WEBVTT - Rick Wilson, Stuart Stevens & Dave Weigel 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 --> 0:00:09.040 today's best minds, and. 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:12.760 Nearly every major player at the Democratic Party has endorsed 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:15.360 Vice President Kamala Harris for the top of the ticket. 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:17.319 We have such a great show for you today. The 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.520 Lincoln Projects Rick Wilson recaps the Arts Convention with us. 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:23.000 Then we'll talk to Somemaphore's Dave Weigel, who will tell 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:25.280 us what he saw at the Arts Sea. But first 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:28.520 we have legendary campaign manager, the author of the Conspiracy 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:31.440 to in America Five ways my old party is driving 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:35.800 our democracy to autocracy. The Lincoln Projects owned Stuart Stevens 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:38.879 to react to President Biden withdrawing from the Democratic nomination 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:39.599 for president. 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:45.600 Welcome to Fast Politics Stuart Stevens for an emergency podcast. 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:47.440 Ah, great and great to be here. What do you 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:48.200 want to talk about? 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:49.919 Nothing? There's no news. 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:53.720 We do these emergency podcasts when there's no news, because 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:57.279 why not. It's Sunday. Joe Biden has just dropped out 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:01.040 of the race. He has endorsed Kamala Harre. We are 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:06.560 now in a very precarious but very exciting moment in 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:07.880 American democracy. 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:10.360 You're a campaign guy, what do you do next? 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:15.240 The key thing here is that the Harris campaign, and 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:17.560 I think it's pretty clear she's going to be the nominee. 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:18.520 Just since this. 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:25.560 Dropped, she's been endorsed by the Black Caucus, endorsed by 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:29.080 Clinton's I can't imagine she's not going to be endorsed 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:33.080 shortly by President Obama. I think the key is that 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:37.760 there'll be as seamless as possible transition from the Biden 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:42.600 Harris campaign to the Harris campaign. On staff and organizational level, 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:45.360 they say they have twelve hundred staffers out there, hundreds 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:50.360 of offices. It's really important that that be handed off. 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:55.680 I would be really focused on trying to put together 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:58.960 a call with the president and the Vice president and 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:02.880 all twelve hundred staffers who wanted to join, talking about 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:08.480 the same mission, continuing asking everybody to stay owned because 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:12.480 you just can't replicate this. I mean, a presidential campaign 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.160 is now a two billion dollar startup that's opened for 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:19.360 a few weeks. You can't launch that because of Harris 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:20.960 should be able to keep the same money. 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:22.360 But she's got to catch up. 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:25.120 You know, every evil and the various billionaire in the 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:28.840 world has pledged Donald Trump as much as he wants 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:33.480 because Trump is play pay for play, So Harris is 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:34.960 going to have to catch up. 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:37.000 Right, Well, we'll see about that. 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:39.400 People like Elon Musk make a lot of promises they 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:43.080 don't keep about money. I think I think when they're 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:45.920 looking at it's going to be perceived that Harris has 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.800 better odds to win. I think that's going to change 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:51.840 their calculations. We'll see. You know, we went to the 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:54.880 same thing in the primary when Allison said that he 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.280 was going to give forty million dollars to Tim Scott, 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:00.920 and my response to that was that not enough. I 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.560 don't think this campaign will be decided by money. And 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:09.280 you have this huge inefficiencies of the Trump campaign because 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:12.919 it has always been a sort of large criminal enterprise, right, 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:16.200 that's right, a lot falling off the truck. I think 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.800 that there's going to be an interesting moment here that 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:22.240 the two people running a Trump campaign, Chris Losovita and 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:25.360 Susy Wilde, what have they been telling their candidate? Have 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:27.440 they been telling their candidate they're going to run against 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:31.440 President Biden? They are in the position for the first 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:36.920 time in American history they held a convention attacking someone 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:40.360 who's not in the race. So I expect, if you 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:43.520 read that Atlantic article, which I thought was extraordinary, lots 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:46.200 of Vida's out there. I think that lots of Vida 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.280 has sort of become like Trump's doctor. You know, he'll 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:53.080 be the fittest president ever. He'll win, They'll win by 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:57.200 large numbers, and this will shake his confidence in them. 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:01.080 This is going to be a probable dump. Be your moment. 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.800 I would suspect within the Trump campaign that inside what 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.640 will quickly become the Harris campaign. You know, you look 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.160 at the kind of campaign that they want to run. 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.680 That was in the prepared remarks in that speech, Trump's 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:16.160 convention speech. But then you look at the kind of 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:18.440 campaign they're going to have to run, and that's what 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:19.400 Donald Trump gave. 