Lovett or Leave It - New Hampshire, Don't F*ck This Up

Episode Date: February 8, 2020

What a week. What a MESS. Pete's "undeniable victory" in Iowa becomes less undeniable and Senate Republicans (except for Mitt who we LOVE now) tell Trump he's above the law. Emily Heller joins to break down the Democratic debate in New Hampshire. Franklin Leonard talks about this Sunday's Oscars and how Hollywood is (and isn't) changing. And Louis Virtel's savant-like Oscar trivia skills are put to the TEST. Plus we manage to talk about Baby Nut, Hotel Lighting, Dua Lipa, and Netflix autoplay. At some point Jon sat on the floor and talked about going to the nurse's office in elementary school. Anyway it's been a week. Hope everyone took lots of pictures because that was the LAST Iowa caucus.

We are live in studio from Crooked HQ for a very special Love It or Leave It episode. Studio show because so much happened this week and we didn't want to miss Friday's blockbuster debate. Love It or Leave It and Pod Save America are going on tour. We're going to Spokane, Seattle, Portland, Birmingham. Birmingham? We're going to Alabama. Crooked.com slash events. All right.

Let's get into it. What a week. Listen, it was a loose and punchy crowd of people who just watched a two and a half hour democratic debate so much happened this week but don't worry it all felt really bad monday started like most election nights with clocks counting down until the polls closed anecdotal evidence running rampant on twitter and and Steve Kornacki hiding his erection behind a touchscreen. But after the caucus ended, the results never came. First, we heard that the app Iowa Democrats were using to report the results wasn't working, which actually turned out not to be true. The app worked exactly as planned.

First, you have to pay 99 cents for 10,000 caucus coins, which can be used to purchase either rubies or clothes to customize your caucus avatar. Then, once you've gotten your vote mission from the old woman in the village, you can use rubies to eliminate pop-up ads unless you don't mind paying another $4.99 for caucus premium. Then, once you've gotten far enough in the dungeon

to start collecting higher level gems, you can use three emeralds or one royal emerald to re-roll your sword. It's random, but in about 10 gems, you can use three emeralds or one royal emerald to re-roll your sword. It's random, but in about 10 tries, you can unlock Democracy's Thunder, which has the most hit points, so you're ready to submit your precinct results or buy a loot box.

All the loot boxes are filled with votes for Pete. It went according... It all went according to plan. Anyway, the app didn't work, and even if it could have worked, the Iowa Democratic Party clearly had not trained anyone on how to use it and was completely unprepared to hold these caucuses.

The phone lines were jammed, which wasn't helped by trolls that decided to clog up the lines. So into the night Monday, the results were unknown, and in the confusion, like any red-blooded gay American, Mayor Pete saw an opening and took it. Let's roll the clip. What a night! Let's roll the clip. What a night!

Because tonight, an improbable hope became an undeniable reality. By all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious! At first this bothered me, but then I remembered I say, we've got a great show for you tonight, every week. My honest view is that I think it was smart of him to do it. He probably could have used less definitive words than undeniable because it ended up being pretty deniable. But Pete grabbing the mic to do a performance because he knows everyone was watching is the gayest thing he's ever done. So now here we are five days later. Bernie Sanders won the vote.

So now here we are five days later. Bernie Sanders won the vote. Pete has a tiny lead of two out of more than 2,000 state delegate equivalents, a term that is nonsense. And in the race for pledge delegates that will determine the nominee, Pete has 13 to Bernie's 12 to Warren's 8. Biden got a gentleman's six delegates. And the Klobs managed to frighten one delegate into submission. There's one outstanding delegate to be awarded,

but the AP won't call the race, and journalists keep finding inconsistencies in the data. So anyway, I say we just give the last delegate to climate change, declare it the winner, sell all of our possessions, buy a used RV that runs on recycled McDonald's fry oil, pop on a Pete sticker and a Bernie sticker, and then caucus with birds and trees and God until you make it to Bryce Canyon in Utah,

where you set up camp next to a teacher from Nashville named Georgia who retired to see the country after her husband died. And you complain about Twitter and realize she's never even seen a tweet. And she can tell you're upset even if she doesn't understand why. So she offers you a beer and you talk until the sun is setting about why she and Gary never had kids, about the world, how it's changed, and how it hasn't changed, about the rage she's felt her whole life

and how many people told her it wasn't right or real until you find yourself standing at the edge of the cliffs, sun setting over a miracle, and how it hasn't changed, about the rage she's felt her whole life and how many people told her it wasn't right or real, until you find yourself standing at the edge of the cliffs, sun setting over a miracle, holding hands with a stranger who isn't a stranger anymore, both of you shouting at the top of your lungs, if Elizabeth Warren were a man, she'd be up by 40 fucking points.

Then with the debacle of Iowa still unfolding, America turned its weary eyes to the calming presence of our president who delivered a speech on the state of our union. Before the speech began, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi offered her hand to the president, but Trump turned away without shaking it. But honestly, that's on her because he was distracted. And for Trump to hear a command, he has to be really keyed into you. You have to say shake while making eye contact. Trump went on to say this about health care.

We will never let socialism destroy American health care. Now, you may be asking, why is universal public health insurance for people over 65 capitalism, but universal public health insurance for people under 65 socialism? Because fuck you, that's why. Then, to end the night, First Lady Melania Trump presented Rush Limbaugh with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I will now ask the First Lady of the United States to present you with the honor, please. What a bummer. Rush Limbaugh follows in the footsteps of other equally great Americans, Rush Limbaugh follows in the footsteps of other equally great Americans. Like Maya Angelou, T.S. Eliot, Harper Lee, Tony Morrison.

Others equal to Rush Limbaugh are Elie Wiesel, Aretha Franklin, Yo-Yo Ma, Duke Ellington. He's a lot like Aaron Copland. He follows in the footsteps of Edward R. Murrow, Lucille Ball. He's done great things like Jonas Salk Helen Keller Rosa Parks I don't even have a joke It's just depressing And I was going to say we'd have to rename it Because we've given it to someone as awful as Rush Limbaugh

But Bill Cosby and Donald Rumsfeld Also have them so that's America You know you take the good with the very very very bad After the speech was done Nancy Pelosi ripped up Trump's speech on national television. When asked why, Pelosi explained that it wasn't a copy of the speech. It was some precinct results from Iowa. Sort of causing some trouble.

I'd also just like to point out that the title of last week's episode was Iowa Don't Fuck This Up. Then on Wednesday, Donald Trump was officially acquitted on both articles of impeachment by the Republican-controlled Senate. This we expected, but we didn't expect this. The president asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival. The president withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so. The president delayed funds for an American ally at war with Russian invaders. The president's purpose was personal and political. The president's purpose was personal and political.

