Lovett or Leave It - Less is Macklemore

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

Trump takes aim at the Kennedy Center, Mike Johnson takes one for Pete Hegseth, and Ed Sheeran takes a raincheck on taking a stand. This week, Hasan Piker doesn't need a publicist, while Andrew Zimmern wants to ACTUALLY make America healthy again. The Rant Wheels spins through red-eye flights, Democratic in-fighting, and getting out the vote. (If you’re not sure how to do that, please go immediately to VoteSaveAmerica.com to find out more.) And second thoughts? We've had a few.Hate listening to ads? Become a Friends of the Pod subscriber for ad-free episodes of Pod Save America, Pod Save the World, Lovett or Leave It, Runaway Country, Offline with Jon Favreau, and more—plus exclusive content, including bonus episodes of Pod Save America. Subscribe now at crooked.com/friends, on Apple Podcasts, or through the Pod Save America YouTube channel.You can request a transcript by emailing [e-mail]. Include the podcast name, episode title, and air date. Please allow 48 hours for delivery.

You might drink it every day, but did you know that the history of tea is steeped in skullduggery, colonialism and industrial espionage? I'm Greg Jenner, host of You're Dead to Me, we're the comedy show that takes history seriously, and in our latest episode, we spill the tea on tea. Join us to unpack the ancient Chinese origins of the drink and find out how it became the national drink of modern Britain. Listen to Your Dead to Me wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us on YouTube. Love it or leave it. It's love it, we'll leave it. What's up, Los Angeles? Welcome to Love and or Leave It Live

from Hollywood to MS now viewers. I am not a random guy. I was actually once a presidential speechwriter, and now I do this. I'm John Lovett, and welcome to the nation's number one late-night political gay live comedy podcast. Let's get into it.

What a week. On Monday, the Supreme Court Blanc President Trump's plan to use the post office to potentially withhold millions of man. in ballots, which would have been so messed up, if Democrats lose the midterms, we should not have to wonder if it's because of missing mail-in ballots. We should know without a shadow of a doubt that it is because of Asan Piker. While this ruling did not come with a vote count, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented,

while Brett Kavanaugh issued a concurring opinion, or as he'll be known at the next No King's rally, the notorious BMK. You might not like it, but well-behaved men seldom make history. Brett, Brett, Brett, Brett, Brett, Brett, shame on you. All right. Trump then singled out the three justices he nominated, Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney-Barritt,

saying, quote, these are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court. They are merely a shell of their original selves, added Trump, you are not the people whose names I picked off a list presented to me by the Federal Society who saw me as a useful idiot to stack the court with right-wing ideologues, who I then talked at for an hour. You were nodding!

This wasn't the only rebuke by a Trump nominee. Two weeks ago, Trump issued an ultimatum to the Federal Reserve, cut interest rates, or he will cut off U.S. trade with the world, which would obviously be terrible for the economy. It was a smart threat, since if you work for the Fed, you probably really like the economy. Trump wrote on true social, lower the rate or I'll stop trading with countries

with which we have a deficit, along with an AI photo of Trump holding a leash attached to former Fed chairs Jerome Powell, Janet Yellen, and Ben Bernet. Yankee as they crawled like dogs. Now, I made the photo up. That didn't happen, but it's plausible. And that tells you where we're at. And yet this week, the Fed, now led by Trump's pick, Kevin Warsh, raised interest rates for the first time since July 2023. If the Revolutionary Guard of Iran can call Trump's bluff, why can't we? shouted a board member, let's be as brave as the Ayatollah,

making several other members of the Federal Reserve quite uncomfortable. Now let's go to Trump and see if you can catch how he's subtly trying to save face. Yeah, I do. I mean, I'm relying on Kevin, but he's got, you know, a very tough board. He's got a board that was put there by a lot of other people. And the interest rates are too high. They're not appropriate. And I told, I talked to Kevin and I said, you might as well vote with the board because it's not going to matter.

Look, when I'm sitting in the cuck chair, it's like I'm part of it. It's really my idea. And that's a big reason why I feel so good about it. not upset when it's happening, the act. And then on Tuesday, a federal judge once again blocked Trump from adding his name to the Kennedy Center, said the judge, hey, my ruling is, this is too stupid. For a society, the Kennedy Center is a literal memorial, and even if it weren't, demanding your name be added to a building is very embarrassing.

And even if that weren't true, it obviously requires Congress, which created the Kennedy Center, to pass a law. Am I a judge? Is this real? Did I die? The judge, Christopher Cooper, actually said, simply put, the defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress's blessing. Unlike John F. Kennedy, this judge is obviously very close-minded.

In retaliation, the Trump's stacked Kennedy Center board voted to close the art center completely, effective immediately, which is too bad because tomorrow night's Kennedy Center performance was going to be McLemore. Oh man, that guy cannot catch a break. Trump is now explicitly saying he will not allow the plan $257 million renovation to proceed with the name change, telling her So for the Trump administration, for me, to get involved and to take that on long term and to carry it or to raise money to carry it, I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition. Because frankly, if we don't do that, it's going to close. It'll end up being ripped down.

It's in very, very bad shape, very dangerous. Why save something if you can't put your name on it? It's like how Jane Goodall carved your name into every single one of those chimps. And look, buddy, none of those other buildings with your name on it actually filled the void, huh? Should we try something else? Should we try calling your son, who is also named after you? Just to say hi, a son is like a building that can love you back. And then on Wednesday night, Trump was photographed through the window of his Qatar Air Force One,

looking at a big signboard with a picture of the D.C. skyline, above which, in big letters, it said Kennedy Center demolished. Many wondered if this was a way to bully the judge into allowing the name change when in fact the real explanation is far more innocent. This is his porn now. Yet there is one last Trump bastion on earth not willing to call the president's bluff

and that's the Republican Congress. On Tuesday, Republican Gadfly Thomas Massey introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegsef. Ugh, said Heg Seth. This is just like that time my friends and family ambushed me to read a bunch of lame letters about how much they love me or whatever.

