Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 8/11/26: Trump Fled Air Force One, Mearsheimer Says US Lost War, AOC 'Woke One Was Crazy', Dem Says 'Establishment' Is Racist Slur

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

Krystal and Saagar discuss Trump fled Air Force One over Iran threat, Mearsheimer says US lost the war, AOC says woke one was crazy, establishment Dem says calling him establishment is racist. David Dayen: https://prospect.org/author/david-dayen/    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.com    Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I have an amazing show up for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal? Indeed we do. Trump says he wants reparations, from Iran, and we are learning a wild story about how he used Air Force One as a decoy because he believed there was a credible threat against his life from the Iranians. A lot to get into their truly a wild story. We've also got big primaries today in Minnesota and also in Wisconsin. We're going to see if progressives continue to be on the march, what the margins are, what it

means, and also whether or not woke 1.0 was crazy, as AOC said. China has a very different way of dealing with their billionaire class. We'll do a little compare and contrast between their treatment and the treatment of Trump and our billionaire class. New flock camera failures and pushback as the free press goes to the mat defending them. And David Dan joins us to explain how the public bailout of AI might already be baked in. It's very important story. And we've got a few updates there in terms of the entire financing scheme and whether or not this is, in fact, a bubble.

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Sun Li. Contradicting public statements, Trump took a secret flight from Turkey amid the Iranian threat. So we're going to take a little bit of a step back, and the timeline here actually matters a lot. So what they detail in this story is that, you know, you will recall several weeks ago, Donald Trump flew to Ankara for the, I think it was the NATO summit that was taking place there. He's on the ground. While he's on the ground, the United States resumes bombing Iran. Obviously, there were some questions. Turkey, of course, shares, you know, territory or border with Iran.

And Erdogan himself has been a critical node in some of the negotiations. But there never really was an idea that, you know, Trump himself would be in danger, except there was a strange tweet which Trump puts out in the middle of the meeting where he says due to, you know, he said because we need to like retrofit. He didn't say it these words exactly. But he basically said the Qatari Air Force One, which was gifted to him. He said, that will be here. And we're going to be bringing the new, sorry, the old Air Force One to Ankara, which I will then fly back to the United States on. kind of made it some grand show of like magnanimity so that people could see the grand old Air Force One. The reality and what was reported at the time was the Qatari Air Force One was not equipped with the correct security infrastructure for some sort of anti-missile threat. Well, as we then learn now from this, an Iranian assassination threat had triggered a new deception operation, which is very rarely seen in the history of the American presidency. So the Qatari-gifted Air Force One leaves Turkey first without Trump. Trump boards the legacy Air Force One in Ankara.

He walks up the stairs and waves for the cameras. Now, the video that should be up in front of you all right now, this is the appearance that he is on that plane. But what you can actually see in the video is that he secretly exits that Air Force One through the other side of the aircraft onto one of those airport catering trucks through the plane door. He then drives to a smaller Air Force C-32A, which is a modified Boeing 757, he secretly boards the C-32A, along with the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Reporters and many White House staff are on board Legacy Air Force One. They have no idea that Donald Trump is no longer on board the aircraft. They're still on the plane that Trump thinks is going to get blown out of the sky.

They think, well, yeah, could potentially get blown out of the sky, and they had to put their windows down at one point, which a lot of reporters says is very, very strange. The Legacy Air Force One takes off, you know, with great fanfare and eventually uses Air Force One's call sign as it flies to the UK. The actual C-32A secretly departs Ankara slightly afterwards under a nondescript call sign called Reach 18. Its normal flight tracking system is switched off. Trump arrives in an R-F-based in the UK on the C-32A before decoy Air Force One arrives. He transfers back onto Air Force One in an unknown fashion, we don't know whether it was through an airport catering truck or whatever, he then gets off of the legacy Air Force One from the plane to the cameras. Nobody on board

has any idea of them in a very, very small group. Then he boards the Katari Air Force One in the UK flies back to Washington with press and staff. So this is extraordinary for a number of reasons. Number one is the president basically never goes anywhere without the press. I can tell you former member of the White House press pool, even on those secret trips where Trump would go to Iraq and they didn't announce it, the White House, the way it works is they bring, let's say three or four people, and they're going to look, you're all sworn to secrecy. None of you can tweet about it, but you're all coming on board Air Force One. We're going to the war zone. Bush did this previously as well. I mean, even in the middle of 9-11, you know, Ari Fleischer and people are

bringing press people on board of the plane. So to have a president on board an aircraft without the press is absolutely extraordinary. It literally almost never happens. Not even just in terms of tradition, but, I mean, you know, in case anything were to go wrong, a nuclear attack, like, who knows? Something absolutely crazy. So that just shows you how extraordinary this is. But second, to have this, like, crazy deception operation, from what we know in modern history has only happened once before with Bill Clinton in the year 2000, where he was filmed going up the stairs of Air Force One, but the plane he lands on is different. I forget which country that he was coming.

So it's been almost 26 years since at least what we know of to see something like this. But the reason why I think that we should obviously take this seriously is Trump and the government clearly believes Iran actually could kill him. I mean, you don't go to these extraordinary lengths for no reason. Two, well, there's some problems apparently with Qatar Force One, if it doesn't have the air defense capabilities to be able to do anything. but to be able to shoot down incoming missiles or any of that. But three, it gives us some more insight into Trump's extraordinary paranoia and fear whenever it comes to Iran and his genuine belief that they might kill him. And again, I don't think that they would.

I mean, I could be wrong, of course. But then you have to go, well, maybe we shouldn't have murdered their leader. No, I agree. Maybe have to worry about it quite so much because how could we, I mean, that's how we opened the war. So, you know, given the fact that their whole approach has been horizontal escalation, okay, you do that to us, we're going to do that to you. Yeah, you have put that on the table. And that's what we talk about. I mean, this is a very specific kind of example of blowback, but that's what we talk about in terms of the way we conduct war.

It's all well and good when we're doing it to someone else or we're, you know, our Israeli counterparts are doing it to someone else. But that opens up Pandora's box that that can now be done to you. That is now on the table. So there was an extraordinary image yesterday that came out. He was playing golf at Bedminster. We can put this up on the screen next to a short-range air defense system that was deployed there on the grounds. When I first saw this, I thought it was AI.

