Lovett or Leave It - Damon Like a Wrecking Ball

Episode Date: August 7, 2021

Paul Scheer is back to break down the week's news. Jon talks to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar about the eviction moratorium and Britney Spears. And Ashley Ray joins to play a game that forces us to share some SCORCHING hot takes.For a closed-captioned version of this episode, please visit crooked.com/lovettorleaveit. For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail] and include the name of the podcast.

Welcome to Love It or Leave It, out of the closets, into the streets. Ooh, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John John, John, John John, John, John John, John, John John LeVitt John, John, John Boop, boop, boop, boop Boop, boop, boop, boop What a week

We're into the street The clock We got our vaccines. But anti-vaxxers and Republicans suck. They'd rather own the libs than survive. Too many times Fox News bends the truth. They trade their ethics for ratings. Spends the truth They trade their ethics for raises

So here we go There's a new very end And for now We get to live our lives Cause we're out of the closet And we're into the streets Patronize all of Lovett's advertisers If you're asked to

wear a mask, please don't put up a fight or else we will all have to go back in the closet. That amazing acapella song was sent in by Ben Hilton. If you have an out of the

closets theme, email it to us at leaveitatcrooked.com. Before we get to the show, everybody should check out Keep It. It is the ultimate source for pop culture news. Each week, Ira Madison III, Ida Osmond, and Louis Vertel explore the intersection between entertainment, culture, and politics with your favorite comedians, journalists,

actors, musicians, and activists. This week, the Keep It crew is joined by the legendary and hilarious Jennifer Coolidge to talk about her new HBO show, The White Lotus, where she is so incredibly funny and her new film, Swan Song. You won't want to miss it. New episodes of Keep It drop every Wednesday. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Also, you can now binge the entire season of Edith, a scripted podcast from Cricket and Q Code wherever you listen to podcasts. There is an incredible cast, including Rosamund

Pike as First Lady Edith Wilson, and it's written by Gonzalo Cordova and Travis Helwig, who you might remember before we did Grow Estranged, because nobody leaves this fucking show. Nobody. As Vulture puts it, Edith is a fiction podcast that stands as a really good time, minute to minute, and that's no small feat.

Listen to every episode of Edith for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. You will not regret it. On this week's show, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is here to talk about the eviction moratorium extension and her memoir. We've got some flaming hot takes that must have been cooked up in the ovens of hell that Ashley Rae and I will try to defend. But first, he is the host of Unspooled and stars in Showtime's Black Monday. Please welcome back returning champion Paul Scheer. Thank you for having me back. I'm excited to be here. I want to get into it all.

I mean, I know there's a lot of big news, but I want to talk about this new Jeopardy host. I'm really upset about this. It reminds me of when, for those of you who don't know, obviously there's been a search for a new host for the program Jeopardy! after the passing of Alex Trebek. It was a search with a lot of fan favorites getting the opportunity to try out and become a guest host. And it seems as though one of the producers of Jeopardy! has decided that the perfect person is one of the producers of Jeopardy! himself.

And I appreciate the chutzpah. And it really reminds me of when Dick Cheney was in charge of choosing George W. Bush's vice president. And he was like, I found the perfect guy. It's going to be me. It is a odd choice to go celebrity, celebrity, sports star, everybody. And there's a giant online campaign for LeVar Burton. I don't know if he's the

perfect host. We tune in for the host because that's the concept. That's why you have your audience. Who cares about me? We've got to tune in for you. I don't know who's tuning in for this guy. I mean, especially, put Aaron Rodgers up there. Put Mayim Bialik up there. They were great. LeVar Burton was also good.

LeVar Burton. LeVar Burton reading Rainbow. People want it. He's got a history of educating us. People want it. Give the people what they want. It's so funny. It's just, there seems to be some, there's an outcome foul that's process foul. I don't know what outcome, I made up the term outcome foul.

I like outcome foul. You know, it's like, it's both the choice they made and the way they got there, I think leaves something to be desired. To announce advanced negotiations is a real way of like, of just dashing hope. It really was. It was like, oh, it's not down to a final two,

just advanced negotiations. I can't take it. I can't take it in a week where, you know, the NBA trade deadline's going on. I'm already, it. I can't take it in a week where, you know, the NBA trade deadline's going on. I'm already I'm heart sick of watching people go from here to there. And I can't take that this guy is going to be in advanced negotiations. I'm going to give you a clue in the style of Jeopardy. Are you ready? Yeah. Thud muffled underground.

Thud muffled? What is... Wow, I don't even know. Now I'm really... I'm sorry, Paul. That's incorrect. The correct question is who is Alex Trebek rolling over in his grave? Oh my god. Oh my god.

Sorry. Listen, Paul, something that we're grappling with here at Love It or Leave It is the further I get away from an audience, the more I become an edgelord. And I just... I'm sorry. I love it. I love it. I love the edgelord.

I also... Oh, my God. Well, for a while, wasn't the whole idea that they were lugging Casey Kasem's body around? Just like, he's still got it. He's still here. It's like, the man is dead. They were fighting over his literal body at points, I feel like. Yes, it was strange hearing him introducing new music.

Let's get into it. All right. What a week. What a week. And what a week it was. After the federal eviction moratorium lapsed this past weekend, the CDC finally pulled its shit together and renewed the moratorium until

October 3rd. That's what I like to see, Paul. Less talking, moratorium. This is why I'm here. I love all of it. This is why you're here. This is why you're here.

Eager to start work on the infrastructure bill ahead of their August recess, Chuck Schumer warned Congress. The longer it takes to finish this bill, the longer we'll be here. Which is why I personally think it was very uncool that Kyrsten Sinema keeps showing up for votes in a big floppy embroidered hat that says beach, please. It's like we get it. You don't want to be here. You want to go on vacation. We get it, Kyrsten. Kyren.

Kirsten. What a waste of a good last name, too. I feel like I would want to like somebody named Cinema. That's a great name. Great name. Great name. And now I just, it's giving me, every time I hear it, I'm like, oh, what did you do? I mean. What did you do?

Could be hosting a fantastic movie podcast. Instead, she's preserving the racist filibuster. Cinema on cinema. Cinema on cinema. Just sitting there. And we got Matt Gaetz living in the Truman house. People, you're wrecking things that we like. You're wrecking things that we like.

You can't have terrible people living in these houses and having these cool names. In case we don't see him, you know. Yeah. Good afternoon, good evening. Go fuck yourself, Matt Gaetz. You're terrible. Oh, he's the worst.

Didn't he have that whole thing this week? He basically is on stage and he goes, I'm glad that all the locals are here because our locals have more guns. I mean, when that guy can't get more tone deaf, he just, he finds a deeper way. I think the perfect encapsulation of Matt Gaetz

was in a headline. Matt Gaetz launches podcast as federal criminal investigation looms. It's like that captures the essence of this, man. It actually reminds me of, you know, they say you can't outrun your diet. You know what I mean? Like, you can exercise all you want,

but if you're not eating well, you won't be able to win. It's like, I don't care how much fucking chum, right-wing chum you throw in the water, you are under a federal criminal investigation. You cannot spin or distract or smear your way out of that. That will fuck you no matter what you say. You're right.

And we are also in a world, though, where if you choose not to acknowledge it, you can get further than we've ever gotten. Like, we are pushing that boundary bit by bit. Like, if I just refuse to say it's a big deal or even acknowledge that it's happening, it's wishful thinking. It is the secret in action. But like what you said, at a certain point, you will still get penalized.

