1 00:00:00,600 --> 00:00:04,120 Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics, 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:07,120 Speaker 1: where we discuss the top political headlines with some of 3 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:12,000 Speaker 1: today's best minds. And De Santas's latest appointee thinks tapwater 4 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:15,320 Speaker 1: makes people gay. We have a mind blowing show New 5 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:18,040 Speaker 1: York Times Luke Broadwater. We'll talk to us about Jim 6 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:22,840 Speaker 1: Jordan's comical missteps heading a committee investigating the quote unquote 7 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:27,360 Speaker 1: weaponization of the federal government. Some would say he's weaponizing 8 00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 1: the weaponization. Then we'll talk to former Twitter engineer Hallie, 9 00:00:32,120 --> 00:00:36,720 Speaker 1: who is most famous person in Iceland and also had 10 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:41,600 Speaker 1: a very public fallout with his former boss yesterday on 11 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:46,519 Speaker 1: the Twitter Elon Musk. First, we have MSNBC columnist James Downey. 12 00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:50,919 Speaker 1: Welcome to Fast Politics, James, thank you for having me. 13 00:00:51,159 --> 00:00:54,520 Speaker 1: We are in De Santas's publication week because if you 14 00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:57,880 Speaker 1: can believe it, he's not technically running for president yet. 15 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:02,200 Speaker 1: He is just innocently promoted his book, The Courage to 16 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:05,319 Speaker 1: Be Free, The Courage to Be Free. Yes, that a 17 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: lot of time was spent, a lot of people were 18 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:08,960 Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of people made a lot of 19 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:13,880 Speaker 1: mine to consult over that incredibly inspiring title. The focus 20 00:01:13,959 --> 00:01:17,039 Speaker 1: grouping alone of the courage to be free. I mean, 21 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:19,280 Speaker 1: I guess what's the opposite of the courage to be free? 22 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:22,880 Speaker 1: The cowardice to not be free? I mean, only those 23 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 1: liberals opposed freedom? Right, exactly? Why do we hate freedom? Basically? 24 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:30,560 Speaker 1: It seems as if you've read this book, yes, much 25 00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:35,640 Speaker 1: to my chagrin, making you probably one of only a 26 00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:42,479 Speaker 1: very very small group to read a Republican book like this. Yeah, 27 00:01:42,520 --> 00:01:45,320 Speaker 1: And honestly, I've read one or two others, you know, 28 00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:49,360 Speaker 1: maybe eight years ago when he had everybody and their 29 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:52,840 Speaker 1: uncle running for the Republican nomination. It seemed remarkably de 30 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:56,600 Speaker 1: Santis's book is actually one of the more readable ones, 31 00:01:56,920 --> 00:01:59,440 Speaker 1: which says a whole lot. It was still a bit 32 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:01,600 Speaker 1: of a slogged get through, to say the least. It 33 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:03,560 Speaker 1: pretty much covers, you know, it gives you exactly the 34 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:07,080 Speaker 1: kind of biography you'd be expecting, touching on his upbringing 35 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:09,360 Speaker 1: and going all the way through, you know, sort of 36 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:12,880 Speaker 1: everything sanitized right up through his times Forlorida governor. Right, 37 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:17,320 Speaker 1: And it's actually pretty interesting because I mean, I don't 38 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:20,160 Speaker 1: know if this is interesting, but I've been told, I've 39 00:02:20,200 --> 00:02:23,959 Speaker 1: been assured by people involved in this process that De 40 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:28,600 Speaker 1: Santis actually wrote this book, I could believe that it 41 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:31,919 Speaker 1: reads similar to a book he definitely wrote, which is 42 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:35,120 Speaker 1: his first book, which he wrote before write about it 43 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:38,080 Speaker 1: was over a decade ago, and actually which you also read. 44 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:40,959 Speaker 1: I've only read the excerpts that are available online. It's 45 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:43,280 Speaker 1: actually very hard to get a poppy of and that's 46 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:46,560 Speaker 1: actually by design, right, I would think so. And you 47 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:48,280 Speaker 1: go back to articles about it from a couple of 48 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:50,480 Speaker 1: years ago, and there are links to the Amazon page, 49 00:02:50,480 --> 00:02:52,560 Speaker 1: and that has since been pulled down. I don't know 50 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:55,560 Speaker 1: if maybe there's a plan to reissue it, as has 51 00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:58,760 Speaker 1: happened sometimes with these books, but there are copies circulating around, 52 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:00,640 Speaker 1: and it does from what I have read, it does 53 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: read similar to it. That's not necessarily a credit to him. 54 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 1: But on the other hand, I respect it. I mean, 55 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:07,760 Speaker 1: you probably know this mobaby from you know, like a 56 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:09,920 Speaker 1: lot of times when you see a buyeline by a 57 00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:12,480 Speaker 1: politician that's been written, you know, that's been written by 58 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:15,920 Speaker 1: their staffers. So on a certain level, I do respect 59 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:19,040 Speaker 1: the politician who actually you know, takes their time, you know, 60 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:22,079 Speaker 1: actually puts in the work to do it themselves. I mean, 61 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:26,760 Speaker 1: I guess theoretically. I mean, what I think is interesting 62 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:28,560 Speaker 1: and we'll get to this in a minute, but there 63 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:31,320 Speaker 1: has been sort of a desire to memory haul the 64 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:35,040 Speaker 1: Ron de Santist back benchro congressman. Oh no, for sure. 65 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:39,440 Speaker 1: I mean you start with entitlements. They basically entitlements. What 66 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:42,040 Speaker 1: I mean, they don't. They barely appear in this book, 67 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:45,760 Speaker 1: with Donald Trump pushing really hard to make him the 68 00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:47,760 Speaker 1: what was it, the wheelchair over the cliff guy, I 69 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:50,680 Speaker 1: think is what Trump is describing him as clearly to 70 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:53,560 Speaker 1: Santists when he, when he or whoever was writing this, 71 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:55,880 Speaker 1: did not have a good line. He doesn't really talk 72 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:59,840 Speaker 1: about government spending that much. He doesn't talk really that 73 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:02,160 Speaker 1: much about his time in Congress at all. You know, 74 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:05,000 Speaker 1: the biggest thing he talks about is a failed push 75 00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:10,120 Speaker 1: to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, and that is basically, Look, 76 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:12,040 Speaker 1: you know, Trump did this later, but I wanted to 77 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:14,600 Speaker 1: do it first. That's that's what he focuses on. It's 78 00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:19,120 Speaker 1: interesting to me because DeSantis is such a he has 79 00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:22,599 Speaker 1: now become this sort of Republican warshack right the donor 80 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:27,000 Speaker 1: class cannot get enough of him. Rupert Murdoch delighted by 81 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:32,040 Speaker 1: him even the sort of smart and Ie Smarten quotes. 82 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:36,600 Speaker 1: But those right wing, the thinking class of the GOP 83 00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:40,680 Speaker 1: has decided he's their man. But really, really nobody knows 84 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:43,360 Speaker 1: who he is. There's a lot that's changed about him 85 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:45,520 Speaker 1: over the years, for sure. And I think one reason 86 00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:49,039 Speaker 1: he's very popular with the donor class is that when 87 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 1: you read the book, you get a sense that America 88 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:55,560 Speaker 1: or well because the conclusion, the title of his conclusion 89 00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:59,640 Speaker 1: is literally make America Florida, and in his view, Florida 90 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:02,679 Speaker 1: is all ready great. And I think that's the biggest difference. 91 00:05:02,839 --> 00:05:04,920 Speaker 1: I think that's one of the big differences between him 92 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 1: and Trump is that he basically feels everything's fine, everything's 93 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:11,799 Speaker 1: going great. You know, we've got this conservative Supreme Court 94 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:14,240 Speaker 1: doing all their stuff and that's awesome. That just needs 95 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:16,920 Speaker 1: to be protected from the evil liberals. And I think 96 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:19,839 Speaker 1: that message appeals a lot more to the rich donors 97 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:22,600 Speaker 1: and to the rupert Murdocks of the world, in addition 98 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:26,320 Speaker 1: to obviously the many other problems with Donald Trump. I 99 00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:28,920 Speaker 1: think that message appeals to them more than Donald Trump's 100 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:32,520 Speaker 1: saying the big and powerful have screwed you over right. 