No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Kanye West is working as a GOP plant to siphon votes away from Biden

Episode Date: August 9, 2020

Kanye West is scheming out in the open with the GOP to siphon votes away from Biden, and Trump’s Postmaster General has given himself even more power at USPS. Brian interviews former presidential candidate Andrew Yang about the need for a cabinet level position on technology and whether he’d be interested, the importance of getting cash payments to all Americans, and how to convert his supporters into Biden voters in November.Written by Brian Tyler CohenProduced by Sam GraberMusic by WellsyRecorded in Los Angeles, CAhttps://www.briantylercohen.com/podcast/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we're going to be talking about Kanye West and his scheme with the Republican Party to siphon votes away from Joe Biden, another bombshell development with Trump's postmaster general, giving himself even more power at the Postal Service, and my interview with former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, where we talk about the need for a cabinet-level position on technology and whether he'd be interested, the importance of getting cash payments to the American people, and how to convert his supporters into Biden supporters in November. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. So today I want to talk about Kanye West because apparently one malignant narcissist in the political sphere wasn't enough.

And there's part of me that cannot believe I have to talk about Kanye West on my podcast. And then there's another part of me who can absolutely believe I have to talk about Kanye West on my podcast. We live in hell. Okay. So here's what happened. We heard grumblings of a Kanye West run for president in the last few months. But it seemed that everyone, myself included, kind of just cast a... off as a stunt, right? Because this is what Kanye does. In 2018, Kanye surfaced just long enough

to claim that slavery was a choice and then he made headlines before dropping his album, Yay. In 2016, the hill he decided to die on was that accused rapist Bill Cosby was innocent. And then he dropped the life of Pablo. So I think when Kanye announced a presidential run on Twitter on the 4th of July, we were all basically like, okay, cool, where's the album? Which is fine, right? Like, who cares? Sure, do your usual PR bullshit, get your headlines, and sell your album. Fine. But then a woman named Lane Ruland was seen dropping off signatures for Kanye in Madison, Wisconsin. And Lane Ruland is a top Republican election lawyer, meaning that the Republican Party is working to ensure that Kanye West is on the ballot. And we saw similar attempts in New Jersey, in Illinois, in Colorado, again, all led by Republican operatives.

Now, there are so many things wrong here. The most obvious being that this is a blatant plot by the Republican Party to try and steal the election by sticking a celebrity on the ballot who they think is going to be able to siphon votes from Joe Biden. Like, how sad that your strategy to win is to shoehorn a spoiler in there. Just think for a second how little that says about their own candidate that they need to try and do this. And this is a spoiler who can't even win. It's too late for Kanye to get on enough ballots in enough states to even hit. hit 270 electoral votes.

So what's he even doing? He's literally just a spoiler. He's only there as a tool to siphon votes. But also, you don't have to take my word for it because Kanye admitted it. During an interview with Forbes, he indicated that he was, in fact, running to siphon votes from Joe Biden. And when he was called out on not being able to reach 270 electoral votes, he replied to the interviewer, quote, I'm not going to argue with you. He then went on to claim that he's designing a school.

school within the next month and is also meeting with Betsy DeVos about the post-COVID curriculum. So if Betsy DeVos overseeing the American education system wasn't enough for you, now you can throw in Kanye West. Yeah, our kids are doomed. There's also the issue here of Kanye's mental health issues, right? Like, Kim Kardashian came out and said that he's bipolar. So what's happening then is that the Republican Party is exploiting someone with mental illness to try and help their own candidate. Like, I don't know what else I can say to convey the depravity of that move. But I also don't want to fall into the trap of thinking that Kanye has no agency here.

His whole life, he's been a massive star, but all of a sudden, because Kim says he's bipolar, that he has zero agency and we have to treat him with kid gloves and that no shots are allowed. Like, I have zero intention of going easy on Kanye West, who is actively and knowingly undermining Joe Biden's candidacy to serve as a spoiler in an election that he had admitted he can't win. If the Kardashian family is that concerned with his mental illness, then help him. And that doesn't mean sitting idly by or making excuses while he sets the world on fire because of some underhanded Republican scheme. If he needs help, again, help him. And beyond that, there's also the inherent racism that comes with assuming that because Kanye's

black, he'll be able to pull black support from Biden. And then that's the goal, right? Like, let's be honest here, the goal by Republicans propping up Kanye isn't to reach 65 and up white women. Like, his demo is young people and people of color. So for the Trump campaign to just assume that he'll be useful in stealing those black votes from Biden because Kanye's black is pretty racist, right? And the pushback here is that, well, that target demo, young people and black people aren't going to be fooled into voting for Kanye. And look, do I think that the vast majority of Americans. White, black, young and old can see behind this scheme, like beyond the obvious Republican-led plan to use Kanye to siphon votes away from Biden? Of course I

do. But remember, Trump only won Wisconsin in 2016 by 22,000 votes, while third-party candidates took 188,000 votes. And none of those third-party candidates were named Kanye West. So we all might pay attention to politics, but not everyone in this country. does. But with that said, the point here is to make sure that as many people as possible know about what's happening so that the Republican plan out in the open to trick voters doesn't work, that the young people and the people of color that the GOP is so obviously targeting know what's happening and how they're being exploited. The point is to show that these blatant efforts to undermine our democracy in service of Donald Trump, no less, fail with the

