Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds, and farmers are saying tariff's and Canadian
Speaker 1: goods are already having devastated effects. We have such a
Speaker 1: great show for you today. The Lincoln Project's own Rick
Speaker 1: Wilson joins us to discuss Trump crashing the economy. Then
Speaker 1: we'll talk to kat Habu Gazala about her run for
Speaker 1: Congress in Illinois ninth district. But first the news Somali.
Speaker 1: We're playing some clips, baby.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I personally think it's very funny when the infighting happens.
Speaker 2: I know these are very serious times. People are getting
Speaker 2: very there while it's very seriously hurt right now by
Speaker 2: Trump's stupidity. But I want to play you and get
Speaker 2: a reaction of White House Senior Counsel Peter Navarro talking
Speaker 2: about Elon Musk.
Speaker 1: Listen, man, I'm not where am I going nowhere?
Speaker 3: That's interesting to hear at the beginning to talk about
Speaker 3: his euro tariff zone when here Ada doesn't understand that.
Speaker 3: And the thing that's I think important about Elon to
Speaker 3: understanding he sells cars.
Speaker 4: That's what he does.
Speaker 3: And if you look, for example, at the Tesla factories
Speaker 3: in Texas, their assembly plants, and they get a lot
Speaker 3: of their content from China, Mexico, Japan and Taiwan and elsewhere.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Wait, you're saying Elon Musk is conflicted.
Speaker 4: Wait wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 1: Wait till you hear about where is contracts come from.
Speaker 4: Will you hear about this guy, Donald Trump that you
Speaker 4: work for.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm sorry, but like you think Elon Musk has
Speaker 1: a conflict, here, wait to hear about SpaceX, his company
Speaker 1: that does space travel for the federal government. My man,
Speaker 1: Elon Musk makes eight million dollars a day from the
Speaker 1: United States government. The fact that somehow the tariffs are
Speaker 1: going to be the moment when he's corrupt. Look, what's
Speaker 1: fun about this is that it's so incredibly bad that
Speaker 1: they're all fighting with each other. And while Donald Trump
Speaker 1: crash is the economy. So expect to see a lot
Speaker 1: more of this, and in fact, we have more of this. Right.
Speaker 2: Oh, I could go out about this all day. But
Speaker 2: the stupidest one, of course, comes from the stupidest member
Speaker 2: of the Senate, one Tommy Tuberville.
Speaker 1: It's Thomas Tuberveil.
Speaker 4: My apologies. Let me put some respect on.
Speaker 1: Thomas Thomas to Berveil, the dumbest senator from Atlanta.
Speaker 5: People in the United States back on track being self sufficient.
Speaker 6: Speaking of China, the market is concerned.
Speaker 7: Traders aren't concerned.
Speaker 6: That the retaliation we saw on Friday could turn into
Speaker 6: a full blown trade.
Speaker 5: Wark your thoughts, well, First of all, Wall Street, it's
Speaker 5: one of our biggest problems. They're the ones that's really
Speaker 5: standing up and pushing back against President Trump. Wall Street
Speaker 5: and the globalist they did not want change. They wanted
Speaker 5: to stay business as usual. We cannot stay business as
Speaker 5: usual in Washington, DC with President Trump, Northern American people.
Speaker 5: We have to change course and we have to build
Speaker 5: a different team in this country. If we don't do that,
Speaker 5: it's the only chance we have of surviving like we
Speaker 5: had an opportunity the last two hundred and forty nine years.
Speaker 4: So Wall Street has gone woke.
Speaker 1: Molly, Yeah, is capitalism woke, ladies and gentlemen, Capitalism is woke.
Speaker 1: Now better to do huge tariffs and crash the economy
Speaker 1: so that we can keep our way of life going. Oh,
Speaker 1: Dear God, thinking about Tommy Tibervelle, I mean that man
Speaker 1: is he's not smart. You don't say yes, you don't Yes.
Speaker 1: I want to move on because it's not just them
Speaker 1: ruining the economy Trump. The partition is doing other stuff too.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The judge that is taking up the case about them
Speaker 2: deporting people to El Salvador is saying that they have
Speaker 2: to undo their wall as deportations.
Speaker 1: Yes, woke judge says, you can't just send people to
Speaker 1: scary prisons in El Salvador. Look, this is DC District
Speaker 1: Court judge who says that describes one of the most
Speaker 1: notorious and inhumane and dangerous prisons in the world. I
Speaker 1: think they've sent at least two guys to this prison
Speaker 1: in Al Salvador with no evidence of them being members.
Speaker 1: This is a guy called Albrago Garcia. They said he
Speaker 1: was a member of MS thirteen, but it turns out
Speaker 1: he's just a guy and now he's in a really
Speaker 1: scary prison. Look. Trump administration doesn't want to get him back,
Speaker 1: probably doesn't know how to get him back. But judges
Speaker 1: need to make this administration follow the law. As much
Speaker 1: as this administration doesn't like to follow the law and
Speaker 1: just likes to do crime and also golf the law's
Speaker 1: law for all of us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, speaking of laws, they do like them when they
Speaker 2: can do stupid things like, for reason, reversing bands on
Speaker 2: toxic forever chemicals.
Speaker 1: Yes, they are very into forever chemicals. Like Trump World
Speaker 1: may not want to grow the economy, but they do
Speaker 1: really like to pollute. And we'll remember this from Trump
Speaker 1: one point zero when they put an oil and gas
Speaker 1: lobbyist in charge of the EPA. The ruining the planet
Speaker 1: is the point. And by the way, I love the
Speaker 1: fact that when they put RFK Junior in charge of
Speaker 1: our health and human services, they were like, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: going to do all this good stuff with pollution. By
Speaker 1: the way, what did he do? He just fired everyone
Speaker 1: who believed in vaccines. Right, he didn't do any of
Speaker 1: this stuff. The very few things he might have done
Speaker 1: that one have been completely fucked up. Here we go.
