Other Than That Ms. Boebert, How Was The Play?
2023-09-19 01:08:44
Pod Save America is a no-bullshit conversation about politics hosted by former Obama aides Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer, and Tommy Vietor. It cuts through the noise to break down the week’s news and helps people figure out what matters and how they can help. They’re regularly joined by journalists, activists, politicians, entertainers, and world leaders. You can watch on YouTube or listen to new episodes every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Ad-Free Pod Save America episodes available NOW through Friends of the Pod subscription. Head to crooked.com/friends to join today! For a transcript of an episode of Pod Save America, please email [email protected] (edited)
Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau, I'm Jon Lovett and I never think about the Roman Empire. I'm Tommy Vitor. On today's pod, Trump gets hit from the right Republicans inch closer to a government shutdown.
Congresswoman Alyssa Slotkin joins to talk about the politics of the UAW strike and a race for Senate. Mitt Romney says goodbye to the Senate and good writtens to the Republican Party. And local theater enthusiast Lauren Boebert apologizes for the lewd behavior that got her kicked out of beetlejuice. What a sentence, what a sentence.
But first, Jack Smith is now asking Judge Chukin to impose a gag order on Donald Trump to protect witnesses from his attacks. But that, unsurprisingly, hasn't stopped the Republican frontrunner from saying all kinds of crazy shit over the last few days. Including during his first network television interview since his attempted coup. What a milestone, what a milestone. And Trump's meet the press.
Sit down with new host Kristen Welker. He talked about banning abortion, pardoning insurrectionists and his criminal charges in a way that will certainly make life more difficult for him and his lawyers. Let's listen, I mean, the.
Saint is willing to sign a five week and six week ban. Would you support that? You think that I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake. And Republicans should go out and say the following, because I think the Republicans speak very inarticulately.
About this subject. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in jail. Now that you know what the sentence is, 22 years in jail. Will you give him a pardon? Will you give other Proud Boys a pardon?
Will you pardon him? In Minneapolis? I'd certainly.
Look at it, I'd look at that, and I'd look at all the other people that have suffered.
The J6 people were you calling the shots, though, Mr. President? Ultimately, as to whether.
Or not, I believed it was rigged. Sure, it was my decision. Are you saying you needed?
Those votes in order to win. Are you acknowledging you didn't win? I'm not acknowledging no.
I say, I won the election, that's what I say. Why do you think so many legal experts are saying that Trump's comments may have made his case harder to win? What kind of trouble might he have gotten himself in there? I think they want retweets.
I think part of it, that's.
A very good point. Yeah, you did talk to Larry Tribe last week, though. Reposts, reposts.
Oh, they're reposts, they're rethreads. Oh, back to your question, Do you want to answer it? I can say two things.
That's my question.
No, I was pointing it to answer your question. Sure, sure, whatever. Listen, the point is. People like Lawrence Tribe Neal Katyal are pointing out that basically one of Trump's big defenses is going to be like. My lawyers were giving me advice, he's saying I wasn't taking that advice then. Andrew Weissman, friend of the show.
So then, on top of that, he says also during the interview, basically something like, at 10 p.m. I said, stop counting the votes and that's that's a no, no.
Which?
He has said before, but, you know, reiterating it after you've been charged, it's an election.
No, no, yeah, look, I'm famously not a lawyer. I will say, if you go back, if you look at these like, it's clear what Trump is trying to, kind of, like, say to her. And not like a snide way, but in like, a kind of like a like a, like a smarty pants way is, uh, well, the thing that I thought, yeah, I was in charge of thinking that it seems to be if you actually.
Look at it, what he was doing, yeah, he's just. The other thing that was interesting is, you know, the judge is looking at whether there should be a gag order. I'd imagine saying that. I hope Mark Meadows is still loyal.
Oh, yeah, don't forget about that, yeah, that.
Was not good, and also I think he also called Jack Smith deranged again. Because the gag order is supposed to protect first and foremost the witnesses, supposed to prevent the jury pool from being tainted, but it's also supposed to protect the prosecutors and the judge from.
Attacks, which he's been leveling, there's. There was a way funny about the way a welker asked the questions, and not actually a criticism of the questions. But just. It's just sort of the world we live in. When people interview Trump, which is a lot of the questions were like that experiment where you put one marshmallow in front of a kid and say, if you don't eat it, you get two later. Because they're like, Hey, what do you think? MARK MEADOWS Well, hey, would you, uh, interfere with the Fed? Hey, would you tell the DOJ what to do?
Come on, would you, you know, like, there's like a little like a he's being, he's being tempted.
By the questions, yeah, which is where she was getting at. When she got him to say, I listened to myself, it was my choice. Um, she put the word loyal in his mouth, too.
Oh, for the Mark Meadows, do you think he was loyal? Yes, and also I do think, though, he's the whole context of the remarks, right, the full set of remarks.
He's like, he basically said that. She's like, Oh, you listen, you, you called some of these people crazy. Some of their theories, like Sidney Powell, like, why'd you listen to them? And he's like, Well, why didn't you listen to your like campaign lawyers and your White House lawyers? He said. Well, every lawyer who told me it wasn't rigged as a rhino, which doesn't really. That doesn't help your defensive counsel. uh, it doesn't seem like it does your advice of counsel, defense.
He also said he testified in the classified documents case, which he always says he's going to testify and then doesn't. He told Megan Kelly and in his interview with her last week that, uh, he was allowed to steal the classified documents. And that he doesn't think he had to comply with the federal subpoena. She's like, well, but but you get a subpoena for the documents and then, of course, you have to go. No, I don't know. That's true because I had a right to have have those documents, which is also not a great not going to help.
His defense either, Yeah, I felt. On the whole, I see the point that he's sort of. I found this all to be quite incremental. Uh, like, there's a lot of. What he is saying is a is a different phrasing or reiteration of the kinds of things that were already in some.
Of the indictment documents anyway, but yeah, the the classified documents discussion is was frustrating but interesting on Megan Kelly's show. Because he he repeatedly says that the presidential record acts governs his stealing classified documents. It, absolutely.
Does it? just does. It's one of those things where he says it so often, and he says it was such conviction, and he just steamrolls over anyway. That if you stop to think about it for even one second, you realize how stupid and inane it is. The way the law works isn't, Uh, if you don't break one law, you can't break the others. You know, it's all, it's not like, you know, it doesn't really make sense at all.
No sense, and Megan didn't push.
Back on that at all. But she was like, Look, I was a lawyer for a very long time. If you get a subpoena, you have to turn over the stuff. And he's like, I know that, I don't know that, he like, he contradicted himself in the same sentence.
Cause his little legal.
Brain turned on? Yeah, I don't. I think that was very damaging. Because, remember, the defense on the subpoena is, Oh, no, no, no, we gave you everything. What are you talking about? We didn't, it wasn't. it wasn't. Oh, you sent me a subpoena and I said, Fuck you.
Which?
Is basically what he just said to me, Kelly. But he said, no, because, well, he's saying I didn't have to do, I'm he what he's saying, both about that, he's. I don't know if he's confusing it or I'm confusing it, or there's no way to not confuse it. But he talks about the the the documents the same way he talks about the footage, which is, I didn't have to give you anything.
I did it to be nice, I gave you everything you asked for and I.
Didn't even have to. And you sort of take every position. He's saying. They're my documents, I didn't have to give them to you, but I gave them all to you. And I didn't try to delete the footage, but we didn't delete the footage, so everyone just be happy.
Yeah, he didn't.
Have to comply with a federal subpoena, which you just can't say, sure, yeah, if you're, it's not debatable. If you're a. If you've been charged with obstruction of justice for not complying with a federal subpoena, can't say it.