There are other people out there. Yeah. I completely agree. But that's why I think, I don't know how good this podcast is going to be, Matt. We welcome the competition, and we love people joining our burgeoning industry. But it's not going to help you.

It's not going to help you. Maybe he does a few guest spots. You know, he might get some crossover audience. Maybe he pops on the Piven podcast. And sorry, Paul, sorry to interrupt, but we just have a brief word. It says here, everybody check out a new podcast from your friends at Stitcher, Matt Ga-

No, I'm kidding. How did we approve this? You know what? Hey, we got to take the advertising money. But it's interesting that his podcast is all about snack foods. It's all about just trying different snack foods. It's really out of his box,

but I think it makes him a lot more likable. Today on the show, Cheetos. We're going to try all the different kinds of Cheetos. That's so funny. An old childhood classic today, Bugles. We're going to have some Bugles today. I bought this podcast

I want. Snackgate. Bugles, 6 out of ten. Get rid of all the immigrants. That's sort of... Mr. Peanut, lock him up. Mike and Ike. It's Adam and Eve, not Mike and Ike. Lindsey Graham.

Speaking of Mike and Ike. Lindsey Graham tested positive for COVID this week and credited his relatively mild flu-like symptoms on being fully vaccinated. You hate to see it. It's another Provincetown breakthrough. Here's the thing about this. I feel like an awful person, but I'll be honest and just say there is sometimes like a little level of joy when you see a headline like that, like good. And I know that that's probably a terrible place to be like, oh, you got COVID good for you. But because it's like, you feel like

you've held up certain elements of relief and you want this person to kind of just have a taste of their own medicine. I know that that's a bad thing. I can say it because he's not, uh, he's not deathly ill. You know, he got his vaccine, but it's like, I feel bad about that part of myself that takes a little bit of joy in that. And I, and. And I don't know, where do you fall on that? When you see a headline like that, do you go like, yeah, do you get a little like, yeah. My feeling when I saw that he had it is that I saw his statement and I was relieved to see that his statement said all the right things. I have a breakthrough case, but it is mild. It is mild because of the vaccine and everybody should take the vaccine. My thought when these kind of right wing people are getting COVID, particularly when the people

that have been anti-vax in some way get it, I think this is the only way a lot of people will find out that they need to get the vaccine. Right. Like this is the only way a lot of people will come to see the vaccine as something necessary because people who have been denying it, people have been downplaying the pandemic, whether they kind of do a full mea culpa or not, it is an eye opener, I hope, to the people that aren't paying attention to what we pay attention to, that they should get it. Today, he came out and was like, I'm urging Trump to tell people that vaccines work. And it's like, did it have to go this far? But that's what it seems like it comes down to. And I think that's my irritation with it. It's like, oh, now that you got it, now that's very personal to you. Now say to Rob is, okay, Rob, you're so very fucking close.

Now do you realize that everyone's somebody's kid? Right, right. Now all of these people and their problems, that they have parents or others who love them or that they deserve love the same way your son does even if they don't have a family? They deserve love the same way your son does, even if they don't have a family. Do you see how someone experiencing an eviction or is a DACA recipient or has some other need? Like they deserve love. So close, Rob.

You're so fucking close, Rob. And I think what really irritates me about this, and I know it's a very basic statement, but these people are in government positions to represent us. And they're acting incredibly selfishly. It's like, well, when it affects me, then I can govern based on what I went through. And that to me is it's just against everything. Like you can't dictate what you want. You have to think about the good of everyone. And people just are very closed off to that. You know, there's there's reporting that Donald Trump is well aware he could help people get vaccinated by coming out more strongly in favor of vaccination. For example, he made a choice when he chose to do it behind closed doors.

He made a choice when even the only times he's really recently said get vaccinated. It was this kind of thing of like, you know, Biden sucks and everybody should get vaccinated. But he's fucking up this other thing. Right. But the reporting is Trump looked at this situation and says, I don't want to do Biden any favors. And I don't think by people, my base wants me to do this kind of advocacy. He's not wrong on either count. It's just morally reprehensible. Yeah.

This should be an easy one. We have really hard problems. This shouldn't be one of them. It is an obscenity that this is a hard problem. I mean, and, you know, going back to, you know, Matt Gates' snacking podcast, we put so much stuff in our body that we do not know about. Snack foods. Things like, like, we're not talking about. Read the back of a Yoohoo. Yeah.

We're not talking about a bunch of health nuts here going, like, I don't put anything in my body as a temple. It's like, most of the days, you're eating something that has, we got stuff in there. We all remember Olestra. Not going to talk to a doctor, but I got to do my research. Yeah, you're getting it. I mean, not to quote a New Yorker cartoon, but I did enjoy one that was just a man on his computer, the old PC just saying, honey, I think I found something that the scientists missed. You know, it's like, yeah, what research are you doing?

You're not finding it. It's not, it's not there. It's just, yeah, not an escape room. We're not, there's nothing else left to find out. Oh, oh, you person who hated school. Like we all like, like you crushed your four years of science as if you didn't desperately try to get through it. Like the rest of us did just to get out. Like you're going to, you're going to crack this fucking code. You have some special skill set you're bringing to the World Wide Web. You know, another person like the rest of us. It's so simple. It's so easy to say you're protecting the people that are voting for you and hopefully keeping them healthy, because what will eventually happen is and I think you're going to see this on some level, the people who are against it when their constituents get sick,

they're going to look at them and say, oh, they didn't tell me. They misled me. And that's going to be a pretty big factor in this, you know, I think, or maybe not, or maybe everyone forgets and it's all done. In other news. Yeah. Following the release of a report detailing sexual harassment allegations against him from 11 women, Governor Andrew Cuomo will reportedly bring an expert on sexual harassment to train him and his team, which is absurd, Paul. Oh, boy. Because they already have an expert on sexual harassment. What are they going to...

Two governors? They got the fucking... He's a pro. Again, I think there's a lot of talk in liberal circles about, oh, I wish Al Franken didn't resign, and he just stood there and he fought through it. And this is what it looks like when you fight through something that is, you are in the wrong. And we just talked about it with Gates.

It gets worse by the minute. And to stand there and just not acknowledge it is really, I mean, it just wrecks your whole image. You're done. Yeah, he's done. In an ill-advised video, Cuomo defended his incessant face touching by saying that he touches just about everyone on the face. I've been making the same gesture in public all my life. I actually learned it from my mother. I learned it from my mother, he said.

She's an insatiable pervert. Obviously, the sexual harassment in that office uh terrible there's also an element of this office that i'm learning from reading some of this stuff that just seems gross like just face touching like tune of breath like hey what's going on you want you want to place you know a pictionary like i feel like there's this thing an energy of just you know i saw that new scarlett johansson movie oh well yeah yeah i feel like there's a lot of like, like just like, oh, like bad smells and a lot of close talking. Yes.

Well, just also like someone who has been in a position of authority for a long time, lost touch with reality, a sexual harasser, but also a kind of like, like a terrorizer, just sort of like makes life really bad. If you work for him,

makes life really bad. If you don for him, makes life really bad. If you don't, just a kind of miserable fucking prick. And he got away with it, I think, for a long time, in part because it was a climate of intimidation. You know, like Ronan did a story about one of the people who leveled accusations and about her experience. And you see in that piece that there is a real fear because he was so vindictive. He was doing these kinds of things beyond, you know, sexual harassment, but also harassment. Yeah. Creating a culture of fear,

a climate where you were afraid to cross this person. And there's a certain level of power at play. And I think in the last two to three years, it's slowly been opening up and you're realizing, oh, there is a place for me to escape this or get my story out. But before that, there are these fixers. And, you know, catch and kill, like, you know, you look at this thing, it's like they're erasing text messages. They knew what to do and, you know, how they could just erase this entire thing. And it's so incredibly despicable. And here's what I always think about in this.

