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 Republicans have turned against the dumbest
Speaker 1: member of the Senate, Tommy Tuberville on his military personnel holes.
Speaker 1: We have a fascinating show for you today. Axios Is
Speaker 1: Alex Thompson joins us to talk mega Mike Johnson Speakership's
Speaker 1: rough launch. Then we'll talk to Skyler van Volkenberg, who
Speaker 1: is a candidate for the critical Virginia State Senate's sixteenth district.
Speaker 1: But first we have former Senator and close personal friend
Speaker 1: of mine, host of the Al Franken podcast, the one
Speaker 1: the Only Al Franken. Welcome back to Fast Politics, Al Franken. Mollie, Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm so happy to have you today. Let's start by
Speaker 1: talking about this incredibly strange moment in American politics. It
Speaker 1: feels like we're about to see Mitch mcconnall v maga
Speaker 1: Mike Johnson.
Speaker 2: Right, did you ever think you.
Speaker 1: Would see a world like this?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: Why didn't envision a world with Mike Johnson?
Speaker 2: And neither did he?
Speaker 3: No, that's true, but you're talking about on say Ukraine well.
Speaker 1: I think first on Israel, maybe because this is unprecedented
Speaker 1: emergency Israel aid. He says, Okay, we'll do it, but
Speaker 1: we want paid furs. But our paid fors are going
Speaker 1: to be things that actually grow the deficit.
Speaker 2: We're going to cut the IRS.
Speaker 1: We're not going to have a CBO score it.
Speaker 3: This has been the pet peeve of mine. Biden and
Speaker 3: the Democrats voted for a lot of funding for the
Speaker 3: IRS because the IRS has been defunded for years and
Speaker 3: years by Repubblicans to protect their you know, rich people,
Speaker 3: because they're not enough auditors right right, and skill orders
Speaker 3: and high level orderers, and the CBO, the Grecial Budget
Speaker 3: Office has scored this new funding for auditors as increasing
Speaker 3: our treasury more than pays for itself, more than pays
Speaker 3: you know, hundreds of billions of dollars and increased revenue
Speaker 3: of tax money that is owed by people that don't
Speaker 3: pay it. And of course it's their people, it's Republicans people, right.
Speaker 1: Nothing says maga like not paying your taxes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well maga And also just maybe people aren't even
Speaker 3: maga in the sense of they don't buy a lot
Speaker 3: of Trump, but they buy a lot of other stuff
Speaker 3: with all this money they don't pay to the IRS.
Speaker 3: And this is something this has been a Republican project
Speaker 3: for a long long time to defund the IRS, and
Speaker 3: finally Democratic Congress the president voted to do it. And
Speaker 3: literally what they want to do is cut this funding,
Speaker 3: which will increase the depthsit. I don't know how the
Speaker 3: works out in terms of just to keep the government open,
Speaker 3: right right. Bush has got to come to shove, and
Speaker 3: I'm not sure how this will work.
Speaker 1: So the foreign aid stuff, though, it is interesting. It
Speaker 1: strikes me that Republicans are very divided on Ukraine aid.
Speaker 2: Do you think that's true?
Speaker 1: And do you think that this is sort of a
Speaker 1: proxy war for Maga versus more traditional Republicans.
Speaker 3: Yeah, certainly on the Ukraine issue. And I don't understand
Speaker 3: it either. You can't be pro putin in this, can you.
Speaker 2: I mean Trump is but.
Speaker 3: Well, Trump of course has said that when he's elected
Speaker 3: he'll end this in a day.
Speaker 1: Why does he give himself so much time?
Speaker 3: If you're saying I'm going to resolve this in a day,
Speaker 3: it sounds like you're handing it to putin.
Speaker 2: It certainly does.
Speaker 1: And also the fact that he loves Putin and thinks
Speaker 1: Putin is great.
Speaker 2: That also makes me think.
Speaker 3: That he tends to like dictators and just likes anybody
Speaker 3: who likes him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, nothing wrong with having low self esteem. But over
Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks, Trump has been on the
Speaker 1: stump and he's shown some real cognitive decline. But he's
Speaker 1: mused about shooting people who commit robberies, that you should
Speaker 1: have a right to shoot someone who robs your store
Speaker 1: on the way out, executing General Milly. Does it seem
Speaker 1: like he's getting worse to.
Speaker 3: You or executing General Milly. That's a bad one. Well
Speaker 3: was that for? What was Millie's crime on that going
Speaker 3: against him? Yes? It was after the election when Trump lost,
Speaker 3: Milly called his Chinese counterparge right yeah, and said, look,
Speaker 3: I'll give you a heads up in the case, my guy.
Speaker 3: When Trump lost, I put out a tweet saying, now
Speaker 3: is not the time to take the nuclear code away
Speaker 3: from Trump. Now is the time to give him the
Speaker 3: wrong code. And I think Milly was thinking along the
Speaker 3: same lines. And so, according to a couple of books,
Speaker 3: BELOWSI was. He called Millie and said, I'm worried that
Speaker 3: he's going to start a war and so Milly I
Speaker 3: think called yes and one of those I think the
Speaker 3: Woodward Book or something he called his Chinese counterpoints. I'm
Speaker 3: just giving stuff that I'm on this so that we
Speaker 3: don't have we're not really going to war with you,
Speaker 3: or in case we are, I'll tell you and do
Speaker 3: everything I can. I guess, and that's why he said
Speaker 3: Millie should be executed.
Speaker 2: Is he getting worse?
Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean what's interesting is to see
Speaker 3: this guy just go out there and riff, which is
Speaker 3: very akin to stand up comedy. I mean, he just
Speaker 3: goes out there and can talk forever. And that's the talent.
Speaker 3: I mean, he had a talent. That's part of the
Speaker 3: talent that got I'm elected in the first place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is, but it's also pretty intense.
Speaker 3: I haven't tracked the cognitive decline in terms of I
Speaker 3: know there have been a few things he said that
Speaker 3: people have remarked on that. Do you recall which ones
Speaker 3: they are?
Speaker 1: My favorite was that he conflated w with Jeb and
Speaker 1: said that he was running against the guy who started
Speaker 1: the Iraq War.
Speaker 3: He isn't running against either anybody.
Speaker 1: In twenty fifteen. He was running against the guy who
Speaker 1: started the Iraq War, right, Okay, on the stump, which
Speaker 1: was a sort.
Speaker 3: Of that sounds more cognitive than a slip, I mean.
Speaker 1: Right, But I mean Republicans are allowed to have crazy
Speaker 1: cognitive moments and it's treated like a speed bump. Case
Speaker 1: in point, Mitch.
