Lovett or Leave It - #BelieveAllWrestlers (Live from DC!)

Episode Date: October 21, 2023

And we're back at the Lincoln Theatre in our nation's perfect capital to cheer up Jim Jordan after what has to be the fourth or fifth worst week of his life. Commander Biden is loose in the theater, and hungry for blood. Jen Psaki on 2024. Journalists Dave Weigel and Daniella Diaz place odds on the House Speaker race. We ask the audience to spill their worst politicians-behaving-badly-at-a-coffee-shop stories, and we roll down the majestic Potomac using the hydroelectric force generated by the Rant Wheel. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail] and include the name of the podcast.

Hello, DC! It's so lovely to see you all. Welcome to the Eros Tour. I love coming to D.C. You get all the references. You're starved for jokes that don't end in didn't have that on my bingo card. You freaks go nuts for this.

Stop it. It's good to be back at the Lincoln Theater. This was, how many of you were here at one of our first, I think one of the first Love It or Leave It live shows we ever did, we did in D.C. here at this theater. How many people were at that show? Raise your hand if you're at that show. All right. All right. Oh, geez. Nice. We have a great show for you tonight.

Jen Psaki is here. Two great journalists, Dave Weigel of Semaphore and Daniela Diaz of Politico are here to help us Dave Weigel of Semaphore and Daniela Diaz of Politico are here to help us understand. If it's even possible to understand what's been happening in the house. You all will be part of the show because you're going to have to don your gossip hats. Here's the deal. I would like you to start thinking now of basically the stories when you've had run-ins with politicians where you got to see their true colors.

You can anonymize your participation. You can anonymize the politician. Or no, you can just say who it is and what they did The good, the bad, the ugly A great customer Someone who destroyed the life of a barista Whatever you've got We want to know, alright?

Because, you know, DC has its own Ellen, you know? I assume. And we'll spin the rant wheel. Plus, we'll also have your live high notes, so think of a high note, too. So I want your filthiest of local gossip. And your brightest of hopes. At my shoes?

Zoe, what'd you say? You just said your shoes! These are Kariumas. These are the brand new ones that Crooked's making. They're great. You should buy them. If we don't sell a lot of them, John and Tommy will make fun of me. And they already do that. Oh, shut up. But first, let's get into it. What a week.

But first, let's get into it. What a week. We begin in Congress, where the Speaker's chair remains empty in case Elijah comes. But how did we get here? It took 15 ballots to select Speaker Kevin McCarthy. And at the time, Elise Stefanik was thrilled. Here she is, being thrilled. Then, nary 17 days ago, Matt Gaetz and the gateful eight ousted McCarthy. Hooray. Steve Scalise jumped into the fray, and he won the vote in the Republican caucus, and Elise Stefanik was thrilled.

She is being thrilled. Then Scalise realized if he went to the floor for a full vote, he'd be humiliated on ballot after ballot, so he withdrew. Jim Jordan ignored these warning signs, drawing on the years of practice he got at Ohio State, ignoring warning signs. So Jim Jordan won the vote in the Republican caucus, and Elise Stefanik was thrilled.

Incredible, incredible. Harvard, everybody. Shut that whole place all the way fucking down. Just shut it all the way down. At best, at best, Harvard produces generation after generation that battle each other to a draw. You know? Just good versus evil coming out of there,

and at best neutral. And then Jordan took to the House floor and launched a campaign to get that gavel. But many Republicans said the bullying tactics used by Jordan and his allies backfired. Members reported that their families were threatened. Ken Buck said he'd been subjected to four death threats, as well as getting evicted from his office space by an upset landlord. That really happened. His landlord was like a fucking maga-goon, was like, get out of here. Don Bacon said his wife sleeps with a loaded gun next to her bed after receiving threatening texts and calls. that gun isn't for threats, it is for role-playing.

Now it's my turn to cross the border. Republicans were, of course, right to be shocked. There have been no signs that the right wing was growing more and more willing to embrace threats and violence to achieve their ends. Nothing had happened at all to lead anyone to believe that that might be a problem. Jake Tapper had this to say about reports that Republicans were being harassed by Jim Jordan and his cronies. If only there was something in his background that would suggest he would stand by and look away when bad things were going on. Boom, Jordan. You got tapped.

Of course, Jim Jordan won even fewer votes on the second ballot than the first, with 22 Republicans refusing to back him compared to 20 on Tuesday. Getting, yeah, great. Getting measurably less popular with each passing day. Who is this guy? Me in high school or me after high school? One Republican who refused to back Jordan said this. He said, I think that somebody advising him thought it was a good idea to try to shine a spotlight on us

and to try to... Let me take it again. It's a podcast. I'm editing this for people at home in real time. Wait for silence, make the edit neat. I think that somebody advising him... Shit, now it's going to be all fucked up. Now it's going to be all fucked up.

Whatever. I don't care. I don't care. Anyway, whatever. He said that Jim Jordan was trying to shame him. Of course, it didn't work. Republicans are immune to shame. Most of the time, that means we're doomed. But this week, it was funny. In the wake of the second failed vote, a spokesman for Jordan said he would not drop out of the speaker's race. That's right. In the wake of the second failed vote, a spokesman for Jordan said he would not drop out of the speaker's race. That's right. Treat the House of Representatives like a Vegas slot machine. Just keep pulling the handle. You got to be due for a jackpot soon.

You've been at this for days. When asked for his view on Jim Jordan's predicament, President Biden said this. Nice. Nice. It's like, uh, sometimes Biden is a little bit like bringing up baby. Old, still funny. Some of Jordan's opponents reportedly even said that they were purposely staggering their no votes to create the clear impression that his opposition was only growing and that he would lose even more support on the third ballot.

Love this level of organization. These people have a let's humiliate Jim Jordan group text. One of them is rigging a bucket of pig's blood over the cloakroom. There was a tiny glimmer of hope when the idea was floated that Speaker pro-temporary Patrick McHenry could fill the role on a short-term basis, but flowered a congressman and skid mark

that is somehow on the outside and front of the shirt. Matt Gaetz felt differently. I'm against speaker-lite. I'm against bud-lite. I believe it is a constitutional desecration to not elect a Speaker of the House. We need to stay here until we elect a Speaker. Look, I'd be against Bud-lite too if my girlfriend kept asking me to buy a case for her and her friends every weekend. So House Republicans abandoned that plan,

and Jordan reversed course to say that he would push for a third vote to become Speaker after all. Republicans can't even agree on a temporary fix to buy them time for a bigger fix that they also can't agree on. Hey, the patient's bleeding out. Should we use my belt as a tourniquet? Of course, suggesting your belt so you're the hero?

Fuck you. Before the third vote, Jim Jordan said he wanted to meet with the 22 Republicans who voted against him. Just get me in a room with these guys, said America's least charming man. And so on Friday, Jordan lost a third time after 25 Republicans refused to vote for him, three more than Wednesday's vote, which makes sense because nobody likes Jim Jordan more the longer they think about him. You want this rotten fish? No? Cool. I'll check again in three days.

Republicans retreated once again to the safety of their lair, which surely by this point absolutely reeks of Old Spice original scent. Old Spice original scent, the only scent a man can trust not to have a whiff of fag. In public, Jim Jordan may not have had, no, I wasn't saying it like that. That was a genuine accident.

like that. That was a genuine accident. In public, Jim Jordan may not have had the 217 votes, but he still got the vast majority of Republicans, 194 at the lowest, including so-called moderate Republicans from swing districts that Biden won. But on Friday behind closed doors when the vote was secret and Republicans could vote without fear of backlash or the base, Jordan lost 112 to 86. Fucking weasels. And with that, House Republicans ditched Jim Jordan as their nominee for speaker. Imagine, yeah, let's applaud that. Imagine all of your co-workers taking an anonymous vote that you suck and that's in the newspaper and then you have to go back to work on monday that kind of shit belongs in a group chat that i emotionally have to truly believe in my heart doesn't exist and And it doesn't exist, right, Brian?

Fuck. Republicans are taking the weekend to cool off by doing what they do best, turning the dumbest anti-Semitic professor on a college campus somewhere into a celebrity and watching the game. So what happens now? Few options. Someone else somehow manages to smash the various circles of disparate assholes together with enough force to make the overlap on the Venn diagram equal 217. Republicans make little Patrick McHenry with his bow tie for picture day

into some sort of temporary speaker. Or half a dozen Republicans get frisky and decide to be legends. Come on in, friends. We're not as scary as we seem, and we mostly stopped wearing masks outside. And sure, there are a dozen or so words that you can say as a Republican

that you can't say as a Democrat. I won't list them, but after a little while, you won't miss them. And if you're worried you won't feel at home in a political party without anti-Semites on your fringe, don't fret. We have those too. Yeah, not sure what to do now, are you?

Republicans will hold a candidate forum on Monday night to determine their next nominee, said former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who will have to go back to the drawing board. Drawing, shouted three Freedom Caucus members who were holding washable markers in both fists. And who you've never heard of because they don't let them out of their cages. Easy now, stay cool, pretend you don't even want it, muttered Patrick McHenry, his bow tie spinning faster and faster. Regardless, the Republican House caucus now has the energy of two cars trying to get the same still-empty parking spot, and both drivers would rather die than lose,

and neither can even remember what they wanted at the grocery store in the first place. I think I came here to buy peanut butter or maybe to burn the grocery store to the ground. I don't... I don't know. Speaking of two cars trying to take the same parking spot, the crisis in Israel and Gaza led President Biden... I know, I know, I know.

I know it's tough. It was tough. It was tough. I know. But I felt like we just needed it it's tough. It was tough. It was tough. I know, but I felt like we just needed it, and I'm sorry, but we did the joke transition. You know it's right. You know that that transition is comedically right. President Biden addressed the nation on Thursday. In his speech, the president asked Americans to come together to support Israel and Ukraine. Getting us to come together, what's your secret, said wives. During the address, the president gave his sympathies to the families of those killed in Israel and in the blast at the Gaza hospital.

