A Guide to the 2024 Battleground States

Live shows, he has worked for every top Democrat in the party, at least the ones you guys like. Obama, Biden, Clinton, Gavin Newsom, Cory Booker, Katie Porter. Sure, I left some out, but-.

as Paul Manafort and Corey Lewandowski, they're making a return to the team. God help us all.

In Ohio, the Trump-backed MAGA candidate, Bernie Moreno, managed to fend off challenges from Secretary of State Frank LaRose and the state senator named Matt Dolan. Moreno is now going to go up against Sherry Brown in the general election. Moreno is a former car dealer from Cincinnati. He's the MAGA guy. He had backing from Trump and JD Vance and all the goobers.

The tally with about 95% of the vote in this morning was Bernie Moreno, 50%, over 50%. Dolan at 32.9%. LaRose, 16.6%. So they certainly split the vote there. So, Adhesu, this is one of those races where Trump's guy won and our guy won.

The Democrats guy won. Can you talk a bit about Bernie Moreno and what you think his winning means for our chances of keeping this seat?

He has whatever. the opposite of the Midas touch is when it comes to endorsing down ballot. You got, I'm thinking back to 22,. Doug Mastriano and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, Kerry Lake and Blake Masters in Arizona. God, the list goes on.

And so ultimately, I think Moreno is the weakest candidate that we could have drawn. That said, in 2022, one of the candidates that Trump endorsed that actually did win was JD Vance, right? So in Ohio, right there. And so Ohio was a tougher state for us, but we've got Sherry Brown. And I think, with no offense to Tim Ryan, who ran, I think, pretty much a flawless campaign.

He was not an incumbent. He did not have decades of statewide name recognition and brand building and all the things that Sherry Brown has. So bottom line, Bernie Moreno is for a national abortion ban. He's for repealing the ACA. He is everything that we hate in many of the other senators that are there in the Republican caucus.

And he has the MAGA state on him and a tough primary. He just went through with a lot of negative ads dumped on his head. So is it going to be easy? No. But did we draw the best candidate that we possibly could?

Yes. And I think Sherry has a real chance.

He's an election denier. He called the J6 defendants political prisoners. And there was this late-breaking AP report scandal about Moreno. So the AP reported that in 2008, someone using Bernie Moreno's work email created an authenticated account on a website called Adult Friend Finders, who was seeking men for one-on-one sex while traveling. Geolocation data says this account was set up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where Moreno's parents owned a home.

at the time. The account name was like his first name and his birthday. Why does it matter? It shouldn't. It shouldn't matter.

It used to be enthusiastic, supportive LGBT rights. But he changed everything about his views in 2021. And now he's seeking votes from bigoted people that he spoke to with these bigoted views. So the Moreno campaign says a former intern created this account as a prank. That intern is also a donor.

Ah, the old intern defense. Yeah, the old, let's sign my boss up for Adult Friend Finder prank. Who hasn't done that one? Anyway, weird thing that just happened at the end. Again, I don't give a shit, but Republicans might.

But we should say, so. the establishment rode for Dolan, the Republican governor of Ohio. Mike DeWine, endorsed him. Rob Portman, the former senator, endorsed him too. But Dolan and LaRose split the establishment votes.

But let's just play a quick clip of Donald Trump out on the campaign trail, stomping for Moreno from, I think, last weekend. I like sports and I like tradition. So.

And they took the name Cleveland Indians and made it the Cleveland Guardians. It's almost like they're in charge of a trust fund. They're in charge of a trust fund, the Cleveland Guardians. And my attitude is anybody that changes the name of the Cleveland Indians to the Cleveland Guardians should not be a senator, should not be a governor.

But that's the thing that sells. And look, the Republican Party is Trump's party. I said it last time I was on this show. I said it in the live show we did back up in San Jose. And last night's results just make it clear, not just in Ohio, but elsewhere, that he has taken over the party and this brand of politics is going to win over a majority of Republican voters, but not a majority of American voters.

And our challenge is to make sure they vote for our guys when time comes in November.

