Lovett or Leave It - Rain of Terror

Episode Date: August 12, 2017

Todd Barry, Natalie Morales, and Dan Pfeiffer join Jon to discuss North Korea, the opioid crisis, McConnell v. Trump, immigration, and the rest of it. Recorded live at the Outside Lands Festival in SF.

Hey guys! I can't, you know, this is the part of the show where I look for merch. There we go. All right, good. Good, very good to see you. All right, we're working on it, guy, with the criticism of our retail policies. We're trying to fix it, all right? Stay tuned, okay?

Very soon. Yo, you tweeted at me. Oh, you're the one. Thank you guys for coming out. How many of you are here because you listened to Love It or Leave It how many of you are here because A Tribe Called Quest was delayed okay well hang in there guys alright let's bring out

our awesome panel first of all by the way it is great to be at Outside Lands. This is so cool. We have a fantastic panel. She is an actress and comedian in the upcoming film, Battle of the Sexes. Please welcome Natalie Morales. He is the co-host of Pod Save America and former senior advisor to President Obama, Dan Pfeiffer. He is a comedian, author of Thank You for Coming to Hattiesburg,

and host of a new special, The Crowd Work Tour, which is hilarious, Todd Barry. Hey, everybody. Hello. Hi, Todd. Hey, how are you? I didn't know you were famous. This is cool. Hey everybody Hello Hi Todd Hey how are you? I didn't know you were famous This is cool No it's pretty awesome

But podcast famous Which is not famous It's a very respectable sized crowd though I can't see anyone No they go all the way There might be no one here We don't know

Yeah I hear them It's a That's good I don't want. Yeah. I hear them. That's good. I don't want to brush your bubble. It's a laugh track. Oh, shit. Now, before we begin, Dan Pfeiffer, two things I wanted to comment on with you specifically. One, you have on your shirt something that says Popovich Care 2020. Who are those people? You may be the only one who doesn't know that.

Okay. So far today, I've explained to Lovett who Popovich is, who Kerr is, and who Tribe Called Quest is. No, no, no, no, no. That one was joking. So, short version is it says a lot about the state of the Democratic Party that I've gotten a lot of comments on a shirt that includes two NBA coaches as presidential candidates. Oh, they're NBA coaches? Yes.

One of them's from here. Oh, cool, cool, cool. And second, Dan, we were talking about this before. So you were senior advisor, communications director at the White House. You served for six years, which is roughly 2,000 days, which is 200 Scaramoochies. You served in the White House 200 times as long as he did. That's cool. You feel good about that? I feel great about it, yeah.

Good, good, good. All right. All right, let's get into it. What a week. Woo! All right, let's get into it. What a week. Yeah. So obviously we've all been pretty riveted by this North Korea season on the Trump show. So here's where we are. On Tuesday, Trump spoke out against Kim Jong-un, and he said he has been very threatening beyond a normal state. He has been very threatening beyond a normal state,

and as I said, they will be met with fire and fury, and frankly, power the likes of which the world has never seen before. Because Donald Trump makes most of his statements based off of mediocre Game of Thrones spec scripts. This morning he tweeted, Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded. Should North Korea act unwisely, hopefully Kim Jong-un will find another path. So obviously that's pretty frightening. Natalie?

No, I'm... yes. It's frightening. I just... yeah. And then he said in a press conference, they asked him about it today, I think, and he said, oh, what I said wasn't tough enough. It could be tougher. I was like... I tweeted this this I'm going to repeat it because I thought it was good I'm sorry

many of these people are on Twitter okay then it came out after he said that first thing that the White House was like oh he improvised that and I was like I always feel like I'm going to die when I watch improv but like that specifically is like an actual threat to my life.

Because what the fuck are you doing? Oh my God, it's nuclear-armed improv. Yeah, and you're right. It is so much like gay Muslims. I was like, oh my God, I heard a guy on NPR who was like a specialist in missiles. And he was like, oh, they don't have the technology for it to reach us yet.

And I was like, why is this a thing we're discussing on the radio? That's bananas. So Dan, how worried are you based on what Trump is saying? And what would you say to other people who live in say San Francisco, Alaska, Guam, Los Angeles and other places? Don't go to Guam. Don't go to Guam. Look I we should be worried but not panicked. There is no actual there I like to believe that there are some levels of guardrails on government left

that prevent Trump from doing this, but there's not a real military option other than nuclear war, which I'm voting against. But if I have this prediction wrong, no one's going to be around to tell me I was wrong. That's true. Todd, where are you at? Where am I at?

Yeah, yeah. I am at... No, you were talking about Trump improv, and he's actually... I know someone who was in a level three UCB class with him. He was actually... He was quite good. He was very good in that class,

but a bit of a hog, and people said not generous. Not a generous stage presence. And he always repeated the same words, which was a thing. But I did see a montage of him doing that phrase, the likes of which, like on MSNBC they found like 5,000 examples.

Yeah, he definitely is relying on a shrinking number of words and phrases. His vocabulary is getting smaller and it is really alarming. Like that thing he said to the Australian Prime Minister, and by the way, hey everybody on Twitter who explained to me that Australia doesn't have a president, I don't care. I don't care at all.