Massey's charges against Hegseff include violating the War Powers Act, retaliating against critics like Senator Mark Markelly, kidnapping Nicholas Maduro and committing extrajudicial killings. Well, it's five o'clock somewhere, said Heggseth before bombing a school. Yep, that's right. Massey told CNN he hid his impeachment resolution from Republican leadership so they wouldn't try to stomp him in the only place they'd never look, the Epstein files, said Massey. So I didn't want to show my hand. I didn't show it to anybody. I was afraid that they would do

something to subvert me getting on the floor for an hour and 20 minutes and reading these articles. And subverting Massey is exactly what the GOP did. After all, this isn't House Speaker Mike Johnson's first rodeo because he's a frigging clown. I got rodeos. To avoid having to call a vote on the resolution, Johnson ended the legislative session early, effectively preventing a vote until after the midterm, similar to when Johnson prevented a vote on the Epstein files last July by sending Congress home early for the summer. Pulling out before anything happens as Johnson and he also uses it in Congress. Ending the session early also means that the House left town

without taking any action on a number of AI safety bills. But here too, Johnson is following Trump's lead. Echoing the AI backers who have his ear, Trump has come out against any regulation, a sentiment repeated by J.D. Vance to the AI investors who host the All In podcast. What I would say to those people, if you're building Frankenstein, stop.

Or maybe build, you know, if the cat is out of the bag, then build the defensive mechanism against Frankenstein. Look, if there's a lesson from Mary Shelley that she was trying to convey in Frankenstein, it's that Victor needed to stop being so emotional and just build a bigger, lonelier monster to protect him from the murderous one.

Frankenstein, too, practice makes perfect. Meanwhile, Nate Silver has Democrats up 8.2% with likely voters, according to the latest average. We just got to keep our heads down, do the work, and avoid blowing it, said Chuck Schumer, before heading out on stage to open for Ed Shearan. Now you have Republicans trying to remove Trump's name from their websites and putting out last-minute ads, criticizing Trump on immigration.

But it's hard to distance yourself from Trump when you spent years enabling mass deportations, the war in Iran, and shocking brazen corruption. So J.D. Vance is left making pleas like this. Give us another chance or give us another couple of years to continue to work on the amazing things that we've been doing for the past two years. Give us another chance. Bitch, you didn't get drunk and kissed your workwife at the office Christmas party. You lost a war in Iran.

And then to really close the deal, Vance tried this. And the second argument I'd make is, even if you don't agree with us on every issue, the other party is consumed by craziness. Craziness, I tell you. Anyway, got to go see you about blowing up the National Performing Arts Center. And speaking of performances that are blowing up, last week, Ben Haggerty, better known by his stage name, Maclimore, opened for Ed Shearren, better known by his stage name,

Ed Shearin. Macklemore played his protest song Hins Hall, accompanied by graphic images of Gaza and this statement. One of the reasons why I wanted to come on this tour was because I wanted to stand up here on stages and stadiums across America and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart, Free Palestine. And look, we have to be able to separate the art from the artist in the sense that the song are bad, but the message is good. Soon, Robert Kraft, who owns

Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, where the tour was set to appear, threatened to cancel the show unless sheer and drop McLemore. Kraft also rallied other stadium operators to make the same demand. And as a Jewish American myself, thank you, Robert Kraft.

The best way to fight anti-Semitism is for a Jewish billionaire to join forces with a cabal of other wealthy stadium operators to prevent audiences from hearing a pro-Palestinian statement by a performer largely regarded until now as a brand-safe version of fucking M&M.

McClamor then announced he was no longer part of the tour calling Shiren a friend who wanted to avoid taking sides, a stance which like Sharon's hairline wasn't holding up. And I'm allowed to say that because I have had three hair transplants. A wave of anger and condemnation followed. Even Fox News host Jesse Waters was sympathetic to

McLemore. So what did he say? It was bad. He said, free Palestine? Is that all? No, there went on on. It was genocide. Yeah. Okay. Okay, well, all I heard was Free Palestine.

I don't think that's hate speech. Say what you will about Jesse Waters, but he was wearing the hell out of that kaffia. On Tuesday, Shiren issued a statement, claiming it was his promoter's decision to remove McLemore and not his own, and I appreciate Shiren's transparency of his skin. The statement was embarrassing.

Said, Shiren, I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn't mean I don't have them and that I don't care. He then specified that the song, Shape of You, was actually about Israel returning to its 1967 borders.

It must be frustrating for Sheer, and Dolly Parton never had to take a position on Israel and Palestine, but she had the bazongas to pull it off. By the end of the day, Tuesday, Sheeran's other opening acts for the remainder of the tour, Roe, Graham, and Phineas,

all announced that they were dropping out in solidarity with Macklemore, but Shearin has managed to replace them with, it says here, Ben Shapiro playing the clarinet, that's tough. On Wednesday, McLemore announced that he was donating the $1 million he made from the tour to six organizations aiding Palestinians, adding, I invite Robert Kraft to match my donation. Then Kraft responded, saying that before McLemore challenged him to match the donation,

Sheeran asked him to commit $2 million, saying that Sheeran was reaching out to other venue owners in order to build bridges. Sadly, Israel has since bombed those bridges. And finally, Lady Gaga welcomed her new baby into the world. the name Rose Bean. She's named after her father, Mr. Bean. All right, we've got a great show for you tonight. And we'll be right back with Asan Piker.

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that's QUO.com slash love it. And we're back. Please welcome to the show, the star of this year's midterm elections, America's sweetheart, Asam Piker. All right. Let me just,

I do want to get this out of the way. I denounce you. I was about to say. Thank God. I denounce myself as well. Great. That's so important. Thank you for doing that.

Oh, that's a big, I need some more questions. All right. So I see online today that you're releasing your most contentious interview yet the day we're supposed to be recording this episode. What the fuck? First of all, you're everywhere. You're, what, are you promoting a movie? Do you have a book coming out?

Do you have a project? Are you in the Emmy run? What's going on? I have no idea what's going on half the time. It's just people are constantly blowing up my phone and being like, we have to talk. We have to talk about what you've done? And I'm like, what have I done? Like, what's going on?

