WEBVTT - Keith Olbermann, Robert Draper & Rep. Patrick Ryan 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:04.560 Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics. Well, 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:07.600 we discussed the top political headlines with some of today's 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:12.360 best minds and armed maga's are camped outside drop boxes 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:16.000 in Mesa, Arizona. What an excellent show we have today. 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:19.320 New York Times magazine and national geographic writer Robert Draper, 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:22.040 author of the book Weapons of Mass Illusion When the 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:24.279 Republican Party Lost its Mind, is gonna come by and 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:26.800 tell us all about well, exactly that. Then we'll talk 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:30.360 to Congressman Patrick Ryan, who represents New York's nineteenth district, 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:34.080 about his competitive race. But first we're joined by a 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:37.640 countdown host Keith Olberman and iHeart media podcast, but you 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:42.200 can hear Monday through Friday each week. Welcome to Fast Politics. 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:46.240 Keith Oberman on my pleasure to be here and Ted 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:50.239 Ted Ted in the background may not be happy about this. 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.120 I'm not the dog. I am usually the one with 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:55.640 the barking dogs in the background, so this is very 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:57.720 nice for me. I have Well, you haven't heard them 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.360 bark yet, naked really bark. There's four of them. First 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:04.120 of all, we're going to talk a little bit about 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.520 what's going on with many exciting things that happened this weekend, 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:12.680 starting with the Nazis in l A. Yeah, I just 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:15.320 I just wrote that up for the for the podcast. 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:18.680 It's just it's not a surprise. Nobody should be surprised. 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:23.679 It's southern California, where I lived for ten years. It's 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:27.560 one of the hidden racist and anti Semitic enclaves, and 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.880 maybe not often that that hidden in the country. But 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.800 the point is that all of these groups and and 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:39.280 Trump's fascists are moving together, I think a little bit 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:41.679 faster than a lot of people expected. As in his 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:45.160 re election announcement was supposed to wait till after the midterms, 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:48.160 so was the whole the Jews run everything and we 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:50.640 have to we have to throw them out of the country, 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:53.520 which is basically what this messages. Those guys are from 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.640 the ones who hung the banners from the four or 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:59.840 five freeway over the past yeah four five. Yeah, that 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:04.559 a group of about twelve guys called the Goyam Defense League, 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:07.920 and yeah, and there, I mean these were guys who 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.239 were banned from YouTube in two thousand and ten, so there, 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:15.880 how bad you have to be banned from YouTube at all? 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.320 But when they had hundred people using YouTube, they were 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:22.800 banned from it. I come back to the one thing 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:25.080 as as a as a gentile that I do not 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:29.480 understand about this entire equation of anti Semitism. If you 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:34.560 believe this, if you believe somewhere that what you are 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:38.760 spouting about Jewish people is actually true, how is it 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:43.440 possible that you don't expect to be thrown from that overpass? 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:46.760 I don't know. I don't like it's shouldn't you guys 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.880 being shouldn't Kanye West be in hiding somewhere by now? 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:52.440 None of it follows any logical train. But that's the 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:54.359 thing to me that disturbs me the most in terms 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:57.160 of an offense against logic. Yeah, I mean, I have 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:01.959 to say as a Jew myself, who's constantly getting chastised 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:06.800 by conservative Jews for not standing up against their like 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.400 obsession with anti semitism on the left, you know, and 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.080 by the way, the people they think are are people 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:17.280 like Bernie who is actually Jewish. Yeah, it's interesting to 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.360 me to watch them just completely Oh, it's not the 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:24.919 same thing. And you know, even Ben Shapiro defending Trump saying, well, 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:30.639 he's not wrong about Jews, you know, criticizing Israel. I mean, 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:35.120 it's so insane. These conservative Jews are on I just 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:38.240 can't believe they can't see where this is going. That 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:43.080 instinct is overridden by the by the other instinct that 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:47.640 people who are of an authoritarian mind, and that's literally 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:51.640 a different physical entity than an ordinary human mind. They 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:55.440 believe if there are two responses to a threat, one 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:57.640 is to fight the threat, and the other one is 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:01.640 to collaborate with the threat as quickly and as enthusiastically 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.920 as possible. In other words, this, these terrible things will 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:08.120 happen to the fill in the blank here, whichever is 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:10.240 the most hated group of the moment, But it won't 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:12.600 happen to me because I helped them. You know. It's 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:14.920 the it's the Kent Brockman joke from The Simpsons. I 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:19.720 for one, welcome our new insect overlords. Right. So let's 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:24.880 talk about Nancy Pelosi. The January six Committee wanted Trump 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:28.400 to testify. They subpoenaed him. There's been I think a 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:32.440 fair amount of anxiety about the idea of Trump testifying, 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:35.640 because we know what happens when Trump gets a microphone, 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:40.080 and it tends not to work out so well for anyone. 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:44.279 But Pelosi sort of dared Trump to testify today. I mean, 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:48.080 what's your hot take on this? Well, I think unfortunately 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:50.799 it's going to be an academic question because that committee 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:53.920 and those hearings are not really going to be a 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:57.120 vibrant force after the midterms. Right. But do you think 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:01.960 he'll testify before that? I mean before before before January fourth? 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:05.320 I don't. I don't think so. First off, why would 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:09.000 they why would they agree to live public testimony? I 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:13.039 mean unless they have the James Thurber cartoon where he's 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:16.919 the lawyer is accosting the man on the stand and 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.360 he's holding a giant kangaroo in his hands. The lawyer 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:23.000 is and he goes, perhaps this will refresh your memory. 