Breaking News from Pod Save America - Fox News SNAPS, Loses It Over Newsom Trolling Trump

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

Tommy Vietor and Brian Tyler Cohen react to Fox News and MAGA freaking out over Gavin Newsom’s Trump trolling. You’re 30 seconds away from being debt free with PDS Debt. Get your free assessment and find the best option for you at https://PDSDebt.com/rank. CHAPTERS 00:00 - Elise Stefanik Booed Mercilessly 02:38 - JD Vance Heckler 06:27 - The Best Political Heckler of All Time? 08:18 - Ad Break 09:34 - Gavin Newsom Trump Trolling Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last night, you spent two hours deciding what to wear to the party. This morning, it'll take you two minutes to list it on Deepop and make your money back. Just grab your phone, snap a few photos, and we'll take care of the rest. The sheer dress and platform heels you'll never wear again, there's a birthday girl searching for them right now. Your one-and-done look is about to pay for your next night out, or at least the right home. Your style can make you cash. Start selling on Deepop, where Taste recognizes taste. Brian, check out how the top Republican contender for the New York governor's race was received at a recent event.

Liberal Tears is brought to you by PDS debt. Our Congresswoman from New York 21, Elise Stefani. The words they're screaming there. Trader. Trader over and over again. Stefanik was at an event in Plattsburgh, New York. She was honoring some local Republican political leader who had passed away. Folks might remember that Stefaniq was briefly selected to be the U.S. ambassador of the United Nations before Trump pulled the nomination because they were worried that Republicans would not be able to.

hold onto her seat. Well, that shows you why. Like we said, Elise is apparently about to jump into the New York governor's race. Seems like she's got a lot of wind in her sales, Brian, huh? Yeah, you know, the interesting thing about that is that we have watched these, these like, nakedly shameless Republican operatives just do whatever they have to do to cling to power, to gain proximity to power in Washington. And that's what Elise Defon did.

Like, she came in as this super moderate. She's a moderate. Yeah. And now, I mean, she's. is so far up Trump's ass that she could touch the back of his teeth. And so like that I look that in, but it goes to show that the more that you align yourself with these people who position themselves completely antithetically to what they promised during the campaign,

promised lower prices, promised that they would release the Epstein files, promised that they would end wars, promised that they were lower inflation, not doing any of those things. But the voters are pushing back on these people who just clung to power by any means necessary, discarded every shred of their dignity in doing so, and then thought that they would be well positioned when they got out on the campaign trail to seek higher office, this is what it looks like when those people get out there.

This is what it looks like when you go full MAGA and then try to run statewide in New York. Voters are pissed about Trump's big, beautiful bill and all the Medicaid cuts within it. They're furious about the lack of transparency around the release of the Epstein files. Remember, Republicans left Washington early to go on recess to try to avoid a vote on the Epstein files,

and yet still, this is voters are not letting it go. And apparently even like the Clinton County Republican Party is mad at Stefanik because she's trying to ram through some local candidate and not let voters have an actual say. So nothing's going well for her here. Well, I mean, look, she's going to need all the help that she can get now running in New York. But I'm very, very interested to see what the closest MAGA accolite running in New York, one of the big blue liberal bastions in America is going to do. I think this is a good preview of what that's going to look like. Very, very excited. Brian, speaking of hecklers, check out this clip of Vice President J.D. Vance at Union Station earlier

today in Washington, D.C. Oh, look. It's couch fucker. You're going to fuck a couch, buddy. True. Right. Couch. Go fuck a couch, JD, Van.