Biden also repeated that the hospital was not targeted by Israeli forces based on U.S. intelligence assessments. Said a Twitter user who works remotely for a marketing company that sells Medicare Advantage plans, that's ridiculous. I've been poring over the data for days and reached the opposite conclusion. Biden also made a plea for Americans to be an example to the world. American leadership is what holds the world together. American alliances will keep us, America, safe. American values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with. To put all that at risk if we walk away from Ukraine,

if we turn our backs on Israel, it's just not worth it. More Biden speeches should sound like monologues from Top Gun. Let's get some Kenny Loggins in there. Let's see how it goes. American leadership is what holds the world together. American alliances will keep us, America, safe. American values are what make us a part of the other nations we want to work with. Sure. This speech followed Biden's remarks in Israel on Wednesday in which he urged Israel to show restraint.

I caution this while you feel that rage. Don't be consumed by it. After 9-11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes. I've said it before, but I'll just say it again. I'm glad Biden is president right now. Trump would be refusing to send aid to Palestinians until they turned over evidence that Hunter is a pedophile. A statement he delivered during a wedding after showing the owner of Palm Beach's premier Lexus dealership a photo of Macron fucking.

Like, that was the alternative? Worth keeping in mind? At the Capitol, protesters were arrested on Wednesday after they entered and peacefully occupied a congressional building, calling on the U.S. to demand a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza. Pretending this was some sort of insurrection,

Marjorie Taylor Greene asked Capitol Police to preserve all video surveillance footage, photographic evidence, and police reports after the protests. Not all Republicans agreed, however. Lauren Boebert encouraged Capitol Police to dispose of the surveillance footage as she tucked her tit back into her shirt.

Independent presidential candidate and person whose whole vibe is off, Cornel West received the maximum campaign donation of $3,300 from billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crowe, according to West's latest fundraising report. It's sad to see that money is straight out of Clarence Thomas' gift budget. The news came after West announced two weeks ago that he wouldn't be running for the Green Party

nomination and would be running as an independent. In a text message to the Times, Mr. West said of the decision, I'm a jazz man in politics and the life of mind who refuses to play only in a party band. And I don't care who is hurt by helping to elect Trump. This is jazz. Scootily-doop, scootily-doop. You have to listen for the problems we don't solve. Then, in a statement about returning Harlan Crowe's donation, West once again called himself a jazz man. As a jazz man, I listened and decided to give the money back to brother Harlan, but still state the truth. This is neither here nor there, but

I believe Harlan Crow's dick fully hit the table at his hunting lodge when he heard that brother there. California governor and guy who can help you pick a wine if you're having trouble, Gavin Newsom, has signed a bill that will require schools to teach cursive in first through sixth grade.

I think that's great. Everyone my age had to learn cursive. And look at us now, a lonely, fucked up, financially crippled generation that knows cursive. Rhonda Sanchez is due to do a press conference. She's going to be like, Gavin Newsom's going to make them learn the woke G. That's not a Q. That's a number two. That's weird. A Q never made sense.

In our hearts, we know the Q never made sense. The U.S. military said Wednesday that forces had shot down two drones that were targeting American troop stations at an air base in Iraq. The Uber Eats delivery robots had a moment of silence for their fallen comrades. Meanwhile, Amazon will begin testing drone deliveries of prescription medications. The drugs will be dropped at the customer's address in a padded package from a height of four meters. Oh, my anxiety meds are ready? Would it be possible for a flying robot that physically represents a cold and soulless future,

a kind of joyless and empty yet infinitely convenient life, to come to my house and fling them at me from above? It's for my anxiety. Twitter, the app we will not call X, will test a new program called Not a Bot that will charge new users $1 annually in order to post and interact with other posts. This shouldn't matter. Nobody should be signing up for a Twitter account.

Twitter was once Chernobyl in 1985. Not perfect, a little bleak, but there was good work there. Twitter is now Chernobyl in 1987. What are you doing? Sink your teeth, not falling out? Toyota issued a press release to announce the progress they've made towards developing a solid electrolyte battery that could give electric vehicles a 900-mile range,

which is all well and good, but the internet was more interested in an included photo that showed the solid electrolyte in a clear fast. Yeah, that's right. That looked like a butt plug. This explains why Toyota is giving away a free bottle of VCR cleaner with every pre-order unbelievable if it can charge a car imagine what it could do to my asshole said Rosie the robot from the Jetsons the sick fucks at Pucker Butt Pepper Company in South Carolina have developed a small wrinkly pepper called Pepper X, which now holds the Guinness record for world's hottest chili pepper.

I think the fuck not, said a shirtless six-year-old Anthony Kiedis. The company's founder described the feeling of eating a whole Pepper X. There's an intense burn that happens immediately. Then your head feels kind of like, oh no, what's going on? And then your body just starts reacting. You get it in your arms, you get it in your chest. It has no real throat burn like the Reaper, but that comes on later. When you're in pain.

This story brought to you by male loneliness. Male loneliness. Who needs a friend you can have intimate conversations and inherent trust with when you can create a medical emergency in your asshole just to feel something? And finally, federal customs agencies seized a small box of giraffe feces from an Iowa woman who was returning from Kenya. The woman explained she was planning to use the turds to make a necklace. That wasn't even the first reason we stopped her, said officials.

It was actually number two. Yeah, that's right. That's right. All right. We have a great show. We'll be right back. And we're back. Look, you guys, you know I hate to brag, but I have to explain something. I still have some useful connections here in Washington.

Some powerful friends, some real movers and shakers who pick up the phone when I call, always ready with a warm, who is this, how did you get this number? Now, before we bring out Jen, we actually have a surprise last-minute guest straight from the halls of the White House. He's never met a cop he wouldn't bite. Commander Biden is here.

Brian, bring him out! I... I... I can't. Can you help? You're a full-grown man. How is he so much stronger than you? Use those little noodle arms of yours. Look at all these people waiting, Brian. You don't pay me.

Ow! Ow! All right, I will get him. I will get him. I will get him. I will get him. Hold on. Hold on. Oh, no.

Okay, hold on. Jesus. I... Come on. Come on. Commander, hold on. Jesus. I, come on. Come on, Commander, they're way out. Jesus Christ, guys, I'm telling you, he's a nice dog. It's a fucking good dog. He just gets a little scared of a busy building.

Okay. Ah, ah, ah, ah, he's got me. Okay. He's got me. Okay. All right, well. I wish you could see them playing. Oh, my God. It's adorable. We'll check in with Brian and Commander a little later.

I'm bleeding. Okay. Okay. We come back. Let's hear some gossip. And we're back. If you live in L.A., you get used to... I'm out of breath from wrestling that dog.

If you live in L.A., you get used to seeing celebrities everywhere you go. Jessica Chastain buying groceries at Erewhon. Jason Sudeikis hiking at Runyon. Tommy Veeder wearing a hat and sunglasses, buying a ticket for Saw X, but watching the Taylor Swift concert movie for a third time in the middle of the day. As we flag the top of the show, it's time for a segment

we're calling DC Moi or the Ellens of DC. Brian's gonna be out there. Brian's going to be out there. Here's what we're looking for. Shut up. For those listening at home, they have an anonymous tip. It says, just saw John Lovett

getting thrown out of the DC Cheesecake Factory. He looks like he's been crying. Anon, please. So I want to hear your best stories of run-ins with DC's version of celebrity, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Brian's out there. Raise your hand if you've got one. Yeah.

Yeah, let's hear it. Let's hear it. This is going to be one where it's like, you know, like throwing the first brick at Stonewall. Someone's got to loosen everybody up. Hi, John. Hi. I met you a year ago in Baltimore.

Okay. Towson. It was Towson. In Towson. We're so close to Baltimore. It's good to see you again. Well, it was close to Baltimore and you did not have a good time with the food. No. I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I saw Rashida Tlaib and she

and I had lots of alcohol together and we also got kicked out of the same bar together. Okay. That's pretty good. I mean, literally kicked out. Like, you guys have had too much, and we had arm in arm, and I was like, but we don't get along. And she goes, no.

And we just walked out. What bar? What bar? What bar? It was the congressional night where everyone comes in on the day that they get, you know, wherever they come from. I don't. Was it a, what was it?

You've been to D.C. Like, you know this. Like, everyone gets into Congress on the same day, and then we all get drunk at the same time. Open house. Open house. So you got kicked out of a free event. Yeah, Rashida and I got kicked out at the same time. You got kicked out of a free event. Yeah, Rashida and I got kicked out at the same time. You got kicked out of an event that's just meant for everyone to

have a nice time at and maybe a drink or two. And whatever you were doing in there, you got ejected. Robert Garcia was like, can you guys go home? And we both went high five, yeah. Okay. Thank you for sharing that story. Someone right there. someone right there so growing up i lived in a very interesting neighborhood where my across the street neighbor was bill webster and my neighbor down the street was senator bob packwood so this is like a blast for the past um my mother was one of the people that bob packwood groped so there you go. Okay. There's some gossip. Thank you for sharing, Matt. I do want to just,

for the purposes of the remainder, I want to shift this more in the direction of rude to waiters. As much as we can, just as you're thinking. I can see, you know, look. This is a town that contains in it the secrets of many horrors.

Oh, there's a, someone flashed a light. Hi. Hi. Hi, John. What do you got? All right, so this is not a blast from the past, but can you tell everybody what this is a picture of? I think you should.

It's a picture of me and Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan. What were you up to? What were you doing?? What were you doing? I'll tell you, John. Tell me. So I was going to a date at Off the Record at the Hey Adams, which is like one of the best bars in D.C. And I was walking in, and in like the most D.C. thing ever,

I was like, wow, those are two of the most awful people that I've ever seen. I definitely have to take a picture just to say that I was here. And so the date on this photo is November, 2019, which is relevant because as I take the picture, Jim Jordan puts his arm around me like this. And he like over through my overcoat, kind of like gives me a squeeze like this. And he's like, he's like, man, you really been, you really been working out, you know? Like this is something else. And I was, in my mind, I'm like, dude, read the room.

Like this is literally in the news right now about the whole Ohio State thing. It was the most wild interaction I've ever had with, like with anybody, crazy. How was the date? It was great. I was late for like five minutes but yeah it's good but did you stay together who is I where what are you with that person no so not that great uh who's next thank you for sharing that. Hi.

Hi. I'm Alexis, and I decided to take myself out to the Kennedy Center to go see the National Symphony Orchestra one night, and I wanted to take myself out to dinner beforehand and go sit at the bar at Red Hen, and it was impossible to get in because Joe and Jill decided to have their Valentine's Day dinner that night and the entire restaurant was taken up by staffers, but I did get to

see them drink the same thing and eat the same thing together and it was adorable. They got the same pasta. What was it? Oh, I don't remember. It was reported at the time, but the story was about how they got the same dish,

and that led to a debate about couples and what happens when you order the same thing, and whether there's an implied problem because you should get two things, just for the fun of it, just for the thrill of it. And I have an opinion on that. I think if you know what you want, get it. And don't share.

