Roe vs Republicans

Listen, we're all tired of the both sides media. And in this existential battle, we find ourselves in between authoritarianism and democracy. We need media that actually defends democracy unapologetically. That's why you should check out the Midas Touch podcast. Hosted by three brothers with diverse backgrounds, the Midas Touch Podcast releases daily and is a go-to source for news and commentary. See why our very own. Dan Pfeiffer called Midas Touch's unique approach to covering the news a sign of hope in his latest book, and subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast today. That's m-e-i-d-a-s-t-o-u-c-h.

And halfway to Moscow, I'm Jon Lovett.

I'm Tommy Vitor.

On today's show, the Republican presidential candidates and Joe Biden are battling with each other over abortion. A year after the Dobbs decision, the president road tests a new economic message and gets advice about his age from Hollywood. Texas congressman Colin Allred stops by to talk about his Senate race against Ted Cruz. And we take a look at some feuds where it's tough to pick a side in a game we're calling.

Billion dollar baby.

But first, we will be back on the road this fall, starting with live shows in D.

Yeah, yeah.

If you're a member of the Friend of the Pod subscription community, which you should be. You get first access to pre-sale tickets and the best seats for these shows.

When Tommy hits that watermelon, you're gonna need a poncho.

We're to Gallagher this, it's gonna be. I would love to Gallagher this show.

You get a seat on stage, you get to sit right next to Dan at the end, right there. Cool, yeah.

That's my chair.

Damn it well, now it's someone else's. The pre-sale starts tomorrow, June 28th.

You can warm your hands on the hot hot takes.

All right, the pre-sale starts tomorrow, June 28th, it goes through June 30th and again to participate in the pre-sale. As a friend of the pod, you can subscribe at any tier today to get the code that's Cricket.com Slash Friends. That subscription, in addition to getting some great tickets early, will also get you some bonus content from US, access to a great community on Discord and so much more.

The Discord community sent in all the questions for the bonus pod. We did on Russia over the weekend, they were great.

Did a great job, thank you, and it's fun to chat with folks in the Discord. Yeah, cool. Go to Cricket.com Slash Friends to subscribe and get the pre-sale code and link.

It's a Rube Goldberg Pride machine, it's got disco balls. Olivia's about to let it go. Let's see what happens, let's see what happens.

Okay, the balls are heading down the ramp, huh? We're supposed to be doing color commentary on this, Oh.

Wait, oh wait, that one worked, that one went down, there we go.

There we go.

Oh, now it's going by, I think that's makeup. Oh, there's a oh wait.

Yeah, yeah.

Woo.

Are those shoes supposed to spin Ben? spin the shoes?

Yeah.

Happy pride, everybody.

All right, that's some A-plus content right there.

It's incredible.

All right, let's get to the news. One year after the Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to an abortion. The Republican presidential candidates took a victory lap at a gathering of evangelical voters in Washington, D.C. over the weekend. Donald Trump, the twice-divorced frontrunner who's been indicted for paying hush money to a porn star, told the crowd. That quote No president has ever fought for Christians as hard as I have, and quote I'm being indicted for you.

Exactly one year ago, today, those justices were the pivotal votes in the Supreme Court's landmark decision ending the constitutional atrocity known as Roe v Wade.

It was the right thing to do.

Don't let anyone tell you it wasn't. Every Republican candidate for president should support a ban on abortion before 15 weeks as a minimum nationwide standard.

Of course, Trump has refused to say whether he would support that 15-week ban. And he has also criticized DESantis six-week abortion ban in Florida. Which is what DESantis was obliquely referring to when he said, Don't let anyone tell you it wasn't the right thing to do so. Now that it's been a year since Dobbs, what do you guys think about the effect that decision has had on voters belief about abortion and how that compares with where Republican voters are right now? Tommy?

It seems to have drastically increased support for abortion rights in this country. There was a USA Today Suffolk poll that found by almost four to one, so, 23 to 6. Those whose views on abortion have changed in the past year said they've become more supportive of legal abortion, not less supportive. Including among independent women, a critical swing group, they became more supportive by 28 to 5, so pretty big swing.

Yeah.

I mean, this is what. Look, polls are polls, they're all over the place. This is one issue where a lot of outlets did something about this. For the one-year anniversary of Dobbs, every single poll says the same thing, or it's moved in the same general direction. The New York Times had a nice roundup of all of them. For the first time, a majority of Americans say abortion is morally acceptable.

I mean, Mike Pence is at least voicing the position that has been held, whether out loud or not, by Republicans for a very long time. The support for national ban isn't just unpopular in the country. The country supports abortion rights, it's unpopular among Republicans. So, two to one. In that same poll that Tommy mentioned, it was like, 58 to 30 oppose overturning Roe, 80 to 14 oppose a national ban. Which means a sizable portion of people who are anti-abortion or say they're anti-abortion still oppose the national ban. Not just Democrats 83 of independents and 65 of Republicans oppose a national ban.

The other thing that's interesting, I think historically, I think, the narrative has been the Republicans are really motivated by the abortion issue, more so than Democrats. That is completely flipped. The NBC poll found that 87 of Democratic voters strongly disapprove of Roe's overturn, versus 52 of Republicans who strongly approve.

And in terms of Ron DESantis six week abortion ban, 18 support, terrible, that's it, 18 now. I mean, the only thing I'll say, you know, just there are still....

And, you know, I do think there's also like a little bit of a subtlety in terms of what this does inside of Republican politics. Because, you know, you hear the enthusiasm inside of that crowd. And these are people that are gonna get behind candidates early, these are people that knock on doors. So I think there's a little bit of that dynamic at play. But on the other hand, I also wonder what this does to the electability argument that someone like Ron DeSantis is gonna have to make.

It's gone, yeah, and I would say it's gone. Well. Do you guys see any evidence? That hitting Trump from the right on abortion, like, you know, DeSantis and Pence are sort of kind of doing? Might peel off enough Trump voters to make a difference in the primary for them? Forget about the general.