And they're like, well, I'm Tim Bollock with The New York Times. Right, right, right, right. It turns out the Republicans don't really have a good midterm message. So they decided to go with the craziest message of all time, which is just my meat. Yeah. Like that, yeah. Thank you. They decided to say, look at this radical Islamic jihadist terrorist.

He's butt naked in this photo. But they blurred out the meat. They did. Which would, but as if there was something unsightly about the photo, but the photo was just of underwear. Yeah, and I think that's the best I've ever looked. Like, I don't look that good right now, so I can't even, like, show more shirtless photos for Debbie Dingell. Raise a lot of money. Maybe in a future where you could be sort of, you could use that to raise money if you weren't being denounced so frequently and condemned.

So I do want to stipulate. Now, I think you've said shit that is very stupid. stupid and bad. I also think you've been, had a lot of your words taken out of context. The reason I'm stipulating all this is like, I just don't want to do another round of that conversation. I think that conversation is important. I'm glad you had it with Axios. I'm sorry, Simone Sanders scooped you. No, but I'm not, I'm glad they had, look, I, I totally, yes, that is actually what happened. But I also, but I'm not, that is not to say this conversation, that conversation isn't important. I'm just that you've had it. And I think you should go listen

to that version of it, which is fine. So this is the thing I wanted to talk to you about, which is I see you mixing it up with some people in the center left with some former Trump Republicans. And so my view is I am part of a pro-democracy coalition in the fight against fascism, and it includes everyone from former Republicans like Nicole Wallace and Tim Miller and Sarah Longwell. It includes establishment politicians. It includes Neurotan. It includes Shannon Watts. It includes AOC and Bernie.

And it includes voices on the left like you. Am I right or am I wrong about that? No, you're absolutely right. And I have the exact same mentality about this as well. I have my frustrations with the Democratic Party. It's very obvious. I let it be known. But my criticisms of the Democrats, establishment Democrats,

or the failures of the campaigns, are never that they are worse than the Republicans. I want them to be better than the Republicans. And sometimes I think we are far too close to the Republicans. We're far too conciliatory to their made-up hysterias, and we keep falling for the bait. And in some respects, I think this campaign of denouncement is a version of that as well. We're living through unprecedented crisis after crisis in America right now. The Republicans know that they have no agenda that they can run on.

Donald Trump is underwater on immigration. He ran on mass deportations, and now he's underwater on immigration. immigration, which, by the way, was very predictable. Ironically enough, this is what I was talking about in the lead-up to the election. I was like, we should not concede on this false framing that immigrants constitute a national security threat. It's not real. And the prosecution of this mass deportation initiative is going to look like, you know,

Hitler's Germany. And people are going to get frustrated inevitably by that reality. And it turns out, lo and behold, that is exactly what happened, right? So I understood the severity of the crisis. I understood the impact that Trump would have, and I really wanted the Democrats to be a competent anti-Trump force and thoroughly dismantle his agenda. And even after the defeat, I expected Democrats to at least rise up to the moment and fight back. And they were nowhere to be found. And I think that is the main reason why I got more and more hands-on in campaigns. And there were a bunch of wonderful democratic socialist candidates that were running all around the country. I think it was Zoron initially that kind of sparked my interest in this.

So if you guys want to blame anybody, blame Zoron Mamdani. But yeah, there was tremendous success there. And I mean, he's unbelievably charismatic. He's very successful. And he's also a great mayor. And he's done the unthinkable. He's become a popular mayor of New York. mayor of New York. I think the last time a guy was a popular mayor of New York, they put his name on the airport, right?

Yeah. And even then, they destroy his legacy because this is the worst airport of all time. Never get to fly out of LaGuardia. So, yeah, look, I hear what you're saying, right? But you also have people that are part of this coalition, like Roy Cooper is a very popular government. Josh Shapiro has been very popular. We had victories because of people like Abigail Spanberger, right? Like when you say, oh, you know, Democrats, they weren't showing up, right? Like, well, we lost. Like, we didn't have power. We're trying to figure out

how to fight our way back to having power, which is what we're trying to do now. And I'm wondering how you think about, Fox News has made you the main character. And I agree. It's because they don't know what else to do. But that is because they must be seeing something that says, oh, this person seems like a crazy person to people.

He seems radical. We can tar people with this person's image. What do you think about that? So I forget who it was who said this, but it's like, if Republicans are using it as an attack ad, that means they tested it and it's working, right? And my answer to that is they have nothing else. So this might be their only thing that they have. Just because it's their most successful narrative doesn't mean that it's going to be successful in winning elections for them. And I don't think it will be successful in winning elections for them at all.

because look, I've gone all up and down the country. I have fans in many places all around this beautiful country. And, you know, there's obviously a lot of Republicans that don't like me and maybe even some liberals that don't like me. But by and large, the idea that a Twitch streamer is supposed to be held to a higher standard than the president is such an insane phenomenon that it could only be concocted by a bunch of out-of-touch people in mainstream outlets that think, like, this is a salient narrative that will definitely work because people don't care.

Like I have a lot of followers that are still very active on these campaigns that are doing canvassing and in phone banking. And every now and then in Michigan, because I'm apparently an ad that they blast on the airwaves like every commercial break numerous times throughout the day, that there will be a guy that will bring my name up when talking about Abdul Al-El-Saya, where they're like, what's up with this Hassan guy? But by and large, they just don't care. They're like, yeah, okay, that doesn't, I don't really care at the end of the day.

Like, that's not going to change my decision as far as, like, voting for him. Because people are voting for the economy. And the economy is in tatters. I mean, I saw a billboard in Texas that said that they were out of diesel. I didn't even know billboards said out. It was like one of those digital billboards, and it said out under diesel. I was like, that's a thing. I mean, we're seeing like $9.

