Lovett or Leave It - Patient Zero

Episode Date: October 10, 2020

Emily Heller joins to break down the VP debate and The Week They Gave Trump Steroids. Senator Brian Schatz is back to talk about the fight for the Senate and what we can each do to help. And Josh Gad joins (finally, he refused to come on for a long time) to show us that phone banking is fun and not that scary even if you've never done it before. Help this weekend, please: votesaveamerica.com/senate

Welcome to Love It or Leave It Home Stretch. last chance to make it count to lift our tired voices from a whisper to a shout together we can win this race if we make a plan it's the home stretch it's the home, we have to take a stand. use yours. This is one of our last four shows before the voting is done on November 3rd. We are in the homestretch. That means each week we'll be hyper-focused on doing whatever we need to do to win and keeping ourselves upbeat and motivated in the process. So now it's time for homestretch homeroom, a phrase I am already so tired of saying. And I give you your weekly syllabus, an idea I won't make fun of, where we tell you what you need to do to help defeat Donald Trump and win up and down the ballot. Here's what you need to do this week. Democrats have multiple paths to winning back a Senate majority right now and win

enough that the majority doesn't have to rely on future VP Kamala Harris as the deciding vote. And maybe we're not always knocking on Joe Manchin's door. You know, wouldn't that be nice? Thanks in part to Crooked Media's Get Mitch Fund. We are competitive in places like Alaska and South Carolina. If you want to do something right now, head over to votesaveamerica.com slash Senate to pick a Senate race to volunteer this weekend. We have opportunities to call and text voters in 13 states that could make the difference in November. Also, have you made your plan for election day? Not the voting part, but after you're done voting, especially if you're early voting,

there are ways to get involved to protect the vote by being an in-person poll observer, making calls to recruit other volunteers, or volunteering to work on the voter assistance hotline. Especially if you're a lawyer, this is a great way to help in the final stretch. Go to votesaveamerica.com slash protect to sign up to get more information. But first, she's a comedian, award-winning writer, and host of everyone's favorite segment, okay, Emily's Garden Show. Please welcome back, Emily Heller. Thank you so much. And thank you for saying okay to that being everyone's favorite segment. I'll take that as a face value endorsement

of that statement. You bet. Please do. Let's get into it. What a week. So, Emily, we recorded last week's episode just like a gold star family at a reception in the East Room of the White House,

unaware that Trump had COVID-19. We still don't know when Trump had his last negative test. It seems it was not before the presidential debate. Otherwise, they'd surely tell us. And Dr. Feelgood at Walter Reed seems to be upholding a strange version of HIPAA called Only Good News Allowed. What we know, the announcement of Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court, which included a crowded gathering in the Rose Garden and a bunch of droplet exchanges

inside the White House, was a super spreader event. Since then, dozens of Republicans have come back positive, including Donald Trump, Hope Hicks, Senator Mike Lee of Utah, Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Kayleigh McEnany, Chris Christie, RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel,

a pangolin McConnell wants to stick on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, Kellyanne Conway, current Trump campaign manager and future Brad Parscale murder victim, Bill Stepien, C-plus Santa Monica fascist Stephen Miller. And because they wanted to make it look like she had interacted with the president recently, First Lady Melania Trump. It's really a lot of people when you list it out. It's a lot of people. Like, I would say those pictures that they've been showing where they highlight the people who have it have made it seem like not as many people because there

are a bunch of people who I guess just didn't test positive, but it's a lot of people. Yeah, it's a lot of people. They really didn't protect anybody. It's giving me like upsetting images of just them hanging out with each other. Like it's a mental images that I don't want. It's also just like, obviously it's serious what they've done in terms of just being so reckless with their own health, but just the fact that these are the people that are meant to be leaders and responsible, and we've all been doing our part. And you know, they say, you know, Mark Meadows, And we've all been doing our part. And, you know, Mark Meadows, someone stumbled upon a cache of photos from the wedding of Mark Meadows' daughter. Mark Meadows is the White House chief of staff.

And they just had a big old wedding in Atlanta. Just a big old wedding. Just a big normal this isn't happening wedding. And I think of all my friends and all the people in my life who have canceled weddings, who have, like, eaten costs and deposits, who have rescheduled twice, who have like, you know, cause like, you know, you pick a wedding day. Apparently, I don't know. Ronan and I, uh, uh, are waiting for, um, uh, a reception, uh, slot to open up on the moon. But, but, um, but you know, you pick your date and then you find your, whoever your caterers and all the rest, it's a complicated process. But you find people who are available on your date. When you have to move to a different date and you've already paid all these people,

like it's a huge headache in a lot of people's lives. And these people who are meant to be in charge, who are meant to be demonstrating the best kind of behavior, completely disregarded the rules. They just completely disregarded the rules. And it reminds me of like that authoritarian quote, you know, for my friends, everything for my enemies, the law. And it's just outrageous. It's outrageous. What's also interesting to me about it, just from a wedding perspective, is like there are so many safeguards that people take at weddings to ensure that when they look back at the pictures, they will like what they see. So like

people who are in maybe like not the most stable of relationships, like guess what? That person is not going to be in the official photos because they don't want to look back and find out that you guys broke up. There's so many rules about like who gets to bring a plus one and all of that. And like all of these safeguards against the weather. Like everyone has manicures. Like the amount of thought that goes into making sure that you can look back on your wedding pictures and like what you see is so intense. That the fact that they didn't factor in like, hey, I might not want to look back on this picture and know that multiple people died of COVID-19 that they caught at my wedding. I know. It's just bad planning. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. JLo would

never. JLo and my JLo. I mean, the wedding planner. I got it. Yeah. She's she would. Yeah. Yeah. Like she would not have tolerated that. She would be running around with her little headset telling people to get their masks on and also being like, we shouldn't have done this. Is that with Matthew McConaughey? It is with Matthew McConaughey. It's like, hey, put on your map. And he's like, all right, all right, all right. Yeah, it's something like that. I'm sure that's what would happen. Anyway, since he's been home in the White House, Trump has been hopped up on a steroid

called dexamethasone, which is 25 times more potent than a cortisone shot. I've never felt better, Trump shouted while hanging from a chandelier and demanding Dan Scavino tweet a meme of Chris Wallace having sex with Bill de Blasio. I've never felt better, Trump shouted while hitting golf balls at cowering White House butlers in full PPE. I've never felt better, Trump shouted, while hitting golf balls at cowering White House butlers in full PPE. I've never felt better, Trump shouted, while waving two KFC drumsticks in the air like he was conducting an imaginary orchestra playing Deutschland über Alice. Should I do one more? Yeah. One more?

