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If you enjoy Pods Save America, check out another

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great show from our friend, Brian Tyler Cohen.

1:00

The show is No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen.

1:03

He took the formula that's gotten him almost two billion

1:05

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1:08

a once-weekly show where he discusses the top

1:10

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1:12

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1:15

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1:17

Maddow, Jamie Raskin, and even

1:19

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1:21

been on Brian's show. He's a good friend of mine. Yes, and he also

1:24

hazes Tommy often. Yeah, he did. He

1:27

does hurt my feelings a lot. But that's not. He's really

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1:32

tune in. Oh, here it is. The truth is that our

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vying to unseat Dan as Cricket's YouTube

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1:56

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2:02

again that's no lie with Brian

2:04

Tyler Cohen.

2:26

Welcome

2:34

to Platt Save America, I'm John Favreau. I'm

2:39

Alyssa Nostromonikos. I'm

2:43

John Lovett. I'm Tommy DeThor. I'm

2:45

Dan Pfeiffer. We

2:50

have an outstanding show for you tonight. Congresswoman

2:52

Amelia Sykes is here. The

2:57

executive director of Pro-Choice Ohio,

2:59

Kelly Copeland is here. We

3:03

are so lucky to be joined by our pal

3:06

Alyssa Nostromonikos, the

3:08

co-host of hysteria. So

3:10

excited to be here. We're so glad to have

3:12

you.

3:13

Alright, let's get to the news. So

3:15

the war in Gaza has obviously become a

3:18

big political issue here in the United States,

3:20

obviously. As Israel began its

3:22

ground invasion over the weekend, the GOP

3:25

presidential candidates spoke at the Republican

3:27

Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas.

3:32

The vague Ramaswami told the crowd he'd

3:34

love nothing more than for Israel to put the heads

3:36

of Hamas leaders on stakes and line them

3:38

up. Nikki Haley hit Trump the

3:40

hardest for when he called

3:42

Hezbollah smart and criticized Netanyahu.

3:46

And then Trump got up, ignored all of them, and

3:48

got the best reception of the day. The experts said

3:50

our pro-Israel policies would produce

3:52

terror and chaos, but I knew the opposite

3:55

was true. It turned out to be right. Every

3:58

single life that is lost in the United States is

3:59

a in this conflict is on the shoulders of

4:02

Hamas, Hamas alone,

4:04

Hamas alone. And I think you

4:07

have to really add in the word

4:09

Iran. Think of this,

4:12

we immediately announced

4:14

that we're giving Hamas $100 million. We're

4:18

going to give it to them into Gaza, but they take it 100% of

4:20

it. They don't take 90%, they

4:22

take 100%. The Biden

4:24

State Department wishes admitting colossal

4:27

amounts of jihadists into

4:29

our community and our communities and campuses

4:31

and our refugee programs. That's

4:33

why you see all of these big demonstrations in

4:35

New York and Chicago. Nobody can believe

4:38

what's taking place. They're letting them in at

4:40

levels that nobody's ever seen before. We cannot

4:42

allow that to happen, and we don't

4:44

want to be like Europe with jihad

4:47

on every corner. I will cancel

4:49

the student visas of Hamas

4:52

and sympathizers on college

4:54

campuses. The college campuses are being

4:57

taken over. And

4:59

all of the resident aliens who

5:01

joined in the pro-jihadist protest

5:03

this month, nobody's ever seen anything like it,

5:06

come 2025, we will find you and we will

5:08

deport you. We

5:11

will deport you. A

5:13

chicken in every pot and a jihad on every

5:15

corner. I have

5:16

to say, look, I don't like Trump, but I

5:18

think that that Oberlin Hamas exchange

5:21

program was a mistake.

5:32

Tommy, would there be

5:34

peace in the Middle East and calm in the streets

5:36

if Trump were president right now?

5:37

Yeah, I'm really never

5:40

happier that he's no longer president than when

5:42

there is some sort of global crisis

5:44

or war breaking out or conflag. You can imagine him in

5:47

the Situation Room, refuses

5:49

to turn off Fox and Friends, retweeting cat

5:52

turd or whatever he does. I would

5:54

argue that despite what

5:57

President Trump said there, that his policies

5:59

actually

6:00

helped get us to where we are today and made

6:02

things worse. That's

6:04

because, like starting at the topic, Hamas

6:07

is a evil, it's a terrorist organization,

6:10

they have a founding charter, you can read it, it's anti-Semitic,

6:13

it is designed to eliminate the

6:15

state of Israel and the terror attack

6:17

on October 7th was unjustifiable

6:21

and evil and indefensible. And it's

6:23

completely understandable that the Israelis

6:25

would respond with military intelligence

6:28

operations first, but I do think long term

6:30

to actually eradicate Hamas you have

6:33

to get to the root cause of the Israeli-Palestinian

6:35

conflict, you have to improve

6:37

the life for Palestinians and you have to get back into

6:39

a process of negotiations

6:42

that can lead to a two-state

6:44

solution in a Palestinian state. And so what

6:46

Trump did in office with his

6:48

dumbass son-in-law Jared Kushner was he empowered

6:52

Hamas by systematically

6:54

undercutting the Palestinian authority of basically two

6:56

power centers. For the Palestinian people there's

6:58

Hamas in the PA, the Palestinian authority, and

7:01

Trump cut aid to the Palestinian authority. He

7:04

undercut the PA in negotiations

7:08

on, you know, for final status negotiations

7:10

about a two-state solution by recognizing

7:12

Jerusalem as the capital of Israel

7:15

and moving our embassy there. And then

7:17

his entire focus started to be

7:20

on the Abraham Accords by the end of the

7:22

administration, which are these deals between

7:24

Israel and basically a bunch of

7:26

sort of regional autocrats like

7:28

the UAE or Sudan to normalize

7:31

relations with Israel after

7:34

given major incentives from the United

7:36

States, often it was weapons systems, et

7:38

cetera. Now like the normalization, Abraham

7:40

Accords and the normalization deals are not bad

7:42

in and of themselves, but they

7:45

made the Palestinian leadership

7:47

and the Palestinian people felt like they were left

7:49

behind and like they were an afterthought and

7:51

desperate and hopeless. And

7:53

like there was no way out of Gaza or

7:56

that, you know, their future was

7:58

life under a military occupation in

8:00

the West Bank without hope for a Palestinian

8:04

state. And so that

8:06

kind of like desperation

8:09

and hopelessness is fuel

8:11

for an organization like Hamas that

8:13

can point to the Palestinian Authority and say,

8:16

look at them, they are feckless, they

8:18

are corrupt, they've not delivered

8:20

a thing for you through this political

8:22

track, come to our side, we'll

8:25

take direct action, you know, and that's

8:27

that can be a powerful message

8:29

in that kind of situation. So we

8:32

need to going forward, make sure that that lunatic

8:35

is never the president United States again. But

8:37

also, Joe Biden, I

8:41

think the Biden administration needs

8:43

to focus much more on getting the

8:45

Israelis and Palestinians into a room back into

8:47

negotiations, and I think less on

8:50

the kind of Abraham Accord agreements with the Saudis

8:52

that they've been more focused on. It

8:54

feels like we could be at war with Iran right now if

8:57

he was president, since he was saying and I would

8:59

throw the word Iran in there, too, just which is something

9:02

you want to say off the cuff, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm

9:04

gonna say one word Hamas and

9:06

Iran. Also, also, if he was president,

9:08

I think we could very well be seeing like crackdowns

9:11

and deportations on campuses right now, because

9:13

he's we've seen him do this with protests

9:15

before. Like, I don't think he would be

9:18

handling that so well, free speech lawyers

9:20

and the Republican Party. I know

9:22

that.

9:24

So, Alyssa, some of the other Republican candidates,

9:27

Nikki Haley did it during that. That event clearly

9:30

thought that they would be able to make an issue

9:32

out of Trump's Hezbollah praise

9:35

and his Netanyahu criticism. Judging

9:37

by that crowd of Jewish Republicans and

9:40

all the polls, they seem to have failed. Why

9:42

do you think that is?

9:44

You guys.

9:47

Clearly the Republicans have

9:50

the memory of goldfishes.

9:54

They don't care. This is, you know,

9:56

like Tommy said, Trump did some

9:58

things that would make them. happy when he was president,

10:01

he moved the embassy to Jerusalem, things like that. But

10:04

mostly, this is like

10:06

the first time he was really in

10:08

a room back to back, you know,

10:10

with all, which we would call a cattle call, like of

10:13

all the other candidates. And the truth

10:15

of the matter is, like, his base shows

10:17

up, like, they want to hear what he has to say, they almost

10:20

don't care what he's saying, they just want to

10:22

hear him talk. And I mean, also

10:24

on the one hand, Nikki Haley,

10:26

girl. Your

10:28

qualification being like, as

10:30

president, I would not compliment Hezbollah

10:33

is like not exactly what I'm looking

10:35

for at the I hope so. It

10:38

seems like a low barrier to entry. But

10:41

look, I mean, this is the same man that told people

10:43

during a global pandemic to inject

10:45

bleach into their arms. And people are like,

10:47

you know what, let's

10:49

give him another chance.

10:51

And so it didn't really surprise

10:53

me, though, I have to tell you, watching that clip, I was

10:56

like, I did not miss him. That

10:59

level of stupidity to be confronted

11:02

with daily.

11:03

He's sort of been hiding out. Like, we haven't been

11:05

seeing a lot of him. I think when people see more of them, they're

11:07

like, oh, yeah, that was why. I

11:10

also think like he he did his he

11:12

did his penance. He praised Bibi after he

11:14

made those comments. But he's not

11:16

super interested in the standing

11:19

with Israel part. What he's much more

11:21

interested in is scaring Americans

11:23

into thinking that dark skinned foreigners

11:26

are coming to cause us harm. And he's

11:28

the only one who can protect us.

11:30

But like also Republicans,

11:32

do you not remember when he was still

11:34

on Twitter and hate tweeting Kim

11:36

Jong Un? I mean, like, this is

11:38

not someone we want to be president

11:41

when the stakes are as high as

11:43

they are. And so it was like very sad to

11:45

see him get the applause

11:48

that he got. But it's not exactly like he was confronted

11:50

with other dynamic competitors.

11:53

That

11:53

is also true. Dan,

11:55

the White House responded to Trump's promise

11:57

to reinstate

11:58

an expanded Muslim ban.

11:59

with a statement that said,

12:02

opposing hate is more pressing now than ever as

12:04

American Muslims and Arab Americans increasingly

12:06

find themselves the targets of appalling smears

12:09

and heartbreaking violence. So Biden's

12:11

obviously the president who repealed Trump's Muslim ban. Why

12:14

do you think

12:15

they also wanted to weigh in on those

12:17

specific comments?

12:19

I think

12:21

Biden is obviously torn. The Democratic

12:23

Party is very divided on Joe

12:26

Biden's response to Israel, what it

12:28

means, whether he's doing enough or

12:31

expressing enough empathy for the people suffering

12:33

in Gaza. And also

12:35

responding to, we are having, across

12:38

the board there is a raft of

12:40

anti-Semitic commentary

12:42

and rhetoric and attacks in this country. There

12:46

has been anti-Muslim attacks

12:48

and rhetoric in this country. And Biden

12:50

is right to speak out

12:53

about what Trump wants to do is to

12:55

weaponize the fear that

12:58

is happening here for political gain to

13:00

call it out for. It is also notable

13:02

that Trump's Muslim ban was one of his most

13:04

unpopular policies that he put in place

13:07

and to remind people that that is what he would do. He's

13:09

another person who would divide in this

13:11

very dangerous time. Yeah, and

13:13

I think also it's to sort of send a message

13:16

that like, yes, Biden

13:18

refilled the Muslim ban, Biden will continue

13:20

to speak out against Islamophobia. And

13:22

by the way, in 2025, it's either gonna probably

13:26

Donald Trump or Joe Biden as president. If it's Donald

13:28

Trump, this is what you're gonna get from him.

13:31

Love it, so here's a, to Dan's point about the

13:33

Democratic Party divide. Here's

13:35

a pair of fun headlines from the New York Times over the weekend.

13:38

The first is Democrats splinter over Israel

13:41

as the young diverse left rages at Biden.

13:44

And the second is primary battles

13:46

brew over progressive Democrats stances

13:48

on Israel. So this seems like

13:50

a split that's unfortunately only gonna get worse

13:53

as the death toll rises in Gaza. How

13:56

do you think President Biden is handling

13:58

the issue? How

14:00

about that one question? I

14:03

give love in the hard one.

14:05

I got this. So

14:09

first, just a caveat that

14:11

no, I'm not the person who understands

14:14

how Joe Biden should handle the delicate,

14:16

strategic, and diplomatic, and

14:19

political challenge of Israel and Palestine

14:21

at a moment of a generational

14:24

crisis. Why not? I'm

14:28

working on the game. Because we're touring, I've been

14:30

watching a lot of Survivor.