They're maxing out on gas, buddy. This is what Americans are frustrated by. And it's not great that Donald Trump is not great for the Republicans. That Donald Trump goes on television almost daily and says, yeah, the poor's need to eat shit and die. Yeah. Well, so I agree with what you're saying, right? If they're using it because they're out of ideas, it's ridiculous the standard they're holding YouTube versus the price. I agree with all that.

We will sometimes have Fox News on in our office, and it is amazing how much you are all over Fox News. But every once in a while, we'll do an interview with somebody or have a conversation, and we'll be talking about what's wrong with the Democratic Party, or we joked about age being ultimately the thing that takes down Trump, and we were laughing about what would happen if Trump had deep feint thrombosis, something to that effect.

And then you turn... Totally defensible conversation. But so then you turn on... turn on Fox News the next day and look, there it is, right? And sometimes, and when that happens, and I feel like, you know what, fuck them, use this, who cares? It was fine and they're wrong. But there have been moments, right, where you don't say something the way you wish

or you're like, you know, there been times where I've done interviews where I'd wish I'd wished I phrased a question differently and then all of a sudden they're using it, it's useful to the opponent of that candidate who ultimately I would rather see win. And so that means that I don't want to cow to right-wing nonsense. and propaganda, but I also, I am proud of the platform I have and the people I get to talk to and to get to do this show. And that means I do have a responsibility. And I wonder if you think about that. No, absolutely, I do. There's two different versions of this, right? You have the out-of-context clips, you have moments where I flub in my answer, or I get too wordy with it and they can

like chop it down and reduce it to something. I mean, this has literally happened to Abdul as well. He had this very thoughtful piece that he delivered. I believe it was a couple days after the synagogue attack where he was talking about the cycle of violence and how to put an end to it, right? And they reduced it to a choice quote, hurt people, hurt people. The argument was not to make it seem like this was an agreeable act

or justifiable act. I mean, he calls the person a heinous monster, a small individual. And of course, this also came after a direct conduct, condemnation the day of the attack, and yet they reduce it to hurt people, hurt people. And the media does this all the time. So there are- Back to you, but not those moments.

But then there's also, there's also the third thing, which is like actual positions that I hold, actual opinions that I have that are unbelievably antagonistic to those in positions of power, that when they hear that, they like lose their minds. I don't know how to deal with it. And when I'm faced with a question like that, I have to, in my mind, make this calculation of, should I be honest about what I believe? Should I take a principled stance on something? Or should I portray myself as a campaign surrogate and act as though I'm running for office?

And I've definitely dialed down. I know it doesn't seem like it. I've definitely dialed down my commentary with that in mind for sure. because it's totally ridiculous. I'm not being paid by any of these campaigns. There are literal white supremacists working inside of every single Republican campaign. Some are running.

Yeah, some are running, yeah. And yet the entire discourse seems to be around myself and my affiliation with these candidates, even though, I mean, Abdul came high yesterday and was like, I'm not planning on campaigning with Asan and I've already made it clear, like this is a Twitch streamer, his opinions are utterly immaterial to the campaign that I'm running, which is focused on Michigan, but the media won't let go.

Right, yeah, it's, but I hear what you're saying. And like, right before we came out, we were seeing, there's more from this interview you did with Axios, right? And there's all these headlines going around. You know, the U.S. is pound for pound worse than Al-Qaeda, is one of the ones that's going around. And then you look into what you're saying. I understand the point.

that you're making. And there is a space between acting like a candidate and not saying what you think, and a kind of obtuseness about what happens when you say something like that, right? Because there is the substance of what you're saying in a moment like that. And as a streamer and as a person who the audience

trusts to just say exactly what you think, totally get the point that you're making, the argument that you're making. But as you have a bigger platform now, do you think to yourself, you know what? the most helpful and persuasive way for me to make this argument to the people that will hear it is not to be so antagonistic in the framing or am I just to kind of poison by sort of campaigns and

politics? No, I think you're, I think there's truth to what you're saying absolutely because because you want to be helpful. Yeah, I want to be helpful. And clearly that's there are times at which you've become a problem. Yes. Yes. And the problem isn't necessarily what I'm saying. The problem is that I become a distraction because you have a finite amount of time. And really, that's, where you are supposed to make your case to the people. And some of those people are going to be 65-year-old white ladies living in places like McComb County. They see the name Abdulrahman Muhammad al-Said

being blasted over and over again. And they like him. They like that he's a doctor. They like that he's a father. But then they're a little bit worried because, you know, I mean, he's jacked and also on top of that, he's, you know, he's very brown. He's very Muslim.

And they're seeing, they're being inundated with a barrage of hateful racial adjutop on a daily basis. And they're like, well, I'm associating Abdul with this. And then all of a sudden they're like, well, he campaigned with this guy. Did that guy do 9-11? I don't really know what's going on there. And I just want to say there's at this point no evidence that you had anything to do with 9-11. Yes. I was an ambitious nine-year-old.

But that would be ridiculous. So there is obviously the Islamophobia angle as well. Because like these candidates, and Zoron went through this. He was the first that went through this because the American Desert 9-11 soundbite originated or resurfaced as like a big salient attack at against Zoron in the New York race. And it failed. But that didn't stop people from going, oh, this is something that we could test out further. It is yet to succeed in every single primary.

this is the true test because it's a purple state, right? It's a statewide race. It's a Senate race. It's a pivotal race. So I think this is their big last hazaa. They're trying to see if this will actually work with a candidate whose name is Abdul al-Sayed. So I understand that. And I understand that anything else that I say about American foreign policy is always going to, is always going to turn into, oh, he loves our enemies and he hates America. And, you know, He wants America to suffer. The way to get around that, in my opinion, obviously my own personal responsibility is first and foremost

to either go away or to never do an Axios interview. So that's one. Yeah, I mean, don't think that's a particularly bad idea for you. But I think let's talk about your strategy with the media. We can have a little bit more of a plan. But, okay. Yeah, no, the Axios interview. The Axios interview.

You have a PR person you talk to and run these things, but yeah, I'm getting the sense. Yeah. Clivicular. Yeah. Clivicular is. Clavicular's publicist got mad at me on the timeline. It was like, because Hassan famously doesn't hire a publicist, and that's why he's doing this stuff. And I was like, look, I'm a big boy.