I always feel bad for the person who doesn't know, but is close to that person because it's like the next door neighbor or the, the relative there is. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. It's the, um, you can't escape them. Yeah. There's a big Hollywood executive that, uh, was brought through the mud here in LA. Rightfully. So he would go to his daughter's basketball games and he used to sit next to one of my friends. And then he continued to sit next to my friend. And my friend was like, I feel complicit and I don't, I want to move. And I'm trying to move. And he finds me, I show up late and he comes back over. I'm like, I'm trying to like distance

myself from this person, uh, because I don't want to be associated with it. Like these are the relationships that we need to have some support for these people too. How do you get out? How do you say it? Hey, listen. I know that our relationship is entirely rooted in sitting side by side at our children's basketball game, but

unbeknownst to me, you're a fucking creep. And as much as you haven't been a creep to me, I now know you are a creep. And I'm conflicted about it because a creep to me, I now know you are a creep. And I'm conflicted about it because on the one hand, I have a natural desire to show empathy. Right. Twitter can't kill that part of me that sees you as a human being despite knowing exactly what you've done.

But there's another part of me that doesn't want to be anywhere fucking near you. Yeah. Both because I find you to be disgusting and I don't want pictures of this on Instagram. There's a lot. I don't want to be part of lot. I don't want to be part of this. I don't want to be walking out of Whole Foods and get this a snapshot of us like we went shopping together for like guacamole. Come on. Let's say I'm laughing at something I thought of from yesterday. People are going to think you told me something funny. That fucking sucks.

My friend told me something funny the other day. I think about it at my daughter's basketball game. Now, all of a sudden, I'm joking around with you, you fucking creep. We're done. If I lived in a building in New York City and I had one of these creepos in there, I would really be like, if you lived on the same floor, you're penalized. You got to ride an elevator with this person? Like, this is the things, these are the things that I'm thinking about. I'd have to be always peering out my door, making sure the coast was clear before I could get in. That's the, these are the people nobody talks about.

These are the unspoken, these are the real, these are the victims. For another week, Kanye continues to live inside Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium while he finishes his album Donda. Well, technically, he lives under the stadium in the catacombs where this brilliant, horribly disfigured musician composes his masterpiece and schemes. Get closer to his muse, the beautiful soprano Christine Daae. That's a plot of Phantom of the Opera. beautiful soprano Christine Day. That's a plot of Phantom of the Opera. I do wish I thought of living in a stadium because then I could have hot dogs and Dippin' Dots every day. And it'd be because I was a genius. We are getting prime Howard Hughes with Kanye. And the more I see it, the more I love it. If you look at his quarters that he's living at, he looks like he's living in like a coach's

like massage room. It's a very tiny, small space with a bed on the floor, like a countdown clock on the wall and a small locker. There's a part of me that thinks that he just didn't leave, but I have to imagine he is renting it. I have to imagine that he's paying for it. Well, you know, it's not like you find that on Craigslist. So I assume there's some kind of relationship in which he says, this would be a really conducive place for me to work. I think it'd be good for you. Yeah.

You get something out of it. A lot of really cool WordPress. Yeah, that I'm like walking around the stands. You might see Kanye. I mean, that is fucking fucking cool that is as close as you can get to a real live ghost yes you're at a fucking game and you're like there's a real chance that kanye in garbage bags and a stocking over his head will just go walking by like a ghoul i think that fucking rules i never want donda to come out only because I want this life to continue.

Like, I want him to embrace this. Like, I will say, it was the same way I felt when I went to a Minnesota Vikings game and I saw Prince just walk out, walking around among the people without much security. It was two months ago.

And that is the weird thing. And by the way, he's going to be featured on Donda. Watch the throne too. Prince and Kanye. He's done it again, they'll say. In a surprising, very much an unforced error, Matt Damon apparently told the Sunday Times that he only recently stopped saying what,

for some reason, everyone's calling the F-slur. The word's fag, Paul. Well, there you go. I can say it, because I am quite gay. And I feel like, I don't know where f slur came from i guess because f word was taken anyway the point is he apparently was using it quite recently and then his daughter was like please stop doing that and then he told this story and then everyone's like uh you should have known this already uh but i have to say paul i can't say i'm surprised because i've always thought he was a full blown born supremacist.

That's so stupid. Nice. Nice. Nice. In a follow up statement, Damon denied ever saying this stuff. He said, I have never called anyone F in my personal life. And this conversation with my daughter was not a personal awakening. To be as clear as I can be, I stand with the LGBTQ plus community.

At which point, a disappointed DaBaby, who was standing outside Matt Damon's home with a bunch of Matt Damon memorabilia and a fresh Sharpie pen, stormed off furiously. And the weirdest part is, Paul, the memorabilia, it was the bed sheet that said, go home Jew from school ties.

That was such a journey. And I want you to know that the hit rate on that joke at this office, in this room, was maybe 30%. You know what? I really appreciate it because I didn't know where you were going. I thought you were going to go to the stuck on me or maybe a Goodwill hunting thing. But no, school ties back to where it all started. And you would think that maybe he would have learned from all these things.

I mean, he might have, you know. Here's the thing. Look, now that Mikey Barbaro of The Daily has married a woman, I am king of the podcast case. I am officially the king. I can say that. I say that with love, Barbaro.

But I love Matt Damon. Me too. His denial was interesting to me because he doesn't outright say, I did not say these words to that reporter, but is what he says in his rebuttal is that what that report says doesn't convey how I think or how I behave. So I know Twitter very much loves a, he just found out about this. Uh, but I have to assume that the truth is somewhere in the middle. Like he did use it. He knew he shouldn't have. He got upbraided by his daughter. And then he kind of told this story, not realizing how it would sound. I don't know. But I do think the key point of all of it is that Matt Damon knows he shouldn't say it. He went through something a while ago with the Project Greenlight where he talked about he basically like laughed at diversity.

Right. Like some version of that. I forget the exact thing. But it was and he had to kind of walk back his comments there. And it was sort of like, yeah, you're right. I didn't really look at it like this. I didn't understand the scope. I think that Frank Leonard, who runs the Blacklist, had a recent thing with Ben Stiller on Twitter where it was sort of like sometimes there are certain concepts when you are a very famous white straight man that you might have missed because you're not paying attention. You're not in the trenches. You're not really looking around too much. I feel like he always steps up to the challenge and responds the right way. But I guess where I go back to on this Matt Damon thing is, why bring up that story in any interview?

What was the purpose of that? It was a Michelin three-star story in that he took a huge fucking detour to get to it. And I don't really understand why. And I don't really get why. Because also he's given other interviews. And I believe he got in trouble for an interview where he talked about that actors should maintain some mystery. Yeah. Because I believe there was a conversation around sexual orientation.

I may have this wrong, and we will let it out, but I do believe that he had said something about how actors do themselves no favors by being too revealing. And then he shows up at this thing, and he's like, the other day I called somebody a fag, and my daughter was pissed. And it's like, dude, that is terrible. You can avoid all this. You are such a good actor. I remember we made fun of Matt Damon in the White House Correspondents Dinner. He had said something negative about Barack Obama's job performance. And Barack Obama goes, hey, Matt Damon,

I saw the Adjustment Bureau right back at you. You know? He's like, take that that Matt Damon. You've been pulling this shit for a long time. There is something about always being viewed as your smartest or your most known character. And I think there is a, there is a connection to Matt Damon as being like, yeah, good will hunting, right? Working class dude, but he's, you know, Howard Zinn and he's understanding, you know, you put all this on him. What he said about it's not just enough to consider yourself one of the good guys. You have to take hopefully these ideas puncture the mainstream. Because I did think, like, that's a good thing to get out there. Like, yeah, like, you have to be active in it.