I'd like eight more. I've never felt better, Trump shouted, while pardoning himself in Sharpie on the back of a portrait of Millard Fillmore. That's it. I'll stop there. Meanwhile, over the course of the past few days, Trump has tweeted even more than usual and invoked by Congress in the future, not to be used against Trump, but just to make Trump mad right now, which I'd have to say is I think it's sort of like a really interesting move. Yeah. To be like, well, he's borderline Hulk right now anyway. Let's see if we can get him to go fully green. Yeah. Oh, no, he's gonna bust through his clothes. Well, here's the thing. What Nancy Pelosi knows about the Hulk is that we won't like him when he's angry. And she's like, this is not

helping him in the polls. We won't like him when he's angry. Let's get him to go full Hulk. We don't like him when he's not angry. That's true. Well, I don't I don't know about you, but I don't like him anytime. This is beside the point. But basically, over the course of the Avengers movies, they just decided it would be better if Ruffalo was in charge of when he hulked out. You know, like, because in the early... I haven't seen any of them, but go on. Well, and more of the point, that's debatable, but more of the point, like, at at the beginning Hulk is just sort of kind of like uncontained but in the later films he gets more and more control over the Hulk powers that's all

yeah but then I think it's in Ragnarok he doesn't ever de-Hulk he's just always just stays Hulk for a while I just am a little bit confused by the Hulk mechanics. Yeah. It's not important. I wonder what it says about us as a society that we went from being like, yeah, I'm totally okay with the idea of this man who can't be held accountable for when he becomes violent to then being like, well, maybe we should have some kind of safeguard against it happening for no reason, or he might be a little bit less likable. And then they're like, no, let's just have him be the angry guy all the time. What does it say about the direction we're going in?

Also, what a big difference between like 80s TV Hulk and 2000s Marvel film Hulk. Because when I was a kid, the Hulk was just kind of like a strong green guy with a kind of pronounced brow. That was the gist of the TV Hulk. But then the Hulk in the movies is enormous and indefatigable. Yeah. And I just prefer, I'd prefer a more vulnerable Hulk. You want a Hulk that needs to like go to a human bathroom. That's another thing that's never addressed. That's another thing that's never addressed. How big are those Hulk shits?

Why would they be bigger? Because he's bigger. But what's the stuff? He never eats his Hulk. What I love is I think there were predictions like 15 years ago that our generation, when we got older, all of our back in my days would be about comic books and we are proving them right. I just fundamentally, this is a problem in the Marvel universe. This is a problem in the DC universe with Superman. This is a problem in The Boys, a show that Ronan and I are currently watching.

And I'm constantly saying to Ronan, can we please watch The Boys? And he says, no, I don't want to watch The Boys right now. But... You watch The Boys. I want to watch The Boys. Let's watch The Boys. I don't know how you're saying it. I'm just saying let's watch The Boys.

Okay. You're hearing something that I'm not putting out there, but. Okay. Rob Schneider. Superheroes, the Hulk, Thor, the supercharged Superman, a Homelander. They're constantly doing all kinds of stuff. They should just be turning a fucking crank. They are perpetual motion machines.

It would be so much more valuable if they just got up every day and just went like this to power a turbine. Yeah. And for those listening at home, I'm running a crank. He's doing, yeah, the crank like in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Yeah, the Unbreakable. But think about the good Superman could do for the environment if he just got up every day and generated some carbon neutral electricity. Incredible. Right. Incredible. We don't need him running around the city, stopping impoverished people from snatching purses in order to survive. Yeah. I'm not saying we shouldn't have systems in place to stop purse snatching. We're not pro-purse snatching.

No, but... But of all the uses of an alien from a distant planet with superhuman powers and the ability to lift airplanes, it seems like petty crime should not be the focus. Lay the tracks for a light rail system across the United States. What are you doing fighting crime? Yeah, light rail, infrastructure. Repair some of our roads and bridges.

Also this week, Facebook announced a new, more aggressive ban on QAnon posts. This is a proposal from Facebook's global vice president for putting the toothpaste back in the tube. And this week, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas wrote an opinion calling to overturn the court's recent ruling in Oberfeld v. Hodges, which established a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. If a 6-3 right-wing court overturns marriage right when it's safe to have big gay weddings again, we will add justices to that court. Emily, gay people know a thing or two about fitting in 11 when there was previously only room for nine. I'm proud of that one.

Oh, yeah. And I think if you're someone who's listening to this and you don't understand that joke, I say don't bother looking it up. If you've gotten to this point in your life not knowing things like that, you probably don't want to know. Well, I would also say,

tough thing to suss out by looking it up. You're going to have to ask a friend. I don't know what you're googling. Don't ask someone who would know to explain it to you either. You know what? Disregard Emily's advice. Get to the bottom of it. Yeah. Be curious about the world. And finally, let's talk about the other big news this week. The vice presidential debate between Senator Kamala Harris and an early 1990s Republican who was told he could come out of his cage if he memorized 20 sentences. Mike Pence. The best moment of the debate came early when they talked about coronavirus and Kamala said this. Whatever the vice president is claiming the administration has done, clearly it hasn't worked.

When you're looking at over 210,000 dead bodies in our country. Pence responded, I prefer to see it as 210,000 angels looking down from heaven and thinking I didn't want to see 10 it anyway. It was a very uncomfortable debate. Yeah. I didn't like watching it at all. It is, of course, obviously true that in some sense it was more civil than the debate between Trump and Joe Biden. Like if the word civil means anything, of course, Donald Trump was interrupting, debased the entire proceeding, didn't follow the rules. It was more mature.

It was more mature. that it wasn't less vulgar because otherwise that is accepting the idea that lying with more tact is in some sense, in any sense, more appropriate than lying while shouting, lying while being aggressive, lying while being macho. You know, like Mike Pence being a more effective, in some sense, liar or being a more live and smooth liar doesn't make it a more disgraceful or debased debate. Ultimately. Yes. It was less.