Listen, that is said with the confidence of a person who goes out to dinner and to a show by themselves to experience it. I mean that in the best way. Next person. Yeah. So I work at a retail store that sells electronics and is a trillion dollar company, but I'm not going to say what it is. There have been two members of Congress to come into the store the time I've worked there. AOC, the nicest woman I've ever met. We talked about New York.

An amazing person. Kevin McCarthy pretended people didn't know who he was, tried to be so bashful, like, oh, who me? Not nice about it, though. Too bashful, his staff is in the way. The only two people who come in in AOC and Kevin McCarthy, the two ends of the spectrum. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Look, none of us likes Kevin McCarthy. But was he nice? He was. He was. He was. Just admit it. Tell the story about how Kevin McCarthy was nice. He was not rude.

He was like a normal person in a retail environment. So you're just a raging partisan. Kevin McCarthy. Yeah, yes. In fact, yes. Just by showing up, it was a crime against... Kevin McCarthy,

just all he did was walk in and tried not to seem famous. Yeah. And did you help him? Not me, but my co-worker, and I watched the whole thing from afar, just to not crowd him. Oh, shit.

I did help AOC. We talked about New Paltz, New York, because I went to college there. That's nice. Let's come up to the front. Do you want to do one? Do you still have one? We got a Clarence Thomas after this.

What do you got? It's not really an interaction, but I was really close by to Karl Rove. We made eye contact.ce Thomas after this. What do you got? It's not really an interaction, but I was really close by to Karl Rove. We made eye contact. I texted my dad. I said, I'm really close to Karl Rove. And he said, cool.

Slip cyanide in his drink. Well, that's a story about someone threatening to kill Karl Rove, who seems to have done nothing wrong in that circumstance. All right, you got a Clarence Thomas anecdote? We've got a Clarence Thomas. So I went to the strangest conference center that's ever existed, and it had like eight different conferences going at one time.

And I'm coming back from lunch with some people, and we see Clarence Thomas sitting in a very large, overstuffed leather armchair, aggressively just being a boomer on his phone just yes the big boomer scroll the the repositioning their face in relation to the phone the the the boomer scroll what just for people that the boomer scroll is when your finger leaves the ipad and goes up into the world yes while there were at least two much younger people, one of them I assume was an intern,

in very hushed, panicked tones, trying to tell him something clearly very important that Clarence was not at all interested in. And as they try to get him up, he like sits down harder and just like scrolls harder.

And that's all I got. Nice. We'll close it out. I'll do one. I'll do one to close it out. You have one? I have one. Ryan, when do you go?

When all the candidates used to come to the cricket office to court us. Kamala came, and she was talking to a staffer, and she was walking along to the studio, passes someone's desk where her most recent book was, wordlessly picks it up, still talking to the staffer, signs it, puts it back down, continues into the studio. Nice. I like that. Yeah. I like that. That's cool. That is cool. When I was in DC, I was at a bar that I believe no longer exists. It was, a bar that I believe no longer exists. It was, it was, it might've, it might've been called Halo at the time. It was, it was at 14th and P there was that bar that was, it was blue something

for a time, right? Whatever it was called at that time, I was at that bar with two friends. And then we clocked this guy come into the bar. He was, uh, it just did not fit. He was wearing a trench coat. It was like, honestly, it was like clocking was like strange, but also it's like your spidey sense is tingling. Like does, you know, something's wrong. And we just sort of watched this guy. He may, I may have invented, my memory may have added a fedora for effect, but emotionally energy wise fedora may not have existed. It may not have been there, but that's the energy, fedora energy. And so he's, and we see him kind of like walking from person to person. He was like older than us. And he finally comes to us and he takes a photo out of

his jacket and says, have you seen this person? Have you ever seen this person? It was a photo of Senator Larry Craig. Because this was a reporter from the Idaho Statesman who was following the trail of rumors that Larry Craig was secretly gay. And I couldn't stop laughing because I was like, I know who this is, but you're asking this in the wrong way. Like a was like, I know who this is, but you're asking this in the wrong way. Like a lot of people will know who this is because a lot of these people work on

the fucking hill. They're going to recognize him from work. And I was like, and he's like, well, I'm here because we're looking into this. And I just remember laughing at the guy and being like, look, I can't help you. Haven't seen Larry Craig at Halo. And I'm pretty ambivalent about your enterprise here, but Godspeed. But my friend was like, oh, I'll hear, I was like, he was, check out, he was like, take out a map. These are the places in DC where older gay men go for anonymous public sex. That's what he did. No heroes in this story. And so we just clocked that, but we never heard anything about it.

Never heard another word about it. No story ever ran. And then it was like a year or two later, all of a sudden in one random day, Senator Larry Craig was the senator who was arrested, I believe at Minneapolis International Airport, because he was soliciting sex in a bathroom stall and then denied it standing next to his poor wife

in that one of those classics, classic wife behind the guy who did it, but denied it up and down because one of the things that the rumor, which at the time was like they treated as implausible, was that he was soliciting sex at public restrooms in D.C. And then two years later,

and that's D.C. moi. When we come back, Jen Psaki's here. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Please welcome to the stage, she's a former White House press secretary,

it's television's Jen Psaki. Hi, hi, hi. Thanks for being here. I'm good. How are you? Okay, let me first say I was very nervous about following Commander Biden because, and also your monologue. I was like, we're going to talk about serious stuff. I'm going to be a real downer. But then when I heard people sharing their gossip, I thought, wow, D.C. is a little depressing. A lot of people need hugs out in this audience, maybe except for the woman who met AOC, who is very nice. I agree. I've also met her. And your Larry Craig story really brought us down. OK, now I'm ready to talk about I'm ready to talk about dark things with you.

The key thing about following Commander Biden is you don't want to sneak up on him. things with you. The key thing about following Commander Biden is you don't want to sneak up on him. Can I just say the Secret Service officers, did they just nicely pet him? Did they? Right? Who's with me? Free Commander.

Poor guy. Well, it could also just be it could be nobody had done the, no one needs to be in the wrong because like secret service energy is different than, it's like, you know what I mean? It's like they're protecting, they're being, it's like, it's a different, it's just a strange energy for a dog. Okay.

But he's a dog. He's not like a predator. So anyway, it's okay. We don't have to, Willow, we love Willow. Willow is the cat.ow. Willow is the cat. Willow is good. And Willow hasn't taken out any eyes or anything. Not that we're tracking. Not that we know yet. Wait for the expose. So President Biden addressed the country last night on Israel and Ukraine. You talked a little about this. What are the goals of a national primetime address like that? So let me first say, and we talked about this a little bit backstage.

I've been at MSNBC for a little over a year now. This is the hardest story I've ever talked about, covered. Every single day that we did a show, we ended the show and we had this kind of gut check with our team. And we said, did we do that right? Did we get that right? Did we talk about that? Were we sensitive in that moment? Did we share all the context? And I say that because it's, I think a lot of people here probably know the history in the region, but also feel probably very deeply impacted by what happened. And it has been, I'm not going to cry right now, but also feel probably very deeply impacted by what happened. And it has been, I'm not going to cry right now, but I've cried on air multiple times over the last two weeks and we embrace that. So let me start with that. But I would say primetime addresses, you know, they are really fucking hard to do. And they're hard to do for a couple of reasons.

One is they're short, 12 to 15 minutes of a speech. It may not feel short when you're watching it. It is very, very short to write. And it is not a forum to give context of everything that's ever happened on that issue ever. That is especially hard when it talks... Imagine if you were to write this speech where it was, OK, love it, we need you to write a speech

that's everything about Ukraine, the horrors of putin why that why they need money also israel the palestinians need money hamas is a terrorist group islamophobia and anti-semitism you have 12 minutes actually make it nine because biden's gonna add like seven minutes go you know that that is that is what they were tasked with doing. So I say that because I think it was hard to weave all those things together. And I watched it and thought to myself, if I didn't know all the depth of all of these issues, this would be a little bit hard to follow. That's not necessarily a critique of it. It just would be hard to follow. But what I think he wanted out of that speech, and I don't know, we can maybe see a show of hands if people felt like they got this, was Hamas is very bad. Israel is reeling. This is

their 9-11. The Palestinian people are not Hamas. They need help. They need assistance. They need aid. And by the way, anti-Semitism is horrible. Islamophobia is horrible. We should speak out against all of those things. You can't get a lot of, okay, some people got that. You don't, so that's what I think they wanted to accomplish. They also had to give a speech in part because when the president spent so much time on national security issues, people are wondering, what the heck are you doing? Why are you doing that? Why are you spending so much time talking about Israel? Why are you spending so much time talking about Ukraine? And I think they had to seize the moment

to give a speech to kind of tell people why and also say, Congress, we need money. And I know you don't have a speaker, but we still need money. One thing that I was sort of, to your point about how hard it is to throw out all those needles, one part of it that I found sort of hard to parse is

the speech, the portion about Ukraine seems to me is not aimed at the same people as the portion around Israel and Gaza in the sense that right now the Ukraine debate is kind of a congressional debate. I think that public opinion has sort of slowly started turning against U.S. support, U.S. involvement. But that's been a slow roiling change. Israel, Gaza, what is happening in the Middle East, that is on the front of every newspaper, the lead of every story. It's what the American people are talking about.

Well, it currently is. Now, remember, Ukraine was on the front of every newspaper and on the front of every indominated television for the first couple of months. Actually, frankly, much longer than I thought it would. My mother-in-law, who's very smart, she's a retired teacher, but she was like mapping out war plans in Ukraine. Like she was giving me updates. And I mean, I was in the White House at the time because she consumed so much. That is true for what's happening in Israel right now. It is true for people's concern and horror about the humanitarian crisis that is currently happening in Gaza. It may not be the case in three weeks.

