WEBVTT - Stuart Stevens & Skye Perryman 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:04.160 Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics, 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:07.120 where we discussed the top political headlines with some of 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:13.160 today's best minds. And President Trump's inauguration is perhaps said 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:16.760 to be moved indoors due to very cold temperatures. We 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.400 have such a great show for you today. The Lincoln 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.639 Project's own Stuart Stevens stops by to talk about the 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:26.840 lessons learned as Biden leaves office. Then we'll talk to 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:31.440 Democracy Forward Sky Perryman about how they will push back 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:32.600 on the Trump administration. 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:36.559 But first the news, So, Malie, the Supreme Court has 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:39.880 ruled unanimously one of the rare things we see that 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:42.840 it is legal for the law that was passed banning 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:45.600 TikTok to go forward. But there's a lot of gray 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.440 area here because last night President Biden said he would 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:51.960 not uphold the laws. So this now throws it into 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:54.400 the lap of mister Donald Trump. 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.120 So here's a problem with TikTok, right, And this is 0:00:57.120 --> 0:00:59.240 what we've heard from the Gang of Eight, is that 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:03.600 there is clearly a lot of stuff going on behind 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:05.800 the scenes that China is doing. 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:07.679 With our data, and we don't even know the half 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:07.920 of it. 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.040 Right, There's a reason federal employees are not supposed to 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:13.120 have it. There's a reason people in the military are 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:13.720 not supposed to have it. 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:17.600 Right. There's clearly a lot here that we're not being told. 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:22.560 And then there is the incredible addictive quality of the algorithm, 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:26.480 more addictive than the very addictive Instagram. So there were 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.960 all sorts of reasons why, and we just have no transparency. 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.000 It's a company that is owned by the Chinese Communist Party. 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:36.440 They say that it's not, but it really is. It's 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:41.120 just this is very much bad, bad, bad, But Congress 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.280 doesn't want to legislate this because they just don't. Right. 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.520 They actually did legislate it. They legislated a ban, and 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:51.559 what happened was that TikTok got lobbyists and now maybe 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:53.680 there won't be a ban. I would also like to 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:56.440 add there's an app on the Appstore called red Note, 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.600 which is also has a Chinese providence, again the nuances 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:04.000 of which are not readily apparent, and that charted became 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:07.320 the top app. The fallacy here is you can't ban 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.639 just one of these apps, right, there's like a lack 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:14.160 of transparency here, and banning TikTok, the ideas if you 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:17.760 ban TikTok, you will then end up with something TikTok like. 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:20.560 I want to add that this band should go through. 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:23.519 This is one of the few times that this extremely 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:27.680 partisan Supreme Court, all nine of them, were like, shut 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:32.080 down the fucking app, and still people on the left 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:34.360 and people on the right were like, maybe not. 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:37.079 So do I think TikTok is going to get banned? 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:37.720 Absolutely not. 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:40.400 Do I think that we're just going to continue on 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:41.800 as business as usual? 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:42.240 Yes? 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:46.120 Is this a national security risk? Absolutely? Are millions and 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:49.160 millions of people. I mean, imagine if you allowed CBS 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:51.720 to be owned by the Chinese government, That's what this 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:55.239 is like. Imagine if ten times no, imagine if a 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:58.119 hundred times more people watch CBS and it was owned 0:02:58.160 --> 0:02:59.120 by the Chinese government. 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:00.000 That's what we have here. 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.919 So real dereliction of duty on the part of almost 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:07.080 everyone except bafflingly, the Supreme Court. 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:09.360 And the other thing I would say is it's almost 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:13.480 like these apps should be controlled by a nonpartisan body 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:15.680 and be seen in as a public work. But I'm 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:18.000 just going to stop putting my socialist views in here, 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:19.359 move on to the next subject. 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:21.600 Socialism quote unquote. 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:24.320 Continue quote unquote socialist. Yes, I know, wanted to make 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.760 sure free speech stays up. So there's been a lot 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:30.480 of bided statements on the way out of office. Burn 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.040 his last few days, and the first one was on 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:35.880 the Equal Rights Amendment. Molly, what are you seeing here 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:38.280 as somebody who this is near and dear to their heart. 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:44.400 The Equal Rights Amendment. Look, this is something it was ratified. Basically, 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.040 it's an interesting thing because it's something my mother fought 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:50.200 forward to. The thinking was that it was not so 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.320 crazy to have equal rights for women in the Constitution. 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:59.080 So Phylish Flaughley basically dismantled the er by spending all 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:02.560 of this time I'm trying to convince women that it 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:04.960 would prevent them from getting child support, and I mean, 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.920 just you know the kind of misinformation we see broadly 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:14.680 now in America. So I think very smartly. Senator Kirsten 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:22.000 Jilibrand was committed to trying to get the Senate Archivist 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:27.800 to read the er into the record and thus sort 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.520 of create a world in which it was part of 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:34.960 the Constitution. The Senate Archivist she just wouldn't do it 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.560 and refused. Instead of pushing her the way a Republican 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:41.640 might firing her and hiring someone else who would do it. 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:46.200 They Biden just let her refuse, even though Senator Jili 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:48.360 Brand had a really good point, which is it's actually 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:53.480 her interpretation of the Constitution is irrelevant, right, but didn't matter, 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:58.280 so she refused to read it. So instead Biden decided 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:00.560 and instead of forcing her, which is what a lot 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:04.880 of Democrats wanted, including what I wanted, he just did 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:09.279 this statement that said it's happened, which is very nice 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:12.320 and pretty but meaningless. Susan Glasser from The New Yorker 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:16.039 has a really smart take on it, and I think 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:20.200 this is correct. Biden ended his tenure with symbolic statements 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:24.400 about the er that does nothing for actual women, but 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:27.919 seems like a sad metaphor for where his presidency has ended. 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:32.159 Rovers's weight is gone, no national laws to help women 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:35.880 in place, Trump and a host of other sexual harassers 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:39.000 return to power, And you really do see how so 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:43.120 much of what has happened in this twenty twenty four 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:47.719 cycle was about backlash to women and how Democrats were 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:51.640 just not able to do the necessary things to protect them. 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.800 And look, I mean, life is long and we'll see 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:59.599 what happens. But it certainly feels like a real It 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:03.200 just feels like a moment where again Democrats brought a 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:04.920 stuffed animal to a knife fight. 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:09.920 Agreed. So last night Friend of the Show MSNBC host 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:15.640 Lawrence O'Donnell hosted President Biden for an outgoing presidential interview, 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.679 and one of the things he said that really caught 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:20.960 you and i's eye is that how bad the Red 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:24.359 States really screwed the handling of their economies during the 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:26.320 COVID years, especially with supply chains. 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.440 I was watching these hearings today, the Christie Nome Homeland 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:35.000 Security hearings, and we saw Republicans like Bernie Marino in 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:39.599 the state of Ohio just grandstand and politic and he 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:44.279 even he asked Christy Nome if Lake and Riley would 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:48.240 still be alive had this is really what he asked, 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:54.279 had Alejandro Mayorcas not been Homeland Security Secretary. It could 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:59.080 truly craven bit of politicking. Right, would a nursing student 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:04.080 have been murdered had there been a different Homeland Security Okay? 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:08.080 But what head But what I think is interesting is 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:10.640 that Biden really tries not to do that. Democrats really 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:14.680 try not to politicize things. One of the reasons why 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:18.920 Trump was able to win. But he did criticize at 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:22.320 this moment with Lawrence Red States, and he said Red 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:25.000 States really screwed up in terms of the way they 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.760 handled their economy and the way they handled manufacturing and 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.360 the way they handled access to supply chains. That's why 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:35.080 he ended up investing more in Red States than Blue 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.440 states through various measures. Shortly after being asked about his 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.520 economic response to COVID, what I think is interesting about 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:43.600 this is we get back to the California problem. 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:45.400 Right. California, fourth largest. 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:49.280 Economy, pays way more into federal taxes than takes out, 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:53.760 is going to need billions and billions of dollars to 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:58.240 rebuild after these fires. Already we see Republicans trying to 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:03.280 play politics. If Republicans were to lose California, our entire 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:08.080 American economy would greater. And so I do think that 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:11.920 on behalf of all of us who pay taxes, Republicans, 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.040 please do not make California furious. 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.160 I'll say so, mai one. Speaking of the Lake and 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:22.600 Riley Act, Republicans are just downright giddy too. Get to 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:25.600 making sure that brown people get deported from this country 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:29.880 as much as possible, but ICE, who seem to usually 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:32.480 be on that side, are saying whoa, whoa, whoa, buddy, 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:33.000 chill out. 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:38.079 So ICE warms that Republicans racist immigration bill is a 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:40.760 total bust. By the way, what I think is interesting 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.520 is we're seeing a lot now of ICE sort of 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.400 trying I can't figure out who is trying to message 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.520 to who, but we are seeing some like I saw 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:53.960 this in this hearing today, Well, we're just going to 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:56.920 deport the criminals. We're not going to deport everyone. We're 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:00.280 seeing some of that. I'm very curious to know is 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:04.960 that because who is saying let's not deport everyone, and 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.800 who is saying let's deport everyone? And how is this 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:11.400 being acted out behind the scenes, Because clearly there is 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:15.120 some level of anxiety here that Donald Trump is just 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:20.520 going to go in and deport everyone and American citizens too. 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:23.640 And I think I'm clearly picking that up as an undertone. 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:25.600 So one of the things you have to remember is 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.600 like ICE agents are people, and if they're on television 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:35.000 holding screaming children and you know, deporting people, like we 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:38.400 live in a new world where everyone has a camera 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:41.520 and everyone has a video, and like during you know 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:45.560 historically when we have in this country in turned people, 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:49.760 like in World War Two when America in turned Japanese 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:53.800 people and took their houses. People didn't have iPhones, so 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:58.040 it wasn't the results were not as immediately tangible. And 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.680 I think that there's a lot of Anxiet society here, 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:04.200 that people and ice are going to be asked to do. 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.520 These things, and that the blowback for them is going 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:06.800 to be. 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:10.079 Very tough, and rightly so, because I think they are 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:18.960 going to be asked to do these things. Stuart Stevens 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.680 is a legendary campaign manager and the author of the 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:27.240 Conspiracy to End America Five Ways My old Party is 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:34.840 driving our democracy to autocracy. Welcome back to fast politics, Stuart. 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:39.280 Thank you, we needed you before Trump two point zero 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:40.040 takes over. 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.959 Discuss I have a positive take on this. 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:47.800 Oh please, somebody has to have a positive take. 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:52.319 I believe that the moment they were in, exactly at 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:54.840 this moment, is the high order mark of trump Ism. 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:59.199 I think it will prove to be like my ancestors 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.840 and pickets charge, they almost get to the wall, but 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:05.520 can't get over the wall. You really have to be 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:09.000 careful here about drawing conclusions about this election. 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:11.000 Ooh, say more about that? 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:15.040 Well, yeah, an incumbent president with a forty point approval rate, 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:18.560 and all the post World War two elections incumbent party 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:22.600 got within two points of the presidential approval. So Harris 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:26.320 actually overperformed that and you had a right track under 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:29.400 thirty percent. It's a very difficult environment to win an election. 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:31.880 You know. When I was working for Bush in two thousand, 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:37.200 we would track the right track, wrong track and moving 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.679 little movements in it in a race that was as 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:42.960 tight as the two thousand race, really made a difference. 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:45.400 I mean, in a typical race, you should get if 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:47.440 you're an incumbent, you should get ninety percent of the 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:50.160 right track, and if you're a challenger you should get 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:52.760 eighty five to ninety percent of the wrong track. So 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.040 that was a good environment for a challenger to beat 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:01.360 an incumbent party now, and that's what happened. I don't 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:04.520 think that should be confused with it being an active 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.160 embrace of trump Ism. I think there are two very 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.480 different things. I think this is how you end up 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:13.200 worshiping volcanoes. There's a drought, the volcano Belch is in, 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.320 it rains, and the next thing you know, you're worshiping 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:20.040 the volcano Guard. They're probably not related. And I just 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:25.360 don't think the country is where compassm is. And we 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:27.800 had an election unlike any other we've ever had and 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:31.480 combent president gets out in July, vice president comes in. 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.240 You know, probably we shouldn't try that again. 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:38.319 Yeah, and by the way, that that didn't work when 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:40.360 it was done historically either. 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:43.760 Yeah, I still maintain I think the Harri's campaign ran 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:47.280 a very good campaign. I also think that it's a 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:51.160 mistake to look at all of the field operation that 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:54.600 they did and think that that is now no longer 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:59.360 beneficial or applicable to campaigns because she lost. To me, 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:03.040 that's like saying, Okay, we lost Vietnam. No more helicopters, 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.360 right right, right, that's it. I don't think we lost 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:08.959 because of the helicopters, and I don't think they lost 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:10.640 because of the field And I think she could have 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:14.439 gone Joe Rogan hourly and it wouldn't have impacted the election. 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:16.640 I mean, we don't need to talk about this election. 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.960 It's over, and maybe it's better just not. But I 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:24.480 just wonder Trump was forward facing for four years. 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:27.480 You mean talking about the future, not even talking. 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:29.840 About the future, just being on tell like being a 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:33.720 celebrity for four years, and you remember that that people 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:35.720 were Google searching the day of the election. 