Speaker 3: McConnell, that was a physical freeze, right, I mean.
Speaker 1: Right, if that had happened to Joe Biden.
Speaker 3: It'll be all over, haven'taid it's been He's all right
Speaker 3: now here. That's my McConnell.
Speaker 2: That's it's a good one.
Speaker 1: And look, it does seem to me. And we were
Speaker 1: talking about this a second ago. There's this war between
Speaker 1: the McConnell Republicans who again steal Supreme Court seats but
Speaker 1: don't want to completely destroy the federal government, versus the
Speaker 1: JD Vance Republicans who do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, McConnell just wanted you know, obviously I was there
Speaker 3: when he wouldn't take up Garland. He's the reason we
Speaker 3: have the court that we have. His mission is really
Speaker 3: for rich Republicans, right, that's what he's for. But he
Speaker 3: wants to saint I think he wants some sanity in
Speaker 3: the government.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do with that what you willed.
Speaker 3: But it's corrupt. I mean it's a corrupt venture. And
Speaker 3: also I mean so as a result of Mitch McConnell,
Speaker 3: where because that court, the EPA won't be able to
Speaker 3: control CO two and that works for his fossil fuel people,
Speaker 3: And then that's part of Mitch McConnell's evil side.
Speaker 1: We're in this Supreme Court fight right now, and part
Speaker 1: of it is that I think Biden is anxious about
Speaker 1: the idea of fundamentally the court, but we are seeing
Speaker 1: the Court fundamentally change the country. There is a lot
Speaker 1: of support though for term limits. We see Sheldon white
Speaker 1: House pursuing this. Do you think there's an appetite for
Speaker 1: this and do you or do you think this just
Speaker 1: gets kicked down the.
Speaker 3: Camp Well, it's been talked about doing eighteen year term
Speaker 3: limits and having each president have two choices. The thing is,
Speaker 3: I don't know when that happens. Who can make that happen.
Speaker 3: That happens if I think one party controls both houses
Speaker 3: and the presidency at the same time, and at that
Speaker 3: time they're going to be the one who want to
Speaker 3: be able to appoint a Supreme Court justice for a
Speaker 3: life term. I don't see that eighteen year thing happening,
Speaker 3: and when it happens, because whoever does it will be
Speaker 3: the first to ever do it, right, I mean, right
Speaker 3: now there are the lifetime appointments, so it would have
Speaker 3: to be aligned where I've thought this through a little
Speaker 3: bit about because obviously we have a problem of the
Speaker 3: Supreme Court and with these lifetime appointments, but I don't
Speaker 3: see the reality of it happen fortunately.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I mean it is. That's right.
Speaker 1: You know, if you have the power to change the court,
Speaker 1: why wouldn't you just change it for your side versus
Speaker 1: make it more fair? Though I do feel like democrats
Speaker 1: I would want them to change it for their side.
Speaker 3: Let's say mine wins and we have the Senate. Right
Speaker 3: at that point, we'll say, okay, now, finally the net
Speaker 3: Supreme Court justice will only have eighteen years. And I
Speaker 3: get to a point that person just the reality of
Speaker 3: of of politics makes me think that's highly unlikely.
Speaker 1: I think that's right. It's a fascinating I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's a fascinating conundrum, but it's a conundrum.
Speaker 3: What Sheldon is trying to do is some kind of
Speaker 3: ethics reform, which I think which I think is and
Speaker 3: that might actually come to something if Clarence Thomas was
Speaker 3: actually required to submit where he got his money, and
Speaker 3: that he withheld information deliberately and was being given things
Speaker 3: by people who had business for the court, that might
Speaker 3: hasten a retirement or something like that.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because they do see these trustices are irritated.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure they want it enough to do it,
Speaker 1: but even these conservative justices are somewhat irritated that their
Speaker 1: polling is so bad and that people are so horrified
Speaker 1: by some of their ethics gaffes.
Speaker 3: Are they I don't think Alito is that cares about
Speaker 3: his polling.
Speaker 2: Right, Alito doesn't care.
Speaker 1: But the younger justices, I think they don't like not
Speaker 1: being popular.
Speaker 3: I guess so, But then they should probably speak up
Speaker 3: to do something about it, and they don't seem to be.
Speaker 3: And Robert certainly isn't. And he is the one who
Speaker 3: is A judicial conference that has something to say about this,
Speaker 3: which is the digital Conference is made up of I
Speaker 3: leave the Chief Justice and then the chiefs of all
Speaker 3: the different circuits and chiefs of the different district courts.
Speaker 3: They can enforce some rules here that would require some
Speaker 3: embarrassing things to come out, and I think maybe some enforcement.
Speaker 3: This is exactly what Roberts refused to testify before the
Speaker 3: Judiciary Committee.
Speaker 1: Yeah, looking forward, it seems like a real possibility that
Speaker 1: Democrats could theoretically at least take back the House.
Speaker 3: We got a year left, so a lot can happen
Speaker 3: in a year, including the whole world economy going down
Speaker 3: if there's another huge war in a regional war in
Speaker 3: Mid Eastern.
Speaker 1: But the economic news so far has been actually really
Speaker 1: positive so far.
Speaker 3: But I mean, if you have another oil crisis because
Speaker 3: of a regional conflictation there, you know that is going
Speaker 3: to change that pretty fast. We're a tense situation right now,
Speaker 3: or a tragic situation.
Speaker 1: I'm going to pull back here for a second. For
Speaker 1: less dependent on oil than we were in the Gulf
Speaker 1: War period.
Speaker 3: We've had a crisis because of the war in Ukraine,
Speaker 3: and I think that if we see something happen in
Speaker 3: a regional war in the Mid East, I think we're
Speaker 3: going to see prices go way up.
Speaker 2: Again, right, and that could hurt.
Speaker 1: But so far, again, like this GDP number last Friday
Speaker 1: was incredible, and the Fed has sort of been able
Speaker 1: to thread the needle on interest rates in a sort
Speaker 1: of amazing way. Now, that doesn't mean that people are
Speaker 1: happy with the economy. In fact, the cognitive dissonance there
Speaker 1: is kind of striking.
Speaker 3: It takes a long time to forget inflation the rate
Speaker 3: we had it, and Americans aren't necessarily good at following
Speaker 3: the good news, certainly late. And there has been a
Speaker 3: lot of good news in terms of job growth. And
Speaker 3: look at the successes that the the auto workers are
Speaker 3: having and the other labor stuff, and Americans are now
Speaker 3: more pro labor than they've been in a long time,
Speaker 3: and they're all kind of good economic indicators. Now, I
Speaker 3: just again am worried about this, this what's going on
Speaker 3: in the Mideast.