And that's why we like the guy. So we really need him to win.

And elsewhere, we saw Trump's endorsed candidates win. So again, I think that's mostly a good thing for Democrats in November. It also is high-risk, high-reward, right? If some of these folks... If Bernie Moreno becomes a senator, that's very, very bad.

Honestly, the other thing I saw from yesterday is Nikki Haley still getting in the teens everywhere, everywhere, including Kansas. Including Florida, where she dropped out before voting even started. Yeah. And it's not... DeSantis only dropped out, whatever, a month before her and is not getting nearly as much vote in his home state, let alone in these other states.

And everyone is talking about how, and rightly so, how President Biden needs to consolidate the Democratic Party. But we consistently have now seen over the last month that Republicans, a good 10%, 20% of Republicans are coming out to vote in a primary that is over to express their displeasure with their candidate, more than what is happening with President Biden. And so it's an undercover story. I think it's interesting to see if that continues as the Haley dropout becomes further in the rear view. But I even saw exit polls yesterday from Ohio that showed that 10% to 15% of Republican primary voters might not vote for Trump in the general or might vote for Biden.

And so Ohio is one thing, right? Is it going to be on the map in the fall? Maybe, maybe not, probably not. But if you extrapolate that to the Arizonas and Georges and North Carolinas and Pennsylvania's of the world, that's a not insignificant number of people that could swing back to the Democrats and are expressing their displeasure despite voting in.

Two in 10 are leaning Biden or third parties. So yeah, that definitely shows-.

During the trip, his campaign launched a national program to mobilize Latino voters. They also released a new TV ad targeting Latino voters, though the issues they highlighted were very familiar. It was the cost of insulin and abortion access. Biden also did some Spanish language interviews where he said Trump despises Latinos. That was an exact quote.

So strong words there. Adisu, there's been a lot of polling showing President Biden slipping with Latino voters. Why do you think that's happening and what do you think the Biden campaign needs to do to fix the problem? So a couple of things. First, I don't think that's.

And so the president bears the brunt of that, regardless of who he, hopefully someday she is. So I think we're seeing a lot of that. Other thing I would say is Latino vote, I think about this a lot, not just with the Latino community, but particularly with that community, is almost like a phrase. that doesn't mean anything, because a first generation Cuban American in Florida and a third generation Mexican American in Nevada, like they're Americans and I'm sure they have other cultural similarities, but they're so different. And so I think the better way to think of it is the way that the Biden campaign thought of it this week.

I've seen, which is. there are states where the Latino vote is going to be particularly critical, swing states to the path to 270.. And those are in particular, Nevada and Arizona, but there are pockets in other places as well. How do they get there? I mean, I think the first thing is show up, which I know is true.

in that community. It matters a lot. Physically, show up and do it early, and it is still March. And the president is already out there doing this in a trip to Nevada yesterday, I think, Arizona today. But I think, and you mentioned this in the ad,

fighting Trump on the character and culture issues, I think in the Latino community in particular, is probably not where we should be fighting. our message war. It's on the issues. When you talk to Latino voters in focus groups and polling, and you ask, what issues do you care about? It's certainly the economy and jobs, but increasingly it's abortion access.

It's gun violence, which I've seen pop a lot, not just since Yuval Day, but we've seen it. Crime. Yeah, et cetera. And they trust Democrats on those issues, two to one, three to one, four to one. And so show up and talk about issues and don't get sucked into the back and forth about Trump and the circus around him, which for us drives liberals and people like me crazy, but I don't think is what a swing Latino voter in Arizona or Nevada is.

It's not what's going to drive their vote decision come November.

They were talking about these issues quickly. And I anticipate the same happening this time. And so eight months is a long time in politics. And that, I hope, and I believe, will sort of move things into the president's direction. Reality is, in an election where the margins are going to be so close, and they are, everything matters.

We have to run every.

That is an online survey. that's not a random sampling of Americans. They're not dialing through the phone book. It's people who choose to take a poll, because usually they get compensated in some way. Yeah.