Like, I know I can handle contentious media interviews. It's just that there's still a coordinated effort behind the scenes to be like, we're going to clip this out. They went to Abdul El-Said before the video was released. Yeah, that was smart. That was, they're making a moment out of this interview. Yeah. And they, I think they leaked it to staff.

as well to be like, oh, it was a contentious, fiery interview. Because immediately my phone blows up. They're, like, asking me, like, why was it contentious? Why did it get fiery? And I was like, yeah, it was a contentious interview. It was the most contentious interview I've done so far because it was 45 minutes of just being like, these are the clips. And they were just hammering them.

I guess it's, there's nothing that you can do to go, like people, you stream all the time. I think it's insane what you do. Just madness. But there's nothing you could do to, there's people can have combed through and they're going to find things that you said, either take them out of context or not take them out of contest. But I'm curious, like, going forward, right?

Like, you're joking about not having a publicist, fine. But, like, there does seem to be two paths for you, one in which you have this platform that you take seriously, not just where you say what you think, but to be kind of useful at persuasion and being more directly involved with politics, or you can be someone who just says the thing in the way that is not necessarily the most helpful

in a political arena outside of core people. And I'm curious if you see those paths. No, I do. I think there's two different schools of thought on this. I not only want to be persuasive, but I think the testament to the success of a lot of these DSA candidates, as well as my success individually as a content creator,

is a testament to the persuasive capabilities of this platform in general. But yes, entering the realm of political campaigns is an entirely different beast, right? I totally understand that. It's far more vicious, and it's an unbelievably hostile media environment. I don't expect them to treat me in the same way that they treat even Republicans.

There's two ways of dealing with this, is what I always say. And not everyone can handle this hyper-contentious media environment, but what I wish liberals would do more frequently is to expose the double standard and to also tackle the form. Because at the end of the day, like over the eight-hour broadcast, I'm not just talking about politics. I'm burping into the microphone. I'm making dick jokes. Like it's not always super serious. Yeah.

Right? It's not supposed to be super serious. There's, you know, serious commentary. And then there's very unserious moments as well. But they're elevating my status as like super. serious political commentator and campaign consultant, campaign surrogate, when I've never, I've never wanted to be that. I just, I didn't even think that like campaigning with Abdul or going on a rally with Abdul was, was ever going to be this much of a, like a media moment from the

start. I was very honest about it too. I, I, because I had had Abdul on numerous times, fundraised for him. We went to the gym together and stuff like that. And I never realized that, like Adam Ray of Politico was going to take our campaigning together as like a big step that, you know, really terrified a lot of people in positions of power for some reason. Yeah. I guess I just think the question for you is what responsibility that creates for you now that you like it or not are in this place. But Hassan Becker, thank you so much.

Everybody go check out his stream. He's at at Hassan Abbey on YouTube and Twitch. And we'll be right back. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of love it or leave it coming up. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. We all have those persistent bad habits. We wish we could change.

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And that's a good thing. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com slash love it. That's BetterH-E-L-P.com. If you miss some of your favorite crooked pods this week, don't worry, you can now catch up on the week's best moments on MS Now on Saturday nights. MS Now is streaming an episode of highlights from your favorite crooked pods, packing as much analysis, funny moments, and 100% correct opinions into 40 minutes as humanly possible. Crooked on MS Now airs every Saturday at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. My next guest is a chef, a TV star, and four-time James Beard Award winner. And one time he ate a tarantula, put your hands together for chef Andrew Zimmern.

So I have to tell you something. I was at the Minnesota State Fair for the last week in Labor Day weekend, and because of your recommendation, I ate the Gizmo sandwich. What did you think? It's great. It's fantastic. It's great. I will say... No burps.

I mean, I don't... You have more practice. I will say like a big hoagie. filled with sausage and beef and melted cheese and sauce at 3 o'clock on a blindingly hot summer day in Twin Cities was perfect. It's all meant to be shared, though. Yes. I mean, this is my whole, I mean, nobody should be walking around the state fair eating an Amish donut, a bucket of cheese curds, a bucket of fries, two foot longs, a gizmo. You go with people and you share.

Absolutely. I split that bad boy out. I think the larger takeaway for everyone should be the. that arguably the single greatest annual cultural event in America, and it's an argument I make all the time, is the Minnesota State Fair. Yeah, and you're all out applauding because everyone's up coastal elite freaks. But you don't know how great. I've married into Minnesota, and the state fair is the best.

It's unbelievable. I mean, the 4-H buildings, it's 160-year-old permanent fairgrounds. There's a grandstand that seats 40,000 people that, you know, Bonnie Raitt is there one night. the Alice Cooper the next, the black keys the next. I don't think people understand. The Minnesota State Fair does not just take over an area.

It exists year-round for the purpose of the two weeks of the fair. It has its own zip code and all of its buildings. It only stands up for the period of the fair. It's basically a ghost town, the rest of the year. There were a time where people lived

on the grounds to take care of it. But then it comes alive for this two-week period. And there are all these businesses. It's like, well, what do you do? we get ready for the fair, we sell our corn at the fair, then we get ready for the fair. The cow barn, I take people to the cow barn all the time to look at eight-year-old, blonde-haired kids with straw coming out of their mouth, sleeping on top of their prized heifer that they're going to show on day three, and they're just, they clean it every day,

they sleep with their cows, they don't want anyone near their cow gets judged all the time. And then right next to them, our architecture students, from Germany sketching the cantilevered interior beamwork there because it was the first roof of its kind. There's the miracle of birth center. There's an art gallery that collects art, Minnesota art all year long. From animals. It's unbelievable.

