0:01

Dims keep winning and the margin for

0:03

speaker Moses Johnson keeps getting smaller. House

0:06

Republicans were for a border bill before they were

0:08

against it, but now they are totally for it

0:10

again. Even the White House is saying,

0:13

make it make sense. If at first you

0:15

don't succeed in impeaching an obscure cabinet secretary for the

0:17

first time in 150 years, try, try again. Before

0:21

you lose, you have another seat to the Democrats. Sure,

0:24

one guy is a monster that wants to

0:26

destroy NATO, let Russia invade Europe and dismantle

0:28

the government. At least he is four years

0:30

younger than the other guy. A whole

0:32

bunch of editorializing and a report that

0:34

exonerates President Biden sure feels like a

0:37

flashback to 2016, probably because it

0:39

is. Our chiefs won the Super

0:41

Bowl again. I can say hour because Robbie's

0:43

not with us this week. Our

0:46

chiefs won the Super Bowl again, even after Taylor

0:48

Swift clearly sabotaged the whole season. We were told

0:50

many times, well, that's three Super Bowls in the

0:52

last five years and counting. Welcome back

0:54

to the podcast for the 54% of

0:56

Americans who vote for progress in every election. I

0:59

want to convince their conservative friends and family

1:01

members to join a majority. This

1:03

is majority 54. Ravi

1:06

is in India for a reporting project. I'm

1:08

joined by my friend and fellow army veteran

1:10

Fred Wellman, the host of On Democracy with

1:12

F.P. Wellman, right here on Friday nights on

1:15

the Midas Touch Network. That's

1:17

great to be here. Thank

1:19

you for having me, man. Thank you for having me.

1:21

Thank you for being on here with me. All

1:24

right, man. You get to do the Ravi thing and tell us

1:26

what's going on. Demps keep winning.

1:29

I mean, we're coming off a

1:31

great night last night, right? There

1:33

was some polls that was a lot closer than

1:35

it was. You know, Mr. Swazi was supposed to

1:37

just be like a one or two point margin

1:39

and they won. And

1:41

the special election goes to Dems further making

1:43

that majority that they have even smaller than

1:46

it was. I think that's why we'll

1:48

talk about some of the other things they did because of

1:50

that. But I think that's the story, right? We just keep

1:52

seeing. I mean, in addition yesterday, you may not have heard

1:55

there was a special election in Pennsylvania for

1:57

open state House seat. Dems won that.

2:00

giving them a 102 to 100 margin defending a

2:02

seat. And it's like my friend, Simon

2:05

Roseberg always says, we just keep winning. You can

2:07

talk polls all you want, but for the Democrats

2:09

are showing that they can have the turnout, they

2:11

have the right messaging, and it's

2:13

also working. So I think he won, what

2:15

was it? 7.5

2:17

points, 8 point win last night, which is, yeah,

2:20

I mean, that's a solid win. And what was

2:22

funny is you woke up today and they're already

2:24

blaming, you know, they're

2:26

already saying it was somebody else's fault. You know,

2:29

it's just they're making excuses on the realities. But

2:31

I mean, what do you think, Jane? I mean,

2:33

what does it say with their messaging? Because they're

2:35

talking border, border, border, and it didn't

2:37

seem to work, did it? Well, yeah, it

2:40

does seem like, and I know we

2:42

have a clip we'll go to in a second that sort of tees

2:44

this up, but that it was sort

2:46

of this standard midterm lack

2:48

of substance thing where when they don't

2:50

have much to say, they

2:52

just talk about brown people, and I'm

2:54

not saying that there aren't issues at

2:56

the border. I'm not saying that, particularly

2:59

in New York, that there aren't major

3:01

migrant issues, but they really

3:03

leaned on that hard and

3:05

it really didn't work out for them. So

3:07

with that, let's go ahead and speaking of Simon Rosenberg,

3:09

let's throw to that clip from MSNBC.

3:13

If you lived through this campaign

3:15

in New York, your television was

3:17

bombarded with the Democratic

3:20

ads, the Swazi campaign ads,

3:22

which were about abortion rights

3:24

and preserving abortion rights. And

3:26

then the Republican ads were

3:28

all about the southern border.

3:30

Those two issues went

3:33

to war on television in

3:35

big budget campaigns. And

3:37

one of those issues won big.

3:41

It's another warning sign for a party

3:43

that is broken, broken right now, the Republican

3:45

Party, because, you know, what we

3:48

know from history is that the issue of

3:50

immigration and the border never rises up to

3:52

a top tier issue. They don't win general

3:54

elections on immigration, the border. They may win

3:56

primary races. If you remember, in 2018, from. spent

4:00

the last month of the 2018 midterm cycle

4:02

talking about the caravans and the invasion at

4:04

the border. And we won that election by

4:06

eight and a half points. And

4:08

that's because for most voters, there are

4:10

just things that matter more than the

4:12

border and immigration. It doesn't mean they're

4:14

not important. It's just that the economy,

4:17

health care, abortion rights, reproductive rights, other

4:19

things matter more. And when

4:21

Republicans have historically tried to

4:23

turn immigration into a general election

4:26

issue, they've repeatedly failed. And

4:28

I think the Republicans, I just can, if I can say

4:31

one more thing really quickly, is that I think the

4:33

danger now for the Republican Party is that all these

4:35

talking points they have about Biden and the Democrats have

4:37

evaporated in the last couple of months. The

4:40

economy is strong. We're not in recession. Inflation

4:42

is way down. Crime is way down all

4:44

across the country. We're not going through a crime

4:46

wave in the United States. There is no war

4:49

on energy. We produce more domestic renewables and oil

4:51

than any year in history. And

4:53

the one area where they still retained

4:55

an advantage was on border and immigration.

4:57

They lost on it tonight and they

4:59

also grossly mismanaged the issue and handed

5:01

it to us last week. All

5:04

of their advantages on all the major issues are evaporating

5:06

right now and they're in a lot of trouble, I

5:08

think, in 2024. So

5:12

the first thing that pops out to me

5:14

about this, Fred, is that what

5:17

I think we should be, what

5:20

should guard our optimism a little is

5:22

that I do think that the Republicans

5:25

ate it really hard on immigration just

5:27

in the week prior to this special

5:29

election. I

5:33

mean, because they had

5:35

this bipartisan bill that everybody thought was

5:37

pretty legit and then they just looked

5:39

like fools. And I think

5:41

that's not going to happen probably right before

5:44

the next election. Oh, man,

5:46

that might be dumb to me. I go back to,

5:48

if you look at Virginia, Virginia, they thought they really

5:50

had it figured out the Virginia election just last November.

5:53

One goes around saying we've got the formula for

5:55

going to be my abortions 15 months

5:57

or 15 weeks. This is going to be it.

5:59

And then voters rejected it. They retook the Senate, or

6:02

they kept the Senate, they flipped the house there.

6:04

That wasn't the message. Now they thought, okay, this

6:06

election is gonna be, it's a border, border, border,

6:08

border. Well, then they refused to accept

6:10

a bipartisan bill that had been engineered by their

6:12

own members, and they flipped

6:14

that, and that fell on their face, that message.

6:16

And the thing about, we got talked about too,

6:18

Jason, is Swazi went hard at board. He showed

6:20

up at one of his opponents'

6:23

press conferences and asked her a hard question, like,

6:25

would you have voted for the bill? Why did

6:27

you vote against it? The interesting thing they've done

6:29

is they've presented an opportunity for Democrats saying, but

6:31

we're working on it, and you refuse

6:33

to do so. So it is gonna be a messaging.