And maybe people are seeing that for the first time if they're, like, they're just daemon heads. And I don't know. It's tricky. I do think that he presents in a different way. And then sometimes he falls into these traps. And we're even more mortified. Whereas, like, Cuomo, he's falls into these traps and we're even more mortified. Whereas like Cuomo,

he's a grosso, a sexual harasser molester. And you go, yeah, okay. Yeah. Check this out. You're right.

I actually think it's because we, and not just because of the roles he's had, but because I think correctly, I think we see Matt Damon is not as just some flighty actor. He's a smart man. He's a smart guy. He is a smart person. And so we actually expect better from him.

Yeah. And then he says what he says. A man was arrested in a case of mistaken identity. He was quietly released after being locked up in a mental hospital in Hawaii for almost three years, The Guardian reported. And the worst part is Leonardo DiCaprio found out and optioned the story two years ago, which I think sucks. Look, that's DiCaprio. I mean optioned the story two years ago, which I think sucks. Look, that's DiCaprio.

I mean, he has a great production team. He gets in there. He gets in there. Yeah, he's ready to go. He's been in there taking notes. And he's like, hey, man, if you know this is bullshit, get me out of here. And he's like, I want to see where the story goes. I got to see.

I got to see. I need a third act. Yeah. Listen, I already got eaten by a bear. All right. I got to keep up in the ante. All right. I'm Leonardo DiCaprio.

The case would have been cleared up if fingerprints and photographs had been compared, but the police didn't do that. And for the entire time that this man, Joshua Spritzerback, was wrongly held captive, the person that they wrongly accused him of being, Thomas Castleberry, was already in prison in Alaska. This shit drives me crazy. Like, how is there not? Why are we not cross-checking here?

Like, it's enough to make you think the problems in White Lotus aren't the biggest problems in Hawaii. That's the feeling I have. And I actually, this is a good moment. We here at Love and Relieve It would like to issue an apology. On a previous episode of Pod Save America, sorry, you'd have to listen to both, I did say I wasn't sure if White Lotus was going anywhere. And you know what? That was premature.

Because I fucking love White Lotus. And it rules. And it's so funny. And you should watch White Lotus. And I'm really sorry about what I said. And Mike White's great. Thank you. You know what? I appreciate that apology. And I think it was very heartfelt, like Matt Damon's. And I will say that you're not wrong.

I think a lot of people really, and I imagine you're a fan of Mike White, but you understand that sometimes he's a slow burn. It's a slow burn. Shame on me for not trusting it. We're remembering Enlightened as a full piece, not the first two or three episodes. Absolutely.

Disneyland is replacing its old annual pass program with a reservation-based system called Magic Key, inspired by the system Bob Iger installed to access his apocalypse bunker. Prices for the Magic Key range from $399 to $1,399. What's the difference between the $399 Magic Key and the $1,399 Magic Key, you ask? Simple. $1,000.

Yeah. I am a big Disney fan and and make you know whatever judge me harshly but uh Disney Parks fan and this was a was a blow it was like wow this is expensive I am a father so when we go to Disneyland we we got four people walking in the door so if we all have that magic pass that that's a lot of money out the door in the beginning of the year. Come on, you throw a shitty movie on the old screen. Pop one of those bad boys out and go to Disney. And so I was like, that's expensive. But you know what's really expensive? This Galactic Star Cruiser that they also announced this week. So basically Disney is going to have a themed hotel where you can cosplay. When you enter in, it's like you're in outer space.

Your window's open to space. You mingle. And that, the going price for like a two-day or three-day thing is five grand a person. Five grand a person. And also there's a rule that you all need a lightsaber, and the lightsabers are also a couple hundred bucks. But when Disney released the pricing, they kind of just assumed that you

wouldn't get the lightsabers for the kids. Like, well, I guess the parents will buy it. So that's an extra $600 on top of the $5,000. But we won't buy them for the kids, because that's a lot of money. Disney is becoming Dubai. They're just like, let's see. Let's see what people will pay.

I had a great time at this Star Wars themed hotel. I saw Princess Beatrice. I saw so many cool people there. And you know what? The cool thing about the Disney hotel is, again, no characters from the original trilogy, just the beloved characters from the new movies and the prequels. I mean, that's their whole thing right now.

I mean, occasionally you'll see Chewbacca walking around Galaxy's Edge because he floats in that middle zone. But you're not getting any of the old faves popping around. What's going on over there? Come on. Give me somebody. Come on. Give me that rat who sits next to Jabba.

Give me him. I want a guy with an oboe that comes out of his face. And finally, Beanie Feldstein stars as Monica Lewinsky in the first teaser trailer for Ryan Murphy's

Impeachment, American Crime Story. Edie Falco is Hillary Clinton. Sarah Paulson is Linda Tripp. And I hear Evan Peters is amazing as the dress. I auditioned for The Stain. Oh, my God.

And I couldn't. Oh, my God. It was a lot of CGI work. It was going to be all, I was going to be covered in dots. And they were going to just pop me in there. The craziest part is it was a singing part. That's why they gave it to Jonathan Groff. They fucking loved Hamilton.

You did great. You were working with a trainer. You were doing great with your voice. I was trying. You made it your own. I heard if it wasn't him, it would have been Darren Criss. So that's fine. Let me ask you this.

Please. Do we care? Do we care anymore? Ryan Murphy's stuff, I love what he did with the OJ show. I think that he's always doing something interesting and weird. And even if you don't like it, I respect it. But has the story been told? Or is there more there for us to dig in? I'm in paul i'll tell you i am in i love what ryan murphy has been

doing with these true stories yes i loved the one about versace i love oj simpson i love that he basically just like finds these muses and like uses them in all these incredible ways i just i'm like even though it is a story in many ways. I just, I'm like, even though it is a story in many ways, we know just to know that there's going to be this take on it makes me excited. You know, like I'm just eager to see it. I just want to see these characters doing what they do. You know, you've just convinced me because I guess OJ had been very much covered and the, and it was so engrossing. Yeah. I want more of it. And look, Sarah Paulson, give it to me. I want it.

I want it all. These things have become a vehicle for a conversation about how the 90s are the fucking past. Yes. Like, that's not the present. That is 30 years ago. It is now the past. And it is time we treat it like the past and not the present. And I think that the conversation around Marsha Clark, that that instigated was very cool.

I think there will probably be one that follows this show about the sexism that went into that coverage and the failure to call it what it was. So I think it is, you know what, Paul, here's the other thing, Paul. Yeah,

I'm not fucking busy. All right. Even if I was, I'd make time for this. Now all I need to do is just move an episode of drag race back an hour. And I have time for this. See, like, you know, you just kind of opened my eyes again, because I think

we're in, and I mean, maybe we'll get a Brittany story out of this eventually, too, because it's a great time to look back on this rampant misogyny, but it's something that we all, like, it does kind of take your breath away. You're like, oh, yeah, how did we all miss that? Of course it was that, but, you know, it really is mind- kind of take your breath away. You're like, oh, yeah. How did we all miss that?

