Lovett or Leave It - No More Mr. Nice Goya

Episode Date: July 18, 2020

House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff discusses Roger Stone, congressional subpoenas, and veganism. Negin Farsad joins for the monologue and Michaela Watkins takes on the role of a lifetime. Plus Zeynep Tufekci joins to talk about what happens when science meets social media during this pandemic. Fix my computer, Henry Cavill.

Welcome to the 19th episode of Love It or Leave It, love it, love it, love it, love it, love it. Back in the closet, stuck at home. I'm going crazy with no place to go. John Lovett keeps me company. In lockdown, he's been a friend to me. The world is crumbling, everyone is a dick. Where's Lovett when you need him need a man he's back in the closet back back back in the closet that song which is which was honestly just like so excellent and so nice uh was sent in by jackson emmers thank you so much what a delight genuinely liked it

as like a piece of music, not just a piece of music that is about how great I am, you know, which is another reason I liked it. We want to use a new song each week. If you want to make one, you could send it to us at hey at crooked.com and maybe we'll use yours and you can tweet it at me. And you know what, just to change it up, all right, if your song is a little less nice to me, I think that'd be okay too, honestly, for a couple or for one or two. Maybe I'll regret it, but why not try it? I don't know. Also this week, a couple of things you should check out. Our show, This Land, hosted by Rebecca Nagel. She's been looking at this issue of Oklahoma tribal land for a long time. She tells an incredible story in this podcast. And the cases that she was following

all culminated in this incredible Supreme Court ruling in which Neil Gorsuch wrote the opinion with the four liberals on the court, basically giving jurisdiction and giving land back to Native people. And it's an incredible historic event. And she's been watching this the whole time. So it's a great bonus episode. It's emotional. It's incredibly informative, explains what happened and what led to this moment. So you should really check it out. You can listen to season one of This Land Now on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, new merch. We have a bunch of new merch at the store, crooked.com slash store. You should check it out. We have some good stuff. At some point, I'm supposed to say that we have more Gay for Democracy t-shirts sold out. I think

you can still order them, but they're about to be back in stock. So check that out. And finally, last week, the Adopt a State-State program we do through Vote Save America, we sent out the first call to action. And Florida has raised upwards of $42,000 to support virtual voter registration, which will help reach 400,000 Floridians. North Carolina made 10,000 calls in one day with a local organization to educate voters about state legislative races. They're on their way to their one-week goal of 30,000 calls. Pennsylvania, I need you to step it up, all right? There's going to be great calls to action for you. And so if you're listening to this show and you want to join me on Team Pennsylvania, where we're about to crush it and make sure that Pennsylvania

doesn't make the same mistake it made last time, that we can win up and down the ballot of Pennsylvania, go to votesaveamerica.com slash adopt. You can also just skip all the small talk and go to votesaveamerica.com slash adopt, and also just skip all the small talk and go to votesaveamerica.com slash Pennsylvania. And you can join thousands of volunteers looking to flip these swing states. Later in the show, we'll be joined by the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, to talk about not just the Roger Stone commutation, but also what we can expect in terms of holding Trump accountable now and when he leaves office. One of my favorite experts is here, Zeynep Tufekci, to talk about the pandemic and what happens when it meets social media and when it meets politics. And the incredible Michaela Watkins is on the show. But first, she is the author of How to Make People Laugh, host of the podcast Fake the Nation,

and the director, writer, and star of the rom-com Third Street Blackout. Welcome back, returning champion, Nagin Farsai. Hello. Also, it's how to make white people laugh. I don't presume to know how to make all people laugh. Oh, wow. That's a meaningful error.

I apologize. How to make white people laugh. It's fine. It was like you guys were giving me way more credit than I deserve in life. It's fine. It was like you guys were giving me way more credit than I deserve in life. It's a very important change because it removes the valence of politics and just makes you like an expert who teaches people at corporate retreats how to do a better PowerPoint. Wait, can I tell you something really weird is that I've been writing some things that

have been tested for electoral purposes. And it turns out some of my work really resonates with like the boat rally crew, like the people, like the straight up Trump's base. And I was like, what am I at Trump base whisper? What's happening?

So yeah. All right, let's get into it. What a week. On Wednesday, President Trump posed in the Oval Office with an assortment of Goya food products after a similar post in which Ivanka Trump posed with a can of Goya brand beans, violating ethic rules. When I said, show us your beans, I didn't mean it like this.

Hey, okay. Is that about testicles? Like Donnie's testicles? No, no. I've actually realized as I said that, that is an inside joke about a game we played one time on Love It or Leave It called Show Us Your Beans. It has absolutely no meaning to you and I apologize. Okay. Well, that's criticism number one. Don't tell jokes that only three people will understand. Oh, but they'll love it number one. Don't tell jokes that only three people will understand. Oh, but they'll love it.

Okay, go ahead. Sorry. Mary Trump, Donald Trump's niece, was also going to pose with Goya products, but unfortunately, she already spilled the beans. Hey! Meaning we wanted to start. Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, I mean, her beans are probably like some sort of like Vienna recipe. I don't know.

You know what I mean? Her beans are less ethnic. I just think we want to start. Yes. I just think we need to start with a terrible joke. I think that's important. Oh, yeah. Hey, achieved.

Mission accomplished. No, but you know what? I'm a terrible audience member because I love jokes like that. Me too. Me too. Me too. And even when you were referring to testicles earlier, I mean, when I thought you were referring to testicles earlier, I love that too because I love referring to testicles. I'm probably like the worst person to be doing this particular segment. Okay,

let's continue. I will love all of it and it'll be really bad for the world. Okay, go ahead. I'm having fun. This week it was announced that Republicans are considering shrinking their Jacksonville convention and moving it outdoors. Cowards. They're cowards because they don't want to die from coronavirus? I don't know. I don't know why. This acknowledgement of reality was pretty surprising until you realized that it was a long con by Eric Trump to hold an absolutely sick convention at Busch Gardens.

Oh! Dad, we could actually do the convention at a baseball field. Here, hold this club. I'll run over there and you throw the ball and then I'll throw it back. And what if we did that for like five minutes? Would that be crazy? Oh, I like that because first you went in, you started with like a, yeah, that's like hospice level sick, like, you know, kind of like young, young people, internet speak, whatever. And then you moved into some real earnest, you know, father, little boy issues that the Trump family has because of the terrible parenting, you know, it's a, it's a, you know, and the cats in the cradle

and the hair, you know, like goes into that. Well, it's funny because that's what the Mary Trump book is about in a lot of ways. But I find it like, apparently it sold a lot of copies. I'm very happy for anybody who wants to read it. I have no issue with that at all. But for me, it's like, I don't feel like Trump is a nut I'm struggling to crack. You know, like I'm not like. It's also like we're mid-crime spree. Like he's still inside the bank and mary

trump is outside with a bullhorn yelling his father was withholding they used the n-word and it's like well we could talk about that when he's fucking in shackles we can't do that right now he's still doing crime wait oh so that's so that's a question, though, I have for you is that, you know, in January 21, I love my own grammar. But on January 21st, do you think we're going to stop talking about Trump? Like, because you make it sound like there's going to be books and stuff. I'm just like, we're done on January 21st. I don't want to utter his name ever again.

