“Devin’s Gate.”

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Hey guys, Tommy Vitor here.
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I'm hosting a new podcast called World Corrupt with my
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friend Roger Bennett from the Men in Blazers podcast. Soccer
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is a game that is often called the world's most important,
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least important thing. Yet November's World Cup will force fans
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to confront and grapple with the complexities of the tournament.
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It was awarded via corruption and built with atrocious labor
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practices that have left reported 6,500 migrant workers dead. Each
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week on World Corrupt, Roger and I will explore what
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it means to be a fan and responsible citizen of
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the world while watching the world's most popular sporting event.
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New episodes of World Corrupt drop each Saturday in the
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Pod Save the World feed.
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Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
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I'm Tommy Vitor. I'm Jon Lovett.
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I'm Alyssa Mastromonaco.
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Yes!
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Yay!
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Alyssa guest host.
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You're never getting rid of me.
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Now, are you on the phone or in upstate New
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York or are you in Los Angeles right now?
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I'm staring into your baby blue eyes, Tommy Vitor.
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She's got a very LA sort of juice with her.
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Yet I'm dressed like I go to a prep school
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in New England.
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It took us a long time to stop doing that.
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I think that that sweater is cool.
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Wait, do you see the pants? Yeah, they're like Archie Bunker,
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but dope.
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You're stylish. Is it a tartan?
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It's a bit of a tartan.
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What is that?
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A plaid.
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On the pod today, we have a number of developing
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stories while we wait for impeachment, including the release of
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the Department of Justice Inspector General's report on the origins
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of the Russia investigation and a shooting at a Navy
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base in Pensacola. We'll also talk about all the latest
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2020 news. Before that, a few quick housekeeping notes.
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Love it.
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How was the show on Friday?
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We're doing these late shows, all right? Very loose. Brett Gelman, hilarious.
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Riri Chaney, hilarious. It was a great episode.
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Check it out.
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That's an all-star panel. They were awesome. Brett was so funny.
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Finally, a plea from your friends at Crooked Media. Protecting
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voting rights is the most important thing we can do
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right now to win in 2020. Right now, we're $ 400, 000
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away from reaching our $ 2 million goal to get organizers
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on the ground fighting voter suppression in every single battleground state.
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In fact, if everyone listening right now just donates a
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little bit, we won't just meet the goal. We'll crush
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the goal.
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That's unimpeachable math.
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Unimpeachable math. Just a couple dollars.
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I can do it.
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Everyone listening right now, it's not that hard.
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I'm going to do it today.
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Alyssa's going to do it today.
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I'm going to do it today.
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Stacey Abrams will thank you.
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You want to help Stacey Abrams? Or do you want
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to be selfish?
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The website is votesaveamerica.com slash fair fight.
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Make it part of your holiday giving.
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If you put a little card in your mom's stocking
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that said $ 10 went to help people vote this cycle,
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I bet she'd really appreciate it.
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I think that's right.
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Yeah.
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VoteSaveAmerica.com slash Fair Fight.
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All right.
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I just want to make sure everyone's up to speed
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on where we are with impeachment before we move on
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to some of the other important stories out there. Over
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the weekend, House Judiciary Committee released a report laying out
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the constitutional grounds for impeachment. which argue that Trump's Ukraine
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scheme could constitute bribery and an impeachable abuse of power. Today,
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as we're recording this, the Judiciary Committee is holding another
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public hearing where they'll hear evidence from lawyers for both
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the Judiciary and Intel committees that will help them decide
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how to frame the articles of impeachment, including whether they
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should include an article of impeachment about Trump's obstruction of
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justice in the Mueller probe. And Jerry Nadler has said
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his committee might vote on these articles of impeachment by
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the end of this week. We've talked a lot about
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impeachment on this podcast, but Alyssa, we haven't talked about
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it with you yet. What do you think? Do you
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agree with the New York Times headline from Sunday that
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impeachment has devolved into a partisan brawl?
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I mean, for fuck's sake. Well, so far, my favorite
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thing that I've seen today is that Castor showed up
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with all of his, the lawyer.
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The GOP lawyer.
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The GOP lawyer showed up with all of his papers
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for the day in a recyclable grocery bag.
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Kind of endearing.
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You know what? I just say, like, that's highly relatable.
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I really enjoyed it, and I'm not going to mock
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him for it.
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Very Hillstaffer. Went to the Whole Foods on P in
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the morning, put stuff in there. Probably his gym clothes.
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Are in there, too.
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I'm going to say it was a Trader Joe's.
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There's... Definitely. You can definitely see him with a bag
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dropping to the ground with avocados and incriminating evidence rolling out.
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See, I had a different view.
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In front of Logan Tavern.
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I thought, oh boy. I had a terrible experience outside
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of Logan Tavern once. No, I feel like he was
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maybe more like me and was like, you know what?
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It's going to be a long day. I'm going to
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pack a PB & J for an upper later.
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It does seem like it is a long day so
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far because I woke up and started watching this thing
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and Hours later, it's just still going. There's a lot
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of yelling today. The Judiciary Committee, the fucking Republicans on
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this committee are, look, their strategy is to, you know,
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turn people away and make people think that it's just
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a big partisan mess, and they are succeeding because they
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are just screaming and yelling about everything.
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Literally just with decibel level. It's like you can't mute
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your TV enough. It's either you're fully muted or they're
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screaming at you through the television.
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I would like once for the headline to read, uh,
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impeachment evolves into a partisan brawl. Because for a long time,
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the reason there wasn't a partisan brawl is because Democrats
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weren't pursuing impeachment and pursuing impeachment was the right thing
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to do. It has evolved into a partisan brawl. The
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partisan brawl is a step up from the lack of
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a brawl over these very important criminal issues that are
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currently in place.
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It's just, it's so frustrating to read that headline and
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see all these, you know, criticisms of Democrats on process
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grounds when Devin Nunes is was a fact witness who
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was on the phone with Rudy Giuliani's co-conspirators, never disclosed
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it during the hearings, and it just came to light
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because of some subpoenas.
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And Democrats are the ones who are creating the process files?
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Are you kidding me?
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Also, I just, the partisan brawl thing, it's so insane.
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And the New York Times story didn't even mention this,
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that like all the fact witnesses so far, the people
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who have done the most to incriminate Donald Trump are
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people who work for him. There are people in his administration,
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like maybe the Republicans in Congress are, you know, protecting him.
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Well, they are.
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But the people who work for him came and testified
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and they were incriminating.
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They were incriminating.
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Gordon Sondland had to catch a flight to continue being
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part of the Trump administration.
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After he said there was a quid pro quo.
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There was a quid pro quo. Now I have to
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get back to my job reporting to Donald Trump as
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his handpicked advisor.
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And everyone's like, oh, how partisan.
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And Rudy caught another flight to Ukraine where he's back
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at it.
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He's just there. It's like real world Kiev.
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Start getting real. You see that... The Intercept sent a
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reporter to a Republican fundraiser. Oh, really?
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Yeah.
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Lee Fang. Yeah. And it's he goes up to they
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go to Devin Nunes with and they're holding a camera
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to record him. And basically like, hey, this Lev Parnas thing.
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What the fuck? And Devin Nunes runs away. But then
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later in the in the in the they confront him again.
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And then Devin Nunes in this incredibly creepy way. takes
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out his phone to start taking pictures. And his hand
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is shaking.
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He looks like a fucking lunatic.
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And the reporter just laughs being like, what's happening? What
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are you doing? What are you capturing?
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Lee Fang also, I don't know him, but on Twitter
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he's like tough, dogged, intense guy.
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He's so polite. He couldn't have been more professional in
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this little moment.
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Well, that's the most off-putting to old Devin. He's like,
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what does he mean? Why is he trying to trick me?
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So per usual, Trump's been doing everything he can to
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turn this around on Democrats. He does the, I'm not
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a criminal, you're a criminal, I'm not corrupt, you're corrupt.
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On Saturday, he said he was looking forward to the
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Inspector General report. Inspector General Michael Hurwitz, who is the
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Justice Department's independent watchdog, did an investigation about whether the
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FBI's investigation into Trump's campaign was legal and proper. Trump
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and his fellow cultists have long believed that it was
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some deep state Obama plot against him that he was
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being spied on. Well, today the report has been released
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and it says the FBI was right to investigate Trump's campaign,
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refuting every right wing conspiracy theory out there. It found
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no political bias, said the investigation was properly launched. It
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was proper to seek surveillance on Carter Page. But what
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they did find is the FBI was sloppy on parts
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of the application itself. for surveillance on Page. That's all
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they found.
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Lovett had his head in his hands like Macaulay Culkin.
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I just wanted to shout when you called it a cult,
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Devon's Gate, Devon's Gate. It just happened, and I was
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waiting for a pause.
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Devon's Gate, title.
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I didn't know what happened, and it came over me.
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Found it.
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Isn't this a political disaster for Trump and the Republicans?
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I mean, come on.
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Yes. I mean, in any other world, you know, if
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it were five years ago, this would be a disaster
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for whomever it was about because it's terrible. And also recall,
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this was launched by who again? Our favorite apple cheek
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hate goblin, Jeff Sessions. This wasn't this was not some
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like Nancy Pelosi, like as they would have you believe
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it was it was launched by Jeff Sessions and proved that.
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Well, also, I mean, Barr and Trump for the longest
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time have been saying, like, just wait till you get
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that Horowitz report. The Horowitz report is going to be great.
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It's going to be great stuff. Oh, blah. And then today,
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as soon as it's released, Barr releases a statement.
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He had some shit to say.
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Barr releases a statement disagreeing with Horowitz, which it's not
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totally surprising, but I guess I'm a little surprised at
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how blatant Barr has become at just being like, oh, yeah,
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I'm a hack. I'm a hatchet man for this guy.
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I'm not even going to pretend. That I'm the attorney
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general of the United States and not the president's personal lawyer.
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He literally said today it was that the investigation was
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launched on the thinnest of suspicions.
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Well, the thing that Barr's statement has, it has a phrase,
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in my view, which is doing so much work inside
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of the statement because it's actually not what's in the report.
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The report finds the opposite, but he says, in my view,
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because they're still working on their second report, which is
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going to be God only knows what. Durham investigation.
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What do you think, Tommy?
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I just think you have to remember, imagine you were
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in the FBI in that moment. You have George Papadopoulos
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drunk in London bragging to some Australian guy that the Russians.
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Have told her emails.
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You have known idiot Carter Page We have Russian spies
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on tape, on wiretaps, saying they tried to recruit him,
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but he was too stupid. He's now in the Trump campaign.
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It would have been a dereliction of duty for them
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not to pursue this and try to figure out what's happening.
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And then we all know what happened in history, which
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is the Russians interfered in this historical way. So, I mean,
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I just, look, there is a broader conversation to have
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about FISA abuse and FISA reform and wiretapping generally. But
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Trump has been promoting this like it's some MAGA guy's book.
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Right.
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He thinks this is going to be some explosive like
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Dan Bongino's report or whatever. And it clearly did not
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deliver what they want. I don't think it will matter
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because he will. What Trump wants is an open investigation.
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And to be able to point to an investigation, he
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doesn't actually care about the results because he can distort
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it however he wants.
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And, you know, it's important to understand this wasn't just,
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you know, from QAnon to Trump. It was also all
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of Trump's intellectual zambonis. This was Hugh Hewitt, Andrew McCarthy,
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the fucking Rich Lowry, all that crowd that pretends to
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still be somewhat legitimate. They all thought that this was
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going to be a big bombshell, too, and it was not.
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Yeah, so here's what I think is going to happen next.
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I feel like there's three things that you take from
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the report. One, the big story. Don't take it from me.
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Take it from Chris Wallace on Fox News, who said
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the big headline is basically, The claims of bias, the
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claims of the hoax, all the claims, the conspiracy theories
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have been debunked. Then there's the other pieces of it
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that sort of like there are details that are just
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a little bit worse for Trump, like the fact that
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Christopher Steele was getting buddy-buddy with Ivanka and met her
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at Trump Tower.
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Ivanka almost hired, this is what the report says, Ivanka
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almost hired Chris Steele to do research on the Trump
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family business dealings before the campaign so they could have
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like self-research. Yeah.
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And then the third piece of this, which is what
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I think you will now see all the right-wingers talk about,
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is that they found problems inside of the FISA process,
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problems that civil libertarians have been pointing out for a
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very long time. So you basically have claims that there
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was an anti-Trump bias at the heart of these investigations
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that's been debunked. You have details that are worse for Trump.
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And then you have problems inside of the FISA process
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that actually don't have a partisan vector or a Trump vector.
