No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Jon Ossoff exposes Trump’s purported MISTRESS in public

Episode Date: August 16, 2026

Jon Ossoff publicly exposes Trump’s purported fling with a young staffer. Brian interviews David Pakman and Brian Poindexter, the Democrat running against scandal plagued Max Miller.Order my new book, THE DAY AFTER: https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/thedayafter Order David Pakman's Pay Attention: https://bit.ly/m/attentionSupport Brian Poindexter: https://poindexterforcongress.com/Written 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.

Senator John Ossoff publicly exposes Trump's purported fling with young aid. And I've got two interviews, David Pacman and Brian Pointexter, who's the Democrat running against scandal-plagued Max Miller. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. So I think that John Ossoff just made himself public enemy number one for Trump. Take a listen to this clip from his most recent campaign rally. And while the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions, and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings. He golfs and trades stocks.

See, he doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar. So that right there is one way to make some news. You likely heard Assoff's reference to Natalie. And something tells me thanks to that speech. We're going to be hearing a lot more about Natalie in the coming day. and weeks. So Natalie Harp is Trump's executive assistant. Technically, in practice, she's become something closer to his shadow. She is the woman who follows him everywhere with a portable printer so that dear leader doesn't have to read anything on a screen and that earned her the nickname the human printer among White House staff. She's been in Trump's orbit since 2022. According to

the new book regime change, she's left Trump gushing notes, including one that says, you are all that matters to me. Trump himself acknowledged as much. He said, quote, all of of you will go off and make money, she'll never leave me referencing Natalie. Now, while the prospect of an affair is widely speculated, given, well, given what I just explained, I should be clear that there isn't proof of a relationship. Snope looked into this and found that the claim is built on anonymous sourcing and speculation, not hard evidence. With that said, Donald Trump doesn't exactly have a solid track record when it comes to being faithful. Like, this is a guy who is on his third marriage, who's openly cheated on his first wife with the woman who became his

second wife, who was found liable in civil court for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll, who paid hush money to a porn star to bury a story right before an election, who was caught on tape bragging about women without their consent, and who has more than two dozen allegations of harassment or sexual assault against him. And now, there is a very persistent rumor about his relationship with an aide half his age that's serious enough that a U.S. senator referenced it in public. Again, when it comes to plausible deniability, Trump doesn't have much. It's worth noting, too, that this is the same party that has spent decades telling us that it's the party of family values, the party of traditional marriage, the party that wanted Bill Clinton

impeached over an affair. And now, who do they decide to hitch their entire brand to? A guy who is publicly accused of cheating yet again on his wife. Surprise, surprise. And of course, this goes without saying. But if any Democratic president had even a fraction of this resume, right-wing media would be running it as breaking news wall to wall from now until the last vote is cast in midterms. But because it's Trump, the party of family values has decided that the answer is just

total silence, total loyalty, and zero self-awareness. But really, the family values branding was never about family values. That was just a tool to win elections and help them pass policy that disproportionately benefited millionaires and billionaires. And the second it stopped being useful, which is to say the second that Trump became the only path to power, the values got quietly dropped and the only thing that survived was the branding, which is par for the course in today's MAGA Republican Party. Shallow branding with nothing under the surface beyond just a desperation to consolidate power

for the sake of consolidating power. Now, as far as Natalie Harp is concerned, the truth is that Assov's point isn't really about harp at all. It's about what Trump is choosing to do with his time while, for example, active duty sailors are stuck on a nine-month deployment fighting a war that he's started. It's about a president who can't be bothered to sit through his own briefings and yet has plenty of energy to build himself a ballroom that costs hundreds of millions of dollars, plenty of time to fly around on a luxury jet gifted by Qatar. So Assoff isn't gossiping here.

He is pointing out that the guy who told the USS Lincoln sailors that their deployment, quote, hasn't been nearly long enough, apparently has all the time in the world for golf, for stock trades, and for joyrides on a plane that a foreign monarchy gave him. It's a microcosm for the fact that Trump's presidency is not about the people Trump promised to help. It is about himself. And look, if this message is resonating in Georgia, which prior to Trump was as ruby red as the rest of the South, then it's clear that the dam is breaking. It's also clear that Republicans may have miscalculated by putting blind allegiance to Trump

over delivering for their own constituents. Because these right here are the stories that are going to be told for the next three months. And then, of course, for the next two years beyond that. So for Republicans, look, I hope it was worth it. The party of family values hitching their wagon to a cheating predator. The party of fiscal responsibility blowing up the deficit, the party of the Constitution, willing to tear it up for an autocrat. They put Trump over everything, and now they're going to have to answer for it.

Next up are my interviews with David Pacman and Brian Pointexter. No lie is brought to you by Zock Doc. So I have a bad habit of putting off making doctors appointments because I know it's just going to be endless phone tag. only to finally get through and find out the next opening is months away. It's a fact of life that certain doctors are not available for a really long time, which is not great because generally when you're looking for a doctor, you're looking for one right away.

And that's where Zock Doc comes in. Nobody wants to have to deal with what I just described. And frankly, you shouldn't have to. Zock lets you search and compare local in-network doctors. They have more than 150,000 providers within more than 200 specialties across all 50 states. Zock's website has tons of reviews from real patients and detailed doctor profiles to help you choose the right one.