magnitude that they deserve to fail. Now, I want to talk about one more thing, and I know I spoke about this last week, but there's been an update with the U.S. Postal Service that's serious enough to warrant going back into it for a second week in row, and that is that Lewis DeJoy, Trump's Postmaster General, has created a new hierarchy at the post office, displacing the top two executives who had overseen day-to-day operations, and reassigning 23 other executives, creating a structure within the USPS, that centralizes power around himself. In other words, ensuring that he not only has all the power to continue sabotaging the service

he's overseeing, but that there's no recourse from anyone else at USPS. So DeJoy will continue to make his changes, like eliminating overtime and creating unmanageable backlogs of mail, so that when Americans inevitably vote by mail in massive numbers in the November election, there's no way their ballots arrive on time. like who knows how many ballots would be left behind so in effect the intent can only be to destroy the election like what if only 25% of ballots arrive and and 75% are in transit because of delays right like it's it's not even that this would help one candidate over the other it's that this would destroy our ability to have any faith in the outcome of the election this is how

republicans will discredit the results of the election by ensuring that we can't know who wins Like Trump is so toxic on the ballot They can't risk having any semblance of a legitimate election So they're just going to try to blow the whole thing up from the inside now Like if nothing is done here This is the greatest voter suppression campaign in American history The election will basically become void And that is what Trump wants

That is the point of all this And that development was immediately followed by more reporting Saying that the Trump team is now considering What executive actions Trump can take to hurt mail and then includes everything from directing the Postal Service to not deliver certain ballots to stopping local officials from counting them after election day. And all of that is in addition to the ongoing lawsuits across the country to challenge voting rules. And of course, Trump's own calls to delay the election. So taken together, what we have is a large scale, coordinated effort

to sabotage voting at literally every step in the process, from lawsuits preventing mail and voting from being allowed to Trump's lackey, Lewis to Joy, purposefully stopping the mail from arriving to trying to take executive action to ensure that votes aren't counted even if they do arrive. And look, I've always been a proponent of people being able to put pressure on Republicans. Like people calling Republican lawmakers and senators

are the reason that we still have the ACA. But what we as regular people can do has our limits. And the fact is that the GOP is beyond being swayed by a public pressure campaign. Like, we're beyond being able to shame Republicans into doing what's right. And not only that, the whole process is designed to help them to keep their party in power. So if you think that they're going to respond to any public pressure, you're kidding yourself. So the fact is that Congress, congressional Democrats, need to act.

They need to do something about this today, yesterday. If we wait until October or November to figure this out, it'll be too late. Like, this is already happening. This is not theoretical, it's reality. It's happening right now. So congressional Democrats need to act. They need to use their inherent contempt powers to bring DeJoy to testify and to do it now, not in mid-September when he's supposed to come and he'll have six weeks to continue

sabotaging the Postal Service. It needs to be now. They need to pass legislation codifying timely mail delivery, even if that means paying overtime. And they need to include USPS funding in any forthcoming. relief bill. So if relief is going to be passed, then full funding for USPS needs to be there and it needs to be non-negotiable. And trust me, there's going to be a relief bill because Trump is on the ballot and nothing will destroy the GOP faster than delivering zero relief

to the American people in the middle of a pandemic and a recession. So whatever can be done needs to be done. The government should be grinded to a halt if that's what needs to happen here. Like, the fact is that we're doing our part. Americans are busting our asses to organize and register voters and request mail and ballots, but something needs to be done in Congress so that this isn't all for nothing, so that all of our efforts aren't just completely undermined by some despot looking to burn it all down. So call your representatives, leave messages, tweet at them, whatever it takes to get their attention, and focus that attention on this issue.

Because if ever there was a time for Democrats not to be weak, it's right now. Next step is my interview with the person who probably has the freshest thinking in the Democratic Party, Andrew Yang. All right. Today we have Andrew Yang. Thanks so much for coming in. Brian, thank you for having me. Congratulations on this show. You're on your way. You're doing something really awesome. And I hope young people take from you like a sense of inspiration and possibility. I really appreciate that. Thanks. I was joking with you before this camera got started. I was like, man, you dress so much better than me.

And then you would form me that you dress like that on the regular. Yeah, you know, I'm the only person in quarantine who's made it so that I have to wear a suit, you know, from home. Yeah, man. I showed up to the presidential debates and I was like, tie, pass. So first off, I have to ask, what goes through your head when you see a republic? lawmaker, a U.S. congressman, ask Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, why was Donald Trump Jr. locked out of his Twitter account? Yeah, that was a pretty embarrassing moment for us all. And one of the jokes I told Brian was that it's not like this is a pop quiz.

You know, it's not like Mark Zuckerberg sort of showed up and then they had to like figure out what questions to ask him. Yeah. Our lawmakers are decades behind on technology issues. I thought that the hearings were a positive development because it shows that they're trying to catch up. And someone prevailed upon me and said, look, Andrew, you shouldn't make fun of members of Congress for not understanding technology because we don't expect them to understand a lot of other things. And they don't have any professional guidance on technology that's baked in anymore. So there used to be something called the Office of Technology Assessment, where they had a group of experts who told members of Congress about technology issues. Does that sound like a good idea?

That sounds like a pretty good idea. Yeah. You know, starting to think that might be useful. So they got rid of it in 1995. Just in time. Yeah, just in time to quote unquote save money, even though like the budget was, I forget, or something like, you know, 20 million or 30 million or something, which in the scheme of things, it's like would you, would you as a taxpayer like 30 million of our dollars to go to having an independent set of advisors and experts telling members of Congress about technology issues that were not bought and paid for by the tech companies? Does that sound like a reasonable investment? sounds like a decent idea.