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:26.640 Unless they have something like that. And even so, you 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:31.159 know that Donald Trump is entirely successful and has been 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:34.719 throughout his life on one skill, which is to say 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.599 anything that is necessary in the moment, right, which is 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:41.200 why I think he might testify because he knows he could, 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:43.520 you know, just do crazy ship with it. But he 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.120 will testify to be to be live and on television 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:49.920 because like so many people he is also he has 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.920 become the thing that sent him over the total edge mentally, 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:58.359 was was being a television regular television figure, because television is, 0:05:58.400 --> 0:05:59.839 and I can tell you this from forty years of 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:02.840 its experience with it, it is an addiction stronger than 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:06.280 crack cocaine. And you really, if you're not aware of that, 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:08.440 you become consumed by it. And he wants to be 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.400 on television. But it's a very simple issue. I haven't 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:16.000 seen anywhere that the January six Committee subpoenas suggests that 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:19.000 the testimony would be live or even or even in 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:21.400 front of an audience. So I can't imagine that he would. 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.080 I mean, you're right, that's that opportunity to go and 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:26.760 just say, well, never mind that, let's talk about how 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.400 I really won the election. I really do think by 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.200 the way that we should we should all say, just 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:37.400 before the presidential election, we should all say, yes, you're right, 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:42.200 you won the election, and you you were president all 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.920 this time. Sorry, that means you can't run again tomorrow. 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:49.520 Your votes don't count. Sorry, See you have a nice 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:53.719 day by police. Yeah, that's that's why I realized this 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:57.760 is not necessarily a really good last line of defense 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.400 against another Trump presidency, but it's the only one I 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:01.920 can come up with off the top of my head. 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:04.000 But back to your point, I just I don't see 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:07.800 it happening, because it's much better for him to again 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:12.640 nail himself to that crucifix for the fifteen thousandth time 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.240 and be you know, oh, look at them, they're trying 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:18.040 to kill me again. That's much better for him than 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:21.640 it is to to actually even to satisfy the ego 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.320 and the addiction of being on television. Right. Yeah, I mean, 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.120 I don't know how that plays out. But do you 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:29.560 think Nancy Pelosi sort of baiting him makes any sense? 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:32.880 I think I don't know that it has any practical sense, 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:35.600 not like the release of that tape of her to 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.600 ce Ann saying, I'm, you know, doing a revision of 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.440 the Kate Bush song. I'm gonna he's gonna come to 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:43.320 that hill, I'm gonna punch him in the face. I'm 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.880 gonna feel real good that that that it's cathartic to 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.600 do that. And and I you know, this is this 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:53.679 is a guy who cannot abide criticism, has no sense 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.680 of humor about himself, and is easily tweaked. And one 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:58.960 of the things that we have failed to do since 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:02.400 he took over the Republican Party in late two thousand 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:06.000 fifteen is too at every opportunity. And when I say we, 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:08.360 I mean people who have much more prominence than either 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.080 one of us. But people like Nancy Pelosi and people 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:13.800 like Joe Biden and the others who have succeeded against 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:15.760 him have all if you, if you look at this, 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.640 they have all walked over and metaphorically slapped him in 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:21.720 the face. And I think that's where it's a value. 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:25.080 It's it's it's it's coming over and looking for the 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:28.320 vulnerability and hitting him right there. And that's where it's 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:32.240 it's value is cathartic rather than practice. Right, No, I 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:35.320 I think that's probably right. I'm also curious as to 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.520 why Pelosi is getting involved in this. So let's talk 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:41.800 about the documents. Who have learned more about the documents. 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:46.040 We're learning every day more about the documents that Trump has. 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:49.720 Now we've learned that some are at least some are 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.560 related to Iran and China. And we already knew that 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.200 there that there were some that that outlined the nuclear 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:58.319 capabilities of another country. And there are only like seven 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:01.559 of those. Yeah, we only knew that from one only 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:04.720 the Washington Post. The Times never went along with that, 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.760 But clearly that's what it was. So so what's your 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.800 take on that. I'm intrigued to see whether or not 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:15.640 those two stories overlap. Are we talking about the same document, right, 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.400 because there's a lot of documents too, But but I 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.160 do I do tend to think one. And this is true. Again, 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.240 this is a generalization about Trump that is also absolutely 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.319 true in the specific The volume whatever it is, the 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:31.040 volume of stuff that he puts out, the volume of chaff, 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:34.880 the volume of crime, the volume of grift, the volume 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:39.199 of conspiracy theories is always so great that we do 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:44.559 tend to overlook the significance of each one of these things. 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:47.840 In other words, it's it's one of these, one of 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:52.480 these documents that he stole contains the nuclear, nuclear and 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:56.560 defense capabilities of an entire foreign nation. It's only the 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:59.640 one document. It's a that one is a death penalty, 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:03.840 effec It is espionage and they're going to shoot you 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:08.280 full of poisonous drugs, and we sometimes lose track that. 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:12.440 You know, perhaps these Iran and China documents are also 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.000 on that level, and if they're not pretty close to it, 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:20.199 these are these are perhaps the three greatest espionage crimes 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:23.600 in American history and and we we get it gets 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.320 lot while I stall hundreds of documents, and some of them, 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:28.160 some of them were just a quick you know, the 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:31.440 directions through the underground tunnels to the Burger King the 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:35.559 White House. Well, okay, I'm not that worried about that. Yes, 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:37.960 when they when the guy fired a hundred shots, like, well, 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.480 he fired a hundred bullets, he only killed three people, 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:42.520 that's the same thing to it, right, I mean, that's 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:45.520 it's this sort of deep band and flooding the zone 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:49.560 with strategy. But but that's it's see, I don't it's not. 