And I think what the president thinks about, or what you have to think about when you're the president of the United States, is that. Is that this is not necessarily going to be on the front of newspapers, in the front of television every day, and people need money and assistance. And my job is to try to get that. So we've seen a fair amount of polling that shows young people are more skeptical and maybe confused by America's alliance with Israel. They don't understand what our relationship is, why we

provide military support, why we would want to be connected to what is reported certainly on the left as a, as in sort of an unequivocal battle between people that have power and people that don't. How do you think about what President Biden should be doing? How should Democrats be talking about this issue when there are, I think, a lot of younger progressives that aren't sold on what the mainstream Democratic position is? Yeah. Look, I think that when you're doing your best job as an elected official or a person in the media, you are not underestimating the intelligence of the American public or people who are progressives or moderates or whatever they consider themselves politically. This is a situation where there is

decades, if not, of course, longer of history of occupation of people who are, think about the people who have been asked to evacuate from Gaza. Many of them were already refugees there, right? They have been living under a blockade for decades. These are people who have been suffering for a long, long, long time. There's nowhere for them to go. It's not safe for them to go anywhere. There's no water. There's no energy. There's no power. You can talk about that simultaneously and the horror that people are fearing when they're in hospitals and they are barricaded in homes not knowing when they're going to be attacked while also talking about the horrors of the Israeli people. And I'm not saying validating Prime Minister

Netanyahu. By the way, Prime Minister Netanyahu is hugely unpopular, was long before this. I don't, he, because, for people who are following this, because of the judicial reforms, which are absolutely outrageous, there's lots of parallels, by the way, to what would happen if Trump was reelected, so pay attention to that, in this country. Hugely, hugely unpopular. That does not take away from the pain that these people are feeling. And I will also say, people who are members of the Jewish community in this country, I'm not Jewish myself, who have had grandparents who survived the Holocaust, or great-grandparents, that is not something I have lived and experienced. But I also think that this is very visceral to people,

and we can recognize that and honor that and value that while also honoring, talking about, and lifting up the horrors that are being experienced in Gaza right now. And part of that is not underestimating people's intelligence. Yeah. Well, I also think from the other side of it, I do think that you see a lot of very pro-Israel and strident views that basically try to lump being critical of Israel with anti-Semitism. And at the same time, you also see a fair amount of anti-Semitism. And I do think that there's a challenge, I think, for those, for the sort of everyone

kind of in between those two poles to kind of articulate an argument for the right of Israel to exist, while at the same time, that doesn't presume a lot of bad intentions on the part of everyone who has from you know young people specifically Jewish young people who protested at the Capitol and a lot of people who have been brought into this issue because primarily because of a concern for the Palestinians who deserve that concern yes I think sometimes people are look the human nature I'm the child of a therapist, so just like I do a lot of over-analysis of people, is like, it's very easy for any human being to categorize every other person they see, right? It's like, you are Jewish, therefore you must not care about the people in Gaza or the Palestinian people. That is not true. Or you are Jewish and therefore you support the actions of Prime

Minister Netanyahu over the past. That is definitely not true. Just ask the Israeli people. Or you are a Muslim American. Therefore, you don't recognize the horrors that were just experienced by the people in Israel. That is not true either. I think what has contributed to this, and this is not the only reason, is the rhetoric and the language and the hatred that we have seen from Donald Trump, from people who have followed him and who have echoed it and

who have ignored it and, you know, ignored it by me not speaking out against it. That has contributed to it as well because it has allowed this forum for a lot of this hate speech in many directions to prosper. Yeah, I also do think, like, I struggle with the fact that there is a whole apparatus on the right that will go and find the most heinous thing a person has said on a college campus, the most heinous thing a professor at a school somewhere in the country has said, and use that to kind of tar the entire left of this country,

including the left that is vociferously advocating for the rights and dignity of Palestinians. I see that, and I see that as a means of trying to denigrate anybody that would care about the Palestinian people. But at the same time, I also worry about anti-Semitism, about the way in which there is, there is obviously people of legitimate criticisms of Israel, but at the same time, I think a lot of Jewish people have been surprised by just how much anti-Semitism they have seen. Sometimes, yes, elevated by the right, but sometimes just seeing it in their feeds, seeing it in their life. Now, part of that is the way social media puts the worst and most disgusting things in front of us. But I also do think this has called attention to a way in

which I think a lot of people have turned a blind eye to certain quarters on the left too. Yeah, I think that is true. And I think social media is a huge contributor to it, for sure. I also think there should be a recognition, you just mentioned. I mean look, Jewish schools in New York, I don't know if anybody here is from New York Welcome to Washington Welcome to Washington. It's not as bad as the last game just made it sound People need to like get out more

I don't even know but but Jewish schools in New York were kind of shut down and some were closed down because of fear of people attacking. I'm talking schools with kids, right? That is absolutely horrible, crazy. I mean, I have a five and an eight year old. You think about some of these threats that people are under and feel and live viscerally every day. And it is, that's a way

that we should identify what's happening here. Like, forget about Prime Minister Netanyahu and like this and that and Congress, that's important. But it's also about human beings and the impact on human beings. And I think when we come back to that, that should be very centering for all of us. come back to that, that should be very centering for all of us. This debate also is not taking place in a vacuum, neither is President Biden's response. Trump has been saying obviously bizarre and narcissistic things in response to this, saying that this wouldn't have happened if he were president, attacking Netanyahu, supporting Netanyahu, saying Hezbollah is smart. You've seen Republicans that are trying to vie for the nomination decide to scapegoat refugees and to make this about a bigoted view around immigration. It seems like there's sort of two aspects of this. One is you have President Biden advocating for the

importance of America's role in the world versus the isolationism sometimes you see on the right. And then you have President Biden as a force of stability and adult leadership seriousness versus the kind of chaos and silliness that we see in the House and we see from the Republicans. How would you think about the foreign policy argument that will, of course, play a role in the upcoming election, even if it tends not to be the center of it? I mean, I think that's a part of it. I mean, don't tell Tommy, but people don't vote on foreign policy typically. I mean, I love foreign policy too. I can nerd out with them totally, but I, we all can recognize that. But I think for president Biden,

it's twofold. It is experience and preparedness for a crisis, which I think he has shown he is. In this last couple of weeks, but also as it relates to Ukraine. The other piece of it, I mean, the biggest challenge, this is like not a secret, although when you talk about his age, people whisper and you're like, he's 81, he's tracking guys, if he knows. And it showed that he has the stamina. I mean, there's a reason why, I don't know if any of you saw the ad that they did with the Biden campaign did of him going to Ukraine. That wasn't because they think that people in the United States are voting on Ukraine.

They're not. I mean, we care because we have bleeding hearts and it's important. But like they use that because it's like, look at this guy. He took a train 11 hours. He's not old. Who can do that? And, you know, his trip to Israel, coming back and doing this speech,

I was really feeling for the people on Air Force One who were working and writing that speech. I was like, oh my God. And then, but also in 60 minutes, multiple speeches, speeches on the ground in Israel speech, a national address when he comes home. Yes. That is hard to do, all of what

he has done. You can like some of the things he said, not like it, feel like some things didn't strike the right curve. That's all fair, and that's a good, important debate. But what he's done over the last two weeks is exhausting, requires decades of experience to understand how to navigate it. There's a lot happening behind the scenes right now that people don't even see. They can't see. I mean, the two Americans who were released today, which is amazing, amazing news. You know, that was because of hours, days, weeks of negotiations, talking to the Qataris. The fact that Rafah Crossing in Egypt hopefully will open and get some humanitarian assistance through, that is because Tony Blinken just spent 10 days in the region sent by President Biden.

So I say all of this because I think it's all that. The other thing, not to scare the crap out of people, and I'm sorry, but you played this clip of him talking about the warnings post 9-11. We'll see where this goes. But one of the scariest parts of what's happening over in the Middle East right now, I said I wasn't going to get nerdy, and I'm just like getting real nerdy here, is what's happening on the border with Hezbollah and the border of Lebanon. And the fear here that you have if you're in the White House is the explosion of this war and a potential war with Iran.

So what I heard from his warning on 9-11 and not following 9-11, which, by the way, I think he did a lot of what he needed to do in a very tricky way last night, but I actually thought the most important thing he said was what he said about 9-11. Yeah, I agree.

Is because that is a warning. I mean, we were all, many people in this room, I was not just alive, I was out of college. I think, I don't know, maybe you were too. In that period when Congress, the media, everybody, maybe you weren't out of college, I don't know. I'm a little bit older than you. But who cares?

I like your sneakers. But in that period, rush to war. Rush to war. There were mistakes made. There are people out there, where some of them are Republican candidates, who would love to attack Iran. So what I'm saying is that could also be what this is about, right? What kind of leadership, how you see the role in the world, not rushing to war, war and military action is not a first resort, but a last resort.

action is not a first resort, but a last resort. So we're both former staffers. We're on liberal networks. Some people say we're, you know, just like neolib shells. At the same time, I think you you're someone i've actually appreciated it you know that that you've been really trying to make sure that you are uh like honest about what you think is going on in a way that is productive where you try to be you're not you know you're not taking like sort of pot shots but you're also being critical where you think it's necessary being honest about how you view things i often struggle with that i think it's necessary being honest about how you view things. I often struggle with that. I think it's a hard thing to think about because obviously as someone who is on television every day, if you were to go out and say something very critical about Joe Biden, it would get picked up on the right.