101 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:35,000 Speaker 1: I think that they really like this idea of this 102 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:37,840 Speaker 1: guy who's basically his the extent of his because I 103 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: read so Bernie Sanders has a book out a couple 104 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:42,560 Speaker 1: weeks ago, and I read them about the same time, 105 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:44,960 Speaker 1: and there's some passages into Sanders's book that you could 106 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:47,440 Speaker 1: sort of you could almost drop into Sanders's book that 107 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:50,400 Speaker 1: are like play at populism, but they're in an entirely 108 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:53,120 Speaker 1: different context. They're just about culture war. They're just about 109 00:05:53,320 --> 00:05:58,000 Speaker 1: things like Disney. It's not about bankruptcy, healthcare bankruptcies and 110 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:00,960 Speaker 1: price of insulin and things like that. It's not talking 111 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:04,479 Speaker 1: about inequality or anything. The only problems in America into 112 00:06:04,520 --> 00:06:09,680 Speaker 1: Santis's world are liberal culture. That's it. Everything else is great, right. 113 00:06:09,839 --> 00:06:12,120 Speaker 1: I mean it is interesting because if you listen to 114 00:06:12,160 --> 00:06:15,200 Speaker 1: a Trump speech, Trump will say, like everything is horrible. 115 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:18,800 Speaker 1: It's a very different than that Stephen Miller. We're all 116 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:22,480 Speaker 1: gonna die and the world is awful. Yeah, I mean 117 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:25,279 Speaker 1: Trump is basically the world's already on fire and only 118 00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:27,320 Speaker 1: I can save you. I think it's sepack you is 119 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:29,159 Speaker 1: something like, you know, the last several years I've been 120 00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:32,719 Speaker 1: in the hellscape. Whereas again, I think the Santis feels 121 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:35,839 Speaker 1: basically everything's fine. I mean, like, you know, one example 122 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:38,360 Speaker 1: I given my piece is that he doesn't really talk 123 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:42,039 Speaker 1: about like the concept of job creation or government and 124 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:45,359 Speaker 1: the economy just doesn't come up. Government is just there 125 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:48,599 Speaker 1: to protect rich people and basically let them do what 126 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:51,600 Speaker 1: they want. And you know, and what this turns into 127 00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:54,560 Speaker 1: practically is that you get you have. And there's been 128 00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:59,400 Speaker 1: reporting on this recently that he gets huge donations from 129 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:02,480 Speaker 1: the energy industry and then lerty in his face huge 130 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:04,760 Speaker 1: rate hikes. But in De santiss world, that's fine, that's 131 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:07,400 Speaker 1: just what happens. That's because they're not rich, and if 132 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:10,760 Speaker 1: they were rich, then then the government would protect them. 133 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:13,760 Speaker 1: They should have thought about being rich. In this piece 134 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:16,240 Speaker 1: you wrote, you talked about sort of the ways in 135 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:19,840 Speaker 1: which you could theoretically beat De Santists from you know, 136 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:22,680 Speaker 1: what are the sort of soft spots you see? So 137 00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:26,640 Speaker 1: I think again, the economy jumps out that one. You know, 138 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:29,360 Speaker 1: if you flash back nine months ago and everyone was 139 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:31,840 Speaker 1: talking about what happens if the economy, the economy is 140 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:34,240 Speaker 1: going to ruin Joe Biden, things are getting real worth 141 00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:36,800 Speaker 1: and if if things do take a turn in the 142 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:39,440 Speaker 1: next eighteen or so months, I mean, I think if 143 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:41,440 Speaker 1: it becomes a campaign about the economy, this is not 144 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:44,280 Speaker 1: a guy that has a lot of solutions there. I mean, obviously, 145 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:47,520 Speaker 1: one area is foreign policy, which is more or less 146 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:50,840 Speaker 1: non existent in his book. He does not talk about 147 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:53,680 Speaker 1: the you know, the conflict in Ukraine. The extent of 148 00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:57,480 Speaker 1: his foreign policy appears to be sort of posing against communism, 149 00:07:57,680 --> 00:07:59,720 Speaker 1: and that's in a lot of ways more just for 150 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:03,480 Speaker 1: Florida than it is and then more broadly the Fox 151 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:07,760 Speaker 1: News base that will eat up anything anti communist. Again, 152 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:11,440 Speaker 1: that's more domestic than it is international. Obviously, he doesn't 153 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:14,160 Speaker 1: want to talk about his close relationship with donors and 154 00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:17,480 Speaker 1: how he's appointed over two hundred, well over two hundred 155 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:20,760 Speaker 1: of them to various political boards. Obviously there's been a 156 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:23,040 Speaker 1: lot of attention on what's been happening with New College, 157 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:25,760 Speaker 1: for example. I think at least one, if not several, 158 00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: of those, all the new board members he's appointing on 159 00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:31,000 Speaker 1: they're all either donors are connected to donors of his 160 00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:33,800 Speaker 1: And again I think he doesn't really see anything wrong 161 00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:37,120 Speaker 1: with that, which is why he keeps doing it. And 162 00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:38,640 Speaker 1: then I think, instead I don't really touch on the 163 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:40,440 Speaker 1: book because it's support of a text based medium. But 164 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:43,240 Speaker 1: I do think this is somebody. When you watch him speak, 165 00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:46,360 Speaker 1: the charisma just leaves the room. You know, when he's angry, 166 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:49,240 Speaker 1: and when he's sort of up there being angry about 167 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:52,560 Speaker 1: liberals and get into fights with reporters and stuff. I 168 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:55,440 Speaker 1: can kind of in a twisted way, see what his 169 00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:58,680 Speaker 1: appeal is to a certain kind of voter. But outside 170 00:08:58,679 --> 00:09:00,559 Speaker 1: of that, like when I watched of his State of 171 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:03,840 Speaker 1: the State earlier, and you just don't really you don't 172 00:09:03,840 --> 00:09:06,840 Speaker 1: really see it. That is the incredible thing about his 173 00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:09,680 Speaker 1: candidacy is that you have all these people who have 174 00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:14,360 Speaker 1: just gone all in before he's even done anything right. 175 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:16,400 Speaker 1: So like Trump could get up there and be like 176 00:09:16,640 --> 00:09:19,920 Speaker 1: tiny d and they could be over. I mean there's 177 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:22,680 Speaker 1: no you know, there's no evidence to say he's more 178 00:09:22,760 --> 00:09:26,839 Speaker 1: charismatic than Marco. If anything, he may be last absolutely, 179 00:09:26,920 --> 00:09:29,960 Speaker 1: you look at all of the candidates that the Republican 180 00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:32,440 Speaker 1: donors they've had, they've had an incredible clock record of 181 00:09:32,520 --> 00:09:35,920 Speaker 1: picking losers against Donald Trump, and I mean, you know 182 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 1: this guy, you know again they maybe they'll be right 183 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:42,040 Speaker 1: this time. But I learned, I learned seven years ago 184 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:45,719 Speaker 1: not to bet against Donald Trump in political terms. Bet 185 00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:47,400 Speaker 1: him to sort of fail to even meet my low 186 00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:50,920 Speaker 1: expectations everywhere else, but in terms of elections, right, well, 187 00:09:50,920 --> 00:09:53,600 Speaker 1: this is so interesting because I mean I had somebody 188 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:56,680 Speaker 1: who I was talking to who was like making the 189 00:09:56,760 --> 00:10:00,400 Speaker 1: argument that De Santis is less terrible than Trump, But 190 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:04,520 Speaker 1: I would argue that actually De Santis is much much 191 00:10:04,559 --> 00:10:09,520 Speaker 1: more focused on undermining like the First Amendment. And what's 192 00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:12,600 Speaker 1: your take on this? I would agree that the main 193 00:10:12,720 --> 00:10:16,360 Speaker 1: reason why Ronda Santis is the main way that he 194 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:18,440 Speaker 1: is more of a threat is competence. I think a 195 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:21,640 Speaker 1: president to Santist is not going to have a suddenly 196 00:10:21,679 --> 00:10:24,839 Speaker 1: bombing North Korea because Kim Jong len says something mean 197 00:10:24,880 --> 00:10:28,319 Speaker 1: about him. But I do think, on the other hand, 198 00:10:28,679 --> 00:10:30,640 Speaker 1: there are all these threats that Trump made about the 199 00:10:30,679 --> 00:10:34,480 Speaker 1: First Amendment, where De santists if he wants to do something, 200 00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:36,920 Speaker 1: he will. You think of all the efforts that Republicans 201 00:10:36,920 --> 00:10:39,160 Speaker 1: made to try and pass, for example, of Obamacare repeal 202 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:42,400 Speaker 1: that failed when Donald Trump was president. I don't think 203 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:45,400 Speaker 1: even those kinds of things would have failed with the Santist. 