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:37.439 Is Joe Biden still in the race? 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:41.400 Like I wonder how much like in this New America, 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:44.280 you have to just be out there all day, every day, 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:44.839 no matter what. 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.480 That's interesting. One of the lessons the Democratic Party to 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.800 take from this is when you govern, you do have 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:54.679 to govern like you represent the whole. 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.080 Country, right, which they did well. 0:13:57.120 --> 0:13:59.080 When you politic you don't. 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:01.599 Yeah, that I think is the case. 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:07.040 In these hearings. That's not governing politics as a servant 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:10.280 of governing. But your first obligation in those hearings as 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:14.440 a Democrat is a political obligation. And I don't think 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.200 that you should worry at all about how it's going 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.080 to be received. Your message is going to receive by 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:23.320 those voters who are deep into Trumpism. 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:24.040 Yeah. 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:28.120 Like the cautiousness that we saw in twenty sixteen, right, 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:30.280 I'm not even talking about the candidate. I'm just talking 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:34.840 about the cautiousness, the Clinton cautiousness which then we saw 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.720 in Biden world, which Biden was able to eat out 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:42.120 a win with it in twenty twenty, perhaps because of 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:46.160 just how unpopular Trump was, But that cautiousness is not 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:48.800 how you win elections. And I think like when you 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:51.280 think about sort if you even just look at twenty 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:54.920 twenty four and you look at Rubin, who was one 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:57.200 of the you know, who was able to win over 0:14:57.400 --> 0:14:58.120 Trump voters. 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:01.040 He did that by just being ever are all the time. 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.200 Yeah, But anyway, it's neither here nor there, or it's 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.840 not relevant anymore because there are no elections at least 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:10.120 until twenty twenty five. But I'm wondering if you could 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:12.640 talk to us about Trump is planning a kind of 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:16.960 shockun on on Monday and then this weekend. On today, 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.680 we just saw the mayor of New York go down 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:21.640 tomorrow lago. 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:23.320 That's ongoing. 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:26.520 I think the technical term for that is plea bargain. 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.720 Yeah, So in my mind there's a real question about 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:32.400 what happens next and what that looks like. 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:34.520 Well, I think you're right. I think you will do 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.480 shocking all and I think that as it begins to 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.040 take effect, it's not a majority of it's not going 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:42.360 to be popular in politics. I mean, I think it's 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.920 really important that you distinguished if someone says in a 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:49.520 poll that they're worried about immigration, they think that the 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.640 border is a problem, that doesn't mean that that is 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:55.600 what consumes them in their life. If you just ask them, 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:57.480 do you think it's a problem, yes. If you ask 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:01.640 me if terrorism bad, yes, walk around thinking about terrorism? 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:01.880 No. 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.240 And I think that the mandate that Trump is trying 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.440 to take from that is going to be one that 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:10.960 is going to play into their instincts to overreact. And 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.320 we do have the reality that the economy is really good. 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.800 And what do they just like about the economy the most, 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:21.080 that record stock market or the record low unemployment. So 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:25.480 I just don't think that there is a broad mandate 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:27.400 for most of the stuff they want to do, if 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:29.240 you go back to two thousand and four. So we 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:33.200 want a very narrow election. I mean, if less than 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.280 half the people who attend to Ohio State home game 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:38.760 had changed their votes, we would have lost Ohio and 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:41.120 we would have lost the election. We being when I 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.120 was working for Bush, and what did Bush do? He 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:45.040 took that as a mandate and he went out and 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:47.840 tried to privatize social Security, and it blew up in 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.440 his face. There was not a desire to do that. 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:54.720 So I don't think that people like the headsets and 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:59.000 the Tulsi and the cash betel. I think the reason 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:02.600 Trump nominates these people, I think he knows they're idiots. 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:08.320 He nominates them because he wants to see senators humiliate themselves. 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:15.760 He wants to assert their subservience through the humiliation of 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:18.280 having to say things that are not true. And I 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:23.280 felt this so strongly watching my old friend and client, 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.760 Senator Roger Wicker, now Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:30.640 in the headset hearings. I know Roger well. In many 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:33.160 ways we come from the same world. I don't think 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:35.360 Roger would hire PDX has to cut his law. 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:36.160 No. 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.040 I mean that literally, he wouldn't hire some weird guy 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:41.960 with the drinking problem was tattooed up to like be 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.720 that close to his house and yet here he is now. 