6:35

And look, I always say, you know, do you ever

6:37

see me talk, I always say the same thing about

6:39

polls and about elections. You're an

6:41

elected official. You know, I'm a campaign hack.

6:45

Whenever somebody says to me, well, if the election

6:47

was held tomorrow, I always say, well, but it's

6:49

not. Right, I mean, it's February, right? You know

6:51

what I mean? Like, a lot can happen in

6:53

politics, right? I mean, you know, so, but, you

6:55

know, we are in a role, but we've also

6:57

been saying, oh, be cautious, be cautious, but we're

6:59

winning elections. I guess that counts for a lot,

7:01

right? Well, it's also like, if the election were

7:03

held tomorrow, that would be weird because we've been

7:05

preparing for the election to be held in November,

7:07

which is why we've been managing the way we

7:09

have to. Right, exactly, yeah. But, you know, the

7:12

other thing I think about this, about the immigration

7:14

issue, that hopefully remains the case in

7:16

November, is that, you

7:18

know, we always talk about how difficult it is

7:20

for the opposing party to win when the economy

7:22

is trending upward. But I think

7:25

it is particularly difficult to get traction

7:28

on the immigration issue when the

7:30

economy is trending upward. Because,

7:33

you know, the heart,

7:36

like at the heart of really making

7:39

that issue move persuadable voters, I

7:41

think, is having someone

7:43

to blame a bad economy on. And that

7:45

means you gotta have a bad economy in

7:47

the first place to get, to create that

7:50

anxiety that'll give people a scapegoat. And

7:52

when the economy, when people feel like it's

7:55

turning in the right direction, it's

7:57

not that they necessarily change their views on

7:59

immigration. It just seems like maybe they they

8:01

don't prioritize that issue quite as Right,

8:05

that's exactly it It's just it's a very nebulous issue

8:08

because as much as a lot to want to say

8:10

it affects them You know, I live

8:12

in st. Louis you live outside Kansas City. It

8:14

doesn't affect me Hold

8:17

on I live in Kansas City. I want to be I want to

8:19

be clear I

8:25

don't want people thinking I've moved to the suburbs. We'll go

8:27

go ahead. We can't have that I forgot you're right, you

8:29

know, so but having said that it doesn't affect me on

8:31

a daily basis going to get gas does Going

8:34

to get eggs when they were doubled price last year.

8:36

They are now that does affect me There's certain comes

8:38

a certain point. I think we're the daily life of

8:40

an average American Denies the lies

8:42

they're being told right? So it's like, okay They're gonna keep

8:44

telling us this is huge as big but as much as

8:46

they want to pound the issue It's not affecting them and

8:49

I think I say a lot and going back to the

8:51

abortion issue Before we move on to the lack

8:53

of dysfunction on their side too, which is another issue

8:57

I said a lot I did a whole

8:59

piece on it a while ago women aren't

9:01

forgetting like You're a woman cannot forget that

9:03

her rights were taken away There

9:06

was that the political punishment class, which I guess

9:08

we may be part of now It

9:10

says well, you know, I'm a campaign hack I

9:12

told you in the campaign hack rule is you

9:14

do all the really tough stuff early in the

9:16

administration or early in the term So

9:18

voters have two years to forget or four years to

9:20

forget what you did, right? Women

9:23

are never given the opportunity to forget that their

9:25

rights for an abortion takeaway here in Missouri Where

9:28

you know the Senate just voted down a carve

9:31

out for abortion a rape and incest They decided

9:33

not to push that one of the guy running

9:35

for governor said because listen would allow one year

9:37

olds to get abortions You

9:39

know, I assure you women

9:41

aren't gonna forget that and

9:44

so I do think there's issues like you're right

9:46

That will go away the border dysfunction will go

9:48

away But the big issues that

9:50

we're running on there that are really bipartisan

9:52

issues an article came out just today I

9:54

think in the single-sposed to passing even the

9:56

majority of Missourians Missourians believe

9:58

women should have in some form of

10:00

a right to abortion. So I gotta

10:03

tell you, man, I think as much as the Pundry might

10:05

say it's a while to the election, the

10:07

issues that matter are effective people on a daily basis,

10:09

both good and bad for those who are on the

10:11

progressive side. And then that course goes into the

10:13

dysfunction. Then we go into, I think

10:16

we have a clip coming up that writes Salty

10:18

about how the reporters were there in

10:20

the ground in New York talking to

10:22

actual voters. And the answers they got, I

10:24

think Dana Bashard actually seemed surprised by what

10:26

you heard. I mean, you had that clip

10:28

Salty? I heard from voters

10:30

that they were very, now these are obviously

10:34

very well informed voters, but they were at

10:36

the polling station, they were voting early. And

10:39

several of them said to me

10:41

that they don't want

10:44

to vote for the Republican

10:46

because it's clearly impossible to get

10:48

a solution on the issue of immigration.

10:50

They said border, the border

10:52

problem, the immigration issue, the migrant issue

10:55

in their district was a top issue

10:57

for them. And that

10:59

the fact that Republicans killed that

11:01

bipartisan deal put them over

11:03

the edge to vote for Tom Swazee and

11:07

immigration was their top issue. So I think that there's

11:09

some. So I

11:11

thought that was really interesting because that to

11:13

me is the argument that this could potentially

11:15

be a point in time because

11:18

the legislative procedural bit

11:20

of this will be unfortunately

11:22

somewhat forgotten in several months. But let's go

11:24

to that other clip that we have in

11:26

that spot that is saying

11:28

something similar but different. You're

11:31

looking for trend lines ahead of November and

11:33

you're hoping to hold on to what

11:35

is a swing district for yourself as

11:37

well. Obviously, I talked to two voters

11:40

today who voted for Donald Trump in

11:42

2016, turned

11:44

around and voted for the

11:46

Democrats in this race, voted for

11:48

Tom Swazee because they sent

11:50

his message on bipartisanship and the

11:53

fact that House Republicans have

11:55

really struggled to pass legislation over

11:57

the last couple of weeks.

12:00

impact of the way they were looking at this

12:02

race. And if you're a Democrat running in

12:04

these swing districts, running in a suburban

12:06

district, that's the kind of message, that's

12:08

the kind of playbook that you want

12:10

to emulate in November. So obviously... So

12:14

what's interesting to me about that Fred is like,

12:16

one, I think some of

12:18

that is repeatable in legislative elections. Like

12:20

if this were a midterm, what

12:23

I worry about is how repeatable that is.

12:25

Because those voters who vote for Trump, they

12:28

may have, and look, there's not that many of them,

12:30

but there's enough that they say, well strategically what I

12:32

want right now, I'm mad at the Republicans in Congress.