Speaker 1: Trump officials quietly moved to reverse bands on toxic forever
Speaker 1: chemicals because toxic chemicals are your friend. EPA bids to
Speaker 1: change chemical risk evaluations because honestly, do any of us
Speaker 1: have enough plastic in our brains yet? Trump administration is
Speaker 1: quietly carrying out a plan that aims to kill hundreds
Speaker 1: of bands. I'm highly toxic forever chemicals and other dangerous compounds,
Speaker 1: and consumer gifts goods, because really, honestly, how can we
Speaker 1: live without more plastic and our brains. The bands, largely
Speaker 1: at the state level, touch facets of daily life, prohibiting
Speaker 1: everything from forembra chemicals and children's products. Those damn kids.
Speaker 1: We had to get them to work in the factories asap,
Speaker 1: to mercury and personal care products, to pfas in food
Speaker 1: packaging and clothing. What's the worse it could happen? This
Speaker 1: should be fine. If successful, the public would almost certainly
Speaker 1: be exposed to much higher levels of chemicals linked to
Speaker 1: a range of serious health issues such as cancer, hormone disruption,
Speaker 1: liver disease, birth effects, and reproductive system damage. By the way,
Speaker 1: the good news is that DOGE caught a lot of
Speaker 1: NIH funding the National Institute of Health, so there's less
Speaker 1: cancer research. So when you get that cancer, there's going
Speaker 1: to be less treatments. Congratulations to all who celebrate.
Speaker 2: So speaking of things that are all of a sudden
Speaker 2: woke that shouldn't be woke, Mitch McConnell is calling out
Speaker 2: Trump for hiring amateur isolationists at the Pentagon and firing
Speaker 2: the NSA director after Laura Lumer told him to.
Speaker 1: Turns out Mitch McConnell and Laura Lumer on the opposite
Speaker 1: side of the issues, who could have seen it? Certainly
Speaker 1: not I. So you remember earlier this week in season
Speaker 1: two of the End of American Democracy, Laura Lumer, who
Speaker 1: is from Florida and has had a lot of plastic
Speaker 1: surgery but is shockingly only thirty two years old, got
Speaker 1: back into the White House. She got her claws on
Speaker 1: the dawn and she started explaining to him some of
Speaker 1: her wacky worldview, and then she was able to fire
Speaker 1: a number of national security professionals because she's Laura Lumer. Ergo,
Speaker 1: why not? She fired a guy called Timothy haw a
Speaker 1: for star general with thirty three years of experience and
Speaker 1: intelligence by Laura Lumer has thirty one years of being
Speaker 1: fabulous and getting filler. So without providing any explanation, he
Speaker 1: was fired. Trump fired now six other National Security Council
Speaker 1: officials after meeting with the conservative activists and social media
Speaker 1: influencer Laura Lumer in the Oval Office. Lumer presented a
Speaker 1: list of officials to Trump that she argued were not
Speaker 1: loyal to the president. Oh yes, in case you're wondering,
Speaker 1: it probably will get stupid or but it is very
Speaker 1: hard to imagine at this moment. Rick Wilson is the
Speaker 1: founder of the Lincoln Project and the host of the
Speaker 1: Enemy's List, started to think.
Speaker 8: Things out there right now, Molly, who.
Speaker 9: Have always known this, who have from the beginning been
Speaker 9: quite clear about this, who knew from the jump not
Speaker 9: only that this was dumber than a bag I had here,
Speaker 9: but also that it was also inevitable that the dumbest
Speaker 9: president to ever hold the office would do the dumbest
Speaker 9: possible thing.
Speaker 4: And here we are.
Speaker 8: It's a world of incredible stupidity.
Speaker 1: Listen, man, I'm going to read you the axios. Axios
Speaker 1: does this thing because breeding one hundred birds is too hard.
Speaker 1: Why it matters? All all Bolds, The conservative think tank
Speaker 1: says the error led to tariffs raised massively higher than
Speaker 1: they should have been to achieve the goals the administration saw.
Speaker 1: I mean, why it matters. It matters because they're crashing
Speaker 1: the public markets.
Speaker 8: It matters because they've incinerated ten trillion with a t
Speaker 8: dollars of invested funds, and those funds weren't like there
Speaker 8: just by the sovereign wealth fund of some other country.
Speaker 8: A lot of those funds were little old ladies who
Speaker 8: put their retirement in the market. A lot of those
Speaker 8: funds were the local school board or the state pension
Speaker 8: fund or whatever it is. Trump has gleefully incinerated. And
Speaker 8: he said it this weekend. I don't care if I
Speaker 8: crash economy. He doesn't care. He does not care. You
Speaker 8: know why. First off, for him, the more chaos. I've
Speaker 8: really been thinking about this a lot over the weekend.
Speaker 8: The more chaos for him right now, the better. So
Speaker 8: this week, when he announces he's going to invade Greenland
Speaker 8: or whatever other unbelievably dumb thing comes out of his brain,
Speaker 8: he's got more distractions waiting in the wings to have
Speaker 8: America go, oh, that's interesting. We're not just doing this
Speaker 8: the one or two stupid things. We're doing a lot
Speaker 8: of the once and to distract people from the absolute
Speaker 8: economic calamity that he has engineered for this country.
Speaker 1: But I also think, and I want to add this
Speaker 1: because I think it's important to remember how stupid everything is.
Speaker 1: There's a guy called Josh Marshall. You and I are
Speaker 1: friends with him. Sure, he is very, very smart. He
Speaker 1: actually has a PhD. Like Matt Greenfield, my long suffering
Speaker 1: spas and need a really good point, which is that
Speaker 1: doge is actually not saving any money, and found it's
Speaker 1: going to lose about happened trillion dollars this year, probably
Speaker 1: more one hundred percent.
Speaker 8: Just breaking things does not save money. Just causing chaos
Speaker 8: does not save a single time. And what they're doing
Speaker 8: right now is just breaking things and causing chaos.