Accordingly, the president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust. What a world. Applauding Mitt Romney, former Republican presidential nominee. He became the first senator in American history to vote for the president of his own party to be removed from office. And that means no more jokes about the dog on the roof of the car. Maybe the dog liked it up there. Maybe the dog deserved it. People are complicated. I don't like Romney's policies. And I do like to remind people the name of his book was No Apologies, The Case for American Greatness, which is basically a precursor to the rhetoric Trump uses. But Romney also did something brave and righteous, and Trump has to attack him now

because Romney wandered into the forbidden zone, and if he comes back unscathed, other villagers will start to ask questions. So now emboldened, Trump fired two key witnesses who testified against him at his impeachment, Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland and Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, who was on the National Security Council, and, just to be an asshole, Vindman's brother.

Who could have thought that Donald Trump would retaliate against his enemies just hours after being told by the Senate that he will never face any punishment for his wrongdoing? Who could have seen this coming? I just want to remind everyone before we start the show that Trump picked up the phone and committed an impeachable offense the day after Mueller testified. So there's a pretty good chance that right now, in the glow of his acquittal, Trump is on the phone and committed an impeachable offense the day after Mueller testified. So there's a pretty good chance that right now, in the glow of his acquittal, Trump is on the phone with some nefarious world leader trying to hire shadow for the general election. And finally, the week began with Democrats arguing about Iowa and ends with Democrats arguing about everything else. When we come back, we have a great show.

We'll talk about the Democratic debate with Emily Heller. Hey, don't go anywhere there's more of love it or leave it coming up and we're back she's a comedian and an award-winning writer for barry on hbo returning champion emily heller hello thanks for having me just minutes ago we finished the new hampshire democratic debate if you wanted to watch a bunch champion, Emily Heller. Hello. Thanks for having me. Just minutes ago, we finished the New Hampshire Democratic debate. If you wanted to watch a bunch of old people in makeup yelling at each other for three hours, I would have preferred the Irishman.

Biden had to win back the momentum tonight, and here was his message. I took a hit in Iowa, and I'll probably take a hit here. I don't know, man. Just keeps telling people to not vote for him. He's like every guy I ever dated who was like, I really can't be in a relationship right now. Later, Joe Biden said, New Hampshire, a very level headed group of people.

Has he ever been to New Hampshire? They don't even wear seatbelts. Here's Amy Klobuchar ripping Pete's arms off and hitting them with them again. It is easy to go after Washington because that's a popular thing to do. It is much harder, as I see Senator Shaheen in the front row, such a leader. It is much harder to lead and much harder to take those difficult positions. Because I think this going after every single thing that people do because it's popular to say and makes you look like a cool newcomer. I just I don't think that's what people want right now.

We have a newcomer in the White House and look where it got us. I think having some experience is a good thing. Amy Klobuchar defending Washington insiders. Emily, what'd you think? I thought it was interesting how it seemed like she kind of couldn't decide if she was going to say cool newcomer or cool cucumber and kind of said both and said cool newcomer. And then I stopped listening as soon as I heard that. And it was really hard for me to pay attention. But I did think it was impressive. And then in one of the biggest moments of the debate, the moderator asked Mayor Pete about systemic racism in policing of South Bend.

She pointed out that in South Bend, a black man was four times more likely than a white man to be arrested for marijuana possession, which was above average for Indiana and the country, and that this disparity got worse when he was mayor. Here's how the interaction went. How do you explain the increase in black arrests in South Bend under your leadership for marijuana possession? And again, the overall rate was lower. No, there was an increase. The year before you were in office it was lower once you became in office in 2012 that number went up in 2018 the last number a year that we have a record for that number was still up yep and one of the strategies that our community adopted was to target when there were cases where

there was gun violence and gang violence which was slaughtering so many in our community. Senator Warren, is that a substantial answer from Mayor Buttigieg? No. That was the only time or one of the only times in the debate that Elizabeth Warren kind of threw a punch. But even after that, she didn't really back it up by attacking Pete. The last time I believe, and you can tell me if I'm wrong, the last time I remember Elizabeth Warren really picking a fight in the debate was the Wine Cave debate. Right.

The vaunted Wine Cave debate. Yeah. And that debate, you know, they really got into it. And that was where Amy Klobuchar came in and kind of brought them both up and took kind of like the bigness of the moment. You know, I was expecting Pete to come into this debate with a real plan for how to be big and really kind of take the microphone and like assert himself as a front runner after he successfully came out of Iowa, maybe with more delegates, but smartly giving that speech, declaring himself the winner and marching on to New Hampshire. But like that was a really tough moment for him.

Yeah, I feel like he's having a hard time adjusting in the moment in general like he had a victory speech that he wouldn't deviate from even though the situation called for him to deviate from the victory speech even just a little even just a little hit us with a caveat a word or two and hopefully yeah and i throw in a hopefully there's something that is kind of upsetting and telling about being asked about marijuana prosecution and just like going through the files in your head and going to your gang prosecution card like that's not a good connection to make and then just reading that card instead like that shouldn't be happening that's's not the question. It's in fact, the opposite of the question. It's the thing that police keep doing. It's not good. It's also, you know, this is his

great liability as a candidate, his failure to appeal to the broad coalition of Democratic voters. He is doing terribly amongst people of color in these polls. And that continues to be true. And as we get closer and closer to the states where that electorate will determine who wins, South Carolina, Nevada, other states in the country besides white Iowa and white New Hampshire, he's running out of runway to take off successfully. You know, he for a long time, it was about people getting to know him, which I think was a bit patronizing and now the fact that it hasn't been happening for him and that this debate was an opportunity to go on offense

and instead he's here playing defense i think was really bad for him honestly just i mean it wasn't it wasn't a successful moment for him to make inroads uh with anybody on this issue right i mean we knew he was going to be on defense tonight anyway, just because he had such a decisive victory. And that's what happens when you have a decisive, undeniable victory is everyone sort of goes after you. He sort of reacted like, oh, you're not supposed to ask me this until we get to South Carolina. Like, was that his thinking? He's like, we're in New Hampshire now. We're supposed to talk about new hampshire stuff

i mean biden was kind of like i'll see you guys in south carolina i'm really looking forward to it i lost last week i'm gonna lose this week biden's ready to lose hey joe biden did not come to new hampshire to win an election he came He came to New Hampshire to fucking lose again. To who, you ask? Why, an old Jewish socialist and a young gay mayor no one had heard about till eight months ago. Does everyone remember that Barack Obama picked me for something cool?

Because I sure do. Man, I mean, there's always an amount of remember that I'm friends with Barack Obama. But tonight in general, they all had a cringy moment of black people love me. Because they asked, they were like, how are you going to do with black voters? And every one of those white people had to be like, black people love me. And that's not a good look on any white person. I just, Tom Steyer. Tom Steyer.

First of all, Tom Steyer came to this debate with such a weird energy. Because it was like, this was his energy. I'm going to either fuck or kill every person on this stage. That's how passionate I am. I love every person here. They're all fucking fantastic. I'm going to decide in the moment if it's sexual tension or just tension. Yeah, I'm not sure.