Not yet. I mean, DeSantis is currently dropping like a rock in most of these national polls, so it's not really showing up for him.

Rolling down like a rock.

Rolling down like a rock, picking up, speed down like a rock. Pence is not exactly popping. I mean, Desantis is basically running his entire campaign to the right of Trump on all sort of culture war issues. To the extent that he thinks he can. But it doesn't seem to be doing anything for him.

Yeah, I think the question is like, how salient is this inside of Republican politics right now? The difference between a bunch of candidates who all completely agree with appointing right wing judges who will continue to, you know, support not having national abortion rights versus what level of ban, you know, at the national level? They're going to get behind, like, it's just not clear you have, you have Trump refusing to do it.

I mean, the the strategy would be take these right wing positions on abortion and make a hard play in Iowa for the evangelical voters there. But DESantis doesn't seem to be doing that effectively, and it doesn't seem to be working, at least not so far.

I'll go as far to say that, you know, it doesn't seem to have a lot of salience in the Republican primary issues. That's fair. It feels like the big issue that is going to be predictive of how you vote in the Republican primary is what you think about Donald Trump, right? And it was interesting.

So that's just also like, you sort of step back from this. What would any of these people do as president? They would nominate anti-choice judges, and they would sign whatever Republican Congress passed, They would all sign a national abortion law. We'll talk about this during the Biden section. But the end result of any of them will look very similar.

So Politico has a story about vulnerable House Republicans in California, in New York. And a lot of those Biden districts who are now saying they aren't afraid of Democratic attacks on abortion. And 24.

Strategy for geography. You know they, they're acting as though they're dancing on the head of the pin. On this issue, to try to create some kind of distance from national Republicans made any difference. The one thing we did see is that voters in states where electing Republicans might lead to a ban, in that state, the issue was more salient.

As MTG says, I forget what? The name of the Republican, the story, the political story quoted some, uh, New York representative bragging about fighting off these attacks in 2022.

You own this?

Of course, you do. I totally agree with that, but I think that if you're a Republican who supports, you know exceptions and first term abortion or whatever. Like, I could see you squeaking through if you really hit that message hard, where I don't think. I think that if you tag these Republicans, though, is supporting Republican leaders and Republican presidential candidates who are much more extreme than you're gonna have a much tougher time. And also, like, these people have all taken votes that are that are bad votes, anti-abortion votes, and you can hold those up too.

And also if it's a referendum on electing a Republican House, means they will attempt to do a national ban. Electing a Democratic House means. Codifying Roe. Getting these people on the record squirrelly and afraid to come out either for a national ban or against it, while certainly refusing to say they'd support codifying Roe. Is, I think, you know, that's what we have to do.

Before we move on, we should say that before we even get to 2024. There are a couple of big fights over abortion that we should all pay attention to this year. On August 8th, in Ohio, Republicans put a measure on the ballot that would raise the threshold to pass constitutional amendments from 50 to 60. They're hoping that they can defeat an amendment in the fall that would guarantee the right to an abortion. And then, in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin is trying to pass a statewide ban unless Democrats hold their four seat majority in the state Senate.

A law?

As I said before, court got Roe right 50 years ago, and I believe Congress should restore the protections of Roe v. Wade once and for all.

So we need your help.

So I'm asking, Are you with us?

You're going to get this done.

Just as an aside, I do like that. Every time he jokes about his age, he picks a new big number.

It's great.

It's great, it works every time.

What do you guys think is the best way for Biden Democrats to make abortion matter as much in 24 as it did in 2022? Like, what's what's, what's the right message here?

I would lean hard into the consequences of what the Republicans have already done and how. The part, as we discussed earlier, how the party is pushing them to go further and make it part of a broader narrative about how extreme the Republican Party is, the extreme MAGA, GOP stuff that Biden is already doing. The other helpful thing for Democrats in making this argument is everyone knows this is happening. This is not an issue that, like some people, are paying attention to. 92 of the country and polls know this is happening and it's causing a cultural backlash. I remember last year the CEO of Barstool Sports came out and said how Roe v.

I think Mike Pence coming out there and saying every Republican needs to come out for. A 15-week ban is going to force a lot of them to either say they agree, or avoid the question. Which is just a way of saying that they're open to it and would sign it. I think we just be crystal clear about this. If Republicans win the Congress, they will try to pass a national abortion ban. Every single Republican that has a chance of becoming president will sign one. So the question is, do you want a national abortion ban? Or do you want to elect people who will fight to protect abortion rights? And a whole bunch of other freedoms that are currently at stake in a court?

And you know, there are Republican candidates like Nikki Haley who are going to try to weasel out of this already. Trying to weasel out of this. By saying like, Well, really? You can't pass a national abortion ban unless there's 60 votes in the Senate, so it's very unlikely. But all we need to say is like, if Republicans get enough power, they will pass the national abortion ban. That's all you need to know. If they get the votes, they'll do it.

Oh, I don't think we need to explain the filibuster to people. I think we've done enough of that.

I know no more of that. And then DESantis, I'm sure, will attack everyone else on the debate stage with him for not coming out in support of a heartbeat bill, which is a six-week abortion ban. So he's going to push them to be more extreme, and he's going to attack them from the right over and over again. I don't think it'll work for him, but I think it'll harm the party.

I think your point about consequences and talking more about the consequences is very important.

The stories are gut-wrenching.

They're gut-wrenching, they're everywhere. And it's also as this is talked about in politics and in the media. There's some antiseptic language used. People are talking about weeks and policies and exceptions and all this kind of stuff, and it's like no. Republican-supported decision that forced a 10-year-old rape victim to cross state lines to get an abortion. Forced women to give birth to babies that their doctors knew would suffer and die right after birth, and forced women to give birth who were on the brink of death.

