No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Biden finally gets the good news he's been waiting for

Episode Date: March 31, 2024

Biden finally gets the good news he's been waiting for. Brian interviews newly-elected member of the Alabama state House, Marilyn Lands, who flipped a Republican-held seat by 25 points by running a campaign based on protecting abortion rights and IVF.Donate to the "Don't Be A Mitch" fund: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dontbeamitchShop merch: https://briantylercohen.com/shopYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/briantylercohenTwitter: https://twitter.com/briantylercohenFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/briantylercohenInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/briantylercohenPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/briantylercohenNewsletter: https://www.briantylercohen.com/sign-upWritten by Brian Tyler CohenProduced by Sam GraberRecorded in Los Angeles, CASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we're going to talk about a tornado of bad news for Trump and good news for Biden, and I interview newly elected member of the Alabama State House, Maryland Lans, who flipped a Republican held seat by 25 points by running a campaign based on protecting abortion rights and IVF. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. So I know we've been in kind of a doom loop where Trump does everything wrong, and yet the polling doesn't seem to budge an inch. We've finally got some good news here. Joe Biden's polling has consistently been going up lately against Trump,

at least eight national surveys showing Biden leading Donald Trump. The morning consult polls also show Biden gaining ground in six swing states, tying up the race in Michigan and Pennsylvania and now leading in Wisconsin as the momentum in this race clearly starts to shift. Add that to some more recent news for Biden. Just this past week, he held a fundraiser in New York with former president's Obama and Clinton, pulling in $25 million from just one event alone. That $25 million is more than Trump pulled in in December and January combined,

and Biden did it in a single day. Here's another one, something that I personally have been calling for. Remember that a February Quinnipiac poll showed that about half of Haley voters would vote for Trump, while about 37% would vote for Biden. Nikki Haley is a Republican. She was Trump's own United Nations ambassador. The fact that fewer than half of her supporters would come out for Trump

is not only a huge warning sign for Trump, but it poses a massive opportunity for Biden, that this many Republicans are in play. In fact, Haley basically left the Biden campaign a trail of breadcrumbs in terms of which voters in each primary state are persuadable, which, if I'm talking about it, you better believe that the Biden campaign knows about it and is acting on it. Which brings us to this ad that the Biden campaign just released.

It's a mash-up of some statements that Trump has made about Nikki Haley and her voters, and the text on the screen says, if you voted for Nikki Haley, Donald Trump doesn't want your vote, save America, join us. Nikki Haley has made an unholy alliance with rhinos, never-Trumpers, Americans for no prosperity. She was sitting there like... She's gone crazy. She's a very angry person.

She is not presidential timber. I don't need votes. We have all the votes we need. She's gone haywire. There aren't that many never-Trumpers anymore. How do you bring these Mickey Haley voters back into the tent? I'm not sure we need too many. And look, this ad is the first step,

but it signals that the Biden campaign is taking this opportunity seriously. And by the way, that doesn't mean that Biden's going to start tacking right. You know, it doesn't mean he's going to call for tax cuts for billionaires or start fearmongering about migrant caravans, but there's plenty of issues where the left and these pro-democracy Republicans, these Haley voters, do have common ground that Biden could exploit, like protecting NATO, like protecting the freedom to have autonomy over your own body, like IVF and building your family, like defending democracy.

Remember, what Trump and these MAGA acolytes are advocating for is not American or patriotic, and he is losing people even on the right because of that. Biden doesn't have to reinvent the wheel to show these non-Trump supporting Republican that there's a lot of common ground between the two sides. If nothing else, then our mutual support for a democratic system of government. In fact, I spoke with Tim Miller as part of our YouTube series called Inside the Right about this exact issue, and he echoed this optimism about the Biden campaign as it relates

to Haley voters. You know, there's an article in Politico today about how maybe Biden could be doing even more to try to reach out to these former Republicans, but in this article, it said that he hadn't called, I think, Pence and Christy yet, which I think he should, but he had called Haley. And I think that was noteworthy. And there was a separate article in the dispatch about how Biden's finance team had reached out to the pro-Haley grassroots and finance organizations. So you can tell that they are taking this seriously. I'd like to take more seriously.

It doesn't mean, and here's the thing, it doesn't mean pandering onto like conservative issues really, right? It means talking about the issues where you agree, NATO, Ukraine, for example, come to mind. And then also just kind of leveraging the other allies, which are, you know, people that went and worked for Trump that have spoken out against him, Liz Cheney, Cassidy Hutchinson, John Kelly, Mike Pence, right, like trying to just sort of solidify that group and use them as surrogates to speak to the Haley voters. Those are kind of the elements, I think, that are going to go into this campaign. And it's clearly a good start what we've seen so far this week. So again, we should feel really good about what this ad signifies. More good news? What does everybody say elections are about at the end of the day?

The economy. And the economy has been strong, but there's been this languishing gap between how strong the economy is and also the credit that Biden was getting for presiding over it. Well, that gap is finally starting to close, and it's coming at a good time as we head into November. The stock market is hitting fresh highs every week. The unemployment rate has been below 4% for the longest uninterrupted stretch in a half century. Biden's added 15 million jobs, consumer sentiment is surging to its highest point in years,

the U.S. is energy independent, and as more and more people begin to feel these changes, it'll continue to benefit the guy at the top, who is Joe Biden. And one last thing, Trump seems increasingly incapable of helping himself. His rallies are just straight American carnage revenge toward dystopias. His campaign is predicated on releasing prisoners who assaulted cops on January 6th. He wants a nationwide ban on abortion. And right now, the only people who know, know that are the people who read his posts on true social or who go to his rallies.

Trump isn't really platforms right now, meaning that once people do start to tune in and listen to this lunatic's unhinged diatribes, it's only going to hurt him. And the fact is that he's starting his first criminal trial on April 15th, and he will almost certainly go into this next election, a convicted felon. Add that on top of the fact that he's already been found liable of rape and found liable of fraud, and all of this combined is not going to do him any favors with people outside of the orbit that is his cult. So look, the point of me saying this is not to say that Biden's got this thing in the bag or that Trump is done for.

Obviously, we have to be vigilant because anything can happen. And in this country, it does tend to happen more often than we like. But it is to say that we can win and that we've got the momentum on our side. So much of the right strategy is just to make us feel helpless, that we should just throw our hands up and give up because, you know, he's Teflon Don and nothing bad ever happens to him. They want you to despair because that helps them. So don't give them the satisfaction because far from Donald Trump being invincible, he is in as precarious a situation right now as he's ever been. Next up is my interview with Marilyn Lanz.

Now we've got Marilyn Lanz, who just flipped a Republican-held statehouse seat in Alabama by a massive 25-point margin. First off, congratulations, and thank you for taking the time. Thank you, Brian. I'm excited to be here. So first off, how did you navigate running a campaign predicated on abortion and IVF in a state like Alabama? We knew that abortion was going to be a key part of our messaging when we went into the campaign. In my 2022 campaign, the Dobbs decision hadn't been handed down yet. And once that came, it became a piece of that campaign. This time around, things have been a little bit different.

And women's health care and reproductive rights have sort of been at the heart of this campaign. And when we started this campaign, we hadn't had the IVF ruling here in this state. And so that was a real shocker. And then that became part of the conversation. And I've had so many people reach out to me to share their own stories. And I think people are talking about these issues now, more openly and more freely. And I think that's really healthy dialogue that's taking place now. I know that your story in particular has been a central,

focus of your campaign. Would you mind sharing that today? Glad to do that. It started when I saw the Diane Sawyer special on the brink, and she profiled up, believe it, 16 women from across the country who've been affected by the abortion ban. And one of those women, Alyssa Gonzalez, is a young woman who also lives in Alabama. And I reached out to her, and my husband and son and I went over to meet with Alyssa and her family. And her story and mine have many parallels. And I shared my story then with Alyssa. And we both were to have second sons.

These were very much wanted additions to our families. Both of the babies had a genetic disorder trisomy. Hers was a trisomy 18. Mine was trisomy 13. both of us were told that the babies were not viable at all. It was catastrophic, and both of us were told that our lives were at risk. But in Alyssa's case, she had to travel 500 miles to a place she'd never been to before with a doctor she had never met, whereas two decades ago, I got the care that I needed right here

with my own doctor in my own hospital. and the stark contrast of the fact that we have taken this giant step backwards really compelled me at that point to share my story. Help take us through what your interactions with voters have been like because I'm assuming, you know, these aren't exactly Medicare for all advocates calling for a $50 minimum wage. So who are these voters and what has it been like on the campaign trail for you? It's been interesting and it's been very personal, not just telling my own

personal story, but also from hearing from so many other women and families that have been affected by not just the kind of situation, Alyssa and I were in, but miscarriages and epitopic pregnancies and now the fertility issue. And I knock on doors and women hug me. You know, it's been just really incredible. And people have been sharing stories with me that they said, I haven't spoken about this in 30 years or nobody knows this except my immediate family. And often these kinds of situations that families find themselves in can be very isolating. And I hope that's one of the things that's coming from having these conversations around these issues is that they're coming out into the open more and that people will get more

support when they're going through difficult times like this. On that topic, can you speak about the chasm here between a Republican Party that purports to be pro-family? And yet, for many American families out there, the IVF is the only way to do that. So how do they bridge that divide? Because there does seem to be like a pretty major degree of cognitive dissonance at play. I find it very challenging to talk with some people who were so entrenched. I think there's just this black and white thinking going on where people don't realize the nuances. Pregnancy is always risky. And I think stories help people to really understand more about what's at stake. And of course, my district's a little bit different

because I have a lot of Republican support. And there's a lot of Republicans in my area who consider themselves traditional Republicans and are very much for reproductive rights and freedoms. And then I find a lot of people who talk in terms of, you know, they may be pro-life, but they did not think the government should be legislating that and that that's their own personal viewpoint and don't want to impose it on others. And in Alabama, it seems like we're really almost imposing our religious beliefs into our governmental process. And we don't all believe the same way. Can you talk a little bit about the political realignment that we're seeing as the result of Dobbs and how it's impacted

you in your district specifically? I think, and I look at that more broadly, I guess, in the context of, you know, we've got to go back and overturn this Dobbs decision. We've got to, everybody in this country has the right to reproductive health. care. So it's larger, I think, than just the state. And I think that my election really highlights that the people want something different. You had mentioned before a little bit about how you have support from Republicans. And that's a topic that's especially piqued my interest because I think a lot of a lot of what Democrats are looking to do as we move toward November is build up a coalition that will include pro-democracy, Republicans and independents. And then, of course, Democrats,

moving forward. So can you walk us through a little bit about what you heard from folks who are Republicans who opted to vote for you? Yes. So many of the Republicans that I have spoken with tell me that they look at the candidate and the issues more so than the party line. And even those who say I always am going to vote party for on the national agenda, they don't want Trump, the people at least that I've been talking with. So they're in a quandary. and some of them have even expressed to me that I know that a no vote or a right-in vote is a vote for Trump, and I just can't do that this time. That is promising.

I mean, you know, for those of us who kind of are fed a narrative by the media that just suggests that everybody on Team Red is on Team Red. They're all going to vote for Trump, and everybody on Team Blue is Team Blue, and they're all going to vote for Biden, and that's it, and there's nothing in between. So you're saying that you have heard nuances from folks, even on the right, who are kind of acknowledged. that even though they may be traditional longtime Republicans, that they're not willing to vote for Trump in this upcoming election. Exactly. And another interesting thing about my race, 22 years ago, the man who held this seat as a Republican for 20 years, I was his campaign manager.

And I was a Democrat. I've never changed, but we were friends and neighbors. And that meant, you know, more. and I knew he had a real heart for mental health, which is what my background is in. And he has endorsed me this time around. And I'm very proud of that. So I think I really just, my hope is that we will get back to something like we used to have where we could still be friends and neighbors, even if we disagree.

Switching topics a little bit, the Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments on Miffa Pristone, which is the abortion medication, what's your reaction to conservatives seeking to invoke the Comstock Act as a predicate to ban Miphaepristone, which is, you know, this 1800s law that says that you can't use abortion medication through the mail? I'm just really flabbergasted that these things keep being pushed when I don't think it's what the people want. And I think they're spinning a narrative that many of them don't even believe. It's just hard for me to feel. fathom this place that we're at. And I have a friend who is a professor. He's not in political science. I guess rhetoric is what he's in. But he's written a book on, I think it's called

overturned, and that, you know, when the original abortion laws were put on the books back in the mid-1800s, the way it was written, and it did say pregnant, but pregnant in that time and place meant after quickening. So they were really trying to just prevent late-term abortions because of the, you know, health challenges with that. So we should have never been in this place to start with. And I would add, too, that right now, according to the CDC, 99% of abortions do happen before 21 weeks. So the vast majority of these abortions that are happening after 21 weeks are just because of health defects or issues, like, to your point, your story, your story that you yourself told earlier or, or people that, you know, I'm sure you've spoken

with on the campaign trail. But these are, these are not people. I know that it gets framed in the media as if Democrats are just casually, you know, going in for abortions like, like they're choosing their next Netflix movie. But it's not. I mean, these are women who are in the most, I guess, heart-wrenching moment of their lives and dealing with something dealing with like immeasurable pain and then to be to be scapegoated in that moment by these republicans who know better by the way who know better is is kind of the

ultimate is the ultimate shameful act that they could perpetuate onto these people and and what about you know women who have been raped i mean what peace of mind that pill could give them to know that then they don't have to go through an agonizing decision. Yeah. Now, can you take us on the campaign trail with you for a moment? What message has been especially potent in terms of garnering support from people? Like, what line, what message to Democrats across the country seek to replicate? Well, again, Alabama has some unique challenges.

One of the things that really has resonated in my campaign is eliminating the grocery tax. Alabama is one of a handful of states that tax groceries. And another thing we have talked about, I talk about health care a lot, especially mental health care, public education. But the other thing I talk about a lot is economic well-being because North Alabama is we just excel at economic development. And there's lots of jobs coming in here, good-paying jobs. But we don't have economic well-being here. We have many, many families who are struggling. And I think sometimes we focus so much on the economic development side of the equation,

and that's important. And I want to continue to support that and see us grow and develop and thrive. But we have to ensure economic well-being for all of our families here, and that should be a priority. And let's finish off with this. What's your message to other candidates in traditionally red areas in light of your victory in Alabama? I think people are ready for change. I want to encourage more women to run for office, and I want to help to be a champion for that, and we're looking at providing mentors to women who want to run, someone to come

along and champion and mentor them, companion them along the way. Women are underrepresented in government, most everywhere, particularly in the South, and we need to change that. Well, Marilyn Lanz, congratulations again, and I'm sure we'll be hearing much more from you, and thanks for taking the time. Thank you, Brian. Have a good day. Thanks again to Marilyn.

That's it for this episode. Talk to you next week. You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen, produced by Sam Graber, music by Wellesie, and interviews edited for YouTube by Nicholas Nicotera. If you want to support the show, please subscribe on your preferred podcast app and leave a five-star rating in a review. And as always, you can find me at Brian Tyler Cohen on all of my other. channels or you can go to bryantaylorcoen.com to learn more