So the folks at Pew noticed several recent studies that found large errors in these kinds of online opt-in polls, because a bunch of people were just, I guess, ripping through the questions as fast as they could to get paid. To get their $25 check. Yeah, to get $25 bucks. So, in particular, the polling, these types of polls tend to overestimate what would normally be a rare belief. For example, there was a recent opt-in online poll that made big headlines when it found that 20% of US adults under 30 think the Holocaust is a myth.

Pew tried to replicate that survey with different methodology. They found 3% of adults under 30 think the Holocaust is a myth. So it was a totally wrong poll. And to test it further, in February of 2022, Pew did a survey asking respondents if they were licensed to operate a nuclear submarine. in the opt-in survey.

12% of adults under 30 said yes. 24% of Latino respondents said yes. In reality, statistically, 0% is the answer. So what does this mean? We don't know.

It doesn't necessarily mean that young people are the ones skewing these polls or that Latinos are. It could just be like everyone. taking them is lying. Yeah, it's true.

It is becoming more difficult. It is becoming more expensive. And to do it well, you have to have a good sample. And to get a good sample, you have to spend money to go find people, to be representative of the electorate at large and make some assumptions about it. And everybody who is listening to this, who's reading polls for the next eight months, you should pay attention.

Sure, look at the number on the top line first. But the second thing you should do is go look at the methodology. Or the average. Yeah. And look at the averages and all those things, because the methodology can really make a difference in serious ways when we're talking about nuclear submarine.

Two quick things before we go to break, Adesu. First of all, do you like soccer?

I'm a big Liverpool fan. Are you a Liverpool fan? I sure am. Okay. Someone made me,

We are focusing on how Saudi Arabia got the 2034 World Cup, how they are pouring money into the Premier League, into the Saudi League, and, just like fundamentally changing the entire sport of soccer. It is a lot of fun. We're doing four special episodes. It's on the Pod Save the World feed. You can get it now.

Check it out. I will. I will listen. There's lots of fun jokes and banter and soccer content. British accents.

Yeah, British accents. Also some great news. So you've heard us talk about our Vote Save America Anxiety Relief Program, raising a bunch of money for great organizations. That includes organizations like Down Home in North Carolina and Western Native Voice in Montana. They hit 100% of their end of month fundraising goals.

because of you, the listeners. We supported Power to the Polls and their efforts to engage 50,000 voters in Milwaukee. And we supported Ohio Organizing Collaborative's efforts to register 250,000 new voters in Ohio. So thank you to everyone who contributed. Help us keep that momentum going.

Go to votesaveamerica.

com. Consider making a recurring monthly donation, if you can. It gives everybody certainty and it helps us fund these great organizations. Paid for by Vote. Save America, votesaveamerica.com.

Not authorized by any candidate or candidates committee.

The other big push during Biden's trip and since the State of the Union has been to highlight his housing agenda. That includes urging Congress to pass legislation aimed at opening up the housing market for first-time homebuyers and making renting more affordable. We both live in California. Housing prices are and have been a huge issue, politically and personally, for people for a very long time, especially with young voters. So this is no surprise, and it's going that Biden's focusing on this, but there is basically zero chance.

I think that Congress is going to do something. So what do you make of the strategy of highlighting housing and what?

It is the number one issue for everybody in the post-pandemic era. And what is the line item on everyone's budget, pretty much everyone's budget, that is taking up the biggest chunk of their money? It is their rent or their mortgage, or their housing costs. And so, while we talk a lot about the cost of gas and the cost of groceries because you see it every week when you go to the store. It's dynamic, exactly.

It actually is, at the bottom line, it's the thing that's driving a lot of costs. And we were on the vanguard of that here in California, because we've been seeing that for longer, I think, than the rest of the country, certainly pre-pandemic because of our housing shortage. So I think the president is doing a really smart thing. that may not, particularly here in the West, I think, where we've had these problems for longer, but even in most urban areas where we've seen rents and housing costs go up, to talk about an issue that is hitting people in their pocketbooks and trying to do something about it. And I think I said this last time I was on the show, we're not going to be able to convince people that the sky is green when the sky is blue, if costs are high and if the economy is in a different place come November, but we certainly can.