It's over. So I'm of two minds about this. Obviously, emotionally, I would like to have a new experience. But also, so I think we're gonna have to do two things. Like we're gonna have to make sure that we get out of this psychological cul-de-sac that we're in. Yeah, I agree with that. But at the same time, like I talked about this with Congressman Adam Schiff on the show today, like there's gonna be an incredible amount of pressure to just move forward in part because we may have a chance to do like incredible progressive legislation.

There's going to be an ongoing economic crisis, ongoing pandemic. We're going to have a lot to do. Like the next president is have, you know, Joe Biden inherits a huge, huge disaster. But we still need to make sure we like go through the fucking paperwork and be like, let's figure out what these crimes were. We're going to have to do work. We're going to need like a, you know, we're going to need to do truth and reconciliation. A postmortem with like the stage manager and the prop master might help us like not do

it again. Yeah. Get the cues right next time. Something like that. Yeah, I think that's right. Yes. Anyway, speaking of gatherings in Florida with authoritarian leanings that champion conservative gender norms, Disney World reopened this weekend on the same day Florida recorded its highest single day of cases since the virus began.

Timon and Pumbaa are like, I'm not moving back to Pride Rock. I'm staying out here. Have you seen the hospital admission rates in Pride Rock? No, thank you. Wait, does that also mean the one in Los Angeles, the one in Anaheim is opening? No, just the one in Florida. I don't know. Oh, God. Yeah. I don't think the one in LA would be opening. That sounds crazy. Opening either one of them is crazy. It's a crazy thing to do. I understand that all of these businesses, large and small, have these incredibly terrible set of choices before them.

Like, I get that. But I'm not that sympathetic, honestly, about Disney World. I'm obviously sympathetic more for, like, small businesses where they're just in a state of, you know, personal financial ruin. A little, like, yeah, mom and pop operations like Disney. You really feel. Guys, give them a chance to reopen. Let's see how they can do this thing. You know, they've got funnel cakes to sell.

It is hard to make a funnel cake at home. Republican Republican Governor Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma tested positive for the coronavirus after attending Trump's Tulsa rally and refusing to wear a mask. But at least it was for a good cause, destroying the country. After testing positive, still told reporters, I'm probably getting tons of texts right now from other governors around the country. At which point a bunch of governors were like, I got to fucking text this guy now. I got to say get well soon. That's this relationship. I owe Stitt a fucking, we're friends. I'm text pals with him no thank you it's fucking idiot

the fun thing about that joke is that you it's like one of the many things in the last four years where you didn't need a joke at all you just had to say the thing that he was at a rally that at the rally didn't wear a mask, got coronavirus. That is the punchline. See you guys later. My job is done. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I will say, you know, coronavirus is a huge, huge asshole. But occasionally. There's a bigger one. But also, like, knows how to maybe make a joke. I don't want to say it's not funny. Coronavirus has a sense of humor. It's got a little bit. I'd rather have a beer with coronavirus than Donnie Trump.

I'll tell you that much. What does that mean? What does it mean? I like it. I like it. I know what you mean. I know what you mean, and yet it's... Take my chances. This week, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was bitten by an emu.

Obviously, we really hope he's okay. We wouldn't want him to catch COVID from biting Bolsonaro. Misdirect. We thought you were talking about Bolsonaro, but you were talking about the emu. Oh, that is where, that's comedy. That's where it is. Comedy.

Also. No, but seriously, I hope they're testing the emu because I just, you know. Yeah, protect the emu. It's like the worst person you could be biting right now. Protect the emu. Yeah. Also this week, prosecutors at Ghislaine Maxwell's bail hearing claim that she has a secret husband. Twist.

It's Lindsey Graham. I would really not see that coming. That's what makes it such a, it turns out like, oh, that's what they have on them. That's what they have on them. Right, right. You didn't go A to B.

You went A to B to C and then you jumped over to G. And then G is Lindsey Graham. The G stands for Graham. From A to B to Lady G. Oh, by the way, did you know that gislaine or gislaine what's her gislaine i don't know how to pronounce her name anyways i try not to put to know very many um human traffickers in general right but um she like what i didn't actually realize about her until kind of recently was that how rich she is herself. Like I thought she was

like side hustling a human trafficking gig because she needed the money for some reason. Like in my mind, I was trying to rationalize why someone would ever do something so totally, totally horrific. And she does not need the money. She's just a monster. Not that needing the money would even be a rationale, but you know what I'm saying? I just didn't know how rich she was. There's real like sexism in the coverage in odd ways. Like she's constantly referred to as like a paramour or associate in a strange way. And because of that, like it's oddly like objectifying in which she's not treated like a central part of what is ultimately an international criminal conspiracy.

It's weird. No, exactly. Like she's a boss. She is like one of the main monsters. She's not like some sort of like assistant. It's like ridiculous how we've been talking about her. Yeah, it's strange. Also this week, it was announced that Chipotle plans to hire 10,000 new employees for locations

with drive-thrus. This is obviously good news. We are on our way to what I believe will be Chipotle's final form, a feed bag that attaches directly to your face. That is the goal that has been there. That is, remember when Netflix was like, yeah, we're starting with DVDs, but we're eventually going to streaming. Chipotle is like bowls are an intermediate step. Bowls are where we start, but it is not where we end. We have a vision and we're almost there. The next step is just long, giant bowls. They will call them trough potlays. And then they move to a feed bag model. And honestly, I'm on board. I'm excited.

I'm excited. I'm sick of bringing the fork to my face. I think your vision is a little short-sighted because you need to go from face to then, I'm going to just make it gross for a quick second. Please. Because there's opportunities for the back end where it it then goes into what like an act like a some sort of like recycling you know waste management system and then turns it back into a chipotle product what you're what you're talking about is a chipotle enema that's what you're i think

you're talking about yeah chipotle also sounds like something you know weird that people named lena do anyways but bakoa nope i'm we gotta move forward we gotta move forward i'm so sorry but potlay all right two professionals we're terrible people i apologize i apologize for this whole thing. I apologize. This is what we do for our jobs. This is our profession. This is our 10,000 hours. This may be the last thing we ever get to say, both of us. This week, the Twitter accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and others were hijacked to promote a Bitcoin scam. Before Wednesday, the biggest hack in the history of Twitter was Mike Huckabee.