Of course it was that. But, you know, it really is mind blowing. And I also just think about like being a kid at that time and being steeped in this culture and the kind of like better education. then had to either give themselves or have refused to give themselves because of the culture they were steeped in when they grew up in the 90s, which had this pernicious quality of both being incredibly misogynist while also claiming to be post-history and claiming to be like post-misogyny, post-sexism. Like there was this thing in every fucking Bond movie in the 90s, there's this moment being like, how can this be misogynist? I punched a woman. It's like, wait, wait a second. Wait just a fucking second.

You know who I thought didn't get enough credit? Tom Green. Because Tom Green brought Monica Lewinsky into, like he did a whole special with her. He made her the victim. He treated her in a very different way. And I was like, wow, in this world that you would think like Tom Green at that point was very, very popular on MTV.

Like he did a special with her that I think actually was more in touch with how we might be viewing her now. Yeah. Uh, so, you know, Tom Green was ahead of his time. This is all I'm saying. And that's like,

I try to get that out every time I'm on this show. Yeah. No, that you never stop fucking talking about it, which I think is so cool. And you're like that movie about Freddie Got Finger really was saying a lot of things about abuse and abusers. Oh, my God. Paul Scheer, thank you so much for being here.

I love being here. Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you so much. When we come back, we have a great segment where we take on some of the hottest of hot takes. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Recently, ethereal elf queen and secret 43-year-old Lorde set the Internet aflame by dominating her episode of YouTube's beloved hot wing-themed interview show Hot Ones, eating hotter and hotter wings without flinching. I'm talking about like watery

eyes or running nose, like just absolutely housing wings that have ruined other celebrities, specifically Idris Elba. I'm not as comfortable, all right, with scalding hot diarrhea as Lord, but I still wanted to see if we could stand the heat, which is why we've invited our guest, Ashley Ray, to square up against me in a round of Lord of Hot Takes. Ashley and I will trade off feeding each other increasingly hot takes, which we will then have to defend ourselves. Will Ashley and I be able to defend these hottest of hot takes? There's only one way to find out. Ashley, welcome to the show. I'm so, so glad to be here.

And I'm very familiar with the Lord interview. I know that even Gordon Ramsay himself went running from that show to have hot diarrhea. So I imagine that will be me today. Emotionally. Emotionally, yes. Emotionally. So your first hot take to defend. Birds are the best pets.

Okay. Yes. Not that hot. your first hot take to defend birds are the best pets okay yes birds birds are the best pet easy they stay in a cage easy to contain and clean up after if you own a pet you're probably you know really cool very i think you you get a cool reputation as a bird owner. Eclectic. Nice. Yeah. Defended. Defended. All right. I'm up.

I'm up. I'm ready. Okay. Buttered popcorn jelly beans are the best jelly bean flavor. Buttered popcorn jelly beans are the absolute best. I love the idea of eating something that tastes both like chemicals and the experience of cinema. You know, it's really about both. It's about what is clearly something 100% artificial

that has never been anywhere even remotely near corn or butter, but manages through the power of DuPont chemical innovation to evoke one of the most fun things a person can do, which is sitting in a movie theater and getting COVID. Defended. Boom. Samsungs are the superior phone, and everyone only defends iPhones because they bought into the hype. Yes.

Yes. Samsungs are the best phone. Yes, I, yes, Samsungs are the best phone and iPhones are just hype because having green text messages is great. Being able to easily FaceTime your loved one sucks. Who likes to be easily contacted? Nobody. When I use my cell phone, I want it to be as complicated as possible. There's many different customization options.

I want to be able to make the font papyrus and get that with a Samsung phone. Oh, my God. Defended. Oh, man, we are crushing these hot takes. All right, I'm ready. I'm ready. Okay. Okay.

Jumbotron proposals at baseball games are the most romantic thing ever. Here's the thing. I'm so glad you asked. I think jumbotron proposals are the most romantic thing in the world because I think what's great about being proposed to is that it is a tradition that is several thousand years old and rooted in a deep fundamental misogyny that women are objects to be possessed by men. And if you can kind of keep that going in front of thousands, if not tens of thousands of people, it's a statement. It's a statement that you are honest about what marriage really is. There's a lot of people out there changing up traditions and trying to act like it's a partnership between two equals.

But deep down, Ashley, you and I know that's a bunch of fucking horseshit. This is a man saying, I buy this. I own this and no one else touch it. It is mine. And I think a Jumbo Trump proposal really makes that clear. And I'll make one other point. Sometimes the women say no,

and that fucking rules. And if you're ever having a sad day, pull up on the old YouTube. These no's and what you see is a woman asserting herself with a man who clearly is wrong for her because if you're being proposed to at a Jumbotron and you

say no, you two are not fucking aligned. And that rules. And that rules. Defendant, I gotta agree. That's the best thing. Yeah. That's what gets me out of bed in the morning. Yeah. Indica and sativa are the same thing. Ha!

Ha! Okay. Okay. This feels a little targeted. Wow. No, I can defend this. Indica and sativa are the same thing because i love to just smoke whatever and pass out on my couch because i like to just give myself psychosis uh by just smoking whatever is handed to me

i think that's a fun way to do drugs is don't it's all the same plants from the ground i think that is a fun way for people to do drugs. So if you take it from that perspective, Indica, sativa, they're all the same, baby. Just light it up. Absolutely. Absolutely. Defend it. Defend it. That's great. Okay. I'm going to get a little more difficult here. People should be able to pick their nose, burp and fart in public. So here's a view that I have, which is that people should be able to pick their nose, burp, and fart in public. So here's a view that I have, which is that people should be able to pick their nose, burp, and fart in public. And here's why.

It's time we all stop pretending that we're not just a bunch of sacks of liquid bone and meat. All right? We are bodies. We are filthy fucking bodies. And this notion that we're actually these beautiful computer minds inside of some kind of other shell that doesn't matter.

That's bullshit. The mind is a part of our body. Our farts emerge from our body. Our burps come from part of our body. And we should all be more open about it. And sure, one downside of this is everything will be disgusting all the time. Everywhere we go, it'll be a horrible, horrible experience to be around anyone at any time because the emanations will be no longer something to be ashamed of,

but something to be proud of. And obviously that's a downside. But the idea that we're all living our lives and no longer being ashamed of what our bodies do, I think would be a positive thing. Everybody farts. You know who farted today? Malala. She did. Couple times, probably. In a post-COVID world, I think embracing bodily functions this way is what we're all going to want to do. Absolutely.

Absolutely. So go hog wild out there. All right, I'm out. That's all I got. Bitcoin is cool, actually. Yeah, Bitcoin is cool, actually. Who doesn't like wasting their father's retirement on something called Dogecoin? I think it's actually very cool that trust fund kids are just running through their parents' money so that they can buy like NFTs of Kanye's skull. Yeah.

I think actually that is very cool. of Kanye's skull. I think actually that is very cool. I think it's really cool that we have some form of currency that Spike Lee doesn't even understand, but he's happy to make commercials for it and look hip. I think that's really cool that Elon Musk and Spike Lee can be on the same page about something they absolutely could not describe to my mother.

I think everything about that is actually really cool. I love that men have something else to mansplain to me. Any opportunity for that, I think we're happy about it. That makes a ton of sense. That makes a ton of sense. All right, hit me. Spirit Airlines is the best airline. Something that I believe is that Spirit Airline is the best airline.

