and you want

2008
02:02:49,480 --> 02:02:51,640
Speaker 1: to run a primary for your members only, you pay

2009
02:02:51,720 --> 02:02:55,440
Speaker 1: for it, but the taxpayer is paying for it, all taxpayer.

2010
02:02:55,720 --> 02:02:57,720
Speaker 1: And that's where I think a constitutional amendment comes in

2011
02:02:57,840 --> 02:03:02,640
Speaker 1: where any any state funded election has to be opened

2012
02:03:02,680 --> 02:03:09,000
Speaker 1: all voters period. It works for mayor's races, why can't

2013
02:03:09,000 --> 02:03:12,040
Speaker 1: it work for senate races? And governor's races and presidential primaries,

2014
02:03:12,360 --> 02:03:16,520
Speaker 1: but I think partisan primaries are the issue hard stop.

2015
02:03:19,080 --> 02:03:23,160
Speaker 1: Next question comes from Adam Overland Park, Kansas. Used to

2016
02:03:23,200 --> 02:03:25,560
Speaker 1: be this one of the swingiest areas in the country.

2017
02:03:25,600 --> 02:03:27,600
Speaker 1: I think it's less swingy these days. I think it's

2018
02:03:28,040 --> 02:03:31,160
Speaker 1: an old purple district that is pretty anti Trump, even

2019
02:03:31,200 --> 02:03:33,760
Speaker 1: if it's still pretty purple. Check. I really enjoyed listening

2020
02:03:33,800 --> 02:03:35,920
Speaker 1: to podcast on a regular basis, and especially enjoy your

2021
02:03:35,960 --> 02:03:39,080
Speaker 1: CFP commentary. All right, sorry about your canes, that's okay. Question.

2022
02:03:39,320 --> 02:03:42,280
Speaker 1: We know that military officers are forbidden from following illegal orders.

2023
02:03:42,840 --> 02:03:45,240
Speaker 1: Would in order to strike, invade, or otherwise take military

2024
02:03:45,280 --> 02:03:48,200
Speaker 1: action against a treaty ally such as Denmark, be considered

2025
02:03:48,240 --> 02:03:51,640
Speaker 1: an illegal order. The treaty, after all, was signed and

2026
02:03:51,720 --> 02:03:53,800
Speaker 1: ratified by the US Congress, just like any other law.

2027
02:03:54,360 --> 02:03:58,600
Speaker 1: Thank you so, Adam. Here's the best look. A treaty

2028
02:03:58,720 --> 02:04:03,400
Speaker 1: ratified by the US Senate is binding US law, but

2029
02:04:03,480 --> 02:04:06,360
Speaker 1: it is not absolute. So under the Constitution, treaties are

2030
02:04:06,440 --> 02:04:10,800
Speaker 1: quote supreme law of the land, but a later statute

2031
02:04:10,800 --> 02:04:15,080
Speaker 1: passed by US Congress can override a treaty, and a

2032
02:04:15,280 --> 02:04:17,600
Speaker 1: constitutionally valid use of force can put the US in

2033
02:04:17,680 --> 02:04:20,640
Speaker 1: breach of a treaty without making the act itself illegal

2034
02:04:20,760 --> 02:04:23,800
Speaker 1: under US law. So, in other words, the US can

2035
02:04:23,960 --> 02:04:28,960
Speaker 1: violate a treaty lawfully under domestic law even if it

2036
02:04:29,200 --> 02:04:35,440
Speaker 1: violates international law. So and it's important. Under the Uniform

2037
02:04:35,560 --> 02:04:40,080
Speaker 1: Code of Military Justice, service members must obey lawful orders,

2038
02:04:40,640 --> 02:04:47,680
Speaker 1: they must disobey manifestly unlawful orders. But in military order

2039
02:04:47,920 --> 02:04:51,880
Speaker 1: to attack another country, even a treaty ally is not

2040
02:04:52,120 --> 02:04:59,040
Speaker 1: manifestly unlawful on its face, so the treaty is contraining

2041
02:04:59,200 --> 02:05:02,720
Speaker 1: the state, not necessarily individual soldier, and soldiers are not

2042
02:05:02,840 --> 02:05:08,640
Speaker 1: expected or required to adjudicate treaty legality. So unless the

