No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Elon-Trump blow up nears fever pitch

Episode Date: January 1, 2025

Brian interviews Fox LA's Elex Michaelson about the impending Trump-Elon blow up and predictions for 2025.Shop 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.

Hey, everybody. So as has become a tradition here on No Lie, I'm going to be joined by my buddy, Fox LA's Alex Michelson, to do our annual year-end wrap-up. But before we jump in, I do want to offer a huge thank you to everybody who's taking a little bit of time each week to listen to this podcast. I know that you've got more options than there are minutes in the day, so I really appreciate you tuning in. And as independent media becomes more and more central to politics in 2025 and beyond, I can guarantee you that I will learn the lessons that legacy media seems in. intent on forgetting. So thank you again. Happy New Year. And here's my chat with Alex Michelson. I'm joining now by the anchor at Fox LA and the host of The Issue is, which is California's biggest statewide political show, Alex Michelson, Alex, thank you for joining me in what is our third annual end of the year discussion where I guess we wrap up all the crazy shit that's happened

thus far. It can't be a happy new year without talking to you. So thank you for having me, Brian. and happy New Year to you and to all of the no-lie viewers and listeners. Well, thank you, thank you. All right. So let's get into it. I want to talk about a little bit of what this year brought. But first, let's get into some of the breaking news that we're contending with right now. There may be some speaker drama that might be coming up on the 3rd of January.

That is, you know, if we look back to this last speaker selection, I think there were 15, 16, 17 votes to ultimately choose 15 votes. choose a speaker, do you anticipate that there's going to be any drama this time around? And I mostly asked, by the way, because I'm planning on going on vacation, and I have to know whether or not I have to reschedule. Well, you should still go on your vacation because we need to learn balance, which you and I don't know how to do. But there's a good chance that there's going to be some drama. I mean, let's just talk about the math here.

You need to get 218 votes to be elected speaker. Republicans have 219 votes. At least one member, Thomas Massey, has said, I'm not voting for him. And I'm voting for somebody else. Because the math, you need to get a majority of the number of people who are voting for a person. So if you vote, abstain, I'm not voting for anybody. That changes the math dynamics of all this, which makes it kind of confusing. So if Massey is out, that means one other person won't vote for Mike Johnson.

And he can't become the speaker. and then it becomes okay what else do you need what do you want do we do multiple rounds of this but you know this is problematic and and mike johnson was looking pretty good until of course Elon Musk that's right decided to get involved and to stop his bipartisan deal to fund the government that he had been working on for months with akim jeffreys and then evoke a big public shaming of the Republican Party and the Republican Speaker, and then all the folks that are trying to get on Elon's good side come out against it in a very public way. And all of a sudden, Mike Johnson looks smaller and looks like he doesn't have control of his caucus. Ultimately,

he's able to get something over the finish line. There isn't a government shutdown. And the Democrats essentially came all together to bail him out and keep the government going. But it doesn't make Johnson look good. And he pissed a lot of people off in the process. And a lot of people, in his caucus felt like he wasn't being communicative enough and they didn't feel seen or heard by him. So, you know, that, you know, here's a couple interesting things to keep in mind, Brian. If there is no speaker, there is no Congress, Congress can't do anything else until the speaker is selected because then all the members are considered representative elects. They're not actually taking the oath of office because the speaker has to give them

the oath of office. So if this goes day after day after day, and there isn't a speaker, that means there's no Congress on January 6th to certify the results of the election. So that gets pushed back. And hard to imagine this, but if somehow we get to January 20th and there's no speaker, which means there's no certification of the election, then there's no President Trump. And then the president possibly would become. the next in line, it wouldn't be the, there would be no president, there'd be no vice president, there'd be no speaker. That would be the Senate president pro tem, who once the Republicans take over, the Senate, because there would be a Republican Senate at that point, would be Chuck Grassley,

