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 Hikeim Jeffries will lead the Democrats
Speaker 1: in Congress once again.
Speaker 2: We have such a great show for you today.
Speaker 1: MSNBC's The Weekend host Simone Sanders stops by to talk
Speaker 1: to me about what the Democrats can do differently and
Speaker 1: what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong.
Speaker 2: It's a fun conversation.
Speaker 1: Then we will talk to Run for Something's Amanda Lippman
Speaker 1: about all of these small victories that you may not
Speaker 1: have heard of.
Speaker 2: But first the news.
Speaker 3: So Molly, every once in a while we get a
Speaker 3: new word in the lexicon that you just go that
Speaker 3: one's going to stick around for a while. And yesterday
Speaker 3: I learned the term brologarchy. What are you seeing here
Speaker 3: with the brolagarchy.
Speaker 1: Brologarchy is a word for oligarchy. But because all of
Speaker 1: these people, unsurprising are divorced.
Speaker 4: Men, it's the bloarchy.
Speaker 2: Some of them are not divorced yet, perhaps they won't be,
Speaker 2: but perhaps they will be.
Speaker 1: It's a really good article in the Guardian about how
Speaker 1: to survive the Brologarchy Twenty Lessons for the Post truth World.
Speaker 3: We should say it's by Carol Cadwell Oder.
Speaker 1: The point is it's a really smart piece and it's
Speaker 1: quite funny, and.
Speaker 2: It also she was sued. You'll remembered she has been.
Speaker 1: Victimized by some of these big conglomerates and she's really
Speaker 1: smart and you should definitely read this piece in the Guardian.
Speaker 3: Mike, I know many times we're talking to people that
Speaker 3: are thinking about where they might move because they're afraid
Speaker 3: of mister Trump's fascist tendencies. There's an Italian village try
Speaker 3: to entice people. What do you see it here?
Speaker 1: First of all, no one should move. Everything is going
Speaker 1: to be fine. This will be a very annoying four years,
Speaker 1: but we'll get through it. That's what I need to
Speaker 1: say first. Also, we find this adorable, which is why
Speaker 1: we put it in here. Many communities around the world
Speaker 1: have been and wondering what to make.
Speaker 2: Of Donald Trump's reelection.
Speaker 1: A village on the Italian island of Sardinia, where my
Speaker 1: mother and her third husband went for their honeymoon, is
Speaker 1: looking at this as a potential opportunity. They have said
Speaker 1: that they will you can move into these dilapidated houses.
Speaker 1: You can buy them for just over one euro, and
Speaker 1: then you can renovate them.
Speaker 2: It's launched a.
Speaker 1: Website for would be expats more cheap homes. And look,
Speaker 1: this is because as much as the Trumpers want you
Speaker 1: to think, I did not just clip the website and
Speaker 1: I'm not just browsing houses now. I just want to
Speaker 1: point out, but as much as the Trumpers would like
Speaker 1: you to think that there are too many people in
Speaker 1: this world, there actually a lot of these countries are
Speaker 1: really having trouble finding people to live in them, despite
Speaker 1: how lovely they are. And so I just want you
Speaker 1: to feel a little better and to know that if
Speaker 1: worst comes to worse, we can always live in dilapidated
Speaker 1: homes in Italy for one dollar.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm going to keep that in my back pocket.
Speaker 3: I guess me too. Let's talk some brighter news here.
Speaker 3: We previously had a judge John from North Carolina, Justice
Speaker 3: Alison Riggs, and a very interesting thing happened. This is
Speaker 3: a crucial race that will determine who controls the Supreme
Speaker 3: Court North Carolina, and she is pulled ahead by twenty
Speaker 3: four votes as of Sunday night. As they try to
Speaker 3: keep the Supreme Court majority there. So this is heading
Speaker 3: for a recount and she's going to need the fundraise
Speaker 3: on this. What are you seeing?
Speaker 1: So I think the lesson here is don't ever say
Speaker 1: that your vote doesn't matter, right, Don't ever say that,
Speaker 1: because in fact, your vote absolutely does matter. And this
Speaker 1: is a great example of that. The North Carolina Supreme
Speaker 1: Court could come down to twenty four votes right now,
Speaker 1: she is leading Justice Riggs by twenty four votes. It's
Speaker 1: so close that it's going to recount. But it's really
Speaker 1: important to realize, Like as much as all of this
Speaker 1: feels very frustrating and feels very crazy, every vote matters.
Speaker 1: Every single vote matters, every door knock, every you know,
Speaker 1: all the stuff that people do to get out the vote,
Speaker 1: it all matters. And you know, if Justice Riggs wins,
Speaker 1: they won't be able to, you know, enact partisan jerrymandering
Speaker 1: in the state. I actually don't know what's happening in
Speaker 1: North Carolina right now at the state level.
Speaker 3: Well, they turn very blue, right.
Speaker 1: Keeping this seat will keep the balance of power and
Speaker 1: prevent the Republicans, the Purple State Republicans, from enacting crazy, destructive,
Speaker 1: discriminatory legislation. And that is why every single vote matters,
Speaker 1: not even just in North Carolina.
Speaker 3: Somalie, I'm going to shock you here two of my
Speaker 3: least favorite congress people, Representive Nancy Mason, Representative MPG, are
Speaker 3: targeting Presentative Sarah McBride, one of the newest members of Congress,
Speaker 3: who is our first openly transgender person in Congress. What
Speaker 3: do you see?
Speaker 1: So this is a really good example of why small
Speaker 1: dollar donations are poisoning the Republican Party.
Speaker 2: Marjorie Taylor Green, who's.
Speaker 1: Become a sort of icon of MAGA really destructive mega policy.
Speaker 2: I think this was started by Nancy Mace.
Speaker 1: Nancy Mayce has really is like constantly auditioning to be
Speaker 1: a mini MTG, so she wanted to make a law
Speaker 1: saying that this new congresswoman couldn't use the ladies bathroom.
Speaker 1: By the way, first of all, this is ridiculous theater, right,
Speaker 1: this is what this is theater. This is MAGA trying
Speaker 1: to raise money, trying to get their base excited, and
Speaker 1: targeting a transperson. So I'm not that surprised. It's really disturbing.
Speaker 1: It's also just like so stupid, like this is not
Speaker 1: what the federal government is for and.
Speaker 2: Voters hate this. That's the other thing is normal voters
Speaker 2: hate this.