Speaker 1: Yes, and also perhaps enriching themselves as as is the
Speaker 1: want of yes a mystry.
Speaker 8: You know, I heard on Sunday that Donald Trump had
Speaker 8: sold off two billion dollars to Shares, a true social
Speaker 8: just before the announcement. Now I haven't run that whole
Speaker 8: story down yet, but that would be the most on
Speaker 8: brand thing for this corrupt m effort to do that
Speaker 8: I could conceive, because why wouldn't he.
Speaker 1: They pardoned all of these people who had done like
Speaker 1: financial crimes, like the Silk Road guy. I mean, the
Speaker 1: Silk Road guy also may or may not have hired hitman,
Speaker 1: but like there were all sorts of other people. I mean,
Speaker 1: for example, they brought over the Tate Brothers. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, basically, the idea was like crimes against women
Speaker 1: and financial crimes, that kind of stuff like fraud anything
Speaker 1: white collery isn't really a crime. Also hiring a hit man.
Speaker 8: You know, look, as long as you do it online,
Speaker 8: it's shiny and modern and digital and not sordid and terrified.
Speaker 8: We're in a moment of corruption in this country. I'm
Speaker 8: going to use a Trumpian phrase now, the likes of
Speaker 8: which we've never seen before. It is corrupt because as
Speaker 8: a nation, we're letting it be. The US Senate right
Speaker 8: now has shown some vague, elliptical stirrings of life in
Speaker 8: the last few days.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they don't like it when their guide crashes.
Speaker 8: The economy suddenly. And look, most people in the Senate
Speaker 8: who were in the Senate got to the Senate because
Speaker 8: they like power and they like money, and they would
Speaker 8: like more of the same. And I think that there
Speaker 8: is a sense right now. You know, look they're all
Speaker 8: saying it. Ted Cruz is out saying Donald Trump is
Speaker 8: leading us towards an electoral political disaster. Let's help broken
Speaker 8: clocks twice a day all that.
Speaker 1: I like to call them lion Ted, But yes, continue.
Speaker 8: You know that's got a ring to it.
Speaker 4: I like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, look, they see the writing on the wall.
Speaker 1: What I'd actually like to talk to you about is
Speaker 1: so Ted Cruz, there are a lot. There are a
Speaker 1: couple other senators we're thinking of. I think we were
Speaker 1: actually talking about this on We talked.
Speaker 8: About this the other day. Yeah, you've got Cornyn, You've
Speaker 8: got Tillis, You've got Susan Collins, who Trump has definitely
Speaker 8: learned his economic lesson. There's a lot of people. Now.
Speaker 8: The muttering is not McConnell. The muttering isn't just behind
Speaker 8: the cloak of anonymity. Now where senators declined to comment
Speaker 8: on the record to protect their lives insanity, they're not
Speaker 8: out saying this is a dumb, bad, horrible, stupid idea. Stop.
Speaker 1: But I also want to talk about something else, which is, yeah,
Speaker 1: so you've got some Republicans going against crashing the market
Speaker 1: for no reason. Then you also have this very interesting
Speaker 1: phenomenon which we didn't talk about but we need to
Speaker 1: talk about, which is the Koch Brothers.
Speaker 8: Go on, tell me more about these mysterious fellows.
Speaker 1: You may have one of them is actually dead. You
Speaker 1: may have worked for them. In fact, we know you did.
Speaker 1: So the New Civil Liberties Alliance which perhaps you've heard of,
Speaker 1: a five oh one nonprofit public interest firm which their
Speaker 1: interest is largely about serving the Koch Brothers. That crew
Speaker 1: has launched a challenge, a legal challenge to one Donald
Speaker 1: Trump for his tariffs on China. I know you will
Speaker 1: be shocked to hear this, but they have decided that
Speaker 1: they're going to sue Trump over these tariffs. So now,
Speaker 1: this is the Citizens United crew. This is the worst
Speaker 1: of the worst. This is the Koch Brothers crew. This
Speaker 1: is these guys tend to win because they're so evil
Speaker 1: and naughty discussed.
Speaker 8: My question for you now is and I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 8: going to go back and wheel back to unlesson. I
Speaker 8: learned along time ago, and I've applied this to many
Speaker 8: candidates when they say to me at the end of
Speaker 8: the campaign, I.
Speaker 10: Don't want to run that terrible negative ad. No, my
Speaker 10: wife hates it, my kids hate it, and my friends
Speaker 10: all hate it. At the country club. I can't shut
Speaker 10: my face again if I run that terrible ad. I
Speaker 10: know the polling says I have to do it, and
Speaker 10: you ask them a simple question. All right, So next
Speaker 10: Tuesday night, around eight o'clock at night after the election's over.
Speaker 10: Do you want to be the scumbag or the honorable scumbag?
Speaker 10: Putting the honorable scumbag ahead generally tends to be the
Speaker 10: thing that gets people over the hump of doing what
Speaker 10: has to be done. You may not like these guys,
Speaker 10: you may find them uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: As an ally the enemy of my enimey.
Speaker 8: Yes, but they have a fairly long track record of
Speaker 8: being able to deploy resources to whack bad guys in
Speaker 8: their mind, whoever they're bad guys they're targeting at that moment.
Speaker 8: They have a fairly good track record of that. And
Speaker 8: in this world, you don't really want to like leave
Speaker 8: a lot on the table. You don't really want to
Speaker 8: leave a lot of questions on the table, like did
Speaker 8: we do everything we could to fuck Trump up? Did
Speaker 8: we do everything we could to kick his ass? If
Speaker 8: it involves a center right coalition joining the other broad
Speaker 8: coalition of people around the country to go and kick
Speaker 8: Trump's ass, let's all go kick Trump's ass together. We
Speaker 8: can fight later, we can we can shake all that
Speaker 8: shit out later. Everybody can agree to agree to to,
Speaker 8: you know, attack the monster while it's bringing down the village,
Speaker 8: and then later we can figure out all of our
Speaker 8: old beefs can come back and we can settle our
Speaker 8: all all the family business later.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true, but I do think it is pretty
Speaker 1: amazing that this crew receives financial support from entities affiliated
Speaker 1: with Charles Coke and Leonard leon There is a weird
Speaker 1: it's called capitalism, capitalism versus moronics.