People wouldn't notice it. But at the same time, there might be moments where you have a different point of view. You think it might be good for something to be changed. You know, this was leading up to the election last year i said something like if it's um if it's about joe biden the democrats will not win because it's a referendum on the presidency's not and it was like the right wing was like jen saki admits that the president's terrible i don't even know what was something like that but anyway continue no but. No, but I do think it's like, how do you think about the moments

where being honest is not just something you're doing to say vent an anxiety about Biden being old or to seem with it with the people that watch, right? But rather actually has a productive value. And when do you feel as though you are sort of holding back because you're trying to be a good member of the team even if there's something, maybe you would want to be more critical of something

but you don't think it's particularly helpful? You know, I've thought a lot, I'm sure you have too, I've thought a lot about when I left the White House, a lot of people asked me this question and I thought, what's my bar? Kind of what's my, because you don't meet this every day

or maybe you do, I don't know. Who knows? You're younger than me. You're more agile. Just kidding. What's my bar? My bar is I don't want to erase my background because that would not be super useful. I mean, it is useful, I think,

that I've done multiple presidential campaigns and worked at the State Department and stuff like that. I want to provide insight into what the thinking might be and actually say to people, that's not a big deal. Like stop freaking out about that. Or this is actually a big deal over here. At the same time, I don't want to be overly, like if I went out every day and said, Joe Biden is the greatest president who has ever walked the earth and he's never made a mistake. That's not very authentic. It's not very credible because everybody makes mistakes. Or if I went out every day and some people do do this and just like decided to find random things to trash him about,

that's not authentic either. So that's kind of my bar and how I try to think about it. But, you know, what I think about is, like, where can I actually provide some insight into what's going on, right? It's been, I think, an adjustment for people not to be like, what's the president thinking about this? I'm like, I haven't worked there in, like, 16 months. I mean, I can tell you, like, give you a broad sense, but I do think about that a lot

and really try to check myself and make sure it's like I'm providing insight into how the White House works, how the State Department works, how thinking around trips or speeches work, but not being kind of a cheerleader or like the opposite of that, right? Because I don't think that's my job. Yeah. As you look towards covering this next year, what are you thinking about in terms of, like, what are the biggest things you're concerned about as someone watching this from the outside now, but obviously wanting Joe Biden to succeed? Buckle up. It's going to be a year. Look, I think one of the things I always remind myself of,

and I feel like maybe we'll talk about this at the end if there's a game of sorts, I don't know, is that we're a year out from the election, and any headline that is telling you, this speech will determine the outcome. First of all, it drives me insane. Burn that stuff in a fire. It is crazy. No one knows. No one knows. There could be far worse things or far better things. And it's a, I mean, on the Obama campaign, we were like talking about his opposition to the Iraq war

and how he was, you know, the change you can believe in. And then there was a financial crisis. Six weeks before the election, that's what determined the outcome. What I'm worried about, I'm worried about voter suppression and laws that are passing in states across the country that people may not be paying enough attention to. I'm worried about enthusiasm, although I do think that will change once people see what the stakes are. But I don't think that should be underestimated. I don't think they are underestimating it, but that I'm worried about.

I'm worried about a war with Iran. I'm worried about a finance. I'm worried about lots of things, aren't you guys? But here's the thing. Everybody needs to be very worried. I'm not a believer that everybody should just sit and settle in. Be worried. Be Yeah. Be worried. Be worried.

Be worried. Yeah. Be freaked out and stressed, please. It's horrible, everybody. Joyful and terrified. Yeah. That is our energy. And on that note, Jenna's going to stick around, but we'll be right back.

And we're back. Just to get them in on the conversation, please welcome to the stage two people whose opinion is based on something called firsthand reporting. I don't know what that... I think that's how it's pronounced, firsthand. Journalism? I've never seen it. I've only seen it written.

Welcome from Semaphore, Dave Weigel, and Politico's Daniela Diaz. Yes. Jen, why don't you slide over, and then you guys go over here. Pick a spot. You can't go wrong. No, no, you're both doing great. That chair was made for you. All right. Welcome to you both. Thanks for being here. All right. Let's turn to Congress. All right. Danielle, I wanted to start with you. As of this recording, there is no Speaker of the House. There is no plan. There's no clear

front runner. There's no strategy to end this. What's going to happen? I have no idea. I really don't. I have no clue. It's a free-for-all. That's when we realized when Jim Jordan, as you very delicately put it, was booted by his own conference in a secret ballot. I liked your metaphor to basically your high school class kicking you out quietly. Oh, yeah. It's no good. It's no good for Jim. That's essentially what happened. Yeah, he got voted least likely to succeed. But he yeah. It's no good. It's no good for Jim. That's essentially what happened. Yeah, he got voted least likely to succeed.

But he doesn't know who voted that. I know. He'll never know. He'll never know. You'll never know. And five people voted present, which I found really interesting.

Oh, come on. Five people voted present on that ballot? That is embarrassing. Yeah, so five people refused to say where they stood on Jim Jordan, who...

Ugh. But really, it showed that there were people that were privately griping about him continuing to go to the floor. And that's what it took to get him to not be in the race anymore. And now everyone is announcing... Are you running for Speaker? I was thinking about it. I was thinking about it. I think you know.

I was thinking about it. I don't think they're going to... Apparently, you don't have to be a member of Congress. No. You don't even have to be a person. There's no rule. It says Commander Biden can't be Speaker of the House. Couldn't be worse than...

I mean, anyway. Dave, you wrote a piece about what Matt Gaetz's maneuvering says about conservative media right now and how Gaetz did this using right-wing media but not Fox News. Can you talk about that? He was on, we're still calling it Twitter. We all agree to keep calling it Twitter. Yeah. On Twitter spaces, on Steve Bannon's podcast. I mean, this is reported pretty well, but the media that caught on first to McCarthy not having the support to stay on his speaker was right-wing media. And this has happened again and again. I remember when John Boehner was almost thrown out

and he only kind of survived because people were at a funeral. The same thing, if you're reading Breitbart, you knew that this could happen and then it happened. And Fox has been not even leading from behind, just following what the most right-wing members of the conference are doing. They came really close. We're all laughing at Jim Jordan. I heard that earlier. I think we'll

probably continue. But he came very close to becoming speaker. That's a pretty good almost coup attempt. I guess this is two in a row coups that didn't quite work. But eventually, you get close enough, you have the right guy you overthrow the leadership and you win they got very close to doing that and you you figured it out if you were watching what they were saying to the most right-wing podcasters and twitter people yeah i mean look i i do think you're right to say like the fact that someone like jim jordan got within a few votes of becoming speaker is a terrifying prospect and the fact that so many of these i you know this ideologically for lack of better words,

ideologically diverse group of Republicans ended up backing him. Danielle, I want to ask you about that. So the holdouts that didn't vote for Jordan, they're all over the spectrum, if there is much of a spectrum on the right at this point, but somewhere in Biden districts, about a third are in the problem solvers caucus. One is in the freedom caucus, four didn't certify the 2020 election. in the Freedom Caucus. Four didn't certify the 2020 election. What is going on there? What did you take from seeing who actually ended up being a holdout? The way I saw it, and I've been there since this started. It's been how many days now since McCarthy was booted? I've actually lost count. It feels like 18. But he's still in the office. That's all he wants. Oh, he's still there.

He still has the cool nameplate. He's still doing press conferences regularly. You saw him earlier today. Our office was above a failed tech startup in LA. And I really regret not going down there and just using that space. It was just open. I mean, Kevin McCarthy's just using an open office.

Yeah, he says it's cleaned out. But that he's ready to go when someone moves in. It's like, who? I guess you'll just squat, you know? I don't know. Also, I do want to say, for those of y'all that seem to have not had a huge spectrum of members that you've seen on the street, just go near the Hill. You live in DC. I was very confused. You could see all of these guys when they're going to votes daily. Well, not right now, but there's no votes. There's nothing to do with it. But they're, they're around. They're around. Jen. Um, but I do want to say, uh, I thought the most interesting group were the appropriators. And this is me being kind of nerdy because we're going to talk about funding the government and what it takes to what the group of people that decide

what money goes where they're the ones that were pissed at jordan and they're the ones i'm talking even k granger the appropriations committee chairwoman not k granger who yes it was pretty she normally votes with the party it was surprising and i think that to me was very they've been pissed by jim jordan he's voted against all of their measures for the last 10 years, and they decided, right, for the first time to stand up to that. So that's an example of someone who held out, but there's a lot of examples, Jen, of people that didn't. Mark Molinaro, he's from New York, he said in explaining his vote for Jordan, most of the people I represent wouldn't know the Speaker of the House

if they backed over them with a pickup truck. Basically saying, I'm going to vote for Jordan because it helps me right now in this moment, and I won't pay a price for it. A, is he right? And B, is there any way to make him wrong?

And also, why do you have to kill the guy? I don't like Jim Jordan either, but, like, it feels kind of violent. You know, I don't think he's wrong that most people don't know who the Speaker of the House is. However, I will say, people in foreign capitals, this is not nerdy, I promise, are, like, following this and thinking, whoa, the United States doesn't have a

Speaker of the House. What's going on? Okay. Just imagine this. They're Googling Jim Jordan. Okay. This role is second in line for the presidency of the United States of America, the leader of the free world, the global superpower. And what are they finding? Okay. Google wrestling, we're not going to go there, but like that. But they're also finding this guy is a defender of Donald Trump. This guy is defender of insurrectionists, is a defender of January 6th in some ways. This guy was leading the subcommittee on the weaponization of the government which by the way weird name total utter failure i mean they could not bring up anybody who had anything to possibly say um and they also even had a witness who was like under had a warrant

out for their arrest this is who foreign governments are googling and they're like wow that's weird they want to put that guy maybe but he was close he was close that's the crazy thing i like to think that they called it the weaponization of government committee because that's the committee they used to weaponize the government right that's literally this is like this is your assignment and also your name yes both of them but do you think that there's do you think that there's a way to tie? So I watched as these Republican members emerged, red-faced and sad from the latest room in which they found out that they were going to be without a speaker again.

One of them was asked, you know, doesn't this signify that Republicans can't govern? And he responded, no, this signifies that Washington can't govern. How do you, yeah, well. How do you make this a story that's about Republican dysfunction, not Washington dysfunction? Well, first of all, there are 18 districts that Republicans represent that were won by Joe Biden.

So you can start there. Because ultimately, winning back the House does not take very many seats. And ultimately, I worked at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 06 when we won back the house does not take very many seats and ultimately you want i mean i worked at the democratic congressional campaign committee in 06 when we won back the house i know it's just like i'm really good dialing back history here but we did it was all about the culture of corruption and like tying people to the leadership that they were standing by that does work it is also the message i think a lot of i mean joe biden's been is also the message I think a lot of, I mean, Joe Biden's been running on this, but I think a lot of these Democrats will run on is we're the adults in

the room and we are trying to get things done. That is chaotic and insane. And I thought actually what leader Hakeem Jeffries said this week was so smart. It would have been so easy. I don't know if all of you saw this. It would have been so easy for him just to kind of whack the heck out of the Republicans and eviscerate them. And it probably would have felt really good. He did not do that. He basically was like, Jim Jordan is not someone we could support. No one should support him. But these are good men and women, and many of them might be qualified. Now, that did not feel as good as eviscerating them, but he came across as the adult in the room. That's how you do it. They are destroying themselves. You're the adult in the room. Dave, I think that's good. Dave, how funny would it be if McCarthy came back?

