Lovett or Leave It - Sisyphus with a Mini Fridge

Episode Date: July 22, 2017

Sarah Silverman, DeRay Mckesson, and Guy Branum join Jon to break down an extraordinary week. The health care bill lives and dies and lives again. Trump discovers the pardon power. Sessions reportedly lied under oath. And please do not worry: we give Sean Spicer a lovely send off.

Hey guys, how is it going? I see a friend of the pod. I see somebody with a piece of notebook paper that says, let's get into it, that you fold it and put into your pocket. It's on the back of the ticket. So you thought about that well in advance. But you are in the merch, and I like that. Thank you guys for coming.

We have a great show tonight before I bring out our first guest I just want to say a word to the baby boomers do we have any baby boomers here there's a baby boomer. Look at you.

Huh? You committing some generational theft here? Huh? Getting that Medicare? Raising those home prices? Just kidding. Listen, on a previous episode of Love It or Leave It, I did say that baby boomers can, quote, go fuck themselves. Now, I have to say,

I have said many offensive things on this stage. None have elicited the number of comments from some surprisingly tech-savvy people conceived during or just after World War II. Now, one of those people was my mother, who called me and said, did you mean me? And I did. No.

Anyway, listen, we paint with a broad brush here. We love all the baby boomers who are listening. We as millennials, how many of us are millennials? I think that we millennials and baby boomers don't get along in part because we have so much in common. But give us a break. The worst person you ever produced is president. So that's all I wanted to say about that.

We have a lot to talk about. I am so excited about our first guest. So honored that she wants to be part of the show. She's one of my favorite comedians. She has a new Netflix special, Speck of Dust, which is hilarious. Please welcome Sarah Silverman. Sarah,

thank you for doing this. Thank you for coming. My absolute joy. If I was told a year ago that Donald Trump would be president, and I would be hosting a talk show at the improv

on which he would be a guest, I would have thought, okay, that makes sense. That's about right. Seems to make sense. How are you? I'm well. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. We're talking like we haven't spent the past half hour together.

Yes. Just a few last moments in a very dark, small room. Yeah. My favorite time of the week. So I can't believe it, but it's basically been roughly a year since the Democratic Convention at which you spoke side by side with Senator Al Franken to unite the clans, the Bernie supporters and the Hillary supporters. And boy, did that go well.

It went very badly. So, but, you know, you had a moment there where you were saying how important it was to get behind Hillary and that you thought some, that you were basically saying that, that you know the time had come to come together that we may have our differences but it was important that we work together and unite I think that in the past year we've kind of seen both sides of it I think on this health care fight I think Democrats across the spectrum have been incredibly unified at the same time that there are these deeper fissures and I for one am someone you know I've been approaching this election and what happened

after is like a learning experience like what how could we be so wrong how could we what what can we learn from this sort of crisis we're going through uh you're someone who said nominating hillary wasn't the right thing to do we should have gone with someone like bernie uh do you think that democrats like me who thought the right thing to do was to go with hillary to stay with the mainstream democratic party to uh i mean i'm not a told you so guy i mean i'm not asking for it like me, who thought the right thing to do was to go with Hillary to stay with the mainstream Democratic Party. I mean, I'm not a told-you-so guy. I'm not asking for it. As soon as she was the nominee, I was for Hillary.

For sure. Not bananas. I only voted for Ralph Nader once in 2000. Do you think that the Democratic Party sort of learned from Bernie? Do you think Bernie has had an impact beyond just the primary? Maybe. I think so, yeah, to a degree. I think that when people, you know, you say the Democrats are unified with health care, and that's true. You know, it's a classic buddy movie scenario.

You know, two groups that don't like each other come together for a common enemy against a common enemy. That's that tends to happen. But I, yeah, I mean, look, I, I feel like anything I say, maybe tread upon stuff. You know, I, I'm a Bernie person. I, I really loved everything he stood for and stands for. And, and i like that he is not bought by anyone you know i mean i listened to last uh the last show of yours and they someone said you know if this was the other way around with russia it probably would be the exact same where the republicans would be totally up in arms and democrats would be like it's that's, she's not colluding. You know, give me a break. And that's probably true,

but I don't think Bernie would meet with Russian oligarchs. He's not into oligarchs. He's not someone who has big fundraisers or anything, and he's someone who's always fought for the working class. And when he criticizes the democrats and the democratic party goes fuck you you know you're you're you're you're not even a democrat you just ran as a democrat yet so that he didn't split split the vote and also part of being a democrat or any part of being any existing being is hopefully looking inward and growing and changing and the

democratic party needs to do that just you know i mean look we we watched on election night oh my god our first woman president let's be together you know and i was a part of that and watching it and watching trump win you know for all the weeks and months leading up what were we all doing like oh the republican party or they're really having an identity crisis. They've got to figure out who they are. And then the election happened, and we realized we were looking in a mirror, you know. And until we are willing to look inward and fix what's wrong with ourselves, we can't expect anyone else to be willing to change.

what's wrong with ourselves. We can't expect anyone else to be willing to change. And I think he's not against the Democratic Party. He just wants it to be representing the working class like it once was and what it was formed to do. It's the same thing with the Labour Party in the UK. They're not representing the working class. Globalization is devastating people, and the left hasn't really tried to help massage that

and make it work to their benefit. Do I sound smart? Oh, my God. I think you do. Crotch is sweating. But no, I actually find the least compelling, the most annoying response to Bernie is to say he's not even a registered Democrat. Well, that's like the least of our, argue on the merits, right? I'm interested in the policy fight.

Someone could argue he's the most Democrat. The social Democrat. Yeah, I mean, you don't like socialists? You don't like firefighters? You don't like school or calling 911 if your shit's going down? I mean, those are socialist programs. I'm being indoctrinated into socialism. It's part of democracy.

Caring for people. I'm a capitalist. You can still be a rich asshole. You take your Joss Kapital elsewhere. I'm a friend of the pod. You are a friend of the pod. So one of the things that was interesting, there's been a lot of comparisons.

Oh, you have Macron winning in France, and then you have Corbyn doing well in the UK. And I'm not interested in those parallels, but there was a really great message that I think that came out of the Labour campaign that was effective, which was for the many, not the few. And one thing that happened this week was Democrats started rolling out a new slogan.

Just the fact that you're already laughing is a bad sign. If it's any I'm not ahead of you at all on this. No, it's... I'm glad that some people are ahead of me

on the slogan, but just the fact that people think it's funny is a bad thing. Anyway, the slogan that they're apparently going to roll out is better deal,

better skills, better wages, better jobs. Catchy. What is it again? It's better deal, colon, better deal, colon, better skills, better wages, better jobs.

And I want to just get your gut sense about how you feel about that. If you have the Hollywood elite on your side, maybe you could hire some to think of catchy slogans. Yeah, they're good for more than money. Some of them make good movies. There are good movies out there. Someone involved in Spider-Man. You know? Get them on the blower. That had a lot of great jokes in it.

I mean, come on. I was just watching Bloodline season three, and I know I'm the only one, but I was like, whoa, even in season three, I'm thinking of that first season slogan. We're not bad people. We just did a bad thing. I was like, that's catchy.

That's the Republican slogan. How are you feeling? Oh, us. When we come back, I'm going to bring out the rest of the panel let's get them into this don't go anywhere this is love it or leave it and there's more on the way

and we're back I want to bring out the rest of our panel he is a renowned activist a friend of the pod the rest of our panel. He is a renowned activist, a friend of the pod, the host of Crooked Media's pod, Save the People. Please welcome DeRay McKesson. And he is a comedian, host of talk show, The Game Show on TruTV. Please welcome back to the show Guy Branum. I gotta say, I'm just from my point, what a panel.

What a vista. No one to the left of the stage can see any of you. Hi guys. So let's get into it You know Normally this is the part of the show Where I say what a week However

So much happened In even the last 48 hours So we are going to introduce a new segment Called what a fucking week 48 hours. So we are going to introduce a new segment called What a Fucking Week. Let's start with health care because even as all this, and we're going to talk about Sean Spicer, we're obviously going to talk about Sean Spicer, but the health care bill lives again. Have you guys ever heard of the, what's it called, the tardigrade? It's the most indestructible creature on the planet.

It can be radiated, boiled, burned, frozen, and it survives. So anyway, the health care bill continues. So one development I wanted to talk about, just because I think everybody it's sort of hard to follow, right? Is it alive? Is it dead? The Senate parliamentarian Good for the Senate parliamentarian. Let him or her have a moment. Applause for the Senate parliamentarian.

Now, I don't want to get too much in the weeds here, but basically all you need to know is they don't have 60 votes to pass something in the Senate. They only have 52. But to pass something without 60, it has to pass the muster of the parliamentarian

who basically has to say, this is a budget thing, not another thing. And it has to be a budget thing. Well, the parliamentarian said that defunding Planned Parenthood and a provision that would make people wait six months for health insurance, their version of a mandate, both don't pass the test and both would require 60 votes. So that's a really big deal because a lot of the Republicans in the House basically viewed it as a

trade-off. They'd vote for the tax credits to continue so long as Planned Parenthood was defunded through Medicaid. That was sort of their deal. Like, we'll let people keep tax credits for their healthcare, even though they're much less generous, so long as Medicaid no longer reimburses Planned Parenthood and singles Planned Parenthood out and says they can't be a healthcare provider. So that's a very big deal.

Also, a new CBO score came out in just the past couple of days. Now, you may remember Mitch McConnell sent the bill back. He put some more money in, blah, blah, blah. It came back, and it still would cause 22 million people to lose insurance. So that is where the bill is, but it is still not dead. My question for you guys is, so do you feel a sense of fatigue around this? Like, do you feel like people are able to keep up with this? I do feel like we're being rope-a-doped in many ways.

Where we're just at some point just going to go, just whatever, just do it. Just get it over with. But hopefully we won't tire. But it does seem like a very Muhammad Ali. No, I can't compare the GOP to the great Muhammad Ali. No, no. I think that, look, this is something you say all the time.

Mitch McConnell is like the Muhammad Ali of politics. For you, for you. I don't agree with that. That's your view. That's not my view. You're always quoting Mitch McConnell. You have a poster of Mitch McConnell in your dorm room. What I was doing was I was giving people who are going to Google rope-a-dope another search term that would

also help them understand what I was saying, which wasn't smart. It was just a deep cut. There's a difference and I understand that. DeRay, so you are not only an activist, you're also someone who talks to Andy Slavitt more than basically anyone. Andy Slavitt

ran Obamacare, Medicare, and Medicaid under the Obama administration. someone who talks to Andy Slavitt more than basically anyone. Andy Slavitt ran Obamacare, Medicare, and Medicaid under the Obama administration. One of the smartest people. But you're also, you're talking to him and you're talking to all these activists. What are you hearing about this fight? Like where do you think people's heads are at and kind of this final push to stop this vote? Yeah, a couple things. I do think that people have learned more about health care in these last a hundred and so days than they've ever known about health care, so that is a good thing. Yeah, like little things like premium deductions, like people know what that is now.

You're like, that's a good thing, and like Medicare, Medicaid, huge. I think that there is a little bit of fatigue. The Byrd Amendment or the Byrd Rule was huge, a huge win potentially, but they might go nuclear, and they don't actually have to listen to the parliamentarian so we'll see what that what it what it means this week and there was also another provision that was really important so Planned Parenthood you you hit the other one was gonna make sure that private insurers also weren't funding abortion and that also I didn't pass the muster which is a good thing for people so I'm hopeful that people still know a lot about that people continue to learn about it. Like half the kids born in America are born because of Medicaid,

which is like a wild thing. So I'm hopeful that people will stay in the fight. Simple. Simple. Simple. So Mitch McConnell is under a lot of scrutiny right now. What's fascinating is he's actually starting to get a lot of heat from his own members.

So one thing that happened is it seems as though he was telling moderates, well, the closest thing they have to moderates now. Susan, her name is Susan. It's hard being on a panel with three comedians.

Well, you guys are comedians. It's hard being the non-funny person on a panel of comedians. DeRay, first of all, you're very funny. Also, you bring an expertise and a charisma that's worth more than any joke. This guy. Every funny person knows just how lame a skillet really is. Also, he got pride shoes. The gay Nikes.

The gay Nikes. They're great. They're great.. The gay Nikes. The gay Nikes. They're great. They're great. The gay Nikes. Not endorsing Nike, I will get hate mail being like, DeRay sold out the movement to Nike. That is not true. Just like the shoes. How's that deal coming along, though?

Stop it. So McConnell is telling moderates like Susan Collins and others who are more moderate than some of the members that don't worry, these Medicaid cuts are never going to happen. But of course, that gets back to the conservatives. These people all talk. You know, they all have lunch together. So Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said this is an incredible breach of trust. This is a great quote from Bob Corker of Tennessee.

This is about the state of the debate inside the Republican Party right now. I'm going to vote for the motion to proceed and anything Mitch decides to proceed to, okay? So he's like getting out of the way. I'm a yes. But I'm becoming concerned that it's starting to feel like a bizarre, Corker said. It's starting to feel like there's a lack of coherency in what we're doing.

It's almost becoming a bidding process. You know, let's throw 50 billion. Let's throw 100 billion here. Again, it may right itself, but it's making me uncomfortable right now. It's beginning to feel a lot like how Obamacare came together, if you want to know the truth, where it felt like they were bidding with various people to get them on board. But again, there was just a lack of coherence.

I'm not being critical. But the process is beginning to make me really, really uncomfortable. Again, I'm a yes. But I am for it. Anything. He literally says at the top of that, I think it captures sort of where this is. He's like, Republicans are like,

I don't like the bill. I don't like the process. I will vote yes no matter what. Although... The governors just came out against it, which was huge. Yes. Again, like, the Republican governors,

Sandoval, Kasich, others, they have no, they can't be for this bill because it blows a giant hole in their budgets. You know, even if you wanted to do a Republican healthcare bill that said, you guys can do a Medicaid expansion if you want, you guys can do Medicaid if you want, but we just think states should pay for it. That's our ideology. We are, we believe in small local government. We believe in local experimentation. It's like, okay. So if you're going to do that, you're going to say, all right,

we're going to cut what the states get. Okay. but what's gonna happen, where's all that money? You're all of a sudden gonna have all this federal tax money. You're gonna probably give it back to the states in the form of big middle class progressive tax cut that helps the people that now will need more help paying for their healthcare. No, they give the money to tax cuts

for a tiny percentage of the population. So of course Republican governors are gonna be against this. I hate this fucking bill. One of the things that surprised me about this, and I think of most things from an equity lens, is that poor people and people of color will obviously be screwed by this,

but 70% of the people that get Medicaid are white. White people are going to be screwed by this if it goes through, and I've been shocked that it's gotten this far. Because normally when things disadvantage white people like this, it doesn't make it this far, but this has really gotten a long way.

Well, yeah yeah we have to figure out something we gotta make sure these white people figure out what's going on well it is i'm you know we're used to being screwed over by the government but like this white people are going to be screwed well one of the things that's been fascinating is the two states so west virginia uh had a benefited from the medicaid Medicaid expansion almost as much as any other state, with the exception of Kentucky. Mitch McConnell, the person leading this effort, is from the state that saw the single biggest percentage increase in health care due to Obamacare, which I think just tells you what a cool guy he is.

Health care is a huge issue, but there's also just the terrifying thing that we're dealing with a Republican Congress that can't do a thing, that can't pass a bill. Which is a good thing for us right now. I don't necessarily know about that because we have a president with no respect for rule of law and it feels cool to Democrats to be like, ha ha, they can't get anything done until he bombs Malibu. And like they can't impeach him because they can't get a thing done. Like our Constitution rests on the notion that Congress is awake. And I don't know that we're passing that test right now.

No, I think that's right. And that's especially, I think, true of the Russia stuff, which I want to get to. Before we do, though, I did want to break down one clip. Because Steve King, the country's worst congressperson, he's a member of Congress from Iowa. And he went on Tucker Carlson to discuss his proposal related to both the border wall and Planned Parenthood. Now, you might be saying to yourselves, that's weird. Those are completely unconnected topics.

But are they? Let's play OK Stop. OK Stop. Let's play OK Stop. Speaking of Planned Parenthood, Republicans in Congress still haven't defunded that group, despite repeatedly promising to do so back when Obama was president, maybe several hundred times.

Back then, the GOP said they would, but they haven't, and they haven't kept their promise to rebuild the wall either. So is another broken promise really surprising? That's the question Steve King of Iowa has asked himself. He has proposed this, take away Planned Parenthood's funding and use it to build a border wall, a combination designed to offend progressives. Does he mean it? He joins us tonight. Congressman, thanks a lot for coming on. Thanks for having me on. So me. So this is like a fever dream in Santa Monica. Okay, stop. We're in Los Angeles. Let's be clear. The people in Santa Monica are not panicking. They are not aware of this at all. It is very chill down there. The second thing is this is, I think,

like a signal example of something that's happening now, which is like, government by trolling? Like, this must be good. It's going to really piss off liberals. Like, wow, the two things they think are really bad and dangerous, an unnecessary border wall that won't do anything,

and not allowing poor women to use Planned Parenthood for family planning and health care services, I know what we'll do. And literally, this isn't a joke when I say, this all goes back to the lack of mental health in this country. I'm not kidding. Like, that this bully mentality, these are broken people addicted to wealth. They will say it's just like addiction

to crack or anything else. They will sell their grandmother for another dollar and it still doesn't bring them happiness. It will never feel as good as that first line of Coke, but they, they, it's an addiction and it's not going to stop. It's amazing what's happened, I think, to Tucker Carlson because he is a pure clown now, just a clown. And he wasn't always a clown. He wasn't. I never liked him, but he was a writer and he was a smart person. And now he's one of these people. I'll say two things. One is, this is just like a reminder that food stamps's one of these people i'll say two things one is this is just like a reminder that food stamps are one of the single biggest assistance to poor people in the country much more than welfare welfare doesn't benefit as many people as you think it does this the welfare

amount is the same exact dollar amount today as it has been since the 90s so welfare is struggling but food stamps are an entitlement and food food stamps, like, move as the economy moves. Good thing. The thing about the border wall, and this is completely random, is that Trump said that it should be transparent. Do you remember that? Yeah, he wants to... And I was like, what? He saw, look, he saw Star Trek for the voyage home.

Oh my god. Transparent aluminum. And he remembers how that happened. Guy, thank you for coming he remembers how that happened. Guy, thank you for coming with me on that one. And ever since, he's been obsessed with it because he knows that, A, it'll really work for Border Wall, but also to move the last whales wherever you need them. Guys, if you think that's the nerdiest thing that's going to happen,

just wait until you see some of the segment names coming your way. And DeRay, one thing, just wait till you hear what he says about food stamps in about 30 seconds. Because we haven't even, so just so you know, this is a- You should be pro food stamps, everybody. Yes. This is a bill that pays for the border wall by cutting both Planned Parenthood and food stamps. Take away the Planned Parenthood federal subsidy and use it to build a border wall. Well, you know, it's a simple solution to a complex problem.

And sometimes people will say two birds with one stone. It's about that. It might actually be the whole flock with one rock if we can do this. Do you have security? The whole flock with one rock. Okay, stop.

I just want you guys to know something here. And I'm going to tell you and no one else. I am going to be using that and I'm not going to be attributing it. The whole vlog with one rock. That's pretty good. My security, so I feel pretty safe around this town. So what kind of response has this idea received? Well, there's been a lot of pushback from the liberals, and I know that our leadership will often make a comment about,

is there any kind of a Twitter storm surrounding you? So basically he says, liberals don't like it, but also some of my colleagues are making fun of it a fair amount too. I gotta tell you, I do not think Steve King is a popular guy. I always feel sorry for Peter King of New York. Oh, I misspoke. This is Steve King. I said

Peter King by mistake. I know, but it's just like a nice Long Island guy who just wants to cut taxes and is still kind of an asshole, but he has to, everybody thinks it's this guy. How about Stephen King? He's horrified by this. This is the real horror writer.

But I think it's important for us to... Wait, so Republican leadership's not not embracing this idea? They didn't embrace it right away, but you know, they're a little slow to come to these new ideas. Kind of weird though, since I remember at least a year ago, the leadership was saying we want to build a wall and we want to defund Planned Parenthood. You've provided a way to do both those things simultaneously and yet they're not congratulating you. Okay, stop. Okay, just- Tucker Carlson- This is a great example of how Tucker Carlson has now decided to make millions of dollars

pretending to be stupid. You would think that they would say, boy, why didn't I think of that? Let's do that right away. But when you look at the rest of this, another thing that caught their attention was the SNAP program or the food stamp program, as we've long known it.

And when you look at the numbers of that, it's just astonishing. When I came to Congress in 2003, there were 19 million people on food stamps. And that number elevated all the way up to 47 million. It's dialed back down to around 46 million now. And 40% of them are obese. And so we addressed the food stamp program under Lyndon Johnson, starting in about 1962. We got the program in in 65 and back then 13% of our population was obese and we were trying to solve the malnutrition problem well we've absolutely solved the malnutrition problem

so he's like don't feed people who are obese yeah you'd think they would be so that the dollar menu would be so much healthier. And one of the reasons that there's so many more people taking advantage of food stamps or SNAP, which is what the program is called, is because people don't have jobs, because the economy tanked. It's not because of obesity. And, you know, people talk about, people think that welfare is food stamps and cash assistance, but what you call welfare is actually just cash assistance. It's like people who don't earn enough.

And one of the challenges is because it's a block grant, which means that it doesn't, it's not an entitlement. It's like a block grant means that the states get like a set amount of money that doesn't change, doesn't go up. It is like a flat amount of money. So when it is out in a state, it is out. Like it's just gone. So the single biggest cash assistance that we give in this country to poor people is actually the tax code. It's through the earned income tax credit like significantly more people benefit from that than uh than welfare which is so wild but the challenge with that is if you don't file taxes so if you make no wages

then you are screwed if you're in a state that has like not a lot of welfare money or they've just maxed it out and you don't have wages you you can't get a tax credit. But food stamps you can get, which is why you should be pro food stamps and this guy sucks. I mean, you know I do kind of get what he's saying. I mean, why don't poor people just have a nice lean piece of salmon

every day with a handful of raw almonds and some quinoa on a bed of kale. That is scary. Who elected this guy? I have to do my research to figure out how we get him out of office. He is from such a blood-red district. He's a white nationalist, and he's also not very bright,

and he's going to be in Congress forever. When we come back, we're going to get into the Russia stuff. You know, because it's time. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. We're having a lovely time tonight.

We've talked about healthcare, and we're all going to go to trumpcare10.org and we're going to do our part. Right? And the reason I say that is because if you do your part on healthcare, we get to have fun

and talk about Russia and Sean Spicer. Okay? Deal. So guys, there was some pretty big news that broke tonight. I never get the chance to tell this audience anything because you guys all are just fucking on top of it, but tonight

the Washington Post had a big story that reported the following. Russia's ambassador to Washington told his superiors in Moscow that he discussed campaign-related matters, including policy issues important to Moscow, with Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential race, contrary to public assertions by the embattled attorney general, according to current and former U.S. officials. Ambassador Sergei Kislyak's account of two conversations with Sessions that a top foreign policy advisor to Republican candidate,

then a top foreign policy advisor to Republican candidate Donald Trump were intercepted by U.S. spy agencies which monitor the communications, et cetera, et cetera. Sessions has said repeatedly that he never discussed campaign-related issues with Russian officials and that it was only in his capacity as a U.S. senator that he met with Kislyak. Jeff Sessions, this is some trouble. So I feel like we all have a bit of Russia fatigue, too.

Like, there's all these news stories coming out. But it does seem that Jeff Sessions lied under oath, and that Republicans will start pointing that out. oath and that Republicans will start pointing that out. How do you guys feel right now about this endless Russia stuff? Do you feel as though we're kind of barking up the wrong tree? Do you think it's important? Are we wrong to even talk about it? Should we just let it run its course? DeRay, you know, we're in a fight here to win elections, stop bad healthcare bills. The Russia stuff, is it a distraction? Yeah, I think that I'm not sure that a ton of people care about Russia per se. I think that people care about like lying under oath, those sort of things. So I think that the more

that that becomes a narrative, you know, people I think aren't going to go to the polls about Russia. And I think that that's like a fair sort of criticism. Jeff Sessions is the devil though. So like whatever it's going to take us to like get him out of here. It's like, I super care about Russia. If it's going to get Jeff Sessions out, then like that's the strategy. Jeff Sessions is the devil though, so whatever it's going to take us to get him out of here, it's like, I super care about Russia. If it's going to get Jeff Sessions out, then that's the strategy. Jeff Sessions, meanwhile, all this stuff is coming out, but this week he announced that he's going to, he wants the Justice Department to do even more

on asset forfeiture. DeRay, this was something you were interested in talking about. Can you talk a little bit about what's happening with asset forfeiture and just how outside of the trajectory of mainstream thinking sessions is on this issue? The quick and dirty is that when there was an era of mobsters and stuff like that, there were people going around with like big amounts of money or cars and there were no receipts. They weren't paying taxes on it. So the government passed laws that allowed the police to just seize the money and it became the police department's department's property like it was theirs so they could just seize the assets and they owned it

and as you can imagine the police obviously abused it so they just go around the neighborhoods and like they're like you look like a drug dealer and they're like it's our car now you're like that is bad and you have very little rights you can't get it back so under the Obama administration pushed really hard to make sure that they they couldn't do that as much as they were before at the federal level. And he essentially just took back all of the restrictions. And he's actually encouraging departments to just seize assets where they can. So that is a bad thing. He's also dismantling the civil rights departments within agencies, which is also a really bad thing and a third thing he's doing is he's getting prosecutors to to ask for the most

aggressive sentence that they possibly can which is also overturning something that we worked really hard to push the obama administration to undo but it's he he probably likes the free slavery that the i mean this is the the prison system that's that's loophole slavery that's going and a lot of police departments that make it's a ton of profit, right? Because if you think about one person you think is a drug dealer, you get their Lamborghini or something and it's yours

and you sell it at an auction for way more than market value is that that is actually just the property of, like that money is all profit. Like there's no taxes or anything, which is huge for police departments across the country.

There are 18,000 police departments that all have the power to do this, and the federal government can also do it. So that's pretty great. So Sessions is embattled here. Now, the good news is Donald Trump is famously loyal. How many of you saw this interview that Donald Trump gave to the New York Times? So it's really worth reading it

because as an anthropological document, I actually, a friend of mine thinks that one thing that we should do is we should all be funding giant statues made of the hardest metal. One of Trump and one of Ryan and one of McConnell. And it just says these are the people that did it. That if it all goes to shit and none of us are left, these are the men that were responsible. That was not related to what I'm about to talk about.

But the reason I think this interview is interesting is you kind of see the three sides of Donald Trump. One, you see the kind of like charming guy. And I, you know I don't like him, but I do want to remind us that he's charming. There's a really funny line at the end where he tries to get out of the Russia stuff where one of the reporters says,

so Don Jr. met to get this dirt, and Trump goes, I didn't need dirt. You hear what I was saying about Hillary? How much worse could it have gotten? I didn't really need much more in my repertoire. That's just a good joke. That's like a piece funny. But the second part of it is the part where he doesn't care what happens.

He's like a totally ideology free deal maker where he's talking about the healthcare bill. He's like, it's tough. You give a little, you get a little, you take, you give. It's tough. It's tough. Healthcare's tough. He's incoherent. He doesn't know what the bill is, but there's that New York guy there. The final piece, though, is the insane narcissist who says

things he should not say. Here's what he said about Jeff Sessions. Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself. I then have, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president. How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said,

thanks Jeff, but I can't, you know, I'm not going to take you. It's extremely unfair. And that's a mild word to the president. So he recused himself and I end up with the second man who's a deputy. He's talking about Rod Rosenstein. Imagine if your boss, like you work at a Quiznos,

and then your boss goes around to all the customers in the Quiznos talking about how shitty a job you do at making sandwiches. Like, wouldn't you have to quit? The only real politician who endorsed him for most of the primary, the one member of the establishment who believed in him

did something vaguely endorsing the rule of law. And now Trump's going to set him on fire for that. The thing that's amazing about it is that it's almost like he's saying, like, in an alternate timeline, I also would have obstructed justice in this other way if I could have. The thing that's most fascinating about Donald Trump as a person is that I went to law school.

I don't practice. I read for the Mindy Project. But the thing is, is like, for all of history, when you were trying to prove just like abject racism in the process of policymaking, or somebody trying to do something truly horrible, you were always having to sort of like figure out some way of proving the things that were going on in these people's minds. And he just goes to the New York Times and tells them that. And we still can't get rid of him.

He's obsessed with Hillary. One of the most fascinating parts of the interview too is he's like, you know, Hillary tried. She's really smart. She couldn't do it either. And you're like, what? There's a part of him that's still that kind of New York Democrat guy who's like, Hillary tried. They had eight years. I've only been here 108 days. Took Obama eight years. Tough.

Gotta give him credit. Gotta give him credit. Do you think Trump is smart? Do you think he's stupid? Do you think he's fooling us? What do you think? I can't. I was just, I can't tell anymore. I mean, he seems aggressively stupid, but there's something like Peter Sellers and being there about him where he just can't seem to go wrong. I mean, he... Yeah, it does still feel as though we keep waiting for, like, gravity to kick back in, right? But it just, he never... He is the coyote,

but he keeps making it across the... He keeps looking down, and then he makes it across, and he then eats the roadrunner. No, like, he's the roadrunner. Poor Hillary, she was the coyote. Like, she the whole time was like, but this is how it works.

This is how it works. And, like, nobody understood how it works better than her, and then he defied all of that, and poor Hillary. The weirdest thing that you're saying is just the other, like, there was footage of her walking out of the woods, shaped like an accordion making that noise. It's kind of...

That was like the weirdest thing. So, stepping back from just what's happening with sessions, it's amazing how much happened this week. This week was insane. Yesterday, you remember yesterday, both the Washington Post and the New York Times had, again,

blockbuster what a few years ago would have been like once in an administration type kind of story. There were two of them on the same night. So this is the Washington Post. President Trump's lawyers are exploring ways to limit or undercut special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, building a case against what they allege are his conflicts of interest and discussing the president's authority to grant pardons. Trump has asked his advisors about his

power to pardon. I bet he has. I bet he has. Just a question. He's asked about his power to pardon AIDS, family members, and even himself in connection with the probe, according to one of those people. A second person said Trump's lawyers have been discussing the president's pardoning powers amongst themselves. One advisor said the president has simply expressed a curiosity in understanding the reach of his pardoning authority. He's just, Donald Trump is a history buff. Hypothetically. Yeah, hypothetically, Doris Kearns Trump is just curious.

This was my favorite advisor on background trying to make an excuse. This is not in the context of I can't wait to pardon myself, a close advisor said. How reassuring. Here's the best. This is sort of, I think, the nut of it. Trump has been fuming about the probe

in recent weeks, has been informed about illegal questions, and that he and his family could face his primary frustration centers on why allegations that his campaign coordinated with Russia should spread into the many years of Trump's dealmaking. He has told aides he was especially disturbed after learning Mueller would have access to several years of his tax returns. Those tax returns, they must be extraordinary. They must be a thousand pages and just filled with the kind of deals that like Soran and Solomon had for like orcs. But it's shocking that they haven't, when I talked to Snowden, I asked him, I was like,

you know. Guys, watch your feet. Names are dropping. That was smooth. I said, stop it. I interviewed Snowden for the podcast. He interviewed Snowden. If you haven't listened to DeRay's episode of Pods of the People where he talks to Snowden, you should listen to it.

I won't call him a friend because that will get me arrested by somebody. Jokes aside. Jokes aside. But I asked him, like, why – they're government documents. Like, why haven't they been leaked? And he, too, was – you know, I'm not getting – do not arrest Snowden government people who are listening. Snowden is not advocating for leaking them. But we both were surprised that their government documents and nobody

on the inside has leaked them at all. It's fascinating. It actually is a testament to institutions. The IRS doesn't leak. We don't see that stuff from the IRS. The only copy we have looked like it came from Tiffany Trump. Remember we saw the first two pages? Yeah, Maddow did that.

It was like the carbon copy that said sign here. What's the ex-wife? Marla Maples. It said sign here Marla. Or Ivanka. I don't remember which that. It was like the carbon copy that said, sign here. What was his, what's the ex-wife? Marla Maples. It said like, sign here, Marla. Or Ivanka. I don't remember which one. It doesn't matter. I firmly believe, I know that this isn't true,

but I firmly believe that he was going to do something ridiculous and someone showed him the Constitution to say, look, you can't do that. And his eyes zeroed in on the pardon power. And he's like, wait, there's another thing I can do? Like, I swear to fucking God, he's just gonna pardon everyone with over 10 million dollars in New York. Everyone

who's ever golfed, like Mar-a-Lago is gonna give you an option where you can be pardoned for everything you've ever done if you get the Platinum Plus package. You have to, oh my God, you can yes, that's what he'll do. But no,

so I think the pardon thing is interesting, what happens if he pardons himself. It sort of gives the game away. If Donald Trump pardons himself, that's a true constitutional crisis. It is... There's no answer.

No one knows the answer, but they could write the Constitution so that the president could just shoot people and then sign a document that said it's okay. Like maybe they did. He's going to pardon himself. The question I think is like, what if that were to happen, what Republicans on the Hill do? And it's not really worth speculating,

except I think we just can't have any hope that like, this is the limit that Paul Ryan has. I mean, DeRay, I don't know if you think that like, there's a line, there's a red line that Paul Ryan has. I mean, DeRay, I don't know if you think that there's a line, there's a red line for Paul Ryan. How about there were standards, and now I'm shocked. Like, every day I'm surprised. We believe, even the most cynical people, we believe that there were standards. Like, it is still,

we're still heartbroken by Paul Ryan. Even Paul Ryan's someone we don't like. We are, we did expect more from him, right? Like, as Americans. I feel like all the Republican senators are watching The Handmaid's Tale in a different way than i watch the handmaid's tale there's just there's the um truth doesn't have any currency it doesn't mean anything anymore that's the greatest achievement trump has made is that there and we live in a time where more than ever, people's minds are not changed by facts. And that's just the most depressing thing

that I've ever realized. No, I think that's really important. I actually think that's one of the lessons that I took away. Like, I feel like I didn't realize how naive I was about that. There's actually an article right now. This is going to be just everybody brace yourselves. There's an article in the LA Review of Books by Emmett Reslin about this issue, about what happens when liberals, we keep talking about these facts, and it doesn't seem like it matters anymore. And I think it's a really hard thing to accept that actually we need to remind ourselves that even if we got everybody the right answers, we still wouldn't be winning.

It doesn't matter. It does more to connect the divided America to forward videos of unlikely animal friendships. Which are delightful. It's something we can all love together and love each other through watching when he appointed Ivanka to the senior advisor to somebody to him that was when I was like wow they'll do anything

because the reality is if any brown person any shade of brown had done anything that these guys are doing like everybody the media, congress would be up in arms like if Obama had done a fraction of this stuff, you guys would have all been unemployed. You know, like, everybody.

Well, we were talking about that. Like, imagine if Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, and Malia Obama met with a bunch of, like, Chinese spies. Oh, my God. Like, you think Paul Ryan's like, I'm going to see how this plays out. Give me a break. Guys, it's time to talk about Sean Spicer.

Spicer is out. Anthony Scaramucci, who I believe... Mooch. The Mooch. I believe Scaramucci was a background actor in Wall Street 2 Money Never Sleeps I think that's where they found him actually I think what happened is

Donald Trump wished what would happen if Wall Street 2 Money Never Sleeps became a person and then Anthony Scaramucci emerged from a fog I just would like to share a story that came out today about our friend Sean Spicer.

Less than a month into, this is in the Wall Street Journal, a lot of news tonight. I'm sorry, this is important. This one's really important. We get it, you read. Less than a month into his new job, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer

needed to keep his food and drink cold. He wanted a mini fridge. He dispatched a top aide to a nearby executive office building where junior research employees are crammed into a room surviving on lean cuisine frozen lunches. Mr. Spicer wanted your ice box, the aide said, according to people

familiar with the incident. They refused to give it up. So Mr. Spicer waited until sundown after his young staffers had left to take matters into his own hands. He was spotted by a fellow White House official lugging the icebox down the White House driveway after 8 p.m.

That couldn't possibly be true. I just... I mean, it was in the newspaper. What do you think? The Wall Street Journal's fake news? It's just so bananas. I think that captures something essential about Sean Spicer,

which is that he is pitiful, but you can't feel bad for him because he's not nice. Sarah Huckabee Sanders would have walked in there in the light of day strapped it to her back and walked out of there and said fuck you boys

as she left I wanted to find a way to say our goodbyes to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and we wanted to do some kind of a montage and play a great song but there were just too many

so guys beneath your chairs are some Sean Spicer quotes Sisyphus with a mini fridge so episode named lock it in sir

so we will now participate in something I'm calling the spice melange that's for sure who's with me on that one we've had Star Trek 4 we've had the Lord of the Rings and now we head into Dune Guy's been with me on that one? We've had Star Trek IV, we've had The Lord of the Rings, and now we head into Dune.

Guy's been with me 100%. So here's how this is going to work. We each have quotes. We're going to read them as a song plays, and that's really all there is to it. Can we cue the song? And I'll kick us off. You guys are all numbered.

It'll all work out. Hello, darkness. I think a couple things. You, look, we didn't use chemical weapons in World War II. You know you had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn't even think to using chemical weapons. I think when you come to sarin gas, there was no, he was not using the gas on his own people

the same way that a shot is doing. I mean, there was clearly, I understand your point. Thank you, thank you. I appreciate that. There was not in the, he brought them into the Holocaust centers. I understand that, but I'm saying in the way that Assad used them when he went into towns, dropped them into the middle of towns, it was brought, the use of it. No, no, no, I get it, but you keep, I've said it from the day that I got here until whatever,

that there is no connection. You've got Russia. You've got Russia. If the president puts Russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that's a Russian connection. But every single person, no, well, no, that's, I appreciate your agenda here, but the reality is, oh, no, no, no, no. Hold on. No, no. At some point, at some point, report the facts. The facts are that every single person who has been briefed on this subject has come away with the same conclusion. Republican, Democrat. So I'm sorry that this disgusts you.

I am sorry. You're shaking your head. I appreciate it. But, but. DeRay, you're up. I mean, you start at the top. I don't think the president owns a bathrobe or definitely doesn't wear one.

There was no meetings and conference. I mean, it's just from top to bottom. It made up stories that just don't exist. And I think it's unfortunate for people that look to news institutions like that for their news because it's just not an accurate portrayal of what's really happening. This was the first time in our nation's history

that floor coverings have been used to protect the grass on the mall. That had the effect of highlighting any areas where people were not standing, while in years past, the grass eliminated this visual. This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. Both in person and around the globe. Small n, nine, small y, two, five, small a, small h, seven. He posted a password. Look, I don't, I don't, you can tie any of these together.

There's just not, I think there's a huge appetite for tax returns, reforms, and I'm trying not to juxtapose anything to do with today's vote. Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony said, this is your dream. Anything you can do in your dreams, you can do now. I mean, if we want to take a bunch of phrases and run them through Google and say hey who else has said them I could come up with a list in five minutes and that's what this is I want I believe we have one more song. And I did want to issue a personal plea to Sean

as we try desperately to get him to respond to us. So, Jesse, if we could play that next song with the next... There we are, together. This will just... Sean. You're my best friend and I know that we have never met because even though we were at PJ Clark's

at the same time I was afraid to say hi because I had just said that you had sold your soul on Twitter if you remember in February of 2015, I did tell you that the only thing that you could do in response to Trump was to get in your car and drive until you saw trees and then get out of your car and walk until your feet were tired and start a new life.

Over the course of the past year and a half, I have repeatedly been the only person in your life to tell you the truth, which is that deep down, you were a good person who made some bad decisions, and we could all tell on your sad, angry, confused face that you could not believe that this was your life, that this was some kind of a nightmare you were living every single day. And now here you are, back where you started. And I'm just asking you to open your heart to us at Crooked Media,

that there's a podcast with your name on it. It is called Pod Save My Soul. And we can argue about the past, but we will not judge you. You can still be a hero in this story. You can tell us what happened. You can lay it all out there. You can redeem yourself. You know where to reach me.

Just follow me back. DM me. We can start a dialogue. DM me we can start a dialogue and until then I will continue to reach out on a daily passive aggressive basis thank you

hey don't go anywhere there's more of love it or Leave It coming up. And we're back. It's time for the rant wheel. You guys know how it works. We spin the wheel. We talk about the topics as they come up. Here's what we've got tonight.

We have Ed Sheeran on Game of Thrones. We have HBO's announced show, Confederate. We have people telling me Diet Coke is bad. This is something Sarah and I talked about last night, which is people putting the word right at the end of a statement. Audience choice. We have OJ's Parole, the juice is loose. We have Elon Musk's Hyperloop.

And finally, we have Summer Jams, Guy. Something that- Summer Jams. I don't know. Guy wanted it on the wheel. I'm not even sure what we're gonna talk about when we get to Summer Jams. That's part of the fun. Let's spin the wheel.

Is this really random? We'll talk about it. It has landed on Diet Coke is bad. One more fucking person explains to me why I shouldn't be drinking Diet Coke. I'm going to lose it. You know you shouldn't drink that.

It's bad for you. Oh, really? Explain why. Oh, you're going to offer one of 50 fucking completely different reasons I hear every day. Oh, yeah. You all have your own personal science for why Diet Coke is bad.

Actually, you know, studies say it doesn't help you lose weight. Go fuck yourselves. You know, Aspartame was approved by Donald Rumsfeld. Go fuck yourselves. I'm just a guy who loves a Diet Coke in the morning, then mid-morning, then with lunch, then after lunch, then an afternoon one, then one before dinner, then one with dinner, then one during the show. I love Diet Coke. I'm going to keep drinking it. I know it's bad. It is a joy in my life. In LA, showing up someplace with like a Diet Coke and McDonald's, it's like showing up with like a squirrel on a stick.

Spin the wheel again. And Sarah, the wheel is fake, but I am a purist as to where it lands. I don't know in advance. Okay. It has landed on Summer Jams, guy. Is it Despacito? Wait, you didn't even look at that. You just knew.

We all fear, we all worry that it's Despacito. I myself was like, is this a summer without a jam? Like, wither Katy Perry. Where is my Taylor Swift being carried around in that suitcase? And then what came to me? Demi Lovato's Sorry Not Sorry. And if you haven't listened to Demi Lovato's

Sorry Not Sorry, that is the song that you need to be driving in a convertible with your three best friends to the beach listening to. I believe that may be our summer jam. I'm not certain. Rest of the panel. Summer jams. Should we spin it again? Yeah.

Pretend to look at the wheel when you read the answer. I really don't. Audience choice. So there's this problem where you can't hear them. Okay, we'll do OJ. So apparently 13 million people watched OJ Simpson's parole hearing. Yes. I gotta tell you, that could very well be fake news. That was someone

reading a tweet to me. But I just, I can't believe we're still fascinated by OJ. I can't believe we're still sort of clued in to what's going on with his parole hearing. I don't understand why everything OJ related is televised. Like, why? What is the

rule? Why is all OJ Simpson legal business is on television? Like, most parole hearings are not. Who gets that special dispensation? Does O.J. want that? Like, do you get a say? Like, if somebody wants to film any random parole hearing? It's a weird fucking thing.

I have to say, to the extent that it keeps Sarah Paulson working, I endorse it. Yes! Sarah Paulson working, I endorse it. You know, it's culture in a bad place. But the fact that we collectively went through a re-evaluation of Marsha Clark and realized that we treated her wrong,

that was cool. It was amazing. That moment when she gets the perm and she feels so confident and she walks through those doors and the walk from the doors to her seat, you watch her lose every shred of confidence, renewed confidence she had gotten, ending with the worst moment

where John Travolta gives her a thumbs up from a long shot. And her heart just hits her shoes. And we all cry. And it was amazing. Sorry. But no, it was amazing. And then you see the late night jokes, how they went after her and how that wouldn't have happened

today. How far we've come in just the way. It's fascinating. I do think it was really voyeuristic. It is weird that everything about him is news. My plug for parole, parole's a good thing. There are states like Louisiana where people have life sentences without the possibility of parole. Parole boards aren't even an plug for parole, parole's a good thing. There are states like Louisiana where people have life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Like parole boards aren't even, they're not an option for people, which is a wild thing. And what the Republicans have done across the country, mostly in states, is they have what's called truth in sentencing laws. They felt like parole boards were too lenient. They were like letting people off.

So they pass these laws that say that people have to serve like a percentage of the time they get and the parole board can't overturn it. So it's like 80 percent in some states that like you have to serve it before parole. So OJ, I hope, might be a poster child for parole reform in states. And that's like my like best self trying to do that. All right. I'm always fascinated by like what is a crime?

Like what is a felony? And so many people felony because of TV. You think that like every felon has like killed 10 people that's like what people think of but like in virginia a felon is somebody who has stolen something worth 200 or more like that is not a high bar for a felony and and if you sort of support taking away wholesale rights for felons like that is it's like people stealing bikes you know like that is, it's like people stealing bikes, you know? Like that is actually what is happening. Whereas people aren't losing their right to vote for embezzling or like any white collar crimes,

but like stealing a bike is a felony in states across the country. Don't worry. If you steal a bike and you're like a 22-year-old white kid who is just super, super stoned, you're a good kid and the district attorney will charge you as a misdemeanor. If you're a 40-year-old son of a

fucking president and you meet with Russian oligarchs, you're just a good boy who got in over his fucking head. What planet are we on? Donald Trump Jr. is just a good kid. 40-year-old man.

He's the size of chiclets. He's just a red-blooded American guy who wants to pay $40,000 to kill an elephant. I mean, come on. Give this guy a break. We don't like him either. I'm gonna choose the topic if it doesn't land on what I want to talk about. Come on, share it.

It's landed on the topic we've already covered, which is great because we're going to talk about rights. Because I am fascinated about this. So this is something Sarah noted that happens on this show and I do it. So there's a new thing where somebody will say a declarative sentence like,

I mean, look, I think this healthcare bill is going to fail, right? I think it's more, because that sounds more earnest. It's more like 25, you know, let's say, what's a fact? Like what's a, 22 million people are going to lose coverage in the next eight years under this plan, right? So it's like a statement. No, that's right. That's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I first noticed the right at the end of sentences from Yale law grads specifically. So I think it's a virus that's spread from New Haven. And the way I think about it is that it's a real kind of liberal guilt thing.

And it actually comes back to our conversation about facts earlier. It's a liberal who wants to tell you something that you should know, but lacks the confidence, knows that they should back off a little. Right? Like, I'm going to tell you some shit you should remember. Right? Or I'm going to tell you something that I know and that you don't know, but I'm going to act like we

both know it, right? I will stand in defense of people saying like constantly during their conversations. I will stand in defense of Canadians saying A at the end of their conversations because all of those little tropes are about somebody

trying to make sure that the other person that they're talking to is engaged with them and not be a bombastic asshole and as a bombastic asshole I need to stop myself from doing that and I think that it is a feminine vocal tick I think that it is a gay

vocal thing to be sort of saying like we're both having this conversation right as opposed to like a man just you know like that statue the mansplaining statue of the guy standing over the woman just forcing her to be subjected to his opinions about Radiohead

I want to thank this incredible panel. Sarah Silverman, DeRay McKesson, Guy Branum. Thank you guys so much for coming out. Thank you. Love and Oliver, it's Love and Oliver. It's back to normal sex. Love and Oliver, it's Love and Oliver.