Or essentially forced them to miscarry before they'd give them treatment, like nearly kill them.

And the other thing to your point, about everyone knows what's going on. More and more people have stories about people that they know who went through this. And actually, mostly not Democrats in blue states, mostly people who are living in states that have implemented restrictions.

It's remarkable just how much local news coverage there is about all these different experiences that people are having that are making it real for people. In a way that just goes far beyond anything a political debate can do. It's more akin to what happened, I think. With the quick shift on gay rights, which is just more people started coming out, people started to know gay people, it became unassailable. You can convince someone to go from being anti-gay to pro-gay, you can't make them go the other round. And there are people out there that, in the abstract, would have told a pollster that they were against abortion access. But they start hearing these stories, they start seeing it in their own lives, and all of a sudden you see the numbers moving.

I mean, you can imagine an ad not hard to make where you have people who've been through some of this. Tell these stories. And then you have Donald Trump saying they never thought I could do it, but I did it. I overturned the constitutional atrocity of Roe v. Wade and I put the justice there. All he's doing is bragging and bragging and bragging about it, and you just have that voice running in the background as you have all these stories.

And as we get closer to, I think, just the reality of, I do think even now, you see the same. People that said it was hysterics to say that Roe v. Wade was about to overturn, are now saying it's hysterics. To say that. A national abortion ban is possible. It is absolutely possible. Oh yeah, I mean, to really start driving that home for people, a national abortion. If Republicans, the Senate map is fucking terrible. Republicans could win the House, they can win the White House, they will pass a national abortion ban.

Yeah, and now we were talking about the percentage of people who opposed a nationwide ban, which is like 80. 53 want a federal law ensuring access to abortion. Biden is promising to do that considering the current Senate map, which is not great. Do you have any concern that Biden's over-promising when he talks about codifying Roe?

I mean, he doesn't describe it as we will do, he describes it as if we win. We will do it. It's something we need to do. I don't think there's anything wrong with laying out the stakes. If enough people come out and make this an issue, we can do it, if they don't, we can't.

Map is tough.

Yeah.

Best pick up chances are Florida and Texas for Democrats in 2024..

So here's what we need to do. We need to win. All of the slightly easier Senate races in Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, not states where you usually put easier Senate races, but right now, Democrats probably favored in those states slightly. Then we'd need to win Ohio, Sherrod would need to win and Tester would need to win. Manchin doesn't really matter, because if he loses or he stays, he's still going to be pain in the ass about this.

We just went through the first midterm elections we've had since the overturning of Roe, and we saw the way that it already scrambled some of our expectations in politics. So, yeah, I think we have to fight for it.

All right, so. The White House released a memo this morning on Bidenomics, where they argue that the president's economic policies are both working and supported by most Americans. Uh, what's your take on the on the memo, the strategy, the, uh, the name Bidenomics?

I'm, I'm into bidenomics.

I like the name, I don't like it too.

I really like it, I liked it. It reminds me of when we just embraced calling it Obamacare, and then as Obamacare became.

Warm on fire freakonomics.

What I was going to say is only that, like, I, you read the memo that the White House put out. Kind of walking through all the policies. And it is just sort of a, you know, it's a. It's a strategy, it's a restatement of their policies into a kind of coherent message, but it's just a reminder to. And seeing them all laid out, you're like, we spend so much time in this swirl of culture wars. And the latest bit of, like, right wing bullshit and Trump going off, and all the nonsense and the noise we deal with day to day. And then you read the memo, walking through the policies, like, Oh, that's right, that's why this world exists.

It's also a memo that has just like so much language that we used to put in speeches all.

The time all the time middle, middle up, in the center, out, the top through and the bottom forward.

This investment spurred private investment to the tune of a lot of money. I like that they are framing their economic message as a strategy to follow, instead of just a record to brag about. Because I think they are going to have. And you can see both of these attention in the memo a little bit, because it does go on and on, a little bit about the accomplishments, which you can tell that. There's obviously constituency in that White House, like there wasn't our White House.

Yeah.

I mean, they have a genuinely good case to make, I think on the merits. When you total up the Covid stimulus, the infrastructure bill, the Chips Act and Inflation Reduction Act. There are tons of examples of things happening right now because of things Joe Biden signed into law. There's roads and bridges. A couple of days ago, the government made a $9.2 billion loan to Ford, I believe, to begin construction of three battery factories for electric vehicles.

Low cars.

They're using the Chips Act to create jobs in the U.S. And they're forcing companies who get that funding to do things like guarantee high quality childcare. For workers who construct the plant or work at the plant. So they're like, really leveraging it in all these different ways. The problem is just it takes a while to get the money flowing, even when you get the money flowing. You have to convince people that this was because something Joe Biden did, and not just something happening in the world. Or maybe they just don't read the news about it.

Look, at the end of the day. This is going to come down to sort of a simple argument that Biden and Democrats are going to have to make on the campaign trail. Which is like, what do you want your government doing? Do you want it to spend time and money and policies on reducing the cost of healthcare, prescription drugs, building roads, reducing the cost of education? Or do you want to spend like $4 trillion on tax cuts for rich people? Because that's what the Republicans want to do?

Or burn books, yeah.

Like, do you want to?

And we are.

They do love that point, too. It's a good point.

You know, I mean, it was a global problem, thanks to the war and a bunch of other challenges, supply chains, blah, blah, blah.

No, I get that. I just think that voters are going to be like, I don't care that folks in the UK are paying more for their bread than I am. I'm still fucking annoyed.

No, if you go to a supermarket and yell at a woman buying eggs, be like there was a.

Bird flu call like, it's not going to work for you. But again, if you just say, look, elections are a choice, you either get cheaper healthcare or you get tax cuts for rich people. What do you want? That's an easy one.

Yeah, I don't think they're particularly contradictory, because I think everyone's concerned about Biden's age. But they also don't like Donald Trump, and now they don't like Ron DeSantis.