Is it a good thing when the most viral clip of you walking through his train station is, are you going to fuck a couch buddy? Couch fucker. Is that the optics that he wanted when he walked through Union Station? I know it's juvenile. It just makes me so happy because J.D. Vance, he's at Union Station. For those who don't know, it's just a big train station. Washington, D.C. You can get the Amtrak. You can catch a bus in New York. I used to take the

Chinatown buses because they're very cheap. You can take the Metro there. And like he's there with Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense and Stephen Miller, the terrible troll who works in the White House. And they're trying to convince voters that we need the U.S. military guarding the shake shack at Union Station. Yeah. I mean, it's just the whole thing is they keep putting themselves in positions. And this is very similar to what Elise Stefani did. These deeply unpopular people who espouse these deeply unpopular positions keep thrusting themselves in front of voters who are making it abundantly clear that they don't want them there. And it's this weird strategy where, you know, Trump used to insulate himself at these rallies where it's only Trump fans and he would

only be surrounded by people who lavish onto him, you know, this this, this undying praise and devotion. And this is what it looks like. We're seeing more and more of what it looks like when these people are confronted by the people who actually don't support them. And it is a little bit chilling in a way because I think that this defiance at the hands of these Trump administration officials and these Republicans is going to show that it's not even about the optics anymore. It's just kind of about imposing their power on these people, that they're not even trying to hide it. They're putting them, they're thrusting themselves right in the middle of these population centers that don't want them, that are pushing back on them. And they don't seem to care

even about getting good optics. It's just about kind of imposing themselves. on these people who are roundly rejecting them. Yeah, I mean, look, we live here in Los Angeles, so we've had our own experience with a troop deployment for absolutely no reason. There were no protesters, like three days after these troops were deployed, and yet these poor guys and men and women were just, like, sleeping on the ground outside in Los Angeles for weeks and weeks and weeks for no reason at all. Now Trump has deployed the troops to the streets of D.C.,

where there is a crime problem, but all the neighborhoods that these National Guard members and ICE guys and FBI agents are going to are the low-crime areas. Like, they're going to monuments. You think policing drunk sorority girls in Georgetown is not where we need ice? Yeah, exactly. Like FBI agents walking around the bars near Georgetown. It's just absurd. And I have to say, like, screaming couch fucker, is it going to win us the election?

Is it going to make it first? Yes. I kind of think that is the right tone. Like, I think mocking these people and humiliating them. And we're seeing that to a degree with Newsom. It's like this don't give a fuck energy. And I think that we need that because Democrats are often so careful. and unoffensive and circumspect, and we have to make sure that every message is poll tested for

six days before we can even start to roll it out and it's just so sanitized. And like, who cares? Right. Yell whatever you want. You know, a lot of people that are watching this right now are going to have the same feelings about Tim Walls in the beginning of the 2024 election. It's like he was just being a normal guy and saying what a lot of people like would also say about JD Vance and Trump, which is that they're weird.

And that kind of went away. And I think we have to get that back that like, it's okay. to say whatever you're feeling without feeling like it has to be run through some sanitization machines so that it offends the least amount of people possible. Yeah, you don't have to sanitize it

for our focus group. I want to talk about Gavin Newsom in one second, but finally, Brian, I just wanted to show you my favorite political heckling video of all time. I'm not sure if you've seen this. This is kind of like an internet 1.0 video. This might have been on eBOM's world back in the day. I don't really know a lot about

this individual. He seems like a younger guy. But this one lone heckler destroyed the rollout for a Toledo mayoral candidate's announcement press conference, and it is so funny to me that I can never stop watching it. Okay. Well, we're here today at Parkwood Avenue for the street that my mother actually grew up on down the street. Hey, make sure you guys get that camera right there. Are you done? No, I'm going to eat.

All right. So the guys yelling, boo, boo, boo, Ben Knaub, Boo, Ben Knaub. He was running for mayor in Toledo. That was his announcement press conference. I think he was trying to go to the street where his mother grew up. And there was one dude who was just sitting on the porch at his own house. Look, if you ever underestimate the power that a single person would have?

One sandwich thrown. One couch hunker comment. It was one man that stood in front of those tanks in Tiananmen Square, and it was one man who took down what's his name? Ben Knob. And you, too, watching out there, you can make a difference. So actually, this video went so viral that I think South Park actually spoofed it in an episode of one of their 27 seasons. The good news is Ben Knapp went on to serve as Lucas County Ohio Commissioner. Apparently he was like a champion for animal rights.

He went on to work at the CFPB in Washington. So it seems like a good guy. No, he seems like a good guy who did good work, but I'm sorry, that's just a classic video there. Liberals here's brought to you by PDS debt. Folks, the system isn't broken, it's rigged. And if you're buried in debt, that's exactly how they want it. Big Bank's profit when you're desperate. Creditors win when you lose.