204 00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:48,160 Speaker 1: He has a bigger margin in Florida, but he has 205 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:52,800 Speaker 1: a good track record of corralling legislators to do what 206 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:56,199 Speaker 1: he wants, and so I think the worst case scenario 207 00:10:56,480 --> 00:11:00,280 Speaker 1: in terms of like you know, nuclear holocaust maybe less 208 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:02,400 Speaker 1: likely under de Santists, But outside of that, I think 209 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:05,080 Speaker 1: that he's going to be much more twisted, you know, 210 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:09,360 Speaker 1: twisted way competent at undermining liberals. So with this book, 211 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:12,600 Speaker 1: can you sort of figure out what the strategy DeSantis 212 00:11:12,600 --> 00:11:16,360 Speaker 1: has to be Trump is I think the strategy is 213 00:11:16,559 --> 00:11:18,400 Speaker 1: going to be and I think this is to get 214 00:11:18,400 --> 00:11:20,480 Speaker 1: back to what you're talking abo earlier about how the 215 00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:22,640 Speaker 1: donors don't have a great track record of picking someone 216 00:11:22,679 --> 00:11:24,960 Speaker 1: to beat Trump. I think his strategy is just going 217 00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:30,640 Speaker 1: to be out angering Trump. I think he's going to 218 00:11:30,679 --> 00:11:34,280 Speaker 1: try and rely upon and also use his and also 219 00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:36,520 Speaker 1: use his perch as Florida's governor to try and pass 220 00:11:36,600 --> 00:11:39,439 Speaker 1: actual laws that he can point to on the things 221 00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:41,360 Speaker 1: that they are sort of both angry about. To give 222 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:44,920 Speaker 1: an example, just sort of this week, Florida withdrew from 223 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:49,200 Speaker 1: the Voter Registration Compact that like allows states to share 224 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:53,160 Speaker 1: data across state lines about like voter registration, and that 225 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:55,920 Speaker 1: was something that Trump had complained about, and then Desantists 226 00:11:55,920 --> 00:11:58,600 Speaker 1: almost immediately then turned around and pulled the state out 227 00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:02,720 Speaker 1: and so that's he'll say, oh, I got something done right, 228 00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:05,320 Speaker 1: and then and then and everything else. He'll just try 229 00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:08,000 Speaker 1: to be more angry than Trump. I don't know if 230 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:10,440 Speaker 1: it's going to work, right. I think that the sort 231 00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:13,800 Speaker 1: of X factor that Republicans are not realizing here is 232 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:18,680 Speaker 1: that you can't elect someone who has no personality or 233 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:22,800 Speaker 1: who's not charismatic. I mean, it never works historically. Yeah. 234 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:25,360 Speaker 1: On the other hand, they did nominate Mitt Romney, I mean, 235 00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:28,240 Speaker 1: except that Mitt Romney, I feel like, and I mean 236 00:12:28,280 --> 00:12:30,000 Speaker 1: I think this can be. This is true of John 237 00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:34,960 Speaker 1: Kerry too, Like, well, they're not maybe gifted orators. There 238 00:12:34,960 --> 00:12:37,440 Speaker 1: are people who sit down in a room with John 239 00:12:37,480 --> 00:12:40,480 Speaker 1: Kerry and Mitt Romney who find them charming, whereas I'm 240 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:44,840 Speaker 1: not sure that that's true for De Santis. Yeah, it's interesting. 241 00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:47,840 Speaker 1: It seems to be something consistent across both supporters and 242 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:51,360 Speaker 1: attractors say about him is that he's not somebody who wait, 243 00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:53,000 Speaker 1: if you're sitting in a room with him, he's not 244 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:56,439 Speaker 1: very He's just not a very personable person. Yeah, as 245 00:12:56,440 --> 00:12:59,720 Speaker 1: you said that, those kinds of people don't typically and 246 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:03,079 Speaker 1: as president, we have the opposite end of that spectrum. 247 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:05,520 Speaker 1: Currently in the White House right now. I mean that 248 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:08,760 Speaker 1: Biden is famous for not letting anyone leave until he's 249 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:11,800 Speaker 1: until he's best friends with them. So I have this theory. 250 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:15,000 Speaker 1: Other people have had this theory too, but that this 251 00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:19,240 Speaker 1: is really this authoritarian tact that the Republican Party is taking, 252 00:13:19,320 --> 00:13:22,560 Speaker 1: and that is what de Santis is hoping to ride 253 00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:24,720 Speaker 1: to the White House. I mean, am I nuts or 254 00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:26,800 Speaker 1: do you think that's what it is? No? I think 255 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:29,319 Speaker 1: that's a big part of it. I think that because 256 00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:34,240 Speaker 1: people really like what he's doing in Florida with legislation, 257 00:13:34,400 --> 00:13:37,880 Speaker 1: and they feel like the for example, to move with Disney, 258 00:13:38,280 --> 00:13:41,200 Speaker 1: where you know you're bringing in your own people to 259 00:13:41,440 --> 00:13:45,560 Speaker 1: point to the board that oversees their special district. I 260 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:49,800 Speaker 1: think this there's there's a feeling among conservatives that that's 261 00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:52,000 Speaker 1: what they feel. It's not something I agree with, but 262 00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:57,079 Speaker 1: there's a feeling that they are under assault from liberal 263 00:13:57,160 --> 00:14:01,360 Speaker 1: soft power, whether it be through companies like Disney or 264 00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:05,680 Speaker 1: in the media or whatever. Speaking as a liberal myself, 265 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:08,920 Speaker 1: if this is victory, it's a pretty pretty hollow one 266 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:11,679 Speaker 1: for but they feel that this that that the Sanders's 267 00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:14,480 Speaker 1: tactics are the best way to fight back. Yeah, I 268 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,520 Speaker 1: mean that means moving in a less democratic direction, and 269 00:14:17,559 --> 00:14:19,760 Speaker 1: so be it. I mean, it's it's a natural outgrowth. 270 00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:23,640 Speaker 1: I think of the broader sort of minoritarian approach to 271 00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:25,960 Speaker 1: politics of just like, hey, you know, we're going to 272 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:28,800 Speaker 1: jerrymander the heck out of every state. And if we 273 00:14:28,960 --> 00:14:31,440 Speaker 1: you know, if that's what it takes to win sixty 274 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:34,360 Speaker 1: percent of the you know, the state of legislature with 275 00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:37,240 Speaker 1: fifty percent of the vote or whatever, so be it. 276 00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:39,200 Speaker 1: That's just the way that, you know, that's just the 277 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:41,560 Speaker 1: way things fall out. I think it's just a natural 278 00:14:41,600 --> 00:14:43,840 Speaker 1: next step that if you feel that you don't really 279 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:48,240 Speaker 1: need to represent the majority, then or if the majority 280 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:51,840 Speaker 1: the majority approach is illegitimate, then what's really to stop 281 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:55,480 Speaker 1: you from moving in a more authoritarian direction. Yeah, James, 282 00:14:55,520 --> 00:14:58,000 Speaker 1: this was so interesting. I hope you'll come back. Well. 283 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:04,080 Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed it. Luke 284 00:15:04,160 --> 00:15:07,800 Speaker 1: Broadwater is a congressional reporter with Thin York Times. Welcome 285 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:11,880 Speaker 1: to Fast Politics, Luke Broadwater, Hey, thanks for having me. 286 00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:14,560 Speaker 1: Very excited to have you. All Right, we have a 287 00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:17,160 Speaker 1: lot to discuss, but first we need to start with 288 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:21,320 Speaker 1: this is a topic I've written about it I appreciate 289 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:25,360 Speaker 1: its incredible stupidity. It is the subject near and dear 290 00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:29,440 Speaker 1: to my heart. So I was really pretty excited when 291 00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:32,280 Speaker 1: I read your peace on this. So this originally started 292 00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:36,400 Speaker 1: as a Tucker Carlson's Church committee, and it has morphed 293 00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:40,120 Speaker 1: into this Weaponization of Government Committee. Not just a little 294 00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:42,240 Speaker 1: bit about this committee and a little bit about what 295 00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:44,880 Speaker 1: you've discovered. Sure, well, you know, I guess I can 296 00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:47,600 Speaker 1: take the listeners back to sort