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:52.360 It's Steve Bannon may have applied it to politics and 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.760 particularly the Trump campaign, but that's the Trump Uh, that's his. 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:01.280 That's his his artistry that he has met a is 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:04.280 flooding the zone with ship and whatever. It's been from 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:08.440 defending himself against the racist apartment charges forty years ago 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:11.559 or forty five years ago, to you know, whatever he's 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:14.520 cooking up this week. It's always about doing so much 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:16.920 material that you go, I forgot about that. That was 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:18.520 a couple of months ago, and it turns out it 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:22.679 was Tuesday. A hundred things. Since they're all the cliches 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:25.439 about the latest shiny object and everything else and apply 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:29.280 to that too. So last night Trump was doing a 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:33.920 rally in Texas, I think it was Texas, um, and 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:36.440 I'm going to quote for you because I feel like 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:39.640 this is just so ironic you And by the way, 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:42.720 every time I forgot because I haven't written about Trump's 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:44.760 speech and so long, but every time you read a 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:47.400 Trump quote, you have to get used to the way 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.920 he English is. Uh. You know in this country they 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:54.280 leak all over the place, even on the Supreme Court. 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.640 I don't think you leak on it. But okay, well 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:01.760 he had somebody complained about body leaking on him, yes, 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:04.560 last week, and I thought, I thought we could solve 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:09.840 the pee tape thing. By the way, tape. By the way, 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.720 you have to find the leaker of the Supreme Court. 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:16.880 Again not English, but yes, you have to find the leaker. 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.120 You know how you find the leaker. And then he 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:24.120 launched into a grand plan. But a little ironic from 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.600 from him being from the guy who took all the 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:31.040 classified documents. Well, yes, because again this is this is 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.680 why you know, people were like, what an extraordinary thing 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.600 in American political history. It was for a man to 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.000 come in and with no previous affiliation just take over 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:43.960 a political party. It's like no, no, no, all all 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:47.040 of the people in that political party were have been 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:51.360 honing skills that they hoped would someday make them as 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:55.200 good or and or bad as Trump in this particular area. 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:58.880 There's no rules apply to him. The rules are there 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.880 for us to control the rest of you. And and 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.040 he's been he has been the poster boy for that 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:07.760 since the seventies. And it's and and that's how he 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:09.840 did it. He came in and they said, they said, 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:13.720 we have found our role model. And that's it's simply 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:15.680 that they were able to say, we can now drop 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.480 everything else that there was where we had to pretend 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:21.120 we were interested in governing, and we were pretending we 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:23.720 had that we were responsible citizens. We can drop that. 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:26.920 Now we just do what he does. That's over. I mean, 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:31.160 basically he went in and took over the Republican Party 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:37.040 because they were cowards and he was a little bit charismatic. Yes, 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:40.880 and that's it right. I mean, there's no secret sauce here. No, 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.000 I think there is one. And it's the only conspiracy 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:46.920 theory I said, I agree, I agree with and and actually, 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.120 I think I may have conceived this one. Do you 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:52.280 remember the Jeff Bezos story where they were trying to 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:57.640 blackmail him with the girlfriend one as an aside, I 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:01.240 used to work with the girlfriend. She was a sportscast year. Yeah, 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:03.800 so that's like, it's a very small world. But number two, 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:07.640 what do you suppose the odds are that the first 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:11.600 person that the National Inquirer tried to blackmail on behalf 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:16.680 of Trump had the money, the stones, the audacity to say, now, 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:19.640 I'm gonna you know, any money, any any influence, because 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.680 I mean, I don't love my wife anymore, but she 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:24.520 she was a good person and she gets my money. 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.040 You don't screw you, guys, I'm not cooperating. What are 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:30.960 the chances that the first person they blackmailed said no. 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:34.640 I think those chances are almost infamitessable. And there had 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:39.560 probably been dozens of people blackmailed with similar things by 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:43.040 similar organizations on behalf of Trump. And if you sit 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:46.960 there wondering, how did Lindsey Graham turn from a you know, 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:53.840 blow with the strongest wind kind of fake reasonable Republican 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:58.320 to this prostitute? How did Ted Cruz go from being 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:01.120 you know, what we're threatening Trump with a fist fight 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:06.320 to being his biggest supporter, Ronnie Jackson, almost everybody at 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.160 Fox News. People forget people at Fox News were so 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:12.000 anti Trump in two thousand, fifteen sixteen. How did they 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:14.720 do this? I think we need to admit the possibility 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:18.400 that that blackmail was involved in it, because it's you know, 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:21.840 these are politicians, and they're being politicians. They're about a 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:25.320 hundred times more likely to have done blackmail double stuff 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:27.560 than the rest of us have. So I think that's 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:30.680 the one little sort of mystery that might be explained 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.760 by future historians. But I just I'm going to push 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.440 back on this. I mean, we really think like Lindsey 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:42.040 Graham needs money to be a sick of fant who 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.680 wants to be popular, like there are horses. I mean, 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.880 these people just do whatever the crowd wants. I'm just 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:51.000 saying that somebody may have gone on behalf of Trump 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:55.520 and said, if you don't support Trump, everything you have 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:59.760 will disappear because we have photographs of you and fill 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.280 in the like. Could be anything, could be, could be 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:07.280 