And let me tell you why. Every human being, every human being is a beast in a flowery white dress on some level. We are snarling, terrified, angry, fearful, grasping, selfish creatures, putting ourselves in little tuxedos, wandering around pretending we're human beings. What Spirit Airlines tells all of us is, make yourself comfortable. Take off that tuxedo. Reveal your true self. If you want to throw drinks at a flight attendant

and scream about QAnon while being duct taped to a seat, welcome aboard. Welcome aboard. If you are willing to save $5 to go from traveling like a person to traveling like a chicken in indiana jones if that's what five dollars is worth to you if you're willing to take a red eye flight for 35 dollars from miami to san francisco packed 400 people in a tiny little tube in which somebody throws loose peanuts from a bag at you

like you're the last elephant in the circus. We have an airline for you. It's Spirit Airlines. And it's a good deal. And it's a good deal. They pass the savings on to you. And I think that's what's cool about it. I think that's what's cool about it.

I mean, defend it. I gotta go book my Spirit tickets now. Alright, this is our second to last round here. We are approaching the hottest of hot takes. Here's yours. Of Britney, Christina, and Jessica Simpson, Jessica Simpson was the real musical talent. Yes. A thing I believe

is that amongst Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, and Jessica Simpson, Jessica Simpson was the real musical talent. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, well, and true. A lot of people overlook the brilliance of her lyrics and the mind and effort behind it,

but she was a revolutionary. Her forethought when it came to Chicken of the Sea, you know, she really, I think, put in a lot more work than Britney and Christina when it came to such hits as the ones that Jessica Simpson had. Absolutely. And actually, one thing that I'm hearing from you is that there were also a critique of capitalism, something that others were afraid to do. Others were afraid to touch on these controversial topics. But Jessica Simpson and her music and the partnership she had with Nick Lachey, you

know, I think that is really what put her into, you know, just a more experimental realm. And you remember, of course, her like her most political album and the difference that that made. Yes. Her political takes, her political album of the early 2000s, a lot of people say basically was the sound of a post 9-11 era. Yeah, absolutely. Is what Jessica Simpson and you see the generational influence with Ashley Simpson. Who can forget that?

You know, her and her sister dominating the airwaves. And I think that's a beautiful time that Jessica Simpson inspired where if you were, you know, a mediocre pop star, even your sibling could become famous. That's really cool. Yeah. And I think that's great. I think we need to bring that back. I want more of, you know, give me give me more of that. I miss the days of nepotism in pop music. All right. Hit me with one. Hit me with one. Paula Abdul has no business being successful. Here's one thing that I think, which is that Paula Abdul has no business being

successful. Here's the thing. It's not impressive to be in a video with a cartoon cat. All you do is make a video without a cartoon cat and then some other talented people add a cartoon cat while you're home. So really what she did is talk about opposites attract alone on a staircase for a while. And I don't think that's hard. We could do that right now. And another thing, her commentary on American Idol left something to be desired. It was deeply troubling to watch her for those years. It was a very uncomfortable experience. And I don't think she was the right person to be issuing those critiques, even if she were at 100%. And to be honest, she wasn't. She wasn't. There is nothing that Paula Abdul could do that wouldn't be better if Janet Jackson were doing it. And it's just time we face it. It's

just time we have an honest conversation. I'm getting eyes from Charlotte over the fucking top of the screen like, what are you doing? You're not allowed to say that, but that's what we do here at Lord of the Hot Takes. That's a hot take. We say it. We just tell that we get hotter and hotter until nobody can stand it. And Gordon Ramsay's got white hot liquid diarrhea. White hot toilet rage. That's what we're

doing here. So that's what I think. And that's what I think about Paul Abdul. And it's what I think. And I said it. So I said it. And that's what I did. And that's what I think about Paul Abdul. And it's what I think. And I said it. So I said it. And that's what I did. Yeah. Your final hot take. Sean King has done some good things.

If you think about it. Okay. It was even hard for me to say it. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Sean King has done some good things, if you think about it. Every day we should be inspiring a new generation of scammers. And in that way, Sean King is revolutionary. The man has put out scams that I could only dream of achieving, attempting to climb seven mountains on the back of his congregation's dollars before revealing he doesn't even know how to climb a mountain. I wish I had that kind of leverage and ability. You know, I think that shows the just the overall capability of getting people to believe the heights he wouldn't go, you know, yeah, the

heights he wouldn't go. But to inspire that kind of faith, you know, that that he can get people to give him millions of dollars just on his word. I think that speaks to the American spirit that he keeps alive. And, you know, I think it shows every young little boy and girl they can grow up to be anything they want, even if that's a black man. Oh, defended, defended. I'm sorry. I'm ready for the last one. OK, I really hope you're ready. Simone Biles isn't so great.

Simone Biles isn't so great Here's something that I think Which is that Simone Biles isn't so great You know what I did A few times today I didn't do the balance beam A couple times actually Actually every single day

I decide not to do my floor exercise I have been failing to do my floor exercise Every single morning I get up and every night before I go to bed. I don't do my floor exercise. Does that make me a fucking hero? I don't think so. I don't think so. I also think people that said it's more courageous to not do the Olympics are really, you know, really kind of insulting the people doing the Olympics. Like, Suni Lee is doing some pretty fucking cool shit.

And I think it's insulting to tell her it would have been even better if she was like, no, thank you. Okay, every day I don't do the Olympics. Yeah, yeah. I've been not going for the gold during this entire conversation. I ate at a California pizza kitchen for lunch. That's what you do when you quit. All right.

That's quitting. All right. Simone Biles. I don't think she's so great. Ashley, I think that we got to the hottest of hot takes. We made it to the other side. We are powerful hot take in Bibers. We have the strength of Lord in how we did it. That was so much fun. Ashley, thank you so much. Thank you. This was a

blast. Ashley Ray, where can people find you? Where can they? You know, a Twitter at the Ashley Ray, the with two E's, Instagram at the Ashley Ray. This was so much fun. This was so fun. Thank you so much, Ashley Ray, for being here. This was so fun. Thank you so much, Ashley Ray, for being here. That was so funny. Thank you so much. When we come back, I had a great conversation with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back. She is the U.S. representative for Minnesota's 5th Congressional District and the author of This Is What America Looks Like, My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman. Please welcome Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Thank you so much for being here.

Yeah, it's great to be here with you. Thank you for having me. So I want to talk about the book, but I want to start with this news about the eviction moratorium. So the moratorium went into effect in September and the Supreme Court threw it to Congress. And it seems like the CDC acted and came up with this high levels, but 90 percent of the country ruled because the deadline came, Congress didn't act, and all of a sudden everybody decided to care about it all at once and say somebody else has to do this. this a big issue until the last minute, maybe in part because there was no hope of getting it through with the Republican votes you'd need in the Senate. But at the same time, all of a sudden, it felt like everybody was saying somebody do something. What happened there? Yeah, I think for a long time, we were expecting the administration to deal with it, right? You know, we sent out a letter, kept asking. And it wasn't until like the day before that we were to adjourn in Congress that the White House came out and said, well,

our hands are tied. And now it's up to Congress to do this with legislation. And at first, you know, all of us were like, okay, we can do this. And Chairwoman Waters was drafting legislation. A lot of us were being called to have conversations with colleagues. And I thought that we would at least extend our time there and not go to recess so that we could get this done, right? And I was shocked Friday as we were all waiting to see what was gonna happen, that instead of continuing to whip the votes and have conversations and trying to find a middle ground where everybody can be happy, because I do believe, and I've had conversations with senators,

that there was a path there. And obviously even with the moderates in, that there was a path there. And obviously, even with the moderates in Congress, there was a path. And so when leadership decided that we should recess and ask for unanimous consent, which we knew that that really was a way to avoid responsibility for the legislation. And when we heard some of our colleagues were leaving town and they weren't even willing to leave their proxy votes so that people can vote on their behalf because of the pandemic, we have that option now. We realized that, you know, people were not actually taking this seriously, that they were willing to allow the eviction moratorium to lapse and risk