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Civil libertarians have been talking about, like you said, Tommy,
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problems with the FISA process for a long, long time.
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So there's a separate conversation you can have about that.
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Of course. And that conservatives have never cared about forever.
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Except for like Rand Paul. Except for like, well, right.
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The civil libertarians and the libertarians have cared about it.
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That they will now take this sort of problem inside
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of the FISA process as the big thing, the big proof.
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Look at all these problems. Look at how they targeted
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Trump associates, Trump campaign. This is the real issue when,
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of course, the report finds the opposite.
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And just a preview of coming attractions here. So there's obviously,
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as you referenced, a separate investigation that Barr has a
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handpicked U.S. attorney, John Durham, that is out traveling around
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the world trying to figure out something to help Trump
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when it comes to the origins of the Russia investigation,
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the Mueller investigation. And that investigation is not over yet.
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But John Durham put out a statement today saying that
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he disagrees also with some of the findings of the
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IG report, which, like, if you're in the middle of
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the investigation, why are you releasing a statement trying to
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shape the media narrative after the Inspector General report? That
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doesn't seem too on the fucking level.
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Does it? It's pretty amazing.
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No one should take this report seriously when it comes out,
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and if you're a reporter who does, you should be embarrassed.
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Right. Well, of course, I mean, the only thing that's
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surprising is that Barr... and Durham didn't try to get
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their purport out first, because that's what they did with
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the Mueller report, right? It's a reverse sequence. Now we're
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getting the kind of larger look. But of course, imagine
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if it had gone the other way, if we got
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the Barr-Durham report with all these sort of specious indictments
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of Democrats in the process before we got the actual
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IG report.
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The Ivanka piece of this, it just reminds you that
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the origins of Steele being tasked to look into Trump
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were because a bunch of conservatives were trying to stop him.
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It wasn't liberals.
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The conservatives passed the investigation off to the DNC or
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whomever at some point along the way. The other thing
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this reminds you, because there's some text messages that came
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out that are decidedly pro-Trump from one FBI official to another.
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The FBI is a pro-Trump organization. It's a bunch of
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old white guys who love law enforcement. Particularly this New
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York office, which everyone is worried about.
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I just want to read one of the text messages
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after we had to go through the whole fucking Peter
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struck Lisa page bullshit, which a lot of reporters, a
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lot of nonpartisan reporters bought into when the text messages
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came out. Here's, here's one of the messages from an
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FBI agent to another. I'm so elated with the election.
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It's like watching a Superbowl comeback. It was energizing to
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me to see because I didn't want a criminal to
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be in the white house talking about Hillary Clinton. Un-fucking-believable. And,
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and what did the FBI do? They, I mean, of course,
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Jim Comey did announce that he was reopening the investigation
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a couple of weeks later. before the election. So, yeah, exactly.
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Did help Trump win the election. Unbelievable. All right. So
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there was another very odd and somewhat alarming response from
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President Trump over the weekend. This after a Saudi airman
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opened fire at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida, killing
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three and injuring eight before he was killed by police.
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The attacker was at the base to receive training from
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the U.S. military and the firearm that he used was
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purchased legally. The FBI is investigating it as an act
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of terrorism. Trump's national security advisor was on CBS this
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weekend saying he believed it was terrorism, but Trump's first
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response was to pass along the thoughts of Saudi crown
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Prince Mohammed bin Salman tweeting that MBS quote, just called
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to express his sincere condolences. The King said that the
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Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of
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the shooter and that this person in no way, shape
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or form represents the feelings of the Saudi people who
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love American.
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Sure. Very much.
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Uh, Tommy, David Sanger wrote in the New York times
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that the president's first instinct was to tamp down any
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suggestion that the Saudi government needed to be held to account. Um,
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Did you agree with Sanger's tank? And why do you
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think Trump keeps protecting the Saudis? What is going on here?
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I mean, historically, the U.S.
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Has done a lot of training with Arab militaries, and
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generally they're valuable because it helps professionalize the force and
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it builds ties between these militaries. So, you know, like
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there is a there's a policy reason you might want
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to continue this kind of training. Why Trump would jump
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out ahead of the Saudis committing to, I don't know,
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give us the information we need to conduct a thorough
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investigation is beyond me. One, what I would want to
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know if I were providing some oversight over this is
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what vetting is being done and what went wrong. Because
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if these guys were watching shooting videos and this guy
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actually did tweet a quote from Osama bin Laden right
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before he went on this rampage, that speaks to a
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serious problem in vetting.
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Two, how did this guy get a fucking gun? Right?
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Broader gun control question.
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Three.
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you know, I think we need to, you know, more
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broadly rethink our relationship with Saudi Arabia. Generally, Mohammed bin
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Salman is a tyrant with a sovereign wealth fund that
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he ordered the assassination of a Washington Post journalist. So,
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you know, Trump went all in on the Saudis early.
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They were the linchpin of his Middle East policy when
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it comes to terrorism, when it comes to Middle East
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peace process. But look, cynical me, like I think it's
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because they have a lot of cash and they buy
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a lot of U.S.
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Weapons.
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And down the road, Boy, would I love to see
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what Mohammed bin Salman and Jared Kushner text about because
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I suspect there's lots of discussions of future real estate deals.
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Trump Riyadh.
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Yeah.
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For sure. I mean, there's nothing. You don't need to
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go any further than that. This is about some fucking
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real estate in a year if we're lucky.
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And in case you think that that's just like, oh,
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that's just us having some conspiracy theory. Here's Trump during
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the 2016 campaign, quote, Saudi Arabia, I get along with
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all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend
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$ 40 million, $ 50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them?
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I like them very much.
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And also the biggest spenders at Trump DC Hotel.
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Yeah, right.
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They bought tons of rooms that no one fills. $ 400, 000
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in the inauguration to show Trump that they were friendly.
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It's absurd.
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So, I mean, one of the reasons, one of the
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many reasons this story is important is because, you know,
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as we talk about impeachment and everyone just says Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine,
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it is important for Democrats to... prove either with evidence
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or to just reiterate the fact that like this is
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what Trump is doing across so many different areas. He's
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getting like this. This Saudi thing is the same kind
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of thing he's getting impeached for.
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Right.
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Like if you know Trump, if you're personally loyal to Trump,
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if you spend money at his hotels, if there is
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a political reason he can use you, he will be
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nice to you.
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I would love a reporter with some time on their hands.
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to go through the 11,000 tweets, I looked this up,
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roughly 11,000 tweets he has tweeted since he became president,
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and figure out what percentage of those tweets are about
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something other than the scandals he's embroiled in, personal enrichment,
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and that's basically it. I would love to see what
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he has taught, because Twitter is his only form of communication, really.
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So what has he communicated with the world about other
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than how he's not as fucking scandalous as we all
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00:19:13.700 --> 00:19:16.990
know he is, and, you know... Ways that he'll make
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money someday.
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There's two categories of tweets. I'm not corrupt, and the
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Democrats are. Yeah. That's basically what he does.
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No real proactive legislating or anything.
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And once in a while, like, best economy in the world. Ever!
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Exclamation point.
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That's about it.
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The stock market's awesome, except when it goes down. And
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then it is not mine.
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00:19:43.220 --> 00:19:48.190
So, speaking of rank corruption... Politico reported that Seema Verma,
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00:19:48.309 --> 00:19:50.529
who runs Medicare and Medicaid for Trump. This is a
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00:19:50.549 --> 00:19:50.819
good one.
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Don't get me started.
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She filed a claim with the Department of Health and
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Human Services seeking reimbursement from taxpayers for about forty seven
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00:19:58.839 --> 00:20:01.500
thousand dollars worth of expensive jewelry and other belongings that
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were stolen during a work trip. including an Ivanka Trump
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brand pendant worth about $ 6, 000. Allegedly.
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Allegedly.
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Allegedly. Verma is currently under congressional investigation for spending $ 2. 25
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00:20:14.730 --> 00:20:18.750
million in taxpayer money to contract a public relations firm
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00:20:18.859 --> 00:20:24.000
that often worked to help burnish her personal image. Trump
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00:20:24.039 --> 00:20:27.079
administration is currently trying to kick at least 15 million
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people off of Medicaid right now. And, you know, health care,
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Medicaid is basically health insurance that you are too rich
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to qualify for if you make like $ 10, 000, if you're
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a family making $ 10, 000 a year. And this is what
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Seema Verma is spending, $ 2 million on a consultant for
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a personal image and filing claims for lost jewelry that
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we have to pick up the tab for.
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Let's also just discuss the fact that she filed a
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claim for $ 2, 000 to cover stolen clothes, $ 2, 000 to cover
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stolen goods, and $ 325 claim for.
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For moisturizer. For moisturizer.
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You add all of that up.
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What kind of moisturizer is that?
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Let's talk about this. You know that in that fucking
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bullshit Snap stuff they did last week where they're kicking
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people off Snap left and right and removing the ability
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for people to eat.
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Literally taking food off people's table.
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Literally taking food. One of the sort of small footnote-y
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things that it took someone a long time to read
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through the whole thing and highlight is that if you,
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you have to work now to get your benefits, right?
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Except.
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If you have a car that is valued at more
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than $ 2, 250, you no longer qualify, right, because you have assets.
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So you have to work. You may not have a
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bus that can take you to work. So if you
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00:21:38.289 --> 00:21:41.970
have a car that's worth more than $ 2, 200, you get punished, which,
491
00:21:42.049 --> 00:21:44.470
by the way, the cost of the car is half
492
00:21:44.750 --> 00:21:47.130
of what she is claiming in just her stolen goods,
493
00:21:47.190 --> 00:21:49.230
fucking moisturizer, and noise-canceling headphones.
494
00:21:50.210 --> 00:21:53.410
You know what? Like Mike Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, run this.
495
00:21:53.450 --> 00:21:54.170
Start running this ad.
496
00:21:54.849 --> 00:21:55.670
Please.
497
00:21:55.730 --> 00:21:58.119
About the Trump administration trying to kick people off, take
498
00:21:58.130 --> 00:22:01.940
away their health insurance while the person running Medicaid and Medicare.
499
00:22:01.960 --> 00:22:05.140
Do you remember Tom Brokaw's Fleecing of America segment?
500
00:22:05.619 --> 00:22:06.440
I do remember that.
501
00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:09.930
Remember? Yeah. Go ahead. Love it. You're thinking I can
502
00:22:09.970 --> 00:22:10.190
see it.
503
00:22:11.130 --> 00:22:13.309
Look, let's go to town on this.
504
00:22:14.029 --> 00:22:14.269
Sure.
505
00:22:14.890 --> 00:22:18.210
Go crazy. I don't really give a shit. I just
506
00:22:18.250 --> 00:22:19.410
don't care that much. No.
507
00:22:20.430 --> 00:22:22.210
I think people... Oh, look, we're going to talk about.
508
00:22:22.230 --> 00:22:24.069
I want people to do it. I see why it's
509
00:22:24.250 --> 00:22:26.849
politically valuable to attack her for this. I just think
510
00:22:26.890 --> 00:22:27.170
it's like.
511
00:22:27.869 --> 00:22:29.759
I just think this is the best example of what
512
00:22:29.799 --> 00:22:33.660
a pro-Republican or a pro-Trump media organization can do for you, right?
513
00:22:33.680 --> 00:22:36.180
There's two examples today that we've covered already where I
514
00:22:36.200 --> 00:22:38.059
don't like to do the imagine of Obama, but if
515
00:22:38.200 --> 00:22:41.539
a Saudi soldier had shot up a U.S. base and
516
00:22:41.640 --> 00:22:43.619
Obama didn't call it terrorism and read out a call
517
00:22:43.660 --> 00:22:46.259
from the king, it would be this explosive, massive story
518
00:22:46.299 --> 00:22:46.640
about how.
519
00:22:46.589 --> 00:22:47.349
He's weak on terrorism.
520
00:22:48.029 --> 00:22:52.849
If an Obama official dropped $ 325 on moisturizer and demanded reimbursement,
521
00:22:52.869 --> 00:22:56.630
it would be the biggest scandal in history on Fox News.
522
00:22:56.690 --> 00:22:59.339
And it's just frustrating that the rules don't apply equally
523
00:22:59.400 --> 00:22:59.640
for me.
524
00:22:59.740 --> 00:23:02.960
But also, I get that the jewelry is a couple
525
00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:05.019
thousand dollars. You file the reimbursement claim. It's all crazy.
526
00:23:05.599 --> 00:23:07.960
We're talking about this because of the jewelry. But the
527
00:23:07.960 --> 00:23:10.859
$ 2 million on a consultant that has just been in
528
00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:13.740
the news. Dan Diamond reported this for Politico. He's been
529
00:23:13.769 --> 00:23:15.799
on this beat and doing a great job. And, like,
530
00:23:16.059 --> 00:23:17.589
this was reported, I don't know, a month ago or
531
00:23:17.619 --> 00:23:20.009
something about the consultant, and it just, like, goes through
532
00:23:20.029 --> 00:23:23.549
the news like nothing. Like, it is politically valuable, obviously,
533
00:23:23.829 --> 00:23:27.529
but it's also, like, $ 2 million. Why are government employees
534
00:23:27.549 --> 00:23:29.839
spending $ 2 million at the same time they're trying to
535
00:23:29.900 --> 00:23:33.180
say that they kick people off fucking Medicaid, 15 million people,
536
00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:36.579
by stopping the Medicaid expansion? Like, what? Come on.
537
00:23:37.900 --> 00:23:41.000
That's not a big deal? No, no, it's a big deal.
538
00:23:41.019 --> 00:23:44.089
I also just like, you know, gay news. What is
539
00:23:44.119 --> 00:23:49.329
this fucking brooch? What is this $ 5, 900 Ivanka Trump brooch?
540
00:23:49.809 --> 00:23:53.809
It had a mineral in it that I'd never even
541
00:23:53.869 --> 00:23:54.230
heard of.
542
00:23:54.329 --> 00:23:57.410
I'm pretty sure it's something you can buy at the
543
00:23:57.450 --> 00:24:00.730
Woo Woo store. This isn't like the Bergdorf cat brooch,
544
00:24:00.890 --> 00:24:02.309
which I will save up and get one day.
545
00:24:02.329 --> 00:24:04.509
It sounds like it's made in like a TikTok thing,
546
00:24:04.630 --> 00:24:05.069
you know?
547
00:24:05.130 --> 00:24:05.470
Totally.
548
00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:07.440
You can see it in a TikTok.
549
00:24:07.640 --> 00:24:08.960
You know what? We're going to find a picture of it,
550
00:24:08.980 --> 00:24:12.059
and I'm just going to craft it in the conference room.
551
00:24:12.079 --> 00:24:15.440
I'm sure Marianne Williamson is promoted at some point, too. Yeah, well,
552
00:24:15.460 --> 00:24:17.480
it's a good stalking stuffer for this year. She's also
553
00:24:17.500 --> 00:24:20.220
in the middle of this massive fight with Alex Azar,
554
00:24:20.269 --> 00:24:25.450
the HHS secretary, which has seemingly prevented them from advancing
555
00:24:25.509 --> 00:24:27.269
any of Trump's interests on health care, which is good
556
00:24:27.309 --> 00:24:29.589
for all of us, but just another sign of how,
557
00:24:30.349 --> 00:24:34.119
because of the daily Trump show, like the government is
558
00:24:34.299 --> 00:24:36.400
dysfunctional in so many profound ways.
559
00:24:36.559 --> 00:24:37.339
And we barely noticed.
560
00:24:37.359 --> 00:24:40.299
And it's also like, it's another reminder that we have to,
561
00:24:40.380 --> 00:24:43.039
at some point, get out of this fucking Medicare for
562
00:24:43.099 --> 00:24:46.200
all versus public option fight in the Democratic primary. When
563
00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:48.849
the Trump administration right now, you're right. They're having a
564
00:24:48.869 --> 00:24:51.329
fight over like who can kick more people off healthcare.
565
00:24:51.349 --> 00:24:53.130
If Trump wins again, you know what I mean? It's
566
00:24:53.170 --> 00:24:55.890
just like, there's a, there's, there's much bigger things at
567
00:24:55.910 --> 00:24:58.490
state care because the Trump administration, if they went again,
568
00:24:58.980 --> 00:25:02.269
We'll gut Medicaid even further. We'll gut Medicare. And we'll
569
00:25:02.329 --> 00:25:04.250
gut the Affordable Care Act. And millions and millions of
570
00:25:04.269 --> 00:25:05.069
people lose their health insurance.
571
00:25:05.089 --> 00:25:06.690
And we'll be reimbursing brooches.
572
00:25:07.089 --> 00:25:09.710
Yeah. Shout out to the bureaucrat somewhere deep inside of
573
00:25:09.890 --> 00:25:15.230
HHS who saw that request and said, no. You get $ 2, 000 total.
574
00:25:15.250 --> 00:25:18.049
I love that person. Leave us the fuck alone. Also, Ivanka,
575
00:25:18.109 --> 00:25:19.430
give her a new brooch, you asshole.
576
00:25:19.710 --> 00:25:22.769
Yeah. Totes. You've got to have a couple extras. All right.
577
00:25:22.789 --> 00:25:26.019
Fake billionaire. Give her something else that will turn her
578
00:25:26.059 --> 00:25:26.390
arm green.
579
00:25:28.500 --> 00:25:29.240
That was good.
580
00:25:30.660 --> 00:25:34.589
Let's talk about 2020 and start with the frontrunner nationally
581
00:25:34.630 --> 00:25:37.569
and in South Carolina, Joe Biden. He was in Iowa
582
00:25:37.589 --> 00:25:40.109
last week where he's in third or fourth place and
583
00:25:40.329 --> 00:25:42.650
got into a heated exchange with a Democratic voter who
584
00:25:43.309 --> 00:25:46.089
questioned Hunter Biden's work in Ukraine and whether Biden is
585
00:25:46.130 --> 00:25:49.359
too old for the presidency. In response to the 83-year-old
586
00:25:49.720 --> 00:25:54.000
retired farmer's concerns about Hunter, Biden said, you're a damn liar, man.
587
00:25:54.099 --> 00:25:55.880
That's not true. And no one has ever said that.
588
00:25:56.759 --> 00:25:59.859
in fairness, the question that the guy asked Biden about
589
00:25:59.880 --> 00:26:01.980
Hunter was not like, don't you think it's a conflict
590
00:26:02.019 --> 00:26:03.759
of interest that Hunter served on the board? It was like,
591
00:26:04.140 --> 00:26:07.400
you sent your son over to Ukraine to, uh, to
592
00:26:07.420 --> 00:26:09.710
get a job in an oil company and you did it,
593
00:26:09.829 --> 00:26:12.460
you know, it was like crazy conspiracy theory, but it
594
00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:14.890
was there. Uh, and then Biden also challenged the man
595
00:26:14.910 --> 00:26:17.990
to a pushup contest and an IQ test in order
596
00:26:18.029 --> 00:26:20.049
to prove that he is in fact fit enough to
597
00:26:20.089 --> 00:26:22.950
be president. Um, What'd you guys think about how Joe
598
00:26:22.970 --> 00:26:24.410
Biden handled this one? Alyssa, what'd you think?
599
00:26:24.529 --> 00:26:26.609
I just need to say my quick, I really thought
600
00:26:26.630 --> 00:26:29.059
it was a missed opportunity for him to not be like,
601
00:26:29.119 --> 00:26:30.019
that's malarkey.
602
00:26:30.039 --> 00:26:32.539
Right, you put it on the bus. You put it
603
00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:33.299
on the bus.
604
00:26:33.380 --> 00:26:35.480
Like, if ever there was a moment.
605
00:26:36.460 --> 00:26:38.279
That, that was malarkey.
606
00:26:38.339 --> 00:26:38.660
Thank you.
607
00:26:38.700 --> 00:26:40.519
People are wondering like, what does malarkey mean?
608
00:26:40.599 --> 00:26:41.500
That's malarkey.
609
00:26:41.539 --> 00:26:45.140
That's malarkey. You're welcome for this tutorial, millennials.
610
00:26:46.019 --> 00:26:46.740
What'd you think, Lovett?
611
00:26:47.519 --> 00:26:50.660
Um, you know, I thought he got out okay. Like,
612
00:26:50.720 --> 00:26:53.130
you know, I, I saw people saying he looked bad.
613
00:26:53.150 --> 00:26:55.369
I saw people saying he looked good. He was pretty cogent.
614
00:26:55.410 --> 00:26:59.170
He was he was feisty. It felt a little bit defensive.
615
00:26:59.250 --> 00:27:02.400
You know, John, you're right that what the question this
616
00:27:02.440 --> 00:27:07.339
man articulated was a little right wing fever swampy. But
617
00:27:07.380 --> 00:27:09.200
I also do think sometimes you just got to give
618
00:27:09.779 --> 00:27:12.690
an 83 year old guy a little bit of space
619
00:27:13.130 --> 00:27:16.890
to try to like. It's so complicated and so confused
620
00:27:16.910 --> 00:27:19.009
by the news, even if you don't watch the Fox
621
00:27:19.049 --> 00:27:19.789
News stuff.
622
00:27:20.299 --> 00:27:22.039
The guy was apparently a Warren supporter and he said
623
00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:24.200
he saw it on MSNBC, which, you know, he probably didn't.
624
00:27:24.220 --> 00:27:26.980
But you can leave room for the man to be confused.
625
00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:27.819
Yes, for sure.
626
00:27:27.940 --> 00:27:29.009
Instead of calling him a liar.
627
00:27:29.140 --> 00:27:30.650
Yeah. So that was my reaction to it. And I
628
00:27:30.690 --> 00:27:32.930
just thought for the most part, honestly, at this point
629
00:27:33.470 --> 00:27:37.730
with Joe Biden, like he made an argument. Yeah.
630
00:27:37.930 --> 00:27:38.490
Successfully.
631
00:27:38.589 --> 00:27:38.670
Yeah.
632
00:27:38.710 --> 00:27:40.490
I mean, does he need a better answer? I saw
633
00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:41.150
you tweeting that.
634
00:27:41.380 --> 00:27:43.299
I mean, look, I'm sort of used to my reaction
635
00:27:43.339 --> 00:27:46.509
to thinking Biden was. wrong in the way he executed
636
00:27:46.529 --> 00:27:49.329
in some moment being completely false and then his poll
637
00:27:49.349 --> 00:27:51.160
numbers go up. So what the fuck do I know?
638
00:27:51.539 --> 00:27:54.480
But look, I also get that these questions are deeply personal.
639
00:27:54.539 --> 00:27:57.140
It's about his son. They're unfair. It's literally a Trump
640
00:27:57.339 --> 00:28:00.329
smear campaign. But I do think there's a rule in politics,
641
00:28:00.390 --> 00:28:03.339
which is don't be a dick to voters, right? That
642
00:28:03.359 --> 00:28:04.440
guy might have become a supporter.
643
00:28:04.460 --> 00:28:05.339
In front of a lot of other voters.
644
00:28:05.400 --> 00:28:08.119
Also, Biden pulled this kind of thing back in 1988, right?
645
00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:10.220
There's a famous clip of him yelling at a guy
646
00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:12.279
in New Hampshire saying, I think my IQ is better
647
00:28:12.319 --> 00:28:14.180
than yours, but I went to a better law school.
648
00:28:14.200 --> 00:28:16.160
So I do think he needs a better answer because
649
00:28:16.200 --> 00:28:19.390
he also went on Axios on HBO and got pressed
650
00:28:19.450 --> 00:28:22.170
on these questions and kind of got in Mike Allen's
651
00:28:22.230 --> 00:28:23.470
face and was wagging his finger.
652
00:28:23.490 --> 00:28:25.549
And I just think like, keep your cool. Don't yell
653
00:28:25.569 --> 00:28:27.769
at the questioner. Answer the facts when necessary.
654
00:28:28.109 --> 00:28:30.660
He's also kind of half turning it and making it
655
00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:34.319
hit on the Trump kids, but cutting himself off. If
656
00:28:34.359 --> 00:28:36.640
you want to make the case that the Trump kids
657
00:28:36.680 --> 00:28:40.099
are profiting off of their father's role in government, make
658
00:28:40.180 --> 00:28:43.099
the case, deliver the hit, but don't half do it.
659
00:28:43.140 --> 00:28:46.009
So like the questions aren't going away. In fact, I
660
00:28:46.029 --> 00:28:49.190
think these answers are feeding the news cycle and creating
661
00:28:49.250 --> 00:28:53.069
more press on the problem. So from that perspective, I just,
662
00:28:53.170 --> 00:28:54.990
I think he's got to figure out an answer.
663
00:28:55.029 --> 00:28:57.769
Yeah. I mean- My advice on this would be, at
664
00:28:57.789 --> 00:29:02.150
the very least, don't signal to Trump, Republicans, and the media,
665
00:29:02.630 --> 00:29:06.430
and everyone else, that whenever asked about Hunter, you're going
666
00:29:06.490 --> 00:29:08.829
to be super defensive and angry.
667
00:29:09.009 --> 00:29:09.730
And newsmaking.
668
00:29:09.890 --> 00:29:12.710
And newsmaking. And look, and I understand it. Some people
669
00:29:12.750 --> 00:29:14.730
are like, you know, he should just throw Hunter Biden
670
00:29:14.750 --> 00:29:17.150
under the bus. And I think it is, I can
671
00:29:17.210 --> 00:29:19.509
understand why he wouldn't want to do that, right? His
672
00:29:19.569 --> 00:29:22.450
surviving son, like he's not, but I think there's an
673
00:29:22.519 --> 00:29:25.490
easy way to both, Not throw him under the bus
674
00:29:25.609 --> 00:29:28.349
and also not like jump to his defense about every
675
00:29:28.390 --> 00:29:30.880
decision he ever made, which is for Joe Biden to
676
00:29:30.900 --> 00:29:37.170
just be like, look, Hunter is a 47-year-old man. He
677
00:29:37.230 --> 00:29:41.099
makes his own decisions. And all I can talk about
678
00:29:41.440 --> 00:29:43.980
is what I have done. And not only did I
679
00:29:44.019 --> 00:29:47.059
do the right thing in pushing for that corrupt prosecutor
680
00:29:47.079 --> 00:29:50.079
to be fired in Ukraine, but my actions increased the
681
00:29:50.140 --> 00:29:54.700
chances that Hunter's company would be investigated. So I actually
682
00:29:54.839 --> 00:29:58.309
acted in contrary to my son's financial interest And his
683
00:29:58.329 --> 00:29:59.849
stuff is his stuff. And, like, we don't need to
684
00:29:59.890 --> 00:30:01.730
talk about him because he's not running for president. Let's
685
00:30:01.769 --> 00:30:03.470
talk about me, what I did, what I did wrong
686
00:30:03.490 --> 00:30:04.470
or right, and I did nothing wrong.
687
00:30:04.519 --> 00:30:07.019
Yeah, I think that's right. I also just think it
688
00:30:07.079 --> 00:30:09.440
is a tone thing and that it is like, thank
689
00:30:09.460 --> 00:30:11.119
you for that question. I know this has been in
690
00:30:11.160 --> 00:30:13.279
the news a lot. And I'm really glad you asked it. Yes.
691
00:30:13.319 --> 00:30:15.420
Because I really want to make sure everybody in Iowa
692
00:30:15.460 --> 00:30:17.930
understands where I'm coming from. Yep. Because here's what you
693
00:30:17.950 --> 00:30:20.349
need to know about me. Like, I love this country.
694
00:30:20.670 --> 00:30:22.650
And the reason I'm running is because we have a
695
00:30:22.690 --> 00:30:24.849
president who's tried to profit off the presidency. And we
696
00:30:25.089 --> 00:30:27.029
have a president. who's tried to do the wrong thing
697
00:30:27.069 --> 00:30:29.630
at every turn. And we need a president right now
698
00:30:29.910 --> 00:30:32.210
who will think about the country first every single time.
699
00:30:32.490 --> 00:30:34.339
And I'm here to tell you that that is exactly
700
00:30:34.359 --> 00:30:36.359
what I have done and exactly what I will do.
701
00:30:36.359 --> 00:30:37.019
Look at my record.
702
00:30:37.140 --> 00:30:38.359
And that's not malarkey.
703
00:30:39.039 --> 00:30:40.740
And you know what? Again. And if you're ever not
704
00:30:40.779 --> 00:30:42.460
sure about that, I hope you come and ask me
705
00:30:42.500 --> 00:30:44.640
another question. I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad
706
00:30:44.660 --> 00:30:48.380
you're all here. Applause, applause. Now I'm president.
707
00:30:49.609 --> 00:30:51.210
He's got nothing to hide on this.
708
00:30:51.269 --> 00:30:53.470
Make a little joke. Are you sure that wasn't Fox News?
709
00:30:53.509 --> 00:30:56.410
Hardy har har. He seems so pissed.
710
00:30:56.589 --> 00:30:59.430
Anything, but also I felt like, I watched, so I
711
00:30:59.470 --> 00:31:01.849
read it and then I watched it, right, like twice.
712
00:31:02.470 --> 00:31:05.250
And the thing about it is he just, he, there's
713
00:31:05.289 --> 00:31:08.829
something about the whole presentation, like his whole engagement with,
714
00:31:09.779 --> 00:31:12.640
His eyes get really small and beady, and he's still dressing,
715
00:31:12.680 --> 00:31:15.079
and I have said this, he's still dressing like Thurston
716
00:31:15.099 --> 00:31:16.940
Hill III. I don't know what's up with that.
717
00:31:17.019 --> 00:31:18.880
I mean, I don't think it helped that John Kerry
718
00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:21.720
was in matching outfits with him on the campaign trail.
719
00:31:21.920 --> 00:31:23.920
The two of them just walked right off Beacon Hill together.
720
00:31:25.200 --> 00:31:26.380
I mean, it's kind of true.
721
00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:28.160
Yeah, I think it's weird that they wore one ascot
722
00:31:28.369 --> 00:31:32.950
and just couldn't get far apart. Just tied between them.
723
00:31:33.869 --> 00:31:35.809
But yeah, no, I just feel like his whole, just
724
00:31:35.849 --> 00:31:37.930
like the way that he did it and the way,
725
00:31:38.150 --> 00:31:39.990
it just felt like he knew he had to be mad.
726
00:31:40.200 --> 00:31:43.319
And so he didn't know how to like, like, and
727
00:31:43.359 --> 00:31:45.539
I understand it. He's thinking the whole time, like, how
728
00:31:45.579 --> 00:31:46.859
do I do this? But I just felt like it
729
00:31:46.900 --> 00:31:48.740
came off so weird.
730
00:31:48.819 --> 00:31:50.940
I just want to say to him, like, and I,
731
00:31:51.049 --> 00:31:53.349
the way the Biden campaign has had to deal with
732
00:31:53.549 --> 00:31:55.369
press and everything else, they have this big chip on
733
00:31:55.410 --> 00:31:57.230
their shoulder, right? Partly because of what you were saying, Tommy,
734
00:31:57.250 --> 00:32:00.069
where like everyone tells them they fuck up everything and
735
00:32:00.089 --> 00:32:02.250
then his poll numbers are still good. And so they're like,
736
00:32:02.640 --> 00:32:04.019
why are we still dealing with this? And it's like,
737
00:32:04.519 --> 00:32:05.980
I get it. I get a lot of this isn't
738
00:32:06.019 --> 00:32:07.240
on the level. I get that you have to deal
739
00:32:07.259 --> 00:32:08.880
with a lot of bullshit, but you just have to
740
00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:10.720
take it. You're running for president. You know what I'm saying?
741
00:32:10.769 --> 00:32:13.450
You can't show, and his campaign is like this too.
742
00:32:13.470 --> 00:32:15.089
A lot of people in his campaign, it's like, don't
743
00:32:15.250 --> 00:32:18.309
show that you're angry, that you're defensive, that you think
744
00:32:18.769 --> 00:32:21.549
everyone on Twitter is stupid. Just don't show that.
745
00:32:21.609 --> 00:32:24.490
Because fundamentally, there's a little bit of a like, I
746
00:32:24.529 --> 00:32:26.809
can't believe we have to deal with this.
747
00:32:26.829 --> 00:32:27.000
Yes, yes.
748
00:32:27.009 --> 00:32:28.750
Like, I should be the nominee by now.
749
00:32:28.849 --> 00:32:29.130
Right.
750
00:32:29.170 --> 00:32:32.019
Like, this is... It's first we're not even going to
751
00:32:32.140 --> 00:32:34.559
engage because it's beneath us. And now we're going to
752
00:32:34.599 --> 00:32:36.700
engage in a way that's not super helpful.
753
00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:37.660
I know that feeling.
754
00:32:37.680 --> 00:32:38.900
Yeah, we've all been there.
755
00:32:38.960 --> 00:32:41.809
I lost my mind every time some reporter asked me
756
00:32:41.849 --> 00:32:43.470
about Barack Obama's birth certificate.
757
00:32:43.490 --> 00:32:43.890
But you know what?
758
00:32:43.930 --> 00:32:47.289
You get unfair questions on the campaign trail. And part
759
00:32:47.349 --> 00:32:49.609
of proving you can run against Trump is showing that
760
00:32:49.630 --> 00:32:52.269
you're going to be able to deal with crazy lies
761
00:32:52.529 --> 00:32:53.170
from your opponent.
762
00:32:53.269 --> 00:32:54.539
Yes. All right.
763
00:32:54.559 --> 00:32:57.759
Let's talk about Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren's latest debate.
764
00:32:58.420 --> 00:33:01.200
Last week, Warren called on Pete to be more transparent
765
00:33:01.240 --> 00:33:04.000
about his fundraising, calling on him to release the names
766
00:33:04.059 --> 00:33:08.400
of his finance committee members, the names of his bundlers
767
00:33:08.460 --> 00:33:10.180
who are raising money for him, that's what a bundler is,
768
00:33:10.920 --> 00:33:14.180
and to open his fundraisers to the press, which Joe
769
00:33:14.200 --> 00:33:17.839
Biden does. She and Bernie actually don't do fundraisers with
770
00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:22.279
rich people anymore. Others, including the New York Times editorial board,
771
00:33:22.319 --> 00:33:24.319
have also called on Pete to release his client list
772
00:33:24.339 --> 00:33:26.569
from when he was a consultant at McKinsey, which he
773
00:33:26.609 --> 00:33:29.690
says he can't do because he signed a non-disclosure agreement,
774
00:33:29.829 --> 00:33:32.990
which he's asking McKinsey to let him out of. For
775
00:33:33.029 --> 00:33:35.569
his part, Pete called on Warren to release her tax
776
00:33:35.609 --> 00:33:38.150
returns from when she did some corporate consulting while she
777
00:33:38.170 --> 00:33:40.920
was a law professor at Harvard. In response, she released
778
00:33:40.960 --> 00:33:44.059
records on Sunday night showing she made nearly $ 2 million consulting,
779
00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:47.619
most of which was made over the decade she was
780
00:33:47.839 --> 00:33:51.099
at Harvard. What do we think about this whole debate?
781
00:33:51.220 --> 00:33:53.269
Are the critiques fair? What do you guys think?
782
00:33:53.789 --> 00:33:56.349
It's annoying. I mean, like, if you want to turn
783
00:33:56.390 --> 00:34:00.440
people off, To like being engaged in the process, this
784
00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:02.980
whole back and forth, neither one of them are right
785
00:34:03.019 --> 00:34:05.839
or wrong necessarily, but it is a turnoff. You know, like,
786
00:34:06.200 --> 00:34:09.469
first of all, the thing I find, the thing that
787
00:34:09.530 --> 00:34:12.429
does get under my skin a bit is that Mayor
788
00:34:12.449 --> 00:34:14.469
Pete should release his bundlers.
789
00:34:14.530 --> 00:34:14.730
Yeah.
790
00:34:14.969 --> 00:34:18.699
Because here's the thing. He did have people on his
791
00:34:18.820 --> 00:34:21.699
invitations for fundraisers. And as you guys all know, I
792
00:34:21.739 --> 00:34:24.019
spent the better part of my fucking adult life vetting
793
00:34:24.039 --> 00:34:27.440
invitations for fundraisers. And so he was and then he
794
00:34:27.460 --> 00:34:29.000
got called out on it because he had a bunch
795
00:34:29.019 --> 00:34:32.260
of lobbyists on his invitations. So then he's like, OK, well,
796
00:34:32.280 --> 00:34:33.530
we're not going to do that, but I'm also going
797
00:34:33.550 --> 00:34:36.269
to not list them anymore. It is a little bit like, well,
798
00:34:36.289 --> 00:34:38.449
what do you got going on? Just like tell us
799
00:34:38.570 --> 00:34:40.289
who your people are. Like, why do we care? I'm
800
00:34:40.309 --> 00:34:41.909
sure they're all mostly fine.
801
00:34:42.869 --> 00:34:44.489
And if they're not, then maybe they shouldn't be bundlers.
802
00:34:44.510 --> 00:34:47.510
And also then the reporting on EW, you know, and
803
00:34:47.570 --> 00:34:50.750
her disclosure was like so many, I forget what outlet
804
00:34:50.769 --> 00:34:52.889
it was, but it was like Elizabeth Warren, you know,
805
00:34:52.889 --> 00:34:56.210
$ 3 million, $ 2 million over 30 years.
806
00:34:56.469 --> 00:34:59.690
Well, that's what it originally said. Then Annie Linsky, who
807
00:34:59.730 --> 00:35:01.570
wrote the story, was like it wasn't 30 years. It
808
00:35:01.610 --> 00:35:03.150
was the 10 years that she was at Harvard, which
809
00:35:03.170 --> 00:35:05.429
she didn't say originally. But it's not like the amount
810
00:35:05.449 --> 00:35:09.199
of money is not the fucking point here at all. Anyway,
811
00:35:09.239 --> 00:35:12.110
like she clearly was a professor at Harvard. and had
812
00:35:12.130 --> 00:35:16.530
some side consulting work that she was paid like lump
813
00:35:16.550 --> 00:35:20.599
sums or hourly or monthly retainer, whatever consulting is, here
814
00:35:20.659 --> 00:35:22.730
and there. Over 10 years at Harvard.
815
00:35:22.849 --> 00:35:25.210
Paid like a high-priced Harvard professor lawyer.
816
00:35:25.449 --> 00:35:25.730
Right.
817
00:35:25.750 --> 00:35:27.389
I know. Everyone was saying, like, she was underpaid. We
818
00:35:27.409 --> 00:35:29.010
don't know if she was fucking underpaid. We don't know any...
819
00:35:29.320 --> 00:35:31.900
And here's the thing. She made some money as a consultant. Fine.
820
00:35:31.940 --> 00:35:35.139
We shouldn't... The standard for public service shouldn't be a
821
00:35:35.400 --> 00:35:38.860
vow of poverty prior to getting into public service, right?
822
00:35:39.260 --> 00:35:40.420
You shouldn't have to.
823
00:35:40.460 --> 00:35:41.380
Don't get me started on this.
824
00:35:41.500 --> 00:35:43.760
You shouldn't have to declare that you have done nothing
825
00:35:43.960 --> 00:35:47.219
but philanthropy up until the point that you... decide to run.
826
00:35:47.239 --> 00:35:50.030
Before and after, I will only work in the public
827
00:35:50.050 --> 00:35:52.130
sector my whole life. That is the only good person
828
00:35:52.170 --> 00:35:52.730
who can run for office.
829
00:35:52.750 --> 00:35:54.030
But then at the same time, the people who are
830
00:35:54.070 --> 00:35:58.389
attacking EW but defending Mayor Pete and saying like, well,
831
00:35:58.429 --> 00:36:00.679
that was in his 20s and that's just crazy. And
832
00:36:00.699 --> 00:36:03.340
I was like, ah, he's only in his 30s now.
833
00:36:03.380 --> 00:36:05.320
So like not exactly lifetimes ago.
834
00:36:06.550 --> 00:36:07.690
Yeah, I mean, look, I think at some point he's
835
00:36:07.710 --> 00:36:09.820
going to have to open up the fundraisers. And honestly, like,
836
00:36:09.909 --> 00:36:12.360
that's fine. Everyone is a reporter these days. Someone's going
837
00:36:12.380 --> 00:36:15.599
to film your fundraiser. It seems more nefarious than it is.
838
00:36:15.659 --> 00:36:17.659
Usually there's boring kind of mundane affairs.
839
00:36:17.820 --> 00:36:20.630
It's actually smart, too, because once they know that their
840
00:36:20.650 --> 00:36:22.989
fundraisers are public, they stop making the kind of gaffes
841
00:36:23.030 --> 00:36:26.210
that people like that. clings to your guns and religions, deplorable.
842
00:36:26.389 --> 00:36:28.909
As a general matter, I think transparency is good. But
843
00:36:29.170 --> 00:36:30.829
I want to be clear that the media gives you
844
00:36:31.070 --> 00:36:33.789
no credit for it. Obama released the White House visitor log,
845
00:36:33.809 --> 00:36:36.309
something that was a massive fight during the Bush administration.
846
00:36:36.329 --> 00:36:38.889
I believe it went to the Supreme Court, the legal
847
00:36:38.949 --> 00:36:42.079
effort to get those records. And we just got mocked.
848
00:36:42.539 --> 00:36:44.760
You know, people use it to do oppo research on
849
00:36:44.800 --> 00:36:47.260
people visiting the Obama White House. Obama got mocked for
850
00:36:47.300 --> 00:36:49.659
saying it was the most transparent administration ever. So the
851
00:36:49.699 --> 00:36:52.139
incentives are completely fucked. And what I'm a little bit
852
00:36:52.159 --> 00:36:54.849
worried about is us setting a standard for ourselves on
853
00:36:54.869 --> 00:36:58.039
the Democratic side, that Trump will come nowhere near matching,
854
00:36:58.179 --> 00:37:01.699
and we're just rolling out a bunch of records for
855
00:37:02.019 --> 00:37:05.699
RNC nerds to dig into and create problems for Democratic candidates.
856
00:37:05.780 --> 00:37:08.480
Yeah, I think there's two things to it. One is
857
00:37:08.519 --> 00:37:11.190
Tommy's point. We are being more transparent and going above
858
00:37:11.250 --> 00:37:14.010
and beyond any legal requirements because that's what Democrats demand
859
00:37:14.050 --> 00:37:16.309
of each other, and it puts us at a disadvantage.
860
00:37:16.690 --> 00:37:17.989
The second piece of this, too, is it's like, let's
861
00:37:18.010 --> 00:37:20.250
just step back and remember why we're doing this. It's
862
00:37:20.269 --> 00:37:22.940
about figuring out who's going to be the best president. And,
863
00:37:23.260 --> 00:37:26.719
you know, the assumption has to be there is something
864
00:37:26.840 --> 00:37:29.260
about Pete's bundlers or there's something about Pete's work at
865
00:37:29.280 --> 00:37:32.300
McKinsey that will tell us what kind of president he
866
00:37:32.320 --> 00:37:33.760
will be. I think there's probably some truth to that.
867
00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:35.780
And then for Elizabeth Warren, there has to be an
868
00:37:35.889 --> 00:37:39.429
argument that something about the clients she took on, the
869
00:37:39.469 --> 00:37:41.289
money she made when she was a professor is going
870
00:37:41.309 --> 00:37:43.269
to be revealing to us about what kind of president
871
00:37:43.570 --> 00:37:47.449
they are. And I think that the actual it's asymmetric
872
00:37:47.550 --> 00:37:49.309
in the sense of like what the goal is for
873
00:37:49.349 --> 00:37:52.300
those launching these attacks. I think the The goal for
874
00:37:52.360 --> 00:37:56.159
the attack at Pete is a goal that says, see,
875
00:37:56.889 --> 00:38:01.429
he's a neolib center shill. The left can't trust him.
876
00:38:01.829 --> 00:38:04.949
He is going to govern with these wealthy interests in mind,
877
00:38:05.289 --> 00:38:07.610
whether they're going to compare him to Mitt Romney. You
878
00:38:07.650 --> 00:38:11.429
can't trust him to actually deliver a truly progressive government.
879
00:38:11.550 --> 00:38:13.510
That is the attack that they are trying to make.
880
00:38:13.570 --> 00:38:16.449
The other direction is actually it's not that because I
881
00:38:16.489 --> 00:38:18.489
don't think anyone truly believes that. No one's been able
882
00:38:18.510 --> 00:38:21.670
to successfully make that argument. It's more Look, Elizabeth Warren's
883
00:38:21.789 --> 00:38:23.710
just as bad as the rest of us.
884
00:38:23.710 --> 00:38:26.070
Yeah, they're trying to get her on a hypocrisy argument.
885
00:38:26.329 --> 00:38:28.550
She rails against corporations, but she worked for corporations.
886
00:38:28.570 --> 00:38:29.630
Did she's purity come lately?
887
00:38:29.750 --> 00:38:29.889
Right.
888
00:38:29.909 --> 00:38:33.239
So this transparency debate is not about transparency, right, as
889
00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:36.579
you're sort of revealing. The campaigns are saying it's about transparency,
890
00:38:36.599 --> 00:38:38.820
but really it's to try to get the records or
891
00:38:38.900 --> 00:38:40.900
get the information so then you can use it to prove.
892
00:38:41.159 --> 00:38:44.179
To do these attacks. Yeah, of course. It's a dance.
893
00:38:44.219 --> 00:38:45.440
It's a transparency rabbit hole.
894
00:38:45.460 --> 00:38:48.159
Pete didn't work at fucking Blackwater. He wasn't shooting up
895
00:38:48.199 --> 00:38:50.420
town squares in Iraq. He was probably sitting with a
896
00:38:50.480 --> 00:38:52.900
bunch of guys with Excel sheets, like figuring out how
897
00:38:52.920 --> 00:38:55.619
to cut costs and lay off people and cut benefits.
898
00:38:55.699 --> 00:38:58.320
And that's wild speculation, but that's my guess based on
899
00:38:58.360 --> 00:39:00.489
what McKinsey does all the time. And yeah, that'll look
900
00:39:00.510 --> 00:39:01.750
kind of bad in the campaign.
901
00:39:02.289 --> 00:39:04.230
And no one is more surprised that McKinsey's an issue
902
00:39:04.429 --> 00:39:06.630
for Pete than Pete, who has wanted to be president
903
00:39:06.650 --> 00:39:08.570
for a very long time and presumably thought this was
904
00:39:08.590 --> 00:39:10.159
a good thing for him to do to gain some
905
00:39:10.239 --> 00:39:12.539
interesting business experience before he went into government. That's a
906
00:39:12.539 --> 00:39:12.820
good point.
907
00:39:12.840 --> 00:39:15.300
Well, it wasn't long ago that having some business experience
908
00:39:15.340 --> 00:39:18.000
before getting into government was seen as neutral to good.
909
00:39:19.579 --> 00:39:19.820
You know?
910
00:39:20.179 --> 00:39:22.619
Now it's like, oh, my God.
911
00:39:22.699 --> 00:39:25.010
That's the self-interested Twitter reaction. I do think people in
912
00:39:25.030 --> 00:39:27.389
America probably think, oh, McKinsey, I've heard of that. That's
913
00:39:27.429 --> 00:39:29.409
hard to, it's a hard job to get. You must
914
00:39:29.429 --> 00:39:29.969
be smart to learn.
915
00:39:30.059 --> 00:39:32.949
There. They'll think that about McKinsey. They'll think Elizabeth Warren, oh,
916
00:39:32.960 --> 00:39:35.269
she did some side work for companies. Great. Good for her.
917
00:39:35.280 --> 00:39:35.760
Or who cares?
918
00:39:35.800 --> 00:39:38.260
I'll never learn that fact because I'm not you guys
919
00:39:38.460 --> 00:39:39.559
watching Twitter all day long.
920
00:39:39.659 --> 00:39:39.880
Right.
921
00:39:49.150 --> 00:39:53.289
And finally... Michael Bloomberg has already spent or reserved $ 60
922
00:39:52.710 --> 00:39:55.809
million on television ads since he entered the primary. This
923
00:39:55.869 --> 00:39:59.489
is more than double what the other four front-running candidates
924
00:39:59.670 --> 00:40:05.719
have spent on TV all year combined. That's Bernie, Pete, Warren, Biden.
925
00:40:06.139 --> 00:40:09.659
All of their spending combined. Double it. Mike Bloomberg's ahead
926
00:40:09.679 --> 00:40:09.940
of that.
927
00:40:09.960 --> 00:40:13.119
It's ironic because in part he's in the race for
928
00:40:13.179 --> 00:40:16.300
fear of a left candidate. So Elizabeth Warren has already
929
00:40:16.360 --> 00:40:20.889
charged Mike Bloomberg a pretty substantial wealth tax.
930
00:40:21.199 --> 00:40:23.349
He's also spent millions on Facebook and Google ads, even
931
00:40:23.369 --> 00:40:25.389
more than Trump has, because we've been complaining about Trump
932
00:40:25.409 --> 00:40:28.329
a lot, spending all this money. So Bloomberg's outspending Trump now.
933
00:40:29.010 --> 00:40:31.349
The campaign also plans to launch, and this might even
934
00:40:31.389 --> 00:40:35.280
be more important than the television spending, They're planning to
935
00:40:35.320 --> 00:40:39.010
launch a huge ground operation. They're just hiring organizers by
936
00:40:39.030 --> 00:40:42.610
the dozens in the delegate-heavy Super Tuesday states, and they're
937
00:40:42.630 --> 00:40:47.699
paying these organizers almost double what other campaigns are paying them. Guys,
938
00:40:47.889 --> 00:40:51.800
what's Bloomberg's theory of the case here? What's the method
939
00:40:51.820 --> 00:40:52.440
behind the madness?
940
00:40:52.900 --> 00:40:55.119
I mean, so David Plouffe did a great interview with
941
00:40:55.679 --> 00:40:58.500
Bloomberg's campaign chief, Kevin Sheeky, and they're trying something that
942
00:40:58.559 --> 00:41:01.539
is quite literally unprecedented, which is they're skipping the first
943
00:41:01.579 --> 00:41:04.320
four early primary states and making a Super Tuesday play,
944
00:41:04.360 --> 00:41:06.559
which is basically a national campaign.
945
00:41:06.599 --> 00:41:06.780
Yeah.
946
00:41:06.989 --> 00:41:09.289
You know, you should think of it that way. So
947
00:41:09.329 --> 00:41:12.869
they're betting that they can get him to, you know,
948
00:41:12.869 --> 00:41:15.789
15% in some of these congressional districts and pick up
949
00:41:15.829 --> 00:41:19.110
some delegates that way. That's a tough bet. You know,
950
00:41:19.170 --> 00:41:21.030
like no one's ever done that. It's incredibly hard.
951
00:41:21.389 --> 00:41:22.090
But he has.
952
00:41:22.090 --> 00:41:25.610
52 some odd billion dollars with which to play.
953
00:41:25.760 --> 00:41:27.139
And so maybe it'll work.
954
00:41:27.300 --> 00:41:30.679
Now, Democrats who are resentful Bloomberg for getting in and
955
00:41:30.699 --> 00:41:32.159
getting in late should also know that it sounds like
956
00:41:32.179 --> 00:41:34.699
a lot of the spending will be anti-Trump. Now, we
957
00:41:34.739 --> 00:41:36.480
should hold their feet to the fire on that and
958
00:41:36.500 --> 00:41:38.619
make sure that's actually true and that he's registering voters
959
00:41:38.679 --> 00:41:39.179
and running.
960
00:41:39.420 --> 00:41:40.920
Trump attack ads and swing states.
961
00:41:40.960 --> 00:41:44.199
But it is good that he's spending in states that
962
00:41:44.239 --> 00:41:46.360
aren't these first four early primary states, because what happens
963
00:41:46.420 --> 00:41:49.000
at a primary is you focus on Iowa, New Hampshire,
964
00:41:49.099 --> 00:41:52.659
South Carolina, Nevada. and Trump is just running ads against
965
00:41:52.679 --> 00:41:53.550
Democrats everywhere else.
966
00:41:54.010 --> 00:41:57.190
No, it sounds like what he's trying to do is
967
00:41:57.710 --> 00:42:00.590
prove his worth as a Democratic candidate by trying to
968
00:42:00.670 --> 00:42:03.280
help build up the Democratic Party. Which is great. Which
969
00:42:03.340 --> 00:42:05.059
is a smart, yeah, like, whether it's out of the
970
00:42:05.119 --> 00:42:07.000
goodness of his heart or not, who the fuck cares?
971
00:42:07.039 --> 00:42:07.519
It's happening.
972
00:42:07.619 --> 00:42:09.199
That's great for our purposes.
973
00:42:09.239 --> 00:42:12.030
Yeah, I think it's just a pure, to me, numbers question.
974
00:42:12.110 --> 00:42:14.019
How much of what he is spending is, like, I've
975
00:42:14.039 --> 00:42:17.059
seen a bunch of pro-Bloomberg bio spots. It's sort of
976
00:42:17.099 --> 00:42:19.079
like Tom Steyer, who in the run-up to deciding to
977
00:42:19.099 --> 00:42:21.860
run for president, spent millions of dollars on ads that
978
00:42:21.900 --> 00:42:23.980
were both about impeaching Trump, but also about sort of
979
00:42:24.019 --> 00:42:26.940
burnishing his credentials and making him somebody people recognized.
980
00:42:27.199 --> 00:42:29.480
So what he's committed is that he will spend at
981
00:42:29.519 --> 00:42:33.159
least $ 100 million outside of his own campaign's efforts. So
982
00:42:33.219 --> 00:42:35.860
right now there's a mix of the bio ads, which
983
00:42:35.900 --> 00:42:38.300
take shots at Trump, but are mainly Bloomberg ads. And
984
00:42:38.340 --> 00:42:42.309
there's a bunch of anti-Trump ads in swing states. and
985
00:42:42.349 --> 00:42:43.909
digital spends, which is, you know.
986
00:42:43.969 --> 00:42:45.820
And then he's helping out the state parties.
987
00:42:45.860 --> 00:42:47.159
Yes, that was the other big thing.
988
00:42:47.179 --> 00:42:48.239
Which is genius.
989
00:42:48.380 --> 00:42:49.960
He's going to Texas. He's giving a whole bunch of
990
00:42:49.980 --> 00:42:52.159
money to that state party, to Louisiana, to other state
991
00:42:52.199 --> 00:42:53.099
parties that don't have enough money.
992
00:42:53.119 --> 00:42:56.780
Hey, Mike Bloomberg, we're like scraping together every dollar we
993
00:42:56.800 --> 00:42:57.860
can find for Stacey Abrams.
994
00:42:57.900 --> 00:42:59.940
Could you just clear out that thing? Yeah. Cover a
995
00:42:59.960 --> 00:43:00.989
check for five mil. Just clear it out.
996
00:43:01.550 --> 00:43:04.570
Please, Mike Bloomberg. Everyone tweet at Mike Bloomberg. Please write
997
00:43:04.610 --> 00:43:05.429
Stacey Abrams a check.
998
00:43:05.489 --> 00:43:08.489
That'd be good. And he's, fair fight.
999
00:43:08.510 --> 00:43:08.869
Yeah.
1000
00:43:09.659 --> 00:43:12.980
And he's donating to some candidates. He's going to donate
1001
00:43:13.019 --> 00:43:15.079
to some candidates up and down the ballot too. So look,
1002
00:43:15.159 --> 00:43:18.260
I mean, it's, you know, it is gross that we
1003
00:43:18.280 --> 00:43:21.219
have a campaign finance system that billionaires can just like
1004
00:43:21.300 --> 00:43:24.530
buy their way onto debate stages and possibly buy a nomination. Absolutely.
1005
00:43:24.929 --> 00:43:28.670
But I have been very worried for quite some time
1006
00:43:28.769 --> 00:43:31.230
that Trump is outspending us everywhere, that he's going to
1007
00:43:31.250 --> 00:43:34.530
outspend us digitally and in paid media everywhere. And if
1008
00:43:34.610 --> 00:43:38.409
Mike Bloomberg wants to try to stop that while running
1009
00:43:38.429 --> 00:43:41.309
a campaign, like whether he's the nominee or not, at
1010
00:43:41.369 --> 00:43:44.409
least it might help the democratic party, which is not
1011
00:43:44.429 --> 00:43:45.170
a bad thing. Yeah.
1012
00:43:45.210 --> 00:43:47.440
You know, he's also spent a lot of money on
1013
00:43:47.500 --> 00:43:50.739
trying to close coal fire power plants. Yeah. Um, and
1014
00:43:50.840 --> 00:43:52.639
other things. And, but when I, when I see those,
1015
00:43:52.739 --> 00:43:54.119
when I saw that, that he was doing that, I
1016
00:43:54.139 --> 00:43:57.320
think it's a very good thing, but the single most
1017
00:43:57.360 --> 00:43:59.019
important thing you can do if you care about climate
1018
00:43:59.039 --> 00:44:00.760
change is remove Donald Trump from office. It's the single
1019
00:44:00.800 --> 00:44:01.530
most important thing, right?
1020
00:44:01.789 --> 00:44:02.050
Whatever.
1021
00:44:02.070 --> 00:44:03.849
I think he has pledged a huge amount of money
1022
00:44:03.869 --> 00:44:07.170
to that effort, but There's no bang for your buck
1023
00:44:07.210 --> 00:44:09.110
if you care about climate change more than a million
1024
00:44:09.150 --> 00:44:11.949
dollars worth of ads in Wisconsin or Michigan or Pennsylvania
1025
00:44:11.969 --> 00:44:12.429
or what have you.
1026
00:44:12.789 --> 00:44:16.289
You guys remember when Barack Obama criticized the Citizens United
1027
00:44:16.349 --> 00:44:18.690
ruling at the State of the Union in front of
1028
00:44:18.750 --> 00:44:24.639
the Supreme Court justices? It was treated like the greatest
1029
00:44:25.039 --> 00:44:27.280
civility foul in the history of Washington.
1030
00:44:27.860 --> 00:44:29.929
Because he said it in front of. The justices.
1031
00:44:30.170 --> 00:44:30.610
Oh, no.
1032
00:44:30.889 --> 00:44:31.789
Oh, my goodness.
1033
00:44:32.170 --> 00:44:35.340
Oh, the justices. Feelings got hurt because they opened the
1034
00:44:35.420 --> 00:44:37.679
floodgates to billions of dollars to buy our elections.
1035
00:44:37.699 --> 00:44:38.960
Blue eyes got glassy.
1036
00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:41.300
Imagine criticizing that. Yeah.
1037
00:44:41.840 --> 00:44:42.780
Yeah.
1038
00:44:43.420 --> 00:44:45.179
I did think it was interesting. One of the pieces
1039
00:44:45.219 --> 00:44:47.750
about why Bloomberg decided to run is that remember those
1040
00:44:47.809 --> 00:44:49.989
New York Times polls in the swing states that Nate
1041
00:44:50.030 --> 00:44:51.849
Cohen and New York Times did a while ago that
1042
00:44:51.929 --> 00:44:55.389
showed that Trump was very competitive in those swing states,
1043
00:44:55.650 --> 00:44:58.500
beating Trump. Elizabeth Warren and some, and losing to Biden
1044
00:44:58.539 --> 00:45:02.039
by narrow amounts and others. Apparently that polling came out.
1045
00:45:02.159 --> 00:45:04.820
Bloomberg sat with all of his advisors and said, and
1046
00:45:04.840 --> 00:45:07.449
they all decided, okay, we're going to spend even more
1047
00:45:08.179 --> 00:45:11.889
outside the campaign on ads in these states. They're like,
1048
00:45:11.909 --> 00:45:14.050
all right. So they finished the meeting. And then apparently
1049
00:45:14.070 --> 00:45:16.429
the next morning, Bloomberg walks in and he's like, and
1050
00:45:16.449 --> 00:45:17.949
they're like, okay, we're ready to spend all this money.
1051
00:45:17.969 --> 00:45:19.730
He's like, actually, I've thought about it. I think I
1052
00:45:19.750 --> 00:45:22.949
need to run for president. And he's like, so we
1053
00:45:22.989 --> 00:45:24.230
are going to spend all that money on those ads,
1054
00:45:24.269 --> 00:45:25.929
but also I'm going to run because I'm afraid we're
1055
00:45:25.949 --> 00:45:26.489
going to lose now.
1056
00:45:26.670 --> 00:45:28.550
I mean, it's the funny thing is that, you know,
1057
00:45:29.050 --> 00:45:32.579
no one who runs for president is shy on ego, right?
1058
00:45:32.639 --> 00:45:34.300
But the thing that I do think is compelling is
1059
00:45:34.320 --> 00:45:36.920
that Mike Bloomberg, of all people, does not want to
1060
00:45:36.960 --> 00:45:40.340
be humiliated. So that's why it's like, I don't know that.
1061
00:45:40.420 --> 00:45:42.320
We don't know everything he has planned, but I feel
1062
00:45:42.340 --> 00:45:43.380
like he knows something.
1063
00:45:43.679 --> 00:45:45.369
Well, I've been worried with this. I mean, like, is
1064
00:45:45.449 --> 00:45:49.030
Mike Bloomberg the answer to that scary polling? You know,
1065
00:45:49.309 --> 00:45:52.409
I have my doubts, but I do— And Bloomberg conducted
1066
00:45:52.469 --> 00:45:54.769
similar polling in those states and found almost the same
1067
00:45:54.829 --> 00:45:57.829
exact results as The New York Times and Nate, who
1068
00:45:57.849 --> 00:46:00.469
is in, you know, 538 rates them in a pollster.
1069
00:46:00.550 --> 00:46:01.409
So does he get a cheat?
1070
00:46:01.630 --> 00:46:03.989
He gets a cheaper rate as a candidate on ads
1071
00:46:04.050 --> 00:46:06.309
for the money he spent. But that won't apply to
1072
00:46:06.349 --> 00:46:07.849
the hundred million. Is that going to be outside of
1073
00:46:07.889 --> 00:46:09.329
the campaign? I don't know the answer. I don't know
1074
00:46:09.349 --> 00:46:10.750
that either, because there is a little bit of a
1075
00:46:10.789 --> 00:46:13.789
like you can't pretend to run for president to get
1076
00:46:13.829 --> 00:46:15.519
a cheaper ad rate. You got to really do it.
1077
00:46:15.610 --> 00:46:17.070
You got to really put your heart into it. I
1078
00:46:17.090 --> 00:46:17.409
don't want to.
1079
00:46:18.440 --> 00:46:20.519
Do we really think that Mike Bloomberg, who's throwing around
1080
00:46:20.559 --> 00:46:22.489
like $ 60 million in the first week, is worried about
1081
00:46:22.510 --> 00:46:23.710
getting that much of a cheaper ad rate?
1082
00:46:23.909 --> 00:46:27.289
I think, though, listen, first of all, everybody wants a
1083
00:46:27.289 --> 00:46:29.510
bang for their buck. I don't care who you are.
1084
00:46:30.190 --> 00:46:31.849
Americans love a deal. All right? We love a deal.
1085
00:46:32.389 --> 00:46:35.380
He doesn't want to pay full price for that Ivanka pendant.
1086
00:46:35.739 --> 00:46:36.559
Absolutely not.
1087
00:46:36.619 --> 00:46:37.539
Unlike Seema Verma.
1088
00:46:37.579 --> 00:46:40.739
He will not. Everyone should just be a little worried.
1089
00:46:40.780 --> 00:46:42.400
I mean, look, the fact that Bloomberg did all.
1090
00:46:42.340 --> 00:46:44.659
This polling and they found that every candidate is losing
1091
00:46:44.699 --> 00:46:46.639
to Trump in the states that matter should make us.
1092
00:46:46.699 --> 00:46:47.940
All Really nervous.
1093
00:46:48.380 --> 00:46:50.820
And I don't want to, like, you know, offer up
1094
00:46:50.840 --> 00:46:53.480
a bunch of unfocused anxiety here. But, like, we're all
1095
00:46:53.500 --> 00:46:54.920
going to have to work really hard and.
1096
00:46:55.099 --> 00:46:55.940
Bring this party together.
1097
00:46:56.239 --> 00:46:59.389
It's also really interesting to me. This is a totally
1098
00:46:59.409 --> 00:47:02.030
different point. But Jonathan Martin had an interesting piece on
1099
00:47:02.050 --> 00:47:04.309
the state of the race in Iowa. And the thing
1100
00:47:04.329 --> 00:47:07.369
that I keep my head around is that Elizabeth Warren
1101
00:47:07.389 --> 00:47:09.130
has not spent any money on ads in Iowa.
1102
00:47:09.530 --> 00:47:10.250
I don't get why.
1103
00:47:10.530 --> 00:47:13.230
Just recently. I guess she finally just went up, like,
1104
00:47:13.269 --> 00:47:13.690
this week.
1105
00:47:13.789 --> 00:47:15.849
What the fuck have you been waiting for? By the way.
1106
00:47:16.989 --> 00:47:18.010
money situation.
1107
00:47:18.510 --> 00:47:20.650
She had a big quarter at one point.
1108
00:47:20.690 --> 00:47:23.309
She did, but remember, but her cash on hand, she
1109
00:47:23.329 --> 00:47:24.909
had a big quarter, but her cash on hand was.
1110
00:47:25.489 --> 00:47:27.349
And she had a 10 million dollar transfer from the Senate.
1111
00:47:27.369 --> 00:47:29.929
Transfer from the Senate office. I just think it's interesting
1112
00:47:29.969 --> 00:47:33.199
to see what kind of money everyone's got because we keep,
1113
00:47:33.380 --> 00:47:36.360
not we keep forgetting, but I feel like sometimes Twitter forgets.
1114
00:47:37.340 --> 00:47:39.039
I think that it's going to be very interesting to
1115
00:47:39.159 --> 00:47:41.980
see the quarter Bernie has because he has still, with
1116
00:47:42.059 --> 00:47:45.139
purely grassroots money, outraised everybody every quarter.
1117
00:47:45.159 --> 00:47:45.440
Pretty huge.
1118
00:47:46.159 --> 00:47:48.940
And I think that like polling or whatever aside, if
1119
00:47:49.000 --> 00:47:52.679
he's still raising like massive grassroots money more than anybody else,
1120
00:47:52.699 --> 00:47:54.099
I think that means something.
1121
00:47:54.380 --> 00:47:56.340
Well, I mean, we've been talking this whole time in
1122
00:47:56.340 --> 00:48:00.619
2020 about, you know, Biden versus an Iowa voter, Pete
1123
00:48:00.639 --> 00:48:01.519
versus Warren.
1124
00:48:01.820 --> 00:48:02.059
Right.
1125
00:48:02.239 --> 00:48:04.960
And like no one's really roughing up Bernie and he's
1126
00:48:05.199 --> 00:48:05.860
doing his thing.
1127
00:48:05.920 --> 00:48:06.500
No, it's like he.
1128
00:48:06.480 --> 00:48:09.820
Had that heart attack and he's like just fading into
1129
00:48:09.840 --> 00:48:12.420
the bushes and doing his like load. Like he's been
1130
00:48:12.440 --> 00:48:15.289
doing smaller events. and really kind of just been like
1131
00:48:15.469 --> 00:48:19.130
out of the fray except for that awesome fire starting video.
1132
00:48:19.150 --> 00:48:20.030
Did you guys watch it?
1133
00:48:20.190 --> 00:48:20.269
No.
1134
00:48:20.309 --> 00:48:21.170
Oh, yeah, I did see that.
1135
00:48:21.190 --> 00:48:23.190
Bernie showed people how to light a fire in Vermont.
1136
00:48:23.230 --> 00:48:24.289
It was funny as hell.
1137
00:48:24.329 --> 00:48:25.150
And a wood-burning stove.
1138
00:48:25.170 --> 00:48:27.869
Yeah, it was really great. As people who come from
1139
00:48:27.929 --> 00:48:29.849
cold places, Aaron and I really thought it was something.
1140
00:48:30.250 --> 00:48:32.610
But I just think it's interesting. I think that, you know,
1141
00:48:32.630 --> 00:48:34.250
the end of the quarter will be interesting to see
1142
00:48:34.269 --> 00:48:36.690
sort of where he nets out and if his supporters
1143
00:48:36.730 --> 00:48:38.750
give a shit about what any of the polling says and,
1144
00:48:39.010 --> 00:48:39.269
you know.
1145
00:48:39.949 --> 00:48:42.110
Yeah. Yeah, I also just think, too, you look at
1146
00:48:42.449 --> 00:48:46.079
what could happen And what does Mike Bloomberg's money on
1147
00:48:46.099 --> 00:48:49.760
Super Tuesday ultimately mean if you start from the presumption
1148
00:48:49.780 --> 00:48:52.309
that it's very, very hard to imagine him building a
1149
00:48:52.329 --> 00:48:54.309
coalition that will make him the nominee? You start to
1150
00:48:54.349 --> 00:48:56.409
see someone that makes it harder for someone else to
1151
00:48:56.429 --> 00:48:59.250
get to above 50 percent of the delegates.
1152
00:49:00.340 --> 00:49:02.320
And then become a player at the brokered convention.
1153
00:49:02.440 --> 00:49:03.360
And then, yeah.
1154
00:49:03.599 --> 00:49:04.480
Nightmare.
1155
00:49:04.579 --> 00:49:06.119
Paging Aaron Sorkin.
1156
00:49:07.300 --> 00:49:09.260
To Alyssa's point earlier, I mean, the Des Moines Register
1157
00:49:09.280 --> 00:49:10.900
had a piece over the weekend, or maybe it was
1158
00:49:10.940 --> 00:49:13.949
last week, about Bernie's Iowa strategy. And it does seem
1159
00:49:13.989 --> 00:49:16.900
like they are just kind of running a totally on
1160
00:49:16.920 --> 00:49:19.900
a totally different track like even look I wish I'd
1161
00:49:19.920 --> 00:49:21.360
spent more time with Bernie and his team when I
1162
00:49:21.380 --> 00:49:22.900
was in Iowa but like when I'm at the Liberty
1163
00:49:22.920 --> 00:49:25.699
and Justice dinner with all the other campaigns all his
1164
00:49:25.739 --> 00:49:27.659
supporters were somewhere else so it was like hard to
1165
00:49:27.699 --> 00:49:29.630
talk to them and get a sense of what they
1166
00:49:29.650 --> 00:49:32.710
think about Bernie they seem to be just focused on
1167
00:49:32.750 --> 00:49:35.429
this crop of Bernie voters that they think if they
1168
00:49:35.469 --> 00:49:38.190
turn out in sufficient numbers can win this thing for
1169
00:49:38.289 --> 00:49:41.349
him or at least do well enough. And I don't know,
1170
00:49:41.389 --> 00:49:44.030
maybe the polling is not capturing those people. It just
1171
00:49:44.050 --> 00:49:45.110
makes it completely unpredictable.
1172
00:49:45.389 --> 00:49:47.860
Well, the interesting thing, right, that poll that just came
1173
00:49:47.889 --> 00:49:49.760
out that said he's leading in California.
1174
00:49:49.780 --> 00:49:50.260
Yeah.
1175
00:49:51.320 --> 00:49:53.539
I was totally shocked. I did not think that that,
1176
00:49:53.619 --> 00:49:55.039
I was like, I had to read it twice because
1177
00:49:55.059 --> 00:49:56.800
I'm like, huh. And that was the thing that made
1178
00:49:56.840 --> 00:49:59.570
me think like, he's just been like the tortoise, man.
1179
00:49:59.630 --> 00:50:02.920
He's just like under- going slow, not doing a lot
1180
00:50:02.940 --> 00:50:05.000
of big press stuff and just.
1181
00:50:05.340 --> 00:50:08.599
I mean, the Super Tuesday calculations are very interesting, right? Because,
1182
00:50:08.699 --> 00:50:11.599
I mean, you mentioned this 15%, Tommy, but basically the
1183
00:50:11.639 --> 00:50:14.929
way this works is if you can hit 15% in
1184
00:50:15.190 --> 00:50:17.409
any of these congressional districts in any of these states,
1185
00:50:17.610 --> 00:50:19.829
you probably pick up delegates below 15%.
1186
00:50:19.829 --> 00:50:20.250
You don't.
1187
00:50:20.869 --> 00:50:23.050
And so what Bloomberg is basically saying is, all right,
1188
00:50:23.230 --> 00:50:24.809
not only are we going to spend money on television ads,
1189
00:50:24.829 --> 00:50:26.570
but we're going to have ground operations in all these
1190
00:50:26.610 --> 00:50:30.010
big states, which is something that is incredibly expensive and
1191
00:50:30.599 --> 00:50:32.980
Very few candidates are going– other candidates are going to
1192
00:50:33.000 --> 00:50:34.460
be able to do that unless they have some momentum
1193
00:50:34.480 --> 00:50:37.079
in those first four early primary states. So the Bloomberg
1194
00:50:37.099 --> 00:50:38.739
people are thinking, like, we don't even know if we're
1195
00:50:38.760 --> 00:50:40.550
going to win many of these Super Tuesday states. But
1196
00:50:40.570 --> 00:50:43.170
if we can just keep getting delegates by spending enough money,
1197
00:50:43.590 --> 00:50:45.309
you know, we'll be in the game. And then you
1198
00:50:45.329 --> 00:50:46.889
try to think who else is going to have an
1199
00:50:46.969 --> 00:50:51.210
operation that can compete in California, New York, Texas all
1200
00:50:51.230 --> 00:50:53.230
at the same time. And it's like Bernie probably has
1201
00:50:53.269 --> 00:50:57.059
that money. Right. Pete Buttigieg probably has that money right now.
1202
00:50:57.179 --> 00:50:59.179
And then we'll see about Warren after the quarter.
1203
00:50:59.219 --> 00:51:01.619
And Bernie did it in 16.
1204
00:51:01.619 --> 00:51:01.840
Right.
1205
00:51:01.900 --> 00:51:04.400
So he's got at least some sort of muscle memory
1206
00:51:04.539 --> 00:51:05.219
in those states.
1207
00:51:05.239 --> 00:51:08.429
But the one person who we definitely don't know if
1208
00:51:08.650 --> 00:51:10.769
he has the money is Joe Biden based on his
1209
00:51:11.489 --> 00:51:13.889
last fundraising quarter, even though, you know, in a lot
1210
00:51:13.909 --> 00:51:16.369
of ways he could be the strongest candidate because of
1211
00:51:16.489 --> 00:51:21.239
his continued strong, strong support in the African-American community and
1212
00:51:21.340 --> 00:51:23.230
with non-college educated white voters.
1213
00:51:23.250 --> 00:51:25.869
The bet for non-Bloomberg candidates is that you go through
1214
00:51:25.889 --> 00:51:27.829
these first four early primary states and if you do
1215
00:51:27.869 --> 00:51:30.630
well enough, you capture momentum and enthusiasm and that puts
1216
00:51:30.650 --> 00:51:33.449
you over the top versus this organizing that's already happening.
1217
00:51:34.309 --> 00:51:38.050
It seems like a real open question whether that will
1218
00:51:38.110 --> 00:51:40.579
work or whether anyone will run the table in these
1219
00:51:40.659 --> 00:51:43.360
early states to build that momentum. But certainly it would
1220
00:51:43.400 --> 00:51:46.659
make me awfully nervous if I were Biden and I'm
1221
00:51:46.719 --> 00:51:49.230
kind of betting on a mixed result in these early
1222
00:51:49.269 --> 00:51:49.670
four states.
1223
00:51:49.889 --> 00:51:50.050
Right.
1224
00:51:50.090 --> 00:51:54.409
Especially because his money has been predominantly big dollar money,
1225
00:51:54.769 --> 00:51:57.239
which means that he has a finite base of.
1226
00:51:57.949 --> 00:51:58.889
Which was Kamala's problem.
1227
00:51:58.949 --> 00:52:01.510
Which was Kamala's problem is that if you're someone who's
1228
00:52:01.550 --> 00:52:04.250
counting on your big donors, you front load all that money.
1229
00:52:04.730 --> 00:52:06.989
And so my guess, you know, for Kamala was that
1230
00:52:07.030 --> 00:52:09.300
like her donors had maxed out four months ago for
1231
00:52:09.320 --> 00:52:12.320
the most part and the grassroots money wasn't totally there,
1232
00:52:12.360 --> 00:52:15.260
which in part is almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because if
1233
00:52:15.340 --> 00:52:17.500
you think that the person you're like, oh, I think
1234
00:52:17.539 --> 00:52:20.199
that Kamala is great. But like, I also want to
1235
00:52:20.300 --> 00:52:22.659
see Booker stay in the race. And I'm a donor
1236
00:52:22.699 --> 00:52:25.030
who only has $ 50 to give. If you think she's
1237
00:52:25.050 --> 00:52:26.449
got her big dollar money, you're like, I'm going to
1238
00:52:26.469 --> 00:52:27.889
give my $ 50 to Booker.
1239
00:52:28.250 --> 00:52:28.610
That's right.
1240
00:52:28.710 --> 00:52:31.320
You know, and so I think that that's that that's
1241
00:52:31.380 --> 00:52:32.239
a problem for people.
1242
00:52:32.610 --> 00:52:34.150
And I wonder if that's going to be a problem
1243
00:52:34.170 --> 00:52:38.489
for Pete going forward, too. Kamala and Pete were both mixed, right?
1244
00:52:38.530 --> 00:52:41.449
They had high-dollar fundraisers and they had some grassroots support.
1245
00:52:42.429 --> 00:52:45.280
I think Pete's probably had more high-dollar than grassroots. But
1246
00:52:45.320 --> 00:52:48.719
if the grassroots sort of melts away, then you're left
1247
00:52:48.780 --> 00:52:51.519
with hoping that the high-dollar donors in the party can
1248
00:52:51.559 --> 00:52:54.800
fund this. But meanwhile, you're facing candidates in Warren and
1249
00:52:54.960 --> 00:52:58.289
Bernie who have a lot of grassroots money and then
1250
00:52:58.630 --> 00:53:01.230
self-funded billionaires like Tom Steyer and Mike Bloomberg.
1251
00:53:01.880 --> 00:53:02.139
Tough.
1252
00:53:02.260 --> 00:53:04.550
Cool state of campaign finance we've got going right now.
1253
00:53:05.179 --> 00:53:07.500
You can't win after Iowa without grassroots donors.
1254
00:53:07.539 --> 00:53:10.219
You don't have time to leave the campaign trail in
1255
00:53:10.460 --> 00:53:11.579
politics in New York City.
1256
00:53:11.599 --> 00:53:13.519
You know, that was one of the interesting things in
1257
00:53:13.519 --> 00:53:16.300
2016 that I remember. I think it was the third
1258
00:53:16.320 --> 00:53:20.429
or fourth quarter. Hillary had done over 40 fundraisers and
1259
00:53:20.449 --> 00:53:21.329
Bernie had done two.
1260
00:53:22.409 --> 00:53:24.130
It's also worth, I think, too, being just a little
1261
00:53:24.150 --> 00:53:27.070
bit reflective on actually the state of campaign finance and
1262
00:53:27.090 --> 00:53:30.769
some of the unintended consequences because it's not just Citizens United.
1263
00:53:31.230 --> 00:53:33.590
it's that we created a bunch of rules that made people,
1264
00:53:33.690 --> 00:53:35.789
made it that you couldn't get as much money per person.
1265
00:53:35.809 --> 00:53:37.760
I think it's had positive effects, but it means if
1266
00:53:37.780 --> 00:53:40.400
you're someone who doesn't have inherited wealth or wealth, you
1267
00:53:40.440 --> 00:53:45.320
may be building some sort of terminal. That, as far
1268
00:53:45.360 --> 00:53:47.659
as I can tell, is a really good web browser.
1269
00:53:47.880 --> 00:53:49.480
I don't get it. To me, McCain-Feingold.
1270
00:53:49.619 --> 00:53:50.579
Yeah.
1271
00:53:51.900 --> 00:53:56.530
But it means that it really did cause a trend
1272
00:53:56.570 --> 00:53:58.409
of all these really wealthy people being able to come
1273
00:53:58.429 --> 00:54:00.010
in and be like, well, you're going to have to
1274
00:54:00.050 --> 00:54:01.949
go do all these fundraisers. But I can just write
1275
00:54:01.969 --> 00:54:05.449
myself a check because everyone recognizes there's something is inherently
1276
00:54:05.489 --> 00:54:07.280
unfair of saying to somebody you can't spend your own
1277
00:54:07.340 --> 00:54:09.900
money on your own speech, on your own campaign.
1278
00:54:10.260 --> 00:54:10.659
Right.
1279
00:54:10.960 --> 00:54:14.420
So we really are. It's the campaign finance question that
1280
00:54:14.480 --> 00:54:17.280
undergirds all of this. They're really hard. They're not easy questions.
1281
00:54:17.300 --> 00:54:17.519
That's all.
1282
00:54:17.679 --> 00:54:18.820
Yeah, and all we have to do to fix it
1283
00:54:18.960 --> 00:54:21.980
is just win the presidency, the Senate, the House, and
1284
00:54:22.039 --> 00:54:25.340
then wait for a Supreme Court seat to open up.
1285
00:54:25.739 --> 00:54:27.500
So in the meantime, this is what we got.
1286
00:54:27.639 --> 00:54:29.090
And by the way, even when you do that, it's
1287
00:54:29.119 --> 00:54:31.250
actually hard to come up with a solution that makes
1288
00:54:31.289 --> 00:54:33.449
everybody happy that actually does what we want it to do.
1289
00:54:33.789 --> 00:54:36.449
Well, because remember how many years ago, Favs, when we
1290
00:54:36.489 --> 00:54:39.070
were working for John Kerry, John Kerry was at the
1291
00:54:39.090 --> 00:54:42.369
same point in his election as Kamala was. They were
1292
00:54:42.409 --> 00:54:45.349
both not polling great, both out of money. But John
1293
00:54:45.409 --> 00:54:48.730
Kerry mortgaged his home in Boston, and that's what got
1294
00:54:48.769 --> 00:54:49.429
us through Iowa.
1295
00:54:49.670 --> 00:54:49.909
Yeah.
1296
00:54:50.329 --> 00:54:52.309
Which– And we thought when we heard the news that
1297
00:54:52.329 --> 00:54:54.010
John Kerry was mortgaging his home, it was like, oh,
1298
00:54:54.050 --> 00:54:55.889
we're– I mean, Alyssa and I sat at a restaurant
1299
00:54:55.909 --> 00:54:57.570
and we're like, what's our next jobs?
1300
00:54:57.690 --> 00:54:58.170
No, we did.
1301
00:54:58.210 --> 00:55:00.329
We went to Ruby Tuesdays and had a low-carb meal.
1302
00:55:00.349 --> 00:55:02.670
We went to Filene's and bought sheets because we were
1303
00:55:02.730 --> 00:55:05.050
sleeping on people's floors in Iowa and New Hampshire.
1304
00:55:05.070 --> 00:55:06.210
Fall of 03.
1305
00:55:06.199 --> 00:55:08.019
I was like, so when I see you again, like,
1306
00:55:08.079 --> 00:55:10.219
what are we going to do? Because we just– I'm like,
1307
00:55:10.239 --> 00:55:11.579
where's the unemployment office?
1308
00:55:11.639 --> 00:55:12.739
Why couldn't he get that ketchup money?
1309
00:55:13.730 --> 00:55:14.909
That was the catch-up money.
1310
00:55:15.170 --> 00:55:16.550
They mortgaged their house, right?
1311
00:55:16.570 --> 00:55:16.989
Yeah, in Boston.
1312
00:55:17.010 --> 00:55:18.889
Because that was partly his. He can't just take her
1313
00:55:18.949 --> 00:55:20.639
fortune that wasn't. partly his.
1314
00:55:20.719 --> 00:55:22.699
Because that's not how it works.
1315
00:55:22.719 --> 00:55:23.639
That's not how the laws work.
1316
00:55:24.199 --> 00:55:25.980
Not how marriage works. He did have that house. They
1317
00:55:26.019 --> 00:55:27.679
got married. They didn't combine finances.
1318
00:55:27.699 --> 00:55:28.130
He had the house.
1319
00:55:28.170 --> 00:55:28.789
He had the ascot.
1320
00:55:28.809 --> 00:55:31.269
Did she make him sign a prenup? Oh, that's interesting.
1321
00:55:31.289 --> 00:55:34.849
Did Teresa Hines Carey have a ruthless prenup? Oh, awesome.
1322
00:55:34.929 --> 00:55:36.250
Because the answer is yes.
1323
00:55:36.309 --> 00:55:42.139
Anyway, I think we've gotten to the end of this conversation, guys. Alyssa,
1324
00:55:42.179 --> 00:55:44.900
thanks for joining us today. Please come back. Let's do
1325
00:55:44.920 --> 00:55:45.679
this more often.
1326
00:55:45.800 --> 00:55:48.190
If you want Teresa Hines Carey's money, You have to
1327
00:55:48.289 --> 00:55:50.670
hit the side of the bottle at the exact right spot.
1328
00:55:51.289 --> 00:55:52.289
I can show you how.
1329
00:55:52.670 --> 00:55:54.010
You got to tilt it and hit that 57. You
1330
00:55:54.050 --> 00:55:56.829
hit the 57. That's exactly right. What was the plane called?
1331
00:55:56.849 --> 00:55:57.590
The Flying Squirrel?
1332
00:55:58.110 --> 00:55:59.530
Yes, it was called the Flying Squirrel.
1333
00:55:59.610 --> 00:56:00.289
Their private jet?
1334
00:56:00.489 --> 00:56:00.710
Yes.
1335
00:56:01.030 --> 00:56:02.070
Yeah, that was a bad story.
1336
00:56:03.179 --> 00:56:04.050
Good times, people.
1337
00:56:04.199 --> 00:56:05.519
Who did you work for again, Tommy?
1338
00:56:05.559 --> 00:56:06.199
Yeah, John.
1339
00:56:06.260 --> 00:56:07.239
There you go.
1340
00:56:07.260 --> 00:56:08.440
Yeah, we're all covered in glory.
1341
00:56:08.460 --> 00:56:09.699
This was very cool.
1342
00:56:09.820 --> 00:56:20.389
All right, everyone. Take care. Pod Save America is a
1343
00:56:20.409 --> 00:56:23.079
product of Cricket Media. The senior producer is Michael Martinez.
1344
00:56:23.420 --> 00:56:26.340
Our assistant producer is Jordan Waller. It's mixed and edited
1345
00:56:26.360 --> 00:56:29.639
by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Segwin is our sound engineer. Thanks
1346
00:56:29.659 --> 00:56:33.019
to Carolyn Reston, Tanya Somanator, and Katie Long for production support.
1347
00:56:33.059 --> 00:56:36.010
And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Narmel Coney, and
1348
00:56:36.030 --> 00:56:38.409
Yael Freed, and Milo Kim, who film and upload these
1349
00:56:38.489 --> 00:56:39.969
episodes as a video every week.