14:34

So just

14:36

everyone heard that caveat? Great.

14:40

I feel like it is, I think,

14:42

important that we're seeing

14:44

a little bit more of Trump as just a

14:46

bit of a refresher as to where the

14:50

base of the party is on this issue, having

14:52

Vivek out there saying these sort of blood thirsty

14:54

things, having Trump out there with this

14:58

Islamophobia complementing

15:01

what people like Lindsey Graham have already been out there saying,

15:04

representing what the right actually believes, which

15:06

is an unfettered approval

15:09

of an unrestrained response by Israel.

15:11

On the other hand, you have, I think,

15:14

a lot of anti-Semitism, a lot

15:17

of anti-Israel propaganda, a lot

15:19

of misinformation meant

15:21

to, I think, rightly speak

15:24

to the concerns and pain and fear

15:26

that people

15:29

have legitimately for the Palestinians, but

15:31

at the same time, I think alienating

15:34

the vast

15:37

group of people in the middle who believe

15:39

in both the humanitarian responsibility

15:44

that the world has to the people of Gaza,

15:46

as well as understanding and

15:49

having empathy for Israel and

15:52

the crisis it's in, the losses it's

15:54

experienced. So I think there's two things. I think in

15:57

word and in deed, I look.

16:00

The challenge, right, is we don't know the difference between

16:03

what Joe Biden says publicly, what the administration

16:05

says publicly, what the administration is

16:07

doing to pressure Israel behind the scenes. But

16:10

that being said, I think that

16:12

there is more Joe Biden could be doing to speak

16:14

to that growing progressive

16:20

young part of the party that

16:22

truly doesn't understand why

16:25

the United States isn't putting more pressure on

16:28

Israel. And I think that that calls

16:30

for

16:32

actions, but also calls for words and just speaking

16:34

to that concern directly and explaining more directly,

16:37

A, what we can be doing to protect

16:39

people in Gaza, and B,

16:41

why part of this deeper problem

16:43

is not just what Israel is doing

16:46

to remove Hamas,

16:48

but also the failures on the part

16:51

of Hamas, on the part of the Palestinian authority,

16:53

the failures that have happened inside

16:55

of Gaza, inside of the leadership of on

16:59

behalf of the Palestinians that has helped lead to

17:01

this moment. On the other side of

17:03

it, you know, I sometimes feel

17:06

like this is, I understand why

17:08

this is off-putting to people when you say,

17:10

hey, like, you know, you need

17:12

to say that you need to denounce Hamas, you need to

17:14

respect, you need to say that you understand that Israel has a

17:16

right to defend itself, you need to talk about the fact

17:18

that Israel has a right to exist, you need to reject the

17:21

kind of ahistorical kind

17:23

of academic lefty online jargon,

17:26

like settler colonialism, you need to

17:28

speak out when people say things like from the river to

17:30

the sea, which is terrifying

17:33

to people that follow it to its

17:35

logical implication, which is that there cannot

17:37

be a state of Israel, that there's

17:39

a value to denouncing that, because it's like, why

17:41

are you calling for this kind of denunciation?

17:44

The crisis right now is that they're bombarding Gaza,

17:46

that thousands of people in Gaza are dying and I

17:50

appreciate that, I hear that,

17:52

but what I see

17:55

is that I think the most effective way to

17:58

advocate on behalf of... the humanitarian

18:01

needs of the people of Gaza, the safety and

18:04

lives of the people in Gaza, is being part

18:06

of this big coalition that understands

18:09

that the future of Israelis and the future

18:11

of Palestinians are linked. And that

18:14

you need people that believe in a free

18:17

and safe democratic

18:19

and Jewish state of Israel to demonstrate that

18:21

they believe in the humanity of people in Gaza. But

18:24

you also, those people that

18:26

are advocating and believe in Israel, want

18:29

to be part of a coalition with the people advocating

18:31

on behalf of Gazans that your

18:34

advocacy isn't at the expense of

18:37

Israel's right to exist to the safety and freedom

18:39

of people in Israel as well. And I feel like

18:42

that is a big group of people. That

18:44

is sort of the big middle

18:46

between the very far right, which

18:49

does not give that basically wants

18:51

Israel to level Gaza and the very far left

18:53

that doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist.

18:59

No, I mean, look, I

19:01

think if the progressive movement is about anything,

19:03

it's about solidarity. And I

19:05

think that it is possible and

19:07

important to hold two ideas in your head at the same time,

19:10

which is you can want Joe

19:12

Biden to do more to pressure Bibi

19:15

to go after Hamas in a way that

19:17

results in fewer civilian casualties,

19:19

a lot less suffering and a war that doesn't spread

19:21

throughout the Middle East. And if Biden doesn't

19:24

think that's possible or wise, he needs to tell the

19:26

American people why. And then I think Jewish

19:28

Democrats who are upset with progressives, like

19:31

you said, want them to be more forceful, not only in

19:33

their denunciation of Hamas, but also

19:36

in their denunciation of the disgusting anti-Semitism

19:39

that we're seeing here in the US and all over the world. And I

19:41

don't think those two, I think you can

19:43

advocate for both those things. I don't think they should be in

19:45

conflict at all.

19:46

Yeah. And yeah, just to say it simply, it's like that

19:50

you'll be that if you care about

19:53

advocating for humanitarian aid and

19:55

relief for people in Gaza, you are in a much better

19:57

position to do that when you're advocating

19:59

it as part of the of a big coalition that recognizes

20:02

that

20:04

whatever I said already,

20:06

move on. How many

20:10

more weeks are we going to talk about this? I guess

20:12

forever.

20:14

Tommy, it does seem like every day more and more progressives

20:16

are calling for a ceasefire. You

20:19

have, I saw you on Twitter, I also

20:21

see you in person, but I think that's true. That's

20:24

the public. Why do you think the Biden administration

20:27

isn't there yet for people who are just wondering, what's

20:29

going on? Yeah. So

20:31

President Biden and a lot of people around him

20:33

think that the better

20:35

path in terms of actually

20:38

influencing Bibi Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel,

20:41

and getting them to do what they want is to

20:43

back him publicly and then fight

20:45

with him privately. I've been in meetings with

20:47

these same people, giving the same advice when it

20:49

was President Obama. They

20:52

say, hug Bibi, in Joe Biden's

20:54

case to Israel, that was physically happened. But

20:57

then tell them what you really think in private.

21:00

And I'll just be honest, I fucking

21:02

hate that. I hate that philosophy. I

21:05

hate that approach for a couple of

21:07

reasons. One, I

21:09

don't trust Bibi Netanyahu. I don't

21:11

think he's a good leader. I don't think he's an honest person.

21:14

And I don't think we should

21:16

outsource decision making to him. Two,

21:19

if you only speak your

21:21

mind privately, then

21:23

you forego your ability to define

21:26

the narrative and tell

21:28

the world what you think. And

21:31

if Biden has concerns about the way

21:33

the Netanyahu government

21:35

is conducting this operation in Gaza, the

21:37

world is not hearing it. The world thinks

21:40

that everything the Israeli government

21:42

does is backed 100% by

21:44

the United States. And so

21:47

in fairness to Joe Biden, I think

21:49

that his trip to Israel and

21:52

his pressure from him personally

21:54

and from his team is part of the reason

21:56

that the Israeli government did not launch

21:58

a preemptive strike on Hezbollah. Hezbollah and

22:00

Lebanon, which would have been an unmitigated

22:03

disaster. It would be opening

22:06

a second front in this war is about the scariest thing I

22:08

could imagine. But

22:10

if the US has been pressuring Israel privately

22:13

to allow more aid into Gaza, to

22:16

dial back the airstrikes, to

22:18

forego a ground invasion, then

22:20

they have failed and

22:23

seemingly failed catastrophically. And so, listen,

22:25

again, I'm a podcaster, right? I'm

22:29

not living next to Hamas. I'm sitting

22:31

here in Los Angeles, the comfortable

22:33

life. And but I fully understand that

22:35

right after the terrorist

22:37

attack on the 7th of October, that

22:40

the Israeli Defense Forces had

22:43

to target Hamas. They

22:45

had to take out the rockets that were still

22:47

being launched into Israel. Days

22:50

and days later, they had to go after their leadership.

22:52

They had to try to disrupt any kind of Hamas

22:54

operations they could find to rescue hostages

22:57

in those early days. Now

22:59

we're sitting here three plus weeks later, 7,000 airstrikes

23:03

later in an area half the size

23:05

of New York City. The latest casualty count

23:07

on Sunday night was 8,000 people are dead, many

23:10

of them children. And so what I would

23:12

like to see is at least some sort of at least

23:14

a temporary ceasefire. Some of the

23:16

time frames have been floated, let's say five days. You

23:19

get humanitarian aid into Gaza. You

23:21

begin negotiations around getting back

23:23

hostages. I think unfortunately,

23:26

if history is proves to be true

23:28

now that we're going to get hostages back,

23:30

these are real good hostages back through some sort

23:33

of prisoner release and swap. That's what

23:35

happened when Hamas took a soldier

23:37

named Kila Shalit, held him for five years.

23:40

And the Israelis ended up having to trade, let 1000

23:42

prisoners out of Israeli prisons to get

23:45

back Shalit. I think something similar

23:47

might happen here. You know, like big,

23:50

big picture, I don't want

23:52

to see Israel get drawn into a

23:55

bigger quagmire,

23:57

ground evasion, a broader regional conflict.

24:00

that includes Hezbollah, which has a lot

24:02

better arms and 10 times

24:04

the funding from Iran and would just be

24:06

a very, very scary proposition. And I

24:09

think Joe Biden went over to Israel and was like, don't

24:12

repeat the mistakes we made after

24:14

9-11, don't react out of vengeance, think about this.

24:17

I think that's very good advice. And

24:20

I'm hoping that some sort of temporary

24:22

pause or ceasefire could

24:24

lead to a more measured response

24:27

because the Israeli government is saying, this

24:29

is going to take a long time. This will be months long process

24:31

is a long campaign. So, you know, let's

24:34

get relief into these people who desperately need it now.

24:42

I think Tommy fixed it. So come

24:45

to Cleveland, they said to Alyssa, we'll

24:48

have a light conversation about politics.

24:51

These guys know that I was

24:54

like,

24:55

here's the thing, I'm going to be super honest with

24:57

you guys. I feel

25:00

very self-conscious when I'm put

25:03

in a position to talk about something that I

25:05

don't know a ton about. And

25:08

I wish more people were like me

25:10

a little bit.

25:12

I think in general, we

25:15

all wish more people were like you. I just,

25:18

it's like, here's what I would just say. This is

25:21

my two cents.

25:23

Protesting

25:25

what the Israeli government is

25:27

doing is fine. It's

25:31

what this country is built on. You

25:33

can protest and it's freedom of speech. But

25:36

for God's sake, do it peacefully.

25:38

Don't do it in a way that makes people

25:40

who are already afraid and living

25:42

in a fear that you possibly can't understand

25:45

feel more fearful. And

25:47

I think that that's just so important

25:50

on social media. You know, I was telling

25:53

these guys, I have gone down

25:55

such a spiral because I see something

25:57

and I have to fact

25:59

check. it like five different times because I want to

26:01

make sure whatever I'm reading is true. And

26:04

so I would just say that I think so many

26:06

people have good intentions and just

26:09

really think about, you know, when you

26:11

are talking to someone about this issue, you

26:14

know, it may be an intellectual exercise

26:17

for you, but it may be them revealing

26:19

to you their deepest pain. And so

26:21

don't discount that by trying to win an argument.

26:24

On

26:28

that note. Okay

26:31

we'll be right back. Now

26:38

it's time for OK Stop.

26:46

We

26:48

roll a clip, we start. We

26:51

comment as we go. This week on

26:53

OK Stop, speaker of the house,

26:55

Mike Johnson.

26:57

You know him, you love him. Big fans. That's

27:03

some big Johnson fans.

27:10

We've already forgotten who he is. But

27:15

before we forgot him, before we knew him, before

27:17

he was a member of Congress, he was a candidate. When

27:20

he was a candidate, he gave a sermon

27:22

where he laid out his philosophy,

27:26

what he believed about

27:30

the culture and

27:33

also what he believed about certain gigantic

27:36

boats and what

27:38

could have been on them.

27:44

And it's a lot more than you'd think. We're

27:49

going to roll the clip. Because

28:00

if you remember in the late 60s we invented things

28:03

like no-fault divorce laws. We invented

28:05

the sexual revolution. We

28:07

invented radical feminism. We

28:09

invented the American Revolution

28:12

in 1972. Okay, stop. I mean... Oh,

28:14

radical feminism.

28:20

Oh my God, whatever will we

28:22

do? We invented no-fault

28:24

divorce.

28:25

Could

28:27

you imagine? We're

28:30

like Edison cranking things out in a lab. I was like...

28:32

Also, who's we? Getting a patent

28:35

for no-fault divorce. What role

28:37

did Mike Johnson play? We? It's

28:39

a real don't threaten you with a good time list, you know?