It was also impossible for any verified person on Twitter to tweet for over two hours, a huge blow to the Lincoln Project. Okay. The Lincoln Project is everyone's favorite like, favorite K-pop band right now. You know what I mean? They're, like, everyone is talking about them, loving them, like, jamming to their ads. Like, it is just, yeah. Yeah. Is it, like, are they good?

Are they bad? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I'm just saying. But let's keep talking about them. Like, I don't want to say, like, I'm glad that everybody's doing everything they can at this guy.

Am I donating to this organization? Am I just going to support progressive organizations? I think I'm going to support progressive organizations. But I'm not going to begrudge the only group of people inside of Republican politics that showed even the tiniest shred of conscience. So I have conflicted feelings. I agree. I have conflicted feelings.

I'll click on an ad. I'll watch it. They're good ads. You know what I mean? They're good ads. Yeah. They're have conflicted feelings. I have conflicted feelings. I'll click on an ad. I'll watch it. They're good ads. They're good ads. They're doing a great job. I agree. And on Tuesday, the Trump administration carried out the first federal execution since 2003 after the Supreme Court gave the okay. A second federal execution took place soon after. A recent Gallup poll found Americans support life sentences over executions by 60 to 36 percent and a historic shift in this country which has long preferred

the death penalty when you add these executions to trump's current death toll due to the mismanagement of the pandemic he has almost earned enough points for concierge status i can i wow it's bold to even approach that topic in the joke writing world. I consider myself bold. Yeah, I just want to applaud you for taking that kind of a risk. I didn't, you know, what do you say? It's awful. Jeff Sessions was defeated by Trump favorite and former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville in the race for the Republican Senate nomination.

When asked for comment, Sessions said, I leave elective office with my integrity intact before crawling through a small opening in the side of a fallen oak tree where he stores his food and trinkets, eventually drifting off to sleep while swaddled in a Confederate flag. The end. That was like the most fun. Do you remember the day he's just, for Jeff Sessions, it's just like looking back at the day that he decided to endorse Donnie. He was first.

And like how it ruined his life. Like, I'm going to support this guy for president. Why not? And the wife's like, sounds like a great idea. You know what I mean? What could happen? What could happen? What's the worst?

What's the worst that could happen? It's not like you're going to lose your job, you know? Become a pariah. With coronavirus cases on the rise in Southern California, officials in Los Angeles and San Diego announced that schools would remain fully remote in the fall, and now even the popular kids will know what it's like to eat lunch alone. It's fine. It's fine.

It's not that bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did it. I did it a few times, guys. Am I hiding? When I say a few times, am I hiding dozens of other times? Hundreds of other times? We don't know.

But just right now, I'll say I did it a few times. So the game's still working through some stuff, not ready to fully process her high school years. And the cat's in the cradle and the... On Thursday, a five-minute video surfaced of Superman actor Henry Cavill using his huge muscles to custom build a PC. Oh, I didn't even see that. Is that... First of all, people are still doing that?

Did it look like one of those see-through telephones from the 90s that I had as a child? Sorry, I was just thinking about Henry Cavill. I wasn't paying attention. It's fine. We should, what's going on? Never mind. We move on. Yeah, whatever you said is sure it's good.

Add a pizza to that video and I'll have to leave society. And it's like the quarantine has been worth it. For sure. For sure. That one video. And finally, in a statement Friday, Ruth Bader Ginsburg disclosed that she once again has cancer, that she previously underwent treatment that was not successful at some point earlier this year.

But since May, she has been undergoing chemotherapy that has been effective, and she plans to continue working and to remain on the court. I've said this before, but Ruth Bader Ginsburg genes have the powerful longevity properties of tiny Ashkenazi Jews. When I was born,

when I was born, both of my grandmothers, three of my great-grandmothers, and my great-great-grandmother were all around around with the exception of one grandmother, Bessie. These were all diminutive Jews. But you got to hang on, Ruth. As of Saturday morning, it is 108 days until the election. It is 186 days until Inauguration Day.

And if McConnell so much as hears a faint, steady tone, she'll be replaced by a 43-year-old right-wing lawyer who believes in only two things, rigorous daily exercise and stopping abortions. First of all, fuck that cancer so hard for reappearing and all that shit. Like, fuck that cancer. And yeah, I mean, I'm not even going to feel nervous because I believe in her genetic makeup so thoroughly. I believe in medical science and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in equal measure. So I choose not to be worried about this issue. And I will just end by saying one more time, if Ruth Bader Ginsburg still has a lip on her shower stall,

if she has to step over anything to bathe, I'm going to fucking lose it. The most important and dangerous place in America is any room with a wet floor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I'll even throw in like I don't want to even see grand molding in her home. Like any lip of a between a doorway. Nothing. I don't want any like let's give that woman some smooth surfaces. in her home. Like any lip of a between a doorway, nothing. I don't want any like, let's give that woman some smooth surfaces,

but with firm grip. Firm grip. I like railings. I'll take some shag carpet. That'll be okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That sounds great. Padded floors.

Nagin. John Lovett. It's been so lovely to have you. Oh, thank you so much for having me. This was really fun. This was super fun. I think you're a great mon you. Oh, thank you so much for having me. This was really fun. This was super fun. I think you're a great monologist. Oh.

Which is not what they call these people who do these monologues. They call them comedians. And you're a great comedian as well. Well, Nguyen, I am such a fan of yours. You're a delight and charming and funny and wise. And I'm so excited to see you. And I hope to see you in person someday again soon. Someday again soon we will.

Thank you. When we come back, my conversation with Congressman Adam Schiff. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Joining us today, he is my congressman. He's also the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Please welcome back Adam Schiff.