12:34

Heck, they might be mad at the Republicans in Congress

12:36

because they didn't go far enough, whatever. But

12:39

either way, they're mad. But

12:42

it doesn't necessarily mean to me that they won't vote

12:44

for Trump. So we still have more work

12:46

to do, I guess is my point. Yeah,

12:48

no, you're right. And that's the theme here,

12:50

isn't it? I always say that everybody's like,

12:52

well, I am, I'm cautious. I was a

12:54

spokesman for general. So I had to say

12:57

things like, we're cautiously optimistic and we've turned

12:59

the corner. But I am cautiously optimistic that,

13:03

we are on the trend line, but how do you... I

13:05

say, you maybe won a battle, but the war still has

13:08

to be fought. And so we can't sit on laurels and

13:10

those who are in the fight have to keep fighting. Of

13:13

course, Trump's being Trump too. I

13:15

mean, the obligousness

13:18

still remains. Yeah,

13:21

let's look at his statement here. His

13:23

statement when Swazi won, of

13:26

course, everyone probably already knows at this point that this

13:28

isn't all caps. He said, Maga, which

13:30

is most of the Republican party stayed home and

13:33

it always will unless it is treated with the

13:35

respect that it deserves. I stayed out of the

13:37

race. I guess

13:39

he said, I want to be loved. Give

13:41

us a real candidate in the district. He

13:43

put that in, oh, it's in quotations. He's

13:45

trying to say it without having credit for

13:47

saying it. He's like putting it in,

13:50

I guess it's like air quotes. He says, give

13:52

us a real candidate in the district for November

13:54

Swazi. I know him well, can be easily beaten.

13:56

All right. So with that, let's go

13:58

to the way that's. Speaker Johnson

14:02

reacted when they brought this up, the

14:04

concept of whether the border bill affected

14:07

this race. Does it

14:09

handle this issue and effectively give

14:11

Democrats a comment to campaign? No, not at

14:13

all. Look, the American people are with us on

14:15

this issue. I mean, they are with

14:17

us because they understand you have to actually solve

14:19

the problem. And the product that was

14:21

produced by the Senate did not solve the problem.

14:23

You've all heard us hammer over and over, H.R.

14:25

2, right? That was our signature

14:27

piece of legislation that we passed. Many,

14:30

many months ago, last year. And

14:32

the reason that all those components are important, again, is

14:34

because they have to fit together. That's got to solve

14:36

the problem. You have to address all of them. The

14:38

Senate bill didn't do that. And that's why it was

14:41

rejected. So it's

14:43

crafty because what he's trying to do is

14:45

he's just trying to take our message and

14:47

use it. He's saying, well, the reason that

14:49

people are upset is because the problem didn't

14:51

get solved. And the reason we couldn't

14:53

take the Senate bill is because it didn't solve the

14:55

problem. So far, people

14:57

seem to have figured out that the Senate bill

14:59

went a lot farther to solving the problem than

15:01

anything else has. And I think people

15:04

kind of get, or at least enough people

15:06

kind of get, that the House

15:08

Republicans chose to have the issue instead

15:10

of the bill. And

15:13

I just think if we're going to

15:15

have people know that in November, it's

15:17

going to have to be like

15:19

our only response to the issue, right?

15:22

Right. That's it. We

15:25

gave them what they wanted, which was so obvious. So we've got to

15:27

keep saying it. Obviously, we're a long way. I don't know if you

15:29

saw today, the news came out that actually

15:31

DHS and the board before actually having to look at they

15:33

may have to release thousands of detainees

15:35

right now because they don't have enough money to keep

15:37

them in hold because this bill didn't pass. Well,

15:40

I mean, that's kind of what the Republicans wanted,

15:42

right? They wanted to create chaos and they'll get

15:44

video of thousands of migrants being released. So in

15:46

a lot of ways, their destruction

15:48

leads the, they want the chaos, right?

15:51

They want chaos. That's why they're doing what they're doing.

15:53

Unfortunately, they'll do a very good job of spinning said

15:56

chaos. You know, it's like we talk about schools, right?

15:58

We cut the budget of school. start

16:00

failing, they go, look at this, the schools are failing. Oh,

16:02

yeah, chicken egg. And so you're right, the nuance

16:04

of that may fall on deaf ears. And that's

16:07

something to be a little bit nervous about. There's

16:09

no question. Well, yeah, because, you know, as

16:11

much as you can work to have

16:13

people understand why something happened, it

16:16

is simply a harder argument to say

16:18

that what's going on at the border

16:20

is the fault of one house of Congress and

16:22

not, you know, not the fault of

16:25

the president. Because even

16:28

if there is a good argument, I think

16:30

there is, that a lot of a difference

16:32

could have been made if the GOP house

16:34

had moved. It's just, what's

16:38

that expression? In politics, when you're explaining,

16:40

you're losing. And there's a lot of explaining

16:42

to you in making that argument. And so it's

16:44

just got to be, this is why last week

16:46

what I was saying was, is that it may

16:48

need to be as simple as Biden

16:50

being able to answer everything with, I

16:53

asked them to let me close the border and

16:55

they said no, because they wanted Trump to be

16:57

able to complain about the border. And,

17:00

you know, like, and it's got to be like, the

17:02

only thing he says about it between now

17:04

and then, but all right,

17:07

their response to this has been to impeach

17:09

me or kiss now. How

17:12

did they go ahead and do this? Because

17:16

one damn was out for COVID. And they're losing

17:18

an election that night. I mean, they had, last

17:20

week they had, we had to wheel one guy

17:22

in in a wheelchair. This

17:24

week one member was out for COVID

17:26

and Skelis was back, say one by

17:28

one single vote, you know, one single

17:30

vote, you know, it's just, you

17:33

know, and again, what's the goal here? And they were triumphant. You

17:35

should, I hope you saw the video like Bober coming out. We

17:37

need to, I think we need to show it, you know, Bober

17:39

like, I'm working for the American people by impeach him by workers.

17:41

And I saw one just before he went on the air with

17:44

Raji Manu, I think, Trump, or he caught

17:46

somebody in the hallway, a congressman,

17:48

he said, so, Congressman, how does this fix the

17:50

border goes? Who's sending about fixing the border? It

17:53

was like, okay. Right.

18:01

What do you think this is, Congress? Right.

18:04

We're not trying to help anybody. I've

18:06

always read that old IBM commercial

18:08

and the guy sitting across from

18:11

the two consultants and he's like,

18:13

oh, I love this plan. Let's do it. And

18:15

he's like, oh, we'll actually do it. We

18:17

just do things. We

18:19

just talk about them. That's the Republican. We

18:22

can actually fix anything. So, you know, but

18:24

of course this is the battle now with

18:26

the A package. It all kind of goes

18:28

together. The impeachment, the aid package fighting and

18:30

all. I mean, it is this dysfunction. And

18:32

the only thing there are the cops just

18:34

throwing Marjotel Arena bone on impeachment my orcas,

18:36

which, and the funniest thing, I mean, look,

18:38

we cannot avoid the comedy. We

18:40

have to admit the comedy of Marjotel Arena being

18:43

one of the impeachment managers in the Senate.

18:45

I think Schumer said they're going to do the trial at the

18:47

end of the month when they come back. I

18:50

mean, it's going to be, we have a Dan Goldman and, you

18:53

know, so it's going to be great having, yeah, they're

18:55

not even putting lawyers on this thing. It's going to

18:57

be comedy. But you

18:59

know, you and I are professionals too. We're American citizens

19:01

first out here in the Midwest. The

19:04

comedy is great for us pundits, but what

19:06

does it mean? It means aid packages for

19:08

our, you and I both served overseas. We

19:11

know Ukrainian soldiers run on ammunition right now. We

19:14

know our Israelis, you know, are fighting

19:16

before that in that package is aid

19:18

for Gaza too. If

19:20

you want aid for Gaza, aid for Gaza

19:23

is in that package. And all that's

19:25

being stopped after a bipartisan vote in

19:27

the Senate and the House just basically, you

19:29

know, doing their little game of, oh, but we want border first.