28:42

Look, everything went downhill after Maude

28:45

terminated that pregnancy. Sure

28:48

she was 47, but she and Walter could have

28:50

made it work. Did

28:52

that work for anybody? Me? I

28:54

love Maude. Do people in Cleveland

28:57

know about Maude?

28:57

Maude was the first woman in

29:00

prime time to get an abortion.

29:02

Absolutely. Welcome. And

29:04

that's not on my cards. I knew

29:06

that.

29:09

We know that we're living in a completely

29:11

amoral society. And so people say,

29:13

how can a young person go into their schoolhouse

29:15

and open fire on their classmates? Because we've

29:17

taught a whole generation, couple of generations now of

29:20

Americans, that there is no right and wrong. That

29:22

it's about survival of the fittest and you evolve from

29:24

the primordial slime. Okay, stop. Not

29:27

the primordial slime. Look, I

29:30

was going to become a pastor.

29:32

But now that I know

29:34

about the voyage of the beagle, I'm

29:37

going to kill a volleyball team.

29:40

You

29:44

see, the finches had

29:47

different, their noses.

29:49

The finches with the longer

29:51

beaks survived. Now I'm going

29:53

to kill everybody. in

30:00

his little book of all

30:02

the different animals he saw in the Galapagos. And

30:04

ever since, I have this image in my mind.

30:07

Sorry. Okay.

30:13

You can't read the words real small,

30:15

but if you drive around the state of Kentucky all over the interstate, you'll

30:17

see this billboard. Answers in Genesis, put it up. Okay,

30:19

stop. This is why people understand my reference.

30:22

Mike Johnson is showing a billboard for Ark

30:24

Encounter, a creationist museum in

30:26

Kentucky dedicated to the Great Flood and

30:28

the construction of Noah's Ark as

30:31

real historical, verifiable events,

30:34

including explaining how they got all the

30:36

dinosaurs on there. A

30:39

lot of dinos on the Ark, guys. A lot

30:41

of dinos on the Ark. It's a big boat. And

30:44

there was room for all the dinosaurs

30:46

on there. And that's so important.

30:48

So important. All right, let's continue.

30:51

To all of our liberal, intolerant

30:53

friends, thank God you can't sink this

30:55

ship. Okay, stop. That's

30:58

a laugh line. I don't understand. So

31:01

the so the billboard

31:03

is a picture of Noah's Ark.

31:05

And it says to all our liberal, intolerant

31:07

friends, thank God you couldn't sink

31:09

this ship.

31:11

I don't even understand

31:13

what it means. I know. Like,

31:16

of course, we we

31:18

didn't exist. We're modern

31:21

day people. Nor

31:23

would we have wanted to sink the ship if

31:26

it had existed. Can you sink a metaphor?

31:28

I don't know.

31:32

Although

31:36

I'm really struggling with this band

31:38

set up in the back, because you know, just the most crincy,

31:41

creed shit is about to get played.

31:43

And it's like, what happened immediately

31:45

prior or immediately after this servant?

31:50

I think this is the big event of the day. You

31:53

the keynote?

31:54

I just think it doesn't make sense. Like,

31:57

hey liberals, we wouldn't let you on this ship.

32:00

then you wouldn't get on now. That's at

32:02

least something. Yeah.

32:04

You know, hey, God's blooded

32:06

ear. But maybe not historically accurate. But

32:09

I've also seen Jurassic World and you don't

32:11

get on the boat with the dinosaurs. And

32:14

the dinosaurs can swim. They're in the water

32:16

too. That's the other part. Well,

32:18

you guys, we cracked the code here. I

32:20

was telling you, I could talk about the Ark thing forever. We were getting

32:23

to the bottom of the Ark. I just,

32:25

I really don't understand. I still, like the

32:28

Ark is not even the most confusing part to me. The

32:30

most confusing part to me is the first couple years

32:32

post-Ark. That's

32:34

just, I don't get it. I don't know what they're eating. Were

32:37

there extra species just to be consumed?

32:40

Because it's like, if you're going to, because these are predators that

32:43

need to eat other birds. And so

32:45

it's like, are there birds we don't have?

32:47

Because those are the ones.

32:51

There's a big hole in the plot

32:53

line in the Bible between, I'll

32:55

tell you. Suddenly you're just like, whoa,

32:58

did I miss a page? Yeah. So you're like, where

33:00

the white walkers go? This doesn't make any sense anymore. I

33:07

was telling you. Do you think you brought all the freshwater

33:09

fish on the boat? That's a great question. I

33:11

know. Was

33:14

it all freshwater? Just two of each

33:16

fish? Well, couldn't have. Is it all

33:19

freshwater?

33:19

You guys, I feel like I missed a lot in fourth

33:21

grade history. Yeah. If

33:23

we ever did an interview with Mike Johnson, these

33:25

are the only questions.

33:28

Nothing about the supplemental

33:30

or government funding or like his views

33:33

on whatever. I'd just be like, we got to talk about the Ark. I

33:35

just want to talk about the Ark. Vintage Tim Russer,

33:37

just like follow up after follow up after follow

33:39

up. Picture up on the screen.

33:46

So, no, this is

33:48

neat though. They all watch the New Year's

33:50

Eve, rockin' New Year's Eve with the ball drops for New Year's Eve.

33:52

So Kelly and I put the kids to bed. We were watching it

33:54

in this year in Ryan Seacrest to stand there in

33:56

Times Square. And I see over his shoulder. Come

34:00

here, come here. Okay, stop.

34:02

Do they still call it rockin' New Year's Eve?

34:05

Just thinking of poor Kelly, another room,

34:08

having a solitary moment of peace.

34:10

Just,

34:12

just gripping the counter and thinking of

34:15

someone else, somewhere else. No

34:18

fault of words.

34:26

Just

34:26

regretting, regretting her decision

34:29

to get into this covenant marriage. Alright,

34:33

we can keep going. Maybe they're happy. A giant

34:35

digital billboard right over around the secret of our shoulder, it was

34:37

like 20 billion people watching it, is that,

34:39

to all of our intolerant liberal friends. They're going, it's like,

34:42

they did not do that. They did.

34:44

They went there. Okay, stop. They

34:46

went there, girlfriend. And

34:49

we all remember, after

34:51

liberals saw this vague and confusing billboard behind

34:53

Ryan Seacrest in Manhattan, we

34:55

all gave up completely, and

34:58

the conservatives had won. Every Jewish gay guy

35:01

married their bossiest single girlfriend. Barack

35:08

Obama sent Lena Dunham to Gitmo. We

35:11

all remember that. Yeah, that happens. When

35:13

that happens. Hillary agreed not to go to Wisconsin.

35:16

Oh. Oh, John. She's here.

35:19

Jesus Christ. Don't be silly. What

35:21

did you want, Dan? We stopped pretending

35:23

to recycle. After

35:26

we saw that billboard, Disney released a short film

35:28

where Woody and Buzz Lightyear bullied that boy from

35:30

Luca until he went back to the sea. Back

35:34

to the sea with you. No finding love on

35:36

the land. You little Italian

35:38

boy in this metaphor.

35:42

And

35:42

that's okay, stop.

35:46

When we come back, Ohio

35:48

Representative Amelia Sykes.

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Joining us now is a representative

37:32

for Ohio's 13th congressional district,

37:34

Congresswoman Amelia Sykes.

37:52

Ohio Democrats turned out, huh?

37:54

Yes, they did. What else did you expect,

37:56

right?

37:59

I'm impressed. I'm impressed. Thank

38:02

you so much for being here. It's great

38:04

timing because you guys have a big

38:06

election coming up

38:08

in November. No, hadn't heard of it. Yeah. So

38:11

for folks at home, can we start

38:13

with issue one? Can you explain to folks

38:19

on the podcast who might not know about

38:21

issue one about how important this vote

38:23

is for abortion rights in the state of Ohio?

38:25

Absolutely. Issue one is very simple. It is

38:28

going to codify in our state's constitution,

38:30

the right for women to access abortion

38:33

services

38:33

in Ohio. It's

38:36

very simple.

38:38

But, but wait, there's more. There's

38:41

more because not only will it say that people

38:43

can access abortion services, that

38:46

there is a constitutional right for birth control,

38:48

for fertility treatment,

38:49

for miscarriage care,

38:52

all of the things that a person

38:54

of reproductive age wants access

38:56

to. So not only can we grow

38:59

our families, start our families, we

39:01

can survive in a state like Ohio

39:04

that has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in

39:06

the

39:06

entire country. So

39:09

it's

39:15

going to, we're

39:15

going to win. But what happens if

39:18

we don't?

39:18

What are the stakes?

39:21

Well, if we don't win, and we are not speaking that

39:23

to existence because excited as this crowd

39:25

is, that's what people feel like all over

39:27

the state. There has been

39:30

a lot of confusion. There

39:32

was an issue one in August. There's an issue one

39:34

in November. August was no. November

39:37

is yes. The ballot

39:39

board had some very strange language.

39:42

They rewrote the language to be longer

39:44

than the actual ballot language, took out all

39:46

of the meaningful pieces of information.

39:48

So folks actually knew what the ballot language was

39:50

going to do. And now we have our governor

39:54

doing a press tour saying, hey guys,

39:56

don't worry. We'll put those exceptions

39:59

in that we've been fighting against for the past 10

40:02

years. Just trust me. And

40:04

so

40:05

we are not thinking

40:08

of what's

40:10

going to happen when this fails,

40:12

because it cannot fail. It cannot fail. This

40:15

is a must pass ballot

40:17

initiative. And that's why you're seeing such

40:19

excited exuberant people all

40:22

across the state and really all across this country

40:24

who wants to see a state like Ohio, y'all.

40:27

Ohio, make sure that we

40:29

are enshrining abortion rights

40:31

and reproductive rights in our Constitution. So I'm excited.

40:33

You guys are excited too, right?

40:35

We're not going to fail.

40:37

We're not going to fail.

40:39

I know that you've been working on maternal

40:42

health issues for a very long time, not just in US

40:44

Congress, but here in Ohio. How big is

40:47

this moment, is this vote for that

40:49

broader set of issues that you've dedicated your

40:51

career to? Well,

40:52

they're very much one of

40:55

each other, because when you look at

40:57

states that have abortion bans like we have in Ohio,

41:00

we have some of the highest maternal mortality

41:02

rates. And that means people who have tried

41:04

to get pregnant are looking forward to pregnancies,

41:07

can't have them. In addition to our

41:09

maternal mortality rates being high, our infant

41:11

mortality rates are high. So we're talking

41:13

about devastation in families because folks

41:15

aren't being able to access the care they need,

41:18

when they need it, how they need it. And

41:20

while I think I'm pretty smart, I'm

41:22

not the one that should be answering the questions

41:25

as to when someone can have an abortion,

41:28

can go to an emergency room, should be

41:30

on a certain type of medication. That's

41:32

not my job. Unfortunately, many

41:34

of my colleagues don't have that level of humility

41:37

to understand there are things that we do and do

41:39

well, and there are some places we should not be a part

41:42

of. And decisions about reproductive

41:44

health care, what's happening in doctor's

41:46

offices, is not a place where I should be. And

41:49

I don't want to be there. I want you to be there

41:51

in the comfort with your loved ones, your

41:53

physicians, your health care providers. But

41:56

unfortunately, we're not getting that. So I am very

41:58

worried about the maternal health. health crisis

42:00

in Ohio, especially as a black woman.

42:04

Black women have some of the worst maternal

42:07

death rates and morbidity rates in

42:09

this state in addition to the country. And

42:12

we are constantly trying to convince our

42:14

colleagues that this is a matter of life and death for

42:16

us. And you either have to care about

42:18

us or you don't. And you let me know

42:21

that you don't care about me by supporting

42:23

anti-abortion legislation. And if you're voting

42:26

no on one, I know exactly what you think about

42:28

women. You don't think anything about us.

42:37

You can say I care about this a little bit, right? Just

42:39

a little bit.

42:44

I'm just going to air out that applause. That's

42:46

good stuff. We were

42:48

in Kentucky yesterday, bastion

42:51

of liberalism. We

42:53

were knocking doors with some amazing

42:56

organizers from Planned Parenthood.

42:58

We were in a very Catholic neighborhood.

43:01

And we talked to a couple of folks who were like, listen,

43:05

folks who looked like me in 30 years, right? Like

43:07

people don't look like Democrats. We're like, oh, yeah, I'm pulling

43:10

the lever straight to take a Democrat for the first time

43:12

in my life because of because

43:16

of abortion access. But the other thing that

43:18

some of the organizers were talking about at the

43:20

doors was the concern

43:23

that birth control was next. You

43:25

know that they were coming after all sorts of steps in the bedroom.

43:30

Is that something that you're talking to voters about? Is that a concern

43:32

here?