He's slimy. Loud. He doesn't have the spikes on him, but he's still slimy and it's still a slime that can poison and kill you. Yeah. Like there's this type of caterpillar that's been seen in like the DC metro area that traditionally had come from further south. And it looks like an adorable little hairy caterpillar. Like it's almost cute, like a little cousin it. But if you touch it, it's toxic and it feels like your hand

is burning. Yes. I don't really know how to make the analogy connect, but you see what I'm getting at. It's a little bit too flattering of a comparison for Pence, but I get it. Yeah, no, he was like so unresponsive and it was so frustrating to watch as someone who like understands when someone's answering the question that's being asked. And then he tried to accuse her of not answering questions when it was like, you literally spent the time you were supposed to spend on answering a question on asking her a different question. Like you don't get to act like she's the one not answering. And it was also like you could sense how hard it was for her to contain her frustration when it's like

you're literally debating someone who's wearing like a blood-covered apron with like blood on their hands trying to decide who's a deadlier person. And it's like, why do I even have to explain it? Right. Well, that's that's that's such a good way to put it. Right. Well, like, you know, the idea of a presidential debate or vice presidential debate is predicated on the idea that we are in a marketplace of ideas in which two competing visions for the country compete in a level playing field to discern for the American people who has the best vision for the future. That's, of course, not what's going on here. There is no cogent argument. There is no real case for Mike Pence and Donald Trump. It doesn't exist. There's a

propaganda case. There is enough rot in the system that they hope they can use that propaganda and mistrust and deception to overwhelm ordinary politics, overwhelm democracy. But it really does come into stark relief during the actual debate itself because this is pretend. Mike Pence is not going to actually be able to articulate a legitimate argument for the candidacy of Donald Trump. One doesn't exist. He spent the week being a contagious steroid-addled person spreading conspiracy theories and misinformation about the ongoing pandemic they failed to contain. There's no debate here. It's pretend. No. After Kamala insisted she would trust science on the vaccine over Donald Trump, Mike Pence said this.

So the fact that you continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine is unconscionable. And Senator, I just ask you, stop playing politics with people's lives. Yeah, that's our job. The idea of Mike Pence putting on that fucking self-righteous, smug, defeated tone. He's just so sad to see politics interfering with public health when he got Trump on the White House lawn being like,

I got the cure, it's Regeneron. And finally, on climate change, Mike Pence said this. You know, what's remarkable is the United States has reduced CO2 more than the countries that are still in the Paris Climate Accord, but we've done it through innovation. In fact, thanks to the Trump administration, over 210,000 Americans are now completely carbon neutral. And finally, Pence repeatedly tried to interrupt Kamala Harris, but she shut him down real quick when she said this. And I want to add, Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking.

I have to weigh in. I'm speaking. Emily, I guess we have to add two more names to the list of women that Mike Pence will not let finish. That's the last joke. That's the last debate joke. We're not going to talk about the fly? I mean, I didn't really have anything left to say.

I felt like it was pretty well-mind. Do you have any thoughts about the fly? Well, it puts me in mind of something that's been on my mind a lot recently, which is just pest control. Oh, no. Which is an issue in the garden as on the debate stage. Puts me in mind of something that's been on my mind a lot recently, which is just pest control. Oh, no. Which is an issue in the garden as on the debate stage. Thought we'd gotten out of it. Let's roll the theme song, baby, for Emily's Garden Show.

It's Emily's Garden Show. For the garden things you need to know. If you want tax oil, she's your good boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Out with it. Out with right. Out with it. Out with it. Out with it. Emily's Garden Show.

So excited. I guess. It's happening. Yeah. Make it quick. Make it snappy. Okay. Well, first of all, that's not the attitude I want from you going into this.

Okay. And I've been thinking about how to improve this segment because unlike you, I'm a professional. And I realized, okay, we've got a big election coming up. That's right. We do. And you care about that, right? I really do. You want Biden to win.

I do. Really desperately. OK. Well, I have in my hands, take a screenshot right now guys hundreds of letters to swing state voters and these letters could go in the mail or they could go straight into

the trash. Well don't do that. And it's up to you John Lovett where they go. If you want them to go into the trash go ahead keep talking shit about Emily's Garden Show. This is ransom. But if you want these to go into the trash, go ahead, keep talking shit about Emily's Garden Show. This is ransom. But if you want these to go in the mail, you are going to have an engaged, interested conversation with me about my garden.

Okay. And this is what I'm doing to save the country right now. This is Emily's Garden vote is happening right now. So you're telling me that if I don't play along with this godforsaken segment, you're going to throw those letters to the trash. Could cost us the election. Yeah, it could be the tipping point. All right. And it's like, you've won. You've won. You've won this round. You've won this round. Here we go. I'm going to do my absolute best. Okay. And I want you to know, all right, this is not willing. This is forced. There is a loaded box of mail being held to my head, but I'm going to do it.

Are you ready, Emily? Okay. Yeah. And we can just edit out that part. Great. Emily, I'm so excited. Tell me more about your garden. Well, we are falling into fall over here.

We may have another heat snap headed our way into zone 10B next week, but that hasn't stopped me from getting a head start on my lettuces, my arugula, and I've even got some Brussels sprouts in the ground. I've got some broccoli going. My garden must be having an identity crisis because it's like winter vegetables. I'm still making zucchini and cucumber over here. Oh. So what do you think about that? I think that's zucchini. how am i doing what do

you think about uh pest control what do you know about neem oil are you interested in hearing more about neem oil i'm a big fan of roundup that seems bad i'm a huge fan of the the product from the company monsanto known as roundup. I think just hit it with that. Just get it with some Roundup. John, I got to say, I don't recommend that, especially for edible gardeners. This is not a good move. You want to use something that's slightly more organic. Some people actually bring in ladybugs to eat their aphids.

What do you think about that? ladybugs to eat their aphids. What do you think about that? I think it was a kind of one of the sweeter and less vulgar films that Rodney Dangerfield ever made. Okay. It's clear to me that this is not going how I hoped it would. I feel like I'm going to throw these in the trash. Don't throw them in the trash. Okay. What do I need to listen? Emily, please don't throw those letters in the trash. I don't think that that's right. I think that you should put them in the mail to those swing state voters. It could make all the difference. This thing could be close. It could be close. All right. Okay. Can't trust the polls. All right. These are swing state voters. We need those votes. Tell me what I got to do. Tell me what I got to do to save those letters. I want you to sing the

song. I sent you some revised lyrics. If I sing the song, you'll send it. These letters are going straight into the mailbox. Okay. Okay. Okay. Do you have the new lyrics? Yeah, I have them. All right, let's hear it. Ba, ba, ba.

Here we go. I was counting you in. I don't want that. Okay. Here we go. It's Emily's garden vote. From asparagus to artichokes. When I want to talk soil, she's my goyle.