Speaker 8: No, here's the other part of it. There is a
Speaker 8: degree to which inside even even the federalist society world,
Speaker 8: there is a certain concern about rule of law that
Speaker 8: is real. They have many flaws, but they have a
Speaker 8: certain concern about rule law that they have not been
Speaker 8: able to say publicly. Like everybody else trapped in the
Speaker 8: Trump matrix. Once you're stuck in there, like you get
Speaker 8: something good out of him once and you're like, okay,
Speaker 8: well now all I have to do is pretend everything
Speaker 8: he does is right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for the rest of my life, for.
Speaker 8: The rest of my life. And they're trapped in it. Look,
Speaker 8: Scott Bessen wants to run the fuck away from Washington
Speaker 8: and the Treasury right now because he's embarrassed and horrified,
Speaker 8: but he can't. He's now trapped. He's like, I'll never
Speaker 8: work again if I if I cross the sky. You know,
Speaker 8: what do I do?
Speaker 1: He's probably never going to work again either way.
Speaker 8: I mean, that's still exactly. That's something they often fail
Speaker 8: to realize, like that Wilson rule about everything Trump touches
Speaker 8: and dies. Yeah, that's a real thing.
Speaker 4: Guys.
Speaker 1: Well, let's ask Rudy Julian how it's going.
Speaker 8: Well, he was at least on Wall Street through the
Speaker 8: day with Chris Ruddy with the NEWSMA.
Speaker 1: So on Friday when the market dropped, I don't know,
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred points, twelve hundred points that some jillion points, yes,
Speaker 1: quite lost, you know whatever. Millions of dollars just evaporate,
Speaker 1: atro trillions of des with your te trillions of dollars evaporated.
Speaker 1: The people who raging the opening bell were Newsmax, just
Speaker 1: ready in Newsmax.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 8: Some of the follow on propagandists to the Rupert era
Speaker 8: for those that you can find Rupert Murdoch to Middle
Speaker 8: of the Road and the Fox products to restrained his
Speaker 8: praise of drup Right, there's Newsmax.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 1: I like to think of it as Fox without the
Speaker 1: good production values.
Speaker 8: I like to think of it about as Fox without
Speaker 8: the restraint in the dignity yes.
Speaker 1: Well, what I like about Newsmax is that Greg Kelly's
Speaker 1: son has a program on there.
Speaker 8: Oh my god, that guy is a truly agreedious grunting
Speaker 8: more on the best.
Speaker 1: So let's just talk about this. We have this massive
Speaker 1: Trump tariff based on massive Eric conservative think tank says
Speaker 1: tomorrow the market's open. Trump has been golfing all weekend.
Speaker 8: We don't have to saw it with a Saudi murder
Speaker 8: murder regime.
Speaker 1: Right, It's called the Live Yes golf tournament. A lot
Speaker 1: of stuff has happened, none of them.
Speaker 8: Whats you buy Striker? Striker industrial medical tool is perfect
Speaker 8: for dismembering dissidents.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's going on. I mean, does the market
Speaker 1: just keep creating? What do you think what.
Speaker 8: Has happened over the weekend to change anything?
Speaker 1: I mean, does eventually Susie Wilds go like, come on, man.
Speaker 8: No, where's what I actually I think is going to happen.
Speaker 8: We're going to end up with a real blood bath
Speaker 8: for about another week to ten days.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's going to be millions, billions, trillions, zillions.
Speaker 8: Yes, at that point, John Thune and Grinder Grinder Johnson
Speaker 8: are going to go down to the White House and
Speaker 8: they're going to say, sir grinder John, We're about to
Speaker 8: lose both houses spectacularly. We're about to lose fifty seats
Speaker 8: in the House and fifteen seats in the Senate. We're
Speaker 8: about to lose every governor's race. We're about to lose
Speaker 8: state legislatures. We're about to get blown the fuck out. Yeah,
Speaker 8: so you either stop this shit right now or it's
Speaker 8: on your head. We love you, we worship you, and
Speaker 8: yet you have done something profoundly stupid.
Speaker 1: And then what do you think happened?
Speaker 8: Look, he so dug in Molly on Sunday afternoon, the
Speaker 8: overnight action on the on the markets, you're going to
Speaker 8: see another drop on the NASDAK of six percent, another
Speaker 8: drop on the S and P of six point five percent,
Speaker 8: another drop on the Dow Jones of five point five percent,
Speaker 8: the Russell four point three percent. The only index that's
Speaker 8: going up right now is the VIX, which is the
Speaker 8: uncertainty and fear index, and that's up fiftyo point nine
Speaker 8: to three percent. This weekend is a bad.
Speaker 1: Dayo Oh that who celebrate? You think he's just going
Speaker 1: to at some point.
Speaker 8: I think at some point they're going to say to him, sir, sir,
Speaker 8: they came to be in said here, we have to
Speaker 8: pass a bill that says your tariffs are bullshit, and
Speaker 8: Trump will veto it and they'll have to override it,
Speaker 8: and we're going to go into this long, ugly grind
Speaker 8: of I think very great hostility between Trump and his
Speaker 8: own base, or Trump and his own allies in Congress,
Speaker 8: and I'm here for it. He has already done a
Speaker 8: phenomenal job of tainting the rest of of his second term.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is like such a weird moment, right,
Speaker 1: because the question really for Trump's first administration, Democrats were
Speaker 1: able to sort of prevent a lot of the carnage, right,
Speaker 1: and Republicans would behind the scenes be like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a total lunatic. But then they would be able
Speaker 1: to pretend that they agreed with everything, right because they
Speaker 1: didn't want to get death threats. Now we are in
Speaker 1: a moment where it's very likely, I think quite likely
Speaker 1: that there's no one else to sort of tell Trump no,
Speaker 1: and that unless that unless Johnson and Soon do it,
Speaker 1: there's no one else to do it.