2043
02:05:08,960 --> 02:05:12,960
Speaker 1: order itself is a war crime, a crime against humanity,

2044
02:05:13,560 --> 02:05:17,520
Speaker 1: targets civilians, or is in clear violation of the law

2045
02:05:17,760 --> 02:05:24,040
Speaker 1: of armed conflict, then the order is presumed lawful. So

2046
02:05:25,080 --> 02:05:29,200
Speaker 1: and so the question then becomes your follow up question

2047
02:05:29,280 --> 02:05:32,560
Speaker 1: should be, then who bears the legal responsibility if a

2048
02:05:32,640 --> 02:05:35,880
Speaker 1: treaty is violated? Well, in this case, the responsibility alies

2049
02:05:35,960 --> 02:05:41,400
Speaker 1: with the President and Congress. If Congress authorized or funded

2050
02:05:41,480 --> 02:05:46,120
Speaker 1: the action to violate the treaty. So under and then

2051
02:05:46,200 --> 02:05:50,320
Speaker 1: under international law, the US could breach international obligations face

2052
02:05:50,360 --> 02:05:54,960
Speaker 1: some diplomatic consequences and face international adjudication. Theoretically, of course,

2053
02:05:55,400 --> 02:06:00,040
Speaker 1: we don't really abide by the international the ICC, but

2054
02:06:00,160 --> 02:06:04,400
Speaker 1: the liability itself does not transfer to individual soldiers. So,

2055
02:06:04,880 --> 02:06:11,200
Speaker 1: in short, if Trump orders the invasion of Greenland, and yes,

2056
02:06:11,280 --> 02:06:13,839
Speaker 1: it's in violation of a treaty, but in theory wouldn't

2057
02:06:13,920 --> 02:06:18,760
Speaker 1: necessarily on its face be seen as an illegal order. Now,

2058
02:06:19,800 --> 02:06:24,760
Speaker 1: bombing a civilian boat speeding off the coast of Venezuela

2059
02:06:24,880 --> 02:06:29,120
Speaker 1: is a different story, because that is a violation of

2060
02:06:32,760 --> 02:06:37,040
Speaker 1: the law of arm conflict. So that is the distinction

2061
02:06:37,960 --> 02:06:44,840
Speaker 1: distinction there. I was about to say, fun question. That

2062
02:06:44,920 --> 02:06:47,240
Speaker 1: wasn't a fun question, Adam, but an important question, and

2063
02:06:47,280 --> 02:06:49,080
Speaker 1: I'm glad you made me research it, so thank you.

2064
02:06:50,520 --> 02:06:54,280
Speaker 1: Last question comes from Max w Alexander Virgini says, hey, Chuck,

2065
02:06:54,320 --> 02:06:56,680
Speaker 1: you nailed it. Warning about prediction markets. Just as someone

2066
02:06:56,760 --> 02:06:59,800
Speaker 1: made four hundred thousand dollars on polymarket betting Maduro would

2067
02:06:59,800 --> 02:07:02,320
Speaker 1: be before the US took action in Venezuela, if that

2068
02:07:02,440 --> 02:07:05,800
Speaker 1: person had insider knowledge of Operation Absolute Resolve, how should

2069
02:07:05,840 --> 02:07:10,800
Speaker 1: the country respond? What would be a fair penalty? Well,

2070
02:07:10,840 --> 02:07:12,960
Speaker 1: it's insider trading. It seems to be it should be

2071
02:07:13,040 --> 02:07:16,880
Speaker 1: prosecuted the same way we prosecute insider trading with the SEC.

2072
02:07:17,080 --> 02:07:19,440
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's it's a criminal you know,

2073
02:07:19,560 --> 02:07:22,320
Speaker 1: there's a there's criminal penalties to this. I just don't

2074
02:07:22,360 --> 02:07:25,240
Speaker 1: think we've figured out how to adjudicate these prediction markets yet.

2075
02:07:25,600 --> 02:07:28,120
Speaker 1: And then if you I'm not sure polymarket is still

2076
02:07:28,160 --> 02:07:30,960
Speaker 1: even considered something that can be regulated in the United States.