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.720 Because Donald Trump is not going to change right. 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.520 Like, I feel like there are two different things I've 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.160 seen here that have made people anxious. One is that 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.760 Americans are racist and sexist, and they won't vote even 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:35.600 though she's the most qualified. They will somehow act out 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.760 against her because of that. The other positive I've heard 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.480 about that is that Trump will not be able to 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:44.720 hide how racist and sexist he is, and it'll make 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:46.640 people want to vote for her. 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:47.279 Yeah. 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.200 Look, you know, these things are always true until they're 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:52.840 not true. Like, you know, we've never elected a black woman. 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:55.720 We've never had a black vice president either. You know, 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.000 there's this rap out there that Harris isn't a very 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:00.720 good politician, which I just find to be a head scratcher. 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.039 So let's just kind of look at it. So, she 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:06.040 defeated incumbent DA in a party primary, which is. 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:08.080 Right, that's right, a primary, which is not. 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:09.240 Not easy to do. 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:14.480 Ever, she was seen as strong. That so strong she 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:18.200 wasn't challenged. Then she ran for Attorney General against this 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:23.039 guy who was the golden boy of California politics, Republican politics, 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:27.400 not named Schwarzenegger, who was a very popular Republican DA 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:32.000 in heavily democratic La County, and she him, and then 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.600 she got elected to the US Senate. And now she's 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.840 Vice President of the United States. So how far would 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.599 she have gone? And she was a good politician, you know, 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.280 I mean, it just seems to me to be an absurdity. 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:47.279 More people have voted for her than any woman in American. 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:48.240 History, right, exactly. 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:53.360 Well, and also she's been a DA and ag Yeah, 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.960 the second black female senator ever. I mean she has 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:00.920 way more qualifications than Trump or Vans or even really 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:03.640 Secretary Clinton, right because she came. 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.640 Up through the AGDA route. 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.280 Yeah, and you know, she doesn't have the difficulties that 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.359 Clinton had of sort of putting someone back in the 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:15.240 White House who was sort of in the White House 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:18.279 for eight years. No one is going to attack her husband. 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:21.359 It's a cleaner, a much cleaner race. You know, you 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:23.800 have to assume. I think it's reasonable that the one 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:27.480 hundred day agenda that President rolled out in Michigan last 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:31.080 Friday is going to stay the same. So that's about 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.440 eighty twenty to the positive. You look at what they 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.920 rolled out in the convention and the Project twenty twenty five, 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:42.080 that's about twenty eighty to the negative. Right away, is 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.320 very simple. I'd take the eighty twenty and run it 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:45.800 against the twenty eighty. 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:48.960 And she can run on his on his accomplishments. 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:53.039 Absolutely, And you know, you have a real generational contrast. 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:58.080 Now there is this odd reality you know that when 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:03.120 the White House changed his hands and change its parties, 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:07.000 it tends, you know, the candidate who is least experience 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.440 tends to win, which is sort of interesting. 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:11.920 And Trump has been president. 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:15.480 He has full responsibility for everything that happened to him 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.280 as president. Look, I've always thought that Trump was going 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:21.040 to lose. I've always thought that it's not going to 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:22.160 be particularly close. 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:23.600 I still think that. 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:28.160 I just don't think America is going to the majority 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.560 of Americans are comfortable with someone at their convention who's 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:34.840 a wife beater, introduced a guy who has been found 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:38.280 lively sexual assault to Judge Carl Rape, who's a convicted villain. 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.000 I just don't think that that's where most Americans are. 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:44.480 And there's this weird thing that happened in the Republican Party. 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:47.040 Trump won one race for forty six point two percent 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:49.600 of the vote, Romney lost for forty seven point two 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:53.120 and all of a sudden, Republicans decided that everything we 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:56.440 knew about politics was wrong. And I don't think that's true. 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:58.760 And when you look at these Trump like candidates that 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:02.080 run like Mastrian, they lose. I think it's always an 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:04.760 interesting question to ask about a presidential candidate. Can you 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:08.000 imagine them getting elected governor in a certain state? And 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:12.320 I think you could imagine her being elected governor in 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:15.680 Pennsylvania more than you could imagine Donald Trump certainly can 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:18.040 imagine her. In Michigan, they already have a woman governor. 