11 million people being evicted in our country. As you know, Cori has her own personal story with being unhoused. I have a severe level of understanding of what it means to be unhoused. And Ayanna does as well. And so the three of us decided that we were gonna spend the night on the steps until our colleagues came back to take action or the senators did so, or the White House. And it eventually came down to the White House saying,

oh yeah, yeah, there was a way. There's something that we can do. But we know that this is just a temporary fix at this moment. Right. We have to find a permanent solution. And there are two things we're working on right now. One is to try to put pressure on local municipalities and states to get the billions of dollars we sent to them out to renters and landlords, because it's not just renters that are suffering here, right? It's also landlords that need to make their mortgages, that have to have the resources as well. Secondly, is to try to figure out when we can come back to do a more

permanent solution. Right. I mean, there has been this strange aspect to the even at times bipartisan recognition that we need government to step in and help people in crisis. If you lose your job and you're evicted during a pandemic, there's a collective understanding that this is not everybody's fault, like this just happened to you and you shouldn't lose your home. But if you lose your job and you get evicted and it happens to not be at a time when that's a shared experience at the levels that we've seen, suddenly the same concern is gone. But it looks the same for you. It's the same economic crisis for you. A person, that's your recession. That's your economic crisis. Is this changing how people think about what government needs to do to help people when we aren't in a global pandemic, a once in a century kind of crisis?

Unfortunately, I don't think it is because we're still struggling to protect them and make sure that they actually have a home to stay in. To think about that outside of this crisis is a huge leap for a lot of our colleagues. Many of our municipalities and states don't have tenant protection laws on the books. I know that my former colleagues in the Minnesota House have been working on some pieces of legislation. The Minneapolis City Council is now putting a ballot measure on the ballot to strengthen the kind of protections that renters have in our city. So there are, I suppose, it's not you know all is not

lost there are folks in some pockets of our communities that are thinking about this but they're they're being met with a lot of assistance right yeah yeah uh we have a housing task force my office leads a housing task force and we you know, members from all of the municipalities that I represent that are elected. We have advocates, we've got lawyers, we have state elected leaders that serve on this task force. And all of us, every single time we meet, spend, you know, significant amount of time trying to make sure that the laws that are on the books right now are actually being followed and implemented and then try to think about what are other things that that we can do I introduced my homes for all legislation to try to help to make sure that there is

enough housing for people to be housed and during the pandemic I introduced the rent and mortgage cancellation act which actually would have been a simpler way to deal with this instead of the rental assistance path that we ended up going with that we are seeing right now is riddled with problems. You know, it's been months, in some cases, almost a year and a half for some of that resource to have had reached the people that it was intended to reach. Yeah, very little of the money, something, what is it, $3 billion out of $47 billion has actually gotten out to people. There is this larger issue, which is that, like, Democrats, progressives, we want to invest in infrastructure. We want to show people the government can work. We want to

show people that there is a way in which we can build a social safety net, a social democracy that gives people a chance in life that protects them when they face the bad luck and misfortune that hits everybody. And then you see something like this and you see the money not going out the door. You see like even in liberal places in the country, the inability to kind of build things, address houselessness, address all of these issues. Like, it does seem at a certain point, like, yes, we need the federal government to spend the money. But there does seem to be there needs to be some kind of conversation, even among progressives, about how to make government actually work. That is a conversation that a lot of people are avoiding and not having, right?

We are actively writing the headlines of why none of these things should be implemented, which is sort of counterproductive to what we want to happen, right? We want to have these programs implemented in ways that is encouraging and in ways that would actually increase support for these programs. But it seems like we make them so complicated that they are always riddled with problems. If you think about how our public school infrastructures are run, if you think about just our public housing infrastructures are run, anything that has to do with government

that should have the resources to be done in a very simple, easy way is done in the most complicated way. And it takes forever for people to get the resources that they need that was intended for them to get. And we do end up spending a lot of money on administrative costs. There just seems to be a lot of ways. You know, I was just reading a letter that the New York congressional delegation sent to the governor to try to make sure these resources are getting to people.

My office is drafting one right now to get our congregation to sign on so that we can send it to our governor. I mean, this is not what we should be spending our energy and time doing. And we shouldn't be doing this when we have people who we know have the tools and support these programs

who are just not doing it the right way. So much of how government is administered is sort of, there's like decades and decades of fear of waste, fear of the wrong people getting the money, fear of somebody getting money they don't deserve, fear of people taking advantage of the system. The welfare queens in the 80s and all of that has led to this like Byzantine system where the government doesn't work. It's been encouraging in the wake of this sort of economic crisis, whether it's sort of the child credit that was more universal, or even just the vaccine, like you don't need to bring your insurance card, you just walk in and you get the vaccine, you don't need to go through some complicated stuff. I think we have to recognize too, that the people who are administering these programs

seem to not understand that there is urgency in getting these resources out, right? You know, I often say it's always important to have people who have fluency in the struggles of people in these positions, whether they're elected or, you know, working for the government, because I believe if we had, you know, people who are running this rental assistance program

who truly understood how urgent it is for people to have these resources, then these processes would have been streamlined. There are places where there's 22 page application process, you know, some of them are not bilingual, they're not translated, so people can't access them. It's just it's too complicated for people to get something when they desperately need it. And when you have the added stress of worrying about whether you have enough resources to stay in your home, to feed your children, you know, to protect yourself from a pandemic,

the last thing that you are able to do is deal with a process that requires you to fill out 22 pages and, you know, dig out all kinds of proof when it should be evident that you desperately need these resources. And the intent from congressional leaders was for you to actually have it, not for these people to hold it and take forever in getting you the money that you need. So you talked about the need for elected officials and government officials to draw on their own experience. And so let's let's talk about the book. You talked about getting money from your dad in exchange for good grades so that you could buy outfits. What would you what was the difference between an A outfit and like a C outfit? I would if I had a straight ace I would get three hundred dollars it's pretty good that I could use to buy clothes I mean then that included everything right like everything that you would put on um and so 300 doesn't really go far uh so I desperately wanted to earn

the great 300 yeah yeah yeah if you don't get 300 then you're kind of f in that way and so i i if i got if i had one b uh i would get 200 wow that's a tough fall yeah and if there was a c i would get 100 and then after that there was no money a c minus even meant like there was no there was nothing so that that meant for six months i would not have i couldn't buy no trip to aero post all for you nothing yeah and you certainly didn't want to be the only kid in the family who who that was happening to so he he felt like he worked really hard for his money and uh you know we had we had one job and that was to make sure that, you know, in the future, we didn't work as hard as he had to to earn money. And so getting an education was a huge part of that.