I didn't know. I didn't know. Maybe I did know and I didn't care enough to remember. But anyway, the Australian Prime Minister was talking about taking these refugees and he said, these aren't good people. They're not going to go work with the local milk people. And I know that he was searching his mind for something

related to dairy. But he couldn't find dairy. You don't think he was like, what do regular people do? Milk. Milk people. That's what the normal people do. They do milk. For work. So,

one other part of this that is, I think, a reason to be not panicked but deeply concerned is the fact that this is a war of words, but there hasn't yet been any movement of troops, any ships being put in position. This feels

largely like theater so far. And I guess we'll know when it becomes a real thing when there starts to be actual military escalation. Isn't that what he tweeted today? The military steps were in place? Locked and loaded.

Ship set. This may be the one trump tweet not accurate well presumably we're always i mean like that's the thing we're we're always locked and loaded we're the we're we're america we're we're locking and loading and firing on a daily basis the whole the mechanism is operating so yeah i mean i guess maybe in that sense we are locked and loaded. I don't know what he means. And I don't think he knows what he means. Which is a shame.

And a sham. Yeah. So, Dan, if you were still at the White House right now, and you're sitting at the senior staff meeting, and it's you, it's Stephen Miller, it's Kellyanne Conway,

it's Steve Bannon. I was about to say Reince Priebus, but I forgot that he was fired. And so is President Trump. Just totally, I can't believe I just said President Trump. Trump. Trump. And Kelly, you're sitting there,

and they turn to you and they're like, we need you to do something to mitigate this. What are you saying that the White House should be doing right now on North Korea from a communications point of view? I would take the president's phone, take the microphone away from him and get him to stop talking. Because you sort of have to separate the words coming out of Trump's mouth with the things everyone else in the government is saying. They've sort of decided, I think, that he's going to say whatever he wants and they're going to do whatever they want. And so he goes out and says, fire and fury. And he basically says, if Kim Jong-un insults him one more time, fire and fury.

One more time, fire and fury. But then Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State, or General Mattis, and they redefine the red line to be, if they attack Guam, then we'll do something. And so we're in this world where no one cares what the president says anymore. He just says it, and they're just like, oh, that's the crazy thing that crazy old Uncle Trump said. He's like, Trump has become your drunk uncle at Thanksgiving. And it's like what he meant was, here's what he meant.

Here's how he meant. When he said that if North Korea threatens us, what he really means is if there's actually escalation. So now in a situation, we're going to just be in this situation where the world and the U.S. government is just going to not take the president seriously. How would that affect what goes on day to day? Like what, like I mean, the president is still in charge still in charge. Is that a quiet coup? Is that

that serious? Where does it go to have a federal government that pretends that the president's words don't count? There will be a time when Trump has to say something. Everything before this was just problems of his own making. It know, it's his communications director getting fired. It's his idiot chief of staff. He's tweeting the wrong things. But he is going to have to send a message to the world at some point on something serious, and no one's going to believe him.

And this is the box he's put himself in, is he has drawn this red line, and if he does not cross it, he may draw a red line again, and then when he does it, be like, oh, I didn't think you meant that. Right? So he had like a teeny tiny bit of credibility. And he's losing that right here

in a pretty critical moment. But if the other option is nuclear Armageddon, I'll take this one. Yeah. Yeah. It would be great if Trump didn't follow through on his word on this one. That would be bad.

Todd, how do you feel about this whole North Korea thing? Does it keep you up? Do you worry about it or do you put it out of your mind? I kind of just live in a state of denial. Cool. About this specifically or a bunch of other stuff?

Are you just adding this to the roster? Yeah, it's on my roster of denial. Yeah, I just... It's too... I know I'm getting... I'm used to being funny and now I'm not

going to be funny. No, you are. I'm used to being really funny. No, this is really funny. Can you show a clip from my special? That's not how this works.

You don't get to just use stuff that you were funny in before. It's not how this works. You don't get to just use stuff you were funny in before. It's terrifying, but I have this weird faith that there's not going to be a nuclear war. Yeah. But I have no idea where that comes from. Well, probably from your will to live. There you go.

Well, there's this funny thing that the stock market seems unable to price in total annihilation because how do you short not being alive in toto? You know? Like, how do you, like, like, what's gold

going to be worth if there's nothing? My Rite Aid stock's not doing very well. Yeah, what do you buy? I don't know. I don't know. Fallout? The game Fallout? Somebody was saying that yesterday on the Twitter machine that they were glad they had 500

hours in Fallout. It's good practice. Rad scorpions. Mutants. Underground bunkers. Fallout. Let's move on to the opioid crisis. Something a little less depressing. Donald, I'm sorry. I mean, the opioid crisis is incredibly depressing. It is not as depressing

as total nuclear annihilation. I don't think that should be controversial. But so, oh, so Donald Trump this week finally kind of almost as an aside said that the opioid crisis is a national emergency, although he connected that with no policy, and it seemed like there was no thought in any kind of a rollout. I think he just did it at Bedminster. What? Yeah.