I'm just not sure. But anyway, Tom Steyer just yelling at all of them about how don't you fucking morons understand? Donald Trump is the president. It's crazy. What are we going to do? I love you. I think he might have been drunk. I think that that might be Goyim Rich drunk.

That was country club drunk. He's dropping out after this. That's the only way you can take it, is he's like, it's my last time here and I'm going to yell. The point I was making about Tom Steyer is, he was hectoring all of them about how we need to win, and then for someone who is not doing very well in the polls, who's never run for office before, and who's spent millions of dollars in Iowa, he started saying how well he was doing with, and I believe he said, and I quote,

the blacks. Oof, yeah. That's a Trump phrase. I didn't like it. They debated Medicare for All for the 50th time. And I did perk up when I heard this. Mayor Buttigieg, you have described yourself as a moderate. But one of your policies at least goes further than some on the stage with you are willing to go.

You have called for the decriminalization of all drugs. Does that include heroin, meth, and cocaine, some of the drugs that have contributed to this crisis? No, what I've called for is that incarceration should no longer be the response to drug possession. With all due respect, Mayor Buttigieg, on your website, it says that you called for decriminalization of all drugs. So I don't know that that's a totally fair reading of what's on Mayor Pete's website. I also don't particularly like a debate being moderated off of reading their websites. But I will say that Pete decriminalizing drugs does suggest that the CIA is once again bringing narcotics into our communities. It's just something to keep an eye

on. Do you think Mayor Pete's going to decriminalize heroin i don't uh no no i don't i don't think so i mean he's very much a i'm gonna look at the polls guy and i think if as soon as he gets pushed back on he's gonna change his mind about it is that unfair probably i was honestly very surprised to hear that i was like oh he's a little bit cooler than i thought yes it is cool it's like when you're like lame cousin like brings a joint to thanksgiving and you're like oh okay it's also worth remembering too that decriminalizing drugs at the federal level doesn't actually decriminalize drugs and because look we live in california where recreational marijuana is ostensibly legal but it's still a schedule one substance punishable by years in prison

by the federal government all they have to do is start enforcing it and no and listen i definitely i definitely in my mind like early in the trump administration, I had this, it's a thought. It's not a smart thought, but it's a thought I had repeatedly, which was Jeff Sessions arresting Bill Maher. I don't know why. It was just like, I just thought he would be an easy person to make an example of. And I don't know why I thought that, but I did. The only reason I'm making that point is I think people play fast and loose with what it means to legalize versus decriminalize at the federal level. You know, you'll hear people, especially for a long time, politicians who didn't want to say they were for legalizing marijuana would say, well, I think it should be left up to the states.

Well, to leave it up to the states means legalizing it or at least decriminalizing it at the federal level so that states can set the policy. Right now, states are settling the policy by ignoring very serious federal laws that carry great penalties for which people are still in jail for having broken. Meanwhile, Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang are having the time of their lives up there. And Bernie gave one of the best answers of the night when he said this about Washington. Along with Elizabeth and Amy, we sat for two weeks listening to the impeachment process. And here's what I think the horror and the danger of what happened was not only the acquittal of Trump, who in fact committed impeachable offenses and obstructed Congress, it is the precedent that it set.

And what that precedent is about now is in the future, you're going to have presidents who say, hey, governor, you want highway money? You better support me. Well, you're not going to get it because I am the president. I can do anything I want. Hey, Congress, you want to investigate me? Don't be ridiculous.

Who cares about the Congress? Who cares about the separation of powers? Who cares about the Constitution of the president? I'm the president of the United States. I have all of the power and I'm able to intimidate members of my own party. The saddest aspect of this whole thing is you have Republicans in the Senate who knew better. They knew that Donald Trump is a crook.

They knew that Donald Trump is a cheat. But they didn't have the guts, with the exception of Romney, to vote against him. That is a sad day. It was a good quote. I know they're going to take an isolated quote of him going, I'm the president. I have all the power. And try and use it against him.

We all need to remember that that's where it came from. Let's all make a mental note to not let anyone use that out of context. That's funny. I don't think we'll remember. Yeah, we're just going to be like, man, when did he say that? That's so weird. That's weird. But I do think that answer from Bernie and the answer he gave on Soleimani and assassinations were two of the best answers I've ever seen a Democrat give or Democrat adjacent give in a debate.

Because it's taken as an article of faith that, oh, people don't care about this stuff. They only care about the issues that affect them. They only care about the issues that affect their pocketbook, their families. And I think sometimes in punditry, because politics is always told as a story from the perspective of the candidates, what is good for a candidate, what is useful for a candidate is treated as being a good in and of itself. And there's something sad about knowing that people are so turned off and cynical about politics that they don't care about the way our government works and whether it's honest, whether it's fair. They don't believe that's possible. And in both of those answers, Bernie pushed back against that kind of cynicism. He really explained, here's why

it matters if the president thinks he's above the law and can do whatever he wants to win office and wield the office of the president in this abusive way. Here's why it's wrong for a president to order the assassination of a foreign leader. Here's the chaos that it can cause. Here's why it's bad in a way that was really understandable. And the only other person, I think Warren does an incredible job of telling stories about policy and talking about our plans,

and Yang does an incredible job about talking about what's broken and the nature of our problems. But tonight was a chance for Bernie or Pete to behave like a frontrunner and for Elizabeth Warren to make a play to kind of push herself forward. And Bernie throughout the night, I thought, really behaved more like a frontrunner than anyone else on that stage. There was a real bigness to how he was there. The debate did seem to kind of revolve around him in a way that I think Pete should have tried to make happen for himself. What do you think?

Yeah, I think that it was clear that as much as Pete was drawing fire for his, you could say, overperformance in Iowa, I think that Bernie Sanders is setting the conversation for this primary. He is kind of deciding what the issues are that they all have to come down on one side or the other of. And a big one that he has been very right about is this corruption issue. And I think he did a good job there in laying out what the stakes are in terms of letting this stuff go. Like, it's not just about the strength of the parties themselves it's about the strength of our democracy as a whole and it being a big problem in the long run and i think mayor pete i will say like watching him in the debate i was like i really wouldn't mind like if i was having

a bad mushroom trip like this being the person who's talking to me because he's very deliberate. He's very clear. I feel like he would definitely calm me down. For sure. But then take you right to jail. But then I guess, or rehab, I guess, according to his website. I don't know. I think it's clear that every candidate on stage had to grapple with like,

how do I compare to Bernie Sanders on this issue or that issue? And yeah, I think he also made a good case for his ability to build a coalition. And I think that's a big question that they're all grappling with, too. Yeah, that was also something he did that was very smart. You know, I do think Pete had some good answers and some strong responses throughout the debate. I don't think he did a bad job at all. Bernie, though, he started with a very kind of positive message. He then took a couple shots from the stage and he did a really smart thing in how he responded, which is he said, here's how we unite the country. We do these policies that will unite the country.