who is 91 years old. Man, Joe Biden, Joe Biden is going to look like, he's going to look like AOC relative to Chuck Grassley taking the oath of office there on January 20th. To take us through this constitutional crisis, we'd have the wisdom of Chuck Grassley. So hard to imagine all that happens, but there is a real shot that Mike Johnson isn't the guy, but then the question is who is? Who would be able to pull this caucus together? Who would be able to navigate this? And it also goes to what I think is a political reality that the Republicans barely winning the House

could be the worst thing that ever happened to Donald Trump. Because if the Democrats barely won the House, he'd be able to blame the Democrats. for everything. Correct. Anything that would go bad. He owns all of this now. Everything that's going to happen. There won't be any Democrats in the Senate to blame.

There won't be any Democrats in the House to blame. Everything, their successes, and their failures will lie squarely on the plates of the Republican Party. And it's almost impossible to do anything with the kind of caucus that they have. And that would be hard for Nancy Pelosi to navigate, perhaps the greatest strategic thinking speaker ever. And nobody on either side has. called Mike Johnson the greatest strategic thinking speaker ever. And it would be tough for whoever would potentially be in there after him. And so what Trump has done throughout his life is he's always found somebody to blame for things not going well.

And so now, because he didn't get the debt ceiling increase, which is what he wanted, because he wants to blow up the debt by increasing or lowering taxes for rich people. so he's now blaming Mike Johnson who did everything possible to be as loyal as you could I mean he showed up at the UFC fight he's on the plane with Trump he goes to the Navy thing with Trump

he's there none of that matters loyalty for Trump is a one-way street it's not about how much it's not about how much loyalty you expect in return it's only about how much loyalty you give and the only thing worse than these Republicans than these Republicans engaging in this farce this completely demeaning farce, is the fact that none of them recognize that it's,

that, again, it's not about going both ways. It is always and only about how much loyalty you show Trump. And it's what have you done for me lately? What have you done for me today? And you can just ask Mike Pence about that. Correct. Correct. Let me ask you this.

Do you think that this matters? Do you think suppressing the dysfunction matters in this Republican Party? Do you think that it matters to show some? sense of like, okay, we can actually rise to the occasion, we can do the bare minimum by electing a speaker, or do you think when you have a party full of so many arsonists, as today's Republican Party is, that for a lot of them, it actually inures to their political benefit to make sure that even, you know, drama be damned, that things are a little bit more difficult, that we don't, that we don't vote for Mike Johnson, that it's not about party

unity, it's just about, I don't know, for a lot of these people, frankly, it's just about perpetuating and promoting their own brands and if that means they have to be a flamethrower against their own party now so be it yeah and matt gates obviously is the kind of person that would be an example of that which is why we don't have speaker kevin mccarthy right now yes it matters because it's not a game it's not a fucking game it's not a tv show we're not watching house of cards this is the real united states government people are dependent upon these funds. People are dependent upon these services. The country needs to function. And so all of this, you know, let me get my X clicks and let me get my follows and let me get, you know, all of this

may be great for these people, but who ends up suffering is the people that are in need of the services of the government. And so, yes, it matters. It matters if we don't have a House of representatives. What happens if the country is attacked and we need to declare war and Congress needs to allocate funding because all money comes from Congress and there's no fucking Congress. Right. So yes, we all get so cynical where we think of this so much in terms of political gain and showing this person and showing that person. But that doesn't help the person who is struggling that needs help. And that's, that is the disconnect. that a lot of people felt that we saw in this past presidential election,

this feeling that as much as all this back and forth is happening and all this gamesmanship, this feeling that politicians as a whole are not looking out for me. They're looking out for themselves, and that's a real problem. Yeah, and frankly, I think with this Congress and this cast of characters and the people who are now emboldened because of how slim this majority is, I don't foresee it getting any better. I don't foresee the Margie Telle Greens of the world saying, hey, let's put our own personal

ambitions aside so that we can defer to party unity and look good for the American people. Something tells me that that's not going to be priority number one. You had indicated that a lot of this really came about as the result of Elon Musk sticking his nose into the government's business here now that he's the de facto president and somehow he's convinced Donald Trump probably with his $400 billion bank account to step aside for the moment being. But do you anticipate, given all of the attention... Well, Trump would not agree with that, but okay, that's your reading of it. That's my reading of it for the moment, which I guess leads me to this question, do you anticipate that given all

the attention that Elon Musk has managed to usurp from Donald Trump, do you see a blowup imminent or do you think that there is going to be? I mean, this is the most deferential that I've seen Trump to anybody. I would presume it has something to do with his money, but you know, let me know if you think otherwise. But do you think that, that, A, he's okay with this and that, B, that this kind of deference that he's paying him that Trump is paying Elon is going last? Well, if you look at the history of both of these guys who I've studied very closely, and I'm sure you have to and read multiple biographies about both of them, their entire lives are littered with people that they used to be close with who they then have blowups with.

So both of them are used to the fact of using somebody until they're no longer useful and then basically discarding that person. And sometimes that same person later becomes useful again and then they come back into their orbit. That being said, both of them are useful to each other right now. I think Musk is loving this attention. He, you know, Trump is incredibly powerful. It can help him not only with all of his businesses, but it can help him with his genuinely. genuine desire to improve humanity. Now, you may differ on how that works and what that's about, but, I mean, Musk has a worldview on a lot of things, and Trump is helpful in potentially

carrying that out. And Elon Musk clearly has been helpful for Donald Trump, not only with the hundreds of millions of dollars he's given him, but also the information flow, controlling X and and really being at the top of mind for the Republican basis way of perceiving information. Even if all of them aren't on X every day, the leaders of the party are and the conservative thinkers in the party are and the way that people get their information is being filtered now through Elon Musk's algorithm, that's tremendous power. Right. And I completely agree with that, by the way. And I do think that Elon probably made off better, will easily get a return on his investment, whether it's already through what

we've seen with the continuing resolution, him being able to strip out that provision, which allowed the U.S. government to throttle investment in China. That's gone now to the benefit of somebody like Elon Musk, who does a ton of business in China, has been spending years and years building up his presence in China. He has a Tesla factory in Shanghai. So I do think that he's already seeing the benefits of that multiple times over. So there's no doubt about his return on investment. I'm curious now as we as we see these competing factions looking to lead in the Republican Party over at the Democratic Party, who do you think is the leader of the Democratic Party right now? There isn't one. And that's a problem. Although that's not that unusual

to have after a situation like what we've seen here. I've seen some, writing and thinking about this. And the Democrats are in a similar position than they were after 2004. If you think about that, that's the last time that a Republican won the popular vote. George W. Bush, he beat John Kerry. It was a relatively close election, but Bush still won. And in that moment, Republicans had lost the Congress in 2002. They had total grip on power in 2004. And in the years ahead, Republicans overstepped. In 2006, Democrats were able to retain control of the House and somebody named Nancy Pelosi took over as our first female speaker

and started pushing back on the Iraq War. And then a couple years later, a young guy out of Chicago named Barack Obama became the President of the United States in an electoral college landslide. And Democrats not only took control of the House and the Senate, but had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and one of the biggest majorities it had in the House ever. So, you know, that happened in four years.

So a lot can happen in the next four years if the Republicans overstep and if the Democrats play their cards right. And I think most people, if you were talking back in 2004, would not have thought that Barack Obama was going to be the nominee. They thought he'd be the nominee years down the road. they thought it would most likely be Hillary Clinton or somebody else, a very different kind of race. And Barack Obama was such a political talent that he kind of cut the line and he thought he was ready and the voters were ready for him.

And the party voters chose a different choice than probably some of the party elders would have chosen. And Democrats listened to that and that's what happened. So the leader of the party may not even be somebody that we're thinking of right now. I mean, there's the obvious choices of all the governors that have seemed to be interested in running for president, although none of them really say that they are. But is there somebody else that's out there. But that is the advantage of having an election. And some would say that's the disadvantage for the Democrats of Joe Biden staying in a race. He probably was too old to be in and depriving voters of having a primary.

James Carville said to me a couple of years ago that it's one thing when you look at candidates and you can compare them to sort of horse. horse racing. You can look at a horse in the stable and they look really great, but until they go out there and run, you don't get a sense of how they are as an athlete. And, you know, we got to see some of these people run. We got to see how do they handle opposition research? How do they handle a press corps that's, you know, all over them? How do they do in debates? How do they do in town halls? How do they do with unscripted moment? What is their vision for the party? What's their social media a game like, who's their base? I mean, we can talk about all these people on paper and compare Gavin Newsom to Josh Shapiro to Gretchen Whitmer and all the rest of it. But it's different when

you actually see them out there on the course, you know, doing their thing. There is a consensus that we are in a moment where generational change is not just encouraged, but it's absolutely necessary right now. And already Democrats had failed one small test in being able to elevate somebody like AOC to the top of oversight opting instead to give that position to Jerry Connolly, who for all intents and purposes has done a good job.

I have no beef with him other than the fact that AOC has this singular ability within the Democratic Party to grab the nation's attention and we live in the attention economy. Jerry Connolly doesn't have that ability and so this was just an opportunity for Democrats to show

A, that they're taking generational change serious. and be that they understand the information environment that we're living in. And they failed that test. And so it's going to be, you know, clearly there are lessons to learn right now that Democrats are not taking seriously thus far. And, you know, it remains to be seen whether they're going to be willing to embrace so many of the other ideas that we need to actually bring this party into the 21st century to actually regain a lot of the people that we've lost across every demographic group

to get them back, which I guess leads to the question here is, what do Democrats have to do moving, where do the Democrats go from here, in your opinion, as we head into the second Trump term? Well, the Democrats should focus on democracy, which is listening to voters. You know, a lot of people would say that, and they said they did a hell of a lot of focusing on democracy

during this last year, and that didn't really redound to their benefit all that much while people were talking about the price of eggs. I don't mean, no, no, I don't mean democracy as a concept. I mean, the concept of democracy, which is listening to people. Let people tell you what they want. Talk to people. Don't talk to people.

Don't talk down to people. Don't tell them about your values. Talk to them about theirs. Find out what's going on in people's lives. Talk to them about the price of eggs. And guess what? Let them vote. Let them vote on who they want.

Have an open contest and let a bunch of people put out. their ideas and then pay attention i mean look at the democrats this past year right there was for the entire 86% of the country thought that joe biden should not be the president of the united states and democrats were insisting that he was fine and nothing was wrong there were huge bipartisan majority saying that there was a problem at the border that there were problems with inflation and democrats kept telling people inflation is transitory whatever the fuck that means right that doesn't help anybody buy their eggs. They were telling people, the border is secure, it's fine.

And then every day you see these images of people flooding in. And so you're not trusting people to talk straight to them. The party needs to start talking like a real person. You know, you look at somebody like John Federman as I wear my hoodie right now. You know, some people might like him or some people might not like him. And, you know, it's hard to agree with him on everything. But when you listen to him, you get the sense that he believes in what he's saying and that he's not gaslighting you right i think the party needs more people like that people respect that and in

this information universe uh where people have become so much savier and are getting stuff thrown at them in every direction all the time uh in terms of information the same boring stale talking point you know coming from the dnc down sort of philosophy i don't think works i don't think people connect to that and so if the republicans overreach they probably will because almost every majority party does when they're in this situation, Democrats and Republicans. I think the Democrats need to address the issues that people really feel in their core and provide some potential solutions that talk to where people are at. I think that's exactly right. And I would add to it that I think that's a large portion

of it. I think another faction of it is, you know, we are up against structural disadvantages because the right has a propaganda machine at their disposal that the left never invested in. So the right can say, okay, you know, you mentioned inflation, you mentioned immigration. And yes, people are talking about these issues every day, but in large part they're talking about these issues every day because right-wing media puts them front and center on a daily basis.

They are able to define the narrative. Now, I think you and I would both agree that they're real issues, but in large part they're able to put forward a lot of issues that they decide they want to be in the narrative. I mean, you know, I mean, this has been, exactly, this has been beat to death, but, you know, gender reassignment surgeries among trans inmates in prison. That was not a real issue, but by virtue of the stranglehold that they have over our media ecosystem, they were able to make it one to the point where most people, according to polling, who these are swing voters who broke for Trump, thought that the Democrats were too focused on fringe issues like focusing on trans people. And this wasn't even a tenant of Kamala Harris's campaign, but because of the, because of the nearly, quarter of a billion dollars that was put behind that those issues, they then were kind of

thrust into the zeitgeist in a way that they wouldn't otherwise have been. So I think that the Democrats, in large part, not just learning how to listen to people and to talk like regular people, but also learning how to build up a media environment so that they can actually compete in the year 2025 and moving forward and not just relying on legacy media, which is largely hostile to the very party that we've decided as our media. infrastructure so so i do hope that there is some understanding of of kind of this media environment that we're living in right now and more of more of a focus among these democrats on on you know propping up and and building up and nurturing independent progressive media to kind of even just begin to

counteract what the right has been doing for the last decade or more um with some of that also just to go off of that is um you know in this media environment that you just talked about ignoring issues and hoping that they go away is not an effective strategy. Correct. You can't just not talk about the transgender thing if they're spending that much money on the ads and think that people are just not going to see it.

Right, correct. All it does is create a vacuum that Republicans will then fill with their own narrative. Like Democrats think that, oh, it's not worth our time. It's not, we're not going to dignify this with a response. Republicans are, you know, dancing all the way to the bank because they see like, look, they have ceded this ground to us completely.

We have carte blanche here to rewrite the narrative exactly as we want to be written. I mean, if she would have said, I, as vice president, have traveled the country, I've thought about these issues, I've talked to leaders in all around the country, and I've changed my mind on this

because I've learned and I've grown. Yeah. Then what else is there to say? Then that issue becomes more moot. And then you could say, well, which was she going to go? And we've seen her flip fly. But I don't know.

I mean, I think that people can understand that, if you explain that, but saying nothing or seem weirded out or being so focused on not frustrating a small fringe minority part of the base that you miss the giant picture, which is the overwhelming majority of voters, that's problematic. I want to throw a question to you. You ask me, who do you think is the leader of the party? Who do you think is the leader of the party? That's a good question.

Weirdly, I think that media figures are going to be more important moving forward because we live in a media environment where people aren't really getting a sense of who the party is by the politicians themselves. I mean, we know full well, other than maybe AOC, who's able to build up an audience under herself, the politicians themselves aren't really on the Democratic side, aren't really the people who have a direct line of access to the vast majority of Americans. I mean, I do think that as we enter the creator economy, the influencer economy, this media environment will allow a lot more people to get their news from independent sources

about what politics is and about what the political parties are doing. But other than AOC, I mean, like, who has the ability to talk directly to people? Nobody's invested that time or energy. So, you know, like... You're not listening to the Gavin Newsom, Marshawn Lynch podcast every week. just going to say, I mean, we can point to the people who we know are waiting kind of in the wings, like on the Democratic bench. You know, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer, Wes Moore. And there are a lot of really talented politicians. I mean,

AOC, although I think she's very smart about biding her time and not jumping in too early so that she's not just this perpetual presidential candidate. But other than that, like, it doesn't really feel like any of these people are the leader of the party. I don't know. Maybe my mind goes to Barack Obama since he's the last Democrat who, who not only won a general election, but is still in good standing of the party. And I do think that in large part, people are going to look at Barack Obama

as, again, like an authority figure as we look toward somebody, but I don't know, it feels that the party is pretty decentralized right now. And I think people are going to be taking their cues, not just from the politicians, but just from folks in the broader media sphere, I think. I think this was a tough year for Barack Obama, though, too.

there's so much hurt between him and the Bidens and what happened there and what happened with Harris and his legacy and I think he he leaves this year in a weaker position than he started it. Perhaps. I mean, I think that's still the biggest star in the party. He's still the biggest star in the party and I think everything is relative, right? So if you look at what Democrats, what Democrats have reached the highest levels, I mean, there really is no way to compare Kamala Harris and Joe. Like, in terms of the quality of candidate, Joe Biden's brand is so damaged. And obviously Kamala Harris's brand as a failed presidential candidate, her brand is damaged as well. I think, relatively speaking, you can also make the argument that that puts so much more focus on the success of somebody like

Barack Obama. I mean, you look back what we would give to be able to have like an election night like we had in 2008 at this point. Yeah. And our pal Mike Murphy likes to say the most powerful word in advertising is new. And the Democrats need something new. Barack Obama was new in 2008. It's 20, 2025. So, you know, I think that the party would be desperate and eager to have something that feels fresh. And for a beat, Kamala Harris felt fresh, which is why you saw so much energy and enthusiasm

behind her when she first started. but the longer that she wore on and the less questions she asked answered and the less capable she was of differentiating herself from Joe Biden and that's when you saw her numbers start to go down when it became less about fresh and new and more about oh wait is this more of the same right okay so let's let's let's end this tradition as we always do and I want to know what was your most memorable moment of 2024 well other than with my friend Brian. That's it.

Yeah. I mean, I had some cool moments professionally. Um, got to travel on Air Force two with Kamala Harrison, but I've known for 25 years. I got to moderate the first California U.S. Senate debate, which was really fascinating, um, for me and, and, uh, but I think that there were three moments that totally stand out for the whole country, um, that I will never forget and that we're truly shocking in a place where there's not that much that is shocking. That is the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, the most important debate in the history of the country. When midway through the debate,

I was hosting a debate post show and I looked around and I said, oh my God, he's not going to be the nominee. He can't. They're going to have to get rid of Joe Biden, which is crazy, crazy thought. The Sunday when Donald Trump was shot and almost killed and how crazy that was and getting up and doing the fight, fight, fight, and for me, going to the RNC and seeing everybody with their bandages on their ears in solidarity with him and the sort of godlike figure that he had become there and everything that came with that. And then the end of that week, the next Sunday, Joe Biden dropping out of the race. You know, we have never, ever seen anything like this in the history of American politics, the amount of whiplash, the, the dramatics of that,

the unexpected nature of when all of them happened, it really was something else. And I think it'll be studied for generations. What about you? I would say probably the most memorable moment. Real quick, on the day that there was the near assassination of Trump, that was actually, I think we were in the middle of the summer. I had worked months and months and months straight,

seven days a week, 12 hours a day. And I was like, I am going to take some time off. I'm going to, I'm just going to take a weekend and not bring any of my gear and just go, go on a, take a weekend, go to Palm Springs and just finally get a moment to relax. Palm Springs is about two hours away from L.A. And I'm about an hour and 50 minutes out, out of L.A. And so I have 10 minutes left to go and I get a text message and another text message, another and another and I look down at my phone and everyone's writing Trump assassinated. And I damn near drove off the road. I got to my destination, stayed for like, you know, an hour. And I was like, well, I got to go back. And so, like, that was it. That's what I get for trying to, I think I'm somehow responsible for Trump.

Similarly, I was at my sister's house. Our cousins who had not been in L.A. And 20 years were there. I had just sat down outside. It just got there. My cousin said to me, do you ever have to work the weekends? And I said, well, only when there's something really, really big or earth-shattering, do I have to go in? But that hasn't happened in a while.

And literally a minute later, I got the text message and I said, oh, my God, something big and earth-shattering just happened. And sitting there at this pool party as they all continue to do their thing. And I'm just like, I can't be here. I can't do this. And then like I just had to go into work. And then the next day, I was flying out of town to go to the Republican National Convention. And so the way that that impacted that and security there and the headspace and the whole thing was unlike anything I've ever seen before.

And it was clear at that moment of the Republican National Convention that there was no way that Joe Biden was going to beat Donald Trump and that the Democrats needed to make a change because Trump was going to run away with it. And then the change happened. Well, I guess that leads me into probably my most most. memorable moment was I did live election returns this year on YouTube and you know this you know we had spoken about the the growing stature of independent media over five million people watched the election returns on on YouTube which was which was pretty amazing and I had live live

returns from decision desk HQ the same kind that legacy media is able to use when during when they're doing election coverage down to the county and you know I had I had planned all of these things in my head for what to say when Kamala won and how great of a moment it would be and the sigh of relief that we would have and obviously that didn't pan out and I didn't I didn't prep I didn't have a losing speech like I didn't plan any of that and and I you know I was just I guess this is you know a problem with with one of the problems with our media ecosystem is that it's it's really bifurcated and I was so certain that she was going to win that I just didn't even bother fathoming the the prospect of of her losing. And I remember when Trump won, and I'm on camera, and there is a hundred

thousand people watching me concurrent, my concurrent viewers watching. And I'm just like, completely speechless. Like there were long bouts where I just didn't even know what to say. And, you know, it's, so that I think was pretty memorable. Didn't, you know, obviously didn't plan for that. Everything changed in that moment. And I think it gave, gave way to a broader a conversation where we now are in a situation where there does have to be some major changes within the Democratic Party, whether we like it or not. I do think that independent media is going to be way more important. I do think that generational change has to be taken way more seriously. And look, I understand that we were just over 200,000 votes away from thinking

that everything we did was perfect and brilliant. So I know that it's not a situation where we can throw the whole thing away. But at the same time, I do think that there is clear. evidence that a lot of people in this country were, you know, to basically, to elect somebody like Donald Trump has to show that this isn't really, this isn't only a testament to his popularity, because he got roughly the same amount of votes that he got back in 2020. But there is a problem with the Democrats that we weren't successful in terms of garnering so much of the support that we got in 2020, 81 million votes. I mean, 15 million fewer people decided that our brand was worth voting for. And so there does need to be some introspection. Here, there does

need to be some changes in the media environment here. And there does need to be some changes in terms of who we elevate in this party. And that we do have to recognize that we cannot just blindly accept any politicians who are too old to be doing this. And yet just because they're next in line that we somehow feel indebted to these people, that can't be how the Democratic Party operates moving forward. So a lot of less. that we kind of learn the hard way that we have to take seriously, but it's going to be, you know, an interesting 2025 here. So with that said, Alex, for folks who are watching and listening right now, where can they see and hear more from you? Yeah, first off, YouTube is great. You can

follow me. It's Alex Michelson with an E-E-L-E-L-E-X, M-I-C-H-A-E-L-S-O-N. That would be the best way to do it. Also, our show, the issue is put out in podcast form, just search for The Issue is. can also check it out on Tooby, the free streaming site. All of our past episodes are located there. Just search for The Issue is. And if you live in L.A., would be great if you check out my newscasts at 5, 6 and 10 o'clock every night on Fox 11 and also streaming on the Fox Local app. And this goes out before January 1st. I'll be hosting the Rose Parade on January 1st from 8 to 10 a.m. on Fox 11 and on the Fox Local app around the country too. Awesome. Well, Alex, thank you for taking the time today when everybody else is on vacation. I always rope you into late December recordings here. The only one who will do it. It's not that I'm so great. It's just that everybody else is like, F, no, I'm not going to be taking your call right now.

Well, see, the beauty of it is now we've done it. Now we've done it so many years that I don't even have to bother calling anybody else because I already know that you're going to do it. It's already have to deal with the rejection before I ultimately call you. I just know that I've guilted you into doing it for so many times before. So let me ask you, just to wrap up, since I'm not going to do predictions because I'm a straight news reporter, I'm not allowed to, but you're not. So who do you think emerges at the end of this year as the leader of the Democratic Party to answer your own question? Oh, it's such a good question. I think, look, I do think that we're going to see this next batch of Democrats as we head toward 2028 include Gavin Newsom, Westmore, Pete Buttigieg, Josh Shapiro. I also think that, you know, Gretchen Whitmer will run. I'm probably forgetting some big names. But to your earlier point, I mean, Barack Obama came out of nowhere.

So there is a high likelihood that somebody who's going to capture the hearts and minds of the Democratic Party is somebody who we don't even know about right now. I think there's a problem, like a pretty good likelihood. You mention yourself, too. People want new. People want fresh. Even though Gavin Newsom is relatively young, certainly everybody's young compared to Joe Biden, he's been around for a long time.

He has baggage. Pete Buttigieg has been in Biden's administration. Less baggage than Gavin Newsom, of course, but he's been around. Wes Moore is pretty new and fresh. I don't think that a lot of people associate him with any existing democratic administration or something like that. So we'll see how much that plays into things. Or conversely, how people, when they run for these national positions, are able to distance

themselves from their existing brand, whether P. Bunejegh is going to be able to run independent of what happened with Joe Biden. with Gavin Newsom is going to be able, you know, he has a lot of baggage as it relates to California's crime, California's homelessness. So there's plenty of time to be able to do that. We've got four years, nothing but runway in front of us, but it'll be interesting to see what happens. With that said, I also think a couple of kind of out-out-from-left-field names would be the possibility of Mark Cuban. Clearly, this country has an appetite for wealthy white guys who are on reality TV shows. I wouldn't, I wouldn't. I wouldn't.

completely write it off that Mark Cuban has some future in Democratic politics. And also, and this might just be my own, my own, what I want to see. But maybe John Stewart has a future in Democratic politics as well. He's the reason that I'm doing what I do, a big inspiration for people. And I think he's really captured that no bullshit attitude and plain speak that Democrats are so sorely missing right now. I think, I'm not going to say a name, but I think whoever it is that the party would be best served not making it all about Trump resistance and everything anti-Trump.

But there needs to be a positive... We can't, by the way, because he's not, ostensibly, he's not running again. So if ever there was a time to abandon just pure anti-Trumpism as a party platform, it's right now. Because I think that a lot of people find that exhausting

and have tried that. And as part of something new, there needs to be a fresh, positive, real approach that deal with the issues that people are concerned about. And whoever can do that, and I think has a big opportunity for success. And it'll be interesting. It'll be interesting to see on a smaller level what's happening with our governor's race in California, too, which is open because Gavin Newsom can't run. Will Kamala Harris run for that? that it could be a real battle for the soul of the Democratic Party as a microcosm there, which is something I'll be covering a lot of in the new year.

That's right. You're the guy in California. Well, I would highly recommend for folks who are watching, listening right now, go ahead and follow Elex, support his work. And Elex, thank you, again, for taking the time over the holiday here and appreciate you making this into our tradition here and looking forward to seeing what you do in 2025 and beyond. Thank you. And for anybody that does want to check out what we do,

on the issue is. This week we have out a best of issue is episode. So you can basically see everything you miss for the entire year in one video that's 22 minutes. And you could hear from Newsom and Nancy Pelosi and Hakeem Jeffries and Adam Schiff and Kamala Harris and Trump and all of them all in one place. And so that's a good starter spot if you want to check out my work. And I hope you'll check it out. Thank you, Brian. Thanks again to Alex. That's for this episode. Again, happy new year. Rest up. And let's get back in this fight. You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen. Produced by Sam Graber, music by Wellsey, 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 Brian Tyler Cohen.com to learn more.