Speaker 1: They don't want to punish a member of Congress for
Speaker 1: what bathroom she uses. So anyway, but you know, Nancy
Speaker 1: Mace is hoping to get attention from the MAGA world,
Speaker 1: to get on show, to get on Fox News, to
Speaker 1: get Trump to pay attention to her, and that's what
Speaker 1: this is. Simone Sanders is the host of MSNBC's The Weekend.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Fast Politics.
Speaker 4: Simone, happy to be here.
Speaker 2: I wanted you on.
Speaker 1: The podcast right away because when the post twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four circular firing squad started, you were one of the
Speaker 1: few people who seemed to me to be trying to
Speaker 1: figure out actually what happened, as opposed to just blaming people.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Well, first of all, I appreciate you molling. I'm
Speaker 5: a fan, longtime listener, not a first time callergy. Not yes,
Speaker 5: exactly going, but yeah, look I think that, and I mean,
Speaker 5: you know, to be there, I had a little The
Speaker 5: blame I did have was for people to continue to
Speaker 5: go out there and talk about, you know, what they
Speaker 5: feel like would have happened, if you know, other things
Speaker 5: would have happened, like for me specifically, that was Speaker
Speaker 5: murder Pelosi, but like in general, I think that and
Speaker 5: perhaps it's the former you know, strategist in me, but
Speaker 5: when campaigns happen and you lose, particularly in the way
Speaker 5: that Democrats across the board lost in twenty twenty, and
Speaker 5: let's just be very clear, it was still close, right,
Speaker 5: but you know, you can't say for months it's the
Speaker 5: consequential election and then not win the consequential election and
Speaker 5: then not you know, do some introspection. So I feel
Speaker 5: like that that's really important because there's an election next
Speaker 5: year in Virginia for governor's race, and then there are
Speaker 5: midterm elections and then there'll be another presidential So you
Speaker 5: can't just move forward and say uh no, no one
Speaker 5: needs to talk about it, just got to go forward and.
Speaker 4: Get the things done.
Speaker 5: No, you actually have to say, okay, well what happened here,
Speaker 5: and let's ask the voters.
Speaker 2: Yes, I think that's totally right.
Speaker 1: I think your point that you can't say it's the
Speaker 1: most consequential election of our lifetime and then be like mah, right.
Speaker 1: But there were also Democrats overperformed in some places, right,
Speaker 1: or they had this not overperformed because they the winds,
Speaker 1: the anti partisan winds were strong, but anti incumbent wins
Speaker 1: were very strong. But there were certain places where Democrats
Speaker 1: were able to keep a Senate seat and lose the
Speaker 1: presidential which split ticket voting is something that in highly
Speaker 1: partisan times we don't usually have.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but I mean, like to that point, for months
Speaker 5: we had heard, oh, people do not split their tickets.
Speaker 5: And it's like, why were people saying that? Did they
Speaker 5: ask any any of the voters? And I mean, given
Speaker 5: what had happened in the midterm election and also in between,
Speaker 5: I'm thinking about the ballot measures in Kansas, the ballot
Speaker 5: measures in Ohio.
Speaker 4: Right, there are not enough I'm from Nebraska, baby, ain't.
Speaker 5: Enough enough Democrats in Kansas to have codified the reproductive
Speaker 5: freedom measures, right, So that meant Republicans voted for it.
Speaker 5: In Ohio, again, not enough Democrats in the state. Maybe
Speaker 5: to get it done, people who identify as independent or
Speaker 5: Republicans had to have voted for it. And so we
Speaker 5: had indications frankly earlier on that people were willing to
Speaker 5: split their tickets to vote for this.
Speaker 4: Thing over here and then vote for a.
Speaker 5: Candidate that perhaps not even perhaps that in many respects
Speaker 5: in some of the Republican candidates, not all of them,
Speaker 5: but Republican candidates whom, by way of their votes or
Speaker 5: the policies that they instituted, whether they be a governor,
Speaker 5: an attorney general right or a state legislative member or
Speaker 5: member of Congress, by something that they did as a
Speaker 5: function of their job, created the situation to where the
Speaker 5: voters had to go and make their voices heard at
Speaker 5: the ballot box in terms of the ballot measure. But
Speaker 5: I think one of the lessons that we know right
Speaker 5: now coming out of this twenty twenty four election is
Speaker 5: that the voters have not always connected the people to
Speaker 5: the ballot measures. In some places they did, but in
Speaker 5: some places they didn't. They're very clear about these ballot
Speaker 5: measures and what they believe their rights and whatnot should be,
Speaker 5: but they are not as clear about making a connection
Speaker 5: between the people on.
Speaker 4: The ballot i e.
Speaker 5: The elected officials and that ballot measure. So that to me,
Speaker 5: it says, Okay, there's work to do there. But I mean,
Speaker 5: like that's something that you weren't going to hear in
Speaker 5: the nuance. In the aftermath, some people were just like ah,
Speaker 5: too woke and I'm like, please, where what are we doing?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it did feel like a lot of people
Speaker 1: were just using this election to confirm their priors.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes I do.
Speaker 5: And the well when when we say people, when I
Speaker 5: say yes I do, I feel like some of the
Speaker 5: pundent people and some of the strategists, Yeah, they're using
Speaker 5: the election results in the aftermaths without asking any questions
Speaker 5: to say, see, I told you these you know, progressive
Speaker 5: WoT issues weren't going to get it done. And it's
Speaker 5: frustrating to me as someone who again spent a long
Speaker 5: time as strategists, but you know, for the last couple
Speaker 5: of years, has been reporting on this from the seat
Speaker 5: of the anchor chair and going out there talking to voters.
Speaker 5: That's not what Democratic candidates and Democratic aligned candidates ran
Speaker 5: on and talked about. They didn't talk about quote unquote
Speaker 5: culture war issues. The Republican candidates ran on the culture
Speaker 5: war issues.
Speaker 4: And so to diagnose the.
Speaker 5: Issue as ah, these Democrats believed in this stuff over
Speaker 5: here it's not popular is like woefully missing the mark,
Speaker 5: and I think it's lazy.
Speaker 1: Well, the thing that I was struck by, which I
Speaker 1: think is pretty interesting, it's like we have these candidates
Speaker 1: like here we are doing a post op with policy
Speaker 1: like going, well, you know this policy was a loser,
Speaker 1: of that policy was a winner.
Speaker 2: But Trump didn't run on policy.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Molly, Molly. Where is the policy?