Speaker 1: Oh, Franken, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2: I hope you'll come back.
Speaker 3: Yes, I will be coming back, and I hope I must.
Speaker 3: When I come back, I have more jovial stuff to
Speaker 3: talk about.
Speaker 1: We can just talk about. Alex Thompson is a reporter
Speaker 1: an apsios. Welcome too fast politics.
Speaker 4: Alex, thanks so much for having me delighted so you
Speaker 4: were here with us to talk about and I know
Speaker 4: you're not partisan, so we won't try to get you
Speaker 4: to say partisan things because we're classy like that over here.
Speaker 4: But the House of Representatives is this disarray.
Speaker 3: Oh, objectively it's worse than disarray.
Speaker 5: Like I have no qualms saying that it is objectively true.
Speaker 5: I think even if you put every Republican on truth
Speaker 5: serum in the House, they would feel a tremendous amount
Speaker 5: of embarrassment over what just transpired where you had no
Speaker 5: Speaker of the House. So basically like no you know,
Speaker 5: speak of the House, third in line for the presidency.
Speaker 5: There was no Speaker of the House for quite a while,
Speaker 5: and you had several votes in which they just couldn't
Speaker 5: decide until they finally found the guy that was, I guess,
Speaker 5: the least objectionable to everybody, in part because he is
Speaker 5: the least experienced Speaker of the House in over one
Speaker 5: hundred years in terms of how long he has been
Speaker 5: in the House. He's never let a committee, he doesn't
Speaker 5: do much, you know, outside fundraising. But you know, he's
Speaker 5: a much nicer, less version of Jim jordan Is, who
Speaker 5: is the new speaker.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's talk about that for a second. Because
Speaker 1: the thing I was struck by, and that's full disclosure,
Speaker 1: I have been writing about this endlessly. So this is
Speaker 1: one of the things where I really feel read. And
Speaker 1: the thing I was the most struck by was it
Speaker 1: was almost like there was a realization somewhere that the
Speaker 1: reason why Jim Jordan could not make it to speaker
Speaker 1: was because too many people hated him.
Speaker 2: And he had made too many people mad.
Speaker 1: Right, he had refused to vote for bills that people
Speaker 1: had believed it, you know, he had sort of stepped
Speaker 1: on people's toes in a way you're not supposed to do,
Speaker 1: and a way Steve SCUOLIAFS had not. And so then
Speaker 1: there was like this quick calculus that was like, let's
Speaker 1: find someone who no one knows.
Speaker 5: Yes, And to Mike Johnson's credit, you don't become speaker
Speaker 5: by accent. I think he had played his cards very
Speaker 5: intelligently in which he had basically you made a lot
Speaker 5: of the Freedom Caucus feel like he was one of them,
Speaker 5: you know, agreed with a lot of them, didn't castigate
Speaker 5: them like love the other colleagues said. But he wasn't
Speaker 5: part of them either. And I think it's actually more
Speaker 5: interesting that Jim Jordan got so close to being Speaker
Speaker 5: than the fact that he didn't get there. Like if
Speaker 5: you told anyone five years ago that he was going
Speaker 5: to be very close to being speaker, they would have
Speaker 5: been astonished, disbelief.
Speaker 1: But aren't you surprised?
Speaker 2: There was this moment? Again, I'm like working through my
Speaker 2: PTSD on this, I think as we all are.
Speaker 1: Because it happened so quickly, and it happened. And again
Speaker 1: I'm not making light of PTSD. I'm trying to explain
Speaker 1: that it was actually quite major. But there was a
Speaker 1: moment here where we saw Scalice get more votes and
Speaker 1: then Republicans went after him in this really craven way,
Speaker 1: and you saw Marjorie Taylor Green and Donald Trump bo
Speaker 1: say he can't be speaker because he has cancer.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean it's the latest example that, especially on the right,
Speaker 5: there is nothing that is off limits.
Speaker 2: Were you surprised by that?
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't like Scalice's politics, but the man's
Speaker 1: been shot, he had blood cancer. I mean, like, if
Speaker 1: you're going to be sympathetic towards.
Speaker 6: Anyone, I have to say I wasn't surprised at all.
Speaker 5: The fact is that in this political environment they're especially
Speaker 5: on the right, there are no limits.
Speaker 3: And I wasn't surprised at all.
Speaker 5: And I think where they came down was Sclee didn't
Speaker 5: have enough people in the right, Jordan didn't have enough
Speaker 5: people in the middle, and so you got Mike Johnson,
Speaker 5: who is not like anyone's first choice, but I guess
Speaker 5: was enough people's fourth choice.
Speaker 1: In some ways, they're the warshack quality to him, the
Speaker 1: way in which because he is unknown he can be anything.
Speaker 6: Helps him get speaker.
Speaker 5: But I also think it's been hurting him these first
Speaker 5: two weeks because you've seen I mean, this is a
Speaker 5: guy that has been writing right wing columns for decades
Speaker 5: and has a podcast with his wife about Bible study,
Speaker 5: and Democrats have been able to seize upon all these things.
Speaker 5: I mean, he is a blank canvas, but he doesn't
Speaker 5: have the infrastructure around him, and it's been really interesting.
Speaker 5: I feel like he the coverage he's been getting because
Speaker 5: he's a blank canvas is like almost like he's a
Speaker 5: presidential candidate because he's so unknown on the national stage.
Speaker 5: I mean, even this, you know, one of the most
Speaker 5: interesting stories was in The Times the other day by
Speaker 5: Adam mcgurney, which is about Mike Johnson's adopted black son,
Speaker 5: who we don't know who he is. He has asked
Speaker 5: to remain private. His name is Michael, so also Mike,
Speaker 5: but he lives in California and doesn't want to be
Speaker 5: part of the public spotlight.
Speaker 6: So we actually don't even know his name.
Speaker 5: But the Speaker invokes him a lot when he's talking
Speaker 5: about racism and he's talking about America.
Speaker 3: So I don't know.
Speaker 5: It's just sort of this odd thing where you have
Speaker 5: this adopted black son who you talk about all the time,
Speaker 5: but we actually don't have a picture of him or
Speaker 5: don't know who he is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like there are so many weird parts
Speaker 1: this story, and I'm struck by how incredibly strange the
Speaker 1: speakership battle is. I mean, normal speakership battles are like
Speaker 1: people in leadership quietly jockeying, and this has just been
Speaker 1: so out there. So I think of the speakership as
Speaker 1: a sort of two part job fundraising and whipping votes.
Speaker 1: I mean, am I missing something? And also doesn't he
Speaker 1: seem uniquely unqualified for both.
Speaker 5: He is certainly has little experience in either of those things,
Speaker 5: and it is striking. I was actually said this breakfast
Speaker 5: with Nancy Pelosi, and her comment was the Republicans in
Speaker 5: the House wanted Donald Trump as speaker and they got him.
Speaker 5: And it was a good line too, because I think
Speaker 5: he really is just a proxy for the ideological battle
Speaker 5: and the party. He was not elected speaker to whip votes.
Speaker 5: I don't think anyone expects him to really be that.
Speaker 5: He is there as sort of a compromise speaker between
Speaker 5: these ideological factions.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think some of the interesting things.
Speaker 5: You know, Cenn has done a lot of reporting about
Speaker 5: his early columns and his anti gay therapy and anti
Speaker 5: LGBTQ politics going back decades, and the thing that was
Speaker 5: interesting about it to me was, you know a lot
Speaker 5: of those things were pretty mainstream Republican and in the
Speaker 5: early two thousands or early w Bush, like the born
Speaker 5: again right really rising and very anti gay marriage, anti
Speaker 5: LGBTQ rights, and I thought it was interesting that, you know,
Speaker 5: he is sort of the combining of those two wings
Speaker 5: of the Trump wing and that wing, which is what
Speaker 5: I think. Some people have even brought up the Christian
Speaker 5: nationalism part of him, and that's who he is. And
Speaker 5: he's going to get help on whipping and fundraising from
Speaker 5: other parts.
Speaker 6: I mean, he has to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he certainly does.
Speaker 1: When you think about Nancy Pelosi, who was probably like
Speaker 1: a kind of genius vote whipper. One of the things
Speaker 1: she did, which I think, you know, she sort of
Speaker 1: knew everybody in their district. And one of the things
Speaker 1: that like seems very absent in this House is that
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi would never make and she would always sort
Speaker 1: of brag about this, and you know, she made sure
Speaker 1: that no one in a swing district had to vote
Speaker 1: for something crazy. She was always sort of talking about
Speaker 1: how she'd let people take you know, she knew where
Speaker 1: the votes were and where they weren't, and she would
Speaker 1: let people who where the vote might hurt them not
Speaker 1: vote for it, right.
Speaker 2: I mean, that was sort of what she was known for.
Speaker 2: And so I wonder with.
Speaker 1: This speakership vote, I mean, just voting for Johnson, doesn't
Speaker 1: that hurt these swing state Republicans. He's eighteen and Biden Republicans.
Speaker 3: I'm forgetting which one. But when he voted for Mike.
Speaker 5: Johnson, some of the Democrats literally laughed at him and
Speaker 5: basically were saying, you're going to lose your district now
Speaker 5: because given all the positions that this guy has on
Speaker 5: abortion rights, on everything else, just by voting for him,
Speaker 5: for Speaker was a unpopular vote in his district, almost
Speaker 5: certainly in a lot of these Biden districts, and we
Speaker 5: don't even know some of the other votes to your point,
Speaker 5: because he does not And this is not to actually
Speaker 5: like say that he couldn't get there, but the fact
Speaker 5: is that Nancy Pelosi, through just like sheer grit termination
Speaker 5: and like lots of hard work over decades, knew all
Speaker 5: of those details about all those districts and the members,
Speaker 5: and Mike Johnson just has not been in Congress long
Speaker 5: enough to have done any of that sort of work.
Speaker 5: So I think your point is really smart, which is
Speaker 5: there's going to be some pretty significant growing pains I
Speaker 5: imagine about what he allows his votes, and you know,
Speaker 5: you're going to have freedom of Coccus pulling him one
Speaker 5: way and Trump pulling him one way too. You're going
Speaker 5: to see Trump continue to push them to vote on this, vote,
Speaker 5: on this, impeach Biden, all these things. That one of
Speaker 5: the reasons Kevi McCarthy is no longer Speakers because he
Speaker 5: compromised with Democrats sometimes and decided it was not worth
Speaker 5: the blowback of shutting down the government, and so he
Speaker 5: got Democratic votes and essentially this is a coup from
Speaker 5: the right wing of the party, which overthrew one speaker
Speaker 5: and installed a more conservative one that's more Trump blned.
Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy was like trying to cause play Trump is right.
Speaker 1: Maybe he wasn't completely a Trumpist, but he was trying
Speaker 1: to sort of like make the best kind of facsimile
Speaker 1: of the case because he knew that's where his party
Speaker 1: is now. The cr to cut thirty percent, that's a
Speaker 1: big cut and it couldn't ever have passed the Senate,
Speaker 1: and then also the impeachment hearing. I mean, do you
Speaker 1: wonder if Kevin McCarthy, cause playing Matt is actually more
Speaker 1: conservative than a Maga Cause playing Kevin McCarthy.
Speaker 5: I sort of wonder if Mike Johnson is going to
Speaker 5: be costplaying Kevin McCarthy. Mike Johnson, from all the reporting
Speaker 5: of done like, he's a true believer, and I think
Speaker 5: he knows that he was not elected a speaker to
Speaker 5: cosplay Kevin McCarthy. He's there because of the dissass section
Speaker 5: with Kevi McCarthy. So I mean, I guess, like I agree,
Speaker 5: it'll be interesting to see what he does if he
Speaker 5: sort of pivots the center because he has more goodwill
Speaker 5: with the right and feels more free to move to
Speaker 5: the center, which I think is sort of what you're
Speaker 5: saying is that you know, he has that credit built
Speaker 5: in credibility and so maybe.
Speaker 3: He actually won't be as conservative.
Speaker 5: But the first interview you do is speaker is Sean Hannity,
Speaker 5: and you say, you say that Biden is obviously mentally
Speaker 5: declining and there's obvious cause for impeachment, at least to
Speaker 5: me at first. You know, maybe he's moving to the
Speaker 5: center on Israel, Ukraine. Yeah, I don't see a pivot
Speaker 5: to the middle so far.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's certainly true.
Speaker 2: Though if they were strategically smarter, they would do that.
Speaker 5: You can make a very good argument Kevin McCarthy did
Speaker 5: the politically smart thing and avoiding a shutdown at the
Speaker 5: last second because the party was going to get blamed
Speaker 5: for it. And the thing is, can Mike Johnson do
Speaker 5: the same thing and avoid being overthrown for doing it?
Speaker 5: And I think to your point, he might be able
Speaker 5: to because he has that built some credibility with the
Speaker 5: right right, and he.
Speaker 1: Might not be and that I think we're going to
Speaker 1: have to stay tuned. I'm going to read you a
Speaker 1: tweethot off the press here. You vote to kick me
Speaker 1: out of the Freedom Caucus, but keep CNN want to
Speaker 1: be ken buck and vaping, groping Lord Bobert. You voted
Speaker 1: with the Democrats to protect terrorist to leave you hate.
Speaker 1: Trump certified Biden's election and could care less about January
Speaker 1: sixth defendants being persecuted.
Speaker 2: She's talking about Chip Roy. What is happening?
Speaker 5: Mike Colleigue was joking that it's like increasingly WWE.
Speaker 3: It's a fight for entertainment.
Speaker 5: It's like a fight for clout, and it just gets
Speaker 5: bigger and bigger, and it's like this whole the performance
Speaker 5: aspect of these jobs becomes so important and like I'm
Speaker 5: a fighter. I'm like fighting all the rhinos is just
Speaker 5: an increasingly public I mean, I guess it's better than
Speaker 5: you know, in like pre Civil War when people were
Speaker 5: like fighting it out, you know, and caning people and stuff.
Speaker 1: By the way, you're the second person to say this
Speaker 1: to me. Yesterday, someone said to me, do you know
Speaker 1: they used to kill each other in the Senate?
Speaker 5: And I was like, Okay, I mean I guess I'm
Speaker 5: setting the bar pretty low. I mean, you have to
Speaker 5: go pretty far back to see some of this stuff.
Speaker 1: But I do think that's a really good point as
Speaker 1: we are tell me, like in your slack channel and
Speaker 1: your work slack, do people think that the government is
Speaker 1: going to be shut in?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 5: And this sort of gets to your point too of
Speaker 5: is he going to be a little bit able to costplay?
Speaker 6: Kem McCarthy.
Speaker 5: It seems that the Freedom Caucus, realizing that they have
Speaker 5: given Mike Johnson the worst job in the world with
Speaker 5: the government shutting down two weeks, that they're gonna swallow
Speaker 5: a CR and continuing resolution and fund the government for
Speaker 5: a few months. But you're going to be right back
Speaker 5: in the same situation in it's January February.
Speaker 3: And that's so I.
Speaker 5: Think we're going to avoid to shut down this time.
Speaker 5: I don't know if we're going to be able to
Speaker 5: avoid a shutdown next time.
Speaker 1: And the thing that Mike Johnson put on the floor,
Speaker 1: which is connecting Israel Aid to cutting the IRS.
Speaker 2: I talked to.
Speaker 1: Somebody, a staffer in the Senate who told me that
Speaker 1: it goes nowhere in the Senate, redoes it, and then
Speaker 1: it comes back to the House and they get a
Speaker 1: bipartisan support. You think that's right or no.
Speaker 5: I think eventually they will get there because the vast
Speaker 5: majority on both sides of the Aisle want to send
Speaker 5: the funding to Israel and realize that they're going to
Speaker 5: have to concede, and it's going to end up being
Speaker 5: like one of those sort of bipartisan Frankenstein monsters of
Speaker 5: a bill.
Speaker 3: They'll get it through because.
Speaker 5: There is urgency and support for Israel in a bipartisan basis.
Speaker 1: Do you think that Republicans will not be able to
Speaker 1: cut the IRS?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 6: I think it will be interesting to see how that
Speaker 6: one plays out.
Speaker 5: I know that obviously the Democrats have a compelling argument
Speaker 5: from the Congressional Budget Office, which is that if you
Speaker 5: cut the IRS, it actually increases the deficit because you're
Speaker 5: not enforcing collection. So I do think it's unlikely. But
Speaker 5: things are so fluid, and again the urgency to send
Speaker 5: money to Israel and the Ukraine for that matter, given
Speaker 5: how the war is going, I think, who knows what's
Speaker 5: going to slip in here, but I don't think it's
Speaker 5: going to be anywhere near the cuts that Mike Johnson
Speaker 5: is calling for.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, this is really great.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you are the best, Skyler van Vaulkenberg. He's a
Speaker 1: member of the Virginia House of Delegates and he's running
Speaker 1: for the Virginia State Senate's crucial sixteenth district.
Speaker 2: Welcome too fast politics.
Speaker 6: Skyler, Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: We are deep in to this Virginia election. Voting has
Speaker 1: already started. Next Tuesday is election day. Tell us what
Speaker 1: you're running for and also the story of your life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, thanks for having me.
Speaker 6: My name is Scalarman Wolgenberg, and I have been in
Speaker 6: the Virginia House of Delegates for the last sex years,
Speaker 6: representing part of a suburb outside of Richmond City. I'm
Speaker 6: a teacher public school teacher. I teach government in Henrico County,
Speaker 6: which is the area I represent. This year, I am
Speaker 6: running for one of the two or three Senate seats
Speaker 6: that's going to determine if Democrats can keep our majority
Speaker 6: in the state Senate. I didn't plan on getting involved
Speaker 6: in politics, but in twenty seventeen, after the Trump election,
Speaker 6: I started to kind of think about what I could
Speaker 6: do to be more involved. And at the state level,
Speaker 6: we had had a legislature that was refusing to expand medicaid.
Speaker 6: We had a state legislature that had a neglective public
Speaker 6: education for over a decade, and we had a state
Speaker 6: legislature that I think, which is kind of mean, that
Speaker 6: was voted down a judge because he was gay, and
Speaker 6: so they said he couldn't be objective, and they to
Speaker 6: transmis ultrasound bill that made us a national laughing stock.
Speaker 6: And so I got into the race in twenty seventeen
Speaker 6: because I thought we should expand medicaid.
Speaker 3: I thought we.
Speaker 6: Should focus on public education, and I thought we should
Speaker 6: be a welcoming state to everybody. And you know, six
Speaker 6: years later, we've been able to do a lot of
Speaker 6: work kind of on all those issues and more. But
Speaker 6: this year, this Senate seat was vital to making sure
Speaker 6: that we can continue forward and not kind of go backwards,
Speaker 6: not go backwards to that state legislature that was mean,
Speaker 6: or that state legislature that just said no, or that
Speaker 6: state legislature that focused on taking away women's rights. And
Speaker 6: so we entered the race last November and feeling really
Speaker 6: good about it, and I think people are responding to
Speaker 6: the fact that we need to keep moving forward, we
Speaker 6: need to focus on things that impact people in their
Speaker 6: day to day life, and we need to not focus
Speaker 6: on taking away women's rights, which is what Republicans have
Speaker 6: been running on here all year. My opponent launched your
Speaker 6: campaign with an ad pledging to ban abortion at fifteen weeks.
Speaker 6: They've been running on that throughout the campaign. Just yesterday,
Speaker 6: Glenn Youngkin, Governor was in Henryko County pledging to pass
Speaker 6: that fifteen week abortion ban on Fox News on Laura Ingram.
Speaker 6: And so we think Virginia would rather focus on schools
Speaker 6: and lower on healthcare costs. And that's why we got
Speaker 6: in the race, and we need to win this seat
Speaker 6: to ensure we can.
Speaker 3: Keep moving forward.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Right now, Democrats hold the House of Delegates, but
Speaker 1: not the Senate.
Speaker 6: Right the other way around, we controlled but not the House.
Speaker 1: And if Democrats lose the Senate, which is what you're
Speaker 1: running for, then Glenn Youngkin can really make Virginia Florida.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: You know, Democrats had a trifecta. We controlled the legislature
Speaker 6: and the governorship for two years and twenty twenty and
Speaker 6: twenty twenty one, and.
Speaker 3: We were really able to do a lot of great things.
Speaker 6: You know, we were the first southern state to pass
Speaker 6: comprehensive anti discrimination laws for the LGBTQ community. With the
Speaker 6: first southern state to try to get to one hundred
Speaker 6: percent clean energy, we went from being the second hardest
Speaker 6: state to vote in to the eleventh easiest state to
Speaker 6: vote in. We invested in public schools, We expanded medicaid,
Speaker 6: We did a ton of great stuff. Unfortunately, in the
Speaker 6: twenty twenty one election, we lost the House of Delegates,
Speaker 6: and you know, Glen you Elkin won the governorship, and
Speaker 6: they instantly tried to repeal all that work. And so
Speaker 6: we know that if we don't keep control of the Senate,
Speaker 6: all that great work we've done on voting, all that
Speaker 6: great work we've done on the environment, all that great
Speaker 6: work we've done in healthcare is really on the line,
Speaker 6: and it's not abstract. They have put the bills in
Speaker 6: in the last two years to do all these things.
Speaker 6: And so being in the minority in the House of Delegates,
Speaker 6: I've had to vote on bill after bill that tries
Speaker 6: to repeal the good work that we've done. And so, yeah,
Speaker 6: this election very much is about ken Virginia continue to
Speaker 6: be that leader. You know, I think for the country.
Speaker 6: I mean, I think a lot of our for example,
Speaker 6: our election law. A lot of the laws we passed
Speaker 6: are what other states are looking to, you know, a
Speaker 6: lot of our environmental law and what other states are
Speaker 6: looking to. And so I want to keep moving forward
Speaker 6: on that path. But yeah, if it goes the wrong way,
Speaker 6: we really could become like a Florida or Texas where
Speaker 6: we see Republicans past cultural war issue after cultural war issue,
Speaker 6: and where they really continue to pass more and more
Speaker 6: restrictive and more and more cruel abortion band loss.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny because it's like we are in a
Speaker 1: moment in the Republican party where they have decided that
Speaker 1: if you can pass these laws that appeal to their base,
Speaker 1: I mean it's funny. Like think about a world where
Speaker 1: Democrats decide they're going to like do stuff that appeals
Speaker 1: their base, right, like free.
Speaker 2: Lunches, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean a great example is Minnesota, right where they've
Speaker 1: done all this really progressive legislation.
Speaker 2: But Republicans have decided.
Speaker 1: They are going to act for their base, and they're
Speaker 1: going to do things that are like quite crazy. I mean,
Speaker 1: stuff like just you know, anti tran stuff, being anti
Speaker 1: free lunch is just insane to me. And you know,
Speaker 1: book banning and that kind of thing. So what does
Speaker 1: the election look like so far with the early voting
Speaker 1: and what are you seeing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we're feeling really good. I mean the in Henrico County.
Speaker 6: You know, there's the Senate seat that I'm running for,
Speaker 6: and then there's a couple of House of Delegate seats
Speaker 6: that are also very competitive. And early vote is very robust.
Speaker 6: People are showing up, people are mailing in their ballots.
Speaker 6: You know, here in Virginia, you can vote early in person,
Speaker 6: you can be a permanent mail voter, you can vote
Speaker 6: on an election day, so there's really a lot of choices.
Speaker 6: We're seeing very robust returns of vote by mail. We're
Speaker 6: seeing a lot of people voting every day. This is
Speaker 6: actually the first election cycle where Republicans have decided to
Speaker 6: also early vote, so you know, their numbers are ticking
Speaker 6: up too. But when we talk to folks on the
Speaker 6: doors or when we see folks in the community, you know,
Speaker 6: they're responding to our message, they're responding to our positive vision,
Speaker 6: and they're responding against a lot of the craziness that
Speaker 6: they're seeing both from Republicans in Virginia, but also of course,
Speaker 6: you know we're right close to DC the craziness that
Speaker 6: we're seeing in DC as well, and so we're feeling
Speaker 6: really good about it. Obviously, Tuesday's can to be very
Speaker 6: important that turnout gets as high as it can get.
Speaker 6: You know, this is an off off yr election that
Speaker 6: most states don't have on the top of the ticket
Speaker 6: as a state senator. You know, we don't have congressional races,
Speaker 6: we don't have a governor on the ballot. Obviously there's
Speaker 6: not a president on the ballot, and so it really
Speaker 6: is a turnout game. But we're feeling really good. I mean,
Speaker 6: we've got a lot of volunteers on the ground and
Speaker 6: when you talk to folks on the door, if they
Speaker 6: haven't voted yet, they know there's an election, they're going
Speaker 6: to vote, they're excited to vote, and so you know
Speaker 6: it's going to be a close day across the state.
Speaker 6: I think these districts are on a knife's edge. They're
Speaker 6: going to be close. We really need to ensure that
Speaker 6: everybody possible knows why it's important to vote, which is
Speaker 6: why doing interviews like this is important as well. But
Speaker 6: if people show up to vote confident that it's going
Speaker 6: to be a good day, for Democrats, which means it's
Speaker 6: going to be a good day for the average working family,
Speaker 6: it's going to be a good day for women when
Speaker 6: their rights are protected, and it's going to be a
Speaker 6: good day for sanity.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we heard Young Can say on television that he's
Speaker 1: going to do an abortion ban. I think it's important
Speaker 1: when we talk about abortion bands to realize that part
Speaker 1: of why these abortion bands don't work is because first
Speaker 1: of all, the whole lie that this was about states rights,
Speaker 1: we're seeing they didn't.
Speaker 2: Even really mean that.
Speaker 1: But then the other thing, which I think is really striking,
Speaker 1: is that abortion bands make it very hard for doctors
Speaker 1: to treat, even if they're not even doing abortions.
Speaker 2: They're just trying to treat. I mean, can you.
Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about the strain on maternal fetal
Speaker 1: health that abortion bands put on doctors.
Speaker 6: And that's all very true, And there's a lot of
Speaker 6: doctors and nurses, certainly in our community, and I would
Speaker 6: imagine across Virginia that are very very worried about it
Speaker 6: because they do understand how complicated this is and how
Speaker 6: much a ban would really negatively impact their ability to
Speaker 6: care for patients. I think it's also really important too
Speaker 6: to note that it's not just about the ban in itself.
Speaker 6: It's also about all the restrictions that come with it.
Speaker 6: And so when you look at a state like North
Speaker 6: Carolina where they just passed a more restrictive ban, they
Speaker 6: also put in place, you know, a series of policies
Speaker 6: that even if you were underneath that ban limit, you
Speaker 6: still had to jump through so many hoops that it
Speaker 6: made it impossible to get access to healthcare. I think
Speaker 6: the North Carolina bill, for example, said you had to
Speaker 6: go to like three doctors over the course of seventy
Speaker 6: two hours or something like that. The youngin administration and
Speaker 6: Republicans have really been silent on that part of it,
Speaker 6: and we just know because we see it happening across
Speaker 6: states and we've seen it happen in Virginia in the past,
Speaker 6: that they're going to increasingly turn up the pressure on
Speaker 6: those types of restrictions as well. So it's not just
Speaker 6: going to be about the ban by week. It's also
Speaker 6: going to be about the restrictions that get in the
Speaker 6: way of access that prevent doctors from caring for patients.
Speaker 6: And it's also going to be on the penalty side,
Speaker 6: where we just saw the first state try to prosecute
Speaker 6: somebody for helping a woman cross state lines. And so
Speaker 6: we know that those components are also going to be
Speaker 6: a part of a ban. They're also going to intimidate
Speaker 6: doctors and nurses, going to make it impossible for them
Speaker 6: to provide the adequate care that they are had their
Speaker 6: mission supposed to provide. And so, you know, I think
Speaker 6: a lot of people know that, right, And I think
Speaker 6: that's why a lot of people are going to go
Speaker 6: to the ballot box on Tuesday, because I think a
Speaker 6: lot of people either know it because it's part of
Speaker 6: their profession, whether they're a doctor or nurse, or they
Speaker 6: know it because they've seen somebody go through it. These
Speaker 6: bands are awful onto themselves, right, but they also have
Speaker 6: this kind of inherent logic where we know Republicans want
Speaker 6: to go further. We've seen it in other states and
Speaker 6: we've seen it just when Republicans talk privately here. You know,
Speaker 6: the last thing I'll say is, you know, we just
Speaker 6: saw a Senate Canada up in Fredericksburg talk about how
Speaker 6: she wants to go further in fifteen weeks when she
Speaker 6: thought she was at a private party and it got publicized,
Speaker 6: and so I think the ban onto itself is bad
Speaker 6: for the reasons you stated. It's even worse when you
Speaker 6: consider what else will be a part of that band.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, that is for sure.
Speaker 1: What we're seeing is this kind of one opmanship in
Speaker 1: the Republican sort of primary world. One of the things
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you was you're seeing now in Florida,
Speaker 1: because I think of Florida is sort of the worst
Speaker 1: case scenario for Virginia, right, a out of control governor
Speaker 1: trying to win national appeal by punishing the people of
Speaker 1: his state with far right kind of legislation. One of
Speaker 1: the things that's happened in Florida, happened in Texas, have
Speaker 1: and other red states is book banning. Now, I am
Speaker 1: the daughter of a feminist author and who wrote a
Speaker 1: book that was banned everywhere, including in Italy, and also
Speaker 1: the granddaughter of book communist author who went to jail
Speaker 1: for the blacklist. So I think a lot about book
Speaker 1: banning because it was such like a fundamental trope in
Speaker 1: my childhood. I mean, are you seeing efforts there on
Speaker 1: the Republican side. It is one of the scary things
Speaker 1: that happens on the road to fascism too.
Speaker 3: We've already seen it.
Speaker 6: My opponent passed a bill two years ago that is
Speaker 6: now being used by localities across Virginia to band books
Speaker 6: and schools. We already had a process where parents could
Speaker 6: challenge books, you know, every locality has that, probably in
Speaker 6: the country, but definitely in Virginia. She passed a bill
Speaker 6: that was sloppily written that allowed kind of mega extremists
Speaker 6: to weaponize the bill in the name of banning books.
Speaker 6: And so in places like Spotsobania County and Hanover County,
Speaker 6: we're seeing them explicitly use her bill to pull dozens
Speaker 6: upon dozens of books out of school life buries and
Speaker 6: out of schools. And so it's already kind of started here,
Speaker 6: and it was because of my opponent. Now there have
Speaker 6: been even more explicit book banning bills that have been
Speaker 6: put in the legislature that we've been able to stop
Speaker 6: because of the Senate. But outside of this attempt at
Speaker 6: a worship band, I think where the Youngkin administration has
Speaker 6: been the most dangerous has been in public schools. Their
Speaker 6: first executive order, you know, was about banning quote unquote CRT.
Speaker 6: It was about intimidating teachers. They put out a tip
Speaker 6: line for people to call and try to rat out
Speaker 6: their teachers that they got a lot of criticism for.
Speaker 6: They've attacked LGBTQ kids, they tried to rewrite the history
Speaker 6: standards to make them very right wing. All of this time,
Speaker 6: you know, we could have been focused on test scores.
Speaker 6: We could have been focused on investing in our public schools.
Speaker 6: We could have been focused on getting rid of our
Speaker 6: teacher shortage. We could have been focused on creating world
Speaker 6: class education for kids. And instead we've spent two years
Speaker 6: in the gutter of cultural war politics because the governor
Speaker 6: in Republicans Virginia think that that's what won them election
Speaker 6: the election in twenty twenty one. And I really think
Speaker 6: it's been to the detriment of our students that we've
Speaker 6: had to constantly try to fight these fires. And you know,
Speaker 6: mostly we've been able to defeat these attempts because of
Speaker 6: Democrats in the Senate. But you know, this bill that
Speaker 6: allowed for book banning as an example of one that
Speaker 6: got through and we're seeing the impact of it because
Speaker 6: we're seeing local school boards use it to ban books.