We do my agenda. He really did behave like a front runner in a way that no one else on that stage did. Warren did very well. I don't know. I mean, she has been so strong in these debates and she led with her corruption message she had really strong answers i always appreciate when she talks about the value and worth of every child and and from her experience as a special ed teacher but i do wonder if she needs to i don't know pick a fight change it up i'm not sure what

mix it up yeah i'm starting to get a little tired of everyone's catchphrases, I think. Like, it feels a little bit like when you're watching a sitcom on Netflix that was originally on broadcast, and they skip over where the commercial break would be, and everyone just restates what's been happening in the show. And you're like, yeah, I know, I didn't have to watch commercials. Like, I understand what's been going on at Cheers. What do you mean you have two dates tonight? Yeah. And I think, like, maybe enough time has passed between the last debate and this one where it wasn't quite as tiresome. It felt more like a reboot where you're like, oh, yeah, I want to hear Joey say how you doing.

It's been a while. But I am starting to feel like yeah the conversation needs to change it feels like they're just doing a touring company of the debate for everyone who didn't watch the other ones no that is what it's like clovishar did all the same jokes bernie's been giving the same speech since 1972 and it's a good speech but it is true that these people have now done this so many times. We've had the same Medicare debate so many times, and yet

the dynamics of the race haven't changed. You have Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. There was some tension between them, obviously, that spilled into the last debate because of the conversation about their private conversation that took place. Let's not dredge that up. Let's not. Let's just move fucking forward. But for the most part, you have not seen a lot of tension

in the debates between Warren and Bernie, which are the kind of two left candidates. And you have Biden and Pete and Amy Klobuchar vying to be the center left candidate and competing with each other and making different but ideologically similar arguments. And then you have Tom Steyer with his, you know, Disney VIP experience. And you have and then you have Yang, who I actually really like, but making the exact same argument as always. I did. You know, it's a little bit much to respond to every question, including the question about systemic racial inequality with, once again, $1,000 a month.

Yeah. It can be the answer for some things. But not everything. No. But I do like him. He's so charming. He is. He's very clearly like a nice guy.

But I don't think he needs to be on that stage anymore. The best argument I ever have heard him make, he made it tonight, he made it in Iowa for Universal Basic Income, was about the worth of work and that there are artists and they don't get financially compensated for their work. There are organizers and activists. There are caretakers, you know, parents

and children taking care of their own parents and volunteers and coaches and the people that make our communities run who don't get compensated for that work. And he's describing a society where those people do receive income for doing that in our communities. The reason I bring it up is only because whatever you think about the solution, he is talking about the big, hard problems facing people. And he's one of the only people that on that stage, when he talks about opiates, when he talks about drug addiction, when he talks about malls closing, when he talks about retail jobs disappearing and no jobs coming

to replace them about Uber and Amazon, he puts it in the context of real pain that people feel. Amazon. He puts it in the context of real pain that people feel. And I do hope the other candidates will heed that when when if Yang isn't the nominee and in all likelihood he won't be the nominee, they can draw from that and use him and bring his coalition into the party, because I do think it has been really valuable having him on that stage. And there's a reason he's still there. And a lot of senators and governors and uh yeah others are not and i think that it is important like one thing that he is good at is framing the way we evaluate social welfare or societal welfare as not being about economic growth but rather about like looking at quality of life questions the democrats really need to figure out their messaging around that, because as we know from the State of the Union, like Trump is

going to try and hammer the Democratic nominee with his unemployment numbers, with his economic numbers that while they look good on paper, we all know or we should all know that those numbers don't actually mean people's lives are getting better because so many other factors that contribute to people's standard of living have been eroded and continue to be eroded, especially as his administration cuts all kinds of benefits and just does away with really important institutions that take care of that stuff. So I think the Democrats do need to figure out how we're going to ask voters to consider voting for us in spite of those figures that Trump's going to throw at us. Yeah. Because he's going to take credit for economic growth that's not actually benefiting americans if they're spending all of their money on debilitating medical costs and things like that there was a picture taken of

trump today where his hair kind of blew back and his hat was off and he um just had a just a brown circle of tan and then it's white back there and i was just looking at this picture and just thinking... He's been eating ass. When we come back, we're going to talk about the Oscars with Franklin Leonard. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. He's a film executive best known for creating

The Blacklist, which is not The James Spader Show, but known in Hollywood as the list of best unproduced screenplays of the year. Please welcome Franklin Leonard. Thank you for having me. Dreams do come true. So I first met you at a reading, my friend Jason Orley, wrote a script called Big Time Adolescence that was on The Blacklist. And I went to a table read that they did in New York for that script. So a table read is where you get a bunch of actors

to read the parts that are in the movie, almost like a dress rehearsal or just a reading just to show people how the movie would work if it ever became a movie because this was a script you picked out. The industry picked out. We do this survey every year of the best unproduced screenplays and that was a script that ended up on the list. It wasn't me alone identifying it, but I'll take credit for it, sure. for it sure no you should the reason i bring it up only because the table read was great

but there was this one actor yeah who played wild a very small part basically it's a teenage coming of age movie and this is like the fourth friend of that main character yeah and he stole the table he made lines that weren't funny funny he was incredibly charismatic and uh who was it a young timothy chalamet yeah yeah it was like fifth build for the table read no one knew who he was and everyone left that reading being like who is that kid and and here we are like not even three years later i think at this point like it's bananas that's the craziest the other thing is the other one of the other actors in that was julia garner oh really yeah wow she was the like the sort of young female love interest oh that's right and well it's funny too i remember somebody leaning was like hey that

kid the funny one he's gonna be spider-man and he didn't become Spider-Man. He did not become Spider-Man. There's still time. So I should start by saying, you know, the Oscars are on Sunday. If you're hearing this on Monday of next week, you know how well Parasite did. If not, you don't. Fingers crossed. But you wrote a piece in the Washington Post basically outlining what a world might look like if

the Oscars reflected the diversity of the country and in this case, the diversity of the country and, in this case, the diversity of the films that were made this year. So five years ago, the hashtag OscarsSoWhite, I don't like referencing a hashtag, but occasionally you have to. But it really did set up this conversation about what is wrong with the Oscars. Now, there's a perennial conversation about why the Oscar films and the films people see are different movies.

But in this case, it really was pretty glaring. That led to a change in which the Oscars introduced a bunch of new, younger, more diverse voices into the pool of voters that decide which films get nominated. And yet this year, there still were many categories in which women, particularly women directors, were shut out. Greta Gerwig was shut out. There was also a lot of incredible performances by women and men of color that were not recognized. What do you think is causing that now? Yeah, it's interesting. I think

other than systematic oppression and racism. I was literally going to say the short answer is systemic racism and sexism and the intersection of the two. Like no conversation about Oscar So White can sort of start without a shout out to April Rain who created the hashtag and really changed the conversation almost overnight. I think the important thing to remember is that there are two things. One is that it's not really about the

Oscars. It's about sort of the entire Hollywood sort of cultural production, which has all kinds of biases that have real consequences in terms of the way we live. And the Oscars just is the convenient way to talk about it because it's the time when the eyes of the world are on the industry. And then the second part is that Oscars So White is very specifically not Oscars Not Black. Like, it is about making sure that everyone is represented and that the sort of full flower of Hollywood's production

represents the country and the world, which it doesn't. And what's really frustrating about it is that even with those changes, and even with the success of Moonlight, for example, which happened only woman to ever win Best Director, Catherine Bigelow, won it for a movie that was like very stereotypically masculine and whatever and really made her reputation on directing movies like that. You know, people don't think of a movie like Portrait of a Lady on Fire as an Oscar movie, but it's also the best reviewed movie of the year.