The amount of time and effort that went into rolling out and describing and setting up important policies that used to go on under Democratic and Republican administrations that no longer takes place is astounding. It's absolutely astounding that like what used to be a week-long plan that culminated in meeting with doctors and nurses and victims advocates that would lead to a trip to West Virginia to meet with people dealing with the crisis firsthand, meeting with law enforcement and hospitals and drug

treatment centers culminating in the rollout of a policy is now Donald Trump lies about golfing and then announces it at his private country club to get the story off the fact that his campaign manager's house was raided by the FBI. It's been a weird year. Well, the crazy thing about that, not

the crazy thing about that, no, a crazy thing about that is that he declares the opioid epidemic to be a national emergency, right? But the healthcare plan that he wants to push forward does not cover addiction treatment or anything having to do with addiction care. Right. So... Right. He declares a national emergency, but at the same time is, right, cutting Medicaid, which is a huge source of treatment for addiction. Just to go through some of the stats, which I thought were pretty incredible, and I didn't know this, that drug overdoses have become the leading cause of death

for Americans under 50. Overdoses now kill more people than car crashes, gun violence, and HIV AIDS during the epidemic's peak. According to the CDC, more than 60% of drug overdoses are caused by opioids. 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. So this is one of the biggest national health emergencies that we have. So I guess, Dan, I'd start with you. You know, this is something.

So the Obama administration puts mental health and drug treatment, makes it part of the Affordable Care Act. If the Obama administration had continued another two years, right, this would have been at the forefront of the conversation, right? We've seen an incredible spike even in the past few years. Donald Trump says it's an emergency. He's actually talked about it on the campaign trail. He talked about it to the president of Mexico. That's when he called, I think he called New Hampshire a drug rattled, drug infested den. Thank you. Thank you to my friends of the pod keeping up on the news. You're not the only... You just waved like you were the one.

It's good to see you all. What do you think that the Obama administration would be doing differently right now? What are the tools that they have as an administration to actually mean what they say when they call it an emergency? I mean, one of the things we learned in the Trumpcare debacle is there's real bipartisan support for dealing with this, whether it's Shelley Moore Capito from West

Virginia or Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown, Democrat from Ohio. And so what I imagine what we would be doing is actually, and this is one of the few issues where you could get Republicans and Democrats together. And so I imagine working with Congress to get more funding to fund some of these treatments to make it easier to deal with some of the drugs that help prevent people from dying from these overdoses, make those more readily available to EMTs and the like. But you would actually be governing. In that sense, you would use the tools of government and the executive branch and the legislative branch to address it, as opposed to coming off the golf course doing a few

rounds, putting out a white paper that says opioids are bad, must do something, and going about your day. Like, they're not, they're all the, like, they could actually do something here if they wanted to do it. I got very skeptical that this was going to be a serious effort when Trump put Kellyanne Conway on the opioid task force. Yeah, man. What does she do all day?

Opioids. There you go. Yeah, I feel like maybe she's not understanding the task force. It's not a group of people asking their friends if they have any leftover Vicodin from their wisdom teeth. She thought it was like a focus group or something? Have you seen the commercial for the constipation that you get from opioids? I feel like there's no better...

It seems like the worst acting job you could possibly get is to be, oh, you're the opiates constipated guy. It's, um... Movantic. All right, but it seems like you've maybe followed up. But a drug to take to help you relieve your drug-caused constipation, like, all right, well, there's a sense of hopelessness pervading the country. The economy is changing.

The jobs aren't where they used to be. Millions are turning to drugs. Those drugs, in turn, are wrecking people's lives and whole communities, causing crime and dislocation and misery for tens of millions of people. One of the side effects of taking those drugs is constipation. What should we do? We developed a drug

for that. But isn't it amazing that there's not only so many people addicted to opioids, but so many people who have constipation where they have a commercial that runs on national TV. Right. It's not only so many people addicted to opioids, but so many people who have constipation where they have like a commercial that runs on national TV. Right. It's not, it's not as niche as you'd want it to be. Right. It's worth buying the ad space. Next topic. This one's fun. You guys, we're going to get to a fun one now. This one's not depressing at all. This is Donald Trump turning on Mitch McConnell. This is the treat.

This is the one I was excited about. Mitch McConnell said this, the president and others have set these early timelines about things need to be done by a certain point. Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before, and I think he had excessive expectations about how quickly

things happen in the democratic process. Shot across the bow. Trump, who typically doesn't respond to everything, to swing at every pitch, said, can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who had screamed repeal and replace for seven years, couldn't get it done, must repeal and replace Obamacare. Mitch, get back to work and put repeal and replace tax reform and cuts and a great infrastructure bill on my desk for signing. And this is the best part, it's so patronizing. You can do it. Now, it is so rare that we have an opportunity to say this. Trump's right. Trump is 100% right. These fuckers had seven years. They repealed Obamacare.

How many times? How many times were we there? 62? At least. 62 times. And then when the intramural period was over and it was league play, I went down a wrong path. They couldn't get it done. They couldn't pitch fastballs.

Dan, what is stupider? Donald Trump picking a fight with Kim Jong-un or Donald Trump picking a fight with Mitch McConnell? Can they both be right? They can both be right. Which is going to hurt him more? Probably picking a fight with Mitch McConnell. Can you see any strategy, any reason that Donald Trump would take this moment to fight with the Senate majority leader, one of the few people who can consider himself an ally in Washington? I guess there are two ways to look at this. There is the way where you believe Trump has an agenda, a very specific view of where the country should go, and he would

like to enact that agenda. In that sense, picking Mitch McConnell would be a very bad idea because he's the only one who can help him do that. Then there's, if you were to believe that Donald Trump is capable of the sort of strategic thought, you would say there is a world where he decides he wants to get reelected, doesn't care anything else that happens. And in that world, running against Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan and sort of doing the old Clinton-esque triangulation is actually a pretty good political strategy because Donald Trump is super unpopular, very unpopular. Mitch McConnell, more unpopular than Trump.