43:32

Absolutely. But the biggest issue

43:34

is freedom, the freedom to choose

43:37

your own destiny and to have

43:39

some dude someplace deciding what

43:41

I can and cannot do or

43:44

this person deciding what you can or you can

43:46

or you can or can I do? It's absurd.

43:49

And so when I talk to people, I talk about freedom and

43:51

the ability to make decisions for yourself.

43:54

Who is the person who is best situated

43:56

to do it? It's obviously you. It's

43:59

not the speaker. speaker of the house. It's

44:01

not our governor. It's not our attorney

44:03

general. And it certainly is not our secretary

44:05

of state. So why

44:07

would we allow them the

44:10

opportunity to make such important decisions?

44:13

And we're not. And so when I say to you, we

44:15

cannot lose. We're not going to

44:17

lose because we cannot

44:19

lose. And I am repetitive in that way.

44:21

I used to be a cheerleader. So repetition

44:24

is the key. You have to say it

44:25

over and over again. That's how people remind, remember. I

44:27

like it a lot. I like it a lot. Speaking

44:30

of dudes who want to tell us all what to

44:32

do, have you met the new speaker of the house,

44:34

Mr. Mike Johnson?

44:36

No.

44:37

No one has met the guy? No. Like,

44:40

did he just

44:41

come out of nowhere for everybody? Well,

44:43

I,

44:44

okay. So I am a first term member of Congress.

44:46

So that gives me a little bit of leeway. But

44:49

when Susan Collins said, maybe I have to Google

44:51

this dude and I can figure out who he is

44:53

and how he can work. I mean, geez,

44:57

isn't he, he's one of your people. You

44:59

could, you could do, show him a little bit more love. But we

45:02

are finding more about him. We're learning

45:04

more about him as we just saw in the previous segment.

45:06

And, you know, I was very

45:09

disappointed to see us just not

45:11

do anything for weeks at a time. We

45:13

were supposed to be in our districts, working

45:15

with our constituents. We had to cancel all these

45:17

meetings and people were expecting us. And

45:19

instead we're in D.C. sitting around and just voting

45:22

for people who don't have enough votes and who knew they

45:24

weren't going to have enough votes to be Speaker. Yet

45:26

and still the people in our districts across

45:28

the country were looking for us to show up, looking

45:31

for us to be in meetings

45:33

and talking about the work that we were doing. And

45:35

then next thing you know, in the middle of the night, it seems like

45:38

Mike Johnson gets the votes in

45:40

the nod from Donald Trump and

45:42

now he's our Speaker. And the

45:44

time that we've had to understand

45:47

who he is, it's really disappointing,

45:49

but not really shocking that we have

45:51

a Speaker of the House who wants to gut Social Security

45:53

Medicaid, who wants every

45:56

state in the country to be right to work, who

45:59

does not believe that there should

46:01

be same-sex marriage and wants a total

46:03

abortion ban. And so when

46:06

you ask me why am I so optimistic

46:09

about issue one, it's because I have to

46:11

be. Because if someone like

46:13

Mike Johnson is the Speaker of the House, and he

46:15

is, he's going to push for a total

46:18

abortion ban. And the only thing

46:20

that is going to save us is us in

46:22

Ohio. And that means issue one

46:25

must pass. Yeah,

46:31

I mean, so we were

46:33

in D.C. a couple weeks ago. We

46:35

met. We did an event on the Hill. Got to meet some like really

46:37

amazing,

46:38

exciting, inspiring, new

46:40

members of Congress, we have a great class. You guys

46:43

are like, it's a, it's really an amazing

46:45

group of people and like, we have the best class.

46:47

Yeah, they're cool. They're fun. They're like brilliant

46:49

in all these different ways. Can confirm. Yeah. But it was so funny

46:51

being with you all because like, we

46:53

were all kind of gossipping and trying to figure out what's coming up

46:56

next. And nobody knew everyone's just like checking Twitter.

46:58

So can you just help everyone understand like, there's

47:00

no one in charge of the House of Representatives.

47:03

What do the members do

47:05

for like three weeks?

47:07

Well, we got really

47:10

good at talking

47:12

to one another about who are we following

47:14

on Twitter to figure out where we would get information

47:16

from. And it was really interesting trying

47:18

to see who is actually

47:21

the reporter, the news

47:23

person that was getting it right. And then we were trying

47:25

to figure out who was the mole in the Republican

47:27

conference. Ooh, I love that. Because

47:28

there's someone who's giving them all the information.

47:31

And one of the, Jake

47:33

Sherman, he was the guy. And

47:35

it's like, who is calling Jake Sherman? He is

47:37

like play by play, second by second.

47:40

And he had more information than the people in

47:42

the room. So that was sort

47:45

of one of the games we were playing, trying to figure out what

47:47

was going

47:47

on. I was playing the same game. It was a great game. Speaking

47:51

of members of Congress who we may or may

47:53

not know, do you know Dean Phillips? Do we have any

47:55

impression of him?

47:57

I am super excited.

48:00

that we have an administration that has

48:02

done great things for this country, including

48:05

the state. And if I could give a big

48:07

shout out, because we just got a tech hub in Akron.

48:10

Are you guys familiar with the tech hub?

48:13

And no, I'm not going to answer your question, just in case you're wondering.

48:15

Perfect. I'm

48:18

going to take this opportunity to talk about what the administration

48:21

has done for Ohio's 13th district. Because

48:23

our community had researched

48:25

and applied for a tech hub last year and was

48:28

denied, and now we're going to have one. And

48:30

it's all around polymer science. And listen,

48:32

polymers are very cool. Just

48:35

trust me. So if you're ever wondering about plastics

48:37

and polymers, come on to Ohio's 13th district. We'll

48:39

tell you all about it. But what I'm most excited

48:41

about is that we have an administration right now

48:44

that is doing what we've asked them to do.

48:46

That is supporting our workers. That is

48:49

trying to put more money in people's pockets. That

48:51

is being thoughtful about women's

48:53

rights, about diversity, about ensuring

48:56

that everyone can live their American dream. And

48:58

I think that people will see that come

49:00

election time next year. We are

49:03

a year out. And it's hard to get

49:05

people to focus on elections. Even as we're trying

49:07

to get to issue one, people are busy. They've

49:09

got kids. They're trying to put food on their table.

49:13

And it's easy right now to get caught up in the

49:15

chaos of who is this and what shiny

49:17

object do we want to follow? I'm looking

49:19

at the results. And I'm looking at what we're getting

49:22

in Ohio's 13th congressional district. And

49:24

I'm pleased to be supporting an administration. We'll

49:26

be supporting an administration that will continue to deliver

49:28

those results. I hope you do too.

49:30

I like that.

49:34

So you're talking about workers

49:37

in your state and support

49:39

for them. I know you recently joined with

49:42

a bunch of UAW workers on the picket line.

49:45

You're out there showing solidarity.

49:48

There's been some debate and some concern

49:50

about whether rank and file

49:53

union members feel like the Democratic Party is

49:55

fighting for them. What did you come

49:57

away with feeling like after

49:59

that? time on the picket line.

50:01

Well that was not my first time on the picket line with UAW

50:03

striking workers and

50:07

I have to say it did you all see that time when Marcy

50:09

Kaptur said is this

50:11

your first time? That

50:14

won't be me it was not my first time so

50:16

what we heard from workers several

50:18

years ago when we were in Toledo is the same thing that we heard

50:21

from folks a couple weeks ago was they've

50:23

been working really hard they made a lot of people

50:26

very rich and they just want to make sure that they

50:28

are able to access the same

50:31

ways and pathways to wealth and

50:34

being able to put food on their table. Folks

50:36

across this country folks across Ohio and

50:38

my district they are struggling and

50:41

inflation is high and we have to accept

50:43

that to be a truth but we also have

50:45

to recognize that there are pathways

50:48

for folks to get what they need

50:50

in order to survive and unions labor unions

50:52

are leading the way. I was so amazed

50:55

as I talked to those workers and understood

50:58

what they were sacrificing to be on

51:00

strike that they weren't getting the pay that they

51:03

should have been getting to pay for

51:05

food, gas, groceries, rent, mortgages

51:08

but they knew how important it was for them

51:10

to stand up not just for themselves but

51:12

for workers across UAW

51:15

but not just members of unions

51:17

members who may not be in unions thinking

51:20

why would I want to be a part of that well you want to be a

51:22

part of it because these are the people moving the conversation

51:24

forward and making sure that you have your access

51:26

to the American dream. So I

51:29

left there probably more encouraged at

51:31

their grit and their resilience

51:34

and their willingness to be there they

51:36

probably did more for me than I did for them showing up there

51:38

and I am steadfast

51:40

wholeheartedly always will be in solidarity

51:43

with our unions friends because they

51:45

are truly the reason why people can have a good

51:47

life in this country they truly are and we

51:50

should support them every step of the way so bravo

51:52

to UAW two out of three they've

51:54

got one more left and we'll

51:56

be excited and we cheer them on when they do it.

51:59

Last question for you, we were talking in DC, you're

52:02

in a tough seat, it's basically a toss

52:04

up. Presidential years can be challenging

52:07

for Democrats in Ohio, like

52:10

what's it gonna take for you to win, for Sherrod

52:12

Brown to win, for all the other statewide and local

52:14

Dems to win too, I'm not leaving anybody out, and

52:17

how can people help out?

52:19

Absolutely, so first of all, it's gonna take everyone

52:21

in this audience to help us all win. And

52:24

so we're relying on you, and let

52:26

me thank you in advance for all that you have done and

52:28

all that you're going to do to make sure that we keep

52:30

Sherrod Brown and the United States Senate

52:32

and we reelect myself and

52:34

Marcy Kaptur and Joyce Beatty and Chantel

52:37

Brown and Greg Lansman. And so

52:39

I'm in Ohio's only toss up congressional

52:41

district. All the others are either

52:44

safe D or likely D and I'm in the only

52:46

toss up district. And people often

52:48

are really shocked to hear that because they assume

52:50

as a black woman, I'm in a very

52:53

D plus 40 district,

52:56

but I'm not. My district is an R plus

52:58

one district. And I won

53:01

and outperformed President Biden's

53:03

performance. I won by five points. And

53:06

I won because of people like

53:08

you in the audience. I won because I went

53:11

to the people and told them how I'm gonna work

53:13

for them. And I showed them my record, and

53:16

I'm going to continue to show them my record and

53:18

say, I am earning your vote.

53:21

I'm not just gonna ask for it, I'm gonna earn your vote,

53:23

but I'm also gonna ask you to make a donation because

53:26

it's really expensive. My race

53:28

was $21 million. Did you, 21 million,

53:31

yes. Yes, let's all be appalled

53:33

with first of all, how much elections cost

53:36

and that this race was $21 million. And

53:39

so the Republicans have already started

53:41

attacking me. They've stopped for

53:43

a little bit because I think they were trying to get their act together,

53:46

but now that they're back, I expect to see

53:48

them soon. So visit Amelia Sykes for

53:50

Congress, FORCongress.com.

53:53

Please make a donation if you can. Thank

53:55

you.

53:59

district where they don't expect us to. We can

54:02

do it again. All right, well

54:04

folks listen,

54:05

some really good members of congress out there. There's very few

54:07

great ones, so please make a donation, help

54:10

out. Congresswoman Amelia Sykes, thank you so much for

54:12

being here. Thank you for coming.

54:21

There are just 78 days

54:24

to go until the Iowa caucuses,

54:26

and one week until the

54:28

Republican debate in Miami. It

54:31

looks like it'll be down to Ron DeSantis,

54:33

Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy,

54:35

Chris Christie, and just today

54:38

Tim Scott said he finally qualified. Yeah,

54:40

my guy. There you go. Mike

54:44

Pence has dropped out.

54:45

Oh

54:48

mother. He

54:49

decided he'd rather hang at

54:51

home. He just couldn't hang. Beat

54:53

me. Beat me.

54:56

Yikes.

55:00

He suspended his campaign. From what? Boo.

55:06

And the party's criminal defense is from the front runner. It was really neck

55:09

and neck. Okay.

55:12

Wow.

55:15

And the party's criminal defendant front runner is

55:17

skipping yet again because

55:19

of his huge lead in all the polls that's

55:22

undoubtedly due to

55:23

performances like this. I

55:26

mean, they're not doing well. They're not being

55:28

treated, and they are

55:30

right now at a level. I think we're going

55:32

to get, so we're 28. You know, the same

55:34

people

55:35

that attacked Israel are coming into

55:38

our country too.

55:39

And did you ever notice, somebody said the

55:41

other day, some

55:42

fool on CNN said,

55:44

Oh, isn't that nice? They're all nice young

55:47

men.

55:47

They have young men, 23, 24, 22 years

55:51

old,

55:52

strong. They like nice young

55:54

men. There's something going on. There's

55:56

something going on. It's not a good thing. They have

55:58

a

55:58

lot of young men, young, strong. I

56:00

don't want to insult the women, but they're young, strong

56:02

men, even though, as you know, they want

56:05

men to play in women's sports. You know that. We're

56:08

not going to allow that. We're

56:12

not allowing that. I want to do that

56:14

too. I'm an extraordinary athlete.