And if you've seen it, it's incredible. I can't imagine a scenario where the Academy anoints that even though almost inarguably the directing skill on show is exceptional. Films built around a complicated male performance are the quintessential Oscar movie. That's how you win. You know, that's what got Daniel Day-Lewis's boat, you know, like that's but those movies don't seem to be elevated when they're about women or don't even seem to get made. They don't even get made.

That's even the bigger issue is like I mean, and there was a study that came out this week basically that like if you're making a movie about women or women of color, you get less money for your budget, you get less money for marketing, but the choice of a woman lead or a woman of color lead actually has no negative impact on the domestic or international box

office of those films. So there's all of this conventional wisdom in the industry that's like all convention and no wisdom about what works financially that guides all of the thinking about the business. The thing that always strikes me too is that in all those conversations, all those assumptions about what works and what doesn't, to me, one of the lessons of even the past few years has been how much of a tax there is on making something that isn't good and how much money you make for making something good.

From Rise of Skywalker to Hustlers, right? That whatever the underlying theories are, whatever the underlying case is, when you make something that's excellent, or even in the case of Joker, whether you like it or not, has a voice, has a perspective. It isn't just a collection of scenes from a studio. There is value in that, but they can't seem to care about it. This is a self-serving stat, but Harvard Business School did a study last year looking at the last 15 years of Hollywood releases. at, but Harvard Business School did a study last year looking at the last 15 years of Hollywood releases, and they found that movies made from scripts that were on the blacklist make 90% more

in revenue than movies made from scripts not on the blacklist, controlling for all other factors, which again, totally self-serving, but I think it's obvious. If you start with a great script, you have a better chance of making a great movie. If you make a great movie, you have a better chance of making money, and there it is, you know, validated by Harvard Business School. When we talk about mistaken beliefs about what races matter, what genders matter, and film is an ideology. Absolutely. That all overlap. But it's funny that you say that, that the blacklist scripts do well.

The other piece of this too is right about what kind of films the Oscars reward or not. It's similar to politics, right? That how much higher a threshold a woman or a person of color has to reach to have qualities like leadership or intellect or presidential qualities, whatever they may be. Authenticity. It's similar in movies, like what qualifies as a good performance. I actually saw in your piece how you mentioned that in your alternate universe, Jennifer Lopez was nominated for Hustlers. Yeah. And I watched Hustlers. And as I watched it,

I was watching this thinking, how good a performance is this? Like, am I just rooting for her to be nominated because this movie defied expectations and told a story in an unusual way that, you know, broke some of the rules

and I just really want that kind of thing to be rewarded? Yeah. And how much of it do I think is it just a truly great performance? But then on the other hand, I just think of all of the male far hammier scenery chewing right biopic type roles that get picked out again and again over and over and over again and no one forces themselves to ask that question about i mean joaquin feels like it's an unfair criticism but like any number of male

actors but everyone feels like they have to ask themselves that question about Jennifer Lopez in order to make like a fair decision about whether she's given a performance that's worthy. Yeah. I do think it is a nuanced and unfortunately true statement that Phoenix does deserve to be nominated for that movie. In fact, I actually think there's just been this great mania where people can't tell the difference between a good performance and a good movie yeah for sure and look i've loved watching joaquin on the award uh season i mean his bafta speech was incredible yeah like i genuinely had no notes and i definitely usually have notes on those sorts of things i'm very curious if he wrote that or someone wrote it for him but remarkable i also

don't know why you give that speech at the baftas unless it's a ramp up to a speech that you're going to give at the oscars which makes me very curious what he'll say if he wins yes that's i think that's a case of uh if you're not sure if you'll be able to get to a bathroom use the bathroom that you have you know yeah that makes sense do we care about things like these award shows too much yes and no on one level, sort of competitive art is like ridiculous, right? But the reality is, is that like if you win an Oscar, you get an Oscar nomination as a writer, as a director, as an actor, it makes it a lot easier for the next thing that you do when you walk into a studio or you walk into a film financier's office and say, this is what I want

to do next. Give me money to do it. If you have Academy Award winner in front of your name or Academy Award nominee in front of your name, it makes people more likely to let you do what you want to do next. It makes you more likely to get the financial resources you need to do it well. And it makes it more likely that you have the sort of artistic freedom to do that thing the way you see fit rather than the way that the person who controls the money sees fit. So it matters, but it shouldn't, but it does, and that's where we're stuck. One last question.

Regardless of whether or not the Oscars are moving fast enough to catch up to where the culture should be or where the culture is going, do you see the rhetoric filtering down from the pieces that you're writing, from speeches like what Joaquin Phoenix gave to the many different kind of calls to arms that actors and actresses have been making at award shows

and in interviews that has been, I think, at least publicly from the studios, from executives, become part of their mission to tell new and different kinds of stories. Is that change happening? I think there is some change. There's reason to believe that there is some change. But I think that change actually has a lot less to do with the people in traditional sort of seats of power changing how they make their decisions and more to do with a generation of folks who are coming up.

It's easy for me to default to sort of black filmmakers, right? But if you look at people like Ava DuVernay and Barry Jenkins and Steve McQueen, and, I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on, these are all folks who sort of came up knowing that they have to be twice as good to get half as far and that they needed to be the best available in order to even get in the door, but once they got in the door,

they were going to be able to blow the hinges off the entire frame. And in a world where you have more people making movies, more platforms to distribute them, someone's going to give them a shot. And unless you're willing to be the one that does, those people are going to go elsewhere, and they're going to bury you competitively, like in a sort of corporate sense.

So I think that there's just more competition for talent. There's more talent on offer. And so someone's going to let those people do it. And if you're not making those changes, you're sort of going to be consigned to irrelevancy. So I don't know that people are changing for the right reasons, but maybe they're changing for the wrong reasons, and who cares? But it's not happening fast enough. And the funny thing is, this is one of those rare times where you can do well by doing good, right? You can make these changes, and you'll make more money by doing it so like

why wouldn't you and given that i think that it's still staggering that like these biases are preventing even more rapid change right when clearly like because there's been such an inefficiency in the system a racist misogynist inefficiency homophobic inefficiency in the system yeah once you get rid of that there's this whole market of massive incredible stories to tell yeah and by the way in a world where they're like oh there are no more stories left to tell everything's a remake well it's like i don't know there's 70 of the population that you haven't bothered to make stories about ever so why not take a shot with those stories that you haven't even sort of you know you haven't exploited the the novels the comic books the urban legends

whatever it is like here's a whole wide open field for you to run into. It has been months since they rebooted Spider-Man. I mean, has it been? I don't know. I feel like there may be an announcement soon. You know what I want? I actually am very pro a reboot of Spider-Man, and it needs to be Miles Morales, and it needs to be Jor-El Jerome.