Speaker 5: I was at a dinner yesterday as we had this
Speaker 5: conversation and someone with whom I respect very much was
Speaker 5: saying to me, you know, the media didn't talk enough
Speaker 5: about I blame the media. And I was like, do
Speaker 5: you really and they're like, yes, I blame the media.
Speaker 5: I said, Okay, tell me why. They said, the media
Speaker 5: and talk enough about Trump's policy. They just talked about
Speaker 5: the fear and that's why people were crying the day
Speaker 5: after election day who were not happy about the result.
Speaker 5: And I said, okay, let me just back up and
Speaker 5: say that for people who are scared, I understand their fear,
Speaker 5: and maybe the tears were just about like, damn it,
Speaker 5: I'm not trying to join the resistance again, and I'm
Speaker 5: not trying to go back to you know, legislation by
Speaker 5: you know, tweet or whatever we're calling them now.
Speaker 4: So maybe that's some of that I said, But also,
Speaker 4: what was the policy? I said, what was the policy?
Speaker 4: Is the policy?
Speaker 5: Tariffs, because I know a lot of media folks and
Speaker 5: the media apparatus had talked about the tariffs.
Speaker 4: I was like, I don't even think he understands tariffs.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I said, so, you know, to say that the
Speaker 5: people didn't talk about the policy, the reality is there
Speaker 5: wasn't a policy, and we talked about that.
Speaker 4: But I do think it's important to know.
Speaker 5: One of the things again is we talk about, like, well,
Speaker 5: what happened, and then what does this mean for the
Speaker 5: party that's now out of power, the Democratic Party apparatus.
Speaker 5: I think that one of the things is an acknowledgment
Speaker 5: that the conversations are taking places in many different spaces nowadays.
Speaker 5: I continue to maintain that television is important because when
Speaker 5: something happens in the world, you do not go to
Speaker 5: your favorite podcast to figure out what the freak just happened.
Speaker 5: You turn on the TV. So, but it is not
Speaker 5: the only place. And I think that because it's not
Speaker 5: the only place. In the fractured media environment that we
Speaker 5: live in, people's understanding of what is and is not
Speaker 5: happening is very or or what the facts are frankly,
Speaker 5: are not the same across the board. The baselines are
Speaker 5: very different. And so depending on how someone consumes the
Speaker 5: news or if they like to consume the news at all,
Speaker 5: and maybe their news consumption is literally on Instagram, which
Speaker 5: is for a lot of people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is, which is retally scary.
Speaker 5: I don't believe that everybody that voted for Donald Trump
Speaker 5: right that they voted for all of these things.
Speaker 4: I don't think that everyone was actually aware.
Speaker 5: I think there are different levels of voters and different
Speaker 5: levels of understanding that people didn't didn't have that that
Speaker 5: doesn't resolve them from what it is.
Speaker 4: About to go down.
Speaker 5: I think that that acknowledgement is really important, and also
Speaker 5: the acknowledgment that there are also millions of people that
Speaker 5: stayed home, and then why did they stay home? I
Speaker 5: think that those people deserve the treatment and the diners
Speaker 5: that folks that voted for Donald Trump got in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 4: I want people to go to the black barbershops and at.
Speaker 5: Rural places in North Carolina and in some of the
Speaker 5: more rural areas of Atlanta and asked some of these
Speaker 5: working class black and brown people why they did not vote.
Speaker 2: Yeah, why do you think they didn't vote?
Speaker 5: I've asked some people, and I've gotten a range of answers.
Speaker 5: Some fosts have said that they and this is what
Speaker 5: I had heard prior to the election, and it's consistent
Speaker 5: with what I've heard after, that they didn't think that
Speaker 5: they're vote mattered, right Jesus, that they didn't think that
Speaker 5: they're vote mattered. Some people said that it's not going
Speaker 5: to make a difference where they live. Other people said
Speaker 5: that they were just sped up, they were tired, and
Speaker 5: some other people said, well, you know, nobody came and
Speaker 5: talked to me. And then there were some people that
Speaker 5: did participate in the election, and I know some people
Speaker 5: that left the top of the ticket blank. I've also
Speaker 5: talked to some voters that did check that box for
Speaker 5: Donald Trump. So there's a range of things. But with
Speaker 5: people are saying that they don't believe that their vote matters,
Speaker 5: that they don't think it's going to make a difference,
Speaker 5: that nobody came and spoke to them.
Speaker 4: To me, that says that.
Speaker 5: There is work to do there, that those are gettable
Speaker 5: voters to me, and the Democrats need to figure out
Speaker 5: what they can do to go back and talk to
Speaker 5: those people who previously had come out for them and
Speaker 5: pass elections and then decided not to participate this time,
Speaker 5: like people really feeling like they don't have they don't
Speaker 5: have the power.
Speaker 4: It's something that was very prevalent in this election.
Speaker 5: But I would just know when I said this after
Speaker 5: the vice presidential debate, I was quite I think critical harsh,
Speaker 5: some would say in my analysis of the debate between
Speaker 5: Senator now vice president like jd Vance and Governor Wallas
Speaker 5: And you know, I'm just kind of like, because y'all
Speaker 5: the are y'all talking to actual people, because actual people
Speaker 5: who want are not convinced that they're going to participate
Speaker 5: in this election. I said that, I said, actual like
Speaker 5: base Democratic votes need to be persuaded too. And the
Speaker 5: idea that like people were just going to come out
Speaker 5: and vote because they understood the threat of Trump right
Speaker 5: or reproductive rights or just because there was a black
Speaker 5: woman at the top of the ticket was woefully like,
Speaker 5: I just think not smart, And I want to know
Speaker 5: why some of the strategies and people made those decisions
Speaker 5: and thought that people would just come out and vote,
Speaker 5: Like when did when do people think that people of
Speaker 5: color only need to be persuaded with white people at
Speaker 5: the top of the Democratic ticket, Because if that's the
Speaker 5: case I got a bridge, I want to sell you
Speaker 5: off the coast of Florida, right where hurricanes happened.
Speaker 4: Right then, Yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Want to talk about this because I was also this decision.
Speaker 2: We're going to have competing dinner party stories.