And bean art. I will tell you, when the miracle of birth opened, it's 10 different types of farm animals and they have lots of pregnant ones brought in so that everyone can see how these animals are birth and veterinarians speak. and it's a really pro-animal thing. And I would say anti-smell. It's unpleasant sometimes. But about 18 years ago when my son was four,

I had them on my shoulders, and other people were just awestruck that there was a pig birthing eight, nine, ten, 12 little piglets in a row. And Noah, everyone is very quiet. My son screamed out. my daddy eats all of those and the whole

I mean the room just went silent and turned around and I had to shrink away into another part of the building it's like yes I've eaten that animal before but that's the bad guy we walked into the we walked into the miracle of birth

and there was a cow there and someone standing nearby said that's the placenta we missed it it it's true you were in gross So you were in Washington speaking out about toxic chemicals and food. There's legislation called the Fresh and Affordable Foods Act, and it sounds great,

but it could potentially weaken some state safety food laws. What should people know about it? Well, not potentially. And like a lot of other legislation that's been put forth by this administration, especially surrounding things like the environment and food and farming and the farm bill and anything else that we participate in every single day. it has a really, really rosy, happy name around it. What it's actually designed to do is to take away the state's ability to protect

citizens by not allowing foods that will harm you, cause cancer, cause birth defects in women who are pregnant, et cetera, that they now have the right to do. It can preempt those existing conditions. The idea by backers of the potential legislation say is, well, we just want to streamline everything with the FDA and not have, you know, 50 separate voices out there. I seem to remember from my high school education that was called federalism in Washington kind of liked states to have the right to do that. It's also a check and balance that we desperately need.

I'm sure everyone who's listening and knows about all the food outbreaks that are now coming almost every single day. This morning, it was caramel swirl ice cream from a fairly reasonable size provider. The FDA has been gutted. The various other mechanisms within the 14 to 20 other agencies that have a say in different types of food issues, way too many for my blood to begin with, which is part of the problem. But the FDA's been gutted, inspections have been gutted, inspections of internationally imported foods, I think, are down by like 80% since 2024. The last time we have data on this. And so to take away the state's rights to be able to say, no, you can't do that here,

you can't put those dyes into our kids' candies. To me, it's just more of the same slop that this administration has been peddling, which is let's relax the laws that have put handcuffs on big business for so long. I mean, it's just a very obvious con job. So you have RFK Jr. who ostensibly cared about basically two big issues. Food, health, and safety make America healthy again, right? And vaccines. He seems to be getting what he wants in undermining vaccines,

but is now the kind of face of an administration that is not doing anything about the weed killer roundup that seems to be undermining the rules. Yeah, life would say it's... Yeah. I saw TikTok. It was in the oat milk and I'm like, oh, I like oat milk. What do I do? Don't drink oat milk.

God damn it. It's the best of the milks that are not milk. True, because almond milk, I mean, I just have to say, you know, there's no single thing that we grow that requires as much water, which we are in desperate need of protecting than growing almonds. So, I mean, there's, you talk about a moral dilemma there. You know, I mean, I kind of liked almonds until I realized how much water, energy that it took to make them. That makes it taste better to me.

You raise, oats are very easy to grow. Are they? Yeah. So you're good with your oat milk. Except. You have to make sure that it comes from a reliable supplier and one that has a conscience. And how are we supposed to vet that as citizens? We can't.

The role of federal government is the protection and welfare of its citizenry. And this administration and RFK Jr. especially, has been embarrassingly weak, almost criminally weak. And in the case of something like addressing the hunger issues in America, genocidal, we have by definition, if you have the ability to solve something like childhood hunger in America, $17.5 billion. That's how much it costs roughly, give or take a billion, to statistically eliminate childhood hunger in America. And no one will take a stand for it. How is a starving child somehow politically untenable to stand up for it?

It absolutely is boggling my mind every time I speak about it. This administration seems to be gleeful about some of the cruelty of their lack of work or their work, In the case of RFK Jr., you know, I think he's a pin-up doll for the Trump administration. I think like so many other cabinet-level positions, I think Trump has 35 of them, 35 or 36 of them. And not that education is everything, but at a certain point in leadership, I'd like to have maybe one with a PhD. You know, I mean, something like that. We're getting outscored all over the world when it comes to running our country. And my fear is by the time we get to an election that might have some consequence, and it might not be this one, it might be 2028, what will we have lost by then?

We're getting people sick with our food. 20 plus percent of Americans are hungry. prices, food prices are through the roof. It's going to get worse, a lot worse, when it comes to food prices before it gets better. The growing season around America is coming to a close very shortly, and we are now going to pay the price for everything that's going on for the last six months. So if you think beef prices and vegetable prices and fruit prices, healthy, nutritious ones, fresh ones, were high before they're going to get higher. my fear for the average American family is, you know, I mean, you guys were talking about gas prices before. It's always been over the course of my lifetime. I'm 65. I've been around for a lot of elections.

You know, kitchen table economics was always a conversation point that started out with gas prices. And I think the actual kitchen table issues around this election, I hope come home to Roos for this administration because they're underserving Americans. One quick thing to add. I referenced before that there were 14 to 22, depending on how you calculated different agencies in Washington, the control, what we eat and drink. That's a fact. We need, just based on GDP alone, and I've called for about eight years now, is a secretary of food. Why we don't have a cabinet-level secretary position and put all the food-making and all the beverage issues and everything under one. un-silowed, experienced human being.

They should be really fat. I hope well. I wanted them to be really fat. Never trust. In person, bullshit. They should be heavy. Orson Wells heavy. Orson Wells, reinforced chair for the fucking Saturday.

We need a big dude. More lady. Yes. I am willing to put on 200 pounds if I can have that job. But I would like to, I would really honestly hope that whoever sits in, that Oval Office next understands what a massive. I mean, just to give everyone an idea, independent restaurants, not including ag, no hotels, nothing, no other piece of income other than independent restaurants.

So that's not changed. It's just independent restaurants alone is over 6% of GDP and employs 11 million Americans. And the only business other than independent restaurants that's that big is the Pentagon. That's how big it is. That's so interesting. crazy making. I didn't know that. I want to finally learn something on this show. So you are also, along with your advocacy, you're hosting Pitmasters

on Food Network. I'm schizophrenic. Pitmasters. Now, you had said you wouldn't host a competition show. What caused you to abandon your values? Filthy Luker? I'm being denounced. Yeah, you're being denounced. I love this. I denounce Andrew Zimmern. I got a call from some friends at a production company that I've tried to work with for 20 years. They've wanted to work with me. I wanted to work with them.