It's Emily's Garden Vote. What's next? What's the next? Yeah. That's it? I'm John Lovett and you gotta know I love Emily's Garden Show. Nothing has ever been so good as Emily's Garden Vote. Yes!

Can we put some... That's my new ringtone. Put some... Zhuzh that up. Put some echo on that bad boy. Put some melody under there. EmilysGardenVote.com You can go... Emilysgardenshow.com for more on how to get out the

vote via torturing john you can go right now to emilysgardenvote.com or emilysgardenshow.com type whatever you want into the bar and good things will happen and um and i'll send these letters which i feel guilty about this, but I should admit, these are not letters to swing state voters. Un-fucking-believable. This is just all fabulous for California Pizza Kitchen. Emily Heller.

They send me coupons and I write them letters. Emily Heller, a delight as always. If you want to help this weekend, you can go to emilysgardenshow.com to find out how. Yes. It is a delight, as always, to see you, despite my distaste for this segment. And yet somehow it seems to happen every time you're on. I can't seem to stop it.

When we come back, Senator Brian Schatz. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. He is the U.S. Senator from Hawaii. Please welcome back, returning champion, Senator Brian Schatz. Good to see you. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. I'm always happy to be here. So we had the VP debate last night into a day of ranting and raving from Trump. What was your response to the debate last night? And why do you think Trump immediately decided he would rather be the story?

I guess that's an easy one. Well, I'll start with the second one. I don't think he decides anything. I think it's a hole in his soul that causes him to try to get attention. You know, any attention is better than no attention, even if it's negative attention for him. But Kamala did really well. And I wasn't as overconfident as others were, because I saw, I remember the Pence-Kane debates, and I served both with Tim and Kamala. And Tim's really impressive and a good debater and a very likable person, super knowledgeable. But Mike Pence has this kind of way about him that allows him to kind of slither through these moments, seeming slightly less crazy than his actual policy and record. And Kamala just wasn't standing for it. Now, what Kamala had in her favor that Tim Kaine didn't is the facts are so bad for the Trump administration that just laying them bare in a systematic fashion puts you way ahead in any debate. And I think she very skillfully navigated the difficulty of a person like Mike Pence trying to throw her off her game, trying to get her

irritated. And she was extraordinary. She really kicked his ass. It was a pleasure to see. With Pence specifically, there's this challenge, you know, the word gaslight, I think, has been run into the ground. But with him specifically, there really is a kind of coolness and calmness that is predicated on the idea that Donald Trump just doesn't exist. You know, he's there. He's going to represent his views. You know, we need civility. Trump's got broad shoulders. It's just sort of a kind of an alternate reality. And I do think even now it is still a challenge. I think she did a masterful job throughout that debate. But it is very hard to make a case against somebody who is constantly

lying, not lying, of course, but not just lying, right? It's not just lying. It's lying and shaking his head and saying, that's ridiculous. Yeah. That it's not just that you're not telling the truth is that you're being ridiculous by even suggesting something so obscene. Yeah. And I remember he did it to Tim. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of a smirk and that's not true. And kind of a, there you go again, kind of thing. And in the battle of facial expressions, Kamala Harris won. And those of us who serve with her, I think know that face, right? Sometimes we'll be at a, you know, a caucus lunch, and some of one of my colleagues may say something, and we'll just sort of shoot a knowing glance at each other. I mean, her eyes really speak volumes.

And there were a couple of moments where, I mean, I know Anderson Cooper was saying last night that he sometimes turns the sound off and watches a debate. And if you did it that way, you would say Kamala won. I think Kamala won on points. I think she won on style. I think she won on substance and she won on the facts. It was an actual blowout. I think the only reason it doesn't feel like a bigger blowout is last week was like the bottom dropping out and the most catastrophic performance of any presidential candidate, you know, in recent memory, so that just a, you know, 60-40 blowout doesn't feel as significant. And it might even feel like a sort of minor moral victory for the other side. But Kamala did what she came to do, and she did it very well.

I actually want to move beyond the debate, because this is something that they've been doing for a long time, on the issue of choice and on the issue of health care. Pence dodged the question, right? The question, and apparently Susan Page wasn't allowed to ask, follow-ups, pre-existing conditions, what would you do if Roe v. Wade was repealed? In both cases, he didn't want to say the answer. And it seems to me that they are counting on the idea that their actual position is so anathema to most Americans that most Americans don't actually believe that could be their position, that it can't really be their position to throw the

entire healthcare system into chaos by overturning the Affordable Care Act in courts and having no replacement. It can't really be their position that they not only want Roe v. Wade overturned, but they want to criminalize abortion across the country. How do you make that case? How do you really drive home that they really have taken these incredibly unpopular and politically dangerous and on policy grounds, dangerous positions? Yeah, I think it's a super important question, at least for all of us who are trying to persuade people in the next three weeks to vote for the Democrats, because sometimes the truth makes us sound like we're sort of lunatics, right? Like American democracy at stake, they're going to take away your rights. They are. However, it is very important if you're going to engage in a dialogue with someone who may lean conservative but have his or her reservations about Trump or people I know who just don't want to admit what's at stake because it would require them to do more. with these folks, because starting with the kind of level of sort of frenzied, panicked anxiety

that a lot of us actually feel, and we think it is absolutely justified, is just not a good persuasive technique, right? So I always say, you know, how do you describe what's happening accurately and not sound like you're standing outside a revolution bookstore in Puxalli in Honolulu talking about, you know, how we need to overthrow the government. I mean, but it's really happening. And I think, especially with healthcare, we have an opportunity to make the case that this really is happening. The number of times they voted to overturn the Affordable Care Act, and the fact that they're in federal court to do just that on November 10th, that they admit to it, I think, is where we should all land because it motivates our base to turn out.