him secretly attending a gay rights may something terrible like that. Right, 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:09.840 But I mean, but but I just I just think 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.960 that you know that that that the reversals when when 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:15.440 this is written, if there is a future, and there 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.200 are historians and they try to analyze this. One of 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:20.720 the things that we don't really appreciate it now is 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.400 the limited, how small the number of people it is 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.720 who could have stopped this by pushing back. He could 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:30.080 have stopped this with a moral stance that didn't really 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:33.040 require an awful lot of morality to it, and none 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.160 of them did it, And it took it took four 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:39.440 years for Liz Cheney to get there. Right, No, just 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:41.880 what there is there is there is there in a 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:46.000 conditional components, and the biggest component of all political figures 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:50.320 is is self interest and preservation of what they have. Yeah, 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:53.200 I mean, I just would argue that these people all 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:56.440 they care about is staying in power. So like you, So, 0:16:56.640 --> 0:17:00.520 I mean we saw in our my and mineighborhood the 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:04.680 congressional race, my congresswoman who lost her seat would do 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.200 anything to stay in power. I mean, I feel like, 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:09.919 I feel like you don't even need the blackmail. And 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:12.760 it's funny because I just want to sort of extrapolate 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.679 from there. I'm friends with Michael Angelo, Senor Elli, this 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.760 wonderful activist who's been doing this for a long time, 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:20.240 and one of the things you used to do was 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.840 out gay politicians. And I said, why did you stop 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:27.200 outing the gay politicians gay? I mean the gay Republican 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.000 closeted politicians who were voting for all this horrible anti 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:34.639 LGBTQ stuff but then actually gay. And he said, because 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:38.119 ultimately their people don't care as long as they vote 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:42.119 for the stuff that's anti lgbt Q, they don't care 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:44.880 if they're gay or not. And I thought, so, I 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.920 just wonder how much of any of this is just this, 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.960 like these people are, you know, they've sort of kidnapped 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:56.240 themselves and are holding themselves for ransom. That's a plausible explanation. 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:58.080 As I said when I brought this up, it's a 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:00.840 conspiracy theory, and I don't give it were weight than that, 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:05.000 But I'm just thinking, you know, it may apply to 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:08.000 people outside of the Republican Party. Every time I see 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:10.399 Kirsten Cinema, who I went out with for a while, 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:14.600 behave in the way that she has in in favorites 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.600 of things that at least are favorable to Trump and Republicans, 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:23.960 And I know what a psychotic liberal she was. I 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:29.000 just again, it's not it's sure enough, sure enough, you're 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:33.080 right about this. Every politician will would would kill all 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.480 of their members of their families to stay in office. 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:39.880 But you can accelerate that by by saying, yeah, we're 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:42.399 going to put you in that position right now. Unless 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:44.960 you do this for us, we're going to blackmail you 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:47.879 into doing it right now. I'm just thinking, you know, 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:51.480 it's it's it would explain some of these sudden reversals. 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:56.240 And I just the Kirston Cinema question is a mystery 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.440 wrapped in enigma. For sure. How you go from like 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:04.120 at brought to a no labels is just baffling. I 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:07.680 think she found that she liked having a car that 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:11.439 took her places rather than living in a car. I 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:15.159 think that's I think that's ultimately what it was. But 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.800 I don't know. I mean, I know her, and if 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.720 there's anybody who would be a victim, who's a conceivable 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:26.200 victim of blackmail, it's her. So she's got It's just 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:30.080 it's it was a very strange experience. That's all I'm 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:33.960 gonna say. Thank you so much, Keith Oberman, my pleasure. 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:45.720 You didn't even ask about the dogs. Robert Draper is 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:48.199 a writer for The New York Times Magazine and National 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:51.040 Geographic and the author of Weapons of Mass Delusion. When 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:55.720 the Republican Party Lost its Mind. Welcome to fast Politics. 0:19:55.960 --> 0:20:01.000 Robert very excited. We were talking about Steve Bannon going 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:05.840 to jail. Yes, the judge just moments ago sentenced Ben 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:11.600 into four months in federal prison and fine, he will 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:15.320 not impose that sentence, however, until Bannon is given the 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:17.879 opportunity to appeal, and if he doesn't appeal in a 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:22.600 timely manner, that he must self surrender by November. So 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:25.200 he's probably not going to jail. Well, I think it'll 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:29.080 just be you know, extended out beyond an appellate stage. 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:31.600 But I think it's very likely he'll go to jail. 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:34.680 I think the Bannon has expected and perhaps even hoped 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:37.840 to go to jail, you know, seeling his status is 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:41.359 martyr once and for all, and you know the truth is, Molly, 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:44.440 this is not. I mean, he's up on federal charges 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:50.000 of fraud and may have greater risk and greater exposure 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.639 in that case than in this one, which is a misdemeanor. 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:57.119 Can you say a little more about that he was 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:02.520 indicted for allegedly participate hating in a fraud scheme, relating 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:08.080 to exactly that's right, favorite, that's exactly right. Yes, I 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:12.120 think it's called we build the wall, We build the wall. Yes, 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:16.040 he's it's fair to say, never been shy about publicity 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:20.600 and uh and the opportunity to posit himself as a 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:24.720 guy who's been martyred by what he believes as a 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:28.760 corrupt judicial system. That's something I've never heard him say before, um, 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.879 the last couple of years, but now he pervently believes 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:34.040 it would be, you know, a fabulous opportunity for him. 