It's great to be with you. So thanks for taking the time. You know, the past week, a lot of this broke at the end of the week, but I really wanted to talk to you about it. So we had the commutation of Roger Stone's sentence. We had the Supreme Court with a bunch of important rulings on congressional subpoenas. On top of that, Bill Barr has still continued to do his thing of steadily eroding the Department of Justice, putting in lackeys, getting rid of career people, people that he doesn't consider loyal to the president. In the wake of the Roger Stone

commutation, you basically made the argument that the remedy is the election. I totally appreciate that. I agree with that. Everything should be focused on that way of holding Trump accountable and saving the country. But I actually just wanted to talk to you a little bit about what you're imagining happening after. And as much as we need to focus on the election, the one area where I think I actually just don't know what happens, you know, let's say we are fortunate enough to do what we have to do to defeat Trump. We have these rulings that mean we're not getting tax returns till maybe next year. How do you imagine your role in looking back when Trump is gone, if Trump is gone, to make sure we get to the bottom of what happened, that we undo some of these cover ups, that we look into some of the ways in which Bill Barr

tried to subvert the justice system. What is your sort of overarching goal next year to make sure we don't let some of these crimes just pass us by? Well, I would say a few things. First, I would say that between now and the fall, our goal has to be exposure of all the wrongdoing. Let the people see what they have in Donald Trump, how much corruption there is, how much corruption there is in the people around him. Expose that to the sunlight because we know the Republicans aren't going to take action to hold anybody accountable. They proved that during the impeachment when we presented overwhelming evidence of other abuses of power. So up until November, I think exposure of wrongdoing after the election, after he's gone.

of wrongdoing after the election, after he's gone, then I think we have to continue to expose what he did while he was in office, because, of course, the administration has stonewalled us in every way it can. It has stonewalled every subpoena, every request for information. So there's a lot more evidence of the president's wrongdoing that is being withheld and will be withheld as long as he's in office. But it's also going to be vitally important, and indeed I hope that we'll be introducing this package soon, to introduce and pass into law a whole set of our own post-Watergate reforms or Trumpgate reforms that attack the abuse of the pardon power, that strengthen the independence of the Justice Department, that protect inspector generals, that provide for expedited court process for congressional subpoenas, that have an enforcement mechanism for the emoluments clause. Any number of things that we thought were inviolate

norms that we now realize, no, you can violate these as long as one party has become a cult of personality around the president. You can violate these norms with impunity. We need to put this into law. So that package is going to be very important. We will hopefully introduce it, even if we can't get it made law this year. I think that will be a very early priority in the new Congress. In terms of the president, his own liability and people around him, that will be a difficult decision for Joe Biden and for his attorney general, because the evidence is there. If you look at just one example, the Justice Department indicted Michael Cohen for a campaign fraud scheme that was directed and coordinated by individual one Donald J. Trump.

They argue that Michael Cohen should go to jail for his participation in that scheme. So what is the argument to say, well, Michael Cohen should go to jail, but the guy that did the directing and did the coordinating should get a pass? That's a difficult argument to make, but it's an issue that Joe Biden will have to weigh given the circumstances after the election. But I think those are all the steps we'll have to undertake. Exposure now, exposure later, reforms, and ultimately it'll be up to the Justice Department and the new president in terms of what repercussions go beyond that. Do you see as part of this legislation any strengthening of the ways by which Congress can enforce its subpoenas? Absolutely. In fact, I would put near the top of the list expedited court process for the

enforcement of congressional subpoenas. We may go beyond that and revive inherent contempt as well, but there has to be a mechanism to enforce our oversight function in Congress. Otherwise, Congress becomes a paper tiger incapable of holding any administration to account. So many of the other reforms are going to live or die upon whether Congress can enforce them. And to enforce them, you need to be able to do oversight. So yes, I would put that very near the top of the list. Yeah, there was this strange moment where when the Supreme Court ruling first came out, even Trump was lambasting the ruling on Twitter. But somebody had to go into his office and say, actually, you know, Mr. President, they may be saying you're not above the law in theory, but in practice, they're kicking the can.

In practice, we can go through, you know, basically an entire congressional term and not have a subpoena enforced. Do you plan on following through on these subpoenas? You know, there's ones that have come out of your committee. There's ones that have come out of Ways and Means, a few others. Do you plan on enforcing those subpoenas next year? Well, we plan on enforcing them this year. And in fact, we've asked for expedited action by the Supreme Court to send the decision back immediately so that we can go back into the Court of Appeals or the district court and get these records. So we're going to pursue them now. They may very well be able to stonewall up and get these records. So we're going to pursue them now. They may very well be able to stonewall up and through the fall. You know, frankly, for me, the issue is less about getting the records before November. It's more about getting them

when the country is at risk. We don't know why this president is so beholden to Vladimir Putin. Is it just his affinity for dictators? Is it just his affinity for dictators? Is it just his admiration for Putin? Is it his insecurity? Or is it his financial interests in Russia or with Russian oligarchs? This is why the withholding of these financial records is dangerous, because we don't know whether the president is compromised. At least we don't know whether he's compromised by his financial holdings. And so that's not dependent on November. That's an issue right now.

It's been an issue for the last year or two years that we've been trying to get these records. So we're going to persist with that litigation. We hope to get it this year. But if we don't, we'll continue until we do, because the country deserves, indeed needs, I think, full answers. Thanks for talking about this, because I do think on the one hand, you know, I'm with you. We have the remedy. We got to get him out. Everything hinges on getting him out. And honestly, looking

too far past that right now is a luxury I don't think we can afford. We're in the middle of this pandemic. We're in the middle of a crisis. He's a lawless person. He's supported by these Republicans in the Senate. We have to do everything we can to save the country by removing him. The only value I think right now and looking forward is I worry, and I think others worry, that next year we have a Democratic president, Democratic Congress, God willing. There's going to be a pandemic,

an economic crisis. There's going to be an opportunity to pass some of the most progressive legislation in history. It is going to be a genuine opportunity to move this country forward in a profound way, hopefully, hopefully. And in that context, I can see a lot of pressure on people like you who have this oversight responsibility to say, look, with impeachment,

there was political blowback. The most important thing is getting these pieces of legislation done. Why are we looking backwards? You know, we fail to look backwards in a lot of respects after Watergate, Iran-Contra, after the Bush crimes. There's this habit we have after a politician leaves office to say it's time to move forward. How do you resist that pressure? How do you commit to making sure we look backwards and get to the bottom of all of this so that we know what happened and can prevent it from happening again? Well, that's just it. You know, it's not just a look backwards. It's a look back to protect the future. Without understanding exactly the magnitude

of this president's depravity and those around him, without analyzing what went wrong, then we're not going to remedy the situation. So to me, it's all about protecting the future. But we can't do that being ignorant of what's happened in the past. They may very well be some of that dynamic that you mentioned, that people want to say, let's move forward, let bygones be bygones, let's turn our attention purely in a forward direction. But I think it would be a terrible mistake to think that Donald Trump could not recur. I mean, it certainly could recur in the form of Donald Trump.

