Show full transcript 0:47 and she loves it. 0:49 She installed it really quick on her own. 0:51 System was up and running in no time. 0:53 She thought the app is super easy to use. 0:55 She allows her to disarm or arm the system from her phone and check the cameras right 1:00 from her phone. 1:00 So she is very happy about it. 1:02 Join the more than 6 million people who entrust Simply Safe with their home security right 1:06 now save 60% off with professional monitoring when you visit SimplySafe.com slash Cricut. 1:12 That's SimplySafe.com slash Cricut. 1:14 And when you order, please write in Pod Save America in the checkout survey. 1:17 It lets them know we sent you and really helps to support the show. 1:20 simply safe ahead of crime in real time. 1:45 Welcome to Plot Save America, I'm John Favre. 1:47 I'm Dan Fyfer. 1:48 On today's show we'll talk about 1:49 how the great Republican midterm panic has begun. 1:53 Trump throwing everything at the wall 1:54 to see what sticks, including more money. 1:56 The week of big Senate debates in Maine, Michigan, Iowa 1:59 and maybe Texas now that Trump has weighed in. 2:01 And of course we'll discuss the absolutely insane report 2:05 about Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle 2:08 demanding that a Trump donor pay off 2:09 for $100,000 AmEx bill in exchange for influence peddling 2:14 and so much more. 2:16 Then you'll hear Love It's Conversation 2:17 with Florida Senate candidate Angie Nixon. 2:20 But first, CrookedCon is coming up. 2:23 November 5th through 7th in Washington, DC. 2:26 We really want you guys to be there. 2:28 We are excited to announce 24 different conversations 2:32 and debates across four stages. 2:35 Everything from the Democratic brand, 2:37 which is awesome, to the future of AI, 2:40 to building a winning campaign. 2:41 We've also got a live taping of Still Counting 2:44 with Nate Silver, Claire Malone, and Galen Druke. 2:47 And that's in addition to Podsave America, 2:49 Love It or Leave It, and strict scrutiny live shows. 2:51 It's gonna be so much fun. 2:53 Go to CrookedCon.com, get your tickets now. 2:56 We wanna see you in DC. 2:58 It's gonna be a good time. 2:59 Everyone's gonna be talking about it. 3:00 You're gonna need to be there to know what happens. 3:03 And maybe you can ask a question yourself 3:05 and there's going to be all kinds of fun surprises, so get yourself to DC, cricketcon.com. 3:11 And right now the staff is trying to figure out fun surprises. 3:17 I mean, I don't want to reveal anything right now. I don't think I'm supposed to, so now 3:24 maybe we can get to work. All right, Dan, 25 days out from the midterms and the panikins 3:31 These are panicking. 3:34 As they do. 3:35 As they do. 3:36 Trump's approval keeps getting worse. 3:37 Not better. 3:39 The Democratic lead on the generic ballot keeps getting bigger. 3:41 Not smaller. 3:43 I think Nate Silver has it at nine points as of this recording, which is a new high. 3:47 The New York Times just did about three dozen interviews with some extremely unenthused 3:52 Trump voters in Western Michigan. 3:54 Here's a little taste of what they said, a couple quotes from the interviews. 3:59 He's losing touch. He's not making sense. 4:03 There's very low energy on the Republican side. 4:07 He's just not there in my head anymore, devastating. 4:11 But this is my favorite. 4:13 President Trump has been saying, vote as if I was on the ballot, 4:15 and that's exactly what I'm going to do, not vote. 4:20 These are all Trump voters, Dan. They were Trump voters. 4:24 Meanwhile, Trump's top two political advisors fled the country 4:27 to advise a Putin-aligned client in the Balkans 4:31 had some better business overseas, 4:32 so they skipped town for a little bit. 4:35 Mike Johnson told Fox News 4:37 that if he loses his job as speaker, 4:39 he would move back home to start a lawn care business 4:42 if that's what God wants. 4:47 True, that's the true story. 4:49 But Trump himself, well, 4:51 the president is locked in 4:53 on what the American people want him to be focused on, 4:56 handing out medals to AI billionaires and to himself. 5:02 Let's watch. 5:03 Elon is our modern day Thomas Edison 5:05 and Elon, I want to congratulate you, 5:08 you're my friend and all of that, 5:09 but you are a very, very special guy. 5:12 Mr. President, we have been able to find the medal 5:15 from your uncle and we here want to present it 5:17 to you in a beautiful frame. 5:23 What a fucking glaze fest. 5:25 He's got his given medals to Elon, 5:28 to Jensen twang, as Trump said, through the events. 5:34 I mean, the amount of money that people on that stage 5:36 had given Trump or donated Republican causes was shocking. 5:40 Yeah, like what a surprise. 5:41 All the science medals went to the billionaires 5:42 that have been supporting Trump in some way or another. 5:45 And the guy from Microsoft at the end, 5:47 who obviously they've done their fair share 5:50 of like Trump coziness, but it's not in the same group 5:53 of the people going like full maga. 5:54 He's kind of like three steps further away 5:57 from everyone else. 5:59 And someone at the White House was like, well, we can't be having Trump giving all these 6:02 medals away without giving Trump something. 6:05 Well, obviously. 6:06 Let's take the weird story he always tells about his uncle and being a genius at MIT that 6:11 he weaves into every fucking anecdote and turn it into a video and a special prize 6:17 just for Donald Trump. 6:19 It is truly fantasy camp at all times for Donald Trump. 6:24 But it's also like 20, it's 25 days to the midterms. 6:28 This is what they're doing. 6:29 This was the public event today. 6:31 It's donor maintenance, John. 6:33 It's donor maintenance, yeah, that is true. 6:35 That clip really pairs well with the New York 6:37 Time Story that I mentioned with all those voters. 6:40 What did you think of that piece 6:41 and did it make you feel any better 6:43 about the scary possibility that I know 6:46 is keeping all of us up at night 6:48 or waking us up early in the morning? 6:50 that the polls, the very good, exciting polls that we're all seeing are somehow missing 6:55 all these Trump voters who just won't answer the phone or their texts anymore. 7:00 I love how you turned this question about Republican voters hitting Trump into a, 7:03 are the polls right discourse? 7:04 What else is there to say? 7:05 Yeah, that is basically... 7:07 Trying to go down the checklist of worries here, you know? 7:11 I don't want to be too excited and get carried away. 7:15 Yeah, what would be the worst thing that would happen if you were happy for 25 days? 7:22 You're not going to be any less sad on election night if you were sad now. 7:30 I told this to someone working on a very competitive campaign who was saying that they were feeling 7:35 cautiously optimistic. 7:36 And I said, that is a good way to be because it's not going to change the outcome of the 7:42 race to make yourself feel miserable for the next couple of weeks. 7:44 Well, I want to be very clear. 7:45 Do as I say not as I do because you've worked on racist with me 7:48 You know exactly how I operate and my goal is to 7:51 Emotionally prepare for the worst and hope for the best and I have done that before so here's what I take on this 7:57 One this is hard for me because I loved every single word of the story 8:01 Really what there was usually there's like some to be sure but everything was it was just yeah gravy the whole thing 8:07 But I've also been running a 20-year campaign against made on the street journalism 8:12 Because I think it's so fucking stupid. We're just gonna go to it 8:14 And we spent a lot of time in the Trump 1.0 yelling about the diners. 8:18 This is basically like they went to the diner and now the diners are good. 8:22 I have that same thought. 8:24 The reason I think it's important now is because so much of the data, like the thousands 8:30 and thousands of interviews and all the data points that we're getting in the polls 8:33 are pointing in one direction. 8:35 And so you kind of want like a qualitative focus group style gut check. 8:41 And now this is not scientific like a focus group. 8:43 I was going to say you should have a focus group. 8:44 I know. But if you listen to Sarah Longwell's Focus Groups, or other people's Focus Groups, 8:49 or interviews like this, you start to get sort of the sense on the ground that like, 8:53 okay, maybe this is sort of in line with the polls. 8:56 Yeah, this is, if you listen to Sarah Longwell's Focus Group podcast, or you just paid, 9:00 you have the access to the Focus Group data, this navigator research is a bunch of really 9:04 interesting Focus Groups like this. It is, this is, there was nothing surprising in this 9:08 near-time story. This is what you've been hearing from Trump voters. The quantitative data 9:11 back set up, not just the Trump's approval rating, but also in this navigator poll that came out this 9:15 morning on Thursday, one in four 2024 Trump voters regret their vote. So there's this obviously, 9:23 you know, whether the numbers are exactly right or the poll focus groups are exactly 9:26 representative. It is very clear that there is a wide swath of voter Trump voters who either have 9:32 turned on them hard, who are just disenchanted with him, or have stopped paying attention to 9:40 He's no longer the centerpiece of the Republican identity or their own personal identity. 9:44 He's sort of faded into the background and all of those things are bad news for Republicans. 9:49 And the only way, as I was reading through these interviews and that story, the only 9:53 way this could redound to the Republicans' benefit is if these same people who were 9:56 saying this about Trump are like, well, Mike Rogers isn't so bad and he seems 10:03 more like a normal Republican or Susan Collins seems more like a normal Republican. 10:07 or, you know, that that's the only way that this could go south, I think, at this point. 10:12 Because I do feel like, and I thought this for a long time, the backlash to Trump is 10:17 real. And I think the only question is, does it extend to all the other Republican candidates 10:22 who are on the ballot? 10:23 Well, every Republican candidate is running ahead of Trump, right? 10:27 Except, except, except, except, except, except... 10:29 Even Ken Paxton is doing better than Trump was running in Texas by a few points. He 10:35 you know, some smallest edge ever, 10:37 Trump or the rest of them. 10:38 The other, the thing about this too, 10:41 I just wanna get to the polls for a second is, 10:44 this is very against brand. 10:47 So I just wanna stipulate that. 10:48 I'm not saying this is true. 10:50 I just, as a mere factual and statistical possibility, 10:54 it is also possible that the polls are wrong 10:58 in the other direction. 10:59 I know I had that. 11:00 It is not a guarantee. 11:01 Didn't wanna speak it out loud, 11:02 but I've had that thought as well. 11:03 I think, I think, I think, and maybe not we're talking about it, I will do it. 11:07 I'm going to write this for the message box. 11:09 Oh, I've been up until now because like you have been afraid if I say it, 11:14 because as a number of statistical person, if I, I'm also very superstitious. 11:19 So if I say it, then it can't happen. 11:20 And if I write it, it definitely won't happen. 11:22 But I know that's nonsense. 11:24 But it's just in 2025, particularly in New Jersey, they say that swung far 11:30 to the right in 2024, the polls dramatically overestimated the Republican share of the vote. 11:36 And you can see that playing out because some of the statistical methods being used to get 11:42 more Trump voters in the polls may be giving a false impression of what MAGA turnout will 11:47 be. 11:48 And so it is possible. 11:49 They were wrong. 11:50 They were pro-Republican in 2012. 11:52 They were pro-Republican in 2025. 11:54 They could be pro-Republican this time again. 11:55 Also, it could all even each other out because they could be missing some Republicans who 12:02 don't want to be answering pollsters, and they could be missing some low-propensity debt. 12:08 You know what I'm saying? 12:08 Like, some of these things could just even each other out. 12:10 But we'll see. 12:11 We'll see. 12:12 I just, Trump's focus, and not just like the lack of focus on what matters, but the 12:18 focus on specifically what's pissing people off, that's the real deal. 12:24 That's what's really incredible here. 12:27 Like, in addition to that AI glaze fest at the White House, 12:31 there was also, you see his truth social this morning, 12:34 where he was like, the White House is just a random 12:37 announcement, like, in response to nothing. 12:40 The White House considers anyone that uses the term 12:43 artificial intelligence as opposed to the highly accepted 12:45 new and more accurate term superintelligence, the enemy. 12:50 Donald Trump says he considers people 12:53 People who don't use the new name for something that he has given himself at the enemy. 13:01 If you don't use Donald Trump's preferred language, you are the enemy. 13:07 This is where we are. 13:08 Yeah. 13:09 It's not really, it's not really focused on the big things, you say. 13:13 Well, like he did things, he's also failing at the small thing. 13:16 Like, people are not using the term SI, if you will. 13:19 Well, the AI overlords are. 13:22 They're all like, yeah, no, absolutely. 13:24 No, you're right. 13:25 Jeff Bezos, someone asked Jeff Bezos about an interview 13:28 and he switched halfway through the interview 13:29 to start saying super intelligence. 13:31 Like, yeah, I like super intelligence. 13:32 Yeah, I'm gonna start saying that now. 13:33 It's so fucking stupid. 13:34 They're not- 13:35 Fucking losers. 13:36 Yeah. 13:36 How many billions do you need 13:39 before you can fucking grow a pair? 13:42 The fact that people are taking to the app 13:45 that we still call Twitter to litigate this debate 13:47 explains why it's doomed to fail. 13:50 Yeah. It's something. The guy in the time story who said he's gonna pretend like Trump's on the 13:56 ballot and not vote is a 24-year-old Trump voter, one of the many young men who are really pissed 14:03 at Trump over Iran, among other things, breaking his promise to stop endless wars. Politico 14:09 has a story today about how the person tasked with winning back these young men is none other 14:15 than J.D. Vance, who electrifies the youth. 14:20 And here he is today offering his own unique definition of socialism. 14:25 I don't know what the term means anymore. 14:27 I think in reality what it actually means in the American context is 14:30 that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers 14:33 and you want boys to play in girls' sports. 14:35 That's what unites the socialists that I see running across 14:38 the United States of America today. 14:40 Foreign workers of the world unite so that boys can play in girls' sports. 14:43 Is that a quote from Das Kapital? 14:46 It's really hard to overstate how stupid this is. 14:50 I mean, like we could sit here and debate 14:53 and explain how this has nothing to do 14:55 with socialism in any way, shape, or form. 14:58 But it just also shows that like, 15:00 J.D. Vance fashions himself 15:02 and all the J.D. Vance second fans of their fashion 15:04 and it's like the intellectual engine of magaism 15:08 or political, you know, populist, right? 15:09 The vanguard of the movement, Dan. 15:11 Vanguard of the movement, if you will. 15:12 and he's given no thought to a question like this? 15:16 I thought it was notable because back in our day, 15:20 most Republicans would have just said, 15:24 socialism is the government controlling the private sector 15:27 and deciding how much money everyone has 15:30 and taking away from the makers 15:33 and giving it to the taker. 15:35 They would have done something like that. 15:37 They would have bit Romney Paul Ryan did up. 15:38 Yeah. And J.D. Vance maybe sees that that's not as effective. 15:45 Well, it's a little hard when the government is literally 15:48 sees in the means of production by taking ownership stakes in companies, 15:51 in exchange for giving them access to foreign markets. 15:53 Yep. I think that might have gone through his mind as well. 15:56 Well, he's a... Well, 15:58 magnetism or whatever you want to call it, 16:00 the movement is now big government authoritarianism. 16:04 It's not small government capitalism. 16:06 It's it's socialism for the people that they like. Yes, yeah for the people and the people who support them and it is 16:16 Everyone else can go fuck themselves 16:18 Trump himself has been going with the strategy of trying to bribe people into voting Republican 16:24 The government's putting 16:25 $1,000 deposits into Trump accounts for children born in 2025 or later. That was an announcement this week 16:32 They're sending one-time $90 payments to 20 million Medicare enrollees, $90, and mailing 16:39 $500 refund checks to some Obamacare customers. 16:43 And Trump continues to pretend he will give everyone $5,000 if Republicans win and then 16:51 control government, which apparently they don't do now. 16:56 Here he is repeating this promise again in Texas on Wednesday. 16:59 day. 17:00 We just sent out to the victims of this Democrat fraud checks for $500 each, including 139,000 17:10 families from Texas. 17:12 If the Republicans win, you'll each have $5,000 in your pocket and economic success 17:18 for our country. 17:19 We call it the Trump dividend is approximately $1 trillion, but we have a record-setting 17:24 $21 trillion that's being invested in the country. 17:27 So when you think of it, it's really easily handle-able. 17:32 It is easily handle-able. 17:35 Handle-able. 17:36 Handle-able. 17:38 It's easily handle-able, just $1 trillion. 17:41 We're just giving away. 17:43 How confident do you feel that all this bribing 17:45 and attempted bribing won't have any impact 17:48 on the midterms? 17:50 Pretty damn confident. 17:51 So I think there's two ways to look at this. 17:53 One is by various estimates, including one by Mark Zandy of Moody's Analytics, the Iran war, 18:01 just since the Iran war, the average American family has spent an extra $1,000 for increased 18:07 gas prices, increased groceries, interest costs, mortgage rates. So $1,000. And so he's giving 18:12 a tiny fraction of people in the country, somewhere between $90 and $500 or $100. 18:19 dollars, like just the numbers, even if these the checks, you 18:23 know, you got to separate between the checks people are 18:24 actually getting and the checks that Trump is promising them. 18:27 If you focus on the checks they are getting, even if they were 18:30 incredibly persuasive and people are like, you know what, I 18:32 know it's going to cost $90 to fill out my tank over the next 18:37 two weeks. This $90 check is so impressive. I'm going to vote 18:40 for Trump. Those people are distributed. You know, it's 18:42 not that many people to distribute all across 300 million 18:44 Americans. It doesn't make a huge difference. But then 18:48 So let's talk then about the checks that Trump is promising. 18:53 So G. Eliot Morris over at Strength and Numbers 18:55 did a big poll on this. 18:56 And when you ask people, just do one $5,000, 18:59 this will shock you. 19:00 But a majority of Americans would 19:02 like the government to send them $5,000 free. 19:03 They do like free money. 19:05 And even if you tell people it's Trump's idea, 19:07 they still will take the money, even if they hate Trump. 19:09 Just like they gladly, even if they hated Biden, 19:11 they gladly took their stimulus checks out of from 19:15 during the pandemic. 19:15 They'll take their free money, no matter who the president is. 19:18 But then if you tell people that the checks only come if Republicans keep the majority, 19:22 the net support drops 36 points. 19:24 Wow. 19:25 A majority of Republicans think it's inappropriate. 19:27 That's sacrifice, Patriots. 19:28 Yes. 19:29 A majority of Republicans think that trying to give people money in exchange for electoral 19:35 outcomes is inappropriate. 19:36 Majority of Republicans think that. 19:38 And this is the most important number of them all. 19:40 Only 13% of voters believe the checks will actually come. 19:45 Yeah, I was thank you. I was gonna say that is that to me is that's the only number that really matters 19:49 No one fucking believes this guy and they shouldn't because he has a Republican majority right now 19:56 The election will not affect in any way the ability or inability to send $5,000 to every fucking American 20:02 What are we talking about? And then on top of that like he promised the dose checks 20:07 They didn't come but then the government was required by the courts to return 20:14 tariff money. Yeah. Do they give it to people? No. They gave it to some of those 20:18 people standing on that stage with him today getting their trillionaire metals 20:23 from the federal government. Did you see that same Trump rally, by the way, that 20:28 Trump repeated his, we haven't talked about this, his bizarre riff on Iran 20:33 hitting Los Angeles, where I happen to be, or San Diego with a nuclear 20:39 clear weapon. This time, he specifically said, quote, we're not going to let that happen. 20:44 We protect our cities. I started this whole thing. What do you, what did you think about 20:49 this whole thing? 20:50 I think, look, there is obviously a very big debate about what he actually meant. 20:55 And there are a lot of reporters who are really showing off their both sides, Bonafides, 20:59 by quote tweeting Democrats and saying, this is an unfair representation of what 21:03 Trump says. I don't care about any of that. To me, this is more, this is 21:08 It's just emblematic of what a disaster it is to have Trump out there, because every 21:12 time he goes out and opens his mouth, he does something that is unhelpful for Republicans. 21:17 I don't think a lot of Americans think that Trump actually wants Iran to bomb American 21:21 cities. 21:22 Even you and I hate Donald Trump. 21:23 I don't actually think he wants that either. 21:25 But it just is created discourse that all these candidates have to respond to. 21:29 It's gotten a ton of attention. 21:31 People who don't pay attention to politics have heard about it. 21:33 These candidates are getting asked, what do you think about this statement? 21:36 Do you agree with it? 21:36 Do you condemn it? 21:38 And then what's happening now, 21:39 Republicans up and down the belt 21:40 are talking about the costs of the Iran War, 21:42 which is the absolutely the last thing 21:44 that their campaign staffs and their pollsters 21:46 would want them talking about. 21:47 So more trumpet, more rallies. 21:50 I think it's pretty clear what he was trying to say, 21:55 even though he did not say it clearly at all 21:57 because he doesn't say anything clearly 21:58 and he's impossible to follow. 22:01 But it's his usual thing where he's, 22:03 it's a whole nother made up story 22:05 that's just as ridiculous, right? 22:07 Which is like, if I didn't, if I didn't bomb Iran, 22:10 they would have developed a nuclear weapon, 22:12 even though none of this, nothing he did in this war 22:15 since February has done anything 22:17 to degrade their ability to develop a nuclear weapon. 22:20 And it's, and gas, higher gas is a small price to pay 22:24 for ending Iran's nuclear ambitions, 22:28 which we haven't done yet, which we haven't done yet. 22:30 That's the part that matters politically, 22:32 the small price to pay. 22:35 Stop bitching American people, I am trying to accomplish a goal that I am failing to 22:40 accomplish that you do not care about and we're not worried about. 22:43 Right. 22:43 And I just, to me, it was like the targets here for criticizing Trump are many. 22:50 That's why we get up every day. 22:52 Right. 