But it's also a deeply unpopular thing for the Republicans to do, even within Republican circles. Nobody really wants to admit that they're doing that. Now, John Cornyn in Texas is running an ad talking about how he's going to protect pre-existing conditions. And I will tell you, I'm not an ad guy, but it sounded so tinny. I watched the ad and I was like, I don't know. I feel like it's a little too late for that. And I don't believe that you're going to fool very many people with a sort of last minute, oh yeah, me too. I'm with the Democrats on this. I appreciate that on the Affordable Care Act. But there is this challenge on issues related to just preserving our democracy, on issues related to the unfitness of Trump as a person. You pointed this out on Twitter. I thought

it was a really good point that basically what made Trump returning to the White House, waving from the balcony, putting these people at risk, was that it was such a purified, worse version of Trump, right? He was directly putting people in harm's way directly to make himself look and feel better. How do we talk about, it's a little bit like the pandemic to me in that the precautions you take to prevent a pandemic look like overkill if they work. Stopping Trump, saving our democracy looks like overkill if it works. How are you finding the best way to talk about these issues, about the authoritarian impulse that we see, the fact that Mike Pence

refuses to say that they will support a peaceful transfer of power? How do you make that politically valuable when it's so important? You know, look, I don't spend a lot of time on this in the next three weeks for the following reason. I think if you're not persuadable by all of these authoritarian actions, then it's probably not the issue that was going to move you. I think it's very important to look at recent history in terms of Italian fascist elected dictators and the way that they were finally beaten was with populist economic issues. And so the reasons that it may be foundationally important to oust Donald Trump may not be exactly the same reasons that are going to be focusing on the fact especially that Mitch McConnell has found the time to rush through Amy Coney Barrett in order to overturn the Affordable Care Act, but hasn't taken up COVID relief legislation since I think late April, early May. are important, but you also have to meet people where they are. And where they are is usually trying to survive this moment for their family, for their business, and for themselves. And so you need to meet them at that point and not get into, have you read Madeleine Albright's book

about fascism, right? That's for this podcast. Honestly, that was in my Pennsylvania phone banking to swing voters. That was my first question. It was, do you have a plan to vote? And have you read Fascism by Madeleine Albright? Well, actually, no, I take that point. I think that's right. I actually do think, though, after this election, looking back, I do think we need to have a conversation about why the actual democracy itself, the values of democracy itself, aren't important in terms of persuading people, that how do we elevate those in people's minds? But I agree, we have 25 days. You brought up the Supreme Court battle. There's been two parts of the debate. One is just,

what are the tactics we use to slow it down? What are the bare-knuckle tactics we use to stop it? The other is, how do we engage, right? Do we legitimize the process but ask tough questions, or do we refuse to be part of the process and refuse to recognize it? I want to take each one. So first, what is your view as the best way to engage in this confirmation fight in these hearings? What do you want to see members of the Senate in the Democratic caucus do? Well, I sort of briefly contemplated saying, look, Democrats should not give legitimacy to this process. We should walk out and all the rest of it. And the truth is, members of the Judiciary Committee said, I will not do that. There's a Supreme Court confirmation here. I'm going to

hold these people to account. I'm not going to abdicate my rule. And fair enough, right? But in any case, that's the kind of thing you can only do with unanimity, right? You can't be like seven of you walking out and the other 40 are there. It just doesn't work. So we're in. And whether you meet with Amy Coney Barrett is like a sort of signal to certain people paying close attention, but mostly it's not the issue. I want us to focus on health care.

I want us to focus on the fact that Ted Cruz and others have specifically said it is important to install a justice in order to settle any election disputes. I mean, that is deeply, deeply alarming. And I think we absolutely have to focus on a woman's right to choose because to your original question, people don't think choice is really going to be taken away. going to be taken away. And yet that's exactly what's going to happen. These people are absolutely committed to taking away women's reproductive choice. They're going to do it as a matter of constitutional law. Now we have recourse at the state level and maybe even in the, in the federal government at the statutory level, but that's actually what's going to happen. One area I think we should steer clear of for both moral and political reasons is I don't want to interrogate anybody's faith in any way. I think it's morally bankrupt and I think it's politically stupid. So we need to stay away from that and be a little bit more disciplined as members of the Senate

about sort of what are our lines of attack and not just following our own muse and our own curiosity and our own, you know, sort of need to make a name for ourselves. Oh, well, good luck with that. When you crack that one. Yeah. But yeah, it's also, I think, worth pointing out, too, that on choice, this isn't theoretical in a lot of states where they've put in place draconian restrictions, where there are already millions of people who have been denied access to family planning and reproductive health care. Yes.

So the other piece of this is about the ability to use Senate procedure. And, you know, there was this moment where Chuck Schumer called for a cloture vote and everyone said, I didn't realize he was allowed to do that. Why isn't he doing that all the time? And I sometimes find when I'm paying, I'm a reasonably attentive watcher of Congress. And sometimes I discover that there are rules and powers that Senate Democrats have that I didn't realize they have. And I wonder why they weren't being used all along. What are the tools at Democrats' disposal and how effective do you think they can be in giving us a chance of pushing the nomination fight past the election?

So this is so boring that you might not cut it out of this podcast, but- Challenge accepted. Boring that you might not cut it out of this podcast. Challenge accepted. The problem here is that, listen, everybody knows we're going to do everything we can or should know that we're going to do everything we can to delay this process. But it actually is unwise for us to announce the specific tactics because they have counter tactics. They have things they can do.

They have procedures they can avail themselves of. But suffice it to say, we will leave no stone unturned in terms of delaying the process. Whether or not we will be successful in delaying it beyond the election, I don't know. That remains to be seen in the sort of scuffle of those moments. I will add, though, that one of the most likely scenarios in terms of it being delayed is simply that Republicans can't muster a quorum because of their exposure to coronavirus. So it is very important. One of the most important things that the 47 Democrats plus Democratic leaning independents can do in the United States Senate is not get coronavirus. I mean, I know that

sounds kind of a silly thing, but we have to be 47 strong so that we can either withhold a quorum or beat them on the floor vote. Wow. Let's see if you put that in the pod. I'm very curious. It's staying in. It is staying in. I'm interested. Everybody at home is interested. Do you have some supervisor who gets to make the call? No, I'm my own boss. Oh, okay. All right, it's in. Last question for you, and thank you so much for your time. People are listening. They've donated to our Get Mitch Fund. They've adopted a state.