See actual appointment openings and click to instantly book a visit. Appointments happen fast, usually within 24 to 72 hours, and you can even score same-day appointments. And Zock-Doc is free to use. Your health matters and taking care of yourself should not be complicated. Find and book the right doctor with Zock-Doc. Head to Zock.com slash BTC to get started and check that appointment off your to-do list.

That's Z-O-C-D-O-C.com slash BTC. I'm joined now by David Pacman, content creator, and the author of the new book, pay attention how the algorithms and media wars are suppressing truth and rewiring your brain. David, I want to get into the book in just a moment. But first, there was some big news that broke about how Donald Trump had said that if Republicans have a poor midterm performance, it's going to be on them and not on him at all. He's also refused to come out and really lay his hands on anybody, hug anybody in his administration to anoint them the successor. So he seems perfectly content to kind of

marinate in the infighting that takes place within his own party as people scramble to be the heir apparent to the mag of throne. But as far as him kind of refusing to take any responsibility for what happens to Republicans in this upcoming midterms are concerned, what do you make of that? Well, it's funny because he wants to do this midterm convention thing, which essentially makes it a referendum on Trump. But if it doesn't go well, then he had nothing to do. with it. This I think so you mean all the credit none of the blame? All of the credit and none of the blame. Who could have possibly guessed? This goes back to Trump in 2015 as he likes to say when he came down the golden escalator and said horrible things about Mexican people. He doesn't really care about politics

in the sense of finding consensus, getting public policy passed. He just wants the power. He wants the prestige. He wants to decorate the Oval Office. What he really cares about is is it going to be onyx or granite in the ballroom and this sort of stuff. And so for him, elections are almost an inconvenience where it's another election where I have to maybe take some hits because my party is going to get blamed for the things I failed to do, the promises I made that I didn't deliver on. And he's looking beyond that. And I think 28 is also interesting because he doesn't really want his successor to do incredibly well. Because think about that. Retired Trump at Mar-a-Lago, do you think his ego would be pleased if he finds out that his successor is more popular and is

getting things done? Of course not. He wants to be able to sit by the pool or whatever he does down there and say, look, my successor is failing because I was uniquely good. I was uniquely special. I'm really the only guy who could do it. Without me, the party is nothing. That's really what he wants. I mean, isn't there some importance for him in upholding his legacy? I mean, I guess lending itself to that exact point. He sees the necessity of a Republican successor not there to kind of forge their own path, but to uphold his legacy and make sure that what he's doing to Obama and Biden's legacy doesn't happen to him. I mean, that's why he's, like, look, he knows he's not going to be celebrated in the aftermath of his presidency.

So that's why he needs to rename airports after himself now. That's why he needs to erect monuments to himself now. Because when you look at this stuff, you know, from a clear-eyed perspective with him out of the picture, are you going to erect monuments to a guy who oversaw virtually no growth, watched, you know, inflation surge and started a new war in the Middle East and failed. to release the Epstein files despite his own promises and gas prices are rising and affordability is a bigger problem than when he took office. Like what is he going to run on other than the fact that he can erect monuments to himself? Like that that is what he's doing in this term.

Yeah. And this is why he's increasingly obsessed with stuff that's harder to sign to make it go away because he knows that whoever comes after him has the ability to undo so much of what he's trying to do with executive orders, et cetera. If he acquires land, is it Greenland, is it, you know, he's posted AI slop about Venezuela as the 51st state. What happens with Cuba? That he feels is less reversible. If he builds a ballroom or physically puts massive letters with his name, he sees that stuff as less reversible.

And that's all he's obsessed with right now. And to your point, it's so unlikely that whoever succeeds him will say, the reason I'm able to do this is because of Donald Trump who came before me. Of course that's not the case. Trump before whoever is the next Republican nominee will be a reason. an impediment to Trump because he's polling 30%. Right. Do you think that there will be some, I guess, reversion to the mean or from what you've done, what you've reported on online,

have you seen some of the MAGA coalition, which generally, as I said, does revert back to the mean. Are you seeing some of that MAGA coalition actually crumble away? And I ask this with the caveat, you know, that I don't want to fall into the same trap of being like, we've got him now, you know, finally his, because it always does seem that we've been saying this for years, that people are, are seeing the extent to which, whether it's Trump 1.0 or 2.0, the extent to which he presents himself as this populist champion. And yet, when push comes to shove, this guy has nothing to show for himself other than legislation that offers up tax cuts that disproportionately benefit

millionaires and billionaires. But from what you've seen lately, can you give a state of play as far as the Republican or the MAGA coalition is concerned? For the most part, these are pathetic cowards who need to hold on as long as possible in case being aligned with Trump is still going to be useful for them. Only if it becomes incontrovertible that they're going to lose unless they go, the Iran war was not exactly my idea. And one of the things I've been telling my audience, because we have some moderate Republicans in our audience or people who write in and they go, I don't really agree with

your views on anything other than I don't like Trump. But I like my senator or I like my member of the House. And what I've been telling them is it might sound logical to say, I'm a Republican. I don't like Trump, but I like, you know, whoever, Chuck Grassley is hard that is to imagine or whoever. The people you are thinking about reelecting as your representatives, even though you don't like Trump, have rubber stamped. 92 to 99% of what Trump has done. So we have to do away with this notion of, I'm going to vote for my Republican rep because I like them, but Trump's the problem. Your rep has enabled Trump to do what he has done and they also need to be

voted out. Right. They, they are nothing but pure vehicles for his, like, the reality is Donald Trump could be stopped. Like, his worst excesses, his abuses could be stopped by those very people who are in place to serve as a check on him, but they've decided to contract all of their power out to the executive branch because they feel like it's more, I don't know, it's easier or, or better for their reelection. Or they're just too scared of garnering a primary challenge from the right. And so they just, decide that it's that it's you know better to stay on his good side and in turn as you said rubber stamp everything he's done but these people are no different from him they they enable him to be

what he is without these republicans in power who have decided other than thomas massey who by the way still votes with republicans like 91% of the time exactly they've all they they are just as responsible for this and i make sure that when i do my coverage of what trump does i i always point out the fact that it's not just Trump because there will come a point where the, you know, anti-Trump of it all will stop carrying as much weight as it does right now. But I make it clear that it's not just Trump. It's these other people who enable him and emboldened him to do what he's doing because without these obsequious sycophants like Mike Johnson, like everybody in the House, like everybody

in the Senate, Trump wouldn't be able to do anything that he's doing right now. He would be stopped from the Iran war. He would be forced to release the Epstein files. These tariffs and the trade war that sent the cost of everything surging. wouldn't take place, and yet here we are. And I think an important point to make is, let's not fall for starting to play coy with the Thomas Massey, Marjorie Taylor Green, Rand Paul.

You know, as anti-authoritarians on the left, it's inevitable that you will sometimes come across, hey, the clock is right, the broken clock is right twice a day. Rand Paul will say something about constitutional limits and we'll go, oh, well, that kind of makes sense. Or Marjorie Taylor Green will say Trump con, the working class. But these are not our political allies. And it's really important, I think, that we not fall into. These might be people we can actually work with. Right. The bar is so low that

all it takes is like Margie Taylor Green saying one, saying like one reasonable thing about Donald Trump before people are like, you know what? Maybe she's got a point. Yeah. Well, that brings me to the book. Again, the book is called pay attention how the algorithms and media wars are suppressing truth and rewriting your brain. So I got to ask first and foremost, as we discuss all of this stuff, What was the impetus to do this? And I have a good, I have a good, I want to discuss like, you know, I think you and me having this discussion from two people who have contracted a lot of their own lives out to the toxic cesspool that is the internet will be interesting for some folks.

But why did you think it was important to write this right now? There are so many people right now who are under the impression that you, I don't really need to be involved in politics. I don't really care about how these digital platforms work. What I care about is this thing in my local. community or that thing related to my work life or my kids life or whatever. What people really need to understand is that if you are engaging in these digital platforms on any basis, if you're scrolling TikTok at night or looking at instructional videos on YouTube

or whatever the case may be, what you are seeing is directly related to how these algorithms work and the effect in the political space is massive. And so if you think to yourself, I'm hearing about X, so X must represent what's going to going on in the political world. You're getting that because these algorithms have identified what is most likely to keep you on the platform. They're not optimized for what is true. They're not optimized for what's best for the working class. These are tailor-made algorithms that are saying, what can I do to keep Brian scrolling on TikTok for another 15 minutes? This gives a really distorted view of what's happening in the world around us, what we should

be asking of our elected officials, how elections work. And this is how people end up siloes. as I call it, where one person is seeing one set of videos, someone else is seeing something completely different, and there's zero shared basis in fact from which we can even come together and go, let's figure out what the best way to deal with housing would be or health care or whatever. So do you think that in that respect, because there is a certain type of content that people respond to and not even necessarily respond affirmatively, but just respond. That's right.

it's, whether it's agreement, whether it's rage, whether it's, you know, whatever it may be, does that elevate voices in what you've been able to recover? Does that elevate voices in terms of what you've been able to report on and uncover that are the most extreme? 100%. Just take, take this example. Vaccines for COVID have killed millions of people. That's one view. Yeah. Here's another view. You know, the vaccines are really pretty good at keeping people alive and mostly out of the hospital, but as far as transmission, they're not so good, but certainly they're very safe. We've lost a lot of people already, right? One of the two things I just said is true. It's the second one. It's the really boring one. Which one is more

likely to be shared? Of course it's the first one. And so when you come to realize that, you start to understand why is the stuff that's getting shared getting shared so much? It's rage, scapegoating, finding a villain, and fear are the most important emotions. that trigger virality. And the right has figured out, unfortunately, how to harness a lot of that. And so in the book, you actually talk about why this kind of, the way that our media ecosystem is built, the way that the algorithms are built, actually does favor the right over the left. And so can you talk about that? Yeah. I mean, take an issue like, for example, taxes. If the right has come up with, it's your money. You earned it. You should get to keep it.

They shouldn't steal it from you. Very emotionally salient. Very simple. That's the right. rights view, it does really well on social media. We on the left aren't going around saying taxes should be 100%. No, we're saying, of course we would love to keep as much of the money we earn as possible. If we're going to live in a society, you've got to socialize things like the police at least and fire and some we've already started to lose people. Again, you're explaining. I'm explaining it gets lost in these algorithms. This stuff isn't shareable. So I don't think it's a lost cause and we certainly shouldn't give up. You know, some people ask me, so are you going to like throw your phone in the in a pond and then go that sounds so nice it sounds great actually but but we would

be seeding ground to the worst ideas and so we can't do that we have to figure out how to win on these platforms and so how do you overcome the structural disadvantage if you are a party for whom um you know more i guess nuanced uh arguments yep have to take like have to take precedence like it's easier for the right to just say we want to destroy everything government. We don't need the Department of Education. We don't need the Department of the Interior. Let's eliminate it all. Government should be small enough to drown in a bathtub. Doesn't that sound good to everybody. Your tax dollars shouldn't be going to these bloated institutions. And you're the party that says offers up a nuanced argument, a nuanced retort. And you say, actually, we do need

these are, you know, there are under served and underpiluvished communities that benefit from the Department of Education being able to step in and uphold these federal standards. That's just one agency. But you can obviously extrapolate that into so many other arguments. do you overcome the massive structural disadvantage of the algorithms and of the way that the internet prioritizes certain content to be the side that wins? So there's two things we have to do. Number one, we just have to get better at framing a lot of this stuff. And so, for example, instead of going directly into the nuances of zoning, if we're going to talk about housing, we need to find some emotional core, which is, if you work, you should certainly be able to afford to live in the place

where you're working. That's just like it's a basic starting point. And then we kind of fill in the nuance. That's number one. The other thing is, as you and I have talked about, you do have to learn to play the games on these platforms. And what works on podcast is different from what works on YouTube. And what works on YouTube might be different than what's trending on Instagram. And we've got to learn how these systems work. I don't, you know, sometimes people say, wouldn't you rather just have really toned down everything, titles on YouTube, et cetera? I would love that. But let me tell you, Once I've spent time thinking about researching, recording, and editing a video, I want to do everything I can honestly do, obviously without lying. Everything I can honestly do to get as many eyeballs on that piece of content as possible.

If you've got to use emotional titles on YouTube, I think that that's just what we have to do. Yeah. And it's interesting that you bring that up. And a lot of people, I know for my audience that that is the single most annoying thing that they have to contend with. I'm sure it's the same for every single person in this ecosystem. Whoever is the first to say, I'm going to relinquish these titles and go to just complete straight news titles will be the first person to see their views plummet. And that's just how it goes because so long as everybody else in the ecosystem continues to use emotional titles, you are just choosing to either play the game or unilaterally disarm. That's it. Those are the only two options. You aren't going to, like, I, I mean, I created a second channel called Brian Tyler Cohen News that just uses straight titles for people that want shareable content, for people that are just fed up with any sensational titles.

And the number of subscribers is smaller. And the views are a fraction, sometimes like 1% of what the other videos will get. Yeah. So, you know, I understand there is a, you know, there's a gulf between, there's a chasm between what people say that they want. And really, at the same time, what people still respond to when they're served certain content. That's right. And for people who are hearing this and they're saying, listen, I like you guys. I like what you have to say.

But I just can't deal with that. There are options for those folks. The long form audio podcast space is outside of this algorithmic system. You have one episode title for the full hour, whatever it is. I say to people, you can exit that. Put it in your headphones when you're at the gym or commuting or walking or whatever. You're not going to see any wild YouTube titles. going to get the content, that is still a space that hasn't been touched. Books are a space also

where you can sit down with no capital letters or, you know, extreme thumbnail images, and you can just see what my thoughts are about these issues or others. I think that there are still opportunities for that for people who are looking for it. What was the most striking thing to you while you were writing this book? What was something, you know, obviously having spent so much time in this space, I'm sure you set out to write this feeling like, you're not, you know, at least, you knew everything that you were going to write about. Was there some new discovery that you made, even after being in this book, like roughly 20 years, if I'm not mistaken?

Yeah, yeah, since I was four years old, if you can believe it or not. No, so the thing that surprised me is, as I was writing this book, I did do some research into specific areas where these algorithms really sort of change the course of history. And there's an anecdote in the book about Facebook in Myanmar when there was unrest there. I thought you were going to talk about like Lincoln, early days of like Lincoln's Exactly. Lincoln on TikTok, it was the whole thing. And, you know, one of these things, the things that I learned in looking at the history of how these algorithms can really turn history, at this point, these algorithms are so powerful in influencing what people know about and therefore public opinion that you can foment or end a potential revolution just by what is shared algorithmically on these platforms. Some people may or may not remember, I believe it was in 20. 23 leading into the 24 election where Mark Zuckerberg said, we, after everything crazy to happen in 2020, Facebook will not recommend political content in the lead up to the election.

My YouTube, my Facebook traffic dropped 95% when that happened. And a lot of people wrote to me and they said, this is because of Zuckerberg's personal political views. It may or may not be because of his personal political views. But what it's really about is what is most profitable for? these platforms and what will keep people on those platforms. And Zuckerberg decided there's too much heat around a lot of this stuff. I don't want to get sucked into what happened after 2020. Now things have reversed completely. After Zuckerberg and Trump had the meeting

of the minds, Zuckerberg said we might have gone a little too far with the suppression of the political content. We're basically going to turn it back on. All creators in our space now have seen traffic on Facebook go way, way up. Nothing changed about the value of the content. Nothing changes about the truth of the content or or the virality of it. It's just an algorithm that can be turned up or down at a whim. Yeah. You know, there are obviously macro situations like the one that you just discussed, but then when we when we shrink it down into like how it impacts you personally, you know, I was speaking with John Favreau on offline about this exact phenomenon. And I asked a question because he interviews a lot of people who are who occupy this.

this political media space. And I asked, is anyone better off healthier from a mental perspective, from an emotional perspective, being in this space? And he says, no, across the board. There is no one that, that for whom their emotional health or mental health gets better, the longer that they stay online. It is solely in one direction, more time online, worse off as far as your mental health is concerned.

How do you deal with something like that? I mean, you know, obviously you have an intimate knowledge, not only of being in the space, but then kind of like in a meta perspective, studying the very space that you're in. So you're able to kind of like see through the looking glass here. But how do you think about occupying a space that you actively know is there to manipulate how you think and give you dopamine hits where there shouldn't be

and just kind of feed off of your rage or your sadness or whatever it may be. You have to be proactive about your consumption of this content. And if you're basically pulling out the phone or laptop or whatever in any quiet moment and then just spending more time on these platforms than you want to be, you've got to figure out a way out of that. And so what I try to do is just be proactive and say, well, I'm going to look at stuff for 10 or 15 minutes. And then that's going to be it. You're deciding in advance. A lot of people, this happens with TV a lot,

where people just get into the habit of the TV is on at certain times of day. You're not really looking for anything specific. You're just kind of, I'm going to be watching TV during this period of time. And then often that amount of time ends up being more than you're thinking of doing. With the phones, it's even easier because the content is tailored made to you. It's not well, it's 7.30. So now what's on changes for everybody. It's tailored to you.

So you've got to be proactive. I try not to even follow what's happening politically over the weekends. If something huge happens, my team will let me know or something like that. I'm basically saying, I'm recording on weekdays. I'm following this stuff on weekdays. The weekends, I'm going to deliberately take time off from it. And I think you have to be proactive like that. That's the first thing.

The other thing I would say is I don't know. I think that as you go up in consumption hours, there are diminishing returns and then negative returns. You actually are worse off. I do think that there is value to the community aspect of if you do find like-minded communities, especially for people who don't live in cities and might be isolated politically, especially if you're on the left. The platforms that we're on and the content we put out can give people what is sometimes the only opportunity to engage with like-minded ideas and

people. And to the extent that you're controlling your exposure to it and being deliberate, I think it can be positive until it goes over and then starts to become a negative. Yeah, I find the same thing. You know, the irony of the space is I rely on people being online as much as they can be to consume content. Like that is my whole platform, my financial success. All of that relies on more people being in the space. I absolutely, without a doubt, would recommend that people stay off of these spaces, not consume this content until they are in a state where they feel like they can do it

in a healthy way and then log off. It is more important to have longevity than just to get people on 24 hours a day to consume this stuff in the short term, get these dopamine hits, get those views, get those shares. Like, I have seen, look, I've seen firsthand the way that it chips away. I've been doing this for about 10 years now. And I should let people know, like, my entrance into this space was from watching your videos.

So, you know, I think you deserve a lot of credit because you just never know when you're out there making content, like, who is watching and what kind of impact that's going to have. And so, on behalf of the last 10 years of what I do, thank you for, I appreciate that, for what you do. To that point, though, I do think something that that is kind of important to think about here is that a lot of the way that these platforms become toxic is when they take control of what you're consuming rather than you taking control. And a lot of people don't realize with most of these platforms, you can go in and say, I want less of this. I want more of that. You can make them work for you rather than blindly sort of working for them.

A lot of people don't realize you can do that. Yeah. No, and I think it's important to do so because even, look, from early days, when I started in like 2016, 2017, I was really good at compartmentalizing this stuff. I would be able to go to work to, I think I was writing on Facebook at the time and just starting to get into videos in 2018 because I realized there was not a lot of video content happening. But even in the early days, I was just writing on Facebook back when that was.

the principal platform. And I was able to do my thing, go to work, and kind of like switch my brain off into, okay, I'm at home now. And it slowly kind of leaks into your personal life. I mean, especially when things get so dire, so bleak, so grim, it's hard to turn that part of your brain off and it just chips away at you. You know, and I, I, there are always people who very, very kindly let me know how shitty I look on a daily basis.

Let me know how tired I look. Let me know that I should get more asleep. And granted, I know that most of them do it from a well-meaning place. And then there's some people that just want to let me know how shitty I look, even if I've gotten a full night of sleep. But I do think it's important. Like we need people to be kind of in tip-top form as we head toward midterms, as we head toward the 20-20 election,

because you're no good to the movement if you're just exhausted and burnt out. And look, that's advice. that I'm really bad at taking, how have you contended with this idea that every, like, I don't care what content creator claims that they don't contend with this, everybody deals with burnout. And so how do you do that in a job where, you know, look, quick story on that. I wanted to take a weekend off in 2024, in July of 2024. You already know where this is going. One weekend, I was like, I'm going to go 48 hours without touching my, without touching my gear. Was this the Butler assassination?

This was the Butler. And I was like, I was in the car almost like 90% of the way to Palm Springs from Los Angeles, about two hour drive. And I got a hundred texts in the course of two minutes and nearly drove myself off the road, looked at my phone. All I saw was Trump assassinated. Oh, is that right? Somebody wrote Trump assassinated. And yeah, so that's what happened when I tried to take some time off. But how do you deal with a never-ending news cycle in a job where you have to cover this stuff or risk?

you know, missing a story, losing some relevance, whatever it may be. And yet still having to take care of yourself and your family and keep some piece of yourself. Yeah. So that you don't just become what I often feel like I am, just like this content producing. You just have to set some limits. And so for me, it's been like, unless there is a crazy breaking story, I'm not doing content on weekends. I'm thoughtful about, you know, when I get invites to stuff, I really try to think, is this genuinely worth however many days of travel are required and just being a little more

thoughtful about that? And, you know, it's kind of funny because after writing this book, some people said to me, aren't you worried that the book is going to diminish your audience because you're telling people too much of this stuff is kind of toxic? And I'm not worried about that because there are so many people and relatively so few people actually read books and these platforms are so addicting and so good that it's like you can give people, aren't going to take the medicine, you know? It's at a certain point. So I don't worry about that.

Well, and what I said before about like, we want people in this space to, A, understand some of how, to get a look behind the curtain at how some of this stuff is impacting them and their own health so that they can be in a position where they have some, some agency, some control over, over the things that are guiding their viewing habits, their consumption habits, their decisions, so that they can be in this fight longer and not just, not just like, watch these algorithms squeeze every bit of rage and fury and joy and whatever it may be out of them in the short term to the point where, you know, I get lots of emails from people that say I just, you know,

I can't handle it anymore. I just need to step back. I think there's one other important thing to mention in the context of this environment that we're in right now, you just having written your book and me with this one, this media offenders white house thing where we're listed as liberal lunatics under the broader category of, there's all these categories, media offenders. I think it's left leftist. Oh, what did I say?

Liberal. Oh, I thought they said, okay, but fine, leftist lunatic. This is having a chilling effect. I've heard from two people who said, I'm really interested in this book. I'm worried if I interview you, it's going to pull me into this. And I am worried about what it might mean legally if the White House notices that I'm talking to you about this book. This is how self-censorship works. This is exactly their goal.

So we talk about we don't want to cede the day. digital platforms to these people because then the people with the bad ideas are the only ones left. We also don't want to allow the intimidation to take place because even if technically there's no First Amendment issue with us being on this list, if it chills people's willingness to talk to us or it makes Amazon say, maybe we won't email anybody about the fact that David or Brian's new books are out. That is a very real impact and that's just where we are right now. And I would just recommend for people who are watching right now grabbing these books

and sending them onto the New York Times bestseller list and making sure to support progressive content creators offers an incentive structure for other people to say, oh, look how successful these books on the left are being. I'm going to take my shot at making sure that I can write my own book and to perpetuate these ideas. There's a reason that Donald Trump likes to promote every single book about him and Republicans is because that gives a huge permission structure

for other authors to say, look at what happens when all of these right-wing authors write something. They always make it on to New York Times best seller list. They always get their ideas in the zeitgeist. They always get a lot of attention. And they know that if a random person goes, I might get a book. Let's see what's on the list.

And they go, right-wing book, right-wing book, right-wing book. That is a massive, massive impact on what people buy. Totally. It incentivizes people to do that. So if you can, right now I'm going to put a link right here on the screen and also in the post description. If you're listening in the podcast, I'm going to put it on the show notes. Please help David.

Thank you. reach the New York Times bestseller list, give a permission structure, some incentivization for other authors who see this to say that progressive media can still overcome right-wing media. Highly recommend the book. It was an excellent read. And again, a great way to show some support for David as he contends with some pretty heavy-handed tactics at the hands of this White House. So with that said, David, I appreciate the time. My pleasure. No Lie is brought to you by Factor. So there is a direct link between how crazy the news cycle gets. and how much I stick to my routine. And, of course, because the last few months have been insane, to say the least,

my ability to eat healthy took a major hit, which is exactly why Factor has been so important. Factor makes chef-crafted, dietician assigned, ready-to-eat meals so you don't have to choose between real food and convenience. With over 175 banned ingredients, every Factor meal is designed around what supports a healthier lifestyle and nothing that doesn't. Factor meals are ready in two minutes and require no prep and no cleanup.

So even on the days that your schedule is completely out of control, eating well is still achievable. Every week, you'll find over 100 nutrient-dense menu items to choose from, and new options like salmon burgers, shredded pork, collard greens, and more. Plus, add-ons that you'll crave like pumpkin-flavored cheesecakes and protein shakes. 97% of users agree that factor meals help them live a healthier lifestyle, so you can feel confident that you're doing something good for yourself with every single meal. And look, as far as my favorite meals are concerned, I am a sucker for the filet mignon. It is literally restaurant quality, but honestly, all of the food tastes amazing.

I use Factor every week, and I could not recommend it highly enough. So let's eat real. Head to FactorMeals.com slash BTC 50 off and use code BTC 50 off to get 50% off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last until 10, 31, 2026. That's code BTC50 off at Factor Meals.com. BTC 50 off at Factor Meals.com. See website from more details. We have some major news out of a deep red Republican district in Ohio. That's Ohio

7th congressional district where Max Miller, because of all the scandals that he's engaged in right now, is trailing in the polls 39 to 44. I'm joined right now by Brian Pointexter, who is the Democratic nominee for Ohio 7th congressional district. So Brian, thank you for joining me. I have to ask first and foremost. What was your reaction to Max Miller refusing to drop out by the dropout deadline and basically defiantly staying in this race despite, you know, the pretty egregious scandal that he's facing right now? Well, I didn't really get in this race because, you know, Max Miller is terrible in his personal life. I got into this race because the policies that he supported and the administration has brought forward has made it hard on working fans.

families. Whether he stayed in the race, whether they replaced them, we were ready to go with our mission of fighting for working families. You know, that message has really rallied support across the political spectrum from the far reaches of the Democratic Party, even into the Republican Party and everybody in between because we're fighting for what I've lived my whole life, working for a living. It's harder to make a living now if you work. And we need to correct that. And I'm hoping to get to Congress to be a voice for working people. In terms of Max Miller's character, have you spoken to voters who have voted for Max Miller in the past who have decided that what he is accused of doing, which is to say, you know, there was there was a report that he had thrown boiling water at his now ex-wife, that he was being accused of breaking the collarbone or injuring the collarbone of his own daughter. Has that resonated with folks in your district? Well, I've talked to people all across the district, Democrats, Republicans, and independents. And, yeah, everybody is shocked and shaken by these allegations. And I've said it over and over again.

If they prove to be true, he should absolutely be in jail. And, you know, I think what voters are waking up to, especially in this district, is that, you know, there's a two-tier justice system where if you're wealthy and connected, you know, you can be, you can be alleged to have committed severe atrocities and it's business as usual. I mean, we see it in the Epstein files. You know, if those were iron workers and plumbers and teachers, they would already have been brought to justice, but here we are years and years and years later, and there's no accountability. And it's just, it's not so much a Republican and Democrat issue. It's more of a wealthy and well-connected issue. It's more of a wealthy and well-connected

issue and then everybody else. And I think it's under a microscope now in this race and it's under a microscope nationally with the Epstein files. Quick side note here. As you know, I've been making videos like this for a decade now. I have never paywalled any of my content. I never will. But this is the one time that I'll ask for some support. I'd like to try and hit the New York Times bestseller list this week for my new book the day after. If you haven't yet grabbed a copy, please click the link on this screen in the post description in the comments or go to Brian Tyler Cohen dot com slash book. I really appreciate it. So talk to me about your district in particular because I'm especially interested in how, in how the electorate is responding given the fact that, look,

this is an electorate in Ohio 7th congressional district that has voted for Republicans virtually, I mean, certainly for my entire career in politics. And so for a lot of people, and I often say this to folks who are running in otherwise red districts or historically red districts, for a lot of people, their political affiliation is intertwined with their identity. And so it's not just as easy as saying, yeah, sure, I may have voted for Republicans in the past. Now, I'll vote for Democrats. Like, for a lot of people, they are a Republican in the same way that they are Christian in the same way that they're white or black or Hispanic, whatever it may be. And so how has that kind of manifested itself or presented itself while you've been talking to folks on the campaign trail? Well, I mean, Ohio traditionally has been a bellwether state and it's it's gone red at times and blue at times. You know, the recent past, it's been more red. Yeah. And, you know, especially like since 2016 when Donald Trump came on scene, you know, he came in on a message of bringing back a golden age for workers.

You know, but what people are seeing is, you know, we didn't get that golden age. We got the golden shower instead. And it's harder for people to make a living here under his policies. And I think you're going to see a trend more back towards those we know who are going to fight for workers. Like we have Sherrod Brown on the ballot. Yeah, Trump won this district by 11 points, but Sherrod Brown would have won this district in 2018, you know, and because he's always had that message of fighting for workers. And that's, you know, this is a very gerrymander district.

They drew it to protect Max Miller in his seat, but they accidentally drew a perfect district for me because I'm, right from the heart of the district. I have the blue collar bona fides being a 19 year member of the Ironworkers Local 17, being a family man. You know, I'm a girl dad through and through. And, you know, I am, I am representative of this district. And what a concept to be representative of the district you're running to represent. You know, my opponent, Max Miller, he, he just dumped a million dollars into his campaign to try to buy his way out of his troubles. And that's so out of touch with people here in this district. You know, me, I don't have a million dollars laying around. Most people in this district don't have a million dollars laying around. And it just goes to show that he doesn't know what we're going through. He can afford his votes in Congress. We can't. And that's that's why I'm going to win in this race. What is your pitch to folks in that district? I mean, you know, you mentioned that you were, that you're a member of the iron workers. And so like, you know, for,

working class Americans for blue collar workers for union members what is what is your priority what do you want to bring to your district and to the country more broadly i i you you set summed it up right there it is i want to bring the voice of working people to the halls of congress we you know we are one of the most underrepresented demographics people who work for a living in in washington i mean we have plenty of lawyer there we have plenty of um you know elites in washington we need more people from the working class who knows what people are going through to stand up and be a voice anything that comes across my desk in Congress, I'm going to be looking at it from the perspective of a worker. And, you know, I didn't read about the issues of workers in a book.

I learned about it by, you know, having to juggle the bills. I learned about it by trying to get one kid to practice and one from swim a lesson. You know, I learned about it by wearing the different hats, you know, the iron worker by day, the father in the evening and the nurturer, you know, when they're going to bed, you know, that's where I learned my policy platform from, from the everyday life and the everyday, you know, lived experience that the average person in this district lives under. Talk to me about a conversation that you've had with a voter, maybe a Democratic voter, maybe an independent or even a Republican that stuck with you. to pick one out of the thousand is,

uh, is, uh, is kind of hard. Um, you know, I, I, I, one that sticks out in particular, uh, down in Ashland County. Ashland County is very rural. It's, uh, it's formerly Jim Jordan's district. Um, it's newly drawn to this district. And so I won, you know, early on in the race, even before the primary, I wanted to, you know,

introduce myself to the folks in Ashland County. And, uh, so I go to, um, I go to, um, I go to, a meeting down there. It was at the Machinist Union Hall, right in Ashland. And I didn't think I was going to know anybody there. I'm being, you know, just going to be myself, introduce myself. And I get there before the meeting. I had that blue collar work ethic. I show up everywhere early. And I'm waiting for people to come in, greeting them as they come in. And this old timer comes up to me, got his walking cane. He's like, Brian, you remember me? And I'm like, I remember the face. I can't remember the name. It was a guy Dave that I worked with on a construction site about 10 years earlier.

He's like, he's like, brother, I'm so happy that you're here. You know, we need people like you in Washington. We need somebody who knows how to do work and knows how to bring people together and knows what we're fighting for. And, and, you know, that right there set the tone for my whole campaign. That, that told me that I was on the right track. I was doing the right thing. And people are very excited that I'm in the race. What did people of Ohio expect when they not only voted for Trump, but voted for full Republican control? I mean, they sent Republicans to the Senate.

They sent Republicans to the House. They sent Republicans to the White House. And so what did they expect? And then what are conditions actually like on the ground in your district? Yeah. People expected a boom. You know, we expected manufacturing to come flooding back to America, you know, especially this area, you know, I remember growing up in the 80s, we were, we were a beacon of manufacturing,

we are the manufacturing center of the world, so to speak. In the 80s, you know, you could go from one job to the next in the same day. And, you know, they were, we were told that we were going to flourish and, you know, we were going to be making more money than ever. And, you know, people's lives were going to be significantly easier. And no, none of that happened, you know, manufacturing is down right now. Wages, I have stagnated, costs are up, and now we're in a reckless war, and the tariffs have driven things up. And, you know, people in my entire life, me included, I worked paycheck to paycheck, almost my whole life. You know, maybe I have a little extra to save, but now people aren't even making it to the next paycheck. And it's really hard, you know,

when, you know, gas goes up to $4.00. I just filled up yesterday. It was $4.2.00. 23 a gallon. You know, that, that hits the wallet pretty hard when, uh, when you're still not making, when you're already not making it to the next paycheck, you know, and like ground beef. A pound of ground beef was, uh, $8.50 a pound. I mean, I know people who are working in, um, you know, in grocery stores and in retail that are making $8.50 an hour. They got to work a whole hour for one pound of ground beef. Yeah. You know, and, um, it's, it's just unrealistic. And then, and then, and then,

hear things like, oh, they want to raise Social Security age to 70 years old. Like, I'm an iron worker. How could I be up on the high steel at 70 years old welding and walking around? It's just unrealistic. Anybody who suggests that is so out of touch and they don't belong in the halls of Congress. What would your message be to voters who had voted for Max Miller the previous time, who are now, who are now up for grabs? What would be your message to them? My message would be the message that we've been running on since day one. I'm not in this for partisan politics. I don't care if you're Democrat or Republican. I want to fight for working families. If you work for a living, if you're not the boss, I'm going to fight for you. I mean, the boss says they have the power and ability to

fight for themselves. They have the wealth. They can fight for themselves. We need somebody who's going to be a champion for workers, and that's what I want to be. And, you know, I tell people when I go to Democratic clubs and stuff. We are the welcoming party, right? Democrats, we welcome people in. We need to make sure that we are not shaming people for who they voted for. We're more than who we voted for. You might have seen things a little bit differently two years ago or four years ago, but we always have the ability to learn from what we do and always be willing to welcome people in when they want to jump on board. And that's what we're doing in this race. Brian, for those who are looking to support your campaign, where can they go?

They can check out our website at poindexter for congress.com. You can read about my backstory. You can watch our videos. I got to admit, though, most of our cool clips are on social media. So if you look up Brian Poindexter for Congress on any social media platform, you'll find us. And, yeah, help us out in any way you can. Great. I'm going to put a link to your website right here on the screen and also in the post description.

For those who are listening on the podcast, I'm going to put it in the show notes. Thank you for taking the time today. Best luck in the campaign trail. Brian, thanks for having me. I've been a big fan of yours for a long time and keep up your good work, buddy. Thanks again to David Packman and Brian Pointexter. That's it for this episode.

Talk to you on Wednesday. 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 and a review. And as always, you can find me at Brian Tyler Cohen

on all of my other channels, or you can go to bryantailorcoen.com to learn more.