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:48.760 He doesn't have to do that. And John McCain wouldn't 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:52.840 have done it. He would have insisted that Trump appoints 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:56.600 someone who was competent, you know, a competent conservative. You know, 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.040 it's not like you're asking to point Bernie Sanders Secretary 0:17:59.040 --> 0:17:59.560 of Defense. 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:03.640 No, when you're watching that, because I watched it too. 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:09.000 There's like some congeniality and some like Senate congeniality, and 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:15.119 then there's a lot of like real weird grandstanding. Like 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:19.919 I was watching a hearing today where Bernie Marino blamed 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:24.199 the fires on Governor Gavenwsom. Like it's a sort of 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:28.959 hodgepodge of the kind of congeniality that the Senate once had, 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.160 plus like Fox News auditions. 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:32.520 I mean, is that what you're seeing? 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:37.199 Yeah, listen, I think the it's inevitable to watch a 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:41.639 hearing and not be frustrated if you are against the 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.680 person who's being nominated, because there is such an erratic 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:51.919 flow of questions and there's no coherent follow through you 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:55.600 have each individual senator. It's it's a very tough way 0:18:55.640 --> 0:19:00.280 to prosecute somewhere. If every three minutes a new proecutter 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:01.879 had a step up in front of a jury and 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:05.439 take another new tack, the jury would just be confused. 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:06.960 You Know what I would have liked to have seen 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:10.959 Democrats do, still would is everyone ask two questions at 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:13.320 the beginning of their hearing. You believe that Joe Biden 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:15.480 want a free and fair election in twenty and if 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:18.159 the equivocator say no, they said, okay, doesn't matter what 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:20.840 else you say doesn't matter. You're disqualified. And do you 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:25.119 believe that the criminals who assaulted police officers in January sixth, 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.119 twenty twenty one should be pardon And if you're equivocated 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.040 and now you say that's it, you're disqualified. 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:31.840 But who would disqualify that? 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:35.920 You have to say that that disqualifies you from service 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:39.639 in this government. And I think it's about framing what 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:44.879 is the level here that is acceptable. So if you 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:48.800 look at Rubio, there's a level that I disagree with 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.760 you on public policy in a lot of ways, but 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:56.520 I think that you are an acceptable nominee for Secretary 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:58.639 of State. You may be a terrible one, you may 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:01.600 be a great one, but in keeping with advising consent, 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:05.240 I can, without a heavy contents vote for you. And 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:09.800 that should be the same consistent line in all of 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:14.760 these The obligation here for Democrats is to just remind 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:17.359 people that it doesn't have to be this way, that 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:21.879 there is a simple standard here that's not an egregious one. 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:25.879 Appoint competent people who aren't going to use these and 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.920 very important positions to work through their own personal issues. 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:31.760 When you go too much into the weeds of well 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:35.200 this discoff is that discollifies. It's easy to lose the 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:38.879 big picture that just you are a ridiculous nominee, you 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:42.320 are a basthoon, you're a weekend cable show host. 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:45.040 My theory of the case is they should just try 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:48.280 to figure out who are the most dangerous and go 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:52.240 all in. So, for example, I think about RFK Junior, 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:55.960 who obviously would have an enormous effect on the way 0:20:56.000 --> 0:21:00.159 this country handles another pandemic for example. 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:02.240 Yep, if these nominated people were going to. 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:09.800 Die, So why when Democrats just focus on those candidates. 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:11.000 I'm not sure that they're not doing that. I would 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:18.000 focus on Kennedy, Patel, Hegset and Gabbard. Yeah, what's interesting 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:22.800 about Kennedy is it's going to accelerate a divide in 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:26.159 the country because the people who are going to be 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:30.520 most damaged are going to be those who are less 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:35.280 informed and lower income, with the exception of the nutty 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:38.360 kind of whole foods moms that don't believe in vaccinations, 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:42.760 and that's in the same way in the pandemic. It's 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:48.280 the statistic that's provable that's demonstrable. That's true. Those in 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:51.560 red states who listened to Fox News died at a 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:56.720 higher rate. One of the mortality elements in that disease 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:00.160 was do you watch Fox News? I mean that's it's 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:01.840 sort of like the points on to a joke. You know, 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:05.080 it's really deadly to watch Fox News or something. Yes, 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:08.720 it was deathley, it did kill people. Why is Trump 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:11.960 doing this? I mean he's a guy who's you know, vaccinated, 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:16.440 everybody in his family's vaccinated. He doesn't believe this kooky stuff. 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:20.040 He does it to prove that he can, to make 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:24.040 you do it. This is how dictators operate, their need 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:27.119 to humiliate those that are serving under him. It's a 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:29.240 bad way to run a democracy. 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:32.359 Democrats are in a very tough position. The thing that 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:35.000