What is the most helpful thing you think people should be directing their energy to right now in the homestretch? We've got 24 days left. What Senate races do you want them focused on that they may not be focused on? Where do you want them to spend their time? Mike Espy in Mississippi. This thing is close. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is an incumbent, but an appointed incumbent and not a very energetic campaigner, I think raised $200,000 last quarter. Mike Espy is surging. That's a race that is still underfunded on our side. MJ Hagar in Texas, for the same reason she's surging, Biden just dropped $7 million into

Texas. And I think it's a serious play for Texas. And Beto and Julian and Joaquin Castro and sort of Texas Democrats are really taking this quite seriously. And the thing about Texas is there's no point at which we have enough money for Texas, right? There are other races where, you know, Amy McGrath has enough money, right? Mark Kelly probably has enough money. MJ Hagar really doesn't have enough money. Those are the two races that I find most intriguing. I would add Barbara Bollier is very important. And I'm forgetting the website, but

the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has a place to sign up to do voter protection. And this is something you can do in person if you feel comfortable with it, and as long as the protocols are observed. But there's also a bottomless need for volunteers who can work the phones and just read from a script and walk people through their voter protection rights. It might be as simple as, say, 24 hours after most of the ballots are counted, we find that there are 3,000 ballots that need to be cured. Another, there's some technical problem with a ballot, but they only have 24 hours to go into the precinct

and fix it. So we need an army of volunteers to call those people and to walk them through the process so that their vote is counted and valid. There are a lot of people who are going to want to have something to do over that two or three day period rather than just refresh Twitter and watch television. So I'd very much encourage everybody, if you're tapped out money wise, to sign up to be a voter protection volunteer. You don't need any specific skill other than being able to talk to folks on the phone. And if you want to sign up to do that voter protection work, one way you can do it is by going to votesaveamerica.com slash protect, and you can sign up right now to volunteer. We need the help. Senator Brian Schatz, thank you so much for your time. So good to talk to you and stay healthy and keep those 46 of your pals healthy. All right. No bobbing for apples, no trick or treating. All right. Thanks, John.

No bobbing for apples. No trick-or-treating. All right. Thanks, John. We come back, a segment on phone banking, the highs, the lows, and what happens when a listener calls Josh Gad. Who is it alive? Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way.

And we're back. Look, here at Vote Save America, we ask a lot of you. We've asked you to adopt a state. We've asked you to donate. we ask a lot of you. We've asked you to adopt a state. We've asked you to donate. We've asked you to volunteer. We've asked you to follow Travis Helwig on Instagram. No, no, we didn't. Don't do that. And so many of you have signed up. 300,000 of you have adopted a state. We've raised almost 30 million to win the Senate and millions more to fight vote suppression, flip state legislatures and keep the house. But some of you, let's face it, are stragglers. For example, some of you could be phone banking, but you're nervous to take that first step. You're afraid

to get yelled at. You're afraid you'll screw it up. You're afraid you'll fall in love with a baritone outside Pittsburgh who can't talk long because he's busy doing pushups and baking pies for neighborhood seniors before heading back to the firehouse. The truth is, you'll get a bunch of hangups. You'll get a few genuinely inspiring and helpful conversations. And yes, it's true, one or two bad interactions. But once it happens, you'll realize it's no big deal. It's fine. Some good calls, a few humdingers, and you did your part.

And you'll be glad you did. So now it's time for a segment we call Talk to Strangers to Save Democracy or Explain to Friends Why You Didn't. And we have a very special guest here to show us various ways these calls can go. Please welcome the star of the hit series, 1600 Penn, and absolutely nothing else, Josh Gad. Thanks, John. It's been a dry spell since we did that show about a decade ago. Thanks for bringing me back into the limelight. I appreciate it, bud.

Oh, I just like to help my friends, you know, get you some exposure. Yeah, I'm so grateful. I'm hoping for a reboot, you know, all of Roseanne that we can, we can get the whole crew back together. You know, I've said this before, but if, if Trump hadn't become president, I'd be just a writer on some uncontroversial Roseanne reboot. That's what I'd be doing right now. We'd be on season two.

Maybe John Goodman would start a business. Yeah, just think, America. That could all be yours two months from now. If things go the way we want them to go, John can still have that fate. We can deliver that. still have that fate we can deliver that it's uh it is so surreal to be here together after all of these years of begging you to be on love it or leave it begging i mean literally like tracking you down at parties and being like do you not like me you don't want me on the show did i upset you by not getting us a season two pickup, even though that was outside of my control?

Like, what's your problem? Why are you a dick? I want you to know that I knew that this was coming. And I said, I'm so excited to have Josh on. This is going to be the perfect thing. But we just all need to understand I'm going to have to eat some shit. Yeah, that's the price I pay. So here's how it's going to work.

Josh is going to play our undecided voter receiving a call from a phone bank. Can we let Isabel in to the into the Zoom? I love that you are too lazy to call her by her full name, Isabella, and just decided to drop the A. Isabella. Hi. Welcome. You're on with John. You're on with John. You're also here with Josh Gadd. Hi, Isabella hi welcome you're on with John you're on with John you're also here with Josh Gad hi Isabella Josh Gad you don't know this we have a picture together from when I saw you in Book of

Mormon at the high schooler I had a picture of me and Josh Gad in my room I just need to get that I'm so sorry love oh I'm so grateful I'm so grateful great to again. Isabella, I like it when the excitement is directed at me. John Lovett. John Lovett, you're the first man I've put on makeup for in probably longer than the pandemic. Wow. And just lost on me. Isabella, thank you so much for doing this. So you've graciously agreed to be our phone banker.

All right. Here's how it's going to work. We're trying to show people that phone banking is kind of fun. And yeah, sometimes the calls are great. Sometimes they're kind of just okay. Sometimes people can be a little rude sometimes. But it's okay because that's the goal. You're going to make as many calls as you can and get to some good voters.

And sometimes you've got to deal with some bad calls. And it's going to be fine. So today, Josh Gad has graciously agreed to play the person you're going to call. We have a script. You have a script in front of you. All right, you're going to make three calls, one about health care, one about the economy, one about criminal justice reform. We've given you a script, but your job is really just to kind of have a conversation, to let this person know some of the great policies that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have, to make sure they know why it's so important that they turn out to vote. Sometimes when you phone bank, it's about getting

out the vote. Sometimes it's about local issues. This is just a demonstration. So we thought we'd use the Biden-Harris platform. You have the script. You have the prompts. Josh will be the person you're calling. We're not sure how it's going to go. Isabella, that's the thing. You got to just convince them. Just convince me. That's all you got to do. Okay. Are you ready, Isabella? Okay. Call number one is about healthcare. And Isabella, if you have any questions, if you want to phone a friend, I'm here. Okay? Okay.

Call number one. Hi, my name is Isabella and I'm calling on behalf of the Democrats. And I was just wondering if you currently have a plan to vote. Do you want me to vote? Yeah. Like you even know what that word means? Yeah. No one will a plan to vote. Do you want me to vote? Yeah. Like you even know what that word means? Yeah. No one will explain it to me. Well, as you may or may not be aware, we have an election coming. I'm not aware. We have an election coming up for president in November.