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:36.520 And I think that he's always Bannon has always regarded 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:39.800 himself in a very outsized sense, and that this will 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:42.320 somehow put him in a pantheon with you know, Martin 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:45.440 Luther King and others who have languished in jail for 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:48.880 a cause greater than themselves. Yeah. I think of Martin 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:51.879 Luther King when I think of Steve Bannon. Yeah, Steve 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:56.160 Bannon fights for the ability to wear multiple shirts and 0:21:56.560 --> 0:21:59.360 whatever it is he does. It has been pointed out 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:01.679 that he probably won't be able to wear multiple shirts 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:04.760 in prison. I don't think that garbage is allowed. I 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:09.120 think a big question that we all have is who 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:12.720 will take over his podcast? Well he's in prison, Ted 0:22:12.800 --> 0:22:16.080 Cruz or Marjorie Taylor Grant. I think you answered your 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:19.240 own question with those last few syllables. She's been She's 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:21.680 been so frequent a guest on his show and has 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:25.439 already tweeted saying I stand with Steve Bannham that she 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:29.080 has practically a stand in for him. It's a miraculous story. 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:31.119 So talk to me about the book Weapons of Mass 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:36.359 Delusion When the Republican Party Lost its Mind. The book 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:40.680 captures an eighteen month moment in time beginning January the six, 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:44.560 when you would have thought the Republican Party, faced with 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:48.640 a horror of what took place and its culpability in 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:51.920 that horror at the Capitol, would have maybe descended into 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:56.240 a kind of penitence and sought to purge itself of 0:22:56.320 --> 0:22:59.080 the more extreme elements that gave rise to the insurrection. 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:02.080 Of course, that's not what happened at all, And my 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:06.200 book is essentially, you know, a repertorial journey through that 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:10.280 very trajectory beginning with January the six, and how far 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:16.199 from distancing itself from the maga influences. It has allowed 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:19.880 itself to I won't say to become captive because captives 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:23.840 suggested that it bears to no culpability, but instead the 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:26.480 center of gravity for the Republican Party is now very 0:23:26.560 --> 0:23:30.080 much the magabase of which Marjorie Tayler Green, who we 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:32.080 were talking about a second ago, he was one of 0:23:32.119 --> 0:23:35.639 the central protagonists. Let's talk about that. You've been doing 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:40.439 this pretty long time, and you've seen and you've written 0:23:40.440 --> 0:23:45.080 about many Republican iterations of whatever the funk is happening now? 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:49.320 What is happening? Like they've lost their mind? You've written 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:53.640 about w You're not new to this now. I've been 0:23:53.680 --> 0:23:58.439 covering Republican politics for over twenty years and was raised 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:01.919 in a very concern ovative community. My father was a 0:24:01.960 --> 0:24:06.439 lifelong Republican, but you know, the Republicanism was a different 0:24:06.520 --> 0:24:09.280 kind of thing in my father's day. I mean, he 0:24:09.280 --> 0:24:12.639 he believed the personal responsibility meant, among other things, that 0:24:12.720 --> 0:24:15.720 you don't foster all these grievances and blame everyone else 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:19.520 for your plight. You certainly don't demonize the opposition party. 0:24:19.560 --> 0:24:21.240 If he had done that, he probably would not have 0:24:21.280 --> 0:24:24.439 stayed married to my mother a Democrat for sixty or 0:24:24.440 --> 0:24:27.439 four years. But you know, something has happened to the 0:24:27.440 --> 0:24:30.320 party over time. And while we could talk, you know, 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:33.080 at some length about the succession of steps that led 0:24:33.080 --> 0:24:35.199 to where the party is now, my book is not 0:24:35.280 --> 0:24:37.600 a history book. It's not how the Republican Party loss 0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:40.000 it's mind. It's when it lost its mind. And so 0:24:40.040 --> 0:24:42.520 it's very much a Trump era book. And and and 0:24:42.560 --> 0:24:46.840 I say Trump era advisingly because Trump, at least in theory, 0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:49.399 there's not command center stage anymore. He's not president, and 0:24:49.480 --> 0:24:52.399 yet he certainly has a stranglehold over the party. No 0:24:52.440 --> 0:24:55.720 one knows that better than, for example, Republican House Minority 0:24:55.840 --> 0:24:58.639 Leader Kevin McCarthy, who, in his never an inquest to 0:24:58.720 --> 0:25:02.520 become Speaker of the House, he's got a plaquate the magabase. 0:25:02.840 --> 0:25:05.480 You know, that means play kating people like Marjorie Teler Green, 0:25:05.600 --> 0:25:07.800 but not even because he's just humoring her or is 0:25:07.840 --> 0:25:10.080 fond of her, but because of what she represents, so 0:25:10.119 --> 0:25:13.959 that she is the proximate warrior for Trump to the magabase. 0:25:14.320 --> 0:25:17.520 I also think, though, and I'm curious what your hot 0:25:17.560 --> 0:25:22.119 take on this is. It reminds me of in the 0:25:22.160 --> 0:25:26.560 two thousands, when we were all sweet summer children, there 0:25:26.640 --> 0:25:29.439 was the sense that small dollar donations were going to 0:25:29.520 --> 0:25:33.920 democratize democracy. But Marjorie Taylor Green is a pretty good 0:25:34.240 --> 0:25:39.520 examplar of how actually that is not what's happening at all. Well, 0:25:39.720 --> 0:25:43.800 you're correct, Molly, that Green is one of the biggest 0:25:43.880 --> 0:25:49.879 small dollar fundraisers on Capital Hilt today. But the question 0:25:49.920 --> 0:25:53.719 is how are these donations ray They're not just you know, 0:25:53.800 --> 0:25:56.639 people over the transom waking up one morning and deciding 0:25:56.680 --> 0:25:59.720 to send Marjorie Taylor Green ten dollars. It's because that 0:26:00.160 --> 0:26:03.680 seen one of her tweets comparing Biden to Hitler or 0:26:03.720 --> 0:26:08.720 suggesting that Alexandria are explicitly saying that Alexandriacascio Cortez is 0:26:08.760 --> 0:26:14.399 a communist and um and them being sufficiently agitated to 0:26:14.480 --> 0:26:18.680 believe that civilization hangs in the balance that they'll then 0:26:18.920 --> 0:26:22.320 donate portions of their retirement to someone like margor Teeler 0:26:22.359 --> 0:26:25.200 Green in an effort to stand up in what they 0:26:25.240 --> 0:26:29.520 believe is this kind of existential book of Revelations style battles. 0:26:29.680 --> 0:26:32.359 I do still, you know, root at least in theory 0:26:32.440 --> 0:26:36.119 for the positive force that small dollar donations can be 0:26:36.280 --> 0:26:39.640 up against pac money, but it does not necessarily mean 0:26:39.800 --> 0:26:44.439 that these are being UM solicited in a good faith manner. 0:26:44.480 --> 0:26:46.720 And Green is a great case and point of that. Yeah, 0:26:46.760 --> 0:26:50.400 that's a really good point. I think about somewhere and 0:26:50.400 --> 0:26:54.480 we were with a bunch of older people and someone 0:26:54.560 --> 0:27:00.720 was saying, well, they've all been radicalized on Facebook. What happened? Man? Yeah? Right, well, 0:27:00.760 --> 0:27:03.200 you know so the title of my book is Weapons 0:27:03.240 --> 0:27:06.600 of Mass Delusion, and the real key phrase there is 0:27:06.840 --> 0:27:10.760 mass delusion, meaning that the base of one of our 0:27:10.880 --> 0:27:15.840 two big political parties UM has UM fallen prey to 0:27:16.000 --> 0:27:21.080 delusion on moss and and that's happened through a steady, 0:27:21.119 --> 0:27:25.919 really unending marinating in disinformation. The big lie is the 0:27:25.960 --> 0:27:29.720 most obvious one, that the election was stolen, but there 0:27:29.760 --> 0:27:32.280 have come sprung up next to that all these other 0:27:32.359 --> 0:27:36.520 adjacent lives, that the January the six was a set up, 0:27:36.680 --> 0:27:38.920 or that it was you know, just tourists, or that 0:27:39.240 --> 0:27:44.280 um Antifa riled everyone up, seeing the COVID vaccines at 0:27:44.359 --> 0:27:48.119 minimum don't work and at maximum are killers or or 0:27:48.359 --> 0:27:51.640 or mind control from China, and that the mainstream media 0:27:51.720 --> 0:27:55.840 is working with liberals to engineer a great replacement for 0:27:56.040 --> 0:27:58.360 with people coming across the border. I mean, these are 0:27:58.400 --> 0:28:02.119 these are things that that are big fed two people 0:28:02.160 --> 0:28:06.199 on the right by this far right media ecosystem that 0:28:06.320 --> 0:28:09.399 really didn't exist a decade ago. But now when you 0:28:09.400 --> 0:28:11.960 go to a Trump rally, it's on the riser. You 0:28:12.040 --> 0:28:16.960 don't see CNN and ABC, instead see Real America's Voice, 0:28:17.240 --> 0:28:21.960 One American News News, Max bright Bart and those people 0:28:22.000 --> 0:28:25.080 are treated like rock stars, are like a letter day 0:28:25.160 --> 0:28:28.679 Walter Cronkite by the people in these Trump rallies. And 0:28:28.720 --> 0:28:32.080 so that's that's where they get their news from. And 0:28:32.240 --> 0:28:36.240 those those outlets are frankly nothing more, nothing less than 0:28:36.320 --> 0:28:40.200 propaganda outlets at best for Trump and at worst, uh, 0:28:40.320 --> 0:28:44.120 they are consistent spewers of lives. I was wondering if 0:28:44.160 --> 