of please getting of this. 297 00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:52,160 Speaker 1: As part of the negotiations for Kevin McCarthy to become speaker, 298 00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:55,640 Speaker 1: the hard right of the Republican Party, they had a 299 00:15:55,640 --> 00:15:59,680 Speaker 1: lot of big demands, but really four of them came 300 00:15:59,840 --> 00:16:04,160 Speaker 1: into being, and one of them was the creation of 301 00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:07,760 Speaker 1: this Weaponization Committee. It's designed to be a committee that's 302 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:12,640 Speaker 1: going to investigate the federal government, specifically the Justice Department 303 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:16,280 Speaker 1: and the FBI, with the premise and the thesis that 304 00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:22,520 Speaker 1: these agencies discriminate against Republicans, particularly Donald Trump, but really 305 00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:26,800 Speaker 1: anybody who might be conservative right. And so Kevin McCarthy 306 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:30,360 Speaker 1: agrees to this demand. In response, he gets some votes, 307 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:33,120 Speaker 1: gets to become Speaker, and one of the very first 308 00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:37,120 Speaker 1: things they do is past the creation of this Weaponization Subcommittee, 309 00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:40,600 Speaker 1: and they put it under the Bailey Wick of Jim 310 00:16:40,680 --> 00:16:48,200 Speaker 1: Jordan period paragraph continue. Well, in the Republican House, they 311 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:52,240 Speaker 1: view Jim Jordan as their best investigator and that you know, 312 00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:56,520 Speaker 1: he is known for grilling people. He doesn't wear a 313 00:16:56,560 --> 00:16:59,480 Speaker 1: sports bag, you know, he talks really quick, like an 314 00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:04,000 Speaker 1: auctionee here. Sometimes he does prepare so he'll know and 315 00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:06,560 Speaker 1: that's actually kind of rare for some of these hearings. 316 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:08,400 Speaker 1: I mean a lot of people don't prepare, they don't 317 00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:11,719 Speaker 1: know the material, they don't know the people's names, you know. 318 00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:14,720 Speaker 1: But he comes ready to go. And so they thought 319 00:17:14,800 --> 00:17:17,679 Speaker 1: this would be McCarthy thought this would be the perfect match. 320 00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:22,760 Speaker 1: The problem is they're having a hard time finding the 321 00:17:22,840 --> 00:17:26,680 Speaker 1: whistleblowers they need to prove the case. So with this 322 00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:31,880 Speaker 1: article that we put out last week, essentially they've brought 323 00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:35,840 Speaker 1: in three of their so called whistleblowers from the FBI 324 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:39,399 Speaker 1: or former FBI agents to try to prove the case 325 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:43,639 Speaker 1: that the bureau is biased against conservatives. And because of 326 00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:45,720 Speaker 1: the way the committee set up, Democrats got to sit 327 00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:49,480 Speaker 1: in on these transcribed interviews, and when the Democrats got 328 00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:53,440 Speaker 1: to cross examine these guys, basically all hell broke loose, 329 00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:57,200 Speaker 1: and they put out this three hundred page report which 330 00:17:57,200 --> 00:17:59,959 Speaker 1: we got a copy of that sort of underscored all 331 00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:03,800 Speaker 1: the failings of these so called whistleblowers. It's pretty interesting 332 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:08,320 Speaker 1: because these whistleblowers, I sort of get what happened, right. 333 00:18:08,359 --> 00:18:11,720 Speaker 1: They decided that you had these Republicans who are like 334 00:18:12,119 --> 00:18:16,280 Speaker 1: everything is biased against us, sariyariyara, and then they needed 335 00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:21,080 Speaker 1: to find someone to support this thesis, and that was 336 00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:24,560 Speaker 1: where they got into trouble. But explain to us who 337 00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:27,000 Speaker 1: these people were. First, we should say that Jim Jordan 338 00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:29,240 Speaker 1: has promised that there will be dozens and dozens of 339 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:34,000 Speaker 1: whistleblowers and good and so the Democrats of the first 340 00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:37,800 Speaker 1: hearing said, okay, like what are their names? Put them up, 341 00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:40,200 Speaker 1: let's let's talk to them, let's meet them. And so 342 00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:43,080 Speaker 1: they started to call some of them men. The first 343 00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:47,399 Speaker 1: is a guy named George Hill, who's retired FBI analyst 344 00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:50,880 Speaker 1: from Boston. Another one's named Stephen Friend, he's a former 345 00:18:50,920 --> 00:18:54,040 Speaker 1: special agent from Daytona Beach. And a third named Garrett 346 00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:58,560 Speaker 1: Boyle who's a special agent from Wichita, Kansas. Each one 347 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:03,480 Speaker 1: of these former agent or suspended agents alleged there's wrongdoing 348 00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:06,160 Speaker 1: at the top of the FBI, and that they were 349 00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:10,600 Speaker 1: made to do things that you know, violated their conscience. 350 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:15,520 Speaker 1: One guy says he was made to surveil a January 351 00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:19,760 Speaker 1: sixth in his view protester. Turns out the guy, though 352 00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:26,720 Speaker 1: was a member of the Three Percenters, owned firearms. Will 353 00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:29,800 Speaker 1: you explain what the three Percenters are for those who 354 00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:32,320 Speaker 1: are not completely read in on this. They're one of 355 00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:35,840 Speaker 1: the right wing militia groups that federal law enforcement has 356 00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:38,960 Speaker 1: focused on in the aftermath of the January sixth attack 357 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:41,359 Speaker 1: on the Capitol. Many people have probably heard of the 358 00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:44,000 Speaker 1: Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers by now. Both of 359 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:48,840 Speaker 1: those groups have been charged with US seditious conspiracy in 360 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:52,080 Speaker 1: connection to the attack. The Three Percenters haven't been yet. 361 00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:55,960 Speaker 1: But they are in that same sort of right wing 362 00:19:56,080 --> 00:20:00,840 Speaker 1: world where people go to these meetings they talk about how, 363 00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:03,200 Speaker 1: you know, they need to stand up against the government. 364 00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:07,800 Speaker 1: They all carry firearms, and so federal law enforcement is 365 00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:11,240 Speaker 1: worried about these militia type groups. It's a militia group, 366 00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:13,199 Speaker 1: all right, So go on. Those are the type of 367 00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:17,280 Speaker 1: examples that they bring up, and so you know, the 368 00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:19,520 Speaker 1: agent will say, well, I had to surveil this guy 369 00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:22,280 Speaker 1: and he was just a January sixth protester, but he's 370 00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:26,199 Speaker 1: actually remembered this militia group. He has firearms, he was 371 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,280 Speaker 1: at the Capitol when they Democrats are asking questions, more 372 00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:31,959 Speaker 1: of the story comes out, and it's not so simple 373 00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:34,760 Speaker 1: that they were, you know, the FBI was targeting somebody 374 00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:36,760 Speaker 1: for no reason. There were actually some pretty good reasons. 375 00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:38,800 Speaker 1: But big picture of the three things that I would 376 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:42,320 Speaker 1: think emerged from this report are one, most of what 377 00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:44,400 Speaker 1: these guys talked about are a lot of it they 378 00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:46,800 Speaker 1: did not have first hand knowledge of. It was sort 379 00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:50,600 Speaker 1: of just hearsay things they had overheard to A lot 380 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:54,400 Speaker 1: of this was organized by some right wing groups off 381 00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:58,920 Speaker 1: the hill, in particular an organization connected to Cash Patel, 382 00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:03,800 Speaker 1: who is a former top Trump official, and Cash offered 383 00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:07,920 Speaker 1: payments to some of these guys, helped coordinate their travel, 384 00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:11,800 Speaker 1: and you can see how it's organized off the hell 385 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:14,879 Speaker 1: for them to sort of coordinate and come up with 386 00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:18,400 Speaker 1: comp with these accounts and then come into Congress and 387 00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:20,920 Speaker 1: put them forward. And the third is that when when 388 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:23,719 Speaker 1: the Democrats start to look through these men's social media, 389 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:26,320 Speaker 1: there was a lot of extreme stuff on there. I mean, 390 00:21:26,359 --> 00:21:31,120 Speaker 1: you know, calling January sixth, the setup implying some sort 391 00:21:31,160 --> 00:21:36,120 Speaker 1: of deep state conspiracy. So a lot of conspiratorial