2077
02:07:31,840 --> 02:07:35,040
Speaker 1: Polymarket has yet. I thought wasn't yet legal in the

2078
02:07:35,200 --> 02:07:39,320
Speaker 1: US though Calshi is. But this it is. You know,

2079
02:07:39,400 --> 02:07:43,360
Speaker 1: once again, technology is moving faster than Congress can create regulation,

2080
02:07:44,280 --> 02:07:49,400
Speaker 1: and this is one of those areas we've we've got

2081
02:07:49,480 --> 02:07:52,560
Speaker 1: to do something here. But think about all of the

2082
02:07:52,680 --> 02:07:56,440
Speaker 1: challenges we have, this is one of those that as

2083
02:07:56,560 --> 02:08:00,360
Speaker 1: concerning as this is, this is like seventy fifth on

2084
02:08:00,480 --> 02:08:03,000
Speaker 1: the list of things that Congress ought to be focused

2085
02:08:03,040 --> 02:08:05,480
Speaker 1: on right now. And if you're if they're focused on

2086
02:08:05,680 --> 02:08:07,640
Speaker 1: this and not on what the hell's happening in Greenland,

2087
02:08:07,720 --> 02:08:09,640
Speaker 1: I'm like, what the hell are you focused on? No offense,

2088
02:08:09,680 --> 02:08:13,200
Speaker 1: I think it's an important question, but I think there

2089
02:08:13,240 --> 02:08:15,120
Speaker 1: are other priorities that they've got to get at.

2090
02:08:15,200 --> 02:08:15,440
Speaker 2: First.

2091
02:08:23,560 --> 02:08:25,600
Speaker 1: Let me give you my final college football report So

2092
02:08:25,760 --> 02:08:32,880
Speaker 1: look I am I'm not as upset that as I

2093
02:08:32,920 --> 02:08:36,240
Speaker 1: thought I would be about Hurricanes losing, because at the

2094
02:08:36,360 --> 02:08:38,800
Speaker 1: end of the day, they had every chance to win

2095
02:08:38,840 --> 02:08:43,120
Speaker 1: that game. I would argue Indiana made one less mistake

2096
02:08:44,400 --> 02:08:47,520
Speaker 1: and they made one more play. Miami made one more

2097
02:08:47,600 --> 02:08:50,320
Speaker 1: mistake and didn't make one more play. Right there were

2098
02:08:51,640 --> 02:08:54,640
Speaker 1: the block punt and the missfield goal are ten points

2099
02:08:54,720 --> 02:09:01,000
Speaker 1: right there, right there's there's ten points. You could easily

2100
02:09:01,840 --> 02:09:05,320
Speaker 1: say Miami should have won that game twenty three, twenty

2101
02:09:05,320 --> 02:09:09,200
Speaker 1: four to twenty one, or twenty four to twenty which

2102
02:09:09,360 --> 02:09:11,200
Speaker 1: was my if I think that was the prediction I

2103
02:09:11,320 --> 02:09:12,840
Speaker 1: made that if Miami won had been twenty four to

2104
02:09:12,840 --> 02:09:16,480
Speaker 1: twenty had they not had the block punt, Now, who knows,

2105
02:09:16,520 --> 02:09:19,280
Speaker 1: maybe they get maybe Maye. The other thing is Miami

2106
02:09:19,360 --> 02:09:23,640
Speaker 1: had two shots at stopping Indiana on fourth downs inside

2107
02:09:24,600 --> 02:09:28,120
Speaker 1: that red zone, and you know, look the Mendoz Here's

2108
02:09:28,160 --> 02:09:30,800
Speaker 1: what I'll say, I think Carson Beck played a really

2109
02:09:30,840 --> 02:09:35,200
Speaker 1: good game. Fernando Mendoza told us what showed us why

2110
02:09:35,240 --> 02:09:39,000
Speaker 1: he was the Heisman Trophy winner. That gutsy fourth down call,

2111
02:09:39,640 --> 02:09:42,560
Speaker 1: which we've now since learned. According to Miami defensive coordinator,

2112
02:09:42,760 --> 02:09:45,360
Speaker 1: they knew that was coming and it wasn't and they

2113
02:09:45,400 --> 02:09:48,200
Speaker 1: were trying to communicate it to everybody, and the linebacker

2114
02:09:48,280 --> 02:09:50,480
Speaker 1: got it to half the team, not the whole defense.

2115
02:09:50,560 --> 02:09:53,240
Speaker 1: There just you know that happens. You think you've read

2116
02:09:53,280 --> 02:09:55,920
Speaker 1: the play right, but you didn't communicate it in time.