Make him Miles Morales. Make the Spider-Man movie. If you're really uncomfortable about it, do one with him and Tom Holland as two Spider-Men and spin him off. But Jarrell Jerome as Spider-Man is a no-brainer, and it would make a ridiculous amount of money. And Gay Flash. Done. Ezra, right?

Yes. And do you agree that the Florida Project was robbed? Yeah, that movie didn't get through. And it got a lot of praise from a lot of quarters, but it definitely should have gotten more. Franklin Leonard, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. When we come back, let's quiz Louis Vertel about the Oscars.

Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. He's the co-host of Crooked Media's Keep It and a Jeopardy! champion. Not true. I lost. That's why he was a Jeopardy! champion. Right. Sharp, though. See? Louis Vertel.

I feel like the first time you came on the show, we talked about how... Doesn't part of your family call it vertel? Most of my family calls it vertal. I have a kind of a snotty but lovable uncle who says vertal and then I fell to the dark side when I was a teenager. Because you guess vertal intuitively, I think. Most people

do. And vertal, I don't know if you know this, sounds ugly. I just think that, I don't know when you came out of the closet, but I do believe that should have been the day the pronunciation changed. Yeah, right. Like I could no longer say the original.

Well, there's a reason why when Steve Urkel went through the cool machine, he came out as Stefan Urkel. That guy, Stefan Urkel, was so suave. It was a lot of singing boys to men, wasn't it? I remember him kind of emerging and singing an R&B ballad. It was very the days when studio audiences whooped in unison. I miss that. It's just so crazy because he was such a dweeb

as Steve Urkel. And then he would go into that machine and the guy that came out, what, Casanova? I think you really hit upon the premise of the episode. Whenever the Oscars are happening, there's no one better to have around than Lewis. Debatable, but thank you. It's been a nightmare week for Democrats,

so we figured we'd invite you to the studio to pick your brain about Hollywood's biggest night. Very good. And because your brain is terrifying, we wanted to try to stump you on some Oscars trivia in a game we're calling Lewis's Brain is Terrifying, and we want to try to stump him

on some Oscars trivia in a game we're calling Lewis's Brain is Terrifying and we want to try to stump him on some Oscars trivia. Love it. Nice. So I know you're into game shows, but this game show is a little different. Here's how it works. I'll ask you a question and you try to answer it. If you get it right, you got it right. But if you get it wrong,

I'm going to tell you, you got it wrong. The stakes are high. Do you understand the rules? Great. First question. In the history of the Academy Awards, how many women have been nominated for Best Director? The number?

And who are they? Okay, so Lena Wirtmuller, 77 for Seven Beauties. Correct. Jane Campion, 93 for The Piano. Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation. Holy shit, that's right. Catherine Bigelow, The Hurt Locker, 2000. She's the first person to win it.

And then Greta Gerwig, and I think that's it. You got it. However, and I hate to tell you this, Seven Beauties was 76. It's a foreign movie, so actually, depending on what, However, and I hate to tell you this, Seven Beauties was 76. It's a foreign movie, so actually depending on what, it's debatable, actually. Wow.

So don't do that again. Finally a gay guy says something that is undeniable. You know? Politics. I missed the Buttigieg conversation. That's okay. Next question. When was the last time a woman won either of the writing Oscars?

This is bizarre. My best girlfriend, who's from my hometown of Lamont, Illinois, is the prod of our hometown, Diablo Cody, who wrote Juno in 2007. Got it. Yeah. Wild. Isn't this cool? Sarah, do you know that he could do this?

I hate this. She says she hates this. You should be unnerved. I don't know that he could do this? I hate this. She says she hates this. You should be unnerved. I don't know what to do with this. Next question. Who won the Best Supporting Actress in 1990? Whoopi Goldberg for Ghost. Correct. And she beat a number of interesting people,

Lorraine Bracco and Goodfellas, but notably Diane Ladd, whose daughter, Laura Dern, will probably win this weekend. Laura Dern is Diane Ladd's daughter? Oh my God. This is what I'm here to teach you. Yes.

Next question. In 1976, Rocky won Best Picture. What four films were also nominated? Okay. Very famous year. Lots of dude-oriented pictures. So it's up against All the President's Men. Correct.

One of my favorite supporting wins in Jason Robards, played Ben Brantley. 1976 is also Taxi Driver. Yep. It's also Bound for Glory. Correct. Oh my God, I'm sweating. And then my favorite of all of them, Network. Correct.

Starring my favorite best actress, one of all time, Faye Dunaway. Wow. And I felt very, once you got Bound for Glory, I felt like I was in safe hands because if you're

going to get Bound for Glory and not Network, we'd just end the show. Right, right. Next and final question. I feel like I'm Arno in the

fucking booth right now at Adam Sandler's jewelry store just sweating and watching it happen. I didn't realize we were on a first name basis with Arno. Do you know his last name? No, I guess not.

Last question. This is a doozy. Starting last year, how far can you go backwards naming best supporting actors? For me, it is harder to immediately recall the last 10 years because that's still history we're adding to so if i go like 1970 through 2010 that's like etched in stone you know what i mean so forgive me if i am a little bit slow so it's

no yeah okay well here i go no deal okay so last year's maher shala ali correct winning for whatever that movie was called. We'll never speak of it again. Green Book was the name of it. Right. Okay. The year before. Oh, it's Sam Rockwell and those damn billboards.

Yeah. The year before. Oh, it's Mahershala Ali again for Moonlight. Correct. 2015. Bridge of Spies, Mark Rylance. Correct. 2014.

J.K. Simmons and Whiplash You got it And then, okay, 2013 Is it Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club? Wow, we're almost out of your difficult period Where you don't know the answers Right Oh, 2012 is Christoph Waltz

That's some category fraud for Django Unchained Right 2011 Christopher Plummer, the oldest winner in the category, yes Oh, 2012 is Christoph Waltz. That's some category fraud for Django Unchained. Right. 2011, Christopher Plummer, the oldest winner in the category. Yes. Yeah, so then Christian Bale, then Christoph Waltz. And then we're down to 2008. Yes, which is the year before is Alan Arkin.

Or two years before. Sorry, 2006. It's one of the most famous Best Supporting Actor winners of all time. Oh, Heath Ledger. Yes. Okay, sorry. So we did that, and then we did 2007. You didn't get 2007 yet. You got 2006, but you didn't get 2007.

Right. Oh, that's Javier Bardem. Correct. Yeah. Then Alan Arkin. Yep, keep going. Then 2005, which is George Clooney. Correct.