And I think people are willing to believe that the president is trying to do something about it. He's trying, he's fighting for you and Donald Trump is not. So that's what.

play as well. In terms of the polling, look, in Arizona, some recent surveys, recent Emerson poll has Trump up four. He's up more if you include RFK Jr. in that and some of the other candidates. There's a big Arizona Senate race, Ruben Gallego is beating Kerry Lake by four at the moment in the most recent poll.

And then again.

I don't know what.

. Use whatever analogy you want. Spring training. It's spring training. Maybe it's the first inning.

Maybe you can call it the first inning. Sure. Why not? March. Certainly, the first quarter.

There you go. Yeah. Let's go, March Madness. It is the first quarter of the play. in...

What are they? What were the...

And that is what the campaign is all about. That's what the next eight months are all about. And so polling is polling. It's a snapshot. in time.

It means something, but it is not predictive of the outcome. The outcome... There's a lot of twists and turns. And we cannot predict, honestly, what's going to happen between now and November. that is out of our control.

And we can only do the things that are in our control. So I'm not worried about the polling, honestly. But do I think this is going to be an election decided by a couple thousand votes in a couple states? The answer is yes.

There's a Marist poll out this morning. That's not great. Again, Trump at 51, Biden at 48.. Snapshot in time. We'll set it aside.

But as compared to the 2020 exit, it seems like Biden is gaining support among white voters, but losing ground with black voters. What do you think of our prospects in North Carolina generally and whether it's worth... I think it's a pretty expensive state, right?

Not quite Pennsylvania, but bigger by 50% than Michigan and Wisconsin, for example. So a lot of money has to go into it and you have to feel confident that you can win it. I definitely think it's on the map. 100%. think it's on the map.

I think whether Robinson's lunacy helps drive people into the Democratic camp, I think, is an open question. I don't think it's a certain thing, but the map is wide right now, I think, because 51, 47, right? Again, snapshot in time, whatever it might be. That's in play, right? It's not out of touch or out of reach, I should say.

And whether it be North Carolina, Georgia, I also think it's true. on the other side, right? We have to make sure we keep an eye on the Minnesotas and Colorado's of the world. that could fall the other way. But I think North Carolina is squarely in the battleground map.

I think Georgia is squarely in the battleground map and they're going to have to be some tough decisions from people over the Biden campaign and others come the fall about-, Resourcing. Resourcing, right? And this is where everybody talks about fundraising, vote, save, all the things we're doing. When you're a campaign manager and you sit down and the rubber meets the road and you say, okay, I have X amount of money to invest in X amount of places, that X number gets bigger if you have more money, it gets smaller if you have less. And so it's going to ultimately be a resource decision.

But of the eight states that could tip this election, North Carolina is one of them.

He wants to erase boundaries-.

I think, I hope the presidential will actually invest in North Carolina to at least to boost Stein. But he's so extreme, he's made so many outrageous comments that he's Trump-like. It can be kind of hard to know where to shoot at, what things to focus on. What do you do with a guy like this?

It's not just the politician Trump that came down the escalator in 2015,, it's everything that preceded that. Mark Robinson doesn't have any of that, right? And so I think you go straight at the extremism. I do not think that swing voters or moderate, independent, whatever you want to call them, voters in North Carolina are feeling the Mark Robinson thing the way they might feel the Trump thing. Because again, there's more to Trump than just the last eight years in a lot of their minds in terms of his brand.

So I think you go right at it. Still think you can't avoid talking about the bread and butter issues, as it were, but I think he is so far out of the mainstream and so not well-defined in the electorate that you can run right up the middle. And we could see a Mastriano, Shapiro, which is the Pennsylvania governor's race, where Shapiro won by what, 15 points? Right. Yeah.

I mean, Robinson would really like.