He will be, at this point, in the form of Donald Trump. He will be at this point a former one term president, but it could recur very well in other people that lack basic morality. And so I think it's going to be very important to make sure we follow up, that we do what's necessary, that we learn the scope of misconduct in this administration, that we hold everyone accountable and that we pass laws to protect the country going forward. You know, similarly, and apropos of what you're saying about the pandemic, I introduced a bill a month or two ago, Senator Feinstein introduced a Senate version just within this week to establish a 9-11-like commission to analyze what went wrong with our handling of the pandemic as a nation, why we have the worst response in the world instead of the best response. Now, you could say, and this bill won't take effect until next year, that is, the commission wouldn't be formed until next year. Well, why bother looking back when Donald Trump is gone? We know how responsible he was for so much of this.

We do need to look back. We need a full accounting of all the reasons why we failed to stop this pandemic and how we protect against it or another one like it in the future. So I think those look backs are very important to protect the country going forward. Thank you. Before I let you go, I did want to ask you two lightning round questions in a segment we are calling shift into higher gear. That's the listen, we're all stuck at home. I don't think we're operating at our best, to be honest. Question number one. Now, Roger Stone has a tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back.

You're in the tattoo parlor chair. You have to get a tattoo of a politician on your back. You are offered Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. Who do you get? You have four seconds to decide. Are you really going to open up that fight?

No, I'm not. I'm not. All right. Correct. You got it. Next question. Next question. If it doesn't have to be a nominee, I would probably pick the dude. Oh, wow. Okay. Just a huge, just really makes Big Lebowski a big part of your personality. Really makes it a much bigger part. It's a very big part of your personality. Next question. When we last spoke, you admitted, you know, look, because I'm a ferocious interviewer, I think you sort of withered under cross-examination, that you lapsed in your veganism in the midst of the impeachment. I knew you were going to go there. Look, we've all done some emotional eating in the past few weeks. I can only imagine from your point of view, seeing Roger Stone commuted might have caused this.

But have you had a lapse? Have you had a veganism lapse recently? I have. I broke down and I ate some salmon jerky. And let me tell you, it was pretty awesome. Congressman. But I want you to know it was wild salmon jerky. Wow, you're crazy.

You're a wild guy. Listen, if you're going to get a cheeseburger, come on. You know, I decided to throw caution to the wind. Salmon jerky is your cheat. Wow, okay. Chairman Adam Schiff, thank you so much for taking the time. Really appreciate it. And stay safe.

And we'll see you again soon. You too. Great talking to you. When we come back, we'll see you again soon. You too. Great talking to you. When we come back, Michaela Watkins. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It. There's more on the way. And we're back here to explain her thinking she's from one of the country's richest families and currently serves as the Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. Thank you so much for joining us. To be honest, Madam Secretary, I'm a bit surprised you agreed to come on the show.

Oh, Jonathan, I'm actually a huge fan. It stinks. Oh, I think I understand what happened. Okay, all right, let's dive in. Lots of parents and teachers and administrators, they're very nervous about opening schools given the administration's failure to contain the virus. What are you saying right now to worried parents across the country?

Jonathan, these concerns are exaggerated. First of all, it's very difficult for children to be infected. Their noses are quite small. But also, I find it offensive that anyone would think we treat our children like like what like test subjects like rhesus monkeys in their early years of the space race just putting on those little helmets and strapping them in their little seats sending them on an adventure to outer space actually that's that's kind of a sweet analogy yeah terrifying just terrifying stuff well you've never been to space clearly i haven't been to space but you know a lot of those monkeys

they didn't make it home oh well you know show me someone whoathan is that we have a plan and for instance doctor i'm putting him in quotes fauci says that we should keep a minimum of six feet apart at all times. But I say, why do a bare minimum? I say place desks 20 feet apart. If the classroom isn't big enough for that, just use one of the school's grand banquet halls. And I know your concern. I know it, Jonathan. I know. But obviously, given the pandemic, sacrifices must be made. And our daughters will simply have their coming out parties over Zoom. I'm sorry, did you say grand banquet halls? Well, well, Jonathan, they don't have to be grand. I know some of these 19th century institutions really scamped on ceiling height. So don't get me started. But if your banquet halls are substandard,

just use the polo grounds as long as we're careful to protect our precious horses from exposure to the children. Protecting horses. Kids are not going to respect social distancing rules. They are kids. And we still don't know the long-term impact of this illness. And we still have rising cases. That's why everyone on staff needs to wear face coverings. Teachers, counselors, headmasters, you name it. Headmasters? What are you talking about? Of course, headmasters. Jonathan, headmasters, yes. Rules are rules. I don't care if you're a groom of the stool. You're in a mask. For pupils, that mask must be in your house colors. How about that? For example, if a child is associated with Dunscript House,

let's just say, they're wearing a mask in Bedford Blue, and their mask will be removed immediately, and Dunscript House will be docked 10 points. Secretary DeVos, I have to stop you. First of all, I don't know what a groom of the stool is. Fascinated to find out what that is. But what about public schools? You're in charge of public schools. You're supposed to be in charge of helping them. Are you suggesting public school children won't care about their house points?

I think you're underestimating children. I mean, I just don't think you know children at all. House points, wild. Also, we're going to be requiring all one-time use items like textbooks and teachers, things like that. They just get disposed of, you know, once they're contaminated. And the minute a book is returned to the library, it must be promptly burned. Secretary, this seems crazy. School budgets are tight. They can't afford to throw away books. There's no resources for this. Well, then let them do that DonorsChoose situation they love so much.

You can't see me, but I'm rolling my eyes. I don't think teachers like buying their own supplies on DonorsChoose. Then why do they do it every year? Secretary DeVos, Betsy, if I can call you Betsy, listen. Public schools do not have ballrooms or horses or house points. They barely have enough space in their classrooms to fit all the students. There's no money for medical supplies. There's no money for ordinary supplies. There's no money for ordinary supplies. Oh, oh, okay. I don't care.

What do you mean you don't care? Oh, let's see. What do I mean by I don't care? Okay, I act like I care. And most of the time, I even believe that I care. But if I actually truly cared, if I really cared, I'd resign. I don't belong in this job. I'm just a very rich person who donated to powerful people with my family's money

when I wasn't investing in Theranos and failed Broadway musicals. It was absurd to accept that job. It's genuinely, genuinely evil not to make room for an actual expert during this crisis. I don't know how to help public school children. I wouldn't really want to if I had to. I don't actually have any discernible skills, even if I tried. So you're as qualified as I am, Jonathan, and you're just an actor from that 2001 film Rat Race. I'm still... Then why? Why, Secretary DeVos? Why do this?