Speaker 8: There's no one else to do it. No one in
Speaker 8: this White House is going to sacrifice themself to save
Speaker 8: Trump or to try to convince Trump that he's wrong.
Speaker 8: They just they are not going to do it. These
Speaker 8: are not brave people. Everybody in that in the White
Speaker 8: House understands the rules. If you criticize Trump, even in private,
Speaker 8: even amongst your colleagues, you could be abstinent. You could
Speaker 8: be thrown off the island in a matter of minutes.
Speaker 8: That is a superpower for authoritarians. When you have the
Speaker 8: Saddam problem. You know, never be the first guy in
Speaker 8: the room to stop clapping when he's talking, Never ever
Speaker 8: ever disagree with whatever his theory of whatever the case
Speaker 8: of the day is. You can't. It's a really scary universe.
Speaker 1: So you think it's just going to have to bad
Speaker 1: not for our publicans to say something before.
Speaker 8: Yeah, but by the time we get there later in
Speaker 8: this week, we will have basically killed off the greatest
Speaker 8: economic boom in modern history. Everything that was going on,
Speaker 8: for all the critiques of Joe Biden in the post
Speaker 8: COVID era, the things he did to stabilize the financial markets,
Speaker 8: which made it possible for American jobs and investment to
Speaker 8: come back after COVID have all, it's all been squandered.
Speaker 8: It's all been destroyed, it's all been blown out, and
Speaker 8: there's nothing. There's nothing ahead right now for American consumers
Speaker 8: and for American voters and for American workers. But pain
Speaker 8: and chaos and fear and confusion, and this idea that, oh, well,
Speaker 8: the era of cheap stuff is over and we're just
Speaker 8: going to instantly make it all here in America. That's
Speaker 8: a theory that it's what I call the toilet brush theory.
Speaker 8: You know, you can go to Walmart right now by
Speaker 8: a toilet brush for ninety five cents. Okay, and maybe
Speaker 8: we need an American toilet brush industry, but right now
Speaker 8: in America, we don't have factories to make toilet brushes
Speaker 8: and it's going to take five years to build them.
Speaker 8: This is not a pretty picture for consumers in this country.
Speaker 8: And the Trump folks just don't They understand it, but
Speaker 8: they just don't care.
Speaker 1: Thanks, Rick Wilson, anytime, talk to you soon. Kat Abu
Speaker 1: Gazala is a candidate for Congress in Illinois's ninth district.
Speaker 1: Welcome too fast politics.
Speaker 7: Kat Thanks for having me, Mollie.
Speaker 1: So you're doing it. You are doing something that I
Speaker 1: think we're going to see a lot of people do
Speaker 1: over the next couple years or months because of fucking
Speaker 1: chaos that the politicians who are ruining our country are doing.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about it. You're running for Congress.
Speaker 6: I am running for Congress here in Illinois ninth District.
Speaker 1: I know why, but tell our listeners why.
Speaker 6: I got sick of waiting around for Democrats to do something.
Speaker 6: You at the inauguration, there were so many people sitting
Speaker 6: behind him looking, you know, very somber or whatever, but
Speaker 6: it's like this is this man is a fascist. You
Speaker 6: have to do more than just be upset and write letters,
Speaker 6: especially when you have power. And like, when we stand up,
Speaker 6: no one's there for us. We don't get the fancy lawyers,
Speaker 6: we don't get the photo ops, we don't get police
Speaker 6: scared to touch us. But like you guys, you guys
Speaker 6: have that, and you're still not standing up. You're not
Speaker 6: even like with the cr You're just rolling over on votes,
Speaker 6: parliamentary procedure. This was supposed to be the thing you
Speaker 6: guys like to do. So I got sick of waiting
Speaker 6: around for someone else to do some things. I'm trying
Speaker 6: to run a campaign and be a type of person
Speaker 6: that I would like to see in our government.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk about this because there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people in Congress right now who are in Congress
Speaker 1: because they can't get a better job.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and the rest of us, we don't do our jobs,
Speaker 6: we get fired. Why don't they bullshit?
Speaker 1: So tell me, are you primarying someone? What is your district? Like,
Speaker 1: what is the race?
Speaker 6: So I'm running in Illinois ninth district, which is northern Chicago,
Speaker 6: the northern suburbs. Illinois lost a seat in redistricting in
Speaker 6: twenty twenty two, so it's jerrymandered to go out west,
Speaker 6: which was not that way beforehand. It's currently represented by Janshikowski,
Speaker 6: who has been in this position since nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 6: There has not been a competitive primary since that was
Speaker 6: before I was born. This district has been represented by
Speaker 6: two people since nineteen sixty five. Janshikowski is historically one
Speaker 6: of the most progressive members of Congress. Like I keep
Speaker 6: telling people, I'm like, this is not some referendum on her. Yes,
Speaker 6: she's eighty, but she's done a lot of great work.
Speaker 6: You know, she stood against the Iraq War when it happened. Yeah,
Speaker 6: but obviously what the Democratic Party is doing isn't working,
Speaker 6: and so I am trying something different, and I think
Speaker 6: that voters deserve another option. I talked to a lot
Speaker 6: of shit last year about how Democrats are terrified a criticism,
Speaker 6: terrified of primaries, terrified of like giving people choice, which
Speaker 6: I think is essential to democracy.
Speaker 7: So I'm just trying to lifk by them about.
Speaker 1: I think that's a good point. It's not that we're
Speaker 1: not incredibly grateful to these women and men who are octagenarians.
Speaker 1: We are so grateful. I think about Dick Durbin, who
Speaker 1: is eighty years old and thinking about whether or not
Speaker 1: he's from Illinois. He wants to run for another six
Speaker 1: year term, which would get him to eighty eight when
Speaker 1: he finished his term. The question is not if we
Speaker 1: don't love these people, respect them, and are so grateful
Speaker 1: for their service. The question is, if you're eighty years old,
Speaker 1: should you be running for reelection. I mean, there are
Speaker 1: certainly people like Nancy Pelosi, who at eighty four continues
Speaker 1: to be a firecracker, But there are people in their eighties.
Speaker 1: And I do think that we look at this election
Speaker 1: cycle and there's a reason that Democrats. Democrats lost, and
Speaker 1: it was Joe Biden's age.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean you have, like you said, you have
Speaker 6: Nancy Pelosi who is very with it and is still
Speaker 6: trying to run things her way. I think when people
Speaker 6: here eighty years old, they automatically jumped to like this
Speaker 6: idea of like mental faculties or some of the concerns
Speaker 6: we had with Joe Biden. But I think that the
Speaker 6: main issue I have because it's a different person to person.
Speaker 6: There's just like no human experience is the same. My
Speaker 6: big concern though, is that a lot of people in Congress,
Speaker 6: not just eighty year olds. The average age of Congress
Speaker 6: is fifty eight. The average American is thirty eight. There
Speaker 6: are just experiences that most of our lawmakers have never experienced.
Speaker 6: For example, they didn grew up with mass shooter drills.
Speaker 6: They've owned a home for a long time. You know,
Speaker 6: I don't have health insurance right now. Most if not all,
Speaker 6: of our Congress does not worry about at of pocket
Speaker 6: costs when they go to the hospital. Half of Congress
Speaker 6: are millionaires. This isn't to say like it's their fault
Speaker 6: that they don't.
Speaker 11: Know what it's like to grow up with school shooter drills,
Speaker 11: but it is a very real and like significant experience
Speaker 11: for a huge portion of current voters that just isn't represented,
Speaker 11: and how we make our legislation in our priorities.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a good point, and I would
Speaker 1: say at this moment, Democrats need to focus on winning.
Speaker 1: You know, Trump is an authoritarian. He has this authoritarian
Speaker 1: vision for the country. Republicans are bought in on this
Speaker 1: authoritarian vision for the country. One of the things we
Speaker 1: saw in the Biden administration was that people like Merit
Speaker 1: Garland and Joe Biden, I think there was a lack
Speaker 1: of imagination there. I don't think they realized that a
Speaker 1: person could run for president and blow through all those guardrails. Now,
Speaker 1: this may be the sort of shot that America has
Speaker 1: this next election and the election after it to beat
Speaker 1: back authoritarianism, right, to put in place the kind of
Speaker 1: guardrails legislatively that need to happen in order for us
Speaker 1: to have a really working democracy that represents to everyone
Speaker 1: and that cannot be hijacked by one person. In that case,
Speaker 1: we need people with fresh ideas who are willing to
Speaker 1: not stand on ceremony. So talk to me about how
Speaker 1: you would do that.
Speaker 6: Yes, So I think there are like two big things
Speaker 6: that I feel I am positioned for. I keep getting
Speaker 6: called influencer, and like, I've never chosen that label. It's fine,
Speaker 6: but I mean, you know, my background is like original
Speaker 6: reporting and analysis.
Speaker 1: But it is a good point though, that one of
Speaker 1: the other reasons Joe Biden lost was because he could
Speaker 1: not transmit what he did in office. The Democrats have
Speaker 1: a real communication problem when the guy who wants to
Speaker 1: cut taxes for billionaires is the populist candidate.
Speaker 6: Right Like last year, I mean, I among many many
Speaker 6: others were like, please listen to us, like we need
Speaker 6: like it's not even progressive, it's just common sense if
Speaker 6: we deserve to be able to live without everything sapping
Speaker 6: our money and our souls dry. My campaign has one
Speaker 6: issue on our issues page that says it's just called
Speaker 6: basic existence, and it's the idea that you should be able
Speaker 6: to afford housing, healthcare, and groceries with money left over.
Speaker 6: That's just like a very basic idea. But I've already
Speaker 6: had people tell me this is unrealistic. I think you're
Speaker 6: right about just kind of this neutered approach Democrats have
Speaker 6: been taking. We need some FDR type governance here. I
Speaker 6: mean this was a man that said, I don't care
Speaker 6: what these company that like. Honestly, the Great Depression, it
Speaker 6: almost seems like gazillionaires are trying to pressure me in
Speaker 6: I'm giving people social security, We are making this happen,
Speaker 6: we are giving people jobs. And instead we had Democrats
Speaker 6: who let voting rights legislation go by the wayside because
Speaker 6: well it wasn't bipartisan enough. We couldn't get we couldn't
Speaker 6: get jo a mansion pressured enough. And it's like, are
Speaker 6: you kidding me? We need some clause, especially when it's
Speaker 6: fighting authoritarianism, this sitting back and letting as many I mean,
Speaker 6: you know my background, but for people who don't, my
Speaker 6: background is I have been following the far right for
Speaker 6: my whole career.
Speaker 7: I grew up as a.
Speaker 6: Republican and now I'm just kind of fighting those exact
Speaker 6: narratives that I understand the workings behind many conservative people's
Speaker 6: brains and like how they're viewing the world and the
Speaker 6: way that they're just going about this of like let's
Speaker 6: see how many people will get hurt and then they'll
Speaker 6: be sick of Republicans and then they'll vote for us.
Speaker 6: In twenty twenty six it's not just morally wrong, but
Speaker 6: it's also a shitty electoral strategy. If you just let
Speaker 6: Trump eliminate all guardrails, I don't think there's any guarantee
Speaker 6: for a fair twenty twenty eight election. But if you
Speaker 6: just like hands off approach, what the hell is he
Speaker 6: going to do before the midterms. I mean, he already
Speaker 6: took away a UN ambassador slot because he was like,
Speaker 6: we're in deep shit. This is not going to be pretty,
Speaker 6: and we need people that can handle that instead of
Speaker 6: trying to I think that there's a way, like people
Speaker 6: can debate approaches to certain things, but we all need
Speaker 6: to agree on a very basic level of like human
Speaker 6: rights and human dignity and values. And right now, Democrats
Speaker 6: keep saying we need to move closer to the center,
Speaker 6: but what they really mean is we need to go
Speaker 6: farther to the right, and I think that's bullshit.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I think you can do,
Speaker 1: which is important as commune because you have a platform.
Speaker 1: One of the mistakes I thought we saw was that
Speaker 1: Democrats had an opportunity to elevate AOC as the ranking
Speaker 1: member of oversight, and instead they elevated Jerry Connolly. Now
Speaker 1: AOC has millions of followers, and Jerry Connolly has hundreds
Speaker 1: of followers. Now again, followers are not the metric. But
Speaker 1: if you need to communicate and you're a party with
Speaker 1: the communications problem, wouldn't that be a good way to start.
Speaker 7: One hundred percent?
Speaker 6: Any of the tout of the DNC is like the
Speaker 6: creator's convention, is that the creator election. And I was
Speaker 6: one of those credentialed creators. I was the only Palestinian one.
Speaker 6: And unless you were following a party line, and I
Speaker 6: came to it with a more like reporting type perspective,
Speaker 6: but unless you were following a direct party line, you
Speaker 6: got no access. And the unwillingness to even engage with
Speaker 6: like another point of view is part of the And
Speaker 6: they're such shitty communicators because Democrats, look are democratic leadership
Speaker 6: right now often looks at social media as something like
Speaker 6: you plug in this meme and then you get this outcome,
Speaker 6: and that's not how social media works, just like how
Speaker 6: in a conversation, that's not how existence works. My background
Speaker 6: is literally explaining things, making video explainers. I have an
Speaker 6: hour long explainer of white Christian nationalism that was like
Speaker 6: my favorite video I made last year and go watch
Speaker 6: if you have it. I think that talking to people
Speaker 6: clearly not in a condescending fashion, and just really like
Speaker 6: our campaign is focused on our ground game, but we
Speaker 6: were able to raise four hundred thousand dollars in eight
Speaker 6: days because we connect with people online. My video explaining
Speaker 6: the bullshit between behind like FBC deadlines and when you
Speaker 6: get those texts, they're like, we need your donation before midnight.
Speaker 6: Talking about the behind the scenes aspect of that has
Speaker 6: gotten almost a unanimous positive response because people are just
Speaker 6: desperate for actual communication and transparency and unless Democratic Party
Speaker 6: does that, then they're going to have to deal with
Speaker 6: more people like me trying to primary their candidates.
Speaker 1: But also, don't you think like one of the lessons
Speaker 1: from twenty twenty four is that primaries are actually good.
Speaker 7: Yeah, this shouldn't even been a lesson. This should just
Speaker 7: be like common knowledge.
Speaker 1: If there had been a real primary process, it would
Speaker 1: have helped sharpen the message of whoever would have been
Speaker 1: the nominee. One of the things that happened was on
Speaker 1: election day you saw people googling who was on the ticket?
Speaker 1: Is Joe Biden still on the ticket? So clearly not
Speaker 1: everyone was watching the Democratic National Convention or anyone or anyone.
Speaker 7: I mean, I wasn't.
Speaker 6: I was sitting outside, sleeping on the concrete because they
Speaker 6: discriminated against my ethnicity. They were like, we can't have
Speaker 6: a Palestinian speaker.
Speaker 1: Wait, they didn't let you in.
Speaker 7: No, I was there.
Speaker 6: I was at the sit in for when they wouldn't
Speaker 6: allow a Palestinian speaker. And then I couldn't go out
Speaker 6: and get my credentials because we were at the sit in,
Speaker 6: and so I couldn't go back inside the next day.
Speaker 7: And yeah, anyways, yeah, but I totally agree.
Speaker 6: I mean, I am telling people and like, if you've
Speaker 6: been waiting in line for the incumbent to retire in
Speaker 6: this district, I have no idea if Jan's gonna run
Speaker 6: or if she's going to retire, but if you've been
Speaker 6: waiting in line to run for this position, do it.
Speaker 6: Cut in line. Let's get this primary on. If I
Speaker 6: am truly the best candidate, if what I say resonates
Speaker 6: with voters, if my strategy is the best strategy, then
Speaker 6: I'll win.
Speaker 7: And if not, maybe I don't raise the money.
Speaker 6: Maybe my ideas of like trying this on the ground,
Speaker 6: mutual aid direct action stuff isn't the best idea.
Speaker 7: I mean, I think it's a great idea.
Speaker 6: I think it's also good because win or lose, we
Speaker 6: don't waste your money. But no matter what, you're at
Speaker 6: least giving voters options and everyone has to bring their
Speaker 6: a game. And if you really care about democracy, shouldn't
Speaker 6: you want that?
Speaker 1: No? I now, I mean that, And I think that's
Speaker 1: a real question. Shouldn't we want the best people being
Speaker 1: in their representing party? Right?
Speaker 7: We shouldn't just annoy people, right?
Speaker 1: So let's for a minute game out what your campaign
Speaker 1: looks like. So you raise four hundred thousand dollars, you
Speaker 1: are on the ground talking to people. What is your
Speaker 1: sort of day to day like For people who are
Speaker 1: watching this and thinking maybe they want to run for converbs.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I would love that. Please email us let
Speaker 6: us know if we can help. We're planning on like
Speaker 6: a zoom meeting sometime this month to just kind of
Speaker 6: like we have such a big response from people wanting
Speaker 6: to run for office that we need to start big
Speaker 6: and then see who really wants to follow through with it.