22:52 And I don't, you know, I don't need to spend a lot of time on how he flubbed his 22:57 line. 22:58 And now, if Los Angeles fell into the ocean tomorrow, do I think Trump would care 23:02 very much and shed a tear. No, I do not actually, but I kind of already knew that before the rally. 23:08 I didn't need to hear him at the rally to know that. 23:18 Pots of America is brought to you by Helix. As October brings cooler weather and packed 23:22 autumn schedules, getting a good night's sleep becomes essential. Set yourself up for 23:26 better sleep and better days ahead with the Helix mattress. You don't have to take our word 23:30 for it. Helix is the most awarded mattress brand tested and reviewed by experts at major 23:34 outlets like Forbes and Wired. You can take the Helix sleep quiz to find your ideal match based 23:39 on your preferences. Helix delivers your mattress right to your door with free shipping in the US. 23:43 Plus, you can rest easy with their 120-night sleep trial and limited lifetime warranty, 23:48 as well as seamless returns and exchanges. 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Go to helixsleep.com 24:28 This offer is exclusive to PodsAve America listeners. 24:33 That's helixsleep.com slash cricket for 27% off-site-wide, 24:37 helixsleep.com slash cricket. 24:40 This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. 24:42 If you've thought about trying therapy 24:44 with our long-term partner, BetterHelp, 24:46 insurance options may now be available nationwide 24:48 with an average copay for eligible members 24:51 of just $23 per session. 24:53 World Mental Health Day is October 10th, 24:55 but stress and burnout can surface 24:57 at any time of the year. 24:57 time unannounced regardless of what the calendar says. True mental wellness isn't tied to a date on 25:02 the calendar. It's an ongoing daily commitment. You don't need a huge life-altering event to 25:07 start therapy. It's just as helpful for the everyday things. A job that's eating up too much 25:11 headspace, a relationship that feels tricky, or even just a subtle gut feeling that something's 25:15 off. Don't wait for World Mental Health Day to check in on yourself. Therapy is good. 25:21 You should try it. Try talking to someone if you haven't yet. And I know you might be 25:25 thinking, I don't need therapy. 25:27 I feel fine. 25:28 Well, once you start talking to someone, 25:30 you realize that even if you feel fine, 25:31 you can always feel better. 25:32 And that's what BetterHelp does best. 25:34 If you've been waiting to start therapy, 25:35 BetterHelp works with more than 125 health plan networks 25:39 and eligible members have an average copay 25:41 of just $23 per session with insurance. 25:44 If you don't have insurance or you 25:45 don't live in the United States, 25:46 you can still get 10% off your first month. 25:49 Visit betterhelp.com.psa to explore your payment options 25:52 that's better help, H-E-L-P dot com slash P-S-A. 25:58 Speaking of Iran, he did announce today 26:01 that he will not resume full scale war against Iran 26:05 at least until after the midterms are over. 26:08 And then he can stop worrying 26:10 about what the American people think. 26:12 That is the closing message. 26:13 I will escalate the war after the election. 26:17 A, remember when Nixon in 68 closed 26:21 on a secret plan for peace in Vietnam? 26:22 Trump is closed, we've got a secret plan for war. 26:27 Secret plan for war, just hold on a couple more weeks, 26:31 get those ballots in, we'll start the bombing again, 26:34 gas will go even higher, 26:36 you won't be able to do anything about it 26:37 because there's no more elections with Trump 26:40 as president after this. 26:42 Well, I guess the one in 28, he'll still be president 26:45 but you know what I'm saying. 26:47 All right, so the bigger question here, 26:50 did Trump's appearance in Texas 26:51 this actually give a boost to the candidates 26:54 he was there to support because believe it or not 26:56 he was there to campaign even though 26:59 you didn't hear that when he was talking about the checks 27:02 or he was talking about Iran and Los Angeles 27:06 and San Diego and giving all the other shit. 27:11 It's tough to know, tough to know for Greg Abbott 27:13 because he didn't show up. 27:15 He had a very important hospital dedication. 27:20 Can't reschedule that. 27:21 I can't reschedule the hospital dedication 27:23 I know the president's in town and it's 25 days till the midterms, but you know what I have to go show up at this ribbing cutting 27:29 Ken Paxton was there 27:32 The president did try to go after James Tellerico as he continues to workshop this bit 27:38 He's been doing a lot lately about Tellerico's eating habits. Let's listen. He's a vegan 27:44 He wants to eat a piece of lettuce little piece of lettuce, please 27:47 But he's been seen you know you haven't seen him in a couple of weeks I hear the 27:52 guys disappeared nobody knows you know where he is he's sick because he's been 27:56 forced to eat meat for political reasons and he's throwing up all over the place 28:01 he's sick you know my wife told me sir do me a favor you have to do me just a 28:07 little bit of a favor it's not vegan it's vegan I don't know about that 28:11 stuff I'm not into and he said it's vegan please pronounce that word 28:17 I called it vegan, vegan, I thought it was... 28:20 How the hell would I know? I like steak. 28:23 Is that why James Tellerico is ill? 28:27 Does he have the meat sweats and he's been vomiting 28:28 from eating too much meat? 28:33 Performatively, performatively eating meat 28:35 to rebut the charge that he's a vegan. 28:38 A vegan? 28:39 A vegan. 28:40 Sir, it's a vegan. 28:41 Yeah, does Milani really call him sir? 28:43 I wouldn't be totally surprised. 28:45 probably one of the nicer things she calls him. 28:47 I would be shocked if she called him sir. 28:49 You know who does call him sir? 28:51 Who? Natalie. Natalie Harp. 28:52 Yeah. 28:54 Just saying, I don't know. 28:56 Just a little mix up there. 28:59 They're making a big deal about a poor James Tolerico 29:02 who's been sick for a couple of days, 29:03 like really sick apparently. 29:05 Yeah, he has the flu. 29:06 He has the flu. 29:07 And he's like, he's also like a type one diabetic 29:09 and he's got the flu and he like had to go 29:11 to urgent care. 29:12 And they're all out there like, where is he? 29:14 where he's just disappeared and it's like, 29:16 yeah, he's fucking sick, people get sick. 29:19 Here's the thing, when James Talarico 29:21 was not on the campaign trail, he's at home in bed sick. 29:27 When Ken Pax is on the campaign trail, 29:29 he's in London with his mistress. 29:34 Also, it's like everything they do is so short-sighted, 29:37 like they can't see around any corners, 29:38 like Talarico's campaign and it's like 29:40 he's back on the trail this weekend. 29:42 Yeah, so he's gonna be there. 29:43 So all of the your whole your whole weeks message about like talerico has disappeared like you got one more day of it 29:50 And then yeah, what is the there's no even instant like it's they keep saying like where's he going? 29:55 It's missing. It's mysterious and all these like maga political types are like there's something must be going on here 30:01 What do you think is going on? 30:04 Like if like it like it's obviously complete bullshit, but they get they want to they want to implies getting transition surgery 30:10 to one of the genders. 30:12 It's like, if you're gonna have a conspiracy theory, 30:16 have a conspiracy. 30:17 Yeah, well, they haven't landed on it. 30:19 They're workshopping something. 30:20 So they're just, they're workshopping it in real time 30:22 on Twitter, where you workshop conspiracy theories. 30:25 We'll get it by tomorrow, I'm sure. 30:27 And then he'll be back on Saturday. 30:28 And then he'll be back on Saturday, yeah. 30:30 So, I mean, the body double will be back on Saturday. 30:34 After the rally, Trump took it upon himself 30:36 to challenge Tallarico to a debate with Paxton, 30:39 in, which is interesting because Taylorico has already in fact agreed to debate Paxton 30:45 and hasn't only because Paxton has refused to a single debate, even the one Taylorico 30:53 proposed on Fox News, a home game for Paxton still won't do it. Meanwhile, the latest 31:01 installment of Paxton saying stupid shit at that fundraiser dropped Thursday morning, 31:05 where this time he calls for cuts to social security and Medicare. 31:10 Making some reasonable cuts to mandatory spending. 31:13 You're going to have to do it. 31:14 Or there is no solution. 31:16 That's just a reality. 31:17 We have to suck it up. 31:20 So yeah, that's what is meant by mandatory spending 31:24 for those who aren't budget nerds 31:27 who went through the budget battles of 2011. 31:31 Social security and Medicare. 31:32 care. And if you don't like that, you're just going to have to suck it up. I am waiting 31:37 for the next, the final installment of this, this series of leaked audio from the same 31:44 fundraiser that they just keep dribbling out for Canvax and just be like, honestly, you 31:48 should just vote for James Taylorico. 31:49 I want to take a pause in this podcast and give a round of applause to the John Cornyn's 31:54 campaign staff. 31:56 Oh, you think it's them? 31:57 Well, they, someone in this fundraiser, Republican, reported him and then gave it to someone 32:02 Presumably in Republican politics who's then been they parceled it out like it's so funny 32:07 Not to I know not to drop it all at once and just like an amateur an amateur would have just been like 32:12 Politico here you go. Here's the whole thing 32:14 But just piece after piece after piece and they're leaking it out on Twitter and it is just it's very well done 32:21 Kudos to them if they could have done this good a job with Ken Paxton's opposition research during their primary campaign 32:28 Maybe we'd be a different spot, but it's not a better spot for us, but what do you talk to me about this debate thing? 32:36 What do you think happened here? 32:38 Um, I think that all I get to hear my first thought was, okay 32:46 They told Trump, oh, Tyler Rico has been off the trail and he's missing and so Trump assumed that like, oh 32:53 he's trying to duck the campaign trail and maybe he's trying to duck debates too and didn't and just 32:58 no one told Trump. Trump didn't know that Paxton has been refusing to debate. 33:04 That's like, that's the Occam's razor. Like, they're all just idiots and no one communicated to Trump 33:10 that Paxton did this. But I don't know. Maybe there's a more sinister explanation. 33:15 No, no, no. And so there's, I think there's, there is the 33:16 The Trumps, this is not my theory, just to be clear. 33:20 This is the Trumps, like Jiu Jitsu political genius 33:23 who's like, you know what? 33:25 Not debating is fucking stupid. 33:27 You're behind, you should debate. 33:29 You got to get that vacant Tala Frico 33:31 in front of the people of Texas. 33:33 And so I'm just gonna- 33:33 I'm just gonna give you a push. 33:34 Yeah, I'm gonna bully Trump to Paxton into it. 33:36 So that's one theory. 33:37 And he clearly hates, he hates Ken Paxton. 33:41 So that is possible. 33:43 The other theory is, it's a version of yours, 33:45 but where they're actually stupider, 33:47 which is somewhat brief Trump on the race 33:49 and they told them about the debate thing, 33:50 but Trump wasn't paying attention and he misheard. 33:53 Oh, I just switched it. 33:55 Yeah, he assumed that Talarico was the one refusing, 33:58 which I can see in Trump's head, 33:59 him thinking this beta-vagan 34:02 wouldn't want to be a man in debate 34:04 and just thinking that and then doing it backwards. 34:07 It just imagined being 34:09 Ken Paxton's communications director. 34:11 This came out at like midnight Texas time, I think. 34:15 You've just got back from this rally. 34:17 You feel like you kind of maybe survived the rally. 34:19 Trump didn't call Paxton fat and stupid in this one. 34:23 And you get home, you open up your beer 34:27 and then you get a notification that Trump has challenged 34:31 your opponent to a debate 34:32 on behalf of your campaign without telling you. 34:35 You know, I'm starting to buy your theory 34:39 that Trump did it, not because he's some jiu-jitsu master 34:41 but because like the theme of this and his entire involvement in the Paxton campaign has been 34:47 Bullying and emasculating Ken Paxton. You're ugly. You're bad. This guy sucks vote for him anyway 34:55 So like I could see him being like 34:57 Fucking go debate. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna make you debate by by saying it publicly 35:01 This is the race where Trump has the most skin in the game of all of them 35:06 He, you know, like there've been like in 2022, 35:08 he handpicked a lot of the candidates, 35:10 candidates and losses like this cycle, 35:12 Paxton's the only, Paxton I guess, Vivek are the two 35:15 that he thrust on the Republican party. 35:18 And this is the one where he thrust, 35:19 Paxton he thrust on the Republican party 35:21 against the wishes of basically everyone else in the party. 35:24 And so if Republicans win a Texas sentencing 35:27 for the first time since whatever it is 1988, 35:29 that will be very embarrassing for Trump. 35:31 And so Trump's doing what he naturally does 35:32 which is to already begin shifting blame 35:34 to Ken Paxton, as opposed to himself. 35:37 Now maybe he can say Paxton should have debated. 35:39 Yeah, the things he's gonna say about Paxton 35:41 after Paxton loses, or if he loses, 35:43 knock on wood, are gonna be so much fun. 35:45 Especially because the things he's saying about him now. 35:47 This is what he theoretically wants him to win. 35:53 Speaking of debates, they're happening 35:55 everywhere this week. 35:56 We're recording this on Thursday afternoon, 35:58 just before debates in three big Senate races, 36:01 is Maine, Michigan, and Georgia. 36:04 Let's start with Michigan, 36:06 where Mike Rogers will almost certainly be asked 36:08 for his take on Trump's latest post, 36:10 giving Rogers his complete and total endorsement 36:14 and calling Abdul-El-Sayed Mohammed over and over, 36:19 saying, quote, he goes back to the days of the jihad. 36:24 The bigger issue for Rogers though, 36:25 is trying to pull off an epic flip-flop 36:28 on Trump's trade war with Canada. 36:32 Last year, Roger said that the auto tariffs 36:34 were, quote, restoring fairness. 36:36 And in August, he called the tariffs necessary. 36:39 But now he's running this ad. 36:43 Drinking a LeBat and watching the Red Wings. 36:45 Man, it just doesn't get any more Michigan than that. 36:47 And here in Michigan, we know that Canada 36:49 is not our enemy. 36:51 We need to end this tariff war now. 36:54 Man, man, it just doesn't get any more Michigan 36:57 than that. They're drinking this Canadian beer. Could you have not tried a few more takes on that 37:03 one line at the very least? Man, it doesn't get any more Michigan than that. It's just, 37:08 it's the least believable line I've heard in an ad in a long time. John, this is undoubtedly the 37:14 best of many, many takes. It is a shit political ad in every sense of the word. It looks fake. 37:25 It's a ridiculous thing to say. 37:27 It tells not shows. 37:29 Was it filmed in Florida where Mike Rogers owns a house? 37:32 Yeah, you know what he does? 37:33 He has been living for however many years. 37:34 You know what he does? 37:35 He drinks mojitos and watches the Panthers. 37:36 That's what that guy does. 37:38 All right. 37:39 And it's just he, like, you can say this like, you know, 37:44 people think I'm maybe a little too Florida or rich 37:46 because Abdul's been going after how wealthy he is. 37:49 And so I'm going to, like, our goal is to show a regular guy. 37:51 So I'm going to wear a giant fucking sign that says regular guy. 37:55 And then, let's even get into the tariff part of this. 37:58 Remember when Trump launched the whole trade war again or reignited the trade war with Canada? 38:03 I remember Roger's statement because I was like, what the fuck are they doing? 38:06 It was like, he basically didn't say Trump's name at all. 38:09 He didn't say the tariffs were bad. 38:11 All he said was like, I need to be senator so I can have a meeting with Donald Trump 38:17 or I can get the meeting that I need to bring an end to this, I don't know. 38:22 It was like some kind of bullshitty statement 38:24 that he didn't take a position on either side 38:26 and now he's finally all the way against them. 38:28 But he's not even that either. 38:30 Right. 38:31 Because they obviously had a meeting 38:33 and they're like, look sir, you are losing in the polls. 38:39 And one of the problems you have 38:41 is that Trump is very unpopular 38:42 and he's doing very unpopular things. 38:43 So we need to find a high profile way for you 38:45 to break with the president. 38:46 That will help people. 38:47 But they walk up to the edge but they don't do it. 38:50 He doesn't say Donald Trump 38:51 Trump shouldn't start as a tariff or doesn't say that Donald Trump should end the tariff 38:54 war. 38:54 He speaks only in passive tense about these things. 38:58 The tariff war should end. 38:59 Well, Mike Rogers, who the fuck should end it? 39:02 Same thing with the Iran war. 39:03 Remember he did that a couple of months ago or a couple of weeks ago, who knows what time 39:06 is anymore? 39:06 It's like, the Iran war must end. 39:09 Well, it's like, well, who started the war and who's the person responsible for 39:11 ending it? 39:12 But he can't say that because he's too afraid that either Trump will turn up 39:16 the money spigot, Trump will call and yell at him, which he obviously does 39:19 not want, or Trump will come to Michigan, which Trump has already said he's planning 39:23 on doing, and embarrass the living shit out of him, like he's can taxed it. 39:27 But if you're going to be, if you know you have to break with Trump, you have to do what 39:31 Mary Elvira Salazar did in that ad we looked at a few weeks ago, which you have to actually 39:35 do it, look into camera and do it, but he cannot do it. 39:38 Like, I used to really kind of cringe at all of Abdul's tweeting at Mike Rogers 39:44 about what a beta he is, and I don't know that's the best political strategy, 39:47 but it is not wrong either. 39:48 I know. I mean, it's hard to talk about this because we are record, like by the time you all listen to this, 39:55 the debate will have happened. 39:56 None of you will have watched the debate, so it's fine. 39:58 Well, that's true. No, all I can think of is like, what a great set of questions for Mike Rogers, the debate, you know? 40:05 It's like, oh, so what are you going to do to end the trade war? 40:10 Do you think that President Trump should have started it? 40:13 Do you think, what do you think should happen now? 40:15 What is, what are his answers to all that? 40:18 But then let's say he has a different bolder answer in the debate, then why the fuck are 40:23 you spending all this money on this ad right now, which is going to be seen by more people 40:28 because you're showing it during Michigan and Detroit Lions football games than your 40:32 debate on a Thursday night that's going up against Thursday night football. 40:36 Yeah, that's true. 40:37 That's true. 40:39 On the Mohammed thing, Axios had a story Thursday morning about how Trump is fuming 40:45 at Fox News for what he sees as overly favorable coverage 40:51 of Abdul. 40:53 He posted about it the other day 40:54 after the Martha McCallum interview 40:57 with another jihadist reference. 40:59 He said that her interview was a softball interview 41:02 which it was not, Abdul just did really well. 41:05 Yeah, he circles around her. 41:07 Apparently his staff, Trump's staff 41:10 actually called Fox about it 41:12 and did the same thing in August 41:13 after that Jesse Waters interview 41:16 that Abdul later used in an ad. 41:18 So what do you think? 41:21 You think going on Foxes seems like it's working? 41:24 Well, here's what I know. 41:26 I know that no one, not Donald Trump, 41:28 not the White House Communication staff, 41:30 not the Lord himself can stand in the way 41:33 if Jesse Waters is crushed on Abdul. 41:36 Like, Love finds a way, 41:37 and so he's gonna keep doing what he's doing. 41:40 I mean, it is, I think there is a, like there's a larger question about whether the Trump's 41:48 over the top incredibly racist attacks on Abdul are helping in any way. 41:55 I think the answer to that is clearly no, but I don't know, what do you think? 41:59 No, I don't think, I think, look, now by saying no, does that mean I think that 42:06 But there's no Islamophobia and that there aren't some voters and Republican voters who 42:14 are thinking like, well, I don't want to vote for the guy, not because he's Muslim, but 42:18 because I think he's jihadist. 42:21 I'm sure there's that out there. 42:22 But do I think Trump hammering it by calling him Mohammed and jihadist? 42:26 Do I think that's helping? 42:27 No, I don't. 42:28 No. 42:28 There are ways- There are subtler ways to be racist. 42:31 And even the Rogers campaign can't get out of their way with this. 42:34 So a few weeks ago, they ran this ad with this Iranian American Michigander who had had this 42:40 moment with Abdul at a town hall that sort of went viral on the right. 42:44 And so it was just this young Iranian American man, two camera, attacking Abdul, basically 42:52 saying what's in all these other ads about his association with Hassan, this completely 42:56 false bullshit about relationships with the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorist financing, 42:59 all this other stuff that is in the ether in a lot of the right wing ads about him. 43:03 But then in that ad they end by saying I want someone who's gonna stand up to the IRGC 43:09 So it's like I want someone I need a senator who's gonna be for this war and around that everyone hates 43:14 Which is just 43:16 Because there is something like we debated this on text you meet Ben and Tommy at some point 43:20 but like they're having this person deliver the message is a way to sort of 43:26 of ally the accusations of racism in it. 43:31 And because the audience here is not necessarily 43:34 Arab-American people in Michigan, 43:36 it is white voters who maybe susceptible to this, 43:39 but also maybe sensitive towards racism 43:42 and to try to do it that way. 43:43 But they can't even do it there 43:44 because then they basically turned it 43:46 into a pro-Iran war ad at the end. 43:49 Yeah, my view on all this is that, 43:50 like there's so many ads now 43:52 that it's all just wallpaper at this point. 43:56 And that really for any race in this race too, 44:01 for Duel, it's about like, 44:03 do voters just get this overall sense 44:06 that he's too extreme, you know? 44:09 And so- 44:09 And the time spell says they do. 44:11 Right, yeah. 44:13 And or at least some do, you know? 44:15 Well, the more voters think Abdul's extreme 44:18 that Roger's extreme, 44:19 he's the only Democratic candidate 44:20 in the key center races who has that challenge. 44:22 Right, right. 44:23 And so the challenge is presenting Abdul as the, 44:28 as close to a generic Democrat as you can, you can. 44:32 Now, that cuts both ways because like, 44:35 he's not a generic Democrat in ways 44:36 that I think are helping him in that poll, right? 44:38 Which is like, he is better on economic messaging 44:41 and healthcare than any other 44:42 of the Senate Democrats that they've texted, right? 44:44 So you kind of, it goes both ways on this. 44:46 But like, I do think, that's why I don't think 44:49 any one ad is gonna be particularly effective or not. 44:54 I think it's just like an overall environment 44:56 of messaging about him. 44:59 And at the end of the day is messaging more like, 45:03 oh, maybe he's a little further to the left than me, 45:06 but seems like he's a good Michigander 45:08 and he's gonna stand up for us 45:10 and gonna maybe try to put money in our pocket 45:11 so I'm with him or he seems a little too extreme. 45:14 That to me is the end 45:16 and I think all these ads contribute to it. 45:19 and whatever happens on the debate stage, if anyone sees it. 45:22 We will, because we're going to watch it. 45:24 But we're going to watch it. 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That's blinds.com with code crooked 47:40 Let's talk about main 47:42 Troy Jackson just got a Barack Obama endorsement this week, which well not a real shocker 47:47 It does help validate Jackson's accomplishments lifts up his bio gives him a little moment in the news 47:52 I assume Barack Obama is still pretty popular in Maine state that he won a couple times. 47:59 Jackson also had a pretty good debate on Tuesday, which was fairly tame, but it also yielded 48:06 just a priceless moment from woman of the people, Susan Collins. 48:11 Let's listen. 48:11 Senator Collins has been a governor and employee her entire life. 48:15 She's always had healthcare. 48:16 She's always had, you know, a steady income coming in. 48:20 that's not the way it is for most of us. 48:23 I mean, healthcare is a real challenge 48:25 and she's made it worse by advancing the big, beautiful bills. 48:29 First of all, I have not been insured my whole life. 48:34 I spent a year when I was running for governor in 1994 48:39 where I could not afford health insurance. 48:43 22 years ago when I was first running for office. 48:48 32 years ago, John. 48:49 Oh god. I'm old. Fuck. 32 years ago when I was first running for office there was a brief moment 49:01 when I did not have government health care. It's so funny because there are two arguments 49:07 that the Jackson campaign is making about Susan Collins. One is she's going to she's a Trump 49:13 student. She's going to help Trump help the Republicans where Democratic states don't do 49:16 that. The other one is that she's been in office forever. She's 49:20 been in public, she's been in government forever, and not 49:23 enough has changed. And so she responds to this question of 49:26 saying, look, and she does it with the tone of, gotcha, you 49:32 stepped in at Troy Jackson, I'm going to show you that 32 49:35 years ago, I briefly, briefly took a break between my taxpayer 49:41 funded salary to try to get another taxpayer funded salary. 49:45 And in that sabbatical, while I was trying to get another government job, I did not help 49:51 the class of the church. 49:52 True hardship. 49:53 And all of you former candidates can understand how hard that would be if you were alive 32 50:00 years ago when I did this. 50:02 Truly one of the more amazing moments. 50:04 Yeah. 50:05 Like, I know that everyone, and I heard you and Tommy talk about this on Pots of 50:08 America Only Friends, which is our secret episode of Pots of America that you can 50:12 I'll get if you subscribe at cricket.com slash friends and become a subscriber to friends of the pod get all kinds of other benefits 50:18 And you support the work we're doing here at cricket media, which is trying to get people involved in politics. Anyway 50:25 That's just a digression 50:26 Much like much like Susan Collins is digression from government health care back in 50:31 1994 for a few months 50:35 But when you guys did is like there was the whole road salt moment in that debate to where at one point 50:40 I mean, she's like, she's bragging to that like, 50:43 when I, I didn't, I didn't support this trade war 50:45 because I got, I got road salt off the tariff list 50:49 with Canada and then Troy Jackson's like, 50:51 you can't eat road salt. 50:52 And like, that's, everyone said that's a big moment, 50:54 which was, it was a fine moment, I thought. 50:56 But like, I think this, this moment, this is every, 50:59 this is every argument about Super, Susan Collins 51:02 and every argument you would ever want to make 51:03 against a Republican in this environment. 51:06 The road salt thing, 51:07 which as you mentioned Tommy and I talked about, 51:08 but like you're right. It's not, this is not like where's the beef moment in debate history. 51:16 It's a good moment. But then I saw a clip today of Troy Jackson doing a press avail. And the 51:21 question was, Troy, Susan Collins campaign says that you are not giving her enough credit with 51:28 your road salt attack. Like she's, it's designated the full breadth of everything she's done for 51:33 And he's like, great, I'm glad you got road salt, road salt's important. 51:38 That's not enough. 51:39 Do more. 51:40 Seriously. 51:41 I mean, my vibe, the vibe I got from Susan Collins watching that debate and it actually 51:46 made me angrier is that like she seemed so offended to even be on that stage having to 51:55 answer for her time in public office and have to actually work to run again for reelection 52:01 for her fucking 10th term in office. 52:04 It's not that much, but whatever it is, 52:06 she's been there for 30 years now. 52:08 So she wants another six, 52:09 even though she promised she would only run for two terms, 52:11 broke that promise. 52:13 And how dare you question how much I've done for this state, 52:17 even though, or how dare you question my independence, 52:21 even though I've actually voted with Donald Trump 52:23 and the Republicans 95% of the time, 52:25 and all the times that I brag about my independence, 52:28 it's when the Republicans didn't need my vote 52:30 So I could performatively be independent so I could win re-election. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's she 52:36 Look, she's a tough person to beat. She does suck 52:39 She is giving off the vibes of the kind of incumbents who go down in years like this. I know she is she is how you feeling about that race? 52:47 Read has a question here. I'm gonna ask it like I was gonna ask it like it's mine, but it's not mine 52:51 He said in Obama's endorsement video he tells Democrats do not sit this one out 52:56 Do you think that reflects any real turnout concerns that the campaign is seeing or is that just? 53:00 Quote unquote my anxiety 53:03 I'm not saying that I'm 53:04 Sanguine about this race 53:07 It's a little less anxious than Reed fucking congratulations. Yeah, no 53:11 I have plenty of concerns about everything turn out is not maybe turn out will be a new one 53:15 But it was it was not one of the 53:16 I don't have any, you know, you know, I've both been around the writing of these videos 53:21 I don't think that that was this necessarily a specific line like based on polling 53:26 But it is true and we have this has been sort of mysterious to both of us that there are a significant number of people in 53:33 Maine who seem not to like Troy Jackson. Yeah, but that's including some Democrats 53:36 and so I think a little whether they're people who were supported Platinum who 53:41 Didn't like Platinum being gone or the process by which we got here or people who were supporting mills who don't like any of 53:46 This and mills and Jackson do not like each other and as of like two weeks ago mills had not endorsed 53:52 Jackson and Jackson not asked for the endorsement 53:54 everyone get over your shit and let's try to win this race. 53:57 So I think there is some sense or fear maybe 53:59 that some of the people who are not enthusiastic 54:02 about Jackson for some reason 54:04 because of how this process played out may sit out. 54:06 And so just like get in here, get in the fight. 54:09 I don't know if that's a real concern or not, 54:10 but if I was trying to find a reason 54:12 why that line would be in there, that would be it. 54:14 Yeah, I would say to all the main Democrats out there, 54:17 I know it's been a rough one, but look to Michigan, 54:19 they had an extremely divisive primary 54:22 and you had Gretchen Whitmer was out there with Abdul this week. 54:28 Haley Stevens has been saying great things, 54:30 like all the, Dana Nessle, 54:32 all the Michigan Democrats have been coming together, 54:35 Alissa Slotkin appeared with Abdul, 54:36 like everyone who was on either side 54:39 of the primary Mallory Moro, 54:40 they've all come together to really work hard 54:43 to try to get Abdul elected. 54:45 And I really wish, I do think that Troy Jackson 54:48 would probably benefit from more main Democrats 54:51 Democrats and national Democrats kind of, you know, 54:54 cause like Maine, Maine is the kind of state 54:56 that again, it wants to go Democratic. 54:58 They want, those voters want a Democratic Senate. 55:00 That's what they're telling. 55:01 Even the New York Times poll that showed Collins a hit, 55:03 you had people, most people wanting a Democratic Senate. 55:06 So like, I feel like the Democrats, 55:08 they just have to be reminded that like, 55:10 this is our guy and this is our ticket 55:12 to a Democratic Senate and not a Republican Senate. 55:15 I mean, having said all of that, 55:16 I mean, Troj Jackson has like a, 55:18 I think it's around a three point lead 55:19 in the polling average right now. 55:20 Although Charlie cook of the cook political report said the other day or said today that he hears 55:26 There's a Washington Post poll coming out that's gonna have Collins ahead. He didn't say that though 55:30 He didn't say that no Dan. I read I people are so fucking annoying. He said I hear there's 55:38 I think there's a Washington Post poll 55:41 That's likely coming and maybe it will show what I think it might what I think is what's going to happen in 55:48 in this race, which is Susan Collins pulling ahead. 55:51 But like, but it's weird that like, 55:53 why does, why would the post-shore poll people 55:57 like do a poll that now it's Thursday, that it's not out, 56:01 but they would like give an early poll to Charlie Cook 56:04 like the couple, several days before they put out? 56:06 No, it's not that they would do that. 56:08 It's the way the cook process works. 56:11 It's a bunch of, they do a lot of like data analysis. 56:13 But one of the things is, 56:14 and I've done this before back way, way back in the day, 56:16 is you come in and you're like in an open dialogue 56:19 with the people who do the Senate race ratings. 56:22 And so it's possible, like the way I interpreted this was, 56:25 and this maybe this is just like Garble, 56:28 is there are times when you know, 56:30 like a campaign knows that what the poll, 56:32 it has a general idea that the poll 56:33 is gonna show something one way or the other. 56:36 And that they, you can, like they are trying, 56:38 you want to influence those ratings 56:39 because it can lead to more donations 56:41 and more attention on your race. 56:43 So I can see- 56:43 Maybe one of the campaigns told Charlie Cook, 56:45 Yeah, or told the people who like Charlie Cook sort of, 56:48 I think he doesn't, he just writes columns now, 56:52 but like the woman who does, 56:54 Jessica Taylor, I think her name is who does the Senate 56:55 race race, I think they're probably told her, 56:57 but it was all spouses as a bullshit. 56:59 And there's a poll coming. 57:00 And we're at just show this, it would be the second. 57:02 And if the poll after that show, it would be the third. 57:05 Yeah. So who knows? 57:06 Again, who knows? 57:07 By the time you're listening to this, 57:08 we could wake up tomorrow. 57:09 Yeah, the poll could be out. 57:09 The poll could not be out. 57:11 We don't know. 57:11 It will sound like idiots or not. 57:13 The night after you listen to this will be another debate 57:14 because they do like it's basically the same four main debates in two in a week. 57:20 It's so bizarre. 57:21 The same schedules, but it's like a playoff. 57:23 It's like the NBA, WMA playoffs. 57:25 Yes, play one night. 57:26 You're on one night, off one night. 57:29 Wild. In Iowa, there's a debate Wednesday night in Iowa. 57:32 Josh Turrick and Ashley Henson debated like Mike Rogers. 57:35 Henson is a Republican who wants credit for breaking with Trump 57:38 without actually being willing to make the break. 57:40 In this case, it is voting to rein in the Iran war. 57:44 How do you define successful and immediate 57:46 and why did you vote against a resolution in Congress 57:48 to call for the war to end? 57:50 We do need to bring it to an immediate and successful end 57:52 and to me that means not allowing them 57:54 to have a nuclear weapon and making sure 57:56 that we're working with and protecting our allies 57:59 in the region. 57:59 I trust in our US military the greatest fighting 58:02 force in the world to bring this to a close 58:04 as quickly as possible, 58:06 because I know people are getting squeezed. 58:07 So why vote against the resolution? 58:09 I don't think we need another resolution 58:11 and I certainly don't wanna see the president 58:13 and not be able to do an orderly end to this war? 58:17 You think that's gonna fly? 58:20 I don't, John. 58:21 I don't. 58:22 It's the same thing where it's like she's trying 58:24 to break with Trump but can't actually do it 58:26 because you just wanna anchor Trump 58:27 and this is sort of the prison that he's put 58:29 all of these Republicans in. 58:31 Yeah. 58:34 That's probably the, I think for all of these 58:36 center races that seems like the closest one to me 58:40 because that's the one that's had turk 58:42 down the most or at least tied and it feels like and Rob Sand and the governor's race is so far 58:49 ahead and all these polls that still have Turk and Henson either tied or or one of them like one 58:54 or two points ahead. Turk is an awesome candidate in every way shape or form but he performs a 58:58 little bit more like a he's just not performing a generic Democrat but in these other races where 59:02 Democrats are just exceeding the generic ballot or the political environment they are 59:08 candidates who are incredibly well known, like Sherrod Brown, like Cooper, like Mary 59:12 Peltola, who have a brand independent, Turrick doesn't have that because he was just a state 59:17 legislator and isn't known as well. So he is a little more uphill battle. And Henson 59:21 also performs a little bit more like a generic Republican because she's not particularly 59:24 well known. So you don't have, she isn't a combat Republican, but it's not the 59:27 same as like a Senator. 59:29 I think she has it even better than that because she's, like, yes, she's a member 59:34 of Congress. But before she was a member of Congress, she was local Iowa television. 59:38 Yes. So like people knew her as not a politician, which is the best way to be known. 59:44 Yes. And this is a little bit like when people worry about Minnesota. It's one of the things 59:48 that Michelle Teforia has is she is a media savvy outsider. And that is a new developer 59:52 relationship. Like it's why I don't carry like, even though she obviously lost by a lot. It's 59:57 why she got to where she was because she had that relationship with voters. And that gives 60:01 These are a little bit of a leg up here. 60:04 But I think Rob Sand may have coattails, which will help Turk. 60:08 That would be the key. 60:10 Last thing before we get to love its conversation 60:12 with Angie Nixon, the Wall Street Journal 60:14 has a wild new story about Kimberly 60:18 Guilfoyle, Trump's ambassador to Greece, former Fox News 60:22 host, ex-fiancé of Don Jr., ex-wife of Gavin Newsom. 60:26 According to signal messages reviewed by the journal, 60:28 Trump donor Eric Dieters offered Guilfoyle a million dollars to use her influence with the Trump administration to help with his various tax-legal other issues. 60:42 Guilfoyle bragged to Dieters that everyone from cabinet secretaries to cash Patel gets right back to her. 60:49 Then, just before her confirmation hearing, she asked Dieters to secretly pay off her $100,000 AMEX bill. 60:57 The message said, quote, you could just send it here. 61:02 It won't show up anywhere. 61:04 Followed by, quote, honey, please, 61:06 I need you to get this done for me today. 61:09 Deeders did not pay. 61:10 And yesterday, he went on MSNOW to speak his mind. 61:14 Kimberly Guilfoyle is a grifter. 61:17 Kimberly Guilfoyle, I have no doubt 61:19 has done this to more than me. 61:21 She's doing it right now in Greece. 61:23 The only thing that bothers me about Don Jr. 61:26 here and Eric Trump is how they along with their father are getting rich out in the open 61:32 with crypto and everything else. I'm a Midwest farm boy. I'm a good dude. I don't, I don't 61:38 like their yuck yuck world. You could pay me to go back to Mar-Lago. 61:42 Wow. The New York Times should have interviewed him as part of that story. 61:47 He's not, he's not going to the right diners in Western Michigan. 61:49 Yeah. Guilfoyle's lawyer is obviously disputing the authenticity of the messages. Sure. 61:55 Meanwhile, the Daily Mail reports that the State Department is now investigating separate 62:00 complaints about Guilfoyle's conduct as ambassador in Athens. 62:05 The Deeter story was before she was ambassador, but when she got there, trouble, including 62:09 an incident where she was, this is awesome, where she was allegedly drinking in Mykonos 62:15 at 4 a.m., called her head of security because she wanted more ice. 62:21 She ran out of ice at 4 a.m. 62:23 So she called her head of security. 62:25 He did not answer because he was sleeping 62:28 because it was 4 a.m. 62:29 And because he didn't answer, 62:31 she demoted him the next day. 62:34 Marco Rubio declined to comment on all of this 62:36 before a speech in Greece on Wednesday 62:40 where he praised her leadership. 62:41 And here's how JD Vance handled the question 62:44 right after he defined socialism. 62:46 Do you have any reaction to a U.S. government official, 62:50 in this case, a U.S. Ambassador, asking someone to pay off debt in exchange to access to other 62:57 government officials. 62:59 Well, so with that hypothetical, Jean, obviously, I don't love that, but I don't know exactly 63:07 who you're talking about. 63:08 I don't know the full details. 63:10 I don't love that. 63:12 Who doesn't? 63:13 It doesn't sound great. 63:14 Now, if you told me it was a Democrat, I would condemn it pretty quickly, but I don't 63:19 I don't know who it could be. 63:20 Probably someone that I work with. 63:22 Yes, good. 63:23 It probably falls under his purview as frauds are, I'd say. 63:26 Yeah, what the fuck frauds are? 63:29 Dan, what do you think about this story? 63:33 There is so much in this story. 63:35 So much. 63:36 Every word is a joy. 63:38 And we could talk about it. 63:39 Treat yourself. 63:40 Truly for days. 63:41 Yes, treat yourself. 63:42 It is funny that we listened to a reaction 63:45 that Marco Rubio had to this where he was chastised. 63:47 I think we can only see the hero clip out of context, 63:50 but it seemed like they were asking him about it. 63:51 And he's like, look, I'm not going to let you guys, 63:54 you guys, the press be the only arbiters of truth here. 63:57 So his argument is I'm not going to listen to the newspaper 64:01 owned by Rupert Murdoch to tell me what's happening. 64:04 That has the signal messages. 64:07 Yes. Yeah. 64:08 It's the thing that is that I love the most about it 64:11 is that she might be the dumbest fucking criminal 64:13 in the world where she keeps telling like 64:16 he keeps texting her like about the money she wants. 64:20 And she keeps saying, stop papering this. 64:23 Eric, I really wish you would stop papering all these things. 64:27 And then another quote, 64:28 it's unbelievable when we have a private arrangement with you 64:31 that you would now CC a producer talking about money. 64:34 Do not say we have any arrangement. 64:37 The producer in question there was a Tucker Carlson producer 64:40 because there was apparently an offer of a million dollars 64:43 to get an appearance on a Tucker Carlson podcast, 64:46 which never came through fruition. 64:49 I think this might have been my favorite signal. 64:53 Quote, what a nightmare. 64:54 You'll literally cost me my ambassadorship. 64:57 Stop writing. 64:59 Oh, and then also very privately, she continued, 65:01 if you write an email or a text about, 65:04 I'm going to kill you because I love you, 65:06 but you're so out of control. 65:10 But she keeps telling him to stop texting, 65:14 texting, but she's telling him by texting. It's like at that point, like I pick up the 65:20 phone, pick up the phone. It's like, do not text about this. Cause if you were to text 65:25 about it, that would allow the police and the authorities to read the text and put us 65:30 both in jail, hit send. 65:34 Three sources say investigators are examining allegations involving potential substance abuse, 65:40 private planes and helicopters, improper gifts, 65:43 and Guilfoyle's relationship 65:44 with an energy construction company. 65:47 This is all alleged in the Daily Mail piece 65:49 that was the follow on to the incredible Wall Street Journal 65:52 piece. 65:53 But also in the Wall Street Journal piece, 65:54 it talks about how after Trump lost, 65:56 she tried to monetize her roles 65:58 and mega icon into a business woman. 66:00 She started a haircare product line. 66:02 She started a high end champagne and vodka business, 66:07 I think, and there was a pitch deck that she did 66:09 for a dinner at Mar-a-Lago train to raise a bunch of money for it, promising that they 66:12 would get to $75 million in revenue in three years. And then she shut the business down 66:16 like three weeks later. 66:19 It's also like the whole like, I need $100,000 to pay off my MX bill right now. Sam Stein 66:26 at the Bulwark interviewed this Deeders guy as well today. And so I was watching a little 66:31 bit of that. And Sam's like, well, why did she need this money? Like she's not, 66:34 She's like a person of means. 66:37 Like she has a lot, like millions of dollars. 66:39 She has no debts on her public records. 66:41 And Dieter's like, because it's her lifestyle. 66:44 She's just like been living high on the hog 66:47 over as ambassador to Greece. 66:49 And she's fucking partying in Mekinos 66:51 and doing all this shit. 66:52 And so she's just like racking up these bills 66:55 and just wants random donors to pay them off 66:59 by promising influence in the Trump administration. 67:01 You have to be ambassador. 67:03 She's got to send all of her financial records to the Senate and including your debt. 67:09 So she's going to have to report this $100,000 AMEX debt, which would have been quite embarrassing. 67:14 And so she's trying to get that off the books before. 67:17 Oh, that makes sense. 67:17 That makes sense. 67:18 But also in this story, it says that when she got divorced from Don Jr., she tried 67:25 to sell their mansion in Florida, I believe, or like seven million. 67:30 They bought it for $7 million. 67:31 She tried to sell for $30 million, I think thinking that someone tried to buy influence 67:36 the Trump administration would overpay 4X the price for the house. 67:40 I mean, a Russian oligarch paid for Don Jr.'s next wedding, so someone can step in there 67:45 and pay a little higher price for the house. 67:49 But then she had, I guess, Don Jr. ended up buying it out, buying her out from it 67:53 for a much, much cheaper price, which is why she needed the $100,000 to pay her 67:56 Annex bill. 67:57 I would say I can't imagine she'll be ambassador for long after this, but I don't know. She might know too much 68:05 That's that's why she's ambassador now. I know that's what I was thinking because I'm like 68:08 Maybe she's gonna go down because like who cares at this point about Kim Guilfoyle in that family, right? 68:13 Like she's but of course she could you know, she was around for a lot of stuff 68:19 Yeah, so good times good times. All right, when we come back love it talks to Florida Senate candidate Angie Nixon 68:32 Patsy of America is brought to you by Tommy John. 68:35 Fall is here, which means we're prioritizing comfort at the first sign of a chill in the air. 68:39 And I don't want to think too hard about what I'm reaching for in my dresser, 68:41 which is where Tommy John comes in. 68:44 Underwear is the first layer you put on, 68:45 one of the last things you think about, making comfort essential for your foundational garments. 68:50 Tommy John is designed for movement, downtime, and everything in between. 68:54 Soft, stretch-flexible fabrics allow you to move freely without feeling restricted. 68:58 Breathable and moisture wiki materials keep sweat away, so you stay fresh and comfortable 69:02 all day, whether you're working out or on the go. 69:05 Designed to stay put without shifting or bunching, so you can put them on in the morning and 69:09 forget about them, no adjusting required. 69:11 We love Tommy John. 69:12 They make great underwear, they make great socks, t-shirts, everything. 69:17 It's comfortable, it stands up well, it lasts a long time, it's cheaper than a lot 69:22 of competitors. 69:23 What I would do if I were you, throw out all your underwear, buy a bunch of Tommy 69:26 John, replace them all. 69:27 Upgrade your essentials and your own comfort. 69:29 Go to tamijohn.com and save 30% on your first order 69:33 with Code Crooked. 69:34 Go today, that's tamijohn.com. 69:36 Use the code Crooked at checkout 69:38 for 30% off your first order. 69:45 Joining me now, it's Angie Nixon, 69:47 the Democratic nominee for Senate in Florida. 69:50 Angie, welcome to the pod. 69:51 I am so excited to be with you today. 69:54 Hey pod, what up chat? 69:56 I don't know what they, 69:57 I don't know what the young people say nowadays. 69:59 I don't know either. I work contemporaries. I have no idea 70:03 There are a lot of people who have written Florida off. It's shifted to the right. It's the beating heart of MAGA 70:10 It's hopeless. What do you say to those people? I? 70:14 Would say they have not spent much time here in the state of Florida because we have been winning things 70:20 For years here 70:22 You know, we just need to people to just invest in our state and folks are fed up right now as well 70:27 There are Republicans that are actually 70:30 leaning into our campaign, our people-powered campaign. 70:34 Folks are ready to work to build a new vision 70:37 for this country where everyone has the opportunity 70:40 to be healthy, prosperous, and safe, 70:41 and I'm excited about it. 70:43 So, in a response to JD Vance, 70:46 we had talked about this on the show on Monday. 70:49 You spoke movingly about growing up in a home 70:51 with domestic violence, how it drives you 70:54 to take on bullies, but when you posted the clip, 70:56 You said something that I thought was really surprising. 71:00 You said that you carried a lot of anger 71:02 because of that violence 71:03 and that you didn't realize how much it impacted you 71:06 until this campaign. 71:08 And I'm just curious what you recognized 71:10 and what you feel like you learned 71:13 about something so personal in your past 71:15 in this political arena. 71:17 Yeah, for sure. 71:19 So I carried a lot of shame and embarrassment 71:22 because, you know, my mom didn't want anyone to know 71:26 and so she passed that down to me and my brother. 71:29 And I never recognized how I'm always like, 71:35 when I see people hurting, when I see people are scared 71:39 or being picked on and bullied, I'm always like bucking up at them. 71:44 And it wasn't until I had to really share my story 71:48 about my childhood with like my senior advisor 71:51 because they want to dig deep to see what drives you 71:53 and things like that. 71:54 And I put that story, you know, back in the back of my mind. 72:00 And I just, it came out and I'm like, you know what? 72:04 It is me. 72:05 A lot of people have to deal with bullies growing up. 72:08 And it has actually helped other women. 72:12 They've come to and started sharing their story to me. 72:16 And it's something that we need to work to stop out. 72:20 Oftentimes people are afraid to share things when they're the victims or the survivors of things. 72:28 We see it right now with, we've seen it with like the Epstein files. 72:34 We've seen it with what happened at Cornell, right? 72:38 We saw it with what happened with a ton of other stories recently. 72:44 And it's like, that happened to us, right? 72:47 Like, we didn't make that happen, right? 72:51 And so we need to just take it on and turn it around 72:57 and talk about how we're surviving from it 72:59 and how we're pushing forward to make things better. 73:02 I sometimes think with the people 73:05 that are at Trump rallies, 73:07 the people that have embraced MAGA, 73:09 even when it's not delivering for them, 73:12 even when they have experienced hardships, right? 73:15 They're paying for the tariffs. 73:16 if they're paying higher gas prices, higher diesel prices, 73:20 that this idea of not demanding more for ourselves, 73:26 not truly accepting that we didn't deserve the pain 73:31 and sacrifice and loss in our life, 73:33 like I do think that's a little bit of the, 73:35 what undergirds some of the kind of anger 73:38 that you see on the right as well. 73:41 And I'm wondering what it's like 73:42 when you're talking to Republicans, 73:44 even Republicans that might still see themselves 73:46 as being on their team and pro-Trump 73:50 about what's happening in Florida. 73:52 Yeah, so thank you for that question. 73:56 I actually had a similar question today 73:59 just a few minutes ago, 74:00 but it was from young people 74:03 in regards to them not voting 74:07 and just feeling like nothing would change. 74:09 And I tend to tell people that we deserve better. 74:12 Like, you deserve healthcare that you don't go bankrupt getting, because medical debt 74:18 is the leading cause of bankruptcy. 74:20 You deserve to have fully funded public schools. 74:24 You deserve to have groceries you can afford, like you work hard, and you should be able 74:31 to afford to live in this country, and that's not what's happening right now. 74:34 And so how I talk to people on the other side, so to speak, is I let them know that they are 74:46 profiting off of us fighting with each other. 74:49 They are profiting off of us being divided and distracted because that allows them to 74:56 distract us from the fact that they want to privatize Social Security because they 75:02 to make money off of the house. 75:04 Like, why are we allowing Republicans to move us 75:09 to a place where they are privatizing social security? 75:12 There should be no profit to be had with our taxpayer dollars 75:16 that should go towards ensuring that our seniors 75:19 can live their final days in peace and in good health. 75:25 And I let them know that we should not be operating 75:29 with a scarcity mindset. 75:32 This is America. 75:35 This is the land of abundance. 75:37 The problem is the folks with the money 75:41 and the abundance are hoarding it at the top. 75:44 Like they are trying to keep us down 75:50 so that they can have more money 75:52 on top of more money on top of more money. 75:54 And honestly, I let folks know 75:56 that they don't have to be scared. 75:58 They don't have to be scared of other people that don't look like them. 76:02 Like this is, we are a multiracial working class and honestly, it's honestly like kind 76:10 of a class war at this point right now. 76:13 And we have to all come together and let these billionaires and corrupt corporations 76:19 know that we are the workers. 76:22 We are working harder than ever and we're struggling just to stay ahead, just to get ahead. 76:29 And meanwhile, they're working less and less and less and they're privatizing everything 76:33 so that they can make more money or so they can also trade stops that we don't even have 76:38 enough money to trade in the first place. 76:41 And it's like, it doesn't have to be this way, y'all. 76:45 Like it doesn't. 76:46 We can start electing people who are exactly like us. 76:50 We can start electing school bus drivers and teachers and fast food workers and people 76:56 that work at telemarketing farms, like imagine if regular everyday people, you know, farmers, 77:04 like imagine if those people were our elected officials. 77:08 They would actually push for policies that would help benefit regular everyday people. 77:14 But what we're seeing right now is that the ultra-wealthy are the ones that are in charge. 77:23 And of course they're going to pass big BS bills that, you know, give them massive amounts 77:29 of tax breaks. 77:30 Of course they are okay with working family taxes in the form of tariffs, right? 77:36 Of course they're fine with those things, but we can change this all around if we 77:42 We elect regular hard-working everyday people and folks who've retired because I've been 77:46 called out on that here in the state of Florida because, you know, we have a large, retiree 77:50 class of folks. 77:52 Well, you know what's interesting is Florida has this reputation as being the home of 77:56 senior citizens, but I was, I went and I was just like looking into it, like where, 78:01 what states do have these big populations of seniors, and yes, Florida is up there, 78:07 but it's also states that are rural, in part because they've lost their young people because 78:12 the young people can't afford to live there and get jobs there anymore. And part of that is obviously 78:18 what we're seeing with Trump and sort of tariffs and the hardships he's visited on some of his 78:24 biggest supporters. But to that point, I saw that you pointed out that Donald Trump and 78:30 Ashley Moody are in ways more aligned with communism than you, right? They're attacking 78:35 you all the time as a socialist, but there are ways in which they are kind of leading. 78:41 Oh, absolutely. 78:41 What do you mean by that? 78:43 Okay. 78:46 Going after political opponents, right? 78:50 Calling for the assassination of sitting Congress members, right? 78:54 Stealing taxpayer dollars to push propaganda. 78:59 And we saw that with Ashley Moody who stole $10 million from sick kids 79:04 that was supposed to go towards their Medicaid funding. 79:07 And then we are seeing that now with this Trump TV network 79:11 that Donald Trump is using 79:12 and also the taxpayer money that they're using for paid ads. 79:17 Also the fact that if they talk so much trash 79:22 about Cuba and Venezuela, you know, rightfully so, 79:27 but they're deporting people back there, 79:29 like that is crazy to me. 79:31 And then on top of that, to go on to Venezuela and to be okay with taking control of their 79:39 oil and helping decide who sells what, knowing good and well his son and his family and friends 79:48 have vested interest in selling this oil and then cozying up to the leader of North Korea 79:55 and cozying up to the leader of Russia. 80:00 And it's like, sir, is that what we're doing? 80:03 And then also, they're saying that I wanna take 80:05 over people's businesses. 80:07 When Donald Trump and this administration 80:11 has taken stocks, like they have taken percentages 80:15 of several companies here in this country. 80:20 I'm a small business owner. 80:22 I don't want nobody coming to take my business. 80:23 Absolutely not, right? 80:25 And so it is, it is so mind boggling that they are trying to paint me as the person that they are and I'm pushing back against that. 80:35 And then they say, you know, I want to abolish prisons and I want to defund the police. 80:41 Like why would I want to do that when I want Donald Trump and Ashley Moody locked up in jail? 80:47 Like, come on. 80:48 Like they did some things that they deserve to be locked up for. 80:53 And so, absolutely not. 80:55 I believe we need to abolish for-profit prisons because why are we privatizing prisons and 81:02 allowing folks to capitalize and exploit people's labor? 