Well, for starters, let's look at my life. I mean, my brother is a literal mercenary war profiteer. My husband got rich on multi-level marketing. There are no moral guardrails in my life and money meant I've never actually had to be forced to show grit or courage or integrity or when it, you know, might have cost me. But even though I'm unqualified and oblivious, I'm also white and rich and middle-aged and dressed like Liddy Dole. So the only difference between me and, say, Kanye is I know what to tell my shopper to buy at Neiman's to make old white senators feel at ease. Please, please resign. Please resign.

No, thank you. Oh, there's no crying in baseball. Okay, bye. Betsy DeVos, everyone. And, well, Betsy DeVos is gone uh well Betsy DeVos is gone and who's here in the zoom it's Michaela Watkins thank you so much for being here you just missed you just missed secretary of education Betsy DeVos serious oh my god she was right there I don't she I don't understand what's he did she offer anything you know helpful about how we're going to bring kids back safely? No, nothing, nothing.

Just an imposition and a kind of a lovely Oscar de la Renta jacket. It's very slick. Wow, John, that's a real surprise. I mean, she's so she just seems so on the ball. Yeah, no, it was. I expected to get more firm answers. Just got a lot of nonsense. Michaela, thank you. Michaela, thank you so much. This was so fun. Thank you for doing this. You more firm answers. Just got a lot of nonsense. Michaela, thank you.

Michaela, thank you so much. This was so fun. Thank you for doing this. You want firm answers. You should ask her about Groom of the Stool. Groom of the Stool. When we come back, I'll be joined by Zeynep Tufekci. And it was a really good conversation.

She's somebody that looks at the intersection of social media and politics and science. And it was a great conversation about the state of our response to the pandemic. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. She is a writer for The Atlantic and The New York Times, a professor at the University of North Carolina and author of the book, Twitter and Tear Gas.

Please welcome back Zainab Tufekci. Thanks for being here. Thank you for inviting me. So you've been writing extensively about the coronavirus and what happens when science meets social media, when science meets politics. You've been talking about masks for some time, wrote about it in May. You signed an open letter with other scientists urging politicians to take more serious measures about masks. It does feel like right now we've been having this conversation for a while. It's obviously ridiculous that it took until now for Trump to put a mask on. But

what in your mind is the most helpful way to move the conversation forward right now? Because a lot of the times it feels like it's a bunch of people who understand why masks are important talking to each other. And we know from polls that 70% of the country thinks masks should be required. 80% know they make a difference. So what are your thoughts there? So I think one of the major confusions around this was the idea that masks wouldn't protect the wearer perfectly. And that is correct, especially cloth masks are not going to protect the wearer. But what they do is they protect the transmission of the virus to other people. And that's especially important because with SARS, the earlier version of the same coronavirus, we got lucky. People were infectious when they had

fever. Here, people are infectious before that. So what we're trying to do with getting everybody to wear masks is to stop the spread of the virus from people who don't even know that they're infected to other people. The second thing I think that's really important to understand is that it's kind of like measuring air pollution. So when you want to bring air pollution down, you would put filter on the exhaust pipes of the car, right? But then to understand whether air is clearer, you wouldn't measure the air inside the very car. So when people wear the mask, and then we look at, you know, did it protect the wearer, we're doing the wrong measurement. What we're trying to do is, is our air, all of our common air clean, right? It's not that only that car that just put a filter

on, but that car by putting a filter on protected everyone else. The third thing here is that masks even help the wearer a little bit. With a lot of these kinds of viruses, the initial dose matters, right? There's a lot of young healthcare workers who've died tragically. And part of the reason that for them, it's a higher risk is they're around patients all the time. And they of the reason that for them, it's a higher risk is they're around patients all the time. And they're doing procedures that generate these little aerosols that they're just ingesting a lot. So if you're wearing a mask, and you're still infected, perhaps because the mask is not like a medical mask, or it's not an N95. So it's not 100% for

you. But if it's cutting down your dose is absolutely helping you have a milder version of it most of the time. So from every kind of perspective we can talk about, and I kind of find it tragic that it became politicized, because it's the one thing you can tell people you can do this both to protect your community, and probably to some degree help protect yourself a little. Like there's no other tool we have that is that efficacious for that little bang for the buck. What I just told you, this is not a lot of thing to communicate. And I just can't believe six months in, we're still having to explain pretty much what the scientists have more or less figured out. And it's not that complicated. And

we're still fighting over it, which is tragic. Well, that's what I wanted to ask you about. So now at first, I think there was some dissensus around masks, there was a fear about mass being hoarded. And maybe there honestly was some intellectually dishonest information about masks early on, where really what they were saying was not masks won't help you, but actually masks will help doctors more. But that was now months ago. At this point, it seems as though there's a consensus around masks. You know, we've seen Democratic leaders and many Republican leaders at this point talking

about masks. You have Trump allies. You have people like Ted Cruz refusing to wear masks. You have others refusing to wear masks. Yes, it is politicized. But it seems to me what we're talking about is a group of Republicans have rejected the science and that they are engaged in politics while everybody else is trying to stop them from doing that. And the country seems to get it right. As I said, 70 percent of the country thinks masks should be required. Eighty percent, according to a poll today, says they

believe masks can help control the spread. So I want to come back to that question, which is what do we do about this minority of people led by a propaganda apparatus that have politicized masks when we need them to do the right thing to protect everybody? Some of the earliest adopters of masks as messaging were Republican senators and some governors even because it fits the individual responsibility model, right? It's something you can do. Now, I think there's a lot of things the government should do. But this was the one thing you could tell individuals to do. And there are some early Republicans who are kind of trying to get on board and saying, Wait, this is a good idea. Like we do this, we get out of lockdowns, it's a win-win. It fits, there's no ideological problem.

It just got twisted from Trump down. And that tells you the GOP is Trump's party. Like when we were having difficulty convincing a lot of Democrats even, some of the Republicans had jumped on board, but then Trump went around with his, don't need to wear one, this, maybe I personally won't wear one. And then after that around with his don't need to wear one this I maybe I personally

won't wear one. And then after that, you see the polarization to that's really tragic, because it was a low cost intervention. We also had this dismissal of East Asian expertise, because early on when I was writing and saying, look, there's all this preponderance of evidence in favor of masks. A lot of doctors and, you know, CDC and everybody kind of came late to that, partly because the Western establishment, even in Europe, was not taking the East Asian expertise seriously in Hong Kong and South Korea and Taiwan. I mean, they dealt with SARS too, right? There's a lot of top-notch people there, and they weren't listening to them. And masks bring a collective good. In Western countries, and especially the Anglo tradition,