They said, we got this new show. Can you shoot it in April? And I said, it's March. And they said, yeah, they've moved up the calendar on us. We don't know what to do. And I'm like, yeah, I'm in. And I think it's an awesome show. It just concluded.

It got phenomenal ratings from what I understand. I'm really excited about it. And I'm, you know, knock on wood, we get a second season. But yeah, it's, I mean, look, at my age, I wanted to work with my friends and I, because I'm not a flip-flopper, and I

also felt that a straight-up competition show underserved the audience. They talked down to the audience. The audience didn't get to see a real, like the barbecue shows were live fire shows that's grilling on a Weber, right? This, we actually,

you know, it's 24 hours a day. The fire never goes out. eight straight days, go. And if you need to cook a brisket for 18 hours, you cook a brisket for 18 hours, and they're in pairs so they can strategically think about rest and sleeping. And we saw some incredible food.

And I'm really excited about it. Wild Game Kitchen, which is my tastemate show that's also my airs on my YouTube, just got nominated for two Emmys, so I'm really excited about that. So the TV career, surprisingly to me, has never been better after 25 years of

doing it is sort of nuts. Maybe you finally came into your own in ways you don't fully comprehend. Ah. I wanted as you, speaking of TV, coming full circle, you were mentored by Jacques Pepin. Papan. Papan. Yes, I'm old.

I love him. Me too. He wasn't a jerk or anything, was he? Not at all. One of the greatest human beings of all time. And in fact, the stuff like any great mentor, the stuff that he taught me about being a dad, about being a good citizen, about caring about your family, and then your community, and then your city, and then your state, and then your country, and about the joy of living are the things that I take away from him as well as knowing how to dice an eggplant.

But my dad was doing the advertising, my late father was doing the advertising for Howard Johnson's when Jacques was their corporate chef. And so I got to meet him and, you know, be around him enough over the course of because he didn't get back into restaurants. He started doing TV shows, and he started writing books. He started doing things that were absolutely unbelievable. And he's such a brilliant and kind and engaging man. And, you know, during the early days of parenting,

when I was away from my family all the time, it was Jacques who put his arm around me and said, you don't get to decide what time you spend with your kids. He said, when I was on the road, all of those years, I never saw Claudein, his daughter, ever. He said, I was away 300 days a year. Now, I come home, she turns 24, she moves into a house on the same block as me,

and I make TV with her, and I'm with her 24 hours a day. The magic of that, his ability to make me feel comfortable allowed me to be a better dad. That's beautiful. Well, thank you, Chef Andrew Zimmern. Catch up on Pitmaster. on HBO Max and head to Andrew Zimmern.com for his substack recipes and other updates. We'll be right back.

Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. Love it or Leave It is brought to you by Simply Save. Today's savvy burglars aren't deterred by traditional home security systems. They know that even if you trigger your alarm, they still have time to grab what they want and go. Simply Save is different. They stop break-ins before they start.

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packing as much analysis, funny moments, and 100% correct opinions into 40 minutes as humanly possible. Crooked on MS Now airs every Saturday at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. Here with Hassan and Andrew, two people that I have denounced. Gentlemen, it's time. Time to spin the rant wheel. We'll each get 60 seconds on the clock. So let loose on the topics of our choosing. Let's spin the wheel. Andrew, what would you like to rant about?

I would like to rant about the horrible nature of our behavior. behavior towards people in restaurants when it comes to prices. Restaurants are dealing with a jobs crisis. They're dealing with a rent crisis. They're dealing with a cost of goods crisis. And they're dealing with the same food cost crisis that we all have. And this idea that somehow restaurants all across America have conspired to create a $24 dollar cocktail and a $30 piece of chicken and are forcing everyone to buy it is simply untrue. Restaurants don't owe us anything. We have to change our behavior when it comes to what restaurants we are going to based on what we

can afford. That is absolutely the case. But it's not a restaurant industry cabal trying to fix prices and eliminate people from going out and I see restaurants being blamed right and left for things they have nothing to do with. I think it's a really important point. I'm so glad you made it. I will say, I think the prices at Arts Deli and Studio City have become insane. They're insane everywhere. They're insane everywhere. I've not seen a restaurant. Yeah, the places that have come down in price are the ones where the food quality is crap. They're not taking care of the product. The cost of doing everything in America,

The cost of bowling has gone up. Yes, I know. You're shattered. Your Tuesday Night League wants a shirt back. That's why Nogh's dividing me to bowling. Let's spin it again. Right, Asan, what's on your mind? Oh, boy.

I don't know where to begin. I don't want to start off by turning this into a campaign crisis for any number of different candidates around the country. Oh, this is a good test for you. Don't do that. I'm not going to do that. Because at first I was going to say, the IRGC is the greatest green new deal force

that this world has ever seen. By raising the cost of oil around the world. They are doing true, stop it. True. This is eco-terrorism. They watched how to blow up a pipeline and thought,

and thought, that's my shit. Okay, all jokes aside, I want Democrats to stop capitulating to right-wing framing. That's my rant. I don't want them to be dominated. I don't want our news media to succumb to Fox News as his news desk editor. I think everyone should be on Twitter a lot less, and I should probably take my own advice.

Loving that, yeah. Straight up, we have some of the most psychopathic people out there. The algorithm is run by a racist billionaire. It's making us all stupider. I agree with that. Let's spin it again. It's landed on me. I have a brief rant.

I flew to New York on Friday night, then I flew back Monday night, then I flew back to New York on Tuesday night, and then I flew back last night. Why I did that? I don't know. But I have a very specific request, which is, I believe on red-eye flights, we should all be able to agree, even if to sign some sort of contract that says, we don't care if we die, we don't need announcements. That we don't care where the exits are, we don't care what the weather is, we don't care if we're going to be on time or not. That when we get on that plane, we sit in our seats, the light goes off, and we're in the hands of the pilot.