What does that work out to like, you know, a quarter per taxpayer, an actual quarter? Yeah, an actual quarter. Would you pay a quarter so our members of Congress had a clue? So because of that, like I don't want to beat up on members of Congress too much. But I will say that like the hearings were a step in the right direction. Many of these tech companies have been running rampant for a long, long time where they actually just don't think the government understands or will do anything about any of their excesses. And some of the stuff that they were saying really just flew in the face of common sense.

Facebook buying Instagram, it's like, do we think that Facebook would have tried to crush Instagram if Instagram had not sold? Of course. It's obvious. Like the Instagram founders were like, we're afraid they're going to crush us if we don't sell. And then Zuckerberg is essentially in an email being like, we're going to crush them. But other than that. But other than that.

And common sense being like, like I would have had a lot more respect for Zuckerberg if someone said like, hey, were you going to crush Instagram if they didn't sell to you? He'd be like, of course I was going to crush them. Like, what do you expect us to do? Like, that would have given me so much more respect than what he, we said like, I think his words were like, I reject the premise that we were going to try and crush Instagram. It's like, come on, man. That's like, that's ridiculous. Yeah. I mean, We're like one hearing away from Chuck Grassley asking why his grandkids aren't responding to his text. Yeah, it's, that'd be really funny. It'd be like, hey, my kids are, my kids are calling me? Are you cutting them off? Do you think that we need a cabinet level position, like a secretary of technology? And what would that look like? I think we do need that.

It's overdue. Technology has been transforming our lives fundamentally for years and decades. having Congress be asleep at the switch for 25 years, a disaster. So we do need a cabinet-level position that's dedicated to technology and innovation-related issues, hopefully to help create a balance. And one thing I'm passionate about, Brian, there's so many issues I'm passionate about in this space. But one is that there's a mental health crisis among young people in particular that is related

to the advent of social media and smartphone adoption. And, you know, obviously we're having this conversation in the medium we, are and I love technology. But the data says that it's having an effect on increased levels of anxiety, depression, other things like among young folks in particular. So if you know that's happening, then you're like, why aren't we digging into what the heck we can do to help moderate that impact? So going back to the cabinet level, you know, like a secretary of technology position, is that a role that you would take? I would definitely strongly consider taking it, probably jump on it, honestly, because, you know, if you're passionate about solving problems,

then someone gives you a chance to solve those problems, you have to be like a pretty big jerk to be like, no. So I would be thrilled to be the first person to fill that kind of role. And the goal would be to try and get some real change through that helped modernize our approach to a lot of these issues. Really for, again, your sake and the sake of your generation, we have left your generation, such a bill of goods on so many levels, like, it's, it's total. Noticed. Yeah, no, I mean, if you didn't notice. And the worst thing is we've actually sort of left it at your feet, been like, it's somehow

your fault, which I always thought was deeply, first, wrong, and second, immoral, really, because, you know, it's like, if you're a young person, you're like, I just got here. Like, how the heck could I be responsible for this mess? But what I say to young people like you is that you're not responsible for this mess we have left you, but we need your help to clean it up. I mean, like, and is that fair? No. But it's not going to get cleaned up without folks like you leading the way. Would you like to see any other cabinet positions created that would bring us into the 21st century? I think that in a way, you might want to try and have someone dedicated to each major issue that you care deeply about. Because

what happens is, like, if you become secretary of commerce, let's say, you inherit a 40 to 50,000 employees at an agency, you become tasked with operating a very large bureaucracy, and that consumes a lot of your time in cycles. So can you imagine there possibly being like a secretary of addressing climate change or a secretary of, yeah, like, or taking on like really big macro issues to try and move us in that direction?

I think it may be a good idea. You know, you'd probably need to adjust. the cabinet somewhat because right now, again, most secretaries have like a major agency that reports to them. And you don't necessarily want to stand up like a new agency for every role that you'd create. But I think it may make sense if we want to try and move things in a better direction. Well, I think also, I mean, like, yeah, it would be a major, you know, structural change, which especially for cabinet level positions we don't see frequently. But, you know, I think one of the only reasons that that that that we wouldn't see this is just because of the power of stasis and I you know

I think as long as we're able to push through that and then then we would be able to you know make structural changes like that like creating a secretary of climate the power of stasis is unfortunately very very real and it's tough to overcome in a lot of contexts um so I love it look at this we're reinventing government on this convoy and uh yeah they know but we genuinely should be having these kinds of conversations, I feel, because the fear that I have and many people have is that D.C. is decades behind the curve on many issues. Like, if you went there, if you went to even a congressional office and you saw the technology they were running, you'd be like, what the hell just happened? Like, you think you just walked into like the 1990s.

So you get, like, it's kind of stuck in time. And we should be looking at ways to try and, speed it up. Like I personally think that one of the things that might make a big difference is like the physical plant and infrastructure where if you go into some of these buildings, they're like a member of Congress said to me, it's like you enter like this like Roman legislative type of place and you just feel like you're never actually going to change anything because like it feels kind of fixed in the past. Yeah. And so if you can imagine putting everyone into like a modern building where like maybe you could even design it so that folks, instead of, like, being isolated from each other, like they're forced to interact with each other in different ways.