thinking 392 00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:41,239 Speaker 1: and accusations against their own agencies, which you know, you 393 00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:44,240 Speaker 1: could see how that could bring disrepute on the agency 394 00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:47,320 Speaker 1: and the bosses might not might might not like it. Also, 395 00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:49,399 Speaker 1: I should say that Jim Jordan has said, some of 396 00:21:49,400 --> 00:21:51,760 Speaker 1: the other people have who have not yet come in. 397 00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:55,359 Speaker 1: We're FBI agents who who have joined the protests, the 398 00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:59,640 Speaker 1: pro Trump protests on January sixth, maybe didn't go into 399 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:03,280 Speaker 1: the capital or community violence, but you know, we're there 400 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:06,320 Speaker 1: at something that turned into a turn into a riot, 401 00:22:06,359 --> 00:22:08,480 Speaker 1: an attack, an attack on the Capitol, which you could 402 00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:10,960 Speaker 1: see why the FBI would want to look into those 403 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:14,159 Speaker 1: things and investigate them. So it just turns the stories 404 00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:16,960 Speaker 1: are not so neat and clean for the Republicans here, 405 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:21,480 Speaker 1: and it really undercut some of their central arguments. Well, 406 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:25,080 Speaker 1: Republicans keep going with this. I mean, clearly this was 407 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:27,880 Speaker 1: so far sort of the best they had. I mean, 408 00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:31,120 Speaker 1: do you think they retreat and decide that they just 409 00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:33,919 Speaker 1: can prove it or you think they keep going. No, 410 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:35,800 Speaker 1: They're going to keep going. I mean, if you watch 411 00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:38,159 Speaker 1: Jim Jordan go on Fox News after this, it was 412 00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:42,480 Speaker 1: as though nothing happened. They would completely ignored the Democrats report. 413 00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:46,040 Speaker 1: There is bad blood between the Republicans and the Democrats 414 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:48,680 Speaker 1: on the committee. If there was any hope that this 415 00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:52,880 Speaker 1: panel would actually be like the Church Committee, which did 416 00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:57,840 Speaker 1: uncover real wrongdoing and did uncover you know, systematic abuses 417 00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:01,439 Speaker 1: like the surveiling of piece for protesters and the like, 418 00:23:01,880 --> 00:23:04,479 Speaker 1: there will probably not be a bipartisan effort to do that. 419 00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:09,280 Speaker 1: It's going to be extremely politicized and basically a messy 420 00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:12,440 Speaker 1: fight for two years in Congress. Now, Jim Jordan did 421 00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:16,600 Speaker 1: say that one of the goals here was to frame 422 00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:20,280 Speaker 1: up the twenty twenty four election. Donald Trump has long 423 00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:23,639 Speaker 1: alleged if the FBI is biased against him, that the 424 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,960 Speaker 1: Justice Departs biased against him, that they searched his property unfairly, 425 00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:30,080 Speaker 1: and so I would expect to hear a lot of 426 00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:34,080 Speaker 1: cover for Donald Trump from this committee over the next 427 00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:37,680 Speaker 1: two years. This is my favorite thing that Jim Jordan 428 00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:41,480 Speaker 1: does where he says, like not even the quiet part, 429 00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:44,399 Speaker 1: like the sketchy part loud, you know, like we're just 430 00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:49,280 Speaker 1: doing this to support Donald Trump. I mean you know, yeah, 431 00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:52,080 Speaker 1: I mean yeah, you know. He said that out of 432 00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:54,119 Speaker 1: his own mouth is to frame up the twenty twenty 433 00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:57,600 Speaker 1: four elections. So it's pretty amazing stuff. Okay, So I 434 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:02,560 Speaker 1: want to ask you about this, this piece you wrote 435 00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:06,359 Speaker 1: more recently and that other piece was from four days ago, 436 00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:12,320 Speaker 1: so even more recently, about what is happening with this horrendous, 437 00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:16,760 Speaker 1: horrendous child labor staff. I mean, just like beyond the payout, 438 00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:19,600 Speaker 1: I mean, the Times broke this. It's the kind of thing. 439 00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:22,240 Speaker 1: You know, you have like fourteen year olds working on 440 00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:26,520 Speaker 1: factory lines, you have you know, just all these undocumented 441 00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:30,920 Speaker 1: children are working in these American companies and clearly there 442 00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:33,440 Speaker 1: are people who know about it. Will you talk to 443 00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:36,119 Speaker 1: us a little bit about that? Yeah? Absolutely so. My 444 00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:38,639 Speaker 1: colleague Hannah dry Or did a tremendous job with this 445 00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:43,080 Speaker 1: first investigation, and basically she went around two different plants 446 00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:45,479 Speaker 1: across the country that work with some of the biggest 447 00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:49,080 Speaker 1: brands in the world and just found basically openly child 448 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:53,399 Speaker 1: labor going on, you know, in the parking lot. You know, teenagers, 449 00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:58,240 Speaker 1: fourteen year olds who are working at these factories. And 450 00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:02,200 Speaker 1: many of the people that she found our migrant children, 451 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:08,640 Speaker 1: new immigrants, many of them undocumented, who were unaccompanied miners 452 00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:10,959 Speaker 1: who have you know, we're supposed to be placed with 453 00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:14,600 Speaker 1: sponsors who would watch over them, take care of them, 454 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:17,080 Speaker 1: make sure they're on the right path, and instead have 455 00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:21,840 Speaker 1: ended up into you know, exploitative situations. And I think 456 00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:24,000 Speaker 1: it was a really eye opening report. I've sort of 457 00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,920 Speaker 1: been following the movement on Capitol Hill in regards to this. 458 00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:31,719 Speaker 1: Already there's a bill from the Senate Democrats, led by 459 00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:37,560 Speaker 1: Brian Schatz that would raise the penalties on businesses who 460 00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:41,560 Speaker 1: exploit child labor. Right now, it's actually not a very 461 00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:45,600 Speaker 1: hefty fine for violating child labor laws, and you know, 462 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:48,480 Speaker 1: he would raise it to something like six hundred thousand dollars, 463 00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:52,200 Speaker 1: which would which were hopefully deter this type of thing. 464 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:55,199 Speaker 1: What would be interesting to see is how the Biden 465 00:25:55,320 --> 00:26:00,200 Speaker 1: administration responds to this. They did announce a crackdown where 466 00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:04,680 Speaker 1: they're going to put some extra resources into investigating these cases, 467 00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:07,919 Speaker 1: but it does seem like there was an internal order, 468 00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:13,760 Speaker 1: according to Hannah's reporting at HHS, to process these cases 469 00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:18,240 Speaker 1: very quickly, get these kids out with the sponsors. And 470 00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:21,360 Speaker 1: you can understand why, right it's better, It's better than 471 00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:23,200 Speaker 1: being a ward of the state. You're going to get 472 00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:26,240 Speaker 1: people with but if there's not the proper vetting being done, 473 00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:28,720 Speaker 1: you could end up in these in these bad situations, 474 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:31,680 Speaker 1: I would expect Chairman Durbin and the Judiciary to haul 475 00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:34,680 Speaker 1: in some Cabinet secretaries and ask some point of questions 476 00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:38,600 Speaker 1: to see if we can't get this situation remedied. Unbelievable story, 477 00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,359 Speaker 1: I mean, just mind blowing. This is the kind of 478 00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:44,879 Speaker 1: thing that there's not an easy solution too. No, there's not. 479 00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:47,480 Speaker 1: You know, obviously, it's a problem that's gone on for decades. 480 00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:50,800 Speaker 1: But what we've seen is a really explosion in the 481 00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:54,359 Speaker 1: numbers recently, and that's really a volume issue. I mean, 482 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,960 Speaker 1: during the pandemic, you didn't have a lot of immigrants 483 00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:01,000 Speaker 1: coming into the country. People weren't traveling, they were staying home, 484 00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:04,480 Speaker 1: they were afraid of dying. And now you've seen these 485 00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:07,960 Speaker 1: numbers tick up tremendously and we have all these record 486 00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:11,280 Speaker 1: border crossings and so as a result of that, it's 487 00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:15,560 Speaker 1: very difficult for the administration to keep up with the caseload. 488 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:17,880 Speaker 1: And that's why I think they were trying to process 489 00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:20,720 Speaker 1: the cases so quickly. You know, there are a lot 490 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,239 Speaker 1: of things that could be done. For instance, a lot 491 00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:27,120 Speaker 1: of these kids don't actually have legal representation, and there's 492 00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:28,879 Speaker 1: not really the money for it or the people who 493 00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:31,880 Speaker 1: are trained to do it. So you know, Congress could 494 00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:36,720 Speaker 1: allocate more money for more lawyers to represent these migrant 495 00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:38,719 Speaker 1: youth to try to make sure they don't end up 496 00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:41,840 Speaker 1: being exploited. You know, that's probably not going to happen 497 00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:44,720 Speaker 1: with the House and Republicans hands, but there are ways 498 00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:47,760 Speaker 1: that Congress could legislate this situation to make it better. 499 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:50,240 Speaker 1: I guess we'll have to see whether there's any chance 500 00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:53,600 Speaker 1: that anything bipartisan happening. Seems more likely the Republicans will 501 00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:55,560 Speaker 1: probably just use this as a cudgel to beat the 502 00:27:55,560 --> 00:28:00,320 Speaker 1: Biden administration over the headwidth and not necessarily proposed any solutions. Yeah, 503 00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:02,560 Speaker 1: I think that's right. Thank you so much, Luke. This 504 00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:05,760 Speaker 1: was super interesting. I hope you'll come back absolutely. Thanks 505 00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:09,760 Speaker 1: for having me, this was fun. Halle is a former 506 00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:14,800 Speaker 1: Twitter engineer. Welcome too Fast Politics, Halle. Thank you so 507 00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:18,600 Speaker 1: much to be here. Molly, it's very exciting to have you. 508 00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:23,920 Speaker 1: I introduced you as the most famous person in Iceland, 509 00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:29,439 Speaker 1: maybe a slight exaggeration or now it's a very small country, 510 00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:32,280 Speaker 1: so you don't really have too much to be very 511 00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:35,960 Speaker 1: known here. So I want to ask you. You have 512 00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:40,880 Speaker 1: become very, very very famous in New York and in 513 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:45,480 Speaker 1: California and on the Twitter sphere for something different, I 514 00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:48,560 Speaker 1: just want you to sort of explain just a little bit. 515 00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:50,800 Speaker 1: You're an entrepreneur, will you explain to us how you 516 00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:53,840 Speaker 1: got to Twitter. I have a background and to sign 517 00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:59,120 Speaker 1: and so I started a digital agency. It was called 518 00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:02,080 Speaker 1: WEEO and I ran it for about seven years, and 519 00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:04,640 Speaker 1: I'd even to see worked with a lot of big 520 00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:07,840 Speaker 1: tech companies. We had offices, three offices in the States 521 00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:10,280 Speaker 1: and then here in Iceland, and we did most of 522 00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:14,200 Speaker 1: our work with companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter as well. 523 00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:17,960 Speaker 1: So after twenty twenty, which was a very hard year 524 00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:21,040 Speaker 1: for a lot of people, I was just exhausted, and 525 00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,320 Speaker 1: we had been asked many times by both Twitter and 526 00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 1: multiple other companies to sort of see if we weren't 527 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:30,280 Speaker 1: wanted to sell, and I thought, I guess this is 528 00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:33,120 Speaker 1: a good time to kind of kill it and go 529 00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:35,320 Speaker 1: into a company like Twitter, which at the time was 530 00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:38,360 Speaker 1: growing very fast. Covid obviously brought a lot of growth 531 00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:40,400 Speaker 1: to a lot of these tech companies, So that's how 532 00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:43,600 Speaker 1: I came into Twitter as an acquisition. I knew you 533 00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:46,360 Speaker 1: had Twitter a little bit, not really, but sort of, 534 00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:50,400 Speaker 1: because there were a group of really interesting tech people 535 00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:52,640 Speaker 1: on Twitter who were involved in trying to make the 536 00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:55,880 Speaker 1: world better and it was for a time a really 537 00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:59,960 Speaker 1: great place to work. Once it was sold to this entrepreneur, 538 00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:03,800 Speaker 1: it became a very complicated price to work. Tell me 539 00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:08,080 Speaker 1: what you can, just explain about your position at the company, 540 00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:11,120 Speaker 1: however you're comfortable explaining it, and as little or as much. 541 00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:15,720 Speaker 1: Twitter is kind of this company that never lived up 542 00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:17,600 Speaker 1: to its potential. I think there's a lot of people 543 00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:20,600 Speaker 1: that saw that. I think Yvon saw that. I saw that. 544 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:22,880 Speaker 1: There's there's a bunch of people that said, look, there's 545 00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:27,800 Speaker 1: this hugely influential company that is where a lot of 546 00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:31,640 Speaker 1: the world's decisions are discussed and often made. But in 547 00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:35,640 Speaker 1: comparison to most of it, it's competitors, it's it's very small. 548 00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:38,040 Speaker 1: When I joined Twitter and before there was this moment 549 00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:40,320 Speaker 1: to try and change the company, which has happened many 550 00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:43,560 Speaker 1: times before it there was in many ways a good culture, 551 00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:45,640 Speaker 1: but it was also you know, it was not really 552 00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:48,360 Speaker 1: a culture of getting things done. So I think there's 553 00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:51,080 Speaker 1: a lot of room for improvement at the company. My 554 00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:54,520 Speaker 1: role was I first came in, I was asked to 555 00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:58,360 Speaker 1: lead an innovation team that was focused on just new 556 00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:02,560 Speaker 1: initiatives that went and it's sort of more often changed 557 00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:05,080 Speaker 1: over time, but that was kind of most of what 558 00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:07,920 Speaker 1: I worked on while I was at the company. Basically, 559 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:12,040 Speaker 1: the company goes to do well. So what happened then 560 00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:14,720 Speaker 1: is a company went through multiple layoffs, which has been 561 00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:18,400 Speaker 1: very public and Sunday or Saturday, about ten days ago, 562 00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:21,239 Speaker 1: my computer was locked, which has happened to a lot 563 00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:24,120 Speaker 1: of people, and so for the next few hours I 564 00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:26,719 Speaker 1: waited to see if there would be any communication from 565 00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:29,440 Speaker 1: a company. Nothing happened. Twenty four hours past the poll 566 00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:32,520 Speaker 1: on Monday, I started to email a few people at 567 00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:34,880 Speaker 1: the company. I found out my manager actually had been 568 00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:37,120 Speaker 1: laid off as well, and a bunch of other people. 569 00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:40,000 Speaker 1: There was nobody really for me too, that I really 570 00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:42,600 Speaker 1: knew that I could reach out to, So I emailed 571 00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:45,360 Speaker 1: the head of HR. I emailed Elon and a few 572 00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:48,000 Speaker 1: other sort of HR accounts to see what would happen 573 00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:50,320 Speaker 1: if they responded to me. I wanted to know. I 574 00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:52,840 Speaker 1: kind of assumed obviously that I've been laid off. I 575 00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:56,920 Speaker 1: didn't know, but without any actual communication, it's a strange 576 00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:00,920 Speaker 1: situation to be in. So ahead of Hr replied a 577 00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:03,160 Speaker 1: couple of times, I wasn't able to answer whether working 578 00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:05,920 Speaker 1: the company about and so I just decided we have 579 00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:08,600 Speaker 1: a CEO the company who was very active on Twitter, 580 00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:11,320 Speaker 1: and you know, he wasn't replying to my email, so 581 00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:14,040 Speaker 1: I figured it might make sense to see if he 582 00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:19,880 Speaker 1: would be open. And it turns out that you may 583 00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:21,760 Speaker 1: not be able to get him on email or on 584 00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:24,280 Speaker 1: the phone, but he will respond to tweets, as cat 585 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:27,440 Speaker 1: Turd has found out. So tell me what you're working 586 00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:33,080 Speaker 1: on in Iceland. I want to know. You have muscular dystrophe, 587 00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:38,320 Speaker 1: and you've had a very successful life with a very 588 00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:40,640 Speaker 1: full life of children and a wife and a really 589 00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:43,800 Speaker 1: great career, and you started businesses. But you are in 590 00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,960 Speaker 1: a wheelchair. Yeah. So I was born with a muscular 591 00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:50,440 Speaker 1: disagree and it's a progressive disease, so over time it 592 00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:52,520 Speaker 1: kind of you know, there's a lot of different types 593 00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:55,320 Speaker 1: of muscle disagree with the one I have. It started 594 00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:57,360 Speaker 1: with my legs when I was twenty five. I had 595 00:32:57,360 --> 00:32:59,880 Speaker 1: to start doing a wheelchair. I've been getting just more 596 00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:03,880 Speaker 1: more wobbly on my feet Poland and then for the 597 00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:06,000 Speaker 1: past twenty years, it's kind of just you know, my 598 00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:10,120 Speaker 1: legs have continued to deteriorate and the rest of my body. 599 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:13,120 Speaker 1: Muscles in my body are slowly giving up, So my 600 00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:15,160 Speaker 1: upper body, in my arms, most of my body has 601 00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:17,600 Speaker 1: been infected in some ways and most of it and 602 00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:21,880 Speaker 1: pretty significant place. I'm so sorry to even bring this 603 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:26,480 Speaker 1: up to you, but what you've done with this situation 604 00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:31,320 Speaker 1: is you've focused on wheelchair ramps in Iceland. Will you 605 00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:34,920 Speaker 1: talk a little bit about that? Yeah, back Twiceland, me, 606 00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:38,040 Speaker 1: my wife and our two kids. We've lived in a 607 00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:41,280 Speaker 1: multiple countries, and we are living in Europe and in 608 00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:44,480 Speaker 1: Asia and South America and obviously in North America. And 609 00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:48,680 Speaker 1: I've seen that it's pretty obvious that there's a pretty 610 00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:51,200 Speaker 1: big difference between country and country and even the city 611 00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:54,480 Speaker 1: to city what kind of accessibility there is in each 612 00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:57,240 Speaker 1: of these places. So moving back here, I noticed pretty 613 00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:00,640 Speaker 1: quickly there's having been a while away, I noticed there 614 00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:03,640 Speaker 1: was a lot of places that were not accessible. And 615 00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:05,320 Speaker 1: so one night when I was I went out with 616 00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:08,640 Speaker 1: my wife and our two kids and our son who's 617 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:11,959 Speaker 1: three years old the time, he was thirsty. We wanted 618 00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:14,720 Speaker 1: to get a drink, so we stopped at our corner 619 00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:17,760 Speaker 1: store and I noticed straight away that there were steps 620 00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:20,840 Speaker 1: going in, and so for the next five or so minutes, 621 00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:24,520 Speaker 1: I waited outside while my family went inside the shop. 622 00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:27,160 Speaker 1: And while I did that, I probably didn't I don't 623 00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:29,040 Speaker 1: think I had in my phone, otherwise I probably would 624 00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:31,080 Speaker 1: have been on Twitter. But I just sat out there 625 00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:34,600 Speaker 1: and I thought about this, how one step or two 626 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:38,120 Speaker 1: steps in this case have such a huge impact on 627 00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:40,839 Speaker 1: a lot of people's lives, so people that use wheelchairs 628 00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:45,319 Speaker 1: or have accessibility needs, and how simple it is to 629 00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:48,080 Speaker 1: actually solve this. So we set up a fund. We 630 00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:52,360 Speaker 1: initially built a hundred draps in downtown Kuec So Wheelchair Raps, 631 00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:56,560 Speaker 1: and then we formed a bigger sort of coalition, raised 632 00:34:56,680 --> 00:35:00,200 Speaker 1: more money and we are building fifteen hundred in two 633 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:04,160 Speaker 1: raps all across Iceland. So we're about two years into 634 00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:08,759 Speaker 1: this four year effort. You became Iceland Person of the Year. 635 00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:11,799 Speaker 1: Will you talk about that. I'm sorry to embarrass you. 636 00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:15,240 Speaker 1: I know this is embarrassing. Okay, It's a very small country. 637 00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:18,000 Speaker 1: So it was like between me and a few sheep, 638 00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:20,880 Speaker 1: I was about personally year and I think, which was 639 00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:25,200 Speaker 1: obviously great, but a very strange feeling because as a person, 640 00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:28,959 Speaker 1: there are good things that I do hopefully in my life, 641 00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:31,760 Speaker 1: but I've been very you know, I'm not a person 642 00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:34,000 Speaker 1: of the Year all the time. It's a very strange 643 00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:36,040 Speaker 1: feeling to have to live up to that. So but yes, 644 00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:38,920 Speaker 1: I was. I was very hard and glad that happened. 645 00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:43,400 Speaker 1: So most people I know have tried to avoid paying taxes. 646 00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:48,120 Speaker 1: You actually paid more taxes. Will you explain that this 647 00:35:48,239 --> 00:35:52,680 Speaker 1: is complicated? But when we talked about tax contents to 648 00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:55,200 Speaker 1: people that you know, I was feeling this out, trying 649 00:35:55,239 --> 00:35:57,239 Speaker 1: to figure out what was the best way to do 650 00:35:57,320 --> 00:35:59,319 Speaker 1: a lot of we talked to some people and some 651 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,600 Speaker 1: of them suggest it. You know, we moved to let's 652 00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:03,840 Speaker 1: say because of the way we structured a deal. It 653 00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:07,040 Speaker 1: was all paid depending to the country where I lived. 654 00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:10,920 Speaker 1: So you could move to let's say, Dubai or even 655 00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:13,799 Speaker 1: there's some some things in Portugal where you pay no 656 00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:15,839 Speaker 1: income tax, so we could have moved somewhere like that, 657 00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:19,040 Speaker 1: but we decided that we wanted to Iceland. And because 658 00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:22,200 Speaker 1: of the way that was structured, like all of the 659 00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:24,960 Speaker 1: how of the money was well, the taxes were paid 660 00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:28,000 Speaker 1: here in Iceland, so you actually chose to pay more 661 00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:32,360 Speaker 1: taxes to support the Icelandic government because you believed in 662 00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:35,680 Speaker 1: what they were doing. Listen, No, I think the politics aside. 663 00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:38,680 Speaker 1: There is this model in Iceland in many countries that 664 00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:43,000 Speaker 1: is um you know, the state obviously is in all 665 00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:45,920 Speaker 1: countries is run by taxpayer money. But in certain countries 666 00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:49,279 Speaker 1: like Iceland, that means that you have free healthcare, you 667 00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:52,440 Speaker 1: have three schools, obviously that all the rest of it, 668 00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:56,200 Speaker 1: you know, the roads, the police, whatever it is. Yes, 669 00:36:56,320 --> 00:36:58,360 Speaker 1: I do believe that the only way for a system 670 00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:01,600 Speaker 1: like that to make so as if people that have 671 00:37:01,719 --> 00:37:04,520 Speaker 1: more money pay it back into it. And you know, 672 00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:06,360 Speaker 1: I grew up with a you know, in a working 673 00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:08,680 Speaker 1: cast home. We didn't really have much, but I was 674 00:37:08,719 --> 00:37:11,440 Speaker 1: able to go through with all of my school I 675 00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:14,600 Speaker 1: went to university, I got some degrees at the university, 676 00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:17,319 Speaker 1: or I got a system from the state. You know, 677 00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:20,320 Speaker 1: I got a free wheelchair, I got a very heavily 678 00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:24,120 Speaker 1: subsidized car. I was paid by the state sort of disability. 