Which, interesting thing about him, his former father-in-law, Martin Balsam, won best supporting actor in 1965 for A Thousand Clowns. Guys, I could really go back. I mean, I don't want to hurt him. Go fast. Keep going. This card goes back until you can't go any further. Okay.

2004 is... Oh, Morgan Freeman. Correct. And Million Dollar Baby. 2003 is this... Oh, it's Mystic River. Tim Robbins. Correct.

He's the tallest Oscar winner ever. 2002 is Chris Cooper. Correct. 2001 is Jim Broadbent and Iris. 2000 is Benicio Del Toro. We're getting faster. 1999 is Michael Caine.

1998 is James Coburn. 1997 is Robin Williams. 1996 is Cuba Gooding Jr. 1995 is Kevin Spacey. 1994 is Martin Landau. 1993 is Tommy Coburn. 1997 is Robin Williams. 1996 is Cuba Gooding Jr. 1995 is Kevin Spacey. 1994 is Martin Landau. 1993 is Tommy Lee Jones. 1992 is Gene Hackman. 1991 is Jack Palance. 1990 is Joe Pesci and Goodfellas.

Yeah, you got it. You have to go all through the Best Picture nominees. So then Denzel Washington, Kevin Kline, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, 85, Don Amici, 84, Hingis Noor, a non-actor who won. He also beat Ralph Richardson, who's one of the great founders of British acting.

And this guy acted for the first time. 83, Jack Nicholson. 82, Louis Gossett Jr. Oscar winning Louis's. 1981 is that gay guy, John Gielgud. That's what's on his tombstone. Yes, right. 1980 is my favorite in the category,

which is Timothy Hutton in Ordinary People. Fascinating. 1979 is Melvin Douglas. 1978 is Christopher Walken. 77 is Jason Robards. You just need to know that he got all of them. We are fading out because he got all of them for so many in a row. And when we come back in, it's when he stopped getting them.

But we did this for so long. And it got so late. And we couldn't keep going. Lewis, you've won the game. That was incredible. Thank you for indulging that. What year are we in? 68.

It was Jack Albertson for a film called? The subject was roses. Obviously. We all remember the subject was roses. Jack Albertson is Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka. Grandpa fucking Joe. When we come back, the rant wheel. Don't go anywhere.

This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back. Now it's time for the rant wheel. You know how it works. We spin the wheel wherever it lands. We rant about the topic. This week on the wheel, we have Dua Lipa. The pronunciation I had to look up because I've only seen it on Spotify,

Iowa Eating Habits, Hotel Lighting, Jameela Jamil, Netflix autoplaying previews, Baby Nut, award shows with no hosts, and people saying Trump's going to win. Let's spin the wheel. It has landed on fucking baby nuts. Now, here's what this rant's gonna be about. This rant's gonna be about how the rant wheel works. You see, before we do the show, Travis says to me, can you pick all the rants because they need to make the rant wheel before the show.

And I send back eight. It's the ones suggested by Emily and Lewis and then six that I choose. And it is a true rant wheel. Wherever it lands, we rant about the topic and I don't know where it's going to land. But sometimes based on the order of where

I've put them, it's so clear that babying nut was just something I grabbed to get us to eight. And this is one of those times. I don't care about baby nut. I don't care that a corporation has a multi-year plan more sophisticated than America's planning around rail infrastructure, to slowly build the brand of this new peanut. Currently, I believe gender unknown, but if this guy turns out to be a male peanut, I'll be fucking shocked, all right?

I mean, he's got a top hat on already. Do you not know who Linda Perry is? My God. He's either a really lame peanut or he's Janelle Monae. And it's the best thing we could have hoped for. If that baby nut turns out to be Janelle Monae, I take back all of this. I guess that's right.

It's a baby peanut that was born in a top hat because they killed the Mr. Peanut in a fiery wreck. It's funny that peanuts is like the only nut that we don't make milk out of and now we've got a nut baby that needs it. Wow. We got a nut baby that needs nut peanut milk

and it's the only kind of nut milk we're not producing. By the way, we're all kidding ourselves. It's not a milk. It's nut juice. And the way, we're all kidding ourselves. It's not a milk. It's nut juice. And it's time we face up to it. It's not milk. It's not juice. I don't like the dairy lobby more than anybody.

I don't like the dairy lobby, alright? Hey, Lewis. Yes. 1955. Just anything about it? Who won for best supporting actor? Oh, best supporting actor? Jack Lemmon. Yeah, you got it. let's spin the wheel again it has landed on Dua Lipa which you are saying correctly thank god Lewis over to you uh here's the thing you can actually be not gay and enjoy dance music I've not heard of it but it's possible

so just dial into what I'm saying. Dua Lipa is being treated as a savior of, I would say, both dance and just fun, sprightly pop at the moment. And I support that. I think her new singles are really great. The new one, Physical, is real

supercharged in a Pat Benatar way. Which we need more Pat Benatar in our lives, as far as I'm concerned. But a couple of things are preventing me from fully handing myself over to her as a pop deity. One, she is just too damp looking all the time. What is with, in like 2014, we agreed all pop stars should be wet. Dua Lipa has great singles. The vocals to me are still too sullen. I need more of a call to action, a less Xanaxified vocal, I guess. And I know that's very on trend right now, but I need something more in the vein of a Carly Rae Jepsen.

I need something of Kim Petras, if you know her. Ancient Madonna when she was all horny squeaks the whole time. Think the chorus of Material Girl. You know what I'm saying? I miss that a little bit. So Dua Lipa, I'm on board, but amp it up. Yeah, it's a yes, but from Lewis on Dua Lipa. Yes.

I like how you answered that as if you were being asked in the Democratic debate to say, just finally let us know where you stand. If Pete Buttigieg could just say the words Dua Lipa, I think it would do a lot of good for him. I don't think he can. Yeah, no, that's what I'm saying. I don't think he can do it. Chemically, I don't see it happening.

I'm thinking about Pete Buttigieg on Molly. Let's spin it again. It has landed on Netflix autoplay previews. Okay. Emily? Netflix decided to stop autoplaying previews when you're scrolling through Netflix trying to get something to watch because everyone said they hated it.

Which, to me, that's like the first good news we've had in a while. It's like people wanted something to change and they changed it because they wanted us to enjoy our time using their product. And I don't think this will work, but I have to try. We have to put pressure on the other tech companies to start making some changes the way Netflix did. And I want to start by saying we need to get Instagram to give us a chronological feed again. The algorithm is fucking my life up. It's making a decision for me about what kind of person I am that is wrong. It's wrong.

There's two kinds of people that I follow on Instagram. Maybe it's a scale. And on one end, it's people I have known for a very long time who I care about, I want to keep up with, whose lives have maybe diverged from mine, who checking in on them and seeing what they're up to might broaden my horizon and keep me connected to them. That's one end of the scale. And then the other end of the scale is people I just met who I followed on Instagram just so I would remember their name when I saw their face. And Instagram is convinced that that is the only person I ever want to hear from. And I don't know what to do about it. There's plenty of reasons why I would want to see a picture when it's posted. I don't know if there's like a comedy show that someone's posting about,

if there's an election happening that day that people might want to be mobilized for, or maybe if someone is posting because it's their birthday and they're worried that people aren't going to wish them a happy birthday, so they post sort of a cheeky throwback photo of them when they were five with a birthday cake being like a throwback to my birthday when I was five.