Like, you know, there are things you could do that might help change the culture of government. So you rose to prominence championing the issue of UBI, and we're going to get to that. But there are clearly parallels between UBI and the Democratic proposal put forward by Kamala Harris and Ed Markey, both of whom I spoke with in the last few weeks. You have such cool guests. Look at this, Brian. Well, I appreciate it for them. Thank, thank, Senator Markey and Harris for this is the place to be. Look at that. Like, if you want to talk to young people, you got to get on the Brian Tyler Cohen show. So says Andrew Yang. Kamala Harris and Ed Markey. Yeah, I'm thrilled that they're championing the cash relief plan that they're all over. Yeah. So can you speak to the importance of that bill passing for the American people? Because, I mean, you know, as a champion for UBI, I feel like no one is better position to be able to speak on getting, you know, cash relief to Americans.

Yeah, and it's not just me and Kamala and Ed. At this point, 74% of Americans believe that we should put cash relief into people's hands during this pandemic. And in 2020, I feel like 74% might as well be 98%. You know what I mean? Like, what can you get 74% of Americans? A majority of Republicans agree with cash relief. And this is really one of the heartbreaking things about our time is that you have the people. Let's call it 74% of Americans.

Common sense are like, hey, yeah, like we're all stuck. like let's get cash in people's hands who don't have to worry about feeding our families and then you have this massive level of corporate interest and lobbyists and the entire influence infrastructure and then you have legislators

and so you would think well if 74% of us are for cash relief then why don't they just pass cash relief like what is the what is a political downside for example it's like you know you could come back to your district and be like hey a great thing like you know helped keep everyone's doors open

and children alive. And then there's somehow, at this point, this barrier. And so I'm thrilled that Kamala and Ed are championing that cash relief bill. I'm doing everything I can to pound the table and say, look, like, we need this really badly. I'm the numbers guy. And if you look up, you can see that there are tens of millions of jobs that are gone. And almost half of those jobs are gone forever. So imagining that they're all going to just snap back to normal like a rubber band, it's ridiculous.

It's not the way the economy functions or these organizations function. And for the young people watching this, too, a lot of you didn't get your $1,200 check because you didn't qualify because you were a student or, you know, you didn't file taxes at a certain level or whatever it was. And that was nonsense too. It's like, do you not need some money to help pay the bills during this time? Of course you did. we should have been much, much bigger about our approach to cash relief. And my big concern is that we're going to see terrible things happen to many, many families of the United States and our government still is not going to be responsive.

It means happening right now. So I certainly applaud Kamala and Ed in the Senate. And then in the House, it's AOC, Tim Ryan, Rokana and others. is there about 40 co-sponsors in the House. So I'm fighting for it every day. Like every day I'm trying to get people to sign on to that bill. And one thing I'm doing too, that's really fun, Brian, that I'm enjoying immensely, is I'm helping candidates who are pro universal basic income and cash relief

in local races and congressional races around the country. So there's a guy named Adam Christensen, who's not even that much older than you, who's, I think he's like 26. I don't, you seem like you're about that age. to be, who's running for Congress in Ted Yoho's district, like, you know, in Florida. I think Adam's going to win his primary, and I think Adam's going to be poised to become, like, a voice of your generation. Well, yeah, especially because Ted has made himself, made himself quite the target by deciding to voluntarily attack AOC. Like, freaking berate a colleague in the hall?

Like, what kind of asshole do you have to be? Yeah. No, really, it was bizarre. Imagine anybody else in work. Imagine any other colleague, any other place in this country doing what he did and imagine keeping your job. Yeah, and in the office, if you did that stuff and it was caught on film, it'd be like, like, God, you know, oh, man, it's infuriating.

So one of the things I've enjoyed is that I can make a difference in those local races because the scale is actually more manageable than, my presidential race was, where I'm like, wow, like your opponent only has what? Like, how many votes do you need? Like, you know, like, you have to raise a million bucks? Like, that doesn't sound so bad. Like, things like that. So we actually had some very positive results even earlier this week in some races. And so I've been really enjoying that. And I'm pushing for candidates who are pro cash relief and often universal basic income. So you've said that before that all the jobs lost to COVID aren't going to just snap back like a rubber band

and that we need bigger structural change to benefit the middle class. What does that look like? Well, there are big things that we need to do right now, in my opinion, like cash relief. And then there are the big structural changes, many of which that Joe is already proposing and trying to make a reality, which I love because I believe Joe is going to be our next president. And so we have to start thinking about what the plan is to rebuild the country. in the wake of all of this devastation wrought by COVID. So the plans he's rolled out, I'm excited about. I mean, one thing I'm excited about is he wants to cap the percentage of income you can

spend on child care. Right now, there's so many families that spend so much money on child care. And it drives people out of the workforce. And so he's saying that, look, like there's a cap of 7% of your income, which would be very, very, like, it'd be thousands and thousands of dollars in savings for many, many families. That's a kind of big move you'd want to make. Investing in infrastructure, in part because of climate change is also a no-brainer. We have like crumbling schools and streets and we might actually see infrastructure week happen. Yeah, we might see infrastructure week happen.

And this is something that has been overdue for years and decades. I mean, it's like a metaphor for a lot of American life where we're coasting on the investments that people made decades. decades ago. And then those investments are now crumbling under our feet. And then instead of reinvesting, we're just kicking the can down the road. So I believe that Joe is going to actually be the president who rebuilds the country. And that creates millions of jobs over time because there's a lot of work to be done in ways big and small. It would be everything from installing solar panels on buildings and roofs to high-speed broadband in many rural areas. to our physical infrastructure, which needs an overhaul.