It's the first person Trump's ever fought with, including Kim Jong-un, who has lower approval ratings than him. Fox News put out this great poll, and they framed it as this. Donald Trump, 18 points more popular than the Republican Congress, which is amazing because the Republican Congress is at 20. So it's like, yeah, okay. You're definitely doing better than 20. Still not very good. Todd. Todd.

Oh. No, I actually, I have found that comics have a very, like, Donald Trump in many ways treats being president like he's at a roast he didn't prepare for. Was that a valid thing that I'm not prepared for this podcast?

Todd, that was defensive. I love that you're here. I love every word you've said. That was defensive. I apologize. And Donald Trump kind of roasting Mitch McConnell. Like, what do you see when you see Donald Trump doing this? What is your take on him as a performer?

I actually, before he got as bad as he... He used to be just sort of like, oh, he's a jackass, but he is what he is. And then you saw how ugly he got. But he can be funny. He's funny. I hate to say it. No, I think it's important.

When he's still called Jet Bush, during the debate, Jet Bush said something that goes, you're just trying not to be low energy. I thought that was really funny. Also, when he says this thing about they're not going to become local milk people it's insane but it's funny right you know it's it's it's impossible to put it aside right i don't it's you can't put aside the racism you can't put aside that he's the worst person ever to inhabit the office but it is important i think politically

not to forget that he's charming, that he is. No, you don't think he's. No, Natalie, I'm interested in this. So you don't think that Donald Trump is charming? No. You don't. Obviously. OK, let me stop waving your hand.

There's no Q&A yet. It's the fifth time you've waved your hand. I see you. What do you think is going to happen? You think I'm going to stop the show and come to you? We're going to talk later. I promise. Do you know who that person is you're mitch mcconnell i think donald trump to me is like um like if you know when a person talks too much and they're stuck talking to you and they don't

know how to stop and they haven't drank water and then the like white gunk forms on the side of their mouths that's like donald trump is a human version of that to me like that that's what he that same feeling of looking at that is what i think when i when i look at donald trump so like no that's not charming in any way he's funny because he's an ape but not because he's like no no i hear you. Let me choose my words slightly better. Charming, yes. I don't find him charming,

but he has charisma. He has a charm. He has an appeal to people. Appeal, yes, to certain people. But I guess it's, obviously it's impossible to separate its worst traits, but this is something,

so Maggie Haberman gave this interview that I've talked about before, but she's on the Long Form podcast, which is great, but she talks about the fact that she likes going into the Oval to talk to him, because before and after, they kibitz and they chat, and that he is charismatic, he's funny,

he's engaging, he's not really, you know, it's not real, but he is there. He has incredible stage presence. You don't think so? Are you sure? No, he's a guy... Have you never been around a person who is constantly

teetering at every millisecond between thinking they're the coolest, best person in the room and terrified that they're not? And like, that is not... End of show. Actually, we're just going to shut this hall down. We're not doing this anymore.

I don't think people like that are charming no matter how good looking they are. Not that Donald Trump is good looking, but like I've met very good looking people that are in my field of work. I meet very good looking people that have that sort of similar trait. So it doesn't matter if they're...

Like who? It doesn't matter if they're... Like who? It doesn't matter if they are, you know, even well spoken, which he's not. Like, he doesn't have any of those traits, and he's like a... Ugh. So I just... Yeah. Also, a funny thing about the Mitch McConnell thing, just to bring it full

circle, is that I find... I mean, if I do find anything funny, it's the fact that he told Mitch to get back to work while he's on vacation. That's so funny. But not that he's funny, it's just funny that he did that. That's all. So, I think we're on the fence.

I think we're all on the fence about Donald Trump. I guess, I mean, Dan, it seems like he's running for re-election already. I mean, that seems like what he's doing. He's not paying attention to governing. He has no interest in governing. It's all just waiting for his chance to get back on the trail.

And I don't even know that he has come to the conclusion, he hasn't figured out in his own mind that running for re-election means he has to be president for another four years. I'm not sure he's thought that fully through. He just wants the win? He just wants the love.

We've talked about this before, but the bottomless well of emotional neediness and insecurity, and the only place he can find that is out on the rally trail where he'll get 10,000, 20,000 people will show up to see him. It's not part of any strategy. It's part of a strategy of the White House staff to manage his emotions. Much like, you know, we read this week that someone's job at the White House to, twice a day, print out all the positive articles

about Trump, including pictures of him where he looks powerful, put it in a manila folder and hand it to him so that he feels better about himself. Honestly, as crazy as this sounds, that must continue. It's so important that that person, that is one of the most important people

on planet Earth. Like, if that person gets sick, who knows what will happen. It's a modern strategy for nuclear deterrence. Yeah, no, literally, that person is single-handedly preventing. That junior weirdo, that son of some donor

who's the worst. Like, you know, whatever. Jeb Mercer. Whatever. That person is so important. What is in that file? Is it just like, I love Donald Trump tweets from someone randomly? I think it's tweets.

I think it's like Breitbart articles. It's the internet's worst garbage. It's like talking about trying to find a needle in a haystack. Even Breitbart has not been totally sure what to make of Donald Trump's fight with Mitch McConnell. It's like playing tic-tac-toe

at the end of war games. When we come back, OK Stop! Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Now for a segment called OK Stop, which is definitely the right order this time. This week on OK Stop,

we have a video of friend of the pod, Sebastian Gorka. So this is obviously, there was an attack on a mosque that didn't get reported anywhere, that didn't really get talked about. Donald Trump still hasn't tweeted about it. You know, we all know why.

And Donald Trump's senior advisor for doing nothing all day and then going on television and saying insane things, Sebastian Gorka, went on television to defend the president. So here's how OK Stop works. We watch a clip, and as we go, we say OK Stop, and we stop to talk about it.

That's it. And then we proceed to play more of it? Yeah, we keep playing it. It's like instant replay. Where you at, Todd? Do we say OK Stop, or do you say OK Stop? You can say it. I it's it's it's like instant replay where you at todd do we say okay stop or do you say okay stop you can say it i can say it the only people who can't say it are them what if i'm scared to say it like right now don't be scared if you have something to say you say it let's roll the

clip but sir the president commented on an attack that took place in london just a couple months ago before we had additional information confirming exactly what happened well sometimes an attack is unequivocally clear for what it is when somebody shouts Allah Wakbar as they're stabbing a police does he have an accent uh he does he does I believe he is Hungarian yes it was like a real British okay sorry we can continue just wanted to check that out it's uh technically I think Eastern European fascist. That's the accent. Got it. You sure he's not a sommelier? He is not a sommelier.

But he does look like one. Solid laugh. Solid laugh. It's pretty clear it's not a case of the mafia robbing a bank. Wouldn't you say so? So you think that somebody throwing a bomb into the window of a mosque, it could be something else. It's fuzzy ground as to what that might be. The question of who does it is a question.

When you've had people fake hate crimes in the last six months with some regularity. Do we really believe that one of the biggest problems in Plague America is fake hate crimes? And I would argue that fake hate crimes still hate crimes. Definitely still a crime. Not great. No. Does it matter what your intention was? You did the hate crime. Right, you can't ironically hate crime.

No. What leftist person would fight for the rights of Muslims and be like, you know what, it's not happening enough. Muslims getting bombed. Let's go bomb a mosque and show them it's a real problem. It's not great. It is, no. Never mind.

No, say it. Are the fake hate crimes where someone, is he saying someone pretends to be a victim of a hate crime? Yeah, he's saying to get attention or to say that there's more Islamophobia than there is, somebody would attack their own mosque or create a fake scandal. Oh, I was thinking that it was like some hippie leftist

who was like, oh, the Muslims are not getting enough attention. I think that's part of it. It could be either. Look, I don't want to claim to know exactly the exact way in which Sebastian Gorka is being stupid. Got it. I'll give you a hint, I think, which is there's a very clear equation

for the Trump administration. If the attacker is Muslim, Trump tweets. If the victim is Muslim, it could be a fake hate crime. Right. Got it. I think it's wise, don't you, to find out what exactly is going on before you make statements when in fact... I just wonder why they went to a wide

shot on him. That was a split... I had a nice split screen thing happening. I think that basically cable news treats its viewers like adult kittens. And what they're trying to do is keep their attention. And so they rocket through shots faster than any other medium because they're trying to create visual momentum and interest on the screen when what they're actually doing all day is having mediocre looking people

argue about bullshit? I feel guilty because it wasn't a real question. I was just talking around. You answered it really well. Just a quick sidebar while we're paused here. Doesn't that look like it's like that White House sign is just kind of taped on with like a

doesn't it look like not legit? Like it's all in the fall. So, Natalie, I'm glad you raised that because I've had to be in my bonnet about this White House briefing room design because it actually is second-term Bush administration, I believe, or maybe first term, but it was a redo of the Bush administration

during George W. Bush's presidency, and it is so tacky and ugly. They took out... It was classic, there was a blue curtain, it was a simple, elegant, remember the American president had that, it looked nice, it looked nice, it was clean and simple and timeless, and then

somebody that looked like they did, like, the interior at, like, Uber came in and, like, said, like, what we really want is, like, a three-dimensional White House and some weird fake columns and a blue thing and a fake column and it's bullshit. But again,

bigger fish to fry. I don't focus on it. It was just a sidebar. No, I think it's the most important issue facing us today. Could turn out to be not who you are expecting. You don't have to make a statement about who did it, but you can make a public statement denouncing how terrible it would be

to attack a building of worship. That's fine, and I'm sure the president will do that. And why do you think he hasn't? He did not. He has not. Did not. Would not. It's not like in the last 48 hours the president hasn't tweeted. He's tweeted about his base. He's tweeted about a U.S. senator. He's tweeted about the failing New York Times, and he's tweeted about his base he's tweeted about a u.s senator

he's tweeted about the failing new york times and he's made no mention of that mosque he's also made no mention of the three fallen marines who lost their lives off the coast of australia i am not going to give social media advice to a man who basically won the election in large part thanks to his understanding of social media and to destroy the fake news industrial complexes predicted. I just want to talk body language. Do you see him rolling from his heels to his toes and back and forth? That is like a classic lying thing.

It really is. It's just like any kind of movement to sort of distract yourself from the fact that you're lying is a thing. Who would win the last election? So just hold your horses, count to ten, and the president will do what he deems fit. Just on the Sebastian Gorka thing.

Hold your horses, count to ten, the president will do what he deems fit. Is there anything less satisfying than hearing that as what you should be doing about Donald Trump? Count to ten and hold your horses, the president will do what he deems fit. Yeah, that's the problem. Yeah, that's the whole problem. Also, just one other note. I feel like that anchor said failing New York Times without

rhetorically putting it in quotes. She just said it. It was a little bit like, it's working. Trump's won the branding war. I love the failing New York Times. That's where everybody knows it at. That's where I read about crooked Hillary, low energy Jeb in the failing New York Times. That's where everybody knows it at. That's where I read about crooked Hillary, low-energy Jeb in the failing New York Times. When we come back...

Too Stupid to be True! All right! Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back! Now, for a segment we call Too Stupid to be True. Here's how it works. We are going to have, we're going to read four statements.

Three of them will be real. One of them will be fake. This week is a special immigration edition of Too Stupid to be True. August 15th marks five years since DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, was first put in place under Obama. It has given 800,000 immigrant young people legal protection. These are people called Dreamers. They came to

the U.S. as children by no fault of their own. Some of them came here before they could speak. America's the only country they've ever known. Sometimes they find out when they graduate high school that they can't go to college because they're undocumented immigrants. These are people who never knew their home country and the country their parents were from,

and now a lot of times they're being deported or threatened with deportation. DACA is currently under threat in Congress. They've threatened to take it away as early as September. Donald Trump himself has said it's a very difficult issue for him, but of course at every turn he has given given into the sort of Bannonite wing on immigration, including this proposal he just embraced by Tom Cotton to reduce legal immigration by 50 percent. So we wanted to do a kind of different version of Too Stupid to Be True. So under your chair, guys, you each have a statement, and I have one one two uh three of these are actual quotes about

people trying to criticize uh allowing dreamers to stay and one of them is one that i made up we have some mics in the house does anybody want to play too stupid to be true can you you know what you'd pick but they have to have a friend of the pod a repeal and go fuck yourself shirt. Hi, what's your name? Hi, Sarah. Hi, Sarah. Also, I brought you chicken and waffles.

I tweeted you earlier. You're going to say something snarky about it, but it's from my booth, so if you want it later. You're the one that tweeted at us. Yeah. See? Wait, you know what, Dan? Here's the thing.

I don't think so. I think that's another booth that also tweeted. Oh, no, no, no. There was a booth two doors next to me, and they were like friend of the pod. I tweeted at them, and I was like, I'm going to tweet too. So you're the waffles people, but there's also the barbecue people. Yeah, they're really good.

Compete for our affections. They didn't show up, so. But you have to go there later. So, Sarah? Yes. You know how the game works. We are going to read you these quotes, and you're going to have to choose which one is fake.

Natalie, kick us off. I talked to a retired FBI agent who said that one of the things they were looking at were terrorist cells overseas who had figured out how to game our system. And it appeared that they would have young women who became pregnant, would get them into the United States to have a baby,

and then they would turn back where they could be raised and coddled as future terrorists. Can you believe that someone may or may not have said that? Dan, you're up. It's our right as a sovereign nation to choose immigrants that we think are the likeliest to thrive and flourish and love us. That one feels real. Todd, you're up.

For every valedictorian dreamer who's been brought to this country by his or her family, there's another hundred out there who they weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. Those people would be legalized with the same act.

I think this game's over. One final, one final clue. You know what, Sarah? I was going to check where your head's at, but I can see you're working over it, and I trust you. One last one to choose. The only people allowed to come across our borders

and live in this great, great country are people who must speak English. My relatives came here and they did not speak English, but we are a digital culture now, Facebook. Sarah. Oh. I want to remind you that you are currently playing for a three-month subscription to Blue Bottle Coffee. Okay. My coffee addiction is strong right now.

Okay. So do you need to be reminded of the clues? No, no, no, no. Okay. More I don't know if you're tricking me or not, or do we stop with the tricking altogether? So that's a great question. Some of you might remember that I used to just have them all be real.

But I promise we stopped doing that because you can't lie to people every single day unless you're the president. Okay, I know that the Todd Berry one's true. You know that that one's true. That one's true. I love it. I think that yours is not true.

You've won too stupid to be true. Sarah, congratulations. Yet another winner here at Love It or Leave It. Dan and I are going to eat chicken waffles. Natalie and Todd, hopefully they will join. I don't eat chicken, but thanks. Oh, no, you have it with you now?

It's a podcast. We're not going to chew through the show. But, Sarah, we're going to touch base regarding waffles after. Okay? You listen to the... I'm going to get the waffles. Oh, and before we go to break, there is something you can do.

This is important. On August 15th, you can join in the National Day of Action with young immigrants in your community. So visit DefendDACA. So visit DefendDACA.com DefendDACA.com to find an event near you. It's going to be a day of action on this issue. It's really important. So you can participate.

That's it. That's too stupid to be true. Guys, when we come back, the rant wheel. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Now, for the rant wheel,

you know how it works. We spin the wheel. We rant about the topics on which it lands. The wheel is digital and fake. But I don't know where it's going to land. And I have to keep reminding people of that because I get accused over and over again of fraud this week on the rant wheel

we have office thermostats Selena Gomez who recently agreed to be in a film with Woody Allen audience suggestion, fidget spinners that Google memo Trump as golfer-in-chief, the city of San Francisco,

I wouldn't root for that one, and polls that say Republicans want to, quote, postpone 2020. Let's spin the wheel. Like the voting in 2020? Like the voting. I was like, the year? How do they do that? It has landed on Golfer and Chief,

something we added to the wheel, because I know it's something that Dan Pfeiffer, who, as I remind you, is 200 Scaramoochies in one person. Changing my Twitter bio immediately. So, Dan, Donald Trump is golfing a great deal. Does this bother you?

What does this do for you? Let's set the stage here. I don't golf. I think it's a really weird sport. But, as you may have heard, Barack Obama likes to golf, periodically. His golfing got a wee amount of attention from Donald Trump, who attacked him for it every time. But I personally can get over that. I don't give a flying fuck if Trump golfs.

But what bothers me is he lies about it. He says, I'm going to a four-hour meeting at my golf club on a Saturday. But if you're going to lie about it, be smart about it, because everyone then knows because whatever dilettante son of a donor he golfs with posts it on Instagram. So it's like, golf, don't golf. Lie, don't lie. Just don't be so fucking incompetent about it. Also, by the way, his meetings at Bedminster get cancelled when it rains.

As all important presidential meetings do. And one of the days where he was tweeting the most ferociously, it was because he was stuck at his golf club on a rainy day. And I realized that what we needed was to send in the cat in the hat. To distract him. I'm surprised about him golfing that much because I'm just surprised that he

wants to go outside. I'm surprised that he wants to do any activity besides just watch TV and eat. I wonder if some weird version of Batman's Alfred has TV and eat. And I wonder if some weird version of Batman's Alfred

has rigged all the games at the golf course so they're way easier for him? If the golf ball that they use is specifically... He can't be good at that. It might be putt-putt. We don't know. I mean, he's a cheater.

There's no way that he's playing by he's playing by, you know, the queen's rules. No. You know? He's like, he's kicking that ball out of the rough, you know? I'm surprised he would lie about, why wouldn't he just, he says anything, so why wouldn't he go, yeah, I'm playing golf for four hours a night? Because I think at this point he's played more golf in six months than Obama did in eight years, and he criticized him so much for it

that I think he doesn't want to get told that. I gotta tell you, I really think part of it is he doesn't like the way he looks in his clothes when he's golfing. No, I'm serious. Like suits? I think he likes it. No, he likes how he looks. He likes how he looks in the suits. He has the long tie.

He likes it. But, you know, the big jacket. But in a golf shirt and a pair of pleated khaki pants, the full expanse of his form is there. And he hates it. He's an old man who eats fast food five days a week and he hates it.

He also, I mean, first of all, khaki pants it's not going to make your butt look good. I don't care who you are. But he also wears his pants like a like an artist's rendering of Humpty Dumpty you know where it the belt just goes directly across the belly in one like kind of like how Ken bone? Yeah. The weirdest thing is when Trump falls down, yolk does come out. Sort of hard to explain.

That was just bad. It wasn't gross. It's gross. Somebody shouted, leave it in. Let's spin the wheel again. Hey! wheel again. Apparently none of these people follow you on Instagram. Let's talk about San Francisco. Do you hate

New York's delicious restaurants? But do you love New York's prices? I've got this city for you. Do you think L.A. would be better if it was colder and uphill? I've got this place called San Francisco. They've got one runway left and it's fogged out. So I need to step in here as a new San Francisco resident. Let's talk about LA.

Seems nice. Weather seems good. Seems like a nice place to live. If you love traffic. If you're an investor in a spray tan business. If you're a Kardashian. Or want to be a Kardashian. Oh, Dan, is the public transit in San Francisco, is it really up to snuff for people having a good time on the BART?

Oh, my God. Are you putting on a show for me? I expected this to be a real upbeat category. This is like the ugliest infighting I've seen. I don't know what's going on with the BART. I saw some stories that there was trouble. Not as bad as New York Subways. Look, we can all be glad that we're Not as bad as New York subways. Look, we can all be glad

that we're not dealing with the New York subways. L.A., San Francisco, at least it's not New York. Why are you giving shit to New York, man? That's where I live. Subways are amazing there. They're not working very well. What's going on? They're breaking down.

I take helicopters everywhere, so I don't know. I mean, listen, New York, the helicopter lifestyle is fantastic. It's pretty easy. A surprising amount of helipads on buildings. Do you have to call an advance or is it kind of a gentleman's thing where you can just use a helipad that you see? Don't worry about it.

What about the hospital? You know what? Let's spin it again. So it has landed on postponing 2020. And I put this here because there was a poll that came out this week. I think Dan and John, you guys talked about it briefly on Thursday's episode of Pod Save America, that said, oh, Republicans are opening to delaying the 2020 election if whatever, there's some reason that the Trump administration gives.

And it was seen as this incredibly controversial thing. Look at these people. They're willing to support some kind of a junta. But I'll tell you, I am sick of polls like this tell you I am sick of polls like this and I'm sick of questions like this and I'm sick of us pretending that the way news operates isn't affecting the way that people answer questions in polls people are not operating in a vacuum if we have if all of our news treats people like they're pundits to that they're just either either in the arena fighting for their

candidate or analysts themselves, but not citizens trying to adjudicate something for the outside. When a person calls and says, would you support Trump if he did X, Y, or Z, people are not answering that question legitimately. It's not just that people are in a bubble of news that they agree with and so they believe crazy things. They're also aware that it's now their job, it's all of our jobs as sort of public-facing spokespeople for whatever political views we have to not just

say what we think, but say what we think will be helpful to our side even when we're called in a poll. So anyway, I think these, like, there are Democratic polling firms that do this, there are Republican polling firms that do this, that develop questions designed to make Democrats and Republicans both look like lunatics.

And I think it's... I don't like it. It's just to, like, get in the news. Yeah, it's get in the news, but also it's just ignoring the... It's all these news... CNN, MSNBC, all these pollsters, all these sort of political entities, they don't want to recognize the effect

they have on the people they're reporting on. It's like the uncertainty principle. They are changing people when they ask them these questions. It's not just that the question leads into an answer. It's that people don't say what they think. They say what they think they're supposed to say, and it's really destructive, and that's it. I don't know. I'm going to agree with you here.

Oh, good. Just because. But polling is generally stupid, And media polling is very stupid. And your point about people answering the question, not by what they believe, but what they believe they should believe based on who they are and who they like, is prior to the election, the economic approval rating and people's view of the economy, is it a positive economy or a negative economy, was in the 50s. the economy, is it a positive economy, a negative economy, was in the 50s. And it was driven almost entirely by Democrats who, like Barack Obama, who even if they weren't doing well in the economy, said it's going well. The first one done after the election, almost the exact same number,

but the Republicans and Democrats flipped. So they thought the economy was going shitty. And then one week later, because Trump won, they thought it was better. And so we learn nothing from this, but what it really boils down to is public opinion version of clickbait. Like, what is the poll question that's going to get tweeted the most? Yeah, and I just, I think that's right. And I do think there's this larger cultural problem

we are not grappling with, which is just how twisted political culture has made the way people talk about politics in their own lives and talk about it even amongst themselves and that's it we're a nation of pundits and it's terrible I want to thank our awesome panel

Natalie Morales, Dan Pfeiffer Todd Barry Dan and I are going to stick around and take some Pod Save America Q&A for a few minutes but I want to thank Todd and Natalie for coming Todd thank you

guys give it up for Todd and Natalie don't go anywhere this is Love It or Leave It and there's more on the way I am still plagued with Bernie bro friends and family in my life that refuse to concede that Hillary would not have been better. How do we bring these people back to reality? So that's a great question.

I think that that fight between Bernie bros and Hillary people is not productive. I do think, though, look, I think the answer is they're right and people that support Hillary are right. The Bernie people have a really important point to make about the future of the Democratic Party. Bernie's argument about what was happening in the economy, about the fact that the Democratic Party needed to change in a much bigger way, was correct. And the Democrats had to lose this election to realize just how far into the wilderness we were about to go. So I think they should be listened to on that front. At the same time, I think the notion that Bernie is the perfect vessel for the future of the Democratic Party or that the far left of the party has all the answers just because the center left has failed so spectacularly isn't true either.

I think the answer is going to come out of a vigorous but intellectually honest and patient and generous debate between the center left and the left of the Democratic Party. And it's a conversation that will continue. center left and the left of the Democratic Party. And it's a conversation that will continue. But from health care to taking on monopolies to this to the minimum wage, all these issues, you see that fight taking place. You see the Democratic Party changing and moving to maybe moving a little bit more left, but also moving just towards more simple and elegant solutions that actually will be more than just confusing tax credits and weird metrics that that that people don't understand and don't see as a benefit in their lives. I think the best way out of that kind of endless argument is to say, you're right,

we're right, we're on the same team, and it's not a fight, it's a discussion, and that discussion never ends. No one ever wins it. You can't win the fight. That's all. I think the one thing I would add to that is we have very serious, there's a very serious important discussion and debate to have around policy choices, and a very serious

and important discussion around political strategy. It's on the Bernie side. It's on the Hillary side. It's the middle. And the question, we should have that debate, but we should be able to have that debate without questioning people's motivations and morals in this, right? And this happens on both sides. And I see it on Twitter, which is where I get all my information all the time.

It's Hillary people attacking Bernie Sanders for, like, why isn't he a Democrat? Why didn't you know this and that? And then Bernie people doing the same thing. We should get past that. Let's just go beat some Republicans in 2018. And then let's have this battle discussion in 2020. I think that's good. I think we have to leave it there, guys.

I'm really sorry. Jeff, Jeff. Oh, Jeff Flake's book, man. You know what? Jeff Flake should have read his fucking book before he voted to confirm every Donald Trump judge, before he didn't do a fucking thing to stop Donald Trump. Jeff Flake, oh, he suddenly

has a moral outrage. I can't think of anything less useful for the country and less politically valuable for him than to go on a tirade against Donald Trump in a book and then do absolutely nothing about it. We've got to take that seat from Jeff Flake. I agree with that. We got to leave it there, guys. I'm really sorry. Thank you guys for coming out. Bye, everyone. Really fun. We got to leave. It's over. It's over. Straight Shooter Loving Olivia

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