If they have bigger concerns about Trump's personality than Biden's age.

Right, the part that really stood out to me was actually not just how unpopular Ron DeSantis already is, but how unpopular and well-known he already is. He's at 30 to 46 disapproval to approval, that's three quarters of the country that's already gotten to know him, he's already nearly at 50 disapproval.

Apparently not even a winning strategy in your own Republican primary. So far, Trump has widened his lead in the primary. In this poll, which I want to mention, because last week, I think there was some poll that Dan and I talked about where it did seem like Trump was slipping a bit.

CNN.

A CNN poll, right, but in both polls, Ron DESantis isn't gaining. neither poll was he gaining?

The good news for Ron is that in the expanded poll, it's 51 Trump 22 Desantis the head-to-head, it's 60 Trump Desantis at 36, so he's just getting crushed. I mean, I found that poll depressing, but what? I expected? But more than anything, bad news for DeSantis.

I was at Disney with my family the other week and I don't know if this is a story that's real or not. See, I hope it is real that no one ever dies at Disney World because they continue to resuscitate. And so you're off the grounds so that no one ever, ever dies in Disney World. I was just thinking about that and that.

Well, if you choke.

Disney has defeated Death itself. You think they're going to lose to Ron DESantis? Mickey Mouse I was at, I was at this, um, they do these, uh, they do these light shows and things. People were calling for Mickey to come out.

You can't beat that.

That's all I wanted to say about that.

Run, mickey run.

Yeah.

I was, uh, look, a four point Biden lead where he's at 49. I almost didn't believe it.

I didn't believe it, honestly, it was better than I can, I don't even talk about it.

I'll take it. I never thought I would be excited about just a four point lead over Donald Trump. But now that we've lived through 2016 and 2020, I'm like, Yeah, that's true, that'd be amazing.

Well, it's also like, it's not like, Uh, do people need to get to know their options? Joe Biden versus Donald Trump is most fucking overdetermined thing. We went through that completely.

Well, that's the world we live in.

And on that note, though, the other, uh, part of this poll that stood out at me that got me a little nervous was so they did. They asked us about support for a third party candidate, Would you be open to a third party candidate? And then they compared it to that same question that they've asked in the last four elections. So, support for a third party option is lower than it was in 2016. That's the good news, but pretty much, much higher than it was in 2012, when Obama was running for reelection.

Who's going to say that you wouldn't consider it, like, would you consider a third party candidate? I don't know what if a really great one emerged, sure.

Yeah, they broke it down into like, definitely and probably, and the definitely's I was looking at cause, probably, you're right, probably is just like, Yeah, probably, I would definitely.

Consider it. I don't know, not this cycle, but I think that's all.

I think that's true. I also just think, um, a country choosing between Obama and Mitt Romney, and a country choosing between Biden and Trump is just in a different mood. You know, like, like, people have a lot of concerns about Biden's age, those concerns did not exist for Obama. People have a lot of concerns about Donald Trump as a human being.

So, speaking of Biden's age? The Wall Street Journal just ran an interview with George Clooney where he talks about how. Hollywood studio exec Jeffrey Katzenberg has been advising Biden to quote. Own his age and turn it into an asset, citing 80 year olds Harrison Ford and Mick Jagger as examples for Biden to emulate, what a sentence. I didn't think I'd be saying that today. You guys think that's good advice? I don't even know what the advice really is, I guess, to own his age.

I think own your age, laugh about it, make jokes like the one we heard earlier. That's great advice, but it has to be coupled with great management of the country and things generally going well. The part in that story that made me flinch was the like Democrats need to come to Hollywood for narrative and storytelling help. If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say that I would be as rich as George Clooney. Post tequila sale. Because it's this cliche thing you always hear out here. But again, like, Yes, of course, there's lots of great screenwriters in L.A. but you get to write the movie and then shoot what's on the page.

It's, it's a. That's why we do the show here, we look for our narratives here in L.A. and then we come on the pod and give our takes.

The quote is, as always, I always just say, look, everybody keeps coming to Hollywood for cash and they don't come to us. For the one thing we do better than anybody, which is tell stories. We were joking about that, like two days ago, that was, that is such an old fucking joke.

I will also say I love George Clooney and he's actually one of the more politically astute actors in Hollywood, for sure. But it's just funny that they none of them can help themselves.

No, I know. It's also like, the other thing, too, is it's like Katzenberg doesn't tell stories, he makes quibi writers and directors tell stories.

But back to Biden and his articles.

Right, I guess that's what he wants to give Biden.

The ultimate executive? Yeah, that's right.

He wants to give notes.

We solved it. I think that what Biden can control is in terms of his age and perceptions of the age he's the age that he is. He can't control that, but he can joke about it.

And just project that painting of him as a young man in the White House attic at.

All costs and then tighten up Act three and then just write out that Putin.

Biden's going to, Biden's going to trip over an extension cord and fall down. In Catsbury's. We're like, we shouldn't use that tape.

All right, let's do a few quick hits on the latest headlines. Tommy and Ben recorded an excellent bonus episode of Pod Save the World over the weekend. Thank you on the Wagner Rebellion in Russia.

It was a civil rights march.

I fell down and ate a pizza.

Tommy For people who haven't been paying close attention to what happened over the weekend, what should they know and where do things stand right now?

So the gist is this guy Yevgeny Purgosian, who's this Russian oligarch who?

Thanks for saying his first name.

No problem. He runs his private mercenary force, called the Wagner Group. He has been in a fight with the Russian military for months now. And then he claimed that his guys got hit with a Russian airstrike. And then he went nuts and he started marching his troops towards Moscow. He stood down after basically getting on the phone with the president of Belarus, who's a Putin stooge in cutting the steel, where Purgosian will now be exiled to Belarus.

I'm no foreign policy expert, but Vladimir Putin doesn't seem like the kind of guy who will just let bygones be bygones. She's going to let him live in Belarus and just forget about him.