And I think it was especially smart of him to, you know, to bring up the fact that that a lot of his investments in the future are going to be job-based. I mean, building up the renewables sector is completely job-based as the fastest-growing sector in the country, even like you said, the childcare area, you know, especially now the pandemic has shown how important that is, how important caregiving and growing our education workforce is to the American people. I think you don't have any parent in this country right now who doesn't doubly appreciate what teachers and caregivers have done. Yeah, we need to give teachers a raise and we need to amplify the resources that are going to

teachers, caregivers for both kids and for our aging loved ones. You know, if you look at the demographics of the United States, there's going to be a massive need for home health care and people who are caring for aging Americans. And the market does not have the resources in place to supply those workers with like a real career right now in many, many cases. So one silver lining, and I don't even want to say silver lining because this is just a terrible, terrible time. But in order for us to get out of this time, the government has to play a huge,

role in rethinking the level of resources that are going to different activities and hopefully we'll take that opportunity. We'll go big. And my conversations with Joe, he's deeply empathetic and concerned about what's happening to middle class families and working class families. And he recognized that we need to go big. And one thing I love about the prospect of Joe as president is that everything he says immediately becomes the new reasonable or the new center in terms of macro investments. So if he says, hey, we're going to spend $2 trillion on renewables and fighting climate change, all of a sudden, that's like very reasonable. Whereas if, you know, if someone else had said it, then people would be like, oh, that's like, you know, too extreme far out.

Socialists. Yeah, yeah, exactly, even though it's obviously overdue. You know, look, regardless of of who anybody out there voted for who your first preference was the there's a young i'm kidding there is a huge benefit to having joe biden on the ticket and that is that you know he comes with this sense of of reasonableness right so like when he says something that could otherwise be construed if aOC said something people people would just you know deride her as as being you know a far left socialist but And, you know, I'm a, I don't think you'll find a bigger fan of AOC than me, but, but when, when Joe Biden says it, like you said, I mean, like, he imbues a degree of, of moderation to something so that, you know, and it does help. I mean, especially when we're trying to win the most important election of our lifetimes. I think what you just said is spot on. I'm an AOC fan, too. You know, I've spent a little bit of time with her and we work together on, like, you know, a few positive initiatives online.

the message and the messenger really get tied together and in a way it's very unfortunate because you're like what the hell like you know she just said the same damn thing you know i mean like it's you know but like that if the challenge is getting joan is an administration on board with something and then if they're on board then it happens that's actually like a very reasonable uh challenge in a way because then if you get them on board that it happens, like, that's actually a much better place to be than, for example, right now, it's like you can't get this administration on board with just about anything. So there's that. And that's the real choice we have. Yeah. But I think that he has the chance to do things very

differently in a way because he doesn't represent, like, he can become like a chain engine just by making the change happen. Yeah. So I do want to talk about automation for a second. One of the region's hit hardest by automation is the Rust Belt, all the states that put Trump over the top in 2016. Do you think that the fear of automation there, or actually the beginnings of automation there, helped him win, given his populist rhetoric? Yeah, 100%. That's one reason why I ran for president myself is that I think we automated, well, I know we automated away four million manufacturing jobs that were primarily in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, all the states you won. Iowa, Missouri, also you won.

And what most people don't necessarily know about me is that I spent six years working in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and I saw the aftermath of the loss of manufacturing in those communities. And it was devastating. And I think that we haven't fully acknowledged that impact on those communities. And then when Trump came and said, hey, you know, blame immigrants or like or told the story he told, there were a lot of people that were willing to listen in part because they didn't. feel like there was another story that was being told about them and their communities. And what happened to those manufacturing jobs is unfortunately shifting to retail, to food service, to eventually transportation. I mean, when you get to self-driving cars and trucks, that's going to be devastating for literally millions of truckers. I think one of the biggest sectors in the U.S. economy is truck drivers, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, it's the most common job in 29 states. There are over three million. truckers in this country, and then there are over 7 million workers in truck stops,

motels, and diners that rely upon the trucker stopping and getting out and going to sleep or getting a meal. So if you automate any proportion of freight, you're looking at millions of jobs being diminished or lost. And we've seen this movie before. To me, we did that to the manufacturing workers in the Midwest. And those communities, have not recovered, and we're primed to do it to the, the most common job in this country is retail clerk. And you can see that retail is dying before our eyes. You know, 30% of malls are closing. The average retail worker was already not exactly making a great living and they're making like 10 bucks an hour oftentimes. But now you even kick that away. And so the

Automation, freight train is bearing down on more and more parts of our economy. And I think it led to Trump winning in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa. And it's something that we have to be much more forthright about trying to address. So the thing is, like, Trump can't run on that anymore because he didn't actually do anything to save those manufacturing jobs in the rest of the region. The region saw, I think, like, 16,000 lost factory jobs just in the last year. Can you talk on what Biden will be able to do where Trump had promised and failed? And you can see Joe is up in all of those states, in part because Trump did not do what he promised to do, as you said. And I think right now the folks in the swing states are regretting voting for Trump in many ways because it has not helped them.

And they're going to give Joe a chance to try and do things better. differently. And Joe's vision for the economy is an inclusive one. He wants to invest in small businesses around the country. He wants to provide a path forward for the middle class. And this was even before, you know, he was the nominee. Like, we'd have exchanges during breaks in the debate where he would talk about his fear for the middle class. And so if you're a middle class voter in one of those swing states, Joe wants to rebuild the economy in a way that includes you and wants to do in a genuine way, not by demonizing others or telling like a story that makes you feel a certain way, but doesn't solve your problem. Right. I mean, I mean, you see this from

the right time and time again. The only way they push forward is, you know, through the politics of fear. That's all the Trump campaign has, right? So for them, when you, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So they just keep, you know, it's, they only know how to demonize people, how to divide people, how to exacerbate, you know, otherness. And, and, uh, I don't think we've seen that from the Biden campaign at all. And, uh, that's why they're up in most of the states around the country, even states that really Democrats have no business being up in. Yeah, Trump's nonsense is not working anymore. Uh, so that, that's one other silver lining you can take is that he's, and it's clear he sees it. Like, he's just casting about.

for whatever ridiculous. Wait, so are you saying you don't think that the suburbs are going to be abolished? Exactly. Like whatever nonsense, like he'll try and spout about anything on his mind that... Hating God? Yeah, hating God.