RFK Jr. isn't on the ballot yet in Georgia, but Trump also wins if you include him. So it's clear that RFK Jr. is not helping Biden anywhere. Marist, right above the poll, notes that Trump is gained with younger voters as compared to the 2020 exits.

That seems to be a trend we're seeing in a lot of places. What do you think is going on in Georgia? And do you think it's still like a top swing state this time?

I think that there is something to be said about that, particularly with Warnock as an African-American from Atlanta and how he, I think, helped Biden in 2020.

But I do think it's still squarely in the battleground map, similar to North Carolina. If I'm being honest, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan are still the blue wall, like they just are. And they're also, I think, the states that probably Biden is currently strongest in. And you win Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire, and, I think, the Omaha Congressional District, and you get 270 electoral votes. I'm not suggesting that is the only path, but it's probably the path of least resistance right now.

And so I think that I would put the Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, the other swing states that Biden may have won, some of which he won in 2020, in a second but close second tier. Right, so like a 1A.

He's down like 0.

6.

. Then it's Wisconsin, then Michigan. There was a Quinnipiac poll the other day that had Biden down about three points in Michigan, in the head-to-head, and down five, if you include RFK and other candidates. Biden has gotten some good news recently in terms of endorsements from labor unions. He was out on the picket line.

But what do you think.

. I agree with you, these are like the blue wall states. What do?

And I think they're disproportionately, at least, certainly Wisconsin, and to some extent, Michigan, whiter than the Arizonas and Georgias of the world, as it were. And so you've just got to keep being Joe. And, like I said earlier, the costs are still the number one issue of the economy, but specifically costs and cost of living. And the president has a record to run on there, and a record of supporting labor and having working people in organized labor. get a hand up and get a leg up in this otherwise difficult economy, creating jobs, increasing wages, you name it.

And so I actually think that message sells in some ways even better in those upper, or whatever you want to call them, the blue wall states than it may in the Sunbelt. But just keep doing what you're doing and deliver it. Honestly, it's volume. At some level, it's volume. It's like you got to break through the noise, and that's what presidential campaigns do when we're all talking about it, when the media echoes with the paid, media, echoes with the candidate appearances.

A lot of paid.

Obviously, that's hugely important for climate change, but Trump is trying to use that as a wedge issue to say, people don't want these electric vehicles, they don't work, we don't have plugins for them, he's going to tank the auto industry. That was the bloodbath comment.

Because again, the margins are so close, and Trump is very.

. What Trump, I think, is best at in some ways in politics is driving a wedge. He really understands that, oh, this is the issue that touches the hot button. He always finds it. He finds it and he just digs in and he demagogues it, and he finds a way to get attention for himself, which will amplify it to the conversation we just had.

And so I am worried about it. And I think there's an anxiety in the country, right? And that is the interesting thing about this race is that, despite that anxiety, it's not really a change election, it's like a stability election. People want to feel like things are okay and order election a little bit. Yeah.

But Trump is going to try to make it a change in anxiety election, and that means he's going to keep demagoguing that stuff. And so I don't know what we can do other than counter it with our own message on whether it be immigration or the jobs that come with a green economy and what have you. But it is definitely going to be a sort of clash of strategies and a class of messages, and may the best, hopefully, liberal Democrat win.

The take home is Democrats have lost the enthusiasm advantage we had prior to 2020.

. Part of that, I'm sure, is whenever you're the incumbent, people get mad at you for stuff that's happening in the world. I do think a big chunk of that is Gaza and what people are seeing in the news every night and the frustration people are feeling about President Biden's refusal to split from Bibi Netanyahu, take a harder line, cut off weapons to Israel. So I'm going to keep pounding that hobby horse. But also, there's this cultural thing happening.

And I feel like the Democratic Party is kind of like missing out on this sweeping anti-establishment feeling that you see in a lot of ways. You see it in people mad about cancel culture. You see people mad about vaccine mandates, people who are psyched about crypto and wanting to burn the financial system down. It crosses into that weird, like, manosphere, MMA.

They feel like the system has screwed them and Trump can help them burn it all down. You're seeing like LA comedians and actors endorsing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for some reason. And like that kind of strain of feeling and sentiment is really worrying me.

And I don't know that Joe Biden is the guy who can speak to that. I mean, I'm happy to be your therapist.

But the sort of feeling of the anxiety and the feeling of loss of power that I think, is a lot of status, I think, is also fueling a lot of that. And look, the president is the president, first of all. So it's really hard not to be the establishment when you sit in the White House every day. And he's been around for a long time. So it's going to be hard to be the insurgent when you are sitting in power.

It should be hard for Trump too, but somehow he pulls it off. But I do think here would be my number one pushback on all of that is the populism. The villains are actually the corporations who are taking advantage of us. The elites, the people who are partially responsible for the high costs that we're seeing out there, that are gouging us and taking their sixth home in whatever, San Tropez, while workers are on the line working harder for less. And I've seen UAW, President Fain and others sort of really harp on this, and the president has leaned into it too.

I think we have to have our own villain, I guess, is kind of what I'm saying. I totally agree. Every story has to have a villain. Every story has to have a villain. And that is the actual villain, but I also think the one that is the most...

The big pharmas and big oils is the one that is the most authentic to who Joe Biden is and who Democrats are at this point in time. And so we lean more into that and associate Trump and the Republican Party with that, which voters are, I think, inclined to do. They're still the party of big business, I think, in the minds of most voters. It will help us push off, as in our own anti-establishment world. Yeah.

I mean, I think some of those big.

But so as we speak, Adesu, the Biden campaign, they're putting ads on TV. They're opening offices in swing states. I think they just opened, like 40-plus offices in Wisconsin, which is remarkable and early. They're investing in staff. The Trump campaign and the RNC, they're paying off legal bills.

They're installing Lara Trump to run the RNC. They're doing a red wedding for the rest of the staff. The Republican state parties in Michigan and several other states are just a fucking disaster, like election deniers and insurrectionists leading them. But how much do you think money and organizing at this stage or the presidential level generally matters?

And so it really matters. And I think, in addition to having the bully pulpit of the White House as a huge advantage, the money and organizing and the fact that the Democratic Party, despite our challenges and our divisions inside, we kind of got our shit together right now as best as you possibly can. Definitely, yeah. Certainly, if you compare us to the other side. And so it's a good thing.

It is definitely a thing. Is it going to be dispositive? I don't know. But I'd rather be us than them.

The Biden campaign itself expects to raise and spend $2 billion. The Future Forward, Biden Super PAC, reserved $250 million in ads. It's just like the list goes on and on. It's a staggering amount of money.

It's hard. I came up through field. I'm an organizer at heart. My first 10 years of my career, I was grinding it out in field offices in Hammond, Indiana, and God knows where else, West Des Moines, Iowa.

But I do think that as the media environment has fractured so much and people get their news from so many different sources, the importance of both individual contact and paid media has actually gone up in. both of those things cost a lot of money. And so, I mean, do I think that $3 billion is... I mean, I hope. If somebody told me that $3 billion is actually going to be spent on Biden's behalf, I could sleep better at night about the results in November.

Again, not necessarily just positive, but it would really help, because it's hard to communicate with people. Even in organizing, it's hard. It's hard to get people to answer the phone or to answer the knock at the door these days. It's hard to get media in front of them because they're not necessarily watching broadcast television or cable, they're watching streaming, or maybe they're watching YouTube, or maybe they're watching TikTok, which you can't advertise on. So we need as much resources as we possibly can so that we can reach people in any number of different ways.

It's not just going to be broadcast television like it was even probably 20 years ago, right? Where it's, just like just pile money on TV and you see, the numbers move. Yeah. The other sort of near-term advantage.

Yeah, he's telling Haley voters that they're blacklisted if they give her money or they're not welcome. I mean, look, the cynic in me worries a bit that we're just a polarized country and eventually we sort into camps,

So I do think people come home at the end, particularly in presidential campaigns, Democrats and Republicans. So I wouldn't put too much stock in it. I don't know. What do you think? I think it's wishful thinking that a Republican in Georgia is going to vote for Joe Biden, a hardcore Republican voter.

They've done it with a candidate who's in courtrooms all the time. So it's impressive. But those of us who miss the chaos and incompetence of the 2016 campaign- Guess what? Guess what? Then, of course, they did win, but they're bringing back Paul Manafort, Corey Lewandowski.

Manafort was Trump's campaign chairman. He was convicted of felony, bank and tax fraud and at one point employed a Russian spy at his polling firm. Don't forget about that. Trump pardoned him. Corey Lewandowski was Trump's first campaign manager.

He was accused of physically assaulting a female journalist and eventually pushed out of that job. More recently, he was pushed out of a pro-Trump super PAC after the wife of a donor accused him of making unwanted sexual advances. Why bring these guys back? What is happening here?

And so there you go.

I don't want to sound.

. I feel like I'm sounding too positive in some of this conversation, but here's what I'll say. I couldn't... Yeah, you edit out some of the good stuff. so we get to the tough stuff, but they've run a good campaign.

They've run a really good campaign. Again, as a practitioner, they've run a good campaign. The way they went after Haley and DeSantis was very smart. Destroyed. DeSantis.

Destroyed them. And it is, from a practitioner's perspective, a better quality campaign to date than, I think, 2016 or 2020.. And so, bring back the clown show. God bless. Can we have more mess?

Sure. I love mess, as Marie Kondo said. So bring it on.

. There's part of Trump at the moment where he's just railing against the justice system, period. And he's like, yeah, anyone who was convicted for being around me was set up by Joe Biden and the DOJ. I mean, Peter Navarro, Trump's former trade advisor, reported to prison on Tuesday for contempt of Congress because he wouldn't give testimony to the January 6th committee hearing. So he's going to do four months in the clink.

Also, coming back, though, with some old messaging, January 6th has become a key part of Trump's campaign messaging. Last Sunday, he played a version of the national anthem sung by the January 6th rioters who are currently in prison.

Are you surprised that he's doing this? Why? He has no impulse control. I mean,

Where are we? But it's true. But he has no impulse control. He cannot help himself. And so I don't think he's doing this for political reasons.

I think he's doing it because this is how he actually feels, despite the fact that it hurts him politically. It's our job to drive the message. Do I think that should be at the exclusion of all the things I talked about before, economic stuff, et cetera? The answer is no. It can work with some people and it can work as a contrast message, with President Biden being the statesman that he is and Trump being whatever the fuck you want to call that.

But the core of the message, I think, still needs to be, I am trying to make your life better with real things like insulin for 35 bucks and healthcare costs are down. It might be tough right now out there, guys, but I'm on your side and this guy is on the side of... That's where you might be able to reference it, right? This guy's on the side of insurrectionists and corporate robber barons. Yeah, I know.

I agree. I think.

Voters do not have memory for politics. They don't remember who is president, who... All sorts of things, right? And I don't blame them. They've got more important things to think about on a daily basis, but it's our job to remind them, right?

And that's what we got to do. And luckily, the whole world is going to turn its attention to this competition come the fall, and that's where it's all going to shake out. Most of the country right now is like, what? Yeah. They're gearing up for March Madness, just like me.

com slash friends. And if you're already doom scrolling, don't forget to follow us at Pod Save America on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube for access to full episodes, bonus content, and more. Plus, if you're as opinionated as we are, consider dropping us a review. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our show is produced by Olivia Martinez and David Toledo.

Our associate producers are Saul Rubin and Farah Safaree. Kira Wakeem is our senior producer. Reid Cherlin is our executive producer. The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer, with audio support from Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis, writing support by Hallie Kiefer.

Madeline Herringer is our head of news and programming. Matt DeGroat is our head of production. Andy Taff is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Hayley Jones, Mia Kelman, David Toles, Kiril Pelaviv, and Molly Lobel.