0:28:47.280 you had a thought about Megan Kelly, who has had 0:28:47.320 --> 0:28:51.240 this very mainstream career. Yesterday she tweeted this thing about 0:28:51.280 --> 0:28:54.920 how vaccines are killing our children. Does that sort of 0:28:54.960 --> 0:28:58.720 fall into this and how I think? So? Yeah, So Kelly, 0:28:58.800 --> 0:29:02.360 someone who has taken on the guys of being like 0:29:02.400 --> 0:29:05.960 a credible mainstream media person, but in my view, has 0:29:06.000 --> 0:29:09.800 been a pretty dishonest actor throughout the years, has said 0:29:10.040 --> 0:29:12.880 racially offensive things when she had her own show on 0:29:13.000 --> 0:29:17.560 Fox News, and now, in her struggle for relevancy, continues 0:29:17.680 --> 0:29:22.440 to make herself adjacent to the mega world, which she 0:29:22.560 --> 0:29:25.240 had been kind of cast out of owing to her 0:29:25.800 --> 0:29:29.200 sparring with Trump when he was a candidate in back 0:29:29.240 --> 0:29:33.240 in And yeah, I mean that's what she's saying, they're 0:29:33.280 --> 0:29:37.720 relating to vaccines sounds very similar to what you hear 0:29:38.040 --> 0:29:43.200 Arizona gubernatorial candidate carry Lap say about in Arizona. We're 0:29:43.280 --> 0:29:46.880 not going to stab, you know, these vaccines into our 0:29:46.880 --> 0:29:49.440 precious babies. We are not going to put those filthy 0:29:49.520 --> 0:29:53.920 masks on their faces. And she's just shy of saying, uh, 0:29:53.960 --> 0:29:58.760 these vaccines are well of spewing basically conspiracy theories about 0:29:58.800 --> 0:30:03.320 the vaccines and about other COVID prevention measures, and so Kelly, 0:30:03.720 --> 0:30:06.239 once thought of as legitimate I think, you know, has 0:30:06.360 --> 0:30:10.880 instead aligned herself more with conspiracy theories. Yeah. It's interesting 0:30:10.960 --> 0:30:13.520 because my second son and I went and got the 0:30:13.560 --> 0:30:18.240 booster last weekend, and very few people are getting the boosters, 0:30:18.240 --> 0:30:22.920 so clearly this messaging is working. Yeah, well, I think 0:30:22.920 --> 0:30:24.880 it's Yeah. I mean, there are some people I know 0:30:25.160 --> 0:30:27.680 progressives who are just sort of done with COVID as 0:30:27.680 --> 0:30:30.040 it were, and tired of all of this, and maybe 0:30:30.200 --> 0:30:33.120 are weighing the side effects of the vaccines against what 0:30:33.240 --> 0:30:36.040 they believe as a reduced risk of catching COVID. And 0:30:36.760 --> 0:30:38.880 but you're right, there are other people who just who 0:30:39.240 --> 0:30:41.200 who think that this is meant to be a money 0:30:41.240 --> 0:30:45.480 maker by big farmers. Yeah, yeah, right, meant or meant 0:30:45.560 --> 0:30:49.640 by big tech in collusion with the government to control 0:30:49.720 --> 0:30:52.680 our lives. And yeah, these are you know, these are 0:30:53.400 --> 0:30:57.600 originated as far right conspiracy theories but have been somewhat mainstreamed. 0:30:57.640 --> 0:31:01.400 And there's you know, in the industry, to put it crassly, 0:31:01.760 --> 0:31:04.880 of grifters who are profiting off of these notions. I mean, 0:31:04.920 --> 0:31:08.560 there's a traveling road show called Reawaken America in which, 0:31:08.680 --> 0:31:10.480 if you attend one of these things and they pay 0:31:10.560 --> 0:31:12.440 me the big bucks to do that, you can hear, 0:31:12.840 --> 0:31:16.520 you know, upwards of forty or fifty speakers talking about 0:31:16.560 --> 0:31:20.360 how these vaccines were basically you know, invented along with 0:31:20.600 --> 0:31:23.880 COVID itself by the Chinese, and they're planning chips in 0:31:23.960 --> 0:31:27.320 your head and soon, you know, we'll all be subject 0:31:27.360 --> 0:31:31.400 to globalist domination because of the vaccines. Oh good, I 0:31:31.440 --> 0:31:35.720 had been hoping for globalist domination because you know who 0:31:35.760 --> 0:31:38.680 among us talk to me about where you see this going? 0:31:38.960 --> 0:31:41.600 For one thing, I mean, I'm generally kind of a 0:31:41.800 --> 0:31:45.360 glass is half empty person anyway, but yeah, yeah, but 0:31:45.440 --> 0:31:47.680 it's uh and I don't mean the town now. I 0:31:47.720 --> 0:31:50.480 think glasses have full of stryct nine. But the reality 0:31:50.800 --> 0:31:54.920 is that, you know, when you pump disinformation into tens 0:31:54.920 --> 0:31:58.440 of millions of people and they swallow it whole repeatedly 0:31:58.760 --> 0:32:01.400 to flush it out of the city them is anything 0:32:01.440 --> 0:32:05.320 but an overnight proposition. And you know when when you know? So. 0:32:05.360 --> 0:32:07.880 The New York Times did a survey recently and concluded 0:32:07.960 --> 0:32:12.560 that three seventy major Republican candidates for office for this 0:32:12.720 --> 0:32:16.040 November mid term has said the election was stolen. So 0:32:16.080 --> 0:32:18.240 they're saying it over and over. They're saying it, of course, 0:32:18.280 --> 0:32:21.760 because that's what their voters wanted to hear, because they 0:32:21.800 --> 0:32:25.880 believe it. And where then does this end? A doesn't 0:32:25.960 --> 0:32:29.520 end immediately, and be probably only ends after the people 0:32:29.560 --> 0:32:33.320 who are elevated to office on the heels of these 0:32:33.440 --> 0:32:37.640 you know, um conspiracy theories. After there, they then performed 0:32:37.680 --> 0:32:40.920 miserably and or are trouts to the polls and a 0:32:40.920 --> 0:32:44.640 couple of election cycles, after which the Republican parties, you know, 0:32:44.720 --> 0:32:47.239 sen or individuals say, you know what, we've we've had 0:32:47.360 --> 0:32:50.040 enough of this, and even at the risk of getting 0:32:50.080 --> 0:32:54.840 primary to the right, our party can no longer forward electorally, 0:32:55.160 --> 0:32:58.080 you know, in general election races to be run by 0:32:58.120 --> 0:33:01.840 people who are in the swell a of these crazy notions. 0:33:01.880 --> 0:33:04.720 Do you think that happens? That doesn't sound so glass 0:33:04.840 --> 0:33:07.600 half empty? I feel like glass half empty is like 0:33:07.960 --> 0:33:11.280 Eric's third term in office. Well, I mean, I think 0:33:11.280 --> 0:33:13.600 what it means is that it ain't gonna happen right away, 0:33:13.760 --> 0:33:17.480 and it will take something negative to happen, whether it's 0:33:17.560 --> 0:33:20.920 far right people coming to power and utterly bungling it, 0:33:21.080 --> 0:33:25.800 causing some kind of national crisis and or paying heavily 0:33:26.040 --> 0:33:29.200 for it at the polls. Such at the Republican parties, 0:33:29.400 --> 0:33:32.720 you know, wiser individuals say, you know, we can't let 0:33:32.960 --> 0:33:36.600 these guys be in charge anymore. But that's we're talking 0:33:36.640 --> 0:33:39.120 about a period of years. You know, when I interview 0:33:39.520 --> 0:33:42.959 so called establishment Republican summer a lot more sanguine than 0:33:43.120 --> 0:33:45.800 than I've just expressed it, But most of them basically 0:33:45.800 --> 0:33:48.120 saying that's gonna We're just gonna have to lose for 0:33:48.160 --> 0:33:50.680 a while. You know, we don't want to lose. But realistically, 0:33:50.760 --> 0:33:52.920 when i'm you know, look down into my soul and see, 0:33:53.080 --> 0:33:55.520 you know what it will take to exercise ourselves of 0:33:55.960 --> 0:33:58.520 this particular demon. We'll have to learn the hard way, 0:33:58.560 --> 0:34:01.360 and that's from being defeated. I still think that's in 0:34:01.440 --> 0:34:06.480 some ways weirdly comforting. Yeah, although I'll say Molly that 0:34:06.680 --> 0:34:09.560 one party rule is not good no matter what the 0:34:09.560 --> 0:34:13.200 one party is no agreed, agreed, And I don't think 0:34:13.239 --> 0:34:15.040 we're gonna have one party rule. I think we're gonna 0:34:15.080 --> 0:34:17.680 have one normal party and one crazy party. But I 0:34:17.800 --> 0:34:20.879 do think you're right, and the whole system is set 0:34:20.920 --> 0:34:24.720 up to be two parties. I'm curious to know Speaker 0:34:24.719 --> 0:34:29.319 of the House. If the Republicans are able to use 0:34:29.400 --> 0:34:33.759 their jerrymandering to take the House, uh will be the 0:34:33.800 --> 0:34:36.640 Speaker of the House. Remember you have to tell me this, 0:34:36.719 --> 0:34:39.399 and I will then torture you years from now if 0:34:39.400 --> 0:34:42.040 you get this wrong. No pressure all the House Freedom 0:34:42.080 --> 0:34:45.080 Caucus types like Matt Gates and Martin Tayler Green and 0:34:45.080 --> 0:34:50.279 all that, for all of their weariness towards Kevin McCarthy 0:34:50.120 --> 0:34:52.080 they have, they don't have a person of their own. 0:34:52.280 --> 0:34:55.720 It's gonna be McCarthy, who's a very smart inside player, 0:34:56.000 --> 0:34:59.279 and he's already gotten the requisite votes. So it will 0:34:59.320 --> 0:35:02.479 be McCarthy. But for McCarthy to be able to hold 0:35:02.520 --> 0:35:06.400 the gabble, he'll have to degrade himself and debase himself. 0:35:06.520 --> 0:35:09.120 Concessions will be extracted from him. I mean, already Marjorie 0:35:09.120 --> 0:35:11.359 Taylor Green has said she wants to be on Judiciary 0:35:11.360 --> 0:35:13.920 and oversight. He's gonna let her do them. The Chairman 0:35:13.960 --> 0:35:16.480 of Judiciary that will be Jim Jordan's in exchange for 0:35:16.520 --> 0:35:18.719 his support. And so I don't see that he'll be 0:35:18.719 --> 0:35:21.560 either a strong or an effective speaker, but I do 0:35:21.640 --> 0:35:24.399 think that he'll be a speaker. You want my hotake? Yeah, sure, 0:35:24.640 --> 0:35:27.560 at least Deponic Oh, I think you you you're onto something. 0:35:27.600 --> 0:35:29.480 I mean, I you know, and I've also heard that 0:35:29.760 --> 0:35:33.279 school Ease, who hasn't made any kind of machiavellian move 0:35:33.440 --> 0:35:36.640 as the as the number two person. Nonetheless, will be 0:35:36.719 --> 0:35:40.520 their standing if McCarthy goes down in flames. The Conservatives 0:35:40.520 --> 0:35:43.440 still don't really trust Dephonic. You know, there's uh, you know, 0:35:43.800 --> 0:35:47.200 they know that she is not crazy enough well, and 0:35:47.239 --> 0:35:49.960 also a new entry to their world. I mean she was. 0:35:50.160 --> 0:35:55.600 She was a moderate, mainstream, gult Way Republican until two 0:35:55.640 --> 0:35:59.360 thousand nineteen. So there actually are some Republicans, some conservatives 0:35:59.360 --> 0:36:01.840 on the Hill who have memories that extend beyond three years. 