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:22.040 I think that's true. In Wisconsin, Arizona they have a 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:26.360 woman governor who ran against another woman for governor. Right Nevada, 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:30.680 they've elected women. You know, in New Hampshire they seemed 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:31.679 to only elect women. 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:35.240 That's a good point. 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.199 If a swing state will elect a female governor, why 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:40.000 wouldn't they elect a female president. 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:41.560 And it's true in Michigan. 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:44.559 Yeah, Pennsylvania never has. But I think that's just a 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.720 quirk of candidacy. I don't think there's anything that's different 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.080 about Michigan. Look, you know, one of my favorite clients 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:54.120 and old friends of mine's Haley Barber from Mississippi, and 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:57.400 he had to sing that. I always thought it was 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.840 both funny and sort of profound. He says for the future, 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:06.280 it's going to happen anyway, and clearly has the future. 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:10.559 And Trump wants to go back to this America. I mean, 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:14.000 this is the guy who is against mandatory vaccines and schools, 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.200 so like he's going to get the procolio and whooping. 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:18.800 Cof roath, oh measles Roate. 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:22.240 You know, he wants to go back to back alley abortions, 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:24.880 and a lot of states just don't think that's where 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:28.920 the country is. I think their whole notion of where 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.559 the country is culturally is off. So I mean, look 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:33.880 at what happens they get in a culture war with 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:35.400 Nike over Colin Kaepernack. 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.200 What happens Nike makes nine billion. 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:42.520 Dollars, gets in a cultural war with Disney, Like, how 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:44.480 do you get to fight with the happiness country? 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:46.800 How do you do that? It just isn't where the 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:47.480 country is, you know. 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.559 I thought there was that moment in twenty toward the 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:51.840 end of the campaign when Trump made a run at 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:54.960 trying to scare people in the suburbs that someone next 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:57.840 door might move in who wasn't white or wasn't Christian, 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.559 And it didn't work because you know, everybody that we 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.640 know lives in the suburbs. If somebody moved in next 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.160 door for a different religion or different race, they would 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:08.600 go out of their way to show their kids to 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.480 be welcoming. I don't want to be that person, you know. 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:14.080 It's the kind of thing you would expect when an 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:19.520 old guy from Queens who's always had problems with racial issues. 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:21.719 Would think I think it's going to be a very 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:24.200 very simple race, pretty straightforward. 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:24.720 You know. 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:26.640 I've interviewed her a bunch of times, and what I've 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.720 found when I've interviewed her is that she is when 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.320 you get to know her, you love her like she's 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.560 very charming and person of all. And so I wonder 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.480 if it's just a question of getting her out there 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.680 every day, all day and because she's only fifty five. 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.480 Like one of the things that you didn't notice in 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:48.960 the debate because it was all about Biden, was how 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:53.280 much Trump is much less energetic than he was four 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:54.720 years ago or eight years ago. 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:56.520 I think Trump had a terrible debate. 0:10:56.920 --> 0:11:00.360 He went out there and set up a lot of 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:01.959 stuff that people just don't agree with. 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:04.360 It's like we're dying to get rid of Roe V. Wade. 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.080 He said that America is a third world country, that 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.320 we're an uncivilized country. I just don't think most Americans. 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:12.280 I mean, you say that stuff in you know a 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:14.440 bar where I grew up in Mississippi and somebody asked 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.440 you to step outside. It's it's a very negative view. 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:21.520 Usually the most optimistic candidate wins presidential races, and it 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:24.600 was just a huge lost opportunity if Donald Trump had 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:26.440 walked out of that debate and says, look, I never 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:29.600 run for office. Before I got elected president, I learned 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:32.200 a lot. I'm going to be a better president next time. 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:36.240 It was a turbulent presidency and I'll take responsibility for that. 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:38.000 And that's not what we need now. 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.760 That guy would have walked off stage a more formidable candidate, 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.160 but he's capable of being that. I always think it's 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:46.800 important to look at the structure of races. You know, 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:50.360 Boden Harris won by seven million votes. So Trump needs 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.520 new customers and where is he getting them? 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:55.560 That I think is the big question is where is 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:58.120 he getting them? And when you watch the when you 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:01.160 watch the convention, what I was truck by was he 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.560 hadn't chose a woman candidate. He hadn't chose a softer, 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:09.680 gentler revision. He had, in fact chose like super divorced Dad, 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:11.800 angry energy. 