Well, okay, uh, I'll tell you something, I'll tell you for somebody who can't say something, he certainly said. But that's why he got in trouble. I know. No gag order.
That's why I think Jackson was probably pretty happy. So let's talk about the abortion comments he certainly seemed like there and other places. He's pivoting to a general election message on abortion. Can that work for the guy who also takes credit for eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion? Tommy I don't think.
So I mean, just let's just talk about the polling. So he was criticizing Ron DeSantis in the clip we heard. For signing into law six week abortion ban, 73 of all U.S. adults believe abortion should be allowed. Up to six weeks of pregnancy. 56 of Republicans say abortion should be allowed in their state up to six weeks.
So this is the DESantis position is wildly unpopular in the Republican Party. I don't think, though, that Trump is going to be able to fool anybody on abortion. He's, wisely, I think, not taking the bait, uh, in the primary, but everyone knows his judges are the ones who overturned Roe versus Wade. He brags about it in front of evangelical audiences. In the past, he said that women should be punished for getting an abortion.
Like, I just don't buy that, anyone's going.
To be fooled by this, yeah, he kind of, like, kind of lumbers into this issue and he treats it like negotiating over the price of marble. You know, it's like, six weeks is crazy.
Seven months is crazy. We'll get together, we'll find a number where everybody walks away happy.
Which, of course, uh, not the way this issue works. No, well. It's in response to the polling that a lot of Republicans will hang on to forever, even though I don't really agree with this. Uh, is that, you know, if you ask people late term, right? And you know, we've all said a million times that abortions, uh, late in pregnancy, are extremely rare. Usually they're because of medical complications. Et cetera, et cetera. But if if you just pull the question without people having a base of knowledge, you'll have people say, oh well, we don't want late term abortion.
So he's heard that from Republican pollsters and he thinks he's going to get some kind of middle position here. I worry a little bit that it could work unless Democrats constantly remind people about, uh, what Tommy just said, which is that he said that women should be punished for having abortions. And then, of course, that he's out there bragging about appointing the three justices that overturned Roe v, Wade and Dobbs. And I think that's why the Biden campaign, and one of their first ads, basically has him saying both of those things in an ad. They have with the rest of the Republicans, too.
But like Democrats, Joe Biden, with ads, with speeches, have to keep hammering it because no one remembers anything in this fucking country. Like, I do think he, and he's trying to, like, you know, it was the same thing in in 2016. When he sort of danced around and tried to make himself seem moderate on LGBTQ issues, which, of course, he was not. Uh, same thing on, like, I'm not going to be a warmonger, right, like we have.
The collective memory of a goldfish in this country, that is absolutely true. I just think that the people who have been turning out into record numbers at the midterms know exactly where he stands on. Abortion rights are not going to be fooled by this at all. And I think the challenge, you know, the the thing that people are frustrated about in this interview is him saying, uh. Democrats want to abort babies after they're born, which is not a thing that ever happens in the world. Or acting like late term abortions or something that Democrats want. Or, you know, just sort of a decision made by choice.
When the reality, you hear the specifics, and it's people were like, I had twins. One of the twins died, the other wasn't viable. Because their organs were growing outside of their body. The baby would have died the minute they were born. That's why I had a late term abortion.
Like those are, that's the reality of why these exceptions exist, that people have to better.
Yes, he's just we've got to make that case, because you, of course, we do, I just think.
It's the easiest ad ever, like, he bragged about all of this, he's talked about women.
Getting punished. I think the people who turned out in the midterms are turned out, especially around this issue. When it was on the ballot, when it was, it was fresh, it was in those states also, these were like more highly college educated people. I think those people are certainly not going to forget Trump's position on this. But you have a general electorate, people who didn't vote in the midterm, and they are potentially pro-choice. And Trump's up there on a debate with Biden or whatever and says, You know what? Yeah, we return it to the states, and now the states get to do what they will and stuff like that.
Well, let's just put, I'm not going to do anything, let's just put this behind us. I'm not going to do anything. As like, you can just see the bullshit space. Yeah, this he is benefiting.
From the fact that a that these guys, that every other person in the field has taken an extreme and absolutely radical and deeply unpopular position on abortion. And just by dint of that, he was just like, if you were just paying attention. He is trying to and seeming reasonable on the issue across this whole interview, he is trying to seem reasonable on a number of issues. And because Rhonda Santa signed a six week ban, because Mike Pence is calling for a national ban. He gets to, he gets to sound like this. I think that the the part of it where he's dodging, right? He's like, Oh, you know, we're going to come together and make a great deal.
The reality is that if whatever the if there was a Republican Congress, they will pass a ban and Trump would sign that. Yes, and that's, and that is the.
Democrats just have to keep saying over and over and over, and he's like, state, ban, federal.
Ban, I don't know, he won't tell you, he's talking about it like he's, he's negotiating.
Over a a a a price. And look, the upside of this is he's doing this and he's trying to rig a lot of this position because he knows how politically damaging it is. And because.
He's actually like a general election candidate, he's not afraid of any of these people. And clearly, and and he believes, probably correctly, that this will have no impact on the fact that he is winning amongst the furthest right, most religiously conservative Republicans.
That will vote in Iowa. Yeah, Trump's been getting more criticism than usual from right wing pundits and his Republican opponents. The DESantis campaign just attacked him in a tweet for a long list of what they see as gaffes. Including denouncing the six week abortion ban, promising to compromise with Democrats on abortion. Struggling to answer Megyn Kelly's questions about, uh, as she put it, whether a man can become a woman, and she asked him why?
He gave an award to Dr. Fauci right before he left office, and the DESantis campaign also criticized him for sounding a bit senile during his Saturday.
Speech in D.C. Let's listen, as you know, crooked Joe Biden and the radical left thugs who have weaponized law enforcement to arrest their leading political opponent. And leading by a lot, including Obama. I'll tell you what, you take a look at Obama and take a look at some of the things that he's done.
This is the same thing. The country was very divided, and we did with Obama, we won an election that everyone said couldn't be one. We have a man who is totally corrupt and the worst president in the history of our country. Who is cognitively impaired, in no condition to lead and is now in charge of dealing with.
Russia and possible nuclear war. Just think of it, we would be in World War Two very quickly. Yes, World War two.
World War Two. Put that, put that in an ad, let's get it out, come on, let's get it out there.
But he's old, too, enough with the issues. Put that in an ad.
Sick of the issues, sick of them. He's crazy. He's a crazy old man, He's so old.
He sounded.
Like a guy who had taken a painkiller and was feeling the effects, that's what it sounded.
Like to me, I had to get some defibration training for time. When you're about to launch, you believe again, that's all you have to say, you believe, I believe.
When you're going to launch an attack on your opponent for being senile, you shouldn't sound like that, you.
Shouldn't talk about World War Two, World War two did happen, I believe, confuse him.
For Barack Obama, then confuse Hillary Clinton For Barack Obama, I would say this look.
I know we're in the middle of a of our, uh, of yet another freak out about how old Biden is. And every day it gets a little bit older and it's a problem. But I just would like to point out that nobody is doing a better job saying that Biden isn't too old than Donald Trump. Because in that interview with Welker, he says, So Welker says, Is it time for a new generation? He goes well, It's always time for a new generation. But, you know, some of the greatest world leaders have been in their eighties. I'm not anywhere, very near 80, but by the way, and Biden's not too old, I don't think Biden's too old.
Put that in the ad, too. Fascinating if he.
Just say it, see how it feels. Speechwriters, though, having a dude there, like doing some live synth giving you vibes. What do you think was going on there? Fantastic, I want, yeah.
It's an innovation. I want you to know that I have been. I would do that during the state of the Union. I believe I have been predicting music for speeches for a long time. Sam, if you're listening to this, send me a text so I can screenshot it. I've been this the.
Who's Sam? Who's Sam? someone I went to college with Uncle Sam?
Oh, he's just a person I know. Ryan. call me after this. Oh, that's my friend Ryan.
He's a composer.
What do you use this pod for? You? Don't use it to talk to your friends. Sometimes I use it for.
What I? That's what I'm using it for today. Okay, minor chords, major chords at the end.
Beautiful. I think an innovation would be, uh, during the state of the Union if an intermission between the domestic policy section and the foreign policy section.
When we come back, I'll take a tour through all seven continents. You get a like a, you get a real bar. Do we think any of these attacks have the potential to hurt Trump in the primary? And I will say that for any of them to make any difference, probably, probably. It needs to be more than a tweet from a random staffer. If you're on the if you're Ron DeSantis, but beyond that, do you think the message? Sorry, go ahead, Tom.
No, no, no, I mean, I just my take on this is they haven't so far. And then, you know, maybe now you could argue, Well, it's mid September, people are paying more attention. The evangelicals in Iowa are waking up to the fact that Donald Trump isn't with them on the six week abortion ban. But I think they all like Trump and they think he will implement their.
Agenda. And I don't know. Yeah, I think they are. Also I think these other Republicans are paying for what, what really is going to be an advantage. You know, we were talking before the show that, like the Lauren Boebert clip, not on Fox, right?
Donald Trump seeming to like, if, if Joe Biden has a moment like that, it's all of a right-wing media. Those are not the moments they take out. And I would just say, like, watching Trump with Welker, he was fucking on it, he was sharp, he was responsive.
He like, he just, he was like, as strong, look, he's obviously fucking cuckoo. And you look at the, you look at the transcripts and you can barely make sense. But as a as like the sharp version of him, the most sharp we've seen, it was there. So I've been noticing this.
He was better, he's been, he's been better and sharper with mainstream journalists, with Caitlin Collins during the CNN Town Hall, and now with Kristen Welker on Meet the Press. Then he's been with his pals in the right-wing media. Like, he sounded like fucking nuts on the Tucker Carlson interview, and he sounded he was really bad with Megan Kelly.
Cause he gets to.
Fight them, he has to fight the mainstream media. And Tucker's over there being like, But again, Epstein killed himself. No, I'm trying to pin you down here, and he's like, What the fuck are you?
Talking about. And I think he wasn't expecting Megan Kelly to be as tough as she was with him.
Yeah, she did a pretty good job. He made a couple oblique references to the debate question that led to her eventual ouster from Fox. So, you know, I feel like there was a sword hanging.
Over the whole time, you know, I do think that I don't think that, like he's not conservative enough, works really well. I didn't notice as I was prepping like it is bubbled up. Some of these attacks from the right that DESantis has been doing have bubbled up more in the conservative media. Like Eric Erickson was attacking him for the question on on the answer on trans issues with Megan Kelly.
And he got a couple, he got like a bad New York Post story about it. And, you know, Bob Vander Plats out there getting pissed about the abortion stuff. A guy that hated Trump for a year. So it's like, you know, Steve Dees, he's like a right-wing radio guy from Iowa. But like, I think that attacking Trump as someone who's lost a step and doesn't know what the hell he's talking about is probably more effective.
And I'm I think it could be too late. But, like, I wonder why DeSantis and others didn't. You could start with the like. He was a great president and he served us well and now we're moving on. You could start there. And then, as the primary goes on, you could be like, he's a little crazy. Yeah, you know, like you don't have to be. I just think that's more effective than going issue by issue.
Because republican.
Voters don't really care about issues. But then you're like, you have, you know, a DESantis staffer taking a shot at him through a statement, and then what is DESantis? Seemingly, uh, best? Swing at News of the day is like going after John Fetterman for for not wearing a bow tie. What was that?
So that's, that's how you're going to be done. You are 40 points behind.
I'm talking about a fucking dress code in the Senate. You maniac, I think you'll beat Fetterman.
In the primary, I think you're going to get a few points more than John Fetterman in the.
Republican primary in Iowa. He didn't get a question about it. He was like, I, he went out of his way. He's a little press conference and he's like, I want to talk about something.
That's, oh, here comes the Donald Trump hit on the abort. No, no, no, no, no, it's like, fucking.
Leno He's like, you hear about this, you guys see this, you guys hear about this, like, what?
The fuck are you doing in defense of Seersucker Tuesday? And he sounds like such a goddamn.
Asshole. The hit is, if in case people didn't know this news, um, uh, Chuck Schumer changed the dress code in the Senate so that you don't have to wear a suit and tie all the time. Which John Fetterman has not been doing so. That, and it's this is freaked out some people on the including Megan Kelly and Ron DeSantis, and I can't think of anything that makes.
Ron DeSantis seem more like the absolute worst version of himself. That's like, I think you should be wearing a tie when you come to my house. Fucking sucks.
Also, man, you work in like Tallahassee, like you want to wear a tie down there. Um, I do think Desantis has tried an age hit. I can't remember which one of them these are Megan Kelly or Crystal Walker was kind of like Ron, DeSantis says. You won't be as effective at age 80.
And Trump's response was well, he won't be effective, he's a bad candidate. And just like Blasted right through it, so it's good. So Joe Biden, let's talk about.
Joe Biden He's at the U.N. General Assembly this week, uh, though he's dealing with quite a few challenges on the domestic front right now. Um, House Republicans are trying to impeach him and shut down the government. His own Justice Department just indicted his son on gun charges, and Democrats are freaking out over bad polls that show real concern about his age. In the economy, which is still being weighed down by inflation, gas prices, and now potentially the United Auto Workers strike, Uh, let's start with the strike.
I'll get into the details more with a representative. SLOTkin But what do you guys think about the politics? Biden and Democrats are obviously supporting the workers, the White House is trying to broker a deal. But Republicans are trying to drive a wedge between auto workers and the UAW leadership, car companies, and Biden by blaming the transition to electric vehicles for the strike.
So if you step all the way back, the UAW, the big three, the Biden administration, are completely aligned, right? Like they want there to be a big electric car industry by unionized workers in America, big union shops making the next generation of cars. Tesla is not unionized, the Giga plant that makes the batteries not unionized. I got rid of my Tesla cause I'm a.
Uh, and I got a Volvo which was made in Belgium, and it's a fucking volvo.
And it was made in the Rattled Men. She's on Twitter about Elon Musk. It's out you can't.
I can't be sitting in a car that that is getting me a bad, replies and has a little noise.
You know, it also make it a noise, those replies rattle in your head.
But, but, but the so. But the Inflation Reduction Act incentivized a ton of investment in manufacturing in the United States. One criticism from the unions is that it didn't do enough to incentivize that that production be done by unionized workers. If I'd mentioned.
We know why, we know why. It didn't include that, like everything else that went bad over the last.
Several years, Joe mentioned, I think you're talking about Joe Manchin, but but. But then right before, you know, a couple of weeks ago, the Biden administration is trying to been trying to address this. Uh, but you know, G.M. Ford, they've been doing these kind of joint ventures to build battery manufacturing facilities, those facilities haven't been unionized. So so underneath. This is a fight about yes for these workers at these plants right now, but also for the future of the industry. And you know, it's not just about Ford and GM, and, uh, uh, Chrysler versus these workers in this negotiation.
It's them collectively, trying to make sure, in the same way that. The U. s auto industry faced competition from, uh, Japanese cars in the seventies and Eighties and faced a crisis in 2008.
It's can they get to the other side of this and work together to make sure that U s companies and union workers are the ones that make these cars? I'm going to step even further back, okay?
Hank Ford.
Jesus Hank Ford Henry, Oh, hank, I forgot that he goes by.
Hank, Uh, I just remember that he was an anti-semite. apparently you'd have. you didn't care enough. That's why he called him Hank. I'm worried about the politics, too.
Because you have the Republicans trying to create this wedge issue, and their narrative is being reinforced by the UAW leadership. And by the car companies, who are all kind of complaining about the competitiveness and the EVIE mandates in the future. And I'd also think, uh, union workers are particularly susceptible to inflation and gas prices going up. Because if you're making an hourly wage, um, that's negotiated years ago, that's incredibly challenging. And exit polls showed that four in 10 voters in union households voted for Trump at 2020. So I think there's probably some cultural issues where Trump and Republicans are pushing on an open door and will could find ways to split union voters from the Democratic Party. Um, so I hope that, I mean, it's really good that Biden came out in favor of the strikers.
Obama did, too, basically every Democrat, a bunch of Democrats on the picket line. But, uh, you know, UAW has got 150,000 workers.
This could swing states. I think Democrats should say about this, like Republican attempt to drive a wedge between them on electric vehicles. These people are full of shit. They don't want the Inflation Reduction Act incentives to suddenly go to. They don't want these loans to go to union shops that are making electric vehicles, they just don't want electric vehicles.
And, you know, J.D. Vance was saying that. He said, Oh, you were just importing parts from Tesla, parts from China. And that leaves out U.S. workers. They just don't want electric vehicles, right? But, and you know, uh, Congressman Slot can bring this up in our interview, too.
Like the market is moving towards electric vehicles like that, people want electric vehicles and it's going to be more and more and cheaper. So the question is, do we want to have them built in China overseas, or do we want to have them built in the United States? And Democrats want them built in the United States, Biden administration wants them built in the United States, the UAW wants them built in the United States.
And so does the big three automakers, right? And so the question is, can we make sure that incentives to build new battery plants and electric vehicles go to places where there are unions, where their unions are allowed? Because part of the problem is some of these loans are going to like Georgia and the Carolinas, where that their right to work states, and they don't have to be unions. And that's not Joe Biden, the Democrats fault, that's fucking Republicans fault, because they don't want to have union protections in those states. And I think Democrats have to call out the like, the bullshit that it is like.
Republicans have never been on the side of workers, they've never been on the side of unions, especially unions, they've been trying to break up unions. So I think it is a real problem and it's a real challenge because some of these loans have gone to shops that aren't union shops. And and workers are worried about that, and they're also worried that it takes fewer parts to make electric vehicles.
So it might not be as much, it might not be as much work, for that's auto work, that's the real.
Structural, long-term. And also these workers, you know, they have not benefited the way that the executives have these companies since the Obama administration bailed out the big three automakers. Also, you know. The broader context is that Biden has done some incredibly important things for unions very recently, like the NLRB under Biden, has taken all sorts of really important pro union steps.
They're just complicated and hard to explain and people may not know about.
Them. But I do think it's in the end, where the union and these companies are aligned is they together are in a competition with Rivian, with Tesla, with companies all around the world. And they want to prove that these union shops can compete. And they can make the best cars they can, the most beautiful and well-run and interesting and creative and innovative cars that people are excited to buy. They want to get to the other side of this negotiation so they can do that, but they have to do that together.
And there's no. There's like, you know, we can talk about what the politics mean and what Democrats should be saying and all the rest. But underneath, that is the substance, and that is the question that will determine whether or not the U.S succeeds and has unionized auto plants. Making the next generation of cars where they can make a deal and then actually move forward and make the cars that can beat Tesla, that can beat Rivian.
That can beat their international competitors. Yeah, and by the way, to the point about having more work. Like also ensuring that these battery plants and these battery factories are unionized as well. Because maybe the part, there's fewer parts for cars, but like, we're also building these batteries. And that should be like, all of this clean energy transition has to, like, put workers at the center of the transition. And it's not a coincidence that, like, you know.
Ford does a deal with, like, I think it's Samsung, and and GM does a deal with another South Korean company. So that those joint ventures aren't covered by the collective bargaining agreements, like they're not. These things are not happening by accident, right?
All right, let's talk shutdown, which now seems even more likely than it did last week. A supposed deal between Kevin McCarthy and the House Freedom Caucus to pass just a short-term funding bill has apparently fallen apart. And a lot of Republican leaders seem to be in favor of a, including Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence and Donald Trump.
Uh, conventional wisdom is that a shutdown will be bad politics for Republicans and good politics for Joe Biden. What do you guys think?
I think it's probably right. I mean, every headline is about Republicans attacking Kevin McCarthy. You know, like Biden is sort of absent from this, the Senate's kind of absent for this.
At least for now, I think it's also helpful that Donald Trump says to Welker, like, if they don't get a good deal, shut the government down. You know that that I don't think people won't know where to lay the blame for this. I do worry.
Yes, maybe that, you know. If you run a poll, it'll say that more people hold Republicans responsible than they do for Democrats. But in the end, the way press coverage is. The UAW strike gets laid at Biden's feet, a government shutdown gets laid at Biden's feet, inflation gets laid at Biden's feet. So it's, you know, a country in which people have insecurity and fears and concerns about the economy. Even as the the the numbers improve, where there's all these sort of chaotic markers.
I don't think ultimately we're down to Biden's benefit. Yeah, I think everyone who is going to.
Follow this story will know that it's Republican's fault, but most of the country won't follow the story. And when they wake up one day and just see headlines that the government shut down, are they going to be like, Oh, did Republicans do it to Democrats who are probably Republicans? But I don't know Joe Biden, fix it, you know, so, so. But I think it's a good opportunity for Biden to show that he is fighting for. The vast majority of Americans who don't want to see cuts in education, healthcare, disaster relief, basic government services. Just because Donald Trump and a few fucking goons in the House want to impeach Joe Biden over nothing, I think that's, you know, and I think he. And if if Biden ends up being the adult who gets the government back open. And also is out there fighting on behalf of people who don't want to see these cuts.
I think that's a good position for him to be in. Yeah, it's just. There've been 15 government shutdowns since 1990. And like, I do wonder if people just you, just like I asked you guys before we started, Hey, there was the longest government shutdown ever was in 2019. Why did?
It happen. None of us could remember why. First, you said, Do you remember what the the shutdown in 2018 was about? I'm like, and I said, I don't know. I think it was short.
And you go, actually, it was the longest in history. I was like, Wow, I do not remember that 35 days didn't retain it.
Yeah, and so the question is, like, these 18 moderate Republicans who represent districts that Joe Biden won, none of them like the politics of this. But, you know, by election day to their voters. Remember, I don't know anymore. I mean, it's just the only hope, McCarthy.
Had here was to do what he did in the debt ceiling, get something out of the house by telling everyone in the House, look, none of you agree on this, none of you are happy. But unless we send something over to the Senate, we can't do anything here. And we're going to have to cut a deal with Democrats and let's just send something over to the center. Or else we're going to get jammed by the Senate because they're going to pass a bill. That was his only hope.
And he thought that he had something, and now it does seem like now. This happened last time, of course, and then they cobbled something together. But this time, the way that your Matt Gaetz is and your Chip Roy's and all these people are talking. It sounds like they just want McCarthy to fail because they want to try to.
