WEBVTT - Sarah Longwell & Paola Ramos 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:04.200 Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics, 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.160 where we discussed the top political headlines with some of 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:11.680 today's best minds, and the Republican Governors Association has withdrawn 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:15.760 support from Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson. We have such a 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:20.000 great show for you today, the focus Groups. Sarah Longwell 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:23.760 joins us to talk about focus groups. Then we'll talk 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:28.400 to MSNBC's Paula Ramos about her new book, Defectors, the 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:30.960 Rise of the Latino far Right and what it means 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:31.840 for America. 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:33.919 But first the news. 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:39.400 Jesse Cannon, I'm going to tell you Republicans desperately need 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.680 to keep these House seats in Long Island and New 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:48.519 York State Hudson Valley area, and all they want is 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:52.320 to get these Long Island congressmen re elected. 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:53.279 And guess what. 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:55.560 Just broke these days? 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:59.480 Hearing about a Republican congressman having an affair seems to 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:02.760 just mean that we've reached another week in our politics 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:04.920 since I can think of last week with Mark Green, 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.560 but this one was even on the payroll of the congressman. 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:09.560 Right exactly. 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.800 You know it's a Republican because they've got their mistress 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:15.840 on the payroll. John Edwards would like a word, right, 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:19.520 that's a good point. Is a nonpartisan activity. Anthony d 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:24.160 Esposito and New York two Democrats have been salivating over 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:26.840 the seat. It's a seat that Biden, It's in a 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:30.360 district that Biden won in twenty twenty. So in April, 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:36.080 mister d Esposito added someone to his payroll, a woman 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:39.080 with whom he was having an affair. Okay, they have 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:41.600 four sources here. This is from the New York Times. 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.480 The woman she collected two thousand dollars a month for 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.520 a part time job in the same district office. So 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:50.040 that's pretty bad. 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.960 Yeah, I should say, since I'm familiar with congressional staffers 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:56.800 salaries being married to one of them, this is very 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.919 entry level salary, like right above in Yeah. 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:03.800 What I think is one of the amazing parts of 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:08.280 the story is that Manu Raju, who covers Congress for CNN, 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:12.360 went and asked Speaker Johnson if he had spoken Speaker 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:16.239 of the House Mike Johnson, very very very religious man 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:21.080 if he had spoken to Dsposito about employing his mistress 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:22.560 in his district office. 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.960 And he said he had not, that he's. 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.040 Been very busy, as one is when you're the Speaker 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:33.120 of the House, though this might be important. Then GOP 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:36.800 whip MANU asked the GOP whip tom Emers. You'll remember 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:40.639 Tom Emers had some problems because Trump had counted him out. 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:42.320 He had wanted to be the Speaker of the House. 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:44.960 Tom Emmer said, we got to get through the week. 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.680 We got a CR that's up tomorrow, and I think 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:50.320 we're going to have a good vote. So you'll remember 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:54.400 that Republicans keep being unable to pass a continuing resolution 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:58.080 because Trump wants to shut down the government. The time 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:00.960 is now really tight in order to get the CR 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:03.480 pass so that the government doesn't shut down right before 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:07.160 an election, because Speaker Johnson has sort of told Trump 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:10.400 that he can't do that, but they are now sort 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:12.399 of barreling towards it, and so they have a very 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.480 short period of time in order to pass a continuing resolution. 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:17.640 So a lot of fuckery there. 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:19.440 Yeah, I saw that. 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:22.160 Mister Brett Farv, a person you and I know a 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:24.119 lot about because you and I are the most knowledgeable 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.320 people on sports in the world. He had a little 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:29.840 hearing today and there's a lot of fuckery. 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:30.280 Huh. 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.919 Yeah, So Brett Favre is famous for playing a lot 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:35.440 of sport, whatever that is. 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:36.040 I think it's. 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:37.640 Football, Yes, I know that much. 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.480 He's also famous for his involvement in the largest corruption 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:45.839 case in Mississippi state history. You know, Mississippi is a 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:49.440 state with a lot of poverty, a lot of bad 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.960 outcomes when it comes to feedle, maternal life, when it 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.520 comes to education. It's just a state that really has 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:00.000 had a tough time. So Brett Farv is a cute 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:05.080 used of misusing Mississippi state welfare funds, and he used 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:10.480 it to build a stadium, and he used it to 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:15.360 build a volleyball center. And there are texts by the 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:20.679 way of him talking to other people. So Brett Favre, 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:23.400 will the media find out that we're using welfare to 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:26.560 funds intended for it to help the poorest residents of 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:32.440 America's poor state build a volleyball center. And the woman 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:36.919 wrote back, Now the governor is fully on board. Five 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.920 years later, anyway, so Brett Farv was testifying from the 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:45.080 House today and he talked about how basically none of 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:47.279 this was his fault, and how he had been tricked 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:50.320 and how unfair it was. And then he added that 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:53.920 he had lost a lot of money on other investments, 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:56.640 including and Jesse's going to play this now, but basically 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:01.640 that he had lost money on investments in a pharmaceutical 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:05.920 company that was supposed to help people with concussions, and 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:08.359 then he worked in that he had been diagnosed with 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:12.400 parkinson three years ago. Again, I still think that stealing 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.760 that money was wrong, despite the fact that he has Parkinson's. 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:18.159 That's just me. Maybe I'm wrong about that. 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.640 I've never seen an exemption in a law book that 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:24.880 says that once you have Parkinson's, you're not liable for 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:29.760 your crimes anymore. Sobali, the Vice President, has talked about 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.640 throwing away the filibuster to codify abortion rights in America. 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:35.919 And I'm going to shock you here. Joe Manchin and 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:37.800 a bunch of idiots are really mad about this. 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:41.920 Yeah, I mean again. She appeared on Wisconsin today. You'll 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:45.440 remember that Republicans are saying she's not doing enough interviews, 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:49.400 but here she is actually doing a local news interview, 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.960 and she's saying not that she will eliminate the philibuster 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.240 for everything, just that she will eliminate the philibuster for row. 0:05:56.760 --> 0:06:01.080 There's a lot of people who think that philibuster should 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.120 be eliminated for Roe, and you'll remember Roe was the 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:07.679 law of the land for almost fifty years. And Trump 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:11.640 did install a very conservative Supreme Court. He put three 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:15.680 chumpy justices on the Supreme Court with the purpose of 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:19.480 overturning Row. This is a real special situation where I 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:22.600 think getting rid of the philibuster does not necessarily mean 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:24.479 getting rid of the philibuster for good. 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.960 The justices that were installed here one might remember at 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:32.839 Mereric carl And these were basically ill gotten gains injustices right. 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:36.240 Well they did they stall the Gore Sitch Seed and 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:41.560 then Justice keg Stand and then Justice bear it. Her 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.200 hearing started while people were already voting. 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.440 We have even more tour dates for you. Did you 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:53.800 know the Lincoln projects, Rick Wills that have past politics? 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.240 Bole jug Faster heading out on tour to bring you 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.560 a night of last for our dark political landscape. Join 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:01.720 us on August twenty sixth at San Francisco at the 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:05.000 Swedish American Hall, or in la on August twenty seventh 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:07.640 at the Region Theater. Then we're headed to the Midwest 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:10.000 and we'll be at the Vivarium in Milwaukee on the 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:12.800 twenty first of September, and on the twenty second, we'll 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.120 be in Chicago at Citywinery. Then we're going to hit 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:17.840 the East coast. On September thirtieth, we'll be in Boston 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.160 at Arts at the Armory. On the first of October, 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:23.080 we'll be Infilliate City Winery, and then DC on the 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:25.720 second at the Miracle Theater. And today we just announced 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:27.400 that we'll be in New York on the fourteenth of 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:30.240 October at City Winery. If you need to laugh as 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:32.840 we get through this election and hopefully never hear from 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:34.880 a guy who lives in a golf club again, we 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.520 got you covered. Join us in our surprise guests to 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:39.360 help you laugh instead of cry your way through this 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.280 election season and give you the inside analysis of what's 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:44.920 really going on right now. Buy your tickets now by 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:49.160 heading to Politics as Unusual dot bio. That's Politics as 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:51.000 Unusual dot bio. 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.640 Sarah Longwhile is the publisher of The Bulwark and the 0:07:55.680 --> 0:08:01.360 host of the focus group podcast Welcome Back two Fast Politics. 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.240 Aw Hey, thanks for having me. Great to be here. 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:05.760 I'm so excited to have you. 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:09.680 It's so funny because it's like this election cycle, I 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:11.760 feel like it's been like a century. 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:14.360 Yeah, well almost a decade. 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:16.240 I mean, it's true. 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:18.280 You know, there's a lot of people I've met for 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.600 the first time kind of in the twenties seventeen, and 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:23.880 you know, we all had like really little kids or 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:25.800 like I just had my first kid. Now everybody's got 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:28.400 like grown kids, and it's all been in the span 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:29.800 of time when Trump happens. 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:30.960 It's really true. 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:33.719 It's actually like my kids are like late teens or 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:34.560 early twenties. 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.880 Now it's like, what can we talk about this? 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:41.240 Like yesterday there was this sort of they tracked Trump's rallies, 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.120 and now he's gone from like doing five this is 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:44.839 actually a front. 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:46.360 We're gonna talk about. 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:49.840 A Frank Luntz tweet, I'm sorry to tell you, yea 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:51.880 everyone's favorite. 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.360 And I mean that ironically, he had. 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.880 A tweet about like agreeing that Trump really isn't doing 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:01.760 very many rallies to what he was doing in twenty sixteen, 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:03.960 where he was doing as many as three or four 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:04.320 a day. 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:08.040 He does feel like the man is like low energy. 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:10.560 Yeah, I mean, like on the point of you know, 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:13.640 time flies when you're trying to ward off an autocracy 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:17.040 like Donald Trump is an old man, like he is 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:19.720 seventy eight. 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.679 I'm seventy eight now, oldest person ever to run for president, oldest. 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:25.760 Person ever to run for president. So like he's lost 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.240 a step, and you know, he has been able to, 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:32.640 I think thrive in comparison to Joe Biden because he 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:35.760 does still have like big lunatic energy when he is 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:39.679 talking right, and he's charismatic. Yeah, I mean just to 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.800 people who find his particular way of being charismatic. I 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.200 find him repellent whenever he opens his mouth. But you know, 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:49.040 different strokes for different folks, but he just it is 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:51.160 so clear when you listen to him where you go back. 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.240 I end up. It's a hazard of my profession that 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:55.320 I often go back and we'll watch sort of old 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:57.679 debate footage. And I was doing it at the time, 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:00.760 you know, looking at Joe Biden's performance going back some years, 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:03.199 but even looking at Trump, he looks really different. He 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.720 looked terrible at the debate. And I wouldn't normally say 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:09.920 that as a judgment other than look, they set up 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:14.080 the prism of age and mental acuity, Like that's the 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:16.640 frame they wanted with Joe Biden, and now he's got 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:18.760 to live in that frame, and he's too old to 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:19.319 be doing this. 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:20.880 I think that's really important. 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:23.640 Yeah, I mean they were basically running on Biden's age 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:25.360 until the moment Biden dropped out. 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:27.720 He's still trying to run on Biden's age. Trump is 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:29.680 very old, and I think he's very sad that he's 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:31.240 no longer running against Joe Biden. 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.920 Yes, well, and he does sometimes he slips into as 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:36.200 I run against Joe Biden. 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:39.640 Yeah, he clearly wishes as we all look back, because 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:42.360 it's been such an insane campaign for one that was 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:44.640 set up to be so boring in terms of just 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.160 like a rematch to a two guys we knew very well. 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:52.920 It's been an absolute wild ride. I cannot believe how 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:56.240 unprepared his campaign was for the possibility that maybe Joe 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:58.320 Biden was going to drop out, and they've never found 0:10:58.360 --> 0:10:59.199 their footing since. 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:04.080 Yeah, exactly exactly. I mean that is really what's so 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:06.800 interesting is that they did. They kept saying, you know, 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:08.720 Biden has to drop out, Biden has to drop out, 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.200 Biden has to drop out, and then they were like, wait, what. 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:13.920 Yeah, that's right. They did not think Democrats had it 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:16.800 in them. Yeah, but it really is Republicans now who 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:19.120 no matter how big bad things get, they won't drop 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:20.960 out them. And you look at this Mark Robinson guy, 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:23.880 like Donald Trump has taught all of these guys you 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:26.560 just power through. And that's why that's why I think 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:28.480 they didn't think Joe Biden would do it because Donald 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:31.319 Trump would never do it. He would never give up power, 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.200 he would never step aside. And he's taught all of 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:37.920 these other Republicans, like, is the scandal of epic proportions 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:39.720 so much so that it seems like you'll never get 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.600 out from under it? Is there so much evidence well 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.840 did not It's like the shaggy rule of politics. Just 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:49.320 like say it wasn't you and pretend like it didn't happen. 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:50.120 Just barrel through. 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:53.640 Yeah, but let's talk about Mark Robinson in North Carolina 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.760 for a minute, because what is so interesting about him 0:11:57.040 --> 0:12:01.040 is almost everyone in his campaign has it. It's him 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.200 and whoever is left in there who's given up on 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:05.560 trying to have a career. 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:07.720 I mean, what's the play there? 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:12.760 I mean the play is to lose I think. I 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.559 mean I'm watching him. He's got this like OJ defense 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:17.440 going on where he's like, we're gonna find the real 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.080 person who did it. We will dedicate every last minute 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:24.920 we have figuring out which AI did went back in 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:28.280 time and subscribed me to all the like spad I 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:32.520 was a black Nazi and indorsed slavery, that the transgender 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:36.080 porn was my jam while I'm you know, demonizing transgender kids. 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:38.240 The funny thing about the Mark Robinson stuff is all 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:41.199 the new stuff is like it's bad, but is it 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:43.080 worse than the stuff? We already knew him being a 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:45.840 holocaust and I are him saying that, you know, him 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:47.680 acting like he's a big pro life guy when he 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:50.200 paid for an abortion, you know ford his wife had 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.040 so like, this guy's been a bad guy from the jump. 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:56.120 And you know, the voters in North Carolina, the Republican 0:12:56.160 --> 0:13:00.200 primary voters, they had a choice between like Joe Normy 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.760 candidate and Mark Robinson. And in the primary they picked 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:07.000 Mark Robinson by a landslide. And this is what Republican 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:08.959 primary voters want. I guess they're going to get it 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:09.560 good and hard. 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:16.400 I mean, Sarah, I would say, also he is You'll 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:20.880 remember he's also the lieutenant governor. Now he's already has 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:22.240 an elected office there. 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:26.040 Yeah, and this was one of the reasons that they 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:29.560 didn't want Rory Cooper was getting when he was considered 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:32.760 right for vice president. He couldn't step aside because nobody 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:35.920 wanted to give this guy a bigger platform. Yes, and 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:39.400 he should resign again, because we've lived a lifetime in 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.000 just less than a decade. But in the before times, 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:46.520 in the beforetimes, something like this would be ruinous for 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:51.480 any candidate, but especially a character counts, morality based GOP candidate. 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:53.679 But today it's just you know, it's Tuesday. 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:56.880 Right, exactly, It's Tuesday if you're listening to this podcast, 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:00.000 And I'm sure euro listeners have the same real anxiet 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:01.560 about this fucking election. 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:02.199 Yeah. 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:05.000 So I was actually with someone earlier who is from 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.600 Biden world, and they were talking about their path and 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:09.720 how they thought they would win. But they felt that 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.560 it was a much narrower path than what she has 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:14.720 and that she has actually opened up the map in 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:15.400 certain ways. 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:17.280 Where do you see this election happening? 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:20.200 So one of the things about North Carolina, North Carolina 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:22.280 wasn't even on my list of states to play in. 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:26.920 She put it in contention in a meaningful way that said, 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:29.240 I still like I don't sit around being like, oh 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:31.280 my god, what if she doesn't win North Carolina. I 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:33.360 never thought Democrats were going to win North Carolina, and 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:37.160 so I've been like, it is Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska too, 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:39.720 that's your path. Part of it is like she's over 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:43.680 performing with white voters, like she's doing well with white voters. 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.080 I think there was maybe some concern. I know I 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:49.960 had some concern demographically with Biden dropping out, like Biden 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:52.320 was doing very well with older white people that was 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:54.640 who he was working for, and I was like, oh. 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.200 Man, because he's an older white person. 0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:58.960 Yes he is. But she continues to do well with 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:01.320 those voters. And I think that she's been sort of 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.600 putting the coalition back together in terms of Hispanics and 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:06.800 in terms of black voters that had been kind of 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:10.280 sliding away from Joe Biden. And she's still under where 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:12.520 Biden was in terms of what he finally hit in 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.160 twenty twenty, and so she's got more work to do. 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.120 But I do think that that those industrial kind of 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.280 Midwest states are still the path. 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:23.760 Talk to me about what you're seeing in focus groups. 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:26.880 One of the things that I talked to Tim Miller 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.640 about and I assume Tim Miller and you are seeing 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:31.280 the same focus group stuff. 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.440 Tim is seeing my focus groups. Yes, that's what it means. 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.120 Yeah, I assume Tim is seeing your focus groups. 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:37.240 Ye. 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:41.640 What he said to me before she jumped out was 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:45.520 that she had more of an upside than he did. 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:49.000 Yes, Well, so you're saying that Tim was surprised by that, 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:50.360 or that's something he said before. 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:52.720 Yeah, that he said, well, you know, she has more 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.120 of an upside, she has more of a path that 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:57.560 she can win these people that he couldn't. 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.560 Maybe nod, yes, So that is a one hundred percent 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:02.200 sure in the focus groups. And this is when we 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:03.800 were in that weird interregnum. 