0:36:03.480 --> 0:36:06.279 Thank you so much. Will you please come back. I 0:36:06.280 --> 0:36:08.239 would love to come back, Molly, Thanks for having me. 0:36:09.520 --> 0:36:14.439 Congressman Patrick Bryan represents New York's nineteen district. Welcome too 0:36:14.640 --> 0:36:19.200 fast politics, Patrick Ryan, thank you for having me. So 0:36:19.719 --> 0:36:25.719 you are the now congressman from the great state of 0:36:25.800 --> 0:36:31.560 New York. You won Antonio Delgado seat in the nineteen district, 0:36:31.680 --> 0:36:34.799 a very swingy district. How did you do it? We 0:36:34.920 --> 0:36:38.759 certainly surprised a lot of the supposed experts, if there 0:36:38.760 --> 0:36:40.960 are any of those left in politics these days. We 0:36:41.040 --> 0:36:44.239 really ran the campaign more from the gut and the 0:36:44.280 --> 0:36:48.759 heart than from the typical polling and triangulation and watering down, 0:36:49.480 --> 0:36:53.120 because it was just such a moment of intense feeling 0:36:53.480 --> 0:36:56.080 in response to the jobs decision, in response to other 0:36:56.080 --> 0:36:58.800 Supreme Court decisions, in response to the January six hearings, 0:36:59.000 --> 0:37:02.680 just sort of this crisis of democracy moment, and we 0:37:02.800 --> 0:37:06.640 really centered that and and specifically centered on equivocally fighting 0:37:06.640 --> 0:37:10.800 for reproductive rights and abortion rights in the campaign, and uh, 0:37:11.000 --> 0:37:14.120 we pulled off this what was certainly seen by outside 0:37:14.160 --> 0:37:17.160 folks as an upset victory, and I think it says 0:37:17.160 --> 0:37:20.279 a lot about where the country is and also what 0:37:20.400 --> 0:37:22.840 November is gonna look like. Despite again some of the 0:37:23.200 --> 0:37:26.080 you know what we're hearing in press and media right now, 0:37:26.200 --> 0:37:29.440 I want to dig down on that you're saying, and 0:37:29.480 --> 0:37:32.920 you're saying this from your own experience, pretty recent experience, 0:37:33.200 --> 0:37:41.839 that voters care about choice and not falling into an 0:37:41.840 --> 0:37:46.920 authoritarian state more than they care about gas prices or 0:37:47.000 --> 0:37:50.040 the same. I think actually the framing that it's a 0:37:50.160 --> 0:37:53.879 choice really doesn't give people nearly enough credit because it's 0:37:53.880 --> 0:37:56.680 like in all of our daily lives, we can hold 0:37:56.800 --> 0:38:01.319 multiple things at the same time, right um, and particularly 0:38:01.320 --> 0:38:04.000 to force people, which is basically what the Republican Party, 0:38:04.440 --> 0:38:06.719 at least the extreme right which is most of it 0:38:06.800 --> 0:38:09.920 these days of the Republican Party wants to do. Is 0:38:09.960 --> 0:38:13.360 basically they're saying, Okay, either you can pick putting food 0:38:13.360 --> 0:38:15.520 on the table or you can pick having access to 0:38:15.560 --> 0:38:18.279 reproductive care, but you can't have both. That's not who 0:38:18.320 --> 0:38:21.520 we are as a country, and we actually really centered 0:38:21.640 --> 0:38:25.239 both fighting for reproductive rights and other fundamental freedoms and 0:38:25.360 --> 0:38:29.800 rights and also delivering on relief, and both are necessary 0:38:29.960 --> 0:38:32.640 and neither alone is sufficient to meet the moment. I mean, 0:38:32.680 --> 0:38:36.439 I think fundamentally the fallacy here is that Republicans will 0:38:36.520 --> 0:38:40.560 somehow do something to stop inflation that Democrats wouldn't do. 0:38:41.000 --> 0:38:44.000 I have yet to see Republicans do anything but tax 0:38:44.040 --> 0:38:48.640 cuts for rich people. So there go exactly, and the 0:38:48.680 --> 0:38:51.560 oldest trick in the book obviously talk about the problem 0:38:51.600 --> 0:38:54.280 over and over and over. Of course, that's the first step, 0:38:54.320 --> 0:38:56.960 is identifying the problem. But then what are you going 0:38:57.000 --> 0:38:59.120 to do? And actually, I think even more importantly than 0:38:59.160 --> 0:39:01.920 what are you going to do, what have you done 0:39:02.160 --> 0:39:05.000 in your life, in your career as a human, as 0:39:05.000 --> 0:39:08.160 an elected official to make people trust that you're with them, 0:39:08.200 --> 0:39:11.480 Like I think, distrust in a lot of institutions, certainly 0:39:11.480 --> 0:39:13.680 in politics right now is so high. I really talked 0:39:13.680 --> 0:39:17.400 a lot about what I've tangibly done to help provide relief. 0:39:17.480 --> 0:39:19.800 In my last job, I was a local elected official 0:39:20.000 --> 0:39:22.280 up here in the Hudson Valley north of New York City. 0:39:22.480 --> 0:39:25.239 I talked about cutting our gas tacks and half at 0:39:25.280 --> 0:39:28.400 the local level, which provided a lot of immediate visceral 0:39:28.440 --> 0:39:31.960 relief for people. I talked about this really serious fight 0:39:32.000 --> 0:39:34.360 we're in with our local utility that's been price gouging 0:39:34.400 --> 0:39:38.000 people above and beyond the already high increases and utility 0:39:38.040 --> 0:39:41.719 costs and those kinds of very tangible I get where 0:39:41.719 --> 0:39:44.760 you're at. I am fighting for you. I'm fighting also 0:39:44.800 --> 0:39:47.760 for myself because I'm experiencing the same in my family pressure. 0:39:47.920 --> 0:39:51.560 Like that values level connection before going right to policy, 0:39:51.960 --> 0:39:55.560 I think is is so important to really authentically connect 0:39:55.600 --> 0:39:57.640 with people. So you were losing in the polls by 0:39:57.680 --> 0:40:02.040 as much as ten points, he explained to me. This 0:40:02.080 --> 0:40:05.319 is it's kind of incredible, right the first poll in 0:40:05.320 --> 0:40:07.320 our race, so this was a really quick race to 0:40:07.480 --> 0:40:10.360 it all started in May and then the election happened 0:40:10.360 --> 0:40:13.240 in August, so it was like a very rapid pace 0:40:13.320 --> 0:40:16.040 of everything. The first poll that came out, we were down, 0:40:17.120 --> 0:40:20.440 and all the all the conventional wisdom was, you know, 0:40:20.560 --> 0:40:23.000 don't invest a lot of energy and resources in the 0:40:23.080 --> 0:40:25.880 special election, focus on because I we knew I was 0:40:25.920 --> 0:40:28.359 gonna have to run again in November, which were now 0:40:28.400 --> 0:40:33.000 eighteen days out from but who's counting, but who's you know, 0:40:33.040 --> 0:40:35.360 for a whole bunch of reasons, both sort of political 0:40:35.400 --> 0:40:38.400 strategy wise, but also just morally. I think we're at 0:40:38.400 --> 0:40:40.120 a moment in the country where like, if there's an 0:40:40.160 --> 0:40:44.080 opportunity to stand and fight for democracy, for reproductive freedom, 0:40:44.120 --> 0:40:47.480 for preventing more kids from getting killed by the same 0:40:47.480 --> 0:40:49.959 weapon as I carried in combat, we have to take 0:40:50.120 --> 0:40:53.400 every single opportunity. Whether it's a special election, whether it's 0:40:53.400 --> 0:40:56.359 a local election, whether it's a presidential election. We've got 0:40:56.360 --> 0:40:59.560 a fight. And that is what I think actually really 0:40:59.640 --> 0:41:02.000 rallied people to our cause and gave us the boost 0:41:02.000 --> 0:41:05.279 to win was we just showed the willingness to get 0:41:05.320 --> 0:41:07.600 that this is existential and that we're going to fight 0:41:07.640 --> 0:41:12.240 in an existential moment. Let's talk about power companies, because 0:41:12.719 --> 0:41:16.440 this is actually more and more becoming really important issue. 0:41:16.600 --> 0:41:21.200 It's something that has devastated Texas, largely because Republicans have 0:41:21.320 --> 0:41:24.279 led it, and we're seeing it in California. It's a 0:41:24.400 --> 0:41:28.480 real problem. How is the government going to negotiate with 0:41:28.520 --> 0:41:32.160 the company is to avoid price gouging, to keep you know, 0:41:32.239 --> 0:41:35.400 the lights on now that climate change has you know, 0:41:35.480 --> 0:41:38.719 created these temperatures that are I mean, what are you 0:41:38.920 --> 0:41:43.440 seeing and what is your plan? No pressure. Also, we 0:41:43.480 --> 0:41:45.880 need a really good answer for this, even though it's 0:41:45.880 --> 0:41:48.600 a very complicated question. Go I mean, I think we 0:41:48.800 --> 0:41:51.400 what we've lost sight of in the country and certainly 0:41:51.640 --> 0:41:54.719 in our area here. These are public goods, right and 0:41:54.760 --> 0:41:58.560 in New York their public utilities. But yet our local utility, 0:41:58.560 --> 0:42:00.880 which in this are is called Central Huts and is 0:42:00.920 --> 0:42:05.759 owned by a foreign owned private equity firm, so their 0:42:05.800 --> 0:42:10.440 motives are like so far disaligned with the motives and 0:42:11.040 --> 0:42:14.680 interests of their customers and even our broader community, where 0:42:14.760 --> 0:42:18.759 rather than putting earnings back into you know, preparing the 0:42:18.760 --> 0:42:23.200 power grid for resiliency, they instead do shareholder buy backs 0:42:23.280 --> 0:42:26.160 or pay out dividends. These are public goods, just like 0:42:26.239 --> 0:42:28.359 health and public safety and everything else, and I think 0:42:28.360 --> 0:42:31.240 we need to figure out how to pretty fundamentally relook 0:42:31.400 --> 0:42:35.040 how we provide oversight to these utilities. In my last job, 0:42:35.040 --> 0:42:37.440 I was able to call for a formal investigation by 0:42:37.440 --> 0:42:41.120 our state Public Service Commission into this price gouging. And 0:42:41.160 --> 0:42:43.719 it's been dragging on for months and months and months, 0:42:43.840 --> 0:42:47.719 and people are increasingly losing faith not just in the utility, 0:42:47.920 --> 0:42:50.400 who they've totally lost trust and but also our own 0:42:50.440 --> 0:42:54.240 state government to hold the utility accountable. So when that's happening, 0:42:54.680 --> 0:42:57.960 we need to figure out pretty significant reforms, which is 0:42:58.000 --> 0:42:59.640 something I want to work on at the federal level 0:42:59.680 --> 0:43:02.600 to try how to address this. Yeah, so now you 0:43:02.600 --> 0:43:05.160 have to run again. You're running in a new district. 