And if not the pilot, God. And if we die, we die sleeping. If we are going down, I do not want anyone to say a fucking word. Why do we... Oh, thanks for waking me up. The plane's going down? Fuck you. Let me sleep this one beautiful moment

where I can be asleep and die asleep rather than fucking terrified. I think we could all get to the point where just only the red-eye flights were all flown before. flies a red eye for the first time. Silence in the evening on the red eye flights. That's it.

As a travel guy, I think that's the hottest take I've heard in a long time. I loved it. Actually, I did not think that we would agree on so much. Oh, wow. See, this is what's happening. This is the coalition building. Big Ten. And we'll be right back with second thoughts.

And we're back. It has been another grand slam of a show. However, my producers always need to point out the foul balls. And boy, were my balls foul? This sucks. So here's how this works. I have a list of places

where they believe I've fucked up during this episode. If you have places where you have second thoughts about tonight, this is the time to share them. My first joke was at the expense of Hassan, who brought a lot of people to pack the audience. That was rude. And I'm sorry. JFK caught some strays for a change. You guys didn't want to laugh about Hegsef bombing a school, and you were right, and I'm sorry.

That was wrong. I'm sorry for making fun of Ed Sheeran's hairline and skin. Those were unfair digs, even if accurate. That's not the, you know, other people have the same hairline and have done nothing wrong. Other people have the same skin and done nothing wrong. Can't make fun of people for being ugly, or not him, but, you know, we can't say, I'm not, that was bad. But you know what I'm saying? You know, Ted Cruz is so ugly.

There are good people who look just like him. You know what I'm saying? I feel like not a lot of people look like Take Cruz. Yeah, you're right. I made fun of McElmore's music, but not Ed Sheeran's, which it says here is all so bad. By the way, I feel like I've said, I just want you to all know, and I know you clocked it.

I probably have said the word McLemore tonight more than all the other times in my life combined. We had to make sure it was, in fact, not McElmore, which is how I was raised saying. it, but it's in fact supposed to be McLemore, which I think sucks. Also, I had to say it a lot. It felt weird, right? You feel like how many times I'd say McLemore?

I'm sorry about that, and that's the last one. Oh, Hassan, during our conversation, I said that you said things that were dumb and bad. I left out what I was going to say, which is, in that way, we're a lot of like. I just want to make sure I add that, which I had written down in advance. I attacked your media strategy, even though I stand by that, and in part because this It's not clear that you have one. I said to my guest, quote, I think it's insane what you do.

Just a question from the producers. Has Asan seen the tweet with a photo of him in the suit and it says, why does he look like he's dating Elaine Bennis for one episode? I did. I did see that. It's a high praise. That's a great.

That's a compliment. That's going to be at the next Jumbotron at the next convention. You're like like, look at this sexy guy who looks like he's in Seinfeld. Yeah, the 90s. I hate him. I hate him.

I hate him. I said the water cost of almonds make them taste better to me, and I'm sorry I said that. Let's see, I fat-chamed an imaginary cabinet secretary, and that's it. Do you have any second thoughts? Yeah. I would have liked to have mentioned the fact that we need to vote. Oh, yeah. And I'm trying to remind people, doesn't matter what you believe, we just need.

to vote. The fact that we have what's left of an amazing democracy here in 2026 and that we still can't get the kind of turnout that you would hope to have. And I don't want to tell anybody who or what to vote for. I do. Yeah, no, we can, I think we're safe to do that. But I think, well, on this show, but I think we need to vote. And I talked about kitchen table issues and I think that we need to expect our candidates to actually be asked about food policy. It's never asked in a debate forum. What's your food policy? Do you have any?

Do you know how many local politicians I saw at the Minnesota State Fair? None of them had a food policy. Like, well, I'm doing intermittent fasting. Not like that. That's not a food policy. What's interesting about what you just brought up also is that it leaves the environment wide open for people like RFK Jr. to seize on, and that's how they do the Maha thing. It's interesting. I think AOC recently was making inroads with like a bunch of Maha moms to bring them back into, you know, a sense of normalcy with something along those lines. So you're absolutely, you're absolutely correct on that.

Yeah. And I'll just say, you know, why aren't people showing up? Well, part of it is because the media environment is so terrible. And the kind of conversations we're having are being had on platforms that do not have our interests or they don't have Hassan's interest, but aren't, don't have the interest. of helping build a pro-democracy, progressive liberal movement. And so if you want to have conversations like that where we can have these disagreements without having to worry about people approaching it in such bad faith, I hope people will sign up at crooked.com slash friends to become a friend of the pod and join the community we're trying to build here an independent pro-democracy progressive media company. And to your point, if you go to vote saveamerica.com right now, there are ways that you can get involved in a race right by you. We are in the home stretch.

The election is less than two months away. This is the moment where you've been listening and angry and anxious. Now is the time to step in and do something because, don't you can't trust. Yeah, the polls look great. We have no idea what's going to happen. And by the way, you wake up the day after the election. And we got so close in a few key Senate races. But close won't matter if Alito or Thomas decide to retire next year.

So please sign up at Vote Save America. And that is our show. Thank you so much, Assam Piker and Andrew Zimbr. There are 46 days until the midterms, and we'll be back next week with Louis Fertell, Nina Parker, and Lisa Gilroy. Love it or Leave It is a Cricket Media production. Our show is produced by Kendra James, Bill McGrath, Kelsey Gante, and me, John Lovett. Our production team includes Hallie Kiefer, Sarah Lazarus, Rahman-Borcelli, Jay Banks, Raoul Calderon, Gavin Purcell, and Matt DeGroote.

And our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. If you miss some of your favorite crooked pods this week, don't worry. you can now catch up on the week's best moments on MS Now on Saturday nights. MS Now is streaming an episode of highlights from your favorite Crooked pods, packing as much analysis, funny moments, and 100% correct opinions into 40 minutes as humanly possible. Crooked on MS Now airs every Saturday at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific.