No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Republicans fall in line in redistricting cold war

Episode Date: August 24, 2025

Indiana Republicans seem poised to redraw their maps next to prove their allegiance to Trump. Brian interviews Governor JB Pritzker about Illinois’ map; Congressman Robert Garcia about the release of the first tranche of Epstein files; Tommy Vietor about the Trump-Newsom feud; and data-driven journalist Elliott Morris about Trump hitting a new low in his polling.Shop merch: https://briantylercohen.com/shopYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/briantylercohenTwitter: https://twitter.com/briantylercohenFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/briantylercohenInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/briantylercohenPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/briantylercohenNewsletter: https://www.briantylercohen.com/sign-upWritten by Brian Tyler CohenProduced by Sam GraberRecorded in Los Angeles, CASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Indiana Republicans now seem poised to redraw their maps next to prove their allegiance to Trump. And I've got four interviews. I speak with Governor J.B. Pritzker about Illinois's map. Congressman Robert Garcia about the release of the first tranche of the Epstein files. Tommy Vitor about the Trump-Nusom feud and data-driven journalist Elliot Morris about Trump hitting a new low in his polling. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. Every single Republican lawmaker in Indiana has now endorsed the idea of a mid-cycle map rediretrial. This is a state that Trump won by about 17 points in the last election, where Republicans already control 82% of the seats.

That's nine out of the 11 seats in the congressional delegation. I have little doubt that a redrawn map would mean that Republicans would control all 11 seats, giving them 100% representation in a state that Trump won with 58% of the vote. And of course, Missouri and Florida are likely not far behind. Remember, it's only August of 2025, and so Republicans still have plenty of time to redraw maps and time for ballots to be printed, likely sometime in December or January. And look, I can sit here and rail against the Republicans.

I can say that they've given up on democracy, that they've given up on the Constitution, that they know they can't win with their agenda moving forward and so they have to cheat instead. But I think we've all come to the realization that we're not going to be able to shame Republicans into doing the right thing. Like their superpower, to their credit,

is that they can't be shamed. So if our strategy here is to appeal to their sense of shame, we're wasting our breath. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't expose what they're doing and yell it from the rooftops, but our strategy here to combat it has to go further. And in California, obviously, it has. To the California Democrats and Gavin Newsom's great credit, they're backing up their words with action.

They recognized a problem, happened in Texas, threw together a solution in weeks, and they got it done. Temporally disbanding the Independent Redistricting Commission in favor of maps that are going to flip five seats and shore up four more swing seats is going to be on the ballot on November 4th. I'm sure there were a million reasons not to do it, a million obstacles, a million roadblocks, but they got it done. And that deserves all the credit in the world.

But California alone is not going to get it done. We need other states to step up because Republicans are a hell of a lot less discerning than Democrats. Like, it barely takes any convincing to get Texas and Missouri and Indiana and Florida to accede to Trump's demands. So it's going to happen there. We pretend that there's still hope that we can, like, appeal to their better angels at our own peril. So instead of wasting time, hoping and praying, we got to move. I've made it my mission to get as many governors as possible on record on this issue. I've spoken with Illinois's J.B. Pritzker, Maryland's, Westmore, New York's Kathy Hochle, Colorado's Jared Polis, New Jersey,

Governor Hopeful, Mikey Sherrill. Other than Polis, who isn't interested in disbanding his state's Independent Redistricting Commission, and Mikey Sherrill, who isn't yet Governor of New Jersey, they're all saying the right things. But we haven't seen action yet. And honestly, that's not good enough. Like, here's the deal. We are in an existential moment right now. I try not to be like too overly dramatic here because I think maintaining a degree of hope is important. But we're watching democracy fall in real time. Like if ever there was a time to expend your political capital to stop worrying about being safe and unoffensive and circumspect, this is it. What are you buying political capital for if not to

expend it at a moment like this. What could possibly be more important? Democrats are about to be shut out of the House forever. That means our agenda stops forever. And it's damn near impossible to un-jerrymandered, already gerrymandered maps. Presumably these governors in these states care about some issue, right? Health care, abortion rights, climate change, unions, jobs, gun violence, civil rights, whatever it may be. And so whatever they're animating issues are, that relies on a functioning democracy where Democrats have the ability to win to be able to act on those issues. If Republicans redraw these maps and there's no response from Democrats, that's it. Like, we're cooked.

Now is the time to act, not just to say the right things, but to do the right things. That's what all these people are going to be judged on. In the interview that you're about to hear with J.B. Pritzker, you're going to hear him talk about the Holocaust Museum in Illinois, where visitors are asked if you're going to be a collaborator or a rescuer, if you're going to be a bystander or an upstander. And that was striking for me because, you know, we often face this question, whether explicitly or implicitly, about what we would do if we were ever in a position where atrocities were occurring around us. And we all like to think that we would step up, that we would speak out, be a helper, show some spine, do the right thing. And I'm not equating what's happening in the U.S. right now to the Holocaust, but we are in a crisis.

We are watching democracy fall. We might not see it clearly because we're in the east. inside of it, but we're at a pivotal moment right now in history. Today, like our kids and grandkids are going to read about this moment. I can promise you. And so we need the people in power to recognize that if ever there was a moment to expend their political capital and use the power that they've been entrusted with to offer not an ordinary response to an extraordinary moment, but an extraordinary response to an extraordinary moment. This is it. And as for the rest of us, our job is clear. We got to put pressure on folks in power. They are not immune to

pressure. In fact, they're extraordinarily responsive to it. At their core, these politicians are self-interested. So if it becomes clear that it is in their self-interest to act on behalf of the clear will of the people, then we got to make sure that will is clear. Write them, call them, tweet at them, post about them, tag them, show up, make your voices heard. Our window to fight back is closing, but it's not closed yet. And we should have every intention in the world of making sure that we don't miss our chance to actually fight back. Next up are my interviews with J.B. Pritzker, Robert Garcia, Tommy Vitor, and Elliot Morris. No Lie is brought to you by Hymns. Through Hymns, you can access personalized prescription

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See website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. I'm joined now by the governor of Illinois, J.B. Prisker. Thanks so much for joining me. Great to see you, Brian. So we have some news today as it relates to these Texas Democrats who have left your state and returned to Texas. The goal of their move, as far as they've said, now that their quorum break is going to be over, is to really highlight this issue for the rest of the country. And so we've seen in California how we're moving forward with this redistricting referendum that's going to happen on November 4th.

Obviously, you've been very present and forward-leaning in this fight. And so what's next as far as Illinois is concerned? Well, remember that one of the purposes of the attempt to break the quorum was to give time for other states to prepare. And remember, there are two states, Democratic states, that have a real opportunity to try to counter what Texas is doing. California being the lead, New York perhaps being the other. And there are a few others, including Illinois, including Maryland and others. I think importantly, you know, a strategy to try to push back against Texas and to hope. the entire endeavor, is to try to pair up states, right?

Texas and California, does Texas really want to do this if California is simply going to negate it? Right. Does Missouri really want to do this if Maryland is really going to negate it? And so hopefully what we see is there isn't an arms race here or ratcheting up of this, but rather ratcheting down. I, you know, we can always be hopeful. Right. Unfortunately, I think what we're seeing now is that we're going to have to fight the fight in California. You know, as a Democrat and as somebody who believes that we should have independent maps drawn, you've got to do that nationwide. Yeah. Can't do it state by state. And in the end, that's why we didn't get it done in Illinois is because, you know, doing it one-off is just unilaterally disarming. Yeah. And so what the Texas Democrats have done is given us time. And I think that's being taken

advantage of now in a very positive way because we're seeing a ratcheting up here in California. And I'm supportive of it and want to make sure that we're accomplishing what we need to. Hopefully this will stop between Texas and California and we won't go further than that. If we do see a ramping up, if we do see that arms race continue, if we do see these Missouri Republicans redraw their maps and then Indiana Republicans redraw their maps and then Ronda Santis's

Florida Republicans redraw their maps how are you going to think about Illinois's position in all of this in terms of being able to push back knowing that we have limited resources at our disposal Well let's step back just for a moment and recognize that they're breaking the law in Texas

literally violating the Voting Rights Act and the purpose is not just to get Republican votes in Congress because they know they're going to lose in 2026. And so they're trying to rig the game. But they're also taking away votes from people in Texas, black and brown people, and their representatives. And the whole purpose of the Voting Rights Act is to protect those votes. So now we're seeing, as you're saying, there could be a contagion around the country. So the courts could have the possibility of standing in the way. We'll

see. We'll see what the Supreme Court does on the Voting Rights Act in particular. And I'm an optimist, but I'm, you know, but I'm a realist, too. So I think where we are is that these, that all the states that have the ability to make a change are going to have to contemplate what that's going to look like, even Illinois. And we've got a, you know, a 14 of our 17 members of Congress, our Democrats, three Republicans, people think it can't be done in Illinois that we couldn't get any more Republicans. They're, that's not accurate, just not accurate. Having said that, I don't think that we should be doing any of this. And I think we should all be reluctant in the endeavor, meanwhile.

But, I mean, look, Democrats have shown that reluctance by virtue of offering up independent redistricting commissions in the states that would otherwise be our Democratic weapons. They've been reluctant to do that. And that's why we have independent redistricting commissions in California, in New York, in Colorado, because we've tried to offer up, you know, these good government solutions in hope that Republicans will reciprocate. And we found that not only are they not reciprocating, but in fact, they're going the opposite direction,

and they're continuing to gerrymandered maps even further. And so I guess at this point, it's worth asking, what are the mechanics of being able to do it in the event that we do see, yes, Texas cancel out California, but Missouri, Indiana, Florida, and I'm sure there's a whole list of other Republicans that are waiting to get pets from Donald Trump that are happy to throw their hat in the ring as well.

Well, I was not implying to you that we should be unwilling to fight fire with fire. Because it's clear, all I was suggesting to you is that as Democrats and as people believe in good government, we should just take a breath for a moment and see if we can't stop this from happening. Meanwhile, if it's happening, I'm, you know, I'm a lead fighter here and I'm going to do whatever I'm able to do in order to push back, whether that's supporting California, getting it done in Illinois or elsewhere.

Look, we don't have a lot of choices here. We're going to have to, you know, be in this fight. And the mechanics of getting it done are, of course, in Illinois, we actually have fewer obstacles, arguably, than California or New York, right? We don't have an independent commission. And we don't have to overcome the problem of an independent commission. We don't, you know, so that can be done. All I'm suggesting to you is that before we take that leap, what we're hoping to see is that

perhaps a state like Indiana, a state like Missouri, will actually choose not to move forward on what they're attempting. Right. Switching gears, but, I mean, not to an entirely different subject to Trump coming out today, knowing that he's already kind of got his hand in one pot by trying to force these Republican states to redraw their maps mid-cycle. Now he's also debuting this idea that he got from the champion of democracy, Vladimir Putin, that we need to eliminate mail-in voting altogether. Just your general reaction to what we've just heard from him. Well, you know that this is part of a broad swath of endeavors to essentially suppress the vote across the United States

among people that would vote against his policies, right, which is anti-American. It's not patriotic. You know, it's something that I think we all should pay attention to and everybody should be outraged by. And indeed, I've called for people to, you know, we've got to have mass protests. The saving of democracy is not a small endeavor. And we only have a few chances to make sure that happens. One is speaking up in a very loud voice today to make sure that people understand there will be real consequences if the Republicans carry out these policies.

Second is we have to make sure we win in 2026. This is the thing that I am most focused on. We have to win. We have to win. And that means making sure we're electing Democrats across the board in district. across the United States. We have a lot of opportunities to do that. And by the way, the polls show that if we put our shoulder to the wheel

and are able to actually effectuate what the polls seem to show, which is we're ahead in the generic ballot by a lot, then we will be able to stop Donald Trump in his tracks. But it's a year plus from now. There's going to be a lot of shenanigans that they're attempting to play between now and then. and at every term we're going to have to stand in the, you know, in the way of his progress. As somebody who has not only come from a family that survived the pogroms and came to this country

to escape the, you know, the Russian empire, which would have killed my family, and has seen the blessings of freedom, of free public education, you know, the opportunity to succeed in this country. and in the end for a great grandchild to become governor of the state of Illinois, I'm somebody who also has studied and been engaged in the building of a Holocaust Museum. And I can tell you that those experiences lead me to believe that if we do not ignite a pushback, I mean a backlash, a rebellion in the streets against, what Donald Trump is doing with the megaphones and microphones and with the use of our ballots,

that we may not have that opportunity some years from now, in fact, in a very short period of time. So that's why I've been engaged in trying to protect the mail-in voting in Illinois. Indeed, we expanded during my time in office, we've expanded people's ability to legally obtain a ballot, vote by mail, making sure that we're giving people every opportunity. opportunity. If you sign up for a mail-in ballot, now you can actually perpetually receive a mail-in ballot, acknowledging that you're a voter each time. And that, I think, is something that each state needs to do. And by the way, this is a state-by-state endeavor. Donald Trump doesn't have the ability to issue an executive order. He often blusters these things and people, you know,

real as if it's going to happen. Executive orders cannot negate the state laws that protect our voting rights in our states. One more thing about Illinois, we don't run our state, our elections on a statewide basis. What I mean is it's actually our county clerks that run the entire election system. It's probably the safest system in the entire country because you can't hack it. Because it's decentralized. It's decentralized. And indeed, it's monitored more closely at a local level than you can do perhaps at a state level. So we feel pretty good about our ability to protect at least people's right you know ability to vote and mail-in ballots which have been increasing over the years one more thing you know remember don't trump attempted essentially to

interfere with the election in 2020 when we were in the middle of a pandemic we had to create the ability for people to vote and making sure that you know that your ability to vote wasn't infringed by you know a disease that he wasn't letting us suppress across the country. And so we went through all of that in 2020. I think people have come to see that more ways to vote, more opportunities to vote, is better for the country. Right. Better, not just for Democrats, but Republicans, too. There's no... Trump himself is a vote-by-mail voter. I think you're spot on in terms of acknowledging all of the issues that we're contending with, with pointing out, you know, we've spoken numerous times now about the similarities between what's

happening in the United States now and what happened, you know, with the fall of Germany in the 30s. And all of the elected officials in this country that are in the Democratic Party have access to the same information that you do, same information that I do. And yet there are so few people who are actually willing to call out this moment for what it is. Why do you think that is? Why are they refusing to recognize the urgency of this moment and the precarious state of our democracy? And what would your message be then in light of the fact that things are descending so quickly? It's taken Democrats too long, elected Democrats, too long to recognize the challenge of the moment. I think there are a lot of people who, when Donald Trump got elected,

thought, well, we survived his first term. You know, if we just keep our heads down, maybe try to work together with some of our Republican colleagues, you know, that's what they were thinking in Washington anyway. I never thought that. Several things I'd point out. One is from day one of Donald Trump coming down that escalator, I have been pushing back and fighting back against Donald Trump. And when I got elected in 2018, like a lot of other Democrats that were elected in 2018, it was in part because people were just fed up already with two years of Donald Trump was enough for people to say, we've got to stop this. And again, every speech that I gave when I ran in 2018, began with everything we care about is under siege by racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic

president in Washington, D.C. And I mentioned that because here we are, it's heading into 2026. And much of the, of the, you know, reaction to Donald Trump has been, well, we survived, you know, the four years last time, maybe we can get through it. And yet, we're what, seven, you know, we're, what, months, going on eight months of his being in office. And it sure doesn't look like the tenets of our country, the values of our country are going to survive if we don't all speak up and speak out. So I've been disappointed. I'll admit in how slowly Democrats have risen up. But at the same time, I've seen more and more Democrats speaking out. It's taken people too long. Sometimes they've, you know, tried to hide their heads, keep it low, and then they realized things in their states,

things across the country are being eaten away at, right? Their rights, in particular, their freedoms are being taken away. And this idea that, you know, you can put up with it continually, I think has finally gotten some to speak out in a way that they haven't before. Last thing I pointed out is that the public has never had to do anything like what we're described, at least not in most people's lifetimes. It hasn't been since the 1960s, that people have seen that things around them are crumbling and that they've got to do something. And so most people are just trying to get to work every day, take care of their families, pay their mortgage or their rent, and survive. And that was before Donald Trump. Now you've got on top of that, every day Donald Trump is

attacking really what most working people are all about. Prices are going up. Your rights are being taken away. They're attacking the most vulnerable people. Sometimes it's your own grandmother because she's had her Medicaid taken away and can't stay in a nursing home or your neighbor who's a veteran or in my case, my father, my grandfather, my brother-in-law, all veterans. The rights of people are being taken away in a way that I don't think people have seen in their lifetime. So now, finally, I think people are beginning to catch on that if they don't speak up, and show up and vote it may all be taken away from them and you must have an opinion though about you know why is it i didn't ask you because it's your show uh but why do you think that there have been

leaders that haven't spoken up i just think i i think uh i think it's not in our nature to to do that our meaning democrats's nature to like uh to go to go really aggressive to like think about how we can be creative about, you know, look, like, when Republicans wanted to squeeze seats out of Alabama and Louisiana last cycle, they knew to put forward illegal maps that were in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, knowing that if they did it late enough, the Purcell doctrine would kick in, and you can't make changes that close to an election. And so the court won't be able to do anything, and that's exactly what happened. The court said these are unconstitutional maps, but too close to an election. And, like, it's just not.

not in our nature to figure out how to break the rules, but we have to figure out how to, like, do what, like, meet them on their level. And I think it's just an asymmetry that we've been contending with. I don't know why Democrats do it, maybe in hopes of, like, getting some like reciprocation that just never arrives, like this elusive reciprocation. Like, if we just do good government things, they'll, they'll meet us halfway, and they just never do. But we, you know, this is Charlie Brown over and over and over and over as the football keeps getting taken away. But I'm trying to create an incentive structure for them to do it, you know, amplifying the fighters and not amplifying the people who aren't, you know.

And I do think that you're going to be judged in the end, in my view, about whether in this moment you stood up. I mean, I really think that's like your public service, whatever it may be, right, you're going to be a congressman for the rest of your life or whatever it is. But you're going to be judged because we all get judged by these moments. Yeah. Right. What did you do, you know, what did you do when the Nazis came to your? count.

But I don't know if everybody's afraid of like being called alarmist and being called like, oh, like, it's happening, like, it's really, it's like really actually happening. And I, you know, I do my series with Mark Elias. And so I see like the real intricacies of like what they're doing in the courts and the way that they're undermining all of these, all of these guardrails to really keeping democracy afloat. And I don't know, maybe Democrats don't want to like be seen as being like alarmist, on fire like, you know, Rachel Maddow, blah, blah, blah. But like, you're, you're right. I mean, this is like, this is the moment where people are going to look back and say, like, what did you

do when? And it's going to be. Well, that's why I think that's the thing that I want to say to, you know, whisper in the year of every Democrat who's elected. Yeah. Which is like, literally this is it. Do you want to be remembered for anything? Yeah. Do you want to, do you want to be remembered for capitulating? You know, we sit in the Holocaust Museum that we built in Illinois, you know, we say, particularly the kids who go through the children's exhibit, we say, you know, are you going to be a collaborator? Are you going to be a rescuer? Are you going to be a bystander? Are you going to be an upstander? Yeah. And you got to choose in your life. You know, it's easy to think, oh, I'm going to be the upstander. Yeah. And then when the moment comes, you're tested. Yeah. I do think that we're here,

And I think if we said that to everybody and asked, which one of those do you want to be, you know, that I think they would all say I want to be the upstander and that at this point in their lives, this is the moment when you're going to get defined. Yeah. So I have a friend who in Illinois who, a state representative, when they were voting on gay marriage in the state legislature before I was governor. I talked to him. He was a Democrat, got elected in the Republican district. Yeah. So he's a moderate Democrat, let's say. And he said, I don't think I can vote for it because I'll get voted out of office.

And I said, here's the thing. Did you go into being a state representative because you wanted to have a title for a while? Or did you go in to actually do something important? Yeah. And this will be the important thing that you did. And by the way, we'll all support the hell out of you when you run for re-election. But meanwhile, this is what's going to define who you are. And if you lose, you lost because you did the right thing.

That's what you'll be remembered for. And I have to say, he gave this amazing speech on the floor of the House when he voted for gay marriage. And it was where he conjured up the images of, you know, great Illinoisans and Martin Luther King, too. and you know talked about you know that that indeed he felt like this was the right thing to do and he knew that people in his district wouldn't you know maybe not wouldn't like it but that they needed to understand that we're the party of civil rights that we need to stand up for these folks um and he won re-election yeah and i do think this is what defines you as a public servant so anyway you're helping people i think find their inner strength well thanks i appreciate that

thanks for doing it thanks for thanks for fighting good to see it You too. No Lie is brought to you by Smalls. When the world inevitably goes downhill, which, let's be honest, isn't looking too great right now, you know the first thing I'm going to make sure I have with me. No, it's not my friends or my family. It's my cat and their favorite cat food, Smalls. And yes, I've said this before.

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Thanks so much for joining me. Yeah, happy to. So today is the day that we've been waiting for because this is the deadline for the DOJ to release the Epstein files that were compelled by a bipartisan committee in Congress. And so has the DOJ complied? Have they sent over the Epstein files to Congress? So what the DOJ told us actually just yesterday was that they were going to start sending over the files on Friday. So first of all, they're late.

They were all supposed to be to the committee. This was a vote that was bipartisan, forced by Democrats, of course, and they should have been with us here today. Now, they have said they'll be here on Friday. Look, they're late. We need the full files. But it is the first acknowledgement that the DOJ and White House has actually said they're actually going to start sending the files. Our concern is they're going to piecemeal it. So they're going to, they're saying they're going to send these.

in large chunks because there's so much to go through. So we don't know what they're going to send, but we do know we are going to get that very first chunk of files this Friday. Is there any concern that they're going to omit major portions? And if they do, presumably portions that may or may not implicate a certain president of a certain party who's currently serving in office, is there any way to figure out that they've done that? So we won't know what they omitted until we get the full files, right?

So we first have got to receive the entirety of the files. then what we get this Friday, it's really important to see what they actually send over and if they choose to redact information. We have been clear. The only information that should be redacted carefully is names of victims, the women and girls that were sexually abused horrifically. Those folks should be protected. But under no circumstance, should anyone else in those Epstein files be protected or should there be any served with action. So we have been clear about that, and Republicans actually agreed with our motion that made that very clear. And so for us, getting these files this Friday and seeing that first batch of documents, we have a huge team of researchers and lawyers that are ready to go. We'll be going through that immediately, and we're going to make sure the public knows immediately what's actually in there. Now, in the event that they do redact something that was improperly redacted or wasn't in compliance with the subpoena that you sent over,

What kind of avenue do you have to compel, to compel enforcement from the DOJ? So there's a couple of things. I think one, folks should know that there are probably hundreds and hundreds of lawyers and staff at the DOJ and at the FBI that have been involved in some piece of this Epstein file document collections. A lot of people know what is actually in these files. A lot of people have worked on the production of these files. So it's not going to be as easy for the DOJ.

to just lie and say this is all there is because there are so many people that actually know the amount of documents, the descriptions, the videos, there's different things in these kind of trove of records that many folks have access. We also, in oversight, have a whistleblower line. We have on our website an opportunity, which we already get folks reaching out that are telling us whether they're whistleblowers from the FBI or other folks that can let us know if we are somehow being deceived by the DOJ in the White House. So we have set up some systems to ensure that we get as much information as possible. We check to see it to full files, but it will be hard to know until the DOJ then tells us,

okay, you have the entire trunch of documents, then we can really put that whole thing together. I mean, in a way, this could be the Streisand effect on full display, because if you have the DOJ that decided to willfully omit certain elements of these Epstein files to protect Donald Trump or to protect any political allies. The fact is that you all have a microphone and you'll be able to bring that to the surface and show people that, okay, clearly, you know, this is a situation where the cover up may be bigger than the crime

and them trying to hide something may actually garner more attention in a situation where they were just trying to kind of skate by. That's right. Look, it's very clear the White House is involved right now in a cover. They said they were going to release the Epstein files. Pam Bondi says she's got him on her desk. They do a complete reversal.

Now Trump doesn't want them release. Now they're going to start releasing them in pieces. They're trying to create their own narrative. But at the end of the day, the truth will come out. The facts will come out. And so the more cover-up, the more hiding of information that Donald Trump or his allies try to do, the deeper it's going to dig them in not just this incredible hole of their building, but the trust of the American public that they are breaking every day.

I just saw polling today that you know, I'm sure you saw. I mean, Trump's disapproval rating is now up to sick. 60% with the American people. 60%. People do not trust this president anymore, and the Epstein Files is a part of that. What about James Comer's participation in all of this? Obviously, he's the chair of the Oversight Committee, a Republican.

How has he been in terms of working with you or working against you? Well, look, James Comer's interest is to protect Donald Trump. Let's be very clear. We know this already. And so, yes, we have a working relationship. We have to. We work together. our teams were together, but at the end of the day, we know what he wants to do. His job is to

protect Donald Trump, protect Pambandi. Our job is to get the truth and bring justice to the victims. Donald Trump is the most corrupt person to ever be president of the United States. We should not believe for a minute that he is going to be a good faith actor or that he's somehow going to release these documents. We already know he's been convicted of numerous crimes. So we should surprise no one that Donald Trump is going to try to turn this Epstein scam. that continues to grow, and he's going to try to, in his own way, get around it. He's going to pin it on someone else. He's going to try to get around it.

He's going to try to hide things. But we're focused. We've got a great team of folks. And you know, as well as anyone, when you have people like Jasmine Crockett and Max Frost and so many others on this committee, we're going to push as hard as we can and get the truth. You know, Mike Johnson's goal in all of this in refusing to release the Epstein Files before break, before you all went on your August recess, was to try and get this out. out of the news.

And so do you think that he's been successful at that? Or do you think this has been a situation where by virtue of kind of prolonging it, this is actually making the pain last even longer than it would have otherwise? I mean, his strategy has been a total failure. We've all been talking about the Epstein files for weeks ever since Congress recessed.

People are being asked about it at town halls, Republicans have been hounded about it by their constituents. So I hear about it all the time. So their strategy of trying to get out of town essentially, not work. And of course, we forced that last minute vote on the very last day to ensure the EFSIN files get actually released to the public. So we are feeling we're building a case, but the DOJ now has to comply.

This Friday, we're going to get the first batch of documents. I'm glad the White House finally said they were actually going to send something over. We were concerned they were going to try to stall any production, but it looks like this Friday is going to be a big day for transparency, and we'll see what we actually get from the DOJ. Can I have your reaction to the broader theme at play here, which is, you know, Trump comes, sweeps into office amid promises of helping the little guy of focusing on the cost of groceries. He literally talked about the cost of eggs, the cost of rent, the cost of housing, and certainly releasing these Epstein files because they, they're a microcosm of a broader fight that he was willing to wage, which is, you know, there's this, there's this trunch of people who are kind of immune to prosecution on a different team. of justice. They can commit heinous, heinous crimes with impunity. And he was going to be the guy to expose that and bring it out to the forefront. And he's rich enough that he can't be bought by

anybody. He's powerful enough that he's not going to cowtow to anybody. And the reality is the guy came into office and far from focusing on the little guy and lowering costs, he's actually entrenching the very system that he promised to expose. And so can I just your general reaction to what we've seen from this president and the bait and switch that he's pulled on his own supporters? Well, I think this gets to the heart of what's happening now with the American people and trust. He betrayed his own base. He betrayed the American people. And when you make something a central part of your campaign and why you should get elected, and then you do a complete flip, the American public are not dumb. They see what Donald Trump is doing. He's own supporters

to see what they're doing. I've had folks that I know voted for Trump that were supporters that are really concerned about this and they feel betrayed. And I think that is at the heart of what's happening right now is people who perhaps hadn't realized it before are realizing that Donald Trump is a liar, that Donald Trump is a con man, and that he only cares about himself. He's only in it for himself. He doesn't care about transparency. He doesn't care about the horrific tragedy and violence that these young women and girls had put upon them. Donald Trump owes the American public the truth. We want to know what was that client list? Who was on that client list? What powerful men in this country preyed on these young women and girls. And why is it not public?

So we want to get a hold of that. We also want to make it public. One thing that's really important, Brian, for all of your subscribers and viewers to know is not only do oversight Democrats want to get in all the files. We then want to put the information out to the public. And we're able to do that in a way that protects the victims. That is our goal, which is why we told James Comer, all these depositions that were involved in, we just had Bill Barr, we're going to have a bunch of others. I have said, release the transcripts, release the recordings to the public. What are we hiding? We've got questions. People are asking questions. Democrats support every single witness. Let's get that testimony and put it out to the public. What are we

hiding? To that point, you know, there's going to be a lot of people who say, well, you know, there's Democrats on that list, too. And so I would ask, what's your response to those people who say that Democrats are just as susceptible to being exposed as Republicans are? I could I could care less what political party sexual prejudges are a part of. Yep. Who cares? Like, if you did something, who cares if you're a Democrat, Republican, independent, rich, wealthy, powerful?

If you cause harm on young women and girls, you need to be held accountable and they deserve justice regardless of how powerful you are, what your political affiliation is. So we could care less. Which, by the way, sounds an awful lot like what Cash Patel and Dan Bongino and Don Jr. And all of these Republican acolytes used to say, before they got into a position of power where they could actually substantiate the very claims that they were making.

And now suddenly, when they're in the positions of power, at the top of the FBI, deputy director of the FBI, president of the United States, attorney general of the United States, now all of these people are doing the exact thing that they claim, that they claims the deep state under the control of Joe Biden was doing.

So just the irony here, the extent to which these people have been conned by their supposed saviors, these white knights, these champions for accountability, cannot be overstated. So thank you for staying on top of this. Thank you for continuing to fight for this. And I'm sure that come Friday we'll have some more news to report. So with that said, Congressman, appreciate your time. Anytime.

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who've already saved and invested over $25 billion with Acorns. Head to Acorns. com slash BTC or download the acorns app to get started. Paid non-client endorsement, compensation provides incentive to positively promote acorns, tier two compensation provided. Investing involves risk, Acorns Advisors, LLC, and SEC registered investment advisor, view important disclosures at acorns.com slash BTC. I'm joined now by the co-host of POTSave America and POTSave the world, Tommy Vitor.

Tommy, thanks for joining me. Brian, great to see you. So the talk of the town right now is Gavin Newsom and his press account that are just kind of driving Fox News, Trump, Republican. up the wall. And so I'm curious, first and foremost, as we think about this, as we think about the effectiveness of this, beyond just, you know, is it funny? Is it getting retweets and likes and whatnot? If what you think about in terms of how really moving this kind of stuff is. Yeah. Well, like, I mean, win number one, we're talking about it, right? In the attention

economy, that counts for a lot. Yeah, there have been stories in Politico. There was a big segment on CNN. I mean, people are noticing what Gavin Newsom is doing, and it is getting him a lot of attention. And I think it's happening at a time where Democrats are desperate for the Democratic Party to fight. They want a fighter. They want someone to push back on what Trump is doing. They're seeing him deploy troops to the streets of Los Angeles, where we live in Washington, D.C. And they're like, who was pushing back? And they see Gavin Newsom, this account, at least, like fucking with Trump all day, every day.

And they like it. Yeah. And what do you think that this does in terms of an incentive structure for other Democrats to kind of meet the moment with the same urge? as Newsom is. Yeah, I think it's going to draw people into more fights, or at least like speaking out on more issues publicly, doing more interviews and just being more engaged because Gavin Newsom feels like omnipresent the last couple of months. Yeah.

You know, it was like basically from the fires, which is what, eight months ago until now, he's been pushing back against Trump. He's pushing this big redistricting pledge to try to save us from what Texas is doing in Trump's efforts to basically rig the map so we can't win the midterm election. So I think, like, there's probably a lot of Democrats who are thinking about running for president in 2028 who are wondering, how do we catch up to this guy right now? Do you think that there is enough of an incentive structure that he's building? I mean, I know that we have some footage here from the polling as it relates to as it relates to Newsom's

new press strategy. I think we can roll that clip. Yeah, I think it absolutely has been working in terms of generating attention, which is what he's trying to do, right? I mean, take a look here. Let's take a look right at the at gov press office followers on X. That's, of course, where you get those sort of the account where Newsom posts those Trump-style mocking types of tweets. Get this. That account, get this. Up 450% in terms of the number of followers since mid-June. And it's not just on Twitter, X, where Newsom is gaining. Even on TikTok and Instagram, his followers are up over a million since January alone. My goodness gracious. And more than that, Laura, more than that. What about Google? What about those Google searches for them?

Get this daily Google searches for Gavin Newsom? Up like a rocket. What are we talking about? Since June 1 up 1,300% compared to August 1st. Look at that, up 500%. So is there a world in which other Democrats who are seeking higher office, who are running for Senate, running for the House, running for president, don't see that and say, hey, maybe there's something to this strategy of not being safe, not being offensive, not being poll tested, not being focus grouped, and just go out there, do the thing as aggressively as possible, and we'll see, you know, we'll see exactly what we want to come out of it. I mean, look, I think the risk is they see what Gavin Newsom is doing and they do like an imitation of it which that won't work like Gavin is

carved out this lane this is kind of going to be his thing now we don't need like we don't need everybody doing the all caps tweets no imagine like mayor Pete's out there an army an army of just like trump imitators out there just trip Trump mockers the whole democratic party party of trolls all of a sudden no I think what they're going to see is that Democrats want a fighter and Gavin Newsom is giving them that fighter and I think that's very important but also like look the prediction markets I'm not sure what to make of them in politics. But the prediction markets on who will get the Democratic nomination for Gavin Newsom, he went from 11% in June to 24% now. So that means these odds makers think his odds of being the Democratic nominee for president have doubled. Yeah. And granted,

I mean, again, you take that all with a grain of salt because, you know, what happens now might not be anything similar to what happens a week from now or a month from now. I certainly didn't sit there in January of 2020 thinking that the world would look the way it did in March of 2020. So all of those caveats notwithstanding. Even though you were in Wuhan. I was. You know, I just, I love farmer's markets and I especially love pangolin. Pangolins. And you know about, you know about how obsessed I have with penguins. Wrong place at the wrong time. But, but, you know, I think, I think what he's doing is smart for two reasons. It's not just, it's not just the trolling, right? I mean, that is entertaining unto itself. And I, and I do enjoy it unto itself,

like in a vacuum. But I think it's smart because it's, it's driving people to his pages. It's driving Google searches up for him. But he's wielding it in a way that's responsible because, look, we're facing an existential threat at the hands of Trump and this Republican Party. They are right now trying to redraw these maps mid-cycle to scientifically engineered Democrats out of office to make sure that we don't have the opportunity to ever win again. So yes, is existential for Democrats. Yes, is existential for democracy. He's out there making that case. And in large part, one of the only ones making that case. I mean, there are a few others who are doing it forcefully. I mean, Beto has been doing it really forcefully. James Telerico has been doing it really forcefully. J.B. Pritzker

has been really good as well. But there are not that many people talking about the threats that we're contending with right now in the same way that he is, certainly who aren't taking the action that he is, which counts for a hell of a lot more. So I think that he deserves credit not just for figuring out a way to break through in this attention economy, which already is an accomplishment onto itself. But once he's got those eyeballs on him, he's wielding that attention in a responsible way. Exactly. Yeah, he's not just trolling for the sake of trolling. He's growing his accounts and getting tons of people to Google him at a time when he's about to embark on this campaign to get California to change the way we do redistricting and to do so in a temporary manner to fight back

against a huge threat from Trump. So I think you're right. It's trolling with a purpose. I think it's been very valuable. And I think what's most telling here is the extent to which Republicans don't know how to handle it. I mean, Fox News is freaking out. Let's throw to the clip of one Fox News host trying to navigate his way through attacking Gavin Newsom while at the same time ignoring the fact that what Gavin Newsom is doing is imitating Donald Trump. Gavin Newsom meantime posting this on X, Liz, using all capitals, of course, trying to mock Trump, use Trump style. has been doing this for a while now. He says, quoteing, Trump, Trump just fled the podium with Putin.

No questions, nothing. Total low energy. The man looked like he'd just eaten three buckets of KFC with Vlad. Admit it, Donnie, Jay. You're terrified because this was the worst week of your life because of me, Gavin C. Newsom. I think he's trying to be funny. I think, I mean, I don't know what he's trying to do, but it comes across as childish. And what are you're the governor of the biggest state in the union.

What are you doing? Tommy, your reaction to Fox News, simply not understanding what it is that Gavin Newsom is trying to accomplish here. We're not very self-aware over at Fox News, are we? I love, I didn't catch until just now. The eat it, he looks like he's eating three buckets of KFC with lead. It's such a random swerp. It's called the weave, Tommy. It's called the weave.

Yeah, it's great. Look, Fox has, how many times has Fox played like an hour-long, just incoherent? phone interview with Donald Trump where, you know, if you read the transcript, it would look just like one of those Gavin Newsom. Yeah. And they're like, you know what? Beautifully put by the president of the United States, we've got a new tone here. He's really just, really just, you know, fitting into the job more and more on a daily basis. And it's not just Fox that's getting mad. I mean, a bunch of White House spokespeople are like crashing out and lashing back and attacking Gavin Newsom. But when they do that, they just give him more attention. And that's not just like

attention in terms of there's a back and forth and people like us notice it and read it. It's algorithmic attention, right? Like when you are fighting with Gavin, when you're responding to him, when you're retweeting him or yelling at him on Twitter, you are making it so that more people see the things he is tweeting out. Well, you know the rule. It's you, you quote tweet your friends and you screenshot your enemies. And these people don't know that because they're so butt hurt what Gavin Newsom is doing. I'm going to put an image right here on the screen of one of these latest instances of trolling. We've got Tucker Carlson, Hulk Hogan, and, uh, and Kid Rock all kind of praying at the altar of Gavin Newsom.

I would love to know. I would like to have been in the... And the best part is the... So nice. So nice. He makes an AI image of himself and then thanks everybody for it. So nice. I would love to have been in the conversation where they decided which three individuals to put behind Gavin.

I think it was an inspired collection. Yeah. I mean, divinely inspired one might say. Oh, Hulk. As it relates to Hulk. Well, look, we're going to take this moment right now to point out the fact that Potsave America's YouTube channel as of this recording right now, is just shy, a few thousand shy of a million subscribers. These guys of Potta of America are in large part why I do what I do.

They are and always have been a huge part of my media diet. And so everybody who's watching, if you are not yet subscribed to Pottsive America's YouTube channel, go ahead and hit the subscribe button. It doesn't cost anything to do so. It's a great way to support not just their work, which is invaluable, but the independent media ecosystem, the progressive media ecosystem more broadly. Let's make sure that when people come onto YouTube to find news, that they're not automatically sorted into right-wing accounts,

that they don't fall into these right-wing rabbit holes right away. So let's elevate the voices of people who are doing good work, and it does not get any better than my friends over at POTSafe America. So, again, hit the subscribe button and make sure to support these guys who are doing the hard work every single day. Thanks, Brian. And also, if you're watching this and you're not subscribed to Brian's channel, please do.

Because I believe the fastest growing YouTube channel in the last quarter was Benny Johnson from TPUSA. I think you had like 2.2 million new subscribers in just those three months, which one suggests that they are buying subscribers somehow. And two, though, like, that is bad because when people search for normies, search for news on YouTube, they find that crap because the algorithm will promote big channels and big accounts like that. Yep, that's exactly right.

So for anybody watching, if you're not yet subscribed to both channels, I'm going to put the links right here on the screen. Tommy, appreciate your time. Great to see you, bud. I'm joined now by Data Driven Journalist, writer of the Strengthen Numbers News, letter, Elliot Morris. Elliot, thanks for joining me. Hey, thanks, Brian. So we have some major news here with regard to Donald Trump's

approval rating. Can you speak about the new update we've just gotten? Sure. Well, so last week, the big survey came out as the new Pew Research Center survey. Now, the Pew Research Centers, they're a non-profit public polling firm based out of Washington, D.C. Their job is to come to the best possible measurements

of public opinion in America on timely topics. So it's a neutral source. That's the big takeaway here on how Pew works. Their new survey last week, they find Donald Trump slumping to a 38% approval rating overall. That's among all American adults, it includes voters and non-voters. That's down from 47% at the beginning of Donald Trump's term. So it's an all-time low for them. And then in our average of polls, so Pew and other polls, you don't have to take Pew at their word. Trump is also at an all-time low for his second term.

What about with young people? Because I know that was like a particular focus of this poll where the results weren't exactly in line with the rest of the results. Yeah. So young people, they were a big story of the 2024 election. You remember young people, those are voters under 30. They supported Joe Biden by nearly 30 points in the 2020 election. By 2024, they had moved about 20 points towards Republicans. They barely supported Kamala Harris in that election. So this is a group that you want to look at because they're important. They're big. they're moving to the right. So among the young people who supported Donald Trump, Pew finds that just 69% of them support of the job that Trump is doing as president today. So you might say Trump has lost 30% of the young voters that voted for him. These are Trump supporting young people, only a little less than three quarters of them still are on his side. So does it seem like these folks who moved, these cohorts, these demographic groups that move toward Donald Trump in 24. It would suggest then that these are not necessarily tried and true Republicans, that it's that

their support for him may seemingly have just been temporary and that they're not necessarily Republican voters who are going to vote for Republicans in the future, certainly not if they disapprove of the job that he and his party are doing. Yeah, so a lot of the Trump voters, I might say, that were young people in 2024, but were Biden voters in 2020. They're not Republicans. They might vote for Republicans, but they don't identify as strong Republicans. they might not be firmly in that camp in the next election. We think that for a couple of reasons. First, on policy preferences, they're not conservative. They favor a lot of wealth distribution in particular. They favor high taxes on wealthy people. And they are also opposed to

a lot of the action in the Middle East, especially, in Israel and Gaza. So that's not necessarily a conservative policy package. It's not the policy package of Donald Trump. On some of the particular issues of Trump's presidency as well in Pew's survey overall Trump is underwater and he's even more underwater with young people. So for example, 61% oppose of the tariffs that is putting into place. And the one big beautiful bill act, that's the Republican budget that passed last month, that's underwater by 14 points. And it's underwater with young people too. So they're not Republicans. They're not, you know, they're not Trumpers. I think that they voted for Donald Trump in 24 because inflation was bad, and economic mobility was really poor. That means that, hey, if

inflation goes back up for Trump, they'll swing back to other direction. Well, the latest polling that I had seen on inflation was that Trump's numbers on inflation are virtually tied with Joe Biden's lowest point on inflation when he was president, numbers that were so bad that it pushed virtually the entire country, including those young people that you're talking about, over to Trump. Yeah, that's right. And we did an analysis of this on the newsletter. strengthen numbers. So in peak inflation, in Joe Biden's term, that's late 2022 to early 2023. Joe Biden had a minus 28 to minus 22. There's some noise approval rating among all adults. So like, you know, 60% of people are saying they disapprove of how he's doing and 30%

are saying they approve. That's pretty terrible. And it makes sense why he was eventually forced out of running for re-election. So minus 22 to minus 28. And Trump is at minus 27 today. So his approval rating on the economy on inflation and jobs is as bad as Joe Biden's was during peak inflation. And that's just to say, like, this is still an anchor around the president's neck, even though we've switched parties in control of the White House. How are you thinking about the broader economic numbers in terms of our sprint toward 26 here? Yeah, well, you know, look, it looks like inflation is resurging.

There's the new producer price index numbers that came out last week. there will be new CPI numbers out soon and they showed a resurgence in inflation ticking up to nearly 3% at an annualized rate. For context, the Fed, the Federal Reserve, likes to keep that around 2%. And we were getting close to 2%.

And now it's going back up. So that makes sense. Tariffs are attacks on consumers. Businesses get charged money by the government. They have to make up that money somehow so that the business doesn't lose money. We're the ones that pay for that. So it is an inflationary policy.

It looks like inflation. will start heading up as more companies have to price in those tariffs and pass the costs along to consumers, or they would go out of business. And he, for the record, like, Donald Trump keeps increasing the tariff rate. He's not turning around here in the face of rising inflation and a softing job market. We saw, you know, 45,000 jobs were gained between May and July, which is near all-time low for a three-month period. America lost 37,000 manufacturing jobs since April, the exact industry that Trump says he's trying to shore up. So weakening job market, increasing inflation, I imagine that's going to be a pretty big draw on Trump's approval rating. Well, I'm curious how this presents itself with

Americans, because in the lead up to the 2024 election, you saw a very aligned, coordinated right-wing media ecosystem exploit the... Every time eggs went up by one single penny. Like, they are very good at being coordinated, echoing their messages, and making sure that they're promoting all of this stuff because it would help their political agenda. The left does not have a coordinated media ecosystem. The left is not putting hundreds of millions of dollars behind telling you that that eggs have gone up to two pennies or that rent is too high, housing is too high, groceries are too high, which was the case in the 2024 election. And so they were getting hit over the head with a lot of this political advertising and the lead-up. to the 2024 election, and we're not seeing the same thing, partially because we don't have, you know, that kind of an ecosystem, and partially because there's so much other shit going on,

we've got troops deployed, we've got the Epstein stuff, we've got, we've got, the maps being gerrymandered. And so there's so much to talk about that, that, you know, costs going up, and this 3.3% inflation rate kind of feels like the fifth biggest or eighth biggest or 10th biggest story in America right now. But I'm curious whether that is still presenting itself, if Americans are still feeling the effects of that inflation, even if they're not being hit over the head with it by political advertising in very much the same way that Republicans were able to do in the lead up to the previous election.

Yeah, so the political scientists in me, I guess, wants to say that, like, voters feel the prices regardless of the signals that they get from the media ecosystem. But as you, and I think your analysis of the media ecosystem is spot on, as you raise, like, there is an asymmetric environment in terms of passing along information about inflation to lots of voters. And there's lots of voters who aren't particularly cost pressured, right? Like they have more than enough money to pay an extra 20 cents per eggs. But they really, really hate inflation because they get that signal from their partisan news networks. So I think that does play a role here. And I imagine that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

would have fared a little better if they didn't have that partisan news ecosystem. That's asymmetric and stacked against them. But look, like 10% inflation rate is still going to doom the incumbent party. So I wouldn't have imagined necessarily the outcome to change. Today, what that means, right? What that means is that it's going to take a little bit longer for there to be a backlash against Trump than there was against Biden, even if you have the same inflation rate. Maybe that's how it should be. And Joe Biden was unfairly punished and Trump's getting a fair shake. I don't think so. I think it's more like there's a whole media ecosystem that's covering for the president of the United States because they have an interest

and him staying in power. So, look, we'll see, like, I don't think we're going to get a 10% inflation rate. It might be more like 5%, but people already hate inflation. So even if it goes up to 5%, there could be some pretty severe electoral consequences for that. This might be getting a little wonky, but I presume that the reason that the Fed is not lowering the interest rates is because we already have hot inflation. And so lowering the interest rates would make that even higher, would send that even higher. do you presume that that's what we would see if and when Trump's when either the Fed under Jerome Powell

or Trump's replacement if we get to that point decides to lower the interest rates that will see inflation rates surge even higher and wouldn't that be if that is what happens wouldn't that be completely antithetical to what what the incumbent party would want given what we just saw happen in November of 2024? Yeah, this is the tricky part about being Jerome Powell. This is the hard thing about being the Fed is you have a dual mandate. You want to keep inflation down, but you also want to keep the job market healthy. So if we get to the point where interest rates are making it hard for companies to hire,

they need to take on debt to hire new people in a lot of cases, or there's just not enough money moving around in the economy, so these companies are having a hard time paying new employees, then they've got to decrease the interest rate to get that money moving again. And that means inflation might go up a little bit, and they're constantly making that recalculation. It looks like there will be interest rate cuts later this year. They just haven't happened yet.

The market is definitely pricing in. I think like 50 bibs, basis points, 0.5% of an interest rate cut this year. So I do expect we'll see it. It's not going to be enough for Donald Trump. He's still going to want that interest rate to be 2% instead of 4.5% or 5%. But I guess that's a job for a drone pal, not for me. If you're a Democratic operative looking at the polling right now, what numbers spark your interest and what do you look to exploit as we head toward this next election cycle? Because I know

there's a market difference between, okay, let's talk about, you know, let's talk about something because it's in the news and it's a juicy story, but it may not move people at all versus, you know, this is, this may not get a lot of attention, maybe the economic stuff, but clearly we've seen, we've just gone through an entire election where the economic numbers and inflation have a massive impact, even if they're the fifth or sixth or seventh biggest story in the country. Yeah, the biggest story to voters is still jobs and inflation. That's the thing that Democrats want to exploit. It's a very easy narrative. The president has been out there saying he's going to, he's going to pass all these new tariffs, it's going to increase prices, but he said that this will be short-term pain

necessary for America's national security. He said the word short, the phrase short-term pain to people. I think that's very exploitable by the Democrats, just say, like, it's not producing the desired goal, which is right to onshore manufacturing here in the United States, we're losing manufacturing jobs, and prices you're going up. It's a pretty obvious L in terms of policy for the president, so I would probably be exploiting that, especially, again, because it's the number one issue to voters. The other thing is, we're seeing a resurgence in civil rights and civil liberties as they're important to people in America. If that makes sense, I think, given everything that's happening with, you mentioned troops being deployed to cities, that's...

That's one aspect of it. I think the immigration enforcement, especially deportations, has gone too far for the average Americans. So they see that as a civil rights infraction, too. And there's some ground for Democrats to persuade on that issue. But I would expect the bulk of their messaging is going to be on inflation and jobs. And the flip side of that question, if you're a Republican operative and you're looking at the numbers right now, what gives you some hope?

What are Trump and Republicans going to be leaning on based on the polling moving forward? So the strongest issue for Republicans is still immigration. They're underwater, but that is their strongest issue. You want to fight on your strongest issue. So if you ask people, do you approve of how the president is handling deportations or immigration in general? About 45% say yes, 52% say no, they don't approve. If you ask them, for example, do you support how the president's handling border security or tackling crime? Then people start to be more forgiving of the incumbent party. They'll say they approve it's slightly higher rates than they say, they disapproved. So I imagine we'll get a lot of focus on border security. I live in Washington, D.C., so I see the Border Patrol agents walking around here filming TikToks. Weird. I imagine we're going to see a heck of a lot more of that as the election kicks up, too. Just weird the national law enforcement is doing like social media videos. This is strange. Yeah, well, this is the dystopian hellscape that we enjoy now. Elliot, as always, thank you so much for your time. Highly recommend for anybody who's watching right now. If you are interested in this kind of data analysis, please subscribe to Strengthen Numbers. I'm going to put the link right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video. It is a great resource that I use every single week. And it's a great way to support independent media as well. So again, links on the screen and also in the post description. Elliot, thanks for your time. Thanks for having

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