Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 9/18/23: Military Loses Airborne F-35, Ford CEO Freaks Over UAW, 100 Billion Student Loan Bomb, Trump on Abortion, Texas AG Survives Impeachment, Lauren Boebert BeetleJuice Debacle, Hasan Minhaj Admits Fake Stories, Drew Barrymore Weeps Over Scab Show

Episode Date: September 18, 2023

Krystal and Saagar discuss the UAW officially going on strike and causing the Ford CEO to lose it in an interview, Krystal and Saagar debate if Trump is wrong on Electric Vehicles, will the 100 billion student loan bomb crash the economy?, Trump hits DeSantis on Abortion legislation as a "terrible thing", Texas AG Ken Paxton survives impeachment in major MAGA victory, Lauren Boebert responds after her public debacle at the Beetlejuice musical, Saagar looks into Hasan Minhaj admitting he made up fake stories about being attacked with anthrax, and Krystal looks into Drew Barrymore ending her show's return admists major backlash from striking writers.To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.supercast.com/Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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give you guys the best independent coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that, let's get to the show. Good morning, everybody. Happy Monday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal? Indeed, we do. Lots of interesting stories to get into this morning. So first and foremost, the UAW, those auto workers are on strike. We'll give you all of the details. We also have reporters on the ground talking to workers about their concerns. We'll get into all of that. We also have student loan debt repayments beginning very soon, and that could have a huge impact on the economy. There's some new numbers that we want to talk to you about with that. Trump getting questioned on abortion and also on trans rights with some very interesting responses, really going

after directly Ron DeSantis and that six-week abortion ban. So that was kind of surprising. Ken Paxton, who is the attorney general of Texas, he was impeached in the Texas House, but he has now been acquitted in the Senate. A lot of behind-the-scenes Trump-related machinations there. Soccer was on the ground in Texas getting the scoop. I was in Austin, just feet away from the Capitol. There you go.

So we've got all of that for you. And Lauren Boebert doing some things in movie theater that apparently we need to share with you and give our takes on. It was a children's play of Beetlejuice, which is actually, that adds a lot to the content. Yes, we have footage. We've got all the reactions, various stories, etc. And on a more serious note, we are very excited to have Neil deGrasse Tyson, of course, very famous astrophysicist who has a new book out. And we're going to be talking to him about the mysteries of the cosmos. Might get a UFO question in there, too, for those who are wondering, so don't worry about that.

Before we start, just thank you again to our premium subscribers, the Focus Group, exceptionally well. We're already working on the next one. I think people are going to be very interested to hear what some of those people have to say. Not just a GOP one. We're going to go to all stripes, and I think people, again, are going to enjoy it. Breakingpoints.com, if you are able. We're also very happy to be able to use your very hard-earned money to help support journalists. Jordan Cheridan right now is on the ground for us and for his channel as well to be covering the UAW strike. We've got exclusive footage, words from the workers themselves. We always like to

hear from them on the ground, so that's what you were helping support. Again, breakingpoints.com, premium subscriber. But first, before we even get to the UAW, we just had to add this in. A hilarious development here on the Eastern Seaboard. The United States military has lost an F-35 stealth aircraft somewhere in the United States. We have no idea where it is. And the military is now asking for the public's help. If you can locate it, let's put this up there on the screen from Joint Base Charleston. We are currently working with Beaufort, South Carolina to locate an F-35 that was involved in a mishap this afternoon. The pilot ejected safely. If you have any information that may help our recovery

teams locate the F-35, please call the Base Defense Operations Center at this number. Based on the jet's last known position in coordination with the FAA, we are focusing our attention north of Joint Base Charleston and Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion. I probably said one of those wrong. Sorry, South Carolinians. For those who are wondering, this is not only just an F-35, this is an advanced F-35B Lightning II jet used for the United States Marine Corps. The pilot, as we said, ejected safely. He is in safe condition. However, quote, the jet's transponder, which usually helps locate the aircraft, was not working for some reason we haven't yet determined. So that's why we put out the public request for help. So that means that a $75 million aircraft, part of a program which went hundreds of billions

of dollars over budget, which costs the taxpayer a total of $1.7 trillion to develop, has gone missing after it was heralded as like God's gift to the United States military. Oh, this thing can do anything. It can fly upside down. It can go up straight. It can do this and that. And that's why we got to get rid of all of these cheaper aircrafts and buy this one because it's the same plane. It's intra-platform, whatever all these military geeks can say all that. And that sounds awesome, except whenever you lose it all over the eastern seaboard and the transponder doesn't work, it is proving at least, Crystal, to be stealthy. It is quite stealthy because we can't find it. I just hate when I misplace a $75 million asset and have to call in the public to find it.

At the very least, there needs to be some serious questions that are asked here about how this is allowed to transpire. We have a stealth program jet, which was, again, like there needs to be some serious questions that are asked here about how this is allowed to transpire. We have a stealth program jet, which was again, like fifth generation fighter aircraft. That's the way this was sold. It was a colossal boondoggle from the very beginning. And I always just find myself angry every time things like that happen, because we're all paying for this. It's an outrageous abuse of taxpayer funds. And listen, you know, this is just further proof of the amount of just like ridiculous things that we throw money at in the military. They don't even work whenever you want it to. This is like the least, the smallest example of the unbelievable. I mean, again, with the military, the Pentagon is the one agency, the Defense Department is the one

agency that cannot pass their audit. And they don't even come close. They can only account for like 40% of the money that they're given from Congress. It's 25% actually. Oh, 25%. I'm overstating it. I'm being too generous here. It's just, it's unbelievable. So anyway, guys, you saw the number there on the screen. If you happen to have seen an F-35 randomly in your community, alert the government because they're looking for it. Yes, thank you. Please call the number if you happen to see a massive firefighter aircraft. There's so much going on. All right, let's get to the strike. All right, let's get to this autoworker strike, which we previewed last week for you and did,

in fact, happen, which we expected because it seemed like the two sides were very far apart. Now, the UAW, the United Autowork Workers, they are taking a bit of a different strategy here in terms of their approach to the strike. Number one, they're targeting all three of the big three Detroit automakers. That is different from the past. And number two, the tactic that they are employing here, they're calling it a stand-up strike. Rather than going out at all plants at once, they're starting with a targeted few, one plant, I believe, at each of the big three

automakers, and then expanding from there based on how the negotiations go. So the idea is to keep the automakers guessing and also to be able to ratchet up the pressure as things go on. And finally, to try to preserve their strike fund, which is quite significant. They have $850 million in that strike fund. But if everyone went out all at once, that would only last them for a couple of months. So they're trying to stretch and expand that while exerting maximum pressure on the automakers. Let's listen to their new president, national president, Sean Fain, announcing the strike and the strike locations. Tonight, we call on three units to stand up and go on strike at midnight if we do not reach a tentative agreement in the next two hours.

We're calling on GM, Wentzville Assembly, Local 12 in Region 2B to stand up and strike. And we're calling on Ford, Michigan Assembly Plant, Final Assembly and Paint only, Local 900 in Region 1A to stand up and strike. These three units are being called to stand up and walk out on strike at midnight tonight. The locals that are not yet called to join the stand-up strike will continue working under an expired agreement, no contract extensions. Though the contract is expired, most of your contract is still in effect. Management cannot change terms and conditions of work in your workplace. You do not become an employee at will. You cannot be fired or disciplined for no reason.

This strategy will keep the companies guessing. It will give our national negotiators maximum leverage and flexibility in bargaining. And if we need to go all out, we will. So that's the positive part I laid out of their approach here is it stretches out the strike fund, keeps the bosses guessing, and they can use it in a targeted way to sort of ratchet up the pressure. Put the Wall Street Journal piece up on the screen on the tactics, which really went into detail of the pluses and minuses and also why they chose these particular locations. They said the three plants now idled in the strike emerged as sweet spots. UAW officials wanted to spread the pain evenly across the three companies. People with knowledge said

each of the three factories makes midsize pickup trucks. For example, the Ford Ranger, Stellantis' Jeep Gladiator, and GM's Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon. In part, these plans were chosen to balance the impact across the automakers. One executive board member at the UAW said, we don't want to advantage one over the other. They also said the message with the initial targets was to show companies that wanted to continue bargaining and reach a deal swiftly, not hit companies with maximum pressure right after the contracts expired. They went on to note that these are not the factories that produce the company's biggest moneymakers, large pickup trucks and SUVs like Ford's F-150 or GM's Cadillac Escalade, leaving the union with those chips to play.

Now, there is a potential downside to this strike strategy, which is while it allows them to stretch their strike funding, sort of keep these automakers guessing, and there was all sorts of social media reports about apparently there was potentially some targeted disinformation put out there that threw the CEOs off on which plants were going to be struck. And then they were trying to move parts around, et cetera, before this happened. And they were completely wrong about which ones actually went out. So that's the advantage. The disadvantages requires a lot of coordination, obviously, across a large union. You've got about 150,000 members that are impacted by this. And also, one of the greatest, most important parts of any strike or work action is solidarity.

So if you have some workers going out, but not all workers going out, you've got to just keep up the level of organization, make sure everybody still feels like they're in it together. And everybody is sort of like, you know, following the plan and following the marching orders as this thing goes along. So that is the downside, potential downside of the strike, but cannot understate what a big deal this is. Obviously, the big three are some of the most iconic brands in America. You know, the automakers, the auto industry famously sort of built the American middle class, has a lot of cachet with the American public. And it's another signifier of how much workers are feeling much more assertive. We saw the Teamsters and the UPS workers able to secure

a pretty good deal through the threat of a strike. We've got the writers and we've got the actors still out. We've had way more strike activity this year and a lot more union energy and activity than we have seen in decades. And this is certainly a part of that. Yeah, it's really interesting, the strike strategy that's been happening. It's like you explained it to me in order to stretch their strike fund, but it also is like a looming threat of you can push and pull as negotiations happen. So if negotiations go bad, then you can ramp it up. As they go down, you can ramp things there. And you can keep it also as a sign of goodwill and then use variable pressure to try and force a close. So it's very interesting actually to see it. The smart strategy, to be honest, because if you just do a full-blown

walkout strike, I mean, you can't, I mean, you can last long, like in terms of resolve, but not necessarily in terms of the funds that they have. Yeah, that's right. So we've gotten a little reaction from the automaker CEOs. We had the Ford CEO going on cable news and saying, oh, if we met their demands, gosh, we just wouldn't be able to make it. Let's take a listen to what he had to say. Quickly put in some perspective, the offer that they have, what they're demanding relative to where you are right now, how much damage would that do to the bottom line if you were to say, sure, we'll give you 40%? If we signed up for the UAW's request, instead of making money and distributing $75,000 in profit sharing in the last 10 years,

we would have lost $15 billion and gone bankrupt by now. The average pay would be nearly $300,000 fully fringed for a four-day work week. There is no way. Per employee, per UAW employee. Per employee, yeah. This is our full tenured school teacher in the U.S. makes $66,000. Someone from the military or fireman makes mid-$50,000. This is four or five times, six times what they make.

Did you ever consider perhaps teachers and firefighters should make more? Number one. It's not even true. Number two, it's total bullshit. So just a couple things to keep in mind here. Number one, the car companies are making record-breaking profits, so much so that they felt comfortable to authorize $5 billion in stock buybacks over just the past year. And now when it comes to workers, oh, we just couldn't make it. We'd go bankrupt. Bullshit.

Number two, of the entire cost of a car, because this is the other thing they threaten the public, car costs are going to go up. Cars are just going to be way more expensive. Do you know what percent of the price of a new car is labor? 5%. Yes. 5%. So don't fall for this. This is all total nonsense. Of course, CNBC does nothing to push back. Well, I dug actually a lot into it. So right now, just for everybody to know, the average employee at the big three makes $18 to $32 an hour, depending on seniority. The wage is not kept up with inflation, even close to that way, executive pay, stock buybacks, profits, et cetera, as you pointed out. The automakers offered wage increase from 17.5% to 20% in terms of an increase over the four and a half year contract. They were arguing that they should receive compensation beyond their hourly wages,

profit sharing, and other bonuses to try and keep it out of the contract. UAW says we want to end the tiered employment status and to have manufacturers quote, rely less on temporary workers, important, because that gets effectively put into the lowest tier in order to artificially lower the price and creates inter-competition. And they are pointing out that temporary workers are used effectively to like use against full-time union workers as well. This is a big focus of some of the previous strikes that we've seen or some of the stand-ups because they want to make sure that the newer generation of union workers is also preserved. The entire point is to try and preserve like some sort of middle class way of life. Also, the way that he comes to that math is the same deceitful way that they use the UPS. Like UPS was like $175,000.

Like that's about total compensation package. He's also using it not as $300,000 per year. He's conflating a lot of stuff over a long timeframe with projected inflationary cost to arrive at that figure. So this was computed by some PR executive. It's a good talking point, you know, for them. I saw a lot of people take it on safe face value, but it's just absolutely not true at all. Once again, we are talking about the fact that they

make $18 to $32 an hour, so you can do the math. What's the percentage that they're asking for? I think it's 50% or something like that. They're asking for a 40% raise, and there's a very specific reason why. Because the CEOs of the big three, they got a 40% raise over the past four years. So they're saying, okay, well, if these companies are doing well, well enough to give the CEOs a 40% pay hike, why don't the workers who actually generate all these profits, why don't they get cut in on the same deal? And it's also important to keep in mind when you see these numbers, because, you know, one of the automakers put 20% raise on the table and Sean Fain was like, no, it's not good enough.

And I'll tell you why. Because these workers took a huge haircut in the financial crisis. They, listen, taxpayers bailed out the automakers. You'll recall that. These workers bailed out the automakers. They lost their cost of living increases. They took a direct hit in terms of their salary.

Huge layoffs, huge hits to their pension. So just for them to get back to even close to where they were would require more than a 20% increase. So that's why when they look at these numbers, they're like, no, it is not good enough. You have done phenomenally well based on our work and we want in on the deal. We want a fair and just deal. And so they are standing very strong. As you mentioned, Sagar, we have status coups, Jordan Sheridan on the deal. We want a fair and just deal. And so they are standing very strong. As you mentioned, Sagar, we have status coups, Jordan Sheridan on the ground for us, giving us some exclusive content. He talked to some of the workers there about the way they are feeling about this strike and why

this is so important to them. I would take their word for a lot more than these CEOs and their PR spin. So let's take a listen to what they had to say. What for you is the main reason you wanted to go on strike? Is it the wages, tier system? What's the core issues for you? Pretty much the wages. I currently work two jobs. So I want to kind of like, you know, not do that to support my family. But yeah, I'd rather just work the 10 hours and go home with my family instead of leaving here and going somewhere else to do another job. In a typical day, how many hours you work in between the two jobs? More so I work like a Thursday through Sunday thing. So it's like 16 to 17 hours a day sometimes.

Watching these kids come in here, I work around a lot of kids that are really new to careers and whatnot and coming in at $17 an hour and we know what the cost of living is now. You can't even have an apartment. You still got to live with your parents or have 50 million roommates and that's not enough. It's not for what we do. It's not enough. It weighs on your body after a long period of time. So yeah, they really deserve to at least have a better starting wage. JOHN YANG, Former U.S. Secretary of State for the United States, $15 an hour in this economy, gas, groceries. You must be really stretched economically to pay the bills. REP. NICOLE MCDONALD, U.S. Secretary of State for the United States, Stretched is not the word.

We need better wages. We need at least a $10 raise for all the work that we do. We do a lot in my department. And we're just underpaid and overlooked. And I don't think it's fair. And I think it's about time that we fight for our rights. I'm in a building that we host sometimes 200 to 300 people. And I'm in that building by myself, cleaning it from top to bottom, and get the most extraordinary compliments on my work

because I am that good at what I do. I'm just well underpaid. But we're in a crisis right now where that we are really one paycheck away from being evicted a lot of my homes. You can't feed yourself right. You can't do anything because you have nothing left. Do you feel you're getting enough

from the president in terms of support? Do you feel you're getting enough from other president in terms of support? Do you feel you're getting enough from other politicians? Because it's one thing to show up when the strike happens. It's another thing, are they backing you when the cameras are not here? Well, the UAW traditionally supports the Democratic Party. And last night I was pretty proud of Mr. Biden, President Biden, for backing up the union efforts. And I think he totally supports what's going on up to a certain reasonable time limit. And he is aware that we are the fabric of the entire country.

So we're going to play some of President Biden's comments for you and also former President Trump's comments, which are a very interesting contrast. But I mean, listen to their testimonials here. We can't make rent. People are in danger of being evicted. The auto industry was one of the original backbones of the American middle class. And Henry Ford, listen, he was anti-union and got all kinds of issues there. But he understood that his workers needed to earn enough money to be able to buy the product and also was part of the push to make it a five-day work week for some of the same reasons. This is part of what built the American middle class. So for these workers now to say, listen, $15 an hour, $17 an hour, how do you think I'm going to make it on that? How do you

think with the cost of living, I'm going to survive? And they're being treated like, oh, they're so ungrateful and they they're already getting some, you know, luxury style pay. It's absolutely ridiculous. And you can see why you had overwhelming support for a strike and why, by the way, I mean, they elected just recently Sean Fain because he said, I want to take a more militant approach. I don't want to be cozy with the boss class the way that, you know, some of the previous union membership was. And by the way, I also don't want to be corrupt the way that some of the previous union leadership was and got caught for. So they're on board for the long haul. And, you know, based on what we heard from the workers that Jordan is talking to there, they are very committed.

They are ready to be all in and to actually secure the deal that they deserve. Yeah. And I just want to underscore, she was talking about, 17-5. Sometimes we're talking hourly terms. We don't think about annual. That's like $30,000 a year. It's like $35,000 a year. As she accurately pointed out, that's actually not – it's not possible to really make it, quote-unquote, on that. At least for some sort of middle-class wage, when you consider the average household income in the United States is $70,000. And even with the 40% raise that the union here is asking for,

it would put top compensation at $93,000 per year. Once again, that's not total comp, but I mean, I think people should be talking in stark terms. Is $93,000 for a senior worker at a plant, is that a lot of money? especially in the age of much more specialized like mechanical information with the electric vehicles that they've all talked about. It actually requires less labor in some cases. And so, but it requires more of a skilled workforce. So, I mean, there are college graduates. We did that whole thing about the Wall Street Journal. The average Princeton grad is making like 130 or something like that. And that's a 22-year-old.

Of course, there's educational difference and all that. But just put it in societal perspective, $93,000 a year. That's a really important point because part of the reaction we saw to the Teamsters securing a decent deal for UPS drivers, all of this class contempt and class anxiety came out because we have been so conditioned to think that the only people who deserve like a good salary and to be able to have some sort of stability in their lives are people with college degrees who are working in an office. And that is a poisonous way to think about things. These people work so hard. That gentleman who said he's having to work, he works for the auto industry, supposedly the backbone of the American middle class. And he has to work two jobs just to make it work in 16, 17 hours a day. That's unconscionable.

That's a failure. And everyone should be invested in this fight. And by the way, I'm going to talk a little bit in my monologue about some other strike action that's going on. Drew Barrymore, the writer, whatever, there's a lot going on there. But I looked at And by the way, I'm going to talk a little bit in my monologue about some other strike action that's going on, Drew Barrymore, the writer, whatever. There's a lot going on there. But I looked at some of the numbers. 75% of the public is on the side of the workers here. That in and of itself is different because people have just seen the abuse of the working class. They've had it. They saw what happened during COVID, people having their lives risked, people being completely screwed during COVID. And they bought the idea of, OK, we can see who is actually essential to this economy. We can see who actually makes

these things work. And they deserve a much better deal. Let's get to some of the political response here. I have to say, Joe Biden went a lot further than I thought he would based on his past rhetoric around unions, which has always been very careful and very, I don't want to weigh in, very both sides, based on where the Democratic Party has been for years under Obama, under Clinton, certainly, where if anything, they were siding with the boss class. Not only did he really clearly take the side of the workers here, but he also adopted some of the union's own framing and messaging around record contracts. Record profits mean record contracts. Let's take a listen to a little bit

of what he had to say. I respect workers' right to use their options under the collective bargaining system, and I understand the workers' frustration. Over generations, auto workers sacrificed so much to keep the industry alive and strong, especially with the economic crisis and the pandemic. Workers deserve a fair share of the benefits they helped create for an enterprise. I do appreciate that the parties have been working around the clock.

When I first called them at the very first day of their negotiations, I said, please, stay at the table as long as you can to try to work this out. And they've been around the clock and the companies have made some significant offers. But I believe they should go further to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts for the UAW. Let me say that again. Record corporate profits, which they have, should be shared by record contracts for the UAW. So there you hear, like I said, the union framing. Record profits from the automakers

should mean record contracts, which I think is a concept that everyone should sort of get behind. And I don't know why he sounds different on this one, Sagar. I think it's partly because he's a car guy. He's really obsessed with auto industry. He was part, obviously, of the bailout back under the Obama administration. You know, Bin Laden's dead, GM's alive. That was his catchphrase that he came up with that they ran on in 2012. What'd you make of his comments? So I thought it was interesting. I do think it's electoral.

I think it's, you know, you can read a poll. 75% of the people are supporting unions. All-time support for a strike. He needs to win Michigan and Wisconsin and the car areas all over again. Don't forget, what killed Mitt Romney in 2012. That op-ed that he wrote, what was it, December 2009, let Detroit go bankrupt. He was like, I didn't write the headline. That's not what I, you can say whatever you want. But people in Michigan all decided to quote that whenever they were voting for Obama and the Obama campaign

blasted it all over. Now, actually, Trump very smartly leveraged union support against Hillary and in Ohio as well, both to win Michigan in 2016 and then also to win Ohio and increasingly going there. What is the, I forget the county exactly, like the heavy union density county in Ohio, which had a former GM plant. And they actually voted even more for Trump in 2020. But the point that he's always done is he's tried to leverage the idea of outsourcing, fighting against that, going against the trade deals. Whereas Hillary was very much like, she didn't know where the hell she stood on these issues. So I thought it was smart of him to do that at the gasp of trying to get

to the industrial Midwest on his side. Because remember, he didn't win Wisconsin or Michigan by all that many votes. A lot of people actually forget that. Even though he did win, they don't look at that, what the margins are in some of these states. All Trump has to do is win three of the Biden states and he wins the election in 2020. Yeah. And in these states, it's just having lived in Ohio, it's not just the people who work directly in the industry. I mean, first of all, you have a lot of suppliers and a lot of the surrounding economy that is really devoted to the industry. But it also is just part of the ethos and the pride of those states. So when you make a really clear statement, like Biden actually did there, again, surprisingly, of being on the side of the workers over the bosses, yeah, that is

going to land. Trump, on the other hand, got asked what I thought was actually the best question that Kristen Welker asked her during her Meet the Press interview with him, which became very controversial, which we can talk about another time. But she asked him very directly, which side are you on? Whose side are you on? And instead of giving anything approaching a direct answer, he goes on this meandering thing about EVs and that's the union's fault that Biden got elected, et cetera, et cetera. Let's listen to how he approached this issue.

My question for you, Mr. President, whose side are you on in this? I'm on the side of making our country great. The autoworkers are not going to have any jobs when you come right down to it, because if you take a look at what they're doing with electric cars, electric cars are going to be made in China. The autoworkers are not going to have any... I'll tell you what, the autoworkers are being sold down the river by their leadership, and their leadership should endorse Trump. The reason is, you've got to have choice. Like in school, I want school choice.

I also want choice for cars. If somebody wants gasoline, if somebody wants all electric, they can do whatever they want. But they're destroying the consumer and they're destroying the autoworkers. The autoworkers will not have any jobs, Kristen, because all of these cars are going to be made in China. The electric cars automatically are going to be made in China. In response to the question, whose side are you on? He just doesn't answer, really. And there's a few things here. We went over some of his comments on this before. Number one, he either doesn't know or has just decided to ignore the fact that the guys who's in charge of the UAW now, Sean Fain,

he's only been there five months. He has nothing to do with previous union leadership. And actually ran against the previous corruption. He ran against the previous, exactly. And so members just elected him because he closely represents their interests and because it very much appears like they support this militant direction that they are taking. That's number one. On the EV part, he loves to say that there's a mandate for EVs. Not true. I would be all for it if Republicans were actually in favor of, hey, we're going to move to, you know, we're going to make sure that we support the EV industry and that it's got to be union jobs and it's got to be good wages. That's not what they're about.

They just don't want to see EVs at all, which means you're going to completely see that entire industry in China. That's what they really want. This is where I disagree a bit because the Biden EPA, I did a monologue on this before, so I want to have all the details. They have the rule that they want to say that two thirds of new cars and a quarter of new heavy trucks sold in the US by 2032 are all electric. So it's not a mandate, but they're gonna effectively do it through the EPA. Now that rule has not passed, let's be clear. It was proposed for public comment, but it's very likely under the Biden administration. Proposed theoretical rule by 2030. It's not that. Administrative law, the way that it works is that whenever you're about to change what administrative guidelines are, you have to publish public notice in the same way for

like an X amount of period before it can go into an effect. So by all accounts, this is very likely to be the actual law, at least the EPA administrative rule that gets put into place, almost certainly by the end of 2024. So then the question is, can we actually go to two thirds of new cars and a quarter of new heavy trucks sold in the US by 2032, all electric, not a chance in hell. I also support the ability to be able to drive gas powered vehicles if they so want. I do think electric vehicles are very important for our future. I also agree with the critique that they make about China. Now that said, they didn't do a lot of this stuff while they were in office. And that's actually where I get upset because my response would be like, I agree that it is

a strategic national imperative that battery technology, which is not just useful for electric vehicles, but battery research, which is great for universities and all of that is heavily rolled up in China and they have all of the support. So let's do what we did with the CHIPS Act and let's build it here. Right. That's what I would say. say. Which is some of what is in the Inflation Reduction Act. Some, but not even close to enough. I mean, once again, the IRA is going to, we will maybe, what are we at, 10% of new cars, electric, maybe 5% or whatever that's bought on the lot. If we're lucky, we'll get to 25% in two years.

The other problem is, and this is the big three problem, and actually this has nothing to do with the unions. They don't make good cars at all. Like the GM, what was it? The GM Bolt has already been discontinued. The only big three EV that's worth buying at all is the Ford Mustang Mach-E. I was gonna say, I disagree with that.

I love my Mach-E. But I'm saying that is the only one. You know, what are you gonna drive? The Cadillac Lyric? The thing that looks like a shit box. I'm like, let's be honest. Oh, I actually like the way it looks. Okay, but the Performance Max, all that stuff, it's not going to work in my opinion.

But Sagar, let's be real about what are they proposing? They're not proposing to do anything. I don't disagree. I'm just saying the critique is correct. They just want to shit on EVs. That's it. It's not like I have a better plan that's going to make sure that these jobs are here in America and make sure that it's union jobs. And by the way, not to get into the weeds here, but in the Inflation Reduction Act, originally the White House wanted a rule in there that would require these to be union jobs, which would be really important and which is exactly why the fact that didn't make it in is why Sean Fain and the UAEW are not endorsing Joe Biden yet, which is another thing that Trump seems to like mislead on on all of this. And it was basically Joe Manchin, and none of the Republicans supported any of this, by the

way. So the choice is either, do I think that the Biden administration has done enough? No, I don't. Obviously, I've been critical of them on a number of times on this front. It should have been a requirement that his union jobs, they should do more to make sure this industry is here in America, like you said, like with the CHIPS Act. But the Republicans and Trump specifically and J.D. Vance, who put out very similar things on Twitter, they don't want to do anything. They just want to say, here, China, go ahead, have the industry. We're just going to try to hold on to just the, you know, the traditional gas powered part of the market for as long as we can. When whether you have a guidance from the government in place or

not, the automakers of their own volition were moving in this direction because they can see the writing on the wall that this is one of the key industries of the future. So are we going to compete in this industry or are we not? And that's kind of the choice here. And again, to go back to the core of this, he gets asked, whose side are you on? And Donald Trump, supposed Mr. Working Class, whatever, he can't say. He cannot say. None of them has been able to say. There was, I think, one Republican who represents some moderate Joe Biden district in New York who was able to say something somewhat pro-worker. But all of these other supposedly pro-worker senators and congressmen on the Republican side, they've all tacitly backed the bosses in this. They cannot say that we think the workers should get a better job.

Well, I would disagree that J.D. doesn't support building anything new because, look, I haven't talked to him about it. I don't know. Full disclosure, I've known the guy for a long time. But the point is, is that I would say, if he's like we say, he supports more worker pay, but Trump can't even bring himself to say that. So I would just put it that way. I agree. Look, I think most of this is weaponized. It's weaponized cynicism in order to undermine it on behalf of the oil industry. That's the vast majority of the Republican Party and specifically gas powered vehicles. At a structural level, I really just don't know what to do because here's the truth. Tesla is

beating every single one of these people and eating their lunch. They're dropping prices while they're able to fight. And even, like I said, the vast majority of the EV vehicles or proposals that have come out since, you know, the only one, as I said, the Mustang, I mean, that's a luxury vehicle, unfortunately. In order to try and make it accessible, the Asian countries and Tesla are the only ones even able to compete. You've got the Hyundai, what is it, IONIQ 5, I think, the Kia. The Kia actually is quite affordable. It actually looks like a good ride. But my point is, is that the people who are playing in that space are not big three makers. So there's a structural level where I think it's interesting and important, but I don't disagree. I don't think the Trump administration would do anything necessarily on this. And I also don't

have any confidence the vast majority of Republicans would back an industrial policy to bring battery technology here to the United States. I think it's imperative. They've never proposed anything. If they support it, they should propose something. The important thing to understand too is that even if we don't go electric, the rest of the world will. I was in India. It was really troubling. I was seeing some Chinese BYD vehicles that were on the road. India is actually going very heavily into electric vehicles as well. I saw multiple that were there. So we want to maintain our ability to also export some of the future technology to the world the way that China is and wants to do. It's not just about domestic policy. It's also about one of the things with oil is we have a ton of it. I think we're a net oil exporter in some cases, which I

think is stupid for a whole lot of reasons. But it gives us strategic independence and a big economic function. Unfortunately, no, this is happening in public policy. So you're not wrong. I don't disagree with you. Some of it is happening in public policy. I mean, in the Inflation Reduction Act, you have not only incentives,

you have some attempts at real industrial policy so that we are part of that future and we don't just cede the whole thing to China. We are way behind in terms of moving in that direction. And you also have some efforts at consumer incentives to try to make these vehicles more affordable. That's mostly Tesla's been using, I believe, because it's a tiered system where the union, I think it's $7,500 off for a union-made vehicle and then $5,000 off for a non-union-made vehicle. But my point is the tax credit system has not been the impetus that was wanted in the consumer

market for you. At least less. Tesla could always unionize. And I mean, that's the other thing is, you know, this fight for the auto workers is so much bigger than just their wages because you can see already with what happened with UPS and Teamsters,

the number of Americans who understand that being part of a union is gonna secure you a better deal has skyrocketed. The amount of Americans who understand that being part of a union is going to secure you a better deal has skyrocketed. The amount of interest in organizing has skyrocketed. The amount of work actions skyrocketed. And you also have somewhat of a more favorable landscape for union organizing right now with this National Labor Relations Board. So it makes it easier for, you know, if you're, for example, if you are working at FedEx and you see what the UPS drivers are getting, I mean, this is a problem for FedEx. They're going to have to up their wages in order to compete.

And it's the same thing with Tesla. I mean, they're going to have to, their workers are looking at the deal that these auto workers secure and they're way further down the totem pole in terms of what they're earning. I mean, that's going to impact that whole industry, whether or not they're unionized. So that's why these fights matter, not just for the workers that are directly impacted. I agree with you completely. Let's go move on. Student loans. This is an important one. It actually gets to a lot of what we're talking about. Affordability, way of life. How exactly do we make it here? October, student loan repayments are starting. So let's go and put this up there on the screen. The restart threatens to pull, quote, $100 billion out of consumer pockets. Households are cutting back and are worrying the largest retailers

in the United States. So the average payment that borrowers are going to have to start making is $200 to $300 each month, which is effectively equivalent to a car payment. The payments will, quote, mark the first time that borrowers have to make good on these loans since the education department instituted that pause in March of 2020. So it's been over three and a half years now that these have been in place. Quote, the issue is that in the interim, money was spent on televisions, travel, new homes, and thousands of other products. That spending is one reason that the economy has remained resilient in recent years despite the surge in interest rates. So we're going to have now a high interest rate environment,

and we are going to see on average $200 to $300 a month that are pulled out of the consumer pocket. So right now, Target, Walmart, and other retailers, which rely heavily on discretionary spending, are flagging this as one of the biggest things that are going to impact their bottom line. Now, the Biden economists and others are actually saying opposite. They're like, well, it's a small thing for the $18 trillion in U.S. consumer spending. But this actually can have a really big impact that I've been thinking a lot about, Crystal. October, November, and December is known as the time when like 40-something percent of retail sales occur, largely because of Christmas. People throw money like crazy during the holidays. Don't

ask me why. But anyway, so like people throw money out of their pockets. It seems like nothing is real. Well, if you at the very same time have a $200 to $300 a month pulled out of your budget for Christmas gifts and for all this other stuff that you were going to buy, let's say on Black Friday, Prime Day, or any of these other things, well, then you may just, you know, that could be the reason not to buy it, or it could be the reason to go into debt. Both of those things are really bad, you know, when we consider it from a macro level. It also just makes it even more so daily life for $200 to $300. I get that current grocery price, what is that, like a week, like a week for a family of four? Probably less, unfortunately. So that's one week of groceries, which is gone. Or it's one week of your house fund, you know, your sorry, one month of your down payment fund or any of these other

things that people are signing up for. So the overall pull out of the economy, I think, I think is actually going to have an immense impact, given the fact that quarter four, whenever it's starting up, it's one of the worst times you want to impact retail spending from a macro level. To your point, I mean, the reason they call it Black Friday is because traditionally, that's when the retailers actually get into the black and become profitable. And so that's why they call it that. And that does make this period of time really critical for a lot of retailers, Target, Walmart, et cetera. I thought one of the most noteworthy pieces that they noted in here is that the Fed did a survey of economic conditions

and found that already the potential payment restart had led to workers taking on more hours and more workers being available. So they're already seeing the pressure. Of course, they're like probably celebrating this, but they're already seeing the pressure being put on the workforce just with the anticipation of these payments restarting. You also have a lot of signs that workers and Americans who have a student loan debt, significant student loan debt, are already under a lot of financial pressure and already are relying on debt in order to finance their living expenses. They note that more than half of consumers with student loans added bank credit card debt during the pandemic. Around a third took on new auto loans. Fifteen percent

took out new mortgages. And at the same time, these consumer savings have been declining since reaching a peak in 2021. So you already have some signs that you've got a lot of student loan debt holders who are already kind of at the brink. We've been talking here and put up some charts and showing you some numbers about, you know, over the course of the Biden administration, the beginning, you have the American Rescue Plan. That's what it was called, right? The Biden one, where you got checks and people's, you got the child tax credit, you got some pandemic aid and recovery added on top of what was done during the early days of the pandemic. And the story of these years has been those programs falling away and falling away and falling away.

So no surprise that you have all these signs of financial insecurity increasing. The number of Americans who could afford a $400 emergency expense, that's going down. You see the number of people who have these huge ballooning credit card balances. That's going up. You see the amount in the savings account. You see that going down. So you have all these signs that Americans are already stressed and, of course, inflation adding to that picture. Then you layer on top of that this huge blow of Americans having to restart payments. That could, it could be very difficult. Now, one thing I did want to note, I mean, we do have, we had the Biden administration's attempt

to cancel some debt, obviously it was struck down. They're trying again through a different method to try to get that to go through the courts. That's going to take some time to work itself out if that even comes to pass. They did pass, they did put forward a repayment plan to make the payments lower. It's called SAVE to make the payments lower than what they would be based on your income level to try to make this more affordable for people as they restart. I will say, in typical neoliberal fashion, because it's all means testing, complicated, whatever, it's a little bit hard to navigate, but that program is available to try to at least help to soften the blow for some individuals.

But I'm really concerned about what this is going to look like when it fully restarts because this is going to be a huge hit to a lot of people who are already in a difficult position. Yeah, the SAVE program, I've heard people talk about it. Dave Ramsey in particular had a whole interesting take on it about how exactly it works. I recommend people go listen to them if you're interested because I know a lot of people are actually really struggling with this.

I think it has something to do with pausing interest in the hope of forgiveness later on. I know also that there's a lot of issues with Save is that it only focuses on federal borrowers and it doesn't apply to some private programs and also parents who've taken programs out as well. The point is is that this is really bad and we have numbers actually to continue to show you,

just to give you an idea. Let's put these up there on the screen, please. That the time our team put together, you can see that the average debt bachelor degree holder right now is 28,004 grad school as of course, where it always gets really hit a 71,000 to parent plus loan. That's what I was talking about. There's that 28,000 law school debt is an average 130 MBA, 66 med school, 203,000. Med school, $203,000. Dental school, $301,000. I wonder if dentists make more than doctors because that's pretty crazy. And then pharmacy school, which I don't understand, is $180,000.

Nursing school, somewhere between $20,000 to $47,000. And then vet school is $150,000. And you can see that the overall amount of student debt outlying right now is $1.766 trillion. And that is after you have seen an interest, basically an interest freeze for the last couple of years. So anyway, the point is that some big consumer spending is about to get pulled out of the economy. And we could very much see some contraction in the year to come at the very, you know, overall impact on retail spending. Retail spending has jobs. We have seasonal workers who work for Amazon and for all these other people which rely

on a lot of these places. So a drop in retail is very bad for the U.S. economy. Yeah. And of course, there's, I mean, the bigger structural picture of the insanity of these costs and the fact that we need to do, I mean, that's the macro is that all of these different programs that are intent to make the payments at least somewhat reasonable are, you know, not getting at the core issue that it's insane that a college education should cost as much as it does at this point. Last thing I just want to say, if you do have a high student loan debt burden, and this is something you're struggling with, do look into the SAVE plan. It's just an income-driven repayment plan.

The idea is they'll take into account how much you're earning, what your family size is, and then your monthly payment will be lower than what it was. And anything after 20 years that hasn't gotten paid down, that will be forgiven. Some people who are lower income, they'll qualify for no payments whatsoever. So do look into it. I will tell you, everything we're hearing is the paperwork and getting it processed. It takes about four weeks to get these things processed. So it is a little bit of a bureaucratic nightmare as these things are. Again, this is why I'm in favor of simple universal programs. But I think it could help a lot of people out there if this is something you're struggling with. So that's my PSA. Yeah, good flag. And take care out there if this is one of you folks. Yes, absolutely. Okay, let's move on. Abortion. So Trump making some interesting

comments in two separate interviews that he gave over the last couple of days. The first is probably the most politically astute thing he's done since he announced for reelection. He came out hard against Ron DeSantis, but also any state that signed a six-week abortion ban in his Meet the Press interview. Let's take a listen. Mr. President, I want to give voters who are going to be weighing in on this election a very clear sense of where to stand on this. I think they're all gonna like me. I think both sides are gonna like me. What's going to have to happen is you're gonna have to- Let me ask this question, please. Kristen, you're asking me a question. What's going to happen is you're gonna come up with a number of weeks or months. You're going to come up with a number that's

going to make people happy because 92% of the Democrats don't want to see abortion after a certain period of time. If a federal ban landed on your desk, if you were reelected, would you sign it at 15? Are you talking about a complete ban? A ban at 15 weeks. Well, people are starting to think of 15 weeks. That seems to be a number that people are talking about right now. Would you sign that? I would sit down with both sides and I'd negotiate something and we'll end up with peace in that issue for the first time in 52 years. I'm not gonna say I would or I wouldn't.

I mean, DeSantis is willing to sign a five week and six week ban. Would you support that? You think that goes too far? I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake. A terrible thing. So don't forget, it's not just Florida, it's states like Iowa, which is the caucus happening right now. States like Ohio, Georgia. There are multiple

six-week bans which have passed across the United States. So this is a direct break, not only with Ron DeSantis, but with a huge portion of this GOP states. And as I said, what he has just said makes him the most moderate person in the entire race on the issue of abortion, which is fascinating for, I think, the mind to comprehend for people who try to look at this stuff. But listen, the man got elected for a reason. He's moderate in many ways on the areas where the GOP has always been the most radical, quote unquote, which is poisonous to the electorate.

And also Trump doesn't really believe anything. So whenever he sees states like Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, and all these others kill abortion at the ballot box, every single time it comes up for referendum, he's like, all right, well, whatever. He's like, it helped me get elected, being pro-life to get the evangelicals to come out to vote for me in 2016 when I made my Supreme Court thing. But those votes are gone and a ton of other votes have been activated. And if that's the case, well, this is where I'm going. Classic Trump in that he doesn't actually say what his position is. She's like 15 and he's like, many people are talking about 15. I mean, he doesn't actually commit to anything. I was surprised he was as clear as he was on a

six-week ban, though. I mean, for him to say it was terrible and to be that overt about it, I'm sure there's going to be a lot of, you know, upset. Oh, there already is, actually. Pro-life, in the pro-life world. But this is the other thing. When you're the big dog, you can get away with things that other candidates could not get away with. I don't think there's another candidate in the field who could say things as directly that, you know, no, that's too far and that's terrible and we're not doing that on an issue that is really key to a lot of Republican voters. Even if it's at odds with the general public, I don't think there's another candidate in the Republican field who could afford to say that that directly on this issue.

And that's why you ended up with DeSantis signing this bill, which he clearly was uncomfortable doing, you know, waited until after he got reelected as governor of Florida because he was worried how it would play even in the state of Florida. So he signed it in like a midnight signing ceremony. He's clearly trying to bury the fact that he was doing this thing, but also felt the need to placate the pro-life activists, both in his state and nationally. So that's how he ends up in this position. But, you know, this is Trump's kind of normie instincts coming out here. And he immediately recognized, even though he, of course, is the one who put the justices in place to overturn Roe versus Wade, he also immediately recognized that Roe versus Wade being overturned

was going to be a massive liability for Republicans. Yeah. The important point here with DeSantis and what's happened is, as you said, they are all still at the liberty of the pro-life groups of being attacked. But, you know, Mark Levin, if this were any other candidate, he would lose it. You would see like froth at the mouth of some of the Glenn Beck, some of these other folks. They're not going to say a damn thing on this. And if they do, it's going to be like the most, well, you know, he's this and that, but he got Rodan, you know, something like that. And he gets away with it. And that's why he's good at what he does. You know, he leverages his position. And as always, he remains one of the most moderate people really on the issue, on social issues in the entire GOP. An issue where

I have always believed has given him tremendous amounts of strength. One third of the people who voted for Trump in 2016 were pro-choice. And I think probably 100% of the people voted for the Democratic Party are pro-choice. So, you know, you only have anything to gain by being moderate on the issue and by disavowing specifically

the most unpopular elements of your party. Yeah, but then again, I mean, he was the guy that put these justices on the bench. Yeah, that's why it's complicated. So it's not like the reality of what party. Yeah, but then again, I mean, he was the guy that put these justices on the bench. Yeah, that's why it's complicated. So it's not like the reality of what, you know, his term in office led to was moderation. There was also a very funny bit when Megyn Kelly started trying to get Trump into some of our

modern culture wars, and you can tell he is just completely detached from the issue. Let's take a listen. I knew Caitlyn as Bruce. I knew Bruce, and, you know, Bruce was a great athlete and a very handsome person, very handsome guy. And all of a sudden, Bruce is Caitlyn. I said, what's this all about?

This was a brand new subject too, just like we talk about, you know, the pandemic was a subject that nobody knew anything about. Nobody knew anything about. Can a man become a woman? In my opinion, you have a man, you have a woman. I think part of it is birth. Can the man give birth?

No. No. So, you know, what I find just fascinating about Trump is, like, he truly doesn't care. This is a man who, it's because this is where a huge portion of the energy is, especially online. Online. Online Republican. This is like Matt Walsh, Daily Wire. Like, this is like the beating heart of what they're all about. And really, actually, let's be honest, you know, that big portion of the people who are into, like, modern right-wing politics, like, this is the genesis of it.

But Trump himself floats in a different universe. portion of the people who are into modern right-wing politics. This is the genesis of it. But Trump himself floats in a different universe. So I just, I don't know, I can't help but just marvel at the fact that he gets away with something that no other Republican politician would be able to, on this issue too. If any Republican politician didn't definitively answer, absolutely not, and go off about schools and all that stuff, they would be raked. Look know, they would, look at what Asa Hutchinson and all that, the amount that Tucker Carlson and others go after him.

But with Trump, he gets away with everything. He gets away with everything. I don't think there's gonna be an incoming Tucker monologue like excoriating him. Yeah, it's a great point. I mean, you can see in particular, like Vivek and Ron DeSantis sort of like compete with each other on the extremist language that they

use on this subject, they would have no problem, no qualms about answering this issue. They would know exactly what to say. And we noted even in his, in Trump's announcement speech, remember that he didn't really, he may have said one thing about it, but it was like, not, it's so, just like I said, DeSantis and now Ramaswamy as well. This really they put at the core of especially when they were launching, when they were first getting their campaigns going, because they saw this is where all the a lot of right wing online energy is. But again, I do feel like this is kind of Trump called it early on the you know, this woke anti woke thing. Like people don't know what this means. I love that. And it goes back to, I think,

some of his like New York parts of him. Oh yeah. Where he's not, he's in for, you know, the like casual xenophobia, but he's not really ready to go in on all the anti-gay stuff. That being said, I mean, he goes on to remind everybody that he pointed out,

he banned trans people from the military and he basically said the right things with regards to the right when it comes to banning trans people from bathroom sports, etc. But he clearly is not interested in really talking about this issue, not interested in really running on this issue. This is not the core of what he wants to be talking about. But it's smart. I mean, the bathroom thing, for example, is extremely popular. But a friend of mine, Joe Simonson, actually had a good insight. Quote, Trump is not going to be

based on trans stuff because he is from Manhattan, where transgender people were not an uncommon fixture of downtown life throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s. It is only now a political movement. And I think that's a very astute observation we always have to remember. Like, Trump's from Manhattan. You know, it's like- Aren't there a bunch of pictures of Rudy Giuliani dressed up as a woman? That I don't know. Well, that's not a trans thing. It's like a drag. I know, but they're all against that now, too.

Well, they're against it for children, Crystal. Sure, Saffron. They are against it for children, or at the very least, a reasonable position. Yes, Lauren Boebert and co. are very concerned about our children. Lauren Boebert should be concerned about her own children after her actions this weekend, but we will save comments for that in a little bit.

Let's move on. Ken Paxton, as Crystal said, I was down in Austin where Marshall was getting married this weekend. So congratulations to friend of the show, Marshall Kosloff. And while I was there, just feet away from the US Capitol, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was acquitted on all 16 articles of impeachment. Let's go and put this up there on the screen because the details of this are actually really interesting. Quote, only two out of the 19 Republican senators voted in favor of convicting for any article of impeachment, which is a complete flip after the 70% of House Republicans actually impeached

the Attorney General in May. As you can see there, you can see all of the votes that lined up to acquit him. The point was they needed 21 votes to acquit or to convict, and they didn't come close on any of the measures that were made against him. Now, we've gotten investigation. We've broken down some of the details here before. They effectively boil down to, let's just say, very cozy, interesting relationships involving big donors, his mistress, getting his mistress a job,

using and pressuring the FBI to investigate competitors to said donor. It's like the most intra-Texas thing you can imagine. Also, what is it, getting free remodels on his house? Yeah. There's a lot going on here. And let's just say that in terms of the allegations themselves, I don't even think he really denies it. They're basically bulletproof, true, which is part of the reason why he was impeached. But this is why I wanted to focus in on this, is this is a major victory for the MAGA movement in the Texas GOP, because there was a lot of intrafight around the Bush people and then the Trump people about who has the power,

who has the energy. The Bush contingent, obviously, left over from the W. Bush administration. These are Chamber of Commerce Republicans, oil guys, very traditional, the Mitt Romney archetype of GOP. We've had MAGA people, mostly like Ken Paxson, who's been a MAGA hero now for a long time. And that is really what saved him in this trial. Let's put this up there on the screen. You've got almost every single Texas politician who is aspiring to something, like Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, immediately coming out, blasting the impeachment process. But most importantly, and I'd heard a lot of rumblings from this, Crystal, is that a

full blown movement was launched by Trump and by many of the people around him to make sure that a message was sent. Let's put Axios, please, up on the screen, which just made it clear, if you vote to impeach Ken Paxton, we are coming after you with everything we've got. You will get primaried, you will lose power. They unleashed all of the MAGA influencers and others who were against him to prop him up. Paxton, of course, remember he did that lawsuit on behalf of the electors or whatever during

the 2020 election. He has long endeared himself to Trump. This entire thing, by the way, has made me convinced that if Trump does win, Ken Paxton is going to be Attorney General. He will be 100% he's going to be the AG nominee. But anyway, politically, it was a huge coup for MAGA, really, in the Texas GOP, where there's been a long fight between Greg Abbott and others. There was recently a clip, I'm sure people saw, of Tucker going after Texas Governor Greg Abbott for not doing enough on the border. So there's a lot of, you know, intra-fighting that's been happening within the party for a long time. The fact that they were able to prevail here actually does show a pretty interesting balance of power. Yeah, and the details here are disgusting. Oh, yeah, as I

said, yeah. It's a property developer who he was buddies with. They're trading political favors, and the long and short of it is this dude, part of why Paxton was so interested in protecting him and going after his, you know, adversaries, competitors, et cetera, is because the developer dude had hired his mistress so that the mistress could be there nearby in Austin. And it's also, you know, disgraceful because his wife is part as a member of the Senate. So she had to stand by and like watch all of this unfolding to knowing he'd lied to her and lied to everyone else about this affair that was going. I mean, it's just it's as blatant as possible. And the people who were the whistleblowers in this were like Republican true believers who worked in his office, who saw all of this going down and were like, this is unbelievable.

This dude is breaking the law like we have to come forward with this information. So of course it was painted in Trump friendly circles as some sort of like deep state plot, et cetera, et cetera. And, um, you know, it was very successful. And I think it's sad because the facts here couldn't be any more clear cut, but politics is so tribal, even within the Republican party where you had a Republican house that actually impeached him. But the Republican house in Texas is more aligned with that like Bush wing of the party. And the Senate is more Trumpy. So we were saying from the beginning, we expected him to be acquitted because of that political dynamic, but that's it. It doesn't, the facts, the details, the, you know,

gravity of the allegations, none of that matters. It ended up just mattering, all right, whose team are you on? They paid social media influencers to defend the attorney general. Apparently, Charlie Kirk was very critical, according to strategists who, you know, were involved in this effort, quoted by Axios. They said he had his people posting senators' office numbers, skimming them out on his show, driving the senators absolutely crazy. Also interesting, they said they didn't care what mainstream media said about this. All they cared about were like the partisan rag outlets that were going to toe the line. So that was what their focus was on. And then the last sign of just sort of how utterly corrupt this process was, the Lieutenant Governor Patrick,

who presided over this trial as judge, as prescribed by how this procedure works in Texas, he got a million dollar campaign donation and a two million dollar loan from a pro-Paxton group just before the trial. And then immediately after the trial is over, he comes out and talks about how, you know, what a disgrace this was that they impeached him, et cetera, et cetera. So it's just as blatantly tribal and corrupt as it could possibly be. Absolutely. I mean, that's look, Texas GOP always kind of has been so, but now I really see this as like an intra fight. Dan Patrick, he knows where his bread is buttered now and you won't be seeing something different. And there's also still a lot of, too. Don't forget, there was a split, I believe, between the two Texas senators. Ted Cruz was a

big Ken Paxton supporter because he wants to remain popular and in office, whereas John Cornyn, I don't think he had said anything that were on the proceedings. He's much more of an establishment parent, establishment type. So, you know, like I said, it's a very interesting cleavage in the entire party, and this, I believe, is a big victory, not just obviously for Paxton, who gets to remain in the job, but for all the people in Washington who are on the side of MAGA in particular, this is it. The last thing I'll say on this is Paxton is not out of the woods. He's also under criminal investigation. So he could potentially be in legal trouble, even though he escaped with his life in terms of the political.

Well, that's what helped set off this whole thing. Remember this. That's right. Years ago, these allegations came out about the federal investigation, all that. So who knows? Maybe the Biden people will pick it up. Yes, indeed. All right. Sorry, guys, but we have to talk about Lauren. I'm sure you all know she's, you know, like sort of very far right. Congresswoman represents a district in Colorado. She just barely won by the skin of her teeth last time around. And she's facing a tough challenge this time around.

So first thing we learned is that she had gone to a family friendly, supposedly theatrical production of Beetlejuice in Denver. And she was kicked out. And, you know, she was she was all oh I did nothing wrong I was just singing and enjoying myself and maybe they just hate like Republicans and that's why I got kicked out etc well turns out there was security footage so let's go and put this up on the screen by the way this is not uh child friendly if you have yeah do not have children okay so this is her with her date yeah this family-friendly theatrical production, feeling up on her tits. And then she goes ahead and reaches over to his crotch and whispers something to him.

I really hate myself right now describing all of this. Then you see her getting kicked out. According to the theater, there was lots of, you know, don't you know who I am? I'm on the board. I'm on the board. I'm on the board. And she apparently flipped off some usher who's just trying to do their job. But this next piece up on the screen, we've got some of the details here from Reuters. They are sorry from the Associated Press.

They say the theater didn't name Boebert, but a spokesperson said Wednesday the video, which showed Boebert and guests being escorted out of the venue, was of guests who were kicked out after audience members accused them of vaping, singing, using phones, and causing a disturbance. During the argument in the theater, the two made comments along the lines of, do you know who I am and I will be contacting the mayor, according to the venue's statement, which that type of attitude, I just, I actually find that worse than a lot of the other things. Oh, that's way, I actually agree. That's probably the worst thing that she did. The whole, do you know who I am thing? And yeah, so initially, like I said, she tried to deny it. They had also in that Reuters report, her original statement from her campaign manager said, I can confirm the stunning and salacious rumors in her personal time. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is indeed a supporter of the performing arts gasp,

adding that she pleads guilty to singing along, laughing and enjoying herself. That was the original. She brought this on herself. Yeah. Nobody was going to release that video. She said that's a great point. She was she's like, I wasn't vaping. She was puffing fat clouds in the vernacular of the Gen Z kids who were out there. I want to know if she was using an elf bar. Apparently, too, there was a pregnant lady who was right there who was asking her to stop. Yeah. Yeah. Basic etiquette. Keep that in mind, Vapors, by the way, both weed variety and nicotine variety because it is annoying whenever you're in an indoor venue. But the point is, is that she brought it on herself by acting like a fool whenever she was in public and then denying it

after she got kicked out. But the best part is, is her recent defense in an interview with OAN, One American News Network. Here's what she had to say. What's the top story? Lauren Boebert getting kicked out of the Buick Theater in Denver, Colorado. It's what the media does. It's what the media does. So what went down? I was a little too eccentric. I'm very known for having an animated personality, maybe overtly animated personality. I was laughing. I was singing, having a fantastic time. Was told to kind of settle it down a little bit, which I did. But then my next slip up was taking a picture of the cast.

You can't take any images of the play. I've done it too. I've snuck them. Right. So you got thrown out because you took a pic and you weren't supposed to. But you know what? Here's my whole thing. There was no arguing.

There's reports saying that I was arguing, threatening to call the Denver mayor. I don't know why I would ever call the Denver mayor. I think he would have tried to lock me up. Yeah. There's reports saying I was on the board of something. I don't know what I'm on the board of. I'm on the edge of a lot of things, let me tell you. Well, probably the people that complained.

Here's what I'm thinking. You're in Denver, Lauren. It's very liberal. The people that complained to the ushers that you were being noisy could have recognized you and been like, oh, that's that MAGA girl. Yes, that's why. She's a little eccentric. It wasn't the vaping. It wasn't the reason.

And all of the other stuff. Here's the other thing, too. She's a little eccentric. It wasn't the vaping. It wasn't the reason. And all of the other stuff. Here's the other thing, too. She just flat out, at first, she flat out lied. She's a liar. About the vaping. And then when she was caught on camera, she issued some apology for just that portion. I mean, listen, here's my thing with all of this. Like, is the behavior trash?

It's trashy. Do I really care that much? No. What I care about here, though, is she's such a hypocrite. Because she does posture as this, like, oh, I'm such a Christian. And, oh, I'm so concerned about the children. And she's very, you know, we're talking about trans drag shows. What are she's like very vociferously against all of that because we must protect the children, whatever.

And there you are feeling up on this dude in some family-friendly Beetlejuice production. Like, listen, I'm all for trashy hoes having representation in Congress, but I would like those trashy hoes to be a little less hypocritical in their approach. And here's the other piece that many were pointing out. Put this up on the screen. So the dude that she's with there, apparently he owns a gay-friendly bar that hosts drag shows, something that she, again, supposedly is vociferously against because we must think of the children's soccer. Yeah, well, as I said, there's a lot going on here.

My personal favorite, there's a lot of good tweets and a lot of good memes about this, is that the venue should start selling T-shirts, which has got my Beetlejuice in the Beetlejuice. Jillian sent me that one. I also, there's also some really funny ones. Thank you for the memes, Lauren. There are some good ones about,

why are we all saying B star star? Do you know what we're bringing upon us? Actually, we might've said it more than three times in this, more than three times in this program. Oh, that's a great point. If you've ever watched the show. If you know the premise of the movie, if you don't understand the premise of the show.

Anyway, there's a lot going on here. Also, it's not exactly like the sexiest show. Yeah, there's questions, you know, about like why Beetlejuice? You know, very, God, I just said it again. I'm bringing it upon myself. This is the most fun we've had here in a long time. Yes.

So thank you, Lauren. Appreciate that. All right, Sagar, what are we looking at? I want to start out by saying I've got nothing personal against Hasan Minhaj. If anything, I actually owe him. Once, despite the fact that I had never met him, I sent him an email saying that my sister

was coming to his show. He personally insisted on greeting her and her friends backstage, which of course made me cool in her eyes for five milliseconds. The point though is that he's a nice guy and even nice to me, despite vast political differences, and because I want people to know

this is not out of malice at all. Instead, it's to dwell on the area where I have always differed most from Hasan. Much of his political orientation and comedy focuses in on what I would say are the worst parts of America. It is rooted, I believe, in probably what was a genuinely traumatic experience that many Indian Americans, like me, had to go through post 9-11. We went, at least

in our eyes, from a genuinely post-racial society where no one particularly cared where our parents were from, to a world where suddenly heritage was suspect and kids, of course, would make ignorant or nasty comments. This was not easy, to say the least, but the response to it amongst many Indian Americans who have lived here has always troubled me. I have watched as many of us who, by going off of data alone, are the richest people in the United States begin cosplaying as victims and becoming obsessed with all the faults of the country. Many Indians, it seemed, who were the children of doctors or engineers suddenly began using

the language of black liberation, as if their experience was in any way comparable to the aftermath of chattel slavery and Jim Crow. The mind meld of modern liberalism has flattened the ability for these distinctions to even be made. Many Indian Americans wholesale have embraced the label of persons of color. They fixate on these unpleasant experiences to intellectually justify ideological taker of American institutions. I'm laying this all out because it's important. It's a worldview of which America is awful, which the institution are rotten, unfair. It's a racial view almost entirely. And of course, you can never quite be honest about why if it was so bad in the first place,

all the parents would have fought so hard to come here. This is the backdrop that you need to dive into some of these shocking revelations from the New Yorker profile on Hasan Minhaj, which detail multiple incendiary falsehoods in his comedy. Now, let's be clear. I do not expect truth from a comedy set. Exaggeration, lies, outright falsehoods are probably key elements. But as we go through and you see what I'm talking about, what was lied about, for what emphasis, you'll begin to see the problem. The story opens with two key parts of Hassan's stand-up routine. The first is the story of a muscle-bound white man who had infiltrated his mosque growing up after 9-11 as an alleged Muslim convert and now would mess with the man to make him suspicious. Now, per his telling, years later he was watching the news and the white man popped up on the news as an FBI informant.

He follows it by playing then a clip of said man being revealed on the news. The second is about how a white powder substance was mailed to his home after doing a segment about Jamal Khashoggi on his Netflix show. Per his telling, the powder got onto his daughter and she was rushed to the hospital, where his wife then told him she would leave him if he ever put her children in danger again. But that's the kicker. Neither of these ever happened to him. The NYPD has no records of this incident with the white powder. The FBI agent who was referenced in the clip shown to the audience apparently didn't even start working for the Bureau until 2006, four years after the period when Minaj said that it happened to him. When the interviewer pressed him and said, why, in terms of the white powder story,

why did you cite that on stage? He cited it as fact, actually, though, in multiple interviewers. And whether he was manipulating his audience, here's what he had to say, quote, I don't think I'm manipulating. I think they are coming for an emotional rollercoaster ride. He adds, it is grounded in truth,

and that what I'm ultimately trying to do is to highlight all of those stories. But what the interviewer really pegs it for what it is. Basically, you're making things up as if they happened to you to try to emphasize a narrative of personal heroism and victimization. The next story, too, is just as bad. In his special, he describes how he had a meeting with the Saudi embassy in an attempt to try and interview Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Now, in his telling, his wife didn't want him to go, was prodding him to keep the Saudis because she was afraid of retaliation.

He describes how the Saudis threatened him during the meeting and how on his train ride back to New York, he was getting a barrage of text messages asking if he was okay, because apparently at that exact moment, the news had broken of Jamal Khashoggi's murder. Except, as they found out, quote, the meeting at the embassy happened a month before the Khashoggi murder murder. Except, as they found out, quote, the meeting at the embassy happened a month before the Khashoggi murder.

When asked about his response, quote, he had conflated the timelines as a storytelling device to make it feel the way that it felt. As one of his former employees put it to The New Yorker,

quote, he tonally presents himself as a person who was always taking down the despots and dictators of the world and speaking truth to power. Another who worked

with him I actually think was even more astute. Quote, most comic acts wouldn't pass a rigorous fact check, but if a show is built on sharing something personal that's not necessarily laugh out loud funny, the invention of important details could make an audience feel justifiably cheated. If he's lying about real people and real events, that's a problem. So much of the appeal of those stories is quote, this really happened. Look, I'm going to end it there because I don't think it's a cut and dry situation. Comedy is supposed to speak emotional truths, but when those emotional truths are rooted in a punchline of this happened and it's representative apparently of others' experience, it does deserve to really be questioned.

Now especially in each case, fabrications were made to really be questioned. Now, especially in each case, fabrications were made to really emphasize narratives. What a hero Minaj is, how awful America is and always been for brown people. I'm going to end with a fight from a few years back. It was a real Rorschach test for how Indians in America process, who we are, our representation in pop culture. Indian comedian Hari Kondalablu led a crusade against Apu from The Simpsons. He had a documentary that was called and blamed the character for perpetuating harmful stereotypes about Indians in America and blamed the character for racial backlash. The character was then diminished on The Simpsons with an implicit apology that it was bad. But as socialist Bhaskar Sankara and I actually spoke about at the time,

what's so bad about Apu? Apu was both an emotionally developed character on The Simpsons. He represented what many who have come to this country have done. He cared about his family so much that he worked his ass off at a gas station. When he said, thank you, come again, it's because he wants those customers to come back. He wants to make his life work in a tough, tough business. As Bhaskar wrote in one episode, quote, after becoming a citizen, Apu gets a letter summoning him to jury duty. He casually throws it in the wastebasket. I cannot think of a better depiction of a person of color in media,

neither an object of scorn nor fetishized, just trying to get by like everyone else. Anyway, I'm curious what you think. Oh, it was awesome. We had him on at the time. And if you want to hear my reaction to Sagar's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at BreakingPoints.com. Crystal, what are you taking a look at? After being the first show to cross the writer's strike picket line and announce the return of her show, Drew Barrymore realized she knew exactly who the real victim in this situation is. Herself.

She posted a weepy, rather pathetic video to Instagram attempting to explain the unexplainable, why she threw her own writers and all the other writers and working people looking for a little bit of solidarity under the bus. There are so many reasons why this is so complex. And I just want everyone to know my intentions have never been in a place to upset or hurt anyone. It's not who I am. I've been through so many ups and downs in my life. And this is one of them. I deeply apologize to writers. I deeply apologize to unions. I deeply apologize. I don't exactly know what to say because sometimes when things

are so tough, it's hard to make decisions from that place. There's a huge question of the why. Why am I doing this? Well, I certainly couldn't have expected this kind of attention. And we aren't going to break rules and we will be in compliance. I wanted to do this because, as I said, this is bigger than me and there are other people's jobs on the line. And since launching live in a pandemic, I just wanted to make a show that was there for people in sensitive times. So you wanted to help people in sensitive times by screwing working people struggling in sensitive times? Make it make sense.

Now, they say that celebrities become frozen in time at whatever age they become famous. Drew was seven when she became a national sensation in E.T. That level of emotional maturity sounds about right. Now, after people reacted with what I can only imagine was universal revulsion at the sight of this wealthy celebrity having a public pity party over their own bad decision, Drew deleted the video and now I actually have some good news to report. After widespread outrage, she's announced that she is reversing course, delaying the return of her show until the end of the strike. Thank you, Drew. Big win for online shaming and an even bigger win for writers. But I have to say, in some ways, the damage here has already been done.

After Drew took the initial hit for being the first to cross the picket line, other shows quietly decided to do the same. The Talk, the Jennifer Hudson show, said they are resuming production as well. As we covered last week, Bill Maher, who is himself a member of the Writers Union, announced that Realtime would restart,

albeit without the monologue and other scripted segments. Contrast this approach with that of other celebrities who have taken an actual stand in solidarity with their writers and show staffs. Yes, the content is very cringe, but Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, Seth Meyers, and Stephen Colbert did launch a podcast with all proceeds going to make sure that their striking staffs can hold the line and still make the rent. You see, when you're a wealthy celebrity, you do have other options available than becoming the Hollywood version of a union-busting Pinkerton. Now, support for the strikers has come from another unlikely place as well, though,

the California legislature. The state House and Senate just passed a law which would make striking workers eligible for unemployment insurance at a rate of $450 per week. Now, New York and New Jersey workers already benefit from similar legislation. California could become the third state in the country to follow suit. But the ball is now in the hands of Governor Gavin Newsom, and it is far from certain that he will actually sign this bill into law. Newsom has been known to use his veto pen and has not been a 100% reliable friend to labor, so we will be watching closely to see what he will actually do here, because the stakes could hardly be higher. Recall, studio executives literally said

directly they were going to use the threat of homelessness in famously unaffordable California to try to force writers to take whatever bad deal they are willing to give them. And a lot is on the line here, too. Writers are trying to preserve the basics of a living in an era of streaming and in an era of chat GPT, where tech is only going to become more of a threat to their livelihoods. They're also fighting really on behalf of human creativity at a time when we are in danger of having our humanity devoured and sold back to us by the oligarch's robots. If the state here could give them any kind of assist in their attempt to stay fed and housed for the duration of the strike, that could be huge. Now, in spite of the selfish narcissism of people like Drew Barrymore and the corporate greed of,

well, literally every corporate CEO, striking workers actually have more of a shot at success now than perhaps ever in my lifetime. For the first time in generations, the legal landscape is starting to shift a little bit back towards more fairness for workers. We've, of course, covered the federal progress made by the National Labor Relations Board, but California is far from the only blue state that has passed pro-worker laws since the midterms. In Minnesota, the Democratic governor and one-seat Senate majority has perhaps gone the furthest. Comprehensive labor bill, including paid family medical leave, ban on non-compete clauses, ban on anti-union captive audience meetings, new protections for workers in dangerous industries

like Amazon warehouses and meatpacking plants. Illinois enshrined union rights in the state constitution, banning so-called right to work for the private sector, and also passed 40 hours of annual paid leave to be used by workers for whatever they wish. And Michigan this year became the first state in 58 years to repeal so-called right-to-work laws, anti-union legislation which has been pushed by Republicans to undercut labor. Now, this all represents a tectonic shift in the typical trajectory of labor rights, which for decades only trended in one direction, and that was race to the bottom. And just as important here, the public is on the side of these workers. According to Gallup, Americans back the striking writers over the studio bosses by a margin of 72 to 19. They back the actors

almost as strongly, 67 to 24, and they are strongly behind the auto workers over the big three, 75 to 19. So if you're a millionaire out there thinking of backing the bosses, crossing a picket line, becoming a scab, take Drew Barrymore here as a little bit of a cautionary tale. Because this really isn't complicated. It comes down to one simple question. Whose side are you on? And I guess I'm heartened to see that she did reverse course. And if you want to hear my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at BreakingPoints.com.

All right, we had a great show for everybody today. Really enjoyed that. That was a lot of fun. Yeah. Anyway, breakingpoints.com. Go ahead and sign up. We're already late as it is, so let's get it out. Bye. We'll see you tomorrow. Over the years of making my true crime podcast, Hell and Gone, I've learned no town is too small for murder. I'm Katherine Townsend. I've heard from hundreds of people across the country with an unsolved murder in their community. I was calling about the murder of my husband.

The murderer is still out there. Each week, I investigate a new case. If there's a case we should hear about, call 678-744-6145. Listen to Hell and Gone Murder Line on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. High key. Looking

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the random stuff we can't stop thinking about. I am high key going to lose my mind over all things Cowboy Carter. I know. Girl, the way she about

to yank my bank account. Correct. And one thing I really love about this is that she's celebrating her daughter. Oh, I know. Listen to High Key on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This Pride Month, we are not just celebrating.

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Fighting Words is where courage meets conversation. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.