56:17

I want to play. And I apologize

56:19

for those lights. The only place I don't have

56:21

a light up here, so that means we're going to have to wing

56:24

it tonight. Okay. There's no

56:26

light. They give us plenty of lights, but not to read

56:28

this crap. Look, they write a beautiful, they

56:31

wrote me a beautiful speech. I might as well

56:33

throw it right out that window. Man,

56:37

that's, that's tough for the speech writers. I

56:39

will tell you. That hurts. When

56:42

did you get into the, where

56:44

does that voice come from? Nice

56:46

young men, strong, strong young

56:48

men. Sexy men. Something's going

56:51

on. It's like, it's like he clicked over to the wrong

56:53

Pornhub side. It's like, just put that,

56:55

just put that in

56:59

ad.

57:03

What is that? Weird guy. Weird

57:05

dude. All right. Alyssa,

57:08

the, the field is narrowing, but

57:11

so far the polls are not. Uh, though

57:13

by the time people listen to the show, there

57:16

will be a new Des Moines Register poll, uh,

57:18

that could render all of our takes meaningless.

57:21

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow

57:23

down. I know. Be

57:26

careful. You're waiting tomorrow morning at 6 AM. We're going to

57:28

get a poll. These, these takes, you can either eat them

57:30

tonight or they're banana bread tomorrow. But

57:34

Alyssa, do you, we haven't

57:37

talked about this. Do you see anything brewing

57:39

that could change the dynamic and the Republican

57:41

primary over the next 78 days?

57:44

You guys.

57:45

So you know, you talk

57:47

about the polar coaster and everything, but I did a little

57:49

polling deep dive

57:52

in preparation for today. So

57:54

there was a new five 38. Is that what

57:56

it's called? Five 30. Yeah.

57:58

Five 38 poll. Trump 56. 6.9 to Santas 14, Haley 8, Ramaswami 5.8.

58:06

Okay, so you wanna hear my take?

58:08

Okay. This FYI, Tim Scott

58:10

said two and not both.

58:11

I stopped writing them down

58:13

below five.

58:15

Smart.

58:16

Okay, so here's my

58:18

vibe.

58:21

He's like

58:22

in pretty good shape.

58:25

Except, except,

58:28

there's some things that have happened in the past couple

58:30

of weeks. One, particularly

58:33

delicious development that I've enjoyed. So

58:36

one, we got a little Jenna

58:38

Ellis white lady tears, right? Okay.

58:41

Then you've got Sidney Powell, you've got Ken Chesbrough,

58:44

or as I like to call them all, star

58:46

witnesses.

58:47

So like,

58:50

it's possible that

58:52

they've got the goods on him. Oh yeah.

58:54

Like it's possible. The best part,

58:57

the most delicious nugget for anyone who

58:59

missed it. Ivanka

59:01

has been ordered to testify

59:04

in the New York civil fraud

59:06

trial. I am not

59:09

gonna lie.

59:09

Under

59:12

oath, do you love your father? I

59:14

love this so much. Under oath

59:16

is your father, I told you he loved you. Yeah, yeah,

59:18

yeah, there you go, Jenna. I fight

59:20

for it too much. So,

59:22

you know, I think

59:25

there are a lot of things that could happen in court.

59:27

I mean, like they are moving, like when Fonny Willis

59:30

filed these charges, everyone was like, there is no way

59:32

she's gonna be able to flip

59:34

people this fast, seems that she could. So

59:37

I don't know, we'll see what happens.

59:40

I really think that that is the only potential

59:42

that could upend him from being the

59:45

Republican nominee, God

59:47

help us all. But yeah,

59:49

that's my hot take. That's it,

59:50

that's it. I just wonder if it'll happen in

59:53

time,

59:54

because- I mean,

59:54

that's the whole thing, but like, Sidney

59:57

Powell, like, cut a deal in like a week.

59:59

Yeah.

1:00:00

You know, Jenna Ellis, I mean, she was like

1:00:02

one and done. She's like, I'll take probation. I'll

1:00:05

testify as needed and I will do

1:00:07

community service. Like this is what I have

1:00:09

to imagine is like real.

1:00:11

Like these people are getting away with actual

1:00:14

kind of murder.

1:00:14

You know, like, can

1:00:16

you imagine? Standing in the middle of Fifth Avenue

1:00:18

thing, it's just getting closer and closer to the truth. Jenna Ellis crying,

1:00:21

crying. I should have asked

1:00:24

more questions of Ruly Giuliani.

1:00:26

Yes, you should have.

1:00:28

But like she got community

1:00:31

service in like a $5,000 fine. So

1:00:33

like,

1:00:33

must have given something good.

1:00:35

I mean, look, unless law and order after

1:00:37

all these years has let me down, I got to with

1:00:39

Sue and she did something good. Well,

1:00:42

so obviously you can't beat something

1:00:44

with nothing. So someone has to beat Donald

1:00:47

Trump if he is somehow weakened between now

1:00:49

and Iowa. Dan, here's the top Politico

1:00:51

headline today. I know you're

1:00:53

excited about this.

1:00:54

The Rise is Real. That's in

1:00:56

quotations. Haley's breakout is

1:00:59

jolting. 2024 is undercard

1:01:01

race. Are you feeling the jolt?

1:01:04

Look, John, who isn't riveted by

1:01:06

the ups and downs, the

1:01:09

moving and shaking and the

1:01:11

riveting race for a distant second

1:01:13

Donald Trump? I

1:01:17

mean, the whole thing is stupid. She's not even in second place yet.

1:01:19

She's in third place. Again,

1:01:22

that's a pretty confident statement

1:01:25

when the Iowa polls come to the New York Register polls. I'm

1:01:27

just giving you the national polls. I think there is a, this is the important

1:01:29

caveat here. There is a chance

1:01:32

that the New York Register poll will come out that will show

1:01:34

her in a distant second to

1:01:36

Donald Trump.

1:01:38

I just wanted to make sure you got on the record. I mean, look,

1:01:41

if there is some prize for second place in

1:01:43

the Republican primary,

1:01:44

which Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley see very confident

1:01:47

there is, do you get like half

1:01:50

the pie?

1:01:51

Yeah, you can be vice president. I mean, whatever

1:01:53

it is, she is well positioned

1:01:56

to have a shot to possibly come in second.

1:01:58

I think you should all pay a lot of attention to that.

1:01:59

Do you think it's because she said she would never

1:02:02

compliment Hezbollah?

1:02:03

Honestly, that

1:02:05

story in Politico was so goddamn

1:02:08

stupid that I've been stooping about it since you sent

1:02:10

it to me this morning. It was a head life. It

1:02:12

was a full page of Politico. It

1:02:15

is just a reminder that we do not need

1:02:18

minute by minute coverage of a largely boring campaign.

1:02:21

I know. And it's like... We

1:02:23

haven't... two

1:02:25

days a week. That's all you need. Yeah,

1:02:27

you know what? Come on. We have 15 minutes

1:02:29

twice a week. It's fucking just perfect. All right. We've

1:02:32

been talking about Gaza and the speakers

1:02:34

race for so long now. We actually

1:02:37

haven't covered the GOP primary in a while, partly

1:02:40

because there's nothing much to cover. There's a reason, because there's

1:02:42

nothing to cover. Yeah. I know. that

1:02:46

the attention has turned to foreign policy, and

1:02:48

she has a foreign policy background. Yeah, no, that's...

1:02:50

Did we think that's what's happening? No. No,

1:02:52

I don't. Tommy,

1:02:56

Ron DeSantis' new line is that

1:02:59

Trump is only leading because he has 100% name ID,

1:03:03

and Trump's super PAC apparently

1:03:05

just went up in the air in Iowa with an ad attacking

1:03:08

DeSantis.

1:03:09

Do you think... It's hard

1:03:11

to say this with all the straight face. Do

1:03:14

you think that he's still a threat to Donald Trump,

1:03:16

or are they just looking to humiliate

1:03:19

him at this point? I mean,

1:03:20

both. We

1:03:23

were raised in normal political worlds where

1:03:26

you don't punch down the early

1:03:29

phases of the campaign, they're nicer,

1:03:32

and it's lots of oblique shots on policy. Trump

1:03:35

just got into the campaign in 2016

1:03:38

and started pummeling anyone he perceived

1:03:40

as a threat. I was watching his

1:03:42

speech in Nevada, where

1:03:45

he was bragging to this audience for an

1:03:47

hour and 10 minutes, that he does not

1:03:49

play prevent defense. Prevent

1:03:52

defense for you non-football fans is

1:03:54

when you drop back all your defensive

1:03:57

backs, so you won't give up a touchdown. Why are you looking

1:03:59

at me? Looking to love it.

1:03:59

But you're willing to give

1:04:02

up some kind of short yardage.

1:04:04

Trump does not play prevent

1:04:07

defense. He is smash

1:04:09

mouth football. He's blitzing. He's killing the quarterback. So

1:04:12

I think

1:04:13

he just likes kicking the shit out of Ron DeSantis. Remember

1:04:15

when he was playing a race? Who doesn't? I would agree with

1:04:18

Trump. Agree with Trump. Remember when DeSantis

1:04:20

got in the race and Trump was openly deciding

1:04:22

which nickname he was going to use? Should I use DeSantis?

1:04:24

Should I call him Meatball? And he used conservative

1:04:27

Tiny D? You remember Tiny D? DeSanktimonious?

1:04:31

DeSanktimonious? One point he just gave up, he's like, I'll call him whatever

1:04:33

the fuck I want. He's not going to win. And these conservative

1:04:35

commentators like Mark Levin were like, oh, I hope he doesn't

1:04:37

do that. It's going to offend a lot of conservatives. What

1:04:40

happened? Trump skyrocketed

1:04:42

like 50% in all

1:04:43

these polls in DeSantis tanks.

1:04:45

So I think he both

1:04:47

loves what he's doing. When you love

1:04:49

what you're doing, it's not a job. But it's also

1:04:52

effective politics. It's

1:04:54

also like,

1:04:55

DeSantis coming out with a new rationale

1:04:57

for why he's losing is actually why he's losing.

1:05:00

Underneath why he's losing, which is the

1:05:02

kind of person that thinks that's a good idea.

1:05:05

Ron DeSantis, actually what is most

1:05:07

interesting about Ron DeSantis

1:05:10

as a candidate is one thing he successfully

1:05:12

did is introduce himself to the United

1:05:15

States of America. He actually is

1:05:17

way better known than he has any right to

1:05:19

be. Going after Disney, becoming

1:05:21

the fucking woke police, having that personality,

1:05:24

it really connected. And

1:05:27

unfortunately, it connected in a really bad way.

1:05:29

The United States is aware of Ron DeSantis,

1:05:31

and they say, no, thank you. Donald

1:05:36

Trump isn't just winning against people who

1:05:38

haven't heard of Ron DeSantis. People who are Republican

1:05:41

primary voters are aware of Ron DeSantis.

1:05:43

They've given him a good look. They've said,

1:05:46

what's going on in those boots, sir? Yeah. Yeah.

1:05:49

You're, you know,

1:05:51

that is, you're wearing a 510 suit.

1:05:54

You got 5'7 energy.

1:05:59

Just to put some numbers on this. I

1:06:04

just did that, Dan. Did

1:06:08

you? Is that

1:06:10

Ron DeSantis is trailing by 45 points

1:06:13

in the polls and his approval rating is

1:06:15

about his ID, his name

1:06:17

ID is about five points less than Trump's.

1:06:20

Jesus Christ. That

1:06:22

doesn't work that well for him. That's good. The

1:06:26

minority of Republicans who don't want Trump

1:06:28

as a nominee, some of them are in the consultant

1:06:31

class because they've run elections, and

1:06:34

some politicians as well, they're

1:06:36

starting to say that it is time for

1:06:39

all the other candidates to drop

1:06:41

out just like Pence did so this can

1:06:44

become a one-on-one contest. Love

1:06:46

it. Do you think it's quitting time for your friends

1:06:49

Chris Christie and Tim Scott? I

1:06:53

know you're close to both of them. Obviously

1:06:56

the conversations I have

1:06:57

with Chris are

1:07:01

between us and I'm going

1:07:03

to leave. That's my counsel to him.

1:07:06

Tim Scott should drop out. The

1:07:09

problem with this is, look, sure, we know

1:07:12

the field. Great. But

1:07:14

there's this idea that all the people supporting

1:07:17

Tim Scott, all the people supporting Tim

1:07:22

Scott, Doug

1:07:24

Durney, his wife, the

1:07:27

idea is that these votes are going to all go to the

1:07:30

Trump alternative. A lot of them are going to go to Trump. You

1:07:32

look at some of the polling, if you ask,

1:07:35

if you do the whole field, you'll end up with Trump in

1:07:38

the high 40s and DeSantis way

1:07:40

below and the rest of them getting their single digits.