Speaker 1: I would at a dinner party with a lot of
Speaker 1: political people, very smart and days were talking about how
Speaker 1: Democrats lost, and I said, well, you know, it does
Speaker 1: seem like when you look at these numbers, that the
Speaker 1: base didn't turn out. And everyone was like, and I said,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe perhaps, and I offered a few possible
Speaker 1: explanations for why. You know, the two million people who
Speaker 1: could have had her win the popular you know, the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty turnout would have won this election. Right, So
Speaker 1: Biden's twenty twenty turnout would have won this election. And
Speaker 1: Biden's twenty twenty turnout includes some parts of the Democratic
Speaker 1: base who clearly did not come out. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, instead of trying to convert voters, which is
Speaker 1: clearly kind of a losing game, because she went around
Speaker 1: with Liz Cheney, who was very brave, but at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, the Democratic base is not for
Speaker 1: Liz Cheney. Right, That's the neocons, and that's a pretty
Speaker 1: small group. And I said, you know, perhaps maybe taking
Speaker 1: care of the base and some of their concerns when
Speaker 1: it comes to any number of things that may not
Speaker 1: have been.
Speaker 2: Addressed, would be useful. And everyone just looked at me baffled.
Speaker 5: Really same alling, that's because you talk to actual people.
Speaker 5: And so because you talk to actual people, you are
Speaker 5: sometimes what you say seems foreign to people that are
Speaker 5: only talking to people that go on TV and folks
Speaker 5: that you know, haven't been to the Costco and lord
Speaker 5: knows how long and Instagart and Amazon Fresh all their groceries.
Speaker 4: The reality is you are correct. Now, let me just
Speaker 4: say this.
Speaker 5: When the vice president was doing the tour with former
Speaker 5: congress Woman Cheney, someone that I used to work with
Speaker 5: called me and they were like, are you watching this
Speaker 5: right now? And I said, oh, let me time to
Speaker 5: TV on. So I've turned the TV and I'm like, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 5: and they're like, what do you think. I said, well,
Speaker 5: I actually don't have a problem with this. Frankly, I
Speaker 5: think it's right. I think it's a good bit. I
Speaker 5: think it's good lair. I think that people would love
Speaker 5: if the Vice president also did this for base voters.
Speaker 5: Like what people saw and you know, as someone again
Speaker 5: who who'll spent a lot of time in my former
Speaker 5: life within the Democratic Party apparatus working campaigns, you cannot
Speaker 5: go into communities and broadcast on television like what people
Speaker 5: saw and gleaned from all of this is that, Oh,
Speaker 5: look at the vice president and the campaign and Democrats,
Speaker 5: because really what it is they say Democrats and they
Speaker 5: just Democrats just to catch off for all of them.
Speaker 5: Look at them taking questions and talking to Republican white
Speaker 5: people that I mean.
Speaker 2: That's because that's what it looks like.
Speaker 5: She took She went around the country Molly and took
Speaker 5: question She did a very few town halls, and when
Speaker 5: she did do them that the campaign orchestrated themselves. It
Speaker 5: was she was sitting there with the Liz Cheney and
Speaker 5: then took questions from white voters and battleground states and
Speaker 5: never did that for based Democratic voters. The campaign went
Speaker 5: into Philadelphia, did a did a barbershop talk and then
Speaker 5: didn't bring the press, Like what is going on? They
Speaker 5: recorded it for themselves, edited it and put it out
Speaker 5: where nobody watched it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: What another thing that I want to talk to you
Speaker 1: about with this election. Was one of the things that
Speaker 1: I noticed is that this White House, the Biden White House,
Speaker 1: did this thing where they became intentionally boring in order
Speaker 1: to avoid coverage. It made sense in the beginning, right,
Speaker 1: but then at some point they like, why.
Speaker 2: Is no one covering us?
Speaker 1: And it was too late, and so all of a
Speaker 1: sudden they were like, no, no, we did all this
Speaker 1: good stuff and none of you covered it. And I
Speaker 1: think that at the end of the day, like all
Speaker 1: Donald Trump does is PR right, he is out there
Speaker 1: doing pr PR, PR PR. Is he lying, for sure,
Speaker 1: but PR PR PR. And then we had the Harris
Speaker 1: campaign and they were as tight as the Biden White House,
Speaker 1: and they did so few interviews and they did so
Speaker 1: little of this and so little of that. And Trump
Speaker 1: was out there and again he didn't need to be
Speaker 1: on cable news, right, he could just be on podcasts,
Speaker 1: but he was out there for hours and hours and
Speaker 1: hours on every fucking thing, and really, really, really, I
Speaker 1: think helped him, and it.
Speaker 2: Was too late for her in some ways.
Speaker 5: Well, I guess two things. One, and you know, folk
Speaker 5: out there may have forgotten. I used to work at
Speaker 5: the Biden White House, right, I was there for the
Speaker 5: first year.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I don't mean to criticize you, but.
Speaker 5: Some of the criticism is absolutely warranted because the president
Speaker 5: did not prioritize the importance of Again, as we just
Speaker 5: talked about, like people, when something happens in the world,
Speaker 5: people still turn on the television, Like the TV is
Speaker 5: still important. It's not the only place, but it is
Speaker 5: still a place that is very, very, very important. I
Speaker 5: think the president's team did not prioritize the importance of
Speaker 5: putting him on television and putting him out there right like.
Speaker 5: He did not do a lot of interviews, not with
Speaker 5: traditional media and not with the non traditional media apparatus.
Speaker 5: I think that that is a function of it. But
Speaker 5: I do think that the media apparatus they did cover
Speaker 5: what the administration was doing. I think the real problem
Speaker 5: is is how the administration talked about it from the beginning,
Speaker 5: all the way once they achieved things, all the way
Speaker 5: through like the election, and the reality is is that
Speaker 5: again and this is why I talk about people that
Speaker 5: don't go to Costco haven't been to the Costco in
Speaker 5: a minute of its card at groceries. From the very
Speaker 5: beginning when I was at the White House, they were
Speaker 5: talking about transitory inflation. I remember coming out of a
Speaker 5: meeting and you know, when I worked at the White House,
Speaker 5: I was I would, you know, my team would write
Speaker 5: the talking points for the Vice President and when we
Speaker 5: go and brief heart. I remember going into a briefing
Speaker 5: and meeting and noting that, you know, giving the Vice
Speaker 5: president what the administration language is, and then that our
Speaker 5: suggestion is is that we don't use the term transitory inflation.
Speaker 5: From our perspective, for you, ma'am, we don't think you
Speaker 5: need to even talk about transitory inflation because what is that?
Speaker 4: But also I personally think it's needed people. But also
Speaker 4: it's not true. The inflation wasn't transitory.