Got it. This November? This November, yeah. November 3rd. Okay. And voting has already started. There's already in-person early voting. I don't know what state you're in. What state are you in, Josh? I'm in a state of boredom right now because you're really boring me with this talk about elections and stuff. Here's the deal is I'm watching a rerun of last night's basketball game. Okay.

And so I sort of, I guess, why don't you tell me a little bit about like, who are the guys who are on the ballot? Okay, well, I know an issue a lot of people are voting on and feeling really passionately about is healthcare. And so the two people I'm going to stop you there. So I don't really, I don't believe in the concept of being sick. Now, when you say healthcare, are you talking Tylenol, preparation aids? What are we talking about exactly? Really all of the above. So Joe Biden is- I'm sorry. I'm so busy right now filling out forms for my medical debt. I do not have time for this. Well, that's really great because Joe Biden has a health care plan that's really comprehensive. Here's the deal. Cheryl,

is it, or Tammy? It's in the law or Tammy? So all these politicians are the same. You know, one wants to give me COVID. The other probably does too, right? I know a lot of people feel that way. Hey, stop. Stop. Stop talking for a second. Let me ask you some questions. First of all, what is voting? So voting is a way for us to have a say in our government. And we get to choose the president. We get to vote for him. Okay. You don't have to tell me about politics.

Yeah. Barack Obama follows my wife on Twitter. Wow. Well, did you know Joe Biden, who's running for president? Listen, listen, I'm going to be honest with you. I just got out of the shower. I'm on a wet ass phone call. But I noticed earlier to be honest with you. I just got out of the shower. I'm on a wet-ass phone call. But I noticed earlier you talked about medical debt.

And I wanted to let you know that Joe Biden and his plan wants to end surprise medical bills. Right. I'm calling it. I'm calling it. That was a huge success. Huge success. Yeah, it felt like she really convinced him. You pushed through.

You pushed through. It was a hostile call. You pushed through. You pushed through. It was a hostile call. You pushed through. You got out some health care information. You made a connection because Barack Obama both follows this person's wife on Twitter and was the president when Joe Biden was the vice president. And you got him to think about making a plan to vote despite a hostile call. We're calling it a win. By the way, I think it is a win. And I just want to say I'm very curious who his wife is now.

I want to know more about this character's arc and what his wife did to earn the respect of Barack Obama. Well, and about his friends. And about his friends, yeah. The guys they like. I'm interested. Yeah. Retreat.

Time for call number two, Isabella. This call is about economic issues. Hi, my name is Isabella and I'm calling from the Biden-Karis campaign. Hello. Hi, how are you doing? Good, good, good, good. I want to also talk to you because I keep researching. Is it possible for me to vote for both of these guys? They both seem like they work so hard. Wow. Well, great question. I'm happy you've been engaged in the democratic process. No, no, no, no. Not engaged. Married for 15 years now. Oh my gosh. Congratulations. Thank you. Second wife.

Twice removed. Wow. Well, congratulations. But so unfortunately, it's not possible to vote for two people. But so I'm here to talk to you a little bit about Joe Biden. I'm calling from the Biden-Harris campaign. The white one, the 90-year-old? The Biden-Harris campaign?

Joe Biden? Ah, Biden, Biden, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, he was Barack Obama's vice president. You might have heard of him. You might have seen, you know, some stuff on the news. Do you have a plan to vote right now? Yeah, I want to do it. You want to do it?

Do you know how you're going to do it? I'm going to do it by voting. That's really awesome. Are you planning to go in person? No, no, no, no. You know, my wife and I don't want to die. That's, you know, that's totally understandable. I know a lot of us have concerns about COVID right now.

So are you planning to, have you requested a mail-in ballot? No, no, no. Well, you know, I said to my wife, we should get one. Yeah. No, I think that's really, that's really smart. Well, I don't know if you've heard of votesaveamerica.com. I don't know of any.com, but I know about taxes. What you can tell me about tax reform?

Oh my gosh, well, thank you so much for bringing that up. Can you check to see when my refund is coming? Well, I don't know if I can help you with that, but I can tell you a little bit about Joe Biden. He wants to raise taxes, higher taxes on the 1% and big corporations. Which percent is that? Am I in this? I've never been good at math. Well, I don't know. I don't have access to your income, but he also has a plan to expand rent subsidies for low income families. I don't know. I don't know what those are. But listen, I ask you this.

What's stopping me from getting rich? Maybe one day my my music career can take off. I do cover that. That is really and that sounds really cool. I love Abba. I'm a big fan of Mamma Mia. But, you know, maybe until then, one thing Joe Biden really wants is he's pushing for a $15 federal minimum wage. You know, I'm not sure about the Joe Biden. I loved him in Goodfellas and Home Alone. He's a little short guy with the Italian accent. But does he really have what it takes to be president? You know, I think that when you look at Joe Biden's policies, you see a lot of really great things.

He supports equal pay for women. Right, right, right. But won't Joe Biden's socialist agenda damage the economy? I read on Facebook that Joe Biden is in fact the famous Marxist revolutionary and guerrilla leader, Ernesto Che Guevara.

And I also read he eats babies. Well, I know there's a lot of information on Facebook. And I know some of it's reliable and some of it's not. What I do know is that Joe Biden has plans to expand the child tax credit as proposed in the third act. I'm calling it. I'm calling it. I'm calling it. Here's the thing what i loved about what i just heard is about 15 seconds in josh decided he was a very old jew then 30 seconds in yeah he realized he'd been married for 15 years which was not

enough time second wife though second that's what came next second wife twice removed which i also loved right and i and i and isabella pivoted. She did. She steered you away from Facebook misinformation. She related to you. She didn't laugh when you said that you were an old doing an ABBA cover. She said, she said to me, you know, the things that you've heard about him being shade Rivera and eating babies, those are just not true. And I appreciated that because I needed to hear that in order not to believe it. Yeah. That's fair. As a voter, I don't know how to fact check that information unless you call me. So that was helpful. It's hard. All right. Isabella, you are crushing it. All right. You're bringing in a bunch of outsiders. This is, I have to say, the hardest task we've ever given to anybody.

You have to know policy. You have to deal with this maniac all right final and you're crushing it his music career all right it is your final call he's an old jew who's worried about doesn't know if he's in the one percent he's on his second marriage yeah he's a florida guy who knows if they're in the one%? How would you know? By the way, I'm not going to lie, Isabella. I actually did phone bank and got a guy that inspired the impression I just did for you.