I feel like you got A's. I feel like you got 300 fairly often. I did. I did. I'm very competitive. So I also didn't want to deal with my siblings. So you also talk about a comparison between you and Britney Spears that in around 2007 that there was an elopement, there was a shaving of the head, there was chaos. And you said, I needed to invest in who I wanted to become cared about the way her dad felt and, you know, what level of stress I was putting on on my father. And so even though I kind of wanted to live life on my own terms, I always worried about what, you know, everything that I did and everything I said, how that was impacting my father. And I think I had a meltdown, early midlife crisis. It pushed me to kind of examine whether I was living the life that I wanted for myself, or I was living the life that I thought my father would appreciate and approve. And once I started to really make drastic changes in my life to worry about my own happiness and live life on my terms, it turned out that my father, ultimately, that's all he wanted. And

it was my assumptions of what I thought would make him happy or cause him less stress that were driving me insane. You know, you're oftentimes thinking you're doing something for other people and that's what they need from you. But oftentimes they just need you to be your full self and live as authentically as you could. And that's if they love you, that's what truly makes them happy. One thing you talk about in the book is the challenge of being a Muslim and all of the assumptions and bigotry that is used to interpret virtually everything you say, the kind of delicate, the challenge of knowing how your words will be interpreted, how much attention is on everything you say. You said, one of the most toxic misperceptions of my faith is that because I am a Muslim, I hate Israel and the Jewish people. Although that couldn't be further from reality. Whenever

I criticize Israel, it is filtered through this lens. There is a cottage industry that exists to take what you say, put it in the worst possible light, take it out of context, use it to say that you hate Israel, that you hate Jewish people, that you hate Muslims. But at the same time in the worst possible light, take it out of context, use it to say that you hate Israel, that you hate Jewish people, that you hate Muslims. But at the same time in the book, you talk about how there have been moments where you've issued statements that played into tropes and you've apologized and try to kind of understand the issue better, approach the issue a little bit differently. That scrutiny, how does that impact how you talk about this issue? And how do you think your way of discussing it has changed as you've kind of both been kind of hit with brutal misinformation propaganda, but also adjusted in a lot of assumptions that people make about what I know or should know. There are tropes that are out there, obviously, that are part of the cultural discourse that a lot of people or conversations that a lot of people have that I wasn't raised with.

I'm not aware of them. that I wasn't raised with, so I'm not aware of them. And oftentimes when you are in those spaces, people will not stop to say, did you even know that this thing that you say? And I think I've noticed that in many cases, if you have an assumption about who the person is, if you have an assumption about the way they were raised, their faith and their culture, whatever assumption that you might have about a person that you're interacting with, whether it is, you know, someone in a relationship or whatever the situation might be, you filter everything they say through that assumption. And you oftentimes don't stop to, you know, ask yourself whether the assumptions that you are making are rooted in something that you feel about them,

or they're rooted in something that they actually feel about you. And I am learning that, right? And continue to learn that it is important for me to familiarize myself and to learn the different language that is necessary to use in this conversation, that what I believe is a normal thing that you can say might be very loaded in some ways. And it's something I think I am familiar with because it happens to me in almost every way, not just with the Israel discourse. But you know, today I was reading a meme. It's in the Saudi Tribune, like the Chicago Tribune, like their newspaper. It's drawing on this assumption that if you criticize Saudi Arabia, you must be allied with, you know, their adversaries, right? So I'm allied with Iran. And so they were saying, my wrap is worn like the mullah. Right. Okay. And so this is the

way that I signal my allegiance or something. Yeah. And it is, it's, you know, it's a widely read paper. And so I know that for the next couple of days, I will be attacked on social media by Saudi bots and people who will use that narrative because it's a shorthand, right? Regardless of whatever I say about Saudi Arabia, it will be like, oh, because the Iranians put her up to it. And it happens to me in Somali conversations. If I say something about, you know, any region, it's like, oh, because you're this clan, that's why you hate this region. You said something positive about this region, it's because, you know, your dad comes from it. So regardless of what I say, there's always an assumption about my identity, my background that must influence that.

I genuinely cannot have, you know, a political ideology or principles or values that are not rooted in some weird stereotypes that people have of the identities that I carry. identities that I carry. Yeah, you know, I remember when you came, we did a show in, it must have been Minneapolis, and you were on our live show. And it was the first time we had met. And I always think about it. And I even I'll think about it after this conversation is reminded me of it, which is that you are nothing like any of the versions of the caricature that you have been subjected to. This book is you telling your kind of human story as you as a full fledged person. But social media, cable news, it flattens everybody, it flattens everything. How do you deal with that? How do you move through the world when you know there are so many people trying to kind of flatten you to two dimensions? It's important to not allow people's opinions to define opinions about myself. I grew

up, which I talk a lot about the book in a family and in a community in a society where I was never enough of a thing. Right? Like I wasn't girl enough. I wasn't Muslim enough. I wasn't Somali enough because my mom's not ethnically Somali. Like, you know, and I'm also not Yemeni enough. Right. Because my father is Somali. So like I was always in a space where people had opinions of who I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to do. That was very contrary to who I actually was and what I believed I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to do. That was very contrary to who I actually was and what I believed I was supposed to be and do. I think dealing with this for me is like a natural extension of what I've always dealt with.

It is hard, I think, to deal with the sort of vitriol that comes because of it now, right? The death threats and having to constantly worry about the safety of my kids and myself and to have family be distanced from me because I don't want to jeopardize their safety. So all of that is challenging, but I am someone who's overcome a lot of things and I think I will overcome this. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, thank you so much for coming on today. It was so good to talk to you and keep up the fight. Thank you. Yeah, you should come back to Minneapolis. I would love to. Listen, there needs to be an audience. Otherwise I get weirder

and weirder because I don't get the negative feedback. Without the negative feedback of an audience telling me I'm going too far, I'm just becoming more and more strange and eccentric. So it's an emergency for me. So I would love to come back. All right. We should work something out. Got to work it out. Thank you so much to the congresswoman for being here. When we come back, let's end on a high note.

And we're back. Because we all need it this week, here it is. a high note. And we're back because we all need it this week. Here it is. The high note. Hi, John Lovett and the Crooked Media team. This is Erin calling from Arizona. And my high note of the week is that in spite of our state legislature and the governor making it illegal for schools to have a mask mandate in place, the Phoenix Union High School District is going to still have a mask mandate.

And that won't affect me because my children are still in elementary school, but it just gives me hope that maybe in the next week and a half some things will change and they'll be a little bit safer when they go back to school. Thanks for everything. Bye. I love it. This is Anna from Houston, Texas. And I just got a text message from my sister saying that she's finally going to get her COVID shot on Friday. We've been begging and begging for so long, and I'm just so happy that she's going to get it and we can finally come together as a family in just a few short weeks. Okay, bye. I love it. This is Molly from just outside of Chicago, Illinois. I'm calling with my high

note this week. After being a class of 2020 pandemic college graduate, I am living back home with my parents. I have finally saved up enough money and have moved out into my own apartment, which feels nice to have some independence. Thank you to everything that you do. I love getting to listen to you guys, both Pods of America and Love, Don't Leave It as well. Really gives me hope knowing that there's people with similar minds out there who see through all this bullshit right now.

Anyway, so thank you for all that you guys do. You make my life easier and keep it up. Love hearing from you guys. Thanks so much. Hey, love it. This is Kenson from Durham, North Carolina, calling my high note. high note. After an unexpected trip to the hospital and some labor and a 1 a.m. deception, this week my wife and I welcomed our first son into the world. He is small, but he is kicking and giving the nurses all kinds of help, and it is an incredibly daunting time to become a parent, but I am so

grateful for my partner and for our incredible network of friends and family that has backed us this whole week. And I am just so excited for what comes next for us and our family. So thank you for everything you do and keep up the great work. Thank you so much to everybody who called in. If you want to leave us a message about something that gave you hope, you can call us at 213-262-4427. Thank you to Paul Scheer, Congressman Omar and Ashley Ray. There are 458 days until the 2022 midterm elections. Have a great weekend.

Love It or Leave It is a Crooked Media production. It is written and produced by me, John Lovett and Lee Eisenberg. collections. Have a great weekend. sound engineer. Our theme song is written and performed by Sure Sure. Thanks to our designers, Jesse McLean and Marissa Meyer for creating and running all of our visuals, which you can't see because this is a podcast. And to our digital producers, Nara Melkonian and Milo Kim, Mia Kelman and Matt DeGroote for filming and editing video each week so you can.