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:05.880 Yeah, the three weeks from how. 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.360 Yeah, and I was a you know, I was allowed 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.040 Joe Biden's got to drop out, and primarily because of 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:13.720 what I was seeing in the focus groups, Like, yeah, 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.840 they were just a center left voters, like soft Biden voters, 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:20.520 young people, they were just he's too old. They felt 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:22.320 like it was irresponsible to vote for him. He was 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:23.760 never going to finish out his term. They weren't going 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:25.760 to vote for Trump, but they were. I'm so mad 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:29.520 about Biden. I love my Midwestern governors my Josh Shapiro's 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:32.000 and Gretchen Whitmer's, and I was concerned. I'd spent years 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:35.400 listening to people talk about their negative impressions of Harris. However, 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:37.800 when I started to look harder at it, when it 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:39.560 got you know, starting to get down to like this 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:42.440 might really happen, it did start to become pretty clear 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.680 that it needed to be Kamala Harris from a logistical standpoint, 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.040 and I was just like, you know what, she's got upside. 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.000 She's got upside because when you listen to the voters 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:52.720 who were saying they have a negative impression of her, 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:55.960 the impression was so loose and it was so rooted 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:57.400 in I don't see her, I don't know or I 0:16:57.400 --> 0:16:59.680 don't know what she's doing. And so that was the upside. 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:01.720 I was like, Okay, well let's see her, let's meet her, 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.120 let's know what she's doing, and like if they like her, 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:06.560 then good. And this is where what she has done 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:10.840 has when people look back, I mean, her favorables are 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:13.720 through the room. Like she's made like a twenty point gain. 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:19.040 In favorability she's w after nine to eleven. Yeah, unbelievable. 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:24.520 She's completely reversed the enthusiasm advantage that Republicans had. I mean, 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.479 people like get a. I think the polling is one thing, 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:29.320 but like, look at all the other indices, Look at 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:31.560 the small dollar donors, look at how many people are new, 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:34.960 look at registrations, look at volunteering, like the people who 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:37.119 are coming out, and like if you talk to anybody 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:39.040 who's running a precinct or is in a state, like 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:42.359 they can't handle the volume of volunteers. Now, those things 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:45.439 aren't votes, but I do think that they speak to 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:48.320 something bigger than just vibes and what I see from 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:51.280 swing voters. So she had I think we could see 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:53.600 that she had upside back then. I don't think any 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.359 of us anticipated she'd had the kind of upside that 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:58.760 she's had. And that is to give her just an 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:02.040 enormous amount of credit. So that is based on her performance, 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:03.760 you know, I think that all of us got a 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.760 little bit. We just seen one too many supercuts of 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.160 her kind of word salading, and we thought, like, oh man, 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:11.800 she doesn't have it. But like whatever she was doing 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:14.399 right as vice president, where she was getting her reps in, 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:17.760 like she came out the other side good better, like 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:20.480 a better politician, you know, and I wish there's a 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:22.840 couple of things. Obviously, I wish we were seeing from her. 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:25.000 I wish she was just more forthright about the fact that, 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:27.000 you know, three and a half years as vice president 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:30.080 allowed her to understand more about how she had to 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.480 leave California politics behind and focus on how you govern 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:35.960 for the entire country. And that's why she's moved to 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:39.280 the center on certain things like just give people like 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:41.359 and people understand, Okay, you changed your mind, you got 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.320 more information as opposed to just changing positions. I also 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:46.440 think the thing that I see in focus groups that's 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.080 so interesting is I've known for a long time that 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:51.360 the more people see of Donald Trump, the less they 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.120 like him. When like Donald Trump is high salience, when 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:56.560 he is in people's faces, you see his numbers go 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:58.520 down in terms of favorability because people don't like him 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.200 when they see him. She and Tim, the more people 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.640 see them, the more they like them. Kamala, if you're listening, 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:07.000 get him out there, Get him out there, I mean 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:11.800 as much of a breakneck pace as their significantly younger 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:16.680 statuses can handle, Like Tim Walls, get put him everywhere. Yeah, 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.399 So that would be my only kind of complaint is 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.080 that I sometimes think this team has a little like 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:25.400 Biden PTSD or like you couldn't put this guy anywhere, 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:28.080 and like these people need to be everywhere. 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:31.800 Yeah, they are like out there a lot though. I mean, 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:32.840 but I agree. 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:35.720