Speaker 6: But yeah, for me, what we're trying is kind of
Speaker 6: completely new. I think that there is so much waste
Speaker 6: behind campaigns, and I've asked why can't we do it
Speaker 6: this way or this play I'm always told, well, this
Speaker 6: is how you do it. That won't work. I ask,
Speaker 6: you know, did people try it? And then I'm told no,
Speaker 6: and so I am trying it. Basically, what we want
Speaker 6: is to invest back in the community directly, and that's
Speaker 6: going to be very relevant right now, especially as trumb
Speaker 6: creates all of these gaps in relief. So this means,
Speaker 6: for example, our kickoff event instead of we want every
Speaker 6: event to be accessible in no matter your income. So
Speaker 6: instead of paying like five hundred dollars for a plate,
Speaker 6: you just had to bring in a box of pads
Speaker 6: or tampons which were donated to Chicago's Period Collective. And
Speaker 6: we counted it all up and we got over fifty
Speaker 6: six hundred tampons and pads which will be donated to
Speaker 6: people who can't afford them. That's the type of stuff
Speaker 6: we want to keep doing. This is food bank support,
Speaker 6: clothing exchanges, school supplies drives, diaper drives, pet adoption events,
Speaker 6: recreational things. I actually got some embroidery kits that I
Speaker 6: commissioned that have like you know, campaign slogans on them
Speaker 6: and stuff, because I started a women's club when I
Speaker 6: moved here in Chicago, and I wanted to bring that
Speaker 6: to the campaign trail. So those are going to be
Speaker 6: free to attend, but just with a similar type of
Speaker 6: donation structure, something easy, sheep, but also it can help
Speaker 6: you know that you're doing good. We want to cut
Speaker 6: checks for local organizations. If you are in this area
Speaker 6: and you need help, let us know we want to
Speaker 6: help you. I just I think that that's a better
Speaker 6: way to use money rather than just a shit ton
Speaker 6: of ads and like a bunch of consultants and a
Speaker 6: bunch of very expensive events. And you know this district,
Speaker 6: especially since it's gone west, we had people drive all
Speaker 6: the way to our Kikoff event to say that they
Speaker 6: hadn't talked to the representative ever. There was never an
Speaker 6: event out there that they had gone to or heard about.
Speaker 6: So like tomorrow, for the big fifty to fifty one
Speaker 6: protests and the hands off type events, we're going to
Speaker 6: one out in Algonquin. We're trying to make this the
Speaker 6: most accessible campaign in history. That means that we're going
Speaker 6: to help a lot of people, and I'm very excited about.
Speaker 1: It you're talking to voters, do voters seem angry to you?
Speaker 1: Because they seem anger in the marri.
Speaker 7: Voters are livid, They're so mad.
Speaker 6: I've never seen ignormies like we are always in politics,
Speaker 6: you and me Mali, like our profession, like we're tuned
Speaker 6: into everything that's happening. I have never seen people that,
Speaker 6: you know, they hear the news, but they actually have
Speaker 6: lives unlike us. This mad about like specific political things
Speaker 6: in my life, even during COVID, I've never seen this.
Speaker 6: I also, I was worried because you know, I'm new
Speaker 6: to the area and I'm also kind of coming out
Speaker 6: of nowhere at especially being framed as like an influencer
Speaker 6: or whatever. I was worried that people not online would
Speaker 6: not know who you are, no, just be very unwilling
Speaker 6: to talk or immediately discount me. But that hasn't been
Speaker 6: the case at all, even if they haven't heard about
Speaker 6: the campaign. If I say I'm running for Congress, I
Speaker 6: hate what Democrats are doing, and then I ask, you know,
Speaker 6: what do you wish they were doing? The response has
Speaker 6: been unanimously positive, like very excited. You may be skeptical,
Speaker 6: which I think is great. I think you should be
Speaker 6: skeptical of anyone asking for power. You should even if
Speaker 6: you like me, you should want to hold me accountable.
Speaker 6: But like the in real life voters I met, I
Speaker 6: was just the federal workers rally over by the VA
Speaker 6: at the Level Healthcare Center, and just a lot of
Speaker 6: very angry but determined people that we're just excited to
Speaker 6: even think about the possibility of other people tried to
Speaker 6: come in and push for something better.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Kat, thanks for having me. Molly, No no,
Speaker 1: Rick Wilson.
Speaker 8: Hey, Molly, I've got a moment of fucker here. That
Speaker 8: is one of those moments of fuckery that's actually a
Speaker 8: serious and horrible kind of thing. A few days ago,
Speaker 8: four American Army soldiers lost their lives in an accident
Speaker 8: in Lithuania. They were there serving with our NATO allies
Speaker 8: and they were killed. Now, when American soldiers are killed abroad,
Speaker 8: they are treated with enormous dignity and respect. They are
Speaker 8: flown back on special Air Force aircraft to Andrews Air
Speaker 8: Force Pace. I have been to one of these in
Speaker 8: the past, a couple of them actually, and it is
Speaker 8: a very very wrenching moment when these families see their
Speaker 8: kids come off the plane and know that they're not
Speaker 8: going to have a father or a brother or a
Speaker 8: son ever again. And presidents go to the airport. That'll
Speaker 8: make a big deal out of it. Obama did it,
Speaker 8: Bush did it, Bregan did it, Carter did it. Clinton
Speaker 8: did it. They go to Andrews quietly, small package nighttime,
Speaker 8: and they greet those families. They commiserate with those families
Speaker 8: for a few minutes, and they tell them about the
Speaker 8: love their country had for their sons or daughters. And
Speaker 8: this weekend, Donald Try, who one time criticized Joe Biden
Speaker 8: for allegedly looking at his watch during one of these ceremonies,
Speaker 8: is golfing with a bunch of fucking Saudi Arabian murderers
Speaker 8: down in Jupiter. He's golfing. He's been golfing all weekend.
Speaker 8: This is not one of my funny ones. I'm sorry
Speaker 8: to say. This is not one of my hilarious ones.
Speaker 8: This is a real sign of the contempt that this
Speaker 8: motherfucker has for our troops, and it makes me sick.
Speaker 1: Rick Wilson, thank you for joining us anytime.
Speaker 8: Talk you later, by ye.
Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in
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