Speaker 5: It was real, but they didn't know that because they
Speaker 5: weren't going to the grocery store. So part of it
Speaker 5: is is that the way that it was things were
Speaker 5: being talked about were just flying in the face of
Speaker 5: what people were experiencing.
Speaker 4: It is absolutely true.
Speaker 5: And if you look at you, I mean the president,
Speaker 5: as we had this conversations at the G twenty and
Speaker 5: when I talk to my former counterparts in other countries,
Speaker 5: you know, the former the spokespeople, well, now some of
Speaker 5: them are still the spokespeople, but the current spokespeople I'm
Speaker 5: former in other countries and the diplomats and whatnot. People
Speaker 5: particularly in Europe, wish to have America's recovery because it
Speaker 5: did recover the fastest out of all the G twenty
Speaker 5: countries COVID from inflation, Like America's not dealing with what.
Speaker 4: Some of the other countries are are are still reeling from.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because we have immigrants.
Speaker 4: Well, come on, Molly, now it's something we didn't help
Speaker 4: the situation. Yeah, in the Europe.
Speaker 5: So I say that to say that, like when the
Speaker 5: President and others and people within the administration would say
Speaker 5: the you know, wager growth is up and the you know,
Speaker 5: the fastest, the best GDP record GDP growth and the
Speaker 5: fastest recovery. All of that is true okay on paper,
Speaker 5: but like, what does record GDP growth mean for someone
Speaker 5: in north Omaha, Nebraska who's still working two jobs and
Speaker 5: struggling to you know, pay a bills like when the
Speaker 5: rent is too damn high and so On one hand,
Speaker 5: I think that it was too there was too much
Speaker 5: of a focus on the administration getting credit for the
Speaker 5: real work that has been done right the Internet that
Speaker 5: has been laid across the communities, the record, infrastructure projects,
Speaker 5: all of that is great. Yes, yes, and when the record,
Speaker 5: when the history books recorded, Joe Biden is going to
Speaker 5: be one of the greatest American presidents because what is
Speaker 5: mine stration has done is remarkable.
Speaker 4: However, the rent.
Speaker 5: Too damn high, the housing is unattainable, and grow the
Speaker 5: bacon is nine dollars, So like, can we talk about
Speaker 5: doing some about the nine dollar bacon? What about the housing?
Speaker 5: Even though the administration was doing those was they were
Speaker 5: working on those things. The appraisals, right, the discriminatory appraisal process,
Speaker 5: they were working on all of that, but they were
Speaker 5: not talking about it. So the Vice president's campaign pops
Speaker 5: up and she's like, well, you know, we're gonna take
Speaker 5: on price gouging. And I think that that's like that
Speaker 5: that is more of an answer to what the American
Speaker 5: people were dealing with right now. She talks about her
Speaker 5: housing plan. However, maybe one of the one of the
Speaker 5: things the takeaways is maybe how she talked about it
Speaker 5: did not resonate as much and needed more of a
Speaker 5: populus twist. And so instead of like price gouging, it's
Speaker 5: like the companies are taking advantage of you. They raised
Speaker 5: the prices during COVID. Okay, COVID's over and the price
Speaker 5: is still up. It's like, yes, dam you right down,
Speaker 5: they're greedy. But that's not how it was put forward.
Speaker 5: But I would just say that you cannot This is
Speaker 5: a long way be saying. In elections, you have to
Speaker 5: make a decision. And as you said earlier, you were like,
Speaker 5: you know, I don't know if these were turnable voters
Speaker 5: in terms of these you know, the who are the
Speaker 5: who was the list Chandey voters that was going to
Speaker 5: vote for Colin Harris. You have to make a decision
Speaker 5: in the campaigns, especially when a finite amount of time.
Speaker 4: Do you want to be right or do you want
Speaker 4: to win? Do you want people to see your perspective.
Speaker 5: Do you want to win them over to that old
Speaker 5: the economy is actually better than what you think it is.
Speaker 4: Or do you want to win?
Speaker 5: And if you want to win, you need to meet
Speaker 5: the voter where they are, understand where the voter is,
Speaker 5: and earn their vote. And I think for far too
Speaker 5: long the calculus was if we just tell people they
Speaker 5: just we just got to explain it more bid.
Speaker 4: Nomics, what the hell is that?
Speaker 3: I said.
Speaker 4: I was like, leave, what is bionomics? They can't explain it?
Speaker 4: Reagan nomics rom Reagan didn't name his stuff. Okay, he
Speaker 4: didn't do that. The press coin the term after the fact.
Speaker 5: So also, when people say, oh, they don't like the economy,
Speaker 5: I don't believe that they don't like Joe Biden's policies,
Speaker 5: because Joe Biden's economic policies are good.
Speaker 4: Write thirty five dollars cap on insulin.
Speaker 5: Job creation, like, we're making stuff in America now, literally
Speaker 5: infrastructure we can manufacture in this back in America. However,
Speaker 5: what people associated with Bidenomics is inflation and all this
Speaker 5: other stuff that don't got none to do with Joe
Speaker 5: Biden did because they wanted to put a fancy term
Speaker 5: on the Democrats.
Speaker 4: Just stop putting termo things. Just say what the hell
Speaker 4: it is that you're doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, yep, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: I love you and I appreciate you. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Molly.
Speaker 4: I just I can't, I just really can't.
Speaker 5: So you know, I wish, you know, I wish a
Speaker 5: Democratic Party apparrett as well, and they soul search it.
Speaker 4: But I guess I would.
Speaker 5: Just say in closing that what I am watching for
Speaker 5: is just, you know, how Democrats respond to this moment,
Speaker 5: the reality that they are now living in, or if
Speaker 5: you're a Democrat on Capitol Hill where the President, the Presidency,
Speaker 5: the Senate, and the House, all the Republicans have it all,
Speaker 5: and they are emboldened, they feel emboldened like they can't
Speaker 5: play politics as usual. The Democrats can't like, please give
Speaker 5: people something. People don't want Democrats to be against against
Speaker 5: against im that's going to get them elected. But they
Speaker 5: do have to have some a strategy and plan and
Speaker 5: then what are they going to do about the party
Speaker 5: going forward? There's an election in twenty twenty five in Virginia,
Speaker 5: midterm elections around the corner. Who are they gonna pick
Speaker 5: for a DNC chair? How are Democrats really going to
Speaker 5: take their stories to the next level?
Speaker 4: And are they going to.
Speaker 5: Tuck their tail between their legs and retreat and then
Speaker 5: try to be you know, continue they keep talking about
Speaker 5: the tent not big enough. It is a goddamn circus. Okay,
Speaker 5: I don't know how much bigger than tent, but don't
Speaker 5: probably right aside could get. But you know, we just
Speaker 5: gonna have to wait and see my thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. You are the greatest. Thank you.
Speaker 4: I appreciate you.
Speaker 2: Amanda Liman is the co founder of Room for Something.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Fast Politics, Amandalipman.
Speaker 4: Always happy to chat.
Speaker 3: Mollie.
Speaker 1: You are on maternity leave, but you are doing this
Speaker 1: for me because you are awesome.
Speaker 4: We'll hope the baby keeps sleeping all the chat.
Speaker 1: Yes, and that is the most important thing, is that
Speaker 1: you are awesome and that you are one of the
Speaker 1: people who keeps me from despairing. So the reason why
Speaker 1: I reached out to you was because I was reading
Speaker 1: Rebecca Traster's excellent piece about what resistance two point zero.
Speaker 1: I know Jesse doesn't only go when I say resistance
Speaker 1: but for lack of a better word, might look like,
Speaker 1: and you gave her probably the one piece of data
Speaker 1: that made me not want to die.
Speaker 2: So discuss.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, I was really not sure what this
Speaker 6: would look like. When we were doing all of our
Speaker 6: scenario planning for Run for Something, which, as your listeners,
Speaker 6: probably no recruits and supports young leaders running for local
Speaker 6: office all across the country. We were like, maybe people
Speaker 6: want to run, or maybe everyone will be so demoralized
Speaker 6: and so defeated, they will want to hide into a
Speaker 6: cocoon and do nothing but watch trashy television and read
Speaker 6: romance novels until this is all of our What I
Speaker 6: have been so pleasantly surprised by and so impact thrilled
Speaker 6: by is that in just the two weeks since election day,
Speaker 6: likely by the end of today, on Tuesday we're recording this,
Speaker 6: ten thousand people will have raised their hands to say
Speaker 6: they want to run for local office at some point
Speaker 6: in the future, which, for a point of comparison, in
Speaker 6: all of twenty seventeen we had fifteen thousand people sign up.
Speaker 6: Two weeks since election day, we're already two thirds of
Speaker 6: the way there.
Speaker 1: Sort of give me an example of someone, or just
Speaker 1: a sort of more vague example of someone who has
Speaker 1: reached out to you.
Speaker 6: You know, I have heard through my different social media platforms,
Speaker 6: because even on maternity leave, I am just scrolling through it.
Speaker 6: People are really fed up with democratic leadership. They really
Speaker 6: personally understand, and I think very clear i'dn strategically understand
Speaker 6: that moving forward, the state legislatures, city council, school boards
Speaker 6: are going to be really important places of power. Both
Speaker 6: to protect people, to mitigate harm, to ensure that the
Speaker 6: worst things Trump can do, if we have power to
Speaker 6: stop them, we can, and also to advance democratic policies.
Speaker 6: You know, I think about where we are in New York.
Speaker 6: It actually really really really matters to have good democratic
Speaker 6: leadership here that can really get shit done, can build housing,
Speaker 6: can make it a place people can afford to stay,
Speaker 6: both because New Yorkers deserve that, but also because if
Speaker 6: we don't, we're going to lose more population then we
Speaker 6: gain over the next couple of years and ultimately lose
Speaker 6: electoral College votes in twenty After twenty.
Speaker 1: Thirty exactly, Like, there's a lot of despair and a
Speaker 1: lot of people saying, wow, it's like twenty sixteen but worse.
Speaker 2: But it's not. And I want you to talk about why.
Speaker 6: You know, I think, unlike in twenty sixteen, we are
Speaker 6: not building a plane. While we fly the plane. There
Speaker 6: is already so much infrastructure that exists from run for something.
Speaker 6: You know, having been around for eight years and having
Speaker 6: all of these resources available for people who want to run,
Speaker 6: we've refined this program really well. We know how to
Speaker 6: do this at this point. No Indivisible, which didn't really
Speaker 6: get started until a couple weeks post election day. They
Speaker 6: are off to the races. They know what they're doing.
Speaker 6: Our local leaders, especially the politicians and local leaders who
Speaker 6: have come up in the last eight years and those
Speaker 6: who ran for office in twenty seventeen, eighteen, nineteen twenty,
Speaker 6: you know, they know exactly what they're able to do
Speaker 6: to stand up against Trump, to move things forward. And
Speaker 6: I think we are smarter, better, more strategic, and less
Speaker 6: willing to waste our time on stuff that doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Yes, less willing to waste our time on stuff that
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. Let's talk about that, because I just wrote
Speaker 1: about that this week, and it is like, I think
Speaker 1: one of the things I really love us all to
Speaker 1: be focusing on.
Speaker 2: Can you explain to us a little bit about that?
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, I think we've learned a lot in
Speaker 6: the last eight years about what is a good use
Speaker 6: of our time and what isn't Like picking and choosing
Speaker 6: these scandals to get outraged by. You know, some of
Speaker 6: that it's hard to know in the moment, but really
Speaker 6: focusing our fire on the things that will really harm people,
Speaker 6: and understanding that some protests can be really meaningful but
Speaker 6: not everything needs to be taken to the streets and
Speaker 6: they actually have to, you know, use that strategically. Thinking
Speaker 6: about you know, I look back on twenty sixteen. We
Speaker 6: used to call it like social justice socialites meeting, like
Speaker 6: the fun fancy clothes and the branded T shirts and
Speaker 6: the merch you know, was that bad? No? Was it
Speaker 6: the most strategic use of people's time and money?
Speaker 4: Probably not?
Speaker 6: And the final thing I think I would say is like, really,
Speaker 6: as we start to look ahead for what the future
Speaker 6: of the Democratic Party in particular looks like, are we
Speaker 6: doing things that build power? Are we doing things that last?
Speaker 6: Are we doing things that sustain your rear? Because that's
Speaker 6: one many ways how our Republican Party.
Speaker 2: Got here right right, right, right exactly.
Speaker 1: And I think that's a really really important point. Will
Speaker 1: you just tell our listeners some of the run for something,
Speaker 1: people who started in twenty sixteen who are now occupying
Speaker 1: the political space.
Speaker 4: I would be delighted too.
Speaker 6: So, you know, I think about Mallory McMorrow out in Michigan,
Speaker 6: who we worked with her in her twenty eighteen rac
Speaker 6: estate senator there, who has an incredible future and has
Speaker 6: shown what fighting sort of like insane Republican rhetoric looks
Speaker 6: like Zelner Myiri here in New York, who's running for
Speaker 6: mayor in twenty twenty five, who could be a real
Speaker 6: powerful force against Eric Adams. I think about Anna Escamani
Speaker 6: down in Florida, who flipped a seat red to blue
Speaker 6: back in twenty eighteen, has held it ever since then
Speaker 6: in the state House. Even this year, she won a
Speaker 6: couple precincts in her district that Trump also won outside Orlando.
Speaker 6: Is going to be an incredible fighter in the Florida
Speaker 6: State legislature.
Speaker 2: But those are all great examples. And Mallard mcmarrow.
Speaker 1: So here's a woman who went into state legislature, which
Speaker 1: is not like being a senator, but she actually was
Speaker 1: able to sort of permeate the news bubble and become
Speaker 1: a national presence.
Speaker 2: Can you talk about that?
Speaker 6: Yeah, So back in twenty twenty two feels like a
Speaker 6: lifetime ago.
Speaker 2: Right, ten thousand years ago?
Speaker 6: Yes, a Republican state senator in Michigan sent a fundraising
Speaker 6: email to their list, cauling Mallory mcmore a Gloomer. Mallory
Speaker 6: took to the State Senate floor and gave a speech
Speaker 6: that very clearly called that out for the bullshit. That
Speaker 6: it was talked about what it meant to be like
Speaker 6: a mom like her, what it means to stand up
Speaker 6: against hate, what it means to fight for kids, which
Speaker 6: she has been doing. You know, she called I'm a
Speaker 6: straight white Christian, married suburban mom, she said each and
Speaker 6: ended up raising ultimately millions of dollars or Democrats across
Speaker 6: the country and in Michigan to help build power there.
Speaker 1: Right, And that was just an example of like at
Speaker 1: the state legislature, stuff happens that if Democrats are not there,
Speaker 1: Democrats cannot push back against it.
Speaker 2: Right, That's right.
Speaker 6: And I think it's proof of the kind of leadership
Speaker 6: that really makes a difference right now, which is not
Speaker 6: letting them get away with insulting their opponents, with insulting
Speaker 6: their constituents with the kind of ridiculous language that we
Speaker 6: know the Republicans like to use and throw with the
Speaker 6: Democrats and that often will roll over and take without
Speaker 6: a fight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's really important. Now I want you
Speaker 1: to talk about I'm going to do something really mean
Speaker 1: to you. One of the things that there's been a
Speaker 1: lot of talk about is what Democrats should do differently.
Speaker 1: And I have really tried to steer away from that
Speaker 1: because I don't really know.
Speaker 2: But I'm wondering if you are.
Speaker 1: Like actually on the ground and you're talking to candidates
Speaker 1: and you're so I'm hoping you could actually give us
Speaker 1: a sort of more.
Speaker 2: You know, it can be anything you want.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: I think it's worth noting we don't know what we
Speaker 6: know yet. We're not going to know until the voter
Speaker 6: fil comes back. Exit polls are notoriously wrong, and I've
Speaker 6: been done counting all the votes yet in places like
Speaker 6: you know, North Carolina, they're still races.
Speaker 4: They're too close to call. California, they're not done yet.
Speaker 4: So blank at caveat.
Speaker 6: We don't know anything, and it's worth not over learning
Speaker 6: things from this election. It was a chant election in
Speaker 6: light of a global anti incumbency wave, in light of inflation.
Speaker 6: You know, I think President Biden had a tough time
Speaker 6: selling his record, the fact that he couldn't do and
Speaker 6: didn't do a ton of interviews over his first term,
Speaker 6: the extent why people didn't really know what he had
Speaker 6: done looking forward. I think the Democratic Party, and in
Speaker 6: particular I'm really striving me crazy. When people talk about
Speaker 6: the Democratic Party, is if it's all unified actors. So
Speaker 6: in particular, the democratic funding ecosystem needs to think more
Speaker 6: long term about what we are building. We need to
Speaker 6: build communications infrastructure that includes media, that includes influencers, that includes,
Speaker 6: you know, thinking about the messengers that we have on
Speaker 6: the ground. We need to build organizing infrastructure that exists
Speaker 6: year over year. And we need to think long term
Speaker 6: about the kind of leaders we want this party to
Speaker 6: have moving forward, and we need to do it in
Speaker 6: all fifties states. I cannot tell you how many times
Speaker 6: when I was trying to raise money for run for
Speaker 6: something really over the last eight years, and I would
Speaker 6: get asked by funders, well, we like what you do,
Speaker 6: we think it's important, but why do you do it
Speaker 6: outside of the presidential battlegrounds? Like I don't care what
Speaker 6: happens in New York or Idaho or Oklahoma or California.
Speaker 6: And we have seen now.
Speaker 2: That is insane, by the way.
Speaker 6: I know, politically and practically, that is stupid.
Speaker 4: It is very, very stupid.
Speaker 6: It is really really important to have dread democratic leadership
Speaker 6: everywhere and to show Democrats fighting everywhere. So I hope
Speaker 6: that moving forward in particular, and I think this is
Speaker 6: a money and resource allocation problem. They're people who have
Speaker 6: the ideas to do it, they just don't have the
Speaker 6: resources to do it. To build year round infrastructure, especially
Speaker 6: around communications and organizing, and to ensure that our messengers
Speaker 6: reflect the people we want to reach, that we've got
Speaker 6: more working class candidates, more candidates who are renters, more
Speaker 6: candidates who have dealt with the housing market more recently,
Speaker 6: more candidates who are part of the Sandwich generation who
Speaker 6: are experiencing you know, aging parents and young kids. All
Speaker 6: of that will make us better at connecting with the
Speaker 6: voters we need to reach.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a really good point.
Speaker 1: I want you to just explain to our listeners why
Speaker 1: it's actually like as bad as this feels right now
Speaker 1: to a lot of us, and it really feels bad.
Speaker 2: I have to be honest.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping you could talk to us about, like why
Speaker 1: you think there are possible bright spots here.
Speaker 6: You know, I think my bright spot right now is
Speaker 6: that Trump's shtick doesn't work for anyone else. We saw
Speaker 6: this in the Republican presidential primary. Ron De Santis falls
Speaker 6: flat on his face.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 6: JD Vance might be vice president, but his approval ratings
Speaker 6: starting the campaign like people hate him, even republic hate him.