That's what I was thinking of when you said that. I was like, you know, I don't think that anyone thinks Joe is either hurting God or, you know, like, I think that's what... Especially like, first of all, it's ridiculous, this, but second of all, like, to come from Donald Trump, of all the messengers that this can come from, I don't know if you've heard, if you've heard, like, you know, one of a dozen of Trump's responses about the Bible, but I don't know that he's, uh, he's exactly the best messenger to be,

uh, to be giving lectures on, you know, religion, faith. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty abominable, you know, where we've gotten to, but it's not working, uh, to me in, in many ways, too. And if you're watching this, like, we got to do the work. We got to, uh, vote we have to volunteer we have to energize folks in part because we have to win this thing by such a margin that even if that there's no ambiguity that there's no weird shenanigans that voter suppression efforts don't actually comprise the margin uh so we got to win by a lot right and so you know the fact that i'm being very positive about joe's chances we're very positive about uh we have to work for it and make sure that we leave nothing um nothing off the field

And that's something that I hear from almost everybody I speak with, that we have to, you know, win by such a margin that because everybody knows the guy is going to, you know, question the results of the election and cast doubt and, you know, try to discredit the results. We have to overcome that by just voting in such massive numbers that there isn't, that there isn't any doubt that it's, you know, a complete repudiation of Donald Trump and everything that he stands for. Yes, let's do it. Let's turn everything blue. I mean, I was just done an event with Beto and a congressional candidate Donna I'm, and he's like, Texas is going to go blue. And I just thought to myself, it's like, wow, Texas went blue. Like you imagine this map. Let's make that map happen. Let's make the map so blue. It would make us all feel much, much better. Yeah. And he's and he's been crushing it too. I mean, he has powered by people. This is his organization down there. And he's doing a ton of really great work. And, you know, I don't know if everybody knows that because he's not on the national, you know, not on the national scene anymore.

Yeah, he's grinding it out in Texas, you know, like district to district. It's great. The most important work you can be doing. I mean, he's like, he's out there with individual candidates and they're knocking on doors and they're really doing the work that needs to be done to like, yeah, like you said, like turn Texas blue. We win Texas. Then there is no path to victory for Trump or Republicans.

Yeah, he was campaigning with me for Donna I'm on last night. So Beto's putting in the work. And Beto and I became. friends on the trail. You know, if you want to become friends with presidential candidates, run for president yourself. That's it. That's what I get there. We have this whole group text thing. We're on like this. No, we're not. But that would be pretty. There's nothing I'd love. I'd love more than just to see the inner workings of a presidential group text. You know what? I have enough of their numbers where I could start said text.

Can we do it right here, right here on this show? that would be really funny like i wonder how many of them what percentage of them would enjoy that and what percentage would be like god damn it andrew like what you know i mean by the rule is that uh zero people enjoy group texts but uh but something tells me that that there'd be a notable exception made for uh Bernie and and Elizabeth Warren and uh and and you know everybody else in there so well some of them are more uh phone friendly than others Just thinking whose numbers. Anyway, sorry. I'm distracting myself. Important business at hand. So I do want to talk one more, one more bit about jobs and kind of bringing everything into the 21st century.

You look at places like Appalachia, places that are reliant on coal and fossil fuels. And these are dying industries. I don't think there's anybody on the face of the earth that won't concede that these are dying industries. But the Republican representatives that represent these districts aren't doing anything to position themselves to be on the front line to lead the charge on renewable manufacturing because they themselves are getting fossil fuel donations, right? So they'll prop up fossil fuels because of campaign donations, and it's their own constituents who are ultimately going to be left behind. And they won't be producing solar panels and wind turbines and everything else that we need. How did Democrats go in and make it clear that their current leadership isn't, doing the many favors? You know, how do we make the case to get elected there? And why haven't we been able to do it? I love this question so much, Brian, because I think it's crucial. I think it's

so important. So let's use West Virginia as an example. You know, they have coal, extractive industry. It's diminishing. But you have voters voting for Republicans. And I'm friends with Richard Ojeda, who ran for office in West Virginia. So I had some insight. Yeah, he's great. And Richard, to me, is the ideal ambassador of this. So the problem we have as Democrats, in my opinion, is that we do a poor job of meeting people where they are and trying to communicate with them where they are. And I think Richard was successful in West Virginia because he spoke their language. He's one of them.

You know, he's like a person in West Virginia who was like, look, these folks, the Republicans are doing you dirty and you know we need to do better we need to like invest in ourselves richard told me some stories about some of like the the craziness he had to go through too i mean like he literally was like attacked like yeah uh and so when i was campaigning for president i would talk to truckers and waitresses and um i said i'm running for president and then they say which party and then i say democrat and then you could see their lips like curl with disgust um And I thought to myself, it's like, wait, isn't the Democratic Party supposed to be the party of the little guy or gal or the working class person? But they do not regard Democrats as standing with them.

They regard Democrats in many of these places that you're describing in Appalachia as a party of the intellectuals and the urbanites and that we do not care about people like them. and what Republicans have been more successful at is framing their appeals in language that appeals to them and says, look, I'm one of you. I care about you. It's one reason why, again, like Richard was able to make headway. One of the weaknesses we have as Democrats is we speak a certain language. And then if you don't appreciate our language, then we're like, well, what's wrong with you? Like, oh, you're voting against your interest. Like, you know, instead, like, we're supposed to be people-centered, I think. And so we should get dig deeper and be like, why is it, you don't think the Democratic Party has your interest at stake? You know, like, what is going on here? And so there, so Richard's part of a group called

No Dems Left Behind, where they're helping candidates fight in rural areas. And the Democratic Party does a lousy job at trying to support those candidates, which on one level, I respect and appreciate because you're, you have finite resources and you're like, why am I going to help Blair Walsingham in rural Tennessee when I think that she's not going to win. But then that becomes self-perpetuating because then you're like, well, if you never invest there, then the folks in rural Tennessee, it was like, well, Democratic Party doesn't care about me. And so that's why we have the situation you're describing, Brian. It starts with us trying to meet people where they are and investing in races that right now don't seem like they're on the cusp of going our way. But we'll

never get there if we don't fight for them. And this is one thing I think Beto demonstrated in 18, where people thought Texas, like, oh, it'll never, it'll never go blue. And then he excited people, met them where they were, came within a hair's breadth of winning statewide, which has been the greatest thing in the world. And we're heading in that direction progressively because Texas' demographics are changing all the time. I completely agree about meeting people where they are. I think, you know, I've had conflicting feelings about this, about people going, you know, on Fox News. I know that you've done a number of shows online that you've taken criticism for, but it follows the same concept of like meeting people where you are. And if you don't meet people

where they are, if you don't go into these rural communities, if you don't, you know, in some ways appear on Fox News, then you're going to let the Republicans dictate the terms of the conversation. And we see just dangerous that can be. Yeah. Like, who do you want them to hear? from like the you know like the the talking heads who have no interest in solving their problems or folks that are doing their best and so you got to try and present that difference to them so I'm so glad that you're open to that because to me and I think I said this a while ago like it's very difficult to persuade someone of anything if you don't go to them and talk to them and so if you have a huge chunk of the country and you also have to face facts I'm the numbers guy

Fox's audience is bigger than the channels. So if you're going to try and get a majority of Americans on board with trying to address climate change, you're going to have to try and reach that segment of the population. And you're not going to convince 100% of them. But if you get any chunk of them, then you can make real change happen. You know, like speaking to the folks you already have, it's like, you know, it feels good. But like, for example, on this conversation, like, who am I going to? to convince to, like, get on board with climate change. It wasn't already. You know what I mean?

It's like, so, so you, so if you're trying to get more people on board with, with an issue, you kind of have to go to a difficult audience. And I think that Democrats, and then when you get to the difficult audience, you can't just do your thing and be like, well, it didn't work. Like, you have to go deeper and being like, why is it, you don't think we care about you? And, and sometimes it's something you can't do anything about. Like, when I was having conversations with voters and, They were like, I'm not going to vote for you because you're, like, you know, pro choice or something like that. And then I would be like, well, I genuinely think that that reproductive rights are human rights. And like, if that's your litmus test for a candidate, I'm not your candidate. But, you know, I believe, and in my case, I was like, but you know what I think would help people have children is if we gave people enough money so that they could live on. and that if you had a child, that it would not be like an existential, like,

economic burden or threat. And so, like, I'd pivot to it's like, look, I'm obviously not going to compromise on something that is core, but I'll still talk to you about the fact that, like, maybe there are other things that I do care about that you would appreciate. Yeah. And I found that those conversations were immensely helpful. Like, I think I, so one thing, I don't know about if you knew this about me, Brian, I hope it doesn't make you like me less, but 42% of my supporters said that they were not sure

they're going to support the Democratic nominee. And so I was reaching a lot of folks who weren't hardcore Dems. And to me, that that was like an opportunity. It was like, okay, like there's something I'm doing here that I can actually reach a group of people that the Dems are not right now reaching. Totally. And I think that's a huge, I think that's a huge opportunity like you said. So, so what have you done because you contrast yourself with someone like elizabeth warren i think uh the latest polling showed that elizabeth warren supporters will vote for joe biden by a margin of 96 to zero so there's really no opportunity for her like you said in the same boat that you are uh to convert anyone because they're they're already on board so uh what have you been able to do to kind of you know

like you have you have a large swath of people who who can be converted i mean those are those are really valuable prospective Democratic voters. So I guess what's being done on your end to make sure that those people are showing up for Joe Biden in November? Well, first I try and lead by example by saying, look, I'm endorsing Joe. I think he's the best choice. Here's why. And then like I'm willing to speak to it. And there are a number of my supporters I've seen, which it makes me excited. They were like, look, don't love this, but believe in Yang. And if he says it's the right way to like I'm, I'm on board. The other thing I do is that if someone says, look, I really am struggling with this,

like I'm understanding about it being like, I get it. You supported me. Like, you know, like, you know, hopefully you'll support Joe by the time Election Day comes around. But let's talk about the things that we want to see happen in this country. And then if you have Joe as president or Trump as president, like, which do you think is going to be more conducive to the changes that we want happening? Right. And I think that's the most important thing.