I'm wondering if Purgosian is going to fall out of a very tall building in the near future, we'll see.

I would not. If he offers you to pour you tea, I would say, no, don't, don't, don't take the tea. no, you drink from a different pot.

You bring your own tea. We got a few 2024 primary updates for you. Ron DESantis is taking his deft political talents to New Hampshire, where the most influential Republican women's group there released a statement attacking him for scheduling an event at the same time as their annual fundraising lunch, one New Hampshire Republican strategist called it quote the worst strategic move he has exhibited thus far, which is really saying something I don't know, guys.

Women be kneecapping Ron DeSantis campaign Republican luncheon What do you think, Liv, do you think that's OK?

Yeah, it's good, believe it. I love this story so much. I have no idea if it means Desantis campaign in New Hampshire is good or bad. It just shows you how fucking entitled early state primary voters are.

This group, especially activists, voters, are one thing the activists are the really entitled.

They attacked him.

I'm not running for anything.

It's the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women. They attacked DeSantis for holding a town hall meeting the same day as one of their events that featured Trump. Even though their event is sold out. It's an hour away, and it's at different times.

It seems like that's just a It's not a shot, it's a shot to take a shot. Yeah, that's because he's so weak.

That's great. It is funny, though, it's like you do not pick a fight with the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women. Well, I didn't even know that group existed until I read the story. Just incredible.

That's the other fun story is DESantis rolled out a bunch of state elected endorsements, and, like four of them had already announced that they endorsed Trump. So then they got into a big fight that DESantis. Super PAC got in a fight with these state elected officials. And it's like, What are you guys doing?

That's awesome, it's, I love it.

It's a little just like it's a little bit of a, it's a. It's a virtuous circle from our point of view. Which is that he's covered as an unpopular weirdo, and so all the stories that lend themselves to the narrative of an unpopular weirdo. And this is, and we're in Hollywood, where we tell stories are, you know, you can't get away from it. And the reporters chasing Ron DeSantis around, waiting for to eat a hamburger, weird. Until eventually, they're going to get it, yeah.

Freaks and geeks, too. Sure. I think that's a good show, though.

I think about that, it's a bad show. Here's a shocker. Rolling Stone looked at the Federal Election Commission filings and found out that the Super Pac supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

We got him fucking RFK Jr.

Are we saying that this is not on the level? is that? is that what we're being told here?

The Treasurer of RFK Jr.

What a terrible fucking person. Yeah, he really is. what a garbage human being. Well, you know, it doesn't help anything, but it is what it is.

Here's all you need to know about all of the you know tech Bros. And Elon Musk and all them who are telling you. To give a look at RFK Jr. There are a bunch of MAGA grifters out there who are doing everything they can to get Democrats to support RFK Jr.

And they're doing it publicly.

That's all you need to know.

Steve Bannon is doing this publicly. Roger Stone praised him publicly. RFK Jr. went to one of those Reawaken America events that Mike Flynn runs around the country doing like the craziest of the crazy things. RFK reportedly interviewed for a job with Trump in 2017..

You see what Trump said today, too, about him. He's praising. Trump's like, He's a. he's a great man, he's a great man.

OK, it's, it's so far. Did you see how Swole RFK Jr. looked when he was lifting weights, shirtless and jeans?

I just don't want to pretend I didn't see any of that.

I also just love the idea that he's like, Yeah, I know. It's like, you know, there's the vaccines they have, lead in them from deep underground. Yeah, yeah, I'll take steroids from a failed actor with muscles in my neighborhood.

Sure, yeah.

So because there aren't enough Florida men in the Republican primary, the New York Times reports. 70 year old Senator Rick Scott is considering running for president, though his office then responded by saying he's still running for reelection in the Senate. Not a denial. What do you think is a rich hospital executive who wants to privatize Medicare and Social Security just the candidate the Republican Party needs?

A rich hospital executive connected to massive health care fraud, who wants to privatize?

Social Security, who ran the Senate Republican campaign arm in a year where they lost.

The Senate. Who has the message? Instincts of the villain from seven?

Is this my camera? RICK Oh, no, don't listen to that. Oh no, America needs you buddy.

If you're going to look at him, you're talking to Rick Scott, don't look at us.

There's a sky full of stars. Oh, I think I see the next president of the United States. Come on, Rick Scott.

O.K. well, we wish him. we wish you the best. Rick Scott, please run all right. Finally, two pieces of great news.

That John, that John keeps a list and he's checking it twice.

But I would say I'm not naming names.

I'll say two things about that.

I'll say two things about that. I don't want to give them any fucking.

I think two points about this. I think that there was two kinds of criticism from the left that Joe Biden received. When this, when the original deal was made, one was, I'm disappointed that this deal doesn't include paid sick leave. I hope the Biden administration continues to work on it.

The deal being when by the Congress enacted legislation to block the strike to block.

The strike to get them back to work or to prevent them from going on strike the first time. That was one kind of criticism, fine, there was another kind of criticism, which was is exactly what we can come to expect from Democrats who are corporate shills and evil. And this is corruption and every kind of assumption of value from the railroads, and every assumption of bad faith. Just some sign that you know that that Biden and Democrats are irretrievably corrupt, and you can't trust. Anything they ever said is exactly what we always knew they were going to do.

Yeah, the work of government doesn't usually progress on the same timetable as Twitter. It's one lesson. I also think, to your point, Lovett, the Biden administration deserves the presumption of good faith. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be criticized when they make bad decisions.

Poor government is just slow. Sometimes, yeah, and I wish it was faster too, but like, you got to go to the outcome.

I do, I do agree with that, too. It's like, at this point, too, the Biden administration has earned the benefit of the doubt. They are, I think, far more progressive than even some of those progressive people could have ever hoped that they would be. Now. Does that mean they're perfect?