it has a hard time wrapping its head around something that doesn't necessarily help you directly. And I think sort of it just went against the way we tend to think. I mean, historians are going to look at it and say, what did they fight about, really? Because again, it's such an easy intervention. And what you mentioned earlier, the early messaging that they might be unhelpful or even harmful, was more about the shortage. I think that was very damaging. You know, we're a nation facing a catastrophe. I mean, it's not a moment to lie to us for our own good. But in the messaging, what we weren't told was, look, there's a shortage, and we need to preserve them for

healthcare workers. I think people would have stepped up. But that really aided to the confusion, this perfect storm of all these things that came together. I mean, I told Trump quite responsible for a lot of this. It's so obvious what he's done wrong. But in reality, there was a lot of articles published in, you know, liberal or mainstream media that considered mask wearing almost like superstitious. It's just something Asians do. Yeah. So there's some self examination. I think that needs to happen. I think that needs to happen. So one other aspect of this has been how it's played out on social media. And it was one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you, because I think I first became aware of your work in the way that you looked at how mass shootings spread online as an idea. You know, I've been struck by these viral videos of people refusing to wear masks.

They are spread, I think, by people who are angry and frustrated that their fellow citizens are helping. I completely. Yeah, absolutely. So what do you think is the consequence of this, of these like sort of pro mask videos of anti mask people spreading? What do you think happens? I'm so glad you asked about this because I've been wanting to either talk about it or write about it because I think they're absolutely counterproductive. Right now, I get it, right? People are frustrated. And you find some person throwing a tantrum over a mask. And that gets a million views or 2 million views. And I've been like looking around. And I know TikTok is kind of hard to follow because it's so obscure. It's also really viral

on TikTok. It's merged with the Karen meme, right? For one thing, people throwing a tantrum over masks, I'm sure happens. But it's not that common a thing. People are trying to do the right thing. The second thing is once you make that into a martyrdom, to the people who are like, unhappy about this, it looks like everybody's like laughing at someone who's being victimized because they're against mass and i think it's actually making people more reticent because we know from other kinds of research that if you shame people it just backfires it entrenches people now i'm not saying like it's good and adult throws a stupid tantrum over a mask. I do not like that myself. But given that problem, like we're highlighting what I think is a super rare behavior. Most people are just either wearing

masks, or maybe a little confused, and are trying to say what's the right thing to do. And then you put it into the polarization machine. What ends up happening is that the people who are slightly on the other side of the polarization end up getting pulled into that polarization. And what you can do is you can do the positive messaging. We know from other public health thing, you give the positive message, you say, you're helping people, thank you for your kindness. Yeah, because if you just sort of chastise the one person who's looking quite silly, I get it, the videos are funny. And I get all the anger, but it sucks to put that distorted incentive that you talk about we did with mass shootings, right? Put the person on loop. Yes, 99% is looking, well, that's terrible. But there's that troubled young man thinking that showed you, Yeah. Right. You do not want to feed that machine. And so thanks for bringing that up. Yeah.

Just honestly, it's because I've been following your work that I had that reaction. So you say most people are complying or are confused. And then we highlight these sort of bad actors. At the same time, you know, you've talked about how we focused on beaches. And at the same time, you know, we also focused on sort of protest against masks. But really, like, the problem isn't necessarily beaches or masks. It's the kind of like, day to day noncompliance, the day to day not taking it seriously, the people who aren't avoiding mask as a political statement, but just because they can't be bothered, or they're undisciplined, or they're sick of it, or they're hearing mixed messages. How do we stay focused on

the right aspects of this? We should have kept parks and beaches open. That's from the beginning, because the alternative socialization is indoors. And that is just really risky and dangerous as opposed to being outdoors. I mean, this is a virus. UV light inactivates viruses and there's wind, so it dilutes. So people are going to socialize to some degree, especially young people, you're not going to have them absolutely not socialized for a whole year, we can convince them to do less. And to the degree they do it, we can try to do it in safer places. So that was the one thing. But also what we saw is like, I've been collecting some examples, like I'll see an example, like an article in New York Times and Washington Post, LA Times, like across the political spectrum. And you'll see this article that says, contact tracing has revealed that it's indoors, restaurants, bars, meatpacking,

and, you know, poultry processing plants. And most of the like in places like California, most of the people who are falling ill are poor people, low wage workers, often African American or Latino, who could not stay home. Right? They do not work on Slack, I can work on Slack and Zoom, right? These people have to go to work. And they are working in unventilated indoor spaces, they do not have the right protections, they even if they're wearing personally masks, that's not enough protection, per se. And that's who's falling ill. Even sometimes the article will explain this. What do you see in the photo? A bunch of people on a beach. And I look at the pictures very often, the people are not within six feet, right? It's taken with a telephoto zoom, it kind of crams them. But sometimes it's

not even crammed. I mean, I've seen pictures from, you know, Jacksonville beaches that, you know, there's hardly anyone and the title says packed. And also outdoors. I mean, I would personally feel a lot more comfortable, almost any distance outdoors compared to anything indoors. I don't feel comfortable six foot indoors. I feel comfortable outdoors. And because especially who on earth in a beach goes to a complete stranger and talks to them for 15 minutes, which is kind of the CDC guideline for, you know, really close, that's really unlikely. In fact, we do not have a single confirmed outbreaks. I'm not saying nobody could ever get infected at the beach, especially if you

talked at close distance with someone stranger. But six months in, we know the victims, we know how they get infected, we know who they are and where it happens. And we have this absolutely misleading visual that is dominating and misleading people. Right. So I think there's this weird way in which we lost control of the science in the messaging. And both the politics and the moralizing have taken over. On the left and the Democrats, they noticed the politicization of masks and Trump and all of that. But they do not necessarily notice that all their newspapers are publishing these beach pictures and shaming young people when the data absolutely says it's poor people, and it's restaurants and bars. So we don't always see

our own tribes, sort of the way in which our own communication gets distorted. And so also sort of in terms of social justice, it's hiding the actual victims. There's a major crisis we're not really addressing. I've said this in an interview, it's like a starter pandemic in that it's hiding the actual victims. There's a major crisis we're not really addressing. I've said this in an interview, it's like a starter pandemic in that it's not the worst possible virus. Like it's terrible, of course, and it's tragic, but it's a manageable one in the spectrum of the kind of viruses we could have a pandemic with. We could have had an H5N1 or something like that, be a pandemic with much higher fatality rates more transmissible so we got something that's like mid-sized and yet we're screwing this one up yeah so i just kind of am afraid you know what if we do get one that spreads like measles and has

you know fatality rates something like h5n1 which is like 50 60 percent at times that's scary i mean this is terrible, of course. I mean, all the hundreds of thousands of dead people, it's crazy and scary and it's terrible. And yet, really, of all the pandemics we could have gotten, this is on the milder side. Cold comfort. One last question.