It's not. It's real. And so, again, just shows you how seriously and how concerned he truly is about the possibility of, we can't say for sure this was due to an Iranian threat, but that would be the presumption is that there was some, based on some concern about an Iranian threat on his life. Well, I know that they're terrified of the drone threat. I mean, this is Putin, you know, and it's hard to say because the press, the Western press is always trying to make things out in Russia.

But I do think it's pretty obvious from Putin's own public movements. He doesn't really go anywhere anymore. He's terrified of being assassinated by Ukrainian drones. I think that's the future. And you and I talked extensively about this with Maduro. I'm like, do we really want to normalize? We can just go in and we can get any foreign leader under false pretense. What was Maduro's crime?

Remember, he ordered machine guns. He violated the interstate. I'm like, okay. I mean, it's like, all right, Trump's going to get indicted in a Mullah court in Iran. Like, do they have the right to do so? I mean, the right is only by force. So you open Pandora's box. Well, and especially because of the way that the nature of warfare has changed.

And really, the playing field has been leveled. I mean, that's what we should have learned from the Ukrainian-Russia example. We didn't. We actually should have learned it from the Hamas Israel example. And Syria. The Syrian Civil War. It was all right there. Absolutely. But we had to learn it the hard way by jumping into this war with Iran, thinking that it was going to be easy, peasy will be done in three, four days. Trump literally thought that. And then you look at the landscape of drone warfare. It's not going to be that simple. So, you know, these drones are inexpensive. They're easy to manufacture. Iran is very good at it. China is very good at it. We are less good at it, actually.

And so we're behind the eight ball here. And I don't remember who was saying, like, think about one of our aircraft carriers. What are you going to do when they send 100,000 drones at your aircraft carrier? Do you think that that is going to work out for you? You just overwhelm the defense systems. So, you know, this, I think, extraordinary concern for Trump comes about from the new modern version of warfare and also the fact that he has conducted. himself and put our, you know, our military has conducted itself under his direction in this

incredibly barbaric way that we never checked Israel and allowed all of that barbarism to continue that we opened this war. By the way, the, you know, the piece about using negotiations as a tactic to then murder the entire leadership class. You can't think of something more dishonorable than that. So yeah, that puts that on the table for anyone. That means you're not the only one who's going to think of that idea. This is now on the table, as you said, Sabra Pandora's box. And so now we have the president golfing in Bedminster with, you know, air defenses deployed right next to it. You can see it. If you ever fly in DCA, you can see some of the SAM systems that are all over the Washington monuments. You know, I've been pretty close. I've never gone up to the White House roof, but I got pretty close one time.

And there's all kind, I mean, you know, these Secret Service guys just come literally out of nowhere with all kinds of crazy military technology. So this will only be amplified now with the drone threat. But I do think we have to take this really seriously. if the United, I mean, again, having been part of the White House, like, I have never heard of this, ever. And when it sounds crazy, this is crazy. This is out of a movie. And the reason why, clearly, is a secret service in Trump, they're afraid. And if they're afraid, I think it is a credible enough threat to undergo some crazy deception operation to actually have this. And remember, they fooled the press. They fooled his own staff. Probably like, oh, he's sleeping or something in his bedroom. Like their own people, basically, that were left there.

And so, I mean, this will be fodder, I think, for future films, but it does demonstrate this will never happen under these extraordinary lengths if there is not at least some inkling or an idea of a credible threat, which is scary. It's also incredible that The Washington Post got this story. Because presumably there are very few people who were involved, who knew what was going on. As you said, most of his staff on the old Air Force One thought he was there, thought he was in his bedroom, just sleeping or recovering or planning or whatever. And so, you know, to be able to get this insight into this deception operation is also pretty extraordinary.

My guess is, and this is kind of the funny thing, the Trump administration has been going after, the former Air Force secretary accusing him of leaking. Let me do, you know, I'm not going to give away anything. There are a lot of people who currently work in the building who are very pissed off about the way this entire war has gone. And that's another problem. You know, I don't support that, I guess, as a deep state is bad. But I guess, in this case, Maybe the Deep State is good. Because they're the ones who warn Trump that this was going to be an utter and a total disaster. And they're both humiliated.

They're angry. Many of them are the ones who are paying the price. They're getting blamed when they're like, no, sir, we told you that we shouldn't be doing this. And this is part of what it looks like, you know, whenever you're like, when you put the country in such a bad position, and especially with a lot of the military, a lot of them are absolutely furious about the way that this is all gone. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pasto survive the first bite?

Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements.

We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Every episode, we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere, too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride.

He loves Mouthing. Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own. That's great. I call him Terro Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah.

Oh, gotcha. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobiesky. Yeah. I don't think she was an American Pie, but I still like that. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Yeah. Then Mary Steenbergin.

Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. Why are she talking? I'm talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play game. I just really... I get it.

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or wherever you get your podcast. Taking it back again to Trump's flailing and his general lack of control over this situation, let's put A1 now, take a listen, where Trump says the straight of Hormuz actually is open, because we're the ones keeping it open.

Let's take a listen. You give us an estimate of when you think the straight of her moves, will be partly. It's open now. We're taking a lot of shit. It's open now. Look, the only one that has control of the Strait of Hamos right now is the United States Navy. We have a blockade that's been infallible. It's a steel wall. And we let people in that we want to let in. And those people come in and they've been coming in and they're going out. So it's actually open now. It's actually open now. And yet the actual number, what do we have? I think we have the actual

numbers in front of us. Let's put A9 up here on the screen. from drop site. Unnamed U.S. official told Axios, around 8 million barrels of oil are going through the Gulf every night. Reporting has not independently confirmed that. In fact, lower amounts of oil suggested by available tracking data report a total of 16.9 million barrels moving west to east through Hormuz from August 1st to August 7th. So I don't have the exact math in front of me, but I do know that that's not 8 million barrels. And even if it is 8 million, that's also significantly lower than what it was. 40% of pre-war traffic.

Not exactly going to cut it, especially when, as you and I are recording, UKMTO says that another ship was just struck in the Bob Al Mendeb straight. And so you still have that choke point, which is happening. Don't forget, though, oil traders are literally delusional because Pakistan put out a statement today being like, you know, things are close, things are close. And so oil slips a little bit. It's still at $87 a barrel whenever it comes to Brent. well above where things were when it actually looked like some potential ceasefire might happen.

We do have Professor Mearsheimer kind of laying out why Trump is in his low-keying-it strategy. He lays it out pretty emphatically. He lost the war. Let's take a listen. Very simple, Tom. He has no choice. He lost the war. This is a devastating defeat for the United States. Can you tell me what the United States should do to regain leverage over Iran? I actually think you can't tell me because we have no solution. Trump might think that because Oman is a U.S. ally, it shouldn't be going along with his arrangement with Tehran, John. He does think that, but it doesn't matter.

It just doesn't matter. Trump has no cards here. It's as simple as that. I mean, first of all, he can. can't escalate, which is his main threat for two reasons. One, he's out of munitions, as Vali said. And number two, our Gulf allies have told him in no uncertain terms that is unacceptable, because the Iranians have made it clear that if we escalate, they will escalate and they will destroy oil facilities, desalination plants, and so forth and so on in the six Gulf states. And they

will effectively wreck those states. And Trump doesn't want to go down that route. He has no options here. That's basically what we see right now. Trump is low-keying it. Wall Street Journal out with a report last night. Trump has settled back on the no war, no peace strategy, believing that economic sanctions that this time they're going to work, this time, exactly. And In fact, this latest one that will show you A2, we'll put it up here on the screen, where Trump says, I see representatives of the Islamic Republic are looking for compensation for the damage done to them during the last five months of military conflict, even though it was never mentioned in any of our negotiations. But it is an interesting idea because now I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran

for all the people they have killed and gravely wounded for which they are famous as led by General Soleimani. Additionally, compensation will be paid to the families of the hundreds of thousands of of hundreds of thousands now of innocent protesters that Iran has killed over the last 50 years, not to mention the 52,000 that have been killed in the last five months. And do you notice how that number goes up every single time that they talk about it? I have instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any and all future negotiations. Well, he just cares so deeply about the Iranian people. It's really heartwarming to face it. He followed that up also with the next one, can we, where he says also with respect to Iran negotiations,

Iran should be responsible for damages and deaths cause to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza. All right? So now apparently Iran is behind all of that. Will you even see that they're blaming Iran for the USS Cole, which was literally done by Al-Qaeda? I mean, it's just total nonsense. But the reason why I think that you have to pair those two things together is while Trump is still in the no-war, no-peace strategy, this makes me think this shit's going to go on for years. Because that truth is an example of how when push comes to shove, real surrender is going to be, here's your money. Reopen the straight. You get to charge your tolls, we walk away, and the Saudis and everybody else will phase out our bases over time. That's actually what's going to happen eventually. But in the interim, he still is in this position where it's like, oh, you're demanding reparations? Actually, I'm demanding reparations. Or whenever they're like, we're going to charge a toll for the straight, actually, I'm going to charge a toll. Like, he still has to present what Professor Pape calls a victory narrative. And eventually, you know, you just have

to give that up. And that's just like we're stuck right now for for probably years. I had to guess. Well, I mean, what? He's got to ride down another two plus years of the presidency, you know, playing these games with the oil market, trying to keep it at some manageable level. Okay, we can handle $80 a barrel. We can handle 90. Maybe we can handle 100. Like let's keep, you know, jawboating the markets and see what we can do and bypass and play this cat and mouse game and the straight, et cetera, and see if we can keep the prices at a level that are relatively. relatively manageable and kick the can down the road to the next president and let them be the ones that have to withdraw from the region and close all of our bases and admit the humiliating defeat. I mean, it's the same thing that he and every other president did with Afghanistan. It's like, we recognize this was a disaster. The American people actually want us to get out, but don't realize what that's going to entail and how messy and ugly it's going to be. So we're all just going to continue pushing this thing, muddling it along, kind of putting it on the back burner. Now, the question here is you were able to do that with Afghanistan, because because there wasn't this like incredibly globally significant strategic trade choke point.

Can you do that with Iran? That's the question. And I think now that we are months and months into this thing and he's been able to navigate it, yeah, his approval earnings a disaster. Yeah, Republicans are going to get blown out in the midterms. Yeah, Americans really are unhappy with the whole situation. But it hasn't been a total bottom falling out global economic catastrophe. So now he's getting some confidence that he could just continue to.

to muddle through that people will get used to the new status quo, and he can push it down the road enough to make it the problem of whoever the next president is. Here, J.D., good luck, enjoy, or here, AOC, or whoever it's going to be on the Democratic side, here Gavin Newsom, here Kamala Harris, enjoy. Good luck figuring this one out and having Americans be okay with what will be the acknowledgement of a humiliating defeat at the end of the day. So that's the gamble. Now, again, I think there's a lot of question marks, including that assumes that Iran just sort of accepts that and is like, okay, sure, we'll let you wait it out. I don't know why they would do that because they've got a, you know, they have established that they have escalation dominance. They have a lot of other

cards that they can play, including tightening the screws in terms of the oil markets. You know, Bob Il-Mandab is not really shut down. There's still a lot of traffic flowing through there. You could increase the pressure there. You could increase the pressure on the Gulf allies, you could go after our bases more aggressively and target our service members forcing the additional loss of American life. So there's a lot that they could still do. And I don't know that they're just going to accept this state of play and let Trump engage in his low-keying strategy. Right. That's, I mean, Ukraine and Russia is the perfect example. The war is more dangerous today than the war than the day it began for the entire world because of all of these insane Ukrainian

strikes. I mean, again, nobody even does any coverage. They killed 13 people at a Russian oil refinery last night, taking off a bunch of jet fuel and diesel. So, like, eventually the bill is going to come do. May I look. There was some Libya oil refinery that just got hit, too, because of Libya continuing to be unstable, thanks to what we did there. It's what we keep saying here. Like, you're just a few, like, bad situations away from a genuine nightmare. And we have that. You know, we have a 10. We can put it up here. The oil in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has now fallen below 300 million barrels. That's the lowest since 1983. The minimum amount of oil needed to safely operate is about 70 million barrels. That number, but I think it's been in dispute,

from what I understand, because that comes from the current energy department. That previously, they had released 172 million barrels at the beginning of the war that believe that distribution ends in the next month or so. So are they going to have to just keep drawing it down? Like, what's that going to look like. What about China? I mean, the Chinese emergence as the power, the most powerful oil buyer in the world was totally unforeseen in this entire war. Are they, how much longer are there? We have no idea. They don't publish it. And so all of these like big question marks, is also like you said, is Iran just going to sit back and take it? If I were them, I couldn't, that would be a slow, that would be being ground to your death. However, resuming the war, you look,

look, they kill a few American service members. America starts to accept more risk. Maybe we lose a few pilots. We could kill hundreds of thousands of them literally in a single day if we wanted to. But that's not, that's bad too, right? Beyond the moral implications that would devastate their country, would lead to, you know, a disaster for them as well. So their leaders, they're in just as much of a vice as Trump. But honestly, the stakes for them are higher.

And with the stakes for them as high as where they are, it makes it a lot more dangerous. Well, because that's the thing is Trump thinks that. allowing the economic pressure to build on them as they continue to be under sanctions and unable to, you know, do what they need to charge the toll and straight of four booze. Like, as inflation is increasing, as that economic tension increases for Iran, he believes that will lead them to give up concessions at the negotiating table. I think it is far more likely that it leads them to escalate. I think that is a much more likely outcome here.

But you're right. We're talking about, listen, we're running low on precision. long-range missiles, but we have a ton of, you know, dumb bombs that we could just drop on them, 2,000 pound J-dams and whatever, that we could just drop, and it would entail more risk to our pilots, but that is a possibility that continues to be on the table. So it's not like we are out of anything and the cupboards are completely bare on everything. There are still a lot of, there is still a massive amount of destructive capability that we wield if we were to choose to take that increased risk to our own service members. Right, exactly. And that's what, that's actually what

makes me, you know, afraid. And I think that this is still, I still think we might be in the opening game. You know, J.D. has called it the middle game. I don't think that's accurate. You and I both know, memorandum of understanding alone was a Titanic, you know, just even trying to get it was a Titanic, you know, task and fell apart instantly. So now we're just, just trying to get back to the memorandum, we haven't even talked about nuclear issues. I think this is going to happen for years. I think it will literally be years and years and years. Rita told us yesterday the conditions that Iran lay down were not even this is what

it will take to get a deal. It was this is what we will require to even start talking to you again. So I do, it really does feel like we've been to this play before. I mean, our whole lives, adult lives have been watching these forever wars get started and then just kind of drag on forever and be put on the back burner and some new worse status quo is established that people are just forced to accept. And with oil, I mean, it's $4 a gallon. The White House seems to think that's acceptable.

Maybe that's just reality now. $350, $4 a gallon for as long as it takes. If the other side of the world has a total crisis, it sucks to be them. We can't bail them out. By the way, you know our Japanese yen thing that you covered? It didn't even work. No, I know. It's already collapsed by 50%. Yeah.

You know, I mean, the tools of our empire. They're in a world of trouble. They're in big trouble. South Korea, too. But that's the reason we care is because, and we cover this all in the segment, is because it has major implications for us, because they are the largest foreign holder of U.S. treasuries. So if they're forced to sell treasuries to, you know, hold up their own currency and repatriate their own cash, then that means that our interest rates on our treasuries goes up.

That means it costs way more for us to service our debt. and that becomes a really big problem, a really big problem. Yeah. So that's why Besson had his little shopping to-do list by, you know, billions of dollars of Japanese yen because it doesn't, it's not just, oh, poor Japan, they're struggling, which they are. It's poor, you know, this has major implications for us, too. And that's why, that's why this is very precarious.

So on the one hand, I think the Trump plan of low-keying it is aimed at muddling through, getting through pushing it off to the next president. On the other hand, it continues to be very volatile and fragile. And I'm not sure that that is going to be a strategy that can work, given the specific dynamics of this conflict, we'll just have to see. Agreed. All right, let's get to Dems. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense.

Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pastos survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumber? numbers. Get Bell pure fiber internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.com for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook.

Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes. understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stillard. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride.

He loves over. Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own. That's great. I call him Terro Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah.

I call, I don't. I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachy Sobieski. I don't think she was an American pie, but I still like that. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Then Mary Steenberg. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried.

Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play game? I just really. I get it. I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nick Tuturo. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, the longest yard, or Spike Lee's Black Klansman. But I'm also from Queens, which means I know pizza.

And on my new podcast, delivering happiness with Nick Totoro, I deliver pizza from Prince Street Pizza to a new guest. Are you delivering pizza now? Then we sit down for a real conversation. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins. What are you doing my belt? To Alex Rodriguez. Just to let you people know, we're talking to one of the goats here.

To Bill Burr. I don't think I've ever met someone. So exactly out of their mind is I am. And now we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Titoro. It's called Happiness. Delivering Happiness. Mariano Rivera. Thank you.

Oh, my God. And many, many more. Open your free high-heart radio app. Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Totoro. And listen now. It is Election Day today in Minnesota, in Wisconsin, and also actually in South Carolina, Darlene Graham on the ballot here to replace her brother. But before we get into the specifics of these elections, there's an interesting dynamic here with AOC when she was being asked at some of the old tweets and comments of Francesca Hong and other DSA-aligned candidates, whether those were going to be a problem for them going forward. Let's go ahead and take a listen to what she had to say.

That's possible to win the Senate. So I've been focused on those legislative reasons. What do you make of those controversial statements? I'm sure you've seen. I mean, she's, you know, the Thanksgiving dust up. She says she doesn't, you know, still believe that. you know, the abolished prisons, abolished police, which is also positions that have been taken by a lot of the progressive candidates who have won. How do you get around that? Yeah. Those are not positions that are supported by most people. I mean, I think that a lot of these races, even right now, they'll have a tendency to be nationalized. Yeah. But these races ultimately are local and all politics are local. My understanding is that is that Francesca Hong has made clear her present stances to her electorate.

Yeah, she's moved away from a lot of that. Right, she's moved away from it. And I have a local city councilman that has this saying, woke one was crazy. Oak one was crazy. Okay, that's true. And I think that what's important is that we have to assess what it was. I mean, did the movement go too far with some of those positions?

I mean, you briefly supported the idea of defunding the point. police. Well, you know, I think, I think that during this time and during, especially during COVID, there was a huge opening of the overtime window. We were shut down. There was some of the highest unemployment rates that we have seen because of those shutdowns. And I think that the, the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place. And I actually think that the discussions that had, that were had in that time were quite fruitful. I think that when we talk about crime today, it's fundamentally different than the way that we talked about crime in bringing crime down, right? And I think that we all share

in the goals of having as low a crime rate as possible. I think that, you know, during lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today. And I'm grateful that these candidates have the opportunity to present who they are to their electorate and what they're campaigning on in this moment. So she's referring there to Chiazay, who's a councilman forum, New York. Is he the one who came up with this? Yeah, he's the one, and he's the one for people who don't remember who thought about challenging Hakeem Jeffries, and then ultimately, you know, DSA at Zoron's urging, decided

not to back me, decided not to run in that primary. But in any case, this captured a lot of online attention. I'm curious for your thoughts on a saga. I could give a whole diatribe about this. Because Crystal and I are going on John Stewart today. We can't let this blow out to be too long. I would say, woke one is crazy is the most, like, it is the biggest cop out of all time.

Because, look, you either held the position or not. In my opinion, everybody's still woke. They just don't admit it anymore. I mean, or they have to explicitly apologize. So, for example, Zoran literally had to tell the cops, I'm sorry for saying defund the police. I think that's a very positive development, actually. But because it required a little bit of accountability.

This is a massive cop out. Like, if you support defund the police, say it. Like, if you support, you know, little kids being castrated chemically, say it. Like, you should say that. If you support mass rioting and looting and want to, you know, put your MLK quotes out there, you should stand by that. Or you should have the decency to tell people. I was totally wrong, and it was a total disaster.

So people's lives were ruined. People literally died. The murder rate skyrocketed. It was one of the worst, in my opinion, you know, movements all of probably in modern American history. The pit almost lost the election because of it. And, you know, they tried to deny it for years and years and years. And, you know, saying woke one is crazy, it's just, it's not enough. Like, I would compare it to the way that you probably feel about Trump and you want accountability.

Your Trump regime, that's my woke one. Like, that was my woke one. That was my radicalizing event. Like, I lived through 10 years of actual total cultural insanity. And to just say, woke one was crazy. It's like, it's not enough for me. And I think for a lot of people, too, you'd be like, well, what do you mean by this? that, like to change your position. And I do think, you know, a lot of these candidates trying to

have it both ways is, frankly, bullshit. Like, Abdul al-Sayyad literally lies about saying defund the police. You know, he chakened out, apparently, on coming on the show, because we were going to debate property tax and he just canceled for no reason. One of the things I was going to ask him was like, dude, you claim that you never said it. You said it. We have you on tape. Why don't you admit that you said it? And if you change your policy, then you should say that. But, you know, a lot of these people that just want to walk away, Francesca Hong today was asked about some of her old tweets, and I forget exactly what she said. She said, as somebody who was studying to be a sports journalist, I just wanted to put all my different hot takes and opinions out there. I'm like,

no, like, you said Thanksgiving should be canceled. Like, you basically, you know, you said you were uncomfortable at having a half white son. That's fucked up. Like, you should pay penance for that. You should have atoned for that. And so, I don't know, for, for, for, look, I mean, she's not going to win me over ever, like in terms of AOC. But for somebody else, if you hold those We're going to have to have some serious cultural dialogue about what exactly all that means. So, yeah, I don't know. I think that they should take notice of the most successful DSA politician in the country, Zoran Mamdani, who had to straight out come out and be like, yeah, I was wrong.

I apologize for that. And then appoint Jessica Tisch. Like, unless I see something like that, I'm like, I don't believe you. I mean, I think so a few things. First of all, the conversation that you want to have is just not going to be feasible in this, like, Sunday show, quick hit, where she's being asked these questions in, you know, in 30 seconds. And so I think what you see with her saying woke one is crazy and with Francesca Hong saying, basically like, I look, I put down a lot of hot takes on Twitter. I don't stand by all of them.

She cleaned up her Thanksgiving. They'd like, no, I don't want to cancel Thanksgiving, etc. I think you see a recognition, an increased level of pragmatism among the left that you did not see at that point. And I think part of it comes from the fact. I mean, first of all, just it was an intense time with COVID and lockdowns and BLM and George Floyd being murdered and all of these sorts of things. So part of it is that. And part of it is the fact that now the left has a real chance to actually be in power. So you have to not just put on a tweet. You have to actually govern.

And you do have to appeal to a broader election. So I think there is a level of pragmatism. And I also think there's a learning of just like, you know, the approach. It didn't work. It didn't work. To your point, it led to a backlash. You know, there was never any criminal justice reform that was passed. You could point to some local examples, sure.

But coming out of Black Lives Matter, there was no mass criminal justice reform at all. The police were not, in fact, defunded. And so I think there has to be a reckoning with that. But to me, it's a positive step forward for people, like, to be able to say, okay, that wasn't, it wasn't strategically savvy. I don't think we're in that same place. Here's where I actually stand and be able to move forward. So, you know, I understand what you're saying about AOC. And listen, she still holds a position that you just disagree with.

And Francesca Hong also holds positions that you just don't agree with. And Zoran does as well. So they're not going to like apologize and come to you on that. But this is a kind of recognition that, yeah, there were some excesses at that point, you know, both in terms of the tactics, in terms of the rhetoric. and it didn't end up ultimately working out. I just feel like it's a past that isn't fair. I mean, Ryan has said this. Like, it's not just me.

I see other leftists saying this. They're like, guys, this ain't going to cut it. Like, you're going to have to apologize. Like, you've got to have straight out. That's actually not what Ryan said about this. He said he thought she did a pretty good job of handling this in the situation. But, you know, the other thing that I want to point to is like, you know, for all the conversation about woke one and all the criticism that I had of it and have of it, you know,

continue to have of it. there is a very authoritarian woke too under the Trump administration right now that, you know, has a far wider reaching and more powerful effect where you're not just talking about Ben Shapiro getting shouted down at a college or whatever. You're talking about people being deported. You're talking about people being arrested. You're talking about mass surveillance, NSPM 7. And so it's also hard for me to get worked up about that at this point, given the way that specifically

quote-unquote anti-Semitism is being used to imprison people, deport them, and completely crushed dissent, and to label them as terrorists by the federal government. So I think that has to be put in context here as well. I don't disagree at all. And again, I apologize, Ryan. I had interpreted it as him talking about because I, I, what I saw, what he had said about the whole woke one thing, he's like, no, there needs to be like a reckoning in terms of how that era was handled with cancellation.

But I think by defining it as just Ben Shapiro, like, that's not what happened, right? Like, the murder rate went sky high because of the George Floyd protest. That is an empirical fact. It is just simply true. I think that also was driven by COVID too. And the lockdown. There's no doubt about that. Partially, but there is.

I can show you the data the day before the protest and the day after. The murder rate went sky high and it only just recently came down. The only reason I think that a lot of DSA is getting away with a lot of its nonsense today is because that the murder rate has gone to like 2012 era. So people are no longer having to worry about the concerns that we have. Like, I don't forget. I remember, you know, what that looks like and the destruction of this entire city. So that's where I'm like, okay, it's not Ben Shapiro, right?

Like, it's a genuine, like, mass cultural hysteria, which took over. And still, I think most of the left believes. Like, I don't, I still think that they do believe that. So you're talking about. Believe what? Well, I think that they still believe in a lot of the anti-racist bullshit. They just, you know, kind of phrase it a little bit differently. But it's like, okay, okay, I'll give you a good example.

It's very easy to say a lot of this anti-Semitism hysteria is bullshit. Do you have the courage to say it about affirmative action? No, I mean, I don't think so. Like, I don't think a lot of, you know, maybe true Trotskyites. Jacobin, I read a nice Jackabin article yesterday about this whole woke one situation, which made a lot of the same points that I'm making. The Trotskyites at Worldwide Socialist Web were the original anti-woke people. But, like, you know, the median liberal voter was appalled at the minority majority

districts getting struck down. Like, they still believe in affirmative action. Well, I mean, that's what, that is woe. There is, there is a deep legacy of racism. And, and B.L. And B.L.M doesn't come out of nowhere, right? There was, there was, you know, George Floyd was murdered. People were horrified it. And by including people on the right, I mean, Sean Hannity, doing a segment about how horrifying that was. Hey, I was horrified. Yeah, of course. Yeah. I mean, so there is a historic legacy of discrimination against black Americans. specifically. And I think, look, I'm not a fan. I'm not a supporter of affirmative action, so I don't put, but I understand why people say, okay, this group, there is a legacy here that we

have to deal with and have to reckon with. We continue to have mass disparities in terms of health and in terms of wealth, et cetera. And it's not tied to like, you know, pretending criticism of a foreign government is actually racism against this particular group. It's based on actual reality, history, and current outcomes today. Yeah, but you and I both know that even though when I'd say a minority majority district is affirmative action or is bullshit, you know, today, I'm going to be called a racist. Like, it's that still exists. And I know it.

I mean, if I try out the combo of trans is another one. I mean, it's one of those where- You also have to admit that racism is not only alive and well, but is being really stoked by the current Republican Party. And we can, we discussed a very recent example of that guy, Amir Hassan, I think his name was. Yes. Who the other guy whose name was like Tom Jones or something, very standard white, name had literally dropped down of the race, Amir Hassan is backed by Trump, and literally just because

he has a Muslim-sounding name loses in a Republican private. If you want to be technical about it, that's Islamophobia, it's not racism, but I mean, I guess you've got to play too. Bigotry. Bigotry? Sure. I'm not denying that it exists, but do I support affirmative action for Amir Hussein? No, honestly, I don't.

And so. Yeah, but I'm just saying, like, to just dismiss concerns. Because, again, I don't even support affirmative action. I know you don't. I'm not. dismiss concerns over racism as some like liberal hysteria, I think it's preposterous. Well, a black lady is literally about to be the next governor of Georgia, which would have, you know, most of the Georgian founding fathers rolling in their graves and nobody who's

bitching about minority majority districts. No one's saying that there. Well, maybe some are, but I don't think the general view is that no progress has been made. I also don't think that your view is that one black lady in a high level of representation means that the problems are solved. Behind every night spent making the kids lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pesto survive the first bite?

Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.com for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements.

We host the podcast Hollywood Hamlet. book. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stillard. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves over. Oh, that's fantastic. Can you make it on you make your own. That's great.

I call him Terro Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobieski. Yeah, I don't think she was an American Pie, but I still like that. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time.

Yeah. Then Mary Steenbergin. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. I'm worried. Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little? play game. I just really, I get it.

I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse. The world gets crazier. And Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem. If you come over here to play games, I'm a check you.

Okay? If you do some in the news that don't sound good, I'm going to play you. Join Yamanika Saunders as she breaks down the week's most problematic stories on her new podcast. You're the problem with Yamanika. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? New episodes weekly every Wednesday is part of my new network, the Dear Chelsea Network. If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less, so I don't have to do so much.

So join Yamanika each episode as she answers one question. Who's the problem? I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to You're the problem with Yamanika on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Part of this will be put to the test, not just in the primaries on the Democratic side, but also in terms of the general elections. And one of the test cases here is very likely to be Francesca Hong in Wisconsin. She has been leading in that primary the entire time. She's a state rep from Madison, Wisconsin.

We had around the show, Emily and I interviewed her. She's put B2 up on the screen. Polls could be wrong. I think we all found that out in Michigan. I would expect a polling error, frankly. But they have shown her leading by easily by double digits in all the recent polls, you know, starting in July. She previously had two opponents. One of them dropped down at the race and said, hey, the writing's on the wall about who the nominee is going to be, meaning her.

Her other opponent is David Crowley. He's still in. He's backed by the governor. He is the more establishment candidate. She has a lot of wild posts from Woke 1.0. There is no denying it. And unlike Zoran, she has not, she's done a little bit of distance. But he did the like, I'm going to delete my tweets and I'm going to apologize.

Abdul did a similar thing. I'm going to delete my tweets. I'm going to just like, you know. He hasn't apologized. I'm going to move forward. He's just lying about what he said. But in any, he deleted the tweets and really distance himself. She's kept the tweets up and is doing less of that rhetorical.

from her past. So that has led to a lot of concerns about whether or not she'll be able to win a general election in Wisconsin for governor, even in a year that is very, is, you know, going to be a very, very likely a wave year for Democrats. Well, and look, this is where let me give my flowers to, at least some of the DSA, for attacking her opponent, David Crowley, who claims he's a black man, not that it's relevant, who says that by calling him, quote, establishment, it's a racist slur, let's take a listen to B5. I'm trying to figure out who the establishment is, right? I think that when we talk about the establishment, I don't know who that is.

I'm a kid that grew up in 532nd, 6 Zipco. My parents was drug addicts and suffered from mental health. I worked extremely hard to be where I am today. And so when people try to call me the establishment, I look at that as a slur, particularly as an African-American candidate. And so I have never ran for office to protect the establishment. I've always been here to protect the people. That's my foundation.

That's what I'm going to continue to do as a county executive and what I'm going to do is the governor of Wisconsin. That's Woke 1.0 if I've ever seen one. It's a colony establishment. I do think that is an important point as well, which is that a lot of the origin of woke actually came out of the neoliberal's, the Hillary Clinton campaign

as an attempt to weaponize identity against the left. We're seeing a lot of that playbook continue to this day. Didn't work, but almost did against Abdul El-Syad. They attempted something similar against Soron. And so, you know, very interesting to see that playbook rolled out here as well. Let's go ahead and put B6 up on the screen. There's a, you know, Wisconsin's dumb establishment, really freaking out, scrambling to try to stop Francesca Hong. And I think all, you know, all the scrutiny of her past tweets and her positions and obviously all of that is completely justified.

I do think there's been less curiosity about why it is that this random Madison's, state rep jumped out to such a large and seemingly, seemingly insurmountable lead. And Ken Klippenstein lives in Wisconsin and has been tracking a lot of this. And the interesting thing, and actually, what's her face? Dan Perino on Fox News gave Francesca Hong some credit for this. The campaign she's run has been, first of all, very, very grassroots heavy, you know, using the DSA organizing model, you know, doing, having actual community members reach out to people directly who have a connection to the campaign and are passionate about it.

They're not just being paid to knock doors. She's also, and actually we could put this B9 up on the screen, talked about some of this strategy. She also, I think, has honed in on some of the issues that are not only a concern to the Democratic base, but are more broadly across ideological concern. And I'm specifically talking here about data centers and flock cameras. And she also is the only candidate I think I've seen, who has. has specifically addressed NSPM 7, which I think is more of a specific concern for the Democratic

base. But on data centers and on pushback against AI generally and on flock cameras, she has really separated herself. There was a famous debate moment that Emily and I played on the show where all the Democratic contenders at that point in the race were asked if they would support an AI data center moratorium. She was the only one that raised her hand. No, Crowley has explicitly actually defended the ability for localities to get data. centers, which again, I don't even know why politically, that's why you would do so. Put B-9 up here because it kind of goes into that. And look, you know, I don't like Francesca Hong, you know, not my cup of tea on a variety of different levels. I do respect that she came from an organizing

background and that she was able to use her organization to fill these no kings protests, like in Milwaukee, which are full of the most standard. I mean, if you ever been like, driven past, like, these are like old white, maybe I'm just speaking from where I live, but the vast majority are old white boomers. No, I think that's fair. Who are like Kamala Daihar, you know, every single one of my neighbors who has no king sign had a Kamala sign.

Like these are very traditional kind of Democrats. And she had brought thousands of people to these no kings protests. And that really filled out and like made a connection with them. So I'm like, okay, that's very, that is traditional grassroots political organizing. The question is actually something I talked about yesterday with gubernatorial races. Gubernatorial races are very different than national. Like we were talking about Abdul. The fact that he lied about defund the police, no one's going to give a shit, like, in my opinion.

Because, you know what? At the end, you know, Mike Rogers has said some crazy stuff about the 2020 election. What it comes down to when you vote national, especially in the Senate, are you going to vote to confirm a Trump justice? Are you going to vote to, you know, to do, these are high stakes, massive votes. Your individual opinion, especially as a freshman senator, it basically doesn't matter. Oh, you're going to introduce Medicare for all. That's cute. All right. We all know this shit's not going to pass. Maybe, you know, one day in the future. At the end of the day, the most consequential votes you will make are funding, no funding, impeach, not impeach, I could go on forever.

Governor is very different. And this is where with Francesca Hong, I mean, especially, like, you're literally going to be in charge of law enforcement budgets. Like, you're going to be administering the day-to-day of the actual state. Like, do you want a lady who's, you know, literally diagnosed bipolar to be running that? I mean, I'm not trying to come across prejudice, but it's a genuine question. You're like, this is somebody who's a diagnosed and admitted past of mental illness, of bad judgment with tweets and comes across, like, frankly, very strange in a lot of these interviews. Now, having good political instincts nowadays, all right, you know, it's possible. But having that person run your state, people are much more willing to buck the

national politics at the state level. Now, today is very different, as you well pointed out. In the state of Virginia, you have a guy who is on his text message says, I want to murder, what did he say? I want to murder Republican children or something like the children of my Republican opponents? He literally said that. I don't think you quite said that. I think it was like, I don't remember, but they were, they were wild. Yeah, he was no like. He's like, I want to commit homicide against my opponents. He won the election. I mean, he won. He won. He won. He won. He One, a state one, that man is in charge of my rights as a Virginia. Like that who is currently running the state attorney general's office and decides like

prosecutions and stuff. He won. Like so that's important to say, right, about what it could look like at the state level. But there's enough evidence. Like, you know how, you know, we live here near Maryland. Maryland loves to blue state. Larry Hogan. Vermont had a Republican governor.

Massachusetts had a Republican governor. You know, these blue states or differences, they buck the national trend all the time. And so that's why I would say that she has a much less of a wind at her back than any national candidate. If I'm in D who is running in 26, the best position I could possibly be in is to run for Congress or run for the United States Senate because the stakes are so high whenever it comes to impeachment and funding and all of the other issues that people are paying attention to in the day-to-day. Running the governor's mansion, you're negotiating, you know, property tax and, you know,

whether this factory is going to get built here. And that's super important. Don't get me wrong, but it doesn't motivate people in the same way that we have seen, at least traditionally. It could be a very different moment. Yeah, well, and we'll also see how powerful the data center politics are. Oh, well, that I think we already know. She's, you know, she's going to be very clearly different from,

Tom Tiffany, is that his name? Who is going to be the Republican nominee? And I do think she's being underestimated a little bit. I've watched, you know, we interviewed her. I've watched a lot of her interviews and the way she communicates on the ground, et cetera. And she has a very sort of unique style where she is both soft-spoken and also very confident. And so anyway, I think, and I do think that she, obviously, the Democratic basis found her to be very appealing and very credible. So I don't think that that should be discounted.

It is a major feat that one of her opponents, the one who dropped down to the race and was like, obviously, it's going to be Francesca who wins. He was lieutenant governor of the state. These are not nobodies who she's up against. And yet, according to the polls, again, we'll see. She's running away with it. Let's go ahead just to give you a little bit more of a sense of her and her opponent, David Crowley. Let's play a little bit of their bios here so you can get a sense of both of them. It's so stressful to get by these days, and I know a lot about stress.

I work in restaurants. I started in this kitchen 15 years ago, and you might recognize what's across the street. A lot of people in that building don't get why it's so hard to get by right now. Working hard doesn't mean you can always keep up. One wrong step can lay you out flat. This is by design. Don't let anyone tell you we can't do this. We can build a Wisconsin where we should.

share the table. I'm Francesca Hong, and I'm running for governor because I know that together we make better possible. I didn't grow up in the halls of power. I grew up here and here and here. Evicted three times as a kid having to pick up yourself and everything you own off the curb. It'll break you or it'll make you. I'm David Crowley and I didn't want any child to go through that. So I became a community organizer.

I went on to serve in the State Assembly, where I saw what happens when extremists had total control. And I'd had enough. So at 33, I returned home, elected to lead the largest county in Wisconsin, helping create thousands of new jobs, cutting our carbon emissions in half, balancing the budget, all while delivering the largest property tax cut in our history. So to the single mom in O'Clair,

looking for affordable, dependable childcare, I hear you. To the union worker in Sheboygan taking an extra shift today to make the end of the month a little bit easier. I see you. To the dad in Plathville, working towards your degree after tucking your kids and good nights, I am you. I'm David Crowley, and I'm running to be governor for all of us. Wisconsin, let's get to work. Sager got excited when he said he lowered the property taxes. Yeah, all of a sudden.

over right then. All of a sudden, I'm all in for home. Fuck that guy. You're going to go home wild. Look, being serious, I said this to you while I was playing, that's like an ad from 2002. Like, it's a crazy ad. I mean, look, again, you don't have to take my advice, whatever. But, like, that is the most boring political ad.

It's clearly not worked so far. But, all right, so let's move on for Wisconsin quickly and take a look at Minnesota, which also has a marquee race on the ballot that's gotten a little bit less attention. Put B3 up on the screen. So this is also for, this is for Senate. open Senate seat. You've got Angie Craig, who is a current, very moderate, I guess you would say Congresswoman, very corporate aligned, et cetera. And then you have Peggy Flanagan, who is the current lieutenant governor, more of a lefty, Medicare for all, not directly DSA backed, but, you know, that

type of candidate. And it has gone, the lead, I think this one is very close. The latest poll has Craig up by two. The one before that had Flanagan up by 14. but that was before there's been a new onslaught of money that has come into this race. So I do not think that Peggy Flanagan is going to win by 14 points. I think it's going to be very close and I think it's a very difficult race. And, you know, there's a lot. Look, Minnesota has been ground zero for a lot of things. Black Lives Matter.

But that's kind of, you know, I think in the past in terms of the politics there in the Dem primary. But now you have the whole the fraud scandal, which caused Tim Walls to say, I am not running for re-election anymore. And Peggy Flanagan, obviously, it's part of that administration put before up on the screen. There's been a lot of back and forth about who's to blame for the welfare fraud scandal. It's really, this is really take, Minnesota's image has really taken a hit over this because part of what they were very proud of in the state is, okay, we pay kind of high taxes, but we have really good government, good, you know, good services, well-run, et cetera. And so this kind of strikes to the heart of how people think about Minnesota. And then obviously the other thing is, you know, Minnesota being ground zero for ice.

And this is where Alex Priddy and Renee Good were killed. Angie Craig is critical of ice but doesn't want to abolish it. Peggy Flanagan does want to abolish it. Angie Craig has taken some bad votes in terms of increasing ice funding and powers. So these are some of the fault lines in this race. And obviously, like I said, Minnesota has really been a powder keg on some of these issues. And that's part of why. Yeah, part of why there's a lot at stake here, I would say.

And we put the polls up on the screen? Yeah, we did. But you can put it back. But the latest poll has Angie Craig up by two. So very, very close. That's what I was saying. It's very tight. And I actually do, well, I mean, it's tight, but also they have multiple Flanagan ones previously, which had her up by like plus 30.

So who the fuck knows? Like we have very small amount of likely voters, which are even sampled in front of this. I do think that the fraud thing being in a scam. I mean, that, you know, to loop it all together to our woke one discussion, that's healthy. People should actually be like, hey, you said X, Y, and Z, you led to a disaster for our state. It led to a bilking of the state treasury and becoming a national laughing stock in front of the nation. Like, sorry, like that's actually a huge problem. And people should be held accountable for that.

So internal reckoning, just like I'm saying in terms of these primaries, it is healthy and it is good. And I don't like Francesca. I think she needs to do a hell of a lot more to literally come out and to be like, yeah, that was ridiculous. you know, and all that I said, but it is at least healthy to see some of these people be held to account. I also think that woke one was crazy is probably now the leftmost that you're even going to be allowed to go. Like she talked about the Overton window. The Overton window shifted in my favor now where we, I got Zoran over here apologizing to cops. And so woke one was crazy if that's, you know, if they're at least going to have to say something like that or be held to account for

it in a moderate, like by a debate or even internally in a primary, I do think that, I do think that's healthy. I hope to see more of that, too, in a future Republican primary, to be asked about affirmative action for, for, like, bullshit anti-Semitism. It's like, if I ever get selected as a moderator, I'm sure you'll see some of that. So anyway, it's what's, it's called democracy, you know? Yes, I agree. It's good. It's healthy. Like I said before, the fact that now the left actually has, is governing, is winning, has a chance at power, I think it leads to a higher level of pragmatism where it's not just, you're not just posting online to get like points for your radical chic. You know, you're actually trying to put together a winning coalition and appeal to voters

and be able to win. And to me, that's a very positive development for the left, although some people in the, you know, on the left are sort of being dragged to that kicking and screaming. It will be dead enders in any movement. I mean, if you read a history of leftism, having like disagreeable radicals is literally like, I mean, I mean, frankly, like, that is the history of leftism. Part of the reason I don't know. Correct. Hey, Portlandia fans.

Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. The Dream of the 90s is alive in podcast form. We're launching Podlandia, A.O. rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director. Jonathan Chrysall, the mayor himself,

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or wherever you get your podcasts. On Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. Your duolingo is not going to to come back to you when a man is inside of you. Oh no. I'm Julie Pinero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first.

I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guys. guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and

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