19:31

Like, well, you had border. Oh, yeah, but now we want it.

19:33

It's just a, it's very sad game. And you

19:36

could tell, you could tell the Mr. Biden is getting sick of it.

19:39

You know, I mean, in fact, I think,

19:41

did we end up with the supercut of the Biden speech?

19:43

Salty, if so, go ahead and play it. If not, I'll

19:45

just go ahead and keep talking. I

19:48

have to say that. Okay.

19:53

So yes, we're going to have it, but we're going to have

19:55

it right after the ad. So that's a good, a good lead

19:57

into it. So we're going to go take a little break. Uh,

20:00

for our, and our sponsors will talk at you.

20:02

I guess we'll talk at you about our sponsors.

20:04

Um, and then we'll come back. We'll look at

20:06

Biden's response to this and then we'll keep going

20:08

with all the topics that we mentioned at the

20:11

top from, you know, the regular Trump legal stuff

20:13

going on, the RNC takeover, NATO,

20:15

and, uh, and you

20:17

know, the way Trump's talking about NATO, the

20:19

way he's talking about Nikki Haley's husband, which weirdly are

20:21

kind of one topic, but we'll get all that when

20:23

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24:42

Yeah, go ahead. We're coming out. Yeah,

24:44

let's tell it. You know, we're both veterans. You and

24:47

I have talked separately. I think we were texting each

24:49

other about, you know, this crazy stuff. It's weird to

24:51

see Nate and National Security taking a well. Thanks to

24:53

Mr. Trump, being Mr. Trump, doing what he does best.

24:56

He set off a lot of issues. So

24:58

for context guys, we come out of the

25:00

clip out of our commercial. Obviously,

25:03

there's a Ukraine bill. There's an Israel

25:05

bill. The Senate worked hard. 72 senators,

25:07

I think, passed it. Terrific

25:09

bill. $95

25:12

billion includes Ukraine aid much needed. They're

25:14

running out of ammo, includes Israeli aid,

25:16

includes aid for Gaza. The

25:18

House Speaker's taught it to ignore it. Mr.

25:21

Biden rolled in pretty

25:23

forcefully on this whole issue. And then

25:25

also you'll see some context. We'll go

25:27

into afterwards about something Trump said that, well,

25:29

you don't want to miss it. But let's do this.

25:31

Biden first. It's un-American. When

25:35

America gives us word, it means something. When

25:38

we make a commitment, we keep it. And

25:40

NATO is a sacred commitment. Donald

25:43

Trump looks at this as if it's a burden.

25:46

When he looks at NATO, he doesn't

25:48

see the alliance that protects America and

25:50

the world. He sees a protection racket.

25:53

He doesn't understand that NATO is built

25:55

on a fundamental principle of freedom, security,

25:58

and national sovereignty. Because

26:00

for Trump, principles never matter.

26:04

Everything is transactional. He

26:06

doesn't understand that the sacred commitment

26:08

we've given works for us

26:10

as well. In

26:13

fact, I would remind Trump and

26:15

all those who would walk away from NATO, Article

26:18

5 has only been evoked once, just

26:20

once in our NATO history, and

26:23

it was done to stand with America after

26:25

we were attacked on 9-11. We

26:27

should never forget it. The stakes are

26:29

already high for American security before this bill

26:31

was passed to the Senate last night. But

26:34

in recent days, those stakes have risen. And

26:37

that's because the former president has

26:39

set a dangerous and shockingly, frankly,

26:41

un-American signal to the world. Just

26:44

a few days ago, Trump gave an

26:46

invitation to Putin to invade some of

26:48

our allies, NATO allies. He said, if

26:50

an ally didn't spend enough money on

26:52

defense, he would encourage Russia to,

26:55

quote, do whatever the hell they want, end

26:57

of quote. Can

26:59

you imagine? A former

27:01

president of the United States saying that, the

27:04

whole world heard it. The

27:06

worst thing is he means it. No

27:09

other president of our history has ever bowed

27:11

down to a Russian dictator. Let

27:13

me say this as clearly as I can. I

27:16

never will. For God's

27:18

sake, it's dumb, it's shameful, it's

27:21

dangerous, it's un-American. When

27:23

America gives us word, it means something. When

27:26

we make a commitment, we keep it. And

27:29

NATO is a sacred commitment. You

27:32

know, our adversaries have long sought to create cracks

27:34

in the alliance. The

27:36

greatest hope of all those who wish America

27:38

harm is for NATO to fall

27:40

apart. And

27:43

you can be sure that they all cheered

27:45

when they heard Donald Trump, when they heard what

27:48

he said. I

27:50

know this, I will not

27:53

walk away. I can't imagine

27:55

any other president walking away. For

27:57

as long as I'm president of Putin attacks...

27:59

NATO ally of the United States will defend

28:02

every inch of NATO territory. Wow.

28:07

Yeah, so what happens, obviously, he's a little ahead of we

28:09

put Mr. Biden first, I kind of want you to that

28:11

up that way, to see the passion that

28:13

Biden showed on this. And for those who missed it, let's

28:15

go back and see what Trump and look, here's the thing

28:17

you guys had to keep in mind. I'll just forward to

28:19

you at this table. Okay. NATO

28:22

is not a protection racket. Right?

28:24

I mean, I don't know why is again,

28:26

it's been years. He thinks there's like, they're

28:29

like dudes paying members, like it's a club

28:31

of it. It's like the F and Mar-

28:33

Mar- NATO is not Mar-Lago. The requirement is

28:35

that they spend 2% of their budget. That's

28:37

it. There's no guy paid dude. He acts

28:40

like they owe us money somehow. And

28:42

this is how things like that come out. So,

28:44

Solve, let's, let's run what set Mr. Biden off

28:47

so forcefully. They asked me

28:49

that question. One of the presidents of a big

28:51

country set up said, well,

28:53

sir, if we don't pay and we're

28:55

attacked by Russia, will you

28:57

protect us? I said, you didn't pay

29:00

your delinquents. He said,

29:02

yes, let's say that happened. No, I would

29:04

not protect you. In fact, I would encourage

29:06

them to do whatever the hell they want.

29:08

You got to pay. You got to pay

29:10

your bills. First

29:13

of all, it's obviously ironic as hell

29:15

for that guy to lecture people about paying their

29:17

bills, but we're way past that. Americans don't

29:20

really care about that anymore. They

29:22

wouldn't need to be persuaded if they care.

29:26

Look, it's important for people to know because

29:28

not everybody watching or listening to this knows,

29:31

NATO is not something that just came along. NATO

29:34

is a big part of why the

29:36

Soviet Union collapsed. You

29:38

know, NATO, NATO has been there

29:40

a while, right? These alliances are

29:43

why the Soviet Union or

29:46

now Russia is deterred

29:48

from doing things even worse than

29:50

invading Ukraine. It's why

29:52

we can be confident that

29:54

they won't keep rolling into

29:57

Poland, right, reasonably confident. And

29:59

it's why. that if they did,

30:01

Poland can be confident that we'd have their

30:03

backs. But it's ultimately why they won't, because

30:05

they know that we will have their backs.

30:08

But at the same time, NATO

30:10

has played an enormous role as

30:12

a transatlantic alliance. I mean, look,

30:16

I served under NATO in

30:18

Afghanistan. People don't even realize that. That

30:21

wasn't like a UN force. It was

30:23

also not Iraq, right? It wasn't just

30:25

a US-led coalition. It was a NATO

30:27

coalition. Like, I

30:30

had one of my optional combat

30:32

patches was a NATO patch. They called it

30:34

ISAF, it was the International Security Assistance Force,

30:36

but it was just NATO. That's all it

30:39

was. So it

30:41

has enormous benefits for the United States

30:43

of America that go well beyond like

30:46

how much people are paying. Also, what

30:48

a Republican asked thing to say, that

30:50

different countries of different sizes all have

30:53

to pay. No, some countries

30:55

are smaller. They're not going to pay as much. A

30:57

lot of them don't have as large of a military.

30:59

They may not even make their 2% thing. But it

31:01

doesn't mean that it's not in our major

31:04

national interest for

31:06

this to happen. So yes, it's completely ridiculous.

31:08

And I'll pass that too, because though NATO

31:11

didn't participate as a country in Iraq, NATO

31:14

countries participated in some of the interests. And you

31:16

really made me think of it when you talk

31:18

about those small countries. Some of this, so I

31:20

served at Minstiki, which, oh my God, what a

31:22

name, it's a multinational security transition. It's

31:25

just a lump. But what we were doing is train the Iraqi

31:27

secure forces. And part of that, many of

31:29

those international countries, like Germany, Georgia, smaller

31:32

countries, they don't have the big fighting

31:34

force. So they purchased, they gave us

31:36

troops to train Iraqis, small contingencies. I

31:38

traveled the country with the General Petraeus,

31:41

John Nancy, visiting these, like you said,

31:43

these small, Lithuanian, just tiny

31:45

countries that have hardcore training. When

31:47

we needed help, they came. Our

31:54

word is our bond. And that's what I think

31:56

sets me off so much as knowing our peers

31:58

in these countries who stepped. So by

32:00

the way, to include Ukraine, you

32:02

know, to include Ukraine, who

32:05

were fierce warriors overseas, then

32:07

to say things like that, like, well, you don't pay up and Russia

32:09

can have their way. It is, I

32:11

think for me as an old combat vet, it

32:13

really kind of ever sets me. But you know,

32:16

but you know, not to be outdone, you

32:19

know, you can't just stop attacking NATO. He also

32:21

has to attack the military because that's what he

32:23

does. So in his efforts, he turned right around

32:25

in his efforts to smear Nikki Haley. Do

32:27

we have that clip salty of what he said about

32:30

Nikki Haley? Over the

32:32

weekend, Donald Trump questioned the whereabouts of

32:34

Nikki Haley's husband, who's serving

32:36

a year long deployment in Africa for the

32:38

South Carolina Army National Guard. Where's

32:40

her husband? Oh, he's away. He's away.

32:43

What happened to her husband? What happened

32:45

to her husband? Where

32:48

is he? He's gone. You know,

32:50

to mock my husband, Michael

32:52

and I can handle that. You mock one

32:54

member of the military. You mock all

32:56

members of the military. But the reality

32:58

is he's talked about the military

33:01

for years now in disparaging

33:04

ways, suckers, losers, John McCain,

33:06

Gold Star families. What's

33:09

different now? What's different this time?

33:11

Before when he did it, it was during the 2016 election,

33:14

everybody thought, oh, did he have a

33:16

slip? What did that mean? The

33:18

problem now is he is not the

33:20

same person he was in 2016. He

33:23

is unhinged. He is more diminished than

33:25

he was. Look,

33:29

I'm going to go ahead and read Trump's mind

33:31

a little bit on this. I

33:37

think a few things here. I think

33:39

Trump, A, doesn't understand that when the

33:41

Army tells you to go somewhere you

33:43

go, B, even if he does

33:46

understand, he doesn't care or believe

33:48

it because he can't imagine that

33:50

somebody, particularly somebody whose wife is

33:52

in a privileged position, who presumably

33:57

comes from a high status in whatever their

33:59

civilian career. career is, I'm sure

34:01

he cannot imagine

34:03

the concept of you received a

34:06

deployment order and you can't

34:08

just say no. Now, I guess

34:10

he could if he were going to resign his commission. But

34:13

so that's, you know, look,

34:16

it's not revealing about Trump's character

34:18

at this point. It's just re-illuminating.

34:21

But God, look,

34:24

I don't have a great deal of sympathy for

34:26

Nikki Haley or her, you know, maybe I do

34:28

for her husband. I don't know him. But boy,

34:32

she's showing a lot of restraint. I would be

34:35

like, so pissed. Yeah.

34:39

Yeah. I mean, you know me, I

34:41

beat her up still though, because if you caught that

34:43

question, he asked the end. He's like, well, he's done

34:45

this before. He says before and her I kind of

34:47

got I was kind of, you know, I'm

34:50

glad she's beating up on her now. It's lovely. She's not

34:52

here. But let's be honest. She's mad because

34:54

it's her family this time. I'm very close friends

34:56

with Alex and Rachel Vindman. Rachel, Rachel, especially, if

34:58

you come like a sister to me, you know,

35:00

I mean, really, I think I text her as

35:02

much as my girlfriend. We're like, we're like blood.

35:04

We're like family. Right. You know, and

35:07

where was she for those who didn't hear

35:09

that for you talking about Colonel

35:12

Alex Vindman and his wife, Rachel, Lieutenant

35:16

Colonel Vindman, who was kind of a

35:18

star witness in the impeachment inquiry, who

35:20

was then railroaded out of the military

35:22

and defamed by Trump. Yep.

35:25

And his brother. Go ahead. Yeah, no, good.

35:27

And so I met them. I actually knew

35:29

them before. And we've become close since and

35:31

I actually didn't add with that when I

35:33

was the Lincoln Project, you know, focused on

35:35

Rachel, where the most powerful man in the

35:37

world attacked a military family. So for Nikki

35:39

to come in and say, Oh, well, that

35:41

was during the 2016 election. Oh, sister, no,

35:43

no, no, he was a commander in chief.

35:45

Yeah. And he ended up facing an impeachment

35:47

after attacking this family. And he did it

35:49

right on TV during the press

35:51

conference where he specifically said horrible things about serving

35:53

Lieutenant Colonel in 19th. So, so while I do

35:55

have simply for an unglad, she's standing at this

35:57

point, it's also hard for me to feel, you

36:00

know, shed even a single like salty tear when

36:03

she served on she was serving as UN

36:05

Secretary or UN ambassador when he did that

36:07

right that was when she was a part

36:09

of his administration and it didn't bother her

36:11

one bit when someone else's husband slash

36:13

lieutenant colonel was being attacked so you

36:16

know that's Trump right that's that's you know eventually

36:18

it's gonna come to you there's no one safe

36:21

eventually from his ire right I mean that's

36:23

just that's a good point and listen look

36:25

at her answer she didn't say yeah he's

36:28

been like this a long time we thought maybe he was kidding

36:30

now we know he's not know what she said was she said

36:33

well you know he said that in the past

36:35

but the thing is now he's not the same

36:38

person where she's trying to pivot back to what

36:40

is her central campaign message of the moment which

36:42

is basically he's old he's lost he's lost velocity

36:44

on his fastball and that's why you should pick

36:47

me so even even when you know

36:49

confronted with this she just sort of pivots back to

36:51

that which I guess is probably the advice she's getting

36:54

but look you know who

36:56

I feel bad for in this deal obviously

36:58

is Nikki Haley's husband because he Haley's husband

37:00

was only able to you know sort

37:03

of surreptitiously like

37:05

implicitly reply like he posted like a

37:08

picture of a wolf there a meme

37:10

that said something like you

37:12

know the difference between humans and animals is

37:14

that animals would never follow the dumbest person

37:16

and the dumbest member of the pack but

37:20

he had you know you and I

37:22

know he's on probably year-long federal order

37:25

so he can't you know all he

37:27

can do is like cryptically post a

37:29

meme which is probably pretty

37:32

aggravating and he's all the way over there and

37:34

I assume he I don't know he's probably a

37:36

Djibouti because that's where a lot of these you

37:38

know deployments go and it's probably

37:40

rather isolating and you know

37:43

so also look I mean

37:45

just to really humanize this

37:47

even deeper he's in the South

37:49

Carolina National Guard he

37:52

might even be hearing some people

37:54

say pro-Trump stuff occasionally oh yeah

37:57

it's probably really aggravating for a guy who's

37:59

just trying to do his job. And so

38:01

that just sucks. You will he's

38:03

serving his country. He stepped up. And you can

38:06

those are sometimes like a volunteer ish deployment,

38:08

right? Like that. Your name comes down that

38:10

you can volunteer. My last two Iraq tours

38:12

were volunteer. I love the food. I love

38:14

kebab. But

38:17

yeah, that's it. I guess kept

38:19

going back to the food. But no, but again, he

38:21

is stepping up. And I'll always honor that and respect

38:23

that he's done a very good job as a professional.

38:25

And that's not always Casey like, well, healthy

38:27

gabbard, you know, it's carefully

38:30

being a professional maintaining the fact that though he

38:32

might be able to say things when he's not

38:34

in the uniform, he has been he's always I've

38:36

never seen a single inkling that he would so

38:38

to kudos to him and for that night. And

38:40

again, I always she is a blue star family.

38:42

I mean, we have to give them credit. You

38:44

know, interesting fact just going back to that. For

38:46

those who understand what I say blue star family

38:48

and blue star family member is someone who has

38:50

a family member serving the United States military who's

38:52

alive. And you ever heard part of the term

38:54

the term gold star family. That's someone when you've

38:56

had a family member who's passed away while in

38:58

service. But he's a blue star family. And a fun

39:00

fact that came out during the 2020 campaign

39:03

was that President Biden is the first

39:05

president we've had since

39:07

Eisenhower, who's known was like

39:09

to send a child to war. He's the

39:11

first truly blue star family we've had in

39:14

the White House since Eisenhower. And I think

39:16

that affects me. I think they understand the

39:18

life and I'll give I will give you

39:20

know, Nikki Haley credit because she she does

39:23

understand what it's like to stand there on

39:25

that tarmac, you know, watch them take off.

39:27

And look, even a peacetime, people die. I

39:29

mean, even in a non

39:31

combat, I do air quotes, if you're not,

39:33

if you're listening, non combat tour, people

39:36

die, we just lost an aircraft with five

39:38

United States Marine Corps, young,

39:40

young, God, I don't you saw their faces,

39:43

young men, five very young men, they're early

39:45

20s, all perished in a helicopter crash in

39:47

California on a training mission, nothing more than

39:49

flying a helicopter across country. So, so I'll

39:51

give kudos to any blue star family who's

39:54

who understands that risk. So I guess probably

39:56

a quick break for now. And I think

39:58

I we haven't done well before. Before we

40:00

do, I'll add to it real quick and just say

40:02

that, you know, Trump

40:04

maybe, I think what he's trying to

40:07

get away with and what he may get away

40:09

with in South Carolina is having people think, well, he

40:11

volunteered. And the thing about that is, is like, even

40:14

if he did, it's because this dude has a career

40:16

too. And this is part

40:18

of that career. And it was probably planned

40:20

for a long time. And so the whole

40:22

thing is just disgusting. And

40:24

we're going to go, we're going to talk in just a moment

40:27

after this ad break, we're going to talk about this

40:29

RNC takeover and some Trump legal

40:31

stuff. But this should

40:33

be yet another reminder of how this

40:36

and the NATO comments, like how

40:39

seriously dangerous it would be to have

40:42

this terrible, terrible person win

40:44

again. So with that uplifting thought, let's go to

40:46

a quick break and then we'll come back. Did

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you want to go now behind the scenes during the

45:01

commercial break, me and Jason are texting back and forth

45:03

about the great sponsors. I'm like, oh man, I want

45:05

a tree. So

45:09

I think we'll just go right into ... So

45:11

if you saw it, the craziest things going on.

45:13

So Ronna McDaniel, Ronna Romney McDaniel

45:15

has said the rumors that she's going

45:17

to step down after the South Carolina

45:19

primary. And of course, that

45:21

starts the campaign chaos. And it's come out

45:23

this week. I don't know if we have

45:26

the clips, but it came out this week

45:28

that Trump wants to install his own people

45:31

to include Lara Trump as the co-chair

45:33

of the RNC. So it would be

45:36

the idea is they're going to have

45:38

a guy named Michael Watley, who's currently

45:40

the North Carolina GOP chairman, has been

45:42

accused of being election

45:45

deniers, participate in all that process. And

45:47

then Lara Trump is the co-chair and

45:49

finally creates sort of a COO

45:52

for Chris LaSivita, who is also on

45:54

the Trump campaign and would do a

45:56

half. And the large Trump one is

45:59

amazing. She graduated like, what's in

46:01

New York? You and worse in

46:03

North Carolina, start off their comms program, ended up

46:05

graduating I think with a pastry chef

46:07

degree or something, I don't know. She went

46:09

into like media for a while. In the

46:11

end, she got married and that, she's never

46:13

run a large organization, she's

46:16

never run a political organization, never run a

46:18

political campaign. And she's already on TV this

46:20

week saying that, no more of this silly

46:22

stuff like buying flowers for, you know, the

46:25

big thing in the Republican Party right now, if you've

46:27

seen it, Jason, is they've been really going crazy the

46:29

fact that the RNC has spent hundreds of thousand dollars

46:32

on flowers. Now, if you ever run a campaign or

46:34

a party apparatus or frankly any kind of

46:37

organization, why would you spend

46:39

money on flowers? Is it to decorate

46:41

offices or is it, for example, when

46:43

a major donor spouse passes away? Right,

46:45

or say a Senate, you see what

46:48

I'm saying? The

46:50

Republicans are going crazy about the flower budget. And

46:52

I'm sitting back going, you know, that

46:54

actually might be part of their fundraising budget, but the

46:57

bar says, don't you worry, there's not gonna be any

46:59

more flowers. All the money from now on is gonna

47:01

be an electing Donald Trump. You

47:03

know what, I'll tell you this, I

47:05

would believe and take at their word

47:07

any member of the Trump family who

47:09

promises not to send flowers when people

47:11

die. I 100% believe them and take

47:13

them at their word. Yeah,

47:21

you know, it's

47:23

not surprising to me that he wants to put

47:25

Lara Trump there because, and I'm gonna do the

47:27

narcissistic thing where I quote myself, but

47:29

at the beginning of the Trump administration, when everybody was

47:32

like, why is he hiring Jared Kushner? Why is he

47:34

hiring Ivanka Trump? Why is he putting all these people?

47:36

I remember saying, and I say quote

47:39

myself because I see this comeback as a meme.

47:41

It's like, I see it a lot on social media and

47:43

I get tagged, which is what I said at the time

47:45

was, gangsters don't hire family

47:48

members for their qualifications, they hire

47:50

them for their silence. And

47:53

that, I think, applies here as well. You

47:55

just want someone who won't talk to the

47:57

FBI. That's

48:00

accurate. I think it's perfect. That's exactly it. And

48:02

to turn the RNC finally into truly nothing more

48:04

than a campaign or a drug Inc. And look,

48:06

he's going to have to spend a lot more

48:08

money on law bills, legal bills, right? I mean,

48:10

he dropped with $50 million last year on legal

48:12

bills alone. And there's more of

48:14

that coming. And that leads to where

48:16

we're going with that because it looks like Judge

48:18

Engerand, Engerand, oh, forgive me, I'm, you know, is

48:20

expected to- I'm trying to keep track of all

48:22

these judges. I know. I can't.

48:25

There's so many. be

48:28

$370 million. This is a

48:30

huge issue, right? This has been coming for a

48:32

while. I think we expected the verdict beginning of

48:34

the month. Here we are halfway through finally. And

48:37

then he'd say, court leaking, where he says, depending on

48:39

Friday. This is a big one. And a lot of

48:41

people have been saying, hey, so if

48:43

you guys aren't familiar, this is going to be

48:45

that civil fraud case where they've been pumping up

48:48

the numbers, their values, their properties to get loans

48:50

and then lowering them to pay taxes. And

48:52

the Latisha James is looking for basically, they call

48:55

the death penalty for their businesses, which would keep

48:57

Donald Trump from doing any, owning any businesses in

48:59

New York and in real estate, New York, buying

49:01

real estate in New York for

49:04

life. And then a shorter term, I believe for the

49:06

kids, the kids, you know, I do air quotes in

49:08

that one. A lot of people have

49:10

said to me, well, Fred, what's the big deal? He'll

49:12

just reincorporate in Florida. But for what nuance of

49:14

this thing is that the case, you

49:16

see, you already lost, basically, this is

49:18

the penalty phase. In that they actually

49:20

have someone overseeing the Trump family businesses and

49:23

they have to notify the court before they

49:25

do anything. So the court has time to

49:27

say, no, you can't do that. I think

49:29

it's a two weeks notice that purchase property

49:31

now before the ruling 30 days and it's

49:34

kind of like reorganized the business. So they're actually already

49:36

down sort of locked down what they could do. So

49:38

it's not going to be as simple as just packing

49:40

up and opening back of Florida. So it's a very

49:42

serious case. And look, $370 million

49:44

is a lot of money by any. Yeah.

49:47

So, you know, especially when, especially when you

49:50

nobody really knows if you have much money anymore. Right.

49:54

Right. And while it kind of adds up

49:56

and it can add up to zero. That's

49:59

right. 83 million to e.g. And carol

50:01

5 million here more there, you know, and and

50:04

that that's why I think we tied this this

50:06

section together with the Takeover, I

50:08

mean You know, yeah, because

50:10

you know, he's gonna need that money to pay the

50:12

bills Now we're

50:14

a couple days late on this But we should at least

50:16

touch on it before we wrap up here, which is the

50:19

her report about biden I

50:21

have my thoughts on what the dude was trying to do. But

50:24

why don't you share yours first? Oh,

50:26

I I I have stronger feelings probably which is

50:28

I just think it was completely a political hatchet

50:30

job I mean think about that hundreds of pages

50:33

All exonerate biden in the end you found no

50:35

evidence But the executive summary is the one getting

50:38

all the press and the executive summary he'd like

50:40

to highlight biden's memory issues. I

50:42

mean look There's no way on

50:44

god's green earth. He didn't know what that would do

50:46

in the press Exactly was serving up

50:48

on a platter For the republican

50:51

party and for the political press and the far-right

50:53

press That her is is as

50:55

many people pointed out a trump appointee

50:58

Uh, you know, he look this isn't I don't know.

51:00

I just don't think it was an accident and

51:02

he got what he wanted He got media attention now

51:05

We find out too and if you heard that the

51:07

republicans are talking about bringing them in for hearings And

51:10

they're they're going to subpoena the actual transcripts

51:12

of the interviews. I mean he has handed

51:14

them on a platter Um, they're

51:17

big issue against this I don't know i've

51:19

been kind of frustrated. Yeah, I think it's that and

51:21

I think That's that's

51:23

the most likely scenario the best case

51:25

scenario For what we could say about him

51:27

is that maybe he came to the

51:29

legal conclusions as he obviously did that there was

51:31

nothing there And was frankly

51:34

afraid for his physical safety um

51:37

and just thought i've got to do

51:39

something to throw a bone out

51:41

there that the far-right will remember and

51:45

uh, and I just think it's it's

51:47

truly like I

51:50

mean it's it's it's pretty incredible and

51:52

and and it is it's like komi

51:54

except I will say for komi I

51:56

don't think he knew what kind of fire he was playing

51:58

with It's at

52:01

this point, you know exactly what you're doing. And,

52:05

you know, I said this week that if

52:08

I were advising Biden, what

52:10

I would tell him to do whenever they bring this stuff up is

52:12

I would say, I would have him say, look, I

52:15

get it. They want me to

52:17

look old. That's their whole argument. I

52:20

was a senior in high school when this guy was a

52:22

freshman. We're the same age. And

52:24

the difference between the two of us

52:27

is I don't wake up every day

52:29

and get a ton of bronzer put on my

52:31

face and I'll sit in a makeup chair for a

52:33

half hour. I don't I don't

52:35

have the time for a spray tan

52:37

and I don't have the time for

52:39

like a dye job every every week

52:41

because I'm busy getting shit done for

52:43

America. So if that means that

52:46

I am a guy who could have

52:48

been my high school classmate, don't look

52:50

the same age. That's fine. Because when

52:52

you do this job right, it physically

52:55

ages you. But it doesn't mean that

52:57

I'm not doing the job well. And

52:59

and so I would just, you

53:02

know, there's a fine line here because you've

53:04

got to respond with indignance, but

53:06

you can't respond with vanity. Right.

53:08

If you respond with indignance about

53:10

the work that you're doing, that

53:12

is appropriate. But if you respond

53:14

with the vanity of someone who is

53:16

being called old, then you just look

53:18

like an old person who's not accepting

53:21

their aging. It reminds me, it's kind of

53:23

a charming story. My grandfather, my

53:25

grandfather died in 2018 at the age of 95. And

53:29

when he was like 91 or 92, we

53:32

had been talking to him about maybe maybe

53:34

don't drive anymore. You know, maybe it's not

53:36

safe. And then one day I remember

53:39

I had to go to the hospital because he had

53:41

a little car wreck. And the car wreck was he

53:43

had driven straight through his garage door. But

53:46

the thing was, if I

53:48

recall correctly, what had happened was he had

53:50

he had just forgotten

53:53

that the garage door was down. And so he was

53:55

backing out. And he was and I was like, I

53:57

got there and I was like, Pop, I think maybe

53:59

this. means don't drive anymore. And he goes, what are you talking

54:01

about? He's like, I just forgot the garage

54:03

door was down. He's like, if I had, if I

54:06

had not hit what I was aiming for, I think

54:08

it'd be something to talk about. But I did exactly

54:10

the way I wanted it to. Which

54:14

is a charming example of what we're talking about.

54:16

Now I'm not saying that's what Biden's doing, but

54:18

I'm saying you don't want to come across that

54:20

way. And so if you avoid, if you avoid

54:23

looking like you're being vain and you instead just

54:25

say like, look, I'm busy doing shit. Um,

54:28

and point out that this guy goes to

54:30

great lengths to not look the same age as me,

54:32

even though we're the same age. And

54:34

because what that does is you and I

54:36

know is it suddenly plays into a bit

54:38

of a maybe unfair, toxic

54:40

masculinity that exists in the universe of like,

54:42

yeah, we don't have a whole lot of

54:44

respect for people who spend an hour in the makeup chair

54:47

every day, if they're not a broadcaster or an actor, right.

54:49

And they're, and they're a dude, you know, so. And

54:52

I could ride a bike, right? I mean, that's what's,

54:54

you know, if Biden can actually ride a bike. Yeah.

54:56

That's what that is. Just the difference. It is frustrating.

54:58

I had a guest on the show last week who

55:00

said, you know, it's, it's classic ageism. It's like one

55:02

of the safety. It's one of the few things you

55:04

can still be, you can still be an ageist and

55:07

get away with it in America. It's one of the

55:09

few stereotypes and isms you can get away with. And

55:11

it's a good point. I mean, the fact is, you

55:13

know, and then you emphasize, okay, well this, I think

55:15

he kind of joked about it. Like, well, look at

55:17

this old guy, okay. I'm accomplishing. And that's in

55:20

the end, that thing is, uh, for an old guy

55:22

is getting a lot done. He's hired wonderful people. They're

55:24

still in the jobs we've had. Only

55:26

one single cabinet member is turned over. You know,

55:28

it is that kind of competencies. What we were

55:30

hoping to get when we fought this battle three

55:32

years ago to elect him, skip by it or

55:34

four years ago. And we got

55:36

it. We got decency and competency. Would

55:39

I like him to be younger? Yes. And I think before

55:41

we let her go, I think I saw a really interesting

55:43

point somebody made the other day. And, and I, I, it's

55:46

hard to argue the point that is

55:49

this really about Biden's age or

55:51

Kamala Harris's skin tone.

55:53

Right. And that's a, that's

55:55

a hard question you got to answer. And it's a

55:57

hard question that was faced being very, very honest. our

56:00

own friends, the Democratic side of this equation

56:02

have to answer themselves. Is this really about

56:04

Biden's age or is this about Kamala Harris?

56:06

And that's a troubling question nobody wants to

56:09

really deal with, but I think we have to. John

56:11

Greenewald Yeah, if Gavin Newsom were vice president,

56:13

it may not be as much of an

56:15

issue. And that's not a knock on Kamala.

56:17

That's pointing out that race is

56:19

a factor here. And gender. David

56:22

Altshuler And by the

56:25

way, like it's

56:27

actually sort of an apples to apples comparison

56:29

other than race and gender, right? I mean,

56:31

they're, they're two statewide officials prior to the

56:34

vice presidency, two statewide officials from California. So,

56:37

okay, with with all that you

56:39

have a grab an or before we go. John Greenewald

56:42

I do well my own organization, I plug my own

56:44

organization. So I'm proud to be the national chairman. I

56:46

mentioned on my show quite a bit, a word they

56:48

call forgotten Democrats. And forgotten Democrats is really unique. It's

56:50

not a big super pack. We don't have like any

56:52

staff, there's a couple of us. And we've got a

56:54

unique fiscal year mark that allows

56:57

us to collect our donors. And then the

56:59

money that our donors give us is given

57:01

directly to candidates, democratic nominees for the house

57:04

that need the money first, those who haven't milled

57:06

or is enough money. Last cycle, some

57:08

26 Republicans ran unopposed 123 ran

57:12

with an opponent that never even raised $200,000. So

57:15

the idea for forgotten Dems is very simple

57:17

one are you become a member, you participate

57:19

in events, you give money and monthly and

57:21

that money is directly distributed to candidates that

57:23

our fingerprints even touching it. It's not there's

57:25

no questionnaires that candidates thought they're the democratic

57:27

nominee, and they meet a certain threshold of

57:29

their financial raising, they'll get some money from

57:31

us. It's our first cycle. We're

57:33

just growing right now. We've got a town hall

57:35

coming up. But you can learn more at

57:37

forgotten democrats.org. And an easy way to join

57:39

just getting our email list is you text

57:41

Fred to 33777. That's

57:44

Fred my name, F R

57:46

E D to 3377. But I'm enjoying it. It's we do

57:48

some fun stuff, we have some town halls. But

57:51

it's a unique little project that I'm proud

57:53

to sort of serve as the face. That's

57:55

the best. Yeah, and what plug one more

57:57

thing, or two more things. Thanks

58:00

for your podcast one more time and also with people know

58:02

where to find you on social media I'll

58:04

do it. So my show of course is on

58:06

to mox the FP wellman right here in the

58:09

my touch network We broadcast new shows We actually

58:11

recorded ahead of time that goes up Friday nights

58:13

at 11 where the weekend show if you will

58:15

Friday night show on the my Touch that we're

58:17

got a growing audience talking cool people about what's

58:19

happening our democracy. We've got some great guests coming

58:21

up I'm excited. Hey, I got I got Trey

58:24

Crowder the liberal redneck coming on Yeah, so I

58:26

got to really run here like he was on

58:28

here like three years ago, and

58:30

he was so great man That was before the

58:32

years now. You do a tour And

58:35

Christopher Titus on I think I laughed so hard

58:37

that couldn't keep straight So I had the show's

58:39

Greg and on my lefty one You could find

58:41

me on social media that FP wellman or you

58:43

can find me a FP woman official on Instagram

58:46

threads We're growing there at least right now. So

58:48

I really appreciate it. Yeah, it's great hanging out.

58:50

Yeah, I appreciate you Let me step in assure

58:52

your partner crime. Yeah. Thank you very

58:54

much for doing this You know for

58:56

those who have stuck with us this long

58:58

in the show Ravi is an India on a reporting

59:00

project Fred was nice enough to

59:02

not only step in in Ravi's place but

59:05

to do all the work this week because

59:07

I have now made it to the end of

59:10

this show but I This is the

59:12

first thing that I have done Really

59:14

at all in the last three days because we you

59:16

know the Chiefs won the Super Bowl on Sunday night

59:18

And it was great and then I woke up on

59:20

Monday morning. I didn't I didn't even have a drink

59:23

It wasn't bad. I I woke up on Monday morning

59:25

and I had norovirus Which

59:27

my and so did my son so did my daughter so

59:29

my poor wife didn't take care of all of us honestly

59:32

this morning is the first time I've been able to get out

59:34

of bed and I've been nauseous

59:36

this whole time We started this show by

59:38

me saying to Fred and our producers if

59:41

you see me leave frame It's cuz I'm throwing up.

59:43

So just stick with Fred for a while. So I'm

59:45

going back to sleep So,

59:47

thank you Fred for coming in and saving our

59:49

day here. So I appreciate it very

59:52

very much Thank you to

59:54

the Midas mighty. Thank you to Patrick Mahomes

59:57

for existing and the

59:59

Kansas City Chiefs general You

1:00:01

can find me at Jason Kander on everything.

1:00:04

But remember, we all have a platform. Make sure

1:00:06

to use yours today.