2117
02:09:56,080 --> 02:09:57,880
Speaker 1: You know, when you see these guys holding up signs

2118
02:09:57,920 --> 02:10:00,840
Speaker 1: doing all this, that's what they're like, Hey, we think

2119
02:10:00,880 --> 02:10:03,880
Speaker 1: it's this, you know, prepare for this, prepare for prepare

2120
02:10:03,920 --> 02:10:06,480
Speaker 1: for that. And the other sort of disconcerting thing is

2121
02:10:06,520 --> 02:10:09,920
Speaker 1: that on the Carson Beck interception, I think the Indiana

2122
02:10:10,040 --> 02:10:13,360
Speaker 1: DC admitted that we had caught them in a in

2123
02:10:13,440 --> 02:10:16,720
Speaker 1: a bad spot and Frankly had just had marry and

2124
02:10:16,840 --> 02:10:19,240
Speaker 1: turned around and seeing that the ball was coming, he

2125
02:10:19,440 --> 02:10:20,800
Speaker 1: likely would have made a play on the ball that

2126
02:10:21,160 --> 02:10:24,160
Speaker 1: might have that might have might have pulled them off there.

2127
02:10:24,200 --> 02:10:27,280
Speaker 1: But I'll but there was another part. I I I

2128
02:10:27,520 --> 02:10:30,400
Speaker 1: was concerned that Beck played that last forty five seconds

2129
02:10:30,440 --> 02:10:33,440
Speaker 1: with a concussion. He took a hit, the late hit.

2130
02:10:33,880 --> 02:10:38,840
Speaker 1: And this was the other thing, right Indiana, Indiana gave

2131
02:10:39,000 --> 02:10:41,000
Speaker 1: Miami a chance. I didn't know, it didn't look like it.

2132
02:10:41,120 --> 02:10:42,480
Speaker 1: Miami was going to get the ball back and then

2133
02:10:42,600 --> 02:10:45,680
Speaker 1: Indiana did something that they hadn't done all year. They

2134
02:10:46,000 --> 02:10:49,080
Speaker 1: screwed they they screwed up. They gave Miami a chance. First,

2135
02:10:49,480 --> 02:10:51,960
Speaker 1: the false start moves them from a second and one

2136
02:10:52,000 --> 02:10:54,120
Speaker 1: to a second and six or I think it was

2137
02:10:54,120 --> 02:10:55,520
Speaker 1: a third and one to a third and six, which

2138
02:10:55,560 --> 02:10:58,520
Speaker 1: of course allowed Miami to stop them. There, call another

2139
02:10:58,600 --> 02:11:01,960
Speaker 1: time out, and then when Signetti successfully goes for it

2140
02:11:02,120 --> 02:11:04,920
Speaker 1: on fourth down twice to avoid giving Miami the ball,

2141
02:11:06,400 --> 02:11:08,520
Speaker 1: he decides to kick a field goal and give the

2142
02:11:08,560 --> 02:11:10,640
Speaker 1: ball back to Miami. I can't believe he did that.

2143
02:11:11,720 --> 02:11:13,200
Speaker 1: I can't believe he didn't go for it again to

2144
02:11:13,280 --> 02:11:15,360
Speaker 1: try to end the game. Yes, you'd have been giving

2145
02:11:15,400 --> 02:11:18,320
Speaker 1: Miami the ball back, maybe at the ten they'd have

2146
02:11:18,360 --> 02:11:21,800
Speaker 1: had to drive sixty yards for a game tying field goal,

2147
02:11:22,320 --> 02:11:23,760
Speaker 1: but you were actually not going to put the game

2148
02:11:23,800 --> 02:11:26,040
Speaker 1: at risk. So I actually think this is a case

2149
02:11:26,080 --> 02:11:28,440
Speaker 1: where you know, Mario christ Bo was getting all sorts

2150
02:11:28,440 --> 02:11:32,280
Speaker 1: of grief about how he clocked managed Signetti screwed up

2151
02:11:33,560 --> 02:11:37,000
Speaker 1: there in the fourth quarter too many, used up his timeouts,

2152
02:11:37,880 --> 02:11:43,120
Speaker 1: and then gave Miami the ball back. I thought we

2153
02:11:43,200 --> 02:11:45,560
Speaker 1: were going to make him pay for that, and we

2154
02:11:45,680 --> 02:11:51,000
Speaker 1: almost did so look, I'm not this is I've been

2155
02:11:51,040 --> 02:11:56,160
Speaker 1: to five national title games involving Miami. I've been to

2156
02:11:56,240 --> 02:11:58,480
Speaker 1: six total national title games. I happened to be at

2157
02:11:58,520 --> 02:12:01,600
Speaker 1: the Notre Dame colleg Rato won back in nineteen ninety,

2158
02:12:02,280 --> 02:12:05,520
Speaker 1: which was the ninety one Orange Bowl, when Colorado got

2159
02:12:05,560 --> 02:12:09,320
Speaker 1: a split national title with Notre Dame or not Notre

2160
02:12:09,400 --> 02:12:14,920
Speaker 1: Dame Georgia Tech excuse me, and so like. I was

2161
02:12:15,120 --> 02:12:20,680
Speaker 1: just angry and devastated after the Ohio state national title. Sorry,

2162
02:12:21,120 --> 02:12:23,640
Speaker 1: I don't accept that one. I'm not over that one.

2163
02:12:23,800 --> 02:12:29,760
Speaker 1: Some scars never heal right, but this one, Mimi had

2164
02:12:29,800 --> 02:12:34,360
Speaker 1: a chance. Indiana just played a little bit better. But

2165
02:12:34,520 --> 02:12:38,040
Speaker 1: I was I was sort of encouraged by the fact

2166
02:12:38,080 --> 02:12:40,200
Speaker 1: that the game played out exactly as I thought I would.

2167
02:12:40,280 --> 02:12:42,000
Speaker 1: I knew we were the best team Indiana had faced

2168
02:12:42,040 --> 02:12:44,480
Speaker 1: all year, and I think we proved it, and we

2169
02:12:44,640 --> 02:12:47,840
Speaker 1: made Indiana look worse than any other team made him look,

2170
02:12:47,920 --> 02:12:50,560
Speaker 1: except for maybe in the bad weather that Iowa pulled

2171
02:12:50,600 --> 02:12:55,760
Speaker 1: off there. I really, I will tell you this. I

2172
02:12:56,840 --> 02:13:00,680
Speaker 1: was not all bought into Fernanda Mendoza. I am. Now,

2173
02:13:01,520 --> 02:13:05,080
Speaker 1: that is one tough home bray. I'd like to say soob,

2174
02:13:05,240 --> 02:13:07,440
Speaker 1: but he would never use those that language, although I

2175
02:13:07,480 --> 02:13:09,960
Speaker 1: guess he cursed for the first time on TV the

2176
02:13:10,040 --> 02:13:13,560
Speaker 1: other night. I'm all in a Mendoza man, I'm written

2177
02:13:13,600 --> 02:13:15,760
Speaker 1: for him, And if you're a Raider fan, you should

2178
02:13:16,600 --> 02:13:22,360
Speaker 1: you put it this way. Imagine if Tbo had had

2179
02:13:22,520 --> 02:13:25,840
Speaker 1: the skills to be a great NFL quarterback. And I

2180
02:13:25,920 --> 02:13:28,440
Speaker 1: say this, Tibo had some incredible skills, but he was

2181
02:13:28,480 --> 02:13:31,280
Speaker 1: not a prototypical pro style quarterback. Couldn't really find a

2182
02:13:31,360 --> 02:13:35,800
Speaker 1: system that worked, you know, he was he was he

2183
02:13:35,960 --> 02:13:39,240
Speaker 1: really you know, the way New Orleans used to use

2184
02:13:39,280 --> 02:13:41,920
Speaker 1: Taysom Hill, you know, that ought to have been what

2185
02:13:42,200 --> 02:13:45,440
Speaker 1: Tibo's you know, but he never could accept the idea

2186
02:13:45,440 --> 02:13:48,400
Speaker 1: of being sort of tight in slash, sort of you know,

2187
02:13:50,840 --> 02:13:59,560
Speaker 1: multi faceted player. Mendoza feels like what Tebow would have

2188
02:13:59,640 --> 02:14:02,160
Speaker 1: been if he had the ability to be also a

2189
02:14:02,240 --> 02:14:04,880
Speaker 1: drop back pass. Look, he made some incredible throws on

2190
02:14:05,000 --> 02:14:07,600
Speaker 1: third downs. Miami couldn't get off the field a couple

2191
02:14:07,680 --> 02:14:10,000
Speaker 1: of times simply because a front end of Mendoza. So

2192
02:14:10,520 --> 02:14:14,520
Speaker 1: I'm all in, I'm impressed, I get it, I'm you know,

2193
02:14:15,080 --> 02:14:17,960
Speaker 1: and now I'm paranoid that his little brother is going

2194
02:14:18,000 --> 02:14:21,000
Speaker 1: to Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech is already a thorn in

2195
02:14:21,040 --> 02:14:24,920
Speaker 1: Miami's side. I can just picture Mendoza, you know, give

2196
02:14:24,960 --> 02:14:28,080
Speaker 1: it us, the younger Mendoza, who's not as big as

2197
02:14:28,120 --> 02:14:31,720
Speaker 1: his brother but plays a slightly different style of quarterback.

2198
02:14:31,840 --> 02:14:34,440
Speaker 1: Just given us fits because that's what Georgia Tech does,

2199
02:14:34,520 --> 02:14:36,880
Speaker 1: right we Every college football team, no know how great

2200
02:14:36,920 --> 02:14:38,440
Speaker 1: you are, always has that team that gives you a

2201
02:14:38,520 --> 02:14:40,320
Speaker 1: tough game, no matter how good or bad they are.

2202
02:14:40,560 --> 02:14:43,480
Speaker 1: Georgia Tech is one of those teams when it comes

2203
02:14:43,480 --> 02:14:46,640
Speaker 1: from Miami. But I'm pretty convinced that this will fuel Miami,

2204
02:14:47,080 --> 02:14:48,960
Speaker 1: that this will be similar to what you know, after

2205
02:14:49,040 --> 02:14:52,520
Speaker 1: Miami lost to Penn State in eighty six, the next

2206
02:14:52,600 --> 02:14:54,840
Speaker 1: year's team went undefeated, even though they had had to

2207
02:14:54,880 --> 02:14:57,720
Speaker 1: replace their quarterback with Vinnie Testa Verdi and eighty six.

2208
02:14:57,840 --> 02:15:00,800
Speaker 1: We got Steve Walsh in eighty seven and people were

2209
02:15:00,840 --> 02:15:03,560
Speaker 1: skeptical of Walsh. Well there was you know, that team

2210
02:15:03,640 --> 02:15:08,080
Speaker 1: was on a mission. Mario Cristobal was a part of

2211
02:15:08,160 --> 02:15:10,320
Speaker 1: that recruiting class. I think that came in right after

2212
02:15:10,400 --> 02:15:13,560
Speaker 1: the eighty seven team. So there's something about this that

2213
02:15:13,640 --> 02:15:15,880
Speaker 1: feels like this is the beginning of something. This wasn't

2214
02:15:16,000 --> 02:15:20,200
Speaker 1: just a This wasn't a fleeting moment. It's not a

2215
02:15:20,240 --> 02:15:26,720
Speaker 1: fleeting moment for Nianna either. A few observations about I'm

2216
02:15:26,840 --> 02:15:30,200
Speaker 1: very concerned that we are just pricing out people from

2217
02:15:30,280 --> 02:15:33,720
Speaker 1: experiences that used to not cost an arm and a

2218
02:15:33,800 --> 02:15:38,000
Speaker 1: leg to have, whether it's incredible football games like the

2219
02:15:38,040 --> 02:15:40,880
Speaker 1: one I got to witness, or even something as simple

2220
02:15:40,880 --> 02:15:45,280
Speaker 1: as going to Disney World. The amount of money now,

2221
02:15:45,400 --> 02:15:47,520
Speaker 1: if you want to have oh, if you want to

2222
02:15:47,560 --> 02:15:51,200
Speaker 1: have good seats, you got to have like tech bro money.

2223
02:15:51,560 --> 02:15:53,040
Speaker 1: If you want to have no you know, if you

2224
02:15:53,080 --> 02:15:55,320
Speaker 1: want to have shorter lines at Disney, You've got to

2225
02:15:55,360 --> 02:15:58,080
Speaker 1: pay for more of a velvet rope. You know. It

2226
02:15:58,160 --> 02:16:00,400
Speaker 1: gets into the same thing I sort of mentioned the

2227
02:16:00,480 --> 02:16:04,800
Speaker 1: other day that even even Blackjack has income inequality, where

2228
02:16:05,000 --> 02:16:08,480
Speaker 1: if you want to play for lesser steaks you get

2229
02:16:08,600 --> 02:16:10,600
Speaker 1: worse odds, if you want to play for higher stakes,

2230
02:16:10,600 --> 02:16:14,640
Speaker 1: you get better odds. It is, it is everything is about,

2231
02:16:15,360 --> 02:16:19,480
Speaker 1: you know, creating more velvet ropes to sell more insider access.

2232
02:16:19,600 --> 02:16:22,600
Speaker 1: And the irony was the most expensive seats at hard

2233
02:16:22,680 --> 02:16:26,560
Speaker 1: Rock Stadium. There's these comfy chairs on the fifty yard line.

2234
02:16:27,000 --> 02:16:30,080
Speaker 1: There are these wide seats literally soft kind of recliner seats.

2235
02:16:30,120 --> 02:16:33,000
Speaker 1: They were going for twenty to forty thousand dollars a piece.

2236
02:16:34,280 --> 02:16:38,000
Speaker 1: That was the only seats that looked empty. I was

2237
02:16:38,040 --> 02:16:40,400
Speaker 1: sitting on the opposite side about the ten yard line

2238
02:16:40,520 --> 02:16:43,160
Speaker 1: in a Miami section, in a section, and I will

2239
02:16:43,240 --> 02:16:47,080
Speaker 1: confess of Miami season ticket holders that were on the

2240
02:16:47,200 --> 02:16:51,920
Speaker 1: upper end of being Miami season ticket holders, Okay, but

2241
02:16:52,120 --> 02:16:54,240
Speaker 1: we were not. Yeah, we were priced out of any

2242
02:16:54,280 --> 02:16:57,560
Speaker 1: of those. And that's I'm not complaining, all right. I

2243
02:16:57,800 --> 02:17:00,240
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. I was able to get there. I have

2244
02:17:00,280 --> 02:17:02,760
Speaker 1: to pay four thousand dollars on the secondary market for

2245
02:17:02,879 --> 02:17:10,640
Speaker 1: tickets or anything like that. But you know how, the

2246
02:17:10,920 --> 02:17:14,080
Speaker 1: entire how we're just doing these things, we're we're sort

2247
02:17:14,080 --> 02:17:21,360
Speaker 1: of embedding inequality all over the place. And it's I'm

2248
02:17:21,400 --> 02:17:24,120
Speaker 1: not trying to sound like some socialists here, but it's like,

2249
02:17:24,760 --> 02:17:26,720
Speaker 1: I think we need we've gotten out of hand. I

2250
02:17:26,800 --> 02:17:29,280
Speaker 1: think we can charge up there, you know what for

2251
02:17:29,400 --> 02:17:34,120
Speaker 1: these suites, but the stands themselves can't. You you know,

2252
02:17:34,160 --> 02:17:37,800
Speaker 1: I understand that they're trying to get every dollar they

2253
02:17:37,879 --> 02:17:40,760
Speaker 1: can off of how much money's been paid for the

2254
02:17:40,920 --> 02:17:42,720
Speaker 1: rights to this playoff and all of this stuff. But

2255
02:17:44,840 --> 02:17:48,359
Speaker 1: I don't know, five hundred dollars for parking seemed absurd.

2256
02:17:49,200 --> 02:17:51,959
Speaker 1: Some of us may have paid for it because of Frankly,

2257
02:17:52,440 --> 02:17:54,720
Speaker 1: it was that or two hundred and fifty dollars one

2258
02:17:54,760 --> 02:17:57,879
Speaker 1: way Uber, you know, or one hundred dollars Cabra. Right,

2259
02:17:58,040 --> 02:17:59,760
Speaker 1: there was no cheap way to go. There was some

2260
02:18:00,000 --> 02:18:02,400
Speaker 1: shut if you wanted to sign up for the hard

2261
02:18:02,480 --> 02:18:08,720
Speaker 1: rock casino and things like that. But I just in general,

2262
02:18:09,640 --> 02:18:12,120
Speaker 1: I do think we need to you know, the stewards

2263
02:18:12,160 --> 02:18:15,760
Speaker 1: of these of these big things, whether you're whether you're

2264
02:18:15,840 --> 02:18:18,560
Speaker 1: Bob Iger and your run Disney World. You know, can

2265
02:18:18,600 --> 02:18:24,480
Speaker 1: a middle class family go and enjoy themselves and not

2266
02:18:24,720 --> 02:18:27,240
Speaker 1: feel like or not get reminded? Yeah you can go,

2267
02:18:27,760 --> 02:18:29,560
Speaker 1: but we're going to show off all the places you

2268
02:18:29,640 --> 02:18:34,520
Speaker 1: can't afford to be. It kind of felt that way

2269
02:18:34,600 --> 02:18:36,440
Speaker 1: at this football game. And again, I know this is

2270
02:18:36,520 --> 02:18:38,800
Speaker 1: the national time. We've already done this to the super Bowl,

2271
02:18:38,840 --> 02:18:42,520
Speaker 1: where the average NFL fan can't get there. That's the

2272
02:18:42,560 --> 02:18:44,560
Speaker 1: other thing. They don't even make tickets available. Everything is

2273
02:18:44,640 --> 02:18:47,600
Speaker 1: for these corporate and political guys. Trust me, I saw

2274
02:18:47,680 --> 02:18:51,720
Speaker 1: my Shriff. Politicians saw the the Santises saw Marco Rubio's

2275
02:18:52,040 --> 02:18:58,560
Speaker 1: Rick Scott saw. I did not see the president in person,

2276
02:18:58,640 --> 02:19:02,320
Speaker 1: but saw these other folks. We're all milling about, right

2277
02:19:02,400 --> 02:19:05,600
Speaker 1: except for there was security details everywhere and stuff. But

2278
02:19:05,760 --> 02:19:10,080
Speaker 1: it was that's just the one. We've got to sort

2279
02:19:10,080 --> 02:19:14,440
Speaker 1: of have some I just you know, it's almost like

2280
02:19:14,520 --> 02:19:16,600
Speaker 1: you need It's like we need an hr for sort

2281
02:19:16,600 --> 02:19:20,400
Speaker 1: of a reality check, you know, because guess what, none

2282
02:19:20,440 --> 02:19:24,920
Speaker 1: of this has value. If working people aren't interested in

2283
02:19:25,280 --> 02:19:28,640
Speaker 1: the product anymore, and if you make it so hard

2284
02:19:28,840 --> 02:19:34,119
Speaker 1: for working people to do this, you know, once a year,

2285
02:19:34,440 --> 02:19:37,600
Speaker 1: whatever it is, eventually they're going to lose interest and

2286
02:19:37,680 --> 02:19:42,760
Speaker 1: then the entire product gets devalued. So as we keep

2287
02:19:42,959 --> 02:19:45,520
Speaker 1: escalating to find more ways to make money off the

2288
02:19:45,600 --> 02:19:51,920
Speaker 1: super rich, be careful suddenly pricing out and getting rid

2289
02:19:51,959 --> 02:19:57,760
Speaker 1: of an entire class of people who arguably are the

2290
02:19:57,840 --> 02:20:01,320
Speaker 1: backbone of the popularity of of a place like Disney

2291
02:20:01,360 --> 02:20:07,840
Speaker 1: World or a sport like college football. Good news is

2292
02:20:07,959 --> 02:20:10,960
Speaker 1: this is my last college football report until spring practice. No, no, no,

2293
02:20:11,000 --> 02:20:14,879
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding until August unless the sport itself goes

2294
02:20:14,920 --> 02:20:17,480
Speaker 1: through yet another overhaul and there's some stuff there. I

2295
02:20:17,560 --> 02:20:19,440
Speaker 1: am going to transition to baseball. I got a lot

2296
02:20:19,560 --> 02:20:22,320
Speaker 1: of feelings about the new Baseball Hall of Famers. I'm

2297
02:20:22,360 --> 02:20:24,760
Speaker 1: going to save that for my next sports report on

2298
02:20:24,840 --> 02:20:27,240
Speaker 1: the next podcast. So with that, I'll see in twenty

2299
02:20:27,240 --> 02:20:27,680
Speaker 1: four hours.