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That's PDSdebt.com slash rank. PDS debt.com slash rank. All right, Brian. So we talked about Gavin a little bit at the top. So the hottest account on the Twitter streets right now is. Many people are saying. Right here in California. That's right.

At Gov Press Office, that's California Governor Gavin Newsom's new troll account, I guess is the best way to describe it, which is enraging Republicans all across the country. Let's watch a clip from Fox News. Gavin News, meantime posting this on X, Liz, using all capitals, of course, trying to mock Trump, use Trump style. He's been doing this for a while now. He says, quoting Trump, Trump just fled the podium with Putin, no questions, nothing. Total low energy. The man looked like he'd just eaten three buckets of. KFC with Vlad.

Admit it, Donnie Jay, you're terrified because this was the worst week of your life because of me, Gavin C. Newsom. I think he's trying to be funny. I think, I mean, I don't know what he's trying to do, but it comes across as childish. And what are you're the governor of the biggest state in the union. What are you doing? Honestly, I feel like he's trying so hard to be Trump, but he's coming off like Kanye West. He seems absolutely insane.

Here are my two favorite parts about this. These people on Fox News and on the right are criticizing Gavin Newsom for being childish as he's literally just mocking Donald Trump. He is just doing Trump. Not a lot of self-awareness. It's a one-to-one bit. That's it. There's no, there's no, like, you know, there's no ambiguity in terms of what he's doing. Do an impression of Donald Trump.

You know what? It's the childishness that gets me. I really, I can't handle the childishness. This guy wants to be. The best part is that they're saying he's the governor of a state. It's like the guy he's taking it from is the president of all the states, all 50. Including California. Including California.

But when Newsom does Trump, then it's somehow disqualifying. I know. It's like that's Trace Gallagher. Is that guy's name? He's like some tier three host on, you know, Donald Trump's personal propaganda network to see him just acts like outrage by this all. It's too much. It's too great. But it shows like how much this is getting under Republicans in and getting attention.

And just to quantify the impact, Brian, CNN's Harry Enten did a segment about the growth and interest in Gavin Newsom because of these tactics. Let's watch. Let's take a look right at the atgov press office followers on X. That's, of course, where you get those sort of the account where Newsom posts those Trump-style mocking types of tweets. Get this. That account, get this. Up 450% in terms of the number of followers since mid-June. And it's not just on Twitter, X, where Newsom is gaining.

Even on TikTok and Instagram, his followers are up over a minute. million since January alone, my goodness gracious. And more than that, Laura, more than that. What about Google? What about those Google searches for them? Get this daily Google searches for Gavin Usum up like a rocket. What are we talking about since June 1, up 1, 1, up 1, 300% compared to August 1st.

Look at that, up 500%. So the bottom line is in politics, especially if you're thinking of entering in 2028, it's all about generating attention. And so far, Gavin Newsom has done a good job at generating attention. So lots of growth on his Twitter account, lots of people Googling Gavin Newsom. And then anecdotally, like, I've heard from a ton of people who are like, what's Gavin Newsom doing?

This is pretty funny. I think I like this. I don't know. It's smart. And I've heard the same thing, especially from my normie friends, the people are not political junkies. And that's what you need to do in this political environment. You know, we started off 2025 with looking at people who are going to do something different

to be able to break through. We saw Cory Booker do his 25-hour speech. We saw Senator Van Hollen go to El Salvador to see if he can retrieve Camarraga Garcia. It's the people who are. figuring out ways to do something different that are that are the ones that are getting rewarded for it. And I think Newsombs is is doubly as beneficial because yes, he's doing something different, using a very big platform to kind of draw attention to there's nothing more effective to make Trump feel small than just overtly mocking him with probably one of the biggest

platforms that we have on the left. And it makes it so that the next time Trump does his all caps tweet. Now everybody's looking at it in a different light Because it's just been it's been so summarily mocked and belittled They're watching when he stops doing it Yes, have you noticed that? Yes, absolutely Like a lot of reporters like, oh, he stopped tweeting in all caps Correct.

Because it's so impossible not to feel stupid Once you've been called out for the thing But it's also the fact that he's just leaning forward And taking an aggressive posture And it's this sense of fight Not just online, but also with this redistricting fight And like, you know, for my part I'm perfectly happy to highlight what he's doing

because I want to give an incentive structure to other people on the left to recognize that, like, this is what's doing well online because there is an appetite for other Democratic politicians to do this. We don't want careful and circumspect and unoffensive and quiet and poll tested and focus groups. We want people who are going to lean forward and actually take it to these Republicans who are right now so blatantly undermining democracy. Yes, so there's some polling that Harry outlined in a later part of that segment where in 2017 they asked Democratic voters, do you want politicians to stop Republicans or to work with Republicans? So in 2017, stop Republicans was 23 percent. Work with them was 74%.

It was the Biden era. 2025. Stop Republicans, it's 57 percent. Work with Republicans is 42 percent. So there's a sea change. Democrats are looking for a fighter and that gets out all the tonal things you just talked about. But there's another part of this that is just a smart strategy in terms of how the media has

changed and how Gavin Newsom seems to understand that, or at least his team does. Yeah. Because Gavin Newsom. Newsom's team reaches out to places like crooked media, talks to folks like you. They are talking to the biggest progressive accounts on YouTube and in this new media space and not laundering all of their messaging through mainstream media networks, Politico, the New York Times, whatever. They're talking to those groups too. But they are doing what Donald Trump did, which was working with ideologically aligned new media

and helping those accounts build and grow. And then also that helps him in the long run or other Democrats to get their message out. And like sometimes I'll see, you know, former Biden officials writing like op-eds or whatnot about how Democrats need to better understand the new media landscape. And it makes me so mad because it's like you guys were in office for four years. You had the power of the presidency for four years. You didn't do shit to nurture new independent progressive media. But Gavin Newsom's office is actually doing it.

And they're being really smart and strategic. Yeah, you know, with the Kamala campaign, you know, I had emailed the Kamala campaign numerous times to try to get an interview and I had also told, told their team, you know, it's not just that I want an interview, of course I want an interview, everybody wants an interview, but it was a great opportunity when all of the eyes of the country were on her to validate any of these independent creators in this space. And they ultimately just decided to go on, like, call her daddy and I think like maybe one more big, big podcast, but it was a podcast. These were shows that were already established and kind of ignored all of the other shows, not just political, not just big shows like my.

but had the opportunity to even go on smaller shows and validate those creators so that they would have a bigger platform from which they can do the hard work of persuasion for the rest of the year. And there was a decision made that, like, no, we wouldn't nurture these creators. We're just going to go on shows

that already have an established audience, and that's a missed opportunity. But Trump doesn't miss those opportunities. That's why we know what, like, Diamond and Silk are. It's not because they're great at what they do. No, exactly. He took time out of his schedule to say, I'm going to spend 15 minutes with these,

people. I'm going to put them on the map, legitimize them in the eyes of their audience. And by the way, it's going to be a great ROI because those people will then go out for the rest of the time, the other 364 days a year, and they are evangelized for me. They'll spread my gospel, my message. Exactly. Yeah, there's this dumb conversation that we're not going to have here about the left needing of Joe Rogan. But Donald Trump didn't just go on Joe Rogan. He built relationships with independent, kind of conservative-leaning comedians and podcast hosts and talk to them over and over and over again, the Theo Vons, the Nelk boys, as dumb as they are, like all these kinds of shows. And he helped them build a megaphone and a platform.

And he built a relationship with their audience. And that's the other thing Democrats are struggling with right now, which is there's a report out today in the New York Times about how the number of people registering to vote as Democrats is just collapsing. Yeah. Like we have a massive existential brand problem. And the way you deal with something like that is you don't just wait until the next election. You get out there and you talk about who you are now.

every single day. Well, I want to take a quick moment before we get to the rest of this episode to say that your YouTube channel, POTSafe America's YouTube channel, is as of this recording, at 995,000 subscribers. Come on, boys. That means 5,000 away. Everybody who is watching right now, please hit the subscribe button. It is completely free to do so. It's a great way, not only to support independent media, but to make sure that when people come on to YouTube for the first time to search out any political news, that they're not just automatically filtered to right-wing sources. So if you are not yet subscribed to Pot Save America's YouTube channel, and I know that most people watching are probably not subscribed, if they come across this

in the browser discover feature, please subscribe, help elevate the voices of these people who are doing the hard work every day. And let's get to this milestone of a million subscribers. So everybody has a job here. Small lift, completely free. Hit the subscribe button. God, what a generous plug. Thank you. I mean, I would say subscribe to Brian's channel, too, but you probably already are. He refers to us as a little bitty baby channel. I do. I call Tommy my little bitty baby. Little bitty baby YouTube channel. Anyway, Gavin Newsom talked with our friend Alex Michelson.

He's a great California-based journalist. I don't even know what his next job is yet. He's leaving his current one. He's going to a new thing. That's why I'm describing him in this weird circumstance way. Alex just announced his departure from Fox, L.A. He is the biggest asset to Los Angeles-based news. Very excited to see what his next steps are.

So Gavin set that with Alex. And he just talked about kind of this shift in tone on his social media accounts and how he has changed as a person and politician in Trump 2.0. Let's watch a clip. So yes, I've changed. The facts have changed. We need to change. And we need to stand up to this authoritarian.

We need to stand up at this moment. It is foundational. Again, it is not about Republican versus Democrat. This guy is an invasive species. He's completely different. I respect the Republican Party. I'm married in a Republican family. I have deep love and respect for people I disagree with.

He is something whole together different, and he is unmoored. There is no constraints. So, yes, we're going to punch back. And yes, we're going to punch back with a full weight of the fourth largest economy in the world the size of 21 state population combined. And with the consent of the people, then endow the power to government. We will do the right thing, and we will push back. succeed this November. I love that invasive species line. I don't think I've ever heard him use

that before. I know. It's great because he, look, he understands that it's twofold. It's not just about breaking through to succeed in the attention economy. Like that unto itself is not the goal for somebody doing it. It's to draw attention. It's to figure out whatever way you can, to get in front of people so that you can draw attention to these, to these existential threats to democracy. Like redistricting. Like redistricting. I mean, the reality is that the Republicans are scientifically engineering these maps to preclude Democrats from ever being able to gain power again, to ever be able to win the House again. That's existential, not just for the Democratic Party,

but for politics in this country more broadly, for democracy more broadly. And so good on him for figuring out any way to break through so that he can get eyeballs on him, even if it's, you know, the ridiculous stuff or the jokes and whatnot. Ultimately, it raises the floor for eyeballs that are on him on his accounts so that when he wants to really expose

these serious threats to democracy, he's got that audience now that he wouldn't have had otherwise. Yeah, no, I was laughing because, like, We live in this world where you're starting to see all these memes of like a shirtless Gavin from a romance novel holding like Melania or like Ivanka calling him daddy. And weirdly, that is how you draw attention to your plan to combat Texas's redistricting, which is happening in the middle of the decade, which completely unprecedented. And also Gavin's team released some polling today that found that nearly 60% of California voters backed this like limited redistricting chain. that allows us to fight against Trump for the duration of his presidency. I mean, it's so smart because any way you can get eyeballs on you,

even if it's, and we're going to put right here on the screen, this picture of Newsom, Kid Rock, Tucker Carlson, and a late Hulk Hogan all touching Gavin Newsom in this, like, as if he's their deity, like, whatever it takes to get eyeballs on you, so that when it comes time to perpetuate the real message, which is like look at what's going on, more power to him. I just, I would love to, like, have been in the room when Kid Rock saw that for the first time, like, when his 15th buddy sent it to him. You know that, like, he just went back into the backyard, set up some bud light cans and started just shooting, shooting the shit out of him.

He's like, ah, no better way to, no better way to blow off some steam than by blowing the heads off of these bud light cans. Nothing says, real man, like shooting a can of beer. What a fun episode. Shooting beer cans, screaming couch fucker, J.D. Vance. Yeah. Anyway, thanks for watching. Thanks for subscribing. Subscribe to Brian's channel.

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