Like the dramaturgically interesting outcome would be McHenry because one, it's like four letters. So for that, the person at home who sees no difference at all between these people. Easy. You probably were calling him McHenry. They look really different, though. One is shorter than another. One has a much smaller chair than the other one. But he would piss off conservatives, which I think some of the people who are annoyed by this would like, because conservatives do not like him

because they see him as the least populist, the most old K Street Republican, the last, we thought we got rid of these guys, like Tom DeLay team, wouldn't change, and bills would pass. They would go home and rant about it. Would it be funnier if McCarthy came back? Yes, but if you read between

the lines, or not that closely, of coverage of Kevin McCarthy for the entire career, including the first time he almost was Speaker and then had to pull out, the subtext was, this guy's not good at counting votes or any other job that the Speaker has to do. He's good at raising money, having amazing hair and shaking hands. Those matter. Wait, did you say hair? He has to do. He's good at raising money, having amazing hair and shaking hands. Those matter. Did you say hair? He has great hair. Oh, he does have great hair, yes. Oh, yeah. And those are skills. I think he might stick around and be the guy who donors love to meet, but he never was good at this. They marched into this battle with a guy that in eight years ago, they said, well, we have 10 more seats.

They know the future. They had more seats than they know now. And they passed them over for Paul Ryan, which they couldn't do anymore. Paul Ryan would never do it now. They knew he couldn't do this job and they marched us into this. So it would be, yes, hilarious

if they brought back the guy who they keep rejecting because he's terrible at it. I also like the idea that all of you were snarking at the idea that he has good hair but can't count. As if a lot of you haven't slept with people because they had good hair but couldn't count. Just saying.

I do want to know. We asked McCarthy if he would run just a few hours ago and he didn't answer. Yeah. McCarthy? You've got to leave your office. There's no value there's no value in saying no. Why close the door? Let the breeze through. Is it Danielle? Is there a moment when it becomes clear that they really can't pick a speaker without Democrats? I feel like the next

week we'll see, but I feel like they're, they Like they're really, and Democrats are talking to Republicans privately. We know that about whether it be empowering McHenry or someone else, but they wouldn't do it for free. What would they get out of that? Having a Republican speaker and helping them. So it's really tricky. They're figuring it out and they're figuring out how to do it, but also they're watching this kind of play out.

I've talked to so many members who are just talking that, in fact, some people are here. I got a text that someone's here and they are, they're watching this with popcorn. They think it's, and actually some of them

are really enjoying their free time right now. Apparently, some members are doing potlucks. Democratic members, I should say. While the Republicans are doing these conferences, they're doing potlucks.

Some told me they're working out. That sounds really, I mean, they're like, the Republicans are figuring this out. What are we going to do? We're in the minority.

We're going to, we're going to buff party, buff Dems. Buff Dems? You're going to see people tan? Democrats are, when democrats are back on the floor next week republicans are eating each other and democrats are eat pray loving you know what i mean uh are any what do we get what do we get what are the what are the democrats starting to think like hey what do we get i mean i've heard no impeachment inquiry i've heard because but i don't know where that is now if there's no speaker you know like they

were supposed to they're supposed to be hearing this week i mean i don't think that's happening at all like what are you gonna do with us they can't do anything um obviously ukraine aid uh funding the government the bare minimum but like how. God damn it, Democrats. It's like, all right, we've come together. We've figured out what our demands are. Our demands are that you do something good for the country. Yeah, sure.

What do we get? Taco Tuesday something. Jen, what do you think about this? I'm for Taco Tuesday, but what else? No, but so Hakeem Jeffries, in the same, I think, Jen what do you think about this I'm for talk on Tuesday but what else Hakeem Jeffries in the same I think in the same remarks that you referenced

where he was very kind of generous in spirit made a point something like Republicans it's their job to choose a speaker and they should but if any Republicans want to depart from the MAGA extremists, Democrats are here to welcome them in some way, some version of that. What do you think about

that? How would you, if you were advising the Democrats in the House, would you be telling them to be putting forward a proposal for how to work together for a bipartisan compromise? Yeah, and I actually am sure they are. I don't know the details of it, but there are all sorts of nerdy machinations of how governing works when it's functioning, where maybe it's like equal numbers of members on the rules committee. The rules committee is a hugely powerful part of the House

where it determines kind of what goes to the floor. I don't know this to be a thing. I'm just saying it as an example. Kakeem Jeffries, who would be a great speaker, is not, they're not, nobody's electing, the Republicans are not electing him speaker. So like, let's just like put that over here for a moment. But there are other things, which I'm certain they're discussing, that they can get that will make the functioning of government and kind of the ease of maybe doing some things a little better and easier. And frankly, the funding of government and where the government doesn't shut down,

funding for Ukraine, funding for Israel, for the Palestinians, that would be a very banner year at this point, everyone. So I think that would all be good. No, I totally agree. It's just more that it's like we're at the point where what. So like, I think that would all be good. No, I totally agree. It's just more that it's like, we're at the point where what we are basically saying, now, if an aid bill

that provided support for Israel and humanitarian aid for the Palestinians could just come to the Senate and the House for a vote, it would pass with huge bipartisan majorities. Same is true for Ukraine.

Same is true for a government funding bill. The problem is the process prevents those things from happening. And so my point is only, it is dispiriting, maybe true, but dispiriting that what we're trying to extract is just the principle of basic governance. Like, hey, you may not have enough votes in your, this may hurt you politically, or this may not be popular with the majority of the majority, but it is popular with the majority of Congress. You have to bring it to the floor. And while in this world, that's a concession, it's a concession to Republican misrule, not a concession to bipartisan power sharing. Well, that's true.

It's not like a let's have a big victory and like pop champagne bottles, but it does make things function. And it does mean that actually you are doing things for the American people. And that is because Hakeem Jeffries and Catherine Clark and others are the adults in the room and actually helping make things function. Oh, I completely agree. Yeah, I agree with you completely. I'm more decrying the times. I think you're right that that is something that would be actually very good if we could use this moment to at least get the government to be open, to avoid shutdown, to avoid kind of

this sort of chaos. Before we move on, you know when a Republican has a gay kid, they discover that gay marriage is okay? But they never seem to just take one more step, you know, on all these other issues. Those are all other people's kids, you know. But, okay. Republicans have gotten a taste this week of what Democrats have been talking about for a long time. They've had threats of violence coming from the far right.

They've all been, I've seen these Republicans go up to the microphones and say like, I mean, we've just gotten to the point where there are people in this that don't want to govern. They just want to make headlines and make noise and burn this whole place to the ground. I've never seen anything like it. Haven't you, buddy? Haven't you? You haven't seen it before? Not cool. Not cool when the, not cool when the leopards are chasing you.

To all of you, from your reporting, do you see this as something where Republicans are actually, is it too much to ask that they learn something from what's happening right now are any of them learning i think there's a lot of come to jesus moments happening right now within the republican conference but i don't know if the right people are having those moments do you know what i mean yeah like i don't but there's i mean the frustration that i've seen in the last four weeks within both not just republicans but too. Everyone's pissed that you could feel the heat when you walk into the Capitol. It's insane. Everyone's pissed

at each other. I think someone almost fought Gates in a conference yesterday when McCarthy told him to sit down. Congressman Bush almost started punching Gates. bad. Like, that's where they're at right now. That's what we're hearing about these conference meetings is they're just yelling at each other. They're cussing at each other. Temperature's really high. And that's why they're home. They went home today for the first time in a few weeks

because they needed to. And I don't know if this is going to change anything, but it's really, I mean, as a reporter who has covered Capitol Hill on and off, we both cover 2020. Dave Weigel has covered more campaigns than I have. I've been a reporter for longer than me, but it's crazy to see what's happening right now and how I'm covering basically government not working and it's affecting everyone here. And people should know that this is happening and one pattern you've seen for for the decade you've been doing covering every ever

recovering it is when one of these appropriators who nobody's name knows because all they do is go to washington deliver stuff and then go home when they retire they're usually replaced by a matt gates uh by a lauren boper lauren boper who primaried somebody who was conservative but literally a problem in the district and things she ran about is that people just like didn't see him on tv uh they they weren't and a thing that they have realized and certainly everyone who voted uh for impeachment and lost their primaries realized uh is that the collapse of local media and people's awareness of what their government is doing has changed things so that they can't get they can put out their statements and they can have their town hall about what is happening back in congress

it is overwhelmed by the kind of puke funnel of entertainment of entertainment get angry at your congressman because they're not impeaching uh joe biden right away there i've seen on democratic side i have not seen that uh hit the same level i've seen people get elected as radicals, become more interested in just governing and bringing stuff home, get protested, but keep chugging. I mean, AOC gets protested all the time by people who say you should be cutting off Ukraine war funding, for example. On the right, this is a problem. And I think you've been seeing it all week that there were people who maybe were in denial or didn't want to think about it. And now they're like, oh, God, no, I can't. My job of bringing resources back

to like the Dallas Metroplex area is endangered because I don't go on like Steve Bannon show enough. And that has become their existential problem. And there's so much misinformation out there by, and one app in particular, there are many apps that are not helping, but people are getting their information from sources they shouldn't be reading.

I mean, follow. We're in D.C., obviously. It's different here. But obviously encourage anyone back home to subscribe to their local paper. They're the ones doing the real work. And only read everything. But that's what matters. And we'll see if some of these guys try to fix figure something out it is amazing that these people work

in a building that was ransacked by the by the fringe of their own party have now discovered because of how impact you were there i was there and it was one of the most traumatizing things that's ever happened to me i had to hide iuated. I was in the house side and I worked at CNN at the time. And I just, it's a, what I'm experiencing right now is pretty crazy. It's like, we just keep covering unprecedented event after unprecedented event after unprecedented event. And this is a result of what's happening in this country. what's happening in this country. Jen, I do think that Joe Biden as a person ran, I think, in part because he sees these dynamics and he believes that his role in life is to be an antidote to this kind of chaos, to this kind of mean spiritedness. We have polls that show that people are extremely concerned about the economy.

They're concerned about his age. And beyond just Joe Biden, there is a sourness in the polling, that people are angry, they are cynical. I think that is in part because of what they're seeing in their lives, but also what they're seeing in the media, what they're seeing online. media, what they're seeing online. For Joe Biden, how do all of us that want to see Joe Biden's theory prove true? How do we represent that in a media environment where there is so much misinformation, where there are so many people that are getting the worst and most extreme rhetoric? What do we do as individuals, I think, to cover this, to think about how we do, how we follow this in our own lives? It's a hard question. No. Well, first I would say, I mean, Joe Biden, we've all heard him say this, but this is a true

definition of what a campaign is, which he often says, don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative. And it is very interesting. I mean, look, one of my favorite things about my last year is that I've spent a lot of time with kind of young up and coming members, governors, people I didn't really know before. You're not just like hanging out with them when you work in the White House. It's like not how it goes. So that's been exciting. And I'm super excited about kind of the future of leadership. But I also think for anybody who feels frustrated,

like I wish Joe Biden was younger. I wish he was diverse. These are all understandable things. But the alternative is existential. And that is how people need to think about it and talk about it. I do think this is not all on everybody here or at all the media.

This is in part on the campaign because you can't draw that contrast unless the campaign is drawing that contrast. They've started to do that a little bit. I think they will do it more. They need to do it more. But the biggest thing here is, um, the contrast. Don't compare me to the alternative. Don't compare it to the alternative and also the what's at stake. You may not like if people don't or they're not excited about Joe Biden. One, he's a great guy and he loves the country. But the thing to remember is that the future of abortion rights, the future of gun violence, the future of hate speech.

These are all things on the ballot. OK, so like that's why it's important to engage and that's what you think we all need to remind people of i think that's right i also just just to leave it here like i i do think that one thing that like i think we're donald trump was asked about joe biden's age and donald trump was like he's not too old there's a lot of really old ceos that do a pretty good job matt gates is on the floor of the house being like, Joe Biden's eating our lunch money on these negotiations. And I really did, it didn't have an impact on me, which is to say like, they are having an easier time making this argument than we are. And one thing I just, I do think that sometimes like we equate

the reality of our political moment and how challenging it is to sins or failures of Joe Biden as a person or as a politician. And it is absolutely true that it's incumbent on the campaign to solve these things. But I do think when you see what's happening with the House, it is worth keeping in mind that one of the challenges Joe Biden faces is he's running for president and for reelection in a country that was so broken Donald Trump was able to win. And that reality is a 30, that's a generational problem, not a four year, two year, one year problem. And so that for all of us, I think who are worried and concerned and are desperate to

make sure that we elect a democratic president, I think sometimes it's worth remembering that it's not us beseeching Joe Biden to do a better job of running in a really difficult environment. It's our job collectively to do our part to help make the environment better, in part by knocking on doors and volunteering and doing our part and doing it with confidence, even when the polling suggests that we have plenty of reason to be concerned. That's all. When we come back, let's rant about some stuff. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It,

and there's more on the way. And we're back. Now, look, obviously... He chewed... He chewed through it. That was reinforced with carbon fiber. Well, don't you...

Get the emergency darts! Ladies and gentlemen, quick bit of housekeeping. Commander has escaped. Well, don't you get the emergency darts. Ladies and gentlemen, quick bit of housekeeping. Commander has escaped. I repeat, the first family's uncontrollable, bloodthirsty German shepherd is loose. Please remain calm.

You have nothing to fear unless you are a member of law enforcement, in which case you have everything to fear. Commander can smell your badge. By now, he is locked on your location. It is only a matter of time. You cannot outrun him. You cannot outsmart him. We apologize for the interruption and hope to have the situation resolved quickly. Brian, he's in the ceiling.

He's rappelling down on the ceiling with a knife in his mouth. Okay. All right. Brian's got him with the darts. We're good. We're good. Okay. Commander the dog, everybody. We're experimenting with some avant-garde theater tonight. Before the rant wheel, a couple notes.

The Love It or Leave It Error Store is headed to Portland and Seattle on November 3rd and 4th. We will make it through two days in the Pacific Northwest without starting a band. Hopefully. Go to crooked.com slash events to get your tickets before we're too busy with all the band stuff. Also, John, Tommy, and I did something that was truly inconceivable to us, which is that we managed to write a book.

I think that's how it's pronounced. With a great comedy writer named Josh Holloway who joined us to help do it. It's called Democracy or Else, How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps. You can pre-order it now. Honestly, I'm like, we're really proud of it. The proceeds are going to go to Vote Save America and 2024 campaigns.

Why we wanted to do it. It's really funny. Every joke is perfect and you'll like every single one of them. It's illustrated. So the pages move fast. Crooked.com slash books. Crooked.com slash books. Now it's time for the rant wheel alright

here's how it works we spin the wheel wherever it lands we rant about the topic this week on the wheel we have Rich Joners begging Youngkin to run we have how Bad Bunny is dating Kendall Jenner we have when Lovett doesn't get his rant to me before the show. We have blank will determine the outcome of the election.

We got a little preview of that one. I'm excited about that. We have e-scooters are scary. We have Kyle XY's lack of Emmy nominations. We have people still open mouth coughing on airplanes. And we have being corrected about something trivial In the middle of telling a story Let's spin the wheel It has landed on why Lovett doesn't get his rant in in time

You know what, let's do let's just, what do you want to hear about? I'll tell you this about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. Is that still going on? You know, honestly, you know what's exciting about that?

It's now dropped below whatever the attention threshold it needed to reach me. Like, it surged up and, like, managed to get football in front of my eyeballs. And, like, what was happening in the stands of games and high fives and chicken tenders and seemingly ranch, and it all was popping through. And honestly, now it's fucking gone. It's off my feed. The algorithm has said, you're done. And I say, thank you to the algorithm. The algorithm knows what I need.

All right. Sometimes it knows I need to see some hot goss about a Jonas brother or something. Sometimes it knows, sometimes it knows for reasons I don't understand and don't need to understand that what I need to see are tours of expensive motorhomes. And here's the thing that doesn't make sense. I have never, literally, I've never been inside of a motorhome. I will never be inside of a motorhome. That's not, I don't need to get anywhere that slowly. And there's nowhere I want to be badly enough that that would be my means of conveyance. I consider anything below a four seasons to be camping out. Anyway, and yet somehow the, the algorithm knows that I find inherently soothing finding out where the TV comes out and how the thing unfolds and how they can hide a Mini Cooper in the trunk of one of these guys. And for whatever reason, late at night, in the part of night where we all are just in communion with our phones, are just in communion with our phones.

That 30 to 45 minutes, which is how long it really is, if we're being honest, where we just give ourselves over to a tech conglomerate to say, this won't help me fall asleep. This won't make tomorrow better, but it will make me forget today. And that is what I have to say about Travis and Taylor.

Let's spin it again. Blank will determine the outcome of the election. Jen. Wait, how long do I go for? As long as it feels. Just tell me when to stop. Do I stretch? You can stand. You can stretch.

You can do whatever you want. The floor is yours. I'm going to stand. Okay. I'm going to stretch a little. Okay. So Ma, blank will determine the outcome of the election. Okay, so let me just start here.

National polls do not matter. Just ignore them. They don't matter. If you feel like you need to pay attention to national polls, remember a few things. Barack Obama was in the low 40s around this time before he won the election and before he won for re-election. Joe Biden around the low 40s. You know what Barack Obama's support was among African Americans in about September or October, a year plus before the election? 58%. Okay, so just digest that. National polls don't matter. The second thing is, 12 months out from the election, that doesn't matter either. So what you need to pay attention to, but please do watch my show at noon on Sundays and 8 p.m. on Mondays, where we will talk about politics. But ignore that. None of that

matters. Anyone who's out there predicting on television or in a newspaper, and you saw a lot of this from the speech last night, what the president did or didn't say is going to determine the outcome of the election. That is complete and utter bullshit. It has nothing to do with what's going to happen next November, because you know why? Lots of things will happen. June before 2022, guess what happens? Abortion, Roe, guess what determined the outcome of the election? That, in part, right? September before 2008, you know what happened? Financial crisis. That is what determined the outcome of the election. So the biggest thing you can do now, ignore national polls, except when I'm talking about them on my show, and then obviously pay attention to them. And I'll tell you, they don't matter. Ignore them, get registered,

get your neighbors registered, get organized, get excited. They matter less than I'm going to incorporate another one, whether or not Bad Bunny and Kendall Jenner are together next November. And I hope they are because I kind of like them and I'm not going to rant about them that's it thank you Jen this is something is happening in the culture where a lot of the like

the there's just like odd couple pairings are just sort of all over the news. It's sort of, do you not like bad bunny and Kendall Jenner? I don't,

I honestly couldn't begin to have an opinion. Truly. I kind of like them together. I don't know why. I feel like I have a good vibe about it. Well, wait, wasn't there a,

wasn't there a news cycle involving Timothee and a different, is that a different, it's happening. This is my rant, guys, so. Let's, and let's, and let's. Oh, let's give me some room for this. No, and I want you to have the space you need. It might be next, who knows?

Oh, it is, okay. I apologize, I have some close people to me in the audience, and they've heard me talk about this a lot. I have a lot of thoughts. So first of all, I am Latina. My parents are Mexican immigrants. And I love Bad Bunny. And I've loved Bad Bunny since before he had an album. I watched him at James Madison University at the basketball arena. I love this. Yeah, I'm a diehard fan. I've also seen him many times since. I watched him at James Madison University at the basketball arena. I love this.

Yeah, I'm a diehard fan. I've also seen him many times since. But anyway, he had a girlfriend for a really long time named Gabriela. And she's Latina. And they broke up. And out of nowhere, he starts dating Kendall Jenner. Now, I was okay with this. It was fine. Until he told a magazine that he didn't care what Juliana Dominguez from Mississippi thinks about his relationship with Kendall Jenner. And to me, that was anti-Latino.

Juliana Dominguez of a name, why not just say like Jane, Jane Doe? You know, he said, I don't care what Juliana Dominguez thinks about my relationship. Like, okay, you're speaking a Latina name. I don't know. This was, this has been hard for me, clearly. I feel like you've convinced me. It's been difficult. I mean, it's anti-Latino. Also, for, he doesn't really speak English, and he's hosting SNL tomorrow, and that's going to be very interesting. I don't know if we have any SNL fans here, but I purposely chose a rant that was not political because I've been inundated with House Republicans

for the last four weeks. Thank you for doing that. That's great. That's why I wanted something that was pop culture. They should break up. Thank you. And then, Timothy Chalamet and Kylie Jenner. It's real.

What is that? Thank you. Timothy Chalamet, Jen? I know who he is. Kylie Jenner? Oh, and Kylie, I didn't know they were spotted at a concert they were at Beyonce they were at a renaissance tour sorry guys I'm clearly I've got a whole other side

to me clearly whenever I see there was whenever the image of Timothy or Timothee depending on how you're at the custom was at the concert with that person I'm sorry

but Kyle making out what it reminded me of actually it was a moment where what's his name with the red hair the schlubby guy Ed Sheeran Ed Sheeran

and I believe it was Adele performed together was it Beyonce yeah I yes it was that I whatever it was it was basically a male performer dressed in t-shirt ratty clothes guitar unkempt with a goddess you know just like a fully like just full makeup giant beautiful gown side by side and it was like it reminded me of um like how in the 1990s all the movies were like we beat sexism because now james bond will also punch a woman and what i anyway when i saw Timotay with Kylie Jenner and Tim, Timmy, is like smoking a cig, hair disgusting. Obviously, bone structure piercing through any problem that any one of us look like that, people will call a hospital. But he like manages to make it look good. And she's in full makeup.

Oh, yeah. Full makeup. She's got to be in like full makeup. And he's just like a schl yeah. Full makeup. She's got to be in, like, full makeup. And he's just like a schlub. That sucks. He's wearing a hoodie. He's wearing a hoodie. I was like, who does that to Renaissance?

Let's spin it again. Rich donors begging Glenn Youngkin to run. Dave, take it away. Just stop doing this. Every four years they do this. It's often the same rich people. It's some guy who found out how to short-sell orphanages and made $3 billion, looks at the Republican race, doesn't know any Republican voters personally, has a place in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach, but has never met a person who works for him and has opinions, and just thinks, I'm bored with these guys who run against Donald Trump.

What about this exciting guy I donated to? And it happens every time. We saw this with Bloomberg. We saw this with Tom Steyer, who spent $300 million to save the Democratic Party because, to give him credit, I mean, he cut out the middleman and said, I'm a rich donor. I can solve my party's problem because people are bored with our candidates. But it's one, on a sincere level, it's very annoying to me when people just forget all of politics and think it's about just the presidential race. The reason that Rich Stoner, right now, they're meeting with Youngkin is because he wants to win the state senate. None of these guys can name like a Virginia state senator. None of these guys can name like a Virginia state senator. They just are bored with Republican candidates and they're convinced that somebody new and fresh would solve all the problems that all the air candidates who they thought were new and fresh six months ago have accrued by running against Donald Trump.

Nothing would change. It's not a patch. I'm sure if I mentioned young, it'll get like a Jim Jordan level booze in the room again. But, you know, again, the theme of the night, excellent hair, fine politician, defeated Terry McAuliffe after Terry McAuliffe went door to door insulting parents across Virginia. In the worst period, like the politically worst period of the Biden presidency, like the five minutes before Roe was overturned. This is the record that they think can go in and defeat Nikki Haley, who's like won two elections. That's more than Youngkin has. Or Tim Scott, who just think about how this feels for Tim Scott, because like 20 minutes ago, he was the guy that rich donors thought was going to save their

Hulligan party. Look at his eyes. Look at Tim Scott's eyes. After you told him that he was the charismatic Republican who was going to figure out all the problems, convince MAGA voters that they actually never liked Donald Trump in the first place, look at him, sit down with him, and tell him, sorry, I found someone else. He's taller than you. He plays basketball better than you. The hair thing? And he wears better vests. Does Kevin Scott wear a vest? No.

But they keep doing this. It's very superficial. It lowers my confidence in rich people who I'm counting on them to keep the stock market going, buy up single family homes so that my home raises in value. I'm counting on rich people to stop being this stupid and just suck it up. Donald Trump is going to be the nominee. Go invest it. You know, you can buy a state legislature. They're nice. Be Art Pope. Do that. Stop pretending that you're going to buy some

in the presidential race and stop being so mean to the last five people that you did this to. I think that's a great place to leave it. Thank you so much to Jen, Dave, and Daniela. Inside with Jen Psaki is on MSNBC Sunday at noon, Mondays at 8, but you freaks already knew that.

You can check out her newsletter. It's called Huddle. That's Daniela's newsletter. Politico is called Huddle. She's on the Hill every day. She had a high during January 6th. Read the newsletter. She had to huddle.

And Dave is doing great work at Semaphore, and you also have a newsletter. She had to huddle. And Dave is doing great work at Semaphore. And you also have a newsletter. Do you have a newsletter? And you, it's called Americana. Thank you. That's on there. So check that out. We come back. We come back. We end on a high note. Thank you.

That was really great. Thank you so much. Dave, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Dave, thank you so much. One more time. And we're back. Now it is time to end on a high note. We can just do a couple running long. So let's hear some high notes.

Brian's going to be out there. There he goes. Really make it. Brian's getting his steps today. Oh my God. Hi, my name is Mindy and I'm from Virginia Beach. And I am here. Oh, thank you.

I'm here with my sister. And before COVID started, we used to go to Broadway shows in Norfolk a lot. And I always listened to Love It or Leave It when I was getting ready. And then COVID happened and our shows got shut down and I was very sad. And now we are full circle. We're actually at a show and it's this show. And we're very happy to be here. That's great.

And I'm at Emily's Garden Show shirt on. Thank you. Hi, what is your name? What is your high note? This will be quick. I'm Hannah, and my high note is that after finishing grad school in May and months of the job search, which was horrible and demoralizing, a week ago, I finally got a job offer.

Congratulations. Congratulations. What's your name? What's your high note? Hi, my name is Vanessa and my high note is that I'm here tonight celebrating my four year anniversary with my partner. We were here last night for Positive America and then again tonight. So we're celebrating our anniversary with the Crooked Media folks, and we're very much in love. So, yay love. Well, that's good. That's good to know. What's your name?

What's your high note? Hi, I'm Jasmine, and my high note is also being here tonight. I came all the way from Denver. I was so excited to see you had a show in Boulder, but I'm going to be gone that weekend. So I looked at the rest of your tour dates, and I was like, where else can I go? So I came all the way here. I used to live here. This is like my second favorite place in the world. And I am here. Sorry. Sorry, DC. It sounds like you did a line of Adderall and drove here. I know. I have a lot to say and I'm very excited, but I am here with my,

like one of my very best friends in the whole world, Lizzie. Last time I was here was pre-pandemic, and I haven't been out here to see her in so long, and I got to spend the day with my four-year-old and her three-year-old playing and screaming and being wonderful toddlers. So thank you for coming to DC, and thank you for being the catalyst I needed. Thank you. People lined up. Hi. What's your name?

What's your high note? My name's Ethiana, and my high note is actually, the past couple years have been quite hard. I spent the pandemic living alone abroad, trying to do college, came back home after I graduated, had a lot of health issues, recovered. And two months ago, I decided to move to D.C. to apply to grad school and to try and find work in politics. So we did that. Because Gen Z people need to get involved in politics. Absolutely. Sorry to date you.

I was born six days before 9-11. All right. Get her out of here. Get her out of here. Never forget you. What's your name? What's your high note? Hi, I'm kevin i'm from durham north carolina you you were yeah all right triangle right right on uh i missed ashville you the tickets were sold out this is your life story and visit my best friend sam i missed what you said but I'm sure it was funny.

Take the mic away. Take the mic away. I'm so happy to be here. All right. That's how we're going to do it. That's how we're going to do it. What's your name? What's your high note?

If you fuck up, the mic's gone. Hi, I'm Alex. I flew here from D.C. to see my mom. She's a cannabis activist and equal rights amendment activist. I'm very proud of her. And I'm also going to be on the ballot to be on my local Democrat Town Committee. Great. What's your name?

What's your high note? Hi, I'm Eliana. I'm here with my husband. We're both rabbis. And we asked months ago That's my congregants! And we asked months ago. That's my congregants. And we asked for months ago to have this night off so that we could be with you. And it's been a really, really rough few weeks. And so thank you for being such a light in such a dark time.

Thanks for being here. Cool rabbi. We got rabbis in the house. Are we talking reform? Yeah. Okay. Just checks out. Are we talking reform? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Just checks out. What's your name? What's your high note?

Hi, I'm Abby. My high note is my husband brought Magic Spoon home from the grocery store last week. It's available in the grocery stores now. So I tried it finally. It was delicious. I can't even charge them for that. What's your name? What's your high note? Hi, my name's Alexis.

I'm originally from D.C., but I grew up in Virginia Beach. So to the other Virginia Beach person, hi. I just graduated from Georgetown University. I got my master's in physiology and biophysics. And I'm studying for the MCAT and my high note is that like I wanted to give myself grace. This is my first live podcast, take a study break and just like have fun and do things that I've never really liked doing. Well good luck on the exam. Thank you. What's your name? What's your high note?

Hello my name is Larry and in front of you is a young lady. You're celebrating her birthday. Who is it? One of your biggest fans. Attended one of your first shows. Her name is Janice. So she's right in front of you with her custom shirt. So happy birthday, Janice. Happy birthday, Janice.

Happy birthday. Thanks for coming. We're going to have to leave it there. That is our show. Thank you so much to Jen Psaki, Dave Weigel, and Daniela Diaz. Thank you to DC. There are 380 days until the 2024 elections. Have a great night. Have a great weekend.

Thanks for coming out. Brian, amazingly back here in time to start the music. Thank you to the Lincoln Theater. Have a great night. production. It is written and produced by me, John Lovett, and Lee Eisenberg. Kendra James is our executive producer. Brian Semel is our producer. And Malcolm Whitfield is our associate producer. Hallie Kiefer is our head writer. Pallavi Gunalan, Sarah Lazarus, Jocelyn Kaufman, Peter Miller, and Alan Pierre, Will Miles, and Mohand El-Sheikhi are our writers. Evan Sutton is our editor. Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis provide audio support. On the road, Vendelin Von Schroeder is our tour manager. And Anastasia Anderson is our tour coordinator. Stephen Colon is our audio engineer,

and Milo Kim is our videographer. Our theme song is written and performed by Sure Sure. Thanks to our designers, Jesse McLean and Bernardo Serna, for creating and running all of our visuals, which you can't see because this is a podcast, and to our digital producers, Zuri Ervin, David Tolles, Mia Kelman, and Matt DeGroote, for filming and editing video each week so you can.

You can find those glorious videos at youtube.com slash at Love It or leave it podcast. Subscribe to love it or leave it on YouTube for access to video versions of your favorite segments and other exclusive content. Don't forget to follow us at Crooked Media on IG and Twitter. And if you're as opinionated as we are, consider dropping us a review. It's Love It or Leave It