1:07:42

If you just do say Trump and DeSantis, Trump goes

1:07:44

above 50.

1:07:45

So sure, yeah, consolidate.

1:07:48

Great.

1:07:50

You can try it. No bad ideas in a brainstorm.

1:07:54

There is this, you know, this is silly to talk about because it's

1:07:56

coming out after we post this show, but

1:07:58

this Des Moines Register poll will be interesting. the last

1:08:00

one, the Du Bois and Richard polls and I were the best

1:08:02

in the business by far. It's a woman named Ann Salter, who's like

1:08:04

the best pollster there is for the state, maybe

1:08:06

the country. And her previous polls

1:08:09

have showed like a 28% Trump or die, like

1:08:12

I will vote Trump or

1:08:14

nobody vote. I'll be very interested

1:08:16

to see if that number has moved. And there

1:08:18

still is the potential for

1:08:20

someone to consolidate the other voters. Because I look, I agree

1:08:22

with you, love, it's like probably a lost cause.

1:08:25

And these folks aren't going to do the right thing and

1:08:27

drop out and allow the vote to consolidate. But it

1:08:29

will be interesting to see if

1:08:31

that's even an option anymore. I mean, it

1:08:33

seems pretty clear from this conversation where

1:08:35

everyone stands here, just for fun.

1:08:38

Would anyone like to make an argument

1:08:40

that one of these goobers

1:08:42

might beat Donald Trump in Iowa

1:08:44

and New Hampshire? Let's lay out the fantasy scenario.

1:08:47

Anyone?

1:08:48

Sure. Okay. I mean,

1:08:50

we're never going to know because these,

1:08:52

these are terrible candidates run whose campaign is

1:08:54

run by idiots. Like they don't seem

1:08:56

to want to want to win. And they are most

1:08:59

of them are now,

1:09:00

honestly, with all seriousness, they're not trying to be Donald Trump.

1:09:02

They're trying to be vice president to Donald Trump. They're

1:09:05

trying to maintain whatever role

1:09:07

the reason that I think I would say I don't think Haley

1:09:10

is I think I think a hundred percent Haley.

1:09:12

She's now gone. It's so funny.

1:09:14

There's this like line, right? There's

1:09:17

the red line for how much you

1:09:20

subtly attack Donald Trump. And

1:09:22

then if you go over it and you like directly attack,

1:09:24

she's like now pretty close to I

1:09:26

think he's very upset with her. And he may

1:09:29

be, maybe she won't get it, but it is what people are trying

1:09:31

to navigate now is they're not trying to

1:09:33

win. They're trying to manage their loss in

1:09:35

a mega dominated Republican party. Are

1:09:37

they going to be the vice president? Are they going to be

1:09:40

someone who is still a member in good standing

1:09:42

of

1:09:42

that party to run again in 2028, whether

1:09:44

Trump wins or loses because he can't run for reelection.

1:09:47

And so that is why the attack ads on the air are

1:09:49

not any of these fucking idiots attacking Donald

1:09:51

Trump. They're attacking each other. DeSantis

1:09:53

and Haley have ads on the air attacking each other

1:09:56

because they want to split up that 24% between

1:09:58

the two of them. Like what do they do?

1:09:59

doing. There is a way to try

1:10:02

to do this. There is a way to actually do it. It requires

1:10:04

the field to win over one person.

1:10:06

That person is probably Nicky Haley among

1:10:08

this group.

1:10:09

As Ron DeSantis has the political skills and

1:10:11

charisma of Bananaslug and we should

1:10:13

not count on him to do it. What's a Bananaslug?

1:10:16

He is not that guy. It's like a little Ron DeSantis.

1:10:18

It's like

1:10:21

moves on the ground. Thank

1:10:23

you. What you would have to do

1:10:25

is you would have to consolidate it. You would have

1:10:27

to then, you're one on one, you

1:10:29

have to beat him in Iowa

1:10:31

and then you have to beat him in New Hampshire.

1:10:33

There is no skip Iowa, go to New Hampshire

1:10:35

because you're going to get clobbered in South Carolina. The

1:10:37

thing about Trump is he's never lost.

1:10:42

According to all the voters, he didn't lose in 2020. Where were you on January

1:10:48

6th? Dan

1:10:50

took a shit in Pelosi's office. That's a heel turn. What you

1:10:53

would do

1:10:56

is if you wanted to actually try to beat Trump,

1:10:59

it's one person,

1:11:00

they tried to beat him in Iowa, they make an explicit

1:11:03

case at evangelical Christians in Iowa

1:11:06

that Trump is not the person who can

1:11:08

carry what they want, who will not win, who will

1:11:10

be chaotic. You would take all that insane shit that

1:11:12

most voters, even Iowa caucus voters are not

1:11:15

seeing.

1:11:15

You put it because Foxes actually not

1:11:17

cover Trump like we think they cover Trump. They

1:11:20

do not put his bad moments on

1:11:22

air.

1:11:23

You take those bad moments. No one does anymore, by the

1:11:26

way. I don't see that. The stuff that we showed,

1:11:28

there's five Twitter accounts that have

1:11:30

all those clips. You don't see them on CNN. The right

1:11:32

wing media has canceled Trump. They

1:11:35

canceled him. It's outrageous. I know. He's being

1:11:37

shadow banned by Fox.

1:11:39

My point here is that the

1:11:42

odds are that Trump still wins in that, but there

1:11:44

is a theoretical path

1:11:46

to getting it done. I don't think any

1:11:48

of these candidates, and certainly the people who work for them, are up

1:11:50

to it because they are not playing

1:11:52

to win. They are playing to manage their loss. I

1:11:55

think,

1:11:55

yeah, you're right that Haley is the closest.

1:11:58

Again, I did not have that.

1:11:59

high hopes for her when she started

1:12:02

so I was I'm already wrong like she's

1:12:04

gone farther than I thought she would but like I looked at

1:12:06

the last Des Moines Register poll

1:12:09

it was Trump 42, DeSantis 19, Scott 9,

1:12:11

Haley 6, Pence 6,

1:12:12

Christie 5,

1:12:16

the Vake 4, Burgum 2,

1:12:19

Will Heard 1, not with

1:12:21

us anymore. That's

1:12:24

not sure 5 right? So

1:12:26

if Haley in this next poll just

1:12:28

for fun if she took all of Pence's

1:12:30

support,

1:12:31

Scott's, Christie's, Burgum's, Heard's

1:12:34

and like half of DeSantis's she

1:12:36

still wouldn't beat Trump but she'd be close she'd

1:12:38

be within striking distance. I think the thing about

1:12:40

that Matt so I think two things I think one to

1:12:45

Dan's point like I actually think the most important thing

1:12:47

is what's gonna happen with DeSantis right like whether

1:12:49

Scott drops out or Christie drops out there's just not

1:12:51

enough happening there like does

1:12:53

DeSantis view it as in his interest to

1:12:56

go through it this far any further or do I

1:12:58

see some equity and getting out and getting behind

1:13:00

or getting behind Haley

1:13:03

seems inconceivable getting behind Trump seems inconceivable who

1:13:05

knows but just getting out to stop to not

1:13:07

put himself through the the the auger of

1:13:09

this fucking defeat he's about to experience

1:13:12

that leaves some space for Haley to get some

1:13:14

get higher in the polls she doesn't need

1:13:16

to in the next round of polls or the poll round

1:13:18

of polls after that she doesn't need to be beating

1:13:21

Trump she doesn't need to be faster than the bear she's to be faster

1:13:23

than the other guys you know yeah

1:13:25

and then the conversation can change if Trump shows some weakness

1:13:27

because of exogenous forces like the

1:13:31

judge in New York taking all his money or

1:13:33

getting thrown in jail for contempt

1:13:36

I don't think like I think the

1:13:38

scenario where this works is again

1:13:41

real longshot here everything that Alyssa

1:13:43

was saying about like all of his legal woes

1:13:45

suddenly like bubble up a lot he

1:13:48

says some crazy shit Joe Biden's

1:13:50

approval rating would have to like start

1:13:52

creeping up because then electability might start

1:13:54

becoming a concern for Republicans again right now

1:13:56

part of the problem is it's like well if

1:13:58

Nikki Haley's argument is I'm the one who can beat Joe Biden,

1:14:01

but also Donald Trump is beating

1:14:03

Joe Biden in some polls or at least tied with him in

1:14:05

polls, then like, why wouldn't you just take

1:14:07

Donald Trump? But if Joe Biden's

1:14:09

approval rating started coming up, then Nikki Haley

1:14:11

of all these people is probably the best position

1:14:14

because if she can somehow beat him in Iowa, which again,

1:14:16

then goes to New Hampshire and can beat

1:14:18

him in New Hampshire, then unlike any of these other candidates,

1:14:21

she's positioned really well in South Carolina.

1:14:24

So then you have a thing,

1:14:26

but again, that's pretty far away. Trump

1:14:29

has never faced a real primary loss

1:14:31

because even though he lost Iowa, it was so confusing.

1:14:34

It wasn't announced for a long period of time. It was wrapped

1:14:36

up in allegations that Ted Cruz

1:14:39

ran these robo calls to convince people not to vote.

1:14:42

And so then he went to New Hampshire and he had a huge victory.

1:14:44

South Carolina, he's victory and was off to the races. And

1:14:46

so

1:14:46

a candidate who depends on inevitability,

1:14:49

and that is a big part of what has been part of Trump's rise

1:14:52

over the last year

1:14:53

is that people have seen he might as well

1:14:55

get on board because he's going to win. If you shatter

1:14:58

the myth of inevitability, everyone freaks

1:15:00

out something is possible. Yeah. Right.

1:15:03

Whether it may be someone who would be well positioned in hypothetical

1:15:06

general election polls against Biden

1:15:08

to seem as electable or more

1:15:10

electable. The Trump kids Trump will seem weak if

1:15:12

he loses in there's

1:15:14

a huge unexpected loss in Iowa. Yeah,

1:15:17

that's right. Well,

1:15:17

we'll see. The first woman

1:15:20

present cannot be a Republican. Dear

1:15:25

God, no.

1:15:26

I'm not making any predictions, but

1:15:28

I would not. I'm just putting out there. Okay.

1:15:31

When we come back, the executive director of Pro

1:15:33

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1:17:36

A critical fight for abortion

1:17:39

rights, and you guys know I love to talk about

1:17:41

abortion, is playing out right

1:17:43

here in Ohio, where voters will

1:17:45

decide if they want to enshrine abortion

1:17:48

rights into the state constitution. Here

1:17:51

to talk about abortion rights and combating

1:17:53

Republican extremism, my

1:17:56

hero, an icon, Executive

1:17:59

Director of Pro-Choice.

1:17:59

Oh hey, Kelly Copeland. Kelly,

1:18:02

thank you for coming

1:18:02

on the pod. Thank

1:18:05

you. Oh,

1:18:10

H.

1:18:14

That's what I'm talking about. Okay,

1:18:16

so not

1:18:18

only is she my icon for all of

1:18:19

the work she has done for 20 years. 21. 21. But

1:18:24

I heard you're also a cat lady. Oh, I'm sorry.

1:18:28

You're also a cat lady. Oh

1:18:30

my God. Just give me the chance to talk

1:18:32

about my cat, his grace. Okay,

1:18:35

and I'm just saying it's National Cat Day,

1:18:37

so it is kismet that we are here together.

1:18:40

Okay. Okay. For

1:18:43

anyone who doesn't know, what's

1:18:45

the state of abortion care access

1:18:47

in Ohio right now? Is it

1:18:49

correct that y'all still have a six-week

1:18:52

ban, but the courts have blocked enforcement

1:18:55

for now? Yes,

1:18:57

that is correct. And what we mean by for

1:18:59

now is that days,

1:19:03

even hours after the election on

1:19:05

November 7th, the state Supreme

1:19:07

Court could rule against us and

1:19:09

they could put the six-week ban into effect. I

1:19:12

mean, if we don't pass issue one,

1:19:15

they will move to put that six-week ban back

1:19:17

into effect as it was for 82 days last year,

1:19:20

except this time it'll be permanent.

1:19:25

Pretty fucking tough. I know, it's a bummer. I'm sorry to bring you

1:19:27

down. No, we're here for real talk, okay? This isn't

1:19:29

just like a tiptoe through the tulips. Okay.

1:19:32

Anti-abortion officials purposely

1:19:34

made this whole process as confusing as

1:19:36

possible. Erin and I covered it a lot on hysteria.

1:19:39

There was an August special election where Republicans

1:19:42

tried their fuckery to change the rules

1:19:44

of the ballot initiatives altogether. Republicans

1:19:47

come out of the woodwork in August. It is.

1:19:49

They did it in Kansas. They did it in Ohio. But

1:19:52

you prevailed.

1:19:53

Yeah, y'all beat their

1:19:54

ass. So

1:19:58

now that fails.