0:43:05.360 --> 0:43:08.080 Is it better as it worse? So yeah, I'm running 0:43:08.239 --> 0:43:10.680 in it's a different numbered district, and it's a different 0:43:10.719 --> 0:43:14.800 district by like about fift new turf, you know, about 0:43:15.040 --> 0:43:17.799 percent overlap, and we've only had a few months to 0:43:17.880 --> 0:43:20.279 sort of you know, get on ground and get out 0:43:20.320 --> 0:43:23.759 there with folks. So that's certainly a challenge. The good 0:43:23.800 --> 0:43:27.439 news is in terms of on paper, we're going from 0:43:27.440 --> 0:43:29.560 what was a Biden plus one and a half seat 0:43:29.840 --> 0:43:31.640 in the one that we want in August to a 0:43:31.719 --> 0:43:34.920 Biden plus eight and a half, So certainly we start 0:43:34.960 --> 0:43:38.799 with some kind of structural advantages there. But that being said, 0:43:38.840 --> 0:43:40.279 I think this is going to be a tight race. 0:43:40.360 --> 0:43:42.440 We're you know, on the kind of top ten or 0:43:42.480 --> 0:43:46.200 twenty most competitive house seat list of all the different 0:43:46.280 --> 0:43:49.799 ratings groups. So we are just you know, working hard 0:43:49.840 --> 0:43:52.200 in every dimension of the campaign. But I think most 0:43:52.239 --> 0:43:55.799 importantly like our message and the focus hasn't changed. We've 0:43:55.840 --> 0:43:59.080 seen the Republicans, or at least their leadership and most 0:43:59.120 --> 0:44:01.960 members dub will and triple down, for example, on a 0:44:02.040 --> 0:44:04.600 national abortion ban at the same time that it's been 0:44:04.680 --> 0:44:07.879 roundly rejected from Kansas to New York to Alaska. So 0:44:08.000 --> 0:44:11.839 the fights even more existential, I think, and we just 0:44:11.880 --> 0:44:14.520 have to do the work to help remind people of 0:44:14.640 --> 0:44:17.280 the stakes. The big takeaway from me from our special 0:44:17.400 --> 0:44:20.359 was certainly it was about fighting for abortion rights, but 0:44:20.640 --> 0:44:22.840 people got that it was much broader than that. People 0:44:22.880 --> 0:44:25.680 got that if you could come for those rights for 0:44:25.800 --> 0:44:28.000 tens or hundreds of millions of women and people in 0:44:28.000 --> 0:44:30.480 the country, it's pretty easy to then see where we 0:44:30.520 --> 0:44:32.560 go next. And it was even telegraphed and some of 0:44:32.560 --> 0:44:35.719 the decisions. No question, I mean the big question that 0:44:35.840 --> 0:44:40.520 all of us in the media industrial complex, and obviously 0:44:40.560 --> 0:44:43.760 there is no media industrial complex, but has the mood 0:44:43.880 --> 0:44:48.400 shifted from August when you won your special two? Now 0:44:49.000 --> 0:44:51.439 we can all agree that no one trusts polls, right, 0:44:52.040 --> 0:44:54.840 So do you think the mood has shifted or do 0:44:54.880 --> 0:44:57.480 you think this is sort of a media creation. I 0:44:57.520 --> 0:45:00.480 don't think the mood has shifted. I think that people 0:45:00.520 --> 0:45:05.040 are still really feel a visceral like struck, a nerve 0:45:05.160 --> 0:45:07.880 response to the job's decision in particular, and what that 0:45:07.920 --> 0:45:11.839 represents about threats to freedoms. I think continuing to hear 0:45:12.360 --> 0:45:15.239 what's coming out of January six hearing is resonating much 0:45:15.280 --> 0:45:19.080 more deeply and broadly than people maybe are like processing 0:45:19.120 --> 0:45:22.520 and understanding and pulling. But certainly people are still feeling 0:45:22.520 --> 0:45:26.080 tremendous economic pressure. So again, I just think we have 0:45:26.200 --> 0:45:30.120 to make clear that there's one party that's both delivered 0:45:30.120 --> 0:45:33.799 tangible economic relief at the federal level and most state 0:45:33.800 --> 0:45:37.560 and local levels too, and is also fighting for your 0:45:37.760 --> 0:45:41.240 rights and freedoms. The other one is pointing out problems 0:45:41.239 --> 0:45:44.080 and has no solution on the economy other than to 0:45:44.120 --> 0:45:47.440 give more, as you said, big big corporations tax cuts, 0:45:47.520 --> 0:45:51.000 and also not only not pro tecting your rights, but 0:45:51.040 --> 0:45:53.719 it's actively taking them away. And I think as long 0:45:53.760 --> 0:45:56.879 as we explain it with that clarity, people will rise 0:45:56.920 --> 0:45:59.000 to the moment, just like they did in August. For 0:45:59.120 --> 0:46:01.920 us here, I hope, so tell us about your opponent. 0:46:02.200 --> 0:46:06.680 He represents like everything that's wrong with where the Republican 0:46:06.719 --> 0:46:10.120 Party much of the Republican Party is going. He's a 0:46:10.200 --> 0:46:14.120 relatively you know, young guys in the state legislature here, 0:46:14.160 --> 0:46:16.560 going back to like two thousand twelve, he was calling 0:46:16.600 --> 0:46:21.239 for Trump to be the Republican candidate for president. He's extreme, 0:46:21.600 --> 0:46:25.760 sort of maga type candidate cheered on insurrectionists on January six, 0:46:26.440 --> 0:46:30.080 is aggressively anti choice. We had a debate earlier this 0:46:30.120 --> 0:46:33.560 week where he straight up and follow up questions from 0:46:33.560 --> 0:46:35.920 the moderator said, even if a doctor says a woman's 0:46:35.960 --> 0:46:38.080 life is at risk, I don't think that she should 0:46:38.120 --> 0:46:41.239 be able to have an abortion. Yeah, and increasingly this 0:46:41.320 --> 0:46:44.640 is not the exception anymore in the party and increasingly 0:46:44.680 --> 0:46:48.040 in the country. So we have to send a decisive 0:46:48.600 --> 0:46:53.080 message in these mid terms that we roundly reject this 0:46:53.160 --> 0:46:56.239 kind of extremism. I think it's an existential fight here 0:46:56.239 --> 0:46:57.799 and I know in a lot of other districts too. 0:46:58.280 --> 0:47:02.080 What happens if Democrats hold the House. When they hold House. 0:47:02.280 --> 0:47:04.440 When they hold the House, well, then I think we 0:47:04.480 --> 0:47:06.640 can continue the momentum we've shown. I mean, I was 0:47:06.719 --> 0:47:10.520 really encouraged earlier this week that President Biden made clear 0:47:11.200 --> 0:47:17.200 he would introduce legislation to really defend and codify, defend 0:47:17.239 --> 0:47:19.439 reproductive rights, and cootify row right out of the gate. 0:47:19.760 --> 0:47:22.200 We need to keep pushing there. We have to keep 0:47:22.200 --> 0:47:25.520 delivering on economic relief. We actually had a visit from 0:47:25.840 --> 0:47:28.160 President Biden to our district, to the Hudson Valley a 0:47:28.200 --> 0:47:31.640 few weeks ago where because of the Chips Act that 0:47:31.719 --> 0:47:34.720 was passed, you know, to to help bring back semiconductor 0:47:34.719 --> 0:47:39.280 and quantum computing here, to to the US twenty billion 0:47:39.320 --> 0:47:43.040 dollar investment from IBM and the Hudson Valley based on 0:47:43.480 --> 0:47:48.000 the fact that this legislation changes the game and encourages 0:47:48.040 --> 0:47:51.320 companies to bring those jobs back here to the country 0:47:51.320 --> 0:47:54.799 and specifically to our region. Um. I mean that is 0:47:54.840 --> 0:47:58.080 a big, big deal. That's that's like going to change 0:47:58.160 --> 0:48:01.600 my two young kids lives. We need to continue to 0:48:01.600 --> 0:48:05.240 deliver on those big pieces and then also just figure 0:48:05.239 --> 0:48:08.160 out how to get back to the place where there's 0:48:08.239 --> 0:48:12.400 some agreement on even things like infrastructure and treating veterans 0:48:12.400 --> 0:48:16.360 exposed to toxic burn pits and re earning back trust 0:48:16.400 --> 0:48:20.600 that government can actually deliver for folks. Thank you so much, 0:48:20.760 --> 0:48:29.600 Patrick Ryan, thank you for having me. Molly John Fast 0:48:30.040 --> 0:48:33.520 Jesse Cannon, you know, one of the great mysteries is 0:48:33.520 --> 0:48:36.560 why anyone would vote Republican. That's old since they're always 0:48:36.560 --> 0:48:38.920 about to cut Social Security and Medicare. And we have 0:48:39.000 --> 0:48:42.080 some thoughts from some one minute Nancy Mace on the subject. 0:48:42.400 --> 0:48:46.520 Kevin McCarthy suggested that if your party wins back the House, uh, 0:48:46.560 --> 0:48:49.280 he would refuse to lift the debt limit unless Democrats 0:48:49.320 --> 0:48:51.600 in the White House agree to spending cuts. Are you 0:48:51.680 --> 0:48:54.560 on board with that plan? Are you willing to risk 0:48:54.600 --> 0:48:58.760 the US defaulting on its debt as leverage to impose 0:48:58.800 --> 0:49:02.080 these spending cuts. I support that strategy because look, at 0:49:02.120 --> 0:49:04.200 the end of the day, when COVID nineteen happened, you 0:49:04.239 --> 0:49:07.680 had the federal government and state governments to literally shut 0:49:07.680 --> 0:49:10.719 companies down. Businesses had to make tough decisions about how 0:49:10.760 --> 0:49:12.920 they were going to keep their doors open. And the 0:49:12.960 --> 0:49:16.640 federal government just kept getting record revenue year over year 0:49:17.040 --> 0:49:19.160 and hasn't had to make those tough decisions. And I 0:49:19.200 --> 0:49:21.600 can tell you I sit on the oversight community where 0:49:21.600 --> 0:49:23.720 we look at waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal 0:49:24.239 --> 0:49:27.200 agency level. Yeah, they're going to try to cut Social 0:49:27.200 --> 0:49:29.920 Security and Medicare. That's like the worst kept secret of 0:49:30.000 --> 0:49:34.319 this middrum elections. It just astounds me that this isn't 0:49:34.320 --> 0:49:36.840 the thing that Democrats just push and push and push, 0:49:36.840 --> 0:49:39.879 where his Republicans try to find every wedge issue possible. Well, 0:49:39.920 --> 0:49:43.520 this is a real thing as opposed to all this 0:49:43.600 --> 0:49:46.920 stuff Republicans are talking about in the mid terms. I 0:49:46.960 --> 0:49:51.359 think that if Republicans went back the House, besides the 0:49:51.400 --> 0:49:54.120 fact that it will be the greatest three way three 0:49:54.239 --> 0:49:58.319 ring circus since Barnum and Bailey, it will also be 0:49:58.520 --> 0:50:03.960 that they're likely We're gonna see Republicans go after all 0:50:04.000 --> 0:50:07.160 the social programs they have and always will be here 0:50:07.239 --> 0:50:10.960 for tax cuts for billionaires and not much else. Republicans 0:50:11.160 --> 0:50:15.400 plan to undo the Social Safety Net? Is Today's a 0:50:15.440 --> 0:50:18.960 moment of funk Ray. That's it for this episode of 0:50:19.000 --> 0:50:22.799 Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to 0:50:22.840 --> 0:50:25.680 hear the best minds in politics makes sense of all 0:50:25.800 --> 0:50:29.320 this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send 0:50:29.320 --> 0:50:32.440 it to a friend and keep the conversation going. And again, 0:50:32.640 --> 0:50:33.600 thanks for listening.