679 00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:26,960 Speaker 1: So there's a bunch of things that made it possible 680 00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:31,920 Speaker 1: for me to become ultimately financially successful. That if I 681 00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:34,960 Speaker 1: hadn't had them. There just no way. So if I 682 00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:37,680 Speaker 1: had been if I had grown up in a country 683 00:37:37,719 --> 00:37:40,960 Speaker 1: they didn't have all these safety nets, I wouldn't have 684 00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:43,520 Speaker 1: been able to do. But ultimately did, and I think, 685 00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:46,520 Speaker 1: I thought, and I still think that it's important that 686 00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:51,000 Speaker 1: that system is maintained. I want to ask you about 687 00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:55,000 Speaker 1: your restaurant, because you're opening a restaurant in Iceland. By 688 00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:56,520 Speaker 1: the way, we were all going to have to come 689 00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:59,680 Speaker 1: to Iceland now and also moved to Iceland, but explained 690 00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:04,400 Speaker 1: about the restaurant you're opening. So Willen was eleven years old. 691 00:38:04,920 --> 00:38:08,359 Speaker 1: My mom died in a car accident, and it was 692 00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:12,640 Speaker 1: obviously devastating for a kid. And I know it was 693 00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:15,600 Speaker 1: at a time forty five now, so it's thirty five 694 00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:18,920 Speaker 1: years ago, and there wasn't a lot of maybe support 695 00:38:18,960 --> 00:38:21,440 Speaker 1: systems or people didn't I think, really know how to 696 00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:23,759 Speaker 1: deal with tragedy like that. So I kind of just 697 00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:26,600 Speaker 1: compartmentalized that, put it away in a box, and I 698 00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:29,880 Speaker 1: didn't really think about my mom. I couldn't say her 699 00:38:29,960 --> 00:38:32,400 Speaker 1: name or go into a conversation because it was just 700 00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:35,680 Speaker 1: too emotional for many, many years. So a few years 701 00:38:35,719 --> 00:38:38,919 Speaker 1: ago I stopped drinking which I think was partly to 702 00:38:38,920 --> 00:38:41,800 Speaker 1: try and deal with things like that. And I wanted 703 00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:45,200 Speaker 1: to reconnect with my mom again. Obviously she had never 704 00:38:45,239 --> 00:38:47,680 Speaker 1: gone away. I constantly think about her, but it was 705 00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:50,480 Speaker 1: just in a different way. So I wanted to build 706 00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:53,799 Speaker 1: up something to remember her. And so when we moved 707 00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:57,120 Speaker 1: back here to Iceland, there was a house I lived 708 00:38:57,400 --> 00:39:00,680 Speaker 1: one block over from where I grew up, and there 709 00:39:00,719 --> 00:39:03,040 Speaker 1: was this house that was beautiful that was across the street, 710 00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:05,239 Speaker 1: and I would often go there. You know what. I 711 00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:08,160 Speaker 1: remember walking by this house with my mother, and the 712 00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:10,920 Speaker 1: ground floor was on sale when we moved back, and 713 00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:13,200 Speaker 1: I saw that, and I thought, well, to be wonderful 714 00:39:13,239 --> 00:39:17,480 Speaker 1: to create a place that would be in memory of her. 715 00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:21,719 Speaker 1: So we've been working on that now for quite some time, 716 00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:24,880 Speaker 1: and in a few weeks we're going to open up 717 00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:28,000 Speaker 1: a restaurants called or That, which is what's her name. 718 00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:32,560 Speaker 1: And it's really built on this limity of a kid 719 00:39:32,600 --> 00:39:36,439 Speaker 1: of their mother. So it's it's not really like the 720 00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:39,239 Speaker 1: thing we experienced with your parents, when your kid are 721 00:39:39,239 --> 00:39:42,880 Speaker 1: obviously not the full picture of someone. It's you know, 722 00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:44,839 Speaker 1: you look up to someone like your mom, your dad, 723 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:48,520 Speaker 1: or your grandparents or whoever, and there's these larger than 724 00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:51,239 Speaker 1: life beings. Obviously nobody can live up to that, but 725 00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:54,120 Speaker 1: in our heads they are. And so I just wanted 726 00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:56,759 Speaker 1: to box off that feeling and create a place that 727 00:39:57,040 --> 00:40:00,640 Speaker 1: was sort of magical and wonderful where come in and 728 00:40:00,680 --> 00:40:04,080 Speaker 1: it would be this warm, inviting atmosphere like you do 729 00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:07,640 Speaker 1: when you're in a safe space, like with with somebody 730 00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:09,920 Speaker 1: loves as a kid, like your mother or whoever that 731 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:13,839 Speaker 1: might be. So that's coming up very quickly. It's been 732 00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:16,879 Speaker 1: a wild ride to get there. But we're a couple 733 00:40:16,880 --> 00:40:21,000 Speaker 1: of weeks out. I am just so honored to get 734 00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:24,719 Speaker 1: to talk to you and delighted, and I appreciate all 735 00:40:24,760 --> 00:40:28,000 Speaker 1: the hard work you're doing and I'm just grateful to 736 00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:30,840 Speaker 1: get to have you on the on the show. Thank 737 00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:40,439 Speaker 1: you so much. No Molly John Fast, Jesse Cannon, Bitch 738 00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:44,600 Speaker 1: McConnell versus Fox News. First this week it was Steve 739 00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:48,799 Speaker 1: Bannon versus Fox News. To quote Tucker Carlson, what is 740 00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:53,920 Speaker 1: going on? So Fox is under a lot of pressure. 741 00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:59,880 Speaker 1: There is this incredible lawsuit from Dominion the voting machine. 742 00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:05,400 Speaker 1: It is for multiple many hundreds of millions, possibly billions 743 00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:08,879 Speaker 1: of dollars. Part of the lawsuit is in Delaware where 744 00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:11,279 Speaker 1: the claims are not caps so we don't even know 745 00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:14,400 Speaker 1: the kind of money Dominion could get from Fox. But 746 00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:19,080 Speaker 1: instead of deciding to tread lightly, Tucker Crawlson has decided 747 00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:21,960 Speaker 1: to double down. So he has used the footage he 748 00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:25,640 Speaker 1: got from Kevin McCarthy. By the way, Kevin McCarthy is 749 00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:30,359 Speaker 1: basically at this point, Tucker Crlson's hostage, right Tucker Crowson said, 750 00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:32,480 Speaker 1: I will make you speaker, but you have to be 751 00:41:32,680 --> 00:41:36,880 Speaker 1: my hostage, and basically he is. And so here we 752 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:40,840 Speaker 1: have Kevin McCarthy gave Tucker the January six footage, Tucker 753 00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:44,160 Speaker 1: found stuff that didn't look that bad, aired it on 754 00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:48,959 Speaker 1: his show, and then sort of propagated this whole conspiracy 755 00:41:49,040 --> 00:41:52,200 Speaker 1: theory that none of what we know has happened has happened, 756 00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:56,200 Speaker 1: and that the real villains of January sixth are Liz 757 00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:59,319 Speaker 1: Cheney and Adam Kinsinger. But here's the thing that I 758 00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:03,160 Speaker 1: think is so weird. Him and Margie are now saying 759 00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:07,760 Speaker 1: that the quad Shaman really was leded to the Capitol 760 00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:10,160 Speaker 1: by police, so that's why he was standing at the 761 00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:14,040 Speaker 1: podium and everything. I feel like there was this theory 762 00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:16,439 Speaker 1: of the last election. That a lot of why they lost, 763 00:42:16,480 --> 00:42:19,520 Speaker 1: as they see like such freaks. What worse person could 764 00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:23,840 Speaker 1: they champion than this fucking guy that's QAnon Shaman to 765 00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:27,719 Speaker 1: be freed. I just think that the Qnon Shalman, more 766 00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:31,360 Speaker 1: than anything, is not the hero you want, right the 767 00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:35,640 Speaker 1: QAnon Shalman. First of all, he wears horns, he wears 768 00:42:35,680 --> 00:42:38,480 Speaker 1: no clothing. He does eat organic food, so that's something. 769 00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:42,160 Speaker 1: This is true, But Marjorie Taylor Green continues to maybe 770 00:42:42,239 --> 00:42:45,840 Speaker 1: not be such a great thought leader for the Republican Party. 771 00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:50,960 Speaker 1: And this whole panoply of fakery is our moment of fuckery. 772 00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:55,640 Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in 773 00:42:55,719 --> 00:42:58,880 Speaker 1: every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to hear the best minds 774 00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:02,120 Speaker 1: in politics makes sense of all this chaos. If you 775 00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:04,960 Speaker 1: enjoyed what you've heard, please send it to a friend 776 00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:08,560 Speaker 1: and keep the conversation going. And again, thanks for listening.