1:20:00

Now there's another vote on the actual

1:20:03

issue one initiative. Let's settle

1:20:05

this once and for all. What do Ohioans

1:20:07

need to know about issue one? Well,

1:20:10

first of all, it's a yes on issue one

1:20:12

in November. It

1:20:16

was a no in August. Don't get it

1:20:18

confused. But, you know, I think

1:20:20

you bring up such an important point because

1:20:22

our opponents have used

1:20:24

and leveraged the full force of the

1:20:27

state government against you. Against

1:20:30

all of us, our taxpayer dollars,

1:20:32

they spent $20 million on

1:20:34

that special election in August. Taxpayer

1:20:36

dollars. They have messed

1:20:39

with the system every step of the way.

1:20:41

The AG has put out legal opinions

1:20:43

to their campaign propaganda. The

1:20:45

state senate has done the same thing. The

1:20:48

attorney general made a summary

1:20:50

of the amendment that is filled with

1:20:53

bogus information. And

1:20:55

they're doing all of this because they've

1:20:57

had 50 years, 50 years

1:21:00

since Roe versus Wade to make the case

1:21:02

that their agenda to outlaw

1:21:04

all abortion in all circumstances

1:21:06

is what we should do. And they have failed.

1:21:09

And so that is why they have to do all

1:21:11

of this unscrupulous, frankly

1:21:14

legalized cheating to try

1:21:16

to subvert your vote. Because

1:21:18

the vast majority of Ohioans and

1:21:20

the vast majority of Americans believe

1:21:23

that we should make our own reproductive healthcare

1:21:25

decision to not the government. But

1:21:27

these extremists who have taken over Ohio

1:21:30

through gerrymandering and

1:21:32

through so many other unscrupulous practices,

1:21:35

they don't care. They don't want to

1:21:37

represent us like my

1:21:40

congresswoman, Amelia Sykes. They

1:21:42

want to rule us. And we're not going

1:21:44

to let them, are we? Hell

1:21:46

no. Speaking

1:21:51

of unscrupulous, so I went down

1:21:53

the rabbit hole. I've been trying to learn for

1:21:55

months everything I can learn about Ohio. And

1:21:58

I know I'm going to bring up. something that we hate

1:22:00

to talk about, but we have to talk about. People

1:22:03

have been saying that the amendment would bring back

1:22:05

partial birth abortions, which

1:22:07

haven't been legal in 15 years. Can

1:22:10

you please explain to us what

1:22:12

voting yes on issue one would

1:22:14

actually do? Voting yes

1:22:16

on issue one would protect

1:22:19

access to abortion when it's needed for

1:22:21

healthcare reasons. It would

1:22:23

make sure that no Ohioan has

1:22:26

to worry that they won't get access to care

1:22:28

when their life is in jeopardy. It

1:22:31

makes sure, but it also has the

1:22:33

language that says that there can

1:22:36

be restrictions after the point of viability,

1:22:38

but those restrictions can't be the ones

1:22:41

that our opponents want. What our

1:22:43

opponents want is that when people experience

1:22:46

a pregnancy complication, and think about

1:22:48

it, we're talking about very wanted

1:22:51

planned pregnancies where someone

1:22:53

gets the worst news, where

1:22:55

maybe they've already picked out a name, and

1:22:58

our opponents are so heartless

1:23:00

that they want to tell those people, too

1:23:03

bad, too bad if you die, too

1:23:06

bad if you can't make the decisions that are

1:23:08

best for you and your family, too

1:23:11

bad. The most serious consequence

1:23:13

of issue one failing, and the one that I'm scared

1:23:16

the most about is, you

1:23:18

know, when it was in effect, the six-week

1:23:20

ban for 82 days, there was an incredible

1:23:24

safety net where abortion

1:23:26

funds in Ohio and abortion clinics and

1:23:29

activists, maybe many of you, where

1:23:31

we were able to provide financial

1:23:33

and logistical support to get people out,

1:23:36

get people care in other states. But

1:23:39

if you're sick, you may

1:23:41

not be able to travel. You may not

1:23:43

be able to get to

1:23:44

Pittsburgh or Detroit or

1:23:46

Chicago.

1:23:47

And that is the thing that has been

1:23:49

most terrifying. It was the most terrifying

1:23:52

thing during the 82 days that

1:23:54

the six-week ban was in effect, and it's the most

1:23:56

terrifying thing about the possibility

1:23:59

of not passing.

1:23:59

issue one.

1:24:00

And it's frankly the thing I worry about

1:24:03

most for my kids. They're young

1:24:05

women in their 20s and even

1:24:07

with all the connections and all the resources

1:24:10

I have, I'm so scared

1:24:13

that if when they, when it's their time to plan

1:24:15

a family, if they decide to be pregnant

1:24:17

in the state of Ohio that they'll get

1:24:19

the care they need. That's why all

1:24:21

of us have to work night and day to

1:24:23

make sure that not only that doesn't

1:24:26

happen to people but that every

1:24:28

pregnant person doesn't have to be afraid.

1:24:31

People came up to me all during those 82 days

1:24:34

talking about how they were so scared.

1:24:36

They were scared

1:24:37

that they wouldn't get the care they need. They were scared

1:24:39

that they might die. That

1:24:42

is what they're trying to do to us. That's

1:24:45

how little they care about us and

1:24:47

that's how much we have to fight and love

1:24:49

each other. That's why we have to pass

1:24:52

issue one. And

1:24:54

to your point, Kelly, that is

1:24:56

not hyperbole.

1:24:57

What's happening

1:24:58

in Texas, the women

1:25:01

who have been forced to go

1:25:03

into sepsis because doctors

1:25:05

didn't want to put their careers on the line to be

1:25:08

able to provide abortion care, this

1:25:10

is real. And this is

1:25:12

not dramatic. This is not propaganda. This

1:25:15

is happening across the country where abortion's been

1:25:17

outlawed. Yeah. In Ohio during those 82

1:25:20

days, women who were experiencing miscarriages

1:25:23

were sometimes sent away from hospitals

1:25:25

even though they were bleeding, bleeding

1:25:28

heavily, filling up, forgive

1:25:30

me, one diaper after another with blood and

1:25:33

they were turned away because the hospitals

1:25:35

and the doctors were worried that they would be

1:25:37

criminalized if they helped these patients.

1:25:40

That should never happen. I mean Cleveland

1:25:43

is a medical destination with the Cleveland

1:25:45

Clinic. People come from all over the globe

1:25:47

to Cleveland.

1:25:48

How

1:25:49

could we possibly let them

1:25:52

do this

1:25:52

to us? We won't. No,

1:25:54

we won't. So there's

1:25:58

been an interesting thing that I've been looking forward to.

1:25:59

The tactic of changing the ballot

1:26:02

initiative process was both shady

1:26:04

and quite extreme. And now those

1:26:06

who oppose issue one are spreading misinformation

1:26:10

and lying about what the ballot initiative

1:26:12

does. Can you give us some examples

1:26:14

of this bad faith

1:26:15

fuckery?

1:26:19

I mean, they

1:26:23

want parents to be afraid that

1:26:26

they're going to be able to access

1:26:29

healthcare without them, that they'll

1:26:31

be able to, you know, change

1:26:34

the physicality of their gender

1:26:37

and their sex. They just have made up all of these wild

1:26:39

things. And I always think

1:26:41

to myself, why are you picking

1:26:44

on kids?

1:26:45

Why are you picking on children

1:26:47

who need access to healthcare? Why

1:26:50

are you lying to parents? We

1:26:52

know that parents who had

1:26:54

underage daughters who

1:26:57

needed an abortion during those 82 days had to

1:27:00

take them out of state. What

1:27:02

kind of parental rights is that?

1:27:04

I

1:27:06

mean, issue one will strengthen

1:27:08

parental rights

1:27:09

because parents will be able

1:27:12

to get their daughters that abortion

1:27:14

care and other healthcare they need here at

1:27:17

home as it should be.

1:27:21

So

1:27:24

a majority of Americans support

1:27:26

abortion, access to abortion. Like

1:27:29

eight and ten. Like a lot. Like a

1:27:31

lot. So why are

1:27:33

Republicans so obsessed

1:27:36

with our bodies, even though it is

1:27:38

a losing issue

1:27:41

for them at the ballot box? You know, I've

1:27:43

been trying to figure that out. It's hard.

1:27:45

It makes no sense. Well, I

1:27:48

mean, that's, you know, I have a deputy director,

1:27:50

Jamie Miracle, and she and I have done this work

1:27:52

together for 21 years, and she's our lobbyist.

1:27:55

Yes, Jamie Miracle!

1:27:58

And when she's really... scientific

1:28:00

and she's very thoughtful and she's

1:28:07

gone into the state house with,

1:28:09

I mean we were just talking backstage, we have brought hundreds

1:28:12

of abortion storytellers and doctors

1:28:14

to the state house. We've been fighting this six

1:28:16

week ban since 2011. This

1:28:20

is 13 years that we

1:28:22

fought this fight, we were the first state in Ohio

1:28:25

and the one thing I know about our opponents

1:28:28

is they don't give a shit about us

1:28:30

and they don't give a shit about the facts because

1:28:33

they had it all. When

1:28:35

Governor DeWine, he's out here going, well,

1:28:38

we'll find some other path,

1:28:40

don't worry, trust

1:28:43

us. Bologna, he knows,

1:28:46

we've had hundreds of people come testify

1:28:48

at the state house. We have

1:28:51

had 700,000 people sign the petition to put

1:28:53

this on the ballot. Ohioans don't

1:28:56

trust you, Governor DeWine,

1:28:58

and you've given us reason not to. They

1:29:01

don't listen to us, they don't care about

1:29:03

us, and I don't understand why they're such a

1:29:05

bunch of bastards, I really don't.

1:29:08

That's a vibe. Okay,

1:29:12

I want to dig a little deeper even more. The

1:29:14

campaign opposing issue one, Protect

1:29:17

Women Ohio, recently said that the effort-

1:29:19

I don't need protection from you. Thank

1:29:21

you. Protect Women Ohio. No, thank

1:29:23

you. They recently

1:29:26

said that the effort to get this amendment on the ballot is

1:29:28

anti-parent. We've

1:29:30

seen the right more and more try to embrace being

1:29:32

the party of parents to justify

1:29:35

taking away abortion rights, censoring what kids

1:29:37

read, and hate on the LGBTQ

1:29:39

community. What does this bill actually

1:29:42

mean for parents and families,

1:29:44

and how do we combat pro-parent messaging?

1:29:47

Well, how many of us are parents?

1:29:51

Those are the facts.

1:29:54

Parents and parenthood should be the decision

1:29:57

that you make, not the decision the government

1:30:00

I mean, that is the bottom

1:30:02

line. Who decides? Is

1:30:04

it you and your family or is it the

1:30:07

government? Is it Mike DeWine? Is it Frank

1:30:09

LaRose? Is it any one of those scumbags?

1:30:11

I mean,

1:30:12

when we're talking about parental

1:30:15

rights, we're talking about the right

1:30:17

to live our lives our own way and

1:30:20

not have the government tell us how to live our

1:30:22

lives. I mean, issue one, opponents are

1:30:24

anti-parents' rights. They want

1:30:26

to take away your ability to make

1:30:28

decisions with your family. They want

1:30:30

to, as with those 82 days, they want to make all

1:30:33

the decisions for you. That's why parents

1:30:35

had to flee the state with their children who

1:30:38

needed access to abortion. How

1:30:40

are they somehow the standard bearer

1:30:42

for parental rights when they forced families

1:30:45

to go through that? Amen.

1:30:47

This important

1:30:50

vote has captured the nation's attention,

1:30:52

especially as abortion rights prove to be

1:30:54

a critical issue in every election

1:30:57

since Dobbs. Even

1:30:59

I need to say, even in New York state where I

1:31:01

live, the equal rights amendment will be

1:31:03

on the ballot in 2024 because

1:31:06

if a Republican wins, if Donald Trump

1:31:08

wins and a national abortion ban

1:31:11

were to take place, even New York would need

1:31:13

the equal rights amendment to protect women in New

1:31:15

York state. So

1:31:17

that said,

1:31:18

what lessons should those watching

1:31:21

across the country learn from how you've

1:31:23

organized around issue one? That

1:31:26

this is a grassroots movement. That

1:31:29

this is a movement fueled by love.

1:31:32

You know, when we dropped off those 420

1:31:34

boxes filled with 700,000 signatures to get

1:31:36

on the ballot,

1:31:41

the one thing I was so overwhelmed by

1:31:44

was the love, the love

1:31:46

that so many people put into this work.