Go for a motion to vacate him. It's a fool me once situation. Yeah, I don't, you know, that was the that was the same deal with the debt ceiling. Which was this idea that if McCarthy could just pass something out of the House with his majority with anything, somehow, that that would strengthen his hand.
There's nothing that can pass the Republican House, with just Republican votes that can pass the Senate. So we will ultimately. And so, you know, maybe like, maybe in an, maybe in the world McCarthy helped destroy.
There was no. It seems like there's nothing that can pass the Republican House period.
Blocking a defense spending bill? But like, we don't live in the in part because of what McCarthy and his politics have done. We don't live in a world where the fact that a House Republican bill was able to pass gives him leverage. And working with the Senate, no, if there's, if they want to keep the government open, is going to be a bipartisan vote in the Senate. It's going to be a bipartisan vote in the House, and the only way that's going to happen is if it's with Democratic votes in the House.
And the only way that's going to happen is if there is a negotiation in which the House Freedom Caucus would never agree to. Yeah, I mean, and just as an example.
What, this, what? The short term funding bill that is probably never going to see the light of day. What it did is it had, like, a a pretty hefty cut to spending. Way below the levels that Biden and McCarthy agreed on. 8 8 across the board, a deal that already took place, they may we made a deal, we're living under the deal. Even if it was, even if it was just the 8 cut and nothing else, it would have passed. They throw on their immigration bill, essentially that the House Republicans wanted, which would rebuild the wall. And sort of do all the, you know, the most stringent immigration thing, cut asylum, refugees, all that kind of stuff.
But they, they cobbled this together without realizing that the 8 cut across the board would cut enforcement of immigration decimate enforcement at the border. Genius, because they don't. There's nowhere for him to go, there's just nowhere for him to go, Bobert looks up.
Looks up from a playbill west. And there was no money for Ukraine, no disaster relief funding, like none of the above the line thing. But they know the Senate wants, but it's the Republicans want to send her home. I want to, yeah, but you know, listen, uh, my guy. Congressman Dusty Johnson has been working this package hard. That's a name he made up. That's Dusty Johnson, South Dakota, my favorite. What about him?
Have hope. Oh, just working on it.
One Republican who is quite done with his party's antics is Willard. Mitt. Romney, who's announcement last week that he'll be retiring from the Senate was accompanied by quite an exit. Interview with McKay. Coppins, who spent hours with Romney for a forthcoming biography, should be out next month. The Atlantic ran an excerpt where Romney torches his Republican colleagues as phonies who privately share his disdain for Donald Trump but refuse to do anything about it. Specifically, calling out Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence, Josh Holly and J.D. Vance, who he does not care for, he does not like J.D. Vance.
I'm there with you buddy, uh. Romney sums up his feelings by telling McKay quote A very large portion of my party really doesn't believe in the Constitution. Good for Mitt. Uh, what else did you guys find?
Noteworthy about this piece, So, first of all, I think it's just worth just. This is a very sad story about a very sad man who is very lonely in his isolation from the Trump. Supporting parts of the Senate. And like his family, and his family, because he's stuck. McKay Coppins says at one point that his conversations often last for hours, in part because he thought Romney liked the company. But it was really striking, right? Like, there's one part where he says authoritarianism is like a gargoyle lurking over the cathedral. And it was just you, we s.
We've seen Mitt Romney giving Josh Holly, Josh Holly, the eyes from behind behind him during his speech, uh, after the insurrection, and we've seen him give these statements. And it really was just interesting to see what it was actually like to live behind the scenes. With these people who are all telling him one after another that they don't believe any of the things they are saying. And how much of a personal crisis it created for for Mitt Romney. Who was, I think, genuinely trying to sort out how to how to work in this environment?
Yeah, I thought it was interesting where he named names, cause there were a lot of like, blind anecdotes about senators saying things to him. That sort of told you something about how broken the institution was. But he destroys J.D. Vance, Josh Holly and Mitch McConnell. And I thought that was interesting.
In telling like, for example, McConnell says to Romney, You're lucky, you can say the things that we all think. It's like, Buddy, you represent Kentucky, you are the leader of your party. Why can't you say what you think, just cause you're pathetic?
Yeah, I think, I mean, I think. McConnell believes that saying what he thinks would fracture the party. And a divided party is always less successful, right? And so he can. And Romney says they keep saying, like, Well, it's just more, we can't let the Democrats take over, right?
That's the whole, the underlying, the whole thing is. The worst thing that could happen is not authoritarianism or Donald Trump or anything like that, it's Democrats running the government.
That is, I think the most that was that was also striking. Which is, they don't believe a word of what they're saying about Donald Trump, but they believe every word they're saying about Democrats. I actually, I do think that they believe that. Because one of the points Mitch McConnell makes to Mitt Romney is like, they'll do the Green New deal. Uh, some other, some other.
Stuff that is just funny, Uh, they'll save us from planetary collapse, could you? could you imagine?
Uh, there are 20 senators here who do all the work, and there are 80 who are just along for the ride.
Richard Burr walks on the treadmill in his suit, pants and loafers. Sherrod Brown, Sherrod Brown and Dick Durbin pedaled so slowly on their exercise bikes that Romney couldn't help but peek at their resistance settings. Durbin was a one, but Brown was at an eight. And I love that. And one person you didn't mention that he goes after incredibly hard is Paul Ryan.
Oh yeah, Ryan, who's not in office, calls to whip votes against him on impeachment. What just for?
Fucking fun, you know what? I'm glad you brought that up because I wanted to yell at everyone. I wanted to especially talk to Dan about that. Who knew how he feels about Paul Ryan?
That was wild to me because I had to. I looked at the date of when that was, cause I'm like, Oh, was was Ryan speaker at the time? He's out of office, he's gone.
He's already doing his like, Oh, I don't like Trump, I'm I'm standing up to blah, blah, blah. But then he's like, Oh, you know, Mitt, you can't. You gotta, you gotta acquit Trump on impeachment, you gotta do it.
He's whipping votes for him and then the other, the other thing and that, and Paul Ryan makes the kind of political argument.
Coward.
It's worse than Coward, worse than coward. Cause he had nothing to be afraid of.
Useless coward.
He's not even he's just being a terrible person, he's just being terrible, like no one's coming after us. It was a private phone call, he couldn't tell the truth on a private phone call.
But, you know, the argument that keeps you major, right, you? There's a moment where he's with his staff and he's telling his staff he's going to vote for impeachment. And the some of the staff are like beside themselves, cause it's like their political careers are going to be affected. And then a senator, he's a senator, a member of leadership, and this is one of your, one of your anonymized.
One says that he was leaning to vote to convict, and the others urgent to reconsider. You can't do that, Romney recalled someone saying, Think of your personal safety, think of your children. The senator eventually decided that they were right.
That is true.
The fact that you know.
And that's a theme through the piece. Because when they talk about January 6th and Romney, text McConnell and it's like, Hey, um, Angus, I just talked to Angus King. And he said that there's like, real concerns about security on January 6th. And I'm getting threats. And also people are threatening to, like, go to your house, Mitch and blah, blah, blah, and McConnell never responds.
Yeah, I mean, he may not be, he just may not be a good texter, but uh, but like Romney?
It was sitting there. It's a green bubble on his phone.
Definitely a green text. McConnell gets a hundred percent green text. He's on T Nine. Freezing 30 seconds at a time, it's hard to type when you freeze fully for 30 seconds.
He and Schumer are like t-nining each other during the AI hearing.
I can't believe we have a recognized, regulated big tech. Chuck Schumer's on a flip phone. This, the the Republican minority leader is frozen solid. But the uh, but, but, uh. He's Romney's talking about being driven with security behind him, and he's worrying what's going to happen. If someone takes a shot at him with a car behind him, won't really help. And uh, we, we really kind of have, like, gotten to the point where the former Republican nominee for president is saying that. The threat of violence, that the fear that Republicans will do violence against Republican politicians is so great that it is changing the way people vote.
In Congress, Romney says he spends $5,000 a day on security a day. No one can afford that.
So I was saying this to tell me. But like every time I read another account of January 6th, I become radicalized all over again in my anger about that day. And like that image of when Josh is objecting to and trying to overturn the election after after January 6th happens. And then there's Mitt Romney in the background, like giving him the eyes, you realize how infuriated he must be. Because when he talks about what they all went through, how they were all scared for their lives, how they like that, they were at the doors, there were weapons, they're all kinds of stuff, and then Romney's like, Well, it's all done.
Now we're going to get back in there and they're going to drop their objections and we're going to, you know, make Joe Biden president's all going to be fine. And then they go up there and they all.
Still fucking object. He couldn't believe. He wrote a speech and he thought, Well, I won't need this. Certainly, I won't need this now.
And the other, just to reading again, another account of the of, like a first person account of the insurrection. You know, Trump, to Welker, made up something about how, uh uh, Nancy Pelosi rejected the blame. Um, and they, of course, there's been, you know, different accounts about why there wasn't more security. But like, you realize, like, how terrifying it was, in part because nobody thought this was going to happen. There's one moment where he's in in the elevator and someone says, Oh, the senators don't know where to go, and they're like, we are the senators.
And we don't know where to go. Yeah, the security guards were like, I don't know where you go, yeah.
And yeah, the, uh, it was also just like Mitt Romney. There's a part where he quotes Tennyson, he says, You know, this madness has come on us for our sins. A beautiful sentiment, a beautiful quote. Uh, the days of senators from the Republican Party quoting Tennyson are at an end.
Well, he also there's. There's the part where he had flirted with an independent run for president just so he could get on the debate stage with Trump and go after him. Which, I'm sure, is the fantasy of a lot of politicians to do that. But then some of them named Donald Trump, pointing like this in the shower. But um. But then he does say that he has talked to, uh, Joe Manchin, about what a mistake it would be to run on the No labels ticket. So, you know, doing all the right, Mitt Romney, doing all the right things. We also talked about starting A, he said. Don't.
Don't run for president, let's start a party which is right, that pushes one of the parties.
I noticed that, uh. Joe Biden's former chief of staff Ron Klain tweeted like, You know something complimentary about Mitt Romney and this interview? But that said, there's one more thing you can do, which is get behind Joe Biden, and you haven't done that. And Ron has a good point, you know?
That's and I get it, and I get. That's hard for Mitt Romney, because, like, you know, Barack Obama ran against Mitt Romney in 2012. And there was a big an honest debate over the size and role of government. Mitt Romney believes in a very small government. And we do not right, and and I think that, like that, that debate is real.
And so I think for Mitt Romney, like evolving to the point where he's like. All my policy considerations are secondary to this threat from authoritarianism that is coming within my own party. Like, I think that, you know, that takes a that, it takes some effort that very few other Republican politicians, except for like Liz Cheney and a couple others.
Have made that journey well, you know, I will say this is, I really appreciate this version of Mitt Romney. But I do think that. One of the things he's grappling with when he sees all these other politicians is the way he himself subsumed his own principles for the purpose of elective office. He did the event with Donald Trump. And if he, and if he can find a way to evolve from being pro-choice to pro-life, he can find a way to evolve. From being a Republican member of the Senate to a person who is endorsing Joe Biden to save the country, he clearly loves and believes, is threatened by Donald Trump.
He can do it, yeah, and look, Ron's tweet is right, but also.
The smart thing to do if you're going to make that endorsement is to do it like in late October.
Yes, I agree, you know, make news, okay, before we go to break two quick housekeeping notes. The second Republican presidential debate is coming up on Wednesday, September 27th, which means it's time for another Friends of the Pod exclusive group thread.
Join us on Discord for live reactions and commentary during the debate from your favorite Crooked hosts and staff. Subscribe to Friends of the Pod to join our group thread at Crooked.com Slash Friends. Also, if you live in the Midwest, get out your malort, love it or leave. It is coming to Chicago this week on September 21st and Madison on September 22nd, with wonderful guests like Brandon Johnson, Peter Sagal, Alice Waterland, Jillian Flynn, Ben Wickler and more. Tickets are going fast.
Head to crooked.
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Say that the The Madison and Chicago shows are almost sold out. But Love or Leave is going to be across the country, pots of America's across the country. So go to Crooked.com slash events.
Yeah, you can't go wrong. if you go to Crooked.com slash events, you can't go wrong. When we come back, I talk more about the UAW strike with Michigan Representative Alyssa Slotkin.
Last week, the United Auto Workers initiated a strike against all three major automakers in the United States. Here to discuss this historic strike, the political implications and her race for the U. S Senate Representative. Alyssa Slotkin, Welcome to the podcast, Thanks for having me. So you joined a UAW picket line, UH, at a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, last week.
What was the mood like? Did the workers you met seem like they are ready to strike for as long as it takes? Or did you get the sense that they're ready and willing to give a bit to get a deal?
No, I think the energy was really good, I mean, morale was good. They were. I was there on the very first day, um, and people, you know, had been moving towards this and and I think the energy was positive. Look, people were there signing up for strike benefits, so they are obviously watching their own pocketbooks.
And and I don't think anyone in Michigan wants a really long, prolonged strike, no matter who you are. Um, but the energy was good and, um, it was interesting. I met a couple of people who had had parents who were, um UAW workers at that same plant. The last time it struck, that specific plant struck in the eighties.
And, um, you know, just kind of talking about, you know, being being ready to do what they needed to do to make.
Sure, they got a good deal, so. The Ford CEO said the union's demands for a 46 pay increase in a four-day work week would bankrupt the company. The basic automaker argument is, you know, labor costs are already higher than foreign automakers like Toyota and Tesla that don't have unions. And, you know, they offered a 21 pay increase that, which the UAW has rejected. What's the best counter to the argument from Ford and other automakers, in your opinion?
Well, I mean, I think the the the strongest statement about these negotiations is that the was cast months ago, right? It's the context for these negotiations. The context is, um, you have a bunch of people who gave up things in 2008, 2009. Because we were in recession in Michigan, in a real recession. Um, where we are now. Fast forward, making record profits at those same companies. I mean, that's, that's just fact, um. And these companies are also getting help in setting up, uh, new things like electric vehicle battery plants, right?
So against that context, um, you have workers who are saying, Hey, we gave up stuff before now, you're doing really, really well. We want to do better and we want more money in our pockets. And that, to me, is like the greatest statement about where we are in these negotiations. I'm not in the negotiations.
So I don't know the back and forth, that's happening on an hour to hour basis. I know that, um, they're, they're looking for a better deal than what they have, and I don't think that's.
I don't think that's, that's a crazy thing to ask for. Politico ran a story yesterday that said, Uh. The GOP sees the UAW walkout as a potential lifeline in Michigan. And talks about how Republicans are trying to win over rank and file union members and non-union working class voters. Uh, by blaming the strike on the Democratic Party's climate policies. Donald Trump is reportedly planning a trip to the same Ford plant that you just visited, uh, and said that the union should prioritize the repeal of Biden policies that accelerate the transition to electric vehicles. You've gotten this attack yourself from Republicans. Does it worry you at all?
Like, do you hear these concerns about electric vehicles from auto workers in your state?
So, you know, I'll be honest, like most of the people that I talk to, and I, of course, represented an electric vehicle plant. Uh, the Chevy Bolt was made in my district before it was redrawn. We have an electric vehicle battery factory coming to my current district in Delta township, Lansing. Um, the next generation of vehicles is going to be made, right? And right now, like places like China are ahead of us. So if we're going to make those vehicles somewhere in the world, I would always rather make them, like in Team America than Team China.
And so there's a second order question that comes after that how do we make sure people in those facilities are making a living? Wage only have to work, you know, one job? In order to sustain themselves, they should be able to have a good middle-class life. But if the question is who should make those vehicles, Team America should make those. So every time they say that, I mean, I just say, Would you rather it be China? Like, what is your alternative here?
Now there's a very good conversation to have about making sure we push the car companies to give people a fair shot at life in those in those facilities. I have a huge interest in that. We got to get that right. And certainly, um, for the bipartisan group of us that, you know, signed onto the Chips Act that cared about incentivizing American manufacturing. We have a huge incentive to making sure they get that right. But the first order of business is make it in America and not in China.
So you don't think that this in in Republicans?
Have been trying to do this for a long time to pit, you know, labor against climate activists.
Um, you don't think that's really going to work well? Look, I mean, they're, they're. Certainly they're, um, they're trying, but I don't think you can. I think they have this fundamental conundrum that they're going to have to deal with on the Republican side. Which is, you got a lot of people, including a lot of senior folks in Michigan. Republicans who have for 20 years voted against anything related to Labor. But now, because of Donald Trump, they're suddenly populists, and now they care about the working man. When you've got a 20 year record of voting against right to work and prevailing wage and all of these things, um, it is pretty hard to turn around and be Mr.
Union and that is the needle they're trying to thread. And you know, all I know is that when I was out on Friday, no one's talking about Trump, no one's talking about Biden, no one's talking about politics.
They're talking about being able to have more money in their pockets so they can do well and their kids can do better. It's really not, um, as to me, as like, desperately political as everyone would like it to be made out to be so. New York Times interviewed a few dozen striking.
Workers and found that many who voted for the president said, quote inflation had so undercut their wages that they felt pushed out of the middle class. Laying the blame with Mr. Biden, how do you persuade those workers to vote for Democrats like you and Joe Biden next year?
So, you know, I think the there's no doubt about it, right? People because of inflation, they this is the point. They have more, um, they have less money in their pockets, and more of a desire to make more money. That's that is sort of a fact of life. Um, and all we can do is try to demonstrate that we care about this core American value of the middle class.
Like that, to me, is the moon of American. Frankly, national security is how do you have a strong middle class? And how dangerous it is, in a multi-racial, multi-ethnic experiment, to have only rich and only poor? And I think that, um, if you just put on merit the policies of one party over the other, it is very clear which one supports a middle class life. Um, and um, all we can do is is demonstrate that. And. But we also can't shy away from the fact that inflation is a real thing. And while we hope it's getting better, um, it's not better yet for many, many people.
And if you try and shy away from that and say, well, but jobs are growing and all this, that may be true. But to the people I represent, they have less money in their pockets, that's all. There's a whole lot of reasons for that, but you can't shy away from that.
Yeah, Biden's also, of course, dealing with concerns about his age. Democratic pundits and strategists are in full freak out mode. But, you know, we're also seeing it from voters in in poll after poll. What would you say to a Biden voter in Michigan who's worried about whether the president's too old to serve a second term?
You know, look, I think I've said repeatedly that it's not just one person. You look at a lot of the candidates in, you know, looking for the White House, the Senate, the House. It is definitely, you know, as someone who's kind of like a Gen Xer. It is definitely feels like we need a new generation across the board and you can feel that interest. Um, uh, the president is running for a second term.
There's nothing more natural than a president running for a second term. That's typically how we do it in this country. Um, and uh, all I can say is that, you know he, he is the president of the United States. His policies have helped a place like Michigan. And so, you know it it, to me, it's only natural that he runs and I support that.
Um, but do I think we need a new generation across the board, right? Mr. Trump is, well, not a spring chicken. Um, you know, folks in the Senate, oh, my Lord, right in the house.
Oh, my Lord. So that's I think I can feel that generational push across the board.
Michigan's a place where Democrats have done quite well since Hillary Clinton barely lost the state in 2016.
Though, people like you and Gretchen Whitmer and Debbie Stabenow, who you're running to replace in the Senate, have all won by much larger margins than national Democrats like Biden. Or how Hillary narrowly lost. What do you think Michigan Democrats can teach National Democrats?
About winning states like yours.
Well, I mean, I think that in Michigan, I mean, I'm someone who likes math, and if you're going to be successful in the state of Michigan, you need to understand math. And math. Means that we are a state where independent and swing voters usually decide our elections, right? that's where swing state for a reason. So I think it's important to understand that while you always want to turn out the base and be in touch with the base. That it is about appealing to a broad group of people. Which, if you've been elected in Michigan, that typically, you know, you've demonstrated that. Um, but I think it's also about, um, uh, if I can be honest, getting into areas and going to places where Democrats have not shown up in 40 years. Not writing off rural areas, I represent a rural district, um, not writing off those areas where, you know, people may not be able to be out marching in the streets. But they want a better world and they're willing to vote that way. Um, you know, I always tell people that, um, frankly, you know. There are a lot of Democrats and progressively minded people in very conservative areas, and they risk a hell of a lot more to be a Democrat that anyone in New York City or L.A.
Right, and some of them don't tell their husbands how they vote, they don't tell their kids. And I want them to be a part of the family, and in Michigan, that is part of the family, right?
And, uh, I just think that that is a lesson that could be learned in other parts of the of the country. We want to be an open, welcoming party of reasonable people. Um, and that usually.
Works. What's the number one issue you're hearing about in the campaign trail? And, uh, what will be your number one priority if you get to the Senate?
Number one issue I'm hearing about generally is like people either have no hope of getting in the middle class and they want back in. And so it's literally kitchen table economics. How do I have a one job, a good job with benefits that helps me save every month? And then how do I bring down the insane costs of healthcare, prescription drugs, housing, childcare, and post-secondary education? Somewhere in that zone is 90 of what people raise with me.
And then then there's the the, the issues of, um, making more things in America. There's the issue of, like, protecting our kids from the things that are truly harming them, like gun violence. And, you know, the diseases of despair, mental health issues and opioid addiction, um, and then protecting our rights and our democracy. But first and foremost, is like, how do we as a nation grapple with the fact that after World War II? We did such a good job of building this strong middle class? And now people are falling out of it or have no hope of getting in. So that's what I want to work on, as a frankly, I'm a national security person.
You know that, but I think this is the national security issue of our era. Because if we don't get it right at home, what can we do abroad?
Representative Alyssa Slotkin, Thank you so much for coming on Pod Save America and good luck out on the trail.
Thanks, very much thanks for having me.
Okay, unfortunately, uh, we cannot end the show without talking about Lauren Boebert. We covered the story last week on our subscription show Terminally Online, which you can sign up for at Crooked.com. Slash friends, Um, but there have been quite a few developments since then. To recap, Boebert and her boyfriend attended a performance of BeetleJuice, the musical, at the Buell Theater in Denver, Colorado. Where we once did a live taping of this very podcast.
Lovely theater.
The couple was asked to leave the show after complaints that they were being rowdy. Taking pictures and vaping, despite being asked not to vape by a pregnant woman. In front of them. Uh, Boebert's campaign initially denied the vaping and dismissed the criticism. Then security camera footage of the incident showed the couple not only vaping but groping each other. Because there's nothing hornier than a musical production of Beetlejuice. This led to a full apology from Boebert for quote falling short of my values and the vaping lie, she apologized for, which she attributed to either the quote. Excitement of seeing a much anticipated production or the natural anxiety of being in a new environment.
She then expanded on these thoughts during an interview with One American News. As one does. What's the top story? Lauren Boebert getting kicked out of the Buell Theater in Denver, Colorado? It's what the media does, it's what the media does.
So what went down?
I was a little too, uh, eccentric I I am. I'm very known for having, uh uh, a animated personality, uh, maybe overtly animated personality. I was laughing, I was singing, having a fantastic time. Yeah, she was.
Fantastic time.
Oh boy.
Guys, what's so bad about a little vaping, a little groping at Beetlejuice?
It's a musical, not a concert. I say it again, you don't lie, you can have a great time at a musical. You sit still and quietly because there's human beings on the stage playing characters.
There is a uh, uh. There's somebody I follow on TikTok because he does an incredible impression of Patti Lupone, That's why I follow him. He sings as Patti Lupone. I didn't know this, but he had actually been cast. It was his big break in the traveling production of BeetleJuice.
And then he said, I remember that night I didn't actually know someone got kicked out, but I remember that somebody was doing a lot of flash photography. He was disturbing the performer, she was disturbing the performer.
Flash photography, that's insane.
It's too far from the stage.
Yeah, right, it's also useless.
It's just going to get a bright shot of the people ahead of you.
Does he say that the musical is as horny as, uh, as we think it is?
Nothing makes the performers of Beetlejuice, the musical, in and of itself, something that exists as a testament to the fact that we are a nation in decline. Uh, nothing makes them more excited as performers than to know that people have full on fucking boners during during their performance. Of the various songs that we all know and love and don't need to say what they are, because we all, of course, love Beetlejuice. The musical, a beautiful adaptation of an important piece of IP. Uh, but yeah, no, that's that's what, he said.
Has anyone else weirded out that the theater has, like, really good night vision cameras?
Didn't know that when we, uh, when we did our show there, that's for sure. No one at the Buell Theater told us there'd be night vision cameras there.
Yeah.
Now granted.
We didn't do a lot of groping, not as much as, not nearly as much as I would have hoped, but the uh.
And you know what no one in the audience did either, because they're at a public fucking event.
They did it with, we did it, they did it with a discretion. But, uh, yeah, I definitely, yeah.
With the in between the flash photography and the vaping, they're groping. Yeah, it is. We're going to keep it quiet. over here is our flash photography. Singing, yelling, grabbing.
I will say this, that is a lesson. First of all. I think when Lauren Bovert says that she was, uh, had the anxiety of any place, which really means is, I didn't know there was tape, I didn't know it was on video. But I think, as a rule, if you are going to go to a musical production that welcomes children 10 and up, you can either do flash photography or over the shirt groping.
Right?
Yeah, I prefer neither. But you can't do both because it draws attention to the over the shirt groping.
I yeah, to me, the OTPHJ is not as bad as saying, Do you know who I am when confronted?
Oh, I just want to say the acts themselves like, I don't, I don't give a shit.
Oh, I'm just saying, but saying, Do you know who I am to someone?
That's the worst, you're the worst person in the world.
Oh, I'll be a prude. I do not believe you should be, uh, uh, publicly, uh, getting it on at a theater during a musical where children are present. I think you should restrain yourself.
Someone, someone found the Public Indecency law in Colorado like she, she potentially violated it. Because it does include, uh, groping in public as part of the public, you're not supposed to do that.
You know, at the very least quite rude.
I just think that the the existence of the night vision camera is weird, it makes me uncomfortable. Then there was like another discourse where people were like, why are we mocking this right now? And these people were surveilled against their will and blah, blah, blah, and there's leave them alone.
I'm like, Oh yeah, you deserve. You have every right to privacy, to grope in a public setting. No, you don't.
I can't, I can't, I can't follow those people there. I will say this. If you ever are in a position and happens all the time like someone you know, uh, uh, a drunk state legislator will get pulled over. Somebody will get a problem at the airport. If you ever say through, you know, if you're slurring your words and you're ever shouting, Do you know who I am?
You lost, you're the villain.
Famously, it's a villain, famously ineffective.
No one, it's, it's, you know what it is.
She did a couple more, too. She, she doesn't say. She's like, I know the mayor, I'm on, I know that I'm calling the mayor, which is, I don't know how that's going to help her. And then she also said, I'm on the board, the board of what?
I do, and he's under the board.
If she had just been like, Hey, I'm sorry, you know, we acted inappropriately. I apologize to the theater and the other people I disrupted. You wonder if they would have released this footage? Maybe they would have, just because it's kind of funny. But she's also just a giant hypocrite.
She's the first person to attack gay people for grooming, and she's like a total hack who's pretending she's going to protect our kids.
She sucks, and her boyfriend that was. The man in question is a Democrat whose bar hosts drag shows.
I mean, he seems like he's up for a good time. As far as we can tell so far, he's just he's just along for the ride as well. But the I will say, yeah, saying he's like, Oh, we're at Beetlejuice, he's like, I love the finale.
When does the musical start?
Oh boy.
But the yelling, Do you know who I am? is about as effective as yelling. Relax at somebody, you know what I mean, it just gets the opposite, it gets your haunches.
It gets your haunches up.
I watch it. She's also she's not like, she acts a little like MTG adjacent, but she's not in a Republican plus 40 seat the way Marjorie Taylor Green, she won by like 500 votes last time.
Adam Frisch Go to his campaign website. The best part, though, he's not going to be doing that, that beetlejuice, not now.
There's a he's, he's, he's groping out of victory.
It's within his reach.
Not going to be in that caucus with Dusty Johnson for long.
Liz Kroken.
He doesn't want a premature ejection.
There's a bonafide lunatic on Twitter named Liz Kroken, who has Pizza Gate is Real in her bio. Who said Uh, if I were a wagering enthusiast, I would bet that the date, uh, Bobert's date was paid to set her up. So this is the new conspiracy theory that the deep state, the Libs were coming for Bobert by getting her to go out with this guy.
Her bio also says that she's a seasoned journalist for 20 plus years, in addition to Pizza Gate. And her pronouns are I slash, told slash, you slash, so.
And there's no evidence that any liberals came anywhere. She's dead.
She said These types of tactics and traps are used all the time. And I would know, what, what would you know?
What would you know? What a, what a, what a sting operation. Step one build trust, step two. Mention that in passing that at the Buell Theater. In a couple of weeks, Beetlejuice is coming to town.
Hey Lauren, I got a crazy idea.
Install a security camera.
It's going to be dark. Is this a is this a Nathan for you?
By the way, by the way, maybe he's a Nathan for you plan.
I just think it's also like, man, let's say, let's say everything is going according to the Deep State's plan perfectly. Lauren's still up for a little hanky-panky at the Buell Theater. You know, no one deep state didn't do that. I watched the footage.
I hated it again, it's beetlejuice, and it is bad again, Beetlejuice, the musical.
So hot.
How do you not? How do you not get horny?
It's the sexiest, the sexiest musical production.
The musical.
Should be NC-17?
They must've been so drunk, she said. I didn't remember vaping, okay?
Yeah, that's not all she didn't remember.
It's unbelievable.
Anyway, what a story, what a fun story, something for all of you to enjoy. Thank you to Alyssa Slotkin for joining us.
And good luck in your race.
Stay out of the theater.
Much like Lincoln, stay out of the theater.
All right, everyone, we'll see you Thursday bye.
That's funny. The second worst time politicians had in a theater in living memory.
Other than that, Ms. Bobert, How was the play?
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