Show full transcript 0:26 speaking through the camera to stop an intruder 0:28 in their tracks and calls for urgent 911 dispatch when it's needed most. 0:32 Our CEO here at Quick Media, Lucinda, had a SimplySafe system installed recently. 0:37 She said that she loves it, the app is easy to use, it allows her to arm or disarm the 0:41 system right from her phone. 0:42 She can monitor the cameras from the app itself to check in with family or friends 0:46 as they arrive and everything has worked perfectly and it has been a seamless transition. 0:51 Join the more than 6 million people who in trust SimplySafe with their home security. 0:54 Right now, save 60% off with professional monitoring 0:58 when you visit simplysafe.com slash crooked. 1:01 That's simplysafe.com slash crooked. 1:03 And when you order, please write in Potsafe America 1:05 in the checkout survey. 1:06 It tells them we sent you 1:07 and it really helps support the show. 1:09 Simply safe, ahead of crime in real time. 1:33 Welcome to Potsafe America. 1:34 I'm John Fabro. 1:35 I'm John Lovett. 1:36 I'm Tommy Vitor. 1:36 On today's show, we'll talk about the life 1:38 and sudden death of the Republicans' 1:40 talofrico conspiracy. 1:42 The party's decision to go all in 1:44 on attacking Abdul al-Sayed as a Muslim terrorist. 1:47 Elon Musk quietly spending more on the midterms 1:49 than he did on the entire 2024 presidential campaign, 1:52 federal agents raiding Ilhan Omar's house, 1:55 Pete Hegseth's plan to livestream an execution 1:58 by firing squad, 1:59 and Kimberly Guilfoyle's Greek sugar daddies. 2:02 What a list. 2:04 Plural. 2:05 Yeah, there's two that we know of, but who knows. 2:08 That's dessert for the end. 2:10 The story's still young. 2:12 Then you'll hear Lovett's conversation with the Democratic candidate for Senate in New 2:16 Hampshire, Chris Pappas. 2:18 All right, let's start in Texas, where the Republican desperation to hold on to a Senate 2:22 seat that's slipping away led the Magaverse to concoct a conspiracy so stupid and short-lived 2:28 that it barely survived the weekend. 2:31 It all started on September 30th, when James Tallorico said during a virtual campaign 2:41 appearance... 2:42 I was realizing all I had was baklava. 2:44 Hey, you got a joke in the oven, 2:46 jokes in the hopper, everybody, you stay tuned. 2:48 Don't look at my screen, that's my space. 2:50 You made it like a hundred fun. 2:53 Honestly, better than it's at least connected 2:56 to something we're talking about 2:57 because it could have very well been something 2:59 that he planned on baking this evening. 3:01 He's been baking a lot. 3:01 I did, I made a lovely apple tart. 3:03 I know we've seen it on Instagram. 3:04 I feel like you're getting good at baking. 3:05 I am getting very good at baking. 3:06 No, no, I'm glad you're sharing it. 3:07 I was reading about the actual news 3:08 and I thought, oh, I don't know, 3:09 a Greek dessert besides baklava. 3:12 And I thought, well, there's gotta be a pun somewhere. 3:14 I love baklava. 3:15 What do you need aside from baklava? 3:18 Well, I don't need anything, but then I was thinking, 3:20 oh, like, you know, I was thinking Kimberly Guilfoyle's 3:23 on the dolemates, or that dessert, you know what I mean? 3:26 But that wasn't very good, so I thought I was like, 3:28 and then I was like, oh, baby's got baklava. 3:30 You know, that's nothing. 3:31 So I was looking for other options. 3:33 Okay, well, anyway, should we go back to Texas? 3:36 Sure. Okay. 3:37 What happened there? 3:38 So, it started on September 30th when James Talerico said during a virtual campaign appearance 3:43 that he was sick with the flu, went to urgent care, and would be staying home for a while 3:47 to avoid infecting anyone. 3:49 The following week, right-wing influencers reached the only logical conclusion about 3:54 Talerico's extended absence, which is that he was actually at a psychiatric hospital 3:58 in Ohio called the Lindner Center of Hope, experiencing what Ken Paxton's campaign 4:04 called, quote, a full-blown mental telefreakout. The entire basis for this allegation was that 4:13 a Texas Democrat named Lena Hidalgo took a leave from her job in 2023 to get treatment 4:19 at this same Ohio mental health facility, which led some online MAGA sleuths to discover 4:26 that last week a private plane made a few trips between Austin and the Ohio airport 4:33 closest to the facility. 4:34 I don't get your skeptical tone. 4:37 Then, two MAGA influencers published a clip of a secretly recorded phone call with someone 4:42 they claimed worked at the facility, who supposedly confirmed that Talerico had just been discharged. 4:48 How about that? 4:50 How about that? 4:51 Well, hours later, the whole thing fell apart. 4:53 The hospital denied Talerico had ever been a patient there. 4:55 Talerico said he's never even been to Ohio. 4:58 Has never been to the state. 4:59 He was on camera, and Austin, the day he was supposed to have been discharged. 5:05 And then the bulwark published the full recording of the phone call, which revealed that the 5:09 MAGA influencer had apparently pretended to be Talerico's cousin, made up a patient 5:14 code, and had repeatedly been told by the employee that there was no James Talerico 5:19 in their system. 5:21 My favorite part of that is that it was like, oh my god, how'd they acquire the 5:23 full tape? 5:24 They asked. 5:25 Right. 5:25 And the guy said it too. 5:26 Which was really a botch on their part. 5:29 Yes, and it's worth saying too that several other right wing outlets, none particularly 5:34 reputable, also declined the story because when you listen to the full audio. 5:39 Daily mail, the blaze. 5:41 The blaze turned the story down. 5:43 Maybe there's examples of people going from Texas to Ohio to get mental health care, and 5:48 I'm sure that takes place. 5:49 But could have also been going a whole bunch of other places in Ohio. 5:52 For sure. 5:53 It was like 30 minutes from the airport in Mason, Ohio. 5:56 So they just sort of looked it up. 5:59 Yeah, on these sort of, not really Sherlock Holmes 6:02 and Watson situation. 6:04 It is funny that this all stemmed 6:05 from a bunch of right wing lunatics being like, 6:09 oh, every Texas Lib who's crazy 6:11 goes to the same place in Ohio. 6:14 Yeah, what's like, they had a thing, 6:17 the Paxson campaign is flailing and slowly dying 6:21 and they had this thing which is James Talarico 6:24 disappears off the campaign trail for a while. So they're like, it's totally legitimate to 6:29 ask where he was or probably to use it to cause his campaign problems. But there was not a there 6:35 there. There was not a reason that then disqualifies him from office. He was sick. He said so in the 6:40 video where he actually looks doesn't look that good. They've also like concocted this whole 6:45 story that, that no one knew where he was and no one told anyone and it was been two weeks. 6:50 And it's like none of that is true either he skipped an event and it got on the he attended an event by zoom 6:55 And was like I have the flu so I can't be there in person 6:57 He's a guy with type 1 diabetes who got a bad flu 7:00 So it was probably exacerbated by that like that's probably why he was sick 7:04 And by the way this I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often because campaigning is disgusting 7:08 Yeah, we're talking to strangers in close quarters and touching them constantly 7:12 You are kissing babies, which are the biggest vector for disease that I've ever met personally 7:17 People are working all the time 7:20 Anyway, and then like, but these QAnon-brained fucking morons start with the private plane thing and then they're like 7:27 prank calling a mental health facility in Ohio and recording themselves probably committing crimes 7:33 I mean, I just want to call out the the leaders of the pack here just the the stars who gave us this 7:39 Spencer Pratt who bunch of people here in LA who called themselves Democrats thought maybe it was a good idea to elect him as mayor 7:46 He kept pushing it said he had the conspiracy he's heard from his sources 7:49 He looks like a fucking moron because he is Caroline Ren who was a J6 organizer 7:56 And she used to be like a semi-normal fundraiser for a Republican party friends with Tim Miller 8:01 Yeah became a J6 organizer was like sued for defamation over the match slap incident 8:07 Slap slap. I'm just saying oh, sorry. I thought I said it was someone named tickle texts 8:15 Yeah, who's got a sort of a criminal background and Nick sorter. He was the one who who published the call 8:22 He was one of the influencers that was involved in the in the recording 8:26 Do you know he has an open warrant for his arrest in Kentucky for violating his probation? 8:31 He was convicted of a DUI harassing police officer stalking woman kidnapping her dog and sexually assaulting her Jesus Christ 8:36 Yeah, that's a long open warrant for his arrest in Kentucky 8:40 This is the guy that everyone was like and then Elon Musk is like up something's wrong with this campaign 8:44 Elon Musk is amplifying the whole thing. 8:46 Megan Kelly at some point she was like, 8:47 well, has anyone spoken to the woman who was on the phone? 8:50 Can someone get in contact with her? 8:52 Because maybe she's being, they've gotten to her. 8:54 Megan Kelly's like, well, it said he's never been a patient 8:56 but he has ever, has he ever been there? 8:59 They're like, release the records. 9:00 Like what records? 9:01 I've never been there. 9:02 No, you got it. 9:03 What are you talking about? 9:04 Of everywhere you've been, like we need body cam footage 9:07 of James Taylor Rico from the moment he was sick 9:10 until the moment he was back on the trail. 9:12 Well, that's the only way we can put this to rest. 9:14 It's also very like this idea that like James Talarico, 9:17 look, there have been Democrats who, 9:19 I think like you wouldn't be surprised 9:20 had a mental health breakdown. 9:22 You know, you feel like kind of have that energy. 9:24 You're like, yeah, people that seem like 9:27 they're barely holding it together, 9:28 people that could lose it at a moment's notice. 9:30 Talarico's so even keeled, he's so like kind of calm 9:33 and restrained. 9:33 So I guess the idea is being like, oh, 9:35 that no human, no person can actually be that, 9:38 you know, that chill, 9:40 And I can't like there must be a dark underbelly and whenever that emerges. He of course goes to Ohio 9:46 He's also getting screwed by the the Biden of it all and the lack of candor there the Federmen of it all 9:52 Touch of a lack of candor there 9:53 But it's like it just I was texting with Tyler it goes flack over the weekend 9:57 Like the most annoying story in the world is when everyone's like proven negative 10:00 And then you're trapped in like the Elon Musk Twitter information ecosystem where if Elon replies to a tweet 10:07 is like seems troubling it amplifies it to you know 100 million people. I get that people were 10:12 worried about like the Biden comparison too but there really is no comparison there. There was 10:16 a bunch of reporting there whereas the people were like I was around him and he kind of seems a 10:20 little old and forgetful. There's no anything that James Taylor had any kind of mental issues 10:26 whatsoever, nothing, zero. And it is funny watching like some of the right-wing influencers 10:33 who were pushing it after the whole thing fell apart were like, yeah, this is crazy, 10:37 like current revolt, which is like a right-wing Texas news source. They all did this Twitter 10:41 spaces conversation afterwards, which is amazing. And this guy from current revolt was like, 10:47 this story sucks, man. This is shit work, bro. I'm actually upset. And then there's people 10:51 like TPUSA's Andrew Colvitt who tweeted, it genuinely doesn't matter if it was a mental 10:56 health hospital or the flu. It matters. Disappearing for two weeks was bad enough, 11:02 wasn't two weeks. 11:03 I think it matters, yeah. 11:03 He said he went to a primary care and urgent care. 11:06 So now this is the new thing that he said. 11:08 He went to urgent care in Dallas, 11:09 but then he told a station in Austin 11:12 that he also saw his primary care doctor in Austin. 11:15 It's like, well, I guess when he got home to Austin, 11:17 he saw his doctor after going to urgent care 11:20 when he was traveling. 11:21 Right, he's on the road. 11:22 He saw an urgent care, then went to see his doctor. 11:24 He's a fucking idiot. 11:25 What a voter cares about the thing. 11:26 It's fucking idiot. 11:26 It is so funny to say, look, 11:28 whether it's the flu, as he said, 11:30 which is common and ordinary or a secret trip to an Ohio based mental health facility what six or one half dozen of the other 11:36 Tomato tomato also honestly, I'd tell you I'd rather be crazy in Texas than saying in Ohio 11:43 You're lucky my wife doesn't listen 11:48 Did you also see that some of the people and another might have been the same or different Twitter spaces was pinning this all on 11:53 Jeff row who was a longtime Ted Cruz? 11:55 who also worked for Ron DeSantis. 11:57 Apparently he was shopping this around 11:59 according to some former Trump officials, 12:01 MAGA influencer. 12:02 So like this story could have a little bit of a longer tail 12:05 because it is a person who knowingly and improperly 12:09 obtains someone else's medical records 12:11 and then uses them to do harm 12:12 can be fined up to a quarter million dollars. 12:15 HIPAA, finally a HIPAA violation. 12:17 It is very funny that a HIPAA violation 12:19 actually became a HIPAA story. 12:20 Yeah, we got a HIPAA, we got a HIPAA. 12:23 You might all be asking yourselves, 12:24 What do we do about a right-wing media ecosystem that can so easily amplify bullshit like this? 12:29 What do we do, John? 12:29 The answer is support your friends at Crooked Media because we're trying to build a counterweight to that ecosystem. 12:35 And subscribing is the best way to support the work we're doing here. 12:38 Plus, you get ad-free episodes of your favorite Crooked Pods, all of our newsletters, all kinds of fun subscriber benefits. 12:43 Crooked.com slash friends. 12:44 We're right here in this rubber room every day. 12:46 Full frontels of Dan. 12:48 Full frontels of Dan. 12:49 Full frontels of Dan. 12:50 Yeah, you just need a code. 12:51 I've been in just the headshot this year. 12:52 Did you see that? 12:53 There was a guy from Smallville posted a selfie 12:55 that said, sorry, posted a picture. 12:58 Hey, everybody, I'm in New York City, 12:59 but it was the reflection. 13:01 I saw it, I saw it, I saw it. 13:02 You could see his hog. 13:02 Pass and tweet about it. 13:04 You could see what? 13:04 Hog? 13:04 You could see hog. 13:05 He deleted it. 13:06 Oh, that's tough. 13:08 I don't know who the guy from Smallville is. 13:09 Is that a show? 13:10 It was a show. 13:12 He's had a career since then. 13:13 I'm sorry if I'm only referring to him 13:14 as a Smallville man. 13:15 Anyway. 13:16 But not a small man. 13:17 I hope that wasn't describing the hog. 13:18 Right, exactly. 13:19 a small, you know, a man from Smallville, 13:22 not a Smallville man, you know what I'm saying? 13:24 I'm trying to figure out a transition to Ken Paxton here. 13:26 Speaking of small hogs, small hogs, there we go. 13:30 Ken Paxton's got his own problems. 13:31 He was finally asked about the series 13:33 of secretly recorded comments from a DC fundraiser 13:36 where Paxton complained, these were, 13:38 this was a real recording, 13:40 where Paxton complained about Trump's midterm 13:42 convention, the Iran war, the price of gas, 13:44 how little control he has over his own campaign message 13:46 and the need to cut Medicare and Social Security. 13:50 Here's what he said on Fox. 13:53 There have been now five audio leaks. 13:56 It raises some flags, maybe among other Republicans 13:59 over your thoughts publicly and privately 14:03 over the president and Washington. 14:06 So just because they were able to clip a few things 14:08 doesn't mean that that's actually what I meant. 14:12 He is. 14:13 Good answer, sir. 14:14 He is. 14:16 Generational talent? 14:17 We're going to say generational talent. 14:18 He is such a... 14:19 It is extraordinary how far he's gotten. 14:22 This man is the attorney general of Texas. 14:24 He is the worst communicator. 14:26 Corruption gets you pretty far. 14:28 Yeah, I guess so. 14:28 It kind of relieves you of the burdens of campaigning. 14:30 Right. 14:31 He doesn't ever run against Democrats. 14:33 Yeah. 14:33 Yeah, that's true. 14:34 He's never faced anyone like crazy, six-gender Jimmy. 14:37 Yeah. 14:39 Yeah. 14:40 James Rodriguez is going to beat him from inside of that fucking... 14:43 What are those things called? 14:44 What are those things called 14:44 when they wrap your arms around a straight jacket? 14:46 Yeah, James El Rico's still gonna beat you, you dumb fuck. 14:49 Guy, kid, guy, kid. 14:50 Not so straight jacket, you know? 14:52 That's right, that's right. 14:54 I wanna watch, yeah, James El Rico. 14:55 Beta jacket. 14:56 Eat a whole steak while in a straight jacket. 14:58 You eat a whole fucking T-bone steak with no arms. 15:02 At least Trump had a funny explanation 15:04 for the whole thing. 15:05 Trump said that he was so sick 15:06 because he was eating a bunch of meat 15:08 to try to prove that he wasn't a vegan. 15:10 And he was throwing up all the meat. 15:12 I once again stand by my pitch that he 15:15 Do a campaign ad while eating a steak from top to bottom. I still think that's a good idea 15:18 I gotta say I've been more hungover from big-stake dinners than alcohol at times, you know you too much meat 15:23 You feel like they can't you bad dreams. Yeah, you know in that same Fox interview 15:28 Paxton was also asked about Trump 15:31 Challenging teller Rico to a debate on his behalf 15:34 President Trump he called you guys out said you all should have a debate and talk about the issues contrast between your 15:41 policies. Is that in the works? Well, no, look, we've been working on that for months 15:45 with him. And of course, we can never quite work out the details. 15:49 Wow. It's in play. 15:50 Taylor Rico quotes, we did that and was like, here's the details, anytime, anywhere, any 15:55 place. 15:56 Do you see that? I think it was Carl Roeva said that if Paxton doesn't debate, he 15:59 loses. 16:00 Oh, I didn't see that, no. 16:01 Which I think is a great way to just say, I think Paxton's gonna lose. It's just 16:06 like everyone thinks Paxton's losing. The polling suggests it, the spending levels 16:09 from Republicans suggest it, the fact that Trump is repeatedly going to Texas suggests 16:13 it. 16:14 But the fact that Paxton will not debate in that context tells you that his team has 16:20 so little confidence in their guide. 16:23 I think they're right. 16:23 That even just juxtaposing his face with Talerico's is too much of a risk. 16:27 I'll say one more thing. 16:28 That's the only good advice he's gotten. 16:30 And I do think one reason this has gone so far is because Ken Paxton isn't doing 16:34 that much campaigning. 16:35 He's refusing to debate. 16:36 He's not really out there. 16:37 And so this is like oh man 16:39 Tal Rico's been gone for nine days like Ken Paxton's been basically absent the whole fucking campaign 16:44 He in July someone spotted him in London with his mistress 16:47 That's what he was doing in July during the campaign and I'll just say I don't know much about that lady 16:52 But babe you can do better. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, you can don't you was she the biblical influencer or something like that 16:59 No, that could be making that up. Yeah, whatever 17:01 It's going around in Michigan where Abdul is ahead of Mike Rogers by a few points 17:05 the Republican plan to win is pretty subtle. 17:08 See if you can figure it out from this clip. 17:10 We are not, and we will never be, 17:13 one nation under Muhammad, because we are, 17:16 and we always will be, one nation under God! 17:19 Muhammad El Sayad, I call him Muhammad. 17:23 Somebody said, his name isn't Muhammad. 17:25 It's Abdul, I said, to me it's Muhammad. 17:28 I'm the president, I can call him whatever the hell I want. 17:30 The guy said, she had us. 17:32 Look at his statements from two years ago. 17:34 He's a jihadist. I don't want a jihadist as a senator from Michigan 17:39 Notably that wasn't even in Michigan 17:41 That was a rally in Tennessee with Trump and the first gentleman you heard from as a kid rock 17:48 He's just go to political events now and like work out with Bobby Kennedy like this is only 17:54 Relevance doesn't have much beyond that probably plays at some birthday parties. Oh, he did do that alternative halftime show 17:59 Oh, I remember that. 18:00 Oh, yeah, that's right. 18:00 There was an event that had fallen apart, 18:03 sort of a conference where they didn't sell enough VIP tickets, 18:05 so they pulled the whole thing down 18:06 the Kid Rocks was supposed to attend. 18:07 Interesting. 18:08 I don't think it's going to be that well. 18:09 In Michigan, a super PAC is up with an ad 18:12 accusing Abdul of being funded by, quote, 18:15 Islamic extremist groups who hate America, 18:18 and Rogers himself, 18:19 chuckled along as Louisiana Senator John Kennedy 18:22 attempted this joke outside of Detroit on Friday night. 18:25 Hey, PAC, wouldn't be, they wouldn't come here. 18:28 If Dr. Elsayad didn't sleep in a bin lob, I'm just telling you. 18:35 Third time's a charm there. 18:37 Nailed that line, Mrs. Doubtfire. 18:39 Went to Oxford to get that folksy, remember? 