And this is something I really appreciate, and this is going to resemble, I think, some of the folks listening to this right now. There are a lot of my supporters who just have lost faith in our government to solve a lot of these problems and that the Democratic Party is listening to them and cares about them. They think that the Democratic Party has its own sort of set of corporate interests and that a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for a status quo that they are not excited about. and those are some of the people I appeal to. And I think there are some young people that feel similarly because of some of the things you and I talked about earlier,

which is like, hey, why is this mess in place for my generation and why does no one seem to be doing anything about it? And so I respect that sense of tested faith, shall we say. And, you know, what I say to them is like, look, I get it. but we have a binary choice here. We need to give ourselves a chance to make the changes better. And then really in many ways, the challenge begins, Brian, because we have to actually live up to the faith of those people.

Like, if a bunch of people bite down and say, look, I want to believe that the Democratic Party and Joe will solve these problems I see in my community and make my life better. then we have to fight, fight, fight, to actually make that happen because that is what I saw when I campaigned is that a lot of people have lost faith. And I get it, too. I mean, if you're in one of these towns in Appalachia or Michigan or Ohio

or Western Pennsylvania and you've seen the jobs evaporate, or even now in this pandemic when people are struggling and you're looking up and saying, like, what the heck is going on? like why can't Congress pass appropriate relief measures in an appropriate time frame? Like it gives you a real sense of mistrust and it makes it hard for you to get excited that someone's actually going to do things differently. And I think there are two fights that are happening right now. And the one you're speaking about would start on January 20th, 2021.

But in order to give ourselves the opportunity to get there, the one in November's, you know, is the only one really on the ballot, literally and figuratively speaking. So, you know, I think kind of brings us back to our point in the beginning that getting Joe Biden in office. Let's get Joe into office. Let's make it so we're celebrating. And let's make it happen so that we're celebrating an election night. Now, we don't have to wake up being like, what the heck is going on.

Like, you know, let's make this a clean sweep. And then the work begins 2021 in January. Sorry, but yeah, just want to like presenting the vision so that. people can get excited because it is an exciting vision. So let's talk about the Yang Gang for a second. What was the best gesture you ever got from the Yang Gang? So much love. I appreciate the Yang Gang so much.

No, certainly, anytime I showed up someplace, and there were people with signs and, like, T-shirts and math caps, they were excited to see me. I appreciated that immensely. When I showed up in New Hampshire and Iowa, on. There were folks who had driven up or moved there in many cases. There was this group, the sorority of Yang, where just a group of women came and just rented a house in Iowa, became like this giant sorority house, and they just went out and canvassed every day. Love them.

There's so much touching, like touching support I received everywhere I went. Yeah. And as like someone who frankly not been a public figure until recently, I was surprised. I was surprised. every single time. You know what I mean? Like the first time you're like, wow, like that was incredible. And then the 50th time, I'm still like, wow, that was incredible. Like even now where, yeah, like, I'm still appreciative because like I never really expected it, honestly.

And like, I think, I hope that stays true forever because even now when someone says something nice about me. I'm like, oh. So what's next for you? Well, same as you, Brian, we just got to get Joe elected. So that's number one. Fight for Joe, fight for cash relief, fight for down-ballot candidates. If you want to see any of the candidates I'm supporting, you can go to our website, MoveHumanityforward.com and see who we're endorsing. It's people like Adam Christensen and Alex Morris and Donna, I. them like they're awesome it's so much fun uh we're distributing cash relief because we think that it's obvious we all need a hand right now so we're up to seven million dollars in cash relief that we've distributed thank you anyone who's donated you're incredible and uh we started something

called or we didn't actually we partnered with something called a one k project where you can actually see the struggling american family that needs a lift and then you can give them 50 bucks and up to a certain amount of money. And we will match every donation you make dollar for dollar, up to a million bucks. So we're going to get $2 million in the hands of American families. And that's on top of the other cash relief we've already distributed. I have my own podcast, Yang Speaks, which is good fun. So I'm trying to follow in your footsteps, Brian.

And it gets some positive messages out there. Working on something trying to get people paid for their data, which I think is overdue. I mean, you have Facebook generating $70 billion a year worth, what, $700 billion, and you're not seeing a dime. It's off of your data. They're just like, you know, selling and reselling you. So, you know, you think, oh, this is free.

It's like, it's actually someone's making a lot of money. And so if they're making so much money, shouldn't we be getting some of that? So those are some of the things I'm working on. But it begins and ends with Joe because if Joe does not win, we're fucked. So we just need to make sure that Joe wins. And we're going to make sure he wins. I'm super excited about it on that level.

Vote for Joe, campaign for Joe, volunteer for Joe, phone bank, text bank for Joe, so that you too can be celebrating knowing you did something. It's a different celebration if you did something. If something happens, you're like, oh, I'm glad. That's one thing. But if you help make it happen, it's like so uplifting and positive and transformative. So do something so you can actually feel that sense of excitement and ownership when he wins.

There you go. Well, Andrew Yang, thank you so much for taking the time to talk today. It was great. Brian, congratulations to you, man. You're like the voice of your up-and-coming progressive generation. We definitely need your help because, you know, like this mess is not going to clean itself up. Thanks again to Andrew Yang. That's it for this episode.

Thanks for listening. Talk to you next week. You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen, produced by Sam Graber, music by Wellesie, interviews edited for YouTube and Facebook by Nick Nicotera, and recorded in Los Angeles, California. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe on your preferred podcast app. Feel free to leave a five-star rating and a review, and check out Brian Tyler Cohen.com for links to all of my other channels.