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.720 And you have JD. Vance, who's a weird little guy. 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.480 If it was in his best interest, she'd be a Trotsky, 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:25.720 you know, I mean he's just here. He is international 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:30.640 investment banker running you know, the creature of Peter Thiel. Really, right, 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:33.920 it's just something about the guy that is off. I 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:37.000 don't think he's a very good candidate. He trailed the 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.160 top of the ticket last time he was on the ballot, 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:41.760 the only time he's been on the ballot in Ohio, 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:43.320 by four hundred thousand votes. 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:44.120 Right. 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:46.959 No, No, I mean if you look at what he 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:50.040 lost by, he won by six and the Wine won 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:54.359 by twenty six, So he did twenty points below. 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:56.840 The Wine, who was not a super trumpy guy. 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.520 Right, No, So I mean what does that mean. That 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.840 means that people went in there. He can't say they 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.440 didn't turn out to vote for Republicans, but they didn't 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:07.679 vote for him. You know, that is a huge what 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:10.960 we would call undervote. To me, it was a very 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:15.520 unconfident pick because it's a pick in your base, and 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:17.160 you don't make a pick like that if you really 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:19.760 think you have your base secured. But you know, I 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.400 don't really think that it was political. I think that 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:25.480 you had a bunch of people like Elon Musk and 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:28.680 Tucker Carls and they were all pushing this weird little 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.360 guy and John Junior and Trump said okay, fine, I'll 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:32.679 do it. 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:35.360 Because also he doesn't believe that anyone cares about the 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:36.079 vice president. 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.160 Yeah, which I mean, it is true. 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:41.640 It's very difficult to point to any race where vice 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.160 presidential candidates made a difference ever. 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.680 I mean except maybe Obama. That Biden helped Obama by 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:49.319 being Can we. 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.560 Pause there for a minute. I guess here. 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:54.640 The thing that bothers me the most about this little 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:58.080 period we've gone through is how this group of former 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.640 Obama staffers have gone out after Joe Biden. Now, these 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:05.920 are people whose careers were made because they worked for 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:10.240 it in this amazing campaign and a successful presidency. I 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:14.120 think you have to say, but had none of those guys, 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:17.920 and they seem to be mostly guys not worked for Biden, 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:22.600 for Obama Biden Obama, Biden would have won without Biden. 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:25.040 You have a very interesting question that you just rake 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:26.120 what Obama have won? 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:31.200 Maybe? Probably, but it's you know, to me, this is like. 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.880 They have opinions about this fine, people that work in 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:36.880 Buckingham Palace have opinions. 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:38.520 About the royals. But is it ever a good. 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:40.040 Moment when you pick up the Daily Mail and you 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:43.280 have a butler talking about the royals? Why couldn't they 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:47.200 go through this period and keep their opinions to themselves. 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:50.440 They weren't going to matter. I just find that something 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.640 about it is offensive. You know, you ought to be 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:56.280 a quiet professional, and you ought to have respect for 0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:58.840 your former bosses. And yeah, you know you had that 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:00.840 great at campaign. But do you want to be the 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.800 guy showing up at your thirty year high school reunion 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:04.720 in a letter jacket? 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:06.960 Right right, right, No, it's true. 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:10.600 Don't reduce the importance of a moment because you're not 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.600 part of it. I don't know something about it, just 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:17.400 culturally and political culture just really bothered me. And I 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:19.480 like all these guys, they're all super smart, they were 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.520 in brilliant campaigns, but they're staffers, your. 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:27.240 Staff right, and staffords Historically staffers don't speak, right, I 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:28.440 mean that's almost never. 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:31.840 Well, it's just it's classless. And what good did they 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:33.880 think it was going to do? They think that they 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:36.160 think that the president, I says, was going to say, well, 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.480 I saw this guy in the meetings, and wow, he 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:41.360 wants me to get out. I guess I'll get out, 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.000 you know, I mean, you know, it's silly anyway. I 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:50.400 think this is as on track to be as seamless 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:51.480 as transitions you could have. 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:54.640 I think Joe Biden would have defeated Donald Trump. 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:55.880 Yeah, I do too. 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:58.920 There is this thing about campaigns, kind of like life. 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:02.920 Those who think they can't win or sell them disappointed. 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:05.040 Right, right, right, right, And no, it's true. 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.240 You know, there has just been this moment where he 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:08.080 lost the party. 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:09.000 Yeah. 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:10.440 I don't know what you do about that. 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:13.440 And I think, you know, in a historical sense, had 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:18.320 he lost, he would have been very possibly unfairly blamed 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.000 for the end of the American experiment. 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:20.760 Yeah. 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:24.360 No, I mean the stakes were just so impossibly high. 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:27.640 I mean I really love him and hoped he'd stay in, 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.720 but I think he was having trouble making the case 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:35.400 against Trump, and ultimately that was the job, right, Yeah. 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:38.520 Yeah, I mean it is interesting. I mean, it is 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:43.760 a true statement that he had the best first debate 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:48.560 as an incumbent president since Clinton, Doe. I mean, as 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:52.240 far as going down numerically, Bush went down about six 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:55.400 and a half points when he debated Carry the first time. 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:59.400 Obama went down about the same and Biden didn't. So 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:02.520 one of the sort of oddities about this It was 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:06.639 a terrible debate, horrible, but at a certain time, you know, 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:09.560 a certain point, you kind of can't just keep pressing. 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:11.960 And I think he's done the right thing the right 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:14.760 timing and people will rally around I hope. 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:19.560 So thank you, Stuart Stevens. You are the best, all. 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.080 Right, Molly, great, great to talk, great to talk. 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:30.719 Are you concerned with Project twenty twenty five and how 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:34.240 awful Trump's second term could be? Well, so are we, 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:36.680 And by the way, we really are, I have to say, 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:38.639 which is why we teamed with iHeart to make a 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:42.720 limited series with the experts, a lot of academics, really 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:46.160 smart people about what a disaster Trump's second term would 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:47.479 be for America's future. 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:48.679 Right now, you can. 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:52.000 Find the first two episodes by looking up Molly Jong Fast, 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:56.480 That's me, Project twenty twenty five on YouTube. And if 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:59.200 you're thinking that you're more of a podcast person and 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.600 not a YouTube you can, and now I'm going to explain. 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:03.760 To you something very complicated. 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.679 Hit play on YouTube, then put your phone in the 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:11.080 lock screen and it will play back so you can listen. 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:13.840 To it like a podcast. New episodes are dropping in 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:14.880 the next few weeks. 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.040 We need to educate Americans on what Trump's second term 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:20.800 would look like and exactly what his plans are for 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:21.480 this country. 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:23.680 Watch and help us spread the word. 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:26.879 Rick Wilson is the founder of the Lincoln Project and 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:27.760 the host of. 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:31.520 The Enemies Listen Welcome Back, Too Fast Politics. 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:37.040 Rick Wilson New Tone. The tone is new. It's all 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:37.880 about unity. 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:43.639 It's a brand new tone involving hannibal lecture, sharks, batteries, 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.240 and of course that fed the aliens crawling across the 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:51.600 border seeking to mudor every American white woman in her bed. Yes, 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:53.920 it's the brand new tone of the same old shit. 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:58.040 One of the things that I loved about this Republican 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:01.280 National Convention was it's fact freeness. 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:01.800 No facts. 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:04.679 Honestly, there's a part of me that kind of admires 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:07.760 it in a sick way, right right, there's kind of 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:10.240 like a part of me that's just like these fuckers 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:14.119 just they have zero fucks to give. They're just gonna 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:15.680 go out there and say what they want to say. 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:17.840 I mean, and the fact that they had a guy 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.359 who beat a woman introducing a man who raped a 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.359 woman as the Republican nominee. I just find the whole 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:27.760 thing so so astounding, so astounding. 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:30.159 Do you want my take on this for a minute. 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:34.440 Of course, So this RNC, if you were going into 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:37.919 this and you wanted to pivot to a general you 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:40.200 would have Picnicky Haley as a vice. 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:41.560 Presidentialve hundred percent right. 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:45.239 You would have had speakers that were moms, you know, 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:48.720 moms for liberty or women who were happy that they 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.840 had made abortion illegal in their state, or you would have, 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:54.440 you know, But what you did instead, and I think 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.040 this is the quote unquote genius and it's actually not 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:00.800 genius of Trump and Don Junior is instead of trying 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.359 to pivot to appealing to anyone who is not an 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:07.640 angry divorced man, they went harder on angry divorced men. 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:12.720 The look of having JD. Vance as their standard bearer, who, 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:16.920 especially with the beard, gives us the strongest possible Handmaid's vibes. 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:17.840