18:42 Abdul responded with a tweet saying, 18:44 that's Rich coming from someone who wears his bedsheets out at night. 18:47 But the campaign's main response to the Abdul's terrorist attack 18:50 is a closing message that's all about Rogers, the Iran war, 18:53 and prices like this new ad that went up over the weekend. 18:57 Trump's war abroad cost taxpayers a billion dollars a day 19:01 on a war we have no business fighting. 19:03 Our schools crumble, our factories shutter, 19:04 our gas prices skyrocket. 19:06 But when they want war, billion-dollar blank checks. 19:10 Mike Rogers has been advocating for war after war 19:12 my entire adult life. 19:14 I'm running to invest our tax dollars here in Michigan. 19:18 So, Republicans all in on full-blown Islamophobia, 19:22 thoughts on how well they're executing that strategy 19:25 and how Abdul is responding. 19:27 I'd say it's subtle what they're doing, 19:30 but if you can read between the lines. 19:33 I know what Axe said to you on the Sunday episode 19:36 was good, right? 19:37 The first Abdul ad out of the primary 19:40 was with his grandparents. 19:42 And that was obviously because they saw what was coming 19:45 and they've sort of been aware of this the whole time. 19:47 I think the more you are seeing just Abdul being a, 19:52 like he's a jihadist, he's a doctor. 19:54 And like the more you have him out there, 19:56 kind of just sort of being himself, 19:58 I think the less those attacks will resonate, 20:00 but obviously they're trying to, 20:02 I don't know how many people are gonna come away 20:04 believing he's a fucking jihadist, 20:06 but they're trying at the margins, 20:07 try to just get enough people 20:08 to either kind of have just a tiny bit of concern 20:11 that he's too far left, that he's too extreme, 20:14 that for some Jewish people in Michigan, 20:15 that he's too anti-Israel, right? 20:17 Just enough to kind of on the edges, 20:19 make a difference, and I do think that's like a legitimate thing to be worried about. 20:22 Yeah, I mean, like, dual in reality is a lax bro Dr. Nerd, you know, I think that too 20:27 he actually is. 20:28 Pretty dorky, too. 20:29 Yeah, I mean, he's like a very smart, like, academic guy, you know, it's like, this is 20:32 all just disgusting. 20:33 I think, like, what folks need to know is that this is a lot of the phobic stuff. 20:37 It's not like a one-off thing, it wasn't like a surrogate going off script or kid 20:40 rock going off script. 20:41 Like, this is the main message they are closing with, and I think for us, we 20:45 We grew up in a political context post-911 where this stuff was really powerful. 20:49 Democrats are – Republicans won an election against a triple amputee Vietnam veteran 20:54 by calling him soft on terror in Georgia in 2002 midterms. 20:58 So it makes me nervous. 20:59 Obviously, it's no longer 2002. 21:01 I think people are a lot less scared of terrorism than they were then. 21:04 I think that people are a lot angrier about the economy now than they were then, 21:08 and they're blaming Republicans. 21:09 But like, Republicans think it's working, and it's not just about Jewish voters. 21:13 like, I think it's about scaring away moderate white people. I do wonder, like, Michigan is a 21:19 relatively large Muslim American and Arab American population. I hope that this will upset and animate 21:25 that group of people and get them to turn out. I think Abdul needs to keep doing what he's doing, 21:30 like, stay focused on the cost of living, tying the Iran war into it is good. I hope when Obama 21:35 comes, Obama will talk about Abdul just being a normal guy in the way that Republicans tried to, 21:40 like other him as well and make him this scary kind of terrorist person and 21:44 obviously just bullshit. 21:45 But I have duals getting out spent two to one that press conference with 21:48 John Kennedy is about how APAC is now coming in and spending directly, 21:52 probably on the IE side, uh, when initially they weren't going to. 21:55 So like the money advantage in Michigan is like just as bad as 21:58 everywhere else. 21:58 I do think if you, um, if you want to do, uh, Islamophobia or any 22:02 phobias, um, you've, uh, the most effective political attacks, there's 22:08 like a, uh, you got to be in the dog whistle zone. 22:11 And if you go from the dog whistle zone to just the bullhorn zone, you do risk that it 22:18 becomes so extreme to people that it starts backfiring. 22:22 And I think left to his own devices, Mike Rogers would be right in the dog whistle zone 22:27 because he's lived through, because he loves those wars, all the wars, right? 22:32 Love the Patriot Act. 22:33 Love surveillance. 22:34 Like he's a George W. Bush Republican in that way. 22:37 So he would be there, but Donald Trump goes up and does his thing and calls him 22:41 Mohammed and says he's jihadist and then fucking John Kennedy is talking about 22:46 Bin Laden jerseys. And I do wonder if shortling along. Yeah, if they are getting 22:50 to the point where they risk a backlash against their attack. Hope so. Yeah, 22:55 also you have to assume they're on this because, you know, like it is a 23:00 tough environment for them. There's not a lot they're doing that's working. 23:02 They don't have a lot of good arguments to be made here in the home 23:06 stress, Trump is deeply unpopular, his agenda is deeply unpopular, Mike Rogers has basically 23:10 embraced it, so this is what they've got. 23:13 Yeah. 23:20 Potsday America is brought to you by Chili Pad by SleepMe. 23:23 When stress and late night doom-scrolling spike your core body temperature, your body 23:27 can't drop into deep restorative sleep. 23:29 You're not just drained by the news cycle, you're missing the nightly physical recovery 23:32 you need. 23:34 The good news, and yes, even now, there is some. 23:36 Science has a real answer, and it's simpler than you'd think, your bed temperature. 23:40 Enter Chili Pad 2.0, the water-based mattress topper 23:43 that actively controls your bed temperature 23:45 from 55 to 115 degrees all night long. 23:48 Who the fuck is having it set at 115 degrees? 23:51 Lunatics. 23:52 55 sounds nice to me, I like it. 23:54 I would do 55 for sure. 23:55 No new mattress, it fits right over what you already have. 23:58 Chili Pad 2.0 actively cools or warms your bed 24:01 using water and water is the key here. 24:03 Love the water. 24:04 We love water here. 24:06 Fans just move hot air around. 24:07 Chili Pad uses actively chilled water. 24:09 So do we as podcasters to pull heat away from your body 24:14 It's the difference between standing in front of a fan and jumping into a cold pool 24:17 The ladder actually works to cool your body's temperature 24:19 It's one of the most efficient natural ways to regulate temperature which means precise consistent comfort all night long from 55 to 24:26 115 degrees no matter how chaotic it gets out there and if you and your bedmate can't agree on anything this election season 24:32 Here's one thing you can settle without a debate. 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That's joelyskinko.com slash crooked. Jolie 26:35 is now available in Costco and Target, both online and in store. 26:41 We had one more Senate debate over the weekend. The only one scheduled between newly minted 26:46 Nepo Senator Darlene Graham and Democrat Dr. Annie Andrews, who's nipping at her heels 26:51 in the polls. Andrews had a lot of great hits during the debate, but the most notable 26:55 moment from Darlene Graham was this about the war in Iran. 26:58 Why in the world would it we stop now when they are still dangerous and we are close to ending the war any Andrews referred to 27:06 Graham's famously bad answer during the primary debate in August where she said national security is not my thing and Andrews replied on Sunday 27:12 If your surgeon said that appendectomies aren't really his thing. Would you still hand him a scalpel or if your surgeon was like 27:19 You know, I can't finish the surgery. My sister is gonna just run it. You can get it done for me 27:23 Yeah, or the surgeon said it's not her thing 27:30 That's important. 27:32 So this race should not be close, but Andrews is just two and a half points down in Nate 27:38 Silver's model, and Republicans just committed $5 million, so they're clearly seeing something 27:43 in the data as well. 27:45 You think it's the same thing they're seeing everywhere, or is Graham making the problem 27:50 even worse? 27:51 This is a terrible candidate. 27:54 She's embarrassed herself in the big statewide moments of the race. 27:59 I'm sure there's a lot of affinity for Lindsey Graham, 28:02 but I don't know that it carries over 28:05 to wanting to make someone a senator for a full term. 28:08 And so the environment is bad. 28:11 Look, we lost that Senate seat by 14 points. 28:13 The last time you take a nine-point swing 28:16 towards Democrats, throw some five or six points 28:19 for her being a bad candidate, 28:20 all of a sudden it's not crazy. 28:22 It's not crazy. 28:22 That last five was probably tough. 28:24 Yeah, I'm just saying, I've done, you know, 28:26 plus two points for her being great, whatever. 28:28 or you can find, it's easy to imagine us losing narrowly. 28:33 It's harder to imagine winning, 28:34 but this is an environment where we just don't know. 28:36 By the way, worth saying, 28:38 this could also be a race where there is a wave, 28:40 it is not extraordinary, 28:42 it doesn't carry all the way across these dark red states, 28:45 but we can still win the Senate, 28:46 in which case we will have invested 28:47 and built an organization in a state like South Carolina 28:51 or other states that work closer 28:52 than we have any business being, 28:53 and that will help us in the future. 28:56 So it's worth fighting this out, 28:57 even if it is ultimately one of the more difficult ones to win. 29:01 This is a tough one. There's got to be some subset of the population of South Carolina 29:05 that does not like seeing their Senate seat get passed around the family. Like that's just a 29:09 weird thing, especially to someone who just seems manifestly unqualified for the job. 29:14 I should just, I do want to say, why in the world would we stop the war 29:18 now when we're so close to it being over is like, first of all, it doesn't make any 29:22 sense, but it's also how you end up in Afghanistan for 20 years or Vietnam for 29:25 and a half years or for fighting an endless war on terror. 29:28 It's like that sunk cost fallacy that just is the dumbest way 29:31 to think about war and foreign policy generally, so. 29:34 I mean, so her credit, she is really channeling. 29:37 She's her brother. Her brother 29:38 in the best possible way there. 