Speaker 6: The Republican bench is all crazy people and people who
Speaker 6: are like have no charisma and are loathable. So if
Speaker 6: we can get through the four next four years, and
Speaker 6: I don't know, we'll see I hope. So I think
Speaker 6: so if we can get through the next.
Speaker 4: Four years, they are beatable.
Speaker 6: We can win in the midterms, which we will still have. Midterms.
Speaker 6: Elections are not rocked with the federal government. They're run
Speaker 6: by states and cities and counties and municipalities. Is a
Speaker 6: centralized system. We will have more elections if we can
Speaker 6: get through this, which many people won't. It will be
Speaker 6: sad and it will be hard, it will be soul crushing.
Speaker 6: But they are beatable. The Republican Party outside of Trump
Speaker 6: is not that popular. And even like you look at
Speaker 6: the down ballot voting, the fact that there is such
Speaker 6: a thing as a Trump Baldwin or a Trump sluckin,
Speaker 6: or a Trump any of the down ballot candidates in
Speaker 6: North Carolina.
Speaker 2: A Trump diego right.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the Republican Party down ballot did not do as
Speaker 6: well as it should have given how much Trump went by.
Speaker 6: So I think that is my sort of political bright spot.
Speaker 6: The other bright spot I see is that we are
Speaker 6: further along when it comes to colding state and local
Speaker 6: offices than we were the last time Trump was in office.
Speaker 6: So hopefully we will be able to do a little
Speaker 6: more good in some of these places.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that's a really really really good, important
Speaker 1: and salient point. And also more importantly, just we have
Speaker 1: to hold on right now to the good and to
Speaker 1: really be able to see that there is brightness here
Speaker 1: and that there are reasons not to despair, because autocrats
Speaker 1: really want you to despair.
Speaker 3: They do.
Speaker 6: And you know, even the last you know, two weeks
Speaker 6: ago in this election, there were bright spots. We helped
Speaker 6: a young woman, Emma Curtis in Lexington, Kentucky, become the
Speaker 6: first transperson elected to a city council seat in the
Speaker 6: entire state. She'd beat an incumbent in this race, showing
Speaker 6: that people like her and across the country deserve to
Speaker 6: be in positions of power. We flipped state ledge seats,
Speaker 6: rumbers on thing alone, flip state ledge seats in Kentucky
Speaker 6: and Iowa and North Carolina and Washington State. It was
Speaker 6: it was a bad night. I don't want to pretend
Speaker 6: like toxic positivity or it was bad, But there are
Speaker 6: spots across the country where we show that our candidates
Speaker 6: and our values can win out, and we just got
Speaker 6: to take our cues from those leaders and keep giving
Speaker 6: them the resources they need.
Speaker 1: It's a really good point. You are getting so many
Speaker 1: more people than you were before. So what do you think,
Speaker 1: I mean, what does that mean?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 6: I think that means that there is an incredible appetite
Speaker 6: for taking power back. There is a desire a demand
Speaker 6: for the services that run for something provides, which I
Speaker 6: am so glad we exist last time around, because it's
Speaker 6: part of the reason we created this organization, because in
Speaker 6: twenty sixteen, if you wanted to run, there was nowhere
Speaker 6: you could go right after election day.
Speaker 4: Now there is.
Speaker 6: We are here and we're able to help them. So
Speaker 6: I am hopeful that in twenty twenty five and the
Speaker 6: tens of thousands of local elections that we're going to have,
Speaker 6: and in statewides in New Jersey and Virginia, and even
Speaker 6: in big municipal elections like here in New York, that
Speaker 6: we're going to be able to elect really good people,
Speaker 6: and that in twenty twenty six we're going to have
Speaker 6: an incredible midterm cycle because Republicans are not going to
Speaker 6: be able to deliver on many of the promises they've made,
Speaker 6: and the ones that they are are going to really
Speaker 6: hurt people. So I am glad to see a surgeon
Speaker 6: candidate signing up and I really, really really believe that
Speaker 6: run for something and the rest of the broader ecosystem
Speaker 6: will be there to help them get across the finish line.
Speaker 2: So important.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you, Amanda Littman, no problem anytime.
Speaker 2: Miy no, no moment, see.
Speaker 3: Cannon Molly drama, drama, drama is happening with this Matt
Speaker 3: Gates nomination for AG So much going on? What are
Speaker 3: you seeing here?
Speaker 1: Trump has put up a bunch of nominees for confirmation
Speaker 1: for cabinet positions.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what happens. Every time I think of
Speaker 3: all his nominations, the Adams Family theme comes in my head.
Speaker 3: You know, they're crazy and they're kooky.
Speaker 2: So some are worse than others.
Speaker 1: Ones like Marco Rubio, we might not totally agree on,
Speaker 1: but are not beyond the pale. But one of them
Speaker 1: that's quite scary is Matt Gates for Attorneys General. Being
Speaker 1: Attorney general is really as you know, it's a big job.
Speaker 2: You lead the DOJ. You have all of these people,
Speaker 2: you know, And.
Speaker 1: Remember bat Gates was waiting on an ethics investigation that
Speaker 1: was about to be released. So now it looks like
Speaker 1: that ethics investigation is probably going to leak. The attorney
Speaker 1: for two of the women is really furious and out there.
Speaker 1: The women are on television. There are more women. The
Speaker 1: stories involved paying for sex, trying to get drugs, underage girls,
Speaker 1: crossing state lines again, paying for sex. Don't I want
Speaker 1: to reiterate, we don't know that, but we know that
Speaker 1: there were venmo payments to women.
Speaker 2: He then later had relations to this, so we.
Speaker 3: Also learned that pay Pal payments came from his son Nester, Right.
Speaker 1: So the point is there's clearly a lot of stuff here,
Speaker 1: and this is a job that's all about using the
Speaker 1: law in a good way to help people. So we'll
Speaker 1: see what happens. May this may go to confirmation. Trump
Speaker 1: may try to do it as a Reese's appointment. It
Speaker 1: may die in the next three months, because remember, as
Speaker 1: much as Trump is about to have a lot of power,
Speaker 1: he doesn't have it yet. That's it for this episode
Speaker 1: of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and
Speaker 1: Saturday to hear the best minds and politics make sense
Speaker 1: of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast, please
Speaker 1: send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.