That is a true story. That's so cool. Wow. Final call. All right. Let's see what version of a phone bank recipient Isabella gets this time. I'm very excited. This call is about criminal justice. All right, Isabella, this time. I'm very excited. This call is about criminal justice. All right, Isabella, it's your last call. Let's close the deal.

Let's get this done. Right. Here we go. Hi, my name is Isabella and I'm calling from the Biden-Karis campaign. My God, my God, my God, my God. Actually, how can I convince you to vote? My gosh, yeah, no. So I'm already planning on voting. I'm planning on voting early in person. How are you planning on voting? Planning on voting with both fingers on the trigger,

a mask on the face, one of those face shields covering my eyes, and the most badass plastic cover I can fit my body into. What was that? You want to talk about criminal justice reform? Yes. Yes. Oh, my gosh.

I love justice and I love criminals. And I need to know more. Yes. Absolutely. Okay. So what do you do? Know anything about the Biden-Harris criminal justice reform plan? Is there anything I don't know about the Biden-Harris criminal justice plan?

Oh, my gosh. It's so exciting to get to talk with someone so excited to vote. It's so exciting to be listened to and to hear someone else who also wants to vote as badly as I do. Absolutely. Did you know that Biden and Harris are planning to decriminalize marijuana? I'm just going to make this simple for you. There's nothing that can come out of your mouth with the words Biden and Harris that I don't already know. But listen, here's the deal. I want to vote for Biden. I've always wanted to vote for Biden, even before this year. But I just needed someone to call me on the phone and ask me to, to say, vote for Biden. Well, I'm here. I'm here.

And I'm happy to be chatting. No, I'm just messing. I didn't need that. I'm just teasing. I'm as jazzed as you are. I just ran up the wall in American Ninja Warrior, rang the bell and received this call. And I'm all in. I'm listening. That's so incredible. Did you know that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have a plan to eliminate private prisons and the death penalty? Yes! And cash bail. Isn't that... Can I tell you what I do? I just take calls from unknown callers all day, hoping that they too support Biden Harris. And this is like the start of a friendship

that I think can go on beyond November 3rd. I'm hoping, and I'm just putting together a list of people. So if you could give me your social security name and address, I would love to see where this friendship goes. Really awesome. I'm calling it. I'm calling it. I'm calling it. That's it. That's a vote. We're going to call that a vote. Yeah, that's about Isabella convinced. What an incredible job showing people that phone banking. Sometimes people are a little bit hostile. Sometimes they don't know what's going on. Sometimes they're super fun and enthusiastic. And you make a friend who asks for too personal of an information,

types of information. That'll happen. That'll happen. But it was a nice person who was talking to you about how exciting it was to vote. Isabella, thank you so much for being on the show. You did such a great job showing people how to phone bank. John Lovett, I need to tell you something that I don't know. So I am, I'm a PhD student. I'm getting my PhD in chemistry. And I just think that you at Crooked Media don't know how much of science you power because like everyone I know who works in a lab, all we do all day is listen to podcasts.

That's all we do. We power science. You power science. And I feel like you don't like give yourselves enough credit. Like I'm studying hepatitis B and like, basically I just like, I'm waiting every day on Monday when I'm like pipetting my asses, like,

okay, like when's the new pod safe going to drop? I'm so bored. Like, can I ask you a question? Is anyone in the medical community inspired by 1600 pen as well or frozen or anything like that? Did,

or did it not, you know, I have listened to Frozen in lab before. I'm not going to lie. And like done some singing to Frozen. Absolutely. So I would say, yeah. I don't know if I've ever watched TV or movies in lab. Yeah, I was hoping for a more direct connection like the one you gave, John.

But it's cool. It's cool. You know, yeah. I'm sorry, Josh. But we have the connection over the picture. Yes, we do. I feel like it's cool. It's cool. Yeah. I'm sorry, Josh, but we have the connection over the picture. Isabella don't indulge him. All right. Don't indulge him.

Thank you so much. Yes. I, and by the way, I don't know how you can listen to the show and think I don't give myself enough credit, but I'll, I understand. I understand what point you're making and Josh Gad. it was so wonderful to have you on the show.

We've been trying to get you on here for such a long time. The scheduling has been so difficult. You're constantly making Frozen movies. I tried to book you and then it's like, I can't. I got to go be Olaf. I'm shooting Avenue 5. I'm so busy, so busy, busy, busy. I would love to be on maybe next fall.

Oh, whoa. And to everybody listening, to everybody listening, you can sign up for a virtual phone bank right now. You can do it from your couch. You can do a bunch of other volunteering too. Just go to votesaveamerica.com slash volunteer. Isabella, wonderful. Josh, we'd love to have you back on next couple of years. Try to find out. Next couple of years. Yeah, totally. Totally. I can't wait to either do this together or from another country. It'll be great depending on the results of the 2020 election. Love you guys.

Bye, everybody. When we come back, let's end on a high note. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Because we all need it this week, here it is, the high notes submitted by our listeners. Hey, Levitt. This is Ashley calling from Ohio.

And my high note from this week was watching the lines for Franklin County and Hamilton County and all the Ohio counties just lined up with what looks like a billion people. And I think Ohio might be a swing state, but it was really encouraging to see. So have a good week. Hi, John. My high note of the week is that my sisters and I finally got my dad to register to vote and through social pressure, got his sisters to register. So my dad and my two aunts all will be voting for the first time ever for Biden. I am very excited and I'm very hopeful for the election and November 3rd. Bye. Hi, John. This is Holly from Glendale. My high note this week is I recently finished my tour of duty as a census enumerator, which I found surprisingly rewarding. And now I'm using my free time to make calls for Pennsylvania Democrats

to help Pennsylvania go back to being blue. By the way, phone banking is way easier than system knocking. Take care. Bye. Thanks to everybody who sent in those high notes. If you want to leave us a message about something that gave you hope, you can call us at 424-341-4193. There are 24 days left in this election. Sign up at votesaveamerica.com right now

to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, to keep the House, to win back the Senate, and to elect Democrats up and down the ballot. Thank you so much to Senator Brian Schatz, Josh Gad, and Emily Heller, and everyone who called in. Thank you to everyone out there volunteering, calling, texting, and donating, spending every waking moment trying to win this election.

24 days left. Let's win this fucking thing and have a great weekend. Thank you.