29:40 That is true to what Lindsey Graham 29:42 would have believed for sure. 29:43 He's looking down on heaven, taking a break 29:44 from having sex with the hottest dudes he's ever seen. 29:47 What do you think he doesn't have it to say? 29:51 Quidagosis, Quidagosis, got it. 29:54 Two thumbs up, two thumbs up, two thumbs up, two thumbs up, and then, okay. 30:00 It's obviously not just, it's obviously not just South Carolina that's become a problem 30:05 for Republicans. 30:06 Trump's Super PAC leaked on Monday that they are now, quote, trimming the map, just like 30:11 you might trim a rose bush to keep it, keep it beautiful, you know, that's the same 30:15 thing. 30:15 You got to pull off some of those kind of dead leaves to cover the growth around, 30:18 yeah, that's your point. 30:18 One of those. 30:19 Manscaping. 30:19 Michael Watley in North Carolina, one of those dead leaves. 30:22 They've trimmed that. 30:25 As the leaker put it, they're, quote, 30:27 moving on from districts that we don't think 30:29 it's the right time for, and piling in further 30:32 on ones we think it is the right time for. 30:36 Beautiful. 30:37 That sounds like it's like right from Veep. 30:40 Yeah, I'd say, yeah. 30:41 For the Senate, that means focusing their spending 30:43 in the final weeks on the piece as three states, 30:47 Ohio, Iowa, and Alaska. 30:49 They're very focused on those three. 30:50 They think if they sweep those, there's no chance the Democrats win. 30:54 They think if they get two out of three, that's a pretty good shot, too. 30:57 As for the House, on Friday, the Cook Political Report moved 18 more house races towards Democrats. 31:03 One Republican House member in a tight race bravely complained to CNN on background 31:08 that Trump is, quote, dragging the party down. 31:11 But good news, the piece also says Trump's rallies in the deep red places where he's 31:14 still popular have reportedly, quote, bolstered the president's mood. 31:18 Oh, good. 31:18 But that's what matters. 31:20 Are you happy doing what he does? 31:21 Yeah, that's right. 31:23 Trump was in Ohio on Monday night 31:26 and heads to Alaska on Tuesday, 31:28 bringing with him the same urgent closing message 31:30 we heard over the weekend. 31:31 When you stand up here, it's just like the love. 31:34 I could say the stupidest things and you'd slap me. 31:36 Oh, I love you so. 31:38 I'm sure. 31:39 Boy. 31:39 And they did. 31:40 Yeah. 31:40 He was right. 31:42 We put that hypothesis to the test the whole time. 31:44 And boy, have they all knocked it out of the park. 31:46 On the money, Teddy Schleifer at the New York Times reported on Monday that Elon Musk 31:52 has dumped more than $276 million into Republican groups and super PACs just since July, making 32:01 him by far the biggest player in the midterms. 32:03 And again, it was more than he even spent on the 2024 presidential race. 32:09 What were your takeaways from Teddy's piece? 32:12 Big picture is that we have the most broken campaign finance system on the planet. 32:15 and then hopefully someday it will upset people enough that we change it. 32:18 But the more proximate thing I was thinking, I mean, the total for Elon is now at 32:24 $366 million in the 2526 cycle. But we don't actually know the full extent of his giving 32:30 because he's also given to dark money organizations that don't have to disclose it. 32:34 So it could be way more. But it does seem like Elon Musk's money is the sole reason 32:39 that Republicans are able to afford to dump $200 million into Ken Paxton's race in Texas. 32:44 He's like single-handedly potentially saving that race 32:47 I also maybe wonder what's the kickback gonna be from Trump on the back end, right? 32:52 Like Elon got to be deputy president the first time didn't work out great 32:55 But you got to figure there's gonna be some big Pentagon contracts 32:57 Maybe Grock will fly the F-35 or something. I mean, I think that all of these fuckers now 33:03 just they are so close to realizing their AI dreams and 33:08 They just want to make sure that 33:11 that Trump lets them continue to step on the gas 33:14 and that there's no regulation whatsoever 33:17 that Elon can continue to walk into the oval like he did 33:20 and show him the latest Grock show, 33:23 where he impressed him by showing like, 33:25 look, Grock thinks we should kidnap Maduro. 33:29 Trump's like, put JD in a bikini, do it, let's do it. 33:33 It's also just, so there was one number from in there 33:36 that just jumped out at me that he's putting, 33:37 I think it's 76 million into this canvassing operation 33:40 for low propensity Republicans, right? And if you want to squint your eyes and find the places to 33:43 be worried, it's that these polls are not wrong, but they're not capturing some Republicans that 33:50 might turn out, and that could make the difference, right? And maybe that's part of the theory, 33:54 so that's a bit alarming. The other question I had in all of this is, Donald Trump is sitting 33:59 on $400 million, and a lot of these pieces are not about money being pulled, but being 34:05 reallocated, and at least about to come in, and you have all these people dropping hundreds 34:08 of millions of dollars. And my question would be, how much money is going to be in Donald 34:12 Trump's pack on the day after election day? Like how much is he actually going to put out 34:16 of his thing? 34:16 Should we take bets? 34:17 Yeah, I wonder. 34:18 Well, so it's already, I think it's close to 200 of that 400 they've spent. 34:22 So we'll see, but like, we'll see. We'll see, like how much is he sitting on coming 34:26 out of this? 34:26 You will sit, yeah, I bet it's at least 100 million. There is one other way to 34:31 look at it, which is Elon, all these other Republican donors, Trump's pack, they 34:37 have already spent hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, much of it concentrated 34:42 in the month of September, and it has done them very little, very little, very little. 34:47 Now, in that scene in peace, Republicans are saying, well, no, if we hadn't spent all that 34:53 money in September, it would have been even worse, and the money we spent in September 34:57 has stopped this race from being over already, and for more of a bloodbath. 35:01 Exactly what you expected a consultant to say. 35:03 Right, right, right. 35:04 Yeah, as they cash in for more ads, right? 35:06 Yeah. 35:07 But it is interesting to me, like I'm just, 35:10 one thing I'm gonna be interested in after this race is over 35:12 is like more money was spent on this race 35:16 than any other race in history, including like, 35:18 we're reaching like presidential levels, if not more, right? 35:21 At least from Elon. 35:23 And how much can a crazy amount of money 35:28 still make up for a dog shit political environment 35:31 when people are like, fuck you? 35:32 It's just so inefficient at the end, too. 35:34 Like, Talarico was on the air all summer long alone, I think, 35:38 and running local ad buys. 35:40 Now, Republicans in the Super PACs 35:42 are buying nationally televised Texas football games 35:44 to try to get their message in front of people, 35:46 and there's just so much wasted spend there. 35:49 I think, I read that story, 35:51 and I thought it was interesting that the MAGA Inc. people 35:53 decided to go out and pitch it. 35:55 It's partly because all these operatives like to brag 35:58 and hear themselves talk and just can't help themselves. 35:59 Also like the ad traffic changes will be public so you might as well frame it up 36:04 But they're clearly 36:06 Prespinning defeat and they're gonna pin this whole thing on 36:10 Ken Paxton if a bunch of races don't go their way because they had to dump so much money into Texas and like 36:16 Sure on some level that's true 36:18 But also Donald Trump could have endorsed John Cornyn and avoided the whole problem 36:22 Yeah, they're gonna blame they're gonna blame the candidates already starting to do that because they can't blame Trump because that's not allowed 36:27 And I do think part of this is wanting to be able to say, 36:30 after the fact, I know we lost the Senate, 36:32 but don't blame us. 36:33 We put in all the money we said we would. 36:34 We did everything we possibly could. 36:35 The billionaires, the AI billionaires, 36:37 the money, we were there for you when you needed us. 36:40 I'm sorry, Ken Paxton was a dipshit. 36:41 Obviously it's not your fault, sir, glorious leader, 36:44 but we did the best we could. 36:45 The other part of this too is the money toward the end. 36:49 In all of these stories, 36:50 there's this moment of lamentation 36:51 about the Democratic billionaires 36:53 just aren't putting the same amount in, which is true. 36:55 Part of that is because those are people 36:56 that all felt burned by the waste of putting money into campaigns and not feeling like there 37:02 was a return. 37:02 And I wonder if that's not coming for these people after this race. 37:07 I think Elon has this sort of zealotry of the convert. 37:10 And for him, right, he's made a trillion dollars. 37:14 He's a trillionaire now, whatever close to it. 37:16 And so for him, the amount he's putting out there pales a comparison to how much 37:20 his net worth has gone up over the course of this race. 37:22 But for a lot of these people, $100 million, it's real money. 37:25 That's a lot of money. 37:26 Also, for Republicans, political donations are investment 37:29 because then they have tax cut or deregulation 37:31 or something on the back end. 37:32 For us, we go to our rich people and we say, 37:34 please vote for us and give us money 37:36 so that we can raise your taxes. 37:37 It's a little different deal. 37:39 It's interesting that in 2025, Musk said, 37:42 in terms of political spending, 37:43 I'm going to do a lot less in the future. 37:45 Clearly changes mine. 37:46 I mean, clearly what happened there 37:48 is he was too much the public face 37:52 of his involvement in politics. 37:54 And I think probably the advisors around him and the communications people at his many companies were like, hey 38:00 It's probably hurting our bottom. It's probably pissing off investors hurting our bottom line voters 38:04 Yeah, and so maybe you can continue to be involved in politics 38:07 Which you know you want to do but just do it with your money and mostly shut up and show up at the White House every once in a 38:12 While and sit next to Trump and smile and just don't say anything else and maybe tweet a little less remember him in 38:17 The cheesehead 38:17 In the Wisconsin. Yeah. Well, that was a huge fucking embarrassing for him. He dropped like 50 million into that fucking thing. Yeah, that did nothing. 38:32 Podsave America is brought to you by Hymns. When it comes to seeking support to get the sex life you want, 38:37 it's not always about managing and condition or treating a symptom. 38:40 What is it about? I guess we don't know. It's about boners and pills that will get you some. 38:48 Hymns combines personalized treatment plans and a 100% online process. 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Oh, 40:43 and if you forget where to go, don't worry, you're going to hear another ZipRecruiter 40:45 ad soon enough. 40:46 All right, another big story we're watching. 40:52 Federal agents from DHS raided the D.C. home 40:55 of Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. 40:58 Fox News reported that it's related to the citizenship paperwork 41:00 her father filled out for her when she was a kid. 41:04 She was born in Somalia. 41:06 So I think she was 12 when they came over here 41:10 and she was 17 when she became a citizen. 41:12 J.D. Vance told Benny Johnson back in March 41:15 that he thinks Omar committed, quote, 41:16 immigration fraud. And DHS Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen said on Johnson's podcast last month that 41:21 the investigation was quote ongoing and that quote, something's going to happen. He added, 41:26 if we actually move a case forward, it's not a political case to to Benny Johnson on his show. 41:32 Wink wink. About a case that's coming. Yeah. Omar, who like every member of the house is 41:36 up for reelection responded to the raid by saying she won't be silenced. The House Democratic 41:40 leadership put out a statement calling the raid corrupt weaponization of the federal government 41:44 against Donald Trump's enemies. Trump himself was asked about the raid and here's what he said. 41:49 They're looking at her very carefully. 41:52 I've always thought that it'd be totally crooked, personally, 41:55 but that has nothing to do with me. 41:57 I think she's a terrible person, just a complainer. 42:00 She comes from a country that is a non-country. 42:05 And then she comes over here and she complains 42:07 about our constitution. 42:09 I think she's a terrible person, but that's 42:11 really up to the DOJ. 42:12 I have nothing to do with it. 42:13 And then the bees got on my suit. 42:15 It's just so annoying. 42:16 Go inside and do that. 42:18 So, so much for the long-standing precedent at DOJ that they don't investigate elected 42:22 officials right before an election, guess that's out the window, let alone for alleged 42:27 immigration fraud that supposedly involved her late father when she was just a child. 42:33 What do you make of all this craziness? 42:35 Yeah, I mean, it's clearly, I mean, it's outrageous to do this in October of an election 42:38 year. 42:39 I mean, it's supposed to be like a 60-day blackout period. 42:41 They're well within that. 42:41 There's no indication that they couldn't have just done this the day after the 42:45 the election and it would have harmed the case in any way. 42:48 The reporting around what happened is very weird though. 42:50 Like the investigation was reportedly led 42:53 by the Homeland Security Investigations Division at DHS. 42:57 And again, for so folks at the timeline, 42:59 Ilan was born in Somalia. 43:01 Her family had to flee when a war erupted there. 43:03 She did four years in a refugee camp in Kenya 43:05 and then came to the U.S. at age 12, as you said. 43:08 So like, even if her dad did falsify the paperwork 43:12 to get her to the U.S., first of all, 43:13 who could blame him? 43:14 And second of all, 43:15 we generally don't hold children culpable 43:18 for crimes committed by their parents in this country. 43:21 You're like, it's an outrageous thing. 43:22 You can't, if it's a criminal investigation, 43:24 there's a potential that they could do 43:26 a civil investigation to denaturalize her 43:29 if for some reason they found 43:31 that the paperwork was fraudulent. 43:32 But again, all the reporting says 43:34 it's a criminal investigation. 43:35 Yeah, and so the question is, 43:36 how did they get a criminal search warrant? 43:40 Some of the reporting suggests 43:41 there might also be an investigation 43:43 into personal finances or campaign finances 43:45 or something about, there's some nebulous line 43:47 in some of the stories about an interaction 43:49 with a foreign person, but we don't know. 43:52 Obviously, we do know that these guys were out together. 43:54 I mean, Jade Evans in that interview you mentioned 43:56 was talking about trying to build a case with her 43:58 and talking about it with Stephen Miller. 43:59 So this is coming from the highest level of the White 44:01 House. 44:02 And it's just like Trump, the things he says about her 44:05 and everyone from Somalia, it's so racist and so vile. 44:10 It's so non-country. 44:11 He said it's a non-country and again like last I like if I don't want to be alarmist 44:15 But if I was Donald Trump and I was kind of flailing and looking at some you know 44:20 Last gasp way to cling to power and punish my enemies 44:23 I would turn to DHS because they are extremely well-funded for a very long time. You have built within DHS 44:29 It's private militia force that he calls ice 44:32 And then there's this 7,000 person HSI group that does these criminal investigations and it's like 44:37 like, the whole thing is very, very weird. 44:40 And the, the, the what about is in the Republicans are like, 44:43 oh, you were fine when Trump's, you know, 44:45 Mar-a-Lago was raided, 44:46 but that wasn't right before an election, you know? 44:48 And like, there was clear like an evidentiary basis 44:50 because you left the talk secret documents by the shitter. 44:53 Also, yeah. 44:54 Also, Joe Biden wasn't running around being like, well, 44:58 I think there's some stolen documents there 45:00 that we're going to, we're going to bring a case 45:02 against him. 45:02 And then it turns out there were 45:04 and there was plenty of evidence. 45:06 So, yeah. Two things. One, that 60-day rule, it's just a kind of cultural rule, like let's 45:13 all be respectful of the democratic system and not launch investigations that will be 45:19 sensationalized in the last days of an election. That's why what James Comey did in 2016 was 45:23 so despicable because the reason you don't do this is because you understand that, first 45:28 of all, people are innocent until proven guilty. And a raid of a home or a press 45:32 conference about potential charges, all of it is salacious and garners attention and makes 45:36 people look terrible. There have actually been examples of raids and things that take 45:41 place in the 60-day windows. A Republican member of Congress who, to this day, thinks he was 45:45 railroaded by actually the DOJ under Bush because of an investigation into his, related 45:52 to his sister that I think cost him the seat, whatever. It's a cultural thing, right? 45:57 And so why do you go after Elon? Omar? Well, because you know, you try it out. You see how far 46:02 you get, right? Like, Trump will have DOJ going into a presidential election. We can expect them 46:09 to try to weaponize it against any prominent Democrat. They're already trying to do that 46:12 against Gavin Newsom when it comes to like the... And the thing is, the reason it has always been 46:17 so important that you enforce the laws and find the guilty and don't go after people and 46:21 find the laws they broke is because we understand that in a society of laws, people 46:26 will make mistakes and if you go digging you can find someone. If your citizenship paperwork 46:30 can be opened up at any moment because of a mistake, because of a reason, because someone 46:34 doesn't like you, no naturalized citizen can trust that their citizenship is secure and that 46:38 citizenship is what protects all the rights under it. And so that is what makes all of this 46:42 so dangerous. That is why it is similar to when they send two random fucking DOJ people 46:47 to Wyoming to go investigate the election. They are testing what they can get away with 46:52 and they're socializing what they're going to try to do 46:54 at scale in future elections. 46:56 It's completely fucked up. 46:58 And I was like, why not? 47:01 You could probably, if there's paperwork issues, 47:03 you could try a subpoena first, right? 47:05 And before you do a raid. 47:07 I was sort of wondering too, like, how they got a, 47:10 because a judge signed off on this warrant. 47:12 DOJ got the warrant, even though HSI did the investigation 47:14 or did the, actually raided the house. 47:16 But I guess like, you only need probable cause 47:19 of a crime that will be found at the place, right? 47:23 So they could say that like somehow maybe they think 47:25 that her father's paperwork could be found at the house. 47:28 You probably need more than that. 47:29 I think it's probably more than that. 47:31 Yeah, I reached out to a couple lawyers today. 47:32 I think we don't know what we don't know. 47:34 And we also know that the Biden TOJ opened 47:37 and then shut some sort of investigation into Ilhan Omar. 47:40 So obviously the Trump administration, people know that. 47:43 So they'll probably try to like use that. 47:45 Who knows? 47:45 Like, none of it's on the level. 47:47 Right. 47:47 But the point is to do it close to an election and, you know, and then make a big fucking 47:54 deal out of it. 47:55 Speaking of tin pot dictatorship, we haven't had a chance to talk about the literal snuff 47:59 film our government wants to produce. 48:00 Pete Hegseth announced last week that he intends to livestream the death by firing 48:05 squad execution of Nidal Hassan, who killed 13 unarmed soldiers in the horrific attack 48:10 at Fort Hood back in 2009. 48:13 Here's Hegseth breaking the news. 48:15 Execution by firing squad. Army Major betrays his country, radical Islamist kills a bunch of 48:20 Americans at Fort Hood. Of course, we're going to do it at Fort Hood and do it on a Thursday. 48:24 We're going to do it at one o'clock, which is when he did it. And it's going to be soldiers 48:28 with rifles executing the firing squad. And we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, 48:33 that it's public, because people need to understand that this is a serious consequence 48:38 for these types of things. So if Trump and Hexeth go through with it as scheduled on 48:42 On December 3rd, Hassan's death would be America's first public execution in almost a century. 48:48 Democrats and the UN, of course, condemned the decision, along with several Republicans. 48:53 Here's how the three highest-ranking Republicans responded. 48:56 I've seen these announcements. 48:57 I don't know that that's actually going to happen. 48:59 Let's sort of see what—I think it's going to happen in December when he's executed. 49:03 I was very busy yesterday when that news broke, and I haven't had a chance to talk 49:06 to the president about that, or vice president Vance or Hexia. 49:10 But there are colleagues who have concerns. 49:13 He was vicious, he was violent. 49:15 There are two thoughts, don't show it and show it. 49:18 Because, you know, by showing it, 49:19 maybe other people won't be doing what he did. 49:22 So I'll make a decision ultimately. 49:25 So those comments from Trump came a day 49:26 after he said he absolutely approved the live stream plans. 49:29 Mark Caputo at Axios also reported 49:32 that Trump has, quote, privately shared misgivings 49:34 about the live stream idea. 49:36 I think there's a chance the blowback 49:38 actually makes Trump back down from this one? 49:41 Yeah, I don't think, look, I'd be shocked if this goes through. 49:45 It seems like a kind of adult, dumb secretary defense going off with his idea without having 49:52 thought it all the way through or without talking to anybody, particularly smart about 49:55 why it's a terrible idea. 49:57 People obviously is morally despicable, but he just doesn't, he, why does he think 50:04 Pete Hexer think that we don't do public executions? 50:06 Is it because we're woke? 50:07 Does he think it's because we've gotten too woke? 50:10 We stopped doing it because these were big public spectacles. 50:14 And actually to the point a lot of people made about this, 50:17 oh, you think it's going to be a deterrent? 50:18 Do you think people that want to go out in a blaze of glory 50:20 will really hate the idea of knowing that if they commit a gruesome murder, 50:23 they'll get to be killed in front of the world stage? 50:25 And it actually goes back to why we stopped doing this in the first place, right? 50:28 It wasn't because people weren't interested. 50:30 Tens of thousands of people gathered at the last public execution, 50:32 but these spectacles were not something people could control. 50:34 and what would happen? 50:36 People would yell, people would scream. 50:38 The person about to be executed would give a speech. 50:40 People would cheer for them. 50:41 People would try to free them. 50:42 People would get drunk and they would fight. 50:44 It was a disgusting display. 50:45 And it wasn't just the do-gooders 50:47 who were against capital punishment, 50:50 who thought it was a vulgar act 50:51 and wrong kind of aesthetically and morally. 50:54 It was actually advocates for the death penalty 50:56 who thought, oh, let's get this behind closed doors 50:58 because then people won't see 50:59 how gruesome and despicable it was. 51:01 They thought it was a way to prolong it. 51:03 There's a reason they ring bells. 51:05 When the executions moved, 51:07 sorry, I happened to read a book about this recently, 51:09 when the executions were moved 51:11 behind the prison walls in England, 51:14 they would ring the bells and the neighbors 51:15 would ask the prison, 51:16 can you please stop ringing the bells 51:18 when you do the executions 51:19 because it's making us all uncomfortable 51:20 and it reminds us all 51:22 this is where you're doing your killing 51:23 and the warden was like, 51:25 nope, unfortunately, 51:26 we're gonna continue ringing the bells. 51:28 So you think they should be public then? 51:30 No, no, no, I'm against the death penalty 51:32 but I don't think Pete Hegseth has thought through what he would be doing for the death penalty. 51:37 He's just like, he's like, just a comic evil fucking wannabe alpha man. Like this is the 51:43 high T version of this at the same time, same place. We're going to kill him here with rifles. 51:48 Shut up, man. If Nidala-san was like, killed your relative or something, like 51:53 in witnessing the execution helps you find closure, okay. But to live stream it to the 52:00 like we look barbaric, Al-Qaeda will use it 52:03 to make him a martyr. 52:05 The guy's in a wheelchair. 52:06 He's a 56-year-old man. 52:08 When he shot up Fort Hood, they shot back. 52:11 He was wounded. 52:12 He can't move from the waist down. 52:14 So you're murdering an old man in a wheelchair 52:16 and you think that's like the high-T thing here? 52:18 It's like fucking psychopeat, Hexap stuff. 52:21 It's always these religious fanatics 52:23 who are born again that love this stuff. 52:25 Like, I hope this gets walked back. 52:27 Yeah, to your point, they did interview 52:29 a couple of the family members, 52:31 the daughter of someone who was killed, 52:33 the daughter of Michael Grant Cale, 52:36 objected to the whole broadcast 52:37 because she said it turns the tragedy 52:39 into a public spectacle. 52:41 And it shifts the attention away from the victims, 52:43 which so that's like, that's at least one family member. 52:45 But like, look, there's all the like pragmatic reasons 52:48 not to do it, right? 52:49 Which is like, what about the members 52:52 of the firing squad, right? 52:53 Like will they be known to the world now? 52:55 What about the rest of the military 52:57 putting the rest of the military in danger. 52:59 I'll kind of threaten to kill prisoners in their custody 53:02 if this happens. 53:03 What about kids who stumble upon the live stream? 53:07 We're going to do this now. 53:08 The government's just going to lie. 53:09 And it's like, I oppose the death penalty, 53:12 but you don't have to oppose the death penalty 53:14 to find this morally repugnant. 53:16 Like, what additional purpose is served 53:19 by turning the death of someone 53:21 into a public spectacle? 53:24 There is none. 53:24 Well, this is why he said that. 53:26 And why is our government inviting us to become spectators 53:30 to the violent death of another human being? 53:33 One of the reasons, like you said, 53:34 we stopped a fucking century ago 53:36 is because it is degrading and dehumanizing, 53:39 not to the person being killed, executed, 53:42 but by all the rest of us. 53:44 Yes, and the Hexeth sort of stumbles upon his words there 53:48 when he goes, well, because it's a deterrent, 53:51 so people know you're not supposed to do this. 53:53 It's like, do you think that people 53:54 under the impression you can commit math shootings 53:57 on military basis, but we are all aware. 53:58 It was so close to doing it. 54:00 And then I saw that guy get murdered by our military 54:03 on live TV. 54:04 And so now I'm going to hold off on my plans. 54:07 Do you think Hassan, this guy that did this, 54:09 do you think he was under the impression 54:10 that he was going to get away with it? 54:11 Right? 54:12 Like, this is somebody who went in with this 54:15 under the expectation that they were either going 54:18 to die then, die in the future, whatever, 54:19 go out in this blaze of glory. 54:20 Why are you giving them the fucking glory? 54:22 But why would you do that? 54:23 That's more on, yeah. 54:25 All right, before we get to love 54:27 this interview with Chris Papas, 54:28 we got some Kim Guilfoyle updates. 54:30 I know you've all been waiting for those. 54:31 Dan and I talked about the Wall Street Journal 54:32 and Daily Mail stories on Friday show, 54:35 which involved Guilfoyle soliciting $100,000 54:38 from her Trump donor to pay off her AmEx card 54:40 in exchange for the promise of access 54:42 she never delivered, 54:44 along with her champagne fueled Greek party life 54:46 as ambassador. 54:48 Over the weekend, the journal published another piece 54:50 about Guilfoyle's overly friendly relationship 54:52 with two wealthy Greek businessmen who reportedly bankrolled her private jet travel and luxury 54:58 hotel stays. One of the businessmen benefited from Guilfoyle telling other countries to buy his 55:03 natural gas, and she was also caught on tape bragging about the PJs and calling one of the 55:08 businessmen her people. She also threw a temper tantrum after not being able to get into a 55:12 dinner party for Eric Trump being held at Greek House Davos. The horror. According to the AP 55:20 and other outlets, Trump and Marco Rubio are now considering firing Guilfoyle with a senior 55:25 U.S. official telling the AP that the president and secretary of state, who was just in Greece, 55:29 defending Guilfoyle, are quote, extremely pissed off. And here's what Trump had to say about the 55:34 situation on Monday. 55:38 Well, we're looking at it. Yeah, we're not happy. We've been ready. 55:44 Oh, yeah. So, like, I suspected that Trump may not fire her because she knows 55:49 is where all the bodies are buried 55:50 having been almost a Trump family member. 55:53 But it sounds like she's going now. 55:55 What are you guys making? 55:56 I'm trying to bury her ass in Greece. 55:57 It didn't work so well. 55:59 Yeah, I know. 56:00 If I was too close to the sun, you know. 56:01 My son dumped her like a dog and now so did I. 56:04 I just want to say, I cannot get enough 56:06 of these fucking stories. 56:07 These are the best. 56:08 Like what's amazing is they're all going 56:10 to the Wall Street Journal 56:10 but they're kind of disconnected, right? 56:13 So it can't be the same source. 56:15 It's like someone, people just all over the world 56:18 I'll just fucking hate her guts and are running to the Wall Street Journal to talk about it. 56:21 I mean, from her texts, I understand. 56:23 Yeah, well, the first story is like the lobbyist thing, 56:26 and then she threatened to topple the Greek government. 56:28 That's a fun little detail. 56:30 My favorite part about the AMAC story is repeatedly telling, 56:34 scolding him in writing for putting the crimes in writing. 56:37 She says, Eric, I really wish you would stop papering all these things. 56:40 Then there's this IG report. 56:42 I don't know if you and Dan talked about this, 56:43 where she fired her head of security or demoted him. 56:47 This is my favorite part. 56:48 She called him at 4 a.m., looking for more ice, 56:50 obviously shit face in Mykonos. 56:51 And it was some grandpa who was like on her security detail. 56:54 And then the story. 56:55 Demoted, demoted. 56:56 Demoted the next day, yeah. 56:57 And then like a recording of her unable to get 57:02 into Eric Trump's party is the funniest thing in the world. 57:06 You were engaged to his brother. 57:07 And she's- 57:08 Eric Trump's party. 57:09 And some Greek business guy, 57:10 one of her sugar daddies is on the guest list. 57:12 And she's like, you should be kissing my ass. 57:14 She should be kissing my fucking ass, that's the quote. 57:16 I also think it doesn't really matter that she knows where any of these bodies are buried because 57:22 even if he fires her 57:24 She's gonna need a pardon, right? Like she is she is gonna need a he's a he she broke 57:29 It's so brazen that the texts are so brazen and by the way 57:34 She wasn't undone because they put it in writing 57:36 She was undone because he showed this text that he is leaking 57:41 He's going a big he like he's on the record saying it was definitely a quid pro quo 57:45 Like he is basically saying that she was asking for and receiving bribes 57:50 God well God only knows what details we'll find out about the relationship with these these Greek businessmen 57:56 So like she's really fuck. She does have diplomatic immunity. So like I she might even need the heart diplomatic immunity 58:02 I don't listen. I'm not I know how it works from lethal weapon, too 58:05 But I'm not sure how I don't know that it protects you from taking outright bribes before you were confirmed for you're confirmed 58:09 Right, right the quotes are amazing. I see Nicos every fucking day. I'm flying from to Paris 58:14 I'm with him for a fucking week. 58:15 He loves me, honey. 58:16 I spent Christmas with him. 58:17 New Year's okay, sh-todd, like sh-todd. 58:20 You know, someone was saying last week 58:22 when the first came out like, 58:23 are we supposed to believe that maybe there was more 58:27 than a friendship or a business relationship with her? 58:30 And I'm like, actually, now reading all of the texts, 58:32 I kind of think that's just how she talks to people, 58:34 which is like just an annoying fucking person 58:36 who's like, hey baby, hey honey, 58:38 fly me here, fly me there. 58:40 This is like, she seems like she sucks. 58:42 Did you guys read, did you guys catch the response quote from the embassy like some poor flak had to give us 58:50 The the unsubstantiated claims are simply a distraction from the great work 58:53 She is doing in Greece and the broader eastern Mediterranean. I love 58:59 That is such an NSC goon 59:02 Right because we're all I guess she's also responsible for tabiting in Cyprus. I assume that's yes. Yes 59:07 She's doing a lot of good work there toppling the 59:09 How awesome that Marco Rubio is so pissed. 59:11 He gives this big fucking speech in front of the Acropolis 59:15 and it's just completely overshadowed by this dingbat 59:19 that they like and put in creeds. 59:21 It's funny to say, it's very, you know, 59:23 he's got the hubris, she's staring at her reflection 59:26 in the fucking pond. 59:27 Yeah, he's so arrogant that he is giving a speech 59:30 about saving Western civilization 59:32 and it's destroyed by the US ambassador to Greece. 59:35 A person you should not know exists or ever hear from 59:38 and yet she ruins all the stories, it was incredible. 59:40 Honestly, it's a great symbol for what Marco Rubio's 59:43 entire presidential run at some point will be like, 59:46 is he tries so hard to sort of present himself 59:49 as this sort of stable, normal, adult-in-the-room Republican, 59:53 and all the shit he's done by being connected 59:55 to the Trump administration is just gonna keep 59:57 fucking biting that guy in the ass. 59:58 It's almost as if he's gonna have to keep 60:00 rolling this boulder up a hill, 60:02 and it's gonna keep rolling back down over 60:04 and over and over again. 60:06 And he was so pissy with that you guys think this is gospel. I don't think it's gospel in front of you for a thing 60:10 He's like just absolutely a whiny bitch. I 60:13 Give him a list. I definitely has yeah. No, I'm in imagine just having to go to your ex's 60:21 Dad to get a partin, you know, like you don't know what kind of terms are you on, you know, like like she's got a text 60:28 Don be like hey, I know think I look 60:30 I think he's gonna do a like literally 60:34 write down the names of every single person 60:36 who has ever worked in the Trump administration 60:38 and I'm pardoning all of them right now. 60:39 Oh, no. 60:40 There will be no requests. 60:42 Except for you, Kristi Nome. 60:43 Yeah. 60:44 There'll be a couple that don't get it. 60:44 Yeah, he'll go through anyone who like really pissed him off. 60:47 I realized that Kim follows me on Twitter 60:49 so I followed back and I DMed her. 60:51 Oh, really? 60:51 What did you do? 60:52 Anything? 60:52 I just thought I said- 60:54 Amix? 60:54 Do you have any Amix issues? 60:55 No, I said sup Kimbo Slice. 60:58 Congrats on the epic run of press coverage. 61:00 Not sure how they roll in Greece, 61:01 but here in America, 61:02 We respect the big baller lifestyle want to come on my show and talk about it 61:05 We can tell off that dumb ass security guard. It wouldn't get you ice. Nice. Let me see a show back 61:10 Tell me were you jealous when I you know Jared Kushner follows me. Yeah, should I DM him? 61:15 It's yeah, do you want a message message that you want me to let's 61:19 You should give you fall them back. Yes, I have I did do I did do the follow back 61:22 You should I felt embarrassed that I hadn't been following Jared Kushner cinnamon. Oh, that's like, hey man 61:27 I'm sorry that my co-host called you a literal war profiteer. 61:31 We don't even like that guy anymore. 61:33 If you ever want to talk about it, here's my number. 61:35 Perfect, all right. 61:36 All right, when we come back, 61:37 love it talks to New Hampshire Senate nominee, 61:40 Chris Pappas. 61:47 Pods of America is brought to you by Bombas. 61:49 Cozy season is upon us. 61:51 That means curling up on crisp mornings and soft layers. 61:53 Bombas makes your comfiest fall staples 61:55 so you can make the most out of arguably 61:57 the best season of the year. 61:59 Bombas' new suede moccasins are perfect for fall 62:01 with cushy soles, a shearing lining, and water-resistant suede. 62:05 And their slippers are everything you'd want for a cozy night in, 62:07 made with the softest, most cloud-like materials. 62:09 Then there's Bombas compression sock collection. 62:11 Choose from specialized designs for travel, every day, 62:14 workout, and recovery. 62:15 There's a fatigue-fighting pair for every moment. 62:18 John, check this out. 62:19 You got some? 62:20 Ooh, look at those. 62:21 We've got sores ready for the people. 62:22 I see no holes in those. 62:24 They look very soft and comfy. 62:27 Thank you for putting your feet on the table. 62:28 No problem. 62:28 It's a little hug for your friend. 62:29 I'm the best part about Bombas. 62:31 For every item you purchase, 62:32 they donate an essential clothing item 62:34 to someone facing housing insecurity. 62:36 One purchase equals one donated 62:38 with over 200 million donations and counting. 62:41 Head over to Bombas.com slash Cricut 62:42 and use code Cricut for 20% off your first purchase. 62:45 That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash Cricut, 62:48 code Cricut at checkout. 62:54 Joining me now, he's a member of Congress 62:56 running for Senate against former Republican Senator 62:58 John Sununu. 62:59 Chris Papas, welcome to the show. 63:01 Great to be on, thanks for having me. 63:02 Let's start with this. Your family restaurant, the Puritan Backroom, I could not believe this. 63:09 Your family claims to have invented the chicken tender. 63:12 Well, it's been written. We long didn't really claim it. Publications like the New York Times have 63:20 done the research and dug into the issue and credited us with pioneering, inventing the 63:25 chicken tender, whatever term you want to use, but we sell a lot of fried chicken tenders these 63:29 days, usually 10, 12,000 pounds a week, sometimes a lot more than that during the busy seasons. 63:35 Yes. Obviously, there are many who make similar claims. Is there technically a difference between 63:42 a chicken tender and a chicken finger? Yeah. No, I think there is. A nugget is very different 63:47 from a tender, is different from a finger. I think like a nugget is processed ground-up 63:52 chicken, right? I think a finger could be any piece of chicken, but a tender 63:56 tender is a specific muscle on the chicken itself. 64:00 So there are only two per every bird. 64:02 Thank you for clarifying that. 64:03 I don't know. 64:03 I feel like if my family had invented something as wonderful or been affiliated with potentially 64:09 having invented something as wonderful as the chicken tender, I think I'd make it a 64:12 bigger part of my campaign. 64:13 I think you're making a mistake. 64:14 It's out there. 64:16 Most New Hampshire voters have eaten there at one point in time. 64:19 So usually when I'm talking to voters, the first thing I hear is, I met my 64:22 spouse at your restaurant. 64:23 I love going there for family functions or whatever it happens to be so it's great and actually a few weeks ago 64:29 We had Joey Chestnut in town and he led a chicken tender eating contest at the local minor league ballpark 64:36 Because New Hampshire has been a Manchester has been declared the chicken tender capital of the world by the mayor 64:40 So there's there's a lot of chicken tender lore in this city here. How many did he eat? 64:45 Do we know how many he ate? 64:47 I think 50 pieces in five minutes and there were teams of three people each that could 64:55 not eat more than the one Joey Chestnut could in the five minutes. 64:59 Pretty cool. 65:00 So your opponent actually said to a room full of Republicans that he's running to send 65:06 you back to busing tables at the Puritan. 65:10 He seems like a guy that's really in touch with the working people of New Hampshire. 65:14 I mean that one's us that's like a slow pitch right up right over the plate for you. What was your reaction to that? 65:20 Yeah, well, it does show how elite and out of touch 65:24 This young Sununu is who's part of a very famous political dynasty in New Hampshire 65:29 I don't think this guy knows what hard work looks like and when you run a local business 65:34 You do everything from top to bottom 65:36 And I did that for about 15 years between college and getting elected to the house in 2018 65:41 But the fact is, there's dignity in all work, including busing tables, washing dishes, serving other people. 65:49 That's how I discovered public service to begin with. 65:51 It was working at my family business, running the show there, being part of the local community. 65:57 And Johnson who clearly is out of touch, he's part of an elite political class. 66:04 He's been our U.S. senator before when he was defeated by voters. 66:07 He went and fed at the corporate trough for the last 18 years working for corporate special interest and one of the biggest lobbying firms in DC 66:14 So this guy doesn't know what hard work looks like so 66:17 You mentioned that he has this names in new-new. It's obviously a big New Hampshire political name. He's 66:25 Once credit for having been anti-trump in the past while 66:30 Embracing the Trump endorsement and the agenda now he hasn't an ad up 66:36 And I want to roll a clip of it because it basically just says don't believe the haters. 66:41 Something like this. 66:43 Oh, the things you'll hear about me in this campaign, they'll say I'm a d***. 66:48 That when I was in Congress, I d***. 66:51 It goes on like that. 66:52 It seems like people are hoping the name and sort of the independent vibe will carry 66:58 the day and that they won't kind of hear the argument that you're making. 67:02 What was your response to that ad? 67:04 Well, the good news is, the more this guy's on TV, the more they recognize that he's not 67:08 his younger, more affable, gregarious brother who was our moderate governor for about eight years. 67:14 So, you know, I think that we want him to be out there as much as possible so they realize 67:18 which Sununu he is. But the guy just doesn't relate well to voters. He's running a very 1996 67:24 campaign, which was the first year he ran for Congress. He's been in office or working 67:30 in Washington for 30 years. And I think he just doesn't get what this moment is about. 67:36 This is a moment where people are so hungry for change, including generational change. 67:41 They want new voices at the table. And the last thing we need is to put someone back 67:44 in office who was there before, who didn't get the job done for New Hampshire. I mean, 67:49 he was drummed out of office in 2008 because he was down the line for George W. Bush and 67:53 the unpopular policies of the moment. And now he's sidling up with Donald Trump 67:57 up in this election where people want to fundamentally change the way Washington works 68:02 and want people who are going to stand up to this president and the policies that are 68:05 making life more expensive. 68:06 So he's trying to do everything he can to relate, but he's a pretty lazy campaigner. 68:11 We're running circles around the guy. 68:13 The only thing he has going for him is his big name and tens and tens of millions of 68:17 dollars about estate money that's flooding into New Hampshire, which is making this 68:20 race close. 68:22 You just bring up the name. 68:23 You've had center races that are decided by about a thousand votes. 68:26 I mean, these things can be, New Hampshire can be razor thin. 68:30 There is, it's been noted that his campaign signs do not say his first name. 68:35 They say Senunu because he's counting on there being some confusion. 68:40 Are you hearing about like, is this something you're actually feeling and worrying about 68:44 inside your campaign? 68:45 Is it actually something you need to address to make sure people understand which Senunu 68:49 is running? 68:50 It's less of an issue now than it was maybe a year ago or six months ago. 68:54 I think people are figuring it out because they're seeing him on their television sets and on their screens 68:59 Yeah, he doesn't put his first name on his signs and frankly 69:02 He didn't when he first ran for Congress in the 1990s because at that time 69:06 He was hoping people would confuse him with his dad who was our governor back in the 80s 69:10 So look, he's he's part of this family dynasty. New Hampshire deserves so much more than this right now 69:15 We need a full-time senator who understands the challenges out there who knows the communities of this state who understands 69:22 how our small business economy works and who will stand up to Trump and the political class in 69:27 Washington DC. He's part of that broken system. And he's the last person that can bring change 69:33 and challenge the status quo for New Hampshire. So if you're in the Senate, you've said that 69:37 there has to be accountability for the Trump administration while focusing on the economic 69:42 issues that are driving a lot of the discontent with the Trump administration. Now, 69:46 Now, your colleague Thomas Massey proposed an impeachment resolution for Hegzeff. 69:52 If you're in the Senate, would you like to see a Democratic House impeach Hegzeff so 69:57 that there can be accountability for the Iran War and other abuses of power through that 70:02 kind of a trial? 70:03 Do you think that's a worthwhile endeavor? 70:05 Well, one of the reasons why I think that we were sent home by Mike Johnson early 70:09 was because he didn't want this resolution to be on the floor because he knew it was 70:14 to be a political problem for Republicans and he was afraid he might actually lose some Republicans 70:18 on that vote. Look, that's a process obviously that starts in the House. I as a House member have 70:25 had the unfortunate opportunity to vote on two Trump impeachments, the first one back in 2019, 70:32 and then again in the wake of January 6th, I will always stand up for my oath of office. 70:36 And there's got to be accountability for these guys. The fact that Pete Hegseth 70:41 has fired or drummed out dozens and dozens of top military officials, continues to lie 70:48 to the American people about how this war is progressing, is hiding basic information 70:53 from the American public and from Congress. 70:55 We have to reckon with that. 70:57 And you know, that starts by ensuring that we are not confirming unqualified appointees 71:02 like Hexeth, that we have committees that are actually holding real hearings, including 71:08 on the way this war has been conducted, which hasn't been done in the Senate to date because 71:13 Republicans refuse to dig in on those topics. So this is about national security and making sure 71:19 we have the right people in the right place to keep America safe and keep our troops out of 71:23 harm's way. And I do hope that we can focus on ensuring that there is accountability for 71:29 Trump administration officials who have been voting the law in the Constitution and have 71:33 been making our country less safe while at the same time making sure that we don't lose 71:37 site of what people want us to focus on here all across the country, which is the affordability 71:43 crisis, bringing down costs, making this economy fair. 71:46 We can do both at the same time, but it shouldn't come at the expense of how we can make progress 71:50 for the American people. 71:52 So you'd be the first openly gay man elected to the Senate. 71:58 We've had some women who have been elected, but you'd be the first guy. 72:03 I don't feel like anybody cares or is really talking about it. 72:06 I think that actually if you asked a lot of people, 72:07 they would have no idea that you would be breaking this barrier. 72:11 Do you think it's important? 72:13 Do you care? 72:14 Do people ask you about it? 72:15 Well, I always have to add the caveat that we know of. 72:18 Well, of course. 72:19 Because of course, there have been hundreds and hundreds 72:21 of senators elected through the years. 72:23 And no doubt, there was someone 72:25 who was in the closet at one point in time. 72:27 Yeah, for sure. 72:28 But look, I'm not running to make history clearly. 72:31 But it is interesting that we are 72:33 continuing to take steps forward in this country even while this administration 72:38 Republicans play the culture wars and target the LGBTQ plus community with 72:42 some of the most cynical attacks and you know as someone who grew up in New 72:46 Hampshire I've lived my whole life here I wasn't sure as a kid that I would be 72:51 able to have a full life that I would be able to find love that I would be 72:55 able to represent New Hampshire as an out gay man in Congress so it's a 72:59 signal of how far we've come. We've got more progress to make. But this campaign is really 73:04 not about making history. It's about making a difference for New Hampshire, how we fight 73:08 to change things in Washington, stand up to this president and make people's lives better. 73:12 I wonder if you'd inspire other closeted members of Congress to come out. You're in the house 73:17 right now. There are closet cases all over that building. Do you have any, 73:20 any, your gate are ever going off in the hallways? 73:23 I, um, look, it's, uh, we have the largest, uh, equality caucus that we have ever had in 73:29 congressional history, um, and we are always open to new members. 73:34 Okay. All right. Well, I've, that's not a no. I'm not hearing a no. I have not thought that, 73:40 boy, that seemed like a, that seemed like a closet case walking by me in the hallway, 73:44 but you don't, right? Am I, some of these Republicans, I mean, come on. 73:48 Everyone should be able to be themselves. So the thing I have a problem with 73:52 is folks that have family members, 73:56 people that have staff members, 73:58 and they're voting against their fundamental dignity 74:01 and full of quality under the law. 74:04 So we will take any converts who are willing 74:07 to actually step up and make sure we're including everyone 74:10 in the destiny of this country. 74:11 There it is serious and I know, and I know. 74:14 All right, last question for you. 74:15 You got tens of millions of dollars. 74:17 Elon Musk put some money in this Coke back group, 74:21 billionaire back right wing group has put in, I think like $15 million, the Senate Republican 74:26 PAC is putting in another $17 million. That was a huge amount of money coming in. 74:31 First of all, what are they trying to do and what are you trying to do right now to kind of 74:36 fight back against this money that's coming in? Yeah, look, they're trying to muddy the water. 74:40 If this election is about people's feelings on the economy, people's feelings about Donald 74:45 Trump and the direction of this country, we're going to build the broad coalition of 74:49 Democrats, independents and Republicans that we need to win a tough center race. But if 74:53 they succeed in making it about anything other than that, and they've got messaging all across 74:57 the board on a number of different topics and really just trying to make voters, I 75:03 think, numb and walk away from their responsibilities this election. If it's about anything other 75:09 than those core issues, Johnson and New could win the center race. 75:13 We just want to do our part in New Hampshire to lock down a tough seat and ensure that 75:17 But then we can take the steps in the four other states we need to flip the Senate majority. 75:21 So people can go to chrispappis.org, help us flip the Senate, help us do it one state 75:26 at a time. 75:27 This is a state where we had a Senate race in 2016 that was decided by 1,017 votes. 75:32 Those 1,017 votes saved the Affordable Care Act back a few years ago. 75:37 So politics is a game of inches here. 75:39 We're an all election day voting state. 75:41 So we got to work hard over the next 22 or so days to get out the vote and 75:46 win this thing. And as long as we can communicate our message, I feel hopeful about what we're 75:51 going to be able to do here. And in so many other battleground states across the country, 75:54 voters are on to this president. He has breached trust with the American people, 75:59 including people that voted for him in the last election. So this is a moment where we can really 76:04 broaden the conversation beyond just the base of the Democratic Party and talk to people's 76:09 challenges and how we can do a lot better. Chris Papas, good luck and thank you for 76:13 been here. Thanks so much.
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