No, it's, I'm going to worry about that another day. But it seems like for a long time, we've been treating this like a crisis that's always a month away from being over. And so we haven't been doing these sort of long-term things. You talked about the fact that even now, six months in, we still haven't figured out protocols to make sure that people aren't forced to sort of go through traumatic medical procedures alone. This is really doing away from their families, family members forced to be away from their families. And even now in the conversation about, you know, what levels of risk we'll accept, it's not a really honest conversation about the fact that our failure means we're going to be dealing with this for months. Yeah, we're not having an

honest conversation. From the beginning, I think like flattening the curve. And I wrote an article in February, explaining flatten the curve, because I was like, we think like flattening the curve. And I wrote an article in February, explaining flatten the curve, because I was like, we're not going to do this. And I watched that messaging evolve almost into like, we're going to flatten the curve and be done. Rather than we need to flatten the curve as a breather for the hospitals while we get our shit together, right? That was kind of what we needed to do. And we didn't do that. And after there was like a couple of weeks of lockdown, and we're done like no, no, that's like, we just sort of get the fire slightly lower, but it's still burning, right? And now we're in the second thing. And

everybody's like, okay, this is out of control again. And the reality is until we do the comprehensive solution, which includes the universal masking, which includes looking hard at ventilation. Right now, I'm seeing school districts try to open by putting hand sanitizers into the school and not thinking about opening the windows, right? By all means, put the hand sanitizer and wash your hands. But it's the ventilation that's driving this, right? So you're not getting the proper like six months in, where is the sort of the ventilation considerations? Where's the UVC lights, maybe near the ducts and just to get the filters, all those things, open windows, do whatever we can outdoors, it's like six months in, there's so little outdoor transmission in the literature, we should push everything we can as

much as we can, including schooling, to the degree possible. I'm not saying like a very hot place is going to do this, but whatever we can. So we know what we need to do, and we're not doing it. And the reality is, the best case scenario is that we get better treatments throughout the fall, and some mass vaccination campaign with a working vaccine sometime in spring of 2021. And we can get back to a regular normal life in about a year from now. And what we do now is going to determine what that year is going to look like, right? We can have that year with a lot more deaths, Kids can't go to school.

A lot of tragedy. Hospitals overwhelmed. And what happens? Like cancer patients aren't getting treated. There's like a lot of diseases. Vaccinations of children around the world are down, right? There's all these costs we're paying by not fixing some of this. So we're either going to do it that way or we're going to get, you know, our act together and say, all right, we're going to fix this stuff as much as we can and put the fire out and then just sort of try to coast till the vaccines and treatments arrive.

And from what I fear is that just by our both political and scientific communication crisis, we're just going to end up with the worst possible scenario by just sleepwalking into it. And tragically, it'll be the elderly who pay the price. Plus, I think, especially younger kids, another year away from school will be devastating. For a lot of kids, schools is the only structured safe space they have. The American Academy of Pediatrics was so concerned because the parents are in this pressure cooker. The kids are on their house arrest. But we're not even going to get them. So we're going to have the very young and the very old pay

a significant price because we can't get our act together. And I'm sorry to be so cheery, quote unquote, but the reality is if we ignore this it's going to hit us for another year like this. And that's what we're looking at. Normally, I would like to find a silver lining, but we'll have to find it. There's none. The only silver lining is that this is like a crisis.

That's not the worst possible virus. As I said, it's not the worst possible pandemic. But it's showing us every weakness we have. Yeah. It's showing us our political weaknesses. It's warning enough that it's got our attention because we've been warned before. We had the other SARS, we had this, we've been warned before. So it looked like we weren't going to pay attention. So it's now serious enough, maybe we're paying attention. And then we can sort of look at all the weaknesses that have been exposed and try to fix it. Yeah. And that's my silver lining is like, can we learn from this?

Zainab Dufayje, thank you so much for your time. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's good to see you and stay safe. Thank you. You too. When we come back, we'll end on a high note. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way.

And we're back. Because we all need it this week, here it is, this week's high notes submitted by our listeners. I love it. It's Toby from Arkansas. And this past week, I was officially elected in as the co-president of our local synagogue here in northwest Arkansas. I led a pride Shabbat, and that was really meaningful, and I guess it was so much so that we had a few members cry, so I guess it made people cry in my first week,

and that's a sign of doing something right. Anywho, appreciate you. Appreciate all you do. Thanks a lot. Hey, John. My name is Krista. I live in Austin, Texas, and my high note for the week was I'm finally, after a month, getting over the coronavirus.

But in Austin, in Travis County, Texas, we are going to the Democratic primary runoff election. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to vote because I'm afraid of infecting my community, and I won't do that. But here in Travis, we have curbside voting, just like curbside pickup. So I was able to pull up, a poll worker came out, we all wore masks, and I got to cast my vote for our progressive Democratic candidates here in Texas. So hopefully with curbside voting and keeping everybody safe, we're going to be able to help turn Texas blue. Thanks. Bye. Hi, this is Janine. I'm from East Rockaway, Long Island, and I went with my two little kids to our first Black Lives Matter protest this weekend, and I was just excited to get out there and see people in our surprisingly frumpy

neighborhood come out to support racial equality. Thanks. Bye. Hi, it's Anna from Oklahoma. I'm a tiny

blue dot in a sea of red and there's usually not a lot to feel great about but it's been a good couple weeks for Oklahoma between enshrining

Medicaid expansion on our state constitution and the McGirt decision in the Supreme Court, I'm starting to feel a little hopeful. And also, I guess I live on Cherokee Nation land now. So I don't know what that means, but I'm looking forward to finding out. Have a great day. Bye. Thank you so much to all the listeners who called in this week. If you want to leave us a message about something that gave you hope, you can call us at 424-341-4193. It is 108 days

until the election. You can sign up for Vote Save America right now to defeat Donald Trump, keep the House, and win back the Senate. Thank you so much to this incredible group of guests, Nagin Farsad, Congressman Adam Schiff, Michaela Watkins, and Zeynep Tufekci. Thank you to our grocery workers, truck drivers, delivery people, restaurant workers, flight attendants, and everyone who had to choose between staying safe and earning a paycheck. Thank you to our doctors and nurses and EMTs and first responders.

And thank you to our whole staff working to keep this show going out and Crooked going strong. Have a great weekend. Love It or Leave It is a Crooked Media production. It is written and produced by me, John Lovett, Elisa Gutierrez, Lee Eisenberg, and our head writer and the president of the East Side or Biden writers,

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