1:31:49

This is a work of love and community

1:31:52

compassion. This is a grassroots

1:31:54

effort. This is something that whether

1:31:56

you're a Democrat or an independent or even

1:31:59

a Republican, This could affect you

1:32:01

and your family. This is bigger than

1:32:03

politics. This is a deeply

1:32:05

personal situation. It's something that

1:32:07

affects generations. I

1:32:10

do this work because I know

1:32:12

how important it is. My

1:32:14

great-grandmother had 21 children that

1:32:16

lived. My grandmother

1:32:18

had an illegal abortion to save her life

1:32:21

during the Depression. My mom

1:32:23

was an incest survivor. I

1:32:25

know from my family how important

1:32:28

these decisions are, how important

1:32:30

access to abortion, to

1:32:34

sex education, to

1:32:36

contraception, to fertility treatment,

1:32:38

to all of those things are because it's

1:32:40

affected every generation of my family.

1:32:43

And we cannot in

1:32:46

any state, no matter what they throw

1:32:47

at us, no matter how long we have

1:32:49

to work, I mean, we've worked 13 years to

1:32:52

stop the six-week abortion ban. And people are

1:32:54

like, why do you keep doing it?

1:32:57

Because fuck them, they can't take

1:33:00

this from us. Amen.

1:33:01

You

1:33:08

deserve all that applause. That's

1:33:12

right.

1:33:21

Kelly, you helped create a broad

1:33:23

coalition that organized getting signatures

1:33:25

and mobilizing voters all across the state.

1:33:28

What would you tell someone listening who

1:33:30

might want to get involved in organizing but is nervous

1:33:33

to

1:33:33

start?

1:33:35

It is.

1:33:36

Get

1:33:39

in it.

1:33:40

You know, this stuff

1:33:42

matters. And, you know,

1:33:44

start somewhere. Reach out to an organization

1:33:47

that's doing the work and say, what

1:33:49

can I do? Put me to work. I

1:33:52

would like to see you all go to work right now, if

1:33:54

you haven't already, by signing up

1:33:56

at OURR.win. That's

1:33:59

Ohioans.

1:33:59

not if a reproductive rights

1:34:02

got win. Because we

1:34:05

need to turn out the vote. And everyone

1:34:07

can do something. I had a campaign

1:34:09

once where I had a little old Hungarian

1:34:12

woman, and she cooked. And she

1:34:15

fed our volunteers. Oh my god. It

1:34:17

was such good food. And

1:34:19

she couldn't walk door to door. She couldn't

1:34:21

hear well. She couldn't make the phone

1:34:23

calls. But she could cook. And that's

1:34:26

what she did. And so there's a

1:34:28

role for everybody. Whether

1:34:30

you're a graphic designer, whether you're

1:34:33

a power walker, if you

1:34:35

like to talk on the phone, if you're a

1:34:37

great cook, reach out to an organization

1:34:40

that does the work that you care

1:34:42

about. And say, put me in,

1:34:44

coach.

1:34:45

Send me to work.

1:34:48

Kelly Copeland. Let

1:34:51

me just say, for years

1:34:54

when so many of us were saying Roe could

1:34:56

be overturned and people called us hysterical.

1:35:00

Oh yes, the old hysterical. We're

1:35:02

hysterical. Our uteruses are

1:35:04

just taking over our brains. You

1:35:08

have been fighting the fight. You have been teaching

1:35:10

organizers how to organize. You have been keeping

1:35:12

women safe. And I just want to say, truly

1:35:16

from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much.

1:35:18

You are a hero.

1:35:19

It is a privilege.

1:35:34

Setiva, indica, hot save

1:35:36

America.

1:35:38

Abortion isn't the only thing

1:35:40

on the ballot come November 7. No, we're

1:35:42

also talking about ganja, grass, jolly green,

1:35:44

the devil's bouquet. That

1:35:48

old giggle smoke, baby's bad

1:35:50

broccoli. You

1:35:52

know what I'm talking about. Ohioans

1:35:55

are voting on the potential legalization of marijuana

1:35:58

from the city.

1:35:59

There's Mel in here. We already know where you stand.

1:36:04

But how good is your memories, donors? We're

1:36:07

about to find out in a game we're calling,

1:36:09

Reefer Madness.

1:36:12

If you think you know a little something about the

1:36:15

legal state of

1:36:17

the wacky-tobacky, Vendeline

1:36:19

is out there.

1:36:20

Let's get, can we get the house lights up?

1:36:24

And if you want to answer a question, raise your hand.

1:36:28

Hi, what's your name? Kyle.

1:36:31

Yeah. OK, someone over there knows who you are.

1:36:35

OK, well, that's...

1:36:38

Are you a celebrity in this place?

1:36:41

Yeah, you know, I'm famous. Nice.

1:36:44

Look at that. That's cool. John,

1:36:47

you want to kick us off? Sure. Hi, Kyle.

1:36:50

So former Attorney General Jeff Sessions,

1:36:52

remember him? Said

1:36:55

he thought this group of people were,

1:36:57

quote, OK, until

1:36:59

I found out they smoke pot.

1:37:02

What group was he referring to?

1:37:04

Was it A, the KKK,

1:37:08

B, the Black Panthers,

1:37:11

C,

1:37:12

the Branch Davidians at Waco, D,

1:37:15

Black Lives Matter?

1:37:20

Branch Davidians.

1:37:22

Unfortunately. The

1:37:26

answer is A, the KKK. The

1:37:30

worst answer possible, Kyle. So

1:37:35

Sessions later tried to walk back his comment

1:37:37

made in the early 80s saying he was joking.

1:37:41

But it and similar comments cost him

1:37:44

a federal judgeship in 1986, but

1:37:46

then he ended up being Attorney General. So that's

1:37:49

that.

1:37:50

Wild. Wild. Who's next? Somebody

1:37:52

raise your hand. This person did. Hi, what's your

1:37:54

name?

1:37:55

Natalie. Madeline. Natalie.

1:37:57

Natalie? Yeah.

1:37:59

Are you from Cleveland Natalie?

1:38:02

No, I'm not. Okay. Oh, this has got a

1:38:04

question for you. Okay. Are you ready?

1:38:08

Which future president declared

1:38:10

on the campaign trail Quote leading

1:38:13

medical researchers are coming to the conclusion

1:38:15

that marijuana pot grass

1:38:18

Whatever you want to call it is probably

1:38:20

the most dangerous drug in the United States

1:38:23

And we haven't begun to find out all

1:38:25

of the ill effects, but they are permanent

1:38:27

ill effects Oh,

1:38:30

I just have I don't get choices.

1:38:32

No, no, you have to just like let

1:38:35

me tell you something. Okay. This one's pretty

1:38:37

straightforward

1:38:38

drugs Bad Reagan.

1:38:41

There you go

1:38:44

Hey

1:38:49

Hi, what's your name Sarah Sarah

1:38:51

as of 2022 marijuana was fully illegal meaning

1:38:53

there is no dispensation for any use in which four

1:38:56

states

1:38:58

That's right. Just say four states

1:39:05

For four states where there's no just there's nothing

1:39:07

they've got nothing Wow

1:39:11

No multiple

1:39:13

choice. No multiple choice. Okay, I

1:39:16

mean I can do it. I have

1:39:18

which of these is not one of the states

1:39:22

Sarah

1:39:24

Wyoming Idaho, Kansas,

1:39:26

Oklahoma, South Carolina

1:39:30

South Carolina wrong It's

1:39:33

Wyoming, Idaho, Kansas and South Carolina

1:39:36

all four states have had multiple measures But

1:39:39

they were they didn't pass they couldn't get them done

1:39:41

that

1:39:42

they're very tightly wound

1:39:43

Could use some weed in some of those places

1:39:47

Hi, what's your name?

1:39:48

Adam?

1:39:49

Adam are you from Cleveland?

1:39:52

Not originally? Okay, Tommy

1:39:58

Okay, Adam this

1:39:59

future president said he never violated

1:40:02

America's drug laws until

1:40:04

he admitted he tried marijuana

1:40:06

while overseas. marijuana?

1:40:10

this uh this is a Republican

1:40:12

question in that you have no choices

1:40:14

you just have to you just have to say it that's

1:40:19

a good joke thank you I winged that

1:40:21

one because the joke writers didn't give me options. oh

1:40:25

sorry my

1:40:27

symbols to crash together for you Tommy

1:40:31

Adam do

1:40:34

you have a guess? I want to say Clinton

1:40:36

I know it's wrong I'm gonna go oh oh shit

1:40:39

just yourself just yourself Adam

1:40:42

nice with answer Bill Clinton in 1992 who

1:40:44

said he didn't like it and didn't inhale come

1:40:48

on Bill I actually like

1:40:51

I didn't I didn't realize the details of

1:40:53

that story which is that he was asked about drug

1:40:55

use and said I never violated the drug laws

1:40:57

of this country and then when someone said well what about when you were

1:40:59

in college at Oxford he goes like yeah I tried weed

1:41:03

and then there was a whole news cycle about how like

1:41:05

it's not that he it's not about the drugs

1:41:08

it's about his slickness and it's like what

1:41:10

an era where like that was that

1:41:12

was like potentially disqualified kinder

1:41:14

gentler time were they wrong

1:41:18

I guess his slickness did prove to be an issue over

1:41:20

the over the long run famous

1:41:23

brooms still too soon who's

1:41:26

up next

1:41:28

hi I'm Deb

1:41:29

hi Deb

1:41:30

okay Deb are you ready yes this

1:41:33

is not multiple choice okay

1:41:35

okay meanwhile which other president

1:41:37

to be said this on his campaign trail

1:41:40

when

1:41:40

I was a kid I inhaled

1:41:42

that was the point that

1:41:47

was Barack Obama wasn't it yes that

1:41:50

is correct

1:41:52

nice

1:41:54

talk about a man who could read the room all right

1:41:59

What

1:42:01

do we got?

1:42:02

Hi, my name is Claire. Hi, Claire.

1:42:04

Hello.

1:42:05

All right. This former speaker

1:42:07

of the house

1:42:08

sponsored legislation that would

1:42:10

have made

1:42:11

bringing two ounces of marijuana

1:42:13

into the country punishable by

1:42:16

life imprisonment or

1:42:19

if it's the second offense,

1:42:22

the death penalty. What?

1:42:25

What's that? Yeah.

1:42:27

Yeah. Where's Johnson? Not my Johnson.

1:42:30

Quite a good

1:42:32

guess. I should have started with that. Gingrich.

1:42:36

Yes. Newt Gingrich. Wow.

1:42:39

That is crazy. That man was trouble. That was the

1:42:41

90s. marijuana, you're

1:42:44

dead. Contract of America was 94. Yeah. Yeah.

1:42:47

College. Country is

1:42:48

nuts. Nothing stops. Got worse.

1:42:50

Who's next? Hi, I'm Jesse. Hi,

1:42:53

Jesse. Are you from Cleveland? I'm from Kent.

1:42:56

That's cool. All right.

1:42:58

I guess that's close. Based on the context clues. Good

1:43:00

job. Okay. You ready?

1:43:03

I am. Okay. This is

1:43:06

not multiple choice. When asked if

1:43:08

he ever tried

1:43:09

marijuana, this former

1:43:11

speaker

1:43:11

of the house said, I'm sorry.

1:43:14

When

1:43:17

asked if he ever tried marijuana, this

1:43:20

former speaker of the house said,

1:43:22

quote, that was a sign we were

1:43:24

alive and in graduate school in that

1:43:27

era. McCarthy? I

1:43:29

mean. Someone

1:43:30

said.

1:43:31

Not a fan of

1:43:32

hints and kents. It's Gingrich.

1:43:35

Newt Gingrich. Sorry.

1:43:37

That was so unfair to you. I would have guessed Pelosi.

1:43:39

I would have said Boehner.

1:43:40

Someone was talking

1:43:41

about. Boehner likes weed.

1:43:42

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I

1:43:44

would have said Boehner. I'm talking about. Boehner

1:43:46

likes weed. Yeah. Boehner's a weed lobbyist

1:43:49

now.

1:43:49

Who doesn't now? Fyfeer. All

1:43:51

right. Who's up next? Fucking narc

1:43:53

Fyfeer. Hi.

1:43:59

another group

1:44:00

every

1:44:03

group every group has a Mike Johnson and if you don't

1:44:05

know who the Mike Johnson is in your group look in the fucking

1:44:07

mirror pal I can't

1:44:17

see is anyone

1:44:20

from Cleveland

1:44:25

we have somebody here what's your name

1:44:28

Zach Zach over

1:44:30

here John back

1:44:31

there

1:44:33

right no you're right a meta

1:44:36

analysis of 36 papers

1:44:40

dating from 2013 to 2021 published this year found that legalization

1:44:44

of marijuana lowered the rates of a suicide

1:44:47

be binge drinking see traffic fatalities

1:44:49

D cannabis use in teenagers e

1:44:52

all of the above or F all the above

1:44:54

except for the teen thing

1:44:56

I'm gonna go

1:44:59

easy all the above all the above

1:45:01

it turns out it

1:45:02

turns

1:45:05

out that when weed is legalized and dispensed

1:45:08

from an official

1:45:09

location it's harder for teens to get their hands

1:45:11

on something to think about something

1:45:13