81:09 Like that doesn't, that is, and this is the biggest shakedown ever of a president, 81:16 right? 81:16 Like this is the largest grift ever. 81:19 for every which way he can monetize something 81:23 as he's president, he is doing, he is actively doing. 81:27 Now, that does not stop Vance from attacking you 81:30 as a socialist. 81:31 What set up this controversy was his saying 81:33 that you don't belong in America. 81:36 And you've responded by saying that you, 81:39 as you just said, you own a business. 81:40 You've called yourself a capitalist 81:42 who believes we need some strong regulations, 81:44 but you did join DSA in June of this year 81:47 in a state where socialists, as a label, 81:51 carries a lot of historical baggage to say the least. 81:55 And I'm curious, put aside what Ashley Moody is saying, 81:58 what JD Vance is saying, 82:00 is this coming up for you on the ground with voters? 82:03 Because whatever the sort of the political expedient 82:09 attack, there are people who legitimately say, 82:11 I come from a place where socialism is for me, 82:15 my family being persecuted, 82:18 my being impoverished and having to flee, 82:20 I worry about voting for someone 82:22 who's affiliated with socialism. 82:23 What do you say to people that cease to- 82:25 And so what I would tell people 82:27 is they should look at my track record 82:28 and what I've done and stood for. 82:31 And that all I want for them is to be able 82:33 to decide what they want their communities to look like 82:36 and what they want their economies to look like. 82:38 The people that keep pushing this division 82:42 And this rhetoric that I'm trying to come do all of this horrible stuff are like, you know, my opponents and the media. 82:54 When I go out and talk to people in Little Haiti, like, who are voting for me or in Little Havana who are voting for me, 83:03 what they say in Venezuelan communities, what they say is they want someone who is, 83:10 who's gonna give them quality healthcare. 83:13 They want someone who's gonna lower their costs. 83:15 They want someone that is going to fight against bullies 83:19 and dictators. 83:20 And that's what I tell folks. 83:21 Like I literally was arrested by, 83:24 because of like a dictator's type action against me, right? 83:30 And I let them know that I don't want anyone 83:32 to have to worry about that type of stuff. 83:34 I don't believe in any allowing any type 83:37 of oppressive government to be in power, right? 83:40 And so I let them know to check my track record 83:44 and that I have their back. 83:46 And that has been resonating. 83:48 We've been able to cut through the noise 83:49 and the disinformation because of it. 83:52 As part of your housing policy called 83:54 for a national rent freeze and an eviction moratorium, 83:59 this is a big complicated country 84:01 with very different housing issues in different regions. 84:06 that just honestly, like I was like, 84:07 oh, that doesn't totally make sense to me, right? 84:09 Like in COVID, we're in an emergency, 84:11 but places should be able to decide 84:13 how they're gonna build and expand housing. 84:16 Yeah, and so I wanna be clear, 84:17 like this is temporary, it is temporary. 84:21 And I think I need to add to the website 84:22 and put like temporary because I am a landlord myself, 84:28 my first home that I was able to purchase 84:29 as a single mom, I'm actually renting it out 84:32 to some friends, and I don't overcharge them a lot more. 84:38 It's actually like $200 more than what my mortgage is, 84:40 and that is in case something breaks down 84:43 and that type of stuff. 84:44 But what I know is that I opened up Facebook today, 84:48 and a guy said, oh my God, my rent went up $350. 84:56 I have to sign, and they want to charge me $350 more. 85:01 more. Property insurance then go up $350 more, right? And so what we're seeing right now are 85:11 a lot of these private equity firms, these for-profit companies that own these homes 85:19 and these that are renting these apartments out. They're just doing things simply because 85:25 they can and people don't have anywhere else to go. And so what I am saying right 85:29 now is while we have these working family taxes on us in the form of tariffs, while we are still 85:36 in this thoughtless war that is causing gas and diesel prices to go up and then causing everything 85:41 else to go up, there needs to be a freeze on rent for like a year or two, right? So that people 85:48 cannot be stressed out about not having a place to stay. And it's kind of similar to what happened 85:55 during COVID, right? And so we like, yo, people are hurting. People are like dying on the streets. 86:05 People are having to crab themselves up because they can no longer afford rent or people are 86:11 taking food from their children's mouths because they got to keep rent. They got to keep a roof 86:16 over their heads. And so what I'm saying is like, let's let's let's stop raising the rents 86:21 for a second, right? 86:23 So that people can get caught up. 86:26 I also believe that we need to lower the interest rates 86:29 on credit cards for a little bit as well. 86:32 So people have, like I saw on threads the other day, 86:36 a woman was like, y'all tell me how I can pay 86:39 for my rent on my credit card. 86:41 Why do people have to pay for their rent 86:43 on their credit cards right now? 86:45 Something is broken, something is wrong. 86:49 But then you see people in these companies 86:51 and these billionaires making record profits, 86:54 number one, because they're not paying people 86:55 what they owe them. 86:57 They're not paying people living wages. 87:00 And then on top of that, 87:01 the people aren't getting paid living wages 87:03 and everything else is going up. 87:06 And so I am ready to start like looking out 87:09 for just everyday people here in this country 87:13 and not just looking out for these ultra wealthy folks. 87:16 Like folks are hurt, 87:17 like they're at their breaking point. 87:19 like they are. 87:22 And I am concerned. 87:24 I know someone, a guy lost his job a few months ago 87:28 and then I read that he like killed his kids 87:31 and killed his wife and killed himself. 87:34 Like people are taking their lives 87:36 because they feel so hopeless 87:39 and like nothing is gonna change. 87:41 And I talked to my friend a few weeks ago 87:43 and she's like, she doesn't even wanna get out of bed 87:48 Because the cloud that is hanging over her about if she loses her job, because she sees 87:56 people getting laid off, if she loses her job, this is her home, she just bought this 88:01 home five years ago, she doesn't know what she's going to do, the job market is not 88:04 looking too good. 88:06 And so those are the things that folks are stressed out about. 88:10 And so that's why I say, you know, a temporary rent freeze and 88:16 moratorium on evictions. So 88:20 Moody won't debate you. Nope 88:23 She says it's because she doesn't want to give you a platform 88:27 Because you're such a, you know, you're just it's just the people can't handle it 88:31 I guess and she doesn't it's it seemed that if she thought you were such a 88:34 Dangerous had so many dangerous ideas. She'd want to argue with you about them 88:38 But no, she doesn't. 88:39 How are you going to get in front of enough people 88:43 in the home stretch here 88:45 if you don't get an opportunity to talk to her 88:48 on that stage? 88:48 I mean, we're going out 88:50 and talking to as many folks as we can. 88:52 This is a people's power grassroots distributive program 88:57 where there's there gets out, spreading our message. 89:02 Our social media is popping. 89:04 We're interviewing wherever we go. 89:06 We're trying to hit all 67 counties before the general election and we're just gonna continue to get amplified 89:14 Thank you for having me on your show. It's good. It's been great to talk to you 89:18 It's also like but you know, there's been a lot of like, oh, how did how did Angie Nixon? 89:23 Pull off this upset in the primary and it then you see do you talk to you or you watch your video? 89:29 Just you're so charismatic. It's really intoxicating 89:36 girl with the southern draw. I've talked to a lot of boring politicians. It's part, you know, 89:42 gladly. So you're from Jacksonville. You spent most of your life there. What's it been like 89:48 campaigning across the whole state? What have you learned about Florida, right? Like Florida is 89:53 a big, strange place. The more north you go, the more south it is. The further south you go, 90:01 the more international it is. And I would say the more West you go, the more rural it is. 90:09 And I love my state, man. It's like 20 states in one and also adding a few extra countries as well. 90:19 And we have beautiful beaches and parks. We have beautiful people. We have such good culture 90:31 And, like, good swag. 90:35 And some of the, like, we still have Southern Hospitality here. 90:39 And, you know, that sweet tea will still get you, 90:43 might send you into a diabetic coma real quick. 90:47 But, you know, like, I just, I love my state. 90:50 Oh, my God, I love my state, 90:52 which is why I'm fighting so hard to be able to represent it. 90:55 I just get so frustrated because it's folks like Ashley Moody, 90:59 who are in power right now, unelected Ashley Moody, and my office, my state, because I'm 91:06 still a state lawmaker, we have to field so many calls and emails from people who have 91:11 reached out to her or Rick Scott, and they haven't received a phone call back. 91:16 And it's like, that is not what we need to represent us. 91:20 We need someone who's going to be accessible, ethical, and someone that they can trust. 91:26 and I pride myself on acting as though I work for people. 91:33 Like actually working for people, 91:34 I don't believe that the constituents work for me 91:40 and that is how Ashley Moody operates. 91:42 And I work for folks and whatever it is 91:45 that they want me to do, if it's within reason 91:48 and if it makes sense as far as like it helps 91:51 improve the quality of life for people, 91:53 I am going to work to do it. 91:55 Well, Angie Nixon, thank you so much for being here. 92:00 Good luck in this next month. 92:02 And I'll just say my parents live in Boyne Beach, Florida. 92:05 Hey. 92:06 And I would say the outcomes there 92:10 are either canceling each other's votes 92:14 or potentially getting you two votes. 92:17 I will work on that. 92:18 I will work on that. 92:19 Oh, please, please do. 92:20 And I would say, you know, cause I am from Florida, 92:23 but I do love those Jaguars. 92:26 I'm looking forward to us going to the Super Bowl, 92:27 but I still also love the Tampa Bay books 92:30 and the Miami Dolphins. 92:32 And then also, follow me on social media, 92:35 Angie for Florida. 92:36 Go to my website, AngieNixon.com. 92:38 But thank you so much for having me on. 92:41 Hey to your parents down there. 92:43 I wanna be your US Senator. 92:46 And so I would really love and appreciate it 92:48 if you voted for me. 92:49 Angie Nixon, thank you so much. 92:51 Thank you so much. 92:53 That's our show for today. 92:54 Thanks to Angie Nixon for coming on. 92:55 I'll be back in the feed on Sunday with our old friend, 92:58 David Axelrod. 93:00 Talk to everybody then. 93:01 Bye, everyone. 93:02 Pods of America is a crooked media production. 93:03 Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, 93:05 McKenna Roberts, and Michael Goldsmith, with Ray Cherlin, 93:08 Elijah Cone, and Adrian Hill. 93:09 Our team includes Matt DeGroot, Ben Hefko, 93:11 Jordan Cantor, Charlotte Landis, Kenny Moffitt, 93:12 Adam Lipper, Joseph Dutra, Desmond Taylor, Dan Farrell. 93:15 David Tolles, Mia Kellman, Ryan Young, 93:17 and Naomi Sengel. 93:17 Our staff is probably unionized 93:18 with the Writers Guild of America East.
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