Speaker 6: And yeah, I think banning books is about the most
Speaker 6: anti American thing you can think of. When you talk
Speaker 6: about the freedom of speech constitutional values, you're talking about
Speaker 6: the ability of an individual to be who they are,
Speaker 6: to think how they want to think, to get ideas
Speaker 6: that they want to read about. And I agree that
Speaker 6: book banning is one of the most dangerous things we
Speaker 6: can engage at. Unfortunately, that, along with a bunch of
Speaker 6: other right wing culture war issues, have kind of been
Speaker 6: at the forefront of the UK and administration.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the education stuff is kind of crazy to me
Speaker 1: because we're seeing a lot of regressive policies when it
Speaker 1: comes to education.
Speaker 2: You were a teacher, Can you talk a little bit
Speaker 2: about that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we know, I still am a teacher of the
Speaker 6: legislature park time, and so, you know, that's what got
Speaker 6: me into the race in twenty seventeen, because the state
Speaker 6: is the main player when it comes to education across
Speaker 6: the country. States matter. Over the four years of the
Speaker 6: Northam administration, we did a lot of work to try
Speaker 6: to get our education system back on the right track.
Speaker 6: We expanded pre K, you know, we started investing in
Speaker 6: schools again and in teachers again. We did a lot
Speaker 6: of things to get the ball rolling. Was it perfect.
Speaker 3: No, was it enough?
Speaker 6: No, But we were attempting to make up for ten
Speaker 6: to fifteen years of neglect, and you know, the last
Speaker 6: two years we've gone backwards in that respect, and I
Speaker 6: think for teachers and educators there's a lot of frustration,
Speaker 6: not just in Virginia but across the country because you know,
Speaker 6: I don't think anybody thinks the system is perfect. But
Speaker 6: you're not going to make it better by politicizing everything
Speaker 6: about it, right, You're going to make it better really
Speaker 6: focusing in on these challenging and complex policies that bring
Speaker 6: up achievement. You know, you're going to really make it
Speaker 6: better by doing the hard work of investing in schools
Speaker 6: and making sure that schools have the resources and the
Speaker 6: staff and teachers they need. That's one of the things
Speaker 6: that still has me most engaged about politics is that
Speaker 6: I see a lot of structural work we still need
Speaker 6: to do. You know, Virginia is fortunate. We have one
Speaker 6: of the best public education systems in the country, but
Speaker 6: that doesn't mean we don't have things we need to
Speaker 6: fix we do. How we fund schools is broken, how
Speaker 6: we test students is broken. We need to fix those things,
Speaker 6: and I wish we were prioritizing those. One place where
Speaker 6: I'll give the Young administration some credit is they have
Speaker 6: worked with me on trying to reform testing. And I'm
Speaker 6: hopeful that if I went on Tuesday, we might be
Speaker 6: able to get some bipartisan legislation through that will fix
Speaker 6: how we test students. But those are the things that
Speaker 6: we need to be working on, and you know, those
Speaker 6: are the perspectives I've had as a teacher and things
Speaker 6: that have kind of motivated me in politics because you know,
Speaker 6: I mean, look in, a good education system brings so
Speaker 6: many benefits. It makes your community safer, it makes your
Speaker 6: economy more dynamic. You know, it strengthens your democracy. So
Speaker 6: it really should be one of the things that we
Speaker 6: focus on as a state.
Speaker 2: Yeah, really good point.
Speaker 1: Just tell us if you're in Virginia, give us this sort.
Speaker 2: Of tld R.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So final crutch Thursday through Saturday, we have early
Speaker 6: vote here in Virginia and then election is Tuesday. And
Speaker 6: as election really does come down to, do you want
Speaker 6: to protect women's rights and the Roe Vwight framework or
Speaker 6: will Virginia go backwards like every other Southern state and
Speaker 6: start banning abortion. Do you want to invest in public
Speaker 6: education and make sure all kids have a world class education.
Speaker 6: Or do you want to see attempts to privatize education?
Speaker 6: You know, do you want to continue to have an
Speaker 6: economy that works for everybody. We've been the number one
Speaker 6: state for business many times over the last ten years,
Speaker 6: but until Democrats got control, we were one of the
Speaker 6: worst states for workers, where now one of the better
Speaker 6: states for workers. You can do both, or do you
Speaker 6: want to go backwards and see a legislature right that
Speaker 6: doesn't stand up for working families. I think these are
Speaker 6: all the types of issues that are on the line
Speaker 6: this Tuesday. The stakes really couldn't be higher, and I'm
Speaker 6: hopeful and I think we're going to have a good
Speaker 6: day because I think people in Virginia want to have
Speaker 6: a legislature that is working for the issues that they
Speaker 6: actually face day to day. They don't want a legislature
Speaker 6: and that's going to take away their rights.
Speaker 2: Such a good point.
Speaker 1: They don't want a legislature that's going to take away
Speaker 1: their rights. Thank you so much, Skyler, Thank.
Speaker 3: You for having me. I really enjoyed it, no moment pfectly.
Speaker 6: Jesse Cannon oh Man, you know, one of the funnest
Speaker 6: parts of the GOP these days is they are fighting.
Speaker 3: What are you seeing here, Molly.
Speaker 2: An incredible bit of lunacy.
Speaker 1: We have Marjorie Taylor Green fighting with Lauren Baubert. This
Speaker 1: is a tweet that she threaded from Chip Roy, Texas,
Speaker 1: Chip Roy, who used to work for the least likable
Speaker 1: person in the Senate, Ted Cruz. This is what she
Speaker 1: says to Chip Roy. This is from Representative Marjorie Taylor Green.
Speaker 1: You voted to kick me out of the Freedom Caucus,
Speaker 1: but you kept CNN wannabe Ken Buck and vaping groping
Speaker 1: Lauren Baubert. You voted with the Democrats to protect terrorists
Speaker 1: to leave. I just want to se say, vaping groping
Speaker 1: Lauren Beaupert. That's probably not the Moniker she was hoping for.
Speaker 1: This is some real disarray and I don't hate to
Speaker 1: see it. In fact, I like to see it. And
Speaker 1: that is where we are. That's it for this episode
Speaker 1: of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday
Speaker 1: to hear the best minds in politics makes sense of
Speaker 1: all this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please
Speaker 1: send it to a friend and keep the conversation going,
Speaker 1: and again thanks for listening.