Just like it is today. And just sort of maybe hoping that people get the hint. And guess what? You're going to get a lot of happy belateds two days from then. We need to go back to a fucking chronological Instagram feed just so I can feel better about myself. Make Instagram chronological again. Yes. I also, I put it out.

Boo. Boo, I trust the computer more than myself. I put it out to the internet. I said, like, what other long-demanded changes do you want these tech companies to make and i was very interested in the results the most popular result was people wanted a shuffle play on netflix for shows they've watched a million times which is crazy just like play me a random episode of the office i don't want to pick which one that's chilling uh yeah when i was in college i was an ra and there were movies at the front desk you could rent,

you know, like from a big book of CDs or whatever. And there was a girl who came to the desk one time, and she said something I thought was so chilling and has led to this moment, what you were talking about. She was looking through them. I was like, oh, do you want a recommendation? She goes, oh, no, I only watch things I've already seen. What?

Think of the math on that. Where does it begin? Yeah. Well, she at one point made a change. No new TV. Yeah. It's like no new friends. Like, yeah, you had you made the friends at one point. And now you don't want to make any new friends. Your friends are just Frazier and the people who are on Frazier. And you don't want to have to meet new people. I get that. I honestly am fine with that. Two problems I've got with these algorithms. Problem number one. I downloaded TikTok.

And first it was showing me cooking, pranks, hot guys, and magic. Then it went cooking, pranks, hot guys. Then it went cooking, hot guys. And then it just started showing me hot guys. Then it went cooking hot guys. And then it just started showing me hot guys.

And at a certain point I was like, I don't know how you figure this out, China. But you're off my phone. Let's spin it one last time. I just need to let a gay guy on my Instagram for a week so that it'll start showing me all these hot guys. It has landed on people who say Trump's going to win. And we'll end the show there because he is.

No. Let's use that to end on a high note. Bernie had another great moment during the debate. And here's what he said. Senator Sanders, let me give you the chance to respond first. President Trump certainly thinks this label socialism will work at the state of the union. He said socialism destroys nations. He's never going to let socialism destroy American health care. And before the Super Bowl, he joked with Sean Hannity about your honeymoon in Moscow. Those hits are going to keep coming. If you're the nominee,

why shouldn't Democrats be worried? keep coming if you're the nominee. Why shouldn't Democrats be worried? Because Donald Trump lies all the time. Doesn't matter what Donald Trump says. It's a sad state of affairs. It really is. People say terrible things about Joe. He has ugly, disgusting things about joey has ugly disgusting things about elizabeth about amy about anybody else who is up here but i think uh george that at the end of the day the way we defeat donald trump and everybody up here by the way is united no matter who wins this damn thing we're all going to stand together to defeat them. I will say, I have felt worse this week than I have at any point since Donald Trump was elected.

This was a very, very bad week. It began in this hopeful way. I was in Iowa, going to see the candidates, seeing them up close, meeting all these incredibly kind and passionate people, whether they were for Bernie or Amy. There was, you know, a kid from California in a T-shirt in the snow putting signs up for Bernie. There was this organizer at the caucus for Amy Klobuchar with an Amy Klobuchar T-shirt that had Amy Klobuchar talking points on the front and the back. And that woman managed to get enough people in that caucus site to caucus for Amy Klobuchar purely by dint of her passion for her candidate and her ability to make that case.

I saw people honestly engaging with one another kindly, with respect, whether they were for Yang or for Warren or for Biden or for Buttigieg. And it culminated in this incredibly demoralizing, dissatisfying, unfortunate, chaotic, broken caucus result that not only will give Donald Trump and the Republicans a talking point that they will exploit for the next year, that not only led to a bunch of conspiracy theories to spread on Twitter, that not only left Democrats more divided than ever with people at each other's throats online, it was supposed to be the beginning of this incredibly auspicious moment where we choose our candidate, the most important primary of our lives. And inside of that week,

we also watch Donald Trump acquitted in the Senate and declaring victory. We see good jobs numbers and his polls ticking up. And into that, there is a pessimism that creeps in and you see people saying it, you know, Trump's going to win. We should, you know, it's a very cynical and easy thing to say. We went through this horrible 2016 where people were shocked by the fact that Trump won. And so there's a natural response to say that Trump is going to win this time to protect ourselves and protect our emotions from the possibility that he'll win again. And that is especially alluring after a week like this in which Democrats really fuck it up. I really appreciated what Bernie said there and how he kind of reset and reminded everybody what we're up against and that we're all going to do this together. It's what he said before the Iowa caucus vote. I'm glad he said it tonight.

Donald Trump can win and Donald Trump can lose. A bad week doesn't change that. A good week doesn't change that. The Iowa Democratic Party and an app fucking up the Iowa caucus doesn't change that either. Ultimately, we come out of Iowa in the same place we were really before, trying to pick the best person to represent us at a time when we are uncertain and unmoored and afraid for our country, which brings out a lot of anger and a lot of brittleness that we all are feeling. And so I just, I felt that way this week. I'm sure you felt that way this week. And it's okay to feel down, but things didn't change that much. The next year is going to be filled

with a lot of ups and downs. But what I said before, I'll say it again. When someone says to you, oh, I think Trump's going to win, say to them, what did you do this week to prevent that from happening? That's all.

Oh, you think Trump's going to win? You must think that's a real emergency then. Wow, you're that pessimistic? Did you donate to anybody? Did you knock on any doors? Did you do anything? Oh, you did nothing? You did absolutely nothing. So you're just somebody who wants Did you donate to anybody? Did you knock on any doors? Did you do anything? Oh, you did nothing? You did absolutely nothing.

So you're just somebody who wants to make everybody feel bad? If somebody says Trump is going to win, you say, you don't know that, and if you think that, you need to do something to stop it or get the fuck out of my face. That's all. That's all. That's our show. Louis Vertel,

Emily Heller, Franklin Leonard, thank you guys for staying for this wonderful in-studio performance of me falling apart and goodnight love it or leave it

is a product of Crooked Media it is written and produced by me John Lovett Alisa Gutierrez Lee Eisenberg our head writer

and Michael Bloomberg speech writer Travis Helwig and writers Jocelyn Kaufman Alicia Alicia Carroll, and Peter Miller. Bill Lance is our editor and Frank Tadek is our sound engineer. Our theme song is written and performed by Sure Sure. Thanks to our designers, Jesse McLean and Jamie Skeel for creating and running all of our visuals, which you can't see because this is a podcast. And to our digital producers, Narm Alkonian and Yael Freed for filming and editing video each week so you can.