No, but yeah, and I can look, and I can tell this is coming with that, you know? We're waiting for student loan relief decision from the Supreme Court. And there are already been proposals. Like, Well, if they overturn this, then the by administration should just do another executive action. It's like, Well, it's not gonna work, it's not gonna work. We need a new court, or we need a majority in Congress to pass this legislation, and that's what we should work for.

Yeah, all right.

Last but not least, when a big section of i-95 collapsed in Philadelphia on June 11th, experts predicted it would take months for the government to rebuild the highway. But thanks to the Biden administration, Governor Josh Shapiro and a lot of union workers, it opened this weekend. What do you think? Is it time to bring back?

Hashtag Democrats deliver couple points about this one Jews get shit done, that's all that's. I want to say that. Okay, I don't know if I can say that in this country anymore.

Depends on the audience, but to.

We can build a highway in two weeks in this state of California. Take six months to get an environmental impact statement. For a bike path was just gonna be a lane. They don't to move anything. There's no, there's no, there's no digging, just paint.

We came to New York and I was trying to that. It was insane.

Yeah, every, every day, they they put up another window. What's happening with that? What's happening at L.A. Bring Josh Shapiro on that, some kind of a czar.

Though, by the administration, though, they, you know, whether it's the infrastructure bill, like Mitch Biden and Mitch Landrieu, who's sort of overseeing the infrastructure spending. Plus Shapiro, they were all at a press conference about this, telling this, I'm like, you know what, this is good, awesome. This is another one that's not gonna get a ton of attention, but like that is in Philly, it will.

That's an important, so they should be covering up that out here. But yes, it'd be great, yeah.

Sure, we should, sure should we get. We have problems of our own that we could be fixing. Greedy drove across, got talk about.

Rebecca.

Alright, when we come back, Tommy talks to the man who wants to finally get Ted Cruz out of the Senate, Texas congressman Colin Albright.

Colin Albright is a member of Congress and he's running for the U.S. Senate in Texas. Welcome to the show.

Yeah, thanks for having me on, thanks for being in L.A.

You have the coolest path to Congress that I've heard of, which is via the NFL, so I want to get to later. But you are currently running against Ted Cruz, who I believe is a full-time podcaster. He's one of your main competitors, a part-time senator. Does he still show up? So I can't tell anymore. We're very excited.

What's different about your race? Well, we're gonna build on what Beto did. I think what Beto showed is that Texas is a place where, you know, change is possible. And you know the folks. He got excited in 2018. I was incredibly important. It's going to be important for this election. But you know, I've never lost an election and I don't plan on starting now. And I have experience beating Republicans back in 18..

I mean, my full-time job, honestly.

Just think about representing 30 million Texans in the United States Senate. All the responsibilities that come with that. And finding time to demagogue three times a week. Or, when you're not doing that, finding ways to get on to Fox News every chance possible. But that's actually not the job, the job is to pass legislation, to help Texans, to help the country. We can't afford six more years of him in Texas, but also the national level. Yeah, I was there on January 6, about 50 feet away from him, when he was the senator who objected to the results in Arizona.

We're a lot of people kind of making their way over to you on January 6, kind of introducing themselves for the first time. I feel like you could have, like, Look, the Q Anon Shaman was not gonna get past you and pass protection or anything else.

I have to say anything physical that comes up in the House Representatives. People look to me, but especially that day, you know, it's funny and it's not funny, right? I. I texted my wife, who was at home with our son, who was not yet two, and she was about seven months pregnant. And I sent her a text that I thought I'd never have to send in this job, you know, whatever happens, I love you, oh my God. And I took off my jacket, which I've never done on the house floor.

It's important to remember his role in this whole thing is, boy, there were a lot of enablers that helped Donald Trump. Is it true that your campaign headquarters will be in Cancun?

No, although Ted Cruz thinks it's very funny that he jetted off to Cancun when 30 million Texans were freezing in the dark.

He thinks he can laugh that off. I don't know how you, any politician, laughs off a dereliction of duty, that glaring and obvious.

That's right, over 240 Texans died, and every Texan knows where they were when the power went out. And you know, I was a congressman at the time, I know how busy I was at that time. There was, you know, calls with FEMA, with state agencies trying to direct resources, trying to find what we called warming centers.

So if you get to the Senate, we keep reading these horrible stories about the Supreme Court. They're accepting private jet flights and all kinds of like goodies from these billionaires. And then we keep reading their horrible rulings on all kinds of issues that are stripping away people's rights, like abortion rights. Do you support any Supreme Court reforms like term limits and things like that?

Well, listen, you know, I actually represented Harlan Crow for the last four years. He's a constituent of mine, I know him, I've been to some properties of his. I don't think I've seen that. And I just think it's ridiculous what we're looking at right now in terms of this being the most unaccountable body.

So it's been about a little over a year since the Supreme Court stripped away abortion rights. By overturning Roe vs. Wade, President Biden is promising to codify Roe vs. Wade into law. That would probably require getting rid of the filibuster in the Senate so that we can get to a vote so the Republicans couldn't block a vote.

Well, I've been calling for us to get rid of the filibuster. I was a voting rights lawyer before I came to Congress. And you know, our big push in the last Congress, as you probably remember, was the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. WE. I spoke with Senator Manchin about it, I was actually asked to give him a call and talk to him about it from a voting rights perspective. And I thought we had an agreement on moving to a speaking filibuster. It's obviously a legacy of some of the darkest days of our country. But it's also, at this point, just standing in the way of fundamental reforms that are necessary to keep our democracy, you know, thriving. And when you can't address voting rights because you have to have 60 votes and a body that's determined by geography, then you're. You're locking yourself into a future where you can't have any kind of legislative.

The other, I think that imagines probably really important to your constituents in Texas is immigration or immigration policy. I think for a lot of people in other parts of the country, you can feel like a problem. That's far away, right? Southern border is not where you live, if you're in Michigan or something for you guys.

Well, I have a kind of a personal relationship with this, because after the Second World War, my grandfather fought in the Navy in the Pacific and then came back. It was a customs officer in Brownsville, Texas, the very tip of Texas. That's where my mom and my aunt grew up. Went to high school, and then I spent most of my summers driving down my mom to Brownsville to see my grandmother there. And, you know, I think that when you talk about the border, it's not just a political backdrop. Yeah, you know, and that's what I see. Ted Cruz using it as is to go on, almost like a political safari. And you'll be, like in the bushes, pointing out, you know, migrants that literally don't know you're a United States senator.

I mean, one thing I wonder about. I worked in the WE both worked the Obama administration, I was in the foreign policy side, I saw the administration use sanctions to punish countries frequently.

Well, I remember when in the Trump administration, they cut foreign aid to the northern tribal countries because they weren't doing enough to stop migration. And it's like, Do you understand that cutting that aid is going to increase migration from these countries? I mean, we do have a role to play, certainly in helping to stabilize, particularly the countries that are in our own backyard. And I think that, you know, we were talking about the competition with China globally, a great power competition, you know. The global South is where that competition is being held, and that includes our own hemisphere in South American, Central America, where the Chinese are making big investments. And we need to be on the field and playing a productive role, helping as much as we can to be a stabilizing force. And yes, looking at things like our sanctions policy and how that's contributing to some of this suffering. But also seeing, you know, the programs that we know have worked around the world and applying them in our own hemisphere.

I mentioned earlier this amazing path of the NFL to Congress, but you also worked in the Obama administration. At HUD, you also, you went to the N.FL to get your your law degree, right at Berkeley. I believe, Um, can you talk a little bit of, like, what were you doing at HUD as a civil rights lawyer? like, what was that work? yeah.

Well, I took a normal route to Congress, you know, I was raised by a single mother, played in the N.FL, went to law school and became a civil rights lawyer, right, you know, just the normal route. Well, I had spent my last year of law school basically working in the administration. Like in the White House. Counsel's Office under Kathy Rumler and then DOJ under Rod Rosenstein, at that time well-respected U.S. attorney.

Oh, yeah. He led one of the leak investigation cases that I had to get interviewed for. I didn't do anything wrong, I was absolved, someone else was indicted and scared the shit out of me. So I know Rod.

And then I was doing my voting rights work and was asked to come back into the administration as an appointee at HUD in the general counsel's office. And, you know, basically trying to tie together different programs and make sure that the trains are running on time. They've kept everything legal. And I was working there with, you know, another Texan, Leon Castro, who I was very proud of and was proud to work under him. And, you know, we. When the transition came, I remember preparing a lot of documents, particularly around Ethics and Hatch Act and things like that. For the incoming administration thing, they're not gonna read it. Yeah, you know, but it was a lot worse, actually, that I could have, even, you know, imagined. And, you know, I. It was an honor for me, you know, to serve in the Obama administration. I know you feel the same way.

Yeah, I feel incredibly lucky to have met the guy and I got to work there. Um, it's a broader question about the Democratic Party. We've been struggling with getting support from young men of all races, right? I don't know if there's a single reason. But it does seem to coincide with the rise of these horrible characters like Andrew Tate or Jordan Peterson, who'd preach these deeply misogynistic worldviews. You played in the N.FL.

Speakers It's such a good question.

I mean, Ted Cruz, by the way, has also been a real spreader of these kinds of views, I mean, his co-hosts for his podcast. But he's also one of the guys who would retweet the videos that people would make of. Like, some Russian military propaganda film, compared to a U.S. army recruiting film. Where they're trying to be inclusive and be like, Oh boy, you know the? Of course, we would lose in a war fast-forward two years, and the Russian military is getting this clock clean by the.

Ukrainians, right? I mean, it's so ludicrous, right, exactly. And we have a diverse military where, you know, you've got to get along with folks who come from different background than you do. And that's the same thing in sports. And one of the things I noticed immediately, immediately about some folks is that who were not athletes.

So you mentioned you played a Baylor. It's like a real deal. D1 program. Shout out R.G. 3. Robert Griffin, the third four seasons in the N.FL for the Tennessee Titans, was playing in the N.FL a lifelong dream.

Yes and no. I think that I didn't think that I was going to be able to play in the NFL. I was all ready to go to law school and and basically started getting calls and was convinced that I was gonna have a chance. And I was like, Well, you should talk to my teammates, he's gonna be good. No, no, you're gonna have a chance.

I mean, that's an amazing story. I think a lot of people get talked into trying to try out for teams, but to make it and to play for four years. I mean, you knew, Reggie Love. I imagine Barack Obama's body guy played at Duke, played football and basketball. I think he got into, yeah, great athlete, like one of the best athletes I've ever known. Got talked into, I think, coming to Cowboys camp in playing linebacker. And he said he went and tried to hit some running back and just got his clock clean.

Definitely a running back. I think tight ends are glorified offensive tackles.

Those are fighting words. I've heard. Some influential people in sports media suggest that Ohio State uses a field for their pro days then might be slightly shorter than 40 yards. Which is why you see Buckeye players putting up these blistering 40 times on their N.FL Pro days. Have you heard these theories and would you consider holding hearings on 40-time fraud?

Listen, having played against the Patriots, I put nothing past anybody. Urban Meyer to I mean, my God, that's right, that's right, yeah.

Who is the best linebacker ever I?

Still, probably singletary, maybe, but the best I'd ever seen was Patrick Willis. he was incredible, really, yeah.

No, no, Junior, say, I don't know, no trail sucks, no ray Ray. LEWIS Well, yeah, I mean, I think.

Ray Lewis Probably bigger singletary, I think.

I was gonna ask you about 2009 game where the Titans play the Patriots and lost 59 to 0. But I decided not to do that. It's funny.

I just come back from a neck injury and I was like, out there in the snow. And we could not hang on to the ball to save our lives. I was like, it's like it had, you know, I don't know, oil on it or something. And Tom, and, you know, Randy are out there, just playing pitch and catch, and I'm like, you know what's going on? Of course, a few years later, I hear that maybe the ball was deflated and.

Final question for you, if you win, have you thought about launching a big and tall caucus with John Fetterman? Maybe John Tester? We're calling cock hoss hoss caucus, we're spitballing.

When I win, I will definitely do that. We also will have a very large and growing Bald men caucus. Although historically, that's probably been a kick in the case, right?

That's a well-worn agreement. Congressman, All right, thank you for coming in. Remind us where we can go to, yeah.

But we need your help. So if you care about 30 million Texans getting the representation they deserve, go to Colin All Red Comm or text Texas to Nine, zero, six, seven, eight. Perfect. Thanks for coming, yeah.

Okay, before we go, we have some some feuds to adjudicate. Stop talking, sometimes, the end.

I'm sorry, here's a new one. I was going for a feud, I was going for a feud vibe. Sometimes the enemy of your enemy is your friend.

Could we just say draw instead of ten? Yeah, you could say draw, draw. less confusing. Yeah, it's one to nine, or draw good.

That's that's what I was getting at. Great. Thanks for the correct, thanks for helping, no problem.

Uh, I think Marjorie Taylor Greene would fucking wipe the floor with her in two rounds.

Have you seen the video of MTG doing those crazy crossfit pull-ups where it looks like you're gonna rip your shoulders out? Every single time? It's called kipping, I wouldn't mess with her, it's called kipping, kipping. One round. MTG Boebert's out though the.

Crooked The crooked community thinks 90 mtGV. That is correct. However, John gets the point because it is round two, because round one. And did you just toys with her like a kitten?

Okay, right, right, right.

So I'm gonna say I think that the ocean wins in the eighth round, because that ocean is coming for us all. And it's gonna hit the most expensive beachfront property first, where the billionaires live, so they're all gonna drown. See, I think the billionaires are gonna win.

Because they, well, the oceans, end up swallowing all of us and all life on this Earth. The billionaires are gonna escape to Mars. Wow, wow, or seasteading, so I think it, but I think that's like, not, I think that's like round nine.

Point goes to Tommy. The oceans are gonna win. Oh yeah, the oceans are gonna win, but it's in wait.

What did you think was gonna win? The billionaires are gonna win because they're going to escape that they're gonna.

They're just gonna leave the planet. No, Tommy, Tommy gets this one. The oceans are actually gonna win in Round nine. Technically it won't be pretty, but we the oceans, will survive and ultimately thrive. Sweet.

Elon Musk tweeted the other day There is a slight chance he will end his life on Mars. He will end up on Mars with any.

Luck Mark Mark Zuckerberg would kick his ass, though. That's what's next. Okay, that's what's next, That's what's next, sorry.

You put the oceans in there. I'm alternating, I'm alternating abstract, I'm doing. The data was in the middle of the real one. Trust the process, as Dan would say. Next up Mark Zuckerberg verse Elon Musk.

You know, we also, we also think that he, he, he took a an involuntary nap while.

He didn't lose consciousness, he was just like grunting or something like that. Here's the thing about jiu-jitsu. It's not like it's not a boxing match where you just punch each other out until you win.

And I think Mark would kick his his ass. Elon is also a soft wimp. You could. It just comes through an every bully and twimp. Yeah, Mark Zuckerberg will kick his ass.

Tommy takes it. It was round three. That's when it's gonna happen though, technically, you know, and but actually, you know what, I'm gonna give it to both of you.

Hmm.

You know, the one on the one hand, I mean, Ron DeSantis is not gonna win anything, right?

Which means that's right, eye contact will win.

Well, the thing is that, you know, one of the most important things standing between Ron DeSantis and political success is his ability to relate to another person. Right? And so all the ambition in the world. Is it enough to teach him how to fake? Knowing how to interact one-on-one with another human being, that's the question before us.

Yeah, I don't think so either. How many rounds? What a round. I think he's gonna go in five.

Yeah, I contact wins in five, I actually, because he has so much money and it's still like, second in the primary. I think it could go, I'm gonna say, nine rounds. Wow, wow.

I'm gonna give it to John, John, takes that one, that's gonna take someone, putting you both at a tie. The question is, basically it will be round nine, which will be after New Hampshire, it has to be after.

After New Hampshire, well, it's gonna be a second primary and then there's a general election. What is this? Rounding rules are capricious, outrageous. It's fucking time machine telling us who wins.

Unbelievable. I'm just saying, that's what happened, that's what happened in the battle. I can't believe. You don't agree with my judgment as to who would win in a fight between Eye Contact and Ron DeSantis and when the victory takes place.

No tiebreaker.

Yeah, all right, here's a tiebreaker, all right, here's a tiebreaker.

In a fistfight, it's a.

It's, um, I think we have gloves math leap, it's it's gloves, just just boxing.

Let me tell you why this is hard. This is hard because I want to pick Dan, but if I pick Dan, I'm definitely not gonna win. Because you just decide future me. It's just so you love it. You'd wipe the floor with him in one round.

I think you would give Dan a run for his money, but he's got the reach and he would beat you in the ninth round. But you? But everyone would come out saying, I tried to go.

Tried to go with being a straight one, the one, the moral way to try to appeal to the straight shooter. It'd be like Rudy.

It's interesting, I think Tommy's closer, for sure. I think the question is, I think the question is, I've got those crazy eyes and does that come out? Is there a demon inside of me? Because there might be, there might be, and I don't know there's a demon inside.

Have you done any fistfighting in your life?

These, these, these are for writing, either for writing and signaling.

Bye everyone. Podsave America is a crooked media production. The executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our producers are Andy Gardner Bernstein and Olivia Martinez. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick.