I've Had It - Devil Wears MAGA
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So are we supposed to start the podcast?
Ready, one, two, three.
Patriots, Gay-Triots, They-Triots, Black-Triots, Brown-Triots,
and the people who don't support them can.
Fuck off!
Fuck off.
That's right.
You guys, it is a big time in the big city.
We have a big-time guest, Jen Saki with MSNBC, but I think it's going to be MS now.
It is.
I think you should do jazz hands.
Jazz hands.
I think like everybody, I think Rachel Maddow should go, welcome to MS now.
Yes.
And anyone who doesn't like it can fuck off.
Yes.
Should we start there?
That's exactly.
Yes.
We welcome you.
Even if you don't like it yet, please come like it.
I know.
I'm excited about it, though.
I am too.
The rebranded.
I think it's an opportunity for like a feeling of at least getting away from all the capitulators.
It's funny you say that.
I've been thinking about how it feels like a healthy divorce.
Right.
Right. When you look at the other side and you're like, I'm ready to move out now and I'm ready to move into our space. And I'm really excited about the reporters who are coming to MS now who are already with us. I mean, people who have, Carol and Ken have broken, I don't know, it feels like a story every day. Yes. And they're part of what we're going to be doing. And a lot of what we do is storytell and not bullshit and just tell people what's happening. And that's exciting to be a part of and to be our own world of it.
You know, I've been on CNN, and then I was on the MSNBC weekend, and people ask me what the difference is.
And the difference is this.
When you're on CNN, you have to walk in and have regressive conversations.
You have to argue about decided facts and people saying that, no, that isn't a fact.
This is the truth.
And when I was on MSNBC, I was on with, by the way, is so attractive in person.
Amen.
Oh, holding.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know whose wife is like a model?
Yeah, following my Instagram, they are gorgeous.
And he's so nice.
It's just too much.
Yeah, he's fantastic.
And smart, all the things.
But I was on his show.
And it was just, it was so refreshing because the facts are just assumed.
And then you can get into the nuance of conversation, policy, grievances, whatever.
But on other networks, it's like, this is so regressive that we're debating a fact.
Let's not debate the sky is blue.
The sky's blue.
Right.
And I don't think we have to have another side.
of was it the pros and cons of Letitia James being indicted, right? There are no pros. There are
no pros. There are many cons. Here are all the things with it. That is one of the things I so appreciate.
And I remember when I started, I can't remember. It may have been Ari Melbor, actually,
who has done a lot of interesting reporting on criminal justice reform and things.
And he said to me, one of the things that's really exciting is that you can decide to do an
eight-minute package on criminal justice reform and talk to people who are experts. And you don't
have to feel like you have to present a hundred sides of the issue. You're trying to inform the
audience with information and nuance and a depth of details that you don't have the luxury of
doing even on a range of networks and a range of mediums right now. Well, what have you had it
with? That's the number one thing we've got to talk about. I love this. I've had it with so many
things right now. First of all, I'm just going to start with a political one because here we are. I have
had it with Little Mike Johnson and holler John Thune. Don't forget to have had it with him
who pretend like they are powerless observers of the shutdown of anything you can do in Washington.
Little Mike Johnson is second in line to the presidency. He is the most powerful person in Congress.
There are many things you can do to end the shutdown to pay military troops to make sure people
have health care subsidies. And John Thune is walking around. I had, he's a new addition to my
have had it group is walking around like, I don't know. We've neglected him. Thank you for
bringing that to him. I have totally neglected him because his silence is really causing a lot of
problems. Yeah. And he behaves as if I guess we'll see what happens. You're the leader of the
Senate. Have you ever seen this many emasculated men that are so terrified of so.
many things in your life. Can you imagine being a conservative and navigating a remote control?
Jimmy Kimmel. You know, Stephen Colbert, Bad Bunny, Cracker Barrel commercial, a drag queen,
a gay person, a black person, Spanish speaking person. I mean, these people are so terrified
all the time, yet they want to talk about how masculine they are. And it's like, bitch, please.
Bitch, please. That's the tell. Little Dick energy on steroids. It's really, that is such a,
Because I was, I mean, I feel like Donald Trump himself, just to go back to that guy, has like a, remember that game Battleship?
We used to play.
Yes.
I loved it.
He's got a game of battleship and kind of little military figures that he's like moving around.
And it would be funny, except it's not funny because it's a horror show.
But that is what this is about.
This is like, I am weak and small.
So I'm going to play Battleship over here.
And I'm going to tell the military what they're going to do.
And I'm going to send them into cities because I need to feel.
feel bigger. Right. Yeah. Well, and I get Pete Hegseth, who's a complete fucking moron,
completely not qualified to do what he's doing. And he's running the battleship. And that scares
me. Like for national security, everything else, I feel like our enemies are looking saying,
these bozos couldn't stop a clock. So, you know, our enemies are taking the dub.
Oh, I mean, this is a fantastic for them. This is a W for all. I mean, this is, this is,
they don't have to do anything. No. China, Russia, they can just.
sit back and go, have at it. This is such a good point because, I mean, I spent a couple years
of the State Department. And when you have foreign leaders come visit, and they do this in other
capitals too, you get all this briefing materials of what is the coverage of like of them in
their countries. What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? What are their vulnerabilities?
Imagine what that packet of information looks like for a briefing when somebody's going to meet
with Trump. It's like, flatter him. Flatter him. Say he's physically looking good and his hands are
big. Good golfer. Yeah, he's a great golfer. And what else do you say about him? And then maybe
you'll get what you want from him. I mean, it is, that's the kind of briefing they're getting.
And I, you know, Jay Johnson, who is the former Secretary of Homeland Security me at this point
on my show last night, which is, it's like we can't, the United States, usually when you're
traveling with Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense or the president, we're imperfect. We've
a long history of being imperfect. But usually go to other countries and you say, if you don't
improve your human rights. If you don't treat the media with respect, if you don't treat
freedom of speech and express and with respect, we're going to have to have a conversation
about the kind of, you know, money we provide to you, right? You have these conversations. Now,
how do we go into other countries and have conversations about how they treat the media,
how they treat freedom of expression, how they treat the right to gather, all of these issues
that we are now grappling with in our own country? What about the inverse of that? We talk a lot
about corporate capitulation, university capitulation, you know, all of the Republican Congress
the national security guys. But what about our allies? Are they capitulating, in a sense,
by going along when they meet with the United States of America, like Jay Carney was in the
Oval. And while they are piling on a fuse of praise to this malignant narcissist dictator,
Trump, and we're not, you know, we're not on the verge of an authoritarian takeover. We're right
the middle of it, are our allies capitulating by kissing his ass and not saying, we are not,
we're not going to do deals with you if you are denying people due process. These are,
you are on human rights watchless. Our relationship is different. So what do you think having been
at the State Department about that look at it? I mean, it's very Neville Chamberlain-esque,
in my opinion, of our allies to go along with this. Yeah. And you kind of want that Hugh Grant moment.
Remember that Hugh Grant moment where he says,
we are not a small country. We are whatever he says. I think I don't know yet. And I think they're
making this calculation clearly in their own strategy meeting, some of them, just go flatter him
and it will help us get what we want, right? Maybe we can get him back on board with being on the
right side of the war in Ukraine, which is a crazy thing, but that's where we are. Maybe it will
help push him back from pushing all these tariffs. That hasn't worked yet in most regards.
but I think they're calculating, if we can just flatter him a little bit, we'll treat him,
like they treat him like a child a bit, right?
Does that work?
I don't think we know yet, but that seems to be the calculation.
Well, and people in his administration have really, like J.D. Vans, who we refer to as
Lil Smoky, short for Smoky Eye sociopath.
So Lil Smoky has said some very smoky eye.
It is not going to like that.
He said some very disparaging things about Europe.
And, of course, Elon Musk is with that far right, German.
party and then he's meddling in UK politics. And it feels like there is this desire from
dark forces. This is my theory. And you can tell me what you think about it. Like Trump has the
cult. He keeps it together. Our allies and adversaries know how to flatter him, but also the
people within the White House know how to flatter him. What are his number one things? Are his
decorating and arts and crafts projects? He's building an arch. We've seen the Oval Office. He's got
his ballroom. He's selling watches. He has his online thrift shop. The watches. And all of the
people that work for him, like particularly when you get to Stephen Miller and then J.D. Vance.
And then you just peel back who they're associated with. People that would never get into politics
that think they're better than that. Like I'm talking Peter Thiel and other oligarchs.
And I feel like they are really trying to concentrate the power in the executive because biology is
going to catch up with Trump. None of these guys can win a general election. The cult will
completely fall apart. So they have to consolidate in the executive, go full tilt authoritarian
so that little smoky can come in and execute this crazy plan that these weirdos Peter Thiel
and this guy named Curtis Jarvin have that they have decided we no longer should have a democracy.
I think the little Manchurian candidate J.D. Vance wants to be president more than anything else. I always wonder what's going on in the mind of his wife. Are you okay? Please blink four times. We'll come over here. We'll save you. And that he's willing to do anything to get there. And that your whole iteration you just outlined. I mean, he's scarier in certain ways. He's smarter. In some ways. And he's young.
and ambitious and ambitious and agile in the sense that he is a chameleon who makes himself into
whatever he thinks the audience wants to hear from him now what's also true though is jd vance
is not he's in some ways goodish on paper if you like what he believes in i don't know but i don't
know that he can take the whole movement with him no way i don't think so either is no riz it's it's
got no Riz, right? And he's got, he just is a little odd. And so Trump's odd in a different way. So I'm
skeptical of that. So yeah, he's got to. I mean, everything going on right now, and I think we have to be
very clear-eyed about this, is about trying to manipulate the public around elections. And so
even pre-J.D. Vance ascension or attempt for J.D. Vance to ascend, we're looking at the
midterm elections next year. And J.B. Pritzers called this out. Gavin Newsom has called this out.
these troops in the streets, these attempts to, you know, manipulate the elections by doing these
mid or middle of the process redistricting. This is all about making it harder to participate in the
process, making it harder for Democrats and for people who want to support these candidates and
even just people who want to check on the power of Trump to participate. That's what this is all
about. So that's just the lead up to taking greater and greater and greater control. And
And even taking the military underneath his wing, taking the press, which they're completely
reshaping the whole press room and who covers the president, all of this is consolidation
of power and consolidation of information to the public.
And that's what it's about, is maintaining power.
And then you have Fox News that's got all the boomers that don't get on social media.
Okay, so here's my, we've been talking about this, the press corps that goes to those ridiculous
propagandist press secretary, which I want to get to, but this is on this point. Is there going
to be a time that the press says, we're not doing this? We are not covering this president or this
press secretary because all they do is lie. And so you can have Peter Ducey, you can have,
you know, whoever the podcaster of the day is, Benny Johnson can get in there and just go for it.
Is that something we can see? Because I don't see enough.
avenue to getting the truth out, unless there's like some type of pushback from the
press, which we're seeing the Pentagon press do more than I've seen the White House press
do.
It's a very good question.
Here's the challenge of that.
If I would say Peter Ducey, bless his heart, is not as bad as Benny Johnson.
This is the world we're living in.
It's like the rank order of options.
Is that if the Associated Press and the Washington Post and the New York Times and ABC News say,
you know what? We're walking out of this White House briefing room. That's the best thing that could
ever happen to Donald Trump. Agree. And Caroline Levitt. Because that's what they're trying to
reshape without saying they're doing it. And in that room, and this is what I find to be so challenging,
is the things that are happening behind the scenes that you can't always see or know unless you've lived
it. And I think this is true in law firms and the Department of Justice and places too, is that
in that briefing room, the Benny Johnsons of the world are slowly but surely taking
over more and more of the questions in the briefing, right? And having a greater and greater presence
in these press pools where you have a smaller group of reporters in the Oval Office. And sometimes
Trump and a foreign leader will take 45 minutes of questions. And it's Benny Johnson and little
Benny Johnson, whoever that may be. And yes, maybe there's one or two other real reporters.
But the problem is they're taking up so much real estate. So if all these other reporters leave,
that's all the real estate. And then you know what we have? We have what the Kremlin press
Court is. And that's the challenge. So if you're these reporters, I don't know what the answer is
and what you do. There's still very smart people in there. They're just getting overtaken in
terms of space and real estate by people the White House selects to say things like, Donald Trump
looks so good in his workout. What is his workout? That was literally a question one day.
It's crazy. Yeah. Okay. And one thing, okay, so I'm going to tell you what a big nerd I am.
We're all nerds. It's a safe place. Yeah. So I get on social media and then when I would get home
after work, I would watch your press conferences when you worked for Biden.
Oh, my God bless you.
Thank you.
Just to see, like, okay, what's the real story before I got into the meat of it?
Because I was like, okay, what's the White House saying?
Because I'm getting all this disruption.
And I think that it's a, you know, it's precious for the United States to have a representative of the president to come out and talk about policy.
You had a stack of books this tall.
I couldn't even believe all the crap you went through.
Now, I am enraged every time I see Caroline.
who prays before she goes out there and lies her fat ass off.
So she goes out there and lies and it's propaganda after propaganda.
Is there no check on that?
Like, is there no, like, I guess there's no law that the press secretary has to be honest.
But like when she acts like, I can't even believe you would insinuate Donald Trump would make money off of the presidency as the Trump watches are going.
So is there no, like, rules or anything, I guess they don't care about rules.
Does that break your heart to see what it's been turned into?
It does.
And I say this as obviously I worked in Democratic politics for 20-something years.
I'm not shy about my views.
But even for people who like Dana Perino or dare I say even Sean Spicer, I don't know if I should use them as an example,
it's a very different briefing room now than it was.
Dana Perino is probably a better example of this, right?
I disagree with Bush on a bazillion things, right?
But you had to go in there and answer questions from the same type of reporters, and often the same reporters I had to answer questions from.
And this is a part of how the United States is unique as a democracy, is that you do have a person who goes out there at the White House and answers questions.
Even on days, and believe me, there are some days where you, before you walk out into that room, you're like, oh, shit.
There's no information.
That's not the reporter's fault.
It's like there's nothing I can offer and they're going to just yell at me for 45 minutes.
it's sad because there aren't so many people who've ever done that job and what it feels like
it is diminishing the job it is diminishing the role of the press secretary the honor of being in
that job which is speaking on behalf of the United States of America which sometimes it's edgy
a lot of times it's not sometimes it's you know people think it's boring but it's important
and this is really changing what it is and what the expectations are around it and that is
sad for the White House, it's sad for the institution, it's sad for anyone has had that job,
and it really takes it away as something that the American people can rely on as at least a
source of information.
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dot com slash had it one thing that i think he's really good at trump and um republicans in general
is they are they i don't know i'm not sure they are constantly uh promoting what they're doing
and biden in my opinion he knew how to govern loads of experience knew how to reach across the aisle
knew how to get shit done but there wasn't a lot of marketing that accompanied
the successes that he had and because everything has changed. And it's the really weird thing
being a Democrat because like when Obama was in office, we had all the young techie people
and kind of controlled social media. Well, that narrative is really switched. And now I feel like
we're the conservative party, not in the sense of our values, but in the sense that people
are not progressing forward within the Democratic Party. They are sticking to the status quo like
I've like I've never seen the party do.
So in that regard, if we get to midterms and if we ever get a Democratic president, having
been the press secretary, what do you think, and now what the American public is used to,
obviously honesty is first, but don't you think the Dems need to razzle, dazzle, and
perma campaign their presidency?
Because now the public is primed for that.
We can't just go back to, well, today the president did.
I'm not saying you did that.
But it's going to have to be more entertaining.
would you not agree? Totally. I mean, Democrats, God bless their hearts. Some are better than others
are holding on to like, remember the running CD disc man? Yes. Yes. But not in a cool,
vintage ironic way, right? It's still, you know, it's interesting. When I started my job as the
press secretary, well, I'll go back a little before that, when Donald Trump won the first time,
and we all thought Hillary Clinton was going to win, and we had binders ready for the people we knew
who were working for Hillary Clinton because I was Obama's communications director, and I was still,
I was there at the time, we would have suggested them, the good gentleman what they wanted,
to change all sorts of things about the briefing room, the way engagement with the press works,
because it's been archaic for a very long time.
And there's not enough thought put into what the thought should really be about is how do you
reach the broad public out there that doesn't press refresh on whitehouse.gov.
And that's key.
That should be the guide because the American public is your constituency.
And the briefing room is only a part of it, of course.
I know you're not just asking about that.
But I think it's about rethinking the modes of communication, how you use your own
platforms.
I mean, I love Joe Biden extremely deeply, which I know I don't have to say to both of you.
He was never going to be a natural TikTok person.
Right.
And there were reasons we didn't have TikTok because of national security concerns.
Frankly, I think everybody running for president and who want to be.
leaders should have TikTok or whatever the new iteration of it is. It's always evolving and should
really think about not, do I feel good because my written piece was in the Washington Post,
which by the way, nobody reads. I also think that all departments of government should have
social media. 100%. I think it's, I think that in order to, I think you've got to govern
smart, govern honestly, and govern with style and govern with an entertainment lens as well, because that is
what our culture has become. Good, bad, or indifferent, you have to evolve to it. And the
problem with Democrats and the reason why I keep saying the word conservative, and I think I want to
say more preservative, they want to preserve these systems, is that shockingly, the conservatives that
I thought were just crusty, old white people have morphed into this young group of misogynists
that really know how to navigate social media and the media landscape. And then we have
the Democrats who are preserving, and the biggest problem for Democrats for me right now and in the
past is we operate under what I call assumption politics. We assume everybody's going to do
the right thing. We assume nobody's going to vote for Trump. We're so hopeful. We assume that people
know that Caroline Levitt is lying. We assume that everybody knows that Antifa is not real. It is an
idea. We assume these things. And in that assumption comes hubris to,
where then you cannot plainly speak to constituents.
And this is the problem.
When Democrats don't do this, really bad actors fill the void.
And right now, Marjorie Taylor Green is filling that void.
She is seeing the curtains on kinks.
That's what we call Trump, short for kankles.
I'm tracking.
I'm a listener.
She sees the curtains on kanks, and she is teeing up, and now she's talking about health care.
She's talking about America seems to have Israel first.
policies. Why do they have health care? Why do they have higher education? And we don't. Well,
we live in Oklahoma. And so that kind of shit, that is going to hit hard. And then Democrats are
explaining more nuances about those issues. And Marjorie Taylor Green is, as she does all of this,
she was on CNN last night, spitting facts, sounds like a normal fucking person. And then I went to
her Twitter. And last night, just because she has to pacify the crazies, she's like, by the way,
Antifa was at January 6.
Blah, blah, blah.
I mean, like within a two-hour span.
It's like a different universe.
But the point is those vacuums get filled by these very crafty, manipulative grifters on the right.
Benny Johnson, Marjorie Taylor Green, J.D. Vance, a little smoky.
I mean, they fill these vacuums that Democrats don't fill.
I, a thousand percent agree.
And I think part of it, this is just a small part of it, but the preservation is such a good way of describing it,
there's still this what is presidential, what is governmental?
What does a senator do?
Get the fuck out of here.
Who cares?
Like, it doesn't matter.
You're trying to reach people.
And guess what?
Most people are not sitting on their couch wearing a suit watching you.
So it's like people just have to become a little bit more relaxed.
Let go of the talking points, which it's funny because in part of my transition from being a communications ex person to being on television is,
We would have officials on.
And I would finish an interview and I'd say, we can't have that person on again.
They just, they like literally read a list of talking points, right?
And there is a letting go and a being a little freer and not being so preservationist
with how you talk about things, the words you use to talk about things.
Just talk like a human being with a heart.
That's it.
You know, that's what Democrats care about.
Right now, the government shutdown, they want to protect health care.
That's it.
They want to make sure you're not paying more for health.
care. That's the whole thing. So just talk about it like a human being. Stop being so overly
formalized and strict with yourself about it. It's a really good example. We recently had
Cory Booker on and I asked him, do you think Benjamin Netanyahu's a war criminal? And he
wouldn't answer it. And he filibustered after every answer. And after the interview, I thought
the ICC thinks he is. You could just say that. I said that term. We did. But I thought, would Donald
Trump ever fucking blink about just saying it?
No. He would never fucking blink. And we're playing two different games here. We have these
preservationist Democrats that are preserving the status quo, which left us to this moment. And let me just
say, I like Cory Booker. His heart's in the right place. He's a fabulous center. He's a good
senator. He's a good voice for the Democratic Party. But we're at the stage in this authoritarian takeover
where it's like, stop with the status quo. Stop with your donors. It has it has left all of us
vulnerable. Everybody's hurting. The first Democrat that steps up, whether it's Hakeem, Booker,
and says, I'm not taking APEC anymore. I'm rolling at my sleeves. I'm going to fight for this
country. Everybody would embrace and love that person immediately. You see it with like the grand
platinum that's running. You see it with Zoran, Mom Donnie here. People, that's what they liked
about Trump. They thought, mistakenly, well, he's a billionaire. He can't get bought. Nobody can own him.
I mean, but that's what he projected.
And so I just am really worried about a lot of the Democrats still playing like, it feels like
conservative politics now.
The Democratic Party, the establishment, feels conservative to me.
And so now I'm like more, I find myself going more left, like more leftists because the Democratic
Party, they just want to preserve all of the assumption politics and the bullshit answers.
Of course Benjamin Netanyahu's a war criminal.
Fucking say it.
For God's sake.
Corey, you know, it just drove them crazy. Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I think some of it is
just a people in comfort in their own skin. I think Cory Booker is very comfortable in his own
skin. Totally. Yes. And that's a good example. He's super likable. He's super likable.
And I think he's a good senator. I do. Very much. But sometimes I think it's a thinking too much
about what you think. Right. And Barack Obama, I worked from for 10 years, he used to say,
Not perfect, okay, but he was a pretty good president.
That really good.
And he used to say, and he would say give this advice now, I think, to people running for office,
start with what you think, right?
Don't start with what the polling says.
Don't start with what the talking points say that are given to you by the DNC or wherever
it is, first of all, no offense to the DNC, burn the talking points in the ground, you know?
Right.
Start with what is your view?
Personally, you're a leader, you're educated, you're informed, and just say that.
And it sounds simple, but a lot of people don't do that.
Grand Platner is very interesting because I think he just says what he thinks.
And people can't figure out him because they're like, how can he be somebody who says
he can speak to Trump voters, but he also has these views?
And I'm like, he just says what he thinks.
Most people are not checking boxes on one particular line of views, right?
Nobody talked to at the bus stop or the hardware store is like, oh, yeah, I meet all of those
requirements. They might have views that are slightly contradictory because that's human beings. And
that's, it's like simple advice. But to anyone who may run for president, all 147 of you,
I hope you just start. Now's the time to sit in a room with people you trust and say, what do you
think about this? Yeah. What do you think about Israel? What do you think about Ukraine? What do you
think about any range of issues? Trans rights? All these things you're going to be asked about,
what do you think? Then figure out how to talk about it. Yeah. I totally agree. I think that
the reason that people like Trump is because he comes across as this plain spoken person.
And then I think people in America worship capitalism and worship wealth.
But when you get to like the grand platiners and even AOC has had triple Trumpers that also
voted for her.
Zoron is getting triple Trumpers that are also voting for him.
I guarantee you Platner will.
I think what all of that is is a pushback on corporate.
politicians. And when you get to Republicans and a lot of the Democrats that take a lot of corporate
donations, for the person that gets up, goes and works, suffers to pay their health insurance,
watches Will of Fortune, maybe hitch Jesse Waters, maybe watches some porn, goes to sleep,
rinse, repeat every day. They're looking for somebody who isn't beholden. I don't know that they
particularly know how to articulate exactly what it is, but you can feel and see authenticity and you
know it. And so when a politician cannot answer a yes or no question, like do you think Benjamin
Netanyahu is a war criminal, when he can't answer it, then you know he definitely thinks he's
a war criminal. But he's caught up somewhere and compromised somewhere that he can't say it. And then
you sniff that out. And then the stereotype, all politicians are the same, whether they're MAGA or
liberal, then they all get chunked into that. And I think people on the coast,
And I think people in the Democratic Party always, you know, like, well, the polling shows this and then the polling shows that.
That's what they don't get.
They don't know how to just speak to people.
It's too controlled.
The talking points are so controlled and people sniff it out.
It's really, I know you didn't ask me for another.
I've had it, but I'm just going to offer another.
We need more.
Well, no, no.
I mean, I've had it with the phrase kitchen table issues.
First of all, who says that?
No one.
Rahm Emanuel is the only person I know that consistently says that. And I got in a huge fight with him. Well, I mean, there are more than just Rahm Emanuel who says that. But it's like it sounds like it was a phrase created in a lab. I'm sure I've slipped into that word phrasing because you just, it's like everywhere. But nobody in any community in the country sits here in and says, I wish my person in running for office would talk about kitchen table issues. Issues we speak about at the kitchen table. It's like, what is that?
I agree with you.
That's such a good hat it.
That is in like every set of talking points that's anywhere.
It's like what is a kitchen table issue?
Or it's like there's lots of different iterations of economic populism.
It's like nobody is sitting anywhere saying like I wish somebody running would be like I'm a more economic, an economic populist.
Here's the kitchen table issues.
God, that senator is so full of shit.
I wish they would just speak the truth.
God, did they not get it?
Of course they don't get.
That's more the kitchen table issues.
it's not like people are sitting around the kitchen table and talking about here's our punch list
the grievances that americans have it just all linked to the affordability crisis and the fact that
wages have gone up so high for 1% two percenters and have stagnated i mean it's basically everything
that fucking bernie said yes back when he ran against hillary and i voted for hillary but as a person
that's watched this idiot fucking moron, win twice, I go back to Bernie's message and he was
spot on.
That was something that was really penetrating to all parts of people affordability and the way
that we do capitalism in this country is simply not sustainable.
It needs to be regulated, wages need to go up, a more FDR style way to preserve capitalism
with a much larger social safety net.
And I just think the kitchen table issues right now are people are sniffing out bullshit.
Yeah.
And they're sick of scripted politicians.
Totally.
Totally.
I mean, yeah, it's the Bernie message, and this is, I think, one of my epiphany is post-election when I was going through my own therapy session as we all were.
It's like, why I did even a podcast myself was like, I don't what the hell just happened.
But is that we, the Democratic Party was not talking to a huge swath of the public that didn't feel heard.
about their struggles with affordability, with the cost of everything.
And it's the cost of living.
It's the cost of housing.
It's the cost of health care.
It's the cost of everything.
Nate Cohn, sorry, I'm going to pick on him for a second.
I'm not going to apologize.
I don't care.
I wrote this piece the other day about how Democrats are fighting an old battle about
health care.
I'm like, I'm sorry.
Is the health care system perfect and it's affordable for everybody?
Because it's not.
Right?
Right.
So it's just some of this is just it's a little bit.
discussions in a lab that are not about real discussions people are having. And some of the
terminology used falls into that category, too. Listener, the hot book of the summer,
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Yes. Oh, my God. Welcome to had it or hit it. I would hit it. Had it. Had it. I hit it every day,
sometimes twice a day. Jen Saki. Had it or hit?
hit it generational warfare, meaning like Gen Z versus Millennials.
Had it.
I kind of had it to you.
Are you millennial Gen X?
I'm Gen X.
Okay, we're Gen X too.
Are you Gen X?
First of all, I just want to just, I'm the same age as Brendan Carr, and I want everybody
watching.
I just saw that the other day.
To look up Brendan Carr, and I really had a moment of feeling good about myself.
I'm also older than Emil Bovi, who darkness does not age you well.
is my theory there.
And Stephen Miller, also him.
So my young friends, all of them.
What do you think is going on with Jesse Waters?
I don't know if you're on TV, so you don't need to see it.
Well, obviously.
But his hair?
His hair is good.
He has good hair.
He does have good hair.
It's dyed too.
In person, it's to die.
But he is constantly talking about Stephen Miller's sexual prowess.
Oh, wait.
Is he the one who did the thing about him being a matador?
Mattador.
He's the sexual Matador.
This week alone, he said that AOC.
He's dying to have sex with him, that he is a man's man.
It's the gayest.
I have, I'm an interior designer when I'm not a podcaster.
So I have always had lots and lots of gay male friends.
I'm at happiest among gay men.
And through all of my times, drag shows, going to gay bars, hanging out with the gay guys.
I have never heard people talk about men.
I haven't heard men talk about other men as much as I have MAGA men talk about men.
There's just something so homo-social about the whole entire movement that is so bizarre.
And then Jesse Waters, we saw him at the DNC.
And we were so excited to be there.
And we're staying in like we're back where you were probably there reporting.
And he comes by and it is Pris.
Sashay away.
I was like, oh my God.
And he thought he was hot.
I've never met him in a person and I don't watch a show because it's like during my show.
And also because I like to have like mental health.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But this is, broadly speaking, this is like a sadness, I feel.
If I can have some empathy for a lot of people who feel so embedded into the conservative
GOP world, it's like they can't be themselves.
It is.
It's sad.
Typically, I'm sad about it.
If people are doing that in a passive way.
Yeah.
If somebody lives in a red town or red city and they were raised religiously and they just,
they cannot, they live a double life, but in a very passive way.
I have the most empathy for that
than I can even...
But these people are mean snakes.
These people are...
These people are...
During the day, during the day they wake up and they're demonizing gay people, demonizing
trans people, demonizing drag queens, banning books.
And then at night, it's Grindr and Eat Nass.
I mean, you know what I mean?
So fuck them.
I say out all of them that do that.
There you go.
But typically, I have so much empathy, being us living in Oklahoma, I had to,
so many gay friends that just coming out of the closet was just brutal, brutal for them.
It was really painful.
Their families, their friends, so much judgment.
Okay.
Had it or hit it TikTok dances.
Had it.
I can't dance.
Me neither.
And I always say when we just hired a wonderful new social media person, I'm like, I'll do
anything, but nobody wants to see me dance.
Right.
Nobody wants to see me in a makeup chair particularly.
You know, it's like, I'm just.
going to nerd out. And if people want to watch it, great. Yeah. Otherwise, yeah, kind of had it.
Some of them are funny. I mean, some of them, when people make it funny, like they're kind of in on
the joke. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. But yeah, I've otherwise had it. Okay. Had it or
hit it Harvard. Had it. Had it. Yeah. Don't care. Yeah. I don't care. You have a huge
endowment. Yes. I don't love, of course, Trump and others attacking institutions. But I just, I've had it.
They gave up. They gave up. Yeah. Okay. Had it.
it or hit it bad bunny oh hit it yeah me too i'm obsessed with the story did you see because we talked
about little mike joneson a little bit which i just always call him because we call him moses mike
okay because you know he said god woke him up in the middle of the night said hey little guy wake up
you're moses so we call him so there's that so someone asked him did you see this someone asked him
about bad bunny at the super bowl the other day a couple days ago and he said i i just don't think it's a good
idea. And the reporter said, why not? And he said, I don't, I don't think he has a very big
following. And I'd prefer someone like, wait for it, Lee Greenwood. I thought fell over dead when
I heard that. Okay, Jen's talking. It's my favorite thing that's happened this week,
perhaps. This is what makes me want to get this microphone and bang it over Democrats' head
and go, it is a fucking lay up. All the cool people are Democrats, all the cool celebrities
are Democrats. Take this thing, what Moses Mike did, and just fucking run his pipsqueak ass through
the meat grinder. But it just gets lost. And I think that we're at such a disadvantage because
I've been reading a lot about how organized and funded the right wing off of Fox News. The network
of all of the, you've seen that diagram with the bubbles. That's all funded by billionaires.
And they send these right wingers, little young right wingers.
wingers, free of charge through the social media school that they pay for and they get them
ready.
So if a Democrat missed up like that, they would disseminate it through the right wing, all of those,
and this is off of Fox even, and it just would get ripped on TikTok.
It would find algorithms and everything.
And the Democrats just do not have that structure at all.
And they've taken for granted mainstream media, which now a lot of it is so compromised.
I mean, like that Bari Weiss or whatever, she's taken over CBS, and it's just crazy.
It's so true.
I mean, you know, Kara Swisher.
Yeah, I love her.
She's the best.
Always says what's on her mind.
It's the greatest.
And her podcast is great.
That Democrats don't support, Democrats who are, you know, who are progressive leaning, what have you, who have platforms, don't support each other, really.
You know, don't support each other on platforms by having each other on the different platforms, by lifting up the work of each other's platforms.
So there's that.
And the other pieces, I remember a couple weeks ago, months ago, it's all, the spacetime
continuum is a little confusing where there was this story that was so scandalous about how
kind of an outside group was paying creators to create content.
Oh, yes.
Chorus or something.
Whatever it is.
And I'm like, it was a little clunky and messy, but I'm like, you know what?
I hope there are billionaire Democratic donors who are going to pay some creators to create
content, not in a way that should be repeating the DNC talking points that should, but
should be free wielding, you know, you 22-year-olds who are really good at talking about health care
in a personal way, but don't have the means to do it and expand what you're doing. Let's fund you
and give you money so you can do it. I think that's a good thing. And that doesn't exist as much
on the Democratic side either. And I hope it does over the coming years. Yeah, I agree. Somebody
asked us. I think we were interviewed by The Guardian and this gal came to Oklahoma City and she asked
what we thought about that because everybody was so mad about it. And I go, I'm not super mad about
that. Like, I don't see, if they are shilling 100% for the preservation politics that drive me
crazy about Democrats. It's not effective anyway. Right. I oppose that. But in general,
like, I see every other left-leaning or pro-democracy, let me even say that, podcast or YouTube
channel, not as a competitor, but as an ally. And when you think about, like, when you go to
suburbs, when you see all of the chain restaurants, they're all put there together on purpose.
purpose because everybody goes there to that one area to eat, their cars just kind of start
driving there. The same thing with all of us on this side. The more of us and the more we
collaborate, the better. I see no one as a competitor and everyone as an ally. That's from
Ben My Saylis to Hassan Piker. We have to have a huge gigantic tent. And if we all agree on
everything, we would be a fucking cult. We'd be boring. We shouldn't agree. You know, Lawrence
so Donald said this to me once because he said something once and I just like on some set
and I was like, I totally disagree with that in the moment. At the end, I was like, I'm sorry,
I just sort of like bit your head off. And he goes, no, it's good. It's fine. We disagree on all
sorts of things. It's such a good point. It's funny. And also we all consume a lot of people's
content, you know? And I, when I told somebody in the hallway, one of Chris Hayes' producers that I was
coming here to do this today. And he was like, oh, you learned about them from us. And I was like,
No. I was like, I am a listener outside of, I know that, like, you've appeared on
Chrysha's show because he's right before me. So I see what's on his show. I was like, no, no.
I knew about them before. Or I don't know, maybe around the same time, but probably before.
It's like a funny. It's a funny thing. But yeah, it's such a good point. And I think this goes
back to your preservationist point, which is such a good one. You also have to let these people
be free and create content in their own style and way.
And misstep.
And misstep.
Democrats need to embrace missteps, apologize and move on the way the Republicans do it.
And like I always think about what was this, Al Franken.
I always think about Al Franken.
Doesn't it seem so silly now?
I always think about that.
And I think Democrats, whether you're a politician, work for somebody, you know, in their office, you work for the government or you are a podcast or a journalist or whatever.
If you misstep, own it.
say you're sorry and move the fuck on.
Exactly.
Unless it's just something cancelable, which those things do exist.
But generally, sometimes we'll say something, you know, because we're bullshit artists.
We sit here and bullshit all day.
And sometimes I was thinking about what I said the other day.
And I kind of think I was wrong.
I think this, like the evolution of conversation Democrats need to embrace.
And if you don't operate like that, you're boring.
Because you're so worried about what you're going to say all the time and how you say it.
And then you sound scripted and boring.
All right, last one.
Yeah.
Had it or hit it.
I've had it podcast.
Hit it, obviously.
I mean, you got, I'm a child of a therapist, so I can say you guys are like a form of therapy to so many people, me included.
I try to listen to Lawrence O'Donnell's show on the way home, but I give myself license on some days.
I love to listen to you guys on the way home because it's just like you're unwinding.
I also listen to Kylie Kelsey's podcast, which is also great.
Oh, yeah.
And I know so many people feel that way because it's like you feel like you need a community of people where you can just say the thing right now and feel scared and frustrated and worried about your neighbor.
And one of the things I love that you guys do is you really lift up other voices and lift up.
You're not just talking about white women, right?
Right.
You're not just staring at each other talking about white women, which we could talk about that.
The most disappointing demographic.
The struggles of the wealthy white woman.
Wealthy white women and why they vote the wrong way.
Next episode, you talk about the issues impacting so many people in communities that need a voice.
And that's so powerful.
So thank you for what you do.
Thank you.
And thank you for coming on.
Tell our listeners about your new podcast.
Oh, thank you.
So we did a first season of the blueprint last year, which was really the day after the election,
I woke up with like hair sticking up and black eye makeup.
I actually was anchoring until six in the morning.
So I don't even know.
And I was like, I need to know, talk to people about what just happened and what it means now.
We really need to self-reflect.
Everybody's a part of it.
Me going on television every day and saying fascism, authoritarianism, is that the right thing or not, right?
What do we need to learn?
And that's what the first season was really about.
This season is about looking forward.
We're not going to genuflect on 2024.
There are some things maybe if people bring them up.
But I'm interested in what I'm going to do is talk to people who are not afraid to say the thing and don't agree necessarily.
And there are big debates in the Democratic.
We've been talking about them, right?
I mean, it's like, what about purity tests?
Good, bad, right?
Generational change.
Is it the true everywhere there needs to be a younger person or not true some other places?
What are the issues that should lean on?
What should you talk about?
What shouldn't you?
So that's what the focus is.
And I'm really excited about it and launches next week.
I'm super exciting.
And you guys are one of my first episodes.
Yes.
So you guys, listener, cross from I've had it to Blueprint with Jen Saki.
All right, Pumps, tell him.
We will see you next Tuesday.
Thursday.
I'll tell you what I've had it with.
Let's hear it.
I've had it with that.
Listen up, patriots,
Gaytriots, and Natriots.
We have a new podcast that has dropped.
It's called IHIP News.
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Please go rate, subscribe, and reviews so that we will chart upwards with America's greatest
legal mind pumps.
And pumps, what does an eagle say?
Cicaw!
A little bit more enthusiasm.
Caca!
That's it.
That's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's the patriotism that this country
means right there.
Thank you.
